Month: October 2019

NOTE TO MEDIA: Stop Airing These Psychotic Trump Lie-Fests Without Fact-Checking

Posted by on October 21, 2019 at 3:39 pm. 5 Comments :

This is really getting tiresome. During the 2016 campaign, all of the cable news networks would air Trump’s stump speeches live and uninterrupted. They wouldn’t do the same for any other candidate. And after the election CNN and MSNBC admitted that it was a mistake. There were too many falsehoods being spread without proper journalistic scrutiny.

Donald Trump

Fox News, of course, has continued to faithfully air everything Leader Trump does as it happens and rarely provides any context or corrections, even after Trump is done. That’s something we can expect from Fox News as it is their corporate mission to advance the Trump Cult. But CNN and MSNBC had been behaving more responsibly in the months following the election.

However, if Monday is any indication, CNN and MSNBC are backsliding. They both aired Monday morning’s complete Trump Cabinet meeting that was rife with lies and myths and Trumpian insults. It is a disservice to the American people to shove this dishonest blather down the throats of news consumers and it’s long past time for these networks to put an end to it. Here is just a taste of the preposterous ramblings of Trump this morning:

  • Trump said that he has great respect for ambassadors that he also said he’s never heard of.
  • Referring to ISIS, Trump said that “I’m the one that did the capturing.”
  • Trump mangled the Constitution, complaining about what he called the “phony Emoluments Clause.”
  • Trump said that he gives away his presidential salary that is close to $450,000. It’s exactly $400,000.
  • Trump accused President Obama of violating the emoluments clause by striking book and movie deals. Which he didn’t do until after he left office.

Along with the nonsense above, Trump crammed several ludicrous remarks into a concise segment of his rant (video below). He began by praising himself for allegedly losing 2-5 billion dollars due to his having to suffer through being president. But not to worry because he went on to say that “I don’t care. If you’re rich it doesn’t matter. I’m doing this for the country, I’m doing it for the people.” Really? Then why does actually helping the country by paying a few dollars more in taxes matter? If it really didn’t matter, Trump wouldn’t have pushed through tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. and he wouldn’t be funneling money to his own real estate properties every time he stays at one of his resorts. And he certainly wouldn’t have tried to book the 2020 G7 summit at his Doral golf club in Miami – a scam that blew up in his face.

Trump went on to brag about what he said are “my best poll numbers.” Nevermind that he is at or near the lows of his presidency with the average of polls at about 42 percent approval. Even the wildly biased Rasmussen, has Trump dropping to 45 percent, within a point of his low for the year by his favorite pollster. Then he launched into a rabid dog rant aimed at his congressional foes:

“I have my best polls now. I think it’s because people think it’s terrible what they’re doing. Pelosi, Shifty Schiff, Schumer, these people are trying to destroy the country. It’s a very bad thing what they’re doing. The President of the United States should be allowed to run the country, not have to focus on this kind of crap.

Trump has been accusing Pelosi, Schiff, and Schumer of treason for months simply because they are pursuing remedies for Trump’s political poison that are written into the Constitution, a document he has either never read, or can’t understand. And proof of that is his assertion that he “should be allowed to run the country” as if he were an unimpeded dictator.

It is episodes of derangement like these that make it necessary for the media to refrain from blasting out Trump’s hysterical bluster. It creates needless anxiety along with the misinformation that Trump intends to spread. It harms both the public and the press. It serves no purpose other than the propaganda mission of the White House and the Republican Nationalist Party. And it must end if we are ever to get this nation back on an even keel.

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

Majority of Fox News Viewing Republicans: Trump Can Do Nothing To Lose Our Support

Posted by on October 21, 2019 at 1:17 pm. 5 Comments :

Most recent polls show Donald Trump at or near the lows of his presidency with the average of polls at about 42 percent approval. Even his favorite pollster, the wildly biased Rasmussen, has Trump dropping to 45 percent, within a point of his low for the year. But that didn’t stop Trump from lying today that “I have my best polls now.” And his most devoted disciples are hungrily slopping up his warped, narcissistic view of reality.

Donald Trump Messiah

The biggest reason for Trump’s small but fervent cult of worshipers has always been the propaganda disseminated by his State TV network, Fox News. And now there is yet another survey that confirms just how destructive Fox has been in deceiving their viewers. PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute) is “a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research at the intersection of religion, values, and public life.” They just published their findings that show just how extreme the Fox audience is compared to the rest of the nation. But even more disturbing is the comparison between Republicans who cite Fox as their primary news source and those who don’t. For instance:

“A majority (55%) of Republicans for whom Fox News is their primary news source say there is nothing Trump could do to lose their approval, compared to only 29% of Republicans who do not cite Fox News as their primary news source.” That’s a 26 point difference.

“Virtually all Republican white evangelical Protestants (99%) and Republicans who say Fox News is their primary source of news (98%) oppose Trump being impeached and removed from office.” The public at large favors impeachment and removal by 52 percent.

“A majority of Republicans think men are punished just for being men (53%) and that society as a whole has become too soft and feminine (65%), compared to only around one in four Democrats (23% and 26%, respectively). More Republicans who cite Fox News as their primary source of news agree that society punishes men just of being men (68%) and that society has become too feminine (73%).”

“More than three-quarters of Republicans who rely on Fox News as their primary news source agree that whites face discrimination similar to black racism (77%) and that immigrants are invading the country (78%), compared to smaller majorities of Republicans who do not say Fox News is their primary news source (63% and 52%).”

In each of these cases the Republicans who feast on the Fox News fare are significantly more extremist in their views and more radically ill-informed. The correlation between harboring hyper-conservative views and watching Fox News is impossible to dismiss. And it reveals just how polarizing the network has been as it seeks to divide the nation. But you have to wonder if the Fox brass consider it a success that a majority of their Republican viewers say there is nothing Trump could do to lose their approval.

Nothing? Rape? Treason? Well, we already know the answer to those questions because Trump has been credibly accused of sexual assault by several women. And his unsavory relations with Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, China, and North Korea, along with his breaches of the Constitution, demonstrate his hostility to America and American principles.

Still, Trump’s Fox News watching Republican disciples worship him unquestioningly. And it’s no coincidence that they are being told to do so daily by the Trump-fluffers on Fox News. So this poll is merely an affirmation of the result of that brainwashing. And it’s very likely going to get worse before it gets better. Because neither Fox nor Trump care about the harm they are doing to the nation.

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

Trump’s Retreat on Hosting the G7 at Doral Exposes His Inherent Corruption and Weakness

Posted by on October 20, 2019 at 10:44 am. 6 Comments :

One of the key characteristics that Donald Trump has tried hard to impress on the public is that he is a strong man (a strongman?) who will not bend to pressure. To that end he doubles and triples down on his most ludicrous rhetoric and policies, he refuses to ever concede that he’s wrong, and he hails is own wisdom and superiority over virtually everyone. But that conceit often ends up with Trump drowning in his own flop sweat.

Donald Trump Sweating

Returning to reality, Trump’s actual record paints a picture of a much weaker man with barely any observable conviction to anything. He reverses himself regularly, sometimes in the space of a single sentence, denying something he just finished saying. And the controversy over his recent decision to line his own pockets by hosting the 2020 G7 summit at his own bedbug infested Doral golf resort is another example of the fallacies embedded in his wholly manufactured persona.

Less than a week ago, Trump sent his Chief of Shill, Mick Mulvaney, out to announce and defend Trump’s intention to violate the Constitution by directing business to his own property and collect payments from foreign governments. It didn’t go well. Mulvaney was grilled by reporters who understood that what he was proposing was illegal. And the pushback from both politicians and the press was immediate and brutal. Consequently, Trump flip-flopped and declared that Doral would not be the site for the next G7 meeting.

Trump made this U-turn on Twitter (of course) in an historic 3-tweet retreat. And what it told us about him is significant and troubling.

First of all, while Trump will gladly take credit for anything he regards as positive, even when he’s had nothing to do with it, he is notably unable to take responsibility for any of his own failures. So he cast this G7/Doral debacle as being the fault of “Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility.” If you take him at his word (never a smart move), there’s a notable confession in that blame-letting. He is ostensibly admitting that he had to back down because the media and the Democrats are stronger than he is. That’s not the image that he generally pretends to put forward.

In reality, Trump caved because his nannies were able to convince him that openly breaching constitutional law isn’t a good idea, especially when you’re being impeached. Trump didn’t bow to the media or the Democrats. He bowed to Fox News, his motley crue of lawyers, and his fellow Republicans, who were in open revolt on this as well as Trump’s disasters in Syria and Ukraine. They all surely told him that he’d lose this battle so he abruptly surrendered. But he impotently threw little pebbles at his perceived enemies as he ran away.

In addition to his about-face on the hosting, Trump’s tweets managed to include a blatantly crass infomercial for his Miami golf club. He described it as “big [and] grand,” and with “tremendous ballrooms.” And he maligned virtually every other American hotel and conference center by bragging that his is “better than other alternatives.” You have to wonder what the rest of the hospitality industry must have been thinking. But leave it to Trump to use his defeat as a wholly inappropriate opportunity to promote his business. And Mulvaney even told Chris Wallace of Fox News that Trump “still considers himself to be in the hospitality business.”

Trump also exploited this affair to promote himself (surprise). He tweeted that he thought he was “doing something very good for our Country” by unlawfully enriching himself. And he praised his selfless sense of charity for offering up his resort “at NO PROFIT or, if legally permissible, at ZERO COST to the USA.” Of course, this deal would have brought Doral millions of dollars that would have rescued the failing resort, particularly during the summer months when no one is visiting Florida and his club is mostly vacant. And that isn’t even counting the promotional benefit.

No matter how you slice it, Trump is guilty of improper financial self-dealing. He was guilty before this, and he’s guilty now. Just because this deal didn’t go through doesn’t mean Trump didn’t set out to break the law. If you plot to rob a bank, but when you get there the security guard stops you, you’re still a bank robber. So despite his walk-back, Trump’s actions are still condemnable and impeachable. And he must be held accountable to the full extent of the law for this as well as the multitude of other impeachable crimes he’s committed.

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

Trump Thanks Congressman for Saying on Fox News that He’s Not Presidential

Posted by on October 19, 2019 at 1:08 pm. 2 Comments :

The closer Congress gets to impeaching Donald Trump, the farther Trump gets from sanity. He has lately taken to boosting himself with absurd conspiracy theories, and brazenly seeking to enrich himself while thumbing his nose at the Constitution, and making bizarre threats to sue the media for – get this – false advertising.

Donald Trump, Presidenty

Trump’s safe spaces are becoming much harder for him to locate and more confined to the corners of his mental bunker. He has had to suck harder than ever on his Fox News pacifier, but even that symbol of solace is leaving a bad taste in his mouth. Unfortunately for Trump, he doesn’t have many other sources of soothful ego stroking left. Breitbart and One America News Network (OANN) just aren’t cutting it. And his Republican colleagues in Congress are beginning to step away from his increasingly cringeworthy behaviors.

Consequently, Trump is forced to find comfort wherever he can. For example, on Saturday morning the forlorn President tweeted his appreciation to Republican congressman Tom McClintock who had just completed an interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox News (video below). But the brief segment was not all happy news for Trump.

McClintock spent much of the interview complaining that the House impeachment inquiry is unfair. He regurgitated the standard GOP talking points about the process not permitting Republicans the same authorities that Democrats have. Of course it’s routine in Congress for the majority to control the proceedings. What McClintock is asking for is to have the same power as the majority Democrats. When did Republicans ever offer that to Democrats when they were the majority? Even the senior legal analyst at Fox News, Andrew Napolitano, shot down these GOP talking points.

Following that canned opinionating, Cavuto asked McClintock about some of Trump’s recent self- made problems, including Syria, Ukraine, and his G7/Doral debacle. Cavuto characterized these fiascos as “embarrassing, morally repugnant incidents.” And McClintock agreed saying that…

“There’s an old saying that ‘There are many things that might be legal, but still don’t look good on the front page of the newspaper.’ [Trump] is a man who’s never had an un-tweeted thought, and on occasion I think that gets him into a great deal of trouble. I do wish he’d be more careful in his choice of words, more presidential in his bearing, and more sunny in his disposition.”

So this interviewed wrapped up with Trump’s surrogate essentially saying that the President is an inarticulate baboon whose demeanor is a downer. And for that Trumped thanked him on Twitter. At least that was better than Mitt Romney saying that Trump’s Syria policy is “so weak and so inept.” And it’s better than Fox’s Judge Napolitano saying that Trump’s G7/Doral scheme is a “direct and profound violation” of the Constitution. This may be the best Trump can expect for the foreseeable future. In fact, it’s likely to be only downhill from here.

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

Hilarity Ensues as the Trump Campaign Threatens To Sue CNN For False Advertising

Posted by on October 18, 2019 at 1:56 pm. 5 Comments :

The psychotic world of Donald Trump just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. The evidence of his rapidly accelerating descent into a paranoid dystopia increases with each new day. Already this week Trump has seen his Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, admit that he engaged in a quid pro quo deal to extort the Ukrainian president; selected his own Miami Doral golf resort to host the 2020 G7 summit; advanced a bizarre conspiracy theory about the 2016 election; and brokered a total surrender by our allies the Kurds to the murderous Erdogan regime of Turkey.

Donald Trump, CNN

Topping off this week from hell, one of Trump’s lawyers, Charles Harder, has just announced that Trump intends to sue CNN for what he calls “a sustained barrage of unfair, unfounded, unethical and unlawful attacks” – otherwise known as accurate journalism. Harder sent a letter advising of that intention to Jeff Zucker, the CEO of CNN’s parent company, WarnerMedia (posted below). The threatened lawsuit alleges that the network is in violation of the Lanham Act “by constituting misrepresentations to the public, to your advertisers, and others.” The Lanham Act is a federal statute that, among other things, prohibits trademark infringement and false advertising. It’s safe to say that Trump isn’t accusing CNN of trademark infringement.

The letter warns that the suit will seek “a substantial payment of damages.” But what Harder says is false advertising are merely CNN’s comments as to their reliability as a news source. For instance, they say that they “stand for excellence in journalism,” and that they are “truly fair and balanced.” These, of course, are subjective observations that are neither advertising, nor actionable in litigation. If it were possible to sue for not being “fair and balanced,” Fox News would have been bankrupted long ago by legal judgements against them.

The most preposterous part of this lawsuit is that it relies almost entirely on examples of bias taken from a hysterically bogus set of videos by professional right-wing propagandist, liar, pervert, and ex-con, James O’Keefe, and his deceptively named Project Veritas. His latest smear campaign was cited extensively in Harder’s letter. But it was just another flaming dud that proved nothing but how awful he is at his loathsome job. Harder’s letter included this reference to the O’Keefe scam:

“Recently released video footage of individuals alleged to be your employees indicates that your reporting relating to President Trump is contrary to your own mission and the aforementioned Code of Ethics. Your own employees appear to state that CNN is focused on trying to ‘takedown President Trump,’ driven by a ‘personal vendetta’ that Mr. Zucker purportedly has against him, rather than reporting the news in an objective manner.”

Note that Harder even refers to “individuals alleged to be your employees,” because he doesn’t know whether or not the people appearing in the video are actually who O’Keefe says they are. And he’s proposing to sue on that foundation of mush. Even if they are CNN employees, they are all low-level support staff with no editorial responsibilities or newsroom authority. So they don’t speak for CNN. And every comment attributed to Zucker actually affirmed his integrity as a news executive.

Should Trump go ahead with this lawsuit he will will surely be laughed out of court. But there is little reason to believe that this will go past this embarrassingly dumb letter. Trump often threatens to sue people as a bullying tactic, but rarely has the guts to follow through. He recently threatened to sue House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chair, Adam Schiff. And we’re still holding our breath for that one.

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

Mulvaney Admits Trump’s Quid Pro Quo: ‘We Do That All the Time – Get Over It’

Posted by on October 17, 2019 at 2:32 pm. 3 Comments :

For the past several weeks Donald Trump has been adamantly denying that there was any quid pro quo in his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Nevermind that the whistleblower’s complaint said there was, and that Trump’s “transcript” (executive summary) of the phone call corroborated that account. Trump insisted that the phone call was “prefect,” which is a bizarre way to describe it, as if it were being graded for criminal content.

Trump Penthouse Phone

On Thursday morning, though, Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, held a press conference to announce the astonishing decision by Trump to host the 2020 G7 summit meeting at his own Doral Miami golf resort. Even a Fox News political editor was shocked by this shameless and purposeful grifting. But more to the point, Mulvaney turned Trump’s denials of a quid pro quo on their head. Mulvaney was asked explicitly whether U.S. foreign aid was withheld from Ukraine pending their agreement to dig up dirt on Trump’s political opponents. And in a roundabout way he confessed that it was. That resulted in this exchange with ABC News Chief White House Correspondent, Jonathan Karl (video below):

Karl: To be clear, what you described is a quid pro quo. It is funding will not flow unless the investigation into the Democratic server happens as well.”
Mulvaney: “We do that all the time with foreign policy.” […]
Mulvaney: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.

So there you have it. An outright admission that the Trump White House uses its power to extort foreign leaders in order to get them to perform purely political favors. And not only did Mulvaney admit it, he volunteered that they “do that all the time.” Mulvaney then tried to use another incident when funds were similarly withheld to justify the Ukraine affair. However, he noted that in that case the U.S. demands involved immigration issues, which can reasonably be argued are in our national interest.

The problem with Trump’s extortion of Ukraine was that the demands involved a smear campaign on one of his political opponents. That is most definitely not in the national interest. That’s strictly a personal interest of Trump’s and a violation of every ethical tenet of diplomacy. It’s also a violation of the law. And it does not – or should not – happen all the time.

With regard to the “server” mentioned in this exchange, it’s a reference to a Democratic National Committee computer that was hacked by Russians. Trump has adopted a ludicrous conspiracy theory that claims the server contains some incriminating secrets and was spirited away to Ukraine. Of course, there is no evidence of anything remotely resembling that nonsense. But it seems like Mulvaney was willing to grab onto it in order to avoid the more damaging allegation that Trump was seeking dirt on Joe Biden. In fact, that may be the real motive here.

It will be interesting to hear Trump’s response to this admission of a quid pro quo after all his ranting. Although he is so brazen in his dishonesty he might just continue to deny it. Or he could say Mulvaney never said this. Or, in pinch, he’ll claim that he doesn’t know Mulvaney at all, he was just a coffee boy.

UPDATE: Later in the day Mulvaney walked back his remarks and now says that he never said there was a quid pro quo. Of course, he DID say it, and it’s on video. If he wants to say he misspoke and offer a correction, that’s fine. But he can’t say he didn’t say it.

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

Fox News Politics Editor on Trump Holding the G7 at Doral: It’s Beyond My Imagination

Posted by on October 17, 2019 at 12:03 pm. 8 Comments :

As if there weren’t enough going on in the world today, Donald Trump had his Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, hold a press conference to make a couple of important announcements. One turned out to be an admission that Trump did engage in a quid pro quo with the Ukrainian president. The other was an announcement that the G7 Meeting for 2020 will be held at his own Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami.

Trump Baby on Cash Pile

Apparently Trump has stopped caring about even the appearance of impropriety as he mocks the Congress and the American people with his shamelessly self-dealing and contempt for the Constitution.

Trump originally suggested his bedbug infested Doral resort at the close of the last G7. And that didn’t go well. But Trump’s disrespect for even the most basic expressions of ethics is painfully obvious. It’s as if he wants you to know that he’s a barefaced grifter and is daring you to do something about it. He’s rubbing his depraved corruption in our faces and laughing as he believes that he’ll get away with this, or any other immoral misconduct he might conceive.

But Trump may be in for a surprise. The first take on this by Fox News was by their digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt (video below). When he was asked about the decision to use Doral he replied with a sense of amazement…

“I got to tell you, the idea that this administration, dealing with what this administration is dealing with, right? A lot. You’ve got the unraveling in Syria. You’ve got the march toward Trump impeachment here at home. A breaking news story every day. The world is on fire.

“Why? It is beyond my imagination […] That is an unnecessary problem to create for himself. But then the next step, today. To do it now and do it in this way. I just wish I could think of a good reason for it.”

From Trump’s perspective, there may be more than one good reason for it. First, it makes him richer. Second, it promotes his brand worldwide. Third, it kicks sand in the face of his critics, including the media. And fourth, it serves as a distraction from the other atrocities he’s currently involved with.

The other countries in the G7 should seriously consider declining to attend this fraud. They should all agree to meet somewhere else, like maybe Greenland, the country Trump thought he could buy. And the hospitality industry should protest loudly. By selecting his own failing property, Trump is effectively saying that there is no other hotel or convention facility in all of America that is suitable to host this event. That, of course, isn’t true. But Trump’s putrid greed is sending that message to the nation and the world.

What will be truly unbelievable is if Congress let’s Trump get away with this. They have the right and the duty to review this decision and impose some measure ethical standards on this president whose morality has gone rogue. They need to take action and rein in contemptuous behavior. If not just because it is so flagrantly wrong, but to also make it clear that he can not run roughshod over the law and the American people who he plainly despises.

UPDATE: Trump’s “handlers” apparently managed to convince him that violating the Constitution by directing business to his own property was a bad idea. So Trump has withdrawn his intention to hold the 2020 G7 summit at Doral. Naturally, he blamed his backtracking on the “Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility because he’s too big a wimp to take responsibility. And the recidivist grifter turned his 3-tweet retreat into an infomercial for his bedbug infested golf dump and exalted his would-be – and imaginary – charitableness.

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

Trump Gets Stuck in Berserk Brain Loop Over a Figment of His Warped Imagination

Posted by on October 16, 2019 at 12:35 pm. 7 Comments :

The Meltdown in the Oval Office is proceeding at a velocity that would have been unimaginable in any prior administration. But under Donald Trump’s regime the daily atrocities are so frequent and routine that they are becoming passe. Nevertheless, Trump appears to realize just how much trouble he’s in with his inevitable impeachment, and it’s expediting the rot of his already diseased grey matter.

Donald Trump

During a press avail with Trump and Italian President Mattarella, Trump wandered away from any subject that concerned this diplomatic visit and babbled manically about extraneous matters that are clearly consuming his consciousness. Those matters involve his obsession with the 2016 election and what he perceives were misdeeds by Democrats. He rattled off the names of people he has long despised and charged with crimes that he could not prove. They included former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, and two of his favorite targets, FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

However, the most peculiar part of this event occurred when Trump barreled into a long ago debunked conspiracy theory regarding a computer server belonging to the Democratic National Committee. Trump’s tirade on this subject was a spectacular display of hysterical incoherence (video below):

I still ask the FBI, where is the server? How come the FBI never got the server from the DNC? Where is the server? I want to see the server. Let’s see what’s on the server. So the server they say is held by a company whose primary ownership individual is from Ukraine. I would like to see the server. I think it’s very important for this country to see the server. Nobody wants to see it. The media never wants to see it. I’ll tell you, Republicans want to see it.”

Trump mumbles about “the server” eight times in that brief rant. His brain seems to have gotten stuck in an endless loop from which there is no escape. It’s indicative of his deranged mental state that is possessed by some mysterious whirlpool of inanities. And everything in this harangue is wholly fictitious.

What Trump is alluding to in his demented way is a server that was suspected of being hacked by foreign operatives seeking to disrupt the election. Trump is regurgitating conspiracy theories that emanated from the dark recesses of the ultra-right Internet. There is no plausible explanation for why Democrats would be suspected of any wrongdoing since they were the victims of the hacking.

As for the FBI’s role in this, they did want to inspect the server to accumulate any evidence that might lead to the hackers. So the DNC made a “mirror” copy of its hard drive, which the FBI was satisfied would be sufficient for their investigative purposes. The FBI could have at any time requested to take into custody the physical server, but they determined that it wasn’t necessary.

Ever since then, the only people who were ever interested in the server were conspiracy crackpots at Infowars, 8chan, and Fox News. And, of course, Donald Trump. He even brought it up in the now infamous phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Somehow Trump got the idea that the server wound up in Ukraine. There is zero evidence of that. But that doesn’t stop Trump and his cadre of propagandists from continuing to disseminate this nonsense.

And that’s not all, Later in the day Trump held a joint press conference with Mattarella. But in the middle of it Trump started talking about alleged corruption during the 2016 election again. Naturally, Trump sidestepped his own well documented criminal activities and launched into a bizarre rant about imaginary Democratic misconduct about which he asserted that “Maybe it goes right up to President Obama. I happen to think it does.” Needless to say, there is no evidence whatsoever of anything remotely resembling this reckless accusation.

It’s just Trump being Trump. And that’s what’s most frightening about all of this. He is totally unhinged from reality and getting worse every day. The imperative to impeach him could not be more urgent. There’s a lot of damage he could do in this condition. The American people are ready to remove him from office, and now our Congress must act.

And Speaking of Meltdowns: Later in the day Democratic leadership left a White House meeting after Trump called Speaker Pelosi a “third-rate politician.” They were supposed to be discussing the situation in Syria, but Trump just went bonkers with infantile, personal insults after he learned that 129 Republicans voted with Democrats to condemn his retreat from Syria and betrayal of the Kurds. And Trump followed up his tantrum with this tweet cementing his total insanity:

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

Hysterical Impeachment Syndrome: Now Trump is Attacking Both CNN and Fox News

Posted by on October 15, 2019 at 1:57 pm. 1 Comments :

The severity of Trump’s psychotic breakdown is leading him to ever more bizarre outbursts and tantrums. As his mental infirmity declines, his incoherent raving accelerates. In just the past few days this has manifested in absurd threats to sue Nancy Pelosi, nauseating mimicry of orgasms, and hypocritical assaults on the business affairs of wealthy, politically connected children.

Fox News, Impeach Trump

As the inevitability of impeachment nears, Trump is spewing inanities like a schizophrenic on the street corner shouting gibberish at passing cars. It’s a pathetic display that only reinforces how critical it is to remove him from office as quickly as possible. He even conceded it himself in a carelessly worded tweeted that said “Impeach the Pres.” Another example of his derangement was evident in a Tuesday morning tweet where he whined…

Trump is cryptically referring a so-called exposé by notorious truth distorter James O’Keefe. As usual, O’Keefe’s imaginary “blockbuster” was a colossal bust. But that didn’t stop Trump – and Fox News – from hyping the heck out of it. With specific regard to Jeff Zucker, CEO of CNN parent WarnerMedia, Trump is actually trying to start the rumor he’s tweeting about. No one else has even mentioned Zucker resigning. And it’s a far cry from Trump’s previous opinion of Zucker when he said that Zucker “would be a great choice” to take over CNN. It’s fair to say that Trump will be gone before Zucker will.

In addition to this weak thrust at CNN, Trump is also throwing impotent swings at his very own State TV network (aka Fox News). Last week Fox News released the results of a poll that showed a majority of voters (51%) favoring Trump’s impeachment and removal from office. That set off the Snowflake-in-Chief who tweeted that “Whoever their Pollster is, they suck,” and that “Fox News doesn’t deliver for US anymore.” Nevermind that the Fox poll was in line with several others released at the same time. Trump, though, is continuing to malign Fox’s polling with another tweet on Monday that said…

It goes without saying that Trump is making this up. There was no “announcement” that the poll was incorrect. Consequently, there was no need to mention any correction, or to make one. What Trump’s diseased brain was mangling was an article in the rightist New York Post that took issue with the poll’s methodology. But the Post’s analysis was as shallow as puddle in a heat wave. Fox used a breakdown that represents an accurate sampling of the electorate, and one that most other pollsters use. Furthermore, Fox’s methodology used the same breakdown they used in previous polls where Trump’s impeachment was not favored. That makes this poll useful for tracking how the mood of the electorate is changing.

With Trump firing off hostile rhetoric at both CNN and Fox News he’s revealing just how sensitive he is to any criticism, even from friendly sources. He’s also narrowing the media outlets he trusts to lavish blind praise on him. It’s a sign that he knows his coverage is bound to get worse as new evidence of his criminality comes out. At some point, Fox is going to get jealous of the other news enterprises getting all the scoops, and start reporting some of their own. So it’s just a matter of time before Trump jumps off the cliff of sanity and buries himself in a crater of wrath and rancor as his defenses are drained of any ability to affect his unavoidable downfall.

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

Trump Flunky Propagandist’s Attempt to Take Down CNN is a Flaming Pile of Failure

Posted by on October 14, 2019 at 1:22 pm. 18 Comments :

We haven’t heard from ultra right-wing video mangler and truth distorter, James O’Keefe, for quite a while. There’s a good reason for that. He has been busy slapping together bullshit “exposés” that no one with a functioning brain has had any interest in watching. This ethically-challenged slime merchant has done a pretty darn good job of making himself a laughing stock and an irrelevant never-was.

Fox News, James O'Keefe

That said, O’Keefe just released his latest effort at maligning the media. But all he’s accomplished is to prove just how persistently stupid he is. In this episode O’Keefe purports to have planted a mole inside CNN with the intention of collecting damning video with which to slander the network. Unfortunately for the would-be news stalkers, all they collected was stale opinions of a few malcontents and some fairly routine remarks by Jeff Zucker, Chairman of CNN parent WarnerMedia News and Sports.

In a short clip that was posted on Twitter, O’Keefe discovered the shocking revelation that Zucker wanted his newsroom to “stay very focused on impeachment.” OMG! So Zucker was instructing his team to pay close attention to the biggest political story in years. And O’Keefe thinks that’s scandalous.

O’Keefe also showed video of a couple of low-level CNN employees privately expressing personal anti-Trump views. Which means that they’re aligned with the majority of the American people. They were not giving these views on the air and they had no authority whatsoever to direct news reporting. But O’Keefe wants people to believe that they represent CNN and that there aren’t any pro-Trump staffers at the network. Of course, that’s absurd. O’Keefe just edits out anyone who doesn’t advance his phony narrative.

As evidence of that, a sliver of reality managed to stick to O’Keefe’s video, contradicting his whole premise. He recorded Zucker saying that he knows that the network employs “a lot of people that are friendly with Lindsey Graham.” Exactly! They are some of the pro-Trump staffers that O’Keefe is exicising from his propaganda piece. And all Zucker said about that was that CNN reporters shouldn’t be “friendly” with Graham. Which, of course, is the ethical position for journalists to take with their subjects. So O’Keefe is actually accusing Zucker of being ethical.

The jewel of this clip appears to be a segment wherein O’Keefe’s mole clandestinely recorded Zucker making statements that O’Keefe seems think are controversial. Well, we report, you decide (video below):

Zucker: I think what’s going on in America right now is really fundamentally the result of years of fake news, conspiracy nonsense from Fox News. … The fake conspiracy nonsense that Fox has spread for years is now deeply embedded in American society. And frankly, that is beyond destructive for America, and I do not think we should be scared to say so.

The HORROR! Zucker articulated out loud a truth that every rational, objective American already knows. Fox News is a deceitful, dishonest, biased, purveyor of manufactured propaganda on behalf of Trump and the Republican Nationalist Party. And the lies that Fox disseminates promote ignorance and division. This is what O’Keefe believes constitutes hard-hitting investigative journalism.

O’Keefe pretends to be a “guerilla” journalist who is only interested in media fairness and transparency. However, his own exploits have been heavily weighted to conservative politics and conspiracy theories. He was arrested and convicted of unlawful entry into a U.S. senator’s office. He was also caught trying and failing to “seduce” a CNN reporter. He also lost a $100,000 lawsuit for libel. This is the character of the guy assaulting CNN’s reputation.

And THIS JUST IN: Trump tweeted about O’Keefe’s bogus Veritas project. Because it’s also the character of our Dumbass-in-Chief.

Naturally Trump heard about it from Tucker Carlson of Fox News who cast CNN as “State Media.” Which is weird since they’re asserting that CNN is against the current State of Trump. What’s more, Carlson made the hilariously incredulous comment that “As of Monday night, we have not independently verified the [O’Keefe] tape … But we have no reason to believe any of this is fake.” Really? No reason other than O’Keefe’s many years of being caught lying? Also, Trump’s speculation about suing (for what, exercising First Amendment rights?) follows on his asinine talk of suing Nancy Pelosi for doing her job as House Speaker.

It’s funny though, while O’Keefe, sees himself as a media crusader, he never goes after Fox News where their “reporters” feign objectivity while blatantly sucking up to Trump. Why hasn’t O’Keefe done anything about Trump’s Attorney Genuflector, William Barr, meeting privately with Fox boss Rupert Murdoch? Why hasn’t he reported that Trump himself called Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to bitch about their coverage of him? Maybe because O’Keefe is a fraud and a failure who is destined to be ridiculed for exposing nothing but his own impotent hackery.

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

The full 19 minute video is available for anyone with the stomach to sit through it.