Lou Dobbs

Lacking Any Coherent Impeachment Defense, Trump Deploys An All Fox News Blitzkrieg

Posted by on September 25, 2019 at 10:44 am. 11 Comments :

On Wednesday morning Donald Trump released the transcript White House provided, non-verbatim memo of his July phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. It was somewhat anticlimactic considering that he had already admitted that he pressured Ukraine to smear Biden, and even declared Biden “corrupt” and subject to the electric chair. Still, he has been saying for days that the call was “perfect,” that he had done nothing wrong, and promised that it would exonerate him. What the hell was he thinking!

Donald Trump, Phone, Pacifier

Keeping in mind that several days prior to this phone call, Trump had frozen nearly $400 million dollars in military aid to Ukraine, who were engaged in a conflict with Russian troops on their eastern border. With that as context for Trump’s remarks, here are some relevant and incriminating parts of the memo (full document below):

“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. […] I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance.”

“Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it. […] I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great.”

“The other thing, There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”

So Trump starts out by asking for “a favor.” That’s precisely how Godfather Don Corleone began his conversations with shakedown victims when he made them “an offer you can’t refuse.” Zelensky knew that the aid his country needs was at risk. This is as close to a quid pro quo as is ever encountered in organized crime. And having that followed up by a request to meet with Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and his Attorney General, William Barr – which is a new and troubling revelation – only makes Trump’s clearly unlawful intentions more clear.

The fact that Trump bothered to malign special counsel Robert Mueller is another indication that he is tying this call to his own political tribulations. And directly warning Zelensky that “it’s very important that you do … whatever you can do,” is hardly a subtle nudge. Trump then brings up the Ukrainian prosecutor who he calls “very good” despite being held in disrepute by the U.S. government, the European Union, the World Bank, and other international institutions.

Trump then got to the real point when he brought up Joe Biden and made the objectively false statement that he “stopped the prosecution” of Biden’s son. In fact, the corrupt prosecutor wasn’t even actively pursuing the case. And every investigation into the matter found zero evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden. Nevertheless, Trump pressed this issue repeatedly in the phone call and kept pressing for a meeting with Giuliani and Barr.

If this is Trump’s idea of an exculpatory document, you have to wonder what he considers incriminating. Trump is seen here explicitly abusing his power by recruiting a foreign leader to interfere with an American election. And he is using funds allocated by Congress to extort the illegal results he wants. There is no defense for this criminal behavior. Trump couldn’t even provide one, so he claimed on Wednesday that it should all be ignored because the stock market went up. Really? For the record, the market today is stagnant at best. It’s exactly where it was in January of 2018, a year and a half ago. Trump is also arguing his innocence based on his leading poll numbers. Except that he’s losing to every top Democrat. In fact, a Fox News poll saying just that was released a week before Trump called Zelensky. Coincidence?

Then Trump turned to his goto protectors at Fox News to vainly try to spin this in his favor. He posted (so far) twelve (12!) tweets of Trump-fluffing sycophants that contained no factual refutation of the damning contents of the White House summary phone call. They included:

  • Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway writing that the whistleblower’s attorney worked for Hillary Clinton and “Schuck” Schumer. That was for short internships nearly twenty years ago.
  • Fox host Mark Levin asserting that the is media trying to protect Biden.
  • Sean Hannity interviewing Attorney Joe DiGenova, whose reputation was so bad that he couldn’t be added to Trump’s staff.
  • Tucker Carlson interviewing Jenna Ellis, a member of the Trump 2020 Advisory Board.
  • Sean Hannity interviewing GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, a sellout who once called Trump an idiot and a liar, but who now kowtows to him in the most embarrassing fashion.
  • Lou Dobbs interviewing Harmeet Dhillon from the Republican National Lawyers Association.
  • Sean Hannity (again), this time with Kevin McCarthy, House Republican Leader.
  • Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro, another Fox News host and shameless Trump-fluffer.
  • Yet another Hannity reference saying that the whistleblower has a political bias.
  • Fox and Friends asserting that “Democrats have been talking about Impeaching Donald Trump since before he was inaugurated. @SteveDoocy @foxandfriends”
  • Fox host Bret Baier saying that “You don’t see a direct quid pro quo in this.”
  • Fox’s White House correspondent, John Roberts, saying that there was no quid pro quo in the memo.

Someone who has a good argument for innocence wouldn’t have to resort to a cadre of notoriously biased pundits and Fox News propagandists for legal help. But this is Trump’s whole modus operandi. Remember, his preparation for the presidency was hosting a reality TV game show for fourteen years. His entire reference to his job is tied to television and celebrity. So rather than accumulate knowledgeable defenses from intelligent, reputable people, he leans on dishonest TV personalities talking to partisan hacks. You know, people just like himself.

UPDATE: The whistleblower complaint has been declassified and released. It’s available here with a few redactions.

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

The President’s ‘Experts’ on Any Subject are Mainly Trump-Fluffing Fox News Hacks

Posted by on September 4, 2019 at 1:50 pm. 2 Comments :

There is no question that Donald Trump has ushered in an era of presidential firsts: The first president to welcome and encourage Russian election help; the first to enrich himself by patronizing his own properties; the first to brag about committing sexual assault; the first to tell more than 12,000 lies; the first to engage in childish name-calling; the first to never have a positive favorable polling; the first to malign the media in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people;” the first to express more loyalty to foreign dictators than to our allies and even our own intelligence community; the first to rip babies from their parents and lock them in cages; the first to … oh hell, this could go on forever.

Donald Trump Sean Hannity

Another first that Trump has achieved concerns his inner circle of advisors and White House staff. The President of the United States is uniquely positioned to have access to the most experienced and intelligent people in the world. The issues that any president faces require that level of advice and counsel, whether it is about economics, diplomacy, legislation, healthcare, the military, and so much more. But Trump has assembled a confederacy of dunces in his Cabinet who know little about the departments they have been appointed to manage. Rick Perry knows nothing about energy. Ben Carson never spent five minutes studying urban planning. Betsy DeVos has no education background whatsoever. And the rest of the Cabinet is similarly incompetent.

However, none of that really matters because Trump doesn’t turn to them for guidance on any issue anyway. Instead, he consults his “Shadow Cabinet,” the presenters and contributors of Fox News. In many cases Trump has actually tapped Fox hosts for White House jobs. But even when he hasn’t, he still relies on their advice which he gets from his many hours of watching Fox News instead of doing any actual work.

The result of Trump’s addiction to Fox is that he is getting the most shallow, inappropriate, and dangerous advice available from people who have never studied the subjects on which they pontificate on TV. A quick examination of Trump’s Twitter feed revealed that every single person he quoted in the past five days was a TV talker. For instance:

  • Businessman Sam Zell, on CNBC
  • Activist Charlie Kirk on Trish Regan’s Fox News show
  • Lawyer Alan Dershowitz on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business show
  • Host Lou Dobbs of Fox Business
  • Host Steve Hilton of Fox News
  • Evangelical Robert Jeffress on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business show
  • Attorney Joe DiGenova on Fox News
  • Former GOP congressman Jason Chaffetz on Fox News
  • Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal on Fox News
  • Legal analyst Gregg Jarrett on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business show
  • Sen. Lindsey Graham on Fox News
  • James Trusty on Fox News
  • Rep. Pete King on Fox News
  • Bryan Dean Wright on Fox and Friends

That’s just the past five days. He didn’t quote a single expert from any professional or academic source. And these are in addition to dozens of videos posted by Trump of Fox News personalities and contributors like Jeanine Pirro, Sean Hannity, and Tim Fitton of the ultra rightist Judicial Watch. Their political tips contain such useful insights as this one from Lou Dobbs:

Remember, that’s the ranting of a host on an alleged “news” network who is accusing all Democrats of hating America. A more plausible assessment would be that the only way to truly love America is to hate Trump. After all, he’s the one who is constantly tearing down the cherished institutions of the country, from the Constitution, to the the media, to law enforcement, to the military, and more. He’s the one who is trying to destroy America’s natural resources, preserves, air, water, and climate. And he’s the one who is siding with our enemies abroad and the wealthy elites domestically at the expense of the majority of the people.

For the Commander-in-Chief to rely on such a pitifully ignorant cadre of television shills should worry every citizen. But they shouldn’t be surprised. Trump’s prior job was hosting a TV game show, and that’s what he believes reflects a reality that exists only in his diseased brain. He still thinks he’s doing a reality TV show and he doesn’t know that Fox News is an entertainment network. And that delusional departure from sanity is not just a curious quirk.It has the potential to cause great harm if he isn’t stopped – and soon.

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

Trump Threatens Fox News: ‘I’m Not Happy with Fox and I’m the One Who Calls the Shots’

Posted by on August 19, 2019 at 12:38 pm. 4 Comments :

The evidence that Fox News is just a subdivision of the Republican Party (or vice versa) continues to pile up. And the closeness of that relationship has never been stronger than it has during the administration of Donald Trump. Fox News and Trump share a profound intimacy wherein the State TV network will unceasingly defend the President and malign his critics, while he generally sings the praises of his most devoted Trump-fluffers. Leaked emails recently revealed the existence of a literal Propaganda pact between Fox News and Trump.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Strange

However, on occasion Trump will have a brief falling out with his PR team at Fox. It usually occurs when a Fox News pundit has the audacity to tell the truth about Trump or to challenge his perceived omnipotence. Foxies like Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith have periodically been victims of Trump’s wrath. But his complaints are never based on any identifiable error in content or facts. Trump just lashes out in unhinged tantrums when someone at Fox is not sufficiently worshipful.

That rare moment of independence presented itself recently when Fox News released the results of its latest poll. The numbers were decidedly negative for Trump, including the finding that the top four candidates for the Democratic nomination for president (Biden, Warren, Sanders, and Harris) handily beat Trump in 2020 general election match ups. Trump never even broke forty percent. The poll’s respondents also gave a much higher favorability rating to the Democratic Party (51/45), than the Republican Party (41/54), which they rated as significantly unfavorable. And in a searing rebuke of Trump’s assessment of his own ability to unify the nation, 59 percent of voters said that he is “tearing the country apart.”

Predictably, Trump went bonkers at Fox daring to deflate his messianic self-image. And he frantically unloaded his outrage during another episode of his “Chopper Talk” reality show that has replaced White House press briefings. It was a jaw-dropping spectacle that confirmed that Trump regards Fox News as an affiliate of the White House that must always be obedient to his demands (video below). He began…

“Fox is a lot different than it used to be, I can tell you that. […] Fox has changed. And my worst polls have always been from Fox. There’s something going on with Fox, I’ll tell you right now. And I’m not happy about it. I don’t know what’s happening with when they have a Juan Williams who’s never said a positive thing. And yet when I show up at the Fox building he’s out there, “Oh sir, can I have a picture with you? Can I have a picture? He’s 100 percent nice.”

First of all, Trump has complained before about Fox News polls that he says “have always been terrible to me.” However, this collection of his own tweets proves that Fox’s polling has often been favorable to him, and he knows it. And it’s interesting that he considers that Juan Williams being polite somehow makes him a hypocrite. That actually tells you something about Trump’s boorish and infantile personality. Then he continued…

“Fox is different, there’s no question about it. And I think they’re making a big mistake because Fox was treated very badly by the Democrats. Very, very badly. Having to do with the debates and other things. I think Fox is making a big mistake because, you know, I’m the one who calls the shots on the really big debates. I guess we’re probably planning on three of them. And I’m not happy with Fox. I’m certainly happy, I think, Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs. I think Tucker Carlson and Laura, Jesse Watters and Jeanine. We have a lot of great people.”

Trump is unambiguously threatening Fox News here. He’s saying that if they don’t start delivering more favorable polling results he might just prohibit them from hosting election debates. He believes that Fox’s polls should not be honest, representative samples of the electorate but, instead, should be aligned with the views of his favorite shills (Hannity, Dobbs, Carlson, etc.) And if they aren’t, then Fox will be punished. Also, his assertion that “WE” have a lot of great people, is a clear indication that in his mind Fox News is part of his regime. TrumpenFox is a monstrous creation that crossbreeds news and politics.

This would be a good time to point out that Trump’s assertion that he “calls the shots” is bullshit. The apolitical, independent Commission on Presidential Debates has sponsored general election presidential debates in every election since 1988. So unless Trump intends to unilaterally rescind that process, he won’t be deciding which networks host the debates.

Of course, given his recklessness and ignorance, Trump just might try to nix the Commission and impose his own terms for debate. That, however, wouldn’t go down well with the Democratic nominee who likely oppose any such move. And if the debates are canceled as a result, it would just make Trump look petty, stubborn, childish, and most of all, scared. Which is unquestionably the true state of his diseased psyche, considering his utter failure to deliver on his campaign promises, and the teetering state of the economy. The American people would see in real time that the Donald Trump who dodged the draft is the same coward dodging the debates.

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

Crazy Donald: It’s Crazy How Many People Trump Has Called ‘CRAZY’ Since Becoming President

Posted by on May 25, 2019 at 12:24 pm. 3 Comments :

Let’s face it, Donald Trump is a severely damaged victim of cognitive decline. Whether as a result of his malignant narcissism, acute paranoia, or senile dementia (or a combination of all three) it simply cannot be ignored that his behavior is abnormal, anti-social, and destructive. And it’s getting worse.

Donald Trump, Padded Cell

The questions revolving around Trump’s mental infirmity are nothing new. He was deemed “too mentally ill to serve“ by members of a Yale psychiatric conference two years ago. Former FBI officials were sufficiently concerned to justify considering his removal from office via the 25th Amendment. Valid worries spurred a bipartisan coalition in Congress to propose legislation mandating a new post of White House Psychiatrist. And he exhibits the classic signs of senile dementia.

So it’s especially disturbing that Trump is now leading a rabid social media assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He tweeted a deceptively edited video that attempted to portray Pelosi as a stammering fool. Naturally, the Baby President got this from Fox News Trump-fluffer, Lou Dobbs, who featured it on his program. But Trump went further than that in a press avail the following day. He explicitly slandered Pelosi by calling her “a mess” and disparagingly asserting that she is not “the same as she was. She’s lost it” He even dubbed her “Crazy Nancy,” one of his infantile nicknames that he has taken to recycling because he’s run out of dumbass insults.

The “Crazy” moniker that Trump used is one of his favorites. Probably because it’s a word that – with his eight year old level of emotional maturity – Trump knows when used pejoratively (which is a word he surely doesn’t know). And Trump has resorted to implying the craziness of many of his critics over the years. It’s a recurrent routine that in itself could be viewed as a symptom of his own psychoses. For example (with links to tweets):

  • Crazy Mueller: Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report…
  • Crazy Bernie: So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews.
  • Crazy Media: The Fake News Media is going Crazy! They are suffering a major “breakdown.”
  • Crazy Dems: Nadler, Schiff and the Dem heads of the Committees have gone stone cold CRAZY.
  • Crazy Deep State: The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy.
  • Crazy Wapo: The Amazon Washington Post has gone crazy against me…
  • Crazy Maxine: Crazy Maxine Waters, said by some to be one of the most corrupt people in politics…
  • Crazy Nancy: Nancy Pelosi is going absolutely crazy about the big Tax Cuts… (4/20/2018)
  • Crazy Joe: Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically.
  • Crazy Jim: Even Crazy Jim Acosta of Fake News CNN agrees…
  • Crazy Frederica: The Fake News is going crazy with wacky Congresswoman Wilson
  • Crazy Mika (and Joe): Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe…

These are just Trump’s “Crazy” references on Twitter since his inauguration. There are, of course, many more similar outbursts prior to his election and on other media. But these demonstrate that his fetish for maligning the mental health of anyone who dares to criticize him goes back a ways and is not limited to a select few. Additionally, Trump’s obsession with the “Crazy” is also a method of projecting that which he fears most about himself unto his perceived enemies.

Trump uses this slur as an all-purpose put-down to express his raging contempt. Never mind that he continues to have delusions of himself as a “calm” and “stable genius.” One thing that calm, stable, geniuses never do is try to convince others how calm, stable and smart they are. But Trump actually made several of his White House staffers testify to his imaginary serenity. And, boy, was that ever CRAZY! (video below)

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

Trump Tweets Fake Poll Data From Fox News with Approval Numbers that are Actually Disapproval

Posted by on April 11, 2019 at 10:37 am. 2 Comments :

It’s a glorious day of celebration for Donald Trump as he triumphantly tweets the results of a new poll from Georgetown University. His tweet proclaims with glee “Great news! #MAGA.” And below that thrilling exclamation is a graphic that Trump copied straight from Fox News.

Fox News, Poll, Trump

There must be unbridled joy right about now in the White House because these numbers are higher than almost any that Trump has ever received from any poll, including the wildly biased Rasmussen. So a little bragging by Trump for achieving a fifty-five percent approval rating would seem to be in order. There’s just one little problem.

The graphic that Trump is so proudly regurgitating from Fox News’ Lou Dobbs is terribly wrong. The poll from Georgetown actually has Trump with a forty-three percent approval rating. That’s more in line with the current average of polls by RealClear Politics (43.1%). And it’s only that high because it includes Rasmussen’s phony numbers. The fifty-five percent was actually the disapproval rating for Trump.

The rest of the poll was hardly positive for for the pitiful President. It shows that fifty-seven percent of voters overall say the country is on the wrong track. And while men polled say they will vote Republican by a margin of nine percent, twice as many women (18%), who are more reliable voters, say they will vote Democratic.

Fox News issued a brief correction (a minute into this clip) that talked more about what the graphic got right than about their massive mistake. And they never mention Trump’s dismal forty-three percent approval:

“It’s been a quiet start to the day for President Trump, though he did send out a tweet this morning from the Lou Dobbs show last night on Fox Business. That tweet featured a poll that was not entirely accurate, which Fox Business would like to correct.

“According to a poll from Georgetown University, 58 percent of respondents approved of the president’s handling of the economy. That portion of the graphic was right. However, the graphic also showed that 55 percent of the respondents approve of the president, that number is not correct. The 55 percent number was those who have an unfavorable impression of President Trump.”

This is another example of how Fox News distorts reality and disseminates lies with the help of their number one fan, Donald Trump. And six hours later, Trump’s fake poll tweet is still on his Twitter page. It’s almost like Fox produces these lies for Trump to post, and then leaves them there purposefully to continue their disinformation campaign. They would never do that, would they?

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

Is Donald Trump the President of the United States, or of Fox News Marketing and PR?

Posted by on March 19, 2019 at 2:49 pm. NO Comments :

The torrid love affair between Donald Trump and Fox News has never been exactly secret. Fox has given him more free airtime than any other public figure. And he has granted them more interviews (40+) than all other news networks combined. And all of the exposure has been unceasingly adoring. Trump even had a weekly segment on Fox and Friends (Mornings with Trump) long before his presidential aspirations.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Fake

The recent article in the New Yorker by Jane Mayer neatly sewed together much of the evidence proving that Fox News is not merely a conservative leaning network, but a blatantly biased propaganda mouthpiece for the President. And to demonstrate that it isn’t a relationship they are ashamed of, both Fox and Trump have escalated their fetishistic fondness for one another since the article was published. Trump, in particular, has unleashed a rash of promotions of Fox News and the shills who call it home. Just in the last four days Trump has posted ten videos from Fox:

  1. Lou Dobbs on Trump’s phony national emergency
  2. Lou Dobbs with cartoon pundits Diamond and Silk
  3. Outnumbered ranting about a “Witch Hunt”
  4. Jason Chaffetz exhibiting his undying Hillary Clinton fetish
  5. Fox and Friends pushing Trump’s idiotic vanity wall
  6. Maria Bartiromo obediently maligning the FBI
  7. Mark Levin spending seven minutes fluffing Trump with Bill Bennett
  8. Tucker Carlson doing the fake history of the Russia “hoax”
  9. Sean Hannity lying about a Democratic conspiracy against Trump
  10. Sean Hannity succumbing to his ludicrous “Deep State” dementia

Remember, this is the president who says that he doesn’t have time to watch TV because of all the documents that he has to read (as if he can read). But not only does he have plenty of time to watch TV, he even has time to feverishly post tweets of his viewing. And this doesn’t even count the numerous textual tweets that reference things he just saw on Fox News.

Last week Trump’s viewing was sufficiently disturbed that he plaintively pleaded with Fox News to return Jeanine Pirro, who Fox briefly suspended due to her flagrantly racist comments about Muslim representative Ilhan Omar. He also stood up for Tucker Carlson whose past bigotry, and boorish profanity, was revealed in recordings from his radio guest spots with Bubba, the Love Sponge.

These promos for Fox News are pure puffery on behalf of the President for his favorite bootlicking broadcaster. It is wholly unprecedented in American politics. And the marketing executives at Fox News must be thrilled. The question is whether Trump is volunteering this assistance to Fox, or if Fox is directing it.

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

Trump’s Fox News Addiction is Eating Away at His (and All Fox Viewers’) Few Remaining Brain Cells

Posted by on March 16, 2019 at 11:56 am. 3 Comments :

It’s Saturday and time for another episode of The Donald Trump Weekend Tweetstorm. This is how Trump spends most of his time – Watching Fox News and posting only the most obsequious videos that mindlessly profess an undying adoration for Dear Leader.

Donald Trump, Fox News

This is the behavior of a malignant narcissist who is frightened and dependent on constant positive reinforcement to prevent him from suffering mental seizures that result in more all-caps rage-tweeting.

The morning began with a shout out to 2018’s undisputed “Most Deranged Lunatic on Fox News,” Lou Dobbs, who believes that the United Nations is trying to take over the world and that special counsel Robert Mueller is trying to kill Trump. In this clip Dobbs drools over the “emotional ceremony in the White House” where Trump vetoed the bipartisan bill to reject his unconstitutional declaration of a national emergency. His guest is a regular Fox Trump-fluffer who repeatedly exalts Trump as a “great president.”

That nauseating spectacle was followed by one that puts it to shame on the Nauseous Scale. Once again, it’s Lou Dobbs, but this time hosting those brilliant political gurus, Diamond & Silk. Does Fox really consider these helium-noggins to be legitimate news analysts? Dobbs lauds Trump’s signing of his first veto and then asks the pair of cartoonish crackpots for their loopy thoughts. This leads to a predictably smarmy display of cringeworthy bootlicking wherein Demean & Sulk lambaste the Republicans who voted against the national emergency hysteria as “swampettes.”

After that embarrassment, Trump interrupted his video montage with a dumbass statement all his own:

Note that Trump is actually bragging that he told Republican members of Congress to lie in order to “look good” since this constitutional issue is just a “game” to him. He’s also asserting that he has such complete control of his party’s congressional delegation that he can order them on how to vote. What’s more, he knew that his top sycophant in the senate, Lindsey Graham, was going to block the measure anyway when it reached that body.

So that brings us to Trump’s posting of a clip from the Fox News show they call “Outnumbered,” because it pits four ultra-rightist women against one equally wingnutty man. On this episode the token male was also a token Democrat, very rarely seen on this program. But no worries, because they wouldn’t even let him talk. And that was demonstrated in the video that Trump posted. He sat there smiling uncomfortably while co-host Kennedy ranted about the FBI not reviewing the contents of Hillary Clinton’s computers (which they actually did review).

Next up was a tweet that was just a propaganda photo-op of Trump signing his first veto. He surely regards this as a historical moment where he defies the will of the Congress and the American people who oppose both his idiotic vanity wall, and his phony national emergency to fund it.

Finally, Trump posted another video from Fox News (does he ever do anything else but watch Fox?) featuring Fox and Friends co-host Ed Henry and former GOP chair of the House intelligence Committee, Jason Chaffetz, who is now a Fox contributor. They ran through some of Trump’s favorite “Witch Hunt” fear mongering that imagined FBI conspiracies and returned to the undying GOP fantasy of Hillary Clinton’s evil empire that enabled her to escape prison. Even after hundreds of hours of hearings and testimony by Republican controlled committees, as well as the efforts of Trump’s own Department of Justice.

This avalanche of derp on an otherwise pleasant Saturday morning is further proof of Trump’s declining psychological state. Never mind that he insists the nation is in the midst of a national emergency due to an invasion at the southern border, that North Korea is ready to nuke us, that the Deep State is plotting a coup, or that white nationalists are murdering innocent churchgoers. These are the things that Trump is spending his time on. And these are the things that all Fox News viewers are being directed to pay special attention to.

It’s enough to convince you that there really is a national emergency, and that right at this very moment it’s laying in bed with a sweaty remote in one hand and a Big Mac in the other, trying to get Sean Hannity or Vladimir Putin on the phone.

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

LATE BREAKING: Trump dusted off his Twitter machine for one more comment that marks a new low, even for him:

So now he’s taking shots at a Senator/veteran who passed away and can’t defend himself. And what he’s upset about is the Steele dossier (much of which has been proven to be accurate), and John McCain’s principled vote to prevent Trump and the GOP from taking healthcare away from millions of Americans. You really have to try hard to be this disgusting.

Donald Trump and Fox News Advocate for a Global Prison-Like “Walls Around the World” Agenda

Posted by on January 16, 2019 at 1:36 pm. 1 Comments :

On the twenty-sixth day of the Trump Shutdown, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans continue to refuse to allow the government to reopen and let hundreds of thousands of Americans return to work. Speaker Nancy Pelosi advised the White House that there will be no State of the Union address on Capitol Hill as long as the Secret Service is hamstrung by the shutdown and working without pay. And the every poll shows that voters are staunchly opposed to Trump and his stonewalling on the matter.

Fox News, Lou Dobbs

So naturally Fox News has leaped to the rescue of their president with a brand new line of attack that blazes new trails of absurdity while obliterating any semblance of logic. On Tuesday’s episode of Lou Dobbs Tonight (video below), the Fox Business host (and undisputed “Most Deranged Host on Fox”) sought to shore up Trump’s argument for his idiotic vanity wall with statistics that were unattributed to any source. Dobbs asserted that there have been “at least 77 barriers built across the globe.” And that “45 countries have proposals for border walls.” And that “since 2015, over 800 miles of barriers have been built in Europe.” He also said that:

“It’s now day twenty-five of the shutdown and President Trump continues to fight for the $5.7 billion to secure our southern border. And make no mistake, walls do work. And other countries all across the world are using them battling their own influx of migrants or to stave off terrorists.”

It’s impossible to confirm any of this because Dobbs failed to provide any source for his assertions. But if it’s anything like the rest of what Fox News reports, it was made up by Fox or some right-wing think tank they employ. The segment featured a graphic with a headline blaring “Walls Around the World,” as if that description of worldwide bondage was a good thing. It’s also impossible to assess whether any of these alleged “walls” were built for reasons that had anything to do with the immigration concerns expressed by Trump. The situations in other countries are not necessarily applicable to those of the United States. But that didn’t stop Trump from straight-up copying the Dobbs data and pasting it into a morning tweet:

This is just the latest example of Trump getting his “intelligence” from Fox News and passing it on to his Deplorables without admitting where he took it from. And Trump, like Fox, didn’t bother to cite any reputable source for the info. But there’s something else about this argument that is peculiar.

Trump is now making the point that, if Europe and the rest of the world is allegedly building walls to prevent migration, then the U.S. should be doing it too. But since when has Trump ever cared what the rest of the world was doing, other than as an example of what the U.S. should avoid? America First! And if what the rest of the world is doing is now setting the example for America, then Trump should be fighting for universal healthcare, because every single industrialized nation on the planet already has it. Likewise, just about every country in the world is signatory to the Paris Accords on Climate Change.

Once again, Trump is demonstrating two of his most prominent characteristics: He never has an original thought, or one that didn’t begin at Fox News. And his ability to form a logical argument is nonexistent. All he is doing is throwing mud at the wall and hoping it builds up enough to form a barrier at the southern border. Either that or that it sticks to the insides of the empty craniums of his cult followers. Either way he is proving again that he is dishonest, incompetent, and unfit to serve as president.

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

Trump’s Braintrust (Fox News) is Pushing Him to Declare a National Emergency to Get His Border Wall

Posted by on January 11, 2019 at 12:07 pm. 4 Comments :

The presidency of Donald Trump has distinguished itself for its hostility to the media and the Constitution’s protection of a free press. His tedious whining about “fake news” and his Stalinist references to the media as “the enemy of the people” are evidence of his desire to poison the public’s minds in order to suppress criticism of him and his administration.

Donald Trump, Fox News

That said, no president has ever been more closely intertwined with a media enterprise than Trump is with Fox News. Before his election he was a regularly scheduled contributor to Fox and Friends with a segment called “Mondays with Trump.” He limits his interviews to Fox News on a nearly exclusive basis. His administration is infested with former Fox News staffers. They include: Deputy Chief of Staff, Bill Shine, who was the president of the network before being fired for mishandling incidents of sexual harassment; ambassador to the United Nations nominee, Heather Nauert, a former Fox host; National Security Advisor, John Bolton, an ex-Fox contributor.

In addition, Trump employs current Fox News anchors as his de facto cabinet, getting advice on everything from the economy to military engagements, to taxes and more. Sean Hannity is reported to talk with the President almost every night before bedtime. Lou Dobbs is often on conference call during Oval Office meetings. Jeanine Pirro is a favorite consultant on legal matters. And Trump is frequently live-tweeting whatever he happens to be watching on Fox, day and night.

Recently, Trump was prepared to sign a bipartisan bill to keep the government open. But when Fox Newsies heard that it didn’t provide funding for his idiotic vanity wall, they went berserk. Subsequently, Trump reversed course, and now we find ourselves in what is about to become the longest government shutdown in history. Which makes it all the more troubling that many of Trump’s Fox faves are now imploring him to declare a national emergency as a tactic to fund the wall that has nothing to do with any emergency, and that most Americans oppose. For instance, as reported by Media Matters:

Sean Hannity: So, with the president speaking, I’m guessing he’s going to declare a national emergency. […] victims of crime happening in this country, that should be enough of a national emergency.

Lou Dobbs: This is the president of the United States. He says a wall should be built; that it’s a national emergency. At that point, the nation should rally behind him. […] It is a national emergency, it is a crisis, and there could be no rational disputation of that.

Lou Dobbs (again): I really believe that the way forward here is for him to declare a national emergency, and simply sweep aside the recalcitrant left in this country.

Stuart Varney: I think this total refusal to negotiate has pushed the president to the point where he has to declare an emergency on the border.

Rush Limbaugh: And so they empowered the executive branch with the National Emergencies Act. He can confiscate private businesses, if he wants. All he has to do is declare it a national emergency.

Gregg Jarrett: The National Emergency Act authorizes the president to declare an emergency, and nobody can second-guess him. He has unfettered authority. […] he can use the military, redirect them for construction of an unauthorized project, whatever it is, the president wants it to be. That can be the barrier wall, and nobody can stop him from doing it.

Bob Bianchi (Fox guest): To me, politically, it makes perfect sense. [for Trump to] invoke my powers as the president under the National Emergency Act and under one of these sub-acts that allows me to move funds around to build this border wall.

Tom Fitton (on Tucker Carlson Tonight): It is a national emergency when we have a thousand plus miles of unsecured border in our southern area without any ability to figure out who’s coming across. We know the terrorists are targeting [the] southern border.

Considering how gullible Trump is, and how easily influenced he is by his Fox News brain(?) trust, it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll declare a national emergency. However, contrary to the ravings of Trump and Fox, he does not have unfettered authority to do so. It will undoubtedly be challenged in court. And since the facts don’t support any claim to a crisis, he’ll almost certainly lose. In the meantime, millions of people are hurt and the nation is stifled by Trump’s ignorance and ego. Hopefully that can all be avoided by Congress waking up and doing the right thing. But given the abdication of its civic duty, Mitch McConnell’s Senate has to be considered a long shot.

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! Lou Dobbs is the Undisputed “Most Deranged Lunatic” on Fox News for 2018

Posted by on December 5, 2018 at 11:27 am. 5 Comments :

The competition was fierce. With perennial Fox News favorites like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson and the rabidly incoherent “Judge” Jeanine Pirro vying for the title, a longshot contender has emerged from the pack for a clear and unchallenged victory. Congratulations to Lou Dobbs.

Fox News, Lou Dobbs

While no one can dismiss the efforts by Hannity to relentlessly defend Donald Trump from any and all criticism, even to the point of appearing at his cult rallies to make his endorsement in public, it wasn’t enough. And Carlson’s ceaseless support for the white nationalism that is the foundation of Trump’s base wasn’t enough either. All of it, including the infantile babbling from the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, failed to knock Dobbs from his well deserved perch. Because how can you compete with material like this:

Charles Hurt, Washington Times: This is the entire problem that all of these people have. They all have been – have been peddling this fear-mongering, the end of the world nonsense.
Dobbs: Actually, the United Nations really wants to go a little bit beyond being a, if you will, a debate club. They’d like to take over the world. And they see the perfect opportunity in global warming. […] despite the fact that there is great, great debate over whether there is that quote-unquote “warming.”

That’s right. The United Nations is actively pursuing a plot of world domination. And their dastardly scheme is centered on a determination to prevent the Earth from becoming inhospitable for living creatures. How underhanded and devious of them. And Dobbs calls out these villains who he says are ignoring the “great, great debate” about the reality of climate change that is currently raging among the three percent of scientists (and 97% of Fox News shills) who deny that it’s happening. But this alone wouldn’t have secured Dobbs this great honor. He also unleashed this epic idiocy:

Dobbs: What in hell is wrong with the American people that they don’t understand this president deserves their support because he is trying to protect their lives and that of their children? […] Why shouldn’t it be frustrating to the American people to see [Trump] assailed every day? You’re watching in Robert Mueller a man trying to kill him.

Those damn American people! Somebody needs to put an end to them. Maybe the U.N. Dobbs also wondered why every preacher and history teacher isn’t talking about this and he ranted that “higher education is indoctrinating American students to become left-wing radicals.” That’s wrong because, according to Dobbs, they should should be indoctrinating those kids to worship Trump the Protector.

But worst of all, Dobbs has revealed the clandestine plot by the leader of the “Deep State” conspiracy, special counsel Robert Mueller, to actually assassinate the President. Why isn’t anyone else talking about this? Isn’t it obvious that Mueller is maneuvering himself and his “Band of Angry Democrats” (as Trump calls them) into position to shoot his lethal legal filings and deadly facts straight at Trump’s bulbous, yet empty head?

Lou Dobbs really does deserve credit for beating out some pretty darn tough competitors for this honor. The “Most Deranged Lunatic” on Fox News was never going to be an easy award to capture. But Dobbs rose to the occasion and he’s entitled to all the of the attention and ridicule that comes with it.

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