Robert Mueller

Trump is STILL Colluding With Russia (and Fox News) to Deny Putin’s Election Interference

Posted by on March 28, 2019 at 9:36 am. 2 Comments :

It’s been four days since the Mueller Report has NOT been released – only the four page cover up by Trump’s plant in the Justice Department, Attorney General William Barr. In that short span of time the right-wing media has been furiously crafting a brazenly false narrative that imagines that Donald Trump was exonerated even though Barr’s letter explicitly denies it and the American people don’t buy it.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

Included in the campaign to vindicate from Trump are demands that the media apologize for accurately reporting about Trump’s crime-riddled administration. Which is ironic since it’s Trump who should be apologizing to special counsel Robert Mueller. For more than two years Trump has engaged in reckless character assassination, accusing Mueller of being a corrupt, dishonest partisan on an illegal witch hunt.

What’s more, the media’s MAGA Martinets are also calling for the President to actually escalate his war against the First Amendment. And perhaps the new king of anti-free press hysterics is the Fox News host of their alleged business channel, Stuart Varney went on an extended rant (video below) that proved nothing except for how valuable psychoactive pharmaceuticals could be if certain unhinged TV yakkers were taking them. Varney began his tirade by saying that:

“Now is the time for a presidential counterpunch. President Trump is good at this. Have a go at him and he’ll come right back at you, big time. Now is the time to counterpunch the media. For two years they’ve let their hatred show. I used to soften that word and say they have contempt for the President. No no, they hate him.”

Isn’t “contempt” actually strong than “hate”? And does Varney really believe that Trump hasn’t already been punching at the press with his Stalinist-inspired denunciations of it as “the enemy of the people” and “the opposition party”? He continued:

“For two years they’ve indulged in a orgy of hatred that colored absolutely everything. For two years they preened themselves, assuming the moral high ground. They’re the elite. They’re above the rest of us. They told us the President of the United States was a Russian agent. They told us he was a traitor. They breathlessly reported the most outrageous statements. They gave themselves prizes. Listen to this. It’s from the Pulitzer Prize awarded jointly to the New York Times and the Washington Post. I’ll read it.”

“For deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election.”

Varney then mocked this tribute as referring to leaks to the press by former FBI director James Comey, and the false allegations against Hillary Clinton for allegedly funding the infamous Steele dossier. What’s peculiar about this is that Varney is attacking the Pulitzer awards for their recognition of reporting on the “Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election,” not the accusations that Trump and his criminal associates conspired with Russia.

Russia’s efforts to illegally influence our election have been documented and affirmed by everyone from the U.S. Intelligence community to the Mueller report, according to Attorney General Barr. But this rabid rundown by Varney is denying that the election interference ever occurred. And Trump posted this video on his Twitter feed. Which can only mean that he is, once again, denying Russia’s involvement in tampering with the election. In that way Trump is still colluding with Russia by taking their side, absolving them of guilt, and making it easier for them repeat their crimes in 2020. Vladimir Putin must be ecstatic.

And Varney wasn’t through. He wrapped up this atrocious gift to our enemies in the Kremlin by lavishing adoring praise on Trump and lashing out again at the media:

“The counterpunch has already started. Good! The Trump campaign has sent a letter to news outlets telling them to employ quote ‘basic journalistic standards’ when booking guests who have made outlandish and false claims. Way to go Mr. President.”

For the record, that letter to TV news outlets was pretty funny. It called on them to refuse to book any guests who had proven themselves to be repeated and unrepentant liars. It singled out politicians like like Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Adam Schiff. But it more accurately described people like Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose absence from the airwaves would make them decidedly more trustworthy.

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

Trump Pumps Fox News Ratings Despite Their Primetime Shows Losing to MSNBC Four Months Straight

Posted by on March 27, 2019 at 11:01 am. 1 Comments :

There is a stench of desperation in seeing a president so brazenly genuflecting to a sycophantic “news” enterprise. Especially one that serves as his personal State TV mouthpiece. But that’s what has transpired between Donald Trump and Fox News. It’s gotten to the point where he appears to be acting more like the president of Fox News PR and Marketing than of the United States. Just last week he posted ten videos of Fox programs touting his eminence.

Donald Trump Sean Hannity

Trump’s devotion to Fox News is so all-consuming that it takes up more than half of his Twitter feed. He tweets more about Fox News than about “witch hunts,” although many of his tweets combine both of those subjects thanks to Fox’s own obsession over that particular conspiracy rant. But on Tuesday Trump took the additional step of bragging on Fox’s behalf about their ratings:

There’s a lot to unpack here. First of all, Trump already declared that the media has lost its credibility many times, going back nearly two years. Secondly, the Mueller investigation that he calls a “witch hunt” has produced dozens of indictments and seven convictions, so far. And with the release of the Barr Letter (allegedly summarizing the Mueller Report), Trump even praised special counsel Robert Mueller as “honorable.” Thirdly – well, we don’t really need to go into the absurdity of Trump’s self characterization as “your all time favorite duly elected President, me!” His historically low approval polling settles that question.

Finally, Trump leaped into the TV marketing and promotions game by hyping what he thinks are good numbers for Fox News. It needs to be noted that that is NOT his job! But he persists in boasting as if Fox’s performance reflects on him personally, which in many ways it does. But his analysis is pitifully ignorant. His assertion that the Mueller news affected the ratings race is based solely on the steam emanating from the various orifices in his head (and perhaps other body parts as well). But more importantly, Mueller has been in the news all month and the ratings over the course of more than just the one day that Trump is focused on tell a completely different story.

For the month of March so far, Rachel Maddow has beaten her competition, Sean Hannity, in the all-important advertising demographic of 25-54 year olds. And in total audience they are separated by a miniscule fifty thousand viewers, with both coming just short of three million on average per night. Longer term, though, Maddow has crushed Hannity for the past four months straight.

So Trump is going out of his way to celebrate the ratings on a single night that has no bearing on the overall ratings picture. It’s what losers in the media do when they haven’t got a real story of success to pitch. And Trump is going all out to help his pals at Fox. He has scheduled his first post-Barr Letter interview for Hannity’s program Wednesday night. Although it’s a stretch to call these love fests interviews since they mainly consist of Hannity feeding Trump narratives he can brag (and lie) about. Undoubtedly the faithfull MAGA cultists will tune in for more of their regularly scheduled propaganda. But the real test will come in the days and weeks following these staged, reality TV style events.And if the past four months is any indicator, we won’t be seeing any more of these Trump pumps on his Twitter feed.

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

FLOP: After Two Years of ‘Witch Hunt’ Smears, Trump Flips, Says Mueller ‘Acted Honorably’

Posted by on March 26, 2019 at 12:33 pm. 2 Comments :

On Tuesday morning Donald Trump once again made the blatantly false assertion that the Mueller report exonerated him. Never mind that neither he, nor the American people, have seen it. His remarks are based solely on the recklessly biased “summary” crafted by his plant in the Justice Department, Attorney General William Barr.

Donald Trump, Witch Hunt

Trump is now telling reporters that “The Mueller report was great. It could not have been better.” He said that just seconds after calling it a “witch hunt.” And once again, he has not seen the report and has no idea what what it says or the evidence it reveals of his criminal activities and obstruction of justice. Some reports say that he didn’t even read Barr’s summary, but was briefed by the White House counsel who read him selected passages.

Nevertheless, Trump and his Martinets of MAGA have been bitterly critical of the Mueller probe. They have incessantly characterized it as a “witch hunt,” a “hoax,” and an “Illegal” attempt to stage a coup against him. Trump’s insults directed at Mueller were shamelessly malicious, particularly considering that Trump’s life of deceit, exploitation, racism, and failure, cannot be compared to Mueller – a true American hero and lifelong public servant.

And yet, in the days before Mueller completed his probe, the StormTrumpers were still banging the drum for Mueller character assassination. And they were furiously determined to undermine the investigation’s credibility. For instance:

  • RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel: This was a politically motivated witch hunt from day one.
  • Trump’s Campaign Team: Democrats allowed this WITCH HUNT to go on for 2 YEARS.
  • Don Trump, Jr: 2 yrs of constant attacks, the largest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.
  • Sen. Rand Paul: I’ve been saying for the last two years this was a partisan witch-hunt without substance.
  • And of course, Donald Trump: This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!

But that was then, and this is now:

Jon Karl, ABC News: Do you think Special Counsel Mueller acted honorably?
Trump: “Yes, he did. Yes, he did.”

It’s striking how effortlessly Trump can glide between such diametrically opposed positions. It’s as if he has no recollection of what he said just a few days (or hours) prior. Or more likely, he simply doesn’t care. All he cares about is what’s in his best interest at the moment. And for someone who has flagrantly lied more than 9,000 times since his inauguration, what else can be expected?

So now Trump, and his defenders in the press and politics, are demanding an apology. For what? Mueller successfully secured thirty-seven indictments and seven convictions, so far. And the asset forfeitures from Paul Manafort alone more than pay for the entire cost of the investigations. The only person who obviously deserves an apology is Mueller. And the same Trump sycophants are insisting in a display of true totalitarianism that anyone who is critical of Trump be banned from the airwaves. However, the criteria proposed would actually end up banning nearly everyone who works in the White House, including Trump.

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

The bottom line is that Donald Trump is fiercely devoted to gaslighting the American people. They can’t believe anything he says. They could not believe his cries of “witch hunt” in the past, and they can’t believe his praise of Mueller now. It won’t last anyway when/if the whole report is released. And Trump is already moving on to new gaslit proclamations with a tweet that declares that “The Republican Party will become ‘The Party of Healthcare!'” This comes just a few hours after his administration announced it would kill healthcare for millions by backing a legal effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) with no alternative. And on it goes.

HAH! Trump Campaign Memo Makes Strong Case for Banning Lying Trump Surrogates from TV

Posted by on March 25, 2019 at 2:38 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s was just two days ago that special counsel Robert Mueller completed his investigation of Donald Trump and the nefarious connections to Russia by the President and his close associates. And it’s been less than twenty-four hours since Attorney General William Barr released his deliberately distorted letter that misrepresented even the few sentence fragments from Mueller’s report that Barr bothered to cite.

Donald Trump

However, that was plenty of time for the Republican Political Machine to contrive their propaganda offensive and to craft a brazenly false narrative that Trump has been exonerated and that his critics are witch hunting liars. The project they rushed to implement included a bizarre memo from Tim Murtaugh, the Director of Communications for Trump’s 2020 campaign. Murtaugh’s memo echoed what most of the GOP Surrogate Squad has been saying: Barr’s letter is “a total and complete vindication of President Donald Trump.” Of course, Mueller’s actually words dispute that. He literally wrote that his report “does not exonerate” Trump, at least with regard to obstruction of justice.

The rest of the memo consisted primarily of a list of Democrats who made truthful statements about Trump and Russia. They included Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Rep. Eric Swalwell, DNC Chair Tom Perez, and former CIA Director John Brennan. Each of them correctly noted that there is abundant evidence that Trump did in fact conspire with Russians to advance his election prospects. Murtaugh sent the memo to TV producers in an effort to poison the media trough by baselessly accusing the Democrats of lying.

Notice that the only argument that Murtaugh makes to support his allegations is what Barr wrote in his highly partisan interpretation of the Mueller report, which he has so far refused to make public. And on the basis of that he asks TV bookers to reconsider inviting Democratic guests for interviews. It’s a familiar dictators’ ploy to silence their opponents by starving them of media exposure. But perhaps the most ludicrous paragraph in the Murtaugh memo was the question that he proposed for TV bookers to ask themselves:

“Does this guest warrant further appearances in our programming, given the outrageous and unsupported claims made in the past.”

That’s a darn good question. The only problem for Trump’s whiny comms director is that if the media takes his advice, and uses that criteria for future bookings, it would be the end of all television appearances for Trump’s senior counsel Kellyanne Conway, his press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, his campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany, his son Don Jr., and pretty much anyone else who works for Trump. They are a team of recidivist liars who, when they aren’t mangling the truth, are feverishly trying to deflect and divert from the topic at hand. And of course, Trump’s record breaking 9,000+ lies would make him off limits for TV bookings.

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

So, come to think of it, this is a pretty good idea. Television news would be far better off without these tale-spinners butchering what should be an informative public discourse. Most of the time their interviews devolve into shouting fits wherein they cravenly try to filibuster the limited time available for their segment and avoid giving any substantive answers. So while Murtaugh meant to impose a thinly disguised demand for censorship, he ended up offering a solution to the pollution on the airwaves by dishonest Trump-fluffers and sycophants. We owe him our thanks.

COVER UP: Barr’s Summary of the Mueller Report on Trump is a Deliberate Distortion of Reality

Posted by on March 25, 2019 at 8:10 am. 1 Comments :

First things first. No matter what Donald Trump and his MAGA Martinets would have you believe, the final report by special counsel Robert Mueller has not been released and what has been released does not exonerate Trump. The summary written by Trump’s intensely partisan Attorney General William Barr was purposefully crafted to sweep the facts under the rug and consequently does not vindicate the president.

Donald Trump, Robert Mueller

The simple fact that we know nothing more today than we knew yesterday is not going to stop Trump’s legions from spinning a baseless fairy tale of his virgin purity. However, we need to remember two critical facts: 1) Mueller secured dozens of indictments for hundreds of crimes with seven felony convictions so far; and 2) that Barr is the AG who Trump hand-picked due to his publicly expressed views opposing the special counsel and supporting an expansive interpretation of presidential powers.

With specific reference to the letter that Barr sent to Congress, he quoted very little from Mueller’s actual report. And what he cherry-picked was conspicuously aligned with his preconceptions. For instance, according to Barr, Mueller found that there was a campaign of disinformation by Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, something Trump has vehemently denied. And yet, in Barr’s retelling he did not find that any “U.S. person or Trump campaign official or associate conspired or knowingly coordinated” with Russia in those efforts.

But all this tells us is that Mueller didn’t establish such coordination, not that it didn’t happen, or even that there isn’t considerable evidence to suspect it. That’s why it’s so important to see the whole Mueller report so we know precisely what his investigation uncovered, as opposed to Barr’s interpretation. And with the qualification of “knowingly” conspiring, Barr leaves out the obvious encouragement by Trump of Russia’s activities through and his defense of the allegations against his pal Vladimir Putin.

Mueller also concluded that “Russian government actors successfully hacked into computers and obtained emails” from the Clinton campaign and the DNC, which were disseminated by WikiLeaks. Trump actually praised these flagrant violations of federal law. So these activities can still constitute crimes that may not have been committed in conjunction with the Russian government, but with outside players like Wikileaks and others with affiliations to Russia.

With regard to obstruction of justice, Mueller was clear that evidence existed that pointed to Trump’s guilt. But for some reason he backed off making a judgment. He wrote that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” That is in direct contradiction to Trump’s self-serving response following the release of Barr’s summary wherein he falsley claimed that Mueller’s report (which he hasn’t seen) proved “there was no collusion with Russia, there was no obstruction whatsoever,” and it was a “complete and total exoneration.” None of which is true based on anything in Barr’s letter. Trump further portrayed himself as a paranoid victim of an “illegal takedown” and called for totalitarian-style investigations of Mueller’s probe, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, James Comey, the FISA court and others in what he derisively called “the other side.” Trump still seeks to divide America with that rhetoric.

Both Barr and Trump have flagrantly spun what little was revealed of the Mueller report. But that only leaves us with more questions than answers. It is already known that Trump admitted on national television to obstructing justice by firing FBI director James Comey. Likewise it’s known that Trump’s son, son-in-law, and campaign chairman met with Russians in Trump Tower to acquire Hillary Clinton’s stolen emails. And the coordination with Wikileaks, who sourced their info from Russian operatives, is also on the public record. So even if Trump didn’t personally conspire with Russia (which cannot be dismissed), many of his surrogates did, and they lied about it until evidence forced them to come clean.

At the very least, Trump aided and abetted Russia’s documented efforts to interfere with the election in order to propel Trump to victory. He did so by openly encouraging Russia to continue their nefarious activities. He did so by denying that Russia’s criminal acts occurred even after his own intelligence agencies affirmed them. And he failed to shore up the nation’s defenses against further such interference that is still going on to this day. For these reasons it is imperative that Mueller’s full report be made public so that the American people can see all the evidence that he compiled and not have to rely on the prejudicial conclusions of Trump’s conflicted Attorney General.

The American people are not going to be satisfied by Barr’s biased appraisal of data he is plainly slanting while refusing to disclose it to the public. That is ironically spelled out in stark terms in a new poll by Fox News. The hostility directed at Mueller by the Trump contingent who disparaged him as a “Deep State” villain engaged in a “Witch Hunt” makes their newfound confidence in him surreal, and disingenuous and cult-like in the squishyness of their principles.

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

Before this is over Trump should be shamed into apologizing to Mueller for maligning his character for the past two years. And if Republican politicians and pundits want to rest on Mueller’s report as evidence that the President is innocent of impeachable offences, they need to reverse course on smearing him and join the call for his report to be released in full. What’s more, they need to cooperate with congressional inquiries that have a different mandate and are more directly answerable to “We the People.”

Trump Babbles From His Bunker as FOX News Poll Blisters Him on Mueller, the Border, and More

Posted by on March 24, 2019 at 12:11 pm. 1 Comments :

The report by special counsel Robert Mueller has been delivered to Attorney General William Barr. None of it has been released to the White House, the Congress, or the people. But that hasn’t stopped feverish exclamations by devoted Trump-fluffers who insist that Trump has been exonerated despite the fact that they know no more today than they did yesterday.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Fake

The Trump cult is already making ludicrous demands for apologies to the President who is still facing criminal investigations from at least seventeen separate agencies. Never mind that it is Mueller who deserves the apology from Trump, who has been viciously maligning him for the past two years. Mueller, however, has not been intimidated. He has secured dozens of indictments, and seven guilty verdicts from among Trump’s closest associates.

In the meantime, Trump has burrowed himself into his Mar-a-Lago bunker with wealthy comrades and bootlicking politicians (Lindsey Graham) and celebrities (Kid Rock?). He didn’t even tweet for forty hours (a new record?) following the completion of the Mueller probe. And then he just seemed to have a fit of MAGA Tourette’s Syndrome with a cognitively detached, all-caps shout of his branded slogan, “make America great again.”

Trump’s Twitter silence signifies that something extraordinary is afoot. Either he knows that the Mueller report contains more incriminating revelations, or he dropped his phone in the toilet while attempting to rage-tweet about “fake news.” Or maybe he got an early warning about the new poll by his favorite cable news network, Fox News. Because the results from that survey are devastating.

The least surprising data from the poll is that Trump continues to languish as the most unpopular president in modern times. His approval rating is a dismal forty-six percent, with a majority fifty-one percent who disapprove. But when we dig deeper into other opinions and policies, things get even darker for Trump.

Fifty-one percent of Americans are against Trump’s idiotic vanity wall on the southern border. And his declaration of a phony national emergency to fund it has a disapproval of fifty-nine percent, with only thirty-six percent in favor That’s a twenty-three percent deficit.

With regard to the Mueller investigation, a majority of fifty-two percent approve of it, and a whopping eighty percent want it to be released publicly. The American people have far greater trust for Mueller (45%) than for Trump (29%), even after his prolonged campaign of character assassination. And a plurality of forty-four percent believe that Trump conspired with Russia, while an outright majority of fifty-two percent say that he has obstructed the investigation.

Once again, this is the latest poll from Fox News! Trump has also been faring poorly with his approval rating at the ultra-biased, right-wing pollster, Rasmussen Reports where he now sits at a pitiful forty-five percent. A month ago he was bragging about Rasmussen’s approval rating, but it’s unlikely he’ll be doing that now.

With the Mueller report still under wraps, the undisguised glee among the StormTrumpers is both puzzling yet typical of a community of cult followers who only see the good in their Dear Leader and dismiss reality when it doesn’t conform with their delusional world view. The actual report may indeed provide some relief to the President. However, no one but Mueller and AG Barr know that at the moment. And a better analysis of the situation was offered by Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who said that:

“There’s a difference between compelling evidence of collusion and whether the special counsel concludes that he can prove beyond a reasonable doubt the criminal charge of conspiracy.”

So even if Mueller’s conclusions fail to suggest that an indictment would be warranted, there is still plenty of cause to continue investigating and even to consider impeachment, which relies on a completely different set of standards. And the woefully premature celebrations by Trump’s wingnutty disciples just seem to be more worthy of ridicule with each passing hour. Ironically, it’s Trump who is demonstrating the appropriate measure of discretion by keeping his mouth shut – for a change. But don’t expect that to last.

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

Who’s Sorry Now? Trump-Fluffers Want an Apology From Mueller, But It’s Mueller Who Deserves One

Posted by on March 23, 2019 at 8:58 am. 3 Comments :

On Friday afternoon the long-awaited report from special counsel Robert Mueller on Donald Trump’s collusion with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election was released to Attorney General William Barr. Early reporting suggests that there are no further indictments expected, at least from the Office of the Special Counsel.

Robert Mueller Trump

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t potential crimes that Trump can still be charged with by a U.S. Attorney, a state prosecutor, or Congress. Only that Mueller has chosen not to pursue them himself. And that may just reflect Mueller’s strict adherence to Justice Department guidance that a sitting president may not be indicted. Even though that’s not a law and isn’t legally binding.

Almost simultaneous to the report’s release, right wingers and Trump supporters began their woefully premature celebration, believing naively that the whole affair was over. In fact there are at least seventeen other active investigations in progress. But chief among the plaintive cries of Trump’s adoring cultists is a bizarre demand for an apology from – well, they don’t really say. Presumably Mueller, or the Democrats, or the media, or the Guardians of the Secret Society of the Deep State.

But of course, investigators who successfully filed hundreds of valid charges, resulting in thirty-seven indictments, and obtained seven convictions of high profile Trump associates, don’t owe anyone an apology. Most of those convictions came from guilty pleas by Trump’s inner circle comrades like his National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and his personal attorney Michael Cohen.

But that hasn’t stopped the flurry of furious apology seekers. It began shortly after the news that Mueller had given his report to AG Barr. The first question asked of Sen. Chuck Schumer was if Trump is owed an apology. Schumer replied that “we should wait for the full report to be made public.” Kimberley Strassel of the Wall Street Journal wondered “when Americans can expect an apology from all those who spent two years getting it breathlessly, abjectly and irresponsibly wrong.” Which is an assessment that is completely removed from reality. The Washington Times seemed troubled that “Adam Schiff makes no apologies for investigating Trump.” Which might be because his investigations are still proceeding. In a segment with Lou Dobbs of Fox News, Tom Fitton of the ultra-rightist Judicial Watch was elated that “the long national nightmare is over.” He opined that the Mueller report should include an apology to Trump. There were even a couple of loopy twidiots who proffered that it’s Russia who is owed an apology.

However, there is one party to this matter who was conspicuously out of line and thoroughly insulting and defamatory. One person whose boorish behavior and deliberate lies demands he be required to apologize. And that’s Donald Trump. For nearly two years Trump has maligned Mueller in the most intimidating and disgraceful manner. Typical of his abuse was this frantic tweet:

Trump squeezed pretty much every one of his tediously robotic whines into that one onerous outburst. But there were many more than one. Trump has tweeted relentlessly on this subject with bitterly personal disparagements of Mueller and his team. For instance:

  • There were thirty-eight tweets referencing the allegedly “angry Democrats” who Trump believed were engaged in “presidential harassment” (aka accountability).
  • There were thirty more mentioning a “Witch Hunt.”
  • He connected Hillary Clinton to the probe twenty times.
  • Trump alleged that Mueller was “conflicted” sixteen times.
  • And that his probe was “illegal” ten times.
  • James Comey’s role was mentioned eleven times.
  • The infamous Steele dossier got nine citations.
  • And on nine other occasions Trump just called the whole thing “disgraceful.”

Robert Mueller, is a life-long Republican and a true American hero. He was a Marine enlistee who served with distinction in Vietnam. He was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, two Navy Commendation Medals and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. All the while Trump was struggling to obtain five draft deferments and suffering from alleged “bone spurs” that no doctor has confirmed. Mueller then spent the majority of the rest of his career in public service and law enforcement as an attorney in the Department of Justice and Director of the FBI.

That’s the man that Trump slandered as a conflicted, illegal, disgraceful, witch hunter. And now that Mueller has delivered a report that doesn’t exhibit any signs of being “rigged” or tainted by bias of any kind, shouldn’t Trump apologize to him for two years of smears and character assassination, all fabricated to cover up his own criminality? Will Trump express any regret or ask for forgiveness.

Well, he never apologized for his racist lies about President Obama’s birth, or his insults to Sen. John McCain for having been captured in Vietnam, or for assaulting at least sixteen women, or for failing to condemn neo-Nazis. So it would not be advisable to hold one’s breath in anticipation of an apology for this. Trump just doesn’t have the character or morality to ever do the right thing.

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

Delusional Trump Desperately Embraces ‘Witch Hunt’ Poll that He Utterly Fails to Understand

Posted by on March 18, 2019 at 2:02 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s hard out here for a pompous narcissist. Donald Trump lives for positive validation from whatever ignorant or corrupt source he can scrape it off of – Vladimir Putin, Rush Limbaugh, white nationalists, etc. But given the massive failure of his bizarro administration, kind words and tributes are hard to justify unless you’re a dedicated Fox News Trump-fluffer.

Donald Trump

Consequently, Trump resorts to exalting himself every chance he gets. Much of that is done by posting videos by his favorite Fox News bootlickers and retweeting Pizzagate conspiracy crackpots who have an undying adoration for their Dear Leader.

Trump is also fond of spotlighting polls that he thinks put him in a positive light. More often than not, they don’t. For instance, Trump frequently boasts that the ultra-biased, right-wing pollster, Rasmussen, ranks his approval rating highly. But while Rasmussen’s results are always better for Trump than reputable pollsters, they are almost always below fifty percent. How is that brag-worthy?

On Monday morning Trump wandered off the ranch to find a poll by a source that he commonly refers to as “fake news.” The Suffolk/USA Today poll posted a result that tickled Trump’s ego bone. So he rushed to tweet out the news that he actually believes makes him look good:

Wow, indeed! The first thing of note about this is that it’s just one poll. Most other recent polls show that the American people trust Robert Mueller and believe his investigation is fair and warranted. They even believe convicted liar, Michael Cohen, more than they believe Trump. However, even with regard to this poll, Trump is reading it selectively and ignoring any part of it that doesn’t feed his monstrous appetite for acclamation. According to USA Today, the poll also found that:

“The survey shows a nation that remains skeptical of Trump’s honesty and deeply divided by his leadership. A 52 percent majority say they have little or no trust in the president’s denials that his 2016 campaign colluded with Moscow in the election that put him in the Oval Office.”

So a majority of respondents do not believe Trump’s denials of collusion. And the fifty percent who say that the Mueller probe is a “Witch Hunt” – versus forty-seven percent who say it isn’t – needs to be put into context. There’s a three percent margin of error, so the poll could just as likely be fifty percent saying they don’t believe it’s a witch hunt, and only forty-seven percent who do. Either way, an overwhelming majority of eighty-two percent say it is important that the report be made public. This is the report that Trump recently tweeted should not even exist.

The reason Trump is so afraid of the Mueller report is not because he knows what’s in it. It’s because he knows what he has done. And if the truth comes out, he knows he’s screwed bigly. So he latches onto these distortions of reality as a defense mechanism because, otherwise, he couldn’t face the harshness of the real world and its consequences for being a deceitful, corrupt, self-obsessed, aspiring tyrant. So he spins reality in a way that makes it possible for him to survive, while also giving his Deplorables their own mental life preservers. Welcome to the world of cult psychology.

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

Trump’s Fox News Addiction is Eating Away at His (and All Fox Viewers’) Few Remaining Brain Cells

Posted by on March 16, 2019 at 11:56 am. 3 Comments :

It’s Saturday and time for another episode of The Donald Trump Weekend Tweetstorm. This is how Trump spends most of his time – Watching Fox News and posting only the most obsequious videos that mindlessly profess an undying adoration for Dear Leader.

Donald Trump, Fox News

This is the behavior of a malignant narcissist who is frightened and dependent on constant positive reinforcement to prevent him from suffering mental seizures that result in more all-caps rage-tweeting.

The morning began with a shout out to 2018’s undisputed “Most Deranged Lunatic on Fox News,” Lou Dobbs, who believes that the United Nations is trying to take over the world and that special counsel Robert Mueller is trying to kill Trump. In this clip Dobbs drools over the “emotional ceremony in the White House” where Trump vetoed the bipartisan bill to reject his unconstitutional declaration of a national emergency. His guest is a regular Fox Trump-fluffer who repeatedly exalts Trump as a “great president.”

That nauseating spectacle was followed by one that puts it to shame on the Nauseous Scale. Once again, it’s Lou Dobbs, but this time hosting those brilliant political gurus, Diamond & Silk. Does Fox really consider these helium-noggins to be legitimate news analysts? Dobbs lauds Trump’s signing of his first veto and then asks the pair of cartoonish crackpots for their loopy thoughts. This leads to a predictably smarmy display of cringeworthy bootlicking wherein Demean & Sulk lambaste the Republicans who voted against the national emergency hysteria as “swampettes.”

After that embarrassment, Trump interrupted his video montage with a dumbass statement all his own:

Note that Trump is actually bragging that he told Republican members of Congress to lie in order to “look good” since this constitutional issue is just a “game” to him. He’s also asserting that he has such complete control of his party’s congressional delegation that he can order them on how to vote. What’s more, he knew that his top sycophant in the senate, Lindsey Graham, was going to block the measure anyway when it reached that body.

So that brings us to Trump’s posting of a clip from the Fox News show they call “Outnumbered,” because it pits four ultra-rightist women against one equally wingnutty man. On this episode the token male was also a token Democrat, very rarely seen on this program. But no worries, because they wouldn’t even let him talk. And that was demonstrated in the video that Trump posted. He sat there smiling uncomfortably while co-host Kennedy ranted about the FBI not reviewing the contents of Hillary Clinton’s computers (which they actually did review).

Next up was a tweet that was just a propaganda photo-op of Trump signing his first veto. He surely regards this as a historical moment where he defies the will of the Congress and the American people who oppose both his idiotic vanity wall, and his phony national emergency to fund it.

Finally, Trump posted another video from Fox News (does he ever do anything else but watch Fox?) featuring Fox and Friends co-host Ed Henry and former GOP chair of the House intelligence Committee, Jason Chaffetz, who is now a Fox contributor. They ran through some of Trump’s favorite “Witch Hunt” fear mongering that imagined FBI conspiracies and returned to the undying GOP fantasy of Hillary Clinton’s evil empire that enabled her to escape prison. Even after hundreds of hours of hearings and testimony by Republican controlled committees, as well as the efforts of Trump’s own Department of Justice.

This avalanche of derp on an otherwise pleasant Saturday morning is further proof of Trump’s declining psychological state. Never mind that he insists the nation is in the midst of a national emergency due to an invasion at the southern border, that North Korea is ready to nuke us, that the Deep State is plotting a coup, or that white nationalists are murdering innocent churchgoers. These are the things that Trump is spending his time on. And these are the things that all Fox News viewers are being directed to pay special attention to.

It’s enough to convince you that there really is a national emergency, and that right at this very moment it’s laying in bed with a sweaty remote in one hand and a Big Mac in the other, trying to get Sean Hannity or Vladimir Putin on the phone.

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

LATE BREAKING: Trump dusted off his Twitter machine for one more comment that marks a new low, even for him:

So now he’s taking shots at a Senator/veteran who passed away and can’t defend himself. And what he’s upset about is the Steele dossier (much of which has been proven to be accurate), and John McCain’s principled vote to prevent Trump and the GOP from taking healthcare away from millions of Americans. You really have to try hard to be this disgusting.

Devastating Poll: More Americans Believe Convicted Liar Michael Cohen than Donald Trump

Posted by on March 5, 2019 at 1:03 pm. 4 Comments :

In more than two years as President, Donald Trump’s approval rating has never risen above fifty percent. It’s a singular achievement in failure that no other president in history can claim. He is unchallenged as the most unpopular president ever. And yet, in his fantasy bubble world he still believes (and tweets) that he is universally beloved.

Donald Trump

Trump is so delusional that he frequently refers to himself as “your favorite president” in tweets (here and here and here and here and here and here and here). However, the truth is hard to avoid considering the wealth of data that exposes how reviled he is by everyone other than his Deplorable base. And a new poll by Quinnipiac University really drives home the point in a brutal way that will surely trigger spasms from the Twitterer-in-Chief.

Quinnipiac asked 1,120 voters “In general, who do you believe more: President Trump or Michael Cohen?” Fully half of the respondents said they believe Cohen more. Only thirty-five percent said they believe Trump. Let’s put that in perspective. It’s a pretty crushing judgment when a president is viewed as less believable than a confessed, convicted liar. But then again, we’re talking here about a president who has been documented to have lied more than 9,000 times since his inauguration.

Making matters worse, a plurality (44-36) say that “Cohen told the truth during his testimony before the U.S. House Oversight Committee.” In addition, a plurality of forty-one percent approve of the way Democrats handled the Cohen hearing. But a majority disapprove of the Republicans’ antics. And a broad majority (58-35) say that “Congress should do more to investigate Michael Cohen’s claims about President Trump’s unethical and illegal behavior.” And sixty-five percent say that Trump is not honest.

There’s a lot of other bad news for Trump in this poll. Overall, his approval rating is a dismal thirty-eight percent. He’s underwater on the questions of leadership skills, caring about average Americans, foreign policy, and immigration. Fully seventy-one percent say that he’s a bad role model for kids.

What’s more fifty-four percent say that special counsel Robert Mueller is “conducting a fair investigation.” Sixty-four percent say that “Trump committed crimes before he was president.” And a plurality of forty-five percent say he committed crimes while president.

Considering how furiously Trump has been trying to malign Democrats, Mueller, and what he calls the “Russia Witch Hunt Hoax,” these poll results reveal that his efforts have been profoundly unsuccessful. The majority of the American people are clearly unwilling to succumb to his lies and flagrant distortions of reality. And they haven’t been distracted by his attempts at misdirection (i.e. border walls, North Korea) or his retaliatory attacks on his political opponents and the media.

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

In fact, Trump’s wild flailing only serves to make him look more desperate, frightened, and guilty. While it might make him feel better, and fire up his most devoted cult followers, it is having zero impact on the electorate at large. Which will make it that much easier to hold him accountable via congressional investigations, special counsel and U.S. Attorney probes, and maybe even impeachment. Hopefully his day of reckoning will come before he does much more harm.