Politics

FOX News Anchor Admits Trump Tax (Tariffs) Will Raise Prices and Inflation for U.S. Consumers

Posted by on November 29, 2024 at 2:39 pm. 1 Comments :

The forthcoming occupation of the White House by convicted felon and adjudicated rapist Donald Trump is shaping up to be as disastrous as his harshest critics predicted. The people that he is nominating to staff his Cabinet and other high level positions appear to have been selected based primarily on their unwavering adoration of Trump.

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Donald Trump, Fox News, Hate Again

Aside from their blind loyalty, Trump’s White House supplicants share two other notable qualifications: 1) They have no knowledge or experience for the jobs that they are being tasked to perform, and 2) They have prepared for these positions by being employees or regular contributors at Fox News…

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

Despite this uniformity of thought, there have been moments when the Trump-fluffing Fox News shills strayed from their obedient concurrence with anything and everything that Trump does and says. One of those moments occurred Thursday when Fox News anchor Julie Banderas interviewed Gene Marks, the CEO of a business consulting firm, about whether Trump’s tariffs would raise prices for American consumers. This led to his reply and her surprisingly candid response…

Marks: It could. It just depends on how the businesses decide to absorb those price increases. Maybe they invest in technology or they reduce overhead.
Banderas: I think if American companies are forced to buy American, it is going to cost more ultimately. And then who’s going to pay for that? We are. I mean, we are going to be buying the merchandise that they are going to have to raise the costs on because they’re not going to be buying from foreign countries. So ultimately, it does come down to the taxpayer dollar.

Exactly! This is a rather simple concept that scores of economics experts have warned about ever since Trump’s threat to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% on China. But somehow, Trump’s cult followers don’t appear to be able to comprehend it.

However, now at least one member of Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) has weighed in on the side of the economists. Perhaps she just couldn’t justify the flagrant lying that was required to keep up the pretense that the cost of tariffs wouldn’t be passed along to consumers. Or perhaps she didn’t want to end up out the limb that CNN’s Scott Jennings recently crawled out on, where he escalated Trump’s trade war into an actual shooting war…

MORE HERE: CNN’s Republican Shill Says Tariffs Are Not Enough, Proposes Starting a Drug War with Mexico

The facts, however, are undeniable. A recent study by the National Retail Federation found that “Consumers could lose $46 billion to $78 billion in spending power each year if the new tariffs are implemented.” They would likely exacerbate inflation and could even lead to a recession.

Not that Trump cares about any of that. His own personal wealth, and that of the other wealthy people that he has drawn around him to run his administration, insures that they will not be harmed by the ill effects of his reckless policies. The pain will be felt by the rubes that he persuaded – with the help of Fox News – to vote for him. It will be interesting to see if any of those voters hold him accountable for the financial distress they are likely to suffer.

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Trump Unleashes a Thanksgiving Rant that Insults Half the Country and Lies About the Election

Posted by on November 28, 2024 at 10:56 am. 2 Comments :

It’s Thanksgiving! And across America families are gathering to express their gratitude for the blessings in their lives. Unlike holidays that memorialize loss or bygone battles, Thanksgiving is meant to be a celebration of the people and things that have brought us together and enriched our lives.

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Donald Trump Chicken

Not wanting to be left out, Donald Trump posted a message on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that was supposed to express the warmth and harmony of the season. However, the convicted felon, twice-impeached, former reality TV game show host, pathologically lying, wannabe dictator, and adjudicated rapist, just doesn’t have it in him. For one thing, he’s too busy complaining about his perpetual victimhood…

SEE THIS: MAKE IT STOP! Crybaby Trump Continues His Infantile Whining Weeks After Winning the Election

Instead of sharing the good feelings of this holiday, Trump chose to deliver the sort of hostile hate speech that is the hallmark of his malignant narcissism. So in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning, Trump posted the following philippic to his faithful cult disciples…

“Happy Thanksgiving to all, including to the Radical Left Lunatics who have worked so hard to destroy our Country, but who have miserably failed, and will always fail, because their ideas and policies are so hopelessly bad that the great people of our Nation just gave a landslide victory to those who want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Don’t worry, our Country will soon be respected, productive, fair, and strong, and you will be, more than ever before, proud to be an American!”

What a heartwarming call for harmony and the coming together of our national family. Is there still anyone who believes that Trump wants to unite America? Even on this holiday, when millions of Americans are embracing their families and a sense of national fellowship, Trump is wholly focused on himself and his relentless hatred for others, particularly those who he has designated as his enemies.

Trump is the archetypical “sore winner” who can’t experience normal human satisfaction without maligning his foes. So his holiday message includes an insult to at least half of the American people who voted against him. He dismisses them as failures with “hopelessly bad” policies that just happen to be favored by the majority of voters.

And if that weren’t bad enough, Trump had to include some more of his delusional distortions of reality by claiming that he won a “landslide victory.” That’s only true if you’re dumb or deranged enough to regard a victory margin of less than 2% – and failing to get a majority of the popular vote – a landslide.

Trump closed by promising that “our Country will soon be respected, productive, fair, and strong.” All of which he failed to achieve the last time he occupied the White House. And judging by the ultra-partisan incompetents, nutcases, Fox News flunkies, and sexual deviants, that he has nominated to populate his Cabinet, there is little to suggest he won’t fail again at least as badly, or worse.

For contrast, here are a couple of the Thanksgiving greetings from gracious and good-hearted public servants who truly care about others and about our country…

The hateful harangue by Trump shouldn’t surprise anyone. He’s done exactly the same thing on Thanksgiving many times before. And unfortunately, we should expect more of the same going forward.

But that doesn’t mean that we have to succumb to it. To the contrary, we can still appreciate the goodness in the hearts of our compassionate brothers and sisters, while fighting to preserve our democracy and freedom. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!

TRUMP’S PAST THANKSGIVING POSTS:

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CNN’s Republican Shill Says Tariffs Are Not Enough, Proposes Starting a Drug War with Mexico

Posted by on November 27, 2024 at 2:14 pm. NO Comments :

One of the absolute worst ideas that Donald Trump has proposed since becoming president-elect is his promise to impose new tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico, America’s biggest trading partners. His justification for this is that it would serve as a lever to make them end the trafficking of drugs into the United States.

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General Donald Trump on CNN

Never mind that economists and trade experts agree that such a reckless and ill-considered act “would significantly increase U.S. inflation next year [and] curtail economic growth.” Trump doesn’t really care about the welfare of the American people. If he did he wouldn’t lie to them so flagrantly and frequently.

SEE THIS: OUCH! Trump’s Flagrant Lies About 14,000 ‘Criminal’ Migrants Gets a Devastating Fact-Check

If the gullible rubes who voted for Trump think that he is going to lower the price of gas or eggs, they are going to be woefully disappointed. To the contrary, his plans will increase the costs of everything from fruit to toys to shoes to cars, and more. And to rub some salt into those wounds, it won’t have the slightest impact on drug trafficking.

Which makes the following exchange about Trump’s initiatives on CNN, between economic contributor Catherine Rampell and Republican hack Scott Jennings, all the more troubling…

Rampell: Mexico has actually put a lot more border security on its southern border.
Jennings: It’s really working wonders. This is crazy.
Rampell: Yes, again, border crossings are down 75 percent. They’re back to what they were under Trump.
Jennings: If I were [Mexican President Sheinbaum], I would be prepared for my country to possibly have United States military incursions to take out the drug factories and the people who do this to us too.
Rampell: So, you think we should not only have a trade war, we should have a military war with Mexico?
Jennings: I think we have to do what we have to do to stop the drugs.

So Jennings, who has previously supported deploying the military within the U.S. to round up immigrants for mass deportation, now also wants the Army to invade our allied neighbor to South to put an end to the Fentanyl crisis at home. The minions of MAGA have become the foremost advocates of military engagements. Unless, of course, it is aimed at preventing Vladimir Putin from invading and annexing our friends in Ukraine.

Rampell was correct to note that border crossings are down 75 percent. What’s more, most of the Fentanyl coming into the U.S. is brought in by American citizens through legal ports of entry. And there is a reason for the flood of drugs into the U.S. There’s a huge market for it. Fentanyl trafficking would end if Americans would stop buying it. It isn’t an international crime problem. It’s a domestic public health problem. These and other concerns were addressed by President Sheinbaum following Trump’s tariff threat…

“Mexico’s main exporters to the U.S. are General Motors, Stellantis and Ford Motor Company, which came to Mexico 80 years ago. Why put a tax on them that puts them at risk? It is not acceptable and would cause the U.S. and Mexico inflation and job losses.” […]

“Seventy percent of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country. We do not produce these weapons, nor do we consume synthetic drugs. Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demand in yours.”

The military “solution” that Jennings proposed would be worse than ineffective. It would be objectively harmful. It would put the lives American soldiers, as well as innocent Mexican civilians, at risk. It would do nothing to reduce drug trafficking because, as long as there is a demand, the traffickers will seek to fill it. They would just raise their prices along with the legal businesses who respond to the tariffs.

Worst of all, it would destroy the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, it’s biggest trading partner. It would accelerate inflation at home, and waste billions of dollars and military resources.

Yet somehow CNN is comfortable having a regular contributor on their air making these preposterous and dangerous proposals. Jennings is not a serious conservative commentator. He is war mongering fanatic whose opinions are not worthy of being disseminated by any reputable news enterprise. And if CNN wants to be regarded as “reputable,” they need to dispose of Jennings.

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MAKE IT STOP! Crybaby Trump Continues His Infantile Whining Weeks After Winning the Election

Posted by on November 26, 2024 at 1:28 pm. NO Comments :

There is just no satisfying a malignant narcissist with delusions of grandeur and aspirations of authoritarian dictatorship. And Donald Trump is a textbook example of someone suffering from this acute psychosis that produces a relentless stream of anxiety and unrestrained animosity.

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Donald Trump, Maggie Haberman

Emotionally stable persons are generally pacified when they achieve some long sought after goal. But Trump is congenitally incapable of pacification. He relentlessly regards himself as a victim no matter what the circumstances at any given moment in time. In fact, he’s actually proud of his ceaseless proclivity for whining, bragging that “I am the most fabulous whiner. I do whine, because I want to win. I am a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win.”

SEE THIS: Victim-in-Chief: Trump is the most Cowardly, Whining, Crybaby to Ever Be President

So even three weeks after election day, Trump is still complaining that he is a victim of nefarious entities determined to destroy him. On his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, Trump posted a message griping about some unexplained offense by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. He began by asking…

“Will the failing New York Times apologize to its readers for getting years of ‘Trump’ coverage so wrong. They write such phony ‘junk,’ knowing full well how incorrect it is, only meaning to demean.”

Trump doesn’t bother to cite any particular story that he asserts was “wrong,” or “phony,” or “junk,” or intended to “demean.” But he does resort to disgorging his standard issue insults and misogyny, referring to Haberman as “Magot Hagerman,” a slur that most seven year olds have outgrown.

Trump goes on to malign Haberman as “a third rate writer and fourth rate intellect [who he] almost never speak[s] to.” Never mind that he has spent many hours with her over the years, and proudly posed with her for photos in the Oval Office (see above). She also published a book – “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America” – based on her lengthy interviews of him. Despite these easily verifiable facts, Trump continued with a baseless charge against the New York Times, alleging falsely that…

“They do no fact checking, because facts don’t matter to them. I don’t believe I’ve had a legitimately good story in the NYT for years, AND YET I WON, IN RECORD FASHION, THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN DECADES. WHERE IS THE APOLOGY?”

For the record, Trump’s “RECORD FASHION” of winning was actually one of the narrowest margins of victory in modern times. He led Kamala Harris by less than 2%, and didn’t even muster a majority of the popular vote, for the third election in a row. But he still has the gall to ask for an apology? WTF for? Telling too much of the truth about him?

As usual, Trump’s temper tantrum was likely triggered by something that he came across in the press. Since he doesn’t mention what it was, we have to make an educated guess. In the hours before his hissy fit, the Times had published two stories by Haberman. One was about his long time aide, Boris Epshteyn, who is alleged to have sought payment from people seeking jobs in Trump’s administration. Proving that everyone in the Trump orbit is corrupt.

The other article was about Natalie Harp, a starstruck Trump flunky and former OAN cable “news” host who was known for writing “devotional letters,” to Trump, including one that said, “You are all that matters to me.” Her ultra-sycophantic presence in the Trump camp “has generated concern among other aides who feel she has been far too willing to serve as a funnel for conspiratorial information.” No wonder Trump loves her.

One other possible provocation for Trump’s outburst was a segment Monday night on CNN where Haberman talked about what Trump might do to retaliate against special counsel Jack Smith and other prosecutors in the Justice Department who indicted him for inciting the January 6th insurrection, and for stealing and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home/hotel and lying to the FBI about it.

Whatever the cause, it is clear that Trump is not mentally stable enough to perform the duties of the presidency. Not that he ever was. But now he is wracked with a frenzied hostility aimed at his perceived enemies without any rational basis. And as bad as this is now, it is only going to get worse over time. Hopefully Democrats in Congress will will provide some protection from the harm he is preparing to unleash. The MAGA GOP – and his family – obviously don’t care that he is a danger to himself and the nation.

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Fox News Host Attacks Republican Senators for Supporting the Constitution – No, REALLY!

Posted by on November 25, 2024 at 1:04 pm. 1 Comments :

The emergence of a demagogic cult figure like Donald Trump tugs at the boundaries of American politics as the nation leaps recklessly into the realm of dystopian fiction. Who could have imagined a few years ago that the government of the United States could be led by an aspiring dictator whose public persona was wholly manufactured by reality TV and propaganda, much of which emanated from foreign sources?

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Fox News, Constitution

Unfortunately, that is the situation that this country finds itself in today. And it isn’t just Trump that is fomenting the dire circumstances that have captured the nation. Most of what was once the Republican Party has succumbed to the anti-democratic seduction of a self-professed strongman with divine providence who promises to cure all of our ills, and insists that only he can do so.

SEE THIS: Wannabe Messiah Trump Claims that Only He Can ‘End the Bloodshed and Bring Peace to the World’

Trump is now assembling the Cabinet for his upcoming reoccupation of the White House. And it is dreadfully apparent that his foremost prerequisites for service are…

True to from, Fox News is fulfilling its mission to fluff Trump on all matters. Even if doing so requires chastising otherwise devoted Trump flunkies and repudiating the Constitution. To that end, Fox’s Laura Ingraham posted a couple of messages on the former Twitter castigating GOP senators who weren’t sufficiently worshipful of Trump.

In the first message, Ingraham asked “Why does NDakota have a senator who is already undermining Pres-elect Trump?” She was referring to GOP Sen. Mike Rounds, who is actually the senator from South Dakota. What she was complaining about was that Rounds delivered a speech in which, according to Politico, he said “that there are still three branches of the U.S. government, and the Senate will guard its independence.”

OH NO! A United States senator indicated his support for the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine. She believes that an elected representative who would exercise his constitutional duties is “undermining” the president. Because that would impose on the omnipotent powers bestowed on Trump by Gawd! Ingraham surely wasn’t going to abide that sort of usurpation of the divine authority of Trump.

The second message that Ingrahm posted asked “Why does Oklahoma have a Senator who hates Trump? Strange given that Okla. voters overwhelmingly support Trump.” This time she was referring to GOP Sen. James Lankford, whose state she managed to get right. However, her complaint was that Lankford told reporters that “he doesn’t know ‘one way or another’ if President-elect Trump and his new Department of Justice (DOJ) pick, Pam Bondi, will apply political interference from the nonpartisan department.”

MY GOODNESS! A United States senator acknowledged that the Constitution gives the Senate the duty to provide “advice and consent” to a president’s nominations to his Cabinet and other executive branch positions. It isn’t optional. It’s required. But to Ingraham it’s proof that the senator “hates Trump” if he seeks to make an informed decision. Because, once again, that would impose on the omnipotent powers bestowed on Trump by Gawd!

This is how far the GOP has declined into the abyss of Trump cultism. and their Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) is along for the ride to the bottom. They are unwaveringly faithful to Trump, even when it is flagrantly contrary to the Constitution. And he hasn’t even been inaugurated yet. So buckle up, America. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

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Former Trump Advisor HR McMaster’s Brutal Smackdown of Republicans Who Parrot Vladimir Putin

Posted by on November 24, 2024 at 12:51 pm. 2 Comments :

It will come as no surprise to those who have been paying attention, that Donald Trump is a wholly owned asset of Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime that is dedicated to destroying America. Trump has explicitly backed Putin in matters that are contrary to U.S. policy. He even said that he takes Putin’s word over that of American intelligence during a press conference with Putin at his side grinning.

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Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin

In all the years of his political life, Trump has never said a negative word about Putin. But he constantly maligns America as “corrupt” and “failing” and whose leaders are “stupid.” Trump has made it abundantly clear who he regards as this nation’s adversaries.

SEE THIS: Traitor Trump Says that Americans Who Oppose Him are ‘a Bigger Enemy than China and Russia’

It is important to recognize that it isn’t just Democrats who have noticed Trump’s fealty to Putin and Russia. Many of Trump’s closest associates from his first occupation of the White House have spoken out about his dangerously dictatorial aspirations. His former White House Chief of Staff, Gen. John Kelly, has revealed that Trump frequently spoke of his admiration for Adolf Hitler. And those opinions about Trump’s fascist tendencies are shared by his military and national security colleagues, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, his former Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, and his former National Security Advisor, John Bolton.

Among the patriots calling attention to Trump’s treasonous intentions was his National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster. And on this Sunday’s episode of CBS Face the Nation, McMaster took another stab at warning the nation about what awaits them in a second Trump term. He began by noting the lunacy of “blaming ourselves for the acts of our adversaries as Tulsi Gabbard [Trump’s current nominee for Director of National Intelligence] has done, talking about how Putin felt aggrieved and that’s why he had to invade Ukraine.” The discussion continued…

Margaret Brennan: Right. That’s a right-wing talking point that she has repeated in direct contravention to what U.S. intelligence has concluded.
McMaster: This is what I can’t understand. There are some people in the Republican Party these days who kind of tend to parrot Vladimir Putin’s talking points. I don’t know if it’s because they’re drawn to him and they see him as a defender of Western civilization, just a shirtless guy on horseback.

But they’ve got to disabuse themselves of this strange affection for Vladimir Putin, who is not gonna stop in his efforts to restore Russia’s national greatest at our expense. That’s what he is obsessed with. He’s obsessed with reestablishing the Russian empire.

Unfortunately, the fascist, so to speak, rots from the top. Trump is, of course, the leading disseminator of Putin’s talking points, and is the most seduced by the “strange affection” for Vlad. It is, therefore, unlikely that any of the Republicans that McMaster is referring to will alter their views. They are fully indoctrinated members of the Cult of Trump and believe that he has been blessed with divine infallibility.

Some of the glassy-eyed MAGA GOP (Gaga Over Putin) are set to join Trump in the White House next year. They include the aforementioned Gabbard, Pete Hegseth (Secretary of Defense), Michael Waltz (National security adviser), and John Ratcliffe, (CIA director). And Trump’s nominees for Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, and ambassadors to the U.N. And NATO, are no better. This is why Russian state TV was recently celebrating Trump’s victory and his Cabinet picks…

MORE HERE: Trump’s Cabinet Picks Make it Hard to Tell the Difference Between Russian State TV and Fox News

The American people who still cherish our legacy of freedom and independence will remain focused and committed to preserving it. It’s going to take a mighty effort to prevent the Trump team from handing over the keys to America to Putin & Co. But, in the end, it will be worth it.

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Trump Picks Dr. Oz (Another Fox News Hack) to Lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Posted by on November 19, 2024 at 3:35 pm. NO Comments :

The Cabinet of Donald Trump is shaping up to reflect his most notable range of experience, that of a former reality TV game show host, with a reputation that was wholly manufactured by network public relations agents. Heaven forbid that Trump would select someone with the actual skills and knowledge to do the job he is appointing them to.

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Donald Trump baby with Fox News logo

The single most common characteristic of the team Trump has put together thus far is their shared employment and/or association with Fox News. To date at least ten of Trump’s proposed agency heads have been either Fox News hosts or regular contributors. They include such ill-equipped talking heads as Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, Mike Huckabee for ambassador to Israel, Tulsi Gabbard for director of National Intelligence, and many more.

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

On Tuesday morning Trump added to that list of disrepute Dr. Mehmet Oz, who Trump is nominating to be the next administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In the announcement that Trump posted on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, he said that…

“Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.”

Well, Oz will be working with the RFK, Jr, the guy with the dead brain worm, who collects road kill, and says that no vaccine is safe. That’s comforting. What’s more, Oz has no background in health care administration or social services. What he has is a face that Trump has seen on his TV.

As for his medical background, during the COVID pandemic, Oz “promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a cure for COVID-19 on more than 25 Fox News broadcasts in March and April 2020.” And “In April 2020, Oz appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity and said that reopening schools in the United States might be worth the increased number of deaths it would cause.” And he has also said that he wants “local political leaders“ to join with women and doctors in their personal decisions about abortion.

Suffice to say that this is another department within the Trump administration that would be run by an incompetent who lacks the basic skills to conduct its business. And his opinions are diametrically opposed to those of most of the American people. But fear not. Trump assured us in his announcement that he will carry out Trump’s mission to slash the budget for these healthcare programs that millions depend on, saying that…

“He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”

The obsession by Trump and the Republican Party to cut Social Security and Medicare is totally understandable when you recognize that they have to do it in order to pay for the tax breaks that they plan to give to corporations and the wealthy. Someone has to pay, and it sure isn’t gonna be Trump or his billionaire buddies. And if the suffering it causes happens to impact the MAGA minions in rural America, well, it’s what they voted for. It’s just unfortunate that the rest of the country will have to suffer along with them.

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So-Called ‘Christian’ Mike Johnson Does the ‘Weave’ When Asked if Morality Matters to the GOP

Posted by on November 17, 2024 at 2:54 pm. 4 Comments :

As Donald Trump unveils the principle personnel of his upcoming administration, it is becoming clearer every day just how bereft of principles, knowledge, and experience will be available in some of the most critical positions in the United States government.

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Donald Trump, Congress, Mike Johnson

Unfortunately, it isn’t just a problem of ignorance and incompetence, but one of downright malice by nominees who have expressed ideas and intentions that are contrary to American policies and values.

Among those nominees are an accused sex trafficker (Matt Gaetz) for Attorney General, a health conspiracy crackpot (Robert Kennedy Jr) for Secretary of Health and Human Services, a TV host who has defended war criminals (Pete Hegseth) for Secretary of Defense, and a suspected Kremlin sympathizer (Tulsi Gabbard) for Director of National Intelligence. What they all share is an unwavering devotion to Trump, whose own values are wanting and/or warped.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Refusal to Sign the Required Ethics Agreement is His Virtual Promise to Violate It

America’s founders designed a system of government that anticipated some of the potential pitfalls that we face now. However, that system of checks and balances doesn’t work if the equal branches of government are run by lily-livered supplicants to an aspiring totalitarian. Which is precisely the situation we find ourselves in today as revealed in an interview of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson by Jake Tapper of CNN…

Tapper: You’re a man of faith. You’re a man of God. You’re a man of family. With some of these nominees, Gaetz, Hegseth, RFK Jr., I wonder does it matter anymore for Republicans to think of leaders as people who are moral in their personal lives? Is that still important to the Republican Party?
Johnson: Sure. It’s an important issue for anyone in leadership. This is what I’ll say about the nominees that the president has put forward, is that they are persons who will shake up the status quo. And I think what the American people have believed, and what they’ve delivered with the mandate in this election, is a demand that we shake up the status quo. […] Any president has the right to name their own cabinet to nominate persons that they think the people that will fulfill their agenda. And the people that are on this list will do that.

First of all, Tapper was exceedingly generous in his description of Johnson’s alleged piety. There has been little of that demonstrated in his public life, outside of vacant rhetoric.

More to the point, Johnson conspicuously avoided any coherent response to Tapper’s question. After a perfunctory concession that morality matters, he “weaved” (as Trump might describe it) into a lengthy, but unrelated, discourse on “shak[ing] up the status quo.” He further claimed that Trump had an electoral mandate that is a figment of his – and Trump’s – imagination. He won by one of the smallest margins in history, and failed to get a majority of votes.

Johnson’s justification for supporting the morality deprived candidates nominated by Trump is that “Any president has the right to name their own cabinet.” That’s true. But it is the Senate’s right to confirm those that the president names, or to decline to do so. And there has never been better justification to refuse confirmation than with the cretins Trump has named.

Will Johnson take a principled stand on these nominees? Don’t hold your breath. To the contrary, he has already stated his intention to object to the release of a report by the House Ethics Committee detailing their investigation of Gaetz for sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. And he made his announcement of that objection after visiting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago where he likely got his marching orders from Dear Leader.

That’s about all that can be expected by Johnson as Speaker of the House, as well as by Sen. John Thune as GOP leader of the Senate. Hopefully there will be a few Republicans with the minimum measure of morality to join with Democrats and block Trump’s worst nominees. But that may be a thin lifeline to cling to. Time will tell.

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Dictator on Day One! Trump Nixes FBI Background Checks for his Unqualified, Anti-American Cabinet

Posted by on November 15, 2024 at 1:32 pm. 5 Comments :

In the heat of the 2024 presidential election season, Donald Trump sat for one of his many tongue bathing “interviews” with Sean Hannity on Fox News. On one particular occasion, Hannity sought to handhold Trump through a controversy wherein he had been accused of aspiring to be a dictator. But true to form, Trump was oblivious to the answers that Hannity tried to pass to him in his questions.

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Donald Trump

Despite Hannity’s repeated attempts, Trump insisted on expressing his abhorrent authoritarian aspirations. He stubbornly affirmed his deep desire to be a “dictator on day one.” And the limitation of his tyrannical reign to a single day provides little comfort to those who know that dictators never relinquish power voluntarily once they assume it.

SEE THIS: Trump Cloddishly Dodges Hannity’s Softball Questions About Whether He Would Be a Dictator

Validating Trump’s totalitarian tendencies, it is now being reported that he intends to bypass the routine FBI background checks that are conducted on prospective presidential Cabinet candidates. According to CNN…

“President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is?bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks while using private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs, people close to the transition planning say.

“Trump and his allies believe the FBI system is slow and plagued with issues that could stymie the president-elect’s plan to quickly begin the work of implementing his agenda, people briefed on the plans said. Critics say the intrusive background checks sometimes turn up embarrassing information used to inflict political damage.

“The discussions come as Trump has floated several controversial choices for high-level positions in the US government – including Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.”

There are reasons that the FBI has been tasked with these background checks for decades. The positions that Cabinet heads hold grant them access to sensitive national security information. If they are compromised in any way it could make them vessels for foreign agents to acquire classified data, or even make them vulnerable to blackmail attempts. And that’s presuming that they aren’t purposefully acting on behalf of enemy regimes.

So why would Trump want to forego background checks on his nominees? Does he know something about them that we don’t? Are his own motives suspect? Even if they are not themselves foreign assets, do they have connections that would be concerning? Could they be unwitting dupes?

These are all questions that take on extraordinary significance when Trump himself has been so chummy with foreign despots like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Viktor Orbán, and Kim Jong Un. Will those questions be asked? Will Trump be able to delay the process until he is able to install his own nominee for FBI director (possibly Trump flunky, Kash Patel)?

Many of Trump’s nominees to date have glaring issues that would raise red flags in any probe for security clearances. His attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz, has been credibly accused of sex trafficking of a minor and illicit drug use. His Health and Human Services nominee, Robert Kennedy Jr, is a serial adulterer with a dead worm in his brain who holds crackpot conspiracy theories regarding medicine and vaccines. His nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has advocated bombing Iran and North Korea and argued in support of war criminals. His nominee for director of national security, Tulsi Gabbard, has ties with Putin and Russia.

What they all have in common is a worshipful cult attachment, and unwavering loyalty, to Trump, and no experience whatsoever in the jobs that he is proposing they fill. If it were Trump’s mission to undermine the stability of the United States, he couldn’t have picked a better team. So naturally, he wouldn’t want any of his co-conspirators to be subject to scrutiny.

Trump has been angling to give his nominees “recess appointments” so that they can bypass the Senate hearings as well. Hopefully Republicans in the Senate will grow a spine and insist that these nominees be required to submit to both background checks and Senate hearings. But resting our hopes on the strength of GOP spines is not exactly reassuring.

This leaves any hopes of preserving our democracy to Democrats, who are in the minority in both houses of Congress, and the media, who have been grossly deficient in their duty to inform. Which means that the only remaining path to salvation rests with the people. Are we up to it? We better be!

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Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

Posted by on November 12, 2024 at 1:14 pm. 3 Comments :

Donald Trump isn’t wasting any time putting together his White House regime. And true to form, it is shaping up to be an assembly of cult disciples devoted to Dear Leader who will place his egomaniacal priorities above the welfare of the United States and its citizens.

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Donald Trump, Fox News

Among the common characteristics of the first batch of Trump nominees are their unflinching loyalty to Trump, their commitment to bending to whatever is the MAGA agenda of the hour, their uniform whiteness, and their extremist views that align with his utter lack of ethical principles.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Refusal to Sign the Required Ethics Agreement is His Virtual Promise to Violate It

There is, however, another distinction that is shared by Trump’s early nominees. They all have a close relationship with Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda, aka Fox News. They are frequent guests who have reliably disseminated the MAGA doctrine for years on the network that features such unabashed Trump flunkies as Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, and Maria Bartiromo. Media Matters compiled the stats on the bookings of these new nominees to be government officials, and reported the number of times they have recently appeared…

  • Michael Waltz (National Security Adviser): 569
  • Stephen Miller (Deputy White House chief of staff): 374
  • Lee Zeldin (Environmental Protection Agency administrator): 307
  • Marco Rubio (Secretary of State): 263
  • Kristi Noem (Homeland Security secretary): 135
  • Elise Stefanik (Ambassador to the United Nation): 108
  • Tom Homan (Border “Czar”): 80
  • Mike Huckabee (Ambassador to Israel): Former Fox News host
  • LATE ADDITIONS:
  • Sean Duffy (Secretary of Transportation)
  • Tulsi Gabbard (Director of National Intelligence)
  • Sebastian Gorka (Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism)
  • Janette Nesheiwat (Surgeon General)
  • Monica Crowley (Assistant Secretary of State and Chief of Protocol)
  • Kimberley Guilfoyle (Ambassador to Greece)

Also added… Pete Hegseth (Secretary of Defense): Co-host of Fox and Friends.
While all of the nominees in the list above have little experience or qualifications for the jobs they have been nominated for, Hegseth is particularly egregious.

He attained only the rank of Major in the Army. He has no experience in broad command of military operations, developing strategy, or administration. He has never led a large organization like the Pentagon with more than 3.4 million people, including soldiers and civilian employees.

What Hegseth does have is experience in disseminating propaganda. He also has something in common with Trump – Being a serial adulterer and financial fraudster. He has been a full time Fox News talking head since 2014. In that time he has attacked the military and veterans. For Instance…

And then there’s this…

This is not unlike Trump’s first occupation of the White House. During that time he also relied on poaching people from Fox News to staff his administration. They included his National Security advisor John Bolton, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow, and many more.

No one should be surprised by these ties. Despite how often Trump complains about Fox News, they are still his best source of positive propaganda. For instance, just this Tuesday morning the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends discussed the differences between how Democrats were handling their losses this year, and how Republicans handled them in 2020…

Steve Doocy: Here’s the thing. Those people are all entitled to their opinion and they can feel how they feel. But, he is going to be president for four years. He won a four-year term. Just deal with it.
Lawrence Jones: I don’t remember Republicans acting out like this, cutting their hair and all of this after Donald Trump lost in 2020. You’re sad, you’re demoralized, but you move on.

Exactly! Republicans didn’t do anything crazy on January 6, 2021, like cut their hair. They just calmly stormed Congress, beat police officers, threatened representatives and their staff and VP Mike Pence, and vandalized the seat of American democracy. All in an attempt to overthrow a free and fair election. You know…they “dealt with it.” And Trump hasn’t stopped whining about it for four years.

The only “moving on” that is being done now is Trump’s Fox News mouthpieces into his administration. What’s. next? Jeanine Pirro for Attorney General? Maria Bartiromo for Treasury Secretary? Jesse Watters for Labor Secretary? How about Peter Doocy for Press Secretary? He is already auditioning for the post…

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Fox Nation vs. Reality:
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