Obama Mocks Fox News For ‘Making Me Scary’

Posted by on October 12, 2015 at 8:17 pm. 3 Comments :

Just in time for Halloween, President Obama has revealed the costume that Fox News made to heighten the fears of their perpetually skittish viewers. It’s something they have been dressing up the President in for the past seven years, but it doesn’t get much attention from the President himself.

Fox News Obama

In an interview with author Marilynne Robinson, the discussion turned to the values that are found in the diversity of American life. This led the President to recall his experiences in small-town America when he first began campaigning for the White House.

“It’s interesting, because we’re talking in Iowa; people always, I think, were surprised about me connecting with folks in small-town Iowa. And the reason I did was, first of all, I had the benefit that at the time nobody expected me to win. And so I wasn’t viewed through this prism of Fox News and conservative media, and making me scary.“

Indeed, Fox News has since toiled feverishly to turn Obama into a fearsome entity bent on the destruction of mankind. They have literally accused him of conspiring with our mortal enemies; of plotting to murder millions of Americans; of surrendering our liberty and land to foreign tyrants; and even taunting God so as to bring about the End Times. It’s a nightmarish vision that was constructed from nothing but their seething hatred for a dark-skinned stranger who they believed had no right to rise to leadership and reside in the White House.

For his part, Obama has been aware of the animosity that consumed his ideological foes. There was, however, little he could do about it. The more he would try, the more they interpreted it as an insidious ploy to enslave them with charm. Witness this hideously secret assault as described by Obama to Robinson:

“And the thing I’ve been struggling with throughout my political career is how do you close the gap. There’s all this goodness and decency and common sense on the ground, and somehow it gets translated into rigid, dogmatic, often mean-spirited politics. And some of it has to do with all the filters that stand between ordinary people who are busy and running around trying to look after their kids and do a good job and do all the things that maintain a community, so they don’t have the chance to follow the details of complicated policy debates.”

What a monster! How dare he try to find common ground in a democratic society while partisans in the press and politics are stirring up irrational dissent. And why does he want to close The Gap? Is he biased in favor of Urban Outfitters? Or is he just fundamentally opposed to the free market?

Later in the interview, Obama pinpoints one of the potential causes of the adversarial nature of our country. He describes it as the natural tendency of Americans to mistrust governments, which he says is “in our DNA.”

“We’re suspicious of government as a tool of oppression. And that skepticism is healthy, but it can also be paralyzing when we’re trying to do big things together.”

That’s true. And it certainly doesn’t help when you have giant media networks deliberately fomenting fear and ignorance and using the naivete of their audience to build opposition based on lies. In fact, all it does is pave the way for cartoonish demagogues like Donald Trump, and leave Grand Old Parties struggling to find anyone who actually wants to lead their parade of clowns.

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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Fox Nation Straight Up Lies About Hillary Clinton’s Looming ‘Meltdown’

Posted by on October 11, 2015 at 3:35 pm. 4 Comments :

To begin with, it’s not particularly a revelation that Fox News is a constant and unabashed purveyor of lies and disinformation. However, ordinarily they do at least try to obscure their dishonesty in a stew of distorted details, unsupported assertions, and/or mangled misrepresentations of “facts.” But in today’s headline posting on their Fox Nation website they went further than usual to invent a disparaging allegation against Hillary Clinton.

Fox Nation Hillary Clinton

The Fox Nationalists reposted an article from their sister tabloid, Rupert Murdoch’s vile New York Post, with the headline “Clinton’s Camp Says She ‘Could Have A Serious Meltdown.'” That’s a pretty frightening scenario that would have the political world spinning – if it were true.

Note that the headline is a declarative statement of fact as to what “Clinton’s camp says.” In fact, neither Fox News, nor the NYP, has any evidence of anyone connected to Clinton saying anything remotely similar to that scandalous quotation. What they have is the ravings of a bona fide uber-rightist lunatic with a record of equally deranged utterances. At best the headline could have referred to an allegation by a dubious source.

The dubious source, in this case, is Edward Klein. He is a Fox News regular, and WorldNetDaily columnist, whose reputation for wildly false attacks on Hillary Clinton (and other democrats and liberals) is legendary. Klein is an unrepentant birther who believes that President Obama may have been created to be a Manchurian candidate from Kenya. Klein also believes that Chelsea Clinton was conceived after Bill raped Hillary, who Klein says is a lesbian. This is a “journalist” who Fox News takes seriously?

Among Klein’s prior prognostications for Fox was a piece about how Clinton was teetering on the edge of abandoning her quest for the presidency. The headline blared: “Hillary down in the dumps: Is Clinton about to drop out of 2016 race?” The article provided a surreal transcript of a private conversation between Bill and Hillary that Klein could not possibly have witnessed. That was in June of 2014, so we have the answer to the ridiculous question about whether her withdrawal was imminent. And it must be due to that level of inaccuracy that Fox and the NYP chose to revisit Klein’s reporting for this new article wherein Klein uses anonymous sources to allege that…

“Hillary’s been having screaming, child-like tantrums that have left staff members in tears and unable to work,” says a campaign aide. “She thought the nomination was hers for the asking, but her mounting problems have been getting to her and she’s become shrill and, at times, even violent.”

That’s a great story line if you’re on the writing staff of Days of Our Lives, but anyone who thinks that a Clinton campaign aide is going to divulge spicy rumors to someone like Klein is suffering from acute idiocy. Klein’s M.O. has always been to simply manufacture scurrilous gossip that fits his predetermined soap opera script.

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

For this sort of fantasy fiction to appear on WorldNetDaily, or the New York Post, is bad enough. But Fox wants to pretend that they are a real news enterprise, and despite all of the evidence to the contrary, they continue to try to convince us that they have true aspirations for journalistic achievement. However, it is reporting like this that always rats them out as the disreputable purveyors of schlock news that they are – and always will be.


Killing Media Matters: Bill O’Reilly Throws Tantrum After His ‘BS’ Book Is Exposed

Posted by on October 10, 2015 at 4:49 pm. 4 Comments :

Culture Warrior Bill O’Reilly is on the warpath again. As usual, the battle lines are drawn around an ego so big it can be seen from space. He devoted a segment of his Friday night program to the “Villains” at Media Matters who he described as “an outrageous propaganda website, a hate site.” An inattentive observer could be forgiven if he thought that O’Reilly was talking about Fox News, which better fits that description.

Bill O'Reilly Media Matters

O’Reilly and his guest, Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney, lit into Media Matters with a vicious, foaming-at-the-mouth glee. They never actually said what they were so riled up about. Generally such a display of animus is prompted by a critical article or a disparaging public statement. But the furious Foxies didn’t offer a single example of a recent atrocity by Media Matters or any other reason for their drooling disgust. They simply hauled off on a manic rant and demanded that the watchdog group’s tax-exempt status be revoked.

O’Reilly: This is not a group that deserves this tax free status. What can someone do to make the IRS revoke it?
Varney: Okay, an individual could file one of these forms with the IRS. It’s form 13909. It’s the tax-exempt organization complaint referral form. Simple form. Fill it out, complain, say what your beef is with Media Matters, and you can complain. That’s how you do it.

See how easy it is? Just say what your beef is. Even though O’Reilly and Stuart weren’t able to, you’ll come up with something. Not that it matters. This is a tactic that Fox News tried four years ago. They made a full court press to enlist their viewers to complain to the IRS about Media Matters. It was promoted for weeks on multiple programs by the network’s biggest names, including Bret Baier, Charles Krauthammer, James Rosen, Ann Coulter, Dick Morris, Bernie Goldberg, Keith Ablow, Jon Scott, and of course, O’Reilly. They posted the IRS complaint forms on Fox Nation with instructions that encouraged filers to lie. They even had one of their own contributors, former Bush lawyer C. Boyden Gray, file his own complaint.

For an in depth examination of just how obsessed Fox News is with Media Matters, see:
Media Matters Has Fox News Scared And Desperate

After months of this charade the result they achieved was a big fat nothing. It’s not unlike the current investigations in Congress, hyped feverishly by Fox News, over Benghazi, Planned Parenthood, and Hillary Clinton’s email. Every inquiry into these subjects has produced complete vindication for the political targets of Fox and the right, but that hasn’t stopped the persecutors from persisting. So it’s no surprise that O’Reilly would dust off this hoary contrivance to hammer away again at his old enemy.

So why is O’Reilly dredging up this old story, and why now? The answer sneaked in at the closing of the segment as he teased the next segment saying “The Factor Tip of the Day: Attacking Killing Reagan. Wow. Wait til you hear this.” If you were bored enough to wait you would have heard O’Reilly whine about some criticism of his new book “Killing Reagan.”

O’Reilly: “A published report says a group of Reagan loyalists are organizing to attack the book. We know these people. They threatened me and Martin Dugard [the co-author] even before we put the book out.”

Indeed, there was a published report. It appeared in the Washington Examiner and was later reported by Media Matters, which O’Reilly failed to mention for some reason. The report identified several people close to Reagan who dismissed O’Reilly’s book as “garbage” and “total BS.” So obviously Media Matters should have its tax-exempt status revoked.

Did the story in Media Matters spur O’Reilly to suddenly relaunch this campaign against them? Who knows? Media Matters has been a thorn in his side for a long time. Earlier this year they published the ebook “Killing Truth” that detailed many of the lies O’Reilly told about his alleged combat duty. And they are a constant source of irritation to Fox News due to their annoying habit of exposing Fox’s journalistic failures. But the fact that O’Reilly went after them just a few hours after the negative report on his new book was posted suggests that it had something to do with his decision.

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

For a taste of the insane obsession that Fox News has with trying to politicize the tax-exempt status of Media Matters, watch this 2011 video. And you may also enjoy this one showing the depth of the hatred Fox has for Media Matters.


Westboro Baptist Church Tactics Deployed By Gun Nuts On Fox News

Posted by on October 9, 2015 at 7:35 pm. 20 Comments :

It’s bad enough seeing Christianist extremists congregating outside of funerals for soldiers with signs declaring that God hates them, but now the disciples of the NRA have taken to using the same tactics employed by Westboro Baptists crackpots to advance their agenda in Roseburg, OR, the site of last week’s tragic massacre at the Umpqua Community College. And these miscreants were eagerly abetted by Fox News.

Fox News Roseburg

The occasion for the protest in Roseburg was a visit by President Obama to console the families of the victims. Despite the President’s remarks a few days ago about advocating increased political pressure to get Congress to do something – anything – to address the continuing problem of gun violence, there was nothing political about this visit. The press was not even permitted to attend the family sessions with the President. He made a brief statement afterward that avoided any hint of politics.

Nevertheless, Obama was met as he arrived by a motley band of malcontents with bitter messages aimed at driving the President out of their neighborhood. Signs carried an array of derogatory remarks including “Obama Not Welcome,” “Go Away,” “Go Back To Kenya,” as well as a flurry of confederate flags and the Tea Party’s Gadsden flag. The Westboro freaks would be proud. And yet this is the behavior of people who complain about politicization of the issue. What’s more, had Obama declined to go to Roseburg the same people would have criticized him for not caring.

On Fox News they covered the protesters extensively. As apparent in the graphic above, the protests were overtly political, identifying them as “Gun Rights Advocates” rather than mourners. Fox aired multiple on air interviews with the anti-Obama Roseburg residents. For some reason they were unable to find any residents to interview who were grateful that the President would join them in this time of grief. Other news networks didn’t have that problem. And the disingenuous cries of politicization were abandoned when it was Fox News personal engaging in it.

For instance, on The Five, co-host Eric Bolling waxed political by quoting what he said was a portion of Obama’s statement wherein the President said that “we have to work on these rights,” a reference to the 2nd Amendment. However, Obama never said anything remotely similar to that. Fox viewers, of course, will now be forever certain that he did. Then Greg Gutfeld not only hit the President on guns, but tied it to abortion in a perverse analogy that defies reason. He said that…

“The gun argument and the abortion argument are complete mirrors of themselves. The left thinks that the right is using the Planned Parenthood videos to ultimately ban abortion. The right thinks that the left is using mass shooting in an effort to get rid of the 2nd Amendment. So they’re both the same.”

No, they are not even a little bit the same. If the left thinks that the right is using the Planned Parenthood videos to ultimately ban abortion it’s because the right explicitly tells them that that is what they want to do. The right is not the least bit shy about declaring their intention to ban all abortions. On the other hand, the right has no reason to believe that the left is using mass shootings to get rid of the 2nd Amendment because there has never been any effort by the left to do that. In fact, the left is very clear that they merely want to make it more difficult for particularly dangerous weapons to get into the hands of people that ought not to have them.

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

For the past seven years of the Obama administration, alarmist nuts at the NRA have been screaming about the imminent threat of Obama’s plot to disarm America. Yet there has never been a single bill passed, or even drafted, that would do any such thing. The whole campaign is designed to stir up irrational fears of imaginary tyranny. And that is precisely what is happening today with Fox’s coverage of the Obama protesters in Roseburg. Because to the NRA-theists, losing 28,000 lives a year to gun violence is just the price we have to pay for having access to any kind of weapon, any time, by anyone.


Alex Jones And Matt Drudge: The Most Bizarre Interview You Will Ever Imagine You Witnessed

Posted by on October 8, 2015 at 12:13 pm. 10 Comments :

You are traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Your next stop, the InfoWars Interview.

Alex Jones / Matt Drudge

On Tuesday’s episode of InfoWars (video below), host and the conspiracy theory’s chief theoretical conspirator, Alex Jones, almost invited yellow pseudo-journalist Matt Drudge to join him in a discussion of the current state of the world of the deranged. I say almost because the interview began with Jones announcing that his teen crush Drudge was in the studio, but that he would not appear on camera (for fear of losing his soul?).

Jones: I did not do this as a stunt. Neither did Matt Drudge. He is here. We got a hot mic over there. He wants to stay literally in the shadows behind the curtain.

So in this version of the Wiz, the great and powerful Drudge commands that you do pay attention to the man behind the curtain. In a bizarre bit of Burlesque theater, Jones conducted the whole interview with Drudge allegedly a few feet away, out of camera range. There was never an explanation for why Drudge refused to be seen. He isn’t exactly camera shy as he once hosted his own TV show (on Fox News of course). What could be more perfect for the conspiratorial set than for a reclusive disseminator of rightist propaganda to lurk off-camera and send his disembodied voice across the webosphere in a dialog with a sociopathic skeptic? What self-respecting minion of Alex Jones would believe that Drudge was really there at all? Wake up, sheeple!

As a testimonial to the fabulousness of this chin-flapping, Sarah Palin tweeted that this is “One of the best interviews I’ve heard in a long time!” And why not? The pair spent much of their forty-six minute “bull” session congratulating each other on their bravery for standing up to some unseen oppressor who has shackled them to a dreary existence as mere multimillionaires with legions of glassy-eyed disciples. The horror! Although there were a couple of subjects that were examined in a fair amount of detail that deserve attention.

First of all, Drudge dredged up the obsession that kicked off his career twenty years ago: Hillary Clinton. Apparently he is still enthralled with her terrifying omnipotence and simultaneous impotence. Here is an abridged summary of his rambling and incoherent remarks about his Wicked Witch of the White House:

Drudge: How sick are the American people right now? They could put Hillary Clinton’s brain in a jar in the Oval Office and she’d be elected. People are really sick. […] Before this country is so completely altered and we’re left with Hillary’s brain in the Oval Office in a jar – ‘cuz that’s what we’re getting. She is old and she’s sick. She is not a contender. They’re making her a contender with these propped up Saturday Night Live things. It’s like a head on a stick. […] I’m very pessimistic on this race because I’m just not so sure it’s not gonna end up with the dreaded brain in the jar in the Oval Office, once known as Hillary Clinton – who is hypo-thyroid. Anybody who is seventy years old who’s hypo-thyroid you do not elect president, ladies and gentlemen. You don’t do it. […] Why aren’t we seeing Hillary’s lovers? Excuse me? Why aren’t we seeing Hillary’s lovers? Where’s the cover-up on this?

The only question arising from that schizoid rant is whether Drudge is on too many psychotropic drugs or too few. Either way he needs some serious medical attention. He is particularly disturbed by the thought of a jar of brains, which may be attributable to simple jealousy that Clinton has something that he and his wingnut cohorts can only dream about.

The other subject that received considerable scrutiny was a paranoid diversion into acute crackpottery. Abandoning any pretense of reality, Drudge unveiled a historical account of the legend of ISIS that would make J.K. Rowling blush with embarrassment.

Drudge: We never really heard of ISIS until recently and I remember when that name first started coming up. Do you know that it was designed to be confused with Darrell Issa? Did you know that’s what it was. Because Darrell Issa was the enemy at the time of this administration. […] They came up with the name ISIS to be confused with Darrell Issa. I’m really being hinest with you. I remember the first time Christiane Amanpour sputtered out this word ISIS thinking did she get that one? […] And then the President going it’s not even ISIS, it’s ISIL or IS. This Dr. Seuss. This is madness.

Obviously. How could we have missed it before? Barack “Svengali” Obama invented the acronym ISIS (Islamic State of Syria and Iraq) and somehow got the terrorists to use it to refer to themselves. But in a bit of brilliant strategic jujitsu, Obama himself sidestepped it in favor of ISIL, which doesn’t sound as much like Issa, but still has an “I” and an “S” in it, preserving the theory’s tenuous plausibility.

It is inspired analysis like this that has made Matt Drudge an icon in conservative media. And his reputation among rightists and Teabaggers will only be enhanced by this eccentric display of lunacy. It perfectly reflects Drudge’s own plaintive question: “Where are the flamboyant characters? This is what America needs right now – flamboyant, intellectual characters.” By entering the lair of professional whack-job Alex Jones, and establishing the natural affinity between the two fringe constituencies, Drudge and Jones have not only answered that question, but they have advanced the level of idiocy that will be forthcoming from the right, as well as the level of laughter from the left.

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


Republicans Have No Idea What Political Correctness Means

Posted by on October 7, 2015 at 4:41 pm. 17 Comments :

Some things in public discourse ought to be pretty simple and devoid of controversy. For instance, words have definitions that are verifiable and universally agreed upon. Without that it would be impossible to have a conversation. And yet, there are Republican candidates for president who appear to prefer to invent their own definitions in order to advance an otherwise absurd argument.

Ben Carson Politically Correct

For example, the phrase “politically correct” has a specific meaning that everyone who speaks English understands. It isn’t some vague concept unto which you can project whatever meaning suits you at the time. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as…

“The avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.”

See? That wasn’t hard. It would, therefore, be politically incorrect to refer to a woman as a “ho” or to an adult African-America man as “boy.” It would also be politically incorrect for a pizza joint to call their barbecued chicken special “The Sambo” or for a bar to make Tuesday’s Dwarf Tossing Night. It usually includes language that has been considered acceptable in some deviant circles. But if the language or activity is insulting or hurtful to people who are already struggling for respect in a social environment that rewards or at least tolerates prejudice, it is politically incorrect. And the part that refers to people who are victims of discrimination is absolutely essential to the definition. It’s the part that makes it political. Otherwise it would be merely incorrect.

However, conservatives are desperately trying to redefine the phrase so that they can use it to escape responsibility for outright repulsiveness. They want an all-purpose excuse for absolution, usually after they have already embarrassed themselves with some crass comments or behavior. Their definition of political correctness would be more like “Any comments or actions that people find offensive.” But that isn’t political correctness, it’s just being an asshole.

Ben Carson has made whining about political correctness a core feature of his campaign. He asserts that he is the victim of it when he takes criticism for saying that Muslims can’t be president, or that ObamaCare is the worst thing since slavery, or implying that the victims of the Oregon shooting cooperated with their killer. But those are not instances of political correctness. They are instances of boorishness and ignorance. And his inability to understand the Constitution or healthcare or crime does not grant him license to say stupid things without taking criticism for it.

Donald Trump is another candidate who needs to twist the meaning of political correctness. It is not politically incorrect to call Mexicans rapists, or to denigrate women as fat pigs, or refer to your rivals or the media as stupid losers. That would be better defined as rude, immature, and hostile. Which pretty well defines Trump.

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

The concept of political correctness has taken a beating in recent years as Republicans who want to retain it as a shield against criticism that they deserve try to distort it’s meaning. But it is a useful measure of progress in a society that has been far too tolerant of bigotry. There ought to be a price to pay for using language as a cudgel to continue suppressing people. So it is important that we do not allow the bigots and the bastards to redefine it as anything for which they take some heat.

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Uh Oh: Do Hackers Now ‘Own’ Donald Trump?

Posted by on October 6, 2015 at 2:38 pm. 2 Comments :

Trying to figure out Donald Trump’s relationship with China is no simple task. He castigates them for taking U.S. jobs, for unfair trade, for manipulating currencies, and generally beating stupid American leaders at every turn. On the other hand, he has his fashion products manufactured there, leases them luxury real estate, and confesses his deep love for them and/or their money.

However, for the purposes of his delusional presidential campaign, China is a bitter enemy that is seeking to destroy America and freedom worldwide. Which makes them a perfect foil with which to bash President Obama. A couple of years ago Trump tweeted that “The Chinese are now hacking White House computers. Why not? They already own the place.”

Donald Trump

Ha. What a wit (or at best half). What Trump was referring to was an attempt at “spear phishing,” wherein an email that appears to be legitimate tricks the recipient into clicking on a link that executes malicious software. As usual, Trump got it wrong because there was no successful intrusion into the White House network. The matter was addressed at the time by then-Press Secretary Jay Carney, who said in response to a reporter’s question…

“The attack you’ve mentioned was what’s known as a spear-phishing attack against an unclassified network. Let’s be clear — this is an unclassified network. These types of attacks are not infrequent, and we have mitigation measures in place. In this instance, the attack was identified, the system was isolated, and there is no indication whatsoever that any exfiltration of data took place. Moreover, there was never any impact or attempted breach of any classified system.”

But what makes this interesting now is the report of a massive hack into Trump’s hotel operations nationwide. This was a successful intrusion wherein the hackers accessed the payment systems, potentially stealing customer credit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes. It has been going on for at least a year, only being discovered recently.

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

So the question for Trump is: If China “owned” the White House following an unsuccessful hacking attempt, then who owns Trump now? Could it be China, who would certainly have a motive stemming from his hostile rhetoric, and opportunity resulting from their business relationships? It could just as well be Russia or fugitive Mexican drug lord, El Chapo. But even if it’s just some larcenous cyber-thieves, Trump has some explaining to do.


Fox News Celebrates American Pride By Lying About America Pride Day

Posted by on October 5, 2015 at 8:16 pm. 8 Comments :

Anyone who watches Fox News for more than a few minutes quickly becomes aware that the network has a severe case of schizophrenia. They spend about half their airtime fawning over patriotic symbolism and pretending to embrace a near perverse love of country that borders on obsession. America probably wouldn’t have any trouble getting a judge to issue a restraining order to keep Fox stalkers away.

The other half of their airtime is consumed by the sheer hatred of everything about America today. They hate the President and the Congress. They hate school lunch programs and Social Security. They hate any effort to provide its citizens with healthcare or education. They even have a love/hate relationship with the military: They love invasions of foreign countries, but they hate training exercises in the southwest.

So when it comes to expressing pride in America, Fox News has to resort to making up stories that reflect their patriopathic fetishism. Case in point is a segment that aired this morning on Fox & Friends.

Fox News

The “Curvy Couch Potatoes” got wind of an appalling insult to America’s ego by some academic apparatchiks at Jackson Hole High School in Wyoming. The story first appeared on the Fox Nation website and was attributed to the Daily Caller (which is run by weekend Fox & Friends host Tucker Carlson). Here is what Fox reported (video below):

Heather Nauert: Proud to be an American. The teenagers refusing to stay silent after their principal canceled America Pride Day. They canceled it over fears it would make other students feel sad or left out. Instead of going with the principal’s plan, the students decked themselves out in red, white and blue in protest.

Imagine that! What kind of high school principal would cancel America Pride Day? The outrage on Fox continued as co-hosts Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt read emails to Fox that castigated the school officials “who want to impose their personal agendas on students,” so that in the future “we will not recognize America.” To which Earhardt added “That’s scary. […] It’s ridiculous. If you don’t want to be here…”

Yeah! Just get out of here you un-American children. The only problem with this tale of America shaming is that none of it is true. The school officials did not cancel America Pride Day, the students did. There was a survey taken to ascertain what themes the students preferred for their upcoming homecoming week. As reported by the Jackson Hole High School News…

“A piece of the homecoming planning included JHHS student council representatives creating a Spirit Day school wide student survey, which was approved by the JHHS administration. This provided all students an opportunity to weigh in and engage in the democratic process of determining how to celebrate each day. This process included the voices of many of our students as opposed to just the opinions of JHHS student council leaders or JHHS administrators only, as had been past practice.

“The results of the survey are as follows: 1 Toga/Pajama Day 2 Lumberjack Day 3 America Day 4 School Spirit day (orange and black) 5 College Day 6 Decades Day 7 Cowboy Day 8 Sports Day.”

With regard to the naming of America Day, the JHHS report noted that…

“America Day had many personal student comments about why that day was uncomfortable for some students. In an effort to compromise on the title of a day, and to meet district goals, a conversation with JHHS student council leaders and JHHS administration discussed alternative ways to name the day ‘Patriot Day’ or ‘Heritage Day’ to be inclusive. Both of these days were declined by JHHS Student Council leaders.”

So contrary to Fox News, there was no imposition of personal agendas by school officials on hapless students. The entire series of events was driven by the students themselves. And to the students’ credit, they were striving to be inclusive and sensitive to their fellow students. It seems that they should be commended for that rather than becoming the subjects of falsified reporting that frames the story derogatorily.

The JHHS report also made specific mention of the fact that “on any given day, students are welcome to celebrate their national pride and heritage,” and that “we support the pride of our country and those that have faithfully served so these democratic principles can be expressed.” And that’s exactly the way it should be. Too bad Fox News has to come along and smear their school and their community with lies aimed at dividing people and manufacturing hostility. The good people of Jackson Hole don’t deserve that and, fortunately, they are strong enough to transcend it.

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


Cartoon Coward/Cowboy: Donald Trump Thinks He’s A Macho Gunslinger

Posted by on October 4, 2015 at 4:26 pm. 12 Comments :

American’s comedians are in the midst of a hilarity Renaissance thanks mainly to the dementia that caused Donald Trump to think he could be President of the United States. No one has provided more raw material for political humor since the thawing of Sarah Palin. And now that Caribou Barbie has returned to hibernation in the frozen wilds of Alaska, the Trump train could not have chugged along at a better time.

The latest treasure trove of Trumpian farce gushed from The Donald this weekend during a speech in Franklin, Tennessee. He was responding to the tragic shootings at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, that left nine dead and nine others wounded. In the course of his remarks he thought that it would be appropriate, and in keeping with the solemness of the occasion, to impersonate the vigilante character played by Charles Bronson in Death Wish. Unfortunately for Trump, he came off looking more like cartoon tough guy, Yosemite Sam.

Donald Trump

Setting the scene for this theater of the Absurd is Tucker Carlson, host of Fox & Friends, who along with his co-hosts drooled lovingly over Trump’s pathetic rendering of machismo. Carlson prefaced a video (posted below) of Trump with this introduction:

“So every politician in America is talking about gun control this week after those horrifying shootings in Oregon. But no one has really talked about it the way Donald Trump talked about it the other day. Watch this.”

Whereupon they played Trump reciting his policy on guns (reading from a printout of his website) that focused solely on his perverse interpretation and idolatry of the Second Amendment. However, Trump had to interject some personal and dubious boasting to say that…

“I have a license to carry in New York. Can you believe that? Somebody attacks me, oh they’re gonna be shocked. Can you imagine? Somebody says ‘Oh, there’s Trump. He’s gonna be easy pickens.’ [Holding his finger like a gun] Whad’ya say? […] Can you imagine with Trump, somebody says ‘Oh, all these big monsters running around. He’s easy pickins.’ [pulls the finger again] And then p’ching.”

First of all, Trump’s swaggering BS is just plain delusional. Does he really believe that if approached on the street he could outdraw a would-be assassin who already has his weapon drawn? Does he think he’s better prepared than the highly trained police officers who have been ambushed and murdered while on duty? What a maroon. This pitiful attempt at bravado is not only stupid, it’s dangerous. He is practically daring some psycho to make a name for himself by offing the Dingbat Don.

More importantly, what he offered as substance for his gun policy was rooted in falsehoods and nonsense that make you wonder whether he already took a slug to the cranium. He made ludicrous claims that his opponents want “a gun that fires one bullet.” Like much of what he says, he simply made that up.

Trump also said the Oregon college was a gun-free zone and that if more people had guns they “would be a hell of a lot better off.” However, not only was he wrong about the campus being a gun free zone, there was an armed veteran there who decided not to intervene because of the risk that police officers would arrive shortly and, seeing him with a gun, might mistake him for the shooter. So the “good guy” with a gun made a rational decision not to use it. As for society being safer if more people have guns, a carjacking victim in Houston might not agree. A witness to the carjacking took out his weapon and fired at the suspects, but hit the victim in the head. Then he picked up his shell casings and took off.

Following the video of Trump, the Fox News “Curvy Couch Potatoes” returned and Carlson continued his fact-free reporting and Trump-fluffing.

“He makes an important point. Why is disarming normal people good for the country. I mean maybe it’s good for politicians who want a compliant population, but it doesn’t make us safer.”

Of course, no one is talking about “disarming normal people” except for Carlson, Fox News, and the rest of the NRA-theists. What’s more, his contention that politicians want to disarm everybody in order to have a “compliant population” implies that he wants an armed populace so that they can shoot politicians. And these people call themselves patriots.

It is the proliferation of guns, and the ease with which they can be acquired by people who ought not to have them, that makes our nation less safe. And that state of affairs is being reinforced by the gun lobbyists at the NRA, right-wing Dirty Harry wannabes, cowardly representatives, and buffoons like Donald Trump.

These people all comprise a special interest group that regards the loss of nearly 30,000 people – men, women, and children – every year to be an acceptable price to pay for unfettered access to firearms. And while people like Trump spew ridiculous comments and half-baked proposals that make great fodder for mockery, when you consider all the pain and suffering for which they are responsible, it isn’t really all that funny.

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


Hey America: Bill O’Reilly Thinks You’re Lazy, Uncaring, And Stupid

Posted by on October 2, 2015 at 5:37 pm. 19 Comments :

If you’ve been wondering why you’re having trouble understanding Quantum Mechanics, or conjugating Spanish verbs, or following Sarah Palin’s logic, Bill O’Reilly has the explanation: You’re just a stupid American.

Fox News Bill O'Reilly

That’s right. According to the Sage of Fox News, “Many Americans are simply dumb.” And that’s not some lefty mischaracterization, or a soundbite taken out of context. It’s a direct quote (video below). O’Reilly was discussing a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that showed that 62% of respondents believe the nation is on the wrong track. Not surprisingly, O’Reilly agreed because, in his view, the economy is soft (it’s booming) and earnings are stagnant (they’re at record highs).

What O’Reilly was dumbfounded by was that, despite the public’s dissatisfaction with the nation’s direction, the poll also showed that Vice-President Joe Biden, if he were to run for president, would beat every Republican he was matched against. While he didn’t bring it up, the same is true in most cases for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in many polls. But O’Reilly just couldn’t grasp how this could happen. He thinks that if polls show that Americans express an affinity for Democrats like Biden then “Americans are losing it.” He laughingly asked “Why would you vote for him?” And then he provided the answer:

“Talking Points believes the answer to that question is kind of cruel. Many Americans are simply dumb. They don’t know what’s going on. They don’t pay attention. They don’t care.”

So there you have it. If you don’t have the same electoral preferences as Bill O’Reilly, you are obviously a lazy, uncaring, idiot. And especially if you have a positive impression of President Obama, or anything associated with his administration, you’re probably crazy. It’s a viewpoint that exposes the shallowness of O’Reilly’s thinking. He apparently is incapable of entertaining the notion that Americans think the country is on the wrong track at least in part because of Republican obstructionism in Congress rather than any dissatisfaction with the President. And that’s a more likely scenario since most polls show that Obama and the Democrats are held in higher esteem than the GOP. It’s not even close. Obama currently has a 48 percent approval rating, compared to 14 percent for Congress.

This isn’t the first time that O’Reilly has put his contempt for the American people on display. Last year, in a similar response to a poll that he couldn’t comprehend, O’Reilly complained that…

“The harsh truth is that many of us are blatantly ignorant and lazy. We simply will not pay attention to the world around us. We get our information from other people, who may be as dumb as we are.”

Once again, O’Reilly’s definition of ignorant was tied to support for our president. Actually, since he used the inclusive pronouns “we” and “us” he isn’t far off from the truth. So long as he’s referring to himself, the terms “ignorant, lazy” and “dumb.” are entirely appropriate. But he shouldn’t lump the rest of America into the same group. He did much the same thing when he demeaned American voters saying that…

“Informed voters will not be swayed by media coverage, but millions of Americans are simply uninformed.”

This pattern of disrespect for the intelligence of the American people is unmistakable. But it’s even more galling coming from one of the most flagrantly ignorant pundits, with a long record of being a pathological liar. However, his audience won’t hold any of this against him because they believe that they are part of a privileged class of knowledge holders in whom the future depends. A tenet of the right contends that conservatives have a unique intelligence that escapes the rest of society. Only they have access to the universal truths that are being suppressed by the so-called “liberal” media. And, consequently, they are not stupid, they are special. And they are the disciples of America’s saviors. God help us all.

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