Floundering Trump Frantically and Falsely Spins Economic Data

Posted by on October 29, 2020 at 12:28 pm. 2 Comments :

With less than a week to go before election day, and Trump’s prospects trending worse by the day, his desperation is becoming ever more apparent and bizarre. He’s complaining about “COVID, COVID, COVID” getting more press than he does. And he’s pushing ludicrous and unfounded conspiracy theories (with the help of Fox News).

Donald Trump, Stock Market

Trump’s arm must be getting sore as he stretches to grasp any bit of support he can cling to. In the process he’s actually alienating more voters than he’s attracting. That’s what happens when you brag about only losing 780,000 jobs in a week, or telling his female rally attendees that he will “get your husbands back to work.” And it doesn’t help that Trump thinks the new Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report is good news:

Trump is actually right that the number is one of the biggest ever reported. But that’s only because he has also presided over the worst numbers ever reported. In fact, the 7.4% (33% annualized) gain is less than the 36% decline that preceded it. So we are actually performing worse economically than we were before the coronavirus hit. If you score five runs in the ninth inning, that’s a pretty good inning. But if you gave up ten runs in the eighth, you’re still going to lose the game. For some reason, Trump failed to mention that in his tweet.

In the same tweet, however, Trump also failed to tell the truth (surprise) about Joe Biden’s tax plan. It is hardly “record setting.” It doesn’t even completely reverse Trump’s Tax Scam for Rich. But it does restore some measure of fairness.

It’s also interesting that Trump says that he’s “glad this great GDP number came out before November 3rd.” Notice that he isn’t glad the number was positive. He isn’t glad that it may be an indicator of some economic relief for the long suffering American people that his negligence and incompetence have hurt so badly. He’s only glad that it came out in time to possibly help him get reelected. Although it is likely too late for that, it shows where his priorities are.

For the record, the nation is still in recession. There are still record numbers of people unemployed, and many of those job losses are permanent. Small businesses and farms have gone bankrupt. Savings for seniors and others on fixed incomes are earning next to nothing on interest. Even worse, Trump is trying to terminate the Payroll tax that funds Social Security, which would bankrupt the program by 2023.

Trump likes to claim that he’s responsible for any gains in the stock market and that Biden would be a “disaster.” But not only is the stock market not representative of the broader economy, no president controls it. It’s a function of investors predicting how business will perform in the future.

However, to the extent that those predictions are based on policies put forward by a president, the market’s rise is actually a vote for Joe Biden. That is who Wall Street is anticipating will be president next year, and they regard that as a positive development for the economy. Which makes Trump’s assertion that “Next year will be FANTASTIC!!!” the only true comment in his tweet.

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

Find us on Google+
Advertisement:

Trump Whines: Twitter Won’t Allow Me to Tweet Bogus Biden Story that I’m Tweeting

Posted by on October 28, 2020 at 11:45 am. 5 Comments :

The closing arguments for Donald Trump’s floundering reelection campaign are focused narrowly on two subjects, neither of which the American people consider relevant to their lives. Nevertheless, Trump is spending the last week before election day hammering away repetitively at these non-issues in a desperate attempt to claw his way out of the abyss he created for himself.

Donald Trump, Toilet, Bathrobe

One of the topics that tops Trump’s list is his impression that the media is obsessed with the coronavirus pandemic and is reporting on it solely to hurt him. Never mind that more than 226,000 Americans have died due to his negligence, incompetence and deliberate malfeasance. Nor that he himself, his family, and numerous members of his White House staff have been infected. Trump insists that “we are rounding the turn,” despite the fact that cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are at all time highs. And he doesn’t believe that that merits media coverage.

The other closing argument of the Trump campaign is the one that he does want to see more media coverage of. It concerns debunked allegations of some vague misbehavior by Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Trump is ranting that both are are criminals, but he has yet to provide any evidence or even identify any law that was violated. Even GOP chair Ronna McDaniel was unable to defend the charges during an interview on Fox News.

Which brings us to Trump’s latest tweetstorm. On Wednesday morning he unleashed several tweets assailing the media for “suppressing” the Hunter Biden story. He led off with this one:

What’s amazing is that Trump can complain that Twitter won’t allow him to mention something that he is actually mentioning while he’s complaining about not being allowed to mention it. And while Trump insists that Twitter “isn’t allowing a word to be said about it,” he says even more in three subsequent tweets.

Trump desperately wants to change the subject of the campaign coverage from issues that matter, like COVID-19, unemployment, the recession, and Trump’s failure to manage any of it competently. He’d prefer to discuss an issue that the media – including the Wall Street Journal and Fox News – declined to cover when Rudy Giuliani tried to pitch it. To Trump this is “the biggest story.” But to honest journalists and the American people it’s a shameless attempt to disseminate badly fabricated propaganda.

In another of Trump’s morning tweets he said that “Calls grow louder to get special prosecutor to investigate Hunter Biden.” Those calls are coming from inside the shrunken head of Trump and his bootlicking sycophants. He also tweeted that “The USA doesn’t have Freedom of the Press, we have Suppression of the Story.” In Trump’s diseased mind, freedom of the press is when they print exactly want he says they should. Which, of course, is the opposite of a free press.

Trump continued his twit-opining by asserting that “Media and Big Tech are not covering Biden Corruption!” However, Trump hasn’t identified any corruption by Biden. He is simply ranting wildly about fictional “crimes” and joining chants at his cult rallies of “Lock him up.” The media can’t be faulted for not covering something that only exists in the paranoid delusions of a bitter and partisan presidential loser.

LATE ADDITION: Trump weighed in again on this subject asking “Why isn’t Twitter trending Biden corruption? It’s the biggest, and most credible, story anywhere in the world. Fake Trending!!!” The reason it isn’t trending, of course, is that it is neither a big story, nor a credible one. But Trump is still nursing his fetish with this bullcrap.

Trump’s deranged rage at being prohibited from doing something that he’s currently doing is just further evidence of his mental infirmity and unfitness to serve. His psychosis is consuming him, and will likely get worse in the days to come as he is less able to fool himself with regard to his losing campaign. These will be perilous days for the nation. But with vigilance and a steadfast commitment to our principles, we will weather this storm and emerge stronger for it.

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


Trump Parrots Illegal Advice By Fox News to Change Your Vote

Posted by on October 27, 2020 at 1:10 pm. 2 Comments :

There is now only one week left until election day. Not that election day has the significance it once had considering all of the opportunities to vote early or by mail. But it does still represent the end of the 2020 campaign season. And given the dreadful position that Donald Trump finds himself in, he is grasping desperately for ways to keep from suffering a historic landslide defeat.

Donald Trump, Mask, Fox News

As usual, Trump is relying on his shadow cabinet of Fox News sycophants for advice. Never mind that Trump is simultaneously bashing Fox for not being 110% adoring at all times, he still knows that he has nowhere else to go for the drooling devotion that Fox regularly provides. And on Tuesday morning he got a healthy dose of it from the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends (video below):

Co-host Ainsley Earhardt: According to Google Trends data, some people are thinking of changing their vote and they’re asking if they are able to do that. This is what’s trending right now: “Can I change my vote,” and “Hunter Biden.” Do you think that after we’ve learned the news of Hunter Biden, the alleged reports about him, people now want to change their Biden vote to Donald Trump vote?
Co-host Steve Doocy: Well, here’s the thing Ainsley. Every state has different rules. Minnesota, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, all have specific laws where you can change your mind after you vote. If you vote, apparently, in person at an early voting place, you don’t get a do-over. But if you submit an absentee ballot, or one of those mail-in ballots, apparently you can go ahead and change it.
Earhardt: Or you can also go to the poll and vote in person and that’s the one that would count.

This is only partly true. If you voted in person already, you cannot change your vote. If you voted by mail, there are certain circumstance where you can request another ballot or vote in person. However, voting in person after casting a mail-in vote is only permitted in five states. One of them is New York. In the other 45 states you will be potentially committing felony voter fraud if you attempt to vote twice (which Trump has previously encouraged people to do).

So if voters in New York wish to take the advice of Fox News, they can do so. But what’s the point? First of all, how many Biden voters in New York are going to switch their votes to Trump because of a phony scandal about Hunter Biden that even the GOP chairwoman couldn’t defend in an appearance on Fox? And it wouldn’t have any impact whatsoever on the outcome of the election in the solid blue state of New York.

Nevertheless, Fox’s number one viewer was watching and couldn’t resist commenting on the possibility that Biden supporters are suddenly clamoring to switch their votes to Trump:

Trump’s assumption that a trending topic on Twitter regarding changing votes refers to switching to him is ludicrous. That’s particularly true with regard to his assertion that the switch is coming after a debate that most people say Biden won. And the Hunter Biden story has utterly failed to get any traction. Consequently, by urging people to change their votes now, Trump is probably only persuading Trump voters to switch, producing more votes for Joe Biden.

What’s more, Trump didn’t make any distinction about states where this is legal and those where it isn’t. He didn’t even link to the Fox News clip that did alert people to the differences in different state laws. That could result in people putting themselves in legal jeopardy. Not that Trump cares. If the nation’s coronavirus SuperSpreader-in-Chief doesn’t care about putting people’s lives in jeopardy, he surely doesn’t care about this.

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


While Trump Whines Media is All ‘COVID, COVID, COVID,’ Fox News Gets Hit Hard

Posted by on October 26, 2020 at 12:31 pm. 5 Comments :

As the coronavirus pandemic surges to ever new highs in infections, hospitalizations, and fatalities, Donald Trump desperately wants to change the subject. He thinks the American people should be more interested in vague emails stolen from a laptop that allegedly belonged to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. That’s a “crime” that the Wall Street Journal debunked and even the chair of the GOP couldn’t confirm during questioning by Fox News.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Coronavirus

More than 225,000 Americans have already died due to Trump’s negligence, incompetence, and deliberate malfeasance. And more than 8.5 million have been infected, many of who will suffer permanently disabilities. The media is, therefore, well justified in featuring this story prominently in their coverage. It is news that people require as they seek to protect themselves and their families. But it is also news that Trump rightly believes is detrimental to his reelection prospects. Consequently, he is frantically pounding out numerous tweets like these…

Suffice to say that the claims of progress made handling the Trump virus are flagrant and dangerous lies. So is his delusional electoral analysis. He is losing to Joe Biden in every national poll, as well as in most of the crucial battleground states. But his obsessive whining about the media covering the pandemic is a self-serving and futile ploy to suppress news that he doesn’t like. And if he thinks his yelping will achieve that goal, he probably suffered more neurological damage from his own bout with COVID-19 than his doctors have let on. In fact, he his rants are actually ensuring more coverage.

The charge that the press is devoting substantial time to a deadly, out of control pandemic in order to hurt Trump’s campaign could only be thought up by a severely paranoid narcissist. But what makes this all the more ironic is that Trump’s own media Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) is among the pandemic’s victims. A “Dear Colleagues” memo went out on Monday morning to Fox News employees from its CEO, Suzanne Scott, and President, Jay Wallace. It said in part that…

“We wanted to inform you about recent developments of a few positive COVID-19 cases at FOX News Media. This is a reminder that any employee who has tested positive will be quarantining and following all of our mandatory guidelines before they enter any of our buildings. Please know that we stay in close contact with those employees who have been affected and offer our complete support.”

The memo didn’t mention that the “few employees” impacted by this included the president, Jay Wallace, as well as anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, and two of the hosts of The Five, Dana Perino and Juan Williams. They were reportedly exposed to someone on a private flight, chartered by Fox News to bring staffers back from the presidential debate in Nashville, who later tested positive for the coronavirus. The memo also didn’t mention that many of Fox’s programs are disseminating the same lies about the virus that Trump is.

The memo went on to reaffirm that the network has been “operating under the strictest health and safety protocols throughout the pandemic.” And yet that didn’t protect them from this exposure. Additionally, the memo said that “we will be further reducing some of the workforce in our buildings and operating virtually wherever possible throughout the week.” It is important to note that “the week” referenced here isn’t just any week. It’s the week prior to the most important and hotly contested presidential election in modern times. And Fox’s president, along with the two anchors assigned to cover the returns, are going into quarantine.

So while Trump is babbling that “COVID, COVID, COVID” is a “fake news” media conspiracy against him, his pals at Fox News are hunkering down in their basements due to the surging spread of a virus that Trump says is “totally under control.” And never mind that his Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, said that they aren’t even trying to control it.

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


GOP Chair Forced to Admit to Fox News There’s No Evidence of Wrongdoing By Biden

Posted by on October 25, 2020 at 3:02 pm. 4 Comments :

In the closing days of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump has decided that the big issue dominating the minds of the American people is emails that Trump and Rudy Giuliani and the Republican Party have dubiously attributed to Joe Biden’s son. They aren’t worried about the coronavirus pandemic that is hitting record highs in infections and fatalities, or the unemployment rate, or passing a relief bill.

Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

In their desperation to find a way to dig out of the electoral ditch they dug for themselves, the Trump regime is reprising the phony email scandal that they fabricated about Hillary Clinton four years ago. What they haven’t figured out yet is that 2020 is not 2016. And their efforts are falling flat.

A prime example of that is the interview that aired Sunday morning on Fox News Sunday. Host Chris Wallace questioned the chair of the Republican Party, Ronna McDaniel, about the manufactured controversy surrounding a laptop that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden. There are numerous flaws in this story that was first brought to light by the star of the new Borat movie, (and Trump’s personal attorney) Rudy Giuliani. During the interview there was an exchange wherein McDaniel was forced to admit that she had zero evidence of any wrongdoing by either of the Bidens (video below):

Wallace: I want to ask you one question. Do you have any proof – because he’s denied it – do you have any proof that Joe Biden ever took one penny from either a foreign country or a foreign company?
McDaniel: I think that’s incumbent upon the press to start investigating. I think what’s frightening is we should have a free and fair press that should be looking at a laptop that has not been disputed by the Biden campaign to be authentic. These emails are deeply troubling as it looks like Hunter Biden is negotiating with a Chinese energy company to profit, not just for himself, but for his father. But it warrants an investigation. That’s not my job. That’s the press’ job. That’s the FBI, those who have this laptop to look into it.

Actually, It is not the job of the press to validate wild and unsubstantiated allegations by partisan political hacks. McDaniel shouldn’t be making these charges if she admittedly has no evidence to support them. McDaniel says that it’s the duty of “those who have this laptop to look into it.” Well, Giuliani has the laptop and hasn’t provided any evidence. The FBI has it and they haven’t found anything either. And if McDaniel wants the press to investigate the laptop, why doesn’t she get Giuliani to give it to them so they can do so? Is she afraid that it will come out that there isn’t any evidence of wrongdoing? Wallace also addressed the the FBI’s role:

Wallace: The FBI has had the hard drive since December. Why haven’t they come up with any evidence?”
McDaniel: I don’t know! I’m not in the internal aspects of that investigation. But what’s more disturbing, Chris, is Twitter is censoring these stories. The press is saying this has been debunked without even investigating it. Why are they doing that? Why are they covering for this story?

So first McDaniel insists that the FBI should be the source of any credible allegations. But when reminded that the FBI hasn’t found anything, she pivots to an imaginary and paranoid assertion that Twitter is censoring the story. Of course, Twitter can’t tell any news enterprise what to publish or broadcast. Her complaints just add more noise to the debate without shedding any light on it. She knows the press doesn’t have the laptop and that Giuliani won’t give it to them.

McDaniel is just stirring up dust to cloud the eyes of the ignorant Trump cult disciples who are desperate for something to cling to. That’s probably in her job description. But she isn’t doing it very well. If she can’t even give coherent answers to questions by Fox News, she really should just hang her head and slink away to nurse her shame. Expect more of these embarrassing failures from McDaniel and her confederates for at least the next week prior to election day.

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


Mentally Feeble Trump Can’t Grasp Biden’s Opposition to Voter Fraud

Posted by on October 25, 2020 at 12:20 pm. 3 Comments :

The reelection campaign of Donald Trump is desperately reaching for closing arguments to persuade voters to rehire him for another four years. So far he has focused on lying about the end of the coronavirus pandemic being “around the corner,” black socialists invading the suburbs, and emails dubiously attributed to Joe Biden’s son. These are the subjects that Trump believes are on the minds of the American people as they go to the polls.

Donald Trump Sweating

The pitifully barren landscape of Trump’s messaging has not made a dent in Biden’s lead over Trump in every national poll, as well as most of the polling in the crucial battleground states. Consequently, Trump is pivoting to his familiar, but tired, whining about the media and his fear mongering about a “rigged” election tainted by voter fraud for which there isn’t a speck of evidence.

With regard to the alleged voter fraud, the Trump Brigades have now latched onto a video of Biden saying that “We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.” But the Trumpists are interpreting that as Biden confessing to an effort to commit fraud. That interpretation can only be held by someone with a severe cognitive malfunction. Clearly Biden is referring to a program aimed at preventing voter fraud. Nevertheless, Trump’s press secretary rushed to post an all-caps tweet, complete with multiple red sirens, to warn America that…

Trump himself reacted to this ludicrous notion in a tweet saying “What a terrible thing for Biden to say! Rigged Election?” Trump is proving that his ability to comprehend English is woefully deficient. What’s more, his hypocrisy is off the charts. He has spoken previously about his “very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL,” and his embarrassingly inept “Commission On Voter Fraud,” which disbanded in shame after finding no evidence of any. However, in neither of these comments did he consider himself to be “bragging” about supporting voter fraud, even though one could apply the same faulty interpretation to them as Trump applied to Biden.

For the record, what Biden was referring to was a group within his campaign that is devoted to preventing the sort of voter fraud that they anticipate will emerge from Trump’s campaign. This was reported months ago when it was announced that “Biden’s campaign “has gathered a group of 600 lawyers and more than 10,000 volunteers to fight against possible ‘chicanery’ in the November election, as the candidate warns that President Donald Trump could interfere with the election to ensure his victory.”

Here’s why this seemingly trivial event is so important. The fact that Trump and his deceitful confederates would so openly attempt to peddle this out-of-context version of reality is testament to how desperate they are. They haven’t got anything of substance to talk about that won’t just make them look worse. Trump has failed on virtually every level that a president can fail. The economy is in recession. The deficit is at record highs. Employment is at record lows. Our reputation internationally is in tatters. and more than 225,000 American have died due to Trump’s negligence, incompetence, and deliberate mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Or more accurately, lack of response.

That’s why Trump is sinking to this barrel-bottom tactic. He has nowhere else to go but down. And if he has his way, he will take the rest of us down with him. His glassy-eyed cult followers are all too willing to cling to his anchor. But the majority of the American people are not going to be dragged to the depths of Trump’s mania. And that is just making him even more deranged and dangerous. So stay vigilant and steadfast in the final days of this campaign. Vote, and get everyone you know to vote as well. That’s the most powerful weapon we have, and we must make full use of it.

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

Find us on Google+
Advertisement:

Partners in Grift: GOP Spent a Million Dollars on Hannity’s Trump-Fluffing Book

Posted by on October 24, 2020 at 12:04 pm. 0 Comments :

The Mutual Benefit Society that is comprised of Fox News, the Republican Party, and Donald Trump is marching lock-step forward to advance their totalitarian dystopia. And the funds that flow freely between them continue to grease the skids for a criminal president, an unprincipled political party, and a shameless media purveyor of flagrant propaganda.

Donald Trump Sean Hannity

With the last presidential debate (which Trump pitifully lost) tucked away in the history books, the opportunities for him to rescue his floundering reelection campaign are dwindling to nil. That may be the reason that he is refocusing his efforts on a post-presidency future that he vainly hopes will keep in him in the public eye. Above all else, Trump is desperate to maintain a link to the ego-stroking hordes who make up his cult following.

To that end, Trump is directing the resources of the Republican Party that he leads toward one of his most rabid supporters, Sean Hannity of Fox News. A new book by Hannity recently made the New York Times bestseller list. But it didn’t get there because of fervent public demand. According to Salon…

“This week the RNC reported $492,308 in expenditures on “donor mementos” at book retailers, all of it spent on Sept. 16. Salon has confirmed that at least $159,000 of that amount went for bulk retail purchases of Hannity’s book, “Live Free or Die,” which have been offered to GOP donors who gave $75 or more. […] evidence suggests that all of the $492,308 in expenditures went to Hannity’s book. Combined with August receipts, it is possible that the RNC has spent more than $900,000 on Hannity’s book over the last three months.”

So The GOP is shelling out loads of scarce cash to reward Hannity for his worshipful coverage of Trump on Fox News. The people who donated those funds probably didn’t intend for them to be used to further enrich an already wealthy media hack. But Trump’s donors have been a lost cause for weeks, blindly throwing their money away on a futile campaign.

Trump himself has promoted Hannity’s book, as he has at least 79 other books that effusively praise him, but which he surely hasn’t read. The whole enterprise was built to generate cash and manipulate it into the pockets of Trump and his confederates. Much like the missions of just about every other Trump business from his bankrupt casinos to his fraudulent “university.”

Simultaneously, this syndicate serves to buttress the messiah mythology that the Trumpists seek to promote to their glassy-eyed disciples. These are the unethical and lawless tactics that a cult employs to ensure order and reverence (and wealth) for its Dear Leader. And we can expect it to continue after Trump returns to civilian life. That is if he doesn’t end up in prison for life.

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


DELUSIONAL: Trump Thinks He Won the Debate that Most Voters Say He Lost

Posted by on October 23, 2020 at 11:25 am. 3 Comments :

The final debate of the 2020 presidential season is in the books. Partisans on both sides will claim that their candidate was obviously the winner. But the American people – 50,000,000 of whom have already voted – will have the final say. That, however, will not deter Donald Trump from spinning furiously in a desperate attempt to maintain relevance.

Donald Trump

Trump already started his vain and impotent PR campaign to boost his fragile ego. In the minutes following the debate’s conclusion he tweeted eight Twitter polls posted by his true believers like Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze. These, of course, are not real surveys of scientifically selected voters. They just represent the anguish of Deplorables clawing for some measure of relief in the face of defeat. Trump also retweeted a flurry of Trump-fluffing sycophants who hailed his “victorious” performance. They included strident sycophants like his Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, Rush Limbaugh, Kellyanne Conway, GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy, and the NRA.

Back in the real world, Trump was the unanimous loser in the first three credible polls conducted after the debate. CNN’s poll called the win for Biden by 53% to 39%. Data for Progress put it at 52% to 41%. And YouGov had Biden with 54% over Trump’s 35%. All of these polls gave Biden a double digit lead among voters who watched the debate. And CNN’s poll had additional bad news for Trump:

“Viewers once again said that Biden’s criticisms of Trump were largely fair (73% said they were fair, 26% unfair), and they split over whether Trump’s attacks on Biden were fair (50% said yes, 49% no).

“All told, though, the debate did not do much to move impressions of either candidate. Favorable views of Biden before the debate stood at 55%, and they held steady at 56% in post-debate interviews. Likewise, Trump’s numbers held steady, with 42% saying they had a favorable view of the President in interviews conducted before Thursday’s debate and 41% saying the same afterward.”

If the post-debate standings of the candidates don’t move, that’s a win for Biden who is already in the lead. Trump is the one who needed to create some momentum. But he failed. That’s because his message during the debate was typical of his unhinged cult rally rhetoric (transcript here).

The moderator, Kristen Welker, began the debate by asking the candidates to “be specific: how would you lead the country during this next stage of the coronavirus crisis?” Trump lied in the first sentence of his first answer saying that “2.2 million people, modeled out, were expected to die.” But that was only a projection of what to expect if literally nothing was done. And while Trump indeed did next to nothing, many state governors took control and implemented mitigating measures like shutting down certain businesses, limiting group gatherings, providing testing, and mandating masks.

The remainder of Trump’s response was focused solely on false representations of alleged accomplishments and flagrant lies about spikes being gone in Florida, Texas, and Arizona, all of which are suffering record high rates of cases and fatalities.. He never specifically addressed what he would do to “lead the country during this next stage of the coronavirus crisis?” But he did repeat his ludicrous claim that “we’re rounding the corner, it’s going away.”

The final question asked each candidate what they would say during their inauguration to the people who did not vote for them. Trump completely ignored the question. He talked only about the past and made wild assertions about what Biden would do. That’s what he would say in his inauguration speech? Well, it would still be a slight improvement over his first “American Carnage” inaugural. However, he did surpass his previous record for lying in a debate, which is quite a feat.

Finally, it should be noted that Trump praised Welker during the debate saying “By the way, so far, I respect very much the way you’re handling this, I have to say.” Remember that when he starts ranting about how biased and rude and hateful she was, which he already started prior to the debate saying that “Kristen Welker is terrible, I mean she is totally partisan.” It’s the same sort of hostility he showed prior to Lesley Stahl’s 60 Minutes interview. It is, in fact, all he knows how to do.

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


Trump Spends Most of the 60 Minutes Interview Lying and Whining About the Media

Posted by on October 22, 2020 at 1:02 pm. 5 Comments :

While awaiting the final presidential debate of 2020, Donald Trump is obsessing over a 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl that won’t air until Sunday. Well, it ordinarily wouldn’t air, but Trump took it upon himself to release his own video in violation of his agreement with CBS.

Donald Trump Angry

On Thursday morning Trump pounded out some tweets referring to the interview. True to form, Trump displayed a familiar attitude of weakness and victimhood as he sought to portray Stahl as a big meanie who was out to get him. He whimpered that…

“I will soon be giving a first in television history full, unedited preview of the vicious attempted “takeout” interview of me by Lesley Stahl of @60Minutes. Watch her constant interruptions & anger. Compare my full, flowing and “magnificently brilliant” answers to their “Q’s”.

And…

“Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS. Tonight’s anchor, Kristen Welker, is far worse!”

If this is what Trump thinks is anger, hatred, and rudeness, he really is a fragile little snowflake. But that’s been glaringly apparent for years. In addition to this petulant grumbling, Trump has also blatantly violated the agreement he made with 60 Minutes not to release any video prior to the Sunday evening broadcast. CBS reacted to this breach of contract in a press release chastising his “unprecedented decision to disregard their agreement.” But anyone who expects Trump to behave ethically hasn’t been paying attention.

The interview itself was a shipload of lies (video below). Trump claimed repeatedly that he already has a healthcare plan (that he still refuses to reveal) to replace the Affordable Care Act, even as he expresses his desire that the Supreme Court strike down Obamacare. He also said that he doesn’t know anything about Steve Bannon (his former campaign chairman) and Rudy Giuliani (his current personal attorney) or their smear campaign against the Biden family. Never mind that he’s been talking and tweeting about it ever since it surfaced in the right-wing press. Trump repeated his frequent lie that the Obama administration spied on him. And that’s just the tip of iceberg.

Let’s set aside the voluminous lies that Trump told during this interview. That’s business as usual for Trump. He also spent much of the time complaining about Stahl and the media instead of answering the questions. She struggled, mostly in vain, to get him to stick to the subject. But his mind wandered aimlessly through a forest of incoherence as he tried desperately to deflect every inquiry into some form of media bashing. For instance…

In response to a question he obviously didn’t like, Trump began his reply attacking Stahl’s tone, saying that “The way you said that is why people think of you and everyone else as fake news.” When she pointed out the fallacy of Trump’s claim that his recent cult rallies are “the biggest rallies we’ve ever had,” (they aren’t), he responded with a brittle “You’re so negative.” And in a tired old complaint Trump whined that “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have social media. Because the media is corrupt. In my opinion the media is corrupt. The media is fake. And frankly, if I didn’t have social media I’d have no way of getting out my voice.” That’s the alleged “President” of the United States saying that he has no platform for communicating with the public.

Trump raised several objections that centered around his jealousy of Joe Biden. “You don’t ask Biden tough questions,” Trump cried. “I wish you would interview Joe Biden like you interview me. […] You’re like big tech. You’re protecting him. And everyone is. Except for a few people.” Trump complained again about being asked “tough questions.” Then he falsely claimed that “When you set up the interview you didn’t say that. You said ‘Oh, let’s have a lovely interview.'” Yeah sure, that’s what veteran journalist Lesley Stahl said. Then Trump whines again that Biden has never been asked a hard question. And shortly thereafter Trump concludes that his suffering was too much and decides to run away saying “That’s enough. Let’s go.”

Somehow, Trump’s cult disciples continue to view Trump as a pillar of strength. That’s an extraordinarily perverse image of a man who is so clearly a weakling and a coward. There has never been an American leader who wallows so deeply in victimhood. However, he does have much to fear now. He’s about to be resoundingly defeated for reelection. And after that he is likely to face multiple civil and criminal trials. So maybe we should cut him some slack if he’s trembling at the prospect of his crumbling future. Nah, let’s not. He brought it on himself, and it’s what he deserves.

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


Donors Have Abandoned Trump’s Failed Campaign, Including Trump

Posted by on October 21, 2020 at 12:37 pm. 3 Comments :

As the 2020 Presidential election season winds down to its final days, the red flags for Donald Trump are waving wildly in the hurricane force winds that are pummeling his increasingly desperate campaign. Most polls are showing him trailing Joe Biden by double digits nationally, and his prospects in the crucial swing states don’t look much better.

Donald Trump Circling the Drain

As a result of these harrowing conditions for Trump, he is becoming even more hysterical as he ramps up preposterous allegations against his opponent. Those include aiding and abetting Russian disinformation, whining petulantly that everyone is against him, and insisting that Democrats must, by law, become Republicans.

Among the warning signs that Trump is facing are defecting Republican leaders, television ratings defeats to Biden, and dwindling donations. On the latter, the most recent financial reports from Trump and Biden show a decided advantage for Biden during the most critical phase of the campaign:

However, Trump supporters should not be worried because Trump made this promise to them last week:

The only problem with that promise (other than most of it being flagrantly untruthful) is that Trump isn’t showing any indication that he intends to keep it. Trump still isn’t contributing to his floundering campaign. And if he doesn’t do so now, then when? What message does that send to any donors he has left? He expects them to keep shelling out for the lost cause that he won’t support himself. That makes them the suckers paying to fluff his ego.

Trump still thinks he’s running the 2016 campaign when he was a reality TV game show host without a political record. He thinks that he can coast to victory by exploiting hundreds of millions of dollars in free airtime from news networks covering his every word. But those networks are not airing his his cult rallies and press conferences any more. Not even Fox News is doing it regularly. So Trump needs to rely more heavily on paid media that he can’t afford to pay for.

By all appearances, Trump has already given up any hopes of being reelected. He isn’t reaching out to new constituencies. He is embargoing his TV appearances to Fox News or other similarly friendly venues. And his arguments for a second term consist mainly of conspiratorial nonsense and unbridled hostility. For instance, he’s issuing ludicrous demands to throw Biden in jail for imaginary crimes. He’s making wild, baseless claims about communist Democrats plotting the destruction of America. And he’s continuing to downplay the tragic consequences of the coronavirus that he allowed to spread uncontrollably across the country.

This is not the behavior of anyone who is seriously seeking the votes of the American people. It is more like the ravings a mental patient with acute narcissism and malignant paranoia. And it is unlikely to persuade any citizens to cast their votes for such a deranged candidate.

What’s more, Trump is also killing any opportunity he thinks he has for a career after he leaves the White House. Who would hire someone so unstable and bent on self-destruction? At this rate, Trump would be lucky to get a five minute weekly commentary on the low-rated, ultra-rightist, One America News Network (OANN). And even then, most people would just watch it for the laughs.

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