Brett Kavanaugh

Kavanaugh to Be Interviewed On Fox News, the Network that Employed Multiple Sexual Predators

Posted by on September 24, 2018 at 4:25 pm. 1 Comments :

If you were looking for a sign that the Donald Trump White House is getting desperate with regard to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, they just showed their cards. Fox News has announced – and Trump tweeted a promo for – Kavanaugh’s appearance Monday night on Fox News with Martha MacCallum.

Fox News Alert

There could not be a clearer indicator of Trump’s worrying that his nominee is floundering and is at risk for an embarrassing failure. It is unprecedented for a Supreme Court nominee to go on television to advance his nomination and defend himself against allegations that haven’t even been raised in Congress or investigated by the FBI.

What’s worse is that the television platform chosen by Kavanaugh (or was it the White House?) is Fox News. That’s the network whose founder and CEO, Roger Ailes, was fired due to multiple complaints of sexual harassment and assault. It’s the network whose biggest star, Bill O’Reilly, was fired for the same reasons, after paying out tens of millions of dollars in hush money to his victims. It’s the network whose president, Bill Shine, was fired for his shoddy handling of those affairs and his enabling of the wrongdoers. Shine is now Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications.

With a history of such tawdry behavior by Fox News, it seems to be a highly inappropriate media outlet to try to whitewash Kavanaugh’s history of alleged abuses. And the choice of Martha MacCallum to interview Kavanaugh is also troubling. Obviously they didn’t want a man like Sean Hannity to do it. So they picked a woman who was one of Ailes’ first and most vigorous defenders. And it needs to be noted also that, while Kavanaugh is swatting softballs from MacCallum on Fox News, his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford has more respectfully declined any television offers:

“As I am not a lawyer or a Senator, I am relying on them and you to ensure that the committee will agree to conditions that allow me to testify in a fair setting that won’t disrupt families and become a media tv show. […] I have received an inordinate number of requests to appear on major TV shows to elucidate further information, to which I have not responded. My goal is to return soon to my workplace, once it is deemed safe for me and importantly, my students.”

The distasteful decision to parade Kavanaugh and his wife on TV in the hopes of generating some public sympathy is more evidence of how Trump is turning the White House into a Reality TV presidency. It’s all about making impressions and convincing the American people not to vote them off the island. And on that score they are failing miserably. Polls show that a majority of people oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation. And that was before the latest charges were revealed. But if you’re moved by his revelation that he was a virgin until “many years” after high school, than you won’t want to miss this interview (Note: Kavanaugh being a virgin doesn’t make Dr. Ford’s allegations false. She never claimed that there was intercourse):

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

Wannabe Dictator Trump’s New Attack on Kavanaugh Accusers: ‘Look Into the Lawyers’

Posted by on September 24, 2018 at 12:55 pm. 1 Comments :

Trump has made it a priority in his administration to assault the institutions that comprise most of what best defines America. Most notably, the media which he repeatedly refers to in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people” (which has not worked out very well for him). But he is also a devout foe of academia, science, the arts, intelligence, and even religion when it doesn’t serve his purposes. But no institution has taken more of the brunt of Trump’s animus than the law.

Donald Trump

In the past short but unbearable two years, Trump has expressed his disdain for the agencies of the government that draft, maintain, and implement the law. He rages against Congress for not bowing down to his authority and passing his favorite legislative initiatives like funding the border wall. He regards the FBI as beholden to secretive, subversive, “Deep State” forces intent on destroying his presidency. He puts more faith in the words of Vladimir Putin than he does in his own intelligence professionals with regard to whether Russia unlawfully interfered with the 2016 (and 2018) election.

Perhaps the most battered victim in the field of law enforcement is the Department of Justice itself. Trump has relentlessly pummeled his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, with withering insults and open disrespect. He recently stated that “I have no attorney general.” And of course, he fired his director of the FBI, James Comey, and replaced him with Christopher Wray, who then became the new designated butt of Trump’s malice. And Trump’s hatred for the FBI and the DoJ goes even deeper to lower level officials like Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.

Now in the midst of a melodrame involving his morally flawed Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, Trump is becoming more desperate and more disparaging. With the number of accusers coming forward with tales of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh growing, Trump has segued from attacking the accusers themselves to attacking their legal representation (video below):

“These are highly unsubstantiated statements from people represented by lawyers. You should look into the lawyers, their representation.”

That’s a disturbing outburst from a president of what is supposed to be a free democracy. Trump explicitly makes known his suspicion of “people represented by lawyers.” Which is pretty funny considering that he is represented by an army of them. But on the other tiny hand, it’s also understandable in that his long-time personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is now cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller, and providing testimony that is likely damaging to Trump. Another factor driving Trump’s dislike of lawyers could be concluded just by looking at who his lawyers are (I’m looking at you Rudy Giuliani).

What’s more, Trump’s admonition to – the media? – that they “should look into the lawyers,” portends the sort of government heavy-handedness that is characteristic of totalitarian regimes. And it may even be a bit of an anti-Semitic dog whistle to his base that automatically assumes an evil undercurrent to their imagined Jewish domination of the law (and banking, and Hollywood, and whatever else their rancid imaginations dream up). That’s especially suspicious since Michael Bromwich (a Jewish lawyer who also represents Andrew McCabe) just joined the legal team representing Christine Blasey Ford.

What exactly does Trump hope to achieve with an examination of the lawyers representing Kavanaugh’s accusers? Does he think they will be exposed as collaborators in the Deep State? Will he discover some cabal of commie subversives? Maybe he thinks they’re all ambulance chasing money grubbers. Does he hope that when “looked at” they will run for cover and leave their clients without a defense?

Trump is obviously afraid of lawyers. He frequently threatens to sue anyone that looks at him funny. But he eventually skulks away in cowardice and disgrace. He has suffered numerous defeats at the hands of lawyers representing those he has harmed in business. For instance, earlier this year he was ordered to pay $25 million to the defrauded students of Trump University.

The most visible legal opponent of Trump, Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti, scares Trump so badly that he has never tweeted about him even once. And Trump still has more than a dozen other women who have made charges of sexual harassment and assault against him, and may file lawsuits of their own. So maybe Trump’s proposal to have the lawyers looked into is just his latest attempt to silence and/or bully them. Yeah, that’ll work.

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

Fox News ‘Judge’ Spews Lies About Kavanaugh Case that Were Debunked – By Fox News

Posted by on September 23, 2018 at 10:38 am. 3 Comments :

The Republican controlled Senate Judiciary Committee is continuing on its bullheaded mission to rush through the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. Their callous approach to the charges of Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual assault on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford could not even be slowed down by the resignation of the committee’s spokesperson due to charges of sexual harassment. Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.

Jeanine Pirro Fox News

However, Fox News can make up phony allegations against Dr. Ford to malign her character and introduce demonstrably false speculation as to her motives for coming forward. Throughout this melodrama, Fox News has participated in the deliberate vilification of a woman who has already endured untold suffering. She has been accused of lying, having a faulty memory, and even misidentifying her attacker. She has also been accused of having political motives that none of her critics can actually verify.

Among the worst of the Fox News attack squad is “judge” Jeanine Pirro. She has been relentless in her criticism of Dr. Ford, and her defense of Judge Kavanaugh. But she went to a new extreme on her program Saturday night. In her “Opening Statement” segment, Pirro launched a typically (for her) rancid, spittle inflected tirade against Dr. Ford that began with the baseless charge that she was “highly political.” And then she dived into what she said was an “even more compelling” incident (video below):

“Do you remember when the President nominated Brett Kavanaugh, we heard that Kavanaugh’s mother was a judge. Ford’s parents – follow me – Ford’s parents had a foreclosure claim against them and their home in 1996, in Maryland. Ford’s parents lost their home. The judge ruled against them. The judge was a woman. The judge was Brett Kavanaugh’s mother.”

There is no other way to put this than that Pirro is brazenly lying. The only part of those remarks that is true is that Kavanaugh’s mother was a judge. Follow me: Ford’s parents did not lose their home. And Kavanaugh’s mother did not rule against them. In fact, the foreclosure was dismissed by Kavanaugh’s mother after Ford’s parents and the bank agreed on a settlement. So the whole conspiracy theory that Dr. Ford was acting out as revenge is ridiculous since the ruling by Kavanaugh’s mother was favorable to the Fords. And these facts were reported by none other than Fox News:

“The parents of the woman who is accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct have a connection to the Supreme Court nominee through his mother, a Maryland state judge, online court records show. Martha Kavanaugh granted a motion dismissing a 1996 foreclosure action against Ralph and Paula Blasey, according to the records.”

The story by Fox News was published five days ago, so Pirro has no excuse for disseminating her lies last night. Pirro likely got her bogus accounts from the phalanx of rightist websites that were pushing this notion despite all the evidence to the contrary. They included well known purveyors of fake news like America First, Pacific Pundit, and the renowned “Stupidest Man on the Internet,” the Gateway Pundit (and even he corrected his story). This was all previously debunked by PolitiFact.

For Fox News to permit this sort of flagrantly dishonest commentary on their network is further proof of how careless they are about factual reporting, and/or how biased they are and prepared to spread false information if it advances their ultra-conservative agenda. They must be especially desperate considering how poorly Kavanaugh is regarded by the American people, who in the latest Fox News poll are opposed to his confirmation by fifty percent to forty percent in favor. That wouldn’t be a sufficient reason to allow lies like these to be broadcast by any other news network. But for Fox it’s just business as usual.

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

Uh-Oh: Fox News Host Says that Trump’s Attack on Kavanaugh Accuser ‘Might Blow This Up’

Posted by on September 21, 2018 at 11:05 am. 3 Comments :

The melodrama concerning Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman he allegedly assaulted, just seems to keep gaining momentum. Especially when Trump himself can’t help but intervene with idiotic and damaging comments on Twitter. And on that score, Friday morning’s regularly scheduled tweetstorm didn’t disappoint.

Fox News Trump

For much of the past couple of weeks, Trump has been relatively restrained with regard to Dr. Ford. The White House was even bragging about how sensitive he’s been by not attacking her, which is what would be expected from this petulant brat of a president. But that all ended Friday when Trump’s will power (or babysitters) failed him:

First of all, it’s ludicrous for Trump to say that facts don’t matter to the Democrats, when they are the ones that want the FBI to investigate and produce a factual account of what happened. It’s Trump and the GOP who are opposed to that fact-finding effort.

But more to the point, Trump’s attack on Dr. Ford is as brazen as it is senseless. He knows (or should know) the details of Dr. Ford’s account and why she didn’t report the incident at the time. That’s all public. So Trump is deliberately pushing to inject a false narrative into the affair.

And that seems to be all the rage these days. Ed Whelan of the National Review pushed his own conspiracy theory yesterday about another possible suspect in the sexual assault. The only problem was that he had no evidence or even a plausible argument. It was so bad that Whelan posted an apology for his “appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment” on Twitter last night. However, that didn’t stop Fox News from promoting the libelous accusation:

Interestingly, Fox News host Ed Henry asked in that segment “Is it a case of mistaken identity?” He and his co-hosts were giving credence to the allegations that the author had already disowned. Although Fox News has still not issued any retractions or apologies for regurgitating the charges. And what makes Henry’s validation of Whelan’s lies interesting is that he later appeared on another Fox program to criticize Trump for tweeting about Dr. Ford (video below):

“If you had asked me an hour ago, I would have said that I think Judge Kavanaugh is in a strong position. But In the last hour the President is tweeting, questioning Dr. Ford’s account. Why didn’t she go to the police? The White House has been making such a big deal about how the President stayed off Twitter. He’s not attacking the woman here. He’s just praising Judge Kavanaugh.

“And I think it seems to me – I don’t want to overreact – but it seems to be a big mistake to take a situation that has been calming down. There’s been negotiations over testimony and I think the Republicans have had the upper hand this week, because it started with this shocker on Sunday in the Washington Post. That he’s sailing to confirmation. Maybe not. There’s a problem here. She needs to be heard, and the Republicans said let’s hear from her. I think the president intervening might blow this up.”

Let’s set aside the absurd analysis that the Republicans had the upper hand. If that were true they would not have canceled the confirmation vote for Kavanaugh that was originally scheduled for yesterday. But Henry’s concern that Trump’s tweets might “blow this up” are proof that even Fox News is worried that Kavanaugh’s confirmation may be in jeopardy. And even worse, that it’s the fault of Trump’s uncontrolled psyche and ego.

If this nomination is blown up due to an unhinged outburst by Trump, it would not be the first time that his recklessness and over active pie hole has created chaos and hurt the prospects of his own agenda. In fact, that is rapidly becoming the hallmark of the Trump presidency. Everything he touches turn to – let’s say shiitake mushrooms (unless that’s too close a reference to his genitals). Trump is truly his own worst enemy. Even worse than the “enemy of the people,” the media. And this time it’s his favorite media, Fox News, that is sending up the flares.

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

Total Transparency? What Trump Really Means When He Lies About Exposing the Phony Witch Hunt

Posted by on September 18, 2018 at 1:37 pm. 1 Comments :

There has never been a president who has expressed more animosity toward the intelligence community he is supposedly leading than Donald Trump, His open disdain for the Department of Justice, the FBI, and all of the other intelligence agencies throughout the federal government and the military, is well documented. He even prefers the word of Russia’s Vladimir Putin to his own intel resources.

Donald Trump

On Monday evening it was revealed that Trump ordered the declassification of a select group of documents involving the the investigation of his nefarious connections to Russia. It’s a conspicuously cherry-picked set of docs that were previously requested by the smarmy and ultra-biased Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes. Needless to say, these items were chosen to deceitfully advance Trump’s paranoid “witch hunt” narrative. However, they actually pose a significant risk to intelligence sources and methods, while also adding to Trump’s expanding portfolio of obstruction of justice charges.

So naturally Trump made a statement on Tuesday morning to try to shore up his crumbling arguments against the work of special counsel Robert Mueller (video below). Trump unironically told the press that “I want total transparency.” Sure he does. He continued saying that:

“This is a witch hunt. Republicans are seeing it. The Democrats know it’s a witch hunt, too, but they don’t want to admit it because that’s not good politics for them. But it’s a terrible witch hunt and it’s hurt our country. And the things that have been found over the past couple of weeks about text messages back and forth are a disgrace to our nation. And I want transparency, and so does everybody else. As you know, congressional committees came to me and they wanted this, and I did it based on their request. But I think it’s a good thing because we should open it up for people to see.”

It’s funny how Trump thinks he knows what Democrats want and are secretly thinking. Particularly since he doesn’t even know what is in the documents that he just declassified at the request of partisan hacks in Congress. But it’s his claim to wanting transparency that really tests the limits of believability. If Trump is really committed to transparency, here are a few other matters that he might want to consider being transparent about:

  • His tax returns. He promised to release them several times, but that’a promise he never intended to keep. Presumably due to the numerous illegal and embarrassing things we would learn if he did release them.
  • Transcript of meeting with Vladimir Putin. Trump met with Putin for a couple of hours in Helsinki, but has refused to disclose what was discussed, even to his own national security officials.
  • Obama’s birth certificate. Trump said that “investigators” he sent to Hawaii “cannot believe what they’re finding.” We know how they feel.
  • Brett Kavanaugh’s file. Tens of thousands of pages relating to Kavanaugh’s service in the George W. Bush White House are still being withheld by Trump.
  • Emails and text messages related to Russia. While Trump did selectively declassify some of these documents, they were limited to those produced by people he regards as “deep state” enemies (James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr) He refuses to release the same sort of documents by Devin Nunes, Jeff Sessions, Sean Hannity, Wikileaks, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, etc.

This is not intended to be a comprehensive list. Trump is surely withholding much more information regarding his finances, his campaign, his relationship with Putin and Russia, and his myriad relationships with the women he was cheating on his wife (wives) with. This is not the behavior of someone genuinely interested in transparency. It’s just another dishonest representation by a notorious liar who is now trying to employ the deceitful, punitive practices of the dictators he admires.

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