Democrats

GOOD CALL: Political Pundit Trump Predicts America is Getting More Anti-Trump

Posted by on February 10, 2020 at 1:41 pm. 5 Comments :

The daily schedule of alleged president Donald Trump is typically a short list of non-presidential activities such as as golfing, tweeting, watching Fox News, and headlining cult rallies filled with lies and hatred for his perceived political foes. And as of late Trump has taken a keen new interest in election punditry with his unique analyses littering his Twitter feed.

Donald Trump

In recent weeks Trump has posted repeated commentaries on the progress of the Democratic primary season. He is mostly expressing a bizarre and obviously disingenuous concern that Bernie Sanders is being treated poorly by a party that is rigging the primaries against him. In addition to that Trump frequently opines on how his recent tribulations with impeachment have actually benefited him and his Republican cohorts. But on Monday morning, Trump contributed what may be his most accurate prediction for the Democratic campaign yet:

To be clear, the accuracy of this tweet is not that either Sen. Chuck Schumer or Rep. Jerrold Nadler are at risk for being defeated. They are both expected to have overwhelming victories in both their primaries and in the general election. And every poll indicates that Nancy Pelosi will retain her position as House Speaker, and even pick up additional seats. The smart money is betting on Democrats assuming the majority in the Senate as well. So Schumer is well positioned to topple Mitch McConnell as Majority Leader.

However, what Trump may not have noticed about his prediction is that he is asserting that the nation is becoming even more progressive and, therefore, more anti-Trump. That’s the only plausible conclusion from his assertion that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could take Schumer’s Senate seat and win statewide. Likewise, Trump’s opinion that a candidate to Nadler’s left would enjoy a victory in New York’s 10th district suggests that being farther to the left is an asset. So Trump is essentially saying that the farther a candidate is from Trump, the better their prospects for victory. I can’t say that I disagree with that.

To validate that point, Quinnipiac University released a new poll that has decidedly terrible news for Trump. They report that his “favorability rating is underwater, as 42 percent of registered voters have a favorable opinion of him, while 55 percent have an unfavorable view of him.” This doesn’t exactly affirm his delusional belief that being impeached increased his popularity or his chances of being reelected. On the latter point, Trump is shown in this poll to be trailing every one of his top Democratic opponents. According to Quinnipiac:

  • Bloomberg tops Trump 51 – 42 percent;
  • Sanders defeats Trump 51 – 43 percent;
  • Biden beats Trump 50 – 43 percent;
  • Klobuchar defeats Trump 49 – 43 percent;
  • Warren wins narrowly over Trump 48 – 44 percent;
  • Buttigieg is also slightly ahead of Trump 47 – 43 percent.

In addition to his electoral woes, America is convinced that Trump is a criminal who got away with his crimes with the help of his Republican accomplices in the Senate. The poll shows that “Despite the acquittal, voters say 55 – 40 percent that the Senate voting to acquit President Trump does not clear him of any wrongdoing in the Ukraine matter.” What’s more, “Voters say 59 – 35 percent that the Senate impeachment trial was conducted unfairly.”

If this is what Trump means when he says that “My poll numbers look great,” he is as mentally unstable as ever. Perhaps more so. He recently exhibited a severe case of paranoia by lashing out at enemies that he sees everywhere, saying that “I View Everybody as a Threat.” And he has embarked on a totalitarian style purge of his administration, including his own appointees. So it isn’t just America that is more anti-Trump. In his diseased mind, it’s even his own White House.

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.

The Real Horror Show: Trump vs Trump on Democrats and the Economy

Posted by on December 6, 2019 at 11:59 am. 4 Comments :

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its report for the month of November on Friday morning. Its top-line numbers looked pretty good, although there are caveats that need to taken into consideration, such as the fact that in November 42,000 striking GM auto workers went back to work at the conclusion of the strike.

Donald Trump Rally Trash

Nevertheless, Donald Trump does what he always does whenever there is some ostensibly good news reported: He takes credit for it. Of course, there is nothing in Trump’s record that can be plausibly cited as having any impact on the labor market. In fact, virtually every initiative that might help American workers has been bottled up in congress by GOP Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, including infrastructure projects and a minimum wage increase. But didn’t stop Trump from tweeting that…

As usual, Trump is speculating about imaginary world that would be a utopia were not for his political foes conspiring against him – and America – at every turn. That is the textbook reaction of a malignant narcissist who has convinced himself of his indisputable supremacy. What it is not, however, is anything recognizable as the truth.

Many studies have been published that prove that the economy almost always does better during Democratic administrations than Republican. Nine of the last 10 recessions have been under Republicans. And since World War II, 24.4 million more jobs created under Democratic presidents. Also, real GDP growth was 44% higher under Democratic presidents. Meanwhile, unemployment has been 18% higher under GOP presidents.

That said, perhaps one of the most relevant voices in this debate is that of Donald Trump who, in 2004, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that “I’ve been around for a long time and it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans.” Here he is in his own words:

So Trump may have correctly labeled the economic hard times our country has endured as a “horror show,” but he has forgotten who the real monsters are. It isn’t really surprising that Democrats have performed better economically. The Republican agenda is tightly focused on corporations and the wealthy who horde their prosperity. Only when the middle class prospers does the broader economy succeed. The Republican economy is currently running record deficits and running on fumes that will eventually choke the nation into recession. And if the country wants to return to its past healthy economic environment, it had better reject the Republican facade of growth and embrace the real world results of the Democrats.

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

Trump’s Impotent Response to Impeachment Vote is Flagrantly Delusional and Dishonest

Posted by on October 31, 2019 at 11:47 am. 3 Comments :

On Thursday morning the House of Representatives did what Donald Trump and his Republican Nationalist Party has been asking for. They voted to proceed with the impeachment inquiry in an open, accessible manner that permits the GOP to review all documents and transcripts, issue subpoenas, and cross-examine witnesses. So naturally Trump and Republicans are still whining.

Donald Trump, Impeach

The spectacle of a president whining like a petulant child seems unthinkable, but for Trump it is business as usual. During his campaign he actually bragged that he is “the most fabulous whiner.” And he has spent his presidency proving it. Now, with the walls closing in around him, Trump is lashing out incoherently in a panicked effort to escape accountability for his treasonous misconduct. In an official statement from the White House, Trump laid out an impotent case for his acquittal. Let’s take a closer look at the full statement with some explanatory annotations:

“The President has done nothing wrong, and the Democrats know it.”

The President has done a great many things wrong and, unfortunately for him, the Democrats and a majority of Americans know it. Among his criminal and impeachable offenses are extortion, campaign finance violations, witness intimidation, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy against the United States.

“Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats’ unhinged obsession with this illegitimate impeachment proceeding does not hurt President Trump; it hurts the American people.”

The right calls everything Democrats do unhinged and partisan, so those labels have lost any meaning or relevance. As for the impeachment hurting the American people, that’s impossible considering that fact that a majority of them are in favor of it.

“Instead of focusing on pressing issues that impact real families, like reducing gun violence, passing the USMCA, improving healthcare, lowering prescription drug costs, securing our southern border, and modernizing our aging infrastructure, the Democrats are choosing every day to waste time on a sham impeachment—a blatantly partisan attempt to destroy the President.”

Democrats in the House of Representatives have passed bills addressing nearly all of those issues, plus more than 300 others. It’s the GOP Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who is refusing to let them come to a vote in the Senate.

“With today’s vote, Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats have done nothing more than enshrine unacceptable violations of due process into House rules. Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Schiff, and the Democrats conducted secret, behind-closed-door meetings, blocked the Administration from participating, and have now voted to authorize a second round of hearings that still fails to provide any due process whatsoever to the Administration.”

Actually, the rules being followed by the Democrats were written and codified in 2015 by a Republican House majority led by Speaker John Boehner. This was notably pointed out by Judge Andrew Napolitano, the Senior Legal Analyst at Fox News. What’s more, Republicans were participants in every hearing and witness interview that the White House is now falsely portraying as “secret.”

“The Democrats want to render a verdict without giving the Administration a chance to mount a defense. That is unfair, unconstitutional, and fundamentally un-American.”

First of all, there is nothing unconstitutional about a process that is actually in the Constitution. But more to the point, Democrats are conducting an inquiry. In no legal proceeding is the “defendant” permitted to participate in that investigation. When it is concluded it will either be dropped for lack of evidence, or an indictment and trial will take place. And that’s when Trump’s side will have ample opportunity to present their defense. The White House is deliberately trying to deceive the public as to how these matters are conducted.

Of course, the Deceiver-in-Chief is Donald Trump himself. He is mounting a disinformation campaign to attack the process, and by extension, the Constitution. And he’s getting plenty of help from State TV (aka Fox News), which is having problems of its own.

Trump posted a four-tweet quote by Fox’s Laura Ingraham that is nothing more than a GOP pep talk to pressure the right to obediently follow Dear Leader and abandon integrity, honesty, and morality, and to place Trump’s interests above those of the country. And most of the Fox roster is doing the same thing. So once again, it needs to be pointed out that this network is an arm of the Trump regime and should be designated as such for campaign finance purposes.

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

Trump Gets Stuck in Berserk Brain Loop Over a Figment of His Warped Imagination

Posted by on October 16, 2019 at 12:35 pm. 7 Comments :

The Meltdown in the Oval Office is proceeding at a velocity that would have been unimaginable in any prior administration. But under Donald Trump’s regime the daily atrocities are so frequent and routine that they are becoming passe. Nevertheless, Trump appears to realize just how much trouble he’s in with his inevitable impeachment, and it’s expediting the rot of his already diseased grey matter.

Donald Trump

During a press avail with Trump and Italian President Mattarella, Trump wandered away from any subject that concerned this diplomatic visit and babbled manically about extraneous matters that are clearly consuming his consciousness. Those matters involve his obsession with the 2016 election and what he perceives were misdeeds by Democrats. He rattled off the names of people he has long despised and charged with crimes that he could not prove. They included former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, and two of his favorite targets, FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

However, the most peculiar part of this event occurred when Trump barreled into a long ago debunked conspiracy theory regarding a computer server belonging to the Democratic National Committee. Trump’s tirade on this subject was a spectacular display of hysterical incoherence (video below):

I still ask the FBI, where is the server? How come the FBI never got the server from the DNC? Where is the server? I want to see the server. Let’s see what’s on the server. So the server they say is held by a company whose primary ownership individual is from Ukraine. I would like to see the server. I think it’s very important for this country to see the server. Nobody wants to see it. The media never wants to see it. I’ll tell you, Republicans want to see it.”

Trump mumbles about “the server” eight times in that brief rant. His brain seems to have gotten stuck in an endless loop from which there is no escape. It’s indicative of his deranged mental state that is possessed by some mysterious whirlpool of inanities. And everything in this harangue is wholly fictitious.

What Trump is alluding to in his demented way is a server that was suspected of being hacked by foreign operatives seeking to disrupt the election. Trump is regurgitating conspiracy theories that emanated from the dark recesses of the ultra-right Internet. There is no plausible explanation for why Democrats would be suspected of any wrongdoing since they were the victims of the hacking.

As for the FBI’s role in this, they did want to inspect the server to accumulate any evidence that might lead to the hackers. So the DNC made a “mirror” copy of its hard drive, which the FBI was satisfied would be sufficient for their investigative purposes. The FBI could have at any time requested to take into custody the physical server, but they determined that it wasn’t necessary.

Ever since then, the only people who were ever interested in the server were conspiracy crackpots at Infowars, 8chan, and Fox News. And, of course, Donald Trump. He even brought it up in the now infamous phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Somehow Trump got the idea that the server wound up in Ukraine. There is zero evidence of that. But that doesn’t stop Trump and his cadre of propagandists from continuing to disseminate this nonsense.

And that’s not all, Later in the day Trump held a joint press conference with Mattarella. But in the middle of it Trump started talking about alleged corruption during the 2016 election again. Naturally, Trump sidestepped his own well documented criminal activities and launched into a bizarre rant about imaginary Democratic misconduct about which he asserted that “Maybe it goes right up to President Obama. I happen to think it does.” Needless to say, there is no evidence whatsoever of anything remotely resembling this reckless accusation.

It’s just Trump being Trump. And that’s what’s most frightening about all of this. He is totally unhinged from reality and getting worse every day. The imperative to impeach him could not be more urgent. There’s a lot of damage he could do in this condition. The American people are ready to remove him from office, and now our Congress must act.

And Speaking of Meltdowns: Later in the day Democratic leadership left a White House meeting after Trump called Speaker Pelosi a “third-rate politician.” They were supposed to be discussing the situation in Syria, but Trump just went bonkers with infantile, personal insults after he learned that 129 Republicans voted with Democrats to condemn his retreat from Syria and betrayal of the Kurds. And Trump followed up his tantrum with this tweet cementing his total insanity:

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

Trump Calling Democrats ‘Savages’ is an Old Nazi Tactic to Dehumanize Critics

Posted by on September 28, 2019 at 2:07 pm. 6 Comments :

The stench of Donald Trump’s desperation is becoming more unbearable by the minute. As the efforts to impeach him gain momentum and the evidence piles up ever higher, Trump is resorting to increasingly more outlandish and repulsive behavior. The fact that he regards these pitiful measures as beneficial to his cause is only further proof that he’s lost what remains of his diseased brain.

Donald Trump, Adolf Hitler

On Saturday morning Trump was uncharacteristically muted. In place of his regularly scheduled tweetstorm he posted only the plaintive, all-caps cries of “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!” and impotent regurgitations of his tiresome bumper sticker slogans, MAGA and KAG. That restrained output is curious considering the flood of deranged tweets he’s been unleashing in the past week. But it’s still early, and he’s playing golf. So…

The spectacle of an American president whining so helplessly is an unending embarrassment to this nation. But even worse is the malevolent tone that he is lately exhibiting. Trump has taken to calling his political foes “spies” and implying that they should be executed. And in Saturday’s tweets Trump channeled the ghost of Hitler to vilify the whole of the Democratic Party as “savages.”

It’s notable that the only named victims of this abuse are members of Congress who are either Jewish or women of color. It seems like a stretch to consider that a coincidence. But he did manage to expand the scope of his racist wrath to the rest of the party.

More to the point, Trump’s use of the word “savages” is familiar to anyone who lived through, or has studied, Hitler’s Nazi movement. It was a common common tactic to dehumanize those you were trying to eliminate from society. The theory of the Nazi oppressors was that it would be easier to convince an ignorant and angry populace (i.e. Deplorables) to approve of imprisonment and mass murder if the victims were cast as subhuman.

Apparently Trump has embraced that abhorrent theory. There is no other explanation for why elected representatives of American citizens would be maligned as “savages.” It’s a wholly incongruous description of people who merely have different opinions and perform their lawful, constitutionally mandated duties. Clearly Trump’s objective is to plant this disgusting impression of his perceived enemies in the minds of his cult followers so that they can later be called upon to defend him by any means necessary. And that includes violence and terrorism.

In addition to Trump’s nauseating descent into Hitlerian extremism, he has also taken to calling his political opponents the “Do Nothing” Democrats. For the record, Democrats in the House of Representatives have passed more than 200 bills. They are currently being blocked by Republican Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell, who earlier this year bragged that he would preside as the “Grim Reaper” over a legislative graveyard. Which adds to the ghoulish morbidity of Trump’s Republican Nationalist Party.

Finally, in his tweet Trump also tried to compare how he’s been treated by Democrats to how Republicans treated President Obama. But to date there has not been any effort by Democrats to claim that Trump wasn’t an American citizen, or that he founded ISIS, or that his associates were members of a pedophile sex trafficking ring, or that he was an undercover Muslim terrorist, or that he aspired to be a dictator.

Well, okay … that last one Trump has been accused of. But the difference is there was never any evidence of it with regard to Obama. But Trump has spent the last two and half years cozying up to Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Mohammad Bin Salman, and Kim Jong Un. And while Obama tried to create an environment of political unity with the GOP (often to his detriment), Trump has done nothing but vilify Democrats and the media who he repeatedly refers to as “the enemy of the people.” So among the things that Trump is too stupid to learn is that he should never try to compare himself to Obama.

UPDATE: Trump posted another tweet containing a video wherein the big crybaby whined about “the single greatest scam in the history of American politics.” (Wait, wasn’t that the Russia “hoax”?) He didn’t say what the scam is, but presumably it’s his pending impeachment. Then he went full fear monger saying that “Democrats wanna take away your guns…” and healthcare, and vote, and freedom, and judges, and everything. That’s right. He said Democrats wanna take away EVERYTHING! Scary, aint it? Well, he’s obviously scared out of his frizzled mind. And for good reason. He knows what he did. And he knows what the consequences are.

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

Thanks Fox News, for Exposing Trump as a Failure at Nearly Everything He Promised

Posted by on July 31, 2019 at 11:04 am. 4 Comments :

Following the first round of the second set of Democratic presidential primary debates, Fox News thought they had found a way to advance their mission of disparaging the Democratic Party and it’s candidates. They didn’t go quite as far as Donald Trump did (who tweeted that “Democrats are the true enemies of America”), but it was still pretty damn awful.

Donald Trump, Fox News

The only problem with Fox’s anti-Democratic post-debate banter was that they ended up inadvertently slamming their own guy. In a segment on Fox and Friends, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes were especially enamored of 1% candidate John Delaney, mainly because he was criticizing other Democratic candidates who actually have a chance of winning and facing Trump in the general election.

Ainsley Earhardt of Fox and Friends interviewed Delaney (video below) and effusively praised him for countering Elizabeth Warren’s proposal for Medicare for All. They played a clip of Warren righteously blasting the allegedly “pragmatic” Delaney. “I don’t understand,” Warren asked, “why anybody goes through all the trouble of running for the President of the United States, just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.” Earhardt then went on to say…

“I thought it was very practical what you were saying last night. I thought you did a good job with that because we all knew that kid in school that beat you when you were running for student body president because they promised to put snack machines in all the classes. You know that’s not gonna happen. But the kids hear that and they vote for that person. […] I don’t understand why people run and then they promise stuff and then it never happens.”

First of all, if Earhardt doesn’t understand why candidates make campaign promises, she needs to go back to doing local news in South Carolina and writing children’s books. Secondly, she has no basis for asserting that Democrats will not fulfill their promises to expand healthcare, particularly since President Obama already proved that they can do it.

However, the biggest blunder of Earhardt’s tantrum was her complaint about people who “promise stuff and then it never happens.” She could not have provided a better description of Donald Trump if she were the chair of the Democratic Party. Let’s explore a few of Trump’s broken vows.

Trump promised his own healthcare plan that he said would cover every American for much less than it costs now. Not only has he not delivered, he hasn’t even offered a draft of a plan. He promised to build a wall on the southern border and make Mexico pay for it. That’s been a running joke for over two years now. He promised infrastructure construction and repair, but came up empty even though Democrats support it. I could go on.

OK, I will. He promised progress on trade, then imposed tariffs that only hurt American consumers. He promised denuclearization, but North Korea, Russia, and Iran are all expanding their programs after his bumbling missteps. He promised to eliminate the budget deficit and the national debt. But the deficit has grown by billions and the debt is now over $22 trillion dollars, thanks mostly to Trump’s tax giveaway to corporations and the wealthy.

The reality is, as noted by PolitiFact, that only 16 percent of Trump’s campaign promises were graded as “Promises Kept.” The other 84 percent are distributed between “Compromised, Broken, Stalled,” or “In the Works.” That is hardly a record that anyone should be proud of. And even by his accounting Trump has been a dismal failure.

Although Trump does deserve credit for some notable successes. For instance, he has succeeded in dividing the nation, emboldening racist hate groups, cozying up to foreign dictators, fouling the planet, appointing corrupt government officials, suppressing voters, and advancing an economy that works only for corporations and the rich, while average Americans struggle. But at least we can all be grateful to Fox News for pointing out how horribly Trump has failed and why no one should even consider voting for him.

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

Sleazy Don: Trump Retweets Meme that Says ‘Democrats Are the True Enemies of America’

Posted by on July 30, 2019 at 12:44 pm. 8 Comments :

It’s been said that when you find yourself in hole, stop digging. That, of course, isn’t Donald Trump’s philosophy. He’s been known to triple-down on the most repulsive and offensive outbursts without regard for decency or respect for the office of the President. And now he’s backing up the bull(shit)dozer to expand his excavation efforts in the wake of his ever worsening racist tirades.

Donald Trump, Democrats

Trump spent Tuesday morning reiterating his baseless insults and charges of malfeasance aimed mainly at African-American critics in Congress. He outrightly, and without evidence, accused Rep. Elijah Cummings of stealing federal funds sent to Baltimore. [Note: As a congressman, Cummings has no access to funds sent to city or state jurisdictions]. And while there is an obvious racial component to Trump’s noxious blather, he was also triggered by the fact that Cummings is the chairman of the House Oversight Committee that is investigating an assortment of crimes committed by Trump and his family of Swamp-dwellers.

Trump has also been spewing lies like a busted fire hydrant. He whined that “the Washington Post is a Russian asset.” He’s been doing a lot of that lately. Then he said that he is “the least racist person there is anywhere in the world.” If that isn’t a psychopathic danger signal, nothing is.

Trump also completely made up another of his fairy tales of Trumpian heroics recalling an invented memory about 9/11, saying that “I was down there also, but I’m not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you.” By “down there” he must mean Mar-a-Lago. That was followed by this gem of deranged fantasy: “The African American people have been calling the White House. They have never been so happy as what a president has done.” Never? So those eight years of the first African-American president were just a mildly pleasant diversion?

But worst of all, Trump allowed his true feelings to show about the Democratic Party, which just happens to be the majority political party in the United States. Trump retweeted a meme that had a single message of blatant fascist authoritarianism: “Democrats Are the True Enemies of America.” [Update: The account of the QAnon supporting, conspiracy crackpot who tweeted the meme has since been suspended by Twitter].

Up until now, this is a diatribe that Trump reserved for the free press, a cherished part of the Constitution’s First Amendment. But now he is applying it to the millions of Americans who align themselves with working people, respect for diversity, access to healthcare and education, tax fairness, the environment, and the sort of diplomacy that promotes peace and prosperity around the world.

Trump has finally admitted that he thinks Democrats are not just a political party that opposes his Republican Nationalist Party, but he believes that they are literally enemies of United States. That view by itself represents a dangerous threat to the very concept of democracy.

To be clear, Trump is calling the Democratic majority of the House of Representative enemies of America. He’s calling Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer enemies of America. He’s calling the governors and mayors of the nation’s most populous and prosperous states and cities enemies of America. And he’s calling every citizen who identifies as a Democrat, an enemy of America. That’s a whole lot of enemies that Trump is declaring from his perch in the White House. It is, in fact, the majority of the country.

It’s notable that Trump retweeted this nauseating meme a few hours after tweeting about an infrastructure bill that he hoped would be passed in Congress. He praised the “[strong interest] from Republicans and Democrats. Do I hear the beautiful word, BIPARTISAN? Get it done. I am with you!” Really? He’s with the people that he thinks are the enemies of America?

A better question is should any Democrat – or even patriotic Republican – be with Trump? And the answer to that is “Hell No!” And that also goes for any Republican who is too frightened or compromised to denounce what Trump is saying now about the citizens and politicians and journalists that don’t kneel down obediently to Trump’s imaginary divine authority.

There have been way too many times that it’s been said that Trump has “crossed a line” It’s been said about his racism, his collusion with Russia, his obstruction of justice, his financial corruption, his moral depravity, etc. But this time it should be plain to everyone who loves this country that he is utterly unfit to serve as president, or any other position of public trust.

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

Awww: Fox News Worries that Democrats Might Be ‘Blowing Their Chance to Beat Trump’

Posted by on July 2, 2019 at 11:11 pm. 1 Comments :

There’s nothing like an election to get conservative blowhards to shed some crocodile tears over what they see as the declining fortunes of the Democratic Party. Never mind that the last election in 2018 saw a “blue wave” that swept Democrats into the majority in the House of Representatives and made Nancy Pelosi Speaker. Republicans are never more sympathetic to the threat of Democrats losing voters than when the Democrats are actively and effectively beating up on the GOP. So naturally, right-wing politicos and pundits need to come out with their heartfelt advice to stop the Democrats from hurting themselves. How thoughtful.

Fox News, Donkey

On Tuesday morning, Fox News media analyst, Howard Kurtz, was interviewed by anchor Bill Hemmer about how dreadfully naive Democrats are for appealing to their own constituents, rather than kowtowing to Donald Trump and his cadre of Deplorables. The segment featured a chyron that read “2020 Dems Taking Extreme Positions on Key Issues.” And their examples of how the party is “lurching left” and “blowing their chance to defeat Trump,” were positions in favor of humanitarian treatment of refugees and support of Medicare for All – two issues that resonate with progressives and are wildly popular among Democrats and even many Republicans and independents.

This is a bold demonstration of political altruism on the part of Kurtz and company. Because who would know more about what’s best for Democrats than the staunchly Republican partisans on Fox News who spend most of their time viciously maligning and lying about the party? They nevertheless believe that they are perfectly positioned to give counsel to Democrats who might otherwise destroy their own electoral prospects by advocating for higher wages for workers, higher taxes for corporations and the wealthy, greater access to education, and addressing the imminent risks of the climate crisis. You know, the very issues that define the positive values of the Democratic Party, as well as the majority of Americans. But Kurtz is concerned because…

“What we can say is that some of these positions, way out on the left wing, things that nobody in the party would have said even in 2016, could be a vulnerability next year.”

Really? It’s funny that Kurtz is worried about what are actually mainstream positions that he ridiculously tags as “left wing.” But he doesn’t have a word to say about the radical right positions being taken by Trump and his Republican Nationalist Party. Doesn’t he think that incarcerating children in cages will blow Trump’s chances of being reelected? And what about Trump’s bizarre affinity for murderous dictators like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un? And his hostility toward agreements that made America safer by curtailing the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea?

Isn’t the GOP lurching to the right by repeatedly cutting taxes for the rich? Aren’t they pandering to GOP fanatics by rejecting the Paris accords on climate change? Won’t Trump’s sabotage of ObamaCare and determination to end popular protections for preexisting conditions drive voters away? And then there’s his relentless pursuit of a useless, idiotic, vanity wall along the southern border that most Americans oppose.

Why is it that wingnuts like Kurtz always pretend to be concerned about where Democrats are on the ideological spectrum? They would never countenance Democrats offering such advice to Republicans. You’ll never see Kurtz, or anyone on Fox News asking if Trump is blowing it by pandering so obsessively to his dwindling, cultist base.

If anyone should be worried about blowing 2020, it’s Donald Trump. His approval ratings are in the basement. He is the first president in history who has never cracked 50 percent. His positions are unpopular. He is regarded as a lying loudmouth who doesn’t know what he’s talking about on any subject. Meanwhile, the motivation of Democrats to vote next year forecasts a historically high turnout. That isn’t exactly good news for Trump and his paid shills at Fox News. But not to worry. They will never see those danger signals as warnings to moderate their regressive fanaticism.

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

Dumba** Rumor Monger Trump Says Democrats are Changing Name to the Socialist Party

Posted by on June 28, 2019 at 1:09 pm. 2 Comments :

One of the only true records that Donald Trump has achieved as president is his Olympic-class achievement of having told more than 10,000 lies. It’s hard to imagine anyone taking that trophy from him. He is a leader in both quantity and sheer audaciousness, considering his unflinching ability to utter absurd, known falsehoods and to repeat his flagrant dishonesties ad nauseum.

Fox News, Socialism

However, having reached the pinnacle of prevarication, Trump is now broadening his horizons with a new form of deceit – Rumors! In an interview on Thursday, Trump thought he found an opportunity to take a jab at those he considers to be America’s most vicious adversaries. No, it wasn’t Russia or North Korea or ISIS or even Central American refugees. It’s just the plain old Democrats for whom his hatred is unbound. The Rumor-Monger-in-Chief told the interviewer that…

“I heard there’s a rumor the Democrats are going to change the name of the party from the Democratic Party to the Socialist Party.”

Let’s set aside the fact that there isn’t anything wrong with being a socialist. In fact, most Americans are socialists, whether they know it or not. Everything from Medicare to fire stations to interstate highways to public schools and libraries are societal benefits born of socialism. But Trump and his ignoramus Deplorables have no idea what the word means. They just use it as a handy pejorative because they don’t have vocabularies that allow them to converse above a third grade level.

And just to intercept the likely excuse that Trump and his defenders will probably serve up, you’ll notice that there isn’t a hint of a smile, or any indication that Trump was trying, in his pitiful way, to be funny. He’s simply casting out an asinine insult that has no basis in reality in order to malign his sworn enemies and to incite others to join him in his hate fest.

Not surprisingly, Fox News has already joined Trump’s Contempt Choir. On Trump’s favorite Fox News morning show, Fox and Friends, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes reveled in a segment bashing the Democratic primary debate (which they also did the day before) that featured a full screen graphic that blared “Socialism Takes the Stage.” Once again, these clods couldn’t provide a definition of socialism if an immigrant child’s life depended on it. (OK, that’s a bad example because they would give a damn about an immigrant child’s life).

This is more support for the argument that Democrats should pay any attention to what Trump or Republicans say about them. The have been calling Democrats socialists for decades, even when they advocated for the same policies. They would call the most conservative Democrats socialists just to keep the phony narrative intact. Presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg was asked a question about this by Joy Behar on The View and had a pretty darn good response (video below):

“Literally anything we do they’re going to call socialist. If it’s conservative they’ll call it socialist because it’s coming from Democrats. If it’s further left they’ll call it socialist. So let’s not worry about what they’re calling it. Let’s worry about whether it’s a good idea … Call it whatever you like, but let’s get it done if it’s a good idea. And the others can argue about what label to slap on it.”

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