Election

Trump’s Favorite Pollster Has Him Floundering Near His Lowest Point of the Year

Posted by on August 20, 2019 at 1:08 pm. 2 Comments :

The best way of determining what Donald Trump is most afraid of is by tracking what he’s tweeting about most furiously. Often it’s Democrats who he’s unable to debate on rational terms so he lashies out with racist insults. Other times he’s frantically trying to convince his Deplorables that the country isn’t headed for a painful recession of his own making.

Donald Trump

However, an extraordinary amount of Trump’s limited attention span is frequently consumed with the press that he thinks is engaging in a conspiracy to destroy him. His knee-jerk tirades against what he calls the “fake” news are never backed up by facts, but always dripping with acrimony and the bile of his gushing paranoia.

It’s bad enough when just the news outlets that he loves to attack are reporting honestly about his latest failure (which he hates), but now even his pet news sources are joining the resistance, in his mind. Fox News just released a poll that shows him with a near record high disapproval rating. It also shows the top Democratic challengers beating him in the general election. That, of course, has him hopping mad.

Consequently, he really isn’t going to like the latest polling from his favorite – and most flagrantly biased – pollster, Rasmussen. Trump often tweets every time Rasmussen reports a positive number. But don’t expect him to tweet that his approval rating is now at a dismal (for Rasmussen) 44 percent, with a disapproval of 54 percent. That’s one point off of his worst showing of the year.

Of course, these Rasmussen numbers fluctuate with little connection to real world events. Although in this case the multiple mass shootings a couple of weeks ago, and the effect of Trump’s tariffs on the economy and the pocketbooks of average Americans, may be taking a toll. So naturally Trump takes to Twitter to vent his outrage:

Notice that this eruption of his infamous and reckless “enemy of the people” mantra is not being directed at the media because of their reporting on Trump’s collusion with Russia or his idiotic border wall. Nope, this outburst is because they didn’t sufficiently swoon at the size of his crowd at a New Hampshire cult rally. To trump size matters. And he has been whining about this for several days now. It’s all he has left.

The notion that the media is “corrupt” because they aren’t fawning over the blind devotion of his glassy-eyed followers is patently absurd. Even worse, Trump is boasting that he broke an attendance record set by Elton John at the same venue. But that comparison is ridiculous considering that Elton’s fans paid upwards of $60.00 a piece, while Trump’s red-hatted geeks got in for free. Let him charge sixty bucks and see how many show up.

To sum up, Trump’s attempted negotiations with China, North Korea, Iran, and even allies like Mexico and Europe are falling apart. The nation is livid about his (and his GOP comrades in Congress) negligence to do anything affirmative about guns. Migrant children are still being separated from their parents and housed in cages. And most economists are predicting an imminent recession or worse. No wonder both Fox News and Rasmussen are delivering near record low numbers for Trump. And, as a result, you can expect his behavior to become even more unhinged going forward. It’s as predictable as a Trump casino going bankrupt.

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

Trump Threatens Fox News: ‘I’m Not Happy with Fox and I’m the One Who Calls the Shots’

Posted by on August 19, 2019 at 12:38 pm. 3 Comments :

The evidence that Fox News is just a subdivision of the Republican Party (or vice versa) continues to pile up. And the closeness of that relationship has never been stronger than it has during the administration of Donald Trump. Fox News and Trump share a profound intimacy wherein the State TV network will unceasingly defend the President and malign his critics, while he generally sings the praises of his most devoted Trump-fluffers. Leaked emails recently revealed the existence of a literal Propaganda pact between Fox News and Trump.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Strange

However, on occasion Trump will have a brief falling out with his PR team at Fox. It usually occurs when a Fox News pundit has the audacity to tell the truth about Trump or to challenge his perceived omnipotence. Foxies like Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith have periodically been victims of Trump’s wrath. But his complaints are never based on any identifiable error in content or facts. Trump just lashes out in unhinged tantrums when someone at Fox is not sufficiently worshipful.

That rare moment of independence presented itself recently when Fox News released the results of its latest poll. The numbers were decidedly negative for Trump, including the finding that the top four candidates for the Democratic nomination for president (Biden, Warren, Sanders, and Harris) handily beat Trump in 2020 general election match ups. Trump never even broke forty percent. The poll’s respondents also gave a much higher favorability rating to the Democratic Party (51/45), than the Republican Party (41/54), which they rated as significantly unfavorable. And in a searing rebuke of Trump’s assessment of his own ability to unify the nation, 59 percent of voters said that he is “tearing the country apart.”

Predictably, Trump went bonkers at Fox daring to deflate his messianic self-image. And he frantically unloaded his outrage during another episode of his “Chopper Talk” reality show that has replaced White House press briefings. It was a jaw-dropping spectacle that confirmed that Trump regards Fox News as an affiliate of the White House that must always be obedient to his demands (video below). He began…

“Fox is a lot different than it used to be, I can tell you that. […] Fox has changed. And my worst polls have always been from Fox. There’s something going on with Fox, I’ll tell you right now. And I’m not happy about it. I don’t know what’s happening with when they have a Juan Williams who’s never said a positive thing. And yet when I show up at the Fox building he’s out there, “Oh sir, can I have a picture with you? Can I have a picture? He’s 100 percent nice.”

First of all, Trump has complained before about Fox News polls that he says “have always been terrible to me.” However, this collection of his own tweets proves that Fox’s polling has often been favorable to him, and he knows it. And it’s interesting that he considers that Juan Williams being polite somehow makes him a hypocrite. That actually tells you something about Trump’s boorish and infantile personality. Then he continued…

“Fox is different, there’s no question about it. And I think they’re making a big mistake because Fox was treated very badly by the Democrats. Very, very badly. Having to do with the debates and other things. I think Fox is making a big mistake because, you know, I’m the one who calls the shots on the really big debates. I guess we’re probably planning on three of them. And I’m not happy with Fox. I’m certainly happy, I think, Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs. I think Tucker Carlson and Laura, Jesse Watters and Jeanine. We have a lot of great people.”

Trump is unambiguously threatening Fox News here. He’s saying that if they don’t start delivering more favorable polling results he might just prohibit them from hosting election debates. He believes that Fox’s polls should not be honest, representative samples of the electorate but, instead, should be aligned with the views of his favorite shills (Hannity, Dobbs, Carlson, etc.) And if they aren’t, then Fox will be punished. Also, his assertion that “WE” have a lot of great people, is a clear indication that in his mind Fox News is part of his regime. TrumpenFox is a monstrous creation that crossbreeds news and politics.

This would be a good time to point out that Trump’s assertion that he “calls the shots” is bullshit. The apolitical, independent Commission on Presidential Debates has sponsored general election presidential debates in every election since 1988. So unless Trump intends to unilaterally rescind that process, he won’t be deciding which networks host the debates.

Of course, given his recklessness and ignorance, Trump just might try to nix the Commission and impose his own terms for debate. That, however, wouldn’t go down well with the Democratic nominee who likely oppose any such move. And if the debates are canceled as a result, it would just make Trump look petty, stubborn, childish, and most of all, scared. Which is unquestionably the true state of his diseased psyche, considering his utter failure to deliver on his campaign promises, and the teetering state of the economy. The American people would see in real time that the Donald Trump who dodged the draft is the same coward dodging the debates.

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

Blindered Trump Flunky Larry Kudlow Doesn’t See a Recession Now, Or in 2007 Either

Posted by on August 18, 2019 at 11:25 am. 1 Comments :

The past week has generated considerable concern about the state of the economy. And among the most anxious observers is Donald Trump, who knows that his reelection is dependent on being able to tout a positive outlook. However, due to his own ignorance and incompetence, the real world isn’t cooperating. The stock market is down for the third consecutive week. The dreaded “yield curve inversion,” a fairly reliable signal of an imminent recession, took place. And there’s a global slowdown in manufacturing and consumption.

Donald Trump Rally Trash

So how is the Trump White House responding to these warnings that will impact every American? They are sending out their most accomplished liars to peddle utterly false impressions of the health of the economy. Topping that list is Trump’s Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow. He’s a notorious failure whose record for accurate predictions is almost comical. The President hired him after watching his Trump-fluffing performances on Fox News.

On Sunday morning Kudlow made the news talkies circuit to blatantly mislead the nation about their economic future. His performance was notably ineffective, at least partly because he appeared to be stinking drunk, which the Internet couldn’t help but notice. More importantly, his summary of the rosy scenario that the White House is pitching could not have been more deliberately deceitful. In an exchange with NBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, Kudlow engaged in this fantasy (video below):

Todd: The private sector seems to be concerned about the trade war with China, that there are some rough waters ahead. Maybe a recession, that those odds have risen. What do you see?
Kudlow: Well, I tell you what. I sure don’t see a recession. […] Most economists on Wall Street towards the end of the week have been marking up their forecasts for the third and fourth quarter. That echoes our view. What we’ve got here, consumers are working at higher wages. They are spending at a rapid pace. They’re actually also saving while they’re spending as an ideal situation. So actually I think the second half of the economy is going to be very good in 2019. No, I sure don’t see a recession.

First of all, it is patently untrue that “most economists on Wall Street … have been marking up their forecasts.” To the contrary, many have been sending up flares to warn of what they see as an inevitable decline. To be sure there are those with more optimistic views, but those types of Pollyannas have always been around just prior to the sky actually falling. Case in point…Larry Kudlow in 2007, who insisted that “The pessimistas were wrong…There’s no recession coming.” That was just a few months before the worst recession in nearly a century:

Kudlow went on to justify his horribly missed call by lying that “Every other forecaster” was saying the same thing. While he was not alone, there were some more accurate predictors, including current presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. And Warren is cautioning people to be aware of another similar downturn. Some of the indicators are economists’ estimates of third-quarter GDP growth at about two per cent, way short of the four percent that Trump promised. Also, the manufacturing sector is slumping with output that has fallen 0.4 percent in July. Plus, the University of Michigan’s survey-based index of consumer confidence fell sharply in August, reaching its lowest level since 2016.

Meanwhile, Trump is telling his glassy-eyed disciples attending his cult rallies that “You have no choice but to vote for me, because your 401(k), everything is going to be down the tubes. Whether you love me or hate me, you have got to vote for me.” So did Trump just admit that voting for him would result in an economic catastrophe? That would be uncharacteristically honest of him.

Of course, he didn’t actually mean that. He was engaging in his classic brand of fear mongering to make sure his cult followers stay frightened and in line. But the truth is that Trump couldn’t care less about the financial prospects of the American people. He is solely focused on his own interests – either personal finances or reelection – and that is what’s driving everything he does and says. His Deplorables won’t learn that until it’s too late. But hopefully they will be spared that suffering, which can be avoided if citizens come together to vote Trump out or back Congressional efforts to impeach him.

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

SRSLY? Trump-Bot on Fox News Says ‘I Don’t Remember Us Electing an Angry President’

Posted by on August 2, 2019 at 1:12 pm. 6 Comments :

A few weeks ago Donald Trump whined about his State TV network (aka Fox News) hosting a couple of town halls with Democratic presidential candidates, saying that “Something strange is going on at Fox, folks.” It might have been a little strange, except for the fact that Fox predictably used the appearances to disparage them in every segment that followed.

Donald Trump

However, Trump is probably over that momentary episode of angst now that he can see Fox faithfully fulfilling its mission to exalt him and brazenly lie on his behalf. Fox’s overt adoration of Trump was displayed in yet another staged “interview” of one of their stable of Trump-fluffing contributors. This time it was frequent Fox shill, and disgraced, ousted GOP House Speaker, Newt Gingrich. In a segment about the recently broadcast Democratic debates, Fox called on Gingrich to provide his relentlessly partisan analysis. And his opinion of where the Democrats are going wrong couldn’t have been more asinine (video below):

Gingrich: It was amazing the level of anger you got out of Bernie Sanders and Sen. Warren. I mean, these are really angry people and it was kind of amazing to watch them. It’s the opposite of how people normally win the presidency. You watch Barack Obama with a big smile. You watch Ronald Reagan with a big smile. I don’t remember us electing an angry president literally in my lifetime.

Newt Gingrich is either suffering from a severe case of selective amnesia, or he is deliberately peddling some of the most ludicrous lies ever told on Fox News. First of all, while Sanders and Warren (and all decent human beings) are often noticeably upset with the abhorrent words and deeds of Trump, they were also hopeful and positive and bearing bright smiles.

More to the point, while Gingrich’s “amazement” that Democrats are “really angry” fails to put their mood in context to the horror of Trumpism, his inability to recall the election of an angry president is downright delusional. Donald Trump is America’s ranking rage-aholic. He has a temperament range that runs from outrage to fury. The only time that he isn’t in the midst of a frothing tirade is when he’s stroking his own bloated ego.

Trump uses his anger mainly to malign his critics. He routinely taunts them as “stupid, ugly,” or other similarly infantile insults. His rants are purposely intended to incite hatred, division, and distrust among otherwise united citizens. And yet he has the audacity to charge that “The rage filled Democrat Party is trying to tear America apart.” He recently retweeted a meme that said that “Democrats are the true enemies of America.” Nah, he aint angry at all, is he?

So Gingrich can’t remember the election of an angry president even though the current one that he obediently reveres is a seething cauldron of bile and hostility. And despite Gingrich’s blindness to Trump’s acid acrimony, Trump himself regards it as an asset:

To put it mildly, Gingrich and Fox News are such glassy-eyed disciples of Trumpism that they have lost all connection to reality. In the very segment where Gingrich claims Democrats are angry, Fox runs runs video of them smiling at the debate. And Fox also had a chyron that affirmed Trump’s anger that read “Trump Tears Into ‘Radical’ 2020 Democrats In Ohio.” Which was portrayed as a show of strength.

Another example of this dementia inducing adulation took place on Trump’s favorite Fox program, Fox and Friends. Co-host Ainsley Earhardt sought to gaslight (or more accurately, “Foxlight”) her viewers with a comparison of Trump to Joe Biden. She said that “They’re both rust belt people though. They’re both, like, blue collar workers that have money, but blue collar.”

WHUT? To be fair, no ever ever accused these “Curvy Couch” potatoes of being Mensa members. But Earhardt has to know that Trump was born to a wealthy father in New York City, while Biden was a middle-class kid from Scranton, PA. This purposeful lie, as well as the ones by Gingrich, can only be taken as deliberate attempts to mislead the easily confused Fox News audience who seemingly yearn to be lied to. And the profiteers and propagandists at Fox know enough to give the Deplorables what they want.

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

Thanks Fox News, for Exposing Trump as a Failure at Nearly Everything He Promised

Posted by on July 31, 2019 at 11:04 am. 4 Comments :

Following the first round of the second set of Democratic presidential primary debates, Fox News thought they had found a way to advance their mission of disparaging the Democratic Party and it’s candidates. They didn’t go quite as far as Donald Trump did (who tweeted that “Democrats are the true enemies of America”), but it was still pretty damn awful.

Donald Trump, Fox News

The only problem with Fox’s anti-Democratic post-debate banter was that they ended up inadvertently slamming their own guy. In a segment on Fox and Friends, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes were especially enamored of 1% candidate John Delaney, mainly because he was criticizing other Democratic candidates who actually have a chance of winning and facing Trump in the general election.

Ainsley Earhardt of Fox and Friends interviewed Delaney (video below) and effusively praised him for countering Elizabeth Warren’s proposal for Medicare for All. They played a clip of Warren righteously blasting the allegedly “pragmatic” Delaney. “I don’t understand,” Warren asked, “why anybody goes through all the trouble of running for the President of the United States, just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.” Earhardt then went on to say…

“I thought it was very practical what you were saying last night. I thought you did a good job with that because we all knew that kid in school that beat you when you were running for student body president because they promised to put snack machines in all the classes. You know that’s not gonna happen. But the kids hear that and they vote for that person. […] I don’t understand why people run and then they promise stuff and then it never happens.”

First of all, if Earhardt doesn’t understand why candidates make campaign promises, she needs to go back to doing local news in South Carolina and writing children’s books. Secondly, she has no basis for asserting that Democrats will not fulfill their promises to expand healthcare, particularly since President Obama already proved that they can do it.

However, the biggest blunder of Earhardt’s tantrum was her complaint about people who “promise stuff and then it never happens.” She could not have provided a better description of Donald Trump if she were the chair of the Democratic Party. Let’s explore a few of Trump’s broken vows.

Trump promised his own healthcare plan that he said would cover every American for much less than it costs now. Not only has he not delivered, he hasn’t even offered a draft of a plan. He promised to build a wall on the southern border and make Mexico pay for it. That’s been a running joke for over two years now. He promised infrastructure construction and repair, but came up empty even though Democrats support it. I could go on.

OK, I will. He promised progress on trade, then imposed tariffs that only hurt American consumers. He promised denuclearization, but North Korea, Russia, and Iran are all expanding their programs after his bumbling missteps. He promised to eliminate the budget deficit and the national debt. But the deficit has grown by billions and the debt is now over $22 trillion dollars, thanks mostly to Trump’s tax giveaway to corporations and the wealthy.

The reality is, as noted by PolitiFact, that only 16 percent of Trump’s campaign promises were graded as “Promises Kept.” The other 84 percent are distributed between “Compromised, Broken, Stalled,” or “In the Works.” That is hardly a record that anyone should be proud of. And even by his accounting Trump has been a dismal failure.

Although Trump does deserve credit for some notable successes. For instance, he has succeeded in dividing the nation, emboldening racist hate groups, cozying up to foreign dictators, fouling the planet, appointing corrupt government officials, suppressing voters, and advancing an economy that works only for corporations and the rich, while average Americans struggle. But at least we can all be grateful to Fox News for pointing out how horribly Trump has failed and why no one should even consider voting for him.

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

BIG NOPE! Trump Posts Fox News Video Claiming that ‘He’s Delivered on All of His Promises’

Posted by on July 20, 2019 at 12:41 pm. 5 Comments :

The 2020 presidential election has begun in earnest with the first Democratic primary debate done and the second a little over a week away. On the Republican side the primary is being aggressively ignored despite the presence of a credible opponent to Donald Donald, former Massachusetts governor William Weld. But Trump himself is fully engaged in his battle to win reelection.

Donald Trump

There is nothing Trump likes better than campaigning. He prefers it over being president so much that he has never stopped doing it. He has held sixty-four (64!) of his campaign cult rallies so far, with the latest being his “Send Her Back” racist extravaganza last week in North Carolina. That works out to about one rally every two weeks. Add that to his time spent golfing, tweeting, and watching Fox News and you have to wonder how he has any time for presidenting. Which may be a blessing.

On Saturday morning Trump continued his campaign crusade by posting a video on Twitter of his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, cheerleading for Eric’s daddy and commending his alleged list of accomplishments. She says, without a hint of shame, that “He’s delivered on all of his promises.” There’s just one small problem. That list is a long scroll of blankness, unless you’re counting all the examples of harm Trump has thrust upon the nation. Let’s take a look at what Lara said, and what her sugar-daddy-in-law thinks is proof of his success.

PolitiFact keeps a running tally of the status of Trump’s campaign promises. They currently show that only 16 percent are graded as “Promises Kept.” The other 84 percent are distributed between “Compromise, Broken, Stalled,” or “In the Works.” That is hardly a record that anyone should be proud of.

What’s more, of the top five promises Trump has made, he has achieved precisely ZERO!. They include his failed promise to repeal Obamacare. While he has managed to cut into its effectiveness with executive orders that hurt millions of Americans, he has repeatedly fallen short in Congress and many of his executive orders were overturned by the courts.

Then there is his pledge to build a wall along the southern border and make Mexico pay for it. With his term more than half way over there is still no wall and nothing but ridicule from Mexico. Instead, Trump has been trying desperately to build a fence and make the American people pay for it.

He also promised to suspend immigration from terror-prone places. On that item he did push through an abhorrent and discriminatory ban on Muslim refugees. But he left many countries that are known to harbor terrorists off of the list. For instance, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. And since there weren’t any terrorists coming into the U.S. from the countries he listed, the only thing he accomplished was to prohibit legitimate refugees from seeking safety from terrorists.

Trump also said that he would cut taxes for everyone. Had he said “everyone who is wealthy or a corporation,” he might have been able to claim this one as a success. Instead, the fact is that most Americans did not get a tax cut, and many got increases. Which makes this just another Trump failure.

Finally, Trump promised to lower the business tax rate to 15 percent. However, he only got it down to 21 percent, which was still bad enough to produce a trillion dollar increase in the national debt. And it did nothing to benefit the workers at those companies.

Those are just the top five promises that Trump made. There are many more that he enumerated in his “Contract with the American Voter.” And with a few exceptions, those were mostly unfulfilled as well.

What Trump has succeeded in is dividing the nation, emboldening racist hate groups, cozying up to foreign dictators, fouling the planet, appointing corrupt government officials, suppressing voters, and advancing an economy that works only for corporations and the rich, while average Americans struggle. Congratulations, Donnie. You’ve delivered on all of your promises to your wealthy friends and foreign tyrants.

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

Trump Suffers Fit of Hysterical Projection Syndrome in Desperate Attack on Joe Biden

Posted by on July 6, 2019 at 12:24 pm. 0 Comments :

For nearly two and a half years Donald Trump has been a walking textbook of debilitating psychoses. He has displayed symptoms of malignant narcissism, dementia, senility, paranoia, and antisocial personality disorder (aka sociopathy). He is a sexual predator and a bully who resorts to infantile behaviors when angry or afraid. And a group of psychiatric doctors and academics at Yale University deemed him “too mentally ill to serve.”

Donald Trump, Joe Biden

Now a new diagnosis can be made that describes Trump’s relentless determination to accuse others of what he does himself. The surest indicator of whether Trump has committed a crime is when he blasts out charges at someone else for the same criminal activity. And when that tendency reaches absurd levels of mania, as it so often does with Trump, we can call it Hysterical Projection Syndrome. And history will record Trump as Patient Zero for this malady. He presented a perfect example of it on Saturday morning with a frantic tweet (of course) aimed at Joe Biden, which we can break down to fully observe the depths to which Trump’s illness have driven him.

First of all, there’s no way Trump wrote this tweet. Too many syllables. More to the point, Trump begins by disparaging Biden as “a reclamation project” who is “not salvageable.” Both of those terms are thinly veiled insinuations about his age. Trump has also attached one of his childish nicknames – Sleepy Joe – to Biden. However, while Biden is 76 years old, Trump is 73 years old. And he is the laziest president in history. It has been reported that he doesn’t start his work day until 11:00 am, after his morning routine (executive time) of watching Fox News. And he has played more golf (at his resorts from which he profits) than any president before him.

Secondly, Trump says of Biden that China is “begging for him.” We’ll set aside the fact there is no evidence to support that charge. Trump is implying that China likes Biden and wants to deal with him. But that’s exactly what Trump says about his own relationship with China’s Xi Jinping. How can he criticize Biden for allegedly having the sort of relationship that he brags about having himself?

Third, Trump says that Biden “deserted our military.” Again (and as is true about almost everything Trump says) there is no support for that charge against Biden. Although there is abundant support for it against Trump. He is a five-time draft dodger. He insulted all POWs for having been captured. He denigrates Gold Star families who are not Trump sycophants. He terminated healthcare and other services for vets. And he deported veterans who served in combat despite not being citizens.

Fourth, Trump also baselessly said that Biden deserted law enforcement. However, it is Trump who has viciously attacked the FBI, the Department of Justice, and others in law enforcement. Notably, he does that primarily to tarnish their reputations when he is the subject of an investigation – of which there are many. Trump is against cops for the same reason bank robbers are: They make it harder for him to get away with his crimes. So he goes ballistic. His vile attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller have included charges of lying, corruption, conflict of interest, and even treason.

Fifth, Trump also said that Biden deserted healthcare. Of course, he was at President Obama’s right hand when the Affordable Care Act was passed. Trump, on the other hand, has worked hard to sabotage it and is currently supporting a lawsuit that could result in killing it entirely. He has no plan to replace it or to preserve the most popular provisions, including coverage for those with preexisting conditions.

Sixth, Trump complains about the national debt, which is rising to a record $22 trillion dollars under his administration. Much of that is due to his own tax bill that provided corporations and the wealthy with steep and undeserved tax cuts. The Congressional Budget Office projects that Trump could add roughly the same amount of debt as Obama over two terms. However there’s a big difference between the two. Obama took office in the depths of the Bush recession when deficit financing was required to spur the recovery.

Trump, on the other hand, inherited a booming economy, which is the best time to pay off debt. But he nevertheless managed to increase it without any discernible gain. As Forbes Magazine (not exactly a bastion of liberalism) reported, “Trump’s deficits as a percent of GDP will exceed any other President’s during a time of economic expansion.” And the stock market, which Trump likes to use as a gauge of his success, performed far better during Obama’s term. The S&P 500 rose 66.2 percent under Obama, but less than half that (31.1%) under Trump.

Finally, Trump closed this tweet with the exclamation that Biden “Won’t win!” Well, that may be true. He may not even be the Democratic nominee. But the likelihood that Trump will win is pretty low considering that he is currently trailing all of the top Democratic contenders. And his approval rating is historically low. He is the first president ever to never crack 50 percent in approval.

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

That’s a lot of flaming wrongness by Trump in one little tweet. And all of the whining about Biden actually applies much better to Trump. It’s important to acknowledge just how delusional he is as we approach the coming 2020 election. Trump’s psychological infirmities need to be a part of the campaign for all Democrats. He must be exposed as not just another callous and greedy Republican, but as an incompetent whose ignorance, hostility, and mental imbalance puts the whole nation – and world – in danger.

Awww: Fox News Worries that Democrats Might Be ‘Blowing Their Chance to Beat Trump’

Posted by on July 2, 2019 at 11:11 pm. 1 Comments :

There’s nothing like an election to get conservative blowhards to shed some crocodile tears over what they see as the declining fortunes of the Democratic Party. Never mind that the last election in 2018 saw a “blue wave” that swept Democrats into the majority in the House of Representatives and made Nancy Pelosi Speaker. Republicans are never more sympathetic to the threat of Democrats losing voters than when the Democrats are actively and effectively beating up on the GOP. So naturally, right-wing politicos and pundits need to come out with their heartfelt advice to stop the Democrats from hurting themselves. How thoughtful.

Fox News, Donkey

On Tuesday morning, Fox News media analyst, Howard Kurtz, was interviewed by anchor Bill Hemmer about how dreadfully naive Democrats are for appealing to their own constituents, rather than kowtowing to Donald Trump and his cadre of Deplorables. The segment featured a chyron that read “2020 Dems Taking Extreme Positions on Key Issues.” And their examples of how the party is “lurching left” and “blowing their chance to defeat Trump,” were positions in favor of humanitarian treatment of refugees and support of Medicare for All – two issues that resonate with progressives and are wildly popular among Democrats and even many Republicans and independents.

This is a bold demonstration of political altruism on the part of Kurtz and company. Because who would know more about what’s best for Democrats than the staunchly Republican partisans on Fox News who spend most of their time viciously maligning and lying about the party? They nevertheless believe that they are perfectly positioned to give counsel to Democrats who might otherwise destroy their own electoral prospects by advocating for higher wages for workers, higher taxes for corporations and the wealthy, greater access to education, and addressing the imminent risks of the climate crisis. You know, the very issues that define the positive values of the Democratic Party, as well as the majority of Americans. But Kurtz is concerned because…

“What we can say is that some of these positions, way out on the left wing, things that nobody in the party would have said even in 2016, could be a vulnerability next year.”

Really? It’s funny that Kurtz is worried about what are actually mainstream positions that he ridiculously tags as “left wing.” But he doesn’t have a word to say about the radical right positions being taken by Trump and his Republican Nationalist Party. Doesn’t he think that incarcerating children in cages will blow Trump’s chances of being reelected? And what about Trump’s bizarre affinity for murderous dictators like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un? And his hostility toward agreements that made America safer by curtailing the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea?

Isn’t the GOP lurching to the right by repeatedly cutting taxes for the rich? Aren’t they pandering to GOP fanatics by rejecting the Paris accords on climate change? Won’t Trump’s sabotage of ObamaCare and determination to end popular protections for preexisting conditions drive voters away? And then there’s his relentless pursuit of a useless, idiotic, vanity wall along the southern border that most Americans oppose.

Why is it that wingnuts like Kurtz always pretend to be concerned about where Democrats are on the ideological spectrum? They would never countenance Democrats offering such advice to Republicans. You’ll never see Kurtz, or anyone on Fox News asking if Trump is blowing it by pandering so obsessively to his dwindling, cultist base.

If anyone should be worried about blowing 2020, it’s Donald Trump. His approval ratings are in the basement. He is the first president in history who has never cracked 50 percent. His positions are unpopular. He is regarded as a lying loudmouth who doesn’t know what he’s talking about on any subject. Meanwhile, the motivation of Democrats to vote next year forecasts a historically high turnout. That isn’t exactly good news for Trump and his paid shills at Fox News. But not to worry. They will never see those danger signals as warnings to moderate their regressive fanaticism.

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

Trump Floats Ludicrous ‘Big Secret’ Theory for Obama Not Endorsing Biden

Posted by on June 25, 2019 at 12:51 pm. 1 Comments :

Donald Trump’s opinion on the candidates in the Democratic presidential primary is about as useful as Bill Cosby’s dating tips. Trump is a notorious pathological liar who uses any opportunity to disparage his political foes as an invitation to spin lame, and often profane, fairy tales that have no relationship to reality. Why any reporter would ask him for his opinion on this subject is a mystery.

Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

Nevertheless, that’s what a reporter from The Hill did on Tuesday morning. Trump was asked about the prospect of facing Vice-President Joe Biden in the general election, and his response was typically shallow, insulting, and untrue (video below):

“How he doesn’t get President Obama to endorse him. There has to be some reason why he’s not endorsing him. He was the vice president. They seem to have gotten along. And how President Obama’s not endorsing him is rather a big secret.

“Then he goes and lies and said, ‘I asked the president not to endorse me.’ Give me a break. He’s embarrassed by the fact that Obama’s not endorsing him, so he goes out and says, ‘I asked President Obama not to endorse me.’ Well, he was trying to get the endorsement. So it could be that President Obama knows something. But there is something going on in that brain of his.”

The “big secret” is that former presidents, and most party leaders, never endorse candidates during a primary. It would be considered bad form to discriminate between members of your own party. So they generally remain neutral until a nominee is selected by voters, whereupon, they issue their endorsement. Were they to endorse one candidate, but another eventually wins the nomination, the nominee would be diminished as a second choice for not having had the original endorsement.

It isn’t surprising that Trump doesn’t know this, because it’s just one of the many things his universal ignorance encompasses. But what is a bit surprising is that he seems to forgotten that he refused to endorse his own vice-president, Mike Pence, when asked. During an appearance on his favorite Fox News morning show, Fox and Friends, he awkwardly babbled that “You can’t put me in that position. But I certainly would give it very strong consideration.”

So what is Trump’s “big secret” for not endorsing Pence? There has to be some reason why he’s not endorsing him. He’s the vice president. They seem to have gotten along. So it could be that Trump knows something. But there is something going on in that “brain” of his.

Trump is not the best person to bring up big secrets. After all, he has been fighting for years to keep his tax returns secret. Likewise his college transcripts. He buries reports by his own administration that reveal the dangers of climate change and the mistreatment of immigrant children. He pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to silence his mistresses. And he is currently prohibiting members of his administration, and other close associates, from testifying before Congress. You don’t think he has something to hide, do you?

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

Still Obsessed with Losing the Popular Vote, Trump Babbles Incoherently About Winning It

Posted by on June 23, 2019 at 12:03 pm. 2 Comments :

The United States of America is currently burdened with a president who suffers from a sever case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Donald Trump’s psychological impairments are obvious to objective observers and represent a clear and present danger to the welfare of the nation – and the world. He is utterly incapable of performing the duties of the presidency without placing his own interests before those of the people he is sworn to serve.

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton

Trump’s raging ego and self-exaltation has been demonstrated time and time again in the two and half turbulent years that he has occupied the White House. He cannot admit mistakes even when the evidence is unarguably documented. He incessantly brags on his own behalf for “accomplishments” that don’t exist. Those include “resolutions” of problems that he created himself like a firefighter moonlighting as an arsonist. And he has repeatedly forced his subordinates to sit around a table and utter slobbering tributes to him in a perverse spectacle of supplication and sycophancy.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Trump continues to be plagued by one particularly humiliating failure. His historic loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election gnaws at him like a famished piranha. He can’t stop thinking about it, or lying about it. And that fetish reared its ugly head again in an interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press Sunday morning. The discussion was pure Trumpian bombast and delusion (video below):

Todd: You didn’t like the fact that you lost the popular vote. That bothered you didn’t it?
Trump: Well I think it was a – well again, I’ll say something that again is controversial. There were a lot of votes cast that I don’t believe. I look at California…
Todd: Mr. President, that’s just…
Trump: Excuse me. Take a look at Judicial Watch. Take a look at their settlement. California admitted to a million votes. They admitted to a million votes.
Todd: A million votes of what? What are you talking about?
Trump: Judicial Watch made a settlement.
Todd: About what?
Trump: There was much illegal voting. But let me tell you about popular vote. I like popular vote. I think I do better with the popular vote.

Trump is still insisting that millions of illegal votes were cast in California, despite having been thoroughly debunked without a shred of evidence. And his comment that there were “votes cast that I don’t believe’ is both deranged and frightening, given the approaching 2020 election.

But then Trump wades into lunatic territory with his demand to look at a settlement with the ultra-rightist Trump-fluffers at Judicial Watch. Trump claims that it reveals an admission by California authorities that “a million votes” were cast illegally. Trump couldn’t explain what he was talking about, even after prodding by Todd. So he clumsily changed the subject.

The settlement that Trump was referring to was one wherein California agreed to remove a million and half votes “inactive” voters from the registration lists. These were names of people who had not voted in several elections and had either died or moved. There was not a single one that had cast any vote, much less an illegal one. As reported by the Associated Press:

“At issue was how election officials were handling records of voters who hadn’t voted in repeated elections and were not part of active voter rolls in the state. […] Paul Mitchell of the nonpartisan research firm Political Data Inc. called the case insignificant because it involves inactive voters who ‘are not getting voting materials, they are not casting ballots, they are not showing up in precincts.'”

Trump’s flagrant lies sound more and more like the rambling blather of senile old coot with a tenuous grasp of reality. And it’s always aimed at glorifying himself in a manner that is wholly undeserved and positively loony. His preposterous self-image is all the more ridiculous considering that he is the only president in the history of Gallup polling to have never cracked 50 percent approval.

And yet, Trump still believes that, but for some imaginary voter fraud, he won the popular vote, and would do so again. This sort of mental infirmity would be bad enough in your crazy retired uncle who sits on the porch all day yelling at clouds. But for someone who holds the nuclear launch codes, and threatens to annihilate foreign countries, this is untenable and downright scary.

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