The President’s ‘Experts’ on Any Subject are Mainly Trump-Fluffing Fox News Hacks

Posted by on September 4, 2019 at 1:50 pm. 2 Comments :

There is no question that Donald Trump has ushered in an era of presidential firsts: The first president to welcome and encourage Russian election help; the first to enrich himself by patronizing his own properties; the first to brag about committing sexual assault; the first to tell more than 12,000 lies; the first to engage in childish name-calling; the first to never have a positive favorable polling; the first to malign the media in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people;” the first to express more loyalty to foreign dictators than to our allies and even our own intelligence community; the first to rip babies from their parents and lock them in cages; the first to … oh hell, this could go on forever.

Donald Trump Sean Hannity

Another first that Trump has achieved concerns his inner circle of advisors and White House staff. The President of the United States is uniquely positioned to have access to the most experienced and intelligent people in the world. The issues that any president faces require that level of advice and counsel, whether it is about economics, diplomacy, legislation, healthcare, the military, and so much more. But Trump has assembled a confederacy of dunces in his Cabinet who know little about the departments they have been appointed to manage. Rick Perry knows nothing about energy. Ben Carson never spent five minutes studying urban planning. Betsy DeVos has no education background whatsoever. And the rest of the Cabinet is similarly incompetent.

However, none of that really matters because Trump doesn’t turn to them for guidance on any issue anyway. Instead, he consults his “Shadow Cabinet,” the presenters and contributors of Fox News. In many cases Trump has actually tapped Fox hosts for White House jobs. But even when he hasn’t, he still relies on their advice which he gets from his many hours of watching Fox News instead of doing any actual work.

The result of Trump’s addiction to Fox is that he is getting the most shallow, inappropriate, and dangerous advice available from people who have never studied the subjects on which they pontificate on TV. A quick examination of Trump’s Twitter feed revealed that every single person he quoted in the past five days was a TV talker. For instance:

  • Businessman Sam Zell, on CNBC
  • Activist Charlie Kirk on Trish Regan’s Fox News show
  • Lawyer Alan Dershowitz on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business show
  • Host Lou Dobbs of Fox Business
  • Host Steve Hilton of Fox News
  • Evangelical Robert Jeffress on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business show
  • Attorney Joe DiGenova on Fox News
  • Former GOP congressman Jason Chaffetz on Fox News
  • Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal on Fox News
  • Legal analyst Gregg Jarrett on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business show
  • Sen. Lindsey Graham on Fox News
  • James Trusty on Fox News
  • Rep. Pete King on Fox News
  • Bryan Dean Wright on Fox and Friends

That’s just the past five days. He didn’t quote a single expert from any professional or academic source. And these are in addition to dozens of videos posted by Trump of Fox News personalities and contributors like Jeanine Pirro, Sean Hannity, and Tim Fitton of the ultra rightist Judicial Watch. Their political tips contain such useful insights as this one from Lou Dobbs:

Remember, that’s the ranting of a host on an alleged “news” network who is accusing all Democrats of hating America. A more plausible assessment would be that the only way to truly love America is to hate Trump. After all, he’s the one who is constantly tearing down the cherished institutions of the country, from the Constitution, to the the media, to law enforcement, to the military, and more. He’s the one who is trying to destroy America’s natural resources, preserves, air, water, and climate. And he’s the one who is siding with our enemies abroad and the wealthy elites domestically at the expense of the majority of the people.

For the Commander-in-Chief to rely on such a pitifully ignorant cadre of television shills should worry every citizen. But they shouldn’t be surprised. Trump’s prior job was hosting a TV game show, and that’s what he believes reflects a reality that exists only in his diseased brain. He still thinks he’s doing a reality TV show and he doesn’t know that Fox News is an entertainment network. And that delusional departure from sanity is not just a curious quirk.It has the potential to cause great harm if he isn’t stopped – and soon.

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

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Trump Interrupts His Empty Schedule to Whine About the Mueller Report, Witch Hunt

Posted by on September 3, 2019 at 3:03 pm. 4 Comments :

With Hurricane Dorian closing in on the Atlantic coast, and mass shooting victims still recovering in Texas, and an economy that’s teetering on the brink of recession, any other president would be exceedingly busy on this post-Labor Day Tuesday. But Donald Trump is apparently so idle that he’s spending his day hate-tweeting the mayor of London and threatening to escalate the trade war with China.

Donald Trump, Witch Hunt

Having already played several rounds of golf while pretending to be “monitoring” the hurricane, Trump has little else to do but watch Fox News and post incoherent tweets. It’s not like he’d actually do any presidential work. And among the Twitter tantrums he posted Tuesday was one that seems foolishly unnecessary from his perspective:

Why would Trump want to reignite an issue that has been dormant in the news cycle for several weeks? What he robotically refers to as a “Witch Hunt” has caused significant damage to his polling status. Even his favorite pollster, the ultra-biased Rasmussen, recently put him near his lows for the year. That’s primarily because very few other Americans think that it’s a Witch Hunt. In fact, most polls show that voters favor an impeachment inquiry and hold special counsel Robert Mueller in high esteem. Mueller’s congressional testimony confirmed that Trump had “welcomed and encouraged” Russian help during his campaign, and that he committed numerous acts of obstruction of justice to cover that up. Even the Senior Legal Analyst at Fox News said so.

And yet, Trump is now tweeting about the Mueller Report and a witch Hunt that might otherwise have not been at the forefront of the public’s mind. But for the reminder of his “No Collusion, No Obstruction” mantra, some folks might have forgotten. But now, thanks to Trump it’s top of the news again.

Trump’s tweet appears to have been triggered by the Justice Department’s Inspector General’s report about former FBI Director James Comey. However, Trump has been flagrantly lying about that for weeks. Not only did it not reveal “a giant and illegal SCAM,” it actually found that there was no violation of any law whatsoever.

Trump also used this tweet to the beseech the House of Representatives to “get back to work on drug prices, healthcare, [and] infrastructure.” Which is funny because the Democratically-controlled House has already passed bills on those matters (and many others, 200+ in all), but the Republican-controlled Senate has failed to act on a single one. So it’s Trump’s pal Mitch McConnell who needs the kick in the pants.

In the end, Trump has managed to get everything wrong in this tweet, but still performed a public service. Because while there are always issues competing for the attention of the American mind, the matter of Trump’s unsavory association with Vladimir Putin, and the assault on our democratic election, should never be swept under the rug with all of the other Trump atrocities. That rug is already too lumpy to walk on. And thanks to Trump’s boredom and his inability to keep his mouth shut for two minutes, this important issue is once again in the headlines.

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


Trump’s Latest ‘Lamestream Media’ Tweet is a Digest of Deranged Dumbfuckery

Posted by on September 2, 2019 at 11:58 am. 4 Comments :

Happy Labor Day, America. On this day paying homage to the hard working people of the nation, Donald Trump posted fourteen tweets lavishing undeserved praise on himself. As usual, he can’t spend five minutes on any subject other than how awesome and successful he is. Nevermind that he is despised by a majority of voters and his record is overflowing with failure.

Donald Trump, Phone, Pacifier

Most of the tweets make demonstrably false and misleading claims about glorious economic successes that exist only in his diseased brain. Things like unemployment and stock market performance were already greatly improved during the Obama administration, and there were only slight advances since then. In all cases Trump’s record lags the positive direction established by Obama. Surprisingly, he also bragged about his polling which is horrendous by any standard. He trails all of the top Democrats by double digits national and in the battleground states. And many of the tweets were simply cribbed from stuff he was watching on Fox News.

One tweet in particular was worthy of notice due to its impressive amount of unsustainable and idiotic assertions. Trump really managed to cram a tweetstorm’s worth of derp into this one painfully stupid tweet:

Let’s take a few minutes to break that sucker down. First of all, Trump is borrowing a phrase from one of the great dimwits of the 21st century, Sarah Palin, who coined (or took credit for) the “lamestream media” catchphrase. She’s not exactly the sort of intellectual that any credible person would quote. Although she may be a step up for Trump.

Next Trump asserts that the media “has gone totally CRAZY.” But how could it have just gone crazy when he’s accused it having done that dozens of times before. Did he forget, or is he just exhibiting more signs of dementia? Not to mention that Trump calls everybody crazy. Here’s a collection of a dozen times he’s used this as an all-purpose insult.

Then Trump whines that the media gets to “write whatever they want,” because he just hates that First Amendment (and much of the rest of the Constitution) with such ferocity. Then repeats another of his frequent complaints that the media doesn’t have the sources it claims for its stories, or that they make them up. That’s a peculiar criticism that he is never able to prove, and the media’s sources have often been found within his inner circle. What’s more, no one uses anonymous sources more than Trump, who is constantly claiming that “some people say” some ludicrous things that support his lies.

The notion that the media doesn’t do any fact checking is hysterical. While Trump has been president, the fact checking industry has gone through the roof. The Washington Post has compiled a compendium of more than 12,000 lies and misstatements by Trump since his inauguration. Daniel Dale is a dedicated fact checker for CNN. PolitiFact continues to monitor Trump’s comments, 70 percent of which have been deemed “Mostly False,” “False,” or “Pants on Fire.” And those are just a few of the better known fact checkers. Almost every journalistic enterprise does their own fact checking. Trump doesn’t really believe that there isn’t any fact checking, he just doesn’t like the results that reveal the extent of his dishonesty.

As for the media “looking for the ‘kill,'” and making good news look bad, that really isn’t necessary. Trump is entirely capable of making himself look horrible without any help. Take for example his frighteningly comical assertion that he has never heard of a Category 5 Hurricane, even though there have been four just during his presidency.

Finally, Trump lashes out at the press that he routinely attacks in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.” He has now determined that they are beyond fake and have advanced to corrupt. Once again, he doesn’t provide any examples of what he insists is the media’s corruption. He just expects his Deplorables to buy whatever he says because he said it. That is the definition of a cult.

Trump’s Twitter feed is always full of crackpot conspiracies, ludicrous lies, and ego-soaked exaltations of himself. That’s true for the fourteen tweets he fired off this Labor Day. But he deserves some special credit for being able to stuff so much grade A stupidity into this composition in only 280 characters.

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


Trump Thinks He’s Still on Reality TV, Doesn’t Know Fox News is an Entertainment Network

Posted by on September 1, 2019 at 11:03 am. 2 Comments :

The fact that Donald Trump is suffering from a crushing array of delusional departures from the real world is unarguable. He regards himself as “The Chosen One.” He believes that only he can solve America’s problems (despite the fact that he’s failed to deliver on his campaign promises), In his warped mind he knows more than anyone on every subject. And these delusions are separate and apart from his ceaseless lies (more than 12,000 so far).

Donald Trump TV Set

However, there is a common thread that weaves through much of the hallucinatory fallacies that clutter his emotionally and intellectually stunted brain. He has an all-consuming fetish with his perceived popularity. Crowd size seems to be a stand-in for his virility. And often his craving for attention is manifested in his obsession with polls. But unfortunately for him, they mostly reflect how bitterly despised he is by most Americans. Even polls from Fox News and his favorite ultra-biased pollster, Rasmussen, show him in dire straits.

But polls are just the political equivalent of a mode of survey that Trump has had much more exposure to: The Nielsen Ratings. His fourteen years as the host of a reality TV game show has permeated his world view. And it is the prism through which he sees everything related to his life and presidency. This contorted mindset produced a Sunday morning tweet attacking sitcom star Debra Messing:

Here Trump is renewing his competition with other celebrities while also wholly inventing their alleged admiration for him. (I’d bet the limit at the Trump Taj Mahal that Messing never called him “sir”). He’s also demonstrating that he gauges his self-worth by his comparison – not to other presidents – but to other Hollywood luminaries. That’s his benchmark of approval. What’s more, he measures the value of news media by the same criteria. It isn’t insight or knowledge or experience that validates the media. It’s ratings. Which is why Trump also tweeted this tribute to his pal Sean Hannity:

First of all, Hannity is not the number one show on cable television. It’s the number one “news” show on cable television, which is a much smaller set of programs. Secondly, Trump isn’t the “favorite president” of anyone but his glassy-eyed cadre of Deplorables. But more importantly, there is no significance to the fact that the Fox News Trump-fluffers in primetime have higher ratings than the rest of the network’s programming. There’s a reason that time is called “prime.”

What Trump is doing here is trying to rescue himself from some painfully idiotic comments made last week admonishing Fox for failing to be 100% adoring. In a fit of hurt feelings he ordered his cult followers to “start looking for a new news network” because Fox “isn’t working for us anymore.” This was his way of reassuring Hannity that he still appreciates his up-sucking.

Trump’s intense focus on ratings is evidence that he has never left the realm of television ranking and marketing. Nothing matters to him except for how he is perceived by the standards of Hollywood. That explains why the only thing that was important to him about his visit to the hospital in El Paso where shooting victims were recovering was making sure that everyone knew how much he was loved. He wasn’t. In fact every patient refused to see him.

Trump’s single-minded concentration on ratings is matched by the market positioning of Fox News. They place a similar weight of stature on numbers, rather than quality or honesty. That’s because they have long considered themselves to be part of the entertainment sector of television, not news. Their late, disgraced CEO, Roger Ailes, even admitted it, dismissing his news competition to tell the Hollywood Reporter that “We’re competing with TNT and USA and ESPN.” And the product they put on the air proves that. Even the Fox News website promotes their programs as entertainment, rather than news. That particular promotion was for Tucker Carlson, who Fox thinks people should watch because he’s such an asshole.

Fox News has redefined television “journalism” by fundamentally transforming it from an information medium to an entertainment medium. They dress up their pseudo-news segments in the same reality TV, soap opera packaging that entertainment outlets use: conflict, scandal, mystery, and hyper-charged emotions including hero worship and fear. Fox employs flashy graphics and attention-grabbing audio whooshes and gongs to decorate their reports that are presented as ‘ALERTS’ regardless of the news value. And always there is sex. Fox’s roster of hosts has more former beauty pageant contestants that journalists.

So Fox News is the perfect chronicler of the bizarre presidency of Donald Trump. They are, in fact, recording the trials and tribulations of a fictional character, that they helped to invent, as he stumbles through his sappily scripted, melodramatic existence. And Trump embraces that rendering of his White House antics. It’s playacting on a world stage. The problem is that for the rest of the world’s inhabitants it’s all too real and frightening and dangerous. This show needs to be canceled ASAP if the we want to survive until next season.

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

One more thing, just for fun: In October of 2009, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart covered this subject in a brilliant and hysterical segment entitled “FOR FOX SAKE! Fox News defends itself against an attack by the Obama administration by explaining that most of their shows aren’t real news.” ENJOY!


Trump is Terrified That He’s Losing the Senate, Paving the Way for Impeachment

Posted by on August 31, 2019 at 12:48 pm. NO Comments :

The best gauge of what Donald Trump’s paranoid, narcissistic mind is obsessed with at any given moment is his frantic and self-serving Twitter feed. Trump has no ability to give thoughtful consideration to what he tweets. He simply lets his innermost anxieties gush like a busted fire hydrant spewing unrestrained panic.

Donald Trump Impeach

On Saturday morning Trump was at Camp David where he said he was monitoring the approaching Hurricane Dorian as it lumbers toward Florida. Trump had canceled a previously scheduled diplomatic mission to Poland allegedly to manage preparations for the hurricane. However, he has already left Camp David for a golf outing in Virginia. But even prior to that he was paying much more attention to Twitter than to the weather forecast.

Trump’s tweets covered a couple predictable subjects that had to do with his obsession over former FBI Director James Comey, who he fired two years ago, and the firing of his personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, yesterday. Not surprisingly, Trump lied about Comey releasing classified documents, which his own Justice Department’s Inspector General said didn’t happen. And he threatened Westerhout with a lawsuit if she violated an alleged non-disclosure agreement. Of course, Trump cannot enforce any such agreement for White House staff because they don’t work for him. They work for the United States government.

However, Something else was consuming Trump’s pitifully limited attention span, and it exploded all over his Twitter feed. There were twenty-five (25!) tweets or retweets of Senate Republicans, along with Trump’s compliments and vague, insincere flattery. That’s an astonishingly large quantity of tweets by Trump on a subject that isn’t himself. So what might have triggered this uncharacteristic outburst of political angst?

Clearly Trump’s advisors are warning him of the harsh environment he’s facing in the upcoming election of 2020. His favorite pollster, Rasmussen, recently placed his favorability near his lows for the year. And even a Fox News poll shows him losing to every one of the top Democratic candidates.

The picture isn’t any better for the Republicans in the Senate. Next year they will have twenty-two incumbents on the ballot (including GOP Leader Mitch McConnell), compared with only twelve for the Democrats. And with people like Cory Gardner of Colorado, Susan Collins of Maine, and Martha McSally of Arizona, struggling to stay competitive, the odds of Democrats winning the majority in the Senate are increasingly likely.

Should that happen Mitch McConnell would no longer have the tyrannical hold on the upper body that he has been abusing for years. The 200+ bills passed in the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives would finally get a vote in the Senate. But most foreboding from Trump’s perspective is that there would no longer be any partisan protection from a possible impeachment. And if there is strong Blue Wave sweeping the GOP out of Congress, the remaining members might actually be concerned enough about their own futures to take Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors seriously.

Even before the 2020 election, GOP senators who see the oncoming trainwreck might start to drift away from Trump in order to save themselves. Even if that means throwing him overboard. Consequently, Trump is lavishing attention and praise on the Republican senators he has for the most part ignored or treated as lackeys whose only purpose was to serve him. He now needs to gain their support and demonstrate that he’s willing to work harder for their reelection. Not because he really cares about either their political fate or even their agenda. But because he fears the consequences for himself without the safety net they provide.

Unfortunately for Trump, it’s too late for this selfish strategy to work. Anyone who supports Trump is already planning to vote the Republican line. He has no ability to attract new voters. In fact, he’s so polarizing that his presence will probably scare more voters away. So the desperation he’s showing with this tweetstorm is actually good news for Democrats and other patriotic Americans who are anxious to see Trump impeached. His overt expression of fear shows that he’s truly concerned that there’s a real possibility that he will be removed from office and prosecuted for his wrongdoings and betrayal. And for once, he’s right.

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


The Love Affair Between Trump and Fox News Has Been All Patched Up, Thank Gawd

Posted by on August 30, 2019 at 4:30 pm. 3 Comments :

There was a brief disturbance in the force this week when Donald Trump became disenchanted with his own State TV network, Fox News. Trump’s ire appeared to have been triggered by Fox having the audacity to interview a representative of the Democratic Party. He seems to think that Fox News is forbidden to interview anyone that isn’t a card-carrying StormTrumper.

Donald Trump, Fox News, White House

Trump unleashed a Twitter tantrum that included his declaration that “Fox isn’t working for us anymore,” and an order to his Deplorables that “We have to start looking for a new News Outlet.” These missives might have startled some in the media business, but those who have seen this sort of whining on Trump’s part before weren’t surprised. While he has had several breakups with Fox, they were always short-lived and the two lovers managed to kiss and make up every time.

The evidence that the latest rift in the Trump/Fox Affair has been mended is Trump’s Twitter feed on Friday. It contained five videos from Fox News all on a single subject: The Justice Department’s Inspector General report on James Comey. Trump could have gotten this news from anywhere, but he chose to feature the Fox segments because – well, Fox is still his sweetheart.

For the record, Trump and Fox News were both obsessed with the IG’s report and presented it as proof of Comey’s corruption and bias. Nevermind that the report explicitly stated that Comey broke no laws, which is why Trump’s corrupt Attorney General, William Barr, declined to prosecute. As for bias, Fox and Trump have never explained why Comey sabotaged Hillary Clinton’s campaign if he was supposedly supporting her.

The videos Trump posted included one with a phony “Democrat” who frequently appears on Fox News to bark at Democrats. Then there was one that featured a former prosecutor and current Fox Democrat basher. And there were three videos featuring Republican congressmen whose predictable partisanship was flagrantly on display.

Obviously Trump has gotten over his beef with Fox News. He always knew that Fox was his best friend and that their tiff would subside. Because where else can he go? He isn’t going to soil himself with the networks he calls “the enemy of the people.” And other right-wing media outlets are pitifully small and ineffectual. He knows that only Fox News has the sort of worshipful sycophants who can go on the air and say with conviction that Donald Trump has never told a lie, which is what Stuart Varney just did. It takes a special brand of deranged cult devotion to satisfy Trump’s massive and fragile ego. And only Fox News can offer that.

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

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Lying Fox News Host Lies that Trump Has Never Lied to the American People

Posted by on August 30, 2019 at 12:23 pm. 3 Comments :

The mission of Fox News from its inception was to advance the goals of the nationalist right-wing and the Republican Party. But when Donald Trump came along they transformed noticeably into a State TV propaganda outlet devoted single-mindedly to this president and his hostile and demented ravings. Virtually every program lavishes praise on Trump and viciously maligns his critics.

Fox News, Donald Trump

What’s worse, is that there is no lie that is beneath the already sunken principles of Fox News. They are taking their cues from a president who has already told more than 12,000 lies since his inauguration. The legacy of the Trump presidency (contrary to his delusional hopes) will surely include this historically depraved achievement, along with caging babies and being a puppet for Vladimir Putin.

As if to to emphasize the enthusiasm Fox News has for lying about Trump, one of his favorite Fox hosts, Stuart Varney, conducted a dumbfounding interview with conservative Republican Joe Walsh who is challenging Trump for the GOP nomination for president. Walsh is hardly a pristine representative of political ethics, but in this segment (video below) of Varney’s program he shines with uncharacteristic virtue, and makes Varney look like a flaccid Trump sycophant and cult follower.

Walsh began by correctly observing that “We’ve never had a situation like this where we have a president that we fundamentally cannot believe.” A surprisingly skeptical Varney asked Walsh for an example. That was his first mistake. Walsh quickly provided an example from just the day before when Trump’s own staff admitted that Trump lied at the G7 summit when he said that he held high level phone calls with China about tariffs. Walsh’s example led to this bizarre exchange and ludicrous denial:

Varney: That’s not a lie. Let’s not get technical. If the man said – and he did – that high level talks had been held with China, that is not a lie. They were held with China.
Walsh: Stuart, he said there were high level phone calls with Chinese officials. His staff admitted that was not true, that he lied in order to manipulate the market.
Varney: Okay, give me another one.
Walsh: Stuart, you really don’t believe that that’s a lie?
Varney: No I don’t.

It is impossible to have a coherent discussion with someone who hears a flagrant falsehood, but denies what he just heard and tries to move past it in complete blindness. Varney simply accepts whatever Trump says as the truth, even if his own staff says that it isn’t. This isn’t political loyalty. It’s cult worship. And it continued further as the interview progressed:

Walsh: Do you believe this president lies?
Varney: No.
Walsh: You don’t believed he’s ever lied?
Varney: He exaggerates and spins.
Walsh: Okay, do you believe he’s ever told the American people a lie?
Varney: No.

Walsh finally gave up in exasperation as he realized that Varney’s doctrinal programming was impenetrable. He has clearly adopted the first order of a cult: Believe only the Leader. Everyone else is lying. And this isn’t even the first time this week that a Trump shill has claimed that Trump never utters anything less than the God’s honest truth. On CNN Chris Cuomo interviewed Trump’s 2020 campaign Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. She also insisted that Trump has never ever told a lie. Trump’s new press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said that she doesn’t think his lies are lies. This is all reminiscent of Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts,” And Rudy Giuliani’s “Truth isn’t truth.”

No rational person could ever assert that Trump has never told a lie. Trump has lied about things big and small. He’s lied about tariffs being paid by China; about his polling; about the size of his crowds; about Obama; about the environment; about the border wall; and always about the news being fake. But Trump’s disciples regard him as a messiah who is an infallible manifestation of perfection. Which is precisely how Trump regards himself, having recently declared that he is “The Chosen One.” And sadly, his Deplorables believe that too.

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


Delusional Donald Hopes the Legacy of the ‘Age of Trump’ Will Be Exposing “Fake’ News

Posted by on August 29, 2019 at 4:15 pm. 3 Comments :

It has only been about two and a half years since Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. Yes, it seems like at least a decade, but that’s only because it’s been filled with so much pain, disgust, and shock. And with just over half of a single term elapsed, Trump is already fantasizing about how history will treat him when he’s gone. Which is precisely what you’d expect of a self-absorbed, and dangerously psychotic, narcissist.

Donald Trump

Trump posted a tweet wherein he referred to a future historical period that he deemed the “Age of Trump.” That’s mighty audacious of him considering that ages, in geological terms, often extend for periods of time that far exceed even a two-term presidency. For example, the Age of the Dinosaurs or the Industrial Age. What’s more, his term as president is unlikely to define even that limited period of time in anything but books about the decline of Western civilization. Here is what he tweeted:

Trump’s maniacal assertion that we are currently living in a time of unprecedented fraud and corruption in the media is purely a fabrication of his own diseased brain. To be sure, there are isolated tumors in the body of the press that are malignant and growing. The pus oozing from Fox News is evidence of that. But that isn’t what Trump is referring to (although he recently took a swipe at his State TV network, even ordering his cult followers to “start looking for a new news outlet”). What Trump regards as fraudulent is any news that isn’t wholly adoring and worshipful. And it is from that perspective that he imagines his legacy as being one of exposing “massive dishonesty in the Fake News.”

There are only two significant problems with Trump’s dream of his own epoch. First of all, he has never exposed a single example of dishonesty in the media. All he does is whine about negative, but truthful, stories that trigger his anger and vengeance. He doesn’t provide any proof that any of these stories are false. He just screech-tweets his displeasure at being held to account for his ignorance, incompetence, and dishonesty.

The second problem with Trump’s hoped for future adulation as a news-buster is that there are so many other more important developments that overshadow his imaginary media exposés. If he is going to be remembered for anything it’s more likely be as the president who had caged babies, or lied about building a wall that Mexico would pay for, or banned Muslims from entering the country, or failed to either repeal or replace Obamacare, or embraced neo-Nazis and white nationalists, or doubled the national debt on the backs of middle-class Americans, or packed the Supreme Court with disreputable heathens, or openly expressed overtly racist views, or endeavored to hasten the destruction of the Earth by rolling back environmental regulations and dismissing Climate Change as a hoax.

And if those frightful hallmarks of the “Age of Trump” don’t dominate his historical remembrances, maybe it will be his more comically embarrassing ventures as the president who tried to buy Greenland, or nuke hurricanes, or fear monger about windmill cancer, or become the Commander-in-Chief of the Space Force. Then again, he could be recalled for the coming Trump Recession, or his impeachment for conspiring with Russia and obstructing justice, or his arrest after being thrown out of the White House.

Either way, these are the sort of things that Trump will be remembered, despised, and/or ridiculed for. It won’t have anything to do with his fictitious allegations about the press. And in the end, the best part of recalling the post-Trumpian age will be that he’s gone. Hopefully before too many of us are.

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


Big Baby Trump Threatens to Sue MSNBC, O’Donnell Over Report that Russians Co-Signed Loans

Posted by on August 28, 2019 at 3:21 pm. 4 Comments :

Poor Donald Trump. He thought that all of his misdeeds and corruption would remain secret in perpetuity. Unfortunately for him, his methods of deception have been just as incompetent and ineffective as everything else he does. Consequently, each new day brings another revelation of some legal or ethical breach that he hoped would stay buried.

Donald Trump

The latest bit of bad news for Trump comes in the form of a speculative report that aired on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. On Tuesday night the program revealed allegations from a confidential source who said that some of Trump’s loans from the shady Deutsche Bank were co-signed by Russian oligarchs connected to Vladimir Putin. This could be a bombshell story that would explain much of Trump’s affinity for – and coddling of – Russia generally, and Putin in particular.

The public disclosure of this sort of financial arrangement would be devastating for Trump. Consequently, he is punching back with all his impotent might. Trump had his personal attorney, Charles Harder, dash off a letter with a stern warning to O’Donnell and the network that should make them think twice:

“We write concerning the false and defamatory statements published by Lawrence O’Donnell and NBC Universal […] The Program and Tweet make the false and defamatory statements that ‘Russian oligarchs’ cosigned loans provided to Mr. Trump by Deutsche Bank, and described these ‘co-signers’ as ‘Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin.'” These statements are false and defamatory, and extremely damaging.”

Demand is hereby made that Mr. O’Donnell and NBCU immediately and prominently retract, correct and apologize for the aforementioned false and defamatory statements. [and that] Failure to do so will leave my clients with no alternative but to consider their legal options which could include immediate legal proceedings against Mr. O’Donnell and NBCU.”

This is an entirely bogus threat that is highly unlikely to ever be carried out. The allegations that O’Donnell reported were presented as speculative from the outset. He presented it that way in a teaser at the beginning of the show where he said that “I want to stress that it is a single source that has not been confirmed by NBC News [and that] it’s going to require a lot more verification before that can be a confirmable fact.” He repeated these disclaimers in the segment that aired later. He could not have been more clear, repeatedly prefacing his remarks by saying “If true…” Therefore, he never presented it as fact, only the assertions of his source, as is evident in the video of the segment:

Trump is well known to engage in legal bullying, wherein he threatens people with lawsuits, but usually chickens out before filing any. In fact, he’s done that before with O’Donnell. In 2011 he threatened to sue O’Donnell for saying that Trump was not really a billionaire. That lawsuit never materialized. And neither will this one. O’Donnell has already taken the high road by tweeting that he “made an error in judgment” by reporting the unconfirmed story.

It’s hard to know if his walking this back was due to his own journalistic standards or pressure from the network which might have been spooked by the threat of litigation. But there are good reasons why they need not worry. This lawsuit, if pursued, could have some unintended consequences for Trump and company. First, it would disseminate to a much larger audience the allegation that he needed Russian oligarchs to co-sign his loans. That would confirm already known facts regarding Trump’s dire financial status and inability to secure loans on his own from reputable institutions. The lawsuit would also result in a discovery process which would require Trump to provide otherwise confidential documents to the legal representatives of O’Donnell and MSNBC. That requirement by itself will likely scare Trump out of ever actually filing any lawsuit.

So no one should be getting out the popcorn to watch this goofy episode of Trump’s reality show. It is almost certainly going to be preempted by some other Trump nonsense like buying Greenland or nuking hurricanes. This will just end up being another infantile tantrum thrown by our Crybaby-in-Chief that will amount to nothing but blather and the pathetic hissing of a wounded weasel.

UPDATE: True to his word, O’Donnell opened his program Wednesday night with a statement about the Deutsche Bank story. He reiterated the story had not gone through “the rigorous verification process” at MSNBC. Along with the retraction, he also pointedly noted that “We don’t know whether the information is inaccurate. But the fact is we do know that it wasn’t ready for broadcast. And for that I apologize.”

Interestingly, although O’Donnell provided everything Trump’s lawyer’s asked for (a retraction and an apology), Eric Trump demonstrated why the Trump word is worthless. He tweeted that “Apologies are not enough,” and that “we will be taking legal action.” So there’s still hope that a lawsuit will proceed and the discovery process will force Trump to hand over documents they would otherwise keep secret. It’s still more likely that Trump will chicken out, but given his profound stupidity, he might just be dumb enough to go through with it.

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


Trump vs Fox News: Orders His Cult Followers to ‘Start Looking For a New News Outlet’

Posted by on August 28, 2019 at 11:27 am. 3 Comments :

The hypersensitive state of Donald Trump’s thin skin and fragile ego is being tested as the country gets ever more disgusted by his ignorance and incompetence. Now his State TV network (aka Fox News) is taking heat for not having the purity of devotion that he requires. This is a peculiar development considering how worshipful Fox News is toward Trump and the network’s commitment to its mission of advancing the interests of the Republican Nationalist Party.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Fake

On Wednesday morning Trump unleashed another of his crazed tweetstorms in response to an interview on Fox News with Democratic National Committee spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa. His anger seemed to be focused on just the fact that Fox would consent to book a Democrat.

So an interview, in Trump’s diseased mind, is tantamount to “heavily promoting” the Democratic Party that he has called “the true enemies of America.” That’s in addition, of course, to his raving that the media is “the enemy of the people.” Trump seems to think that Fox News is forbidden to interview anyone that isn’t a card-carrying StormTrumper.

Trump’s complaint was that Hinojosa was “spewing out whatever she wanted,” because he clearly hates the free speech provisions in the First Amendment of the Constitution. Then Trump goes on to whine incoherently about the “socialists” he believes Fox has hired as pundits. He obviously doesn’t know the meaning of that word, or most others for that matter.

But despite his unbridled rage, he wants everyone to know that he’s still confident of his ability to win. Nevermind that recent polls show him losing to all five of the top Democrats, including in the battleground states he won in 2016. Even his favorite pollster, the disreputably biased Rasmussen, recently had Trump near his low point for the year.

However, the most astonishing tweet of the morning showed that Trump was through tolerating the radical left-wingers at Fox News:

So you have your marching orders, Deplorables. It’s time for you to “start looking for a new News Outlet,” because “Fox isn’t working for us anymore!” What’s interesting about this is that it’s another admission that Trump believes that Fox News is supposed to be working for him. That definitively confirms what has been observable for years to anyone with a functioning frontal cortex.

This isn’t the first time that Trump has made this connection to Fox. Just last week he whined that he was “not happy with Fox“ and threatened them saying that “I’m the one who calls the shots.” Last month he attacked Fox saying that they were “worse than watching low ratings Fake News @CNN,” and that “they forgot the people who got them there!” Trump even threatened to conduct an official investigation into why Fox had stopped airing all of his cult rallies live.

You have to wonder what Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, Jesse Watters, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends will have to say about Trump ordering his brainwashed minions to find another propaganda network. To be sure, Trump still lauds these sycophantic shills, but when he makes broad-based denouncements like this, no one is safe from the rancid spray of his scattershot wrath. That’s how the mind of a malignant narcissist works. The only thing that registers is unqualified adoration, and any diversion from such constitutes treason.

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