Fake News Is Eating Real News

Trump is going after PBS and NPR. And sadly, he's likely to win that fight.

The effects of this would be absolutely devastating. Already, there is too much disinformation being constantly shoved in Americans' faces. That disinformation machine is what put Trump into office, by delivering a steady-stream of lies, lies, lies. Through it all, NPR and PBS have been stalwarts of the truth, telling people what they need to know instead of what they want to hear. They are the ONLY major not-for-profit news outlets within the U.S.

And Trump wants to completely remove all public funding.

That dollar amount would have a huge impact. Congress has apportioned $500 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and that funding is maintained on a two-year cycle precisely to prevent political interference. But Trump has clearly been bulldozing his way through the usual barriers, and that means this time, that money may be forfeit. That adds up to a $1 billion dollar cut for public broadcasting.

Will that kill NPR? Probably not. That public funding mostly goes to local stations. As every Public Media pledge-drive reminds us twice per year, the vast majority of it's funding comes from "viewers like you." At most, tax money funds about 15% to 20%. And while that may force some local stations off the air permanently, we live in an era where any smart phone can bypass the need for local stations with an app. NPR will go on reporting the news the way it should. PBS will take a huge hit, though. And with Sesame Street having been first bought out by HBO, then cut loose, it is likely that someone else besides CPB will have to take up the streaming rights after 2025. Donations will pick up the slack, especially if NPR reminds its viewing audience that a donation to their cause results in far more change than donating to some pesky Democrat who is stuffing your inbox and phone texts with messages begging for money.

But for many, they will be left with nothing but corporate-owned, oligarch media. And you can bet your bottom dollar that Trump will then pepper NPR with bogus, SLAPP lawsuits.

He will target similar lawsuits at MSNBC. Rachel Maddow will surely be targeted. That network will be unable to afford the financial damage of such an onslaught, and probably shut down.

And then, as I mentioned in my previous blog post, CNN/HBO will be targeted. In particular, John Oliver and Bill Maher.

Well, not Bill Maher anymore. He defected. Fuck him.

After that? There will be little else except Oligarch News, brought to you by Sinclair, Newscorp, Newsmax, OAN, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Musk.

Leaving Americans with nothing to turn to other than the BBC for unbiased news. This is coming, folks. Brace for it.

This is how freedom of the press dies -- in the name of "freedom of the press."

Eric

**

It's Time For Bill Maher To Retire

It's been a while since I've taken aim at Bill Maher. I attacked him in 2009, and again in 2015. I later defended him when he fucked up in 2017.

But this time, well...

Well, if you didn't see the episode itself, you've seen it floating around various social media posts. Bill Maher, the guy who has made a career out of making fun of people (mostly) on the political Right, had a sit-down meeting and dinner with President Trump, brokered by their mutual friend, Kid Rock. Then said some soft-sell positivity about Trump on his show afterwards.

Okay, I get the argument about needing to have dialogue with the opposite side. I believe in the same values Bill does in regards to needing to talk with those who disagree with you. Like Bill, I hate the fact that we all live within our information bubbles these days, and scarcely a contrary argument ever gets through. I agree that those bubbles need to be burst.

But... Donald Trump?

He's in a special category, and the firewall regarding being cordial with him exists for a damned good reason. If it were Adolf Hitler, Bill's betrayal couldn't have been more stark.

But I need to remind you, this shouldn't surprise us. Bill has never been a limousine liberal. You may recall (some of you), when he did his first TV show, Politically Incorrect, his brand was largely being slightly right of center, taking occasional jabs at religion and shitting on Bill Clinton all the time. He proudly supported Bob Dole for president in 1996. And in the 2000 presidential election, he endorsed Ralph fucking Nader.

Then came 9/11.

One of the would-be guests on Politically Incorrect, conservative pundit Barbara Olson, was killed when her plane was hijacked and flown towards the Pentagon. The plane, as we all know, crashed before it got there. Bill may have taken the loss personally. Like many other atheists, he sided with the right-wingers who wanted to go after Islam. And he ended up siding with Dinesh D'Sousa (of all insane nutballs), in agreeing that the 9/11 terrorists were courageous.

"We have been the cowards," he said, "lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it -- not cowardly."

He later apologized, but the damage was done. Advertisers pulled out. Some ABC affiliates stopped airing the show altogether. Maher got scolded by White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher. Politically Incorrect scuffled, its ratings dived, and it was finally cancelled in June of 2002.

So when Maher rebounded with Real Time With Bill Maher in 2003, sounding largely anti-Bush and railing against crazy right-wingers, we need to remember that he was placating to the demographic who watches HBO, not necessarily taking a moral stand. And he would have said literally anything back then to get back on the air. For him, being anti-Bush was the perfect formula for accomplishing that.

But deep down, I'm quite certain Bill Maher remained that same, center-right guy from all those years ago. And then, as now, he's willing to be flexible if it keeps him alive, both in real life, and on the air.

But for all his occasional flexing, he has also been steadfast in many things. He has remained solid to classic neo-liberalism, believing in freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and free-trade. And while he may have gotten some things wrong (vaccines, for instance), he has usually been intellectually sound.

It was Maher who correctly called out how big a threat Trump was in 2016. It was Maher who correctly pointed out that Trump was not about to leave willingly in 2020. It was Maher who warned us most starkly that Trump would be a vicious dictator in exactly the way he's manifesting now.

Which is why Maher's goddamned sane-washing of Trump now is so unforgivable.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, as we all know, treats celebrities differently than he does other people. He likes having celebs who hate him couch their negative opinions in "yeah, but..." So he treats celebs with golf-course respect, and they come away from the meeting with a generally more positive attitude about Trump. It's a scam, and one that Trump is uniquely talented at. He can charm certain people, and the bigger the celeb, the greater the person's wealth, the more charm he turns on. And no matter who you are, Trump can always get on your good side, and you on his, if the magic words get spoken: "Let's make a deal."

And Bill Maher bit on it, hook, line, and sinker!

This is why he went on his show and dared to say that Trump was a different guy when the cameras were turned off (wrong!); that he was amenable to hearing the truth (an act!); that he was willing to consider Maher a friend (oh, come on!).

There is even a special fallacy named for what Maher did - it's called the "But Hitler loved dogs!" fallacy.

But deep down, there's a mad genius behind this betrayal. Maher can do the math. He knows damned well Trump is a dictator. He's said so. He knows that he's unleashing a reign of terror. He's been one of the biggest voices warning us about it!

So why is he capitulating now, of all times?

Because the proverbial handwriting is on the wall. Trump has gone after immigrants, and whether or not they are legal and protected doesn't matter. He has gone after Universities and their students, and they have largely caved. He has gone after law firms and they have largely backed down. He is currently going after PBS and NPR, who are likely to lose their federal funding. And it's not hard to see who is next. Trump will go after MSNBC. He will target Rachel Maddow in particular. He will likely win that fight.

And then?

Then he's coming for HBO/CNN. That means John Oliver, and Maher himself.

So Maher knows what's coming, and he has gone 100% chicken shit over it. I can't entirely blame him. He's trying to survive. He's also half-Jewish, and Jews know how to survive even the most oppressive of regimes.

It's still a betrayal, damn it.

So, Bill, it's time for you to retire. If you can't stand up to Trump anymore, you are useless, and your show has no audience. You wanted to capitulate to Trump, and you achieved that. You wanted to survive, and you probably will. You've already made your money. You've stopped going on tour. You're near retirement age anyway.

So fucking leave! Your absence helps us more than your presence at this point.

And when your memoirs are published posthumously, maybe you can admit that you were too scared shitless to do your goddamned job, one you were 100% committed to -- until suddenly you weren't. Maybe say something like, "Hey, I wouldn't be able to do anything about it if I ended up dead."

Okay. Solid argument. But that only means the next dude after you is going to die.

For you, Bill, the cock has crowed twice, and you have denied us thrice.

Eric

**

It's Getting Beyond Obvious

It's getting so obvious even Fox News viewers are beginning to smell the bullshit.

In spite of everything the Right Wing Media Machine is throwing at its viewership, the scandals just won't sink this time. Because this time Trump really is driving our nation's economy straight into the ground. This time, Social Security and Medicare are really and truly being derailed. This time people really are being kidnapped and deported without due process of law.

This time, it really is storming outside, while Fox News is reporting that everything is sunny. What happens when their viewers look out the window, see the rain, hear the thunder and lightning, and finally put two-and-two together?

What happens when the die-hard evangelical Trump voter gets the panicked phone call from his grey-haired mother regarding her Social Security checks no longer arriving?

What happens to a Sean Hannity fan when the price of everything skyrockets and they can't afford what their kids want for Christmas?

What happens to the die-hard conservative retiree who slowly realizes he has to return to work at age 70, because he's spent two solid months on the phone trying to get the government to give him his own, hard-earned Social Security money, and finally has to give up and find a job just to survive.

What happens then?

Actually, never mind then. What's happening to them now? Because it's here.

The bullshit is finally hitting them in the face. When will they finally be overwhelmed by the smell?

So far, the answer has consistently been, "never." But there's ignoring the elephant in the room, and then there's getting trampled by said elephant. If we haven't reached that point by now, its hard to imagine what more it could take.

And Jeanine Pirro may not be overly concerned about her 401(k) right now, but then again, she has her million-dollar Fox News contract to sustain her through retirement.

Everybody not on Fox News' payroll is panicking.

I mean, just a brief dive into what Fox News is "reporting" quickly reveals just how much that network has zero fucks to give about the truth anymore. It strongly asserts the guilt of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite the Trump Administration outright admitting it had deported him wrongly. He had been granted legal protection by a judge in 2019, and Trump's goons blew right past that ruling anyway.

Or there's the case of Mahmoud Khalil, arrested, green card ignored, due process overlooked. But now, there's just enough legal wiggle room to have him deported anyway, and thus it seems he will be. And naturally, Fox News sees this as a complete vindication rather than a case of "ready, fire, aim" legal luck.

Look, I'm no fan of Islam, and I've certainly sided with Israel more than Palestine, but Khalil had his right to free speech. And for exercising that right, he was essentially kidnapped.

In fact, in many ways, what Trump is doing is engaging in mass-kidnapping.

Meanwhile, the "Signalgate" scandal is simply not going away. Why should it? An incompetent fool allowing real-time military attack information to be leaked to a journalist? That's the sort of stuff that gets soldiers killed! And Americans know it! And because it's Signal, an app many Americans know well, they're simply not blinded by the smokescreen.

"No classified information was shared."

Uh, it was an active military strike. It doesn't get much more classified than that! Jeffrey Goldberg published the whole thing after the Trump team tried to lie about that.

"Jeffrey Goldberg hacked his way in."

No, he was invited. Obviously.

"Jeffrey Goldberg is an awful human being who pulled a dastardly trick."

Oh, boy. Even if he were a total skunk (which he's absolutely not), he didn't trick anybody. He was invited.

There's no way around it, Signalgate was just sheer, inexcusable, obvious incompetence. Mike Walz, the National Security Advisor who set up the group chat, and sent journalist Jeffrey Goldberg the invite, is the one and only reason this happened. His incompetence, and that of the entire defense team, who knew of this group chat being used instead of official, secure government channels, resulted in this huge breech of highly sensitive information.

And neither he, nor anyone else involved, got fired.

I've said it before, the pyromaniacs are running the Fire Department.

What happens to a Fox News viewer when their house is inevitably the one on fire?

Eric

**

Go Easy On Teslas

It's becoming rather trendy for citizens to vent their fury upon Tesla Motors.

And why not? Tesla sales are the soft underbelly of Elon Musk's financial empire. As global sales of his cars plummet, Elon may slowly have to realize that Twitter may have to actually draw a profit for the first time since he's owned it.

Ouch.

Some big-name public figures, like Jason Bateman, Cheryl Crow, astronaut Mark Kelly, and Cassandra Petersen (a.k.a. "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark") have all given away their Tesla cars, sometimes giving them away to NPR as a donation.

The thing is, what the hell is NPR going to do with them?

In order for such a donation to really benefit public radio, those cars have to be re-sold. Only, who will buy them? People are making all sorts of assumptions about Tesla owners these days, and they're not always grounded in reality. Suppose someone buys a discounted Tesla from NPR, and then gets assumed to be MAGA, and their car gets spray-painted? Or tires slashed?

Not that long ago, only a few years even, it was pretty cool to own a Tesla. Owners could feel good about driving an electric vehicle. And sure, Elon Musk was starting to go off the rails, but it wasn't all that big a deal back then.

And now? Now we can't even own one second-hand?

It seems to me that owning a second-hand Tesla is a great way to own one, if one is to be owned at all. You pay the used car dealer, whether that be NPR, Esperanza Unida, or whatever organization you care to name, and you get a reliable electric vehicle which can get you from Evanston to Milwaukee on a single charge.

And Elon Musk doesn't get a dime.

Also, let's consider this angle: If new Teslas aren't selling, then the best way for Elon to make money off them is for his dealerships to purposely burn the car lots, blame left-wing protesters, and collect on the insurance. For all I know, Musk may be doing this already. Or maybe some of the footage we've all seen recently of Tesla dealerships on fire really were set by misguided activists. But attacking a Tesla dealership with fire is playing right into Elon's hands. Protest in front of the Tesla lot, sure, but leave the Molotov cocktails at home.

Let Elon try to fool the claims investigators on his own.

And if you really want to hurt Elon financially, and you just happen to be a computer programmer, help write some pirate software that allows second-hand Tesla owners to jail-break their cars. That way they can get top-notch performance without paying Elon a subscription, and be able to get repairs somewhere else besides an official Tesla dealership! That's the REAL way to hit Muskie in the financial 'nads!

So if you see a Tesla on the road, even if it's a cybertruck, give that person the benefit of the doubt, would ya? That person is at least leaving the oil companies in the dust, and that deserves to be lauded, whether its driver is left-wing or right-wing.

Said owner shouldn't have to plaster his car with Kamala or NPR bumper stickers just to keep it from getting a swastika painted on it.

Eric

**

Give Ukraine Some Nukes!

With the U.S. stupidly suspending military support to Ukraine, Europe is stepping up. They've committed more funds, and are standing with their Eastern-European ally. The trouble is, as many pundits point out, Europe doesn't have the military manufacturing capabilities that the U.S. has. It will develop such, but that process takes many months, if not years. Can it manage to manufacture enough to support Ukraine in time?

As usual, all the pundits are missing one main thing, and it falls on me and my little (yet growing!) blog to point it out. There's one thing Europe can do which will halt Russia's war immediately, and force it to the table for peace talks, if not an outright withdrawal.

They can give Ukraine some nukes!

The U.K. and France are independent nuclear powers. (Other European nations have nukes, but they are owned and operated by the U.S.) If those two nations donated only a few of their nuclear missiles, Russia would have to stop dead in its tracks!

It's fascinating to me that all the pundits are saying how long it will take for European aid to have any effect. They're ALL using pre-1945 military analysis! Why, oh why, are we looking at warfare in a way that's 80 years out of date?!

Oh, Putin will scream and yell that a line has been crossed, that it's an act of war by NATO, that there will be severe consequences... blah, blah, blah. But we've heard this from Putin before. He said it when the U.S. committed financial support. He said it again when the U.S. and Europe committed tanks and planes. He said it again when the U.S. gave Ukraine long-range missiles. And in every case, he's done absolutely nothing.

Because he can't! Russia can barely afford to keep throwing all it can at Ukraine who, like Rocky Balboa, takes blow after blow and refuses to go down.

Meanwhile, Russia is on the verge of economic collapse. The Soviet Union fell when it could no longer afford to pay its troops well. It is not unreasonable to think that a new Boris Yeltzin may emerge to drive a single tank up to the entrance of the Kremlin, and depose Putin, thus giving Ukraine the victory.

So Russia is incapable of doing any wide-ranging retaliation against Europe. Hell, it can't even do any narrow-ranging retaliation. Putin is hanging on by his fingernails, and the time to bring the war to a swift end has come.

There may be treaty issues involved. The reason Ukraine is in this mess in the first place is because WE, the United States, negotiated to keep it from having a nuclear arsenal. In retrospect, that was a huge mistake. But we're very nearly in a post-treaty era. Trump has already ditched USMCA in his pointless trade wars with Canada and Mexico. Hell, Trump is threatening to pull the U.S. out of NATO entirely. So any non-nuclear proliferation treaty currently in place for Ukraine has been rendered moot by such antics.

HEY, Europe! Give Ukraine some nukes!

It should probably have been done three years ago.

Eric

**

State of the Disunion Address

On September 9, 2009, when then-President Barack Obama was giving the State of the Union address, he outlined his healthcare reforms and said, "There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally." It was then that a then-little-known congressman named Joe Wilson from South Carolina's 2nd district shouted "You lie!"

Obama calmly replied, "Not true, not true."

History, of course, proved Obama 100% right, and Joe Wison 100% wrong. Obamacare did not insure illegal immigrants, and still doesn't. (Only legal immigrants are covered.)

Joe Wilson later apologized, but afterward doubled down, saying "one apology is sufficient," as the strength of the Right-Wing Disinformation Media Machine grew. In fact, the entire Republican party doubled down. It went out of its way to disrespect and insult President Obama with lies and misinformation.

In fact, that really was the beginning of it all - the beginning of the Right-Wing Media Machine's realization that they could be racist as fuck and get away with it! It was the beginning of the Tea Party movement.

Right there. Two little words. "You lie!" Which, of course, were themselves a lie.

For 16 years I've wanted Democrats to dish out some measure of goddamned vengeance upon the Right-Wing Media Machine, and the Republicans, for fomenting such utter disrespect, and the continued disrespect that followed. I've craved vindication! And over all that time, I've gotten exactly the opposite.

Until last night. After Trump's "State of the Disunion" address (as I think it's fair to label it historically), I finally feel like I have it.

Hey, I'll admit it: I have been very disappointed with the ineptitude of the Democratic Party at times. Well, most of the time, in fact. The way they stumble into one unforced error after another has always frustrated me. The way they have never countered the Right Wing Media Machine has been baffling and infuriating to watch.

Well, finally, for once, they did something I am deliriously proud of!

Democrats stood (or, technically, sat) in solidarity for the truth. Representative Al Green of Texas stood up, waving his cane, when Trump said he had a "mandate." Green shouted over and over again Trump had no mandate, and certainly no mandate to cut Medicaid!  And he was so right! 49.8% is, by definition, NOT a mandate! Nevertheless, for that, he was thrown out of the chamber by the Sergeant-At-Arms at the direction of Speaker Mike Johnson. But he held his head high on his way out, and rightly so.

Several other Democrats of high moral character walked out afterward. Reps. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, and Lateefah Simon of California, were among the first to walk out. As they did, some removed their outer jackets to reveal t-shirts which said, "RESIST!" or "NO KINGS LIVE HERE." Other Democrats began to leave, including Mark Pocan of Wisconsin (love that guy!), Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Judy Chu of California, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Jared Huffman of California, and (of course) Bernie Sanders of Vermont. 

Several others simply didn't attend, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Don Beyer of Virginia, Kweisi Mfume of Maryland, Diana DeGette of Colorado, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico.

Many other Democrats held up signs saying "FALSE" or "SAVE MEDICAID," or "MUSK STEALS," or "PROTECT VETERANS." One even had a small, erasable whiteboard to tailor her responses to what Trump was lying about.

But my personal favorite was when Representative Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, held a sign saying "This Is Not Normal" right next to Trump as he walked into the chamber. Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas eventually reached across the aisle and ripped the sign away from her, but the statement had been made.

After Jasmine Crockett left, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina thoroughly embarrassed herself on X.com by posting, "I love when the trash takes itself out."

Bitch.

See, THIS is the kind of passion I've been craving from Democrats for decades! THIS is the kind of fight I've wanted them to have ever since I realized I was more liberal than conservative. (Not sure when exactly that was. 1999, I think?) I FINALLY get to see that level of fire and fight directed towards the absolute, empirically verifiable LIES that the Right-Wing Media Machine revels in!

Now that it might well be too late, that is.

Even so, I'm delighting in seeing the Dems finally doing what I want them to do! For a change.

How very refreshing!

#RESIST!

Eric

**

Trump F*cked Putin

Well, Trump and Vance made America into a laughing stock last Friday, as their meeting with Volodomyr Zelenskyy degenerated into an absolute shouting match, with themselves doing all the shouting and Zelenskyy largely remaining calm. To hear the Right-Wing Media Machine tell it, Trump and Vance did excellently when they embarrassed us all this way. The Russian media machine is also overjoyed.

But look beneath the surface and you can see that Trump may have actually fucked Putin over.

Trump insisted to Zelenskyy that he "didn't have the cards." But that simply isn't true. Russia is on the verge of economic collapse. It is dealing with runaway inflation which is approaching 10%. The Rubel is down against the dollar, making it far more expensive to import basic foodstuffs at a time of year when such imports are key to its survival. Russia's central bank has been forced to spike interest rates, making it much harder for businesses to borrow money, and the tactic isn't even working.

In short, Russia is in deep, deep trouble! All Zelenskyy really needs to do is hold out just a little longer, and Ukraine will win the war. With Europe backing him, this will almost certainly happen, with or without the U.S. Putin needed that deal signed, and needed it signed immediately.

Thanks to Trump, that might not happen. Trump fucked Putin!

Now, the peace deal isn't going to happen right away. But there are rumors that Zelenskyy will sign the ceasefire/minerals deal sooner rather than later. This will realistically only achieve a temporary ceasefire rather than a true end to the war, but Zelenskyy will take it. And, if I were in his shoes, I'd have a backroom deal in place beforehand to fast-track Ukraine's admission into NATO immediately afterward, with or without the support of the U.S. (In fact, preferably without.) Such a ceasefire would also give Ukraine and all of Europe the breathing room it needs to re-arm and re-militarize.

If Russia falls, historians will point to this moment, the moment Trump and Vance all but ambushed Zelenskyy, and say how the failure to get a ceasefire through in time allowed the economic instability in Russia climb to untenable levels.

Trump, in his zeal to appease Putin, actually may have ended up undermining him.

We shall see. But right now, a collapse of the Russian government may be exactly what this world needs right now.

Eric

**