Intelligence

Trump Won’t Take Daily Intel Briefings, So His DNI Wants to Hire Fox News Producers to Make Them

Posted by on May 31, 2025 at 11:58 am. 2 Comments :

One of the most troubling aspects of Donald Trump’s work ethic (or lack thereof) is his notoriously neglectful attitude toward doing any actual work. His office hours are reportedly limited due to what his aides refer to as “executive time“ (aka napping, eating, watching Fox News, and rage-posting insults and self-exalting nonsense on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social).

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Donald Trump, Fox News, White House

Trump refuses to educate himself on critical issues. He recklessly disseminates provably false information because he’s too lazy and/or dishonest to learn the truth. And he spends more time on the golf course, schmoozing at Mar-a-Lago, and pitching his cheesy merch, stocks, and cryptocurrencies that have lost gullible rubes billions of dollars, than he does engaged in the business of governing or anything that’s relevant to advancing the interests of the American people.

SEE THIS: PINO TRUMP: A President-In-Name-Only Who Spends More Time on TV and Golfing than Presidenting

A new report by NBC News reveals that Trump has not been paying attention to the daily briefings prepared for him by his intelligence staff. In fact, according to NBC’s inside sources (as many as five of them), he rarely even attends the “President’s Daily Brief” (PDB) to get updates on national security from his utterly unqualified Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard. According to NBC News…

“Trump’s intelligence chief is exploring ways to revamp his routine intelligence briefing in order to build his trust in the material and make it more aligned with how he likes to consume information, according to five people with direct knowledge of the discussions. […]

“One idea that has been discussed is to transform the PDB so it mirrors a Fox News broadcast, according to four of the people with direct knowledge of the discussions. Under that concept as it has been discussed, the national intelligence director’s office could hire a Fox News producer to produce it and one of the network’s personalities to present it”

Could anything be a more perfect representation of Trump’s utter lack of concern for the gravity of America’s place in a dangerous world? He simply couldn’t care less. And his capacity to understand what’s going on is below that of a remedial elementary schooler. Consequently, his own staff believes that he requires a special education program modeled after the lowest IQ cable news network, Fox News.

However, it’s curious that Gabbard would need to hire Fox News producers and presenters to act out Trump’s briefings when the Trump administration already has so many former Fox News employees (including Gabbard) working in the White House right now.

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

Perhaps Gabbard could persuade Fox News host Sean Hannity to come aboard for this project. Or maybe Jesse Watters. Or even Dear Leader’s daughter-in-lawlessness, Lara Trump, whose Fox News program debuted earlier this year. But then, they would all have to get security clearances to be allowed to present the top secret intelligence info to Trump. Could they even qualify? The report goes on to say that…

“According to his public schedule, since his inauguration Trump has taken the PDB 14 times, or on average less than once a week, which is less often than his recent predecessors — including himself during his first term. An analysis of their public schedules during that same timeframe — from their inauguration through May during their first year in office — shows that former President Joe Biden received 90 PDBs”

It’s clear that Trump has little interest in the important issues that have burdened other presidents. And NBC’s sources also revealed that “The problem with Trump is that he doesn’t read,” and that he has a “distrust of intelligence officials.” Many of whom he fired in the first few weeks of his second occupation of the White House. However, true to form, the DNI Press Secretary, Olivia Coleman, called NBC’s reporting “fake news.”

The fact that Trump is regarded by his own staff as too mentally deficient to grasp the complexities of national security without it being dumbed down for him in Fox News video bites, should worry the intelligence community that is still in place. And it should also worry the American people. That is, if the media does its job to inform them on an ongoing basis with the appropriate measure of urgency.

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

Posted by on March 25, 2025 at 2:05 pm. 1 Comments :

This week the nation was alerted to what may be one of the most serious breaches of national security in modern times. The most senior members of the United States government, including the Vice-President, JD Vance, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, the Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, the National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, and others, were caught discussing military attack planning on a commercial chat program.

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Donald Trump, Fox News, Fake

Under ordinary circumstance, this would be the story of the year. And many news organizations treated it as such. However, a conspicuous standout among those that didn’t was, of course, Fox News. The network that was forced to pay a settlement of more than 3/4 of a billion dollars because they repeatedly lied to support Donald Trump’s wholly unsupported allegations of election fraud, has not learned any lessons from that humiliating display of dishonesty and political propaganda. To the contrary, they continue to back a president who seeks to muzzle the free press.

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

Consequently, it should surprise no one that Fox New is fulfilling its mission as Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda with regard to what is becoming known as “SignalGate,” after the messaging app on which the Trump staffers were leaking classified information.

For the most part, Fox News and other MAGA media has soft-pedalled the story, ignoring the glaring national security disclosures and the gross violation of law. Instead, they focused their “reporting” on the detail of how a journalist – The Atlantic’s editor, Jeffrey Goldberg – was included in the chat, and on insulting Goldberg. While allowing a reporter into such a sensitive discussion is a serious breach of protocol, the bigger problem is that all of them where having that discussion on a commercial chat program in the first place.

Some of the worst offenders were among the usual suspects on Fox News. They included…

Jesse Watters, who called it “a wee bit of a security breach”: “Did you ever try to start a group text? You’re adding people and you accidentally add the wrong person? All of a sudden your Aunt Mary knows all your raunchy plans for the bachelor party? Well, that kind of happened today with the Trump administration. […] Well, national security advisor Mike Waltz accidentally added a reporter to the group text and not a good reporter. Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic, one of the biggest hoax artists around.”

Yeah, who hasn’t inadvertently added reporters to a top secret chat on military planning? It’s just like letting your Aunt Mary in on bachelor party plans. Also, Watters lashes out blindly at the widely respected reporter, Goldberg, who handled this story with the high degree of integrity that he’s known for. And then there was…

Sean Hannity, who dismisses it as “phony outrage…that nobody will care about.”: “They are obsessed with an accidentally leaked text, a chain from Trump cabinet officials who are debating the merits of military strikes in Yemen. So the very people that covered up their president’s severe cognitive decline, lied about wide open borders – both of which are clear and present dangers to our country – now want you to believe that they actually give a damn and care about national security.”

Notice that all Hannity has is his tired smears of President Biden that have nothing to do with this. And he thinks that potentially exposing military secrets to America’s enemies is nothing to be concerned about, and that Americans won’t care about it. Because if Hannity doesn’t care, no one else will? And there was…

Will Cain, who at least concedes that this breach “is incredibly concerning,” but goes on to say that: “If you look at the actual content of what was reported, if you look how they discuss potential strikes on Houthis in Yemen, what you will see is…a very collaborative, open, honest, team-based attempt to come to the right decision. After years of secrecy and incompetence, if you read the content of these messages, I think you’ll come away proud that these are the leaders making these decisions in America.

Of course. We should all be proud that these “leaders” unnecessarily risked national security, and the lives of American soldiers, and intelligence sources and methods, on a chat app that they all knew was not secure. This reaches peak absurdity with Cain bragging about “what you will see,” when we should not be seeing any of this. And then there was…

Donald Trump, who typically doesn’t know anything: “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. I think it’s not much of a magazine. But I know nothing about it. […] You’re telling me about it for the first time.”

If Trump is telling the truth (doubtful), he is in effect admitting that he is an ignorant boob who is out of the loop. What’s more, he’s implying that his team are keeping secrets from him. These chats took place a couple of weeks ago. The participants all knew what they were up to, and likely knew when Goldberg removed himself from the group. So why didn’t any of them tell him about it? More likely Trump knew and is lying in order to set up the eventual scapegoat.

This is what you get when you fill your Cabinet with utterly unqualified asskissers who were inevitably going to screw up. Did anyone expect better behavior from the likes of Pete Hegseth, who is himself a refugee from Fox News with no relevant experience to run an institution like the Pentagon? And they have only just begun. Trump has only been in office for two months. What will the next 46 months look like, if he makes it that far?

For now, we will have to put up with his incompetence that is manifesting itself in the most nauseating way. His only response to this scandal on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, was to post a pitifully dumb joke about it (via his co-president, Elon Musk) that didn’t even bother to deny the truth of The Atlantic’s reporting, only offering his addled opinion that no one reads The Atlantic…

Here is Trump's only response on Truth Social to The Atlantic exposé that JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, Mike Waltz, Tulsi Gabbard, and others, revealed war plans on a commercial chat program.He makes a joke about it. And not that it isn't true, but that no one reads The Atlantic.

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-03-25T09:10:07.740Z

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U.S. Intelligence Warns that Russia is Actively Undermining Biden to Boost Putin’s Puppet Trump

Posted by on July 10, 2024 at 2:04 pm. 7 Comments :

The frantic frenzy in the media for the past couple weeks over whether President Biden should continue his candidacy for the White House has taken on biblical proportions. It’s as if he had eaten an apple from the Tree of Knowledge and is now facing efforts to cast him out of Eden. When will they ask about Donald Trump eating the Big Mac of Madness and his eviction from Realityland?

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Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin

The non-stop inquisition of Biden, and any stray Democrat that the press encounters, has become a compulsive disorder that the press can’t seem to exercise any self-control over. Meanwhile, there is nothing remotely equivalent being done to Trump, who is suffering from mental maladies that threaten far worse consequences for the nation and the world should he reoccupy the White House.

SEE THIS: Trump Denies Knowing Anything About the ‘Abysmal’ Project 2025 that He Definitely Knows About

Compounding the risks posed by a Trump reprise is a new report that U.S. Intelligence agencies have identified Russian operations aimed at influencing American elections and, specifically, backing Trump’s bid to assume the throne to which he believes he is entitled. As reported by NBC News…

“Russia’s efforts to influence this year’s U.S. election through information warfare have the same aim as in previous elections — to undermine President Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic Party and weaken public confidence in the electoral process, intelligence officials said Tuesday.

“Russia’s election influence operations, which include covert social media accounts and encrypted direct messaging channels, are targeting key voter groups in swing states to exploit political divisions in the U.S. and erode support for Ukraine in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion, officials with the Office of the Director National Intelligence, or ODNI, told reporters.” […]

“Former U.S. intelligence officials and regional analysts say the Kremlin has long viewed Trump as more sympathetic to Russia, citing his frequently expressed skepticism toward the NATO alliance, his reluctance to criticize Putin and his critical portrayal of Ukraine’s government.”

Sound familiar? It’s precisely what Russia tried to do in 2020, and did successfully in 2016. It’s what Trump has referred to in his psychotic rants as the “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.” However, it was never a hoax, and Trump knows it. He has even explicitly sought Russia’s help to hack Hillary Clinton’s email, and to spread disinformation throughout the country.

Trump’s affinity for Putin is well documented. He calls him a friend and a “genius” and has excused his crimes against humanity, saying that the United States does the same things. Trump will never criticize Putin for anything. But he constantly maligns America in the most abhorrent terms (e.g. corrupt, crime-ridden, weak, failing, etc.).

An example of that occurred Wednesday morning during an interview with Fox News wherein Trump was asked a question about Putin’s missiles targeting a children’s hospital in Ukraine. Trump replied by ignoring Putin’s atrocity and, instead, attacking Biden. Because America is always wrong and Putin is always right, in Trump’s twisted mind.

So it’s extraordinarily disturbing that the media is so fixated on whether Biden should remain in the race. Yet they never ask that question of Trump. If the debate were rationally formed it would be a contest between the elderly statesman Biden, or the elderly, convicted felon, Putin loving, wannabe dictator Trump. Under those conditions, which one ought to be driven from the race? It’s not a difficult choice.

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Trump Floats the Stupidest Lie About Biden and Intel Documents: ‘Maybe He Was the Leaker’

Posted by on April 13, 2023 at 12:29 pm. 2 Comments :

Recent reports of the leaking of intelligence documents online have caused serious concerns over the security of classified information. And as with nearly every matter of concern in politics, Donald Trump can be counted on to make things, not just worse, but bizarre.

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Donald Trump WTF

The concerns over classified documents were elevated to unprecedented levels when it was revealed that Trump had stolen hundreds of such documents and hoarded them at his Palm Beach hotel/home. Even after multiple demands, and a subpoena, Trump refused to return the documents and lied about having them.

RELATGED: On Fox News Trump Confesses that He Stole Classified Documents, Despite Hannity’s Coaching

The latest leaking scandal is completely unrelated to Trump’s document hoarding at Mar-a-Lago, but that doesn’t stop him from from drawing a preposterous parallel. On his pitifully failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, Trump posted a comment that included an entirely baseless allegation directed at President Biden…

“The worst leaks of ‘Intelligence’ in U.S. history. Our Country has never been so embarrassed, and yet they come after ‘Trump’ on their old and tired Boxes Hoax. The Special “Prosecutor” should investigate Biden, maybe he was the leaker? Nothing would surprise me about this group!”

There is a massive quantity of malarkey in that brief outburst. First of all, there have been plenty of worse intelligence leaks in U.S. history. But given his notorious ignorance, we can’t expect Trump to have any knowledge of history. In Trump’s diseased mind, whatever he is obsessing over at the moment are always atrocities at “levels that have never been seen before.”

What’s more, Trump seems to think that law enforcement isn’t capable of simultaneously investigating this new leak and his own criminal theft and obstruction of justice – what he dismissively calls the “Boxes Hoax”. And it’s cute that the only words for which he uses quotes are “intelligence” and “Trump,” as if he’s using those words sarcastically.

However, the most ridiculous part of his comment was where he accuses President Biden of being the leaker. There is, of course, no hint of that having any connection to reality. It is merely a wild, and typically infantile, swing by Trump in a futile attempt to smear the President and deflect attention from his own crimes.

Furthermore, Trump’s accusation doesn’t even make sense. He begins by saying that “Our country has never been so embarrassed.” So why would Biden leak information that could only result in embarrassment to the nation generally, and to him personally? Trump doesn’t bother to explain his “logic,” or lack thereof.

For the record, authorities have already identified a suspect in the latest leaking episode. He is a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. And since the documents contain information that could harm the war effort in Ukraine, it’s more likely that the leaker was aligned politically with Trump and the pro-Putin faction of the Republican Party.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Trump’s charge comes the day after the Justice Department revealed that Trump is being investigated for possibly showing classified materials to random visitors to Mar-a-Lago…

“Multiple witnesses were asked whether former President Donald Trump showed them a map containing classified information that he took from the White House when he left office, as part of a U.S. Justice Department investigation.”

The potential that Trump proudly showed off the classified documents that he stole has always been suspected by intelligence experts. He never does anything that can’t produce an immediate benefit for his finances or his image. And as this latest comment proves, Trump never misses an opportunity to viciously and baselessly malign his enemies. But it also proves that he is spectacularly stupid in the way that he does that.

RELATED: The Desperate and Dystopian Delirium of Donald Trump as He Descends Into Drooling Dementia

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AMERICA FIRST? Trump Reiterates His Enduring Trust for Putin Over American Intelligence Pros

Posted by on January 30, 2023 at 12:58 pm. 3 Comments :

It’s another Monday morning, and another day for Donald Trump to babble incoherently about whatever mind worm burrowed into his melon-head upon awakening in his Mar-a-Lago bunker. On this particular morning Trump awoke with memories of one of his most despicably anti-American episodes.

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In July of 2018, Trump held a press conference following a summit with his idol and mentor, Vladimir Putin. At one point a reporter asked Trump if he believed Putin’s denials that he had engaged in election interference during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump replied that his own national security team told that “they think it’s Russia,” but agreeing with Putin said that “I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

RELATED: Donald Trump’s Own Words at the Treason Summit with Putin Are Dripping with His Guilt

For some unexplained reason, Trump brought up that press conference in a new post on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social. Trump whined…

“Remember in Helsinki when a 3rd rate reporter asked me, essentially, who I trusted more, President Putin of Russia, or our ‘Intelligence’ lowlifes. My instinct at the time was that we had really bad people in the form of James Comey, McCabe (whose wife was being helped out by Crooked Hillary while Crooked was under investigation!), Brennan, Peter Strzok (whose wife is at the SEC) & his lover, Lisa Page. Now add McGonigal & other slime to the list. Who would you choose, Putin or these Misfits?”

Yes, Don, we remember. How could we forget when a president of the United States took the side of a dictatorial leader of a hostile foreign nation against our own intelligence professionals?

Trump’s posting was nothing more than another one of his tedious grievances aimed a bunch of people that he perceives as enemies. He still has no evidence that any of them acted in any way to harm him or his campaign. In fact, former FBI director James Comey may have been the single person most to blame for Trump winning the election due to his irresponsible release of derogatory and false allegations against Hillary Clinton. And [Charles] McGonigal was an associate of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman and convicted felon who Trump pardoned.

Without any obvious trigger for this outburst, it is likely that Trump is just lashing out at the FBI because he’s scared witless about the investigations that are currently in progress. He is subject to probes related to his criminal actions prior to, during, and after the January 6th insurrection. He’s also being invested for his theft and hoarding of classified documents. And then there is the probe looking into his election interference and obstruction of justice, related to his intimidation of Georgia officials. And there is also a New York Grand Jury that has already indicted him for financial and tax fraud.

All in all, this – or any – morning can’t be too pleasant for the twice-impeached former reality TV game show host. And he isn’t even pretending to hide his anxieties. In the rabid flurry of 27 posts Monday morning – including 9 by a proud QAnon crackpot – one of them complained about his being held legally accountable for his crimes. And in that comment he favorably likened himself to mob boss, Al Capone:

“I believe that I have more lawyers working for me on this Corrupt Law Enforcement induced Bull…. than any human being in the history of our Country, including even the late great gangster, Alphonse Capone!”

At least Trump is now owning the community in which he chooses to live, and the comrades that he admires. You just have to wonder where on his list of Deplorables he ranks Capone, as compared to Putin.

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Sean Hannity and Donald Trump Jr Promote Putin Propaganda Over U.S. Intelligence on Fox News

Posted by on January 29, 2022 at 12:39 pm. 4 Comments :

With each new day’s dawn it is becoming harder and harder ignore the mounting evidence that Fox News is acting as the Ministry of Propaganda for Vladimir Putin and Russia. Their top rated host, Tucker Carlson, has openly taken sides with Russia over the interests of the United States. “Why would we pick Ukraine’s side,” he recently asked rhetorically, “and not Russia’s side?”

Fox News, Sean Hannity, Vladimir Putin

Carlson also visited Hungary to lavish praise on its pro-Putin puppet, Viktor Orbán. And that endorsement was quickly parroted by Donald Trump, who has not been shy about his preference for Putin. He even tried sabotage President Biden’s summit with the Russian dictator. Which is something he may have picked up from Sean Hannity, who made virtually the same comments a few days prior.

So naturally Hannity is continuing to malign Biden and America with brazenly unpatriotic polemics. To that end he invited Donald Trump Jr on his program to offer a “fair and balanced” analysis of the Russian threat to Ukraine (and ya gotta love Rep. eric Swalwell’s take):

“I get to read reports saying that intelligence is saying that Russians may be launching a cyber attack on America. I don’t think so. I imagine that’s our people lying to us to try to instigate us getting into another war to distract from the incompetence. Do you think our posture in Ukraine has anything to do with his corrupt son raking in millions over the year, and this is the way to cover it up.”

Oh! Donnie “gets to read reports,” does he? Notice that he isn’t saying that he reads intelligence, which even Daddy Trump is prohibited from getting due to his “erratic behavior.” And the “reports” Donnie reads are undoubtedly contrived by conspiracy crackpots like Alex Jones or any sitting Republican member of Congress.

In his harangue, the sniveling Trump spawn lets leak an inadvertent truth when he says that “I imagine that’s our people lying to us.” Indeed, he is imagining it. He is imagining what he most desires: that there are “Deep State” government moles concocting nefarious schemes that conform to his anti-American nightmares.

However, Donnie’s conspiracy theory couldn’t be more preposterous. He’s alleging that Biden is plotting to start a war with Russia in order to cover up some imaginary incompetence or minor malfeasance by Hunter Biden (for which there has never been any evidence). That would be like setting yourself on fire to get rid of a pimple. Which I wouldn’t put past Donnie. He really thinks that Biden would consider a war with another nuclear superpower to be preferable to a temporary bad news cycle.

This sort of perverse perspective is par for the course for Junior. Earlier this week he posted a video of himself in which he appeared to be totally wasted. The fact that he could post that video, given his slurred and halted speech, and his bizarre head twitching, is a glaring red flag indicating much deeper emotional and/or psychological problems.

However, the neuroses of the Trumps are equally matched by the fanatical fawning of Fox News. Needless to say, Hannity had no problem with Donnie’s diatribe. It’s the sort of dishonest partisanship that has long been the mission of Fox News. And it was on full display Friday when they aired this cringeworthy clip:

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America’s Laziest President: Trump Admits to Delegating His Job to the Media That He Hates

Posted by on August 3, 2019 at 11:16 am. 2 Comments :

The first two and a half years of Donald Trump’s presidency has been marked by his spectacularly underdeveloped work ethic. The only things he has demonstrated an interest in are his devotion to golf, tweeting, holding cult rallies, and watching Fox News. He has done virtually nothing else. Consequently, he has racked up a record of unparalleled failure, unable to achieve the vast majority of his campaign promises.

Donald Trump

[UPDATE: The sloth-like behavior of Trump is horrifically magnified on days like this when it’s being reported that as many as twenty people were slaughtered in an El Paso, Texas mall. The gunman is being described as a Trump-supporting, 21 year old white male, who has posted virulently hateful screeds against immigrants on social media.

Trump took three hours to react with a typically useless offering of “thoughts and prayers.” Then only twelve minutes later he was tweeting about a UFC fighter who idolizes Trump. That was followed by three posts about a MAGA-loving black “pastor.” And true to form, nothing was said about any potential solution to this epidemic of gun violence. Meanwhile, Fox News was baselessly speculating about an ISIS connection to the shooter.]

Among the presidential duties that Trump has neglected are the appointments to key White House positions. His nominees comprise an assembly of dimwits, donors, and utterly unqualified bootlickers. That played out in an epic disintegration of Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe. From the start there was bipartisan recognition that Ratcliffe was a political plant with no relevant experience for the job that Trump wanted him to fill. The only reason he got the nod was because Trump had just seen him on TV smearing special counsel Robert Mueller.

In less than a week Trump threw Ratcliffe overboard, but not without making some of the most asinine and transparently false excuses for another embarrassing misstep by a president known for being unable to walk a straight line. During a segment of Trump’s Reality TV show, “Lying on the White House Lawn,” Trump replied to a reporter’s question about the state of his vetting process saying that “I like when you vet.” He continued (video below):

“I think the White House has a great vetting process. You vet for me. When I give a name, I give it out to the press, and you vet for me. A lot of times you do a very good job. Not always. I mean if you take a look at it, the vetting process for the White House is very good.

But you’re part of the vetting process, you know. I give out a name to the press and they vet for me. We save a lot of money that way. But in the case of John, I really believe that he was being treated very harshly and very unfairly.”

This is totally deranged on so many levels. First of all, it isn’t the job of the media to vet critical national security personnel. They can analyze a president’s nominee and do background checks, but the commander-in-chief should be making these decisions. The fact that Trump is comfortable letting others vet for him is baltant dereliction of duty. It can hardly be called a “great vetting process.” Where else is Trump abdicating his responsibilities, and to whom?

What’s more, Trump is delegating this profoundly vital task to the media that he often maligns as “the enemy of the people.” But for some reason he now regards them as competent to evaluate one of the most pivotal positions in the U.S. government. What sane leader would assign such a task to people that he routinely disparages as being dishonest, corrupt, and even treasonous?

Then, after handing off the vetting process to the media that he hates, Trump accuses them of harshly mistreating his nominee. Never mind that he doesn’t offer any examples of that alleged mistreatment. Trump just wants you to take his word for it that the press was out to get him. But even after condemning the media’s vetting of Ratcliffe, Trump still takes their advice and nixes the nomination.

Finally, Trump fails to mention during any of this rant that the real reason Ratcliffe went down was because Republican senators told Trump that the nomination of this unqualified hack would likely not be confirmed. So while Trump sought to blame the media for doing what he says he asked them to do, he is really just covering up for the senate GOP and his own incompetence. And sadly, Trump is even incompetent at that.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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Stuperbowl Interview: Dotard Trump Talking About ‘Intelligence’ is Downright Frightening

Posted by on February 3, 2019 at 12:33 pm. 1 Comments :

It’s Superbowl Sunday and the annual tradition of having the president give an interview to the network broadcasting the game is one of the few that Trump isn’t scrapping. Never mind that he recently told his press secretary “not to bother” with holding daily press briefings anymore. Trump agreed to sit down with Margaret Brennan of CBS News for a few minutes of lying and casting insults.

Donald Trump, Padded Cell

Among the atrocious outbursts in this interview were Trump’s remarks about what he had learned from negotiating with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. His unresponsive reply was that she “doesn’t mind human trafficking,” and that “people [are] dying all over the country because of” her. Apparently he learned nothing as he stuck to his routinely hostile behavior of slandering his perceived enemies. But his childish acting out is evidence that he learned what he feels like to get beat to a pulp by a smarter, more experienced political opponent.

Trump also made some ludicrous assertions like claiming that the report by special counsel Robert Mueller exonerated him (Mueller has not published any report). And he admitted that stories about Secretary of State Pompeo talking to Mitch McConnell about running the Senate were true just seconds after calling them “fake news.” Then he characterized the fact that much of his cabinet consists of people serving in an “acting” capacity as a good thing because it gives him more flexibility. It also gives the nation a bunch of hacks who have never been vetted or confirmed by the Senate as the law requires. And he said that his indicted pal Roger Stone never worked for his campaign except for the time that he did.

There were a great many more examples of Trump’s deranged take on a variety of subjects. But perhaps the most disconcerting were those related to national security and his relationship with his own Intelligence team. When asked if reads the reports they prepare for him, Trump said that he did. But his responses revealed that that wasn’t true. Brennan asked him what he found wrong with those reports, and Trump gave this disjointed word salad of a reply: “I think- let me just say it wasn’t so much a report. It was the questions and answers as the report was submitted and they were asked questions and answers.”

HUH? They were asked questions AND answers in this report that wasn’t a report? He went on to provide provably false information about the presence of ISIS in Syria, saying they were ninety-nine percent gone. When Brennan pointed out that Republicans in Congress had just voted to repudiate his positions on abruptly withdrawing from Syria, Trump’s answer reached back to the GOP primary in 2016, where he bragged about beating the Republicans who ran against him. That, of course, had nothing to do with the question.

Shortly thereafter Brennan asked Trump if he is “going to trust the intelligence that you receive?” He gave a qualified “yes,” adding that “if they said in fact that Iran is a wonderful kindergarten, I disagree with them 100 percent.” No one ever said anything remotely like that. And in a direct rebuke of his Intelligence team, Trump said that:

“I have intel people, but that doesn’t mean I have to agree. President Bush had intel people that said Saddam Hussein in Iraq had nuclear weapons – had all sorts of weapons of mass destruction. Guess what? Those intel people didn’t know what the hell they were doing.”

Bush’s intel people told Bush exactly what he told them to say. They didn’t get it wrong. They lied at Bush’s direction. However, Trump is correct that he doesn’t have to agree with this Intel staff. But you have to wonder what the basis is for his disagreement. If he isn’t getting advice from them, from whom is he getting it? All we know is what he said next: “When my intelligence people tell me how wonderful Iran is – if you don’t mind, I’m going to just go by my own counsel.” So far as anyone can tell, Trump’s counsel is either Vladimir Putin or Fox News – or both.

Finally, Trump also dismissed the advice of his Intel team when they told him that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is unlikely to give up his nuclear capabilities. Trump disagreed on the basis of their personal relationship:

“I like him. I get along with him great. We have a fantastic chemistry. We have had tremendous correspondence that some people have seen and can’t even believe it. They think it’s historic. And we’ll see what happens.”

Seriously? Kim is a brutal dictator who murders his foes – even family members – and oppresses his people. But Trump gleefully brags about having “fantastic chemistry” with this tyrant? And this opinion comes long after their summit wherein Kim totally played Trump and has failed to deliver on anything they discussed at the time. In fact, Kim has actually expanded his nuclear facilities and arsenal.

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

The one thing that Kim has that Trump truly envies is the blind adulation of his people. And on that Trump openly expressed his desire for the same sort of cult worship from the American people. He isn’t going to get that. At the moment he is the most unpopular president of all time. And judging from recent events like his government shutdown and the arrest and indictment of his closest associates, that isn’t going to show much improvement any time soon.

Trump Has ‘No Confidence’ in the Intelligence Chiefs He Appointed, But Relies Heavily on Fox News

Posted by on January 31, 2019 at 1:45 pm. 4 Comments :

The United States is undergoing a unique adventure in surreal governance. Its president has assembled a team of advisors and cabinet department heads that he is publicly assailing as ignorant and lacking the knowledge and abilities to perform the jobs to which he appointed them. Donald Trump is literally calling his own Intelligence chiefs incompetent.

Donald Trump

This is the sort of breakdown that would be laughably unbelievable in political fiction. If Trump has such little respect for the people he appointed, why does he keep them in their jobs? Wouldn’t a sane president remove people who he thought were getting everything wrong so that they wouldn’t continue to put the country at risk? Would a mentally stable leader tweet that his “Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive,” and then follow that up with another tweet saying that they “should go back to school,” and then allow them to keep their highly sensitive jobs in national security?

Trump was long ago proven to be a malignant narcissist who regards himself as the most brilliant expert at whatever he happens to be talking about at the moment. Despite having evaded military service with five phony deferments, he said that he knows more about military affairs than “his” generals. And on Thursday morning when he was asked a question about his Intelligence team, it resulted in this bizarre exchange (video below):

Reporter: Do you have confidence with [CIA Director] Gina Haspel and [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats to give you good advice?
Trump: No, I disagree with certain things that they said. I think I’m right, but time will prove that. Time will prove me right, probably.

So Trump has no confidence in his CIA director or his director of National Intelligence. And he followed that up with a rambling array of nonsense regarding Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, and North Korea. Literally none of it had any resemblance to reality. Trump has cloaked himself in a shroud of fantastical fiction that he either has convinced himself is true, or is deliberately lying about in order to advance some perverse narrative that is contrary to the interests of the nation. When John Brennan, a former CIA director who had the confidence of his boss, heard about Trump’s remarks, he tweeted that it “shows the extent of [his] intellectual bankruptcy” and that “All Americans, especially members of Congress, need to understand the danger [Trump] poses to our national security.”

So if Trump isn’t getting his advice on these critical issues from the experts he appointed, where is he getting it? Is it coming from his pal Vladimir Putin, with whom he’s been meeting in secret without any other Americans present to record their conversation or refer it to professionals for analysis? Or is he getting it from his shadow cabinet at Fox News: Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Steve Doocy, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro, etc.? Could there be a more pathetic batch of know-nothings in such positions of power?

Thursday afternoon Trump returned to his Twittering to announce that he had a meeting and that everything was now copacetic with his intelligence team. He said that the media “mischaracterized” what they said during the Senate hearing on Wednesday. But it was Trump who said that he had “no confidence” in his team, not the press. And he’s been saying it for quite a while. These tweets are obviously an attempt to repair the damage his big mouth got him into. But anyone who’s buying it is terminally naive.

In the end, it’s America that is losing out by Trump’s reliance on foreign adversaries and propaganda shills at State TV (aka Fox News). Trump is selling out the nation for reasons that are not fully known yet, but probably have something to do with his indebtedness to Russian oligarchs, his clandestine conspiracy with Kremlin operatives to steal the election, or some other means by which he has been compromised and forced to serve as a puppet to our foes. And at this point, the only reason that the Intelligence community hasn’t resigned en masse is that they feel a patriotic duty to shield the country from the potential harm that Trump represents as its most virulent national security threat.

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

Trump’s Latest Tweet Threatens The Media (And Press Freedom) For Doing Their Job

Posted by on January 6, 2017 at 11:28 am. 4 Comments :

Friday morning Donald Trump took another step toward the totalitarian dystopia he yearns to rule. He’s spent months disparaging the intelligence community on which he must rely. At the same time he has defended Russia from charges of hacking that has now been proven beyond question.

Trump Baby

And now he is proposing concrete actions to punish the free press that he so blatantly abhors. This is what he tweeted this morning while waiting to be briefed on the Russian hacking report:

The frightening aspects of that cannot be be understated. Trump is proposing an investigation of a news organization that did precisely what is expected of it. NBC utilized its sources to acquire government information that is relevant to all citizens. And contrary to Trump’s frantic accusation, there is no indication that any of it was top secret. The government was going to release a public version of the report anyway. NBC just scooped them.

What is apparent is that Trump is more concerned about NBC getting info that’s about to be released anyway, than he is about Russians hacking American citizens and political organizations. He is distracting from the far more significant news that Russia had helped him achieve his tainted victory. They even celebrated and congratulated themselves for their successful effort.

It’s important to note the distinction between what Trump’s allies in Russia did and what NBC did. The hackers stole private information from individuals and organizations. That data was not public property. Russia, WikiLeaks, et al, were not revealing government secrets that the people had a right to know. NBC, on the other hand did just that. The Intelligence reports they previewed were paid for by taxpayers for their benefit. So NBC was performing a public service, while Russia/WikiLeaks was invading privacy. But only the privacy of Democrats so as to assist their favored candidate, Donald Trump.

Trump doesn’t care about Russians hacking an American election. He has defended them, and his BFF Vladimir Putin, from the start. Even worse, he has maligned the dangerous work of American patriots serving their country. Under the circumstances, one has to wonder why any intelligence operative would risk their life for Trump during his administration.

Trump has also been a constant foe of the free press. He has called reporters “sleazy” and “dummies” and “liars” and worse. Respected journalists had their credentials revoked to prevent them from covering his rallies. Organizations that represent the interests of journalists have condemned him as a “threat to press freedom unknown in modern history.”

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

That condemnation is playing out bigly today with this new attack on the press. And Trump has still never called for a congressional investigation of the Russian hacking. His whining about NBC sharing intelligence before he has seen it rings hollow. After all, it’s easy to get intelligence before Trump sees it when he doesn’t even bother to take intelligence briefings.

UPDATE: As it turns out, about six hours before Trump’s tweet WikiLeaks posted a tweet that is eerily similar:

That tweet also falsely states that the information NBC reported was “Top Secret.” And it makes the point that NBC received the info before Trump. Considering the similarities it is likely that Trump simply copied the contents of the WikiLeaks tweet for his own. And that’s just more proof that they are working together.

It’s also astonishing that WikiLeaks is complaining about “leaks” to the media. That’s their whole friggin’ reason for existing. But those dishonest hypocrites go nuts when someone else disseminates information acquired through legitimate journalistic means (as opposed to hacking and theft) if it is adverse to their partisan agenda.