Polls

POLL: Half of Republicans are Psycho Trump Cultists Who Believe Capitol Riots Were ‘Peaceful’

Posted by on April 5, 2021 at 11:20 am. 8 Comments :

On January 6, 2021, hundreds of hostile right-wing extremists invaded the United States Congress in an attempt to violently obstruct the constitutionally mandated certification of the 2020 presidential election. They were sent by their faux messiah, Donald Trump, who insisted that the election was “stolen” in a fearmongering and reckless rant, saying that “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Donald Trump Rally, Sieg Heil

Three months later a poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos has documented what common sense had already confirmed: That the glassy-eyed disciples of the Cult of Trump are a bastion of delusional cretins who are willingly deceived and certifiably insane:

“Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have listened. […]”

“[A]bout half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists ‘trying to make Trump look bad,’ a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found. Six in 10 Republicans also believe the false claim put out by Trump that November’s presidential election ‘was stolen’ from him due to widespread voter fraud.”

Seriously? Half of Republicans, who presumably saw the videos of hundreds of StormTrumpers assaulting the seat of American democracy, climbing walls, busting down doors, breaking windows, vandalizing property, chanting death threats, and physically attacking (and killing) police officers, now believe the violent insurrection was “mostly peaceful”? What kind of brain damage is present for that conclusion to even be considered in passing?

There’s a reason that so much mass hysteria could be evident in this group of Trumpian criminals. They were lied to by both Trump and a deliberately dishonest propaganda disseminator posing as a “news” network: Fox News. Virtually every mention of the attack on Fox News excused Trump and included allusions to the mythical Antifa as the “real” perpetrators of the violence. Never mind that there was no evidence of that whatsoever and, of course, there was abundant video of what actually happened. There was, however, evidence of Trump’s collusion and planning of the Capitol melee.

For his part, Trump repeatedly incited this aberrant behavior by his cult followers, telling them just prior to the attack that “The Radical Left will destroy our Country if we let them.” During the assault Trump confessed his affection for the mob saying that “We love you.” And more recently, Trump visited with Laura Ingraham of Fox News for a bit of flagrant gaslighting wherein he claimed that “Right from the start it was zero threat [and all] hugging and kissing”

See? it was a Love-In! And except for the dead, and more than a hundred injured police officers, and the destruction of property, and the defiling of a democratic institution, it was celebratory occasion that Trump’s Klan will long recall with pride.

Fortunately, the Reuters poll also found that 59% of all Americans hold trump responsible. And eight in 10 Democrats and six in 10 independents “reject the false claims that the Capitol siege was ‘mostly peaceful’ or it was staged by left-wing protestors.” Nevertheless, the psychotically delusional beliefs of the GOP and the Trumpsters is a worrisome trend. And we must remain vigilant to prevent future episodes of violence and rightist mob offensives. No doubt Trump and Fox News are already plotting them.

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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.

Despite What Fox News Says, Democrats Won the Impeachment Debate

Posted by on February 13, 2021 at 2:07 pm. 8 Comments :

Donald Trump has secured a place in history as the only reality TV game show host to be impeached twice. He holds fully 50% of all impeachments for United States Presidents. And while the outcome of this second attempt by Democrats in Congress to hold Trump accountable for betraying his oath of office and his country was never in much doubt, his legacy will forever reflect his treasonous acts.

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Donald Trump Walking the Plank

The Senate is an august body that is often referred to as “deliberative.” That is less true in these modern times as hyper-partisanship has infected a cowardly confederacy of Republicans who ignored the fact-based evidence in order to express their blind devotion to a dishonest and disgraced demagogue whose lust for power very nearly brought down the American experiment in democracy.

However, the much larger constituency of the populace at large was not as easily misled as their senatorial so-called representatives. The latest polling of citizens on the question of Trump’s guilt diverges sharply from the survey of Senators voting in Trump’s impeachment hearing:

“Seventy-one percent of American adults, including nearly half of all Republicans, believe former President Donald Trump was at least partially responsible for starting the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to an Ipsos poll conducted for Reuters.”

So nearly three-quarters of the American people believe Trump is guilty. And while all fifty Democratic senators agree with the nation’s citizenry, only seven Republicans did. Even so, that still makes this the most bipartisan vote to convict an impeached president in history.

For Trump and his apologists to regard having lost a majority of 57% of the Senate is a bizarre twist on the concept of victory. Even GOP leader Mitch McConnell ultimately conceded Trump’s guilt. After the vote he described Trump’s behavior as a “disgraceful dereliction of duty” about which he said “There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.” Which makes his vote to acquit an exercise in flaming hypocrisy and cowardice.

It isn’t very often that poll respondents ever approach 71% agreement on any political issue. So it’s significant that a majority that lopsided has occurred with an issue as controversial as impeachment. And this unity (which many in politics and the press have been clamoring for) occurred despite the best efforts of Fox News to distort reality and thrust their biased propaganda down the throats of their eagerly deceived audience.

What this tells us is that Fox News doesn’t have the broad-based influence to which they like to pretend. In fact, the ratings for the impeachment hearings prove how weak Fox’s grip on the nation’s news consumers really is. For instance, CNN reports that “Fox fell below 1 million viewers during the afternoon coverage period. For comparison’s sake MSNBC averaged 3 million and CNN averaged 2.9 million viewers.” Fox News has been coming in third regularly since the election in November of last year.

Some pundits have been asserting that Trump’s hide was saved by the existence of an ultra-rightist network that was parroting his lies and propaganda. But the ratings show that that isn’t the case. Trump’s support among his cult followers was baked in before the Senate hearings began. The efforts by Fox to shape the debate were seen by only a tiny faction of already convinced devotees. And during much of the time leading up to the impeachment, the only news for Trump was bad news. His lawyers were embarrassing themselves and/or quitting. And Fox News shills were being caught in flagrant lies and/or getting fired.

In the end, Trump’s defense was a humiliating mish-mash of the sort of malarkey that was dispensed by Trump-fluffers on Fox and other wingnut media, and that used to appear in Trump’s now-canceled Twitter feed. And the ridiculousness of the Trump defenders wasn’t lost by credible and respected observers who commented on their ineptitude, as well as Trump’s grim future:

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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.

You Want Unity? Here’s Your Unity: 83% Favor Biden’s COVID Relief Plan

Posted by on February 10, 2021 at 12:29 pm. NO Comments :

As the historical first of a second presidential impeachment proceeds, the most prominent argument by Donald Trump’s apologists is that the whole affair is divisive and that Democrats should “move on.” They plead for Democrats to embrace “unity” with Republicans, the party that has viciously maligned them for years and regards them as enemies. This call for unity by the losers who are supporting a criminal ex-president is, to say the least, convenient.

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Donald Trump, Republican, GOP

The Republican pretense of harmony is as phony as Trump’s spray-on tan. What they regard as unifying is capitulation to their agenda which was decisively defeated last November. In the eyes of the Trumpists, if Democrats don’t give Republicans everything they want, they will be accused of hypocrisy for rejecting the bipartisanship that Biden has been advocating.

The problem with the GOP stance – aside from being blatantly disingenuous – is that unity is not achieved by caving in to unpopular demands by the losing party. It is far more productive to be unified with the American people. And a new poll by CBS News affirms that the people – both Democrats and Republicans – are indeed unified behind the policies of progressives.

The poll asked respondents “Would you approve or disapprove of Congress passing an additional economic relief package that would provide funds to people and businesses impacted by the coronavirus outbreak?” The response was an overwhelming 83% favoring passage of the COVID relief plan.

There are very few polls with majorities that unified. And it was a bipartisan unity. When asked about the amount of the bill currently being discussed, 79% overall said it was either “about right” or wanted it to be more. Even among Republicans, 61% say the amount of Biden’s plan is either “about right” (34%) or “not enough” (27%). What’s more, the poll found that Biden’s approval was a solid 61% majority. For the record, Trump never hit 50% at any time during his presidency or candidacy.

Just because Republicans in Congress are more united with QAnon than they are with the American people – and even their own constituents – doesn’t mean that Democrats aren’t supportive of unity. Clearly they are united with the citizens of all political persuasions who want Congress to pass the relief bill and deliver the help that is so badly needed. it’s the GOP who needs to reflect on why they are not unified with either Democrats or Republicans. But don’t expect them to have the integrity for that sort of honest reflection.

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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.

Trump Plans His Own Ego-Soaked Farewell Party As His Approval Hits Record Low

Posted by on January 15, 2021 at 1:11 pm. 8 Comments :

In the few days left before Joe Biden is inaugurated the 46th President of the United States, Donald Trump is laying low, confined to the bunker in the White House. He has an empty calendar with no speeches, meetings, or Fox News interviews scheduled. So it’s likely that his last public address will the one he gave on January 6th, where he commanded his cult disciples to storm Congress, resulting in at least five deaths and his second impeachment.

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Donald Trump Rally, Sieg Heil

Trump has already announced that he will not attend Biden’s inauguration. At one point he was considering staging a counter event to compete with the official ceremonies and to launch his 2024 campaign. But that appears to have been abandoned. Now, as he becomes increasingly despondent, Trump may be planning his own farewell to the White House that he always considered a dump. As reported by CNN’s Jim Acosta:

What a sad, pathetic shell of an impotent former reality TV game show host. If Trump goes though with this it will be ready-made for mockery and serve as a pre-written satirical script for Saturday Night Live. It would be impossible to keep from laughing while watching the biggest loser, who has twice the impeachments of any other president, paying tribute to himself as he flees Washington.

Just picture the spectacle of Trump luminaries like Kayleigh McEnany, Stephen Miller, Roger Stone, and Rudy Giuliani (if Trump decides to pay him), lined up on either side of an orange brocade runway holding MAGA banners aloft, and “You Can’t Always Get Want You Want” playing in the background. Naturally, it will be covered only by Fox News, with Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo providing commentary to accompany a parade of celebrities including Scott Baio, Jon Voight, Roseanne Barr, and Ted Nugent.

Perhaps Trump will produce a video to recall his “accomplishments” of the past four years: Separating hundreds of children from their parents; erecting about four miles of wall on the southern border that Mexico didn’t pay for; befouling the environment; making healthcare less accessible and more expensive; alienating international allies; and killing nearly 400,000 Americans via his incompetent mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s a record of failure that will surely stand the test of time.

Trump’s self-exalting parade of narcissistic obsession will come at a time when his popularity reaches a record low. He has never approached 50% approval, but as he departs he just sunk to a dismal 29% in the Pew Research poll. The same poll found that a sizable majority of Americans (68%) “do not want Trump to remain a major political figure in the future.” About 76% (including 52% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents) say that Trump “bears at least some responsibility” for the riots at the Capitol.

So it is in that light that Trump is anxious to throw himself a party to celebrate his own awesomeness. This is going to be received with the same thrill of being informed of a positive herpes diagnosis. And it will also be the prelude to the next chapter in Trump’s latest impeachment as the Senate prepares to take up the matter in the days following. If there’s one thing we can be certain of, it’s that Trump seems determined to make his exit from the world stage as humiliating as possible. Which is nothing less than what we expected.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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IT’S A CULT! Poll Shows Republicans Trust Trump More Than Their Own Pastor

Posted by on December 31, 2020 at 11:56 am. 8 Comments :

To those Americans who have not been indoctrinated into the Cult of Donald Trump, His appeal is bewildering. He is neither handsome nor intelligent. He speaks at a third grade level. And his emotional response to criticism is even lower. When he isn’t whining petulantly (a sign of weakness), he’s inciting violence. And he has a mortal fear of facts, as demonstrated by his award winning litany of lies.

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Donald Trump Messiah

That said, Trump’s feeble-minded cult devotees are thoroughly engulfed in his bizarre babblings. They have bought his wild assertions that he won the presidential election by a landslide, despite the absence of even a shred of evidence. His having lost nearly sixty lawsuits – many before Republican-appointed judges – doesn’t diminish their glassy-eyed reverence for Dear Leader. They are totally on board with his downplaying of the Coronavirus pandemic, even after the deaths of more than 330,000 of their fellow citizens, and over two million infected. They believe his every boast of abilities superior to those of recognized experts in the military, medicine, economics, and whatever else happens to wander through his sickly thoughts.

A new poll by NPR/Ipsos reaffirms what many have already acknowledged are cult-like attitudes that permeate Trump’s superfan base. The poll found that “A significant number of Americans believe misinformation […] as well as conspiracy theories like QAnon”:

“Forty percent of respondents said they believe the coronavirus was made in a lab in China even though there is no evidence for this. […]

“And one-third of Americans believe that voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election, despite the fact that courts, election officials and the Justice Department have found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome.”

The poll broke down some of the responses by political affiliation. Not surprisingly, Republicans most often were the ones that swallowed the nonsense conspiracy theories. A majority (53%) are opposed to “a smooth transition of power to the Biden administration.” That’s probably because most of them (71%) also believe that “There is a deep state working to undermine President Trump.”

However, when respondents were asked about who in public life they considered most trustworthy, the Republicans revealed just how deeply immersed in the crackpot swamp they really are. Naturally they don’t trust Joe Biden, or Dr. Anthony Fauci, or Rachel Maddow. But the poll shows that they trust Trump (76%) more than they trust their own religious leaders (72%).

The first rule of any cult is that only the Leader is telling you the truth. Everyone else is lying to you and means you harm. That rule has been absorbed by the Trump cultists. That mindset was especially prominent among those who “were Republicans and if they got their news from Fox News or conservative online outlets like Breitbart or the Daily Caller.” Fox News was this year’s recipient of the “Misinformer of the Year“ award from Media Matters. However, Trump himself has had a love/hate relationship with the network for most of the year. Most recently he was nursing some imagined offense when he tweeted that…

It’s likely that Trump was watching Fox News when this video of Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff aired. Ossoff was questioned by Fox’s Peter Doocy when he launched a blistering attack on Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Purdue:

That would have been more than enough to set Trump off. And when Trump is mad at Fox News his followers are going to hear about it. The result is that they are abandoning Fox in droves. Ever since election day, CNN has been regularly beating Fox News in the ratings. Consequently, we are witnessing the irony of right-wing Trump supporters boycotting the network that is actually fueling their political agenda. It’s a glorious spectacle that progressive hope will continue well into the new year.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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Deluded Fox News Viewers Buy Into Trump’s Election Fraud Lies: Poll

Posted by on December 9, 2020 at 1:40 pm. 5 Comments :

On Tuesday the Supreme Court batted down yet another meritless election fraud lawsuit by Donald Trump and/or his sycophantic surrogates. To date Team Trump has lost more than 50 such cases. Yet he persists in pushing his evidence-free allegations despite his record of unprecedented legal failures.

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Donald Trump, Fox News, White House

On Wednesday Trump embarked on his regularly scheduled morning tweetstorm with a barrage of election related outbursts that share the common feature of being wholly removed from reality. For instance, Trump posted these examples of the articulate and coherent case he’s making to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters:

Well, that should settle it. Trump also tweeted his intention to intervene in the bogus lawsuit that Texas just filed that he falsely says contains “massive evidence of widespread fraud.” He tweeted his belief that “it was impossible for me to lose” because he won both Florida and Ohio, and because “the bookies” said so.

However, Trump is not alone alone in advancing this preposterous campaign to overturn the will of the American people. Trump’s Ministry of Disinformation (aka Fox News) is right beside him with their patented brand of propaganda buttressed by flagrant falsehoods. And that relentless blast of bullpucky has taken its toll on Fox’s feeble minded viewers. A new poll by Daily Kos/Civiqs reveals that…

“…a large majority of Americans accept and acknowledge the outcome of the 2020 presidential election: President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump. But among people who watch Fox News … rejecting the election’s result continues to be the norm.”

A majority of Americans overall (58%) accept that Biden clearly beat Trump. That’s a conclusion they base on Biden having received seven million more votes and a 306-232 electoral college victory. But among frequent Fox News viewers only 18% accept that Trump is a loser, versus 63% who still suffer from the delusion that he won.

This is what can be expected when a deliberately dishonest media enterprise embarks on a campaign of lies to promote their own agenda. And the threat it poses isn’t merely a division between those who accept reality and those who cling to faith-based fantasies. Both Trump and Fox News have overtly incited potential violence on the part of disappointed Trump cultists. They have promoted fringe voices calling for “a civil war.” Just last week Fox’s Lou Dobbs attacked not only those who defend democracy, but even Trump’s own law enforcement agencies. Dobbs accused them of being…

“…a politically corrupt Justice Department in Washington, D.C. A politically corrupt FBI. And I don’t know if he is a dullard, a fool, or a liar, but the Attorney General of this country is not enforcing the law. And I don’t know what he thinks he’s presiding over, but I guarantee William Barr this, it will not be a quiet surrender of this constitutional republic.”

That’s how radically removed Fox News is from any semblance of sanity. And it is all on behalf of their Dear Leader whose malignant narcissism, and lust for greed and power, prevents him from honoring the traditional peaceful transfer of power that characterizes functional democracies.

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Trump Brags About Turning a Majority of Republicans Against Democracy

Posted by on November 18, 2020 at 12:54 pm. 4 Comments :

There are many things for which Donald Trump will be remembered. They include being impeached for his complicity with Russian election interference, caging children and separating them from their parents, wasting billions of dollars on a fake border wall that Mexico will never pay for, alienating allies, and driving the economy into a persistent recession. Wait, that aint all.

Donald Trump, Republican, GOP

Trump has also presided over the despoiling the environment, skimming millions of taxpayer funds for himself, wantonly violating innumerable laws, humiliating the nation with his hostile and infantile behavior, and, of course, being responsible for the deaths of a quarter of a million Americans due to his ignorance, incompetence, and deliberate mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic.

That’s quite a legacy. But it is apparently not enough for Trump. He is using his final days in the White House to purposefully undermine respect for the most fundamental American principles. Rather than accept the obvious and decisive defeat that he was dealt by President-elect Joe Biden, Trump has chosen to malign democracy with repeated assertions that the election he so deservedly lost was “rigged” by an implausible cabal of Democrats, Republicans, press, tech companies, civil servants, and even members of his own administration whom he appointed.

Not surprisingly, Trump’s bitter and selfish defiance of reality has resulted in an attitudinal shift among his weak minded cult followers and Fox News junkies. The consequences have been affirmed in a new poll by Reuters/Ipsos. And Trump is so proud of the findings that he featured it in his Wednesday morning tweetstorm:

Needless to say, literally everything Trump alleged in that tweet is verifiably false. Some of it was even stipulated as false by his attorneys in one of the many court cases he’s filed. For the record, Trump is 1 in 24, a nearly perfect score of lawsuit losses. But never fear, according to his lead attorney, Rudy Giuliani, losing is all part of his master plan.

The rest of his morning Twantrum was filled with baseless allegations that the Democratic victory was achieved by cheating, for which Trump has zero proof. Consequently, most of his tweets were flagged by Twitter as disputed, misleading or otherwise false. But that wrist-slapping hasn’t deterred him from continuing to lie. Nine of his 13 Wednesday morning tweets were also flagged.

The link that Trump provided in the tweet above led to the results of a poll that reveals the extent to which Trump has poisoned the political environment. It found that Republicans – Trump’s base – have abandoned any association with American democratic values. They are now a confederacy of anti-democratic subversives whose loyalty is only to their Dear Leader:

“Altogether, 73% of those polled agreed that Biden won the election while 5% thought Trump won. But when asked specifically whether Biden had ‘rightfully won,’ Republicans showed they were suspicious about how Biden’s victory was obtained. Fifty-two percent of Republicans said that Trump ‘rightfully won,’ while only 29% said that Biden had rightfully won. […] 68% of Republicans said they were concerned that the election was ‘rigged.'”

So a majority of Republicans share the delusional belief that Trump was the actual winner of the election. For that to be true, six million votes would have to be thrown out and the results from at least three states overturned. It’s a preposterous idea that has been nurtured by Trump’s relentless whining that he’s a victim of an extraordinarily powerful league of evildoers. His tweets scream out “UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!” and “I WON THE ELECTION.” And his minions chant along blindly.

Let’s not forget to give due credit for this mass hysteria to Fox News, a network that Media Matters has documented as having “cast doubt on or pushed conspiracy theories about the election results at least 574 times” just since Fox themselves called the election for Joe Biden. That’s the sort of air cover that turns Trump’s babbling into a thick mass of dogma that coats the brain cavities of his Deplorables.

Make no mistake, Trump, Republicans, and Fox News are doing the dirty work for Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and other foreign adversaries who are thrilled to see the American people losing faith in their own government. It is an unambiguous act of treason. What’s more, Trump himself used to think so. In 2016 he said that Democrats who disputed the legitimacy of his election were “a direct threat to our democracy.”

Democrats, however, were not disparaging democratic processes or voting systems. They were questioning the unsavory relationships between Trump and Russian operatives. Those relationships were well documented and overtly damaging. The only party that is openly hostile to American democracy is Trump’s Republican Party. And that will remain an obstacle to the healing of our nation for the new Biden administration.

It is, therefore, critical that the crimes of the Trump administration be investigated and prosecuted in order to exorcise the demons summoned by Trump and his cohorts. If there aren’t consequences for those crimes, there will be no deterrent for others going forward. And worse, there will be no moral standing for the prospect of American leadership as an example of democratic freedom.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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DELUSIONAL: Trump Thinks He Won the Debate that Most Voters Say He Lost

Posted by on October 23, 2020 at 11:25 am. 3 Comments :

The final debate of the 2020 presidential season is in the books. Partisans on both sides will claim that their candidate was obviously the winner. But the American people – 50,000,000 of whom have already voted – will have the final say. That, however, will not deter Donald Trump from spinning furiously in a desperate attempt to maintain relevance.

Donald Trump

Trump already started his vain and impotent PR campaign to boost his fragile ego. In the minutes following the debate’s conclusion he tweeted eight Twitter polls posted by his true believers like Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze. These, of course, are not real surveys of scientifically selected voters. They just represent the anguish of Deplorables clawing for some measure of relief in the face of defeat. Trump also retweeted a flurry of Trump-fluffing sycophants who hailed his “victorious” performance. They included strident sycophants like his Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, Rush Limbaugh, Kellyanne Conway, GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy, and the NRA.

Back in the real world, Trump was the unanimous loser in the first three credible polls conducted after the debate. CNN’s poll called the win for Biden by 53% to 39%. Data for Progress put it at 52% to 41%. And YouGov had Biden with 54% over Trump’s 35%. All of these polls gave Biden a double digit lead among voters who watched the debate. And CNN’s poll had additional bad news for Trump:

“Viewers once again said that Biden’s criticisms of Trump were largely fair (73% said they were fair, 26% unfair), and they split over whether Trump’s attacks on Biden were fair (50% said yes, 49% no).

“All told, though, the debate did not do much to move impressions of either candidate. Favorable views of Biden before the debate stood at 55%, and they held steady at 56% in post-debate interviews. Likewise, Trump’s numbers held steady, with 42% saying they had a favorable view of the President in interviews conducted before Thursday’s debate and 41% saying the same afterward.”

If the post-debate standings of the candidates don’t move, that’s a win for Biden who is already in the lead. Trump is the one who needed to create some momentum. But he failed. That’s because his message during the debate was typical of his unhinged cult rally rhetoric (transcript here).

The moderator, Kristen Welker, began the debate by asking the candidates to “be specific: how would you lead the country during this next stage of the coronavirus crisis?” Trump lied in the first sentence of his first answer saying that “2.2 million people, modeled out, were expected to die.” But that was only a projection of what to expect if literally nothing was done. And while Trump indeed did next to nothing, many state governors took control and implemented mitigating measures like shutting down certain businesses, limiting group gatherings, providing testing, and mandating masks.

The remainder of Trump’s response was focused solely on false representations of alleged accomplishments and flagrant lies about spikes being gone in Florida, Texas, and Arizona, all of which are suffering record high rates of cases and fatalities.. He never specifically addressed what he would do to “lead the country during this next stage of the coronavirus crisis?” But he did repeat his ludicrous claim that “we’re rounding the corner, it’s going away.”

The final question asked each candidate what they would say during their inauguration to the people who did not vote for them. Trump completely ignored the question. He talked only about the past and made wild assertions about what Biden would do. That’s what he would say in his inauguration speech? Well, it would still be a slight improvement over his first “American Carnage” inaugural. However, he did surpass his previous record for lying in a debate, which is quite a feat.

Finally, it should be noted that Trump praised Welker during the debate saying “By the way, so far, I respect very much the way you’re handling this, I have to say.” Remember that when he starts ranting about how biased and rude and hateful she was, which he already started prior to the debate saying that “Kristen Welker is terrible, I mean she is totally partisan.” It’s the same sort of hostility he showed prior to Lesley Stahl’s 60 Minutes interview. It is, in fact, all he knows how to do.

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

Trump’s Favorite Pollster, Rasmussen, Shows Biden Winning By 12 Points

Posted by on October 7, 2020 at 11:57 am. 2 Comments :

In case anyone is wondering why Donald Trump has posted 100 insanely rage-infested tweets since 9:00 PM Tuesday night, it might have something to with how desperate and scared he is. This is how he copes with fear and the burden of a future that holds nothing for him but misfortune and misery.

Donald Trump, Joe Biden

Being infected with the coronavirus is only part of Trump’s tribulations. Although it’s likely a more significant part than he and his handlers are letting on. He hasn’t been seen in public in two days during the period of time when COVID-19 symptoms generally become more severe (7-10 days after first symptoms). And in his last appearance he seemed to be gasping for air as he stood on a White House balcony for a propaganda video.

However, even more troubling to a malignant narcissist like Trump, his reelection campaign is crumbling into dust. He is trailing Joe Biden by double digits in most recent polls. And this isn’t a trend that Trump can dismiss as phony, Democratic polling or “FAKE NEWS” because his favorite pollster, Rasmussen is showing the same dismal results:

“President Trump’s debate performance followed by his coronavirus diagnosis appear to be digging an even deeper hole for him this week. Democrat Joe Biden now has a 12-point lead over the president in Rasmussen Reports’ weekly White House Watch survey. The latest national telephone and online survey finds Biden leading President Trump 52% to 40% among Likely U.S. Voters.”

In the past three weeks Trump went from a one point advantage to one point behind to eight points back, and now a whopping twelve point deficit. His approval rating, according to Rasmussen, has declined eight points (52% to 44%) since September 25. In those intervening days Trump nominated a Supreme Court justice, debated Biden, and contracted the coronavirus. Apparently, none of those things advanced his standing with voters. Additionally, Trump’s approval among his Republican base now stands at a sorry 76%. That’s twenty points lower than the number he frequently boasts about on Twitter.

Trump likes to post the Rasmussen approval survey whenever they put him above the 50% mark, even though he generally falls back below that within a few days. But it’s a safe bet that he won’t be posting these results. He may even resort to attacking Rasmussen for having defected to the Deep State. That’s been his reaction when the Drudge Report has been critical of him, and even Fox News.

Adding to Trump’s polling woes are his abysmal fundraising efforts. While Biden is setting new records each month and expanding his targets, Trump is lagging in both receipts and cash on hand. He has had to pull advertising in key states that he needs to win in November. According to an analysis by Politico…

Joe Biden is set to spend $6.2 million on ads [in Texas] … Perhaps even more astounding: Trump doesn’t have the money to counter the cash-flush Biden on TV. Over the past two weeks, Biden had the airwaves to himself in Iowa, Ohio, Texas and New Hampshire, while Trump went dark.”

That’s not a recipe for any kind of campaign renewal for Trump. And with less than four weeks until election day, there’s little time for him to mount a recovery. There’s even less time when considering the fact that early voting has begun in many states and millions of people have already voted. Which leaves only one avenue available for the floundering Trump campaign: Straight up batshit crazy ranting and incoherent babbling. And in that race Trump already has a huge head start.

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

Trump Says He ‘Won the Debate Big’ – According to Imaginary Polls

Posted by on October 1, 2020 at 11:55 am. NO Comments :

In these increasingly divisive days of the dwindling Era of Trump, there are rarely matters that achieve anything approaching a consensus. However, the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden has managed to produce a fair amount of agreement that Trump’s behavior was disruptive, petulant, asinine, and harmful to both his candidacy and the nation’s pride.

Donald Trump

Despite the overwhelmingly negative response to Trump’s incessant and insolent interruptions, Trump himself is pleased with his performance and is celebrating the aftermath of the muddy mess he made Tuesday night. That’s to be expected of a malignant narcissist who is incapable of forming any connection to reality. Consequently, on Thursday morning Trump tweeted this…

Notice that Trump didn’t bother to cite even a single poll that reported his allegedly big win. But there’s a good reason for that. There aren’t any. He is thanking an imaginary compilation of polls that exist exclusively in his diseased brain. These pseudo-surveys are in stark contrast to the actual polls released since the debate that all show Joe Biden crushing Trump by substantial margins ranging from seven to 32 points. Here are five of those polls:

  • 538/Ipsos: “Biden got higher marks (59.7-32.9%) for his performance.”
  • CNN/SSRS: “Six in 10 debate watchers said former Vice President Joe Biden did the best job in Tuesday’s debate, and just 28% say President Donald Trump did.”
  • CBS/YouGov: “Forty-eight percent said Biden won, while 41% thought Mr. Trump was the winner.”
  • Politico/Morning Consult: “The survey, conducted the day after the candidates’ clash in Cleveland, found that 50 percent of debate watchers surveyed said Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, performed the best during the debate. Just 34 percent said the same about the Republican incumbent”
  • Vox/Data for Progress: “A new poll by Data for Progress provided exclusively to Vox shows that viewers thought Democratic nominee Joe Biden decisively won Tuesday’s first presidential debate against President Donald Trump, by a 52-39 margin.”
  • CNBC/Change Research: “A CNBC/Change Research poll conducted Tuesday night and Wednesday found 53% of likely voters nationwide said Biden did a better job in the debate, compared with 29% for Trump.”

So where did Trump get his fantasy polling results? From Fox News, of course. Sean Hannity giddily reported the “instant polls” that some media conduct by simply asking the opinions of whoever happens to be reading their tweets at the moment. “I’m sure the mainstream media will have corrupt polls,” Hannity cackled, “as they always do, but those [CSPAN and Telemundo] are the two flash polls that we have already.” And Trump’s Minister of Propaganda (aka press secretary), Kayleigh McEnany, tweeted much the same thing:

None of these numbers that the Trump toadies are touting are rooted in statistical reality. They have no scientific basis and represent nothing more than the ditzy clicking of amped up Internet Trolls for Trump. But it is all that Trump can cling to given the stinging truth that he is profoundly unpopular and widely despised. Which is what the real polls show conclusively.

With specific regard to the debate, Trump’s abysmal personality was so glaringly on display that there can be no escape from the well-deserved deluge of disgust he’s receiving. After acting out like a psychotic toddler, refusing to denounce white supremacy, lying every time he opened his mouth, and reaffirming his loathsome reputation for belligerent incoherence, Trump is lucky he wasn’t carted off to the psyche ward. Which, according to another recent poll, is something that a majority of the American people would deem appropriate.

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