Month: August 2018

Whiner-in-Chief Donald Trump is Freaking Out About Polls Because He’s at Another New Low

Posted by on August 31, 2018 at 9:18 pm. NO Comments :

It really is pathetic when the President of the United States is so obsessed with his polling that he can’t keep from whining – and lying – about it to his Dimwitted Deplorables on Twitter. But then again Donald Trump is, in his own words, “the most fabulous whiner.” It’s just too bad that he has to prove it at every opportunity, usually over something that is petty and otherwise forgettable.

Donald Trump

On Friday an ABC/Washington Post poll was released with some data that was bound to trigger Trump’s acute insecurity and malignant narcissism. The poll showed that Trump had notched a new high in his disapproval rating of sixty percent. Considering everything that has been going wrong, he’s lucky it isn’t worse. But not known for being rational enough to appreciate that reality, Trump went off on a Twitter tirade against the poll:

First of all, two weeks before the 2016 election, the ABC Washington Post poll had the race at forty-seven percent to forty-three percent in favor of Hillary Clinton. That’s right on the mark since the final election results gave Clinton a three million vote lead. This polling measures voter sentiment, not the electoral college. So Trump’s complaint that the poll was “by far the least accurate one” is just another of his innumerable untruths. Will he ever learn? Don’t bother to answer that. Just take a look at his next tweet:

Rasmussen does currently have Trump at forty-eight percent, but Rasmussen is a notoriously biased outfit that Republicans lean on for positive news when all the reputable pollsters are providing more credible numbers. And Obama’s ratings on August 31, 2010, were also forty-eight percent, so Trump was not higher, as he claimed. As for Trump’s assessment of these two pollsters, the experts at FiveThirtyEight have ABC/Washington Post at A+, while Rasmussen is much farther down the scale at a mere C+.

It’s no wonder that Trump is concerned about his polling. As his presidency continues to be mired in scandal, the results on several other topics are just as bad as his approval. For instance, sixty-three percent of voters support special counsel Robert Mueller. Sixty-four percent oppose Trump firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which he is threatening to do after the midterms. Fifty-three percent say that Trump is already guilty of obstruction of justice for interfering with the Mueller probe. And a plurality of nearly half (forty-nine percent) of Americans say that Congress should begin impeachment hearings. That includes thirty percent of conservatives.

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

Trump is a walking disaster and he knows it. So he’s trying to gaslight the public with his ludicrous Twitter tantrums. And all of this bad news is coming as Trump is preparing to hit the road to campaign for Republican candidates. You have to wonder how many of them still want him to show up. He just announced that he’ll be holding a “major rally” in Texas for Sen. Ted Cruz. That freak show ought to be a real humdinger considering all the awful things they’ve said about each other. Be sure to have plenty of popcorn on hand.

Clown Show Alert: ‘Pathological Liar’ Donald Trump Announces ‘Major Rally’ for ‘Lyin’ Ted Cruz

Posted by on August 31, 2018 at 1:48 pm. NO Comments :

Last month Donald Trump told Sean Hannity that he would go on the road for Republican candidates “six or seven days a week when we’re sixty days out.” So in effect, he’ll be taking a leave of absence from the presidency to become a full-time campaign shill. Never mind that he’s supposed to be doing president stuff, the American people are mostly relieved when he goes golfing, or otherwise refrains from doing more harm to the nation. A new poll shows his disapproval at a record high of sixty percent.

Ted Cruz, Donald Trump

Trump has already done a couple of dozen of these purely partisan Klan gatherings that require him to assemble his staff and security detail to venture from Washington on the taxpayer’s dime. That’s about three times a month that Trump is doing his Dogged Phony show before the Confederacy of Deplorables. And on Friday morning he revealed a new stop on the StormTrumpers Tour: The great state of Texas will be honored with Trump’s presence on behalf of Sen. Ted Cruz.

For the record, these two have not exactly been BFFs. So this public embrace is an obvious bend toward desperation for them both. Trump famously charged that Cruz’s father was a co-conspirator in the assassination of John Kennedy. He lifted that from the National Enquirer, published by his pal David Pecker, who was recently granted immunity to testify against Trump. The President also insulted Cruz’s wife as not meeting his porn star standard of beauty. In response, Cruz accurately called Trump out (deliciously vicious video below) for being a “pathological liar” and “utterly amoral.” But for a preview of what we might expect at the Texas Revival Meeting in October, here is what Trump said about Cruz not very long ago:

A couple of things stand out in those Twitter diatribes. First of all, Trump makes a point of questioning why any Texan would vote for a lying, do-nothing, foreign-born cad like Cruz. That’s a good question. Secondly, he goes to great lengths to characterize Cruz as a hypocrite for staking out a claim of religiosity despite his uncontrollable tendency to lie. Sound familiar? Trump and Cruz are cut from the same sackcloth. And this is the man that Trump now says has his “complete and total Endorsement.” Well, that figures.

Trump also made a point of maligning Cruz’s opponent for the senate seat. Beto O’Rourke has organized an historic campaign that is still gaining strength. The latest poll shows O’Rourke and Cruz in a virtual dead heat. It’s safe to say that all the Cruz supporters in Texas are already accounted for. Which means that turning out new, younger, and more diverse voters will be the deciding factor in this race. And considering that Cruz is the most hated man in Washington, and that all the momentum is on O’Rourke’s side, Trump’s travelling salvation show might just be the final curtain for Lyin Ted.

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

Frantic Gaslighting: Trump Accuses Lester Holt of ‘Fudging’ Interview Where He Incriminated Himself

Posted by on August 30, 2018 at 12:42 pm. 3 Comments :

Thursday morning most of the media was focused on the first public memorial service for the late Sen. John McCain. So as the nation was united in paying tribute to McCain, Donald Trump naturally took to his Twitter throne and fired off a series of frighteningly incoherent outbursts at what he regards as “the enemy of the people.” It’s his way of continuing to show contempt for a man that had the audacity to challenge him.

Donald Trump

The substance of Thursdays’ tweetstorm was typically centered on his aversion to, and fear of, the free press and the Constitution. He began by taking a swipe at a perennial foe, CNN. Trump lashed out at the network’s boss, Jeff Zucker, and called on AT&T to fire him. Think about that. The president of the United States is issuing orders to a private company in order to control their executive management. That’s pretty much the definition of fascism.

But Trump didn’t stop there. The next tweet in the tantrum was aimed at NBC and their news anchor, Lester Holt. What Trump said was obviously pulled from the recesses of a deeply disturbed mind. It was based on nothing resembling reality, but it did serve to advance his mission to Make America Stupid Again:

This is a perfect example of Trump disseminating utter bullcrap to his pathetic and glassy-eyed cult followers who will believe anything Dear Leader disgorges. The interview with Holt was not “fudged” in any way, and Trump offers no evidence to support his charge. The entire interview is posted online for all to see. Trump’s sole purpose in hurling this lie is to mitigate the fact that he incriminated himself in that interview. Trump told Holt that he fired FBI director James Comey because of the Russia investigation.

So Trump literally confessed to obstruction of justice on national television. Now he’s trying to back out of it by saying the interview was doctored. But everyone knows that he’s making that up out of pure desperation. And by doing so he only makes things worse by being so transparently dishonest and by bringing attention back to his guilt. Even Fox News was taken aback by Trump’s glaringly false allegation.

Trump continued his Twitter tirade with a more generalized attack on what he called the “totally dishonest” media. He said that “Truth doesn’t matter to them,” and that “they only have their hatred & agenda.” This is coming from the man who has been documented as telling more than 4,200 lies since his poorly attended inauguration (which he lied about). And he’s also the man whose whole presidency has been marinated in hate and bigotry. He can’t go a single day without tossing around vicious and infantile insults at anyone he perceives as insufficiently worshipful.

Finally (for the time being), Trump circled back around to CNN to reiterate some completely fake allegations about a recent story concerning his troubles with his personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, had told CNN that Cohen might tell special counsel Robert Mueller that the President knew about the infamous Trump Tower meeting with the Russians before it occurred. Davis later backpedaled and said that he could not actually confirm that. Note that he did not say it wasn’t true, only that he was no longer comfortable with the comment. That’s probably because it could put his client in legal jeopardy because it contradicted what Cohen told Congress.

Subsequently, Trump, Fox News, and other rightist media began accusing CNN of flubbing the story. But they actually got it right. It was Davis who admits that he made a statement that he would no longer stand by. That isn’t CNN’s fault, especially since they also had other sources corroborating their reporting. They continue stand by the story.

The fact that Trump would take this time, as the nation is still mourning the passing of John McCain, to trot out his self-serving delusions, is indicative of his utter lack of character and class. He simply isn’t able to allow anyone else to have the spotlight for a day or two. But the ludicrous charge that Lester Holt tampered with the video of his interview shows that Trump will propound any lie, no matter how outrageous and unfounded, to deceive the nation. And that sort of dishonesty has been the hallmark of his tenure so far in the White House.

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

Fire Sean Hannity: Fox News Host Exposed Campaigning for DeSantis, Violating Journalistic Ethics

Posted by on August 29, 2018 at 2:39 pm. 3 Comments :

On Tuesday’s primary for the Republican candidate for governor of Florida, Trump favorite Ron DeSantis came away with the victory and the opportunity to face progressive Democrat Andrew Gillum in November. So the DeSantis campaign officially launched the next day when he appeared on Fox News and charged that African-American Gillum would “monkey up” the state.

Fox News, Sean Hannity, White House

That’s a pretty horrendous start to what will surely be a campaign marked by the sort of racism and invective that a Trump minion like DeSantis embraces. It will be a campaign that relies on State TV (aka Fox News) for support and free advertising. In fact, DeSantis has already received more than $9,000 000 worth of airtime from Fox.

However, that isn’t the only boost that DeSantis has enjoyed from Fox News. The top rated host on the network, Sean Hannity, has been plugging his candidacy, and maligning his opponent, for weeks. But something that DeSantis said in his victory speech stood out as peculiar and warrants more scrutiny (video below):

“We had some great surrogates. You know (Rep.) Matt Gaetz was out on the road with us raising a little hell now and then. We had people like Sean Hannity come down, and Mark Levin, which was just phenomenal.”

So thanks to this revelation by DeSantis, we now know that Hannity went down to Florida to assist the campaign of a Republican candidate for governor. At any other news network that would be considered a breach of their standards of professional conduct and cause for termination. Surprisingly, that appeared to be just such a breach at Fox News in 2016 when Hannity appeared in a campaign video for then-candidate Donald Trump. Fox noted at the time that this was improper and Hannity was sternly advised not to do it again. Sure, that’s about wrist-slappy a punishment that there could be, but it was a punishment.

There is no excuse for a “news” network host colluding with partisan candidates for public office. And this being a second offense, it ought to draw a more severe penalty. Anyone else at any other network would likely be fired. And if Fox News needs any additional incentive to invoke that sanction, they could just look at Hannity’s recent past. Earlier this year he was revealed to be a client of Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney who just pleaded guilty to eight felonies. But Hannity kept that a secret even when interviewing Cohen on his show.

What’s more, Hannity serves in the odd position of being Trump’s “shadow chief-of-staff” and reports say that he talks to the President on an almost nightly basis. But even when these reports surface, Hannity refuses to disclose the nature and extent of their relationship. That alone should be regarded as a blatant conflict of interest and a fireable offense.

FOR THE RECORD: Hannity has gone back and forth about whether he is a journalist. At times he insists he is. Other times he denies it. Here are examples of both.

But don’t hold your breath waiting for Fox News to behave honorably. After all, they are the network that gave Trump more airtime than any other network. And it was Hannity who gave Trump more airtime than any other program on Fox News. So Hannity is actually carrying out the mission of Fox News by advancing the people and propaganda that he is directed to from the executive suites – and the White House. Note that Bill Shine, former Fox News president and Hannity’s old boss, is now a top Trump White House aide. That’s how State TV works.

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

Rachel Maddow is Leading MSNBC to Record Ratings, the Only Cable News Net to Gain Viewers

Posted by on August 28, 2018 at 10:14 pm. 2 Comments :

While Donald Trump is dragging his presidency down to the depths of the abyss, he might deserve some credit for lifting MSNBC up to the heights of ratings Valhalla. For the month of August MSNBC achieved a significant milestone, becoming the the second-most-watched network across all of basic cable. And the network’s star, Rachel Maddow, had the number one show for total viewers on cable TV for the last week of August.

Rachel Maddow

This ratings bonanza took place as Trump’s world was crumbling. His campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted on eight felonies. His personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight felonies of his own. And Trump’s inner circle suffered some serious ruptures. His long-time friend, and publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, was granted immunity by federal prosecutors. The same goes for the CFO of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg. Immunity is not handed out unless the recipients were exposed to serious legal jeopardy and had something useful to trade for their get-out-jail-free card.

These sort of news events may have brought viewers hungry for credible reporting to MSNBC resulting in their ratings wins last week. But the whole month notched gains that were noteworthy. In fact, MSNBC’s primetime rose over their draw in 2017, while both CNN and Fox News declined. Maddow’s contribution to that was scoring the top show rating in all of cable TV for the whole month in the 25-54 demographic. To be clear, she not only beat Sean Hannity head-to-head, but every other show of any type on basic cable.

The remainder of the MSNBC schedule was equally as successful with viewers. Everyone from Chris Hayes to Lawrence O’Donnell to Ari Melber to Brian Williams to Joy Reid, enjoyed record breaking numbers. The daytime crew, including Ali Velshi, Stephanie Ruhle, Hallie Jackson, Nicolle Wallace, and Katy Tur, all notched substantial gains as well.

If this is any indication of how the content of the news can affect ratings, there is sure to be more good news to come. Manafort’s next trial in Washington, D.C. is scheduled to begin in mid September. And almost every day there are new revelations that bring Trump’s dismal fate closer to realization. Much of them unveiled by his own big mouth and fat Twitter fingers. And as events continue to unfold, America’s television viewers will continue to seek out truthful accounts of the breaking news.

That’s good news for MSNBC. And as for Fox News, they can surely rely on their cult followers to keep their numbers pretty high. After all, they will need those extra doses of fake propaganda and blurred reality from State TV to anesthetize them into their cozy states of semi-consciousness.

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

Trump, the Whiner, Parrots His Senior Media Advisors, Dobbs, Diamond & Silk, Via Fox News

Posted by on August 28, 2018 at 12:04 pm. 1 Comments :

Let’s put to rest the notion that Donald Trump regards himself as an icon of strength and triumph. If there is one thing that Trump has excelled in to the exclusion of all others, it’s his relentless whining about how hopelessly impotent and powerless he is. Trump literally bragged about being “the most fabulous whiner.” So despite having majority control of all three branches of government, Trump and company persist in their pathetic whimpering that they are mercilessly oppressed, suppressed and obstructed from achieving any of their repugnant goals.

Fox News, Diamond & Silk

In his latest attempt to create a media distraction from the horrendous drubbing he took for demeaning John McCain, Trump turned to Fox News for anything that he could post to Twitter that might take the heat off for a few moments of relief. He found it in a segment from the Lou Dobbs program on the Fox Business Network. And without bothering to confirm the ludicrous assertions in the clip, Trump tweeted out that:

Needless to say, that is all Grade A bunk that has no basis in fact. The Republican controlled Congress even held hearings to ascertain whether the Internet and social media were employing any tactics to inject political bias into what are supposed to be neutral search results and news feeds. They found nothing. Instead, they reaffirmed that the algorithms used by tech companies are not based on ideology, but that they respond to what people want to see.

However, that didn’t stop Trump from threatening Google Tuesday morning. And it didn’t stop Dobbs from spewing demonstrably false charges against Google and others along with his guest experts on media and technology, Diamond & Silk. This dynamic duo has been squealing about imaginary censorship for months. The exchange they had with Dobbs was an exercise in how to dumb down America on what is supposed to be a financial news channel (video below):

Dobbs: I take it that you’re not surprised that Google is sort of banning conservatives from their search results with President Trump?
Diamond: No, it’s not surprising. And to us it looks like it’s tyranny. You have these media outlets, along with Google, taking and they’re suppressing voices of conservatives. Not only that but they’re thumbing down our pages where we can’t see President Trump’s content or good news about what’s going on in this country when it comes to this president. And I am not for big government, but I really do believe that the government should step in and really check this out. Because this is, again, the sort of [inaudible] of tyranny. We don’t need dictatorship. We don’t need people controlling what we can and cannot see.
Silk: And this also look like a form of political lynching. Insteading of using the news, what they are doing is using algorithms and a form of censorship to Trump people’s platforms out, to keep you from being able to do your search whenever you want to search for our beautiful president.

Notice that Dobbs began with a matter of fact statement that Google is “banning conservatives” even though he has no facts to support that charge. And his Looney Tunes guests join the choir with even more extremist banter about tyranny and dictatorship and lynching and the deflowering of “our beautiful president.”

Dobbs went on to charge that Google’s search technology has become shallow and political. Then he complains about the “deep, profound concentration of wealth” and the “deep, profound concentration of political power.” Which is a position that would delight America’s socialists and critics of income inequality. Except that Dobbs is only applying this rhetoric to those who he perceives as foes of the President and the ultra-rightist agenda he represents.

What’s more, these stalwart defenders of conservative values are pushing for the government to stomp its boot down on the Internet’s defilers of Trumpian goodness. Never mind that the First Amendment prohibits the regulation of speech by private companies. The Constitution is an impediment to the propagandist objectives of Trump and Fox News. They can’t merely dismiss their hypocrisy by claiming to be against big government while advocating for such regulations. Even Trump’s chief economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, warned that “We’re taking a look at it,” And the one policy measure they could pursue that would prevent bias by anyone, would be the one they are affirmatively trying to kill: Network Nuetrality.

But while pounding on the political oppression by the enemies of Trumpism, at least Dobbs is comforted by the presence of Trump saying that “If we didn’t have a president like this one I don’t know where we’d be.” Then Dobbs contradicts the whole premise of the segment by noting that Trump “has his own access to the American people” via social media. So he’s now arguing that Trump and his confederates are enjoying unprecedented success getting their message out. So where the hell is the alleged censorship?

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

Trump Can’t Be Shamed. So Why Did He Re-Lower the White House Flag for John McCain?

Posted by on August 27, 2018 at 4:17 pm. 3 Comments :

A rare occurrence took place on Monday that is entirely out of character for Donald Trump and his notoriously petty and obstinate administration. The President reversed himself on his prior decision not to honor the memory of Sen. John McCain by flying the White House flag at half mast. The flag had been lowered on Sunday, but was raised to full staff again on Monday in a breach of protocol that requires it to remain lowered until after the burial of the honoree.

Donald Trump

Trump is not known for having an open mind or for changing his position once he’s figured out (or been told) what it is. Sure, he’ll frequently contradict himself or engage in rank hypocrisy, but that’s different than staking a position and then backtracking. So what might have caused this deviation from his “normal” behavior?

Firstly, it needs to be recognized that Trump is not susceptible to shame. The fact that there was near universal condemnation of his childish dissing of McCain could not have triggered his flip-flop. Even with criticisms from his pals at Fox News and the American Legion. After all, Trump took even more heat after his policy of breaking apart immigrant families became known. The inhumanity of that made most Americans sick as they watched babies being ripped from the arms of their parents. But Trump never backed down from it until he was forced to by the courts.

Likewise, Trump was hammered for his bigoted ban on Muslims entering the country. Majorities of Americans opposed the policy and several federal courts overturned it. But Trump stayed the course without regard for the repudiation of the American people. He continues his crusade to build a wall on the southern border even though polls show that most voters don’t want it. His attacks on the media are rejected by the people who still have more trust in the press than they do in Trump after two years of his anti-constitutional abuse.

So what’s the difference when it comes to this incident with the lowering of the flag? Surely it has nothing to do with Trump’s opinion of McCain. He is openly disdainful of him. He declined to offer any kind of praise following the news of the Senator’s death. And even now that he has acquiesced and re-lowered the flag, he accompanied the action with a pissy statement that still failed to pay McCain any tribute:

“Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country and, in his honor, have signed a proclamation to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff until the day of his interment.”

That statement made no gesture to honor McCain’s integrity, patriotism, or any other observance of a positive, personal nature. But he did lead off with the pointless and, under the circumstance, inappropriate mention of their disagreements. Who cares?

There is only thing that marks this affair as unique to the other situations wherein Trump had no problem weathering the storms of criticism. This time many of the attacks are coming from Republicans in Congress who still revere their deceased colleague. Trump desperately needs the support of his congressional confederates to push forward with his abhorrent agenda. He also needs them to shield him from the slings and arrows of investigations and impeachment. The fear of becoming a lame duck or being cast adrift in a rocky political sea must have caused Trump to grudgingly lower the flag and issue a weak proclamation about McCain’s passing.

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

The good news in that is that in November there will be an opportunity to turn Congress into exactly the body that Trump fears most. The much-anticipated “Blue Wave” would subject him to hearings chaired by Democrats who have been chained up too long by unethical Republican leaders. And the prospect of impeachment would become plausible as more and more of Trump’s associates (aka accomplices) are indicted or granted immunity. And that’s not even taking into consideration the looming visage of special counsel Robert Mueller. So stay tuned and have plenty of popcorn at hand.

Daffy Donald Trump Mistakenly Tweet-Brags His 52% Approval, But That’s His Disapproval

Posted by on August 26, 2018 at 10:06 pm. 2 Comments :

With everything that is going wrong for Donald Trump lately, it’s clear that the pressure is taking a serious toll on his already sorely inadequate comprehension skills. The average person would be feeling the heat if confronted with disastrous scenarios like having your campaign chairman (Paul Manafort) and personal attorney (Michael Cohen) convicted of multiple felonies. And add to that your friends (David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer) and close associates (Allen Weisselberg, CFO of your business) being granted immunity by federal prosecutors in order to testify against you.

Donald Trump

But for someone who has severe mental deficiencies in the first place, the consequences are magnified geometrically. That’s the state that Trump finds himself in now, and the result is frightening. On Sunday evening he posted a tweet intended to excite his glassy-eyed followers and to pump up his gargantuan ego:

The media doesn’t need to make Trump look evil. And let’s just set aside that he felt it necessary to disseminate this self-exalting message on the day that saw multiple people get shot in Jacksonville, Florida. Trump said nothing about that. It’s also the day after the passing of Sen. John McCain, who Trump neglected to pay any tribute to for his decades of service to the nation. Instead he played golf at one of his resorts and had his press secretary release a statement that he was “monitoring” the Jacksonville situation. Which means he was watching Fox News.

However, what’s really astonishing about trump’s boastful tweet is that he couldn’t even get the numbers right. Yes, the poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News (who are, in his opinion, fake), did find that ninety percent of Republicans have a favorable view of the President. Trump may like that, but it should be a serious embarrassment to the Republican Party. What Trump failed to report accurately was his overall approval rating, which he said was fifty-two percent. The only problem with that is that’s actually his disapproval rating in the poll. His approval is only forty-four percent.

If this is the level of accuracy that we can expect from our president, then America is in deep, deep trouble. Especially coming from someone who thinks there were millions of people at his inaugural address (there weren’t). Or that three million people voted illegally (they didn’t). Or that he won the women’s vote in 2016 (just white women). Or that U.S. Steel is opening six new plants (actually it’s zero). And this could go on endlessly with all of the lies that Trump regularly tells about his imaginary accomplishments.

Unfortunately, this isn’t really that funny. If Trump can’t get the simplest numbers right about polls or the attendance at his cult rallies, how can he be expected to get the numbers right about the economy or the quantity of nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the United States and its enemies? This sort of cognitive infirmity poses serious risks for our nation. And it’s just more proof that Trump is unfit to be in any position of leadership.

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

Paying Tribute: Would Anyone in Trump’s Republican Party Be Remembered Like John McCain?

Posted by on August 26, 2018 at 11:26 am. 3 Comments :

Saturday saw the passing of one of the most storied and respected members of Congress in this generation. John McCain was an irascible political pugilist who managed to nurture close friendships with almost everyone with whom he did battle. And he did battle with everyone. His maverick status may have been an overwrought marketing scheme, but he did have a tendency to skirt partisan divides more frequently than most of his colleagues.

Donald Trump John McCain

Consequently, he earned the respect, admiration, and affection of his congressional peers. The remembrances expressed in the past twenty-four hours have been uniquely non-partisan, especially by today’s Trumpian standards. Naturally, McCain’s passing brought out kind words and loving thoughts from Republicans who regard him as an elder statesman. But he has also been lauded with effusive praise by President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, and many more from the ranks of Democrats.

The tributes generally include recognition of his valiant and selfless service to the nation as a Navy officer and a public servant for more than thirty years. They cite his courage, integrity, honor, perseverance, collegiality, fairness, and above all, putting his principles and his country before himself or his party. And those saluting him specifically used those words to described his enduring legacy. The only prominent Republican who failed to do so was Donald Trump, whose curt tweet offered only obligatory condolences, but said nothing at all about the man or his life’s work.


Compare that to the more fully realized sentiments of the man who defeated McCain for the presidency:

All of these accolades may seem customary under the circumstances when a notable public figure meets his destiny. But on reflection, it’s hard to imagine the same measure of esteem being shown toward any of McCain’s GOP pals were they to expire. Does anyone think that Mitch McConnell would be eulogized with words like courage, integrity, or honor? What about Paul Ryan? Or Jim Jordan? Or Chuck Grassley? Or Kevin McCarthy? Or John Cornyn? Or Mike Pence? Or (do I have to say it) Donald Trump?

What ever one thinks of McCain’s politics, he actually does represent a bygone era of bipartisanship that the GOP has been chipping away at for years. And with the emergence of Trump, the demolition crew has really stepped up their efforts to shred whatever fragile veil of unity has managed to survive.

As a result, it may be a while before America sees another passing of a Republican who garners such near universal praise. Maybe some of the GOP leaders in Congress and elsewhere should start to think about their own legacies and whether they would like to be remembered as heroes or narrow minded zealots.

This applies especially to those who can look the other way as Trump exacerbates partisan divisions, incites racial hatred and misogyny, puts the wealthy and corporations above everyday citizens, and worst of all, kowtows to foreign dictators and sells out the nation to our enemies. Support for that sort of anti-American agenda is unlikely to win over the hearts and minds of grieving Americans once you cast off your mortal bounds. Something to consider.

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

Trump Tweets ‘Big Story’ About the FBI that Turns Out to Be a Big Lie By Wingnut Website

Posted by on August 25, 2018 at 3:59 pm. 5 Comments :

The tribulations of Donald Trump continue to mount as news of his crumbling network of accomplices gets more dire with each passing day. Just this week his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of eight felonies and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to felonies of his own. Then two close associates – David Pecker of the National Enquirer, and Allen Weisselberg, CFO of the Trump Organization – were granted immunity by federal prosecutors in exchange for their cooperation.

Donald Trump

As usual, when ever Trump sees dark clouds gathering he attempts to blow them away by creating a windstorm of his own. It’s an obvious tactic that just makes him look desperate and even more guilty. On Saturday morning he deployed this scheme with a series of tweets intended to distract from the Mueller probe and the slow-motion apocalypse that is his presidency:

The “Big story” that Trump refers to is one that has been in circulation for nearly two years now. It revolves around allegations that Hillary Clinton engaged in some vaguely defined wrongdoing connected to her handling of classified documents. This matter has been investigated by everyone from the FBI to various Republican-controlled committees in the House and Senate. And even when starkly partisan players in Congress were pushing hard to find misdeeds, they never did.

If getting “to the bottom of all of this corruption” was actually on Trump’s agenda, he would not be relying on Fox News as his source for information. After all, he has the world’s most sophisticated intelligence operations at his fingertips, but he still prefers the imbecilic sycophants on Fox and Friends to experienced law enforcement professionals.

The big story that has Trump triggered now is one that alleges that the FBI failed to review thousands of Clinton’s emails during their investigation in 2016. Trump attributes the story to Fox News, but it originated with a website, The Federalist, that is a virulent right-wing fount of extremist propaganda. The article authored by Paul Sperry is an interminably long screed that offers nothing but conjecture, when it isn’t rehashing ancient history about alleged Clinton misdeeds.

The key point that Trump’s tantrum focuses on is the charge that the FBI deliberately ignored thousands of Clinton’s email that were discovered on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, who was married to Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Sperry asserts that some 675,000 emails were found, but that the FBI only reviewed 3,077 of them. That’s because the FBI conducted an automated review that identified the vast majority of these emails as duplicates that they had received and reviewed from other sources. Sperry casts doubts on the FBI’s ability to have effectively screened out the duplicates, but he offers no proof for that contention, and he completely ignores the fact that computers are quite capable of comparing text.

Somehow, Trump concludes from this dubious article that the emails that were supposedly unreviewed were “REALLY BAD” and “disasters.” Where he got that from is anyone’s guess because even Sperry never made that claim. Nevertheless, on the weakness of this report, Trump is threatening, again, that he “may have to get involved” in the work of what should be the independent Justice Department. He has long claimed that he has that right and that he could even run the investigation himself if he wanted to. Imagine that: a president who personally takes control of the persecution of his political enemies. That says pretty much everything you need to know about the wannabe dictator in the White House.

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