Lindsey Graham

PRIORITIES: While Texas Freezes, Lindsey Graham Stumps for Trump’s Useless Border Wall

Posted by on February 20, 2021 at 10:43 am. 6 Comments :

The Republican Party long ago distinguished itself as a haven for cravenly selfish elitists whose primary purpose is to lower taxes on the rich, eliminate regulations that save lives, suppress minorities, and advance the agenda of extremist evangelicals. This week the GOP had some outstanding opportunities to affirm their commitment to that mission.

Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump

Without question, the biggest story of the week was the devastating winter storm that bombarded Texas and much of the eastern United States. What we learned from that ongoing catastrophe was that Republicans were more interested in politicizing the tragedy than in doing anything constructive to help their suffering constituents.

For instance, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott rushed to Fox News to deflect blame for the failures of his administration to out of state Democrats and the “Green New Deal,” which has not been enacted into law anywhere, especially Texas. Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz jetted off to the sunny climes of Cancun, Mexico, with his family, rather than stay at home and do his job during troubled times. Humiliated by such a callous abandonment of his duty to his state, he frantically returned and immediately got to work making excuses on Fox News, where he blamed his minor children for his own poor decisions.

On Saturday, the GOP’s Senior Trump-fluffing Senator, Lindsey Graham demonstrated the same lack of human decency. After spending time with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Lindsey boarded a plane for the southern border where he could raise an issue that is topmost on the minds almost nobody: Trump’s idiotic, useless, and vain border wall. Graham’s cross-country jaunt to serve as Trump’s mouthpiece resulted in a propaganda video wherein he asserted that…

“The Biden Administration apparently has decided to stop plugging this hole here. As a result the Border Patrol is now gonna try to have a camera and people sitting up on that hill to watch them as they flow in. Wouldn’t it make more sense to put this section of the wall together? What good comes from allowing this hole to continue to exist? This wall is here for a purpose. To keep people from coming into our country illegally,”

For the record, what Graham is referring to is a thirty foot space along a double-tracked portion of the wall on a border that is 2,000 miles long. The other track at this point is complete, so if the wall is capable of preventing entry (it isn’t), it would already be doing that. Also, notice all of “them” who are flowing into the country in this video. Frightening, isn’t it?

This is what Graham dropped everything to do. Does it help the people of Texas who are freezing and dying? Does it further efforts to combat the coronavirus? Does it even address the issue of immigration, for which Joe Biden and the Democrats just introduced a comprehensive bill that Graham could be working on? Of course not. It’s ironic that, while Graham is obsessed with a wall (that Mexico was supposed to pay for) to prevent people from Mexico getting into the U.S., Ted Cruz couldn’t get out of the U.S. and into Mexico fast enough.

This is so emblematic of the Republican Party. They have a perverse set of priorities that seem to be perpetually at odds with what the American people actually want and need. And when they aren’t trying to distract the public with politically partisan culture war demagoguery, they are lashing out with vicious attacks that have no basis in fact or reality. Take for example this crackpottery by Newsmax anchor Greg Kelly who, unable to substantively criticize President Biden, he goes after one of his dogs:

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

WTF? Lindsey Graham Threatens to Impeach … VP Kamala Harris?

Posted by on February 14, 2021 at 2:10 pm. 6 Comments :

The madness of the Republican Party is skidding off the trail and over a cliff. Despite having just lost the legal debate over the impeachment of Donald Trump, and resorting to “cancelling” their own members for daring to vote their conscience, the GOP’s top spokesmodels are exhibiting signs of severe mental collapse.

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Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump

Sen. Lindsey Graham visited with Fox News’ Senior Trump-Fluffer, Maria Bartiromo, Sunday morning to defend his unconscionable vote to acquit Trump for inciting an insurrection. He ignored a mountain of evidence in order to obediently comply with the demands of his Dear Leader. But during the segment on Fox News, Graham trotted out the most ludicrous allegation imaginable as a means of diverting attention from his own detestable behavior:

“The trial record was a complete joke. Hearsay upon hearsay. And we’ve opened Pandora’s box to future presidents. If we use this model I don’t know how Kamala Harris doesn’t get impeached if Republicans take over the House. Because she actually bailed out rioters and one of the rioters went back to the streets and broke somebody’s head open. So we’ve opened Pandora’s box here, and I’m sad for the country.”

Graham is not the only one who is sad for the country. So are the majority of Americans who supported the conviction of Trump and are looking forward to his being held accountable in criminal and civil courts.

More to the point, Graham’s suggestion that Vice-President Kamala Harris could be subjected to impeachment if Republicans take control of Congress is the best argument for voting against every Republican in 2022 and beyond. He is shamelessly conceding that it would only be done as brazen political vengeance. Not that this shady motive hasn’t been evident in everything that Graham, and most of his Republican confederates, have done for years.

In addition to his craven politicization of impeachment, Graham is also lying about Harris. She never bailed out anyone, especially not rioters or other violent lawbreakers. The thread that Graham is dangling from concerns a tweet wherein Harris expressed support for the Minneapolis Freedom Fund (MFF), an organization that raised money to bail out peaceful protesters in Minnesota who were arrested following the police murder of George Floyd.

The MFF did provide bail for others who were charged with more serious crimes, but had nothing to do with the protests or those Harris was seeking to help. Even so, there is no evidence that any protester, or any other beneficiary, committed any crimes after being bailed out. Graham’s statement that Harris “actually bailed out rioters” and that “one of the rioters went back to the streets and broke somebody’s head open,” is a bald-faced lie.

This is a demonstration of how desperate Graham and the GOP are. They know that Trump is guilty of inciting a deadly riot, and they know that they are culpable for aiding and abetting his treason. That’s why they will only show up on Fox News where they know that they won’t be challenged by partisan suck-ups like Bartiromo. However, they also won’t stem the tide of disgust that is rising against them as they continue to engage in pathetic and desperate displays like this preposterous attack on VP Harris.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Thanks for your support.

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

Frightened GOP Traitors Are Suffering From PTSD – Post-Trump Sedition Disorder

Posted by on January 10, 2021 at 2:18 pm. 9 Comments :

The failed Trump Insurrection was only four days ago. However, the devoted enablers of Donald Trump are are already attempting to distance themselves from the sedition they were advocating. In the wake of the tragedy that has resulted in at least five deaths so far, they are frantically seeking to bury their own complicity and present themselves as uniters.

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Trump Fear

Sorry. That isn’t going to fly. You don’t get to beg for mercy and togetherness after you spent months fomenting animus, hatred, and flagrant lies aimed at suppressing the will of the American people. After someone has plowed through your rose garden and poisoned your dog, he can’t make a plea to be good neighbors now that he’s facing charges for felony arson because he was also caught setting fire to your house.

There have to be consequences for unlawful acts. The perpetrators must be punished in order to serve justice and to deter others. You can only achieve real unity by honestly applying the law without favor or bias, not by forgiving the heinous crimes of the privileged. That, however, is precisely the dead end path that guilty Republicans are scurrying along. For instance…

  • Kevin McCarthy: Impeaching the President with just 12 days left will only divide our country more.
  • Ted Cruz: We must come together and put this anger and division behind us.
  • Lindsey Graham: I firmly believe impeachment would further destroy our ability to heal and start over.
  • And of course, Trump: We must revitalize the sacred bonds of love and loyalty, that bind us together as one national family.

None of these hypocrites have any standing to cry for unity. They have been unity’s enemies for pretty much… ever! Typical among them is ultra-rightist Rep. Jim Jordan. He made his own appeal to forgive and forget the right’s abhorrent criminality, and was firmly in lock-step with his confederates:

“Impeachment is for a sitting president. And the President, if the Democrats pursue this, could not have a trial until after he has left office. So I think it’s got real constitutional problems. But most importantly, it’s not healthy for the nation. We’re at an important point. I’m very concerned about where we’re at. I hope we can begin to come back together.”

Jordan is helpfully demonstrating what a horrible source he is for constitutional law. There is nothing in the Constitution or subsequent legislation that requires a president to be currently serving in order to be impeached. Congress could impeach Calvin Coolidge now if they chose to. And Jordan is hardly the right person to advocate for unity when his whole career in Congress has been dedicated to creating partisan hostility and division. What’s more, appointing himself as the magistrate of morality is a humongous stretch considering how he covered up sexual abuse when he was a student wrestling coach at Ohio State.

With regard to the seditious acts of the Trump Insurrection, it is necessary to impeach Trump in order to establish a legal record of his conviction for inciting his violent cult disciples. It is also necessary to prevent him from running for office in the future. It is also necessary to prohibit the government from paying for his pension, healthcare, office, staff, and security, for the rest of his life. It is also necessary as notice to Trump’s enablers (Pence, Cruz, Hawley, Pompeo, Haley, and even Tucker Carlson) that their servile bootlicking earned them no political benefit.

These backsliding hypocrites are exhibiting the cowardice for which they are famous. Now that they face some legal peril they are anxious to sue for peace. They are feigning a desire for harmony, but only after their vicious assault failed and they’re too scared to suffer the consequences. But it’s not their choice anymore. The law must prevail. And they’ve been caught red-handed because of all the blood on their hands.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. And you can follow my alternate Twitter account here. Thanks for your support.

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

Fox News Defends Slave Owners: ‘It Doesn’t Mean They Were Terrible People’

Posted by on June 26, 2020 at 1:23 pm. 10 Comments :

There is a bitter controversy spreading across America like a viral pandemic. The nation’s past is being held to greater scrutiny as a result of repeated incidents of unarmed black Americans being murdered by the police. This evidence of systemic racism has boiled over into a much needed dialog on what values our country ought to be preserving and encouraging.

Fox News, KKK

Citizens have been pouring into the streets to express their anger and their refusal to tolerate the prejudice that presents itself in the form of “historical” statues. These monuments were intended to pay tribute to leaders of the treasonous Confederacy. In some cases these statues have been ripped from their pedestals or otherwise defaced. Donald Trump has taken the side of the traitors (while accusing others of treason) and is calling for the arrests and harsh punishment of the protesters. On Friday morning he even tweeted “Wanted” posters. He is doing far more to persecute these demonstrators than he has ever done to hold actual racist murderers accountable for their crimes.

Those making arguments in favor of maintaining these statues barely disguise their racist motives. They assert that it’s a matter of preserving history. But we do not erect statues of traitors and criminals as historical markers. If we did there would be statues of Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray. Statues are honorific, not history lessons. And removing them doesn’t erase any historical data. The South’s rebellion to preserve slavery is still recorded in history books and documentaries, as it should be.

Cut to Fox News (the network that is literally killing people). On Friday’s edition of Fox and Friends, the now social distancing “Curvy Couch” potatoes invited South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham to discuss these issues. Co-host Brian Kilmeade led off with this wholehearted embrace of what Trump once called the “very fine people on both sides” of the racial hatred debate. “These people were right,” Kilmeade began, and “Those people were wrong. But it doesn’t mean they were terrible people. They were people of their times.”

Really? Kilmeade is defending the slave holders who were wonderful folks who just liked to own and brutalize other human beings as if they were cattle. What’s so terrible about that? As “people of their times,” how could they be faulted? How are they any different than the Nazis who were people of the 1940s in Germany? How are they any different than the KKK and the white nationalists in America today who are merely people of these times?

Here’s a creative way some Bulgarian artists dealt with the Russian oppressors of their times:

The fact that Kilmeade considers that a valid argument is precisely what’s wrong with Fox News and those who align themselves with their heinous political ideology (including Trump and his Deplorables). When it was Sen. Graham’s turn to contribute to this dialog, he didn’t bother to renounce what had been said so far. In fact, he elaborated by attacking the protesters in even more loathsome terms (video below):

“The people doing this hate our country. They hate the way we were founded. They hate capitalism. They have no respect for religion. They have no respect for diversity of thought. These people are the most radical people known to America. We’re at war with them politically. They want to destroy America as we know it. They hate America and every symbol of our country from the flag to the statues.

They hate. They want to turn us into a socialist nation. They want to destroy the family unit as we know it. And I tell you what, to the listeners out there. You may not believe you’re in a war, but you are, politically, and you need to take sides, and you need to help this president.”

Sound familiar? This is the dehumanizing rhetoric of the Old South that regarded people as animals and property. In Graham’s view, they have no rights, no decency, no family values. They represent everything that is unholy and against the country as seen by Graham and his ilk. And the only solution, according to Graham and his Fox News cohorts, is (civil) war.

Make no mistake, Graham and Fox News speak for Trump. Not that anyone outside of their bubble believes them, or that Trump needs their help. He’s been saying the very same things himself. This is the diseased mindset of people who still haven’t accepted that the South lost. They still want the statues that honor traitors. They still want to fly the Confederate flag. They still want to oppress African-Americans and others they regard as non-white deviants. And they are terrified that they are losing the battle to retain their delusions of superiority. Which, thankfully, they are.

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

Breaking Vlad: Trump Resurrects His Russia ‘Witch Hunt’ Whine

Posted by on June 4, 2020 at 1:31 pm. 2 Comments :

Nothing exemplifies the desperation welling up in Donald Trump more than his reversion to a dormant whimper from days past. Trump was impeached (for life) half a year ago. Throughout the entire process he produced a plaintive cry of “Witch Hunt” despite the volumes of documentary evidence, testimony, and confessions that proved his guilt.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

Trump was fortunate to have a compliant cadre of Republican sycophants in the Senate to allow him to escape accountability for his criminality (for now). You have to wonder if they are all still comfortable with their blindly partisan absolution given the devastation over which Trump has presided in the interim. That includes more than 107,000 deaths due to the coronavirus, the collapse of the economy, 42 million Americans out of work, civil unrest on a national scale that is unprecedented, and his militaristic response that mimics the tyrannical oppressiveness of his totalitarian heroes. He is callously maligning the millions of heartfelt protesters in a manner that even his own staff finds nauseating.

However, Trump now finds himself in an environment where he is floundering politically. Every poll shows him losing to Joe Biden nationally, as well as in the crucial swing states. His approval rating is in the gutter. And it has going nowhere but down as the current crises play out. Consequently, Trump is bringing out his golden oldies collection of crapola. In the past few days he has posted dozens of tweets relating to the investigation of Russia’s interference in the U.S. election that resulted in Trump’s impeachment.

Most of Trump’s reanimated hostilities were stirred by the new Senate hearings chaired by venerable Trump-fluffer, Lindsey Graham. These hearings were intended to smear Trump’s Democratic presidential opponent, Joe Biden. But they are also providing material for both Trump and Fox News to polish Trump’s sagging public image and to change the subject from his recent string of disasters.

Trump’s contribution to this manufactured narrative has been mostly simplistic sloganeering (such as “This Witch Hunt should never have begun!”), and incoherent gibberish (such as “Mueller should have never been appointed, although he did prove that I must be the most honest man in America!”) And he gratefully showered his appreciation unto bootlickers like Ted Cruz, Matt Gaetz, and others who obediently tow the Trump Cult line.

By dredging up the Russia story, Trump, Republicans, and Fox News are seeking to rewrite the history of Trump’s unsavory relationships. His fraternization with numerous people (Carter Page, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, etc.) with connections to Russia made the U.S. intelligence community something more than nervous. And by spinning their fictionalized version of events, they are also absolving Russia of any criminal espionage and election tampering, which was previously documented by every intelligence agency with jurisdiction.

Naturally, Trump’s pal Vladimir Putin will be thrilled with this development. And that isn’t an accidental outcome. It is precisely what both Trump and Putin desire. And no one should so naive as to think that it’s just a coincidence that Trump’s agenda and Putin’s are so tightly synchronized. They were similarly aligned in 2016, and they are reuniting for their 2020 tour of deceit and corruption. All the more reason that true patriots need to be vigilant and prepared to defend America’s democracy from these cretins. This isn’t a game. It’s our liberty and our future.

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

Even Trump’s ‘Friends’ Think His Behavior at Coronavirus Briefings is Asinine

Posted by on April 19, 2020 at 12:48 pm. 5 Comments :

For several weeks Donald Trump has been serving as the host of a daily reality TV program known as “The Coronavirus Task Force Briefings.” Trump envisions himself as the COVID-19 pandemic’s Pat Sajak, spinning a Wheel of Falsehoods and propaganda. He has turned what was intended to be a platform for disseminating life and death information into a petty, partisan, political charade.

Donald Trump

No longer able to bask in the glassy-eyed adoration of his cult disciples at mass rallies, Trump is callously exploiting a public health crisis in order to advance his own reelection prospects. He has cast himself as the star of the daily briefings despite the fact that, due to his ignorance and ego, he has nothing of value to contribute. Consequently, he wastes the time of the public and the press by upstaging the experts so that he can disgorge more lies, brag about imaginary accomplishments, and yell at reporters.

Trump’s narcissism always gets the best of him. He can’t hold a thought in his orange-glazed noggin that isn’t laser focused on his own self interest. But his efforts to exalt himself are failing bigly. His approval ratings are sinking during a national disaster, a time when any other leader would be enjoying a “rally round the flag” bounce. And he’s reduced to having to boast about his TV ratings because the American people aren’t buying his lies.

Even worse, many of Trump’s closest allies are straying from the Trump dogma. Rupert Murdoch’s conservative Wall Street Journal published an editorial titled “Trump’s Wasted Briefings“ that said “If Mr. Trump thinks these daily sessions will help him defeat Joe Biden, he’s wrong.” GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia is warning that the president should “let the health professionals guide where we’re going to go,” and that the briefings have gone “off the rails a little bit.” Trump’s chief Senate bootlicker, Lindsey Graham, said that Trump “drowns out his own message,” and suggested that he appear once a week rather than every day. Even a reliable Fox News Trump-fluffer, Brit Hume, responded harshly to a Trump tweet about the briefings, saying that…

To top it off, one of Trump’s closest friends, Piers Morgan, appeared on CNN Sunday morning and delivered an uncompromising smack down (video below). He prefaced it saying that Trump “won’t want me saying this, but I’m gonna say it anyway.” And his elaboration pretty much confirmed that:

“I’ve been watching these daily briefings with mounting horror frankly, because this is not what the president should be doing. […and what…] this requires of any world leader is that they’ve got to be calm. They have to show authority. They have to be honest. They have to be accurate, entirely factual with what they’re telling the people. And they have to have the ability to show empathy. And on almost every level of that Donald Trump, at the moment, is failing the American people.

“He’s turning these briefings into a self-aggrandizing, self-justifying, overly defensive, politically partisan, almost like a rally to him. Almost like what’s more important to him is winning the election in November. No it’s not, Donald Trump. What is more important right now is saving American lives.”

To be sure, Morgan is notorious right-wing jerk with a long history of racism and misogyny. His prior remarks about Trump have been effusively laudatory. Which makes this criticism all the more painful for Trump. We can expect some infantile and insulting tweets aimed at Morgan shortly, because Trump’s most predictable trait is lashing out at those whom he feels have betrayed him. And that’s pretty much everyone, since his paranoia and persecution was affirmed in his own words when he said that “All I see is hatred of me.” Poor baby.

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

Wannabe Dictator Trump’s Campaign to Persecute His Political Rivals is Revealed on Fox News

Posted by on February 9, 2020 at 11:21 am. 4 Comments :

It didn’t take Donald Trump long to convert his impeachment into what his diseased brain thinks is a plus for him. Deep down he knows that he’s been severely wounded and tainted for life. That’s evident by how obsessed he is with denying it. But he is now transferring his fear and desperation into a dangerous assault on American values and liberty.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

Less than forty-eight hours after the Republican majority in the Senate voted to let Trump off and cover up his crimes, Trump began a purge of the witnesses who were courageous and honest enough to tell the truth about him. He fired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother, as well as the Ambassador to the E.U., Gordon Sondland. He’s in discussion now to fire the intelligence community Inspector General. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

One of the most loyal StormTrumpers in Congress is Sen. Lindsey Graham. Never mind that he once said that Trump is “a kook, crazy, and unfit for office.” Today Graham is another glassy-eyed disciple of the Cult of Trump. And he visited with Fox News Trump-fluffer Jeanine Pirro for a mutual worship session on Saturday night where he revealed the totalitarian aspirations of Trump and where it’s headed next.

Graham: Half the people behind the Russia investigation are gonna go to jail.
Pirro: Hopefully.
Graham: Well, just hang tight.

These are the sort of threats that plague the tyrannies that Trump so admires. Places like North Korea, China, and Russia. Now Graham is admitting that he and Trump will be implementing those policies here in the U.S. And it isn’t just Graham speaking out of turn. Trump is saying the very same things, and touting his partnership with Graham and the Senate Republicans:

What’s more, Graham’s appearance on Face the Nation included his assertion that there is an existing process by which Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is funneling dirt on Joe Biden to Trump’s Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr:

Graham: The Department of Justice is receiving information coming out of Ukraine from Rudy … He told me that they had created a process where Rudy could give information and they would see if it’s verified.

To be perfectly clear, this is not a normal means of investigating possible criminal activity. Private attorneys do not work with federal prosecutors to collect and analyze alleged evidence. This is how totalitarian rulers engage their surrogates to suppress opposition and stoke fear into anyone that might consider being critical or even independent.

This is obviously Trump’s intention. It’s what he has been doing all along. It’s why he partners with the likes of Giuliani, Parnas, Fruman, etc. It’s why he attempted to extort the president of Ukraine. It’s what led to the ousters of everyone from Jeff Sessions to Gen. John Kelly to John Bolton, and so many more. It’s a mob style presidency that believes it can only survive via intimidation and punishment. And it’s why it is still so urgent that Trump be removed from office before he causes even more harm.

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

Even Lindsey Graham is Spooked By Trump Shill Rudy Giuliani’s Russian Propaganda

Posted by on December 29, 2019 at 2:20 pm. 3 Comments :

Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has recently been gallivanting around the globe in an effort to dig up dirt on a potential Trump election opponent, Joe Biden. In a normal world (remember that?), that’s not the job of a lawyer who is supposedly defending Trump on charges related to his impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump

Then again, Giuliani is bumbling his way through criminal allegations of his own and threatening to sue Fox News, so perhaps he doesn’t have sufficient time to devote to his Client-in-Chief.

The fact of the matter is that neither Giuliani, nor Trump’s apologists in politics or the press, have bothered to address the substance of the charges against him. They are all attacking the process or pointing fingers at people who have nothing to do with why Trump was impeached. And much of their focus has been on preposterous and thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories concocted by Russian operatives. Consequently, when Giuliani returned to Washington, he wasn’t exactly greeted with open arms. According to the Daily Beast:

“In the weeks leading up to their impeachment trial, senators on Capitol Hill are actively avoiding meeting with President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani — partly because they fear he might try to pass off Russian conspiracy theories as fact, according to interviews with more than half a dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers and aides. […] various lawmakers, as well as administration officials and national security brass, have privately expressed concerns about Giuliani’s latest Ukraine jaunt, given that the Trump lawyer’s efforts are what helped create this Ukraine scandal and get the president impeached in the first place.”

Indeed, Giuliani may have been the acorn that grew into the mighty oak of Trump’s criminality. At the very least, Giuliani was watering the seedling every time he appeared on Fox News making statements that further incriminated Trump. The Daily Beast interviewed several Senate sources from both parties who indicated an aversion to dealing with Giuliani, whose credibility they said was suspect. Even White House sources were reticent to deal with Giuliani for fear of being caught up in his crackpot schemes. But surprisingly, one of Trump’s most devoted fluffers, Lindsey Graham, is also putting distance between himself and Trump’s lawyer:

“My advice to Giuliani would be to share what he got from Ukraine with the IC [intelligence community] to make sure it’s not Russia propaganda. I’m very suspicious of what the Russians are up to all over the world.”

That’s right. Trump’s sentinel in the Senate can’t be sure whether Trump’s attorney is a Russian asset. If Graham doesn’t trust Giuliani, then why should anyone else? Particularly those in the media who keep inviting him on to disseminate the propaganda of hostile foreign adversaries. There appears to be a consensus that Giuliani is – as John Bolton said – “a hand grenade who is going to blow everybody up.” And yet, Trump himself is totally reliant on Giuliani and his unique brand of lunacy. It must true what they say about birds of feather.

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

Trump’s Impeachment in the House is All that Matters – The Senate Cannot Acquit

Posted by on December 14, 2019 at 1:00 pm. 4 Comments :

The United States House of Representatives is set to impeach Donald Trump next week, making him only the third American president to suffer this indignity. However, many pundits and pro-Trump media bootlickers are misrepresenting the gravity of this affair. There is a contingent of excusers who seek to dismiss its significance if the Senate doesn’t vote to remove Trump from office.

Donald Trump, Impeach

Trump himself has been making noises that he is anxious to have the impeachment move from the House to the Senate where he believes he will be coddled by sycophantic Republican loyalists. That, however, is a thinly veiled facade of bravado that is betrayed by his frantic tweetstorming (hitting a record of 123 in one day). Clearly Trump is consumed with fear and anxiety at the thought of being branded for life with impeachment.

The argument circulating the GOP drain is that a failure to oust Trump from office is tantamount to an acquittal. But that relies on the false analogy that the House impeachment vote is akin to an indictment, after which the Senate conducts a trial. But a more accurate analogy would be to cast the House as the de facto courtroom and impeachment there is a conviction. After all, the language of the Articles of Impeachment state flatly that “President Trump has abused the powers of the Presidency in a manner offensive to, and subversive of, the Constitution.” Note that it doesn’t say he is charged with abuse of power, but that he “has abused” his power. Consequently, a “yes” vote is a finding of guilt.

The Senate’s role is, therefore, not one of a trier of fact, but more that of a sentencing hearing. The House establishes the facts and will shortly rule that Trump is guilty. The Senate decides if he should be punished by removal from office, or pardoned and allowed to complete his term. But the conviction stands.

Trump knows this and it is eating him up. That’s why he is putting so much pressure on his Senate defenders. It’s why Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, told Sean Hannity of Fox News that “I’m going to take my cues from the president’s lawyers.” McConnell went on to say that…

“Everything I do during this I’m coordinating with the White House counsel. There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this […adding that he’ll be in…] total coordination with the White House counsel’s office and the people who are representing the president in the well of the Senate.”

What’s more, the GOP Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Lindsey Graham, told CNN that “I will do everything I can to make it die quickly […] I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here.”

So the chairman of the Committee of jurisdiction and the majority leader have both stated publicly that they have no intention to conduct a fair, impartial hearing. In fact, they are openly conspiring with the defendant (Trump) to allow him to escape any punishment for his crimes. Which means they are admitting in advance to violating the oath that they will be taking prior to commencement of the hearing, which states that…

“I solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, president of the United States, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.”

This tells you precisely what these Republicans think about the Constitution, the law, and even God. That they are willing to brazenly and shamelessly breach this oath is evidence that their word is meaningless. And in taking this position before they begin deliberating, they are effectively cancelling any validity that their role in this might otherwise have had. As a result, the outcome of the Senate hearing is irrelevant. Which leaves the House vote to impeach as the final word on what will become Trump’s tarnished legacy. And if yo think that isn’t driving Trump nuts, see his Twitter feed.

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

TRIGGERED: Trump’s Twitter Tirade Shows How Scared He is of Impeachment

Posted by on December 11, 2019 at 2:17 pm. 6 Comments :

Donald Trump likes to pretend he’s a pillar of strength. But his idea of a strong man is one who swats at his foes with infantile insults, bellows arrogantly, and constantly praises himself for being so awesome. He is, in fact, a typical bully who is frightened by his own shadow. Every opportunity he’s had to demonstrate any courage, he has quickly retreated in abject cowardice.

Donald Trump, Twitter

One of the best indicators of Trump’s seething fear is his Twitter account. He predictably reacts to challenging situations with obvious and searing anxiety. And Wednesday morning was an ideal example of this. In a flurry of furious twittering, Trump posted 61 tweets, all before 11:00 am. The vast majority of the posts were retweets of bootlicking GOP members of Congress, Fox News and other right-wing media, and sycophantic Trump stuffers …er… staffers. And the topics were almost exclusively his impeachment and the report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, which Trump surely couldn’t understand.. This is not behavior that reflects confidence or bravery. To the contrary, it is indicative of panic and insecurity.

So what was going on while Trump was tweeting so frantically? The Senate Judiciary Committee was hearing testimony from Horowitz. His report on the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe concluded that the FBI had acted properly, with justification and free of partisan political bias. After weeks of hopeful anticipation that this report would prove Trump’s relentless assaults on the FBI were valid, the report actually sucked all the air out his anti-FBI hysteria. Naturally, this would stir Trump’s ire, and not even his Attorney Genuflect, bill Barr, could mollify him.

Much of the morning session of this hearing was devoted to a side show that was barely relevant to the subject matter. The Republican chairman of the committee, Lindsey Graham spent 7 1/2 minutes reading salacious emails between the FBI’s Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. These were emails that were critical of Trump and were made public months ago. Graham’s point in this redundant, soap opera theatrics was to assert that, because they held these critical views, they were unfit to have any role in the FBI investigation. Never mind that they, in fact, didn’t have decision-making roles, and that the IG also found that there were FBI agents who were pro-Trump. So the Bureau did not lean one way the other. Trump and company have been lying about all of this for months.

If Graham’s point was that anyone who held negative views of Trump should be prohibited from sitting in judgment of him, he may have fallen off the edge of his already feeble argument. During the 2016 primary campaign, Graham himself said that Trump was a kook, crazy, and unfit to be president. So by Graham’s own standard he should be disqualified from chairing these hearings.

Trump’s slanderous commentaries on Strzok and Page may be coming back to haunt him. Page just announced that she is filing a lawsuit against the DOJ and the FBI. As of this date, Trump is not named in the suit, but his antics could surely be fodder for litigation. He has slandered Page as “incompetent,” “corrupt,” “pathetic,” “stupid,” “a dirty cop,” and more. A few weeks ago Trump staged what can only be described as a mock orgasm. And just this week Trump unloaded this blatant falsehood:

Telling lies, acting like an imbecile, exhibiting signs of severe paranoia and dementia, are not characteristics of strength. Trump is clearly afraid and it is oozing out of every pore of his trembling body. And posting more than five dozen desperately defensive tweets before lunch is proof positive that Trump can’t handle the pressure. All the more reason to get him out of the White House before he causes even more harm.

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