Hillary Clinton

WTF? Nikki Haley Slams the Grammys Because She ‘Loves Music Without the Politics’

Posted by on January 28, 2018 at 9:41 pm. 5 Comments :

The 60th Annual Grammy Awards show aired Sunday night with the customary pomp and circumstance that accompanies these galas. New stars and legends took the stage to celebrate the music industry’s creative achievements of the last year. It will certainly be viewed by millions of fans for whom music is as necessary as air.

Hillary Clinton

One viewer out there, however, is no longer a fan. Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, was not pleased by a humorous sketch (video below) that featured a number of big stars reading from Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury. The book caused a stir by revealing some of the inside dirt at Donald Trump’s White House. That political comedy was too much for Haley who tweeted:

Is she friggin’ kidding? Music and politics are hardly a new combination. In fact, the social condition has been the subject of music compositions for centuries. And particularly with regard to contemporary music, political themes have inspired some of the greatest music and artists of all time. If Haley were to have her way, the artists whose music was fiercely political that she would do away with would include:

  • Rage Against the Machine
  • Eminem
  • The Clash
  • James Brown
  • U2
  • Crosby, Stills & Nash
  • Neil Young
  • Public Enemy
  • Dead Kennedys
  • Green Day
  • Frank Zappa
  • Marvin Gaye
  • Bruce Springsteen
  • The Beatles
  • Bob Marley
  • The Sex Pistols
  • Bob Dylan
  • Kendrick Lamar

And that’s not nearly a complete list. Haley’s ignorance of the importance of expressing real life issues in the musical arts is really just her own aversion to free thought and creativity. She never complained when her idiot boss, Donald Trump, attacked Jay-Z, John Legend, Cher, Neil Young, Snoop Dogg, or the cast of Hamilton.

But read a few lines from a book critical of Trump for a comedy sketch and Haley is outraged. And another thing that makes her whining absurd is that the bit didn’t have any music in it. So how could any music have been “ruined” by this brief segment? The truth is that Trump’s night was ruined by some some artists making fun of him, which he richly deserves. And Haley had to defend her crybaby master’s ego. It’s just plain pathetic, but so very typical.

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

This Fox News Lie About a Uranium One Indictment is Outrageously Stupid, Even for Fox News

Posted by on January 14, 2018 at 2:47 pm. 2 Comments :

Never let it be said that Fox News wouldn’t hype a pile of steaming bullpucky whenever they had an opportunity to do so. The frailty of their so-called logic is often built on making absurd connections between disparate subjects just because they might share a single word, even if they have nothing else in common. And a perfect example of that was aired Sunday Morning on Fox (video below):

Fox News Lies

The headline blaring from Fox News was “1st Indictment in Uranium One Probe.” That would be a pretty significant development in the bogus scandal that Fox News and the Republican Party have been trying to push. Never mind the fact that it has already been fully investigated and no wrongdoing was found. Trump is improperly directing his Justice Department to investigate and prosecute Hillary Clinton for imaginary crimes.

The thirty second story on Fox News Sunday morning didn’t address any of the details of the indictment they were reporting. They only raised it long enough to imply that Clinton was somehow involved:

“The first indictment is out in the Justice Department probe of the Clinton State Department Uranium One Deal […] The deal was okayed by the Obama administration, including Hillary Clinton, giving a Russian company twenty percent of the U.S. uranium.”

Fox News correctly reported that there was an indictment served by the Department of Justice. But that was the only thing that was true in their report. Fox’s claim that this indictment was connected to a probe of Clinton was utterly false. For an honest account of the matter see the report by Reuters who wrote that:

“U.S. authorities have charged a Maryland businessman with bribing a Russian official in an effort to win contracts to ship uranium to the United States. […] Prosecutors allege Lambert, former co-president of a Maryland-based shipping company Transport Logistics International (TLI), bribed a Russian energy official through a series of shell companies in Cyprus, Latvia and Switzerland in exchange for contracts to ship nuclear fuel to U.S. utilities.”

The debunked conspiracy theory that Trump, Fox News, and other rightist propaganda merchants have tried to hang around Clinton’s neck has to do with the sale of Uranium One, a company in Wyoming that refined uranium for non-military use within the United States. The indictment in this new report was against a Maryland businessman for bribing Russian officials in order to secure a contract to transport uranium from Russia to the U.S. It has nothing to do with Uranium One or Hillary Clinton.

That, however didn’t stop Fox News from connecting the two, and even saying outright that the Maryland deal was approved by the Obama administration and Clinton. It wasn’t. It was strictly a case of a dishonest businessman allegedly trying to get an unfair, illegal advantage for himself. And while the lies Fox News told about Uranium One included the allegation that the deal would send U.S. uranium to Russia (it wouldn’t), this indictment involves a contract to ship Russian uranium into the U.S.

There is nothing remotely connecting these two news stories other than the fact that both involve uranium in some respect. But Fox News reported the Maryland bribery indictment as the “1st Indictment in Uranium One Probe,” which it isn’t related to in any way. It’s like connecting the Charles Manson murders to the Charles Lindbergh kidnapping because both involved someone named Charles. Or more to the point, it’s like connecting Fox to news because it has “news” in its name. Let’s face it, the only reason that Fox News promotes nonsense like this is to distract their dimwitted audience from the very real crimes of Donald Trump. But because they’re so inept, they only end up bringing more attention to their obvious deceptions and refocus the spotlight on the corruption of Trump and his conservative co-conspirators.

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

Fox News Business Network Has Fully Transitioned From Financial Reporting to Trump Shilling

Posted by on January 8, 2018 at 11:03 am. 2 Comments :

When Fox News began in 1996, the intention was to develop an overtly partisan, right-wing network that would skew the news to the ultra-conservative views of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes. After achieving that goal they set their sights on a business network that would eventually do the same thing.

Fox News Bartiromo

The Fox Business Network was never aimed at providing useful financial information. When it launched they put Neil Cavuto at the helm, a move that can only be interpreted as advancing the same conservative biases that infest his daily program on Fox News. And the execrable Lou Dobbs has long been a fixture on the channel. Three years ago they hired Maria Bartiromo who had been a financial correspondent on CNBC for twenty years. But it’s obvious now that Bartiromo has been inducted into the Fox mindset as she shamelessly disgorges wingnut propaganda.

On her Sunday program, Sunday Morning Futures, Bartiromo interviewed Republican inquisitioner Trey Gowdy on a subject that Fox News and the GOP have been desperately trying to revive: Hillary Clinton’s crime-riddled past (video below). Never mind that she has been the target of blatantly prejudiced investigations for twenty years that haven’t turned up a hint of wrongdoing. With all of Donald Trump’s illegal entanglements, the GOP needs to find ways to muddy the public discourse.

The questions that Bartiromo asked Gowdy are all that is needed to observe how hopelessly biased she is. Each one was a leading question that implied criminal intent to Clinton. As if Gowdy needed any help in turning his partisan innuendo into outrageous allegations. Here are the severely slanted questions Bartiromo asked verbatim:

“Do you now have the documents that you have been requesting to best assess whether or not there was a massive abuse of power by the FBI around the election last year?”

“So where does this lead? I mean, you’ve been stonewalled since August. You’re finally getting documents last week and this week week that you’ve been asking for since August. We know for example when you look at the Hillary Clinton side of things, her IT manager, Brian Tagliano, initially said he never deleted anything to the FBI. He told the FBI ‘I didn’t delete anything.’ Then apparently has an ‘aha’ moment and says ‘Oh wait, yes. I did delete emails.’ After we know that those were actually recovered. And he gets immunity. So he gets immunity despite the fact that he lied to the FBI, deleted emails, and didn’t tell anybody that there were these emails that existed.”

“Peter Strzok, when he was texting his girlfriend, Lisa Page, said that we need an insurance policy in place. Now Congressman, we have been hearing bits and pieces of this so-called Russia probe, so-called collusion between Trump and the Russians, with absolutely zero evidence. Was that the insurance policy? Peter Strzok essentially saying to his mistress, ‘Look, we’re just gonna keep on investigating Donald Trump should he win.'”

“Americans want to see the rule of law. If we cannot trust the FBI, the CIA – by the way, the IRS. We know what the IRS did a year ago, or two years ago. Then what is the point of the freedoms of America?”

“Let me ask you this because we’ve been watching this Russia probe. How long is this gonna go on? Because we still haven’t had any evidence of any collusion. When is it appropriate for Bob Mueller to come out and say ‘Yes, definitively there is no collusion here. But what I have uncovered is collusion at the top of the FBI between the FBI leadership and Hillary Cliinton.”

“We can’t have confidence if nothing is ever being done and there isn’t any accountability here. Obviously you have been searching for the truth. Devin Nunes is searching for the truth. But people are questioning the head law enforcement individual.

These are the sort of questions that hardly require answers. The response is built into the inquiry. Particularly notable is the question that seeks to put words into special counsel Mueller’s mouth implying collusion on Clinton’s part. And asserting that Gowdy and Nunes are truth-seekers is painfully delusional. They are among the most acutely biased Republicans in the country. But Bartiromo regards them as more credible than the nation’s top law enforcement professionals. Yet this is the unethical posture that Bartiromo has taken in order to serve her masters at Fox News and in the Trump administration. It’s downright embarrassing and more than a little nauseating.

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

Trump Finally Leaves His Palm Beach Resort to Return to His Day Job: Watching Fox News

Posted by on January 2, 2018 at 2:23 pm. 3 Comments :

On Christmas day, Donald Trump posted a tweet wishing everyone a “great Christmas” (not merry?) and then promised that “tomorrow it’s back to work in order to Make America Great Again.” He then spent the next seven days at his luxurious Mar-A-Lago golf resort in Palm Beach, Florida. He had no presidential duties on his schedule and his only public appearances were on the golf course or at private galas.

Donald Trump Fox News

On January 2, Trump finally made it back to Washington, D.C., and the White House he has called “a dump.” It took him a week from his tweet, but he eventually returned to what he considers to be his job: Watching Fox News. That was apparent by the stream of tweets he posted Tuesday morning. Each one following closely a segment from that morning’s airing of Fox and Friends. He began the New Year Twittapalooza with a dark message that affirms his authoritarian tendencies:

In that one tweet Trump manages to breach a variety of principles required for a free society. First, he makes unsubstantiated allegations against Hillary Clinton, a former political opponent, and her aide, Huma Abedin. Trump actually calls for them to be jailed, without evidence, or even a trial. He was tipped to this nonsense while watching a correspondent from the Daily Caller on Fox and Friends. The Daily Caller is the website run by by Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Secondly, Trump disparaged the Department of Justice as a tool of the “Deep State,” a term of paranoia that he picked up from his pal, Sean Hannity. Of Course the Justice Department is currently run by Trump appointees and he recently said that he has the “absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department.” That’s a scary thought, and it isn’t true, but it calls into question his criticism that implies the whole institution is conspiring against him and his glassy-eyed disciples.

Finally, Trump made a point of dragging former FBI Director into this web of alleged criminals that he wants to lock up. That would be a legally perilous act since he would be persecuting someone that is a likely witness in charges that may be filed against Trump and his associates. It would add to the counts of obstruction of justice that might already be pending.

The tweet immediately following that one thanked Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council. Judd had said some nice things about Trump on Fox and Friends a few minutes before the tweet. Obviously, Trump was watching and wanted to express his gratitude, along with promoting the utterly useless border wall that has become an obsession with him.

Trump also tweeted about the situation in North Korea, reprising his infantile use of the nickname “Rocket Man.”. He bragged that sanctions (which have been in place for years) were having a “big impact,” despite the fact that recent reports reveal that North Korea is planning new ballistic missile tests within the next few days. Apparently that wasn’t part of the report that Fox News aired, so Trump didn’t hear it. And we all know he relies on Fox rather than the intelligence agencies the president commands.

For someone who insists that he doesn’t have time to watch TV, he sure watches a lot of TV. And just one network in particular. Trump’s tweeting patterns have long been documented as regurgitations of something he just saw on Fox. He rarely has an original thought. And when he does, it’s likely to be praise to himself for something he had nothing to do with.

For instance, his tweet Tuesday morning citing a report that there were zero jet airliner fatalities in 2017. He attributed that to his having been “very strict” on commercial aviation. Of course, there is no record of his having done anything that would affect this statistic. What’s more, there were also zero jet airliner fatalities in the U.S. for the past eight years, long before his do-nothing presidency. However, Trump did repeal safety regulations for coal mining, and 2017 saw a surge in mining fatalities. Is he taking credit for that too?

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

With everything going on in the world today, it’s comforting knowing that Trump is so focused on what he thinks is his job. Because most Americans would rather he be watching TV and tweeting than creating international crises or adding to the domestic trauma and divisiveness he’s responsible for. Hopefully his babysitters in the White House will keep him glued to Fox News and out of the Situation Room.

Trump Loses to Obama Again: Gallup’s ‘Most Admired Man’ is Gonna Give Trump an Aneurysm

Posted by on December 27, 2017 at 11:50 am. 2 Comments :

The single most compelling motivation for everything Donald Trump has done as president has been his relentless mission to undo everything Barack Obama did. It’s what drives his fetish to kill ObamaCare. It’s why he has issued a frantic flurry of executive orders mainly reversing those Obama issued. It’s why he still can’t stop talking about, and disparaging, the former president after nearly a year in office.

Donald Trump

So it can be safely assumed that Trump isn’t going to take this news very well. According to Gallup’s annual poll, Barack Obama is once again the man that is “Most Admired” by the American people. It’s his tenth consecutive win. For a narcissist like Trump this would be painful no matter who beat him. But to be beaten by his arch nemesis Obama has to be devastating.

It’s notable that on Wednesday morning after the release of the survey Trump has gone silent on Twitter. As of this writing it has been twenty-two hours since his last tweet. It isn’t possible to make a direct link to the Gallup poll as a cause of this uncharacteristic hush, but neither is it inconceivable that he’s sulking and muttering to himself about how unfair life is rather than tweeting. He could be plotting some revenge to show Obama who’s boss. Or he might have had a small stroke and is gurgling soap bubbles in his gold-plated bathtub.

To make matters worse, this is the first time that a first-year president has not been named “Most Admired.” Other sitting presidents have missed out on the honor, but later in their terms after they had a chance to make sufficient numbers of people hate them. Trump didn’t need that extra time to fail. He came out of the gate with the worst approval ratings of any president since polling began.

And the pain for Trump doesn’t end there. In addition to being beaten by his predecessor, he also must face the news that his past (and surprisingly still) opponent, Hillary Clinton was named “Most Admired Woman” for the 22nd time (16th consecutively). She barely edged out Michelle Obama. Melania scored a single percentage point down in eighth place. Not that Trump cares about that. He’s only interested in his own performance and his desperate prayers for the failure of his foes.

So Trump has now lost to Obama twice. Once at the end of the year that saw him lose the popular vote to Clinton, and once after his first year in office. This is a man whose ego is so fragile that he forces his cabinet secretaries to recite humiliating love letters to him in official meetings. He resorts to paying tribute to himself on Twitter and during press avails to make sure that someone says something nice about him. And he whines incessantly about not being shown the adoration that he’s convinced he deserves.

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

Now Gallup has provided further documentation of how despised he is by the nation. And subsequently his Twitter voice has disappeared. Somebody better check on him to make sure he hasn’t done something rash. Like paint a mustache on the official Obama portrait, or launch a nuclear missile at “Rocket Man” in North Korea, or some other typically infantile behavior that we’ve all come to expect from him.

On the other hand, Trump may not even know about this poll since it doesn’t appear to have been reported on Fox News and still isn’t on the Fox News website. Since that seems to be his only source for news, this item may not have made it through to the Oval Office. Nevertheless, Trump must have some awareness of the deep dislike Americans have for him. And he must know deep inside that 2018 isn’t going to get any better.

Trump’s ALL-CAPS Post-Christmas Rant Reveals How Frightened He Is of His Bleak Future

Posted by on December 26, 2017 at 2:12 pm. 1 Comments :

The day after Donald Trump made it safe for Americans to say “Merry Christmas” again, he went straight back into the political fray. Well, he actually went straight back to one of his golf courses. But he did find the time to post a message on Twitter that expressed his innermost thoughts on the news of the day. Well, the news according to Fox News.

Donald Trump

Trump’s latest Twitter tirade was pretty much a rehash of the same nonsense that he has been disgorging for months. He has frequently yelped about the investigations being conducted to ascertain his involvement with Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. But he is clearly adding a huge helping of the horror that is overwhelming him as the investigations circle ever closer around him and his associates. Perhaps as a sort of relief valve he tweeted:

WOW, indeed. The first notable part of this presidential outburst is that Trump is, once again, identifying his source as his favorite Fox News program, Fox and Friends. So despite his access to the world’s best intelligence apparatus, Trump still relies on the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of a morning cable “news” show, that Fox doesn’t even classify as news. And to make matters worse, Trump was apparently so flustered with fear that he linked to a fake Fox and Friends Twitter account (note the “L” rather than an “I” in Friends).

As for the rest of the tweet, it was feast of falsehoods that are easily disproved. The so-called Steele Dossier to which Trump refers is decidedly not bogus. While the entirety of it has not yet been affirmed, much of what has been researched has been solidly verified. CNN reported in October that:

“While the most salacious allegations in the dossier haven’t been verified, its broad assertion that Russia waged a campaign to interfere in the election is now accepted as fact by the US intelligence community. CNN also reported earlier this year that US investigators have corroborated some aspects of the dossier, specifically that some of the communications among foreign nationals mentioned in the memos did actually take place.”

Additionally, Trump’s eagerness to blame Hillary Clinton for all his problems is not only misplaced, it’s a purposeful attempt to malign his arch nemesis and shift attention from himself. He never bothers to mention that the dossier originated with the Washington Free Beacon, a right-wing news website. And Trump’s assertion that it was used “as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign” is just wholly made up.

The inspiration for Trump’s Boxing Day bluster was, as is often the case, something he saw on Fox and Friends. The segment featured Buck Sexton, a conservative radio talk show show and former CIA analyst (with a comic book name that makes it hard to take him seriously). Sexton and Fox co-host Pete Hegseth covered some of the exact subjects as Trump’s tweet (video below):

Sexton: What we really want to know is was the dossier, as you all are quite aware, was a Clinton funded opposition research document, the basis for weaponizing the intelligence community against a political campaign as it was happening. People are talking about the Russian collusion as the greatest scandal – this would be the greatest scandal certainly of my lifetime.
Hegseth: And the Washington Times reporting that the FBI admitting that it can’t verify that dossier claims of Russia. Which would further the potential problem with that.

For the record, the FBI never said they “can’t verify” the dossier’s claims. They said that they “haven’t verified” some of the claims. Which is completely different. But Fox did manage to back up their BS with the ultra-right “Moonie” Washington Times. It’s all part of the conservative media machine’s effort to discredit and delegitimize special counsel Robert Mueller and any other independent investigation of Trump’s corruption and treason. That war on the truth is also being waged by Trump’s pals in the Kremlin. Newsweek reports that Russia “is using social media to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, a former CIA official and a former Republican congressman said Monday night.” And with that the quartet is complete: Russia, Trump, the GOP, and Fox News are all working together to sabotage Mueller and his investigation.

They must realize that the facts are against them and that their only hope is destroy the reputation of career law enforcement professionals who are doing their jobs. Think about this: if Trump, et al believed for a second that Mueller’s investigation would exonerate him, would he seek to tarnish the reputation of the man who could prove his innocence?

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

Fox News Escalates the War on Christmas With a Fake and Hypocritical Attack on Hillary Clinton

Posted by on December 7, 2017 at 2:28 pm. 2 Comments :

The eternal struggle over the embattled Christmas holiday continues. At least on Fox News where it originated and prospers. And as the alleged birthday of Christ approaches, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends take up their battle stations to fight once more against the forces of evil who want to destroy Christmas.

Fox News Christmas

On Thursday morning Fox and Friends suited up to face a fearsome enemy of Christmas. They aired a segment (video below) about a tree ornament that featured Hillary Clinton. The bit began with co-hosts Pete Hegseth and Ainsley Earhardt introducing a Fox News reporter who valiantly sluethed this affront to the baby Jesus:

Hegseth: This Christmas season deck the halls with Hillary Clinton. A Christmas tree topper, complete with angel wings, is turning heads online, and on this couch in my brain this morning.
Earhardt: Here with a response, blowing up social media, is Fox News Headlines 24/7 reporter Carly Shimlus.
Shimkus: People are calling this “Resistmas.” Have you heard of this? Christmas is now politically charged as well? Other people on Twitter not so sure about the whole Resistmas thing. Jack [Posobiec]on Twitter says “The Left has replaced Christmas with ‘Resistmas’ as their worship of themselves continues.”

For those unfamiliar with “Jack,” Fox News just featured a tweet by a notorious alt-right, white nationalist. Why they picked him out the all the possible Twitter commenters on this subject is obvious. Just like their Messiah, Donald Trump, they have a deeply held affinity for overt racists.

Back to the segment. The Fox News Klan were clearly disturbed by what they called the “politically charged” Christmas tree ornament. But there are a couple of big problems with that reaction. First of all, the ornament was not made or sold by Hillary Clinton or anyone associated with her in any way.

Secondly, If politicizing Christmas is so offensive, why don’t they ever complain when Trump does it? After all, he incessantly yowls about “bringing Christmas back” in a transparent attempt to exploit it as a political cudgel. Christmas, of course, has never been away. But that, like all other facts, is irrelevant to Trump and his glassy-eyed disciples. The only use Trump has for Christmas is as a means of firing up the goofballs who go to his rallies and for distracting the media from his myriad scandals.

However, the most galling part of this ludicrous segment is the flagrant hypocrisy. It took about two minutes to find Donald Trump’s blatantly political Christmas tree ornament. This ornament is not being offered by some third party profiteer. It’s actually being sold on his own website. And the message has nothing to do with Christmas, Jesus, or any other theme of the holiday season. It hypes his crass commercial slogan “Make America Great Again.” Because that’s just so Christmasy. According to the website, this tacky trinket will help his deplorables to “Get in the Christmas spirit.”

Donald Trump Christmas

The MAGA Christmas tree ornament is now selling for $45.00. That’s a substantial discount from the original price advertised in a Trump campaign donation email last year, when it cost donors $149.00. Apparently it wasn’t exactly flying off the shelves.

This is another example of Fox News going into hysterics over something pitifully lame and entirely meaningless. And in the process they lash out at their standard enemies (Clinton, Obama, Soros, Pelosi, etc.), while ignoring the far more offensive activities of their Dear Leader Donald Trump, who can do no wrong. It may seem like trivial fluff given the abundance of important issues that currently face our nation: Middle East turmoil, North Korea, terrorism, tax reform, climate change, sexual abuse, natural disasters, etc. And let’s not forget Trump’s treasonous connections to Russia and the special counsel investigating him.

But that’s the point. Fox News is using this to divert the attention of their viewers from those matters to petty concerns like Christmas tree ornaments. And what’s really sad is that they do it so very badly, but their audience is too stupid to notice.

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/-aWea7nSCCQ

Trump Repeatedly Claims Hillary Clinton Lied To The FBI, But That’s a Lie

Posted by on December 4, 2017 at 1:19 pm. 1 Comments :

You can always tell when Donald Trump is frightened out of his gourd. He rattles off baseless assertions that attack his critics in a transparent attempt to deflect from what he fears. It’s a rather pathetic display of character weakness and an inability to face reality.

Hillary Clinton

On Monday morning Trump demonstrated this when responding to questions on the White House lawn (video below). He was asked about the recent guilty plea by his disgraced National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn. And despite Flynn’s confession that he lied to the FBI, Trump expressed his disappointment and support for the felon:

“Well, I feel badly for Gen. Flynn. I feel very badly. He’s led a very strong life. […] I will say this: Hillary Clinton lied many times to the FBI, nothing happened to her. Flynn lied and they destroyed his life. I think it’s a shame.”

First of all, how do you live a very “strong” life? This is Trump exhibiting his severely limited vocabulary. It was either “strong” or “tremendous” or in a pinch, “huge.” Believe me. And Trump also proves that the Republican pretension of personal responsibility is a sham. How did the FBI destroy Flynn’s life? Wasn’t it Flynn who who destroyed his own life by his criminal dishonesty with regard to associations with Russian operatives? The FBI only held him accountable, which is their job.

But Trump wasn’t finished trying to divert attention from his own problems. He thought he could point a stubby, short finger of blame toward his arch nemesis, Hillary Clinton. The accusation that Clinton lied to the FBI “many times” is a wholly fabricated falsehood for which Trump has not even bothered to provide proof. And he’s been making this phony charge for several days. If Trump has evidence of a Clinton lie to the FBI, why doesn’t he say what it is? And why doesn’t he, or one of his sycophantic congressional lapdogs, send a request to investigate to the FBI director that he appointed?

Clearly there is no truth to Trump’s wild assertions. He’s just spraying blame wherever he can and hoping people stop noticing the disgusting deeds he’s perpetrating on the nation. For instance, this morning he also threw his wholehearted support behind the pedophile senate candidate in Alabama, Roy Moore. He reversed an Obama-era designation to protect endangered land in Utah. He escalated provocative military exercises in South Korea. And he’s celebrating a senate vote to advance a tax bill that redistributes wealth from the poor and middle class to the wealthy and corporations.

It’s been a busy week for the President. And with his former aide cooperating with the special counsel investigation against him, Trump is accelerating his frantic efforts to shift the public discourse. Unfortunately for him, it isn’t working. Except on Fox News where there never is heard a discouraging word for Trump anyway.

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

SRSLY? Breaking on Fox News: ‘Hillary Clinton is Toast’

Posted by on November 20, 2017 at 2:26 pm. 4 Comments :

For the past couple of years Fox News has refocused their standard Republican propaganda machine to more narrowly serve as Donald Trump’s personal PR and defense team. They have worked furiously to spin his innumerable gaffes and blunders as examples of some perverse brilliance. While at the same manufacturing distractions and phony news items intended to draw attention away from Trump’s idiocy, incompetence, and failure.

Hillary Clinton

One of the most frequently used tactics by Fox News is to toss out spurious allegations against Trump’s critics and political foes. At the top of the list for that ploy is, of course, Hillary Clinton. Trump can’t seem to suppress his fetish for the woman who got three million more votes than he did. And Fox News is just as obsessed by her refusal to crawl into a cave for her remaining days.

The latest manifestation of Fox’s fixation on Clinton came in the form of an opinion by contributor Liz Peek. Her story was headlined “Hillary is Toast: Scandals Finally Catch Up with Clintons.” Coming more than a year after the presidential election, it is quite a scoop for Fox News to herald the end of Clinton’s political career. They must be proud to have broken this news after only – everybody else on Planet Earth. And the profound insights in the story begin with this keen observation:

“Hillary Clinton is done, finished, kaput. Dogged by scandals old and new, out of step politically, her excess baggage has morphed into an entire baggage train, dragging her towards political oblivion.”

You have to wonder why both Trump and Fox News relentlessly harp on the question of Clinton’s relevance if they are truly convinced that she has none. The article, however, answers that question by noting that “While it is refreshing to consider the landscape unadorned by Clintons, Republicans will miss her.” And that’s precisely why Fox won’t stop blabbering about her whenever they need to shift attention away from another patented Trump Fuckup. In this case it has something to do with the President’s cowardly silence on the GOP’s pedophile candidate for the senate in Alabama, Roy Moore. Unable to conjure up a suitable response, they go deploy the Clinton deflection:

“As charges of sexual aggression swirl around prominent figures on the left and right, Bill Clinton’s gross and possibly criminal behavior is getting a second look. […] It is high time Bill Clinton’s misdeeds and Hillary’s defense of them received bipartisan condemnation.”

Getting a second look? You mean the first time around, when it was investigated for months and ended in an impeachment, wasn’t sufficient? And it’s fair to say that the condemnation was totally bipartisan when even Al Gore declined to embrace Clinton during his campaign to succeed him. These are just lame and baseless arguments intended to divert the American people from the harsh realities of Trump’s own sexual perversions and crimes. And if Republicans think that Trump is being treated unfairly because Bill Clinton got away with his misconduct, then let’s be sure Trump receives only the punishment that Clinton did and no more. That would, of course, be impeachment.

Trump Clinton

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

The rest of the article wound aimlessly between debunked GOP myths like the Uranium One deal and whining that Hillary has the audacity to embark on a book tour. It’s funny, you never hear any similar complaints when John McCain, Bernie Sanders, Mitt Romney, or any other defeated male candidate writes and promotes a post-campaign book. The truth is that Fox News and Trump and the rest of the Republican Party are addicted to the Clintons and are largely responsible for their continued prominence in the press. In fact, they may just be what Hillary is most thankful for during this Thanksgiving holiday.

Desperation in Trump Land: AG Considering a Special Counsel to Investigate Hillary Clinton

Posted by on November 14, 2017 at 9:50 am. 2 Comments :

There is now definitive proof that Donald Trump is stomping around the Oval Office in a white-hot panic. Whether it is Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a newly energized media, or pressure from his Kremlin handlers, Trump is clearly nervous that the truth is getting closer to daylight. Or at least that someone is getting closer to the truth that Trump wants to conceal.

Jeff Sessions Hillary Clinton

We know that Trump’s anxiety is at fever pitch because of the news just out about what’s going on at the Justice Department. His bootlicking attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has heard the call from his master and is giving consideration to a long sought objective of the President. Specifically the realization of the glassy-eyed rally chant “Lock Her Up.” According to reports:

“Attorney General Jeff Sessions is leaving open the possibility that a special counsel could be appointed to look into Hillary Clinton, Clinton Foundation dealings and a uranium deal during the Obama administration among other matters.”

In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, a Justice Department official says Sessions has directed senior federal prosecutors to evaluate concerns raised by Republican lawmakers. The letter says the prosecutors will recommend whether an investigation is merited.”

The whole initiative is the manifestation of delusions harbored by right-wing scam mongers. There have already been numerous investigations into these matters that found no hint of wrongdoing. Despite years of baseless allegations, the Clinton Foundation remains a respected charity that has received the highest scores from philanthropic ratings organizations. The Uranium One matter has been repeatedly debunked by fact checkers.

Trump undoubtedly is buoyed by the ultra-conservatives that dominate the Republican Party and hunger for Clinton’s blood. Many have tried to push the DOJ and Trump to punish the former Secretary of State (and current grandma in Chappaqua). And of course Fox News is contributing to the lynch mob mentality. Sean Hannity has virtually given up his entire show to it. And he isn’t alone. Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends are all in. Fox’s Jeanine Pirro even met with Trump to urge him to proceed with a Clinton prosecution.

But there are other reasons that consideration of persecuting Clinton is ludicrous and brazenly dishonest. For one thing, if Sessions intends to direct his staff to recommend whether an investigation is merited, he will be violating his statement made under oath to Congress:

“Sessions said he had made comments during the ‘contentious’ campaign about Clinton’s use of the email server and her family’s charitable foundation that could place his objectivity in question.”

“‘I believe the proper thing for me to do would be to recuse myself from any questions involving those kind of investigations that involve Secretary Hillary Clinton,’ the Alabama Republican told senators on the Judiciary Committee.”

That’s an unambiguous promise by Sessions to recuse himself from any Clinton investigations. But his stated consideration of appointing a second special counsel overtly breaches that promise. In addition to Sessions’ prior statements, Trump also expressed his disinterest in pursuing any Clinton queries. this what he said last year on the subject:

However, like pretty much everything Trump says, it will eventually be contradicted by something else that Trump says. More recently he has frantically returned to his obsession with Clinton and has been behaving like the tin-horn dictator he aspires to be. Here he is openly and improperly beseeching his Justice Department to go after Clinton despite not feeling strongly about it.

Legal experts will note that Trump’s pressuring the Justice Department violates long-standing protocol to insure the independence of the department. He has no more business asking for investigations or special counsels than he does firing them. It is a blatant abuse of power and potentially impeachable obstruction of justice.

The fact that Sessions now appears to be caving to Trump’s demands to abuse his legal power and prosecute a former political rival speaks to the fear that must be enveloping the White House. He must feel the warm breath of justice on his neck. And he thinks it’s a proper response to attack his political adversaries with the full force of the government he so incompetently leads. That’s what happens in authoritarian regimes ruled by self-absorbed tyrants. The United States must not allow that to happen here. Donald Trump must be impeached before he’s allowed to inflict more harm on the nation – and the world.

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