Trump, Fox News Callously Exploit Mollie Tibbetts Murder, But Suspect Might Not Even Be Illegal

Posted by on August 22, 2018 at 4:52 pm. NO Comments :

The latest hyperactive frenzy on Fox News is a tragic story about a murdered college student, Mollie Tibbets. Her body was found after having been missing for more than a month. And a suspect is now custody. That suspect has been the subject of a relentless media barrage from Fox News who immediately labeled him an “illegal immigrant.” But all is not what Fox says (as usual).

Fox News, Mollie Tibbetts

First and foremost, the Des Moines Register is reporting that Cristhian Bahena Rivera was in the U.S. legally. This is according to his lawyer who said that he is “Sad and sorry Trump has weighed in on this matter in national media which will poison the entire possible pool of jury members.” The story went on to say:

“Rivera has lived in Iowa for four to seven years, working at Yarrabee Farms, a Brooklyn-area farm owned by several family members, including brothers Eric, Dane and Craig Lang. Craig Lang, a prominent Republican, has verified that Rivera is in Iowa legally, according to Richards’ motion.

“‘Craig Lang supports Cristhian’s right to be in this jurisdiction and for the government to support any other idea of status publicly flies in the face of such statement,’ Richards wrote.”

Nevertheless, Donald Trump posted a tweet assailing the suspect as undocumented, despite evidence to the contrary. And then he went on to politicize the tragedy by calling for his idiotic and useless wall to be built. Even worse, he adopted rhetoric associated with the children that he and his inhumane administration ripped from the arms of their parents, torturing these families, hundreds of whom he is still unable to reunite. He said that:

“Mollie Tibbets is now permanently separated from her family. A person came in from Mexico illegally and killed her. We need the wall.”

For its part, Fox News elevated this story to the top of their broadcasts, even above the felony convictions of Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and personal attorney, Michael Cohen. As heartbreaking as Mollie’s story is, the prospects of the nation’s president being implicated in criminal acts should take precedence on a national “news” network. It’s not as if Fox is just generally concerned about the welfare of innocent college students who have been murdered. After all, they never blanketed their coverage for any of these stories where the suspect was American:

And those are just a few of the sad stories from this year. Clearly Fox News, and Trump, are using Mollie’s murder to advance their racist political agenda. They couldn’t care less about her or her family. If they did they wouldn’t have made the suspect’s immigration status – which is still unconfirmed – a feature of their reporting. Nor would they have pushed for the purely partisan and divisive construction of a border wall. The Tibbets family should be outraged at having been used this way. And at least one member of the family is. A cousin tweeted a response to a racist comment by frequent Fox News guest Candace Owens that really says it all:

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

Find us on Google+
Advertisement:

Michael Cohen’s Lawyer Drops Truth Bomb on Fox News: Rhetoric Without Facts is Too Common on Fox

Posted by on August 22, 2018 at 1:50 pm. NO Comments :

In the wake of the felony convictions of Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and personal attorney, Michael Cohen, Fox News has endeavored to trivialize these historically unprecedented events. Their tactics include sweeping these legal bombshells under other stories that don’t have the national scope of presidential corruption, but which fit into the Fox themes of wingnuttery and racism. Or they entirely dismiss the crimes as even being criminal (which Trump did himself Wednesday morning on Twitter).

Fox News, nuclear Bomb

Joining the parade of propaganda, Fox News host Eric Shawn interviewed Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, on Wednesday’s episode of America’s Newsroom. Shawn thought he was going to bury Davis with a question that stuffed every Clinton cliche imaginable into thirty seconds of blather. But Davis wasn’t having it (video below):

Fox News: What do you say to those who say there should be a special counsel investigating the Clinton, the DNC, the dossier, Christopher Steele, and the way this was handled by the Department of Justice and FBI officials. Some of whom have been fired and certainly showed a distaste for Donald Trump becoming President of the United States.
Davis: First of all, you didn’t state a single fact involving the Clintons. And although I have a lot of friends at Fox, and have been a Fox guest on almost every show, that kind of rhetoric without facts is, unfortunately, too common on Fox shows. So state me facts of what Bill and Hillary Clinton actually have done that would suggest anything illegal suggesting a special counsel.

Shawn didn’t take Davis up on his request for facts. Davis did, however, masterfully let Fox News have it on their own air. Shawn’s question was reeking of bias and a predetermined mindset that Clinton is the real criminal. Never mind that she has been investigated for thirty years by hostile Republicans who still couldn’t find any trace of wrongdoing. Shawn’s reference to Steele and his dossier ignores the fact that much of it has been confirmed and that none of it has been proved untrue. And the only reason there is a distaste for Trump among law enforcement officials is because they know what he’s done. It’s like complaining that the police, after investigating, had a distaste for Charles Manson. Who wouldn’t?

What’s more, the knee-jerk reaction by Trump and so many of his sycophants/surrogates to point their fingers at the Clintons or Obama is merely their obvious attempt to change the subject by way of a scheme now known as “whataboutism.” Trump’s cult followers simply can’t focus on any of the facts about his crimes without resorting to whining about factless allegations involving retired Democrats.

That’s a pretty good indication that they have no coherent response to Team Trump’s crime spree. If they did they would present it, and not jingle their keys at the camera as a distraction. Then again, that’s just the sort of thing that compels the attention of babies and Trump supporters who have trouble comprehending the real world.

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

https://twitter.com/MelsLien/status/1032270644652765184


Guilty Conscience? Trump Rattles Off Four Times ‘This Has Nothing to do with Russian Collusion’

Posted by on August 21, 2018 at 3:30 pm. 4 Comments :

Donald Trump’s campaign chairman and personal attorney/fixer are both officially felons. And now that there are verdicts in two of the most closely watched criminal cases of the year, Everyone was anxious to hear what the Unindicted Co-Conspirator-in-Chief would have to say about it. And if you were expecting a message of respect for the judicial process and the rule of law, you are going to be bitterly disappointed.

Donald Trump

Trump spoke briefly after the convictions of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen as he deplaned for a rally in West Virginia. His comments were a mix of sympathy, defiance, and self-serving bluster that demonstrated his contempt for the legal system that is still closing in around him:

After briefly expressing how sad he is about Manafort, who he said is “good man,” Trump launched into a defense of himself that no one asked him about. He had a desperate need to make sure that everyone knew that “It doesn’t involve me” and that “This has nothing to do with Russian collusion.” In fact, he mentioned the Russia affair four times in less than one minute. He closed by repeating that Manafort’s conviction had nothing to with Russian collusion, and then called it a “witch hunt” for the second time in this short clip.

Any first-year psychology student would recognize Trump’s anxiety and repetitious dialogue as the ravings of someone consumed by fear and knowledge of guilt. He continuously yowled his self defense more than he did any support for his former campaign chairman, Manafort. What’s more he didn’t mention Cohen’s name at all. That could signal his preference for Manafort, who some speculate will get a pardon. As for Cohen, he explicitly incriminated Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money affair, so his prospects are much gloomier. That may explain why Trump couldn’t even say his name.

For the record, this does involve Trump. Cohen’s plea deal references him as the “candidate” with whom he conspired to suppress the Daniels story. And it surely has something to do with Russian collusion from the standpoint that Manafort convictions might persuade him to be more cooperative with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

It will be interesting to see what the Republicans in Congress have to say about Cohen’s pleading guilty to eight felony counts. During the Clinton administration they thought it justifiable to impeach the President for having lied about an extramarital affair. But Trump has now been implicated in both an affair and an illegal conspiracy to cover it up. Shouldn’t that warrant at least one of the Articles of Impeachment to be brought against him?

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


Trump’s Unique Madness: Everything He Opposes is the ‘Worst (Whatever) in History’

Posted by on August 21, 2018 at 2:19 pm. 1 Comments :

If there is one thing that Donald Trump has made eminently clear, it’s that he is a pathological exaggerator and dispenser of frenzied hyperbole (when he isn’t outright lying). Nothing he says can be taken seriously considering his unrestrained compulsion to distort and mislead whenever he needs to suppress negative reports of his habitual criminality.

Donald Trump, Don't Lie

Naturally, Trump’s tendency to cover up his wrongdoing by attacking his critics with outrageously slanderous statements is evident on Twitter, his communications platform of preference. And the method of attack is conspicuously uniform as he often repeats the same type of invective no matter the target of his assault or the subject matter. What follows is a collection of Trump’s tweets wherein he assails the worst (fill in the blank) in history, beginning with the most recent one directed at former CIA director John Brennan:

Apparently Trump doesn’t encounter any event that isn’t the worst of its kind in history. Conversely, he frequently describes himself as the best (fill in the blank) in history. There must be a psychiatric condition that this would fall under. Because it certainly isn’t the behavior of a sane man or “stable genius” either. Although it goes a long way toward establishing that Trump is a thoroughly unreliable source for anything. Which we already knew.

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


Holy Moly: Trump Says He’s Staying Out of Mueller Probe for Now, But ‘I Could Run It If I Want’

Posted by on August 20, 2018 at 4:00 pm. NO Comments :

The delusional machinations of the mind of Donald Trump are getting more distant from reality on an hourly basis. And what he just told Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason will surely make eyes roll into heads of Americans everywhere.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

Trump has not been shy about slandering special counsel Robert Mueller as corrupt, conflicted, disgraced, discredited, and most recently, as a thug. He calls the investigation a “witch hunt” and makes thinly veiled demands that his Attorney General, Jess Sessions, should bring it to end. But now he’s gone further than ever before:

If Trump thinks that he can “run” an investigation into himself, he’s more disturbed than anyone thought. Even if there were a legal scenario wherein he could assume such control, the Congress would have to finally get off their butts and introduce Articles of Impeachment. It would be the final straw in what most people recognize as Trump’s campaign to obstruct justice. It would be a descension into a totalitarian dictatorship that America would not tolerate.

Just suggesting that he could do such a thing is reflective of Trump’s diseased and un-American mindset. These remarks should not be be underplayed by the press. They should be given the exposure warranted to a deranged leader asserting his right to become a tyrant.

Mason got a few other items of interest in his interview as well:

Each of these comments point to Trump’s willingness to interfere in areas that a president would not ordinarily go. But Trump doesn’t care about precedent or ethics. He only cares about what he can get for himself. And that makes him a dangerous person to have in the White House whether or not he acts on any of these things.

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


The Petrified President: Trump Lashes Out at Russia Investigators as ‘Thugs’

Posted by on August 20, 2018 at 11:36 am. NO Comments :

By all appearances Donald Trump is well aware of the legal peril he is in. He knows that there is ample evidence that he can be charged with serious crimes, including conspiracy, obstruction, money laundering, witness tampering, and more. Consequently he is resorting to the panic of a guilty man who is desperate to avoid being held accountable for his wrongdoing.

Donald Trump

Trump’s behavior gives away his debilitating anxiety and his abject fear of the dismal fate that awaits him. A first-year law student would recognize his ravings as consciousness of guilt. People as diverse as the GOP’s Benghazi inquisitor Trey Gowdy and senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer have wondered why Trump is acting so damn guilty. But Trump cannot help himself. On Monday he, once again, took to Twitter to reveal to the world just how terrified he is.

An innocent man doesn’t malign career law enforcement professionals as “thugs.” He doesn’t repeatedly slander a respected Justice Department official and FBI director and war hero, Robert Mueller, as “disgraced and discredited.” That’s what a mob boss would do in an effort to intimidate those seeking to uphold the law.

Trump is now trying to trivialize Mueller’s interview with the White House counsel, Don McGahn. He waves off the thirty hours of testimony as Mueller “looking for trouble.” Perhaps he is, but he’s also finding it. That’s his job. It’s likely that McGahn provided Mueller with information damaging to the President. No one spends thirty hours over several days talking about nothing. What’s more, Trump’s assertion that Mueller is “enjoying ruining people’s lives” ignores the fact that it’s the people who committed crimes who ruined their own lives. The police officer who arrests the bank robber isn’t responsible for the robber’s sad new life in prison.

Finally, Trump again leans on his robo-rant that the investigation is a “witch hunt” and that there was no collusion, no obstruction.

The truth is that collusion with a foreign government to steal an election is a crime under conspiracy statutes. Not that Trump and company believe that truth is truth. And Trump’s obstruction is evident even in these new tweets.

This president obviously doesn’t know the difference between “fighting back” and obstruction. An innocent man would be satisfied to declare his innocence and show confidence that he will be exonerated. He would welcome the results of an investigation by someone who everyone agreed at the outset is an able and honorable public servant. He would not resort to infantile personal insults and unhinged harangues. That’s how someone frightened out of wits and contemplating his conviction and disgrace fights back.

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

Find us on Google+
Advertisement:

Truth Isn’t Truth? Trump Unleashes a Tweetstorm of Frantic Desperation and Fearful Guilt

Posted by on August 19, 2018 at 3:03 pm. 1 Comments :

Donald Trump couldn’t look more guilty if he tattooed it on his forehead in neon ink. Everything he does and says these days reinforces his fear and unambiguous knowledge that he and his crime family are in deep legal peril. And it gets worse when he has time off (from golfing) to act out on Twitter. That’s what happened Sunday morning as the President hammered out half a dozen tweets protesting (too much) that’s innocent, dammit!

Donald Trump

The tone and substance of these tweets are almost pathetically begging for absolution from a bevy of sins that he knows he committed. What’s more, most of these ravings are merely repetitions of the same carping he has been unloading for months. He has become a robo-bitcher whose mindless outbursts make little sense and avoid facts at all costs. He began by trotting out his familiar, and untrue, nickname for the New York Times:

Let’s just set aside that no matter how many times he tries, he simply can’t spell “counsel” correctly. More to the point, Trump’s characterization of White House Lawyer Don McGahn as a loyal subject flies in the face of reality. You don’t sit for thirty hours of testimony with a special prosecutor without supplying some critical information. And Trump didn’t even bother to refute the allegation in the Times that McGahn was afraid that Trump was setting him up to be the fall guy.

Even worse is Trump’s slap at John Dean. During the Watergate affair, Dean had the job that McGahn has today. He courageously came forward to tell the truth about the crimes being committed in Richard Nixon’s White House. He is generally regarded as a hero for having told the truth under immense pressure. And for that, Trump thinks he’s a “RAT.” Which makes perfect sense because Trump thinks that anyone who might tell the truth about him would be vermin. Trump is allergic to the truth, which is why he avoids it so studiously. But the fact that he thinks Dean is a rat, while the rest of America is grateful for his patriotic service, putting country before party, shows just how deranged Trump is.

Trump is also congratulating himself on his alleged “transparency” for “allowing” McGahn to talk to special counsel Robert Mueller. That was not exactly his call. If he had tried to claim executive privilege he would have set off a court battle that he likely would have lost. And the loss would have opened the door to more access to his staff and more trouble for him. And then there was this:

Notice that Trump slipped in the required “witch hunt” reference which, by executive order, must appear in at least one out of every five tweets. And he continues ranting about his fake transparency. He says he allowed “all others” to be interviewed by Mueller. But he left someone important to the investigation out: himself. If he really wants this probe to end he needs to sit down with Mueller and try not to lie (admittedly, a difficult task for him). If he really has nothing to hide he should schedule that meeting today. And then there was this:

This is just Trump having a “whataboutism” seizure. One of his favorite defenses is to accuse others of crimes that he is committing. And then there was this:

Here Trump is repeating what said a an hour earlier. But he also took the opportunity to repeat his Stalinist, anti-First Amendment screed about the media being “the enemy of the people.” And then there was this:

Talk about your fake news. If anyone in the media called to “complain and apologize” it could only have been Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, or some other similarly bootlicking Trump-fluffer trying to keep his spirits up. I guarantee that no credible journalist called him for that purpose. This is something he does frequently, but then refuses to provide any names. And finally there was this:

Holy crap. Trump is attempting to draw a parallel between the corrupt and corrosive Sen. Joe McCarthy and reporters doing their jobs exactly as they are supposed to. And advising people to study McCarthy is hysterical because you can bet the bank that he never did. Unless, of course, it was get pointers on how to be a demagogic sleazeball. What he isn’t saying is that McCarthy’s right-hand man, Roy Cohn, was Trump’s close friend and mentor. He even wished he had a lawyer like Cohn.

After unleashing this flood of whining and victimization, Trump looks more guilty than ever. When was the last time an innocent man lashed out with such wild, incoherent blather? And no matter how often he howls “no collusion, no obstruction of justice, witch hunt,” etc., it will not change the facts that are causing him to tremble in fear. While Rudy Giuliani may believe that “truth isn’t truth,” the rest of the civilized world knows what hogwash that is. Just wait until he tries to explain that to a jury.

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


Rudy Giuliani is Right: In Donald Trump’s World ‘Truth Isn’t Truth’ (See Fox News)

Posted by on August 19, 2018 at 11:51 am. 2 Comments :

Just when you think you can’t find another bizarre event that needs to be describe with the preface “Just when you think…” Donald Trump or one of his surrogates/sycophants steps up to provide more blithering idiocy than you previously imagined possible.

Donald Trump

Among the lunatic ramblings of this Sunday morning, one stands out for its sheer boldness in denying reality (video below). Trump’s TV lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that “Truth isn’t truth.” This flustered Todd who collapsed in laughter and noted accurately that Giuliani’s latest bumbling would lead to some “bad memes.”

But this has been the standard operating theme of the Republican Party for decades. It has only been ratcheted up to the nth degree by Trump, who’s connection to reality is considerably less than reliable. The Washington Post has documented more than 4,200 lies and misstatements by Trump. That cannot happen accidently. It is the result of a determined campaign of disinformation and political gaslighting. And Trump has explicitly confessed to telling whoppers when it’s in his own interest to do so. A few weeks ago he told his glassy-eyed cult followers that “what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” He’s convinced them that they can’t believe their own eyes and ears – only him.

Giuliani trotted this tripe to justify not allowing Trump to be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller. He said that such a meeting would be a “perjury trap.: But then Giuliani went on to demonstrate that he doesn’t know what a perjury trap is. He claimed that if Trump said that he didn’t tell James Comey to drop the Russia investigation, but Comey said that Trump did say that, Trump could be charged with perjury. That’s not rue. All that is is testimony by two different witnesses and doesn’t prove that either is lying. There would have to be further evidence that revealed that Trump gave a deliberately false statement before perjury could be alleged. Simple disagreement doesn’t meet that standard.

But Giuliani doesn’t care about standards, or ethics, or, as we now know, truth. Nor does Trump. And if you need further proof that these cretins reside in a world where lies take precedent over facts, just watch about ten minutes of Fox News, the lyingest “news” network on television and Trump’s most trusted advisors.

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


Mystery Solved: Diet Sodas Linked to Dementia – Trump Drinks 12 Per Day

Posted by on August 19, 2018 at 10:04 am. 3 Comments :

There have been many psychiatric professionals who have raised the alarm about Donald Trump’s deteriorating mental state. Even his own close associates have warned that he is noticably declining in comprehension and the ability to separate fact from fiction. This can all be observed in his public appearances, as well as his manic Twitter feed.

Donald Trump

But There is a scientifically based explanation for what Trump is going through. While it may be garden variety age and succumbing to the effects of senility, it might also be what a study of diet has discovered that applies uniquelly to the President: Diet sodas may be tied to stroke, dementia risk. The researchers found that “those who drank one a day were nearly three times as likely to be diagnosed with dementia.” Donald Trump reportedly drinks twelve (12) cans of Diet Coke every day. He even has a button on his desk in the oval office to summon an aide with a hit of Coke to feed his habit.

All the signs of dementia are present to anyone who watches Trump with an open, objective mind. He exercises impaired judgment evident in his acceptance and repetition of demonstrably false statements and ideas. He has a severe loss of memory that is displayed when he frequently can’t recall positions he took, sometimes minutes prior to taking a contrary position. And he is reverting to distinctly childish behavior that consists of name-calling and infantile tantrums when he is challenged or doesn’t get his way.

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

Could this be the effect of the unusually large amount of Diet Cokes he consumes? Is it just the natural consequence of aging? Or has he always been this way and it only looks like dementia now that he’s older? Most likely all three of these explanations play at least some role in Trump’s psychopathy. But the bottom line is that someone with these obvious impairments should not be running the nation, or any other enterprise more complex than a lemonade stand. Sadly, that’s where we are today and, hopefully, it will not be for too much longer.


Trump Whines (and Lies) About Imaginary Discrimination of Conservatives on Social Media

Posted by on August 18, 2018 at 11:34 am. 2 Comments :

Someone should make an official application to rename the Republican Party the Sniveling Victim Party. It seems that most of their time nowadays is spent griping about how terribly put upon they are by forces bent on destroying them. And no one exemplifies this spirit better than the party’s “Most Fabulous Whiner” (yes, he called himself that), Donald Trump.

Donald Trump

On Saturday morning’s regularly scheduled Twitter Tirade with Trump, the petulant president went on a tear over his insistence that social media is “discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices.” Never mind that he offered zero evidence of any such discrimination. In fact, all the evidence proves that this frequent complaint of carping rightists everywhere is utterly false. Nevertheless, Trump’s tweetstorm makes ludicrous allegations that were surely inspired by his Fox News viewing minutes before tweeting:


This is a totally baseless accusation that emanates from the deep recesses of paranoid minds. Trump is parroting the criticisms of wingnut icons like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and the irrepressible Demean & Sulk (aka Diamond & Silk).


Indeed, censorship is dangerous. Which is why it’s a feature of Trump’s White House where they have denied access to journalists and they refuse to release documents of critical importance to the public like his tax returns. Even his tiresome charges of “fake news” directed at CNN, MSNBC, and every other news outlet that isn’t sufficiently adoring, borders on censorship becaise its purpose is to deny an audience to those he disapproves of. As for Trump’s assertion that he doesn’t “ask that their sick behavior be removed,” that’s another lie:


Trump also banned a CNN reporter from an otherwise public event at the White House. Kaitlan Collins of CNN was told that she could not attend because she had the audacity to ask Trump some question earlier that day. It flies in the face of his latest comments about letting everybody participate:


This has a familiar ring to it. Trump is saying, once again, that there are “fine people” on all sides, just like he did when he defended neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville. What he is likely responding to is the recent banning of his buddy with the “amazing reputation,” Alex Jones, from Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. To be clear, that isn’t censorship because private companies have a right to monitor the content on their own platforms. And Jones wasn’t banned for his political views, but for inciting violence.

There is a certain irony about Trump posting his complaints about discrimination on social media, on social media. But he is just extending his campaign against media in general to new platforms. And as always, they are all aligned against him. What’s more, he knows about this because he obviously pays attention, particularly to television. Contrary to assertion that he doesn’t watch much TV, he is known to spend as much as eight hours a day doing so. And while much of that is spent hate-watching CNN and MSNBC, most of it is devoted to Fox News, Trump’s shadow cabinet and national security advisors.

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