Trump Violates Whistleblower Protection Laws with Retweet of Suspicious (Fake?) Twitter Account

Posted by on December 28, 2019 at 11:58 am. 2 Comments :

You have to wonder if Donald Trump is now actively seeking additional Articles of Impeachment that can be filed against him. Apparently “Abuse of Power” and “Obstruction of Congress” are not stigmatizing enough for a malignant narcissist who considers himself the greatest [fill in the blank] that the world has ever seen, not to mention the Earthly personification of “The Chosen One.”

Donald Trump, Prison

Late on Friday night Trump embarked on a three hour Twitter-palooza that included panicky attacks on his perceived foes, fear-soaked cries of unfair persecution, and featured a random assortment of worshipful Twitter defenders, including QAnon crackpots. Trump tweeted until midnight, saving what he must have considered the best for last. The final post of this 40-plus, witching hour harangue was a tweet that could land Trump in even deeper impeachment trouble. The posting that Trump retweeted will not be linked here because of its profoundly illegal content and reckless endangerment of the innocent. But here is a graphic with appropriate redactions:

Donald Trump Whistleblower Tweet

This tweet includes the name of someone that the original tweeter (Sophia), and Trump, are asserting outright is the whistleblower. Of course, they have no evidence to make such an assertion, and there is no credible validation of its accuracy. Nevertheless, Trump is disseminating this rumor as if it were true. There are two big problems with this.

The first problem is that it is unlawful to expose the identity of an anonymous whistleblower. The whistleblower statute is provided to protect the individual from harm and/or retaliation, and to maintain the right for others to safely come forward when they encounter government waste, fraud, abuse, and to protect public health and safety.

The second problem is that, because the identity of the whistleblower is still unknown, the person identified in this tweet could have nothing to do with this, but his/her welfare is still put in jeopardy. That is an act that is beyond reckless. It would be irresponsible for anyone to post this sort of information. but it’s far worse that a president would participate in such a potentially harmful act.

Trump is not only speculating about someone whose identity he doesn’t know, he is threatening the person with prosecution for perjury. That’s precisely the sort of retaliation that the Whistleblower statute prohibits. What’s more, there is no evidence of perjury. While Trump has repeatedly claimed that the whistleblower’s report was untrue, a simple comparison of the filing to the summary memo (what he falsely calls a transcript) of Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president shows that the whistleblower was correct on every point made. Trump himself has corroborated the whistleblower’s account.

But there is even more wrong with this tweet. For one thing, Sophia is not exactly a credible source. The picture in her Twitter profile is, in fact, a stock photo available from Getty Images. Furthermore, the text of her tweet is a verbatim copy from a three week old posting on the blog of a notorious, right-wing conspiracy nut, Jim Hoft (Gateway Pundit). The text of the tweet of her own that she retweeted was also copied from Hoft’s page. And it bizarrely claims that “secret” hearings exonerate Trump. But how could Sophia (Hoft) know that if they’re secret? And for the record, those hearings were open to both Democrats and Republicans.

Clearly Sophia is a dubious character who is endeavoring to plant and disseminate disinformation on the Internet. And Trump somehow managed to stumble upon this bogus account and retweet it. Coincidence? Who knows? But what is know for certain is that Trump has put an innocent person’s life in danger. (Note: the person is innocent whether or not he/she is the whistleblower). And he has also added to the potential list of legal breaches for which he can be impeached. If only the Senate would do its job with integrity and concern for the nation, rather than coddling the criminal occupying the White House.

UPDATE: This is bizarre. The Twitter account for “Sophia” (Surfermom77) has been deleted entirely. But when that name is entered it redirects to someone named “Emma” (2Samson67) that has all of the exact same content as Sophia. The tweet that Trump retweeted is still in the same place on his Twitter timeline, but now says it’s from Emma.

UPDATE II: Now Emma’s account is deleted and was replaced with “Leona” (2Leona65), which was also deleted and replaced with a second “Leona” (4Shereene4). All of these accounts have the same content (tweets) and say they are “100% Trump supporters” in California and joined Twitter in July 2013. They seem to be trying to evade detection and suspension by Twitter.

UPDATE III: And the parade of fake accounts continues. The second Leona has been deleted and replaced with “Gigi” (LovelyGigi33). Stay tuned.

UPDATE IV: The mysterious tweet that kept changing identities is now gone. But the damage was done, and Trump’s complicity in this deceit – and illegal naming an alleged whistleblower – needs to be fully investigated.

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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WTF? Trump Whines that His Impeachment was ‘Unfair’ Because He Refused to Cooperate

Posted by on December 27, 2019 at 3:45 pm. 10 Comments :

The impeachment of Donald Trump is now a part of history. It is a permanent stain on his legacy that will also include caging babies, sabotaging healthcare, abandoning terrorist-fighting allies, exploding the deficit, embracing brutal dictators, humiliating the nation, telling more than 15,000 lies, empowering white supremacists, enriching the already wealthy (including himself) at the expense of everyone else, and ignoring the lethal planetary climate crisis.

Donald Trump WTF

In the midst of the impeachment process, Trump is continuing to demonstrate that his greatest personal skill is his Olympic-grade ability to whine. It’s astonishing how the alleged leader of the free world can be so mired in victimhood. Trump has been in a state of perpetual whimpering for weeks (well, decades really, but let’s stay focused on the present). His Twitter feed is dripping with the piss and moan of a professional crybaby. He recently broke his own record with 123 self-serving panic tweets in a single day.

One of his most frequent complaints that is getting extra attention lately is his assertion that the impeachment process has been unfair to him. But the logic that he employs to make that case is built on a foundation of whipped cream. On Friday morning Trump posted a tweet that perfectly expresses both his frustration and his confusion:

Let’s break down this fetid bouquet of BS. Trump is essentially complaining that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is “demanding fairness” from the Republican majority leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, that she didn’t provide in the House. This is a repeat of a previous tweet from a couple of days ago in which he asked why Pelosi is “allowed to impeach the President” at all.

Someone should inform Trump that Pelosi’s power to impeach is because of this thing we call the Constitution. Trump further asserted that Pelosi “is demanding everything the Republicans weren’t allowed to have in the House.” Clearly Trump has no idea what he’s talking about.

So what is Pelosi demanding of the Senate? She is merely seeking to have the hearings in the Senate include witness testimony and document production. As it happens, these are exactly the same things that she sought for the hearings in the House. But an obstinate and fearful Trump refused. So Trump’s assertion that Pelosi is asking for something that Republicans were denied previously is patently false. There is literally no difference in what she’s asking for.

Now Trump is pretending to be upset that he wasn’t provided “Due Process, proper representation, or witnesses.” However, he was offered all of those things, he just declined to accept the offers. And now he is continuing to refuse to participate, in precisely the same way, in the upcoming Senate hearings.

So if there is any unfairness in the impeachment, it is entirely the fault of Donald Trump, who has refused to participate, and now is declaring that his refusal is the cause of the alleged unfairness. It’s not unlike the murder defendant who killed his parents and asks the court for mercy because he’s an orphan. Had Trump agreed to testify – or to allow his staff to do so, or delivered the documents that were subpoenaed – he could not now whine about unfairness. And yet, he’s still refusing to cooperate with the Senate, even though it is controlled by a Republican majority.

The only plausible reason for this persistent obstruction is that Trump knows he’s guilty and that additional testimony and documents will prove it. He’s behaving like a man consumed by fear and the consciousness of guilt. If he really believed that any of his staff could exonerate him, he would drive them to the hearings himself. One thing is certain: This is not the behavior of an innocent man. The only thing Trump has left is obstruction, lies, deflection, and, as always, whining.

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


Trump Goes on Holiday Twitter Tantrum Against Nancy Pelosi – and the Constitution

Posted by on December 26, 2019 at 11:55 am. 4 Comments :

STOP THE MADNESS! During his campaign, Donald Trump promised that he would work every day in The White House because there was so much that needed to be done. Instead, he has spent more time at his golf resorts, watching Fox News, and tweeting, than anything else. In fact, when it comes to those wasteful, childish diversions, he never takes a day off. Not even for Christmas.

Donald Trump, Toilet, Bathrobe

Trump’s holiday tweet-o-rama was narrowly focused on matters that have consumed his consciousness for weeks. While he pretends not to be worried about having been impeached, it’s practically the only thing he is paying any attention to. It’s an obsession that is gnawing at him to the exclusion of everything else. And his Twitter tantrum is evidence of just how haunted he is by this permanent stain on his legacy. He began on Christmas day by tweeting that…

There’s a lot to unpack in that brief tirade. On the same day that Trump released an eerily morose Christmas message that called for “deeper understanding and respect,” he’s posting insults to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling her “crazy.” And he is also exhibiting his painfully weak grasp of the Constitution that unambiguously grants the House of Representatives the “sole power to impeach.” What’s more, he doesn’t understand that a majority of any size gives that party parliamentary control. Even so, a 34 seat majority is not “slight.” And he has apparently forgotten that the Republican majority in the Senate is only four seats.

Trump goes on to dismiss the impeachment because no Republicans voted for it. But that only reinforces the fact that the GOP acts as a monolithic and partisan unit that doesn’t care about the truth. Which puts them in alignment with Trump who then proceeds to lie about his allegedly “perfect,” “no pressure” phone call with the president of Ukraine.

From there Trump wanders off into a diatribe about “due process,” which is only relevant in a court of law. Nevertheless, Trump did have the opportunity to appear in his own defense and to have his attorneys plead his case. It was not disallowed. He declined. Now Trump is refusing to allow witnesses and documents in the Senate hearing that he has whined about not having in the House.

Let’s set aside the false assertion that any particular part of this is “supposed” to be in one body or the other. What Trump is complaining about here is that the testimony that he actively obstructed wasn’t made available. Maybe he should stop obstructing it. Maybe he should also stop pretending that Democrats want to slow down the process, as he says in his next tweet. It’s Trump and the GOP who are gumming up the works by refusing to set the terms for the Senate hearing.

Finally, Trump acts out in his typically infantile way with a multi-tweet attack on Pelosi and the district she represents in California. Just like he has done previously with Baltimore, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and others, he maligns them for problems that exist in all cities. But he blames Pelosi as somehow being responsible.

LATE ADDITION: Trump tweeted…

Trump actually believes that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally edited him out of a cameo in Home Alone 2. Never mind that this edit was actually made five years ago, before Trump was even a candidate. The reason Trump believes that Trudeau is responsible is because it’s what he would do in similar circumstances. Trump thinks that national leadership includes the power to exact petty vengeances on your enemies. In fact, he has even exercised that corrupt power by redirecting a federal contract from Amazon (because Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post), to Microsoft. Which is blatantly illegal.

There is simply no denying that Trump is terrified and desperate. The whole of his attention is on the impeachment and what he considers unfair treatment. And it manifests in these furious Twitter rampages that only make him look even more deranged. So it’s not surprising that public support for his impeachment and removal from office has hit a new high. And if he continues on this disastrous course, he should expect it get even worse.

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


Best Wishes to All for the Merriest Blue Xmas and a Bountiful Blue Wave New Year

Posted by on December 25, 2019 at 12:38 pm. 4 Comments :

Christmas is upon us once again, and families around the nation – and the world – are sharing in the warmth of the season. It’s a time to be grateful for good fortune, but also to be thoughtful and generous to those enduring more difficult circumstances. For in the end, we are all one family and we rely on one another for support and inspiration.

Donald Trump Hugs Christmas Tree

However, it cannot go unnoticed that this is the first Christmas since Donald Trump was impeached, making him the first reality TV game show host to have achieved that dishonor. And he can’t stop whining about it. It’s also the first Christmas since he declared himself “The Chosen One“ and basked in the praise of being called the Second Coming of God by some of his worshipful cult followers. He was even hailed for having “fulfilled the biblical prophecy of the gods“ by a Fox News “judge.” Behavior like this makes one wonder whether Trump’s dimwitted cult followers are watching the holiday classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” and thinking that the evil Mr. Potter is the hero.

Trump promised during his campaign that “If I become president, we’re all going to be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.” It’s that heartwarming 1930’s German-style totalitarianism that makes him think he can decide what we are ALL going to say. And it’s all the more meaningful coming from a greedy, lustful, gluttonous, wrath-filled, narcissist who insists that he has never had to seek God’s forgiveness because he’s never done anything wrong. And three years later, Trump is still taking credit for restoring the right to say “Merry Christmas” that no one has ever actually stopped saying. Just last week Trump told disciples at his cult rally “Let me begin by wishing you a ‘beauta-few-woodlook.'” (File that under “WTF” with “covfefe”). He went on to say that…

“Do you remember? They were trying to take Christmas out of Christmas. You remember? They didn’t want to let you say merry Christmas. … They’re all saying merry Christmas again.”

Well, do you remember? Because if you do you’re suffering from the sort of false memories that plague paranoid schizophrenics. And to be clear, nobody has ever been offended by a Christmas greeting. And nobody has ever said “happy holidays” or “seasons greetings” with an intent to offend. To the contrary, it is said out of respect for the many faiths that are held by the American people in a country where religious freedom is cherished. We are – or aspire to be – a diverse and tolerant nation.

So in the spirit of the season, News Corpse would like to continue its holiday tradition by presenting a musical gift that is truly inclusive and welcoming. This is for all of those who are not huddled around a dead tree today, buried in colorfully wrapped packages. It’s for the cynics who won’t accept the notion that the birth of an alleged savior is an excuse to exchange material goods or fruitcakes that nobody likes. It is for the forsaken and forlorn, the outcasts and rebels and nonbelievers who are puzzled by the greed and commercialism that permeates the season. And yes, it’s for those who still believe that peace and goodwill are morally superior to profit and oppression. Here is Miles Davis and Bob Dorough performing the heartwarming traditional Christmas ballad Blue Xmas:

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


Donald Trump’s Fox News Inspired Holiday Eve Special: All I Want for Christmas is to Whine

Posted by on December 24, 2019 at 4:26 pm. 2 Comments :

These final days of the year will ordinarily find most Americans gathering together with family to enjoy the spirit of the season and give thanks for enduring love and good fortune. However, nothing that Donald Trump does ever aligns with anything ordinary. This Christmas Trump was asked by soldiers in a holiday phone call what he intended to do for the holidays. He said that he would probably just work because that’s what he likes to do. Then he went off to golf at his Palm Beach resort.

Trump Christmas Tree

There is no evidence of this being a holiday at all in Trump;’s White House. Trump hasn’t tweeted any pictures with his family, including his young son Barron. He hasn’t bought his wife a present, but says he did get her a card. There doesn’t appear to have been any dinners with his kids and grand-kids, although he did dine with Rush Limbaugh. What there is on Trump’s schedule is what he does all the rest of the year: WHINE! And there’s been plenty of that.

Trump’s Twitter feed is awash with petulant crybaby laments. For the most part he is complaining about having just been impeached. And while he is pretending that he isn’t bothered by this permanent stain on his legacy, he can’t seem to let go of it. His griping takes the form of bizarre assertions that he hasn’t been impeached at all. Or that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is crazy and incompetent. For instance…

Those tweets are quotes from Fox News Trump-fluffers, Brit Hume and Brian Kilmeade. They are not in any way representative of reality. They barely make logical sense. For example, Kilmeade is says that Democrats are showing that “they don’t care about the American public’s tone deafness.” HUH? And then Trump adds that “They want to make it as hard as possible for me to properly run our Country!” There are just two things wrong with that remark. First, it falsely presumes that he is able to properly run our country. And second it misses the real point, which is that Democrats are only trying to make it hard for him get away with treasonous crimes.

So Trump spent the day watching Fox news and whining about what a victim he is and how all these meany Democrats are persecuting him. He’s supposed to be the leader of the free world but he can’t stop sobbing about what he thinks is unfair treatment. He’s been doing this for months without a rest. And he’s too unaware to recognize that he’s the cause of all his troubles. So on and on he goes, even through the holidays. And there is no reason to expect it to end as the new year begins. Whining is all Trump knows how to do. He even once admitted that “I am the most fabulous whiner.” Which may be the truest thing he ever said.

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


The Ignorant Fallacies of Trump’s Outrage Over Pelosi Withholding the Articles of Impeachment

Posted by on December 23, 2019 at 11:41 am. 5 Comments :

Last week Donald Trump became the first reality TV game show host to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. In the days that followed, the humiliation and fear that consumes him was on display as he lashed out at those he imagines are persecuting him. Trump’s Twitter feed was afire with the shock and fury of someone who was never quite capable of grasping the gravity of his situation.

Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi

Trump’s dissociation from reality extended to his bootlicking sycophants on his staff and in the media. They cravenly floated bizarre legal theories that posited that Trump wasn’t really impeached at all. But not satisfied with that nonsense, they contradicted themselves to assert that he was indeed impeached, but that that only revealed some sort of failing on the part of the Democrats. And in that vein, Trump and company fielded several absurd rebuttals to his impeachment. Much of it was focused on Pelosi’s decision to hold off on transmitting it to the Senate until GOP leader Mitch McConnell set forth procedures to insure a complete and fair hearing.

The first of these rebuttals was an allegation that Pelosi was afraid to send the impeachment to the Senate. That premise is so ridiculous it hardly needs to be addressed. But for the record, how could Pelosi be accused of being afraid after she courageously pursued and successfully completed the impeachment? And why would anyone regard her giving the Senate ultimatums as being evidence of fear? That’s a pure power play. It’s actually Trump’s team that is fearful as they try vainly to goad Pelosi into abandoning her demands for fairness. The last thing Republicans want is a fair hearing with relevant witnesses and document production.

Next the Trumpsters tried to make the argument that Pelosi wasn’t transmitting the impeachment because the case against Trump had not been made. But all anyone has to do is read the Articles of Impeachment to see how incriminating the facts are. Democrats want to fortify the case with testimony that Trump has been vigorously obstructing. And that obstruction is further evidence that Trump is the one who is worried about the strength of the case against him and feels it necessary to suppress evidence.

Perhaps the dumbest of the Republican rebuffs is their complaint that Pelosi’s delay somehow contradicts a made up assertion that Democrats were in a hurry to impeach Trump. It’s fair to say that Democrats want to proceed expeditiously, but not at the expense of the integrity of the process and its results. At no time has Pelosi, or any Democrat, suggested that speed was a requirement that superseded the pursuit of the truth. Trumpists are just hoping to bully Democrats into rushing through this in the hopes that Trump’s crimes will be overlooked.

Finally, the Trump apologists believe that Pelosi is violating the Constitution by not immediately transmitting the impeachment to the Senate. Of course, they cannot provide any clause that supports that theory. The Constitution merely states that “The House of Representatives…shall have the sole power of impeachment,” and that “The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.” There is nothing that directs any timeline for carrying out these obligations.

All of these arguments are simply diversions by Trump and the GOP to divert attention away from the facts. Note that none of these arguments – or the people making them – bother to refute the factual record. There’s a reason for that. They have no coherent rebuttal. So the only hope they have is to distract and continue to suppress the emergence of any more incriminating evidence, which is coming out anyway. And they know this. Which is why they are the ones who are so scared and resorting to these painfully lame and desperate ploys.

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’s Attorney Genuflect Bill Barr is Turning the DOJ Into an Internet Troll Farm.

Posted by on December 22, 2019 at 1:05 pm. 2 Comments :

The devolution of American politics has been noticeable on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter for some time. The rancid outbursts and shrill animosity is inescapable. Much of what is posted is flagrantly false and rooted in crackpot conspiracy theories concocted by foreign, adversarial governments like Russia. And sadly, Donald Trump is one of the foremost diseminaters of this toxic dialog,

Donald Trump, Bill Barr

This online divisiveness and hatred has also been adopted by official representatives of the Trump regime. The wild assertions that many of them make in public – and particularly on Fox News – are indistinguishable from the trolls that inhabit the darkest recesses of the Intertubes. A perfect example of that occurred in a commentary by Trump’s Attorney General, William Barr, during a recent interview with Martha MacCallum of Fox News. Barr seems to be making a habit of these appearances. On this occasion, MacCallum asked him about remarks he made during a speech that was rife with the stench of political partisanship (video below):

MacCallum: You talked in your piece about “social justice DAs” … What does that mean?
Barr: Well, there’s this recent development where George Soros has been coming in, in largely Democratic primaries where there has not been much voter turnout and putting in a lot of money to elect people who are not very supportive of law enforcement and don’t view the office as bringing to trial and prosecuting criminals but pursuing other social agendas. And they have started to win in a number of cities and they have, in my view, not given the proper support to the police. And they’re following policies that are ultimately gonna lead to an increase in violent crime and more victims.

There’s a lot of ugliness to unpack in that diatribe, beginning with Barr’s reference to George Soros. The right-wing Internet has been attacking Soros for years with vile inferences of evil intent and world domination. The attacks were typically comprised of common anti-Semitic tropes that accuse Jews of seeking to control everything from the banks to the media to the moral fabric of society. And as a self-made billionaire, Soros was used by the right to symbolize the most repulsive lies propagated by conservative hate groups. And now Barr is doing the same thing by asserting that Soros has some otherworldly power to shape society in terrible and frightening ways.

Barr’s accusation naturally springs from Soros’ wealth as the tool of his dastardly deeds. Great wealth, however, is only seen as the Devil’s plaything when it’s held by liberals. According to Barr, Soros is “putting in a lot of money” to install his minions in the upper ranks of law enforcement. And from there, Barr believes, they will implement an agenda that frees up villains to embark on unfettered crime sprees.

What’s more, Barr also says that any effort to hold the police accountable for bad behavior is an expression of disrespect. Of course, the opposite is the truth. Wanting the police to have the best reputations for honorable service is far more respectful than ignoring and excusing their faults. But to Barr, any constructive criticism should be viewed as “not supporting the police” for which the result could be that citizens “may not get the police protection they need.” That’s an overt and irresponsible threat that shouldn’t be tolerated coming from the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.

The assertion that Democrats are hostile to law enforcement is demonstrably false, but it’s been a longstanding plank in the Republican platform. Trump himself has alleged that Democrats actually want more crime. He tweeted earlier this year that “the Radical Democrats are a Party of open borders and crime.” And that’s just one example of many.

What we’re seeing from these officials in Washington today is the sort of extremist garbage that was once reserved for the likes of Glenn Beck and Alex Jones. But now it has been openly taken up by Trump and Barr. It is worse than merely insulting and dishonest. It is insane and dangerous. And yet, it is now routinely a part of the discourse by the White House and its surrogates. This needs to stop ASAP. If not by impeachment and removal from office, than at the ballot box in November.

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


Smoking Gun? Trump Ordered Pentagon to Delay Ukraine Aid Shortly After Zelensky Phone Call

Posted by on December 21, 2019 at 3:41 pm. 3 Comments :

The fact that Donald Trump has now been impeached (despite what the loons on Fox News say), hasn’t slowed the discovery of new evidence of his guilt. This is one of the reasons that it’s so important to ensure a comprehensive consideration of the Articles of Impeachment when they get transmitted to the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows this, and so do the vast majority of Americans who favor a full and fair hearing, including witnesses and document production.

Donald Trump

The impeachment controversy has sparked as epic battle between Pelosi and the Senate’s GOP majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who has already announced that he has no intention of conducting a fair hearing and will be “taking his cues” from White House lawyers. In the meantime, new evidence has already emerged that appears to be profoundly damaging to Trump:

That’s right. Less than two hours after Trump got off the phone with President Zelensky of Ukraine, he ordered the Defense Department to withhold military aid to a country that was being invaded at the time by Russia. The order included a directive to keep it quiet due to it’s “sensitive nature.”

Trump is fond of telling everyone to “read the transcript” of his phone call with Zelensky. He’s tweeted that demand 29 times in the past few weeks. Most recently, yesterday. He is referring to reading the notes made in a memo that describes his conversation with Zelensky. And he is apparently too oblivious to recognize that the memo actually confirms that he conditioned military aid on Zelensky’s promise to help him smear Joe Biden. What Trump said, in response to Zelensky’s inquiry about the aid, was…

“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.”

That’s a textbook quid pro quo. Trump then talks about getting some information related to a debunked conspiracy theory about a computer server that belonged to the Democratic National Committee. But he quickly segues from that to explicit requests for dirt on Joe Biden:

“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with [Rudy Giuliani and] the Attorney General [William Barr] would be great … so if you can look into it.”

This new memo was acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Center for Public Integrity. It is among the documents that the White House had previously refused to surrender to congressional investigators. There are many more that Trump continues to withhold. And he is still refusing to allow his staff to give testimony.

But if there’s one thing this memo proves, it’s that there is a real need to continue probing this criminal president and the accomplices in his administration. And when the Senate takes up the impeachment, they must permit the introduction of new evidence and testimony from relevant witnesses. The truth will likely come out eventually, anyway. But if Republicans in Congress allow Trump to deny access to it at this stage, they will be held accountable by both the courts and the voters.

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


The Chosen One: Trump Attacks Christianity Today’s Call to Impeach Him for Gross Immorality

Posted by on December 20, 2019 at 3:19 pm. 7 Comments :

One of the most perplexing subplots of Donald Trump’s Soap Opera Presidency is the devotion he is shown by Christian evangelicals for a pathological lying, serial adulterer and sexual predator, who is greedy, lazy, prideful, gluttonous, profane, vengeful, and stuffs all of those faults into a wrapper of infantile egocentrism.

Donald Trump Messiah

The religious right has long demonstrated that they are way too eagerly willing to abandon their principles in exchange for some rewarding political bone to chew on. But even so, Trump seemed like too long a stretch for people who allegedly aspire to higher morals. That turned out not to true. The evangelical community found ways to ignore Trump’s failings and embrace him as one of their own, despite his life of public irreligiosity.

However, there may now be a small crack opening up in the spiritual dam. The popular evangelical magazine, Christianity Today, (founded by Billy Graham) just published an opinion piece calling for Trump to impeached and removed from office. They did not mince words either. Addressing the recent impeachment of Trump, CT’s editor in chief Mark Galli wrote that…

“…the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.”

Galli went on to enumerate some of Trump’s more egregious sins, such as his association with “people who are now convicted criminals,” as well as his “immoral actions in business and his relationship with women.” Galli described Trump as “a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused,” with a “grossly immoral character.” And Galli implored his readers to…

“Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come?”

Well, Trump didn’t wait long to condemn the magazine in stark, personal, and as always for Trump, dishonest terms:

No honest, objective person would ever describe Christianity Today as a “far left” or “progressive” magazine. And typical of Trump’s wrath, he blindly and falsely demeans the success of his perceived foe, just as he has done with CNN, the New York Times, Alec Baldwin, and others. Trump feels he needs to make his critics look small in order to feel big himself.

Then Trump insults every person of faith by asserting that they are not capable of assessing his behavior during his fateful phone call with the president of Ukraine. Trump repeats his contention that the call was “perfect,” even though his own transcript reveals that he conditioned foreign aid on Ukraine’s agreement to help him smear Joe Biden.

Naturally, Trump also lashed out at his political rivals, accusing them of wanting to “take your religion & your guns,” which is an odd juxtaposition. Needless to say, the Democrats that Trump is maligning have all been strong advocates for freedom of religion. But he seems to have forgotten that if he is removed from office, they wouldn’t be moving into the White House. It’s his devoutly Christian vice-president, Mike Pence, who would be sworn in.

Worst of all, Trump, as he has done many times before, exalts himself as the world’s foremost agent of Christ. As with everything else for which he rates his performance, he insists that no one “has ever done what I have done,” in this case “for Evangelicals, or religion itself!” Let that sink in: “for religion itself.”

This is coming from someone who once described himself as “the Chosen One.” It’s coming from someone who has said that he doesn’t need to ask God for forgiveness because he’s never done anything wrong. This is a man that who,, like many cult leaders before him, preaches to his disciples that he – and only he – can be believed. So while Trump may like to call himself the “Chosen One,” there are other names for what Trump really is.

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


HUH? Fox News Trump-Fluffers Float Bizarre Theory that Trump Hasn’t Been Impeached

Posted by on December 20, 2019 at 11:49 am. 2 Comments :

The capacity for total delusion on the part of Donald Trump and his Fox News defenders has never been, and can never be, overstated. However, there are times when they exhibit such utterly ludicrous behaviors that it astonishes even the most jaded media observers. And on Thursday evening we passed that threshold once again.

Fox News, Laura Ingraham

On an episode of Laura Ingraham’s White Nationalist Hour, our intrepid host attempted to impart her version of wingnut intellectualism by presenting a theory so devoid of reason that it sucked all the remaining grey matter from her already nearly vacant skull. It’s a theory that Trump’s White House is also entertaining.

Ingraham delivered a monologue (video below) that began with the absurd contention that “I think one can make a decent argument that the President wasn’t really impeached.” Her explanation sprung from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to delay sending the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate until Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer finalized the rules under which they would be debated. Ingraham thinks that an impeachment hasn’t really taken place until the House transmits it to the Senate.

To support her silliness, Ingraham mocks Pelosi’s grasp of the Constitution and attempts to cite it saying that “the Senate has the sole power of impeachment.” That, however, is not what the Constitution says. What it actually says is that “The House of Representatives…shall have the sole power of impeachment.” So Ingraham got it completely wrong. It later says that “The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.” Which is something else entirely. Pelosi, therefore, was right and Ingraham was making a fool of herself.

This disinformation then spread to other Fox News programs. On Friday morning it was regurgitated by anchor David Asman who said that “We may not have an impeachment if it hasn’t been passed to the Senate.” But as we now know, that isn’t true. It’s just part of an ongoing campaign by Fox News to keep their viewers mired in ignorance and falsehoods.

Additionally, this baseless theory relies on the assumption that the House will never transmit the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. Nobody is betting on that. Pelosi is wisely insisting that the Senate trial be conducted fairly and that relevant witnesses to presented. That’s a critical demand considering that McConnell has already publicly stated that he has no intention of being impartial and that he will “take his cues” from White House lawyers. Eventually McConnell will have to concede because Trump doesn’t want the impeachment hanging over his head without at least an attempt to exonerate him by the Senate. Although, exoneration is not something that is actually achievable.

Like or not, Fox News, and Trump’s congressional bootlickers, have to accept that Trump has indeed been impeached. They cannot pretend otherwise. It is a disgrace that will follow him and the GOP throughout history. And clinging to these nonsense notions and wishful thinking only makes them look desperate and dumb. Well, more desperate and dumber.

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