BENGHAZI? Watch Kellyanne Conway Resort to Classic Dodge to Avoid Defending Trump’s Lies

Posted by on August 6, 2017 at 2:30 pm. 2 Comments :

The guardians of Donald Trump’s floundering presidency are finding it ever more difficult carry out their task. They now have to deal with a special prosecutor ramping up investigations of the President. Grand juries are being impaneled in Washington, Virginia, and New York. And a flurry of new lies erupt from the White House every day. What’s a dedicated Trump shill supposed to do?

Kellyanne Conway

Well, Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week” we may have found out. Kellyanne Conway was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos about the blatant contradictions by Trump and company about their interactions with Russia. He summarized the situation and asked Conway for her explanation for the various accounts (video below):

“The White House and the President’s surrogates have told conflicting stories. First they said there no contacts with Russians. Then it turned out there were at least eighteen contacts. The story broke in the New York Times saying the President was involved in the drafting of his son Don, Jr.’s misleading response to that meeting he had with Russians during the campaign. And Jay Sekulow, the President’s attorney, came on GMA and told me the President was not involved.”

Stephanopoulos noted that the original statement and the one offered after the Times story were “very different answers in the space of two weeks.” But Conway’s response evaded the question to say that the meeting was of no consequence. She continues to deny the consequences of just agreeing to meet with Russian operatives to obtain campaign information. Even if nothing was obtained, the effort itself was an attempt at collusion. Conway added that Trump’s involvement in drafting Junior’s response was merely “weighing in as a father.” Of course. Every father has had that experience where they help their adult son to lie about meetings with America’s enemies.

Stephanopoulos persisted to challenge her on the shifting facts. He noted that the first statement was totally false and that the President and his lawyers “didn’t tell the truth.” To which Conway replied with a series of alleged falsehoods from the distant past. She raised the matter of whether or not people could keep their doctors under ObamaCare. And then she actually brought up Benghazi and tried to make that relevant to this discussion.

Let’s not get into a debate as to whether those were actually examples of untrue statements. The main point here is that Conway was utterly incapable of defending the lies from Trump’s White House. So reached into the past hoping to grasp a rhetorical lifeline. Stephanopoulos’ complaint that Conway was just changing the subject fell on deaf ears. When he asked if Trump could be truthful about the Russia investigations, Conway swerved to repeat Trump’s baseless assertion that the whole thing was fabricated.

By the end of the interview, Conway didn’t once respond directly to the charge that Trump and his surrogates lied. There are obvious differences between their initial accounts of the meetings and the facts that they later conceded. Plus, the false claim that Trump had nothing to do with Junior’s first statement remains unexplained. And Conway’s flagrant evasions only serve to highlight how overwhelmed she and her associates are.

They are quite simply out of answers. The tsunami of lies that flow from Trump have exhausted his defenders. And since they have emptied their arsenal of arguments, be prepared to hear more from yesteryear’s classics like Benghazi. And if they get desperate enough they might even revive Obama’s birth certificate and Monica Lewinski.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lopWmU4b-ag

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STOP HANNITY: Movement Begins to Shame Advertisers on the Trump-Fluffing Fox News Program

Posted by on August 5, 2017 at 4:21 pm. 10 Comments :

The rapid decline of Fox News over the past year has been an awesome spectacle. It began with the allegations of sexual harassment against CEO Roger Ailes. He was later fired and, shortly thereafter, died following a fall in his home. Then Bill O’Reilly was also terminated after numerous allegations of sexual misconduct.

Sean Hannity Fox News

Additionally, some executives were likewise dismissed for their own inappropriate behavior. And Fox News lost their rising star, Megyn Kelly, who joined NBC where her program is a ratings failure. Greta Van Susteren, also quit Fox for a show on MSNBC that has already been canceled. Most recently, Eric Bolling, host of two Fox News programs has been suspended for allegedly sending lewd pictures to network colleagues.

Fox’s reputation for being a brazenly biased mouthpiece for Republican politics is morphing into one of perversion and misogyny. But don’t worry – their mission of right-wing propagandizing is still being pursued in earnest by many remaining shills. Chief among them is Sean Hannity, who has escalated his efforts to promote Donald Trump. His program has become an unabashed platform for exalting and defending Trump no matter the circumstances.

Hannity has been performing some wild rhetorical acrobatics to that end. He has whirled from insisting that Trump was totally innocent of any collusion with Russia, to arguing that such collusion wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. More offensive are his ventures into conspiracy theories. Hannity has made a project of promoting the totally debunked story about Seth Rich. This fake news asserts that Rich, a former DNC staffer, was murdered for his involvement in hacking the Clinton/Podesta emails and sending them to Wikileaks. It’s a fascinating story that would be even more compelling if any of it were true.

As Hannity has ramps up the crazy on his show, he is beginning to attract some push-back from proponents of ethical journalism. Media Matters has initiated a campaign to “Stop Hannity” from further staining the airwaves with his lies and hate. They have previously engineered similar campaigns that targeted Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly. Both of them were eventually booted from their perches at Fox and now languish in near obscurity. It’s safe to say that Hannity is nervous. The Stop Hannity home page spells out how Media Matters intends to hold him, Fox News, and their advertisers accountable:

“Spreading misinformation is Hannity’s business model, and now he’s doing it on behalf of the Trump administration. His propagandizing has become so odious that he was condemned by some of his coworkers, who reportedly told The Daily Beast that the host was ’embarrassing’ the network and that ‘some people need to be fired.’

“It’s past time for Hannity to go. If Fox won’t fire Hannity, then advertisers should run as fast as they can, or else they run the risk of being complicit in his deceit and recklessness. Advertisers will get burned if they continue to associate with Hannity — plain and simple.”

This movement has only just begun, but it is already showing progress. Most notably, ultra-conservative pundits and websites are rising up in anger about this grassroots activism. The Daily Caller, Newsbusters, Western Journalism, and YoungCons have all posted stories labeling Media Matters a far-left provocateur. What’s more, Hannity’s ratings are suffering among the key advertiser demographic of 25-54 year olds. For the most recent week for which there is complete ratings data, Hannity lost the whole week to his time period competition on MSNBC, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. For the same week the Rachel Maddow Show was the highest rated program on all of cable news. Fox News was accustomed to dominating the ratings charts for years, but those days seem to be gone.

Time will tell if this campaign will be as successful as those aimed at Hannity’s former colleagues. But the track record of Media Matters on these actions is formidable. Advertisers have good reasons to be wary of associating themselves with a conspiracy monger like Hannity. And the more people that jump on this bandwagon, the more it can achieve. To that end, be sure to sign up at Stop Hannity and participate in the advertiser education program they are conducting. It’s a worthwhile cause because, as Ted Koppel told Hannity to his face, he is “bad for America.”

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


With Grand Jury Looming Trump Whines That ‘They’ Are Trying to Cheat You (VIDEO)

Posted by on August 4, 2017 at 4:32 pm. 3 Comments :

It’s getting a little old to say that Donald Trump has just suffered through his worst week yet. Because that appears to be true every damn week. That said, this past week has dropped some bombshells that will ring in his ears for quite a while.

Donald Trump

Most notably, there was the news that special counselor Robert Mueller has impaneled a Grand Jury to escalate his investigation of Trump and Company. But there was also news that subpoenas were issued in connection with Don Jr.’s meeting with Russian operatives. And then there was the release of the transcripts from Trump’s phone conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia. They confirmed just how dishonest and embarrassingly narcissistic he is.

But when Trump gets overwhelmed with bad news that makes him look – in his words – “like a dope,” there is only one cure. Get him back on the campaign trail in front of throngs of slobbering, glassy-eyed disciples. His unquestioning cult followers are the best prescription to rebuild his fragile ego. And that’s where he went Thursday night. The speech he delivered was chock full of the hits his fans have come to know and love. They literally sing along: “Lock her up,” “build the wall,” “make America great again.”

Included in the repertoire was a new number inspired by the Grand Jury. Trump didn’t explicitly reference his legal jeopardy, but he did hint at it in a fairly obvious manner. It’s a typically whiny number that will make a superb addition to his Greatest Emo Hits album (video below):

“They can’t beat us at the voting booth, so they’re trying to cheat you out of the future and the future that you want. They’re trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us. And most importantly, demeaning to our country and demeaning to our Constitution.”

Let’s explore the deeper significance of this ditty. First of all, Trump keeps referring to “they” without ever defining who he’s talking about. And with him it could be anyone from Mexicans to Martians. All of whom he would accuse of being illegal bad hombres (or whatever is Martian for hombre). But here he is asserting that “they” can’t beat him at the polls. Apparently he’s forgotten that Hillary Clinton did beat him, by more than three million votes. Of course, he hasn’t really forgotten, because he’s been bringing it up every day for eight months.

Trump’s complaint that “they” are trying to cheat his cultists is also a peculiar position to take. After all, he is the only one who is credibly charged with cheating in the election. And it’s the Democrats who were cheated by both the Russian interference and the anachronistic and undemocratic electoral college. The leader that America wants is hiking in the forests outside of her New York home.

As for Trump’s incessant blathering about fake news, he refuses to acknowledge that he is the biggest beneficiary of it. The Russians unleashed millions of social media postings that disparaged Hillary Clinton and advanced Trump’s campaign. It was that activity that was demeaning to the country and the Constitution. Mueller’s investigation seeks to correct that.

But Trump will never recognize the reality of that because it doesn’t square with his delusional world view. And it’s much easier for him to imagine an evil “they” that he can exploit to frighten his already screwy supporters. The rest of “us” can only wait and hope his term comes to an abrupt end before he causes too much more harm.

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


Fox News ‘Judge’ Fear Mongers That Any Trump Indictments Will Trigger a ‘Real Uprising’

Posted by on August 4, 2017 at 2:16 pm. 4 Comments :

It is becoming clearer with every passing day that Donald Trump and his criminal associates are in big trouble. The latest bombshell is the news that special counsel, Robert Mueller, has impaneled a Grand Jury. It’s purpose is to investigate Trump’s finances and connections to Russia. That has surely put everyone in the White House on edge as the legal noose gets tighter.

Jeanine Pirro Fox News

Consequently, Fox News is ramping up their obsequious support for the President with ever more ludicrous pronouncements. On Trump’s favorite TV show, Fox and Friends, they interviewed Jeanine Pirro, host of Fox’s “Justice with Judge Jeanine.” The segment featured Pirro unleashing what amounts to an incitement to riot (video below). And Trump thought so much of that that he retweeted it to his fans:

“My concern is, if they end up with an indictment against a family member just to get at Donald Trump when they couldn’t get at him, there’s gonna be a real uproar – a real uprising in this country.”

There is so much wrong with statement. First and foremost, Pirro is setting the stage for crackpot Trump supporters to take to the streets in an outburst of violence. She didn’t bother to offer any objection to the uprising she’s predicting. That will serve as permission to the StormTrumpers who believe that their Leader is God’s anointed savior of the alt-right’s America. She is also echoing Trump’s own inciteful rhetoric during the campaign. When asked about the prospect of his not getting the GOP nomination he said “I think you’d have riots.”

Additionally, Pirro’s framing of the subject of indictments was narrowly focused on Trump’s family. She seems to be deliberately avoiding any talk of Trump himself being charged with a crime. Of course, any neutral observer knows that he is the most likely target of prosecution. But in Pirro’s remarks it’s only the family that is at risk. Is that a purposeful deflection?

Finally, the notion that the current investigations would target Trump’s family because they can’t get to him is downright delusional. The President is virtually dripping with guilt. He has made public confessions to obstruction of justice on national television. His financial conflicts could be unraveled by a middle-schooler with a Scooby Doo junior detective badge. The number of times Trump and those around him have lied and altered their stories constitute a clear consciousness of guilt.

If it were really a concern of of Pirro’s that there might be an uprising in the wake of Trump indictments, she would have said something to mitigate it. She would have warned people to abstain from violence and let the courts do their job. She would have shown respect for the judiciary and the concept of justice, after which her show is named. Instead, she and the Fox News regulars chose to denigrate the law in defense of the wannabe dictator they so admire.

The good news is that any uprising by the lawless traitors fighting for Trump would have negligible effect. Their numbers are already in the low 30’s and sinking further every day. It wouldn’t take long to subdue them. And once the truth is well disseminated, there wouldn’t be very many people who would go to the mat for a lying grifter who brought nothing but shame to America.

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


WATCH: Assaulting a CNN Reporter is Hilarious to Tucker Carlson of Fox News

Posted by on August 3, 2017 at 2:49 pm. 3 Comments :

On Wednesday the White House press briefing briefly turned into rhetorical warfare. Donald Trump’s senior advisor, Stephen Miller, went ballistic on CNN reporter Jim Acosta. The issue was Trump’s latest xenophobic position on immigration reform. Acosta, the son of Cuban immigrants, asked if Trump’s policy amounted to “trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country.” Miller appeared to take the question personally. He lashed out at Acosta, calling him “outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish.”

Fox News Tucker Carlson

Miller’s juvenile response typifies the emotional immaturity of the Trump administration. We should probably be grateful that Miller didn’t hurl profanities or feces. But the worst reaction to this exchange came from Fox News on the program hosted by proud Trump Fluffer, Tucker Carlson. Carlson’s guest was right-wing crackpot Mark Steyn, who unleashed a tirade of vitriol and bile (video below). He said that:

“One of the reasons we need immigrants to come here and do the jobs Americans won’t do is because one of the jobs Americans won’t do is drag Jim Acosta out of there, kick him to the sidewalk, and say ‘If you wanna do the Jim Acosta Show there’s a rusting boxcar round the back of the freight yards with three semi-comatose hobos who are interested in it. But nobody else here is.'”

So Steyn ignored everything that Acosta said and dismissed all of the substance of the debate. However, he did propose physically assaulting Acosta and denying him the free press rights guaranteed in the Constitution. The notion of violently attacking a journalist struck Carlson as hilarious. He repeatedly laughed at the thought of a beaten reporter being kicked out of a press briefing. This is what tickles the pro-Trump media during an era in which even the President has encouraged violence against reporters. Trump famously denigrated the media as “the enemy of the American people.”

Steyn went on to adopt a view of the Statue of Liberty that has been a staple of white supremacists for years. He said that:

“The French gave the Americans a pretty great Statue of Liberty. And then the Americans hammered a lousy poem by Emma Lazerus onto it and turned a pretty great Statue of Liberty into a Statue of Immigration. I regret that.”

Steyn is joining the Hate America First crowd by insulting the contributions of a poet whose “lousy” work was used to finance the pedestal of the Statue. But he is also echoing the White House. Miller made a similarly belittling comment at the press briefing, saying that:

“The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of liberty and light in the world. It’s a symbol of American liberty lighting the world. The poem that you’re referring to that was added later is not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty.”

And both of those comments reflect the abhorrent views of avowed white supremacist Richard Spencer:

For the record, the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus made a simple plea of compassion and acceptance:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Notice that there is nothing in there about skilled labor, education, preferred language, or personal wealth. It is plainly reaching a hand out to people in need. It’s a standard based on the necessity of the immigrant rather than the greed of the host nation. Unfortunately, the only standard recognized by Fox News and Tucker Carlson is personal self-interest and unfettered political power. And if that means committing assaults against journalists with whom you disagree, well that’s just hysterical, isn’t it?

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEQFedkb1Lc


MIC.COM: The 5 Most Damning Quotes from Trump’s Calls to Mexico and Australia

Posted by on August 3, 2017 at 11:23 am. 2 Comments :

The Washington Post has published some astonishing telephone transcripts from Donald Trump’s first week as President. They document conversations he had with the leaders of Mexico and Australia. Some of his remarks affirm his incompetence and how utterly unprepared he was to become president. Others just show him to be dishonest and vain.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

Mic.com scoured the transcripts and came up with what they regard as “5 of the most damning quotes from Trump’s conversations with the leaders of Mexico, Australia.” I must say I agree with thier assessment. So here is what they selected with some of their analysis. Be sure to read the whole article. It’s totally worth it.

  1. “You cannot say anymore that the United States is going to pay for the wall.”
    Trump effectively acknowledged in his call with Peña Nieto that he knew Mexico wasn’t going to pay for the border wall he promised on the campaign trail. But he begged Peña Nieto to stop saying that publicly.
  2. “I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den.”
    During a conversation about drugs coming across the border into the U.S., Trump took a swipe at New Hampshire.
  3. “I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country.”
    [Australia’s] Turnbull was trying to ensure that Trump would uphold a deal to accept 1,250 refugees from Australia — assuming they passed U.S. vetting standards. And Trump was furious.
  4. “Are they going to become the Boston bomber in five years?”
    Trump went on to ask for assurances that the refugees would not become the Boston bombers, to which Turnbull reminded Trump that the two men who bombed the Boston Marathon were from Russia.
  5. “Putin was a pleasant call.”
    Trump spat at Turnbull: “I have had it. I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous.”

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

From day one Trump was embarrassing America and alienating our allies. And as that last quote shows, he was openly favoring Vladimir Putin, a staunchly hostile leader who had just engaged in criminal interference with our presidential election. It’s hard to characterize Trump’s behavior as anything short of treasonous. That’s been affirmed more recently by the discovery of his participation in the cover up of his son’s meetings with Russian operatives. And these transcripts further illustrate just how damaging his ignorance and ego are to the interests of the country.

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Trump Signs Bill Sanctioning Russia for Election Tampering that he Believes is a Hoax

Posted by on August 2, 2017 at 12:14 pm. 2 Comments :

For several months Donald Trump has been dismissing reports that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential campaign. He has had a variety of counter explanations for the documented cyberattacks. On some occasions he alleged that they were the work of China. On others he imagined that “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds” had concocted the whole scheme.

Trump/Putin

The only party that he never exclusively held responsible was the one that was indisputably guilty: Russia. Every relevant intelligence agency concluded that Russia was behind the attacks and that they were certain to strike again. Former heads of the CIA, FBI, NSA, etc., unequivocally fingered Russia as the only culprit. And yet Trump ignored the analysis of the intelligence professionals in favor of his pals at Fox and Friends. He labeled the entire episode a hoax contrived by Democrats who were bitter at having lost.

On Wednesday morning, however, Trump signed a bill to impose sanctions on Russia for their involvement in the election tampering. The bill covers several matters on foreign policy that Congress acted on due to Trump’s opposition and/or neglect. According to NBC News:

“The bill sanctions Russia — citing its cyberhacking as well as aggression in Ukraine and Syria — while also slapping new sanctions on North Korea and Iran. But the legislation also makes it harder for the president to lift these sanctions unilaterally, requiring permission from Congress before waiving them.”

In effect, Trump’s signature puts into law that he is a liar. It directly contradicts his stubborn refusal to accept reality about the nature of Russia’s offenses. What’s more, the bill overtly prohibits him from altering the terms of the sanctions. Congress was so worried that Trump would ignore their legislation that they legally tied his hands. It was a smart move on their part given Trump’s creepy affinity for Vladimir Putin and aversion to criticizing him.

The bill passed in the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 98-2. Similarly, in the house it passed 419-3. Consequently, Trump knew that there was a veto-proof majority in Congress that would have made the bill law whatever his response. If he vetoed, or declined to sign, the bill it would have become law anyway. But he would be perceived as having aided and abetted Putin’s attack on American democracy. However, by signing it he accepts the premise that Russia did interfere with the election and deserves to be punished.

That dilemma resulted in Trump attaching a signing statement to the bill to express his objections. But that only exacerbated the hypocrisy. Seven times he asserted that the bill’s provisions were “clearly unconstitutional.” How can a president, sworn to uphold the Constitution, sign a bill that he believes violates it? That, by itself, is a breach of his oath of office. By way an explanation, Trump issued a separate statement saying that:

“Despite its problems, I am signing this bill for the sake of national unity. It represents the will of the American people to see Russia take steps to improve relations with the United States.”

First of all, his notion of national unity is not a justification for violating the Constitution. And secondly, this bill does not represent America’s desire to improve relations with Russia. It represents the desire to penalize them for criminal activity. Trump must think that incarcerating Charles Manson was an attempt to get along with him better. It’s that sort of illogic that infects so much of Trump’s thinking. Including this closing thought in his statement:

“I built a truly great company worth many billions of dollars. That is a big part of the reason I was elected. As President, I can make far better deals with foreign countries than Congress.”

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

In fact, he built a company that suffered multiple bankruptcies, and whose value is unknowable because he refuses to release his tax returns. Trump’s prowess (or lack thereof) at deal making has been apparent in the first six months of his presidency that has produced zero achievements. And as for the reason he was elected, many people say it is was actually due to Russia’s interference. So there’s that.


Death Spiral: Trump’s Favorite Poll Shows His Approval Rating at an All-Time Low

Posted by on August 1, 2017 at 11:37 am. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump must be finding it harder than usual to maintain his delusional rosy mental state. Despite a rash of crushing scandals, he tweeted recently that it’s “A great day at the White House!” and that there is “No WH chaos!” That was after his new (and now fired) communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, unleashed a profane rant against his White House colleagues. And his Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, got the boot. Also, his attempt to kill healthcare went down in flames. He misfired with an illegal proposal to discriminate against transgender soldiers. And the Boy Scouts felt compelled to issue a public apology after Trump’s politicized rant at their Jamboree. What a great day.

Donald Trump Rasmussen

Now Rasmussen Reports has updated their daily tracking poll of Trump’s approval rating. It shows Trump having sunk to an all-time low of 39 percent. Bear in mind that that Rasmussen is a stridently right-wing survey outfit that generally has more positive results for Trump than any other pollster. Trump himself has lauded them for their accuracy. In June the President tweeted proudly that:

First of all, that wasn’t higher than Obama’s numbers. But Trump’s lying isn’t exactly news anymore. Don’t hold your breath waiting for Trump’s tweet about these new numbers. He is notorious for ignoring any information that is less than gratingly adoring. But with so little material that he will find flattering, he has to resort to making up criticisms that no one has offered. That explains the substance of his new tweet about his use of social media:

The embattled President doesn’t supply any evidence of these “enemies” clamoring for him to cease tweeting. To the contrary, it is supporters who are constantly shocked and and embarrassed by his Twitter tantrums. They frequently advise him to quit and they stutter while trying to defend his latest irrational outburst. His opponents couldn’t be happier about his tweet-storming. It presents his erratically unhinged temperament to the public better than they could with standard criticisms.

Some cable news pundits are mistakenly suggesting that the hiring of Gen. John Kelly as White House chief of staff marks a new beginning for Trump. But how many times have they reported that he was finally pivoting to a more presidential posture? It’s not going to happen, and Kelly isn’t going to help. Trump is a seventy-one year old narcissist who lacks any measure of self-awareness. Not only is he unable to change, he is unwilling.

Consequently, we can expect his tweets and ludicrous off-hand comments at speeches to continue. As for his approval ratings, he is already the least popular president in modern history so he has nothing to prove on that scale. But he is likely to achieve ever new lows that put the record out of reach for any aspiring dumbfucks that succeed him. He may want watch this video for helpful tips as he sinks lower into the muck.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXk_oSMYTBE


Unfit for Command: Presidential Historian’s Horrifying Warning About Donald Trump

Posted by on July 31, 2017 at 2:16 pm. 1 Comments :

Last week may have been the worst one so far for Donald Trump’s floundering presidency. His new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, unleashed a profane rant against his White House colleagues. His Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, got the boot. The attempt to kill healthcare went down in flames as a Republican controlled Senate couldn’t pass three different versions. He misfired with an illegal proposal to discriminate against transgender soldiers. And the Boy Scouts felt compelled to issue a public apology after Trump’s politicized rant at their Jamboree. These failures cap a six month span of domestic dysfunction and international embarrassment.

Douglas Brinkley CNN

[LATE BREAKING:] Scaramucci has been fired. Sources say that the new White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, wanted to select his own team. Translation: Get that vulgar piece af crap out of my White House.

Not surprisingly, Trump is living in a bubble of narcissistic grandiosity. He is convinced that everything is going tremendously and that he is the bestest president ever. He tweeted Monday morning:

Of course, the performance of the stock market, the economy, and employment, has to be credited to the Obama administration. All of those metrics were ascending throughout his term and were the result of his policies. There has not been a single Trump initiative implemented that would impact any of them. Nothing on taxes, trade, jobs, and no budget has been passed in Congress. Trump is running on Obama’s fumes.

What’s more, if wages are “raising” (sic), it’s only because Democrats increased the minimum wage despite the opposition of Republicans. And if the border is secure, then we don’t need that damn wall anymore, right? As for the Supreme Court, the Senate couldn’t get Justice Gorsuch through without blowing up the rules to allow a 51-vote confirmation. Considering all of the above, Trump’s assertion that there is “No WH chaos” is absurd in the extreme.

Sunday on CNN’s Reliable Sources, presidential historian Douglas Brinkley was asked about the state of the Trump administration. Host Brian Stelter noted that observers from across the political spectrum were stunned. They’ve been using words like “crisis” and “chaos” to describe the current White House. Brinkley responded with his view that “It’s in utter disarray,” and that “Donald Trump [is] unfit for command.” Then he spelled out in detail where it has all gone so horribly wrong (video below):

“I think when you have a White House communications director that uses the kind of foul language that he does against fellow employees of the federal government, and makes threats the way that he did, and that’s supposed to be your solution to the United States’ way they are going to communicate to the world? It means Donald Trump picked the wrong person to be his communications director.

“He has a White House that’s leaking like crazy. As just mentioned, there are people ready to whistle-blow. He thinks that you can govern by chaos and it’s not working. It is true he has that 36 percent of the American public backing him, but that means over 60 percent of Americans think that he is doing a miserable job. And the rest of the world is laughing.

“We have a crisis in North Korea and we’re playing these reality TV, big time wrestling games because Donald Trump was weaned and raised on television. And it’s become like a TV episodic president where every day you’ve got to say something sensational to make sure that your name is in the headlines.

“We had a problem with Nixon. If there is any president this is like, it’s Nixon. You listen to the Nixon Watergate tapes – the secret tapes – and you hear Nixon ramble and it sounds like Donald Trump’s tweets. And it didn’t turn out well for Nixon.”

It’s hard to add anything that. Except for what Brinkley himself added:

“The key to Donald Trump is just this kind of blind fierce loyalty, and that’s what Franco expected in Spain. It’s what Mussolini wanted in Italy. These are kind of ways in which you’re asking people to march in lock-step with you.”

In other words, Donald Trump is a wannabe dictator. He has demonstrated that he has never had the intelligence, experience, or character to be a legitimate president. He is a joke who parlayed his role as a TV game show host to the White House on the strength of his celebrity and ability to lie. But now the consequences of making such an incompetent, unethical fraud the head of state are becoming painfully clear. Hopefully he won’t be in charge of anything 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.


Unprecedented Chaos in the Trump White House: 6 Key Posts Turnover in Only 6 Months

Posted by on July 30, 2017 at 11:40 am. 4 Comments :

The first term of Donald Trump’s administration is only six months old, But it’s such an unmitigated disaster that it’s effectively already over. Many of the top positions in the White House have failed spectacularly. Trump’s campaign assertion that he “has the best people” begs the question: best at what? Obviously they aren’t the best at governing or performing the jobs for which they were hired.

Donald Trump

In only six months Trump has already replaced several of his key staffers. And others are anxiously waiting for the ax to fall on their own precariously exposed necks. This is a historically catastrophic degree of turnover by officials tasked with essential civic duties. There is simply no way any administration can be functional with so much perilous volatility.

The departments that have seen their leaders repealed and replaced are not trivial figureheads. They are mission critical managers upon whom rest competent governance and national security. What follows are some of the posts that are already starting over after a disastrous half year of Trump’s failure of leadership.

National Security Advisor
Within a mere three weeks of his appointment, Gen. Michael Flynn was dismissed under a cloud of scandal. He was closely associated with Russian operatives during Trump’s campaign. What’s more, he failed to disclose those relationships as required by law. Trump said that he fired Flynn for lying to him and Vice-President Pence about his meetings with Russians. However, Trump denied that there was anything improper about the meetings.

Press Secretary
The most visible person in any presidential administration is the press secretary. Trump’s first choice for that post was Sean Spicer (Fibby Spice). In the few months that he managed to hold onto the job he was castigated for being overtly dishonest. His first public appearance was spent lying about the crowd estimates at Trump’s inaugural address. It was all downhill from there. Spicer often claimed not to have spoken with the President on key questions raised by reporters. And in an attempt to avoid further bad publicity, he shut down the daily press briefings or prohibited cameras. During his tenure far-right fringe outfits like Breitbart News and Alex Jones’ Infowars were granted press credentials. And all of this took place under the president who declared the media “the enemy of the American people.”

Communications Director
The first person appointed to this post was not especially noteworthy. Michael Dubke’s short tenure went almost completely unnoticed. He was replaced briefly by Sean Spicer in an acting capacity. Then Trump named Anthony Scaramucci to the post permanently. Scaramucci came screaming out of the gate with wild accusations and insults directed at Spicer and others in the administration. His profanity-laced diatribes against Trump’s Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus and Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon made headlines for the worst possible reasons. But he did represent the President in the vulgar fashion to which is accustomed.

[UPDATE:] Scaramucci has been fired. Sources say that the new White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, wanted to select his own team. Translation: Get that vulgar piece af crap out of my White House.

Chief of Staff
And speaking of Reince Priebus, shortly after Scaramucci’s unhinged tirade, Priebus was ousted from his job. But like a good little sycophant, he praised both Trump and Scaramucci on his way out the door. Entering the Oval Office to replace Priebus was Gen. John Kelly, currently Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Trump announced Kelly’s appointment in glowing terms that highlighted the “spectacular” job Kelly did at DHS. It is, therefore, curious that Trump would take this star performer from his job protecting America, and selfishly limit his role to one of protecting just the President.

Secretary of Homeland Security
Of course, Kelly’s transfer leaves the vital post of DHS secretary vacant. It remains to be seen who Trump will offer as a replacement. Some Washington insiders have speculated that he might move Attorney General Jeff Sessions into the job. But you have to wonder why Trump would give such an important job to someone he has publicly said has disappointed him? The answer may be that Trump wants an excuse to remove Sessions as AG so that he can replace him as well. It’s no secret that Trump wants to fire special counselor Robert Mueller. Sessions can’t do that because of his recusal on matters related to that investigation.

FBI Director
Last May Trump shocked the nation by firing FBI Director James Comey. That impetuous and self-serving action set in motion many of Trump’s current problems. It’s why Sessions had to recuse himself. And it’s why there is a special counselor investigating Trump, his campaign, and his finances. In particular, Trump has exposed himself to impeachable charges of obstruction of justice. Comey’s department was investigating Trump’s unsavory connections to Russia. Trump even admitted that his reason for firing Comey was because of “this Russia thing.”

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These high-level staff turnovers are unique for a presidency that’s only six months old. It speaks to the incompetence and erratic nature of this president. The rest of his cabinet is just as conflicted, corrupt, and unqualified as those that have been cast out. They just haven’t had their public meltdowns yet. And if anyone is surprised by the turmoil in Washington, they haven’t been paying attention. Donald Trump is the most conflicted, corrupt, and unqualified of the bunch. And his day will come as well. Hopefully before he has had a chance to do much more damage.