Michael Cohen

Donald Trump’s Top 10 ‘Witch Hunt’ Tweets in 2018

Posted by on January 1, 2019 at 2:47 pm. 2 Comments :

The new year is here, and with it the obligatory “Best Of” and “Top 10” lists. And News Corpse isn’t about to be left out of all this fun. So our contribution to this annual tradition consists of some of the most newsworthy revelations that graced the the official communications platform of the President of the United States of America: Donald Trump.

Donald Trump, Witch Hunt

That’s right. Trump’s obsessive tweetstorming was a unique feature of his presidency that brought with it many of the lies and and insults for which he is now notorious. But no messaging by this belligerent blowhard was more profound than those that railed furiously over what he called the Russian, hoax, rigged, phony “Witch Hunt.”

Trump’s endeavor became a full time occupation at the White House that resulted in 131 tweets wherein he referenced a Witch Hunt in some context. That includes seven that were deleted and re-tweeted for misspellings (mostly of the same word: council/counsel). There were numerous outbursts aimed at specific individuals including James Comey, Hillary Clinton, and his own now-former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. And many were contradictory or outright distortions of the truth. Three were just the words “WITCH HUNT” in all caps with no further comment.

But in the spirit of the season’s ritual of limiting recognition to a select few, what follows are what we regard (somewhat randomly) as the Top 10 tweets about Witch Hunts by Trump in 2018:


This one rang in the new year on January 10, 2018, and boldly claimed to know how Democrats and Russians were responding to the affair. He was certainly wrong about the Democrats, but he was probably right about the Russians laughing.


Oh those poor young and beautiful traitors like Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, and Michael Cohen. Their reputations ruined mainly because they lied and were dumb enough to associate with Trump.


Here Trump lays the groundwork for granting himself a get-out-of-jail-free card. Why would he even bring this up if he did nothing wrong?


Nothing says “I tried to stay uninvolved” like posting 131 tweets ranting about the injustice of being held to account by your own Department of Justice. As for the expense, Trump tweeted four times his assertions related to the cost of the special counsel investigation. It went went up rapidly from $10 million, then $20 million, then $30 million, and finally $40 million, all within the past year. That’s some pretty high inflation. In any case, the asset forfeitures from the Manafort case alone are worth more than that, so the probe is actually making a profit. And they haven’t even got to Trump’s assets yet.


Trump isn’t going too far by baselessly accusing a United States Senator of drunkenness, is he? And for the record, there are more than thirteen angry Democrats. It’s closer to 65,000,000, plus many more Independents and woke Republicans.


Something tells me it doesn’t help Trump’s argument that he isn’t colluding with Russia, by whining about his declining relationship with Russia.


This tweet is just included because we thought it necessary to have one with “FAKE NEWS” in it.


Trump is a master of projection. He is the one who has been maligning government officials in the FBI, Justice Department, and Congress. But now he’s trying to attach the McCarthy label to special counsel Mueller, who is just dong his job. Trump is also the big crybaby.


The best evidence that Trump’s mind is totally gone is that he really thinks he would have a seventy-five percent approval rating were it not for the so-called Witch Hunt. He’s barely cracking fifty percent with Rasmussen, the most biased right-wing pollster in the business.


This is a lovely example of Trump’s mob mentality. Calling someone a “rat” generally refers to a low-level hood who tells police the truth about his crime boss (i.e. Trump). Also, the FBI didn’t break into Michael Cohen’s office. They had a warrant issued by a judge. Cohen welcomed them in and later complimented them on their courtesy and professionalism.

Rest assured that 2019 will see a whole new collection of Twitter freak outs from Trump. As Mueller closes in on the President he will get ever more frantic and crazed with his reactions. If you thought “covfefe” didn’t make any sense, you aint seen nothin’ yet. Just wait until the special counsel report is released, or Congress begins holding oversight hearings. Trump’s madness has only just begun to manifest itself. And if he isn’t restrained, it could get dangerous.

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

Sunday’s Trump Tweetstorm Calls First Amendment Illegal, ‘Should Be Tested in Courts’

Posted by on December 16, 2018 at 10:13 am. 3 Comments :

If it’s Sunday, this Donald Trump’s regularly scheduled Twitter tantrum. Like clockwork, the President is firing off nearly incoherent messages that attack his critics, lie about easily verified matters, and promote his favorite source of propaganda, and the PR division of the Trump White House, Fox News. It’s a display of desperation that only serves to make him appear more guilty and afraid of the coming consequences of his criminal acts.

Donald Trump

Leading off Trump’s parade of polemics is a tweet that reinforces Trump’s long-held aversion to free speech and the First Amendment of the Constitution. We are all familiar with Trump’s denouncement of the press in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people,” and his projectile vomiting of invectives at journalists who have the audacity to report what he actually does and says. And now we have Trump literally threatening to legally censor the media for doing its job:

Does Trump really think that Saturday Night Live is a news program that can be put alongside NBC News as a provider of coverage of his administration? Apparently any media entity that fails to kiss up to the Snowflake-in-Chief is subject to his hostile harangues. But this tweet goes even further to demand that the press be constrained by some legal authority to prostrate itself to what he believes is fair. Every president has had to undergo criticism from both journalists and satirists, but Trump’s skin is way to thin to take it. That’s common for cowards and tyrants who feel the need to control society and suppress those who don’t sufficiently worship Dear Leader.

The rest of Trump’s morning meltdown was equally disturbing. He babbled nonsensically about text messages by former FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. His rant was lifted from the ultra-rightist webzine The Federalist, which failed to understand the agency’s report regarding the disposition of those texts:

Trump agreed with the Federalist’s phony assertions that the messages were deleted and lost. They weren’t. The agency recovered and preserved them after a temporary tech glitch. But this triggered his knee-jerk outcry of “Witch Hunt” which he continued in another tweet:

What Trump calls “breaking in” is more commonly referred to as the accumulation of evidence by law enforcement. And the subject of the investigation, Trump’s lawyer, complimented the FBI as “extremely professional, courteous and respectful,” and later pleaded guilty to the charges against him. What’s more, Cohen unambiguously fingered Trump as being the facilitator of the crimes in his case. That’s surely what Trump is really mad about.

As for the bit about Hillary Clinton’s server, she voluntarily gave the FBI a complete copy of it, so they had no need to take physical possession. But having no legal ground to stand on, Trump resorted to dredging up old stories about his nemesis, President Obama.

Trump is falsely claiming that Obama’s immigration policies were “far worse” than what the Trump administration has done by grotesquely seperating children from their parents (which he’s still doing, and even justifying it). That’s demonstrably untrue. It was only Trump’s policy to charge every asylum seeker with felonies that resulted in the separations. And if that obvious attempt at misdirection wasn’t sufficient to deflect attention from his problems, Trump also tried this one:

Really? Ken Starr? He headed up the persecution of the Clintons twenty years ago, and after finding no evidence of any crime, started to dig into Bill Clinton’s sex life. He’s hardly a credible source for anything having to do with Trump’s criminal behavior. And naturally, Trump saw Starr’s comments while watching Fox News.

This frantic outburst on Twitter is just the latest example of a mind that is utterly warped by the trepidation of being caught having committed a historic crime spree. And in utter distress due to the gloomy fate that awaits him, Trump is lashing out like the wounded vermin that he is. And while every untrue utterance he made is bad enough for the nation to be worried about his mental degradation, his calls to punish the press are the most troubling.

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

Trump is acting out the behavior of a fallen dictator desperately trying to hang on to whatever power he has left. But with the walls of justice closing in around him, he has nowhere to hide. A recent report notes that every entity that he has headed – the Trump Org, Trump Foundation, Trump campaign, Trump transition team, Trump inaugural committee, and the Trump White House – are under investigation. When he does go down, he’s going to go down hard.

LATE BREAKING: Trump must not be very busy presidenting today because he posted four more tweets this afternoon (so far).

One was a demand to watch a Fox News interview of conspiracy crackpot Jerome Corsi.

Then two more (here and here), also triggered by Fox News, were about former Trump advisor, and confessed felon, Michael Flynn being “persecuted” by Robert Mueller. Of particular note was Trump saying that Jeff Sessions “should be ashamed of himself” for allowing the “HOAX” to get started. So should Trump’s new Acting AG Whitaker also be ashamed for not stopping it?

And finally, Trump added a tweet that was just boilerplate “Witch Hunt” bashing and denying his collusion. You know, like all innocent people do obsessively.

Is Paris Burning? Donald Trump’s Flaming Lunacy Abounds in Bonkers Fox News ‘Interview’

Posted by on December 13, 2018 at 7:41 pm. 2 Comments :

The Big 4-0. That’s what Donald Trump has hit with his latest infomercial (aka interview) on Fox News. It’s his fortieth since becoming president. As usual it was a slobbering love-fest with Fox host Harris Faulkner hand-holding Trump through a series of softball questions. And when he wasn’t filibustering with barely comprehensible blather, he was interrupting with almost relevant filler (video below).

Donald Trump Climate Change

The Oval Office affair covered a few pertinent subjects with the thinnest veil of substance. Harris asked about Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen and his National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, but she never pressed him to answer for their criminal activities or how they implicated him. Nor did she challenge any of his meandering obviously deflecting replies.

However, she did bake up some sweet questions that displayed her sincere devotion to her guest. Faulkner never once challenged any of Trump’s dishonest answers. She prefaced a question about the disclosures in Michael Cohen’s sentencing by quoting a former anti-Clinton special counsel saying that “he couldn’t see grounds for impeachment over that.” Then she described Cohen as “someone who has surreptitiously recorded you and is now known as a criminal liar.”

It seems every question was waterdown with platitudes before Trump even had to answer. When referencing a new Fox poll showing that Trump is still underwater at 46-52 percent, she spun it as being “just a couple tics off your highest point.” Which means, of course, that he has never risen above fifty percent. But she wouldn’t say that. Although she did let him get away with bragging about how well he did with women in 2016 (he lost women).

When he lied about how well he’s doing with China and trade, Faulkner chimed in that “that takes the pressure off the economy a little bit.” She did note that all of the gains for 2018 in the market are gone, but then added with a big smile that the market is still up since his inauguration (due to the record bull market that began in 2009 under President Obama). While discussing the economy and jobs, Faulkner got nearly teary-eyed about her impression of Trump going after companies that have had to impose layoffs, saying “I love this, cause I hadn’t planned to ask this, but your you’re calling out companies and what not. And the nation got to see you.” After his incoherent non-response she praised him saying that “This is your wheelhouse. Everybody knows this. I mean, to see the energy and the electricity as you talk about these issues.” Does anyone else need a towel?

As Faulkner wrapped things up she couldn’t help but show more unconditional love by asking him “What do you love about being President?” Trump’s reply was a vague “I love getting things done for the people,” but that it’s “a nasty job because I get hit so hard.” And Faulkner closes by sucking back the drool and telling Trump that “You have such energy for this.”

But perhaps the most disturbing part of this extended fluffing session was Trump’s insistence that he’s been a fantastic steward of the environment. His justification for that delusional self-appraisal was this disjointed nonsense:

“The Paris Accord is not working out too well for Paris. Take a look at what’s happening over there. Because of the Paris Accord that whole country is burning down, OK? And I was the one that kept us out of the Paris Accord. If I was in the Paris Accord we would be paying trillions of dollars, trillions of dollars for nothing.”

It’s somehow appropriate that Trump would come so close to the question that Adolf Hitler reportedly asked about Paris after ordering his troops to destroy the city rather than let it be re-captured by the Allies: Is Paris Burning? Well, no. It wasn’t then and it isn’t now. While there is some civil unrest, the city is not a charred wasteland. And the protests have nothing to do with climate change, despite Trump’s deranged attempt to conflate them. Also, the trillions of dollars he said would have been spent are a figment of his diseased imagination.

Sadly, this is the sort of warped dialogue that America is forced to engage in with a president who is too demented to grasp any subject that might come across his desk – or reality. And it doesn’t help when an alleged “news” network acts like the propaganda arm of a White House determined to mislead the public and work against the interests of the nation.

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

Trump Saying ‘People Would Revolt’ if He is Impeached is Not His Opinion, It’s an Instruction

Posted by on December 12, 2018 at 11:02 am. 4 Comments :

The walls are continuing to close in around Donald Trump. And they aren’t border walls. With the sentencing of his former associates, Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, there is more information being released that unambiguously implicates Trump in federal crimes. And, as is his customary practice, the more he feels threatened, the more hysterical he gets. He is transparently consumed by fear and desperation.

Donald Trump Revolt

That response was in effect Tuesday when Trump was interviewed by Reuters. The whole interview was woven with lies and nonsense. But one particular part is worthy of notice. When Trump was questioned about talk that he could be impeached for crimes related to his campaign and and his unsavory connections to Russia, he blew up:

“It’s hard to impeach somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong and who’s created the greatest economy in the history of our country. “I’m not concerned, no. I think that the people would revolt if that happened.”

Let’s set aside – after laughing uncontrollably – the patently untrue assertions that Trump has done nothing wrong, or that he’s responsible for the “greatest economy” in history. What is stunning about his comments is his warning that there would be a revolt if he were held accountable for his criminal activities. In fact, this is less a warning than it is instructions to his cult followers. He expects them to resort to violence on his behalf in the event he is impeached by the representatives of the American people.

There are lots of reasons to consider Trump’s impeachment. He shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars to his mistresses in order to keep them quiet before the 2016 election. He failed to disclose those expenditures. He has received millions more from foreign operatives funneling money to him through his hotels and other businesses. He and his closest associates have lied repeatedly about his conspiracy to steal the election with his Russian partners. So impeachment is not much of a stretch for such a flagrant law violator, and a bad one at that.

Even more troubling is the fact that this isn’t the first time Trump has threatened violence directed at his critics. Even during his campaign Trump threatened the outbreak of riots if he was denied the nomination. Almost daily he refers to the media in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.” He has accused the press of “creating violence by your questions […] The fake news is creating violence.” He accused Democrats in Congress of treason for not applauding him at the State of the Union address. “Can we call that treason?” he said. “Why not? I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.” He suggested that the media also committed treason with its coverage of his summit with Kim Jong Un, saying that “It’s a shame the fake news covers it the way they do. It’s really, it’s almost treasonous, you want to know the truth.” Do you detect a pattern?

If you think that this sort of hostile rhetoric is petty trumpery (“worthless nonsense” according to Merriam-Webster), you might want to refer to the polling that shows that one-third of Trump voters say Democrats who didn’t applaud during the State of the Union were “treasonous.”

And you might also note Trump’s obsession with maligning his critics as anti-American. For instance, there was the time he responded to an op-ed in the New York Times by an anonymous White House staffer who called Trump “amoral,” “unstable,” “erratic,” “ill-informed,” and “reckless.” The author further worried that the President has “a preference for autocrats and dictators.” And that other staffers were “working diligently … from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.” In response to that article Trump blasted off four tweets attacking the Times, one of which contained a single word:

And that pretty much sums up the position of this wannabe dictator in the White House. He truly believes that any dissent is tantamount to treason, and the consequences of that is death. That’s the message that Trump is sending out to his glassy-eyed cult disciples. And this latest message raising the prospect of “revolt” is another escalation in his war against America, democracy, and freedom.

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

Trump Dementia? Says He’s ‘Very Happy’ with the Latest Mueller Filings, But Blames Hillary Clinton

Posted by on December 8, 2018 at 12:34 pm. 2 Comments :

This week saw what may the most significant developments to date stemming from the investigation of Donald Trump by special counsel Robert Mueller. In filings related to sentencing for Trump confidants Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, Mueller and the New York Attorney’s office disclosed unambiguous evidence that Trump engaged in criminal activities connected to both his campaign finances and his collusion with Russia.

Donald Trump

Nevertheless, Trump emerged from the White House to greet reporters on Saturday morning with what he presented as good news. Included in this gaggle was his announcement that Chief of Staff John Kelly will be leaving that post by the end of this year. That news comes after reports that the two are not even talking to each other. It also follows Trump’s previous insistence that Kelly would be around until 2020.

However, the real meat of this press avail was Trump’s assertion that he’s “very happy” with Mueller’s filings. That is either another one of his blatant lies designed to gaslight his cult followers, or he is suffering from delusions that are the product of his acute fear and desperation. He told the reporters (video below):

“On the Mueller situation, we’re very happy with what we are reading because there was no collusion whatsoever. There never has been. The last thing I wanted is help from Russia on a campaign.”

Of course the “Mueller situation” doesn’t clear Trump of any crimes or collusion. Quite the opposite. Cohen explicitly testified that Trump was involved in and directed the criminal acts that he pleaded guilty to. And the Russian connection that Trump has been lying about for two years is clearly outlined in the filings. The redacted parts are likely to provide even more detail of Trump’s culpability. So it isn’t surprising that he then shifts to assigning blame to his favorite scapegoat, Hillary Clinton:

“You should ask Hillary Clinton about Russia, because she financed the fake dossier which I understand they tried to get some information and help from Russia. But you ought to ask them about that. A very one-sided situation, but i think it’s all turning around very nicely. But as far as the report that we see – according to everybody I’ve spoken to, I have not read it – there’s absolutely no collusion, which is very important.”

There is so much wrong in that brief comment. Clinton didn’t finance the dossier. And she didn’t try to get help from Russia. The dossier was originally contracted by a conservative website. The Clinton campaign later supported that research, which never sought assistance from Russia. In fact, the author, Christopher Steele, got most of his information from dissident Russians who were working against the Kremlin, not for it.

It should also not be overlooked that Trump began by stating that he was “very happy with what we are reading,” but finished with “I have not read it.” This is, sadly, all too typical of Trump’s failing mental capabilities, and his ever-increasing fear, paranoia, and desperation due to Mueller’s investigation getting closer to him and his crime family every day. It’s the sort of delusional psychosis that results in him tweeting that the Cohen/Manafort filings:

You’re welcome. And if you like these legal proceedings, just wait until Mueller comes out with his final report that ties you directly to treasonous collusion with Russian and brazen financial corruption. Although when you see that you’ll probably tweet “Thanks for the Nobel Prize and for canonizing me as Saint Donald.” It must be really nice in that world of rainbows and unicorns and worshipful cult disciples that you live in.

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

Donald Trump is Openly Engaging in Flagrant Witness Tampering, Like All Innocent People Do

Posted by on December 3, 2018 at 11:57 am. 1 Comments :

There is a phrase in legal practice that is commonly described as “consciousness of guilt.” It refers to behavior by a defendant’s actions that proves he knew he was guilty. And Donald Trump is providing material for a whole textbook on the subject as he tries to malign special counsel Robert Mueller while vindicating the sleazeballs who remain loyal to him.

Donald Trump Robert Mueller

In addition to his actions demonstrating consciousness of guilt, they are also a public display of the fear and desperation he is experiencing as the walls close in around him. But by acting out in this way he is ultimately harming his own legal position and even committing more crimes. This was noted succinctly by George Conway (husband of Trump’s White House counselor, Kellyanne Conway) who tweeted:

The federal codes referenced in that tweet address two violations of the law. First, any “endeavor to influence, intimidate, or impede” any officer of the court (Mueller) “in the discharge of his duty.” And second, “knowingly using intimidation” to “influence, delay, or prevent the testimony” of a witness. And these are the tweets in Trump’s Monday morning tweetstorm that Conway was reacting to:

Michael Cohen, of course, is a witness in the Mueller probe. Trump should not be passing judgment on him or recommending punishment. As for the charges being “unrelated to Trump,” is he referring to Cohen’s testimony that cites Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator? Or is he referring to Cohen’s testimony about Trump Tower Moscow? Those seem pretty related to Trump. Nevertheless, Trump is also accusing Cohen of lying to Mueller, a charge for which he has zero evidence. And if that weren’t bad enough, Trump is implicating Cohen’s family in these alleged crimes. And then Trump goes on:

It’s cute the way he puts “President Trump” is sarcasm quotes. But more to the point, Trump is hailing his pal, and notorious dirty trickster, Roger Stone, for having the “guts” to continue lying on Trump’s behalf. However, before getting in too deep, he may want to recall the Cohen once said he would “take a bullet” for Trump. Funny how reality, evidence, and the prospect of prison changes one’s mind. And finally Trump fired this one off:

What Trump might mean is that Mueller is “a much different man” than Trump thinks, or is able to comprehend. Trump’s disparaging remarks clearly fit the above criteria for criminal acts. He can’t support any allegation against Mueller for lying or encouraging others to do so. This tweet is simply a vindictive personal attack on an officer of the court. What’s more, it’s disrespectful of a lifelong Republican who has spent his whole career in public service, and is a decorated veteran. So much for Trump’s phony admiration for our vets.

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

One thing that Trump may have gotten right is his concern about a “band of Angry Democrats” There are at least 65,000 000 of them. And add to those the disgusted independents and woke Republicans. They are responsible for the walloping that Trump suffered in the midterm election last month. And they aren’t going to cover up for Trump the way the lily-livered Republicans did. With the House of Representatives flipping to majority Democratic control, some real oversight is about to begin. And the truth that Trump pretends to want will finally come out, whether he likes it or not.

Fox News Regular Says the Mueller Investigation is a ‘Stalinist Approach to Criminal Justice’

Posted by on November 30, 2018 at 11:28 am. 3 Comments :

It’s only been one day since the bombshell report that Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress. His plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller provided new information about Trump’s collusion with Russia. But already Fox News is spinning it in the most frantically defensive manner possible. And it isn’t just the primetime “opinion” hosts doing it. It’s smack in the middle of the midday “news” block and buttressed by so-called “journalists.”

Fox News, Robert Mueller

Mollie Hemingway is a regular guest on Fox News and writes for the ultra-conservative Federalist. Her appearances on Fox are consistently pro-Trump no matter what new atrocity he has committed. So it isn’t especially surprising that she was called upon to help soften the blow of the new wrinkle in the Cohen scandal (video below). What’s surprising is the tack she took to disinform the willfully ignorant Fox viewers. She began with a nonsensical legal argument:

“If someone has evidence of something wrong, then they should bring that forward. But in this country we don’t decide that someone’s guilty and then go on a fishing expedition until they find something that they did.”

Since when do investigators “bring forward” everything they have accumulated prior to the completion of the investigation? She seems to think that law enforcement should tip off criminal suspects before all the evidence has been gathered. And contrary to Hemingway’s suggestion that Mueller is on a “fishing expedition,” he is actually just following the evidence wherever it takes him.

And that’s what’s worrying Fox News most of all. Because the evidence is invariably pointing to the guilt of Trump and his crime family. Facts are stubborn things. And the more that come out, the more trouble Trump is finding himself in. And the more desperate and fearful he behaves. Even to the point of accusing Mueller of McCarthyism. But Hemingway has taken this tactic ten steps further:

“It’s not that Donald Trump was a businessman that we need to find out. We already know that. We know that he’s a global businessman. What was alleged was treasonous collusion, and not just ‘this guy is someone we don’t like so we’re gonna punish him and anyone that worked with him.’ That’s a very Stalinist approach to criminal justice. It’s not how we’re supposed to do things in this country.”

Stalinist? So Hemingway thinks that the special counsel, who is a lifelong Republican, appointed by a Republican Deputy Attorney General that Trump chose, and working for Trump’s Justice Department, is a Stalinist operative? What does that say about the Republican Party – and Trump? Also, this isn’t about whether Trump was a businessman. He was, and really bad one with multiple bankruptcies. But this is about Trump lying about the business he was engaging in.

More to the point, Mueller is following the code of law to the letter. There is nothing remotely resembling the totalitarian methods of Stalin’s dictatorship about this probe. Stalin would have simply ordered his critics executed. Mueller is just asking people associated with the President’s campaign some questions. Oh, The Horror!

What’s more, the only similarities to Stalin in any of this are coming from Trump. He is actually using Stalin’s own words when he calls the media “the enemy of the people.” And Trump has banned reporters from the White House. He has maligned them as “fake,” “stupid,” “dangerous,” “dishonest,” and “sleazy.” He recently imposed a set of behavioral conditions that he is forcing them to follow. Now that is a very Stalinist approach.

Trump’s aspirations to tyranny are evident in all of this, along with his deranged worship of America’s authoritarian enemies like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. If Hemingway wants to make references to Stalin in her sycophantic defense of Trump she should at least be cognizant of the fact that it’s Trump who is acting out the role of dictator, not Mueller. And if Stalin were around to see this, Trump’s words and deeds would make him proud – and perhaps a little jealous.

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

Fox News Recruits Trump-Fluffing Lawyer Alan Dershowitz to Smear Mueller and Michael Cohen

Posted by on November 29, 2018 at 11:32 am. 1 Comments :

Thursday morning Donald Trump’s holiday season took a turn toward total apocalypse. And it wasn’t going all that well to begin with. This week alone Trump has exhibited his fear and desperation by attacking special counsel Robert Mueller as the new Joseph McCarthy, and posting deranged tweetstorms in a lame effort to undermine Mueller’s investigation. But the news this morning is certain to burst some blood vessels in Trump’s cartoon brain (or gut, as the case may be).

Robert Mueller Trump

Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, appeared in court to plead guilty to lying to Congress with regard to Trump’s business dealings in Russia. This confession irredeemably implicates Trump in his own web of lies and certifies a motive for colluding with Russia.

The seriousness of these revelations cannot be overstated. Cohen’s testimony alleges that Trump was actively seeking to build a Trump Tower in Moscow while he was also running for president. Trump defended himself by saying that that isn’t illegal. He’s right. But he had no defense for his having lied repeatedly when he said that he had no such deals in Russia. And those lies were told in order to cover up the deals, perhaps because of the influence that Putin was holding over him while the election was in progress. In other words, collusion.

So what is a devotedly pro-Trump, State TV, propaganda network like Fox News to do in the face of this devastating news? Naturally, they will spin furiously and call up reinforcements to shield their Dear Leader from any harm. So anchor Bill Hemmer frantically searched his phone book and found just the right unprincipled shill to take on this looming crisis (video below): the reliably unethical legal gun-for-hire, Alan Dershowitz. And if anyone was skeptical of whether Dershowitz was a fully pledged member of the Trump cult, that skepticism can now be laid to rest.

Dershowitz put on show that cannot be described as anything but full-on supplication to Trump. He made utterly ludicrous legal arguments that would embarrass a first-year law student. He began by asserting that Cohen’s “credibility as a witness diminishes” because he admitting to lying. However, Mueller surely has documents corroborating Cohen’s testimony, so he isn’t just taking his word. That fact also destroys Dershowitz’s argument that “the special prosecutor is making his decisions off of false statements.” Then Dershowitz launched this absurdity:

“They are going to comb through every one of his answers and see if they can come up with anybody who can contradict anything the president said. That’s why it’s called a perjury trap. Because even if the president believes what he said was true, if somebody will contradict it, then the president can be charged with lying to government officials, which is the equivalent of perjury. So, that’s why it is so dangerous for anybody who is the subject of an investigation to answer questions by the prosecution, because the prosecution then combs through evidence, tries to get evidence that they can then use to show contradictions.”

First of all, “combing through answers” isn’t a perjury trap. It’s an investigation. And if Trump were to be contradicted, that isn’t perjury. He would have to be shown to be deliberately lying about material matters. Furthermore, it isn’t “dangerous” to talk to prosecutors. It’s dangerous to lie to prosecutors. Dershowitz is a law professor and presumably knows all of this. But that didn’t stop him from making this idiotic statement:

“The very fact that [Mueller] is conducting an investigation has created these crimes. These are not crimes that have been committed prior to his appointment. They are crimes that were committed as a result of his appointment. And that raises some questions about the role of special prosecutors in creating crimes or creating opportunities for crimes to be committed. In the end, I don’t think Mueller is going to come up with very much in terms of criminal conduct. This was before he was appointed. That is quite shocking.”

That isn’t shocking. It’s actually quite routine. Let’s say “Dave” robs a bank. Then the police begin an investigation to find the perpetrators. So Dave becomes concerned that his accomplice “Billy” might talk. So Dave kills Billy to shut him up. That’s a crime that was committed after the investigation began. Perhaps because of the investigation. But it’s still a crime and can’t be dismissed as something investigators “created” because they were investigating. Dershowitz’s argument is laughably incoherent. It suggests that there shouldn’t be investigations because criminals might commit additional crimes in order to avoid getting caught.

That’s the depth of the derpitude that Dershowitz is engaging in. And he’s doing it in the service of a corrupt president on a “news” network that exists only to disseminate disinformation and propaganda.

Now that the election is over, there are likely to be more public disclosures like this. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort is already digging himself (and Trump) into deeper holes. And Ivanka has gotten into her own “lock her up” email scandal. The White House is in total disarray with once loyal rats deserting (or being cast off of) the ship of state. And Trump is left with legal counsel like Dershowitz and Rudy Giuliani to shore things up. Good luck with that, Donnie.

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 New Attack on Kavanaugh Accusers: ‘Look Into the Lawyers’

Posted by on September 24, 2018 at 12:55 pm. 1 Comments :

Trump has made it a priority in his administration to assault the institutions that comprise most of what best defines America. Most notably, the media which he repeatedly refers to in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people” (which has not worked out very well for him). But he is also a devout foe of academia, science, the arts, intelligence, and even religion when it doesn’t serve his purposes. But no institution has taken more of the brunt of Trump’s animus than the law.

Donald Trump

In the past short but unbearable two years, Trump has expressed his disdain for the agencies of the government that draft, maintain, and implement the law. He rages against Congress for not bowing down to his authority and passing his favorite legislative initiatives like funding the border wall. He regards the FBI as beholden to secretive, subversive, “Deep State” forces intent on destroying his presidency. He puts more faith in the words of Vladimir Putin than he does in his own intelligence professionals with regard to whether Russia unlawfully interfered with the 2016 (and 2018) election.

Perhaps the most battered victim in the field of law enforcement is the Department of Justice itself. Trump has relentlessly pummeled his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, with withering insults and open disrespect. He recently stated that “I have no attorney general.” And of course, he fired his director of the FBI, James Comey, and replaced him with Christopher Wray, who then became the new designated butt of Trump’s malice. And Trump’s hatred for the FBI and the DoJ goes even deeper to lower level officials like Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.

Now in the midst of a melodrame involving his morally flawed Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, Trump is becoming more desperate and more disparaging. With the number of accusers coming forward with tales of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh growing, Trump has segued from attacking the accusers themselves to attacking their legal representation (video below):

“These are highly unsubstantiated statements from people represented by lawyers. You should look into the lawyers, their representation.”

That’s a disturbing outburst from a president of what is supposed to be a free democracy. Trump explicitly makes known his suspicion of “people represented by lawyers.” Which is pretty funny considering that he is represented by an army of them. But on the other tiny hand, it’s also understandable in that his long-time personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is now cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller, and providing testimony that is likely damaging to Trump. Another factor driving Trump’s dislike of lawyers could be concluded just by looking at who his lawyers are (I’m looking at you Rudy Giuliani).

What’s more, Trump’s admonition to – the media? – that they “should look into the lawyers,” portends the sort of government heavy-handedness that is characteristic of totalitarian regimes. And it may even be a bit of an anti-Semitic dog whistle to his base that automatically assumes an evil undercurrent to their imagined Jewish domination of the law (and banking, and Hollywood, and whatever else their rancid imaginations dream up). That’s especially suspicious since Michael Bromwich (a Jewish lawyer who also represents Andrew McCabe) just joined the legal team representing Christine Blasey Ford.

What exactly does Trump hope to achieve with an examination of the lawyers representing Kavanaugh’s accusers? Does he think they will be exposed as collaborators in the Deep State? Will he discover some cabal of commie subversives? Maybe he thinks they’re all ambulance chasing money grubbers. Does he hope that when “looked at” they will run for cover and leave their clients without a defense?

Trump is obviously afraid of lawyers. He frequently threatens to sue anyone that looks at him funny. But he eventually skulks away in cowardice and disgrace. He has suffered numerous defeats at the hands of lawyers representing those he has harmed in business. For instance, earlier this year he was ordered to pay $25 million to the defrauded students of Trump University.

The most visible legal opponent of Trump, Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti, scares Trump so badly that he has never tweeted about him even once. And Trump still has more than a dozen other women who have made charges of sexual harassment and assault against him, and may file lawsuits of their own. So maybe Trump’s proposal to have the lawyers looked into is just his latest attempt to silence and/or bully them. Yeah, that’ll work.

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

Tucker Carlson Gets Creamed By Stormy Daniels’ Lawyer, Michael Avenatti in Hilarious Fox News Throwdown

Posted by on September 13, 2018 at 9:26 pm. 4 Comments :

The single most repulsive character on the Fox News Cartoon Network is, without a doubt, Tucker Carlson. He has assumed the position of the Grand Wizard of the white nationalist movement with his frequent tirades that literally regurgitate the racist tropes of the hate mongers of the right. A recent example of that took place just last week on a show where Carlson couldn’t figure out how diversity strengthens America.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Michael Avenatti

But what occurred on Thursday night’s episode went even farther into the abyss off wingnuttery (video below). Carlson hosted Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, in a what turned into a demolition of Carlson’s already splintered reputation. It began with Carlson introducing some of the ground rules for the TV debate. He said that Avenatti…

“…”has now agreed to appear on our set provided we give him time to state his case, and of course we’re happy to do that. In the past he’s also demanded that we stop referring to him by a certain unflattering nickname [Creepy Porn Lawyer]. We haven’t agreed to that demand, but tonight, as a gesture of goodwill, we will not use that nickname, because we’re always grateful when guests are brave enough to show up in person, including in this case.”

So Carlson made two promises in order to get Avenatti to agree to appear on the program. And Carlson almost immediately broke both of them. His first interruption occurred within seconds of Avenatti’s response to the first question he was asked. And from the start, Carlson’s program featured chyrons that repeatedly used the “Creepy Porn Lawyer” epithet. It was a demonstration of the infantile nature of Carlson and the State TV outlet that employs him. Avenatti weighed in following the show:

Carlson asked his first question, which had to do with what the rational response would be to an act of cyber war by Russia. Avenatti began his answer by saying that “Well, Tucker, I understood that I was coming on your show tonight to talk about the case involving my client…” And that was as far as Avenatti got when Carlson burst in with his first interruption. Avenatti told Carlson that:

“You’ve gotta stop interrupting me, cause one of the conditions of me coming on tonight was that you were not going to do what you do routinely to guests, which is talk over them and interrupt them. So just let me finish with my answer.”

Then Carlson asked his question again, and Avenatti got a little further into his answer when Carlson again broke in, and Avenatti scolded him saying “There you go interrupting me again.” It’s clear how this interview was going to go from just these first few minutes. Avenatti was trying to give substantive responses to Carlson’s inquiries, but Carlson obviously didn’t like that Avenatti’s points included condemnations of Trump for colluding with Russia. So Carlson had to prevent that sort of truth from getting out to his willfully ignorant audience.

Despite Carlson’s introduction that claimed that he didn’t want to engage in insults, he excused his interruptions as “clarifications” because, as he stated, Avenatti didn’t understand the questions. But Avenatti wasn’t going to sit there and have Carlson call him stupid. He shot back at Carlson with a question of his own: “Why don’t you call Trump the creepy porn president” due to his having unprotected sex with a porn actress while his wife and four month old baby were at home. Carlson got glassy-eyed and stuttered as he tried to change the subject. Then, after acting like a wild buffoon, Carlson told Avenatti to “settle down.” It was hilarious.

Then Carlson goes totally off the rails with an assertion that makes no sense at all. He said that Avenatti should be paying his client, Stormy Daniels, because he has an expensive suit and she’s performing in strip clubs. Huh? What does that have to do with anything? Does Carlson think that any lawyer who is better off financially than his client should be giving the client money?

Avenatti then nailed Carlson for not knowing that Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to two campaign finance felonies. Carlson tried to claim that they were not violations, but you can’t plead guilty to something that isn’t a crime. Having lost this point, Carlson swings back to why Daniels is performing in “depressing strip clubs,” as if it were Avenatti’s role to tell her what to do. Avenatti replied that she’s doing what she wants and that “This is America” and “if a women wants to perform in a strip club she does so even though people like you demean her.”

You know that Avenatti was winning this debate by the way that Carlson was losing his composure. He actually ended up yelling at Avenatti because he refused to allow Carlson to continually interrupt him. And when Avenatti grew tired of Carlson’s belittling of his client, he asked Carlson about his own porn habits. That shut Carlson up momentarily. And when Avenatti asked Carlson if he thought that people who view porn should watch his show, Carlson whimpered “I’m not even sure what that question means.” Then Carlson cut Avenatti off from responding to his closing lecture by declaring that he was out of time.

There is one lesson that everyone watching this segment ought to take to heart: No one should ever – for any reason – appear on Tucker Carlson’s program. He will lie to your face about the conditions of the agreement to appear. And then he will endeavor to steer the conversation to whatever tangential topic he thinks he can best malign you with. Avenatti actually handled Carlson brilliantly throughout the “interview,” but it was still an exercise in futility that accomplished nothing. Carlson’s mind can not be changed, and neither can the minds of his dimwitted viewers.

While there is a scant amount of comic relief from seeing Carlson squirm, it’s still unproductive and only serves to spike his ratings. That potentially gives him attention from a larger pool of Deplorables when he should be booted off the air for advancing the agenda of neo-Nazis and violent, racist extremists. The sooner he gets canned for advocating his race war, the better for America.

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