Trying to figure out Donald Trump’s relationship with China is no simple task. He castigates them for taking U.S. jobs, for unfair trade, for manipulating currencies, and generally beating stupid American leaders at every turn. On the other hand, he has his fashion products manufactured there, leases them luxury real estate, and confesses his deep love for them and/or their money.
However, for the purposes of his delusional presidential campaign, China is a bitter enemy that is seeking to destroy America and freedom worldwide. Which makes them a perfect foil with which to bash President Obama. A couple of years ago Trump tweeted that “The Chinese are now hacking White House computers. Why not? They already own the place.”
Ha. What a wit (or at best half). What Trump was referring to was an attempt at “spear phishing,” wherein an email that appears to be legitimate tricks the recipient into clicking on a link that executes malicious software. As usual, Trump got it wrong because there was no successful intrusion into the White House network. The matter was addressed at the time by then-Press Secretary Jay Carney, who said in response to a reporter’s question…
“The attack you’ve mentioned was what’s known as a spear-phishing attack against an unclassified network. Let’s be clear — this is an unclassified network. These types of attacks are not infrequent, and we have mitigation measures in place. In this instance, the attack was identified, the system was isolated, and there is no indication whatsoever that any exfiltration of data took place. Moreover, there was never any impact or attempted breach of any classified system.”
But what makes this interesting now is the report of a massive hack into Trump’s hotel operations nationwide. This was a successful intrusion wherein the hackers accessed the payment systems, potentially stealing customer credit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes. It has been going on for at least a year, only being discovered recently.
So the question for Trump is: If China “owned” the White House following an unsuccessful hacking attempt, then who owns Trump now? Could it be China, who would certainly have a motive stemming from his hostile rhetoric, and opportunity resulting from their business relationships? It could just as well be Russia or fugitive Mexican drug lord, El Chapo. But even if it’s just some larcenous cyber-thieves, Trump has some explaining to do.
Anyone who watches Fox News for more than a few minutes quickly becomes aware that the network has a severe case of schizophrenia. They spend about half their airtime fawning over patriotic symbolism and pretending to embrace a near perverse love of country that borders on obsession. America probably wouldn’t have any trouble getting a judge to issue a restraining order to keep Fox stalkers away.
The other half of their airtime is consumed by the sheer hatred of everything about America today. They hate the President and the Congress. They hate school lunch programs and Social Security. They hate any effort to provide its citizens with healthcare or education. They even have a love/hate relationship with the military: They love invasions of foreign countries, but they hate training exercises in the southwest.
So when it comes to expressing pride in America, Fox News has to resort to making up stories that reflect their patriopathic fetishism. Case in point is a segment that aired this morning on Fox & Friends.
The “Curvy Couch Potatoes” got wind of an appalling insult to America’s ego by some academic apparatchiks at Jackson Hole High School in Wyoming. The story first appeared on the Fox Nation website and was attributed to the Daily Caller (which is run by weekend Fox & Friends host Tucker Carlson). Here is what Fox reported (video below):
Heather Nauert: Proud to be an American. The teenagers refusing to stay silent after their principal canceled America Pride Day. They canceled it over fears it would make other students feel sad or left out. Instead of going with the principal’s plan, the students decked themselves out in red, white and blue in protest.
Imagine that! What kind of high school principal would cancel America Pride Day? The outrage on Fox continued as co-hosts Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt read emails to Fox that castigated the school officials “who want to impose their personal agendas on students,” so that in the future “we will not recognize America.” To which Earhardt added “That’s scary. […] It’s ridiculous. If you don’t want to be here…”
Yeah! Just get out of here you un-American children. The only problem with this tale of America shaming is that none of it is true. The school officials did not cancel America Pride Day, the students did. There was a survey taken to ascertain what themes the students preferred for their upcoming homecoming week. As reported by the Jackson Hole High School News…
“A piece of the homecoming planning included JHHS student council representatives creating a Spirit Day school wide student survey, which was approved by the JHHS administration. This provided all students an opportunity to weigh in and engage in the democratic process of determining how to celebrate each day. This process included the voices of many of our students as opposed to just the opinions of JHHS student council leaders or JHHS administrators only, as had been past practice.
“The results of the survey are as follows: 1 Toga/Pajama Day 2 Lumberjack Day 3 America Day 4 School Spirit day (orange and black) 5 College Day 6 Decades Day 7 Cowboy Day 8 Sports Day.”
With regard to the naming of America Day, the JHHS report noted that…
“America Day had many personal student comments about why that day was uncomfortable for some students. In an effort to compromise on the title of a day, and to meet district goals, a conversation with JHHS student council leaders and JHHS administration discussed alternative ways to name the day ‘Patriot Day’ or ‘Heritage Day’ to be inclusive. Both of these days were declined by JHHS Student Council leaders.”
So contrary to Fox News, there was no imposition of personal agendas by school officials on hapless students. The entire series of events was driven by the students themselves. And to the students’ credit, they were striving to be inclusive and sensitive to their fellow students. It seems that they should be commended for that rather than becoming the subjects of falsified reporting that frames the story derogatorily.
The JHHS report also made specific mention of the fact that “on any given day, students are welcome to celebrate their national pride and heritage,” and that “we support the pride of our country and those that have faithfully served so these democratic principles can be expressed.” And that’s exactly the way it should be. Too bad Fox News has to come along and smear their school and their community with lies aimed at dividing people and manufacturing hostility. The good people of Jackson Hole don’t deserve that and, fortunately, they are strong enough to transcend it.
American’s comedians are in the midst of a hilarity Renaissance thanks mainly to the dementia that caused Donald Trump to think he could be President of the United States. No one has provided more raw material for political humor since the thawing of Sarah Palin. And now that Caribou Barbie has returned to hibernation in the frozen wilds of Alaska, the Trump train could not have chugged along at a better time.
The latest treasure trove of Trumpian farce gushed from The Donald this weekend during a speech in Franklin, Tennessee. He was responding to the tragic shootings at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, that left nine dead and nine others wounded. In the course of his remarks he thought that it would be appropriate, and in keeping with the solemness of the occasion, to impersonate the vigilante character played by Charles Bronson in Death Wish. Unfortunately for Trump, he came off looking more like cartoon tough guy, Yosemite Sam.
Setting the scene for this theater of the Absurd is Tucker Carlson, host of Fox & Friends, who along with his co-hosts drooled lovingly over Trump’s pathetic rendering of machismo. Carlson prefaced a video (posted below) of Trump with this introduction:
“So every politician in America is talking about gun control this week after those horrifying shootings in Oregon. But no one has really talked about it the way Donald Trump talked about it the other day. Watch this.”
Whereupon they played Trump reciting his policy on guns (reading from a printout of his website) that focused solely on his perverse interpretation and idolatry of the Second Amendment. However, Trump had to interject some personal and dubious boasting to say that…
“I have a license to carry in New York. Can you believe that? Somebody attacks me, oh they’re gonna be shocked. Can you imagine? Somebody says ‘Oh, there’s Trump. He’s gonna be easy pickens.’ [Holding his finger like a gun] Whad’ya say? […] Can you imagine with Trump, somebody says ‘Oh, all these big monsters running around. He’s easy pickins.’ [pulls the finger again] And then p’ching.”
First of all, Trump’s swaggering BS is just plain delusional. Does he really believe that if approached on the street he could outdraw a would-be assassin who already has his weapon drawn? Does he think he’s better prepared than the highly trained police officers who have been ambushed and murdered while on duty? What a maroon. This pitiful attempt at bravado is not only stupid, it’s dangerous. He is practically daring some psycho to make a name for himself by offing the Dingbat Don.
More importantly, what he offered as substance for his gun policy was rooted in falsehoods and nonsense that make you wonder whether he already took a slug to the cranium. He made ludicrous claims that his opponents want “a gun that fires one bullet.” Like much of what he says, he simply made that up.
Trump also said the Oregon college was a gun-free zone and that if more people had guns they “would be a hell of a lot better off.” However, not only was he wrong about the campus being a gun free zone, there was an armed veteran there who decided not to intervene because of the risk that police officers would arrive shortly and, seeing him with a gun, might mistake him for the shooter. So the “good guy” with a gun made a rational decision not to use it. As for society being safer if more people have guns, a carjacking victim in Houston might not agree. A witness to the carjacking took out his weapon and fired at the suspects, but hit the victim in the head. Then he picked up his shell casings and took off.
Following the video of Trump, the Fox News “Curvy Couch Potatoes” returned and Carlson continued his fact-free reporting and Trump-fluffing.
“He makes an important point. Why is disarming normal people good for the country. I mean maybe it’s good for politicians who want a compliant population, but it doesn’t make us safer.”
Of course, no one is talking about “disarming normal people” except for Carlson, Fox News, and the rest of the NRA-theists. What’s more, his contention that politicians want to disarm everybody in order to have a “compliant population” implies that he wants an armed populace so that they can shoot politicians. And these people call themselves patriots.
It is the proliferation of guns, and the ease with which they can be acquired by people who ought not to have them, that makes our nation less safe. And that state of affairs is being reinforced by the gun lobbyists at the NRA, right-wing Dirty Harry wannabes, cowardly representatives, and buffoons like Donald Trump.
These people all comprise a special interest group that regards the loss of nearly 30,000 people – men, women, and children – every year to be an acceptable price to pay for unfettered access to firearms. And while people like Trump spew ridiculous comments and half-baked proposals that make great fodder for mockery, when you consider all the pain and suffering for which they are responsible, it isn’t really all that funny.
If you’ve been wondering why you’re having trouble understanding Quantum Mechanics, or conjugating Spanish verbs, or following Sarah Palin’s logic, Bill O’Reilly has the explanation: You’re just a stupid American.
That’s right. According to the Sage of Fox News, “Many Americans are simply dumb.” And that’s not some lefty mischaracterization, or a soundbite taken out of context. It’s a direct quote (video below). O’Reilly was discussing a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that showed that 62% of respondents believe the nation is on the wrong track. Not surprisingly, O’Reilly agreed because, in his view, the economy is soft (it’s booming) and earnings are stagnant (they’re at record highs).
What O’Reilly was dumbfounded by was that, despite the public’s dissatisfaction with the nation’s direction, the poll also showed that Vice-President Joe Biden, if he were to run for president, would beat every Republican he was matched against. While he didn’t bring it up, the same is true in most cases for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in many polls. But O’Reilly just couldn’t grasp how this could happen. He thinks that if polls show that Americans express an affinity for Democrats like Biden then “Americans are losing it.” He laughingly asked “Why would you vote for him?” And then he provided the answer:
“Talking Points believes the answer to that question is kind of cruel. Many Americans are simply dumb. They don’t know what’s going on. They don’t pay attention. They don’t care.”
So there you have it. If you don’t have the same electoral preferences as Bill O’Reilly, you are obviously a lazy, uncaring, idiot. And especially if you have a positive impression of President Obama, or anything associated with his administration, you’re probably crazy. It’s a viewpoint that exposes the shallowness of O’Reilly’s thinking. He apparently is incapable of entertaining the notion that Americans think the country is on the wrong track at least in part because of Republican obstructionism in Congress rather than any dissatisfaction with the President. And that’s a more likely scenario since most polls show that Obama and the Democrats are held in higher esteem than the GOP. It’s not even close. Obama currently has a 48 percent approval rating, compared to 14 percent for Congress.
This isn’t the first time that O’Reilly has put his contempt for the American people on display. Last year, in a similar response to a poll that he couldn’t comprehend, O’Reilly complained that…
“The harsh truth is that many of us are blatantly ignorant and lazy. We simply will not pay attention to the world around us. We get our information from other people, who may be as dumb as we are.”
Once again, O’Reilly’s definition of ignorant was tied to support for our president. Actually, since he used the inclusive pronouns “we” and “us” he isn’t far off from the truth. So long as he’s referring to himself, the terms “ignorant, lazy” and “dumb.” are entirely appropriate. But he shouldn’t lump the rest of America into the same group. He did much the same thing when he demeaned American voters saying that…
“Informed voters will not be swayed by media coverage, but millions of Americans are simply uninformed.”
This pattern of disrespect for the intelligence of the American people is unmistakable. But it’s even more galling coming from one of the most flagrantly ignorant pundits, with a long record of being a pathological liar. However, his audience won’t hold any of this against him because they believe that they are part of a privileged class of knowledge holders in whom the future depends. A tenet of the right contends that conservatives have a unique intelligence that escapes the rest of society. Only they have access to the universal truths that are being suppressed by the so-called “liberal” media. And, consequently, they are not stupid, they are special. And they are the disciples of America’s saviors. God help us all.
Last night the Republican Majority Leader in the House of Representatives (and prospective future Speaker), Kevin McCarthy, revealed what many people already knew about the GOP’s investigation into Benghazi. And contrary to some characterizations in the press, it was not a gaffe. McCarthy openly bragged to Sean Hannity of Fox News that he helped to orchestrate an anti-Hillary Clinton campaign by forming a Select Committee To Politicize Benghazi. It was, and still is, a repulsive endeavor that dishonors the dead and exposes the self-serving immorality of the Republican Party.
However, McCarthy wasn’t the first to proudly disclose the rank partisanship of the phony Benghazi probe. Two years ago Fox News congratulated themselves on their dishonest Benghazi coverage with particular praise for Fox CEO Roger Ailes. Steve Doocy of Fox & Friends said that…
“Fox News has been doing this story from the get-go. And the mainstream media, the Daily Show, has mocked us for covering Benghazi. And now everybody else is catching up. It’s been a story they’re realizing. One of the reasons we’ve followed it is Roger Ailes, our chairman and CEO. […] Had Roger and Fox News not pushed this story the White House would have just left it in the dust.”
“Roger Ailes spent decades as a professional Republican consultant before being tapped by Rupert Murdoch to run Fox News. Ordinarily media executives do not interfere with the operations of their editorial departments, but such journalistic ethics have never been a part of the Fox News mission. Thus we see their CEO openly shaping news coverage, even influencing policy, and getting praised for it on the air by his employees.”
“Neither Boehner nor Gowdy have any interest in getting to the bottom of anything. Their statements and actions for the past year and a half show that they are only interested in politicizing a tragic loss of American lives. Having failed to uncover even a sliver of evidence of any wrongdoing, Boehner is, in effect, insulting his own colleagues in Congress (i.e. Darrell Issa) who have been conducting pseudo-investigations without producing the hoped for “smoking guns” with which they could continue their campaign of political slander. […]
“It is a desperate attempt to dig up some political mud to throw, to tarnish the prospective presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton in 2016, and to salvage Boehner’s sinking reputation with the far-right fringe of his party whom he needs if he wants to be Speaker in the next session of congress.”
So McCarthy didn’t actually reveal anything new. He was merely corroborating what Fox News had admitted years ago: That they were the driving force keeping Benghazi alive. The arrogance they display with on-air graphics confessing that they “made terror attack a story” in response to a “push” by their CEO, is unprecedented.
Furthermore, that arrogance is matched by Republicans in Congress who obediently complied with the demands by Fox News to impanel a select committee. To put it in perspective, Republicans allocated more money to the phony Benghazi Committee (over $3 million) than to either the Intelligence Committee or the Veterans Committee, which deal with matters that have much more far-reaching impact on the nation’s citizens and security.
