WHUT? Supreme Court Filing Reveals that the Trump Impeachment is Ongoing

Posted by on May 18, 2020 at 3:23 pm. 4 Comments :

Donald Trump’s behavior is typically flush with the frenzy of a man consumed by desperation and fear. He is perpetually hostile and driven by an all-consuming obsession with attacking and insulting his perceived enemies. And by his own paranoid admission, he sees enemies all around him all the time.

Donald Trump, Impeach

This state of manic psychosis would be challenging and troubling for anyone. But when the U.S. president is suffering from such a mental infirmity it puts the welfare of millions at risk.

To be sure, Trump does have valid reasons to be overcome by crippling anxiety. First and foremost, Trump has the weight of nearly 90,000 American deaths on his shoulders, due primarily to his negligence and incompetence. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He is also under investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies for criminal malfeasance in both his personal and political activities. Most recent polling shows him to be losing in his reelection bid to Joe Biden, both nationally and in many swing states. He has got to be cracking up over polls that show the American people trust CNN more than Trump. His cabinet is full of corruption, such as his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who is under scrutiny for pushing out an inspector general who was investigating an illegal Saudi arms deal. And imminent Supreme Court rulings are expected that could force him to turn over the tax returns that he has long fought to keep secret.

Now there is a new sword dangling above Trump’s head. A court filing by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee has opened up a chapter in the Trump soap opera that many may have assumed was closed. Last December Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Those convictions were then sent to the Senate where the Republicans in charge refused to hold him accountable. Trump tweeted that the Senate’s inaction represented a “full vindication and exoneration,” which it surely did not. He was – and is still – impeached for life. But in Trump World the case was closed, but for the relentless whining that is still ongoing. But now CNN is reporting that…

“The Democratic-led House of Representatives on Monday told the Supreme Court that the House needs secret Mueller grand jury materials to determine if there is new evidence of impeachable offenses involving President Donald Trump.”

“‘The Committee’s impeachment investigation related to obstruction of justice pertaining to the Russia investigation is ongoing,’ Douglas Letter, the House general counsel, said in a court filing Monday. ‘If this material reveals new evidence supporting the conclusion that President Trump committed impeachable offenses,’ Letter said, ‘the Committee will proceed accordingly — including, if necessary, by considering whether to recommend new articles of impeachment.'”

So among all of the reasons Trump has for hysterically venting his anger and frothing trepidation of a life beset by legal peril, he still has to worry about being impeached – again. But whether or not that comes to pass, the release of the potentially incriminating grand jury materials sought by Congress could be the nail in his reelection hopes. This is just the sort of news that triggers Trump’s deranged Twitter tantrums. So expect even more unhinged raving as we go forward.

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

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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.


Joe Biden Brilliantly Nails Trump’s Descent Into Corruption and Tyranny

Posted by on May 16, 2020 at 11:24 am. 14 Comments :

From day one of his accidental presidency, Donald Trump has exhibited clear signs of his aspirations to emulate the brutal dictators that he so admires (Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin). His reverence for the trappings of totalitarianism has been thinly disguised as he openly exchanged love letters with his autocratic heroes and behaved in a manner that mimicked their oppressive methods of governing.

Donald Trump, Joe Biden

On Friday evening Trump committed yet another act of obvious abuse of power. Hoping to avoid media scrutiny, he quietly sent a letter to Congress indicating his intention to fire Steve Linick, the State Department’s Inspector General. Linick just happened to been investigating misconduct by Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.

The Inspector General’s position is supposed to be an independent watchdog post to protect the integrity of government agencies. That’s why Trump could not fire Linick outright, but had to give Congress a 30 day notice. Unfortunately, due to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s blind obedience to Trump, it is still likely that nothing will be done about this, at least from McConnell’s perch.

This negligence on the part of Republicans in Congress is all the worse considering that this isn’t the first time that Trump has fired an IG who was investigating his administration. Nor is it the second time. Or the the third. Linick’s dismissal follows that of Inspectors General Christi Grimm (Health and Human Services), Glenn Fine (Defense Department), and Michael Atkinson (Intelligence Community). Each of these people were non-partisan career professionals who served administrations of both parties. Each of them were probing misconduct in the Trump administration. And all of this took place within a six week period.

Trump has been executing a slow-motion version of a Saturday Night Massacre, wherein he’s terminating honorable public servants who were doing their jobs on behalf of the American people. His brazen lawlessness seems to be growing unchecked ever since the Senate failed in their duty to remove him from office after his impeachment.

Trump is becoming ever more desperate in recent days as the coronavirus death toll for Americans approaches 90,000. Which is another even more tragic consequence of the GOP’s acquiescence to Dear Leader. Lately Trump has been fixated on a thoroughly imaginary “scandal” that he has been calling “ObamaGate.” There is no rational explanation for what he’s alleging, and given the opportunity, even he couldn’t define it. But he has been tweeting up a storm with links to rabid Obama haters making bizarre and unsupported accusations.

On Saturday morning Trump embarked on a raging Twitter-palooza that included one tweet saying that “Scandal has defined the Obama Administration.” Which is peculiar considering there is not even a hint of any untoward activity by President Obama over the eight years of his presidency. However, there is nothing but scandal and corruption engulfing Trump and his confederacy of criminals, many of whom have already been indicted and convicted.

So Trump’s current obsessive acting out against IGs is just his way of trying to put a lid on the discovery of his raging malfeasance in office. He is writhing in fear of losing in November and being held accountable for his presidential crime spree. He knows that his approval ratings are plummeting and most polls show Joe Biden beating him nationally, as well as in many of the crucial swing states. So it is especially sweet to see Biden excoriating Trump in a succinct yet effective tweet of his own:

Indeed. While there are many former Trump staffers who have left his employ under a cloud, the only person Trump ever fired for wrongdoing was his disgraced National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, who got the ax for lying to both the administration and the FBI. But now Trump is praising Flynn after having had his Attorney General, Bill Barr, drop all charges against him. Never mind that Flynn had confessed and pleaded guilty twice.

Trump keeps demonstrating that he will cozy up to those who swear their unflinching allegiance to his White House mob family. Loyalty to him always takes precedence over loyalty to the United States or its Constitution. And he will continue to poison the waters of justice in order to avoid being held accountable for his innumerable crimes. You have to wonder if there is any breach of law or ethics that will provoke Republicans to act with integrity and dignity and patriotism. but don’t hold your breath.

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.


Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo is Angling for Trump-Fluffer of the Year Award

Posted by on May 14, 2020 at 11:59 am. 9 Comments :

Donald Trump’s fear of being interviewed by anyone but Fox News is still driving his media schedule. On Thursday he got another tongue bath by Fox’s Maria Bartiromo, who has become one of the network’s most glassy-eyed disciples of the Trump Cult. Her questions were such sycophantic pablum that they would have embarrassed a North Korean State TV shill.

Fox News, Donald Trump, Maria Bartiromo

The entire interview was nothing but pure propaganda, as Bartiromo failed to challenge Trump on any issue, and her follow-ups mostly consisted of obediently nodding her head in agreement. But perhaps the most preposterous and troubling exchange occurred as she was wrapping up the interview and slipped into her best impersonation of a butt-kissing supplicant (video below):

Bartiromo: This is toward the end of your first term as president and this entire term has been dominated by resistance. You’ve gotten so much done: Tax legislation, international things, so much done. And yet the FBI take-down effort, pushback on all of your Supreme Judges, a complete drama around Brett Kavanaugh, the Democrats in Congress attacking your call with the Ukraine leader, then an impeachment trial.
Trump: Over nothing. Over absolutely nothing.
Bartiromo: And you keep…I’ve never seen anybody that can take a punch and get right back up and keep punching. Where does this resilience come from that you keep getting things done in the face of all of this?

Bartiromo makes groupies look respectable. She led off with a stream of unbridled praise for Trump’s alleged achievements, but could only list one, his tax cuts for the rich. Then she rattled off what she regarded as Trump’s obstacles, beginning with the inane conspiracy theory that Trump is calling “Obamagate.” Trump told Bartiromo that it was “the biggest political scandal of all time.” And Bartiromo giddily agreed. But when she asked Trump to explain what it is, he wandered off into an incoherent and unrelated rant about Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, never returning to actually answer the question. And Bartiromo failed to press him on it.

Following that, Bartiromo complained on Trump’s behalf about “pushback” he received on his Supreme Court nominations, as if that never happened to any other president. She didn’t bother to mention how Mitch McConnell single-handedly denied President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, even the courtesy of a hearing. That was followed by Bartiromo’s insipid references to Trump’s impeachment, characterizing it as an annoyance and not the historic event that only two other presidents have been subject to.

Finally, Bartiromo mustered up all her courage, batted her eyes, and confessed her adoration for Dear Leader’s divine strength and endurance in the face of an onslaught of evil. In her eyes he is just so powerful and dreamy. She could hardly get all of her tributes out due to the drool flowing from her quivering, orange-stained lips.

And that was just from the last couple of minutes of the interview. The rest of this fawning romance video was equally as crammed with adulation and hero-worship. On Trump’s part, he predictably peppered the hour with his trademark bullying, boasting, and bullshit. For instance…

  • Trump lied about coronavirus fatality estimates, saying that 100,000 (which is up from his previous estimate of 60,000) should be regarded as a victory because it wasn’t 2,000,000.
  • Trump threatened to prosecute and jail President Obama and Joe Biden for crimes that he couldn’t name.
  • Trump tried to rewrite history by claiming that Putin wanted Hillary to win in 2016, even though Putin himself – and all of the U.S. intelligence community – said that Putin wanted Trump to win and helped him to do so.
  • Trump Lied about having built “new” wall along the southern border, which Bartiromo agreed with, despite the fact that not a single mile of new wall has been built.
  • Trump repeated his oft told lie that the U.S. was “taking in billions of dollars” in tariffs from China.

Trump closed by making a bizarre and callously insensitive comment about what he considered to be the positive side of a deadly pandemic. “The one thing about the Plague,” Trump bragged, “is that it said Trump was right.” WTHF is wrong with this so-called man? He is utterly devoid of any human-like attributes of sympathy. He is like the creature from Alien that is wholly focused on his own survival and will destroy anything that gets in his way. Except the movie is far more entertaining than watching Trump on Fox News. If you have the stomach for it, here’s the full tongue bathing …er… interview on Fox.

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

https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1260933694790922242


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.

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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.


In Deranged Tweets Trump Says that All California Votes ‘Must Not Count’

Posted by on May 9, 2020 at 11:17 am. 11 Comments :

The evidence of Donald Trump’s mental infirmity continues to pile up. On a daily basis he openly exhibits an unbridled rage at those he fears. He proclaims that he has the “total authority” of the tyrants he admires. With paranoid fervor he regards every critic as a “hater” who is out to get him. He ignores the suffering and death caused by COVID-19 (coronavirus) while focusing furiously on his abysmal polling. And he refuses to accept responsibility for any of his actions, while vainly shifting blame to others.

Donald Trump, Constitution

The psychoses of Trump could fill a textbook on sociopaths and narcissists. The latest example of the severity of his psychological degradation was displayed in another Twitter outburst on Saturday morning. This one was boiling over with fear and desperation as he lashed out incoherently at Americans who happen to live in California.

Seriously, what on Earth is he ranting about? Californians have had access to mail-in voting for years. The only new twist is that Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed an executive order sending ballots to all registered voters in the state. They are not obligated to use them, but they have the choice. And that freedom, that makes voting easier for everyone, is what Trump believes is a “SCAM!” Consequently, in his diseased mind, all the votes of American citizens in California “must not count.” What sort of madness produces this disgustingly undemocratic – and un-American – idiocy?

Trump’s tweet also makes the bizarre assertion that a voting booth was just opened “in the most Democrat area in the State.” Does anyone know what he’s even talking about anymore? There are voting booths in every district. Does he think that predominantly Democratic districts shouldn’t have them? Is the prospect of Democrats voting the basis for his complaint that “It’s all rigged out there”?

UPDATE: In another tweet, Trump elaborated on his curious remarks about new voting booths. Apparently he thinks that voting in California is “supposed to be mail in ballots only.” He is wrong, of course. And he’s demonstrating how pitiful he is at comprehending what’s going on around him.

Trump continued to address the matter of mail-in voting in his very next tweet, which promoted a Republican candidate. Except in that tweet Trump completely reversed himself himself noting that in this special election there is mail-in voting and offering this reminder to his cult followers: “Mail in ballots, & check that they are counted!” Really? So for Republicans mail-in voting isn’t a scam and those votes should be counted? And a couple of tweets later Trump declares that the whole “CA25 is a Rigged Election.”

The question of mail-in voting is a touchy subject for Trump and all Republicans. They have always had a mortal fear of expanding the electorate. Trump recently said the quiet part out loud with a rant about mail-in voting wherein he whined that “They had levels of voting, that if you ever agreed to it you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” Trump is afraid because he knows that the more people who vote, the less likely it is that he will be reelected. Republicans at large have the same fear.

This fear is what is driving Trump’s assault on the U.S. Postal Service. His hostility to this agency, that is explicitly authorized by the Constitution, is rooted in his jealousy of and contempt for Jeff Bezos, a real billionaire and the owner of Amazon and the Washington Post. In a rancid screed last month Trump called the Postal Service “a joke,” and threatened to withhold funding if they didn’t quadruple their rates. That, of course, would put an enormous burden on every business, as well as every American wanting to wish their grandmas a happy birthday.

Trump’s nauseating attack on democracy must not be ignored or normalized. He needs to be called out for this obvious grasping of totalitarian rule. This week Trump appointed a new postmaster general who just happens to be a major Trump ally and donor. That confirms that he is serious about sabotaging the Post Office for his own nefarious political advantage. And we, the people, must not allow him to get away with it.

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