"I Want Nothing!" Oh, But You Did!

By now, you've probably heard Trump's defense that the conservative media has grasped onto. Gordon Sondland dropped a bombshell on the White House last Wednesday, testifying that, in no uncertain terms, Trump did offer a quid pro quo to Ukraine. And furthermore, said Sondland, everybody knew it.

Now, Sondland has been a major Trump supporter, both in terms of money and vocal support. He is the ambassador to the European Union, which has an official partnership with Ukraine (even though Ukraine is not an E.U. member). He was right in the middle of the scandal, and therefore had first-hand knowledge of everything that was going on.

In other words, once and for all, this is not a "hoax," nor is this a "witch hunt." Let's put that one to bed once and for all.

The first thing conservatives did was ask for written proof. Sondland had lots of documents in the form of his own personal emails, but did not have the State Department documents to back him up. Those, interestingly, are sealed. So when Sondland was questioned by Steve Castor as to whether or not he had any proof, Sondland could only provide his own recollections, and admitted presumptions about what Trump and Rudy Giuliani wanted.

Republicans have seized upon this as proof that there's no "there" there. But let's look at that more closely: If what Sondland was saying was wrong, and his testimony was incorrect, then logically that would mean that he was doing his job incorrectly based on an incorrect presumption. For months, nobody said anything about it, and no Republicans voiced any objections until the day Sondland testified. That's incompetence on a grand scale, not only by Trump, but by ALL his State Department underlings! It would be cause to fire not only Trump, but everyone in the State Department!

OR, Trump is guilty. That's it. Those are your only two logical choices.

Now, the so-called "liberal media" has not reported this. But let's continue, because there's more.

Following Trump's eccentric lead, they are arguing that Trump outright told Gordon Sondland that he "wanted nothing from Ukraine," in a phone call on September 9th.

But wait, September 9th? Isn't that the SAME DAY that the whistleblower complaint was delivered to the House Intelligence Committee? Indeed it was! You can confirm that on the timeline provided by factcheck.org.

So that means Trump told Sondland he wanted nothing from Ukraine after the fact! Trump was walking it back at that point because he knew he'd been caught!

And his statement that he "wanted nothing" does not exonerate him. Rather, it proves he's guilty!

Has the "liberal media" reported this? Well, once in the New York Times, but that seems to be about it. For the sake of journalistic integrity, all news sources, left and right, should be reporting the living hell out of this. But they're not.

Fox News handled this the way Fox News typically handles things: by reporting what the president said, and then leaving it at that. Then they kicked it over to the sycophant commetators who parrot Trump's position without question. Only Justice Napolitano pointed out the truth, but by now Fox News viewers have written him off.

Under-reporting the news is the same as reporting biased news. Because Fox knows you, the viewer, will come to the conclusion they set up for you when they only tell half the story - the half they prefer to tell.

Eric

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Hannity Blows It Again

Sometimes, they make it too easy.

Last Wednesday, ahead of the impeachment inquiry hearings, Sean Hannity tried to take Democrats down a peg or two by saying that they have done nothing for America except go after Donald Trump.

This is so empirically false, it's amusing. They passed the renewal of the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund. The Senate passed it as well, and the president signed it, but only after Jon Stewart brow-beat Republicans into doing so. Then there's the 'For the People Act of 2019, H.R. 1, Equality Act, H.R. 5, H.R.7: Paycheck Fairness Act, H.R. 8: Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, H.R. 9: Climate Action Now Act, (Relating to a national emergency declared by the President on February 15, 2019) (H.J.Res. 46, Vetoed March 15, 2019), Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal, H.Res. 109, H.R. 150: Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency Act of 2019 (GREAT Act), H.Res.411: No More Presidential Wars Act, H.R. 662: REACH Act, H.R. 899: To terminate the Department of Education (interesting, perhaps better no Department than one run by Betsy DeVos?), H.R. 1585: Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019, SAFE Banking Act of 2019, H.R. 1595, H.R. 1644: Save the Internet Act of 2019, Taxpayer First Act of 2019, H.R. 1957, H.R. 2107: Affordable College Textbook Act, Well-Informed, Scientific, & Efficient Government Act (WISE Government Act)...

And all that simply cut and pasted from Wikipedia. It was that simple to find.

I mean, Jesus, Hannity! Can you even do an Internet search on Google?


Eric

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Dumb Strzok? Or Dumb Article?

It took me 0 seconds to find political bias on Fox News today. It is interesting how this has become so blatant, and so frequent, that anyone can find this sort of thing immediately, and without trying.

The article I found, headlined on foxnews.com, dealt with former FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was fired for having classified information on his personal phone, and for having an affair with a staff member. What makes the article so interestingly biased, is the fast that the article emphasizes one particular detail. Here's the opening paragraph:

"The Department of Justice released documents Monday outlining a slew of "security violations" and flagrantly "unprofessional conduct" by anti-Trump ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok -- including his alleged practice of keeping sensitive FBI documents on his unsecured personal electronic devices, even as his wife gained access to his cell phone and discovered evidence that he was having an affair with former FBI attorney Lisa Page."

Now, many people in government are "anti-Trump." Quite a few, in fact, have recently been in Trump's administration, and have left saying that Trump is an idiot. People like Reince Priebus, Anthony Scaramucci, John Kelly, John Bolton, Hope Hicks, and the list goes on. So it's not unusual for any given FBI person, or former FBI in this case, to have a negative opinion about Donald Trump. But this article LEADS with that fact. And in doing so, it strongly implies that those who oppose Trump are just as dirty as this particular ex-agent whose sloppy security breeches and extramarital affair got him into trouble.

Now, objectively, it should be obvious that Strzok's personal feelings about Trump are entirely separate from the misdeeds for which he was fired. It should also be obvious that there are plenty of Trump supporters who are just as dirty, and are currently sitting in jail or are awaiting jail. Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, George Papadopoulos, and recently Roger Stone, among others.

Fox News is bluntly trying to say, "See? There are some crooked anti-Trumpers, too!"

Maybe so, but doesn't it look a little desperate to make your headline story of the day be one about a sloppy FBI agent who couldn't keep his fly zipped?

The bias of Fox News is not always blatant. Sometimes it is subtle. This time it wasn't so subtle, but it was subliminal. We are not meant to notice that Strzok's irrelevant anti-Trump stance is mentioned right away. We are not meant to be conscious of how this flavors perspective against those with an anti-Trump stance. And we are not meant to notice how, further down in the article, mention is made about leaks from the FBI in the Trump administration, and how this implicates that Strzok may be one of the leakers. For all we know, he might be, but it is not keeping with journalistic integrity to imply such a thing without evidence.


Eric

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The New Sacred Cow Wursthaus Mission

I've been doing this blog a long time. I've written a lot of screeds and vented a lot of my frustrations, both political and non-political. But now I need to decide what I'm going to do with this blog going forward. It seems married life has left me with less time to write, but I do wish to keep going.

Currently, I'm contemplating making a run for the 17th district of the Wisconsin State Assembly. I probably won't win, but I'm feeling the absolute need to seize the microphone in a way which goes beyond what this blog has been able to give me. I need to actually let my voice be heard for once.

As such, most of what I write in this blog going forward will be detailing the errors, lies and deceit of conservative media. The more I look at what's happening, the more I realize that support for Trump and the madness that so-called "conservatism" has descended into, can all be tied to the fact that a large percentage of our nation's citizens are being lied to. And not just lied to, but blatently and bluntly lied to. There is no distinction anymore between tabloid journalism and journalism. There is no journalistic integrity. It's all Oligarch Network News, and the Information Age has turned into the Misinformation Age.

So when I'm out there pointing this out, the victims of this network of lies will undoubtedly ask for proof. I will give them this blog, together with all of my past profanity, my past mistakes, and my bared soul. It will have one example after another, for days on end, and for the months going forward, of lies, lies and more lies, together with the proof of same. Will it be enough to convince a few sheep to leave the fold? Will it force the wolf to take off his woolen disguise? I don't know. But I'm willing to try.

Brace yourself, Fox News. Look out, Breitbart. I'm aiming at you.


Eric

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