I don’t know if it’s schadenfreude – pleasure derived from the misfortune of others. I am enjoying it, though, so it’s possible. People who understand things have been in a kind of proxy battle with Fox “News” pretty much since Fox hosts started lying on air in the 1990s. The proxies, in this case, are conservatives blaring the bunk spewed by Fox on a daily basis. I can’t just tell them they’re being deceived. I’ve tried. They don’t believe me. I can’t tell Fox, either. They don’t care. And, really, why should they? It’s not like they don’t know they’re lying. It’s not “news” to them. So the battle has raged for decades – Fox attacking America, Fox viewers waving the banner and marching in the parade.

It got SO easy for Fox to lie, they became increasingly confident in their acolyte’s ability to shout down all opposition and simply broadcast more lies and even louder. It’s been quite frustrating for those of us who love this once-great nation, watching conservative lies tear it apart piece by piece. But Fox got ahead of itself, didn’t it? Fox got too far out in front of the great lie of the feckless fuckup, Donnie “the dumbass” trump. Now it’s coming back to bite them. It’s the so-called “moment we’ve all been waiting for.” We NEVER have to credit Fox “News” again and if someone cites them as some kind of authority, the citation can be dismissed without a second thought.

Oh, you haven’t heard? One of the “devils” the dumbass chose to target in his great lie was a company called Dominion Voting Systems. They make voting machines. The MAGA cons claimed Dominion was cheating on behalf of Biden. They don’t have a single shred of evidence, not one thing – over 60 court cases say so. But, my gods, one could not shut them up about it, in part because Fox “News” had done story after story after story. Rupert Murdoch, the Australian owner of Fox, is evil, not stupid. He likely knew when he named his editorial opinion station that calling it “News” would grant it a certain gravitas it never deserved – and it worked. When things got too tight in one of their lying tales, the talking heads on the show would just remind everybody they’re not journalists, they’re simply “entertainers.” But the viewers dutifully dismissed such disclaimers and took the hosts words as news, if not gospel truth – the exact effect Murdoch seemed to want.

But Dominion has them trapped now. The Fox “News” hosts can (and do) say anything they want outside of the courtroom. That’s how they get away with being slippery in the ways they are. But once one is under oath? Things change. Dramatically. On television, Sean Hannity, for example, gets paid to lie. But he goes to jail for lying under oath. So when it came time for Hannity to be deposed in connection with trump’s…er…trumpery, Hannity came clean. Under oath, he said he didn’t believe the Dominion voter fraud claims “for a second.”

He sure seemed to, though, didn’t he? He brought guests on to repeat elements of the big lie on a regular basis and didn’t challenge any of them on any of their made up points. And Hannity isn’t the only one. Dominion has also deposed Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, Maira Bartiromo and Steve Doocy. It appears they have all taken pretty much the same position – under oath. They march right back to their shows and continue lying as though they hadn’t just sworn under oath and in private the exact opposite of their pretended opinion being broadcast. But now we ALL know, without question, without doubt.

Fox “News” lies and is NOT a dependable source of information…

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Musk ordered the removal of Twitter’s suicide prevention tool. It was called #ThereIsHelp and it tied help resource references to certain specific searches. Can you believe it? No one knows why he did it. He said he didn’t think such a tool was necessary since upsetting content was down on Twitter. (Fair enough. ALL content is down on Twitter.) I think it displays his ignorance. These little help notices pop up in all kinds of media these days. If someone kills themselves on a show, for example, there’s almost always a disclaimer before or after offering connections to related help agencies. Honestly, I don’t know if they help but they certainly couldn’t hurt and I just don’t understand why Musk would attack connections to resources for potentially suicidal people.

I think Musk has now pretty much convinced everybody that he hasn’t a clue as to what he’s doing or how he should be or could be doing it. My own suspicion is that he had a rich-guy temper tantrum. Cons, in general, do not like the fact that various social media platforms began cracking down on lies (deceptively labeled “fake news”). They took it personally which, of course, they would since the vast majority of the fraudulent posts being removed as false were from conservative sources.

It never once penetrated their calcified brains that perhaps those stories were being removed for being false. They simply would not – will not – accept the idea that they’re being manipulated by their favorite talking head into helping the uber-rich usher in a “more perfect (for the uber-rich)” fascist state. Instead, they decided it was some kind of war on conservatives. The funny (to me) part is, the conservative bubble is a kind of feedback loop and the messages get picked up and repeated over and over until ALL con consumers believe the stories and sometimes, that includes members of the uber-rich class and/or the pretenders to the class, like trump.

In this case, that was Musk. He’s supposed to be smart but he can’t distinguish a lie from a fact? All I know for sure is that he clearly bought into the whole war on conservative “information” story and decided to do something about it. He put up $44 Billion dollars to buy a social media platform he knows nothing about. HE thought he could go in and “fix it” by just taking off all of the brakes and letting the thing roll. And rolling it is – straight down hill. (Okay, in fairness, he did just seem to be shooting his mouth off when he made the offer and he tried everything he could think of to get out of the deal but was forced – by his own mouth – to go forward in the end.)

Each day, it seems a bit more likely that Twitter is headed for the dustbin of history. I’ve never been a twit (or whatever they call themselves) so I don’t really care but his investors – twits or not – seem to care very much. Tesla is rapidly losing ground to competitors as well. Now that Musk has totally exposed himself as a moron con people who like to buy electric cars – mostly progressives – are not buying Teslas. This is a development I like since I’ve long thought of Teslas as rolling crematoriums. I doubt the space project will take much of a hit over the whole deal but Musk, himself, might end up forced out as hurting the brand.

I’ll tell you this: I’m very much enjoying this short moment of watching the truth take back some of the gains the lies have held for so long. Fox “News” is getting overrun by the truth. Musk is being run over by the truth. Next? Why that looks like the dumbass is about to have to answer to the truth – perhaps for the first time in his putrid little life…

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On the topic of January 6th, there appear to be two different kinds of people: those who watched the January 6th Committee hearings and know that the dumbass is a traitor who engineered an attempted coup in order to steal power and those who assiduously avoided the hearings and know…well…nothing, really but have very strong opinions anyway.

Now comes the final report. 845 pages of evidence. Here, let me save you some time. The dumbass did it. He’s guilty and there are no ifs, ands, or buts. (As a digression, I know the cons believe their Cheetojesus has never once failed at anything. People who understand things know that the exact opposite is true – trump has never started anything that succeeded – and his egomaniacal coup attempt is no different…) The guy has been slithering out of trouble his whole life with lies, bullying, and scumbag lawyers. Now he’s up against Federal law. Federal law has been dealing with lies, bullying, and scumbag lawyers for a long time. Federal law remains unimpressed by theatrics and hysterics…

I STILL say he won’t go to jail. Although that would be my favorite outcome, he won’t so I’ll settle for a conviction that prevents him from ever holding public office again and takes as much of his stolen lucre as they can legally take. (His supporters will just give him their money instead. If Donnie wants it, they’ll eat cat food for awhile and they’ll never question eating cat food so they can support the so-called billionaire business dude. The cons do not display vast intelligence…) Anyway, all true Americans knew trump was guilty based on the evidence and now the evidence has been formally laid out in this report. Yeah, it says he’s guilty but read it anyway. The details, I’m told (I haven’t read it yet), are delicious.

I’ll tell you this: sometimes, the truth really CAN set one free – but it isn’t helping Donnie one little bit…