Republicans

Politicizing the #TrumpShutdown: Trump Seeks More Republicans, Rejects Working with Democrats

Posted by on January 20, 2018 at 11:47 am. 3 Comments :

As the prospect of a government shutdown drew closer on Friday night the recriminations flew from both sides of the political aisle. Republicans sought to brand Donald Trump’s failure to make a deal as the SchumerShutdown, for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. From the other side, Schumer struck back with his branding of the legislative belly flop as the TrumpShutdown. Meanwhile, the American people appear to have already made up their minds, with polls showing overwhelming that they hold Trump and the GOP accountable.

Donald Trump

No one should be surprised that the party regulars are seeking to cast this crisis in terms most favorable to their own side. That’s standard operating procedure for politicians engulfed in a controversial dispute. But leave it to Donald Trump to bring the debate down to the lowest levels of rank self-interest and political cynicism.

In the hours following the Senate’s inability to pass a bill that would keep the government running, Trump was on duty, sitting on his throne with his phone and tweeting out nonsense. He clearly doesn’t understand the dynamics of Congress. It’s his party that controls the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House. This is the first government shutdown ever during an administration with that unified control. And the Continuing Resolution that went down to defeat couldn’t even secure the votes of all GOP senators. So it’s hard, therefore, to place the blame on Democrats for the bill’s failure. What’s more, in a 2013 shutdown during the Obama administration Trump himself insisted that, under these circumstances, it’s the president who is responsible. Apparently that only applies to black presidents.

Trump’s post-shutdown Saturday morning tweets went further than just political jockeying for positive spin. He turned the closure of the government into a campaign event by overtly calling for the election of more Republicans:

Trump’s focus on politicizing his shutdown illustrates how narrow his grasp is of leadership and governing. By advocating for electoral gains he is pushing off any hopes of progress until next November. He is also effectively abandoning any effort to work with Democrats on crafting a compromise. He obviously isn’t going to get the extra Republicans he wants in the next few days or weeks. The only chance of ending the shutdown is to recognize the reality of the current situation and engage with Democrats. He might even want to consider keeping his word to sign whatever the Congress sent him. They actually did produce a bipartisan compromise, but Trump unilaterally rejected it.

However, the “Art of the Deal” president thinks that insulting Democrats is the way to get their cooperation. His press secretary issued a response to the shutdown that blamed it on Democrats and called them “obstructionist losers.” And Trump himself has been taking swipes, as usual, on Twitter. In addition to his preposterous claim that Democrats “want illegal immigration and weak borders,” he incoherently railed that “Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration.”

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

This is no way to run a government. But it is business as usual for Trump and the GOP. They aren’t interested in doing the people’s work or seeking their best interests. Whenever they manage to do anything it invariably produces more suffering, cuts services, or enriches the already privileged. You might say that, for all intents and purposes, the government has been shut down since January 20, 2017, the day Trump was inaugurated.

Most Republicans Are Devoted Fox News Cultists According to Study on Media Trust

Posted by on January 19, 2018 at 5:26 pm. 1 Comments :

Fox News was built from the bottom up to be a right wing propaganda machine. And for twenty years the network has faithfully pursued that mission. For their effort they have attracted an audience of glassy-eyed disciples who believe everything that Fox News tells them and none of what any other media source reports. And with the advent of Donald Trump, other media sources have all been tagged as “fake news.”

Pray for Fox News

A new study by the Gallup/Knight Foundation is confirming the spiritual bond between Fox News and its viewers. the Gallup/Knight’s “Survey on Trust, Media and Democracy” asked Americans a variety of questions about their viewing habits and opinions about the media. The results reveal that strikingly narrow minded conservative news consumers are listening to only one voice in the media: Fox News. According to the study:

“More than eight in 10 U.S. adults believe the news media are critical or very important to our democracy. They see the most important roles played by the media as making sure Americans have the knowledge they need to be informed about public affairs and holding leaders accountable for their actions. At the same time, Americans are more likely to say the media perform these roles poorly than to say they are performing them well.” […]

“Less than half of Americans, 44%, say they can think of a news source that reports the news objectively. Republicans who can name an accurate source overwhelmingly mention Fox News, while Democrats’ responses are more varied.”

The survey asked what news sources respondents considered to be objective. Twenty-four percent said Fox News. That left forty-nine percent divided up between several other sources including CNN, NPR, MSNBC, the New York Times and others. What stood out though, was that sixty percent of Republicans chose Fox News. By comparison, only twenty-one percent of Democrats chose CNN. While Democrats’ preferences were dispersed among a variety of news sources, Republicans were clutching tightly to their ideological security blanket, Fox News.

Another significant finding was that Republicans have a peculiar definition of “fake news.” Rather than the conventional view that regards made up stories intended to deceive as fake, forty-two percent of Republicans (versus seventeen percent of Democrats) consider “accurate news stories that cast a politician or political group in a negative light to always be ‘fake news.'” Let that sink in. They actually said that accurate reporting is fake if they don’t like it. That also happens to be the way Trump looks at it. Anything that he thinks is critical of him, even if it’s true, is automatically dismissed as fake.

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

The groupthink on the part of Republicans and conservatives is driving the party into a Fox News flavored abyss. They have a single source of information that is notoriously biased and often chases conspiracy theories that lead to embarrassing collisions with reality. And it’s also Trump’s base. Which means that as Trump continues to set records as the most unpopular president ever, Fox News and their viewers will become more isolated and irrelevant. And the sooner that happens, the better.

In His Own Words: Trump’s Shutdown Demagoguery is Hypocritical, Dishonest, and Ignorant

Posted by on January 18, 2018 at 3:17 pm. 3 Comments :

Donald Trump has been frantic lately about the Congress not being able to pass a budget or a continuing resolution to keep the government from shutting down. He is engulfed in a blustering frenzy of anger while trying feverishly to blame Democrats for the looming closure and termination of certain public services.

Donald Trump

But Trump’s yowling betrays his pathetic incompetence. First of all, he apparently doesn’t realize that his own party, the Republicans, is in control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House. That makes it impossible to shift responsibility to anyone but the GOP for the shut down. What’s more, Trump can’t seem to grasp the reason for the political schism. He keeps trying to assert that the military will be the victim of a shut down, despite the fact that all Pentagon programs will continue unabated.

The real breakdown in negotiations concerns the insistence by Trump and the Republican’s that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients be shut out of the legislation, even as they continue to lose their eligibility to remain in the U.S. Trump’s faction is steadfast in their heartless refusal to correct the problem he created that will send people who have lived their whole lives in America to countries they don’t know. And to make matters worse, they are trying to lure Democratic support by adding language to the bill that continues the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In effect they are holding both DACA and CHIP as hostages in opposition to one another. It’s both a cynical and reprehensible tactic that burdens people already in troubling circumstances.

What makes this all the more disturbing is that Trump’s position lacks any moral or intellectual consistency. He doesn’t really care about any of the affected persons, and he has no principles behind his manufactured conflict. Here is what Trump posted on Twitter Thursday on this matter:

And here is what he tweeted in the past:

So which is it? Does our government need a good shutdown that will be devastating to our military even though government continues to run with all essential services? That’s the deranged argument of our “stable genius” who just got a clean bill of physical and mental health despite showing signs of heart disease. And yes, none of that makes any sense.

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

Good News: Trump Plans to Spend 2018 on the Campaign Trail Helping More GOP Candidates Lose

Posted by on December 17, 2017 at 8:18 am. 2 Comments :

In the past few weeks there have been a couple of important elections that drew national attention. One was for the governorship of Virginia. The other was for a senate seat in Alabama. In both contests Donald Trump campaigned furiously for the Republican candidate. And in both cases the Democrat won. Proving that the President’s support is no guarantee of success, even in staunchly red territories of the South.

Donald Trump

So it will come as good news to Democrats to learn that Trump is planning to hit the road in 2018 to campaign for Republican candidates across America:

“President Donald Trump is not on the ballot in 2018, but the White House is planning a full-throttle campaign to plunge the president into the midterm elections, according to senior officials and advisers familiar with the planning. […] The president has told advisers he wants to travel extensively and hold rallies and that he is looking forward to spending much of 2018 campaigning.”

That’s right. The president with the lowest approval rating since polling began is so enamored with himself that he thinks he’d be an asset to other political aspirants. Never mind the recent evidence that an association with Trump spells doom in races where Republicans should have had the edge. His conceit is so all-encompassing that he’s convinced that his presence is beneficial, or even desirable. This is a man so utterly lacking in self-awareness that he can’t comprehend that a majority of voters cringe at the site of him. And any candidate who stands next to Trump on the political stage is going to be covered by the stench of his divisiveness, racism, ignorance, misogyny, and boorish character.

Democrats must be salivating at the prospect of Trump’s ambitious campaign plans. They would surely welcome him into the fray knowing that he is more likely to hurt their GOP opponents than to help them. At the the same time he is one of the best motivators for Democrats to get out and vote. The more Trump tries to push his GOP colleagues, the bigger the blue wave is going to be next November. And as an added benefit, if Trump is traipsing around the country dragging down Republican electoral hopes, he won’t be in Washington creating more domestic and international crises. And Trump’s focus on electioneering is more proof that the only agenda of the Republican Party is the preservation of power.

Representatives of the Trump administration’s political team are as delusional as he is regarding the value of his contribution. One insisted that “this isn’t about adulation and cheering crowds.” That ignores the evidence of his narcissistic tendencies that compel him to continue holding rallies long after the presidential campaign was over. He clearly thrives on the fawning adoration of the deplorables who flock to his personal praise-a-thons.

The risk of having Trump stump for a candidate is that the thrill he gets from his glassy-eyed disciples only exacerbates the harm he is likely to cause. That’s because the more the crowds cheer, the more he talks about himself and ignores the candidate he came to promote. And whenever Trump goes off topic he winds up creating inane controversies that overwhelm whatever message he hoped to communicate.

For these reasons Democrats will be the first to encourage Trump to campaign vigorously and often. The more he is associated with Republican candidates the better the chances of electing Democrats. And Trump’s toxicity will only increase in the new year as more revelations from the investigations of his collusion with Russia emerge. And that’s not even taking into consideration scandals related to his financial corruption and sexual harassment and abuse. So bring it on Donnie. We double dare you.

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

Trump Shill: If You Get Your News From Fox News You Probably Like the GOP Tax Scam

Posted by on December 14, 2017 at 1:59 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress are hurtling headlong into passage of tax bill that will materially alter the tax code in ways that harm most Americans. It is flagrantly biased in favor of corporations and the wealthy with toxic provisions that will sabotage healthcare and cripple Social Security and Medicare. The GOP refused to hold hearings on the bill or even allow Democrats to review it prior to voting. Much of it was written by corporate lobbyists. And without any justification for their haste, Republicans are ramming it through before the already strong opposition becomes impossible to ignore.

foxnews-mulvaney

As usual, whenever Republicans require a boost in propaganda they turn to Fox News. They know that they can present whatever bullshit they want and that there will be no one to challenge their lies. They took advantage of that Thursday morning when they sent Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, to the studios of Fox and Friends to pimp the tax bill. He received precisely the welcome that he expected as co-host Steve Doocy offered up a softball for Mulvaney to hit out of the park. Surprisingly, Mulvaney took a wild swing that landed in foul territory (video below):

Doocy: People don’t like to pay taxes so you would think that this would be a good story for you. And yet, Mick, the Quinnipiac poll came out and shows that fifty-five percent of Americans don’t like it, as opposed to twenty-six percent who do. Can you explain to me why people don’t like the idea of a tax cut?
Mulvaney: Sure, because if you turn to any channel besides this one, all you’re going to hear is bad news about this particular bill. […] No one is focusing, as you folks do, on what’s good for people in this bill. So if you get your news here, you probably like it because your focused on what’s good for you. But if not, you don’t.

So the only reason Mulvaney had for people not liking the bill was that they weren’t watching enough Fox News. Or worse, they drifted from their “news” teet at Fox and were exposed to actual facts and honest scrutiny. Doocy was taking a chance by citing the Quinnipiac poll which he correctly quoted as showing a historic disapproval rating, especially for something being pitched as a tax cut. The poll provided an explanation for that which Fox News left out entirely. Nearly seventy percent of those polled said the bill favors the wealthy and only twenty-one percent think that it will help the middle class. In other words, people can see through the GOP spin and recognize a fraud when it’s right in front of their faces.

However, what was most interesting about Mulvaney’s response was that he explicitly admitted that Fox News was a pit of partisan bias where viewers would get only the conservative perspective peddled by the White House. He praised the “Curvy Couch” potatoes for being sycophantic hucksters upon whom he could rely to spew the government line. Just like state-run TV outlets are supposed to do. Heaven forbid that the American people might ever get an unbiased analysis of this bill that contained actual facts derived from independent experts. That isn’t what Fox News was created for, and it surely isn’t what they did this morning. Welcome to the American Pravda, now proudly out of the propaganda closet.

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/031QXFVaEY0?t=1m45s

Sean Hannity Affirms That The Trump Cult Has Officially Replaced the Republican Party

Posted by on December 6, 2017 at 3:16 pm. 1 Comments :

The ascension of Donald Trump has heralded a new era of political absurdities. His unpredictable rise in the Republican Party came with unusually hostile pronouncements directed at GOP regulars. The objects of his contempt included John McCain, George W. Bush, and Mitch McConnell, to name a few. As an example of the schizophrenic nature of his fractured loyalties, Trump argued publicly with the Republican National Committee during the campaign, then named it’s chairman, Reince Priebus, as his chief of staff (briefly).

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

However, Trump’s true allegiance was always to his own self-interest. And the best gauge of where he stood at any moment was the cast of characters at Fox News. The “Curvy Couch” potatoes on Fox and Friends, his personal pals, and fellow sexual predators, Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes, and the premiere suck-up of the century, Sean Hannity, were (and are) his closest advisers. The relationship between Trump and his shadow cabinet of Foxies is excruciatingly tight.

So it may not come as a surprise to hear Hannity lash out at the party for which he has been a devoted toady for the last twenty years. With his infatuation for Trump growing by the day, Hannity has completely abandoned his long-held political commitments in favor of a new faithfulness to the emerging Trump Cult. And in the spirit of that betrayal, Hannity prostrated himself to the Pope of Trumpism, Steve Bannon, to declare and affirm that the Republican Party is dead:

“Here’s my view on the Republican Party. It is a dead party. They are morally corrupt, they are weak. They are ineffective, they’re vision-less, and they have no identity.”

Who can argue with that? Hannity went on to lament that he was “heartbroken” by what he said was the failure of trust by the GOP turning on Trump. It was behavior that he called “total and complete bullshit.” What precisely he is talking about is a mystery, considering the GOP’s blind obedience to Trump’s every delusional whim. They are a party that has stood by him despite his “pussy-grabbing” confession of sexual assaults, his denouncement of fellow party icons, his embrace of racist white nationalists, his admiration for brutal and oppressive tyrants like Vladimir Putin, and his infantile taunting of nuclear-powered foreign adversaries.

For a well known Republican bootlicker like Hannity to publicly renounce his party in favor of a reality TV game show host turned wannabe dictator should be profoundly disturbing to Republican politicians and voters. They are being thrown over for a faker who has manged to sell a shitload of snake oil to a pitifully ignorant minority of gullible Americans. But the Trump Cult movement is about as thick as a hair’s breadth. As soon as he wanders off to his golf resort retirement, or is paraded into a prison cell, the true believers will disperse and deny they ever supported him.

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

It isn’t certain that after Trump’s downfall his former disciples will re-embrace the GOP. Consequently, Trumpitis may be a fatal disease that ushers the party to its inevitable demise. And if the rest of us live through these difficult days until Trump shuffles off the stage, the damage he does to the right-wing may turn out to be blessing. If only the wait wasn’t so painful and dangerous.

POLL: More Republicans Are Totally Cool With Candidates Who Are Sexual Predators

Posted by on November 22, 2017 at 2:05 pm. 1 Comments :

The sudden rash of revelations about men who harass or abuse women is a positive step forward for equality and decency. It doesn’t matter which side of the political aisle the perpetrator is on. Anyone who uses their position or power to commit sexual assaults needs to be called out and suffer appropriate consequences.

Donald Trump

At least that’s the view of Democrats in a new poll by Quinnipiac. When asked whether they would still consider voting for a candidate who has been accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, a plurality of Republican respondents (43%) said they would. In other words, they don’t think that it’s a disqualifying factor for a public servant to have committed sexual assaults.

The same survey broke out results for Democrats who have a completely different perspective. Eighty-one percent said that they would not consider voting for a candidate with such a dirty background. So this should put to rest the fallacy that there is no difference between the political parties. The difference, at least so far as this question is concerned, is that one side isn’t bothered by perverts, and the other side is. Which side are you on?

Donald Trump took sides this week when he told reporters that he still backs the pedophile candidate for senate in Alabama, Roy Moore. Like many of his fellow Republicans, Trump cited as a reason for supporting Moore his concern about passing a tax bill that gives corporations and the wealthy a huge break. So having a pervert in the senate is acceptable if he’s a right-wing pervert who will advance the interests of the one percent. Trump’s objection to Moore’s Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, is that he’s a liberal. Which in the view of the President is worse than being a child molester.

Hopefully most Americans don’t share that demented opinion. Particularly those in Alabama who will be voting in three weeks. But we already know that we can’t count on Fox News to exhibit any sense of decency. The network that has ingrained sexual abuse into their corporate culture is predictably behind Moore and praises Trump’s endorsement.

The problem for Trump is that he can’t make a principled condemnation of Moore without it leaking into his own history of sexually predatory behavior. There are at least sixteen women who have made credible accusations against him. Yet even after all of the sleazeballs who have been taken down in recent weeks, Trump is still skating away untouched. If anyone should be driven from office it’s Trump. And if his collusion with Russia, financial corruption, undermining the free press, or being a pathological liar and malignant narcissist aren’t sufficient reasons, then his sexual depravity and criminality should be.

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

Trump Said Shooting Was a Mental Health Problem, But Signed Bill Easing Their Access to Guns

Posted by on November 6, 2017 at 12:54 pm. 3 Comments :

Once again Donald Trump and every Republican NRA shill in America is serving up their “thoughts and prayers.” Meanwhile, the families and victims of another gun slaughter are suffering for the abject negligence of a cowardly Congress. The shooting in a Sutherland Springs, TX, church is just the latest episode of senseless violence that is turning the country into a war zone. But the absence of affirmative solutions isn’t the worst part of the right-wing response. They are proactively enabling the almost certain continuation of these tragedies. And it starts at the top with Trump himself.

Donald Trump

The President’s first remarks on the Texas massacre were given just hours after it occurred from his junket in Japan. As usual, he couldn’t help politicizing the subject. Absolving his friends in the gun lobby of any responsibility, Trump speculated on the cause despite having no facts. “This isn’t a guns situation,” he reckoned. “This is a mental health problem.”

With regard to the latter half of his comment, it’s unarguable that mental health played a role in this shooting. In fact, it plays a role in every mass shooting. None of these incidents can be described as normal psychological behavior. So Trump is telling us nothing by stating the obvious. However, the first part of his comment completely ignores reality. These tragedies are only exacerbated by the easy access to such dangerous assault-type weapons.

The Republican Party marches in lock step with the NRA to preserve access to virtually all weaponry. They oppose regulating cop-killer bullets, military firearms, and “smart” guns. They are even blocking regulation of the “bump stock” accessories that modify conventional weapons into fully automatic ones. That was what the Las Vegas gunman used to kill fifty-eight people just last month.

But the GOP position on mental health is no better. They are currently proposing cuts to mental health programs in their budget and tax bills, More to the point, they are determined to protect the rights of violent offenders, domestic abusers, and other unstable miscreants to own whatever guns they want. Donald Trump even signed a bill in February for that precise purpose. As reported by NBC News at the time:

“President Donald Trump quietly signed a bill into law Tuesday rolling back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to purchase a gun. […] President Barack Obama recommended the now-nullified regulation in a 2013 memo following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 first graders and six others dead. The measure sought to block some people with severe mental health problems from buying guns.”

Early reports suggest that the law Trump revoked was just the sort of regulation that might have kept the Texas shooter from obtaining his guns. He was discharged from the Air Force for “bad conduct.” Specifically, he was found to have assaulted his wife and child. Not coincidentally, domestic abuse has been found to be a consistent and accurate predictor of mass shooting perpetrators. Samantha Bee happened to do a segment on this subject last week. It should be required viewing for every member of Congress and law enforcement:

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

Gee Thanks: Donald Trump and Fox News Bring Back the Russia Pee-Pee Dossier

Posted by on October 25, 2017 at 3:55 pm. NO Comments :

The nation, and the world, are presently enveloped in a myriad of potential catastrophes. For example: nuclear war with North Korea; tax reform; natural disasters; terrorism, etc. Under the circumstances, you might think that Donald Trump would seek to focus on any of those critical issues. If so, you don’t know Donald Trump. True to form, the President has managed to shine a spotlight on one of his biggest embarrassments.

Sean Hannity

The now infamous Trump Dossier is a treasure trove of salacious and politically damning information. Much of it is speculative, but much has also been vetted and independently corroborated. The former British spy who compiled it is considered reliable by many intelligence agencies, including those in the United States. And if there is one scandalous controversy that Trump should be anxious to ditch, it’s the one that has him cavorting with Russian prostitutes. But for some reason, the Twitter obsessed President can’t resist his self-destructive urges:

Poor Donnie, Always the victim. And now he’s helping to remind America of his alleged escapades in Moscow with a different kind of golden shower than the one in his Manhattan penthouse. Trump is reprising this story because the Washington Post just published an article that ties Democrats to the Dossier. The only problem with this breaking news is that it was broken a year ago. In October of 2016, David Corn wrote for Mother Jones that the Dossier’s author had been “researching Trump’s dealings in Russia and elsewhere.” In his article Corn noted that:

“This was for an opposition research project originally financed by a Republican client critical of the celebrity mogul. (Before the former spy was retained, the project’s financing switched to a client allied with Democrats).”

So what began as opposition research for the GOP was taken up by Democratic operatives. That’s probably because the findings included “troubling information indicating connections between Trump and the Russian government.” Also, sources alleged “an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit.” But in any case, the Democratic connection was obviously known long before WaPo’s “scoop.” It was even known by wingnut propaganda dispensers at Fox News. Trump fluffers like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson have long been peddling this partisan snake oil.

So it’s ironic that Trump is now relying on the “fake” news purveyors at WaPo for his smear campaign info. His tweet Wednesday morning credited Fox News with the data. However, there’s a bigger question here. Do Trump and Fox News really think it’s noteworthy that Democrats might have funded opposition research against their opposition? Isn’t that what all campaigns do as a matter of routine? When Fox’s Jeanine Pirro was defending Trump, Jr. for meeting with Russians during the campaign she bragged that:

“As someone who’s run for office five times, if the devil called me and said he wanted to set up a meeting to give me opposition research on my opponent, I’d be on the first trolley to Hell to get it. And any politician who tells you otherwise is a bald-faced liar.”

In fact, Trump said pretty much the same thing:

Now suddenly it’s an abomination for Hillary Clinton’s campaign to engage in opposition research. The hypocrisy is palpable. But the objective for Trump and his pals at Fox News is to conflate this old, non-story with the more relevant allegations of Trump’s collusion with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election. And it’s a talking point that was distributed to all of the network’s programs. Already the subject has been covered by Pirro, Tucker Carlson, Bret Baier, Bill Hemmer, and, of course, Sean Hannity. For his part, Hannity helpfully stirred the recollection of the most depraved portions of the Dossier:

“The Democrats, media, they were happy to repeat, for example, that ‘Oh, Donald Trump was at the Ritz in Moscow and he had hookers urinating in his bed.’ […] All of this makes the Clinton campaign and the DNC complicit in spreading Russian propaganda and Russian lies about then-candidate, Donald Trump.

You have to wonder why Hannity thought that would benefit his buddy Trump. He could have simply talked about the Dossier in disparaging terms and left it at that. But no. This genius thought visualizing Russian hookers urinating on Trump had to be a feature of the broadcast. Never mind that the entire story involving who paid for some routine opposition research doesn’t even come close to the scandal of enlisting Russians to tamper with an American election. Clearly they are pretending to be more interest in who paid for it than what’s in it. But all of this just illustrates how desperate they are to deflect from the real news and to attack their perennial foe, Hillary Clinton, who holds no office and says she never will.

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

It’s Official: Fox News and the GOP have merged into a single political media enterprise

Posted by on October 19, 2017 at 3:24 pm. 1 Comments :

It’s no secret that Fox News has been serving as the de facto PR division of the Republican Party since its inception. It was founded by an arch-conservative newspaper baron (Rupert Murdoch) and a former GOP media strategist (Roger Ailes). It’s schedule is replete with twenty-four straight hours of right-wing propaganda delivered by devoted partisans like Sean Hannity. It is, in fact, Donald Trump’s preferred network with his favorite show, Fox and Friends.

Fox News Marsha Blackburn

As chummy as this relationship has been for many years, on Thursday morning it took a big step. This political love story advanced from it’s long engagement to a blissful marriage. The wedding took place on Fox’s Outnumbered. This program usually features a rotating cast of female co-hosts from the Fox News roster, plus “one lucky guy” in the guest’s chair. But in this episode one of the co-hosts was not a Fox regular. It was Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) who also happens to be a candidate for the Senate in Tennessee.

Blackburn was not a guest. She was seated in a chair reserved for co-hosts and was introduced as one. That’s an uncommon position for a sitting congressperson and active candidate to take on an alleged news network. In effect, the network is admitting her into the Fox News family of partisan pundits. It’s a “privilege” that no Democratic representative is ever likely to enjoy. And especially during a contested election for a vacant senate seat, it’s a campaign bonus that is worth millions of dollars. Will Fox give her Democratic opponent equal time? Don’t hold your breath.

In addition to that appearance, Blackburn was on Fox and Friends earlier the same morning. In the teaser for the segment she was brought onto the set and greeted with kisses by the show’s hosts. When was the last you saw a politician arriving for an interview on a “news” network get a wet one planted on her by the people who would be conducting the interview. Imagine the outcry if Nancy Pelosi was greeted that way by Chuck Todd when she showed up for a segment on Meet the Press.

This has become the new normal for Fox News. They hardly even try to live up to the “fair and balanced” slogan (that they dropped earlier this year) anymore. Fox and Friends is the source of many of Donald Trump’s tweets. This morning, for example, they did a story on the long ago debunked conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton approved a give-away of uranium to the Russians. A few minutes later it showed up on Trump’s Twitter feed.

With the advent of GOP politicians and candidates taking up hosting duties on Fox News, it is impossible to deny the depth of their embrace. It was bad enough when Republicans simply moved back and forth between the two entities between official government jobs. For instance, former GOP Oversight Committee chair, Jason Chaffetz, is now a Fox News contributor. And former Fox and Friends co-host, Heather Nauert, is now the spokesperson for the State Department. They have completely dropped the requirement that these partisans be “former” anything. They are openly mixing up the roles that politicians and pundits are playing. And it’s a gross perversion of the the ethical principles of both.

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