Trump’s NRA Speech Showed He’s Still Angry, Ignorant, and Severely Mentally Dysfunctional

History is repeating itself as the National Rifle Association (NRA) lacks the decency to postpone their annual convention taking place in Houston, Texas, just days after the tragic mass shooting of children at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Before a single funeral has been held, the NRA is celebrating their sick and deadly obsession with gun culture and the manufacturers who profit from it.

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Donald Trump AR-15

The NRA’s decision to proceed with the convention did not have the universal approval of their participants. Many canceled their planned appearances, including cowardly politicians Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Sen. John Cornyn, as well as entertainers Don McLean, Larry Gatlin, and Lee Underwood. However, among those remaining on the schedule were Sen. Ted Cruz and, of course, former reality TV game show host, Donald Trump.

In the opening to his address, Trump exalted himself saying that “Unlike some, I didn’t disappoint you by not showing up,” Which is true. If anything, showing up was the actual disappointment. His speech was littered with tiresome tirades that have been festering within the pro-gun community for decades.

RELATED: Lauren Boebert Vies for ‘Dumbest Member of Congress’ Title: ‘We Didn’t Ban Planes’ After 9/11

For instance, Trump whined about what he called “a grotesque effort by some in our society to use the suffering of others to advance their own extreme political agenda.” Which, of course, is what he and the NRA are doing. The allegedly “grotesque efforts” he is attacking actually reflect the majority will of the American people to prevent future massacres.

Then Trump added that “Even more repulsive is their rush to shift blame away from the villains who commit acts of mass violence and to place that blame onto the shoulders of millions of peaceful law abiding citizens who belong to organizations, such as our wonderful NRA.” Which, of course, no one is doing. Rather, concerned citizens are acknowledging the role that lax regulations and access to military-style assault weapons play in the body count of innocent victims of the “villains.”

Central to Trump’s message to the NRA-Theists is the classic gun-nut doctrine of absolving firearms of having any connection to the harm they cause, and chastising Democrats for daring to want to do something about it. Trump babbled that…

“Whatever our differences may be on other issues, what on Earth is stopping Democrats from immediately passing measures to ramp up school security? How many more tragedies will it take until they agree to set aside their far left political agenda and do what is really needed and actually works.

This is not about virtue cycling, and signing. This is about blaming your enemies. No, we don’t wanna do that. This is about saving our children’s lives. Yes, that’s what we want to do. Surely we can all agree that our schools should not be the softest target. Our schools should be the single hardest target in our country.”

Let’s unpack that nonsense step by step. To begin with, Trump’s citing security cannot be taken seriously when the Uvalde massacre occurred despite the presence of many police officers who were too scared to confront a perpetrator armed with an assault weapon. Secondly, what Trump is maligning as a “far left political agenda” is actually the mainstream view of most Americans. Thirdly, what works are measures that restrict easy access to weapons of war. Fourth, accepting the definition of schools as “targets,” whether soft or hard, is patently offensive. They are learning institutions, not battlefields or prisons. The teachers are not soldiers and the students are not combatants.

What’s more, it’s hard to ignore how Trump stumbles in his remarks in a manner that exposes his mental frailty when he gets to the part about “virtue cycling, and signing.” The words he is mangling off of his TelePrompTer is the phrase “virtue signaling,” a derogatory reference to expressions of moral character. No wonder Trump is so agitated by it that he can’t even utter it correctly. But then he goes on to positively embrace the notion that “This is about blaming your enemies.” But when he heard himself make that gaffe, he pretended, as he often does, that he did it on purpose. This is the “stable genius” speaking?

Both Trump and the NRA refuse to acknowledge that guns are a significant factor in tragedies like the one that just occurred un Uvalde. They prefer to blame mental health, an issue that they are also resistant to resolving. In fact, they deliberately make it worse. The first bill that Trump signed when he began his occupation of the White House was one that reversed an Obama-era regulation that restricted gun purchases by people with mental illnesses. And Texas governor Greg Abbott cut $211 million dollars from mental health care services in his state.

RELATED: Nicolle Wallace Fact Checks Texas Gov. Abbott: We Are Not Gonna Let Him Gaslight Anybody Today

The one constant in all of this is the determination of the right to shield guns, and the corporations that manufacture and market them, from any and all responsibility for the pain they inflict on innocent victims, including children. And Trump is only to happy to obediently subjugate himself to his corporatist masters in order to secure their assistance in his quest for wealth and power.

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Tucker Carlson Goes Full Insurrectionist: Promotes AR-15’s to Use Against Government

It’s on people! Tucker Carlson, the Senior White Nationalist at Fox News, is openly advocating violent insurrection. He is justifying his support for the ownership and use of military-style weapons by fear mongering about a tyrannical government that must be brought down by the same sort of paranoid seditionists that attacked the Capitol on January 6th.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Q Shaman

Fox News and its Republican benefactors have been known to exploit the 2nd Amendment issue extraordinarily hard whenever there is a mass shooting. In the past week they have made it their mission to ignore the recent incidents that took the lives of 18 people. They preferred to cover petty distractions like President Biden walking up stairs. They care more about suppressing voters than suppressing killers.

On Carlson’s program Tuesday night he interviewed ammosexual Colion Noir, who once hosted a “show” on the now defunct NRA-TV. The two of them belittled the tragedy that just took place in Boulder, Colorado, while glorifying the weapon that produced the carnage. Their discussion was steeped in extremist rhetoric that sounded like the ravings of a deranged, dystopian, apocalyptic prophet (video below). For instance…

Carlson: “Why, if somebody does something horrible in Boulder, does that mean you should strip from people the single most popular sporting rifle in America? The one that commits relatively few crimes. More people are killed by a factor of five by knives than by rifles in this country. Why are they so intent on taking this one firearm away?”
Colion Noir: “Because honestly, if you really look at it, a lot of people like to undervalue what the 2nd Amendment was actually written for. It was designed to be a check against the government. A lot of people don’t like to talk about that aspect. Of course it was also there to allow us to defend ourselves. But if you think about it, the AR-15 symbolically and literally is the best defense against a tyrannical government.

Carlson starts off by dismissing the “horrible” thing that happened in Boulder as something forgettable that deserves no response. He euphemizes the AR-15 as a “sporting rifle,” despite it’s intended purpose as a human meat grinder. Where’s the sport in that? And he downplays the brutal deaths of hundreds of innocent people as a “relative few.” So long as they weren’t his relatives. Carlson also doesn’t bother to address the fact that 26% of the last 80 mass shootings were done with AR-15s.

Noir goes even further to demonstrate his utter contempt for and ignorance of the Constitution. The 2nd Amendment says absolutely nothing about a “defense against a tyrannical government.” In fact, it explicitly refers to a “well regulated Militia” that would be assembled for the benefit of the state. It’s purpose was to be prepared to fend off foreign invaders, not George Washington’s troops.

Noir went on to assert the tiresome trope that regulating assault weapons was merely a slippery slope to confiscating all firearms. And he didn’t seem to be the least bit disturbed about “another shooting that happens, which it will.” He just viewed that as the left’s opportunity to “justify further restricting our rights again.” Never mind the shattered families grieving for their dead loved ones.

What neither Carlson nor Noir understand is that their warped fantasies of battling the U.S. government would end very badly for them. Their assault weapons wouldn’t protect them very long from the Army’s drones, grenade launchers, missiles, tanks, and bombers. You have to wonder if Carlson and Noir believe citizens should be allowed to own those as well. You also have to wonder what happened to their sloganeering about “Blue Lives Matter” and “Supporting the Troops”? Because that is who these phony “patriots” are fantasizing about going to war against.

This whole discussion came dangerously close to a televised conspiracy plot for treason. It exposes these crackpots as anti-American poseurs who have orgasms dreaming of wartime adventures they’re too cowardly to ever engage in. And it is more of the insanity that drove hundreds of Trump supporters to attack Congress in an attempt to overturn an election. If they get their way, there will be further attempts to stage authoritarian coups. And the blood will be on the hands of Carlson, Noir, and Fox News.

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

Trump Backs E-Cigarette Ban After 6th Vaping Death, Still No Gun Reforms After 313 Deaths

On Wednesday morning Trump invited the press – you know, the “enemy of the people” – into the White House to make an announcement about his new initiative to ban flavored e-cigarettes. He is apparently very concerned about a recent report that a sixth person has died from lung disease associated with vaping.

Donald Trump, Yosemite Sam, Guns

This is a legitimate problem that potentially affects millions of people, including children, who have taken up the habit. And there hasn’t been enough research to establish the safety of this relatively new product. However, there is something peculiar about the rapid response with which Trump is moving to limit access to e-cigarettes. If six deaths ever from vaping is a serious enough crisis to push through a virtual prohibition on an otherwise legal product, why isn’t 313 deaths this year alone enough of a crisis to enact common sense gun reforms?

Many conservatives and Trump Republicans make the argument that restrictions on access to assault-style guns won’t prevent people from acquiring them. But they seem to believe that similar restrictions will be effective on e-cigarette smokers. That’s a contradiction they cannot explain away. At the same time, they are driven to action by a half dozen vaping-related deaths, but fight tooth and nail to protect their right to own military weapons intended solely to mutilate the human body, despite being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people at schools, churches, and malls.

During his brief visit with the press (video below), Trump revealed that he is “looking at vaping strongly” because “it’s very dangerous” and that “children have died.” Of course, all of that is true many times over for guns and mass shootings. He also asserted that “we’re going to have some very strong rules and regulations.” Which he is vigorously obstructing with regard to guns and accessories like large capacity magazines. He elaborated saying that…

“Vaping is becoming a big business as I understand it, like a giant business in a short period of time. We can’t allow people to get sick and we can’t have our youth be so affected. And that’s how the First Lady got involved. She’s got a son — together that is a beautiful young man, and she feels very, very strongly about it. She’s seen it. We’re both reading it. A lot of people are reading it. But people are dying.”

First of all, it’s curious that Trump has noticed that Melania has a son, as if he has nothing to do with it. But more to the point, Trump’s observation that “people are dying” from vaping seems especially callous when he can’t make the same connection to the far more numerous fatalities caused by easy access to killing machines that have no justifiable purpose for anyone other than soldiers and police officers.

It’s hard to dismiss the likelihood that Trump’s reluctance to take any action on guns is due to his alliance with – and/or fear of – the National Rifle Association. He has repeatedly made hollow, insincere gestures toward reform efforts, only to abandon them after talking to his pals at the NRA. And it’s fair to say that Big Tobacco has a firmer grip on Trump and the GOP than Big E-Cig. Since the e-cigarette industry doesn’t have anything comparable to the NRA lobbying on their behalf, they will end up being regulated in short order. And Americans will continue to be mowed down by assault weapons thanks to the self-serving, cold-blooded, depravity of Trump and his Re[publican Nationalist Party.

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

Kid Reporter Steals Show at WH Press Briefing, But Sanders Ducks Question on School Shootings

The Wednesday edition of the White House Press briefing was mostly in line with previous sessions. Sarah Huckabee Sanders conducted her routine delivery of lies posing as responses to reporters’ questions. Although there were some inquiries that are unique to Donald Trump’s administration. Such as how the President justifies his baseless claims that his campaign was infiltrated by FBI spies. Or whether Trump had spoken to Roseanne Barr after her show was cancelled due to her racist tweeting.

Sarah Huckabee-Sanders

However, the most extraordinary moment of the briefing was when Benje Choucroun was recognized for a question. Choucroun is a student at Marin Country Day School and was attending the briefing as a correspondent for Time for Kids magazine. His question was one that has special significance for all of America’s kids, and adults as well. He asked (video below):

“At my school, we recently we had a lockdown drill. One thing that affects mine and other students’ mental health is worrying about the fact that we or our friends could get shot at school. Specifically, can you tell me what the administration has done and will do to prevent these senseless tragedies?”

Considering that it has been less than two weeks since the most recent fatalities at the shooting at Santa Fe High School, this is a pertinent question that deserves a straight answer. Unfortunately, he was directing it to someone who had no intention of providing that kind of answer. Sanders very obviously evaded the question, declining to address it with the specifics that Choucroun requested:

“I think that as a kid and certainly as a parent, there is nothing that could be more terrifying for a kid to go to school and not feel safe, so I am sorry that you feel that way. This administration takes it seriously and the school safety commission that the president convened is meeting this week in an official meeting to discuss the best ways forward and how we can do every single thing within our power to protect kids in our schools and to make them feel safe and make their parents feel good about dropping them off.”

It’s notable that Sanders’ voice broke with apparent emotion while giving this reply. But that didn’t make the answer any less hollow and devoid of substance. She basically said that it’s too bad that you have to suffer like this and we are holding meetings to talk about it. She didn’t mention that the meetings were often restricted to the leadership of the National Rifle Association, or other partisan groups who refuse to acknowledge that guns are a major part of the problem. This administration has sold out the lives of America’s children for the profits of the NRA and its weapons manufacturer members.

It will be interesting to see what Choucroun’s report looks like when it’s published. For the most part, it has been the kids who have provided the most honest and effective dialog on this issue, beginning with the courageous students from Parkland, Florida’s Stoneman Douglas High School. And while it’s disappointing that Trump’s spokesperson so brazenly dodged Choucroun’s question, it’s inspiring that he asked it so profoundly and articulately.

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

Fox News Senior Douchebag Tucker Carlson Demonstrates Why No One Should Ever Do His Show

Anyone who has watched more than five minutes of Fox News knows that the network is a wholly dishonest purveyor of right-wing lies and propaganda. Throughout the day they broadcast flagrantly biased stories that advance the interests of Donald Trump and the Republican Party. But it’s more than that. They are actually serving as an arm of the White House and the GOP by coordinating their messages and featuring Republican operatives and candidates almost exclusively.

Tucker Carlson Fox News

Among the most repugnant Trump-fluffers on Fox News is Tucker Carlson. He is a proud white supremacist who believes that Democrats hate America. On Tuesday night Carlson conducted a harangue (as opposed to an interview) with New Mexico congressional candidate, Pat Davis (video below). What brought this particular Democrat to the attention of Fox News was a campaign ad that held nothing back with the opening line, “F*ck the NRA.”

Needless to say that has caused much of the conservative snowflake community to belly flop onto their fainting couches. Oh my, a cuss word. This is from the same people who idolize the has-been schlock-rocker and NRA board member Ted Nugent, who has repeatedly dropped f-bombs while demanding that various politicians “suck on my machine gun.” See this for a compendium of Nugent’s violent obscenities.

The exchange between Carlson and Davis is a perfect demonstration of why no Democrat should ever lower themselves to appear on that thoroughly useless program. Carlson relentlessly badgered Davis with irrelevant questions, but wouldn’t give him ten seconds to try to provide a substantive answer. For example, When Davis explained that “If a curse word on TV offends you more than pictures of dead children in Parkland or Newtown then your priorities are all wrong,” Carlson interrupted to ask if rudeness would save lives. Huh?

Following that, Carlson asked Davis “How many NRA members have committed mass shootings?” Who cares? First of all, law enforcement doesn’t collect NRA membership data when investigating crimes. But more importantly, Davis’ ad did not attack NRA members, it attacked the organization that is known for opposing any and all reasonable measures to reduce gun violence. Davis tried to explain that to Carlson who refused to listen in between inappropriate chuckling and snide remarks.

Having proven absolutely nothing, other than that he’s an obnoxious buffoon, Carlson changes the subject again. He criticizes another ad by Davis that says that AR-15s can fire 150 rounds in fifteen seconds. Carlson disputes that and asks Davis how that would work. And Davis tells him. But Carlson continues to insist that it’s impossible and that Davis, a former police officer, doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Aren’t we supposed to respect our men and women in blue? Carlson belittles Davis’ service by saying “I know that you were a police officer, or you claim to have been.”

Davis provided support for his statements about AR-15s on website. He certainly wasn’t going to be able to do that on Carlson’s show with interruptions every ten seconds. And whenever Davis was making a salient point Carlson would laugh or sneer or mock him. Eventually, Carlson cut the segment short shouting abruptly, “Interview over! Cause you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

There is one lesson that can be learned from this disastrous affair. There is no reason – ever – for any Democrat, liberal, or even reasonable Republican, to sink so low as to appear on Carlson’s hate-fest. You will not be able to persuade him of anything regardless of the facts you present. His audience doesn’t care what you have to say and will cheer on his repulsive and childish taunting. He is an ignorant bully whose sole reason for being is to act superior and insult anyone who disagrees with him. Appearing on his show will never result in an informative interview. It will result in Carlson hanging by his tail and throwing feces at you.

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

Tyrant-Loving NRA/Fox News Hack Warns: ‘It’s Time for Us to Protect the Crown’ (Trump)

Members of the Fraternity of Right-Wing Crackpots occasionally make the fatal mistake of saying something that accurately represents what they truly believe. Under ordinary circumstances they try fervently to mask their ugly opinions behind pseudo-populist dogma that appeals to low-information dweebs who like being lied to. But their arrogance and undeserved self-confidence works against their own interests and sometimes results in unauthorized eruptions of candor.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

An excellent example of that occurred when Dan Bongino, a Fox News contributor and NRA spokesman, delivered a motivational speech to encourage his followers to vote in November (video below). Motivational speeches from the conservative perspective are generally rants filled with fear mongering, race baiting, and/or falsehoods designed to instill irrational anger. And this one was typical in that respect.

Bongino started on a low note by making a peculiar defense of the Trump administration’s record of failure. ““I think what’s starting to happen here folks,” he began, “is I think Trump and his team are finally getting their sea legs.” Wow. And after only fifteen months in office. This is supposed to be a pep talk? Then Bongino rattles off what he thinks are Trump’s successes: North Korea, Iran, tax cuts, unemployment, eliminating the ObamaCare mandate, cutting Obama regulations, and reversing climate change reforms. All of these are issues on which the American people sharply disagree with the Trump administration. So it’s hard to honestly portray them as successes. But Bongino was just getting started:

“I think the voter out there is finally starting to get excited, and finally starting to realize that if we lose this election, make absolutely no mistake. If we lose the House, this president will in fact, be impeached. There’s no question about it. It’s time for us to protect the crown.”

“Protect the crown”? This little slip exposes the mentality of the far-right in America. They really do think that Trump is a strongman dictator who should allowed to do anything he wants without the annoying interference of Congress, the judiciary, or – god forbid – the people. They prefer to be ruled over by a paternal tyrant, rather than govern themselves the way the Founders intended.

To be fair, Bongino did catch himself and tried to walk back the “crown” remark, but only because he was afraid of what Media Matters might say. Then he shouts defiantly “You know what I mean. Get out and vote.” What he means is that their vote is necessary to prevent Trump from being impeached. Whether or not that’s true, he’s admitting that there is a legal basis for impeachment that might succeed. That’s a great position for him to take – for Democrats. Now the Democrats don’t even need to campaign on impeachment because Republicans like Bongino are reminding the nation that Trump is a criminal who won’t escape accountability by the law if the Congress changes hands.

What’s curious about this catalog of alleged “winning” is a subject that was conspicuously left out: Guns. That’s right, the NRA’s mouthpiece didn’t even mention guns once. The entire tirade was focused on a bevy of other purely political issues. This puts the lie to the claim that the NRA is gun owners advocacy group. They are a nakedly partisan political organization that is doing the bidding of their Republican masters. That is, when they aren’t lobbying for the firearms manufacturers (or Russians) who bankroll their operation. And in order to achieve the goals of the GOP (Greedy One Percent) they are willing to abandon long-held American principles of democracy and follow wannabe dictators lock-step into tyranny.

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

Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Trump (?) to NRA: Weakness Gets You Nuclear War

On Friday Donald Trump made his second annual trip to kiss the trigger fingers of the National Rifle Association (NRA) honchos who funneled more than $30 million to his presidential campaign. Some of that we now know came directly from Russia. Trump’s address was a rehash of his now tedious tirades that he delivers at his Deplorable rallies. He covered all the hits: Border wall, Russia hoax, polling, terrorists, and of course, the Second Amendment.

Donald Trump

Among the subjects that Trump rambled through was his handling of the nuclear showdown with North Korea. His comments were typically narrowed to bragging about himself. He boasted to the glassy-eyed disciple in the audience that he was responsible for ending the nuclear threat that was looming over the world. You know, the one that he created. He said that his demonstration of strength won the day because “Weakness gets you nuclear war.”

What Trump and his dimwitted followers will never discern from that is that every president before Trump must have been pretty strong because none of them set off a nuclear war. In fact, none of them even drew the threat of one that Trump did. After all, Trump is the belligerent instigator who taunted Kim Jong Un as “little rocket man” and warned that the U.S. “will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.” He even dashed off a pseudo-phallic tweet about his “bigger button.” And from that sort of reckless heckling, Trump thinks he got Kim to come to the negotiating table.

To the contrary, it was Kim who got Trump to the table. This is a fact that Trump and his GOP supporters in Congress completely fail to understand. The Republican Freedom caucus recently sent a letter to the Nobel nominating committee seeking recognition of Trump for a Peace Prize based on on his achievements with regard to North Korea. Never mind that there haven’t been any achievements as of yet. Just a lot of talk.

The GOP letter was an embarrassing composition whose first paragraph contained an obvious typo (“…in recognition of his work to end to the Korean war…”). And among the reasons stated that Trump deserved the award were the sanctions that “have decimated the North Korean economy.” Well, isn’t that just the sort of peaceful triumph worthy of a Nobel?

More to the point, Trump should not get a Nobel Peace Prize for getting played by Kim. And that’s precisely what happened. For decades North Korean leaders have tried to get the United States, and other world powers, to recognize their nation and grant them the legitimacy of diplomatic parity. They have tried to coax prior presidents to the table with the same sort of chain rattling that they did for Trump. The difference is that every previous American leader was strong enough to say no. Trump folded.

As a result, North Korea is getting the only thing they wanted all along: recognition and legitimacy. As well as the elimination of sanctions and a reduction in foreign troop presence. These are all things that Trump is willing to negotiate, without any preconditions on the part of North Korea. So it wasn’t Trump’s threats that got the parties to the table. It was Kim’s testing of nuclear weapons and ICBMs, and Trump’s eventual weakness in bending in the face of that perceived peril.

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

Having capitulated to Kim’s strategic weapons program ought not to be the basis for a Nobel Peace Prize. And Trump’s weakness in now referring to Kim as “very honorable” is hardly a proud moment in American diplomacy. But don’t try telling that to the suckers who cheered when Trump praised his own “strength” and deal making prowess at the NRA convention.

Fox News Covers the March For Our Lives By Fixating on the One Parkland Student Who Supports the NRA

On Saturday there was a historical, nationwide demonstration in support of gun reforms and protecting the lives of America’s children – and adults too, for that matter. The demonstrators represented a broad swath of the American public, including Democrats, Republicans, young, old, NRA opponents and members. Millions of marchers turned out for this protest in 800+ cities, with more than half a million in Washington, D.C. alone.

Fox News

It is inspiring to see the passion and determination of the young people who are the catalyst for this movement. Many of them are students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the site of a shooting that took the lives of seventeen students and adults. Their efforts are having a bigger impact than most of the previous attempts to force our ineffectual congress to act on behalf of the majority of their constituents rather than the National Rifle Association and their campaign bribes.

But leave it to Fox News to deliberately distort the public discourse on these critical issues. While most other news networks are reporting continuously and live from demonstrations around the nation, Fox News “reporters” are remaining in their studios and delivering infrequent updates and interviewing opponents of those marching.

One of those opponents is Kyle Kashuv, a Stoneman Douglas student who supports the position of the NRA. That’s fine, and it’s his right to have and express his opinion. But Fox News is plastering their airwaves with this kid who represents a tiny minority of his peers – and the nation. Apparently Fox News couldn’t find any other kids who share his opinion, so they’ve been inviting him on repeatedly and hyping his appearances without interviewing anyone whose views are more consistent with the majority. For instance:

It can hardly be called “fair and balanced” to promote the views of a single individual whose views are decidedly outside of the mainstream. Yet Kashuv has been featured on just about every Fox News program throughout the day. That includes Donald Trump’s favorite show, Fox and Friends, where Kashuv and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes whined about his not being included on a recent Time Magazine cover (video below). NOTE: There were only five students on that cover so many others, including prominent movement leaders, were not in that photo. That fact notwithstanding, Fox’s Steve Doocy had the answer for why Kashuv was allegedly snubbed:

Doocy: I know why you weren’t included. I think, and according to what I’ve read, you support the Second Amendment. And the people who were featured on the cover have a different political point of view.
Kashuv: Well it’s clear that the people on the cover are pushing for gun reform. And they’re pushing for they don’t want to see weapons of war on the streets, like the AR-15. I mean, on the march itself, the march’s website, they listed how they want to ban AR-15s and I don’t agree with that.

First of all, the advocates for gun reform are not against the Second Amendment. They want the sort of common sense regulations that apply to other items in the Bill of Rights. Secondly, Kashuv reveals his own absurd position by saying that he doesn’t agree with those who want weapons of war off the streets. So he wants them on the streets?

They went on to discuss the role of the NRA in this debate. Kashuv was adamant that people who were pointing their fingers at the NRA were not helping to solve the problem. But he concluded by saying that:

“We can have all the legislation we want, but if the legislation isn’t actually being enacted or going through or doing what we should be doing, then what’s the point of legislation.”

Fox’s Pete Hegseth complimented Kashuv on making “a great point” and, in fact, he did. But what neither of them seem to grasp is that the reason legislation isn’t going through is because of the hold that the NRA has on weak, mostly Republican, politicians. You cannot have this debate without observing the toxic interference of the NRA.

This is how Fox News is filling its schedule on the day of the March For Our Lives. For them to hype a conservative opinion, to the exclusion of all other opinions, is not surprising. That’s what they do. But in this case they couldn’t even find a second source for the propaganda they want to disseminate. So they book the one source they have to the point of sheer tedium. What’s more, many of Fox’s pundits and hosts have spent the past several weeks demeaning the opinions of the kids who have been speaking out about gun violence. However, when they found one kid who has their bias, he is treated like a prophet and given an inordinate amount of airtime. It’s the same sort of hypocrisy that Fox News uses when they disparage celebrities who express themselves – except when its right-wing celebrities.

Expect to see more of Kashuv on Fox News in the coming days and weeks. And if their exploitation of this young man is carried to its logical conclusion, then expect to see him hosting his own Fox show or maybe becoming Trump’s next ATF director or even Attorney General.

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

The Democratic Party is Anti-American: Deconstructing Tucker Carlson’s Noxious Trump-Fluffing

There are plenty of repugnant cretins on Fox News who devote themselves to distorting reality and misinforming their dimwitted audience. No one is more of a sycophantic disciple of Donald Trump than Sean Hannity. And Steve Doocy’s portrayal of an imbecile infatuated with the President is spot on. But Tucker Carlson has carved out his own domain as the master of indignant arrogance stewed in hypocrisy and logical dysfunction.

Fox News Tucker Carlson

On Thursday’s program Carlson set out to express a rare disappointment with his hero in the White House. It stemmed from Trump’s boneheaded assertion that guns should be confiscated from certain individuals without due process of law. That’s a position that was quickly denounced by all sides of the gun reform debate, including most fiercely by the NRA. But Carlson’s lecture (video below) was especially convoluted and managed to make Democrats the villains for what Trump said. What follows is an annotated transcript of the highlights.

“The alternatives to what we have now are scary and getting scarier. The Democratic Party is completely irresponsible and increasingly anti-American. They prefer illegal aliens to our middle-class. That’s true and it’s terrifying. Someone needs to defend the country from these people. Trump mostly does that.”

So Trump advocates violating the Constitution, but it’s Democrats who are anti-American? And Carlson’s deranged and insulting assertion that Democrats “prefer illegal aliens to our middle-class” is baseless and purposefully inflammatory. What’s true and terrifying is Carlson’s anti-American suggestion that the country needs to be defended from people he disagrees with.

“At one point the President said ‘The government should take the guns first, go through due process second.’ How honest do you want to be. Imagine if Barack Obama had said that. Just ignore due process and start confiscating guns. Obama would have been denounced as a dictator. We would have denounced him first. Trust me.”

Well, to be fair, Carlson and Fox News did denounce Obama as a dictator with predictable frequency, but never with justification. But his point was that Trump’s proposal for gun confiscation should receive the same criticism. Let’s see how that went.

“It’s important to remember that nobody should be tied to a person, but instead to principles. So with that in mind, do you think it’s worth just reminding the President – as we all need to be reminded sometimes – that there are deeper principles here?

How generous. Carlson won’t denounce Trump’s dictatorial raving, but politely remind him of the principles that he’s certain Trump has anyway. What happened to being the first to denounce dictatorship? That must not apply to your ideological crush with the long, flowing, golden locks (vainly covering his crusty bald spot). However, Carlson’s presumption of Trump’s true inner feelings were proven correct overnight as Trump tweeted that he’d made up with the NRA in an Oval Office tryst:

Here’s the video of Carlson’s Democrat-bashing, love letter to dictator Trump, if you can stomach it.

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

Release the Hounds: Fox News Inadvertently Solves Gun Control and School Security

In the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, there has been a decidedly lopsided national debate about gun control and the security of America’s schools. Most of the nation overwhelming supports common sense measures like universal background checks and banning assault weapons. Even a hard-bitten military analyst on Fox News described putting AR-15s in the hands of civilians as absolute madness.”

Rex, the Hero Dog

Nevertheless, Donald Trump and his sycophants in Congress and the media continue to serve as whores to the gun lobbyists at the National Rifle Association (NRA). They ignore the pleas of the student survivors and families of victims from Parkland to Newtown to Sutherland Springs and way too many more massacres. Even worse, they lie about their motives and tell them to shut up.

For his part, Trump has completely avoided the subject of restricting unfettered access to weapons of war. He fervently advocates putting even more guns on school campuses, a thoroughly boneheaded idea. And while doing so he shamelessly denies that he ever said any such thing. It’s a circus of hypocrisy and dishonesty that has become emblematic of the Trump era.

The Republican Party has fully embraced the inadequate proposals from the White House that mainly address the fringes of the issue. They talk disingenuously about banning bump stocks, raising age requirements, and reforming mental health care. But they offer nothing in the way of concrete legislation to accomplish even those minor components of a comprehensive solution. The one constant that is present in nearly every incident of mass murder is the assault weapon chosen by the murderers.

Surprisingly, Fox News covered a story this weekend that could provide a new direction for solving these problems. During a burglary in Des Moines, Washington, a German Shepherd leaped to the defense of the teenager who was home at the time. According to the report:

“A German Shepard is being hailed as a ‘four-legged angel’ after reportedly getting hit by three bullets while protecting his owner during a home invasion attempt this week in Washington.

“Javier Mercado, 16, said the dog, named Rex, came to his rescue after burglars broke into his home Wednesday afternoon in Des Moines.”

“‘I started hearing barking, a lot of barking, and then one of the guys screamed, ‘Get the dog! The dog bit me, the dog bit me!’ Mercado told Q13 Fox.”

Rex was shot three times, but still managed to scare off the intruders. He did what dogs are instinctively inclined to do: protect those they care for and who care for them. Which raises the notion of a far better way to protect schoolchildren than trying to turn schools into prisons and teachers into guards. Just get a few dogs to live on the school grounds and train them to recognize aggressors. The kids could get to know them and treat them as pets. But anyone who presented a threat would be met with a fearless and devoted defender.

Sure, there would be some details to work out with regard to preventing unintended injuries, but probably no more so than would occur with humans. This just seems like a more loving and humanitarian approach and should at least be included in the discussion. But those factors will likely rule that out for Trump and and his band of hateful, inhumane miscreants.

After treatment and surgery, Rex is expected to fully recover. The family has a posting for donations to cover veterinary bills on GoFundMe.

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