On Fair And Balanced Fox News It’s Trump Dependence Day

Posted by on July 4, 2016 at 6:04 pm. 5 Comments :

It’s the Fourth of July and Americans are enjoying a day honoring the independence of the nation from a tyrannical monarchy. There are parades, and barbecues, and tributes to heroes going on all over the country. But on Fox News they have their own peculiar way of celebrating this holiday.

Donald Trump

As Independence Day approached, Fox News devoted much of the weekend to multiple re-airings of “13 Hours At Benghazi,” a two year old crockumentary that shamelessly distorted the tragic events that cost the lives of four Americans. The entire purpose of the program was to falsely malign Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration in the minds of Fox’s gullible viewers, despite the fact that every investigation into the matter cleared them of any wrongdoing.

And now, on the Fourth of July itself, Fox News has programmed a couple of “patriotic” hours that feature their choice for America’s icon of nationalistic fervor, Donald Trump. Because what could possibly better represent the spirit of America than a one-sided telethon of veneration for a bigoted, egomaniacal, wannabe dictator?

First of all, Fox News will be re-airing a very special episode of Greta Van Susteren’s On The Record entitled “Meet the Trumps.” In this heart-throttling waste of time Van Susteren devoted the whole hour to interviews with Trump’s adoring family, She spent the most time with his wife Melania whose relentless praise was reminiscent of victims of Stockholm Syndrome. She even said that she and The Donald never argue. Does that sound like a normal marriage or a paid campaign infomercial?

Later, Fox News will present an all new special from Sean Hannity dubbed “The Year of Trump.” This will undoubtedly be the sort of worshipful tripe that has characterized Hannity’s treatment of Trump since he launched his campaign. The only surprise is that he didn’t call it “The Passion of the Trump” in honor of his political savior. Hannity has the distinction of having provided Trump with more airtime than any other program on Television.

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

Suffice to say that no other news network has committed to airing several hours of dedicated Trump-humping programs this holiday weekend. And apparently Hillary Clinton hates the Fourth because Fox has virtually ignored her today. The fact that Fox News chose this particular holiday to slather their viewers in paeans to The Donald tells you something about Fox’s interpretation of patriotism. It is not accidental that Fox scheduled this parade of Trump propaganda on the same weekend that they revived their anti-Clinton Benghazi fest. This sort of flagrant bias is their reason for being. Happy Fourth Everybody!

Find us on Google+
Advertisement:

WATCH: CNN’s Trump Fluffer Brazenly Lies About The FBI’s Clinton Inquiry – And CNN Lets Him

Posted by on July 3, 2016 at 5:14 pm. 12 Comments :

On today’s broadcast of CNN’s State of the Union, fill-in host Brianna Keilar interviewed Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Last month Lewandowski was fired by Trump and then hired by CNN within a few days despite the fact that he has a contract that prohibits him from saying anything critical about his ex-boss.

CNN

Well, Lewandowski is surely in the clear after today’s performance. He not only refrained from any criticism of Trump, he delivered eight minutes of non-stop adulation and shameless up-sucking. He even defended Trump’s use of a blatantly anti-Semitic image in a tweet attacking Hillary Clinton even though Trump himself wouldn’t defend it (he deleted it without comment or apology).

Much of the interview, however, involved the meeting between Hillary Clinton and the FBI to discuss the matter of her emails and the private server she used. There was no new information reported following the meeting except for multiple sources telling CNN and MSNBC that the FBI has concluded that no laws were violated and no charges will be brought. On this subject Keilar asked Lewandowski…

“Corey, the big news this weekend, Hillary Clinton meeting with the FBI – three and a half hours she was meeting with them – and sources tell CNN that this investigation could wrap up before the convention. And if she is cleared of wrongdoing by the Justice Department as we expect, short of her making some sort of mistake in her interview yesterday is what is going to happen, will that deprive Donald Trump of a key political weapon?”

Without even waiting for Lewandowski to respond the answer was obvious. Trump, and every other Republican, have already tipped their hands to reveal a strategy wherein Clinton will continue to be vilified as guilty regardless of the outcome of the investigation. They intend to go on using this weapon even if it is shooting blanks. If Clinton is cleared they will just insist that the Justice Department is corrupt and that the White House is threatening to dispatch killer drones to deal with anyone who goes after Clinton. So Lewandowski did deny that Trump will be deprived of a weapon, but it’s what he said immediately after that that is truly disturbing.

“I think what you have is the American public is so frustrated right now that Hillary Clinton has been under investigation from the FBI from as many as 150 agents for a long time.”

Certainly the American public is frustrated by the seemingly endless parade of bogus Clinton-bashing scandals, not one of which has produced any evidence of wrongdoing despite spending hundreds of hours and millions of dollars on partisan efforts to tarnish her reputation. However, the allegation that there were hundreds of agents investigating this matter was proven to be false long ago. Originally there were anonymous reports from the Washington Post and Fox News that as many as 150 agents were involved, but that was quickly debunked with subsequent reports saying that talk of 150 agents was “ridiculous” and that “the number is closer to 12.”

The fact that Lewandowski would propagate this dishonest argument after it was already know to be untrue is typical of the Trump campaign’s deliberately deceitful modus operandi. While most candidates would cease to use information that they knew was false, that little detail doesn’t seem to bother Trump or his cronies. This is also further evidence that Lewandowski is still working for Trump while he’s getting paid by CNN. And worst of all, it shows that CNN is unable or unwilling to correct the record when a Trump shill dispenses flagrant lies on their air.

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


Donald Trump Tweets Anti-Semitic Smear Of Hillary Clinton

Posted by on July 2, 2016 at 3:47 pm. 1 Comments :

[See update below]

Donald Trump’s history of offensive remarks at his rallies and on social media is well documented. He has called Mexicans rapists; he calls women pigs, slobs, and bimbos; he has tweeted images that disparage African-Americans. His campaign has been an endless source of insults and childish tantrums that have alienated just about everybody. He has even ridiculed his own supporters.

Now Trump has added to that collection an overtly derogatory tweet that uses blatantly anti-Semitic imagery to attack Hillary Clinton. The image placed a Star of David on a pile cash with a caption saying “Most corrupt candidate ever.”

Donald Trump Tweets

The use of this symbol of Jewish identity in this manner has long been a tactic of bigots and was employed frequently in the Germany of the 1930’s and 1940’s. It continues to be used today by neo-Nazi groups in the U.S. and around the world. The message revisits the derogatory and false insinuation that Jews control all the money and banks to the detriment of everyone else. Trump also included his campaign slogan, “America First,” which he has been asked to abandon by the ADL due to its “undercurrents of anti-Semitism and bigotry.”

Trump’s purpose in posting this tweet was to exploit the results of a Fox News poll showing that Clinton is regarded by 58 percent of respondents as “corrupt.” That isn’t surprising considering the media obsession with Benghazi and email servers. However, Trump was also found to be corrupt by 45 percent in the poll. That’s not exactly something to brag about.

Some other results from the same poll that Trump neglected to report include that more respondents think that Clinton: “would make the right decisions for the country” (48 to Trump’s 42); is intelligent (77 to Trump’s 66); and “cares about people like me” (45 to Trump’s 35). On the downside, Trump is seen as obnoxious (83) and hotheaded (89), compared to Clinton at only 45 and 35 percent respectively. And 51 percent of Republicans want a nominee other than Trump. Overall, Clinton is the preferred choice for president by 44 to 38 percent. Reminder: This is a Fox News poll.

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

By posting, and then deleting, this nauseating message, Trump is acknowledging that it was unacceptable and offensive. And unlike some of his previous Twitter vulgarities, this was not a retweet. It was a Trump original. After deleting it he made no comment or apology for his loathsome behavior. He thinks that he can just sweep it under the rug and not pay a price for his bigotry. It’s up to all of us to make sure that doesn’t happen. This needs to be shared far and wide. Despite his inbred sense of superiority and entitlement, Trump does not get to offend people at will and then pretend it never happened.

UPDATE: Putting to rest any doubts about whether Trump’s image was deliberately anti-Semitic, a reporter at Mic found the source for the image on a website for neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and white supremacists. Now we know where they go for their campaign themes.


YIKES: Trump Delegates Promise To Be Packing Heat At The GOP Convention

Posted by on July 1, 2016 at 2:14 pm. 4 Comments :

From the “What Could Possibly Go Wrong” file:

The Republican convention will begin in a couple of weeks but the fireworks have already started. There is a vibrant #NeverTrump movement that is furiously organizing to prevent Donald Trump from becoming their party’s nominee. And an unprecedented throng of loyal Republicans have vowed never to vote for Trump. They include the two past Republican presidents and the two past Republican candidates for the office.

Donald Trump

Trump’s rallies have frequently been the scene of violence directed at protesters, which Trump encourages and even offered to pay the legal fees of anyone arrested for such an assault. He has bragged that his followers are angry and once described a pair of supporters who beat up a homeless Latino man as “passionate” people who “love their country.” He even boasted about having his own concealed carry permit and virtually dared evildoers to bring it on.

In the spirit of this overtly hostile political crusade, some Trump delegates are now declaring that they will be coming to Cleveland armed. They are concerned about possible threats to their safety from rampaging protesters or wild-eyed terrorists. One Trump delegate exclaimed “We’re talking about ISIS.” And these self-styled Republican Rambos think that their handguns will protect them from trained jihadis with AR-15s, body armor, and suicide vests. One armed delegate said that…

“There are a whole bunch of things happening: You go to various events, receptions, whatever, outside the convention hall. And you walk on the streets and, you know, people know that you are a delegate, and who knows what the crazy people are going to do? So you’ve got to be vigilant about what’s going on and prepare yourself.”

So they expect the battlefield to expand to include area restaurants, hotels, and city sidewalks. This should make every resident of Cleveland nervous. The introduction of civilians with guns into public settings is asking for trouble. There is a reason that convention facilities, including the one that will be hosting the GOP convention, not do permit firearms. Security professionals know that there is a greater risk of injuries to innocent bystanders when people with no experience get involved in situations that are rife with chaos and panic. Plus, with more people brandishing weapons it makes it harder for law enforcement to know who the bad guys are.

A couple of months ago there was a petition circulating to alter the rules at the arena and allow delegates to take guns into the convention hall. It garnered more than 50,000 signatures before it was discovered that it was started by a gun reform advocate.

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

There are legitimate reasons for citizens to be cautious in public places and to be aware of their surroundings. But that isn’t a license to be paranoid and to exacerbate the problem. Particularly at a political convention where such strong animosities are prevalent. And that is just among the Republicans. Last March Trump was whining about the prospect that he might not have enough delegates to secure the nomination. In an interview on CNN he warned if he were denied his rightful crown that “bad things would happen” and that “I think you’d have riots.” Now, with the “Dump Trump” faction of the party still working to find an alternative candidate, his delegates are strapping on sidearms and swaggering into town with puffed up chests threatening to fulfill Trump’s prophecy. Does anyone think this will end well?


Donald Trump Eavesdropped On Staff And Guests At His Florida Resort, Sources Say

Posted by on June 30, 2016 at 3:28 pm. 3 Comments :

The multitude of ethical lapses exposed during Donald Trump’s campaign for president could fill the Mariana Trench. From his fraudulent Trump University, to his charity scams, to his bankruptcies, to his pathological lying, Donald Trump has repeatedly proven that he has little use for the morality that guides most decent people, much less what would be required of a national leader.

Donald Trump

Now Buzzfeed is reporting that Trump may have engaged in a deplorable act of privacy invasion at his exclusive Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida. The report details the accounts of former Mar-A-Lago employees who witnessed Trump listening in on the phone calls of his staff and guests:

“At Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach resort he runs as a club for paying guests and celebrities, Donald Trump had a telephone console installed in his bedroom that acted like a switchboard, connecting to every phone extension on the estate, according to six former workers. Several of them said he used that console to eavesdrop on calls involving staff.”

Four of the former staffers who revealed Trump’s bedroom phone follies spoke to Buzzfeed on the condition of anonymity due to their having signed non-disclosure agreements. Trump is famously obsessed with binding his associates with such gag orders. His recently fired campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was similarly restrained from commenting about Trump (which, for some inexplicable reason, didn’t stop CNN from hiring him as a commentator). One source said he had “direct knowledge that Trump ‘could pick up the phone in the bedroom and listen to any conversation that was going on.'”

Not surprisingly, Trump’s spokesperson, Hope Hicks, denied that he had ever eavesdropped on anyone saying simply that “This is totally and completely untrue.” Another Trump supporter who rejected these charges was his former butler, Anthony Senecal, who may be better known for a Facebook posting calling for President Obama to be shot, and adding that he would personally participate in a hanging.

For anyone who may be reluctant to accept that Trump would behave this atrociously, it should be noted that this isn’t the first time that Trump has been suspected of tapping the phones of his staff. Just last month, following the dismissal of his national political director, the New York Times reported that…

“A sense of paranoia is growing among his campaign staff members, including some who have told associates they believe that their Trump Tower offices in New York may be bugged, according to three people briefed on the conversations.”

There appears to be a disturbing pattern forming. Trump is displaying the combination of authoritarianism and paranoia that was emblematic of the Richard Nixon White House. Nixon, of course, was notorious for recording his conversations with White House staff and guests, a breach of ethics that eventually led to his downfall. And if past is prologue, this an ominous portent of the future should Trump manage to emerge victorious in November.

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


Donald Trump’s Sick Response To Terrorist Attacks: Be More Like Terrorists

Posted by on June 29, 2016 at 1:51 pm. 2 Comments :

The tragedy of another terrorist attack on innocent people is once again stirring fear and sympathy as the world struggles to find a solution to this seemingly intransigent problem. And despite the fact that the tactics of these murderous swine proves that they are desperate and losing, the consequences are no less painful.

Donald Trump

The responses to terrorist attacks are almost always insufficient. There is little one can say to comfort the victims and their families for their suffering and loss. There is, however, one thing that these events do not need, and that is more bellicose demagoguery of the sort that Donald Trump is wont to engage in. His post-Istanbul comments (video below) were typical of his impulse for impetuous violence and his embrace of ignorance. It’s a study in how a cranky child might react to not getting its way. But when seen in an adult who aspires to lead a great nation and a massive army it is downright frightening. Trump began his tantrum with an appeal to the infantile nature of his base saying…

“Folks, there’s something going on that’s really, really bad. Alright? It’s baaaad. And we better get smart, and we better get tough. Or we’re not gonna have much of a country left, OK? It’s bad.”

Apparently the key to Trump’s analysis is that terrorism is “bad.” What a revelation. If he had more time he might have added “icky” and lambasted the terrorists as “poopyheads.” It’s hard to know whether Trump was speaking down to the level of his followers or if this is just the limits of his intellectual capacity. In any case, it offers nothing useful to the discourse. But he was just getting started. He continued…

“Their laws say you can do anything you want and the more vicious you are the better.”

First of all, who is the “they” to which he is referring? That’s important in order to confirm the status of their laws. To my knowledge there is no legal entity that grants the right to “anything you want,” nor grants unrestricted viciousness. Certainly terrorists have shown that they are willing to be vicious, but rhetoric like this serve no purpose and appeals only to blind emotion. Trump proceeded by saying that…

“So we can’t do waterboarding which is, it’s not the nicest thing but it’s peanuts compared to many alternatives. So we can’t do waterboarding but they can do chopping off heads, drowning people in steel cages. They can do whatever they wanna do.”

The jealousy in Trump’s voice is palpable. Clearly he is miffed that the terrorists can act more heinously than he can. It’s not fair. He is so upset that he veers off into a fantastical imaginary scenario involving a terrorist family supper:

“And you know they eat dinner like us. Can you imagine them sitting around the table, or wherever they’re eating their dinner, talking about ‘the Americans don’t do waterboarding and yet we chop of heads.’ They probably think we’re weak, we’re stupid, we don’t know what we’re doing, we have no leadership. You have to fight fire with fire.”

I’m sure that’s exactly what terrorists discuss while dining. What could be more appetizing than a discussion of decapitation with the kids while enjoying a tasty siniyah kebab?

Setting aside the cognitive breakdown of Trump’s storytelling, he does actually get to the heart of his philosophy at the end: fight fire with fire. He believes that the United States should adopt the tactics of the terrorists. He is literally calling for Americans to decapitate our enemies or burn them alive because that’s just so American.

It is that brand of vengeful mindlessness that really defines Trump’s idiocy. Not only would it be a violation of our principles, it would be against international law. What’s more, it would validate the tactics of those we are fighting. It would give them permission to continue, and even escalate, their brutality while simultaneously indicting us for crimes against humanity.

Finally, Trump’s rash and irrational proposals would remove any moral authority we have in this struggle and bring into question whether what we are fighting for is any better. Had Trump been around during World War II he would have advocated gassing the Japanese who were being unjustly held in concentration camps. That isn’t the legacy that America hopes to project. It is an abhorrent policy of hatred and vengeance that does nothing to advance our goals. It is the core of the Trump Doctrine and must be rejected in huge numbers. In fact, recent polling indicates that it is already being rejected:

“Clinton leads Trump 50% to 39% on who would best handle terrorism […] Those surveyed also believe presumptive Democratic presidential nominee showed better temperament than her Republican counterpart in response to the attack, 59% to 25%, respectively. Clinton is also favored in confidence that she can handle a similar attack as president compared with Trump (53% to 34%) and that she has better proposals for preventing future attacks (44% to 35%).”

That’s a hopeful sign that the American people are not falling for Trump’s vile campaign of hate. But we must do more than hope that this endures until November. We must unite and work our asses off to avoid the nightmare of a Trump presidency.

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

Find us on Google+
Advertisement:

With Nothing To Pin On Hillary Clinton, Fox News Furiously Spins The Benghazi Panel’s Pointless Report

Posted by on June 28, 2016 at 8:00 pm. 1 Comments :

After two years and seven million dollars, the Republican Committee on Politicizing Benghazi finally issued a report on their findings. And, to no one’s surprise, the result of this lengthy and expensive charade reveals absolutely nothing of significance that wasn’t already known or reported by one of the seven other congressional committees that wasted taxpayer dollars on this transparently political witch hunt.

Almost immediately following the release of committee’s report Fox News shifted into offense in an effort to hurl mud at Clinton. The absence of anything substantive to report didn’t deter them from their mission. As an indication of how the media reported this news event, take a look at the on-screen graphics of the three cable news networks:

Fox News

Both CNN and MSNBC correctly reported that committee failed to deliver on their promises of criminality by Clinton. Fox News, on the other hand, tweaked their reporting to refer to the GOP’s press conference rather than the contents of the actual report. So their graphics faulted the Obama administration because that’s what the Republicans at the press conference were predisposed to discuss. Never mind that their own committee’s report did not support their criticisms. Even the Fox News crawl, during this segment, noted that “Clinton never personally denied requests for added security.”

Fox News spent much of the day slandering Clinton with innuendos that had nothing to do with the report. On Outnumbered Jedediah Bila said that “It doesn’t bother her that people died.” Fox’s national security analyst, K.T. McFarland, said that Clinton has “blood on your hands.” Dana Perino of The Five inexplicably called for yet another Benghazi investigation. Notice that none of these comments addressed any of the report’s actual findings, preferring instead to fling insults and malicious opinions.

Republicans had long ago exposed themselves as the perpetrators of a partisan assault on Hillary Clinton in advance of her campaign for the presidency. Their Speaker-in-Waiting, Keven McCarthy, bragged about his anti-Clinton plot to Sean Hannity saying that “Everybody thought that Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today?” Well, since you asked, Clinton’s numbers today put her twelve points ahead of Donald Trump, and McCarthy was bumped from his speakership path and replaced by Paul Ryan.

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

The Benghazi investigation lasted longer than any previous congressional investigation, including the JFK assassination, the Nixon Watergate affair, and 9/11. It’s budget exceeded that of the House Intelligence Committee and the Veterans Committee combined. Yet it found not a single bit of evidence of any wrongdoing by Clinton or the Obama administration. So Fox News chose to ignore the report’s conclusions and instead engage in ad hominem smear tactics. That is, after all, what they were created to do.


Donald Trump Is Winning In Every Poll – In His Delusional Mind, That Is

Posted by on June 27, 2016 at 3:02 pm. 3 Comments :

In 2012 there was a mini-movement by Republicans to “unskew” all of the polls that were showing Mitt Romney losing to President Obama. They were convinced that the vast left-wing conspiracy in the media was distorting survey results that would otherwise have shown Romney in the lead. It was an act of self-deception that resulted in their being shocked when Obama actually won reelection just like the polls predicted.

Trumpzilla

The same thing is happening in 2016 as Donald Trump and his PR department (aka Fox News) cherry-pick polls that elevate his standings and ignores, or baselessly slams, those that show him where he actually stands – badly trailing Hillary Clinton. So reading polls is just one more thing at which Donald Trump sucks. As an example of this cognitive lapse take a look at what Trump said about a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll that has him behind Clinton by twelve points: “The @ABC poll sample is heavy on Democrats. Very dishonest – why would they do that? Other polls good!”

That’s funny. Trump had no problem last month with the very same poll when it showed him leading by two points. Back then he retweeted a link heralding the results without any mention of the pollster’s dishonesty.

The past month has seen Trump suffer through an avalanche of horrible failures, including: he repeatedly insulted the Latino judge in his Trump University fraud lawsuit with racist comments; after the Orlando massacre he praised himself and implied that Obama sympathized with the terrorists; he had a dismal financial report showing him with only $1.3 million; he fired his skeevy campaign manager; his GOP colleagues have been abandoning him in droves. And in the meantime Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination and has been enjoying success at unifying the party. No rational person would be surprised by Trump’s declining poll numbers.

But no one ever accused Trump of being rational. In the tweet above he also put forth the fiction that “Other polls good!” Which other polls he was referring to is a mystery. Here is every poll followed by RealClear Politics for the month of June. Notice that Clinton is ahead in every one of them. On second thought, that is good.

Trump polls

This is fairly typical for Trump. When he has a momentary spike by in popularity he declares victory and lavishes himself with praise. He is utterly blind to anything less than unqualified acclaim. And when neither is handy he latches onto laughably phony sources that he can count on for partisan drivel. Take for instance his promotion of a ludicrous poll that said he “Leads Big With Latinos.” And just as absurd was this one reporting that “Minorities Line Up Behind” him. And then there was the time that a Wall Street Street Journal/NBC poll showed him behind Ted Cruz in the primary. Trump whined that “I never do well” with that poll. Except that he was ahead in five of the six previous polls by the Journal. Only someone with a deeply corrupted view of reality could believe this nonsense.

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

Unfortunately, the reality-challenged demographic to whom Trump appeals actually exists. They are small, but annoyingly loud. And they will believe whatever their Orange Lord tells them. As he said himself, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any support. He’s frighteningly right about that. It’s the Kool-Aide chugging wing of the Republican Party and they must not be allowed to prevail in November.


Donald Trump Dines With Fox News Boss: Just Two Billionaire Plutocrats Chewing The Fat?

Posted by on June 26, 2016 at 3:00 pm. 1 Comments :

While in Scotland pimping his golf course and making idiotic statements about the United Kingdom quitting the European Union (#Brexit), Donald Trump set aside time to meet with the patriarch of the Fox News empire, Rupert Murdoch, for dinner. The dinner date was reported by Katy Tur of NBC in deliciously snarky tweet: “His eyes twinkling and a smile cracking his lips, Trump slowly mouthed the word Ruu-Pert when he told me he was dining with @rupertmurdoch.” (Cue the violins).

Donald Trump

Under other circumstances this might be just another opportunity for a couple of wealthy elitists to chow down and laugh at the tribulations of the little people. But, make no mistake, what happened here is unprecedented and ominous. The extraordinary nature of this high society supper becomes apparent by asking a couple of simple questions: 1) What other presidential candidate has Murdoch met with during this campaign? (None). And 2) What other media mogul has dined with any presidential candidate during this campaign? (None).

It is unseemly for anyone in the news business to have such cozy relations with candidates for high office. And it is particularly sleazy when those relations are blatantly one-sided. The “journalists” who work for Murdoch are keenly aware that their boss is signaling his preferences and that can have a chilling effect on how their reporting is conducted. Fox News is already heavily slanted with a starkly pro-Trump, anti-Clinton bias. By making such a public display of partisanship, Murdoch is making matters worse by dropping the full weight of his authority onto the weak-willed minions he employees.

Murdoch’s opinion of Trump has not always been so positive. Last year Murdoch tweeted this question that is still relevant today: “When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?” Without ever answering that question, Murdoch let it be known that he is supporting Trump anyway. And he must have struggled mightily with that endorsement considering how fiercely Trump has maligned Fox News over the course of his campaign.

For example, Trump has burned just about everyone on the network. He said of Megyn Kelly that she “is the worst” and has a “terrible show.” He called Karl Rove a “total fool” and “a biased dope.” He said that George Will is a “broken down political pundit” and “boring.” Chris Stirewalt was deemed “one of the dumbest political pundits on television.” Trump laughed off Charles Krauthammer as “a totally overrated clown,” “a loser,” and “a dummy.” And wrapping up the whole network for his disapproval, he tweeted that he was “having a really hard time watching Fox News.” Then he called on his followers to boycott the network. And for good measure, Trump took a swipe at the Fox family’s newspaper saying that the writers at the Wall Street Journal are also “dummies.”

I can’t argue with much of that, but then I’m not coming out in support of someone who has been so disparaging toward my most cherished business enterprise. Murdoch either has the forgiveness of a saint (unlikely), or he is so obsessed with defeating his good friend Hillary Clinton that he is willing to ignore these childish tantrums and embrace Trump, warts and all. There is one other intriguing possibility: Trump has some damaging information on Murdoch, Roger Ailes, or Fox News generally, and is blackmailing them. That would explain a lot.

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

In any case, it remains inappropriate for a media mogul Big Cheese to be feasting with The Big Cheeto. Their secret conversation is of far greater concern than anything that might have been said by Clinton in a speech to Wall Street. The potential for coordinating a media strategy between Fox News and the Trump campaign should make every American suspicious – and not a little nervous.


Chickenhawk Republican Climate Deniers Just Killed Critical Military Funding

Posted by on June 25, 2016 at 3:42 pm. 1 Comments :

The Republican Party has distinguished itself for its shameless, knee-jerk opposition to anything with even a faint fragrance of liberalism. Their robotic rejection of any policy proposed by President Obama, or any other Democrat, is evidence of their acute aversion to critical thinking – or thinking period. And now they may have demonstrated that their assholiness even extends to weakening America’s national security.

Chickenhawk GOP

The Pentagon has long regarded Climate Change as a credible risk factor for international affairs. It is predicted that it will cause more severe natural disasters like hurricanes and drought, and multiplying refugee crises. All of this will profoundly increase the sort global tensions and conflict for which the United States must be prepared.

In response to these risks the Pentagon implemented a strategy (Department of Defense Directive 4715.21) for dealing with the consequences of a warming world. It was a fairly innocuous plan that mainly called for assigning specific people the responsibility of insuring that necessary measures were being taken to address potential problems. But even that plan was too much for the anti-science GOP, as reported by Politico:

“Last week, however, House Republicans voted to block it. By a 216-205 vote Thursday, the House passed an amendment prohibiting the department from spending money to put its new plan into effect. Not a single Democrat voted for the amendment, which was attached to the defense spending bill.”

The amendment was authored by Colorado Republican Ken Buck, who has no experience in either science or the military. His ignorance on the subject led to a defense of his amendment that makes little sense:

“The military, the intelligence community [and] the domestic national security agencies should be focused on ISIS and not on climate change. The fact that the president wants to push a radical green energy agenda should not diminish our ability to counter terrorism. […] The president has talked about an increase in the climate temperature on the planet. It is a fraction of a degree every year. How that is a current threat to us is beyond me.”

Indeed, this entire subject is beyond Rep. Buck. Apparently he thinks that the Defense Department, with 3.1 million employees and a budget of more $600 billion is incapable of concentrating on more than one thing at a time. Buck also believes that being prepared to respond to future military threats is part of a “radical green agenda.” His absurd position suggests that the U.S. should also drop any projects related to Russia, North Korea, NATO, cyber-warfare, or anything else not directly concerning ISIS.

Republican fear mongers, and their PR division at Fox News, are heavily invested in fighting a narrowly defined war on “radical Islamic terrorism” that mainly consists of reciting those three magic words and watching the bad guys dissolve into the ether. They have no affirmative suggestions for achieving victory, but they are overflowing with pointless criticisms. They mock those, including President Obama, who correctly assert that “no challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than Climate Change.”

Conservatives who dispute the looming danger of a world with declining resources like water and arable land dismiss the warnings of 97 percent of the scientists who study the matter. They believe the whole crisis is a hoax that was invented to enrich greedy professors or, as Donald Trump laughably claimed, by the Chinese. However, the issue was laid out in stark detail by a Republican administration with an icon of modern conservative national security taking the lead:

“In 2003, under Donald Rumsfeld, former President George W. Bush’s defense secretary, the Pentagon published a report titled ‘An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security.’ Commissioned by Andrew Marshall, who is sometimes jokingly referred to within the Pentagon as Yoda — and who was a favorite of Rumsfeld’s — the report warned that threats to global stability posed by rapid warming vastly eclipse that of terrorism.”

And Rumsfeld is not alone among security professionals in warning about Climate Change. The Politico article quotes several, with decades of military experience, who regard Buck’s amendment as foolish and more costly in the long run. In fact, four of the past Secretaries of Defense (Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, Robert Gates, and Rumsfeld) all subscribed to the policy that Climate Change is one of America’s top strategic risks. And three of the four are Republicans. Those are the people Ken Buck and his fellow Republicans are overruling with this ill-considered budget cut.

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

So why would the GOP advance this nonsense that is contrary to the non-partisan opinions of most experts? Because conservatives don’t really care about national security. What they want is to terrify people by focusing on the immediacy and bloodshed of incidents like the recent massacre in Orlando. Which is, ironically, the same thing the terrorists want. And that purely political, self-serving objective overrides any genuine interest in the welfare of the American people or the world.