Democrats Call Postmaster General to Urgent Hearing on Trump’s USPS Sabotage

Posted by on August 16, 2020 at 10:50 am. 4 Comments :

Among the most blatant signs of Donald Trump’s aspirations to tyranny is his deliberate assault on the United States Postal Service. It’s an obvious attempt to make it harder for Americans to cast their votes this coming November. And in pursuit of that goal, Trump installed Louis DeJoy, a wealthy campaign donor with no relevant experience, as the executioner of his grossly anti-democratic agenda.

Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi

Trump himself admitted his intentions to purposefully dismantle postal operations in order to disrupt the delivery of ballots to and from state election offices. He recently told Fox News that Democrats are requesting funding because they “need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots.” And if they don’t get it “that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.” This perverse strategy is driven by Trump’s inability to deal with the fact that he’s losing bigly to Joe Biden, someone he regards as a mentally deficient socialist.

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1293896544668782592

As it turns out, sabotaging the Postal Service isn’t particularly popular with the American people. A whopping “70 percent of voters support a mail-in option, including 88 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of independents and 50 percent of Republicans.” And they have risen up to demand that Trump’s destructive policies be rescinded.

Now the House of Representatives is answering the call. The chair of the House Oversight Committee, Carolyn Maloney just announced that she is scheduling an “urgent hearing” on the matter and has requested DeJoy’s appearance to testify. Her letter to DeJoy charges that…

“Over the past several weeks, there have been startling new revelations about the scope and gravity of operational changes you are implementing at hundreds of postal facilities without consulting adequately with Congress, the Postal Regulatory Commission, or the Board of Governors. Your testimony is particularly urgent given the troubling influx of reports of widespread delays at postal facilities across the country—as well as President Trump’s explicit admission last week that he has been blocking critical coronavirus funding for the Postal Service in order to impair mail-in voting efforts for the upcoming elections in November.”

This is positive development that, at the very least, will keep the issue at the forefront of the media’s attention. It will force the Postmaster General to justify his actions. That is, if he doesn’t chicken out and refuse to show. And it will make clear the connections to White House pressure tactics and the potential illegal interference by the Trump campaign.

As a side benefit, the hearing is scheduled for August 24, which is, coincidentally, the first day of the Republican convention. It was previously reported that Trump is plotting to upstage the Democratic convention by hopping around the country for political appearances on each day of the Democrats’ event. His travel plans culminate in Biden’s home town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, on the same say that Biden is delivering his acceptance speech.

So, under the circumstances, the Trump schemers can hardly complain about the scheduling of the Oversight Committee hearing. In fact, Democrats should continue to host events throughout the GOP convention and consider having Barack Obama give an national address in support of Biden on the the final day when Trump bellows out his latest “American Carnage” horror story as he accepts the nomination of his Republican confederates. Give the GOP a dose of their own medicine. This may be one of those rare circumstances where turnabout really is fair play.

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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According to Trump, He’s Losing Bigly to a Mentally Deficient Socialist

Posted by on August 15, 2020 at 1:29 pm. 5 Comments :

Desperate politicians have been known to make monumental mistakes. And in the case of Donald Trump, numerous mistakes and even purposeful malfeasance. This often occurs when they observe their campaign circling the drain and everything they try to reverse the trend fails miserably. They end up in a downward spiral that only accelerates their descent into madness. It’s ultimately a self-destructive, but unyielding compulsion.

Donald Trump Circling the Drain

As Trump’s fortunes continue to disintegrate, he resorts to the most infantile and hostile components of his character, or lack thereof. He lashes out with insults, flagrant lies, and attempts to tarnish the reputations of his perceived enemies. He knows he can’t rehabilitate his abhorrent public image, so he tries to bring his opponents down to his level. That’s a long walk.

What we are seeing from the Trump campaign these days is the manifestation of that strategy. He is devoting virtually all of his campaign rhetoric to maligning Joe Biden as “sleepy,” “corrupt,” and/or “a far-left radical socialist” who will “destroy America.” But how Biden can be both mentally deficient and an evil genius has not been explained.

There is, however, an unintended consequence of this tantrum throwing tactic. If Trump defines Biden as a wild-eyed leftist radical, as well as suffering from cognitive decline, Trump is admitting something devastating about himself. After all, he is losing to Biden in most national polls by double digits. He is also losing in almost every crucial swing state. And it isn’t just the popular vote where Biden has a commanding lead. Electoral College estimates are currently predicting a landslide victory for Biden.

So Trump’s fantastical fictions about Biden’s ideology and psychological state have the effect of humiliating himself for not being able to prevail over such an allegedly pathetic opponent. If Trump can’t beat a commie with dementia, he might as well drop out of the race. He’s already been reduced to a previously unthinkable act: praising Hillary Clinton:

If the biggest difference between 2016 and 2020 is how much “smarter and sharper” Clinton was, then why is Trump still getting crushed by Biden? What’s more, while the enthusiasm for Trump among his cult disciples is pretty good, he isn’t counting the the enthusiastic opposition to him that is powering Biden’s campaign. And the numbers aren’t in yet for the boost Biden will get from selecting Kamala Harris as his running mate.

Finally, Trump takes another swipe at Fox News, something he has been doing with frequency lately, despite simultaneously running to Fox for cover every few days. But he does have a point. Even some reliable Trump-fluffers on his State TV network are noticing his weaknesses. Fox’s political editor, Chris Stirewalt just published an op-ed that made the case that “Trump is starting to sound desperate.” Starting to?

Trump himself is falling off the far side of the sanity fence, and the American people can see it. He is embracing the QAnan conspiracy. He’s plotting to heckle the democrats during their convention next week. And his defiling of democracy – and the Constitution – by sabotaging the Postal Service is Trump’s most brazen step toward tyranny to date.

Yet this brand of perverse politicking can only prove to be futile. The American people don’t support such anti-patriotic, power hungry, viciousness. And they certainly won’t get behind a loser who can’t compete with someone he claims is worse than Stalin with Alzheimer’s. Not only is the accusation preposterous, it highlights how impotent Trump is going into the final days of the campaign.

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


Trumpy the Conspiracy Clown Embraces Birtherism and QAnon

Posted by on August 14, 2020 at 1:35 pm. 2 Comments :

Of all the ways that Donald Trump has defiled the office of the presidency, among the most disturbing is his mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and the freak jobs who promote them. He frequently expresses his concurrence with bizarre and fantastical concoctions that range from cannibal child sex trafficking to staged mass murders.

Donald Trump, Pennywise

On Friday Trump held another in a series of reelection campaign events that he thries to pretend are press conferences (which the media really needs to stop covering). And in this episode of the reality TV president’s lie-fest, he was asked directly if he agrees with Republican congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, who openly supports the QAnon conspiracy cult. Trump replied…

“She did very well in the election. She won by a lot. She’s very popular… She had a tremendous victory. And so absolutely. I did congratulate her.”

And there you have it. Trump “absolutely” agrees with QAnon. And to prove it, he reiterated his support for the QAnon candidate. This is an unambiguous embrace of what the FBI warned is “a domestic terrorism threat.”

This “press conference” waded into uncharted waters for other reasons as well. Trump was asked a question by Fox News corespondent John Roberts about his purposeful dismantling of the Postal Service. Trump ignored the question and launched into an ad hominem attack on Democrats. Then he called on a “reporter” from the ultra-wingnut Gateway Pundit website. Trump’s press briefing room regularly hosts such fakers, including a “reporter” from One America News Network (OANN). They are not members of the White House Press Corps, and are only there by special invitation of the press secretary.

The press avail lasted a total of nineteen minutes. He spent the first ten minutes dryly reading data from a prepared text, most of which was riddled with provable lies. The question period consumed only nine minutes. This abbreviated affair is further proof that Trump’s fear is overwhelming his obsession for attention.

During yesterday’s session, Trump was asked if he regrets all the lying he’s done to the American people. He didn’t even have the fortitude to deny that he’s a liar. He simply pretended the question wasn’t asked and moved on.

Trump was also asked (by the OANN shill) about a ludicrous allegation that Kamala Harris isn’t eligible to run for vice-president because her parents were immigrants. Trump actually muddied that up into a false assertion that she wasn’t born in the U.S. Of course, Harris was born in Oakland, California, and her parents immigration status (which was legal) has nothing to do with candidacy eligibility.

Trump’s reintroduction of birtherism into the campaign, and his adoption of the criminal QAnon garbage, is evidence of how far he has strayed from any semblance of coherent political discourse. He is so scared of his imminent defeat – and the legal jeopardy that will follow – that he’s bursting at the seams of sanity. And the American people can see it.

What’s worse is that his Republican confederates are either silent or supportive of his dangerous derangement. And as frightening as all of this is, it is still bound to get worse before November third. So buckle your seat belts. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

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


Trump’s Egomaniacal Plot to Upstage the Democratic Convention

Posted by on August 13, 2020 at 1:20 pm. 9 Comments :

There is nothing that irritates Donald Trump more than when he is not the center of attention. His malignant narcissism kicks in bigly if something in the news cycle is deemed more important than his promulgation of lies, undeserved boasts, infantile insults, or relentless hostility and petulant whining. After all, this is the man-baby who once bragged that he is “the most fabulous whiner.”

Donald Trump, Subway

The Democratic National Convention will begin on Monday, August 17, and run until Thursday August 20. This is the quadrennial event where the Party’s nominee is officially designated and the campaign’s themes are rolled out as the election season gears up for the last lap to Election Day. Ordinarily, both parties suspend their political activities during their opponents’ convention. It’s a courtesy that allows each to present their best case to the American people without belligerent interruptions.

Of course, nothing about the Dystopian Era of Trump is ordinary. And his arrogance and vanity won’t allow him to shut his mouth for a few days to honor the respectful traditions of a functional democracy. Trump is succumbing to his unique brand of snotty conceit with the announcement that he intends to spend his time during the Democratic convention heckling them and otherwise making an ass of himself. USA Today reports that…

“President Donald Trump will hit the road next week while Democrats rally around Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris during the Democratic National Convention. […] A week-long series of events will include a visit to the city where Biden was born — Scranton, Pennsylvania — on Thursday, Aug. 20, the same day the former vice president is scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech.”

Trump has a long history of trying to manipulate the media to upstage Democrats or grab attention for himself from whatever else the press deems newsworthy. He has been doing this at least as far back as the Republican presidential primaries in 2016, Trump bowed out of a Fox News debate because he was afraid to face moderator Megyn Kelly. Then he scheduled his own media event at the same time, pretending it was a benefit for veterans. However, he later lied about and failed to disburse the funds he raised until after he was caught by the press.

More recently, Trump tried to upstage the first joint appearance of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris by scheduling another of his pointless coronavirus briefings (which the media should not be covering at all). And today Trump attempted to grab the spotlight again by announcing a phony “peace” agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Trump even employs this tactic by saying something outrageous and despicable to deflect the outrageous and despicable thing he said the day before.

If Trump goes through with this cynical and self-serving charade during the Democratic convention, Democrats need to reciprocate during Trump’s Republican convention the following week. They should schedule newsmaking affairs during Trump’s most engaging events. Which should be easy to counter-program considering that the GOP’s speakers are likely to be less than compelling. They haven’t released a list yet, but in 2016 they featured such luminaries as Duck Dynasty’s Willie Robertson, has-been Scott Baio, Ben Carson, and Ted Cruz.

If Democrats place Barack Obama’s first public appearance with the Biden/Harris ticket during Trump’s acceptance speech on the 27th, how many people do you think will be watching Trump? We already know what he’s going to say: Democrats are radical leftists who want open borders, crime in the streets, gun confiscation, and Satan worship.

Plus, Democrats will give healthcare to all citizens, pursue racial justice, seek income equality through fair taxation and corporate responsibility, and reverse the perils of climate change. Oh wait, those are all things that the American people favor overwhelmingly. Along with restoring America’s reputation internationally, and taking steps to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

So bring it on, Don. The American people already despise you. Trump has never reached 50% in approval polling, a feat that no other president can claim. He is currently losing to Biden in every national poll, as well as in most polls of the crucial swing states. His desperate antics are not likely to rescue his floundering campaign now. All he has left is cheating and Russia. But those are indeed serious threats and Democrats need to be vigilant and determined to overcome them. While things are looking pretty good for Biden and the Democrats, this is not the time to stand down.

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


Scaredy Trump Flees to Fox News After Biden Chooses Kamala Harris

Posted by on August 12, 2020 at 1:25 pm. 3 Comments :

On Tuesday Joe Biden announced the selection of Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate. The choice was universally acclaimed by all those not affiliated with the Trump Cult or Fox News. For his part, Donald Trump – the KKK’s favorite president – slandered Biden as a racist for choosing a Black woman to join his ticket. And he’s trying on “phony” as his latest infantile nickname for Harris.

Donald Trump, Fox News

The stench of fear and desperation coming from the Trump camp is unmistakable. He is getting crushed by Biden in every national poll, as well as all of the crucial swing states. He has no substantive criticism of either Biden or Harris, so he resorts to elementary school taunts, shameless lies, and pitiful whining.

Naturally, the first place Trump went after getting the bad news about Harris was his safe place in the arms of coronavirus spreader, Sean Hannity at Fox News. He knows that Harris is unquestionably a strong, experienced woman with a sharp intellect and tongue. And there is nothing that scares Trump more. He also knew that Hannity would comfort him in his hour of need, and feed him potential attack lines for the days ahead as the Biden/Harris ticket rolls out.

In fact, that’s exactly what Hannity did with his opening wet kiss to Trump on the subject of race (video below). Unfortunately, Trump is too unfocused and mentally infirm to concentrate on anything for more than ten seconds. Consequently, his response lurched manically into unrelated topics, ignoring the far more relevant subject matter that Hannity hoped he could corral Trump into. Trump’s meandering reply touched on the few topics that his fractured mind is capable of retaining. Remember, these are responses to a question about race:

“Well, first of all, what you said about Russia, the New York Times is fake reporting. And the Washington Post likewise. I always try to figure out which is worse. And then you have CNN and, frankly, ABC, CBS, NBC. […] But you know the sad thing is you [Hannity} have so many incredibly talented writers, journalists, frankly, including yourself, cause I consider you really a journalist to the largest extent.”

“They got it [the Russia “hoax”] wrong and they got Pulitzer prizes. The Pulitzer Prize is worthless as far as I’m concerned.”

“Now it finds out that we caught Obama, Biden. That’s why I didn’t think that Susan Rice could get it because she’s part of this whole illegal thing that happened.”

“Look at Hillary Clinton where she paid for the fake dossier.”

Huh? These are just a robotic recycling of Trump’s Lamest Hits. He’s on auto-play, rewinding through the nightmares that have lodged like neuro-parasites in his diseased brain, feasting on what’s left of his frontal lobe. Even Hannity – who Trump considers a journalist – was utterly incapable of guiding Trump into a coherent cognitive dialogue.

The remainder of this “interview” weaved through a soggy morass of subject matter that had little to do with Biden or Harris. Trump shoveled nonsense about windmills lowering property values, rigged mail-in voting, and his paranoid obsession with Obama’s “crimes” against him. However, he only managed to address the coronavirus pandemic for about thirty seconds at the close, and only to lie about nonexistent vaccines and therapies.

This is the current state of America’s political leadership. It’s resting in the tiny hands of a sociopathic narcissist who can’t complete a thought, or stay on topic, even when guided by a bootlicking sycophant. It would be hysterical if there weren’t already so many tragic consequences for so many suffering Americans.

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


Why is Trump Doing (and the Media Covering) His Newsless Coronavirus Briefings?

Posted by on August 11, 2020 at 1:44 pm. 2 Comments :

Last April Donald Trump fired himself as the Coronavirus Task Force spokesmodel. It was a termination necessitated by the obvious harm he was doing to his already floundering reelection campaign and the campaigns of his fellow Republicans. No one lamented his three month absence considering the fact that, due to his ignorance and ego, he had nothing of value to contribute anyway.

Donald Trump TV Set

Trump himself complained that the briefings served no purpose and were a waste of time. “The American people are getting nothing but Fake News,” he whined about an event where he was the dominant speaker. That’s quite a confession.

So it was with some surprise that Trump renewed his canceled broadcasts last month. The new version of the Trump Virus Show was recast with only the eponymous star. The supporting cast of doctors, epidemiologists, and other experts were sacked, presumably because their knowledge and ability to communicate upstaged Diva Donald.

So now we are, once again, witnessing the absurdity of the President of the United States being reduced to the daily recitation of dry statistics that could be easily read by an intern or an elementary schooler, either of whom would do a better job. Trump’s stodgy, emotionless oratory couldn’t possibly be more annoying.

This ought not to be dismissed as just another peculiarity of the Trump Era. There is, of course, a deadly pandemic ravaging the nation and the world. The economy is in shambles with a record number of people unemployed, high rates of evictions and foreclosures, business bankruptcies increasing, and more Americans seeking assistance from welfare agencies and food banks.

Yet somehow Trump finds the time to stand before the press – who he repeatedly maligns in Stalinist terms as the “enemy of the people,” – and performs his reality TV shtick. He disseminates provable lies, yells at and insults reporters, shamelessly lavishes undue praise on himself, and viciously attacks Democrats – and even Republicans – that he perceives as adversarial or disloyal.

Most of the time consumed in Trump’s “briefing” is wasted on matters having nothing to do with the COVID-19 pandemic. He regales in the performance of the stock market, which his policies are artificially propping up for the benefit of the wealthy and is a poor indicator of the economy that is currently in recession. He weaves fictions about his alleged legislative achievements. And he desperately invents electoral news that casts him as the victor in contest that exists only in his demented mind.

These charades are actually poorly disguised alternatives for the campaign rallies and other blatant politicking that he can’t pull together. Trump is reported to be despondent after weeks of not getting his ego stroked by worshipful disciples. So he demands attention by pretending to stage news conferences that are devoid of any actual news.

For that reason, the media should show some integrity and decline to service Trump’s pathetic and narcissistic neediness. He has proven repeatedly that he has nothing newsworthy to convey. So by showing up, the press is acting as his campaign’s communications staff. They are giving him free airtime and allowing him to spread his propaganda, lies, and hate speech.

If Trump wants to rant about Democrats and pay tribute to himself, he can pay for ads like any other candidate. In the meantime, the press can send junior reporters with cameras to document Trump’s meltdowns and then air whatever turns out to have some substantive news value, if anything. Short of that, the media needs to step back and stop helping to further Trump’s electoral aspirations.

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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‘Shocked’ Fox News Host Gets Schooled on Trump’s Lies about the Coronavirus

Posted by on August 10, 2020 at 1:10 pm. 6 Comments :

The endless stream of lies emanating from Donald Trump on a daily (hourly) basis continue without pause as the number of Americans infected by the coronavirus exceeds 5,000,000, and the fatalities surpass 163,000. Unmoved by these horrifying statistics, Trump persists in deflection and trivializing the suffering that the nation is enduring due to his negligence, incompetence, and egomaniacal refusal act responsibly.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Coronavirus

On Monday morning Trump took time away from his golfing regimen to express his desire to see more young people placed in danger by compelling them to participate in collegiate sports programs. Never mind that colleges around the country have already had to shut down due to spikes in coronavirus cases. Trump doesn’t care about kids, or anyone other than himself. As Trump told Fox News last week…

“My view is schools should reopen. This thing is going away. It will go away like things go away. And my view is that schools should be open. If you look at children, children are almost – and I would almost say definitely, but almost – immune from this disease.”

Exactly! COVID-19 will “go away like things go away.” Things like bone spurs and cancer and senile dementia. My view is that Trump is almost – and I would almost say definitely, but almost – completely insane. Trump’s view, though, is shared by his bootlickers on Fox News. In a segment on Fox and Friends (video below) discussing how the coronavirus affects children, co-host Ainsley Earhardt revealed her surprise that kids were affected at all:

Earhardt: 97,000 kids have tested positive? That was such a shock to me because we heard kids really don’t get it. If they do they’re all going to be okay. Do you have any details about that percentage of kids that do get it? Are they all doing okay? Do they have any deaths?
Dr. Natasha Kathuria: I don’t know about the mortality or morbidity right now in that group. That was just in two weeks. So about 100,000 new cases in pediatric kids just in two weeks. And I can guarantee you that number is much higher. We don’t really test kids that often. They’re usually asymptomatic, they have very mild symptoms, But they’re still shedding this virus.

This was a “shock” to Earhardt because she “heard kids don’t really get it” from her fellow propagandists on Fox News, where that lie has been a regular part of the disinformation that they disseminate every day. The data about the virus’s impact on children was revealed in a new study that tracked such cases and found a total of nearly 340,000 children have been infected to date. The number for the past two weeks (97,000) represents a 40% increase just as schools were reopening in some states, and includes at least 611 child fatalities.

Earhardt, however, wasn’t finished trying to shape the discussion to frame it more positively to align with Trump’s lies. Her follow up for Dr. Kathuria was couched in a false assumption that was quickly shot down:

Earhardt: We’re just going to have to be extremely careful. Most Americans want their kids back in school, but we want to do it safely. But it is true though that when the kids get it, they don’t have the – you said – it’s just minimal side effects, right? If they even see those at all.
Dr. Kathuria: That’s a majority of them. The likelihood of death and the likelihood of critical illness is lower. But it’s possible. A seven year old just died in Georgia with no medical problems. We hear about this and we see it all the time. Kids get sick.

Nice try, Ainsley. But reality demands recognition that children are not only susceptible to illness, they are also carriers who can bring the virus home to their parents, grandparents, and others in their community. The good doctor deserves credit for not buckling to Earhardt’s leading and biased questions. And if Earhardt was shocked to learn about kids getting sick, think how shocked she must have been that some morsel of truth managed to leak out onto the air at Fox News.

UPDATE: At his coronavirus briefing (aka 2020 reelection event) Trump was asked if he was concerned about 97,000 kids getting the virus. He replied that it didn’t concern him and then reiterated his false belief that kids are immune.

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


Trump Rips Obama’s Executive Orders as ‘Major Power Grabs of Authority’

Posted by on August 9, 2020 at 1:58 pm. 4 Comments :

Nobody is surprised anymore by the rank hypocrisy of Donald Trump and his sociopathic aversion to the ethical principles that most Americans hold dear. He has repeatedly revealed himself to be utterly devoid of the personal qualities that define human interactions: goodwill, empathy, charity, and compassion. In his world there is only Trump and what’s best for him.

Barack Obama, Donald Trump

As further evidence of his twisted and sadistic psychoses, Trump endeavored to brazenly politicize the debate over relief for a nation that is suffering the consequences of his incompetent mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic. It began with him ignoring the fact that Democrats had passed a relief bill in the House of Representatives three months ago that GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell stubbornly refused to allow a vote on. So Trump decided to follow his tyrannical aspirations and unilaterally impose his solutions by dictatorial edict.

Trump characterized his proposals as “Executive Orders” intended to bypass the lawful jurisdiction of Congress. But what Trump actually signed were one executive order and three presidential memoranda, none of which have the force of law. However, they still pose threats to the welfare of the American people and the stability of constitutional governance.

To Trump the law is just an inconvenient obstacle that makes him struggle to figure out ways to defy, disregard, or twist it cynically to his advantage. His attempt to peddle these phony executive orders is a perfect example of his contempt for the ethical administration of the law. In fact, when President Obama was in office, Trump had an entirely different opinion of the use of executive orders:

So when his arch nemesis, Barack Obama, uses executive orders, they are an affront to freedom, an embrace of tyranny, and an admission that you’re a failure at “the art of the deal.” Trump elaborated on this in an interview on Fox News. When the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends asked Trump if Obama could be impeached for his executive orders, he replied…

“Well, he certainly did something that was unconstitutional […] I mean, I think certainly he could be impeached and certainly they could shut down the government.”

Elsewhere on Fox News there were additional assertions of Obama’s alleged tyrannical leanings, here and here.

This is the same Donald Trump who just signed an executive order mandating that all insurance policies must cover preexisting conditions. Apparently no one bothered to tell Trump that Obamacare already does that and has been law for the past ten years. In the meantime, Trump is still trying to repeal Obamacare, including the protection for preexisting conditions, with a lawsuit that is headed for the Supreme Court.

If your head is spinning at this point, just sit down and strap yourself in, because it’s only going to get worse between now and November. We are all witnesses to this blatantly political charade by a demented president whose future is circling the drain, and whose hypocrisy is wildly out of control.

For the record, here’s a quick primer on Trump’s political trickery:

One memorandum purports to provide a $400.00 enhancement to unemployment benefits. That represents a $200.00 cut from the previous benefit. But it is also deceptive in that Trump is only offering $300.00 and asking states to make up the $100.00 difference, which they cannot afford during these pandemic times. And if the states don’t contribute, it’s possible that the federal contribution is voided.

The second memorandum claims to defer student loan payments. But a deferral still means that the students will be required to make up those payments in the still uncertain future.

The third memorandum is especially grotesque. Trump calls it a “payroll tax holiday.” Which means that this will also result in a massive balloon payment next year. Although Trump tries to soften the blow by attempting to blackmail Americans into voting for him with an unfulfillable promise to waive the payroll taxes and terminate any in the future. What’s more, payroll taxes are the sole funding source for Social Security and Medicare. Consequently, terminating them would kill those programs entirely.

Finally, the single actual executive order in the bunch addresses assistance to renters and protection from eviction. However, this “order” merely instructs the Department of Housing and Urban Development to look into the matter with no guarantee of any benefit being delivered to the people.

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


Sean Hannity Freaks Out Because Biden Declined an Interview with Fox News

Posted by on August 8, 2020 at 3:18 pm. 3 Comments :

The quantity of certified bull… oh, let’s just say malarkey, that is spun by Donald Trump continues to flow like an avalanche of asininity. Just this week he has waxed idiotic about the presidential debates, about politicization of the coronavirus, about voting by mail, and too much more to summarize here.

Fox News Sean Hannity

Naturally, Trump’s Ministry of Disinformation (aka Fox News), has been quick to buttress his lies and the infantile hostilities that are the staples of his reality TV act. And first among the Fox News Trump-fluffers is his “shadow” Chief of Staff Infection, Sean Hannity, who has been scientifically linked to increasing COVID-19 fatalities.

On Saturday morning Hannity posted a tweet intended to embarrass Joe Biden by implying that he is afraid of Fox News and is dodging Chris Wallace who recently interviewed Trump. The tweet read “HIDIN’ BIDEN: Biden Campaign Tells Chris Wallace He’s ‘Not Available’ For Interviews at This Time.” It linked to a two week old article that claimed that Biden “is refusing to speak with the journalist” because he “is ‘not available’ at the moment.'”

First of all, informing a reporter that you’re not available “at the moment” is not the same as a refusal. It just means that another time might be better. After all, Biden is in the midst of a search for a vice-presidential running mate, and he’s planning an unprecedented virtual convention. On top of that, Biden is masterfully allowing Trump to take center stage and deliciously sabotage his own campaign with ever more bizarre outbursts and demented ravings.

However, Hannity’s attack tweet left out a fairly important piece of information. Biden had already done an interview with Wallace last March, months before Trump did. What’s more, if anyone is afraid of the press, it’s Trump. The vast majority of his interviews have been exclusively with his bootlicking pals at Fox News. He has not done a single interview with CNN or MSNBC as president.

Biden would have legitimate reasons to decline to be interviewed by the blatantly biased right-wing shills on Fox News. But he hasn’t done that. That makes Hannity’s lies all the more egregious. Particularly when you compound that with the fact that Trump is so obviously frightened of being challenged by the press when they aren’t his sycophants, or when he isn’t in a position to bully them or run away.

Trump’s rambling and incoherent rants are typical of a deeply disturbed narcissistic sociopath. And the attempts by Trump and Fox News to characterize Biden as unfit for the office of the presidency just seem more ridiculous every day. The bad news for Trump is that no one is buying his rancid assaults and viciousness. Even a poll by Fox News found that majorities of Americans say that Trump does not have the mental soundness to serve. Suck on that Bunker Boy.

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


HOAX: Trump’s Endless Obsession with Politicizing the Coronavirus

Posted by on August 7, 2020 at 1:49 pm. 2 Comments :

So far this election cycle, Donald Trump has been asked four times to describe his agenda should he be reelected to a second term. And four times – most recently two days ago – he failed to articulate a coherent vision for the future or even a compelling reason to vote for him. That might have something to do with why he’s trailing so badly in every poll.

Donald Trump, Coronavirus

How hard could it be for Trump to lay out a plan for finally getting the coronavirus pandemic under control, restoring the jobs lost due to his incompetence, advocating for the welfare of working Americans, and repairing the nation’s relationships with international allies? Not that Trump is capable of doing any of that, but you would think that his press operatives ought to be able to craft an image makeover for PR purposes. You would think.

What makes this task so difficult for Trump is that he can’t be relied upon to focus his increasingly feeble mind on anything that isn’t either directly beneficial to him personally or injurious to his perceived enemies. Evidence of this mental fetishism that consumes Trump was provided in a Friday morning tweet that raised an old issue seemingly out of thin air:

The likely trigger for Trump’s latest tantrum was a “Trump Hoaxed America” Twitter ad that featured a string of his paranoid “hoax” accusations. It covered matters that he has repeatedly dismissed as hoaxes, such as climate change and the investigations into his unsavory connections to Russia during the 2016 election. More to the point, the ad also included Trump’s infamous outburst that the coronavirus was just another Democratic spawned hoax. Hence his enigmatic tweet. Here’s the ad that Seems to have gotten under Trump’s thin skin:

For the record, What Trump said at his cult rally on February 28, in Charleston, South Carolina, (video below) was that…

“Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus, you know that right? … Think of it, And this is their new hoax. But you know we did something that’s pretty amazing. We’re fifteen people in this massive country. And because of the fact that we went early, we went early, we could have had a lot more than that. We’re doing great.”

Trump’s complaint that he wasn’t referring to the pandemic as a hoax is specious at best. He included it in a list of other alleged hoaxes, not flimsy assertions about political rhetoric. And the notion that “politicizing the coronavirus” was the actual hoax doesn’t even make sense unless he means to say that it wasn’t politicized.

However, for the sake of argument, let’s concede the point and move on to the rest on Trump’s comment. Immediately following his hoax assertion Trump bragged that there were only fifteen people in the United States who were diagnosed with the coronavirus. Then he praised himself for the number being so low and insisted that “We’re doing great.” That was nearly 5,000,000 cases and 160,000 deaths ago.

So whatever fictions Trump wants to sell to Fox News and his cult disciples, there is still the unmistakable presence of a deliberate hoax. It’s the one that Trump and his Republican confederates have manufactured for five months pretending that he has everything under control, that the virus isn’t harmful, and that it’s going to disappear magically any day now. And this isn’t just a garden variety hoax. It’s a hoax that is killing people. And it’s a hoax that, at this late date, no one in their right mind still believes.

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