Kellyanne Conway on Fox News Embraces Violence as a Political Plus for Trump

Posted by on August 27, 2020 at 2:18 pm. 6 Comments :

The predominant strategy of Donald Trump’s campaign for reelection has been to grossly mischaracterize Joe Biden as a wild-eyed socialist bent on destroying America. That’s a preposterous accusation that voters have already rejected. But it hasn’t dampened Trump’s zealous crusade to smear Biden and bring down his favorable ratings to the lows where Trump has been languishing throughout his presidency.

Kellyanne Conway, Fox News

On Thursday morning Trump’s (soon to be former) Senior White House Counselor and Director of Alternative Facts, Kellyanne Conway, held court with the Trump administration’s Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) to articulate what has become a familiar theme this election season. Trump and his Republican confederates have been furiously assaulting Democrats and citizen protesters as anarchists and vandals, despite the fact that most of the demonstrations have been overwhelmingly peaceful, and much of the violence was actually perpetrated by right-wing StormTrumpers. Conway told the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends that inciting violence is now a key component of the Trump electoral strategy:

Really? Conway is expressly admitting that violence in the streets is a political advantage for the Trump campaign. Which might explain why his supporters are engaging in violence everywhere they go. It isn’t a spontaneous response to events on the ground. It’s a pre-planned tactic to advance Trump’s floundering electoral prospects. And Fox News is a partner in this heinous scheme. Wednesday night Tucker Carlson actually defended the Trump-supporting shooter of demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin:

Trump and company nevertheless insist that the unrest seen in many cities, due to the unthinkably numerous incidents of police brutality and murder of Black citizens, is what will occur across the country if Biden is elected. What they are are too dense to notice is that this is what is occurring right now in Trump’s America. Trump is making the ludicrous argument that if you don’t like what’s going on now, then vote for Trump on whose watch this all took place.

The absurdity of this “logic” is apparent to anyone with a functioning brain. That, of course, leaves out Trump’s cult followers who are already irredeemably lost in a perverse, reality TV simulation of the real world. And to those misfits, Conway’s confession that more violence will help Trump get reelected is an unambiguous call to arms. She is deliberately fueling the sort of incidents that just got two innocent people killed in Kenosha.

And make no mistake, Trump is the instigator behind all of this. He supports it and will contribute to it with the intention of exacerbating further tensions and tragedies. The problem for Trump is that he has very little left in his electoral arsenal. He cannot rehabilitate his repugnant public image. He cannot restore confidence after his negligent and incompetent mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. And he can’t brag about the economy after leading the nation into recession.

So Trump is leaning on an array of dirty dealings: character assassination of Biden and other Democrats; cheating by vote suppression and assaults on election integrity; assistance from his Russian pal Vladimir Putin and networks of right-wing Internet bots; and setting cities aflame to foment fear borne of ignorance and racism. That’s how Trump is befouling democracy in 2020. And he doesn’t care about the consequences. So the rest of us need to care all the more.

UPDATE: Joe Biden addressed this issue today. In an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN he quoted Conway’s remarks saying that Trump is “rooting for violence.”

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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Trump Approval Drops After Two Days of the Republican Nationalist Convention

Posted by on August 26, 2020 at 2:12 pm. 4 Comments :

What Donald Trump promised would be an optimistic and hopeful celebration of Republican leadership has predictably turned into a dystopian nightmare exalting an aspiring totalitarian dictator. The dark and hostile themes articulated by one speaker after another were unflinchingly foreboding and resolutely reverential of Trump and only Trump.

Donald Trump

This steadfast devotion to the Cult of Trump was intended to jump start his floundering reelection campaign. Joe Biden has been consistently beating Trump in both national and swing state polling for months. So the nasty tone set by Trump and his convention plotters was chosen in an attempt to boost his approval and to smear Biden in such a way as to bring him down to Trump’s level. They sent out their heavy artillery including four members of the Trump family (Eric, Don Jr, Tiffany, and Melania). They were fortified by notorious Trump-fluffers like Rep. Matt Gaetz, Rep. Jim Jordan, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, and the screeching stylings of former Fox News host, Kimberly Guilfoyle.

However, early indicators show that this strategy is working about as well as everything else Trump has tried to do in his presidency (i.e. utter failure). One week ago Trump proudly tweeted that he had reached a peak approval rating of 51% as surveyed by the disreputable right-wing pollster, Rasmussen Reports. Rasmussen is without a doubt Trump’s favorite pollster and the only one who has ever shown Trump with a majority approval rating.

Now, after two days of RNC ranting, and worshipful characterizations of Trump as Messiah, Rasmussen has him at 47% approve, 51% disapprove. That’s a four point drop (and an eight point negative swing) that occurred in just the two days since the convention began. Additionally, Rasmussen has Trump with a 36% strongly approve rating, and 44% strongly disapprove. UPDATE: Another day, another drop for Trump as his approval on the Rasmussen poll goes down to 46%.

To repeat, Rasmussen is the most Trump-friendly pollster on the planet. For comparison, other recent polls show Trump with considerably worse numbers. RealClearPolitics’ average “poll of polls” has Trump in the red 10.6%. And his performance in the crucial swing states is particularly dismal. Biden is leading in six of the seven states considered as battlegrounds (Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Ohio, and North Carolina). North Carolina is the only state where Biden is not ahead, but he is either tied or close. Biden is also challenging Trump in traditionally red states like Texas and Arizona.

Trump’s decline this week so far does not bode well for the remaining days of the convention, Ordinarily, a candidate could look forward to a game changing speech at the conclusion of the convention, But Trump has already played that card by casting himself in prominent roles every day. He even included official duties (the granting of clemency and a swearing in ceremony for new citizens) in his convention events, which many legal experts contend is a violation of federal law.

Consequently, the final two days hold little suspense. Firebrands like Kellyanne Conway, Ivanka Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and a parade of d-list members of Congress will be speaking. The remaining star power consists of Mike Pence, who is scheduled to give one of his always tranquillizing addresses on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, Trump will close the show with what will likely be a sequel to his infamous “American Carnage” inaugural horror story.

How any of that can be expected to move the polling needle is a mystery. But that’s all that the Trump camp has in store. Unless, of course, he surprises us with Hillary’s lost emails, a check from Mexico for the border wall, or a coronavirus vaccine he whipped up in the White House guest bathroom. Stay tuned.

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


WOW! Trump Praises CNN’s Convention Coverage While His Cult Bashes Fox News

Posted by on August 25, 2020 at 12:46 pm. 3 Comments :

It has long been established that Donald Trump is a malignant narcissist whose sociopathic obsessions produce a total lack of concern for anything or anyone other than himself. That sort of sickness can manifest in peculiar ways. Not only will such a person viciously castigate friends and enemies alike when sufficient adoration is not forthcoming, he might also embrace bitter foes should they offer a random compliment.

Donald Trump, CNN

On Tuesday morning Trump had a hell-freezes-over moment. He tweeted praise for CNN, the network he rarely mentions without adding the derogatory prefix, “fake news.” His description of them in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people” is almost robotically attached to every reference he makes. But on the morning following the first day of the Dystopian Republican National Abomination, Trump took to his Twitter machine and posted this:

Legitimate news networks don’t ordinarily get praised for reporting the news. But in Trump’s world the only thing that’s relevant is if he perceives the report to be beneficial to him. Consequently, he’s appreciative of CNN for airing what he believes was two hours of a joyous celebration of Trump. Never mind that the program was neither joyous nor beneficial. In fact, the convention that Trump promised would be overwhelmingly optimistic and hopeful was more like a nightmarish devolution into fear mongering.

So in a way, Trump was right. Broadcasting more of this convention would be “good for our country.” But only because the more people saw, the more likely they would be to vote for Joe Biden.

Trump wasn’t the only one to notice the disparity in coverage from one network to another. His cult disciples were keenly aware that Fox News was repeatedly cutting away from the prerecorded speeches to feature the babbling of their anchors and analysts instead. The Trumpians didn’t like that one bit and they let it be known on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/MarkDice/status/1298178874522533888


https://twitter.com/alexsalvinews/status/1298077746958962689

The comment by Brad Parscale is notable because he is the senior advisor (and recently demoted chairman) to Trump’s reelection campaign. But the criticism of Hannity was especially delightful. Hannity actually cut away from the convention to whine about other networks possibly cutting away from the convention, even while the other networks were airing the convention that Hannity was talking over.

It’s entirely possibly that some of the segments that Fox News declined to air were purposefully excised from their broadcast to avoid hurting Trump. The convention speeches were mostly prerecorded. So Fox News knew the content and tone before they went to air. It’s possible, therefore, that they may have seen the Guilfoyle harangue and chose not to subject their audience to what later became the most mocked address of the night. However, it’s also possible that another reason entered into Fox’s decision to erase Guilfoyle. She was, after all, fired by Fox News in 2018 for alleged sexual misconduct.

Trump’s sudden affection for CNN is unlikely to last for more than a day or two, if that. He will soon flip back to his predictable hostility as soon as anyone on CNN is even modestly critical. Meanwhile, Trump’s love/hate relationship with Fox News will continue as usual with him slobbering over sycophantic admirers like Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, and vehemently berating those who fail to worship him with unflinching devotion.

In the meantime, we’ll see if this attempt to work the refs results in changes of coverage for the remaining three days of the convention. But Trump really needs to be careful what he wishes for. By adding more coverage he will only be assuring that more people will witness the repugnance of his alleged personality and the blind reverence of the Republican cult. Which would be, once again, good for America to see.

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

AND THEN THERE’S THIS …


Trump Turns the RNC Into Another Lie-Riddled Cult Rally

Posted by on August 24, 2020 at 2:40 pm. 15 Comments :

On Monday morning the Republican National Convention got off to rocky start. It was preceded by a week of bad news including the arrest of Trump’s White House advisor Steve Bannon for fraud, tapes of Trump’s sister calling him “cruel” and a “liar,” a federal court ordering Trump to hand over his taxes, and the resignation of his senior White House counselor, Kellyanne Conway. Not to mention the continuing tragedy of ever escalating illness and death due to the Trump Virus.

Donald Trump, Republican, GOP

The early morning schedule for the convention was dominated by the roll call to tabulate the delegate votes to renominate Trump for 2020. That tedious affair had some competition as Congress was concurrently holding a hearing to interrogate Trump’s new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy. CNN and MSNBC aired the hearing, while in the Trump-friendly Fox News bunker they stuck to the terminally boring RNC roll call. Naturally, this infuriated Trump who tweeted his objections.

Shortly there after, it was Trump’s turn to take the stage. He is scheduled to appear on all four days of this ego-stroking, reality TV production. And today’s outing provided a glimpse into what the remaining three days will hold. What Trump had promised would be a convention filled with optimism and positivity, is already parroting the “American Carnage” the typifies Trump’s public addresses.

As anyone not in coma for the past four years would have expected, Trump went on a wild-eyed rampage against his stock crew of perceived villains, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Democrats in general. He lied brazenly about imaginary achievements, voting by mail (which Trump now contends will give you the coronavirus), the economy that is in recession, and the free press that he despises. CNN fact checker, Daniel Dale, noted that “There is way, way more dishonesty in this first convention speech by Trump than in every Democratic convention speech combined.”

But most of all, Trump went completely off the rails with delusional depictions of the state of the pandemic in America (video below). From the start, Trump has tried to downplay the horrific consequences that have burdened the lives of millions of people in the United States. He has belittled the suffering of the those most vulnerable. He has given false assurances to younger victims. And he has actually bragged that the death toll that is nearing 180,000 is something to be proud of. And not only is Trump proud, he has the audacity to criticize Joe Biden for deferring to scientists and doctors:

“Most of the country is right now doing very, very well. They’ve done an incredible job. And to have a man sitting on television the other day say ‘oh I’d shut it down. I’d shut it down.’ Like it’s easy. And oh, by the way, when you shut it down – and we did the exact right thing. We shut it down, then we reopened. And that’s what we’re doing now. We’re well into it. If we didn’t shut it down at that point we would have had millions of people dead. Millions of people.”

If you’re trying to make sense of any of that, stop. You might hurt your brain. Clearly, we are not “doing very, very well” right now. To the contrary, we are still seeing more than 1,000 deaths a day, and more than 50,000 new cases reported. What’s more, Trump never shut the country down. Not for a single day. Some governors took action to mitigate the spread, and they were attacked for it by Trump. And Trump is still dishonestly comparing the current death toll to estimates if nothing were done at all.

Following that tirade, Trump went into a rant blaming governors for all the of problems. You know, the problems he’s now saying never occurred because everything went so well. Apparently he was lying about that. The problems did occur, it’s just that, in his cartoon brain, none of it was his fault. Because it isn’t like he’s the one person who has the authority to manage a national crisis.

Sadly, the media appears to have learned nothing about how Trump takes advantage of them to promote himself. While CNN cut away after twenty minutes, MSNBC and Fox News carried the whole freakout live. Trump’s incoherent, stream-of-unconsciousness babbling on the first day of the GOP convention may look familiar. It’s precisely what he did for many months when he could jaunt around the country to perform at his ego-stroking cult rallies. And it’s what he did when assuming the starring role at his phony coronavirus Task Force briefings.

In short, it’s what he always does to exalt himself before his glassy-eyed disciples to soak up the adoration that he craves. And now he’ll do it for the next three days at the RNC, despite the fact that these displays of narcissistic indulgence and hostility only bring his already abysmal approval ratings down even more. And for that, I suppose Democrats should thank him. If it just weren’t so nauseating to watch.

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


Fear Factor: Now Trump Says Voting Will Give You the Coronavirus

Posted by on August 23, 2020 at 1:16 pm. 6 Comments :

Donald Trump is terrified! He knows he is losing badly to Joe Biden, despite his frantic and impotent efforts to characterize Biden as a puppet of scary, radical leftists, and/or as a mentally deficient socialist. And if you can’t beat a mentally deficient socialist puppet, you might as well give up. In many ways it seems like that is exactly what Trump has done.

Donald Trump, Coronavirus

On the eve of the Republican National Convention, Trump is demonstrating a measure of desperation that is unprecedented in American politics. He has resorted to bizarre, dystopian horror stories about how Democrats are plotting to “terminate” their opponents and that he is “the only thing standing between the American dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos.” Which is true in reverse.

But even those preposterous assertions weren’t enough to satisfy Trump’s lust for a nightmarish vision of a future wherein he is the loser. So on Sunday morning he tweeted this:

https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1297575466061053957

Oops. Apparently Trump’s tweet so profoundly offensive that Twitter flagged it for “violating our Civic Integrity Policy for making misleading health claims that could potentially dissuade people from participation in voting.” On his Twitter feed you have to click through the warning to see Trump’s tweet. For convenience, and in anticipation of Trump deleting the tweet, here is what Trump tweeted:

“So now the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster. Among other things, they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times. Also, who controls them, are they placed in Republican or Democrat areas? They are not Covid sanitized. A big fraud!”

Literally every word of that is false and/or ridiculous. To start with, there is no evidence of security issues with mail drop boxes that have been in use for decades. Trump fails to cite any source for his claim that they are a “disaster.” Secondly, it is impossible to “vote multiple times” because every ballot is checked for authenticity and duplication. Third, Trump’s inquiry as to “who controls” the drop boxes could be answered if he spent ten seconds on research. They are controlled by the local election authority, which is non-partisan and serves administrations of both parties.

Finally, Trump introduced a new and comically ludicrous concern about the drop boxes being “Covid sanitized.” This seems dreadfully insensitive coming from the person most responsible for the tragic loss of more than 175,000 American lives. It is Trump who failed utterly to control the spread of the coronavirus, and still mocks the use of masks and other safety guidelines, while promoting untested and dangerous therapies.

Now we’re supposed to take Trump’s alleged concern about infected drop boxes seriously? For the record, the drop boxes are well maintained and kept clean, and ballots may be inserted without ever touching the box. But more to the point, the only people who would believe this bullpucky are Trump’s own cult followers. Democrats will dismiss it and cast their votes eagerly, whether by mail or in person. But the Trumpists will more likely be scared off. And if they believe that the drop boxes are contaminated, they why wouldn’t they think the same thing about in-person polling places. Trump is so stupid that he doesn’t realize he’s scaring away his own voters.

Trump has a single purpose with this tweet. He is trying to frighten the American people. He is seeking to foment fear in order to suppress the vote.. He’s seen all of the national polls – as well as those in the crucial swing states – and there is no escaping the fact that his prospects for reelection are dismal. So the only course he has left is to dissuade people from voting. And he’ll do that by directing the Postal Service to interrupt delivery of ballots. Or by deflating confidence by insisting that the election will be rigged. Or by posting “police” at polling places to intimidate voters. And now by claiming that a completely safe alternative voting procedure could result in the transmission of a deadly virus.

There is a word for that. It’s “terrorism,” the definition of which is “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” So Trump is now officially, by definition, a terrorist. And like any other terrorist, he must not be negotiated with. He must defeated utterly and irreversibly. And he must be brought to justice. And, ironically, the first step toward that end is to VOTE! If you don’t, the terrorists win.

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


WTF? Bill Barr Told Rupert Murdoch to ‘Muzzle’ a Fox News Trump Critic

Posted by on August 22, 2020 at 2:48 pm. 4 Comments :

The creeping fascism of the Donald Trump regime continues to unfurl as the criminal accomplices in his cabinet carry out his nefarious agenda. Chief among them is Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr, who doesn’t even bother anymore to disguise his desecration of the Justice Department into a pseudo-legal cabal that works solely as Trump’s personal defense team.

Donald Trump, Bill Barr

A new book by CNN’s media correspondent, Brian Stelter, is set to be released next week, and excerpts are starting to make the rounds. “Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth“, has already created quite a stir with revelations about how insiders at Fox News privately admit that they think Trump is “crazy,” even while they exalt him worshipfully on the air.

The toxic, codependent relationship between Trump and Fox News has been the source of incalculable damage to American media and democracy. It is an unprecedented political/press partnership that benefits both. Fox News gets an audience with cult-like devotion that they can brainwash with blatant scare tactics and the darkly unifying force of racism. While Trump gets an aggressive assault team to attack his critics and political opponents, and a constant defense for his unending stream of unsavory conduct and outright crimes. It’s a marriage whose foundation rests on lies and ignorance.

Another excerpt from the book was just published by The Guardian. This one describes a meeting that took place last October between Barr and Fox News Overlord, Rupert Murdoch. News Corpse speculated at the time that the meeting resulted in the resignation of Fox host Shepard Smith, which was announced the next day. But Stelter’s book reports that there was another topic of discussion on their agenda:

“The attorney general, William Barr, told Rupert Murdoch to ‘muzzle’ Andrew Napolitano, a prominent Fox News personality who became a critic of Donald Trump, according to a new book about the rightwing TV network. […] Trump ‘was so incensed by the judge’s TV broadcasts that he had implored Barr to send Rupert a message in person … about ‘muzzling the judge’. [Trump] wanted the nation’s top law enforcement official to convey just how atrocious Napolitano’s legal analysis had been.'”

Just to be clear, intimidating and manipulating the media is not a part of the Attorney General’s job. In fact, it isn’t a part of any government official’s job. It is a totalitarian tactic to control speech and clampdown on the free press. And this sort of suppression of the constitutional rights of journalists is part and parcel of the Trump Doctrine that has designated the media in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.”

Napolitano, the Senior Legal Analyst at Fox News, has been known to criticize Trump. And for that heresy he was entirely excluded from Fox’s coverage of Trump’s impeachment. A few notable examples of his well-reasoned critiques include…

Napolitano has a right to his opinions, and quite often he agrees with Trump. But none of that is relevant here. It was grossly inappropriate for Trump to seek to censor a legal news commentator. And it only makes matters worse that Trump recruited his attorney general to deliver that message. And Barr, of course, should never have agreed to take the assignment. It’s not only improper, and a violation of the Constitution, it has absolutely nothing to with his duties at the Department of Justice.

It is, however, consistent with Trump’s flagrant disrespect for the law, his relentless abuse of power, and his frighteningly obvious tyrannical aspirations. And it’s further proof that neither Trump nor Barr are fit to serve in any position of government authority. They have both proven that they are utterly untrustworthy and the sooner they are deposed, the better for America.

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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Driven By Fear, Trump Has Himself Sealed in the Fox News Bunker

Posted by on August 21, 2020 at 2:44 pm. 3 Comments :

With the most extraordinary, socially distanced, Democratic National Convention in the history books, the American people and the media await Donald Trump’s response. Joe Biden was given high marks for his acceptance speech that displayed equal parts experience, empathy, and the cool-headed demeanor of a leader intent on uniting a fractured nation.

Donald Trump, Fox News

Nobody expects Trump to exhibit any of the personal qualities that have earned Biden such steady and broad-based support. To the contrary, it’s almost guaranteed that Trump will deliver another in his series of dystopian “American Carnage” tirades aimed at frightening his cult disciples into lining up behind his platform of bigotry, elitism, and totalitarian rule. He gave a preview of sorts (video below) when speaking Friday before the Council for National Policy, a secretive organization of wealthy right-wing donors, lobbyists, and political operatives, saying that…

“If our opponents prevail, no one will be safe in our country and no one will be spared. Including the people who helped fund. They think they’re gonna be best pals. They’re not gonna be best pals. They’ll be terminated just like many others. I’m the only thing standing between the American dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos. And that’s what it is.”

HOLY SHIH TZU! “No one will be spared.” “They’ll be terminated.” And Trump, the sole hope for salvation, also warned that “If we don’t win it’s all gone.” This will be the theme of the Republican National Convention next week. Vote for Trump, or DIE! Which is ironic considering how many people are now dead (177,000+) because they did for Trump in 2016.

With the economy in recession, millions unemployed, a deadly pandemic that is still out of control, civil unrest, and international humiliation, Trump has nothing left to run on but fear. Consequently, he has been trying to define Democrats as monsters. And Biden, a bona fide, old school moderate, is being characterized as a puppet of scary leftist radicals.

Since it is now impossible for Trump to cast himself as anything but a hostile, racist, egomaniacal, pathological liar, he is focused on trying to bring Biden down to his level. That’s quite an ambitious objective. Trump has been maligning Biden’s mental health for months, but voters still see Trump as the one who is most psychologically impaired. And what does it say about Trump if he’s losing bigly to someone he says is a mentally deficient socialist? As for trust, PolitiFact scored Biden’s acceptance speech and not a single statement that was checked was deemed false. Do we really have any doubt about how Trump will fare in that respect next week?

In the meantime, Fox News is the only cable news network that did not air the Democratic convention live, except for the headline speeches. Will they program the RNC the same way? Doubtful. Not that it matters much since Fox’s viewers won’t be voting for Biden anyway.

A bigger problem for Trump is that Fox News is now the only cable news network that does air his phony coronavirus briefings live. CNN and MSNBC appear to have seen the light and recognized that they were brazenly political affairs that used the White House to exploit a deadly pandemic in order to boost Trump’s floundering reelection prospects. And, of course, Fox has exclusive rights to Trump’s “interviews” by Trump-fluffers like Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends.

The result is that these days Trump is only seen on Fox News, whose viewers are already supporting him. So he can’t possibly expand his base beyond the worshipful audience of Foxic true believers. and there aren’t enough of them to win an election. Trump has been mocking Biden for allegedly staying in his Delaware basement (which isn’t true), but Trump’s fear has him locked up in a different kind of bunker.

While Trump did venture out during the Democratic convention in an effort to grab some attention for himself, that effort failed because only Fox News covered it. He didn’t even come out of the Fox bubble after the DNC, instead sending Mike Pence to fill in for him on five morning shows. But the American people know a coward when they see one. And by limiting his exposure to the friendly faces of Fox News, Trump is effectively surrendering.

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


Lock Him Up: Trump’s Ties To Steve Bannon and the Border Wall Fraud

Posted by on August 20, 2020 at 11:29 am. 7 Comments :

Another day, another Donald Trump associate arrested. The Confederacy of Felonious Trumpsters keeps growing with such dubious luminaries as Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Mike Flynn, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, and Michael Cohen. And now we can add Trump’s senior White House advisor, Steve Bannon. Not bad for an impeached president who routinely demonstrates his contempt for the law.

Donald Trump, Prison

Steve Bannon served Trump both in his campaign and on his White House staff. Prior to that he eagerly fluffed Trump as the executive chairman of the ultra-rightist Breitbart News. Bannon was taken into custody Thursday morning after being arrested on multiple charges of fraud. As reported by CNN…

“New York federal prosecutors on Thursday charged Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon and three others with defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a fundraising campaign purportedly aimed at supporting Trump’s border wall.”

The private effort to build a border wall along the southern border of the United States was never a particularly good idea. It had no legal basis and it’s principals were shifty characters with prior records of legal misconduct, including being banned from Facebook.

When asked about Bannon’s arrest, Trump immediately deployed his standard (and nearly incoherent) defense when tied to scandal: Deny, deny, deny. By Trump’s account he has never met any of the people, with whom he clearly had close relationships, after they were brought to justice. In a statement Thursday morning (video below), Trump said that…

“I feel very badly [for Bannon]. I haven’t been dealing with him for a long period of time as most of the people in this room know. He was involved in our campaign…and for a small part of the administration, very early on. Haven’t been dealing with him at all. I know nothing about the project other than I didn’t like when I read about it, I didn’t like it…It sounded to me like showboating. And I think I let my opinion be very strongly stated at the time. I didn’t like it. It was showboating and maybe looking for funds, but you’ll have to see what happens. I think it’s a very sad thing for Mr. Bannon. I think it’s surprising…I didn’t know any of the other people even. But it’s, it’s sad it’s very sad.”

Poor Steve. But Trump wishes him well, just like he did for his good friend, pedophile sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump’s rambling and manically repetitive statement was a vain attempt to distance himself from Bannon and the bogus border wall project. However, despite his claim, there is no record of Trump ever expressing his opposition to the project, nor referring to it as “showboating.”

On the other hand, there is a video record of Donald Trump, Jr effusively praising the project and its founder, sycophantic Trump disciple Brian Kolfage. Trump spawn Little Don raved that the scam was “what capitalism is all about. This is private enterprise at its finest. Doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else. What you guys are doing is pretty amazing.”

It never fails. Every time a Trump flunky gets caught, Trump runs for cover. It’s emblematic of the cowardice that is an all too obvious component of his character (or lack thereof). But the evidence quickly emerges that proves his guilt. Most of the time, Trump will try to deflect by squeezing in an entirely irrelevant swipe at Barack Obama. However, with so many people getting indicted, convicted, and sometimes pardoned (which is a de facto confession of guilt) by Trump, no sane person can still say these are coincidences. But then, “sanity” has never been a word used in connection to Trump or the cult that worships him.

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


Trump and Fox News Invent Fake Opponents Because They’re Afraid of Biden

Posted by on August 19, 2020 at 1:26 pm. 6 Comments :

As this extraordinarily unprecedented election season rattles on, Dona;d Trump continues to lag behind Joe Biden in every national poll, as well as in most of the crucial swing state polls. It must be humiliating to be losing so badly to someone you characterize as a mentally deficient socialist

Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

The truth is that Trump is terrified about his abysmal reelection prospects. And he’s even more terrified of Joe Biden, a bona fide, old school moderate with bipartisan credentials. Given Trump’s hardcore wingnuttery, it’s impossible for him to present any kind of marketable image to a nation that already knows him as an extremist with totalitarian tendencies. He openly advocates for aggressively fascist, police-state tactics to muzzle free speech. He craves the sort of lifetime rule that his heroes Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un enjoy. To that end he has implemented initiatives to suppress voting and refuses to respect the democratic process. He has called for the persecution, and even execution, of his political foes, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Having no path to rehabilitate his abhorrent personality and horrendous record, Trump has embarked on a campaign to bring Biden down to his level. But even that is utterly implausible. Consequently, Trump is employing a desperation strategy aimed at trying to persuade voters that a Biden presidency would be subservient to the most radical leftist fringe of the Democratic Party.

Trump, with help from Fox News, has been hammering on a preposterous theory that Joe Biden is a puppet of the radical left. They are elevating Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or Bernie Sanders, or Kamala Harris as the real leaders who will drive the policy of a Biden administration. As appealing as that sounds, it just isn’t remotely true.

Biden won an overwhelming number of votes in the Democratic primaries. That doesn’t mean that progressives won’t advocate for their agenda, just as activists of all stripes do. but it does mean that a center-left agenda will dominate the Biden White House. What Trump and Fox News are doing is substituting who they prefer to run against because they are afraid to run against the solidly moderate Biden. But what these radical rightists don’t get is that if a progressive agenda gets enacted it will be because that’s what the American people want. And that’s a concept that Republicans can’t comprehend and have never pursued.

The problem with Trump’s strategy, other than how it’s cutting against reality, is that it does nothing to soften his own jagged edges. He isn’t even trying. This week he congratulated a QAnon crackpot, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who won a GOP congressional primary. He followed that up with congratulations for Laura Loomer, whose bigoted hostilities got her banned from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, PayPal, Venmo, GoFundMe, Uber and Lyft. Then on Wednesday morning Trump tweeted this:

Seriously? Trump is actually calling for a boycott of an iconic American company that is headquartered in the swing state of Ohio and employs 64,000 people. Brilliant! And why? Because they sent out a memo asking employees not to promote political candidates of any party on company time. Or more accurately, because his fee fees were hurt that some Deplorable might have to wait until after work to put on his MAGA hat.

This isn’t the first time that Trump has attacked an American company and it’s American workers. It isn’t the second or third or fourth time either. Here are at least ten times that Trump has expressly ordered his cult disciples to boycott U.S. workers and the companies that employ them, including Harley-Davidson, CNN, Apple, Macy’s, Fox News, Univision, HBO, Rolling Stone, AT&T, and now Goodyear.

As for Fox News, they have taken this Trump campaign theme and blown it up across their network. Every host has parroted the “Biden is a radical leftist who will be controlled by other radical leftists in the party” line ad infinitum. On Laura Ingraham’s White Nationalist Hour, she tried to paint Biden as “pretending” to be a “faith and family candidate.” That’s what this campaign has come to. Fox News is actually comparing Biden’s life of reverence and fidelity to Trump’s life of phony piety, vulgarity, adultery, greed, pride, and lies. The right has tried on the Antichrist for size, and it fits like a glove.

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


Trump’s Ignorance of His Own Staff is Another Red Flag for Dementia

Posted by on August 18, 2020 at 2:19 pm. 3 Comments :

Perhaps the most ill-considered campaign tactic of 2020 is Donald Trump’s desperation-driven attacks on Joe Biden’s mental health. He seems to be oblivious to his own all too apparent cognitive decline. In fact, polls show that most Americans think it’s Trump who doesn’t have the mental soundness to serve. Plus, it’s an insult to every senior citizen voter in the country who sees clearly that Biden is fine and that Trump is lying.

Donald Trump

On Tuesday morning Trump released a new ad that purports to show how Biden has changed in the past four years (video below, if you have the stomach for it). But it’s a logical mess that compares Biden at the podium on the campaign trail in 2016 to deceitfully edited clips of Biden being more reserved in his home studio during the Trump Virus pandemic. No one would expect Biden to be articulating as expressively under those circumstances. But Trump’s ad gives the false and reprehensible implication that it’s the result of a psychological problem.

What’s more, Trump really doesn’t want to compare himself to Biden. That will certainly backfire on him. And further evidence of Trump’s mental infirmity can be seen in his amnesia-like ignorance of high level members of his own White House staff. This came to light for the umpteenth time Tuesday morning when Trump tweeted that…

For some reason Trump thinks that by denying that he knows Miles Taylor, it benefits him in some way. However, the opposite is true. If Trump doesn’t know a senior aide like the Chief of Staff at his Department of Homeland Security, how can he possibly pretend to be doing his job? This is a position that is critical to national security. Any president would have to have frequent dealings with the person in that role. Particularly when there is a domestic crisis in progress that has already taken the lives of more than 170,000 Americans.

Trump must be too busy golfing, tweeting, or watching Fox News to be bothered with interacting with the members of his staff who are responsible for keeping the nation secure. However, Trump isn’t too busy to pound out Twitter attacks on anyone who dares to criticize him. And that’s the offense that Taylor committed. He appeared in a video that outlines how Trump has failed the country in profound ways, saying that…

“What we saw was terrifying. We would go in to try to talk to him about pressing national security issues. Cyber attacks, terrorism threats. He wasn’t interested in those things. They weren’t priority. The President wanted to exploit Homeland Security for his own political purposes and to fuel his own agenda.”

That is indeed terrifying. But just as frightening is Trump’s inability to recall having ever met some of his most senior aides. Here’s a partial list of White House staffers who Trump denied knowing or knew only in passing:

  • Gordon Sondland, US Ambassador to the European Union: “I don’t know him very welI. I have not spoken to him much.”
  • Paul Manafort, campaign chairman: “I didn’t know Manafort well…” and that he “wasn’t with the campaign long.”
  • George Conway, Husband of Kellyanne Conway, White House Counselor: “I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!”
  • Anthony Scaramucci., White House Communications Director: A “highly unstable ‘nut job'” and that he “barely knew him.”
  • George Papadopoulos, campaign adviser: “I never even talked to the guy, I didn’t know who he was.”
  • Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, National Security Council aide: “Never heard of him.”
  • Matt Whitaker, Acting U.S. Attorney General: “I don’t know Matt Whitaker.”
  • Stormy Daniels, Adult film actress: “I had nothing to do with her.”
  • Bill Taylor, Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine: “…who I don’t know.”
  • Marie Yovanovitch, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine: “I really don’t know her.”
  • Rick Bright, Top federal scientist and director of BARDA: “I don’t know him. I never met him. I don’t want to meet him.”
  • Vladimir Putin, Trump’s boss: After bragging that “I got to know Putin very well,” Trump later claimed that “I never met Putin, I don’t know who Putin is.”

There is obviously something terribly wrong with Trump. These aren’t casual acquaintances. Many of them form the core of the country’s national security apparatus. And the country is significantly more at risk if Trump can’t even recall who they are. That sort of mental infirmity cannot be tolerated in a national leader. And hopefully, we won’t have to tolerate it for much longer.

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

WARNING: Contains dishonest misrepresentations is reality. Viewer discretion is advised.