SO LIKE TRUMP: Spokesman Can’t Defend Trump’s Lies – So He Lies Even More

The stunning spectacle of President-Elect Donald Trump continuing his midnight tweet tirades is a harbinger of a surreal future. He’s the first American president to sink to such juvenile 140 character trash-talk.

Trump Baby

In response to the effort to recount votes in three battleground states, Trump disgorged a stream of ludicrous tweets. They contained both delusional fiction and stark contradiction. He led off with a claim that the recount was a scam that wouldn’t change the election results. But then he flipped to asserting that there were indeed “millions of illegal votes.” That should be justification for a recount. He never bothered to reconcile his disjointed logic.

Monday morning Trump’s communications director, Jason Miller, held a conference call with the press. Tamara Keith of NPR brought up Trump’s tweets asking:

KEITH: I am hoping that you could point to the evidence of millions of people who Mr. Trump claims voted illegally and also any evidence you have of election fraud that he claimed on Twitter happened in New Hampshire, Virginia and California.

MILLER: You know, one of the things I’d say just, kind of, on the front end that I really do think that it’s been ridiculous that so much oxygen’s been given to the recount effort where there’s absolutely no chance of any election results changing. […]

You know, with regard to, you know, additional — you know, but I think it’s also important to point out that if so much time and attention is gonna be given to recount issues and some of the other things that Jill Stein has been bringing up, it’s important to talk about some of the other concerns that are out there with regard to voting.

For some reason, Miller drifted off into Palin-speak. Perhaps she is advising the campaign on how to be incomprehensible in order to avoid tough questions. Then he returned to the topic and gave an answer that defies credibility:

In particular, I’d point to the 2014 Washington Post study that indicated more than 14 percent of non-citizens in both the 2008 and 2010 elections indicated they were registered to vote, and that Washington Post story is important.

I’d also point out some of the other examples that we had raised during the campaign. Some numbers include the Pew Research study that said approximately 24 million, or one out of every eight, voter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or significantly inaccurate. And in that same Pew Research study, the fact that 2.5 million people have registrations in more than one state.

First of all, the Washington Post study to which Miller referred was from 2014 and had nothing to do with this election. Secondly, it was debunked by fact-checkers and the Washington Post itself. In fact, WaPo added a preface to their own article saying that “the findings were biased and that the author’s data do not provide evidence of non-citizen voting in U.S. elections.”

Similarly, the Pew study (from 2012) had no bearing on 2016 presidential voting. And both studies involved only voter registration. Neither one made any claims with regard to illegal voting or voter fraud. Even the registration issues didn’t indicate any fraud. They were mainly due to voters dying, moving or otherwise not updating their registration status. That includes immigrants who showed up on voter rolls after they became citizens, but who were still identified in other government databases as non-citizens. The studies did not allege that any of these mis-registered people ever improperly voted. Nevertheless, Miller insisted that he had uncovered bona fide examples of election fraud:

So all these are studies and examples of where there have been issues of both voter fraud and illegal immigrants voting. So if this much attention and oxygen’s gonna be given to a completely frivolous, throwaway fund-raising scheme by someone like Jill Stein, then there should be actual substantive looks at the — the overall examples of voter fraud and illegal immigrants voting in recent years. And so that’s — that’s the — the broader message that I think should be taken away here.

No, these are plainly not examples of “voter fraud and illegal immigrants voting.” However, if Miller really believes that they are, he should join Stein’s effort to call for an even more expansive recount of the 2016 election. Recount the whole country. How can he argue that there’s rampant fraud that undermines our democracy, but that we shouldn’t do anything about it? We welcome him to the fight for fair and honest elections. Let’s root out these imaginary ne’er do wells once and for all.

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

You Maniacs. You Blew It Up. Damn You. Goddamn You All To Hell!

On November 8,2016, the United States of America achieved a historic milestone. It elected as its president the first openly racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, narcissistic, wannabe dictator. A majority of the American people [UPDATE: Clinton won the popular vote] voted for an ignorant, unbalanced, pathological liar (see the Trump Bullshitopedia) who made childish insults and hate speech the centerpiece of his campaign. Donald Trump will now prepare to take up residence in the White House and proceed to make America an international embarrassment.

Planet of the Trump

To get there he defeated Hillary Clinton, perhaps the most experienced candidate to ever run for the office. She herself would have been a historic milestone as the first woman president. Apparently it didn’t matter that Americans regarded Trump as dishonest and temperamentally unfit to be president. They still favored him over a qualified woman, proving that male privilege continues to dominant the national culture.

So for its poor judgment, America can now look forward to the Trump agenda that consists of an array of idiotic and/or unachievable promises:

  • A wall along the southern border. Mexico pays.
  • ISIS defeated quickly and easily.
  • A dozen women getting sued by the President for reporting sexual assault.
  • ObamaCare repealed and replaced.
  • Eleven million undocumented immigrants rounded up by deportation force.
  • Outlaw abortion and punish women.
  • Guns everywhere.
  • Muslims prohibited from entering the U.S.
  • Hillary Clinton? Lock her up!
  • Threaten the media with loosened libel laws and lawsuits.
  • Cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
  • End all crime in the cities.
  • Disband NATO.
  • Cease all efforts to mitigate climate change.
  • Appoint more conservatives to the Supreme Court.
  • Shadow president Vladimir Putin.

Speaking of Putin, we have him to thank for our president-elect. Along with his accomplices Julian Assange and FBI director James Comey, there was a successful coup against the United States. Clinton’s defeat can be directly tied to Russia’s interference in our election. By stealing private documents, publishing them online, and fomenting fake allegations of criminality, this cabal swayed enough voters to surrender our national sovereignty to hostile foreign powers. Congratulations.

There will be many eulogies delivered today, along with some attempts to rekindle a strained fighting spirit. But there remains an unshakable reality that much of the progress we achieved over the last eight years (eighty years?) is destined for a ruinous reversal. Under the circumstances it’s hard to hold our heads up. At least for today. But this day will pass and the duty we have to our children, our planet, our future, must be honored. So grieve, rest, and then rise up with a roar. There isn’t any other alternative.

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

Putin Voted

Military Donors Shoot Down Trump – Give Three Times As Much To Clinton

Voting blocs in the 2016 presidential campaign are often fairly easy to predict. Women, African-Americans, Latinos, and the college educated have been reliably trending toward Hillary Clinton. In the meantime, Donald Trump has sewn up the Second Amendment fetishists, evangelicals, white nationalists, and wall enthusiasts.

Donald Trump Military

One group that has been speculated on frequently as leaning Trump is members of the military, both active and retired. However, a new report knocks down that assumption, at least as far as campaign donations are concerned. OpenSecrets conducted a study of public records showing that:

“Individuals who listed their employers as the U.S. Department of Defense or major branches of the military, or who say they’re retired from one of those, have contributed a total of $972,709 to both nominees so far this year. Clinton has claimed $771,471 of the contributions, or nearly 80 percent.

“All major branches of the armed forces – including the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard – have favored Clinton to a much greater degree than GOP nominee Donald Trump.”

The numbers are especially bad for Trump among veterans, a group that he has focused on intensely from the start. The report notes that he received only two percent of the total donations from former military personnel.

These numbers might be surprising on first glance, but a deeper look into the candidates’ records yields some clarity. Perhaps military folk aren’t swayed by a mentally unbalanced candidate who only likes soldiers who weren’t captured (sorry John McCain). Maybe they are offended when they get ripped off by a phony charity event. It could be that they just know, better than most, the risks of having an inexperienced leader who seems to be excited by nuclear war. Then again, it might be they don’t appreciate calling vets with PTSD “weak.” And it surely doesn’t help if you malign the Gold Star family of a fallen hero just because they’re Muslim. All of that, in addition to having received five draft deferments, doesn’t paint a particularly positive picture of Trump as Commander-in-Chief.

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton has shown her ability to conduct diplomacy in a manner that can prevent unnecessary conflict. She’s a steady hand who has also shown her grit by helping to dispose of Osama Bin Laden. She may have voted to give George W. Bush authority to invade Iraq, but she also had the integrity to admit that she was unduly persuaded by the lies of the Bush administration and that her vote was a mistake. That’s a rare commodity in a politician.

A few days ago Trump compared himself to a group of decorated veterans he assembled for a photo op. He said that they were more brave than he is, but that he is “brave in other ways. I’m financially brave.” That’s only true, however, if you regard financial bravery as being responsible for repeated business failures. Then he sought to speak for the vets, suggesting that he could read their minds. Of course, his reading was entirely contemptuous of Clinton:

“To think of her being their boss, I don’t think so. I know what they are thinking. It’s not for them.”

Trump emphasized the word “her” in that comment. Because in his mind the military would object to a woman as Commander-in-Chief. Which makes this new report so valuable. Despite every attempt on his part to pander to soldiers and veterans, when it comes to putting up cold hard cash, Clinton is their clear preference. And that demonstrates the good judgment of our women and men in uniform.

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

Trump To Campaign With Vulgar, Racist, Sexual Deviant Ted Nugent

On Saturday, Donald Trump devoted much of his stump speech to attacking Hillary Clinton for appearing with several music superstars. Her campaign event in Cleveland featured Beyonce and Jay Z. She also recently appeared with Jennifer Lopez, Katy Parry, and Stevie Wonder. And Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen are coming up.

Donald Trump Ted Nugent

Trump’s criticisms amounted to another rash of whining and bragging. Since he can’t get any beloved icons of entertainment to support him, he complains that it’s “cheating” if Clinton does. And anyway, he doesn’t need them because he’s just that awesome. On his scarcity of star power, Trump bragged:

“We didn’t bring any so-called stars along. We didn’t need them. The reason Hillary has to do that is, nobody comes for her. She can’t fill a room. That’s almost like a form of cheating, right?”

And on the injury to his tender sensitivities, he whined:

“So he [Jay Z] used every word in the book. I won’t even use the initials because I’ll get in trouble. They’ll get me in trouble. He used every word in the book last night.”

Which makes it all the more blatantly hypocritically that Trump will be campaigning with 1970’s washout rocker, Ted Nugent, Sunday night. If he doesn’t want celebrities boosting his campaign he’s still in the clear. Nugent is hardly a celebrity. He’s spent the last few decades performing as a novelty act at state fairs and shilling for the NRA. But it still demonstrates Trump’s tunnel-blind view of the world as he seeks to exploit his own famous deplorables.

What’s worse is Trump’s forgiveness of Nugent’s repulsive commentaries for the past several years. Trump may not like Jay Z using language that is relatable to his hip-hop audience, but it doesn’t come close to Nugent’s offensive outbursts aimed at his political enemies. For instance:

  • Nugent said that “Jews for guncontrol are nazis in disguise?”
  • He ranted that Clinton “should be tried for treason & hung.”
  • In a tweet portraying Clinton being assassinated, Nugent wrote: “I got your guncontrol right here bitch!”
  • He called President Obama a “subhuman mongrel.”
  • Referring to Clinton in an interview, Nugent said “”You probably can’t use the term `toxic cunt’ in your magazine, but that’s what she is. [and] This bitch is nothing but a two-bit whore for Fidel Castro.”
  • And just a week ago he exhorted his fans to vote for Trump or “the devilbitch will continue the fundamental transformation of the Barack ‘I Hate America’ Obama suicide death march for America.”

Perhaps the most appalling of Nugent’s public meltdowns was a video that went viral a few years ago. It showed him utterly unhinged at a concert where he fantasized about killing several Democratic politicians. While brandishing what appeared to be a couple of automatic weapons, Trump bellowed:

“I was in Chicago and I said ‘Hey Obama, you might want to suck on one of these you punk.’ Obama, he’s a piece of shit, and I told him to suck on my machine gun. Then I was in New York and I said, ‘Hey Hillary you might want to ride one of these into the sunset you worthless bitch.’ Then I was out in California and I thought, Barbara Boxer, she might want to suck on my machine gun. Hey Dianne Feinstein, ride one of these you worthless whore.”

That’s the sort of moral support that Trump is embracing just one day after castigating Clinton’s celebrity supporters. And it isn’t coincidental that most of his targets are women. Nor is it surprising that Trump has such affinity for Nugent. They both engage in childish vulgarity. They are both consumed with hatred for their fellow Americans. Racism is the prime motivating factor for both of them. They are both draft dodgers who now pretend to revere the military. And they have both publicly boasted about their misogynistic affairs and sexual assaults that have included women and girls.

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

The picture of Trump and Nugent together is a fitting finale for his repugnant campaign. They are the embodiment of the worst of the right’s bigotry and hateful propensity for violence. It sums up the GOP’s devolution into a party dedicated to division and hostility. And on Tuesday Americans will have the chance to reject all of that and turn the nation away from the neo-fascism that Trump represents. Don’t blow it, America.

UPDATE: Living down to expectations, Nugent managed to offend at the Trump rally. Repeatedly referring to Michiganders as “shitkickers,” Nugent grabbed his crotch and said “I’ve got your blue state right here.” Later he asked the crowd if he should play his stale hit “Wang Dang Poon Tang” for the children?

Watch Bill Maher Passionately Beg The Media To – ‘Do Your F**KING Job!’

In the waning days of this surreal election year, tempers are fraying beyond cognitive sustainability. For those with functioning brain stems, just the thought of Donald Trump as president is unfathomable. There is simply no sane explanation for this narcissistic wannabe dictator even being competitive in the race for leader of the free world. At least not without contorting the imagination into a bizarro glob of Silly Putty.

Bill Maher

No one knows this better than comedian and social observer Bill Maher. But the the strain is even beginning to show on him. In Friday’s episode of his HBO program Real Time, he is obviously at his breaking point with regard to the election and the media’s coverage of it. After noting some examples of the absurd obsession the press has for irrelevancies and false equivalence, Maher explodes. He stares directly into the camera and shouts “Media – Do your fucking job!”

That’s a sentiment that many have been expressing for more than a year. The American people watched with confusion as cable news surrendered their air to Trump’s rambling, racist diatribes. Hour after hour, Trump ranted incoherently with no balance from opposing candidates or the press. And as the campaign wore on, allegedly professional journalists treated Trump’s ignorance and hate-speech as if it were acceptable political discourse.

Maher addressed these failings with the sharpness of a properly jaded humorist. For example:

“The FBI says Americans should look out for terror attacks on Monday. They said they would do it, but they’re so busy with Hillary’s emails from 2009.”

And:

“A terrorist attack – that would be such a nightmare scenario. To watch terrorists ruin our election after all the work Russia has put into doing that.”

Maher noted that “We have reached peak insanity.” What’s really troubling is that that may be an understatement. He also noticed the disturbing relationship between Trump and Russia that the media mostly ignores:

“Republicans are trying to elect a sexually assaulting psychopath who, if not a Russian agent, is unwittingly working as one. And people in America are saying “Well, it’s better than Hillary.” No it’s F**KING not!”

Watch the video below and rest in the knowledge that you are not alone. If you believe a candidate for president who aligns himself with hostile foreign nations is treasonous, you are not alone. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the unconscionable negligence of the media, you are not alone. After November 8, there will be time to recharge and then to focus on these problems. Hopefully we can have some impact before the next election. In the meantime…let’s laugh at our pain.

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

HUSH MONEY: National Enquirer Paid 150K To Cover Up Trump’s ‘Affair’ With A Playboy Model

FBI insiders have spent much of the past week leaking dubious data about Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump’s campaign. It’s a horrifying state of affairs that implicates the agency in election tampering. Meanwhile, salacious information about Donald Trump is getting quashed by his pals in the tabloid media. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that:

“The company that owns the National Enquirer (AMI), a backer of Donald Trump, agreed to pay $150,000 to a former Playboy centerfold model for her story of an affair a decade ago with the Republican presidential nominee, but then didn’t publish it, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the matter.”

Melania and Donald Trump

Karen McDougal, the 1998 Playmate of the Year, has told friends she was romantically involved with Trump in 2006. He was married to his current wife Melania at the time. The Journal’s sources said that McDougal expected her story to be published, but that AMI never intended to run it. From the beginning it was a means of killing a story that was potentially damaging to Trump’s presidential aspirations.

Imagine that. A sensationalistic supermarket tabloid declining to publish a sex-drenched scandal about a prominent public figure. It has all the elements of the model story for the Enquirer. But even after the Access Hollywood tapes were released and a dozen other women accused Trump of sexual harassment and/or assault, the Enquirer kept the lid on their blockbuster scoop. Why would they do that?

Maybe because David Pecker, publisher of the Enquirer, is a long-time personal friend of Trump and supports his candidacy. He has used his paper to advance Trump’s campaign and attack his opponents. For instance, the Enquirer published a story alleging that Ted Cruz’s father was an accomplice to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Another article purported to expose “Hillary Clinton’s Secret Health Crisis.”

On the other hand, the Enquirer published a series of glowing homages to Trump. These tributes were about, and written by, The Donald with the audacious title “The Man Behind the Legend.” And Trump returned the drooling adoration by publicly wondering why the skeevy tabloid never got a Pulitzer Prize.

The Enquirer denies that they deliberately bought McDougal’s story to kill it. They claim they were paying for her to write fitness columns and to appear on magazine covers. However, the paper never published a single column or photo of her during the two year term of the agreement. There was also an ambiguously worded provision granting AMI the exclusive rights to “any romantic, personal and/or physical relationship McDougal has ever had with any then-married man.” That certainly would have covered Donald Trump without the nastiness of saying so outright.

These are among the benefits of having a media entity in your pocket. You can get them to zealously praise you and to bitterly malign your foes. And you can also have them snatch up lingering problems from your sordid past and prevent them from ever seeing the light of day.

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

Donald Trump is fond of attacking the media in the most vile manner. He has literally made it dangerous to cover his campaign rallies. Many news organizations have had their press credentials revoked when they did something that displeased him. And prominent journalism organizations have condemned his overt threats to freedom of the press. But in his world the National Enquirer is a Pulitzer-worthy publisher that will come to his rescue when needed.

YIKES: Ex-Spy Tells FBI That Russia Has Been ‘Cultivating’ Donald Trump For Years

This election just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. The latest bombshell to roil the campaign comes out of the intelligence community and casts a dire shadow over Donald Trump.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

A former spy has divulged what he learned about Russia’s engagement with Trump to David Corn of Mother Jones. The magazine is reporting that:

“A former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent months he provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trump and that the FBI requested more information from him.”

This is an alarming turn of events, to say the least. It suggests that Trump has been assimilated into the machinations of a foreign government’s clandestine operations. While this may sound like the plot of a Hollywood thriller, a senior US government official has vouched for the ex-spy as “a credible source with a proven record” of providing reliable information.

The information in this case is described as a “troubling” connection between Trump and the Russian government. It further asserts that “there was an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit.” According to an account by the ex-spy:

“…conversations with Russian sources noted, ‘Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance.’ It maintained that Trump ‘and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals.'”

Corn’s reporting did not connect these allegations with the WikiLeaks scandal that found links between Julian Assange and the Russians. However, this is eerily similar to the sort of “intelligence flow” that WikiLeaks has been releasing. Notice that their information was derived from emails stolen from Trump’s Democratic rivals by Russian hackers. Among the victims were the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.

But perhaps the most chilling revelation in the ex-spy’s memo was the assertion that “Russian intelligence had ‘compromised’ Trump” and could “blackmail him.” While that might seem implausible, it would explain Trump’s fervent defense of Russia against the hacking allegations. That’s something he actually did on a Russian propaganda TV network. It would also explain Trump’s advocacy of foreign policies that benefit Russia at the expense of U.S. interests. These include abandoning the West’s commitment to NATO, retreating from military presences in Japan, Germany, etc., and looking the other way when Russia annexes parts of Ukraine or other former Soviet bloc nations.

It is too soon to draw conclusions about the depth of Trump’s involvement with the Russians. The FBI has much of the information, but they refuse to comment on it. They wouldn’t even comment on the charge that Russia is responsible for various hacking efforts after the White House and other agencies did so. FBI Director James Comey is said to have objected to such disclosures so close to a federal election. And yet he had no such objections about commenting on an ongoing investigation of Clinton’s emails. Never mind that he had no evidence of any wrongdoing and it was even closer to an election.

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

That sort of double standard is becoming the hallmark of this election. It’s a state of political delirium wherein the media treats sloppy email management as more perilous than potential Russian espionage. As result we have 24/7 coverage of Anthony Weiner’s laptop, but a virtual blackout of Trump’s unsavory foreign adventurism. And even when a credible intelligence source implicates Trump as a tool of the Russian government the media yawns and cuts to his live rally.

Keith Olbermann does an outstanding job of telling the whole story:

WTF? Republicans Are Already Clamoring To Impeach Hillary Clinton

The Republican Party has just affirmed that they have given up on electing Donald Trump. There is no better sign of this than what they are now concentrating on as their next political priority. With election day still a couple of weeks away, Republicans are setting their sights on impeaching President Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton

Never mind that there are no grounds for impeachment, or that Clinton has never been found guilty of any wrongdoing. And set aside the fact that the legal standard for impeachment may require that any “crimes” be committed while in office. The crackpot pundits and politicians on the right are determined to satisfy their fetish for removing Clintons from office. NBC News recently reported that:

“In the last few weeks alone, dozens of House Republicans have demanded that a special prosecutor investigate the Clinton Foundation for possible conflicts of interest. Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz has called for a ‘serious criminal investigation’ into a Democratic operative featured in a sting video by conservative activist James O’Keefe. And Speaker Paul Ryan has promised ‘aggressive oversight work in the House’ of an alleged ‘quid pro quo’ deal between the FBI and the State Department over reclassifying an email on Clinton’s private server.

“Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who would likely serve as the chief antagonist of a second Clinton White House as chair the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News last week the ‘quid pro quo’ claim alone was worth at least ‘four new hearings,’ claiming it was a ‘flashing red light of potential criminality.'”

Clearly this Republican Praetorian Guard is establishing the battle lines for a prolonged war on American progress. They are reinforcing their reputation as obstructionists who couldn’t care less about doing their jobs for the American people. Their intention is to tie up the Congress and the White House with sham inquisitions. But their ultimate goal is even more absurd.

At least two GOP congressman have called explicitly for Clinton’s impeachment. Bradley Byrne (R-AL), asserts that “If all the things we’ve seen are true and they come out the way I think they will, then we should impeach her.” Mo Brooks (R-AL), agrees saying “With respect to Hillary Clinton, she will be a unique president if she is elected by the public next November, because the day she’s sworn in is the day that she’s subject to impeachment because she has committed high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Along with these confused congressmen, many of the right’s top pundits are lobbying hard for Hillary’s ouster. Rush Limbaugh rants that “Hillary Clinton is the most prepared to be impeached in advance of any presidential candidate this country has ever had. Hillary Clinton will be elected to be impeached,” Fellow radio yakker Mark Levin whines that Clinton “has attempted to cover-up and obstruct her Espionage Act violations … she must be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors in what is and will be continuing revelations about her criminality.” Judicial Watch President, and longtime Clinton basher, Tom Fitton says that there should be a “serious criminal investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s conduct” and that “impeachment is something that’s relevant.”

For her part, Clinton responded to some of this nonsense way back in October of 2015 (yes, they were doing it then too), when she was asked about it by Rachel Maddow. Clinton laughed and said “Isn’t that pathetic? It’s just laughable, it’s so totally ridiculous.”

Indeed. It’s so ridiculous that News Corpse wrote a satirical article in 2013 predicting that Republicans would attempt to pre-impeach Hillary. But with today’s Republican Party, satire cannot compete with their twisted reality. And while it is obviously ridiculous, it may not be all that laughable.

What Republicans are doing is ensuring that the nation will remain mired in gridlock for the indefinite future. With innumerable urgent matters requiring attention, the GOP would rather play political games and conduct smear campaigns. They would rather act out their petty political vengeance than lift up the economy. Or, for that matter, improve health care, mitigate climate change, enhance education, or even defeat ISIS. And make no mistake, the investigations that Republicans are threatening would severely hamper every other critical function of governing.

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

For that reason alone it is more important than ever to rid Washington of the Republican obstructionists. If Democrats can secure majorities in the Senate and the House, the chairmanship of every committee would be held by a Democrat. The Republicans would be unable to carry out the vendetta against America that they are promising. So be sure to vote (early, if possible) and get every Democrat you know to do so as well. It really does matter.

Fox News PANICS Over New Voter Fraud Plot They TOTALLY Made Up

Seeking to prop up Donald Trump’s frantic and baseless cries of a “rigged” election, Fox News has their fiction writers working overtime. This morning on Fox & Friends the “Curvy Couch” potatoes invited Betsy McCaughey to expound on a new theory. McCaughey is best known for having coined the term “death panels” which Sarah Palin made famous. It became PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year for 2009.

Fox News

McCaughey’s latest fiction is the charge that perennial wingnut boogieman, George Soros, is clandestinely maneuvering to steal the election from Trump. The plot alleges that voting machines manufactured by a company he controls are being used across the country. Fox host Steve Doocy lays out the conspiracy in a typically hysterical fashion (video below):

Doocy: “Donald Trump has made the rigged system a centerpiece in his campaign. And now there are new concerns after a report showing that 16 U.S. states, 16 of them, have used voting machines tied to leftist billionaire George Soros in the past […] tied directly to George Soros and his personal quest for open borders.”

McCaughey: “That’s right. This really bears investigating. Because Smartmatic, this UK company, one of the top guns there, Lord Mallach-Brown, is very involved with George Soros’ left-wing globalist enterprises, many of which are trying to tilt elections in Europe and in the United States.”

Sounds scary, doesn’t it? And it would be except for the fact that none of it is true. Soros has no financial involvement with Smartmatic whatsoever, and never has. The actual owner sits on the board of Soros’ Open Society Foundation along with dozens of other board members. That hardly equates to a direct connection to the voting machine manufacturer. But that didn’t stop distraught Trump supporters from launching a petition on the White House website demanding that Congress “meet in emergency session about removing George Soros owned voting machines.” At the time of this writing it had 89,000 signatures, on its way to a goal of 100,000.

However, that’s not even the most ridiculous part of this lame attempt at scandal mongering. The Smartmatic machines in question are not being used in the United States at all. Not a single one will be used in any state in the 2016 election. So Fox News, and nearly 90,000 crackpot conservatives, are incensed and determined to rid America of something that doesn’t exist.

Not satisfied with making unhinged allegations about voting, Mcaughey continued her rant to assert that mentally ill and homeless people are being paid to cause violence at Trump events. She doesn’t bother to provide any proof of that, and Doocy doesn’t ask for any. She further claims that:

“There is already an airtight case against Soros trying to tilt this election, steal this election, using his money. He’s very close to Hillary Clinton. He is pouring millions of dollars into third party organizations like the Super PAC, Priorities USA.”

To be clear, McCaughey is now criticizing the Super PACs that were set loose by the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision. Welcome to the progressive movement, Betsy. Liberals have been fighting that decision for years. But don’t expect her to have the same sense of outrage over the Koch brothers or the many other financiers of right-wing PACs. For the record, Soros’ own son started a Super Pac to end Super PACs.

What we can expect is for Fox News to get ever more absurd with far-fetched fairy tales in the few remaining days of this campaign. They are desperate and morose and ready to fling themselves off of rooftops. So maybe they can be forgiven for exhibiting signs of acute dementia.

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

Trump’s First 100 Days Would Be Spent Suing The Women Charging Him With Sexual Assault

In the waning days of the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump is becoming ever more desperate and visibly frustrated. On Saturday he emerged from his lair to deliver what was advertised as a major policy address. Promising to outline his goals for the first 100 days of his administration, Trump almost immediately drifted off into whining. The collection of grievances he enumerated are familiar to anyone who has seen his standard stump speech.

Women for Trump

For the most part Trump complained about the system being “broken and rigged.” He repeated his misinterpretation of a Pew study that found 1.8 million dead people on voter rolls. What he fails to understand is that people die all the time and their names are not automatically removed when their hearts stop beating. Then he claimed that many of these dead people are voting, for which there is no evidence. But as he said, “These are numbers folks. These are numbers.” OMG! They’re NUMBERS!?! That proves … well it must prove something horrible.

Trump also said that “Hillary Clinton should have been precluded from running for the presidency. You have to wonder what authority he imagines would dictate who is permitted to run. In his cartoon brain there is an Office of Presidential Runability. And it would nix Clinton but give him a golden ticket to the White House. Then he rattled off his stale list of Clintonisms: she lies and deletes emails and conspires with the media to suppress him. But the most deranged segment of his rant concerned the ongoing sexual assault charges by a growing number of women. On that subject Trump said:

“Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over. […]

“It was probably the DNC and Hillary’s campaign who put forward these liars with their fabricated stories. But we’ll find out about their involvement at a later date through litigation. And I look so forward to doing it.”

What this tells us is that Trump’s proposals for his first 100 days are irrelevant. He is going to be mired in lawsuits for months, or even years. There are currently eleven women pressing allegations against him. Each of these would have to be sued individually. So Trump would be required to file ten lawsuits, give ten depositions, and appear for testimony in ten trials. The duties of the presidency would have to be interrupted every time a court proceeding was scheduled. With ten cases like these that could mean hundreds of court ordered diversions from presidential activities.

These diversions would not be limited to the first 100 days. We are talking about more like 100 months, or the entirety of two terms in office. But this is what Trump regards as his priority if he were to become president.

His Contract for the America Voter would be an afterthought, which would actually be for the best. His agenda consists mainly of tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, exacerbating climate change, discriminating against Mexicans and Muslims, suppressing the rights of women, arming everyone over the age of five, leading the expansion of nuclear weapons to Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, and dismantling NATO. And with any spare time leftover Trump would advance the foreign policy interests of his pal Vladimir Putin. It’s also notable that nowhere in his 100 day agenda is there any mention of defeating ISIS.

This threat to sue his victims is just another demonstration that Trump is a vengeance-obsessed bully who doesn’t care about anything but himself. His litigious fetish also extends to the media, who he has threatened to sue several times during this campaign. Most recently he leveled a complaint against the New York Times for “irresponsible intent,” which doesn’t exist in tort law. By himself Trump would be an enormous burden to the court system. But he would be an even bigger burden to the nation. And anyone still considering voting for him is marking themselves as mentally and patriotically deficient.

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