Roger Stone

Squeaker McCarthy Thinks Hunter Biden’s ‘Sweetheart Deal’ Enhances His Sham Congressional Probe

Posted by on June 20, 2023 at 12:38 pm. 6 Comments :

After a years long investigation, President’ Biden’s son Hunter is finally being held legally accountable on charges relating to unpaid taxes and unlawful gun possession. It’s what Republicans and have been drooling about relentlessly ever since Biden was inaugurated.

Click here to Tweet this article

Kevin McCarthy, House Speaker (Squeaker)

Notice that Democrats aren’t complaining about this, because they actually honor the law. But now that Hunter has been charged, his GOP pesterers are less than thrilled. They regard the plea deal that he accepted with prosecutors as a too lenient “sweetheart deal.” Which is ironic because one might think that Republicans would support people who resist paying taxes and embrace gun ownership. But no. Because Hunter’s last name is Biden he must be severely punished no matter how minor the crime.

RELATED: Trump’s GOP is Morphing Hunter Biden Into an Evil Cartoon Villain to Deflect From January 6th

Trump himself is appalled that Hunter is getting “a mere ‘traffic ticket'” as punishment. He whines that “Our system is broken.” However, he could have had his own plea deal if he were willing to admit his obvious guilt. But he arrogantly refused. And in disparaging the justice system he neglects to acknowledge that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware who charged Hunter was a Trump appointee.

In Congress the Hunter case has ignited a flurry of allegations that there is a two-tier justice system. They’re right, but not in the way that they think. Hunter received a sentence that is line with other defendants on similar charges. It’s Trump who has so far gotten off easy. And his criminal accomplices do so as well. For instance, Trump whisperer Roger Stone settled a $2,000,000 tax evasion case last year with zero jail time and not even any probation.

The Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, weighed in on the Hunter matter as well. And he exhibited his notoriously deficient capacity for logic and reason. McCarthy told reporters that…

“It continues to show the two-tier system in America. If you are the president’s leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. But if you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal. Now this does nothing to our investigation. It actually should enhance our investigation because the DOJ should not be able to withhold any information now saying that there’s a pending investigation. They should be able to provide [House Oversight Committee] Chairman [James] Comer with any information that he requires.”

McCarthy’s suggestion that the Hunter resolution “enhances” the sham probes he is conducting is downright absurd. Republicans in the House are going after Hunter and President Biden on matters that are completely unrelated to the ones just wrapped up in Delaware. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, is trying desperately to manufacture crimes of bribery and corruption from thin air. In fact, he even admits that the evidence he has been harping about doesn’t exist. And his “star witness,” who no one has talked to in three years, seems to have disappeared.

SEE ALSO: HOW CONVENIENT: GOP Oversight Committee Chair Says He Can’t Find His Star Witness Against Biden

What’s more, McCarthy thinks that the resolution of this Hunter case means that the FBI can’t withhold information about totally unrelated pending investigations. Which makes no sense at all. The fact that other investigations are still in progress is justification for the FBI to decline McCarthy’s inquisition.

For his part, Comer continues to expose his biases and legal prejudice. In his response to the Hunter plea deal he said that…

“Hunter Biden is getting away with a slap on the wrist when growing evidence uncovered by the House Oversight Committee reveals the Bidens engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery.”

Comer still hasn’t presented a shred of his allegedly “growing evidence,” or any hint of the criminal “pattern” that resides in his imagination. He went on to say that “We will not rest until the full extent of President Biden’s involvement in the family’s schemes are revealed.” Which further reveals that he has already predetermined Biden’s guilt, despite having no legal basis for that conclusion.

Meanwhile, McCarthy and his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News, continue to disseminate lies and make hollow threats. It’s all that they have available, considering that they have utterly failed to accumulate any of those little things that we know as facts and evidence. And they will persist in that farce until they are thrown out of the majority next year.

RELATED STORIES:

UPDATE: Trump is still raging…

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Mastodon.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

Tucker Carlson of Fox News Secretly Lobbied for Trump to Pardon Convicted Felon Roger Stone

Posted by on October 1, 2022 at 12:41 pm. 1 Comments :

The lines dividing Fox News from the ultra-rightist Republican Party and the abominable Cult of Donald Trump were erased long ago. There is no discernible distinction whatsoever between Trump’s GOP and Rupert Murdoch’s propaganda network. They work hand in hand to undermine democracy and advance the authoritarian aspirations and agenda of their Dear Leader Trump.

Click here to Tweet this article

Donald Trump, Roger Stone

The latest revelation affirming this nefarious coupling of wingnut media and wretched politicians comes in a passage from the new book by New York Times reporter, Maggie Haberman, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.” The book exposes numerous depravities from the Trump presidency, including that Trump “resisted denouncing White supremacists,” “made light of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s declining health, “ and his Chief of Staff John Kelly describing Trump as a “fascist.”

RELATED: Crybaby Trump Dumps on His Favorite New York Times Reporter for Telling the Truth About Him

Haberman recounts Trump’s efforts to absolve his criminal co-conspirators of any responsibility for their crimes. Specifically, she reports that Tucker Carlson of Fox News personally lobbied the White House to pardon convicted felon Roger Stone. According to Rolling Stone…

“During Trump’s fourth year in office, Carlson also held a secret meeting at the White House with Jared Kushner as part of a pressure campaign aimed at forcing Trump to pardon Roger Stone, according to the upcoming book Confidence Man.”

Haberman wrote that…

“If Trump failed to deliver, Carlson made clear, he would press the issue publicly. Kushner was noncommittal, and a few days later Carlson launched what became a monthslong campaign on his friend’s behalf.”

So Carlson was going far beyond merely urging the Trump administration to pardon Stone. He was actually extorting them with the threat of using his program to attack them if they didn’t comply with his demand. That says something about the weakness of Trump’s White House, that it could be manipulated so easily, and that squeaky cable pundits weren’t afraid to push them around.

Not that Trump needed much pushing. He was already leaning toward pardoning his accomplice, Stone, who he thought was being treated too harshly by his own Justice Department. And that was after then-Attorney General Bill Barr had overruled and lessened the prosecutors’ penalty recommendation.

Stone had been found guilty of witness tampering and lying to Congress, crimes that carry prison terms of up to nine years. Barr got that reduced to 40 months. But Trump later pardoned Stone, along with his confederates Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, and Steve Bannon.

RELATED: The REAL Criminal: Roger Stone Was Prosecuted for Covering Up for Trump

Tusker Carlson injecting himself into White House political and criminal matters is blatantly inappropriate. No reputable journalist would ever consider it. So it’s a good thing that Fox News doesn’t consider Carlson to be either reputable or a journalist. In fact, Fox News lawyers argued in court – successfully – that he couldn’t be found to be guilty of defamation because no reasonable person would believe anything he says. Sadly, there are way too many unreasonable persons who watch Fox News every day.

See… Fox News Court Ruling: No ‘Reasonable Viewer’ Takes Tucker Carlson Seriously

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly.

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Facebook and Instagram.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

WATCH: Alex Jones Says His Orders for the January 6th Insurrection Came from Trump

Posted by on November 23, 2021 at 11:20 am. 4 Comments :

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection just issued five more subpoenas for documents and testimony from Donald Trump’s collaborators in the riots that he incited in Washington, D.C. The list includes two of Trump’s most devoted henchman, political dirty trickster, Roger Stone, and notorious conspiracy crackpot, Alex Jones.

Alex Jones Infowars

The Committee’s announcement of the latest batch of subpoenas noted that their purpose is to seek “information about the rallies and subsequent march to the Capitol that escalated into a violent mob attacking the Capitol and threatening our democracy.” And to that end they spelled out the specific reasons for selecting these individuals to appear.

RELATED: CNN’s Killer Video Mash Up: Tucker Carlson is the New Alex Jones

The subpoena for Alex Jones was especially revealing. It provided a detailed account of his complicity with Trump in his attempted coup. For instance, the subpoena affirmed that Jones stated that…

“…the White House told you on or about January 3, 2021, that after the Ellipse rally ended on January 6th, you were to lead a march to the Capitol, where President Trump would meet the group […] and to gather on the east side of the Capitol to hear President Trump speak.”

This is not a speculative assertion by the Committee. There is video evidence of Jones stating that his actions were being directed by the Trump administration. Jones said that…

“The White House told me three days before, we’re gonna have you lead the march. The Secret Service, before Trump finishes thirty minutes before, will lead you to point, take you out of the front row, and lead you to the place where they want you to start the march. And Trump will tell people ‘Go, and I’m gonna meet you at the Capitol.'”

Of course, the Coward of the Mar-a-Lagoon never showed up at the Capitol as Jones – and Trump himself – had promised. He left his StormTrumpers in the lurch, and hundreds of them are now facing criminal charges for following his orders. The Jones subpoena also stated that…

“…you and others on Infowars repeatedly promoted President Trump’s allegations of election fraud and urged people to come to Washington, D.C., for the January 6 Ellipse rally, and made statements implying that you had knowledge about the plans of President Trump with respect to the rally.”

So according to Jones, Trump was fully involved in the planning of the rally and the violent events that took place afterward. While Jones has been known to lie almost as much as Trump, it is unlikely that he would fabricate a falsehood that implicated his hero in criminal activities. If Jones is ever to be believed, it is about these matters, wherein he asserted that…

“…finally Trump has done the right thing…He is now calling on We the People to take action and show our numbers…This is the most important call to action on domestic soil since Paul Revere and his ride in 1776. The time for games is over. The time for action is now. […] If you allow this multinational consortium to steal this election, you have committed not just us, but yourselves to a living hell.”

It is significant that Jones cited Paul Revere’s ride in his “call to action.” Revere was tasked with alerting the colonists that the time for violent revolution had arrived. Which is exactly what Jones and Trump were trying to do. Jones explicitly said that “[Trump] is calling on Americans to march on D.C. to save our country from a foreign takeover.” That doesn’t sound like a pitch for a peaceful protest, does it?

Trump’s response to the new batch of subpoenas was typically deranged and drenched with hyperbole. In a tweet (posted by his Twitter ban defying spokes-shill), Trump ranted that…

“The Democrats are feasting on January 6th, with no Republicans on the Unselect Committee (Cheney and Kinzinger are not Republicans!) but they are refusing to even discuss the root cause of that protest, which was the insurrection that took place during the November 3rd Presidential Election. We had a Rigged and Stolen Election in our Country, the proof is voluminous and everywhere, but the Democrats refuse to even mention or discuss it. It’s called Cancel Culture, and until that is done, this Country will never heal!”

This is reflective of the dementia-addled Trump stuck in broken record mode. And it is well stocked with steaming bullshittery. First of all, Trump doesn’t get to decide who is Republican. Second, the “root cause of the protest” was the “Big Lie” that he and Fox News and other defilers of democracy have been spewing for months. Third, his tedious claim that a valid election affirmed by all fifty states, and more than sixty court cases, was the real insurrection is both ludicrous and dangerous. And finally, Trump’s claim that “the proof [of election fraud] is voluminous and everywhere,” would make more sense if after a year he could actually provide some.

RELATED: In Delusional Podcast Rant, Trump Still Thinks He’s Going To Be Returned To His Throne

The House January 6th Committee has a great burden to hold the perpetrators of the insurrection accountable. It is an unprecedented task for the Congress, and is hampered by the fact that Republican members remain devoted to the Cult of Trump. But the Committee is benefitting from the big mouths of the conspirators like Jones and Stone. And, of course, the biggest mouth of all, Donald Trump. Their ignorant and arrogant public confessions may provide the best opportunity for justice to be served.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. Thanks for your support.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

The REAL Criminal: Roger Stone Was Prosecuted for Covering Up for Trump

Posted by on February 20, 2020 at 12:48 pm. 1 Comments :

On Thursday morning the media was glued to a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. That’s where Judge Amy Berman Jackson would be handing down the sentence for Donald Trump’s longtime political fixer, Roger Stone, who was convicted on all seven counts of lying to Congress and witness intimidation.

Donald Trump, Prison

Stone’s sentencing was thrown into a whirlwind of controversy after Trump and his Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr, interfered with the ordinary procedures for prosecutors to recommend the sentence. Barr overruled the prosecutors’ recommendation for seven to nine years as being “too harsh,” despite the fact that they were within the established guidelines. And Trump unleashed a frantic flurry of tweets condemning the courts, the Justice Department, and congratulating Barr for “taking charge of a case that was totally out of control.”

Trump considered the prosecution of Stone a “miscarriage of justice.” But the twelve Americans on the jury unanimously disagreed. Now Judge Jackson has sentenced Stone to forty months in prison. He’ll be joining several other Trump associates who ran afoul of the law, such as his personal attorney Michael Cohen and his campaign chairman Paul Manafort. It really doesn’t pay to do business with Trump.

While Stone’s sentence caps the latest chapter in his melodrama, it does not accurately reflect what should be the main story line. Stone is a supporting cast member. Trump is the star. And what people should be paying attention to was noted in Judge Jackson’s remarks:

“[Stone] was not prosecuted, as some have claimed, for standing up for the president. He was prosecuted for covering up for the president.”

Exactly! The real crimes here were committed by Trump. His lackeys merely helped him to carry out his nefarious schemes. If, as the Judge said, Stone was covering up for Trump, then there was, by definition, a criminal conspiracy that required Stone’s efforts to keep it secret.

Now that Stone has been convicted and sentenced, there needs to be a full investigation of what Stone was covering up on Trump’s behalf. And if Trump is found to have broken the law, he needs to be indicted and tried. Contrary to some Republican legal hacks, it is permissible to indict a sitting president. The only alleged obstacle is a memo from the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department that has no force of law.

Stone’s case isn’t the only one that implicates Trump in the commission of broader crimes. Michael Cohen is currently serving three years for his role in Trump’s hush money payoff to Stormy Daniels. In that affair Trump was identified in court documents as “Individual-1,” an unindicted co-conspirator.

The fact that Donald Trump is so often on the periphery of criminal activity, but only his minions are swept up in the legal snare, is something that needs to be examined and corrected. It’s clear that he has criminal intentions, but continues to get off scot free. And many of his cohorts will as well via presidential pardons. That would represent an even deeper level of corruption and abuse of power. And for someone who has already been impeached for those very things, it is imperative that Trump be held accountable and forced to pay his own price for his criminal behavior.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Aspiring Dictator Trump is Still Tweeting Orders to AG Barr to Prosecute Political Rivals

Posted by on February 19, 2020 at 2:47 pm. NO Comments :

In the weeks since Donald Trump was let off the impeachment hook by the bootlicking Senate Republicans, Trump has demonstrated that he has learned an important lesson: He can commit any crime he likes and get away with it. He has tested this lesson by implementing an authoritarian style purge of perceived enemies in his administration and handing out pardons and other executive favors to elite criminals and corrupt colleagues.

Donald Trump, Toilet, Bathrobe

In addition to granting clemency to well-connected crooks, Trump has also put pressure on his Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr, on matters involving his political associates. Most notably, Trump made it clear that he believes his longtime political guru, Roger Stone, was treated too harshly after having been convicted of multiple felonies. Shortly thereafter, Barr announced that he was contradicting the sentencing recommendations by the frontline prosecutors and seeking leniency for Stone.

The subsequent controversy resulted in Barr pretending to be troubled by Trump’s interference. He even opined that Trump should refrain from tweeting about legal matters before the Department of Justice. And there was talk that Barr could resign if further interference by Trump occurred. Of course, he didn’t mean it. That was an obviously staged performance to mitigate the criticism that was Barr was getting from within and without the DOJ.

The proof that Barr’s concerns were phony came on Wednesday morning when he failed to resign after Trump threw some more blatant interferences in his face. Trump posted a couple of tweets asserting wholly unsubstantiated criminal behavior by Democratic opponents. While Trump is fond of whining about his misunderstanding of “due process,” he has no problem charging others with crimes, despite a total absence of evidence. On this occasion he led off with wild accusations against former Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. Chris Murphy that he saw in a segment on Fox News:

Notice that Trump didn’t suggest that a violation might have occurred and should be investigated. He stated as fact that there was a breach of the law and that the perpetrators “Must be dealt with strongly!” He’s apparently designated himself the judge and jury. That’s a reckless state of affairs coming from a reckless president who has also “convicted” Hillary Clinton for some unspecified crimes and led his cult followers in chants to “Lock her up.”

If Trump had any idea what the Logan Act was, he wouldn’t make a fool of himself by raising it in this context. And if Trump thinks that Murphy’s meeting is why Iran isn’t negotiating with him, he is more mentally disturbed than previously thought. Trump is simply trying to blame his own bungling of affairs with Iran on this otherwise routine encounter. After all, it was Trump who unilaterally, and without reason, withdrew from a nuclear agreement that was made between Iran, the U.S., and six other nations. Following that, Trump imposed new sanctions on Iran, who by all accounts were abiding by the agreement. Maybe that had something to do with Iran’s unwillingness to negotiate with him.

Trump’s other tweet went after Mike Bloomberg, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, and someone who Trump despises and fears:

Once again, Trump is asserting a criminal act as fact without evidence or even a specific charge of what Bloomberg did that was allegedly illegal. The “sinister” payoffs that Trump is babbling about have not been shown to have occurred or, if they did, were in any way improper. They surely were nothing like paying $130,000 to a porn star, lying to cover it up, and seeing your personal attorney go to prison for acting on your behalf. And they were nothing like asking Russia to hack your opponent’s emails or extorting Ukraine’s president to get dirt on a political rival.

The fact is that Trump is continuing to tweet orders to his puppet Attorney General. Trump still wants to see his political foes persecuted by a corrupt Justice Department. And Barr has shown that is all too willing to obey whatever commands he is given by Dear Leader. Barr believes in a monarchical theory of government that gives the president nearly unlimited powers. And Trump’s narcissistic delusions of grandeur make him fully capable of assuming the role of a tyrant. So unless the American people rise up to preserve the republic that the Founders provided, it will surely be lost. Don’t let this moment pass you by, America.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

REALLY? Trump Quotes Pro-Impeachment Fox News Judge to Defend Roger Stone

Posted by on February 18, 2020 at 1:39 pm. NO Comments :

Last week Donald Trump fired off a flurry of tweets in defense of his longtime political guru, and now convicted felon, Roger Stone. Trump’s Attorney Genuflect Bill Barr heard and obeyed the commands to seek leniency for Stone. Although Barr also made an obviously staged attempt to reclaim some of the independence that the Department of Justice is supposed to maintain.

Donald Trump, Roger Stone

Barr whined that Trump’s tweets made his job harder. By which he meant that it’s harder to conspire to cover up crimes if Trump keeps confessing to them in public. And it’s harder to pretend to be impartial when Trump is exposing your sleazy collaboration. But Barr’s entreaties to get Trump to clam up were apparently a huge failure. On Tuesday morning Trump, once again, lashed out at the rule of law on behalf of Stone:

Trump’s pigheadedness shouldn’t surprise anyone. He is infamous for blazing his own path no matter how ignorant or destructive. What’s peculiar about these tweets is that they are quoting someone who Trump has viciously maligned in the past.

Judge Andrew Napolitano is the Senior Legal Analyst of Fox News. And in that position he has provided commentary regarding Trump’s legal tribulations with impeachment. In Napolitano’s opinion, the evidence of Trump’s guilt was “overwhelming.” He also stated that there is “undisputed evidence that he abused his power,” and he elaborated saying that…

“Everyone who believes in the rule of law should be terrified of a president who thinks and behaves as if it does not apply to him. As the DOJ has stated repeatedly, impeachment is the proper constitutional remedy for that.”

Napolitano was unceremoniously benched by Fox News throughout the Senate impeachment hearings, likely due to his legal assessments that conflict with the rest of the Trump-fluffers on the State TV Network. But now Trump is embracing the views of Napolitano that were expressed during an appearance on Fox and Friends (video below).

In this case Napolitano argues in favor of Stone getting a new trial. However, a new trial would not be warranted simply because a juror had an opinion about elements of the case. Every juror is likely to have opinions if they are conscious human beings. Jurors are routinely asked if their opinions would prevent them from being impartial. If not, they can serve. A juror would have to allow their opinions to bias their deliberations in order to declare a mistrial. So far there is no evidence of that.

It remains to be seen what the judge will decide with regard to the verdicts in this case. It’s hard to believe that a new trial would produce a different result considering all the available evidence against Stone. Remember, all eleven of the other jurors agreed that Stone is guilty on all counts.

But if Trump is adamant that Napolitano’s advice be adhered to with regard to Stone, then let’s be consistent. Trump should immediately resign due to the ample evidence of his own guilt that Napolitano so painstakingly laid out. I would have no problem with accepting both of Napolitano’s assessments. So how about we grant Stone a new trial, and escort Trump out of the White House? That seems fair.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump’s Dementia Drives His Need to Curse John Kelly, Hug Hope Hicks, and More

Posted by on February 13, 2020 at 12:59 pm. NO Comments :

It seems like this needs to be said nearly every day, but…Donald Trump is getting worse! The obvious mental decline that he is suffering continues to manifest itself in his daily duties. And that doesn’t mean tweeting, golfing, and watching Fox News. Trump is descending into a state of severe confusion and manic desperation.

Hope Hicks

On the heels of the Republican Senate’s reckless and partisan “absolution” of Trump’s many impeachable crimes, he has, as expected, become emboldened to breach every standard of law and ethics that a president ought to be bound by. In particular, he has embarked on a campaign of retribution and vengeance aimed at those he perceives to be enemies. And, as he recently said himself, “I View Everybody as a Threat.” That distinct symptom of paranoia is clearly what has triggered his latest tweetstorm.

Thursday morning saw Trump lashing out in many directions at once. He tweeted a complaint about the conviction of his longtime accomplice in crime, Roger Stone, as “not looking good for the “Justice” Department.” To be clear, that’s the Justice Department that has been under his control for three years now. He also insulted Mike Bloomberg again for being short, like millions of other Americans who vote. He went after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo with an apparently illegal demand that the state drop lawsuits against him in order to prevent retaliatory actions by the federal government. And in addition to those psychotic outbursts, Trump went after his former Chief of Staff, Gen. John Kelly:

Trump’s anger at Kelly was stirred by remarks the General made during a speech at Drew University in New Jersey. Kelly candidly revealed that he disagreed with Trump on several significant issues including Trump’s vilification of key impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. Kelly stated that Vindman had done precisely the right thing when heard about Trump’s attempted extortion of Ukrainian President Zelensky.

In addition, Kelly expressed his differences with Trump on immigration, specifically renouncing Trump’s comments that immigrants were murderers and rapists. Kelly also distanced himself from Trump’s dalliances with his BFF Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Kelly tried to convince Trump, to no avail, that Kim was playing him and would never give up his nuclear weapons. Kelly was no angel and was complicit in many of Trump’s most heinous policies. But he was right to criticize Trump on these matters.

Trump’s attack on Kelly is another example of how he flips 180 degrees on people he once praised effusively. But whenever someone falls out of favor with Trump, he becomes a pariah who was never worth a damn in the first place. You have to wonder why Trump – who knows all the best people – hired so many future worthless pariahs.

Throughout Kelly’s tenure in the Trump administration, Trump held him in high regard. He promoted the Marine general from Homeland Security Secretary to Chief of Staff. And a year into that job job Trump thanked him for “doing a fantastic job.” When he left the White House Trump gushed that Kelly “has served our Country with distinction.” But now Trump is maligning him and breaching a private conversation he allegedly (but unlikely) had with Kelly’s wife.

As further evidence of Trump’s advancing mental infirmities, he just announced that his nurse/security blanket, Hope Hicks, is returning to the White House as counselor to the president and senior adviser reporting to Jared Kushner. She left two years ago to become a communications executive at the parent corporation of Fox News. Now that revolving door is spinning furiously again. Hicks has been part of Trump’s inner circle longer than any non-family member. And Trump has been said to lean on her for emotional support. In addition to that hand-holding and covering up his brain glitches, Hicks admitted that she would tell “white lies” in the performance of her official duties.

The fact that Hicks was suddenly called back to duty is a significant signal that Trump’s mental condition is deteriorating and he needs her to maintain some semblance of balance. And the tweets he’s been pounding out are further proof that he’s on a downward spiral. However, it’s unlikely that any of this is going to be effective in stabilizing Trump. He is already too far gone and his Republican enablers seem to have no interest in righting this sinking ship of state. Let’s just hope we can tread water until November.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump Orders Justice Dept to Persecute His Critics and Pamper His Accomplices

Posted by on February 12, 2020 at 12:53 pm. 3 Comments :

There really is no bottom. Now Wannabe Dictator Donald Trump is bringing fascism to America. He is directing his corrupt Justice Department to investigate and prosecute (persecute) his critics. Meanwhile, he lobbies for light sentences and dangles pardons for his bootlicking sycophantic criminal accomplices. This is not normal. And it demonstrates that Republicans who thought Trump might learn from his impeachment were frighteningly mistaken and/or deluded.

Donald Trump

Trump’s Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr, announced that he will be revising the sentencing recommendations for convicted felon Roger Stone. The prosecutors who tried the case recommended seven to nine years based on established legal guidelines. But Barr’s intervention is based on nothing more than Trump’s angry tweets. And if that’s not bad enough, Barr is assuming control of virtually everything that comes into the Justice Department that involves Trump. And Trump is obviously pleased…

The spectacle of seeing a president congratulate his toady AG for letting a convicted criminal off the hook should send shivers up the spines of the American people. Stone was found guilty of five counts of lying to Congress, and one count each of witness intimidation and obstruction. But his friend in the White House is pulling strings so that he doesn’t have to pay the price for his crimes. As a result of Barr’s interference, all four of the federal prosecutors who tried the case have quit.

What’s more, Trump’s tweet also makes a dangerously reckless and baseless accusation that former special counsel Robert Mueller “lied to Congress.” Trump doesn’t bother to cite any alleged falsehood, probably because he just made it up to slander Mueller. In a subsequent tweet Trump asserted, also without any foundation, that the career DOJ lawyers who tried Stone are “Rogue prosecutors.”

Trump has frequently weighed in on the criminal prosecutions of his associates. Just the fact that he has so many associates who have been prosecuted and found guilty is horrifying. But his reaction has been to lobby for lighter sentences or to issue pardons himself. Some of this confederacy of felons include his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, his deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, his National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and more.

On the other side of that legal coin, Trump has accused many of his political adversaries of crimes without any evidence whatsoever. In addition to Robert Mueller, Trump charged that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff “is a corrupt politician and a criminal;” that “Nancy [Pelosi] is every bit as guilty;” that “Hillary Clinton lied to the FBI;” and that “The Biden family was PAID OFF.” None of these allegations have an iota of evidence for support. They are purely driven by the animosity and vengeance of a wrathful president.

It has been widely known for years (decades?) that Trump is a vile and vindictive person who relishes punishing his perceived enemies. And he perceives enemies virtually everywhere, as he himself recently confessed. But the fact that he has an administration full of glassy-eyed cult followers who will obediently serve his will makes him all the more dangerous. And the Department of Justice is at the top of that list.

What this means is that there is nothing left to separate America from the totalitarian regimes and their tyrants that Trump so admires. This was articulated well by Sen. Chuck Schumer Wednesday on the floor of the Senate. It cannot be overstated how unusual it is for a speech like this to take place. but his words should be taken seriously if this country is to restore justice and preserve democracy:

“The President is claiming that rigging the rules is perfectly legitimate. He claims an absolute right to order the Justice Department to do anything he wants. And the President has as his Attorney General an enabler. And that’s a kind word. Does anyone think it’s out of the question that Pres. Trump might order the FBI to investigate Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden or anybody else without any evidence that supports such an arbitrary violation of individual rights?

“Oh, I know. Some far-right conspiratorial writer, who has no credibility and who just makes things up, writes it, Fox News puts it on, Sean Hannity or someone talks about it, and then the president says ‘Investigate.’ That is third world behavior – not American behavior.”

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

UH-OH: Michael Cohen Paints ‘Grave Picture’ for Trump, Says Fox News Sr. Judicial Analyst

Posted by on February 28, 2019 at 10:56 am. 2 Comments :

The testimony in the House Oversight Committee by Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen on Wednesday provided both fireworks and yawns. Much of what was discussed was already known, but was given more weight by the dramatic nature of a congressional hearing. The fireworks were mainly due to Republican efforts to malign Cohen while obediently defending the President and deflecting from any potentially bad news.

Fox News Judge Napolitano

However, there were some revelatory moments that could expose Trump to some legal jeopardy if they are confirmed by other evidence or testimony. The risks for Trump were so apparent that even the senior judicial analyst on Fox News noticed. Andrew Napolitano was interviewed by Neil Cavuto after Cohen’s hearing (video below). His observations were decidedly unlike those that might be expected on Trump’s favorite propaganda network. He began by addressing the coordinated strategy of the committee’s Republicans to portray Cohen as an incorrigible liar. “If he’s that kind of a monster, Mr. President,” Napolitano asked, “why did you keep him around for ten years?”?

That’s a good question. He might also have pointed out that if lying was such an unforgivable sin, then how can the GOP continue to excuse Trump, whose documented record of lying has exceeded more than 8,000 falsehoods since he took office. But it was Napolitano’s legal analysis that really put Trump’s troubled future into perspective. He offered a brief synopsis of the legal peril that the President may soon find himself in. The upshot, according to Napolitano, is that in Cohen’s testimony “there’s at least four potential felonies” that Trump faces. Napolitano said that:

“[Cohen] paints a potentially grave picture for the president. If the conversation he says he overheard with Roger Stone is true, then the President lied under oath. Because the President swore to the accuracy of his answers to the written question from [special counsel] Bob Mueller, one of which was ‘Did you speak to Roger Stone about Julian Assange?’ Answer: ‘No’

“If what Michael Cohen says is true about the President meeting with the Russians in Trump Tower in June of 2016, then he lied under oath, because he told Bob Mueller he didn’t know about it.

“The payments by Donald Trump, signed while he was president, to Michael Cohen, showing a debt to Michael Cohen. The President swore in his financial statements filed with the Department of the Treasury, he didn’t have any debts with Michael Cohen. And two months after he swore to the accuracy of that he starts writing checks of $35,000 a month to Michael Cohen. That extends the conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission of accurate campaign information into the President’s presidency.”?

If this were an analysis by a Democrat or a liberal pundit it wouldn’t be especially notable. But for the senior judicial analyst at Fox News to be pointing out these legal problems for Trump is rare and, from Trump’s perspective, worrisome. Not that Trump isn’t already worried. His incessant tweeting about “Witch Hunts” and his childish insults aimed at his critics is the obvious behavior of someone consumed by fear. In remarks Trump made about Cohen’s testimony from Hanoi, he reinforced that image of a cornered rat:

“He lied a lot, but it was very interesting, because he didn’t lie about one thing: He said no collusion with the Russian hoax.”?

Actually, Cohen never said that there was no collusion. He only said that he had no direct evidence of it, but that he had his suspicions. So Trump is still desperately trying to distort reality to fit his twisted version of it wherein he can be free of the frightening consequences of his unlawful acts. And if his precariousness legal status is so apparent to a Fox News analyst, then he truly does have something worry about.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Stuperbowl Interview: Dotard Trump Talking About ‘Intelligence’ is Downright Frightening

Posted by on February 3, 2019 at 12:33 pm. 1 Comments :

It’s Superbowl Sunday and the annual tradition of having the president give an interview to the network broadcasting the game is one of the few that Trump isn’t scrapping. Never mind that he recently told his press secretary “not to bother” with holding daily press briefings anymore. Trump agreed to sit down with Margaret Brennan of CBS News for a few minutes of lying and casting insults.

Donald Trump, Padded Cell

Among the atrocious outbursts in this interview were Trump’s remarks about what he had learned from negotiating with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. His unresponsive reply was that she “doesn’t mind human trafficking,” and that “people [are] dying all over the country because of” her. Apparently he learned nothing as he stuck to his routinely hostile behavior of slandering his perceived enemies. But his childish acting out is evidence that he learned what he feels like to get beat to a pulp by a smarter, more experienced political opponent.

Trump also made some ludicrous assertions like claiming that the report by special counsel Robert Mueller exonerated him (Mueller has not published any report). And he admitted that stories about Secretary of State Pompeo talking to Mitch McConnell about running the Senate were true just seconds after calling them “fake news.” Then he characterized the fact that much of his cabinet consists of people serving in an “acting” capacity as a good thing because it gives him more flexibility. It also gives the nation a bunch of hacks who have never been vetted or confirmed by the Senate as the law requires. And he said that his indicted pal Roger Stone never worked for his campaign except for the time that he did.

There were a great many more examples of Trump’s deranged take on a variety of subjects. But perhaps the most disconcerting were those related to national security and his relationship with his own Intelligence team. When asked if reads the reports they prepare for him, Trump said that he did. But his responses revealed that that wasn’t true. Brennan asked him what he found wrong with those reports, and Trump gave this disjointed word salad of a reply: “I think- let me just say it wasn’t so much a report. It was the questions and answers as the report was submitted and they were asked questions and answers.”

HUH? They were asked questions AND answers in this report that wasn’t a report? He went on to provide provably false information about the presence of ISIS in Syria, saying they were ninety-nine percent gone. When Brennan pointed out that Republicans in Congress had just voted to repudiate his positions on abruptly withdrawing from Syria, Trump’s answer reached back to the GOP primary in 2016, where he bragged about beating the Republicans who ran against him. That, of course, had nothing to do with the question.

Shortly thereafter Brennan asked Trump if he is “going to trust the intelligence that you receive?” He gave a qualified “yes,” adding that “if they said in fact that Iran is a wonderful kindergarten, I disagree with them 100 percent.” No one ever said anything remotely like that. And in a direct rebuke of his Intelligence team, Trump said that:

“I have intel people, but that doesn’t mean I have to agree. President Bush had intel people that said Saddam Hussein in Iraq had nuclear weapons – had all sorts of weapons of mass destruction. Guess what? Those intel people didn’t know what the hell they were doing.”

Bush’s intel people told Bush exactly what he told them to say. They didn’t get it wrong. They lied at Bush’s direction. However, Trump is correct that he doesn’t have to agree with this Intel staff. But you have to wonder what the basis is for his disagreement. If he isn’t getting advice from them, from whom is he getting it? All we know is what he said next: “When my intelligence people tell me how wonderful Iran is – if you don’t mind, I’m going to just go by my own counsel.” So far as anyone can tell, Trump’s counsel is either Vladimir Putin or Fox News – or both.

Finally, Trump also dismissed the advice of his Intel team when they told him that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is unlikely to give up his nuclear capabilities. Trump disagreed on the basis of their personal relationship:

“I like him. I get along with him great. We have a fantastic chemistry. We have had tremendous correspondence that some people have seen and can’t even believe it. They think it’s historic. And we’ll see what happens.”

Seriously? Kim is a brutal dictator who murders his foes – even family members – and oppresses his people. But Trump gleefully brags about having “fantastic chemistry” with this tyrant? And this opinion comes long after their summit wherein Kim totally played Trump and has failed to deliver on anything they discussed at the time. In fact, Kim has actually expanded his nuclear facilities and arsenal.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

The one thing that Kim has that Trump truly envies is the blind adulation of his people. And on that Trump openly expressed his desire for the same sort of cult worship from the American people. He isn’t going to get that. At the moment he is the most unpopular president of all time. And judging from recent events like his government shutdown and the arrest and indictment of his closest associates, that isn’t going to show much improvement any time soon.