Month: September 2017

Trump’s Favorite Fox News Show, and Top Advisor, Implores Him to ‘Shut the Government Down’

Posted by on September 4, 2017 at 4:27 pm. 1 Comments :

The New York Times recently spoke with several Trump administration insiders who expressed some concern about their boss. They characterized him as stubbornly devoted to Fox News which they described as his “primary source of information.” That observation was not a surprise to most Trump watchers, but it was a rare admission from those in his inner circle.

Fox News Pete Hegseth

Without a doubt, Donald Trump’s favorite TV show is Fox and Friends. He religiously views the morning program with the three “Curvy Couch” potatoes staunchly defending the his every utterance and action. He has re-tweeted them at least 120 times since his campaign began. And there are numerous examples of him making comments about something that had aired on the program minutes before.

Consequently, whenever someone on Fox News issues opinions or offers political guidance, it must be closely examined. After all, the President regards it as at least as credible any other Oval Office counsel he might receive. Trump often gives more consideration to advice he gets from Fox News than what he gets from his intelligence professionals. So what Fox and Friends co-host Pete Hegseth said Monday morning should be noted. He appeared on Fox’s Outnumbered to discuss Trump’s options for fulfilling his campaign promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico:

“You gotta build the wall. This is so central to why he ran, who he is, why his supporters love him, and to his candidacy from day one.” […] “But shut the government down. Shut it down if you can’t get the central campaign promise done. I think from the view of the people that got him elected, they expect it to happen. And how long will the establishment Republicans – and Democrats would obstruct no matter what – obstruct everything he wants to do?”

First of all, the people that got Trump elected were most likely based in Moscow. But even a more generous analysis requires acknowledging that his electors were a minority of the voters. What’s more, even among Republicans, the border wall is not popular. It was merely the hypnotic chant of the fevered disciples at his campaign rallies. But they are in no way representative of the broader GOP. They may share much of the same right-wing agenda, but the StormTrumpers are certifiably nuts.

More to the point, Hegseth’s fatally flawed punditry asserts that the wall must be built because Trump promised to build it. Not because it would effectively reduce illegal immigration or drug trafficking or crime. It wouldn’t. But because Hegseth believes that fulfilling his campaign promises is more important than doing what the voters want. And if shutting down the government is necessary to secure funding for the wall, down it goes. Along with millions of Social Security checks, national parks access, hurricane relief, and many other vital government services.

Tens of thousands of Americans would be thrown out of work. That would result in additional government expenses and loss of federal income tax revenue. The last time the government was shutdown it cost the federal government $24 billion. And the same polls that show the unpopularity of the wall also show that Americans oppose a shutdown.

So Hegseth’s rant about shutting down the government is both expensive and unpopular. But he thinks it should be done anyway. And for reasons that are based on politics rather than what’s in the best interests of the people. He was kind enough to mention the victims of Hurricane Harvey. But only as an aside that reduced the tragedy to “the complications with what happened in Houston.”

As ludicrous as his unqualified opinions are, they are still held in high regard by one very special member of the TV audience. Donald Trump was surely watching, and he very likely considers what he heard as justification for shutting down the government. That puts the whole country at the mercy of the twerps on Fox and Friends. And if that doesn’t frighten you, I can’t imagine what will.

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

DACA: The ‘Cruel Hand’ of Donald Trump Steals Hope Away From America’s DREAMers

Posted by on September 4, 2017 at 8:43 am. 2 Comments :

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) was implemented by the Obama administration in 2012. Its purpose was to provide undocumented immigrants, who entered the country as minors, protection from deportation. Applicants must have completed school or military service and cannot have a criminal record. The program is a humanitarian solution to the unfair punishment of young people who weren’t responsible for their immigration status. The beneficiaries are known as DREAMers because through DACA they were allowed to pursue the American Dream.

DACA DREAMers

For several days Donald Trump has been teasing a final decision on the future of DACA. And on Sunday, the day that Trump declared a National Day of Prayer, he also dashed the prayers of the DREAMers. White House sources reported that Trump has decided to end DACA with a six month delay before enforcement. It’s a typically Trumpian demonstration of callous insensitivity and overt bigotry. Criticism of his decision has already begun to emerge. And the reaction by Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) is especially relevant and moving:

“It’s a cruel hand that extends the American dream and then steals it away. With a fierce faith in our country’s word, DREAMers walked out of the shadows and bravely embraced the only home they’ve ever known. In contrast, tonight President Trump gave in to his own dark fear of diversity and punished hundreds of thousands of young people for simply trusting the United States.”

Cruelty barely describes what Trump is proposing. The DREAMers registered for the program and paid $500.00 in fees. They completed school, got jobs, or enlisted in the military. Now they are identifiable and vulnerable. They believed in America and believed that this nation, the only home they ever knew, was honorable and trustworthy. What they didn’t anticipate was the hateful reign of a born liar. A con man who couldn’t care less about the dignity of keeping one’s word or honoring a promise. And now they have to live in fear of being banished to a foreign land where they may not even speak the language.

That’s what Donald Trump is putting these innocents through. Remember, they broke no laws. They were children under the care of their parents. And their parents only wanted what all parents want: a better life for their kids. It’s the promise chiseled into the base of the Statue of Liberty. It’s the pledge made by a prior administration that the current one has turned into a trap. That’s even after Trump was asked if the Dreamers should be worried, and he replied disingenuously “We love the Dreamers. We love everybody.”

Now, if Trump goes through with this, there will be 800,000 people whose lives are hanging by a legal thread. This is more than a humanitarian travesty. Economists at the Center for American Progress have studied the impact of ending DACA. They concluded that it “would result in a loss of $460.3 billion from the national GDP over the next decade.” The loss of the productivity of these workers and the taxes they paid would severely hamper the economy. And the decline of spending in their communities would cost business profits and jobs.

A peculiar wrinkle to the proposal being reported is the six month delay. The presumption is that Trump is giving Congress that time to draft and pass legislation to replace DACA. But what would Trump have to gain by handing this off to Congress? If they fail to act, then he still gets the blame for ending the program. If they pass legislation to preserve it, then Trump is tagged with being the racially divisive swine who tried to kill it. And he would be in the awkward position of signing legislation that reversed his own executive order.

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

The only possible upside would be the bolstering of Trump’s support within the alt-right, white supremacist movement. Just as with his pandering to the bigots after Charlottesville, and his pardoning of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Trump may be playing to his deplorable base. His approval ratings are so low that he needs to cling to every potential vote, no matter how repulsive. But that’s only a plus in the perverse world of Trump and his racist followers. And it surely won’t help him with the majority of Americans who have the same dreams for the nation as DACA’s DREAMers.

Unbelievable Hypocrisy and Cowardice Shown By Trump as He Insults the Media – Again

Posted by on September 3, 2017 at 1:52 pm. 2 Comments :

When Donald Trump went to Texas last week he managed to spend the entire time as far away from the devastation and victims as possible. Not surprisingly, he took some flack for that. So his handlers arranged a do-over, sending him back to see if he could muster up some fake sympathy.

Melania Donald Trump

To some extent he achieved his goal while mingling with evacuees at the NRG stadium. Although his remarks were painfully tone deaf as he described the visit as “really nice.” He elaborated saying that “It’s been a wonderful thing,” and that “they’re doing great.” These are people who are suffering tragic losses, both personal and financial. Many of their homes were destroyed. They are sleeping on cots in a vacated sports stadium with thousands of others. “Really nice?”

Then Trump ventured out into the blue skies of a recovering Houston to address the assembled press corps. Ordinarily when he does this without a TelePrompter, he drifts off into effusive praise of himself or attacks on his perceived enemies. And that’s exactly what happened this time. He couldn’t concentrate on the victims for two minutes before he began a nauseating assault on the media. Looking them straight in the eye he said (video below):

“I hear the Coast Guard saved 11,000 people by going into winds that the media would not go into. They will not go into those winds. Unless it’s a really good story, in which case they will.”

SRSLY? He could have easily cut himself off after honoring the courageous work of the Coast Guard. And then perhaps issued a call for Americans to donate to a relief fund (which he has never done). But no. He tacked on an unprovoked slam at journalists, portraying them as exploitative and cowardly.

Trump knows very well that he’s lying. He spent the first few days after Hurricane Harvey hit land watching the reports on television. He must have seen the reporters venturing out into the winds to keep people informed of what was happening. He can’t help but have seen correspondents risking their lives to help secure public safety. There were also the numerous times reporters were shown actually saving victims from serious harm or death.

Journalists were out in the winds to interview people who were trapped and to call for aid. They featured the work of first responders and volunteers who were rescuing endangered residents. And they were right alongside those heroes as they struggled to save lives.

Trump saw all of this from the comfort of whichever White House TV he happened to be viewing. Then he goes to Houston when it’s completely safe and accuses the media of being cowards. His trip was deliberately planned to score some positive PR after his prior fumble. Yet he says the media are exploiting the tragedy. This is what psychologists would call classic projection.

Trump knows that he’s the coward who is selfishly using the pain of others to exalt himself. He’s the same ego-obsessed narcissist who took five draft deferments during the Vietnam war, then disparaged those who served, like John McCain. He regularly exploits the military for photo-ops, but he has never even visited Iraq or Afghanistan. Somewhere deep down he’s well aware of his innate cowardice. So he lashes out with a totally unnecessary attack on people who were admirably doing their jobs and saving lives. And that’s the best that we can expect from this callous and petty so-called president. Sad!

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

GIGO: White House Aides Reveal That Fox News is Trump’s ‘Primary Source of Information’

Posted by on September 2, 2017 at 1:58 pm. 3 Comments :

A story in Friday’s New York Times affirms something that has been well known to observant White House watchers. Donald Trump relies on a frighteningly narrow range of media outlets to provide him with critical information. He dwells in a bubble of exclusively right-wing propaganda that is nothing more than a shill factory for fact-challenged “news.” And when he isn’t fed the pablum he craves, he becomes inconsolably livid.

Fox News Donald Trump

The Times interviewed numerous insiders about Trump and his relationship with newly installed chief-of-staff, John Kelly. The former general has been trying to impose some order amid the chaos of Trump’s Oval Office party. By all accounts, that has been a difficult job. Trump is described as resistant to any attempt to “manage” him. The Times writes that:

“While Mr. Kelly has quickly brought some order to a disorganized and demoralized staff, he is fully aware of the president’s volcanic resentment about being managed, according to a dozen people close to Mr. Trump, and has treaded gingerly through the minefield of Mr. Trump’s psyche. But the president has still bridled at what he perceives as being told what to do.”

The notion of a president who is so unstable that aides need to tiptoe through his fragile psyche is disturbing. And it isn’t just Kelly who is troubled by this. Sixty percent of the American people regard Trump as “unstable” to various degrees. That’s according to a poll by Fox News.

And speaking of Fox News – – That’s the media outlet that Trump’s aides have described as his “primary source of information.” Kelly has reportedly had some success at curbing Trump’s exposure to the panoply of wingnut rags. But there are limits to how much Trump can be restrained. The Times reports that:

“Mr. Kelly cannot stop Mr. Trump from binge-watching Fox News, which aides describe as the president’s primary source of information gathering.

There is abundant evidence that Trump watches Fox News for hours on end. Many of his his tweets are obviously reactions to something he just saw on Fox. He refers to Fox News more often, and with more confidence, than he does his own intelligence agencies. And most of the time he cites his favorite program, Fox and Friends. This can explain in part why so much of what Trump says is so embarrassingly wrong. Garbage in, Garbage out (GIGO).

In addition to Trump’s addiction to Fox News, he has recently been suffering through a propaganda withdrawal of sorts. Kelly’s management of the White House has resulted in some of Trump’s closest aides being kept at arms length. The people who provided him with his daily dose of conspiracy theories and rabidly partisan screeds are being shut out. A friend of Trump told the Times that he “plaintively asked” where his fix of stories from The Daily Caller and Breitbart News were. And an article in the Daily Beast more specifically noted that:

“Kelly has taken steps to prevent [Omarosa Manigault] and other senior staffers from getting unvetted news articles on the president’s Resolute desk.” […Articles that…] “would often enrage the president, and resulted in him spending at least the rest of the day fuming about it.” “

Unfortunately, Kelly cannot prevent Trump from diving into the right-wing media swamp. While the door to the Oval Office is more closely watched, Trump still has his phone. And he uses it to contact those whose White House privileges have been curtailed. So the President is still being influenced by the same cadre of nutcases and sleazeballs as before Kelly. And the results will be the same as Trump gorges himself on Fox News lies and curses at the rest of the press corps. It’s a presidency that is seriously off track and driven by biased pundits and fake news. How long will Kelly tolerate this circus atmosphere that is harming the country?

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

Donald Trump Breaks the Ninth Commandment as He Signs Declaration For a Day of Prayer

Posted by on September 1, 2017 at 4:26 pm. 11 Comments :

For the past week there has been an embarrassing parade of self-congratulatory spectacles staged by Donald Trump. The devastation caused in Texas and Louisiana by Hurricane Harvey has created abundant opportunities for Trump to exalt himself. That exaltation comes in many forms.

Donald Trump Messiah

The President has managed to look pensive in an array of photo-ops. He has read statements prepared for him that seem almost giddy that he’s presiding over the most “bigly” hurricane ever. He lied about “witnessing first hand the horror & devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey.” And he’s spent more time bragging about his disaster response than comforting victims.

Trump also pledged a million dollars for relief efforts, but hasn’t disclosed where it will go or whether it will even come from his own funds. Note that this alleged billionaire regards a million dollars as sufficiently generous. A few years ago he offered five million for Obama’s birth certificate. Non-billionaires Sandra Bullock, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ellen Degeneres donated the same amount. While fellow billionaire Michael Dell ponied up $36 million. And Trump’s record on keeping his pledges is spotty at best. He failed to pay up for veterans until he was publicly shamed. And victims of Hurricane Sandy are still waiting for the relief they were promised.

On Thursday Trump went before the cameras again to sign a declaration for a “Day of Prayer” on behalf of the those impacted by Hurricane Harvey. The ceremony featured the President reading from notes while sitting in front of a gaggle of “faith based people.” His remarks were filled with obligatory condolences and assurances that we will get through this together. And then he said this (video below):

“We’re going to be signing a ‘Day of Prayer,’ and that’ll be on Sunday. It’s gonna be a very special day. I don’t know when this was done last, but it’s been a long time ago. Is that a correct statement? Yes, it’s been a long time ago. So I’m gonna sign it and then a few of the folks will say a few words.”

For the record, Trump’s “long time ago” is a blatant lie. The latest in more than a thousand he has told since his inauguration. The last time there was such a prayer declaration was only one year ago. It was made by President Obama. Trump’s dismissal of that fact is typical of his malignant narcissism. What’s more, it squares with his obsession to belittle his arch-nemesis, Barack Obama. The former president remains far more popular than the current one and has a legacy of accomplishment that would put Trump to shame, if that were possible.

So while signing this declaration, Trump also lied about his role and that of his predecessor. The Ninth Commandment, for those who haven’t already Googled it, prohibits bearing false witness. Which is precisely what Trump has done. And he did it with an army of spiritual “leaders” standing right behind him. They obviously didn’t mind, because after Trump spoke he allowed each of them to say a few words. Without exception they praised Trump as if he were the Second Coming. Right-wing pastor Robert Jeffress even thanked God for having “given us a gift. President Donald Trump.”

The Day of Prayer declaration is an annual affair that is mandated by a law that Congress passed in 1950. So what Trump did today was not only not unique, it was required by legislation that’s over sixty-seven years old . Trump, of course, took the credit as if he had thought of it himself. And he denigrated every president that preceded him by pretending they never made the same proclamation. But he must have taken particular interest in demeaning Obama. It’s something that wingnuts have done for years. The long-festering myth that Obama had canceled the Day of Prayer even earned a “Pants on Fire” rating from PolitiFact. Trump may want to refer to Romans 6:23 to learn what the wages of sin (i.e. lying) will earn him.

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