Patriotic Americans Arise!….It appears we have a president who has betrayed our country by siding with an enemy over our own democracy! This dangerous cult sweeping much of the nation is confirmed when Trump’s base still supports him, whether he shoots somebody on 5th Avenue or cowers to a murderous foreign dictator. On that note, I ask that you please join us in sharing this information. As patriotic Americans, we need to take back our country. As patriotic Americans, we need to rise up in opposition to an American president who puts himself & fascist regimes over America. As patriotic Americans, we need to call out the lies, gaslighting & bullying. As patriotic Americans, we should seek to inform Trumpeters, Fox viewers, echo audiences, evangelicals, tea partiers, white nationalists, libertarians & anyone else who has brought this curse upon our land, in the hopes some of them can be persuaded to see reality & return to sanity.
I still have a faint hope Trump can possibly resolve the North Korean &/or Iranian nuclear threats, strike trade deals which can finally level the playing field, plus the way he’s shaking up & rattling the DC establishment can ultimately do more good than harm (which that hope is dissipating fast). Other than that, of any GOP supporter or former GOP supporter, I’m as much #NeverTrump as anyone out there. That the vast majority of the GOP base still support Trump, they are entrenched in flawed thinking brought on by being immersed for years inside the deceptive echo-bubble, so they have yet to see the light: donald-trump-vladimir-putin-he
GOP Politicians Corrupted
For now, we’re in a national emergency & ironically we must turn to the deep state to save our constitutional democracy: god-bless-the-deep-state. General Kelly reportedly urged GOP leaders to rebuke Trump over that Helsinki interview, along with Christopher Wray & Daniel Coats (dan-coats-trump-russia) trying to speak truth to power, but like any wanna-be dictator, Trump wants total loyalty instead of the truth: the-intelligence-community-has
So rather than a fierce determination to stop Russia from attacking our democracy, while at the same time delving into which Americans participated in the conspiracy to help them, instead we get this unjustified smearing of our justice/intelligence agencies with the singular purpose being to protect a corrupt president: how-do-we-fight-the-cult-of-tr
GOP Base Corrupted
Further revealing the demented thinking now coming from many in the far-right conservative bubble, these polls are actually downright scary. With much of the GOP base taking the wrong side in these polls, we can chalk it up to either idiocy or brainwashing. If there’s a potential third option, I can’t think of one: poll-fewer-than-half-of-r
We can’t dismiss the possibility the kind of cult mentality which has attracted so many, & is sustained through a group mindset anchored by mass delusions & hysteria, its power might be rooted in the occult: donald-trumps-chaos-ma
I just kept watching,” a Republican acquaintance told me in disbelief. “And I just kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting for him to do something. Anything. I yelled, ‘Stand up for your country, for the love of God!’ And nothing. Not even a peep.” As a serving member in a state Republican Party organization, my acquaintance has taken a great amount of grief over the past three years. When Donald Trump first arrived on the political scene in 2015, he urged his colleagues to hear the billionaire mogul out. He appreciated the tough talk on immigration, the no-nonsense attitude that both differed from regular politicians and dared put them in their place. He thought Trump might not be the worst response to the Barack Obama presidency, which he considered weak and conciliatory. After Trump wrested away control of the party from the GOP establishment, my acquaintance bought a Make America Great Again hat and slapped a Trump/Pence sticker on his car’s bumper. He met the nominee as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and rolls his eyes when his liberal colleagues and relatives post their Robert Mueller fantasies on social media. He’s stood by Trump when he criticized Gold Star families, waffled on condemning the neo-Nazis who rioted in Charlottesville and, until this week, has never so much as considered the possibility Trump had colluded with Russia. “I’ve had it,” he said. “There is some shit I will not eat. I’m done apologizing for Donald J. Trump. Done.” This repudiation was earned after Monday’s disastrous press conference in Helsinki, where President Trump stood side-by-side with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a despot who has cracked down on his citizens’ individual freedoms and has quite likely ordered the murders of dissidents, journalists and political opponents. It was bad enough, my acquaintance fumed, that Trump didn’t challenge Putin’s record, but the coup de grâce came when the president criticized U.S. intelligence agencies’ assertion that Russia interfered with our elections and instead supported Putin’s denial of meddling.
That disbelief echoed throughout the Republican Party on Tuesday, even as Trump half-heartedly tried to claim he had misspoken — an entirely typical non-denial denial. Trump supporters and critics alike struggled to wrap their heads around his bizarre display of deference to a tyrannical foreign leader. Republican congressional staffers told me privately they were still trying to come to terms with what had taken place in Helsinki. Some told me their worst suspicions had been realized, while Trumpian true believers wrestled with emerging doubt. This sudden skepticism, in those I’ve talked to, has its roots in the indefensibility of Trump’s performance, which was either a gross display of international domination or something more sinister. Fox News, which has made a living defending Trump and exulting his every decision, even featured audible dismay as host Neil Cavuto called the display “disgusting,” a sentiment seconded by Shepard Smith, who went as far as to call it “shameful.” Diehard Trump supporters like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Rep. Joe Walsh were equally dismayed. Gingrich demanded that Trump clarify his comments and Walsh called the president’s performance “un-American.” The rank and file of the Republican Party spoke out in similar disbelief. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., offered the strongest criticism, calling it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in history.” Accompanying his statement were the usual concerned messages from the likes of Marco Rubio, Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, the entire lot of them seemingly realizing, as the day played out, that their pursuit of electoral power and legislative agenda had tied them to a very large stone that was sinking very quickly.
Putin Puppet
When Trump gets cornered over details from the Russian scandal or his inexplicable dedication to the Russian dictator, one common diversion is dredging up the Hillary server that the FBI didn’t take possession of. Trump resorts to that debunked conspiracy as a way to smear both Hillary & the FBI (although his claims lack merit & hardly make any sense), but Team-Trump’s only strategy for beating the Mueller probe is to convince their base all their made-up scandals are just as bad. It’s like trying to tell the cops to ignore the bank robbery, because look at that jaywalker over there! To set the record straight on yet another Trump conspiracy, see dnc-server-hack-russia-tru
In the Helsinki joint press interview, Trump was gushing over that generous offer Putin made, where the Russian dictator graciously offered to help with the Mueller investigation. That may have been the only concession Trump got from Putin in their secret meeting, but it wasn’t a concession at all. It was basically a plan hatched in the Trump Putin meeting to sabotage the Mueller probe, where Trump even offered up American diplomats to Putin’s Russian thugs for interrogation. It would literally put those American’s lives at stake as seen in bill-browder-vladimir-putin
The prez sure looks clueless & desperate, which it keeps looking more likely Putin has something on him. Also consider if Putin played Trump like a fiddle on this point where American diplomats would have been turned over, what else did Trump give away we don’t yet know about? Click on the following links in trump-putin-talked-russian-
FBI Director Christopher Wray made clear that U.S. law enforcement doesn’t support a proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin to have American investigators go to Russia to observe interviews of suspects wanted by the U.S. “I never want to say never, but it’s certainly not high on our list of investigative techniques,” Wray said wryly at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Wednesday. Wray also dismissed the other side of Putin’s proposed deal: to let Russian investigators come to the U.S. to observe questioning of suspects that they’re interested in. “That’s probably even lower on our list of investigative techniques,” Wray said. Putin made the overture on investigations to President Donald Trump at their summit in Helsinki on Monday, and Trump praised it as an “incredible” offer. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that Trump has entertained Putin’s request to let Russian authorities pose questions for the former American ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul. In exchange for the opportunity to have McFaul and a number of other Americans questioned, the Russian president offered to let Special Counsel Robert Mueller observe interrogations of 12 Russian intelligence agents indicted by a U.S. grand jury last week for hacking Democratic Party email accounts.
In a question-and-answer session moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt, Wray said he doesn’t agree with Trump’s view that Mueller is on a “witch hunt” in his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign and whether anyone close to Trump colluded in it. “I think it’s a professional investigation conducted by a man that I’ve known to be a straight shooter,” said Wray, a Justice Department veteran whom Trump appointed director after firing James Comey last year. Asked if he’d threatened to quit his post at any point, Wray said, “I’m a low-key understated guy but that should not be mistaken for what my spine if made of — so I’ll just leave it at that.” Wray also said he stands by the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia acted — and continues to act — to interfere in American politics. Russia is “by far the most aggressive actor” trying to disrupt U.S. society and continues to engage in “malign influence operations” aimed at sowing discord and divisiveness, he said. “We haven’t yet seen an effort yet to target specific election infrastructure this time,” Wray said. But he added: “We could just be a moment away from going to the next level.”
Our Contradictory President
Trump was surprised his capitulation to Putin was greeted with such disgust here in America, so he attempted to muddy his message. He tried to correct whether he meant to say would or wouldn’t in front of the press in Helsinki, reminding me of President Clinton’s it depends on what the meaning of the word is is. Then in admitting Russia was to blame, he watered it down by inferring both sides have blame, reminiscent of his Charlottesville remarks a year ago. The prez can’t keep his story straight, so much so that the revised dictionary will show his picture 5 times under the letter C. We can see Trump’s mug appear under the words corrupt, compromised, clueless, colluder & now contradictory, since he’s redefined those terms: trump-putin-russia-comments.
Let’s not beat around the bush: Donald Trump is a serial liar. Almost everything that spills out of his insecure little mouth or springs forth from his Twitter account is either fabricated, exaggerated, finessed, or truncated. He dismisses as fake any evidence or fact that contradicts his lies. He shares as gospel any cockamamie poll or half-baked rumor that pads his ego. He is a man who operates entirely outside the boundaries of reality, and the problem is only worsening the longer his term drags on. This is partly because Donald Trump’s media diet is about as healthy as his actual diet. His Fox News obsession is well-documented, but comb through his tweets — particularly the recent ones — and you realize that Fox News might actually be the high watermark. Breitbart, the Washington Examiner, and a parade of nameless sources from which Trump pulls fake numbers out of thin air also feature heavily on his timeline. Oddly though, when measuring the impact that original reporting has on Donald Trump’s addled brain, the collective efforts of the far-right media fall well short of what the so-called “fake news” has been able to accomplish.
Fox Fake News
Let me state clearly there are some real journalists on Fox News who do report the real news in an objective way. The thing that made the aftermath to Helsinki unusual is even some of the Fox commentators who normally bend over backwards to praise Trump & excuse his contemptible ways, they were actually taken aback by Trump’s toadyism to Putin (incredibly, even some faint criticism came from Fox & Friends). But other Fox shows were the theater of the absurd after Helsinki, such as Hannity’s gushing lollipop interview of Trump. There was also the Tucker Carlson contorted interview, where they bemoaned the possibility of having to defend the small nation of Montenegro. They had no clue as to the effectiveness of the NATO mutual security pact which has served as a real deterrent since after WWII:american-commitments-nato-trum
As we can gather from clicking on the links below, watching Fox doesn’t have to be totally off limits if balanced with fact-based news sources (including TheVORACS), but there are certain shows to avoid at all costs, such as Hannity, Carlson, Dobbs, Levin & Judge Jeanine. Those hosts can always be counted on to deliver buffoonish asininity & feigned outrage, especially as co-conspirators to Trump’s corruption & tomfoolery, so regular viewing becomes very dangerous as any viewer’s mind processes could be irreparably harmed & turned to sawdust:
https://www.vox.com/2018/7/16/
Tough Competition for the Title of Most Corrupt Congressman
I did promise to keep us all up-to-date on the latest news about Jim Jordan being implicated in the serious Ohio State University sex scandal, which his being called out by former wrestlers, along with his steady pattern of extremism, lying & enabling demagoguery in Congress, has moved him ahead of the pack in the race to be DC’s most corrupt congressman. Not wanting to be outdone & seeking to reclaim his title of most corrupt congressman, Devin Nunes pulled off these absurd gambits:devin-nunes-fresno-bee-newspap
In the two weeks since former Ohio State wrestlers began to make public allegations about being repeatedly molested and assaulted by team doctor Richard Strauss, Congressman Jim Jordan – who spent eight years as an assistant wrestling coach at the school – has repeatedly claimed any suggestion that he was previously aware of the abuse is “fake news.” As I wrote here on Monday, the former wrestlers, who say Jordan knew they were being abused and took no action to stop it, have been slandered repeatedly by the congressman and his reflexive right-wing defenders – including accusations that the former wrestlers are part of either a “deep state” conspiracy or paid for by the Democratic Party to take down the powerful founder of the House Freedom Caucus. President Trump and several members of Congress, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have leapt to Jordan’s defense, claiming he’s just not the kind of guy who would sit idly by while his wrestlers were preyed upon.
On Tuesday, Jordan’s public-relations crisis became a legal nightmare. Attorneys filed a massive class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Ohio on behalf of an as-yet-unnamed former OSU wrestler. The law firm Sauder Schelkopf is seeking to represent all the students and athletes “treated” by Strauss in his two decades at the school, from the late ‘70s to the late ‘90s – a number they estimate will amount to “at least 1,500.” Jordan, the jut-jawed anti-gay crusader who’s the fourth-ranking Republican leader in the House, is singled out in the suit: He’s one of only three former school officials named, including Strauss, though the action is aimed at all the coaches, administrators and others in positions of responsibility at OSU who, it claims, stood by while students and student-athletes were repeatedly “sexually abused, harassed, and molested,” and “forced” to seek treatment from a well-known predator even after they complained. (Strauss was the sole team doctor for the wrestlers; the men say they either had to choose to let injuries go untreated, as the lawsuit says some did, or subject themselves to yet another assault.)
So far, as more former wrestlers, including UFC champion Mark Coleman, have stepped out and told their stories, Jordan has wielded his mastery of right-wing media to try and inoculate himself against this career-threatening scandal. The congressman managed to contain the fallout from an eerily similar revelation last November, when one of his longtime Washington aides and protégées, Ohio state Rep. Wesley Goodman, was publicly unmasked as one of the capitol city’s most notorious sexual predators during his six years working for Jordan, stalking and abusing at least 30 young conservative men he promised to “mentor.” This was huge news in Ohio, but was buried nationally beneath the daily drumbeat of Trump atrocities. The Goodman scandal alone could have been enough to force Jordan out of Congress. In April, Elizabeth Esty, a Democratic representative from Connecticut, had to resign because she kept a former chief of staff on her payroll for three months after another former aide accused him of harassment. The well-documented accusations against Goodman are much, much broader. While working for Jordan for six years, Goodman reportedly harassed or assaulted at least 30 young men. Jordan adamantly denied that he had any knowledge of Goodman’s notorious reputation – just as he’s now claiming, against the word of his ex-wrestlers, that he had no clue that Strauss (who committed suicide in 2005) was groping the athletes.
In recent public comments on the allegations, Jordan appeared to be banking on his former wrestlers’ silence and shame. But if he believed he could humiliate them back into submission, he was sorely mistaken. At least nine have spoken out so far. Dozens more will almost certainly be telling their stories in criminal and civil court along with Strauss’ hundreds of other alleged victims from 13 Ohio State teams. (A separate lawsuit was filed by four former wrestlers on Monday; this one didn’t call out Jordan by name, but he will almost certainly become involved if the case goes forward.) Back home, where Jordan’s political future will be determined, local media are determined not to let him slide. “No more denials. Jim Jordan must acknowledge what he knew,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer editorialized this past weekend. Jordan has made it clear, though, that the truth will have to be pried out of him. (He says he is cooperating with independent investigators hired by Ohio State, though what he tells them may never become public.) If either or both of these lawsuits lands him in court, it will be.
Kavanaugh Nomination
Roe v. Wade aside, there are plenty of good reasons to block the Kavanaugh nomination, & that goes beyond the GOP Senate blocking Merrick Garland in 2016. We see lots of reasons to believe Kavanaugh would continue the destructive rulings promoting gerrymandering, Citizens United, & large corporate interests dominating employees. But now we see from an interview two years ago, Kavanaugh said he’d like to put the final nail in the ruling upholding the special counsel statute (in other words get rid of it). So he might be willing to cripple the rule of law by being a puppet for the corrupt president who picked him.
Evangelicals are so quick to give Trump credit for his justices, but any other GOP president could likely have picked better conservative judges & without the suspicion they could be compromised by the president who chose them. I’ve been shocked by the way my fellow (white) evangelicals are willing to bow to a leader with no discernible moral compass, so aside from a strong desire for a conservative court, maybe there is also a racial component to their loyalty: more-than-half-of-white-evange
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