Fox News Airs Phony Footage Of Iran Funds Flight – And Donald Trump Falls For It

Posted by on August 4, 2016 at 4:49 pm. NO Comments :

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story alleging to have uncovered a secret $400 million payment from the United States to Iran. Never mind that the payment was disclosed by the administration last January and was a settlement of a long standing financial dispute. The WSJ ignited a firestorm of frenzied conservatives falsely asserting that the money was a ransom paid to secure the release of Americans imprisoned in Iran.

Fox News

Among the right-wing media spinners that rushed to wield this story as a cudgel against President Obama and Hillary Clinton was, of course, Fox News. They aired a report that parroted the WSJ (also owned by Rupert Murdoch) along with video that Fox implied was of the transfer of American cash to the Iranians. There’s just one problem. The video was actually of a group of prisoners being released in Switzerland.

Not one to let a fake Fox News story go to waste, Donald Trump took to the stage in Daytona, Florida, to address the matter (video below). But he veered even further into a world of delusion as he unfolded a fable of espionage to which he alone was privy:

“I’ll never forget the scene this morning. Remember this: Iran – I don’t think you heard this anywhere but here – Iran provided all of that footage, the tape of taking that money off the airplane. Right? $400 million in cash. How does the President do that? How do you do that? We’re gonna send $400 million in cash, this is in cash, in currency.”

No, Donald, That’s not right. Iran didn’t take any of that footage, which was shot in Switzerland. And there was no cash in it at all. In fact, the claim that the U.S. loaded shipping palettes with cash was utterly false. Due to economic sanctions, the U.S. has no banking relationship with Iran. Therefore, the money was transferred to Swiss banks where it was converted by the them to currencies that they sent to Iran. Trump continued:

“Now, here’s the amazing thing: Over there, where that plane landed, top secret, you don’t have a lot of paparazzi. You know, the paparazzi doesn’t do so well over there, right? And they have a perfect tape, done by obviously a government camera, and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane. Right? That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sent us the tapes. Right? It’s a military tape, it’s a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady, nobody getting nervous because they’re gonna be shot because they’re shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane.”

Once again, that is entirely wrong. Iran didn’t send us the tape, and it’s not from their military. So there was no attempt on their part to embarrass the U.S. There was no top secret landing since the entire affair was publicly disclosed by the government. This whole story is as fictional as Trump’s claim to have seen thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the fall of the World Trade Center towers. That never happened either.

So Trump invented a tale of intrigue wherein he observed a non-existent top secret video of Iranians receiving piles of cash from a clandestine American flight. And just to be clear, his spokesperson, Hope Hicks, was asked by the Washington Post if the video to which he was referring was the one that aired on Fox News. She responded “Yes,” it was “merely the B-roll footage included in every broadcast.” And since we know that that video was not shot in Iran, we also know that Trump’s entire account is pure fiction. Which makes it consistent with pretty much everything else that Trump says (see the Trump Bullshitopedia). and, for that matter, most of what appears on Fox News.

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

UPDATE: Trump has now admitted that he never saw the video he claimed at least twice to have seen. He gave no explanation for why he falsely claimed to have seen a video that doesn’t exist.

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Fox News War Mongering EXPOSED: Former Exec Confesses ‘My Job Was To Sell The War’ In Iraq

Posted by on August 3, 2016 at 6:40 pm. 4 Comments :

The flagrantly right-wing bias of Fox News is no longer in doubt by anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the network’s aggressive propagandizing. Most of the network’s anchors, contributors, and guests lean so far to the right that Joseph Goebbels would have been proud to be associated with it. And yet, their own pride of ideological leaning is carefully hidden under a veil of phony fairness and balance.

Fox News

That’s why it was surprising to find a public admission of political spin from a high level Fox insider buried in a story on a completely different subject. Last week Gabriel Sherman of New York Magazine published another article in his investigative series that contributed to the downfall of Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. Sherman is also the author of the Ailes biography The Loudest Voice in the Room.

The sexual harassment scandal that led to the humiliating ouster of the most powerful man in media had been steadily escalating. Dozens of women came forward to tell their painful stories of abuse. One of those women was Laurie Luhn who worked for Fox News for more than twenty years. The circumstances of her harrowing experience are spelled out in excruciating detail in Sherman’s article. But little noticed was this paragraph buried deep withing the article that revealed something unrelated to the abuse:

“As she was promoted through the ranks at Fox, Luhn worked harder and harder to please Ailes. She zealously promoted the network’s right-wing agenda. ‘I was very proud of the product. I was very proud of how we handled 9/11. Very proud of how we handled the run-up to the Iraq War,’ she said. ‘My job was to sell the war. I needed to get people on the air that were attractive and articulate and could convey the importance of this campaign. It was a drumbeat.'”

As the Director of Bookings for Fox News, Luhn saw her job as “selling the war” in Iraq. And she clearly recognized the benefits of seeking attractive, articulate salespeople to move the product. The “drumbeat” to which she refers was evident every day as the network hammered its advocacy of a war that had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11. This was much more than a typical news slant to sway public opinion. This was a blatant effort to steer the nation into an international conflict that has had disastrous results from which we are still suffering today.

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

These revelations turn the Luhn story into a much more complex affair. While she was on a daily mission to help her employer embroil the country in an immoral and illegal war, she was also a victim of unconscionable behavior from her despicable boss. There is no excuse for what Ailes allegedly did to her and the many other women making similar allegations against him. But there is a strange and sad irony that these heinous acts resulted in Luhn providing one of the most potent examples of how Fox News deliberately deceived the American people and unleashed an era of war, terrorism, and misery on the world.


Watch ‘Zoolander’ Trump Threaten To Ban The New York Times Because They ‘Don’t Write Good’

Posted by on August 2, 2016 at 11:44 am. 4 Comments :

The surest sign of desperation in a politician is when he resorts to wholly implausible and baseless conspiracy theories. These delusions are generally aimed at imaginary enemies that are perceived to be bearing down from all directions. Donald Trump crossed over into that paranoid territory months ago as he began a systematic suppression of the press that covers his campaign and abstaining from appearances on news networks that he deems to be unfriendly.

Trump Zoolander

The list of news organizations that Trump is banishing grew yesterday with the addition of what he calls the “failing” New York Times. Trump has been bashing the Times throughout his campaign, but this is the first time that he has threatened to revoke their press credentials and prohibit them from covering his public events. Trump made this threat at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, where he asserted that the Times was “very dishonest,” but failed to provide any instances to back up the charge.

Trump later appeared on Fox News and, in response to a flagrantly leading question from Sean Hannity on whether the media is acting as Hillary Clinton’s press office, he went after the Times again:

“The New York Times is so unfair. I mean they write three, four articles about me a day. No matter how good I do on something, they’ll never write good. They don’t write good. They have people over there, like Maggie Haberman and others, they don’t — they don’t write good. They don’t know how to write good.”

Well, perhaps Trump would be kind enough to provide some instructions for the illiterates at the Times on “How To Write Good,” so they can be as goodly at writing as his talking is at. The Times reporters would surely benefit from his famous collection of all the “best words“ that he tosses together with his “very good brain.” Just ask Derek Zoolander, founder of the Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good (an affiliate of Trump University?):

Should Trump carry out his threat to ban the New York Times, they would join the Washington Post, Politico, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Univision and a couple dozen other media enterprises. It would be consistent with his knee-jerk hostility to the press, and the principles of a free press, that he frequently refers to as vile scum. If his pattern of blacklisting the media continues, the only reporters covering his campaign will be those from Fox News, the National Enquirer, and his pals at Pravda.


New Poll Shows HISTORIC Post-Convention FLOP For Trump And The GOP

Posted by on August 1, 2016 at 2:40 pm. NO Comments :

The 2016 general election has officially begun. Both party nominating conventions have concluded and the candidates are spreading out across the country soliciting votes. As they do so, the impact of the conventions is beginning to be revealed in the first polling since the balloons dropped. And it’s terrible news for Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

Donald Trump

Gallup has been surveying post-convention impressions for more than thirty years, but the results of this year’s poll have Trump scraping rock bottom with regard to public approval. In a first for Gallup, the majority of respondents (52%) say that they have a less favorable view of the Republican Party after the conventions than before. By contrast, a plurality of respondents (44%) view Democrats more favorably. Similarly, a majority of Americans (51%) are now saying that they are less likely to vote for Trump, while more voters (45%) say they are more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton following the two conventions. According to Gallup:

“The 2016 Republican convention is the first after which a greater percentage of Americans have said they are ‘less likely’ rather than ‘more likely’ to vote for the party’s presidential nominee.”

That’s a notable milestone. Trump scored a net negative of fifteen percent who were put off by his nightmarish presentation at the most significant campaign event of the election cycle thus far. That vastly under performs the second worst historical showing in this poll previously, which was a net positive of two percent for Mitt Romney in 2012. And thirteen percent of those saying they are less likely to vote for Trump are Republicans.

Gallup also polled reactions to the candidates’ acceptance speeches with results that should be equally worrisome to the Trump camp. Only thirty-five percent of Americans rated Trump’s speech “Excellent/Good.” Another thirty-six percent said it was “Poor/Terrible.” Clinton fared much better by comparison with forty-four percent rating her speech “Excellent/Good,” and only twenty percent holding the negative view. These numbers contribute to Gallup’s conclusions:

“In the short term, it appears the Democratic Party will leave the convention phase better off than before it began. Gallup tracking finds Clinton’s post-convention favorable rating at 44%, up six percentage points from mid-July. That is much higher than Trump’s 32% favorable rating in the days after the Democratic convention. Also, Obama’s job approval rating is now up to 54%, tied for the highest it has been since early 2013.”

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

These survey results are closely aligned with the Nielsen ratings for the two conventions that showed the Democrats drawing in far more viewers than the Republicans over the four nights of television coverage. Not surprisingly, Americans prefer hope and unity to fear and division. And the failure of the GOP convention, and Trump’s horror show speech, explain why Trump himself is laughably trying to pretend that he had nothing to do with any of it. So now it’s on to the debates, assuming that Trump doesn’t chicken out (for which he is already laying the groundwork).


Chicken-Sh*t Trump Already Trying To Weasel Out Of Debates With Clinton

Posted by on July 30, 2016 at 5:20 pm. 9 Comments :

Now that the general election scorecard is filled and the major party conventions are history, the next big events in the election cycle will be the highly anticipated Clinton/Trump debates. While the conventions are usually seen as self-serving infomercials, voters often regard the debates as critical opportunities to assess the candidates and make a decision.

Donald Trump

Well, it didn’t take twenty-four hours for Donald Trump to start whining about the debate process and laying the groundwork to slither away without having to confront Hillary Clinton face to face. Last night he summoned up the courage to venture out onto the Twitter machine and post this:

As usual, Trump and the GOP are trying to hide their fear by accusing everyone of conspiring against them. Trump’s paranoia is sending him into delusional fits that are precursors to a cowardly retreat, just like when he skipped out on a Fox News debate because he was too scared to face Megyn Kelly. Clearly he has a problem with strong women.

For the record, neither Clinton nor the Democratic Party had anything to do with the debate schedule. The Commission On Presidential Debates (CPD) has been managing these affairs since 1988. It is run by former members of both parties who have no affiliation with any candidate. The current schedule was released nearly a year ago (September 23, 2015), before any of the candidates were chosen. And it would be nearly impossible to find broadcast dates that didn’t coincide with a popular television program, whether it be the NFL or Law & Order or America’s Got Talent.

Trump has already demonstrated his tendency to provoke melodrama with regard to candidate debates. He turned the GOP primary debates into feral spectacles of crass immaturity and avoidance of substance. His tantrums succeeded in forcing the Republican National Committee and the media to capitulate to his will, forcing out networks or media co-sponsors that he didn’t think were sufficiently deferential to him.

What Trump means by “Unacceptable” is unclear. Is he declaring now that he is refusing to participate in the debates? Is he demanding that other terms agreeable to him are implemented? Or is he preparing his excuse for when he fails to show up like every other presidential candidate has done for over half a century? In any case he is revealing that he is a sniveling coward who would be knocked senseless were he to step into the ring with Hillary. And he knows it.

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

So look for Trump to continue his whining up to, throughout, and following the debates (if he even shows up). And watch him try to blame his failures on the legions of imaginary enemies who are amassed to bring him down. Donald Trump is a walking psychosis who is frantically searching for a way to avoid being humiliated by an uppity woman. At times like these you realize that there just isn’t enough popcorn in the world.

UPDATE: Lyin’ Don told George Stephanopoulos on This Week that the NFL sent him a letter saying that “This is ridiculous. Why are the debates against us?” But an NFL spokesman quickly denied it tweeting “While we’d obviously wish the debate commission could find another night, we did not send a letter to Trump.”


Democrats’ Message Of Hope THRASHES Republican Fear Mongering In TV Ratings

Posted by on July 30, 2016 at 9:40 am. NO Comments :

Now that both of the presidential nominating conventions are over, we can take a look at how the American people felt about the proceedings with respect to their television viewing. The Nielsen ratings are in and they tell a story that may have an impact on the election and its results in November.

Clinton Trump

From the broadest perspective the Democrats scored a significant victory (which may explain why Donald Trump is now pretending that he had nothing to do with his own convention). The cumulative total viewers for all four nights, across ten broadcast and cable networks, during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) was 116.7 million. For the Republican National Convention (RNC) it was 100.7 million. The Democrats outright won the first three nights by at least five million viewers. On the fourth night Trump’s acceptance speech outdrew Hillary Clinton’s by a small margin of 1.6 million.

DNC RNC
Day 1 28.4 23.0
Day 2 28.0 23.0
Day 3 27.0 19.8
Day 4 33.3 34.9
116.7 100.7

The fourth night of the DNC event requires some additional analysis. It is fair to say that the night when a candidate is making their acceptance speech has particular significance. They are the star attraction at these shows and the impressions they make can have a substantial impact. Consequently, it should raise one’s curiosity as to why the Democrats won every night except the one when Hillary Clinton was making her big speech.

The answer is not especially surprising. When the numbers are broken down by network, you’ll find that Trump drew a massive 9.4 million viewers for his speech on Fox News alone. The following week, by contrast, Clinton was watched by only three million viewers on Fox. There was no similar disparity on any other network.

Clearly the people who watch Fox News were inclined to tune in to see their favorite candidate, Donald Trump. And when it came time for Hillary Clinton to speak, Fox viewers simply tuned her out, preferring to remain steeped in their own partisan stupidity. Absent this warped variable, the average viewership of the convention’s fourth night again shows a healthy lead for the Democrats.

More importantly, it shows a decidedly unhealthy tendency for Republicans to deliberately shelter themselves from the real world and wallow in a pool of purposeful ignorance. This isn’t a new development. A couple of years ago Gallup conducted a study that identified the political leanings of the viewers of each network. It showed that fully 94% of respondents identified as Republican or leaning Republican said that Fox News is their main source for news. Conservatives chimed in at 79%. And a whopping 97% of those who do not approve of President Obama pledged their allegiance to Fox. None of the respondents on the left came within 30 points of that level of extreme partisanship.

What this tells us is that Fox News is virtually irrelevant to the political debate in America. They cater to a uniform community of right-wing zealots whose opinions are locked in place. So it makes no difference that Fox viewers didn’t watch Clinton’s speech because they wouldn’t vote for her anyway. In fact, they may have just been following orders from their master. Yesterday Donald Trump sent an email to supporters telling them not to watch Clinton on Thursday:

“Unless you want to be lied to, belittled, and attacked for your beliefs, don’t watch Hillary’s DNC speech tonight.”

That’s the sort of advice that you give to juveniles you can’t trust to make their own decisions. It’s advice that cripples ones ability to understand the world around them and makes them incapable of knowing how to respond to information that isn’t pre-chewed for them by autocratic demagogues. In other words, it’s advice that Fox News viewers would rush blindly to follow. And what makes this even more ludicrous is that Trump himself declined his own advice. After earlier saying that he was not going to watch Clinton’s speech, he confessed to an audience at a rally today that “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I watched it.”

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

Of course he did. How else would he know what lame insults to tweet in response? Trump’s ego would never permit him to avoid anything that someone might say about him, particularly if it’s critical. As an insecure bully he needs to have constant control of his surroundings so he can strike back when he feels he’s been maligned. These ratings results prove that he’s one of the losers he’s constantly accusing his opponents of being. But don’t expect him to acknowledge it. He’s probably preparing some tweets right now to smear the lefty radicals at Nielsen who he surely believes are deliberately sabotaging his campaign.

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Lyin’ Donald Trump Now Pretends He Had Nothing To Do With His Own Disastrous Convention

Posted by on July 29, 2016 at 4:19 pm. NO Comments :

From the commencement of Donald Trump’s journey to the Republican nomination for president he has bragged about his super-awesome skills in television production and media spectacles. To be sure, he’s had some experience in these areas with his glitzy beauty pageants and schmaltzy Apprentice programs (although it’s unclear what his producing role was in either).

Trump Convention

Prior to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Trump touted his alleged showbiz cred to build anticipation for a glossy entertainment-rich extravaganza. Last April he told the Washington Post that it was his intention to produce a “monumentally magnificent convention” that is “brilliantly staged.” As it turns out, he was only able to coax D-List talent like Scott Baio and Duck Dynasty’s Willie Robertson. Contrast that with the Democratic Convention’s roster of Meryl Streep, Paul Simon, Alicia Keys, and Katy Perry.

On the political front, Trump’s party has kept its distance from him with both of the former GOP presidents (Bush and Bush, Jr.) staying away, as well as both of the previous GOP nominees for president (McCain and Romney). Only two of the seventeen 2016 contenders bothered to show up, and John Kasich, the governor of the state that is hosting the convention refused to step foot inside of it. While at the DNC affair they exhibited Democratic star power like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Bill Clinton (of course), Joe Biden, and Michelle and Barack Obama.

Immediately following the RNC debacle Trump tweeted that it was “One of the best produced, including the incredible stage & set, in the history of conventions. Great unity! Big T.V. ratings!” That was before the reviews came in that were almost unanimously negative. Even prominent conservatives were bad-mouthing the event. For example:

As the reality set in that the GOP convention was a national turn off, Trump ran for cover, afraid of being associated with the losers responsible for it (i.e. himself). As reported in the New York Times:

“The Times asked Trump about why his convention seemed haphazardly thrown-together, unlike the very coordinated and on-message Democratic convention and unlike Republican conventions of the past. ‘I didn’t produce our show — I just showed up for the final speech on Thursday,’ he responded.”

If it’s true that Trump just showed up to give his speech, then he abdicated his responsibilities as the leader of his party. Every nominee owns their convention and campaign. Trump is saying that he was no more than a hired spokesman for the most important event in the entire campaign process.

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

That’s the sort of dishonest buck-passing that we could expect if Trump were to prevail in November. His notoriously thin skin, and his infamous narcissism, would never allow him to take responsibility for anything that had the taint of failure. Before it was apparent that the Republicans threw an epic dud, Trump was boasting that it was all his doing. Now he can’t run away fast enough. And it’s significant that the failures of the GOP convention were specifically in the areas that Trump claims to excel. It would be funny if the consequences weren’t so serious.


Muslim Father Of A Fallen Hero Shames Donald Trump: You Have Sacrificed Nothing

Posted by on July 29, 2016 at 9:09 am. 2 Comments :

The final night of the Democratic National Convention had many memorable moments including speeches and performances by notables like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Katy Perry. And of course, the headliners for the evening, Chelsea Clinton introducing her mother Hillary Clinton.

However, what may be remembered as the most moving address of the week was the touching story of a grieving father whose misfortune hasn’t dampened his patriotism.

Khizr Khan

Khizr Khan is the father of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan who was killed serving his country in Iraq. Mr. Khan addressed the delegates after a video wherein Clinton paid tribute to the fallen soldier. His comments were brief and to the point, beginning with his description of his family as “patriotic American Muslims with undivided loyalty to our country.” He was clearly moved by Clinton’s tribute to his son. And he was equally repulsed by Donald Trump’s campaign of bigotry and intolerance:

“Hillary Clinton was right when she called my son the best of America. If it was up to Donald Trump he never would have been in America. Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. He disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party leadership. He wants to build walls and ban us from this country.

“Donald Trump, you’re asking Americans to trust you with their future. Let me ask you, have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document look for the words “liberty” and “equal protection of law.”

These poignant remarks perfectly illustrate what’s so hurtful and un-American about Trump’s efforts to demonize Muslims and other immigrant families. Trump regards the differences in people as threats to be quashed. He has no ability to recognize the shared values of diverse people who love freedom. That’s why he views refugees as disguised terrorists rather than victims who despise terrorism more than anyone. And it’s why Mr. Khan went on to beseech Trump to educate himself on the subject of true sacrifice:

“Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America. You’ll see all faiths, genders, and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one. We cannot solve our problems by building walls, sowing division. We are stronger together.”

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Trump to accept this challenge. He’s too busy pretending to care about veterans while ripping them off. And the last thing he wants is to abandon his campaign strategy of spreading fear and hatred. Because that’s literally all he has. And you know Khan’s remarks were powerful and effective because Fox News declined to air them, instead running an anti-Clinton commercial about Benghazi.

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

UPDATE: Trump responded to Mr. Khan’s remarks by insulting him and his wife. He accused Clinton of having written his statement. He falsely implied that Mrs. Khan was not allowed to speak. And in an appalling display of insensitivity and conceit, he claimed to have made sacrifices on par with that of the fallen soldier. He cited as an example that he has hired a lot of people. Oh my, what a sacrifice. That must have been so terribly difficult for him.


8 Reasons Donald Trump Is A HUGE Hypocrite For Calling Obama ‘Ignorant’

Posted by on July 28, 2016 at 1:03 pm. NO Comments :

On the same day that President Obama delivered one of the most powerful and well received convention speeches since a younger Obama spoke at a convention in 2004, Donald Trump made a desperate attempt to steal the news cycle from the Democrats’ festivities in Philadelphia. And it wasn’t just his dangerous solicitation of hostile foreign nations to commit cyber-crimes against America.

Donald Trump

In the same press conference where Trump invited Russia to illegally interfere in U.S. politics by hacking his political opponent, he had the audacity to malign Obama as “the most ignorant president in our history.” Never mind that Obama graduated from Columbia University before getting his law degree from Harvard (magna cum laude), where he was editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, went on to teach constitutional law, got elected to the Senate, and became the President of the friggin’ United States.

What really makes Trump’s typically childish insult so absurd is that he himself has repeatedly demonstrated an affinity for idiocy that is unmatched in modern times. This may explain why he said in February that he “loves the poorly educated.” And while it’s tempting to smugly imply that they would be the only ones who would buy into his vacuous campaign, that would be unfair. After all, “poorly educated” doesn’t mean stupid.

What follows are just a few examples of the embarrassingly daft comments that have discharged from The Donald’s prodigious dispensary of dimwitticisms(™) in just the past few weeks on the campaign trail.

  1. Trump was asked in a debate about his priorities with regard to America’s “Nuclear Triad” And his answer revealed that he had no idea what it is.
  2. Prior to Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, Trump couldn’t answer a question about Brexit until the interviewer gave him an explanation.
  3. When asked whether he would defend Article One of the Constitution, Trump responded that he’d defend all the articles up to the twelfth. But there are only seven articles in the Constitution.
  4. Attempting to criticize Democratic VP candidate Tim Kaine, Trump said that he “did a terrible job in New Jersey.” The only problem is that Kaine is the former governor, and current senator, from Virginia.
  5. Trump was so upset that the man who shot Ronald Reagan was being released from the custody of a mental institution that he complained that “David Hinckley should not have been freed.” Hinckley’s first name is “John.”
  6. After being pummeled for not repudiating white supremacist David Duke, Trump asserted that he “didn’t know anything” about him. Which was not only an admission of ignorance, it was a lie.
  7. Pretending to be a devout Christian, Trump bungled the quotation he sought to recite from the bible in a way that brought laughter from a Christian university audience.
  8. Trump earned one of his many “Pants-On-Fire” lie designations from PolitiFact when he claimed that the Trans-Pacific Partnership “was designed for China” to “totally take advantage of everyone.” Except that China is not a part of the TPP.

To be sure, there are many other incidences of Trump’s flagrant ignorance, but these few paint a sorrowful picture of a willful aversion to the sort of knowledge and incentive to learn that is required of a national leader (or a CPA, or a pet groomer, or any citizen).

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

And yet Trump regards himself as the foremost authority on – well, everything. When MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski asked him who he consults with he responded “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.” That’s when he isn’t consulting his other primary source of information that he identified when he said “All I know is what’s on the internet.” And if that doesn’t send shivers down the spine of America’s voters, they better see a neurologist stat.


Is This Treason? What Donald Trump Just Said Undermines American Democracy

Posted by on July 27, 2016 at 4:43 pm. 3 Comments :

It may be an Olympic-grade understatement to say that Donald Trump has done some god-awful things in his quest for the presidency. From mocking the disabled to ripping off veterans to insane proposals with regard to Muslims and immigrants. But he may just have outdone himself.

In a press conference this morning, Trump was asked about reports that Russia was responsible for the hacking of DNC emails. He has previously dismissed the charges as Democratic efforts to distract from the content of the stolen emails, despite the fact that it is the FBI and other intelligence agencies who identified Russia as the likely culprit.

Trump Putin

His response to today’s inquiries, however, introduced a new and deeply disturbing tactic on Trump’s part. He offered, without prompting, his interest in further exploiting the email theft to his advantage. In a direct response to a question on whether he would condemn the hacking he said “No, it gives me no pause,” and that:

“If Russia or China or any other country has those emails I mean to be honest with you, I’d love to see em.”

Let that sink in for a minute. Donald Trump, the nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States, is affirmatively endorsing the notion of revealing private information that was stolen from Americans by a foreign and hostile government. That is an untenable and unpatriotic position that undermines the country’s interests as well as the principles of personal privacy and information security. But it gets even worse. Trump went on to say:

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”

In that statement Trump is literally soliciting Russia to commit cyber-crimes and espionage against fellow Americans. How is that not treasonous? He continued with a thinly disguised reference to Russia being “rewarded mightily” for their hacking. Is that an offer to compensate Russian hackers and spies for their efforts? Or is Trump simply implying that Russia would benefit from a Trump presidency and that he would make it worth their while were they to sabotage the campaign of Hillary Clinton? Either way he is taking up sides with an international foe against his own country. Now what is it that we call that?

In the press conference Trump flatly denied having any connection to Russian politics or business. That’s a lie. Has he already forgotten his Miss Universe Pageant he held in Moscow just three years ago? But his Russian ties go much deeper than that. As reported by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo:

“At a minimum, Trump appears to have a deep financial dependence on Russian money from persons close to Putin. And this is matched to a conspicuous solicitousness to Russian foreign policy interests where they come into conflict with US policies which go back decades through administrations of both parties.”

Marshall’s article goes into extensive detail of Trump’s connections to Russian oligarchs and politicians. He makes the case that Trump’s chumminess with Putin is not coincidental. Marshall’s documentation is thorough and somewhat frightening. And if anyone wonders why Putin would favor Trump, look no further than Trump’s recent denigration of NATO and his reluctance to honor the agreement. That would be a huge advantage for Putin whose expansionism would be made much easier if he didn’t have to worry about the U.S. defending its NATO allies.

Another Trump lie in the press conference was his assertion that “I never met Putin, I don’t know who he is. He said one nice thing about me.” It is true, of course, that Trump never met Putin (although he once claimed to know him very well because they both appeared on “60 Minutes” in separate interviews, thousands of miles apart). But what are we to make of his claim that he doesn’t know who Putin is? Folks, we are treading dangerously close to mental incapacity here.

Trump’s VP, Mike Pence, issued a statement that appeared to distance himself from Trump’s perfidy:

“If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.”

Pence might want to confirm that with his boss who is promising that the perpetrators would be rewarded mightily. And contrary to his suggestion that both parties will ensure that there are consequences, the Republican Party has yet to make any public statement repudiating Trump’s remarks or even the more general issue of the hacking of the DNC. Contrast that with the statements from the Democratic side including:

Hillary for America Senior Policy Advisor, Jake Sullivan: This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent. […] This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta: “I find those kinds of statements to be totally outrageous because you’ve got now a presidential candidate who is in fact asking the Russians to engage in American politics. I just think that’s beyond the pale. […] I think that kind of statement only reflects the fact that he truly is not qualified to be president of the United States.”

It is incomprehensible that a candidate for the nation’s highest office is articulating activities that amount to aiding and abetting foreign enemies. Trump’s comments should be investigated by the FBI and his connections to Russian economic and political players should be thoroughly examined. As for Trump’s supporters, they need to reassess their allegiance to him, because if he can’t be trusted to act in the best interests of the nation, he surely should not get the vote of any patriotic American.

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