General

Trump: ‘I’d Rather Be Strong’ and Heartless than Be ‘Overrun With Millions’ of Criminal Immigrants

Posted by on June 20, 2018 at 1:09 pm. 6 Comments :

The president who called immigrants “animals” and described them as “infesting” America has backed down on his abhorrent policy that ripped children from the arms of their mothers and fathers. Never mind that he and his surrogates insisted that this “horrible” policy that doesn’t exist was created by Democrats and was just like “summer camp.”

Donald Trump

Now Donald Trump, who previously said that only Congress could fix this, has allegedly fixed it (see update below). He was adamant that he couldn’t do anything about it, but now he holds a televised ceremony asserting that he is doing something about it. Either he was lying then or he just signed an illegitimate document.

However, we must not forget that Trump knew exactly what he was doing when he implemented the family separation policy. Team Trump repeatedly admitted that it was a deliberate effort to provide a deterrent to immigrants and others seeking asylum. He also tried to use the issue – and the children – as ransom for support for his idiotic border wall. And even as he prepared to sign this executive order, he articulated his view that any expression of compassion was a sign of weakness that he rejected:

“If you’re really, really pathetically weak, the country is going to be overrun with millions of people. And if you’re strong, then you don’t have any heart. That’s a tough dilemma. Perhaps I’d rather be strong.”

It is not surprising that Trump is averse to human empathy. He has demonstrated that amply over the many years of his public life. But his open preference for being strong as a direct alternative to having heart is further evidence of his unfitness to lead a compassionate nation. What’s more, he continues to portray immigrants as invading hordes who aspire to overrun the nation and strip “patriotic” Americans (white Christianists in Trump’s view) of their rights and privileges. The “millions” of invaders, though, are an obvious scare tactic to trigger more hatred from his glassy-eyed disciples.

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

It remains to be seen whether Trump’s temporary “solution” actually solves anything. He will still claim that Democrats are obstructing a more comprehensive reform. And of course, he will try to take all the credit for solving a problem that he created. But that must not be allowed. It’s important to make sure that he doesn’t exalt himself as the savior of the children now that he was forced to reverse his noxious policy. What he did was a moral atrocity. It will have been a moral atrocity after it’s stopped. Some of the damage to these kids will be permanent, and the perpetrators deserve permanent scorn for what they’ve done. We must never forget or forgive this sort of heinous government activity. #BlameTrump

UPDATE: The text of the executive order has been publishes and it’s predictably weak. It has loopholes relating to its implementation only when “appropriate and consistent with law and available resources.” So he could still ignore it by saying that it violated some law (as he has been doing) or he doesn’t have the money.

Fox News Defends Traumatizing Kids Because ‘President Trump is Not Gassing Children’

Posted by on June 19, 2018 at 3:34 pm. 3 Comments :

Ever since the story broke about how Donald Trump is ripping children from the arms of their mothers and fathers, Fox News has been trying very hard to help the President obfuscate the issue. They have been variously claiming that it wasn’t happening, or it that it was happening before Trump, or that it was an act of mercy, or that it was horrible but the fault of Democrats. They have been so shaken by the public reaction that they can’t seem to pick a lie and stick to it.

Fox News Todd Starnes

Now Todd Starnes of Fox News Radio has found a whole new approach to the matter. He’s delighted that he can defend Trump’s child abuse initiative by noting that the President isn’t gassing children. No, really. Here is what he said:

“President Trump is not gassing children. President Trump is not loading up train cars with illegal alien children and sending them to the death camps. Lady Liberty is in tears because the Democrats and the mainstream media would rather side with illegal alien invaders than stand alongside their fellow Americans. That’s treasonous and that’s traitorous in my book.”

When you have to sink to finding the goodness in your policies by being able to say they aren’t as bad as Nazi atrocities, you might want to rethink those policies. Unfortunately for Trump and the Republican Party, it’s too late for that. They are now married to this heinous practice after repeatedly sending out administration officials to defend it.

And Fox News may be the worst among them all. Their hosts from Fox and Friends in the morning, to Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity at night, have all taken Trump’s side. They try to portray the detention centers as “summer camps” where kids are confined by “walls of chain-link fences” which, for some reason, are not cages. They claim the kids have regular meals, televisions, and play sports. That is, when these toddlers aren’t curled up in foil blankets, crying for their mothers.

And Starnes calls critics of this cruelty “treasonous” and “traitorous” based on his perception of them as siding with “illegal alien invaders.” That’s right. He sees these children as warriors from hostile nations, and anyone who has compassion for their suffering is betraying America.

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

For the past week there have been a lot of nauseating efforts to justify what the Trump administration is doing to these kids. But Starnes may have hit peak assholiness. At the same time he has rather succinctly summed up what Trump and the GOP have wrought. They are apparently aiming for a horrendous method of terrorizing children and deterring asylum seekers without quite reaching the depths of the Third Reich. Perhaps we should congratulate them on their success.

No Evidence of Bias: Trump’s ‘Witch Hunt’ Lie Gets Burned to Ashes By Democratic Congressman

Posted by on June 19, 2018 at 12:40 pm. 5 Comments :

Last week the Inspector General of the FBI released a comprehensive report on the Bureau’s handling of probes into Hillary Clinton’s email. Donald Trump and his fluffers in the right-wing media immediately set out to convince the American people that the report “totally exonerates” him. It didn’t do anything of the sort.

Robert Mueller Trump

However, facts have never stopped Trump and Co. from blathering incoherently about his infallible awesomeness. And his obsessive need to constantly exalt himself was exhibited yet again on Tuesday during a speech before the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Although it was difficult to find anything in his address that related to independent businesses.

The speech (which aired in full only on Fox News) was a typical Trumpian stemwinder that caromed wildly between unrelated subjects primarily focused on praising himself and smearing his critics. He once again falsely blamed Democrats for his own policy of traumatizing innocent immigrant children. And, of course, he ranted idiotically about Democrats wanting open borders and welcoming MS-13 gang members. He accused the media of helping child traffickers. He proposed cutting off aid to countries where immigrants come from (which would only result in more people needing to leave those countries). And he actually adopted the crackpot conspiracy that the children in his concentration camps are “crisis actors.”

Included in this televised meltdown was another stab by Trump to pretend that the FBI’s IG report exonerated him from charges being investigated separately by special counsel Robert Mueller. The IG’s report had nothing at all to do with that. Trump’s latest tantrum was triggered by hearing himself saying the name of Hillary Clinton. He segued from that to a conclusion that the IG report had incriminated Clinton. It didn’t. Trump whined:

“Didn’t she already have her chance? I tell you what, when you read that IG report with these really dishonest people – and I was never a ‘Deep State’ guy – lemme tell ya, we got some bad people that are doing bad things. But when you read that IG report about how she got away with what she got away with, it’s a disgrace.”

Back in the real world, the report did not find any wrongdoing by Clinton whatsoever. In fact, it wasn’t even part of the purpose of the inquiry. The IG was looking into the the conduct of the Bureau and it’s employees. It did find that there was some inappropriate activities by the director, James Comey, and a couple of agents. But on the whole it concluded that Clinton was more often the victim of the bad behavior at the Bureau, and that it likely led to disadvantaging her – not Trump – in the election.

This fact was addressed in a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee where the IG, Michael Horowitz, and the current FBI Director, Chris Wray, testified. The Republicans on the committee were uniformly focused on trivial aspects of the report that they twisted into impotent attacks on Clinton. However, they ignored the more salient aspects, including the conclusion. The Democratic ranking member of the committee, Elijah Cummings, did not ignore that. Cummings, quoting the IG report, said:

“We found no evidence that the conclusions by the department prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations. Rather, we determine that they were based on the prosecutors’ assessment of the facts, the law, and past department practice.”

No Evidence of Bias. That should put a big fat period on the debate over whether the FBI acted out on any internal bias. It should, but when you’re dealing with a dishonest crybaby like Trump, and his genuflecting defenders, anything goes. Trump will never stop whining about his delusional “Witch Hunt” because deep down he knows that it is a false narrative.

He knows that he’s guilty and that he’s very likely going to be exposed and held to account. He sees his former lackeys (Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, etc.) flipping on him, or getting ready to. And nothing he does hinders the progress of special counsel Mueller. So he has little else to offer in the way of a coherent defense other than to shout maniacally in all caps. And that is already wearing thin.

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

Be Aware: After Trump is Forced to Reverse His Child Abuse Policy, He’ll Take All the Credit

Posted by on June 18, 2018 at 11:14 am. 5 Comments :

There is uncommon agreement across the political spectrum that Donald Trump’s arbitrary and abhorrent policy of ripping children from the arms of their mothers and fathers is unconscionable and unsustainable. At least outside of Congress, where Republicans continue to support this madness. Even former First Lady Laura Bush has condemned the practice, calling it “cruel,” “immoral,” and “heartbreaking.”

Donald Trump, Immigrant Children

But the Trump administration has been twisting itself into ninth level Mobius strips trying to deny, obfuscate, or otherwise absolve themselves of responsibility for the horror they have wrought. Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, had the gall to say flatly that “We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.” And that’s after Trump himself admitted to the policy saying that “We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law.” Never mind that it has been well documented that there is no such law and that this is wholly a policy of the Trump administration, and the Democrats had nothing to do with it. It could be reversed by the stroke of a pen by Trump alone. Or even by legislation passed by the Republican controlled Congress. Trump doesn’t need the Democratic votes he keeps whining about.

Trump’s own senior staff admit that this is their doing. “If you don’t want your child separated,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions, “then don’t bring them across the border illegally.” Of course, these asylum seekers are not breaking any laws. And speaking about family separation, Trump’s Chief of Staff, John Kelly, said “A big name of the game is deterrence [and] it could be a tough deterrent.” In both cases they are advocating cruelty and human rights abuse as a deterrent for a civil border violation.

Trump is still lying about his responsibility. He tweeted Monday morning that “It is the Democrats fault for being weak and ineffective with Boarder Security.” Although he isn’t even effective enough to spell “border” correctly. He also tweeted that “Children are being used by some of the worst criminals on earth as a means to enter our country.” Actually, he’s close. Children are being used by some of the worst criminals on earth (Trump and the GOP) as a means to hold them hostage to Republican demands for an idiotic and useless wall along the nation’s southern border.

With the near unanimous revulsion for Trump’s policy, it is inevitable that it will be rescinded. It may come from Congress or the White House, but it seems unthinkable that it would be permitted to continue, even by Republicans who, so far, have shown zero compassion. And with a rescission there will also likely be an attempt on Trump’s part to take credit for it. That’s what he does. He is genetically incapable of taking responsibility for any of his failures, but he is psychotically obsessed with taking credit for everyone else’s achievements (ask Obama).

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

While it’s important to point out that this mess is all Trump’s doing, and that he is lying when he blames Democrats for his own heinous policy, it will be equally important to make sure that he doesn’t exalt himself as the savior of the children once he is forced to reverse his policy. What he’s doing is a moral atrocity. It will have been a moral atrocity after it’s stopped. Some of the damage to these kids will be permanent, and the perpetrators deserve permanent scorn for what they’ve done. We must never forget or forgive this sort of noxious government activity. #BlameTrump

Winning? Donald Trump Brags that He’s the Leader of a Beautiful New ‘Master Race’

Posted by on June 17, 2018 at 8:45 am. 1 Comments :

This has been coming for months now. When Donald Trump rode down his golden escalator to announce his candidacy for president, he immediately struck a tone of superiority. His political introduction included a flagrantly racist characterization of Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals. And thus was born America’s first mainstream movement of white nationalism.

Donald Trump

Through a combination of feigned populism, media blindness, Democratic incompetence, and Russian collusion, Trump actually made it to the White House. Now he is fulfilling his mission to revive the Third Reich in the New World. And if you think that’s somewhat over the top, take a look at what he tweeted Saturday:

This is the statement of a full-on, Nazi-style, wannabe dictator. It’s asserting the “supremacy” of his followers as a “Master Race” of mentally advanced physical specimens with a blind loyalty to a totalitarian demagogue. It further threatens the wrath of their surging strength as they gain more power. What’s more, the President refers to his StormTrumpers as “my supporters” rather than voters or citizens. And this isn’t the first time that Trump has portrayed the yokels he commands as being advanced models of humanity. At a campaign rally in August of 2016 he said:

“I mean, we have great people. We have the most loyal people. We have the smartest people. You know, so many of my people, they’re so smart. They like to say, well, Trump, I don’t know if he’s got this right — let me tell you, we have the smartest people. We have the people that are the smartest, and the strongest, and the best and the hardest working.”

The funny thing about this is that Trump’s disciples hardly match the description he tweeted, with the exception of their unquestioning loyalty. They are not exactly geniuses by any measure. That’s proven simply by their support for someone as uncommonly ignorant as Trump (who doesn’t know the difference between “countries” and “country’s”). And their fabled physicality is best portrayed by morbidly obese, toothless hicks in unwashed overalls.

What Trump is really depicting in this tweet is what his followers are like in his narcissistic fantasies. And failing that, he flatters his congregation of losers in an attempt to secure their undying devotion. He also pretends that he is leading a movement of electoral victories, despite the rash of embarrassing losses Republicans have suffered most of this year, and the looming “blue wave” being predicted this coming November (but don’t get cocky, Democrats). So the message in his tweet, while outwardly celebrating a Hitlerian crusade, is actually the delusions of a pathetic, Fuehrer wannabe. It’s just #Sad and more than a little #Nauseating.

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

Fox News is Literally Lobbying for Revocation of the Constitution’s Protection of the Free Press

Posted by on June 16, 2018 at 11:17 am. 3 Comments :

On Thursday Donald Trump’s Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, presided over the White House’s (no longer) Daily Press Briefing and proceeded to turn it into a farce by evading questions and outright lying. That, of course, is nothing new. It’s the Standard Operating Procedure for the Trump Communications Office. But what has transpired on Fox News since then is deeply disturbing (which isn’t really new either).

Fox NOT News

At the briefing there were numerous reporters seeking to get Sanders to explain the administration’s position on it’s own policy of ripping children away from parents of asylum seekers. She spent much of her time affirming Trump’s blatant lie that Democrats were responsible for a law that forced him to carry out this heinous practice. But there is no such law. This abuse of human rights was wholly the work of Trump and his cohorts.

When confronted with these facts, Sanders went into a bunker mentality, refusing to answer direct questions or repeating unresponsive talking points. She even descended into personally insulting reporters for merely quoting things she just finished saying. She twisted bible verses in a cynical attempt to support her unconscionable defense of child abuse. And she displayed a callous disregard for the welfare of innocents.

Naturally, Fox News praised Sanders and the Trump administration without reservation or concern for the children. But they went even further to suggest that any criticism, or even just the pursuit of answers, was unpatriotic and disrespectful to a leader they believe must never be challenged. Fox News attacked the journalists who pressed Sanders for answers as animals, which is the same word Trump uses to describe undocumented immigrants. Coincidence?

On Friday two of Fox’s most prominent hosts actually advocated openly for censorship and the suppression of independent journalism. They flagrantly campaigned to silence dissenting voices in the media by prohibiting them from doing their jobs. That’s more than an attack on the reporters, it’s an attack on the Constitution. It violates the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of the press. However, it also puts the grotesque, fascist ideology of Fox News on display for all to see. Cases in point, these commentaries by Fox’s Lou Dobbs and Jesse Watters:

Dobbs: You would think someone would be assigned to slap the hell out of somebody. We’ll talk to our panel tonight about whether it’s time the bar some of these so-called journalists from the White House briefing room permanently.

Watters: These people don’t belong there. They are jokes. They need to start ripping press passes away. If you’re going to act like a wild animal, you don’t belong there.

Remember, the reporters they are criticizing were trying to get answers about the Trump administration’s practice of tearing apart families and warehousing babies in concentration camp-like facilities. So who are the animals? And this isn’t the first time that journalists have had their jobs threatened in this manner. On Tuesday, Trump’s 2020 campaign manger, Brad Parscale, tweeted that CNN’s Jim Acosta “should immediately have his press credentials suspended.” And Trump’s senior counselor, Kellyanne Conway, appeared shortly after that on Fox and Friends to concur with Parscale’s totalitarian-friendly tweet.

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

There is something especially contemptible about an alleged “news” enterprise calling for the suppression of the rights of fellow journalists. But Fox News is unabashedly doing just that. They want all reporting to consist only of drooling adoration of Trump and anything less than that must be quashed. This is more evidence (as if it was necessary) that Fox is not a news outlet at all. They are the PR division of the Trump administration and an obedient purveyor of unvarnished propaganda. And if they are allowed to succeed with their mission to suppress free speech we can wave goodbye to the freedom and democracy upon which it relies.

Donald Trump, the Reality TV President, Seen Yelling at Kids on the White House Lawn

Posted by on June 15, 2018 at 2:52 pm. 1 Comments :

Fresh from his return from Fantasy President Camp in Singapore, Donald Trump is reconnecting with his friends at home. Even though he already misses his new BFF, Kim Jong Un (who he wants so badly to emulate), Trump tried to mask his sadness by lashing out at old foes in the media, which he regards as “our country’s biggest enemy.”

Donald Trump, Fox News, Steve Doocy

Watching from his bathroom window where he tweets his official presidential pronouncements, Trump saw his pals from Fox and Friends on the White House lawn and went downstairs to play. Unfortunately, he also ran into those meanies from the other news networks who keep insisting on asking him real questions, rather than the tongue baths he gets from Fox News.

In the course of a few awkward encounters, Trump managed to challenge his own record for lies-per-minute. He brazenly lied about the FBi’s Inspector General report exonerating him. It did no such thing. While it found some opinions expressed inappropriately by a couple of agents, it concluded that there was no bias in their work. It also found that all of the errors of judgment identified resulted in harm to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, not Trump’s.

He also lied about his administration’s heinous policy of ripping apart immigrant families. He blamed it on Democratic laws that do not exist. He lied about Paul Manafort, who he said worked for his campaign for only forty-nine days. It was actually 144 days during a critical period where he relied on Manafort to secure him delegate votes at the Republican National Convention.

But he wasn’t through lying yet. He blamed President Obama for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. Naturally he wouldn’t blame his buddy Vlad, who he still doesn’t press to get out of Ukraine. And Trump also told a bizarre lie about the parents of Korean war dead asking him to bring back their remains. Those parents, who numbered in the hundreds, would have to be over 100 years old.

Perhaps the most telling exchange occurred between Trump and Fox and Friends co host, Steve Doocy. Trump revealed what is the highest priority of his presidency. In his banter with Doocy he said (video below):

Trump: You have a lot of fun, right? Supposing Hillary got elected instead of Trump. You think it would be so exciting? Your ratings would be way down. [To the camera] Number one show in the morning folks.
Doocy: Well, thank you. In cable news, that’s right.
Trump: Also beyond cable news you’re doing pretty well.
Doocy: We’re doing okay. Thanks for dropping by.
Trump: I like ratings. I study ratings.

So Trump is validating his election because it goosed the ratings for Fox News? And if Clinton had won their popularity would have suffered? That’s literally what he thinks is one of his great achievements. He even brags about his affinity for television ratings and his expertise in the subject. Never mind his prior statements that he doesn’t have time to watch TV because – documents.

It’s good to know that he studies ratings, because he sure doesn’t study legislation, economics, foreign policy, or any other prerequisite for being president. He’s obviously obsessed with his own ratings. He stages bill signings with silly photo ops where he proudly displays his penmanship before the gathered press corps. He frequently boasts about the attendance at his rallies and the ratings for his speeches, even when those numbers are embarrassingly low. And whenever there is a poll that shows him tick up a fraction of a point, he blasts it out to his Twitter followers, despite the fact that he remains in the thirties or low forties, and has never gotten near fifty percent.

This is what happens when a TV game show host with no experience in politics or governing is put in the White House by Russian cyber-spies and domestic white supremacists. Now America must endure until either Congress or the law enforcement authorities succeed in putting him where he belongs: a prison camp where he can make new friends with the same diseased morals that he has.

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

Trump: I Want ‘My People’ To Worship Me Like North Koreans Worship Kim Jong Un

Posted by on June 15, 2018 at 10:01 am. 6 Comments :

Donald Trump spoke briefly to reporters at the White House Friday morning and revealed something about himself that is both frightening and consistent with his past displays of tyrannical aspirations.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

While engaged in his morning ritual of “Executive Time” (aka sitting on the toilet and disgorging himself via Twitter), Trump noticed the scrum of media outside and wondered aloud if he should go out and visit with the hosts of his favorite Fox News show, Fox and Friends. So, unsurprisingly, he did just that. But when he got there he managed to blurt out something that surely represents his most inner, and most despicable thoughts. Speaking enviously of Kim Jong Un’s unquestioned adulation by the oppressed people of North Korea, Trump said that:

“He speaks and his people sit up in attention. I want my people to do the same.”

And there you have it. Donald Trump is now openly lusting for the sort of obedience that only dictators can muster. It’s a thoroughly repugnant and un-American notion. He needs to be told that the citizens of America are not HIS people. They are his bosses. He works for us and is not entitled to blind devotion.

That’s especially true of a president who is under investigation for traitorous collusion with Russia for stealing an election. Also for criminal fraud with regard to his phony charity. Also for paying hush money to an adult film star who he had an affair with just months after his wife gave birth to his son. Also for breaching the emoluments clause of the Constitution by receiving money from hostile foreign agents. Also for obstruction of justice.

Americans are, in fact, sitting up and paying attention – to the criminality, dishonesty, bigotry, and ignorance of the grotesque perversion that is (temporarily) occupying the White House. He will never have the admiration of the vast majority of citizens who are justifiably ashamed that he is representing this nation. But not for much longer.

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

Sarah Sanders Uses Bible to Defend Trump’s Heinous Policy of Ripping Apart Families Seeking Asylum

Posted by on June 14, 2018 at 3:00 pm. 7 Comments :

The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is best known for her ability to dispassionately lie about any matter that arises in the course of the daily press briefings. It’s a skill that most of the rabid zealots in Donald Trump’s administration sorely lack. But it often comes across as callous when the subject requires some measure of empathy.

Sarah Huckabee-Sanders

That was exhibited in spades on Thursday as Sanders was questioned about the heart-wrenching policy that Trump has enacted to rip crying children from the arms of their terrified parents. This policy has drawn broad condemnation from across the political spectrum, yet Trump and Co. refuse to halt its enforcement. That position took a peculiar turn when Attorney General Jeff Sessions cited a bible verse to justify his nauseating actions. However, the quotation he addressed only referred to obedience of the law, but made no reference to tearing families apart. Even Trump-supporting evangelical Franklin Graham called the policy “disgraceful.” At the daily press briefing, Sanders was asked by CNN’s Jim Acosta to comment on the remarks by Sessions (video below):

Acosta: On these children that are being separated from their families as they come across the border, the Attorney General earlier today said that somehow there is justification for this in the bible. Where does it say in the Bible that it’s moral to take children away from their mothers?
Sanders: I’m not aware of the Attorney General’s comment or what he would be referencing. I can say say that it is very biblical to enforce the law. That is actually repeated a number of times throughout the Bible.
Acosta: You just said it’s in the bible to follow the law…
Sanders: That’s not what I said. And I know it’s hard for you to understand even short sentences, I guess.

Huh? That’s exactly what she said just seconds before denying that she said it. This is advanced level gaslighting. And in the process of flagrantly lying about what she just said, Sanders delivers a wholly inappropriate insult with regard to Acosta’s ability to understand her short (dishonest) sentences. It’s notable that other reporters raised the same inquiries, but Acosta, a Latino reporter from CNN, was the only one she insulted. And if Sanders is looking for an appropriate bible verse to quote, she might try this one referring to refugees (sojourners) from Leviticus (19:33-34) which, when President Obama cited it, Fox News went berserk:

“33. And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not do him wrong. 34. The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

Sanders then went on to accuse Democrats of being responsible for the law requiring the separation of undocumented children from their parents. But there is no such law. It is being done as a result of an arbitrary policy implemented solely by the Trump administration. Nevertheless, Sanders said that Trump has called on Democrats to change the (nonexistent) law. But she fails to explain how Democrats could do that when they are in the minority and have no power to introduce or pass such legislation. Likewise, she ignores why Republicans, who do have the power, don’t just change the law themselves. Since they have the majority, they could make this issue go away overnight. What’s stopping them?

Among the other journalists questioning Sanders about this were Paula Reid of CBS, who advised Sanders, in vain, that there was no law mandating the separation of children. Also Brian Karem of Sentinel Newspapers made an impassioned plea asking “Sarah, you’re a parent. Don’t you have empathy for what these people are going through?” Sanders responded by recognizing a different reporter for an unrelated question. And that’s fairly typical of how she and Trump deal with difficult issues that require compassion and some expression of humanity.

Also brought up in the briefing were reports that Sanders and her deputy, Raj Shah, are planning their exit from the White House sometime this year. She would neither confirm nor deny the reports, but still criticized the reporting. We’ll see what she say when she actually leaves, which is all but certain. And we’ll also see what direction Trump will take when he names her replacement. I’m betting on Kimberly Guilfoyle of Fox News since she’s already sleeping with Don, Jr.

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

Here’s a Quick Primer on the Criminal Corruption of the Trump Foundation

Posted by on June 14, 2018 at 10:21 am. 1 Comments :

The New York Attorney General’s office just filed suit against Donald Trump, his family (Eric, Ivanka and Don,Jr.), and the phony charity they call the Trump Foundation. The suit announced by NY Attorney General Barbara Underwood alleges multiple violations of both state and federal charities law. It further seeks to place temporary bans on the Trumps from serving as directors of a New York not-for-profit.

Donald Trump

The Attorney General’s public statement was a damning expose of how Trump used the Foundation to enrich himself by exploiting people in need:

“As our investigation reveals, the Trump Foundation was little more than a checkbook for payments from Mr. Trump or his business to nonprofits, regardless of their purpose or legality.”

Naturally Trump responded in a rage-a-holic tweetstorm that made little sense, blaming his depravity on others. Specifically, he tweeted condemnations of “sleazy Democrats” and an attack on a former NY Ag who is not a part of this suit. And of course he had to bring the Clintons into it because, well, because he’s Donald Trump and isn’t smart enough to come up with a coherent defense. And finally, he insisted that he would not settle, a claim he’s made often in the past, right before settling (see Trump University).

News Corpse has been covering the illegal and immoral operations of the Trump Foundation for some time. Here is a brief summary of how Trump and Co. used their wealth and position to rip off unfortunates and stuff their pockets:

Trump Spends 100K From His ‘Charity’ To Quash Fraud Charges In NY
The Trump Foundation paid out $100,000 to Citizen’s United, a conservative group who was suing the NY Attorney General.

BUSTED: Trump Used His ‘Charity’ To Pay Off His Own Legal Settlements
IRS filings by the Trump Foundation show that charitable funds were used to settle Trump’s personal or business debts.

Donald Trump Caught Outright Lying About ‘Donation’ To Florida Attorney General
The Trump Foundation made an unlawful $25,000 political donation to a group called “And Justice For All.” The group was supporting the reelection of Pam Bondi, the Attorney General of Florida. Shortly after Bondi dropped a Florida state suit against Trump University.

Trump Charges Eric’s Cancer Charity for Kids Exorbitant Fees to Use His Golf Resort
The charity had been donating the use of Trump resorts to St. Jude Children’s Hospital until daddy intervened and insisted that they be charged for use of the facilities.

LOCK HER UP: Ivanka Trump’s ‘Charity’ Auction Sells White House Access To Wealthy Bidders
Ivanka Trump put up an auction on the Charitybuzz website. It offered an opportunity to “Enjoy Coffee with Ivanka Trump.” The bidding started at a hefty $50,000. The bidders admitted that they were buying access to the President.

New York Times Shatters Trump’s Denial that He Took 150G From a Ukrainian Oligarch
The New York Times posted a well researched article about Trump receiving $150,000 from a Ukrainian oligarch as payment for a twenty minute video address in September of 2015. The money was “donated” to Trump’s foundation.

And just for some balance:

Sorry GOP Haters: Clinton Foundation Given Top Rating By Charity Watchdog
The two top charity groups that independently evaluate non-profits, Charity Navigator and Charity Watch, both gave the Clinton Foundation their highest ratings.

Despite Trump’s temper tantrums and Twitter outbursts, there are good reasons for the NY Attorney General to hold him accountable for a long list of breaches of the law. In fact, it’s the validity of the charges that make Trump so angry and, quite obviously, afraid. We’ll have to wait and see where this litigation winds up, along with all of the other legal swamps Trump is currently wallowing in.

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