Russia

Trump’s Dep. Press Secretary: Democrats and the Media Have Created More Chaos than Russia

Posted by on February 17, 2018 at 3:24 pm. 3 Comments :

The propaganda push to clear Donald Trump of all responsibility for the Russian interference in the 2016 election is in full force. The chair of the Republican National Committee has blamed it all on President Obama. Fox News is trivializing it as Rocky and Bullwinkle stuff. And now the White House Deputy Press Secretary, Hogan Gidley, is making statements that baselessly allege crimes by Democrats that are worse than what the Russians are alleged to have done.

Fox News Gidley

On Saturday morning’s episode of Fox and Friends (where else), Gidley was stroked – I mean interviewed – by the “Curvy Couch” potatoes in a segment that addressed the indictments against Russia by special counsel Robert Mueller. Gidley’s remarks were so offensive and dishonest that I’ll just leave them here with little commentary (video below):

“First of all we have to understand, this began in 2014 under then-President Barack Obama’s nose. He didn’t do a thing about it. Long before Donald Trump announced for president this was going on. Also it points out clearly that in this process there was no collusion, as you just pointed out. The President said it multiple times. This makes it clear and concise for the American people and proves the President correct. No collusion between Donald Trump, his campaign, and Russia. And also, I think this is important too. It did not affect the outcome of the election whatsoever.”

First of all, what we really have to understand, is that the fact that Russia began interfering in American elections in 2014 does not vindicate Trump. It actually makes it worse that he and his associates had anything to do with foreign operatives who were already engaged in espionage against the United States. And the Mueller indictments do not in any way say that there was no collusion or that the outcome of the election was not affected. They simply say that these particular indictments are not alleging that. Which leaves the door wide open for such allegations in future indictments.

But if Gidley wants to assert that Mueller is proving Trump correct, that’s fine. It makes it that much harder for them to later say that Mueller is biased and try to fire him. However, Gidley had not yet reached the most disgusting part of his interview. He continued:

“What the Russians were trying to do, as outlined by Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, was create chaos in the American election system. And I’ll just say this: There are two groups that created chaos more than the Russians. That’s the Democrats and the mainstream media who continued to push this lie on the American people for more than a year. And, quite frankly, America should be outraged by that.”

Really? So Gidley is now contending that Democrats and the American media are more guilty of election tampering and fraud than the Russians who have just been indicted by a Grand Jury? He is essentially accusing Democrats and journalists of being a bigger enemy than Russia, and of criminality on a scale that exceeds actual spies from a hostile foreign nation. And the twerps on Fox and Friends just sat there and nodded in agreement. The whole bunch of them are so determined to exonerate their beloved Orange Messiah that they are willing to make scurrilous accusations of treason. It’s an attack on both democracy and the free press. And it’s another new low for the Trump White House.

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

Trump-Fluffing Fox News Pundit Calls Russian Indictments ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle Kind of Stuff’

Posted by on February 17, 2018 at 10:39 am. 3 Comments :

In the hours following special counsel Robert Mueller’s latest set of indictments, there has been flurry of frantic activity over at Fox News. The desperation of Donald Trump’s phalanx of sycophants rushing to his defense is thick enough to slice with a scimitar. When they aren’t celebrating Trump’s imaginary vindication, they are insisting that the charges are meaningless. To these bipolar shills Mueller has either produced a profound success or a pitiful failure. Or, of course, it was all Obama’s fault.

Fox News Schlapp

Case in point: On Special Report, the afternoon Fox program that is cited as its flagship “news” hour, they hosted a hard-boiled Trump supporter who demonstrated the absurdity of wingnut media. Matt Schlapp is the chairman of the American Conservative Union and is married to Mercedes Schlapp, the White House Director of Strategic Communications. In a fit of pique that threatened to burst a blood vessel, Schlapp offered a unique simile to illustrate his opinion of the Mueller indictments (video below):

“This is rather absurd. This is like Rocky and Bullwinkle kind of stuff. When I think of Russian collusion in our elections I am offended. I think it’s repulsive. Is this what it was? It was thirteen guys having some rallies?”

Boris and Natasha must be laughing their cartoon asses off. Schlapp’s attempt to trivialize these charges is an anguished plea for help. His first blatant cognitive lapse was to mistake that the thirteen indictments means there were only thirteen participants in the Russian operation. Rest assured that the White House, despite their outer dismissals, is not amused. These are serious violations of the law and they imply further legal jeopardy for the President and his crime family.

But never mind that. Reality is fungible to the goons who make up the Trump Defense League. This outburst by Schlapp is typical of the imprimatur that Fox News wants so badly to stamp on this affair. That’s why he goes unchallenged by guest host Mike Emanuel. Schlapp’s main point that the whole Russian espionage campaign was a silly plot devised by a small band of losers is a lie that is explicitly addressed in the indictment which states that hundreds of people were involved with an annual budget of millions of dollars:

“The ORGANIZATION employed hundreds of individuals for its online operations, ranging from creators of fictitious personas to technical and administrative support. The ORGANIZATION’s annual budget totaled the equivalent of millions of U.S. dollars.”

No one on Fox News corrected this material falsehood. Which explains why Fox News viewers are so clueless about the facts of pretty much any topic that is covered by Fox. The network deliberately misinforms their audience and leaves them to wallow in ignorance.

Schlapp continued with his disinformation rant by shifting the blame to the right’s favorite black president/villain saying that “Obama should have stopped it.” And he concluded by saying that undermining the foundation of our nation’s democracy “is not worth a year of the country’s time,” and that the charges are “ridiculous and not true.” He is so adamant in his arguments that you have to wonder if he is now serving as the defense counsel for the indicted Russians?

If so, Schlapp would have to take a backseat to Trump, who has been litigating the innocence of Putin’s spies for more than a year now. However, these indictments prove that Russian meddling in the 2016 election was not, as Trump whines, a hoax, or a witch hunt, or fake news. It is a cyberwar, and any complicity on the part of any American is treason.

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


Full video of the segment from Fox News can be seen here.

Trump’s GOP Chair on Mueller’s Indictments Against Russia: It’s Obama’s Fault (No, Really)

Posted by on February 16, 2018 at 3:30 pm. NO Comments :

The Office of the Special Counsel announced today that thirteen Russians have been indicted for crimes related to interference with elections in the United States. This is part of Robert Mueller’s investigation that has already produced indictments against Donald Trump associates Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, and George Papadopoulos (the latter two having pleaded guilty). This is a significant development that further exposes the unsavory connections between Russia and Trump.

Obama Trump Tweet

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Republicans leaped out in front of the story to accuse the real culprit in this affair: President Obama. That’s right, despite there being no mention of the former president or his activities in the indictments, the GOP wants to make sure that the American people will nevertheless hold him accountable. Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairperson of the Republican National Committee, told Fox news (of course) this shortly after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the announcement:

That is perhaps one of the most ludicrous diversions from reality that the loony-right has made – well, this hour. There’s much more looniness to come. But for the record, it was the Obama Justice Department and FBI that led the investigations into the Russian activities and supplied most of the evidence that Rosenstein cited in his indictment. There is an argument to made that these affairs should have been made public sooner, but the Obama administration maintained an abundance of caution so as not to influence the election themselves. That’s a worthy topic for debate. However, what is not debatable is Trump’s response to the indictments:

The fact that Russia began these operations before Trump’s candidacy only affirms that they have long been a hostile foreign entity who ought not to have been embraced as partners by the Trump campaign. Trump’s claim that the results of the election were not impacted is plainly false. All that Rosenstein said about that is there is no such allegation in this set of indictments. That’s not the same as saying it didn’t occur. It’s possible, even likely, that more indictments are still being prepared. Nevertheless, Trump reiterated his misreading of the indictments in an official statement saying that:

The President “is glad to see the Special Counsel’s investigation further indicates—that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected.”

Again, that is not what the indictments said. Particularly with regard to collusion. The indictments repeatedly refer to “the defendants and co-conspirators.” The co-conspirators are not identified at this time, but there are numerous references to contacts made by the Russian defendants and people in the Trump campaign. Contrary to the spin by Trump and Fox News, Bloomberg reports that “Mueller Still Investigating Possible Collusion, Source Says.” Trump is desperate to dismiss the apparent complicity of his campaign and thinks that simply saying it isn’t so will be enough to persuade his Deplorable base. And the GOP is similarly determined to advance that lie. Kayleigh McEnany, the RNC spokesperson tweeted that:

She must not recall that the election was on November eighth. And if it’s her contention that the Russian interference was directed against Trump rather than for him, she should read the indictment that says:

“Defendants posted derogatory information about a number of candidates, and by early to mid-2016, Defendants’ operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump (‘Trump Campaign’) and disparaging Hillary Clinton.”

Finally, State-Run TV (aka Fox News) was playing its part in the Trump propaganda offensive. The RNC’s McEnany rushed over to the Fox studios to spew the party line in the minutes following Rosenstein’s announcement. Her frantic spin was that “Today marks the day that the Democrats’ Russia collusion conspiracy theory unraveled,” and that “Democrats deceived this country and they were caught today.” Seriously, that was the official GOP take on the news that Russia had interfered with the election of Donald Trump – a contention that he has repeatedly said was a hoax.

Now that Trump is apparently conceding that there was interference by the Russians, will he correct his previous denials and apologize? Will he finally implement the sanctions that Congress voted for overwhelmingly? Or will he continue shield his pal Vladimir Putin from any consequences for having tried to destabilize America’s democracy. It’s notable that his response to these new indictments is focused solely on how they affect him. He cries, falsely, that there is no collusion. But he doesn’t once acknowledge the harrowing allegations that Russia was meddling in our election in order to destabilize our democracy. Isn’t he, by oath, supposed to be protecting and defending the Constitution, not himself?

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

In summary, according to Trump and the GOP, the Russians worked against Trump. The indictments prove that there was no impact on the election and that there was no collusion on Trump’s part. And that it was all Obama’s fault anyway. The lesson that America truly needs to learn from all of this is to “Just say ‘No’ to drugs.” And let’s hope these Republican junkies get the help they so obviously need. Because if they aren’t high, then they have much more serious mental problems.

UPDATE: Sean Hannity boards the “It’s Obama’s fault” train. I’m shocked!

The Walking White House Dead: Trump Declares Whatever He Doesn’t Like to Be Deceased

Posted by on January 16, 2018 at 4:43 pm. 1 Comments :

The White House released its first medical exam results on Tuesday and, lo and behold, they heralded the excellent health of Donald Trump. Never mind that his doctor warned that he’s border line obese, has high cholesterol, shows evidence of heart disease, has “stroke issues,” and worst of all, is on a hair loss prevention medication.

Donald Trump

The real health problems that plague the Trump White House are all the corpses laying around of policies and opponents that Trump has certified as having expired. The latest one is what Trump calls the “Russian Collusion Hoax,” which he declared dead in a tweet Tuesday morning:

Of course, Trump is not a doctor, nor has he played one on TV. So his diagnosis cannot be regarded as reliable. Especially since all the evidence shows a healthy investigation into Trump’s unsavory connections to Russia with a strong prognosis for impeachment. And Trump’s assertion that “the public gets it” is only true if what he means is that the public knows that he’s a pathological liar.

Recent polling shows that sixty-one percent of Americans think that the Russia probes are a serious matter that should be fully investigated. Only thirty-four percent disagree. Trump’s handling of Russia is favored by a mere thirty-two percent, while fifty-six percent disapprove. A majority of fifty-six percent also say that Trump’s comments on the Russia probe have been mostly or completely false. And special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has an overall approval rating of forty-seven percent vs. only thirty-four percent who disapprove of Mueller.

So it’s difficult to conclude that the Russia collusion story has seen its final days. What’s more, along with Muellers investigation and at least one Grand Jury, there are multiple committees in Congress conducting ongoing inquiries. Four indictments have been issued with trials pending, and two Trump associates having pleaded guilty. Just today Trump’s former campaign chair and chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was subpoenaed to appear before the Grand Jury.

But the Russia affair is only one of Trump’s victims. He has previously announced the demise of numerous media enterprises. Most famously, Trump likes to refer to the “failing” New York Times, despite the record subscriptions and revenues they are enjoying. But there’s more where that came from:

There have been at least twelve death notices on Twitter that declared ObamaCare vanquished. Even though it had a record number of new sign-ups last year, despite Trump’s fierce efforts to sabotage it. Here are a couple representative tweets.

And of course, according to Trump, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program kicked the bucket too. That remains to be seen since it is currently being debated in Congress with Democrats determined to preserve it. The vast majority of Americans (eighty-six percent) favor allowing Dreamers to remain in the country. Despite that overwhelming public support, Trump and his Republican comrades are standing firm in opposition to the American people:

Donald Trump is distinguishing himself as the “Sixth Sense” president. Everywhere he turns he sees dead people or policies or other carcasses of whatever has riled him up for the moment. It’s a morbid existence he must endure in a White House draped in black. But it’s also a delusional existence that defies reality as he endeavors to force his demons on the rest of the nation.

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

Trump’s Fox News Fetish Could Be Making the Network a Security Risk Exploitable By Russia

Posted by on January 10, 2018 at 6:04 pm. NO Comments :

The relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News has always been problematic. It represents the closest thing to state-run TV that the United States has ever had. The anchors and reporters on Fox serve as dutiful sycophants to the Trump administration, advancing his self-serving agenda and defending his every fault. While Trump repays Fox by promoting the network and its personalities with free advertisements on his Twitter feed and relentless attacks on their competition.

Fox News Commies

However, there may be more worrisome consequences from this political/media marriage of propagandistic convenience. Aki Peritz, a former CIA counterterrorism analyst, just wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post that raises some frightening possibilities that might result from the parasitic combination of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and the dimwitted White House. The article, headlined “Foreign spies are watching — and probably targeting — Fox News Channel” delves into some reasonable speculation about how hostile foreign intelligence operations might benefit from monitoring – and possibly compromising – Fox News. What follows are some excerpts that provide a taste of how this problem could become a recipe for disaster:

“[I]f I were a spymaster in the employ of a hostile foreign service, I’d devote some significant effort to penetrating one specific private institution: Fox News Channel.”

“It’s no secret that Fox News — specifically, shows such as ‘Hannity,’ ‘Fox & Friends,’ ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ and ‘Justice with Judge Jeanine’ — have outsize influence on the inner workings of how certain policies are carried out by the U.S. government.”

“[H]ostile foreign intelligence services are probably consuming as much Fox News as President Trump does.”

“Trump’s unfiltered Twitter feed provides world intelligence operatives with ‘a real-time glimpse of a major world leader’s preoccupations, personality quirks and habits of mind’ – traits to be exploited in further dealings on the global stage. And what better way to determine what the president thinks – for the price of basic cable — than to watch selected Fox News programming?”

“A truly aggressive intelligence effort would not just monitor what’s being said on the network. It would target the on-air talent, as well as the folks behind the scenes who make the network’s programming possible: producers, bookers, associate producers, production assistants and the like. This might range from opening friendly contacts with these employees to outright recruitment.”

“Compared to government workers, Fox employees would make easy targets. That’s because they aren’t public officials — they’re news and entertainment people. Also, it’s television — full of trade secrets, big personalities and titanic egos. Most wouldn’t expect to be compromised by a hostile intelligence power, especially on American soil. Few, if any, have the sort of counterintelligence training the U.S. government administers to people in sensitive positions, because Fox employees are not the usual targets for intelligence operations. But the president’s continuing, very specific interest in the channel heightens their risk of being approached by a hostile government.”

Peritz specifically mentions the risk posed by covert operations aimed at Fox News staff. For instance, Sean Hannity is known to speak frequently with Trump. So bugging Hannity’s phone or office “could provide real-time intelligence on the American president and his thoughts.” The same could be true for others at Fox News. Trump’s chumminess with people at Fox has resulted in several of them getting jobs in the administration, including K.T. McFarland, Ben Carson, Sebastian Gorka, and Heather Nauert. Two of Fox’s current prime time lineup, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, were reported to have been candidates for press secretary.

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

The WaPo article is careful not to present this theory as anything more than informed speculation. But given what is known about how Russia conducts its spy operations, it would be prudent for all Fox News employees to be wary, even suspicious, about contacts from friendly strangers. That is, if they aren’t actively seeking out Russians for collusion on behalf of Trump, who is already deeply compromised.

Trump is a ‘Very Stable Genius’ Who Mindlessly Repeats What He Just Saw on Fox and Friends

Posted by on January 6, 2018 at 11:46 am. 3 Comments :

The questions about Donald Trump’s apparent psychological decline are rapidly becoming more than partisan speculation. And the person most responsible for affirming the President’s mental infirmity just happens to be Donald Trump. The more he talks about his own cerebral frailty, the more feeble he appears to be.

Fox News Trump

On Saturday morning Trump thought it was necessary to defend himself against the allegations that have been made by politicians, pundits, and mental health professionals. But his comments were a pathetic mess of ego and delusion. He tweeted that:

It is notable that these tweets were posted less than ten minutes after a segment on this subject was aired on Fox and Friends. This is a pattern that is repeated frequently by Trump who obviously watches the program religiously, despite saying that he doesn’t have time for television. The message in the tweets is one that should be of concern to all Americans.

First of all, the investigation into his involvement in Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election has not been proven to be a hoax. Quite the contrary. There have already been four indictments with two guilty pleas. The rest of what has been uncovered by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, is still under wraps. And PolitiFact awarded Trump it’s Lie of the Year for repeatedly making this statement about the matter being a hoax.

Secondly, no one has ever recognized Trump’s two greatest assets as his “mental stability” or “being, like, really smart.” And if he wants to make that claim himself he probably shouldn’t sound so much like a “Valley Girl.” (fer sure). His true assets were actually having been born into a wealthy family and having the shameless lack of character that permits him to lie, cheat, and steal to get what he wants.

His boasts about education are a lame attempt to cling to some alleged glory from half a century ago. And it’s all the more irrelevant since he refuses to release his college transcripts. Also, Trump has never been a successful businessman. He would be far richer if he had just invested his inheritance in an S&P 500 indexed mutual fund. With at least four bankruptcies, he can hardly lay claim to any business prowess. And like his college claims, Trump refuses to release his tax returns to validate his alleged success in business.

Finally, Trump’s self-exalting assertions about his sanity and brilliance are downright surreal. When was the last time you heard “a very stable genius” say he was a very stable genius? Smart people are the last people to say that they are smart. Trump’s bragging is actually a sort of certification of his ignorance and instability. And he elaborated on that theme in brief remarks to reporters at Camp David when a reporter asked “This morning you were tweeting about your mental state. Why did you feel the need to tweet about that this morning?”

Whereupon Trump regurgitated his tedious refrain about having been an “excellent student” and becoming a successful businessman and TV star. Then he drifted off into a diatribe against Fire and Fury author, Michael Wolff, and his former top White House aide, Sloppy Steve Bannon. Watch this video and see for yourself if he ever approaches a coherent answer to the question regarding his mental state:

Remember, the question was “Why did you feel the need to tweet about [your mental state] this morning?” The answer was aimless blather about his perception of his own awesomeness and his perceived enemies. That isn’t the response of someone who is either stable or a genius. If anything, Trump’s response this morning affirms the broadly held assessment that he is unfit for the office he holds. His inability to maintain a focus on the topic is a symptom of cognitive dysfunction. It’s a cry for help that everyone – from his family to his Republican peers – is ignoring. And the peril this represents to the nation, and the world, cannot be overstated.

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

Trump’s ALL-CAPS Post-Christmas Rant Reveals How Frightened He Is of His Bleak Future

Posted by on December 26, 2017 at 2:12 pm. 1 Comments :

The day after Donald Trump made it safe for Americans to say “Merry Christmas” again, he went straight back into the political fray. Well, he actually went straight back to one of his golf courses. But he did find the time to post a message on Twitter that expressed his innermost thoughts on the news of the day. Well, the news according to Fox News.

Donald Trump

Trump’s latest Twitter tirade was pretty much a rehash of the same nonsense that he has been disgorging for months. He has frequently yelped about the investigations being conducted to ascertain his involvement with Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. But he is clearly adding a huge helping of the horror that is overwhelming him as the investigations circle ever closer around him and his associates. Perhaps as a sort of relief valve he tweeted:

WOW, indeed. The first notable part of this presidential outburst is that Trump is, once again, identifying his source as his favorite Fox News program, Fox and Friends. So despite his access to the world’s best intelligence apparatus, Trump still relies on the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of a morning cable “news” show, that Fox doesn’t even classify as news. And to make matters worse, Trump was apparently so flustered with fear that he linked to a fake Fox and Friends Twitter account (note the “L” rather than an “I” in Friends).

As for the rest of the tweet, it was feast of falsehoods that are easily disproved. The so-called Steele Dossier to which Trump refers is decidedly not bogus. While the entirety of it has not yet been affirmed, much of what has been researched has been solidly verified. CNN reported in October that:

“While the most salacious allegations in the dossier haven’t been verified, its broad assertion that Russia waged a campaign to interfere in the election is now accepted as fact by the US intelligence community. CNN also reported earlier this year that US investigators have corroborated some aspects of the dossier, specifically that some of the communications among foreign nationals mentioned in the memos did actually take place.”

Additionally, Trump’s eagerness to blame Hillary Clinton for all his problems is not only misplaced, it’s a purposeful attempt to malign his arch nemesis and shift attention from himself. He never bothers to mention that the dossier originated with the Washington Free Beacon, a right-wing news website. And Trump’s assertion that it was used “as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign” is just wholly made up.

The inspiration for Trump’s Boxing Day bluster was, as is often the case, something he saw on Fox and Friends. The segment featured Buck Sexton, a conservative radio talk show show and former CIA analyst (with a comic book name that makes it hard to take him seriously). Sexton and Fox co-host Pete Hegseth covered some of the exact subjects as Trump’s tweet (video below):

Sexton: What we really want to know is was the dossier, as you all are quite aware, was a Clinton funded opposition research document, the basis for weaponizing the intelligence community against a political campaign as it was happening. People are talking about the Russian collusion as the greatest scandal – this would be the greatest scandal certainly of my lifetime.
Hegseth: And the Washington Times reporting that the FBI admitting that it can’t verify that dossier claims of Russia. Which would further the potential problem with that.

For the record, the FBI never said they “can’t verify” the dossier’s claims. They said that they “haven’t verified” some of the claims. Which is completely different. But Fox did manage to back up their BS with the ultra-right “Moonie” Washington Times. It’s all part of the conservative media machine’s effort to discredit and delegitimize special counsel Robert Mueller and any other independent investigation of Trump’s corruption and treason. That war on the truth is also being waged by Trump’s pals in the Kremlin. Newsweek reports that Russia “is using social media to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, a former CIA official and a former Republican congressman said Monday night.” And with that the quartet is complete: Russia, Trump, the GOP, and Fox News are all working together to sabotage Mueller and his investigation.

They must realize that the facts are against them and that their only hope is destroy the reputation of career law enforcement professionals who are doing their jobs. Think about this: if Trump, et al believed for a second that Mueller’s investigation would exonerate him, would he seek to tarnish the reputation of the man who could prove his innocence?

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

PolitiFact 2017 Lie of the Year: Trump Calling Russia’s Election Interference a ‘Hoax’

Posted by on December 12, 2017 at 11:52 am. 7 Comments :

PolitiFact has just announced the winner of their annual “Lie of the Year” honors. It must have have been an excruciating task to whittle down the contenders from the plethora of brazen, purposeful truth manglers. They could have just given up and called 2017 “The Year of the Lie.”

Donald Trump

Nevertheless, PolitiFact persevered and came up with a worthy recipient. Donald Trump’s near inability to ever say anything truthful was bound to score a victory one way or another. The rest of the political liars stood little chance against someone who is certifiably pathological. The Washington Post has documented more than 1,600 lies told by this record-breaking prevaricator.

In 2015 Trump won his first Lie of the Year award for “The campaign misstatements of Donald Trump.” They were so numerous the fact-checkers couldn’t settle on a single lie. He didn’t take that well and, in a typically lame Trump tantrum, he responded on Fox News. Trump even got an honorable mention of sorts in 2016’s Lie of the year, “Fake News,” because he was such a frequent contributor to the fakery. However, this year PolitiFact managed to narrow down Trump’s gushing geyser of bullshit to one lie that is particularly significant in terms of its bald-faced dishonesty and its potential for severe harm: “Russian election interference is a ‘made-up story‘.” They began their analysis by saying that:

“A mountain of evidence points to a single fact: Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential election of 2016.

“In both classified and public reports, U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered actions to interfere with the election. Those actions included the cyber-theft of private data, the placement of propaganda against particular candidates, and an overall effort to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process.”

Achieving this “honor” may be consolation to Trump after not being chosen as Time Magazines’s Person of the Year. PolitiFact noted that virtually every assessment of Russia’s activities concluded that Vladimir Putin and Company did interfere with the U.S. election in a multitude of ways. It was not a partisan observation. Republicans and Democrats alike recognized that Russia was deeply involved in election hacking and propaganda. And as PolitiFact put it, “After all this, one man keeps saying it didn’t even happen.” Indeed, Trump stood alone in denying the obvious and defending his pals in the Kremlin.

“This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,” Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt. “It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.” And he tried desperately to shift the blame elsewhere, including to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, China, or some fat guy in a New Jersey basement. Anyone but Vlad. In fact, Trump explicitly let Putin off the hook because the Russian dictator assured him that he didn’t do it. And Trump believes Putin over his own American intelligence agencies.

PolitiFact spent little time addressing whether or not Trump colluded with Russia to impact the outcome of the election. But it’s hard to separate the two. Especially when every utterance by Trump supports the Russian version events. What’s more, Trump and his associates repeatedly denied any encounters with Russians during the campaign and after. However, they later had to admit that many of them had many meetings that they all somehow forgot for some reason. There can’t be that many blatant misstatements by that many people without there being some intent to hide something.

And just to top off this Christmas tree with a distinctly Trumpian ornament, the President tweeted about this very issue this morning:

He is still calling the Russia investigations fake news. And despite the indictments (and two guilty pleas) of four of his accomplices (so far), he stubbornly asserts that the investigations are a waste of time and money. Then he shifts from that to his desperate denials of sexual misconduct and crimes. This may be his first bid for 2018 Lie of the Year. And he’s off to great start by claiming that he doesn’t know, or never met, any of his victims. The only problem with that is that one of his accusers was a contestant on The Apprentice. Another participated in his beauty pageant. And another was placed at the scene of his abuse by his own witness.

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

PolitiFact may have to exempt Trump from any future recognition in this competition. No one else can possibly challenge such an accomplished liar and skilled reality distortion machine. Perhaps they should rename the whole affair “The Donald Trump Lie of the Year Awards” and let some other sham merchants have a chance to win.

In His Own Words: Trump is a Traitor Who Believes Putin Over His Own Intelligence Agencies

Posted by on November 11, 2017 at 10:22 am. 5 Comments :

Thousands of miles from America Donald Trump is shooting off his ignorant mouth and putting the country and the world in peril. This could not be a clearer case of treason against the United States. And the fact that it is committed by someone with the title of president makes it all the more disturbing and dangerous.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

While in Vietnam, a country Trump avoiding visiting as a young man by seeking five draft deferments, the President was asked about the well documented attack on American democracy by Vladimir Putin’s Russia. His responses are bone-chilling and demonstrate just how far he has deviated from his patriotic duty and common sense. Here are some choice excerpts from his remarks:

  • “Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that [hack our election],’ and I really believe, that when he tells me that, he means it.”
    That’s comforting. Except that every time his own intelligence agencies tell him that Putin DID interfere with our election, apparently they don’t mean it and he doesn’t believe them.
  • “I can’t stand there and argue with him.”
    Why the hell not? He’s the leader of a hostile foreign nation that has always wanted to bring down the U.S. You are a coward if you can’t stand up to that.
  • “I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country.”
    So you can’t insult our enemies, but you can insult fellow Americans, including our veterans? Is that a good thing for our country?
  • “Everybody knows there was no collusion. I think it’s a shame that something like this can destroy a very important potential relationship between two countries that are very important countries. Russia could really help us.”
    You might want to check the facts (and Robert Mueller) before you make absurd claims about what “everybody knows.” And if you think Putin’s aim is to help us you are certifiably insane.
  • “He said he didn’t meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times. I just asked him again. He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did.”
    Why are you even asking him? We have the answer and he’s a liar. What’s more, you are again contradicting the entire U.S. intelligence community. And that includes the people you appointed (not some so-called “deep state” Obama holdovers): CIA chief Mike Pompeo, DNI Dan Coats, FBI director Christopher Wray, NSA head Mike Rogers, Chief of Staff John Kelly, Counterterrorism adviser Thomas Bossert.
  • “This artificial Democratic hit job gets in the way and that’s a shame because people will die because of it.”
    Is that a some kind of veiled threat?

It’s hard to find the words to react to this frighteningly stupid and treacherous rhetoric. Luckily, the above linked article from Politico supplied a quote from an expert that sums it up perfectly:

“The worst part of this is not that Trump takes Putin’s word over the evidence based analysis of his own intelligence agencies. It is not even that he plays the role of a useful idiot as he kowtows to Putin yet again. The worst part, by far, is that a hostile power is engaged in an ongoing attack on America’s political system and Trump is deliberately stripping the nation’s defenses bare and leaving us exposed to future assaults. It is unilateral disarmament plain and simple,” said Thomas Wright, Director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution and an expert in national security. “We have never seen this type of weakness in a U.S. president before.”

Sadly, we have never seen this type of weakness, idiocy, narcissism, corruption, blindness, cowardice, treasonous, childishness, vengefulness, greed, and hatred, in a U.S. president before. Hopefully we will not see it for very much longer. He needs to be driven from office by either law or shame. And our Congress must finally take a stand for what’s right and fulfill the oath they took to defend the Constitution.

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

Donald Trump is in Full-Panic Mode Ahead of Mueller’s Monday Indictment Announcement

Posted by on October 29, 2017 at 3:09 pm. 4 Comments :

Like a lousy poker player, Donald Trump has a “tell” that broadcasts his innermost thoughts to anyone paying attention. Whenever he’s worried, or someone has dared to criticize him, he lashes out on Twitter. His thoroughly predictable routine is to focus intently on whatever is sticking in his craw at the moment. Everything else will be ignored, even pertinent matters like hurricane relief or the deaths of American soldiers.

Donald Trump Robert Mueller

And so it was Sunday morning with an especially protracted tweetstorm by the President. This Twitter tantrum revolved around Friday’s announcement that a Grand Jury convened by special counsel Robert Mueller is about to issue indictments. While there was no indication of the targets or the charges, it’s clear that it has spooked Trump. Consequently, he unleashed a stream of bile that exposes his own worst fears. And even though he posted them as a fractured run-on sentence, let’s address each one in sequence:


In fact, only a few ultra-rightist Republicans have bothered to comment on this. Most likely they recognize the folly of helping the Trump/Russia story to persist in the news cycle. What Trump probably meant was that he hasn’t seen such Fox News “ANGER & UNITY.” He could point to several Fox rants, including Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. But the looniest is surely that of Jeanine Pirro, who calls for Mueller to be fired and Hillary Clinton to be jailed.


Here Trump rattles off a few golden oldies from his campaign. Never mind that they have all been debunked by legitimate journalists. For instance, PolitiFact called the Uranium One allegations “Mostly False” more than a year ago.


Continuing to envelope himself in the bubble-wrap of Trumpian denial, the President dismisses the avalanche of facts associating him and his comrades with Russia. If it’s a “Witch Hunt,” it has actually found some witches. That’s what Mueller will be disclosing Monday.


Once again, Trump has asserted a Republican response that he can’t support with proof. It’s a Fox News response. And he is virtually admitting that there is no GOP pushback by posting, in all caps, “DO SOMETHING!” Why would that be necessary if they were already fighting back?


And there’s the capper. Trump thinks that Mueller’s indictments were timed to sink tax reform. That’s a spectacularly ludicrous conspiracy theory. To be true you would have to believe a flurry of unlikely events. First, that the special counsel appointed by a republican Justice Department is among the conspirators. Secondly, that the investigation was a legal time bomb intended to blow up legislation rather than bring criminals to justice. Thirdly, that it was triggered last May and set to go off whenever tax reform was taken up in Congress. Of course, no one had any idea then (or now) when that would be. Finally, why would this plot be aimed at tax reform rather than healthcare, immigration, climate change, or any other issue Trump has demagogued?

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

The quantity and quackery of these tweets is the best evidence that Trump is frightened enough to require new pants. The conspiracy component sounds like something he picked up from his pal, Alex Jones. And he even managed to get in a swipe at his favorite foe, Hillary Clinton. The whole package appears to have been crafted by Fox News, where precisely the same narrative is unfolding. It’s a lame strategy that is destined to fail. As soon as Mueller’s indictments are announced, these whining outbursts will seem comically irrelevant. But it’s all they have, and they’ll play it for all it’s worth, for as long as they can.