Trump Salivates Over China’s Xi Becoming President for Life: ‘Maybe We’ll Give That a Shot Some Day’

File this one under “HOLY SH*T” – if there’s still any room in that file. At a Republican fundraiser at his Mar-A-Lago resort, Donald Trump gave a speech that firmly establishes his not-so-thinly-veiled aspirations to be become America’s dictator. This was an event where the press was locked out, but a recording of Trump’s remarks manged to make its way to CNN. Here’s part of what he said per CNN (video below):

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

“Trump also praised China’s President Xi Jinping for recently consolidating power and extending his potential tenure, musing he wouldn’t mind making such a maneuver himself.

“‘He’s now president for life. President for life. And he’s great,’ Trump said. ‘And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll give that a shot some day.'”

No, we f**king won’t! And if that weren’t horrendous enough, the audience of GOP fat cats cheered wildly. They actually think it would be a good idea. At the very least they weren’t offended by the wholly inappropriate humor (if that’s what the White House tries to excuse it as tomorrow).

Trump also ran through his “greatest hits,” with complaints that Hillary Clinton hasn’t been locked up for whatever imaginary crimes Trump thinks she committed. He whined about the “rigged system” that sent him to the White House. And he lashed out again at his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions for not obeying his tyrannical whims and prosecuting whoever he regards as an enemy. He may want to be careful about that because it might just come back to chew off a chunk of his fat ass.

For someone who has been repeatedly castigated for behavior that emulates tyrants like Xi, Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte, and even Hitler, it is astonishing and disgusting that he would say anything like this, even in jest. But it nevertheless fits his reprehensible character (or lack thereof) and affirms that he has no sense of decency. However, the reaction from his comrades in the ballroom may be even worse. Their positive response is the sort of thing that results in narcissistic bullies transforming into full fledged dictators. They are the forward flank of the Trump cult, and are enabling his deranged, power hungry, madness.

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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Could Trump’s Persistent Attacks Drive Jeff Sessions Right Into Robert Mueller’s Arms?

Let’s be clear from the outset, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a repugnant, racist individual who should never have a role in public service. He rose from the Klan-infested South where he fit right in with the bigots of Alabama. He was rejected by the Senate for a federal judgeship due to reports of his prejudice and use of the “N” word. He was the first senator to endorse Donald Trump for president. During the campaign he he met twice with Russians and lied about it to congress. It’s a resume that ought to disqualify him from any position of respect or power.

Donald Trump Jeff Sessions

That said, Sessions is in a unique position. In one of his first appointments, Trump made him the Attorney General of the United States. But ever since then the President has lambasted him in an embarrassingly public way. The insults have flown from Twitter, as well as deliberate leaks from within the White House’s inner circle. Most recently Trump has been referring to Sessions as the blind and bumbling cartoon character, Mr. Magoo. But that’s just the latest humiliation that Sessions has had to suffer. Some of Trump’s attacks on Twitter include:

In addition to these, Trump’s state-run TV division (aka Fox News) has predictably adopted his animosity toward Sessions and piled on with fierce denunciations. Anchors like Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs have called for the Attorney General to resign or be fired. They regard his recusal from the special counsel’s investigation as treason. Consequently, Fox News and right-wing Republicans are demanding that Sessions appoint a second special counsel to look into bogus claims of FISA abuses and FBI violations of law.

There has to be a point at which a normal human being will cease to take such constant and demeaning abuse. The question is whether Sessions has reached that point already.

It’s notable that, despite Trump’s persecution, Sessions has failed to bend to his will, at least with regard to Robert Mueller. In fact, Sessions has taken several opportunities to support Mueller and the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein. The pressure from the White House and the pro-Trump media has been intense, but Sessions has not been moved. To the contrary, it was just announced that the FBI has begun an investigation into Ivanka Trump’s business deals.

The legal action against the President’s daughter cannot be dismissed as routine. Particularly from an administration that has been so criminally partisan. Along with Sessions’ firm support for the special counsel and refusal to resign under pressure, there is reason to believe that he may have some form revenge in mind. He has been in politics a long time and may be tougher than he looks.

If Sessions retains any semblance of humanity he may be building up some resentment and smoldering rage. He might want to show Trump that he won’t tolerate such abuse. And if that’s true it would be disastrous for Trump. Sessions has the whole weight of the Justice Department to throw around. That includes the FBI and some oversight (handled discreetly) of the special counsel. He could even switch sides and start spilling what he knows about Trump to Mueller’s team. And with all of the potential legal vulnerabilities hovering over Trump’s head there’s plenty of fuel to burn the Trump Crime Family to a crisp. In other words, Trump better watch his step or he’ll piss off the one person in his administration that can do him the most harm.

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

To be sure, there is a lot speculation in this theory. Sessions’ reprehensible past and demonstrated loyalty might make him reluctant to move against his boss. But his ego and aspirations for a halfway decent legacy might take precedence. Especially if he sees Trump’s downfall as inevitable and doesn’t want to go down with the ship.

UPDATE: The Washington Post is reporting that there is “Pure Madness” and “Dark days inside the White House.” And this excerpt is particularly relevant:

“Aides tell WaPo ‘Trump seethed with anger’ over the photo of Sessions at dinner with Rosenstein and the Solicitor General. The next morning, Trump was still raging about the photo, venting to friends and allies it was an intentional show of disloyalty.”


Rachel Maddow Guides MSNBC to a Strong February 2018 – Fox News and Hannity are Scared

In another embarrassingly weak performance, Fox News has suffered a ratings fall-off in February 2018 that signals more trouble ahead. Fox’s declining fortunes are becoming a regular event. In January the network dropped fourteen percent in primetime. Now February has topped that with an additional fifteen percent decline. Meanwhile, MSNBC gained significantly in both months of this new year.

Fox News Sad

In January Rachel Maddow outperformed Hannity, and all other cable news programs, in the key audience demographic of 25-54 year olds. She came just short of repeating that performance in February with an average of 635,000 viewers per night. Hannity edged her out with 643,000. However, of the twenty days in February, Maddow won a majority (eleven) of them.

Maddow’s practice of covering breaking news and the unfolding scandals of the scandal-ridden Trump administration has proven to be an unqualified success. Her deep dive into research and expert analysis continues to draw devoted viewers. Two years ago no one would have predicted that Fox would be a second place news network. Fox actually moved Hannity into a direct time period competition with Maddow in an attempt to blow her out with his top rated program. That didn’t go exactly according to plan and must be gnawing at Hannity and his Fox bosses.

Consequently, Hannity’s program is sinking into ever more ludicrous conspiracy theory territory. He is challenging Alex Jones as the right-wing’s most unhinged crackpot. On almost every show Hannity ignores actual news of Trump’s daily failures. Instead, he features topics exploring Hillary Clinton’s ancient and baseless controversies, or some version of the alleged “deep state” takeover of America. And of course, Hannity is serving his master in the White House with constant attempts to slander special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI.

These subjects are also spread across the Fox News schedule. It’s why Fox viewers are so often shown to be more uninformed (or ill informed) than viewers of any other news network. And it is probably contributing to the overall audience decline at Fox as people seek out actual news and information relevant to their lives. But it is consistent with the Fox News commitment to defend Trump at all costs.

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

The Fox News mission has always been to prop up the conservative, Republican agenda. But it’s more immediate objective is to discredit the investigations into Trump’s unsavory connections to Russia (and other financial corruption). And flagrant propagandists like Hannity, Tucker Carlson (who just called Democrats anti-American), and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, are focused intently on smearing America’s law enforcement and intelligence institutions. They are putting their rancid partisanship before the interests of the country. And America’s television viewers are reacting with disgust and seeking out more credible reporting. Which is good news for Maddow and MSNBC.


The Democratic Party is Anti-American: Deconstructing Tucker Carlson’s Noxious Trump-Fluffing

There are plenty of repugnant cretins on Fox News who devote themselves to distorting reality and misinforming their dimwitted audience. No one is more of a sycophantic disciple of Donald Trump than Sean Hannity. And Steve Doocy’s portrayal of an imbecile infatuated with the President is spot on. But Tucker Carlson has carved out his own domain as the master of indignant arrogance stewed in hypocrisy and logical dysfunction.

Fox News Tucker Carlson

On Thursday’s program Carlson set out to express a rare disappointment with his hero in the White House. It stemmed from Trump’s boneheaded assertion that guns should be confiscated from certain individuals without due process of law. That’s a position that was quickly denounced by all sides of the gun reform debate, including most fiercely by the NRA. But Carlson’s lecture (video below) was especially convoluted and managed to make Democrats the villains for what Trump said. What follows is an annotated transcript of the highlights.

“The alternatives to what we have now are scary and getting scarier. The Democratic Party is completely irresponsible and increasingly anti-American. They prefer illegal aliens to our middle-class. That’s true and it’s terrifying. Someone needs to defend the country from these people. Trump mostly does that.”

So Trump advocates violating the Constitution, but it’s Democrats who are anti-American? And Carlson’s deranged and insulting assertion that Democrats “prefer illegal aliens to our middle-class” is baseless and purposefully inflammatory. What’s true and terrifying is Carlson’s anti-American suggestion that the country needs to be defended from people he disagrees with.

“At one point the President said ‘The government should take the guns first, go through due process second.’ How honest do you want to be. Imagine if Barack Obama had said that. Just ignore due process and start confiscating guns. Obama would have been denounced as a dictator. We would have denounced him first. Trust me.”

Well, to be fair, Carlson and Fox News did denounce Obama as a dictator with predictable frequency, but never with justification. But his point was that Trump’s proposal for gun confiscation should receive the same criticism. Let’s see how that went.

“It’s important to remember that nobody should be tied to a person, but instead to principles. So with that in mind, do you think it’s worth just reminding the President – as we all need to be reminded sometimes – that there are deeper principles here?

How generous. Carlson won’t denounce Trump’s dictatorial raving, but politely remind him of the principles that he’s certain Trump has anyway. What happened to being the first to denounce dictatorship? That must not apply to your ideological crush with the long, flowing, golden locks (vainly covering his crusty bald spot). However, Carlson’s presumption of Trump’s true inner feelings were proven correct overnight as Trump tweeted that he’d made up with the NRA in an Oval Office tryst:

Here’s the video of Carlson’s Democrat-bashing, love letter to dictator Trump, if you can stomach it.

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


Putin Unveils ‘Invincible’ New Nuclear Missiles – And Of Course, There’s an Old Trump Tweet for That

February was a month that saw more unsettling scandals from Donald Trump’s White House than even his biggest critics could have imagined. They run the gamut from Jared Kushner’s bank loans, to insulting his Attorney General Jeff Sessions as “disgraceful,” to contradictory positions on gun control, to Hope Hicks telling “white lies,” to 13 new indictments by special counsel Robert Mueller. And I could go on.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

Consequently, March has a lot to live up to. And it’s coming in roaring like a lion. The big news on Thursday, March 1, was Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Russia has developed a class of new nuclear weapons that make the West’s defenses “useless.” NBC News reports that…

“To rapturous applause, Putin said the new technology had been developed despite skepticism from other countries about Russia’s capabilities.

“‘I want to tell all those who have fueled the arms race over the last 15 years, sought to win unilateral advantages over Russia, introduced unlawful sanctions aimed to contain our country’s development … you have failed to contain Russia,’ he said.

‘He accused the West of ‘ignoring us. Nobody listened to us. Well listen to us now.’

“He boasted that Russia’s new ICBM is ‘powerful and modern and defense systems will not be able to withstand it,’ he said. ‘Missile defenses will be useless against it.'”

Putin said that he is prepared to retaliate against any aggression directed at Russia or its allies. And he insists that he isn’t bluffing. All of this bluster comes at a time when American’s president has given Russia wider latitude than ever before. Trump viciously attacks Democrats, Republicans, and even his own staff, but has never criticized Putin in any substantive way. And despite the fact that Russia engaged in blatant election tampering against the U.S., Trump refuses to impose sanctions or otherwise punish them. Which make this tweet, posted almost exactly one year ago, especially significant:

That’s right. Trump is complaining that Obama wasn’t tough enough on Putin. Never mind that Obama did impose sanctions on Russia, ejected more than thirty Russian operatives, shut down two Russian facilities, and sought a bipartisan agreement on additional measures that was shot down by GOP senate leader Mitch McConnell. And if Trump was so upset by Obama’s response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, then why hasn’t Trump done anything about it in the past year? And with Putin’s announcement of adding new, more advanced missiles, Trump’s tweet seems to apply more to himself than to Obama. It’s Trump who is even worse than weak, he’s submissive.

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

So once again Trump has proven that he is an empty suit that has no idea what he’s doing or saying. He will lash out at anyone who piques his ire at a given point in time, but forget all about it after the next scandal erupts – or after watching Fox and Friends. His ineptitude and limited attention span make him an imminent danger to the nation. And there always seems to be a tweet wherein he affirms everything that everyone worries about with regard to his flagrant incompetence.


Who Will Trump Choose to Replace Hope Hicks? (Hint: Is He Watching Fox News?)

Another day, another White House staffer falls out of the sinking ship. This time it’s one of Donald Trump’s most loyal and longest serving aides, communications director Hope Hicks. The camera shy press liaison is reported to be leaving within the coming weeks. And I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that yesterday she admitted at a congressional inquiry that she has been telling “white lies” as a part of her official duties.

Hope Hicks

That’s probably the problem. Hicks was telling only white lies when the President had warned her to stick to only the darkest of all possible lies. He gave her plenty of examples via his own behavior to make it clear what was expected of her. Obviously, she wasn’t able to cut it. Although she had her moments. Like when she helped to draft the false excuse for why Don Jr. was meeting with Russians. Or when she wrote the press release defending her boyfriend, Rob Porter, after he was revealed to be a wife-beater.

Trump will not likely make the same mistake again. He has a strong track record of hiring brazen liars to staff his White House operation. Champion fabricators like Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci, and the current mistress of propaganda, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, have distinguished this president’s press office.

So who will Trump turn to to fill this critical post? It will have to be someone who doesn’t care about having a good reputation with the public or the media. In fact, the more hate for the media the better. After all, Trump regards the press as the enemy of the American people.” The Hicks successor will need to be able to lie on camera, even when it’s painfully obvious that they are lying. He or she should have a relationship with other professional prevaricators like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

However, it isn’t necessary that the communications director candidate have any actual experience in communications. Trump prefers people who have little or no idea what they are doing. Probably to assure that they know less than he does (admittedly, a low bar). And in the end, he wouldn’t really trust anyone other than himself. An article in the Associated Press noted that Trump “increasingly sees himself as the White House’s only effective spokesperson.”

Given the criteria for filling this job, only one source for human resources comes to mind. Trump will have to poach another staffer from the pool of Trump-fluffers at Fox News. The Fox studio is a rich vein of inexperienced, dishonest, shameless, butt-kissers. It’s a vein Trump has tapped many times before for aides including K.T. McFarland, Ben Carson, Sebastion Gorka, Heather Nauert, Richard Grennell, and Jonathan Wachtel.

There are two names at Fox that stand out as potential White House flacks. Laura Ingraham would slide right into the role with her smug arrogance and jaunty know-it-allism. But having just secured a primetime show on Fox, Ingraham may be reluctant to bail. She may also be locked into a long-term contract.

That leaves Kimberly Guilfoyle. She has been on deck for a Trump slot for quite a while. Last year Trump insiders were telling the media that he “wants Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle to take [Sean Spicer’s] place.” She is currently a co-host of Fox’s right-wing gab-fest, The Five. She has never been a journalist and has no experience in press relations. So she has those assets going for her. Trump may also appreciate Guilfoyle’s admiration for Vladimir Putin, who she thought would be a better president than Barack Obama.

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

There are a few other names that could be thrown into the pot. Ainsley Earhardt of Trump’s favorite Fox News program, Fox and Friends. Evening Anchor Martha MacCallum could bring back some blondness to the gig. Or maybe, in a bid for the millennial audience, Tomi Lahren’s juvenile outbursts could be just the right spice for Trump’s media taco bowl. Only time will tell. And there’s no hurry since Hicks will still be around for a few weeks, or until she has to meet with special counsel Robert Mueller.

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American Dreamer? Trump is Peddling This New Hat to Profit From His Anti-DACA Racism

Last year Donald Trump single-handedly killed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allowed undocumented residents who were brought into the country as minors to remain and to work without fear of deportation and separation from their families. The initiative was implemented by President Obama and widely regarded as humanitarian and necessary.

Despite pretending to care about DACA, Trump has callously exploited the issue to malign Democrats and bargain for his asinine and useless border wall. He brazenly demeans innocent people in order to ram his ludicrous agenda through Congress. And the suffering he causes is of no concern to him or his uncaring comrades in the Republican Party.

So it should come as no surprise that Trump is escalating the grotesque bigotry inherent in his exclusionary policies by seeking to profit off the pain of others. He has just introduced a new product on his website that Trump cultists and Deplorables can waste their money on. It’s an American Dreamer hat.

Donald Trump Dreamer

In the spirit of his silly headgear hucksterism, Trump is expanding his “Make America Great Again” product line in the most disgusting way possible. The new hat is apparently a premium item because, at $50.00 a pop, it is twice the cost of a MAGA hat. But it is also twice as repulsive. The Trump website pitches it in language that is trite and unrelated to the tribulations of DACA kids:

“Because Americans are dreamers too. We all want to live the American dream and our 45th President is helping to make that dream a reality for each and every American. With our American Dreamer Hat you can show that you believe we can Make America Great Again.”

DACA recipients are called “Dreamers” because they hope to have their status as Americans recognized officially. They are model citizens who serve in the military, attend school, and contribute to their communities. They cannot participate in the program if they have any criminal record. Their dream is to become citizens of the country they love – the only one they have ever known.

Trump introduced his “American Dreamer” bastardization of this movement in his State of the Union address. It was an attempt to hijack the dreams of DACA kids for the benefit of already privileged white citizens. There is no logical connection to the DACA program by Trump’s deliberate misdirection. It is similar to the racist appropriation of “Black Lives Matter” by the Klan-sponsored distortion, “All Lives Matter.”

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

Leave it to Trump to find a way to insult a whole class of people who only want their dignity and freedom from fear. And only Trump could manage to turn that insulting action into a commercial venture that makes him richer. It’s the defining characteristic of his utter lack of character and disregard for ethics and compassion. But at least it will help the rest of us to recognize his dimwitted disciples as they parade around with their flags of prejudice firmly planted on their hateful, empty heads.


Former Fox News Flunky and ‘Clueless’ Star Stacey Dash Just Filed Futile Run for Congress

It goes without saying that there has long been a fusion between Fox News and Republican politics. It’s an embrace that gets tighter every day. And it isn’t just that Donald Trump (a former Fox News regular guest on Fox and Friends) tweets a nearly daily regurgitation of what he just saw on the network. There has been a flow of personnel that spins through the revolving door of these propaganda partners.

Stacey Dash Fox News

The latest flare up of this incestuous intertwining is the announcement of a campaign for a California congressional seat. The candidate is Stacey Dash, best known as the has-been still trying to suck some celebrity out of having appeared in the 1995 teen romp, “Clueless.” The springboard for her budding political career, though, was her brief tenure as a panelist on “Outnumbered,” Fox News’ misguided attempt at programming for women.

Dash distinguished herself on the show as an African-American woman who showed blatant disdain for African-Americans and women. She adopted the KKK’s position that there shouldn’t be a Black History Month because there wasn’t also a White History Month. She ridiculed the #OscarsSoWhite movement that was critical of the lack of diversity in Hollywood as “ludicrous.” She blamed the gender wage gap problem on women themselves for being such poor negotiators. Even worse, she blamed “naughty” women for many of the charges of sexual harassment and assault.

Clearly Dash represents a segment of the black and female population that only exists in congregations of white supremacists. Which makes it all the more curious that she is running in California’s 44th district that includes Compton and Watts. The district is presently represented by Democrat Nanette Barragán, and Hillary Clinton carried it in 2016 with 83 percent of the vote. But if Dash chose it because she thought her race would be a factor, she apparently doesn’t know that the district is 69% Latino.

So what’s the basis for her campaign? The only thing she has going for her is her fading celebrity and her connection to Fox News. But with regard to the latter, her contract was not renewed (aka: she was fired) more than a year ago. Never mind that there is a pretty small audience for Fox among the residents of the 44th. What there is may not remember her from her network gig. Aside from her anti-black and anti-woman stances, she would probably only be remembered for having said that President Obama didn’t “give a shit” about terrorism. Oh yeah, and there was that Playboy pictorial she did. So . . .

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

Late last year Fox News was floating senate campaigns for Ted Nugent and Kid Rock. Another couple of loudmouth has-beens who eventually chickened out of running. But if Dash proceeds with this foolish campaign she is going to suffer a debilitating embarrassment. It’s hard to imagine what advice she received that compelled her to file for the race. She might get some free airtime on Fox if she still has any friends there. But, as noted above, that won’t help her in this district. And Fox would be making a mockery of their frequent and hypocritical complaints about celebrities venturing into politics. Not that Fox has ever been shy about diving head first into hypocrisy.


YEAH, RIGHT! Cowardly Trump Says He Would Run Into Parkland School ‘Even if I Didn’t Have a Weapon’

Some things just don’t need any commentary. And this statement by Donald Trump is one of them. While castigating the Parkland deputy who failed to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when it was under attack by a man with an assault weapon, Trump unleashed this Olympic-grade stupidity:

TRUMP: “I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon.”


Okay, I can’t help myself: Who the f*ck does he think he’s kidding? By “there” Trump must mean the ice cream freezer at Mar-a-Lago. Because Cadet Bonespurs would run (or waddle) away from any hint of danger. He got FIVE draft deferments during the Vietnam War. He has never shown the slightest tendency to do anything on behalf of anyone other than himself, even when there was no danger involved. The only thing I can see Trump running into a high school for would be to sexually assault the young girls.

By the way, If Trump did run unarmed into the scene of an active shooter with an AR-15, it wouldn’t have helped anyone. Unless you count the nation that would have been rid of a treasonous president. This statement underscores the idiocy of Trump’s proposal to arm teachers. The only thing that would accomplish is that the teachers would be the first fatalities.

Trump’s laughably lame macho bluster is just sickening. Does he really think anyone with a functioning brain believes this bullshit? He has been recorded on video scurrying away from peaceful protesters at his rallies. He stands in front of adoring crowds in auditoriums yammering about how he would like to punch a protester (who is a hundred yards away and surrounded by security) in the mouth. He is a cartoon parody of a bully who is, in fact, a shivering coward. And his big mouth is the only weapon he will ever fire, and even that is shooting blanks.

If Trump wants to prove his manhood by running into a school under siege by a mass murderer, he has my complete support and encouragement. Hell, he has my support to run into a gang of colicky two-year olds, where he would fit right in. Trump is too afraid to hold a press conference with the “fake” news (it’s been over a year). And he’s mortified at the thought of sitting across the table from special counsel Robert Mueller. He’s a weak, sniveling, spineless, worm, and his ludicrous claim that he would run into a firefight is just more proof that he’s mentally deranged.

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


Perjury Trap? Despite ‘One of the Best Memories in the World’ Trump Fears Mueller Interview

The investigation into Donald Trump’s unsavory connections to Russia continues to expose new vulnerabilities for the President and his associates. Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team just issued a new set of indictments for Trump campaign honchos Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. And as the probe proceeds, the noose around Trump’s neck gets tighter.

Donald Trump Lies

Consequently, Trump’s lawyers are taking up defensive positions to avoid any further erosion of his flimsy claims of innocence. The peak events in these sort of investigations are the interviews with the primary targets. Trump, of course, is the Godfather of this crime family, and his testimony is highly anticipated. But that doesn’t mean it will necessarily come to pass. His team of attorneys are furiously fighting to assure that he either does not testify, or the that the inquiry is so limited as to be a farce.

The argument being made by Team Trump is that it might constitute a “perjury trap” if Trump is required to answer “detailed questions involving dates and times.” Unlike any other witness in a criminal investigation, Trump thinks he should be allowed to respond with vagaries and approximations. That would be like a bank robber offering the alibi that “I was probably out of town sometime during that month.” It’s been reported that Trump’s…

“…lawyers’ considerations included whether Mueller’s questions would be limited in scope and whether they avoid testing Trump’s memory such that they would effectively constitute a potential perjury trap.”

A perjury trap is a real thing that prosecutors employ, sometimes unfairly, to back uncooperative witnesses into a corner. But there is an easy and infallible way to avoid a perjury trap: Tell the truth. Unfortunately for Trump, that may not as easy as it sounds. He is a well known pathological liar who cannot suppress his compulsion for telling obvious falsehoods. This is something that even his attorneys have worried about. The New York Times reported that…

“His lawyers are concerned that the president, who has a history of making false statements and contradicting himself, could be charged with lying to investigators.”

You might wonder why these lawyers would have such concerns. After all, Trump himself has said that he has “one of the best memories in the world.” So how could he get anything wrong during an interview that’s this important? Perhaps they also heard him say that he doesn’t recall having said that (This is why satire is dead). Or maybe they are planning an insanity defense. They might argue that the president of the United States is suffering from a form of Anti-Truth Tourettes Syndrome that causes him to involuntarily blurt out lies at any random moment. That would not only serve as a potential legal defense, but it would explain the last two years of utter bullshit spewing from Trump’s deceitful mouth.

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