Month: July 2019

SO WHAT? Fox News Trump-Fluffer Read the Mueller Report and (Surprise) Found Nothing

Posted by on July 23, 2019 at 10:32 am. NO Comments :

The desperation of Donald Trump seems to be escalating with each new day and frantic tweet. This may be exacerbated by the upcoming congressional hearings featuring testimony by special counsel Robert Mueller. That has clearly been dominating what precious little comprehension capability Trump has. It has overtaken his obsession with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and “The Squad,” which he has only been exploiting as a method of distraction anyway.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Strange

On Monday Trump demonstrated just how frightened he is of the Mueller hearings. He tweeted a quote from Fox Business anchor Trish Regan that, for some bizarre reason, he thinks should settle the debate on whether Mueller found any evidence of collusion and/or obstruction of justice:

This may be one of the most supremely useless tweets Trump has ever posted. It is substantively vacant, providing no information whatsoever to support its premise. And it’s exactly the sort of biased propaganda that makes Fox News such a disreputable source for anything other than Trump happy talk.

In the segment, Regan summed up her perspective on the entire Mueller investigations saying that it was a “lousy thing to do to the American people and the President of the United States.” And her guests were equally as servile to Trump’s ego. Jenna Ellis Rives, a Trump 2020 campaign advisory board member, said that the 95 Democrats who voted to impeach Trump should all be impeached themselves. For casting votes? Pete Hegseth, of Fox and Friends, said that Democrats are hoping that Mueller will “slip up” during his congressional testimony. How? By letting the truth about Trump’s crimes slip out?

It requires a massive amount of self-delusion to conclude that there is nothing in Mueller’s report that incriminates Trump. There’s plenty. Including evidence of conspiracies by Trump and his associates with unsavory Russian characters. And Mueller enumerated at least ten instances of obstruction of justice. But most damning for Regan – and by extension, Trump – is that even some at Fox News have seen the light. You have to wonder why Trump didn’t post quote-tweets about these comments:

Bret Baier, the Chief Political Anchor on Fox News, offered his analysis after Mueller’s public statement. Baier blasted Barr’s misrepresentation of the Mueller report saying that it was more nuanced than Barr’s portrayal and “In fact, it was almost exactly the opposite.” He elaborated saying:

“I was struck by the tone and tenor of those remarks as he laid out his case wrapping up this report. This was not, as the president says time and time again, ‘no collusion, no obstruction.’ It was much more nuanced than that. […] He said specifically that if they had found that the President did not commit a crime on obstruction, they would have said that.”

Fox News Senior Legal Analyst, Andrew Napolitano, has made a number of observations that provide legal confirmation of Trump’s guilt. For instance:

“Mueller laid out at least a half-dozen crimes of obstruction committed by Trump […] The president’s job is to enforce federal law. If he had ordered its violation to save innocent life or preserve human freedom, he would have a moral defense. But ordering obstruction to save himself from the consequences of his own behavior is unlawful, defenseless and condemnable.”

And then there was this:

“While there was some evidence of collaboration between Russian agents and the Trump campaign – like 127 telephone communications between them – there was not enough evidence to establish the crime of conspiracy.” […]

“If the subject of a criminal investigation tells the people that work for him to lie to the FBI and falsify evidence so that the FBI will not find out whatever the subject does not want them to know – as Mueller said Trump did between ten and eleven times – that is obstruction of justice and it is for a corrupt purpose.”

The Chief News Anchor and Managing Editor of the Fox News breaking news division, Shepard Smith, also weighed in with remarks that undermined Trump’s attacks on the Mueller probe. Specifically, Smith pointed out that the dossier by Christopher Steele was not the tainted documented that Sean Hannity and others have tried to paint it as:

“While the U.S. intelligence community has not confirmed parts of the dossier, there are elements of it that are confirmed true. No part of it, to Fox News’ knowledge, has been confirmed false.”

Given those comments by the most senior people at Fox News, Regan’s mushy remarks seem even more absurd and obsequious. And Trump’s promotion of them is simply more proof of the narcissistic fetish that defines his warped personality. It’s a certainty that we will be seeing more of this from Fox StormTrumpers like Sean Hannity as Trump’s fortunes continue to decline. In fact, be prepared for it to get even worse as Trump’s mental state deteriorates.

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

The Fear in Trump’s Tweets is Off the Charts ‘Bonkers’ as the Mueller Hearing Looms

Posted by on July 22, 2019 at 1:43 pm. 1 Comments :

On Wednesday the Congress will finally hear from special counsel Robert Mueller. His first-hand account of the conclusions from the investigation he led should settle the debate on whether Donald Trump’s tedious mantra of “no collusion, no obstruction” has any basis in reality. What are the odds that Mueller will agree with Trump’s assessment of the probe as a “witch hunt” or a hoax?”

Donald Trump, Toilet, Bathrobe

In the runup to the hearings, Trump is behaving with a profound sense of dread. He is lashing out at critics, whining about “presidential harassment,” and reanimating insults and lies directed at Mueller, including those log-ago debunked about Mueller having had business disputes with Trump and being former FBI director James Comey’s best friend. He’s making painfully obvious attempts at distractions with harangues aimed at Democrats and bragging about his imaginary accomplishments. He’s also deploying his extraordinarily lame defense team to take up his cause in the press. Which is doing more harm to him than good.

In the latest Trump tweetstorm, he is proving that anyone who thought he had hit bottom was too optimistic. There either is no bottom for Trump, or he has a remarkable ability to keep digging. He began the morning with this wild-eyed rant:

So Trump is reviving his assault on the Washington Post which, for some reason, he keeps associating with Amazon, an online retailer that most Americans love. And naturally he calls it “fake news” only because he doesn’t like that it is reporting verifiable facts. However, this particular criticism actually boomerangs on him. He’s admitting that he either doesn’t have, or doesn’t listen to, any advisors. And he mocks his own lack of comprehension skills by deny that he reads “reams of paper” to educate himself about presidential matters. Why would he consider that a negative? Clearly he wants to avoid that anyone regard him as thoughtful and informed, which is why asks rhetorically, “does that sound like me?” No, it certainly doesn’t.

Then Trump continues with a tweet that accuses the media of being “out of control” and “bonkers.” He says they “constantly lie and cheat” and “no longer care what is right or wrong.” These, of course are classic examples of projection. They apply more accurately to him than to any of the media he is impotently targeting. And his criticism doesn’t even make sense. He’s complaining that the Democrats are trying hard to “get their views out their (sic) for all to see.” And that’s bad because…? He then follows that up with a tweet that simply repeats his tired Stalinist-inspired rant that the media is “the Enemy of the People!” And finally he gets to the root of his nightmares:

Trump is still afraid to let the American people learn about his potentially treasonous associations with Russia during his campaign and into his presidency. That’s odd considering he insists that Mueller’s report “totally exonerated” him. You would think he would be thrilled to have Mueller tell that story to the public. You might also think he’d tire of his perverse fetish with Hillary Clinton, her emails, and the outright lies about Strzok and Page.

The truth, however, is that the Mueller report did find evidence of conspiracy with Russia and multiple instances of obstruction of justice. No matter how many times he says otherwise, he can’t erase the facts. Even the chief political anchor at Fox News, Bret Baier, said that “This was not, as the president says time and time again, ‘no collusion, no obstruction.’” And Fox’s Senior Legal Analyst, Andrew Napolitano, said that “Mueller laid out at least a half-dozen crimes of obstruction committed by Trump [and that] ordering obstruction to save himself from the consequences of his own behavior is unlawful, defenseless and condemnable.”

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

That’s why Trump is afraid and flailing with distractions, lies, frothing diatribes, and the desperate embrace of Fox News and other fawning sycophants. He knows what he did. And he knows what the consequences will be when everyone else knows. So he has to shut down any dissent or disagreement with his cult-approved narrative. But unfortunately for Trump, the only people buying this are his Deplorables. The rest of the country is getting closer to demanding impeachment every day.

Trump Flack Giuliani: Mueller Shouldn’t Testify Before Congress Because – Total Exoneration?

Posted by on July 21, 2019 at 10:23 am. 3 Comments :

This coming Wednesday, special counsel Robert Mueller will be testifying before Congress in an effort to bring some clarity to the report that was released three months ago. These hearings are essential for the public to have a complete understanding of Donald Trump’s crimes, particularly considering the flagrantly deceptive summaries and commentaries on the matter by Trump’s lapdog at the Justice Department, William Barr.

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump

So naturally Trump and his team of dissemblers is mounting another crusade to prevent the people from learning the truth. His attorney, Rudy Giuliani made the media circuit on Sunday to argue that Mueller should not testify at all:

“‘He shouldn’t really [testify]. He already put out his report. He made his 10-minute statement and then said he wasn’t going to talk about it anymore because it’s not proper,’ Giuliani said Sunday on John Catsimatidis’s radio show, referring to a press conference Mueller gave on his report that he said would be his final word on his two-year probe.

“‘But somebody must’ve persuaded him that he should comment some more. He’s already commented more than any prosecutor has ever commented about a case he didn’t bring.'”

This is a brazenly fear-based attempt to muzzle Mueller. Which is peculiar since Trump has said repeatedly that the special counsel’s report “totally exonerated” him. You have to wonder why Trump is so scared of these hearings that, according to him, would prove his innocence. He even said that Mueller had acted honorably.

Giuliani’s remarks are also packed with lies. While Mueller was reluctant to testify, he never said that it would improper. And he was not “persuaded” to comment. He was subpoenaed. And the notion that he’s commented more than any other prosecutor is simply ludicrous. Every other special counsel has testified to Congress following their investigations.

Of course, Trump has also lashed out at Mueller as a corrupt, conflicted pawn of angry Democrats. He literally can’t keep his stories on Mueller straight. At times he is consumed by a panicky fear of Mueller that manifests itself in crazed tweetstorms wherein he has insisted that Mueller should not testify before Congress. He even went so far as to whine that Congress “has no right” to see the Mueller report at all.

Giuliani’s position is nothing new. Not only has he said this before, Republicans in Congress have actually argued against their own right to interview Mueller. And their constituents, mainly consisting of Trump Deplorables, also expressed their opposition to releasing the full Mueller report. They are, in effect, advocating to remain ignorant. And they are doing a damn good job of that.

There’s a reason that Trump, and Giuliani, and the Deplorables are so frightened. The Mueller report contains abundant evidence of Trump’s guilt. Although it found “insufficient evidence” to bring charges against Trump, that’s very different than finding no evidence. Also, Mueller explicitly declined to clear the president of any wrongdoing over allegations of obstruction of justice, for which he cited ten instances. What’s more, Mueller said in his report that he couldn’t indict Trump due to a dubious Justice Department memo advising against indicting a sitting president. That memo is not law and has never been tested in court.

Finally, Trump’s dread of Mueller, and what he might say, is surely exacerbated by the fact that even some of his confederates at Fox News see guilt in the Mueller report. Fox’s Senior Legal Analyst, Andrew Napolitano, said that “If the subject of a criminal investigation tells the people that work for him to lie to the FBI and falsify evidence … that is obstruction of justice and it is for a corrupt purpose.” On another occasion, Napolitano said that “ordering obstruction to save himself from the consequences of his own behavior is unlawful, defenseless and condemnable.” And Giuliano is utterly incapable of countering these conclusions with his weak, lame, and frantic cry that Mueller be barred from congressional testimony. It’s an a position that is both dishonest and desperate. And it’s all they’ve got.

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

BIG NOPE! Trump Posts Fox News Video Claiming that ‘He’s Delivered on All of His Promises’

Posted by on July 20, 2019 at 12:41 pm. 5 Comments :

The 2020 presidential election has begun in earnest with the first Democratic primary debate done and the second a little over a week away. On the Republican side the primary is being aggressively ignored despite the presence of a credible opponent to Donald Donald, former Massachusetts governor William Weld. But Trump himself is fully engaged in his battle to win reelection.

Donald Trump

There is nothing Trump likes better than campaigning. He prefers it over being president so much that he has never stopped doing it. He has held sixty-four (64!) of his campaign cult rallies so far, with the latest being his “Send Her Back” racist extravaganza last week in North Carolina. That works out to about one rally every two weeks. Add that to his time spent golfing, tweeting, and watching Fox News and you have to wonder how he has any time for presidenting. Which may be a blessing.

On Saturday morning Trump continued his campaign crusade by posting a video on Twitter of his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, cheerleading for Eric’s daddy and commending his alleged list of accomplishments. She says, without a hint of shame, that “He’s delivered on all of his promises.” There’s just one small problem. That list is a long scroll of blankness, unless you’re counting all the examples of harm Trump has thrust upon the nation. Let’s take a look at what Lara said, and what her sugar-daddy-in-law thinks is proof of his success.

PolitiFact keeps a running tally of the status of Trump’s campaign promises. They currently show that only 16 percent are graded as “Promises Kept.” The other 84 percent are distributed between “Compromise, Broken, Stalled,” or “In the Works.” That is hardly a record that anyone should be proud of.

What’s more, of the top five promises Trump has made, he has achieved precisely ZERO!. They include his failed promise to repeal Obamacare. While he has managed to cut into its effectiveness with executive orders that hurt millions of Americans, he has repeatedly fallen short in Congress and many of his executive orders were overturned by the courts.

Then there is his pledge to build a wall along the southern border and make Mexico pay for it. With his term more than half way over there is still no wall and nothing but ridicule from Mexico. Instead, Trump has been trying desperately to build a fence and make the American people pay for it.

He also promised to suspend immigration from terror-prone places. On that item he did push through an abhorrent and discriminatory ban on Muslim refugees. But he left many countries that are known to harbor terrorists off of the list. For instance, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. And since there weren’t any terrorists coming into the U.S. from the countries he listed, the only thing he accomplished was to prohibit legitimate refugees from seeking safety from terrorists.

Trump also said that he would cut taxes for everyone. Had he said “everyone who is wealthy or a corporation,” he might have been able to claim this one as a success. Instead, the fact is that most Americans did not get a tax cut, and many got increases. Which makes this just another Trump failure.

Finally, Trump promised to lower the business tax rate to 15 percent. However, he only got it down to 21 percent, which was still bad enough to produce a trillion dollar increase in the national debt. And it did nothing to benefit the workers at those companies.

Those are just the top five promises that Trump made. There are many more that he enumerated in his “Contract with the American Voter.” And with a few exceptions, those were mostly unfulfilled as well.

What Trump has succeeded in is dividing the nation, emboldening racist hate groups, cozying up to foreign dictators, fouling the planet, appointing corrupt government officials, suppressing voters, and advancing an economy that works only for corporations and the rich, while average Americans struggle. Congratulations, Donnie. You’ve delivered on all of your promises to your wealthy friends and foreign tyrants.

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

Pro-Trump Fox News Guest Inadvertently Affirms that Trump has Been a Racist All His Life

Posted by on July 19, 2019 at 2:50 pm. 2 Comments :

Ordinarily Donald Trump’s nauseating scandals are quickly pushed out of the ever-shortening news cycle by even worse scandals. It’s a tactic that Trump has studiously employed from the start of his scandal-riddled administration. But the recent ruckus created by his brazenly racist comments about four Democratic congresswomen of color has had real staying power. Mostly because of Trump’s foolishness and flip-flopping.

Donald Trump

The righteous criticism that Trump has received for telling American citizens to “go back” where they came from continues to be a top story. After he tweeted his insults, he presided over one of his cult rallies where the audience chanted “Send he back.” The next day Trump tried to disown those chants by lying about how they started and what his response was. The day after that he tried to disavow his disavowal. Probably because he didn’t want to be seen as disparaging his followers. After all, a recent poll shows that the more racist Trump is, the more Republicans love him.

Throughout this controversy, Trump has been defended by his Republican confederates and the StormTrumping pundits on Fox News. And on Friday he got a testimonial that may not be all that complimentary. Radical Christianist Mike Huckabee (father of former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders) was interviewed by Fox’s Heather Childers when the subject of Trump’s racism was broached. Huckabee’s perverse defense was that…

“If Donald Trump had been a racist all these years, don’t you think it would have come out somewhere in the life that he’s lived which has been about as public as any elected official has ever lived. And the fact is, a person doesn’t just suddenly become a racist at the age of 72, having not been one up until that point.”

That’s exactly right. And what a surprising morsel of insight from such a noxious Trump-fluffing shill. It would be extremely unlikely for a 72 year old like Trump to turn into a flaming bigot overnight. There would have to have been some evidence of it earlier. So what Huckabee is saying is that if Trump was not a racist before, than he isn’t one now. Well, let’s take a look at Trump’s very public life to see for ourselves:

  • He had a strict “no colored people” policy in his apartment buildings.
  • He advocated the death penalty for the Central Park 5, even after they had been found innocent.
  • He told business associates that he didn’t want any black accountants.
  • He was an avid Birther (believing that Obama was not an American).
  • He refused to renounce KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.
  • He said there “fine people on both sides” of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.
  • He imposed a ban on Muslim immigrants.
  • He said that a Latino judge could not be neutral.
  • He called black athletes “sons of bitches.”
  • He labeled Haiti and Africa as “shithole countries.”

That isn’t even a comprehensive list. There are many other examples of Trump’s flagrant bigotry. He has indeed lived a life of personal and professional bias against black and brown people. And the history of that life is confirmation of Huckabee’s assertion Trump did not suddenly become a racist. He has been one for decades. And he follows in the footsteps of his father who attended Klan rallies in New York. This surely was not Huckabee’s point, but it tells the real story of Donald Trump’s long-festering racism.

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

Trump Disavows ‘Send Her Back’ Chant, Throws His Rally Cultists and Fox News Under the Bus

Posted by on July 18, 2019 at 1:05 pm. 5 Comments :

In the topsy turvy world of Donald Trump’s disease riddled brain, we now have another example of the President failing to maintain a coherent thought for more than a few hours. Last Sunday Trump set loose a pack of racist diatribes aimed at four Democratic congresswomen of color, telling them to “go back” where they came from. Everyone with a functioning cerebral cortex knows that’s a well worn racial assault on minorities and immigrants.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Fake

The blowback from his abhorrent comments was swift and broad based. Trump seemed to be stunned by the criticism of what he thought it was a perfectly fine thing to say. He surely considered it a positive step in advancing his political prospects. And since a subsequent poll showed that his approval among Republicans increased, he was right, albeit in a very limited, partisan way. It also showed that the more racist you are, the more Republicans will like you.

However, the near universal condemnation of his remarks must have stung. Trump later rattled off a frantic flurry of tweets defending himself for these bigoted screeds. But rather than mitigating the harm, he only succeeded in extending the scandal. And when it erupted into a full-blown, neo-Nazi style chorus of hatred at his cult rally in North Carolina, he was finally worn down and now seems to have had a change of what’s left of his heart. Which lead to this exchange with the press on Thursday morning (video below):

Reporter: When your supporters were shouting, chanting “send her back,” why didn’t you stop them?
Trump: Well, number one, I think I did. I started speaking very quickly. It was really a loud – I disagree with it by the way – but it was quite a chant. I felt a little bit badly about it. But I will say this…and I did, I started speaking very quickly. But it started up rather fast, as you probably know. […] I was not happy with it. I disagree with it. But, again, I didn’t say that, they did.

First of all, Trump did not try to stop the chanting in any way. He expressly allowed it to simmer to a boil for fifteen seconds before he returned to the mic to continue his speech. He said nothing at all about the bigoted sloganeering he just witnessed.

Secondly, his emotional outpouring of empathy consisted of a rather weak statement that “I felt a little bit badly about it” (such a snowflake). And he dismisses any responsibility for the chanting because “it started up rather fast” and was, therefore, totally out of his control. It was those rowdy rally goers who were saying those despicable things, not him. He after, all, disagreed with it. Or so he says now.

And therein lies the most peculiar part of this commentary. Trump is blaming his cult followers for the loathsome harangue that erupted. It’s all their fault. You have to wonder what they are thinking now that he has accused them of being a racist mob.

Likewise, Trump’s legions of defenders on Fox News had jumped into the fray immediately upon hearing the chant, which they all thought was just awesome. But now their excuses have been cast aside. They spent most of Wednesday night scrubbing Trump clean and praising his speech and the enthusiasm he stirred in his audience. What will they say now that he is distancing himself from the whole affair that in retrospect is being portrayed as ugly?

The reporter that asked Trump about the chant challenged Trump’s sidestepping, noting that the crowd was “echoing what you said in your first tweet.” Trump replied that “I don’t think if you examine it, I don’t think you’ll find that.” So for the record, let’s examine it. What Trump tweeted was “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Those places, of course, are New York, Michigan, Ohio, and Minnesota.

So Trump’s flailing attempt to extricate himself from this is just another self-serving, finger-pointing, barrage of lies. But this time he’s throwing his own rally goers and his confederates at Fox News under his wildly careening bus. Which should serve as an object lesson for Trump followers: In the end he will betray anyone and everyone, no matter how devoted they were, if he sees that it’s in his interest to do so. You’ve been warned.

UPDATE: And as expected, Trump is now disavowing his disavowal. He really is brain damaged.

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

GOP Approval for Trump Rises AFTER Racist Tweets – Tells You Something About the GOP

Posted by on July 17, 2019 at 12:04 pm. 5 Comments :

From the very first day Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, he established his credentials as the Republican Party’s foremost spokesman for white nationalism and the racist hate groups who rallied to his campaign. And trump hasn’t been shy about his gratitude for their support. This week he even told a Fox News reporter that he isn’t concerned that white nationalists are “finding common cause” with his racist remarks.

Donald Trump, MAGA

Following Trump’s brazenly bigoted Twitter rants against Democratic women of color, there has been a deafening silence from his GOP colleagues. They are either too scared to take the ethical road and condemn Trump’s racism, or they agree with it. And now there is a new Reuters poll that really tells us all we need to know about today’s Republican Nationalist Party:

“Support for U.S. President Donald Trump increased slightly among Republicans after he lashed out on Twitter over the weekend in a racially charged attack on four minority Democratic congresswomen, a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll shows. […] his net approval among members of his Republican Party rose by 5 percentage points.”

There you have it. Trump may be an avowed white supremacist, but his public utterances affirming that are clearly a deliberate strategy to appeal the members of his party who are lapping it up. They like him even more when he’s articulating overtly racist messages. That can only serve to incite ever more repugnant hate speech from the President and his Klannish confederates.

For contrast, approval from Democrats and independents both declined in the poll. And a separate poll from USA Today confirmed these findings. It showed that overall large majorities of 59 percent of voters called Trump’s tweets “un-American.” And 68 percent said they were “offensive.” But a majority of 57 percent of Republicans said they agreed with Trump’s racist tweets.

Contrary to the disgust by most Americans for Trump’s racism, he continues to dig himself deeper into the abyss of blatant bigotry. On Wednesday morning he quote-tweeted a Fox News commentary by GOP Sen. John Kennedy, who said that “the four horsewomen of the apocalypse” are “Wack Jobs.” And somehow Trump thought that would help his argument that he isn’t a racist scumbucket. He also tweeted a poll of his own to bolster his lagging defense:

First of all, let’s not ignore that Trump is once again maligning four women of color, who were elected to represent their districts, with his obviously sarcastic thanks to “the vicious young Socialist Congresswomen.” It’s part of his reelection strategy to fire up his Deplorable base by dehumanizing his critics.

As for Rasmussen, it is a thoroughly disgraced, right-wing purveyor of deliberately slanted surveys. Nevertheless, Trump posts a similar tweet every time Rasmussen puts Trump at 50 percent. Never mind that the same poll also shows Trump with a negative “approval index” wherein his strong disapproval always exceeds his strong approval. What’s more, whenever Rasmussen hits 50 percent for Trump, it only lasts a few days before he is once again in negative territory. And this is with the most Trump-friendly pollster on the planet.

So Trump is caught in an endless loop where Rasmussen puts him at around 47 percent, then he pops to 50 and Trump squeezes out a tweet. Then he drops to the mid forties again. Then he spikes back to 50 triggering another tweet. This has happened at least fourteen times just this year. You have to wonder if this is a strategy on Rasmussen’s part to give Trump some phony survey data to brag about.

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

Although, it hardly seems worthy af bragging when Trump can’t even manage to get half the nation to approve of him for more than a day or two in a notoriously pro-Trump poll (most polls have him in the low forties). And it is downright disastrous when Trump’s Republican Party support goes up after he spends several days ranting like the Klan’s Grand Wizard. But that should inform America’s voters that the problem isn’t just Trump. It’s the entire GOP. And in 2020, all of them need to be exorcised from our local and national governments.

On Fox News Kellyanne Conway Calls Democrats a ‘Dark Underbelly’ Who ‘Pal Around with Terrorists’

Posted by on July 16, 2019 at 11:17 am. 2 Comments :

The obvious and nauseating bigotry of Donald Trump has been erupting like a flaming volcano of racism for several days now. The latest Vesuvial blast began with Trump’s heinous demands that a group of four congressional women of color should “go back” to where they came from. Never mind that they are all U.S. citizens, three of whom were born here. He further disparaged these elected representatives and proud Americans as communists who hate the country.

Kellyanne Conway, Fox News

On Tuesday morning Trump responded to the near unanimous condemnation of his hate speech by unleashing one of his typical tweetstorms, doubling down on his abhorrent “love it or leave it” diatribe. He posted seven tweets on this subject alone, exposing how desperately afraid he is and driven to malign anyone who dares to criticize him. He even whined about a proposed bill of censure in congress to denounce his loathsome remarks.

Remember, this is a President who, when asked if he was concerned that white nationalists find common cause with his comments, he replied, “It doesn’t concern me at all because many people agree with me.” He’s right. A lot of white nationalists do agree with him. They are, in fact, his base.

Also on Tuesday morning Trump’s Senior White House Counselor, Kellyanne Conway, managed to make matters even worse. She was “interviewed” on Fox News (video below) where she performed her famous filibuster routine, refusing to allow even the friendly Trump-fluffers of Fox to get a word in. And in this harangue, Conway let loose some more racist dog whistles to earn the affection of Trump and his Deplorables. Referring to the four Democratic women known as “The Squad,” Conway said that…

“They represent a dark underbelly in this country […] We’re tired of some of these women palling around with terrorists.”

The audacity of these people is shocking. Conway had no reservations whatsoever about highlighting the “darkness” of the critics she was so intent on vilifying and dehumanizing. And her reckless accusation of an imaginary terrorist affiliation is the sort of thing generally reserved for fascist propagandists. It is also a retread of Sarah Palin’s slanderous yelping at President Obama. The Fox News hosts didn’t react or follow up on these sick statements at all. Of course, Trump said much the same thing yesterday when he explicitly – and falsely – asserted that Rep. Ilhan Omar expressed pro-Al Qaeda sentiments. But Conway wasn’t finished with her crusade of defamation. She defended Trump’s racist tweet tantrum saying that…

“The President explained what he meant by those. The President explained that if you don’t like it here get out. That, by the way, goes way beyond these four people. That goes to everybody who’s tearing down the American flag and putting up the Mexican flag.”

How does that make anything better? Conway merely expanded the scope of her racism to include even more people. And she did it with a straw man argument that has no basis in reality. None of the Democrats she and Trump have been attacking have ever torn down an American flag or replaced it with any other. She fundamentally misunderstands the principle that dissent is patriotic in a healthy democracy. Trump also doesn’t get it, even though his past is one of unrelenting dissent and disparagement of America. He even called it a “Hell Hole” during his campaign.

Kellyanne might learn something from her husband George Conway, who wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post aptly titled “Trump is a Racist President.” But it is totally implausible that she would grasp the insight her husband is offering. Nevertheless, Conway did hit on a moment of truth during this segment when she complained that “People are analogizing a red hat to a swastika.” However, she utterly missed the fact that this analogy is only being put forth because of how accurate it is.

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

Made in America? Trump Uses White House Farce to Lie and Embrace White Nationalists

Posted by on July 15, 2019 at 4:05 pm. 2 Comments :

On Monday morning Donald Trump hosted a “Made in America” charade at the White House that was intended to celebrate domestic manufacturers, workers, and products. What makes this especially absurd is that Trump himself has his own merchandise made primarily in China and other foreign countries. What’s more, he also buys most of the materials and furnishings for his properties from abroad and hires many foreign workers to staff his resorts and commercial buildings.

Trump Charlotsville

Setting aside the hypocrisy of Trump hosting this affair, there were other problems that interfered with its intended goals. Specifically, Trump couldn’t resist spewing the sort of hate speech that is the hallmark of his presidency. So, ignoring the gathered businesses, Trump held an impromptu press conference to exalt himself and double down on his purposefully racist tweets from the day before.

It seemed like Trump had hit rock bottom when he told several congresswomen that they should “go back” where they came from. Never mind that they came from the U.S. by birth or naturalization. What we need to remember is that there is no bottom with Trump. And this was demonstrated today when he addressed the media. His comments were typical of the long-winded, rambling verbal diarrhea that he is famous for.

However, he sunk to new depths of hostility and division that were painful to endure. For most of the time he focused on Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali-America who represents Minnesota’s 5th congressional district. She was also one of the four congressional women of color that Trump attacked viciously the day before. But today he went even further (video below):

“I’m watching them. All they do is complain. So all I’m saying is if they wanna leave they can leave. They can leave. I mean, I look at the one, I look at Omar. I don’t know, I never met her. I hear the way she talks about Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda has killed many Americans. She said you can hold your chest out. ‘When I think of America…huh. When I think of Al Qaeda I can hold my chest out.'”

So after repeating his bigoted remarks from yesterday, Trump explicitly asserted that Omar expressed pro-Al Qaeda and anti-American sentiments. That would be profoundly disturbing if it had actually happened. It absolutely did not. So how did Trump come to utter this repugnant lie about an elected member of Congress? It appears he got it from one of his Twitter followers (The Reagan Battalion) who he has retweeted before. This twit posted a video that he falsely claimed showed Omar being supportive of Al Qaeda. It was, in fact, quite the opposite.

In the video Omar is discussing a professor who would gesture with his shoulders whenever he used words like “Al Qaeda” to emphasize the reference. It was his gestures, not hers. And the gestures were not even supportive. But at no time in the full video did she ever say that she holds her chest out when thinking of Al Qaeda. That was an invention totally attributable to Trump’s deranged imagination. Which was further on display as he later told this lie about Omar to the press :

“When she talked about the World Trade Center being knocked down and ‘some people.’ You remember the famous ‘some people’? These are people that in my opinion hate our country. […] These are people that hate our country. They hate our country. They hate it, I think, with a passion.”

This is another example of Trump deliberately misrepresenting what was said. Here Omar was simply criticising people whose reaction to 9/11 was to cast blame on all Muslims. Her reference to “some people” was to draw a distinction between the terrorists and every other peace-loving Muslim who repudiated their vile actions. Trump went on to lie some more about Omar saying that she “hates Israel” and “hates Jews” and repeated the lie that she spoke about “how great Al Qaeda is.”

In the eleven minutes that Trump spent with the media, he exhibited one the signs of his rapidly progressing dementia. He repeats the same things over and over. During this avail he said of the Democratic congresswomen that “If they don’t like it here they can leave” ten times. He also said that “They hate America” six times. It was festival of rancorous bluster that served no purpose other than spreading hatred. But perhaps the most troubling exchange happened when Trump was asked this question:

John Roberts, Fox News: Does it concern you that many people saw that tweet as racist, and that white nationalist groups are finding common cause with you on that point?
Trump: It doesn’t concern me at all because many people agree with me.

So Trump isn’t concerned that white nationalists are embracing him because – well – because there are many white nationalists embracing him. That surely provides him much comfort when he’s trying to decide what racist tropes he’ll disseminate next. At least he knows that he has the support of America’s neo-Nazis and Klan organizations. He must be so proud. And just think…it’s all made in America.

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

Hate Screech: Trump Tells U.S. Born Democratic Congresswomen to ‘Go Back Where You Came From’

Posted by on July 14, 2019 at 11:31 am. 8 Comments :

On his regularly scheduled Sunday Morning Tweetstorm, Donald Trump affirmed his devout racism by attacking four Democratic representatives who also just happen to be women of color. Trump’s tweets are so abhorrent that even his own administration refused to defend the blatantly bigoted remarks. But Trump’s hatefulness extends even beyond the racism aimed at political foes.

Donald Trump, Klan Leader

In the series of tweets that Trump posted, he managed to include an array of hate messages that are, sadly, typical, of his public comments. He tweeted that:

The representatives Trump is targeting are Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Although he is too afraid to actually mention their names. And it’s inescapable that his comments were directed exclusively to “Progressive Democrat Congresswomen.” So he is not only exposing his festering bigotry, he is also displaying the misogyny that has long been a part of his repugnant character. It is what leads to his abuse of women and his friendships with other abusers (i.e. Jeffrey Epstein, Roger Ailes, and Bill O’Reilly).

What’s more, Trump is maligning the countries that he is telling these women to go back to. He calls them “the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world” and “totally broken and crime infested.” It’s reminiscent of his blanket disparagement of what he called “shithole countries” last year.

The unmistakable signals that Trump is sending to his white nationalist base is disgusting and intolerable. But it’s made all the worse by his ignorance. Three of the four representatives Trump targeted for this harassment were actually born in the U.S. So Trump’s attack is based solely on his stereotyping of them by the color of their skin. It’s notable that he never made any such demands of Republican representatives who really are foreign born (Dan Crenshaw: UK; Mark Meadows: France; David Rouzer: Germany; Ted Cruz: Canada). Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they are all men from predominantly white, Eurocentric countries.

In addition to these tweets that call for banishing Democratic women of color, Trump also posted a frantic flurry of twenty-one (21!) tributes, by mostly random and anonymous tweeters, to an utterly phony “movement” aimed at persuading African-Americans to “walkaway” from the Democratic Party. It’s part of the broader “Blexit” fraud that Fox News has pushed.

The white-wing of the GOP really thinks that African-Americans are stupid enough to ignore hateful diatribes like the ones Trump just posted, and join the party of oppression and white supremacy. And Trump is so demented that he believes that promoting the racist walkaway scam, in the same barrage of tweets where he insults congressional women of color, is a winning strategy to advance black acceptance of the GOP. This only confirms the many diagnoses of Trump as a sociopathic narcissist who is unfit to serve.

And for those who were curious, Fox and Friends thought it was funny:

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