Truth Isn’t Truth? Trump Unleashes a Tweetstorm of Frantic Desperation and Fearful Guilt

Donald Trump couldn’t look more guilty if he tattooed it on his forehead in neon ink. Everything he does and says these days reinforces his fear and unambiguous knowledge that he and his crime family are in deep legal peril. And it gets worse when he has time off (from golfing) to act out on Twitter. That’s what happened Sunday morning as the President hammered out half a dozen tweets protesting (too much) that’s innocent, dammit!

Donald Trump

The tone and substance of these tweets are almost pathetically begging for absolution from a bevy of sins that he knows he committed. What’s more, most of these ravings are merely repetitions of the same carping he has been unloading for months. He has become a robo-bitcher whose mindless outbursts make little sense and avoid facts at all costs. He began by trotting out his familiar, and untrue, nickname for the New York Times:

Let’s just set aside that no matter how many times he tries, he simply can’t spell “counsel” correctly. More to the point, Trump’s characterization of White House Lawyer Don McGahn as a loyal subject flies in the face of reality. You don’t sit for thirty hours of testimony with a special prosecutor without supplying some critical information. And Trump didn’t even bother to refute the allegation in the Times that McGahn was afraid that Trump was setting him up to be the fall guy.

Even worse is Trump’s slap at John Dean. During the Watergate affair, Dean had the job that McGahn has today. He courageously came forward to tell the truth about the crimes being committed in Richard Nixon’s White House. He is generally regarded as a hero for having told the truth under immense pressure. And for that, Trump thinks he’s a “RAT.” Which makes perfect sense because Trump thinks that anyone who might tell the truth about him would be vermin. Trump is allergic to the truth, which is why he avoids it so studiously. But the fact that he thinks Dean is a rat, while the rest of America is grateful for his patriotic service, putting country before party, shows just how deranged Trump is.

Trump is also congratulating himself on his alleged “transparency” for “allowing” McGahn to talk to special counsel Robert Mueller. That was not exactly his call. If he had tried to claim executive privilege he would have set off a court battle that he likely would have lost. And the loss would have opened the door to more access to his staff and more trouble for him. And then there was this:

Notice that Trump slipped in the required “witch hunt” reference which, by executive order, must appear in at least one out of every five tweets. And he continues ranting about his fake transparency. He says he allowed “all others” to be interviewed by Mueller. But he left someone important to the investigation out: himself. If he really wants this probe to end he needs to sit down with Mueller and try not to lie (admittedly, a difficult task for him). If he really has nothing to hide he should schedule that meeting today. And then there was this:

This is just Trump having a “whataboutism” seizure. One of his favorite defenses is to accuse others of crimes that he is committing. And then there was this:

Here Trump is repeating what said a an hour earlier. But he also took the opportunity to repeat his Stalinist, anti-First Amendment screed about the media being “the enemy of the people.” And then there was this:

Talk about your fake news. If anyone in the media called to “complain and apologize” it could only have been Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, or some other similarly bootlicking Trump-fluffer trying to keep his spirits up. I guarantee that no credible journalist called him for that purpose. This is something he does frequently, but then refuses to provide any names. And finally there was this:

Holy crap. Trump is attempting to draw a parallel between the corrupt and corrosive Sen. Joe McCarthy and reporters doing their jobs exactly as they are supposed to. And advising people to study McCarthy is hysterical because you can bet the bank that he never did. Unless, of course, it was get pointers on how to be a demagogic sleazeball. What he isn’t saying is that McCarthy’s right-hand man, Roy Cohn, was Trump’s close friend and mentor. He even wished he had a lawyer like Cohn.

After unleashing this flood of whining and victimization, Trump looks more guilty than ever. When was the last time an innocent man lashed out with such wild, incoherent blather? And no matter how often he howls “no collusion, no obstruction of justice, witch hunt,” etc., it will not change the facts that are causing him to tremble in fear. While Rudy Giuliani may believe that “truth isn’t truth,” the rest of the civilized world knows what hogwash that is. Just wait until he tries to explain that to a jury.

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

Rudy Giuliani is Right: In Donald Trump’s World ‘Truth Isn’t Truth’ (See Fox News)

Just when you think you can’t find another bizarre event that needs to be describe with the preface “Just when you think…” Donald Trump or one of his surrogates/sycophants steps up to provide more blithering idiocy than you previously imagined possible.

Donald Trump

Among the lunatic ramblings of this Sunday morning, one stands out for its sheer boldness in denying reality (video below). Trump’s TV lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that “Truth isn’t truth.” This flustered Todd who collapsed in laughter and noted accurately that Giuliani’s latest bumbling would lead to some “bad memes.”

But this has been the standard operating theme of the Republican Party for decades. It has only been ratcheted up to the nth degree by Trump, who’s connection to reality is considerably less than reliable. The Washington Post has documented more than 4,200 lies and misstatements by Trump. That cannot happen accidently. It is the result of a determined campaign of disinformation and political gaslighting. And Trump has explicitly confessed to telling whoppers when it’s in his own interest to do so. A few weeks ago he told his glassy-eyed cult followers that “what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” He’s convinced them that they can’t believe their own eyes and ears – only him.

Giuliani trotted this tripe to justify not allowing Trump to be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller. He said that such a meeting would be a “perjury trap.: But then Giuliani went on to demonstrate that he doesn’t know what a perjury trap is. He claimed that if Trump said that he didn’t tell James Comey to drop the Russia investigation, but Comey said that Trump did say that, Trump could be charged with perjury. That’s not rue. All that is is testimony by two different witnesses and doesn’t prove that either is lying. There would have to be further evidence that revealed that Trump gave a deliberately false statement before perjury could be alleged. Simple disagreement doesn’t meet that standard.

But Giuliani doesn’t care about standards, or ethics, or, as we now know, truth. Nor does Trump. And if you need further proof that these cretins reside in a world where lies take precedent over facts, just watch about ten minutes of Fox News, the lyingest “news” network on television and Trump’s most trusted advisors.

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

Mystery Solved: Diet Sodas Linked to Dementia – Trump Drinks 12 Per Day

There have been many psychiatric professionals who have raised the alarm about Donald Trump’s deteriorating mental state. Even his own close associates have warned that he is noticably declining in comprehension and the ability to separate fact from fiction. This can all be observed in his public appearances, as well as his manic Twitter feed.

Donald Trump

But There is a scientifically based explanation for what Trump is going through. While it may be garden variety age and succumbing to the effects of senility, it might also be what a study of diet has discovered that applies uniquelly to the President: Diet sodas may be tied to stroke, dementia risk. The researchers found that “those who drank one a day were nearly three times as likely to be diagnosed with dementia.” Donald Trump reportedly drinks twelve (12) cans of Diet Coke every day. He even has a button on his desk in the oval office to summon an aide with a hit of Coke to feed his habit.

All the signs of dementia are present to anyone who watches Trump with an open, objective mind. He exercises impaired judgment evident in his acceptance and repetition of demonstrably false statements and ideas. He has a severe loss of memory that is displayed when he frequently can’t recall positions he took, sometimes minutes prior to taking a contrary position. And he is reverting to distinctly childish behavior that consists of name-calling and infantile tantrums when he is challenged or doesn’t get his way.

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

Could this be the effect of the unusually large amount of Diet Cokes he consumes? Is it just the natural consequence of aging? Or has he always been this way and it only looks like dementia now that he’s older? Most likely all three of these explanations play at least some role in Trump’s psychopathy. But the bottom line is that someone with these obvious impairments should not be running the nation, or any other enterprise more complex than a lemonade stand. Sadly, that’s where we are today and, hopefully, it will not be for too much longer.

Trump Whines (and Lies) About Imaginary Discrimination of Conservatives on Social Media

Someone should make an official application to rename the Republican Party the Sniveling Victim Party. It seems that most of their time nowadays is spent griping about how terribly put upon they are by forces bent on destroying them. And no one exemplifies this spirit better than the party’s “Most Fabulous Whiner” (yes, he called himself that), Donald Trump.

Donald Trump

On Saturday morning’s regularly scheduled Twitter Tirade with Trump, the petulant president went on a tear over his insistence that social media is “discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices.” Never mind that he offered zero evidence of any such discrimination. In fact, all the evidence proves that this frequent complaint of carping rightists everywhere is utterly false. Nevertheless, Trump’s tweetstorm makes ludicrous allegations that were surely inspired by his Fox News viewing minutes before tweeting:


This is a totally baseless accusation that emanates from the deep recesses of paranoid minds. Trump is parroting the criticisms of wingnut icons like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and the irrepressible Demean & Sulk (aka Diamond & Silk).


Indeed, censorship is dangerous. Which is why it’s a feature of Trump’s White House where they have denied access to journalists and they refuse to release documents of critical importance to the public like his tax returns. Even his tiresome charges of “fake news” directed at CNN, MSNBC, and every other news outlet that isn’t sufficiently adoring, borders on censorship becaise its purpose is to deny an audience to those he disapproves of. As for Trump’s assertion that he doesn’t “ask that their sick behavior be removed,” that’s another lie:


Trump also banned a CNN reporter from an otherwise public event at the White House. Kaitlan Collins of CNN was told that she could not attend because she had the audacity to ask Trump some question earlier that day. It flies in the face of his latest comments about letting everybody participate:


This has a familiar ring to it. Trump is saying, once again, that there are “fine people” on all sides, just like he did when he defended neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville. What he is likely responding to is the recent banning of his buddy with the “amazing reputation,” Alex Jones, from Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. To be clear, that isn’t censorship because private companies have a right to monitor the content on their own platforms. And Jones wasn’t banned for his political views, but for inciting violence.

There is a certain irony about Trump posting his complaints about discrimination on social media, on social media. But he is just extending his campaign against media in general to new platforms. And as always, they are all aligned against him. What’s more, he knows about this because he obviously pays attention, particularly to television. Contrary to assertion that he doesn’t watch much TV, he is known to spend as much as eight hours a day doing so. And while much of that is spent hate-watching CNN and MSNBC, most of it is devoted to Fox News, Trump’s shadow cabinet and national security advisors.

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

HUH? Kellyanne Conway Asks the Press ‘Why is Everybody So Obsessed with the President?’

The key surrogates in Donald Trump’s administration are a notorious confederacy of liars and knee-jerk defenders of the indefensible. People like press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the White House communications office turned obfuscation and deflection into an art form. As result, it is almost impossible to get a straight or truthful answer from this administration on any subject of importance.

Kellyanne Conway

However, they hit a new low with what may be one of the dumbest questions ever asked by a presidential spokesperson. Kellyanne Conway stopped to respond to a few questions from the press gaggle at the White House on Friday morning. Referring to the dictator-style revocation of CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance, a reporter asked Conway as she walked away if Trump was “politically targeting his enemies.” That, of course, goes without saying. It’s something he has always done and no one could credibly deny it.

So naturally, Conway turns around and returns to the media scrum to deny it (video below). She began by saying that Brennan is a cable news pundit now who has “no interest in furthering the national security interests of this country.” That’s an absurd charge to make against someone who has spent his whole life in public service and particularly national security. She then complained about Brennan’s assertion that Trump did collude with Russia, saying that he should have told that to Congress when he testified before them. She added “It’s a great question. You oughta noodle it.” Really?

Conway, though, is ignoring two obvious noodlings that could explain it for her. First of all, much of Brennan’s testimony was in closed session and may very well have raised alarms about Trump’s nefarious associations with Russia. That cannot be made public. Secondly, there has been a lot of information uncovered since his congressional testimony more than a year ago that provides additional evidence of Trump’s guilt. Brennan’s conclusion that Trump did indeed conspire with Russian operatives to advance his candidacy is one that is shared by many in the intelligence community.

But when it comes to stupid questions, Conway offered one of the worst in replying to further questions by the press corps:

“Why is everybody so obsessed with the President of the United States that they can’t even begin or finish a sentence without mentioning his name five times. It’s kind of weird. And it’s infecting people on the news now who fancy themselves security experts.”

So Conway just asked a bunch of White House correspondents why they ask so many questions about the person it is their job to ask questions about. Weird. It’s like complaining about a waiter who keeps asking people what they’d like to order. What’s more, no one is has a greater obsession with the President than Donald Trump. He takes every opportunity to make sure that his name and face are plastered across all the media and that the nation’s attention is always focused on him.

So would Conway prefer that the press didn’t pay as much attention to him as they currently do? That would drive him even crazier. And it would surely be a disservice to the American people who rely on the press to keep them informed. But Conway’s question reflects the adversarial position that the Trump administration has with the First Amendment. They would love to deny the media – and the people – the critical information needed to sustain a free democracy. But then a free democracy is not what the wannabe dictator Trump wants.

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

Trump Suffers Brutal Senate Rebuke for Attacking the Free Press as ‘the Enemy of the People’

On Thursday there was a coordinated effort on the part of more than 350 independent newspapers to strike back at Donald Trump’s relentless and dangerous assault on the media. And it’s about time. As noted by one of the organizers, the Boston Globe, “This whole project is not anti-Trump. It’s really pro-press.”

Donald Trump

Naturally, Trump took time from his golf game to post tweets (three actually) criticising this overdue measure of self-defense and support for the First Amendment. Once again he demeaned the press by calling them the “opposition party.” Actually, that’s true. They are opposed to much of what Trump stands for: lying, corruption, racism, misogyny, and treason. And Trump’s GOP is defending all of those traits in this perverted White House.

Also on Thursday, the Senate passed by unanimous voice vote a resolution offered by Sens. Brian Schatz and Chuck Schumer. The resolution is focused directly at “affirming Congress’ support of the First Amendment and condemning attacks on the free press, which undermine the credibility of journalists and the press as a national institution.” What follows are some of the more pertinent passages from the text of the resolution:

Whereas the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States protects the press from government control and suppression;

Whereas the freedom of the press—

  1. has been recognized as integral to the democratic foundations of the United States since the beginning of the United States; and< /li>
  2. has endured and been reaffirmed repeatedly throughout the history of the United States;

[…]

Whereas tyrannical and authoritarian governments and leaders throughout history have sought to undermine, censor, suppress, and control the press to advance their undemocratic goals and actions; and

Whereas the United States, including its long-held commitment to and constitutional protection of the free press, has stood as a shining example of democracy, self-government, and freedom for the world to emulate: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, that:

The Senate –

  • affirms that the press is not the enemy of the people;
  • reaffirms the vital and indispensable role the free press serves to inform the electorate, uncover the truth, act as a check on the inherent power of the government, further national discourse and debate, and otherwise advance our most basic and cherished democratic norms and freedoms; and
  • condemns attacks on the institution of the free press and views efforts to systematically undermine the credibility of the press as a whole as an attack on our democratic institutions.

It is the sense of the Senate that it is the sworn responsibility of all who serve the United States by taking the oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States to uphold, cherish, and protect the entire Constitution, including the freedom of the press.

The fact that a resolution like this even needs to be brought up is a sad statement on the status of the United States government, and particularly the White House under Donald Trump. And its language is unambiguously aimed at Trump himself with the inclusion of the affirmation that “the press is not the enemy of the people.” Moreover, having been passed without any objections in a body controlled by Republicans is an indication that the GOP may finally be sick and tired of some of Trump’s overtly un-American tendencies.

Now if only they would see fit to challenge the President on matters like his punitive and intimidating revocation of security clearances for former intelligence officials; his assaults on the Justice Department and those conducting investigations on him; his reliance on Fox News instead of experienced national security professionals; and his predilection for lying and resorting to infantile name-calling.

And maybe, just maybe, the Congress might hold actual hearings to get to the bottom of his conspiracies with Russia and obstruction of justice. It’s their sworn duty to act as a check and balance, to hold the President accountable for misdeeds, and to offer solutions that will prevent similar problems in the future with rogue leaders and foreign attacks on America’s democracy. Is that asking too much?

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

Wild Outbursts on the Internet: Trump Takes a Swing at John Brennan, Lands the Blow on Himself

At Wednesday’s White House press briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a statement from the President announcing that he is revoking the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. This action was obviously taken today because yesterday Brennan tweeted a harsh, and well deserved, criticism of Donald Trump for his childish and racist attack on Omarosa Manigault-Newman. He chastised Trump for “fail[ing] to live up to minimum standards of decency.” Or, in other words, for being Trump.

Donald Trump Zombie

To some degree, Trump is lashing out here as a distraction from the Mueller probe and Omarosa’s book tour. But it could not be more apparent that Trump is also exacting vengeance on Brennan for having the audacity to challenge his omnipotent authority to behave like a cholicky infant. If Trump wants to call his former diversity outreach czar a dog, he should be able to so without mature adults pointing out that he’s an embarrassment to the presidency. However, the statement read by Sanders (and quite obviously not written by Dotard Trump) contained some hysterical hypocrisies and serves as evidence of how blinded Trump is by his conceit and narcissism. It began by alleging, without basis, that Brennan’s “erratic conduct” posed some unspecified risks. It continued:

“Mr. Brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations – wild outbursts on the internet and television – about this Administration. Mr. Brennan’s lying and recent conduct, characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary, is wholly inconsistent with access to the Nation’s most closely held secrets and facilitates the very aim of our adversaries, which is to sow division and chaos.”

If these remarks weren’t specifically addressed to Mr. Brennan, they could easily be mistaken for Trump’s resignation letter. Everything enumerated above describes Trump to a tee:

  • Unfounded and outrageous allegations.
  • Wild outbursts on the internet and television.
  • Lying.
  • Frenzied commentary.
  • Sow division and chaos.

Trump is finally conceding that such behavior is “wholly inconsistent” with government service. By his own standards he should immediately resign and apologize to the nation. Not only do these characteristics fit Trump perfectly, they do not in any way describe Brennan or any of his recent comments. Neither do they describe the others that Trump’s statement listed as being at risk for having their security clearances removed as well: James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.

What all of these people have in common is that they have been life-long public servants, and they have honestly spoken out about the perils presented by Trump’s ignorance, ego, and aspirations to tyranny. What Trump’s action today does is to send a threatening message to all current and former government officials that they had better not criticise this president or they will be punished, silenced, and subjected to character assassination. That’s the behavior of a third world dictator who demands unquestioning loyalty. Brennan himself summarized the danger of Trump’s heavy-handedness in a tweet Wednesday afternoon:

Well said. And hopefully Trump will be held to the standards he set in this statement by removing all those in his administration who violate them. Beginning with himself.

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

LOL: Fox News Claims to Have Found a ‘Shocking’ Anti-Trump Twitter Account (They Didn’t)

In an act of obvious desperation and fear, Donald Trump unleashed yet another Twitter tirade Tuesday morning. His primary target was what he still calls a “witch hunt” despite all the evidence, indictments, and guilty pleas. This tweetstorm consisted of eight posts, with five of them specifically referencing the former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok, and six of them citing Fox News as his source.

Fox News Lies

Needless to say, his protestations were more of the same tired complaints that he’s the victim of an evil “Deep State” cabal determined to cast him off the throne that he believes he was anointed to by God. He’s obsessed with the false notion that Strzok created the whole Russia collusion scandal in a conspiracy with Hillary Clinton, Christopher Steele (of the dossier fame), and their ringleader, life-long Republican and war hero, Robert Mueller.

Naturally, Fox News has concocted yet another defensive shield with which to protect the Trump creature they created. This time the Trump-fluffers at Fox News introduced a segment (video below) wherein they reveal that they have uncovered a “shocking” anti-Trump Twitter account in the name of Peter Strzok. Fox & Friends First hosts Heather Childers and Rob Schmitt are nearly giddy with excitement as they prattle on about their diligent reporting:

Schmitt: It might not surprise you, but there’s an anti-Trump Twitter account from fired FBI agent Peter Strzok.
Childers: That is shocking. And on it a GofundMe page looking to raise $150,000 to cover his legal costs and lost income. Many are now wondering, is this for real?

For the sake of the many who are now wondering if this is for real, the answer is – of course not. It’s Fox News.

Let’s begin with what Fox is calling Peter Strzok’s anti-Trump Twitter account. This account currently has all of two posts on it. And neither one even mentions Trump’s name in any capacity. So how the Foxies came to conclude that these tweets were anti-Trump – and even shockingly so – is a mystery.

In addition to that, Childers under-represented the success of Strzok’s GoFundMe page. It originally had a goal of $150,000, but that amount was exceeded so quickly that it was raised to $350,000. And as of this writing, it has already received donations of more than $316,000.

It looks like firing Strzok was just another blockhead move by Team Trump. They could have accepted the recommendation of the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility and suspended him for fifty days with a demotion. In which case he would be earning less, be forced into a menial position in a back office, and be prohibited from speaking out about his ordeal. But now he can cash in, be able to pursue better job opportunities, and be free to write and speak about how Trump betrayed the country. Nice work, melonheads.

No matter how Fox News might have spun this affair, they could not have made Trump and company look like anything but rank amateurs and petty seekers of vengeance. But they ended up choosing the worst of all the bad options available to them by making up a fictional story that was easier to debunk than the Wizard of Oz. They didn’t even need a little dog to pull the curtain aside. Apparently Fox just leaned on what they know best: Flagrant lying.

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

Today Trump Fired FBI Hero Peter Strzok, Then Disrespected Military Heroes by Exalting Himself

There is little doubt that Donald Trump has disgraced this nation for most his adult life. Beginning with his evasion of the draft during the Vietnam War (with five deferments for such nonsense as bone spurs), to his conspiring with Russia to interfere with a presidential election. And in between he sought only to increase his own wealth, although he failed badly at that as well (at least six bankruptcies).

Donald Trump. Defense Act

So it isn’t out of character for Trump to spend this Monday padding his resume of shame with actions that exacerbate the humiliation most Americans feel when he comes to mind. To start off, the FBI made a purely political decision today to fire special agent Peter Strzok, a man with a long record of exemplary service to his country. Whatever one thinks of his recent emails expressing his personal (and well founded) disgust with Trump, that is a small matter when juxtaposed with his two decades in the Bureau.

An internal investigation by the FBI’s Inspector General found that at no time did Strzok allow his personal opinions to affect his official duties. Nevertheless, Trump and his human shields at Fox News smeared him and demanded his head. Trump even posted some celebratory tweets following the news that Strzok was fired. For his part, Strzok behaved with restraint and honor by simply tweeting a response by his lawyer to this unfair termination, which overruled the more lenient and reasonable recommendation of the head of the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

In the meantime, Trump himself visited Fort Drum in Jefferson County, New York, to have a signing ceremony for the John S. McCain Defense Authorization Act. In a speech that dragged on for more than half an hour, Trump never mentioned McCain’s name once, and conspicuously referred to the bill as simply the Defense Authorization Act. It was a petty and deliberate insult to the veteran McCain, who Congress honored by attaching his name to the bill, and who is at home in Arizona fighting brain cancer.

Additionally, Trump took much of the credit for the bill by explicitly citing himself as having been “a big, big, part” of making it happen. He wasn’t. But he did manage to insult the troops in the audience. Referring to a recent pay hike, Trump said they didn’t really care about it and asked “Does anyone not want it?” When few raised their hands he was visibly disturbed by the rejection of his premise and asked “Are these real patriots here? What’s going on?” What’s going on is that our soldiers are already underpaid and they need more funds to support their families. They aren’t wealthy jerkwads like Trump.

What’s more, Trump turned this event into a political affair by rattling off the same old tired list of things he claims, falsely, to have accomplished. This list had nothing whatsoever to do with the defense bill or the troops at hand. Even worse, he promoted congressional Republicans who are presently embroiled in tough midterm campaigns. Obviously the only audience he was speaking to was the national one that this speech was being broadcast to in the media.

Speaking of the media, Trump found a way to work in his usual anti-free press attacks on the media in a sickly, passive-aggressive way:

“I’m so proud of myself I didn’t call them the “fake news” media. I said to myself, ‘I will not today, in front of our great Armed Forces, call them the fake news.’ We know the real truth, but we won’t say it today”

So you’ll notice that he just called the press “fake news” – TWICE – in that bit of foolishness that didn’t actually fool anyone. And what he implied would be disrespectful to the troops were he to do it, he openly did anyway. He clearly doesn’t have the self-restraint or maturity to serve as president, and hopefully there will soon be a legal correction to that unfortunate error.

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

Trump’s Omarosa Tweetstorm Reveals His Staffing Decisions Are Un-Presidential and Dangerous

Well, it’s Monday morning and “president” Donald Trump is hard at work posting petty condemnations of former White House aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman. Her new book, Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House, goes on sale today and his self-serving insults will likely boost sales and her bank account.

Donald Trump, Omarosa Manigault-Newman

Worse than Trump’s childish lashing out at someone he once considered a friend and close advisor, is what his attacks say about him and his management capabilities (or lack thereof). Here is what Trump posted to Twitter in the early morning hours when he was avoiding doing president stuff:

Note that Trump begins with another infantile nickname that has become the hallmark of his personal relationships. It’s not even an original nickname since he’s used it many times before on Tom Steyer, Rep. Frederica Wilson, Maureen Dowd, and Glenn Beck (I’ll give him credit for that last one).

But more to the point, by Trump’s own account he hired Omarosa after he previously fired her three times from his goofy TV game show. The question is why? And that’s a question he answered himself in the same tweet: because she cried. That’s a great resume item, isn’t it? Then he gave her, not a pity job, but a senior post in the White House with the top salary permitted. And it gets worse. Trump then ignored all the allegedly terrible things he heard about her and allowed her to remain on the job. Even after his Chief of Staff, John Kelly, advocated her dismissal. And his reason for clinging to her was as illogical as his reason for hiring her: she flattered him.

Then Trump tweets his acknowledgement that he’s behaving like the man-baby he is, but continues behaving that way anyhow because – well, because he’s Trump, the man-baby. It is literally impossible for him to adopt the demeanor of a mature leader because he simply doesn’t have it in him.

And finally (so far), Trump tweets about the non-disclosure agreement he makes his associates sign. So now he’s bragging about being the least transparent president in history. He’s actually proud that he’s purposefully concealing information from the American people he’s supposed to be serving. Much like his unprecedented refusal to release his tax returns despite the accumulated evidence of his financial corruption and collusion with Russia. What’s more, these NDAs are unenforceable and possibly illegal.

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

All of this points to a man who is utterly unfit to be president. He has made staffing decisions like this throughout his administration. People like Mike Flynn, Steve Bannon, Scott Pruitt, Betsy Devos, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Anthony Scaramucci, Paul Manafort, etc., are examples of the total lack of thoughtful consideration required by someone in this position. And now the Senate is supposed to take his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court seriously? Trump has always been the “king” of his (failing) business enterprises, and he thinks the White House works the same way. It doesn’t. And he’s going to find out soon enough: #MuellerTime