AG Bill Barr on Trump’s Big Lie: We Realized From the Beginning it Was Just Bull****

The frantic and futile excuses being proffered by Donald Trump’s accomplices in his decimation of democracy continue to accumulate amidst the rubble of his disastrous administration. Like rats abandoning the carcass of the USS Trump, they are affecting a full retreat in the hopes of salvaging the remnants of their reputations.

Donald Trump, Bill Barr

The latest rat to run ashore is Trump’s Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr. A new and appropriately titled book scheduled for release later this year – Betrayal, by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl – reveals some choice quotes by Barr related to Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. Barr told Karl that…

“My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time. If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bull—-.”

And on allegations that voting machines were rigged to switch votes from Trump to Biden, Barr said that…

“We realized from the beginning it was just bull—. It’s a counting machine, and they save everything that was counted. So you just reconcile the two. There had been no discrepancy reported anywhere, and I’m still not aware of any discrepancy.”

Really? Then how would Barr explain his staunchly sycophantic behavior while heading the Justice Department? How would he explain his initiatives to “uncover” alleged mail-in voter fraud for which he admitted there was no evidence? How would he explain his appointment of special counsel John Durham to investigate contrived election irregularities involving Russia? And how does Barr explain his request to Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch to “muzzle” one of the network’s few Trump critics? At what point did Barr “realize” that all of these projects were bull manure? It certainly wasn’t “from the beginning.”

While it’s interesting to see Barr confess that there was never any truth to Trump’s whining about non-existent voter fraud (which he is still doing), we must remember that Barr was fully complicit in Trump’s long and dangerous campaign of lies. He is only conceding these sins to absolve himself of the guilt that he deserves, and to try to piece together his shattered reputation. It isn’t going to work. And Trump, along with his criminal mob (including Barr) will forever be stained as traitors to America.

UPDATE: It didn’t take long for Trump to lash out at Barr saying that, “RINO former Attorney General Bill Barr […] failed to investigate election fraud, and really let down the American people.”

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. 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.

Marchers for Trump Chant ‘Destroy the GOP’ and Attack Deep State Fox News

The bottom is rapidly falling out of Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign. The legal misadventures for his imaginary reelection victory have resulted in more than 50 losses at every court level. That includes the Supreme Court that he thought he had pretty well stacked. And in desperation he is planting thinly veiled incitations to violence.

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Donald Trump, Republican, GOP

Following the Supreme Court rebuke, Trump’s cult disciples staged a “March for Trump” in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. It was intended to persuade the feeble-minded faithful that their Dear Leader had, as he tweeted in all caps, “WON THE ELECTION IN A LANDSLIDE,” if you only counted the votes that were for him. The rally was a bizarre spectacle that featured the most devoted Trump-fluffing zealots this side of Mar-a-Lago. Among them was Nick Fuentes, a former YouTuber who got the axe for repeatedly violating YouTube’s hate speech policies. At the rally he ranted that…

“At the first Million MAGA march [which fell about 995,000 short of a million] we promised that if the GOP would not do everything in their power to keep Trump in office, that we would destroy the GOP. And as we gather here in Washington D.C. for a second Million MAGA march we’re done making promises. It has to happen now. We are going to destroy the GOP.”

Whereupon the crowd vigorously took up the chant, “Destroy the GOP!” So with that goal, Trump actually has produced some measure of unity among the right and the left. Fuentes went on to specifically call out the Republican candidates for the Senate in Georgia. “The GOP wants us to hold the line,” he hollered, “and vote for RINOs like David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.” The crowd responded again with resounding boos.

Also speaking at this event was that notorious political thinker and scammy telemarketer of crappy pillows, Mike Lindell. The MyPillow guy was equally irate at the establishment conservatives who he believes have let Trump down. Even worse, he accused Fox News of being in on the conspiracy:

“Why do you think Fox declared Arizona with only 14 percent of the vote in? They already knew what they did! They were in on it. I’m serious, they had to be in on it. You don’t know this stuff. I mean all this stuff…and you know what? It’s not just the ones that are behind this that are gonna wind up being…and they should all go to prison when they are found out. But how about the Republicans out there that didn’t back this great president and us as a people?”

First of all, Lindell is either lying or stupid. When Fox News called Arizona for Joe Biden about 80% of the votes were in. That blows up his paranoid conspiracy theory. But it still resonates among the Trump cultists who are convinced that Fox News, the network that put Trump in the White House, is part of the “Deep State” cabal aligned against Trump, freedom, and Gawd. Lindell concluded that these allegedly wayward Republicans, including the governors of Arizona and Georgia, “have to be hiding something.”

It’s also notable that Lindell’s MyPillow is a big advertiser on Fox News. Given his views, shouldn’t he pull those ads? He’s actually financing the Deep State evildoer that he believes is “in on” the conspiracy to steal the election from Hair Trump.

As for Fox News, they don’t intend to be shut out of this madness. On Saturday evening “Judge” Jeanine Pirro weighed in with her assessment that Trump’s hand-picked Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr, was another traitor to the Trumpian cause (and not for the first time). “We now know,” she harangued, that “Bill Barr was the ultimate do nothing deep stater there to defend the status quo.”

That revelation makes this a profoundly nefarious and convoluted plot. It designates Trump himself as the Deep Stater-in-Chief, since he was the one who appointed Barr to lead the so-called “Justice” Department. Who would’ve thunk it?

These schizoid conspiracy crackpots are determined to bring down the Republican Party and the conservative establish that it represents. And they deserve all the help that Democrats can muster to accomplish that noble goal. They are the unwitting (unconscious) right flank of the progressive movement. And they are working in tandem with Trump who has been furiously waging warfare against Fox News, and Republicans who are less than unconditionally adoring, for most of his single term in the White House. It’s the textbook behavior of a malignant narcissist who is consumed by his addiction to non-stop adulation and the fear of losing it.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my 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.

WHUT? After Losing 50+ Times, Trump Whines He Was ‘Never Even Given Our Day in Court’

[NOTE: the number of lost lawsuits is now over 60]

This is what the final stages of a psychotic meltdown looks like. Donald Trump has come face to face with the fact that he’s a loser who was decisively beaten by Joe Biden, a man he characterized as “sleepy” and “unfit to serve.” Trump is now confronting the reality that the majority of the American people are repulsed by him and his agenda of self-serving hate and division. For a malignant narcissist that’s a fate worse than death. And Trump’s response was to incite his glassy-eyed cult followers to violence.

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Donald Trump Pacifier Fox

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled against Trump’s last best hope to overturn the will of the people, he is hunkering down in his bunker, depressed and afraid to show his face in public. Friday night, at the last minute, Trump sent word to his guests at a White House Christmas party that he would not be attending. He probably spent the rest of the evening in bed, watching Fox News and gumming his hamberders.

However, today is a new day, and Trump awoke invigorated with the confidence of a rat at a cat convention. Seated on his “throne,” Trump grabbed his Twitter machine and began pounding out incoherent rants that only affirmed his cognitive decline. “WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!” Trump tweeted in all caps. As if he has been holding his fire for the past five weeks. And the rest of his Saturday morning tweetstorm was even more deranged. For instance…


Trump is lashing out at the Supreme Court, including the conservative justices and his own appointees. And he asserts that he was “Never even given our day in Court!” He must have slept trough the 50+ cases that he already lost in the most humiliating fashion.


Remember… Trump only thinks in terms of votes for him as being legal. All other voters are fake or frauds. The miracle is that his people listen to this nonsense despite his failure to provide even a sliver of proof.


Trump keeps showing that he will attack anyone – even his own party – if they fail to have unqualified devotion. But let’s appreciate his opposition to reelecting GOP governors.


“IF Biden gets in???” While continuing to disparage democracy, Trump’ rhetoric devolves into the hostile lingo of mob bosses.


When Trump resorts to accusing his own Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr, of being part of the “Deep State” conspiracy against him, you know he’s gone over the edge.


The Supreme Court actually demonstrated – unanimously – that they did have an interest in “the greatest voter fraud ever perpetrated on the United States of America.” which is why they declined to hear a case that lacked standing, as well as evidence or legal reasoning.

Trump and his screwball attorneys have had dozens of opportunities to plead their case in court, but have failed to do so every time. All he has left is his fear and wrath, which he’s aiming at anyone he regards as disloyal. That includes some of his most fervent supporters and administration staff. Nobody is safe in the path of his hysterical rage.

Meanwhile, the nation – and the world – is watching as Trump decomposes like an overripe banana. And the rot is producing a toxic substance that threatens America’s tradition of peaceful transfers of power. With just a little more than a moth until Biden is inaugurated, we can only hope that Trump is constrained by either his incompetence or his Republican confederates who, so far, have exhibited nothing but spineless cowardice and sycophantic bootlicking. Hang tight, America.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my 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.

Fox News Trump Toady ‘Judge’ Jeanine Pirro Binges On Bill Barr Beat Down

There is one constant that can be relied upon when trying to predict the maniacally psychotic behavior of Donald Trump. He will always turn against everyone eventually, no matter how devoted and subservient they have been. It doesn’t take much more than a trivial disagreement with Dear Leader to trigger his wild-eyed wrath.

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Jeanine Pirro Fox News

Trump has already run a fleet of busses over his closest advisors, including such high profile former officials such as his chief of staff, defense secretary, attorney general, secretary of state, national security adviser, and FBI director. He’s even abandoned his Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) which he now routinely lambastes as “unwatchable,” as he did yet again on Sunday morning:

Despite his newfound animosity toward the “news” network that put him in the White House, Trump continues to hype his favorite bootlickers on Fox News. He posts videos of Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, etc., almost daily. High on that list of sycophants is Fox’s “Judge” Jeanine Pirro. And on Saturday night Pirro unleashed a rabid diatribe against the latest Trump flunky to fall out of favor with his master, Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr. This was almost certainly under orders from Trump who is livid that Barr recently stated publicly that “we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.” Truth be told, neither has Trump. He sure hasn’t presented any evidence in any of the dozens of lawsuits he’s filed and lost.

On the latest episode of her weekly screech-a-thon (video below), Pirro began with a ten minute monologue pummeling Barr for what she and Trump perceive as betrayal of the cult and its messiah. Her tirade included a tedious list of hysterical questions to which she demanded immediate answers. The connecting theme in all of these cranky queries is that they are premised on provable lies:

  • On election night, with the President comfortably ahead in many swing states, why was the counting stopped?
  • Why were observers not permitted to reasonably observe ballot counting?
  • Why were observers removed from counting areas?
  • Why did counters cheer when Republican observers were removed?
  • Why were windows boarded up in Detroit so that observers could not observe?
  • Why, when observers were allowed to reenter, was there an unusually large number of ballots with an unusually high percentage of 90 and above for Joe Biden?
  • Why was there a failure to match signatures on mail-in ballots?
  • Why was there a destruction of mail-in ballot envelopes which must contain signatures?
  • Why does the Voter Integrity Project in Georgia estimate over 20,000 people that no longer meet residency requirements?
  • Why are there statistical anomalies in the chain of custody breakdown?
  • Why are there record numbers of dead people voting?
  • How is it that ballots in pristine condition, without creases suggesting they had not been in mail-in envelopes, as required by law?
  • Why is Joe Biden the first candidate to lose Florida and Ohio and still become president?
  • Why were 18 of the 19 bellwether counties historically indicative of a presidential win won by Trump?
  • How is it that Biden underperformed Clinton in New York, Chicago, and L.A., but won in the swing state’s cities?
  • How is it that Joe Biden underperformed with African-American voters everywhere but in those swing states?
  • Why is that ballot watchers in Philadelphia were not allowed to meaningfully observe to the point where they had to get a court order?
  • How is it that the New York Times and Jimmy Carter and James Baker all agree that absentee ballots are the largest source of fraud?

The answer to nearly every single one of these questions could be “WTF are you talking about? That didn’t happen.” Pirro’s inquiries are nothing more than an annoyingly articulated elaboration of Trump’s tweets and the raving madness of fringe Trump cultists trying to invent controversies where none exist. But here’s a more relevant question: If any of the allegations premised in Pirro’s questions were true, then why didn’t Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, present evidence of them in court?

The rank stupidity of Pirro mirrors that of her hero and Crackpot-in-Chief. Like Trump, she is so dense that she will recklessly cast off loyal allies over petty grievances. And in this case, Pirro nicely sums up her disdain for Barr in the last thirty seconds of her segment, scowling that “You, Mr. Barr, are so deep in the swamp you can’t see beyond your fellow reptiles.” Which is a sentiment with which at least 80 million Americans heartily agree.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my 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.

Pathetic ‘Both Siderisms’ Used By Fox News to Dismiss Biden’s Victory Over Trump

It has been more than a week since election day, and four days since every news network (including Fox News) called the race for Joe Biden. Of course the whiny baby in the White House still refuses to concede or to accept reality. There is so much that the American people won’t miss when Donald Trump is gone. Unfortunately, he has been feverishly tweeting delusional assertions that he is actually the winner. And he’s flooding the courts with frivolous lawsuits that keep getting thrown out for lack of even a sliver of evidence.

Donald Trump, Two Faced

Meanwhile, the Trump-fluffers at Fox News are contradicting the reporting by their own network. Bootlicking sycophants like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson are devoting their programs to Trump’s crackpot conspiracy theorizing that Democrats somehow rigged the election to produce hundreds of thousands of phony votes in at least six states. None of them have offered any proof of the truth for their claims, but then when has Fox News (or Trump) ever relied on truth? That’s one of the reasons that the public regards both Trump and Fox News as losers.

In addition to Fox’s primetime Ministers of Propaganda, the network’s chief media correspondent, Howard Kurtz, is joining the parade of disinformers. He published an op-ed on the Fox News website that lays out an argument that electoral denial is being disseminated by both the Trump and Biden camps equally. It’s a classic case of “both siderism.” However, the absurdity of that position is evident in how pitifully Kurtz backs it up.

Kurtz leads off by asserting that the election isn’t over and that “the world is acting like Joe Biden is the 46th president.” Where on Earth is Kurtz getting the idea that the world is “acting” like Biden won? The world is, in fact, recognizing the legitimacy of the democratic process and the utter absence of any hint of irregularities. But where Kurtz really goes off the rails is in a series of comparisons of comments made about the election’s conclusion. For instance…

“On one side, we have Whoopi Goldberg scolding Trump voters for questioning the election, telling them to ‘suck it up.’ On the other, we have Mike Pompeo dismissing as ‘ridiculous’ a question about the transition, saying: ‘There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.’

Notice that Kurtz is contrasting the opinion of Whoopie Goldberg, a TV talk show host, with an official statement by Pompeo, Trump’s Secretary of State. Because those are basically the same thing, right? Similarly bizarre comparisons were littered throughout his article. He truly seems to regard random pundits as being equal in influence to current White House staffers.

In a couple of particularly egregious examples of misplaced equivalency, Kurtz compared actual actions taken by high level administration officials as comparable to mere commentaries by TV hosts. First he noted that…

“You have the head of the General Services Administration refusing to sign a routine transition order that would allow Biden teams access to federal departments and agencies to start the customary talks with outgoing officials.”

This directive manifestly harms national security by preventing President-Elect Biden from receiving classified briefings, as well denying him access to resources necessary for the transition to proceed. And then there’s this…

“Bill Barr generated headlines when he authorized federal prosecutors to pursue election fraud allegations, breaking with the Justice Department tradition of not getting involved until the results are certified.”

Barr is not just “breaking with the Justice Department tradition.” He’s flagrantly abusing the power of his office for a fishing expedition to find imaginary cases of election fraud. And failing that, he’ll use the attempt to imply fraud where none exists. That will weaponize the Justice Department’s efforts in order for Trump’s media confederates to make empty insinuations.

Both of these extremist, unprecedented assaults on democracy were cited by Kurtz as being essentially identical to the musings of former political aides and television commentators. Apparently Kurtz couldn’t find a single example of someone with similar influence on the Democratic side of these debates to compare with the Trump flunkies. So he settled for these wholly unfair and unbalanced comparisons because he was so intent on a making a point that he really couldn’t justify.

In closing, Kurtz offered a ludicrous summation saying that “I’m surprised that some on the left are also lashing out, despite the fact that their guy won.” Really? If Kurtz can’t understand why people on the left would respond to the preposterous ranting of the reality-challenged loser in the White House who seems to be orchestrating a coup, he needs to retire to a nice Trump-branded senior community with a fully staffed nursing facility. He certainly shouldn’t be in the news business.

And if Kurtz is actually interested in observing both sides, he might want to look at both sides of the Fox News view of accepting the results of an election:

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

In Honor of World Mental Health Day, Invoke the 25th Amendment on Trump

This week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House of Representatives would consider establishing “an independent commission under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to evaluate a president’s health and oversee the transfer of power to the vice president if the president becomes incapacitated while in office.” This is a long overdue measure that protects the interests of the nation under dire circumstances.

Trump Fear

This also happens to be World Mental Health Day, an annual observation of the need to focus attention on mental health issues and their personal and institutional impact on society. It’s sponsor, the World Health Organization (WHO), notes that…

“This year’s World Mental Health Day, on 10 October, comes at a time when our daily lives have changed considerably as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The past months have brought many challenges: for health-care workers, providing care in difficult circumstances, going to work fearful of bringing COVID-19 home with them; for students, adapting to taking classes from home, with little contact with teachers and friends, and anxious about their futures; for workers whose livelihoods are threatened; for the vast number of people caught in poverty or in fragile humanitarian settings with extremely limited protection from COVID-19; and for people with mental health conditions, many experiencing even greater social isolation than before. And this is to say nothing of managing the grief of losing a loved one, sometimes without being able to say goodbye.”

Unfortunately, Donald Trump withdrew from the WHO after falsely accusing it of being an accomplice to what Trump believes was China’s deliberate spreading of the coronavirus. In fact, that was just Trump’s way of evading his own responsibility for failing to handle the COVID-19 pandemic as it spread across the United States, and even into the White House.

Trump’s delusional attacks on China, the WHO, Democrats, and the media, are all further evidence of the need for Pelosi’s commission. He is an unstable, malignant narcissist and an aspiring dictator. He is the poster child (with an emphasis on “child”) for mental health awareness. He believes the world revolves around him and that he is superior to the other pathetic creatures that inhabit it. Once, when asked who he consults with, he replied that “My primary consultant is myself” because “I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.” That attitude, along with an array of other symptoms of mental impairment, are reason enough to worry.

In the nearly four long years since Trump was sworn in as president, his erratic and impulsive behavior has caused broad based concern. He has continued his bromance with Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin, and other brutal authoritarians, while alienating longtime allies. His attacks on the media border on obsession and are aimed at delegitimizing any criticism. He has a perverse fixation on polling and crowd size. He repeatedly makes statements that are easily debunked as lies. And his Twitter feed is a scrolling document of mental instability.

Recently, Trump has taken to demanding that his Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr, arrest, indict, and prosecute his political adversaries, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden. And after turning the White House into a coronavirus “Hot Zone,” he is holding a rally there and inviting 2,000 people to participate in another Super Spreader event.

What better time to honor World Mental Health Day than while a madman is running rampant in Washington, D.C. and threatening not to leave after he’s voted out? This nation has endured many difficulties, but teetering on the edge of a fascist dictatorship overseen be a certifiably insane cult leader is not one than anyone contemplated. And we must not allow Trump and his army of glassy-eyed disciples to succeed.

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 Orders AG Barr to Prosecute Clinton for Following the Rules

It’s always to easy to see when Donald Trump is freaking out over some perceived slight or the unforgivable offense of someone daring to tell the truth about him. If he were a poker player his “tell” would be throwing a tantrum and overturning the table. He has the emotional response mechanism of a four year old, if that.

Donald Trump, Bill Barr

On Monday morning Trump overturned the figurative table in a frantic tweetstorm that was clearly intended to deflect from some of the more serious news stories of the past week. For instance, Bob Woodward’s new book, Rage, exposed Trump for having known just how deadly the coronavirus is, but lying about it to the American people. An article in The Atlantic revealed Trump’s disregard for America’s war dead as “losers” and “suckers.” And his polling versus Joe Biden continues to decline, as does his fundraising.

Consequently, Trump needed a distraction to avoid having to deal with these problems. So he reached back into his bag of golden oldies and pulled out a moldy conspiracy theory regarding cell phones used by Hillary Clinton and others in the Obama administration. The nightmare tale that Trump unfolded suggests that these folks conspired to hide damning evidence of some imaginary crimes by deleting the contents of their phones before returning them to the government inventory. Trump posted eight tweets on this subject. The substance of his commentary consisted of profound remarks like “Action must be taken!,” and “DOJ?,” and this classic that also trivializes a threat to lynch a black NASCAR driver:

Trump has tweeted and spoken about these bogus allegations dozens of times in recent weeks. And he has been helped by Sean Hannity of Fox News, who hosted Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, Friday night to disseminate the same falsehoods (video below).

There is, however, absolutely no credibility to these charges. In fact, Clinton, and every other government employee, are actually required to wipe the contents off of their phones and other electronic devices, or physically destroy them, as a security precaution to prevent confidential information from being exposed. A State Department official explained this directive to Wired Magazine in 2016, saying that…

“‘…department security policies mandate that all electronic devices are cleared of sensitive or classified information prior to reuse or disposal.’ Some devices are wiped and reused, in other words, while others are destroyed as part of the recycling process.”

So Trump’s purported scandal is that Clinton et al are following the rules. Nevertheless, Trump is improperly pressuring his Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr to “take action” against his political foes. And all because of this fictional “crime” that is really just another example of Trump’s flaming ignorance of the government that he pretends to lead. And Barr is likely to follow those orders, just as he has with regard to dropping charges against Michael Flynn, and siccing his “special” prosecutor on Joe Biden. Fortunately, the American people are not falling for it, and Trump is just digging himself into an ever deeper hole.

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

Trump’s Propaganda Press Conference Turns Into a Fox News Promo

On Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump held another of his phony press conferences that are really reelection campaign events illegally held in the White House. But this one was even more brazenly self-serving than those in the past, which were almost entirely self-serving.

Donald Trump, Fox News, White House

As usual, Trump spent the first half hour bragging about accomplishments that didn’t exist. In his fantasy brain the economy is soaring (it’s in recession) and there is no pandemic (it’s still killing more than a thousand Americans every day).

Trump finished his fictional storytime reading and turned to the reporters to take questions. He only took two before he scurried off with his tail between his legs. The first question was about his deadly deception revealed in Bob Woodward’s new book, RAGE! ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked “Why did you lie to the American people, and why should we trust what you have to say now?” Trump replied “That’s a terrible question and the phraseology. I didn’t lie. What I said is we have to be calm. We can’t be panicked.”

But of course, he did very obviously lie. And it had nothing to do with avoiding panic. If a hurricane was coming you wouldn’t call it a Democratic hoax and insist that it would disappear like a miracle. You would alert the public and advise them to take all necessary precautions. That’s what Trump actually did prior to Hurricane Dorian) I guess he didn’t care about creating a panic then.

Trump went on to say that his confession that he lied was excusable because the person he confessed to didn’t report it quickly enough. Which is a rather bizarre justification for lying. And it doesn’t even dispute that it was a lie. He then took the second question was about the Durham report, a politically stained probe triggered by Trump’s hostility toward his predecessor, Barack Obama, and orchestrated by Trump’s flunky Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr.

In the course of Trump’s ranting falsely about how he was spied on by the Obama administration, he attempted to back up his allegations by citing his favorite source for classified intelligence, Fox News (video below):

“Probably the biggest political scandal in the history of our country. They got caught. Now, what the Durham report is going to say, I can’t tell you. But if they say half as much as I already know, just from seeing it.”

First of all, Trump’s own intelligence agencies, as well as the Republican-run Senate, have confirmed that there was no scandal, no spying on his campaign. Secondly, What the heck does he already know from “seeing” the Durham report, which would be an extraordinary breach of ethics for him to have seen? But he wasn’t finished:

“You know I watch some of the shows, I watched [Fox’s] Elizabeth McDonald, she’s fantastic. I watched Fox Business. I watched Lou Dobbs last night. Sean Hannity last night. Tucker [Carlson] last night. Laura [Ingraham]. I watched Fox and Friends in the morning. You watch these shows, you don’t have to go too far into the details. They cover things that are…it’s really an amazing thing.”

So every single one of the shows that Trump watched were Fox News shows. He spent at least four hours on these notoriously right-wing disseminators of Trump-fluffing propaganda. He has the world’s most extensive network of international intelligence operations reporting to him, but he’s parked in front of the television gulping down Kool-Aid from Hannity and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes. And he’s doing that instead of – you know – actually working. Which may be a good thing.

What’s more, Trump concedes that “you don’t have to go too far into the details,” mainly because the details wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny if you went any farther than scratching the surface. Everything these Trump cult shills promote on their State TV broadcasts is coordinated with, and complimentary to, Trump’s official PR playbook.

There isn’t any breakthrough revelation in the discovery that Trump is addicted to Fox News and vice versa. What’s notable is that he has gotten so mentally lazy that he would make a public statement that is so blatantly aligned with his Ministry of Disinformation. He didn’t even bother to slip in a few names from OANN, Breitbart, or any of the other irrelevant Internet clown shows Trump likes to patronize.

This was all Fox News. An exclusive promo for the network that made him what he is today. And never mind that he has frequently attacked Fox News when they weren’t sufficiently worshipful. He always comes back because there is no one more loyal, more willingly deceitful, and more successful at corralling the Trumpian hoards who are starving for ever more news about Dear Leader. Their relationship may be rocky at times, but it is still strong – and dangerous.

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

Throwback Trump: If You Told a Republican to Vote Twice They’d Get Sick at the Thought of It

On Wednesday Donald Trump’s desperation and fear drove him to suborn felony voter fraud by telling his cult followers to vote twice this November. That would not only be a crime for anyone who tried it, it’s also a crime for Trump to make the solicitation. An honest Justice Department would indict him immediately, but the Justice Department of the Trump administration is nobody’s idea of honest.

Donald Trump Red Face

Not surprisingly, Trump has had fluid opinions on this subject that change whenever he perceives the opposite opinion to be more to his benefit. Or maybe he’s just to cognitively challenged to recall his own views from one moment to the next. He doubled down on these felonious solicitations Thursday morning on Twitter. But last May he was interviewed by Senior Fox News Trump-Fluffer Maria Bartiromo and he told her that…

“The level of dishonesty with Democrat voting is unbelievable. If you told a Republican to vote twice, they’d get sick at even the thought of it. And you have people that vote numerous times. What’s happening is crazy. So now they want to send out vote-by-mail. Who knows who’s signing this stuff?”

If what Trump said then was true, there are a lot of sick Republicans running around the country right now. Well … more than usual. And that isn’t even counting those with the coronavirus (which Trump thinks you can get from voting).

Due to the complicity of Trump’s traitorous Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr, and the Senate GOP, Trump appears to be getting away with his crimes again – for now. But the record is clear and will be preserved for the next attorney general to investigate and prosecute. As is often the case, Trump documents his criminality on national television. “Let them send it in and let them go vote,” Trump said to the press. “And if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote. If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote.”

Trump’s babbling about how mail-in votes would be tabulated before in-person voting is pure nonsense. In some states that process doesn’t even begin until after the polls close. Anyone who takes Trump’s advice will be in a heap of trouble. This isn’t a gray area. Both state and federal statutes unambiguously state that even attempting to vote twice is against the law. And every reputable law enforcement official will affirm that. For instance…

Karen Brinson Bell, Executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections: It is illegal to vote twice in an election … Attempting to vote twice in an election or soliciting someone to do so also is a violation of North Carolina law.

Michigan Attorney General Nessel: Don’t try this at home. I will prosecute you […] Let me be perfectly clear: voting twice is illegal, no matter who tells you do to it. The president’s idea is a great one for people looking to go to jail.

Ellen L Weintraub, Federal Elections Commissioner: It is illegal in all 50 states and under federal law to vote twice. As any federal officeholder or law enforcement official should know.

Well, any federal officeholder or law enforcement official other than Barr. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Barr staggered around awkwardly as he tried to avoid contradicting his boss. He trotted out diversions about the point he thought Trump was trying to make, and absurd claims about not knowing state laws. Eventually, Blitzer had to educate him:

Trump was right about one thing. This is “crazy.” It’s so crazy, in fact, that it should trigger an indictment and his immediate removal from office. Or at least the 25th Amendment and a straitjacket. Unfortunately, Trump’s GOP confederates are as crazy as he is and wouldn’t hear of it. So we’ll just have to wait until November (actually January 20) to rid the White House of this madness. If we survive that long.

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

WTF? Bill Barr Told Rupert Murdoch to ‘Muzzle’ a Fox News Trump Critic

The creeping fascism of the Donald Trump regime continues to unfurl as the criminal accomplices in his cabinet carry out his nefarious agenda. Chief among them is Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr, who doesn’t even bother anymore to disguise his desecration of the Justice Department into a pseudo-legal cabal that works solely as Trump’s personal defense team.

Donald Trump, Bill Barr

A new book by CNN’s media correspondent, Brian Stelter, is set to be released next week, and excerpts are starting to make the rounds. Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, has already created quite a stir with revelations about how insiders at Fox News privately admit that they think Trump is “crazy,” even while they exalt him worshipfully on the air.

The toxic, codependent relationship between Trump and Fox News has been the source of incalculable damage to American media and democracy. It is an unprecedented political/press partnership that benefits both. Fox News gets an audience with cult-like devotion that they can brainwash with blatant scare tactics and the darkly unifying force of racism. While Trump gets an aggressive assault team to attack his critics and political opponents, and a constant defense for his unending stream of unsavory conduct and outright crimes. It’s a marriage whose foundation rests on lies and ignorance.

Another excerpt from the book was just published by The Guardian. This one describes a meeting that took place last October between Barr and Fox News Overlord, Rupert Murdoch. News Corpse speculated at the time that the meeting resulted in the resignation of Fox host Shepard Smith, which was announced the next day. But Stelter’s book reports that there was another topic of discussion on their agenda:

“The attorney general, William Barr, told Rupert Murdoch to ‘muzzle’ Andrew Napolitano, a prominent Fox News personality who became a critic of Donald Trump, according to a new book about the rightwing TV network. […] Trump ‘was so incensed by the judge’s TV broadcasts that he had implored Barr to send Rupert a message in person … about ‘muzzling the judge’. [Trump] wanted the nation’s top law enforcement official to convey just how atrocious Napolitano’s legal analysis had been.'”

Just to be clear, intimidating and manipulating the media is not a part of the Attorney General’s job. In fact, it isn’t a part of any government official’s job. It is a totalitarian tactic to control speech and clampdown on the free press. And this sort of suppression of the constitutional rights of journalists is part and parcel of the Trump Doctrine that has designated the media in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.”

Napolitano, the Senior Legal Analyst at Fox News, has been known to criticize Trump. And for that heresy he was entirely excluded from Fox’s coverage of Trump’s impeachment. A few notable examples of his well-reasoned critiques include…

Napolitano has a right to his opinions, and quite often he agrees with Trump. But none of that is relevant here. It was grossly inappropriate for Trump to seek to censor a legal news commentator. And it only makes matters worse that Trump recruited his attorney general to deliver that message. And Barr, of course, should never have agreed to take the assignment. It’s not only improper, and a violation of the Constitution, it has absolutely nothing to with his duties at the Department of Justice.

It is, however, consistent with Trump’s flagrant disrespect for the law, his relentless abuse of power, and his frighteningly obvious tyrannical aspirations. And it’s further proof that neither Trump nor Barr are fit to serve in any position of government authority. They have both proven that they are utterly untrustworthy and the sooner they are deposed, the better for America.

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