Election

Trump Chokes When Asked ‘What’s Your Message to Putin’ on Election Interference

Posted by on February 23, 2020 at 1:25 pm. 5 Comments :

Democrats are currently engaged in heated primary season with multiple candidates still jockeying for position. And the media attention on this is having a severe effect on Donald Trump. Narcissists don’t like it when they are not the center of attention. Consequently, Trump is ratcheting up his psychotic outbursts in order to seduce the press to stay focused on him.

Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin

Trump’s latest plea for attention is a desperate and bizarre appeal for what he portrays as fairness for Bernie Sanders in the primaries. Of course, Trump couldn’t care less about how the Democratic primaries are conducted, other than to slather them with mud and lies. His phony concern for Sanders is actually a play straight from the Russian playbook and intended to sow discord and chaos. And running his defense is Fox News who are making ludicrous assertions that the media and Democrats are the “Agents of Russia.”

Recent reports revealed that American intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia is, once again, interfering with the presidential election. The reports detailed Russia’s efforts to tip the scales in favor of Trump and Sanders. Trump’s own Office of the Director of National Intelligence, led by Joe Maguire, sent a deputy to brief Congress about this a couple of weeks ago. This news made Trump irate. Not the news that Russia was attacking our democracy, but the news that Congress was told about it. So Trump fired Maguire and replaced him with Rick Grennel, a Trump toady who has no experience whatsoever in intelligence.

So with an impending national crisis involving a hostile foreign enemy attempting to subvert our election, Trump was confronted by a reporter who asked a simple, but significant question:

“Have you been briefed that Russia is trying to help Bernie Sanders and, if so, what’s your message to Putin?”

Pay close attention to that question, and then consider Trump’s reply (video below):

“Nobody said it. I read where Russia’s helping Bernie Sanders. Nobody said it to me at all. Nobody briefed me about that at all […] They leaked it. Adam Schiff and his group, they leaked it to the papers. And, as usual, they ought to investigate Adam Schiff for leaking that information. He should not be leaking information out of intelligence. They ought to investigate Adam Schiff.”

So Trump’s response to a question on what message he has for his pal Vladimir Putin, who is trying to foul our election is “They ought to investigate Adam Schiff.” Really? Trump had absolutely nothing to say to Putin. His only interest is in persecuting an elected member of Congress who is complying with his oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Putin, on the hand, is held harmless as he continues to attack this country. As long as Putin’s anti-American plots are designed to benefit Trump, Trump is content to allow them to proceed.

What’s more, Trump’s remarks are wholly unfounded and reckless. He has no evidence that Schiff leaked anything. It’s more likely that it was a Republican congressman (Devin Nunes?) who spilled to the press. And Trump doesn’t specify who he thinks should be investigating Schiff. Russia? Attorney Genuflect Bill Barr? Rudy Giuliani? Fox News? And if that’s not enough, Trump is also admitting his ignorance of Russian activity that everyone else already knows. Either his national security team is serving him poorly, or he’s lying (or both).

Trump followed up those remarks with a tweet that made things even worse:

Once again, Trump is baselessly accusing Schiff of leaking classified information. However, Trump also suggests that the “information” that Schiff allegedly leaked was made up. In which case, it wouldn’t be classified. But worst of all, Trump overtly threatens Schiff with being “caught” and suffering “a very unpleasant experience!” All without a hint of evidence that Schiff did anything wrong.

This is part and parcel of Trump’s psychopathy that drives him to seek vengeance and to persecute his perceived enemies. It’s a frightening descent into fascistic totalitarianism. And with each passing day Trump is less and less worried about exposing those tendencies and acting on them. This is precisely the behavior that many warned Trump would engage in if Senate Republicans didn’t have the guts to expel him from office. And as it worsens, the blame needs to be evenly spread around from Trump to the GOP to Fox News and the rest of the Reich-wing media.

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

Trump’s Phony Fits of Sympathy for Bernie Sanders Are Just What Putin Ordered

Posted by on February 15, 2020 at 9:25 am. 1 Comments :

The Democratic Party primary is beginning to roll out in earnest as the first states have completed their voting. And no one is more captivated by the process than the reality TV game show host currently occupying the White House. Donald Trump apparently fancies himself a political pundit now, and he has much to say about the electoral prospects of the party that he has literally and grossly disparaged “the true enemies of America.”

Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin

Since early January Trump has been spreading a baseless conspiracy theory that the Democratic Party is rigging the primaries against Bernie Sanders. If that were true it would be one of the least effective attempts at rigging an election considering the remarkable success that Sanders has enjoyed. That success was even acknowledged by Trump just a few days before he launched his conspiracy ranting.

For those who bothered to stayed tuned, Trump served up a barrage of tweets that flagrantly contradicted his original premise. For instance, Trump rage-tweeted that…

  • They are rigging the election again against Bernie Sanders, just like last time, only even more obviously.
  • They are taking the Democrat Nomination away from Crazy Bernie.
  • They are taking the nomination away from Bernie for a second time. Rigged!
  • Crazy Bernie takes the lead in the Democrat Primaries, but it is looking more and more like the Dems will never allow him to win! Will Sleepy Joe be able to stumble across the finish line?
  • Many of the ads you are watching were paid for by Mini Mike Bloomberg. He is going nowhere, just wasting his money, but he is getting the DNC to rig the election against Crazy Bernie, something they wouldn’t do for @CoryBooker and others. They are doing it to Bernie again, 2016.
  • The DNC on Bernie Sanders, “Looks like they’re going to do it to him again, doesn’t it?” @SteveDoocy @foxandfriends
  • It is happening again to Crazy Bernie, just like last time, only far more obvious. They are taking the Democrat Nomination away from him, and there’s very little he can do. A Rigged System!

There’s a lot of absurdity clogging up Trump’s Twitter feed there. First he asserts that the Democratic Party was deliberately disadvantaging Sanders by forcing him to attend the impeachment hearings so that he would not be able to campaign. But that was also true for Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand. So by Trump’s ignorant and perverse logic the Party was rigging the election against every Democratic senator in the race.

Following that, Trump first attributes the Party’s alleged bias to be for the benefit of Joe Biden. But that didn’t last long. He later claims that Mike Bloomberg was the intended beneficiary. As usual, Trump’s inane allegations are flailing out in every direction with his familiar brand of incoherence. Make no mistake. Trump doesn’t give a damn about any of the Democrats or the conduct of their primary. And if he was actually concerned about Sanders he wouldn’t be using the insulting and infantile nickname, “Crazy Bernie.”

None of this, of course, is Sanders’ fault. There are reasons for Trump’s asinine histrionics that go beyond his everyday indecency and immaturity. What is actually behind Trump’s Bernie fetish can be distilled into two rather obvious explanations: Fear and chaos!

EXPLANATION #1: FEAR: Trump sees that Sanders is leading a movement much like the one that Trump regards himself to be leading. Sanders has amassed the largest base of small donors in history. And his supporters have a profound loyalty to his candidacy that his based on common American principles and values. Unlike Trump’s cult following that is wholly comprised of glassy-eyed MAGA disciples who can’t articulate a policy that exceeds the four words of his slogan and who continue their support despite his lies, crimes, and hate mongering.

What’s more, there is a peculiar appeal that crosses over from Trump to Sanders that is linked to the theme of shaking up the establishment. But here there is also a profound difference. Sanders has been doing it with sincerity for decades, while Trump is a dishonest, exploitative newcomer whose credibility is worthless.

EXPLANATION #2: CHAOS: The other explanation for Trump’s obsession with Sanders is that it fulfills the agenda of Trump’s benefactor, Vladimir Putin. The primary Russian objective in interfering with U.S. elections has been to sow division and distrust. By stirring up animosity between the various Democratic candidates, Putin hopes to diminish them all and form opposing camps who work against their common goals and their eventual nominee, whoever it is. Additionally, he hopes to create chaos and an impression that the election is rampant with fraud and the results unreliable.

Trump is purposefully advancing these anti-democratic and anti-American objectives. And he doesn’t need to discuss it with Putin to know what they are or what’s expected of him. Just like he didn’t need to have explicit conversations with Putin to benefit from Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. As was affirmed by special counsel Robert Mueller, “Trump and his campaign welcomed and encouraged Russian interference,” in 2016 and “lied about it to cover it up.” All without (so far as we currently know) any explicit conversations between Trump and Putin.

Anyone who doesn’t think the same thing is happening now is either complicit or terminally naive. It is imperative that the American people be aware of these Russian-initiated tactics that Trump is obediently undertaking like the lapdog he is. We must not allow Putin and Trump to sow the discord they hope will return Trump to the White House. So feel free to vote your hearts in the primaries. But in November we must come together to support the Democratic candidate, whoever he or she is. Failing to do that is failing America.

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

Trump Gloats Over Iowa Caucus Glitches While Covering Up Prior GOP Debacles

Posted by on February 4, 2020 at 12:07 pm. 3 Comments :

There is no point in trying to understate the unfortunate problems delaying results from the Democratic primary in Iowa. It’s the sort of thing that only reflects badly on the party, despite the cause and/or blame still being unknown. However, there are ways to overstate it. And Republicans are doing their best to demonstrate that with wild and unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.

Donald Trump, GOP

Chief among the mudslingers, of course, is the always hysterically hyperbolic master of harangue, Donald Trump. He eagerly embraced the botched returns as a welcome deflection from his impeachment affair. The morning after the Iowa caucuses, Trump took his usual post on the Twitter machine and blasted out missives intended to malign his Democratic rivals who had nothing to do with the glitches.

Trump’s attack began with a tweet calling the caucus “an unmitigated disaster” and declaring “a very big victory” for himself. He followed that up with a bizarre tweet asking “When will the Democrats start blaming RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA?” No Democrat has even hinted at that although, it is not unreasonable to assume that Russia would exploit this event after the fact to cast aspersions on Democrats on behalf of their “useful idiot” in the White House. Then Trump closed with this:

Naturally, Trump had to draw a comparison between himself and the object of his obsession, Barack Obama. And just as predictably, Trump misrepresented the truth. While he did garner more votes, his percentage trailed that of Obama (Obama 98.9% vs. Trump 97.1%). However, Trump’s boast that “The Democrat Party in Iowa really messed up, but the Republican Party did not,” was very short-sighted.

In 2012 the Iowa Republican caucus had its own fiasco. Immediately after the results were tabulated the party declared Mitt Romney the victor. Two weeks later they announced that there was no clear winner. That was followed by another announcement that Rick Santorum had actually won. And even then they said that the real winner might never be known. It took them two weeks to arrive at that non-decision.

And that’s not all. Trump himself was suspicious of the results of the 2016 Iowa GOP caucus. In fact, he regarded it as so tainted by fraud the entire vote should be nullified:

Consequently, it’s ludicrous, hypocritical, and dishonest for Trump and the GOP to be feigning shock and outrage over the comparatively minor problems with this year’s Democratic caucus. At least there was no incorrect result announced, and no fraud alleged. And it will be resolved in less than 24 hours. But “ludicrous, hypocritical, and dishonest” could be the official tagline for the Trump presidency and for today’s Republican Party. So what, other than that, should we have expected?

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

Trump’s Jealousy of Bloomberg Kicks Off Hannity’s Super Bowl Suck-Up on Fox News

Posted by on February 2, 2020 at 11:47 am. 3 Comments :

It’s Super Bowl Sunday and Fox News has decided to turn the traditional presidential interview into a Trump-fluffing pageant of propaganda. While Fox likes to pretend that it’s a credible news organization, they can’t help taking every opportunity to prove that that’s a lie. So rather than assign the interview of Donald Trump to one of their alleged “journalists” (Chris Wallace, Bret Baier), they hand it to the Pope of the Cult of Trump, Sean Hannity.

Donald Trump Sean Hannity

Hannity long ago abandoned any pretense of impartiality. He has appeared on stage with Trump at his rallies. He has turned his program into the media campaign headquarters for Trump’s reelection. And he has launched untold smear campaigns against anyone who dared to criticize Trump or tell the truth about him. Hannity’s show is a fountainhead of conspiracy theories and lies in the service of Dear Leader.

So as a teaser to the Super Bowl Sunday Trump interview on Fox News, Hannity released a brief clip to entice potential viewers. Generally the goal of these promos is to offer up something compelling that would make people anxious to tune in. And here is what Fox News and Hannity decided was just the sort of soundbite that would drag in a big audience. Hannity asked Trump what he thought of Mike Bloomberg. And Trump replied…

“I just think of ‘little.’ Now he wants a box for the debates to stand on. Okay, it’s okay, there’s nothing wrong. You could be short. Why should he get a box to stand on, OK? He wants a box for the debates. Why should he be entitled to that? Really? Does that mean everyone else gets a box?”

WOW! Now that’s powerful television. The president of the United States of America blasts one of his potential electoral rivals as being “short.” And that’s the only thing that Trump thinks of when asked about Bloomberg. Naturally, Trump doesn’t think about the fact that Bloomberg, unlike Trump, is an actual billionaire with an estimated net worth of $54 billion. And Trump isn’t thinking about Bloomberg’s promise to spend a billion of that to defeat Trump – even if he isn’t the Democratic nominee. The only thought that flitters around in his empty skull is how he can attach infantile nicknames to a man he is painfully jealous of. As for Bloomberg, he responded with a stinging tweet that refuted Trump’s box blather, for which there is no evidence whatsoever:

So if you’re keeping score:

Trump: Mini Mike is short.
Bloomberg: Trump is a pathological liar who lies about everything: his fake hair, his obesity, and his spray-on tan.

Trump spent the night before this interview road-testing his childishness. He posted a tweet that whined “Mini Mike is part of the Fake News. They are all working together.” This reflects Trump’s crippling paranoia of an all-encompassing cabal that is determined to destroy him. Another tweet asserted that Bloomberg “is getting the DNC to rig the election against Crazy Bernie.” Here Trump manages to fire preadolescent taunts at two rivals at once. All the while pretending to care about the fairness of the Democratic primaries. And Trump’s final midnight tweet raged about the fake box controversy and the imaginary battle “to have the right to stand on boxes.”

If the clip above is what Fox News considers to be the most riveting segment from the Trump/Hannity drool-fest, it’s safe to say that there won’t be anything remotely newsworthy coming out of it. Well, other than further evidence that Hannity is a devoted StormTrumper and Fox News doesn’t give a damn about having any journalistic integrity. But we already knew that. So there really isn’t any reason at all to watch this puerile charade. And low ratings for his Super Bowl butt-kissing with his harlot Hannity would be like needles stabbed into his eyes. So feel free to change the channel, America. Or you could spend that eight minutes whipping another bowl of guacamole.

UPDATE: The interview was even worse than expected. Hannity was a flaming suck-up. And Trump led off with whining about impeachment. Then he just rattled off his petty hatred for Democrats:

  • Biden: He’s Sleepy Joe
  • Sanders: I think he’s a communist.
  • Warren: I call her Fairy Tale.
  • Clinton: I think of emails.
  • Pelosi: I think she’s a very confused, very nervous woman.

This is just further proof that Trump is a low functioning dotard who can’t form a coherent thought or substantive opinion on anything. He just blurts out lame slogans and talking points that might have been written by a temperamental child. And Hannity succeeded in producing a total waste of time, fumbling whatever opportunity he had to be relevant.

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

Trump’s Campaign Manager Responds to Bleak Fox News Poll by Insulting the American People

Posted by on January 21, 2020 at 12:58 pm. 6 Comments :

In recent days Donald Trump has been frantically posting tweets that proclaim him to be the most popular president ever, leading a country that is “number one in the universe.” And he got that fact directly from the alien voices in his head, so it must be true. But Trump’s glowing review of himself is not only wrong, it’s evidence of his growing mental infirmity.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Hate Again

On Monday Trump dispatched his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, to the studio of his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. While there, Parscale met with some unexpectedly challenging questions (video below). Parscale delivered his doctrinaire dialogue that portrayed Trump and his administration as having a perfect record of nothing but success. He asserted that Trump’s standing in the polls – and in the hearts of the American people – is at an all time high. That is, of course, contrary to reality. Trump’s approval is in the low 40s in most polls. Even Trump’s favorite poll, the disreputable and biased Rasmussen poll, has Trump slumping. But these facts didn’t stop Parscale from making his blatantly false and unsupported comments.

What Parscale surely didn’t foresee was that the Fox News anchor, Bill Hemmer, would present him with some actual data that contradicted the rosy scenario he painted for Trump:

Parscale: Every standard we have to measure what’s going on with the President and trying to win victory in 2020, we’re doing better.
Hemmer: I’ve got some numbers for you. 2016 suburban voters. President Trump led Hillary Clinton by four points. Among suburban women he trailed her by only seven. Now we did a poll here at Fox about a month and a half ago, and these numbers are very different … Among suburban voters he now trails by eleven. Among suburban women he’s down by a whopping twenty-four points. How come?

Parscale struggled to explain the decline. He first resorted to a weak complaint that the numbers were different (duh). Then he returned to his robo-recitation that Trump was doing better in everything simply because he says so. After Hemmer reiterated that Trump’s poor showing was “substantial,” Parscale directly dismissed the Fox News poll (see page 19) saying that “I just don’t think those numbers are right.” Oh? Well that settles it then.

Parscale went on to claim that Trump is “far ahead” of the Democratic candidates in fundraising. But the aggregate total for the Democrats has “more than tripled [Trump’s] 2019 cash haul … No incumbent president this century has been so thoroughly outraised by a field of challengers” And in the face of those facts, Parscale sunk to belittling American voters as inattentive to their duties in a democracy:

“Right now the American people are tuned out. Because, honestly, what’s happened with impeachment and everything else, they’ve shut down. They’re enjoying the Super Bowl. They’re watching football games. Enjoying this country’s great economy. They’re not sitting around watching this stuff.”

First of all, Parscale’s derogatory remarks destroy his own assertion that Trump is flying high in the polls. Of what significance is that if voters aren’t paying attention, as he contends? But even worse, according To Trump’s campaign boss, Americans are a bunch of lazy, unpatriotic, sports slobs who don’t care about the future of their country or the election that is only nine months away.

This insulting impression of voters by the Trump team isn’t likely to pull Trump’s poll standings out of the gutter. All it does is confirm that Trump, and everyone around him, are mired in delusional perspectives of Trump as an invincible superhero who cannot be vanquished. Never mind that they have no data to support that worshipful view. It’s not like Trump ever relied on facts – or reality – for anything else he’s ever done. The only thing he relies on is the naivete of his tiny cadre of cult followers. And that’s just not gonna cut it now that the nation knows who Trump really is.

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

Trump Trash-Talking Bernie, Biden, etc, Proves He’s a Frightened Man-Baby.

Posted by on January 18, 2020 at 1:55 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s always easy to tell what Donald Trump is most afraid of at any given time. He reveals his deepest fears in his never-ending stream of Twitter rants. A few weeks ago it was Adam Schiff and the House impeachment hearings when he posted a record 108 tweets in a single day. More recently it was Speaker Nancy Pelosi who he stalked online with attacks on her personally and her San Francisco district. He even retweeted a series of memes implying that she and Sen. Chuck Schumer were terrorist sympathizers.

Donald Trump

This week Trump engaged in his regularly scheduled tweetstorms with the same tired and repetitious whining and pathetic victimhood that is the hallmark of his third grade composition skills. Although, while posting seven tweets congratulating the LSU football team, he never tweeted once about the threats and surveillance of U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovich, the Russia hacking of a Ukrainian company (Burisma) connected to his impeachment, the earthquake in Puerto Rico, comments by Lev Parnas confirming that Trump extorted Ukrainian President Zelensky, or the previously suppressed news that eleven American troops were injured by Iranian missiles fired in retaliation to Trump’s assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

As the week wound to a close, Trump threw in a couple of tweets that clearly addressed an issue close to his shriveled heart. They were thinly veiled, passive-aggressive attacks on his opponents vying for the Democratic nomination for president. He began with a swipe at Mike Bloomberg:

True to form, Trump was flagrantly lying about why Bloomberg wasn’t on the debate stage. The truth is that Bloomberg doesn’t accept any donations, so he can’t meet the DNC’s debate eligibility requirement based on that. Trump once said that he would self-fund his campaign too, but like everything else he says, it was a lie. Trump’s campaign relies entirely on donations from his cult followers, which he spends on personal legal expenses.

Trump went on to pretend that he’s worried about the fairness of the Democratic primary process. That’s coming from someone who has already been caught soliciting campaign help from two different foreign governments (Russia and Ukraine). Trump openly used stolen emails to advance his 2016 campaign, and new reports show that he’s preparing to do the same with data stolen, once again, by Russian hackers. But here he is making up fairness issues involving Democrats:

This is one of the most idiotic conspiracy theories that Trump has embraced to date. He couldn’t care less about the competition between Sanders and Biden (other than that he’s afraid of both). He’s just taking advantage of the opportunity to whine some more about having been impeached. And any convenient diversion is something he will cling to. He’s previously made asinine comments about Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Eric Swalwell.

However, this is all a charade to mask Trump’s insecurity. If he had any confidence in his reelection he wouldn’t spend so much energy griping about primary candidates. What’s more, he wouldn’t direct his Republican Party to cancel their own primaries. So far there are eight states (Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Minnesota, Nevada, South Carolina, and Virginia) that have either canceled primaries or declared that only Trump’s name will appear on their ballot. Maybe that’s his idea of fairness. And if he were confidant of his prospects he wouldn’t have held twenty-six of his cult rallies since last January. That’s about two per month for a candidate that has no opposition.

The Republican Party has totally bought in to the Cult of Trump. And that may come back to bite them in the arse. As more incriminating information is uncovered, Trump might actually face a real possibility of being removed from office. If that happens, the GOP won’t have a candidate at all for 2020. Or at least not one that presented themselves to the public and garnered votes. But that might not be such a bad thing. Running an unknown, unvetted nobody might still be a better option than running a boorish, racist, criminal, traitorous Trump.

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

The Great Whiner: Aspiring Tyrant Trump Thinks He’s the Great Decider of All Things

Posted by on December 16, 2019 at 3:25 pm. NO Comments :

Another day, another opportunity for Donald Trump to exhibit his perpetual state of fear for all to see. Trump regularly displays how scared he is via relentless and invariably false attacks on his perceived enemies. These dastardly foes include Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Joe Biden, the “fake” news, the “Deep State,” and anyone who dares to show him anything less than undying adoration.

Donald Trump Pacifier Fox

The tone of Trump’s tweets is more untethered to reality – and even decency – as he sinks further into the abyss of the legal jeopardy that is weighing so heavily on his alleged conscience. Some recent rants have taken a decidedly low road as he mocks Pelosi’s teeth, Schiff’s name, and even cyberbullied 16 year old climate activist, Greta Thunberg.

In recent weeks Trump’s trepidation has been squarely focused on the threat of his imminent impeachment. This week the House of Representatives will make that final with a vote convicting him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. But Trump still managed to find time to expose his inherent cowardice by criticizing the Commission on Presidential Debates and signalling his possible refusal to participate. In a starkly passive-aggressive fashion, he began by saying that he looked forward to debating the eventual Democratic nominee and he bragged about what a formidable opponent he would be. But that bravado quickly faded into snowflakey paranoia:

The Commission has been producing these debates for more than thirty years without a hint of bias or partisanship. It’s officers are an evenly balanced array of Democrats, Republicans, journalists, and academics. But to Trump, any organization that he can’t control is viewed as hostile and “stacked with Trump Haters & Never Trumpers.” His charge that he was the victim of a deliberate “modulation” of his microphone is just another Trumpian falsehood, like the claim that his inauguration crowd was the biggest ever, or that China is paying billions to the U.S. in tariffs, or that his border wall is being built, or that … well, there are 14,000 more of these lies. Let’s just note that Trump is lying again. And he has no evidence that the Commission is anti-Trump or biased in any way. It’s just the paranoid voices in his head telling him that everyone is out to get him.

However, the most absurd claim in this tweet tantrum is Trump’s contention that “As President, the debates are up to me.” There is absolutely no rational basis for that delusional opinion. The only thing that’s up to him is whether he chooses to participate or not. If he bails, it won’t be the first time his cowardice has set his agenda. Trump refused to participate in a Republican primary debate in 2015 because he was afraid of Megyn Kelly of Fox News who was one of the moderators. So he staged a campaign stunt instead that he said would benefit veterans. It was later discovered that he failed to disburse the money that he raised.

Like most bullies, Trump is actually a shivering bundle of nerves who avoids any situation that triggers his fears. As President, Trump has declined to appear at the annual conventions of the NAACP. He has also chickened out of attending the charity fundraising dinners for the White House Correspondent’s Association.

But Trump’s dismissal of the independent Commission debates has ominous overtones. He really believes that, because he’s the President, he gets to decide when and how these events are done. That’s the mindset of a totalitarian who seeks to subvert democracy. It’s a theory he might have picked up from his pals Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, who control elections in order to retain power. And it’s totally in character for Trump to pursue this path wherein he tries to assume powers he doesn’t have, while whining about how he’s such a victim – the poor baby fuhrer.

If Trump doesn’t want to show up for the debates, that’s fine. Democrats will get over his absence. But he cannot pretend that he’s running them. And America will see that he’s just afraid to face any challenge in the same way that he was afraid to be interviewed by Robert Mueller, and is afraid now to testify at his impeachment. The boy who had his father invent “bone spurs” to get him out of military duty, grew up to be a world-class wimp.

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

HOLY CREEP! Trump Admits to Using the U.S. Military Budget to Bribe Voters

Posted by on November 5, 2019 at 11:55 am. 5 Comments :

The degree to which Donald Trump lacks any hint of self-awareness is mind boggling. He shamelessly boasts about having record-breaking support among Republicans when that support is actually in decline. He demands that the whistleblower testify while, in the same breath, insists that nobody should testify. He pretends that he’s not worried about being impeached, but can’t stop talking – or tweeting – about it.

Donald Trump, Prison

Now, as Trump is being shredded by an avalanche of evidence that he extorted Ukrainian President Zelensky in order to get dirt on Joe Biden, Trump is simultaneously engaging in a another flagrant case of bribery. This one centers around the off-year elections that are now being held in several states. Trump has been consumed with campaigning in the past few weeks, focusing on those states. Both his tweets and his cult rallies have been centered around the election calendar. But in a disturbing Tuesday tweet Trump literally confessed to a bribery scheme to get votes:

This is one of the most brazen admissions of criminal electioneering ever. It begins with Trump reminding the people of Virgina of his “genorosity” with federal dollars. That, of course, isn’t true. Trump has even diverted military funds to building his vanity border wall, which won’t help Virginia in the slightest. And then Trump holds the promise of future spending in the state over their heads. He is plainly trying to frighten Virginia voters with threats that federal allocations will dry up if they don’t vote for him. And we know that Trump is not shy about abusing his power to punish those he doesn’t deem sufficietly worshipful.

This tweet cannot be interpreted as anything other than a bribe. He is trying to appeal to Virginians who are reliant on federal funds for jobs and the economic boost that military facilities bring to localities. That is illegal on its face. It is also a breach of national security as it directs the allocations of military funding based on Trump’s political whims, rather than the needs of the nation’s armed forces. In that respect, Trump is violating his oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

For Trump to openly admit to this criminal activity is both shocking and predictable. His capacity for breaking the law and bragging about it is unheard of in American politics. And the saddest part of it all is that he so often gets away with it. As the current impeachment inquiry progresses, hopefully Trump will finally be held accountable for at least a few of his crimes. Were there any realistic administration of justice, Trump would never get out of prison.

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

Devotion to the Cult of Trump Risks the GOP Having No Presidential Candidate in 2020

Posted by on October 3, 2019 at 12:23 pm. 2 Comments :

Time is running out. It’s running out for Donald Trump as Congress is on a fast track toward impeachment. And as the walls close in around him, he is becoming ever more unhinged and incoherent. He’s even taken to crying “coup” about the constitutional process for considering the removal of a corrupt leader. It’s a sad spectacle that diminishes the stature of the nation.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

But time also running out for the Republican Party that seems to have no strategy for a post-impeachment electoral landscape. As the prospects for impeachment grow by the hour – mainly due to Trump’s own panicky and desperate outbursts – the GOP continues to fortify their bunker as it is under siege from all directions. Even the Senior Legal Analyst at Fox News, Andrew Napolitano, is now saying that Trump’s “conversation [with Ukrainian President Zelensky] manifested both criminal and impeachable behavior.” Nevertheless, Republicans are all in on Dear Leader Trump and if he goes down, well dammit, they’re all going down with him.

The 2020 election is just a little more than a year away. Deadlines will soon be expiring for challengers to declare their candidacy. So what happens if Trump is impeached and the Republican Party has no one on the ballot running against whoever the Democratic nominee is? Pence will not automatically become the GOP’s candidate. There is a process for determining that which we all know as primaries. But the Republican National Committing has been working to cancel primaries in order to stifle any opposition to Trump. They also recently tightened the rules to “squelch dissent at the Republican National Convention next year.”

Currently there are three Republicans, other than Trump, running for the GOP nomination: Bill Weld, Joe Walsh, and Mark Sanford. The only reasonably qualified candidate among them is Weld, a two-term governor of Massachusetts. But other Republicans with qualifications and national name ID are keep their distance. They include Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, and former Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker.

All of this leaves Trump feeling pretty cocky. He tweeted Thursday that he has “95% Approval Rating in the Republican Party.” Which won’t help him in the least if he’s found to be guilty of impeachable crimes. After all, he isn’t President of the GOP. His national approval rating is still mired in the low 40’s (it’s never hit 50). And even his favorite pollster, the utterly disreputable and biased Rasmussen, shows him dropping six points in the last week (to 47) as impeachment heats up.

The Cult of Trump is in full force in the Republican precincts of America. They simply will not stand up for the principles of law and order and patriotism that they once heralded as their party’s brand. Not if that means going against their totalitarian boss. So if Trump is impeached, and there is little or no time to field alternatives in the primaries, the party may wind up invoking some arcane rule and shoving whatever candidate the party elites choose down the throats of their voters.

And Trump isn’t making it any easier for them. On Thursday morning, Trump admitted to a national television audience that he asked Zelensky to interfere in an American election by digging up dirt on Joe Biden. That’s actually one of the anticipated articles of impeachment. And to add fuel to this dumpster fire, he added a request for China to do the same. Let that sink in. Trump wants China – a nation known for its corruption and absence of any ethical legal system – to conduct an investigation/smear campaign on an American citizen and candidate for president. That should go down well with voters. And still the GOP is marching lock-step with Trump, even though he may not even be their candidate next year. The whole party seems to be as confused and incompetent as Trump.

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

Trump’s Hollywood Elitist MAGA Snowflakes Featured in Phony Fox News Controversy

Posted by on September 17, 2019 at 3:35 pm. 2 Comments :

The 2020 election continues to build up steam as Democratic candidates jockey for position and round up supporters and endorsements. However, on the Republican side, Donald Trump is taking a different approach that includes going to extraordinary lengths to keep the identity of his supporters secret. This may be the first campaign that has ever had to arrange for the anonymity of its allies.

Donald Trump, Hollywood

Following his cult rally in New Mexico, Trump made a dash for the border into California where he snuck in to avoid detection. He was there for a fundraiser at the mansion of real estate magnate, Jeffrey Palmer. What’s peculiar about this affair is that the attendees were herded into shuttle buses before being whisked off to a secret destination.

There was significant security employed to prevent these Tinseltown Trumpsters from suffering the indignity of being outed as supporters of the has-been TV game show host who now play-acts as the Reality TV President. Ed Henry of Fox News reported from the field for Fox and Friends and provided this account of the subterfuge (video below):

“The reason why the Trump campaign is being so tight-lipped with all these details is that you have these critics like Debra Messing basically trying what they say is ‘name and shame’ people. Blacklist people out here in Hollywood if they attend the event. […]

“Critics out here in Hollywood have been threatening to blacklist people – make sure they don’t get hired, they don’t get into pictures – if they show up for a Trump fundraiser. This highlights how ridiculous this has become because this is America. If you wanna support somebody, you wanna give some money, you’re supposed to be able to do that.”

What’s ridiculous about this is Henry’s assertions that people are not able to support the candidate of their choice. For most Americans there is a sense of pride and patriotism associated with their political advocacy. Nobody seems to be reluctant to admit they’re voting for Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Julian Castro, or Kamala Harris. So the take away from Henry’s analysis is that Trump supporters have real reasons to be ashamed of supporting Trump. And he may be right about that.

There is not, however, any truth to the allegation that Debra Messing, or anyone else, is blacklisting Hollywood’s Trump supporters. It’s actually laughable that Messing is alleged to have that kind of power. There is no central authority in showbiz that could execute a blacklist. Indeed, many of the biggest stars are proudly conservative, including Bruce Willis, Tom Selleck, Sylvester Stallone, Patricia Heaton, Kelsey Grammer, Tim Allen, and more. The ones who are whining about being discriminated against are primarily washed-out hacks whose failure is due to their own lack of talent (Antonio Sabato Jr, Scott Baio, Kid Rock, etc).

Henry’s claim that “Critics out here in Hollywood have been threatening to blacklist people” is typical Fox News bullcrap. He can’t cite a single instance of any such threat ever being made by anyone. And insiders know that Hollywood’s colors are neither red nor blue – they’re green. If an actor can sell tickets they get the job. So if Trump supporters insist on anonymity, it’s because of their own shame for backing an ignorant, narcissistic, racist, who embarrasses the nation at every opportunity, cozies up to brutal foreign tyrants, and lies every time he opens his mouth.

No wonder Trump supporters are ashamed. But that’s their problem and has nothing to do with any imaginary, organized, liberal, Hollywood boycott. They are just making excuses for their own insecurity and inability to defend their idiotic political choices. It’s the same sort of derangement that causes right-wingers to whine that they are being banned on social media (they’re not). The Trump cultists are simply too thin-skinned to face reality. That weakness is even more pronounced in the elitist Trumpsters who work in Hollywood. And they call liberals “snowflakes”?

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