Oblivious Fox News Hosts Attack Joe Biden but Ignore Trump’s Serial Sexual Assault

Posted by on April 3, 2019 at 1:24 pm. 4 Comments :

A few weeks ago, Fox News was bitterly offended when the Democratic National Committee declined to let them host a Democratic primary debate. But nearly every day since then they have validated the DNC’s decision by demonstrating their overt bias and determination to malign the Democratic Party and its candidates for president in 2020.

Donald Trump

The latest example came during an episode of Fox’s Outnumbered, a program that purports to feature four women against a solo male guest, but is really four conservatives against a lone alleged liberal. The topic of discussion on Wednesday morning was the controversy over whether former Vice-President Joe Biden had behaved improperly with women during his decades of public service. It’s a valid subject to debate, even though Fox News has elevated it to a level of “crisis” that places it above Russian election tampering, the record federal deficit, and even the caravans of marauding immigrants storming America’s borders from the three Mexicos.

None of the allegations against Biden assert that his actions constituted sexual misbehavior. And Biden has responded by insisting that he never intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable. But Fox, nevertheless, is treating this story like a revelation of perverse activity that merits intense scrutiny. So Harris Faulkner, co-host of Outnumbered, opened the program with a “Fox News Alert:”

“And this Fox News alert is how we will begin. More women accusing former Vice-President Joe Biden of inappropriate behavior.”

That comment set the tone for what was to follow. And it just went downhill from there with remarks by these co-hosts of the show:

Melissa Francis: The thing is he doesn’t think he did anything wrong. And he doesn’t think he has anything to apologize for. He doesn’t think what he did is inappropriate. And that’s the problem.
Katie Pavlich: If this were a Republican he’d be disqualified from running for office ever again.

Alrighty then. These Fox News hosts regard Biden as having imposed inexcusably on women who did not welcome his affectionate encounters. And even though his impositions were limited to shoulder massages or a kiss on the top of the head, they were, according to Fox, out of bounds and he should face consequences for them. What’s more, they are certain that such behavior would never be tolerated if a Republican had engaged in it.

Seriously! The president that these absent-minded shills devotedly lavish with saintly praise has credibly been charged with much worse. Donald Trump has been accused by at least sixteen women of having committed sexual harassment and even assault. Trump himself bragged about assaulting women in the infamous Access Hollywood “grab them by the pussy” video.

Remember, some prominent Fox News folks (i.e. Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes) were just as bad as Trump and lost their jobs because of it. It would be interesting to see these Fox News hosts confronted with the facts about Trump in light of their opinions about Biden. Because if Biden should be driven from contention in the 2020 Democratic primary for his indiscretions, which many on the right have suggested, then shouldn’t Trump be driven from office for his criminal abuse?

You might think that a discussion about Biden’s situation would open up to include the sitting president. But it’s hard enough to even get Fox Newsers to admit that Trump ever did anything wrong with regard to women, or anything else. They continue to falsely assert that the report by special counsel Robert Mueller (which they haven’t seen) totally exonerates Trump, even though it explicitly says that it doesn’t. But that’s just the beginning.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

They refuse to concede that there are unlawful financial entanglements with Trump’s businesses. They defend his destructive tariffs and threats of border closures. They dismiss his marital infidelities and payoffs to his mistresses. They’re cool with his support for white nationalists, his infatuation with brutal dictators, and his flagrant, shameless lying. So why would they mind if he assaulted a dozen or so women?

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Trump is Trippin’ on ‘God-Like’ Mueller and ‘Shifty’ Democrats and his ‘No Collusion’ Delusion

Posted by on April 2, 2019 at 1:27 pm. 1 Comments :

It’s only Tuesday, but Donald Trump is getting ahead of his regularly scheduled weekend tweetstorming with a series of utterly deranged posts expressing his fevered fetish with the investigations into the criminal connections to Russia by his campaign, his administration, his family, and of course, himself. The evidence of both conspiracy and obstruction of justice is so apparent that even the top legal expert on Fox News noticed.

Donald Trump, Twitter

Nevertheless, Trump continues to sing “la la las” with his tiny fingers in his ears rather than acknowledge the fact that special counsel Robert Mueller has likely produced a report that is filled with incriminating data. To date, no one but Trump’s plant in the Justice Department, Attorney General William Barr, has seen the report. But Democrats are more insistent with each passing day that it be released. And the more Democrats advocate for its release, the more Trump shudders and stomps in an effort to suppress it. Which only raises the question: What’s he so scared of?

In his Tuesday rage-tweeting, Trump first struck out against Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee:

This is a flagrant misrepresentation of reality. The only opposition Nadler had to releasing any portion of the Starr report was after it had already been given to Congress. And even then he only sought to keep confidential sources, methods, and grand jury testimony secret. That is pretty much the same position Nadler holds today with regard to the Mueller report. He wants it released to Congress first, and then any sensitive material can be evaluated and redacted, if necessary, before making it public. But like most things more complex than checkers, Trump doesn’t understand. So he then tweeted this:

Trump approaches a measure of truth – albeit exaggerated – in his assessment of the admiration that Democrats (and all patriotic Americans) have for Mueller, a true American hero and life-long public servant. But that’s where Trump’s ability to remain inside the bounds of sanity end. While there are some critics who think Mueller should have taken a more affirmative stance with regard to Trump’s potential illegality, no Democrats have become hostile or disrespectful toward Mueller since the completion of his probe. And none are hesitant to say his name in generally flattering terms.

What’s more, Trump’s assertion that Mueller “ruled No Collusion” can only be based on panicky voices in his head. Trump, like everyone else, has not seen the report unless the AG is more corrupt than we thought. Also, the cost of the Mueller probe was more than paid for by the asset forfeitures from the conviction of Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, alone. So failing to make any coherent points in his previous tweets, Trump added this:

We ought to be grateful that Trump softened his name-calling for Rep. Adam Schiff to merely “shifty.” He previously maligned him as “Adam Schitt.” However, Trump seems to be tuckered out and unable to even come up with an insulting nickname for Nadler. It shouldn’t have been that hard considering some obvious options for the sort of childish digs Trump prefers. For instance: Bad Nadler, Mad Nadler, or maybe a gender-based burn like Gonad-ler.

Trump’s current resistance to letting the American people see what’s in Mueller’s report is a 180 degree flip-flop from recent statements he’s made suggesting that he would support a full release of Mueller’s findings. Apparently, as that prospect becomes more likely, Trump is getting cold feet and swinging back against the transparency he previously pretended to support.

In other words, his fear is rising to the surface and guiding him back to the bunker mentality that he believes best serves his legal interests. Expect him to become even more frantic as Nadler, Schiff, et al, issue their subpoenas and compel Trump’s insiders to testify under oath. Trump may want all of this to end yesterday, but his eventual and inevitable reckoning and accountability has only just begun.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.


Rachel Maddow is the #1 Cable News Program for First Quarter of 2019 Despite Trump’s Fox News Hype

Posted by on April 1, 2019 at 3:30 pm. 2 Comments :

The Rachel Maddow Show has achieved yet another milestone in her program’s ratings surge. She has been outperforming her competition since the midterm election last November. That includes staggering routs of Fox News and its primary Trump-fluffer, Sean Hannity.

Rachel Maddow

In a press release from MSNBC, Maddow is shown to have beaten “all other FOX News and CNN shows, according to Nielsen data from December 31, 2018 through March 28, 2019.” Furthermore, “this quarter was ‘Maddow’s’ highest-rated quarter ever in total viewers, averaging 3.07M total viewers at 9pm.” It’s a record-breaking achievement that demonstrates the audience appeal for an aggressively honest brand of reporting that respects the viewer and delivers facts that are well-sourced and documented.

The success of Maddow’s program was mirrored by much of the MSNBC schedule. The network’s Monday-Friday, 9:00am-5pm, viewing grew by a larger margin (17%) than Fox News, which actually declined two percent. The same goes for total day viewing that saw a nine percent increase for MSNBC versus a two percent drop for Fox News.

Additionally, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell bested its Fox competition in its time period to be the #1 program for the quarter in both the 25-54 year old demographic and total viewers. It also outperformed Fox by growing ten percent compared to a seven percent decline for Fox. And another bright spot for MSNBC was Nicolle Wallace’s Deadline: White House, which also rang in at #1 against Fox’s long time host Neil Cavuto. And the press release notes that:

“Multiple MSNBC programs also achieved total-viewer ratings highs, including weekdays during ‘MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle,’ ‘MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson,’ ‘MSNBC Live with Craig Melvin,’ ‘Andrea Mitchell Reports,’ ‘MSNBC Live with Velshi & Ruhle,’ ‘MSNBC Live with Katy Tur,’ ‘MSNBC Live with Ali Velshi,’ ‘MTP Daily,’ ‘The Beat with Ari Melber,’ ‘Hardball with Chris Matthews,’ ‘All In with Chris Hayes,’ and ‘The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell’; and Saturdays during ‘UP with David Gura’ and ‘Weekends with Alex Witt.'”

It must be especially painful for Fox News considering how hard Trump worked to promote his State TV division. At times it was impossible to tell whether Trump was the President of the United States, or of Fox’s Marketing and PR department. At one point in March Trump posted ten Fox News videos in one flurry of weekend rage-tweeting.

This quarter also saw the publishing of an in-depth expose of the clinging embrace between Trump and Fox News by Jane Mayer of the New Yorker. Trump also came to the defense of two of Fox’s most offensive hosts, Jeanine Pirro and Tucker Carlson, whose prafane and insulting rants have cost them most of their advertisers. The Democratic National Committee made a profoundly wise decision to ban Fox from hosting any Democratic primary debates. That decision was affirmed shortly thereafter by a survey that revealed the depth of Fox’s right-wing nuttery. Meanwhile, Trump kept tweeting what he thought was good news about his favorite network.

All in all, it’s another stellar quarter for MSNBC, a network that was once written off as an also-ran that would always trail the perennial leader. And for Fox News it’s a bitter humiliation as their relentless and biased advocacy for Donald Trump, and shameless lying about his critics, proves to be a drag in the ratings race.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.


Trump Executive Order Prohibits April Fools Day For the Remainder of His Term Due to Redundancy

Posted by on April 1, 2019 at 11:16 am. 1 Comments :

On April 1, 2019, the White House released an official statement regarding a new Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump. The Order officially prohibits the observance of April Fools Day for the remainder of the term that Trump is in office. It is the forty-sixth Executive Order by Trump who once criticized President Obama for issuing Executive Orders.

Donald Trump, April Fools

This Order is designed to forestall the “observance, celebration, recognition, ceremony, ritual, or tribute,” of any of the traditions associated with April Fools Day. The Order cites the “redundancy and profusion of mockable events and occurrences” that obviate the necessity for formal state acknowledgement of further “satirization, sarcasm, ridicule, farce, and/or parody.” Additionally, the Order enumerates examples of ludicrous and embarrassing behaviors that justify its issuance.

  • Trump calls the media “the enemy of the people.”
  • Trump names Fox News personality to White House post(s).
  • Trump tells rally goers that he “fell in love with” Kim Jong Un.
  • Trump asserts that Democrats will “obliterate ObamaCare.”
  • Trump expresses desire to be “president for life” like Xi Jinping.
  • Trump insists that he did not conspire with Russia or obstruct justice.
  • Trump thinks that he is responsible for the economic environment produced by Obama.
  • Trump declares a phony national emergency for funding for his border wall.
  • Trump accuses Democrats of colluding with Russia.
  • Trump honors neo-Nazis as “fine people.”
  • Trump calls himself “the most fabulous whiner.”
  • Trump praises his “very large a-brain.”
  • Trump threatens to investigate Saturday Night Live.
  • Trump says he will “make America great again.”

These are just a few of the instances when Trump has done or said something that were so painfully ludicrous that they could not be mocked, even by professional comedians. The full list goes on for more than forty pages and over 1,000 more such examples.

Consequently, the observance of April Fools Day in the era of Trump has been assigned to the White Office of the Department of Redundancy Department. The Department’s new director will be Fox News host (and Trump’s personal friend and advisor) Sean Hannity, who has a decades long record of established credentials for being thoroughly redundant, as well as irrelevant and expendable.

This Order will only be operative on the first of April of each year. For the rest of the year it will be permitted to lampoon the President and his laughably wacko deeds and utterances. In fact, it will be almost impossible to resist. But on the appointed days Trump will be temporarily relieved from having to endure the humiliation that he has earned and so richly deserves.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.


The Ludicrous Fox News ‘3 Mexicos’ Chyron Wasn’t Nearly as Bad as What They Actually Said

Posted by on March 31, 2019 at 11:09 am. 4 Comments :

On Sunday Morning Fox News set out reestablish their status as the supreme purveyors of rank idiocy. And they accomplished that goal with a graphic presentation of both their stupidity and racism. This feat occurred during another one of their regularly scheduled segments demonizing and dehumanizing immigrants from south of the border.

Donald Trump, Immigrant, Child

While the three co-hosts of Donald Trump’s favorite morning show, Fox and Friends rattled on about the alleged “crisis” on the border, there was a graphic that said “Trump Cuts U.S. Aid to 3 Mexican Countries.” Of course, there aren’t three Mexican countries. That’s just Fox’s way of disparaging all brown people in Central and South America as being the same undesirables. However, as bad as that careless foul-up was – and even given their hurried correction – what they actually said during the segment was even worse. And that can’t be dismissed as a mistake.

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1112352119900770305

The piece started off with Pete Hegseth summarizing everything wrong that Fox disseminates regarding immigration:

“Cutting payment – aid payment – to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras over the fact that those countries have been unable to contain the flood of migrants heading through Mexico to our southern border. So yesterday we talked about potentially shutting down the southern border … this is a big move. This is one of the few punitive measures the executive branch has still, to these countries to say ‘get it under control.'”

First of all, the migrants from Central America are fleeing the poverty and violence that threatens them and their children. Cutting humanitarian aid will only make it more difficult for these countries to resolve the problems they have with crime and scarcity. So any thinking person would understand that Trump’s actions can only exacerbate the problems he’s pretending to want to solve.

Jedediah Bila then added that Trump “came in strong” with his tweets threatening to close the border and gushed that “It seems to me he’s standing tall on this issue. He’s not backing down. I don’t blame him.” And Ed Henry chirped along in worshipful harmony saying “Yeah, it might take drastic measures.”

Trump’s notion of cutting aid is only surpassed in reckless ineptitude by his intent to close the border. That will in no way advance a solution to the problem, but it will severely harm American businesses and workers. Even Trump’s Republican allies in Congress have ridiculed the idea. And the complaint by the Foxies that the three Mexicos have been unable to “contain the flood of immigrants” ignores Trump’s own whining that it’s the U.S. that hasn’t been managing what he considers to be a national emergency. Hence his wall fetish.

When all is said and done, Fox News continues to say and do the most preposterously illogical things in their mission to frighten and disinform their audience of Deplorables. And sadly, at that they happen to be quite good.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.


Judge Jeanine Pirro Returned Saturday Night – on Fox News and SNL – And Both Were Hysterical

Posted by on March 31, 2019 at 8:55 am. 1 Comments :

Two weeks ago “Judge” Jeanine Pirro was suspended from her weekly perch on Fox News after she made comments so reprehensible that they even offended the suits at Fox. Pirro attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar whose Muslim faith, according to Pirro, was incompatible with the United States Constitution. Despite the nearly universal disgust for Pirro’s hate speech, she retained the fervent support of Donald Trump. who begged Fox News to return her to the air.

Jeanine Pirro Fox News

On Saturday night Trump got his wish. Pirro once again hosted her Trump-fluffing White Nationalist Hour with all the drooling ferocity she had before her brief suspension. She obviously learned nothing from her time-out, and offered no apology. Her “Opening Statement” segment addressed the release of the “summary” of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report by Trump’s plant in the Justice Department, Attorney General William Barr. However, it began with a torrid tirade that might better have been directed at Trump:

“When someone lies to you, do you just say ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll get over it’? Well that’s not how our system works. There has to be accountability. There has to be a consequence. Because as the President himself said ‘This should never happen again.’ And I can guarantee you it will happen again unless we make an example of the traitorous, treasonous group that accused Donald Trump of being an agent of the Russian government.”

Except for that last line that disputed accusations of Trump being a Russian agent, Pirro’s rant could have been a righteous assault on the relentless dishonesty of Trump. His flagrant lies and avoidance of accountability really is not the how system ought to work. And there definitely should be consequences for Trump and his vast army of criminal accomplices.

Pirro went on to warn that investigations like the one Mueller conducted could become “a blueprint for a future effort to overthrow the government.” But she got it completely backwards. Mueller was probing activities that included undermining our democratic election by Trump and a hostile foreign country. He was the one working to prevent government corruption. She further advised her viewers not to be “satisfied with the Mueller report,” which makes sense considering the fact that neither she nor any of her viewers have seen it. What’s more, what little we do know about the report is insufficient to vindicate the President. But what she meant was that they shouldn’t be satisfied with what she claimed was Trump’s exoneration, a conclusion that the report explicitly denied. And finally, she closed with a demand to stop all of Trump’s critics, by throwing them in jail, with what she called “behind the bars justice.”

A little later in the evening, Saturday Night Live weighed in with an appearance by Pirro (as played by Cecily Strong) during the Weekend Update news segment. It was a nearly identical portrayal of the injudicious judge who is pretty funny herself, albeit unintentionally. She made a point of thanking her superfans, the “mean, horny men laying on in-home hospital beds and white prison gangs who control the remote on Saturdays.” And I defy anyone to differentiate between Pirro’s wild-eyed raving and Strong’s satirical take on it. If anything, Strong’s impression was too understated.

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Fox News Flat Out Lies that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Compared Climate Change to 9/11

Posted by on March 30, 2019 at 2:56 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s never exactly breaking to news to report that Fox News has broadcast something that is blatantly contrary to reality. In fact, it would be easier to point out when they say something that’s even marginally true. Nevertheless, it’s important to set the record straight lest we allow their lies to linger and get a foothold on the weaker minds that populate their audience of Deplorables.

Fox News, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

On Saturday morning, Donald Trump’s favorite breakfast club, Fox and Friends, put together a segment that was obviously intended to deceive. The target of their dishonesty was a familiar one: Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), for whom they have developed a perverse obsession. The subject of the segment was emblazoned on their chyron which read “Ocasio-Cortez Compares Climate Change to 9/11.” There’s just one little problem with that. AOC never did anything of the kind.

The “Curvy Couch” potatoes began the segment with a clip (video below) of AOC making a point about the of the Trump administration’s utterly incompetent response to the tragic hurricane in Puerto Rico. She said that:

“On the events on September 11, 2001, thousands of Americans died in the largest terror attack on US soil. Our national response was war in one, then eventually two countries. Three thousand Americans died in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Maria. Where is our response?”

So AOC did make some mention of 9/11, but it had nothing to do with climate change. And it wasn’t even a comparison to the devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico. She was only observing that this country can devote resources to a disaster when it has the will to do so. She was comparing the response, not the event. But the hosts of Fox and Friends were more committed to attacking AOC than to reporting what she actually said. Not that she didn’t address climate change in the hour long town hall she did with Chris Hayes of MSNBC. She did, and in a very profound and compelling manner. But Fox News never played that part:

“Our greatest existential threat is climate change. And to get us out of this situation – to revamp our economy, to create dignified jobs for working Americans, to guarantee healthcare, and elevate our educational opportunities and attainment – we will have to mobilize our entire economy around saving ourselves and taking care of this planet.”

The producers of this Fox program also appended a bit of video to the end of their clip that was unrelated to the rest of it. It showed her commenting about the critics of the “Green New Deal,” saying that she “didn’t expect them to make total fools of themselves.” That comment was actually a response to a video montage of Republicans and Fox News shills (which is redundant, I know) attacking her. And after maligning and misrepresenting her for the whole piece, the Fox hosts suggested that she should come on their show. Yeah, right. At least Fox didn’t compare her to Hitler and Stalin like it did a couple of months ago.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.


Poor Fox News is Pathetically Bragging About a Few Days of Beating MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow

Posted by on March 29, 2019 at 2:49 pm. 1 Comments :

Fox News was once the dominant news network on cable TV. It was so far ahead of its competition that it seemed unthinkable that it could be challenged. That’s mainly because they corralled all of the Deplorable right-wingers into one barnyard pen, while the rest of the television news was dispersed across many other channels. But it was still a marketing angle they could use as a cudgel against their competitors.

Fox News, Rachel Maddow

In recent years that domination has has dissipated substantially. And particularly in the past few months, MSNBC has caught up, and quite often surpassed Fox news in the ratings. Rachel Maddow’s program has been crushing Sean Hannity, her direct time period competitor, on a nearly nightly basis ever since the midterm elections last November.

In what seems to be a reaction to the surging performance of MSNBC, Donald Trump took measures to prop up Fox News which acts as his personal, state TV mouthpiece for propaganda. He’s has fervently promoted his fave hosts including Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, and Jeanine Pirro. He even did so on Thursday night at his latest cult rally in Michigan. It’s often hard to tell whether Trump thinks he’s working for the American people or for Fox’s PR department.

Fox News has also started to boast about their ratings. They featured a story on their website’s home page that celebrated what they called “Maddow’s Deep Dive.” What makes this extraordinary is that this isn’t the sort of thing that any network does. When was the last time anyone has seen CBS or CNN make a story about their ratings a news item? That’s generally reserved for the TV trade press. But even more embarrassing for Fox is that they have to do this at all. They are effectively conceding that they have been the big losers of late and now are proud that they’ve had a few days where they aren’t in the ratings cellar. It’s an admission that they are underperforming MSNBC and it is therefore cause for joy that they came out on top for a while.

It should be noted that this “success” for Fox News is occurring just after the release of a four page letter by Trump’s plant in the Justice Department, Attorney General William Barr. The letter purports to be a summary of the 400+ page report by special counsel Robert Mueller. But it is a gross misrepresentation of that document by all accounts. And that includes the account of Fox’s senior legal analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano, who says that there is evidence of conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the full report. So it’s natural for Maddow’s viewers to take a break from what can be considered a slow news cycle, while Fox’s viewers pile in to get their pro-Trump fantasies gassed up.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Whether or not this constitutes a trend in the ratings, or is a temporary blip remains to be seen. But the fact that Fox News was compelled to throw a party simply because they edged out Maddow – who rose from nowhere to become a giant killer – just proves that Fox is worried and has to brag about briefly beating a show that they used to ignore as unworthy of their attention. Maddow and MSNBC are clearly making Fox so nervous that they can’t even hide it. That’s great news for MSNBC.


Fox News Senior Legal Analyst: Adam Schiff is Correct on Evidence of Trump Conspiracy and Obstruction

Posted by on March 28, 2019 at 2:46 pm. 1 Comments :

The Republicans in Congress have been going absolutely batty over what they regard is the total exoneration of Donald Trump by the Mueller Report – which none of them have seen a single page of. They are even escalating their attacks on Trump’s Democratic critics to include absurd demands for apologies and the resignation of House Intelligence Committee Chair, Adam Schiff. Trump even weighed in on that matter in a typically reckless, dishonest, and hostile tweet.

Donald Trump, Robert Mueller

So you have to wonder how Trump and his MAGA Martinets will respond when they hear that the senior legal analyst at fox News agrees with Rep. Schiff. In a conversation with host Neil Cavuto (video below), Andrew Napolitano presented the bare legal facts that demonstrate Trump’s complicity in conspiratorial endeavors with Russia and efforts to cover them up. Napolitano noted that special counsel Robert Mueller “must have found some evidence of a conspiracy,” and that “there obviously is evidence of obstruction of justice.” He elaborated on those points during the interview:

“I think that Congressman Schiff is correct. In that report will be evidence of the existence of a conspiracy. Not enough evidence to prove the existence beyond a reasonable doubt. In that report will be evidence of obstruction of justice, interfering with an FBI investigation for a personal gain. But not enough evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”

That just happens to be precisely the case that Schiff has been making for months. He told CNN that:

“There was a big difference between whether there was evidence of collusion – and I think that evidence is in plain sight – and whether you can establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt of a criminal conspiracy.”

So all the hoopla by the right and the devoted cult followers of Trump is, as usual, just the yammering of ignorant partisans who are more interested in feeding their fantasies than in accepting reality. And the reality is that there is abundant evidence of criminality by Trump and his associates. Whether a prosecutor could obtain a conviction by the standards that apply in a courtroom is irrelevant to the discussion of whether the President’s activities were immoral, unethical, or proof of his unfitness for office.

The key point here is whether there is sufficient cause to proceed with efforts to release the Mueller Report in full and complete the investigation into Trump and Russia’s documented interference with the 2016 presidential election. Some of Schiff’s colleagues in Congress expressed their rage that anyone would continue to doubt that the President was vindicated. But Schiff masterfully put them in their place with an emotional and fact-filled response to their personal disparagement of him. “You may think it’s OK,” Schiff said, “how Trump and his associates interacted with Russians during the campaign. I don’t.”

And the America people don’t think it’s OK either. Which is why Schiff and the Democrats in Congress need to continue their efforts to bring light to the nefarious affairs of Trump et al, by demanding the release of the full Mueller Report and issuing subpoenas, if necessary, for Mueller and Attorney General Barr. The nation deserves to know, as another unscrupulous president once said, whether or not their president is a crook. Because if we don’t stop him now, he’ll just do it again (which he probably already is).

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.


Trump is STILL Colluding With Russia (and Fox News) to Deny Putin’s Election Interference

Posted by on March 28, 2019 at 9:36 am. 2 Comments :

It’s been four days since the Mueller Report has NOT been released – only the four page cover up by Trump’s plant in the Justice Department, Attorney General William Barr. In that short span of time the right-wing media has been furiously crafting a brazenly false narrative that imagines that Donald Trump was exonerated even though Barr’s letter explicitly denies it and the American people don’t buy it.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

Included in the campaign to vindicate from Trump are demands that the media apologize for accurately reporting about Trump’s crime-riddled administration. Which is ironic since it’s Trump who should be apologizing to special counsel Robert Mueller. For more than two years Trump has engaged in reckless character assassination, accusing Mueller of being a corrupt, dishonest partisan on an illegal witch hunt.

What’s more, the media’s MAGA Martinets are also calling for the President to actually escalate his war against the First Amendment. And perhaps the new king of anti-free press hysterics is the Fox News host of their alleged business channel, Stuart Varney went on an extended rant (video below) that proved nothing except for how valuable psychoactive pharmaceuticals could be if certain unhinged TV yakkers were taking them. Varney began his tirade by saying that:

“Now is the time for a presidential counterpunch. President Trump is good at this. Have a go at him and he’ll come right back at you, big time. Now is the time to counterpunch the media. For two years they’ve let their hatred show. I used to soften that word and say they have contempt for the President. No no, they hate him.”

Isn’t “contempt” actually strong than “hate”? And does Varney really believe that Trump hasn’t already been punching at the press with his Stalinist-inspired denunciations of it as “the enemy of the people” and “the opposition party”? He continued:

“For two years they’ve indulged in a orgy of hatred that colored absolutely everything. For two years they preened themselves, assuming the moral high ground. They’re the elite. They’re above the rest of us. They told us the President of the United States was a Russian agent. They told us he was a traitor. They breathlessly reported the most outrageous statements. They gave themselves prizes. Listen to this. It’s from the Pulitzer Prize awarded jointly to the New York Times and the Washington Post. I’ll read it.”

“For deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election.”

Varney then mocked this tribute as referring to leaks to the press by former FBI director James Comey, and the false allegations against Hillary Clinton for allegedly funding the infamous Steele dossier. What’s peculiar about this is that Varney is attacking the Pulitzer awards for their recognition of reporting on the “Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election,” not the accusations that Trump and his criminal associates conspired with Russia.

Russia’s efforts to illegally influence our election have been documented and affirmed by everyone from the U.S. Intelligence community to the Mueller report, according to Attorney General Barr. But this rabid rundown by Varney is denying that the election interference ever occurred. And Trump posted this video on his Twitter feed. Which can only mean that he is, once again, denying Russia’s involvement in tampering with the election. In that way Trump is still colluding with Russia by taking their side, absolving them of guilt, and making it easier for them repeat their crimes in 2020. Vladimir Putin must be ecstatic.

And Varney wasn’t through. He wrapped up this atrocious gift to our enemies in the Kremlin by lavishing adoring praise on Trump and lashing out again at the media:

“The counterpunch has already started. Good! The Trump campaign has sent a letter to news outlets telling them to employ quote ‘basic journalistic standards’ when booking guests who have made outlandish and false claims. Way to go Mr. President.”

For the record, that letter to TV news outlets was pretty funny. It called on them to refuse to book any guests who had proven themselves to be repeated and unrepentant liars. It singled out politicians like like Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Adam Schiff. But it more accurately described people like Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose absence from the airwaves would make them decidedly more trustworthy.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.