Fox News

SURPRISE! Trump’s Impeachment Defense Begins with 6 ‘Facts’ that Are All Lies

Posted by on January 25, 2020 at 10:53 am. 9 Comments :

The day that Donald Trump has been waiting for (and whining about) has finally come. It’s the day that marks the commencement of his Fox News Legal Team’s presentation of his case against removing him from office now that he has been irrevocably impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Donald Trump, Impeach

Of course, everyone has already heard the case that Trump’s lawyers will be making. They have been making that case relentlessly on Fox News for weeks. The case that Fox viewers haven’t heard is the one by Democrats. That’s because Fox News chose to shield their snowflake viewers from any exposure to reality. Instead, they aired their own regularly scheduled, Trump-fluffing programs during prime time rather than the Senate hearings. They even admonished their viewers not to watch the hearings at all because Fox’s shills would watch for them.

To no one’s surprise, Trump’s defense was littered with familiar lies. His White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, led off by falsely characterizing the House impeachment hearings, saying that Democrats “lock[ed] everybody out of it from the President’s side.” In fact, Democrats invited the White House to participate, but the invitation was rejected in a letter from Cipollone himself. And all Republican members of the three committees holding hearings — Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight — participated and were given equal time.

Following Cipollone’s flagrant fictionalization of events, his deputy, Mike Purpura took center stage with what he said were the “six key facts that have not, and will not, change.” (video below) Let’s take a look, shall we?

FIRST: “The transcript shows that the President did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything.”
Actually, there has been no transcript released, only a memo purporting to summarize the phone call between Trump and Zelensky. And in that memo Trump is plainly seen to condition aid with a demand that Zelensky “do us a favor, though.” Trump then stated his interest in a conspiracy theory about a a Democratic computer server, and the Biden family. There was no discussion of corruption whatsoever.

SECOND: “President Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that there was no quid pro quo and no pressure on them to review anything.”
In fact, Zelensky had to be careful not to upset Trump at the risk of losing the aid. You can’t ask a hostage if he’s under pressure and expect a candid answer. Zelensky told an interviewer that he didn’t “want us to look like beggars.” Then went on to say that “If you’re our strategic partner, then you can’t go blocking anything for us. I think that’s just about fairness. It’s not about a quid pro quo. It just goes without saying.” What’s more, Trump himself confessed on national television that he did condition aid on a demand that Zelensky help him smear Joe Biden. When asked directly what he hoped to get from Zelensky, Trump said “I would think that if they’re honest about it they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens.”

Third: “President Zelensky and other high ranking Ukrainian officials did not even know the security assistance was paused until the end of August, over a month after the July 25 call.”
Not according to the Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister who said that Ukraine was aware of a U.S. freeze in military aid as early as July.

Fourth: “Not a single witness testified that the President himself said that there was any connection between any investigation and security assistance, a presidential meeting, or anything else.”
Not true. Several witnesses (i.e. Gordon Sondland, Alexander Vindman) said that Trump had made a such a connection. But if Trump’s attorneys are concerned that there wasn’t sufficient testimony from first-hand witnesses, then why is Trump prohibiting staffers like Mick Mulvaney, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, etc., from testifying? Why would he block testimony from those he says would exonerate him?

Fifth: “The security assistance flowed on September 11, and a presidential meeting took place on September 25, without the Ukrainian government announcing any investigations.”
What Trump’s team isn’t saying is that those things occurred only after he got caught. They were an attempt to paper over his criminal behavior after the fact.

Finally: “The Democrats blind drive to impeach the President does not, and cannot, change the fact, as attested to by the Democrats’ own witnesses, that President Trump has been a better friend and stronger support of Ukraine than his predecessor [President Obama].”
You can hardly call threatening a country with the loss of critical military aid during a war as “friendly.” And even if there were cursory signs of friendship, that doesn’t excuse Trump’s unlawful behavior. Furthermore, Trump has been a far better friend to Vladimir Putin and Russia, the country that is invading and annexing parts of Ukraine.

If this is any indication of how the Trump defense is going to go as it proceeds through next week, we are in for some hefty heapings of falsehoods and misdirection. They haven’t even even gotten to the Bidens yet, as Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow promised to do. But rest assured, that will come. And the whole of the Trump defense will be built on distortion and deception. But that’s only because they can’t defend Trump on the facts.

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

Trump Admits that He’s Only Interested in a Lie-Filled Reality TV Impeachment Show

Posted by on January 24, 2020 at 3:25 pm. 2 Comments :

Trump has been tweeting up a storm on this fourth day of his Senate impeachment trial. Most of it has been retweets of the sycophantic Trump-fluffers who vainly try to defend the indefensible criminality of Trump. But some are more puzzling than others, such as the one where he agreed with Joe Biden that he should be impeached and removed from office.

Donald Trump TV Set

However, in addition to his tweet agreeing with Biden, Trump also tweeted what amounts to an admission that he isn’t really concerned about the outcome of the Senate trial at all. That’s because the GOP leader, Mitch McConnell, has already assured him that he won’t permit a fair hearing to take place and that the outcome will be manipulated in Trump’s favor. So Trump tweeted this:

First of all, Trump had an invitation to have his representatives and witnesses appear during the House hearings, but he refused. So he can’t complain about not being represented when that was his own decision. Secondly, The prospect of the Trump defense in the Senate being pushed to Saturday was entirely the work of Mitch McConnell. The Democrats had no power to alter the schedule dictated by the GOP leader. And it appears likely that McConnell will alter it himself and shift the commencement of the Trump defense to Monday.

That said, it’s notable that what Trump is whining about isn’t how his case will be made to the senators who will be voting on his fate as president. Nope. What Trump is upset about is that his defenders might not have as big a television audience as he would like. In other words, he’s only interested in the reality TV elements of his impeachment hearings. That’s a so typically Trumpian.

Trump already has the benefit of Fox News, which has not been airing the Senate hearings during prime time. Fox has also benched their Senior Judicial Analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano, in order to keep his contrary views away from the snowflakes who watch Fox (Napolitano called the evidence for Trump’s impeachment and removal “ample and uncontradicted”). Fox did, however, interrupt coverage of the hearings on Friday to show Trump giving a speech at the anti-abortion March for Life. They were in alone in that editorially biased decision.

In the end everything about Trump’s behavior and commentaries is focused on one thing only: What is in his own best interest, never mind the American people or the fate of the nation. It’s his malignantly narcissistic, massive ego that must be satisfied first. And ironically, that’s what got him into all this trouble to begin with.

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

MISSING: Fox News Legal Expert Who Said Evidence Against Trump is ‘Ample and Uncontradicted’

Posted by on January 23, 2020 at 1:59 pm. 5 Comments :

The Fox News coverage of the Senate impeachment hearing has been just as bad as might have been expected. Even worse, actually. To be sure, their prime time Trump-fluffers have been predictably adoring and servile as they heap praise on Donald Trump and his defenders, while shoveling bile on his critics. Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, have spared no shame in slobbering over Dear Leader while slandering the Democrats prosecuting him.

Donald Trump, Andrew Napolitano

The reason it’s been even worse than expected is that Fox News has ignored large swaths of the hearings. They chose to air their regularly scheduled programming rather than the live proceedings from the Senate. That way they can prevent their already ill-informed audience from accidentally being exposed to the truth about Trump.

Fox even advised their dimwitted viewers to avoid watching the hearings with admonitions like “We’re showing you the good stuff – it was unbelievably boring,” and “I don’t know how people can follow it,” and “We watched so that you don’t have to,” and “It is a little bit like watching paint dry,” and “If I were a terrible host I would force you to endure watching.” Fox News is behaving like parents shielding their children from naughty words. Which may explain why Fox viewers behave so much like children.

So while CNN and MSNBC were airing the hearings in prime time, Fox News was airing their squawking heads attacking responsible journalism, disparaging the Democratic managers, and insisting that Trump was as pure and virginal as Mother Mary. It’s a bizarre spectacle to see people in the media advocating against being fully informed and proactively disinforming them. But then, that’s what Fox News does every day.

Consequently, Fox’s viewers got their customary mush of one-sided blather. And their number one viewer, Donald Trump, will be spared the agonizing torture of encountering anything remotely negative – or truthful – about him.

Contributing to this extreme bias is the mystery disappearance of Fox’s Senior Judicial Analyst, Andrew Napolitano. He has not made a single appearance on the network during the most prominent judicial story of the decade. Instead, Fox has exclusively featured such pro-Trump commentators as Trey Gowdy and Andrew McCarthy. Napolitano has previously provided a far more cogent analysis with clear-eyed recognition of Trump’s guilt (for instance, here and here and here).

Had Napolitano been booked to give his impression of the impeachment hearings, he might have sparked some severe cognitive injuries. Particularly for Trump. Napolitano was permitted to publish an op-ed on the Fox News website that presented a starkly different viewpoint than anyone that Fox allowed on the air. He wrote that the impeachment trial…

“…is not a charade or a joke or a hoax. It is deadly serious business based on well-established constitutional norms. The House of Representatives — in proceedings in which the president chose not to participate — impeached Trump for abuse of power and contempt of Congress. The abuse consists of his efforts to extract a personal political ‘favor’ from the president of Ukraine as a precondition to the delivery of $391 million in military aid.”

Napolitano also addressed the question of Congress charging Trump with impeachable offenses saying that…

“…there is enough evidence here to do so. Federal election laws proscribe as criminal the mere solicitation of help for a political campaign from a foreign national or government. There is no dispute that Trump did this. In fact, the case for this is stronger now than it was when the House impeached him last year. Since then, more evidence, which Trump tried to suppress, has come to light.

On whether Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” Napolitano concluded that “the evidence is ample and uncontradicted.” Naturally, these sort of rational, independent opinions are verboten on Fox News. That’s why Napolitano had to be muzzled and stuffed in a basement somewhere in the bowels of Fox News headquarters.

After going to the trouble of censoring the Senate hearings and replacing them with drooling Trump propagandists, Fox could hardly allow these ideas to leak into the general population of vulnerable Trump cult followers. Their lack of critical thinking skills would subject them to the unbearable discomfort of reality. And that would violate everything Fox News stands for.

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

Trump’s Campaign Manager Responds to Bleak Fox News Poll by Insulting the American People

Posted by on January 21, 2020 at 12:58 pm. 6 Comments :

In recent days Donald Trump has been frantically posting tweets that proclaim him to be the most popular president ever, leading a country that is “number one in the universe.” And he got that fact directly from the alien voices in his head, so it must be true. But Trump’s glowing review of himself is not only wrong, it’s evidence of his growing mental infirmity.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Hate Again

On Monday Trump dispatched his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, to the studio of his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. While there, Parscale met with some unexpectedly challenging questions (video below). Parscale delivered his doctrinaire dialogue that portrayed Trump and his administration as having a perfect record of nothing but success. He asserted that Trump’s standing in the polls – and in the hearts of the American people – is at an all time high. That is, of course, contrary to reality. Trump’s approval is in the low 40s in most polls. Even Trump’s favorite poll, the disreputable and biased Rasmussen poll, has Trump slumping. But these facts didn’t stop Parscale from making his blatantly false and unsupported comments.

What Parscale surely didn’t foresee was that the Fox News anchor, Bill Hemmer, would present him with some actual data that contradicted the rosy scenario he painted for Trump:

Parscale: Every standard we have to measure what’s going on with the President and trying to win victory in 2020, we’re doing better.
Hemmer: I’ve got some numbers for you. 2016 suburban voters. President Trump led Hillary Clinton by four points. Among suburban women he trailed her by only seven. Now we did a poll here at Fox about a month and a half ago, and these numbers are very different … Among suburban voters he now trails by eleven. Among suburban women he’s down by a whopping twenty-four points. How come?

Parscale struggled to explain the decline. He first resorted to a weak complaint that the numbers were different (duh). Then he returned to his robo-recitation that Trump was doing better in everything simply because he says so. After Hemmer reiterated that Trump’s poor showing was “substantial,” Parscale directly dismissed the Fox News poll (see page 19) saying that “I just don’t think those numbers are right.” Oh? Well that settles it then.

Parscale went on to claim that Trump is “far ahead” of the Democratic candidates in fundraising. But the aggregate total for the Democrats has “more than tripled [Trump’s] 2019 cash haul … No incumbent president this century has been so thoroughly outraised by a field of challengers” And in the face of those facts, Parscale sunk to belittling American voters as inattentive to their duties in a democracy:

“Right now the American people are tuned out. Because, honestly, what’s happened with impeachment and everything else, they’ve shut down. They’re enjoying the Super Bowl. They’re watching football games. Enjoying this country’s great economy. They’re not sitting around watching this stuff.”

First of all, Parscale’s derogatory remarks destroy his own assertion that Trump is flying high in the polls. Of what significance is that if voters aren’t paying attention, as he contends? But even worse, according To Trump’s campaign boss, Americans are a bunch of lazy, unpatriotic, sports slobs who don’t care about the future of their country or the election that is only nine months away.

This insulting impression of voters by the Trump team isn’t likely to pull Trump’s poll standings out of the gutter. All it does is confirm that Trump, and everyone around him, are mired in delusional perspectives of Trump as an invincible superhero who cannot be vanquished. Never mind that they have no data to support that worshipful view. It’s not like Trump ever relied on facts – or reality – for anything else he’s ever done. The only thing he relies on is the naivete of his tiny cadre of cult followers. And that’s just not gonna cut it now that the nation knows who Trump really is.

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

Reality TV Law: Trump Recruits His Impeachment Defense Team from Fox News

Posted by on January 17, 2020 at 1:05 pm. 3 Comments :

Donald Trump famously boasted that he “knows all the best people.” It turns out that that’s only true if what he meant by “best” was the foremost crooks, liars, and bootlickers. His administration has witnessed a parade of moral slackers and incompetents. He has fired more of his own appointees than any president in history. These are people that he lauded as “brilliant” until their termination, when he castigated them as “idiots.”

Fox News, Impeach Trump

A troubling hallmark of the Trump White House has been its reliance on staffers that Trump plucked from Fox News. They include Larry Kudlow, K.T. McFarland, Ben Carson, Sebastian Gorka, Richard Grennell, Jonathan Wachtel, Heather Nauert, and more. The truth is that Trump doesn’t really know anybody with any experience or record of accomplishment. He’s a former reality TV game show host who does nothing but golf, tweet, and watch Fox News.

So it comes as no surprise that as his impeachment looms before him, he resorts to the only source for personnel he’s familiar with to recruit his legal team. That team is already led by a frequent Fox News talking head, Jay Sekulow. And now Trump has announced that he’s filling up the roster with more of the same flunkies he’s seen over and over again on Fox.

The new members of Trump’s impeachment defense team are Ken Starr, Alan Dershowitz, Robert Ray, and Pam Bondi. All of them have been regular fixtures on Fox News as the network strives to host only those who will shamelessly suck up to the President by unflinchingly defending him and ruthlessly maligning his critics. And it’s from these televised auditions that Trump selects his closest associates and most trusted allies. This is a president who only values appearances. It is more important to him that his advocates perform well on television than that they exhibit intelligence, integrity, or fealty to facts. So let’s take a closer look at the stuffed suits Trump has hired to defend him:

Ken Starr…
…is best known as the independent counsel who couldn’t find any wrongdoing on the part of Bill Clinton, so he settled for a smarmy, albeit consensual, sex scandal as the basis for impeachment. Starr himself was later fired from his post as the president of Baylor University amid allegations of sexual misconduct on the football team. And another item on his resume is having worked for Trump pal and pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.

Alan Dershowitz…
…is remembered as a member of the O.J. Simpson defense team. Trump likely appreciates his ability to get acquittals for people who are obviously guilty. He also must appreciate Dershowitz’s slobbering displays of affection and total faith in Trump’s purity and innocence. Dershowitz also worked for Epstein. Is this a pattern forming?

Robert Ray…
…took over the independent counsel office when Ken Starr left. Other than his frequent Trump-fluffing appearances on Fox and Friends, he isn’t particularly well known for anything significant.

Pam Bondi…
…is the former Attorney General for the state of Florida. She was caught in a campaign finance scandal wherein she accepted an illegal $25,000 donation from a Trump charity and then promptly dropped a case against his bogus Trump University that was later found to be guilty of fraud.

So the reality TV presidency is now being extended to the legal team that he’s relying on to absolve him of the high crimes and misdemeanors that led to his impeachment. It’s not much more than a cast of made-for-TV characters who will be preaching to the cameras and viewers at home, rather than to the assembled “jurors” in the Senate chamber. From Trump’s perspective this might seem like a smart move since the majority Republicans in the Senate have pretty much already declared their intentions to acquit him regardless of the evidence.

However, the American people are not going to be as forgiving as Trump’s GOP sycophants in Washington. They already believe that Trump is guilty, and a majority support his impeachment and removal from office. So it isn’t likely that Trump will find success in the melodramatic soap opera stunts deployed by this team of Fox News litigators. Team trump may have the system rigged for an acquittal, but the voters are going to hear all the evidence and make their own judgment come November.

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

Sean Hannity and Fox News are Up to Their Hair Plugs in the Lev Parnas Affair

Posted by on January 16, 2020 at 2:34 pm. 6 Comments :

With each new day there are new and damning revelations affirming Donald Trump’s criminal behavior related to Ukraine and efforts to manufacture dirt on Joe Biden and subvert the 2020 election. The latest bombshells come from Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, whose nefarious activities include extorting Ukrainian President Zelensky and surveilling former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovich.

Fox News Sean Hannity

Parnas was interviewed on MSNBC Wednesday by Rachel Maddow in a wide ranging discussion that made it clear that Trump “knew exactly what was going on” and was lying about his feigned ignorance of Parnas and his mission. But the evidence of Trump’s guilt is abundant. Also interesting is the evidence of Hannity’s guilt, and that of Fox News.

Proof is emerging of Hannity’s relationship with the Giuliani Crew. Hannity himself is in bed with Parnas. They have had communications that resulted in Hannity tweeting about bogus allegations of Ukrainian interference in the U.S. election to help Hillary Clinton. That tweet was deleted, but remains archived. Trump, however, didn’t delete his subsequent tweet promoting Hannity’s story on the subject that same night. Likewise, The Giuliani Crew also communicated with Don Trump Jr, who posted a tweet attacking Yovanovich. So their is an unbroken chain of propaganda circling around between Trump, Giuliani, his Ukraine mob, Fox News, and back to Trump and his crime family.

What’s more, Parnas had much to share about the complicity of Fox News in Trump’s plot to coerce Zelensky into helping him smear Biden. The Giuliani team worked with right-wing author John Solomon to disseminate their lies. At the time Solomon worked for The Hill, but is now employed by Fox News. So naturally Hannity unleashed a furious assault on Parnas and the network that hosted him. Hannity’s rage was so intense that he lapsed into the sort of incoherent outbursts you might hear from a paranoid schizophrenic on a street corner shouting at passing cars (video below). He began…

“Yesterday, last-ditch effort, Hail Mary, smear job, yup the congenital liar attached new documents to the articles of impeachment. Including so-called evidence from a former Giuliani contact. Oh by the way on conspiracy TV. The guy is facing federal charges from the Southern District of New York. You don’t really want to mess with those people.”

Did you follow that? Apparently Hannity is upset that new incriminating evidence about Trump has come out. But he can’t rebut any of it, so he unloads a barrage of nasty adjectives. He glosses over the fact that Parnas is working with Trump’s lawyer, but hones in on his having been indicted. And while Hannity is adamant that that’s a problem for Parnas, it doesn’t seem to be a problem for other Trump comrades who are under indictment or already convicted, including his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his national security adviser Michael Flynn, his personal attorney Michael Cohen, and his fixer Roger Stone. Hannity continued…

“So [Parnas] goes right to state-run MSDNC conspiracy channel media. Keep in mind when people like him, trying to stay out of jail, think about this, how many times have we heard from the liberals ‘oh you can’t waterboard, or use enhanced interrogation because people will say anything, they’ll lie to make it end.’ Well people trying to stay out of jail, in my humble opinion, they’ll say anything.”

Now Hannity thinks that MSNBC is “state-run” media. You have to wonder what state Hannity thinks that it’s being run out of. It must be the “Deep State.” And it’s cute that Hannity is trying to connect an indicted defendant giving testimony to waterboarding. No one has tortured Parnas. He is simply doing what many defendants do when faced with prosecution. He’s turning state’s evidence. That’s a voluntary action to secure a lighter sentence. And it does not have the pitfalls of torture, where victims will indeed say anything to make it stop. A defendant providing testimony must tell the truth or any agreement made with prosecutors is null and void.

However, Hannity’s description of defendants saying anything to stay out of jail actually fits Trump much better. After all, he is known to be a pathological liar anyway. And he doesn’t have any agreement with prosecutors to worry about voiding. He’s lying through his capped teeth to avoid prison. And he clearly doesn’t care what he says, or how ludicrous the lie, if he thinks it will either deflect from his guilt or help him to evade accountability. The whole lot of them are neck deep in criminal behavior. And if more disclosures like those Parnas is serving up come to pass, they are all going to be sharing a cell block.

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

Trump Fluffs Lou Dobbs of Fox News for Feeding His Mad Lust for Flattery

Posted by on January 15, 2020 at 1:53 pm. 4 Comments :

Wednesday morning was buzzing with historic news and revelations of scandal. and none of it was good news for Donald Trump. Most prominently was the House of Representatives voting to send the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. And none too soon. The American people’s desire to see Trump removed from office is growing. But there was also new reporting tying Trump to the nefarious activities of Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, and the troubling surveillance of U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

Fox News, Lou Dobbs

Trump has been actively employing petty tactics he picked up while hosting his reality TV game show. He’s been counter-programming events that he fears will reflect poorly on him. So on Tuesday evening he held another of his cult rallies to coincide with the Democratic primary debate in Iowa. And on Wednesday he scheduled a signing ceremony for what is being called “Phase One” of a trade deal with China. Never mind that no one has seen the contents of the alleged deal. Trump was only concerned with trying to steal attention away from the impeachment vote in the House. He failed at both of these cynical ploys.

Trump’s flagrantly manipulative signing ceremony was a wholly vacant waste of time that produced nothing newsworthy. Trump spent a full half hour thanking the shameless toadies in the room, including members of his Cabinet and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. It was a such a painfully boring presentation that even Fox News cut away from it. Which is a shame, because had they stayed tuned they would have seen Trump planting a big fat wet kiss on Fox host Lou Dobbs (video below):

“A man who always liked me, because he’s smart, so smart. The great Lou Dobbs. You know, at first he said, ‘He’s the best since Reagan.’ Then he got to know me more and more and he said, ‘He’s even better than Reagan.’ […] He said ‘He’s the greatest of them all.’ I said ‘Does that include Washington and Lincoln?’ And he said ‘Yes.'”

Isn’t that sweet? Trump recites some nauseatingly worshipful praise about himself that he attributes to one of his biggest fans on the network that serves as his Ministry pf Propaganda. Dobbs surely has a deep infatuation with Trump and an opinion that is shared by almost nobody outside of State TV. In fact, historians ranked Trump dead last out of all forty-five presidents. Lincoln and Washington came in first and second respectively. Trump nemesis Barack Obama placed eighth. And even Bill Clinton, who was also impeached, was respectable at thirteen.

Trump also landed at the bottom of the heap in a ranking based on Gallup approval polls going back to 1937. He has never managed to hit 50% (his highest mark was only 46%). Both Obama and Clinton top out much higher, at 69% and 73% respectively. So Trump is the least popular president in history according to both historians and the American people.

Yet Dobbs – and Trump himself – have much more positive opinions that must be based on their mutual admiration society. Trump has long been enamored of Dobbs, whose advice he often seeks on official government policies. In the new book, “A Very Stable Genius,” there is a revealing illustration of Trump’s dependence on Dobbs, particularly on matters involving immigration:

“The president would routinely call [former Homeland Security director Kirstjen] Nielsen to say a version of ‘Did you see Lou Dobbs? You’re totally f*cking embarrassing me. This is my issue!’… Sometimes, Trump would refer to one of Dobbs’s proposals and say, ‘Kirstjen, just do it. Just do it.’ ‘But we can’t do it,’ Nielsen would explain, usually because whatever Dobbs had uttered on TV was against the law.”

That’s how far into the abyss of ignorance Trump has driven this country. He relies on a “shadow cabinet” of Fox News flunkies like Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and others, including legal hacks like Alan Dershowitz and Mark levin. So if you wondered how things got so bad, you now know that you can blame it on both Trump and Fox News. There isn’t much we can do about Fox, but we can get rid of Trump this coming November, if we work for it.

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

After Years of Backing Trump’s Denials, Fox News Asks If America is ‘Ready for Russia’ in 2020

Posted by on January 14, 2020 at 1:39 pm. 2 Comments :

New reporting has confirmed that “Russian hackers targeted the Ukrainian gas company [Burisma] that’s a major focus of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.” The significance of this cannot be overstated. Recall that candidate Trump asked Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails before the 2016 election. And now we learn that Russia has hacked the company connected to his extortion of Ukraine to probe the Bidens prior to the 2020 election. This isn’t suspicious at all, is it?

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

Throughout the campaign and into his presidency, Trump sought to defend Russia from charges that it was involved in the hacking of Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. He tried to shift blame to everyone form China to “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.” Trump even took the word of Vladimir Putin over that of the United States intelligence community that unanimously agreed that Russia was behind the hacking and the release of the stolen data. Asked point blank if he thought Russia was involved, Trump replied “I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

Naturally, Fox News has been taking Trump’s side in this mission to absolve Russia of any guilt and to deceive the American people. They backed up Trump’s denials at every turn and embraced his absurd call for a partnership with Russia on cyber-security matters. And they continue to do so to this day. On Tuesday morning’s episode of Outnumbered on Fox News, co-host Dagen McDowell rehashed the debunked theory that there were other perpetrators in the hacking, saying that “It’s Russia over here, but what about everything else that’s going on, whether it’s compromising our election or compromising our data security?” That led to this exchange (video below):

Harris Faulkner: I just hope we’re ready for the next election.
Jessica Tarlov: Well, it doesn’t sound like we are.
Brian Kilmeade: I think we are.
Tarlov: Really? But there are election security bills sitting on [Mitch] McConnell’s desk that he won’t touch.
Kilmeade: I do believe we’re ready. And I believe the Russians are gonna learn that we’re going to blink the lights on that country should they try it. I think that’s the best offense. The best defense is a great offense.
Tarlov: Can you call McConnell and tell him to pass some of those election security bills?
Kilmeade: It’s already done.

Kilmeade’s confidence in America’s readiness is peculiar considering that virtually nothing has been done an a national scale to secure our election systems. His assertion that Russia would be punished for any bad behavior has no factual basis, especially since Trump has let them off the hook for their prior transgressions. In fact, Trump still seems to be inviting foreign governments to interfere in our elections, as we’ve seen with Ukraine.

If a great offense is the best defense, then the U.S. is in big trouble. We have no offense whatsoever. And our captain has not said a single word about the new report of Russians hacking Burisma. Finally, Kilmeade’s off-hand response to a request to prod McConnell into action that “It’s already done,” doesn’t even make sense. What’s been done, by whom? Certainly McConnell isn’t going forward with any election security measures.

Let’s face it, Trump doesn’t want anything to be done about election security or Russia’s interference in our elections. Even if he isn’t colluding with Russia, he knows that their efforts benefit him and wants them to continue. That’s what special counsel Robert Mueller was referring to when he said that Trump had “welcomed and encouraged“ Russia in the 2016 election.

It looks very much like the same thing is happening now. And it could have the same effect if nothing is done about it. Congress needs to act quickly and decisively to insure that our democracy isn’t subverted again. The American people need to let Congress know that we expect nothing less from them. And the media must not allow itself to be used again by foreign adversaries to disseminate their propaganda and choose our next president.

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

Trump’s Press ‘Slackretary’ Runs to Fox News to Slander Democrats as Terrorist Supporters

Posted by on January 13, 2020 at 5:29 pm. 5 Comments :

Stephanie Grisham was appointed as Donald Trump’s third press secretary in as many years on July 1, 2019. In those six months she has not held a single press briefing. However, the slacker press shill has appeared repeatedly on Fox News and a couple of other Trump-fluffing media outlets like Sinclair. So Grisham is pocketing $179,000 a year to disseminate propaganda on shamelessly biased TV networks.

Stephanie Grisham, Fox News

On Monday morning Grisham made another stop at Fox News to polish the lies of her boss. The entire segment was typically repugnant and riddled with lies (video below), but this time she managed to advance some of the most nauseating attacks on the vast majority of Americans, and specifically those who are members of the nation’s largest political party, the Democrats. Grisham responded to a question from Fox’s Harris Faulkner about Trump’s retweeting of a blatantly bigoted meme that was intended to portray House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer as terrorist enemies of the state:

Faulkner: Why would the President even take the time to retweet something like this?
Grisham: I think the president is making clear that Democrats are parroting Iranian talking points and almost taking the side of terrorists and those who were out to kill Americans. I think the President was making the point that the Democrats seem to hate him so much that they’re willing to be on the side of countries, and leadership of countries, that want to kill Americans.

This is the sort of toxic rhetoric that has become the hallmark of Trump’s debasing of the presidency. If challenged, Grisham would not be able to cite a single instance of any Democrat, much less Pelosi and Schumer, “parroting Iranian talking points” or being “on the side of countries…that want to kill Americans.” But Grisham was not challenged by Faulkner. Her despicable words were in line with the mission of Fox News to exalt Trump and disparage his critics.

Grisham has not been alone in hurling these sort of grotesque obscenities. Many other Republican cretins have gone down this same path of division and hatred. And naturally, Trump is the leader of this parade of the pathetically putrid. He retweeted five other expressions of a similarly vile nature, asserting that Democrats were supporters of terrorists. That’s a bizarre accusation coming from Trump, and not just because it’s so grossly untrue. But Trump is the one who has cuddled up to murderous tyrants like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Mohammed bin Salman, and he famously fell in love with Kim Jong Um. And not to be outdone by the Twitter brigades he retweeted, Trump composed his own tweet that accused Democrats of having an affinity for Iranian General Qasem Soleimani:

This march toward an ever more loathsome and hateful brand of politics has been in the making since Trump announced his candidacy. He believes that behaving like a severely disturbed child who’s been possessed by demons is an appropriate way to conduct government business. It’s why he continually maligns anyone who isn’t sufficiently worshipful. And, as is evident in his press secretary and his sycophants in Congress and the press, his sociopathy has infected all those around him. It’s a downward spiral that is observable in all those who still seek his favor by emulating the disgusting lack of morality that is his trademark.

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

Trump TV? Trump’s Billionaire Buddies Are Bidding to Buy Failing Fox News Foe

Posted by on January 12, 2020 at 12:54 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump spent his morning doing what he does nearly every morning: Pounding out desperate comments in a flurry of rage-tweeting. For the most part his Twitter tantrums consisted of whining about having been impeached. Trump seems determined to establish himself as the most sniveling, cowardly, self-perceived victim who has ever occupied the White House.

Trump TV

At least Trump now seems to have correctly characterized his impeachment in a more realistic context asking “Why should I have the stigma of Impeachment attached to my name?” Poor baby. It’s interesting that someone with a such a pronounced messiah complex would associate his tribulations with the Stigmata. Perhaps someone close to him will tell him that he’s suffering this fate because he righteously earned it by breaking laws and obstructing justice. But don’t count on that.

Trump also tweeted a couple of flagrant contradictions. In one he complained that the government of Iran would not “let reporters roam free.” This is coming from the same guy who calls U.S. reporters “the enemy of the people,” revokes their credentials, and proposes banning them from the White House. He’s a real free press advocate, isn’t he?

The other contradiction came in the form of a demand that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff be forced to testify before Congress. Really? Trump has refused to allow any members of his administration to testify in the Senate impeachment hearings, even after complaining that he was denied due process (which doesn’t exist in impeachments) during the House hearings. and, of course, he’s too scared to testify on his own behalf. Trump may be first defendant who opposes the testimony of those he says will exonerate him. That’s not the behavior of an innocent man.

The more Trump whines about impeachment, the more obvious it is that he is panicking and frightened by its prospects. He is fraught with anxiety, though he tries impotently to pretend not to be. But there’s another prospect that is bubbling up from under the surface of his fear. He might already be laying the groundwork for his post-presidency later this year.

A group of Trump’s billionaire buddies is seeking to purchase the floundering One America News Network. OANN has been trying for fifteen years to mount a challenge to Fox News as the preeminent lunatic wing of conservative media. They have had some support from Trump who has tweeted about them forty-seven times. Often when he’s mad at Fox News for not being sufficiently adoring. Trump recently advised his cult followers to “start looking for a new News Outlet” because “FoxNews doesn’t deliver for US anymore.” Which, if nothing else, is a candid admission that Trump regards Fox, not as a news network, but as part of his “us.”

So why would these wealthy Trump confederates be interested in shelling out a couple hundred million dollars for OANN? It can’t be as an investment opportunity. The “network” has so few viewers that Nielsen doesn’t even track them, and they aren’t carried by any of the major cable operators.

Likewise, Trump’s pals couldn’t be interested in acquiring OANN in order to impose a more conservative editorial posture. That wouldn’t be possible. It is already a bastion of Trump-fluffing adulation and bizarre, anti-liberal conspiracy theories, including the Seth Rich murder and George Soros smears. It has notable ties to Russia, and is suing MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow because she reported that.

There is only one other plausible reason that allies of Trump would want to take ownership of a money-losing, blatantly biased, propaganda mill. They could be planning to develop it as the media platform for a former President Trump. After all, he is going to need a job after he can no longer soak the American people by directing business to his golf resorts and hotels. And his famously gargantuan ego will require that he be in the public eye.

The question is, does the the timing have any significance. There wouldn’t be any hurry to make this acquisition if the buyers thought that Trump would be serving a second four year term. So perhaps there has already been a determination made that Trump is either going to decline to run, or that his reelection is too improbable, thus making it necessary to snatch up this stinker and begin painting the walls gold and filling it with tacky furniture.

Whatever happens, OANN will remain an also-ran in the media wars even with Trump headlining. They’ll be lucky if they’re able to give the televangelists some competition. Although, that would be much more appropriate program positioning for the Cult of Trump. And as for Trump’s Sunday Morning Tweetstorm, Speaker Pelosi had some choice words when asked for her reaction: “I don’t like to spend too much time on his crazy tweets because everything he says is a projection. When he calls somebody crazy, he knows that he is.”

UPDATE: The rumors of an OANN purchase by Trump backers is more than just talk.

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