CNN

WHUT? Washington Post Op-Ed Praises CNN for Being ‘Pro-Trump’ in All His ‘Fact-Deprived Glory’

Posted by on May 18, 2025 at 1:47 pm. 0 Comments :

The state of journalism in the era of Donald Trump has suffered an alarmingly rapid descent into submissiveness to power and capitulation to the threats of an aspiring authoritarian whose dependence on, and hostility toward, the media has long been openly and loudly expressed.

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General Donald Trump on CNN

In just the few short months of his reoccupation of the White House, Trump has demonstrated his disgraceful disregard for the Constitution’s protections of a free press by banning media outlets that have angered him (Associated Press, Reuters), dismantling independent agencies (Voice of America, Radio Free Europe), declaring critical media illegal (MSNBC, CNN), and reshaping the White House press room to align with his radical MAGA agenda.

SEE THIS: Trump Declares Himself King of the White House Press Corps, Will Now Decide Who Can Question Him

in the midst of this media dismemberment, Eric Wemple of the Washington Post (which is owned by Trump flunky Jeff Bezos) has published an article that presumes to be an objective analysis of the the left-leaning cable news network, MSNBC. But it’s headline gives away it’s inherent bias: “MSNBC in five words: ‘I could not agree more’“ He began the article saying that…

“Over the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, CNN has erupted in regular shoutfests over the latest Trump outrage. Fox News, too, has had its moments of internal combustion, especially on its highest-rated show, ‘The Five,’ where rotating co-host Jessica Tarlov often snipes at her conservative peers. As for MSNBC: Does anyone ever debate stuff on this network? To get closer to an answer, I decided to gulp roughly 18 hours of MSNBC programming”

So Wemple is complaining that MSNBC doesn’t have the the “shoutfests” that Fox News and CNN have. And that’s supposed to be a bad thing? He also suggests that Jessica Tarlov – one liberal against four Trump-fluffers – constitutes balance. His premise is that MSNBC is a Democratic echo chamber that features “Vast expanses of predictable programming in which people passionately agree with one another” that Trump is a bad person and president.

That, however, is a hard position to argue with. What good is there to say about a president who has crashed the economy, abandoned longtime allies, embraced totalitarian foes, fought against the interests of working class Americans, and relentlessly seeks to enrich himself and his billionaire benefactors?

In Wemple’s article he claims to have watched 18 hours straight of MSNBC. But he only posts 15 time-stamped observations of that viewing, That’s less than one per hour. And they don’t even support his premise. For instance, he claims that MSNBC is stacked with liberal hosts and guests. But he acknowledges that they have Republicans in those roles, including host Michael Steele, Susan Del Percio, Brendan Buck, and Tim Miller. He left out hosts Joe Scarborough and Nicolle Wallace.

Wemple also claimed that MSNBC doesn’t book guests who support Trump, saying that they are “opting for Republicans that give it the patina of balance, even though those voices don’t represent Trumpism.”. But he himself notes that Trump advisor Stephen Miller, GOP Rep. Victoria Spartz, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, all appeared on the network during his 18 hour taste test. And anti-Trump Republicans are the minority who wouldn’t have a platform, but for MSNBC.

Virtually every criticism that Wemple has of MSNBC applies much more accurately to Fox News that has zero Democratic hosts. MSNBC doesn’t avoid contrarian debate. They ARE the contrarian debate. Much of the rest of the media, including WaPo, has succumbed to Trumpism. Wemple closed his hackery by saying that…

“In pre-Trump times, MSNBC’s current programming model would have been outright journalistic fraud. In Trump days, not so much — and we have daily proof over at CNN: The segments featuring that network’s Trump-supporting contributors are loud, chaotic and poisoned by frequent distortions. At least CNN viewers get to hear the pro-Trump arguments in all their fact-deprived glory, however. I lean toward the CNN model, but not enough to strain my calves.”

REALLY? Wemple leans toward CNN’s “loud, chaotic,” “poisoned,” “fact-deprived” “distortions”? And what part of that does he regard as credible journalism? He is actually advocating that news networks air noisy, blatant falsehoods as some sort of exercise in balance. He thinks that viewers will benefit from being lied to, so long as it’s done by screaming right-wingers who emulate Trump’s infantile emotional infirmity.

If Wemple wants to watch pro-wrestling style face-offs by shouting partisans, that’s up to him. But he shouldn’t push his bone-headed ideas on others, or use them as a model for the principles of professional journalism. Fox News has always been useless as a source for honest news. And CNN has recently joined them in the gutter. America doesn’t need another network that traffics in anger and lies.

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The Dumbest Man on Fox News, Jesse Watters, Hits New Lows in Dumfukery

Posted by on March 27, 2025 at 12:53 pm. 1 Comments :

The competition for who reigns supreme as the most consistently dimwitted host on Fox News is always a fierce battle among a variety of viable contenders, including Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Jeanine Pirro, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade, to name just a few. These cretins represent the cream of Donald Trump’s crop of propagandists.

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Jesse Watters, Fox News

However, there is one figure who regularly descends to ever lower depths of derpitude so frequently – and so proudly – that he manages to achieve championship status on a runaway basis every time he is in contention. And that highly disgraced loser is, of course, Jesse Watters: A stand out in standing down to the dullards of the MAGA movement and any other wingnut cult that he encounters.

FOR INSTANCE: SIGNALGATE: How Fox News Fouled Up the War Planning Chat Scandal Was More Cover-Up than Coverage

This week Watters sought to paper over what may be the worst national security scandal in decades. His version of the events that are widely recognized to have been a humiliating breach of protocol that put American operations and personnel in danger, was spectacularly lamebrained. Without regard to the welfare of the nation or its military heroes – or to reality – Watters dismissed the matter as a mere accident…

“Democrats thought they had the scandal of the year, and now it’s over. Officials leak to reporters all the time. This time, they accidentally leaked to a reporter.”

First of all, revealing the attack plans of the U.S. military, accidentally or otherwise, is a serious offense that, under ordinary circumstances, would result in prosecution and incarceration. But to Watters it is a triviality. And he engaged in flagrant gaslighting as to the resilience of the story that he absurdly believes has already blown over.

Furthermore, the problem here is not just that classified info was “leaked” to a reporter, which would be bad enough if it had happened. However, it was not leaked. Trump’s crack team of NatSec officials invited the reporter into a top secret planning meeting and freely divulged the military secrets.

The bigger problem is that Trump’s team were talking about attack plans on an insecure, commercial chat app in the first place. And none of them recognized the obvious risks. This is what you get when you put people in charge of critical agencies who are as incompetent as they are ignorant.

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

That, however, was just an appetizer for Watters’ Olympic-grade buffet of buffoonery. He went on to characterize the still explosive scandal as a minor blip on the public’s radar that wouldn’t shake their worship of Dear Leader Trump. Watters gushed that…

“No one outside of D.C. and in the news business really cares about this story. There is no video, there is no sex, there is no fraud. No one even knows what a Houthi is.”

To his credit, Watters perfectly defined the editorial standards of Fox News, where every story has to have some element of sensationalism (e.g. sex), but avoid anything that might challenge the viewer’s limited store of knowledge. If Fox viewers don’t know who the Houthis are, Fox certainly isn’t going to tell them. In short, Watters and his network cater to the shallow gossip and inbred ignorance of its on-air personalities.

For the record, the American people are not as stupid as Watters would like to believe (or is himself). A new poll by CNN contradicts his seat-of-the-pants BSing…

“There’s a lot of interest in this story. Google searches this week vs. last week for these topics – for ‘The Atlantic,’ – How many people are searching for The Atlantic? Up 900%! That is the highest on record since Google searches began back in 2004. How about for ‘Signal,’ the app on which this all occurred? Up over 1,000%. Again, the highest on record…People are interested in this story.”

The poll also revealed that Trump and his Cabinet rank lower than any other administration in modern times. And that’s even before much of the damage emanating from SignalGate – such as potential firings and/or resignations – has had a chance to sink in. Yet, Watters has declared some sort of victory. And that’s why he deserves the crown of crapola that he has fought so hard for.

But let’s not forget the also-rans. Everyone on Fox News deserves a dishonorable mention for their monumentally moronic take on this issue, and virtually every issue that they address.

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Trump at the ‘Justice’ Department: CNN, MSNBC, and Other Media are Illegal and ‘It Has to Stop’

Posted by on March 15, 2025 at 12:42 pm. 2 Comments :

This week the parade of perfidy that has characterized the Second Scumming of Donald Trump (and the first one as well) took its roadshow to the hallowed halls of the United States Department of Justice. It was a particularly nauseating spectacle considering the role that those halls have represented in America’s history.

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Donald Trump, Censorship

The purpose of this presidential outing was, according to the White House, to discuss problems related to fentanyl and other drug trafficking related crimes. But as it unfolded it was clear that Trump had an entirely different agenda. Most the time he spoke was allotted to his whining about the results of the 2020 election; to his fixation on getting revenge for being prosecuted for crimes that he actually committed; and to smearing his political opponents for his own failures. It was little more than a repeat of his partisan and hostile speech before the Joint Session of Congress last week.

SEE THIS: Collected Quotes Displaying Trump’s Obsession with Himself In His Pseudo State of the Union Spiel

Crammed into his caterwauling commentary was another example of his hysterical hatred for the free press that he regularly maligns as “the enemy of the people.” Nothing bothers Trump more than hearing the truth be told about him. He raged that…

“I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal. It makes no difference how big a victory I had. I can have the biggest victory in history. It makes no difference what kind of a failure the other side has. These people are gonna go after me. […]

“These networks and these newspapers are really no different than highly paid political operatives, and it has to stop. It has to be illegal. It’s influencing judges, and it’s really a changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal. And they do it in total coordination with each other.”

First of all, let’s note that Trump uses the word “literally” when he obviously means “figuratively.” That’s because he literally doesn’t understand the English language. More to the point, his rant should serve as a five-alarm warning to all Americans who cherish the Constitution. His attack on the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of the press is nothing new in his repugnant repertoire, but it remains among the most troubling.

Trump is not joking when he says that, in his opinion, CNN, MSNBC, and other media outlets are “illegal” and that, given the opportunity, he will see to it that they are stopped. He has already banished several news networks from the White House press pool, and he has declared that he will now determine which reporters are allowed to ask him questions, a role that was handled by the independent White House Correspondents Association for decades.

MORE HERE: Trump Declares Himself King of the White House Press Corps, Will Now Decide Who Can Question Him

One of the most egregious inanities in his speech was his assertion that any media that criticizes him is “no different than highly paid political operatives.” You’ll notice that he didn’t mention Fox News, a truly political operation, in his attack. And many of their personnel are literally paid to be political hacks. At least 19 of them have joined the Trump administration.

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

Trump also claimed, without any evidence whatsoever, that reporting by his media foes was “influencing judges,” and was done “in total coordination with each other.” That’s another example of projection by Trump. He often accuses his critics of the grossly improper behavior that he engages in regularly.

When a national leader’s authoritarian rhetoric descends to the depths that Trump is dredging, it is not long before he starts to implement campaigns of brutal censorship and even incarceration of journalists that he opposes. He is executing the playbook for media suppression that he got from Vladimir Putin. And if the media doesn’t take this seriously now, they will later find out that they are unable to do anything about it from their prison cells.

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Who Should Fill Andrea Mitchell’s Now Vacant Slot on MSNBC? Jim Acosta? Mehdi Hasan? Or…

Posted by on February 8, 2025 at 11:52 am. 4 Comments :

MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell hosted the last episode of her program on Friday. Her departure was announced last October in a statement that indicated her interest in doing “more of what I love the most: more connecting, listening and reporting in the field.”

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Jim Acosta, MSNBC

Mitchell will retain her role as chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent. However, no one has yet been named to fill her 12:00pm ET time slot. That leaves some interesting possibilities for the network to counter Trump’s war against the free press that he refers to as “the enemy of people.”

SEE THIS: Trump Hurls Hate and Fear at All of the Media He’s Suing Following the ABC News Capitulation

Among the prospective candidates to succeed Mitchell is former CNN anchor, Jim Acosta. He recently chose to ditch CNN when they tried to banish him to an overnight wasteland, despite his having higher ratings than most of his CNN colleagues. It’s clear that the network’s brass were determined to kiss up to Trump by silencing one of his most honest and effective critics. Acosta signed off by warning that…

“It is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant…Don’t give in to the lies. Don’t give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth and to hope.”

Other potential replacements might include current weekend MSNBC hosts, Katie Phang, Ali Velshi, Alicia Menendez, Jonathan Capehart, and Ayman Mohyeldin. Another intriguing possibility would be to bring back former host Mehdi Hasan, an insightful journalist who was popular with MSNBC viewers before he was let go. Although he may not be available now as he has started his own successful media enterprise, Zeteo.

Replacing Mitchell with Acosta or Hasan would serve the dual purpose of pissing off Trump. Of course, he will attack whoever gets the spot with his hallmark hatred of anyone who dares to criticize him. And he has a special place in the decaying organ where his heart should be for MSNBC. Some of his recent outbursts include…

“You take a look at MSDNC, how evil they are. They’re evil. They’re sick. They shouldn’t even be allowed to do what they do. Because it’s so corrupt. They shouldn’t be allowed to do it.”

“MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump…Our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity.”

“MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee!), should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason.’”

One option that MSNBC must resist is giving another hour of air time Morning Joe host, Joe Scarborough, who is already controlling four hours every weekday morning. The last thing the network needs is to lean closer to the Trump-fluffers at Fox News.

Speaking of which, Fox just announced its own new host, Trump’s daughter-in-lawlessness, Lara Trump. Which is their way of affirming that the network has abandoned any pretense of being anything other than Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda.

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Jim Acosta’s Parting Words for CNN (and Trump): It Is Never a Good Time to Bow Down to a Tyrant

Posted by on January 28, 2025 at 1:38 pm. 2 Comments :

The media barons who control the biggest news platforms in America have spent the weeks following the election of Donald Trump affirming that they are cowardly supplicants to his tyrannical intimidation, and/or greedy slaves to the almighty dollar. Either way, they are proving to be utterly unreliable sources for honest news that speaks truth to power.

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Donald Trump, CNN

The Constitution’s shielding of the free press is apparently insufficient to buttress these weak-hearted pseudo-journalists whose primary objectives now appear to be sucking up to Trump and his MAGA cult disciples. They behave as if they are hostages being forced to deliver fear-drenched messages prepared by their captors. And the Trump team isn’t shy about hurling threats aimed at the media that he regards as “the enemy of the people.”

SEE THIS: Trump’s Free Press? His FBI Flunky Kash Patel Threatens to ‘Come After the People in the Media’

On Tuesday morning CNN’s longtime, respected anchor, Jim Acosta, announced on the air that he is leaving the network after 18 years. His decision to quit came after Trump-fluffing executives at CNN sought to banish him to a sparsely watched overnight time slot. Rather than take that insult and ingratitude for years of service, Acosta chose to head for greener pastures. And on the way out the door he gave a moving account of the principles that have guided him throughout his career, and that also serve as a warning to his media colleagues…

“You may have seen some reports about me and the show, and after giving all of this some careful consideration and weighing in alternative timeslots CNN offered me, I’ve decided to move on. […]

“As the son of a Cuban refugee, I took home this lesson: It is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant. I have always believed it’s the job of the press to hold power to account. I’ve always tried to do that here at CNN, and I plan on doing all of that in the future.

“One final message. Don’t give in to the lies. Don’t give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth and to hope.

Jim Acosta announces on air that he's leaving CNN and says, "it is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant … don't give in to the lies."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-01-28T16:01:17.662Z

Those are powerful words that, under normal circumstances, would have a profound affect on fellow journalists, Unfortunately, these are not normal times. CNN and other news organizations have already given in to the lies and the fear. And the source of both is the current pathological fear monger occupying the White House. As evidence of just how dangerous Trump’s menacing assault on the media is, he provided an example in his response to Acosta’s resignation…

“Wow, really good news! Jim Acosta, one of the worst and most dishonest reporters in journalistic history, a major sleazebag, has been relegated by CNN Fake News to the Midnight hour, ‘Death Valley,’ because of extraordinarily BAD RATINGS (and no talent!). Word is that he wants to QUIT, and that would be even better. Jim is a major loser who will fail no matter where he ends up. Good luck Jim!”

True to form, Trump lashes out like a colicky infant who is consumed by his toxic narcissism and thirst for vengeance. He doesn’t bother to offer any support for his allegations that Acosta is a “dishonest reporter.” But that’s only because there isn’t any support for that. Although Trump does project his own leadership in the “major sleazebag” competition onto Acosta.

Furthermore, while CNN’s ratings have been pretty dismal of late, Acosta’s program has led the network in each of the time periods where he has been scheduled. So Trump’s assertion that Acosta’s fate was determined by “extraordinarily BAD RATINGS” is a flagrant falsehood. And Trump’s prediction that he “will fail no matter where he ends up,” is unlikely to pan out. Acosta can only improve his status by moving to another network, almost all of which have better ratings than CNN. And he can also choose to start his own media operation that could surpass the boundaries of legacy media.

It’s uncanny how many of the adjectives that Trump unleashed in his harangue against Acosta that apply more accurately to Trump himself: “worst,” “most dishonest,” “major sleazebag,” “fake,” “no talent,” and “major loser.” And while he did manage to swindle enough gullible voters to regain the presidency, he will still fail miserably, because that’s all he’s ever done at anything he’s attempted.

Sadly, Trump’s failures now will draw a lot of other innocent people down with him. So it is more imperative than ever to remain alert and to resist his destructive agenda. Remember, the mid term elections in 2026 could return Democrats to the majority in Congress. And Trump has already committed numerous impeachable acts.

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Snowflake Trump Lies About Rachel Maddow’s Ratings and Predicts the ‘DEATH’ of MSNBC and CNN

Posted by on January 25, 2025 at 1:11 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump fancies himself to be the world’s foremost expert on everything. He says that he knows more about the military than the generals; more about healthcare than doctors; more about the environment than scientists; more about the economy than the Nobel Laureates who study it.

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Donald Trump, Snowflakes

In addition to this extraordinary store of imaginary knowledge, Trump also regards himself as a crack media analyst whose experience as a reality TV game show host qualifies him to offer commentaries on the state of the television news business that he both despises and relies upon to feed his expansive ego. It’s why he obsesses so feverishly over the ratings of his frequent TV appearances that often fail to draw significant numbers of viewers.

SEE THIS: Trump Gets Hit Where it Hurts: TV Ratings for His Inauguration Fall 27% Below Joe Biden’s

Late Friday night Trump posted a desperate wail on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that attacked one of his favorite cable news foes, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC. He raged that…

“Wow! Rachel Maddow has horrible ratings. She’ll be off the air very soon. MSNBC IS CLOSE TO DEATH. CNN HAS REACHED THE BOTTOM. This is a good thing. They are the Enemy of the people!”

There is a remarkable quantity of trash in that tirade. Let’s begin with the fact that MSNBC’s ratings have been quite good lately. In fact, according to Adweek, for the week of January 13, 2025…

“MSNBC’s primetime lineup averaged 758,000 total viewers and 64,000 viewers in the A25-54 demo for week-to-week gains of +5% and +16%, respectively. […] Among all basic cable networks, MSNBC remained in third place in total primetime viewers.”

So MSNBC’s ranking is rising and placed third among all basic cable networks. As for Maddow, her program drew almost three times as many viewers as the network’s total day average during the period. These are not exactly stats that forecast doom. And they come as Maddow returns to a 5-day-a-week schedule for the first 100 days of Trump’s occupation of the White House. Which is likely one of the factors that triggered his tirade.

GOOD NEWS: Rachel Maddow Will Return to Airing 5 Days a Week for the First 100 Days of Trump 2.0

It’s not surprising that the “death” that Trump is predicting for the network has no basis in reality. Likewise, his celebration of the network’s demise is totally in his own mangled mind. He has long been afraid of Maddow and MSNBC, and has explicitly – albeit impotently – threatened them in the past…

FOR EXAMPLE: Trump Threatens to ‘Come Down Hard on’ MSNBC and ‘Make Them Pay’ for Daring to Criticize Him

But then, what else would you expect from a wannabe dictator who calls the free press “the enemy of the people,”? and opines that the networks that he doesn’t like should not be permitted to exist?

WHAT 1st AMENDMENT?Wannabe dictator Trump posts comment whining that CNN and MSNBC "shouldn't even have a right to broadcast."

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-01-23T09:54:37.215Z

UPDATE January 29,2025: Ratings continue to climb for MSNBC as the network posts a 61% gain since the Trump Inauguration.

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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. 2 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)
  19. Dan Bongino (Deputy Director of the FBI)
  20. Sara Carter (Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy)
  21. Jeanine Pirro (Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia)

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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