Driven By Fear, Trump Has Himself Sealed in the Fox News Bunker

With the most extraordinary, socially distanced, Democratic National Convention in the history books, the American people and the media await Donald Trump’s response. Joe Biden was given high marks for his acceptance speech that displayed equal parts experience, empathy, and the cool-headed demeanor of a leader intent on uniting a fractured nation.

Donald Trump, Fox News

Nobody expects Trump to exhibit any of the personal qualities that have earned Biden such steady and broad-based support. To the contrary, it’s almost guaranteed that Trump will deliver another in his series of dystopian “American Carnage” tirades aimed at frightening his cult disciples into lining up behind his platform of bigotry, elitism, and totalitarian rule. He gave a preview of sorts (video below) when speaking Friday before the Council for National Policy, a secretive organization of wealthy right-wing donors, lobbyists, and political operatives, saying that…

“If our opponents prevail, no one will be safe in our country and no one will be spared. Including the people who helped fund. They think they’re gonna be best pals. They’re not gonna be best pals. They’ll be terminated just like many others. I’m the only thing standing between the American dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos. And that’s what it is.”

HOLY SHIH TZU! “No one will be spared.” “They’ll be terminated.” And Trump, the sole hope for salvation, also warned that “If we don’t win it’s all gone.” This will be the theme of the Republican National Convention next week. Vote for Trump, or DIE! Which is ironic considering how many people are now dead (177,000+) because they did for Trump in 2016.

With the economy in recession, millions unemployed, a deadly pandemic that is still out of control, civil unrest, and international humiliation, Trump has nothing left to run on but fear. Consequently, he has been trying to define Democrats as monsters. And Biden, a bona fide, old school moderate, is being characterized as a puppet of scary leftist radicals.

Since it is now impossible for Trump to cast himself as anything but a hostile, racist, egomaniacal, pathological liar, he is focused on trying to bring Biden down to his level. That’s quite an ambitious objective. Trump has been maligning Biden’s mental health for months, but voters still see Trump as the one who is most psychologically impaired. And what does it say about Trump if he’s losing bigly to someone he says is a mentally deficient socialist? As for trust, PolitiFact scored Biden’s acceptance speech and not a single statement that was checked was deemed false. Do we really have any doubt about how Trump will fare in that respect next week?

In the meantime, Fox News is the only cable news network that did not air the Democratic convention live, except for the headline speeches. Will they program the RNC the same way? Doubtful. Not that it matters much since Fox’s viewers won’t be voting for Biden anyway.

A bigger problem for Trump is that Fox News is now the only cable news network that does air his phony coronavirus briefings live. CNN and MSNBC appear to have seen the light and recognized that they were brazenly political affairs that used the White House to exploit a deadly pandemic in order to boost Trump’s floundering reelection prospects. And, of course, Fox has exclusive rights to Trump’s “interviews” by Trump-fluffers like Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends.

The result is that these days Trump is only seen on Fox News, whose viewers are already supporting him. So he can’t possibly expand his base beyond the worshipful audience of Foxic true believers. and there aren’t enough of them to win an election. Trump has been mocking Biden for allegedly staying in his Delaware basement (which isn’t true), but Trump’s fear has him locked up in a different kind of bunker.

While Trump did venture out during the Democratic convention in an effort to grab some attention for himself, that effort failed because only Fox News covered it. He didn’t even come out of the Fox bubble after the DNC, instead sending Mike Pence to fill in for him on five morning shows. But the American people know a coward when they see one. And by limiting his exposure to the friendly faces of Fox News, Trump is effectively surrendering.

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

Lock Him Up: Trump’s Ties To Steve Bannon and the Border Wall Fraud

Another day, another Donald Trump associate arrested. The Confederacy of Felonious Trumpsters keeps growing with such dubious luminaries as Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Mike Flynn, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, and Michael Cohen. And now we can add Trump’s senior White House advisor, Steve Bannon. Not bad for an impeached president who routinely demonstrates his contempt for the law.

Donald Trump, Prison

Steve Bannon served Trump both in his campaign and on his White House staff. Prior to that he eagerly fluffed Trump as the executive chairman of the ultra-rightist Breitbart News. Bannon was taken into custody Thursday morning after being arrested on multiple charges of fraud. As reported by CNN

“New York federal prosecutors on Thursday charged Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon and three others with defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a fundraising campaign purportedly aimed at supporting Trump’s border wall.”

The private effort to build a border wall along the southern border of the United States was never a particularly good idea. It had no legal basis and it’s principals were shifty characters with prior records of legal misconduct, including being banned from Facebook.

When asked about Bannon’s arrest, Trump immediately deployed his standard (and nearly incoherent) defense when tied to scandal: Deny, deny, deny. By Trump’s account he has never met any of the people, with whom he clearly had close relationships, after they were brought to justice. In a statement Thursday morning (video below), Trump said that…

“I feel very badly [for Bannon]. I haven’t been dealing with him for a long period of time as most of the people in this room know. He was involved in our campaign…and for a small part of the administration, very early on. Haven’t been dealing with him at all. I know nothing about the project other than I didn’t like when I read about it, I didn’t like it…It sounded to me like showboating. And I think I let my opinion be very strongly stated at the time. I didn’t like it. It was showboating and maybe looking for funds, but you’ll have to see what happens. I think it’s a very sad thing for Mr. Bannon. I think it’s surprising…I didn’t know any of the other people even. But it’s, it’s sad it’s very sad.”

Poor Steve. But Trump wishes him well, just like he did for his good friend, pedophile sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump’s rambling and manically repetitive statement was a vain attempt to distance himself from Bannon and the bogus border wall project. However, despite his claim, there is no record of Trump ever expressing his opposition to the project, nor referring to it as “showboating.”

On the other hand, there is a video record of Donald Trump, Jr effusively praising the project and its founder, sycophantic Trump disciple Brian Kolfage. Trump spawn Little Don raved that the scam was “what capitalism is all about. This is private enterprise at its finest. Doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else. What you guys are doing is pretty amazing.”

It never fails. Every time a Trump flunky gets caught, Trump runs for cover. It’s emblematic of the cowardice that is an all too obvious component of his character (or lack thereof). But the evidence quickly emerges that proves his guilt. Most of the time, Trump will try to deflect by squeezing in an entirely irrelevant swipe at Barack Obama. However, with so many people getting indicted, convicted, and sometimes pardoned (which is a de facto confession of guilt) by Trump, no sane person can still say these are coincidences. But then, “sanity” has never been a word used in connection to Trump or the cult that worships him.

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

Trump and Fox News Invent Fake Opponents Because They’re Afraid of Biden

As this extraordinarily unprecedented election season rattles on, Dona;d Trump continues to lag behind Joe Biden in every national poll, as well as in most of the crucial swing state polls. It must be humiliating to be losing so badly to someone you characterize as a mentally deficient socialist

Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

The truth is that Trump is terrified about his abysmal reelection prospects. And he’s even more terrified of Joe Biden, a bona fide, old school moderate with bipartisan credentials. Given Trump’s hardcore wingnuttery, it’s impossible for him to present any kind of marketable image to a nation that already knows him as an extremist with totalitarian tendencies. He openly advocates for aggressively fascist, police-state tactics to muzzle free speech. He craves the sort of lifetime rule that his heroes Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un enjoy. To that end he has implemented initiatives to suppress voting and refuses to respect the democratic process. He has called for the persecution, and even execution, of his political foes, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Having no path to rehabilitate his abhorrent personality and horrendous record, Trump has embarked on a campaign to bring Biden down to his level. But even that is utterly implausible. Consequently, Trump is employing a desperation strategy aimed at trying to persuade voters that a Biden presidency would be subservient to the most radical leftist fringe of the Democratic Party.

Trump, with help from Fox News, has been hammering on a preposterous theory that Joe Biden is a puppet of the radical left. They are elevating Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or Bernie Sanders, or Kamala Harris as the real leaders who will drive the policy of a Biden administration. As appealing as that sounds, it just isn’t remotely true.

Biden won an overwhelming number of votes in the Democratic primaries. That doesn’t mean that progressives won’t advocate for their agenda, just as activists of all stripes do. but it does mean that a center-left agenda will dominate the Biden White House. What Trump and Fox News are doing is substituting who they prefer to run against because they are afraid to run against the solidly moderate Biden. But what these radical rightists don’t get is that if a progressive agenda gets enacted it will be because that’s what the American people want. And that’s a concept that Republicans can’t comprehend and have never pursued.

The problem with Trump’s strategy, other than how it’s cutting against reality, is that it does nothing to soften his own jagged edges. He isn’t even trying. This week he congratulated a QAnon crackpot, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who won a GOP congressional primary. He followed that up with congratulations for Laura Loomer, whose bigoted hostilities got her banned from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, PayPal, Venmo, GoFundMe, Uber and Lyft. Then on Wednesday morning Trump tweeted this:

Seriously? Trump is actually calling for a boycott of an iconic American company that is headquartered in the swing state of Ohio and employs 64,000 people. Brilliant! And why? Because they sent out a memo asking employees not to promote political candidates of any party on company time. Or more accurately, because his fee fees were hurt that some Deplorable might have to wait until after work to put on his MAGA hat.

This isn’t the first time that Trump has attacked an American company and it’s American workers. It isn’t the second or third or fourth time either. Here are at least ten times that Trump has expressly ordered his cult disciples to boycott U.S. workers and the companies that employ them, including Harley-Davidson, CNN, Apple, Macy’s, Fox News, Univision, HBO, Rolling Stone, AT&T, and now Goodyear.

As for Fox News, they have taken this Trump campaign theme and blown it up across their network. Every host has parroted the “Biden is a radical leftist who will be controlled by other radical leftists in the party” line ad infinitum. On Laura Ingraham’s White Nationalist Hour, she tried to paint Biden as “pretending” to be a “faith and family candidate.” That’s what this campaign has come to. Fox News is actually comparing Biden’s life of reverence and fidelity to Trump’s life of phony piety, vulgarity, adultery, greed, pride, and lies. The right has tried on the Antichrist for size, and it fits like a glove.

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

Trump’s Ignorance of His Own Staff is Another Red Flag for Dementia

Perhaps the most ill-considered campaign tactic of 2020 is Donald Trump’s desperation-driven attacks on Joe Biden’s mental health. He seems to be oblivious to his own all too apparent cognitive decline. In fact, polls show that most Americans think it’s Trump who doesn’t have the mental soundness to serve. Plus, it’s an insult to every senior citizen voter in the country who sees clearly that Biden is fine and that Trump is lying.

Donald Trump

On Tuesday morning Trump released a new ad that purports to show how Biden has changed in the past four years (video below, if you have the stomach for it). But it’s a logical mess that compares Biden at the podium on the campaign trail in 2016 to deceitfully edited clips of Biden being more reserved in his home studio during the Trump Virus pandemic. No one would expect Biden to be articulating as expressively under those circumstances. But Trump’s ad gives the false and reprehensible implication that it’s the result of a psychological problem.

What’s more, Trump really doesn’t want to compare himself to Biden. That will certainly backfire on him. And further evidence of Trump’s mental infirmity can be seen in his amnesia-like ignorance of high level members of his own White House staff. This came to light for the umpteenth time Tuesday morning when Trump tweeted that…

For some reason Trump thinks that by denying that he knows Miles Taylor, it benefits him in some way. However, the opposite is true. If Trump doesn’t know a senior aide like the Chief of Staff at his Department of Homeland Security, how can he possibly pretend to be doing his job? This is a position that is critical to national security. Any president would have to have frequent dealings with the person in that role. Particularly when there is a domestic crisis in progress that has already taken the lives of more than 170,000 Americans.

Trump must be too busy golfing, tweeting, or watching Fox News to be bothered with interacting with the members of his staff who are responsible for keeping the nation secure. However, Trump isn’t too busy to pound out Twitter attacks on anyone who dares to criticize him. And that’s the offense that Taylor committed. He appeared in a video that outlines how Trump has failed the country in profound ways, saying that…

“What we saw was terrifying. We would go in to try to talk to him about pressing national security issues. Cyber attacks, terrorism threats. He wasn’t interested in those things. They weren’t priority. The President wanted to exploit Homeland Security for his own political purposes and to fuel his own agenda.”

That is indeed terrifying. But just as frightening is Trump’s inability to recall having ever met some of his most senior aides. Here’s a partial list of White House staffers who Trump denied knowing or knew only in passing:

  • Gordon Sondland, US Ambassador to the European Union: “I don’t know him very welI. I have not spoken to him much.”
  • Paul Manafort, campaign chairman: “I didn’t know Manafort well…” and that he “wasn’t with the campaign long.”
  • George Conway, Husband of Kellyanne Conway, White House Counselor: “I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!”
  • Anthony Scaramucci., White House Communications Director: A “highly unstable ‘nut job'” and that he “barely knew him.”
  • George Papadopoulos, campaign adviser: “I never even talked to the guy, I didn’t know who he was.”
  • Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, National Security Council aide: “Never heard of him.”
  • Matt Whitaker, Acting U.S. Attorney General: “I don’t know Matt Whitaker.”
  • Stormy Daniels, Adult film actress: “I had nothing to do with her.”
  • Bill Taylor, Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine: “…who I don’t know.”
  • Marie Yovanovitch, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine: “I really don’t know her.”
  • Rick Bright, Top federal scientist and director of BARDA: “I don’t know him. I never met him. I don’t want to meet him.”
  • Vladimir Putin, Trump’s boss: After bragging that “I got to know Putin very well,” Trump later claimed that “I never met Putin, I don’t know who Putin is.”

There is obviously something terribly wrong with Trump. These aren’t casual acquaintances. Many of them form the core of the country’s national security apparatus. And the country is significantly more at risk if Trump can’t even recall who they are. That sort of mental infirmity cannot be tolerated in a national leader. And hopefully, we won’t have to tolerate it for much longer.

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

WARNING: Contains dishonest misrepresentations is reality. Viewer discretion is advised.

Desperately Dumb Trump Embraces ‘Fake News’ CNN Poll

On the first day of the Democratic National Convention, Donald Trump has embarked on his Narcissistic DNC Disruption Tour in order to satisfy his relentless compulsion to always be the center of attention. Unfortunately for Trump, the more attention he gets, the more people are disgusted by him and his infantile, dishonest, and hostile antics.

Donald Trump

Trump began his Monday morning with an embarrassingly bad interpretation of a new poll by CNN/SRSS. The survey found that Joe Biden continues to lead nationally by a 50-46% majority. Taking comfort in what appears to be a narrower margin of Biden’s lead, Trump giddily hammered out a tweet saying…

As with nearly everything that Trump says, this is a starkly shallow analysis that ignores reality on multiple levels. First of all, Trump begins by asserting that there is something wrong with a poll that he regards as favorable to him. There’s probably a name for that sort of psychosis, but I’ll leave that to the mental health professionals.

Secondly, Trump is encouraged that the poll seems to be “increasing me by 10 points in a short period of time.” What he doesn’t seem to know is that this CNN poll has been all over the map in the past few months. The previous poll had Biden ahead by 14 points. Before that it was 5 points. And before that it was 11 points. For some reason CNN’s numbers are bouncing around without any evident reason. As for Trump’s claim that the alleged increase took place in a short period of, that’s only true if you think two months qualifies as short.

Finally, Trump takes a swipe at his own Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News). But it’s hard to figure out what he’s whining about. It appears he’s saying that CNN wants to “take over” from Fox as the network most biased in his favor? But then why does he characterize that as being wrong? And which network does he believe is “fake” news now? Does he even know what he’s talking about anymore? There is clearly a problem if he’s praising CNN and bashing Fox (although he has been bashing Fox with some frequency lately).

For the record, Trump’s polling is dreadful. He has good reason to be frightened. After all, he is losing to someone that he says is a mentally deficient socialist. What does that say about him? Of the 122 polls tracked this year by RealClearPolitics, Trump has led in a grand total of one. That was way back in February. The average Biden lead for the whole year of polling is 7 points. Biden’s average lead for the past week shows an acceleration of support to 8.3 points.

No wonder Trump is frantically trying to suppress the vote and subvert democracy. He knows his prospects for reelection are slim to none. What’s more, he knows the legal jeopardy he is likely to face when he returns to civilian life. Consequently, he’s spending most of his time preparing to contest the election results and diminish confidence in democracy overall. It’s a path that is not only unpatriotic, it’s dangerous. And it’s up to the American people to make sure he doesn’t get away with it.

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

Democrats Call Postmaster General to Urgent Hearing on Trump’s USPS Sabotage

Among the most blatant signs of Donald Trump’s aspirations to tyranny is his deliberate assault on the United States Postal Service. It’s an obvious attempt to make it harder for Americans to cast their votes this coming November. And in pursuit of that goal, Trump installed Louis DeJoy, a wealthy campaign donor with no relevant experience, as the executioner of his grossly anti-democratic agenda.

Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi

Trump himself admitted his intentions to purposefully dismantle postal operations in order to disrupt the delivery of ballots to and from state election offices. He recently told Fox News that Democrats are requesting funding because they “need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots.” And if they don’t get it “that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.” This perverse strategy is driven by Trump’s inability to deal with the fact that he’s losing bigly to Joe Biden, someone he regards as a mentally deficient socialist.

As it turns out, sabotaging the Postal Service isn’t particularly popular with the American people. A whopping “70 percent of voters support a mail-in option, including 88 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of independents and 50 percent of Republicans.” And they have risen up to demand that Trump’s destructive policies be rescinded.

Now the House of Representatives is answering the call. The chair of the House Oversight Committee, Carolyn Maloney just announced that she is scheduling an “urgent hearing” on the matter and has requested DeJoy’s appearance to testify. Her letter to DeJoy charges that…

“Over the past several weeks, there have been startling new revelations about the scope and gravity of operational changes you are implementing at hundreds of postal facilities without consulting adequately with Congress, the Postal Regulatory Commission, or the Board of Governors. Your testimony is particularly urgent given the troubling influx of reports of widespread delays at postal facilities across the country—as well as President Trump’s explicit admission last week that he has been blocking critical coronavirus funding for the Postal Service in order to impair mail-in voting efforts for the upcoming elections in November.”

This is positive development that, at the very least, will keep the issue at the forefront of the media’s attention. It will force the Postmaster General to justify his actions. That is, if he doesn’t chicken out and refuse to show. And it will make clear the connections to White House pressure tactics and the potential illegal interference by the Trump campaign.

As a side benefit, the hearing is scheduled for August 24, which is, coincidentally, the first day of the Republican convention. It was previously reported that Trump is plotting to upstage the Democratic convention by hopping around the country for political appearances on each day of the Democrats’ event. His travel plans culminate in Biden’s home town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, on the same say that Biden is delivering his acceptance speech.

So, under the circumstances, the Trump schemers can hardly complain about the scheduling of the Oversight Committee hearing. In fact, Democrats should continue to host events throughout the GOP convention and consider having Barack Obama give an national address in support of Biden on the the final day when Trump bellows out his latest “American Carnage” horror story as he accepts the nomination of his Republican confederates. Give the GOP a dose of their own medicine. This may be one of those rare circumstances where turnabout really is fair play.

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

According to Trump, He’s Losing Bigly to a Mentally Deficient Socialist

Desperate politicians have been known to make monumental mistakes. And in the case of Donald Trump, numerous mistakes and even purposeful malfeasance. This often occurs when they observe their campaign circling the drain and everything they try to reverse the trend fails miserably. They end up in a downward spiral that only accelerates their descent into madness. It’s ultimately a self-destructive, but unyielding compulsion.

Donald Trump Circling the Drain

As Trump’s fortunes continue to disintegrate, he resorts to the most infantile and hostile components of his character, or lack thereof. He lashes out with insults, flagrant lies, and attempts to tarnish the reputations of his perceived enemies. He knows he can’t rehabilitate his abhorrent public image, so he tries to bring his opponents down to his level. That’s a long walk.

What we are seeing from the Trump campaign these days is the manifestation of that strategy. He is devoting virtually all of his campaign rhetoric to maligning Joe Biden as “sleepy,” “corrupt,” and/or “a far-left radical socialist” who will “destroy America.” But how Biden can be both mentally deficient and an evil genius has not been explained.

There is, however, an unintended consequence of this tantrum throwing tactic. If Trump defines Biden as a wild-eyed leftist radical, as well as suffering from cognitive decline, Trump is admitting something devastating about himself. After all, he is losing to Biden in most national polls by double digits. He is also losing in almost every crucial swing state. And it isn’t just the popular vote where Biden has a commanding lead. Electoral College estimates are currently predicting a landslide victory for Biden.

So Trump’s fantastical fictions about Biden’s ideology and psychological state have the effect of humiliating himself for not being able to prevail over such an allegedly pathetic opponent. If Trump can’t beat a commie with dementia, he might as well drop out of the race. He’s already been reduced to a previously unthinkable act: praising Hillary Clinton:

If the biggest difference between 2016 and 2020 is how much “smarter and sharper” Clinton was, then why is Trump still getting crushed by Biden? What’s more, while the enthusiasm for Trump among his cult disciples is pretty good, he isn’t counting the the enthusiastic opposition to him that is powering Biden’s campaign. And the numbers aren’t in yet for the boost Biden will get from selecting Kamala Harris as his running mate.

Finally, Trump takes another swipe at Fox News, something he has been doing with frequency lately, despite simultaneously running to Fox for cover every few days. But he does have a point. Even some reliable Trump-fluffers on his State TV network are noticing his weaknesses. Fox’s political editor, Chris Stirewalt just published an op-ed that made the case that “Trump is starting to sound desperate.” Starting to?

Trump himself is falling off the far side of the sanity fence, and the American people can see it. He is embracing the QAnan conspiracy. He’s plotting to heckle the democrats during their convention next week. And his defiling of democracy – and the Constitution – by sabotaging the Postal Service is Trump’s most brazen step toward tyranny to date.

Yet this brand of perverse politicking can only prove to be futile. The American people don’t support such anti-patriotic, power hungry, viciousness. And they certainly won’t get behind a loser who can’t compete with someone he claims is worse than Stalin with Alzheimer’s. Not only is the accusation preposterous, it highlights how impotent Trump is going into the final days of the campaign.

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

Trumpy the Conspiracy Clown Embraces Birtherism and QAnon

Of all the ways that Donald Trump has defiled the office of the presidency, among the most disturbing is his mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and the freak jobs who promote them. He frequently expresses his concurrence with bizarre and fantastical concoctions that range from cannibal child sex trafficking to staged mass murders.

Donald Trump, Pennywise

On Friday Trump held another in a series of reelection campaign events that he thries to pretend are press conferences (which the media really needs to stop covering). And in this episode of the reality TV president’s lie-fest, he was asked directly if he agrees with Republican congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, who openly supports the QAnon conspiracy cult. Trump replied…

“She did very well in the election. She won by a lot. She’s very popular… She had a tremendous victory. And so absolutely. I did congratulate her.”

And there you have it. Trump “absolutely” agrees with QAnon. And to prove it, he reiterated his support for the QAnon candidate. This is an unambiguous embrace of what the FBI warned is a domestic terrorism threat.”

This “press conference” waded into uncharted waters for other reasons as well. Trump was asked a question by Fox News corespondent John Roberts about his purposeful dismantling of the Postal Service. Trump ignored the question and launched into an ad hominem attack on Democrats. Then he called on a “reporter” from the ultra-wingnut Gateway Pundit website. Trump’s press briefing room regularly hosts such fakers, including a “reporter” from One America News Network (OANN). They are not members of the White House Press Corps, and are only there by special invitation of the press secretary.

The press avail lasted a total of nineteen minutes. He spent the first ten minutes dryly reading data from a prepared text, most of which was riddled with provable lies. The question period consumed only nine minutes. This abbreviated affair is further proof that Trump’s fear is overwhelming his obsession for attention.

During yesterday’s session, Trump was asked if he regrets all the lying he’s done to the American people. He didn’t even have the fortitude to deny that he’s a liar. He simply pretended the question wasn’t asked and moved on.

Trump was also asked (by the OANN shill) about a ludicrous allegation that Kamala Harris isn’t eligible to run for vice-president because her parents were immigrants. Trump actually muddied that up into a false assertion that she wasn’t born in the U.S. Of course, Harris was born in Oakland, California, and her parents immigration status (which was legal) has nothing to do with candidacy eligibility.

Trump’s reintroduction of birtherism into the campaign, and his adoption of the criminal QAnon garbage, is evidence of how far he has strayed from any semblance of coherent political discourse. He is so scared of his imminent defeat – and the legal jeopardy that will follow – that he’s bursting at the seams of sanity. And the American people can see it.

What’s worse is that his Republican confederates are either silent or supportive of his dangerous derangement. And as frightening as all of this is, it is still bound to get worse before November third. So buckle your seat belts. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

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

Trump’s Egomaniacal Plot to Upstage the Democratic Convention

There is nothing that irritates Donald Trump more than when he is not the center of attention. His malignant narcissism kicks in bigly if something in the news cycle is deemed more important than his promulgation of lies, undeserved boasts, infantile insults, or relentless hostility and petulant whining. After all, this is the man-baby who once bragged that he is “the most fabulous whiner.”

Donald Trump, Subway

The Democratic National Convention will begin on Monday, August 17, and run until Thursday August 20. This is the quadrennial event where the Party’s nominee is officially designated and the campaign’s themes are rolled out as the election season gears up for the last lap to Election Day. Ordinarily, both parties suspend their political activities during their opponents’ convention. It’s a courtesy that allows each to present their best case to the American people without belligerent interruptions.

Of course, nothing about the Dystopian Era of Trump is ordinary. And his arrogance and vanity won’t allow him to shut his mouth for a few days to honor the respectful traditions of a functional democracy. Trump is succumbing to his unique brand of snotty conceit with the announcement that he intends to spend his time during the Democratic convention heckling them and otherwise making an ass of himself. USA Today reports that

“President Donald Trump will hit the road next week while Democrats rally around Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris during the Democratic National Convention. […] A week-long series of events will include a visit to the city where Biden was born — Scranton, Pennsylvania — on Thursday, Aug. 20, the same day the former vice president is scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech.”

Trump has a long history of trying to manipulate the media to upstage Democrats or grab attention for himself from whatever else the press deems newsworthy. He has been doing this at least as far back as the Republican presidential primaries in 2016, Trump bowed out of a Fox News debate because he was afraid to face moderator Megyn Kelly. Then he scheduled his own media event at the same time, pretending it was a benefit for veterans. However, he later lied about and failed to disburse the funds he raised until after he was caught by the press.

More recently, Trump tried to upstage the first joint appearance of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris by scheduling another of his pointless coronavirus briefings (which the media should not be covering at all). And today Trump attempted to grab the spotlight again by announcing a phony “peace” agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Trump even employs this tactic by saying something outrageous and despicable to deflect the outrageous and despicable thing he said the day before.

If Trump goes through with this cynical and self-serving charade during the Democratic convention, Democrats need to reciprocate during Trump’s Republican convention the following week. They should schedule newsmaking affairs during Trump’s most engaging events. Which should be easy to counter-program considering that the GOP’s speakers are likely to be less than compelling. They haven’t released a list yet, but in 2016 they featured such luminaries as Duck Dynasty’s Willie Robertson, has-been Scott Baio, Ben Carson, and Ted Cruz.

If Democrats place Barack Obama’s first public appearance with the Biden/Harris ticket during Trump’s acceptance speech on the 27th, how many people do you think will be watching Trump? We already know what he’s going to say: Democrats are radical leftists who want open borders, crime in the streets, gun confiscation, and Satan worship.

Plus, Democrats will give healthcare to all citizens, pursue racial justice, seek income equality through fair taxation and corporate responsibility, and reverse the perils of climate change. Oh wait, those are all things that the American people favor overwhelmingly. Along with restoring America’s reputation internationally, and taking steps to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

So bring it on, Don. The American people already despise you. Trump has never reached 50% in approval polling, a feat that no other president can claim. He is currently losing to Biden in every national poll, as well as in most polls of the crucial swing states. His desperate antics are not likely to rescue his floundering campaign now. All he has left is cheating and Russia. But those are indeed serious threats and Democrats need to be vigilant and determined to overcome them. While things are looking pretty good for Biden and the Democrats, this is not the time to stand down.

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

Scaredy Trump Flees to Fox News After Biden Chooses Kamala Harris

On Tuesday Joe Biden announced the selection of Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate. The choice was universally acclaimed by all those not affiliated with the Trump Cult or Fox News. For his part, Donald Trump – the KKK’s favorite president – slandered Biden as a racist for choosing a Black woman to join his ticket. And he’s trying on “phony” as his latest infantile nickname for Harris.

Donald Trump, Fox News

The stench of fear and desperation coming from the Trump camp is unmistakable. He is getting crushed by Biden in every national poll, as well as all of the crucial swing states. He has no substantive criticism of either Biden or Harris, so he resorts to elementary school taunts, shameless lies, and pitiful whining.

Naturally, the first place Trump went after getting the bad news about Harris was his safe place in the arms of coronavirus spreader, Sean Hannity at Fox News. He knows that Harris is unquestionably a strong, experienced woman with a sharp intellect and tongue. And there is nothing that scares Trump more. He also knew that Hannity would comfort him in his hour of need, and feed him potential attack lines for the days ahead as the Biden/Harris ticket rolls out.

In fact, that’s exactly what Hannity did with his opening wet kiss to Trump on the subject of race (video below). Unfortunately, Trump is too unfocused and mentally infirm to concentrate on anything for more than ten seconds. Consequently, his response lurched manically into unrelated topics, ignoring the far more relevant subject matter that Hannity hoped he could corral Trump into. Trump’s meandering reply touched on the few topics that his fractured mind is capable of retaining. Remember, these are responses to a question about race:

“Well, first of all, what you said about Russia, the New York Times is fake reporting. And the Washington Post likewise. I always try to figure out which is worse. And then you have CNN and, frankly, ABC, CBS, NBC. […] But you know the sad thing is you [Hannity} have so many incredibly talented writers, journalists, frankly, including yourself, cause I consider you really a journalist to the largest extent.”

“They got it [the Russia “hoax”] wrong and they got Pulitzer prizes. The Pulitzer Prize is worthless as far as I’m concerned.”

“Now it finds out that we caught Obama, Biden. That’s why I didn’t think that Susan Rice could get it because she’s part of this whole illegal thing that happened.”

“Look at Hillary Clinton where she paid for the fake dossier.”

Huh? These are just a robotic recycling of Trump’s Lamest Hits. He’s on auto-play, rewinding through the nightmares that have lodged like neuro-parasites in his diseased brain, feasting on what’s left of his frontal lobe. Even Hannity – who Trump considers a journalist – was utterly incapable of guiding Trump into a coherent cognitive dialogue.

The remainder of this “interview” weaved through a soggy morass of subject matter that had little to do with Biden or Harris. Trump shoveled nonsense about windmills lowering property values, rigged mail-in voting, and his paranoid obsession with Obama’s “crimes” against him. However, he only managed to address the coronavirus pandemic for about thirty seconds at the close, and only to lie about nonexistent vaccines and therapies.

This is the current state of America’s political leadership. It’s resting in the tiny hands of a sociopathic narcissist who can’t complete a thought, or stay on topic, even when guided by a bootlicking sycophant. It would be hysterical if there weren’t already so many tragic consequences for so many suffering Americans.

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