RNC

GOOD NEWS: Republicans Bet Future on the Century’s Biggest Loser, Donald Trump

Posted by on April 10, 2021 at 4:34 pm. 11 Comments :

The Republican National Committee has just announced that Donald Trump will be a featured a speaker at their party retreat on Saturday. The retreat, by the way, will be held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, so it will not only be propping up his ego before an audience of drooling sycophants, it will be filling his pockets with cash.

Donald Trump Circling the Drain

The fact that Republicans are still so anxious to enrich Trump is a testament to the power of his con artistry. This comes after he angrily instructed his cult followers not to donate to the GOP, but to him instead. And then he ripped those donors off by deceiving them about what (and how much) they were donating.

But that isn’t the worst of it. By embracing Trump as the banner carrier of the Republican Party, they are hitching their wagon to this century’s biggest loser. Following two terms of Bush, then two terms of Obama, Trump promptly flamed out after only one term. And it was a spectacularly disastrous term that saw more than half a million Americans die due to Trump’s negligent and incompetent mishandling of the COVID pandemic.

Trump was also the first president in history to be impeached twice. He is the first president in decades to leave office with fewer people employed than when he started. He exploded the national debt by cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy. He advanced the nuclear aspirations of both Iran and North Korea. He withdrew the U.S. from the international Paris Climate Change Accords. And he incited deadly riots in Washington, D.C. by insurrectionist mobs.

Nevertheless, as reported by Fox News, Republicans are still addicted to Trump’s brand of divisiveness, dishonesty, and his bullheaded attachment to willful ignorance:

“In his keynote address to GOP donors at his Mar-a-lago resort, the former president is expected to lay into President Biden on issues like cancel culture, proposed gun restrictions and especially for the record-breaking surge of migrants crossing the southern border.”

So The Trump-loving GOP has three top priorities for their future electoral agenda. The first will be “cancel culture,” a Fox News buzzword that holds little meaning to most Americans. Secondly will be opposition to sensible gun safety reforms that most Americans – including many Republicans – support. And third will be immigration, an issue that is near the bottom of the American people’s concerns, despite the efforts of the GOP and Fox News to fear monger and spread racist “white replacement” conspiracy theories. Fox’s report continued with quotes from Trump’s draft speech:

“I stand before you this evening filled with confidence that in 2022, we are going to take back the House and we are going to reclaim the Senate–and then in 2024, a Republican candidate is going to win the White House,” Trump says in the prepared remarks provided to Fox News. Trump is expected to accuse Biden of putting “America Last,” sowing cancel culture wars and not delivering on his promise to unite the country.”

In other words, the same old vacant political rhetoric that is slathered in lies and utterly devoid of any factual basis. Trump also takes a swipe at Biden as not “hav[ing] the energy, the capacity, or the stamina” for the job. Never mind that a Fox News poll found that that voters considered Trump as the “mentally unsound” candidate.

The GOP had an opportunity to get out from under that orange mop-topped anchor, but have decided to stick with the devil they know. Democrats may want to send their Republican counterparts a “thank you” card for making Trump the face of their party for the foreseeable future. It really is the best thing that can happen for Democratic hopes to secure their congressional majorities and hold on to the White House in 2024.

UPDATE: As expected, Trump delivered an ego-drenched oratory focused almost entirely on his delusional “Big Lie” insistence that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. In the process he trashed leading Republicans like Sen. Mitch McConnell (as a “dumb son of a bitch”) and former VP Mike Pence (as a “disappointment”). And this self-serving insult fest was at a GOP pep rally intended to motivate party regulars prior to the upcoming election season. Nice work, Donnie.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. 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.

HOLY SHHH: Trump’s Baseball Boycott Babble on Newsmax is Totally Incoherent

Posted by on April 6, 2021 at 4:29 pm. 2 Comments :

The current news cycle is bursting with critical issues that are important to the American people. We are still in the midst of a deadly pandemic. Congress just passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill and is considering infrastructure legislation that could run up another $2.2 Trillion. A nationally significant trial is in progress in Minneapolis deciding the fate of the police officer accused of murdering George Floyd. But right-wing media has other priorities.

Donald Trump, Insane, Straight Jacket

Naturally networks like Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN are only concerned with matters that they can spin to bash President Biden and other Democrats. So their top stories aren’t any of those itemized above. Instead, they are obsessed with the notion that Biden might have had something to do with Major League Baseball moving their All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver. That relocation was wholly the decision of the MLB, due to Georgia passing a bill designed to suppress the voter rights of Democrats in general, and people of color in particular.

In an especially revealing example of the intellectual vacancy of the conservative position, Trump called in to Newsmax to rant about his displeasure with America’s pastime. Which led to this bizarre exchange:

Heather Childers: So, should we boycott baseball?
Trump: Well, I am just not interested in baseball for the last number of years. It’s just not appropriate. You want to find a game. It’s on every channel, and yet you can’t find anything. It’s the weirdest thing. It used to be a nice easy thing to follow. And you know what I mean by that. It was on one network and it was nice and good and beautiful. Today you don’t even know what the hell you’re watching. So I would say “Boycott baseball?” Why not?

WUT? So now Trump thinks that baseball is “not appropriate”? And he can’t find a game on TV because it’s on every channel? It’s abundantly clear that Trump doesn’t know what the hell he’s saying. But he still concludes that the sport must be boycotted in order to make it “nice and good and beautiful” again. This is the same guy who has been demeaning Biden as struggling cognitively. (although even a Fox News poll shows that most voters say that Trump is the one who is mentally unsound).

[NOTE: Heather Childers is a former Fox News presenter who once wondered in a tweet whether Obama threatened To kill Chelsea Clinton.]

As for Fox News, their White House correspondent, Peter Doocy, was the victim of yet another “Psaki Bomb” after he asked Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki about the MLB situation:

Doocy: Is the White House concerned Major League Baseball is moving their All-Star Game to Colorado, where voting regulations are very similar to Georgia?
Psaki: Well, let me refute the first points you made. First let me say on Colorado, Colorado allows you register on election day. Colorado has voting by mail where they send to 100% of their people in the state who are eligible. […] I think it’s important to remember the context here. The Georgia bill is built on a lie.

The right-wing press is not the least bit concerned about the voting rights aspect of this story. They are only worried about whether the corporations, that conservatives used to regard as reliable sources of support and donations, are now cowering under the weight of supposedly fearsome Democratic bullies. Consequently, people like the GOP Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, are lambasting corporations and threatening to revoke the tax benefits that Republicans have showered on them for decades.

Donald Trump has even weighed in to direct his cult followers to boycott not just baseball, but Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, JPMorgan Chase, UPS, Merck, and numerous other companies that had the audacity to stand up for voting rights when their customers demanded it.

Nevertheless, conservatives are adamant that somehow all of this is Biden’s fault. The Republican National Committee even tweeted that Biden ordered the MLB to move the All-Star Game. But the funny thing about that is that the video they posted proved that he did no such thing. He merely expressed his support for a decision that they were making themselves. But right-wingers have never let themselves be bogged down by reality before. Why should they start now?

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. 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.

GOP Chair Tweets Proof Biden Was Right About Trump’s COVID Lies 8 Months Ago

Posted by on March 13, 2021 at 11:01 am. NO Comments :

The Republican Party has devolved into nothing more than a culture war slogan dispenser, spending all of its time and energy contriving faux outrage and divisiveness. They have no discernible policies to promote and are relying on the cult appeal of Donald Trump to sustain them until the next election.

Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

Consequently, The GOP’s Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) is focused tightly on critical issues like Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. And they’re tired of hearing about all the dead Americans due to the COVID pandemic that Trump ignored and/or botched. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress voted unanimously against the American Rescue Plan, the most popular legislation in generations.

This callous disregard for the welfare of the nation is integral to the Republican agenda going forward. But since they have no affirmative plans, they are reaching back to distort recent history and claim victories that exist only in their fevered imaginations. For instance, Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, tweeted Saturday morning that “As President Trump was delivering results on the vaccine, Joe Biden was sowing doubt about its efficacy…”

Let’s set aside that McDaniel is still referring to the former guy as “President,” but the current president as “Joe.” The more salient point is that there is nothing resembling the truth in that twantrum. What Biden actually said last July in the video that McDaniel posted is that…

“We’ve got to make sure vaccines are produced and distributed safely, efficiently, and fairly, with independent FDA transparency. And the full FDA public report made public. Because people are already saying ‘If we get a vaccine I’m not sure I’m going to take it. This guy’s lied to us about everything else.'”

Clearly President Biden was not sowing doubts about the vaccine. He was recognizing that the American people already had fully justifiable doubts about Trump’s honesty. All Biden was calling for was full disclosure of the data that would lead to the vaccine’s approval. The fact that so many people don’t trust Trump is what Biden was concerned about. And his remarks were intended to resolve any hesitancy to getting vaccinated, not sow doubts about it.

McDaniel was also wrong about Trump “delivering results on the vaccine.” He had done nothing productive other than inventing a PR campaign that he dubbed “Operation Warp Speed,” which was just another sham that accomplished nothing. In reality, last July Trump was still downplaying the severity of the pandemic, while boasting about phony “achievements” …

Trump tweet

Trump was bragging about “doing so well” when the death toll for the coronavirus was at 150,000. That was horrible. But it’s more than tripled since then. And in light of that, McDaniel thought it would be useful to post a tweet that lied about Trump’s negligence and incompetence, while inadvertently affirming Biden’s honesty and foresight. Thanks, Ronna.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. 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.

Partners in Grift: GOP Spent a Million Dollars on Hannity’s Trump-Fluffing Book

Posted by on October 24, 2020 at 12:04 pm. NO Comments :

The Mutual Benefit Society that is comprised of Fox News, the Republican Party, and Donald Trump is marching lock-step forward to advance their totalitarian dystopia. And the funds that flow freely between them continue to grease the skids for a criminal president, an unprincipled political party, and a shameless media purveyor of flagrant propaganda.

Donald Trump Sean Hannity

With the last presidential debate (which Trump pitifully lost) tucked away in the history books, the opportunities for him to rescue his floundering reelection campaign are dwindling to nil. That may be the reason that he is refocusing his efforts on a post-presidency future that he vainly hopes will keep in him in the public eye. Above all else, Trump is desperate to maintain a link to the ego-stroking hordes who make up his cult following.

To that end, Trump is directing the resources of the Republican Party that he leads toward one of his most rabid supporters, Sean Hannity of Fox News. A new book by Hannity recently made the New York Times bestseller list. But it didn’t get there because of fervent public demand. According to Salon…

“This week the RNC reported $492,308 in expenditures on “donor mementos” at book retailers, all of it spent on Sept. 16. Salon has confirmed that at least $159,000 of that amount went for bulk retail purchases of Hannity’s book, “Live Free or Die,” which have been offered to GOP donors who gave $75 or more. […] evidence suggests that all of the $492,308 in expenditures went to Hannity’s book. Combined with August receipts, it is possible that the RNC has spent more than $900,000 on Hannity’s book over the last three months.”

So The GOP is shelling out loads of scarce cash to reward Hannity for his worshipful coverage of Trump on Fox News. The people who donated those funds probably didn’t intend for them to be used to further enrich an already wealthy media hack. But Trump’s donors have been a lost cause for weeks, blindly throwing their money away on a futile campaign.

Trump himself has promoted Hannity’s book, as he has at least 79 other books that effusively praise him, but which he surely hasn’t read. The whole enterprise was built to generate cash and manipulate it into the pockets of Trump and his confederates. Much like the missions of just about every other Trump business from his bankrupt casinos to his fraudulent “university.”

Simultaneously, this syndicate serves to buttress the messiah mythology that the Trumpists seek to promote to their glassy-eyed disciples. These are the unethical and lawless tactics that a cult employs to ensure order and reverence (and wealth) for its Dear Leader. And we can expect it to continue after Trump returns to civilian life. That is if he doesn’t end up in prison for life.

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

Babbling Incoherently, Trump Promises Unspecified ‘Other Things’ in 2nd Term

Posted by on August 29, 2020 at 10:59 am. 8 Comments :

In his Republican Nationalist Confederation acceptance speech, Trump rattled off an array of objectives that were nothing but rehashes of what he’s been saying for nearly four years. Things like cutting taxes and regulations, defending the 2nd Amendment, and building the border wall. There was nothing new and nothing that he’s made any progress on. It was political boilerplate with no substance or commitment.

Donald Trump Angry

In the past few weeks Trump has been asked a question that is commonly asked of presidential candidates: What is your agenda for the next four years should you win? Trump has been asked this question at least four times, including by friendly “interviewers” like Sean Hannity of Fox News and the “Curvy Couch” of Fox and Friends, but has failed to give a comprehensible answer. You might think that after flopping once or twice, Trump would have an aide write up a response for him. But not Trump. On Thursday Peter Baker of the New York Times published his account of Trump’s answer to that question. And it makes even less sense than all the others that preceded it:

Holy shih tzu! Trump is descending even further into an acute state of mental infirmity, and the American people are noticing. He is not only unable to articulate an agenda, he is unable to complete a coherent sentence. Which may explain his bizarre nomination acceptance speech Thursday night. It was mish mosh of lies, boasts, and slanderous assaults of Joe Biden and Democrats generally. But not a single punch landed. That’s partially because it was all retreads of his past rants and so transparently false. CNN fact checker Daniel Dale documented at least twenty lies Trump told during his marathon 70 minute speech. That’s an average of one lie every three and half minutes.

Among the most loathsome untruths was Trump’s dismissal of the horror that America is suffering through due to his negligent and incompetent mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has a perverse habit of downplaying human tragedies. For seven months he has pretended that the coronavirus was as trivial as the flu and completely under control. 180,000 deaths later it is still taking 1,000 lives every day.

So he is being true to form by beginning his speech with shameless bragging that “the casualties and damage [from Hurricane Laura] were far less than thought possible only 24 hours ago.” He doesn’t say what he considered possible, but there are six dead and estimates of total economic costs “in the neighborhood of $20 billion.” Hallelujah! What a success.

Trump’s speech was a meandering mess that checked off political boxes while ignoring the real world hardships Americans face. He demonstrated his priorities by mentioning COVID-19 only five times, but slandering Joe Biden 41 times. that included the ominous and hyperbolic assertion that Biden “will be the destroyer of American Greatness.” Trump also said that “For 47 years, Joe Biden took the donations of blue collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses, and told them he felt their pain.” Trump emphasized “kisses” in an attempt to insinuate some sort of sexual aberration.

That’s an unbelievably brain dead attack considering that there have been no credible complaints of sexual misconduct by Biden in those 47 years. Conversely, there are dozens of credible allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Trump.

These are the kinds of vicious rhetorical bombs that Trump is going to be throwing for the remainder of this campaign. He has nothing positive to run on. He cannot defend his mangling of the pandemic response or the economic catastrophe that it produced. All of the obvious failures for which he is responsible will weigh heavily on his campaign. But in the midst of all of that, he still can’t tell voters what he would do if reelected. He can only mumble unintelligibly and whine about what a victim he is.

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

Trump Approval Drops After Two Days of the Republican Nationalist Convention

Posted by on August 26, 2020 at 2:12 pm. 4 Comments :

What Donald Trump promised would be an optimistic and hopeful celebration of Republican leadership has predictably turned into a dystopian nightmare exalting an aspiring totalitarian dictator. The dark and hostile themes articulated by one speaker after another were unflinchingly foreboding and resolutely reverential of Trump and only Trump.

Donald Trump

This steadfast devotion to the Cult of Trump was intended to jump start his floundering reelection campaign. Joe Biden has been consistently beating Trump in both national and swing state polling for months. So the nasty tone set by Trump and his convention plotters was chosen in an attempt to boost his approval and to smear Biden in such a way as to bring him down to Trump’s level. They sent out their heavy artillery including four members of the Trump family (Eric, Don Jr, Tiffany, and Melania). They were fortified by notorious Trump-fluffers like Rep. Matt Gaetz, Rep. Jim Jordan, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, and the screeching stylings of former Fox News host, Kimberly Guilfoyle.

However, early indicators show that this strategy is working about as well as everything else Trump has tried to do in his presidency (i.e. utter failure). One week ago Trump proudly tweeted that he had reached a peak approval rating of 51% as surveyed by the disreputable right-wing pollster, Rasmussen Reports. Rasmussen is without a doubt Trump’s favorite pollster and the only one who has ever shown Trump with a majority approval rating.

Now, after two days of RNC ranting, and worshipful characterizations of Trump as Messiah, Rasmussen has him at 47% approve, 51% disapprove. That’s a four point drop (and an eight point negative swing) that occurred in just the two days since the convention began. Additionally, Rasmussen has Trump with a 36% strongly approve rating, and 44% strongly disapprove. UPDATE: Another day, another drop for Trump as his approval on the Rasmussen poll goes down to 46%.

To repeat, Rasmussen is the most Trump-friendly pollster on the planet. For comparison, other recent polls show Trump with considerably worse numbers. RealClearPolitics’ average “poll of polls” has Trump in the red 10.6%. And his performance in the crucial swing states is particularly dismal. Biden is leading in six of the seven states considered as battlegrounds (Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Ohio, and North Carolina). North Carolina is the only state where Biden is not ahead, but he is either tied or close. Biden is also challenging Trump in traditionally red states like Texas and Arizona.

Trump’s decline this week so far does not bode well for the remaining days of the convention, Ordinarily, a candidate could look forward to a game changing speech at the conclusion of the convention, But Trump has already played that card by casting himself in prominent roles every day. He even included official duties (the granting of clemency and a swearing in ceremony for new citizens) in his convention events, which many legal experts contend is a violation of federal law.

Consequently, the final two days hold little suspense. Firebrands like Kellyanne Conway, Ivanka Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and a parade of d-list members of Congress will be speaking. The remaining star power consists of Mike Pence, who is scheduled to give one of his always tranquillizing addresses on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, Trump will close the show with what will likely be a sequel to his infamous “American Carnage” inaugural horror story.

How any of that can be expected to move the polling needle is a mystery. But that’s all that the Trump camp has in store. Unless, of course, he surprises us with Hillary’s lost emails, a check from Mexico for the border wall, or a coronavirus vaccine he whipped up in the White House guest bathroom. Stay tuned.

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

WOW! Trump Praises CNN’s Convention Coverage While His Cult Bashes Fox News

Posted by on August 25, 2020 at 12:46 pm. 3 Comments :

It has long been established that Donald Trump is a malignant narcissist whose sociopathic obsessions produce a total lack of concern for anything or anyone other than himself. That sort of sickness can manifest in peculiar ways. Not only will such a person viciously castigate friends and enemies alike when sufficient adoration is not forthcoming, he might also embrace bitter foes should they offer a random compliment.

Donald Trump, CNN

On Tuesday morning Trump had a hell-freezes-over moment. He tweeted praise for CNN, the network he rarely mentions without adding the derogatory prefix, “fake news.” His description of them in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people” is almost robotically attached to every reference he makes. But on the morning following the first day of the Dystopian Republican National Abomination, Trump took to his Twitter machine and posted this:

Legitimate news networks don’t ordinarily get praised for reporting the news. But in Trump’s world the only thing that’s relevant is if he perceives the report to be beneficial to him. Consequently, he’s appreciative of CNN for airing what he believes was two hours of a joyous celebration of Trump. Never mind that the program was neither joyous nor beneficial. In fact, the convention that Trump promised would be overwhelmingly optimistic and hopeful was more like a nightmarish devolution into fear mongering.

So in a way, Trump was right. Broadcasting more of this convention would be “good for our country.” But only because the more people saw, the more likely they would be to vote for Joe Biden.

Trump wasn’t the only one to notice the disparity in coverage from one network to another. His cult disciples were keenly aware that Fox News was repeatedly cutting away from the prerecorded speeches to feature the babbling of their anchors and analysts instead. The Trumpians didn’t like that one bit and they let it be known on Twitter:

The comment by Brad Parscale is notable because he is the senior advisor (and recently demoted chairman) to Trump’s reelection campaign. But the criticism of Hannity was especially delightful. Hannity actually cut away from the convention to whine about other networks possibly cutting away from the convention, even while the other networks were airing the convention that Hannity was talking over.

It’s entirely possibly that some of the segments that Fox News declined to air were purposefully excised from their broadcast to avoid hurting Trump. The convention speeches were mostly prerecorded. So Fox News knew the content and tone before they went to air. It’s possible, therefore, that they may have seen the Guilfoyle harangue and chose not to subject their audience to what later became the most mocked address of the night. However, it’s also possible that another reason entered into Fox’s decision to erase Guilfoyle. She was, after all, fired by Fox News in 2018 for alleged sexual misconduct.

Trump’s sudden affection for CNN is unlikely to last for more than a day or two, if that. He will soon flip back to his predictable hostility as soon as anyone on CNN is even modestly critical. Meanwhile, Trump’s love/hate relationship with Fox News will continue as usual with him slobbering over sycophantic admirers like Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, and vehemently berating those who fail to worship him with unflinching devotion.

In the meantime, we’ll see if this attempt to work the refs results in changes of coverage for the remaining three days of the convention. But Trump really needs to be careful what he wishes for. By adding more coverage he will only be assuring that more people will witness the repugnance of his alleged personality and the blind reverence of the Republican cult. Which would be, once again, good for America to see.

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

AND THEN THERE’S THIS …

Trump Turns the RNC Into Another Lie-Riddled Cult Rally

Posted by on August 24, 2020 at 2:40 pm. 15 Comments :

On Monday morning the Republican National Convention got off to rocky start. It was preceded by a week of bad news including the arrest of Trump’s White House advisor Steve Bannon for fraud, tapes of Trump’s sister calling him “cruel” and a “liar,” a federal court ordering Trump to hand over his taxes, and the resignation of his senior White House counselor, Kellyanne Conway. Not to mention the continuing tragedy of ever escalating illness and death due to the Trump Virus.

Donald Trump, Republican, GOP

The early morning schedule for the convention was dominated by the roll call to tabulate the delegate votes to renominate Trump for 2020. That tedious affair had some competition as Congress was concurrently holding a hearing to interrogate Trump’s new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy. CNN and MSNBC aired the hearing, while in the Trump-friendly Fox News bunker they stuck to the terminally boring RNC roll call. Naturally, this infuriated Trump who tweeted his objections.

Shortly there after, it was Trump’s turn to take the stage. He is scheduled to appear on all four days of this ego-stroking, reality TV production. And today’s outing provided a glimpse into what the remaining three days will hold. What Trump had promised would be a convention filled with optimism and positivity, is already parroting the “American Carnage” the typifies Trump’s public addresses.

As anyone not in coma for the past four years would have expected, Trump went on a wild-eyed rampage against his stock crew of perceived villains, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Democrats in general. He lied brazenly about imaginary achievements, voting by mail (which Trump now contends will give you the coronavirus), the economy that is in recession, and the free press that he despises. CNN fact checker, Daniel Dale, noted that “There is way, way more dishonesty in this first convention speech by Trump than in every Democratic convention speech combined.”

But most of all, Trump went completely off the rails with delusional depictions of the state of the pandemic in America (video below). From the start, Trump has tried to downplay the horrific consequences that have burdened the lives of millions of people in the United States. He has belittled the suffering of the those most vulnerable. He has given false assurances to younger victims. And he has actually bragged that the death toll that is nearing 180,000 is something to be proud of. And not only is Trump proud, he has the audacity to criticize Joe Biden for deferring to scientists and doctors:

“Most of the country is right now doing very, very well. They’ve done an incredible job. And to have a man sitting on television the other day say ‘oh I’d shut it down. I’d shut it down.’ Like it’s easy. And oh, by the way, when you shut it down – and we did the exact right thing. We shut it down, then we reopened. And that’s what we’re doing now. We’re well into it. If we didn’t shut it down at that point we would have had millions of people dead. Millions of people.”

If you’re trying to make sense of any of that, stop. You might hurt your brain. Clearly, we are not “doing very, very well” right now. To the contrary, we are still seeing more than 1,000 deaths a day, and more than 50,000 new cases reported. What’s more, Trump never shut the country down. Not for a single day. Some governors took action to mitigate the spread, and they were attacked for it by Trump. And Trump is still dishonestly comparing the current death toll to estimates if nothing were done at all.

Following that tirade, Trump went into a rant blaming governors for all the of problems. You know, the problems he’s now saying never occurred because everything went so well. Apparently he was lying about that. The problems did occur, it’s just that, in his cartoon brain, none of it was his fault. Because it isn’t like he’s the one person who has the authority to manage a national crisis.

Sadly, the media appears to have learned nothing about how Trump takes advantage of them to promote himself. While CNN cut away after twenty minutes, MSNBC and Fox News carried the whole freakout live. Trump’s incoherent, stream-of-unconsciousness babbling on the first day of the GOP convention may look familiar. It’s precisely what he did for many months when he could jaunt around the country to perform at his ego-stroking cult rallies. And it’s what he did when assuming the starring role at his phony coronavirus Task Force briefings.

In short, it’s what he always does to exalt himself before his glassy-eyed disciples to soak up the adoration that he craves. And now he’ll do it for the next three days at the RNC, despite the fact that these displays of narcissistic indulgence and hostility only bring his already abysmal approval ratings down even more. And for that, I suppose Democrats should thank him. If it just weren’t so nauseating to watch.

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

Fear Factor: Now Trump Says Voting Will Give You the Coronavirus

Posted by on August 23, 2020 at 1:16 pm. 6 Comments :

Donald Trump is terrified! He knows he is losing badly to Joe Biden, despite his frantic and impotent efforts to characterize Biden as a puppet of scary, radical leftists, and/or as a mentally deficient socialist. And if you can’t beat a mentally deficient socialist puppet, you might as well give up. In many ways it seems like that is exactly what Trump has done.

Donald Trump, Coronavirus

On the eve of the Republican National Convention, Trump is demonstrating a measure of desperation that is unprecedented in American politics. He has resorted to bizarre, dystopian horror stories about how Democrats are plotting to “terminate” their opponents and that he is “the only thing standing between the American dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos.” Which is true in reverse.

But even those preposterous assertions weren’t enough to satisfy Trump’s lust for a nightmarish vision of a future wherein he is the loser. So on Sunday morning he tweeted this:

Oops. Apparently Trump’s tweet so profoundly offensive that Twitter flagged it for “violating our Civic Integrity Policy for making misleading health claims that could potentially dissuade people from participation in voting.” On his Twitter feed you have to click through the warning to see Trump’s tweet. For convenience, and in anticipation of Trump deleting the tweet, here is what Trump tweeted:

“So now the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster. Among other things, they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times. Also, who controls them, are they placed in Republican or Democrat areas? They are not Covid sanitized. A big fraud!”

Literally every word of that is false and/or ridiculous. To start with, there is no evidence of security issues with mail drop boxes that have been in use for decades. Trump fails to cite any source for his claim that they are a “disaster.” Secondly, it is impossible to “vote multiple times” because every ballot is checked for authenticity and duplication. Third, Trump’s inquiry as to “who controls” the drop boxes could be answered if he spent ten seconds on research. They are controlled by the local election authority, which is non-partisan and serves administrations of both parties.

Finally, Trump introduced a new and comically ludicrous concern about the drop boxes being “Covid sanitized.” This seems dreadfully insensitive coming from the person most responsible for the tragic loss of more than 175,000 American lives. It is Trump who failed utterly to control the spread of the coronavirus, and still mocks the use of masks and other safety guidelines, while promoting untested and dangerous therapies.

Now we’re supposed to take Trump’s alleged concern about infected drop boxes seriously? For the record, the drop boxes are well maintained and kept clean, and ballots may be inserted without ever touching the box. But more to the point, the only people who would believe this bullpucky are Trump’s own cult followers. Democrats will dismiss it and cast their votes eagerly, whether by mail or in person. But the Trumpists will more likely be scared off. And if they believe that the drop boxes are contaminated, they why wouldn’t they think the same thing about in-person polling places. Trump is so stupid that he doesn’t realize he’s scaring away his own voters.

Trump has a single purpose with this tweet. He is trying to frighten the American people. He is seeking to foment fear in order to suppress the vote.. He’s seen all of the national polls – as well as those in the crucial swing states – and there is no escaping the fact that his prospects for reelection are dismal. So the only course he has left is to dissuade people from voting. And he’ll do that by directing the Postal Service to interrupt delivery of ballots. Or by deflating confidence by insisting that the election will be rigged. Or by posting “police” at polling places to intimidate voters. And now by claiming that a completely safe alternative voting procedure could result in the transmission of a deadly virus.

There is a word for that. It’s “terrorism,” the definition of which is “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” So Trump is now officially, by definition, a terrorist. And like any other terrorist, he must not be negotiated with. He must defeated utterly and irreversibly. And he must be brought to justice. And, ironically, the first step toward that end is to VOTE! If you don’t, the terrorists win.

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

Driven By Fear, Trump Has Himself Sealed in the Fox News Bunker

Posted by on August 21, 2020 at 2:44 pm. 3 Comments :

With the most extraordinary, socially distanced, Democratic National Convention in the history books, the American people and the media await Donald Trump’s response. Joe Biden was given high marks for his acceptance speech that displayed equal parts experience, empathy, and the cool-headed demeanor of a leader intent on uniting a fractured nation.

Donald Trump, Fox News

Nobody expects Trump to exhibit any of the personal qualities that have earned Biden such steady and broad-based support. To the contrary, it’s almost guaranteed that Trump will deliver another in his series of dystopian “American Carnage” tirades aimed at frightening his cult disciples into lining up behind his platform of bigotry, elitism, and totalitarian rule. He gave a preview of sorts (video below) when speaking Friday before the Council for National Policy, a secretive organization of wealthy right-wing donors, lobbyists, and political operatives, saying that…

“If our opponents prevail, no one will be safe in our country and no one will be spared. Including the people who helped fund. They think they’re gonna be best pals. They’re not gonna be best pals. They’ll be terminated just like many others. I’m the only thing standing between the American dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos. And that’s what it is.”

HOLY SHIH TZU! “No one will be spared.” “They’ll be terminated.” And Trump, the sole hope for salvation, also warned that “If we don’t win it’s all gone.” This will be the theme of the Republican National Convention next week. Vote for Trump, or DIE! Which is ironic considering how many people are now dead (177,000+) because they did for Trump in 2016.

With the economy in recession, millions unemployed, a deadly pandemic that is still out of control, civil unrest, and international humiliation, Trump has nothing left to run on but fear. Consequently, he has been trying to define Democrats as monsters. And Biden, a bona fide, old school moderate, is being characterized as a puppet of scary leftist radicals.

Since it is now impossible for Trump to cast himself as anything but a hostile, racist, egomaniacal, pathological liar, he is focused on trying to bring Biden down to his level. That’s quite an ambitious objective. Trump has been maligning Biden’s mental health for months, but voters still see Trump as the one who is most psychologically impaired. And what does it say about Trump if he’s losing bigly to someone he says is a mentally deficient socialist? As for trust, PolitiFact scored Biden’s acceptance speech and not a single statement that was checked was deemed false. Do we really have any doubt about how Trump will fare in that respect next week?

In the meantime, Fox News is the only cable news network that did not air the Democratic convention live, except for the headline speeches. Will they program the RNC the same way? Doubtful. Not that it matters much since Fox’s viewers won’t be voting for Biden anyway.

A bigger problem for Trump is that Fox News is now the only cable news network that does air his phony coronavirus briefings live. CNN and MSNBC appear to have seen the light and recognized that they were brazenly political affairs that used the White House to exploit a deadly pandemic in order to boost Trump’s floundering reelection prospects. And, of course, Fox has exclusive rights to Trump’s “interviews” by Trump-fluffers like Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends.

The result is that these days Trump is only seen on Fox News, whose viewers are already supporting him. So he can’t possibly expand his base beyond the worshipful audience of Foxic true believers. and there aren’t enough of them to win an election. Trump has been mocking Biden for allegedly staying in his Delaware basement (which isn’t true), but Trump’s fear has him locked up in a different kind of bunker.

While Trump did venture out during the Democratic convention in an effort to grab some attention for himself, that effort failed because only Fox News covered it. He didn’t even come out of the Fox bubble after the DNC, instead sending Mike Pence to fill in for him on five morning shows. But the American people know a coward when they see one. And by limiting his exposure to the friendly faces of Fox News, Trump is effectively surrendering.

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