Campaign 2016

Donald Trump Obsesses Over Hillary Clinton’s Past But Considers His Own Off Limits

Posted by on May 14, 2016 at 2:55 pm. 6 Comments :

The issue that Donald Trump has made the centerpiece of campaign against Hillary Clinton has been the timeworn marital difficulties she and her husband endured in the 1990s. Trump glommed onto this issue in response to Clinton’s advocacy of women’s rights in contrast to his own overt misogyny and his opposition to the reforms that matter most to women.

Donald Trump

Trump bitterly complained about Clinton asserting that he has “a penchant for sexism” and responded by accusing her of playing The Woman Card. But his defense rested entirely on dredging up the distant past of Bill Clinton’s infidelities and some baseless accusations that Hillary destroyed the lives of the women involved. He clearly doesn’t understand the nature of women’s issues or why they hate him so much. And despite Trump’s hyperbolic ranting that Bill Clinton was “the worst abuser of women in the history of politics,” a Fox News poll found that when women were asked who they thought was “more respectful of women” – Bill Clinton or Donald Trump – they responded overwhelming that it was Bill Clinton (55% to 31%).

Nevertheless, Trump continues to sharpen his attacks on Clinton’s past with every stump speech he delivers and every phone-in interview he gives to the media. This obsession with the past has now come back to haunt him. An audio from the 1990s has emerged that features Trump pretending to be his own fictional publicist. It was recorded for an interview with People Magazine. Trump is denying that the voice on the recording is his, but all the evidence suggests that he’s lying.

First of all, it sounds exactly like him and he repeatedly uses jargon that is unique and identifiable. In addition, the reporter from People Magazine says that not only was she certain that it was Trump, but that he admitted it afterwards saying that it was joke. Finally, CNN had a voice expert compare the recording to known recordings Trump and he said, with scientific certainty, that it was Trump. In response to the abundance of proof that Trump did perpetrate this fraud, and is lying about it now, Trump complained that…

“You’re going so low to talk about something that took place 25 years ago whether or not I made a phone call? Let’s get on to more current subjects.”

Alrighty then. Presumably Trump will stop talking about the Clintons’ past marital troubles that took place 25 years ago. And if you believe that, then you’re already gullible enough to be a Trump supporter. And like most Trump supporters, it doesn’t bother you that your candidate assumed fake identities to brag about his business and sexual conquests, or lied about doing so when he was caught.

There are real differences between the old Clinton news and the old Trump news. The old Clinton news is not actually news. It has been known for decades. It also does not reflect on her behavior or credibility as a public leader. In fact, it ought to be regarded as a measure of honor that she and Bill managed to repair their marriage, respect their vows, and preserve their family. On the other hand, Trump’s news is indeed relevant today because it has never been revealed before. It’s actually news. And it plainly reflects on his character, defining him as a deceitful impostor and a liar.

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

It would nice if, the next time Trump goes off on the Clinton affairs, the media reminds him that he said that such past occurrences were “going so low” and should be dismissed in favor of “more current subjects.” Somehow I think that may be too much to expect from the media that made Trump in the first place. They have yet to learn the most basic lessons on how to interview him. Like preventing him from dodging questions, changing subjects, and filibustering with irrelevant trivialities. So that would be nice too.

Donald Trump Channels Sarah Palin In Incoherent Anti-Amazon.com Rant

Posted by on May 13, 2016 at 1:26 pm. 2 Comments :

In the past year Sean Hannity has hosted Donald Trump more than any other candidate for president. In fact, Trump’s visits account for about a third of the time of all candidate appearances on the program. So no one will be surprised that Trump was Hannity’s guest again last night (video below) giving him an opportunity to lash out at a media critic with his trademark hollow bluster.

Donald Trump Sarah Palin

It’s fair to say that Trump is never particularly rational in his tirades against critics. He generally avoids factual arguments and sticks with childish insults and irrelevancies that distract from the main issue. But in last night’s performance Trump ventured further off into confused hysteria that sounded more like one of Sarah Palin’s disjointed word salad babbling. The only way to properly convey the deranged oration is to let Trump do it himself. Here is what he told Hannity about his theory that Jeff Bezos, owner of both Amazon.com and the Washington Post, is engaged in a conspiracy against him in order to avoid paying taxes and preserve his alleged monopoly.

Trump: It’s interesting that you say that, because every hour we’re getting calls from reporters from The Washington Post, asking ridiculous questions, and I will tell you this is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos, who controls Amazon. Amazon is getting away with murder, tax-wise. He’s using The Washington Post for power, so the politicians in Washington don’t tax Amazon like they should be taxed. He’s getting absolutely away — he’s worried about me, and I think he said that to somebody, it was in some article, where he thinks I would go after him for anti-trust, because he’s got a huge anti-trust problem because he’s controlling so much. Amazon is controlling so much of what they’re doing, and what they’ve done is he bought this paper for practically nothing, and he’s using that as a tool for political power, against me and against other people and I’ll tell you what, we can’t let him get away with it. So he’s got about 20, 25, I just heard they’re taking these really bad stories — I mean they’re, you know, wrong – I don’t even say bad, they’re wrong and in many cases, they have no proper information and they’re putting them together, they’re slopping them together, and they’re going to do a book and the book is going to be all false stuff, because the stories are so wrong and the reporters, I mean, one after another — so what they’re doing is he’s using that as a political instrument to try and stop anti-trust, which he thinks I believe he’s anti-trust, in other words what he’s got is a monopoly and he wants to make sure I don’t get in. So, it’s one of those things, but I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what, what he’s doing’s wrong and the people are being — the whole system is rigged. You see a case like that, the whole system is rigged, whether it’s Hillary or whether it’s Bezos.

Sheesh, take a breath. Trump speaks like a paranoid schizophrenic in run-on sentences that weave around poorly expressed and incomplete thoughts. His fear that Bezos is coming after him is rooted in sheer delusion. Trump doesn’t say how Amazon is a monopoly, an assertion that ignores the reality of the online consumer goods market that includes behemoths like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, Macy’s and many more. Nor does he explain the tax issue, although it is likely related to the collection of sales taxes from which all online enterprises are exempt under certain circumstances. Is Trump proposing to eliminate that popular exemption? He does go on at length, though, about the sloppiness of the Post’s proposed book that he hasn’t seen and hasn’t even been written.

Of course, the attacks on Amazon are just Trump’s way of retaliating against the Washington Post, whose Associate Editor Bob Woodward recently disclosed that “We have 20 people working on Trump, we’re going to do a book, we’re doing articles about every phase of his life” This is nothing unusual in the ordinary course of vetting candidates for high office and the Post is doing the same for Hillary Clinton. But from Trump’s perspective it’s an unholy invasion of privacy and a flagrant political attack. Consequently, an hysterical Trump aims both intellectually empty barrels at, not just the Post, but Amazon and its CEO Bezos. And fanboy Hannity’s response: “Wow!”

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

Fox News “Psycho” Analyst: Donald Trump’s Narcissism Is Exactly What America Needs

Posted by on May 12, 2016 at 7:47 pm. 7 Comments :

Keith Ablow, a member of the Fox News Medical A-Team, has never been shy about taking absurd positions that make a mockery of the psychiatric calling that he pretends to represent. Some of his past adventures in malpractice include his charges that President Obama was waging psychological warfare on the American people, that Newt Gingrich was honorable for being unfaithful to multiple wives, and my personal favorite, he actually praised the Unabomber’s sociopathic philosophy. And now he is applying his remote diagnostic “skills” to the presumptuous Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump.

Fox News Keith Ablow

Ablow was a guest on Fox & Friends to explain his latest theory on the psychology of leadership. He was introduced by host Steve Doocy who said:

“Conservatives, and some liberals alike, continuing to slam presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump for being narcissistic, but is being narcissistic necessarily a bad trait for the president to have?”

In Ablow’s view, Trump’s narcissism is an asset that will benefit the nation that he says is “emerging from eight years of self-loathing.” Furthermore, he asserts that Trump’s “narcissism is deeply entwined with a love for America.” According to Ablow’s perverse logic, narcissism is pretty much the same thing as patriotism. This is a concept he expanded on in an op-ed for the Fox News website. Ablow associated Trump’s self-love with “loving his freedom to speak bluntly, in loving his freedom to own property…”

However, what Ablow is describing is not narcissism. his remarks seem to suggest that he has no idea what the term means. It’s possible to appreciate free speech and property ownership without being a narcissist – as most Americans can tell you. The Mayo Clinic defines Narcissistic Personality Disorder as…

“…a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of ultraconfidence lies a fragile self-esteem that’s vulnerable to the slightest criticism.”

By that definition Trump appears to be a textbook example of a narcissist. He never stops talking about how awesome he thinks he is (even when it’s entirely undeserved) and how much he imagines everyone loves him. And his aversion to criticism is revealed in every hostile (and juvenile) tweet he posts whenever someone dares to be less than totally devoted to him.

What’s more, Ablow ignores negative traits, such as lacking empathy, that make narcissists wholly unfit for leadership roles. Their agenda would always be focused on how it benefits them, without regard for anyone else. The best leaders would actually reverse those traits and make the pursuit of helping others their primary objective.

Ablow has demonstrated that he qualifies as a loyal Trump toady. In his op-ed he praised Trump effusively saying that “Donald Trump is John Wayne. Donald Trump is Babe Ruth.” That praise is itself revealing. Notice that Ablow likened Trump to an actor and an athlete rather than to governing icons like Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln. And he has been bitterly opposed to President Obama for years, even referring to him as a toxic virus from which our children must be immunized.

But Ablow has also demonstrated that he does not qualify as a reputable psychiatrist. This isn’t just because he doesn’t know what a narcissist is, or because his deep hatred and bias against Obama taints his analysis of everything he says. It’s because he uses his personal prejudice as a cudgel to attack those with whom he disagrees. And he is so determined to insult and defame his perceived enemies that he abandons all reason and logic. That’s why he can exalt Donald Trump for being a narcissist, while disparaging Obama for the same thing, as he did a few years ago. When Obama was running for reelection in 2012, Ablow condemned him saying:

“We’ve never had a self-regarding narcissist quite like the Oval Office’s current occupant.”

At the time, Ablow considered that an argument against voting for Obama’s second term. But now he is looking forward to having Donald Trump, a narcissist of his liking, in the Oval Office and arguing that his narcissism is an affirmative reason to give him your vote. That’s just crazy. I’m tempted to cite the old biblical proverb “physician, heal thyself,” but in Ablow’s case I wouldn’t recommend it. His psychological infirmity is so profound that he should make the effort to find someone who isn’t a quack.

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

Donald Trump Still Doesn’t Understand Why Women Hate Him

Posted by on May 8, 2016 at 12:55 pm. 6 Comments :

When Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president his unfavorable rating among women was an already dismal 58%. In the intervening months as he campaigned it has gotten considerably worse, rising to an unprecedented 70% unfavorable. And through it all, Trump has demonstrated that he has absolutely no idea why he is hated so much by America’s women.

Donald Trump Pig

In another of his rambling, rancid stump speeches (which he promised would be more presidential), Trump attempted to address his female problems by attacking Hillary Clinton’s past tribulations with her husband Bill. Apparently Trump still thinks that the former President’s infidelities reflect badly on her. However, the public doesn’t blame Hillary for Bill’s bad behavior, and raising the issue is more likely to bring her sympathy from other women.

So Trump is diverting to a new path aimed at accusing Clinton of ruining the lives of Bill’s booty calls. Trump complained that “they’re going after ME with women?” Then he told his glassy-eyed disciples that…

“She’s been the total enabler. She would go after these women and destroy their lives. She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful.”

First of all, anything Hillary said about the situation was said at a time when she believed the allegations against her husband were false. She was defending him from what appeared to be political hit jobs. But more to the point, she never said anything that could be remotely described as nasty or destructive. There’s a reason that Trump doesn’t provide any examples to support his attack – they don’t exist.

For Trump, on the other hand, the evidence of his misogyny is voluminous. His attacks on Megyn Kelly, Carly Fiorina, Elizabeth Warren, Rosie O’Donnell, Arianna Huffington, etc., are unarguably nasty and intended to cause harm. And unlike Clinton, Trump himself was the unfaithful person in his multiple marriages. He boasted in public of his infidelities.

But these personal incidents are not even what defines someone’s support for women in a political context. Trump’s new attack strategy is more proof that he continues to misunderstand what constitutes women’s issues. He is reducing it to the bad behavior of an individual. But when you take in the more expansive view of social equality, it has to be noted that it’s Hillary and Bill Clinton who support a woman’s right to choose, equal pay, prohibiting discrimination based on gender, support for victims of abuse, and family leave and child care. Those are actual women’s issues, not some guy being a horndog, and Donald Trump opposes them all – and is also a horndog.

For the record, when a poll was conducted earlier this year asking who is “more respectful of women” – Bill Clinton or Donald Trump – respondents overwhelming chose Bill Clinton (55% to 31%). And that was a Fox News poll.

In the battle for family values, Donald Trump cannot possibly prevail. He is a brutish hate monger who has repeatedly demonstrated a raging chauvinism that has been corroborated by his personal behavior. His defense often rests on the support he gets from his current wife and daughter, as if that validated anything. And don’t forget, we’re talking about the daughter that he wants to bang.

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

Will The Presidential Debate Commission Stand Up To Donald Trump’s Bullying?

Posted by on May 7, 2016 at 12:17 pm. 6 Comments :

Now that Donald Trump has been designated the “presumptuous” nominee of the Republican Party, it is a good time to look ahead to the debates that have been scheduled by the bipartisan Commission On Presidential Debates (CPD). If the recent history of candidate debates within the Republican Party is any guide, Trump’s contribution to the general election match ups could wind up turning the events into feral spectacles of crass immaturity and an avoidance of substance – i.e. pro-wrestling on meth.

Clinton Trump fight

The CPD has been responsible for managing these debates since 1988. It was formed “to ensure that the voting public has the opportunity to see the leading candidates debate during the general election campaign” in an environment that “is not controlled by any political party or outside organization.” While it has not always been a perfect solution, it has provided some measure of independence to prevent the candidates from dominating the process for their own benefit. This year, more than most, there is a significant threat to the independence of the debates as a fair and open discourse that informs voters. That threat is Donald Trump.

Throughout the GOP primary, Trump has forced himself and his rapacious self-interest on the candidates and the media participating in the party debates. Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, has made a determined effort to turn the debates into PR vehicles for the party by proclaiming that “allowing moderators who are not serving the best interests of the candidate and the party” is “ridiculous.” But that explicit endorsement of bias wasn’t enough for Trump who continued to strive to dominate the process and often got his way. He even refused to negotiate in concert with his party peers, preferring to conduct his own negotiations with the debate organizers and sponsors. Subsequently, Trump’s tantrums succeeded in forcing the RNC and the media to capitulate to his will on several occasions. For instance:

  • Following a contentious debate on CNBC, Trump’s complaints led the RNC to cancel any debates scheduled to be hosted by NBC, which is actually a different network with different management and moderators.
  • With regard to the CNBC debate, Trump’s whining successfully resulted in the debate hosts cutting the planned event from three hours to two in order to accommodate Trump’s lack of stamina and fear of having to answer questions.
  • After the conservative magazine National Review published a special issue that was critical of Trump, the RNC succumbed to his hissy fit by prohibiting the magazine from co-sponsoring a debate with CNN as scheduled.
  • Before the New Hampshire primary Trump exercised his virtual veto power over the New Hampshire Union Leader, the largest newspaper in the state, who was dropped as co-host of an ABC debate after they published an unflattering editorial about Trump.
  • Trump attempted to force the RNC to cancel a debate hosted by the Spanish-language network, Univision. Which was a bold move considering that Univision was never scheduled to host a debate. He took the same position with Telemundo without success.
  • The long-festering feud between Trump and Fox’s Megyn Kelly led to Trump threatening to boycott a Fox News debate unless Kelly was removed as a moderator. Trump followed through by skipping the debate in order to hold a phony telethon for veterans who still haven’t received the money he allegedly raised.

These examples of how the RNC and the media have let Trump dictate the terms of the debates during the primary raise concerns about how the CPD will respond if he tries to command the same tyrannical influence during the general election. Unlike the RNC, the CPD is theoretically not beholden to the candidates of any party, but Trump has demonstrated that he can throw a tantrum that rivals a snotty eight year old video gamer who desperately wants the latest edition of Assassin’s Creed.

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

It remains to be seen how the CPD will hold up under the pressure from Trump which, if the past is any indicator, will be as fierce as it is unethical. If they acquiesce to his demands it will demolish both their reputation and the credibility of the debates themselves. These are not meant to be infomercials for the candidates. Their purpose is to provide a candid discourse for voters so that they can make informed decisions. And while we can expect Trump to behave like a petulant child spewing insults and bitching about anything that isn’t flagrantly favorable to him, we have to hope the CPD stays above all of that and conducts fair and probing debates that serve the public interest. Stay tuned.

Donald Trump Proves He “Loves Hispanics” By Pretending To Eat A Taco Bowl

Posted by on May 5, 2016 at 8:39 pm. 3 Comments :

In an epic demonstration of “Hispandering,” Donald Trump tweeted a photo of himself pretending to have a taco bowl salad in his office at Trump Tower. The Tweet said “Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!” There is so much wrong with this pathetic gesture that it’s hard to know where to begin.

Donald Trump

How about we start with the fact that the photo of Trump allegedly having a Mexican lunch in his New York office is a lie. He is campaigning in West Virginia today, so that photo was taken at some other undisclosed time. Furthermore, his boasting about the “best taco bowls” being made at the Trump Tower Grill is also a lie. A quick glance at the Grill’s menu shows that it does not serve them. What’s more, taco bowls are not a Mexican dish, they are an American variation. And finally, Cinco De Mayo is not an Hispanic holiday, it is Mexican, but actually celebrated more in the U.S.

If all of that weren’t a bad enough insult to the people that Trump has been insulting for months, Trump tacked on a thoroughly disingenuous expression of love based on his fake dietary habits. And if the flagrant racism in it doesn’t stand out, just imagine if it were a different holiday and Trump tweeted “Happy #MLKBirthday! The best fried chicken is made in Trump Tower Grill. I love blacks!” Would that be racist enough?

For Trump to repeatedly profess his affection for people he is promising to deport in massive numbers is nauseatingly dishonest. And yet, the bigots who support his candidacy are too stupid to realize that he can never deliver on his promise to deport eleven million people. The logistics involved to identify them and take them into custody are impossible to carry out. Then the task of transporting them to – well, wherever they are from, because it isn’t just Mexico – is similarly impossible. In fact, if the government filled 100 buses with 100 immigrants in each bus, and ran them seven days a week, 365 days a year, it would take three years to remove all eleven million immigrants, and that’s assuming they were all located and willing.

But that isn’t the whole picture for Trump’s ridiculous immigration policy. After taking criticism for the horrific insensitivity of his plan that would banish long-time residents to nations they never knew as home, and callously rip families apart, Trump attempted to soften the blow by insisting that everyone would be able to come back via a legal process. Assuming that his government were able to hold hearings for 1,000 people a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year (which would be absurd considering the current court backlogs), it would still take thirty years to complete the processing of just those who were deported and not any other new immigrants from any place else in the world.

So it is simply preposterous to propose what Trump is proposing. It’s a promise that he can never fulfill. But even that doesn’t take into consideration the harm that such a plan would do the nation’s economy. Just this week the American Action Forum, a notoriously conservative think tank, released a study showing that…

“Donald Trump’s vow to round up and deport all of America’s undocumented immigrants if he is elected president could shrink the economy by around 2 percent.” [and that] “Removing them would cause a slump of $381.5 billion to $623.2 billion in private sector output.” [and additionally] “The study did not factor in potential impacts of mass deportations on consumption, investment and other economic factors.”

But never mind all of that. Those are just facts, and Republicans, particularly those who support Trump, have long ago abandoned any interest in them. After all, Donald Trump likes taco bowls and loves Hispanics. He loves them so much that he will even pretend to eat fake Mexican food in his office on a holiday that he couldn’t explain the meaning of. And this is how the Republican Party hopes to win the support Hispanics and other minorities who have rejected the GOP in droves for the past few election cycles.

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

Loser Ted Cruz Finally Tells The Truth About Donald Trump And Fox News

Posted by on May 4, 2016 at 10:55 am. 1 Comments :

One of the endlessly peculiar aspects of the timeline of political campaigns is the tendency for losing candidates to suddenly find the nerve to say what they actually believe after they have been rejected by voters. For some reason they never learn that it might be advantageous for them to be honest from start.

An excellent example of this took place yesterday as Ted Cruz came to the realization that he was not going to be the presidential nominee of the Republican Party. In an extended and rambling press conference, Cruz said at least two things that may be remembered as the most (or only) truths he uttered in ten months on the campaign trail. The first addressed a criticism of the media that has long been recognized by almost everyone but Ted Cruz until yesterday:

“Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes of Fox News have turned Fox News into the Donald Trump network 24/7.”

Donald Trump News

Indeed. Fox News has given Trump far more airtime than they have given any other candidate of either party. They broadcast his stump speeches live and in their entirety. They allow him to phone in interviews, an advantage that they don’t offer to his opponents. Their featured anchors and pundits openly endorse his candidacy. And all of that has been happening in an environment wherein Trump has been blasting Fox News, bitterly insulting many of its stars, and even promoting a boycott of the network. Not long ago Trump tweeted that…

“FoxNews has been treating me very unfairly & I have therefore decided that I won’t be doing any more Fox shows for the foreseeable future.”

Like most of the BS spewed by Trump, he didn’t carry through on that threat and continues to dominate airtime on the network. So we are in a bizarre situation where it is now Republicans who are complaining most about how biased Fox News is. Who would have thought it?

The other Cruz attempt at truth-telling concerned his personal opinion of Donald Trump. Certainly there have been expressions of this in vague terms as the campaign has unfolded, but his latest comments were unambiguous in their detestation of Trump, who has battered Cruz as an utterly amoral, phony evangelical, philandering Canadian, whose father worked with Lee Harvey Oswald. Yesterday Cruz said of Trump…

“I’m going to tell you what I really think of Donald Trump. This man is a pathological liar. He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth. And in a pattern that I think is straight out of a psychology textbook, his response is to accuse everybody else of lying.”

Welcome to reality, Ted. What took you so long? Many people have been saying this about Trump for months, including some steadfastly conservative Republicans. But the feeling is mutual on Trump’s part. Trump famously labeled Cruz “Lyin’ Ted” and explicitly called him out as “the single biggest liar I’ve ever seen.”

Now that Cruz has suspended his campaign, making Trump the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, many of the questions in the press are about how the party will unify its warring factions in order to compete against the Democratic nominee. Those are good questions considering the stark animosity that has been layered on so thick. Some of the most loyal GOP voices are loudly declaring that they will have nothing to do with Donald Trump.

Trump himself, however, is trying to put on a untied front despite having previously said that he doesn’t want Ted Cruz’s endorsement. In his victory speech last night Trump said that Cruz “is one hell of a competitor. He is a tough, smart guy. And he has got an amazing future.” That’s an awfully generous sentiment for someone he thinks is “the single biggest liar” he’s ever seen.

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

Will the glassy-eyed disciples of the Trump Cult swallow this sort sort of flagrant hypocrisy? You better believe they will. They can only see as far as their lust for xenophobic discrimination, racial and religious bigotry, misogyny, and the painfully ignorant blathering about economics, health care, and national security that are the hallmarks of Trump’s blisteringly stupid campaign. And this is just the beginning, folks.

Pathological Liar Donald Trump Has A Lot Of Gall Calling Other People Dishonest

Posted by on April 30, 2016 at 8:15 pm. 7 Comments :

One of the unique characteristics of Donald Trump’s “reality TV” candidacy is his predilection for coining derogatory nicknames for his rivals. It’s a particularly childish habit that exemplifies the stunted emotional growth of a snotty elementary school bully. He has used this smarmy tactic against “Little” Marco Rubio, “Lyin'” Ted Cruz, “Crazy” Megyn Kelly, “Crooked” Hillary Clinton, and others. In most cases it can be better explained as projection of his own character flaws.

Donald Trump Tweet

Yesterday Trump tweeted another of his petulant insults that have become the hallmark of his campaign to malign the presidency (he says he may start “acting” presidential soon). This one was directed at Hillary Clinton and said…

“Crooked Hillary Clinton, perhaps the most dishonest person to have ever run for the presidency.”

Coming from Donald Trump this is nearly hysterical. Virtually everything that comes out of his mouth is either painfully ignorant, grossly insulting, or demonstrably false. News Corpse has been collecting Trump’s voluminous anthology of untruths in the Trump Bullshitopedia, an ever-expanding catalog of his lies.

The media watchdogs at PolitiFact have also been scoring the presidential candidates. What they found is that 76% of the statements they rated by Trump were false in some degree. That includes twenty-four statements they called “Pants on Fire” lies. Only three, out of 134 of Trump’s statements, were rated as true.

Hillary Clinton’s score, on the other hand, was the mirror opposite of Trump’s. She had 71% of her statements rated as true. So the hypocrisy of Trump is not incidental. It’s delusional. Clinton, whatever her faults, is far and away more honest than Trump. But that doesn’t stop Trump from arbitrarily slandering her. In fact, it’s perfectly in character for Trump to lie about the honesty of others.

PolitiFact Trump Clinton

For good measure, Trump added another slight to Clinton in the same tweet saying that she is “one of the all time great enablers.” That is a thinly disguised reference he has been using to try to reignite the Bill Clinton sex scandals of the nineties. Beside that being a lame overreach into past irrelevancies, it is also a dangerous path to tread for a man who wants to bang his own daughter.

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

The World Is Coming To An End – Well, Just Glenn Beck’s World

Posted by on April 29, 2016 at 4:14 pm. 7 Comments :

This week marked a milestone in the history of the human race. Apparently it is not long for this world – again. This time the prophet predicting the End Times is Glenn Beck – again.

Glenn Beck Messiah

On his video blog, Beck pleaded with his disciples to stand strong in support of Ted Cruz, the candidate who Beck believes is America’s savior. Never mind that he renounced any association with the Republican Party a year ago saying that “I have made my decision. I am out. I am not a Republican,” because they “have the spine of a worm, the ethics of whores, and the integrity of pirates.” That seemed like a good call. Too bad he couldn’t stick to it.

Beck acknowledges that things may look dark for Cruz, but that this isn’t the time to lose faith. He warns his listeners in Indiana that “the republic is at stake” and that “The election will hinge on you.” But that’s not all. It actually gets much worse as Beck frets that…

“This is the moment. If we drop it at this moment, we lose. And let me tell you something, you lose freedom for all mankind. I’m convinced of it. This is the moment.”

Of course, Beck has warned about an approaching Armageddon every other week for most of his of media career. However, this time he might actually have gotten it right. At least so far his own fate is concerned. TVNewser is reporting that Beck’s organization is laying off between 35 and 45 people from his operations in New York, Los Angeles, Ohio. and Washington, D.C. This latest wielding of the ax comes only a few days after the resignation of the CEO of Beck’s TheBlaze website, which itself followed a torrent of departures amid much corporate melodrama.

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

Beck’s problems are not new. News Corpse reported in 2013 that Beck was struggling to keep his media company afloat. He submitted a filing to the SEC seeking $40 million dollars in funding for TheBlaze. This was after he declared that he would never accept outside sources of funding because “I do not want to have to answer to anyone else.” Apparently looming bankruptcy softened his commitment to that principle. To date Beck has received only $6.4 million of the $40 million he sought. Not surprisingly, Beck is blaming his financial woes on everyone but himself.

“I trusted the people that ran my company that they wanted the same things […] Even though the managers were all saying the right things to me, those things were never getting done. I didn’t know who really got the vision – who got it and who didn’t. These people were my friends, they were my partners [but] they didn’t love the audience like I did.”

If only everyone had the capacity to love that Beck has. Then his businesses would not be failing. But even more importantly, God would not be preparing to destroy mankind because Republicans in America don’t have enough love for Ted Cruz, the most hated man in Washington. It’s hard to imagine that for all this time the fate of the world has rested on its reverence for and attentiveness to Glenn Beck. 😉

Rush Limbaugh Warns Of “A Nuclear Explosion” If Donald Trump Is Denied Nomination

Posted by on April 25, 2016 at 8:32 pm. 6 Comments :

Conservative pundits on TV and radio have proven to be painfully bad at punditry. Their predictions are notoriously distant from the reality that eventually unfolds. Just think about all of the things that were supposed to either destroy America, or turn it into a commie hellhole, if Barack Obama was elected (or reelected), that never came to pass. But there is one thing at which they are quite good: Scaring the bejeebus out of the wingnut faithful.

Rush Limbaugh

So it is unsurprising that the monster-mouth of the right, Rush Limbaugh, is unleashing alarms over the prospect of the Republicans being thrust into a contested convention. The threat, as imagined by Limbaugh, is that disappointed Trump supporters will freak out if their messiah is not crowned by an obedient assembly of delegates. Limbaugh speculates about a scenario wherein Ted Cruz manages to maneuver the delegate vote to a second or third ballot and then prevail over Trump. In which case, Limbaugh warns…

“If that ever happens, we are gonna see a nuclear explosion like you’ve never seen before. […] Holy smokes! The blowback that will happen then, the backlash? That will be the end of the Republican Party. […] It might make the Watts and Rodney King riots look like Romper Room when it was all over.”

This isn’t the first time that Limbaugh has presaged the end of the Republican Party. Two months before President Obama was reelected in 2012 Limbaugh said that “If Obama wins let me tell you what it’s the end of…the Republican Party.” Sadly, this was just another of the hundreds of times he’s been wrong. And during the same rant he was equally wrong when he said that…

“If Obama’s re-elected, it will happen. There’s no IF about this. And it’s gonna be ugly. It’s gonna be gut-wrenching, but it will happen. The country’s economy is going to collapse if Obama is re-elected.”

At some point you have to wonder if he is ever embarrassed by his perpetual idiocy. But back to the main point, this new spiel is just the latest threat of violence projected for the Republican National Convention coming up in Cleveland in July. Trump himself predicted riots if he arrived at the convention with more delegates than his opponents, but short of a majority, and was beaten out of the nomination by a better organized candidate. His stooge, Roger Stone, publicly declared that he would be distributing the names and hotel room numbers of delegates that didn’t fall in line behind Trump.

Limbaugh’s warning came with a caveat that if Cruz or Kasich or anyone else rose to assume the nomination it would not be due to, as Trump whines, a rigged system or someone stealing the election:

“It’s not because anything’s illegal. Everybody’s taking advantage of the rules. [but] The words would not be there to explain to people what happened […] and people wouldn’t put up with it.”

So even Limbaugh accepts that it is within the rules to lobby for delegate support and make a case to nominate someone other than the top delegate winner. But at the same time he reveals his opinion that his fellow Republicans are unable to understand the process and that they are too dense for it to be explained to them, leading to them resorting to mayhem.

What’s funny about this is that Limbaugh is so upset by the possibility of riots ensuing at the GOP convention. However, he had a completely different view a few years ago when he openly advocated for violence at the Democratic convention in Denver in 2008 in a tirade he titled “Screw the World! Riot in Denver!“ he said that his dream was for…

“…a replay of Chicago 1968, with burning cars, protests, fires, literal riots, and all of that.”

So while Limbaugh had such fervent hopes for violence that never materialized (or was even plausible) at a Democratic convention, he is now fraught with anxiety about the potential for violence at a Republican convention. There’s a kind of karmic justice in that. It is also typical of right-wingers who so often use projection to disparage their perceived enemies, but later find themselves the victims of their own evil yearnings.