Barack Obama

False Equivalencies: Trump Tries to Smear Others with His Rancid and Inflammatory Rhetoric

Posted by on August 6, 2019 at 1:09 pm. NO Comments :

In the wake of multiple episodes of horrific gun violence over the weekend. Donald Trump has scrambled to find, not solutions, but shelter from the well-deserved criticism crashing over him like a tsunami. His defenders in politics and punditry deployed in formation to praise their infallible Dear Leader and smear those who dared to question his radiant presence.

Donald Trump

Leading the charge was Cadet Bone Spurs himself. He posted a tweet that sought to deflect from his deliberately hostile language that incited the El Paso shooter. And he drew support from Fox News by quoting the Trump-fluffers on Fox and Friends who asked “Did George Bush ever condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook?”

Well, no. President Bush never did that. But that’s only because Obama never did or said anything that could remotely be interpreted as incitement to commit any violent act. Trump, on the other hand, does that nearly every day. And this was typical of the charges that have been levied against anyone who sees a rational connection between Trump’s tirades and the murderers who take up his call to arms. Among the StormTrumpers attempting to shield him from censure is his Senior Alternative Fact Dispenser, Kellyanne Conway, who has had just about enough:

“I’m hopping mad this morning because I see very little, scant coverage of the fact that this Dayton shooter has been confirmed as having a Twitter feed that was supportive of Antifa, that was supportive of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders.”

First of all, the Twitter account in question has not yet been confirmed as belonging to the Dayton shooter. But more to the point, there has been significant of coverage of this Twitter feed by every major news outlet, including Trump’s nemesis, CNN.

However, the budding narrative that Sen. Warren, or any other Democrat, should bear any responsibility for the shooting is absurd. It’s proof that the right has exhausted any substantive arguments they might have had to defend Trump, so they’re resorting to this lunacy. Trump’s inspiration for the El Paso shooter is evident in his own words and deeds. He has called immigrants “criminals” and ‘rapists.” He leads his cult rallygoers in chants telling elected representatives – women of color who are American citizens – to “go back” to where they came from. He refers to refugees as “invaders.” And the writings of the shooter explicitly refer to Trump as an inspiration. But none of that is the case for the Dayton shooter and any connection to any liberal politician or media personnel.

The Republican rightists have also tried to compare murders in Chicago or Baltimore to the mass shootings in El Paso. That is another blatantly false equivalency that ignores reality. The Chicago area crimes are generally gang-related and inspired only by rivalry and/or greed. But the El Paso shootings are acts of terrorism with specific goals to invoke fear as a weapon to make social change. What’s more, local officials and law enforcement work vigorously to reduce the incidents of violence in their communities and to enact reforms when available. But the Republicans in Congress have spent decades obstructing any efforts to reduce the incidence of domestic terrorism by white nationalists.

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

These efforts by Trump and his media mouthpieces to introduce bogus comparisons between obviously disparate crimes are evidence of their callous disregard for the truth and for finding real solutions. It’s proof that Trump’s call for unity is an insincere charade intended only for media consumption. And until they can take responsibility for their words and actions, and renounce the inflammatory rhetoric that they have used so often, it will be impossible to take their pleas for bipartisanship seriously.

Trump Won’t Condemn White Nationalist Domestic Terrorists for Fear of Offending His Base

Posted by on August 4, 2019 at 12:02 pm. 6 Comments :

The casualties are piling up as gun violence in America continues unabated. And it is impossible to tolerate any longer the right-wing mantra of “thoughts and prayers” while they do absolutely nothing constructive to solve the problem. To the contrary, Republicans in Congress work affirmatively to obstruct common sense solutions that the American people want in unprecedented majorities.

Donald Trump

This isn’t about mental health. It’s not about video games or prayer in school. It’s about easy access to weapons of war and the flagrant racism and hate speech of Donald Trump and his ilk. There have been more mass shootings (250) in 2019 than there have days (219). And while Democrats have passed bills in the House of Representatives, Republicans, and particularly GOP leader Mitch McConnell, have refused to even allow a vote on any of those bills.

For his part, Donald Trump remains aloof and unable to tear himself away from his golf game, or Fox News, long enough to address this crisis with any measure of the seriousness it demands. A real president would deliver an Oval Office speech condemning the white nationalists who are responsible for the majority of fatalities related terrorism in the U.S. That’s a conclusion that even the Trump-appointed FBI director affirmed. It would be nice if we had a real president.

But Trump himself will not even acknowledge that there is a problem with right-wing violence. In fact, he literally downplays any significant occurrence of it. Following the slaughter at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, Trump dismissed the growing threat of white nationalism saying that “I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems.”

The words “white nationalist terrorism” have never passed through Trump’s lips. And this is despite his being one of the most vocal critics of President Obama for not using the inaccurate and inflammatory phrase “radical Islamic terrorism.” Trump even called for Obama to resign on Twitter asking…

Trump has made it a hallmark of his presidency to maliciously portray refugees as criminals and terrorists “invading” our country. Never mind that his exclusionary view of “our” country ignores the fact that it is populated, and was built, by refugees. Yet he demands that they “go back where they came from,” even they happen to be U.S. citizens and elected representatives in Congress. The rhetoric of “invasion,” and “criminal,” and “go back,” is exactly the same language that appears in the manifestos of these racist murderers.

It’s also the same language that is used by Fox News. Tucker Carlson’s White Nationalist Hour frequently bemoans the “darkening” of America. He has said that immigration “makes our own country poorer, and dirtier.” His colleague Laura Ingraham worries that “the America that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore [due to] massive demographic changes … that most of us don’t like.” And in the wake of two tragic massacres, Fox sought to blame ISIS or video games rather than the clearly guilty movement of alt-right bigotry.

There’s a reason that Trump won’t go after these domestic terrorists. He is scared. He’s a shivering wisp of a man who is afraid of offending his base. He’s afraid that the attendance at his cult rallies will decline. He’s terrified of losing support from the neo-Nazis who comprise the most activist faction of his hateful crusade. And Republicans in Congress won’t act either because they are afraid of offending Trump.

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

Trump is so unashamedly beholden to his cretinous disciples that he recently joked about shooting migrants. And considering the clarity that Trump gives to his hate speech, no one should be surprised when his followers take up the call. When they do, don’t expect Trump to denounce them. But the rest of the nation needs to come together and condemn Trump’s hatred and incitement to violence. We need to hold him accountable for the pain and grief he purposefully encourages. And if he can’t “finally mention the words [white nationalist terrorism], he should immediately resign in disgrace!”

Trump’s Racist Obama Envy Skids Off the Rails with Vindictive and Deranged Threats

Posted by on July 27, 2019 at 10:54 am. 4 Comments :

It has long been said of Donald Trump that he is behaving like a cornered criminal who shoots wildly in all directions out of fear and desperation. That characterization has never been more true than now. With the congressional Mueller hearings concluded, Trump seems to recognize the legal jeopardy he faces. Mueller’s testimony, while not particularly dramatic, did establish that Trump and his associates welcomed and encouraged Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, and then lied in order to cover it up (aka obstruction of justice).

Donald Trump Zombie

Now Trump is lashing out with some of the most nauseating assaults on anyone he perceives to be his enemy – which is not just his political opponents, but at least half of the American people. In a White House press avail on Friday, Trump did what he does best: Whine! Then he focused his attention on his archenemy, President Barack Obama. This was a bizarre rant that could only have been triggered by his personal hatred and racism. He said:

“All they want to do is impede, they want to investigate. They want to go fishing. And I watched Bob Mueller – and they have nothing – There’s no collusion, no obstruction. They have nothing. It’s a disgrace.

“We want to find out what happened with the last Democrat president. Let’s look into Obama the way they’ve looked at me. From day one they’ve looked into everything that we’ve done. They could look into the book deal that President Obama made. Let’s subpoena all of his records. Let’s subpoena all of the records having to do with Hillary Clinton and all of the nonsense that went on with Clinton and her foundation and everything else.

“We could do that all day long. Frankly, the Republicans were gentlemen and women when we had the majority in the House. They didn’t do subpoenas all day long. They didn’t do what these people have done. What they’ve done is a disgrace.”

So now Trump wants to look into Obama’s presidency? And what clandestine criminal acts does he think might be uncovered? Well, Obama wrote a book. Quick, someone alert the FBI!

Trump’s portrayal of Republicans as polite politicos is among his most deranged observations. The GOP controlled House of Representatives – led by ultra-partisan hacks like Trey Gowdy and Jason Chaffetz (both now Fox News contributors) – was relentless in their baseless persecution of both Obama and Hillary Clinton. Contrary to Trump’s dishonest recollection, they did issue numerous subpoenas regarding everything from Hillary’s emails to Benghazi to Fast and Furious to the alleged targeting by the IRS. And let’s not forget their years long assault on Obama as a gay Muslim born in Kenya. Despite these endless and partisan probes, the GOP found no evidence of anything untoward by anyone.

There is a big difference between Trump’s hysterical outbursts alleging crimes by Obama, and his own legal woes. For one thing, There is no evidence whatsoever that Obama ever violated any law. Certainly not with his book deal. However, the investigations into Trump’s criminality were all based on his own behavior and documented proof of wrongdoing. Trump and his team had over 127 secret meetings with Russians that they all lied about when asked.

What’s more, Trump’s complaint that he has been subjected to inquiries that Obama never had to endure is true, but not for the reasons he thinks. Both political and legal probes into Trump’s finances have resulted in requests for his tax returns, which he once promised to release. Instead, he has used every legal trick in the book to avoid any such disclosure. Obama, however, didn’t have this problem because he voluntarily released his taxes during his campaign. Obama also didn’t have problems with corruption in his businesses because he didn’t seek to exploit his presidency for profit, or to sell out his country to Russians and other foreign entities.

To make matters worse, Trump went on a Saturday tweet-spree attacking Maryland congressman Elijah Cummings. Trump called Cummings’ Baltimore district a “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess [where] no human being would want to live.” He went on to compare Cummings’ district unfavorably with his concentration camps on the border saying it is the “Worst in the USA [but that the] Border is clean, efficient & well run.” Then Trump baselessly alleged some sort of corruption by Cummings asking “Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!”

Make no mistake, This is a forthrightly racist attack on an African-American congressman and his black and brown constituents. Trump has also been attacking four congresswomen of color for the past few weeks. His mantra that they should “go back” where they came from was not only insulting (they are all citizens), but un-American. And this new attack on Baltimore – three days shy of its 290th birthday – is further evidence that Trump truly hates America, particularly major cities with proud histories and diverse populations. And it is no coincidence that Trump’s use of this sort of rhetoric is always reserved for people of color. This was expressed with great passion and moral integrity by CNN’s Victor Blackwell, who is from Baltimore.

It also cannot be ignored that Rep. Cummings is the chairman of the House Oversight Committee which is investigating several of Trump’s unsavory activities. Just this week Cummings received the authority to subpoena Ivanka and Jared’s email. And if that weren’t enough to trigger Trump’s wrath, consider that his source for this assault on Baltimore was very likely a segment on the subject he had just seen on Fox News.

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

So Trump’s animus toward a venerable American city, it’s residents, and all Americans who cherish the principles our nation was founded on, is an expression of both his bigotry and his political hostilities. It is more proof (as if it were needed) that he is unfit to serve as president and is an embarrassment to the nation.

Trump is Plunging Into a Desperate Dependence on Fox News that’s Downright Creepy

Posted by on July 25, 2019 at 12:09 pm. NO Comments :

In the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony, Donald Trump has rushed to buttress the barricades of his propaganda crusade. In practical terms that means hyping the crap out of every Trump-fluffing shill he sees on Fox News. And he may have set a record for posting tweets that are flagrantly fawning by the bootlickers at his favorite cable “news” network.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Hate Again

In the few hours since the Mueller hearings concluded, Trump posted sixteen (16!) tweets referencing – and even explicitly thanking – Fox News and their stable of pro-Trump PR toadies. They included disseminating White House talking points about the hearings being “a disaster.” And there were the obligatory lies about “no obstruction, no collusion,” even though Mueller said precisely the opposite. He posted eight videos of segments from Fox that were nothing more than drooling sycophancy, and quotes from the devoutly anti-intellectual “Curvy Couch” potatoes on Fox and Friends.

There were also a couple of prideful postings of a new Fox News poll. Trump celebrated that the poll gave him a 52 percent approval rating on the economy. Never mind that the economy has been in the midst of the longest bull market in history that began ten years ago during the Obama administration. And it performed better in the last two years of Obama’s term than in the first two years of Trump’s.

More importantly, the same poll showed that Trump was severely underwater on almost everything else, including most of his signature issues. For instance, favorability (45 approve – 51 disapprove), border security (44-52), immigration (41-54), trade (40-49), Iran (39-46), North Korea (39-49), and health care (38-51). But Trump was never very good at figuring out stuff as complicated as polls. Our “stable genius” in the White House can only comprehend surveys that are unflinchingly adoring.

The relationship between Trump and Fox News has always been an unethical convergence of media and politics. Fox News is the de facto State TV division of the Trump regime. At any given moment, Fox is either promoting Trump as the new Messiah, or attacking his critics as spawns of Satan. Although, Fox will sometimes complain that they are miscast as biased, and there are even some rare examples of independent thought.

But the biggest impediments to Fox News being perceived as “fair and balanced” (a ludicrous slogan that they abandoned two years ago) are Fox News and Donald Trump. They will always manage to reinforce their conspicuous and disgraceful perversion of the free press. Either Trump will come along to prove that Fox is his personal PR agency with the sort of tweeting frenzy he just unleashed, or Fox will fill their schedule with what can only be described as pro-Trump campaign ads disguised as news programs.

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

The Fox News/Trump Nationalist Party is not only unprecedented, it’s dangerous. It produces a false narrative among the cultists who adhere it that embraces hostility and division, excuses lying, encourages ignorance and willful obliviousness to bona fide national security threats, and turns a sector of the electorate into, essentially, advocates for America’s enemies. And it’s led by a Reality TV game show host who said that he has no time for TV, despite having plenty of time to post tweets of what he is supposedly not viewing.

UPDATE: It only took one day for Trump to figure out that the new Fox Poll was not good news for him. So of course, he lashed out on Twitter against Fox polls which he says “have always been terrible to me.” But don’t worry, the Whiner-in-Chief will return to slobbering over Hannity and Company before you know it.

Trump Misreads Poll on Support for His Impeachment, Posts Absurdly Wrong Numbers

Posted by on July 23, 2019 at 2:47 pm. 1 Comments :

The President of the United States is presently the subject of a rare debate over whether he should be impeached for crimes committed by him and/or his associates. While other presidents have been accused of high crimes and misdemeanors, none have been suspected of treasonous conspiracies in conjunction with foreign enemies. This is a situation unique to Donald Trump.

Donald Trump Impeach

Consequently, public polling on whether Trump should be impeached has emerged as an important gauge of his ability to endure another term in office, or even complete his first. And his historically low approval ratings isn’t helping him any. That may be why he is now disseminating obviously false information that makes his situation appear somewhat less dire. On Tuesday morning Trump tweeted this:

Notice that Trump didn’t bother to provide a link to the poll he referenced. That’s a common tactic he employs to prevent people from discovering that he’s a lying jackal. This tactic works well among his Deplorables who will believe whatever he says, even when there’s proof that he’s lying. But for the rest of us, we have to try harder to find out what the heck he’s talking about.

In this case, there is only one recent poll regarding impeachment with an 11 percent result. It’s the YouGov survey published July 18. This poll asked “Do you think the U.S. House of Representative should or should not try to impeach President Trump?” The overall response was 36 percent YES, and 45 percent NO. So where did Trump get 11 percent? That was the number of Republicans who said that he should be impeached. Democrats favored impeachment by 64 percent. So Trump is trying to pass off the GOP-only number as the number for all Americans.

For a bit of contrast, a Twitter user replied to Trump’s tweet with a Twitter poll of his own. At the time of this writing, 77 percent of more than 22,000 votes favored impeachment, while 22 percent did not. Of course, this is not a scientific poll, but it’s revealing that such a large majority of voters on Trump’s own Twitter feed want to see him impeached.

This isn’t the first time that Trump has gotten poll results horribly wrong. On one occasion, Trump retweeted a Fox News report that put his overall approval at 55 percent. Fox later admitted that they made a mistake and that the real number was 43 percent. In a rare correction Fox took down their story but, three months later, Trump still has not.

On another occasion, Trump bragged about the results of a Fox News poll that doesn’t actually exist. He said that his approval among African-Americans in this imaginary poll among was 40 percent. That’s not even close. It’s actually in single digits. A recent Washington Post poll put the number at three percent.

And then there was the time that Trump boasted about a poll showing him with 52 percent approval. Of course that was also in error. The 52 was really his disapproval. His approval in this case was only 44 percent.

Almost everything else in Trump’s tweets is also wrong. He’s taking credit for economic success that is almost totally attributable to his predecessor, President Obama. Stock market and jobs stats increased more during Obama’s administration than in Trump’s. And his tax cuts, regulatory moves, tariffs, and trade wars, were demonstrably harmful to the economy and particularly working people.

It’s hard to say whether all of this misreporting was the result of his poor comprehension skills or deliberate deception. Neither is a very good option. But we have a very serious problem when the President of the United States can’t grasp the results of a simple survey, and has no interest in ever setting the record straight when he’s wrong.

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

What’s more, his attempt at mockery by saying “Gee, let’s impeach the President,” forms the core of his argument against impeachment. He thinks that if the economy is strong, there is no justification to impeach. But that’s nonsense. Impeachment is called for if the President is found guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. And if he is, it doesn’t make any difference what the state of the economy is. A president who breaks the law during good times is still a criminal. But that’s just another simple concept that Trump is incapable of understanding.

Trump Suffers Fit of Hysterical Projection Syndrome in Desperate Attack on Joe Biden

Posted by on July 6, 2019 at 12:24 pm. NO Comments :

For nearly two and a half years Donald Trump has been a walking textbook of debilitating psychoses. He has displayed symptoms of malignant narcissism, dementia, senility, paranoia, and antisocial personality disorder (aka sociopathy). He is a sexual predator and a bully who resorts to infantile behaviors when angry or afraid. And a group of psychiatric doctors and academics at Yale University deemed him “too mentally ill to serve.”

Donald Trump, Joe Biden

Now a new diagnosis can be made that describes Trump’s relentless determination to accuse others of what he does himself. The surest indicator of whether Trump has committed a crime is when he blasts out charges at someone else for the same criminal activity. And when that tendency reaches absurd levels of mania, as it so often does with Trump, we can call it Hysterical Projection Syndrome. And history will record Trump as Patient Zero for this malady. He presented a perfect example of it on Saturday morning with a frantic tweet (of course) aimed at Joe Biden, which we can break down to fully observe the depths to which Trump’s illness have driven him.

First of all, there’s no way Trump wrote this tweet. Too many syllables. More to the point, Trump begins by disparaging Biden as “a reclamation project” who is “not salvageable.” Both of those terms are thinly veiled insinuations about his age. Trump has also attached one of his childish nicknames – Sleepy Joe – to Biden. However, while Biden is 76 years old, Trump is 73 years old. And he is the laziest president in history. It has been reported that he doesn’t start his work day until 11:00 am, after his morning routine (executive time) of watching Fox News. And he has played more golf (at his resorts from which he profits) than any president before him.

Secondly, Trump says of Biden that China is “begging for him.” We’ll set aside the fact there is no evidence to support that charge. Trump is implying that China likes Biden and wants to deal with him. But that’s exactly what Trump says about his own relationship with China’s Xi Jinping. How can he criticize Biden for allegedly having the sort of relationship that he brags about having himself?

Third, Trump says that Biden “deserted our military.” Again (and as is true about almost everything Trump says) there is no support for that charge against Biden. Although there is abundant support for it against Trump. He is a five-time draft dodger. He insulted all POWs for having been captured. He denigrates Gold Star families who are not Trump sycophants. He terminated healthcare and other services for vets. And he deported veterans who served in combat despite not being citizens.

Fourth, Trump also baselessly said that Biden deserted law enforcement. However, it is Trump who has viciously attacked the FBI, the Department of Justice, and others in law enforcement. Notably, he does that primarily to tarnish their reputations when he is the subject of an investigation – of which there are many. Trump is against cops for the same reason bank robbers are: They make it harder for him to get away with his crimes. So he goes ballistic. His vile attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller have included charges of lying, corruption, conflict of interest, and even treason.

Fifth, Trump also said that Biden deserted healthcare. Of course, he was at President Obama’s right hand when the Affordable Care Act was passed. Trump, on the other hand, has worked hard to sabotage it and is currently supporting a lawsuit that could result in killing it entirely. He has no plan to replace it or to preserve the most popular provisions, including coverage for those with preexisting conditions.

Sixth, Trump complains about the national debt, which is rising to a record $22 trillion dollars under his administration. Much of that is due to his own tax bill that provided corporations and the wealthy with steep and undeserved tax cuts. The Congressional Budget Office projects that Trump could add roughly the same amount of debt as Obama over two terms. However there’s a big difference between the two. Obama took office in the depths of the Bush recession when deficit financing was required to spur the recovery.

Trump, on the other hand, inherited a booming economy, which is the best time to pay off debt. But he nevertheless managed to increase it without any discernible gain. As Forbes Magazine (not exactly a bastion of liberalism) reported, “Trump’s deficits as a percent of GDP will exceed any other President’s during a time of economic expansion.” And the stock market, which Trump likes to use as a gauge of his success, performed far better during Obama’s term. The S&P 500 rose 66.2 percent under Obama, but less than half that (31.1%) under Trump.

Finally, Trump closed this tweet with the exclamation that Biden “Won’t win!” Well, that may be true. He may not even be the Democratic nominee. But the likelihood that Trump will win is pretty low considering that he is currently trailing all of the top Democratic contenders. And his approval rating is historically low. He is the first president ever to never crack 50 percent in approval.

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

That’s a lot of flaming wrongness by Trump in one little tweet. And all of the whining about Biden actually applies much better to Trump. It’s important to acknowledge just how delusional he is as we approach the coming 2020 election. Trump’s psychological infirmities need to be a part of the campaign for all Democrats. He must be exposed as not just another callous and greedy Republican, but as an incompetent whose ignorance, hostility, and mental imbalance puts the whole nation – and world – in danger.

Trump Floats Ludicrous ‘Big Secret’ Theory for Obama Not Endorsing Biden

Posted by on June 25, 2019 at 12:51 pm. 1 Comments :

Donald Trump’s opinion on the candidates in the Democratic presidential primary is about as useful as Bill Cosby’s dating tips. Trump is a notorious pathological liar who uses any opportunity to disparage his political foes as an invitation to spin lame, and often profane, fairy tales that have no relationship to reality. Why any reporter would ask him for his opinion on this subject is a mystery.

Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

Nevertheless, that’s what a reporter from The Hill did on Tuesday morning. Trump was asked about the prospect of facing Vice-President Joe Biden in the general election, and his response was typically shallow, insulting, and untrue (video below):

“How he doesn’t get President Obama to endorse him. There has to be some reason why he’s not endorsing him. He was the vice president. They seem to have gotten along. And how President Obama’s not endorsing him is rather a big secret.

“Then he goes and lies and said, ‘I asked the president not to endorse me.’ Give me a break. He’s embarrassed by the fact that Obama’s not endorsing him, so he goes out and says, ‘I asked President Obama not to endorse me.’ Well, he was trying to get the endorsement. So it could be that President Obama knows something. But there is something going on in that brain of his.”

The “big secret” is that former presidents, and most party leaders, never endorse candidates during a primary. It would be considered bad form to discriminate between members of your own party. So they generally remain neutral until a nominee is selected by voters, whereupon, they issue their endorsement. Were they to endorse one candidate, but another eventually wins the nomination, the nominee would be diminished as a second choice for not having had the original endorsement.

It isn’t surprising that Trump doesn’t know this, because it’s just one of the many things his universal ignorance encompasses. But what is a bit surprising is that he seems to forgotten that he refused to endorse his own vice-president, Mike Pence, when asked. During an appearance on his favorite Fox News morning show, Fox and Friends, he awkwardly babbled that “You can’t put me in that position. But I certainly would give it very strong consideration.”

So what is Trump’s “big secret” for not endorsing Pence? There has to be some reason why he’s not endorsing him. He’s the vice president. They seem to have gotten along. So it could be that Trump knows something. But there is something going on in that “brain” of his.

Trump is not the best person to bring up big secrets. After all, he has been fighting for years to keep his tax returns secret. Likewise his college transcripts. He buries reports by his own administration that reveal the dangers of climate change and the mistreatment of immigrant children. He pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to silence his mistresses. And he is currently prohibiting members of his administration, and other close associates, from testifying before Congress. You don’t think he has something to hide, do you?

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

UNFIT: Trump Okays Strike on Iran Without a Casualty Assessment, and Other Unpresidential Acts

Posted by on June 21, 2019 at 12:08 pm. 3 Comments :

There has been frequent speculation about the shaky temperament of Donald Trump and his mental unfitness for the office of the presidency. This has been observed in his pathological lying, infantile name-calling, nerve-rattling ignorance, affinity for murderous dictators, aversion to American intelligence agencies, and brazen disrespect for the law.

Donald Trump

Nevertheless, Trump continues to provide more evidence of how pitifully incompetent and unprepared he is for the duty he’s assumed. The latest demonstration of that is his response to the charge that Iran shot down an American drone. His first comment on the matter was (naturally) a threatening tweet that said only that “Iran made a very big mistake!” However, he followed that up by suggesting that he literally believes that what Iran did was accidental. Which makes his decision to strike back with military force (for an accident?) somewhat peculiar. But no more peculiar than his reversal of that decision, which he explained in another series of tweets. Let’s examine this tweetstorm:


Obama did not “give” money to Iran. Trump is referring to money that was Iran’s to begin with. It had been frozen in foreign accounts. Obama’s deal released the funds upon completion of the nuclear agreement. Also, Obama did not give Iran a “free path to nuclear weapons.” He secured a decades-long prohibition of further development of their nuclear capabilities which at the time were within a year of completing a functional weapon. Trump’s knee-jerk blaming of Obama is ironic considering that Trump had falsely accused him of plotting to attack Iran nine times before he was president.

Trump complaining about the nuclear agreement with Iran not being ratified by Congress is laughable considering his proclivity for executive orders and appointments of numerous “acting” cabinet officials (ominously including Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Homeland Security, and U.N. Ambassador) who have never been confirmed by the Senate. And Trump’s claim that Iran is now “Bust!” doesn’t jibe with reality. There’s no evidence that their military capabilities have been reduced in any way.


This first tweet contains several notable rhetorical errors. First of all, all drones are unmanned. Secondly, “International Waters” is not a pronoun. Third, it’s “locked and loaded” not “cocked.” Fourth, it’s “sites,” not “sights.”

More importantly, if it’s true that Trump approved a military strike, but only asked for a casualty assessment ten minutes before it began, he is even more disengaged and incompetent as Commander-in-Chief than we thought. However, casualty assessments are routinely given during mission briefings, and reports say this one was no exception. So Trump is likely lying about when he learned of the potential fatalities. Even Chris Wallace of Fox News was curious why Trump didn’t ask that question sooner, prompting him to wonder if Trump “has the stomach to launch this kind of attack.”

Trump often says that he has “rebuilt” the military which he describes disparagingly as having been “depleted.” In doing so, he is insulting every American officer and soldier who served prior to his election. Never mind the fact that his demeaning assertion is wholly unfounded.

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

Taken in total, these tweets are nothing more than Trump seeking to excuse his inadequacies, assign blame to others, and exalt himself as a national savior. They do nothing to advance a solution to rising tensions in the Middle East (which he has exacerbated), or to protect America’s interests. Like just about everything else he does, it was focused solely on glorifying himself and canonizing the image that he wants others to have of him. Unfortunately for Trump, that will only work on the glassy-eyed Deplorables that make up his cult following.

Wag the Dog: Trump’s Threats to Iran Mirror His False Accusations Against Obama

Posted by on June 20, 2019 at 11:12 am. 2 Comments :

If there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that he will say anything to exalt himself and slander his opponents. It doesn’t matter whether there is any speck of truth to his ranting. And during times of crisis, this character flaw presents a very real risk to the welfare of the nation. The danger that Trump is putting us in has never been better demonstrated than by his saber-rattling over Iran.

Donald Trump, Barack Obama

The reports about the shooting down of a U.S. drone are still lacking substantive evidence of whether or not it had violated Iranian airspace. And it would foolish to take Trump’s word for anything given his propensity for lying. What’s more, these rising tensions are directly attributable to Trump’s own policies. He thought that by pulling out of the six-nation agreement to denuclearize Iran that Iran would would back down and submit to further, unspecified restrictions. Instead, Iran has become more aggressive and confrontational.

So Trump’s plan backfired badly. And now we are on the brink of a conflict that nobody wanted. Or maybe not. Trump himself has speculated about the benefits of a war with Iran. He has openly expressed his opinion that it would be helpful in a reelection campaign. That would be especially true for a candidate with approval numbers as dismal as Trump’s But he wasn’t talking about himself:

Could Trump have possibly been more wrong, more often? That’s nine times between November 2011 and November 2013 that Trump accused President Obama of plotting to incite a war with Iran. And, of course, none of it was true. However, his belief that such a plan would be beneficial to a candidate in a tough reelection campaign says a lot about what he may be thinking now that he finds himself in that position today. Is he trying to improve his own floundering prospects in the manner that he believed would have been successful for Obama? Will Republicans take his advice to “be careful” now that the political tables have turned?

If so, he’s doing it very badly. After tweeting what appeared to be a direct threat that “Iran made a very big mistake!,” Trump backpedalled saying “I find it hard it believe it was intentional.” In other words, he’s now floating the notion that it was literally a mistake. It’s a weakening that can only serve to embolden Iran.

Trump is pursuing this ill-advised strategy a time when his administration is bereft of experienced, qualified advisors. He currently has no Secretary of Defense, no U.N. Ambassador, no Secretary of Homeland Security, and a war mongering National Security Advisor (John Bolton) with whom he has had painfully public disputes, including on the subject of Iran. This does not bode well for America. And it’s another reason why Trump should have been impeached long ago. It’s not too late – hopefully.

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

Trump Suffers Severe Obama Derangement Fit, Incoherently Babbles that ‘Obama Had Child Separation’

Posted by on April 9, 2019 at 3:11 pm. 3 Comments :

The rapid and public decline in Donald Trump’s mental state is a frightening display of the fragility of his mind and cognitive infirmity. Many professionals in the psychiatric field have observed Trump’s swindling awareness of reality and concluded that he is unfit to manage a Burger King, much less serve as president.

Donald Trump Zombie

On Tuesday Trump validated the diagnoses of his mental failure during a press avail with President Sisi of Egypt. When reporters asked Trump about his administration’s policy of separating immigrant families, he launched into an utterly deranged tirade denying his own policy and lashing out at President Obama over and over again:

https://twitter.com/NightlyPolitics/status/1115668909137379329

“Obama separated the children, by the way. Just so you understand, President Obama separated the children. Those cages that were shown, I think they were very inappropriate. They were built by President Obama’s administration. Not by Trump. President Obama had child separation. Take a look. The press knows it. You know it. We all know it. I’m the one that stopped it. President Obama had child separation.”

That’s about as solid an exhibition of total insanity as you’re likely to see unfold on live TV. Trump name-checked Obama five times in that short paragraph, as if possessed by rabid anti-Obama demons. And each time he associated Obama with a practice of child separation that was demonstrably false. The Obama administration only held children when they crossed the border alone, or when their parents were accused of felonies. It was the Trump administration that created the policy of separating families of asylum seekers, and they even admitted that it was done as a “deterrent.” Nearly a year ago News Corpse wrote this:

“‘If you don’t want your child separated,’ said Attorney General Jeff Sessions, ‘then don’t bring them across the border illegally.’ Of course, these asylum seekers are not breaking any laws. And speaking about family separation, Trump’s Chief of Staff, John Kelly, said ‘A big name of the game is deterrence [and] it could be a tough deterrent.’ In both cases they are advocating cruelty and human rights abuse as a deterrent for a civil border violation.”

So in a bizarre way, Trump is criticizing Obama for being tougher on immigrants than he is. Even though Obama didn’t do what Trump claimed and Trump now denies doing it himself. What makes this especially demented is that Trump also praises the policy that he says isn’t his:

“Now I’ll tell you something, once you don’t have it, that’s why you see many more people coming. They’re coming like it’s a picnic because ‘Let’s go to Disneyland.’ President Obama separated children. They had child separation. I was the one that changed it.”

So in Trump’s analysis, the policy works because fewer immigrants come to the U.S. when it’s in place. So is he for or against it now? And obviously it was in place or else how would he know that it worked? Trump also contradicts himself with ludicrous visions of a migration amusement park. It’s just a good old time for these families who are fleeing poverty and violence by walking hundreds of miles with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I’m surprised Disneyland hasn’t already built their Asylum Land attraction.

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

The evidence that Trump is a very sick man just continues to pile up. And his condition seems to be worsening more quickly every day. He can’t manage to get through any public statement without misstating where his father was from or some absurd ravings about windmill cancer. And the video of these latest remarks is almost too painful to watch.