Month: March 2018

In Unhinged Speech Trump Slobbers Over Foreign Despots While Attacking America’s Free Press

Posted by on March 11, 2018 at 10:13 am. 2 Comments :

The President of the United States left Washington, D.C. this Saturday, but didn’t head south to his luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach as usual. Instead Donald Trump went up to Pennsylvania to deliver a campaign speech on behalf of Rick Saccone, who is at risk of losing to Democrat Conner Lamb next Tuesday in a district that Trump won by twenty points. The rally was reminiscent of Trump’s aimless campaign speeches in 2016 where he pontificated like a mad evangelist for an hour or more.

Donald Trump

In keeping with his practice of shrieking sermonizing, Trump made a point of attacking what he considers the the scourge of his existence: the media (video below). He rattled off the sort of derogatory slander that would ordinarily be reserved for bitter enemies of all that is righteous. It was a storm of damnation, both personal and broadly general.

For instance, Trump lashed out at NBC’s Meet the Press calling it “A show now headed by sleepy eyes Chuck Todd. He’s a sleeping son of a bitch, I’ll tell ya.” Remember, this speech was at a daytime rally with children present. He also went after an unnamed “certain anchor on CNN” who he said was “fake as hell, CNN. The worst. So fake. Fake news.” And he wasn’t letting NBC off either. He ranted that they were “perhaps worse than CNN, I have to tell you. And MSNBC is horrible.” Continuing down that path of raw animosity he called MSNBC “third rate. And NBC, which is horrible. Their newscast, by the way is not doing well. On NBC network. They’re heading down the tubes.”

This might be a good time to inject some facts into the discussion. NBC’s newscast anchored by Lester Holt has won ten consecutive quarters in the key advertising demographic of 25-54 year olds. They were also number one in the most recent sweeps period of February 2018. And their morning news program, the Today Show, topped their competition (ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning) in both the demo and total viewers. As for MSNBC, Rachel Maddow has been beating Trump’s BFF Sean Hannity on a regular basis.

But Trump wasn’t about to let mere reality interfere with his delusions. He went on to make a ludicrous and utterly nonsensical prediction about the media that he despises so, and which he is convinced hates him. Pointing to the press at the rally he said…

“Six months prior to the election, every one of those guys – ‘We really endorse Donald Trump. We think he has to win.’ You know why? Because if I don’t win the election their ratings are gonna go so far down they’re gonna be out of business, every one of them.”

WTF is he trying to say here? That the media that he accuses of trying to destroy him will suddenly reason that it’s in their interest to support him? If that’s true, then why wouldn’t they support him now for the same reasons? What’s more, he’s implying that the media’s surging ratings are the result of having him around to attack. Which means that more viewers are watching because they enjoy seeing him get hammered. That’s actually true. Every poll shows that Trump has the lowest approval rating of any president ever recorded. So people probably are happy to see him get cut down by responsible journalists whose reporting of Trump’s failures is just part their job.

The tone that Trump sets in these rallies is decidedly hostile and un-American. He praises China’s Xi Jinping, who just maneuvered himself into being president for life (of which Trump is envious). He declares that he blindly trusts Kim Jong Un’s promise to refrain from missile and nuclear testing. He protects Vladimir Putin’s Russia from sanctions mandated by Congress as punishment for their election tampering. Trump speaks of these and other anti-democratic tyrants in radiantly glowing terms. But he viciously insults fellow Americans who practice their Constitutionally protected right to freedom of the press. And he thinks that’s how to MAGA – or KAG, as he now says (Keep America Gross).

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

Trump’s Lawyer Tries to Deflect Crimes with Desperate and Obviously False Attacks on the Media

Posted by on March 10, 2018 at 2:21 pm. 4 Comments :

The Stormy Daniels affair is turning into one of the most persistent scandals of Donald Trump’s presidency. And given the sheer volume of scandals, that’s really saying something. It doesn’t help that this incident involves Trump’s own personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who arranged the $130,000 in hush money to keep Trump’s infidelity out of the news. Cohen is a long-time Trump toady who can always be relied on to prop up his pal, no matter how repulsive his behavior.

Michael Cohen

Having made himself the subject of the Stormy affair by asserting that he paid her from his own funds, Cohen is now as much an accomplice as he is an attorney. And his story that he ponied up the cash out of the kindness of his heart is falling apart. Consequently, he is adopting the tactics of his boss in order to deflect attention from his own potential criminal liability. On Saturday morning he tweeted this:

Cohen has somehow gotten the impression that the media is obsessed with his email account. In fact, they are just being responsible journalists by reporting that his contacts with Stormy were made using his Trump Organization email address. That’s relevant due to his prior insistence that the arrangements he made with Stormy had nothing to do with Trump and Trump knew nothing about them. By the way, that would be a violation of the New York Bar Association’s standards of conduct. An attorney may not take actions on behalf of a client without full disclosure and permission.

Having no other defense, Cohen is resorting to attacking the media on a completely different topic. And, much like Trump, his attack is rooted in deliberate falsification of reality. Cohen saying that he didn’t see reporting about the jobs numbers anywhere except for Fox News is really just a confession that he doesn’t watch anything but Fox News. Every other major news organization reported these numbers, as they do every time they are released. Just a few obvious examples:

So Cohen didn’t see or hear any of this? Is he blind and deaf? Or is he just a lying, propaganda sewer who parrots the anti-media bullshit of Donald Trump? If nothing else, he’s exposing his fear about the legal walls that are closing in around him. This painfully desperate tweet is evidence of his knowledge that he and his favorite client are going down fast. And there’s nothing he an do about it.

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

Trump Scolds Cabinet Secretaries for Embarrassing Stories, Not for Being Ethical Dirtbags

Posted by on March 10, 2018 at 12:25 pm. 1 Comments :

When Donald Trump promised to “drain the swamp” it was taken by his supporters to mean that he would rid Washington of corrupt and self-dealing insiders. Little did they know that he really intended to relocate the swamp dwellers to his administration. And in that respect he succeeded beyond all expectations.

Donald Trump

Trump’s appointees to high-level positions have proven to be the worst offenders of the sort he railed against. A report by ProPublica found that “At least 187 Trump political appointees have been federal lobbyists and … many are now overseeing the industries they once lobbied on behalf of.” But the standout abusers of the public trust are the heads of his cabinet agencies. People like:

  • Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who charged personal travel to his department and spent $139,000 on a door for his office.
  • Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who ordered a $31,000 dining set for his office.
  • Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, who took vacations with his wife on the taxpayers’ dime.
  • Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who was found to have misused his travel funding by flying first class because he was afraid he would be accosted by angry coach passengers.

These are all egregious breaches of ethics by executive branch managers. Any administration would be shocked and embarrassed by such irresponsible behavior. And Trump’s administration is no exception. Indeed, the President was embarrassed by the news reports of these incidents. So embarrassed that he made sure that those involved were reprimanded. However, it’s clear from the reports that what they were being scolded for were the embarrassing stories, not their unethical behavior. Their mistake was that they cast a negative light on their egocentric boss. As CNN reports:

“The White House held private meetings with four Cabinet-level officials last month to scold them for embarrassing stories about questionable ethical behavior at their respective agencies, sources familiar with the sessions tell CNN.

“Internal watchdogs have launched at least nine audits, reviews or investigations across several Cabinet agencies, and stories about first-class travel, expensive office furniture, and internal strife have become commonplace.”

Notice that there is no indication that the White House was upset with what these agency heads did, only that they got caught and generated bad press. Nor is there any mention of punishment for the offenders. That’s typical of this White House that refuses to hold anyone accountable for their misdeeds. Just last week Trump senior counsel Kellyanne Conway was found to have violated the Hatch Act, which forbids politicking by government staffers. In fact, she broke this law three times. But she has not been fired or punished in any way. Except, perhaps, Trump may have pulled her aside to complain about having embarrassed him.

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

So for anyone who was wondering, the swamp is alive and well in Trump’s White House. It must be comforting to the alligators that they will always be defended against any effort to hold them accountable. Which insures that future misbehavior can be expected since there are no repercussions. That’s pretty much the way Trump lived his life of excess and crime before coming to Washington. And he’s apparently sticking to that method. Because, at least with regard to his dimwitted supporters, it’s working.

Scaramucci Tells Fox News that Rachel Maddow Needs an Anti-Anxiety Suppository

Posted by on March 9, 2018 at 1:49 pm. 2 Comments :

Well, here’s something you don’t see everyday (unless you’re watching Fox News). Donald Trump’s former communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, was a guest on Friday’s episode of Fox and Friends. This is the guy who lost his White House job a mere ten days after he was hired because of a profanity-laden meltdown attacking fellow Trump staffers. He’s a hot-head in the mold of Trump who continues to serve as a loyal surrogate.

Fox News Scaramucci

During his interview by the “Curvy Couch” potatoes (video below), the Mooch leveled another of his patented gross-outs, this time aimed at MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (who is slaughtering Fox News and Sean Hannity). It was wholly inappropriate personal insult that was devoid of substance. In other words, it was pretty much the same bullshit non-reasoning that all of the cretins on Fox News resort to. About Maddow he said that…

“You can tell she’s got a little bit of that Trump Derangement Syndrome, which I like. I’m hoping that one of these comedians will come up with anti-anxiety medication for liberals. Just take one tablet a day, maybe a suppository, and take it easy. […] The President is doing the right thing for the American people, but he’s also doing the right thing for the world.”

To be clear, Scaramucci is criticizing Maddow as being “deranged” and having an anxiety problem. The same guy who told the New Yorker that Reince Priebus is a “fucking paranoid schizophrenic,” and that Steve Bannon engages in self-fellatio, and that he wants to “fucking kill all the leakers” in the White House. That’s the guy who thinks that Maddow and other liberals should “take it easy?” Yeah, whatever. [Note: Scaramucci later tweeted an apology].

The topic of the segment was Trump’s announcement that he accepted Kim Jong Un’s invitation to meet and discuss a resolution to their juvenile slap-fight on Twitter. The Fox News crew was aghast that Maddow would have anything critical to say about that. They played a clip from her show wherein she wondered…

“Why has no sitting American president ever met with a leader of North Korea? Why has that never happened in all the decades North Korea existed as a nation? Shouldn’t I take this to mean that this might be a particularly risky, or even an unwise move?”

Those are perfectly reasonable questions. What’s more, Trump’s impulsive agreement to meet with Kim demonstrates a dangerous incompetence with regard to what Trump considers his greatest asset: dealmaking. A meeting with the President of the United States is an asset that a smart negotiator would reserve until other concessions were made by the opposing party. Trump gave it up at the very beginning. He got nothing for it, or for the legitimacy it grants to Kim. He could have at least asked that the Americans currently being held in North Korea be released as a prerequisite to a meeting.

Fox News is predictably hailing Trump’s concession to meet Kim as a historic achievement. Never mind that the meeting hasn’t taken place and there are no guarantees that anything productive will result from them. In fact, there’s a fair chance that a summit between The Dotard and Little Rocket Man might make everything worse. They are two unstable, narcissistic individuals with little respect for one another. If their common stubbornness results in a fruitless affair, it might even make military conflict more likely as the prospects for diplomacy fade.

Time will tell if Trump can attend this meeting (if it even comes to pass) without screwing up. In his meetings with Congress he has proved that his word is virtually worthless and neither Democrats nor Republicans can rely on him to follow through. In the meantime, we fan expect philistines like Scaramucci to keep showing up on Fox News slinging insults and ignorance at their dimwitted audience. And maybe the world will survive a little bit longer.

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

Trump Casts Off His Economic Advisor With Remarks that are Both Antisemitic and Racist

Posted by on March 8, 2018 at 2:03 pm. 2 Comments :

On Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump held another of his Apprentice-style boardroom cabinet meetings. These are made-for-TV stunts that emulate his old TV game show with him in the center of a bunch of sycophants obediently awaiting his magic glance and, if they’re lucky, a rare compliment. There is also a faint hint of danger that Trump’s brain might glitch and he’ll accidentally fire somebody.

Donald Trump

On this occasion Trump actually did discuss the termination of one his administration’s top aides, Gary Cohn. the chief economic advisor, announced earlier this week that he was leaving his White House post following a disagreement with Trump on imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum. Trump noted that this cabinet meeting would be Cohn’s last. And then he jovially unleashed this noxious comment (video below):

“This is Gary Cohn’s last cabinet meeting. He’s been terrific. He may be a globalist, but I still like him. He’s seriously a globalist, there is no question. But he’s also a nationalist because he loves our country.”

Holy Schomley. Donald Trump may be trying to set a record for bigoted insults in a single sentence. Without any hist of shame, Trump rattled off two rancid, ethnically-charged invectives aimed at his departing Jewish staffer. The conspicuous prejudice in his remarks cannot be overstated. Nor should the egregious laughter from his cabinet be dismissed. For the record:

Glabalism is a longtime anti-Semitic trope based on the the idea that Jews are not loyal citizens. Their allegience is only to worldwide financial markets and cooperatives. It has been adopted as the rhetoric of alt-right groups who oppose immigration and diversity, and advocate maintaining an anglo-European majority in the United States. It’s been used disparagingly against everyone from George Soros to Chuck Schumer, and now Gary Cohn. And of course, to rightists like Trump the media and banks are crawling with them.

White nationalism is a modern re-labeling of white supremacists. Advocates include the usual racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and the American Nazi Party. They openly support racial discrimination and oppose immigration from non-European countries. The adherents of this brand of nationalism include David Duke, Richard Spencer, and Trump aide Steven Miller. And most of the nation’s organized white nationalist groups endorsed Trump for president.

For Trump to use both of these heinous terms in such close proximity, and directed at a Jewish member of his staff, is nothing but reprehensible. It affirms his commitment to the hateful ideology of cretins like Steve Bannon that got him elected. And sadly, the media will likely gloss over these epithets. Which is too bad, because it’s just another example of Trump getting away with advancing a hateful agenda.

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

LOL: Trump’s Press Secretary Says the White House is ‘a Very Functioning Place of Business’

Posted by on March 7, 2018 at 2:12 pm. 3 Comments :

The morning after Donald Trump’s chief economic advisor, Gary Cohn, resigned, the White House PR machine went to work pretending that there is nothing the least bit wrong in Trumpland. Never mind that there has been a higher rate of turnover than any presidency in history, or that competent, qualified people are rejecting offers to work in Trump’s administration. Even current staff are delaying departure because they can’t find new employers who will hire them. That’s how toxic the association with Trump is.

trump-departures

The Wednesday press briefing at the White House was a typically shallow affair where press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders spent much of the time replying to questions with non-answers. For instance, she would repeatedly say something like “the President has made his feelings clear on that matter and I have nothing further to add.” So what the heck are you doing there?

Today’s briefing included a couple of questions (videos below) related to White House staffing problems which, according to Sanders, don’t exist. She is parroting Trump’s obviously false contention that he has his choice of “the 10 top people” for any open position because “everybody wants to be there.” That is contradicted by the very fact that he keeps having so many openings. Clearly people don’t want to be there. And this deficit of talent has even Trump supporters worried:

Q: Republican senator Cornyn said today “I’m concerned who the President will turn to for advice.” Should he be concerned?
A: No. The President’s got a number of very accomplished, smart, capable people around him. And he is going to continue to lean on a lot of those people. But at the end of the day the American people voted overwhelmingly for President Donald J. Trump. They voted for his policies, his agenda, and for him to be the ultimate decision maker.

Sanders is right. There is indeed a number of “very accomplished, smart, capable people” around the President. Zero is a number, isn’t it? However, Sanders is totally wrong about Trump being elected overwhelmingly. In fact, Hillary Clinton got three million more votes than Trump. And his policies and agenda have only gotten less popular in the past year. He still has the lowest approval rating of any president on record. And his popularity doesn’t seem to be any higher within his administration than it does with voters.

Q:Why are so many people people leaving this administration?
A: Look, this administration has had a historic first year. We’re gonna continue to do great things. This is an intense place, as is every White House, and it’s not abnormal that you would have people come and go.
Q: But it is actually abnormal. No administration in recent history has had this rate of turnover.
A: But it’s not abnormal to have turnover.
Q: If this is not the definition of chaotic, how would you describe what’s happening in these recent weeks?
A: If it was then I don’t think we’d have been able to accomplish everything that we’ve done. The economy is stronger than it’s been in ages. ISIS is on the run. The remaking of the judiciary. Jobs are coming in at record numbers. There are historic things that have taken place in the first year. Sounds like a very functioning place of business.

So Sanders is reduced to asserting that losing staff is not abnormal, even though the turnover rate in Trump’s White House is historically high. That’s like your doctor saying that losing blood isn’t abnormal while you’ve got an open vein gushing like a fire hose. Everything will be just fine. And her rundown of Trump’s achievements is really a list of the successes that President Obama handed down to Trump. But nothing that has transpired in the past year reflects a functioning workplace. Sanders – and Trump – have an impressive capacity for self-delusion.

The people populating Trump’s administration have never been especially well regarded. Those still remaining include Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Scott Pruitt, and Betsy DeVos. That makes the prospect of Trump selecting new staffers extremely troubling. One name already being floated for Cohn’s job is Larry Kudlow, currently a Fox Business Network contributor. Also being mentioned as a replacement for National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, is another Fox News pundit, John Bolton. It seems that Trump’s only recruiting pool is from those people he sees on TV. And if that’s true, get ready for Secretary of State Sean Hannity, and Attorney General Jeanine Pirro. These are indeed scary times.

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

If Trump Refuses to Hold Kellyanne Conway Accountable, the Media Must Refuse to Book Her

Posted by on March 6, 2018 at 6:40 pm. 3 Comments :

If anyone needed more evidence of the Trump administration’s flagrant criminality, it came Tuesday morning when it responded to allegations against senior advisor Kellyanne Conway. She was just found by the Office of the Special Counsel (not related to Robert Mueller) to have violated the Hatch Act that prohibits White House personnel from engaging in political advocacy. Twice.

Kellyanne Conway

What makes this such a great example of the administration’s casual relationship to crime is not just the illegal behavior, but the official response to it. Disregarding the OSC’s findings and referral for disciplinary action, Donald Trump’s White House chose to let Conway slide with no consequences for her actions whatsoever. Even though this is at least her third violation and she has supposedly been counseled. The White House said that:

“Kellyanne Conway did not advocate for or against the election of any particular candidate. She simply expressed the president’s obvious position that he have people in the House and Senate who support his agenda.”

That, of course, was totally untrue. Given her repeated breaches of federal law, and her absence of remorse, it is inconceivable that she would avoid punishment. Had an aide to President Obama done this, Republicans would be calling for his impeachment. Well, if Obama were caught jaywalking they’d call for his impeachment. But an unrepentant, recidivist federal law breaker like Conway doesn’t even get the proverbial slap on the wrist.

Consequently, Conway’s punishment should be meted out in the only other venue that matters to her: the media.

There is absolutely no justification for any responsible news enterprise to book this lawbreaker. It is on the news that Conway commits her crimes. So why provide her the opportunity to repeat her offenses? The victims of the Hatch Act are not just citizens who are deceived, but also news outlets that are exploited. So it is entirely appropriate for them to protect themselves and their audience from further harm.

What’s more, Conway has never respected the journalists with whom she associated. Her record of brazenly lying to reporters is well documented. She is, after all, the woman who coined the term “alternative facts.” Or as Chuck Todd observed, “falsehoods.”

Considering the frequency with which Conway has lied to the press, they would have been justified in banning her even before these legal judgments. In fact, that’s just what the hosts of Morning Joe did last year. Now that banishment needs to be extended to the rest of the media.

Since the criminals in the Trump administration believe that the law doesn’t apply to them, justice needs another outlet. Let Trump find someone else to lie to America. He has plenty of Deplorables around him who have no problem wallowing in that swamp. And leave them and Conway to Fox News where lying is a job requirement.

In the meantime, enjoy Michelle Wolf’s deconstruction of the Conway Method from the Daily Daily Show, where she notes that “For decades politicians have blown bullshit on TV. But Kellyanne Conway has changed the game.”

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

Trump Hypes Fox News Ratings While Ignoring the Success of Rachel Maddow and MSNBC

Posted by on March 6, 2018 at 11:58 am. NO Comments :

There is something deeply disturbing about a president who obsesses about television ratings. Especially when it’s focused so narrowly on one particular network that serves as his biggest media booster. Donald Trump has spent more time on Twitter fawning over Fox News than almost any other single subject. He frequently tweets or retweets things he just watched on Fox and Friends or Hannity as if they were his closest advisors.

Rachel Maddow

On Tuesday morning Trump retweeted a post by his son Eric that celebrated Fox’s ratings performance in February. Why on Earth was this so important to someone who is currently burdened with a nuclear standoff with North Korea, Russian interference in American elections, a trade war that he instigated, children being massacred in schools, undocumented residents who have spent nearly their whole lives in the U.S. facing deportation, and so many other serious matters? It’s almost as if his only experience for running the country came from being a TV personality.

Okay, so Fox had a pretty good month. They lost January, so it must be a relief to them – and to Trump. However, their February win wasn’t exactly a runaway. While Trump slams his arch-enemy CNN in this tweet, he neglects to mention MSNBC and Rachel Maddow. As News Corpse reported last week, Maddow had another impressive month, falling just short of beating Sean Hannity again in the key demographic of 25-54 year olds. And although her average audience was shy of an outright victory, she did win more days during the month than Hannity did.

What’s more, in January Fox News dropped fourteen percent in primetime. Now February has topped that with an additional fifteen percent decline. Meanwhile, MSNBC gained significantly in both months of this new year. February’s percentage gains were over twenty percent. Funny, Trump never mentioned any of that. But he did tweet about the ratings for the Oscar telecast on Sunday. And for some reason he took delight in the numbers having declined. Apparently our President is happy when the film industry, a major national employer and contributor to America’s domestic and export economy, is doing poorly.

Trump’s tweets on behalf of Fox News are more evidence that the network is a wholly owned and operated division of the Trump administration. Or is it the other way around? Or are both Trump and Fox News divisions of Russia’s Putin Enterprises Worldwide. All three scenarios are way too plausible. But most Americans would agree that the President has more important things to do than analyzing TV ratings and promoting programs that unfailingly exalt their Dear Leader. Jake Tapper of CNN had a pithy commentary himself on Twitter saying…

And conversely, if you’re a news organization and the folks in power are constantly maligning you, you’re doing it right. By definition. There’s a reason that Trump is relentlessly attacking CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc. He’s afraid because actual journalists are revealing his criminal activities and those of his associates. His only recourse is a campaign of smear tactics. But that is only making him look even more guilty. So keep it up, Donnie. And remember, no matter how bad the ratings are for CNN, yours are still worse.

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

This Fox News Trump-Fluffer is Right: ‘The American People Are Sick and Tired’ of Russia Probe

Posted by on March 5, 2018 at 1:47 pm. 1 Comments :

Longtime Donald Trump sycophant and Citizens United honcho, David Bossie, visited State-Run TV (aka Fox News) on Monday to further disseminate the absurdity that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation “doesn’t seem like it is going anywhere near the White House.” That’s an obvious falsehood that is easily refuted by widely available facts.

Donald Trump

Everyone knows that there have already been nineteen indictments and five guilty pleas. Among the guilty are Trump’s National Security Advisor, and his assistant campaign manage. It’s hard to get much closer to the White House than that. And yet it does. Breaking news on Monday morning reveals that Mueller’s team has issued subpoenas for numerous documents and communications with Trump insiders including Corey Lewandowski, Hope Hicks, Keith Schiller, and his personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Which may explain why the Trump surrogate army has been deployed to flood the airwaves with deceitful propaganda. Bossie is taking the lead with an interview on the Fox News program Outnumbered OT (video below). and his dishonesty and obfuscation is so apparent it must be humiliating. He said that…

“The American people are sick and tired of this two year investigation. We are getting into this scandal fatigue area where the American people are tired of it. They see the shifting around and they don’t see any evidence whatsoever that this president or the campaign did anything wrong, let alone collude with the Russians.”

First of all, Bossie is brazenly lying about the duration of the investigation. Mueller was appointed to his position in May of 2017, so it hasn’t even been in progress for one year yet. However, Bossie did inadvertently stumble over a truth with regard to the American people’s fatigue. They are surely tired of how long this scandal is being drawn out and would appreciate a swift conclusion. However, it isn’t because they think Trump and Russia are innocent, as Bossie implies. To the contrary, The American people overwhelming believe that that the investigation is warranted and that Trump is likely guilty of something. A new CNN poll found that sixty-one percent of Americans say the Russia investigation is a serious matter. Seventy-two percent are very/somewhat concerned about foreign interference in U.S. elections.

No matter how many times people like Bossie or Sean Hannity or Sarah Huckabee Sanders say there is no evidence of collusion or other wrongdoing, they cannot make it true. The known evidence is piling up, and the evidence that is known only to Mueller and his team is surely far more damning than what has been made public. And the same is true with regard to the false right-wing assertions that the people don’t care about this issue. Trump’s defenders are only exposing their desperation by distorting reality to fit their yearning for all of this to be over. And Trump himself is dong the same thing on Twitter:

Trump’s anxiety could not be more apparent. It shows who is really “sick and tired.” He’s scared and likely knows that he is in deep trouble. This tweet displays a serious cognitive collapse. He is simultaneously saying that there was no Russian election meddling, and also that President Obama did nothing about the Russian election meddling that didn’t happen. Never mind that every U.S. intelligence agency with jurisdiction has stated unequivocally that there was Russian meddling. What’s more, Obama punished Russia with sanctions and ejections of Russian operatives. He also tried to put together a bipartisan response, but Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell refused to cooperate.

The tantrums thrown by Trump and his surrogates like Bossie aren’t helping their cause. They are only making them appear guilty and frantic as they scramble for cover. And the American people see right through this pathetic charade. It’s only a matter of time before Mueller’s investigation is complete and the truth revealed. And that’s when the American people’s fatigue will be relieved. But it will be just the beginning for Trump et al.

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

The Trump Era Logical Dissonance Wrapped Up in One Unbelievably Incoherent Sentence

Posted by on March 5, 2018 at 11:36 am. NO Comments :

OK, this comment by Donald Trump’s Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, perfectly encapsulates the entirety of the Trump Era logical dissonance. It’s an indicator of just how toxic the effect of Trump’s idiocy is on all of those around him.

Donald Trump Effect

In an interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, Ross makes this statement that is saying absolutely nothing coherent, and then denies that he even said what he just said. The subject was Trump’s asinine proposal to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum products, mostly from our allies.

“Whatever his final decision is, is what will happen. What he has said, he has said. If he says something different, it’ll be something different.”

Well, thanks for clearing that up. I have nothing to add.

See it for yourself:

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