Donald Trump spent his morning doing what he does nearly every morning: Pounding out desperate comments in a flurry of rage-tweeting. For the most part his Twitter tantrums consisted of whining about having been impeached. Trump seems determined to establish himself as the most sniveling, cowardly, self-perceived victim who has ever occupied the White House.
At least Trump now seems to have correctly characterized his impeachment in a more realistic context asking “Why should I have the stigma of Impeachment attached to my name?” Poor baby. It’s interesting that someone with a such a pronounced messiah complex would associate his tribulations with the Stigmata. Perhaps someone close to him will tell him that he’s suffering this fate because he righteously earned it by breaking laws and obstructing justice. But don’t count on that.
Trump also tweeted a couple of flagrant contradictions. In one he complained that the government of Iran would not “let reporters roam free.” This is coming from the same guy who calls U.S. reporters “the enemy of the people,” revokes their credentials, and proposes banning them from the White House. He’s a real free press advocate, isn’t he?
The other contradiction came in the form of a demand that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff be forced to testify before Congress. Really? Trump has refused to allow any members of his administration to testify in the Senate impeachment hearings, even after complaining that he was denied due process (which doesn’t exist in impeachments) during the House hearings. and, of course, he’s too scared to testify on his own behalf. Trump may be first defendant who opposes the testimony of those he says will exonerate him. That’s not the behavior of an innocent man.
The more Trump whines about impeachment, the more obvious it is that he is panicking and frightened by its prospects. He is fraught with anxiety, though he tries impotently to pretend not to be. But there’s another prospect that is bubbling up from under the surface of his fear. He might already be laying the groundwork for his post-presidency later this year.
A group of Trump’s billionaire buddies is seeking to purchase the floundering One America News Network. OANN has been trying for fifteen years to mount a challenge to Fox News as the preeminent lunatic wing of conservative media. They have had some support from Trump who has tweeted about them forty-seven times. Often when he’s mad at Fox News for not being sufficiently adoring. Trump recently advised his cult followers to “start looking for a new News Outlet” because “FoxNews doesn’t deliver for US anymore.” Which, if nothing else, is a candid admission that Trump regards Fox, not as a news network, but as part of his “us.”
So why would these wealthy Trump confederates be interested in shelling out a couple hundred million dollars for OANN? It can’t be as an investment opportunity. The “network” has so few viewers that Nielsen doesn’t even track them, and they aren’t carried by any of the major cable operators.
Likewise, Trump’s pals couldn’t be interested in acquiring OANN in order to impose a more conservative editorial posture. That wouldn’t be possible. It is already a bastion of Trump-fluffing adulation and bizarre, anti-liberal conspiracy theories, including the Seth Rich murder and George Soros smears. It has notable ties to Russia, and is suing MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow because she reported that.
There is only one other plausible reason that allies of Trump would want to take ownership of a money-losing, blatantly biased, propaganda mill. They could be planning to develop it as the media platform for a former President Trump. After all, he is going to need a job after he can no longer soak the American people by directing business to his golf resorts and hotels. And his famously gargantuan ego will require that he be in the public eye.
The question is, does the the timing have any significance. There wouldn’t be any hurry to make this acquisition if the buyers thought that Trump would be serving a second four year term. So perhaps there has already been a determination made that Trump is either going to decline to run, or that his reelection is too improbable, thus making it necessary to snatch up this stinker and begin painting the walls gold and filling it with tacky furniture.
Whatever happens, OANN will remain an also-ran in the media wars even with Trump headlining. They’ll be lucky if they’re able to give the televangelists some competition. Although, that would be much more appropriate program positioning for the Cult of Trump. And as for Trump’s Sunday Morning Tweetstorm, Speaker Pelosi had some choice words when asked for her reaction: “I don’t like to spend too much time on his crazy tweets because everything he says is a projection. When he calls somebody crazy, he knows that he is.”
UPDATE: The rumors of an OANN purchase by Trump backers is more than just talk.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
Every knock from Trump is a boost. Everything he says is a projection.
But it's Sunday morning, let's be optimistic about the future — a future that *will not* have Trump in the White House one way or another. #SundayThoughts pic.twitter.com/SFAUvvnA8W
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) January 12, 2020
oann MUST be shut down, EXACTLY like f*x spews SHOULD be. You push THAT much bulls*it, THAT many lies, ANY conspiracy theory, you DESERVE NOT to exist, anywhere, anymore. You have proven you have NO business existing.
Dont know anything about oann…. but one thing journalistic they did do was to get on the ground immediately after the alleged syrian chemical attack in douma, and report from there, including talking to the ‘gassed’ locals, visiting the clinic that treated the ‘victims’ in the social media videos etc….? the only other western journalist to do that, the minimum any journalist shoud do, get on the ground to get the facts , was Robert Fisk ?
Oann reported they could find little evidence of a gas attack, as did fisk…. the latest leaks from the supposedly professional neutral chemical weapons organisation, OPCW, seems to show that their experts also concluded that 1. there was no evidence of sarin or chemical poisoning and 2. that the gas cylinders that had been found werent dropped from the air but were probably placed there by hand. and 3. that the OPCW had ignored their experts opinion and fixed the conclusions, and also destroyed the evidence from their databases.
the only mainstream journalist that seems to have covered that has been Peter Hitchens at the daily mail…? has newscorpse ? if not, please do, there any amount of data online, including the original opcw reports, emails etc
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7793253/PETER-HITCHENS-reveals-evidence-watchdog-suppressed-report-casting-doubt-Assad-gas-attack.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed
etc