Coronavirus

Trump Vows to Expose His Own Followers to the Coronavirus to Spite the Media

Posted by on June 15, 2020 at 11:59 am. 2 Comments :

A callous disregard for human life has become the hallmark of the Donald Trump presidency. He has made repeated attempts to terminate and/or sabotage Obamacare. His economic and tax policies have punished millions of working people, while benefiting corporations and the wealthy. He has presided over the decimation of the environment. And as a result of his negligence, incompetence, and even deliberate malfeasance, more than 116,000 American have been lost to COVID-19 (coronavirus).

Donald Trump Virus

This week Trump will resume the cult rallies that, until the coronavirus pandemic, were the primary source of the ego-stroking that his malignant narcissism requires. Every public health expert has warned that it is too soon – and therefore gravely irresponsible – to hold such an event while infections are continuing to rise. That’s specifically true for Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of Trump’s rally on Saturday. The Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Bruce Dart told The Tulsa World that…

“‘I’m concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event, and I’m also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well. COVID is here in Tulsa, it is transmitting very efficiently,’ Dart added. ‘I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn’t as large a concern as it is today.'”

These warnings are falling on deaf ears in the Trump camp. Just as he did in the early months of the pandemic’s spread, the Trump administration is dismissing the risks and pretending that everything is just fine. Several weeks ago he ceased to hold the daily briefings by his White House Coronavirus Task Force. Perhaps he believes that by selling his Trump-branded face masks everyone will be immunized. This second wave of Trump delusionally downplaying the scientific realities is certain to have the same disastrous results. Not that Trump cares about any of that. He tweeted Monday morning that…

That is a Twitter tirade that is just oozing with the block-headed idiocy for which Trump is so well known. First of all, Trump is unsurprisingly lying about the press coverage of the demonstrations where citizens were spontaneously expressing their outrage over the murder of George Floyd and other unarmed African-Americans at the hands of the police. The media extensively reported on the potential health risks posed by demonstrators. However, they also made obvious distinctions between these protesters (not “rioters and looters” as Trump derisively calls them) and Trump’s cultists. The demonstrations were all outdoors, where the risk of transmission is lower. And the vast majority of protesters wore masks. Trump’s rally will be held indoors with people who, like Trump, reject the necessity for social distancing and facial coverings.

Trump is also purposefully misleading with his assertion that the demonstrations were limited to “Democrat run cities.” Even if that were true, it wouldn’t make any difference. They’re still Americans in massive numbers speaking out about injustice. But the fact is that these protests stretched across the nation with hundreds of thousands of participants in more than 2,000 cities, many of which are run by Republicans. For instance, San Diego, CA, Waco, TX, Mobile, AL, Colorado Springs, CO, and Palm Beach, Fl, to name just a few.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of Trump’s tweet is his stand in defiance of what he imagines to be the media “trying to Covid Shame” him. Really? Is he really taking a stance against this imaginary media plot to humiliate him by doubling down on his commitment to put the lives of his own supporters at risk? Just to show the press that he has no capacity for shame? Most Americans already knew that.

As for Trump, he knows full well the peril that his rally poses for those who attend. That’s why he is forcing all of them to sign an agreement not to sue him or his campaign if they contract or die from the coronavirus. That’s an outright admission of knowledge of harm, and an overt attempt to dodge accountability. You would think that would be a red flag for potential rally-goers. But these are Trump supporters and, as he has said, he loves the poorly educated. And with this rally they are getting yet another opportunity to prove him right.

UPDATE: Trump Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway says that there will be temperature checks for rally-goers and that masks and hand sanitizer will be distributed. For a million people? Of course there won’t really be a million people, but the venue holds 19,000. It is highly improbable that they will have 19,000 face masks and bottles of hand sanitizer to give away. And temperature checks for that many people (at 5 seconds each, if that’s possible) would take more than 26 hours.

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

Math-Challenged Fox News Shills Callously Dismiss 100,000 American Deaths

Posted by on May 26, 2020 at 1:16 pm. 5 Comments :

At this point no one is surprised by Donald Trump’s heartless indifference to the tragic loss of nearly 100,000 Americans (so far), not to mention the 1.7 million who have been sickened, some with permanent disabilities. He refuses to acknowledge his direct responsibility for the pain and suffering that has resulted from his negligence, incompetence, and even deliberate malfeasance. And he continually proves that all he cares about is himself.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Coronavirus

However, it would a grievous mistake to allow Trump’s loathsome inhumanity to become normalized just because of its frequency. But that’s precisely what Trump hopes will occur. And despite his recent vicious attacks of late, his mouthpieces at State TV (aka Fox News) are stepping up their campaign to achieve that goal.

On Tuesday’s episode of Trump’s favorite morning lie-fest, Fox and Friends, co host Brian Kilmeade took a valiant stab at flagrant Trump-fluffing during a segment discussing the death toll of COVID-19 (coronavirus). Naturally, Kilmeade and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes were determined to downplay the catastrophic human consequences of Trump’s ineptitude. When addressing the magnitude of the pandemic’s destruction, Kilmeade launched into his propaganda spiel (video below):

“We definitely noticed the seriousness when almost 100,000 Americans die, but what I took from Dr. Siegel’s math was 0.3%, not even 3%, 0.3% — we’ve shut down an entire country for 0.3% of those who get it, lose their lives.”

It’s bad enough when Trump and his media sycophants purposefully lie to spread their disinformation, but these remarks are pitifully stupid. Let’s begin with the fact that 100,000 deaths is actually about 6% of the total population of infected persons in the United States (1,700,000). So Kilmeade is only off by 2,000%.

What’s more, Kilmeade’s argument is that, because the death toll is so low (according to his fractured math), the nation shouldn’t be subject to restrictions intended to impede the spread of the coronavirus. He is even suggesting that there should never have been such restrictions in the first place since the risks were so minimal. We’ll set aside for now that Fox News regards 100,000 deaths as trivial. Apparently none of the deceased were members of their families. But he actually believes that the mortality rate would be the same even if there were no restrictions at all from the start.

More to the point, Kilmeade is missing entirely the fact that the death toll is “only” 100,000 precisely because there were tough restrictions on risky behaviors, implemented by state governors in spite of Trump’s opposition. Had that not been the case there would have been many thousands of more fatalities. A recent study by Columbia University found that if the mitigation efforts (social distancing, face masks, etc.) were in place even one week earlier, it would have saved 36,000 lives.

The pressure being applied by Trump and Fox News to “reopen” the economy is, by all accounts, premature and dangerous. Every public health expert, including those on Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force, are warning that a second wave of infections – and subsequent deaths – is almost certain. That’s particularly true if Trump’s call to stand down is followed by everything from businesses to churches to schools to his own upcoming Republican National Convention (that’s having its own problems getting off the ground).

Consequently, any further loss of life will be directly attributable to the Fox News Ministry of Disinformation that is lying to the American people. And Fox will share that dubious “honor” with Trump and the Republican confederacy that continues to enable what he himself called “American Carnage.”

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 Ditch GOP Convention in North Carolina, the Only State that Wanted It.

Posted by on May 25, 2020 at 1:58 pm. 2 Comments :

The United States is witnessing the unprecedented spectacle of a president devolving into total mental collapse right before our eyes. Donald Trump seems to know that America is literally sick to death of him. His prospects for reelection have been squandered by his tragically inept mishandling of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. And his most desperate attempts to recover are sinking in a turbulent sea of his own making.

Donald Trump Walking the Plank

If Trump happens to check his favorite pollster, the disgraced and ultra-biased Rasmussen, he will see his approval at 43%, matching his low point going back two and a half years. Other polls such as Reuters (42%) and even Fox News (44%) affirm that rating. He is losing to Joe Biden in every head to head match up nationally, as well as in most of the crucial swing states.

This grim reality has apparently driven Trump off the deep end. His Twitter feed is dripping with psychotic distress. He’s accusing MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough of murder. He’s feuding with his former Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. He’s insulting critics (mostly women) as being skanks (Hillary Clinton), overweight (Stacy Abrams), and stupid (Michigan AG Dana Nessel). He even retweeted Jesse Watters of Fox News saying that President Obama will be in prison soon. And speaking of Fox News, Trump is alternately lashing out at it and embracing it with schizophrenic fury.

On Monday morning, Trump hammered out four tweets that are further evidence of his mental infirmity. He is extremely upset with with the Democratic governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, for not guaranteeing that the state will be fully open for business by the time the Republican National Convention is scheduled to be there. Due to the coronavirus, there may still be restrictions of certain activities and crowd sizes. But Trump is insistent that the convention be permitted to operate at full capacity no matter how many lives could be lost.

That’s no surprise coming from the president who has presided over nearly 100,000 American deaths to date that are directly attributable to his negligence, incompetence, and even deliberate malfeasance. Trump’s twitter opus whined that…

I love the Great State of North Carolina, so much so that I insisted on having the Republican National Convention in Charlotte at the end of August. Unfortunately, Democrat Governor, @RoyCooperNC is still in Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed…

…full attendance in the Arena. In other words, we would be spending millions of dollars building the Arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space. Plans are being….

…made by many thousands of enthusiastic Republicans, and others, to head to beautiful North Carolina in August. They must be immediately given an answer by the Governor as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied. If not, we will be reluctantly forced…

…to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site. This is not something I want to do. Thank you, and I LOVE the people of North Carolina!

True to form, Trump is demonstrating that he is more concerned about his own welfare than that of the American people, even his own supporters. If he is set on cramming thousands of people into an arena-sized petri dish, then they should be quarantined there for 14 days following the convention to prevent them from spreading the coronavirus as they fan out across the nation to their homes. There have already been numerous reports of spiking infection and death rates in states that have loosened restrictions.

What Trump isn’t addressing in his threat to ditch North Carolina is that there may mot be any alternatives available. When the RNC originally put out the call for cities to host the convention, they ended up with with only Charlotte, North Carolina submitting a bid. That’s unheard of in the convention business. And it wasn’t because of economics, logistics, or security. The Democrats got eight bids to host their convention. So obviously the problem was Trump.

Consequently, there has been some speculation that Trump might move the event to his Doral golf resort in Miami, although he denies it. However, in his denial he accused the New York Times of engaging in that speculation, which the Times didn’t do. This is just Trump’s routine practice of disinformation to muddy the waters around whatever scandalous hole he’s trying to dig himself out of at the time.

Being as it is only about 13 weeks until the convention is to be held, there isn’t nearly enough time to find another host city that could ramp up quickly enough to pull off this large of an event. That’s even if there is a city that wants to, which was not the case when the original opportunity presented itself.

What’s more, the GOP has already invested heavily in the North Carolina site and would have to forfeit those expenditures if they cancel. So the likelihood is that the convention will proceed in Charlotte under whatever conditions the state mandates, and Trump will have to suck it up. Of course that means he will just blame the Democrats in North Carolina for his failures and elevate the hysteria in his tweets.

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

SHAM, WOW! Trump Turns the White House Into His 2020 Campaign Infomercial Agency

Posted by on May 24, 2020 at 12:03 pm. 6 Comments :

In these times of the COVOD-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, Donald Trump has taken to calling the American people “warriors.” Never mind that Cadet Bone Spurs is conscripting them involuntarily to service for which he steadfastly refuses to enlist. It is a noxious analogy for a public health crisis that requires leadership to align national resources and to promote rational behavior, not some pseudo-macho allusions to combat. If this were war, Trump would have to be listed as Missing In Action.

Donald Trump, Coronavirus

Trump’s latest official action to address the crisis was an executive order advising governors to declare churches as “essential” businesses. He threatened to override any state executive who failed to obey his command – an authority that he doesn’t have. In the meantime, Trump spent the past two days on his own golf course, including Sunday when the Pastor-in-Chief might otherwise have gone to one of those essential churches.

So with more than 1.5 million Americans infected and close to 100,000 dead, you might be wondering what became of the much vaunted White House Coronavirus Task force. Trump launched it to great fanfare, appointing Vice-President Mike Pence to lead the effort. The most prominent function of the group was to hold daily briefings ostensibly to update the public on the status of the pandemic and the progress made to mitigate the harm.

You’ll recall that – in true reality TV game show host fashion – Trump cast himself as the star of the show, hijacking attention from the experts who the American people really wanted to hear from. He then spent a couple of hours every day distorting the facts, bragging about imaginary achievements, shifting blame for failures to others, and yelling at and insulting reporters. It was a bizarre spectacle that even Trump’s allies could see was hurting Trump and the Republican Party. But Trump’s malignant narcissism would only allow him to see an image of himself as a beloved figure whose every act was perfect.

It was clear that Trump was using these briefing as a replacement for the cult rallies that he could no longer use to bask in the glory of his glassy-eyed disciples. He justified his role by citing the Nielsen ratings, which he was egocentric enough to believe were due to his glorious presence. In reality, viewers were tuning in to hear Dr. Anthony Fauci and other health professionals. The more people saw of Trump, the more repulsed they were. Eventually, his staff was successful in persuading him to stop exacerbating the damage.

Now we have confirmation that these briefings were just an extension of Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. They were, in fact, nothing more than campaign infomercials. We know that because as soon as Trump stopped featuring himself as the lead character, the briefings themselves came to an end. It’s been two weeks since the last of what were daily briefings. If their purpose was actually to provide information to the public, they would have continued. Obviously, that was not their purpose. Without Trump the briefings had no point to this White House. What’s more, the supporting cast of doctors and administrators also became irrelevant as their presence in the media was immediately curtailed. And what we saw of them was mostly restricted to Fox News.

Since the cancellation of The Task Force Briefing Hour(s), Trump has created new campaign programming by showing up at various corporate facilities where he did nothing but parade around – without a face mask – pretending to be relevant. These events had no purpose other than as photo-ops for a figurehead president who has nothing better to do.

If anyone needs further evidence that Trump’s only concern about the coronavirus was with regard to how it affects him, they need look no further than his Twitter feed. This weekend he posted dozens of tweets that covered subjects that ranged from nauseating accusations that MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough is a murderer, to a Fox News assertion that President Obama would soon be in prison. He also whined about Joe Biden, mail-in voting, Michael Moore, Nancy Pelosi, the hydroxychloroquine miracle drug, his floundering polls, Jeff Sessions, and the Russia “hoax.”

However, in all of that garbage heap of hostility, self-promotion, disinformation, and infantile insults, there was one subject he didn’t address even once. That, of course, was the pandemic and its catastrophic effect on the American people. NOT.EVEN.ONCE! And that should tell you all you need to know about what this “president” cares about.

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

Daddy Can’t Have Rallies, Whines Trump Spawn In Lie-Riddled Fox News Rant

Posted by on May 17, 2020 at 11:46 am. 3 Comments :

Proving that he is still living in a fantasy world where everything he does is perfect and universally revered, Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning that “Doing REALLY well, medically, on solving the CoronaVirus situation.” Never mind that there are now nearly 1.5 million cases and 89,000 deaths in the U.S., and those numbers continue to rise. This is another “Mission Accomplished” moment for Trump.

Donald Trump, Sick Sense

In the meantime, Eric Trump is serving Fox News duty by visiting with Fox’s Senior Trump-Fluffer, “Judge” Jeanine Pirro (video below). The Trumps continue to exploit Fox News for their official propaganda dispatches despite Trump’s increasingly frequent complaints that the network “doesn’t deliver for US anymore.” Clearly they still regard Fox as their special delivery carrier of choice, particularly with bootlicking sycophants like Pirro, Sean Hannity, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends.

In this latest episode of “Inebriety Apprentice,” an ever eager Eric sought to attract daddy’s attention and love by diminishing the tragic perils of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, while simultaneously dispensing flagrant falsehoods about Joe Biden. In Trump World, politics takes precedence over dead Americans. Eric led off with an obviously ludicrous claim that “Biden loves” the nation being locked down, a condition that is wholly attributable to his father’s negligence and incompetence. He went on to mock Biden for “making some horrible blunders,” which is ironic considering the shoddiness of the rest of this tantrum. For instance, Eric said that Democrats…

“…think they’re taking away Donald Trump’s greatest tool, which is going into an arena and fill it with 50,000 people every single time. They’ll milk it every single day between now and November 3rd. And guess what? After November 3rd Coronavirus will magically all of a sudden go away and disappear and everybody will be able to reopen.”

First of all, Trump has never drawn 50,000 people to any of his cult rallies – or even half that, much less done it “every single time.” Eric is suffering from the same Crowd Size Inflation Disorder as his father. It’s a disease that is rooted in inferiority and impotence anxiety. Secondly, Eric’s assertion that the coronavirus will “magically all of a sudden go away” after the election implies that it’s a nothing but a political hoax. Does that mean the 90,000 dead Americans will spring back to life and 36 million people will return to jobs that were never gone on November 4th?

Eric’s assertion that drawing allegedly large crowds is daddy’s “greatest tool” actually puts Trump in a trivial light. Any good cult leader (Jerry Falwell, Jim Jones, Adolf Hitler, etc.) can do that. A good president should have more significant tools and skills like intelligence, insight, and compassion, characteristics that the Trump family sorely lacks. Eric also cited as Papa Trump’s “greatest asset” that “the American people love him [and that] he’s relatable.” Not according to pretty much every poll that shows Trump has had a majority disapproval throughout his presidency. He even rates lower on trust than his nemesis, CNN. You know that’s gotta sting. But Eric wasn’t through…

“So make no mistake, to a lot of them this is a very cognizant strategy that they’re trying to employ. It’s no different than the nonsense that they’re trying to throw in the Hope Act. No different than the mail-in voting they want to do all of these places. No different than wanting illegal immigrants to vote in our country. It is a cognizant strategy and it’s sad. And again, it’s not gonna be allowed to happen and we’re gonna win in November.”

Let’s get it out of the way that having a “cognizant strategy” isn’t sad at all. The word means “having or showing knowledge or understanding. So naturally Eric misused it. As for the “nonsense” in the Hope Act, apparently Eric is opposed to a bill “that would streamline and modernize how eligible recipients can access services to alleviate hunger and food insecurity, receive affordable housing, and expanded banking services.” Actually, he probably meant the HEROES Act that allocates additional relief funding for those impacted by the ongoing pandemic. But he made a “horrible blunder.”

Eric is also opposed to making voting more accessible in a manner that won’t make citizens chose between exercising their rights and staying alive. And he’s inventing some initiative that no one has proposed to allow illegal immigrants to vote.

What’s curious is that Eric’s grievance about daddy not being able to have a rally could be rectified by daddy just having a rally. The only one stopping Trump from bringing his glassy-eyed disciples out of their bunkers to congregate and spread their germs is Trump. Democrats aren’t locking the President into the White house against his will. So Eric’s protest is really just more petulant whining as a means of shifting blame for his own failures to others. Like Father, like son.

What’s more, Eric is appearing with Pirro on Fox News where the management has mandated that employees work from their homes. Both Eric and Pirro are safely conversing from the comfort of their respective mansions. If this is all a big Democratic hoax, which is what the shills on Fox News are telling their dimwitted viewers, then why don’t they simply revoke the order to work from home and bring everybody back into the studio? That’s a question that no one on Fox will ask, much less answer. And it’s a concept that is far too complex for the likes of little Eric.

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

Fox News Leads the Trump Charge Against Coronavirus Relief for the American People

Posted by on May 15, 2020 at 12:53 pm. 5 Comments :

As the nation continues to suffer through the worst pandemic in a century, Donald Trump continues to downplay the risks and seeks to force the American people back into unsafe workplaces. His record thus far has resulted in more than 1.4 million people infected and more than 86,000 deaths. But apparently that isn’t enough for Trump and his GOP confederates.

Fox News, Democratic Wish List, Coronavirus, Trump

On Friday morning Trump held a press conference to announce his “plan” for developing a vaccine. True to form, the plan consisted of nothing but happy-talk and bragging about imaginary achievements. He baselessly claimed that there would be a vaccine before the end of the year, contradicting the estimates of every credible immunologist. Even worse, he insisted that people would return to work whether or not there was a vaccine. Trump still fails to grasp that there can be no resolution of this crisis without a vaccine, along with universal testing, tracking, and treatment.

Predictably, State TV (aka Fox News) is backing Trump 100% in two significant ways. First, they are practically ignoring the the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic throughout their broadcast day. In its place they are feverishly flaunting the phony “ObamaGate” conspiracy theory that no one – including Trump – can even define. And secondly, what little coverage of the pandemic they do offer is starkly skewed to a far right perspective that is generally reserved for fringe Internet trolls.

For example, Fox News did a segment on the HEROES Act, a Democratic congressional initiative to provide relief for those impacted by the pandemic. The Fox angle was focused squarely on what they considered to be inappropriate funding programs. According to Fox (and featured in their on-screen graphic above), there were five primary targets of their criticism:

  • $1,200 payments for certain undocumented immigrants.

    • These include adults who were brought here as children and who have been working, paying taxes, and even serving in the military. But even were that not the case, undocumented immigrants are still members of our communities and require assistance in order to mitigate the spread of the virus.

  • $3.6 billion for mail-in voting.

    • This is required in order to insure the safe conduct of the upcoming election in November. That’s something that Trump and Republicans don’t care about since they prefer it when fewer people vote. Trump even said that with higher levels of voting “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” What’s more, recent elections in Wisconsin where mail-in voting was prohibited by the GOP resulted in at least 52 people becoming infected with the coronavirus. Finally, both Trump and Fox News have been trying to bankrupt the Post Office in order to suppress voting access.

  • $20 million for arts and humanities.

    • This is a category of relief that Republicans are fond of disparaging, but which the American people support. Particularly during times of hardship, like those we are now experiencing. It’s also a sector of the economy that employs millions of Americans who are not otherwise covered by previous relief programs. Plus, financially it’s a pittance.

  • $100 million for domestic violence prevention.

    • It’s hard to figure out why they would include this on their hit list. Are they in favor of domestic violence? And there is evidence that quarantining has increased the incidence of such violence.

  • Bank loans/financial services for cannabis businesses.

    • This was clearly added in order to exploit the association to illicit drugs. However, in the real world, cannabis is actually a valid medicine that many Americans rely on.

It’s safe to say that most Americans would approve of the items in this Democratic “Wish List.” But to make matters worse, here are some of the items that Fox News left out:

  • Another $1,200 one-time payment to everyone, up to $6,000 per family,
  • $1 trillion in aid to state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to help offset revenue losses due to the pandemic shutdown and retrain public employees.
  • $200 billion in hazard pay for the essential workers.
  • A 15% increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
  • $75 billion for testing and contact tracing as well as free treatment for coronavirus.
  • An extension of the $600 bump to weekly unemployment insurance payments through January.
  • $175 billion in new money for rent, mortgage, and utility payments.
  • $25 billion in emergency funding for the Postal Service.

This is a positive agenda of support for the American people that Trump is already threatening to veto. One of his treasured initiatives that he is holding the bill hostage over is a payroll tax cut. That’s a deliberate attack on Social Security which is funded by that tax. Furthermore, with 36 million people out of work, that’s not even a tax cut that would provide much benefit. Those unemployed Americans already have zero payroll tax deductions. And another of Trump’s sticking points is his proposal to prohibit lawsuits against corporations where employees are harmed by lax safety precautions related to the coronavirus. So Trump wants to force people back to work and then indemnify the companies if those people get sick or die.

But none of this has to make any sense. It only has to be played over and over again on Fox News to keep their glassy-eyed cult followers in line. They are not an especially cerebral crowd and can be easily trained to obey the edicts of Dear Leader as manifested by his media machine. The good news is they are a small cadre of crackpots who will ultimately have little impact on the direction of the nation. And November can’t come too soon.

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

Trump Whines that ‘Rich Guys’ Profit From the Stock Market that He’s Manipulating

Posted by on May 13, 2020 at 1:25 pm. NO Comments :

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic is a human tragedy of epic proportions. And due to Donald Trump’s negligence, incompetence, and sometimes deliberate mishandling of the federal government’s response, more than 83,000 Americans have lost their their lives. Current estimates indicate that the number of fatalities is going to increase to 147,000 by August.

Donald Trump, Stock Market

However, this isn’t just a public health crisis. The nation’s economy has taken a historic hit as the country is virtually shutdown in order to mitigate the spread of the virus. More than 20 million people have lost their jobs, and small businesses are struggling to remain viable. The stock market is currently in bear market territory, down about 23% from its recent highs.

The mitigation efforts have been working, but because Trump is worried more about the economy and his floundering reelection prospects than he is about human lives, he is pushing to force people back into dangerous workplaces far too soon. And in the midst of all of this, Trump took time away from his Fox News viewing on Wednesday morning to post a tweet whining about people who are making money trading on the volatile swings in the stock market:

Seriously? There is so much wrong in that brief twantrum that it demands further analysis. First of all, who are these “so-called ‘rich guys'” Trump is complaining about? Wouldn’t they actually be the sort of people that he associates with on a regular basis? And what’s wrong with traders placing bets on the market, which is exactly what they always do, pandemic or not?

What’s more, Trump’s complaint is glaringly incoherent. He begins by implying that there’s something wrong with people trying to drive stock prices down in order to make a profit. This is his way of attempting to make excuses for the recent declines. But then he immediately reverses course, noting that the same people are also driving prices up. That would make their efforts a wash. So what the heck is his problem? He is, as usual, not making any sense. But he thinks this blather will persuade the dimwits who follow him that there’s nothing wrong with the economy.

This sort of trading is common on Wall Street. And there isn’t anything illegal about it. Every stock transaction is a “bet” and experienced traders know that. If Trump were truly interested in unlawful activities, he might have said something about the Trump-fluffing GOP senators – Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler – who sold off millions of dollars of stocks that were plainly at risk before the markets collapsed. Those sales were also after they both had attended hearings that outlined the coming pandemic risks, but turned around and told their constituents that everything was fine. They are currently being investigated by the Senate ethics committee.

In addition to that, Trump and his family were also invested in pharmaceutical companies that stood to gain from the pandemic’s turmoil. Among those investments was the company that manufactures hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that Trump was irresponsibly promoting as a treatment for the coronavirus.

Trump’s interest in the markets has been ongoing throughout this crisis. He has taken a personal interest in seeking to prop up the markets artificially by pressuring the Federal Reserve Board to lower interests rates. But for some reason he failed to mention that in doing so, he would save millions of dollars on the outstanding variable interest rate loans he owes to foreign banks. Trump was also surely concerned about the fact that revenues for his own real estate holdings were down 30% since the pandemic began. That may explain in part why he’s so anxious to get everyone back to work.

So if anyone was trying to manipulate the markets, it was Trump. His coercion of the Fed and his relentless and misguided happy-talk were all designed to increase his own wealth and to juice his reelection campaign. In light of that, his question as to whether the actions of traders was “barely legal” takes on a whole new meaning. Most likely, Barely Legal was the just the name of the last magazine the Trump subscribed to.

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

ORANGE CRUSHED: More Americans Trust CNN than Either Trump or Fox News

Posted by on May 12, 2020 at 2:06 pm. 8 Comments :

In recent days Donald Trump has been exhibiting surging symptoms of acute paranoia, anxiety, and desperation. Two days ago he posted a near record 124 tweets in one day. They ran the gamut of his typical fetishes from ego-drenched bragging about imaginary achievements, to vicious insults aimed at his perceived enemies, to delusional assertions of non-existent crimes committed by political adversaries. If Trump were on a street corner reciting the content of his tweets he would be quickly escorted to the nearest asylum for observation.

Donald Trump, Coronavirus

On Tuesday morning the out of control tweetstorming continued with Trump posting another 32 twantrums, all before 10:00am. While this behavior is not unheard of for Trump, there is clearly something that has triggered this escalation of hysterics. And more than likely it has something to with his downward spiraling approval ratings and the polls that show him losing to Joe Biden nationally, as well as in most of the crucial swing states. Trump’s hijacking of the Coronavirus Task Force briefings backfired badly as his lies and belligerence turned off most Americans who were more interested in getting useful information about the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

A new poll is now affirming that what remains of Trump’s already tattered reputation has taken a series of severe blows. His overall approval is still underwater (45%) and has never exceeded 50% at any point during his accidental presidency. What’s more, a paltry 36% of the American people trust the information Trump provides about the coronavirus. That compares to 74% who trust the Centers for Disease Control, 67% who trust Dr. Anthony Fauci, and (and this has gotta sting) a majority of 55% who trust CNN, 19 points higher than those who trust Trump. That’s in line with previous polling that found the same preference for what Trump refers to is Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.”

There is some more worrisome news for Trump in the details of this poll. The support for Trump is tightly bound into his base, which at this point is more of a cult. How else would you explain that Trump’s glassy-eyed disciples trust him more (84%) than they trust Dr. Fauci (61%)? As reported by CNN…

“Republicans are more apt to say that they trust the information they get about coronavirus from Trump (84%) than they are to say they trust the information they get from Dr. Anthony Fauci (61%), the nation’s top infectious disease expert, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (72%). Among Democrats, just 4% say they trust the information they get from the President, well behind the 81% who say they trust Fauci or the 80% who trust the CDC. Overall, CNN (55% trust) inspires far more trust than Fox News (35%), with those figures also divided by party.”

Democrats are plainly more persuaded by science than by partisan hackery and political lie factories. Can’t say the same for Republicans. And the American people have made their choice with regard to news sources. While Fox News is still higher rated, that’s only because their audience is glued to the right-wing propaganda network day and night, while the majority of the country gets their news from a variety of more credible sources, both national and local.

Trump surely has many reasons to be mired in a crushing meltdown. His polling is in the gutter. His reelection prospects are fading. The Supreme Court is hearing cases that could result in his finally having to reveal his tax returns. And he is rightfully being held accountable for the suffering and death caused by his negligent and incompetent mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. Not that he cares about that. What’s boiling his thinning blood is that, in addition to those other triggers, he knows that the American people – and the people of the world – see him as a failure and a clown who was never fit to be a leader. And that is the sort of judgment that weighs most heavily on narcissists with unchecked delusions of grandeur, like Trump.

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

PITY PARTY? Trump Clown Show Mocks Americans Suffering in Coronavirus Depression

Posted by on May 11, 2020 at 1:17 pm. 3 Comments :

As if it weren’t enough that Donald Trump neglected to act for two months as COVID-19 (coronavirus) spread throughout the nation – or that he trivialized it’s impact as being “totally under control” and that cases were “going down to zero” very soon, or that he blamed Democrats, China, and anyone but himself for the tragedies resulting from his incompetence – it’s agonizing to watch him continue to put the lives of more Americans at risk because his ego won’t permit him to take responsibility and act responsibly. Even worse, he actually brags about his flagrant failures.

Donald Trump, Pennywise

Trump’s rush to send Americans back into a still dangerous workplace has the stench of hypocrisy. He can’t even keep the coronavirus out of the White House with daily testing, but he expects average folks to become the “warriors” in his battle to save corporations and the stock market. And they won’t have the testing, protective gear, or medical care that he and his comrades have.

In this environment of blatant privilege for the wealthy and the politically connected elite, Trump has proven that he just doesn’t care about the hardships of others. So he sent Peter Navarro, his advisor on trade and manufacturing, out to mingle with the Trump-fluffers at Fox News. Navarro’s visit with the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends (video below) was jam-packed with the sort of happy-talk propaganda that totalitarian regimes are so fond of.

Navarro lead off with a callous characterization of the hard times that most Americans are struggling to cope with. He referred to the criticism of Trump’s dreadful mishandling of the deadly coronavirus pandemic with this tone-deaf phrasing: “That was a pity party yesterday on the Sunday shows.” Of course. Because what’s a more self-indulgent demonstration of whiners feeling sorry for themselves than a population ravaged by a fatal and infectious virus? Particularly one that has resulted in the deaths of more than 80,000 people, many of which were preventable had there been competent leadership. Navarro elaborated saying that…

“This is not the Great Depression. Anybody that thinks this is the Great Depression doesn’t understand either history or economics. […] Here’s what we have here. We have President Donald J. Trump who built up the strongest and most beautiful economy in three and half years. And then the Chinese communist party dropped a virus on the world that, within sixty days, has temporarily shut us down. And all we need to do here is focus on the mission, the original mission of Donald J. Trump […]

Now it’s gonna be a long process because of the structural adjustments that are gonna take place as we adapt to the virus socially, culturally, and economically. But this Great Depression pity party stuff I saw yesterday, this aint that..”

For an economic advisor, Navarro sure sounds a lot like a PR shill. He begins by failing to grasp that the economic decline, the collapse of markets in equities and bonds, and the 20+ million Americans who are now unemployed, actually fit the definition of a depression with painful precision. And he dresses up his fan fiction in tributes to Dear Leader Trump, who he believes has that divine gift of being able to do no wrong. Naturally, he adopts his master’s habit of shoveling any and all blame unto others, in this case China. And while China shares it’s measure of blame, it was Trump who praised President Xi saying that “I think he’s handled it really well,” and that his management of the budding pandemic was “strong, sharp and powerfully focused.” Trump effusively complimented Xi well into February.

Now, suddenly, it’s all China’s fault, Trump’s lazy and lethal disregard is being ignored, and the White House rhetoric is simultaneously insisting that our tribulations are both temporary and “a long process.” The confusion emanating from the Trump administration is indicative of their utter lack of any idea of what to do. They are paralyzed by ignorance and their desperation to avoid any political fallout, especially with regard to the presidential election in November, which currently has Joe Biden beating Trump nationally, as well as in many of the crucial swing states.

Nevertheless, Navarro thought it would be a good idea to go on Fox News and demean Trump’s critics – which includes the majority of American voters – as a pity party. It’s a pity that these cretins don’t have more sympathy for the sick and the scared and the families of the deceased. But then heartless narcissism has been the Trump brand from the very beginning of his occupation of the white House. And there’s no reason to expect that to change.

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

Trump Flagrantly Lies About ‘Great Marks’ for His Catastrophic Coronavirus Failures

Posted by on May 10, 2020 at 2:31 pm. 3 Comments :

It gets harder every day to tell whether Donald Trump is simply the pathological liar he has been his whole life, or if he is suffering from acute delusional dementia. His relentless flow of bizarre commentaries on television and on Twitter are teetering ever more over the edge of sanity.

Donald Trump, coronavirus

On Sunday morning Trump unleashed his regularly scheduled tweetstorm of wild rants and bitter harangues. It consisted of 102 total tweets, including 83 retweets from notorious Trump-fluffers and Fox News bootlickers. The vast majority of these tweets (76) were focused on utterly fictional historical rewrites of Trump’s unsavory associations with Russia and his disgraced former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn. These are Trump’s vain and transparent attempts to deflect from the devastating consequences of his negligence and incompetence that has taken the lives of nearly 80,000 Americans to date.

UPDATE: Trump eventually posted a total of 124 tweets for the day, marking a new record topping his (123 tweets on December 12, 2019. Many of his late-night tweets were bitter and dishonest attacks on President Obama. Trump just can’t contain his rancid jealousy.

It’s notable that in this avalanche of Twitter detritus there were only three tweets that referenced the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. And none of those expressed condolences for the sick or deceased. That’s three out of 102. Predictably, the only thing that Trump showed he had concern for was himself and his public image:

You have to wonder from whom Trump is getting those allegedly “great marks.” Could it be John Barron, his alter ego/PR agent? Or maybe Sean Hannity, who is himself a major source of infection and death? It certainly isn’t from any reputable source in the media or the public health community.

As he does ad nauseam, Trump praised his “BAN of people from China” which wasn’t actually a ban since some 40,000 people came in after it went into effect. It is also false that China was “the infectious source, entering the USA.” Epidemiologists have concluded that the coronavirus came to the U.S. via Europe. In either case, it spread unchecked for two months while Trump did nothing but insist that it was “totally under control” and would just disappear miraculously. In the meantime he bragged about his “ratings” and his polling.

As for Trump’s ludicrous comparison to how President Obama and Vice-President Biden handled H1N1 (Swine Flu), he is leaving out the fact that Obama declared a health emergency very soon after the virus was discovered in the U.S. There were a total of 12,469 deaths over the course of a year. Trump has bested that by being directly responsible for 80,000 deaths in only three months. And still, at the top of his mind is how Obama/Biden fared in the polls. His perpetually petty shallowness is stupefying. Here’s a more relevant comparison between Trump and Trump:

Finally, while most of Trump’s tweets this Sunday were self-serving, irrelevant to what America cares about today, and flagrantly dishonest, there was one that is troubling, but which might get overlooked. Trump tweeted simply that it’s “So great to see our Country starting to open up again!”

That’s right. While the nation and the world is living through a deadly pandemic, Trump took the time to use his official Twitter account to promote his own golf resort. That is not only insensitive, egocentric, and greedy, it is likely illegal. It is unquestionably unethical. Not that Trump has any qualms about that. Although this violation of law and ethics pales in comparison to Trump’s callousness with regard to the death toll that is ravaging America, it is emblematic of his tunnel-blind, narcissistic, sociopathic world-view. That is what’s getting so many people sick and worse. And he just doesn’t care.

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