Campaign 2016

Q: Is Donald Trump ‘Sick And Tired Of Winning’ Yet? A: See Video

Posted by on August 18, 2016 at 12:14 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump’s campaign is scrambling to regain its footing following a precipitous plunge that accelerated after a disastrous convention. However, his latest moves have only made things worse. Few observers have found much merit to putting racist and misogynist media moguls at the helm of his nationalistic crusade. Even his own surrogates are struggling to remain positive, more often devolving into the delusional (#Says who?).

Donald Trump

Trump’s cartoonish self-confidence early in the campaign manifested in prideful comments like “If I don’t win I’ll consider this a total and complete waste of time.” And who can forget when he bragged that “We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning.” Apparently Trump has reached that apex of winning. Having become sick and tired of it, as he predicted, he has abandoned it in favor of losing more pitifully than any presidential candidate before him. He’s bound and determined to be the best loser with the hugest, most tremendous losses ever. Losing “big league,” you might say.

Which brings back memories of an appearance last October on Meet the Press where Trump had this exchange with host Chuck Todd (video below):

Todd: You said something the other day that caught me off-guard. You said you’re not a masochist, and if you start falling in the polls you’ll go back to your business. What does that mean? Are you not in this for the long haul?

Trump: A lotta people have asked me that question. Number one, I’m not a masochist. And if I was dropping in the polls where I saw that I wasn’t gonna win, why would I continue? And it’s funny. Maybe it’s, like, not like me because it’s the power of positive thinking. I’m a very positive person, I’m a positive thinker. But the truth is, I’m a realist.

I believe in polls. How many elections do you see where the polls were wrong? Not that many. Okay. You see ’em, but not that many. If I were doing poorly, if I saw myself going down, if you would stop calling me ’cause you no longer have any interest in Trump because “he has no chance,” I’d go back to my business. I have no problem with that.

First of all, Trump was being uncharacteristically truthful when he said he’s not a masochist. He is, of course, a narcissist. More to the point, his contention that he would quit the race if he were “dropping in the polls” should be revisited. As of today Trump has trailed in 23 of the last 23 national polls taken. The margin of Hillary Clinton’s lead is as high fifteen points. The poll-of-polls average is about six points. Furthermore, Trump is behind in ALL of the critical battleground states. No candidate this far down has ever come back to win in November. And he can hardly whine about the polls being rigged after giving such a hearty endorsement to them (well, he can but…).

Trump, the realist, ought to live up to his promise. Rearranging the TrumpTanic’s deck chairs is not going to enhance his chances of victory. Particularly when his new campaign staff is comprised of the Internet’s fringe elite. Last month Trump tantalized his disciples with the prospect of launching his own cable network, an epically horrible idea as detailed here. But if he’s still interested, this might be a good time to ditch his futile presidential ambitions and concentrate on the premiere of the Trump Propaganda and Home Shopping Network. He can take his current campaign staff (including disgraced ex-Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and loony ultra-rightist Breitbart News chairman Stephen Bannon) with him, because they would be better suited to a media propaganda venture than they are to politics. And he would have the gratitude of a nation that would be able to turn on their TVs without seeing him throwing tantrums and denigrating America. Win/Win.

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

Trump’s ISIS Policy Says Little About ISIS, But Would Ban Most Republicans From The U.S.

Posted by on August 15, 2016 at 3:33 pm. 3 Comments :

Last week Donald Trump sank to new lows in both presidential credibility and polling. So today he stepped up to his former enemy, the TelePrompter, to try to salvage his floundering campaign. He delivered what was pitched as a foreign policy speech that promised to enumerate the details of his plan to destroy ISIS. It didn’t.

Trump Border Wall

Trump unveiled a laundry list of the same vagaries that he has been spewing on the campaign trail for months. There was not a single substantive proposal directed at defeating ISIS. However, he did repeat his racist calls to limit immigration based on religious grounds. In fact, nearly everything he suggested was related to immigration rather than confronting terrorists on the battlefield. And when he wasn’t talking about immigration he was reiterating his preoccupation with President Obama saying the words “radical Islamic terrorism.”

What stood out in Trump’s address was the ideological test he is now advocating for admission to the country. He stipulated that any aspiring immigrants must pass a test that certified their acceptance of the American values of equality. Among those are religious freedom, gender equality and gay rights.

On the surface that seems like a decent pivot for The Donald to a position of tolerance and inclusion. There’s just one problem: A fair number of his supporters, and most of the Republican Party, would fail the test. If the people attending Trump’s rallies were subjected to this criteria they might risk deportation under his rules.

The official GOP platform defines marriage as between a man and a woman. It rejects anti-discrimination laws to protect transgender individuals. Parents of LGBT children would be allowed to force their children into conversion therapy. These views are shared by Trump and a majority of the Republican Party. Consequently, party members would be excluded from entry into the U.S.

With respect to gender equality, the GOP has opposed fair pay laws for decades. They have voted down family leave proposals. Overturning Roe v Wade has been one of their highest priorities. In the meantime they have been legislating away women’s reproductive choice bit by bit in states they control. Defunding Planned Parenthood has become an obsession.

On the question of religious freedom, Trump and his party have used the issue as an excuse to discriminate against same-sex marriage. Only Christians are permitted to demand special rights to deny other Americans their constitutional liberties. And Heaven forbid if someone were to wish you a “Happy Holiday” in December. Republicans insist that Christians be allowed to practice their religious rituals in government facilities, but lobby to prevent Muslims from even opening a mosque in many communities.

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

What Trump delivered today was a speech that was stuffed with retreads from prior speeches. And when he wasn’t regurgitating himself, he was lambasting the President and Hillary Clinton, mostly for things they didn’t do, or for things Trump made up. But the lasting impression from this address is that under a Trump Administration he, his followers, and his follow Republicans would be turned away at his border wall for failing the bigotry screening he says he would impose. Come to think of it, that would actually make America great again.

Tweet-Storming With The Whiner-In-Chief, Donald Trump

Posted by on August 14, 2016 at 11:11 am. 2 Comments :

Nothing illustrates desperation more than the frantic whining of someone who knows he’s losing badly but refuses to admit it. Donald Trump is a textbook case of this. Ever since his disastrous convention, Trump’s prospects have been sinking like an elephant in a tar pit. According to Gallup, the Republican convention actually resulted in more people saying they are less likely to vote for him. That’s the first time that has ever happened since polling on that question began.

Trump Baby

As Trump’s popularity declines he is behaving more and more erratically. His deranged assertions that Obama “founded ISIS,” that the elections will be “rigged,” and shamelessly insulting a Gold Star family, paint a picture of a pathetically deluded loser. And now he is directing his impotent fire at the media:

Trump is getting increasingly unhinged (to the degree that’s possible). He has also taken to calling the media “the worst human beings in the world.” There may be some victims of terrorism who disagree with that. However, the media must be so proud for having overtaken Hillary and ISIS in the Race for the Worst in Trump’s deranged head.

Having an active imagination must bring Trump some comfort. Because that’s the only way he can believe that he would be beating Clinton by twenty percent, even with more friendly media. As for not being covered properly at his rallies, they generally point a camera at him and let him rant. That is SO unfair. Holding him accountable for the things he actually says is the ultimate dirty trick.

It’s funny that Trump is complaining that he is losing to someone who “is not a talented person or politician.” Think how badly he would be losing if Clinton WAS a talented politician. And by the way, it absolutely IS freedom of the press “when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want.” That’s the definition of freedom of the press. Even if you don’t like what they’re saying. But keep it up, Donald. Because nothing solves a cratering campaign like whining.

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

Donald Trump Loser

Big Baby Trump Has Nixed Nearly Every Potential Debate Moderator

Posted by on August 11, 2016 at 5:44 pm. 4 Comments :

Now that the party conventions are behind us and the presidential campaign is officially underway, the next milestone of the election season is the candidate debates. These events are generally regarded as having more impact on voters’ decisions than conventions, stump speeches, or advertising. Candidates have participated in them regularly since the 1960’s.

Baby Trump

However, Donald Trump has already begun whining about the debates and criticizing the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) that has been producing them since 1988. He tweeted last month that Hillary Clinton and the Democrats were “trying to rig the debates” in some conspiracy that he failed to explain. For the record, the current schedule was released nearly a year ago (September 23, 2015), long before any of the candidates were chosen.

Now Trump is escalating his debate phobia with suggestions that he will not participate unless his demands are met. Foremost among them is the authority to veto any moderator that he disapproves of (or more accurately, fears). So this may be a good time to take a look at who might satisfy Trump’s litmus test for fair and balanced moderators.

First of all, no one who works for CNN or MSNBC need apply. Trump has not consented to an interview on CNN since June 13, or on MSNBC since May 20. Just this morning he tweeted that “Constant phony reporting from failing @CNN turns everyone off.” What’s more, he has had a devastating falling out with his old pal on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough, who just penned an op-ed calling for the Republican Party to dump Trump.

The broadcast networks are out also, Trump has been flinging his juvenile nickname at the host of NBC’s Meet the Press for months. He calls him “Sleepy eyes Chuck Todd” and labeled Todd as “totally biased” against him. Trump wrote off ABC’s George Stephanopoulos as “a good friend” of the Clinton’s. Scott Pelley of CBS was deemed “disrespectful.”

So You may be thinking that this leaves Fox News. Not so fast. Trump has burned just about everyone on the network with the notable exception of Fox’s Senior Trump Fluffer, Sean Hannity. Trump said of Megyn Kelly that she “is the worst” and has a “terrible show.” He called Karl Rove a “total fool” and “a biased dope.” He said that George Will is a “broken down political pundit” and “boring.” Chris Stirewalt was deemed “one of the dumbest political pundits on television.” Trump laughed off Charles Krauthammer as “a totally overrated clown,” “a loser,” and “a dummy.” And wrapping up the whole network for his disapproval, he tweeted that he was “having a really hard time watching Fox News.” Then he called on his followers to boycott the network. And for good measure, Trump took a swipe at the Fox family’s newspaper saying that the writers at the Wall Street Journal are also “dummies.”

Other prominent news outlets that Trump has sworn off (literally revoking their press credentials) include The New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico, BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post, Fusion, and Univision.

Trump has already demonstrated his tendency to provoke melodrama with regard to candidate debates. He turned the GOP primary debates into feral spectacles of crass immaturity and avoidance of substance. His tantrums succeeded in forcing the Republican National Committee and the media to capitulate to his will, forcing out networks or media co-sponsors that he didn’t think were sufficiently deferential to him. The question now is: Will the CPD permit him do the same for the general election debates?

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

Recently Trump said that “I want to debate very badly. But I have to see the conditions.” Which is another way of saying that he doesn’t want to debate very badly. If he did he would have released a statement like the one Hillary Clinton released:

“Secretary Clinton looks forward to participating in all three presidential debates scheduled by the independent debate commission. […] The only issue now is whether Donald Trump is going to show up to debate at the date, times, places and formats set by the commission last year through a bipartisan process. We will accept the commission’s invitation and expect Donald Trump to do the same.”

Clearly Trump is terrified to face his opponent, Hillary Clinton. But it is also reflective of his weak character that he is too frightened to face journalists who might be less than adoring. Trump is setting up a trapdoor exit to avoid having to do the debates at all. And he’s using the moderator issue as his excuse. It is becoming increasingly evident that the only moderators left that Trump would approve of would be from the National Enquirer or his his chums at Pravda.

ADDENDUM: Fox News reported additional “demands” made by Trump to Time Magazine regarding the debates. He insisted that “certain moderators would be unacceptable, absolutely.” But we still don’t know any that would be acceptable.

Trump debates

8 Reasons Donald Trump Is A HUGE Hypocrite For Calling Obama ‘Ignorant’

Posted by on July 28, 2016 at 1:03 pm. NO Comments :

On the same day that President Obama delivered one of the most powerful and well received convention speeches since a younger Obama spoke at a convention in 2004, Donald Trump made a desperate attempt to steal the news cycle from the Democrats’ festivities in Philadelphia. And it wasn’t just his dangerous solicitation of hostile foreign nations to commit cyber-crimes against America.

Donald Trump

In the same press conference where Trump invited Russia to illegally interfere in U.S. politics by hacking his political opponent, he had the audacity to malign Obama as “the most ignorant president in our history.” Never mind that Obama graduated from Columbia University before getting his law degree from Harvard (magna cum laude), where he was editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, went on to teach constitutional law, got elected to the Senate, and became the President of the friggin’ United States.

What really makes Trump’s typically childish insult so absurd is that he himself has repeatedly demonstrated an affinity for idiocy that is unmatched in modern times. This may explain why he said in February that he “loves the poorly educated.” And while it’s tempting to smugly imply that they would be the only ones who would buy into his vacuous campaign, that would be unfair. After all, “poorly educated” doesn’t mean stupid.

What follows are just a few examples of the embarrassingly daft comments that have discharged from The Donald’s prodigious dispensary of dimwitticisms(™) in just the past few weeks on the campaign trail.

  1. Trump was asked in a debate about his priorities with regard to America’s “Nuclear Triad” And his answer revealed that he had no idea what it is.
  2. Prior to Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, Trump couldn’t answer a question about Brexit until the interviewer gave him an explanation.
  3. When asked whether he would defend Article One of the Constitution, Trump responded that he’d defend all the articles up to the twelfth. But there are only seven articles in the Constitution.
  4. Attempting to criticize Democratic VP candidate Tim Kaine, Trump said that he “did a terrible job in New Jersey.” The only problem is that Kaine is the former governor, and current senator, from Virginia.
  5. Trump was so upset that the man who shot Ronald Reagan was being released from the custody of a mental institution that he complained that “David Hinckley should not have been freed.” Hinckley’s first name is “John.”
  6. After being pummeled for not repudiating white supremacist David Duke, Trump asserted that he “didn’t know anything” about him. Which was not only an admission of ignorance, it was a lie.
  7. Pretending to be a devout Christian, Trump bungled the quotation he sought to recite from the bible in a way that brought laughter from a Christian university audience.
  8. Trump earned one of his many “Pants-On-Fire” lie designations from PolitiFact when he claimed that the Trans-Pacific Partnership “was designed for China” to “totally take advantage of everyone.” Except that China is not a part of the TPP.

To be sure, there are many other incidences of Trump’s flagrant ignorance, but these few paint a sorrowful picture of a willful aversion to the sort of knowledge and incentive to learn that is required of a national leader (or a CPA, or a pet groomer, or any citizen).

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

And yet Trump regards himself as the foremost authority on – well, everything. When MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski asked him who he consults with he responded “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.” That’s when he isn’t consulting his other primary source of information that he identified when he said “All I know is what’s on the internet.” And if that doesn’t send shivers down the spine of America’s voters, they better see a neurologist stat.

Is This Treason? What Donald Trump Just Said Undermines American Democracy

Posted by on July 27, 2016 at 4:43 pm. 3 Comments :

It may be an Olympic-grade understatement to say that Donald Trump has done some god-awful things in his quest for the presidency. From mocking the disabled to ripping off veterans to insane proposals with regard to Muslims and immigrants. But he may just have outdone himself.

In a press conference this morning, Trump was asked about reports that Russia was responsible for the hacking of DNC emails. He has previously dismissed the charges as Democratic efforts to distract from the content of the stolen emails, despite the fact that it is the FBI and other intelligence agencies who identified Russia as the likely culprit.

Trump Putin

His response to today’s inquiries, however, introduced a new and deeply disturbing tactic on Trump’s part. He offered, without prompting, his interest in further exploiting the email theft to his advantage. In a direct response to a question on whether he would condemn the hacking he said “No, it gives me no pause,” and that:

“If Russia or China or any other country has those emails I mean to be honest with you, I’d love to see em.”

Let that sink in for a minute. Donald Trump, the nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States, is affirmatively endorsing the notion of revealing private information that was stolen from Americans by a foreign and hostile government. That is an untenable and unpatriotic position that undermines the country’s interests as well as the principles of personal privacy and information security. But it gets even worse. Trump went on to say:

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”

In that statement Trump is literally soliciting Russia to commit cyber-crimes and espionage against fellow Americans. How is that not treasonous? He continued with a thinly disguised reference to Russia being “rewarded mightily” for their hacking. Is that an offer to compensate Russian hackers and spies for their efforts? Or is Trump simply implying that Russia would benefit from a Trump presidency and that he would make it worth their while were they to sabotage the campaign of Hillary Clinton? Either way he is taking up sides with an international foe against his own country. Now what is it that we call that?

In the press conference Trump flatly denied having any connection to Russian politics or business. That’s a lie. Has he already forgotten his Miss Universe Pageant he held in Moscow just three years ago? But his Russian ties go much deeper than that. As reported by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo:

“At a minimum, Trump appears to have a deep financial dependence on Russian money from persons close to Putin. And this is matched to a conspicuous solicitousness to Russian foreign policy interests where they come into conflict with US policies which go back decades through administrations of both parties.”

Marshall’s article goes into extensive detail of Trump’s connections to Russian oligarchs and politicians. He makes the case that Trump’s chumminess with Putin is not coincidental. Marshall’s documentation is thorough and somewhat frightening. And if anyone wonders why Putin would favor Trump, look no further than Trump’s recent denigration of NATO and his reluctance to honor the agreement. That would be a huge advantage for Putin whose expansionism would be made much easier if he didn’t have to worry about the U.S. defending its NATO allies.

Another Trump lie in the press conference was his assertion that “I never met Putin, I don’t know who he is. He said one nice thing about me.” It is true, of course, that Trump never met Putin (although he once claimed to know him very well because they both appeared on “60 Minutes” in separate interviews, thousands of miles apart). But what are we to make of his claim that he doesn’t know who Putin is? Folks, we are treading dangerously close to mental incapacity here.

Trump’s VP, Mike Pence, issued a statement that appeared to distance himself from Trump’s perfidy:

“If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.”

Pence might want to confirm that with his boss who is promising that the perpetrators would be rewarded mightily. And contrary to his suggestion that both parties will ensure that there are consequences, the Republican Party has yet to make any public statement repudiating Trump’s remarks or even the more general issue of the hacking of the DNC. Contrast that with the statements from the Democratic side including:

Hillary for America Senior Policy Advisor, Jake Sullivan: This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent. […] This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta: “I find those kinds of statements to be totally outrageous because you’ve got now a presidential candidate who is in fact asking the Russians to engage in American politics. I just think that’s beyond the pale. […] I think that kind of statement only reflects the fact that he truly is not qualified to be president of the United States.”

It is incomprehensible that a candidate for the nation’s highest office is articulating activities that amount to aiding and abetting foreign enemies. Trump’s comments should be investigated by the FBI and his connections to Russian economic and political players should be thoroughly examined. As for Trump’s supporters, they need to reassess their allegiance to him, because if he can’t be trusted to act in the best interests of the nation, he surely should not get the vote of any patriotic American.

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

Bernie Sanders Live Tweeted ‘Dictator’ Trump’s Horror Show Speech – And It Was Awesome

Posted by on July 22, 2016 at 11:06 am. 1 Comments :

In a marathon 74 minute harangue, Donald Trump accepted the nomination of the Republican Party for President of the United States. The speech recounted a vision of America as a dystopian hellhole where every citizen should be shivering under their beds. And when he wasn’t trying scare the bejeebus out of everyone, he was enumerating the reasons they should all hate each other, and especially Hillary Clinton.

Bernie Sanders

In the opening of his speech Trump promised that “there will be no lies,” a bold claim from someone with a long record of pathological lying (see the Trump Bullshitopedia). And this Trump speech didn’t fare well with the fact checkers either. He also made promises to bring back jobs from overseas (presumably his own clothing manufacturing), destroy ISIS, repeal ObamaCare, and end violence and crime in America (not reduce it, end it). Of course, he never proposed a single policy that would achieve any of those goals in his speech, nor in the prior twelve monts of his campaign.

Watching all of this from his lair in Vermont was Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders was privileged to have been mentioned in Trump’s speech in a particularly delusional passage wherein Trump insisted that “His supporters will join our movement.” Because what self-respecting Democratic Socialist wouldn’t rush to support a wealthy, racist, right-wing, wannabe dictator? Not surprisingly, Sanders had a few things to say about Trump’s fear mongering tirade. So he took to Twitter (#RNCwithBernie) to engage in a running commentary. Here is his contemporaneous response to Trump’s lecture on how awful america is:


FYI: Sanders tweet about Trump’s dictatorial tendencies was the most retweeted tweet during Donald Trump’s acceptance speech.

Bernie Sanders, of course, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. But his movement continues along with his positive vision to reform the nation so that everyone can benefit from its vast riches. He wants all Americans to be represented by politicians who take seriously their pledge to serve the people. He is a strong advocate of voting rights and opposes the GOP’s efforts to disenfranchise minority and low-income citizens. And he has fought for decades on behalf of the working class that is a trickle-down afterthought of Republicans like Trump.

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

The vast majority of Sanders’ supporters would never consider backing an elite, narcissistic, throwback to an era of 1930’s Aryan supremacy. Trump’s exceedingly dark outlook on both the present and future of America is anathema to the progressive mindset. Trump’s speech revealed to the nation that he is just pitching a warmed-over version of Pat Buchanan’s rightist populism. That isn’t going to sell to Sanders’ supporters, or to most of the country’s voters.

Donald Trump Has A Frightening Plan To ‘Reform’ Government That He Won’t Tell You Tonight

Posted by on July 21, 2016 at 5:00 pm. 2 Comments :

One of the most persistent criticisms of Donald Trump is that he’s been running for president for over a year and has failed to articulate a single policy in any detail. His platform is made up entirely of vapid slogans (“Make America Great Again”), simplistic one-liners (“Build a Wall”), and childish insults (“Crooked Hillary”). Rest assured that as he accepts the Republican Party’s nomination for president tonight he won’t be any more forthcoming about how he intends to achieve his vaguely stated goals.

RNC Trump

Consequently, we should be grateful that his surrogate, Gov. Chris Christie, is shooting his mouth off in private meetings with GOP donors. It is in these settings that Republicans often reveal their true intentions as they seek to squeeze funds from their wealthy benefactors. Yahoo news is reporting that:

“If he wins the presidency, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would seek to purge the federal government of officials appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama and could ask Congress to pass legislation making it easier to fire public workers, Trump ally, Chris Christie, said on Tuesday.

Christie, who is governor of New Jersey and leads Trump’s White House transition team, said the campaign was drawing up a list of federal government employees to fire if Trump defeats Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

“As you know from his other career, Donald likes to fire people,” Christie told a closed-door meeting with dozens of donors at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Chris Christie is in a position to know what he’s talking about. He is a leading candidate to assume a prominent role in a Trump administration, i.e. Attorney General or Chief of Staff. And he shares Trump’s visceral hatred of President Obama, so he would be anxious to erase any remnants of his historic presidency.

Government purges are a tactic that has been popular with fascist regimes for decades. It is a means of consolidating power, imposing ideological conformity, and insuring loyalty. But it is grossly undemocratic and contrary to the principles of a free society. In the United States the concept of “career” employees has been valued because it results in decisions being made on merit rather than political partisanship. Even the threat of political purges can sway agency staffers to adopt positions that are overtly harmful in order to please their current bosses rather than the public whom they serve.

The last notable example of this type purge occurred during the administration of George W. Bush. He took the wholly unprecedented and unethical action of firing staff attorneys at the Justice Department and replacing them with lackeys who would do his bidding. That led in part to an email scandal that dwarfs anything Hillary Clinton has been accused of.

The purge that Christie spoke of goes far beyond what Bush did at the Justice Department. Under a President Trump every agency of government would be at risk. The Environmental Protection Agency could be stuffed with pro-coal and oil shills who would obliterate regulations that have proven to be effective in cleaning the air and water in America. Health and Human Services could become the headquarters for dismantling ObamaCare. The Department of Labor could be restructured to serve corporations and diminish the influence of unions. The Department of Education could begin to kill off public schooling in favor of vouchers and faith-based alternatives. And just imagine the harm that could be done with extreme hawks populating the Homeland Security and Defense departments.

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

This is just another of Trump’s secret agendas that make him an existential threat to the nation – and the world. Some of what he is plotting isn’t known because he refuses to disclose anything significant about policy, or even personally (such as his ultra-secret tax returns). Some of it isn’t known because he has no idea what he believes to begin with. What we do know about his governing philosophy we’ve learned by his inadvertent slips of the tongue to the press. For instance, yesterday he said that he would not necessarily honor our mutual defense agreements under the terms of the NATO treaty. Revelations like the one Christie has provided helped to torpedo Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012. And that’s why the press needs to aggressively seek out information that the candidates strive to conceal. Democracy depends on it.

Hurricanes, Riots, And Viruses, Oh My. Is God Trying To Tell Republicans Something?

Posted by on July 19, 2016 at 5:52 pm. NO Comments :

In the past Republicans, and their evangelical emissaries, have been quick to declare that natural disasters and other civil disturbances were indications of God’s disapproval for sinful behavior. They believe that the calamities that wreaked havoc on Haiti, New Orleans, the Jersey shore, and even acts of terrorism like the massacre in Orlando, were divine messages conveying God’s anger and were intended as punishment for sinners.

God's Pissed

Today there is a report that the Republican National Convention may be suffering from an outbreak of biblical-style pestilence. Several delegates have come down with symptoms consistent with the norovirus which, according to the Centers for Disease Control, is:

“…a very contagious virus that can infect anyone. You can get it from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces. The virus causes your stomach or intestines or both to get inflamed. This leads you to have stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea and to throw up. These symptoms can be serious for some people, especially young children and older adults”

The good news is that treatment for the norovirus is covered by ObamaCare. However, this potential health crisis could still threaten to upend a convention that has already been roiled by human-made catastrophes like Melania Trump’s blatant plagiarism of a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama. But this is just one symptom of a much larger problem for the the GOP.

Civil unrest has been a constant threat for the RNC since back in March when Donald Trump raised the specter of violence at the convention if he wasn’t crowned king of the Republican Party. He literally warned that “I think you’d have riots.” Having set that tone, Trump’s followers began planning to attend the convention fully armed and prepared for a righteous battle. The city of Cleveland has had to take extraordinary steps to try to prevent bloodshed.

And that’s not all. The last GOP convention in Tampa, Florida, in 2012 was also beset by tribulations. They were forced to cancel the first day due to the approach of Hurricane Isaac. That was actually the second consecutive Republican convention that was interrupted by a hurricane. The 2008 affair in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota was cursed by Hurricane Gustav.

So with this virus outbreak this is the third Republican convention that appears to have stirred God’s wrath. After hurricanes, riots, and viruses, what’s next? A plague of frogs? At some point you need to ask the question: Is God trying tell Republicans something? Is their aversion to many of the principles espoused in the bible causing these divine adversities?

After all, Jesus was a proponent of the poor; of feeding the hungry (food stamps) and healing the sick (ObamaCare). The bible commands believers to welcome immigrants in Exodus 22:21 saying “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” And even the environment is sacred as noted in Genesis 2:15 which says that God’s orders for humans with regard to his creation were “to cultivate and care for it.”

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

In reviewing these sins of the Republican Party it is easy to draw conclusions. Anyone with an open mind can clearly see that God is pissed. It may be wise to stay away from GOP conventions, or vote for their candidates, until these issues are resolved and Republicans change their evil ways. And at the top of the list is dispensing with Donald Trump who says that he has never asked God for forgiveness despite having already committed all seven of the deadly sins.

Melania Trump’s RNC Speech Was Blatantly Plagiarized From Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC Speech (Video)

Posted by on July 18, 2016 at 10:49 pm. 5 Comments :

On the first day of the Republican National Convention there was plenty of drama and controversy to roil the Trump campaign. A vote on the convention rules blew up with many delegates disgusted by the Trump team’s bullying tactics. Some early speakers took harsh and negative tones that were contrary to the theme of unity and inclusion.

Melania Trump

But the most striking misstep came when Donald Trump’s wife Melania delivered a speech that contained several passages that were obviously plagiarized from the speech that Michelle Obama gave at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. This rhetorical larceny was first noticed by by Jarrett Hill on Twitter. Here are some of the nearly identical phrases that appeared in both speeches:

Michelle Obama, 2008 Melania Trump, 2016

Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them. And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation.

From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life: that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son, and we need to pass those lessons on to the many generation to follow.

The similarities here are too close and too numerous not to be recognized as deliberate theft. And the fact that Melania was allowed to go out on stage to deliver that speech is an indictment of the entire Trump operation. Surely she did not write the speech. But it was written by people on Trump’s staff who were trusted enough to put his wife’s fate in their hands. And it had to have been reviewed by by everyone from Trump’s communications managers to Trump himself.

This is going to be tough to explain away. And it will be an indelible stain at the worst possible time for a convention – on the opening night. It’s just downhill from here.

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Update: The Trump campaign responded with this statement from Trump communications director Jason Miller:

“In writing her beautiful speech, Melania’s team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking. Melania’s immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech, which made it such a success.”

It’s hard to tell what part of that statement is a response to this matter. I think it’s the part where they say that “some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking,” in effect, blaming Melania.