Muslim Father Of A Fallen Hero Shames Donald Trump: You Have Sacrificed Nothing

Posted by on July 29, 2016 at 9:09 am. 2 Comments :

The final night of the Democratic National Convention had many memorable moments including speeches and performances by notables like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Katy Perry. And of course, the headliners for the evening, Chelsea Clinton introducing her mother Hillary Clinton.

However, what may be remembered as the most moving address of the week was the touching story of a grieving father whose misfortune hasn’t dampened his patriotism.

Khizr Khan

Khizr Khan is the father of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan who was killed serving his country in Iraq. Mr. Khan addressed the delegates after a video wherein Clinton paid tribute to the fallen soldier. His comments were brief and to the point, beginning with his description of his family as “patriotic American Muslims with undivided loyalty to our country.” He was clearly moved by Clinton’s tribute to his son. And he was equally repulsed by Donald Trump’s campaign of bigotry and intolerance:

“Hillary Clinton was right when she called my son the best of America. If it was up to Donald Trump he never would have been in America. Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. He disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party leadership. He wants to build walls and ban us from this country.

“Donald Trump, you’re asking Americans to trust you with their future. Let me ask you, have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document look for the words “liberty” and “equal protection of law.”

These poignant remarks perfectly illustrate what’s so hurtful and un-American about Trump’s efforts to demonize Muslims and other immigrant families. Trump regards the differences in people as threats to be quashed. He has no ability to recognize the shared values of diverse people who love freedom. That’s why he views refugees as disguised terrorists rather than victims who despise terrorism more than anyone. And it’s why Mr. Khan went on to beseech Trump to educate himself on the subject of true sacrifice:

“Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America. You’ll see all faiths, genders, and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one. We cannot solve our problems by building walls, sowing division. We are stronger together.”

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Trump to accept this challenge. He’s too busy pretending to care about veterans while ripping them off. And the last thing he wants is to abandon his campaign strategy of spreading fear and hatred. Because that’s literally all he has. And you know Khan’s remarks were powerful and effective because Fox News declined to air them, instead running an anti-Clinton commercial about Benghazi.

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

UPDATE: Trump responded to Mr. Khan’s remarks by insulting him and his wife. He accused Clinton of having written his statement. He falsely implied that Mrs. Khan was not allowed to speak. And in an appalling display of insensitivity and conceit, he claimed to have made sacrifices on par with that of the fallen soldier. He cited as an example that he has hired a lot of people. Oh my, what a sacrifice. That must have been so terribly difficult for him.

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8 Reasons Donald Trump Is A HUGE Hypocrite For Calling Obama ‘Ignorant’

Posted by on July 28, 2016 at 1:03 pm. NO Comments :

On the same day that President Obama delivered one of the most powerful and well received convention speeches since a younger Obama spoke at a convention in 2004, Donald Trump made a desperate attempt to steal the news cycle from the Democrats’ festivities in Philadelphia. And it wasn’t just his dangerous solicitation of hostile foreign nations to commit cyber-crimes against America.

Donald Trump

In the same press conference where Trump invited Russia to illegally interfere in U.S. politics by hacking his political opponent, he had the audacity to malign Obama as “the most ignorant president in our history.” Never mind that Obama graduated from Columbia University before getting his law degree from Harvard (magna cum laude), where he was editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, went on to teach constitutional law, got elected to the Senate, and became the President of the friggin’ United States.

What really makes Trump’s typically childish insult so absurd is that he himself has repeatedly demonstrated an affinity for idiocy that is unmatched in modern times. This may explain why he said in February that he “loves the poorly educated.” And while it’s tempting to smugly imply that they would be the only ones who would buy into his vacuous campaign, that would be unfair. After all, “poorly educated” doesn’t mean stupid.

What follows are just a few examples of the embarrassingly daft comments that have discharged from The Donald’s prodigious dispensary of dimwitticisms(™) in just the past few weeks on the campaign trail.

  1. Trump was asked in a debate about his priorities with regard to America’s “Nuclear Triad” And his answer revealed that he had no idea what it is.
  2. Prior to Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, Trump couldn’t answer a question about Brexit until the interviewer gave him an explanation.
  3. When asked whether he would defend Article One of the Constitution, Trump responded that he’d defend all the articles up to the twelfth. But there are only seven articles in the Constitution.
  4. Attempting to criticize Democratic VP candidate Tim Kaine, Trump said that he “did a terrible job in New Jersey.” The only problem is that Kaine is the former governor, and current senator, from Virginia.
  5. Trump was so upset that the man who shot Ronald Reagan was being released from the custody of a mental institution that he complained that “David Hinckley should not have been freed.” Hinckley’s first name is “John.”
  6. After being pummeled for not repudiating white supremacist David Duke, Trump asserted that he “didn’t know anything” about him. Which was not only an admission of ignorance, it was a lie.
  7. Pretending to be a devout Christian, Trump bungled the quotation he sought to recite from the bible in a way that brought laughter from a Christian university audience.
  8. Trump earned one of his many “Pants-On-Fire” lie designations from PolitiFact when he claimed that the Trans-Pacific Partnership “was designed for China” to “totally take advantage of everyone.” Except that China is not a part of the TPP.

To be sure, there are many other incidences of Trump’s flagrant ignorance, but these few paint a sorrowful picture of a willful aversion to the sort of knowledge and incentive to learn that is required of a national leader (or a CPA, or a pet groomer, or any citizen).

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

And yet Trump regards himself as the foremost authority on – well, everything. When MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski asked him who he consults with he responded “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.” That’s when he isn’t consulting his other primary source of information that he identified when he said “All I know is what’s on the internet.” And if that doesn’t send shivers down the spine of America’s voters, they better see a neurologist stat.


Is This Treason? What Donald Trump Just Said Undermines American Democracy

Posted by on July 27, 2016 at 4:43 pm. 3 Comments :

It may be an Olympic-grade understatement to say that Donald Trump has done some god-awful things in his quest for the presidency. From mocking the disabled to ripping off veterans to insane proposals with regard to Muslims and immigrants. But he may just have outdone himself.

In a press conference this morning, Trump was asked about reports that Russia was responsible for the hacking of DNC emails. He has previously dismissed the charges as Democratic efforts to distract from the content of the stolen emails, despite the fact that it is the FBI and other intelligence agencies who identified Russia as the likely culprit.

Trump Putin

His response to today’s inquiries, however, introduced a new and deeply disturbing tactic on Trump’s part. He offered, without prompting, his interest in further exploiting the email theft to his advantage. In a direct response to a question on whether he would condemn the hacking he said “No, it gives me no pause,” and that:

“If Russia or China or any other country has those emails I mean to be honest with you, I’d love to see em.”

Let that sink in for a minute. Donald Trump, the nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States, is affirmatively endorsing the notion of revealing private information that was stolen from Americans by a foreign and hostile government. That is an untenable and unpatriotic position that undermines the country’s interests as well as the principles of personal privacy and information security. But it gets even worse. Trump went on to say:

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”

In that statement Trump is literally soliciting Russia to commit cyber-crimes and espionage against fellow Americans. How is that not treasonous? He continued with a thinly disguised reference to Russia being “rewarded mightily” for their hacking. Is that an offer to compensate Russian hackers and spies for their efforts? Or is Trump simply implying that Russia would benefit from a Trump presidency and that he would make it worth their while were they to sabotage the campaign of Hillary Clinton? Either way he is taking up sides with an international foe against his own country. Now what is it that we call that?

In the press conference Trump flatly denied having any connection to Russian politics or business. That’s a lie. Has he already forgotten his Miss Universe Pageant he held in Moscow just three years ago? But his Russian ties go much deeper than that. As reported by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo:

“At a minimum, Trump appears to have a deep financial dependence on Russian money from persons close to Putin. And this is matched to a conspicuous solicitousness to Russian foreign policy interests where they come into conflict with US policies which go back decades through administrations of both parties.”

Marshall’s article goes into extensive detail of Trump’s connections to Russian oligarchs and politicians. He makes the case that Trump’s chumminess with Putin is not coincidental. Marshall’s documentation is thorough and somewhat frightening. And if anyone wonders why Putin would favor Trump, look no further than Trump’s recent denigration of NATO and his reluctance to honor the agreement. That would be a huge advantage for Putin whose expansionism would be made much easier if he didn’t have to worry about the U.S. defending its NATO allies.

Another Trump lie in the press conference was his assertion that “I never met Putin, I don’t know who he is. He said one nice thing about me.” It is true, of course, that Trump never met Putin (although he once claimed to know him very well because they both appeared on “60 Minutes” in separate interviews, thousands of miles apart). But what are we to make of his claim that he doesn’t know who Putin is? Folks, we are treading dangerously close to mental incapacity here.

Trump’s VP, Mike Pence, issued a statement that appeared to distance himself from Trump’s perfidy:

“If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.”

Pence might want to confirm that with his boss who is promising that the perpetrators would be rewarded mightily. And contrary to his suggestion that both parties will ensure that there are consequences, the Republican Party has yet to make any public statement repudiating Trump’s remarks or even the more general issue of the hacking of the DNC. Contrast that with the statements from the Democratic side including:

Hillary for America Senior Policy Advisor, Jake Sullivan: This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent. […] This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta: “I find those kinds of statements to be totally outrageous because you’ve got now a presidential candidate who is in fact asking the Russians to engage in American politics. I just think that’s beyond the pale. […] I think that kind of statement only reflects the fact that he truly is not qualified to be president of the United States.”

It is incomprehensible that a candidate for the nation’s highest office is articulating activities that amount to aiding and abetting foreign enemies. Trump’s comments should be investigated by the FBI and his connections to Russian economic and political players should be thoroughly examined. As for Trump’s supporters, they need to reassess their allegiance to him, because if he can’t be trusted to act in the best interests of the nation, he surely should not get the vote of any patriotic American.

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


What Samantha Bee Said About Fox News Is Hilarious And True And Definitely NSFW

Posted by on July 26, 2016 at 3:21 pm. 1 Comments :

In the middle of perhaps the most bizarre presidential campaign ever, the primary communications vehicle for the Republican Party, Fox News, suffered a massive blow to its propaganda infrastructure. Last week Fox’s chairman and CEO, Roger Ailes, was unceremoniously cast unto the garbage heap of perverted executives after numerous allegations of sexual harassment emerged.

Samantha Bee

The hostile work environment for women at Fox is reflective of their editorial bias against women, socially and politically, and the issues that impact them most. Reproductive rights, family leave, and gender discrimination, are all areas in which Fox has taken stances in opposition to the best interests of women. So while Ailes (and certainly others at Fox) is an abusive slimeball, we must not forget that Fox is still a thoroughly dishonest purveyor of right-wing disinformation.

Samantha Bee hit on both of those themes in last night’s “Full Frontal” in a segment that took apart the network and its commitment to unabashed misogyny and conservative mythologizing. Her monologue was a tightly knit excoriation of the network’s mission to objectify women while spreading lies and exalting Republican politicians and pundits. For instance:

“Fox News is the only 24 hour news network to feature a strategically placed leg cam to showcase the most qualified body parts of its female contributors. Plus the daily women’s show trading on the titillating tension between owning a harem and fear of emasculation. So yeah, turns out the guy who runs that network is kind of a creep. Who would have guessed?”

That bit about the “leg cam” was not a comic device. Reports from insiders have revealed the existence of an actual camera for that specific purpose. News Corpse reported this two years ago along with an analysis of the nexus of porn and politics that is integral to the culture at Fox News. It’s a network that serves its viewers as their orgasm channel in more ways than one. Bee went on to say that:

“Roger Ailes made Fox News an unstoppable powerhouse by discovering the secret to big ratings. What viewers really want is to be furiously angry while also having a boner. The anger part of the arousal was achieved through Roger’s uncanny ability to take a thing that may or may not exist, put an ominous spin on it, and then force feed it to us all day like a foie gras goose until we were terrified. Fox News was his masterpiece. A right-wing nightmare factory powered by white resentment and relentless misinformation, churning out propaganda 24/7 and making family Thanksgivings unbearable for 20 years.”

That’s as accurate an appraisal of Fox News as any ever published by an academic journal or media analyst. It captures Fox’s reliance on titillating the passions of their wingnut viewers, and lord knows their viewers want their wingnuts titillated. As an extra added benefit, she’s funny as hell.

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


Fox ‘News’ Reports That ‘Obama Endorses Trump’ But Leaves Out Some REALLY Important Details

Posted by on July 24, 2016 at 5:05 pm. NO Comments :

The week-long Republican National Convention is over and what most people will remember from it is that Melania Trump is plagiarist and that Donald Trump thinks the America is in the grip of a dystopian nightmare. There is little evidence that the typical polling bump that these events generally produce will occur. That is in large part due to the fact that depressing harangues intended to frighten voters are more likely to alienate than inspire. That’s why Ronald Reagan’s campaign slogan was “Morning in America” and not “Mourning in America.”

Consequently, Fox News has had to scramble to manufacture anti-Democratic plot lines in advance of the Democrat’s convention this coming week. So far they have latched onto the story about the hacked DNC emails implicating the party in efforts to undermine the Bernie Sanders campaign. It’s rather humorous to see Fox, and their roster of right-wingers, feigning concern for the unfairness shown to Bernie – as if they care.

In the absence of any other news with which to malign the Democrats, Fox News began running a story that they got from their sister publication, the New York Post. It is a trivial bit of tabloid gossip that Fox is elevating to scandal status via brazenly misleading promos. The phony Fox headline is “Obama Endorses Trump.”

Obama Endorses Trump

Any of the poor saps who were watching this story unfold on Fox & Friends discovered after the commercial break that the Obama referenced in the promo was not President Barack Obama, but his brother, Malik. Why this would be of interest to anyone is a mystery. The Obama brothers have not been close for many years and Malik has made a career out of exploiting his family ties and denigrating the President. Nevertheless, Fox found this to be a significant development and ran the story several times throughout the day.

What Fox failed to mention were the reasons that Malik gave for favoring Trump. The article in the Post says that Malik was “annoyed that Clinton and President Obama killed Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, whom he called one of his best friends,” and that “what bothers him even more is the Democratic Party’s support of same-sex marriage.” The Post quoted Malik as saying that “I feel like a Republican now because they don’t stand for same-sex marriage, and that appeals to me,”

Malik Obama is such a strong advocate of “traditional” marriage that he has entered into it at least three times (and as many as twelve, by some reports). And unlike Trump, whose three marriages were consecutive, Malik’s are concurrent (i.e. he’s still married to all of them).

The Post also reported another part of Malik’s past wherein he created a dubious charity that ran afoul of the law, noting that it was “an off-the-books operation that hadn’t registered with the state of Virginia or, as it claimed, had tax-exempt status from the IRS.”

No wonder Malik Obama is a big fan of Donald Trump (And Trump is a fan of Malik too). They both collect wives for a hobby (and on top of that Trump is a serial adulterer who wants to bang his daughter). They both oppose marriage equality (although Trump has been known to swing both ways – on the issue, that is). They both admire brutal dictators (Trump has been known to praise Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-Un, and others). And they both make up charities that end up being exposed as self-serving scams.

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

The “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox & Friends never mentioned any of those things as they struggled to find relevance in this pathetic story. The only takeaway from this that has any import is that Malik Obama and Donald Trump were cast from the same loathsome mold. Other than that, this ludicrous story has no bearing on President Obama, Hillary Clinton, or the election. It is more a reflection on Trump and Fox News than anything else.


Donald Trump’s Latest Tweets Prove He’s A Whiny Brat Who Will Never Be ‘Presidential’

Posted by on July 23, 2016 at 5:28 pm. 6 Comments :

Throughout the Republican primaries Donald Trump has behaved like a colicky infant throwing tantrums and lashing out at opponents with insults that would make an eight year old wince with shame. He is easily the most profane, classless, cretin who ever ran for president. His remedial English, hollow policy pronouncements, and incessant boasting, are cartoonish in nature. Even Fox News mogul, Rupert Murdoch, agreed when he tweeted “When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?”

Donald Trump

Trump has spoken about “pivoting” to “acting” more presidential several times in response to reporter inquiries. Setting aside the absurdity that such questions need to be asked, he generally took the position that he would get around to it eventually and that it would be easy. That position is an admission that he is not currently acting presidential and that when he does so it would just be an act. rather than a genuine component of one’s character.

Now that he is the official nominee of the Republican Party, it might seem like a good time to make the pivot. Unfortunately, Trump doesn’t think so. He posted a could of tweets today that are typical of his childishness and evidence that he doesn’t have the temperament to be hall monitor, much less president. First he took a wild swing at Sen. Elizabeth Warren using one of his juvenile and offensive taunts to describe her:

There isn’t a single word in that tweet that is true. All of Warren’s public statements prior to Kaine’s selection indicate that she never considered herself to be a VP candidate. Following the Kaine announcement she responded directly to Trump with her own tweet saying that “I’m right where I want to be, @realDonaldTrump: Calling you out & holding you responsible for your reckless vision for America.” She has a close relationship Hillary Clinton who campaigned with her just last week. Trump assumes that everybody else harbors the same measure of hatred that he does. But no one has less insight into why Clinton chose Kaine than Donald Trump.

A few hours later, Trump posts another petulant tweet aimed at the new Clinton/Kaine ticket:

First of all, Trump is ignoring the fact that ISIS has virtually endorsed his candidacy. And just as Clinton predicted, they are using him in their recruiting videos. But it’s his third grade level heckling that continues to prove that he is utterly incapable of even a hint of presidential bearing. The reason Clinton and Kaine don’t look presidential to him is that he doesn’t know the meaning of the word (literally).

Trump has called his own GOP colleagues “losers, weaklings, liars, and pussies.” Even if he were to start behaving like a princess at high tea, it would just be another facade that he could abandon when he no longer needs to pretend. And if you aren’t convinced that this behavior is cause for concern, Just imagine how Trump would deal with Congress, citizen groups, and foreign heads of state. It would not be merely embarrassing, it would be dangerous.

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

Watch Donald Trump being “presidential”

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WATCH: Racist Icon David Duke Announces Senate Run With Praise For Donald Trump

Posted by on July 22, 2016 at 4:58 pm. 2 Comments :

Now that Donald Trump has officially become the nominee of the Republican Party for president, the election season can shift some focus to down ballot races for governors and Congress. One such race is the senate seat being vacated by prostitute patron David Vitter in Louisiana. Among the throng of hopefuls for the seat we can now add former Klan leader David Duke.

David Duke

What makes Duke’s candidacy notable is the inspiration he cites for throwing his white, pointy hat in the ring. In a video launching his campaign (below), Duke says “I’m overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I’ve championed for years. My slogan remains ‘America First.’” His argument for electing him is that he would be the one person in Congress looking out for white, Christian Europeans. Well, except for the other 80% of the members of Congress.

The Louisiana Republican party said that Duke is “a hate-filled fraud who does not embody the values of the GOP.” However, there is no disputing that Duke is running on Trump’s coattails with a nearly identical platform. He has endorsed Trump for president and was impressed with his acceptance speech tweeting “Great Trump Speech, America First! Stop Wars! Defeat the Corrupt elites! Protect our Borders!, Fair Trade! Couldn’t have said it better!” That’s high praise. Trump must be proud that he is so perfectly articulating the hopes and dreams of one America’s leading white supremacists.

In addition to being inspired by Trump, Duke takes some credit for inspiring Trump’s ascendancy in the Republican Party. Earlier this month when he first floated his interest in running for office, Duke bragged that “I’ve said everything that Donald Trump is saying and more. I think Trump is riding a wave of anti-establishment feeling that I’ve been nurturing for 25 years.”

He may have a point. Trump is rather new to the bigots banquet, at least so far as assuming a public role in the movement is concerned. But he has risen rapidly and succeeded in corralling a broad measure of support from the racist rank and file. Last year Politico reported that:

“The Ku Klux Klan is using Donald Trump as a talking point in its outreach efforts. Stormfront, the most prominent American white supremacist website, is upgrading its servers in part to cope with a Trump traffic spike. And former Louisiana Rep. David Duke reports that the businessman has given more Americans cover to speak out loud about white nationalism than at any time since his own political campaigns in the 1990s.”

Indeed, Trump is making it easier for avowed racists to come out of the closet and profess their bigotry with pride. Let’s call it “The Trump Effect.” It begins with his willingness to retweet racist memes and comments from blatant white supremacists. And he scores more points for failing to disassociate himself from racist supporters, or for only doing so after being criticized. And even then without much conviction.

Trump, of course, denies that he is racist. But if you are being heralded by racists and neo-Nazis, at some point a conscientious person would want to know what it is they are doing that is attracting such a repulsive contingent of cretins. Trump’s supporters and the Republican Party ought to be asking themselves the same questions.

Having conquered the Republican primary, Trump has thrown the door wide open for racists who used to be reticent about going public to actually seek public office. They now have carte blanche to advertise their biases with some confidence that they can attract votes, at least within the GOP. That’s the distasteful opportunity that the Trump Effect has created for David Duke and others like him.

UPDATE: Trump just announced that he might vote for Duke:

“Mr Trump was asked if he would support a Democrat over Mr Duke if it was necessary to defeat him, Mr Trump replied: “I guess, depending on who the Democrat is.”

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


Bernie Sanders Live Tweeted ‘Dictator’ Trump’s Horror Show Speech – And It Was Awesome

Posted by on July 22, 2016 at 11:06 am. 1 Comments :

In a marathon 74 minute harangue, Donald Trump accepted the nomination of the Republican Party for President of the United States. The speech recounted a vision of America as a dystopian hellhole where every citizen should be shivering under their beds. And when he wasn’t trying scare the bejeebus out of everyone, he was enumerating the reasons they should all hate each other, and especially Hillary Clinton.

Bernie Sanders

In the opening of his speech Trump promised that “there will be no lies,” a bold claim from someone with a long record of pathological lying (see the Trump Bullshitopedia). And this Trump speech didn’t fare well with the fact checkers either. He also made promises to bring back jobs from overseas (presumably his own clothing manufacturing), destroy ISIS, repeal ObamaCare, and end violence and crime in America (not reduce it, end it). Of course, he never proposed a single policy that would achieve any of those goals in his speech, nor in the prior twelve monts of his campaign.

Watching all of this from his lair in Vermont was Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders was privileged to have been mentioned in Trump’s speech in a particularly delusional passage wherein Trump insisted that “His supporters will join our movement.” Because what self-respecting Democratic Socialist wouldn’t rush to support a wealthy, racist, right-wing, wannabe dictator? Not surprisingly, Sanders had a few things to say about Trump’s fear mongering tirade. So he took to Twitter (#RNCwithBernie) to engage in a running commentary. Here is his contemporaneous response to Trump’s lecture on how awful america is:


FYI: Sanders tweet about Trump’s dictatorial tendencies was the most retweeted tweet during Donald Trump’s acceptance speech.

Bernie Sanders, of course, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. But his movement continues along with his positive vision to reform the nation so that everyone can benefit from its vast riches. He wants all Americans to be represented by politicians who take seriously their pledge to serve the people. He is a strong advocate of voting rights and opposes the GOP’s efforts to disenfranchise minority and low-income citizens. And he has fought for decades on behalf of the working class that is a trickle-down afterthought of Republicans like Trump.

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

The vast majority of Sanders’ supporters would never consider backing an elite, narcissistic, throwback to an era of 1930’s Aryan supremacy. Trump’s exceedingly dark outlook on both the present and future of America is anathema to the progressive mindset. Trump’s speech revealed to the nation that he is just pitching a warmed-over version of Pat Buchanan’s rightist populism. That isn’t going to sell to Sanders’ supporters, or to most of the country’s voters.


Fox ‘News’ Boss Roger Ailes Is FIRED As His Creation Donald Trump Takes GOP Nomination

Posted by on July 21, 2016 at 6:45 pm. 2 Comments :

Tonight Donald Trump will be making his HUGE speech to accept the Republican Party’s nomination for president of the United States. It’s ironic, therefore, that the man most responsible for his victory over seventeen other Republican hopefuls just got his ass booted out the door.

Ailes Trump

Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO of Fox News, has accepted a separation agreement that is effective today. It was only three days ago that the strange saga of Ailes was first reported. The unusually rapid progress of events that resulted in Ailes’ surprise termination followed the filing of a lawsuit by former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson alleging that Ailes sexually harassed her and then retaliated after she reported prior incidents of harassment and gender discrimination. The suit alleges that Ailes told her “I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago.” Shortly after Carslson’s lawsuit hit the press several other women came forward with similar complaints.

Ailes released a statement saying in part, “I am proud of our accomplishments and look forward to continuing to work with you as a consultant in building 21st Century Fox.” Fox sources, however, say that he will not be an official consultant, but will be available to informally advise his old pal Rupert Murdoch, CEO of the Fox News parent corporation 21st Century Fox.

Ailes’ long history of exploiting sex in the workplace has been well documented. The environment at Fox is known for making inappropriate demands on female staff, including wearing revealing clothes and engaging in other provocative behavior on-air. Gabriel Sherman wrote in his biography of Ailes, “The Loudest Voice In The Room,” that Ailes has repeatedly given direction to his staff regarding the display of female body parts.

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

As Donald Trump takes the stage tonight at the Republican National Convention, the propaganda machine that made it possible is undergoing a severe upheaval. There is no clear line of succession in the executive ranks. Rupert Murdoch will be temporarily assuming the role of interim CEO. And as the dust settles it will be Murdoch’s kids who will be calling the shots and filling the vacancies. There are likely to be other shoes dropping in coming weeks, so stay tuned for further developments.


Donald Trump Has A Frightening Plan To ‘Reform’ Government That He Won’t Tell You Tonight

Posted by on July 21, 2016 at 5:00 pm. 2 Comments :

One of the most persistent criticisms of Donald Trump is that he’s been running for president for over a year and has failed to articulate a single policy in any detail. His platform is made up entirely of vapid slogans (“Make America Great Again”), simplistic one-liners (“Build a Wall”), and childish insults (“Crooked Hillary”). Rest assured that as he accepts the Republican Party’s nomination for president tonight he won’t be any more forthcoming about how he intends to achieve his vaguely stated goals.

RNC Trump

Consequently, we should be grateful that his surrogate, Gov. Chris Christie, is shooting his mouth off in private meetings with GOP donors. It is in these settings that Republicans often reveal their true intentions as they seek to squeeze funds from their wealthy benefactors. Yahoo news is reporting that:

“If he wins the presidency, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would seek to purge the federal government of officials appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama and could ask Congress to pass legislation making it easier to fire public workers, Trump ally, Chris Christie, said on Tuesday.

Christie, who is governor of New Jersey and leads Trump’s White House transition team, said the campaign was drawing up a list of federal government employees to fire if Trump defeats Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

“As you know from his other career, Donald likes to fire people,” Christie told a closed-door meeting with dozens of donors at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Chris Christie is in a position to know what he’s talking about. He is a leading candidate to assume a prominent role in a Trump administration, i.e. Attorney General or Chief of Staff. And he shares Trump’s visceral hatred of President Obama, so he would be anxious to erase any remnants of his historic presidency.

Government purges are a tactic that has been popular with fascist regimes for decades. It is a means of consolidating power, imposing ideological conformity, and insuring loyalty. But it is grossly undemocratic and contrary to the principles of a free society. In the United States the concept of “career” employees has been valued because it results in decisions being made on merit rather than political partisanship. Even the threat of political purges can sway agency staffers to adopt positions that are overtly harmful in order to please their current bosses rather than the public whom they serve.

The last notable example of this type purge occurred during the administration of George W. Bush. He took the wholly unprecedented and unethical action of firing staff attorneys at the Justice Department and replacing them with lackeys who would do his bidding. That led in part to an email scandal that dwarfs anything Hillary Clinton has been accused of.

The purge that Christie spoke of goes far beyond what Bush did at the Justice Department. Under a President Trump every agency of government would be at risk. The Environmental Protection Agency could be stuffed with pro-coal and oil shills who would obliterate regulations that have proven to be effective in cleaning the air and water in America. Health and Human Services could become the headquarters for dismantling ObamaCare. The Department of Labor could be restructured to serve corporations and diminish the influence of unions. The Department of Education could begin to kill off public schooling in favor of vouchers and faith-based alternatives. And just imagine the harm that could be done with extreme hawks populating the Homeland Security and Defense departments.

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This is just another of Trump’s secret agendas that make him an existential threat to the nation – and the world. Some of what he is plotting isn’t known because he refuses to disclose anything significant about policy, or even personally (such as his ultra-secret tax returns). Some of it isn’t known because he has no idea what he believes to begin with. What we do know about his governing philosophy we’ve learned by his inadvertent slips of the tongue to the press. For instance, yesterday he said that he would not necessarily honor our mutual defense agreements under the terms of the NATO treaty. Revelations like the one Christie has provided helped to torpedo Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012. And that’s why the press needs to aggressively seek out information that the candidates strive to conceal. Democracy depends on it.