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Upcoming Republican Primary Debates May Have Only Two Candidates – But Still No Cowardly Trump

Posted by on December 9, 2023 at 2:15 pm. 0 Comments :

The race for the Republican Party’s nomination for President in 2024 has been a laughably lame affair that appears to be modeled after a third rate reality TV show. It’s “Apprentice – White House” without the boorish board room finale where the playacting potentate pretends to fire one of the contemptible contestants.

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Donald Trump, Republican, GOP

From the start of election season the Republican National Committee (RNC) assumed dictatorial control of the production of these debates with a series of decrees that sought to establish their supreme authority over the process and the candidates. For instance, they prohibited all candidates from participating in any debate not sanctioned by the RNC. They also demanded that all candidates sign a pledge to support whoever the eventual GOP nominee was. As if Trump would keep such a promise.

SEE THIS: RNC Chair Thinks Trump Would Honor a Pledge to Support the GOP Nominee if it Isn’t Him

Apparently the RNC is softening their stance. They are now saying that they will waive their demands to boycott non-RNC sponsored debates. Perhaps that’s because the debates they have produced so far have been fiascos that featured infantile tantrums while avoiding any matter of interest to voters. They have also resulted in sequentially lower ratings for each broadcast. Consequently, CNN has just announced that they will sponsor two debates prior to the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

CNN’s announcement said that “The events will provide Republican voters an opportunity to hear the governing philosophies of the leading candidates.” But that seems like a lofty goal that they are unlikely to achieve. After all, the previous debates were hardly forums for learning about the candidates “governing philosophies.” And that isn’t likely to improve considering the conditions they have set for participation…

“To qualify for participation in the Iowa debate, candidates must receive at least 10% in three separate national and/or [Iowa/New Hampshire] state polls.”

By that criteria, the only candidates, other than Donald Trump, who currently qualify for the Iowa debate are Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. And the only non-Trump candidates who currently qualify for the New Hampshire debate are Nikki Haley and Chris Christie. There is still time for others to meet the criteria prior to the debates, but there are no guarantees that they will succeed.

Should the debates wind up being the head-to-head matchups noted above, they might actually be more interesting. And the absence of the “obnoxious blowhard,” Vivek Ramaswamy, would be a welcome relief.

For his part, Trump has declined to participate in any of the four debates already held. And given his increasingly severe psychological slippage, that’s probably a wise decision on the part of his handlers. These days Trump spends most of his time posting either hostile attacks on his perceived enemies, or cultish adoration of himself on his failing Truth Social scam. And his conspicuous cowardice, along with his mental maladies, keep him from sharing the debate stage with his primary challengers, which would only embarrass him and his party further.

So even as the roster of Republicans is reduced with each week that goes by, Trump can be expected to cower in his Mar-a-Lago bunker launching spitballs at his foes, who will deftly avoid any criticism of Dear Leader. And the RNC will continue to prop him up as their inevitable nominee, despite his unmistakable cognitive decline and authoritarian aspirations. This is the state of the Trump Era Republican Party.

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Deranged Donald Trump Whines that the ‘Fake’ Media Reported What Even He Admits is the Truth

Posted by on November 11, 2023 at 10:54 am. 3 Comments :

The accelerating desperation of Donald Trump is impossible to ignore as his legal tribulations mount and his ability to respond coherently declines. The past week saw Trump and his criminally complicit clan (Don Jr, Eric, and Ivanka) testify in the financial fraud trial taking place in New York. But employing feigned ignorance is not a particularly clever defense strategy.

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Donald Trump, CNN

The Trumps took the stand reluctantly and each of these self-professed business “geniuses” claimed that they couldn’t recall significant events in their administration of Trump Organization affairs. That crudely coordinated defense relies on the argument that they are either incompetent stooges or suffering from some rare form of inbred amnesia. At least for The Donald, there is some validity to that argument.

SEE THIS: Trump Suffers Mental Collapse Over Poll that Asks About His Obviously Collapsing Mental Health

In the latest of his ongoing online harangues, Trump lashed out at his perennial media foe, CNN. But this time he was outraged that the network reported something that he conceded was true in the very same comment. The post on his failing social media scam, Truth Social, was a marvel of maliciousness and mendacity. What follows is an annotated examination of Trump’s tirade that displays a pathology that is both tormented and impotent. He began…

“Fake News CNN just did a story, leaked by Deranged Prosecutor Jack Smith and his massive team of Radical Left Lunatics, that various people saw papers and boxes at Mar-a-Lago. Of course they did! They may have been the boxes etc. that were openly and plainly brought from the White House, as is my right under the Presidential Records Act.”

Trump is appalled that CNN had the audacity to report that the boxes of classified documents he stole and hoarded at his Mar-a-Lago hotel/home were seen by “various people.” He calls it “fake news” even though he agrees that “of course” it was true. And he thinks that special counsel Jack Smith is deranged?

What Trump is referring to is a CNN report that Smith has subpoenaed several Mar-a-Lago employees with knowledge of Trump’s mishandling of the classified materials that he lied to the FBI about having. These employees can not only attest to Trump’s possession of the documents, but to his alleged attempts to hide them from authorities.

What’s more, Trump continues to use the Presidential Records Act to justify his misconduct, even though the Act explicitly states that “Presidential records automatically transfer into the legal custody of the [National] Archivist as soon as the President leaves office.” But Trump was just getting started. He continues…

“I even supplied, upon request, Security Tapes to these Election Interfering Thugs. Is this really ‘Breaking News?’ No, it’s ‘Breaking Fake News.’ But what about all of the papers, boxes, and documents found at NUMEROUS Crooked Joe Biden places, like his garage floor by his cherished Corvette, or CHINATOWN where it was just learned that boxes moved freely in and out. He doesn’t come under the Presidential Records Act because he wasn’t President at the time.”

The “breaking” news was that the Mar-a-Lago staff had been subpoenaed. And it was newsworthy enough to catch Trump’s attention and spark his seething anger. And as usual, Trump tries to divert attention from himself to his arch enemy, President Biden. What Trump fails to mention is that Biden never tried to claim that he owned the documents in question. He never lied to the FBI. He never withheld anything after authorities requested it be returned. In short, he never violated any of the many laws that Trump did. But in Trump’s mind, the greater crime is always just the act of holding him accountable for his crimes…

“Deranged Jack Smith has spent over $100,000,000 investigating me on this phony Russia, Russia, Russia, type Scam. How much $’s have they spent investigating Crooked Joe on his much bigger boxes deal?””

For the record, Smith’s investigation had only spent $9 million as of July. Trump is apparently using the same perverted math that he used to mis-value his real estate properties, which is what got him indicted for financial fraud in the first place. The Biden probe has spent less than $2 million, partly because he has been cooperating rather than obstructing, like Trump has been doing. And Trump knows what Smith’s probe has cost because he posted a comment on it at the time…

“Deranged Jack Smith, the wacko prosecutor that Corrupt Joe Biden and his Thugs stuck on me during the political campaign in which Biden is losing “BIG” (an absolute No, No!), just announced that he has spent over 9 million dollars, already, on this continuing Witch Hunt.”

The fact that Trump lies incessantly isn’t going to surprise anyone. But his openness and pitifully poor execution remains surprising if only because most people get better at things when they do them so frequently. Trump, apparently, is not only ignorant and dishonest, he’s incapable of learning. But he nevertheless remains impressed with himself and his own perception of his imaginary brilliance. He is what he would call “deranged.”

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Fox News: Democrats Shouldn’t Allow Hillary Clinton to Talk About Deprogramming the MAGA Cult

Posted by on October 6, 2023 at 1:04 pm. 4 Comments :

Fox News must have been thrilled that their favorite political piñata, Hillary Clinton, surfaced in a new interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. They have clearly missed taking wild, albeit feeble, swings at the woman who got three million more votes than their Dear Leader, Donald Trump, and who still manages to make their blood pressure surge whenever she invades their sheltered psyches.

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Fox News, Hillary Clinton

The interview was a wide ranging discussion of current affairs and the state of the political environment. Naturally, Clinton was asked about the Republican disarray in the House of Representatives where their fringiest faction ousted their own Speaker for failing to toe the wingnut line closely enough. Although Fox News thinks they may have found an alternative more to their liking.

SEE THIS: LOLOL: Fox News is Already Hyping Trump for Speaker of the House, and He is Open To It

In the course of the interview, Amanpour asked Clinton whether there was a way going forward wherein the parties could form coalitions to advance the people’s business. Clinton began her response by noting that the passage of the Continuing Resolution that temporarily avoided a government shutdown was evidence that there there is a “common sense, sane part of the Republican caucus in the House.” However, she also observed that they are often “intimidated” by the GOP extremists. She elaborated saying that…

“Sadly, so many of those extremists, those MAGA extremists take their marching orders from Donald Trump, who has no credibility left by any measure. He’s only in it for himself. He’s now defending himself in civil actions and criminal actions, and we need a break with him. Because at some point point maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members. But something needs to happen.”

UH-OH! That was all that was necessary to trigger the outrage of Fox News. On their Friday morning episode of “Outnumbered,” co-hosts Kayleigh McEnany and Tomi Lahren were shocked by Clinton’s perfectly rational analysis of the perversely devotional attachment to Trump. They latched unto Clinton’s accurate description of the MAGA movement as a cult and her tongue-in-cheek suggestion that they be “deprogrammed.”

McEnany: You expect to hear this in the Soviet Union and communist China, and third world countries, dictatorships. But not here in the United Sates.
Lahren: She’s still so bitter about 2016 and that’s landing. She is so upset, so jaded that she lost she just cannot accept it. […] What I don’t understand is why the Democrat Party is allowing her to speak on behalf of the Democrat Party. It does nothing for them.

First of all, someone needs to tell McEnany that the Soviet Union was dissolved 32 years ago. But more to the point, Lahren wants to know “why the Democrats would continue to parade [Clinton] out.” Lahren’s complaint that the Democratic Party is “allowing” Clinton to speak is an affirmation that the Trumpist Republicans are indeed a cult and that, in their tunnel-blind perception, all political parties are cults. They can’t comprehend that Clinton is free to speak about whatever she wants, any time she wants, without getting permission from GOP-style party apparatchiks. Republicans don’t tolerate that sort of independent thought.

What’s more, at no point in the interview did Clinton suggest that she was speaking for the Democratic Party. She was offering her own opinions. However, the lock-step agreement from the other panelists on the Fox News program is further proof of the cult-like state of the GOP as represented on their propaganda network. Which, ironically, underscores the kernel of truth in Clinton’s snarky statement that the Trump Deplorables need to be deprogrammed. They just keep confirming that they are cult. Especially when they try to deny it.

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GOP-ers Ponder Expelling Matt Gaetz for Ethics Violations After His Failed Shutdown Scheme

Posted by on October 1, 2023 at 12:42 pm. 3 Comments :

This week Republican House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, demonstrated his legendary incompetence as a leader with his mismanagement of legislation to avert a government shutdown. After weeks of making impotent demands to slash popular programs that would harm millions of Americans, he ultimately agreed to a compromise with Democrats that included none of his stated priorities.

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Matt Gaetz

McCarthy’s concession to work with Democrats was driven by the opposition he encountered from his GOP confederates, Particularly the ultra-rightist MAGA faction led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. It must be especially embarrassing to be beaten by a notorious numbskull whose only notable skill is scoring hits on Fox News and other wingnut media.

SEE THIS: Matt Gaetz Guest Hosts Show on Newsmax, Affirming that Both are Unethical Propagandists

In a summary of the events that led to McCarthy’s humiliating legislative defeat, CNN published an article that sought to retrace the road McCarthy took to achieve virtually nothing for his party or himself. It said in part that…

“McCarthy took the only option on the table to avoid a government shutdown, relying on Democratic votes to pass a continuing resolution Saturday to keep the government funded until mid-November. But in so doing, McCarthy opened up a fight with the right wing of his conference, which had warned him for weeks that taking this step could mean the end of his speakership.”

Indeed, McCarthy’s speakership was, and is, in jeopardy. Gaetz appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” the morning after the continuing resolution vote to announce that…

“I do intend to file a motion to vacate against speaker McCarthy this week. I think we need to rip off the band aid. I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy. Look, the one thing that everybody has in common is that nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy. He lied to Biden. He lied to House conservatives.”

However, the article later noted what it seemed to regard as a tangential matter. It reported that many of Gaetz’s colleagues are unhappy with his tactics and grandstanding. And some appear to be anxious to be rid of him…

“Gaetz’s threat of ousting McCarthy has also rankled some inside the GOP conference. One Republican lawmaker pointed to the ongoing Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz, warning if he wasn’t cleared, he could get expelled by those who want him gone. ‘We want him out,’ the member said.”

What this member is referring to is the Ethics Committee probe into misconduct by Gaetz that includes allegations of sex trafficking of minors, illicit drug use, misuse of campaign funds, and accepting a bribe. The Justice Department declined to indict Gaetz on any of those charges, but that doesn’t preclude the Congress from taking action. And even reporting from Fox News reveals that the GOP is tiring of Gaetz’s antics

“House GOP members are seeking to quickly expel Gaetz if the ethics report comes back with findings of guilt. Following threats to vacate McCarthy, one tells me ‘No one can stand him at this point. A smart guy without morals.'”

There are a couple of truthful revelations in all of this. First, Gaetz’s statement that “Nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy.” And second, Fox’s reporter stating that “No one can stand” Gaetz. And if voters can just assimilate those truths, the nation will take a big step forward toward healing.

The next step would be accepting the obvious truth that the “leader” who looms over both McCarthy and Gaetz, Donald Trump, is a recidivist criminal, pathological liar, and aspiring authoritarian dictator, and vote against him and his GOP cohorts in November of 2024.

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Trump Lashes Out at Georgia Prosecutor After New Evidence of His Election Fraud is Revealed

Posted by on August 13, 2023 at 11:57 am. 4 Comments :

Nothing is a more reliable gauge of Donald Trump’s deteriorating mental state than his own rancid ravings on Truth Social, his floundering Twitter ripoff. Every posting is a marker of a new low for his paranoia, fear, malignant narcissism, and seething hatred of anything or anyone that is less than wholly worshipful.

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Donald Trump Zombie

Last week Trump got a brutal smackdown by Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over his election fraud and coup attempt case in Washington, D.C. She warned him that any further “inflammatory statements” regarding the case, including those aimed at prosecutors and witnesses, would result in harsh consequences that “would force her to speed his trial on charges related to his bid to subvert the 2020 election.”

SEE THIS: OH MY: Judge Warns Trump that His ‘Inflammatory Statements’ Could Hasten His Legal Horror Story

Surprisingly, That admonition appears to have had some effect. Ever since the warning was given, Trump has totally refrained from the vile commentaries he had been disgorging. Don’t expect that to continue, however, as Trump’s notorious temper and infantile lack of self control is likely to reassert itself, resulting in more violations of the judge’s order.

In the meantime, things are heating up in Georgia, where Fani Willis, the District Attorney of Fulton County, is said to be preparing his fourth criminal indictment. A new report has uncovered evidence that Trump and his anti-democratic accomplices exchanged emails and texts wherein they discussed a scheme to breach voting systems as part of their effort to overturn the election. According To CNN…

“Sources tell CNN that Atlanta prosecutors have text messages and emails that directly connect members of Trump’s legal team [and Trump] to the 2021 breach of a voting system.”

As a result of these new developments, Trump is now lambasting Willis in the most unsavory manner. He is spreading vicious lies about her personal life, alleging that she “is being accused of having an ‘affair’ with a Gang Member of a group that she is prosecuting.” Of course, those accusations are entirely without any factual basis, and are being made by disreputable MAGA cultists. And since Trump can’t smear Judge Chutkan and special counsel Jack Smith anymore, he is now bashing Willis and the Georgia prosecution, saying that…

“The only Election Interference that took place in Fulton County, Georgia, was done by those that Rigged and Stole the Election, not by me, who simply complained that the Election was Rigged and Stolen. We have Massive and Conclusive Proof.”

For the record, Trump did not “simply complain” about the election being “Rigged and Stolen.” He pressured the governor of Georgia and other election officials to illegally “find” 11,780 more votes to put him over the top in the state. He also threatened them with prosecution if they declined to comply with his demands.

SEE ALSO: LISTEN: Trump Threatens Georgia Officials For Not Helping Him Subvert the Election

What’s more, if Trump has “Massive and Conclusive Proof” of the election rigging he alleges, why has he kept it all to himself for nearly three years? And why didn’t he provide it in any of the sixty election fraud court cases that he lost? Why doesn’t he just release it now and clear his badly stained name, rather than whining impotently and throwing tantrums?

On Saturday, Trump was asked at an appearance in Iowa if he “defend[s] the actions by your allies in Georgia following the 2020 election?” This seems to be a reference to the CNN story about breaching voting systems in Georgia. Trump replied that…

“Many of the allies I don’t know because we have so many allies. So I don’t know exactly what you’re talking about.”

If you replace “allies” with “accomplices,” this answer would make more sense. Trump does have too many accomplices committing too many crimes to keep track of, poor guy. As his avenues to vindication seal up, his outbursts get ever more desperate and preposterous. And this is just the beginning as none of his trials have even commenced yet. Fasten you seat belts, America.

UPDATE: Trump resumed his attacks on Judge Chutkan, in violation of court orders to refrain from “inflammatory statements.”

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WTF? Trump’s Attorney Repeatedly Insists that January 6th Was a ‘Peaceful Transfer of Power’

Posted by on August 6, 2023 at 12:19 pm. 10 Comments :

Last week Donald Trump was indicted for the third time, which puts him in first place for the number of times that an American president or former president was indicted. Second place is a 45 way tie with zero times indicted. And with a total of 78 felony counts pending against him, there are pretty good odds that he will be convicted of something, and even prison isn’t out of the question.

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Donald Trump Insurrection

But Trump isn’t resting on his lack of morals. He spent much of the week defying court orders to refrain from intimidating jurors or witnesses, or obstructing the administration of justice. In multiple posts on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, Trump overtly threatened everyone from the judge, to special counsel Jack Smith, to potential witnesses and jurors, to his own former Vice-President, Mike Pence.

SEE THIS: Trump Attacks Pence on Truth Social After Told By Judge to Refrain From Witness Intimidation

On Sunday morning Trump’s lead attorney, John Lauro, pulled what is known in the media as a “full Ginsburg,” by appearing on every major Sunday morning political news television program. But if he thinks he was benefiting his client, he might be sorely disappointed when he reads the reviews of his performances.

What Lauro has offered as a defense for Trump is extraordinarily weak and devoid of any legal basis. For instance, on CNN’s State of the Union, Lauro was interviewed by Dana Bash. He attempted to justify Trump’s crimes by falsely asserting that they were merely expressions of free speech. Never mind that the indictments are not charging Trump for what he said, but for what he did. Lauro even acknowledged that in the interview. However, he went off the rails shortly thereafter…

Lauro: The ultimate request that president Trump made was to pause the voting for ten days to allow the states to recertify or certify or audit, and Mr. Pence rejected that as well. After that there was a peaceful transition of power. So that’s how the Constitution works.
Bash: What happened on January 6th was not peaceful.
Lauro: Wait a minute. The transfer of power was certainly peaceful
Bash: Did you see what happened on January 6th? Did that look peaceful to you?
Lauro: I’m not saying that that was in any way appropriate. But the ultimate power of the presidency was transferred to Mr. Biden.

For starters, Lauro’s assertion that Trump tried to get Pence to “pause the voting for ten days” is a virtual admission of his guilt. The Congress is mandated by the Constitution to certify the Electoral College vote, and the vice-president has no authority to interfere with that. The fact that Pence declined to participate in Trump’s criminal conspiracy doesn’t absolve Trump of guilt.

Perhaps more bizarre was Lauro’s contention that the January 6th insurrection that Trump incited was a “peaceful transition of power.” He is taking the brazenly delusional position that many of Trump’s cult followers in politics and the press have previously tried to take.

SEE ALSO: Fox News Fabulist Tucker Carlson Launches a Laughably Lame Defense of His January 6th Lies

Dana Bash, however, wasn’t having it. She immediately corrected Lauro. Although her correction appeared to have no effect on him. He persisted with his lies. And he elaborated by saying that, because the presidency was eventually transferred, that any suggestion of violence was null and void. By that logic, the Civil War was peaceful. After all, ultimately power was ceded to the Union and the Confederacy acquiesced. See? Totally peaceful.

In his interview with Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press, Lauro also claimed that Trump was innocent because “Trump believed in his heart of hearts that he had won that election.” Which is an utterly absurd legal argument. It would mean that if you “believe in your heart” that your bank ripped you off, you have a right to conspire with your friends to rob it.

It’s also notable that throughout the interview, Lauro referred to Trump as the “president,” but in this exchange he referred to the actual President as “Mr. Biden.” This is a deliberate effort to shape the narrative that Biden is not the legitimate President and that Trump was denied his place as America’s first dictator.

RELATED: Snowflake Trump Whines to DOJ that ‘An Indictment of Me Would Only Further Destroy Our Country’

These sort of statements might work well to feed the fetid fantasies of Trump’s cult followers on Fox News, but they will fail pitifully with the nation at large, and especially, in the courtroom. It’s a preposterous defense strategy. But it’s likely the best that Trump can expect considering that he has no coherent case for innocence, or access to reputable attorneys.

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump: Presidential Candidates Under Felony Indictment Have ‘No Right to Be Running’

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Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ Lawsuit Against CNN Tossed By Court Because Truth is Not Defamation

Posted by on July 29, 2023 at 11:33 am. 6 Comments :

The most litigious president in American history is unquestionably Donald Trump. He has a penchant for suing anyone and everyone, generally without any legal merit, as a means of retribution and to punish his political enemies for daring to challenge his delusional divinity.

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Donald Trump, CNN

Trump’s most frequent attempts to abuse the court system have been through his challenges to the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. He and his associates lost at least sixty such lawsuits, mostly for failing utterly to provide a shred of evidence supporting his baseless assertions of voter fraud. The parade of frivolous litigation came to be referred to by politicians and the press as Trump’s “Big Lie.” And that triggered the perpetually perturbed Trump to file a lawsuit against CNN for defamation.

SEE THIS: Trump Attorney Announces Laughable Lawsuit Against CNN for Accurately Calling Trump a Liar

On Friday Trump’s case against CNN was thrown out of court for failing to present any argument that the reporting by CNN wasn’t actually true. According to Deadline…

“A federal judge dismissed Donald Trump’s $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN, litigation centered on references made by on-air figures to “the Big Lie,” or the former president’s unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

Trump had argued in his lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, that the references to the phrase were defamatory as they created a “false and incendiary association” between him and Adolf Hitler.”

U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal, a Trump appointee, ruled that the lawsuit cited CNN segments that were merely “a stacking of inferences that cannot support a finding of falsehood.” In other words, Trump could not prove that describing his unfounded claims of election fraud as the “Big Lie” was untrue. And as always, truth is the best defense against defamation. CNN’s reporting, according to the court, was lawful opinion, and Trump failed to make a plausible argument that it was in any way false.

The court also appropriately refused to entertain Trump’s complaint that associating him with a phrase that has been attributed to Hitler’s Nazi propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, was defamatory. How could it be when such associations are objectively true. Trump has been a far more prolific and flagrant disseminator of lies and propaganda than the Nazi regime. If anything, Hitler might have a better case of defamation for being associated with Trump.

Many of Trump’s misadventures in legal malpractice involve the media. He is especially anxious to try to muzzle the free press that he believes is out to get him. Consequently, he has sued everyone from CNN, to the Washington Post, to Twitter, and more. He even sued the Pulitzer board for awarding prizes to newspapers that honestly reported on his unsavory ties to Russia.

SEE ALSO: Trump Sues the Pulitzer Prize Board for Honoring Accurate Stories of His Russian Collusion

Trump has yet to prevail in of his defamation lawsuits. That’s because he has never even bothered to present a coherent argument that he was defamed or suffered any damages to his already repugnant reputation. It has always been a poorly staged melodrama of malice meant to bully those he hated or feared. And his record of losses is the best evidence of his disingenuous intent. Yet somehow, he persists in these losing causes no matter how many times he is struck down in humiliation.

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RNC Chair is ‘Very Disconcerted’ that Biden Can’t Get Republicans to Support Trump’s Indictments

Posted by on June 17, 2023 at 11:28 am. 3 Comments :

The Cult of Donald Trump – aka the Republican Party – is proving once again how devoted they are to their Dear Leader despite the voluminous record of his legal and ethical misconduct. The party is signaling that it will remain loyal to Trump no matter what crimes he has committed, even if he is convicted by a jury of his peers.

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Donald Trump, GOP

Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), was interviewed by Kaitlan Collins on CNN Friday. The topics of conversation naturally included the recent indictments of Trump on 37 felony counts ranging from obstruction of justice to violations of the Espionage Act. Trump’s response to being indicted was a predictable emotional meltdown attacking President Biden and the the special counsel, Jack Smith.

SEE ALSO: Utterly Deranged Trump Calls Special Counsel a ‘Radical Right Lunatic’ Who ‘Planted’ Evidence

Somewhat less predictable was the position McDaniel took when Collins asked her about whether the GOP would still insist that all of their candidates pledge to support the eventual nominee, if that person had been convicted of felonies. At first, McDaniel shamelessly dodged…

Collins: Why should Republicans be asked to support someone who could potentially be convicted of a felony?
McDaniel: There is no convicted felon in the Republican field right now

That’s technically true. There is just a candidate that has been indicted on 71 counts in two different cases. Nevertheless, McDaniel is adamant that the loyalty oath be enforced if candidates want to participate in GOP primary debates. That doctrine is in effect even though there is little hope that Trump would comply with it. Why should he? He never did before.

RELATED: RNC Chair Thinks Trump Would Honor a Pledge to Support the GOP Nominee if it Isn’t Him

The interview actually went downhill from there. Collins sought to press McDaniel on the issue of Trump’s indictments and the GOP’s gutless and amoral toleration of his lawlessness and corruption. But her justifications were pitifully weak and disassociated…

McDaniel: Republicans feel like there’s one system of justice for them and a different for Democrats. There’s one standard for Hillary Clinton and a different for Donald Trump.
Collins: But the allegations are not the same for Hillary Clinton.
McDaniel: Because she never was investigated.
Collins: She was investigated.
McDaniel: She had a BleachBit server. She destroyed phones.

McDaniel has apparently BleachBitted her brain. Clinton may be the most investigated public official in modern times. Republicans held dozens of hearings about everything from her emails to Benghazi and back. FBI director James Comey was investigating her in the final days of the 2016 campaign, which was a significant factor in her loss. And failing in that argument, McDaniel decides to draw a comparison between Clinton and Trump, asserting falsely that she had 22 classified documents to his 17. In reality, Clinton had zero documents that were classified when she obtained them, and Trump had hundreds.

Collins points out that Trump had taken documents with nuclear secrets and confidential information about our allies. To which McDaniel replied that “He hasn’t had a chance to defend himself.” Seriously? He has been ranting non-stop about his indictment since even before it was announced. The problem is that his rants have all been incoherent tirades filled with lies and insults. He deliberately avoids any factual refutation of the charges against him. He has had plenty of opportunities to defend himself, he just never does so. Perhaps because he has no defense. Which may be one reason why his defense attorneys keep quitting. Along with his noxious personality and refusal to pay them.

RELATED: Crybaby Trump is Panicking Over the Likelihood that He is About to Be Criminally Indicted

McDaniel then complains that Clinton didn’t get indicted or have her home raided, but Trump did. That’s only because Clinton always cooperated with law enforcement. And every investigation, including those by Republicans, concluded that she had not broken any laws. McDaniel closed by whining that…

“We also know we have a President in Joe Biden who isn’t addressing the American people in a time of crisis. A deeply divided country. I think a former president being indicted is a time of crisis. And to not hear from our president, to have Joe Biden hiding again and not bringing people together is very disconcerting.”

Indeed, it is a time of crisis when a former president is indicted. But that’s Trump’s fault for being such an unrepentant criminal. It isn’t Biden’s responsibility to salve the tender feelings of Trump’s cult followers. To the contrary, it would be wholly inappropriate for Biden to comment on the pending charges against Trump. He respects the wall between the White House and the Justice Department. Unlike Trump, whose virtual campaign slogan, referring to Clinton, was “Lock Her Up,” And Trump recently promised to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Biden and his family. What’s “very disconcerting” is that after all this time, Trump is still so ignorant that he thinks a president has that authority.

McDaniel spent most of her time in this interview talking over Collins. She deflected with irrelevant detours to the Nothingburger Durham Report, and the Steele dossier. Just like every other Republican who has commented on this, including Trump himself, she clearly doesn’t have a rational response to the facts that led to Trump’s indictment.

Consequently, it is now official Republican policy that candidates and office holders who have committed felonies, including breaches of the Espionage Act, are acceptable and even welcome. In fact, it mandatory to support them in order to be a Party member in good standing. That’s something that all citizens should consider when they vote.

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Fox News Weighs in with a Typically Tunnel-Blind Take on the Firing of CNN Boss Chris Licht

Posted by on June 7, 2023 at 12:58 pm. 1 Comments :

The head of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, dropped a highly anticipated bomb on the media world Wednesday morning with the announcement that the troubled CNN boss, Chris Licht, had been terminated effective immediately. Zaslav informed his staff and the company via an internal memo that was mostly complimentary toward Licht, but conceded the obvious that “It didn’t work out.”

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Fox News, Bullshit Factory

Licht appeared to make the wrong moves at every juncture of his brief tenure. He began by promising to make CNN “more Republican friendly,” as if that were an appropriate journalistic goal. He sought to “balance” the truth with blatant lies and conspiracy theories. He clearly envied the ratings of Fox News and delusionally believed that he could emulate them. But why would any Fox viewer tune into CNN, the network they were indoctrinated to hate, when they still have Fox?

Licht’s changes only served to prove how poorly he understood the news business. He canceled the popular program, Reliable Sources, one of the only regularly scheduled media analysis programs on television news. And he fired its host, Brian Stelter. Then he moved Don Lemon to a morning show with Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. Shortly thereafter he fired Lemon.

Perhaps the most brain-dead move by Licht was to tap Donald Trump for a town hall, moderated by Collins, that allowed Trump to lie almost uninterrupted for an hour and a half. Licht packed the audience with Trump supporters, and prohibited any displays of disapproval. It was so badly planned and executed that even CNN insiders were openly appalled.

SEE THIS: How Horrible Was CNN’s Lie-Riddled Trump Town Hall? Let’s See What CNN Has to Say About It

Following the Trump debacle, Licht promoted Collins, a former correspondent for Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller, to a primetime spot. And through all of this Licht also managed to alienate CNN personnel in front of, and behind, the camera. An extensive article documenting his failures was published with his cooperation by The Atlantic.

Several of Licht’s hand-picked lieutenants were also pink-slipped. But don’t expect much to change at CNN with Licht’s departure. Zaslav is still the corporate head, and right-wingers like John Malone are packed on the company’s board of directors. However, now that Licht is officially gone, his transient reign is being scrutinized by his former colleagues across the mediaverse. And not to be left out, Fox News weighed in with a gleeful obituary that was astonishing for its utter absence of self-awareness. Fox’s media hack, Joe Concha, celebrated the suffering of their competitor saying that…

“It was an internal coup led by on-air talent at the network, even its own media team, that ultimately brought him down. And why? Because many could not accept that Licht was attempting to move the network from being seen by conservatives and many independents as an activist news network, a resistance news network aimed at disparaging, through provocative and personal opinion, those right or right of center and thereby destroying the decent credibility it once had. And remember, he had inherited a network that lost 75% of its audience when you’re comparing early 2021 with the spring of 2022 when he came in. And new leadership there gave him marching orders saying basically, move this network back to the center.”

So Concha believes that Licht was fired because others at CNN “could not accept” his determination to turn CNN into “Fox Lite.” While there were surely those who opposed that boneheaded editorial detour, Licht’s fall from grace was more the result of his failure to advance CNN’s place in the cable news race. CNN’s already declining ratings just got worse as Licht implemented his plans.

Concha correctly noted that CNN’s ratings were awful. However, what he missed was that nearly every criticism he lobbed at CNN could have been aimed at Fox News itself. Concha specifically referred to what he thought CNN needed: “Less provocative reporting. More solid reporting. More Republicans on the air.” That’s coming from the media analyst at Fox News where they have virtually nothing but provocative “reporting” and Republicans on the air. He went on to note what he called “the audacity of hosting Donald Trump.” Which, by the way, Fox News is doing a week from Monday.

RELATED STORY: Trump To Be Interviewed on Fox News, the Network He Says is ‘Dead, Totally Fake, Unwatchable’

Concha also missed that Fox News has suffered a ratings collapse similar to that of CNN’s. It has lost fully 50% of its audience since they fired Tucker Carlson. And that’s on top of a 34% drop going back in 2021.

Consequently, if Concha’s analysis were to be taken seriously, Fox News should fire their brass, Suzanne Scott and/or Lachlan Murdoch. But don’t hold your breath waiting for that. While Concha thinks that CNN was failing because they had not moved “back to the center,” he’s perfectly happy to see Fox News stuck at the far right. Never mind that Fox News is languishing at lows it hasn’t seen in years. It’s losing to MSNBC. And its prospects for the future don’t look any better. But sure, focus on CNN’s problems instead of acknowledging how horrible things are at Fox, Joe.

RELATED STORY: With Lawsuits, Lost Hosts, and Lying Pundits, the Future of Fox News Has Never Been Weaker

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FAILING UP: CNN Boss Chris Licht Promotes Trump Town Hall Host, Kaitlan Collins, to Primetime

Posted by on May 17, 2023 at 12:50 pm. 5 Comments :

Last week CNN aired a town hall with Donald Trump, the twice-impeached leader of a seditionist conspiracy who was recently found liable for rape and defamation, and is currently being investigated for a multitude of crimes, including financial and tax fraud, hush money payments, hoarding classified materials, election interference, and plotting a violent coup.

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Donald Trump, CNN

The town hall was broadly disparaged as an infomercial for Trump’s aspirations to return to the White House in 2024. He was given wide latitude to lie, with only paltry pushback by the moderator, Kaitlan Collins. The audience was stacked with Trump supporters who applauded his most heinous remarks and laughed when he insulted the victim of his sexual assault. The program was so awful that many insiders at CNN were among the harshest critics…

SEE THIS: How Horrible Was CNN’s Lie-Riddled Trump Town Hall? Let’s See What CNN Has to Say About It

In the days following the town hall, CNN’s ratings plummeted to fourth place, below the ultra-rightist gadfly network, Newsmax. So naturally, this week CNN is rewarding Collins for her hosting of the debacle with a new primetime show:

“On the heels of her performance moderating a town hall with former President Donald Trump, CNN CEO Chris Licht named Kaitlan Collins the new host of the network’s 9 p.m. hour starting in June.”

This schedule change was actually rumored to be in the works prior to the town hall, which was to serve as both an introduction and an advertisement for Collins in her new role. Which, in retrospect, doesn’t seem like it was a very good idea.

CNN appears to be making good on the journalistically inappropriate promise of its CEO, Chris Licht, to make the network “more Republican friendly.” They are replacing the more left-leaning journalist, Don Lemon, with Collins, a former correspondent with the Tucker Carlson founded “Daily Caller.” Never mind that Collins’ primetime debut has garnered mostly criticism and ridicule. One of the few people to praise the show was Trump himself (of course), who credited it with moving Fox News more to the right.

REALTED: Ratings Envy? Trump Says that His CNN Town Hall Spurred Fox News to Cover His Iowa Cult Rally

Perhaps Licht thinks that he can scoop up the disaffected Fox News viewers who are rapidly abandoning the network for having fired their High Priest of White Nationalism, Tucker Carlson. If so, then Licht is even dumber than Carlson looks. Fox’s audience has been trained to despise CNN, and they won’t be de-programmed by a one-night special broadcast.

As for Fox News, they are implementing some program changes as well. They just announced that Sean Hannity will be moved into Carlson’s earlier timeslot. And insiders are saying that Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld are also going to be given shows in primetime.

This presents a dilemma for Fox. There aren’t enough hours in primetime for everyone currently being talked about to have a show there. Since Hannity isn’t going anywhere, if Watters and Gutfeld get promoted, then Laura Ingraham is either fired or moved out of primetime.

All of these changes are going to inject some chaos into the cable news wars. CNN is driving viewers away by sucking up to the right. Fox News is alienating their followers by terminating their heroes. And all of that is going to create opportunities for MSNBC, whose schedule is remaining relatively stable.

It may take several weeks for all of this to shake out. But if CNN and Fox News continue to battle it out for the wingnut demographic, they will both continue to lose audience share to MSNBC and the various incarnations of “Bachelors” and “Idols” that are being served up on the broadcast networks. Stay tuned.

SEE ALSO: Trump Spills that CNN Made Him ‘a Deal I Couldn’t Refuse’ to Get Him to Do Their Town Hall

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