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Word of the Day: FLAWGIC – The ‘Flawed Logic’ Employed by Trump and His Dimwitted Disciples

Posted by on December 29, 2024 at 2:23 pm. 0 Comments :

Donald Trump is not known for having a well developed capacity for rational expression or comprehension. After all, he is the self-proclaimed “stable genius” who delivers deranged sermons on cancer-causing windmills, nuking hurricanes, and Hannibal Lecter. He believes that injecting bleach will cure COVID, and that tariffs are paid by foreign governments rather than domestic importers and, eventually, consumers.

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Donald Trump, Mocking Disability

Consequently, it will surprise no one that Trump and his MAGA flunkies can now be recognized for their use of what we at News Corpse are calling “Flawgic” – a portmanteau of “flawed” + “logic.” [Note to Trumpists: a portmanteau is a new word formed by combining two existing words] Flawgic has become a regular component of the discourse in Trumpian circles, along with his grossly distorted perceptions of political reality.

SEE THIS: WTHolyF? Trump Says Democrats Want to Ditch the Popular Vote in Favor of the Electoral College

This weekend a couple of confirmed Trump-fluffers were kind enough to offer examples of flawgic that perfectly illustrate their meaning. Let’s begin with one by New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who had the following exchange with CNN’s Dana Bash about the obvious potential for conflicts of interest that Elon Musk presents as Trump’s government efficiency czar…

Bash: One of the criticisms and concerns is that [Elon Musk] has billions tied up in government contracts. You don’t see a conflict of interest here?
Sununu: Everyone has a conflict of interest.
Bash: But that’s a pretty big one
Sununu: The guy’s worth $450 billion today. I don’t think he’s doing it for the money. He’s doing it for the bigger project and the bigger vision for America. He doesn’t need the dollars…He’s so rich, he’s removed from the potential financial influence of this.

Right! Because billionaires all got that way by not caring about making money. And when they became billionaires, they cared about it even less. So why not put them in charge of regulating the agencies that regulate their own businesses? And Trump’s businesses as well. After all, every billionaire has abandoned any aspiration for their own self-interest and devotes themselves exclusively to the welfare of others less fortunate than they are. Right?

That would explain why Musk and Trump are now advocating on behalf of well paid, highly skilled foreign technology workers rather than the Americans they have pretended to be the champions of. Meanwhile, they vent venomously about mass deportations of low paid foreign workers in agriculture, construction, and healthcare jobs, that Americans refuse to do.

What’s more, Sununu is excusing the wealthy from the burden of obeying laws that the rest of us have to comply with. In his view, they can violate conflict of interests laws at will because of their purity of purpose and lack of motivation to grease the wheels of government in order to enrich themselves further.

The other notable example of flawgic came during a Fox News interview of Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, who presented a unique defense of Trump’s dangerously hostile and preposterous ideas about invading and/or annexing American allies such as Panama, Mexico, Canada, and Greenland. O’Brein said that…

“The Kingdom of Denmark owns Greenland. And they’ve got an obligation to defend Greenland. So president Trump says “If you don’t defend Greenland, we’ll buy it, and we’ll defend it. But we’re not going to do it for free.”

Is O’Brien really arguing that any country that is unable to defend itself from an attack by Russia or China should be taken over by the U.S.? That could apply to almost every country in the world. It’s a proposal that reeks of the “master race” superiority of fascist regimes who regard themselves as the saviors of all mankind. It also destroys the concept of national sovereignty and international alliances for mutual defense, such as NATO, an extraordinarily successful treaty agreement that Trump is itching to drag America out of unless they send kickbacks his way.

Sununu and O’Brien are not crackpot QAnon types who rant anonymously online. They are supposedly reputable Republicans who reflect the ideology of the party. And yet they will appear on television and disgorge this sort of nonsense with a straight face. That’s what has become of the GOP in the Era of Trump. Everyone is required to sink to the same depths of depravity as Dear Leader. No matter how cowardly, humiliating, or shameful.

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GOP Oversight Chair Excuses Trump’s Corruption Unless Bank Records Prove It – Well, Guess What?

Posted by on December 18, 2024 at 2:05 pm. 2 Comments :

As Donald Trump prepares to reoccupy the White House, every American that hasn’t been indoctrinated into the MAGA cult is aware that he is setting new precedents as the first president to be a convicted felon and an adjudicated rapist, who has advocated terminating the Constitution, and incarcerating his political foes.

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Trump Penthouse Phone

That’s not exactly a record that would instill pride in either the officeholder or the people he purports to represent. To the contrary, it’s a resume of shame that would, and does, produce nausea in patriotic citizens. It would also spur responsible public officials to keep a tight rein on a leader who is as disposed to criminality as Trump has been.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Refusal to Sign the Required Ethics Agreement is His Virtual Promise to Violate It

On Wednesday morning the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, was interviewed by Pamela Brown on CNN. Comer is the prime antagonist in the long-running persecution of President Biden and his family. After years of sensationalized probes that failed to produce a shred of evidence of any wrongdoing, Comer is now dismissing any inquiry into Dear Leader Trump’s blatantly unlawful enterprises, as he affirms in the following exchange..

Brown: Do you have any concern if [Trump] doesn’t divest about present future President Trump using public office to enrich himself and his family? I mean, if he doesn’t divest, would that concern you?
Comer: I think the most important thing is transparency. And with respect to tax records, I come from a banking background. Tax records don’t mean anything. If you want to know whether someone’s doing something corrupt or not, get their bank records because bank records don’t lie. People cheat on their taxes all the time. Most important thing is the bank records. And I think as long as President Trump is transparent, I think the American people will give him a pass on honest business activity. But if it ever comes out that they’ve got secret deals or whatever, then that that could potentially be a problem, obviously.”

It’s interesting that Comer warns against using Trump’s tax records because “People cheat on their taxes all the time.” Is he implying that Trump cheats and, therefore, his tax records should be ignored?

More to the point, Comer asserts that nothing Trump does should be investigated because he’s such a pure paragon of transparency, and that his bank records would confirm that. However, in 2020 the New York Times reported that Trump had a secret bank account in China that he failed to reveal in his official financial disclosure forms. The Times discovered the account in his tax returns that they got from an undisclosed source because Trump repeatedly refused to make them public like every other president in modern times…

“President Donald Trump’s tax records show he has pursued expansive business projects in China for years and even maintains a Chinese bank account, The New York Times reported […] An analysis of Trump’s tax records by the Times shows that the President holds a previously unreported bank account in China that was not included on his public financial disclosures.”

So according to the criteria specified by Comer, there should be immediate hearings into Trump’s finances by Comer’s Oversight Committee. Trump has obviously not been as transparent as Comer implied. And that’s been the case for many years. Here are a couple other examples of Trump’s deceit with regard to his finances…

NOPE! Eric Trump Lies that Daddy Gave All Foreign Money Made at His Hotels to the Treasury
As reported by NPR last year… “Documents released by the House Oversight and Reform Committee show extravagant spending from foreign leaders at former President Donald Trump’s luxury hotel in Washington, D.C., which the committee says could have violated his oath of office by distorting U.S. foreign policy for personal financial gain.

“Government officials from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and the People’s Republic of China collectively spent over $750,000 at the Trump International Hotel during his presidency.”

[And…]

Trump earned as much as $160 million dollars from foreign sources while president. A more expansive investigation by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) found that… “Throughout his time in office, President Trump, his family and his Republican allies repeatedly assured the public that his refusal to divest from his businesses wouldn’t lead to any conflicts of interest […] When it came to foreign conflicts of interest, Trump and his company pledged to pause foreign business. They did not.”

Not surprisingly, the most frequent contributors to Trump’s coffers were from the Middle East and China.

Lest anyone think that Trump’s fiscal malfeasance is all in the past, take a look at his latest vehicle for enriching himself via shady self-dealing…

The Grifter-In-Chief: Will Donald Trump Divest From His Bribery Platform, Truth Social?
“Surely he is not planning to divest from any of the businesses that he didn’t divest from last time. […] Trump’s Truth Social, via its parent corporation, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. It is therefore available for any crooked scheme-ster to shovel shiploads of cash into, enriching the other shareholders, of which Trump is the biggest.

No one should expect Trump to change his nefarious ways now. And Comer’s hypocrisy amounts to the willful wearing of blinders in the hopes of avoiding observing Trump’s illegal activities. But he knows. And so does everyone else whose eyes – and minds – are not glued shut. The only question that remains is whether others in Congress or the press will seek to bring him to justice.

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Brave Sir Hegseth, Trump’s Pick to Run the Pentagon, Runs Away From His Own Hateful Opinions

Posted by on December 13, 2024 at 2:33 pm. 1 Comments :

The reasons to oppose Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense are impossible to refute by any rational standard. Which may be why neither Trump, nor any of those purporting to support him, have offered any coherent argument for confirming him. All they can muster is their blindly obedient opinion that it is what Dear Leader Trump wants.

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Fox News, Pete Hegseth, Cleared

First and foremost, Hegseth has absolutely zero experience relevant to running the biggest bureaucracy in the United States federal government. His past work record contains nothing that would demonstrate the management, financial, legal, personnel, or international diplomacy skills required of a defense secretary. In addition to Hegseth’s lack of work experience, he is also lacking the moral and ethical character to perform at the high standards necessary for a top national security post.

SEE THIS: Pete Hegseth’s Mommy Steps Up to Shield Him From His Life of Alcoholic and Sexual Debauchery

As Hegseth strolls the halls of Congress to meet with the Senators who must confirm him, he has been questioned by the press about his fitness for the job. In one such incident he engaged in the following exchange with a reporter seeking his response to recent revelations about his objection to gay soldiers…

Reporter: Do you believe that gay people should be allowed to serve in the military?
Hegseth: Yes.
Reporter: Can you just respond to the CNN report this morning highlighting some of you previous comments?
Hegseth: I don’t feel the need to respond to CNN.

That brief exchange revealed two glaring examples of Hegseth’s cowardice. First of all, his response that he believes that gays should be allowed to serve contradicts his previous comments on that subject. He is clearly afraid to be honest about his opinions. And it isn’t the first time that he’s reversed himself due to his fear of public backlash. He has also tried to walk back his statement that “we should not have women in combat roles.”

Secondly, his dismissal of the follow up question that sought his clarification of his past remarks exhibits his fear of CNN, or any other media that he disapproves of.

To be clear, contrary to Hegseth’s flippant dismissal, the question wasn’t asking him to respond to CNN. It was asking him to respond to himself, and what he said in the past. CNN’s reporting was not their opinion. It was about what Hegseth wrote concerning gays in the military. According to the CNN report…

“In his 2024 book ‘The War on Warriors’ and in subsequent media promotions this year, Hegseth described both the original ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ (DADT) policy and its repeal in 2011 as a ‘gateway’ and a ‘camouflage’ for broader cultural changes that he claims have undermined military cohesion and effectiveness.”

What’s more, the prospect of a Cabinet member refusing to address a serious matter by asserting that he doesn’t “feel the need to respond” to a particular news network is a flashing red light alarm. He’s saying that he doesn’t feel that he has any obligation to be accountable to the citizens he is supposed to be serving. That is not acceptable behavior in a democratic society. Which, of course, is something that Trump hopes to dispense with.

Hegseth’s nomination has been in trouble from the start. And comments like these aren’t going to help him gain favor with the senators whose votes he needs. And it surely doesn’t help that he is also unpopular with the public…

“A new survey from the Associated Press and National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago suggests that Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, has almost no popular support. According to the poll, only 17% of those surveyed said that they approved of Hegseth’s nomination.” […]

“In general, just 27% of the public is confident in Trump’s “ability to appoint well-qualified individuals to his cabinet and other high-level positions,” while 55% say they are not confident.”

As a side issue, the video above was posted by Will Cain, a co-host of the Fox News morning program, “Fox and Friends Weekend.” Which is the same program that Hegseth co-hosted prior to his nomination. Cain’s comment with the video is especially ironic. He apparently doesn’t see that it is his own network that has gone “from biased…to agenda…to propaganda…to embarrassment.”

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Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

Posted by on December 5, 2024 at 2:42 pm. 0 Comments :

Donald Trump fashioned his campaign to reoccupy the White House as an appeal to the common man and all those who have been forgotten by entrenched government bureaucracies. That message resonated with a tiny majority of voters who were either too naïve to detect his blatant lies, or too indoctrinated into the cult to care that they were being lied to.

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Donald Trump, Fox News, White House

Now a month has passed since the election and Trump’s real intentions are all to clear to anyone who isn’t in a self-induced coma. Those real intentions are evident in the people he has chosen to serve in his administration. And it isn’t exactly a roster of working class heroes. In fact, this nation has never seen a more disgraceful batch of unqualified bootlickers and shameless self-promoting elitists. But then, what more could be expected from the disgraceful, unqualified, bootlicking, self-promoting elitist who chose them? Trump is still doing what he does best…

SEE THIS: MAKE IT STOP! Crybaby Trump Continues His Infantile Whining Weeks After Winning the Election

On Wednesday CNN’s Harry Enten did a segment that revealed some of the characteristics that are most broadly shared by Trump’s circle of sycophants. And as anyone with more than a handful of functioning brain cells could have predicted, it’s a group that has nothing in common with the common citizens of America. To the contrary. Enten’s analysis shows that Trump’s team thus far is dominated by billionaires, Mar-a-Lago patrons, and Fox News hosts and contributors.

Enten made the rather obvious observation that “Trump is someone who feeds on people being loyal to him.” And none are more devoted than those who spend much of their time on Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. Including…

  1. Pete Hegseth (Secretary of Defense)
  2. Tulsi Gabbard (Director of National Intelligence)
  3. Stephen Miller (Deputy White House Chief of Staff)
  4. Michael Waltz (National Security Adviser)
  5. Lee Zeldin (Environmental Protection Agency administrator)
  6. Elise Stefanik (Ambassador to the United Nation)
  7. Tom Homan (Border “Czar”)
  8. Mike Huckabee (Ambassador to Israel)
  9. Sean Duffy (Secretary of Transportation)
  10. Sebastian Gorka (Deputy Assistant to the President, Director for Counterterrorism)
  11. Janette Nesheiwat (Surgeon General)
  12. Monica Crowley (Assistant Secretary of State and Chief of Protocol)
  13. Keith Kellogg (special Envoy to Ukraine)
  14. Marty Makary (FDA Commissioner)
  15. Kimberley Guilfoyle (Ambassador to Greece)

    16. LATE ADDITIONS:

  16. Tammy Bruce (State Department Spokesperson)
  17. Morgan Ortagus (Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Middle East Peace)
  18. Leo Terrel (Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights)

It would have been useful if CNN and other media had informed their viewers that Trump’s campaign promises were unadulterated bullshit before election day. Far too many voters bought into the lies, and now they will suffer as a result. Many of the more purposefully ignorant deserve to suffer. The problem is that the rest of us are going to suffer right along with them.

Our only hope for the next four years is if Democrats in Congress obstruct the worst impulses of Trump and his comrades. And it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the press to do their job and call out the Trumpists when they endeavor to betray the interests of the American people in service to the privileged upper-crusters.

Although a fair measure of the responsibility for getting politicians and the press to work on behalf of the people belongs to the people themselves. We have to let them know what we want, and that there are consequences if we don’t get it. Preserving democracy is hard work, but it’s worth it.

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Fox News Buries Reports of Trump’s Unsavory, Unqualified Defense Secretary Pick, Pete Hegseth

Posted by on December 3, 2024 at 1:06 pm. 1 Comments :

One thing that can be said about Donald Trump is that he has a deep affinity for people who share his noxious personality and absence of ethical values. He consistently surrounds himself with other wealthy narcissists who are devoted to serving their own interests and greed at the expense of everyone else.

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Fox News, Pete Hegseth, Cleared

For an example of this Trumpiness in his toadies, one needs to look no further than his current nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. The abhorrent nature of Trump is readily apparent in Hegseth’s conceited certainty that he has the experience and skills to run the Pentagon. What he does have is unwavering fealty to Trump and a Fox News resume.

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

Hegseth’s history as the weekend host of Fox and Friends has not only won him the attention of Trump, it has resulted in the stories of his decadent past behavior being blacked out on Fox “News.” CNN’s Brian Stelter reviewed Fox’s programming and discovered that they have utterly ignored some bombshell revelations about Hegseth…

“What’s a media outlet supposed to do when its longtime host is picked to run the Pentagon, and then a series of eyebrow-raising news stories trigger doubts about his appointment? If you’re Fox News, evidently, you just pretend the stories don’t exist. […] On Fox, Hegseth’s former colleagues aren’t raising alarms about the allegations or defending him – they’re just not talking about the issue at all.”

This is typical of Fox News, a network whose mission from its inception has been to advance right-wing politicians and policies. Among the revelations that have recently been reported about Hegseth by actual journalists are…

  • Emails by Hegseth’s mother who wrote to him “On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself. I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
  • And that “A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report”
  • And a whistle-blower report that Hegseth “was forced out of previous leadership positions for financial mismanagement, sexist behavior, and being repeatedly intoxicated on the job.” The report detailed multiple accounts of Hegseth being so drunk he had to be carried back to his hotel room. It also revealed incidents like the one where he “had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team.”

Jane Mayer, the author of the New Yorker story about the whistleblower, was interviewed on CNN Monday, where she outlined much of the atrocious behavior by Hegseth. In addition to his alcohol-fueled debauchery, she calls into question whether someone who could not manage a small charity (actually two of them) with a handful of staffers would be able to run the Pentagon with a budget of $850 billion and more than three million people.

What this tells is that Hegseth is absolutely unqualified to be Secretary of Defense, or to be considered for any position in government. But it also tells us that he should not have been employed by Fox News either, and that they should not consider rehiring him if his nomination is rejected by the Senate, as it must be.

Hegseth is incompetent and is an unrepentant abuser of women and liquor who, like Trump, is on his third marriage, after his cheating and lying and abuse resulted in the first two failing. Although it is just that sort of deplorable behavior that explains why Trump likes him so much. They are two of a kind.

UPDATE: NBC News is now reporting that “as many as 6 Senate Republicans are currently not comfortable supporting [Hegseth’s] bid.” If only half that many say “NO” Hegseth cannot be confirmed.

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CNN’s Republican Shill Says Tariffs Are Not Enough, Proposes Starting a Drug War with Mexico

Posted by on November 27, 2024 at 2:14 pm. 0 Comments :

One of the absolute worst ideas that Donald Trump has proposed since becoming president-elect is his promise to impose new tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico, America’s biggest trading partners. His justification for this is that it would serve as a lever to make them end the trafficking of drugs into the United States.

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General Donald Trump on CNN

Never mind that economists and trade experts agree that such a reckless and ill-considered act “would significantly increase U.S. inflation next year [and] curtail economic growth.” Trump doesn’t really care about the welfare of the American people. If he did he wouldn’t lie to them so flagrantly and frequently.

SEE THIS: OUCH! Trump’s Flagrant Lies About 14,000 ‘Criminal’ Migrants Gets a Devastating Fact-Check

If the gullible rubes who voted for Trump think that he is going to lower the price of gas or eggs, they are going to be woefully disappointed. To the contrary, his plans will increase the costs of everything from fruit to toys to shoes to cars, and more. And to rub some salt into those wounds, it won’t have the slightest impact on drug trafficking.

Which makes the following exchange about Trump’s initiatives on CNN, between economic contributor Catherine Rampell and Republican hack Scott Jennings, all the more troubling…

Rampell: Mexico has actually put a lot more border security on its southern border.
Jennings: It’s really working wonders. This is crazy.
Rampell: Yes, again, border crossings are down 75 percent. They’re back to what they were under Trump.
Jennings: If I were [Mexican President Sheinbaum], I would be prepared for my country to possibly have United States military incursions to take out the drug factories and the people who do this to us too.
Rampell: So, you think we should not only have a trade war, we should have a military war with Mexico?
Jennings: I think we have to do what we have to do to stop the drugs.

So Jennings, who has previously supported deploying the military within the U.S. to round up immigrants for mass deportation, now also wants the Army to invade our allied neighbor to South to put an end to the Fentanyl crisis at home. The minions of MAGA have become the foremost advocates of military engagements. Unless, of course, it is aimed at preventing Vladimir Putin from invading and annexing our friends in Ukraine.

Rampell was correct to note that border crossings are down 75 percent. What’s more, most of the Fentanyl coming into the U.S. is brought in by American citizens through legal ports of entry. And there is a reason for the flood of drugs into the U.S. There’s a huge market for it. Fentanyl trafficking would end if Americans would stop buying it. It isn’t an international crime problem. It’s a domestic public health problem. These and other concerns were addressed by President Sheinbaum following Trump’s tariff threat…

“Mexico’s main exporters to the U.S. are General Motors, Stellantis and Ford Motor Company, which came to Mexico 80 years ago. Why put a tax on them that puts them at risk? It is not acceptable and would cause the U.S. and Mexico inflation and job losses.” […]

“Seventy percent of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country. We do not produce these weapons, nor do we consume synthetic drugs. Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demand in yours.”

The military “solution” that Jennings proposed would be worse than ineffective. It would be objectively harmful. It would put the lives American soldiers, as well as innocent Mexican civilians, at risk. It would do nothing to reduce drug trafficking because, as long as there is a demand, the traffickers will seek to fill it. They would just raise their prices along with the legal businesses who respond to the tariffs.

Worst of all, it would destroy the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, it’s biggest trading partner. It would accelerate inflation at home, and waste billions of dollars and military resources.

Yet somehow CNN is comfortable having a regular contributor on their air making these preposterous and dangerous proposals. Jennings is not a serious conservative commentator. He is war mongering fanatic whose opinions are not worthy of being disseminated by any reputable news enterprise. And if CNN wants to be regarded as “reputable,” they need to dispose of Jennings.

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So-Called ‘Christian’ Mike Johnson Does the ‘Weave’ When Asked if Morality Matters to the GOP

Posted by on November 17, 2024 at 2:54 pm. 4 Comments :

As Donald Trump unveils the principle personnel of his upcoming administration, it is becoming clearer every day just how bereft of principles, knowledge, and experience will be available in some of the most critical positions in the United States government.

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Donald Trump, Congress, Mike Johnson

Unfortunately, it isn’t just a problem of ignorance and incompetence, but one of downright malice by nominees who have expressed ideas and intentions that are contrary to American policies and values.

Among those nominees are an accused sex trafficker (Matt Gaetz) for Attorney General, a health conspiracy crackpot (Robert Kennedy Jr) for Secretary of Health and Human Services, a TV host who has defended war criminals (Pete Hegseth) for Secretary of Defense, and a suspected Kremlin sympathizer (Tulsi Gabbard) for Director of National Intelligence. What they all share is an unwavering devotion to Trump, whose own values are wanting and/or warped.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Refusal to Sign the Required Ethics Agreement is His Virtual Promise to Violate It

America’s founders designed a system of government that anticipated some of the potential pitfalls that we face now. However, that system of checks and balances doesn’t work if the equal branches of government are run by lily-livered supplicants to an aspiring totalitarian. Which is precisely the situation we find ourselves in today as revealed in an interview of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson by Jake Tapper of CNN…

Tapper: You’re a man of faith. You’re a man of God. You’re a man of family. With some of these nominees, Gaetz, Hegseth, RFK Jr., I wonder does it matter anymore for Republicans to think of leaders as people who are moral in their personal lives? Is that still important to the Republican Party?
Johnson: Sure. It’s an important issue for anyone in leadership. This is what I’ll say about the nominees that the president has put forward, is that they are persons who will shake up the status quo. And I think what the American people have believed, and what they’ve delivered with the mandate in this election, is a demand that we shake up the status quo. […] Any president has the right to name their own cabinet to nominate persons that they think the people that will fulfill their agenda. And the people that are on this list will do that.

First of all, Tapper was exceedingly generous in his description of Johnson’s alleged piety. There has been little of that demonstrated in his public life, outside of vacant rhetoric.

More to the point, Johnson conspicuously avoided any coherent response to Tapper’s question. After a perfunctory concession that morality matters, he “weaved” (as Trump might describe it) into a lengthy, but unrelated, discourse on “shak[ing] up the status quo.” He further claimed that Trump had an electoral mandate that is a figment of his – and Trump’s – imagination. He won by one of the smallest margins in history, and failed to get a majority of votes.

Johnson’s justification for supporting the morality deprived candidates nominated by Trump is that “Any president has the right to name their own cabinet.” That’s true. But it is the Senate’s right to confirm those that the president names, or to decline to do so. And there has never been better justification to refuse confirmation than with the cretins Trump has named.

Will Johnson take a principled stand on these nominees? Don’t hold your breath. To the contrary, he has already stated his intention to object to the release of a report by the House Ethics Committee detailing their investigation of Gaetz for sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. And he made his announcement of that objection after visiting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago where he likely got his marching orders from Dear Leader.

That’s about all that can be expected by Johnson as Speaker of the House, as well as by Sen. John Thune as GOP leader of the Senate. Hopefully there will be a few Republicans with the minimum measure of morality to join with Democrats and block Trump’s worst nominees. But that may be a thin lifeline to cling to. Time will tell.

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Dictator on Day One! Trump Nixes FBI Background Checks for his Unqualified, Anti-American Cabinet

Posted by on November 15, 2024 at 1:32 pm. 5 Comments :

In the heat of the 2024 presidential election season, Donald Trump sat for one of his many tongue bathing “interviews” with Sean Hannity on Fox News. On one particular occasion, Hannity sought to handhold Trump through a controversy wherein he had been accused of aspiring to be a dictator. But true to form, Trump was oblivious to the answers that Hannity tried to pass to him in his questions.

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Donald Trump

Despite Hannity’s repeated attempts, Trump insisted on expressing his abhorrent authoritarian aspirations. He stubbornly affirmed his deep desire to be a “dictator on day one.” And the limitation of his tyrannical reign to a single day provides little comfort to those who know that dictators never relinquish power voluntarily once they assume it.

SEE THIS: Trump Cloddishly Dodges Hannity’s Softball Questions About Whether He Would Be a Dictator

Validating Trump’s totalitarian tendencies, it is now being reported that he intends to bypass the routine FBI background checks that are conducted on prospective presidential Cabinet candidates. According to CNN…

“President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is?bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks while using private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs, people close to the transition planning say.

“Trump and his allies believe the FBI system is slow and plagued with issues that could stymie the president-elect’s plan to quickly begin the work of implementing his agenda, people briefed on the plans said. Critics say the intrusive background checks sometimes turn up embarrassing information used to inflict political damage.

“The discussions come as Trump has floated several controversial choices for high-level positions in the US government – including Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.”

There are reasons that the FBI has been tasked with these background checks for decades. The positions that Cabinet heads hold grant them access to sensitive national security information. If they are compromised in any way it could make them vessels for foreign agents to acquire classified data, or even make them vulnerable to blackmail attempts. And that’s presuming that they aren’t purposefully acting on behalf of enemy regimes.

So why would Trump want to forego background checks on his nominees? Does he know something about them that we don’t? Are his own motives suspect? Even if they are not themselves foreign assets, do they have connections that would be concerning? Could they be unwitting dupes?

These are all questions that take on extraordinary significance when Trump himself has been so chummy with foreign despots like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Viktor Orbán, and Kim Jong Un. Will those questions be asked? Will Trump be able to delay the process until he is able to install his own nominee for FBI director (possibly Trump flunky, Kash Patel)?

Many of Trump’s nominees to date have glaring issues that would raise red flags in any probe for security clearances. His attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz, has been credibly accused of sex trafficking of a minor and illicit drug use. His Health and Human Services nominee, Robert Kennedy Jr, is a serial adulterer with a dead worm in his brain who holds crackpot conspiracy theories regarding medicine and vaccines. His nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has advocated bombing Iran and North Korea and argued in support of war criminals. His nominee for director of national security, Tulsi Gabbard, has ties with Putin and Russia.

What they all have in common is a worshipful cult attachment, and unwavering loyalty, to Trump, and no experience whatsoever in the jobs that he is proposing they fill. If it were Trump’s mission to undermine the stability of the United States, he couldn’t have picked a better team. So naturally, he wouldn’t want any of his co-conspirators to be subject to scrutiny.

Trump has been angling to give his nominees “recess appointments” so that they can bypass the Senate hearings as well. Hopefully Republicans in the Senate will grow a spine and insist that these nominees be required to submit to both background checks and Senate hearings. But resting our hopes on the strength of GOP spines is not exactly reassuring.

This leaves any hopes of preserving our democracy to Democrats, who are in the minority in both houses of Congress, and the media, who have been grossly deficient in their duty to inform. Which means that the only remaining path to salvation rests with the people. Are we up to it? We better be!

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‘We’ve Got Hulk Hogan’ – GOP Pundit’s Consolation After Bruce Springsteen Endorses Kamala Harris

Posted by on October 4, 2024 at 1:53 pm. 1 Comments :

The Republican Party has always been a morass of mendacity and hypocrisy. But it has gotten immeasurably worse since Donald Trump took it over, making it a cult of personality disorders, and a haven for greedy grifters, who appeal to the lowest uncommon deplorable.

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Kamala Harris, Donald Trump baby

The Trump cult is propped up by the MAGA minions who fluff him in the media. Their purposeful deceptions make them even more disgraceful than the willfully ignorant, glassy-eyed disciples who habitually attend Trump rallies. And yet, Trump engages in pure projection to malign the rational Americans who prefer the democracy championed by Kamala Harris to the tyranny aspired to by Trump.

SEE THIS: ATTN: Trump Says Pretty Much Everyone Who Supports Kamala Harris Must Have Their Heads Examined

On Thursday night CNN’s Republican pundit, Scott Jennings, addressed the recent endorsement of Kamala Harris by rock superstar, Bruce Springsteen. Jennings attempted desperately to assuage his fears by trying to convince himself that Trump has the upper hand with more admired and influential celebrity supporters…

“I can’t think of anything I care about less than some moron celebrity…we’ve got Hulk Hogan, and that’s all I need.” […] Jennings said he wants to see “directionally a center right government, and I don’t give a crap what some celebrity thinks about it.”

Seriously? Jennings thinks that Springsteen – an artist with a catalog of brilliant compositions that millions relate to – is a “moron celebrity,” but that Hulk Hogan – a jock who performed in phony wrestling matches – is some sort of Rhodes Scholar? Does Jennings really believe that an endorsement by the “The Hulkster” is as valuable as one by “The Boss”?

Apparently the answer to that question is a resounding, “NO!” Because immediately after bragging about Hogan, Jennings admits that “I don’t give a crap what some celebrity thinks about it.” So that must include Hogan, right?

Republicans love to pretend that they aren’t interested in celebrity endorsements. So you have to wonder why they keep promoting them from losers like Kid Rock, Scott Baio, and Roseanne Barr. It’s a contest that they can’t hope to win when Harris has supporters like Taylor Swift, George Clooney, John Legend, and Oprah.

For the record, Springsteen’s endorsement was an eloquent and moving expression of why Harris is fundamentally superior to Trump. He touches on both Trump’s fatal flaws and Harris’ distinguished assets…

“Donald Trump is the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime. His disdain for the sanctity of our Constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law, and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of president ever again. He doesn’t understand the meaning of this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American.”

Celebrity endorsements, of course, should not be used to determine how to vote for any candidate. But they can be good reference points by creative people who have a demonstrated ability to connect with others. Their insights are appreciated specifically because they are adept at envisioning and expressing what many others see and feel. Their opinions often have just as much merit as the paid partisan “experts” who populate news programs. And in the case of Jennings, infinitely more merit.

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Trump Whines that the Media Didn’t Praise Him Enough After His Lie-Riddled Debate with Biden

Posted by on June 29, 2024 at 1:08 pm. 3 Comments :

The first presidential debate of 2024 is now history – in more ways ways than one. It is the first ever presidential debate where one of the candidates – Donald Trump – was a convicted felon, with 54 more felony charges pending, and was ordered to pay $454 million for financial fraud, and who incited a violent coup, and was adjudicated as a rapist.

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Donald Trump, Wah

Those uniquely distinguishing characteristics of Trump, however, were not the only things that guaranteed the CNN debate with President Biden a place in the history books. It was also a debate wherein Trump likely set a new world record for telling the most lies in a 90 minute slice of political television. And the record he beat was probably his own.

SEE THIS: FTR: Felonious Trump Gave 3 Times as Many False Statements as President Biden in the CNN Debate

In the days following the debate, the media has decided to place their focus on what many of their pundits are describing as the substandard performance of Biden. Ordinarily, when the press is criticizing your opponent, most politicians would be satisfied to let that criticism go on without interruption. But Trump is most certainly not “most politicians.”

Consequently, Trump is complaining about the bad press that Biden is suffering. Not because he thinks it is unwarranted. But because it is deflecting media attention from himself. And there is no greater offense one can commit against Trump than to fail to be thoroughly engrossed with his every word and deed at all times. He is the most sickly, egotistical, manifestation of Glenn Close’s character in the movie “Fatal Attraction,” who declared that “I will not be ignored.”

On Saturday morning Trump took to his floundering Social media scam, Truth Social, to lash out the press for failing to obsess over him. He wrote that…

“As I walked off the stage on Thursday night, at the end of the highly anticipated ‘Debate,’ anchors, political reporters and all screamed that I had had the greatest debate performance in the long and storied history of Presidential Debates. They all said, effectively, ‘Trump was fantastic!’ This theme was universal, even at CNN & MSDNC, but by Friday evening it was all about the poor performance of Crooked Joe, and not so much about how well I did. Oh well, that’s the way it is but, importantly, the result is the same!!!”

There is so much wrong with that puerile outburst that it requires a deeper dive into its derangement. Beginning with Trump’s utterly delusional assertion that all of the anchors and political reporters “screamed that I had had the greatest debate performance” in history. He was probably right about the screaming, but not for the reasons he suggests. And they surely didn’t regard his litany of flagrant lies as “fantastic.”

What’s more, how would Trump know what CNN and MSNBC – two networks that he insists he would never watch – were saying about Biden’s debate performance? If he had watched them he would have seen them talking about both Biden’s shortcomings and his own brazen and shameless dishonesty.

However, Trump makes it clear that his biggest problem with the press coverage of the debate was that it was “not so much about how well I did.” One explanation for that might be that he didn’t do what any rational person would describe as “well.”

More to the point, Trump is exhibiting his flaming narcissism by squealing about the press failing to devote all of their attention to him, even at the expense of their determination to bash Biden. Meanwhile Biden, while not delivering his best performance, was at least honest and, unlike Trump, stuck to the facts in his responses that actually related to the questions he was asked.

It is illustrative of the bizarre nature of our times that a candidate who appeared somewhat slow and detached during one debate is being urged to drop out of the race, but not the candidate who has been convicted of 34 felonies, surrounds himself with fellow felons, lies pathologically, exudes hostility and racism, and was affirmed by a judge to be a rapist. When these pundits start to call for Trump to drop out, we can start to take them seriously.

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