Fox News Falsely Accuses African-American Journalist of Pizza-Gating Donald Trump

Posted by on May 28, 2018 at 1:27 pm. NO Comments :

This has been a dreadful week for Donald Trump. His efforts to invent a so-called “SPY” scandal revolving around his collusion with Russia have fallen flat. His on-again, off-again summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un have made him look impulsive and irrational. He was caught gaslighting the nation by denying that his own spokesperson exists. He ludicrously tried to blame Democrats for his administration’s disgusting policy of separating immigrant children from their parents. And on Memorial Day our draft-dodging president tweeted a tribute to himself rather than to fallen soldiers.

Fox News, April Ryan

Consequently, State-TV (aka Fox News) had get its wheels spinning to produce their customary Trump-fluffing defenses of the President or, in lieu of that, some efficient diversions. With regard to the latter, Fox News conjured up a fake controversy about one of their favorite foils in the press, April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks. Ryan is well known for taking Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to task for brazenly lying during the White House press briefings. So the Trump regime has at least two reasons to want smear Ryan: She’s honestly critical, and she’s black. She also has a new book out: Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House.

On Saturday Robert Gearty of Fox News Digital published a story online that falsely accused Ryan of stepping out of the bounds of journalistic ethics. The article was headlined: “CNN’s April Ryan slammed for tweeting article about Trump running child-trafficking ring.” “Ryan is being criticized,” Gearty said, for retweeting “a story in The Root that asks if the Trump administration is involved in child sex-trafficking.” Gearty continued with a statement by Melania Trump’s spokesperson lecturing Ryan on the “core purpose of a journalist.” And he filled the remainder of the article with some random tweets criticizing Ryan.

The objections that Fox was raising about Ryan concerned her retweet of an article from the black politics and culture website “The Root.” That article was headlined: “Is the Trump Administration Running a Child-Trafficking Ring or Nah? Follow Me Down the Rabbit Hole.” Going by that headline alone, Fox News leaped to the conclusion that Ryan was charging the President with aiding and abetting child trafficking. The Fox headline explicitly declares that the article in The Root made a factual allegation about Trump engaging in illegal acts involving children.

Of course, a reading of the short article reveals that it was just the opposite. The author, Jason Johnson, was pointing out the irony of how Trump and his minions in the rightist media will try to turn anything negative about Trump’s critics into a Trumped-up scandal. But that the left leaning media doesn’t do that. Case in point, the stories about the Trump administration’s policy of ripping apart immigrant families, and the fact that some of the kids are now missing in the system and thought to be in the hands of child traffickers. But The Root’s article was not charging Trump with anything other than a heartless anti-immigrant, anti-family policy. Johnson writes that…

“…none of this means that Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump are part of some vast conspiracy to sell minority children to the highest bidder like some scene out of Taken 4: Bad Hombres. […] However, why be hamstrung by the facts, as bad as they are? Trump has shown America that you can get away with whatever salacious, ridiculous and unfounded conspiracy you want as long as you say it loudly enough and find enough other people to repeat it.”

Clearly Johnson was criticizing those who leap to unfounded conclusions. But Fox News took that and immediately leaped to an unfounded conclusion. And it didn’t stop there. Fox’s media reporter, Brian Flood, engaged Ryan in a Twitter debate on this subject (see Twitter thread below) wherein he not only doubles-down on the false charge against Ryan, he also implies that either Ryan’s readers, or Twitter users generally, are shallow idiots who only read headlines. Maybe he’s just referring to the Fox News audience, in which case – no argument there.

The bottom line is that Fox News made a thoroughly false accusation against Ryan based on their inbred biases and inability to read a short article. Then they attacked Ryan further for calling them out on it. And these were Fox’s media reporters who so completely fail to understand their own job or do the slightest bit of research in order to report accurately. But then, accurate reporting is contrary to the mission of Fox News and would likely result in their termination if they were to do any.

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 Cries for the ‘Young and Beautiful Lives’ Destroyed – Because of Him and His Crimes

Posted by on May 27, 2018 at 10:10 am. 2 Comments :

There is something terribly wrong with the American president that is rooted in pure evil and an inbred aversion to decency. That was demonstrated on Sunday morning when he tweeted something so repulsive it can only make honorable people nauseous.

Donald Trump

Some background: This week Donald Trump attacked Democrats for what he called “the horrible law that separates children from there parents.” He was referring to his own administration’s policy of detaining immigrants and separating kids – including infants – from their mothers and fathers. These children have been taken while screaming for their mothers and placed in government custody in unknown locations without communication for weeks and months on end. Reports indicate that the whereabouts of as many 1,500 of these children are now unknown, and some are suspected to have been handed over to human traffickers.

Despite Trump’s absurd and false claim that this was due to a law attributable to Democrats, the truth is that there is no such law mandating this horrendous activity. It is solely the policy of the Trump administration, which they previously admitted and even bragged about. They considered it an effective deterrent to immigrants. Chopping off their legs might also serve as a deterrent, but America should not be about torturing people physically or through the the trauma of family separation.

So Trump’s response to the reports of children being yanked out of their crying mothers’ arms was to tweet this:

Good lord. That sickening comment is almost too ridiculous to decipher any meaning from. Presumably it’s Trump’s way of equating the tearing apart of families seeking asylum with the political blowback from working for Trump. He’s seems to be talking about adults who choose to be employed in the White House but may now find it difficult to get other jobs. But that’s only because an association with this president is almost automatically an indicator of bad character. He generally recruits people who will lie shamelessly for him and have no sense of human empathy. What reputable employer would want someone like that on their staff?

It’s notable that Trump didn’t give any examples of these “young and beautiful” victims. They probably include the 71 year old Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager who is currently facing multiple indictments. Or maybe Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Or perhaps his young policy aide George Papadopoulos, who also pleaded guilty and has been cited as one of the original Trump insiders who sought to collude with Russian operatives during the election. These poor souls are indeed returning to home (or prison) in tatters, and deservedly so.

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

By trying to connect the suffering for this kind of criminal, and perhaps traitorous, behavior to what innocent immigrant children are enduring is what makes Trump’s latest tweet so monstrously abhorrent. It is further proof that he is an unrepentant narcissist, concerned only for his own welfare and the defense of his fragile ego. And it is to America’s eternal shame that he was ever put in a position of power where he can do and say things like this. It is now up to the nation to try to correct this error and, not just remove him from office, but punish him for his crimes.


Obama’s Press Briefings Were Tongue Baths – Says Trump’s Tongue Bath Team on Fox News

Posted by on May 26, 2018 at 4:21 pm. 2 Comments :

Barack Obama has now been out of office for sixteen months. But that hasn’t stopped Donald Trump from obsessing over him and making poorly constructed comparisons that only reveal his insecurity and jealousy. Naturally, Fox News is right there to stroke Trump’s fragile ego with positive affirmations and ludicrous conspiracy theories.

Obama Fox News

On Saturday Trump’s favorite TV show, Fox and Friends, interviewed radical Chrisianist Mike Huckabee, whose daughter is the President’s press secretary. In the course of this segment Fox News reported comments made by Obama in jest at a recent tech conference. Obama said of his presidency that:

“There wasn’t any malicious intent, which is why I didn’t have scandals, which seems like it shouldn’t be something you brag about. But actually, if you look at the history of the modern presidency, coming out of the modern presidency without anybody going to jail is really good. It’s a big deal.”

Indeed. While it can hardly be claimed that the Obama years were free of error, there were precisely zero indictments or convictions of people associated with his administration in eight years. Obviously the same cannot be said of Trump in only a little over one year. But this unarguable fact became the subject of ridicule by Huckabee and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes on Fox (video below). When asked to comment, Huckabee said of Obama that:

“There were a lot of scandals. The difference was there wasn’t a scrutiny. And you can’t have the kind of scandals that you normally see in Washington if you don’t have a press corps that is doing their job of being a watchdog. In the case of the Obama administration, the press wasn’t a watchdog, they were a lap dog. […] A White House press briefing was a tongue bath.”

That analysis might require an extended pause for laughter. This is an ultra right-wing Obama hater complaining to America’s premiere Trump-fluffers that the press wasn’t tough enough on Obama. All that these Fox and Friends hacks do every day is slobber over Trump with their tongues hanging out and their tails wagging. It would be like Hannibal Lecter taking a waiter to task after finding a hair in his soup. (For the 1990’s pop culture challenged – the dude eats people).

Huckabee sought to debunk the truthful characterization of Obama’s presidency as scandal-free by rattling off what he claimed were bona fide scandals. They included:

  • The delivery of “palettes of cash” to Iran in conjunction with their agreement to scale back their nuclear weapons program.
    That was actually the return of funds that belonged to Iran that had been sequestered while sanctions were in place.
  • The murders of American diplomats in Benghazi.
    After years of congressional investigations and hearings, run by Republicans, it was determined that there was no wrongdoing on the part of anyone in the Obama administration.
  • Allegations that the IRS discriminated against conservative charitable organizations.
    This was debunked when it turned out that they didn’t treat conservatives any differently than they treated liberals. Not one conservative charity was denied its tax exempt status.
  • The so-called Fast and Furious gun running operation.
    This was actually a project that began in the Bush administration.

So giving it their best effort, Huckabee and Fox News were unable to cite a single verifiable scandal that occurred under Obama’s watch. And it wasn’t like Obama had the sort of friendly Congress that Trump has today. Republicans were in charge throughout most of his term. But they still failed to find sufficient evidence to indict or convict anyone from the Obama White House. Contrast that with the dozens of indictments that special counsel Robert Mueller has already obtained, along with five guilty pleas. And to be sure, there are more to come.

The spectacle of Huckabee appearing on State TV (aka Fox News) and trying to make the case that Obama got a free ride is just plain hysterical. If he had said it on any other network it might have been slightly less ridiculous. But saying that the media was overly deferential to Obama on a network that is so flagrantly pro-Trump is the reason that political satire is so hard to do these days. The skewed reality of Fox News and people like Huckabee are just way to funny for comedians to compete with.

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


Advanced Gaslighting: Trump is Now Denying that His Own Spokesperson Exists

Posted by on May 26, 2018 at 11:32 am. NO Comments :

Ever since Donald Trump was elected president there has been a debate over whether his frequently absurd comments were the result of his shameless dishonesty or his evident psychological degradation. Of course these are not mutually exclusive explanations for why Trump so flagrantly espouses known lies and insane conspiracy theories.

Donald Trump

In addition to diagnoses that Trump is a pathological liar, he exhibits clear signs of senility. But sometimes his ludicrous remarks are simply purposeful attempts create alternative realities that defy logic and serve no purpose other than to foster confusion and diversion. And if they’re also insulting, he probably thinks he’s hit the jackpot.

On Saturday morning Trump demonstrated this talent he has for irrational outbursts with a tweet attacking his media nemesis, the “failing” New York Times. He was lashing out about reporting on his embarrassing flips and flops with regard to whether he will meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un:

This may be one of the most unarguably deranged tweets Trump has posted to date. The “senior White House official” Trump is denying exists was Matt Pottinger who serves on the National Security Council (as reported by Yasher Ali). Pottinger actually said precisely what Trump is denying to a roomful of reporters with many more listening on a conference call. It was a background briefing that was authorized by the White House and was also attended by Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shaj.

In other words, the statement asserting that it would be impossible to hold the meeting on June 12 was an official White House communication by those responsible for that information. So Trump’s tweet is saying that his own spokespeople don’t exist. He literally said that they are not real people. Donald Trump is calling his own press staffers and national security advisors fake news.

Let that sink in. It’s one thing to falsely claim, as Trump does almost daily, that actual news that he doesn’t like is fake just because he doesn’t like it. He even does this to reporters he personally calls to “leak” information that he thinks he will benefit from. But it’s another thing entirely to send his staffers out to talk to reporters in the White House and then later deny whatever it was that he told them to say.

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

If Trump is going to refute his own official pronouncements from his own designated spokespeople, then the press has no responsibility honor any agreements with regard to those comments being off the record or on background. If a reporter publishes a statement from an anonymous source who lied to the reporter, the reporter is ethically permitted to reveal the identity of the source. And likewise, Trump cannot authorize statements to the media and then castigate the media for reporting what he said. The fact that he does this is proof that he doesn’t respect the press (obviously) or even the principle of truthfulness. And the press should approach everything he says, or whatever comes out of his administration, with the skepticism that his record of brazen dishonesty warrants.

UPDATE: There’s audio of Pottinger saying exactly what the press reported he said – and what Trump said was fake news:


On Fox News RNC Chair Cites Laughably Phony Evidence that Facebook Censors Conservatives

Posted by on May 25, 2018 at 3:28 pm. NO Comments :

It is a miraculous twist of fate that Fox News and Donald Trump found each other. They both have so much in common. Their shared commitment to telling flagrant lies in pursuit of an ultra right-wing agenda is the tie that binds them in an embrace of harmony and mutual devotion. And if you’re feeling a little nauseous right now, just wait.

Fox News, Diamond & Silk

One of the defining characteristics of modern conservatism is the determination to blame anything and everything, other than themselves, for their problems. Trump is a master at this pretense of victimhood. He is certain that there are clandestine “Deep State” conspirators embedded in the government who are out to get him. Or at least he pretends to believe that. And the media is in on the conspiracy with their constant negative (i.e. truthful) assessments of his disastrous presidency. Every utterance from Trump is either a declaration of unprecedented success for which he is solely responsible, or a historic failure that his enemies blame him for. And Fox News reports all of these things exactly as Trump imagines them.

On Friday, Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer interviewed the chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna Romney McDaniels, in a segment that perfectly demonstrates the rightist paranoia. McDaniels falsely claimed that Republicans are being censored on social media. She is parroting the whining by many on the right who think that their own failures must be the work of secret foes undermining them from hidden bunkers.

In fact, many people and organizations (including News Corpse) have suffered audience declines recently due to new policies implemented by Facebook and other social media platforms ostensibly to curb fake news. These changes can be legitimately criticized as they are often most harmful to small publishers. But they are not being applied differently based on any political bias. However, that hasn’t stopped Fox News and the GOP from crying foul and feigning outrage. And this segment with the RNC Chair is a perfect example (video below):

McDanniels: “In the history of Facebook there have been instances where they have changed the trending topics. They’ve suppressed conservative viewpoints as we’ve recently seen with Diamond and Silk – that they suspended their account. And we just wanted to preemptively go to Facebook and say that we want assurances that you are not going to suppress conservative voices. That the Silicon Valley thought police is not going to determine what voices filter through on social media platforms.” […]

Hemmer: “Just for the audience, state the evidence as to why you think there is bias on these platforms. I saw one number that suggests a forty percent decline in traffic for conservative viewpoints. Where is the evidence for that, Ronna?”

McDanniels: “Well, Diamond and Silk this morning said that their viewership has gone way down since they were suspended. They have since been reinstated. […] We know that it’s a liberal place in Silicon Valley, that we don’t usually have the same mindset. And we want to make sure that we’re fair and neutral.”

Holy Shitake Mushroom. McDaniels is citing the loopiest Trump-fluffers on Fox News as her evidence of anti-conservative bias. And the only proof of the alleged bias is that Diamond & Silk say so. ThinkProgress did the research and discovered that the fruitcake duo’s Facebook interactions actually increased during the period they claim to have been censored. But they have been telling these lies for quite a while, and even got a surreal hearing before Congress to spin this bullshit.

So without putting a single fact on the table, McDaniels slanders the “Silicon Valley thought police” she imagines are suppressing her Constitutional rights. And Fox’s Hemmer helps her along with a completely unsupported claim that he “saw one number” that he said showed a significant decline for conservatives. And that is the totality of their argument that conservatives are being held down by the all-powerful liberals who control everything on the planet. To reiterate: it’s a number that Hemmer says he saw and wildly false claims by two yokels who can’t string together a coherent sentence. So I guess that settles it.

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


Fox News ‘Judge’ Pirro: If I Were in Charge the President Would Be Playing Golf Right Now

Posted by on May 25, 2018 at 1:26 pm. 5 Comments :

Never let it be said that Fox News doesn’t have its priorities in the right place. They know their mission is to advance the interests of Donald Trump and his perversion of Republican Party politics. They dutifully pursue that mission with enthusiasm for the propaganda they espouse throughout their broadcast day.

Donald Trump, Jeanine Pirro

One of the most devoted disciples of Fox’s Trump Cult is “Judge” Jeanine Pirro. Her spittle-inflected ravings are a unique spectacle on cable news. Even Sean Hannity’s fawning adoration of Dear Leader doesn’t reach the passionate infatuation expressed by Pirro on every episode of her relentless Trump-fluffing program. After all, she recently declared that Trump had “fulfilled the biblical prophecy of the gods.” And on Friday morning she proved why she is viewed as the Fox “personality” who has the most direct line to Trump’s brain.

Pirro was interviewed Friday on Trump’s favorite Fox News program, Fox and Friends (video below). The segment began with a discussion of whether Trump should sit for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller. Co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Pirro what she would do if she were in charge. “If I were in charge,” she began, “the President would be playing golf right now. There is no way the President should appear before Bob Mueller.”

OK then. Not only is Pirro against Trump talking to Mueller, she apparently isn’t keen on him doing any presidential work either. She wants Trump to be doing what he does more than anything else: visiting his luxury resorts and playing golf. That’s something he has already done more than 100 times since taking office. And to tell the truth, most Americans would also probably prefer that Trump camp out at Mar-A-Lago rather than do more damage to the nation. But Pirro wasn’t finished giving her view of Trump’s responsibility to the people. But her reasons for having the President avoid a sit-down with Mueller are sorely lacking in reason:

“Think about it. If a sitting president cannot be indicted, and this president were to be questioned, it would only be for the purpose of an indictment. The legislative branch is not gonna be in a position – which is what Mueller would like – to get the testimony of the President so that they can then use it to impeach him. That’s the problem.”

What’s the problem? Pirro isn’t making sense. First of all, there is no law prohibiting the indictment of a sitting President. It’s a rule within the Justice Department that can be changed at any time and has never been tested in court. Trump’s TV lawyer Rudy Giuliani has tried miserably to make the same argument. More to the point, Pirro says that Mueller only wants Trump’s testimony so that Congress can impeach him. Which implies that Trump has something to say that would warrant impeachment. Yes, Jeanine, that is a problem. And it’s also a problem when a president is afraid to talk with a law enforcement investigator. Is there any better indicator of guilt?

Pirro’s opposition to impeachment, however, is limited to its use against Trump. Later in this interview she insisted that Justice Department investigators, including Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, should be impeached. Never mind that she offered no justification other than her rabid hostility to anyone who is even tangentially critical of her White House boyfriend. The whole strategy of the White House and its PR division (aka Fox News) is to demean the nation’s institutions of law in order to convince their base that there is massive conspiracy against Trump. But the truth is that it’s reality that is conspiring against the President and his frantic and irrational behavior is proof that he knows it.

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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Crybaby Trump Throws Tantrum, Cancels Summit with North Korea Because His Feelings Got Hurt

Posted by on May 24, 2018 at 11:42 am. 5 Comments :

It’s official: The President of the United States has the emotional maturity of a four year old. Donald Trump’s infantile, punitive and reckless behavior has long been a source of unnecessary risk to the nation. And on Thursday morning he demonstrated one of the reasons why he cannot be trusted to lead a marching band, much less a country.

Donald Trump

The background: Vice-President Mike Pence was interviewed on Fox News by Martha MacCallum on Monday. During that softball suck-up Pence managed to start an international incident. He told MacCallum that the U.S. could end up pursuing the “Libya model” in North Korea. By which he was inferring, deliberately or otherwise, that if Kim Jong Un gave up his nuclear weapons program he might still be assassinated like Muammar Gaddafi. Choe Son Hui, a vice minister in North Korea’s foreign ministry, responded by calling Pence a “political dummy” and, elaborating, said that:

“As a person involved in the U.S. affairs, I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the U.S. vice president.”

The most peculiar part of that statement is that Choe was surprised by Pence’s ignorance and stupidity. A seasoned diplomat ought to have been aware that this is the standard state of affairs in the Trump administration. Nevertheless, this exchange resulted in Trump throwing another of his juvenile tantrums and taking the extraordinary step of canceling his much anticipated summit with Kim.

This was the summit meeting that Trump has been bragging about for weeks. He considered it a monumental achievement that his predecessors were incapable of pulling off. In reality, every previous American president knew that North Korea was trying to manipulate the U.S. into granting them recognition and legitimacy they did not deserve. While past presidents were strong enough to avoid that trap, Trump caved.

It was also the summit meeting that Trump’s sycophants in Congress and the media praised as so historically profound that Trump should be given the Nobel Peace Prize. Members of the Republican Freedom Caucus in the House officially sent a letter to the Nobel nominating committee seeking to place Trump’s name into consideration. Under the circumstances, they must be pretty embarrassed now.

But even more embarrassing is Trump’s letter Kim Jong Un. He began by expressing his appreciation for Kim’s cooperation in setting up the June 12, meeting in Singapore. And as an attempt to imply that it was North Korea’s weakness that initiated the discussions, Trump added “We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally irrelevant.” If it was totally irrelevant then why did he mention it this letter? To normal, non-narcissists the measure of something’s irrelevance is that it doesn’t get mentioned. But that wasn’t even the worst part of Trump’s painfully self-serving letter. He also wrote that:

“Based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting. Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place.”

Trump failed to note that it was the “anger and open hostility” of Pence that generated the response from North Korea. But more to the point, Trump is virtually admitting that he is retaliating out of spite by saying that this cancellation would come at “the detriment of the world.” No responsible leader would take such an action if he believed that the whole world would suffer. He would set aside his personal animus for the sake of the greater good. The intelligent, diplomatic response would be to take up whatever differences he had when the two leaders met. But that would require Trump to have some intelligence and diplomacy.

Additionally, Trump’s letter escalated the tensions between the U.S. and North Korea with a thinly veiled threat of war:

“You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.”

And this is the man that Republicans (and Trump himself) think is worthy of consideration for a Nobel Peace Prize? Trump later spoke at the White to explain his his decision to cancel the meeting. In that address he provided no new details or rational justification for his decision. However he did add a bizarre comment asserting that South Korea and Japan…

“…are willing to shoulder much of the costs of any financial burden – any of the costs associated – by the United States in operations if such an unfortunate situation is forced upon us.”

Really? Will that come before or after Mexico pays for his idiotic border wall? These are precisely the sort of comments and actions that should prevent North Korea (or any other country) from being surprised by Trump’s ignorance and stupidity. He is an egocentric imbecile who puts his own interests before those of the country, or even the world. Hopefully the foreign diplomats who have to deal with this nonsense are prepared to be bigger than Trump and act accordingly. Otherwise we are all in big trouble.

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


Trump Breaks His Own Record for Lies-Per-Minute in Desperate ‘WITCH HUNT’ Frenzy

Posted by on May 23, 2018 at 3:22 pm. 3 Comments :

The constant pressure to perform must be excruciating for Donald Trump. As the most prolific liar in presidential history he needs to continuously up his game or risk falling behind rival liars like Sean Hannity and his own son, Don, Jr. But if anyone is up to the task, it’s the current (for now) Liar-in-Chief.

Donald Trump

In a spurt of surprising activity for the usually lethargic septuagenarian, Trump raised the ante for America’s liars by putting out an impressive number of unambiguous falsehoods Wednesday morning. He began with his forte, Twitter, to post some flagrantly egregious lies. Leading off was a tweet that implored his Deplorables to “Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State.” Of course, there is no “Deep State” and the only things turning are his former friends and associates. For instance, the business partner of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who just copped a plea and will be cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller.

That didn’t stop Trump from declaring that “Phony Collusion with Russia [is] a made up Scam.” Albeit one that has already produced dozens of indictments and five guilty pleas. He then deftly segued to an attack on the former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper. Trump quoted Clapper as saying “Trump should be happy that the FBI was SPYING on his campaign.” But Clapper never said that. He actually said that Trump should be happy that the FBI investigated Russians infiltrating his campaign. Clapper made these comments on The View, but Trump didn’t learn about them until they were part of a segment on Fox and Friends. And that’s where Trump got his bastardized quote.

Finally, Trump went after one of his favorite enemies, former FBI Director James Comey. He repeatedly called Comey a liar who is in big trouble. But then he delivered one of his famous untruths that “a lot of [imaginary] people have said.” According to Trump:

“You go into the FBI, and a lot of those great people working at the FBI, they will tell you. I did a great service to this country by firing James Comey.”

The only problem with that statement is that it conflicts sharply with reality. In an annual survey of FBI agents and employees, Comey was given overwhelmingly positive reviews. The survey was taken just two months before Trump fired Comey and revealed that:

“Former FBI Director James Comey was widely admired by agents who worked for him, winning high scores in anonymous surveys for his values and trustworthiness, even as he became embroiled in controversies over investigations related to the 2016 election.”

Knowing this, would Trump still think that “those great people working at the FBI” are still great? And in addition to these brazenly false outbursts by Trump there was an epically succinct expression of his hostility to the truth in another tweet that said simply, but loudly (in all caps):

Never mind that Trump’s hand-picked FBI Director, Chris Wray explicitly denied in congressional testimony that there was any such thing as a witch hunt being conducted by the Bureau. And that Trump’s former CIA Director, and current Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, told Congress that there was no “Deep State” in the CIA, FBI, NSA, Justice Department, or the State Department. So the most senior members of Trump’s administration are joining in calling out the President as a liar. Which makes you wonder how long it will be before he’s calling them liars. Also, whether they will be part of the administration for very long. We’ll see.

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


Fox News Host Sympathizes With Poor Kim Jong Un Having To ‘Murder His People All Day Long’

Posted by on May 23, 2018 at 11:24 am. 1 Comments :

The spectacle of a major cable “news” network flagrantly acting as the PR agent for the President of the United States is a frightening sign of America’s drift to totalitarianism. But that’s what has been happening for the past year as State TV (aka Fox News) has shamelessly shilled for Donald Trump 24/7. You know it’s bad when Bret Baier, the principle news anchor on Fox, concedes that the network’s hosts cause problems for him by acting as mouthpieces for Donald Trump.

Fox News, Pete Hegseth

This embarrassing display of sycophancy, however, took a sharp turn into the absurd on Wednesday morning during an episode of Trump’s favorite TV show, Fox and Friends. The “Curvy Couch” potatoes were engaged in their customary Trump-fluffing when co-host Pete Hegseth replied to a question about why North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, would agree to meet with Trump. His first response was that Kim “wants a picture with the American president.” And if you think that was about as idiotic as this program can get, you aren’t giving them enough credit. Hegseth continued to speculate as to Kim’s innermost thoughts (video below):

“The guy who wants to meet with Dennis Rodman and loves NBA basketball and loves western pop culture, probably doesn’t love being the guy that has to murder his people all day long. Probably wants some normalization.”

So there you have it. Kim is just a misunderstood pop culture fan who revers human rights but has been forced into being a homicidal madman by circumstances out side of his control. We’ve all been there. Kim really doesn’t enjoy being a murderous dictator and he’s just been waiting for someone like Donald Trump to come along and free him from this nightmare. Leave it to Fox and Friends to figure this out while the rest of the “fake News” is distracted by Trump’s treasonous criminality and the failures and corruption of his administration.

For the record, Hegseth is close to the President, who reportedly calls him during White House meetings to get his opinion. Trump even considered appointing him to lead the Veterans Administration, a job for which Hegseth has zero experience. However, he and Trump share a fondness for sexual misconduct over which they would surely bond.

Believe it or not, it’s possible to be a partisanly biased news network without justifying oppressive tyrants. But Fox News is so bent over backwards for Trump that they will actually soft-pedal assassinations of political opponents (see Vladimir Putin). Their determination to find something positive for Trump, no matter how repulsive the situation, is the undisputed priority for these fawning bootlickers. It’s how they can forgive Trump for his innumerable affairs and sexual harassment and abuse. It’s why they are comfortable with his pathological lying. And it’s their way of sustaining their adoration of a vulgar ignoramus who seeks his own authoritarian kingdom over which he can rule.

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


GOP Dimwits Want 2nd Special Counsel to Probe the Dept of Justice – Why Dems Should Go Along

Posted by on May 22, 2018 at 8:03 pm. 2 Comments :

For months Donald Trump has been attacking special counsel Robert Mueller as hopelessly biased and bent on driving him from the White House. Never mind that he is a life-long Republican who was appointed by the Republican Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein. And both them work closely with Trump’s Republican Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, and his Republican FBI Director, Chris Wray.

Donald Trump GOP

Despite that one-sided, right-wing assembly of the top law enforcement officials in the country, Trump continues to whine that he’s a victim of some clandestine, Democratic cabal that’s aligned against him. Clearly he is suffering from a severe case of paranoia, and the deep-seated fear that his criminality will be exposed. That has led to his frantic tweets accusing the FBI of spying on him (they weren’t) and demanding that the Department of Justice investigate:

That “demand” is typical of Trump’s disregard for the independence of the justice system and his compulsion to abuse the power of his office. Not surprisingly, his comrades in the Republican Party are all too willing to go along with this un-American assault on the institutions that protect our nation’s laws. A collection of wingnut GOP’ers have banded together to insist that the Department of Justice appoint a second special counsel. This would be be tasked with investigating the investigators currently investigating the President.

Among those making this demand are Freedom Caucus members of the House, Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan who adamantly declare that “The DOJ cannot investigate itself.” So these GOP truthseekers, who have long opposed the very concept of special counsels, are now calling for one of their own. And they should get one.

Think about what they are proposing. They want someone to probe the inquiries regarding Russian collusion with Donald Trump. Therefore, AG Sessions, who recused himself due to his involvement with the Trump campaign, would have to recuse himself from this matter as well. So Deputy AG Rosenstein would be the person to appoint the new special counsel. But these congressional Republicans are already convinced that Rosenstein is part of the “Deep State” conspiracy against Trump.

What’s more, since Rosentstein chose, Mueller, a staunch Republican, to lead the Russia probe, he might be compelled to choose a Democrat for the new counsel post probing Mueller and the FBI. How do you suppose the Freedom Caucus would react to that? Too bad. It’s not their job. Of course the party affiliation of the new counsel wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) guarantee any particular outcome. However, the new counsel would have the authority to probe all matters that involve, or stem from, the operations of the Mueller probe.

The thing that the Republicans demanding a new special counsel are not anticipating, is the possibility that such an investigation would produce even more evidence of wrongdoing by Trump, his family, and his associates. All of that would fall within the scope of the new counsel’s authority. And even if there weren’t new legal pitfalls for Trump, the likelihood that they would find any misconduct on the part of Mueller’s team is minuscule. Which means the new counsel would probably end up validating Mueller’s conclusions.

Of course, any result that proved to be detrimental to Trump would be immediately dismissed by the GOP and attacked for being biased. Even though the whole project was the result of the GOP’s whining in the first place. They could hardly complain that the investigation that they demanded should then be set aside and forgotten. But, of course, they would do just that. So it might be fun to let them have their way with the request and see what a new counsel would turn up. It couldn’t be any more ridiculous than everything that’s happened since Trump announced his candidacy.

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