CANCEL CULTure: Turning the Trump Driven Outrage at Fox News Up to Eleven

Look out Fox News. The MAGAts are coming for you and they are boiling mad. For much of his presidency Donald Trump has been blowing hot and cold over Fox News. He would whine pitifully whenever they published a poll showing how much America despised him, or if they dared to interview a Democrat. The next moment he would post a half dozens videos of his favorite hosts dutifully praising him or maligning his critics.

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Donald Trump, Fox News

This schizophrenic dysfunction by Trump must have been confusing for his simple-minded but adoring cult followers. Trump was simultaneously directing them to watch Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, while ordering them to switch to Newsmax or OANN because “Fox News Sucks.” The mental toll of this contradictory guidance has resulted in an exodus of viewers from Fox News. For much of the post-election viewing, CNN has risen to the top of the cable news heap and Newsmax has tripled its audience.

Meanwhile, long time Fox News fanatics have been vowing never to watch the network again, with the notable exception of Tucker Carlson, the only one they still trust to articulate their exclusionary (i.e. racist) views. But Carlson’s immunity has been eradicated by a recent segment wherein he dared to ask a Trump lawyer, Sidney Powell, for proof of her ludicrous and unfounded accusations of election fraud:

Carlson has been getting some undeserved credit for taking on Powell after her hysterical press conference with Rudy Giuliani. The two of them floated some of the most ridiculous allegations of election “irregularities,” including fringe conspiracy theories about votes being tabulated in Germany and Spain with software made in Venezuela. No doubt they will eventually tie in George Soros and Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Update: Powell has been thrown under the Trump bus due to her crazy talk, which isn’t really any crazier than anything Giuliani or the rest of these goofballs have said.

But Carlson’s request for proof was half hearted at best. He meekly asked her to come on his show and present evidence of her allegations, which she refused to do. But that didn’t stop him from continuing to push the very same baseless theories for which he faulted her. In fact, on his program the following night he went a step further. Carlson asserted that he and anonymous sources (which apparently Fox News now approves of) in the White House are in agreement about imaginary election fraud:

“Like us, they have concluded that this election was not fair. Like us, they are willing to believe any explanation for what happened. Like us, they have not seen any single piece of evidence showing that software changed votes. Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It might have happened. It means they haven’t seen any evidence that it happened. And by ‘they’ we are including other members of Donald Trump’s own legal team.”

The entirety of Carlson’s argument is that the absence of any evidence of fraud doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. By the same logic, the absence of any evidence that Carlson is not the reanimated corpse of Adolf Hitler doesn’t mean that he isn’t. He might be. There just isn’t any evidence of it (well, except for his arrogant demagoguery and noxious white supremacism). What Carlson wants his dimwitted viewers to believe is that anything, no matter how preposterous, can be true if there isn’t explicit evidence to refute it. By extension, he’s arguing that the absence of evidence of fraud is proof of fraud.

Carlson went on to say that he would consider it “great news” if evidence of election fraud emerged. He said that “no one would be more grateful for that than us.” He’s actually rooting for fraud. He’s virtually drooling at the thought of it. That’s because there is no other way for him to keep advocating for the election to be overturned and the votes of nearly 80 million people invalidated. His mission is to support Trump’s coup attempt and retain power at the expense of democracy.

So Carlson had a fleeting moment of rationality in asking for evidence of fraud. But his core state of smug and unprincipled self-interest remains in tact. As does his unflinching loyalty to Trumpism. And yet he is still the victim of glassy-eyed MAGAts who are always poised to betray anyone they think wanders too far from the reach of Dear Leader. Which, in the end, will be a good thing as their zealous adherence to the Trump cult dogma splinters their coalition and hangs former allies like Fox News out to dry.

NOTE: News Corpse was notified by Twitter recently that its account would be suspended for repeated violations of their rules. Which is strange because it has never been cited for a single violation in 11 years and they didn’t even identify this alleged violation. They just bounced the account and its 7,000 followers. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from this website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Thanks for your support.

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

Trump’s Lawyer: He’s an ‘Idiot’ Whose Supporters ‘Don’t Care that He’s a Lying, Criminal Dirtbag’

It’s been two and half weeks since election day and Donald Trump is still pursuing a futile and impotent effort to overturn the results of the election that Joe Biden won decisively. His arguments are riddled with lies that are only serving the purposes of Americas enemies who are thrilled that Trump is diminishing faith in the democratic principles upon which our nation rests.

Donald Trump

Trump is running his anti-democracy campaign from the bowels of his White House bunker where he has holed up for nearly two weeks without making a single public statement. However, on Thursday morning Trump turned to his lead Attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who has been doing a bang up job of losing (or dropping) 24 out of 25 court cases filed so far. But never fear. According to Giuliani, losing is all part of his master plan.

Giuliani held a press conference (carried live only by Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN) that Trump said would reveal “An open and shut case of voter fraud.” Instead, Giuliani’s case was centered on what he called “proof” that Trump won in multiple states, but that he couldn’t present his proof to the press, or even to the court. He made the same claim about some 200 affidavits alleging fraud that he also couldn’t show. And the other central theme of his case was his already debunked crackpot assertion that votes for this election were counted in Germany and Spain by a company that was founded in Venezuela with help from China. Throw in George Soros and Hillary’s emails and you have a conspiracy theory bonanza.

Joining Giuliani at the press conference was Trump’s senior legal adviser and White House counsel, Jenna Ellis. She has become a familiar face on Fox News as she endeavors to spread disinformation on behalf of Trump. Ellis is as devoted a Trump-fluffer as anyone he has ever put forth to spread his bull manure. But she didn’t start out that way. CNN reports that

“Ellis, an attorney and former law professor from Colorado, repeatedly slammed then-candidate Trump as an ‘idiot,’ who was ‘boorish and arrogant,’ and a ‘bully’ whose words could not be trusted as factually accurate. She called comments he made about women ‘disgusting,’ and suggested he was not a ‘real Christian.’ In one March 2016 Facebook post, Ellis said Trump’s values were ‘not American,’ linking to a post that called Trump an ‘American fascist.’

Ellis isn’t the only person that is now embracing Trump after after previously expressing decidedly negative views of him. Kellyanne Conway viciously insulted Trump during the 2016 GOP primary. Ted Cruz called him a “pathological liar.” Lindsey Graham said Trump is a “race baiting, xenophobic religious bigot,” and “kook” who is “unfit for office.” All of them are now shameless bootlicking sycophants.

It’s rather telling how many people who have had close associations with Trump feel the same way. His former chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, said he was an “idiot.” His former secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said he was a “moron.” His former national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, said he has the “intelligence of a kindergartner.” His former top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, said he was “dumb as shit.” But Ellis also had some ripe commentary on Trump’s cult followers:

“In March 2016, Ellis attacked Trump supporters in a Facebook post for not caring that the Republican candidate was an ‘unethical, corrupt, lying, criminal, dirtbag.’

It isn’t surprising that Trump is regarded as an imbecile by those who know him best. Most Americans already made the same observation. And it also shouldn’t surprise anyone that Trump looks down on the yokels that flock to his Coronavirus Super Spreader Salvation Shows. But what is curious is how eager his devotees are to worship someone who is so transparently dismissive of them. It’s bad enough that they can’t see what a mental basket case he is. Or what a failure he has been at both business and governing. But they are also blind to the disgust he harbors for them and their kind.

The vast majority of his supporters are hicks who would be thrown out of his hotels and golf resorts. But even elitists like Ellis were repulsed by Trump before they got on his payroll. And what they still don’t get is that Trump will throw them overboard just as fast as he drew them in. Just ask all of the people that Trump said were the best when he hired them, but castigated as losers when he fired them, usually just because they dared to tell him the truth about himself. That’s an automatic booting in Trump world.

NOTE: News Corpse was notified by Twitter recently that its account would be suspended for repeated violations of their rules. Which is strange because it has never been cited for a single violation in 11 years and they didn’t even identify this alleged violation. They just bounced the account and its 7,000 followers. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from this website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Thanks for your support.

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

HUH? Giuliani Says Losing Election Fraud Cases is Part of His Plan

Joe Biden’s decisive defeat of Donald Trump has led to an even more humiliating political circus of desperation for the deposed president. Trump is persisting in his ludicrous effort to overturn the election results by filing meritless lawsuits and posting pitiful tweets declaring impotently, in all caps, that “I WON THE ELECTION.”

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump

This pathetic spectacle only serves to cement Trump’s legacy as a sore loser who will resort to bizarre measures in order to avoid facing reality. It’s ironic that while Trump is so feverishly disputing the election results now, in 2016 he said that doing so was a direct threat to our democracy.” What’s more, nearly 40% of his tweets asserting election fraud have been flagged by Twitter as misinformation.

Trump’s cavalcade of litigation has been met by almost unanimous failure. To date Trump’s court score is 1 out of 24. The single case he “won” only set back the date for receipt of mail-in ballots in Philadelphia by three days. But as it turns out, this is all part of the master plan by Trump’s crack legal team led by Rudy Giuliani. On Tuesday morning Giuliani was “interviewed” by Senior Fox News Trump-Fluffer, Maria Bartiromo (video below). When asked about the status of his litigation, Giuliani bragged that…

“Frankly, this is a case we would like to see get to the Supreme Court. So, you know, we’re prepared, in some of these cases, to lose and to appeal and to get it to the Supreme Court. You’re not going to win every one of these. I don’t want to say it’s because of a Democrat judge or whatever. Some of them are just as fair as anybody. But in some cases you win, in some cases you lose. The most important thing is this will be our first established vehicle on the way to the Supreme Court.”

Take a moment to let the grandiloquent idiocy of that statement wash over you. Apparently, Giuliani doesn’t know that winning is the preferable outcome of every legal dispute. If you win your case it doesn’t need to go to Supreme Court because … well, because you won, Einstein. It still could get elevated to a higher court if the your opponent appeals, but in the interim you can go on your way as the victor. There is literally zero benefit to losing under any circumstances.

However, if losing is what Giuliani really wants, he’s doing a bang up job. He has a near perfect record of losses. To be fair, some of these weren’t actually losses by a court ruling. Some of them were cases that Trump’s side dropped because even they knew they were bogus, and therefore hopeless. And if that weren’t enough to fill Giuliani and Boss Trump with pride, many of the attorneys who have been representing Trump in these cases have quit. Which leaves the remaining flock of Fox News rejects more glory in which to bask.

Trump can rest assured that his lead attorney will produce many more losses to come. And his PR efforts will will continue to produce gems like the press conference at the the Four Seasons (not the glitzy hotel, the suburban Philly landscaping company). Maybe that’s part of Giuliani’s plan as well. He’ll end up taking his cases to the Supreme Court Tennis Club in Ontario. What better place for a lawyer whose career is synonymous with “racket”?

NOTE: News Corpse was notified by Twitter recently that its account would be suspended for repeated violations of their rules. Which is strange because it has never been cited for a single violation in 11 years and they didn’t even identify this alleged violation. They just bounced the account and its 7,000 followers. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from this website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Thanks for your support.

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

GOP Chair Forced to Admit to Fox News There’s No Evidence of Wrongdoing By Biden

In the closing days of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump has decided that the big issue dominating the minds of the American people is emails that Trump and Rudy Giuliani and the Republican Party have dubiously attributed to Joe Biden’s son. They aren’t worried about the coronavirus pandemic that is hitting record highs in infections and fatalities, or the unemployment rate, or passing a relief bill.

Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

In their desperation to find a way to dig out of the electoral ditch they dug for themselves, the Trump regime is reprising the phony email scandal that they fabricated about Hillary Clinton four years ago. What they haven’t figured out yet is that 2020 is not 2016. And their efforts are falling flat.

A prime example of that is the interview that aired Sunday morning on Fox News Sunday. Host Chris Wallace questioned the chair of the Republican Party, Ronna McDaniel, about the manufactured controversy surrounding a laptop that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden. There are numerous flaws in this story that was first brought to light by the star of the new Borat movie, (and Trump’s personal attorney) Rudy Giuliani. During the interview there was an exchange wherein McDaniel was forced to admit that she had zero evidence of any wrongdoing by either of the Bidens (video below):

Wallace: I want to ask you one question. Do you have any proof – because he’s denied it – do you have any proof that Joe Biden ever took one penny from either a foreign country or a foreign company?
McDaniel: I think that’s incumbent upon the press to start investigating. I think what’s frightening is we should have a free and fair press that should be looking at a laptop that has not been disputed by the Biden campaign to be authentic. These emails are deeply troubling as it looks like Hunter Biden is negotiating with a Chinese energy company to profit, not just for himself, but for his father. But it warrants an investigation. That’s not my job. That’s the press’ job. That’s the FBI, those who have this laptop to look into it.

Actually, It is not the job of the press to validate wild and unsubstantiated allegations by partisan political hacks. McDaniel shouldn’t be making these charges if she admittedly has no evidence to support them. McDaniel says that it’s the duty of “those who have this laptop to look into it.” Well, Giuliani has the laptop and hasn’t provided any evidence. The FBI has it and they haven’t found anything either. And if McDaniel wants the press to investigate the laptop, why doesn’t she get Giuliani to give it to them so they can do so? Is she afraid that it will come out that there isn’t any evidence of wrongdoing? Wallace also addressed the the FBI’s role:

Wallace: The FBI has had the hard drive since December. Why haven’t they come up with any evidence?”
McDaniel: I don’t know! I’m not in the internal aspects of that investigation. But what’s more disturbing, Chris, is Twitter is censoring these stories. The press is saying this has been debunked without even investigating it. Why are they doing that? Why are they covering for this story?

So first McDaniel insists that the FBI should be the source of any credible allegations. But when reminded that the FBI hasn’t found anything, she pivots to an imaginary and paranoid assertion that Twitter is censoring the story. Of course, Twitter can’t tell any news enterprise what to publish or broadcast. Her complaints just add more noise to the debate without shedding any light on it. She knows the press doesn’t have the laptop and that Giuliani won’t give it to them.

McDaniel is just stirring up dust to cloud the eyes of the ignorant Trump cult disciples who are desperate for something to cling to. That’s probably in her job description. But she isn’t doing it very well. If she can’t even give coherent answers to questions by Fox News, she really should just hang her head and slink away to nurse her shame. Expect more of these embarrassing failures from McDaniel and her confederates for at least the next week prior to election day.

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

Trump is Aiding and Abetting Russian Propaganda to Smear the Biden Family

There is a new “scandal” brewing in Trump World as they desperately search for a way dig Donald Trump out of his political abyss. The recent rash of feigned outrage stems from an interview by Senior Fox News Trump-fluffer, Maria Bartiromo. She gifted her platform to the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, a Trump appointee who has no experience in intelligence. And the the result was a made-for-State-TV segment intended to rescue a floundering campaign.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

The gist of the so-called scandal concerns a mysterious laptop computer that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden. The New York Post reported that it was left with a computer repair shop in Delaware where the owner claims to have found “incriminating” e-mails that he passed on to Rudy Giuliani and the FBI.

The whole story was rife with contradictions, unverifiable claims, and outright falsehoods. It was so bad that when Giuliani first brought it to Fox News, they declined to air it with sources saying that…

“…the lack of authentication of Hunter Biden’s alleged laptop, combined with established concerns about Giuliani as a reliable source and his desire for unvetted publication, led the network’s news division to pass.”

Fox anchor Bret Baier called the story “sketchy,” and Chris Wallace said it was “suspicious.” Nevertheless, the primetime Ministers of Trump Propaganda (Sean Hannity, et al) were more than happy to jump feet first into the bogus hit piece.

During the Bartiromo interview, Ratcliffe sought to rebut the debunking that threatened to defuse the budding scandal. He insisted that there was no evidence that the information about the laptop, and the data supposedly found on it, were the product of Russian disinformation. He blamed the allegation of Russian involvement on Rep. Adam Schiff, but in fact, it came from the FBI that is currently run by Trump appointee Chris Wray:

“Federal authorities are investigating whether a Russian influence operation was behind the disclosure of emails purporting to document the Ukrainian and Chinese business dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, a person briefed on the matter said Friday.

“The FBI’s examination is tied to the New York Post’s reporting this week on the contents of a computer hard drive it obtained from President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.”

What’s more, the associates who Giuliani relied on for his smear campaign have been positively identified as Russian intelligence operatives by Trump’s Treasury Department:

“Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, declared, ‘[Andriy ] Derkach and other Russian agents employ manipulation and deceit to attempt to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere around the world.’ Previously, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told Congress that Derkach is ‘spreading claims about corruption’ as part of the Kremlin’s effort to undermine Biden’s campaign. And he worked with Guliani to do so.”

The New York Post’s story has been the talk of the Trump Cult. Trump himself has tweeted about it repeatedly since its publication. He called it the “smoking gun” proof that Biden is “a corrupt politician,” and that it’s “the second biggest political scandal in our history!” But the actual reporters were less convinced by the material they had assembled themselves. They wouldn’t even allow the Post to attach their names to the story:

“On Sunday night, the New York Times reported that the New York Post had a difficult time finding a reporter to put their byline on the story amidst internal concerns about its dubious sourcing. The Times reported that the staff writer who mostly wrote the story, Bruce Golding, refused put his name on the report because he doubted its credibility.” […]

“The story’s bylines eventually went to Emma-Jo Morris, a former associate producer on Fox News show Hannity, who joined the Post as an editor this year and had yet to publish a story with her byline, and Gabrielle Fonrouge, a Post reporter since 2014. According to the Times, Fonrouge only learned her name was on the story after it was published.”

So this story is so untrustworthy that its own authors don’t believe it. It is filled with contradictions and implausible allegations that were sourced to Russian intelligence operatives. And this is what Trump and Fox News and the rest of the Confederacy of Deplorables thinks will bring about the end of Joe Biden. But it isn’t quite working out that way. In fact, they’re about to learn something about how the boomerang effect works.

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

Trump is Lying About – and Trying to Manipulate – the Presidential Debates

Apparently it hasn’t been enough for Donald Trump to rail maniacally about voting by mail. Or to attack his own medical experts for truthfully warning about the worsening coronavirus pandemic. Or to threaten to ban TikTok, a Twitter app that sometimes hosts messages that are critical of Trump. Or to whine incessantly about Fox News (aka State TV) when they aren’t sufficiently worshipful.

Trump Fear

Nope. It has not been nearly enough to satiate Trump’s massive and fragile ego. Now he is turning his wrath on the Commission on Presidential Debates, the independent, non-partisan organization that has been producing these general election encounters for almost fifty years. True to form, Trump cannot enter into any activity without angrily stomping his bone spurred feet until he gets the undeserved attention demanded by his addled-brain, malignant narcissism. Consequently, Trump took to his Twitter machine to bellow…

In order to give his imperious grumbling some additional oomph, Trump dispatched his equally schizoid personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to fire off an urgent missive to the Commission with a set of utterly irrational, albeit self-serving, requests. However, it’s hard to take seriously a plea that opens and closes with a disparaging remark about Joe Biden finally being, “available to leave his basement for the fall debates.” Stay Classy, Rudy.

Giuliani’s letter sought to change the terms of the already agreed upon debate schedule to add another meeting between Trump and Biden in early September because…

“By the time of the first presidential debate … as many as eight million Americans in 16 states will have already started voting. [Giuliani claimed to want to] avoid having millions of Americans disenfranchised by not being able to see and hear the two major party candidates debate before they have ballots in-hand.”

For Giuliani and Trump, or any Republican, to complain about disenfranchising voters after having gutted the Voting Rights Act, and worked so hard to eliminate early and weekend voting, close polling places, purge registration rolls, and draw preposterously gerrymandered districts, is Olympic-grade hypocrisy.

There is, however, a notable logical fissure in Giuliani’s demands. The vast majority of the states don’t allow for any voting prior to the first debate, which will be held on September 29. And the few that do provide ballots before then, do not require that they be returned until election day. Which means any voter who receives a ballot can simply hold onto it until after any or all of the debates before making their decisions and mailing it in. Although it is best to return ballots as soon as possible to facilitate tabulation, it is not required.

What’s more, voters this year are particularly committed to their presidential preference already. According to a recent poll by CBS News, most voters say that they “strongly support their candidate” (77% of Trump supporters / 74% of Biden supporters). Nine in ten say they would never consider the other candidate. So barring a catastrophic meltdown, the debates may not have much influence over the election outcome. And by all appearances, it’s Trump who would be most susceptible to the meltdown scenario.

In addition to Trump’s ludicrous scheduling alterations, he also weighed in on who he thinks should moderate the debates. Note that the candidates have never selected the moderators for these debates in the past. And the reason for that is perfectly illustrated in Trump’s ultra-partisan list of preferred moderators. Out of 24, nine of them are from Fox News, including notorious Trump-fluffers like Maria Bartiromo. The list also includes some shameless bootlickers from the New York Post, Christian Broadcasting Network, and the Wall Street Journal.

The Commission sent Giuliani their response that can be summarized as a big “NO” on every count. Surely Trump will regard that as a personal slight and throw a Twitter tantrum casting himself as the victim of a “Deep State” plot to destroy him. Because, sadly, that’s what we’ve all come to expect from the Crybaby-in-Chief. But his infantile tactics won’t help him get his way this time. And his well-founded fear of being humiliated is driving him to ever more deranged outbursts, such as…

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

Wannabe Dictator Trump’s Campaign to Persecute His Political Rivals is Revealed on Fox News

It didn’t take Donald Trump long to convert his impeachment into what his diseased brain thinks is a plus for him. Deep down he knows that he’s been severely wounded and tainted for life. That’s evident by how obsessed he is with denying it. But he is now transferring his fear and desperation into a dangerous assault on American values and liberty.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

Less than forty-eight hours after the Republican majority in the Senate voted to let Trump off and cover up his crimes, Trump began a purge of the witnesses who were courageous and honest enough to tell the truth about him. He fired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother, as well as the Ambassador to the E.U., Gordon Sondland. He’s in discussion now to fire the intelligence community Inspector General. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

One of the most loyal StormTrumpers in Congress is Sen. Lindsey Graham. Never mind that he once said that Trump is “a kook, crazy, and unfit for office.” Today Graham is another glassy-eyed disciple of the Cult of Trump. And he visited with Fox News Trump-fluffer Jeanine Pirro for a mutual worship session on Saturday night where he revealed the totalitarian aspirations of Trump and where it’s headed next.

Graham: Half the people behind the Russia investigation are gonna go to jail.
Pirro: Hopefully.
Graham: Well, just hang tight.

These are the sort of threats that plague the tyrannies that Trump so admires. Places like North Korea, China, and Russia. Now Graham is admitting that he and Trump will be implementing those policies here in the U.S. And it isn’t just Graham speaking out of turn. Trump is saying the very same things, and touting his partnership with Graham and the Senate Republicans:

What’s more, Graham’s appearance on Face the Nation included his assertion that there is an existing process by which Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is funneling dirt on Joe Biden to Trump’s Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr:

Graham: The Department of Justice is receiving information coming out of Ukraine from Rudy … He told me that they had created a process where Rudy could give information and they would see if it’s verified.

To be perfectly clear, this is not a normal means of investigating possible criminal activity. Private attorneys do not work with federal prosecutors to collect and analyze alleged evidence. This is how totalitarian rulers engage their surrogates to suppress opposition and stoke fear into anyone that might consider being critical or even independent.

This is obviously Trump’s intention. It’s what he has been doing all along. It’s why he partners with the likes of Giuliani, Parnas, Fruman, etc. It’s why he attempted to extort the president of Ukraine. It’s what led to the ousters of everyone from Jeff Sessions to Gen. John Kelly to John Bolton, and so many more. It’s a mob style presidency that believes it can only survive via intimidation and punishment. And it’s why it is still so urgent that Trump be removed from office before he causes even more harm.

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

Sean Hannity and Fox News are Up to Their Hair Plugs in the Lev Parnas Affair

With each new day there are new and damning revelations affirming Donald Trump’s criminal behavior related to Ukraine and efforts to manufacture dirt on Joe Biden and subvert the 2020 election. The latest bombshells come from Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, whose nefarious activities include extorting Ukrainian President Zelensky and surveilling former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovich.

Fox News Sean Hannity

Parnas was interviewed on MSNBC Wednesday by Rachel Maddow in a wide ranging discussion that made it clear that Trump “knew exactly what was going on” and was lying about his feigned ignorance of Parnas and his mission. But the evidence of Trump’s guilt is abundant. Also interesting is the evidence of Hannity’s guilt, and that of Fox News.

Proof is emerging of Hannity’s relationship with the Giuliani Crew. Hannity himself is in bed with Parnas. They have had communications that resulted in Hannity tweeting about bogus allegations of Ukrainian interference in the U.S. election to help Hillary Clinton. That tweet was deleted, but remains archived. Trump, however, didn’t delete his subsequent tweet promoting Hannity’s story on the subject that same night. Likewise, The Giuliani Crew also communicated with Don Trump Jr, who posted a tweet attacking Yovanovich. So their is an unbroken chain of propaganda circling around between Trump, Giuliani, his Ukraine mob, Fox News, and back to Trump and his crime family.

What’s more, Parnas had much to share about the complicity of Fox News in Trump’s plot to coerce Zelensky into helping him smear Biden. The Giuliani team worked with right-wing author John Solomon to disseminate their lies. At the time Solomon worked for The Hill, but is now employed by Fox News. So naturally Hannity unleashed a furious assault on Parnas and the network that hosted him. Hannity’s rage was so intense that he lapsed into the sort of incoherent outbursts you might hear from a paranoid schizophrenic on a street corner shouting at passing cars (video below). He began…

“Yesterday, last-ditch effort, Hail Mary, smear job, yup the congenital liar attached new documents to the articles of impeachment. Including so-called evidence from a former Giuliani contact. Oh by the way on conspiracy TV. The guy is facing federal charges from the Southern District of New York. You don’t really want to mess with those people.”

Did you follow that? Apparently Hannity is upset that new incriminating evidence about Trump has come out. But he can’t rebut any of it, so he unloads a barrage of nasty adjectives. He glosses over the fact that Parnas is working with Trump’s lawyer, but hones in on his having been indicted. And while Hannity is adamant that that’s a problem for Parnas, it doesn’t seem to be a problem for other Trump comrades who are under indictment or already convicted, including his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his national security adviser Michael Flynn, his personal attorney Michael Cohen, and his fixer Roger Stone. Hannity continued…

“So [Parnas] goes right to state-run MSDNC conspiracy channel media. Keep in mind when people like him, trying to stay out of jail, think about this, how many times have we heard from the liberals ‘oh you can’t waterboard, or use enhanced interrogation because people will say anything, they’ll lie to make it end.’ Well people trying to stay out of jail, in my humble opinion, they’ll say anything.”

Now Hannity thinks that MSNBC is “state-run” media. You have to wonder what state Hannity thinks that it’s being run out of. It must be the “Deep State.” And it’s cute that Hannity is trying to connect an indicted defendant giving testimony to waterboarding. No one has tortured Parnas. He is simply doing what many defendants do when faced with prosecution. He’s turning state’s evidence. That’s a voluntary action to secure a lighter sentence. And it does not have the pitfalls of torture, where victims will indeed say anything to make it stop. A defendant providing testimony must tell the truth or any agreement made with prosecutors is null and void.

However, Hannity’s description of defendants saying anything to stay out of jail actually fits Trump much better. After all, he is known to be a pathological liar anyway. And he doesn’t have any agreement with prosecutors to worry about voiding. He’s lying through his capped teeth to avoid prison. And he clearly doesn’t care what he says, or how ludicrous the lie, if he thinks it will either deflect from his guilt or help him to evade accountability. The whole lot of them are neck deep in criminal behavior. And if more disclosures like those Parnas is serving up come to pass, they are all going to be sharing a cell block.

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

Even Lindsey Graham is Spooked By Trump Shill Rudy Giuliani’s Russian Propaganda

Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has recently been gallivanting around the globe in an effort to dig up dirt on a potential Trump election opponent, Joe Biden. In a normal world (remember that?), that’s not the job of a lawyer who is supposedly defending Trump on charges related to his impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump

Then again, Giuliani is bumbling his way through criminal allegations of his own and threatening to sue Fox News, so perhaps he doesn’t have sufficient time to devote to his Client-in-Chief.

The fact of the matter is that neither Giuliani, nor Trump’s apologists in politics or the press, have bothered to address the substance of the charges against him. They are all attacking the process or pointing fingers at people who have nothing to do with why Trump was impeached. And much of their focus has been on preposterous and thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories concocted by Russian operatives. Consequently, when Giuliani returned to Washington, he wasn’t exactly greeted with open arms. According to the Daily Beast:

“In the weeks leading up to their impeachment trial, senators on Capitol Hill are actively avoiding meeting with President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani — partly because they fear he might try to pass off Russian conspiracy theories as fact, according to interviews with more than half a dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers and aides. […] various lawmakers, as well as administration officials and national security brass, have privately expressed concerns about Giuliani’s latest Ukraine jaunt, given that the Trump lawyer’s efforts are what helped create this Ukraine scandal and get the president impeached in the first place.”

Indeed, Giuliani may have been the acorn that grew into the mighty oak of Trump’s criminality. At the very least, Giuliani was watering the seedling every time he appeared on Fox News making statements that further incriminated Trump. The Daily Beast interviewed several Senate sources from both parties who indicated an aversion to dealing with Giuliani, whose credibility they said was suspect. Even White House sources were reticent to deal with Giuliani for fear of being caught up in his crackpot schemes. But surprisingly, one of Trump’s most devoted fluffers, Lindsey Graham, is also putting distance between himself and Trump’s lawyer:

“My advice to Giuliani would be to share what he got from Ukraine with the IC [intelligence community] to make sure it’s not Russia propaganda. I’m very suspicious of what the Russians are up to all over the world.”

That’s right. Trump’s sentinel in the Senate can’t be sure whether Trump’s attorney is a Russian asset. If Graham doesn’t trust Giuliani, then why should anyone else? Particularly those in the media who keep inviting him on to disseminate the propaganda of hostile foreign adversaries. There appears to be a consensus that Giuliani is – as John Bolton said“a hand grenade who is going to blow everybody up.” And yet, Trump himself is totally reliant on Giuliani and his unique brand of lunacy. It must true what they say about birds of feather.

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

Snowflake Giuliani Lashes Out at Fox News with Bizarre Lawsuit Threat

While the nation is focused intensely on the impeachment of Donald Trump, his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is struggling with issues of his own. And it isn’t just that he’s the subject of three criminal investigations that have the potential to put in prison for the rest of his life. Giuliani is now at war with one of his primary client’s staunchest defenders – Fox News.

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump

Steve hilton is a weekend host on Fox News and one of the most eager Trump-fluffers on a network crawling them. Trump frequently posts video clips of Hilton’s drooling homages to Trump on Twitter. He’s done so twenty-two times this year. And each one of them show Hilton delivering glassy-eyed, pro-Trump monologues and discussions with equally adoring Trump sycophants. (Posted below is an example of a recent one, if you have the stomach for it).

Which makes Giuliani’s latest outrage seem all the more preposterous. Rudy lashed out at Hilton for remarks he made that were indeed somewhat less than flattering. The comments came even as Trump himself was gingerly trying to put some distance between himself and his smarmy lawyer whose dealings with Ukraine are being scrutinized by the feds. Hilton said in part that…

“There’s a swamp going on with the commercial interest of Rudy Giuliani… He’s going around trying to make business deals out of the Ukraine situation, at the same time as acting for his client, President Trump. He’s trying to make money off his relationship with President Trump.”

When Trump was asked about these matters, he told reporters that they would have to “talk to Rudy.” Which is a typical dodge that Trump uses when he’s about to shove someone under an oncoming bus. Hilton’s commentary actually contained some pretty tame criticisms for behavior that could possibly make Giuliani a felon. But Giuliani can hardly attack Trump, so went after Hilton instead:

So Rudy is considering suing Fox News? That would be interesting. How would Trump’s State TV network respond to being sued by his personal attorney? Could Trump continue to appear on Fox while his lawyer is suing them? And you have to wonder what lawyers Giuliani was referring to as having advised him that he could sue Fox. After all, he is a lawyer himself who is often on Fox. And his closest legal associates are, like him, TV lawyers who have little litigation experience. They are people like Mark Levin and Gregg Jarrett and Jay Sekulow – all regulars on Fox News, the network that is the target of Giuliani’s litigation threat.

Time will tell where this goes. In all likelihood Giuliani will forget about it before long. Like his easily triggered client, Giuliani is prone to lunatic outbursts in the heat of anger. But they rarely lead to anything, because they rarely have any substance behind them. Still, the circular firing squad formation that forms among these toy soldiers is fun to watch.

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