Wannabe Dictator Trump Declares His Intention to Obstruct Justice and Undermine the Constitution

The campaign by Donald Trump to return to his occupation of the White House is on a runaway track toward tormented dementia. With each new public appearance or posting on his pitifully failing social media scam, Truth Social, he affirms the depths of his psychosis. He’s in a downward spiral and headed for a crash landing.

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Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

On Saturday Trump attended the Republican party’s ironically named “Freedom Summit” at the equally ironically named Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee, Florida. The affair featured several of the candidates for the GOP nomination for president, but like a right-wing rock concert, saved the headliner spot for Trump, who spoke last. And true to form, Trump delivered a depressing and dangerously inflammatory diatribe that only an indoctrinated cult disciple, or a Republican (but I repeat myself), could appreciate.

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

The subjects that Trump covered were typical of his tediously repetitive sermonizing. Of course he attacked President Biden as both “Sleepy” and “Crooked,” apparently unable to keep track of which epithets he’s using today. But more troubling were his promises of what he planned to do should he be reelected next year. And the first thing on his agenda is – in his own words – retribution for the perceived persecutions he believes that he is the victim of. And the persecutor he is most fixated on is, naturally, President Biden, whose election he still denies was legitimate. So Trump raged that…

“Everything is a lie. The whole thing is a lie. The whole election was a lie. As president I will be creating a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to shed sunlight on every dark and rotten corner of Washington, D.C., starting with Biden.”

“Truth” and “reconciliation” are two of the English language words that are least likely to be associated with Trump, who is known for his pathological lying and vengefulness. But what Trump is announcing here is his plan to abuse the power of the presidency to persecute Biden for the crime of having beaten him so decisively in 2020.

Trump went on to boast that he had already engaged in similar abuses of power when he fired FBI Director James Comey and other FBI officials in a blatant attempt to evade the legal consequences of his criminal behavior. Trump bragged that…

“You gotta understand, we were doing a job. I got rid of Comey. I got rid of the FBI top guys. I got rid of them of all. Boy oh boy. If I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t be standing here talking to you, because that was a bad thing they were planning. […] There were bad things planned. And we learned all about them because that was like throwing a rock into a hornet’s nest when I fired that guy.”

To be clear, Trump is publicly confessing to obstruction of justice by terminating law enforcement officials who were investigating his misconduct. Although his pride in having tainted the legal auspices of the executive branch of government is wildly misplaced. He is still going to be held accountable as result of the four pending indictments against him for 91 felony charges – so far.

However, Trump still wasn’t finished incriminating himself. He elaborated on his intentions to pervert justice with a promise to clean house at the Department of Justice and to launch self-serving probes into the federal and state attorneys who are currently prosecuting him. He’s blaming them for his legal problems, despite the fact that they are only prosecuting him for crimes that citizens on grand juries indicted him for. He lashed out saying that…

“We will together restore law and order in our country. We will completely overhaul the DOJ to investigate every Marxist prosecutor in America for their illegal racist-in-the-reverse enforcement of the law.”

Note that three of the prosecutors working on Trump’s cases (Letitia James, Fani Willis, and Alvin Bragg) are Black. So naturally Trump regards this as a racial assault on his superior and unassailable whiteness. He would like nothing more than to be the instigator of a race war in America. In fact, he has an explicit plan to incite hostility and division among the American people. The Washington Post reported on this plan writing that…

“Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.”

So Trump is pledging to weaponize both the Justice and Defense Departments against his perceived enemies and, ultimately, all of the American people. Rest assured that he won’t stop there either. He would use the departments of State, Energy, Education, Treasury, Homeland Security, and even Agriculture if he can think of a way. His sole purpose is to exalt himself and reign unchallenged as a tyrannical monarch. And in the process, make those who stood in his way pay for their disloyalty. What’s more, Trump would form alliances with his heroes, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping. And he would sell American interests to the highest bidders.

Make no mistake, these are his ambitions. In speeches like the one he gave on Saturday he is telling the world right out loud what he intends to do. And if the American people hope to avoid this nightmare they should listen to him, and vote for every Democrat up and down the ballot, if they hope to preserve democracy and the future of this country. Because that is what’s at stake.

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

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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Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

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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STFU: Why Did the Media Cover Every Word of Trump’s Post-Impeachment Gloating?

Here we go again. In 2016 the press disgraced itself by falling victim to the reality TV campaign of Donald Trump. They broadcast every rally and public address live and uninterrupted as if it had some news value. It didn’t. They were just providing Trump with millions of dollars of free air time.

Donald Trump Not Exonerated

The press utterly failed in its journalistic obligations during the 2016 campaign with their fixation on a candidate that stuffed his speeches full of lies, insults, and self-exaltation. Their preference for featuring Trump’s cult rallies was blatantly unfair. They were not giving the same amount of time or exposure to any of his opponents during the Republican primary or the general election. Some of the media recognized their profoundly biased and unprofessional conduct after the election and even apologized to the nation for letting them down.

Well, they seem not to learned a damn thing. On Thursday morning Trump gave an address from the White House that he previously tweeted would be “to discuss our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax!” That preview was bad enough, serving as a warning that the speech would be a feast of falsehoods and a celebration of having escaped accountability for his obvious crimes.

Why would the press rush to cover something that Trump himself falsely described as the “country’s victory” and a “hoax”? He telegraphed his intention to exploit the event for his own selfish purposes. And that’s exactly what he did.

The hour plus speech was a rambling disgorgement of a bloated ego combined with back-slapping of the sycophantic, Republican bootlickers in the audience. Trump rattled off the names of every Trump-fluffing apologist who ran his defense in Congress. and he told brief stories about how brilliant they were for adoring him.

Of course, Trump also used this time to lash out at his perceived enemies. He repeated his tiresome charge that he was the victim of a “witch hunt.” He revived his obsession with President Obama, baselessly alleging that “a lot of people would have been in jail” if he had his way. He rehashed the Mueller probe, calling it “bullshit” despite the fact that it affirmed numerous breaches of the law and blatant obstruction of justice. He went off, again, on America’s intelligence community, complaining about “dirty cops” and other evil people. He singled out former FBI Director James Comey for special condemnation, calling him a “sleazebag.” This is the behavior of a “president” whose cult followers are currently denouncing the “decorum” of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for tearing up a copy of his Dystopian State of the Union speech.

But he wasn’t nearly through. He slandered House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff as “corrupt” and a “vicious, horrible person.” Trump unwound his frequent lie that Schiff had misrepresented his remarks in the phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. He continues to insist that people read the memo that he calls a “transcript” of the call, even though it clearly indicates that he extorted Zelensky to get dirt on Joe Biden.

Naturally, Trump didn’t forget to attack Pelosi. He called her a horrible person also. But he went on to make reprehensible remarks about her faith, asserting that he “I doubts she prays at all.” Earlier in morning he made similar remarks the National Prayer Breakfast, where he attacked Mitt Romney’s faith as well, saying that he “used religion as a crutch.” and that “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.” This, coming from someone who pretends to be a devout Christian but can’t cite a single passage from the bible and brags that he has never asked god for forgiveness because he’s never done anything wrong.

The entire address was nothing but a propaganda filled campaign rally with an audience of StormTrumpers engaged in idol worship. It allowed Trump to lie about being exonerated (he wasn’t) and to malign his critics for a solid hour without any pushback, fact-checking, or concessions to reality. And the media chose to air the whole thing live and without interruption.

For what purpose? There was nothing remotely newsworthy about it. They could have have easily recorded it and aired it later if they found anything that served the public interest. And then they would also have been able to provide context and corrections of his numerous untruths. If this is any indication of how they are going to cover the election between now and November, America is big trouble.

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

Trump’s Mental Disabilities Prevent Him from Understanding the Inspector General’s Report

On Monday the long-awaited report about the FBI’s Russia probe by the Inspector General of the Justice Department was released. Donald Trump, Republicans, and the vast right-wing conspiracy had been insisting for weeks that this report would provide damning proof that Democrats and the imaginary “Deep State” were conspiring to stage a “coup” against Trump.

Donald Trump, Deep State

Now, with the release of this report it’s clear that the hopes of the Trump cultists have been thoroughly dashed on the rocks of reality. The conclusions by Inspector General Michael Horowitz could not have been stated more plainly:

IG Report: We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the FBI’s decision to seek FISA authority.

Among the findings were key revelations that upend the Trump regime’s favorite fallacies. For instance, the FBI did not use the Steele dossier to open the Russia probe. Also, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were not decision-makers. None of the hair-raising charges espoused by the wingnut set were upheld.

The report did identify a number of bureaucratic mistakes and flaws in the processes. But the bottom line was that none of these minor mishaps impacted the integrity or honesty of the work of the FBI and its senior officials, including Director James Comey, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, or anyone else in the Bureau. The report unambiguously declares that the investigation of Trump campaign operatives was fully justified and that its conduct was free of partisan politics.

However, despite the clarity of the report, Trump offered up his own bizarre and delusional analysis when asked by reporters after the report was made public (video below):

Trump: The IG report just came out and I was just briefed on it and it’s a disgrace what’s happened with respect to the things that were done to our country. It should never again happen to another president. It is incredible, far worse than I would’ve ever thought possible and it’s an embarrassment to our country, its dishonest, it’s everything that a lot of people thought it would be, except far worse.

What report was he reading? There is no plausible way a person could utter that nonsense unless they were clinically insane or purposefully intended to deceive. For this report to be “far worse” than Trump “ever thought possible,” it would have to have uncovered evidence of something worse than treason, because that’s what Trump had called the Russia investigation in the past. There was, of course, nothing in the report that supported that hysterical take. Although, Trump did get affirmation from his Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr, who said that “The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions.” Which the IG Report most definitely didn’t do. Then Trump continued…

Trump: They fabricated evidence and they lied to the courts and they did all sorts of things to have it go their way and this was something we can never allow to have to happen again. The report actually, and especially when you look into the details of the report are far worse than anything I would’ve even imagined. What they were doing and what they would’ve done if I didn’t make a certain move, a certain move that was a very important move because it would’ve been even worse if that’s possible. And they might’ve been able to succeed, this was an overthrow of government, this was an attempted overthrow and a lot of people were in on it and they got caught, they got caught red-handed.

There is also no evidence of anyone fabricating evidence or lying to the court, as Trump is alleging. And naturally, he won’t provide any examples of such activity, because there aren’t any. Trump often speaks in vagaries to avoid having to support his preposterous assertions. Another example of that is his reference to a “very important move” that he says prevented even worse atrocities – for him. He’s talking about his firing of Comey, an action that should itself result in an Article of Impeachment for obstruction of justice.

Finally, Trump’s deranged claim that the Russia probe was “an attempted overthrow” of the government is both false and strikingly paranoid. He further claims that there were “a lot of people in on it” that he now says have been “caught red-handed.” Who the hell he’s talking about is a mystery. None of the people that Trump has been viciously slandering for the past couple of years has been charged with any crime, or even cited for administrative errors.

In short, the FBI has been fully exonerated by an independent Inspector General who was appointed by Trump. And Trump has been shown to be a malicious liar. His mental infirmity is still on display with crazy comments that amount to dubious declarations of victory. “I think,” Trump said, “I’m gonna put this down as one of our great achievements.” Really? That says something about what he regards as his other alleged “achievements.” Namely that they are all in his mind and only exist to fluff his super-sized, narcissistic ego.

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

Trump Interrupts His Empty Schedule to Whine About the Mueller Report, Witch Hunt

With Hurricane Dorian closing in on the Atlantic coast, and mass shooting victims still recovering in Texas, and an economy that’s teetering on the brink of recession, any other president would be exceedingly busy on this post-Labor Day Tuesday. But Donald Trump is apparently so idle that he’s spending his day hate-tweeting the mayor of London and threatening to escalate the trade war with China.

Donald Trump, Witch Hunt

Having already played several rounds of golf while pretending to be “monitoring” the hurricane, Trump has little else to do but watch Fox News and post incoherent tweets. It’s not like he’d actually do any presidential work. And among the Twitter tantrums he posted Tuesday was one that seems foolishly unnecessary from his perspective:

Why would Trump want to reignite an issue that has been dormant in the news cycle for several weeks? What he robotically refers to as a “Witch Hunt” has caused significant damage to his polling status. Even his favorite pollster, the ultra-biased Rasmussen, recently put him near his lows for the year. That’s primarily because very few other Americans think that it’s a Witch Hunt. In fact, most polls show that voters favor an impeachment inquiry and hold special counsel Robert Mueller in high esteem. Mueller’s congressional testimony confirmed that Trump had “welcomed and encouraged” Russian help during his campaign, and that he committed numerous acts of obstruction of justice to cover that up. Even the Senior Legal Analyst at Fox News said so.

And yet, Trump is now tweeting about the Mueller Report and a witch Hunt that might otherwise have not been at the forefront of the public’s mind. But for the reminder of his “No Collusion, No Obstruction” mantra, some folks might have forgotten. But now, thanks to Trump it’s top of the news again.

Trump’s tweet appears to have been triggered by the Justice Department’s Inspector General’s report about former FBI Director James Comey. However, Trump has been flagrantly lying about that for weeks. Not only did it not reveal “a giant and illegal SCAM,” it actually found that there was no violation of any law whatsoever.

Trump also used this tweet to the beseech the House of Representatives to “get back to work on drug prices, healthcare, [and] infrastructure.” Which is funny because the Democratically-controlled House has already passed bills on those matters (and many others, 200+ in all), but the Republican-controlled Senate has failed to act on a single one. So it’s Trump’s pal Mitch McConnell who needs the kick in the pants.

In the end, Trump has managed to get everything wrong in this tweet, but still performed a public service. Because while there are always issues competing for the attention of the American mind, the matter of Trump’s unsavory association with Vladimir Putin, and the assault on our democratic election, should never be swept under the rug with all of the other Trump atrocities. That rug is already too lumpy to walk on. And thanks to Trump’s boredom and his inability to keep his mouth shut for two minutes, this important issue is once again in the headlines.

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

Trump is Terrified That He’s Losing the Senate, Paving the Way for Impeachment

The best gauge of what Donald Trump’s paranoid, narcissistic mind is obsessed with at any given moment is his frantic and self-serving Twitter feed. Trump has no ability to give thoughtful consideration to what he tweets. He simply lets his innermost anxieties gush like a busted fire hydrant spewing unrestrained panic.

Donald Trump Impeach

On Saturday morning Trump was at Camp David where he said he was monitoring the approaching Hurricane Dorian as it lumbers toward Florida. Trump had canceled a previously scheduled diplomatic mission to Poland allegedly to manage preparations for the hurricane. However, he has already left Camp David for a golf outing in Virginia. But even prior to that he was paying much more attention to Twitter than to the weather forecast.

Trump’s tweets covered a couple predictable subjects that had to do with his obsession over former FBI Director James Comey, who he fired two years ago, and the firing of his personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, yesterday. Not surprisingly, Trump lied about Comey releasing classified documents, which his own Justice Department’s Inspector General said didn’t happen. And he threatened Westerhout with a lawsuit if she violated an alleged non-disclosure agreement. Of course, Trump cannot enforce any such agreement for White House staff because they don’t work for him. They work for the United States government.

However, Something else was consuming Trump’s pitifully limited attention span, and it exploded all over his Twitter feed. There were twenty-five (25!) tweets or retweets of Senate Republicans, along with Trump’s compliments and vague, insincere flattery. That’s an astonishingly large quantity of tweets by Trump on a subject that isn’t himself. So what might have triggered this uncharacteristic outburst of political angst?

Clearly Trump’s advisors are warning him of the harsh environment he’s facing in the upcoming election of 2020. His favorite pollster, Rasmussen, recently placed his favorability near his lows for the year. And even a Fox News poll shows him losing to every one of the top Democratic candidates.

The picture isn’t any better for the Republicans in the Senate. Next year they will have twenty-two incumbents on the ballot (including GOP Leader Mitch McConnell), compared with only twelve for the Democrats. And with people like Cory Gardner of Colorado, Susan Collins of Maine, and Martha McSally of Arizona, struggling to stay competitive, the odds of Democrats winning the majority in the Senate are increasingly likely.

Should that happen Mitch McConnell would no longer have the tyrannical hold on the upper body that he has been abusing for years. The 200+ bills passed in the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives would finally get a vote in the Senate. But most foreboding from Trump’s perspective is that there would no longer be any partisan protection from a possible impeachment. And if there is strong Blue Wave sweeping the GOP out of Congress, the remaining members might actually be concerned enough about their own futures to take Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors seriously.

Even before the 2020 election, GOP senators who see the oncoming trainwreck might start to drift away from Trump in order to save themselves. Even if that means throwing him overboard. Consequently, Trump is lavishing attention and praise on the Republican senators he has for the most part ignored or treated as lackeys whose only purpose was to serve him. He now needs to gain their support and demonstrate that he’s willing to work harder for their reelection. Not because he really cares about either their political fate or even their agenda. But because he fears the consequences for himself without the safety net they provide.

Unfortunately for Trump, it’s too late for this selfish strategy to work. Anyone who supports Trump is already planning to vote the Republican line. He has no ability to attract new voters. In fact, he’s so polarizing that his presence will probably scare more voters away. So the desperation he’s showing with this tweetstorm is actually good news for Democrats and other patriotic Americans who are anxious to see Trump impeached. His overt expression of fear shows that he’s truly concerned that there’s a real possibility that he will be removed from office and prosecuted for his wrongdoings and betrayal. And for once, he’s right.

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

The Love Affair Between Trump and Fox News Has Been All Patched Up, Thank Gawd

There was a brief disturbance in the force this week when Donald Trump became disenchanted with his own State TV network, Fox News. Trump’s ire appeared to have been triggered by Fox having the audacity to interview a representative of the Democratic Party. He seems to think that Fox News is forbidden to interview anyone that isn’t a card-carrying StormTrumper.

Donald Trump, Fox News, White House

Trump unleashed a Twitter tantrum that included his declaration that “Fox isn’t working for us anymore,” and an order to his Deplorables that “We have to start looking for a new News Outlet.” These missives might have startled some in the media business, but those who have seen this sort of whining on Trump’s part before weren’t surprised. While he has had several breakups with Fox, they were always short-lived and the two lovers managed to kiss and make up every time.

The evidence that the latest rift in the Trump/Fox Affair has been mended is Trump’s Twitter feed on Friday. It contained five videos from Fox News all on a single subject: The Justice Department’s Inspector General report on James Comey. Trump could have gotten this news from anywhere, but he chose to feature the Fox segments because – well, Fox is still his sweetheart.

For the record, Trump and Fox News were both obsessed with the IG’s report and presented it as proof of Comey’s corruption and bias. Nevermind that the report explicitly stated that Comey broke no laws, which is why Trump’s corrupt Attorney General, William Barr, declined to prosecute. As for bias, Fox and Trump have never explained why Comey sabotaged Hillary Clinton’s campaign if he was supposedly supporting her.

The videos Trump posted included one with a phony “Democrat” who frequently appears on Fox News to bark at Democrats. Then there was one that featured a former prosecutor and current Fox Democrat basher. And there were three videos featuring Republican congressmen whose predictable partisanship was flagrantly on display.

Obviously Trump has gotten over his beef with Fox News. He always knew that Fox was his best friend and that their tiff would subside. Because where else can he go? He isn’t going to soil himself with the networks he calls “the enemy of the people.” And other right-wing media outlets are pitifully small and ineffectual. He knows that only Fox News has the sort of worshipful sycophants who can go on the air and say with conviction that Donald Trump has never told a lie, which is what Stuart Varney just did. It takes a special brand of deranged cult devotion to satisfy Trump’s massive and fragile ego. And only Fox News can offer that.

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

Dazed and Confused: Trump Can’t Keep His Mueller Stories – or Anything Else – Straight

Since Donald Trump ordered the White House Press Office to stop doing daily press briefings nearly three months ago, the only media access to the President has been his impromptu harangues on the White House lawn in front of the whirring blades of his helicopter. And there has been a noticeable deterioration of his mental faculties in each one of these reality TV style spiels. The latest on Thursday morning is a real display of his paranoid dementia.

Donald Trump Zombie

Trump addressed several subjects including his insistence that Russia didn’t help him get elected. In his typically narcissistic fashion he told the assembled press “You know who got me elected? I got me elected.” He also briefly touched on the matter of his potential impeachment. In doing so he demonstrated that he has no idea how it works. He doesn’t know what “high crimes and misdemeanors” means. And he he wonders how the courts could allow it. Of course every high school civics student knows that impeachment is entirely within the jurisdiction of Congress and the courts have nothing to with it.

However, perhaps the most ludicrous exchanges occurred when Trump was lashing out at special counsel Robert Mueller. The recent public statement by Mueller affirmed that his investigation had found evidence of criminal activities and obstruction of justice by Trump (even Fox News said so), but that no indictments were filed due to an old and questionable policy memo at the Department of Justice. This predictably triggered Trump’s worst instincts to attack Mueller and his work (video below):

“He was conflicted. Look, Robert Mueller should have never been chosen because he wanted the FBI job and he didn’t get it, and the next day he was picked as special counsel. So you tell somebody ‘I’m sorry, you can’t have the job.’ and then after you say that he’s gonna make a ruling on you? It doesn’t work that way. Plus we had a business dispute. Plus his relationship with Comey was extraordinary.”

None of this is new in the armory of Trump’s assault rhetoric. It has all been used before by Trump so many times that he seems to be stuck in an endless and tedious tape loop. But he is also contradicting himself with regards to his opinion of Mueller. It was just two months ago that Trump told reporters that he believed that Mueller had “acted honorably” following the completion of the probe. He even gloated that “The Mueller report was great. It could not have been better.” That moment of confidence, however, was short lived.

Now Trump is back to maligning Mueller as “conflicted” for reasons that totally reside in his warped imagination. Mueller was not seeking to return to the FBI. He met with Trump only as a courtesy and to provide consultation. Mueller also did not have a “business dispute” with Trump. Although there was a minor incident when Mueller resigned his membership at Trump’s National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, because he no longer lived in the area and wasn’t using it. And Mueller has never been a close friend of James Comey. In fact, they were not even casual friends. Comey testified before Congress that he had dinner once with Mueller, but had never been to his home, didn’t have his phone number, and didn’t know the names of his kids.

But Trump wasn’t through. He still needed to repeat the same lies a few more times to make sure his gaslighting would take hold among his cult disciples.

“I think he is a totally conflicted person. I think Mueller is a true never-Trumper. He’s somebody who dislikes Donald Trump. He’s somebody that didn’t get a job that he requested that eh wanted very badly. And then he was appointed. And despite that, and despite $40 million dollars, eighteen Trump haters, including people who worked for Hillary clinton, and some of the worst human beings on Earth, they got nothing. It’s pretty amazing.”

What’s “pretty amazing” is that Trump thinks that the career law enforcement professionals that Mueller recruited from the FBI and the Justice Department are “some of the worst human beings on Earth.” That puts them in the same league – in Trump’s mind – as child molesters, drug traffickers, and terrorists. And despite the obvious insanity of these remarks, Trump’s supporters in his administration, in Congress, and in the general public, still don’t think he’s nuts. Which leads once again to the perennial question: WTF is gonna take?

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

Trump’s Rambling, Lie-Riddled Rant About Mueller and Russia Exposes His Panic and Fear

On Thursday morning Donald Trump held an impromptu press conference to announce an initiative related to drug pricing disclosures. But as often occurs at any Trump affair, it wandered off topic and wound up miles from reality. Trump’s rambling discourse (video below) was further evidence of his severely declining mental state that is stressed by anxiety, consumed by paranoia, and fraught with hostility toward his perceived enemies.

Trump Fear

The diversions littered throughout this spectacle included utterly false claims that Trump had provided Puerto Rico Rico with $91 billion dollars in aid following the devastation of Hurricane Maria. It was only $11 billion. He also repeated his frequently told lie that tariffs on China are paid by China. They are actually paid by by American companies who pass those costs on to American consumers.

Trump defended his son, Don Jr, who was just subpoenaed by the GOP-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee, by saying that special counsel Robert Mueller had exonerated him. He didn’t. And Trump recklessly accused former Secretary of State, John Kerry, of having violated the Logan Act, and called for his prosecution. That’s just another example of Trump using his Justice Department to persecute his political opponents, the way dictators are known to do.

However, the most strikingly deranged portion of this babbling tirade was Trump’s surreal portrayal of what happened in the aftermath of the release of the redacted version of Mueller’s report. He began by misrepresenting the special counsel’s team as being comprised of “seventeen or eighteen very angry Democrats who hated Donald Trump.” It was actually led by Mueller, a lifelong Republican, who was appointed by a Republican Acting Attorney General, who was appointed by Trump.

Following that, Trump claimed that no one was ever more transparent than he has been. This is despite his recent declaration that he is suppressing, via executive privilege, the entire Mueller report, denying Congress the right to interview anyone associated with the affair, and opposing all attempts to have witnesses testify before Congress, including those served lawful subpoenas.

Trump further misrepresented what took place by claiming that Mueller was unfit to conduct the investigation because of “conflicts” he had with Trump. Those alleged conflicts were fabrications from the diseased mind of a paranoid president. He first stated that he and Mueller had some sort of bad business relationship. And it went downhill from there:

Trump: Mueller’s no friend of mine. I had conflicts with him. We had a business dispute. We had somebody that is in love with James Comey. He like James Comey. They were very good friends. Supposedly best friends. Maybe not, but supposedly best friends. You look at the picture file and you see hundreds of pictures of him and Comey. And with all of that and other things – he wanted the FBI job. I don’t know if anybody knows that.

First of all, the business dispute Trump refers to was a minor incident when Mueller resigned his membership at Trump’s National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, because he no longer lived in the area and wasn’t using it. That hardly qualifies as a business dispute.

Secondly, Trump’s assertion that Mueller was “in love” with Comey is laughable. Especially after Trump confessed that he was in love with Kim Jong Un. What’s more, there is absolutely no evidence that Mueller and Comey had anything other than a work relationship. They were not even casual friends. Comey testified before Congress that he had dinner once with Mueller, but had never been to his home, didn’t have his phone number, and didn’t know the names of his kids. Trump has told this lie before, embellishing it with claims that there were hundreds of pictures of them “hugging and kissing.” No one has ever found a single one.

Trump did interview Mueller for FBI director, which shouldn’t surprise anyone since he previously held that job for twelve years. But if Trump is insinuating a conspiracy, then Rod Rosenstein must have been in on it, because he picked Mueller to lead the special counsel probe. If there was a conspiracy, it didn’t work very well because Rosenstein later stood quietly behind Trump’s Attorney General, William Barr, as he brazenly lied about the contents of Mueller’s report. But here’s where this really gets weird:

Trump: Here’s what happened. The report comes back, it’s perfect it’s beautiful. There’s no collusion. Nobody even talks about collusion. You know, I haven’t heard the word Russia in a long time [he talked to Putin six days ago]. There’s no more talk about Russia What happened to Russia. The Russia witch hunt – they don’t talk because it was so on collusion. Which by the way is by far, that’s the big deal.

Let’s just set aside the fact that everyone is talking about Russia. Now Trump is ecstatic about what he claims is the result of the investigation that he also claims was a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.” He describes as “perfect” and “beautiful” a report that he insists was the work of an allegedly conflicted and embittered enemy who hates him.

It appears that Trump can’t keep his rattled attention focused long enough to decide whether he is the victim of an evil cabal, or the joyful winner of “total exoneration.” All of this is on public display every time he steps in front of a camera. And for some reason, the press is still reluctant to say what is so glaringly obvious: Donald Trump is totally nuts and unfit to serve.

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

Fox News is Referenced in the Mueller Report Four Times, and Each Makes Trump Look Worse

With the release of the redacted version of the Mueller report by Donald Trump’s plant in the Justice Department, Attorney General William Barr, there is going to be a flurry of furious spinning by Trump’s devoted martinets in the right-wing press. Trump himself will continue his frantic robo-rant of “no collusion, no obstruction,” as he has been doing for months.

Fox News, Robert Mueller

Naturally, Fox News will assume its predictable role as the main line of defense for Trump. They will focus exclusively on any positive angles among the vague interpretations of Mueller’s report offered by Barr or other Republican partisans. And they will brazenly ignore anything in the report that is remotely detrimental to Trump, of which there is a significant amount. Even Chris Wallace of Fox News noted that “There is a lot of stuff in here that is damaging to the president, politically embarrassing to the president.”

However, Fox News itself had a place in the Mueller report with four references to Trump’s State TV affiliate. The following passages from the report illustrate just how deeply integrated Fox is with Trump and his associates. For instance:

Page 70:

“That night, the White House Press Office called the Department of Justice and said the White House wanted to put out a statement saying that it was Rosenstein’s idea to fire Comey. Rosenstein told other DOJ officials that he would not participate in putting out a ‘false story.’ The President then called Rosenstein directly and said he was watching Fox News, that the coverage had been great, and that he wanted Rosenstein to do a press conference. Rosenstein responded that this was not a good idea because if the press asked him, he would tell the truth that Comey’s firing was not his idea.”

What we have here is Trump keeping tabs on the investigation by watching Fox News, and then trying to get Deputy AG Rosenstein to lie for him about FBI Director James Comey’s firing. That’s obstruction of justice right there. The fact that Rosenstein refused doesn’t make Trump’s attempt any less illegal. And then there’s this:

Page 99:

“[Reince] Priebus recalled learning about the June 9 meeting from Fox News host Sean Hannity in late June 2017. Priebus notified one of the President’s personal attorneys, who told Priebus he was already working on it. By late June, several advisors recalled receiving media inquiries that could relate to the June 9 meeting.”

It’s rather remarkable that Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, found out about the infamous Trump Tower meeting (with Don Jr, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and some Russian operatives) only by watching Fox News. That’s how out-of-the-loop Trump’s closest White House aide was, but also how integral Fox News is to Trump’s affairs. And that’s not all:

Page 126:

“In a Fox News interview on August 22, 2018, the President said: ‘[Cohen] makes a better deal when he uses me, like everybody else. And one of the reasons l respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trial-you know they make up stories. People make up stories. This whole thing about flipping, they call it, I know all about flipping. The President said that flipping was ‘not fair’ and ‘almost ought to be outlawed.'”

In this “interview” with the unabashedly pro-Trump “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, Trump is laying the groundwork for threats directed at his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, while simultaneously praising his more loyal campaign chairman, Manafort. This is a fairly clumsy attempt at witness tampering. Which he did some more of here:

Page 151:

“In January 2019, after the media reported that Cohen would provide public testimony in a congressional hearing, the President made additional public comments suggesting that Cohen’s family members had committed crimes. In an interview on Fox on January 12, 2019, the President was asked whether he was worried about Cohen’s testimony and responded:

‘[I]n order to get his sentence reduced, [Cohen] says “I have an idea, I’ll ah, tell-I’ll give you some information on the president.” Well, there is no information. But he should give information maybe on his father-in-law because that’s the one that people want to look at because where does that money-that’s the money in the family.'”

Trump made these accusations during an interview with his adoring acolyte, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. They were directed against Cohen’s family as a flagrant attempt to scare him into keeping his mouth shut.

It’s hard to see why Mueller didn’t think he had sufficient evidence to indict Trump, or at least to recommend that Congress take up an inquiry that could lead to impeachment. And as guilty as Trump now appears to be, it’s plain that Fox News was a willing accomplice every step of the way. It is not insignificant that Fox was referenced four times in the report. They were further included in twenty-seven footnotes. No other national news network was referenced in the body of the report even once. What does that tell you?

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