Donald Trump Accuses Members of His Own White House Staff of Treason

Posted by on May 14, 2018 at 2:37 pm. 1 Comments :

The morale at the White House just took another deep dive into the abyss of the Shakespearean tragedy it has become. Donald Trump’s administration is already notable for suffering the worst retention rate in history with dozens of top-level staffers resigning or being fired in just the first year. This is a crumbling house of cards that Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, called “a very functioning place of business.”

Donald Trump

The White House has recently been described in strikingly negative terms. One account calls it “the most toxic working environment on the planet.” The official who told this to Axios went on to say that:

“Usually tough times bring people together. But right now this atmosphere is ripping people apart. There’s no leadership, no trust, no direction and this point there’s very little hope. Would you want to go to work every day not knowing whether your future career was going to be destroyed without explanation?”

In the midst of that turmoil, it isn’t surprising to see many insiders anxious to leak to the media. According to a new report by Axios they are doing so, in part, to set the record straight and protect themselves from jealous coworkers. So Trump’s response to this dreadful lack of leadership was to post this harangue on Twitter:

Note the obvious paranoid psychosis in that brief tirade. First of all, if he’s referring to “so-called leaks” by the “Fake News Media,” then there isn’t really anything to complain about as far as leaks go. In his view the information is false and, by definition, not a leak. Secondly, Trump doesn’t need any help from anyone to “look as bad as possible.” He’s doing that very well on his own.

Nevertheless, Trump is outraged that anyone in his employ would exercise their free will and talk with people in the media about the train wreck over which he presides. And his response to that demonstration of disloyalty to the King is to accuse the fiends of treason and threaten them with capture and punishment.

This president is certainly not the first one to be stung by insiders talking out of class. But he is the first to charge them with crimes punishable by death. And that is what makes Trump’s totalitarian tactics so dangerous and unambiguously contrary to the American values of freedom and democracy.

If Trump wants to stop leaking from his staff, the best and easiest way is to inspire them to have admiration and respect for his leadership. He’s quite clearly incapable of that, so he resorts to this sort of intimidation and bullying. Which isn’t going to work. In fact, it will just make things worse for him. So, Mr. Trump, please proceed.

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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Judge Jeanine on Fox News: Donald Trump ‘Fulfilled the Biblical Prophecy of the Gods’

Posted by on May 13, 2018 at 3:49 pm. 6 Comments :

So you think you’ve heard it all from Fox News? You think they have gone as far into the stratospheric fringe as it’s possible to go? Do you think there is a limit to the sycophantic Trump-fluffing that will be broadcast on the network known for its slobbering devotion to the Donald? If so, you’re not giving the tunnel-blind cultists at Fox enough credit.

Donald Trump Messiah

On Saturday evening, “Judge” Jeanine Pirro led off her program with her usual “Opening Statement,” which is typically an homage to Trump and/or an attack on his critics. She has perhaps the most virulently crazed demeanor of anyone on Fox, with wild-eyed tirades and sanctimonious condemnation in her voice. She could be an attraction at Jurassic Park with her teeth-baring facial expressions and her sharpened rhetorical claws.

As outrageous as her weekly televised tantrums have been in the past, she really outdid herself with the latest episode. Reporting from Israel, her topic was Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. It’s an unnecessarily controversial action that is likely to provoke an increase in hostilities in the region, and make our diplomats more vulnerable to violence. But never mind that, Trump has made up his mind to pander to his ultra-Chrisianist base among American evangelicals. And naturally, Fox News and Pirro are all for it. This excerpt is all that you’ll need to grasp the depth of her madness (video below):

“Donald Trump sent Iranians, who are the descendants of Persia, a message to reflect on their own history, and that it was the king of Persia who, 1000 years before Mohammad was even born, said that Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish people’s country.

“There will be no Ottoman empires or Shia nations that will destroy Jerusalem any longer. Donald Trump recognized history. He, like King Cyrus before him, fulfilled the biblical prophecy of the gods worshiped by Jews, Christians and, yes, Muslims, that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish state and that the Jewish people deserve a righteous, free and sovereign Israel.”

Well, isn’t that considerate of Pirro to deign to lecture Iranians on their own past. But her anointing of Trump as having “fulfilled the biblical prophecy of the gods” goes farther than anyone at Fox News has ever gone to suggest the Messianic holiness of their Dear Leader. This is not an overreaction to Pirro’s sermon. She explicitly likens Trump to King Cyrus, who was regarded by the Jews as anointed by God and, in the view of some, a Messiah. So now it has come to pass that this greedy, foul-mouthed, narcissistic, desecrator of women is the heir to the throne of Heaven? Is she fucking serious?

The only interest that right-wing Christianists have in Israel is that they are praying for it to be conquered by the beasts of hell so that they can proclaim the commencement of Armageddon and the subsequent return of their savior. They would likely root for the Anti-Christ because his arrival presages these events. And that may be the real reason they are so devoted to Donald Trump. Because, really, who does he seem more like: Jesus or the Anti-Christ? Any Christian who has trouble answering that question has been watching too much Fox News. Because as we now know, Fox News is now officially the Sacred Pulpit of the Rapture.

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


America First? Trump Pushes to Save Jobs in China at Company Deemed a National Security Threat

Posted by on May 13, 2018 at 2:09 pm. NO Comments :

Throughout his campaign, and into his presidency, Donald Trump promised that he would be the “jobs” president. He swore that he would make American corporations close up their off-shore factories and bring those jobs back to the U.S. He insisted that his tax scam bill would result in companies investing more in domestic facilities and workers. None of that turned out to be true.

Donald Trump

Unfortunately, when Trump said that he would work tirelessly to create jobs, he failed to specify that thousands of them would be in China. But on Sunday morning he corrected that error of omission by tweeting this:

Oh good. That’s just what the American people voted for. They were hungering for a leader who would direct his cabinet to restore the thousands of jobs that have been lost in China. At least when they had the time and resources to do that after taking lavish trips around the world, buying extravagant office furnishings, harassing asylum seekers and separating their families, and raking in cash and property from corporations seeking favorable treatment from the government.

But Trump’s latest initiative to benefit China’s employment situation is a peculiar choice. The company whose fortunes he is trying to advance, the ZTE Corporation, is suffering a financial hardship due to the sanctions that have been placed on it. Those sanctions were in part the result of the company’s trading with Iran. Just this past week Trump pulled the U.S. out of a multinational agreement to prohibit Iran from developing nuclear weapons. He’s now executing his plan to restore the sanctions that were in place prior to that agreement. So American companies will not be permitted to do business with Iran but, apparently, China will be.

And that isn’t all. ZTE has also been cited as a national security threat whose telecom products were found to be capable of spying on Americans. Many of the heads of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement, including the Attorney General, FBI, CIA, and NSA, have warned about ZTE’s nefarious activities and prohibited American companies from sharing technology and selling them parts. Here are some of the reactions to Trump’s tweet:


https://twitter.com/joshscampbell/status/995686768782512128

The question is why would Trump suddenly take this position and tweet about it on Mother’s Day? Generally when we see some random thought expressed by the Tweeter-in-Chief it’s something he just saw on Fox and Friends or Hannity. But that doesn’t appear to be the case in this instance. The next best guess is that China’s President Xi brought it up in a recent conversation and Trump is blindly complying with the wishes of Xi without consulting the professionals in commerce and national security to ascertain whether this is a good idea. It is obviously against existing national policy as expressed by his own cabinet heads.

So what is Trump up to? What’s he getting out of this? He and his family have financial interests in China. He also has political interests in getting Xi to go along with his agenda for North Korea. What’s in it for him? Because you know he wouldn’t do this out of compassion for the poor Chinese workers. And the fact that he would violate the Iran sanctions he fought so hard for, while risking national security, means his reward must be substantial. Somebody better start to ask these questions before he’s allowed to cause even more damage.

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


Donald Trump Delivers a Chilly Mother’s Day Message and Forgets the Mothers in His Life

Posted by on May 13, 2018 at 11:43 am. 2 Comments :

Happy Mother’s Day everybody. On this annual day of celebration America is honoring the women who bring life into the world and nurture new generations of citizens. It’s day that is generally marked by the happiness that motherhood spreads and the devotion that is the foundation of many families.

Donald Trump, Melania Trump

In keeping with the spirit of this holiday, Donald Trump posted a video on Twitter to express his feelings about the person in his life who helped to shape him as a human being. In other words, he was fingering the culprit who deserves the blame for the suffering we are all going through. See for your self:

Have you ever seen a more joyless Mother’s Day message? It looks like a hostage video with terrorists just off screen forcing him to read a script he clearly doesn’t believe. But there is something missing in this message that a sensitive person with normal human emotions would not have forgotten. Donald Trump makes no mention of the mothers in his life that are closest to him. He doesn’t wish Melania or Ivanka a happy Mother’s Day. What sort of man does that?

The easy answer to that question is: a narcissist who doesn’t care about anyone else and is only reading this statement because an aide warned that it would make him look bad if he didn’t. But his dismally bleak reading actually makes him look worse than if he had said nothing. As for the startling omissions, apparently even his handlers didn’t think to include the mothers in Trump’s family in the address. Which says something about the whole administration.

Not that anyone should be surprised. Trump’s presidency is notable for its insensitivity to women. His policies have made it more difficult for women, especially mothers, to get health care. Reproductive health decisions are being handed over to the state. Employment opportunities and wages are still hampered by Trump’s agenda. And his harassment and abuse of women for decades is hardly the sort of respectful attitude that should prevail on this day.

When Trump tried to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program he put thousands of mothers and their children at risk of separation due to deportation. Also notable is the decision by Trump’s Justice and Homeland Security Departments to separate mothers from their children when seeking asylum at the border. There is no other reason for that than pure sadistic evil.

So happy Mother’s Day America. Try and enjoy this day with your families in the manner it was intended. Spread love to those around you and be grateful for what you have. But keep those less fortunate in your thoughts as our heartless president continues to whittle away the values we hold dear. And in the meantime, here’s a video that all mothers should hear and heed:

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


Married to the Mob: Bill Maher Tells America What they Really Got with Donald Trump

Posted by on May 12, 2018 at 3:58 pm. 2 Comments :

The presidency of Donald Trump has been likened to some of the most horrible episodes of America’s past. Most frequently it is compared to Nixon’s Watergate scandal that saw the White House intimately involved in burglary, bribery, and election tampering. The lies told by members of the Nixon administration are what got most of the criminal convictions and, eventually, the resignation of the President. Sound familiar?

Bill Maher, Donald Trump

However, Bill Maher has hit on a much more accurate analogy for the Trump crime family. With particular emphasis on the “Family” part. In a segment on his “Real Time” program on HBO Friday night he painted a picture of Trump and Company as typical of the common thugs associated with the Mafia. It was an insightful – and hilarious – six and half minutes of bruising truth. He came out swinging with this depiction of the genesis of Trump (video below):

“New York City has to stop exporting its garbage to the rest of America […] The city’s most toxic trash has been carted off to Washington, D.C.” (with picture of Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, and Rudy Giuliani).

Maher goes on to describe these wondering New Yorkers as “What the heartland used to call ‘assholes.'” He wonders why the people from “real America” likes these guys now. Then he asks:

“How did the salt of the Earth people get hooked up with the salt in the wound people? […] You’re the ‘my word is my bond’ people. These guys lie just to stay in practice. You’re all about an honest day’s work. Trump watches TV until noon. You’re frugal. They spend like identity thieves who got a hold of your pin number. You’re stoic. Trump’s a whiny little bitch.”

Maher breaks it to the Trump cult that “Now you’re married to the mob. Cause that’s what this administration is: a protection racket.” Maher’s colorful comparison of the Trump Family to the Godfather was stinging in its precision. The corollaries are way to accurate to be ignored:

“Everything Trump does is modeled on the mob. When he was accused of sexual harassment, he brought in Bill Clinton’s accusers to sit in the gallery at the debate. Just like Michael Corleone brought Fat Pentangeli’s brother into court. Who does Trump surround himself with? Disposable lawyers and idiot members of his own family. Who’s his worst enemy? The FBI. Where does his money come from? He’s in construction. […] “What part of this isn’t mob-like? They’re using a front business – in this case the White House – to enrich the family.”

There’s someone else who has made the same link between Trump and the mob. Special counsel Robert Mueller has structured his investigative team much like the ones that went after prominent Mafia bosses. They are probing his relationships with unsavory characters (including Russians). They are digging into his bank records and phone calls. They have been successful in getting insiders to turn states evidence and may even have worn a wire into meetings with the Donald. Mueller’s inquiry follows the same strategies that he has actually used on crime bosses in the past.

Consequently, Trump should be worried. And judging by his frightened reaction to every new revelation, he is. All those tweets screaming little more than “Witch Hunt” and “Fake News” are the best evidence that he is fracturing from the inside out. And while it is a serious unfolding of a dreadful period in America’s history, at least we have a brilliant bit of comic relief by people like Bill Maher to help us get through it.

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


Giuliani’s Mouth Erupts Again, Says Trump Lied About Not Interfering with AT&T/TimeWarner Merger

Posted by on May 12, 2018 at 10:00 am. NO Comments :

It really says something when your brand new attorney can’t stop making incriminating statements about you. Rudy Giuliani recently made the news when he publicly announced to the world that Donald Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the $130,000 hush money payout to Stormy Daniels. That was something that Trump had been denying for months.

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump

Following that gargantuan gaffe, Giuliani went on a whirlwind tour of the media with clarifications that only made matters worse. If we didn’t know better, we’d think that he’s working for Robert Mueller and giving the special counsel more evidence of Trump’s guilt. What else could explain his relentless trashing of his own client?

Well, he’s done it again. On Friday Giuliani gave an interview to the Huffington Post wherein he sought to defend Trump from allegations arising out of Cohen’s suspicious financial dealings with a variety of corporations that have obvious interests in Trump’s decision making. Cohen took in millions from the likes of Novartis, Korean Aerospace, AT&T, and even a Russian oligarch connected to Vladimir Putin. All of these funds were funneled through the same account Cohen used to payoff Stormy Daniels.

The AT&T payola holds special significance to Trump considering their still pending merger with TimeWarner (parent of CNN). Trump’s Justice Department is currently suing to block the deal. So any involvement by Trump would violate both legal ethics and his statement that he would not interfere. Giuliani’s latest verbal misfire was launched while attempting to clear Trump of the perception that he was being influenced by Cohen and the money received from AT&T. Giuliani said that:

“Whatever lobbying was done didn’t reach the president. He did drain the swamp … The president denied the merger. They didn’t get the result they wanted.”

OK then. So Giuliani is now contradicting Trump’s assertion that he wouldn’t get involved. Giuliani is explicitly saying that Trump did step in to deny the merger. In effect, Giuliani is calling the President a liar. And as if to confirm Giuliani’s assessment of Trump as less than honest, Trump himself joined in with a tweet saying:

Of course, the media has reported that repeatedly. But more to the point, Trump is agreeing with Giuliani that the opposition to the merger is proof that Trump wasn’t improperly influenced by Cohen and AT&T. Which would only be true if the premise that Trump had something to do with it holds. Therefore Trump is now calling himself a liar for saying that he had not interfered.

Saturday morning Giuliani was once again walking back something he said that hurt his client in the White House. He told CNN’s Dana Bash that Trump didn’t interfere after all. So the merger is still being contested by Trump’s Justice Department, which Trump proudly boasted about in his tweet. It’s just not because of anything that Trump said, allegedly, despite Giuliani’s previous statement and Trump’s months of bashing the merger on the campaign trail.

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

If this is confusing you, you’re not alone. There has to be a reason that AT&T would pay Cohen $600,000 after Trump’s inauguration. Cohen has no discernible skills or knowledge relating to the communications industry or mergers and acquisitions. What he had to sell was access to the President. AT&T now says that their contract with Cohen was a mistake. Obviously, since the DOJ is still suing them. But the fact that the merger is still being contested in court doesn’t exonerate Trump. It just reveals that Trump hates CNN even more than he loves money. And he doesn’t care who he has to screw over to achieve his goals.

UPDATE: Giuliani is now telling CBS News that he’s standing by his Friday comments that Trump denied the merger. So we’re back to Trump interfered. Is anyone else getting nauseous?

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Trump’s Dingbat ‘Friends’ at Fox News Said the ‘Failing’ New York Times Ignored a Story they Actually Broke

Posted by on May 11, 2018 at 2:39 pm. 1 Comments :

On Friday Morning Fox News aired an episode of Donald Trump’s favorite TV show, “Fox and Friends,” that was chock full of the sycophantic silliness that has become the hallmark of the program. They featured segments about a Republican congressional candidate who is predicting a “red” wave in California; an interview with pundi-clowns Diamond & Silk; and a piece blasting Democrats for actually holding CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel accountable for her record.

Fox News Friends

In addition to those hard hitting examples of “real” journalism, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes also discussed a news story with profound foreign policy significance. It concerned the reported capture of five top members of ISIS. This military success was important enough to have warranted a tweet from Trump on Thursday. However, the point that co-host Pete Hegseth was most eager to make was that the “failing” New York Times ignored the story, presumably because it might reflect positively on Trump.

There’s just one problem with that. It was the New York Times who broke the story on Wednesday and was the first news outlet in the U.S. to report it. Consequently, that’s likely where Trump and Fox picked up the news and repackaged it for their audiences. But that didn’t stop Hegseth from flipping through the pages of today’s Times (video below), vainly looking for the story they published two days ago, and whining:

“I looked for the ‘five ISIS leaders captured’ in the failing New York Times, and in the print edition today, I have not seen it yet.”

Try looking in Wednesday’s paper, Einstein. It’s cute that Hegseth uses Trump’s infantile nickname for the Times, proving that the President and the network are joined in a State-TV operation that would make Vladimir Putin jealous. And never mind the fact that the Times is pulling in record profits. The purpose of Trump’s insults is not to convey any accurate information, but to baselessly malign journalists who dare to tell the truth about him. Just like he did last month when he tweeted:

Since then, Trump did add two more lawyers (Rudy Giuliani and Emmett Flood) and parted with both John Down and Ty Cobb. So the Times, as usual was right. But Trump never bothered to correct his misstatement. Nor has Fox News corrected the lie about their ISIS story. This is typical of the way Fox News operates and should be expected to continue. They are as much a disreputable stain on journalism as Trump is on government.

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


Tyrant-Loving NRA/Fox News Hack Warns: ‘It’s Time for Us to Protect the Crown’ (Trump)

Posted by on May 10, 2018 at 4:24 pm. NO Comments :

Members of the Fraternity of Right-Wing Crackpots occasionally make the fatal mistake of saying something that accurately represents what they truly believe. Under ordinary circumstances they try fervently to mask their ugly opinions behind pseudo-populist dogma that appeals to low-information dweebs who like being lied to. But their arrogance and undeserved self-confidence works against their own interests and sometimes results in unauthorized eruptions of candor.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

An excellent example of that occurred when Dan Bongino, a Fox News contributor and NRA spokesman, delivered a motivational speech to encourage his followers to vote in November (video below). Motivational speeches from the conservative perspective are generally rants filled with fear mongering, race baiting, and/or falsehoods designed to instill irrational anger. And this one was typical in that respect.

Bongino started on a low note by making a peculiar defense of the Trump administration’s record of failure. ““I think what’s starting to happen here folks,” he began, “is I think Trump and his team are finally getting their sea legs.” Wow. And after only fifteen months in office. This is supposed to be a pep talk? Then Bongino rattles off what he thinks are Trump’s successes: North Korea, Iran, tax cuts, unemployment, eliminating the ObamaCare mandate, cutting Obama regulations, and reversing climate change reforms. All of these are issues on which the American people sharply disagree with the Trump administration. So it’s hard to honestly portray them as successes. But Bongino was just getting started:

“I think the voter out there is finally starting to get excited, and finally starting to realize that if we lose this election, make absolutely no mistake. If we lose the House, this president will in fact, be impeached. There’s no question about it. It’s time for us to protect the crown.”

“Protect the crown”? This little slip exposes the mentality of the far-right in America. They really do think that Trump is a strongman dictator who should allowed to do anything he wants without the annoying interference of Congress, the judiciary, or – god forbid – the people. They prefer to be ruled over by a paternal tyrant, rather than govern themselves the way the Founders intended.

To be fair, Bongino did catch himself and tried to walk back the “crown” remark, but only because he was afraid of what Media Matters might say. Then he shouts defiantly “You know what I mean. Get out and vote.” What he means is that their vote is necessary to prevent Trump from being impeached. Whether or not that’s true, he’s admitting that there is a legal basis for impeachment that might succeed. That’s a great position for him to take – for Democrats. Now the Democrats don’t even need to campaign on impeachment because Republicans like Bongino are reminding the nation that Trump is a criminal who won’t escape accountability by the law if the Congress changes hands.

What’s curious about this catalog of alleged “winning” is a subject that was conspicuously left out: Guns. That’s right, the NRA’s mouthpiece didn’t even mention guns once. The entire tirade was focused on a bevy of other purely political issues. This puts the lie to the claim that the NRA is gun owners advocacy group. They are a nakedly partisan political organization that is doing the bidding of their Republican masters. That is, when they aren’t lobbying for the firearms manufacturers (or Russians) who bankroll their operation. And in order to achieve the goals of the GOP (Greedy One Percent) they are willing to abandon long-held American principles of democracy and follow wannabe dictators lock-step into tyranny.

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


Trump’s Manic Obsession to Undo Obama’s Legacy is Helpfully Exposed By Fox News

Posted by on May 10, 2018 at 1:13 pm. 5 Comments :

The return of three Americans held as prisoners in North Korea can be celebrated by the whole country, regardless of political affiliation. We can all feel a bit of the gratitude that they and their families are feeling today. But we must not pretend that this bit of micro-diplomacy guarantees the success of the broader mission for which Donald Trump has recklessly built up expectations with comments like his tweet on Thursday flaunting an ambitious goal to “denuclearize that entire peninsula.”

Obama Fox News

We must also not forget that Trump’s strutting bravado with regard to North Korea is a symptom of the same mental defect that motivated him to violate the terms of our pact with Iran, and five other nations, to prohibit them from developing nuclear weapons. So even if he strikes a deal with North Korea (which is by no means certain), it’s one step forward, two steps back.

There is, however, an obvious string of commonality that weaves through everything Trump does. In almost every public statement he’s made about Iran, he’s inserted a jab at President Obama over the multinational agreement that Trump has called “one of the worst deals ever negotiated in American diplomatic history.” Likewise, he regularly bashes Obama for not having terminated North Korea’s nuclear weapons program during his term. Note that there are good reasons for not rewarding the Kim regimes that Obama and every other American president have observed.

Trump’s fetish with all things Obama extends to nearly every initiative he’s pursued as president. Even Fox News has noticed this all-consuming psychosis. They recently did a story calling the scuttling of the Iran deal the “latest Trump move to dismantle key Obama policies.” The story noted that:

“Donald Trump’s announcement Tuesday that the United States would withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement marks just the latest development in the president’s ongoing effort to undo predecessor Barack Obama’s legacy — including trying to dismantle Obamacare while making drastic changes to U.S. immigration and military policies. […] Since taking office in January 2017, Trump has repealed or rescinded dozens of regulations, executive orders and international agreements implemented by the Obama administration over the eight years of his presidency. That effort began three days after Trump was inaugurated.”

Indeed. Trump’s sole motivation appears to be to unravel everything that Obama successfully implemented. Although it’s a bit surreal to see Fox News articulate it so explicitly. Trump’s gnawing jealousy has him on a single-minded path of destruction. It’s why he installed cabinet heads whose sole objectives are to weaken, and eventually eliminate, the departments they run. It’s a fact that is so transparent that even Fox News is comfortable reporting it. They posted a tweet listing the deliberate damage that Trump is doing to the Obama legacy:

Ironically, the items in that list are all examples of harm that Trump is doing, not just to Obama’s legacy, but to America. Polls show that most voters are in favor of the Democratic/liberal position on every single one of the those issues. Trump is working furiously against the interests of the people. So Fox News is posting what amounts to a campaign ad for voting Democratic in 2018. And while Fox is also continuing their regular broadcasts of repulsive opinions by heinous pundits, we might just pause for a moment to thank them for this inadvertent gift. But don’t expect to get any more between now and November.

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


Trump Threatens to ‘Take Away Credentials’ of Media that Doesn’t Slobber Him with Praise

Posted by on May 9, 2018 at 11:21 am. 4 Comments :

Reporters Without Borders publishes an annual World Press Freedom Index. The most recent study reported that the United States fell to 45th place, a new low. Much of that decline was attributed explicitly to Donald Trump, whose open hostility to the media has been a core component of his presidency.

Donald Trump

Continuing to push forward with his aggressively anti-First Amendment agenda, Trump took to his official presidential policy platform – Twitter – and posted a comment that is a further demonstration of just how extreme his hatred of the free press is. This tweet should frighten all Americans who value constitutional principles and the indispensable role the press plays in democracy:

There is so much wrong with that tweet that it’s hard to know where to begin. First of all, the economy has been expanding for nearly ten years, and that expansion began near the beginning of President Obama’s first term. Contrary to Trump’s claim, for which he provides no factual support, the economy has largely stalled as of late. The Dow Jones is down year-to-date. And Trump has been undeservedly taking credit for an economy whose performance has trailed that of Obama’s.

Secondly, Trump is actually admitting that, in his view, any media that is negative is therefore fake. It isn’t surprising to learn that he feels that way, but it’s a little surprising that he says so publicly.

Third, Trump’s reference to network news being ninety-one percent negative about him was likely taken from Sean Hannity’s program last night. Hannity reported that statistic based on a dubious study by the ultra-rightist media watchdogs at NewsBusters. And he wrapped the biased data in the same package as Trump, fretting about his negative coverage despite the utopia he’s supposedly presiding over. This is another example of Hannity serving as a close advisor to this fumbling president (video below):

Hannity: “President Trump’s poll numbers, they’re rising. This despite a Newsbusters study showed that newtwork news broadcasts in this country featured negative stories about the President 90% of the time. Wow. And I told you journalism is dead.”

Notice the similarities between Hannity’s commentary and Trump’s tweet. But the most troubling part of Trump’s tweet is his threat to revoke press credentials for any media that fails to exalt the Dear Leader. Trump has long pined for a submissive press corps that only celebrates his every word and deed. This isn’t the first (or twentieth) time that Trump has attempted to punish the press by banishing them from the White House or worse, challenge their licenses. Last October he explicitly tweeted that threat saying:

The fact that Trump repeatedly takes this censorious position is evidence that it isn’t just an offhand remark that he doesn’t mean literally. He is deadly serious about his intention to gag any media that dares to criticize him. And in advance of that he has been avoiding any independent media for most of the last year. He’s only held one solo news conference (February 2017, just after the inauguration) during his entire presidency. And he hasn’t given an interview to a non-friendly (i.e. Fox News) outlet in the past year. What’s he afraid of?

The World Press Freedom study noticed these disturbing trends for American journalism. They addressed them specifically in their report as reasons for downgrading the U.S. position:

“In 2017, the 45th President of the United States helped sink the country to 45th place by labeling the press an ‘enemy of the American people’ in a series of verbal attacks toward journalists, attempts to block White House access to multiple media outlets, routine use of the term ‘fake news’ in retaliation for critical reporting, and calling for media outlets’ broadcasting licenses to be revoked.”

The American people need to be alert with regard to the threat that Trump represents to the freedom of the press and the sustainability of democracy. These are not idle threats made as political rhetoric. They are dangerous challenges made by a wannabe dictator who truly believes he has the right to muzzle the media and mislead the people. We the people cannot let that happen.

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