02/24/23

Good morning! It’s Friday, February 24th. National Tortilla Chip Day.

The picture for this holiday includes the best-looking nachos. Like… I want to reach through this screen and eat those nachos. Or maybe make a sandwich. Or a bowl of cereal. You know what? I think I’m just hungry.

And now, the news.

To Fox News, Thanks for Everything! Love, Republicans

Links:

Trump Claims Victory (CNBC)

Fox Anchor Quotes (NY Times)

McCarthy Quote (The Hill)

In yesterday’s episode I mentioned that I wanted to cover the Fox News, January 6th, election fraud… mess that’s in the news lately. So that’s what I’ll be covering today.

Okay so, as a reminder… Trump lost the 2020 election. Apparently this bares constantly repeating because even though it shouldn’t have been that big of a surprise, seeing as how he loses everything – businesses, friendships, the thread on simple stories he’s told, the ability to see when a tie is too long. But still, he lost the election. And even though there’s no way you can convince me that he actually liked being president – I mean, he liked the fact that people had to invite him to stuff, I’m sure. But the day to day, when he felt like participating… that’s the part that he probably hated.

And instead of just leaving, asking someone to ghost write some books about the time he was a big boy with a big job and small desk (remember that time he was sitting at that really small desk?), instead he decided to just… lie. To Act As If and hope he got to stay president.

He did this in a few different ways.

As we know because the court case in yesterday’s episode, one of the ways was to just straight up call Georgia and ask “hey, do you mind if you just like… let me win? Like, you could just FIND those votes that you forgot to count and we’d be Gucci.”

(Gucci is a term I’ve heard youths say and I honestly don’t know if I’m using it correctly.)

But you know the old saying - if cheating to win an election is a buffet, fill that plate up!

So Trump and Co also went out to the court of public opinion and started just saying – actually we won. It’s so wild. We for sure won, but those bullies kept counting the votes. How dare they!

And yes, that IS an incredible Trump impression. Not a lot of people are nailing impressions like I am. But it’s also not that far off from the truth, because here is what he actually said: “This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”

To which Fox News said – mahalo, for the content. And then spent the rest of the time mirroring Team Trump’s claims of fraud. They invited people like Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell on their shows and let them, as well as their own anchors, perpetuate the Big Lie that Trump actually won.

And part of their claims were that Dominion Voting Systems had changed the election results because they were owned by Hugo Chavez. This is patently false.

Nevertheless, Fox peddled these lies.

In return, Dominion did exactly what anyone else would do – they sued for defamation. They aren’t just suing Fox, btw. They’re suing anyone that spouted these lies, including several Trump allies like Giuliani and Powell, as well as TV networks Newsmax and One America News.

Now listen, if they actually believed that Dominion had done something wrong, you can make a reasonable First Amendment argument here. The problem is, through the case, we’ve learned that, as Fox News was going out and firing up their viewers with the lie that the election was stolen and Dominion had overturned results and everything else… here’s what was actually being said:

Here's a text exchange between Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham:

Carlson: “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.”

Ingraham: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.”

And here’s Rupert Murdoch, the chair of Fox Corp. First he called Trump’s fraud claims “really crazy stuff,” then, when watching an interview with Rudy and Sydney, he said: “Terrible stuff damaging everybody, I fear.”

He of course went on to do nothing to stop it so…

Also, later after another Fox anchor tweeted about there being no fraud by Dominion, this is how Tucker Carlson responded: “Please get her fired.” Adding, “it needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”

The court case is ongoing but any reasonable person can see that it SHOULD end up in a win for Dominion. Because yes, the law shields journalists from liability if they report on false statements, but they’re not afforded those protections if they promote them… as Fox did here.

So that’s the Dominion lawsuit. We’ll hear more about it as it continues, and I imagine we’ll hear more embarrassing quotes after. But the point is, Fox News does not care about the truth or their viewers. Period.

And that… sucks.

It really sucks. Because we all have people we love who trust Fox News. And they’re being lied to.

So we’ve got Trump asking for states to just change votes. We’ve got Fox hosting Team Trump lies and firing up their viewers, even though they know they’re lies. And then, because despite those distractions the fact remains that Biden won the election, we’ve got January 6th.

When at the direction of, and likely planning of, Trump – a crowd descended upon the capitol, threatened to hang the vice president, stole laptops and files, spread feces, took selfies, and tried to overturn the democracy we pride ourselves on.

All while Trump watched.

It was a scary day for those of us at home. Scarier for those who were in the Capitol that day.

Kevin McCarthy was there that day. He called Trump and told him that the rioters were trying to kill him.

But that was a whole two years ago and even if McCarthy accidentally found a spine on that day, it’s once again melted away. Because this week, even AFTER the news about Fox News knowingly lying about election fraud came out, Kevin McCarthy turned those tapes over to Tucker Carlson.

Why? Because that was one of the concessions he made in his pathetic bid for Speaker.

Now, McCarthy says the footage belongs to the American public. And okay, if that’s the case… why are you ONLY giving it to Tucker Carlson – Exclusively.

So that Fox News, who already attempted to rewrite history and Act As If Trump won, they could continue to lie to their viewers.

Did this deserve a whole episode? Yes, it was a really long story! There’s even more stuff but I tried to keep it efficient as possible. But it’s also deserves its own episode because what Fox is doing is unacceptable. What the Republicans are doing is dangerous.

And if we don’t talk about it, if we just let this slide, they will continue down this dangerous path and we will end up with another January 6th. Or worse.

Because Fox News, Team Trump, Trump-loving Republicans… they ALL do better, when the people in this country are divided. Distracted. Detached from reality beyond the one they’re crafting.

They don’t care about their supporters, just simply that they have their support. That they can use their votes and their money to benefit only themselves.

So yes, this deserved its own episode.

More as this story develops.

That’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of… nachos. Specifically the lobster nachos at Disneyland. They’re so good!

But more than that… more than knowing that the secret to good nachos is a layer of chips, then cheese and all the goodies, then another layer of chips, plus cheese and the goodies, so that you don’t just have a bunch of chips without any fun stuff on the bottom… because you are also layered and a little spicy… I’m proud of you.