Liz Cheney Rips Trump and his GOP Cult as ‘Willing Hostages to this Dangerous and Irrational Man’

Posted by Mark NC on November 10, 2021 at 1:04 pm. 9 Comments :

There is, perhaps, no better representative of rock-ribbed conservatism in the United States Congress than Liz Cheney. She is a staunch advocate for the farthest right wing of the Republican Party, and just within the past week she voted against the Biden infrastructure bill and the John Lewis Voting rights Act.

However, to her credit, she has resisted the lure of the cult of Donald Trump and his anti-American, authoritarian aspirations. Cheney had the courage to appear on Fox News and denounce Tucker Carlson as a purveyor of lies. and yesterday she gave a speech at a GOP fundraiser that was as good, or better, than any trouncing of Trump by the most fervent Democrat (although Adam Schiff sure scores points here). It was so good that it hardly needs any commentary. So enjoy (video below) …

“At this moment, when it matters most, we are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before. A former president who’s attempting to unravel the foundations of our Constitutional Republic, aided by political leaders who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.

“Just last night, former president Trump was invited by House Republican leaders to be the keynote speaker at our annual large fundraising dinner. At the dinner, he reportedly said once again that the insurrection was on November 3rd, and that the events on January 6th – when a violent mob invaded the Capitol in an effort to overturn the will of the American people and stop the constitutional process of the counting of electoral votes – that those events were a protest. That they were justified.

“Political leaders who sit silent in the face of these false and dangerous claims are aiding the former president who is at war with the rule of law and the Constitution. When our constitutional order is threatened, as it is now, rising above partisanship is not simply an aspiration. It is an obligation. An obligation of every one of us.

“I love my party. I love its history. I love its principles. But I love my country more. I know this nation needs a Republican Party that is based on truth. One that puts forward our ideals and our policies based on substance. One that is willing to reject the former president’s lies. One that is willing to tell the truth. But millions of Americans have been tragically misled by former president Trump, who continues, to this day, to use language that he knows provoked violence on January 6th.”

What she said. Cheney’s righteous condemnation of Trump and her Republican colleagues is both laudable and troubling. It’s laudable for its honesty and clear sightedness about Trump and the threat that he posed and continues to pose. It’s troubling because it exposes the depths to which the Republican Party has fallen.

The Republican Party is morally bankrupt and irredeemably corrupt. They are worse than “willing hostages.” While they may feel pressure to succumb to Trumpism, they are actually active accomplices.

Cheney acknowledges that when she says that they are “aiding the former president who is at war with the rule of law and the Constitution.” And she is spot on when she observes that he continues to “use language that he knows provoked violence.” And if he isn’t brought to justice he will get his demented wish for even more violence, and worse, an end to the American experiment in democracy.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

.@RepLizCheney: "We are also confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before; a former president who's attempting to unravel the foundations of our Constitutional Republic…" pic.twitter.com/dqYSwaP4RH

— CSPAN (@cspan) November 9, 2021

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

COVID Gets Even Redder, While Trump Worries More About Windmills (Not) Killing Birds

Posted by Mark NC on November 8, 2021 at 4:08 pm. 3 Comments :

An exhaustive analysis of COVID-19 data by David Leonhardt of the New York Times has found that the efforts of right-wing media like Fox News to deceive their audience about the coronavirus have been remarkably effective. The result confirms previous studies that show that those who rely on Fox News for information are significantly more at risk for contracting COVID than those who do not.

The article in the Times is validation that trusting Fox News is dangerous to your health, as well as that of your family, your community, and your nation. Leonhardt goes into detail in the article, but he summarized some of his findings in a handy Twitter thread beginning here (with some key points following):

The partisan gap in Covid deaths has grown even larger.

October was the fifth consecutive month that the percentage gap between the death rates in heavily Trump counties and heavily Biden counties widened.

?https://t.co/OJOJtekErR

— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) November 8, 2021

“The true explanation is straightforward: The vaccines are remarkably effective at preventing severe COVID, and almost 40 percent of Republican adults remain unvaccinated, compared with about 10 percent of Democratic adults, per @KHNews polls.”

“As a result, COVID deaths have been concentrated in counties outside of major metropolitan areas. Many of these are in red states, while others are in red parts of blue or purple states.”

“This situation is a tragedy, in which irrational fears about vaccine side effects have overwhelmed rational fears about a deadly virus.”

“It stems from disinformation — promoted by right-wing media, like Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, the Sinclair Broadcast Group and online sources.”

“[C]onservative Americans will probably continue to suffer an outsized amount of unnecessary illness and death.”

This is indeed a tragic situation. And the problem is not limited to conservatives and Fox News viewers. Their stubborn refusal to accept the science has the potential of allowing the virus to mutant into new variants that are vaccine resistant. So they are putting everyone else at risk to satisfy their partisan blindness and selfishness. What’s more, they are preventing businesses and schools from fully opening up so that we can return to some semblance of normalcy.

In the meantime, Donald Trump has not even mentioned this matter, even though it is affecting his supporters more than anyone else. But he did have the time to tweet (via his Twitter ban defying spokes-shill) that energy generating windmill turbines are “Destroying our oceans, landscapes, and birds!” He forgot to mention his ludicrous belief that they also cause cancer.

Trump’s tweet linked to a three week old article in the New York Times about the Biden administration’s plans “to build 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind in the United States by 2030.” The article said nothing about birds. That was another of Trump’s tropes that has no basis in reality, but which he frequently repeats to keep his cult disciples in a perpetual state of fear. For the record, according to the Sierra Club…

“Estimates of up to a million or more birds a year are killed by turbines in the US, but that is far exceeded by collisions with communications towers (6.5 million); power lines, (25 million); windows (up to 1 billion); and cats (1.3 to 4.0 billion); and those lost due to habitat loss, pollution and climate change (American Bird Conservancy, Nature). Even if there were twenty times more wind turbines, enough to supply the US with electricity, the number of birds killed, assuming no improvement in wind turbine design, would be about 10 million–still far less than most other causes of bird deaths.”

So apparently Trump is more worried about his false notion that windmills are killing an excessive amount of birds, than he is about COVID actually killing people – particularly Republicans, the people who he purports to represent and who worship him. It’s a grotesque mangling of priorities that rests on a foundation of lies.

And if that weren’t bad enough, Trump and his GOP confederates are so utterly incapable of responding to the recent good news for Democrats and America (infrastructure bill, jobs report, climate conference, COVID decline), that they are resorting to attacking (the fictional) Big Bird of Sesame Street for having the audacity to educate children about vaccines. There goes his pretense about caring for birds.

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

Trump Whines that Threats He’d Start a 3rd Party are ‘Fake News’ Because, Of Course He Does

Posted by Mark NC on November 8, 2021 at 12:02 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s another Monday morning and another day of cranky kvetching by America’s biggest crybaby, Donald Trump. Once again he is wallowing in victimhood at the hands of the meanies in the media, or as he refers to call them so tediously, “fake news.”

On this occasion Trump was triggered by an ABC News story previewing one of the revelations in an upcoming book by veteran journalist Jonathan Karl. In the book, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,” Trump spoke with the Republican National Committee chair, Ronna McDaniel, and delivered a bold threat. According to Karl…

“In an angry conversation on his final day as president, Donald Trump told the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee he was leaving the GOP and creating his own political party — and that he didn’t care if the move would destroy the Republican Party. […] Trump only backed down when Republican leaders threatened to take actions that would have cost Trump millions of dollars.”

In response, Trump released a statement (via his Twitter ban defying spokes-shill) making a predictable and familiar charge that…

“It’s a totally made up and fabricated story, it’s Fake News. Jonathan Karl is a third-rate reporter working for ABC Non-News. ABC Non-News and 3rd rate reporter Jonathan Karl have been writing Fake News about me from the beginning of my political career.”

Karl’s book says that he has “two sources with direct knowledge of these events.” They report that McDaniel “called to wish [Trump] farewell [and that] It was a very un-pleasant conversation.” Elaborating on this, Karl wrote that…

“Donald Trump was in no mood for small talk or nostalgic goodbyes. He got right to the point. He told her he was leaving the Republican Party and would be creating his own political party. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., was also on the phone. The younger Trump had been relentlessly denigrating the RNC for being insufficiently loyal to Trump. In fact, at the January 6 rally before the Capitol Riot, the younger Trump all but declared that the old Republican Party didn’t exist anymore.”

Karl also related the following exchange between Trump and McDaniel:

“I’m done,” Trump told McDaniel. “I’m starting my own party.”
“You cannot do that,” McDaniel told Trump. “If you do, we will lose forever.”
“Exactly. You lose forever without me,” Trump responded. “I don’t care.” […]
“This is what Republicans deserve for not sticking up for me.”

According to Karl, Trump eventually backed down after McDaniel issued threats of her own. She told Trump that if he left the Party it would cease to pay his quite substantial legal bills. And even more troubling for Trump, the Party would withhold the campaign’s email list containing some forty million Trump supporters who were worth millions of dollars to Trump politically and personally. That was the kicker.

Naturally Trump is dismissing all of this in his customary fashion by throwing a tantrum. But he had no objections Karl’s reporting back in June when a passage from the book was released that revealed what his Attorney General, Bill Barr, had to say about his baseless claims of election fraud. Barr confessed that…

“My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time. If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bull—-.”

Trump’s fantasies about starting a third party would have zero chance of success. Unless his definition of success is damaging the Republican Party, which he is doing anyway. But whether or not Trump leaves the Party, there are plenty of long-time members who are leaving because they can no longer stomach Trump’s lies and disloyalty to the nation. Which is precisely how the majority of the American people feel. In the end, we don’t care if he goes with the GOP or his own party. We just want him to go.

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

Trump Celebrates Poll Showing Half of Republicans Unsure or Don’t Want Him to Run in 2024

Posted by Mark NC on November 6, 2021 at 1:44 pm. 1 Comments :

One of the surest signs of political desperation is when a losing candidate feels compelled to promote news that actually reaffirms their status as a loser. And as America’s Biggest Loser, that’s a position that Donald Trump can reliably be counted on to assume regardless of how it fits in with reality.

On Saturday morning Trump posted a message on Twitter (via his Twitter ban defying spokes-shill) that sought to attack his arch enemy, Joe Biden, who crushed him in the presidential election last November. Trump still hasn’t recovered from that humiliating defeat by a candidate that he maligned as a senile socialist. Ever since, Trump has been lashing out impotently in a futile attempt to shore up his wounded ego.

The tweet contained a link to a rabidly partisan website and the headline: “New poll: 44% of Democrats, Democratic-leaning independents don’t want Biden in 2024” The poll was done by the Marist Institute for NPR and PBS. And while it did find that 44% of Democrats said that they would prefer another presidential candidate in 2024, Trump left out some other relevant findings in the poll. Such as the fact that half of Republicans aren’t exactly anxious to see another Trump candidacy. The poll found that 35% don’t want him to run, and another 14% aren’t sure.

And that’s the poll that Trump thought it would be a good idea to pass on to his cult followers? Clearly he doesn’t have any actual good news to present. Especially this week that saw exceedingly positive job growth, and the passage of an infrastructure bill that he had promised (and failed) to pass for four years. Biden and Pelosi did it in ten months.

This new poll confirms prior surveys on the viability of Trump as 2024 presidential candidate. According to a survey by Pew Research last month, 54% of Republicans don’t want Trump to run in 2024:

“About one-in-five Republicans (22%) say that while they would like Trump to continue to be a major political figure in the United States, they would prefer he use his stature to support another presidential candidate who shares his views in the 2024 election rather than run for office himself. About a third of Republicans (32%) say they would not like Trump to remain a national political figure for many years to come.”

The truth is that Trump is at his dimwits end and is resorting to sh*t-posting whatever he can scrape from the barrel bottom to disparage Biden and Democrats. Along with this poll tweet, his spokes-shill also tweeted that “Marxists try to take Federal Reserve as Biden weighs whether to reappoint Powell: Devine,” and that “Trump Rips McAuliffe During Tele-Rally for Youngkin,” and that “China wants more than to beat us in trade—they want to take our place in the world.” At this point it won’t be long before he tweets that Biden is a poopyhead and threatens to hold his breath until we make him president again.

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

Trump Frantically Reminds Republicans Not to Vote if ‘SCAM’ Election Fraud ‘Is Not Fixed’

Posted by Mark NC on October 29, 2021 at 12:49 pm. 1 Comments :

Two weeks ago Donald Trump released a bizarre and self-defeating statement regarding the likelihood of his obsession with non-existent voter fraud hampering voter turnout among disgruntled Republicans. He was right. When you relentlessly complain that elections are “rigged,” you are sending your supporters the message that it’s a waste of time to vote.

“If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented),” Trump whined, “Republicans will not be voting in ‘22 or ‘24.” Let’s set aside the ludicrous assertion that Trump has “conclusively documented” any fraud at all. Had he done so he is behaving strangely by not having presented any of it after nearly a year. More to the point, Trump’s griping can’t help but depress GOP voter turnout. So naturally, he’s doing it again (via his Twitter ban defying spokes-shill):

“The statement that I made a few weeks ago saying that Republicans will not vote if the Election Fraud of 2020 is not fixed, was in no way meant to imply that I would tell them not to vote, but rather that they may not have the incentive to vote if the election process is not fully remedied, and quickly. It was the Crime of the Century. We are working on solving that problem every day—it will be done! People do not want to spend their time and money to have a SCAM like that happen again. Regardless of anything or anyone, we must get out the Republican and SANE VOTE!”

Notice that Trump starts off by trying to deny the obvious. While he says that he never “meant to imply that I would tell them not to vote,” that is precisely what he is implying. Why should any of his cult disciples bother to “spend their time and money” on a “SCAM” of his own invention? And the condition that he stipulates for incentivizing voters is for the fake election fraud to be “fixed” and/or “fully remedied.” However, it isn’t possible to fix a problem that doesn’t exist anywhere but in the diseased imaginations of Trump and his dimwitted devotees.

The question is why would Trump revisit this hokum now after making the rhetorical blunder two weeks ago? It undoubtedly has something to do with the upcoming election for governor in Virginia, where his flunky, Glenn Youngkin, is in a tight race with Democrat Terry McAuliffe. In an apparent attempt to emulate his mentor, Youngkin is already alleging election fraud five days before the election. As for Trump, he doesn’t want the candidate he endorsed to lose. and even more important, he doesn’t want to be blamed for the loss. So he’s making a transparent and futile play to undo the damage he did previously.

Unfortunately for Trump, he’s making the very same mistake. He is still warning Republicans that they have no chance of victory if “the Election Fraud of 2020 is not fixed.” And since what isn’t broken cannot be fixed, Trump is signaling that they might as well opt out. It’s a ploy he’s used before. Back in July Trump fear mongered that, due to mail-in voting “There will never be a Republican elected to high office again.”

Technically, Trump isn’t telling people not to vote. However, he is telling them that that it won’t do any good if his conditions aren’t met. But since his conditions require overturning the 2020 presidential election and reinstating Trump (which 60% of delusional Republicans believe should happen), those conditions will remain unmet. And it doesn’t help that he is urging them to get out the “SANE” vote, because that would disqualify the majority of Republican voters.

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

Fox News Corrects Confused GOP Senator Who Forgets Their Anti-Biden, Pro-COVID Narrative

Posted by Mark NC on October 21, 2021 at 1:55 pm. NO Comments :

It’s not as easy as it might seem to be steadfastly obedient to the right-wing doctrine of Fox News and Republican Trumpism. Considering all of the blatant hypocrisy and flip-flips of Donald Trump and his Foxian Pharisees, their befuddled cult followers should be forgiven if they fall off the wingnut wagon every now and then.

An example of this inadvertent heresy occurred during an interview of GOP Senator Marsha Blackburn on Fox Business Network. She was asked by Trump-fluffing host Stuart Varney about the current state of the coronavirus in America. That inquiry led to this exchange:

Blackburn: What we have to realize, the left is desperate to continue the pandemic until the 2022 midterm elections, and we’ve got to find ways to say, ‘Oh no you don’t.'”
Varney: You think he’s trying to continue the pandemic, extend the pandemic. I would have thought he’s losing ground because of his not great understanding or performance with the pandemic.
Blackburn: Well, you’re right.

Curious… was told that the pandemic would be over as soon as Trump was gone, because the media wanted it that way. https://t.co/JIPz2D86y2

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) October 21, 2021

First of all, Biden’s performance with the pandemic is responsible for getting nearly 80% of the nation’s adults vaccinated. That said, Blackburn’s initial commentary was clearly a departure from rightist orthodoxy. They have been insisting for over a year that Democrats were being too aggressive in fighting to end the pandemic and return the nation to some semblance of normalcy. Now Blackburn is asserting that Democrats want the pandemic to persist.

Not only has the right accused Democrats of over-hyping COVID, but Trump has repeatedly claimed that the pandemic was a hoax that Democrats were temporarily exploiting for political purposes. He insisted that “on November 4th everything will open up.” He said that the shutdowns were “only being done to hurt the economy” until after the election when “the talk will be how low the death rate is.”

“On November 4th” pic.twitter.com/dsL0xF22Ko

— Bad COVID-19 Takes (@BadCOVID19Takes) December 4, 2020

So obviously Blackburn was off script with her claim that Democrats want to hold on to the pandemic. And Varney told her so in no uncertain terms. She had to be quickly steered back into the conservative corral where Biden was a “failure” for not waving a magic wand and making the virus disappear. And it had to be done on the air where everyone could witness it. After which Blackburn immediately straightened up and conceded that Varney’s take was the correct one, without acknowledging that she had just said the exact opposite.

This is an object lesson in how Fox News disseminates its propaganda. They have pre-approved ideological mandates that must be adhered to by every faithful follower. Even if they change from day to day, or hour to hour. It’s how they justify attacking Biden’s vaccine mandates, even though Fox News imposes mandates that are even more strict. Or how Tucker Carlson can criticize the White House parental leave policy, while ignoring his own colleagues who enjoy the same policy at Fox. Or how Trump can whine that his free speech is being abridged as he calls for banning free speech. It’s just how Fox News operates and, fortunately for them, their viewers are too dimwitted to notice.

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

HUH? Trump Opposes the Democratic Bills Because … They Will Elect More Republicans?

Posted by Mark NC on September 30, 2021 at 12:23 pm. 2 Comments :

Democrats in Congress are battling with Republicans – and a couple of reticent Democrats – to pass a pair pf bills aimed at keeping the government from shutting down and defaulting on its debt. Republicans are demonstrating their customary hypocrisy with regard to the debt limit, and their blatant and reckless partisanship on funding for critical ongoing operations.

On Thursday morning there was some chatter in the press about agreements being reached to get the Continuing Resolution passed and keep the government open. But any signal that the government might function efficiently is an automatic trigger to Donald Trump, whose psychotic synapses force him into a perpetually hostile stance. Consequently, upon hearing the news, Trump had his spokes-shill, Liz Harrington (whose proxy Trump tweeting is violating Twitter’s rules against circumventing a ban), hammer out a couple of audaciously dishonest tweets in hopes of undermining the legislative progress.

The first tweet insisted that “This bill must be opposed!” Trump’s reasons for opposition were based on his utterly fictional analysis of the bill, along with a swing at xenophobic fear mongering:

“Snuck into the government funding bill, or CR, the Democrats are trying to pass, and just found, is unlimited money to random, unscreened, unvetted Afghan nationals. Republicans can’t let this happen. […] This is not a “clean” government funding bill. It’s a major immigration rewrite that allows Biden to bring anyone he wants from Afghanistan for the next year—no vetting, no screening, no security—and fly them to your community.”

Absolutely none of that is true. The only reference to Afghans is a clause that permits the federal government to continue operations in support of “individuals evacuated from Afghanistan.” These are the allies who worked with the U.S. military during the twenty year war. They are the same people that Republicans and Fox News complained were being left behind. Now Trump is portraying them as dangerous foes being surreptitiously planted in “your community.”

The second tweet also demanded that the bills be rejected. but this one took a more brazenly political posture:

“If Democrats are able to piece together their huge tax hikes, called by another name, it will mean an additional 40 Republican seats in the House and at least a few additional Republican Senators in the U.S. Senate.”

Without any warning, Trump appears to have changed the subject from the funding and debt ceiling bills, to the infrastructure bills. It is the reconciliation bill that contains a rollback of Trump’s prior tax scam that cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy. However, what is notable in his comment is his belief that those provisions are unpopular and would result in a red wave in the mid-term election next year.

Let’s set aside the fact that the Democratic bills are overwhelmingly favored by broad majorities of voters. If Trump actually believed that passage of the Democratic agenda would result in Republicans retaking both houses of Congress, wouldn’t he welcome that? It would pave the way for his return to the White House in 2024, and then the GOP could enact whatever right-wing wet dreams they have.

Obviously, Trump is rambling incoherently again. He has no idea how Congress works, or how the game of politics is played. His only strategy, no matter the circumstances, is to be virulently opposed to whatever his political foes favor. His one-note ideology can be summarized in the timeless words of one of America’s most renown statesmen…

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

Debt Ceiling Dumbass Sean Hannity is Right, Except for Being Wrong About Almost Everything

Posted by Mark NC on September 29, 2021 at 5:32 pm. NO Comments :

Fox News is taking a rare break from trying to kill off their audience with COVID vaccine disinformation. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t still spreading lies intended to harm their viewers and the nation.

The current battle in Congress to pass legislation for infrastructure development and economic renewal is consuming much of the news cycle. The plans represent key parts of President Biden’s agenda. So naturally Fox News is weighing in with predictable attacks on anything that the Democrats have proposed or support. And leading the charge is Fox’s Senior Trump-Fluffer, Sean Hannity.

On his nightly hour of liberal bashing and neo-fascism advocacy, Hannity demonstrated why he is so revered by budding totalitarians across the nation. He simultaneously demonstrated his infamous idiocy on pretty much any subject that he addresses.

In this episode, Hannity was canoodling with Newt Gingrich to contrive false narratives about Congress raising the debt ceiling. It’s a usually a routine function that both political parties agree to in order to keep the country from defaulting on its debts. But not this year. Republicans have been adamant that they will not play nice with Democrats, even if it means economic catastrophe. And as a loyal Republican, but a disloyal American, Hannity chimed in saying that…

“They [Democrats] have the House. They have the Senate. They want to spend all this money. Republicans don’t. There’s no opportunity to work with a Republican. I don’t think one Republican should vote to increase it by a penny. Now Democrats are gonna say ‘Oh, you’re gonna shut down the government, and the full faith and credit of the U.S. government is gonna be at stake.’ That’s not true. They have control of Congress. They have control of the purse strings. They get to decide. So it will be up to them whether or not they raise the debt ceiling. Correct?”

Hannity saying it’s on Democrats to handle the debt ceiling without mentioning that Republicans blocked Democrats from doing that earlier today pic.twitter.com/DQloQa6wOW

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 28, 2021

Oddly enough, Hannity managed to get something right for a change. Democrats do have majorities in the House and the Senate. And they can pass an increase in the debt ceiling on their own, so long as there are no defections. But everything else Hannity said is not only wrong, but mind-numbingly stupid:

First of all, raising the debt ceiling has nothing to do with Democrats wanting to spend money. In fact, it is the money that was already spent during the administration of Donald Trump that that would be covered by the increase.
Secondly, Democrats have reached out repeatedly to Republicans to join this ordinarily uncontroversial procedure. Th GOP has refused to go along, insisting that Democrats carry the load by themselves. It’s a tactic designed to blame Democrats after the fact for doing the responsible thing.
Thirdly, Hannity’s little charade about the GOP not putting the “full faith and credit of the U.S. government” at risk is a straight up lie, and he knows it. If the debt ceiling isn’t raised, then the U.S. cannot pay its obligations. That’s the definition of default, and would send the economy into a tailspin. The anticipation of it has already spooked the stock market.

The only thing that Hannity got right was that Democrats hold majorities in Congress. Although he fails to grasp that the only reason that’s true is because the American people put them there. They also put Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the White House, defeating Trump by more than seven million votes.

Consequently, this might be a good time to listen to Hannity. His recognition that “[Democrats] have control of Congress, they have control of the purse strings, they get to decide,” should inspire the Democrats to move forward with the rest of their agenda. They should pass the infrastructure bill without help from the GOP. They should pass the reconciliation bill as well. And if they need to dispense with the filibuster to do it, they shouldn’t hesitate.

The Biden/Democratic agenda is overwhelmingly popular with the American people. Passage would create jobs, stimulate the economy, provide benefits for families, children, students, seniors, workers, and more. And Democrats would get all of the credit. That’s a recipe for future victories in 2022, 2024, and beyond. So if there ever a time to take Hannity’s advice, it’s now. Go for it Democrats!

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

Joy Reid Unmasks the Republicans ‘Creepy Little COVID-Loving Death Cult’

Posted by Mark NC on September 16, 2021 at 12:57 pm. 2 Comments :

As the latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic washes over America, the Republican Party and their Ministry of Disinformation (aka Fox News) continues to embrace policies that put more lives at risk and put off the day that the nation can return to some semblance of normalcy.

If one didn’t know better, it would seem like the GOP is actually rooting for the virus to vanquish more Americans. Sadly, even though one does know better, it still seems that way. Republican governors like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott not only reject the guidance of healthcare experts to wear masks and get vaccinated, they impose unconstitutional laws prohibiting localities, businesses, and schools from setting their own rules to keep people safe.

On Wednesday night MSNBC’s Joy Reid addressed this lethal brand of partisan politicking in a video venting directed at the GOP (Givers of Pestilence). She held nothing back in her condemnation of the Republicans’ “creepy little COVID-loving death cult”:

“We begin the Reidout tonight with a message to Republicans. Okay, we get it! COVID is the precious and you love it. You love COVID so much you want it to spread into schools, at the office, in the Walmart, on the cruise ships and at the club. That great spongy ball with the red spikes, you want it pumping through your veins with an Ivermectin chaser. Why do you love it so dadgum much? We have absolutely no bloody idea. But here’s the thing you weirdos, everyone else hates COVID!” […]

“You may want COVID. You may want to ingest horse de-wormer and attend far too many funerals, but we don’t. And it’s not just saying that or tweeting that. California voted that. It is perhaps the first real tangible proof that your creepy little COVID-loving death cult ways are not going to work for you at the ballot box next year. In fact it’s political suicide.”

.@JoyAnnReid leads #TheReidOut tonight with exploring why in part Gov. Gavin Newsom beat the recall effort: according to exit polls the most important issue for voters was the pandemic. #TheReidOut #reiders pic.twitter.com/F5FlgrF87D

— The ReidOut (@thereidout) September 15, 2021

This is the sort of blunt fearlessness that has made Reid a favorite foil of the right, and particularly of Donald Trump, who pretends not to know who she is. And it’s the sort of honesty that triggers Fox News, who felt compelled to do a story about this monologue that focused solely on the right-wing critics to whom she was referring. What Fox considers to be a newsworthy story is really just an opportunity to disparage a political foe. Fox said that…

“Reid was blasted on social media following the rant, with critics saying she was doing ‘significantly more harm than good,’ and that she was a ‘terrible person.’ One even suggested that she had a ‘mental problem’ and needed to be committed to a hospital.”

Notice that all of those criticisms were really just childish insults. They apparently were unable to disagree on substance with anything that Reid said. Fox then posted several tweets by 3rd rate conservative pundits maligning Reid, as if that bolstered their already feeble argument.

Fox News and the Republicans they prop up should really think twice (or even once) before they take on Reid or other progressives. After all, the unambiguously pro-COVID network can’t dispute the fact that COVID is now almost exclusively the Pandemic of Fox News. Their most-watched hosts are still lying about the efficacy of masks and vaccines. Tucker Carlson even harbors paranoid conspiracy theories that the vaccines don’t work, but sinister Deep State operatives won’t tell you that.

Carlson has also suggested that it would be acceptable for his viewers to commit the felony of counterfeiting official vaccination cards. That must be their way of ensuring that if the Fox/GOP COVID-loving death cultists don’t end up in the morgue, they’ll end up in prison.

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

Jen Psaki Slams Republicans Who Stood By While Trump ‘Fomented an Insurrection’

Posted by Mark NC on September 15, 2021 at 5:13 pm. 3 Comments :

The new book, Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, is sending shockwaves through the national press. Excerpts reveal how the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, was dealing with what he called Donald Trump’s “serious mental decline.”

Most of the conservative Whacko Chamber has been hyperventilating over what they say is treason because Milley is reported to have had conversations with his counterparts in China. Never mind that that is a routine part of the job for people in national security posts. When reviewed in context, Milley was merely assuring China that, despite what looked like chaos and instability following the January 6th insurrection in Washington, D.C., the situation in the U.S. was under control and that there was no need to worry about psycho Trump launching a nuclear war.

Trump’s Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, was among those who were reacting to intelligence that said China was concerned about a U.S. attack. And the spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs backed up Milley’s actions saying that…

“The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs regularly communicates with Chiefs of Defense across the world, including with China and Russia. These conversations remain vital to improving mutual understanding of U.S. national security interests, reducing tensions, providing clarity and avoiding unintended consequences or conflict.

“His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability. All calls from the Chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency.”

At Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Milley and whether President Biden still had confidence in his service. Her answer went a bit further than merely defending Milley. She also touched on the disreputability of his critics and Trump:

Reporter: Is there a point where criticism makes Gen. Milley is unable to continue in this role because it is a new administration, it is a new day, and there are some questions if he exceeded his authority?
Psaki: The President has complete confidence in his leadership, his patriotism, and his fidelity to our Constitution. I can’t speak to the former president’s experience with him or the former president’s views of him. But this current president who follows the Constitution, who’s not fomenting an insurrection, who follows the rule of law, has complete confidence in Chairman Milley and him continuing to serve in his role.
Reporter: Even as Republicans may criticize him and have questions about his suitability to continue, would that be a factor that President Biden would consider?
Psaki: I don’t think the president is looking for the guidance of members of Congress who stood by while the President of the United States and the leader of their party fomented an insurrection and many of them were silent.

‘I don’t think the president is looking for the guidance of members of Congress who stood by while… the leader of their party fomented an insurrection’ — Jen Psaki on GOP criticism of Gen. Milley pic.twitter.com/wEygiX2OmL

— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) September 15, 2021

It’s pretty remarkable that a White House spokesperson is forced to make a distinction between the former president and the current one “who’s not fomenting an insurrection.” And it’s hard to ignore the significance of her rejecting “the guidance of members of Congress who stood by while [Trump] fomented an insurrection and many of them were silent.”

Clearly it was Milley who was honoring his oath of loyalty to his country and acting out of patriotism. And it was Trump and his GOP minions in Congress who tried to stage a coup and prevent Congress from carrying out its constitutionally mandated duties. Psaki’s responses effectively turned the tables on the treason accusers. And now all we need is for justice to be served to the wrongdoers.

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

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