Trump Chickens Out of Second Debate While Ranting Incoherently on Fox News

Following his disastrous performance during the first presidential debate with Joe Biden, it isn’t surprising that Donald Trump has now declared that he will not participate in the second debate. He knows that every poll has shown him falling even farther behind Biden since the first debate, including the one by his favorite pollster, Rasmussen.

Donald Trump Chicken

Trump’s reelection prospects didn’t improve after Vice-President Mike Pence got creamed by Sen. Kamala Harris in their debate Wednesday night. So when the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced that the next debate would be held with the candidates participating remotely, Trump jumped at the chance to use that as an excuse to bail out. The CPD made the change “In order to protect the health and safety of all involved.” That’s a perfectly reasonable adjustment considering that Trump is currently suffering from COVID-19 and has been recklessly exposing others to it.

There are at least 34 close associates to Trump who have contracted the coronavirus. It would be foolhardy to get anywhere near the SuperSpreader-in-Chief for the foreseeable future. But Trump’s exploitation of this is further evidence of his cowardice. He made his intentions clear on Fox News (of course) during an “interview” with Fox’s Senior Trump-Fluffer, Maria Bartiromo (video below), saying that:

“I heard that the [Presidential Debate] Commission, a little while ago, changed the debate style, and that’s not acceptable to us. I beat him in the first debate, according to the polls that I’ve seen. But I beat him easily. I felt I beat him easily. I think he felt it too. He wouldn’t answer any question and he had the protection of Chris Wallace all night long. I thought Chris Wallace was a disaster. But I beat him in the first debate.”

Trump’s psychotic delusion that he won the first debate is typical of someone suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Every poll taken after the debate found that it was Biden who had beaten his unhinged opponent. Yet Trump continues to imagine himself victorious, while whining that everyone, including Wallace, a 17 year veteran of Fox News, is against him. Following the first debate Trump made the ludicrous assertion that Wallace is controlled by the radical left.” When Bartiromo sought to affirm that he would not participate in the second debate, Trump replied:

“No. I’m not going to waste my time at a virtual debate. That’s not what debating is all about. You sit behind a computer and do a debate. It’s ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want. I have a host [Steve Scully of C-SPAN] who I always thought was a nice guy, but I see he’s a Never-Trumper.”

So just to be clear, Trump is saying that he is virulently opposed to doing remote communications in the midst of remotely communicating with Bartiromo for an hour long segment on Fox News. And he does these segments frequently with other Fox Always-Trumpers like Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. But doing essentially the same thing during a deadly pandemic for which he is Patient Zero in Washington, crosses the line for him.

There were some other batty moments deserving of some attention that occurred during his bit with Bartiromo, who has more than proven that she is a fully indoctrinated Trump cultist. For instance…

  • Trump says “I don’t think I’m contagious at all,”
    Which, not being a doctor, isn’t his call to make.
  • Trump suggested that he got Covid-19 from Gold Star families.
    Because why not blame it on the troops that he thinks are “losers” and “suckers”?
  • Trump tells Bartiromo he shut down stimulus talks because he didn’t “want to play games.”
    Which is, in fact, playing games.
  • Trump tells Attorney General Bill Barr that Clinton, Obama, and Biden should be indicted.
    For unspecified (and nonexistent) crimes.
  • Trump whines that his FBI Director Chris has “been disappointing.”
    Because he won’t go along with persecuting Trump’s enemies.
  • Trump lied (again) about getting $28 billion from China in tariffs.
    It was actually zero dollars.

And if that isn’t enough, Trump weighed in on the Harris/Pence debate with his trademark hostility and misogyny. After disparaging Harris as “a monster,” Trump lashed out in a thoroughly deranged frenzy saying that…

“I thought that wasn’t even a contest last night. She was terrible. She was…I don’t think you can get worse. And totally unlikeable. And she is. She’s a communist.”

Adding later that…

“Biden won’t make it two months as president. He’s not mentally capable of being president. You know that. Everybody knows that.”

It’s no wonder that Trump doesn’t want to debate Biden again. He knows that he can’t measure up to a sane, competent, and compassionate public servant who is popular with the American people. Trump knows that he doesn’t have control of the facts or the cognitive ability to engage in a substantive discourse with someone who does.

So Trump is running away. Which is his standard practice for dealing with difficult situations, particularly those that he can’t control. He is the proverbial bully who crumbles like a stale cracker when confronted. But in Trump’s case, unfortunately for America, he will try to leave as big a trail of destruction in his wake as he scurries off to his bunker.

UPDATE: Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, is now asking to move the second debate to October 22, and the third to October 29. But’s just five days before the election and Biden is probably going to be pretty busy then. This is a desperation move by Trump to recover from his cowardly attempt to bail out.

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

Trump Is in Full Panic Mode: He Knows He’s Going to Lose the Debate

The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is tonight and the pregame is heating up to a frothing stew of crazy. While Biden has been studiously holed up preparing for the event, Trump has been tweeting and doing Fox News interviews wherein he insists he doesn’t need any preparation.

Trump Fear

For weeks Trump has been making overt but baseless suggestions that Biden is suffering from mental infirmities that would make him unfit to be president. But Trump’s campaign of nasty projections has had no effect on voters, a majority of whom actually say that it’s Trump who doesn’t have the soundness to serve. He has also been helping Biden by lowering the bar for his performance to be considered successful.

As a result of this ignorant miscalculation on Trump’s part, he is now trying to steer back 180 degrees by claiming that Biden might actually have an advantage in the debate. But this only makes Trump look even more desperate. particularly considering the excuses Trump has latched unto to explain why Biden is going to crush him. Here is what we’ve heard so far from Trump and his panic-ridden campaign:

  • Biden might wear an ear piece to get offstage coaching
  • Biden requested breaks every thirty minutes
  • Biden would be using performance enhancing drugs
  • Biden got the debate questions in advance

None of these preposterous allegations have even a hint of evidence. They are entirely manufactured by Trump & Company out of sheer desperation. The assertion that Biden got the questions in advance actually came from Infowars conspiracy crackpot, Jerome Corsi. That’s how low they are sinking to invent even these lame controversies.

As for Trump, he asked the debate commission to have the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, refrain from mentioning how many people have died from the coronavirus. Trump also went after Wallace last week, saying that “he’ll be controlled by the radical left.” But then, in Trump’s diseased brain, so is Rupert Murdoch and Joe Biden, and they’re all servants of George Soros.

All of this insanity is being thrown around hours before the debate has even begun. That can mean only one thing: Trump knows damn well that he’s gonna lose bigly. He knows that he can’t compete in an intellectual contest where facts and logic and an ability to discuss critical matters coherently are the components of success. All Trump is capable of is lying, whining, and casting insults like a petulant six year old.

So expect a flurry of that sort of infantilism from Trump tonight. And then expect him to declare himself the winner tomorrow. His narcissism is so pronounced that it simply doesn’t matter what actually happens. He can only see himself as the pure manifestation of human perfection and superiority (i.e. master race). And his ever-shrinking cadre of followers will drool in adoration of their infallible cult leader. All of which will make it just that much harder to face reality on November third when Trump is trounced in the election.

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

Trump Whines that Chris Wallace of Fox News is ‘Controlled By the Radical Left’

As Election Day draws nearer, Donald Trump continues to descend into a psychotic abyss that exhibits the frantic tangle of his fear and desperation. It’s become serious enough that the American people can’t help but have noticed. Much of the evidence of his mental infirmity is revealed in his increasingly bizarre insistence that the election is rigged against him and that he will refuse to accept the results.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Fake

Adding to the cornucopia of crazy that is Trump these says is how he expresses his roller-coaster, love/hate relationship with his own Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News). Trump has been making almost daily appearances on the network, partly because his cult rallies and phony press conferences are no longer being carried live by every network.

On Thursday morning Trump got another tongue bath from Brian Kilmeade on his Fox News radio show. Among the topics discussed were his disappointment that Fox News polls show him losing to Joe Biden (as do all other polls). Fox’s pollsters are “incompetent,” Trump complained to Kilmeade. “They were one of the most far off of all polls,” Trump lied. “They don’t like me, I can tell you that. The worst polls are usually Fox.” Actually, Fox’s polls are generally pretty accurate and in line with the mainstream of credible polling.

Trump also continued his recent rash of ranting about voting by mail. Never mind that he’s currently imploring his cult followers to do so. But in his latest Fox gripe session, he told Kilmeade that “These [mail-in] ballots are a horror show.” He then went on to weave an entirely made up story about discarded ballots:

“They found six ballots in an office yesterday in a garbage can. They were Trump ballots. Eight ballots. In an office yesterday in a certain state. They had Trump written on it, and they were thrown in a garbage can. And this is what’s gonna happen. This is what’s gonna happen. And we’re investigating that.”

Notice that in a matter of seconds Trump increased the number of trashed ballots thirty percent, from six to eight? By sundown there will have been 8,000 of them. NBC News asked the White House for confirmation of this garbage story, but the response they received failed to back up Trump’s obvious fabrication.

Finally, Trump sought to suck up a bit by complimenting Fox News Sunday anchor, Chris Wallace. However, in Trump’s warped mind, a compliment is bragging about having delivered high ratings for interviews he did with Wallace. “Because,” as Trump said to Kilmeade, “it’s all about ratings.” Trump went on to say what he really thinks of Wallace:

“I would be willing to bet that he won’t ask Biden tough questions. He’ll ask me tough questions. It’ll be unfair, I have no doubt about it. But he’ll be controlled by the radical left. They control him.”

That’s right. Trump thinks Chris Wallace, a seventeen year veteran of Fox News, is controlled by the radical left. As is Rupert Murdoch. And Joe Biden. And they’re all in cahoots with George Soros. It’s conspiracy, I tells ya. And woe be to us all if Trump weren’t here to expose it.

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

Sean Hannity Freaks Out Because Biden Declined an Interview with Fox News

The quantity of certified bull… oh, let’s just say malarkey, that is spun by Donald Trump continues to flow like an avalanche of asininity. Just this week he has waxed idiotic about the presidential debates, about politicization of the coronavirus, about voting by mail, and too much more to summarize here.

Fox News Sean Hannity

Naturally, Trump’s Ministry of Disinformation (aka Fox News), has been quick to buttress his lies and the infantile hostilities that are the staples of his reality TV act. And first among the Fox News Trump-fluffers is his “shadow” Chief of Staff Infection, Sean Hannity, who has been scientifically linked to increasing COVID-19 fatalities.

On Saturday morning Hannity posted a tweet intended to embarrass Joe Biden by implying that he is afraid of Fox News and is dodging Chris Wallace who recently interviewed Trump. The tweet read “HIDIN’ BIDEN: Biden Campaign Tells Chris Wallace He’s ‘Not Available’ For Interviews at This Time.” It linked to a two week old article that claimed that Biden “is refusing to speak with the journalist” because he “is ‘not available’ at the moment.'”

First of all, informing a reporter that you’re not available “at the moment” is not the same as a refusal. It just means that another time might be better. After all, Biden is in the midst of a search for a vice-presidential running mate, and he’s planning an unprecedented virtual convention. On top of that, Biden is masterfully allowing Trump to take center stage and deliciously sabotage his own campaign with ever more bizarre outbursts and demented ravings.

However, Hannity’s attack tweet left out a fairly important piece of information. Biden had already done an interview with Wallace last March, months before Trump did. What’s more, if anyone is afraid of the press, it’s Trump. The vast majority of his interviews have been exclusively with his bootlicking pals at Fox News. He has not done a single interview with CNN or MSNBC as president.

Biden would have legitimate reasons to decline to be interviewed by the blatantly biased right-wing shills on Fox News. But he hasn’t done that. That makes Hannity’s lies all the more egregious. Particularly when you compound that with the fact that Trump is so obviously frightened of being challenged by the press when they aren’t his sycophants, or when he isn’t in a position to bully them or run away.

Trump’s rambling and incoherent rants are typical of a deeply disturbed narcissistic sociopath. And the attempts by Trump and Fox News to characterize Biden as unfit for the office of the presidency just seem more ridiculous every day. The bad news for Trump is that no one is buying his rancid assaults and viciousness. Even a poll by Fox News found that majorities of Americans say that Trump does not have the mental soundness to serve. Suck on that Bunker Boy.

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

Majority Say Trump Does Not Have the Mental Soundness to Serve: Fox News Poll

There is trouble in the Realm of the Stable Genius. And the more that reality contradicts the fantasy life of Donald Trump, the more bizarre and dangerous his delusional tales become. But Trump is, without a doubt, his biggest booster. He has to be. No one else with any scrap of credibility wants the job.

Donald Trump, coronavirus

Trump is constantly telling anyone who still bothers to listen that he is brilliant and infallible. He says he knows more than the generals about war; more than economists about the economy; more than doctors about healthcare. And always, Trump insists that he has a mind that is far superior to those of mere mortals.

Sadly for Trump, he has failed miserably at persuading the American people that any of that is true. A poll by his State TV Propaganda Network (aka Fox News), was just published that asked voters “Do you think Donald Trump has the mental soundness to serve effectively as president?” A majority of the people (51% to 43%) responded that he does not.

Of course, anyone paying attention to the steady stream of Trump’s incoherent babbling, whining, and flagrant lying, already arrived at this conclusion long ago. But the fact that Fox News is validating it with their poll has some significance and provides a stinging rebuke to Trump’s laughable self-appraisals.

What’s worse for Trump is that when Fox asked the same question about Joe Biden, a plurality of voters (47% to 39%) responded saying that he is mentally fit to serve. And that is after Trump has spent months trying to malign Biden, particularly with regard to his mental competence. That effort on Trump’s part has actually backfired.

Another poll published last week by Monmouth University had similar results. Only 35% said they are “very” or “somewhat” confident of Trump’s mental stability. A majority of 54% said they are “not to” or “not at all” confident. Biden’s numbers are the complete opposite with 52% saying they are “very” or “somewhat” confident, and only 35% saying they are “not to” or “not at all” confident.

Following the release of the Fox News poll, Trump was interviewed by Chris Wallace, who actually brought up this question. Which led to one of the most peculiar exchanges between a president and the press ever recorded:

Notice that Trump didn’t actually respond to the fact that a majority of the American people think he’s too demented to be president. Setting that aside, Trump’s “challenge” to both Biden and Wallace to take the test and compare results is a typical Trumpian dodge. That’s because he has not – and will not – release his own results. Nevertheless, this isn’t the first time that Trump has issued this challenge. He is apparently exceptionally proud of the fact that he can identify an elephant and count backwards from 100. Well, allegedly. Without seeing his results we really don’t know if he “aced it” or even passed it.

In addition to the Fox News poll’s findings on Trump’s mental infirmities, it also showed Trump…

  • Losing to Biden by eight points
  • Losing women by 19 points
  • Losing Blacks by 64 points
  • Losing Hispanics by 30 points
  • Losing millennials by 22 points
  • Behind on favorability (Trump 43% / Biden 54%)
  • Negative on compassion (Trump 36% / Biden 56%)
  • Negative on intelligence (Trump 42% / Biden 51%)
  • Negative on judgment (Trump 40% / Biden 52%)
  • Less trusted on race relations (-21 points)
  • Less trusted on the coronavirus (-17 points)

And as if that weren’t enough, only 26% percent say they are better off than four years ago. A national mask-wearing order for indoor spaces is favored by 71%. Voting by mail is favored by 63%. Continuing the extra $600/week unemployment benefit is favored by 62%. There is almost nothing positive for Trump to cling to in this survey.

The Trump interview featured some nuggets of nonsense as well. Trump repeated his ludicrous assertion that testing for the coronavirus causes cases; he callously stated that the death toll “is what it is”; he claimed that he’s not losing because all the polls are fake; and he floated the crackpot conspiracy theory that “children are taught in school to hate our country.” These are the same schools that he is now recklessly pushing to reopen, which is also unpopular according to the Fox poll.

What’s more, Trump refused to say that he would accept the results of election if he lost. He railed some more about mail-in voting being rigged. And when asked “How will you regard your years as president” after your term ends, he replied “I think I was very unfairly treated […] I’ve been very unfairly treated. And I don’t say that as paranoid. Everybody says it.” Then he he repeated his oft-stated lie that Obama and Biden spied on his campaign.

Finally, Trump made a point of telling Wallace that “I’m not a big fan of Fox, I’ll be honest with you. They’ve changed a lot since Roger Ailes.” Actually, Trump isn’t a fan of any inference of negativity, regardless of where it comes from. And Trump missing former Fox CEO Roger Ailes isn’t surprising since they both have shared being dishonest, right-wing, sexual predators. But Trump still favors Fox News as his network of choice. It is almost the only network that he grants interviews. And his favorite media personalities (Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, etc.) are all on Fox.

However, Trump isn’t shy about “working the refs” in an attempt to get Fox to be even more fawning and servile. So no matter how many times Trump says that it’s So Hard to Watch Fox News Anymore,” he keeps coming back for more fluffing and ego-stroking.

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

Fearful Trump’s Extremist Attacks Are Escalating and It’s Only Going to Get Worse

There is an unmistakable stench of desperation in the White House that is spreading like a virus. Donald Trump may be as delusionally confident as ever on the surface, but his behavior is more reflective of someone consumed by fear and a grossly misperceived sense of victimization. This has lead to a new “scorched earth” reelection approach to attacking Joe Biden and a nastier, more toxic campaign strategy.

Donald Trump Zombie

Trump has plenty to be worried about. His negligent and incompetent mismanagement of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has resulted in a tragic surge that exceeds anything seen throughout the world. The economy is in recession and more than 40 million Americans have faced unemployment. There is civil unrest in the streets of America protesting systemic racism, while Trump is advocating for Confederate traitors who fought to preserve slavery. And his reelection campaign is coming apart at the seams amidst historically low polling and abysmal approval ratings.

As Trump’s mental state deteriorates, his paranoia increases. He has begun administering “loyalty tests” to staffers in the White House and virtually every cabinet agency, including the Pentagon. He and his Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) are entertaining bizarre election theories aimed more at soothing his fragile ego than winning in November. And he sees himself as tormented by everyone from former advisors like John Bolton (see his book here) to family members like his niece Mary Trump (see her book here).

Consequently, Trump is resorting to ever more drastic methods of extraction from the electoral Mariana Trench he has dug himself into. He is ramping up his attacks on Joe Biden with allusions to his mental health. That’s a treacherous slope considering that the American people regard Trump as more mentally unfit than Biden. He sat for what he probably thought would be a softball Fox News interview, but ended up getting fact-checked live by Chris Wallace. Trump was called out for his lies about Biden’s position on defunding the police.

However, Trump’s primary concerns are never about the issues that are most important to the American people. He is endlessly and exclusively obsessed with his own welfare and image. Which explains much of his recent outrage over the media’s coverage of his floundering campaign. following his disastrous cult rally in Tulsa, Trump tweeted…

Trump’s uniquely deranged notion that TV ratings are “the real polls” is a perspective that can only come from someone whose otherwise pitifully thin resume is dominated by having hosted a reality TV game show for fourteen years. However, even by his own measure, Trump is a pathetic loser. The ratings for his tongue bath – er, interview – with Sean Hannity don’t look so good when compared to the ratings for Rachel Maddow’s interview of Mary Trump. Hannity pulled in 5.11 million viewers, while Maddow drew 5.23 million.

“Maddow’s sit-down with President Donald Trump’s niece drew a record 5.23 million viewers to the show, leading every show on cable and broadcast in primetime Thursday. […] Thursday’s edition also claimed the largest viewership for a regularly scheduled show in MSNBC’s history.”

So does Trump still believe that these are the real polls? Or will this just incite even more outrageous tweets that defy coherent explanation? It’s most likely going to spur more intense “hyperbollocks,” which is my word combining “hyperbole” and “bollocks” to describe rhetoric that is both exaggerated and unfathomable rubbish.

Regardless, Trump’s warped sociopathy is bound to get worse as the honest depictions of his failures continue to batter him mercilessly. so prepare yourselves for his his attacks on Biden that will grow ever more unhinged in the coming weeks. He simply cannot handle reality, and thus reacts by inventing psychotic fantasies wherein he is infallible and omnipotent. Unfortunately, he also reacts with greater hostility and viciousness. And where that might lead between now and January 20, 2021, is both a mystery and a troubling concern for this nation and the world.

UPDATE: The Washington Post published an editorial that reveals that the “scorched earth” strategy described above has actually been documented and circulated in the White House:

“President Trump has launched a slash-and-burn campaign against an exaggerated caricature of his Democratic opponent, casting former vice president Joe Biden as a destroyer of basic freedoms and a threat to voter’s safety who would ‘let terrorists roam free’ and ‘abolish the American way of life.’ […] In new advertising, tweets and public statements that began to appear earlier this month, Trump has argued that the presumptive Democratic nominee is a harbinger of chaos and destruction, depicting a fantastical scarecrow largely divorced from reality.”

Hold on, folks. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride. And Biden, his surrogates, and Democrats everywhere need to be vigilant and ready to respond.

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

Trump’s Tulsa Rally Troubles Go Way Beyond the Pitiful Turnout

Donald Trump had several weeks to plan his return to the campaign trail after three months of a COVID-19 enforced lockdown. He chose Tulsa, Oklahoma, a deep red city and state that should have guaranteed a capacity crowd of glassy-eyed disciples. but things didn’t work out exactly as planned.

Donald Trump, Tulsa Rally

According to the Tulsa fire department, Trump’s rally managed to pack in a measly 6,200 of The Donald’s dimwitted devotees. That’s less than a third of the 19,000 people the arena can accommodate. What’s more, Trump and his campaign bragged repeatedly about having a million requests for tickets and they projected that there would be an overflow crowd of 40,000-60,000 out side the arena where Trump would give an additional speech.

However, the attendance turned out to be far less than projected. The overflow crowd never materialized at all, leading to the cancellation of the outdoor activities. If Trump thought that this rally would be his opportunity to turn around his polling slump (he’s losing to Joe Biden in every national poll, as well as in the crucial swing states), he must be mighty disappointed this morning. And his disappointment generally translates into fury directed at the “losers” responsible for his humiliation. Because, of course, it’s never him.

On Sunday morning Trump campaign advisor Mercedes Schlapp was interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. She was there to attempt to put a positive spin on the previous evening’s fiasco. That plan didn’t work out very well either (video below):

Wallace: Your campaign said that more than a million people wanted tickets to this rally, but we all saw the pictures last night. The arena was no more than two-thirds full, and the outdoor rally that had been planned for the overflow crowd was canceled because there was no overflow crowd. Question: What happened?
Schlapp: When it comes to understanding how the rallies work, it’s a first-come-first-serve basis. Basically what the one million RSVPs include, it’s an opportunity for us to gather data, to get information obviously.

Schlapp went on to make absurd excuses about people having been too frightened by protesters to show up. But she didn’t explain how more than 90% of the predicted hundred thousand rally-goers were scared off by a few protesters, who were kept blocks away from the arena by the police. She also bragged about the number of people who watched online which, of course, included many Trump opponents and other curious independents. To his credit, Wallace wouldn’t let Schlapp deflect, and reminded her that Trump is always talking about the attendance at his rallies as a measure of his popularity. But now he isn’t popular enough to draw supporters in the right-wing hothouse of Oklahoma.

Wallace also disputed Schlapp’s false assertion that protesters prevented anyone from attending. Schlapp actually wants people to believe that Trump’s supporters stayed home because they didn’t want to expose their families to protesters. But exposing them to a deadly virus apparently wasn’t a problem.

More importantly, Schlapp’s reply to Wallace revealed what she considered to be the primary objective for the rally and the reason it should be regarded as a success. “It’s an opportunity,” Schlapp admitted, “for us to gather data.” Indeed it is. Everyone who requests a free ticket to the event is required to provide their name and other personal identification. That’s all entered into a database that is later used to contact potential voters. Trump’s campaign chairman, Brad Parscale made the same admission prior to the Tulsa affair, tweeting that this would be the “Biggest data haul and rally signup of all time.”

There’s just one problem. There are reports that an army of Tik-Tok users requested tickets that they had no intention of using. It’s hard to estimate the precise impact of this Trump trolling project, but there were thousands of interactions with the prank on social media. So somewhere between the 6,200 people who showed up at the rally, and the million who allegedly requested tickets, there an untold number of fake respondents. That means that there is a significant amount of fake data currently residing in the Trump campaign database. And that’s on top of the fake data that was there before this event. [NOTE: News Corpse is in that database, despite never having provided any information] So when the campaign begins its voter outreach they will be wasting huge sums of money and effort on ghost voters.

In the end, the legacy of the Tulsa rally will be that it revealed the softening support for Trump’s reelection, while simultaneously flooding his campaign database with bogus info. But at least he had the opportunity to soak up some cheers from his hardcore fans, while reinforcing his reelection themes of being able to drink water with one hand, stopping coronavirus testing, and defending Confederate statues. WINNING?

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

Happy Easter from Donald Trump During a Pandemic

On this holy day for America’s Christian faithful, Donald Trump has spent the day demonstrating just how important the holiday is to him.

Donald Trump, Twitter

As usual, Trump was manning his Twitter machine and blasting out a flurry of frantic tweets that mainly expressed his rage and hostility and ignorance. It’s hardly what you would call piety. For instance…

Congress was too distracted? Trump himself said he was too distracted to deal with the coronavirus. In other words, he was admitting that he chose to prioritize his impeachment over the lives of the American people.

This is Trump celebrating that there are disaster declarations in all 50 states. That isn’t winning. By definition, it’s a disaster! But Trump’s mind was on his mortal enemy, the free press.

Trump, who said that he takes no responsibility for the management of the coronavirus crisis is shifting that responsibility to others.

For the record, there was no China ban. More than 40,000 came into the country after the alleged ban. Also, Trump just retweeted a message advocating that he fire Dr. Anthony Fauci.

To be clear, Trump is “working hard” to slander the media for telling the truth about him. He warned us that he would do this. When asked by Lesley Stahl why he attacked the press, he replied “You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all, and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.” And there you have it. That’s Easter in the Trump White House.

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

Fox News Reminds Kellyanne Conway that Trump is a Serial Sexual Predator

There are innumerable reasons to be disgusted by Donald Trump. He is an unapologetic racist who praised neo-Nazis as “very fine people.”. He ripped babies from their parents arms and warehoused them in cages. He gushes affection for hostile foreign dictators. He maligns his critics as “enemies of America.” And he lies with every breath he takes.

Kellyanne Conway, Fox News

Those atrocities only scratch the surface of Trump’s loathsome character (or lack thereof). But high on the list of his noxious behaviors has to be his abusive treatment of women. It’s an appalling fact of the Era of Trump that a political figure can be charged with committing dozens of sexual assaults and not be punished or cast out of public life. A new book, All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator,” documents 43 new allegations against Trump. But somehow Trump has gotten away with all of this as new scandals emerge every day to wipe the previous ones from the public’s mind.

On Sunday morning, however, there was a reminder from an unexpected source. During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Trump’s most prolific media shill, Kellyanne Conway, encountered an inconvenient question from host Chris Wallace. In an exchange that raised the issue of alleged sexual misconduct at Michael Bloomberg’s company, Wallace challenged the hypocritical double standards from the Trump camp (video below):

Wallace: Is it fair game for President Trump when he’s made sexist comments too?
Conway: Oh please. First of all, I’ve been working by his side for four years. He’s the best boss I’ve ever had.
Wallace: There are plenty of people who would say the same thing about Michael Bloomberg. Is this any worse than the “Access Hollywood” tape?
Conway: It’s far worse. Oh my goodness, it’s far worse. And by the way, that was fully litigated. That happened October seventh. He won a month later.

First of all, Conway is lying (surprise). The matter of Trump’s confession that he assaulted women was never litigated. And, as Wallace pointed out, his election doesn’t negate that it happened.

More to the point, Trump’s remarks on the “Access Hollywood” recording are not merely “sexist comments.” They are admissions from his own mouth that he committed criminal sexual assault. And he did so because he considered himself entitled to, as a celebrity. But Conway thinks that sexual harassment in the workplace is “far worse” than repeatedly physically attacking women, bragging about it, and feeling no inhibition about doing it again.

The American people must never forget that Donald Trump is a repugnant and unrepentant abuser of women. It should remain a campaign issue in 2020. If the careers of Harvey Weinstein, Roger Ailes, Matt Lauer, and so many others can be ended for this conduct, then why should Trump be exempt from any consequences. If anything, he should be be more accountable due to his prominent place in American society and culture.

Furthermore, Trump’s sycophantic mouthpieces should be equally culpable when the appear on television defending his abhorrent behavior. Conway and the rest of Trump’s apologists need to be tarred with the same brush. They are enabling Trump’s vile activities and those of all who would follow his lead. They are all equally responsible for the harm done to innocent people. And they must be made to pay, politically, socially, and legally.

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

Crybaby Trump Wants to Know: ‘What the Hell Has Happened to Fox News?’

Every now and then, Donald Trump becomes despondent over the fact that he is not blindly worshiped by everyone in the known universe. His typically vicious response to that is to lash out at whoever he regards as being insufficiently adoring. Occasionally that happens to be his State TV Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Strange

Trump is currently exhibiting signs of the enormous burden that weighs on him as the Senate hears the case for removing him from office. He is tweeting more frequently and more furiously, with rage-filled outbursts aimed at his perceived enemies. Among them is his former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, whose new book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” affirms that Trump extorted Ukraine to get dirt on Joe Biden. That’s actually something that Trump himself admitted.

However, on Tuesday morning Trump took a wild swing at the TV “news” network that has been his staunchest defender throughout his presidency. This is not the first time that Trump has gone after Fox News, but it’s a significant slap in the face to those who are working hardest at disseminating his disinformation during the Senate impeachment trial. He tweeted that it’s…

So Trump begins this tantrum by whining that Fox News interviewed the Senator from Maryland, Chris Van Hollen, who Trump alleges has no name after citing it in his tweet. Van Hollen had an appropriately stinging reply:

Don’t hold your breath. Apparently Trump believes that Fox should ban all Democrats from their network and only interview Trump-fluffing Republicans and other Fox Newsers. And in an immediate contradiction, he seems to think that Fox should have hosted a Democratic primary debate.

Continuing on this tirade against his sycophantic Fox friends, Trump posited a rather peculiar question: “What the hell has happened to Fox News?” And he replies to his own query with an even more peculiar answer: “Only I know!” He doesn’t bother to elaborate on what he allegedly “knows” about Fox. So he will continue to be the only one who knows. But he does single some of those on the network that he is most upset with, including Chris Wallace and the now departed Shepard Smith. Trump’s concern for Shep’s well being is touching. If he’s really interest, he should know that Shep is waiting for his non-compete clause to expire, whereupon he will surely sign a lucrative deal with another network.

Finally, Trump predicts a dire future for the network that employs his most fervent StormTrumpers. People like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Steve Doocy, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro, and so many more. He predicts that this is “the beginning of the end for Fox.” That would strike many Americans as a positive development. But it’s difficult to imagine where Trump’s army of media shills would land if their Fox bunker were to collapse.

Not to worry. Like everything else Trump says, none of this is true, particularly the part about the networks that are “dying in the ratings.” Actually, all of the cable news networks are enjoying a banner year with high viewership and revenue. But Trump never lets facts get in the way of his raging animus or massive ego. Consequently, he has aimed his anger at Fox many times when he felt that they weren’t sucking up hard enough (here are some examples of his frothing hostilities).

As the Senate impeachment trial proceeds, it’s likely that Trump will get even more disturbed. There is also a likelihood of additional incriminating evidence coming out. And the case for the Senate calling witnesses became much stronger following the Bolton revelations. So look for Trump to escalate his whining and cries of victimhood, something that he takes enormous pride in. And prepare for more griping about Fox and the rest of media, which he still says he doesn’t understand.

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