Little Donnie Trump, Jr. Warns About Media ‘Warming Up The Gas Chamber’ For Daddy

Posted by Mark NC on September 15, 2016 at 3:49 pm. 1 Comments :

The Trump family of whiners is continuing to complain about what they perceive as poor treatment from the media. Never mind that Donald Trump has consumed far more air time than any other candidate. Or that he has Fox News (the highest rated cable news network) dedicated 24/7 to his election. Somehow the delusion that they are victims keeps seeping into their daily bitchfest.

The latest lament has Little Don expressing his belief that the media is plotting to “trip up” his father by asking him hard questions. You know, questions like what does he know, and what would he do as president. He whines about his false impression that Papa Trump is being treated unfairly. Then he floats his theory that it’s all a conspiracy to influence the moderators of the upcoming debates. Actually, the opposite is true.

This all occurred during an interview with Philadelphia radio host Chris Stigall. But the Trumpette really took a flyer when he sought to accuse the media of being biased in favor of Hillary Clinton

“The media has been her number one surrogate in this. Without the media this wouldn’t even be a contest, but the media has built her up. They’ve let her slide on every indiscrepancy, on every lie, on every DNC game trying to get Bernie Sanders out of this thing. If Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now.”

Seriously? Little Don is comparing imaginary unfair press coverage to the mass murder committed by Nazis in World War II? It is perpetually puzzling how these cretins can sink to such heinous rhetoric. They seem to have no filter that warns them about the injury they do to the memory of people who truly suffered such atrocities. Although it’s not inconceivable that they do it intentionally to dog-whistle at their deplorable, alt-right supporters.

For the record, Donald Trump has not only been covered more than his opponents, he has been covered more positively. A study by Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media examined all the coverage and arrived at these results:

“The report shows that during the year 2015, major news outlets covered Donald Trump in a way that was unusual given his low initial polling numbers—a high volume of media coverage preceded Trump’s rise in the polls. Trump’s coverage was positive in tone—he received far more ‘good press’ than ‘bad press.’ The volume and tone of the coverage helped propel Trump to the top of Republican polls.”

Overall, the study found that “Trump’s coverage was roughly two-to-one favorable.” At the same time Hillary Clinton’s coverage was (and is) markedly negative:

“Whereas media coverage helped build up Trump, it helped tear down Clinton. Trump’s positive coverage was the equivalent of millions of dollars in ad-buys in his favor, whereas Clinton’s negative coverage can be equated to millions of dollars in attack ads.”

The evidence of the pro-Trump coverage continues to this day. Clinton is hammered incessantly about old email stories and speculation about her health. On the other hand, Trump’s current scandals are virtually ignored. Just yesterday there were stories about his unsavory business ties and his corrupt foundation. Today those stories are already off the table. And just try getting the press to ask him about his tax returns two days in a row.

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

Setting aside his offensive analogy, Trump. Jr. is right about one thing: “Without the media this wouldn’t even be a contest.” That’s true, although not in the way he intended. Had it not been for the ratings-obsessed media’s efforts to prop up a bigoted, narcissistic demagogue, Trump would have been a long forgotten punch line by now. The press’ attitude toward Trump was best summarized by CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”

Newsweek Exposes Trump’s Shady Foreign Ties, Hillary Pounces With Tweets About His Security Risks

Posted by Mark NC on September 14, 2016 at 6:22 pm. NO Comments :

The international web spun by Donald Trump’s businesses appear to be testing the limits of personal/political conflicts of interest. Kurt Eichenwald of Newsweek published an article today that reveals the depths of Trump’s involvement with foreign businesses and governments. The extensive detail in the story makes it impossible to ignore the national security implications were Trump to become president.

In the opening paragraphs Eichenwald lays out the central theme of the article that questions whether it would be possible for Trump to govern unless he, and his family, completely severed ties with The Trump Organization:

If Donald Trump is elected president, will he and his family permanently sever all connections to the Trump Organization, a sprawling business empire that has spread a secretive financial web across the world? Or will Trump instead choose to be the most conflicted president in American history, one whose business interests will constantly jeopardize the security of the United States?

A close examination by Newsweek of the Trump Organization, including confidential interviews with business executives and some of its international partners, reveals an enterprise with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and even criminals, although there is no evidence the Trump Organization has engaged in any illegal activities.

The questions raised in the Newsweek piece didn’t escape the view of Hillary Clinton. She posted a series of tweets (twenty, in fact) challenging Trump to respond to the allegations. She began in tweet #1 by asking “Will you sever ties with your company linked to foreign leaders, questionable organizations, and criminals if you become president?” And she concluded with tweet #20 saying “It’s pretty clear: Trump’s spent his life unscrupulously looking out for his own wallet above all. Why would that change as president?” And all the questions in between pose distinct dilemmas for Trump were he to try to answer them. Which, knowing the weakness of his character, he will certainly avoid.

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

Here are Clinton’s compiled tweets:

Big Baby Trump Is Still Afraid Of Hillary And ‘Rigged’ Debates

Posted by Mark NC on September 13, 2016 at 9:48 am. 1 Comments :

Among the many firsts of this unprecedented election year is that one candidate has distinguished himself as being obsessed with debate moderators and formats. Guess who.

Donald Trump has spent much of the campaign complaining about everything being rigged to crush him. The primaries were rigged. So are the polls and the press and even the election itself. It’s a position that reeks of paranoia and fear. There isn’t another candidate that has ever been so chronically neurotic about the forces supposedly aligned against him. It makes you wonder what sort of hysterics he we would resort to in negotiations with members of Congress or foreign leaders.

Yesterday Trump exposed another flank in the covert crusade to kneecap his candidacy. Interviewed by phone for a segment on CNBC, Trump alleged that his omnipresent enemies are “gaming the system” in order to tilt the debates in Hillary Clinton’s favor. His “evidence” was solely derived from his experience at last week’s Commander-in-Chief Forum on NBC. Which, by the way, he said he won. This was his response to anchor Joe Kernan’s question about the upcoming debates with Clinton:

“The fact is that they are gaming the system, and I think maybe we should have no moderator. Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate. Because I think the system is being rigged so it’s going to be a very unfair debate. And I can see it happening right now because everybody was saying that [Matt Lauer] was soft on Trump. Well now the new person is going to try and be really hard on Trump just to show the establishment what he can do. So I think it’s very unfair what they are doing. So I think we should have a debate with no moderator, just Hillary and I sitting there talking.”

Trump, of course, is the one who has been trying to game the system for months. He’s the only one who has had anything to say about the process, particularly with regard to debates. During the GOP primaries his griping forced the party and the press to succumb to his whims.

His proposal to eliminate the moderator is peculiar for two reasons. First, it would make the discussion wholly controlled by the candidates, rather than a neutral party who would introduce topics of importance to voters. Any subject that the candidates found uncomfortable, they would just leave out. That doesn’t serve the principle purpose of the debates which is to enable voters to make informed decisions about the election. A good moderator will also make sure that there is an even distribution of time and that candidates stay on topic.

Secondly, for Trump to suggest a moderator-free debate after he went to such extreme lengths to influence the selection of the moderators is absurd. Politico is reporting that the Commission on Presidential Debates paid deference to Trump with their moderator selections due to their fear of offending him:

“[T]here is wide speculation among media executives that NBC’s Lester Holt, who Trump is comfortable with, was chosen to moderate the first debate with Clinton later this month in order to appease the GOP nominee. Similarly, some also believe that Fox News’ Chris Wallace was tapped to moderate the third and final debate to lessen the likelihood that Trump skips it.”

If that’s true, the Commission failed terribly at their primary task. Allowing any candidate to guide their selection taints the whole process. There ought to be no criteria for the moderators other than their experience and ability. Was Clinton asked who she would feel comfortable with? And Chris Wallace is close friends with (and until last month employed by) Trump’s debate adviser Roger Ailes. That’s more than an appearance of bias.

Yet with all of the advantages Trump has received, he is still the only one bitching about it. He is either the biggest crybaby in politics or he just feels entitled to the special treatment all narcissists expect. That, combined with his innate fear of facing Clinton one-on-one, is what’s driving his cascade of tantrums. However, the Commission and the press should not be capitulating to him. They have already gone way too far by lowering the bar of expectations in his favor.

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

LMFAO: Donald Trump Just Made A Pro-Clinton ‘Deplorables’ Ad – No, Really!

Posted by Mark NC on September 12, 2016 at 1:23 pm. 4 Comments :

With everything that is circling the media drain at the moment, Donald Trump has proven once again that he is an incompetent candidate and his purported media prowess is a myth. The most prominent story currently getting play is about Hillary Clinton’s remark that “you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables.’” She’s wrong of course. It’s way more than half.

So the Trump Team set off to exploit what they regard as the “worst mistake of the political season.” They produced an ad (below) featuring Clinton reciting the allegedly controversial remarks. There’s just one problem.

The ad’s visual are mostly of Clinton and stadium audiences cheering wildly. Trump’s audiences. If you watch it with the sound off it appears to be a positive presentation of Clinton on the campaign trail. What’s more, nowhere in the ad does it say that Clinton’s comments were wrong. The gist is that they insult Trump’s voters. But why would any of them feel insulted unless they thought it applied to them? They’re assuming that they are in the half that Clinton called deplorable. In effect, they are admitting that they are racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.

As the ad proceeds it contains shots of a Trump a rally with the word “DEPLORABLE” over it like a label. Then Clinton’s words – racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic – are played over video of Trump supporters as if they are examples of what she’s referring to. The ad ends with a narrator saying that Clinton is “viciously demonizing hard working people like you.” But by then the damage is done.

The visual messaging in this ad is powerfully pro-Clinton. The negative tone of the voiceover is unlikely to carry much weight. The theory behind this was explained by former CBS political correspondent Lesley Stahl who was schooled by a Reagan operative on the optics of reporting. She had broadcast a critical segment about Reagan’s funding cuts for children with disabilities and public health. The piece showed him speaking at the Special Olympics and a nursing home. The next day Reagan aide Richard Darman called to thank her. This exchange followed:

Darman: Way to go, kiddo. What a great piece. We loved it.
Stahl: Didn’t you hear what I said?
Darman: Nobody heard what you said.
Stahl: Come again?
Darman: You guys in Televisionland haven’t figured it out, have you? When the pictures are powerful and emotional, they override if not completely drown out the sound. I mean it, Lesley. Nobody heard you.

Because Stahl’s piece spoke about some dreadful policies by Reagan, while showing him looking dapper at popular events and institutions, what she said simply did not register. Apparently Trump’s media team still has not learned that lesson. And all this new ad will do is amplify the message that Trump appeals to a deplorable community of bigots. His campaign says they will be spending two million dollars to air this ad in swing states like Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Clinton should send them a thank you note.

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

DEPLORABLES: Disgusting Fox News Fans Angry Hillary Didn’t Die At 9/11 Memorial

Posted by Mark NC on September 11, 2016 at 3:38 pm. NO Comments :

On Friday Hillary Clinton spoke to a group of donors about how “deplorable” many of Donald Trump’s followers are. She correctly pointed out that his campaign seems to appeal to the racist, sexist, homophobic faction in the Republican Party. In other words … the Republican Party. Almost immediately the StormTrumpers went on the attack accusing Clinton of insulting his pure and virtuous supporters. You know, the ones who beat up protesters and think President Obama is a gay, Muslim, communist from Kenya. Today Clinton got confirmation that she was right.

While attending the ceremonies commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the terrorist attack on September 11,2001, Clinton briefly fell ill. She left the event early to rest up for bit at her daughter Chelsea’s apartment. Fox News (of course) broke this story with allusions to her overall health for which they had no evidence. The rest of the media piled on shortly thereafter. The so-called “medical episode” was over in less than an hour.

However, the freak-out on the Fox News website had just begun. Commenters on the Clinton story seemed determined to prove that they were, indeed, deplorable sleazeballs, completely devoid of common decency. For many, the only problem with Clinton’s illness was that it wasn’t fatal. Have a look:

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

These are the folks who are moaning about having been called deplorable. They openly wish for the death of a someone simply because they have political differences of opinion. And this isn’t a unique circumstance (see The Collected Hate Speech Of The Fox News Community). Yet they consider themselves to be patriotic Americans. Well, that isn’t the America that I know. And it isn’t the America that is being honored on this historic anniversary. For the Fox News fans to pick this day of national unity to express these grotesque feelings is utterly atrocious. If they don’t like being called deplorable they can fix that pretty easily: Stop being deplorable.

Trump Spends 100K From His ‘Charity’ To Quash Fraud Charges In NY

Posted by Mark NC on September 10, 2016 at 3:25 pm. 1 Comments :

Last week news surfaced that Donald Trump made an illegal donation to Florida’s attorney general Pam Bondi. Just days later she dropped a fraud investigation of his Trump University. The timing of the payoff raised speculation about corruption and bribery. Additionally, the $25,000 gift to Bondi’s political action committee violated laws governing the activities of charitable foundations. Trump was required to pay a $2,500 fine and reimburse his foundation.

Now there is news of fresh corruption on Trump’s part. A new report reveals that the Trump Foundation also paid out $100,000 to a group battling the attorney general of New York. At the time AG Eric Schneiderman was already suing Trump U. for defrauding students of the phony school.

The donation this time is troubling for several reasons. While this gift was not illegal, it reeks of political corruption. Citizens United, the recipient of the 100 G’s, is best known for its role in the Supreme Court decision to allow corporations and the wealthy to contribute unlimited amounts to political causes without disclosure. They also happened to be suing Schneiderman when Trump made his donation. Trump must have seen this as an irresistible opportunity to escalate his attack on the New York AG. He had already been embroiled in very public fight for months. Trump’s anti-Schneiderman blitz included lawsuits, ethics complaints, and Trumpian style Twitter tirades that consisted mainly of insults and smears. And now he was bankrolling another flank in the battle.

There appears to be a clear pattern of Trump using his ostensibly charitable foundation as a vehicle for funneling tax-free dollars into projects that benefit him personally and politically. The gift to Citizens United was made around the same time that they were suing Schneiderman. It was the first time the Trump foundation donated to Citizens United. And it was the largest gift dispensed by his Foundation that year. By comparison, the Police Athletics League got only a quarter of that amount.

Both Trump and Citizens United deny that there was any connection between Trump’s donation and the litigation that Citizens United was pursuing. However, the connections between the two continue to this day. The president of Citizens United is David Bossie who is now Trump’s deputy campaign manager. The lawyer for Citizens United was Donald F. McGahn who is now the chief counsel for the Trump campaign. Stephen Bannon, the chairman of Trump’s campaign, has produced films with Bossie, including “Hillary, the Movie,” that was at the center of the Citizens United Supreme Court case. And Bossie has taken the helm of the anti-Clinton PAC that was run by Kellyanne Conway until she became Trump’s campaign manager a few weeks ago.

This web of ultra-rightist conspirators deepens the perception of dirty politics that permeates the Trump campaign. And the interweaving of Trump’s personal and political objectives stretches the outer boundaries of ethical behavior. His foundation operates as a virtual slush fund to advance his private interests.

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

Meanwhile, the media obsesses over the Clinton Foundation that has devoted billions of dollars to saving lives around the world. It’s a press fetish that persists despite the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing. Yet somehow they manage to assert some sort of equivalence between the two. That is nothing short of journalistic malpractice that helps Trump prop up his criminal enterprise. And it’s an ethical failure the media needs to correct.

Hillary Clinton Is Wrong About Trump’s Deplorables – It’s Way More Than Half

Posted by Mark NC on September 10, 2016 at 11:57 am. 3 Comments :

The buzz on the InterTubes this morning is over some comments that Hillary Clinton made at a fundraiser yesterday. While an argument can be made that the remarks were politically risky, it cannot be disputed that they were accurate – even understated. Here is what she said (video below):

“To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables.’ Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that and he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks are irredeemable, but they are un-American.”

Indeed. The riff raff at Trump rallies have repeatedly demonstrated their inclinations toward violence and open hatred of anyone not like them. Trump’s supporters include most of America’s most reviled racist organizations. White supremacists like David Duke have have endorsed him and assert that his beliefs are their beliefs. And often Trump fails to repudiate the cretins who are among his most fervent fans.

A poll by Public Policy Polling affirms what Clinton said about Trump’s followers and Republicans in general:

“66% of Trump’s supporters believe that Obama is a Muslim to just 12% that grant he’s a Christian. 61% think Obama was not born in the United States to only 21% who accept that he was.”

“Trump’s beliefs represent the consensus among the GOP electorate. 51% overall want to eliminate birthright citizenship. 54% think President Obama is a Muslim. And only 29% grant that President Obama was born in the United States.”

For further proof, listen to what MSNBC’s Katy Tur said yesterday about her encounters with the StormTrumpers as she covers his campaign:

“When you ask them about President Obama, not just a handful, not just a few, many of them … They often say they believe he was born in Kenya. They often say they believe he’s a Muslim. Some of them go on to say that they believe he’s an undercover operative, a Manchurian candidate, if you will, that has the interests of a foreign power rather than the interests of the American public. That being said, Donald Trump has not backed away from this.”

The response from Trump and his media lackeys is typically lame. Trump tweeted that “Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters.” That’s coming from a candidate who has made his reputation on childish insults. What’s more, he has also insulted his supporters. Reacting to his low poll numbers before the Iowa caucuses Trump said “How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?” Ironically, that’s actually the same question Clinton is asking about just Trump’s bigot brigade.

Many of Trump’s defenders are also trying to connect Clinton’s comments with Mitt Romney’s famous 47% fiasco. However, the two are not comparable. Clinton is only referring to the faction in Trump’s camp who are unarguably despicable. Romney was talking about the nation as a whole. The proof of that is in what Clinton said immediately following the “deplorables” business, but that isn’t getting played in the media:

“That other basket of people are people who feel that government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures. They are just desperate for change. Doesn’t really even matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. That they won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they’re in a dead end. Those are people who we have to understand and empathize with as well.”

Clinton has a solid case to make against Trump’s repulsive campaign rhetoric and the dimwits that buy into it. She may take some heat for expressing it the way she did, but the only thing she got wrong from a factual standpoint is that she underestimated the size of Trump’s deplorable basket.

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

UPDATE: Clinton issued a statement of regret that also affirmed the parts she got right:

“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong. But let’s be clear, what’s really ‘deplorable’ is that Donald Trump hired a major advocate for the so-called ‘alt-right’ movement to run his campaign and that David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values. It’s deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people. It’s deplorable that he’s attacked a federal judge for his ‘Mexican heritage,’ bullied a Gold Star family because of their Muslim faith, and promoted the lie that our first black president is not a true American. So I won’t stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign. I also meant what I said last night about empathy, and the very real challenges we face as a country where so many people have been left out and left behind. As I said, many of Trump’s supporters are hard-working Americans who just don’t feel like the economy or our political system are working for them. I’m determined to bring our country together and make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. Because we really are ‘stronger together.’”

Trump And Fox News Buy Into Batsh*t Crazy Clinton Conspiracy Theories – Again

Posted by Mark NC on September 8, 2016 at 3:50 pm. 1 Comments :

Here’s more evidence that the right is falling into an abyss of desperation. Donald Trump is clinging feverishly to national polls showing him as competitive. Never mind that they have no bearing on who wins presidential elections. It’s the states that deliver electoral votes and the presidency. On that scale Hillary Clinton is way ahead. The Trump camp knows this, though they will spend the next few weeks frantically trying to divert attention from it.

The latest diversions qualify as certifiably insane. Let’s begin with a charge that emanated from the bowels of Alex Jones’ InfoWars. Jones, you will recall, is a Birther, a 9/11 Truther, and believes that the children murdered at Sandy Hook were all actors. This morning he posted a story alleging that Clinton wore an “earbud” during the Commander-in-Chief Forum last night. She was supposedly being coached with answers from unseen aides off stage. The story was picked up and propelled by the Drudge Report and even Fox News who said that:

“[T]he buzz Thursday morning was more about a report claiming Clinton relied on a ‘micro’ earbud as she fielded questions about national security — a claim her campaign vigorously denied.”

Donald Trump, Jr. tweeted “We cant let Hillary get away with wearing an ear piece during tonights Veteran Forum#HillarysEarPiece#NBCNewsForum” And Fox’s Sean Hannity joined in with a post on the subject as well.

There is just one problem with this crackpottery. The video of the event contains numerous shots of both of Clinton’s ears that plainly have nothing in them. The entire fantasy was born from a single video still that had a random reflection. That was sufficient to set the wingnuts to drooling over the discovery of Clinton’s evil plot. But, see? No earbud!

If that wasn’t enough, Fox News sought to invent another fantastical scandal involving Clinton. This one was from the warped imagination of Stuart Varney, anchor of Varney & Company on the Fox Business Network. He introduced a segment that anxiously wondered “Who is Clinton’s ‘mystery man?’” The report featured video of a well-dressed gentleman accompanying Clinton on the campaign trail. Varney asserted that social media was blowing up over who he might be. He expressed skepticism that he might simply be one of Clinton’s Secret Service agents:

“If he’s actually a member of the Secret Service detail guarding Hillary Clinton, why is he touching her, because he did, he came up on the stage the other night and put his arm around her, and then said ‘Keep talking.’ Surely that is not what the secret service is supposed to do is it?”

Varney’s guest was former Secret Service agent and frequent Fox contributor, Dan Bongino. He offered a theory from way out in right field suggesting that the “mystery man” was “responding to the stage when [Clinton] is in what may have been some kind of a medical crisis.” Varney joined in the wild speculation asking “Is he supporting her during a medical crisis?”

Judging from the video that Varney showed, the man was undoubtedly with Clinton’s Secret Service detail. And he and other agents sprung into action when something occurred in the audience. Clinton, the agent, and others on stage were all looking in the same direction into the crowd. No one appeared to be concerned with Clinton’s health by any stretch of the imagination. See for yourself:

By the end of the segment both Varney and Bongino were dismissing the whole thing as a conspiracy theory that they had just debunked. Which was nice of them after having also just invented it and broadcast it to an audience thirsty for scandal. Both surely knew there was nothing to this before they began, but they considered it too juicy not to plant in the minds of gullible Fox viewers.

Expect to see more of these nutcase studies in Clinton intrigue before the election is over. Fox and Trump will surely uncover evidence of Clinton’s involvement in the Kennedy assassination. Not to mention the Hindenburg crash and fake moon landing. This is all they have left since they nominated a narcissistic ignoramus who can’t go twenty minutes without embarrassing himself and his party.

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

RIGGING THE DEBATES: Media Admit They Are ‘Setting A Low Bar’ For Dumbass Donald Trump

Posted by Mark NC on September 7, 2016 at 3:17 pm. 2 Comments :

As the campaign season enters its final stretch the most impactful remaining scheduled events are the candidate debates. The first one is less than three weeks away (September 26). This will be the first time that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will confront each other face to face.

One thing the media has no problem with is endless speculation about the outcomes of future events. Consequently, there is no shortage of analysis of how they expect the candidates to perform. The expectations game in the media, however, is always being prodded by the candidates in order to shape the public perception after the fact. By lowering expectations the candidate can claim victory by simply not blurting out obscenities or drooling.

To that end, Donald Trump is getting a significant boost from the media who are already staking their position on the inferiority of Trump. Ordinarily that would appear to be a realistic assessment. Trump is obviously ill-equipped to debate Hillary Clinton. He is woefully ignorant of domestic policy and world affairs. Match that with his inability to articulate a coherent solution to any problem. The result is a candidate who represents a truly dangerous prospect for national leadership. On the other hand Clinton has a profound depth of knowledge related to the specific prerequisites for governing.

However, in the debate expectations game Trump has the advantage because no one thinks he can compete effectively with Clinton. Unless, that is, you believe that childish insults and deliberate lies are valid methods of scoring points. And the media is taking the lead in propagating Trump’s shortcomings. Some prominent members of the allegedly liberal press are admitting that they have lowered the bar for Trump’s performance. Here are examples from CNN, the New York Times, and the Associated Press:

Dana Bash, CNN: I think the stakes are much higher in this debate and all the debates for Hillary Clinton because the expectations are higher for her because she’s a seasoned politician. She’s a seasoned debater. You know, yes we saw Donald Trump in the primaries debate for the first time, but he is a first-time politician. So um, for lots of reasons. Maybe it’s not fair, but that’s the way it is. The onus is on her.

Maggie Haberman, New York Times: What hurts Hillary Clinton is the bar has been lowered for Trump repeatedly because he keeps getting graded on a curve as her supporters would say and which I think you’ve seen. The question is does he merely pass and have that recorded as, yes, he did very well.

Julie Pace, Associated Press: By virtue of her long political resume, Hillary Clinton will enter her highly anticipated fall debates with Donald Trump facing the same kind of heightened expectations that often saddle an incumbent president. Trump, as the political newcomer, will be more of a wild card with a lower bar to clear.

So poor Donald Trump is such a buffoon that needs to be given “special” consideration. The golf resort baron has a debate handicap that’s higher than his IQ (which isn’t saying much). Never mind that he will tell you he has a tremendous brain and knows more than anybody about anything. He boasted that he won all twelve of the GOP primary debates. And he only participated in eleven of them. His opponents included several people highly regarded for their debating skills. The sharp tongued Chris Christie, senate whiz kid Marco Rubio, and Princeton’s North American Debating Champion of 1992, Ted Cruz.

Still, the media is portraying Trump as a child with a learning disability being forced to compete with Albert Einstein. It’s a flagrantly dishonest assessment that tilts the balance in his favor. It also trivializes the presidency by pretending that Trump’s intellectual inadequacy isn’t an obstacle to serving. And they are only doing it to make more of a horse race out of the election. When the race is tighter people are more engaged, which translates into more viewers and higher ratings. So if one candidate needs a (bone)head start, they’ll give it to him.

Donald Trump has been whining about the debates from the start of his campaign. He complained about the moderators, the length of time, and the participants. After winning the GOP nomination he complained that the general election debate dates were unacceptable and that he wouldn’t participate unless he approved of the moderators. His animosity toward the press is legendary. He blacklisted many news organizations (i.e. Washington Post, Univision, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and more), prohibiting them from covering his events. Although he just announced that he would end his practice of blacklisting saying “I figure they can’t treat me any worse!”

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

Americans are going to make an important decision in November. Their only criteria should be whether the candidate is qualified to do the job and represents their interests. Being an idiot does not grant you special privileges or a leg up to the White House. If only one candidate can engage in a substantive discussion, then she deserves to win.

Donald Trump Caught Outright Lying About ‘Donation’ To Florida Attorney General

Posted by Mark NC on September 6, 2016 at 6:05 pm. 3 Comments :

For several weeks much of the media has been panting breathlessly over minuscule disclosures related to the Clinton Foundation. Never mind that there has not been any finding that Hillary Clinton violated any law or granted any special favors. The so-called “liberal” media has latched onto the story with a fierce determination to find wrongdoing. Meanwhile, another story has been getting short shrift despite actual findings of guilt.

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Donald Trump made a $25,000 donation to a political group called “And Justice For All.” The group was supporting the reelection of Pam Bondi, the Attorney General of Florida. At the time Bondi was investigating whether to join a multi-state lawsuit against Trump University for fraud. Within days of receiving the check, Bondi opted out of the lawsuit. But the stench of corruption doesn’t stop there.

The funds for the donation were drawn from the Trump Foundation, a personal account intended for donations to non-profit charities. It was illegal for such funds to be given to a political campaign. When the IRS questioned Trump’s people about it, they said that the funds went to a charity in Kansas with a similar name. That’s the first lie.

Trump may have thought the matter was put to rest after he paid a $2,500 fine to the IRS. He also reimbursed his Foundation from his private account. Additionally, according to the statute in Florida, Bondi would have to return the funds to the donor. However, there is no record that that was ever done.

Now Trump has responded to questions about the donation. In his typically incoherent rambling he dismissed the entire affair as a mistake:

“I never spoke to her, first of all; she’s a fine person beyond reproach. I never even spoke to her about it at all. She’s a fine person. Never spoken to her about it. Never. Many of the attorney generals turned that case down because I’ll win that case in court. Many turned that down. I never spoke to her.”

That’s the second lie. Do you get the impression that he wants to convey that he never spoke to her? You’re not alone. The problem is that Bondi disagrees. According to the Associated Press:

“Florida’s attorney general personally solicited a political contribution from Donald Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining an investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates.”

Furthermore, Bondi was interviewed by Neil Cavuto on Fox Business today and confirmed that she solicited the donation from Trump. With the disclosure that Bondi and Trump did actually talk about the donation, and the fact that the Florida investigation was nixed shortly thereafter, it’s hard not to view this as a bribe. What’s more, Trump has bragged about doing this often in his business affairs:

“When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them, they are there for me,”

This is standard operating procedure for Trump. And it isn’t even the only time he did it with regard to the Trump University fraud. He also appealed to the Texas AG to drop the Trump U. case being considered in that state. After the Texas case was dropped, Trump cut a check to the gubernatorial campaign of then attorney general, now Texas Governor, Greg Abbott.

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

With such clear cut evidence of a crime, you might think the media would give this more than a sideways glance. On Fox News the Bondi story has not been covered at all. And yet, as Media Matters reported, Fox “spent Tuesday obsessing over Hillary Clinton coughing during a rally.” Because that’s what passes for news at Fox. And they certainly wouldn’t want to tell the truth about Trump after investing the last couple of years in his candidacy.

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