National Security

Even Fox News Exposes GOP Lies on the War in Israel and How the Party Harms National Security

Posted by on October 8, 2023 at 12:46 pm. 2 Comments :

This week Hamas terrorists launched a horrific attack on Israel that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and put the nation in a wartime state in order to retaliate and protect the innocent from further harm. The United States and it allies around the world have come together to condemn Hamas and to commit to standing by Israel in these dire times.

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Sadly, not everyone in the U.S. is aligned with their nation when it comes to assigning responsibility for the terrorism. Led by Donald Trump, many in the Republican Party couldn’t wait to blame America in general, and President Biden in particular, for the unprovoked aggression.

SEE THIS: Trump’s ‘Blame America First’ MAGA GOP Aims Their Fire at Biden Rather than Hamas Terrorists

Along with Trump, fellow travelers like GOP House majority leader, Steve Scalise, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sen. J.D. Vance, became charter members of the “Blame America First” caucus in Congress. And the field of GOP presidential candidates lied in unison about Biden’s alleged appeasement of Hamas benefactors in Iran. For instance…

  • Trump: “This would have never happened with me,” and that “American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks.”
  • Ron DeSantis: “Joe Biden’s policies that have gone easy on Iran have helped fill their coffers.”
  • Tim Scott: “The Biden $6 billion ransom payment at work.”
  • Mike Pence: “This is what happens when America’s president projects weakness on the world stage, kowtows to the mullahs in Iran with a $6 Billion ransom.”
  • Vivek Ramaswamy: “America’s broken foreign policy establishment knew they were funding Hamas & went ahead with it anyway.”
  • Chris Christie: “This terrorism is funded by Biden’s idiotic release of $6 billion to the Iranians.”

What these cretins are referring to is $6 billion of Iranian funds that had been frozen in South Korean banks. The U.S. agreed to release those funds to Qatar in a prisoner exchange. Qatar would then dispense them only for verified humanitarian purposes and only after approval from the U.S. For the record, Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, responded to the America-bashing Republicans saying that…

“I can clarify the facts: Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people. These funds have absolutely nothing to do with the horrific attacks today and this is not the time to spread disinformation.”

Surprisingly, an ordinarily staunch right-wing voice on matters such as these was marching out of step with their Republican confederates. Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin did a segment wherein she actually told the truth to a Fox News audience that is unaccustomed to hearing it. She said correctly that…

“The $6 billion is still currently held in a Qatari bank account with U.S. Treasury oversight. The money came from Iranian oil sales to South Korea and did not include U.S. Taxpayer dollars.”

Once again, that was on Fox News, where it will soon be refuted by their primetime anchors. And Griffin might want to start looking for a new job. But if that weren’t enough, Griffin also noted that the disarray of Republicans in Congress is hampering the U.S. ability to come to the aid of Israel, saying that…

“Referring to that $2 billion in weapons that the U.S. stores in Israel, I would expect to see some of those weapons being released, some of that ammunition, to replenish the stockpiles of Israel in the coming days and weeks. The U.S. Navy I will point out does not have a confirmed chief of naval operations because of the hold placed her by Tommy Tuberville, which Pentagon officials say continues to impact their operations.”

Indeed. Tuberville’s irresponsible and childish behavior is directly impeding America’s ability to aid Israel, or to advance many other military objectives on our nation’s agenda, such as stopping Russia’s terrorism in Ukraine. And the fight in the House over the Speakership is likewise preventing any appropriations of funds to help in Israel’s defense, or Ukraine’s as well. Not that the House GOP wants to pass more aid for Ukraine. They think the U.S. should focus only on our own borders. So will they take that same position with regard to aid for Israel? And if not, why not? (Hint: Hypocrisy).

The Republican consensus that America is “weak and incompetent” isn’t helping either. In fact, it is likely encouraging our enemies to be even more aggressively hostile and violent. Which may be the intent of the GOP. They often take positions that are contrary to the interests of the nation and the American people if they think that they can shift the blame to Biden and the Democrats. And if you think that it’s too cynical to imply such a repulsive motivation, here is what the Republican National Chair, Ronna McDaniel, told Fox News about the attack on Israel that has taken the lives of hundreds of innocent people…

“I think this is a great opportunity for our candidates to contrast where Republicans have stood with Israel time and time again, and Joe Biden has been weak.”

For someone in a position of authority to believe that a terrorist attack is “a great opportunity” is nauseating on its face. To hear them say it out loud on television is an order of magnitude worse. And to see it included in the talking points of their representatives and candidates makes it impossible to dismiss that it’s intentional and is the emerging theme of their 2024 campaign strategy: “Make America Hate Again!”

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UH-OH: Trump Says (aka Lies) that He Has ‘INFO On Everyone’ Who Comes to Mar-a-Lago

Posted by on January 16, 2023 at 12:46 pm. 4 Comments :

When Donald Trump isn’t bragging about how stupendously awesome he thinks he is, he is disparaging everyone that he regards as being insufficiently worshipful of him. It’s a textbook example of the malignant narcissism that he’s been suffering from for decades.

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Trump Penthouse Phone

The past couple of weeks has provided Trump an opportunity to lash out at his arch enemy, President Biden, over matters related to the discovery of a handful of classified documents at his home and office. Trump has sought to draw utterly inapt comparisons between his own documents scandal and Biden’s relatively trifling filing errors, the details of which are light years apart.

SEE THIS: Trump and His GOP Toadies Furiously Spin Bogus Nothingburger Story About Biden Documents

A report Monday morning has now set Trump off on another wild ride. According to CNN, the White House counsel’s office released a statement regarding the absence of visitor logs at Biden’s Delaware home, saying that “Like every President across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal.” That rather innocuous fact was all it took to trigger Trump who posted on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that…

“The White House just announced that there are no LOGS or information of any kind on visitors to the Wilmington house and flimsy, unlocked, and unsecured, but now very famous, garage. Maybe they are smarter than we think! This is one of seemingly many places where HIGHLY CLASSIFIED documents are stored (in a big pile on the damp floor). Mar-a-Lago is a highly secured facility, with Security Cameras all over the place, and watched over by staff & our great Secret Service. I have INFO on everyone!”

There’s a lot of steaming cow manure rising from that digital pile. To begin with, Biden’s home is hardly “unlocked and unsecured.” It is, after all, the residence of the sitting President of the United States and his family. Secondly, Trump’s description of the documents as being stored “in a big pile on the damp floor” was pulled straight from his assumptive imagination. And finally, Trump makes the unsettling declaration that “I have INFO on everyone!”

Really? We can set aside the spine-chilling implications of that because it isn’t remotely possible. There are hundreds of guests going in and out of Mar-a-Lago all the time. None of them are subjected to even the most meager ID checks. And recent examples of questionable visitors to the hotel confirm that it’s security is near non-existent.

For instance, Trump admittedly had no info on notorious white supremacist Nick Fuentes when he was a guest at Mar-a-Lago. In fact, Trump’s excuse for hosting Fuentes, whom he conspicuously declined to repudiate, was that he “had never met and knew nothing about” him. Trump also had no info on the fake heiress and alleged Russian spy who made repeated trips to Mar-a-Lago.

RELATED: Trump Says Ye and Fuentes Weren’t Vetted Because ‘My Guests [Won’t Be] Strip Searched and Beaten’

Trump’s complaint that Biden didn’t keep visitor logs for his private residence is also typically hypocritical. As president, Trump himself confessed that he didn’t keep any such logs for Mar-a-Lago. Even worse, during his term in office Trump refused to provide access to visitors logs for the White House itself, ending the traditional practice of doing so. Biden restored that practice shortly after his inauguration.

Naturally, the Republican Party is running cover for Trump. Rep. James Comer, the new chair of the House Oversight Committee, has announced his intention to seek information about visitors to Biden’s home due to the few documents that Biden voluntarily revealed had been found there. Comer simultaneously stated that he would not seek similar info for Mar-a-Lago, where hundreds of sensitive national security materials were discovered after Trump lied to the FBI about having them.

We can expect this sort of partisan dishonesty and hypocrisy to continue for the foreseeable future. That’s because Republicans care more about protecting the criminals in their party than they do about the security of the nation. And Trump will undoubtedly continue to brazenly lie about virtually everything. That’s because the truth is his enemy, and he knows it.

RELATED: Poor Trump is Oozing Fear Over the Looming Legal Consequences of His Treasonous Crimes

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Fox News Flagrantly Lies About an NSA Probe Into Alleged Surveillance of Tucker Carlson

Posted by on August 10, 2021 at 5:24 pm. 3 Comments :

The continuing saga of Tucker Carlson’s Adventures in Spying and Lying has just dropped its latest episode. In the the previous episode Carlson accused the National Security Agency of “monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air.” Right. Because that’s something that the NSA would devote its scarce time and resources to, rather than the international matters to which its jurisdiction is limited.

Fox News. Tucker Carlson

Carlson’s source for this bombshell revelation was an anonymous “whistleblower” who provided no evidence nor explanation for why the NSA would be interested in Carlson. From the outset the NSA denied that Carlson had ever “been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA never had any plans to try to take his program off the air.”

Shortly after Carlson’s initial disclosure of the alleged plot, he declared victory when an NSA review concluded that there was no evidence supporting his claim, but that his name might have been “picked up in third-party communications and his identity was unmasked.” Which is not at all what he originally said. It would not be surprising if foreign operatives mentioned Carlson, considering his popularity with totalitarian dictators. But that is not the same as being a target of an investigation with the purpose of getting his show canceled.

The new wrinkle in this melodrama is that the NSA’s inspector General is reportedly looking into the matter. According to CBS News…

“Robert Storch, the agency’s inspector general, said his office has begun ‘examining NSA’s compliance with applicable legal authorities and Agency policies and procedures regarding collection, analysis, reporting, and dissemination activities, including unmasking procedures, and whether any such actions were based upon improper considerations.’

“While Storch did not explicitly name Carlson, the official familiar with the matter confirmed the host’s allegations were the focus of the review.”

This is a foreseeable and appropriate review under the circumstances. There is nothing especially alarming about it. Agencies like this are expected to keep close tabs on their operations and to respond to questions as they arise. However, Fox News has jumped to the most extreme conclusions in a statement praising the agency for things it isn’t doing:

“We are gratified to learn the NSA’s egregious surveillance of Tucker Carlson will now be independently investigated, As we have said, for the NSA to unmask Tucker Carlson or any journalist attempting to secure a newsworthy interview is entirely unacceptable and raises serious questions about their activities as well as their original denial, which was wildly misleading.”

There’s so much wrong with this statement that it requires a deeper examination. First of all, this is not an investigation of “the NSA’s egregious surveillance of Tucker Carlson.” The NSA has not found any evidence of “egregious” activity or any “surveillance” of Carlson at all. Secondly, contrary to Fox’s assertion, there is no evidence that Carlson was unmasked. In fact, the first and only disclosure of his name came from Carlson himself when he first reported his false version of the story on his program.

Finally, it is downright hysterical that Fox News would refer to Carlson as a “journalist.” This is the same guy that Fox’s lawyers argued in court – successfully – could not be guilty of defamation because no reasonable person would believe anything he says. And since there has been no proof provided regarding the purpose of any tangential appearance of Carlson’s name in an NSA report, there is no way to assume that it involved a “newsworthy interview.”

The statement by Fox News was almost entirely comprised of flagrant falsehoods. So it’s ironic that Fox is accusing the NSA of being “wildly misleading”? The truth is that Fox News is doing just what they were created to do: Tell lies about anything and everything in order to advance their ultra-rightist agenda. And this sensationalized reaction to the NSA’s routine review process just affirms that Fox News isn’t really news at all.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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John Bolton Texts Fox News Live to Say He Resigned, Contradicting Another Trump Lie

Posted by on September 10, 2019 at 12:12 pm. 3 Comments :

The administration of Donald Trump continues to be a hot mess. Having already achieved a record number of departures of White House top staff, Trump has just parted ways with his fourth National Security Advisor, John Bolton. Sources say that Trump and Bolton argued about the President’s foiled scheme to bring the Taliban to Camp David.

Donald Trump, John Bolton

The break up with Bolton leaves Trump’s national security team littered with “acting” heads, including National Security Advisor, Homeland Security Secretary, Director of National Intelligence, and Chief of Staff. These are all critical posts that have a particular significance during these times of international turmoil. Trump is awkwardly juggling relations with Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, China, Russia, and many more foreign hot spots that threaten American interests. But the nation under Trump’s “leadership” lacks competent management in the jobs that oversee those crucial areas of statecraft.

Trump announced Bolton’s dismissal in his usual way – via Twitter saying “I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation.” It isn’t surprising that Trump and Bolton disagreed. That was apparent even before Bolton was hired, and anyone paying attention knew it. But Trump’s staffing decisions are based on the shallowest criteria, such as how they look on Fox News.

Not surprisingly, Bolton had a different view of how his separation came about. Contrary to Trump’s claim that he asked Bolton to resign, Bolton says – also via Twitter – that he made the offer first. And just to drive the point home, Bolton live-tweeted Fox News where his pal and former colleague, Brian Kilmeade of Fox and Friends, read the tweet on the air:

https://twitter.com/LisPower1/status/1171458331216502785

So Bolton, a former Fox News contributor, hasn’t been unemployed for an hour and he’s already angling for his old job at back at Fox. But the more important question going forward is which Trump-fluffing Fox News shill will Trump name as the next National Security Advisor? There are several prospects in the the Fox family who would meet Trump’s low standards for work in his White House: 1) Be willing to lie unflinchingly for Trump; and … well, that’s pretty much it.

One candidate could be Walid Phares, a longtime right-wing pundit and advisor to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Phares distinguished himself as an Islamophobe and a crackpot conspiracy theorist with claims that tied President Obama and Hillary Clinton to the Muslim Brotherhood. Another candidate could be retired Gen. Jack Keane who makes frequent appearances on Fox defending Trump blindly for whatever the atrocity of the day happens to be.

However, a more likely candidate would be this favorite of Sean Hannity, Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who was a presenter on the recently shuttered NRA-TV before becoming a full-fledged Fox contributor who sometimes fills in for Hannity. Bongino has already caught Trump’s eye with a book that makes wild assertions about the “Deep State” spying on Trump. The President has tweeted about or retweeted Bongino 84 times. Typically they are just factless tributes to Trump’s imaginary awesomeness and virginal innocence, such as…

So we can expect the next National Security Advisor to be a worshipful member of the Trump cult. And he will join a team of hacks who have never been confirmed by the Senate because, according to Trump, “I like ‘acting’ because I can move so quickly.” In other words, he likes “acting” because he can just pull sycophantic, unqualified names out of his arse without having to get the constitutionally mandated consensus of the Senate. And sadly, in these troubled times that’s what America has to suffer though with our wannabe dictator in the White House.

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

Holy $@!&: Are Fox News – and Melania – Taking Over National Security for the Trump Admin?

Posted by on November 13, 2018 at 3:18 pm. 1 Comments :

A pair of stories are burning up the wires this Tuesday afternoon. And they have nothing to do with the California fires or the still cresting Democratic “Blue Wave” that washed over the midterm elections. Nope. These stories have to do with the perpetual state of chaos in Donald Trump’s National Security operations.

Donald Trump, Melania Trump

First of all, it is being reported that Trump is expected to fire his secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, after less than a year on the job. But staff shake ups in and of themselves are not uncommon in the Trump administration. He’s already had far greater turnover than any other president.

What’s of interest here is who Trump is considering to replace Nielsen. And the top name being mentioned is the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Thomas Homan. He is a rabidly pro-Trump partisan who defends the administration’s horrific policy of separating migrant children from their parents. But the reason cited for Trump’s interest in Homan is that Trump likes his appearances on Fox News where he fiercely defends and praises the President. And that’s the most important criteria for a leader in protecting the United States from terrorists, isn’t it?

The other story making the rounds is that Trump is about to fire his deputy national security advisor, Mira Ricardel. She’s also a fierce Trump supporter, but lately she has gotten into trouble with the First Lady. And now Melania is asserting herself in these staffing decisions:

“The first lady’s office released a statement calling for Ricardel’s ouster as reports surfaced that President Donald Trump would fire the official, deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel.

“‘It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that (Ricardel) no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House,’ the first lady’s communications director Stephanie Grisham said in a statement on Tuesday.”

Some reports say that Melania’s problem with Ricardel stems from a seating scuffle on Air Force One. Ricardel, for the time being, reports to national security advisor John Bolton. But she has reportedly also raised the hackles of Trump’s chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly. Making matters even more confusing, Kelly has been an advocate of Nielsen, and her imminent departure might result in Kelly joining her in the White House exodus.

If all of this sounds like the melodrama whipped up by a reality TV show, well guess why. Donald Trump was an incompetent boor from the start and never had the experience to run an enterprise as large and complex as the White House. So he relies on his TV Shadow Cabinet (Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, etc.) to make decisions for him. That is, when he isn’t hiring people (Bolton, Heather Nauert, Bill Shine, etc.) directly from Fox News. And while this might be entertaining if it were a Hallmark Movie of the Week, it’s downright frightening when it’s real life.

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

HUH? DHS Secretary Says She’s ‘Not Aware’ of Intelligence that Russia Tried to Help Trump

Posted by on May 22, 2018 at 10:57 am. 11 Comments :

The United States was the victim of a concerted cyber attack by Russia throughout the 2016 presidential campaign. That fact is undisputed by every U.S. intelligence agency with jurisdiction over the subject. Even the Republican-run Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Putin preferred Donald Trump and was deliberately aiding his candidacy while working against Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

So it comes as some surprise that Trump’s Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, responded to reporter’s inquiries at a House briefing on election security by saying that she wasn’t aware of any such assessment (video below):

“I don’t believe I have seen that conclusion – that the specific intent was to help President Trump win. I’m not aware of that,” said Nielsen. She said that, in her opinion, Russia was only trying to “disrupt our belief and our own understanding of what’s happening.”

Seriously? This is the top domestic security official in the U.S. government. She is responsible for maintaining the safety and integrity of the nation’s voting systems and the confidence of the American people that their votes count. But she claims not be aware of established facts that expose severe flaws in our electoral processes and pose an existential threat to our democracy.

The conclusion that Russia sought to aid Trump is not in dispute. It was confirmed as far back as January 2017 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a report that unambiguously stated that:

“We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.”

If Nielsen is actually unaware of these undisputed facts regarding Russia’s election interference, then she is either lazy or incompetent. There is no excuse for her not knowing about this fundamental report or the serious threats to Homeland Security that are enumerated in it.

If Nielsen is merely feigning ignorance on behalf of her boss, then she is complicit with his propaganda and criminal negligence. Trump has repeatedly denied the reality that Putin was helping his campaign. He surely doesn’t want members of his cabinet contradicting him. That could lead to further erosion of his denials regarding his collusion with Russia and financial improprieties by himself and his family.

But Nielsen, like all federal officials, took an oath to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” She works for the American people. She did not swear allegiance to a wannabe dictator who insists that all of his minions kowtow to him and protect him from bad publicity or criminal liability. And if she doesn’t understand that she should resign and stop helping Trump to soft-pedal Russia’s hostilities against the United States.

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

Michael Moore Literally BEGS Donald Trump To ‘Do Your Job. Attend The Briefings’

Posted by on December 8, 2016 at 11:58 am. 4 Comments :

Critics of Donald Trump warned that he was unprepared for the presidency, and unwilling to prepare, long before Election Day. Now as President-Neglect he is validating all of their worst fears. Reports that Trump has been shrugging off national security briefings raise serious concerns about his commitment to the job.

Donald Trump

These briefings are not social get-togethers for lonely intelligence operatives. They are critical data exchanges that could impact the lives of American citizens as well as those of our foreign allies. And they are especially important for someone who has no prior experience in international affairs. Trump needs to be ready on day one of his presidency, and there is more to learn than he comprehends. The terrorist attacks on 9/11 occurred less than nine months into the administration of George W. Bush. And he had warnings that he also ignored.

On Wednesday night, Michael Moore was on Late Night with Seth Meyers. There was a wide ranging discussion that touched on several aspects of the Trump transition. Among other things, Moore speculated that Trump might not receive the necessary votes from the Electoral College to assume the presidency. But later in the segment Moore got serious about the dangerous level of disengagement exhibited by Trump. He expressed concern about Trump dodging the briefings. And he was disturbed that Trump was “more engaged with tweeting about Alec Baldwin and SNL.” Then he turned to the camera and pleaded directly:

“With all due respect Mr. President-Elect, on our behalf you have to pay attention. You have to attend these briefings. This is our country, this is our security, this is our safety. You’re horsing around with all this nonsense and you’re not doing your number one job. And the number one job of the president is to make sure that the country is safe.

“I beg you, seriously, there is no right or left, Republican or Democrat going on here. I’m asking you to do your job for the sake of the people who may end up dead because you didn’t do your job. We had this happen once before. We had this non-engaged president who wasn’t reading his briefs. You don’t even attend the briefs. So I’m begging you to do that. I’m begging you to get up in the morning, send out your tweets of whoever, and then, God please, attend the briefings.”

That doesn’t seem like to much to ask. The fate of the nation (and the world) is at stake. We have a tragic precedent in 9/11 that ought to make this an easy call for Trump. Unfortunately, nothing seems to be easy for him, particularly if it requires actual work. He shouldn’t need to be prodded to do the most basic parts of his job. If it’s too much for him, he shouldn’t have asked for the job. But now we’re stuck with him and we expect him to spend more time with security briefings than with ego-stroking victory rallies and comedic impressions.

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