The Republican party has become a dysfunctional family. What a shame it’s such a big one. That’s because the head of the family, its father-equivalent, its standard bearer, is a mentally ill man. He never grew up, as a lot of people do not. Maturity is gained by overcoming obstacles, not avoiding them; by building back after disappointment, not pretending it doesn’t exist; by learning from failure, not repeating the same failures over and over; by striving to become achieve, not by lying that one has already achieved, and in great measure, no less.
Ernest Hemingway said, “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places.” Trump’s never been broken by life because he’s always been able to buy his way out of his conflicts. Except for now. A man who will be 78-years-old on his next birthday is only just now going to face the consequences of his actions. And he is terrified and lashing out. Get ready, folks. This is Donald Trump cracking up in public and this is the spectacle you’re going to watch as 2023 fades to 2024 and the comeuppance comes. Here’s today’s digital vomit. I’d love to see Trump say this to Smith’s face, especially since he couldn’t even look him in the eye in court.
Trump believes that what’s in Breitbart makes sense, so that’s the level of his intellect. And he’s clearly hoping that there are more dummies in this country, or at least people that can be easily duped, than there are straight thinkers. That’s his gamble, that he can sell conspiracy theory and lies. That’s always been his gamble, lo these many years. And in 2016 he was right — although the sublime irony there is that he had planned to lose and start Trump TV and like the dog who catches the car, had no clue what to do with the presidency when he actually got it.
Meanwhile, “go to HELL” and “ROT IN HELL” are getting a little out there, by any normal standard, and his handlers are getting worried. This was characterized by one reporter as “a torrent of fury and bitterness,” and on Xmas day and the day after, no less. This is not good coming from a man who seeks to hold what has been called the world’s most important job.
A key point here was made and that it is: it doesn’t matter. The people who like Trump enjoy these outbursts and the people who hate him certainly aren’t going to have their minds changed at this point. But, still and all, if Trump continues to tank the Republican party, that’s not going to be good for Fox News. They have a vested interest in this election and here’s what they’re doing to save their own bacon.
Biden’s Christmas message vs. Trump’s Christmas message pic.twitter.com/R9jYazV2Wt
— DAPPER DON DHARSHI • K A M I L • (@SoloFlow786) December 26, 2023
Fox News depends on gaslighting. What’s clear and obvious is that the message on the left, by Joe Biden, is a sane and sober greeting. The message on the right is a juvenile, unhinged rant. That’s because the sender on the left is a statesman of some gravity and experience and the sender on the right is a lunatic. Yet, we are told that there are many polls out there suggesting in no uncertain terms that the people of this country could decide to kick out the statesman and invite the lunatic back in. I marvel. I simply marvel on a daily basis. I wake up each day knowing that by the time I go to sleep that night, that something even more bizarre will take place. And so I chronicle it, and have been doing so for seven years now.
Fox News is also chronicaling Trump’s doings and the politics of the day. Now here’s what’s curious. Jessica Tarlov introduces factual reality into the narrative. Listen to this and then I’ll tell you what I think is going on.
“Joe Biden the Indefensible?”
There’s a reason Fox News is a misnomer.
— Stirling Shultz (@svtshultz) December 26, 2023
What is discordant here? This woman has been on Fox News for a while now, as a “liberal” contributor, starting in 2017, and then “revolving liberal co-host” on The Five since January, 2022. Why is Fox News doing this? I believe it’s because they see the same handwriting on the wall that i do, and that is that the GOP is going to collapse in the not too distant future and a new conservative party will rise from the ashes. Fox News does not solely want to be identified as the mouth organ of the Republican party or MAGA, because both those are on the way out.
Tarlov brings some actual facts to the table, in the guise of “liberal opinion.” To this day I marvel that many people don’t know the difference between a fact and an opinion, but I had that epiphany back in 2016, shortly after the election, when one of Donald Trump’s crazies got on the tube and said, “There are no such things as facts.” My jaw fell open. The day of Orwell had arrived. This is what I published that day, December 1, 2016 on Daily Kos. Here’s a reprint in full for those of you who weren’t reading my work back then.
Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes made an appearance on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show on Wednesday. She made the incredible statement that, “There are no such things as facts.”
“Well, I think it’s also an idea of an opinion. And that’s — on one hand I hear half the media saying that these are lies, but on the other half there are many people that go, no, it’s true,” Hughes said. “And so one thing that has been interesting this entire campaign season to watch is that people that say facts are facts, they’re not really facts.”
She went on, “There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore of facts. And so Mr. Trump’s tweet amongst a certain crowd, a large — a large part of the population, are truth. When he says that millions of people illegally voted, he has some — in his — amongst him and his supporters, and people believe they have facts to back that up. Those that do not like Mr. Trump, they say that those are lies, and there’s no facts to back it up.”
Politico’s Glenn Thrush was present at NPR and this was his response:
Thrush responded, “First I’ve got to pick my jaw up off the floor here. There are no objective facts? I mean, that is — that is an absolutely outrageous assertion. Of course there are facts. There is no widespread proof that three million people voted illegally. It’s been checked over and over again. We had a Pew study that took place over 15 years that showed people had more likelihood of being struck by lightning than voting illegally in an election.”
I don’t mean to be chicken little, but seriously, the dumbing down of America has led to precisely this moment in history. This statement of Hughes’ is positively Orwellian. The bottom line is that most of the people in this country cannot distinguish between a fact and an opinion. If somebody that the low information trogolodytes have imbued with authority, such as our Orange Prophet president-elect says something, that becomes concrete, indelible fact in these peoples’ “minds,” no matter how preposterous the assertion might be.
They are incapable of critical reasoning. “Trump’s tweet is truth,” Hughes tells us. Facts or no facts, Trump’s tweet is truth. The people who are listening to Trump and to Hughes don’t even know the definition of the word propaganda.
If Trump’s tweet is truth then why not add, “Freedom is Slavery.” “War is Peace.” And this will put chills down your spine, “Ignorance is Strength.”
And here’s more George Orwell. Sound like any political party that we know?
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites.”
“The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.
This was not a normal election, Trump is not a normal president-elect, and what we can expect in the very near future is not normal governance by an opposing party as you and I understand the meaning of that term. The “D” word describing our way of life in this country is no longer democracy as of November 9th. Rather it is dystopian. George Orwell put the handwriting on the wall sixty years ago. Now it is blinking in neon. I pray that I am wrong.
Fox News sees the handwriting on the wall. They’re perfectly delighted if Trump gets back in power and becomes a dictator. As Orwell noted, “nobody ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.” Trump tried not to relinquish power in 2020 and he’ll damn well see that he doesn’t relinquish power if elected again. But Rupert Murdoch is a realist. He knows Trump probably won’t get back in office and that MAGA will hit some crisis point in the not too distant future. Murdoch intends that Fox News continue. And if it has to change, well then that’s just fine. I predict that Murdoch will adjust accordingly, just as Matt Drudge did.
A lot of people reacted to Tarlov’s piece here. “Fox News Is Allergic To Facts” so why did they allow this? The same reason Matt Drudge is no longer a MAGA mouthpiece. He sees that the butter for his bread lies elsewhere.
Keep your eyes open. You’re going to see a lot more of this. Trump is on the way out, MAGA is on the way down, and who knows what’s going to rise from the ashes of the Republican party?
“… Fox News Desperately Attempts Damage Control …” as you clearly put it, is more like it’s desperately rolling that turd in more non-stick glitter. In doing this it’s only winning in every disrespect possible, whilst involving itself in this glitterati turd polishing exercise.
FOX is facing another huge suit from a voting tech company, Smartmatic. Murdoch has given operational control to his son. Next year will be a pivot for FOX as it slowly moves from MAGA. Assuming Trump and House MAGA will lose their collective ass on election night, game over.
The FACT is Fox ‘news’ had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars because of all the provable LIES they spewed. Tell their stockholders that isn’t a fact. Double dare you.
Lol, so true!
FWIW Fox is in a tough place. They do better attacking than they do defending. They thrive on grievance. They loved to attack Obama because their racist rabid viewers expected that. Once trump was in power people lost interest, Fox had to make up grievances, much more difficult than trying to defend trump. Now that Biden is president they can go back to attacking. CNN likes the horse race as that gets them ratings, so all the CNN poles show it neck and neck which helps their ratings. Fox and Murdoch are hoping trump loses so that they can get back to rage viewers. mis dos centavos
Lol, try and figure out why you keep losing, MAGA morons, because you’re just not smart enough to understand why everyone hates you a-holes! Do keep on whining and complaining as loudly as possible, though, it just reminds people why they shouldn’t vote for you idiots. Too freaking funny, that even after all this knowledge is freely available that there’s so so many stupid people in America. Google is your friend, you idiots.
It’s long past time for him to get over the fact that he couldn’t maintain an election.