Khashoggi Who? Trump Delivers Disgusting Praise for Montana Rep Who Assaulted Reporter

Posted by on October 18, 2018 at 8:34 pm. 1 Comments :

This may be one of the most disgraceful, nauseating things Donald Trump has ever said. Of course, that sentence could have been written a thousand times over the past two years. And it will surely be written again in the future. But for right now this is the moment to be repulsed by what an abhorrent creature is inhabiting our White House.

Donald Trump

At another one of Trump’s now frequent cult rallies, our Cretin-in-Chief took a moment to promote the campaign of Greg Gianforte for Congress. For those who don’t recall, Gianforte is the Republican representative who attacked a reporter who had the audacity to ask him a question about the campaign. Gianforte later pleaded guilty to the assault. But none of that persuaded Trump to hold back in his effusive support for Gianforte’s reelection. Trump even lauded the assault (video below):

“Any guy who can do a body slam, he’s my guy. I shouldn’t say this because – oh there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. […] I had heard that he body-slammed a reporter. [crowd cheers] And he was way up. And I think this was like the day of the election or just before. And I said ‘Oh, this is terrible. He’s gonna lose the election.’ Then I said wait a minute. I know Montana pretty well. I think it might help him. And it did.”

This would be an appalling comment under any circumstances. But coming so soon after the barbaric murder of a journalist at the hands of Trump’s Saudi friends, it is damn near unthinkable. Has Trump already forgotten about the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a United States resident with four children, three of whom are American citizens? Is he so enamored of the tyrannical privileges of his foreign dictator pals that he’s trying to emulate them? Or is he just this unbelievably loathsome? And what are we to make of the cheering from the audience of glassy-eyed Deplorables who think this is appropriate?

Whatever the explanation, the result can only be a signal to all other despotic leaders who aspire to assassinate troublesome journalists. Trump is sending an unmistakable message that he isn’t going to respond to such hostility. In fact, he clearly approves of it. And the blood of any other journalists – abroad or at home – is on hands. At least we know that he really means it when he says that the media is “the enemy of the people.” And therefore, in his warped mind, they can be assaulted and even murdered without consequence.

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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In One Tweet Trump Reveals Why No One Should Vote for Any Republican, Unless They Support Tyranny

Posted by on October 18, 2018 at 2:31 pm. 1 Comments :

It’s becoming a fairly routine part of America’s morning. Donald Trump awakes and takes to his Twitter machine to babble incoherently on subjects he knows nothing about. Or more accurately, subjects that he is deliberately lying about. This Thursday morning is no exception. In fact it’s one of the best examples of Trump’s dishonesty and repulsiveness to date.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

Now you might think I’m referring to Trump’s tweets about Democrats “leading an assault on our country” by central American refugees. But that isn’t it. Nor is it his threat to deploy the military to the border to confront these unarmed and frightened refugees. It’s not even his re-posting a video originally posted by crackpot GOP Rep. Matt Geatz that alleged that these refugees were paid by George Soros. Neither Trump nor Gaetz provided any evidence that the video was of refugees, or that they were being given money, or anything else that they claimed. Trump didn’t even make a claim, he just re-posted the video without any explanation.

Those tweets would be bad enough by themselves, but Trump posted something even more disturbing. It reflects his proclivity for lying at every opportunity, regardless of the subject matter. And it shows that he clearly recognizes that he and his fellow Republicans are headed for a massive defeat in November. Trump himself is the main reason for the GOP’s electoral troubles, but recent polls also reveal that healthcare is the top issue for most voters. So Trump tweeted this blatant lie:

This is one of the easiest of Trump’s lies to debunk. His administration is currently supporting a lawsuit by twenty GOP-led states to end insurance plans that offer coverage for pre-existing conditions. And Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell recently promised to take another stab at repealing ObamaCare. What’s more, Trump’s alleged defense of Medicare is laughable. He and Congress are currently proposing to cut Medicare, along with Social Security due to the exploding budget deficit they created by giving a trillion dollars in tax cuts to the wealthy.

However, the most grotesque part of Trump’s tweet may be a little something that he probably thought was a throwaway line to demonstrate how strong and persuasive he is. He qualifies his lie that all Republicans support coverage for pre-existing conditions by saying that “if they don’t, they will after I speak to them.” Of course, that means nothing since he doesn’t support it himself. But he’s also suggesting that his unchallenged power will force every Republican to do exactly what he tells them to do. He believes that there is only one branch of government, with him at the helm. He thinks that Congress is, and must obediently act as, his servant. That’s the behavior of an unabashed dictator.

What’s especially frightening about this is that Trump is actually correct in declaring that Republicans will do whatever he tells them to. They have proven that repeatedly over the past couple of years. And that’s what you’re voting for when you vote for any Republican. They have shamelessly abandoned their constitutional duty to be a check and balance on Trump and to exercise oversight of his breaches of ethics and law. In fact, they help him to cover up his crimes by refusing to investigate or leading sham investigations. They have supported him unquestioningly on every policy, no matter how unwise or unpopular. Even those who were critics have become slobbering sycophants. For instance Ted Cruz, who once said Trump was a pathological liar. And Lindsey Graham who called Trump a kook who is unfit for office (video below).

Trump is certifying his desire to rule like the kinds of tyrants he most admires: Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, etc. And he regards it as a symbol of strength. But what it is not, is American. This country cast off the bounds of tyranny when we overthrew the British monarchy. Trump wants to bring back an even worse version of it. And his Deplorable cult followers are so blind and ignorant and filled with prejudice and rage that they are fully on board. If you’re a patriot who values freedom, that ought to be sufficient to get you vote Democratic and to get to the polls this November 6. And to get as many of your friends and family to join you.

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


Delusional Washington Post Op-Ed Calls Trump ‘The Most Honest President in American History’

Posted by on October 17, 2018 at 1:17 pm. 1 Comments :

There is one thing that most fair-minded observers can agree on with regard to Donald Trump: He lies virtually every time he opens his mouth. He lies about things both big and small. He lies about matters political and personal. It is often said that he is a pathological liar, but isn’t fair to people who suffer from that psychological syndrome and can’t help themselves. Trump lies deliberately and knowingly.

Donald Trump

Which makes the opinion column by Marc Thiessen in the Washington Post especially absurd. The title of the screed is all you need to know about how preposterous the rest of it is: “Trump could be the most honest president in modern history.” Thiessen is a former speechwriter for George W. Bush and a reliably off-kilter wingnut. But in this article he has devolved into a full blown Trump cultist who is willing to contort reality to fit his ludicrous premise. The piece begins with this bit of self-contradiction:

“Donald Trump may be remembered as the most honest president in modern American history.

“Don’t get me wrong, Trump lies all the time. He said that he ‘enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history’ (actually they are the eighth largest) and that ‘our economy is the strongest it’s ever been in the history of our country’ (which may one day be true, but not yet). In part, it’s a New York thing — everything is the biggest and the best.”

So Thiessen holds the implausible opinion that a president who “lies all the time” will be remembered as the “most honest” ever. That’s the sort of logic that runs rampant in the Trump Cult, where Trump, and only Trump, must be believed, no matter how ridiculous his baseless outbursts are. Thiessen justifies his slobbering praise by saying that “when it comes to the real barometer of presidential truthfulness — keeping his promises — Trump is a paragon of honesty.” But there is a big difference between honesty and promises. For instance, if Trump promised to stop the Martian invasion, he could not later claim that he was honest because there aren’t any Martian soldiers surrounding the White House. (Although we probably shouldn’t give him any ideas- Space Force!)

The fact that Trump has kept some of his campaign promises has no bearing whatsoever on his honesty, or obvious lack thereof. But even worse for Thiessen, Trump’s record of keeping promises is abysmal. According to the PolitiFact Trump Meter, the President has has kept a paltry 13.7 percent of his promises to date. The examples itemized by Thiessen are mostly promises that were previously made by the Republican congress. And it was Congress that fulfilled them. Some of Thiessen’s examples of Trump’s promises kept have not been. Like his pledge “to open China’s markets and stop its theft of intellectual property.” All Trump has done about that is implement tariffs that are hurting American companies and workers more than China.

Among the unkept promises are the ones that Trump pushed the hardest for. He has made no progress on the border wall (although he lies that he did), or getting Mexico to pay for it. He has failed to repeal ObamaCare. Although he has tried to sabotage it on the margins. There has been no appointment of a special prosecutor to “lock up” Hillary Clinton. He is reneging on his pledge not to cut Social Security and Medicare. He has not enacted, or even proposed, an infrastructure bill. Not only has he failed to eliminate the deficit, he is growing it to record numbers. And, of course, he still hasn’t released his tax returns.

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

So by Thiessen’s “real barometer” of promises kept, Trump is a miserable failure. Of course, the barometer that everyone else uses to determine honesty is whether or not someone makes statements that are true or false. And by that measure Trump is way beyond being a miserable failure. It’s interesting to note that Thiessen’s op-ed was published by the Washington Post, which also publishes an ongoing catalogue of Trump lies. To date they have documented more than 5,000 of them. Apparently Thiessen doesn’t read the Washington Post.


Donald Trump Denies Financial Ties to Saudi Arabia – Fox News Fact Check Proves He’s Lying

Posted by on October 16, 2018 at 5:08 pm. 2 Comments :

The easiest thing to prove in American politics today is that Donald Trump told a lie. It’s so easy that the Washington Post has done it more than 5,000 times. Catching Trump saying something that is demonstrably untrue happens so often that it has ceased to be newsworthy. And that may actually be the strategy on Trump’s part. If he lies about everything than reporting any of his lies is somewhat redundant.

Donald Trump, Fox News

Nevertheless, it is imperative that the President not be permitted to get away with racking up frequent fabricator miles at the expense of the nation. After all, when he does go down, among the charges against him are likely to be several involving perjury. The fact that he is establishing a pattern of behavior that will attest to his recklessness with the truth is only going to end up biting him in his ample posterior.

On Tuesday Trump dumped a truckload of manure on Twitter that adds to his chronicle of bullcrap. He must not have any presidenting to do because he had the time to post sixteen tweets, most of which contained varying degrees of untruths. From his assertion that Elizabeth Warren’s DNA test was “bogus,” to his video assault on Medicare-for-All that blatantly misrepresented the initiative and his own sabotage of healthcare for millions of citizens. But perhaps the most brazen distortion of reality was his claim that he has “no financial interests in Saudi Arabia.”

What makes this preposterous posting so uniquely debunkable is that all you need are Trump’s own words. He has spent years boasting about the millions of dollars he makes off of the Saudis. And the ease with which this flagrant lie could be refuted was even to much for Fox News to resist. And they did a pretty good job of beating Trump’s lying horseface into pulp:

The @FoxNewsResearch Twitter account is surprisingly accurate from time to time, and it isn’t afraid to criticize Trump, unlike the sycophantic Trump-fluffers on the air at Fox News. The items listed in the tweet above prove that Trump lied about his involvement with Saudi money. They left a couple out though. For instance, in 2016: Trump registered eight new companies in Saudi Arabia, during his campaign. And his recent bleating about the $110 billion in arms that he’s selling to Saudi Arabia actually influenced his opinion regarding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

It is also notable that Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, have Saudi financial ties as well. And Trump has gone out of his way to exempt the Saudis from any negative consequences for their actions. Like when he left them off of his Muslim Ban despite the fact that fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia.

The unsavory connections between Trump and Saudi royalty just reeks of corruption. It’s not unlike his relationships with Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin. He just adores foreign dictators who are avowed enemies of America. And that should make Americans think long and hard about where he stands with regard to his loyalties here at home. Especially when his treasonous acts are so open that even Fox News reports on them.

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


Fox News Co-Host Admits the Network and Trump are ‘Joined at the Hip’

Posted by on October 15, 2018 at 5:11 pm. NO Comments :

Anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention to Fox News for the past couple of decades knows that it is a brazenly biased mouthpiece for right-wing propaganda. They are a 24 hour promotion platform for conservative policies and politicians. And for as long as they’ve been on the air they have pretended to be in the dark about their obvious partisanship.

Fox News Trump

Now, in what may be a first for Fox, one of their own has confessed to what everybody else already knows. In an interview with Krystal Ball of Hill TV, Fox’s Juan Williams set the truth free. Responding to Ball’s observation that the “lines between Fox News and this White House blurry at best,” Williams elaborated saying,  “Blurry? I think they’re joined at the hip.”

That’s actually a rather gentle description of what they are joined by. And the clinging embrace has only tightened since Trump took residence in the White House. The Hill correctly noted that:

“Throughout his presidency, Trump has demonstrated that he is a devoted fan of the cable news channel, frequently quoting remarks made by its hosts and often tweeting responses to comments made by Fox News hosts. He is a particular fan of FNC’s morning show, ‘Fox and Friends,’ watching it daily during what White House staffers refer to as ‘executive time.’

“The president has also hired a number of prominent Fox News on-air staff to work high-level jobs in his administration, including National Security Adviser John Bolton and Department of State spokeswoman Heather Nauert. In July, former FNC co-president Bill Shine joined the White House to serve as communications director.”

Williams justified his presence on Fox News by asserting that it’s important to have someone “inside that bubble.” However, he disagreed that Fox is a propaganda channel. And that’s where his limited display of honesty falls short. He doesn’t seem to recognize the all-consuming prejudice of their programming. He is even oblivious to their discrimination against him personally. As one of Fox’s longest serving personalities, he has been passed over as a solo host over and over again. Do you think his moderately liberal views, and/or his race, had anything to do with that?

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

At least he managed to discuss publicly the fact that Fox News and Trump are inextricably intertwined, at least briefly. And that’s something he could never say when he’s on Fox.


Racist Fox News Hosts Smear Democrat Stacey Abrams as Promoting an ‘MS-13 Blue Wave’

Posted by on October 14, 2018 at 4:04 pm. 2 Comments :

It really doesn’t take much to set off the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends when a Republican candidate is trouble. That’s the current state of the gubernatorial election in Georgia where Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams is in a dead heat with her GOP opponent Brian Kemp. This is a deep red state where Democrats aren’t supposed to win, so Fox News has bolted onto the scene to muck it up.

Fox News, Stacey Abrams

On Sunday morning’s episode of Fox and Friends (video below), the three co-hosts set out to malign Abrams, who would be the first African-American women governor in the U.S. But they had to manufacture a controversy by taking her comments out of context so they could align her with criminal gangs. Co-host Ed Henry began by saying:

“As if on cue, Stacey Abrams, who is the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Georgia […] sounds like, she thinks at least, that that the Blue Wave is gonna include illegal immigrants voting.”

Then they run a video clip of Abrams saying:

“The thing is that the Blue Wave is African-Americans. It’s white, it’s Latino, it’s Asian-Pacific Islanders. It is made up of those who were told that they are not worthy of being here. It is comprised of those who are documented and undocumented.”

Coming out of the video, Henry says that “If you’re undocumented you’re not supposed to be able to vote.” Whereupon his co-host Pete Hegseth asks:

“What should we label it? Is it an illegal Blue Wave? An alien Blue Wave? If you’ve got criminal gangs coming across, is it an MS-13 Blue Wave?”

Really? First of all, it needs to noted that Abrams was not talking about voters. And nowhere in the clip that Fox played did she say that. She was talking about all of the people who can contribute to an awakening of progressive change in the country. That includes many people who don’t vote but care about the direction this nation takes. It includes students who are not yet eighteen, like the survivors of the Parkland massacre. It includes Dreamers who fulfill every criteria of citizenship except for the technicality that they are undocumented. And it includes the tens of thousands of citizens in Georgia that are being unlawfully removed from the voter rolls by a corrupt Republican secretary of state who happens to be Brian Kemp, Abrams’ opponent.

However, for Fox News to go so low as to associate Abrams with the MS-13 gang is way beyond the pale. As an aside, the MS-13 gang did not come across the border. It’s a home grown gang from southern California. Nevertheless, this proves that Fox News has a complete lack of integrity, honesty, and ethics. And it proves their intention to advance a racist theme that African-American candidates must be connected to criminal elements simply because of the color of their skin. It’s a theme that Fox’s audience will readily accept due to the priming they’ve had from years of watching Fox.

There is going to be a Blue Wave in November, and Fox News is going to have to live with it. Of course, they will lie their butts off and spread bigoted propaganda like they did here, but they can’t prevent the coming progressive tsunami by exposing how hateful and prejudiced they are. They are just going to make matters worse for themselves and the Republican Party they are shilling for as America becomes more diverse. And maybe Democrats and progressives should welcome any actions they take to destroy their own Deplorable right-wing.

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

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The GOP News Network (aka Fox News) Is SHOCKED that Billionaires Donate to Democratic Campaigns

Posted by on October 14, 2018 at 1:41 pm. 4 Comments :

It’s just about three weeks until the midterm elections that are forecasting a massive Blue Wave. Most campaign analysts agree that Democrats will secure a majority in the House of Representatives, and some believe the Senate is in play as well. Consequently, Fox News is pulling out all the stops to obstruct that outcome by loading up their schedule with Republican politicians and pundits sermonizing on the urgency of saving the Trump regime’s grip on unchallenged power.

Fox News, Maria Bartiromo

Republicans have abdicated their constitutional role as a check and balance on the other branches of government, particularly the executive branch. Instead, they have been brazenly shielding Trump and company from any legal accountability for their many crimes. And Fox News is aiding and abetting that betrayal of American values. Fox host Maria Bartiromo secured her status as the chief Sunday morning Trump-fluffer with an “interview” of Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy. The segment was pretty much a monologue by the GOP hack intended to boost Republican voter turnout and malign Democrats.

However, one subject dominated the discussion more than the typical gaslighting we’re accustomed to by Republicans. McCarthy raised his “real concern” about former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s donations to Democratic candidates (video below):

“There is a real concern that I have though, because Michael Bloomberg, if you watched who recently registered a Democrat, he is trying to buy the Democrat nomination to run against President Trump. So he has put in $80 million to try and win the House.”

Bartiromo, naturally, agreed with McCarthy. She went on to misstate the truth about which party is getting the most donations from average Americans, and she complained about “a handful of big, deep pocketed donors like a Michael Bloomberg, like a Tom Steyer.” McCarthy took that handoff and ran with it saying that:

“Just think the three individuals who are funding the Democratic Party. George Soros. You’ve got Michael Bloomberg, is not just $80 million into the House, he put another $20 million to try to win the senate. Then Tom Steyer. More than $120 million trying to win. But his main goal is trying to impeach President Trump. He brags that his impeachment list is bigger than the NRA list. Those three individuals are trying to buy our government in this process. It’s very disturbing.”

Why McCarthy correctly noted that there are more people supporting Trump’s impeachment than there are members of the NRA is puzzling, but appreciated. But more to the point, he itemized the contributions of some wealthy Democratic donors and noted how disturbed he was by it. And was it just a coincidence that all three of the rich Dems are Jewish?

What McCarthy didn’t bother to mention is that just one single wealthy donor to the Republicans, Charles Koch, is spending $400 million, more than the total McCarthy said was being donated by all of the Democratic supporters combined. And that isn’t even counting all the other GOP big money donors like the Adelsons and Uihleins. For some reason McCarthy and Bartiromo don’t find that disturbing.

Bartiromo goes on to praise a GOP campaign slogan saying “Build the wall, enforce the law. Yeah.” Then she gives McCarthy an open ended question about where Republicans are running close races with Democrats. And McCarthy took that baton and launched a two minute sprint of races that he wanted to promote on national television to an audience of obedient cult worshipers. It could not have been a more obvious contribution of valuable TV airtime to a political party than if it were branded with a big GOP elephant in place of the Fox News logo.

And this political assist to the Republican Party comes at just the right time. With the midterms approaching, Trump’s frequent cult rallies were boring the Fox News audience so much that Fox cut back on airing them live. The network was also losing a ton of ad revenue because Trump’s speeches could not be interrupted for commercial breaks. So to compensate for the loss of that TV exposure, Fox News is increasing their donations of airtime to GOP shills who will proselytize the right-wing doctrine in a more profitable, TV-friendly format. All in a desperate effort to stave off an electoral bloodbath next month that they probably can’t avoid. Well, as long as Democrats stay focused and turn out at the polls.

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


Fox News Exorcist Tucker Carlson Exposes the Witches of the Democratic Party, and He’s Serious

Posted by on October 13, 2018 at 11:03 am. 1 Comments :

As the midterm election gets closer, Fox News is rethinking their programming strategy. Whereas they used to air all of Donald Trump’s cult rallies in full and uninterrupted, they are now skipping them in favor of their regularly scheduled propaganda. The White House says that they are going to “look into” this betrayal by their State TV division.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson

Apparently the lower ratings and loss of ad revenue was hitting them where it hurts. Plus, by foregoing the live show they can selectively edit clips from Trump’s public tantrums to remove the most embarrassing parts. That leaves them free to embarrass themselves with the juvenile ravings of their Lunatic Fringe Players in Fox primetime.

Chief among the cast of Fox’s unreality circus of Trump-fluffers is Tucker Carlson. His show has become the official mouthpiece of America’s white supremacists. He spends most of the hour with a curious expression on his face that is part confusion and part disgust for his victimized guest.

However, on Friday evening, Carlson managed to sink to a new level of absurdity with a segment attacking Democrats – and particularly women – as practitioners of the dark arts. The discussion was marginally about opposition to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. But there was a much more sinister tangent that Carlson felt compelled to explore. His theme for the night was that “The party that conducts witch hunts also conducts witchcraft.” (video below)

“The question now is, is Kavanaugh’s powerful legal mind strong enough to withstand the forces of witchcraft? It’s a real question now. A coven of self-described witches in New York is planning a rally next week to put a hex on Justice Kavanaugh. You can buy a ticket to attend the ceremony for ten bucks. A quarter of that goes to Planned Parenthood to help them continue to fund their human sacrifice rituals.”

Let’s just set aside Carlson’s crass and offensive attack on Planned Parenthood as standard right-wing assholiness. What’s really important here is that Carlson has broken the liberal coven conspiracy wide open. No wonder Fox News has stopped covering Trump’s Kool-Aid parties live, when they have probing investigations like this to report. And lest you think that this is just some comic relief on Carlson’s part, note that he called it “a real question” and later said that “I think it’s the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard. And by the way, what if it’s real? I’m serious!“

With Trump’s public appearances becoming tedious affairs that the public (and Fox News) is tuning out, and Kanye West is the best hope the Republicans have for exciting their base, they are resorting to desperate tactics like this to avoid a bloodbath on November 6th. It’s such a dimwitted strategy that you have to consider the possibility that it was a witch’s spell that compelled them to pursue it.

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


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

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

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

Fox News, Laura Ingraham

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Fox News, Donald Trump

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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