Fox News Blames Obama (?) for Trump’s Wife-Beating Aide – And Joy Reid Aint Havin’ It

Posted by on February 11, 2018 at 10:44 am. 1 Comments :

There’s nothing Fox News likes better than to invent phony scandals about Democrats, particularly Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But second on their list of not-so-secret pleasures is blaming Donald Trump’s scandals on those same innocent Democrats. There doesn’t even need to be any plausible relationship between Fox’s victims and the heinous misbehavior of Trump.

Donald Trump

Case in point, on Saturday’s episode of Fox’s Justice with Jeanine Pirro, the former alleged judge stepped about as far off the limb of reality as possible when she sought to defend Trump’s Chief of Staff, John Kelly, and his wife-beating aide, Rob Porter. In a typically unhinged, spittle inflected rant, Pirro unloaded absurd accusations that only affirm that she must be suffering from a brain-eating virus. Outraged that anyone might criticize Trump or Kelly, Pirro bellowed:

“Stop a four-star general who is running the White House, who believes in chain of command, who made decision within forty minutes, becuase you hate Donald Trump? Find another scapegoat. You might want to look at the last president.”

That’s a good a point. I would much rather look at the last president than the orange-crusty facade of the current one. But if she’s implying that President Obama had something to do with Porter’s documented assaults on his former spouses, Pirro is barking up the wrong scapegoat.

Fortunately, MSNBC’s Joy Reid caught Pirro’s act and wasn’t impressed by the surreal performance art that passes for news on Fox. Reid replied to Pirro in a succinct manner that reminded everyone that, not only is Obama a role model for presidential fidelity, but that Pirro’s network has been a haven for sexual predators and perverts (video below):

“Fox News, Donald Trump’s favorite TV channel, has revived its tried and true tactic for getting the Republican president out of a jam: Blame Obama. Yes Fox has actually found a way to blame the former president – a man did not abuse women, much less his wife; who did not face multiple allegations or sexual misconduct or assault – for the latest White House scandal.

“Fox’s Trump defense should come as no surprise. The network reflects the attitude of Trump himself, who has a long history of defending men accused of misconduct against women and girls. Including Alabama’s Roy Moore and Fox’s own Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes.”

That pretty much says it all. But if you’d like a primer of the repulsive and deviant culture that Fox News nurtures, look no further than the list of perverts who were forced out due to “inappropriate” behavior. Then imagine how many others are still there who haven’t yet been caught. And the same can be said of this White House where the President predictably sides with abusive men over their victims.

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 Plagiarizes a Dubious Fox News ‘DREAMer’ in an Inflammatory Anti-DACA Tweet

Posted by on February 10, 2018 at 3:36 pm. NO Comments :

With the March 5 deadline rapidly approaching, Donald Trump continues to politicize immigration and blame Democrats for the lack of progress in Congress. Never mind that the problem only exists because Trump rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that was implemented by President Obama in 2012. And Trump’s insistence on tying the restoration of DACA to other punitive measures and his idiotic border wall further set back any reasonable resolution.

Fox News Dreamer

In this scenario Fox News predictably has come to the aid of the White House they are in collusion with on virtually everything. The “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends magically managed to find a conservative DACA recitpient to join them for a Trump-fluffing session on Saturday morning (video below). Hilario Yanez was introduced as a “DREAMer” and was immediately asked what he likes about Trump’s plan. He responded with praise for Trump’s alleged leadership, compassion, and courage. Presumably these are traits demonstrated by first rescinding DACA and then throwing up numerous obstacles to its restoration.

Yanez expanded on the reasons for his admiration of the President by noting his support for the border wall, his opposition to the diversity lottery, and his view that DACA advocates Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi were using DREAMers as pawns. What Yanez was actually revealing was his ultra-conservative political bias which he seasoned with heavy doses of religiosity. He was hardly a representative DACA recipient, nor was he particularly knowledgeable on the subject. As an example, he offered this criticism of Democrats:

“Democrats owned all three branches of the government back in 2008 to 2011, and they still chose [not] to do anything.”

It’s true that Democrats did absolutely nothing about DACA between 2008 and 2011. They might have done more except for the fact that it didn’t exist. The policy was established by Obama in June of 2012 by executive action after the Congress was stymied by persistent GOP opposition. As noted above, it was later rescinded by Trump in September of 2017.

However, it’s absolutely untrue that Democrats “owned all three branches of the government” from 2008 to 2011. George W. Bush was president until January of 2009. And Democrats were short of filibuster-proof majorities during much of that time due to the months-long delayed election results in Minnesota (Al Franken’s race), and the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy. Also, Republicans assumed the majority in Congress in January of 2011. That’s a lot to get wrong and Fox didn’t bother (or know) to correct these easily identified falsehoods.

There’s a good reason for that. These distortions of reality play well on Fox News. And that’s especially true for its number one fan in the White House. Trump spends untold hours watching and recording Fox News and frequently regurgitates what he sees on Twitter as it happens. That appears to be the case here. Shortly after Yanez’s appearance on Fox and Friends, Trump tweeted out an almost verbatim replay of what he said:

There is so much wrong with that tweet it’s hard to know where to begin. First of all, Trump didn’t bother to attribute this comment to its source. That’s the definition of plagiarism. His language was nearly identical, complete with the factual inaccuracies. And the timing of the tweet further proves where he stole this from. Secondly, it’s ludicrous to assign any interest in DACA to Republicans who have been working tirelessly to quash it. And finally, Trump’s political cheerleading at the end does nothing to further a legislative solution. But it does imply that he isn’t interested in any solution until next year when a new congress is seated.

Ironically, Trump’s total abandonment of the DREAMers is going to frustrate his hopes for a more republican Congress. The American people overwhelming favor DACA with a pathway to citizenship. And Latinos are presently the fastest growing segment of the electorate. All of this combines to bolster what many election analysts are predicting will be a “blue wave” in November. Let’s hope that comes to pass. But more importantly, let’s work our butts off to insure that it comes to pass. We may have the political winds at our backs, but Trump has a massive propaganda platform and, of course, Russia.

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


Offensive Article By FOX Exec Deleted Because it ‘Does Not Reflect the Values of FOX News’

Posted by on February 9, 2018 at 1:22 pm. 2 Comments :

On Wednesday Fox News published an article about the United States Olympic team that took a surprisingly negative tone. And the author was no back-bencher on Fox’s roster. It was John Moody, the Executive Vice President and Executive Editor for Fox News. Apparently he was upset by reports that the U.S. athletes represented a broader scope of diversity than in the past.

Fox News Moody

Moody’s column was a thinly veiled defense of bigotry and unapologetically titled, “In Olympics, let’s focus on the winner of the race — not the race of the winner. The message he was putting forth was that because of the diversity, there must have been some unsavory manipulation to favor athletes who were not straight and white. That allegation, of course, was never supported by any facts in the article. It was simply Moody’s suspicion based on remarks by an Olympic Committee official praising this year’s team. The article began with an uninhibited display of prejudice:

“Unless it’s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger.’ It appears the U.S. Olympic Committee would like to change that to ‘Darker, Gayer, Different.’ If your goal is to win medals, that won’t work.

“A USOC official was quoted this week expressing pride (what else?) about taking the most diverse U.S. squad ever to the Winter Olympics. That was followed by a, frankly, embarrassing laundry list of how many African-Americans, Asians and openly gay athletes are on this year’s U.S. team. No sport that we are aware of awards points – or medals – for skin color or sexual orientation.”

Not only was Moody flaunting his noxious hatefulness with the disparaging reference to being “Darker, Gayer, [and] Different,” he whined about the USOC official being proud of America’s team. And nowhere in the official’s comments did he suggest that anything but skill and talent would result in the award of medals. The entirety of Moody’s complaint was wrapped up in his personal biases.

After the article was published, it drew an onslaught of well-deserved criticism from the public and many of the organizations that represent the groups that Moody was insulting. So yesterday Fox News deleted the article. They left no explanation or apology in its place. It was simply gone. Well, except for the fact that nothing is ever really “gone” on the Internet, and the article can still be found here thanks to the Web Archive. And Fox News was later forced to comment when the Hollywood Reporter contacted them to find out what happened. A Fox News spokesperson said that “John Moody’s column does not reflect the views or values of FOX News and has been removed.”

Really? The opinions of the Executive Vice President and Executive Editor for Fox News don’t reflect the views and values of the network? If Moody doesn’t reflect those values, than who does? He is literally the person who decides which views are aired on Fox News, and which aren’t. He tells his producers and hosts what to cover each day and how to frame the coverage. And if there is one thing that is unmistakable, it’s that his views in this matter are identical to everything you see on Fox News regarding American diversity. Just watch a few minutes of Tucker Carlson, or Sean Hannity, or Laura Ingraham, or Fox and Friends (if you can stomach it).

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

For some background on Moody, last year he penned a column praising French presidential candidate, and leader of France’s neo-Nazis, Marine Le Pen. Moody even favorably associated Le Pen with Donald Trump. He called her “France’s Trump” and “the candidate closest to Trump in ideology.” And make no mistake, he considered that a compliment to both. So it’s impossible to separate him from the disgusting hate speech that he disgorged in his latest column. Even if Fox News deletes it. Moody is unalterably the personification of the network’s views and values, no matter how badly they might want to distance themselves from this.


Mr. Trump, Can We Put An End to the ‘Rights Come From Our Creator’ Nonsense?

Posted by on February 8, 2018 at 6:37 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump made an appearance at the annual National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday to deliver a typically wooden, TelePrompted speech (video below). Most notable from a style perspective was his awkward, overly coached pauses for applause after nearly every sentence. But just his presence is peculiar. As a thrice-married, confessed sexual abuser, who doesn’t think he needs to ask God for forgiveness, he becomes emblematic of this evangelical organization’s hypocrisy.

Donald Trump Messiah

The President’s speech was a basket of pseudo-spiritual cliches that represent the whole of what he has learned about religion. But if he can’t read a ten page document from the Intelligence Committee, he surely has never read through the bible. So he mechanically recites platitudes about “the Lord’s grace,” about faith being “central to American life,” and about how “blessed we are to be Americans” then he unloads one of the oldest tropes about what our Founding Fathers intended for this nation at its birth:

“Our founders invoked our Creator four times in the Declaration of Independence. Our currency declares ‘IN GOD WE TRUST.’ And we place our hands on our hearts as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance and proclaim that we are ‘One Nation Under God.'”

Whoever wrote this tripe for Trump was as ill-informed as he is about both religion and history. First of all, the Founders very deliberately referenced a “Creator” to avoid any appearance of favoritism. That’s something our Muslim-banning president couldn’t care less about. Secondly, the references to God on currency and in the pledge of allegiance are relatively recent additions that have little significance in our nation’s traditions.

However, the most annoying rhetorical rubbish in this simpleton sermonette is the hoary affirmation that “our rights are granted to us by God.” Sure. And storks bring babies, and fairies shell out cash for used teeth. These childish notions can only be believed by the sort of incurious and dependent minds that populate cults. Which explains why Trump’s followers applauded this line so enthusiastically.

If our rights were actually granted by God, there would be no use for the Constitution at all. Why bother to write down protections for free speech or privacy or speedy trials if those rights were already assured by an omnipotent power? And did God actually ordain from on high the bearing of arms by well-regulated militias? He must really be a stickler for detail.

It’s a sad testament to human progress that so many people still rely on such intellectually thin concepts. This is not an indictment of religion per se. There are plenty of deep thinkers among the faithful of all flavors. But those who fall for dimwitted drivel like this are not in that group. It is obvious to any thinking person that if we value our rights we must make certain that we grant them to ourselves and document it with specificity. Otherwise, they do actually exist, no matter what any particular God says.

Trump’s Prayer Breakfast speech was just his latest performance art, pretending to be pious before an audience of blind worshipers. And on a side note, that audience also welcomed some of Trump’s Russian pals. In fact, as CNN reported, “As many as 60 representatives from Russia” attended the affair. That’s more than three times the number who attended last year. Now why do you suppose that was?

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


State-Run TV (aka Fox News) is Frantically Covering for Trump’s Repulsive Administration

Posted by on February 8, 2018 at 12:28 pm. 2 Comments :

The biggest news of the day on Wednesday was unarguably the resignation of yet another top member of Donald Trump’s White House. Staff secretary, Rob Porter, submitted his resignation (which Trump initially declined to accept) after allegations of domestic abuse by both of his ex-wives. The White House tried to downplay the matter with hopes of weathering this storm until pictures were released documenting the injuries he inflicted.

Donald Trump Fox News

Porter held a senior position that required a top-level security clearance that he was unable to obtain. Trump kept him on with temporary clearances for more than a year. It was the police records of his abuse that held up a permanent clearance and Trump, and his top aides, had to know this. All of that makes this a significant story that touches on issues ranging from criminal spousal assault to national security to the President’s judgment (or lack thereof).

So it is interesting to note how determined Fox News has been to bury this story. While CNN, MSNBC, the national broadcast news networks, and even most local news were responsibly reporting what happened, Fox News virtually ignored it. CNN reports that:

“The Trump administration is reeling over domestic violence allegations against a top White House aide, Rob Porter. But you might not know it if you watch Fox News, where the disturbing story has been largely, and conspicuously, absent. […]

“The matter was only discussed a handful of times on-air Wednesday by Fox News reporters and anchors, according to transcript searches.”

The entirety of Fox News’ primetime lineup (Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham) kept this story a deep, dark secret from their already ignorant viewers. And Trump’s favorite TV program, Fox and Friends, didn’t mention it once in their three hours of Trump-fluffing. Even during an interview with Trump senior advisor (and alternative facts disseminator), Kellyanne Conway, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes failed to ask about the scandal.

You might wonder what Fox News was reporting while they desperately swept the Porter matter under the rug. Not surprisingly, they were digging ever deeper into fake scandals and tabloid trash. They delved into some new FBI text messages that were of no significance whatsoever. They reanimated various Hillary Clinton “scandals” that never had any life to them in the first place. For instance, the Uranium One story was brought back despite having been totally debunked by Fox’s own Shepard Smith. And they filled whatever time was left with hokey paeans to Trump and praise for his ludicrous military parade sham.

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

That’s what passes for news on Fox News. It is a network that has transformed fully into America’s version of Pravda, a state-run TV outlet that reports only happy talk about their Dear Leader and smear campaigns directed at anyone with the temerity to dissent. And this example of making an important story completely disappear really drives home how far gone they are.


So Stupid: Fox News Guest Says CNN ‘Needs Illegal Immigrants to Get Their Ratings Up’

Posted by on February 7, 2018 at 3:00 pm. NO Comments :

The right’s relentless campaign to demonize immigrants is an openly racist attempt to “make America white again.” There is no ethical justification for deporting productive, law-abiding people, who have lived here since childhood, to countries they never knew as home. But Republicans are determined to conflate these good neighbors with criminals and force them to leave their families and businesses for no reason other than their hatred of what they consider dark-skinned invaders.

Fox News

Consistent with their support for conservative bigotry, Fox News invited right-wing radio talker Wayne Dupree to discuss immigration with the knuckleheads of Fox and Friends (video below). The discussion was triggered by a clip from CNN wherein host Brooke Baldwin stated the obvious truth that it’s wrong to imply that all immigrants are criminals. Well, that indisputable fact was too much for the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends to comprehend.

The Fox segment featured a banner that read: “CNN Analyst: Trump Labels Illegals as Killers.” Setting aside the racist and insulting “Illegals” rhetoric, it was otherwise accurate. Trump has been tying immigrants to criminals since the day he announced his candidacy. But co-host Steve Doocy still had to admit that he couldn’t understand what Baldwin was talking about:

Doocy: You’ve got her saying that people are here for all kinds of valid and patriotic reasons. I don’t get that part.
Dupree: Oh, I do. It’s easy. CNN is trying to raise their ratings. They need illegal immigrants to watch their ratings, to get their ratings back up so that’s why they’re calling them patriotic. Listen, I don’t know what’s going on over there, whether it’s wacky tobacky or Latin lettuce in the break rooms or what not, but the American people right now, we want our polticians to enforce the laws.

Are you friggin’ kidding me? This deep-fried dope is in the media business and has no idea how ratings work. Does he think that immigrants dash across the border and are picked up by representatives from Nielsen Media who immediately start to register their TV viewing habits? This is too stupid, even for Fox News. Yet Dupree portrayed it as the “easy” answer to Doocy’s asinine question.

And if that weren’t enough, Dupree then implies that CNN’s reporters are drug users, and that results in them opposing law enforcement. Does anything coming out of his mouth make the slightest bit of sense? And before you answer that, consider this unadulterated nonsense:

Dupree: Illegal immigrants…don’t have any allegiance to this country. They don’t care about this country. And that’s why they can go out drinking and run over a rising NFL star.

What the F…? If anyone is high here, it’s Dupree. There is simply no discernible logic in that statement. Does he really think that anyone would get drunk, then take the car out for spin because they don’t like America? That would be stupid enough by itself, but it’s even worse when accusing people who take great risks to come to this country of not caring about it. What’s more, if Dupree thinks that drunk driving fatalities are caused by people who don’t like America, then let him explain the 10,000 annual deaths caused by drunk driving American citizens.

This idiotic argument is nothing new for Fox News. They exploited the same sort of thing with the tragic death of Kate Steinle. In that case an immigrant accidentally fired a gun he had found. He was acquitted of any criminal homicide charges. And every time there is any crime committed by an undocumented resident, Fox News goes bonkers trying to associate the crime with the person’s residency status. Which has nothing to do with the crime. Something else that Fox News will never accept is the fact that undocumented immigrants commit far fewer crimes than native-born citizens. But why let facts get in the way of a good racist narrative?

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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Tiananmen Square on the Potomac: Protesters Vow to Disrupt Trump’s Military (Circus) Parade

Posted by on February 7, 2018 at 12:27 pm. 2 Comments :

America’s most brazenly authoritarian president continues to affirm that he craves nothing more than unbridled adoration and endless tributes to himself. That is the only explanation for his latest initiative to embarrass the nation. Trump’s proposal for a military parade has already attracted opposition from both Republicans and Democrats. And for good reason.

Trump Doo-Dah

The parade that Trump is proposing is exactly the sort of thing that his heroes in Russia and North Korea stage for their own splendiferous glory. And if they can have a parade, Trump is damn sure that he should have one too. An even bigger and better charade …er, parade… to honor his presidential bone spurs. Never mind the cost to the military; or the disruption from training and readiness; or the necessary projects that would suffer from lack of funding; or the expense of repaving streets in Washington that get torn up by tanks.

Well, it didn’t take long for the “resistance” to organize a response to this idiotic idea. The Wrap is reporting that:

Dozens of protesters are planning to disrupt President Donald Trump’s planned military parade in Washington, D.C., vowing to lie in front of tanks to keep them from moving.

“We now have nearly 50 Americans who have signed on to lay in front of the tanks of Trump brings out a military parade,” activist Arn Menconi wrote on Wednesday in a gesture he said was inspired by the Chinese pro-democracy protesters who made history during the 1989 demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

This would be a profoundly moving and meaningful demonstration that would fittingly shame Trump (if that’s even possible) and tie him to the traditions of the dictators who inspire him. At the very least it would piss him off terribly.

In addition to this righteous protest, I would suggest another parade the day before Trump’s. It should be a Doo-Dah style affair with satirical marchers that would mock Trump’s ego-fluffing circus stunt. I see elephants and jugglers and the Hair Club for Men Marching Comb-over Brass Band. Now THAT would be fun.

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


Attack of the Democratic AGs: Fox News Freaks Out Over ‘Swarm’ of Trump Lawsuits

Posted by on February 6, 2018 at 2:48 pm. 2 Comments :

There is a lot going on in the world right now. The stock market is roiled in historic volatility. Donald Trump is being investigated for colluding with Russia and obstruction of justice (among other crimes). The government is facing another possible shutdown hinging on Trump’s insistence on building a useless border wall and punishing immigrants who were brought here as children. But this is what Fox News regards as the big story of the day, featuring it at the top of their website:

Fox News

The article predictably puts Democrats in a negative light, casting them as obstructionists who simply want to monkey wrench Donald Trump’s sincere efforts to make America great again. It begins…

“Nancy Pelosi. Chuck Schumer. The Russia probe. The “deep state.” Of all the obstacles that could potentially thwart the Trump agenda, add to that tempest the flood of lawsuits now being plotted by blue-state attorneys general who have made no secret of their disdain for the administration’s policies.”

So Fox News is asserting that Democratic leaders and the GOP-appointed special counsel are aligned in a “deep state” conspiracy to undermine the President. With partisan-charged rhetoric like “thwart,” “tempest,” “flood,” and “plotted,” Fox News makes its biases clear. And they seem to be surprised that “blue-state attorneys general” have political differences with the extremist agenda of Trump and his blindly obedient Republican comrades.

The article also characterizes the work of the Democratic AGs as purely partisan, rather than inspired by their Democratic principles. Fundraising and campaigning takes up a fair amount of space in the column. But most of all the author focuses on the “sheer volume” of multistate lawsuits (35 so far) that have been filed against the Trump administration. Near the end of the article it finally acknowledges that “Republican attorneys general brought 46 multistate legal challenges” during the Obama administration. Although that was for the full eight years.

If there are any reasons to justify an increase in lawsuits currently, it’s because Trump and his cohorts are so determined to violate the law. In so many areas of his government, this president continues to prove his disdain for the law. It infects almost every cabinet department. And the GOP-run Congress refuses to conduct any oversight. That’s why it has been necessary for Democrats to respond by going to court. The issues span ObamaCare, DACA, Muslim bans, the environment, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, student loans, network neutrality, fracking and offshore drilling, transgender troops, civil and voting rights, and many more.

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

If anything, it’s surprising that there haven’t been even more lawsuits. There surely will be as time goes by. Trump continues to break laws related to his businesses. He is still profiting from his presidency. And many of his cabinet secretaries are doing the same. That is, the ones that haven’t already been forced out in scandal and disgrace. And yet, the only thing that Fox thinks is newsworthy about this is that honest public servants are working hard to do something about Trump’s lawlessness. Meanwhile, Fox couldn’t care less about the lawlessness itself.


Footnote-in-Mouth Disease: Nunes Admits FBI Disclosed Political Data to FISA Court

Posted by on February 6, 2018 at 1:14 pm. 1 Comments :

Last Friday Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, unveiled his super-hyped FISA memo. He promised it would expose the FBI as a conspirator in the “deep state” cabal to destroy Donald Trump’s presidency. The fallacy that he floated rested on the premise that the FBI misled the FISA court by omitting material facts.

Devin Nunes

Specifically, Nunes charged that FBI investigators obtained a FISA warrant to wiretap former Trump advisor Carter Page based on the infamous Steele dossier. But, according to Nunes, they withheld the fact that the dossier was partly funded by Democrats associated with Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Indeed, part of the funding came from the Clinton camp, but the dossier was originally financed by the conservative website, Washington Free Beacon. Nunes always seems to leave that out when this subject comes up. In his memo he wrote that:

“Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior and FBI officials.”

Setting aside the blatant partisan omissions by Nunes, there is an even bigger problem with that statement. As it turns out, the FBI’s warrant applications did contain information about the “political origins of the Steele dossier.” And the source for that fact was none other than Devin Nunes. In an interview on Fox News (of all places) he had this exchange with co-host Brian Kilmeade (video below):

Kilmeade: There was some acknowledgement that this was a political document – meaning the dossier – in a footnote at the bottom of the FISA warrant. What can you tell us about that?
Nunes: A footnote saying something may be political is a far cry from letting the American people know that the Democrats and the Hillary campaign paid for dirt that the FBI then used to get a warrant on an American citizen to spy on another campaign.

First of all, a footnote disclosing precisely what Nunes said was never disclosed proves that Nunes was deliberately lying in his memo. Footnotes are not trivialities meant to be dismissed. They are notations with additional information of interest. The fact that Nunes tried to hide their existence reveals his dishonest intent. Secondly, a footnote in a classified application to the FISA Court was never meant to be a communication to the American people. So the FBI wasn’t hiding that data, they were complying with the law. Finally, the warrant wasn’t used to spy on another campaign. It was used to monitor Carter Page who was no longer with the Trump campaign at the time the warrant was issued.

Later in the same Fox and Friends interview, Nunes accused committee Democrats of being the source of “more than a hundred leaks,” but he refused to provide any evidence for the accusation. He also asserted that Democrats have come up with “goose eggs” on whether Trump colluded with Russia. This is a common theme among Republicans. But they seem to be oblivious to the fact that whatever evidence exists is in the hands of special counsel Robert Mueller, and he isn’t talking.

All of this is further proof of the bad faith smears orchestrated by Nunes and his GOP henchmen. As usual, the more facts that emerge about any pseudo-scandal trumped up by Republicans, the more they are exposed as shameless liars. And in this case it was Nunes himself who drew back the curtain on his own dishonesty. Ironic, isn’t it?

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

https://youtu.be/fHkTXAP7UbU


The Trump Stock Market Meltdown: Make No Mistake, This is Trump’s Fault

Posted by on February 5, 2018 at 1:39 pm. 2 Comments :

The Stock Market closed down today by more than 1,100 points. That would make it almost 2,000 points lower in the last three days. This is the worst decline in over two years. And it totally belongs to Donald Trump.

Donald Trump

For the past year Trump has been bragging about the performance of the stock market and taking credit for its rise. That was a pretty stupid thing to do given the vast array of influences on the market and its volatility. Particularly when we have been stretching out the second longest bull market in history.

Three weeks ago, while stocks were still rising, I wrote an article warning that Trump’s bragging would come back to “Bite Him in His Sh*thole Country.” The article said in part that…

“It’s always dangerous to rely on stock market performance to validate the economy. There are too many factors that can shift investor sentiment. It is a fluid indicator that could reverse course tomorrow. Indeed, many stock analysts regard the market’s current position as overvalued. These analysts are predicting a ‘correction’ that could send the markets down significantly.”

But Trump continued to boast about numbers that he obviously knows nothing about. And now the market is trending lower as if to mock the President’s arrogance. But it needs to be noted that there are tangible reasons why Trump is to blame for this sell off. Many economists are citing something that Trump regards as one of his greatest (only?) accomplishments. And even Trump himself raised it during his speech in Ohio today. When he wasn’t accusing Democrats of “treason” for not applauding him at the State of the Union address, he said this:

The tax cuts that Trump was obsessed with were never a good idea. Their benefits were heavily slanted toward corporations and the wealthy. But they were also an unnecessary stimulus to an economy that was already overheated. That was all that Wall Street needed to justify dumping stocks whose valuations were out of sync with reality. His tax bill also produced new debt in excess of $1.5 trillion. That makes investors nervous about rising inflation and interest rates.

Finally, when an economic stimulus is used at a time when it isn’t needed, that means that it won’t be available in the future when it might actually be useful. So investors are looking forward to a future market correction, or even a bear market, and the government will have no tools to respond or mitigate the damage. Therefore, many are getting out now and moving their assets into safer investments or cash. And none of this would be happening were it not for the greed and ignorance of Donald Trump and his allies in Congress.

Trump’s relentless bragging about the market when it was up presents an interesting problem for him. Who will he blame for the decline? He got exactly what he wanted with the tax bill, which received no Democratic votes. There is no one other than himself to which this can be attributed. Of course, that won’t stop him from inventing some culprit to point his bony fingers at. His narcissism is all-consuming and his GOP supporters still seem unwilling to put their country above their noxious party. So be prepared for more scapegoating as Trump continues to panic and his fear drives him further into desperation.

UPDATE: And that didn’t take long. Sean Hannity is blaming Obama for the Trump Meltdown.

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