Politics

Pete Hegseth’s Lawyer: His Misconduct Was Due to Stress, So Let’s Make Him Secretary of Defense

Posted by on December 27, 2024 at 4:07 pm. 1 Comments :

The Cabinet of Donald Trump is shaping up to be an even more frightening version of the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, with all of the twists and turns of that psychological horror story populated by inmates of an asylum.

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Pete Hegseth with Drunk Emoji

If Trump gets the Republicans in Congress to capitulate to his commands, the U.S. government will be run by incompetents and sycophantic flunkies who have little to no experience for the jobs they are tasked to perform. They include Kash Patel at the FBI, Tulsi Gabbard heading Intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, in charge of healthcare, and a madhouse of MAGA minions who have scant relationships with the lives of average Americans.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

Featured in this cast of circus psychos is Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has zero experience managing anything on the scale of the Pentagon. But he has had a presence on Fox News where Trump found and recruited him. He also has a history of managerial failure, excessive drinking, and alleged sexual assault. Which makes him an ideal candidate for a job in the Trump administration. They have so much in common.

On Friday morning Hegseth’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, was interviewed by Pamela Brown on CNN. It was a revealing discussion during which Parlatore offered up a peculiar defense of his client in the following exchange…

Parlatore: The FBI background check is really going to strip away the false allegations and focus on just what the evidence is. And the evidence is he didn’t do any of these things that he’s been accused of.
Brown: But he’s also openly admitted he’s a changed man from several years ago. So how does that square? If you’re saying he didn’t do any of it, but he’s a changed man?
Parlatore: I’m saying he didn’t commit any of the misconduct they’re alleging. The sexual assault, totally false. All of this stuff at CVA (Concerned Veterans for America) where they said that he was climbing on the stage at a strip club. Yeah that happened, but it was somebody else. […] The fact that earlier in his life when he was a young recent combat veteran who came home and dealt with the demons by drinking too much, that’s not uncommon.

In order for Parlatore’s denials to be valid, you would have to dismiss the testimony of the woman who filed the police report against him, as well as all of Hegseth’s colleagues and coworkers who witnessed his shenanigans at the strip club, and suffered through his mismanagement of organizations like the CVA, that he brought to near bankruptcy.

The core argument that Parlatore is making is that Hegseth behaved badly because of the stress he encountered during his military deployment. He goes on to say that Hegseth overcame his problems because “that which drove him to drink is not driving him anymore.” Perhaps that’s because he’s been a weekend host on a Fox “News” program for the past eight years. So the stress of combat wasn’t affecting his behavior.

However, if his duties in the military were sufficiently stressful to result in years of drunken depravity, how might the stress produced by running the entire Pentagon – with an $850 billion budget and the responsibility of millions of soldiers and civilians, none of which he has any experience with – affect his ability to cope emotionally and to refrain from the deviancy of his past? Surely there’s no stress involved in any of that, right?

Parlatore also claimed that Hegseth’s excessive drinking wasn’t a “drinking problem.” Which is reminiscent of the Tom Waits lyric “I don’t have a drinking problem. Except when I can’t get a drink.” Although he did promise to abstain if he were to be confirmed. Which suggests that he is still drinking, but is willing to stop if he’s handed the nuclear codes. That should not fill any senator with confidence that Hegseth would be up to the job. The question is: Will Republicans vote to confirm him anyway?

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Trump Picks His ‘Apprentice’ Producer, Mark Burnett, for Diplomatic Post – To Buy His Silence?

Posted by on December 22, 2024 at 2:15 pm. 2 Comments :

The administration of Donald Trump is shaping up to be an epically inept roster of political toadies and personal suck-ups who lack any shred of relevant experience for the jobs they have been tasked to perform. The single criteria that Trump appears to require of his nominees is blind obedience to, and adoration of, Dear Leader Trump.

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Donald Trump TV Set

In the few weeks since the election, Trump has turned the White House into a garbage heap for blithering incompetents with a flurry of nominations that guarantee failure on an unprecedented level in critical governmental agencies, including the departments of State, Justice, Health, Homeland Security, Intelligence, and more. They are a motley crew of crackpots who bear no resemblance whatsoever to the citizenry they supposedly there to serve.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

On Saturday Trump posted on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that he is nominating Mark Burnett to be his Special Envoy to the United Kingdom. Note, that is not the same as the U.S. ambassador to the U.K., for which Trump has chosen billionaire donor Warren Stephens. The “Special Envoy” post is a brand new title made up by Trump for Burnett.

Burnett joins a diplomatic team of losers from Trump’s past who he is rewarding for their loyalty, including failed senatorial candidate, Herschel Walker (Bahamas), his son-in-law’s felon father, Charles Kushner (France), and his son Don Jr’s ex-fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle (Greece). His nominees not only portend serious harm for America’s international relations interests, they are an insult to our allies who will host the phony diplomats.

However, Burnett may have some additional “qualifications” that made him just too compelling for Trump to pass up. Burnett was the producer of Trump’s reality TV game show, “The Apprentice.” He may bear more responsibility for burdening the nation (and the world) with Trump than any other single person. That’s because it was Burnett who manufactured the myth that Trump is a successful businessman, when in fact, he has a long record of bankruptcies and other financial fiascoes.

What’s more, there are reports of video outtakes from “The Apprentice” wherein Trump is heard to be using racial epithets and manipulating the outcome of the game to prevent Black contestants from winning. These reports are coming from the show’s participants and insiders, not Trump critics.

Trump surely wouldn’t want any of that to come out. And handing Burnett a plum spot in one of the world’s most desirable locales could be a way to compensate him for covering up Trump’s bigotry. Although there are others engaging in the conspiratorial cover up as well, including Jeff Bezos, whose company now owns the tapes from the show. Bezos, whose space and cloud computing companies rely on government funding, dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week.

There’s nothing suspicious about any of this, is there? And Trump never does anything wrong. So since he is such a huge advocate of transparency, he’ll probably release the Apprentice cast and crew from any non-disclosure agreements they were forced to sign. Right? RIGHT?

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UH-OH: Even Fox News Calls Out the Unelected Billionaire ‘Calling the Shots’ in Place of Trump

Posted by on December 19, 2024 at 2:31 pm. NO Comments :

After weeks of tense negotiations, Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives agreed on a bipartisan bill to fund the government and avoid a devastating shutdown that would cause severe harm to millions of Americans. So naturally, that effort was sabotaged by the two most divisive and destructive dimwits in American politics, Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

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Fox News Sad

The torpedoing of the Continuing Resolution was aided and abetted by the spine-deprived GOP Speaker of the House, MAGA Mike Johnson, who obediently nixed his own bill at the behest of his puppet masters. As a result, he will maintain his record of having presided over the most unproductive Congress in modern times.

SEE THIS: DO-NOTHING CONGRESS? The Republican House of Representatives is the Least Productive Ever

The spectacle of a couple of billionaires bullying Congress into abandoning its obligation to the Constitution and the people is a nauseating devolution of the great expectations for American democracy. It most resembles the melodramatic inanities of reality TV wherein pathetic contestants vie for supremacy by playing idiotic games. And in this season it appears that the Celebrity Apprentice will be Trump, who is now noticeably subservient to his financial benefactor, Musk.

This swapping of roles is not something that has been observed only by Democrats and other Trump critics. On Thursday morning Stuart Varney of Fox News delivered a commentary that could have been composed by Bernie Sanders. He said in part…

“Think about this: Nobody voted for Elon Musk. But with the support of Donald Trump he called the shots on shutting down the government, and he’s calling the shots on trimming the fat in government. In fact, he has influence on just about every aspect of policy, including who should take which job in the Cabinet.

“We have never seen anything like this before. No previous administration has allowed an unelected outsider this degree of power. Of course it’s all a function of Musk’s relationship with the president-elect. They’ve been inseparable for months. He practically lives at Mar-a-Lago. And they seem to be in agreement on everything. It doesn’t hurt that he’s the richest man in the world, and threw over $200 million into Trump’s campaign.”

What Varney is describing is the undermining of democracy by an unelected, foreign-born, oligarch with the resources to buy a weak narcissist who is desperately trying to stay out of prison and retain some measure of perceived power. Musk is not constitutionally able to be president, so he’s settling for the next best thing: controlling the president. That relationship, however, could make things complicated for Trump’s former significant other. And that isn’t Melania…

What was once the Republican Party is now fully indoctrinated into the Musk/Trump Cult. Some GOP members of Congress are even suggesting that Musk be elected Speaker of the House. So if the GOP is not satisfied with the level of idiocy that is presently in place, they have options. A competent Speaker must be someone with extensive knowledge of how the House operates. Musk doesn’t have a clue. So while Johnson has proven to be a disaster, Musk would be even worse.

While the rules of the House do not require the Speaker to be an elected member, there are other concerns that are being neglected. For instance, the Speaker is second in the presidential line of succession, after the vice-president. But the Constitution would not permit Musk to be promoted to the presidency. So the job would fall to the president pro tempore of the Senate. And if Democrats were to regain the majority in 2026, that would be Democratic Sen. Patty Murray. If not, it would be 91 year old Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.

In the meantime, the nation is being run by billionaires who couldn’t care less about the government shutting down because it won’t affect them in the slightest. And what they do care about – getting richer, lowering their own taxes, and eliminating pesky regulations that protect the environment, workers, and America’s middle and lower income families – would be theirs for the taking. Congratulations MAGA. This is what you voted for. I hope you like being subservient to the oligarchs.

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Trump FREAKS OUT Over Judicial Ruling Against Immunity For His Felony Hush Money Convictions

Posted by on December 17, 2024 at 1:11 pm. NO Comments :

For the better part of Donald Trump’s public life, the one skill that he has shown any aptitude for is squirming out of legal troubles via delays, distractions, and deceit. It’s a skill that has served him well considering the frequency of his civil and criminal misconduct.

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Donald Trump

This year, Trump’s luck appeared to run out when one of his criminal cases actually went to trial and he was convicted on all 34 counts brought against him for falsifying financial records. The case centered on his payment of $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence regarding a sexual encounter that he was worried would harm his electoral prospects during the 2016 presidential race. In other words, election interference.

SEE THIS: What’s Roasting Trump’s Nuts? Jurors Believed Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, But Not Him

However, the story doesn’t end there. Trump’s conviction and sentencing were paused after the Supreme Court issued a preposterous ruling that presidents have immunity for crimes committed as part of their official duties. That ruling led to Trump’s attorneys filing a motion to have the convictions rescinded and the case dismissed.

On Tuesday morning Judge Juan Merchan issued his ruling that “the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision does not apply” because “the evidence in Trump’s hush money case related ‘entirely to unofficial conduct’ [and] ‘poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch.'” Furthermore, the criminal acts all took place prior to Trump’s presidency, and any evidence presented at trial that came from White House personnel was immaterial and didn’t impact the “overwhelming evidence of guilt.”

Not surprisingly, this ruling triggered a massive meltdown by Trump. He posted an extended rant on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that did little more than provide further confirmation of his psychological infirmity. He raged in part that…

“In a completely illegal, psychotic order, the deeply conflicted, corrupt, biased, and incompetent Acting Justice Juan Merchan has completely disrespected the United States Supreme Court, and its Historic Decision on Immunity. But even without Immunity, this illegitimate case is nothing but a Rigged Hoax.”

Trump went on to make wild and utterly false assertions that the ruling “goes against our Constitution [and] would be the end of the Presidency as we know it.” He also took a gratuitous swipe at the special prosecutor in his federal cases, who he calls “Deranged Jack Smith,” and reprised his “Witch Hunt” whine.

Trump closed his harangue by implying that Judge Merchan is conflicted by family relations, and issued an impotent demand that “This has to stop!” Missing from this outburst was any rational legal argument to support his claims that the ruling was unlawful or in any way improper. It was just another pathetic excretion of angst-ridden inanity that served no purpose other flushing his mental colon.

If anyone thought that the next four years were going to be any different than the toxic chaos that ensued during Trump’s previous occupation of the White House, this sad episode should put that naïve notion to rest. He is who he is, and he isn’t going to change. Which makes it all the more imperative that the rest of us be prepared to defend democracy and American principles once again. LFG!

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TRUMP WINS? ABC News Settles His Lawsuit Confirming that He Was Found Liable for Sexual Abuse

Posted by on December 15, 2024 at 1:04 pm. 3 Comments :

Congratulations Donald Trump! ABC News has announced that they are settling a lawsuit filed against them by Trump that alleges that the network defamed him during an interview of ultra-MAGA Rep. Nancy Mace by “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. However, this may not be the victory that Trump and his lesions of glassy-eyed cult followers think it is.

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Donald Trump, Pervert

Trump’s lawsuit took issue with remarks made by Stephanopoulos wherein he asked Mace, a rape victim herself, how she could justify supporting Trump after he was found liable for sexual abusing writer E. Jean Carroll. That finding resulted in Trump being ordered to pay Carrol more than $88 million dollars for defamation. Mace tried to spin Stephanopoulos’ question into some sort of attempt to shame her as a victim, which was patently absurd and grossly exploitative of her own victimhood. Stephanopoulos was only asking about her support for Trump, which she was unable to directly justify.

SEE THIS: Trump Sues ABC and Stephanopoulos for Accurately Reporting a Judicial Opinion that He’s a Rapist

Which brings us to the news of the settlement by ABC. According to reporting by CNN…

“ABC News will pay $15 million to a ‘presidential foundation and museum’ in a settlement reached with President-elect Donald Trump in his defamation suit against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos. […]

“ABC News will issue the following statement as an editor’s note on the online article at the center of the suit: ‘ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.'”

The decision by ABC to settle is both understandable and unfortunate. It’s unfortunate because Trump will use it to dishonestly to absolve himself of his sexual abuse that was, in fact, affirmed by the jury. However, it’s understandable because the case would have been difficult to defend given the language used by Stephanopoulos. In the interview he prefaced his question to Mace saying that…

“Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape. How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?”

The problem is that the jury only found Trump liable for sexual abuse, not rape. The rape designation was made by the judge after the jury delivered their decision. CNN’s report elaborated that…

“A judge concluded in August 2023, when dismissing Trump’s countersuit against Carroll, that the claim Trump raped Carroll was ‘substantially true.’ The judge wrote that Trump ‘raped’ her in the broader sense of that word, as people generally understand it, though not as it is narrowly defined by New York state law.”

So what the Trump team is celebrating today is that he was only found civilly liable for sexual abuse. How proud he must be of that. He’s just a sexual abuser who defames his victims. Hooray! And he was still adjudicated to be a rapist, in the common usage of the term, by the judge who tried the case.

It’s also notable that none of the $15 million in the settlement will go directly to Trump, but to the funding for his eventual presidential library, if there ever is one. It would not be unreasonable to presume that Trump will never bother to build a library, given his aversion to reading and books. If he does build one it will likely contain only picture books, or books slavishly praising him, or books written – or more accurately, ghost written – by/for him. And if he can swing it, it will be housed at Mar-a-Lago so that he can pocket much of the donated funding.

The settlement by ABC News is a stain on the profession of journalism. It is a capitulation to a bully and aspiring dictator. It will produce a chilling effect on other reporters who will have to deal with future threats such as those coming from Trump’s nominee for FBI Director, Kash Patel, who has sworn to “come after the people in the media.”

However, this settlement is also a virtual concession that Trump is guilty of sexual abuse, and he’s happy that he has a legal affirmation of it. Now, along with his being the first president to have been impeached twice, the first to have been convicted of felonies, and the first to have staged a violent coupe to undermine democracy, he is also the first president to have been found to be a sexual abuser. Is that what he means when he says “make America great again”?

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Some Democrats are Planning to Boycott the Inauguration of Trump. Here’s a Better Idea!

Posted by on December 14, 2024 at 1:16 pm. 6 Comments :

In a little more than a month, Donald Trump will stand on the steps of the Capital that he sent his StormTrumpers to assault about four years ago in an attempt to undermine democracy. While there he will lie that he swears to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s the same Constitution that he has said that he wants to terminate.

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Donald Trump Hugs Flag

Six weeks after Election Day and it’s still hard to comprehend how even a razor-thin slice of American voters could have chosen to allow Trump to reoccupy the White House. Those who voted for Trump managed to set aside that he is a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist who tried to overthrow the government. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The list of Trump’s malfeasance and immorality is long and loathsome.

SEE THIS: What Is America? Who Votes For This?

There are now reports that some Democratic members of Congress are planning to boycott Trump’s inauguration. It is totally understandable why they would consider passing up what, under normal circumstances, would be a celebration of democracy and the peaceful transfer of power. But there will be nothing to celebrate next month when an unambiguously anti-American huckster assumes the leadership of the country. As Axios reports…

“More than a dozen congressional Democrats plan to sit out President-elect Trump’s inauguration, and many more are anxiously grappling with whether to attend, Axios has learned. […] For many Democrats, the scars of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol remain fresh in the mind, marking Trump as a threat to democracy.”

However, as justifiable as it would be to snub Trump’s swearing in, there is another option that might make more sense. Turn it in to a “swearing at.” Democrats, and other patriots, could attend the inauguration and transform it into a protest. They could carry signs reminding the American people that Trump is an ethical nightmare and a criminal. They can even cause a peaceful disruption when he attempts to lie about preserving and protecting the Constitution.

What’s more, they could follow up the inaugural ceremony by remaining at the Capital after Trump leaves to pay tribute to the law enforcement officers who were injured or died as a result of the January 6th insurrection that Trump incited. And they could even incorporate a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr., whose holiday just happens to coincide with Inauguration Day.

We need to find creative ways to respond to the horror of having to endure another four years of Trumpism. We need to find reasons to be positive and productive as we resist his aspirations for a dystopian dictatorship. And that can all begin on day one of Trump 2.0, right on the Capital steps. Trump’s inauguration would be a great place to demonstrate to the nation and the world that he’s a loathsome cretin who most Americans despise. LFG!

NOTICE: There is another event being planned for January 18, 2025, two days before Trump’s inauguration: The People’s March, sponsored by a collection of progressive organization in order to “demand and defend our freedoms against fascism.”

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Brave Sir Hegseth, Trump’s Pick to Run the Pentagon, Runs Away From His Own Hateful Opinions

Posted by on December 13, 2024 at 2:33 pm. 1 Comments :

The reasons to oppose Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense are impossible to refute by any rational standard. Which may be why neither Trump, nor any of those purporting to support him, have offered any coherent argument for confirming him. All they can muster is their blindly obedient opinion that it is what Dear Leader Trump wants.

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Fox News, Pete Hegseth, Cleared

First and foremost, Hegseth has absolutely zero experience relevant to running the biggest bureaucracy in the United States federal government. His past work record contains nothing that would demonstrate the management, financial, legal, personnel, or international diplomacy skills required of a defense secretary. In addition to Hegseth’s lack of work experience, he is also lacking the moral and ethical character to perform at the high standards necessary for a top national security post.

SEE THIS: Pete Hegseth’s Mommy Steps Up to Shield Him From His Life of Alcoholic and Sexual Debauchery

As Hegseth strolls the halls of Congress to meet with the Senators who must confirm him, he has been questioned by the press about his fitness for the job. In one such incident he engaged in the following exchange with a reporter seeking his response to recent revelations about his objection to gay soldiers…

Reporter: Do you believe that gay people should be allowed to serve in the military?
Hegseth: Yes.
Reporter: Can you just respond to the CNN report this morning highlighting some of you previous comments?
Hegseth: I don’t feel the need to respond to CNN.

That brief exchange revealed two glaring examples of Hegseth’s cowardice. First of all, his response that he believes that gays should be allowed to serve contradicts his previous comments on that subject. He is clearly afraid to be honest about his opinions. And it isn’t the first time that he’s reversed himself due to his fear of public backlash. He has also tried to walk back his statement that “we should not have women in combat roles.”

Secondly, his dismissal of the follow up question that sought his clarification of his past remarks exhibits his fear of CNN, or any other media that he disapproves of.

To be clear, contrary to Hegseth’s flippant dismissal, the question wasn’t asking him to respond to CNN. It was asking him to respond to himself, and what he said in the past. CNN’s reporting was not their opinion. It was about what Hegseth wrote concerning gays in the military. According to the CNN report…

“In his 2024 book ‘The War on Warriors’ and in subsequent media promotions this year, Hegseth described both the original ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ (DADT) policy and its repeal in 2011 as a ‘gateway’ and a ‘camouflage’ for broader cultural changes that he claims have undermined military cohesion and effectiveness.”

What’s more, the prospect of a Cabinet member refusing to address a serious matter by asserting that he doesn’t “feel the need to respond” to a particular news network is a flashing red light alarm. He’s saying that he doesn’t feel that he has any obligation to be accountable to the citizens he is supposed to be serving. That is not acceptable behavior in a democratic society. Which, of course, is something that Trump hopes to dispense with.

Hegseth’s nomination has been in trouble from the start. And comments like these aren’t going to help him gain favor with the senators whose votes he needs. And it surely doesn’t help that he is also unpopular with the public…

“A new survey from the Associated Press and National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago suggests that Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, has almost no popular support. According to the poll, only 17% of those surveyed said that they approved of Hegseth’s nomination.” […]

“In general, just 27% of the public is confident in Trump’s “ability to appoint well-qualified individuals to his cabinet and other high-level positions,” while 55% say they are not confident.”

As a side issue, the video above was posted by Will Cain, a co-host of the Fox News morning program, “Fox and Friends Weekend.” Which is the same program that Hegseth co-hosted prior to his nomination. Cain’s comment with the video is especially ironic. He apparently doesn’t see that it is his own network that has gone “from biased…to agenda…to propaganda…to embarrassment.”

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WTHolyF? Trump Says Democrats Want to Ditch the Popular Vote in Favor of the Electoral College

Posted by on December 9, 2024 at 12:54 pm. 3 Comments :

Just when you thought that Donald Trump had reached the outer limits of logic and reason, he manages to astound everyone by sinking even lower on the sanity spectrum. Which proves that, with respect to Trump’s tenuous grasp of reality, or at least his perception of what nonsense his cult followers will tolerate, there really is no bottom.

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Donald Trump

In another laughably loony late night post to his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, Trump sought to make what he surely considered to be an insightful criticism of the state of politics in America. He absurdly asserted that…

“The Democrats are fighting hard to get rid of the Popular Vote in future Elections. They want all future Presidential Elections to be based exclusively on the Electoral College!”

REALLY? This would be a brilliant observation, if it weren’t for the pesky little fact that it is diametrically opposed to what Democrats actually want. Progressives have long criticized the Electoral College for its inherent bias toward small, red states that lean Republican. And it was Trump’s mangling of the Constitution’s references to it that were the basis of his ludicrous claim that he had won the election in 2020, and his inciting of the January 6th insurrection.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Big News? Blatant Lies About Pence’s Authority to Reject Electoral Votes on January 6th

It’s hard to imagine what might have triggered this outburst. Generally when Trump makes a comment like this it is provoked by something he saw someone say on television. But this is so far removed from anything that makes sense, the source of his angst is a mystery.

Even worse, Trump is displaying his infamous ignorance of American laws and principles. He is complaining, incorrectly, that Democrats “want all future Presidential Elections to be based exclusively on the Electoral College!” However, all presidential elections are already based exclusively on the Electoral College, and they always have been. And he should know. It’s how came to occupy the White House in 2016. And it’s how he tried to overturn the election in 2020 by deploying an army of fake electors.

If Trump needs any further evidence that Democrats oppose the Electoral College and favor the popular vote, he need look no further than the progressive movement to effectively nullify the Electoral College by a group called “The National Popular Vote” whose website states that…

“The National Popular Vote law will take effect when enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes (270 of 538). Then, the presidential candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC will get all the electoral votes from all of the enacting states. That is, the candidate receiving the most popular votes nationwide will be guaranteed enough electoral votes to become President.” […]

“The National Popular Vote Compact has been enacted into law by 17 states and the District of Columbia…These jurisdictions have 209 of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate the law.”

This movement is not some fringe faction of extremists. According to a recent survey by PEW Research, abolishing the Electoral College and electing presidents by popular vote is quite…well, popular…

“More than six-in-ten Americans (63%) would instead prefer to see the winner of the presidential election be the person who wins the most votes nationally. Roughly a third (35%) favor retaining the Electoral College system, according to a Pew Research Center survey”

What’s more, Trump is not only flagrantly wrong (as usual) about what Democrats want. That broad majority of 63% of Americans who prefer relying on the popular vote includes nearly half (46%) of Republicans. And according to the National Popular Vote group, they are tantalizingly close to achieving their goal. They report that in addition to the 17 states that have already passed their bill, “The bill has also passed one legislative chamber in 7 states with 74 electoral votes (AR, AZ, MI, NC, NV, OK, VA).”

That would be enough to align the Electoral College with the popular vote, and to end the bizarre and outdated dependence on the undemocratic Electoral College. With some some hard work and good luck, that could happen before the next presidential election. Then Trump would have to manufacture something entirely new to whine about. Which, unfortunately, is one of his few demonstrated skills.

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Trump Madness on Meet the Press: Jail the January 6th Committee and Pardon January 6th Rioters

Posted by on December 8, 2024 at 3:00 pm. 3 Comments :

In his first interview since the election last month, Donald Trump has cemented his reputation as a pathological liar and a thoroughly delusional distorter of reality. He is proving that he is consistent, at least with regard to his determination to mislead the nation in order to pursue his dangerously dystopic agenda and advance his aspirations of authoritarian rule.

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Donald Trump Insurrection

Trump sat down with NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” for a typically awkward discussion wherein he filibustered, interrupted, and disgorged many of the same flagrant falsehoods that he has been disseminating for years at his cult rallies and in friendly venues such as Fox News, where at least 14 of his new White House nominees have come from.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

Among the topics that Trump mangled were his refusal to concede that he lost the 2020 election, his denial that tariffs would raise prices for consumers, and his maligning migrants as murderers, and his ludicrous new claim that the 2024 election was also rigged.

Trump was also asked about the January 6th insurrection that he incited. His answers were the same as he has given previously, but still troubling with regard to two associated aspects of it…

These opinions could not be more distant from the sort of rational thinking that Americans expect from their leaders. He is declaring that he wants elected members of Congress to be imprisoned for fulfilling their duties to investigate the violent insurrection. And he is simultaneously advocating that the criminal insurrectionists who assaulted police offices as they stormed the Capitol be freed and forgiven for their crimes, which he promises to do on his first day in office…

Welker: You promised to pardon those who attacked the Capitol on January 6th. Are you still vowing to follow through with that promise?
Trump: We’re looking at it right now. Most likely, yeah. […]
Welker: But you’re going to consider pardoning even those who pleaded guilty to crimes, including assaulting police officers?
Trump: Well, sometimes they say, “Here’s your choice.”

In the interview, Trump was also asked directly if he thought that Liz Cheney should go to jail. He replied…

“Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with [Rep. Bennie] Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps. So the unselect committee went through a year and a half of testimony. Wait. They deleted and destroyed all evidence of — that they found. You know why? Because Nancy Pelosi was guilty. […] Everybody on that committee, for what they did, honestly, they should go to jail.”

Every word of that rant is demonstrably false. What Cheney did that was “inexcusable” was to acknowledge the evidence of Trump’s misconduct. And Trump’s claim that “They deleted and destroyed all evidence” has been repeatedly debunked. In fact, only “temporary” records that were not part of the Committee’s probe were not preserved. Everything else was saved and is available online.

Furthermore, Trump’s accusation that Pelosi is “guilty” of some jailable offense is wholly without merit or reason. He is obliquely referring to an offer he claims to have made to provide 10,000 National Guard troops on January 6th, an offer that was never made according to multiple sources, including his own Defense Department appointees. In any case, it was the president, Trump, not Pelosi, who was in charge of security in D.C.

MORE ON BOTH OF THOSE HERE: Dementia J. Trump Confuses Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley In a Lie-Riddled Rant About January 6th

Trump also said that he would not direct his Attorney General or FBI Director to go after the Committee, but that “I think that they’ll have to look at that.” So he is, in effect, telling them to go after the Committee members, and probably others as well, including President Biden, his son Hunter, and prosecutors such as Jack Smith and Fani Willis. Much like a mob boss, he doesn’t have to give explicit orders to his subordinates, because they know what he means. They were hired to carry out his crusade of vengeance, and they know it.

We are barreling headlong at breakneck speed into a backwards world where lawmakers are locked up and lawbreakers are set free. And it’s going to take a mighty effort to resist this reversible perversion of politics. However, there are more of us than there are of them, and we have the law on our side. Even though it may not look like it sometimes.

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Pete Hegseth’s Fox News Co-Host Admits He Had a Drinking Problem, But It’s Now ‘Under Control’

Posted by on December 7, 2024 at 2:26 pm. NO Comments :

The ongoing formation of the Cabinet of Donald Trump continues to limp along with fits and wheezes. The historically unprecedented roster of billionaires, unqualified hacks, and shamelessly sycophantic Trump loyalists, portends a dire future for the nation.

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Pete Hegseth with Drunk Emoji

Not only would Trump’s administration lack anyone who would stand up to him when he’s wrong, they don’t have the experience or intelligence to implement his agenda, which is actually one of the rare positive aspects of his cadre of crackpots. What they have is unflinching fealty to Dear Leader and a direct hook up to his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

On Friday Kristen Welker of NBC News released a few teaser clips from her interview of Trump that will air Sunday on Meet the Press. In these clips Trump displayed his famously dishonest and/or delusionary perspective when discussing the state of Pete Hegseth’s nomination for Secretary of Defense.

Trump told Welker that “Pete is doing well now,” despite the fact that he still doesn’t have the votes from Republicans to be confirmed. Trump also offered his praise for Hegseth saying that “I’ve known him through Fox. But I’ve known him for a long time. And he’s basically a military guy,” because he talks about the military a lot. If that were the criteria required to run the Pentagon, Gomer Pyle would be qualified.

Hegseth has never managed anything like the Department of Defense, with 3.4 million people and an $850 billion budget. But he was fired from two veterans charities for alcohol-fueled misconduct and financial mismanagement. So he may have the skills Trump wants in order to dismantle the institution. With regard to Hegeth’s alcohol issues, Trump said that…

“I’ve spoken to people that know him very well and they say he does not have a drinking problem.”

Well, then that settles it. Because Trump would never lie, would he? Were those people big strong men who came up to him and hugged him with tears in their eyes? And why is okay for Trump to cite anonymous sources, but it’s not okay for anyone else?

These comments by Trump were played on Saturday’s episode of Fox and Friends, the program that Hegseth quit in order to become Vladimir Putin’s fave choice for U.S. defense secretary. And immediately following the clips, the current hosts discussed them and their relationship with Hegseth…

Cain: Just to be clear, people who work with him, there’s three – two here who have been with him on an hourly basis for five years – not a drinking problem. And that’s on the record with our names. So anonymous sources at NBC who work with him, you can value that for what it’s worth.
Campos-Duffy: I’ve actually seen Pete’s transformation over the time that I’ve worked here in terms of his own personal life. The man that he’s become. The way he comports himself as a father, as a husband over the last seven years. […] Pete does cling to his bible because he’s humble enough to know he needs it. And, no, he does not have a drinking problem. He has that completely under control.”

So Hegseth’s fellow “Curvy Couch” potatoes are with him all the way. What a surprise, and not at all a biased testimonial. Although Campos-Duffy may have done him more harm than good. Her assertion that his drinking problem is now “under control” is an affirmation that he did have a drinking problem. She now claims that he has overcome it, but provides no evidence for how he did so. It is extraordinarily difficult to overcome any substance abuse problem without professional help. Did Hegseth undergo therapy? Did he join Alcoholics Anonymous? Or did he just ask Jesus to free him from his addiction?

What’s more, why do they think that their testimony is more credible because they are on the record? They are also still employed by Fox News, and their jobs depend on regurgitating the company line. Which also happens to be the Trump line. Furthermore, we know that Fox News hosts lie because they were caught and had to pay a $787 billion dollar settlement due to their flagrant dishonesty.

The testimony of the inside sources in the independent reporting by the New Yorker and elsewhere is far more credible because they are speaking without the pressure or intimidation from their employers, Trump, or his MAGA thugs. And they are not anonymous. They are confidential. There’s a difference. The identity of anonymous sources is unknown. The identity of confidential sources is known to the journalists and editors. It just not disclosed in order to avoid retribution.

The bottom line is that the stories of Hegseth’s debauchery have now been essentially affirmed in part by his own former Fox News co-hosts. There is little reason to have confidence that he won’t backslide if he is entrusted with the stress and responsibility of being Secretary of Defense. And this doesn’t even address his inexperience, or the allegations of sexual assault, or the criticisms by his own mother that he’s a liar and a cheater who abuses women. However, it’s clear to see what Trump likes so much about him. They are two of a kind.

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
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And check out my books on Amazon:

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

Thanks so much for your support.