Willful Amnesia? Fox News Can’t Recall Any Artist ‘Treated with the Same Vitriol’ as Kanye West

Posted by on October 12, 2018 at 4:01 pm. NO Comments :

The Gaslighting of America continues as Donald Trump and his comrades at State TV (aka Fox News) manufacture ever more twisted versions of reality. They must have a fabrication factory working 24/7 to keep their supply of crackpot theories and fictional accounts of current events flowing. And that factory is undoubtedly located in China and staffed by ten year olds who have been instructed to dumb everything down to the seven year old level.

Fox News, Laura Ingraham

On Thursday night’s episode of Laura Ingraham’s Unintentional Comedy Hour on Fox News, the host best known for her campaign against celebrities taking public positions on political matters (she wrote the book “Shut Up and Sing”) blathered on interminably about how brilliant Kanye West’s sycophantic suck up to Trump was when they met in the Oval Office. She began by introducing Kanye’s performance in historical terms (video below):

“It was an amazing moment in the Oval Office Thursday when pop culture icon, rapper extraordinaire Kanye West, met with President Trump before the cameras and unleashed a 10-minute monologue in which he explained his love of all things MAGA. Sometimes unlikely figures emerge in American history to play important roles, illuminating important truths. And Kanye West in his own eccentric way, has exposed the intolerance of the left.”

Ingraham went on to chastise a series of liberal news commentators for criticizing Trump’s White House invitation to Kanye. Except that those commentators were not criticizing the invitation. They were criticizing Kanye’s insane antics and rhetoric. The notoriously buggy rap star went on a ten minute monologue of sheer madness. Just a few examples included his contention that putting on the MAGA hat made him feel like Superman; that Trump’s campaign exuded male energy that resolved his daddy problems; that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution (abolishing slavery) should be repealed because office buildings don’t have thirteen floors; and that Trump should fly in a non-existent, hydrogen powered plane.

Ingraham couldn’t help diving into a ludicrous round of “whataboutism” in response to complaints that Kanye called himself a “crazy MF’er” in the Oval Office. That was widely regarded as both uncivil and disrespectful. So Ingraham reached back a quarter of a century to ask what about Bill Clinton’s disrespectful behavior with Monica Lewinsky. That’s a far stretch to put forth an absurd comparison. But for the perverse obsessions of the Republicans, that would have been a private affair. Kanye was dropping F-bombs on national television across the desk from the President.

Then Ingraham addressed her own famous aversion to celebrity opinions. However, she gave the Trump-supporting star a pass:

“Kanye West is hardly a political philosopher, and I’ve always believed that entertainers should first entertain and keep their politics separate from their art. But I cannot remember any artist on the left who was treated with the same vitriol and hatred as West has been subjected to since he announced his support for the president.”

Apparently Ingraham is suffering from a severe case of willful amnesia. It’s an infectious disease that is spreading throughout the Fox News studios. Contributor Dana Loesch has it. She appeared on Fox and Friends and rattled off the names of some notable celebrities who were guests of President Obama and then declared that that “no one attacked any of those individuals.” Likewise, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity made the same case that only the famous friends of Trump were subject to criticism. Clearly these ultra-partisan blowhards have lost a considerable quantity of the brain functions that control memory, poor things.

Democratic leaning celebrities have taken far more abuse from the right than vice versa. They are maligned as communists, traitors, hateful and hostile. All of that and more simply for expressing well reasoned opinions. But Kanye goes off on certifiably insane rants about sleep deprivation and he’s hailed as a political genius. And the right still has never apologized for the outright vulgar and vicious attacks by their favorite washed up rocker, Ted Nugent.

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

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HUH? White House Will ‘Look Into’ Why State TV (Fox News) Stopped Airing Trump’s Rallies Live

Posted by on October 11, 2018 at 10:38 am. 4 Comments :

Trump delivered another tedious and repetitive stump speech at one of his, now frequent, cult rallies Wednesday in Erie, Pennsylvania. It was a showcase for all of his “greatest hits” featuring “Build the Wall,” “Lock Her Up,” “Witch Hunt,” and many more. However, there was difference with this revival meeting that sets it apart from most of those in the past.

Fox News, Donald Trump

Politico reports that the Trump Broadcasting Network’s State TV (aka Fox News), declined to air the event live and uninterrupted as they usually do. Fox News has been a devoted servant of this administration when it comes to disseminating propaganda via their airwaves. They even promote on air with chyrons that read “Trump Rally Live & Only on Fox News, Other Networks Ignore Presidential Rally.” But it’s possible that Trump’s floundering popularity and financial concerns may be influencing their programming going forward. Politico notes that:

“As he’s ramped up his rally schedule ahead of the midterms, viewership numbers for the raucous prime-time events have been roughly similar to — sometimes dipping below — Fox News’ regular programming, and the network has recently stopped airing most evening events in full.”

That’s right. Trump is losing fans on the network that has been his official fan club for more than two years. This cannot be good news for the President, especially since he is increasing the number of these affairs specifically to boost the campaign prospects of Republican candidates in the cities where he is performing.

Consequently, Trump is compensating for this reduced coverage by calling into Fox News programs by phone. In the past three days he’s done that three times, ringing up his buddies Jeanine Pirro, Shannon Bream, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. But this is not likely to satisfy the White House. They have grown accustomed to the fawning attention they get from Fox News and expect it to continue. And they aren’t sitting around waiting for Fox to correct the situation. According to Politico:

“One senior White House official was unsure why the network would decide to cut away from presidential rallies, saying officials planned ‘to look into that’ and wouldn’t be surprised if White House communications director Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive, was in touch with former colleagues about the trend.”

Let that sink in. The White House believes that they have some sort of right to free airtime on Fox News, and if they aren’t getting it they will take action to set the network straight. Notice that they aren’t talking about looking into CNN or MSNBC. They are focusing on their wholly owned platform for media exposure and dispatching Bill Shine to address this outrageous policy shift. Shine is the former president of Fox News and Trump’s current deputy chief of staff for communications. And if you think that this isn’t explicitly about having an impact on the upcoming midterm election, just take it from the mouth of a GOP campaign operative who worries about the loss of Trump’s TV time because:

“‘It exposes us to a national audience that we normally don’t get to,’ a Senate Republican campaign staffer said of the coverage of Trump rallies. ‘We tend to see lots of new sign-ups and small-dollar donations. There’s obviously folks streaming [rallies] online, but being able to be onstage with the president in front of a prime-time audience is huge for a campaign trying to reach conservatives across the country who will open up their wallets.'”

Among the other observations made by Politico are that Trump’s rallies are drawing fewer viewers. “His events at times popped for more than 4 million viewers on Fox News,” a source said. Which is “a number he hasn’t come close to in 2018.” What’s more, “network officials’ fear was that too much repetition would lead to lower ratings,” and that Fox News could lose millions of dollars in ad revenue because they “can’t take commercial breaks while Trump is speaking.”

Perhaps the decision to cut back on live rally airings led to Trump making a blatant promotional pitch for Fox in order to get more airtime via flattery. He gave a shout out on Wednesday to Foxies who he praised for maligning Democrats as “the Dimms,” saying:

“The great Lou Dobbs, he says that, right? Sean Hannity says that. ‘The Dimms.’ Judge Jeanine says that, doesn’t she? Laura [Ingraham]. Laura. How good has Laura been, right? Do we like Tucker? I like Tucker.”

Actually, only Lou Dobbs says that, but getting the facts straight has never been of much concern to Trump. All he wants is to have his face in front of the Deplorables who are glued to Fox News all day and night. He wants to make sure his perverse and incoherent message is being injected into the already acutely ill-informed brains of Fox’s loyal audience. And if Fox News thinks they can get away with reducing his airtime, they better be prepared for more of this:

Yeah, that’ll happen. More likely Fox will cave in to Trump’s tantrum and resume their live broadcasts. They can make up the lost revenue with the tax cuts Trump will promise them. And their hosts who get preempted by the rallies will all get “exclusive” interviews. That’s how State TV works. Trump is learning well from his friends in Russia and North Korea.

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


Trump’s Lie-Riddled ‘Medicare-for-All’ Op-Ed in USA Today is Obliterated By Fact-Checkers

Posted by on October 10, 2018 at 2:39 pm. 1 Comments :

Not content with the 280 characters that Twitter gives him to dissemble incoherently every day, Donald Trump put crayon to paper for an Op-Ed in USA Today – or more likely, his minders wrote it for him. In his defense, it’s hard to squeeze more lies into the finite confines of a tweet than he has already done. So having the luxury of nearly 5,000 characters to lie within must have given him a sense of freedom.

Donald Trump

The subject of the editorial was Medicare-for-All and, needless to say, Trump is against it, just as he is against anything that actually helps people more than corporations. The lede for his falsehood-laden tirade says that “The Democrats want to outlaw private health care plans, taking away freedom to choose plans while letting anyone cross our border. We must win this.” But while Trump’s opposition comes as no surprise, the rapid fire velocity of his blatant untruths was a little shocking, even for him. And that didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the press that values honesty and factual reporting. Just a few of the media fact-checkers that weighed in on Trump’s bucket of bullpucky included these:

  • The Washington Post: Fact-checking President Trump’s USA Today op-ed on ‘Medicare-for-All. Nearly every line of President Trump’s USA Today op-ed contained a false or misleading statement.
  • Vox Media: Trump’s USA Today op-ed on Medicare is an absurd tissue of lies
  • Newsweek: Chuck Schumer Fact Checks Trump’s USA Today Op-Ed with More Than a Dozen Corrections
  • Huffington Post: Wildly Inaccurate Trump Op-Ed On Health Care Receives Swift Backlash
  • NBC News: USA Today criticized for printing Trump op-ed despite inaccuracies
  • NPR: FACT CHECK: Trump’s False Claims On ‘Medicare For All’
  • Los Angeles Times: Trump’s USA Today op-ed on Medicare is full of lies — but does anyone really believe he wrote it himself?
  • PolitiFact: Fact-checking Donald Trump’s op-ed against Medicare for All in USA Today

The analyses from these actual journalists covered many of the same blatant lies that Trump espoused in his vanity rant. They included his charge that a single-payer system would eliminate private health care. It would not. Private plans are available for those who can afford more in every country that currently offers universal coverage. Trump also complained that Medicare-for-All would cost $32 trillion, but he failed to mention that the current system costs $34 trillion, so we would save $2 trillion.

Trump also reminded readers that he promised to protect coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions. However, his proposals actually eliminate that benefit. So then he sought to claim that under his programs premiums have been declining. In fact, they declined as a result of ObamaCare, but rose after Trump’s sabotage of it was implemented.

Trump tried to foist the lie that ObamaCare cut Medicare by $800 billion. The truth is that it moved that money from Medicare to ObamaCare, and then provided more benefits with the same funding. Also Trump claimed that Medicare-for-All would outlaw private plans, end of choice for seniors, and prevent people from seeing the doctor of their choice. None of that is true. Especially the last item because, without physician networks people could go to any doctor they want.

Then Trump segued completely away from health care to lob some unrelated and unprovoked insults at Democrats. He began by fuming that “the centrist Democratic Party is dead. The new Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America’s economy after Venezuela.” Which is, of course, total nonsensical babbling from a deranged mind. He railed at “Democrats’ absolute commitment to end enforcement of our immigration laws, and charged that “Today’s Democratic Party is for open-borders socialism.” Which he must have picked up from one of his white supremacist buddies like Tucker Carlson of Fox News.

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

Finally, Trump projected the Republican agenda to “slash budgets for seniors’ Medicare and Social Security” onto Democrats, who have always fought to preserve and improve those programs. Even now the Republican Congress is proposing severe cuts due to funding shortfalls caused by Trump’s tax cuts for the rich. That’s just another of the parade of lies that our Pathological-Liar-in-Chief is spewing in a never ending effort to break his own records for lies-per-minute. And on this matter alone Trump can actually claim to be winning.


Crybaby Trump Lashes Out at the Media for Accurately Reporting His Frequent Failures

Posted by on October 10, 2018 at 11:06 am. 2 Comments :

With Hurricane Michael bearing down on the Gulf Coast, Donald Trump managed to find time to tweet about the media that he regards as “the enemy of the people.” He’s been doing that most of the last two years, even after the GOP-controlled Senate rebuked him for his blatantly anti-constitutional blather.

Donald Trump

In his latest Twitter tantrum, Trump characteristically whined about what he thinks is biased treatment by the press. He continues to prove that he is a weakling who can’t take the heat of public service like all the presidents who preceded him. So he lashes out incoherently and clings to sycophantic supporters who oblige him with undeserved flattery. Wednesday morning’s rant was especially deranged:

The Media Research Center is a notoriously biased pack of right-wing shills. What they publish as “studies” wouldn’t stand the scrutiny of credible media analysts. And their results are similar to those of dictatorships where the tyrant in residence always seems to get ninety-plus percent in every election. It’s uncanny how much murderous totalitarians like Trump’s pals Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un are loved by the people they oppress.

In Trump’s attack on the press he makes a point of calling out all of the broadcast media offenders: ABC, CBS and ABC. He must really hate ABC because he put them in there twice. And surprisingly, he left out NBC, the network he hates more than all the others. Is his hostility just so intense that he can’t even bring himself to utter their name? And Trump’s complaint about negative stories is completely off base. The press is reporting on him accurately, and it isn’t their fault that almost everything he does is negative.

Trump did manage to include his newspaper nemesis, the New York Times, which is hardly failing. Trump is very upset that the Times didn’t put the Kavanaugh “victory” on the front page Tuesday. First, let’s note that Dr. Ford, and millions of American women, don’t think that Kavanaugh’s presence on the Supreme Court is a victory. But more to the point, Trump is once again demonstrating his ignorance and/or dishonesty. That’s because the Senate confirmation vote occurred on Saturday, and it was on the front page of the Times on Sunday:

It continues to boggle the mind how Trump can keep exhibiting ever lower stages of mental infirmity. The simplest things are screwed up to an astonishing degree. And even when he is apprised of his errors, he persists in repeating them. It’s a symptom of his senile dementia and malignant narcissism. And it’s embarrassing to the nation and the majority of its citizens. But what’s even more troubling is that there is a small core of StormTrumpers who eat this up. They are as delusional as he is and are incapable of being corrected no matter how solid the facts. What’s truly frightening is that Trump will eventually be gone, but they will remain.

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


Will Trump’s U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley Follow Hope Hicks to Fox News?

Posted by on October 9, 2018 at 9:16 am. NO Comments :

Tuesday morning Donald Trump announced that another member of his administration is fleeing the debacle he’s created. Nikki Haley has been Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations from the beginning. Her role has been overshadowed by Trump’s beligerrant bullying tactics and bullheaded diplomacy. But she was a staunch supporter of the President no matter how horribly he behaved.

Nikki Haley

There will be plenty of speculation about what Haley will do now that she’s deserting this sinking ship. She ruled out running for president during the resignation announcement in the Oval Office, but – and I don’t want to shock you – politicians lie. She promised to campaign for Trump in 2020. There is also talk that Lindsey Graham will replace Jeff Sessions as Attorney General and Haley will get an appointment to his seat as South Carolina senator.

However, there is one career option that cannot be ignored, even if it doesn’t seem particularly likely. Her colleague Hope Hicks just took a job at Fox News, like many other former Trump staffers. And Haley may go the same route. She has been a frequent guest on the State TV network and gets along well with the Trump-fluffers there.

During a recent interview she made some ludicrous excuses for why Trump was laughed at when he spoke at the U.N. last month. Trump insisted that he intended to get a laugh when he talked about how much he’s done as President. Which is peculiar since his reaction in real time was that “I didn’t expect that response.” According to Haley, though, the reason they laughed was because “they loved how honest he is” and that “They love to be with him.” Now that’s the kind of delusional spin that makes for a great Fox News pundit or program host.

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

Speculation will also rise about who will replace Haley at the U.N. Some early possibilities include Trump’s current National Security Advisor (and former U.N. ambassador under George W. Bush) John Bolton, and current ambassador to Germany (and former Fox News contributor) Richard Grenell. Grenell also served as the spokesman for the U.S. delegation at the United Nations. But the most hysterical candidates include both Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner. Sadly, in the Era of Trump, being hysterical doesn’t disqualify you from consideration.


Fox News Guest Dinesh D’Souza Honors the Humanitarian Slave Owners of the Old South

Posted by on October 8, 2018 at 3:50 pm. 3 Comments :

Leave it to Fox News to find the bright side of slave owners. While the rest of the civilized world condemns human trafficking, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends managed to produce a segment that highlighted the freedom loving Confederates on the old plantations of Dixie.

Fox News, Dinesh D'Souza

Co-host Steve Doocy interviewed one of Fox’s favorite shameless disseminators of flagrant lies, confessed felon Dinesh D’Souza. Earlier this year Donald Trump pardoned D’Souza for the federal crime that he had pleaded guilty to. The Fox segment began as an attempt to mock Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for what they asserted was a gaffe. It wasn’t. She tweeted that:

Ocasio-Cortez was replying to a tweet that noted that two recent presidents who lost the popular vote have put four justices on the Supreme Court. Doocy then asked D’Souza “Why does the Electoral College matter,” and “what do you think she was talking about?” D’Souza’s reply began by mansplaining what Ocasio-Cortez really meant (video below):

“Well, first of all, I think she’s confusing the Electoral College with the “three-fifths” laws. The three-fifths laws was about slavery, and it had to do with an argument between the North and the South over representation. Ironically, the North, which was the anti-slavery side, wanted blacks to count for zero because they wanted to reduce the representative power of the slave states. The South wanted blacks to count for a full person. So the three-fifths laws which was usually presented to show that the founders didn’t consider blacks to be fully human, doesn’t actually show that at all.”

D’Souza is almost right. The problem is that he leaves out the fact that the South only wanted to count slaves because it gave the region more clout in the federal government. Slaves would still be denied any rights and considered to be property. The South wanted it both ways: to own blacks like chattel, but count them to increase the political power of their white masters. Then D’Souza swung back around to the Electoral College:

“Now the Electoral College was a different matter. The Electoral College emerges out of this contest between the large states and the small states. Not an antiquated issue. We have that now. We have large states, we have small states. And if we had a system that gave power only to the large states, the small states would essentially be unrepresented. The whole point, remember, the core of our founding is the consent of the governed. So to create the union the founders needed the consent of the large states and the small states. The Electoral College is a part of that arithmetic.”

Once again, D’Souza os only partly correct. Much of the dispute between the large and small states was still a matter of north and south. The population of the North far exceeded that of the South. So Ocasio-Cortez was correct in associating the Electoral College with slavery. What’s more, D’Souza is wrong in stating that smaller states would be unrepresented without the Electoral College. Their representation in Congress would be identical. The only difference would be in presidential elections.

However, that difference has become a useless and undemocratic anachronism. Given the boundaryless mobility of the modern U.S., we should not still be electing the president by states, but rather by voters. There is no coherent reason why the tiny populations of Idaho or Wyoming should have a greater say in presidential elections than the vastly more numerous populations of California or Texas. And it’s fair to say that there are a lot of former residents of Idaho and Wyoming who now live in California and Texas. Should their votes be diluted simply because they moved?

Ocasio-Cortez is right to raise the issue of eliminating the outdated Electoral College. It should have been done long ago. Hopefully her colleagues in Congress join her in that initiative when she gets there in January. In the meantime, Fox News needs to stop hosting racists who talk down to women and demean them personally as incapable of grasping these issues. But then they would have hours and hours of dead air.

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

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The Trump/Fox News Revolving Door Spins Again as Hope Hicks Takes PR Post at State TV

Posted by on October 8, 2018 at 11:24 am. NO Comments :

For the past two years there has been an unprecedented embrace between a media organization and the presidency. Donald Trump’s close association with Fox News began well before his election in 2016, when he had a regular segment on Fox and Friends called “Mondays with Trump.” And throughout his occupation of the White House that relationship has only grown stronger.

Hope Hicks

On Monday morning it was announced that Trump’s former communications director, and official Trump Whisperer, Hope Hicks, was appointed the executive vice-president and chief communications officer for the new Fox, the remnants of the conglomerate that weren’t sold off to Disney earlier this year. It includes Fox News and Fox Business, two cable “news” networks that are conspicuously friendly to Trump and the Republican Party.

Hicks role at Fox won’t be especially different from her role at the White House. She will continue to promote Trump and the agenda of the ultra-rightist GOP along with her new colleagues at Fox. Those new colleagues include former Trump staffers Sebastian Gorka, Anthony Scaramucci, and Sean Spicer. However, they are all on-air contributors, while Hicks will be a top executive. And her appointment comes just as Fox News and the President are gearing up for the presidential election in 2020.

Of course, revolving doors spin all the way around. And it isn’t coincidental that many Fox Newsers have made the switch to the Trump White House. They include National Security advisor John Bolton, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, and Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow. Even Fox’s former president, Bill Shine, is now working for Trump as his Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications. In a less official capacity are Trump’s “Shadow Cabinet” consisting of Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. So the marriage of Fox News and the Trump administration is now sealed and consecrated before Rupert Murdoch.

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

Just prior to her resignation from the White House, Hicks testified before a closed session of the House Intelligence Committee regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. She admitted to telling “white lies” for Trump. In her new position her ability to lie will be unfettered by even the lax standards imposed by Trump’s White House. So going forward we can expect a new rainbow of lies that are consistent with the total absence of standards at Fox News.


Fox News Was Born 22 Years Ago Today to Corrupt the Free Press and Become State TV

Posted by on October 7, 2018 at 4:17 pm. 4 Comments :

It seems like only yesterday that America had a president who didn’t shout rhetoric he stole from Stalin that the media is “the enemy of the people.” But those days are long gone and have been replaced by a loudmouth ignoramus who hates the Constitution and does everything he can to turn his cult followers against it.

Fox News Lies

It was twenty-two years ago that Fox News made its debut on cable TV promising to “change the way you look at the world.” And if what they meant was that you would now look at it through the lens of lies and ultra-partisan right-wing dogma, they were right. The network was the brainchild (i.e. Rosemary’s Baby) of an Australian newspaper baron (Rupert Murdoch) and an American media consultant for the Republican Party (Roger Ailes). It took about five years before the cable channel caught on, but once it did it corralled all of the nation’s conservative viewers into a single pen where they could happily wallow in the mud of a deliberately dishonest perversion of journalism.

Today Fox News has morphed into what can only be described as the State TV arm of Donald Trump’s White House. It is a co-conspirator in his efforts to turn the United States into a dictatorship that serves the wealthy and corporatist classes of the country. And its programming appeals to a audience that has been expressly dumbed-down by two decades of pablum and soap opera style melodrama.

So Happy Birthday Fox News. And may there NOT be many more to come. The past twenty-two years has already inflicted more than enough damage on the nation and the viewers/victims (mostly our grandparents and high school dropouts) who became virtual fake news zombies. They are lost to us now, but with each new generation comes hope for a clear-thinking, propaganda-free future.

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


Trump Implores His Deplorables to Vote for Republicans to Defend ‘Everything We Hold Sacred’

Posted by on October 7, 2018 at 10:12 am. 2 Comments :

The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the newly “Supine” Court represents just how dangerous Donald Trump’s rule of ignorance and hostility can and will continue to be. Along with his accomplices in the Republican controlled Congress, America is becoming more divided and less free. And given the opportunity to demonstrate leadership by uniting the nation after his ill gotten victory, Trump chose rub salt in nation’s wounds.

Donald Trump Messiah

Immediately following the Senate’s confirmation vote, Trump boarded Air Force One, headed for yet another of his cult rallies, this time in Kansas. It’s what he promised Sean Hannity he would do a couple of months ago, despite railing against such flagrant and wasteful abuse of the taxpayer when President Obama did it:

Trump told Hannity that “I am going to work very hard. I’ll go six or seven days a week when we’re sixty days out.” Of course Trump has never worked hard in his life, and he isn’t starting now. While he has been doing a lot of these cult rallies, it’s been nowhere near six or seven days a week. But they have all been nearly identical presentations of Trump’s “Golden Shower of Hits,” including “Build the Wall,” “Lock Her Up,” and the epic “Witch Hunt.” They have been so tediously repetitive that even Fox News has cut back on airing them live. But that’s probably just to protect him from the increasingly embarrassing and stupid things he says. Plus, their regular cast of sycophants do a better job of fluffing him than he does.

At the Kansas “Take our Country Back – to 1860” revival meeting, Trump did his best to alienate everyone in the nation that isn’t sufficiently worshipful of him. In particular, the opponents of Kavanaugh’s confirmation who are mostly women who are sick and tired of being abused and ignored, and the men who care about them. He told his dimwitted disciples that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, and the other women who came forward, were liars and that the Democrats in the Senate who supported them were bent on destroying the country. He also maligned protesters as an “angry mob” of professionals who were paid by George Soros. And as a bonus treat for this news cycle, Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, called Soros the Anti-Christ.

As if all of that deranged babbling weren’t enough crackpottery for one evening, Trump also unleashed a brief sermonette on the assholiness of his perversion of Republican Party politics. He ragaled his glassy-eyed followers with this divine declaration (video below):

“You have the power, with your vote, to defend your family, your community, your country – and everything we hold sacred and righteous and true. Loyal citizens like you helped build this country and together we are taking back our country. Returning power to every day great American patriots.”

In that pious pontification Trump clearly established his intent to sanctify the mission he believes he’s on. Now voting Republican isn’t merely an expression of preference for a set of political ideas. It’s the defense of your family and country. It’s a “sacred and righteous” obligation by all God-fearing patriots. And anyone not complying is in league with Satan.

This is a demagogic tactic that has been a favorite of dictators throughout history. They insist that supporting them isn’t a personal choice, but a demand by the Lord Almighty. And woe be unto anyone who defies these commandments. The fact that Trump issues these maniacal screeds is reason enough to be worried. But what’s worse is that there are Americans who buy into it like the “good Nazis” of the 1930’s and 1940’s. And those of us who still value little things like logic, reason, and liberty, must not allow them to prevail.

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


Trump Lawyer Rudy Giuliani Says George Soros is the Anti-Christ, Freeze His Assets

Posted by on October 6, 2018 at 2:02 pm. 8 Comments :

If you’re looking for more evidence of the civil libertarian bona fides of Donald Trump and his inner circle, you’re going to be looking for a long time. The brazen affinity that Trump has for totalitarian rule, however, just keeps being reaffirmed by his tweets and his sycophants. On Friday Trump-fluffer Sean Hannity proposed a prohibition on citizens access to their representatives in Congress. And today the devolution of American democracy continues courtesy of Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

Rudy Giuliani

The saga of Giuliani’s gaffe prone advocacy of his presidential client is filled to the brim with embarrassing episodes that frequently incriminate Trump. Giuliani is the one who said on national television that Trump paid hush money to Stormy Daniels while Trump was denying it. And he once implied that the reason Trump can’t interview with special prosecutor Robert Mueller is that he’s either a liar or a mental defective. With friends like Rudy, who needs enemas?

Which brings us to Saturday morning’s Twitter romp with Rudy. In an attempt to shore up the hostility of the Trump Brigades, Giuliani retweeted the comments of a random Twidiot who had a perverse notion of how to combat anyone who protests against Dear Leader Trump: “Follow the money. I think Soros is the anti-Christ! He must go! Freeze his assets & I bet the protests stop.”

Let this sink in. Giuliani, a lawyer and former U.S. Attorney, thinks it’s acceptable to seize the assets of a private citizen who has done nothing illegal. He thinks that someone who donates money to legitimate non-profits and educational/activist organizations can have his funds confiscated only because they were given to groups that Giuliani opposes. So this is the President’s personal attorney who is advocating the sort of oppressive behavior of outright tyrants.

What’s more, Giuliani is promoting the lie that Soros is funding citizens engaging lawful protests. There is zero evidence of that, and it wouldn’t be illegal if he were. If Giuliani wants to support legislation to prohibit such funding, he would find significant support from progressives who are troubled by the financial gifts of the Koch brothers to right-wing people and issues. But that isn’t Giuliani’s goal. He wants to silence only the progressive voices in America.

Giuliani is not alone in attacking Soros. He has long been a regarded by the right as the supervillain behind everything that is wrong with America. Never mind that he is the model of the capitalist dream, a man who rose up from a childhood under Nazi occupation, to become one of America’s wealthiest citizens. That’s why he was recently attacked by Sen. Chuck Grassley, who charged him with backing Brett Kavanaugh’s protesters; and by Rep. Louie Gohmert who gave out a “Heil Soros” on Fox News; and by Trump himself in tweet that lashed out at him with no support for his claims.

And let’s not forget the part about the “Anti-Christ.” Of all the comments that Giulian might find to retweet, he picks one that calls a Holocaust survivor a name that’s akin to “Christ killer” and foreshadows the end of civilization. It’s a full blown dog whistle, nay fog horn, of the anti-Semitism and bigotry that is rampant throughout the Cult of Trump. And Trump’s glassy-eyed disciples will will eat it up like they do all the other racist tropes that spew from Trump and his shills.

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