Immigration

Trump Brags that His Wall Will Kill the ‘Glimmer of Hope’ that Refugees Have to Be Safe and Free

Posted by on January 25, 2019 at 5:34 pm. 4 Comments :

After thirty-five long and difficult days, the Trump Shutdown is coming to an inglorious end. Donald Trump vowed that he would not cave, but in the end that’s exactly what he did. He accepted a proposal that Democrats had offered a month ago, before the shutdown began. And it provides zero dollars for his precious vanity wall.

Donald Trump, Immigrant, Child

This is not, however, a final conclusion to the matter. It merely kicks the can down the block for three weeks when we will be faced with the same debate over Trump’s insistence on a useless wall. Trump even threatened to shut down the government again, or declare an unconstitutional national “emergency” if he doesn’t get his way next month. So no one should get comfortable, particularly if you’re a federal employee.

In his speech announcing the temporary agreement to reopen the government, Trump spent most of his time lauding the imaginary benefits of a border wall. He imbued it with magical powers to eliminate drugs and human trafficking. He said it would reduce crime, even though these immigrants commit fewer crimes than native born citizens. But perhaps the most repulsive part of his statement was one that illustrated just how callous and uncaring he is with regard to real human suffering (video below). Trump asserted that among the benefits of a wall is that…

“They save good people from attempting a very dangerous journey from other countries. Thousands of miles because they think they have a glimmer of hope of coming through. With a wall they don’t have that hope.”

So Trump is actually advancing as a positive argument for his wall that it will extinguish the hope of refugees who are fleeing violence and poverty in their countries of origin. How is that representative of the American Dream that brought generations of people escaping tyranny and torture to the shores of “the land of the free”? Trump declares proudly that his wall will mean that similar asylum seekers won’t have the hope that contributed so much to America’s greatness.

Not only is this attitude noxious and anti-American, but it ignores some obvious facts. If Trump acknowledges that these refugees are braving long and dangerous journeys, does he stop and think for a second about why? Clearly they would not undertake such an arduous task, often with young children, if the need wasn’t crucial to their survival. This isn’t a pleasure cruise they are enjoying. Trump knows that. He knows that these refugees are motivated by fear and hope, but he still thinks it’s appropriate, and even worthwhile, to strangle the hope out of these desperate souls.

Trump admits in his remarks that the refugees are “good people” who are “attempting a very dangerous journey.” And in his next breath he smugly asserts that the “glimmer of hope” to which they cling should be snuffed out with his “big, beautiful wall.” So what does he think they should do after that hope is extinguished? He doesn’t bother to say. Presumably they should just stay put and suffer and die quietly. Because for many of them, that’s the alternative. Do you think Trump cares?

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

Trump’s Martin Luther King Jr Tweet Reveals the Hypocrisy of His Own Hostility to Equality

Posted by on January 21, 2019 at 12:51 pm. 1 Comments :

One of the great ironies in American politics is the rush to embrace Dr. Martin Luther King Jr by the very same people who so adamantly opposed him and his movement. In 1983, 90 representatives (77 Republicans, 13 Democrats) and 22 senators (18 Republicans, 4 Democrats) voted against honoring Martin Luther King Jr. with a federal holiday. However, today the Republican Party officially (if not enthusiastically) celebrates King’s legacy in public statements and events.

Donald Trump, Martin Luther King

As for Donald Trump, he has a sketchy history of recognizing this day’s importance to the nation. It’s almost always a perfunctory tribute that appears forced and disingenuous. This year he had no plans to mark the holiday at all until reports of that neglect caused him to rush out to the King Memorial in D.C. for a couple of minutes. The year before that he announced that he would visit the new Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, but canceled it in a petty fit after being criticized by Rep. (and civil rights hero) John Lewis.

Trump did, however, manage to squeeze out a couple of tweets for the occasion this year. One was a purely propaganda video with no message, just images of him and Mike Pence laying a wreath at the King Memorial. The other tweet actually included some commentary on the subject:

That’s almost an appropriate message to honor this day and Dr. King’s contribution to the country. But part of this message is undercut by current events. In this tweet Trump specifies that “the place of our birth” does not negate the fact that “we are all created equal.” But Trump is feverishly seeking to discriminate against people for that very reason.

The nation is now in the midst of the longest government shutdown in history. And all because Trump is demanding that Congress fund his vanity wall on our border with Mexico. In his tedious justifications for this funding, Trump maligns the Latino refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. as murderers, rapists, and drug traffickers. What’s more, he is committing political extortion by threatening DACA applicants and recipients of Temporary Protected Status (both programs he is trying to terminate) with deportation if his demands aren’t met.

This is not the way people who are created equal are treated in a just society. But it is the way that Trump and his Republican Nationalist Party are treating people who are fleeing violence and poverty. And it’s the way they are treating people who were brought here as children and have lived here their whole lives. Under these circumstances, for Trump to pretend that he cares about the principles that King fought for is completely absurd.

If Trump means what his tweet says about the place of our birth not precluding us from being treated equally, then he should immediately reopen the government and initiate procedures to process the asylum claims of all refugees, and provide DACA and TPS recipients permanent residency and a path to citizenship. That’s what he should do. But don’t hold your breath waiting for Trump and the GOP to behave honorably or to honor the spirit of Dr. King.

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

Gaslighting: Trump Brags About Dubious Support in a Poll that Shows Him Floundering Miserably

Posted by on January 20, 2019 at 1:27 pm. NO Comments :

In Donald Trump’s regularly scheduled Sunday Morning Tweetstorm, the President with way too much time on his tiny hands delivered a series of rambling rants that were chock full of the lies, insults, boasting, and diversions that his dimwitted Deplorables have come to expect and appreciate. It was a smorgasbord of bullcrap that was tightly focused on his base. And brother was it ever base.

Donald Trump

Among the subjects that Trump addressed were the economy (wherein the stock market just suffered its first negative year in a decade), the weather (wherein he again demonstrates his ignorance of climate science), the shutdown (that he blames on Democrats despite having promised not to), Nancy Pelosi (who he both insulted and threatened), and the progress on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament (which not only hasn’t occurred, they have expanded their arsenal and capabilities). Then Trump posted a flagrant propaganda video that reminisces about his God-awful “American Carnage” inauguration speech.

But perhaps the most ludicrous of the bunch (a hard call) was his tweet bragging about a poll that showed his support among Latinos on the rise (50-46%). He attributed this to their support for his positions on immigration and his idiotic vanity wall. It doesn’t take much to realize that there’s something terribly wrong with his analysis.

Trump didn’t bother to identify the poll to which he was referring because, as usual, he doesn’t want anyone to discover the facts about his standing. However, it was easy to track it down. It was poll by Marist for NPR and the PBS NewsHour. You know – the “enemy of the people.” And as it turns out, Trump was almost right about the numbers for Latinos. Although the increase was 19 points, not 19 percent.

Still, there was a lot that Trump left out. First of all, Trump’s overall approval was a flaccid thirty-nine percent, down three points since the last poll. But more to the point, the poll interviewed 1,023 people, of which the Latino sample was only fifteen percent, or 153 people. That’s way too small a sample for a reliable national survey result. What’s more, the same poll broke down those numbers to strongly approve: 29 percent, and strongly disapprove: 41 percent. So clearly there is some animosity in this community that Trump, for some reason, failed to disclose.

Another question in the poll asked “Thinking about the 2020 election, do you definitely plan to vote for Donald Trump for reelection as president or do you definitely plan to vote against him?” The Latino respondents said resoundingly “NO,” by a thirty-one point margin (58-27%). That’s almost identical to the overall total respondents who said “no” (57-30%). Even ten percent of Republicans said “no,” while twenty-one said they were “unsure.” Sixty-four percent of Independents said they would definitely not vote for Trump in 2020. The only demographic groups that registered over fifty percent to vote for Trump were Republicans and white evangelicals. Every other breakout (gender, education, financial, geographic, race, age, etc.) fell short of that mark.

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

So Trump is once again pretending that he’s beloved by his subjects. And he’s trying to convince everyone else of that same delusion. It’s the same sort of mind games he pulled when insisting that the polls showed support for his wall and shutdown (they didn’t). Or that the media had lost all credibility with the people (people trust the media more than they do Trump).

For Trump it’s just a continuous effort to gaslight the public with easily debunked claims. And, of course, it’s all intended to distract the people and the press from his criminal acts of conspiracy with Russia, obstruction of justice, and financial corruption. Unfortunately for Trump, the American people are smarter than he gives them credit for. Which is why they will be happy and relieved when he’s finally impeached or otherwise driven from office.

Donald Trump and Fox News Advocate for a Global Prison-Like “Walls Around the World” Agenda

Posted by on January 16, 2019 at 1:36 pm. 1 Comments :

On the twenty-sixth day of the Trump Shutdown, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans continue to refuse to allow the government to reopen and let hundreds of thousands of Americans return to work. Speaker Nancy Pelosi advised the White House that there will be no State of the Union address on Capitol Hill as long as the Secret Service is hamstrung by the shutdown and working without pay. And the every poll shows that voters are staunchly opposed to Trump and his stonewalling on the matter.

Fox News, Lou Dobbs

So naturally Fox News has leaped to the rescue of their president with a brand new line of attack that blazes new trails of absurdity while obliterating any semblance of logic. On Tuesday’s episode of Lou Dobbs Tonight (video below), the Fox Business host (and undisputed “Most Deranged Host on Fox”) sought to shore up Trump’s argument for his idiotic vanity wall with statistics that were unattributed to any source. Dobbs asserted that there have been “at least 77 barriers built across the globe.” And that “45 countries have proposals for border walls.” And that “since 2015, over 800 miles of barriers have been built in Europe.” He also said that:

“It’s now day twenty-five of the shutdown and President Trump continues to fight for the $5.7 billion to secure our southern border. And make no mistake, walls do work. And other countries all across the world are using them battling their own influx of migrants or to stave off terrorists.”

It’s impossible to confirm any of this because Dobbs failed to provide any source for his assertions. But if it’s anything like the rest of what Fox News reports, it was made up by Fox or some right-wing think tank they employ. The segment featured a graphic with a headline blaring “Walls Around the World,” as if that description of worldwide bondage was a good thing. It’s also impossible to assess whether any of these alleged “walls” were built for reasons that had anything to do with the immigration concerns expressed by Trump. The situations in other countries are not necessarily applicable to those of the United States. But that didn’t stop Trump from straight-up copying the Dobbs data and pasting it into a morning tweet:

This is just the latest example of Trump getting his “intelligence” from Fox News and passing it on to his Deplorables without admitting where he took it from. And Trump, like Fox, didn’t bother to cite any reputable source for the info. But there’s something else about this argument that is peculiar.

Trump is now making the point that, if Europe and the rest of the world is allegedly building walls to prevent migration, then the U.S. should be doing it too. But since when has Trump ever cared what the rest of the world was doing, other than as an example of what the U.S. should avoid? America First! And if what the rest of the world is doing is now setting the example for America, then Trump should be fighting for universal healthcare, because every single industrialized nation on the planet already has it. Likewise, just about every country in the world is signatory to the Paris Accords on Climate Change.

Once again, Trump is demonstrating two of his most prominent characteristics: He never has an original thought, or one that didn’t begin at Fox News. And his ability to form a logical argument is nonexistent. All he is doing is throwing mud at the wall and hoping it builds up enough to form a barrier at the southern border. Either that or that it sticks to the insides of the empty craniums of his cult followers. Either way he is proving again that he is dishonest, incompetent, and unfit to serve as president.

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

Trump and Fox News Vainly Pretend that Polls Support The Border Wall and the Trump Shutdown

Posted by on January 15, 2019 at 3:39 pm. 1 Comments :

Desperation drives people to extreme and untenable measures. And that must be where Donald Trump and Fox News find themselves today as they try in vain to spin reality into something that resembles support for their positions on the Trump Shutdown and his idiotic vanity wall. With public opinion veering off into a bruising opposition to the Trump agenda, they are purposefully lying about recent poll results.

Donald Trump

On Tuesday’s episode of Fox and Friends, co-host Steve Doocy introduced a segment about the border/shutdown with a reference to a new poll by Quinnipiac University. He was almost giddy about reporting the good news that this poll allegedly propped up the President and his standing in the eyes of the American people:

“There’s a Quinnipiac poll that essentially supports what the President has been saying all along for about the last month. And that’s fifty-four percent of you, according to Quinnipiac, say ‘yes,’ there is a crisis at our southern border.”

So there you have it. The debate can now be put to rest and the Democrats in Congress should immediately surrender and give Trump everything he wants. Right?

Well, no. Because the poll had some additional insights that make this tidbit fairly irrelevant. For instance:

“American voters support 63 – 30 percent a Democratic proposal to reopen parts of the government that do not involve border security while negotiating funding for the Wall, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released today. Every party, gender, education, age and racial group supports this idea except Republicans, who are opposed 52 – 39 percent.

“Voters oppose 63 – 32 percent shutting down the government to force funding for the Wall, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University National Poll finds. Again, Republicans are the only listed group supporting the shutdown, 67 – 24 percent.

“The GOP is losing the battle as 56 percent of American voters say President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are responsible for the shutdown, while 36 percent say Democrats are responsible.

“Voters remain solidly opposed to a wall on the Mexican border, 55 – 43 percent, and reject every argument for the Wall.”

The poll also revealed that fifty-nine percent say that the wall “is not a good use of taxpayer dollars.” Fifty-five percent say that it “would not make the U.S. safer.” Fifty-nine percent say that “it is not necessary to protect the border.” And fifty-two percent say that it “is against American values.” What’s more, the fifty-four percent who agree that there is a crisis at the border may not be in agreement with Trump’s definition of “crisis.” They may be concerned about the welfare of the refugees who are seeking asylum, and the children who were separated from their parents by the Trump administration.

Additionally, by a wide margin of 46-32 percent, voters said that Trump’s Oval Office address was “mostly misleading.” And they believed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer more than Trump by 46-36 percent. Only 2 percent say Trump’s address changed their mind. Sixty-five percent of respondents disapprove of Trump’s threat to declare a national emergency to fund the wall. And yet Trump is just as deceitful about these survey results as Fox News is. He tweeted that:

As usual, Trump doesn’t provide any source for those fictional numbers. But if he bothered to do any research he would discover that every poll is pretty much in sync with this one from Quinnipiac. Even an op-ed on the Fox website noted Trump’s precarious standings and warned that he “needs to end the shutdown now” if he “wants to have even a chance of winning in 2020.”. And, of course, Trump is lying about Democrats not wanting border security. They just don’t want his stupid wall and, like most Americans, they know it won’t enhance security. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Russian asset in the White House would tell his followers the truth for a change?

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

Poor Donald Trump is Crying Into the Void: There’s Almost Nobody in the White House But Me

Posted by on January 12, 2019 at 2:06 pm. 1 Comments :

Is this a cry for help? Donald Trump is plaintively wailing about his lonely bondage in the purgatory of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He would rather be at his luxury golf resort in Palm Beach, but he’s suffering the hardship of languishing in the big, old, drafty White House alone, frightened, and depressed by his sad misfortune.

Donald Trump

After firing off a tirade of tweets about how he is being attacked from all directions by the media, law enforcement, and the people’s representatives in Congress, Trump immediately descended into the depths of despair and desolation. And all because the Democrats on the Hill refuse to play with him. This new Twitter tantrum is rife with the melancholy of a nasty playground bully who can’t understand why he is being shunned.

Take a look at what poor Donnie tweeted out in a fit of misery and abandon. Play close attention to the parts that read like the forlorn passages from a morose teenager’s angst-ridden diary, and try not to weep: “I am in the White House waiting for you!” – “Democrats come back!” – “Democrats could solve the Shutdown in 15 minutes!” – “There’s almost nobody in the W.H. but me.” – “You would have to understand the fact that I won the election.” – “I am in the White House ready to sign!”

Democrats should come back to Washington and work to end the Shutdown, while at the same time ending the horrible humanitarian crisis at our Southern Border. I am in the White House waiting for you!

3% of Federal inmates are illegal immigrants. Border arrests are up 240%. In the Great State of Texas, between 2011 & 2018, there were a total of 292,000 crimes by illegal aliens, 539 murders, 32,000 assaults, 3,426 sexual assaults and 3000 weapons charges. Democrats come back!

Democrats could solve the Shutdown in 15 minutes! Call your Dem Senator or Congresswoman/man. Tell them to get it done! Humanitarian Crisis.

I just watched a Fake reporter from the Amazon Washington Post say the White House is “chaotic, there does not seem to be a strategy for this Shutdown. There is no plan.” The Fakes always like talking Chaos, there is NONE. In fact, there’s almost nobody in the W.H. but me, and…

….I do have a plan on the Shutdown. But to understand that plan you would have to understand the fact that I won the election, and I promised safety and security for the American people. Part of that promise was a Wall at the Southern Border. Elections have consequences!

We have a massive Humanitarian Crisis at our Southern Border. We will be out for a long time unless the Democrats come back from their “vacations” and get back to work. I am in the White House ready to sign!

First of all, it should be noted that the Democrats are in Washington and passing bills to reopen the government. They’ve passed several already, but the likelihood that they will ever reach the President’s desk is small because his toady in the Senate (Mitch McConnell) won’t allow them to come up for a vote.

Secondly, Trump isn’t helping his cause when he deliberately misstates the federal statistics on crime and immigration. He is only making Democrats less interested in working with him because they know he can’t be trusted to deal in good faith or even use verified facts in his arguments.

Trump’s is complaining that the press is misrepresenting his administration as “chaotic.” But his explanation for why that isn’t true is that he’s alone in the White House. How is that better? A president who can’t keep his staff around while the government is supposedly in crisis is arguably a bigger problem than chaos.

Trump claims to have a plan to end the shutdown, but doesn’t say what it is. Although he does say that it only has meaning if you “understand” that he won an election two years ago. Well, that clears it up. And never mind that he lost an election two months ago, with Democrats making historic gains in the House. He continues by noting that during his campaign he promised to build a wall. But he seems to have forgotten that he also promised that Mexico would pay for it. He never promised to shutdown the government unless American were forced to pay for a wall that most say they don’t want.

Finally, Trump again implores Democrats, who are in Washington now, to “come back from their vacations” because he is “ready to sign!” Well, he also said he was ready to sign three weeks ago when the Senate passed a bill by unanimous voice vote. The House was about to pass the same bill, when Trump watched a report on Fox News that criticized him for not standing tough on the wall and changed his mind about signing anything.

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

If this pathetic melodrama didn’t bring you to tears, nothing will. Trump’s wretched fate is nearly as pitiful as that of the federal workers that he has driven from their jobs in order to force his idiotic vanity wall down America’s throat. His loneliness and abject fear of what he delusional imagines is an empty city is heart-wrenching. The sad shadow he casts could be brightened if only he would agree to reopen the government without making ridiculous and ego-driven demands. But alas, he is too stupid and vain to realize that.

Trump’s Border Wall Scam: Who’s Benefiting from at Least Four Payments for the Same Wall?

Posted by on January 10, 2019 at 1:04 pm. 1 Comments :

There is a peculiar familiarity to Donald Trump’s pitch for his useless vanity wall on the southern border. Anyone who has seen a classic film about smarmy con artists will recognize the scheme that Trump is employing. Essentially he is seeking to get paid many times over for a single item. None of the victims of this scam will receive anything of value for their money.

Donald Trump, Border Wall

That’s precisely what Trump is doing. And he even reiterated it on Thursday morning as he left for a visit to the scene of the crime in Texas. His comments to the press swung between utterly dishonest and frighteningly incoherent. But in the end they were self-serving and disrespectful to the American people who suffer the burdens of his ignorance and hostility.

Notable in this tantrum were Trump’s denials that he ever said that Mexico would pay for the wall directly. He seems to think that because he didn’t specify that Mexico would pay by check, that he never meant that they would be responsible for paying directly at all. But when you repeatedly ask your cult rally followers “Who’s gonna pay for the wall?” and then join them in responding that “Mexico will pay for the wall,” that has only one meaning.

Additionally Trump actually did make statements that Mexico would pay directly. In fact, they are still on his website in a PDF position statement that says: “It’s an easy decision for Mexico: make a one-time payment of $5-10 billion to ensure that $24 billion continues to flow into their country year after year. There are several ways to compel Mexico to pay for the wall.”

More to the point, Trump has been making the case that the wall is either already being paid for by Mexico, or soon will be, for some time. In fact, he says explicitly that the wall is being paid for “many, many times over.” Let’s take a look at these alleged remittances:

Trump: “If we had the wall we would have tremendous savings. I really believe the barrier or wall would pay for itself every three or four months, and maybe even better than that.”

Here Trump is implying that savings from law enforcement activities amounts to payment for the wall. Of course those savings are in no way the result of any payments received from Mexico, directly or otherwise. What’s more, if Trump thinks that his wall is going to eliminate drug trafficking, and the costs associated with it, he’s dumber than we thought. After all, ninety percent of illegal drugs come into the country through legal ports of call. And by the way, so do most undocumented immigrants. His wall doesn’t address any of that. But then there’s also this:

Trump: “When I said Mexico will pay for the wall in front of thousands and thousands of people, obviously they’re not gonna write a check, but they are paying for the wall indirectly many, many times over by the really great trade deal we just made.”

No, they aren’t. That isn’t how trade deals work. Mexico pays nothing via these deals. It is the private businesses on both sides of the border who incur both the costs and benefits as stipulated in the agreement.

The problem with Trump’s arguments is that he’s admitting to financial fraud. It is illegal to request and receive payments from multiple sources for a single product. For instance, you can’t sell your car to six different people, collect all their money, and leave town. But the history of Trump’s remarks on payment for the wall indicate that he’s seeking compensation directly from Mexico, and also via law enforcement savings, and also by businesses engaged in trade. And finally by the American people, who he’s holding hostage to his ludicrous demands by shutting down the government.

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

That’s at least four payees for a single wall. How many times does he want to get paid for this boondoggle? And who’s getting all the extra money? And why is he even asking American citizens to foot the bill – and suffer the Trump Shutdown – when he says he has already secured payment?

The answers to these questions are likely out of reach because Trump will never provide them, or he will engage in a rambling, incomprehensible filibuster until people stop asking. But the bottom line is that, by his own admission, there is no need to get funds from taxpayers, and Trump’s efforts to do so are both immoral and unlawful.

What’s the Real Reason Trump Gave that Yawner from the Oval Office? (Hint: Think Russia)

Posted by on January 9, 2019 at 9:54 am. 6 Comments :

On Tuesday night Donald Trump gave a much anticipated address from the Oval Office, his first as President. There was rampant speculation about what he might say. Some pundits wondered if he might take the opportunity to declare a national emergency in order to reallocate federal funds to his idiotic and useless vanity wall. Others just considered it a ploy to get the public to pressure Congress to pay his ransom for reopening the government.

Donald Trump, Subway

As it turns out the speech was a tiresome affair that featured Trump solemnly reciting from his TelePrompTer and sniffling as he has been known to do after snorting Adderall. There was nothing that could be called newsworthy. Trump offered no solutions to the shutdown impasse. He made no overtures to Democrats on border security legislation. There wasn’t anything different about this speech than what he’s been saying for the past three weeks on this subject. And of course, that means he was repeating the same old lies that he and his surrogates (including Surrogate-in-Chief Mike Pence) have been foisting on the public since the Trump Shutdown began.

So there was no reason for this speech to be carried live by the news networks. No news value would have been lost by delaying it for half an hour so that it could be fact checked – a practice that should be in effect for everything Trump says or does. What the speech did contain was Trump’s now tedious routine of fear mongering and blame shifting to Democrats.

He amped up the emotionally charged fears of violence allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants with examples that included murders, rapes, and even beheadings. Never mind that this immigrant population is far less likely to commit these or any crimes than are native born citizens. The purpose of this overtly racist argument, as employed by Trump and his shills on Fox News, is to demonize people who are largely peaceful and law abiding.

So why did Trump take the extraordinary step of demanding primetime television access to the nation in order to bore them with rote repetitions of his commonplace cult rally ravings? He must have known that there was nothing in his remarks that would change anyone’s mind. Nor would it move the needle on resolving the shutdown problem. The only thing that it would be certain to do is dominate the news cycle for a short period of time. And therein lies a clue to what might have been his true intention.

Absent this speech, the most prominent stories that came out the same day concerned the ongoing investigations into Trump’s collusion and conspiracy with Russia. One of those stories featured the chairman of his presidential campaign, Paul Manafort, who was found to have been sharing proprietary polling data with a suspected Russian intelligence operative. That information corresponds with the sort of data used by Russia to interfere with the election, and links Trump’s campaign to the Russian conspiracy more closely than ever before.

The other story concerned the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who famously met with Manafort, Don Jr, Jared Kushner, and others, in Trump Tower. That was the meeting where they discussed acquiring “dirt” in the form of stolen emails from Hillary Clinton and her associates. Veselnitskaya was indicted yesterday for obstruction of justice in a case that revealed her close ties to the Kremlin.

Given the bombshell quality of these stories, it would have been a fortunate coincidence if something else arose that might distract the media and the public from focusing on them. Could Trump have been tipped off about these impending legal disclosures? Perhaps by Manafort or his lawyers who have already been discovered to have secretly briefed Trump’s legal team And might Trump have had an incentive to schedule a rare Oval Office address that was completely devoid of substance in order to execute that distraction? Can anyone supply another reason why the President would embarrass himself with that empty televised spectacle that was the oratorical equivalence of dropping his pants on the subway to draw attention away from a worse crime?

Who knows with this president? This might be a step too deep into conspiracy theory. But it is well within the bounds of plausibility for a president who is openly considering a declaration of a national emergency – which does not exist – just so he can build a wall that most Americans don’t want. It is not far-fetched for someone who lies with such ease about things as easily verifiable as whether past presidents told him that they should have built a wall; or that 4,000 suspected terrorists were caught crossing the southern border; or that Democrats request that Trump change his wall construction from concrete to steel.

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

None of those things were true. And that tendency for flagrant falsification is what makes anything possible with this president. Including a plot to wave a shiny Oval Office speech in front of the press to get them to ignore the fact that he’s pantless. But fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have worked. The other stories are still being sell covered (less so on Fox News) and are likely to make headlines on Wednesday and beyond. So Trump embarrassed himself, and wasted the nation’s time, in vain. The only problem with that is that it might make him more likely to actually declare a national emergency, out of anger and/or vengeance, in order to distract from the failure of this distraction. Stay tuned.

How Does VP Mike Pence Respond to Conclusive Evidence of Trump’s Lies? With Even More Lying!

Posted by on January 8, 2019 at 1:42 pm. 6 Comments :

On Tuesday evening Donald Trump will deliver his very first Oval Office address to the American people. And the critical subject matter that necessitates this extraordinary and urgent communication just happens to be a “humanitarian and national security crisis” that is being fabricated from thin air by Trump and his team of propaganda fabulists.

Mike Pence, Donald Trump

There is no credible evidence of a crisis at the southern border. By every metric that is measurable, undocumented immigration, drug trafficking, gang members, violent crime, etc., the incidence of illegal activity has been steadily declining for several years. But since Trump is badly losing the PR war for his idiotic and useless vanity wall, he has decided to take his case directly to the public. Which is a pretty terrible idea considering his historically low approval and the fact that he’s regarded by most Americans as untrustworthy. Even less trustworthy than the media that he despises.

Just who does Trump think he will convince that a wall that is decidedly unpopular, and the equally out of favor government shutdown he engineered to force Congress to pay for it, is really a great idea that everyone should embrace? If Trump thinks that his innate (albeit imaginary) charm will win over converts, he is going to be wallowing in a deep trench of disappointment.

Consequently, The administration sent their secret charisma weapon, Vice-President Mike Pence, out to save the day for Trump and company. He was interviewed by Jonathan Karl of ABC News. And one question in particular really hit the sweet spot for determining whether Trump’s TV ploy can succeed or not (video below):

Karl: How can the President’s word be trusted on this when he has said so many things that are just not true about this crisis? He said that Barack Obama had a ten foot wall built around his house here in Washington. You know that isn’t true. He said that some of his predecessors told him that they wanted to build a wall. But all four living presidents have now put out statements saying that they never had any such conversation with the President. And then you saw Sarah Sanders say that nearly 4,000 terrorists come into the country every year, and that’s not true either.

How can the American people trust the President when he says this is a crisis when he says things over and over again that aren’t true?

Pence: Well, the American people aren’t as concerned about the political debate as they are concerned about what’s really happening at the border. And that’s what the President’s been focusing on.

So Pence is spinning Trump’s flagrant dishonesty as “political debate”? This tells you something about how Republicans regard politics. And the absurdity of his contention that nobody cares about Trump lying is evident in Trump’s dismal approval polling.

When Karl tried to press Pence on the credibility question again, Pence launched into his robo-lie that 4,000 “known or suspected terrorists” were apprehended, still falsely implying that the southern border was their point of origin. Then he continued on auto-pilot with assertions about drugs pouring into the country, being deliberately deceitful about the fact that the vast majority come in by air or through valid checkpoints. And at this point you might be wondering what any of this have to do with the question about Trump’s lying? But finally, Pence painted Trump’s pathological fibs as simply his “passion” to “protect the American people”:

Pence: “The passion you hear from President Trump, his determination to take this to American people, as he will tonight in his national broadcast from the oval office, comes from his deep desire to do his job to protect the American people. And we’re gonna continue to carry that case forward until the Democrats in Congress come to the table and start negotiating. Not just to end the government shutdown, but to address what is an undeniable crisis at out southern border.”

It’s cute how Pence tries to evade the topic by shifting to a “blame the Democrats” posture, despite Trump being the immovable object who refuses to compromise, or even agree to the legislation that he previously agreed to. But Pence’s assertion of “an undeniable crisis” is especially ridiculous. That’s going to be a tough sell considering that even people like Fox News senior judicial analyst, Andrew Napolitan, denies it. He also denies that Trump has any legal right to move forward with his wall by declaring a national emergency. When his Fox colleague Maria Bartiromo asked this directly, Napolitano told her that:

“In a word, no. That’s not me saying no, because the Supreme Court said no when Harry Truman attempted to do that. […] the Supreme Court has made it very clear, even in times of emergency, the president of the United States of America cannot spend money unless it has been authorized by the Congress.”

None of this will prevent the circus that is going to unfold tonight for Trump’s Oval Office Reality TV episode. And his likely incoherent, lie-riddled speech won’t change the mind of a single viewer. Except for those who are finally disgusted enough by his ignorance and dishonesty and refuse to be further exploited by it. For Trump, this clown show is a lose-lose.

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

Shocker: Trump Embraces Obama and Clinton on Immigration, But Wildly Misquotes Them

Posted by on January 6, 2019 at 10:52 am. NO Comments :

The Trump Shutdown continues into its fifteenth day with no sign of resolution. Trump is actually becoming even more cemented into an increasingly bizarre stance that makes less sense every day. His raving tantrums on Twitter are filled with nonsense and lame memes that utterly fail to advance the dialog. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi and the new Democratic majority in Congress are ignoring his plaintive and desperate whining.

Donald Trump, Immigrant, Child

Trump’s recent comments claim that the idiotic vanity wall he’s so obsessed with will save billions of dollars. In addition to that, he insists that the new trade agreement (USMCA, which has not been ratified by the Senate) will effectively result in Mexico paying for the wall (or fence, or steel slat, or gold-tasseled drapery, or whatever). So the cost is being covered twice, but Trump is still demanding that Americans pay for it. He also claims that most of the people hurt by the shutdown support his position on the wall. But also that they are mostly Democrats. So he thinks that most Democrats are on his side of the great wall debate.

No one who has been paying attention really expects Trump to make sense anymore. It’s a given that he’s out of his mind and unfit for the office of a president (or a chicken coop). But on Sunday morning Trump went a bridge too far by embracing two of his most hated political foes: President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

You have to wonder what his Deplorables will think about him elevating the people that they have been trained to despise so vehemently for the past two years. Now Trump is hailing their vision and advocacy of rational immigration reforms. There’s just one problem. Trump is totally misrepresenting what both of them said and believe on the subject. For instance, here is what Obama went on to say after the out-of-context excerpt Trump posted. He was speaking in support of a 2006 immigration reform bill in the Senate:

“The bill the Judiciary Committee has passed clearly strengthens enforcement. To begin with, the agencies charged with border security would receive new technology, new facilities, and more people to stop, process, and deport illegal immigrants.”

Notice that there is nothing about a wall. He is advocating what all Democrats still want twelve years later: border security via smart reforms that actually address the problem. Not a wall that ignores the fact that the vast majority of undocumented immigrants enter the country through valid checkpoints.

Obama went to say that “while security might start at our borders, it doesn’t end there.” He made the case for an earned path to citizenship saying that “we must allow undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows and step on a path toward full participation in our society.” That’s hardly the policy that Trump and his Republican Nationalist Party are proposing.

As for Clinton, Trump also misrepresented her remarks made during the 2016 presidential campaign. Although she was somewhat open to “a barrier,” her full answer to a question from a voter quickly diverted to our need to deal with undocumented immigrants already in the country:

“I do think you have to control your borders. But I think that it’s also true that we need to do more to try to, number one, deal with the people who are already here, many of whom have been here for decades.”

Clinton explicitly mocked the notion of a wall at one point saying that it wouldn’t solve the problem. “I don’t care,” she said, “how tall the wall is or how big the door is.” She went on to advocate for providing more resources to the immigrants’ countries of origin in order to improve living conditions, reduce crime, and obviate the need for them to leave in the first place.

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

If Trump was really interested in a rational, workable solution he would adopt the positions taken by Obama and Clinton, rather than distorting what they said for cheap political points. That would be the way out of the Trump Shutdown and relief for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are the innocent victims of Trump’s ego-driven wall fetish. That is, if he actually cared about them.