Trump Said No One Will Talk About COVID After the Election, But He Is

There are numerous reasons why Donald Trump just lost the presidential election. They range from his abhorrent personality to his dangerous incompetence to his pathetic ignorance to his flaming bigotry to … aw hell, there’s too much to keep listing. But among the many reasons, we cannot forget how horribly he mismanaged the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly a quarter of a million Americans and counting.

Donald Trump, Coronavirus

For the most part, Trump spent much of the campaign season pretending that COVID-19 didn’t exist, or was already under control. This week he even took credit for a vaccine that he had absolutely nothing to do with, saying that “the Trump Administration has produced a great and safe VACCINE.” The vaccine was actually developed by Pfizer without any aid from Trump or his phony “Operation Warpspeed” initiative. The American people, however, knew that Trump was dealing in deadly lies. Nevertheless, Trump remained steadfast in his virus denialism. At one point he tweeted…

Trump repeatedly implied that the virus was a politically motivated hoax and that all discussion of it would disappear after the election. Sadly, the reality is that COVID-19 has only accelerated its infections, hospitalizations, and fatalities. No one is talking about low death rates or plentiful hospital rooms. Not even Trump. But he is talking about Congress producing a coronavirus relief bill.

What Trump is neglecting to mention is that the House of Representatives passed a bill months ago that Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, has blocked from getting a vote. And ever since then McConnell has refused to negotiate with Democrats. That is also the position of Trump who actually “instructed my representatives to stop negotiating” way back on October 6th. He left open the possibility of restarting negotiations after the election, but only if he won.

Well, Trump lost (although he’s still in a state of denial about it). And on Saturday he tweeted that “Congress must now do a Covid Relief Bill. Needs Democrats support. Make it big and focused. Get it done!” Of course, there is already a bill that has Democrats support. It’s the Republicans who are balking. And when Republicans deign to speak of it, they insist on a small bill that fails to address the massive needs of people, business, and local governments.

The bottom line is that Trump was wrong when said that no one would be talking about the pandemic; he was wrong when lying about a vaccine; he was wrong when he claimed we had “turned the corner”; and he was wrong in attempting to push for relief while implying that Democrats – not himself and the GOP – were stalling. He was just plain wrong about everything, as usual. And his reliable wrongness is going to result in more illness and death until he is finally out of office. At least there is now a light at the end of that dark tunnel.

NOTE: News Corpse was notified by Twitter recently that its account would be permanently suspended for repeated violations of their rules. Which is strange because it has never been cited for a single violation in 11 years and they didn’t even identify this alleged violation. They just bounced the account and its 7,000 followers. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from this 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.

Joe Biden Brilliantly Nails Trump’s Descent Into Corruption and Tyranny

From day one of his accidental presidency, Donald Trump has exhibited clear signs of his aspirations to emulate the brutal dictators that he so admires (Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin). His reverence for the trappings of totalitarianism has been thinly disguised as he openly exchanged love letters with his autocratic heroes and behaved in a manner that mimicked their oppressive methods of governing.

Donald Trump, Joe Biden

On Friday evening Trump committed yet another act of obvious abuse of power. Hoping to avoid media scrutiny, he quietly sent a letter to Congress indicating his intention to fire Steve Linick, the State Department’s Inspector General. Linick just happened to been investigating misconduct by Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.

The Inspector General’s position is supposed to be an independent watchdog post to protect the integrity of government agencies. That’s why Trump could not fire Linick outright, but had to give Congress a 30 day notice. Unfortunately, due to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s blind obedience to Trump, it is still likely that nothing will be done about this, at least from McConnell’s perch.

This negligence on the part of Republicans in Congress is all the worse considering that this isn’t the first time that Trump has fired an IG who was investigating his administration. Nor is it the second time. Or the the third. Linick’s dismissal follows that of Inspectors General Christi Grimm (Health and Human Services), Glenn Fine (Defense Department), and Michael Atkinson (Intelligence Community). Each of these people were non-partisan career professionals who served administrations of both parties. Each of them were probing misconduct in the Trump administration. And all of this took place within a six week period.

Trump has been executing a slow-motion version of a Saturday Night Massacre, wherein he’s terminating honorable public servants who were doing their jobs on behalf of the American people. His brazen lawlessness seems to be growing unchecked ever since the Senate failed in their duty to remove him from office after his impeachment.

Trump is becoming ever more desperate in recent days as the coronavirus death toll for Americans approaches 90,000. Which is another even more tragic consequence of the GOP’s acquiescence to Dear Leader. Lately Trump has been fixated on a thoroughly imaginary “scandal” that he has been calling “ObamaGate.” There is no rational explanation for what he’s alleging, and given the opportunity, even he couldn’t define it. But he has been tweeting up a storm with links to rabid Obama haters making bizarre and unsupported accusations.

On Saturday morning Trump embarked on a raging Twitter-palooza that included one tweet saying that “Scandal has defined the Obama Administration.” Which is peculiar considering there is not even a hint of any untoward activity by President Obama over the eight years of his presidency. However, there is nothing but scandal and corruption engulfing Trump and his confederacy of criminals, many of whom have already been indicted and convicted.

So Trump’s current obsessive acting out against IGs is just his way of trying to put a lid on the discovery of his raging malfeasance in office. He is writhing in fear of losing in November and being held accountable for his presidential crime spree. He knows that his approval ratings are plummeting and most polls show Joe Biden beating him nationally, as well as in many of the crucial swing states. So it is especially sweet to see Biden excoriating Trump in a succinct yet effective tweet of his own:

Indeed. While there are many former Trump staffers who have left his employ under a cloud, the only person Trump ever fired for wrongdoing was his disgraced National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, who got the ax for lying to both the administration and the FBI. But now Trump is praising Flynn after having had his Attorney General, Bill Barr, drop all charges against him. Never mind that Flynn had confessed and pleaded guilty twice.

Trump keeps demonstrating that he will cozy up to those who swear their unflinching allegiance to his White House mob family. Loyalty to him always takes precedence over loyalty to the United States or its Constitution. And he will continue to poison the waters of justice in order to avoid being held accountable for his innumerable crimes. You have to wonder if there is any breach of law or ethics that will provoke Republicans to act with integrity and dignity and patriotism. but don’t hold your breath.

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

GOOD CALL: Political Pundit Trump Predicts America is Getting More Anti-Trump

The daily schedule of alleged president Donald Trump is typically a short list of non-presidential activities such as as golfing, tweeting, watching Fox News, and headlining cult rallies filled with lies and hatred for his perceived political foes. And as of late Trump has taken a keen new interest in election punditry with his unique analyses littering his Twitter feed.

Donald Trump

In recent weeks Trump has posted repeated commentaries on the progress of the Democratic primary season. He is mostly expressing a bizarre and obviously disingenuous concern that Bernie Sanders is being treated poorly by a party that is rigging the primaries against him. In addition to that Trump frequently opines on how his recent tribulations with impeachment have actually benefited him and his Republican cohorts. But on Monday morning, Trump contributed what may be his most accurate prediction for the Democratic campaign yet:

To be clear, the accuracy of this tweet is not that either Sen. Chuck Schumer or Rep. Jerrold Nadler are at risk for being defeated. They are both expected to have overwhelming victories in both their primaries and in the general election. And every poll indicates that Nancy Pelosi will retain her position as House Speaker, and even pick up additional seats. The smart money is betting on Democrats assuming the majority in the Senate as well. So Schumer is well positioned to topple Mitch McConnell as Majority Leader.

However, what Trump may not have noticed about his prediction is that he is asserting that the nation is becoming even more progressive and, therefore, more anti-Trump. That’s the only plausible conclusion from his assertion that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could take Schumer’s Senate seat and win statewide. Likewise, Trump’s opinion that a candidate to Nadler’s left would enjoy a victory in New York’s 10th district suggests that being farther to the left is an asset. So Trump is essentially saying that the farther a candidate is from Trump, the better their prospects for victory. I can’t say that I disagree with that.

To validate that point, Quinnipiac University released a new poll that has decidedly terrible news for Trump. They report that his “favorability rating is underwater, as 42 percent of registered voters have a favorable opinion of him, while 55 percent have an unfavorable view of him.” This doesn’t exactly affirm his delusional belief that being impeached increased his popularity or his chances of being reelected. On the latter point, Trump is shown in this poll to be trailing every one of his top Democratic opponents. According to Quinnipiac:

  • Bloomberg tops Trump 51 – 42 percent;
  • Sanders defeats Trump 51 – 43 percent;
  • Biden beats Trump 50 – 43 percent;
  • Klobuchar defeats Trump 49 – 43 percent;
  • Warren wins narrowly over Trump 48 – 44 percent;
  • Buttigieg is also slightly ahead of Trump 47 – 43 percent.

In addition to his electoral woes, America is convinced that Trump is a criminal who got away with his crimes with the help of his Republican accomplices in the Senate. The poll shows that “Despite the acquittal, voters say 55 – 40 percent that the Senate voting to acquit President Trump does not clear him of any wrongdoing in the Ukraine matter.” What’s more, “Voters say 59 – 35 percent that the Senate impeachment trial was conducted unfairly.”

If this is what Trump means when he says that “My poll numbers look great,” he is as mentally unstable as ever. Perhaps more so. He recently exhibited a severe case of paranoia by lashing out at enemies that he sees everywhere, saying that “I View Everybody as a Threat.” And he has embarked on a totalitarian style purge of his administration, including his own appointees. So it isn’t just America that is more anti-Trump. In his diseased mind, it’s even his own White House.

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

Trump Admits that He’s Only Interested in a Lie-Filled Reality TV Impeachment Show

Trump has been tweeting up a storm on this fourth day of his Senate impeachment trial. Most of it has been retweets of the sycophantic Trump-fluffers who vainly try to defend the indefensible criminality of Trump. But some are more puzzling than others, such as the one where he agreed with Joe Biden that he should be impeached and removed from office.

Donald Trump TV Set

However, in addition to his tweet agreeing with Biden, Trump also tweeted what amounts to an admission that he isn’t really concerned about the outcome of the Senate trial at all. That’s because the GOP leader, Mitch McConnell, has already assured him that he won’t permit a fair hearing to take place and that the outcome will be manipulated in Trump’s favor. So Trump tweeted this:

First of all, Trump had an invitation to have his representatives and witnesses appear during the House hearings, but he refused. So he can’t complain about not being represented when that was his own decision. Secondly, The prospect of the Trump defense in the Senate being pushed to Saturday was entirely the work of Mitch McConnell. The Democrats had no power to alter the schedule dictated by the GOP leader. And it appears likely that McConnell will alter it himself and shift the commencement of the Trump defense to Monday.

That said, it’s notable that what Trump is whining about isn’t how his case will be made to the senators who will be voting on his fate as president. Nope. What Trump is upset about is that his defenders might not have as big a television audience as he would like. In other words, he’s only interested in the reality TV elements of his impeachment hearings. That’s a so typically Trumpian.

Trump already has the benefit of Fox News, which has not been airing the Senate hearings during prime time. Fox has also benched their Senior Judicial Analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano, in order to keep his contrary views away from the snowflakes who watch Fox (Napolitano called the evidence for Trump’s impeachment and removal “ample and uncontradicted”). Fox did, however, interrupt coverage of the hearings on Friday to show Trump giving a speech at the anti-abortion March for Life. They were in alone in that editorially biased decision.

In the end everything about Trump’s behavior and commentaries is focused on one thing only: What is in his own best interest, never mind the American people or the fate of the nation. It’s his malignantly narcissistic, massive ego that must be satisfied first. And ironically, that’s what got him into all this trouble to begin with.

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

HUH? Trump Agrees with Biden that He Must Be Impeached and Removed From Office

The longer the impeachment hearings for Donald Trump go on, the more deranged he becomes. He is clearly frightened and fixated on the proceedings despite his frequent and unconvincing dismissals. On Friday morning he once again posted a frantic flurry of more than fifty tweets assailing the Democrats in congress as they press their case against him.

Donald Trump, Joe Biden

Embedded in this Twitter tantrum, Trump included his familiar whining about how he is such a helpless victim of the meanies in the Democratic Party who refuse to adore him. He repeated for the umpteenth time his demand that everyone “Read the Transcripts” of his clearly incriminating phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. And he retweeted a phalanx of StormTrumpers in Congress and the media who are valiantly defending the indefensible. But perhaps the most bizarre tweet of the bunch was this beaut:

Trump is quoting Joe Biden’s assessment that Trump could gain some advantage after emerging “victorious” from the Senate’s impeachment trial. That’s debatable, but Biden’s view is not unreasonable. What’s peculiar is that Trump is latching onto – and agreeing with – Biden’s comments that “Congress has no choice, it has a Constitutional responsibility.” Biden is referring to to the responsibility to impeach Trump and remove him from office. And Trump, as expressed in this tweet, apparently agrees with that. Good to know.

The view that Trump will be “harder to beat” following these hearings is not cast in stone. On one hand, Trump has already been impeached, and that’s forever. The Senate hearings are driving home the facts surrounding Trump’s criminal coercion of Zelensky and his efforts to cover it up. They are also revealing the Republicans’ unprincipled obsession with suppressing new evidence and witness testimony. Consequently, any “acquittal” by a partisan vote of the GOP majority would immediately and totally lack credibility. And Trump’s guilt would still be presumed by most Americans, as it is now.

The argument that Trump would be stronger rests only on the notion that his cult followers might be more motivated to turn out in November. But that’s speculative at best. His most fervent supporters are already as buzzy as they can possibly be. And he isn’t likely to attract new supporters simply because the GOP-run Senate let him off the hook.

Nevertheless, Trump is continuing to pretend that all this impeachment stuff is helping him and hurting Democrats. That view might make him feel better and provide some encouragement to his despondent Deplorables, but it isn’t founded on any factual basis. And it won’t alter the public perception that he is a liar who has betrayed his country to further his own personal and political ambitions.

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

Trump-Fluffing Fox News ‘Judge’ is Profoundly Ignorant of Impeachment and the Constitution

Donald Trump is giving the world a close-up look at what happens when a reality TV game show host is foolishly put in charge of a government that he is wholly unprepared to manage. Apparently being a pathological liar, and sleazy wannabe playboy, who ran bankrupt casinos and fraudulent charities was not particularly good experience for leading a nation.

Donald Trump, Jeanine Pirro

Among the hallmarks of Trump’s tenure is his narrow-sighted attachment to television shills who lavished him with undo praise and adoration. That resulted in numerous people from Fox News getting jobs in the Trump White House. In addition, Trump assembled his favorite Fox News hosts into a “shadow” cabinet from which he received – and often took – advice on anything from foreign affairs to healthcare to economics and more.

One of Trump’s frequent legal advisers is Fox’s “Judge” Jeanine Pirro, a disgraced jurist (with a felon spouse) and a failed politician who landed a gig at State TV where she regularly delivers bizarre exaltations of Dear Leader. On Saturday night Pirro launched into a preposterous argument opposing Trump’s impeachment. As she commonly does, she employed legal arguments that exist nowhere in jurisprudence and make no sense whatsoever.

Pirro attempted to address House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to delay transmittal of the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate until GOP leader Mitch McConnell sets procedures that allow for a fair hearing with witnesses and document production. Pirro ranted that (video below)

“I’ll tell you what I would do. I would tell Mitch McConnell that he ought to automatically dismiss it. There’s got to be a default. There’s got to be — if you’re entitled to a speedy trial, if you’re entitled to be able to — if there’s a statute of limitations, it’s passed. This thing — there should be a default judgment, overdone for non-prosecution. What is McConnell waiting for?”

Pirro must have received her law degree from Trump University. She doesn’t seem to realize that impeaching the president is not the same as a criminal prosecution. There is no provision for a speedy trial. There is no statute of limitations. If there were it certainly wouldn’t be applicable after only one month. What’s more, there no such thing as a default judgment with regard to impeachment. And there is no such thing as “overdone for non-prosecution.” with regard to anything in the law. Pirro is just making things up that she thinks sound lawyerly.

This is what happens when you rely on television “lawyers” for legal advice. Trump’s actual legal team is comprised of people he saw praising him on Fox News: Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow. And he often cites Gregg Jarrett and Mark Levin, as legal “experts,” despite the fact that they are professional Fox News flunkies who don’t do any legal work at all.

This embarrassingly shallow pool of intellect is representative of the whole Trump administration. Most of the people on his staff, and members of his cabinet, are people he recruited after seeing them on Fox. It’s one of the reasons the country is now on the verge of war with Iran. Trump’s judgment is abysmal to begin with. And it just makes matters worse that he is making incompetent and self-serving decisions on the basis of terrible advice from unqualified, bootlicking advisers. What could go wrong?

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

Despite Desperate Denials, Support for Impeaching and Removing Trump is Growing

It has never been more clear that Donald Trump will lie about anything. After launching an attack that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC’s) Quds Force, Trump and his team claimed that Soleimani was plotting a “major” attack on Americans. Of course, he provided no evidence of that, despite how implausible it seems. Why would Iran suddenly want to provoke an armed conflict with the United States?

Donald Trump Walking the Plank

Naturally, Trump did, as always, have Fox news to cover for him. They are his Ministry of Propaganda who will eagerly and obediently affirm his lies. But regardless of how determined they are to construct a fantasy world wherein Trump is an infallible hero, the American people are not that easily fooled. A new poll by FiveThirtyEight and Ipsos has more bad news for Trump:

“A majority (57 percent) of Americans said they think Trump committed an impeachable offense. Fifty-two percent said they think Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine or his refusal to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry constitute enough evidence to remove him from office.”

Once again, a significant majority of voters have expressed their desire to see Trump impeached and removed from office. This is not a new development. Many other polls have shown the same thing over an extended period of time. However, this poll is proof that one of Trump’s most frequent assertions about impeachment is patently false. As recently as last month Trump declared that “Impeachment has backfired thoroughly on the Democrats.” As usual, he provided nothing to support that claim. He just expects his glassy-eyed disciples to believe whatever he tells them. And, sadly, many will.

This poll not only demonstrates that the public favors Trump’s impeachment, it also shows that this sentiment is growing, not backfiring as Trump says. The poll also reveals that most Americans want the Senate to conduct a fair impeachment hearing with witnesses and document production. During the House hearings Trump whined bitterly about wanting witnesses to testify, while simultaneously prohibiting them from doing so. Now he is opposed to such testimony and is pressuring GOP leader Mitch McConnell to decline to have hearings at all.

Trump is obviously afraid of a reality that places him in political peril. so he concocts an alternative version of it that better matches his narcissistic world view. And he passes that along to his cult followers who are just as anxious as he is to latch unto some comforting falsehoods. It would be a pathetic state of affairs for any individual. But when that individual is the President of United States it’s downright dangerous.

The situation currently unfolding with Iran is an excellent example of how Trump’s pathological dishonesty impacts world affairs. Not only do the American people doubt everything Trump says, so do nations that would otherwise form alliances with the U.S. to combat terrorism. Trump’s lying results in forcing America to drift alone in a sea of uncertainty and disrepute. The sooner we are rid of him, the better.

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

WTF? Trump Whines that His Impeachment was ‘Unfair’ Because He Refused to Cooperate

The impeachment of Donald Trump is now a part of history. It is a permanent stain on his legacy that will also include caging babies, sabotaging healthcare, abandoning terrorist-fighting allies, exploding the deficit, embracing brutal dictators, humiliating the nation, telling more than 15,000 lies, empowering white supremacists, enriching the already wealthy (including himself) at the expense of everyone else, and ignoring the lethal planetary climate crisis.

Donald Trump WTF

In the midst of the impeachment process, Trump is continuing to demonstrate that his greatest personal skill is his Olympic-grade ability to whine. It’s astonishing how the alleged leader of the free world can be so mired in victimhood. Trump has been in a state of perpetual whimpering for weeks (well, decades really, but let’s stay focused on the present). His Twitter feed is dripping with the piss and moan of a professional crybaby. He recently broke his own record with 123 self-serving panic tweets in a single day.

One of his most frequent complaints that is getting extra attention lately is his assertion that the impeachment process has been unfair to him. But the logic that he employs to make that case is built on a foundation of whipped cream. On Friday morning Trump posted a tweet that perfectly expresses both his frustration and his confusion:

Let’s break down this fetid bouquet of BS. Trump is essentially complaining that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is “demanding fairness” from the Republican majority leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, that she didn’t provide in the House. This is a repeat of a previous tweet from a couple of days ago in which he asked why Pelosi is “allowed to impeach the President” at all.

Someone should inform Trump that Pelosi’s power to impeach is because of this thing we call the Constitution. Trump further asserted that Pelosi “is demanding everything the Republicans weren’t allowed to have in the House.” Clearly Trump has no idea what he’s talking about.

So what is Pelosi demanding of the Senate? She is merely seeking to have the hearings in the Senate include witness testimony and document production. As it happens, these are exactly the same things that she sought for the hearings in the House. But an obstinate and fearful Trump refused. So Trump’s assertion that Pelosi is asking for something that Republicans were denied previously is patently false. There is literally no difference in what she’s asking for.

Now Trump is pretending to be upset that he wasn’t provided “Due Process, proper representation, or witnesses.” However, he was offered all of those things, he just declined to accept the offers. And now he is continuing to refuse to participate, in precisely the same way, in the upcoming Senate hearings.

So if there is any unfairness in the impeachment, it is entirely the fault of Donald Trump, who has refused to participate, and now is declaring that his refusal is the cause of the alleged unfairness. It’s not unlike the murder defendant who killed his parents and asks the court for mercy because he’s an orphan. Had Trump agreed to testify – or to allow his staff to do so, or delivered the documents that were subpoenaed – he could not now whine about unfairness. And yet, he’s still refusing to cooperate with the Senate, even though it is controlled by a Republican majority.

The only plausible reason for this persistent obstruction is that Trump knows he’s guilty and that additional testimony and documents will prove it. He’s behaving like a man consumed by fear and the consciousness of guilt. If he really believed that any of his staff could exonerate him, he would drive them to the hearings himself. One thing is certain: This is not the behavior of an innocent man. The only thing Trump has left is obstruction, lies, deflection, and, as always, whining.

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

The Ignorant Fallacies of Trump’s Outrage Over Pelosi Withholding the Articles of Impeachment

Last week Donald Trump became the first reality TV game show host to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. In the days that followed, the humiliation and fear that consumes him was on display as he lashed out at those he imagines are persecuting him. Trump’s Twitter feed was afire with the shock and fury of someone who was never quite capable of grasping the gravity of his situation.

Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi

Trump’s dissociation from reality extended to his bootlicking sycophants on his staff and in the media. They cravenly floated bizarre legal theories that posited that Trump wasn’t really impeached at all. But not satisfied with that nonsense, they contradicted themselves to assert that he was indeed impeached, but that that only revealed some sort of failing on the part of the Democrats. And in that vein, Trump and company fielded several absurd rebuttals to his impeachment. Much of it was focused on Pelosi’s decision to hold off on transmitting it to the Senate until GOP leader Mitch McConnell set forth procedures to insure a complete and fair hearing.

The first of these rebuttals was an allegation that Pelosi was afraid to send the impeachment to the Senate. That premise is so ridiculous it hardly needs to be addressed. But for the record, how could Pelosi be accused of being afraid after she courageously pursued and successfully completed the impeachment? And why would anyone regard her giving the Senate ultimatums as being evidence of fear? That’s a pure power play. It’s actually Trump’s team that is fearful as they try vainly to goad Pelosi into abandoning her demands for fairness. The last thing Republicans want is a fair hearing with relevant witnesses and document production.

Next the Trumpsters tried to make the argument that Pelosi wasn’t transmitting the impeachment because the case against Trump had not been made. But all anyone has to do is read the Articles of Impeachment to see how incriminating the facts are. Democrats want to fortify the case with testimony that Trump has been vigorously obstructing. And that obstruction is further evidence that Trump is the one who is worried about the strength of the case against him and feels it necessary to suppress evidence.

Perhaps the dumbest of the Republican rebuffs is their complaint that Pelosi’s delay somehow contradicts a made up assertion that Democrats were in a hurry to impeach Trump. It’s fair to say that Democrats want to proceed expeditiously, but not at the expense of the integrity of the process and its results. At no time has Pelosi, or any Democrat, suggested that speed was a requirement that superseded the pursuit of the truth. Trumpists are just hoping to bully Democrats into rushing through this in the hopes that Trump’s crimes will be overlooked.

Finally, the Trump apologists believe that Pelosi is violating the Constitution by not immediately transmitting the impeachment to the Senate. Of course, they cannot provide any clause that supports that theory. The Constitution merely states that “The House of Representatives…shall have the sole power of impeachment,” and that “The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.” There is nothing that directs any timeline for carrying out these obligations.

All of these arguments are simply diversions by Trump and the GOP to divert attention away from the facts. Note that none of these arguments – or the people making them – bother to refute the factual record. There’s a reason for that. They have no coherent rebuttal. So the only hope they have is to distract and continue to suppress the emergence of any more incriminating evidence, which is coming out anyway. And they know this. Which is why they are the ones who are so scared and resorting to these painfully lame and desperate ploys.

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

Smoking Gun? Trump Ordered Pentagon to Delay Ukraine Aid Shortly After Zelensky Phone Call

The fact that Donald Trump has now been impeached (despite what the loons on Fox News say), hasn’t slowed the discovery of new evidence of his guilt. This is one of the reasons that it’s so important to ensure a comprehensive consideration of the Articles of Impeachment when they get transmitted to the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows this, and so do the vast majority of Americans who favor a full and fair hearing, including witnesses and document production.

Donald Trump

The impeachment controversy has sparked as epic battle between Pelosi and the Senate’s GOP majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who has already announced that he has no intention of conducting a fair hearing and will be “taking his cues” from White House lawyers. In the meantime, new evidence has already emerged that appears to be profoundly damaging to Trump:

That’s right. Less than two hours after Trump got off the phone with President Zelensky of Ukraine, he ordered the Defense Department to withhold military aid to a country that was being invaded at the time by Russia. The order included a directive to keep it quiet due to it’s “sensitive nature.”

Trump is fond of telling everyone to “read the transcript” of his phone call with Zelensky. He’s tweeted that demand 29 times in the past few weeks. Most recently, yesterday. He is referring to reading the notes made in a memo that describes his conversation with Zelensky. And he is apparently too oblivious to recognize that the memo actually confirms that he conditioned military aid on Zelensky’s promise to help him smear Joe Biden. What Trump said, in response to Zelensky’s inquiry about the aid, was…

“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.”

That’s a textbook quid pro quo. Trump then talks about getting some information related to a debunked conspiracy theory about a computer server that belonged to the Democratic National Committee. But he quickly segues from that to explicit requests for dirt on Joe Biden:

“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with [Rudy Giuliani and] the Attorney General [William Barr] would be great … so if you can look into it.”

This new memo was acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Center for Public Integrity. It is among the documents that the White House had previously refused to surrender to congressional investigators. There are many more that Trump continues to withhold. And he is still refusing to allow his staff to give testimony.

But if there’s one thing this memo proves, it’s that there is a real need to continue probing this criminal president and the accomplices in his administration. And when the Senate takes up the impeachment, they must permit the introduction of new evidence and testimony from relevant witnesses. The truth will likely come out eventually, anyway. But if Republicans in Congress allow Trump to deny access to it at this stage, they will be held accountable by both the courts and the voters.

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