Fox News

Despite Desperate Denials, Support for Impeaching and Removing Trump is Growing

Posted by on January 4, 2020 at 11:34 am. 9 Comments :

It has never been more clear that Donald Trump will lie about anything. After launching an attack that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC’s) Quds Force, Trump and his team claimed that Soleimani was plotting a “major” attack on Americans. Of course, he provided no evidence of that, despite how implausible it seems. Why would Iran suddenly want to provoke an armed conflict with the United States?

Donald Trump Walking the Plank

Naturally, Trump did, as always, have Fox news to cover for him. They are his Ministry of Propaganda who will eagerly and obediently affirm his lies. But regardless of how determined they are to construct a fantasy world wherein Trump is an infallible hero, the American people are not that easily fooled. A new poll by FiveThirtyEight and Ipsos has more bad news for Trump:

“A majority (57 percent) of Americans said they think Trump committed an impeachable offense. Fifty-two percent said they think Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine or his refusal to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry constitute enough evidence to remove him from office.”

Once again, a significant majority of voters have expressed their desire to see Trump impeached and removed from office. This is not a new development. Many other polls have shown the same thing over an extended period of time. However, this poll is proof that one of Trump’s most frequent assertions about impeachment is patently false. As recently as last month Trump declared that “Impeachment has backfired thoroughly on the Democrats.” As usual, he provided nothing to support that claim. He just expects his glassy-eyed disciples to believe whatever he tells them. And, sadly, many will.

This poll not only demonstrates that the public favors Trump’s impeachment, it also shows that this sentiment is growing, not backfiring as Trump says. The poll also reveals that most Americans want the Senate to conduct a fair impeachment hearing with witnesses and document production. During the House hearings Trump whined bitterly about wanting witnesses to testify, while simultaneously prohibiting them from doing so. Now he is opposed to such testimony and is pressuring GOP leader Mitch McConnell to decline to have hearings at all.

Trump is obviously afraid of a reality that places him in political peril. so he concocts an alternative version of it that better matches his narcissistic world view. And he passes that along to his cult followers who are just as anxious as he is to latch unto some comforting falsehoods. It would be a pathetic state of affairs for any individual. But when that individual is the President of United States it’s downright dangerous.

The situation currently unfolding with Iran is an excellent example of how Trump’s pathological dishonesty impacts world affairs. Not only do the American people doubt everything Trump says, so do nations that would otherwise form alliances with the U.S. to combat terrorism. Trump’s lying results in forcing America to drift alone in a sea of uncertainty and disrepute. The sooner we are rid of him, the better.

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

Trump-Fluffers at Fox News Begin War Mongering Before Soleimani’s Body is Cold

Posted by on January 3, 2020 at 12:48 pm. 8 Comments :

On the second day of the new year Donald Trump launched a new conflict in the Middle East, this time with the region’s largest military, Iran. Contrary to his frequent promises to withdraw the United States from the Middle East, Trump’s assault is likely to result in another prolonged war that will be costly in both lives and dollars.

Donald Trump

No American will mourn the demise of General Qasem Soleimani. He was the leading purveyor of Iran’s international terrorism and was responsible for hundreds fatalities among both Americans and civilians in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. But the mission to assassinate Iran’s second highest military leader in Iraq was nevertheless a provocative act that could lead to further unnecessary tragedies for the U.S. and the region.

This is particularly apparent since Trump has no coherent strategy, policy, or end game. He failed to consult members of Congress as the law requires and, therefore, had no legal authorization for the attack. And in a flurry of syrupy, worshipful retweets, Trump included one by disgraced pundit Dinesh D’Souza that shamefully implied that had Trump told Congress they would have told Iran. To date, the only one who has disclosed state secrets to hostile foreign nations is Trump when he speaks to Putin.

In fact, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that he discussed this attack with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in advance. So Trump informed Russia, but not Congress. It’s also notable that, by targeting an individual, as opposed to military assets, Trump possibly violated international laws against assassination.

Trump’s initial justification for the attack is that it was executed in order to prevent imminent future attacks on Americans. However, he provided no evidence of any such threat. It sounds very much like the false assertions of the Bush administration alleging nonexistent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Also familiar is the statement by Pompeo, who baselessly claimed that “We have every expectation that people not only in Iraq, but in Iran, will view the American action last night as giving them freedom.” That recalls Dick Cheney’s preposterous assertion that “My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators [in Iraq].”

Immediately following Trump’s attack, Fox News predictably leaped to his defense with a vigor that can only be described as gleeful. Although he was on vacation, Sean Hannity called into his own program to insist that Iran had “put American lives in jeopardy and the president very quickly acted,” and that it was “a huge victory and total leadership by the president.” But Brian Kilmeade of Fox and Friends was representative of the Fox position when he rebutted Geraldo Rivera’s criticism of the attack by gloating that “I will cheer this on. I am elated.”

Make no mistake. This is the host of a popular Fox News program expressing his elation about a potential war that would result in untold casualties of Americans for a purpose that no one in the Trump administration has been able to define.

If you’re looking for a plausible reason for why Trump would take this action at this time, look no further than the news that broke earlier the same day. The release of newly unredacted emails from Trump’s national security personnel that state unequivocally that Trump knew his withholding of military aid to Ukraine was illegal. The discovery of this provides additional urgency for the Senate to agree to call witnesses and to introduce documents when it takes up Trump’s impeachment.

Trump knows this, and it escalates his fear that impeachment could result in his removal from office. So in order to deflect from the growing political peril he is enduring, Trump appears to have taken the course of action that he once falsely accused President Obama of considering: Start a war with Iran:

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

Fox News Hack Defends Trump for Making 2019 the ‘Darkest Year Yet for Journalists’

Posted by on January 2, 2020 at 3:53 pm. 11 Comments :

After three years of bootlicking fealty to Donald Trump, there are very few people who would dispute that Fox News is serving as the Ministry of Propaganda for the Trump regime. There has never been a “news” organization more tightly aligned with a political leader and party than Fox News. They even regularly exchange personnel who seamlessly work for both the network and the White House. Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, and others are card-carrying members of Trump’s “Shadow Cabinet.”

Donald Trump, Fox News, White House

Other than Fox News, Trump has been relentlessly hostile to the press from the beginning of his presidency. He routinely refers to it in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people,” and dismisses any less than adoring coverage as “fake news.” Michael M. Grynbaum of the New York times took note of this in a year-end column that accurately described 2019 as the “darkest year yet for journalists“ He elaborated…

“On Twitter, President Trump deployed the phrase ‘fake news’ 273 times this year — 50 percent more often than he did in 2018. He demanded ‘retribution’ over a ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch, declared that Washington Post reporters ‘shouldn’t even be allowed on the grounds of the White House,’ and accused The New York Times of ‘Treason.’ […]

Mr. Trump’s vilification of the news media is a hallmark of his tenure and a jagged break from the norms of his predecessors: Once a global champion of the free press, the presidency has become an inspiration to autocrats and dictators who ape Mr. Trump’s cry of ‘fake news.'”

Trump has terminated the daily press briefings that were a decades-long part of White House operations. He replaced them with his “Chopper Talk” harangues on the lawn of the White House where he’ll berate reporters and lie unashamedly while dodging their questions. And his constant assaults on the press creates an environment of imminent risk to the lives of reporters. Trump even whined to Vladimir Putin that he would like to “get rid of them,” expressing his envy of Putin’s ability to assassinate journalists who offend him. That’s the sort of loathsome rhetoric that caused the Committee to Protect Journalists to issue a long and detailed condemnation of Trump as “an unprecedented threat,” and went on to say…

“Donald Trump, through his words and actions as a candidate for president of the United States, has consistently betrayed First Amendment values. […] A Trump presidency would represent a threat to press freedom in the United States.”

In response to the article in the New York Times (a frequent victim of Trump’s attacks), right-wing media hack Joe Concha appeared on Fox News to defend Trump’s malicious behavior (video below). However, he proffered a badly mangled argument that Trump was justified in criticizing the press because they were so critical of him. The problem with that is that no one was suggesting that Trump couldn’t offer his own criticisms. But there is a difference between pointing out what he believes are inaccuracies, and accusing reporters of treason.

Likewise, Concha argued that Trump couldn’t be considered a threat to journalists because he speaks to them directly from time to time. Once again, that doesn’t excuse what he’s actually saying in those encounters. If you threaten reporters with cancellation of their credentials, or with prosecution and imprisonment, you cannot simultaneously claim you’re not a threat because you spoke to them.

Fox and Friends co-host Steve Doocy eagerly agreed with Concha’s premise, saying that Trump often approaches reporters at Mar-A-Lago and takes questions. What Doocy didn’t acknowledge is that those avails are always designed to give Trump the advantage. He takes only the questions he wants, and pretends he didn’t hear the others. And if his answers are insufficient, or totally irrelevant, he refuses follow-ups or any effort to clarify.

The problem with what Concha and Doocy are saying is that they regard Trump’s insults and threats as legitimate critiques of the media. They ignore Trump’s menacing outbursts that cast journalists as criminals and traitors. And they don’t seem to comprehend that labeling everything you disagree agree with as “Fake” isn’t a coherent rebuttal. It’s a flagrant attempt to demean an honorable profession, and the only one protected by the Constitution.

Trump’s purpose is to destroy the public’s confidence in the only institution they can rely on to keep them informed and hold the powerful accountable. In this way Trump hopes to get away with his criminal, amoral, and disloyal, activities. And Joe Concha and Fox News are right there to back him up.

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

The Bottom 10: A Year of Derp from Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News

Posted by on January 1, 2020 at 2:54 pm. 4 Comments :

Happy New Year to America and the world. We are now embarking on a new decade whose beginnings will likely be tumultuous, maddening, and occasionally hilarious. By the end of 2020 we will hopefully have a new president preparing to move into the White House. Maybe sooner if Republicans decide to put country before party and decency before dishonesty, decadence, and corruption.

Donald Trump New Year 2020

The past year was a wild ride with an unprecedented number of scandals emanating from the White House. The sheer quantity of political atrocities would be mind boggling if it wasn’t so predictable with an ignorant, childish, narcissist leading the way to perdition. And this uncommonly aberrant year concluded with Trump’s impeachment for “Abuse of Power” and “Obstruction of Congress.” This marks him forever as the first reality TV show host (and only the third president) to have been impeached. That’s not exactly how he thought it would end when he tweeted his all-caps New Year’s message a year ago:

This year Trump tweeted a more diffident and compact “HAPPY NEW YEAR,” but he also posted a ten minute video of himself at Mar-A-Lago adding to his year-end compilation of lies (video below if you have the stomach for it). But don’t expect the Twitter patter of Trump’s sheepishness to last. With both the Senate’s impeachment hearing and a national election on the horizon, Trump’s surly mood will undoubtedly return with the gusto of starving MAGAts in a bucket of KFC extra crispy.

One thing Trump will can rely on is that Fox News will be there in 2020 to shield him from criticism and to smear his foes, just as they were in 2019. It was a banner year for the Trump-fluffing network as they insured that their audience would remain ill-informed and blindly loyal to Dear Leader Trump. This was done by coordinating closely with the White House to manufacture flagrantly dishonest stories that bore no resemblance to either reality or journalism. What follows are few of the more notable examples of how Fox News poisons the political environment while sucking up to their malignant messiah:

This is the sort blatant puffery that is generally observed in the propaganda ministries of totalitarian regimes. Fox News long ago abandoned any pretense of being a neutral news provider. They are as much a part of Trump’s administration as Kellyanne Conway, Mick Mulvaney, and Ivanka. And that will surely continue into the new year as they attempt to deceive their glassy-eyed viewers with ever more outlandish fiction that exalts Trump and spellbinds the cult that surrounds him.

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

Fox News Hits Record High Ratings of a Measly 0.8% of American Viewers in 2019

Posted by on December 30, 2019 at 3:07 pm. 2 Comments :

If there’s one thing we can learn from 2019 it’s that hostile, melodramatic lies can boost the profits of a flagrantly biased organ of propaganda like Fox News. The right-wing network abandoned all pretense of journalistic integrity (what little it had) in order to sign on to the Donald Trump White House’s perverse distortions of reality.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Hate Again

The reward for Fox News was the undying devotion of an audience of willfully blind cult followers who agreed to believe only what they saw on Fox and heard from Dear Leader Trump. And their loyalty helped propel Fox News to the number one cable news network for the year.

Fox News – and their number one viewer, Donald Trump – surely celebrated this achievement. But as the year comes to a close it’s important to place this statistic in perspective. The numbers that produced this “victory” represent about 2.5 million viewers per night, or about 0.8% of the television audience on the United States. That’s not exactly a commanding presence of disinformed boob-tubers with eyes glazed over and chanting wingnut slogans.

Of course, any contribution to the thinly populated MAGA cult is troubling and can have negative consequences. But knowing that they are safely confined within the walled off world of Fox News makes their impact nearly irrelevant. The bigger problem with Fox is when they manage to persuade other news organizations that they have any credibility and use that to further spread their fabrications and slander.

The bragging rights for Fox News have always been the result of their having corralled all of the nation’s conservative TV news audience into their single channel pen. Meanwhile, all the other news networks are splitting up the rest of the viewers, which dilutes their total audience. But in 2019, just the combined numbers for MSNBC (1.75 million) and CNN (972,000) exceed the total for Fox News. So anyone who tries to argue that Fox’s numbers are proof of a conservative majority in the country are engaging in the same sort of dishonesty that is the hallmark of Fox News.

While Fox’s average numbers did earn them the top spot for the year, that doesn’t mean that they resided there the whole time with every program. In fact, Rachel Maddow beat her time period competition, Sean Hannity, for the entire first quarter of the year. She also won the months of September, October, and November. And both “Deadline: White House with Nicole Wallace” and “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams” won their time periods for the year outright.

The real ratings disaster for the year was, once again, Donald Trump. He remains the most unpopular president since modern polling began. Even his favorite pollster, the disreputable and biased Rasmussen Reports, has him underwater with only 46% approving. And a recent Fox News poll showed that a majority of Americans (53%) have an unfavorable view of his job performance. In addition to that, a solid majority of 54% in the Fox poll said that Trump should be impeached, with 50% saying that he should also be removed from office. So whatever influence Fox News purports to have by snagging 0.8% of the television audience, it isn’t having much effect on the views of the American people. And that’s something Trump will surely post an angry tweet about before long.

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

Trump Goes on Holiday Twitter Tantrum Against Nancy Pelosi – and the Constitution

Posted by on December 26, 2019 at 11:55 am. 4 Comments :

STOP THE MADNESS! During his campaign, Donald Trump promised that he would work every day in The White House because there was so much that needed to be done. Instead, he has spent more time at his golf resorts, watching Fox News, and tweeting, than anything else. In fact, when it comes to those wasteful, childish diversions, he never takes a day off. Not even for Christmas.

Donald Trump, Toilet, Bathrobe

Trump’s holiday tweet-o-rama was narrowly focused on matters that have consumed his consciousness for weeks. While he pretends not to be worried about having been impeached, it’s practically the only thing he is paying any attention to. It’s an obsession that is gnawing at him to the exclusion of everything else. And his Twitter tantrum is evidence of just how haunted he is by this permanent stain on his legacy. He began on Christmas day by tweeting that…

There’s a lot to unpack in that brief tirade. On the same day that Trump released an eerily morose Christmas message that called for “deeper understanding and respect,” he’s posting insults to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling her “crazy.” And he is also exhibiting his painfully weak grasp of the Constitution that unambiguously grants the House of Representatives the “sole power to impeach.” What’s more, he doesn’t understand that a majority of any size gives that party parliamentary control. Even so, a 34 seat majority is not “slight.” And he has apparently forgotten that the Republican majority in the Senate is only four seats.

Trump goes on to dismiss the impeachment because no Republicans voted for it. But that only reinforces the fact that the GOP acts as a monolithic and partisan unit that doesn’t care about the truth. Which puts them in alignment with Trump who then proceeds to lie about his allegedly “perfect,” “no pressure” phone call with the president of Ukraine.

From there Trump wanders off into a diatribe about “due process,” which is only relevant in a court of law. Nevertheless, Trump did have the opportunity to appear in his own defense and to have his attorneys plead his case. It was not disallowed. He declined. Now Trump is refusing to allow witnesses and documents in the Senate hearing that he has whined about not having in the House.

Let’s set aside the false assertion that any particular part of this is “supposed” to be in one body or the other. What Trump is complaining about here is that the testimony that he actively obstructed wasn’t made available. Maybe he should stop obstructing it. Maybe he should also stop pretending that Democrats want to slow down the process, as he says in his next tweet. It’s Trump and the GOP who are gumming up the works by refusing to set the terms for the Senate hearing.

Finally, Trump acts out in his typically infantile way with a multi-tweet attack on Pelosi and the district she represents in California. Just like he has done previously with Baltimore, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and others, he maligns them for problems that exist in all cities. But he blames Pelosi as somehow being responsible.

LATE ADDITION: Trump tweeted…

Trump actually believes that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally edited him out of a cameo in Home Alone 2. Never mind that this edit was actually made five years ago, before Trump was even a candidate. The reason Trump believes that Trudeau is responsible is because it’s what he would do in similar circumstances. Trump thinks that national leadership includes the power to exact petty vengeances on your enemies. In fact, he has even exercised that corrupt power by redirecting a federal contract from Amazon (because Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post), to Microsoft. Which is blatantly illegal.

There is simply no denying that Trump is terrified and desperate. The whole of his attention is on the impeachment and what he considers unfair treatment. And it manifests in these furious Twitter rampages that only make him look even more deranged. So it’s not surprising that public support for his impeachment and removal from office has hit a new high. And if he continues on this disastrous course, he should expect it get even worse.

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

Donald Trump’s Fox News Inspired Holiday Eve Special: All I Want for Christmas is to Whine

Posted by on December 24, 2019 at 4:26 pm. 2 Comments :

These final days of the year will ordinarily find most Americans gathering together with family to enjoy the spirit of the season and give thanks for enduring love and good fortune. However, nothing that Donald Trump does ever aligns with anything ordinary. This Christmas Trump was asked by soldiers in a holiday phone call what he intended to do for the holidays. He said that he would probably just work because that’s what he likes to do. Then he went off to golf at his Palm Beach resort.

Trump Christmas Tree

There is no evidence of this being a holiday at all in Trump;’s White House. Trump hasn’t tweeted any pictures with his family, including his young son Barron. He hasn’t bought his wife a present, but says he did get her a card. There doesn’t appear to have been any dinners with his kids and grand-kids, although he did dine with Rush Limbaugh. What there is on Trump’s schedule is what he does all the rest of the year: WHINE! And there’s been plenty of that.

Trump’s Twitter feed is awash with petulant crybaby laments. For the most part he is complaining about having just been impeached. And while he is pretending that he isn’t bothered by this permanent stain on his legacy, he can’t seem to let go of it. His griping takes the form of bizarre assertions that he hasn’t been impeached at all. Or that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is crazy and incompetent. For instance…

Those tweets are quotes from Fox News Trump-fluffers, Brit Hume and Brian Kilmeade. They are not in any way representative of reality. They barely make logical sense. For example, Kilmeade is says that Democrats are showing that “they don’t care about the American public’s tone deafness.” HUH? And then Trump adds that “They want to make it as hard as possible for me to properly run our Country!” There are just two things wrong with that remark. First, it falsely presumes that he is able to properly run our country. And second it misses the real point, which is that Democrats are only trying to make it hard for him get away with treasonous crimes.

So Trump spent the day watching Fox news and whining about what a victim he is and how all these meany Democrats are persecuting him. He’s supposed to be the leader of the free world but he can’t stop sobbing about what he thinks is unfair treatment. He’s been doing this for months without a rest. And he’s too unaware to recognize that he’s the cause of all his troubles. So on and on he goes, even through the holidays. And there is no reason to expect it to end as the new year begins. Whining is all Trump knows how to do. He even once admitted that “I am the most fabulous whiner.” Which may be the truest thing he ever said.

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

Trump’s Attorney Genuflect Bill Barr is Turning the DOJ Into an Internet Troll Farm.

Posted by on December 22, 2019 at 1:05 pm. 2 Comments :

The devolution of American politics has been noticeable on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter for some time. The rancid outbursts and shrill animosity is inescapable. Much of what is posted is flagrantly false and rooted in crackpot conspiracy theories concocted by foreign, adversarial governments like Russia. And sadly, Donald Trump is one of the foremost diseminaters of this toxic dialog,

Donald Trump, Bill Barr

This online divisiveness and hatred has also been adopted by official representatives of the Trump regime. The wild assertions that many of them make in public – and particularly on Fox News – are indistinguishable from the trolls that inhabit the darkest recesses of the Intertubes. A perfect example of that occurred in a commentary by Trump’s Attorney General, William Barr, during a recent interview with Martha MacCallum of Fox News. Barr seems to be making a habit of these appearances. On this occasion, MacCallum asked him about remarks he made during a speech that was rife with the stench of political partisanship (video below):

MacCallum: You talked in your piece about “social justice DAs” … What does that mean?
Barr: Well, there’s this recent development where George Soros has been coming in, in largely Democratic primaries where there has not been much voter turnout and putting in a lot of money to elect people who are not very supportive of law enforcement and don’t view the office as bringing to trial and prosecuting criminals but pursuing other social agendas. And they have started to win in a number of cities and they have, in my view, not given the proper support to the police. And they’re following policies that are ultimately gonna lead to an increase in violent crime and more victims.

There’s a lot of ugliness to unpack in that diatribe, beginning with Barr’s reference to George Soros. The right-wing Internet has been attacking Soros for years with vile inferences of evil intent and world domination. The attacks were typically comprised of common anti-Semitic tropes that accuse Jews of seeking to control everything from the banks to the media to the moral fabric of society. And as a self-made billionaire, Soros was used by the right to symbolize the most repulsive lies propagated by conservative hate groups. And now Barr is doing the same thing by asserting that Soros has some otherworldly power to shape society in terrible and frightening ways.

Barr’s accusation naturally springs from Soros’ wealth as the tool of his dastardly deeds. Great wealth, however, is only seen as the Devil’s plaything when it’s held by liberals. According to Barr, Soros is “putting in a lot of money” to install his minions in the upper ranks of law enforcement. And from there, Barr believes, they will implement an agenda that frees up villains to embark on unfettered crime sprees.

What’s more, Barr also says that any effort to hold the police accountable for bad behavior is an expression of disrespect. Of course, the opposite is the truth. Wanting the police to have the best reputations for honorable service is far more respectful than ignoring and excusing their faults. But to Barr, any constructive criticism should be viewed as “not supporting the police” for which the result could be that citizens “may not get the police protection they need.” That’s an overt and irresponsible threat that shouldn’t be tolerated coming from the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.

The assertion that Democrats are hostile to law enforcement is demonstrably false, but it’s been a longstanding plank in the Republican platform. Trump himself has alleged that Democrats actually want more crime. He tweeted earlier this year that “the Radical Democrats are a Party of open borders and crime.” And that’s just one example of many.

What we’re seeing from these officials in Washington today is the sort of extremist garbage that was once reserved for the likes of Glenn Beck and Alex Jones. But now it has been openly taken up by Trump and Barr. It is worse than merely insulting and dishonest. It is insane and dangerous. And yet, it is now routinely a part of the discourse by the White House and its surrogates. This needs to stop ASAP. If not by impeachment and removal from office, than at the ballot box in November.

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

HUH? Fox News Trump-Fluffers Float Bizarre Theory that Trump Hasn’t Been Impeached

Posted by on December 20, 2019 at 11:49 am. 2 Comments :

The capacity for total delusion on the part of Donald Trump and his Fox News defenders has never been, and can never be, overstated. However, there are times when they exhibit such utterly ludicrous behaviors that it astonishes even the most jaded media observers. And on Thursday evening we passed that threshold once again.

Fox News, Laura Ingraham

On an episode of Laura Ingraham’s White Nationalist Hour, our intrepid host attempted to impart her version of wingnut intellectualism by presenting a theory so devoid of reason that it sucked all the remaining grey matter from her already nearly vacant skull. It’s a theory that Trump’s White House is also entertaining.

Ingraham delivered a monologue (video below) that began with the absurd contention that “I think one can make a decent argument that the President wasn’t really impeached.” Her explanation sprung from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to delay sending the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate until Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer finalized the rules under which they would be debated. Ingraham thinks that an impeachment hasn’t really taken place until the House transmits it to the Senate.

To support her silliness, Ingraham mocks Pelosi’s grasp of the Constitution and attempts to cite it saying that “the Senate has the sole power of impeachment.” That, however, is not what the Constitution says. What it actually says is that “The House of Representatives…shall have the sole power of impeachment.” So Ingraham got it completely wrong. It later says that “The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.” Which is something else entirely. Pelosi, therefore, was right and Ingraham was making a fool of herself.

This disinformation then spread to other Fox News programs. On Friday morning it was regurgitated by anchor David Asman who said that “We may not have an impeachment if it hasn’t been passed to the Senate.” But as we now know, that isn’t true. It’s just part of an ongoing campaign by Fox News to keep their viewers mired in ignorance and falsehoods.

Additionally, this baseless theory relies on the assumption that the House will never transmit the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. Nobody is betting on that. Pelosi is wisely insisting that the Senate trial be conducted fairly and that relevant witnesses to presented. That’s a critical demand considering that McConnell has already publicly stated that he has no intention of being impartial and that he will “take his cues” from White House lawyers. Eventually McConnell will have to concede because Trump doesn’t want the impeachment hanging over his head without at least an attempt to exonerate him by the Senate. Although, exoneration is not something that is actually achievable.

Like or not, Fox News, and Trump’s congressional bootlickers, have to accept that Trump has indeed been impeached. They cannot pretend otherwise. It is a disgrace that will follow him and the GOP throughout history. And clinging to these nonsense notions and wishful thinking only makes them look desperate and dumb. Well, more desperate and dumber.

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

Fox News Senior Legal Analyst on Trump: ‘The Remedy of Impeachment is Acutely Needed’

Posted by on December 18, 2019 at 2:59 pm. 4 Comments :

The impeachment of Donald Trump is finally being debated in the House of Representatives. The outcome is not expected to surprise anyone. Trump will be be impeached and will wear that mantle of disgrace for the rest of his life. Even if the Senate fails to remove him from office, the stain of impeachment is an indelible affirmation that Trump breached his constitutional duties and betrayed his country.

Donald Trump Walking the Plank

The partisan players in this battle are easily recognizable in most instances. Republicans and Fox News pundits are staunchly devoted to Trump regardless of what laws he has been shown to have broken. But every now and then someone steps out from behind the curtain of political prejudice to act as an advocate of truth and justice.

Now, as Trump’s impeachment looms, a lone voice from Fox News is standing up to the right-wing group-think that the network so rigidly enforces. Andrew Napolitano is Fox’s Senior Legal Adviser. And on Wednesday morning, as Congress was weighing Trump’s fate, Napolitano penned an op-ed with the headline: “Trump impeachment: Undisputed evidence that he abused his power.”

The article was published in the arch-conservative Washington times. For some reason, Fox News has been spiking Napolitano’s commentaries that support Trump’s impeachment. And this article had some blunt opinions on the matter. For instance…

“In Mr. Trump’s case, we have undisputed evidence that he abused his power by inviting a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 presidential election and then compounded this by directing subordinates to refrain from giving congressionally commanded evidence of his behavior.”

“It is undisputed that Mr. Trump withheld the delivery of the $391 million in military aid to Ukraine that Congress authorized and ordered and that Mr. Trump himself signed into law. He said he withheld that aid because he first wanted “a favor” from the president of Ukraine. The favor, requested by others on Mr. Trump’s behalf, was the announcement of a Ukrainian government criminal investigation of Mr. Trump’s potential political adversary, former Vice President Joe Biden.

“In the language of the streets, this is a shakedown; it sought to enhance Mr. Trump’s personal political needs and bears no relationship to American foreign policy.

Napolitano went on to describe the criminal violations Trump committed. They included the federal prohibition on soliciting campaign aid from a foreign government, and bribery. He also explained that these acts are crimes whether or not they are consummated by the exchange of money or services. It is the solicitation that triggers the offense.

And that’s not all. Napolitano also noted the criminal obstruction of justice by Trump for having “directed his subordinates to disregard congressional subpoenas, lawfully issued and validly served.” And he was troubled by Trump’s apparent belief that he is above the law. Napolitano made clear that this was dangerous, and that there is something that the Founders had in mind for just such a problem:

“Everyone who believes in the rule of law should be terrified of a president who thinks and behaves as if it does not apply to him. As the DOJ has stated repeatedly, impeachment is the proper constitutional remedy for that.”

Trump has been frantically trying to dodge accountability for his clearly impeachable activities. But his legal basis is virtually nonexistent, and he has refused to even defend himself before the committees of jurisdiction in Congress. Instead, he relies on bootlicking Fox News hacks like Gregg Jarrett and Alan Dershowitz (each of which he retweeted six times on Wednesday) for legal advice. Even worse, his idea of “legal scholars.” is Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.

Former federal judge Napolitano, on the other hand, says that “the remedy of impeachment is acutely needed.” But you can rest assured that Trump will dismiss that as fake news and malign Napolitano (who was a close friend of Trump’s for decades) as a Never-Trumper. That’s just how the mind of a paranoid narcissist works.

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