GOP Debate Affirms It’s a Pro-Criminal Trump Cult that Wants to Put a Felon in the White House

Posted by Mark NC on August 24, 2023 at 12:09 pm. 4 Comments :

The first debate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president is in the can. And it lived down to most of the expectations that people had for the roster of groveling also-rans who were mostly too scared and weak to challenge the party’s frontrunner, Donald Trump.

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The debate began inauspiciously with a probing question about the government’s coverup of UFOs. Thank goodness Fox News has the courage to broach the issues that are uppermost in the minds of the American people. And from there the affair descended into whiny squabbles and attempts by the participants to ingratiate themselves to the most notorious non-participant.

SEE THIS: Trump Chickens Out of the Fox News GOP Debate, Will Be Fluffed By Tucker Carlson Instead

Perhaps the most notable moment in the two hour snoozer was when the moderators sought to interject some Trumpiness into the discussion. They did this with a tangential reference to Trump’s legal tribulations. While it was encouraging that they raised the subject at all, they did so in manner that didn’t promote discussion of Trump’s crimes, but merely the other candidates’ political reactions to them.

Bret Baier: We’re all going to take a brief moment and talk about the elephant not in the room.
Martha MacCallum: Former president Trump was indicted in four different states on 91 counts. He will be processed tomorrow in Georgia at the Fulton County jail for charges related to the 2020 election.
Baier: You all signed a pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee. If former President Trump is convicted in a court of law, would you still support him as your party’s choice.

This is the pro-criminal GOP.

Everyone except Christie and Hutchinson said they would support Trump for President.

And to be clear, the question wasn't would they support him if he's the nominee, but would they support him if he's convicted by a jury of crimes against America? https://t.co/Srx1w1VBC5

— News Corpse (@NewsCorpse) August 24, 2023

It’s important to note that the question was not simply whether they would support
Trump if were the nominee. It was if they would support him even if were convicted of crimes ranging from sexual harassment and rape, falsifying financial records, stealing and hoarding classified documents (and lying to the FBI about it), interfering with an election, and staging a violent coup.

Six of the eight candidates raised their hands indicating that they would indeed support Trump, even after he was found guilty by a jury of his peers. The only holdouts were Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson. What this tells us is that most of the Republican Party is a pro-criminal organization that is comfortable with putting a recidivist and unrepentant felon in the White House.

Presumably, these wankers hold that position because they believe it is what the base of their party wants. They are desperately afraid of offending any of Trump’s cult followers. However, they might want to check with recent polling to see if their analyses are aligned with reality. For instance…

“The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 45 percent of Republicans said they would not vote for Trump if he were convicted, while 35 percent said they would still cast their ballot for the former president. Another 20 percent said they were unsure of how they would vote.”

So a significant majority (65%) say that they would not vote for a convicted Trump, or are not sure. Meanwhile, Trump is hanging on to the same 30-something percent of dead-enders that he has had for months. And it’s on the “strength” of that public “support” that most of the GOP candidates are committing to back Trump, even if he’s running from prison. That message should be spread generously throughout the upcoming campaign, whether or not Trump is convicted or has even come to trial. Because it still represents their views embracing criminals.

For his part, Trump is busy campaigning on his failing social media scam, Truth Social, where he has posted 45 comments Thursday (so far). He was pretending to spend Wednesday night during the debate being interviewed by Tucker Carlson, but that was actually pre-taped days before.

The content of the interview was ridiculous in the extreme. They spent much of their time delving into critical matters such as whether his pedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein was murdered, his opinion on the possibility of his StormTrumpers starting a civil war, the prospects his being assassinated, and the tragic consequences of low water pressure. And based on that, it really was a shame that he didn’t participate in the debate so he could address those issues before the nation. Nevertheless, in typical Trumpian fashion, he’s bragging (lying) that he and Tucker won the night…

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These facts about TV ratings and Twitter views won't stop Trump and his cult from insisting (lying) that they won the night. https://t.co/hw4yiE7O92

— News Corpse (@NewsCorpse) August 24, 2023

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Trump Chickens Out of the Fox News GOP Debate, Will Be Fluffed By Tucker Carlson Instead

Posted by Mark NC on August 18, 2023 at 1:30 pm. 5 Comments :

The first debate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president will be televised on August 23, on Fox News. It is sure to be rip-snoring affair with the likes of Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Tim Scott providing the GOP juice. Only Chris Christie is likely to wake the audience up from time to time.

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A major disappointment for Fox News and the Republican National Committee, who are sponsoring the debate, is the news that Donald Trump will not be participating. They made a full court press to persuade the former guy to play along, even jetting down to Mar-a-Lago for in-person begging. All to no avail as Trump is now reported to have officially bowed out. Although it was fairly predictable considering Trump’s animosity toward his GOP challengers, and even more so, toward Fox News…

SEE THIS: Trump Goes on Psycho-Rant Accusing Fox News of Sabotaging Him with Bad Pictures and Polls

Consequently, Trump has decided to take a stab at upstaging the debate by scheduling an interview with ex-Fox News Trump-fluffer, Tucker Carlson, at the same time. It’s his way of chickening out of having to address his four criminal indictments and 90+ felony counts. However, this feeble attempt at counter-programming is a strategy that’s likely to fail since Carlson’s reach on his new Twitter “show” has been sinking like a stone. And to make matters worse, he has received a “cease and desist” letter from Fox News asserting that he is in breach of his contract.

Undeterred, Trump and Carlson are pressing forward with their political performance. Rest assured that Trump’s legal problems will not be covered in any substantive way. They will both babble about weaponized justice, corrupt prosecutors, and election interference. It will be interesting to see how they try to pretend that they got more viewers than the Fox News debate, even though “views” on Twitter are counted when anyone just scrolls past a video without watching it all.

It’s not as if anyone would be compelled to sit through a Trump/Carlson interview because something unexpected or newsworthy might happen. The whole program could be summarized beforehand as being filled with friendly or leading questions, and tediously incoherent replies that are unrelated to reality. In short, Carlson will suck up, and Trump will dodge and lie.

Meanwhile, over on Fox News, the rest of the GOP roster will be struggling to grab some attention without offending Dear Leader Trump in absentia. They will take some swipes at each other, while tip-toeing around the orange elephant that isn’t in the room. Except for Christie, who will be spitting into the windbags surrounding him, and getting booed by the in-studio audience of Trump cultists. But at least he will offer some dramatic friction.

I’m going to predict that neither Trump’s cavorting with Carlson, nor Fox’s formal fare, will break any records for viewership. There really isn’t much need for anyone to watch either live. America can catch up on what happened in post-program soundbites, that will probably still be too long and dull. The nation already knows what they will say, because they’ve said it all before. And wasn’t of any importance the first (or fiftieth) time.

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HUH? Mike Pence Thanks Tucker Carlson for ‘Bringing Facts to the American People’ About Jan 6th

Posted by Mark NC on July 14, 2023 at 3:48 pm. 7 Comments :

As the 2024 Republican primary season unfolds, the roster of candidates reflects just how radically the party has devolved into a bastion of lies, conspiracy theories, and the autocratic aspirations of Donald Trump and his heroes, such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un.

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The polls show that there hasn’t been much movement in the race in weeks. Trump remains the messiah of the MAGA GOP, with Ron DeSantis trailing by 20 or 30 points or more, and everyone else in single digits. Consequently, Trump has directed his wrath at DeSantis and allowed the rest of the pack to flounder. He knows that the more non-Trump contestants in the race, the more that support for DeSantis is diluted.

Among the Republican hopeless is Trump’s own former vice-president, Mike Pence. He is the only candidate that Trump sought to have executed by the hostile mob that tried to stage a coup on January 6th. And while Pence occasionally makes a meager effort to call out Trump for that attempted assassination, he still often behaves as if nothing untoward happened that day.

That was the situation on Friday when Pence sat down with the disgraced former Fox News propagandist, Tucker Carlson. It was one of a series of interviews that Carlson is holding with most of the Republican candidates. In a gesture of predictable cowardice, Trump has declined to participate. Just as he is expected to chicken out of the August GOP debate sponsored by Fox News.

During the Pence interview, Carlson brought up the January 6th insurrection, asking Pence what he thought the hostile unrest was all about…

Carlson: Why do you think the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th were mad? And why haven’t we talked about that?
Pence: First off I would tell you that I think the January 6th committee was a partisan committee in the Congress of the United States. And it failed its historic mission of bringing the facts forward. And I know your commitment to bringing all the facts to the American people, Tucker. And I know we’re grateful for that.

Carlson: “Why do you think the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 were mad? And why haven’t we talked about that?”

Pence: “I would tell you that I think the Jan. 6 committee was a partisan committee…And it failed its historic mission of bringing the facts forward.” pic.twitter.com/Sesr8UGuCe

— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) July 14, 2023

WHUT? Never mind that Pence utterly ignored the question, despite the answer being so simple (The rioters were mad that their cult leader lost, and that has been talked about frequently). And set aside the fact the the January 6th Committee was a thorough, bipartisan probe of the facts surrounding the insurrection and Trump’s role in inciting it.

More to the point, Pence’s up-sucking to Carlson is a pitiful display of his desperation. The bizarre assertion that Carlson had a “commitment to bringing all the facts to the American people” is belied by the evidence of his flagrant lying about the matter for the past two years.

It was Carlson who repeatedly disseminated disinformation about January 6th that characterized the insurrection as either a “false flag” operation orchestrated by the FBI, or as nothing more than ordinary tourists on a sightseeing trip at the Capitol. He got GOP House Squeaker Kevin McCarthy to give him sole access to 40,000 hours of surveillance videos, of which he aired only a few minutes, and only parts where literally nothing was happening. He left out all of the assaults on police officers, the breaking through doors and windows, the vandalizing of property, and the terrorizing of congressional representatives and staff.

Carlson and Fox News are currently being sued for defamation by Ray Epps, a Trump supporter who attended the January 6th riot, who Carlson falsely accused of being an undercover FBI agent tasked with instigating violence.

Following his outpouring of gratitude for Carlson, Pence complained that the January 6th Committee spent too much time investigating Donald Trump and his incitement of the violent insurrection, rather than the the failures of law enforcement to predict and respond to the riots. Of course, it was Trump and his administration that was responsible for the policing of the Capitol. Pence has apparently forgotten his prior acknowledgement of Trump’s culpability when he said that…

“President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election, and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day. And I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable for his actions.”

Pence has also previously condemned what took place on January 6th, and therefore, Carlson’s dishonest narratives about it. Speaking at a Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, Pence said that…

“January 6th was a tragic day. I was there at the Capitol, and let me assure you it was not, as some would have us believe, a matter of tourists peacefully enjoying our Capitol. Tourists don’t injure 140 police officers by sightseeing. Tourists don’t break down doors to get to the Speaker of the House. Or voice threats against public officials. […] Make no mistake about it — what happened that day was a disgrace and it mocks decency to portray it in any other way.”

Yet somehow, Pence is “grateful” to Carlson for “bringing the facts to the American people”? No one has lied more about January 6th than Tucker Carlson.

If Pence thinks that this is the sort of campaign message that will thrust him to the front of the pack, he must be so severely traumatized by his near death experience on January 6th – and his long proximity to Donald Trump – that he has lost any connection to reality. But then, that’s a common problem with the current batch of GOP presidential candidates, and moreover, today’s Trumpian Republican Party.

Tucker Carlson Disgorges a Wildly Incoherent and Hostile Anti-Biden and Anti-Democracy Diatribe

Posted by Mark NC on June 28, 2023 at 12:31 pm. 2 Comments :

Ever since Tucker Carlson was banished from his perch at Fox News, he has been posting irregular tirades on Twitter to satisfy his egomaniacal thirst for attention and influence over his glassy-eyed disciples of wanton wingnuttery.

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Carlson’s Twantrums have been mostly venting the same hatred and division that he unloaded nightly at Fox News. It’s just that now he’s doing it for a smaller and even more deranged audience. Although he continues to fail in his attempts to form logical analyses or plausible arguments.

Carlson began his latest rambling harangue (video here if you can stomach it) by questioning the reasons for the U.S. support of Ukraine. He mocked any suggestion that it might be because it’s an unprovoked, imperialistic aggression by Russia and its war criminal leader, and Carlson hero, Vladimir Putin – who Carlson as been literally rooting for from beginning of the conflict. Carlson callously dismissed the notion that the U.S. and much of the Western world are defending democracy and the territorial sovereignty of a peaceful ally.

Carlson goes on to play clips of Democrats and Republicans declaring their support for Ukraine. His point was that this bipartisan unity on behalf of democracy is something despicable. In the process, Carlson insulted Nancy Pelosi as “the daughter of the mobbed up mayor of Baltimore.” He made the obtuse argument that fighting to defend the democracy of an ally is pointless and without merit, saying that…

“Without Ukrainian democracy, in other words, we can have no democracy here. If the Ukrainians aren’t free, neither are we. We must make sure they can vote in Kiev so we can continue to vote in Kansas City.”

Carlson has no comprehension of the global commitment to freedom and the solidarity among free nations against tyrannical empires. His position would negate the usefulness on the United Nations, NATO, or any other agreement between aligned countries. He then attempts to malign Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as anti-democratic because Ukraine is postponing an election while it is being assaulted by Russian armies and bombarded by Russian missiles. Carlson portrays that decision as Zelenskyy imposing his personal will in order to oppress his people.

And this is where Carlson predictably turns to smearing President Biden. In an inexplicable segue, Carlson refers to a recent right-wing talking point about Hunter Biden saying that…

“Last week a whistleblower produced WhatsApp messages from Hunter Biden proving that at the very least his father knew about his influence peddling businesses abroad and probably participated in them.”

Despite the fact that there is no confirmation that any of that is true, Carlson calls it a “smoking gun.” He states as fact that Hunter’s message proves that “Joe Biden was in the room with his son when his son was selling influence to an enemy power, the Chinese government.” Of course, it proves nothing of the sort. It’s just an unconfirmed report of alleged comments, made by a drug-addict who was desperate for funds, that has been spread by Republican shills like Carlson. Their promises to provide corroborating evidence have gone unfulfilled.

SEE THIS: HOW CONVENIENT: GOP Oversight Committee Chair Says He Can’t Find His Star Witness Against Biden

What this has to do with the war in Ukraine is anyone’s guess. But Carlson’s non sequiturs are just beginning. He follows this up with an attack on Biden’s age and on Vice-President Kamala Harris. He derides Biden’s mental acuity saying that…

“People imagine that old age is a long predictable progression from Acuity to permanent unconsciousness but often that’s not at all how it actually works. When old people start to slide they tend to slide fast. Joe Biden has begun that descent.”

To support that phony medical analysis, Carlson plays a video clip of Biden telling a story in which he included a quote. Biden ended that portion of the story by noting the end of the quoted portion. But to Carlson, Biden was exhibiting dementia by simply saying “End of quote.” Carlson suggested that Biden was improperly reading the stage directions off of the TelePrompTer. Of course, it’s common when speaking to verbally say “quote” and “unquote” when reciting comments by others. But to Carlson it means that Biden “in a year or two he will be gone completely.” And to Carlson, this would be disastrous because…

“If Joe Biden is re-elected next year and then forced to leave office during his term due to disability or death that means Kamala Harris will become president of the United States and nobody wants that, not even her husband. In real life nobody likes Kamala Harris.”

Carlson seems to think he knows what every American wants. Never mind that the American people voted for the Biden/Harris ticket and they favor it currently over an anticipated contest against the 77 year-old Donald Trump and whatever bootlicker he selects as his running mate. But Carlson knows better than the voters. He then puts on his prognosticators caps and predicts that Biden won’t be a candidate in 2024 at all. Contradicting his charge that Biden is sinking into senility, he claims that he will be replaced by a strategic mastermind – someone who is as…

“…ruthless and transactional as Joe Biden is. And he’ll need to have flattery skills that are so polished and advanced they’d be considered superior even in the Saudi Royal Court. And there’s only one man in modern America who fits that description. Gavin Newsom the governor of California.”

Carlson criticized Newsom for having the audacity to support and praise Biden, the leader of his party and the nation. But in closing Carlson described Newsom in Satanic terms as having a “forked tongue.” Then bizarrely added that “If you’re looking for the leader of the coup, there he is right there.” So in Carlson’s twisted mind, Newsom is both adoring of Biden and plotting to overthrow him. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

With the latest episode of his Twitter show, Carlson reestablishes himself as the right’s biggest pseudo-intellectual poser. His arguments are tedious and devoid of all meaning. His demeanor is repulsive and arrogant. And in order to humiliate himself like this, he is risking losing millions of dollars still owed to him by Fox News. The network is threatening to sue him for breach of contract by violating his non-compete clause. They could save themselves the trouble and just watch him burn himself out.

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A Primer on Jesse Watters Who is Replacing Former Fox News White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson

Posted by Mark NC on June 26, 2023 at 1:52 pm. 3 Comments :

In April fox News suddenly, and without explanation, fired their top rated primetime host, Tucker Carlson. His pink slip came within days of the $787 million settlement that Fox agreed to pay to Dominion Voting Systems for defamation and lying about nonexistent election fraud.

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Although neither Fox nor Carlson connected the two events, it is hard to imagine that they weren’t related. After all, Carlson’s private communications were revealed in texts and emails that showed him viciously disparaging Donald Trump, as well as his Fox News colleagues and bosses.

SEE THIS: In Dominion v Fox News, Network Cries ‘We Can’t Make People Think We’ve Turned Against Trump’

Now, after two months and a series of on-air auditions, Fox News has announced that they have chosen Jesse Watters to replace Carlson. It’s sign of weakness that they are relying on Watters, and his fellow Fox Newsers (Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Greg Gutfeld) to rescue the network despite their historically low ratings. According to their competition at CNN…

“Fox News on Monday unveiled a revamped prime-time lineup, naming a new 8 pm host to fill the void left by Tucker Carlson’s firing and shuffling its biggest stars around to boost sagging ratings as viewers rebel to protest the popular host’s dismissal.

“The right-wing network announced that Laura Ingraham will helm its 7 pm hour; Jesse Watters will move to 8 pm; Sean Hannity will remain at 9 pm; Greg Gutfeld will slide an hour earlier to 10 pm; and Trace Gallagher will anchor 11 pm.

“The new schedule — made up almost entirely of hosts who have grown in popularity by feeding their loyal conservative audience a mixture of right-wing talking points, outrage and misinformation — will take effect on July 17.”

Jesse Watters is best known for his creepy stalking of women reporters – including some at Fox News – and for advocating shooting Dr. Anthony Fauci, telling his listeners to seek out Dr. Fauci in public and, when they find him, to confront him aggressively saying, “Now you go in with the kill shot. […and tell him…] You know why people don’t trust you, don’t you? BOOM! He is dead.

For the record, what follows is a primer of the repugnant programs that Watters has presented. It provides a clear picture of what to expect in the future.

Be prepared for more of the same lies and overt hostility as Watters takes Carlson’s place. [See Media Matters for more of Watters’ clownery] It is confirmation that Fox News has nothing else to offer their glassy-eyed viewers, and even after the Dominion debacle, they have no intention of pretending to be news enterprise. In other words, it’s monkey business as usual at Fox News.

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Where is Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson and Putin’s Puppets in the US Regarding the Russian Coup?

Posted by Mark NC on June 24, 2023 at 11:57 am. 2 Comments :

Nearly a year and a half ago, Russia invaded its peaceful neighbor, Ukraine, in a wholly unprovoked act of imperialistic aggression. Many of the “experts” at the time predicted that Russia would quickly prevail and Vladimir Putin would expand his tyrannical empire. But that isn’t exactly the way it has turned out. With the help of the United States and other Western allies, Ukraine has steadfastly held off Putin’s armies, although not without significant and painful losses.

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However, now Putin is battling not only Ukraine, but a mercenary force that he had recruited to fight on his behalf. The Wagner Group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, has turned on his Russian bosses and is marching toward Moscow in what appears to be an attempt to topple the Putin regime.

This is a complicated state of affairs. It’s difficult to know precisely what is going on as both sides are notoriously dishonest. And Prigozhin is a terrorist for hire who is no better than Putin. What we do know is that Prigozhin is undercutting Putin’s narrative about the war against Ukraine, and “has accused Moscow’s leadership of lying to the public about the justifications for invading Ukraine.”

All of this raises questions about the pro-Putin contingent in America. It’s a group that includes shameless shills in the Republican Party and on their Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. Most prominently the Putin faction features the likes of Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson. Both have fiercely defended Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and have argued for Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to surrender and give Russia everything that it wants. And both have been conspicuously silent since the coup effort began.

Early on Trump praised Putin as a “genius” for invading Ukraine. Among Trump’s other public adorations of Putin are…

Trump Claims to Have Magic Words that Will End Ukraine War in 24 Hours, But Won’t Tell Anyone
“[The war against Ukraine] would have never started had I been president. There was no chance of this war starting and, frankly, I don’t think Putin wanted to do it. I think he was sort of forced in by the statements being made by Biden.”

Blame America First: Trump Says if Putin Goes Nuclear in Ukraine ‘It’s Because of the U.S.’
“I’m reading somewhere that there’s at least a 40% chance that Putin will use nuclear weapons. How the hell did this happen? And it’s because of the United States.”

Trump’s ‘Solution’ to the War in Ukraine is to Appease Russia and Quash Any Criticism of Putin
“It doesn’t make sense that Russia and Ukraine aren’t sitting down and working out some kind of an agreement. If they don’t do it soon, there will be nothing left but death, destruction, and carnage.”

And as for Putin fanboy Tucker Carlson, who boasted explicitly that he is “rooting for Russia”…

Putin Puppet Tucker Carlson Spews Russian Propaganda in Defense of the Intelligence Leaker
“This is not Ukraine’s war. It’s our war. The United States is a direct combatant in a war against Russia. As we speak, American soldiers are fighting Russian soldiers.” (Which is totally false).

Fox News Senior Putin Apologist, Tucker Carlson, Pleads to Keep the Russian Dictator in Power
“will destroying the entire Russian economy make Putin less bad? [and] what happens to Russia after Vladimir Putin leaves?”

Tucker Carlson of Fox News Rattles Off His Ridiculous Reasons for Why You Shouldn’t Hate Putin
“It might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious: What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity? Does he eat dogs? These are fair questions. And the answer to all of them is ‘No.'”

Meanwhile, Republicans and Fox News are floating bizarre conspiracy theories that the coup was staged by President Biden to distract from the problems of his son, Hunter. Or that the U.S. is somehow orchestrating the coup to topple Putin. Either way it assumes an astonishing measure of backbone and strategic prowess by Biden, who the GOP regards as too senile to dress himself. Needless, to say, they have no evidence for any of their conspiracy mongering.

Perhaps a better conspiracy theory would be that Putin is staging the coup as a false flag to deflect from his military bungling in Ukraine. Or maybe he’s trying to help Trump by creating a diversion from his recent indictments and upcoming trials for obstructing justice and stealing and hoarding classified documents. Or it’s a plot to cover up his secret romantic interludes with Hillary Clinton at Moscow-a-Lagostan. Sure, it sounds crazy. but it’s no crazier than what the American Putinists are dreaming up.

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Tucker Carlson’s Attempt to Malign Biden as a ‘Wannabe Dictator’ Describes Trump Much Better

Posted by Mark NC on June 16, 2023 at 12:08 pm. 3 Comments :

On Tuesday afternoon, during the Fox News coverage of Donald Trump’s arrest and arraignment on a historic 37 felony count indictment, they aired a now infamous chyron that maligned President Biden in a particularly malicious manner. It read “WANNABE DICTATOR SPEAKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE AFTER HAVING HIS POLITICAL RIVAL ARRESTED.” Most of the reputable media castigated Fox for it’s unethical bias expressed in a childish insult. But not everyone was appropriately disgusted.

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Tucker Carlson apparently concurred and, in the fourth episode of his Twitter rant-cast, he delivered a full-throated defense of the repugnant message. He claimed that it was written and approved by a Fox News producer who was later fired by Fox secretly, so as not to further inflame Carlson’s hateful fans. And there is confirmation that the chyron wasn’t the work of a rogue intern, but was actually the former producer of Carlson’s own canceled Fox News program. Which may explain why Fox has been getting crushed in the ratings lately.

Carlson’s latest Twitter tirade (video here if you can stomach it) embraced the fallacious Fox framing of Biden. He disingenuously suggested that “You’ve gotta wonder, if you’re being honest with yourself, is Joe Biden a wannabe dictator?” Then he blatantly lied that Biden was “trying to put the other candidate [Trump] in prison for the rest of his life for a crime that he himself has committed.” Carlson is trying mightily to outdo the outrageousness of the previous episode of his Twitter screed.

Of course, Biden didn’t indict Trump. That was a citizen Grand Jury in Miami. Also, Biden never committed the crimes that Trump has been indicted for, and has even confessed to. Biden never withheld any documents from the FBI. He never lied to authorities about having them. He never shared them with others. He never attempted to move and hide them. He never tampered with witnesses. And he never defied a search warrant or subpoena.

Nevertheless, Carlson raged for 13 minutes over the assertion that Biden is an aspiring totalitarian tyrant. The only problem with his harangue is that it was a far better description of Trump than Biden. If no names were mentioned, most people would associate the following with Trump…

“It is not a small thing to become a wannabe dictator. It’s quite a process. There are a lot of steps. First off there is the money. The one thing that all dictators have in common is they enrich themselves and their families, their tribe, even as the countries they govern grow steadily poorer and more desperate. They take kickbacks from businesses and other dictators. They use the official functions of their governments to funnel cash to themselves. They don’t bother to hide the fruits of this. They live in garish mansions with big lawns far from the teeming cities.

And that was just for starters. Carlson plundered on saying that…

“If Joe Biden was a wannabe dictator he’d have the family to match. Saddam Hussein had Uday and Qusay.”
You mean like Eric and Don Jr?
“He doesn’t do photo-ops in mirrored sunglasses driving a sports car.”
No, just with his private jet, Trump Force One
“Joe Biden doesn’t award ridiculous, inflated titles to his relatives, that the media are then required to take seriously. He doesn’t call people ‘doctor’ who didn’t go to medical schools.”
Or make up fake Time Magazine covers?
“A dictator would stockpile ammunition for his own bureaucrats, including his tax collectors.”
And perhaps command private militias like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers?
“He’d define what attitudes they were allowed to have about sex, and religion, and how to raise their families.”
Like banning abortion, oppressing LGBTQ people, and forcing a warped version of Christianity?

Everything that Carlson is directing at Biden is patently false. For example, his reference to arming tax collectors relates to the fallacy that Biden’s budget called for 87,000 armed IRS agents. And his allusion to fake doctors is a dig at First Lady Jill Biden (which he has done before), who does, in fact, have a PHD.

Carlson is especially fond of attacking women. In this new video he complained that “the women who run the network panicked.” He’s probably angry with Fox’s CEO Suzanne Scott, who fired him. But for the record, most of those running Fox News are men, including it’s chairman, Lachlan Murdoch, its president, Jay Wallace, and ten of the twelve members of its executive management team.

It will be interesting to see how Fox News responds to this latest Carlson video. After all, they have already sent him an official “cease and desist” letter to notify him that he is in violation of his contract’s non-compete clause. if Carlson persists it could cost him tens of millions of dollars. Although a Tucker Carlson/Fox News legal cage match would be loads of fun.

SEE THIS: Fox News Sends Tucker Carlson a Letter to Cease and Desist From His Twitter Rant-Cast

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Tucker Carlson Paints Trump as a Messianic Victim of False Apostles in His 3rd Twitter Tirade

Posted by Mark NC on June 14, 2023 at 12:05 pm. 5 Comments :

The continuing saga of Tucker Carlson is unfolding in his third installment of “Tucker on Twitter,” the social media replacement for his canceled White Supremacist Hour on Fox News. The Twitter show thus far has consisted of poorly produced, ten minute disgorgements of Carlson’s inbred hate and conservative crackpottery. The new episode is more of the same.

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Carlson’s new chapter may be even cheesier than the previous ones. He rambled for 13 interminably tedious minutes about his theory that the reason people hate Trump is because he was a peacenik who took on the war mongers of Washington. Carlson based this blather on a few seconds of Trump criticizing the war in Iraq during a 2015 Republican primary debate. And for this Carlson is risking millions of dollars in defiance of a Fox News demand to “cease and desist.

SEE THIS: Fox News Sends Tucker Carlson a Letter to Cease and Desist From His Twitter Rant-Cast

According to Carlson, Trump’s alleged antiwar stance launched eight years of unyielding animus toward Trump. Carlson is oblivious to the fact that millions of people have actually long despised Trump for his bigotry, dishonesty, and policies that hurt middle and low income Americans, and enriched corporations and the wealthy. Most people probably have no recollection of the sound bite that Carlson plucked from nearly a decade ago.

Carlson doesn’t explain why there was no such contempt for everyone else who held antiwar views way before Trump. Democrats and progressives opposed the war in Iraq and castigated the Bush administration’s false allegations of “weapons of mass destruction” long before Trump adopted it merely as a cudgel with which to bash his primary opponent, Jeb Bush.

Somehow, Carlson spins this nonsense into an incoherent defense of Trump, who he says must now be forgiven for the completely unrelated crimes of having stolen hundreds of sensitive national security documents, stashed them in bathrooms and ballrooms around his Mar-a-Lago home/hotel, defied subpoenas, obstructed justice, and lied to the FBI and other law enforcement authorities.

REALTED: Trump and His MAGA Minions in Media and Congress Go BONKERS Over His Criminal Indictments

After his perversely twisted introduction, Carlson got into what really irked him: people who he believes were deceptive and insincere Trump supporters (video here, if you can stomach it)…

“They ran toward Trump, not away from him. They sucked up to him to him. They ingratiated themselves to the man they intuitively understood was susceptible to flattery. Which Trump is. And they did this in order to subvert his new administration from the inside. There were a number of these, and you could spot them immediately.”

It’s impossible not to notice that Carlson is describing virtually everyone in the Republican caucuses in Congress and on Fox News and other right-wing media. And, of course, himself. What’s more, Carlson is conceding that Trump is “susceptible to flattery,” which makes him an easy mark for political shenanigans. A puppet for other GOP operatives to control. Even worse, it makes him a national security risk, because it isn’t just all of these domestic suck ups that were able to manipulate Trump, but every foreign leader, friend and foe. Carlson continued…

“They were flatterers. Invariably the ones who flattered Trump the most, hated him the most and disagreed the most strongly with his views. You saw them in the hallways of the White House and at press conferences. They were there slobbering over their boss with elaborate self-abasement as if they were addressing a monarch or a god. It was a scene from the Ottoman Court. And it was filthy and decadent, and it was false. Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, Lindsey Graham in the Congress. They all called Trump a visionary genius up until the moment he lost power.”

Well said, Tuckems. Except that you left out a particularly notorious and unscrupulous Trump-fluffer – Tucker Carlson. After all, you frequently “slobbered” over Trump publicly but, as we learned in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit, you privately said that you “hated him passionately” and called him a “demonic force.” Carlson, however, correctly characterizes Trump as the leader of a “filthy and decadent” cult that worships him.

SEE THIS: In Dominion v Fox News, Network Cries ‘We Can’t Make People Think We’ve Turned Against Trump’

Carlson’s Twitter show is proving to be as nauseating and deceitful as his Fox News show. At least it is much shorter in duration, minus his noxious guests, and confined to his Twitter account, where it is being mostly ignored. Don’t be fooled by his boasting about the “views” it racks up. Those numbers are grossly misunderstood. Views on Twitter are not comparable to viewers on television, as explained by Aidan McLaughlin, the Editor in Chief of Mediaite…

“According to Twitter, if you watch a video for two seconds, with only half the video player in-view, you count as one video view. The tweet view metric is even less valuable. It merely counts how many people viewed the tweet, so if you scrolled past Carlson’s video on Twitter, you counted as one of the 114 million. […] If you scrolled past the tweet multiple times, you counted more than once.”

The good news is that, like Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, and Megyn Kelly before him, post-Fox Carlson is sinking into oblivion. Right where he belongs.

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Fox News Sends Tucker Carlson a Letter to Cease and Desist From His Twitter Rant-Cast

Posted by Mark NC on June 12, 2023 at 1:19 pm. 4 Comments :

The feud between Fox News and their former top host, Tucker Carlson, has been growing rapidly more intense and bitter. It’s been seven weeks since Carlson was unceremoniously banished without notice from his Fox News perch. In the interim both have suffered significant declines in audience, as well as reputation, which was already in the gutter.

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Carlson has sought to resurface by posting poorly produced, ten minute tirades on Twitter. They have been nothing more than the sort of factless, right-wing monologues, riddled with conspiracy theories, that he used to open his program on Fox News with. Shortly after his first Twitter episode, Fox News advised him that he was in breach of his contract’s non-compete clause. Although it’s a stretch to regard what Carlson is putting out now as “competition,” given its sub-standard production values and tedious content.

Fox News has now taken the next step to send Carlson a “cease and desist“ letter. Since Carlson is still being paid by Fox, this notice is an official signal that they will file a lawsuit to get Carlson to either stop posting his videos, or lose the millions of dollars that remain in his contract, as well as additional compensatory and punitive damages. In response Carlson has apparently dismissed Fox’s warning and continued to post new material on Twitter. His attorney issued the following statement…

“Fox News continues to ignore the interests of its viewers, not to mention its shareholder obligations. Doubling down on the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news industry, Fox is now demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election. Tucker will not be silenced by anyone — whether it be Media Matters, the ADL or Fox News.”

It’s awfully thoughtful of Carlson to be concerned with the interests of Fox’s viewers and shareholders. However, that isn’t a rational legal argument for him to continue breaching his contract. It’s also cute that he regards his cancelation as “the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news.” Considering the fact that Carlson’s irresponsible lies contributed to Fox News having to shell out nearly a billion dollars to Dominion Voting Systems for defamation, canceling Carlson was a prudent decision that that should have made years sooner.

Carlson believes that his Twitter show is outperforming his old program on Fox. He boasts about the number of “views” his video has racked up. However, like pretty much everything else that he says, he is deliberately misleading his fans and the media. Views on Twitter are not comparable to viewers on television. Aidan McLaughlin, the Editor in Chief of Mediaite, provided an enlightening analysis of how those metrics are starkly different…

“According to Twitter, if you watch a video for two seconds, with only half the video player in-view, you count as one video view. The tweet view metric is even less valuable. It merely counts how many people viewed the tweet, so if you scrolled past Carlson’s video on Twitter, you counted as one of the 114 million. […] If you scrolled past the tweet multiple times, you counted more than once.”

So Carlson contends that nobody, not even Fox News, will be able to silence him. Which sounds more like a threat than a boast. But his public exposure has severely declined since becoming just another Tweeter with attitude. The only consolation for him is that his absence from Fox has hurt them just as much as it has hurt him. Fox’s primetime ratings have been cut in half since Tuckers termination. The good news is that America benefits from the decline and fall of both of them. So let the war continue, and best of luck to both sides.

SEE THIS: With Lawsuits, Lost Hosts, and Lying Pundits, the Future of Fox News Has Never Been Weaker

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After Tucker Carlson Fiasco, McCarthy Will Give January 6th Video to More MAGA Propagandists

Posted by Mark NC on June 2, 2023 at 1:09 pm. 5 Comments :

From the very start of his tenure, Republican House Squeaker, Kevin McCarthy, demonstrated just how brazenly partisan and dishonest his speakership would be. After a historic 15 attempts to secure enough votes to become Speaker, McCarthy was indebted to ultra-rightist underlings like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene to hold onto the post.

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Among the first actions by the new Speaker were the removal of Democrats Adam Schiff, Ilhan Omar, and Eric Swalwell, from their respective committees. Then he formed a bogus committee on “Responsiveness and Accountability Oversight,” whose stated purpose was to “make life Hell” for Democrats. And of course, he oversaw the creation of the House’s first “Anti-Woke” Caucus.

However, nothing was more representative of McCarthy’s radical political prejudices than when he handed over 41,000 hours of video from the January 6th insurrection, that was incited by Donald Trump, to the pro-insurrection, Putin loving poseur, Tucker Carlson. McCarthy claimed that he was making these videos public, but Carlson was the only person who was given access to them. After which, Carlson predictably produced a preposterous program that portrayed the violent MAGA rioters as peaceful tourists visiting the Capitol.

SEE THIS: Tucker Carlson Spins January 6th Insurrection Videos to Spread Blatant Lies, Trump Praises Him

Carlson’s ludicrous narrative was widely mocked and condemned. In fact, he ended up airing only a few carefully edited, and particularly boring, minutes of the 41,000 hours of video over two nights that revealed nothing of significance. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone who has seen Carlson’s other “reporting” on January 6th, wherein he glorifies the rioters and accuses the FBI of orchestrating the whole thing.

McCarthy had promised to eventually release the videos to the public at large, including other media outlets. But three months later, McCarthy is apparently making the videos available to some more well known conspiracy crackpots. According to his boss, Marjorie Taylor Greene (admittedly not the most reliable source)…

“I’m excited to share the good news that just as I promised the J6 tapes are being released!

“@SpeakerMcCarthy has given @jsolomonReports, @Julie_kelly2, and a third outlet unfettered access to the J6 tapes, and their reporting on it starts tomorrow.

“This is the transparency the American people deserve and I look forward to their reporting!”

I’m excited to share the good news that just as I promised the J6 tapes are being released!@SpeakerMcCarthy has given @jsolomonReports, @Julie_kelly2, and a third outlet unfettered access to the J6 tapes, and their reporting on it starts tomorrow.

This is the transparency the…

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene?? (@RepMTG) May 31, 2023

First of all, doling out the videos to selected conservative hacks is not “releasing” them. Nor is it “transparency” by any rational definition of the word. And what they will produce can hardly be called “reporting.” It is conspiring with confederates to manufacture more malicious propaganda.

What’s more, the people named by Greene are notorious fabricators of political fiction. John Solomon is a disgraced former Fox News contributor whose work is relentlessly slanted toward the ultra-right. Julie Kelly writes for the Trump-fluffing “American Greatness,” website, and is a prominent purveyor of conspiracy theories and slobbering Trump commentaries. The third party to whom McCarthy is giving the videos was apparently too embarrassing to even identify. Perhaps it is Rudy Giuliani or Don Trump Jr.

McCarthy’s refusal to grant access to these videos is a blatantly unethical, and possibly illegal, suppression of public materials and a breach of the First Amendment’s protection of a free press. He has already been sued by a coalition of media enterprises seeking access to the videos. They include CNN, Advance Publications, The Associated Press, CBS News, E.W. Scripps, Gannett, Politico, ProPublica and The New York Times.

Finally, there is a disturbing irony and hypocrisy in McCarthy’s aversion to sharing information. He recently threatened the FBI Director with contempt of Congress for not turning over a document that he wants in order to smear President Biden.

SEE THIS: McCarthy Threatens FBI Director with Contempt for Not Aiding His Petty Persecution of Biden

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
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And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
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