Vladimir Putin Joins the Trump Impeachment Defense Team

Posted by on December 19, 2019 at 1:37 pm. 3 Comments :

Now that Donald Trump has been impeached and his name goes down in history as only the third president to have achieved that dishonor, the Trump loyalists are assembling en masse to figure out how to scrub that stain from both him and themselves. It’s a vain exercise that is only going to spread the dirt around more.

Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin

However, Trump does have his defenders. There’s Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has pledged that he will be “taking his cues” from Trump’s lawyers rather than provide a fair trial. There’s Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has already announced that he will not “pretend to be impartial.” There’s Rudy Giuliani, who continues to visit Ukraine to dig up dirt. And there’s Fox News, where Trump-fluffing has become the core principle of their editorial mission.

And then there’s Vladimir Putin, who just signed on to the Trump Impeachment Team and immediately declared that Democrats have “invented reasons” to impeach Trump and remove him from office. Never mind the abundant evidence proving that Trump extorted the Ukrainian president, withheld congressionally appropriated aid, sought to recruit foreign interference in an election, and obstructed justice in order to cover it all up. The case is so clear cut that even the Senior Legal Analyst on Fox News says that Impeachment “is acutely needed.” Despite all of that, Putin now says he is all-in with the Trump regime’s criminal enterprise:

“It needs to go through the Senate where as far as I know the Republicans have a majority. It’s hardly like they will want to distance themselves from power on account of — in my view— some absolutely invented reasons,” he said. […]

“It is simply a continuation of an internal political battle,” Putin continued. “And the party that lost the elections, the Democrat party is trying to achieve results with other ways, with other means. Bringing accusations against Trump of a conspiracy with Russia, later it becomes clear there was no conspiracy. It cannot lie at the basis of impeachment.”

These remarks could have been taken verbatim from the GOP Talking Points Bulletin. But Putin tacked on the baseless and blatantly self-serving assertion that there was no conspiracy by Russia to interfere with the 2016 election. That is not, however, the conclusion of the GOP-run Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, or Special Counsel Robert Mueller, or the U.S. intelligence agencies.

Trump is fond of saying that he is “much tougher on Russia” than his predecessors. But the facts don’t bear that out. He has been steadily loosening sanctions on Russia that were imposed following their invasion of Crimea. He has advocated on Russia’s before for their inclusion in the G7, the international intergovernmental economic organization. He has harshly criticized NATO, the allied nations formed to counter Russian aggression. He pulled troops out of Syria, leaving Russia to expand their influence. And he has praised Putin effusively as a great leader and friend.

UPDATE: Trump has now re-tweeted Putin’s criticism of Trump’s impeachment. Trump is apparently proud that his co-conspirator is supportive of their joint effort to blame Russia’s crimes on Ukraine. How convenient.

You only have to ask one simple question to understand this support from Putin: Who benefits? Do you think Putin likes Trump because he’s tough on Russia? Or is it more likely because Trump weakens America? And of course, Putin could not have asked for a more deferential and flattering American leader than Trump. What’s more, Trump’s financial interests in Russia (loans, real estate, etc.) add another level of bonding by Trump to his Russian benefactors.

So while Trump is going berserk over his impeachment, Putin is answering the call for backup. And by doing it in such a public way, he is also making Trump look small and dependent, and reminding the world who is really in charge in this relationship. After all, Putin isn’t being impeached. Which is a state of affairs that wannabe dictator Trump openly envies.

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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Fox News Senior Legal Analyst on Trump: ‘The Remedy of Impeachment is Acutely Needed’

Posted by on December 18, 2019 at 2:59 pm. 4 Comments :

The impeachment of Donald Trump is finally being debated in the House of Representatives. The outcome is not expected to surprise anyone. Trump will be be impeached and will wear that mantle of disgrace for the rest of his life. Even if the Senate fails to remove him from office, the stain of impeachment is an indelible affirmation that Trump breached his constitutional duties and betrayed his country.

Donald Trump Walking the Plank

The partisan players in this battle are easily recognizable in most instances. Republicans and Fox News pundits are staunchly devoted to Trump regardless of what laws he has been shown to have broken. But every now and then someone steps out from behind the curtain of political prejudice to act as an advocate of truth and justice.

Now, as Trump’s impeachment looms, a lone voice from Fox News is standing up to the right-wing group-think that the network so rigidly enforces. Andrew Napolitano is Fox’s Senior Legal Adviser. And on Wednesday morning, as Congress was weighing Trump’s fate, Napolitano penned an op-ed with the headline: “Trump impeachment: Undisputed evidence that he abused his power.”

The article was published in the arch-conservative Washington times. For some reason, Fox News has been spiking Napolitano’s commentaries that support Trump’s impeachment. And this article had some blunt opinions on the matter. For instance…

“In Mr. Trump’s case, we have undisputed evidence that he abused his power by inviting a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 presidential election and then compounded this by directing subordinates to refrain from giving congressionally commanded evidence of his behavior.”

“It is undisputed that Mr. Trump withheld the delivery of the $391 million in military aid to Ukraine that Congress authorized and ordered and that Mr. Trump himself signed into law. He said he withheld that aid because he first wanted “a favor” from the president of Ukraine. The favor, requested by others on Mr. Trump’s behalf, was the announcement of a Ukrainian government criminal investigation of Mr. Trump’s potential political adversary, former Vice President Joe Biden.

“In the language of the streets, this is a shakedown; it sought to enhance Mr. Trump’s personal political needs and bears no relationship to American foreign policy.

Napolitano went on to describe the criminal violations Trump committed. They included the federal prohibition on soliciting campaign aid from a foreign government, and bribery. He also explained that these acts are crimes whether or not they are consummated by the exchange of money or services. It is the solicitation that triggers the offense.

And that’s not all. Napolitano also noted the criminal obstruction of justice by Trump for having “directed his subordinates to disregard congressional subpoenas, lawfully issued and validly served.” And he was troubled by Trump’s apparent belief that he is above the law. Napolitano made clear that this was dangerous, and that there is something that the Founders had in mind for just such a problem:

“Everyone who believes in the rule of law should be terrified of a president who thinks and behaves as if it does not apply to him. As the DOJ has stated repeatedly, impeachment is the proper constitutional remedy for that.”

Trump has been frantically trying to dodge accountability for his clearly impeachable activities. But his legal basis is virtually nonexistent, and he has refused to even defend himself before the committees of jurisdiction in Congress. Instead, he relies on bootlicking Fox News hacks like Gregg Jarrett and Alan Dershowitz (each of which he retweeted six times on Wednesday) for legal advice. Even worse, his idea of “legal scholars.” is Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.

Former federal judge Napolitano, on the other hand, says that “the remedy of impeachment is acutely needed.” But you can rest assured that Trump will dismiss that as fake news and malign Napolitano (who was a close friend of Trump’s for decades) as a Never-Trumper. That’s just how the mind of a paranoid narcissist works.

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


Trump’s Unabomber Manifesto-Like Letter to Pelosi is Just a Regurgitation of His Deranged Twitter Rants

Posted by on December 18, 2019 at 12:57 pm. 2 Comments :

Merry Impeachmas. It seemed like it took forever, but on Wednesday morning the House of Representatives finally took up the Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump. The debate is expected to last throughout the day with fairly predictable speeches by both Democrats and Republicans, culminating with a vote to impeach Trump that will forever mark him in disgrace as only the third president ever to be impeached.

Donald Trump

Trump is displaying a false bravado, saying that he isn’t worried about being impeached. But his behavior belies that facade. His Twitter feed is drowning in panicky outbursts and dozens of retweets by his glassy-eyed sycophants in Congress and the press. But the most harebrained commentary on this historic affair is a letter Trump wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It’s contents are beyond bizarre, and bear little resemblance to reality.

Trump believes that this letter will serve as a “permanent and indelible record” for those looking back on these times a hundred years from now. And it will, but not in the way he hopes. It’s going to go down in history as his version of the Unabomber Manifesto that reveals his madness, anger, paranoia, victimhood, and manic dissociation from the real world. Historians and psychologists will both be busy for decades.

The most striking thing about this letter is that doesn’t introduce a single new thought or argument in Trump’s defense. It is nothing more than a verbose rehashing of every tweet that Trump has posted for the past several months. In fact, you could almost have written the whole letter using only Trump’s tweets.

So I did. You can follow along with his actual letter here.

And there you have it. Needless to say, nearly everything Trump tweeted was riddled with lies. That accounts for how he just won – for the third time – the PolitiFact “Lie of the Year“ award.

No one is likely to find any value in this frenzied correspondence. It’s intended recipient was asked what she thought and Pelosi said that “It’s ridiculous. I mean, I haven’t fully read it. We’ve been working. I’ve seen the essence of it. It’s really sick.” And with that excellent and concise summation, everyone else can save themselves the time and trouble of reading it also. The bottom line is that, if you’ve seen Trump’s tweets there is no reason to bother with his crackpot manifesto. It’s just Trump retweeting in long-form.

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


Lie of the Year: Pathological Liar Trump 3-Peats as PolitiFact’s Foremost Fibber for 2019

Posted by on December 17, 2019 at 1:13 pm. 1 Comments :

Donald Trump likes to boast about imaginary achievements that he pretends to have accomplished. No, he has not built any new border wall. Nor has he presided over the best economy ever, or rebuilt a crumbling military, or completed any new trade treaties, or destroyed ISIS, or fulfilled any of the other fallacies he spews to his Deplorables. But there is one thing he can honestly brag about.

Trump Lies

For the third time, Trump has been awarded the un-coveted “Lie of the Year” from PolitiFact. It was a competitive year in which Trump was vying against … well, mostly himself. But he couldn’t possibly find a more formidable opponent. After all, he has the distinction of having been documented for telling more than 15,000 lies since he took office.

Trump previously won PolitiFact’s “Lie of the Year” in 2015 for his collective campaign “misstatements.” Then again in 2017, for his repeated denials of Russia’s interference in the presidential election. In 2016 PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year went to “Fake News,” so you might say that Trump deserved a share of that as well. But the falsehood that took the dishonors this year was his brazenly untrue and incessantly repeated assertion that “the whistleblower got my phone conversation with Ukraine almost completely wrong.”

As the detailed analysis by PolitiFact shows, the whistleblower actually got Trump’s phone conversation completely right in every respect. Trump never even tried to cite whatever inaccuracies he purported to see. He simply cried “fake news” and relied on the willful blindness of his supporters to believe him.

However, the enormity of this lie is magnified by the fact that Trump himself actually admitted to doing what the whistleblower alleged. Responding to a reporter’s question about what he wanted from Ukrainian President Zelensky during the phone call, Trump said that “It’s a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens.” What’s more, Trump’s chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, also confessed to a quid pro quo from the podium of the White House press office.

And if that isn’t enough, the transcript that Trump is constantly berating everyone to read quotes Trump plainly affirming the whistleblower by conditioning military aid on Zelensky’s help to smear Joe Biden. “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution,” Trump extorted, “So if you can look into it.” Which is the core allegation by the whistleblower.

So the Trump provided “transcript,” his chief of staff, and his own words, attest to the accuracy of the whistleblower’s complaint. Nevertheless, Trump has denied that obvious truth more than 80 times. And his persistence has paid off, at least with the glassy-eyed members of his cult who faithfully attend his rallies. The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper proved that by asking the StormTrumpers if they had read the “transcript.” Not a single one said that they had. And even with repeated prodding, they couldn’t grasp why that was so hysterically hypocritical.

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


The Great Whiner: Aspiring Tyrant Trump Thinks He’s the Great Decider of All Things

Posted by on December 16, 2019 at 3:25 pm. NO Comments :

Another day, another opportunity for Donald Trump to exhibit his perpetual state of fear for all to see. Trump regularly displays how scared he is via relentless and invariably false attacks on his perceived enemies. These dastardly foes include Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Joe Biden, the “fake” news, the “Deep State,” and anyone who dares to show him anything less than undying adoration.

Donald Trump Pacifier Fox

The tone of Trump’s tweets is more untethered to reality – and even decency – as he sinks further into the abyss of the legal jeopardy that is weighing so heavily on his alleged conscience. Some recent rants have taken a decidedly low road as he mocks Pelosi’s teeth, Schiff’s name, and even cyberbullied 16 year old climate activist, Greta Thunberg.

In recent weeks Trump’s trepidation has been squarely focused on the threat of his imminent impeachment. This week the House of Representatives will make that final with a vote convicting him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. But Trump still managed to find time to expose his inherent cowardice by criticizing the Commission on Presidential Debates and signalling his possible refusal to participate. In a starkly passive-aggressive fashion, he began by saying that he looked forward to debating the eventual Democratic nominee and he bragged about what a formidable opponent he would be. But that bravado quickly faded into snowflakey paranoia:

The Commission has been producing these debates for more than thirty years without a hint of bias or partisanship. It’s officers are an evenly balanced array of Democrats, Republicans, journalists, and academics. But to Trump, any organization that he can’t control is viewed as hostile and “stacked with Trump Haters & Never Trumpers.” His charge that he was the victim of a deliberate “modulation” of his microphone is just another Trumpian falsehood, like the claim that his inauguration crowd was the biggest ever, or that China is paying billions to the U.S. in tariffs, or that his border wall is being built, or that … well, there are 14,000 more of these lies. Let’s just note that Trump is lying again. And he has no evidence that the Commission is anti-Trump or biased in any way. It’s just the paranoid voices in his head telling him that everyone is out to get him.

However, the most absurd claim in this tweet tantrum is Trump’s contention that “As President, the debates are up to me.” There is absolutely no rational basis for that delusional opinion. The only thing that’s up to him is whether he chooses to participate or not. If he bails, it won’t be the first time his cowardice has set his agenda. Trump refused to participate in a Republican primary debate in 2015 because he was afraid of Megyn Kelly of Fox News who was one of the moderators. So he staged a campaign stunt instead that he said would benefit veterans. It was later discovered that he failed to disburse the money that he raised.

Like most bullies, Trump is actually a shivering bundle of nerves who avoids any situation that triggers his fears. As President, Trump has declined to appear at the annual conventions of the NAACP. He has also chickened out of attending the charity fundraising dinners for the White House Correspondent’s Association.

But Trump’s dismissal of the independent Commission debates has ominous overtones. He really believes that, because he’s the President, he gets to decide when and how these events are done. That’s the mindset of a totalitarian who seeks to subvert democracy. It’s a theory he might have picked up from his pals Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, who control elections in order to retain power. And it’s totally in character for Trump to pursue this path wherein he tries to assume powers he doesn’t have, while whining about how he’s such a victim – the poor baby fuhrer.

If Trump doesn’t want to show up for the debates, that’s fine. Democrats will get over his absence. But he cannot pretend that he’s running them. And America will see that he’s just afraid to face any challenge in the same way that he was afraid to be interviewed by Robert Mueller, and is afraid now to testify at his impeachment. The boy who had his father invent “bone spurs” to get him out of military duty, grew up to be a world-class wimp.

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


Fox News Poll: Voters Want to Impeach Trump, Who They Say is a Deceitful Crook

Posted by on December 15, 2019 at 12:08 pm. 7 Comments :

The mental state of Donald Trump has been precarious for years. He is a diagnosed malignant narcissist with megalomaniacal tendencies. He clings to ignorance and a distorted, fantastical perspective that reinforces his self-delusion. And his stunted, prepubescent emotional maturity only exacerbates the severity of his behavioral problems.

Donald Trump, Fox News

Trump’s infantile antics are routinely displayed in his name-calling and frantic Twitter outbursts. But there are deeper and darker examples of how far he has declined into a psychotic abyss. He is now firmly entrenched in the “bunker mentality” defined by one’s inability to associate with reality. Thus, every word and deed – by himself and others – is assessed by how closely it hews to his derangement. And this manifested in a recent tweet about the media that he fears and despises:

So it’s all there. Childish taunts, nicknames, and wild declarations that his perceived foes will “all die together,” while only his defenders will survive. It’s an embarrassing blast of blather that is hostile, demented, and patently false.

First of all, MSNBC frequently beats Fox News in the ratings. Fredo, Trump’s name for CNN’s Chris Cuomo, has increased viewing since taking over that time period. And former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith is probably doing just fine. He’s waiting out his non-compete clause and will then likely be courted by every network.

But of course, Trump singles out Fox News as his most favored media martinet. And he insists that “only pro-Trump Fox shows do well.” That would mean all Fox shows, because they are all pro-Trump, and always there to shield him from his persecutors. Well, almost always.

A new poll just published by Fox News contains some very bad news indeed for Donald Trump. It begins by revealing that a majority of Americans (53%) have an unfavorable view of his job performance. That, despite his relentless self-praise wherein he takes credit for the economy, jobs, make-believe trade and foreign policy treaties, a variety of legislation he had little to do with, and a border wall that hasn’t added a single foot.

The Fox News poll also asked if Trump should be impeached. A solid majority of 54% said that he should be impeached, with 50% saying that he should also be removed from office. That debate is currently raging in the House of Representatives, and will shortly be sent to the Senate. Although the Senate’s role has been largely invalidated by the Republicans who are running the show and have admitted that they are colluding with the White House.

The poll also found that a majority of voters (53%) say that Trump abused his power as president. And significantly more respondents say that Trump also obstructed Congress (48%) and committed bribery (45%), than say that he didn’t. Drilling further into the details, a plurality of voters said that they believe Trump held up military aid to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rivals (47%). And when asked if that was proper for a president to do, they resoundingly said “NO” by a 60%-24% margin.

And that’s not all. The poll found that a majority of 52% said that Trump is not cooperating with the Congressional impeachment inquiry. As for whether the Democrats presiding over the hearings in the House were conducting them fairly, a plurality of voters (45%-42%) said that they were. Voters also regard Republicans as being more partisan. By a 16-point margin they say that Republicans just want to protect Trump rather than believe that what he did is not impeachable. Conversely, they say that Democrats genuinely believe that Trump is guilty, rather than just being interested in hurting him politically.

Here’s some additional poll potpourri: 64% say they are the same, or worse off, since Trump’s election. Which does not bode well for his reelection. 68% favor a wealth tax. 66% want some version of Medicare-for-all. 52% oppose Trump’s border wall. And every candidate the poll pitted against Trump in 2020 beat him.

To be sure, Trump will attack this poll as being biased against him. He has attacked Fox News polling in the past, saying that they “have always been terrible to me.” But that is not only untrue, Trump has frequently praised Fox’s polling when it was positive. This is just another example of Trump’s dissociation from reality. If he encounters something negative, he will criticize it and insist that they’ve always been against him. But when he comes across something positive, he embraces it as irrefutable proof of his awesomeness. That isn’t a sane expression of opinion. It’s an illness. And Trump is getting sicker by the day.

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

UPDATE: As I predicted…

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Trump’s Impeachment in the House is All that Matters – The Senate Cannot Acquit

Posted by on December 14, 2019 at 1:00 pm. 4 Comments :

The United States House of Representatives is set to impeach Donald Trump next week, making him only the third American president to suffer this indignity. However, many pundits and pro-Trump media bootlickers are misrepresenting the gravity of this affair. There is a contingent of excusers who seek to dismiss its significance if the Senate doesn’t vote to remove Trump from office.

Donald Trump, Impeach

Trump himself has been making noises that he is anxious to have the impeachment move from the House to the Senate where he believes he will be coddled by sycophantic Republican loyalists. That, however, is a thinly veiled facade of bravado that is betrayed by his frantic tweetstorming (hitting a record of 123 in one day). Clearly Trump is consumed with fear and anxiety at the thought of being branded for life with impeachment.

The argument circulating the GOP drain is that a failure to oust Trump from office is tantamount to an acquittal. But that relies on the false analogy that the House impeachment vote is akin to an indictment, after which the Senate conducts a trial. But a more accurate analogy would be to cast the House as the de facto courtroom and impeachment there is a conviction. After all, the language of the Articles of Impeachment state flatly that “President Trump has abused the powers of the Presidency in a manner offensive to, and subversive of, the Constitution.” Note that it doesn’t say he is charged with abuse of power, but that he “has abused” his power. Consequently, a “yes” vote is a finding of guilt.

The Senate’s role is, therefore, not one of a trier of fact, but more that of a sentencing hearing. The House establishes the facts and will shortly rule that Trump is guilty. The Senate decides if he should be punished by removal from office, or pardoned and allowed to complete his term. But the conviction stands.

Trump knows this and it is eating him up. That’s why he is putting so much pressure on his Senate defenders. It’s why Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, told Sean Hannity of Fox News that “I’m going to take my cues from the president’s lawyers.” McConnell went on to say that…

“Everything I do during this I’m coordinating with the White House counsel. There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this […adding that he’ll be in…] total coordination with the White House counsel’s office and the people who are representing the president in the well of the Senate.”

What’s more, the GOP Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Lindsey Graham, told CNN that “I will do everything I can to make it die quickly […] I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here.”

So the chairman of the Committee of jurisdiction and the majority leader have both stated publicly that they have no intention to conduct a fair, impartial hearing. In fact, they are openly conspiring with the defendant (Trump) to allow him to escape any punishment for his crimes. Which means they are admitting in advance to violating the oath that they will be taking prior to commencement of the hearing, which states that…

“I solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, president of the United States, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.”

This tells you precisely what these Republicans think about the Constitution, the law, and even God. That they are willing to brazenly and shamelessly breach this oath is evidence that their word is meaningless. And in taking this position before they begin deliberating, they are effectively cancelling any validity that their role in this might otherwise have had. As a result, the outcome of the Senate hearing is irrelevant. Which leaves the House vote to impeach as the final word on what will become Trump’s tarnished legacy. And if yo think that isn’t driving Trump nuts, see his Twitter feed.

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


IT’S A CULT! Trump’s Assault on the Press has Poisoned a Generation of Republican Chumps

Posted by on December 13, 2019 at 1:19 pm. 6 Comments :

The impeachment of Donald Trump has passed another milestone as the House Judiciary Committee voted to send two Articles of Impeachment to the full House. Article One is “Abuse of Power” and includes Trump’s extortion of a foreign leader, as wells as his efforts to coerce a foreign government to interfere with an American election. Article Two covers “Obstruction of Congress” and Trump’s attempts to cover up the crimes he committed in Article One.

Donald Trump

The prospect of being only the third U.S. president ever to be impeached is gnawing at Trump and driving him to bizarre behaviors such as Thursday’s 123 tweet day, a record for the Tweeter-in-chief. And on Friday Trump’s tweetstorming raged on with an emphasis on how adored he thinks he is by the American people. He posted several tweets alluded to that imaginary popularity, including the following:

The reality is that Trump is struggling in recent polling, including that of his favorite pollster, the utterly biased and disreputable Rasmussen, where he’s dropped three points since the impeachment hearings began. But Trump has even bigger problems as his support narrows to the fringe confines of his most loyal cult disciples. This fact of Trump’s sad life is borne out in a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Their study of how the media is perceived by different sectors of the population reveals that…

“On item after item, Republicans consistently express far greater skepticism of the news media and their motives than Democrats. […] Even more telling, the analysis reveals that divides emerge within party – particularly the Republican Party – based on how strongly people approve of Trump’s performance as president.”

It’s no secret that Trump has conditioned his followers to despise the constitutionally protected free press, which he calls “the enemy of the people.” But even among Republicans, the degree of animosity spikes in concert with the degree of Trump worship. The Pew study found that “The vast majority (79%) of Republicans say journalists have low or very low ethical standards.” Of those about one-third (31%) say journalists have very low ethical standards. However among the most fervent of Trump’s GOP supporters 40% say journalists’ ethics are very low. So the Deplorable set is far more distrusting of the media than their Republican chums.

This is undoubtedly the result of constant disparagement by Trump. He can’t seem to go a single day without instructing his hordes to hate the press. And that hostility is clearly transferring from Trump to his truest believers. But even so, this support is not nearly in the range that Trump says it is. According to Pew, it isn’t 95%, but only about 64% of GOPers who “strongly” approve of how Trump is handling his job as president. Even if you add the “somewhat approvers” (18%) it still only comes to 82%.

So no matter how you slice it, Trump is passing off fake numbers to boost the perception of his alleged acclaim and to massage his fragile ego. The good news for Trump is that his most faithful devotees will believe whatever he tells them. The bad news is that they are a small and dwindling cadre of dimwits.

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


TRIGGERED II: Trump is Clearly Losing It – Fear of Impeachment Has Fried His ‘Brain’

Posted by on December 12, 2019 at 12:46 pm. 7 Comments :

On Wednesday Donald Trump displayed an astonishing capacity for hysterics by posting 77 tweets in one day. His twittering was done mostly in the morning while Congress was holding hearings on his impeachment. It was a horrifying spectacle that exposed Trump as a whining coward who is incapable of controlling his frayed emotions.

Donald Trump, Toilet, Bathrobe

Now on Thursday, Trump has surpassed his all-time record for daily tweets. Once again, he accomplished this feat before lunchtime by posting 108 tweets, 86 of which were retweets of primarily GOP members of Congress and bootlicking media sycophants. This brings a total of 437 tweets in the past week.

Trump is apparently trying to flood the zone with inanity, because there was almost nothing of substance in this avalanche of social media ego-stroking. You have to wonder who he thinks is reading this bullcrap, other than weary media analysts. And he seems to have quit the presidency, because his OCT (Obsessive-Compulsive Tweetery) is a full time job.

The vast majority of Trump’s tweets were tiresome clips of Republicans evading the facts that so compelling affirm Trump’s guilt. Their talking points were so tightly aligned that you could hardly tell one from another. However, there were a few tweets that merit attention, primarily due to their utter assholiness. And leading the list would have to be Trump’s attack on 16 year old climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg:

So Trump took some time out of his tweetstorming to bully a girl who is showing real courage in the fight for her future and that of the Earth. No doubt Trump is perturbed that Greta was named Time Magazine Person of the Year instead of him. And his complaint that she has an anger management problem is pure projection considering his near constant state of frothing rage.

Also notable is Trump’s brazen self-promotion of his own private business, the Mar-a-Lago golf club in Palm Beach, Florida.

It takes some real cojones to violate the Constitution while you are being impeached. But that’s exactly what Trump is doing here. It violates the Constitution’s emoluments clause to exploit the office of the presidency for personal profit. And by using his official Twitter page to announce that the resort’s season is open, Trump can’t wave this off as just posting his itinerary.

And what Trump tweetfest would be complete with his attack on the free press:

Not only is Trump disparaging – and lying about – the media, he is wrapping his assault in a blanket of narcissism. He is crediting the ratings of Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, for good or ill, to himself. What’s more, he believes that by reporting positively about him, any network would enjoy greater success. Which of course is absurd considering the fact that MSNBC frequently beats Fox.

A couple of other tweets merit some note. In one he says that he is “Getting VERY close to a BIG DEAL with China.” But he’s said this many times before and it has never been true. What’s he’s really doing is manipulating the stock market that reacts feverishly to any remarks from the White House. In the other tweet of note, Trump complained “Why aren’t Germany, France and other European countries helping Ukraine more?” The only thing wrong with that is everything. Those countries are helping Ukraine with over $16 billion in aid. So Trump is, as usual, lying.

UPDATE: Trump finished the day with a grand total of 123 tweets!

The sheer volume of tweets by Trump is indicative of his crippling anxiety. To post that many tweets requires hours of scrolling, reading and watching videos. So it’s safe to say that Trump isn’t doing anything else but tweeting. It’s also safe to say that he is not just concerned about the impending impeachment, he is profoundly disturbed and suffering from a severe mental infirmity. This puts the nation at grave risk. and it makes it all the more urgent that he quickly be impeached and removed from office.

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


TRIGGERED: Trump’s Twitter Tirade Shows How Scared He is of Impeachment

Posted by on December 11, 2019 at 2:17 pm. 6 Comments :

Donald Trump likes to pretend he’s a pillar of strength. But his idea of a strong man is one who swats at his foes with infantile insults, bellows arrogantly, and constantly praises himself for being so awesome. He is, in fact, a typical bully who is frightened by his own shadow. Every opportunity he’s had to demonstrate any courage, he has quickly retreated in abject cowardice.

Donald Trump, Twitter

One of the best indicators of Trump’s seething fear is his Twitter account. He predictably reacts to challenging situations with obvious and searing anxiety. And Wednesday morning was an ideal example of this. In a flurry of furious twittering, Trump posted 61 tweets, all before 11:00 am. The vast majority of the posts were retweets of bootlicking GOP members of Congress, Fox News and other right-wing media, and sycophantic Trump stuffers …er… staffers. And the topics were almost exclusively his impeachment and the report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, which Trump surely couldn’t understand.. This is not behavior that reflects confidence or bravery. To the contrary, it is indicative of panic and insecurity.

So what was going on while Trump was tweeting so frantically? The Senate Judiciary Committee was hearing testimony from Horowitz. His report on the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe concluded that the FBI had acted properly, with justification and free of partisan political bias. After weeks of hopeful anticipation that this report would prove Trump’s relentless assaults on the FBI were valid, the report actually sucked all the air out his anti-FBI hysteria. Naturally, this would stir Trump’s ire, and not even his Attorney Genuflect, bill Barr, could mollify him.

Much of the morning session of this hearing was devoted to a side show that was barely relevant to the subject matter. The Republican chairman of the committee, Lindsey Graham spent 7 1/2 minutes reading salacious emails between the FBI’s Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. These were emails that were critical of Trump and were made public months ago. Graham’s point in this redundant, soap opera theatrics was to assert that, because they held these critical views, they were unfit to have any role in the FBI investigation. Never mind that they, in fact, didn’t have decision-making roles, and that the IG also found that there were FBI agents who were pro-Trump. So the Bureau did not lean one way the other. Trump and company have been lying about all of this for months.

If Graham’s point was that anyone who held negative views of Trump should be prohibited from sitting in judgment of him, he may have fallen off the edge of his already feeble argument. During the 2016 primary campaign, Graham himself said that Trump was a kook, crazy, and unfit to be president. So by Graham’s own standard he should be disqualified from chairing these hearings.

Trump’s slanderous commentaries on Strzok and Page may be coming back to haunt him. Page just announced that she is filing a lawsuit against the DOJ and the FBI. As of this date, Trump is not named in the suit, but his antics could surely be fodder for litigation. He has slandered Page as “incompetent,” “corrupt,” “pathetic,” “stupid,” “a dirty cop,” and more. A few weeks ago Trump staged what can only be described as a mock orgasm. And just this week Trump unloaded this blatant falsehood:

Telling lies, acting like an imbecile, exhibiting signs of severe paranoia and dementia, are not characteristics of strength. Trump is clearly afraid and it is oozing out of every pore of his trembling body. And posting more than five dozen desperately defensive tweets before lunch is proof positive that Trump can’t handle the pressure. All the more reason to get him out of the White House before he causes even more harm.

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