Barack Obama

STFU: Why Did the Media Cover Every Word of Trump’s Post-Impeachment Gloating?

Posted by on February 6, 2020 at 12:35 pm. 20 Comments :

Here we go again. In 2016 the press disgraced itself by falling victim to the reality TV campaign of Donald Trump. They broadcast every rally and public address live and uninterrupted as if it had some news value. It didn’t. They were just providing Trump with millions of dollars of free air time.

Donald Trump Not Exonerated

The press utterly failed in its journalistic obligations during the 2016 campaign with their fixation on a candidate that stuffed his speeches full of lies, insults, and self-exaltation. Their preference for featuring Trump’s cult rallies was blatantly unfair. They were not giving the same amount of time or exposure to any of his opponents during the Republican primary or the general election. Some of the media recognized their profoundly biased and unprofessional conduct after the election and even apologized to the nation for letting them down.

Well, they seem not to learned a damn thing. On Thursday morning Trump gave an address from the White House that he previously tweeted would be “to discuss our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax!” That preview was bad enough, serving as a warning that the speech would be a feast of falsehoods and a celebration of having escaped accountability for his obvious crimes.

Why would the press rush to cover something that Trump himself falsely described as the “country’s victory” and a “hoax”? He telegraphed his intention to exploit the event for his own selfish purposes. And that’s exactly what he did.

The hour plus speech was a rambling disgorgement of a bloated ego combined with back-slapping of the sycophantic, Republican bootlickers in the audience. Trump rattled off the names of every Trump-fluffing apologist who ran his defense in Congress. and he told brief stories about how brilliant they were for adoring him.

Of course, Trump also used this time to lash out at his perceived enemies. He repeated his tiresome charge that he was the victim of a “witch hunt.” He revived his obsession with President Obama, baselessly alleging that “a lot of people would have been in jail” if he had his way. He rehashed the Mueller probe, calling it “bullshit” despite the fact that it affirmed numerous breaches of the law and blatant obstruction of justice. He went off, again, on America’s intelligence community, complaining about “dirty cops” and other evil people. He singled out former FBI Director James Comey for special condemnation, calling him a “sleazebag.” This is the behavior of a “president” whose cult followers are currently denouncing the “decorum” of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for tearing up a copy of his Dystopian State of the Union speech.

But he wasn’t nearly through. He slandered House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff as “corrupt” and a “vicious, horrible person.” Trump unwound his frequent lie that Schiff had misrepresented his remarks in the phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. He continues to insist that people read the memo that he calls a “transcript” of the call, even though it clearly indicates that he extorted Zelensky to get dirt on Joe Biden.

Naturally, Trump didn’t forget to attack Pelosi. He called her a horrible person also. But he went on to make reprehensible remarks about her faith, asserting that he “I doubts she prays at all.” Earlier in morning he made similar remarks the National Prayer Breakfast, where he attacked Mitt Romney’s faith as well, saying that he “used religion as a crutch.” and that “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.” This, coming from someone who pretends to be a devout Christian but can’t cite a single passage from the bible and brags that he has never asked god for forgiveness because he’s never done anything wrong.

The entire address was nothing but a propaganda filled campaign rally with an audience of StormTrumpers engaged in idol worship. It allowed Trump to lie about being exonerated (he wasn’t) and to malign his critics for a solid hour without any pushback, fact-checking, or concessions to reality. And the media chose to air the whole thing live and without interruption.

For what purpose? There was nothing remotely newsworthy about it. They could have have easily recorded it and aired it later if they found anything that served the public interest. And then they would also have been able to provide context and corrections of his numerous untruths. If this is any indication of how they are going to cover the election between now and November, America is big trouble.

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

Trump’s Reality TV SOTU: From ‘American Carnage’ to ‘The Mentality of American Decline’

Posted by on February 5, 2020 at 11:20 am. 7 Comments :

Donald Trump has outdone himself again. His 2020 State of the Union address was a steaming heap of negativity, institutionalized hate, and flagrant lies. He has followed up his infamous “American Carnage” inaugural address with a speech that was rife with disrespect for the nation and its diverse people. By disparaging our recent history as “the mentality of American decline,” he is proving again that he despises what actually makes America great.

Donald Trump TV Set

Trump’s SOTU most closely resembled another episode of his reality TV game show past. He was handing out medals, staging family reunions, and most of all, bragging about himself and insulting his predecessors. He set the tone at the beginning by refusing to shake Pelosi’s hand. and the Republicans tainted the affair politically with chants of “four more years.” The awarding of the Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh, a notorious racist, misogynist, and knee-jerk partisan wingnut, is a massive depreciation of the honor that award used to represent.

Trump went on a morning-after tweet rampage aimed at his hurt feelings because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up a copy of his speech. Of the 28 tweets he posted early Wednesday morning, 23 were about Pelosi’s fully justifiable act of conscience. Let that sink in. He was far more upset with Pelosi than he was satisfied with his own oratory. And it takes a lot to get Trump to divert from glorifying himself. But what will surely be most personally unbearable to the Narcissist-in-Chief is that the ratings for the SOTU declined 21% from last year. Although that won’t stop him from lying about it, like he did so brazenly in 2018.

Throughout the speech Trump validated what is the most recognizable element of his presidency: full-throated, shameless, deliberate lies. He covered so many subjects with his falsehoods and fabrications that it was hard to keep count. Here are just a few of the smugly delivered dishonesties:

“…our values are renewed, our pride is restored.”
Trump is widely regarded at home and abroad as an embarrassment. And his “values” of racism, misogyny, greed, and reverence for foreign tyrants, are not generally considered a source of pride.

“I moved rapidly to revive the U.S. economy, slashing a number of job killing-regulations, enacting historic and record-setting tax cuts, and fighting for fair and reciprocal trade agreements.”
The U.S. economy was growing faster under Obama than it has under Trump. And what he calls “job killing-regulations” were actually protections for workers, healthcare, and the environment.

“Our agenda is relentlessly pro-worker.”
The Trump administration has presided over the most anti-worker policies in decades, including altering overtime rules, obstructing collective bargaining, and placing a higher percentage of tax burdens on working Americans, while cutting them for corporations and the wealthy.

“…lifting our citizens of every race, color, religion and creed very high.”
It was Trump who defended neo-Nazis and white nationalists as “very good people.”

“Seven million Americans have come off food stamps.”
What Trump means is not “come off” food stamps, but being thrown off.

“After decades of flat and falling incomes, wages are rising fast.”
The only rise in wages is due to the increase in the minimum wage enacted by Democrats in the states and localities. Trump and the GOP have been ardent opponents of that.

“The United States has become the No. 1 producer of oil and natural gas”
Actually, the U.S. achieved that milestone in 2012, under Obama.

“We are restoring our nation’s manufacturing might.”
Not exactly. The truth is that manufacturing in the U.S. is currently in recession.

“…replace the disastrous NAFTA trade deal.”
What Trump continues to conceal is that the USMCA is just NAFTA with a few minor changes.

“Our new [healthcare] plans are up to 60% less expensive, and better.”
The plans to which Trump is referring are covering very few people. And they are less expensive because they hardly cover anything at all.

“We will always protect patients with preexisting conditions.”
This is just a blatant lie. Trump ran on repealing the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), and the protections for people with preexisting conditions therein. He has joined a lawsuit that is aimed at declaring Obamacare unconstitutional. And neither he, nor the Republican Party, have an alternative, even after ten years of opposition.

“We have now completed over 100 miles.”
Not a single mile of new border wall has been built. And Mexico still isn’t paying for it.

“The cost of prescription drugs actually went down.”
This is another blatant falsehood. The cost of prescription drugs actually went up.

“…radical politicians have chosen to provide sanctuary for these criminal illegal aliens.”
Wrong. Not a single politician is advocating sanctuary for criminals. Local authorities have jurisdiction over these matters, and they are protecting the rights of law abiding undocumented immigrants.

“My administration is also defending religious liberty…America has always been a Christian nation.”
Trump is not defending religious liberty unless you are Christian. In fact, he’s imposing religious barriers for non-Christians in schools and those who wish to emigrate. And the Founders explicitly declared that America is not a Christian nation, but one that “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

“I announced a groundbreaking plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”
Trump’s “groundbreaking plan” was contrived without even talking to Palestinians. Consequently, they have rejected it along with the Arab League. It is going nowhere.

“My administration is restoring the rule of law.”
This may be the most ludicrous and flaming dishonesty of the whole speech. Donald Trump has been impeached for breaching the Constitution. He committed extortion against a foreign ally in order to coerce him to help Trump steal an election. He engaged in witness tampering by threatening and firing career public servants and even military officers. He violates campaign finance and self-dealing laws on a daily basis. And he has obstructed justice by withholding subpoenaed documents and prohibiting the testimony of administration staff. This is not the conduct of someone who claims to be “restoring the rule of law.”

Nancy Pelosi did the right thing by ripping up Trump’s speech. It is a document that extols the division of the American people, while disseminating pure propaganda. It seeks to glorify Trump in the most trivial terms, emulating his fictional reality TV character. And the behavior of the Republicans in the chamber, who rose to applaud after every piffling lie, only cements their reputation for being fully indoctrinated members of the Cult of Trump.

Meanwhile, this is how all of Trump’s speeches should be done.

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

Survey Finds Trump is Not Trusted By the Vast Majority of the World

Posted by on January 8, 2020 at 1:56 pm. 7 Comments :

There couldn’t be a worse time for the United States to be embroiled in an international conflict. These dire circumstances require a steady hand and the confidence of international allies. Instead, the U.S. has Donald Trump in the White House behaving with the typically frenetic, reckless impulsiveness that has tainted his presidency.

Donald Trump

Wednesday morning we saw Trump deliver a speech wherein he once again took credit for “solving” a problem of his own making. He also reminded America and the world how poorly equipped he is to be relied on in a crisis. He spent much of his oratory ranting about how evil our enemies are and chest-thumping about how big our missiles are. That’s when he wasn’t maligning our country’s previous president, Barack Obama, someone for whom Trump still can’t control his crippling jealousy.

Trump also displayed his pitiful ignorance by proposing nonsense like his intention to “ask NATO to become much more involved in the Middle East process.” If he had any knowledgeable and experienced staffers left, he might ask them what NATO is an acronym for and why it would be inappropriate to involve it in the Middle East. Unfortunately, Trump’s managerial ineptitude has decimated his administration. Consequently, the U.S. currently is governed by “acting” department heads, including Homeland Security, Director of National Intelligence, and White House Chief of Staff.

Trump’s reputation for being a pathological liar has resulted in a serious crisis of confidence at home. A majority of voters still say Trump committed impeachable offenses. It is impossible for most Americans to believe anything he says, much less assertions with the life and death importance of justifications for war. It has already been reported that Trump’s initial claims about the need to assassinate Iran’s military commander, Qasem Soleimani, were unsupported by any credible intelligence. Even his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, walked back the claim that there was an “imminent threat” of attacks by Iran, which Trump used to validate his aggression. Now, a new survey by Pew Research confirms that that sentiment is also a worldwide phenomenon:

“As has been the case throughout his presidency, U.S. President Donald Trump receives largely negative reviews from publics around the world. Across 32 countries surveyed by Pew Research Center, a median of 64% say they do not have confidence in Trump to do the right thing in world affairs, while just 29% express confidence in the American leader.”

Notably, at the end of Obama’s term as president, confidence in him was at 64% in the same poll done in 2017. Trump’s low ratings are likely driven by his bellicose persona and ignorance of world affairs. But they are also tied to the unfavorable opinion that the world has of his policies. According to the Pew survey he is underwater on everything from tariffs, to climate change, to his border vanity wall, to immigration generally and, particularly relevant with regard to current affairs, his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear weapons agreement. And in the poll’s comparison of Trump to other world leaders…

“The survey asked all respondents about four international leaders in addition to President Trump: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump receives the highest negative ratings among the five leaders.”

Let that sink in. The world has more confidence in Putin and Xi, than in Trump. It’s also interesting to note that the animosity toward Trump does not stem from any general disdain for America. In fact, in the thirty-three countries surveyed, most (54%) have a favorable opinion of the United States. Although that number has declined since Trump’s election, it remains positive. However, as with most things, Trump has a drastically different view of reality, especially with regard to his reception in the world, as he repeatedly – and falsely – tells us on Twitter that…

So it’s important to remember that Trump’s problems are only America’s problems for so long as he is representing us. Therefore, the sooner we can remedy that problem, the better it will be for this nation and for the world.

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

Trump-Fluffers at Fox News Begin War Mongering Before Soleimani’s Body is Cold

Posted by on January 3, 2020 at 12:48 pm. 8 Comments :

On the second day of the new year Donald Trump launched a new conflict in the Middle East, this time with the region’s largest military, Iran. Contrary to his frequent promises to withdraw the United States from the Middle East, Trump’s assault is likely to result in another prolonged war that will be costly in both lives and dollars.

Donald Trump

No American will mourn the demise of General Qasem Soleimani. He was the leading purveyor of Iran’s international terrorism and was responsible for hundreds fatalities among both Americans and civilians in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. But the mission to assassinate Iran’s second highest military leader in Iraq was nevertheless a provocative act that could lead to further unnecessary tragedies for the U.S. and the region.

This is particularly apparent since Trump has no coherent strategy, policy, or end game. He failed to consult members of Congress as the law requires and, therefore, had no legal authorization for the attack. And in a flurry of syrupy, worshipful retweets, Trump included one by disgraced pundit Dinesh D’Souza that shamefully implied that had Trump told Congress they would have told Iran. To date, the only one who has disclosed state secrets to hostile foreign nations is Trump when he speaks to Putin.

In fact, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that he discussed this attack with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in advance. So Trump informed Russia, but not Congress. It’s also notable that, by targeting an individual, as opposed to military assets, Trump possibly violated international laws against assassination.

Trump’s initial justification for the attack is that it was executed in order to prevent imminent future attacks on Americans. However, he provided no evidence of any such threat. It sounds very much like the false assertions of the Bush administration alleging nonexistent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Also familiar is the statement by Pompeo, who baselessly claimed that “We have every expectation that people not only in Iraq, but in Iran, will view the American action last night as giving them freedom.” That recalls Dick Cheney’s preposterous assertion that “My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators [in Iraq].”

Immediately following Trump’s attack, Fox News predictably leaped to his defense with a vigor that can only be described as gleeful. Although he was on vacation, Sean Hannity called into his own program to insist that Iran had “put American lives in jeopardy and the president very quickly acted,” and that it was “a huge victory and total leadership by the president.” But Brian Kilmeade of Fox and Friends was representative of the Fox position when he rebutted Geraldo Rivera’s criticism of the attack by gloating that “I will cheer this on. I am elated.”

Make no mistake. This is the host of a popular Fox News program expressing his elation about a potential war that would result in untold casualties of Americans for a purpose that no one in the Trump administration has been able to define.

If you’re looking for a plausible reason for why Trump would take this action at this time, look no further than the news that broke earlier the same day. The release of newly unredacted emails from Trump’s national security personnel that state unequivocally that Trump knew his withholding of military aid to Ukraine was illegal. The discovery of this provides additional urgency for the Senate to agree to call witnesses and to introduce documents when it takes up Trump’s impeachment.

Trump knows this, and it escalates his fear that impeachment could result in his removal from office. So in order to deflect from the growing political peril he is enduring, Trump appears to have taken the course of action that he once falsely accused President Obama of considering: Start a war with Iran:

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

Flaming Fail: Trump Fires at DACA and Makes a Total Ash of Himself

Posted by on November 12, 2019 at 11:32 am. 5 Comments :

On Tuesday morning the Supreme heard oral arguments on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) case. They are determining whether or not to uphold the decisions by lower courts to overturn Donald Trump’s ruling to terminate the program and put the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of “Dreamers” in jeopardy.

Donald Trump, Immigrant, Child

Dreamers are undocumented residents who were brought to the U.S. as children. Most of them grew up here and have never known any life in the native country of their parents, and don’t speak any language other than English. In order to be eligible for DACA status they must have no criminal record and must be productie residents who are either working, in school, or in the military. But despite these criteria, Trump has been attacking them for years with flagrant lies and defamation. And on the morning that the Supreme Court took up this case, Trump tweeted this atrocity:

It’s rather impressive how Trump can get so much wrong in 280 characters or less. Let’s dive into his staggeringly hateful and blatantly erroneous blather.

First of all: Trump leads off by insinuating there is some significance to the fact that some of the Dreamers have grown up and are no longer young. So what? That doesn’t negate the fact that they were brought here as children and know no other home. Trump’s only purpose in injecting this diversion is to imply that there is something untoward about them being adults. But it is entirely irrelevant to the discussion of whether they should be allowed to stay and earn citizenship.

Secondly: Trump falsely asserts that some Dreamers “are very tough, hardened criminals.” However, the program expressly requires that they have no criminal record. Trump is simply lying about this to smear the reputation of law abiding, patriotic, aspiring Americans. It’s not only dishonest, it’s repulsive and inhumane.

Third: Trump’s assertion that President Obama said he “had no right” to initiate the DACA program is another provable lie. PolitiFact reviewed previous claims by Trump on this subject and declared them “Mostly False.” Obama never said that he didn’t have the “legal right” to sign a DACA executive order. He merely said that he couldn’t unilaterally overturn existing laws. And he went on to state that, therefore, there was no legal impediment to DACA because it wouldn’t do that.

Fourth: Trump declares that if the Supreme Court rules against DACA, he would make a deal with Democrats to achieve the same objectives. But that’s a brazenly disingenuous offer. There is no reason he couldn’t have crafted a legislative solution with Congress long before this. He didn’t need a Supreme Court decision to do that. But instead, he personally killed every attempt by Congress to pass such legislation. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said that he wouldn’t advance any immigration bill unless Trump agreed to sign it in advance, which he never did.

Finally: Trump’s tweeted offer to support an immigration bill that allows Dreamers to stay in the U.S. is bizarre given his complaints in the same tweet. He is asserting that if the Supreme Court rules against DACA, he will support a bill permitting DACA recipients, who he says include “very tough, hardened criminals,” to stay in the country permanently. Really?

That is typical of the raging incoherence that infects virtually every policy position taken by Trump. He is profoundly ignorant and incapable of forming rational arguments. And that’s just another reason why he is utterly unfit to serve as president. He is not just an embarrassment to the nation, he is an imminent danger. But at least he is adept at cramming loads of gooey nonsense into his half-witted (at best) tweets.

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

Wannabe Dictator Trump Improperly Withheld the Baghdadi Mission From Congress

Posted by on October 27, 2019 at 10:18 am. 11 Comments :

The demise of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is something that ought to bring relief to all Americans, and others around the world, who abhor the hatred and terrorism that he represented. This news should have been an opportunity for Donald Trump to unite the nation in appreciation of the courageous work of our military and intelligence personnel. But Trump being Trump makes all acts of decency dirty.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

On Saturday night Trump posted a cryptic tweet that said only that “Something very big has just happened!” It wasn’t long before the meaning of his tweet was all over the media. But the cheesy manner in which he tried to create some kind of cliffhanger plot device is reminiscent of his years as a Reality TV game show host.

In his press conference on Sunday morning Trump announced what everyone already knew. Baghdadi died during a raid by U.S. forces on his compound in Syria. He detonated a suicide vest as American soldiers were closing in on him. This could have been a story of success and courage for the nation, but Trump’s announcement was littered with revelations that were disturbing and self-serving. Especially his admission that he withheld the details of the mission from the congressional “Gang of Eight” who are traditionally informed of these affairs.

Reporter: Did you notify the congressional leaders about this, Pelosi, McConnell…
Trump: We notified some. Others are being notified now as I speak. We were going to notify them last night, but we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I’ve never seen before. There’s no country in the world that leaks like we do. And Washington is a leaking machine.

I told my people that we will not notify them until our great people are out. Not just in, but out. I don’t want have them greeted with fire power like you wouldn’t believe. So we were able to get in. It was top secret. It was kept. There were no leaks. Nothing. The only people that knew were the few people that I dealt with.

Make no mistake, what Trump is saying with this statement is that he doesn’t trust House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (who is second in line for the presidency), and the leaders of the congressional committees with jurisdiction, to respect the confidentiality of military operations that put our troops and others in harm’s way. Trump made a unilateral decision to shut out the people’s representatives and appoint himself the de facto King of America.

This is a stunning abuse of power that improperly conceals information from people who require it to fulfill their constitutional duties. It also displays flagrant contempt for Congress and democracy. And while Trump felt he could not trust his American co-equal partners in leadership, he did reveal these secrets to people in Russia, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. This tells you something about where Trump’s loyalties lie.

But Trump wasn’t through embarrassing himself and America in this press conference. He went on to lie about the oil in Syria, which does not exist in “massive amounts” as he said. And his stated intention to take that oil is not only unlawful, it reduces the United States military to mercenaries in pursuit of the wealth of other nations’ natural resources.

Trump also managed to slip in a promotion for his ghostwritten books. He singled out one in particular that he said predicted the emergence of Osama bin Laden. Trump said that no one ever heard of bin Laden at the time, which is as ignorant a lie as he has ever told. Not only was he well known to intelligence and terrorism professionals, he had already struck in the U.S., and was the target of operations aimed at terminating him and his organization.

Finally, Trump is apparently incapable of speaking for more than three minutes without maligning his perceived enemies and critics. So naturally he took a swipe a President Obama, saying that…

“When we use our intelligence correctly, what we can do is incredible. When we waste our time with intelligence that hurts our country, because we had poor leadership at the top, that’s not good.”

In that noxious commentary, Trump not only insulted another American president, but also the entire intelligence community. He was exploiting the Baghdadi news conference to attack the investigations of his own unsavory connections to Russia and malign the probe into foreign interference in the 2016 election. He was unambiguously punching back at the impeachment inquiry currently in progress. And for him to choose this moment to pursue that wholly personal obsession poisons whatever unity and pride the nation might otherwise have enjoyed.

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.

Crybaby Trump is Still Whining About the Mueller Report and It’s Triggering His Obama Envy

Posted by on September 16, 2019 at 1:53 pm. 3 Comments :

It’s been nearly two months since special counsel Robert Mueller testified before Congress about his investigation of Donald Trump’s unsavory associations with Russia and his efforts to obstruct justice. That testimony contained abundant evidence of illegal and/or unethical conduct during his campaign and as President.

Barack Obama, Donald Trump

Among the unarguable findings were that Trump “welcomed and encouraged” Russia’s interference in the election on behalf of Trump and to the detriment of Hillary Clinton. Mueller also confirmed that Trump had deliberately lied to cover up his activities and impede the investigation. Three exchanges in particular capsulized the core of Trump’s unambiguously unlawful behavior.

Nevertheless, Trump has relentlessly banged on his “no collusion, no obstruction” drum for months. He is apparently convinced that if he keeps repeating these lies they will be accepted as truths. So even after the Mueller Report has receded somewhat from the news cycle, Trump continues to revive it and remind everyone of his treasonous criminality. On Monday morning he did just that with a series of panicky tweets:

First of all, the House Judiciary Committee has not given up on the Mueller report. They are continuing to review, affirm, and expand on its conclusions despite the obstacles that Trump and his administration are throwing into the path. However, Trump is correct that the Committee is also looking at other Trump transgressions – of which there are many – ranging from financial corruption to witness tampering to bribery and more.

Lacking any coherent defense for his actions, Trump tries to deflect to what he implies are legal breaches by President Obama. But his overreach is so absurd it’s laughable. Obama is a private citizen and free to enter into agreements to produce books, films, sneakers, or anything else he can think of. He has no governmental influence to sell or otherwise improperly exploit. Trump’s ranting is based wholly on his jealousy and his intent to divert attention away from himself. But he wasn’t finished:

Once again, the Mueller investigation was anything but a failure. It was 400+ pages of indictable crimes. Indeed, dozens of people affiliated with Trump were indicted, and several have already pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors. But Trump’s ludicrous denial that he’s attempting to enrich himself is perhaps the most bizarre claim of all. He says that he’s losing billions even though he has never actually made billions. He is carrying massive debt to foreign banks that was incurred before he was elected. And his attempt to diminish his profit-seeking ventures by mischaracterizing them as “a hotel room” or “filling up a gas tank” is purposefully deceitful. He is actually generating millions of dollars from both foreign entities and his sycophants at home by directing them to book his facilities for numerous large events. He has even billed the federal government for millions of dollars for his stays at Mar-a-Lago or his other golf resorts.

Trump closes out this series of tweets with another peculiar swipe at “Obama Netflix.” Is that any relation to “Tim Apple?” And Trump has the audacity to call Democrats “crazy.” Virtually everything Trump does is aimed at fattening his bank account. Even his incessant badgering of the Federal reserve to lower interest rates. All economists know that rates are only lowered when the economy is weak. But Trump’s $350+ million dollars in debt is held in variable rate loans. So he stands to save millions with every tick down of the interest rates.

Trump is obviously scared witless about the prospects of his being impeached for the myriad crimes he knows he has committed. And his fear exacerbates his deranged outbursts. But he’s also consumed with envy of Barack Obama, whose presidency wasn’t marred by criminal controversies. Obama reformed healthcare, providing access to millions of people who were previously shut out. He cut the budget deficit in half. He led the recovery from the worst recession in nearly a hundred years. He expanded civil liberties for people of color and women.

Meanwhile, Trump’s record is rife with failure. He promised to build a wall that Mexico would pay for. He said he would repeal and replace ObamaCare. He swore that he would lock up Hillary Clinton. He gave lip service to “draining the swamp.” Virtually every campaign promise he made remains unfulfilled. Except for cutting taxes for the rich, which exploded the national debt, and nominating ultra-conservative, racist, unqualified judges. No wonder Trump is so frightened and inconsolably jealous.

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

Fox News Accidentally Says that Donald Trump is An Unelectable Slimeball

Posted by on August 26, 2019 at 3:25 pm. 6 Comments :

Some of the best moments on Fox News occur when they have no idea what they are talking about. This happens with some frequency considering the low bar that Fox sets for hiring pundits and commentators. The prerequisites for a job at Fox News are primarily the willingness to lie effusively on behalf of Donald Trump and his Republican Nationalist Party, and blond hair.

Donald Trump, Fox News

On Monday morning’s episode of Outnumbered there was a perfect example of this tendency that Fox has to stumble onto something truthful without ever knowing they did so. The program had a segment on the just announced candidacy of radio host and, former Tea Party Republican, Joe Walsh, for the GOP nomination for president. He’s a longshot challenger to Trump, but his conservative credentials and passionate denouncements of Trump could take a toll on the embattled and mentally infirm incumbent. While discussing Walsh’s prospects in the race, Fox host Shannon Bream sought to itemize his weaknesses by revisiting some his previous abhorrent statements (video below):

“This is what Joe Walsh said: ‘Obama’s a Muslim. He’s an enemy and a traitor.’ He said this about Kamala Harris: ‘If you’re black and a woman you say dumb things, lowered bar.’ He also got duped by Sacha Baron Cohen about arming toddlers and kindergartners with guns. […] I think critics might say it’s astonishing that he even thinks he can run right now.”

Okay, then. That’s now the Fox News criteria for establishing when someone is unfit to run for president, There were four standards laid out: Calling Obama a Muslim, calling Obama an enemy, saying black women are stupid, and getting punked by a hoaxster. Let’s see how Trump stands up.

In March of 2011, Trump was interviewed on the Laura Ingraham radio show prior to her joining Fox News. Among Trump’s noxious remarks was praise for the racists who insisted that President Obama was not an American. “A lot of the so-called Birthers,” Trump said, “these are great people. These are really great American people.” Much like the “very fine” Nazis Trump gushed over a few years later. He went on to say of Obama that…

“He doesn’t have a birth certificate, or if he does, there’s something on that certificate that is very bad for him […] perhaps it would be that where it says ‘religion,’ it might have ‘Muslim.’ And if you’re a Muslim, you don’t change your religion.”

One down. Moving on, there is always a Trump tweet that manages to demonstrate his utter idiocy and/or hypocrisy. And in this matter there’s one where he literally posted a comment that said: “Obama is our worst enemy.”

Two down. Moving on, Trump is a well-known misogynist who’s past is replete with harassment, assault, and ceaseless bullying and insults. But specific to the standard set above, he has been especially demeaning to women of color in Congress and the media. His remarks about sending several congresswomen “back where they came from” was only the most recent incident. On many occasions he blatantly attacked African-American reporters for doing their job. For instance, he shouted down Abby Phillip of CNN saying “What a stupid question that is. What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions.”

Three down. Moving on, Trump was also the victim of a prank call. Comedian “Stuttering” John Melendez (of Howard Stern’s radio show) got through to Trump on Air Force One by pretending to be New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez. The call was directed to Trump by his son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner.

So that’s all four of the criteria enumerated by Bream that make it “astonishing that he even thinks he can run right now.” Of course there are innumerable other reasons that Trump’s campaign is astonishing. They include his brazen violations of the law by welcoming and encouraging Russia’s attack on our election; his obstruction of justice; his breach of the Constitution’s emoluments clause; his overt racism and support for white nationalists; his coziness with brutal foreign tyrants; and his 12,000+ lies to the American people.

And that’s just for starters. Trump has disparaged American intelligence agencies. He has sided with Vladimir Putin against the U.S. His economic idiocy (tax cuts for the wealthy, benefit cuts for Social Security and Medicare, trade war, bullying the Fed, etc.) will likely lead to a severe recession. So it will be interesting to see if Fox News will hold Trump to the same standards they laid out for Walsh. Or even if they will hold him to the principles that the GOP used to advocate. Don’t hold your breath.

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