Republicans

If Only: WSJ Says Obama Is Six Months Away From Destroying The Republican Party

Posted by on April 2, 2016 at 2:57 pm. 4 Comments :

The Wall Street Journal just published an editorial that might have been dismissed as an April Fool’s joke, except that it was published on March 30. It is the sort of delusional crackpottery to which conservatives resort when their denial overpowers what little common sense they have.

Obama Destroys GOP

The article by Dan Henninger, the paper’s Deputy Editorial Page Director and a Fox News contributor, is fretfully titled “Obama’s Greatest Triumph: He is six months away from destroying both the Republican Party and Reagan’s legacy.” While the claim is one that stirs the promise of hope in every liberal, Henninger may be giving Obama more credit than he deserves. The truth is that the Republican Party may indeed be six months from destruction, but Obama has had little to do with it.

Henninger is employing the venerable rightist tactic of blaming Obama for anything that they deem undesirable. For instance, wingnuts on the right have blamed Obama for the bombing in Brussels, California’s drought, Ebola, and even Hurricane Katrina. He is blamed for high gas prices that hurt consumers, as well as for low gas prices that hurt oil companies. In the warped minds of conservatives there is no way that Obama can win.

And now the disintegration of the Republican Party is just another disaster caused by a president that the right believes is both an evil genius and a lazy incompetent. He’s working determinedly to destroy America while doing nothing but playing golf. The editorial begins with the premise that…

“Barack Obama will retire a happy man. He is now close to destroying his political enemies—the Republican Party, the American conservative movement and the public-policy legacy of Ronald Reagan.”

And how does Henninger arrive at this conclusion? By observing that the GOP has withered into a hollow shell of a party and that…

“With no party spokesman for conservatism, an ideological vacuum existed. Freelance operators filled it.”

The freelancers identified by Henninger are otherwise known as some of the leading figures of their party, including presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Henninger doesn’t explain the dastardly scheme that Obama used to get Republicans to elevate these fruitcakes to their current status, but rest assured, it must have been as diabolical as it was brilliant. But that was only the beginning. Obama’s plots conspired to turn the Republican Party against itself, even utilizing reliably right-wing think tanks and media to do the dirty work.

“They also included a movement to purge and cleanse conservatism, led by groups such as Heritage Action and by talk radio hosts. Together they conjured an internal enemy—the Republican Establishment.”

Once again there is no explanation for how Obama managed to get the ultra-rightist Heritage Foundation, Rush Limbaugh, et al, to turn their fire at the so-called “Republican Establishment,” which in reality is no different than what is regarded as the Republican outsiders like the Tea Party. They are all of the same hive mind politically, and advocate for exactly the same agenda.

Nevertheless, Henninger’s proposition that the turmoil in the GOP was brought about by some wizardry on the part of Obama was made even more devious by the President’s ability to keep his fingerprints off of the plan. As Henninger describes it…

“With his Cheshire Cat grin, Barack Obama faded into the background and let the conservatives’ civil war rip. […] The anti-establishment offensive created a frenzy faction inside the Republican base. And of course, it produced Donald Trump.”

Now that is the ultimate praise from the conservative columnist. Taking credit for saddling Republicans with Donald Trump would be a feather in the cap of any Democrat. It would be like threading the Deathstar needle in an X-Wing Starfighter to blow it to smithereens. Obama must truly be a Jedi Master.

All kidding aside, the desperation in this editorial to indict Obama for crimes against the GOP is hilariously obtuse. Responsibility for the Republican Party’s destruction lies solely with GOP politicians, pundits, and voters, who encouraged the foolishness of the Tea Party malcontents to screech their unfocused and incoherent anger at anyone who sought to behave reasonably or to conduct the work of government. It wasn’t Obama who unseated the GOP House Majority Leader. And it wasn’t Democrats who primaried veteran Republican members of Congress. And any clear-eyed observer knows that Donald Trump was the inevitable consequence of their festering rage.

Henninger whines that the GOP’s “bizarre” response to the Obama administration produced a result wherein “the Republicans decided to destroy each other.” That’s true, but it wasn’t Obama who got them to become so bizarre. That’s an honor that they can only award to themselves. And now that most of them are horrified by the prospect of Donald Trump becoming their standard bearer, they are struggling to avoid accountability and to lay the blame at the feet of the President who has been the most consistent victim of their madness. But that is only more proof that they are still suffering from an acute case of denial. And there is no sign that a cure is on the horizon.

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

The Republican Party may very well be six months away from being destroyed. And if it is, the credit belongs to the party and the conservative media that has been deceiving their constituents for the past eight years (or more). At least RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was honest about it when he said that “Republicans don’t exist as a national political party if we do not win in 2016.” To which America is saying “You promise?”

Loyalty Loath: The GOP Pledge Of Allegiance Goes Up In Flames

Posted by on March 30, 2016 at 10:18 am. NO Comments :

When Donald Trump announced his candidacy in June of last year it was widely speculated that he would ditch the Republican Party if it failed to give him the party crown to which he feels entitled. That controversy caused the GOP to insist that all candidates sign a “loyalty oath” if they wanted to participate in party sanctioned debates or even get on the primary ballot in some states. The pledge required the candidates to promise allegiance to the party and its eventual nominee and to forswear any future attempt to go independent. It also commenced a roller-coaster ride of concessions and threats by an unstable megalomaniac whose word is worth less than a diploma from Trump University.

Donald Trump

It’s difficult understand how Trump could endorse other Republicans that he has already disparaged as weak, incompetent, corrupt, ugly losers, but then they all have that problem. Nevertheless, under pressure from the party, Trump signed the pledge and tweeted how proud he was of the commitment. He further stated that “I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party,” and that “I see no circumstances under which I would tear up that pledge.”

You’ll never guess what happened next. Just two and a half months later Trump was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week and was asked whether he still intended to honor his pledge. He responded that “I will see what happens. I have to be treated fairly.” Of course Trump’s idea of fair treatment is when everybody stoops to kiss his wrinkled butt. Consequently, anyone who relies on his pledge is asking to be bitch-slapped by the wannabe tyrant who invents his own exceptions to signed contracts. A few days later, Trump’s attorney offered a medieval-flavored affirmation of his threat to bolt the party saying “woe be on them,” who treat The Donald unfairly.

Trump’s vacillation on party allegiance was not matched by his opponents who continued to assert their loyalty. If anyone had justification for abandoning a Trump candidacy, it was the victims of his campaign abuse. What’s more, the disintegration of Trump’s campaign into a neo-fascist movement was all too apparent and did not go unnoticed. President Obama’s press Secretary, Josh Earnest, commented on it after Trump proposed to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. He said that such a blatantly unconstitutional plan “disqualifies him from being president. And for Republican candidates to stand by their pledge to support Mr. Trump, that in and of itself is disqualifying.” Well, not to Republicans.

Trump was asked again during CNN’s GOP debate in December if he was “ready to assure Republicans tonight that you will run as a Republican and abide by the decision of the Republicans?” He answered “I really am. I’ll be honest, I really am.” Oh – so this time he’s being honest (allegedly). Since Trump has already made a public statement that he could renege on the written pledge that he signed, why would anyone trust that he would keep any promises made on a debate stage?

And you’ll never guess what happened next – again. In the midst of an unhinged tirade against Ted Cruz, who Trump accused of using negatively slanted push polls against him in South Carolina, Trump unleashed a flurry of threats to challenge Cruz’s eligibility to run for president with a lawsuit based on the fact that he was born in Canada. And attached to those threats was one aimed at the Republican National Committee warning that “the RNC should intervene and if they don’t they are in default of their pledge to me,” thus, once again, opening the path to his own renunciation of the pledge.

Following the CBS GOP debate in South Carolina, Trump escalated the un-pledging rhetoric with more complaints about the RNC that he said “does a terrible job.” He threw another of his patented tantrums alleging that the party was conspiring against him and that “they’re in default of their pledge.” And yet, the charade that the loyalty pledge remained in effect continued to be played out. Until now.

At a CNN town hall event in Wisconsin yesterday, Anderson Cooper asked Trump outright if he still stood by the pledge. His answer this time was an unequivocal “No, I don’t.” To be fair, both Ted Cruz and John Kasich have indicated that they were also wavering on backing the GOP nominee depending on who it was, a thinly veiled inference that a Trump candidacy would be disavowed.

So now it appears that the entire field of Republican candidates has abandoned the pledge they made such a big deal about signing six months ago. It was a farce from the beginning designed to reign in Trump, which never worked, and now it is crumpled up in the trash along with the GOP’s principles and prospects for a November victory. Among the questions that linger are whether the pledge’s demise means that Trump is again considering a third party run. That would be the ultimate F.U. to the Republican Party that Trump is convinced is his enemy, but it would also bring joy to the Democratic Party.

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

An easier solution, however, is one that I proposed last December. Just let the crybaby Trump have his GOP nomination and then the rest of the party could leave and start a new club minus Trump and his racist, idiot brigade of Storm-Trumpers. Now THAT’S entertainment. It’s a solution that the reality TV celebrity candidate and the ratings hungry news networks could both embrace.

In His Own Words: Donald Trump Is Selling Himself Like A Bag Of Cheetos

Posted by on March 25, 2016 at 1:45 pm. 4 Comments :

The Republican Party has saddled itself with one of history’s most repulsive characters in this, or any, election season. Donald Trump is the manifestation of the racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and general anti-intellectualism that has long festered behind a thin veil of the GOP’s pseudo-respectability. As much as many of the party’s relative moderates are embarrassed by Trump, they cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for him.

Donald Trump Cheetos

Trump’s campaign strategy has resembled nothing more than the sort of reality TV battles that made him a household name. He trades in hyperbole and personal attacks and dumbed-down misrepresentations of issues. More often than not he lies without shame to advance his self-serving interests (see the Trump Bullshitopedia) And always, he casts himself as a sort of Messianic savior who is the only hope for rescuing America from the hordes of enemies, within and without, who yearn to destroy us in unspeakably horrific ways.

However, if you pay attention to Trump’s own descriptions of his operational tactics you will find that he is selling himself more like a consumer product than a candidate. Trump is essentially marketing himself like the corny, air-puffed, cheese snack, Cheetos, which has little substance but lots of toxic chemicals and seasoning. And while the comparison has been made before, Trump is surpassing all previous efforts by confessing to his marketing schemes. He is slapping a label on his snake oil that actually says “Snake Oil.”

What follows are some of the comments that expose Trump as a smarmy salesman. And the fact that he is unashamed to admit that his entire candidacy is akin to a pitch for fast food makes it all the more distasteful.

The best place to start is where Trump helpfully defines the marketing premise of his campaign by telling Politico that “I’ve done my job. I’m the product, the product is me.” That was his attempt to explain why he relied on massive rallies to promote himself, rather than the face-to-face town hall gatherings that are the standard in early state primaries. It’s the marketing equivalent of putting up a Superbowl ad instead of having a taste test at a local grocery store. Trump doesn’t really want anyone to get that close for fear of being exposed as a phony.

Way back in 2006 Trump was on the O’Reilly Factor where he laid out for Bill O’Reilly the reason he fights dirty saying that “If I attack on a purely intellectual basis nobody would listen and the response would not be nearly as effective.” So he is admitting that his rancor and bombast is an act designed to bring him more attention. It doesn’t matter if it’s truthful or tactful so long as it has shock value and the media laps it up.

Then there was the time that Trump openly admitted that his antics were crafted to generate drama and controversy: “If I weren’t in the race you’d have the same as you did four years ago, just the same boring things that would be just boring, that’s the way it is. Maybe That’s why The Apprentice was so successful.” In this comment Trump actually openly associates his success as a candidate with success as a contestant on a TV game show.

That shouldn’t surprise anyone after they learn that his measure of power in politics is the same as his measure of power in television: “It’s ratings. I go on one of these shows and the ratings double. They triple. And that gives you power. It’s not the polls. It’s the ratings.” And furthermore, he believes that that capacity for drawing an audience (which rests primarily on appealing to their bloodlust for seeing a horrible train wreck live on the air) puts the TV networks in his debt: “The networks are making a fortune off of me!” Sadly, the networks are buying into that as recently revealed by Les Moonves, the CEO of CBS who said “Who would have thought that this circus would come to town. It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS. […] Go Donald, go.”

Which brings us to how Trump extends his marketing philosophy to his opponents. He has coined little slogans to disparage other candidates, or anyone whom he regards as an enemy. For instance, “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz and “Little Marco” Rubio. He has also tried to stick labels on Ben Carson as a “psychopath,” Jeb Bush as “low energy,” and Hillary Clinton as “lacking stamina.” What all of these have in common is their resemblance to marketing catch phrases that he repeats every time he mentions their names.

Donald Trump is bound and determined to create a public perception of his rivals as evildoers who strive intentionally to cause harm to America and its good citizens. At the same time he offers himself up as the solution to every problem anyone could ever have. His self-branding positions him as the best at whatever he is currently talking about: building a wall, killing terrorists, creating jobs, curing disease, etc. He is likewise the bestest of friends to the poor, women, veterans, evangelicals, and “the blacks.” In short, he’s an all-purpose elixir to cure whatever ails ya.

This characterization of himself serves the purpose of certifying his role as savior to the ignoramuses who worship him no matter what disgusting thing he says or does. It’s a phenomenon that even the obsequious media has recognized. Trump’s support seems to congeal following some grotesquery like a blatant lie (thousands of Muslims celebrating 9/11), or brazen misogyny (blood coming out of Megyn Kelly’s, whatever), or embrace of hatred (declining to rebuke KKK support), or advocacy of violence (promising to pay the legal fees of supporters who assault protesters).

These are not coincidental factors in his campaign. Trump is deliberately setting up his followers to behave like the zombie fanatics for which he desperately yearns. They are expected to follow him into literal battles as exemplified by his threat of riots at the GOP convention if he is not crowned as the Party’s nominee. His egomaniacal compulsions are typical of a cult leader who requires total devotion from an unquestioning flock. And he is as open about that aspiration as he is about his crass commercialization of politics. He regards his supporters as disciples who will follow him anywhere, as he revealed in this tweet:

“Because of me, the Republican Party has taken in millions of new voters, a record. If they are not careful, they will all leave. Sad!”

And just to reiterate the point, he told Joe Scarborough on MSNBC that “If I go, I will tell you, these millions of people that joined, they’re all coming with me.”

And so the Tribe of Trump is born. And in order to belong you must literally pledge your allegiance. This is a bit more demanding than becoming a part of the Pepsi Generation, but is sold in much the same way – through sloganeering, repetition, and the packaging of a social sect that promises acceptance and the welcoming embrace of a de facto family. Even if it is more like the Manson Family, it still offers a measure of warmth and communion. It is a shield from the tribulations of a world they perceive as hostile with enemies everywhere, including where they used to find friends.

In that regard they have even joined Trump’s war against the most reliably biased right-wing media empire in history, Fox News. Trump’s war on Fox has been joined by his minions who are all too happy to boycott the network to which they once clung obsessively. And Trump eggs them on tweeting “Wow, you are all correct about @FoxNews – totally biased and disgusting reporting.” So what we have here is the Trump Cult competing directly with the Fox News Cult. This should be fun.

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

Trump has adopted a mix of missionary work and marketing that exploits the tried and true methods of televangelists and telemarketers (but I repeat myself). He employs the persuasion technology of modern media to appeal to people’s fear and dependency on a sense of belonging (i.e. white supremacy). And his methods include the emotional power of proselytizing patriotism, faith, and rampant scapegoating of vulnerable minorities. It’s a potent cocktail that approaches a form of mass hypnosis, and it has been used before on frightened and disaffected populations. Which makes it all the more understandable that, by his own admission, Trump is not bothered by comparisons to Hitler. In fact, Trump probably views him as an inspiration and role model.

NYT/CBS Poll: Most Republicans Are Embarrassed By Donald Trump, But Will Vote For Him Anyway

Posted by on March 22, 2016 at 9:08 pm. 2 Comments :

How screwed up are Republican voters? That question may seem unnecessary to anyone who has been watching the GOP primary campaign this election season. It began with seventeen candidates, most of whom never had any hope of success, and some of whom were just plain delusional. And as the field narrowed, the remaining candidates represented the worst of the party’s fringe element. And that’s not even counting Donald Trump.

Donald Trump Voter

What really makes the Republican Party a fall-down laughing stock is something that was revealed in a new poll from the New York Times and CBS News:

“Alarmed by the harsh attacks and negative tone of their presidential contest, broad majorities of Republican primary voters view their party as divided and a source of embarrassment and think that the campaign is more negative than in the past.”

That’s right. Sixty percent of Republican primary voters said the campaign had made them feel mostly embarrassed about their party. The reasons they cite are exclusively associated with the grotesqueness of the Trump campaign: his boorish, unpresidential demeanor, lack of substance, and advocacy of violence. And yet, 46% say that they favor him to be the party’s nominee, twenty points higher than their next choice, Ted Cruz. In fact, half of all voters said they would be “scared” if Trump were elected president, and another 19% said they would be “concerned.” And their concern would be justified, not just because of his unfitness to be president, but because both Clinton and Sanders hold double-digit leads over him in head-to-head match-ups.

So Republican voters are saying that they want Trump to be president despite the fact that they are embarrassed by him as a candidate and afraid of the prospect of his presidency. What sort of sickness would cause people to make such contorted decisions about something so important? Whatever it is, it is the reason that I said way back in September of last year that Donald Trump is just a symptom, Republicans are the disease:

“The fact that his hateful idiocy has caught on with a significant faction of the Republican electorate isn’t his fault. Trump’s support isn’t coming from the back seat of his limo. There are actual voters lining up to align themselves with his noxious brand and without them he would be an asterisk in the polls.”

What’s truly frightening is that so many Republicans are willing to support someone that they affirmatively find embarrassing. The results of this poll should be a source of ongoing concern for the health of our democracy. We probably won’t know until July if Trump actually becomes the GOP nominee, and he may be dumped by party insiders at the convention. But it will be hard to wipe off the stink he has attached to the party and, even after he inevitably flames out, the ignorance and bigotry that are the hallmarks of his campaign will remain. The cult of Trump isn’t new. It’s just the latest incarnation of the Tea Party and the Fox News Church of Right-Wing Crackpottery.

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

One last note, if it makes Republicans feel any better, most Democrats are also embarrassed by Donald Trump. But they’re also embarrassed by Republicans who would still vote for him despite their embarrassment.

Fox News Shamelessly Whitewashes Donald Trump’s Threat Of RNC Riots

Posted by on March 21, 2016 at 8:50 am. NO Comments :

It is difficult to recall any leading candidate for president who has so frequently and blatantly insinuated the threat of violence into a political campaign as Donald Trump. And his threats have not been merely hypothetical rhetoric, they have produced actual assaults at his rallies on peaceful protesters and even members of the press.

Donald Trump Fox News

When Trump made recent comments that he expects that there will be riots at the Republican National Convention if he is not given the GOP nomination for president that he believes is his entitlement, he said it in the context of his prior statements that literally encouraged violence from his followers. However, Fox News is trying desperately to absolve him of any responsibility for the potential harm that he is forecasting and inciting. This morning on MediaBuzz with Howard Kurtz, the host went to great extremes to let Trump off the hook:

“I was surprised that the media went to DEFCON 1 over Trump’s riots comment. I mean, I’ve used that phrase, ‘oh, there will be riots if this happens,’ and I thought it was hyperbole.”

That is typical of what is coming from the Trump apologists at Fox News. They are lock-step in agreement that Trump’s dangerous language is merely a figure of speech or, at worst, a careless exaggeration. What they seem to be purposefully sweep under the rug is the full story that Trump is telling his glassy-eyed disciples. That story includes advocating openly hostile behavior such as his desire to “punch [protesters] in the face,” and his praising of an assault about which he said the protester “deserved to be roughed up.” He lamented the old days when protesters would be “carried out on a stretcher,” and even offered to pay the legal fees of his goons if they “knocked the crap out of” some protesters (see the video below). In light of all of that, his talk of riots can no longer be dismissed as hyperbole. What Trump actually said was…

“I don’t think you can say that we don’t get [the nomination] automatically. I think you’d have riots. I think you’d have riots. I’m representing a tremendous — many, many millions of people. […] I think bad things would happen. I really do, I believe that. I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen.”

In other words, if his tyrannical orders are not obeyed, his followers have his permission to fulfill his prophecy. He knows exactly what his storm-Trumpers are capable of. This was an unambiguous threat intended by Trump to convey that he is determined to be the GOP nominee, or else. And if he is not exalted, riots will ensue. Of course he says that he “wouldn’t lead it,” but conspicuously never says that it shouldn’t happen. That wasn’t an accident. It was a message.

For Howard Kurtz to pretend that Trump was entertaining a flight of fancy and meant no harm requires a massive dose of self-delusion. And on that measure, Kurtz is full of it. He has performed the duties of Trump’s fluffer before, as he tried to exempt Trump from criticism for his repugnant remarks, while simultaneously trying to keep Trump’s verbal fecal splatter from soiling the Republican Party.

Kurtz had help from his Fox News comrades who similarly stepped up to scour the scum off of Trump. Fox regulars Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, Ainsley Earhardt, Greta Van Susteren, Andrea Tantaros, and Chris Wallace all sought to attach the “figure of speech” fallacy to Trump’s hate-speech.

In addition to whitewashing Trump’s endorsement of riots, Fox made sure that the protesters were disparaged as the real problem simply for exercising their rights to express themselves. In the view of Fox News the First Amendment is only available to conservatives, and dissenters are infringing on them when they seek to speak out. Had Fox been around when Martin Luther King was protesting racist segregation in Alabama, they would have vilified him for interrupting George Wallace’s freedom to oppress black schoolchildren.

Fox News

In pursuit of the sort slander that turned bigots like Wallace into heroes, Fox trotted some of their old fear mongering to rile up their dimwitted audience. Trump is standing in today for Wallace, but his bigotry is no different. So Fox is going after Trump’s protesters so as to turn them into villains. And of course Fox’s coverage of protesters is always slanted to portray progressives as evil, but a couple of years ago, when the protesters were the Tea Party, Fox heralded them as patriots. Now the foul remnants of the Tea Party are lining up behind Donald Trump. And Fox News is running the media interference for them.

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

Donald Trump's History of Inciting Violence

Terrifying. #DumpTrump

Posted by MoveOn.org on Sunday, March 13, 2016

White Riot: Donald Trump Threatens Riots If He Doesn’t Get The GOP Nomination

Posted by on March 16, 2016 at 1:41 pm. 4 Comments :

On CNN this morning, Donald Trump took the next step on his path in pursuit of leading the nation into a new era of American Fascism. This election season has already seen his campaign devolve into a pit of violent skirmishes as his supporters assault peaceful protesters with the explicit encouragement of Trump himself. But his remarks today go even further down a very dark and dangerous road.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump regards himself as the anointed King of America whose coronation cannot be opposed. He pontificates ceaselessly about his unparalleled magnificence on any undertaking from wall building to military missions, to healthcare to economics to race relations to religion. In his mind he is beloved by all and favored as the ultimate benevolent dictator that America has longed for. And as such, he cannot be denied his rightful place in the Palace on Pennsylvania Avenue. That’s why he said this to CNN’s Chris Cuomo (video below):

“I think we’ll win before getting to the convention, but I can tell you, if we didn’t, and if we’re 20 votes short or if we’re 100 short, and we’re at 1100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400 — because we’re way ahead of everybody — I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically. I think you’d have riots. I think you’d have riots. I’m representing a tremendous — many, many millions of people. […] I think bad things would happen. I really do, I believe that. I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen.”

So after declaring that he should receive an “automatic” ascension to the Republican Party’s nomination, even if he does not satisfy the rules that govern the nominating process, Trump inhales deeply to puff up his chest and let loose one of the most piercing dog whistles of the campaign yet.

By offering his opinion that “you’d have riots” if his tyrannical orders are not obeyed, he is giving his followers permission to fulfill his prophecy. He knows exactly what his storm-Trumpers are capable of, and the mere suggestion of violent opposition to another candidate is sufficient to send them into a frenzy of his own design. This is the same man who told his glassy-eyed disciples that he would pay their legal fees if they “knocked the crap out of” his protesters. How is that any different than offering a bounty to commit a criminal assault?

Make no mistake, this was a threat intended by Trump to convey that he is determined to be the GOP nominee, or else. Passing him over will be done at great risk. He wants riots to ensue should the party shun him. That’s why his threat consists only of the damage that would be done if he doesn’t get his way. He says that he “wouldn’t lead it,” but never says that it shouldn’t happen. If he were opposed to such riots, all he would have to do is add one line to his tirade telling his followers that under no circumstances should they engage in violence if the nomination goes to someone else. He conspicuously neglected to say that. That wasn’t an accident. It was a message. And it is just short of terrorism.

Donald Trump does not have a majority of delegates now, and may not have them when the convention commences. He has never had majority support from Republican voters. In fact, he has the highest percentage of Republicans who say that they would never voter for him if were the nominee. So the non-Trump Republicans had better be prepared for the calamity that Trump is plotting to unleash at the convention. They had better be prepared to respond to the storm-Trumpers and to keep the peace.

Consider this bizarre irony: If a majority of delegates do not vote for Trump, his faithful may seek to disrupt the convention with protests. And if the majority then decided to behave the way Trump supporters treat protesters at his rallies, Trump’s convention thugs could be met with the same sort of violent assaults. After all, Trump has maligned the very act of protesting, complaining that “there are no consequences anymore,” and lamenting that in the old days they would be “carried out on stretchers.” Now his words could come back to haunt him as the jackboot is on the other foot.

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

Addendum: As evidence that right-wingers have an affinity for violent conventions, recall the time that Rush Limbaugh called for riots at a Democratic convention in a rant he titled “Screw the World! Riot in Denver!“

The Trump Effect: Bad For America, But ‘Damn Good’ For The Media

Posted by on March 1, 2016 at 9:15 pm. 7 Comments :

Les Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, was speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, when he decided to reveal one of the sad truths of modern media that is well known to insiders. It’s something that is representative of the core principles (or lack thereof) of a once noble profession that has been co-opted by greed and the corporate craving for power. With reference to the campaign of Donald Trump, Moonves was caught bragging about the cash cash cow he was unashamedly milking.

Moonves: Who would have thought that this circus would come to town. It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS. That’s all I got to say. So what can I say? The money’s rolling in, this is fun.

Donald Trump

Make no mistake, this is an admission by Moonves that his lust for profit is a higher priority than his love of country. Worse still, this pursuit of wealth, in Moonves’ view, is actually fun, even as it’s harmful to the rest of the nation and his fellow citizens. That is a form treason. Yet Moonves admits that despite Trump’s campaign being divisive, hostile, racist, ignorant, and detrimental to the well being of the United States, he gladly welcomes the damage it will do so long as CBS rakes in more cash.

And CBS isn’t alone in harboring these traitorous ambitions. The whole of the corporate media industry is guilty of the same self-interest. It’s why even MSNBC airs Trump’s stump speeches live in their entirety when they don’t do it for any other candidate. And it’s the result of the consolidation within the business that has thrust the profit motive over patriotism. These new multinational conglomerates have no incentive to be loyal to any nation, or to any anything other than their next quarterly earnings report. The one exception to this may be Fox News, whose owners and management are just as committed to pushing right-wing propaganda as they are to enriching their themselves.

The profit incentive for the media has a toxic effect on democracy. It produces reporting that is driven by motives other than honestly informing the public. What Moonves is putting on display for all to see is the damage that can be done when a news enterprise can be justifiably suspected of distorting their stories in order to fatten their wallets. Moonves was literally rooting for Trump specifically because his brand of melodramatic demagoguery draws more eyeballs to the advertising the network is now selling for inflated rates.

Moonves: I’ve never seen anything like this and this is going to be a very good year for us. Sorry, it’s a terrible thing to say, but bring it on, Donald, go ahead, keep going. […] “I’m not taking any sides, I’m just saying for us, economically, Donald Trump’s place in this election is a good thing.

With cheerleading like that, how can anyone watch this campaign coverage and be confidant that they are being told the truth. Clearly, the media has a profit motive to keep Trump in the race, and even boost his chances of securing the Republican nomination in order to keep the register ringing straight through to November and beyond. The other candidates are being deep-sixed because they can’t pull in the big bucks the way The Donald does.

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

This isn’t democracy. There may not be a word for what this is. We could call it a capitalocracy to illustrate the fact that the worst elements of capitalism are what determines who our leaders will be. We may as well stop having elections and just give prospective candidates their own TV shows and the one with the highest Nielsen ratings becomes president. Oh wait a minute. That’s pretty much how Donald Trump got to where he is today.

Hating Fox News: Now Even Republicans Think The GOP PR Network Sucks

Posted by on February 27, 2016 at 1:27 pm. 1 Comments :

Since it’s inception, Fox News has pursued its mission to advance a far-right political agenda and provide a friendly platform for Republican politicians. They openly disparaged Democrats and promoted fake “scandals” that were often invented in their own editorial meetings. Their pretensions to being “fair and balanced” were quickly revealed to be a cheap facade and, to the extent that they continue to push it, they are mercilessly ridiculed.

Fox News

Now, after twenty years of investing in their conservative propaganda machine, it turns out that the core constituency to whom they have been shamelessly pandering has an increasingly negative view of the network. A new YouGov survey of brand buzz shows that Fox News is not at all well thought of by the Teabagger contingent they covet:

“By mid February, FNC’s perception by Republican adults 18 and over had reached its lowest point in more than three years, and has declined by approximately 50% since January of this year.”

The survey places the favorability of Fox News at a mere seventeen (out of 100). And that’s just among Republicans. The ranking for the population at large is actually below zero. YouGov notes that this precipitous decline occurred simultaneously to the emergence of Donald Trump as a leading candidate in the Republican presidential primary.

That should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the long-festering feud between Trump and Fox. He has blasted Fox as being “totally unfair” to him – a delusional complaint considering that they have given him far more airtime than any other candidate, after having created his candidacy in the first place.

Trump engaged in a painfully public quarrel with Fox’s Megyn Kelly who he called a “lightweight” and a “bimbo.” This led to his pledge not to appear on Fox News (which he has since revoked), and a call to boycott the network. Trump later refused to participate in a GOP debate on Fox because he was frightened off by Kelly’s presence as a moderator. His Twitter disciples fell in line with the boycott rhetoric and flooded his feed with promises to turn off Fox. Which, in the end, will be of benefit to everyone.

There is no question that Trump’s war with Fox has bled the network of its once loyal base. The YouGov survey documents a trend that has been in place for at least a couple of years. In 2013 Fox News had completely dropped out of the YouGov BrandIndex’s top ten GOP brands, when the it had been number one in 2012. News Corpse addressed that sinkhole at the time saying that…

“…a lot has taken place that has deteriorated the bonds that Republican viewers had with their daddy network. They lost an election that Fox had assured them they would win in a landslide. They launched numerous investigations into alleged scandals that, despite Fox’s endless hype, failed to catch on with the public or to prove any malfeasance on the part of the president they despise. They pursued a doomed strategy to shut down the government and threaten to throw the nation into default in an effort to reverse time and make ObamaCare disappear. And they continue to suffer through a relationship with the acutely demented Tea Party whose disintegrating appeal hasn’t stopped them from launching pernicious primary challenges that will inevitably benefit Democrats.”

Not much has changed since then. Fox News continues to belch out fringe fabrications and flagrant falsehoods intended to keep their wingnut viewers misinformed. The only real difference is that now they have in Donald Trump a candidate who is articulating their most abhorrent positions out loud.

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

Where Fox News once tried to disguise their elitist, racist, authoritarian biases and hate-speech with rhetorical dog whistles, Trump uses bullhorns to achieve the same ends. The problem for Fox is that Trump’s diatribes are just as often aimed at them as at the liberals that Fox was created to destroy. And the aftermath may end up being the epitaph of the GOP. So there is some good news after all.

Fact Checkers Scorch Donald Trump’s Lie-Riddled Debate Performance

Posted by on February 26, 2016 at 3:01 pm. 3 Comments :

Last night’s debate on CNN showcased once again that the field of Republicans is jam-packed with whimpering, infantile candidates who are wholly unprepared to lead a bunny hop, much less lead a nation. It’s hard to imagine that, after watching that spectacle, anyone can picture any of these colicky brats with America’s nuclear missile launch codes.

Bawl-Apalooza

As usual, Donald Trump dominated the brawl with his trademark insults and incessantly repetitive branding (“Make America build a wall of guns for Jesus, losers”). At this point it would probably be easier to list examples of Trump saying something truthful than to enumerate the many outright falsehoods he spews. But it wouldn’t be as much fun. Here are some of the blatant lies, as documented by Factcheck.org, that are contributing to the ever-growing Trump Bullshitopedia:

  1. Ted Cruz nailed Trump in an exchange where Trump denied that he had ever said he favored a health care plan that would be paid for by the government. In fact, that’s exactly what he told 60 Minutes just last year when he said that “Everybody’s gonna be taken care” and that “the government’s gonna pay for it.”
  2. Marco Rubio got his shots in by revealing that Trump had lost a million dollar lawsuit over his hiring of foreign workers. Trump whined that Rubio was “totally wrong,” except that he wasn’t.
  3. Trump claimed that he could not release his tax returns because they are being audited. This lie has several layers. First of all, he has been saying for months that he would release his tax returns “soon” without ever mentioning any audits. It seems like a convenient fabrication someone just thought of to try to get people to stop asking the question. Secondly, there is nothing preventing him from releasing his returns even if there is an audit in progress. And finally, he claims that he has been audited continuously for the past twelve years, so this lame excuse could actually mean that he will never release his tax returns because the audits could go on for years to come. – – – As an addendum to the tax return/audit lies, Trump told CNN that he believes the IRS may be auditing him because he is a “strong Christian.” Really? He thinks the IRS has it in for Christians? And how did they know he was one twelve years before he ever said anything about his alleged faith?
  4. Another feather in Cruz’s tri-corner hat was earned when he challenged Trump’s assertion that he had “never discussed” Libya or advocated removing Gadhafi from power. He apparently forgot that time he discussed it on his own website saying that “I can’t believe what our country is doing. Gadhafi, in Libya, is killing thousands of people…We should stop this guy…Immediately go into Libya, knock this guy out.”
  5. Here’s an oldie that has been debunked many times. Trump is fond of lying that Americans and American businesses pay the highest taxes in the world. That just isn’t true. It’s not even close.

As an added bonus, here is an item that isn’t technically a lie, but is frighteningly repugnant. At a post-debate rally Trump reminded his cultish followers about how bitterly he hates the media. And then he disclosed what he would do to his enemies in the press given the opportunity:

“One of the things I’m gonna do if I win… I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money…With me they’re not protected because I’m not like other people…So we’re going to open up those libel laws, folks, and we’re gonna have people sue you like you’ve never been sued before.”

In other words, Trump intends to repeal the First Amendment and, through his power as president, threaten and attack the press. Thin-skinned crybabies like Trump may not like any negative attention they get, but it is a Constitutional right for the media to have the freedom to express themselves. And like most rightist Republicans, they only revere the Constitution (or the bible) when they can interpret it to coincide with their preconceptions. It is the way cultists operate. See Fox News…

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

The Plaintive Wailing Of A Republican Party Crumbling Under The Weight Of Donald Trump

Posted by on February 25, 2016 at 3:19 pm. 7 Comments :

As this wacky election season continues to spiral out of control, the sound of an increasingly impotent Republican Party scratching at the door is becoming ever more noticeable. The so-called establishment candidates are falling to the wayside as a creature manufactured by reality TV lumbers across the GOP landscape, flattening its hopes like cardboard models being trampled by a carrot-topped Godzilla.

Trumpzilla

In the frantic chaos that ensues, the Republican National Committee is exhibiting signs of desperation. Party chair Reince Priebus has mounted a backroom campaign to convince everyone that he has everything firmly under control, a claim that has evoked nothing but laughter. Politico is reporting that Priebus is…

“…stating in private meetings that the party has sway over its at times unwelcome front-runner because it has tools Trump will need to use to win a general election — voter data and field, digital and media operations that a nominee typically inherits from the party infrastructure.”

“Dangling access to these resources, Priebus thinks he can help steer Trump toward partywide policy goals and away from the inflammatory rhetoric that Republican officials see as divisive and dangerous.”

Well, that ought scare the savage Trumpzilla into bowing to the supremacy of the party that he has been running against for eight months. The lunacy that Priebus thinks Trump cares about the RNC’s “resources” is almost as absurd as his belief that Trump would ditch his potty-mouth politics, or that he doesn’t already espouse the wingnut policy goals of the party at large. If Trump cared about partnering with the RNC he would not be repeatedly threatening to abandon the party and run as an independent. He wouldn’t be accusing them of distributing illegal solicitations. He wouldn’t be criticizing their debate audiences as being deliberately stacked against him.

Even setting aside the hostility that exists between the RNC and The Donald, the GOP’s services are not exactly state of the art. Last year it was revealed that the Koch brothers were building their own campaign machine that includes many of the services that are typically performed by a political party. The Koch operation was said to be angling to replace the party’s electoral architects by building and distributing the voter access tools and outreach capability.

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

With the Koch’s running election services and Fox News running PR, you might be wondering what purpose the RNC serves. A lot of political operatives and analysts are wondering the same thing. Under the direction of Priebus the party has become less of a factor than in previous years. It has struggled with Trump’s candidacy from the beginning when his refusal to rule out a third-party run resulted in a loyalty oath that all candidates were required to sign (and which Trump has already hinted he might break). It would be wishful thinking to imagine that Trump would suddenly buckle under to a weakened GOP that’s begging him to play nice.