America has been deserted...Leaves world spinning

Donald Trump has abandoned the ship when the U.S. has normally served in the captain's roll, both at home and internationally.

The Oval Office lunatic has abdicated his throne, which has been scaring Americans for weeks, now is terrifying the rest of the world. We are depended upon to stand tall and come up with the answers to crises like the coronavirus pandemic, leading others to a solution to solve the problem. It isn't even certain that Donald Trump knows what the problem is, let alone have an answer to deal with it. He is pathetically missing in action.

Here's how CNN sees it...

"The United States has scaled back its role on the world stage, taken actions that are undermining efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic and left the international community without a traditional global leader, according to experts, diplomats and analysts."

Leading CEO grouses on Trump...

In other words, the leader's chair is empty, and since the United States has always filled it. there is an international disaster brewing while the world starves for leadership. CNN adds...

"Former world leaders warn that the Trump administration risks alienating allies by politicizing the deadly pandemic with its push to punish China and have other nations choose sides."

When you have someone sitting in the White House who is completely incompetent in what he is doing, and also refuses to accept the failures of his ineptness, you have a disaster and that is what Donald Trump is. It is now being fostered on America and also globally, simply because of this implied expectancy from history that we have always been in control. Well, we aren't, and won't be as long as Donald Trump commands the ship.

Brad Reed in RawStory reports "Americans see Trump as the ‘main source’ of COVID-19 misinformation," and there is no one even close in comparison. We are used to this idiot's lies, 18,000, as of mid-April, adding more every day, and, unfortunately, he has an international reputation. But the news media is held responsible for 33% of the misinformation, and I would attribute the majority of this to Fox (misinformation) News.

And here is the misinformation specialist...

When it comes to blogs, there are those with a highly credible standing like Huff Post, Politico, Slate, etc. Their biggest asset is the size of their staff that can confirm news stories to ensure their accuracy, something that small bloggers like myself lacks. In my case, Nasty Jack Buzz is a political opinion blog, which some view as less accurate than a news blog. That is not true, at least in my case, because I am careful to clarify news sources from more than one site.

Many have compared gun violence deaths with car crash deaths, but now a moron Republican Senator, Ron Johnson, from Wisconsin, is comparing COVID-19 deaths with car crash deaths...

“We don’t shut down our economy because tens of thousands of people die on the highways,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). “It’s a risk we accept so we can move about.” President Trump also took up the bogus argument while deploying his trademark exaggeration, insisting that car-related deaths are “far greater than any numbers we’re talking about.”

Are Republicans the death party?...

It would seem to me that Republicans have been on a death watch since the coronavirus first hit, and people began to die. In a Dallas newspaper:
"Republicans: The party of death during COVID-19." This was during a rash of comments by GOP members musing over whether some Americans were just destined to die of the virus, primarily directed toward the senior population. Some were shocked, others just passed it off as inevitable.

There is talk that Steve Bannon wants to return to the White House, and in T-rump's current desperation, he just might welcome this white nationalist, racist back. Here's one of his radical comments made when he was there before...

“The real opposition is the media,” Steve Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist, once told the journalist Michael Lewis. “And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”…

Nancy LeTourneau in the Washington Monthly replies...

"Donald Trump is asking us to enter even further into his house of mirrors. He is asking us to live within a lie, to live within his lie, for four more years. The duty of citizenship in America today is to refuse to live within that lie."

I think we get the point.

Trump lies again big time, about former Ukraine Ambassador 

Parnas, Fruman, Trump

Donald Trump's lies are, well, historic, momentous, something that will go down in history as perhaps the largest source of double-dealing falsification we have ever experienced. Now, apparently a Giuliani/Parmas pal by the name of Igor Fruman taped Trump calling for the firing of Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. T-rump disclaimed even knowing Parnas, although...

"ABC News reported Friday morning that it reviewed audio of a dinner attended by Trump, Parnas, Fruman, and others. A voice that appears to be the president’s tells the group that he wanted to “get rid of” Yovanovitch, per ABC, an apparent contradiction to Trump’s claim that he does not know Parnas."

As of December of 2019, the Oval Office lunatic had delivered 15,413 lies to the American people, all of which have apparently been absorbed by Trump supporters as the truth, which speaks to the level of their mental state. There's more re. the Fruman, Parnas, Giuliani meeting with Trump...

"Parnas has previously described a dinner at Trump Hotel with supporters of the president in April 2018 that he and Fruman attended. He said that he raised concerns about Yovanovitch to Trump, and that the president then turned to an aide and told him she should be fired. At the time, Yovanovitch was the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Giuliani, Fruman, and Parnas were trying to have her fired."

Good God, can there be any doubt left that Donald Trump deserves impeachment?   READ MORE...

Donald Trump is new "Teflon Don"

Many Americans, along with the media, are asking, if Donald Trump is as bad as he appears in public, why are his favorability ratings still escalating?

Good question, deserves a good answer. But right now there isn't one. Except, for some reason he is untouchable, kinda like John Gotti was...for a while, called the "Teflon Don." He was also known as "Dapper Don" because he was a smart dresser. Gotti served time for truck hijacking and cargo theft in 1968, and manslaughter in 1974, but later after beating several charges, "became known as the “Teflon Don” (because criminal charges against him never stuck)"

And here's how Gotti finally went down...

"By 1990, however, the FBI had collected damaging evidence against Gotti through an extensive eavesdropping operation. In 1992, after a lengthy and widely publicized trial in which Gravano, in violation of a fundamental rule of Mafia behaviour, testified against him, Gotti was convicted on 13 criminal counts, including the murder of Castellano and others, racketeering, and obstruction of justice, and was sentenced to life in prison."

Finally...

"In 1998 he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He died in 2002 at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri."

The "Teflon Don"

Well, I don't wish throat cancer on anyone, even Donald Trump, but I do hope he goes to jail for all he has done to destroy this country while in the White House and, frankly, don't care what happens to him after that. Damon Linker in The Week says, "My estimation of President Trump has never been lower than it is right now. And his approval rating has never been higher." He explains journalists have approached it like this...

"Unwaveringly convinced that the president and his party are inept, corrupt, ignorant, and brutally callous, they have written and published article after article under headlines like, 'This is the end of the Trump presidency.'" 

 Like John Gotti beating prosecution after prosecution until...the end. But it looks as if Trump, the "Don" has a double coat of Teflon, and no evidence yet that it is wearing thin. The problem here is that we assume...

"that most people will recoil from outright lies, deception, malice, injustice, sleaze, and thuggish imbecility when it is exposed and demonstrated to them."

Great video where Stephen Colbert compares Trump with John Gotti...

But they haven't with the Oval Office lunatic. Damon makes another comment on why we're not seeing "the end of the Trump presidency" that is very unnerving: "Maybe enough Americans in enough states just don't care." I have a name for those people who share this attitude...'apathetics." They usually are spineless, non-voters from both parties who are the first to bitch and moan over what's going on in the country, and also the first to do nothing.

The Week article goes on to marvel over the fact that regardless of what this White House maniac has done, the Republicans favor it because they benefit from it. This is evaluated by the author...

"Now let me be clear: This is bad. Very bad. It means that a large and politically potent segment of the American public is both actively contemptuous of expertise, specialized knowledge, and the effort to combat political corruption when it benefits them, and beyond the reach of being persuaded otherwise.

"It will of course be even worse if they happen to get their president re-elected."

God help us! With the coronavirus pandemic causing the turmoil it is, there is no certainty there will even be an election in November. And even if there is, how will Donald Trump screw with it so that he is assured of being reelected? But as it stands today, the COVID-19 dilemma could strike a blow against Trump that he cannot withstand. With the recent accolades of New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo's handling of the crisis, he looks like a new challenging contender.

You're on Progressive Street...Where Liberals Walk...

Republicans have already abandoned gun control

August 21, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk

What will it take to get reasonable gun control? How many more deaths? 

What is this sick fascination?

The proof is in the congressional attitude and that currently seems to correlate with Donald Trump after his telephone conversation with the NRA's head gun nut, Wayne LaPierre. We already have enough gun laws including those that are for background checks. Here's the scenario...

"Senate Homeland SecurityChairman Ron Johnson (R-Wi) is casting major doubt on the prospects of significant gun regulations passing this fall, the latest sign that the effort to pass new firearm laws is starting to falter."

No one thought this kind of mindset was possible after Sandy Hook, or Aurora, Colorado, or most recently the California Garlic Festival, El Paso or the Dayton gun massacres. It is only possible because a cowardly Congress supported by a cowardly American public refuse to do anything. That refusal is, of course, prompted by the fact that Washington is afraid of the NRA and the public either doesn't have the brains or just doesn't care about gun violence.

There's more...

"The Wisconsin Republican said that a background checks measure based on the bill written by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and a national "red flag" bill are both unlikely to pass. He was open to GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham’s bill that would establish a red flag grant program, but said the Senate would need to 'attach to those grants very strict guidelines in terms of due process.'”

And that makes it absolutely clear that the GOP is more concerned with the NRA and gun manufacturers than they are with the innocent children and adults who die from gun violence.  

NRA problems reported by Rachel Maddow...

The New York Times says, "Following his talks with the NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre and gun-rights activists, President Donald Trump struck a different tone on gun regulations in the weeks after two mass shootings. And this was caused by...

"The NRA reportedly launched a campaign to contact lawmakers in the wake of the shootings on August 3 and 4 in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Both gunmen wielded assault-style rifles in the separate shootings, which killed 31 people."

Hey, these perpetrators of gun violence are supposed to be headed down the drain so who cares what the hell they say. Chuck Schumer said...

"We've seen this movie before: President Donald J. Trump, feeling public pressure in the immediate aftermath of a horrible shooting, talks about doing something meaningful to address gun violence, but inevitably, he backtracks in response to pressure from the NRA and the hard-right."

Donald Trump lies about action on background checks...

In other words, in order to get rid of gun violence we need to get rid of Donald Trump and Congress, something many Americans would agree with. Here's a headline: ‘I’m worried’: Allies fear NRA has lost its power in Washington." Anita Kumar and Gabby Orr of Politico report...

"The disarray at the NRA is alarming allies who say President Donald Trump and Congress appear to have a brief opening to pass legislation while the group is so politically feeble it isn’t able to aggressively lobby lawmakers against proposals or hold them accountable for their votes, according to a half-dozen Republicans familiar with the situation."

And finally an insider reports...

“There’s no coordinated effort. The staff feels like there is no plan. There’s not a lot of direction or a plan for how to proceed.”

If the wheels are coming off at the NRA, it can't happen soon enough.

Should James Comey run for President? Read his book

I had a hard time getting through the first part of James Comey's book, A Higher Loyalty-Truth, Lies, and Leadership. I thought he was wasting too much time on his past life and background until I realized the core of this man's meaning and purpose for wring his tome, to present the two sides of what a government can be. Sleazy, corrupt and unacceptable like the Donald Trump administration, or honest, loyal to the people and worthy of its leader like, say, Barack Obama. The latter may not have been effective enough for many, mostly because of a repressive Republican Congress, but he had principles James Comey admired and possessed himself. Primarily honesty and loyalty.

Comey's background is diversified legally, a U.S. Attorney in New York, U.S. Deputy Attorney General under GWB, and when Barack Obama appointed him Director of the FBI. Through these four positions, he says in his book that he has become extremely familiar with the workings of the U.S. government. He doesn't say this but under both Obama and Trump, a dysfunctional government, for the former, Republicans denying everything he tried and the latter, the man himself, Trump. James Comey doesn't really badmouth anyone but he does speak the truth.

Especially in the book's epilogue where he comments...

"this president [Donald Trump] is unethical and untethered to truth and institutional values. His leadership is transactional, ego driven, and about personal loyalty."

He goes on to commend those who have stayed with the administration, even with the adversity of this lunatic's constant tirades. Perhaps they have kept us out of a nuclear war, or at least calmed the nations of the world that believe the United States has lost its mind by electing a maniac for president. Donald Trump has said for years...

"I just feel that loyalty is a very, very important part of life, not only of business but of life."

To this Paul Waldman of The American Prospect commented on Afternet...

"The truth is that Trump demands loyalty from everyone but gives it to no one. As he prowls the darkened hallways of the White House at night, alone with his thoughts, his wife and young son 200 miles away, the staff having retired for the night, it wouldn't be surprising if Trump is becoming increasingly convinced that no one is loyal to him and there's no one he can trust."

Trump tried the loyalty ploy with James Comey and was rebuked just before he was fired as FBI Director. Most have seen Comey's move as laudable and in fact there is probably no person in the American government today that is more loyal to this country than James Comey. He is a Republican but even as a liberal Progressive, I would vote for the man. However, it is just possible that James Comey has had quite enough of the stinkin' dirty politics working for Donald Trump that he wants nothing to do with a Presidential election. Only time will tell.

Read more: Trump Demands Loyalty From Everyone, But Gives It to No One

A pathetic presidential administration based on lies

The culprits Sarah Sanders and Donald Trump

THE DONALD TRUMP ADMINISTRATION has based its entire tenure in the White House on lying. Lying to the public, lying to the media and the Oval Office lunatic even lies to his own aides. The Mueller Report exposed a bunch of these intentional deceptions, the latest of which is T-rump's spokesperson, Sarah Sanders. She is trying to lie herself out of a lie over James Comey...

"Addressing reporters from the White House lectern, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made a startling claim shortly after President Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey two years ago. 'I’ve heard from countless members of the FBI that are grateful and thankful for the president’s decision,' she said, refusing to back down when pressed on the issue. 'Between emails, text messages, absolutely,' she insisted."

You don't lie to Congress, nor the feds, as the prosecuted perjurers Michael Flynn and Michael Cohen found out. But Sarah Sanders is the face of Donald Trump, and a very ugly one it is. Not because of her looks but because of how low she is willing to lower herself for the lowlife she works for. The deceit extends into the Trump family when Donald Trump Jr. was told the [Trump Tower] lawyer was working on behalf of the Russian government and would bring damaging information on Hillary Clinton...

Trump Jr. replied, “If it's what you say I love it.”

And this is Los Angeles Times Chris Megerian's take on the whole scenario...

"Pervasive lying is an unsurprising result of having a president whose dishonesty has been a hallmark for years, whether it’s exaggerating the height of his buildings or claiming that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States.

While every White House is accused of dissembling or worse at times, the report makes clear that Trump leads a White House where falsehoods and misrepresentations are common practice."

What is clear is that this country somehow elected an accomplished scam artist. What we must be careful of now is not to do it again in 2020.

Hard to believe? No! Donald Trump has 3,400 conflicts of interest

 

Yes, Donald Trump has had 3,400 conflicts of interest, and, yes, all while he has been in the Oval Office. CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has labeled him the most corrupt president in history. My gut tells me that T-rump doesn't give a damn since multiple authors have books on the market that document his corruption over the years. If they were truly lies, like he is famous for, he would have quashed them with his legal team.

This is how CREW describes their study...

"Today’s report details some of the most glaring examples of presidential corruption and conflicts of interest ever raised by a president, all of which stem from his refusal to divest from his businesses."

You see, with Donald Trump it is all about money and power, and as he has indicated now, he won't give up his position in the White House because that is the doorway to his keeping that money coming in and holding on to the beloved power. Since Trump's election, CREW has...

"tracked interactions between the president, the Trump Organization, and those trying to influence government decisions and public policies, including members of Congress, industry groups, lobbyists and cabinet officials. These interactions have continued to blur the lines between where President Trump’s public responsibilities end and his private financial interests begin, and between his loyalty to the Trump Organization and his obligations to the American public."

There has been no separation, and quite the opposite, he has used his position to influence deals for the Trump brand in the United States and even throughout the world. This is how CREW characterizes it...

"The extraordinary numbers in this report paint a picture of a president who is fixated on the personal financial benefits he might derive from his public service—and a whole ecosystem of officials, special interests and governments that exploit that fixation in order to curry favor and advance their own interests,” said CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder."

Here are some of the report's focal points...

• President Trump has made more than 500 visits to the properties he owns and profits from. The president’s frequent travel to and from his properties has cost American taxpayers well over $100 million.
• 141 members of Congress have patronized Trump properties. These visits often coincide with events held by special interests or wealthy political donors that rake in millions of dollars for his properties. 
• Special interest groups, many of which have business before the Trump administration, have hosted or sponsored 130 events at Trump properties since he took office. Political groups have held another 88 events at Trump properties. 

Remember, there 3,397 more conflicts you can see at the CREW report here. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page.  

Trump to beat in 2020...if he's still around

And here is the left's voting problem

Now these are opinions based on the statements of political experts that were involved in past and current elections. They take into consideration the election of Barack Obama in 2012, and the fact that in 2016, "Voters were looking for something more "strident" than Obama’s "incrementalist agenda." In other words, they wanted a faster track than Clinton was exhibiting. Something like Bernie Sanders. Not sure, though, they wanted the ignorant bluster of a Donald Trump, but he was elected; they wanted action not promises. Trump was a mover and shaker and he excited people.

That's all proven to be big mouthed bullshit, but those who still support the Oval Office lunatic are solid in their backing. The last I heard they were around 30%, an easily beatable figure. The Democratic candidate was all wrong in 2016; it should have been Bernie Sanders but the fraud of DNC head, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, nominated Hillary Clinton. Maybe Sanders will run again, or perhaps the left could convince someone like James Comey, former FBI Director, to run as a Democrat. Think about that...James Comey running against Donald Trump. More on this later.

One of the main items on the Progressives/Democrats agenda is getting out the vote. According to Nate Silver's 538, the Republicans were able to get their voters to the polls much more aggressively than Democrats. Progressives naturally rejected Hillary Clinton because of the DNC fiasco, and the fact that it was this that beat their candidate, Bernie Sanders. If Sanders plans to run in 2020, and his age will be a factor, he must throw his hat in now. We also cannot rule out Joe Biden, or Elizabeth Warren or New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Whoever it is, the youth vote must be considered.

The Progressive/Democratic candidate must enthusiastically go after social media to spread its message to all ages and over all political persuasions. The Russia probe of Donald Trump should be a great handle for the left. If a Progressive candidate is nominated, the Democrats must get behind him or her. Many political pundits talk of the potential success of a Sanders/Warren ticket in 2020 winning big on the Progressive side, combining experience with youth, two people who seem to excite their followers to action, meaning voting.

If Trump does last, the candidates on the left will have the most corrupt administration that this country has ever experienced to run against. There are the Donald Trump daily lies, his Stormy Daniels and similar escapades, firing of FBI Director Jim Comey in obvious obstruction of justice in the Russian investigation, the scandal over Michael Cohen's consulting, more obstruction of justice, again, involving Comey, in defending Michael Flynn, and the list goes on and on. Never in the history of American elections has there been this kind of ammunition for a political party.

But...will the Progressives/Democrats be able to pull it off???

Read more: How Hillary Clinton blew it
                   How Trump won the election: volatility and a common touch
                   How did Trump win? Here are 24 theories

Cult expert describes Donald Trump supporters

The Donald Trump cult

Steven Hassan, a former cult member and expert on cults says Trump uses a “very sophisticated mind-control techniques” through various media, he said, to push a “black-and-white, all-or-nothing, good-versus-evil, authoritarian view of reality that is mostly fear-based.” Hassan has just written a book, “The Cult of Trump,” described by Amazon as an...

"eye-opening analysis of Trump and the indoctrination tactics he uses to build a fanatical devotion in his supporters."

Hassan continues...

“[What] really made me think of Trump as a cult was the way the groups who supported him were behaving, especially religious groups who believed that God had chosen Trump or was using Trump."

Hassan believes that not all Trump followers are of the cult ilk, but my experience with those I know provides the fact that they certainly seem completely brain-washed to the extent that they cannot see that Donald Trump does any harm whatsoever. Like the religious folk above, T-rump is some kind of God and that he can do no wrong. And the fact is, I have known these people on Facebook since the Oval Office lunatic's inauguration and they have not changed.

Hassan uses Trump stooge, Lindsey Graham as an example of those who refuse to hear the Truth. After it has become perfectly clear that Trump did hold back aid to Ukraine for the Joe Biden dirt issue, Graham can only counter with yelling at Democrats about “exposing” their “hatred.” Other Republicans are ridiculed in the media over their ridiculous excuses for the White House maniac and a long line of lies that simply mirror T-rump. It is beyond pathetic!   READ MORE...

What is the real reason that Trump hates the media?

Donald Trump recently banned Journalists from CNN, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the BBC, BuzzFeed, and Politico from a news conference. It was an informal question-and-answer session between a press secretary, Sean Spicer, and journalists, adding Breitbart, The Washington Times and One America News Network. The Daily Beast reports White House spokeswoman Sarah H. Sanders said: “We invited the pool so everyone was represented. We decided to add a couple of additional people beyond the pool for an expanded pool. Nothing more than that.”  

She failed to add that in the addition there was also a subtraction, three of the largest media outlets in the country. Time and the Associated Press boycotted what was called a “gaggle,” with the AP commenting… 

“AP believes the public should have as much access to the president as possible.”

CNN, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the BBC, BuzzFeed, and Politico deemed the move “a troubling development” and “an affront to freedom of the press.” CNN commented further that it was their assumption if you report true facts, it is something the White House cannot handle. Considering Donald John’s first month in the Oval Office where there were 33 lies and misinformation spewing from his mouth on a daily basis, it’s surprising they continue to hold news conferences. It would be my guess the new president of distortion will set a record for untruths.

Here are a couple of comments...

"The New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet said 'nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,' adding: 'Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.'”

"Ari Fleischer, a Trump backer who served as White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, reacted on CNN by conceding that the decision to block certain reporters from the gaggle was 'unwise and counterproductive,' but added: 'There is nothing unusual about presidents meeting with self-selected reporters… and White House staffs do it all the time.' Fleischer echoed some conservatives who said the press largely overreacted to the way Friday’s briefing was handled, and defended Trump’s overall accessibility to the media."

Come on Fleischer, this wasn't just a meeting with "self-selected reporters." It was a meeting with self-selected reporters that barred reporters from three of the country's leading media outlets. But what do we expect from another Republican, even though he was put out to pasture. Fleischer added...

“He [Donald John] is making journalism interesting and great again. It’s a fascinating time to be a journalist because he’s such a fascinating story. And he’s giving the press so much access.”

Can you believe that? Thought you had to have better than a double-digit IQ to be a press secretary. And it would appear Sean Spicer is following in Fleischer's footsteps. Bret Baier of Fox News surprisingly excluded himself from the gaggle, standing with those boycotted. The Wall Street Journal, although attending, said it would not participate in future press events if the administration did this again. The Daily Beast reported other instances...

"During the campaign, multiple news organizations including The Daily Beast, Politico and The Washington Post were blacklisted by the Trump team—barred from attending any campaign rallies, press conferences or other events."

Donald Trump's oligarchy is turning America into the likeness of countries like China, North Korea and Venezuela, with the outlook that he may try and push his power into that of an autocracy. And while the new White House despot attempts to turn our country into a dictatorship, his press secretary, Sean Spicer, is up for the worst of his kind to come along in the history of western civilization. When you consider that Spicer is the middle-man between the most powerful person in the world and the free voice of America; now, that's scary.

Spicer has been a favorite of "Saturday Night Live" recently and is beginning to look a lot like Kellyanne Conway in terms of the amount of misinformation he has thrown at the press. Conway has been chastised and virtually cut off by the media for her consistency of lies on the air, but reporters have nowhere else to go without Spicer. Unless they just stand around and wait on the leaks from the press secretary's office that apparently are frequent. So much so that Spicer had to call a special meeting recently to check staff electronics, including their phones, for evidence of leaks.

According to Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, Sean Spicer is ""...disliked and disrespected by superiors, peers and subordinates alike." Further, "He is so lacking in credibility as to diminish, if not eliminate, his utility in conveying the views of the White House or basic facts about what is going on." This all coming from a reporter from a major U.S. paper located in the nation's capital. Think about this for just a minute. There is a new President that continually hurls lies and misinformation, with his spokesman guilty of the same deeds. Where does that leave the American public?

Especially when they have been told by the Oval Office ogre that the media is the enemy of the people, and some, meaning Donald John supporters, either don't have the intelligence to or simply refuse to realize that this man is a lunatic and shouldn't be believed. In making this unpatriotic saying to the Conservative Political Action Committee for the umteenth time, the President castigated reporters for using anonymous sources and said we are going to do "something" about it. He did not indicate what "something" was, all as if the man is completely oblivious of the 1st Amendment.

If the dictator is planning to do something about dealing with anonymous sources, he'll have to clean his own House first. It was only two hours before Trump criticized anonymous sources at CPAC, exclaiming all sources should be named when, "... an administration official provided a briefing on condition he not be identified," according to USA Today. And here's another quote...

"William McRaven, the retired admiral who planned the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, said this week that Trump's attacks on the media may also be undermining democracy itself."

Now let's be honest, there are times the media overdoes a story; as a matter of fact, this was true in
the coverage of Donald John in the 2016 primaries and election. As I recall, there was one evaluation of Trump coverage vs. Bernie Sanders and it was something like 200+ impressions for Trump, about 7 for Sanders. Hillary Clinton suffered as well but not as much as the Bern. Apparently, the old phrase applies, "Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. In any event, we are experiencing a first with an American President who hates the media and is making himself invisible to it.

Here's a comment from Matthew Miller, a spokesman for President Barack Obama's Justice Department...

The sustained attacks show "how worried he is about the repeated reports of chaos, incompetence, and potential wrongdoing inside his administration. His problem, though, is with the facts, not the media, and he’s only making his problem worse the more he runs away from it."

How does one say it? The country is going to hell in a handbasket, an expression I have heard since I was a kid, but have no idea what it means. But in the case of Donald Trump it could very well mean Armageddon.

Robert De Niro to Tonys, Fuck Trump and got a standing ovation

Robert De Niro at the Tonys

The recent Tony Awards included an impetuous performance by the actor Robert De Niro who blasted out emotional dialogue that proclaimed...

“I’m gonna say one thing: Fuck Trump,” De Niro said, bringing the audience to its feet for a standing ovation. “It’s no longer ‘down with Trump.’ It’s ‘fuck Trump.’”

How many times have you heard a celebrity with the class of De Niro say something like this about the president of the United States? Conservatives are already bashing De Niro for disrespecting the president, to which I say, you can't disrespect a person that is the lowlife of a Donald Trump. Many of the Tony honorees followed suit in calling for political change, but in a more diplomatic way. However, Donald Trump does not understand diplomacy, as evidenced by the insulting and atrocious treatment he has heaped on our best allies like Canada, Germany and France.

What he does understand is the locker room retort like that coming from Robert De Niro, who also. at a special event in Toronto, apologized for Donald Trump's behavior, calling it disgusting. De Niro's comments have gone viral and many have criticized the remarks they consider crude, notwithstanding the fact that the man who is the target of the remarks is perhaps the crudest man alive. Here's more De Niro on Trump...

"Our baby-in-chief -- the j***-off-in-chief, I call him -- has put the press under siege, ridiculing it and trying to discredit it through outrageous attacks and lies," De Niro said. ""This f***ing idiot is the President. It's 'The Emperor's New Clothes' -- the guy is a f***ing fool ... our baby-in-chief -- the 'J******-in-chief' I call him."

Read more: Robert De Niro told the Tonys audience, “F*ck Trump.” He got a standing ovation.
                    Robert De Niro's Trump comments at Tony Awards go viral
                    Robert De Niro apologizes to Canadians for Trump’s ‘idiotic behaviour’

Trump's self appraisal gets support from his bootlickers

Why coronavirus will go out of control in the United States...

Sean Hannity, one of Fox News' biggest sources of misinformation

The Russians are coming - The Russians are coming...to spread coronavirus propaganda like...

"conspiracy theories — suggesting, for example, that the coronavirus had been created by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or was the result of a bioweapon."

Not so far-fetched when you consider they helped spread hoaxes in 2016 that the Democrats wanted to "destroy T-rump's presidency." Now Putin's gang is fast at work again, this time on the coronavirus to lay the blame anywhere but at Donald Trump's feet, where it belongs. If you can believe anything from Trump's Cabinet...

"A top State Department official said Thursday that Russia is behind 'swarms of online, false personas' that sought to spread misinformation about coronavirus on social-media sites, stressing the 'entire ecosystem of Russian disinformation is at play.'" 

Dumbo Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton is at it again when he went on TV to advance the theory of Chinese bioweapon conspiracy, not backing down when questioned over his remark. Here's the real skinny...

Richard Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University, told the Washington Post, “There’s absolutely nothing in the genome sequence of this virus that indicates the virus was engineered. The possibility this was a deliberately released bioweapon can be firmly excluded.”

The master moron of misinformation speaks on coronavirus...

So back to ground zero where Trump, Pence and the whole lot of misfits and incompetents charge ahead with more cover-up propaganda, rather than pay attention to the crisis at hand. And, that's not good since Fox News' Maria Bartiromo predicts there will be ‘hundreds of thousands’ of US coronavirus cases,' as I reported in yesterday's post. But Salon's Digby Parton cautions...

"If these rumors and lies were started by the Russian government it just proves, once again, that they know their targets. But the truth is that Americans don’t really need their help. The right-wing media is doing a great job of misleading half the country all by themselves."

And Maria Bartiromo is one of the few Fox staff who can be trusted.

Rush Limbaugh

It is beyond frightening that an unbridled GOP can get away with this in modern day America. But this is what it has come down to today and if the American public decides to reelect Donald Trump to a second term. Salon reminded us, "Rush Limbaugh insisted that the coronavirus was just a common cold and it was being 'weaponized' to use against the president." With world-class morons like this in our own country, we don't need any enemies.

And then there is another delusion from Fox News dimwits. They have...

"blamed the homeless population for spreading the disease, despite absolutely no evidence that has happened. This fits with their evident programming directive to demean and degrade the homeless population as often as possible, particularly in states that didn’t vote for Donald Trump."

Now this exceeds the unconscionable when these displaced folks are trying their best to just survive in some cases. And this is the first time I have heard this one, Digby Parton contends that Donald Trump has a "fake reputation," throwing the term back in the face of the blockhead that originated it with "fake news." But here's an unbelievable comment that Trump made to the king of misinformation, Fox News Sean Hannity...

"We have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better."

Many of the mild cases have experienced some improvement and will continue to do so. But another implication they should go to work is asinine and potentially dangerous for those with more serious conditions. There have been 3,570 coronavirus deaths worldwide, 19 in the U.S. There are a number of factors that affect the immunity to this virus and only the experienced medical community should be giving advice, not some dufus sitting in the Oval Office.
READ MORE...

HATE...HATE...HATE...The Trump Gang Motto

 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida's Ron DeSantis have held the title of "Killing Machines" for over a year now. This is due to the number of residents who have died from Covid-19 as these two dimwits fight masks, vaccines and any other virus protection protocols. The results: Texas 4,259,818 cases, 72,343 deaths; Florida 3,706,356 cases, 60,197 deaths. This qualified the two as the leading killing machines, based on numbers alone. However, there is another similar "killing" faction in motion.

It is Donald Trump and his demented followers, who threaten the opposition with intimidation like this directed against Arizona's Sec. of State, Katie Hobbs...

"I am a hunter — and I think you should be hunted.”

This is only one of several reported by CNN through Wash. Post coverage "in part

because Donald Trump and his movement continue feeding his lies about the 2020 election." Here's what Trump said to urge supporters to come to Washington for a “Save America March” on Wednesday, when Congress would ceremonially count President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s win...

“be there, will be wild!” At a rally just before the violence, he repeated many of his falsehoods about how the election was stolen, then dispatched the marchers to the Capitol as those proceedings were about to start.

These double-digits eventually stormed the U.S. Capitol committing insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Here is an example of one of T-rump's remarks...

"Trump urged his supporters to ‘fight much harder’ against ‘bad people’ and ‘show strength’ at the Capitol."

It is no longer appropriate to ask, 'Oh, is Donald Trump still around?' Of course he is still around, and it is due entirely to these lunatic supporters who continue to goad him on. He barely urged non-violence in this comment...

“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

Considering, as WaPo put it "The president’s speech was riddled with violent imagery and calls to fight harder than before," the above was definitely not sufficient to sooth a crown he was moving to attack. Here's another threat from the CNN piece...

"Bullet," read one tweet reply to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, in September. "That is a six letter word for you."

Again...

"I'm really jonzing to see your purple face after you've been hanged."

Arizona Sec. State, Katie Hobbs, receives police protection due to threats...

 And the threats aren't from just Arizona and Colorado, they come from all over the country, clearly indicating it is a national movement, orchestrated by none other than...Donald Trump. So, what is the solution, and please don't suggest the obvious since this is not how a civilized nation works. There is a way. All you recluses on the left come out of your hiding places and be heard. That goes for 2022 and 2024. Reject conservative anti-democracy and put Democrats back in power.

Is it possible Jeff Sessions is a bigger liar than Trump?

In the Senate hearings to confirm Jeff Sessions for Attorney general under the new Donald Trump administration, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn) asked him a simple question of had he had contacts with the Russians. Sessions reply...

“I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it."

Not only was he in contact with a Russian, he met with the Russian ambassador. And more than once. Nancy Pelosi, the House's minority leader, says that Sessions lied to Congress and must resign. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader also called for Sessions to resign. When Sessions did everything he could think of to change his story and rearrange the facts, all of which still didn't work, he recused himself...

"...from any and all investigations into the 2016 campaign by the Justice Department, a clear attempt to throw a bone to the howling pack in hopes that the controversy would die down."

It didn't, has only gotten worse, and Donald John was reportedly furious for his action, enough to start the maniac on another tirade accusing Barack Obama of ordering the wiretapping of the Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign. Completely unsubstantiated...nada...zip to back it up. But then, that's Donald Trump, a part of his formula to spread misinformation about anyone who crosses him or disagrees with him. The other part of his formula is outright lies, a technique he has employed from the first day of his presidential campaign, perhaps all his business life.

One can understand why Trump would be frantic over Jeff Sessions recusing himself since it is no doubt his Attorney General would have overseen an investigation of the Russian impact on Donald Trump's winning the election. And we all know from experience that Sessions is simply another of Donald John's yes men, ready to do his bidding no matter what. So, what's next? According to CNN...

"Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that Sessions' acting deputy attorney general, Dana Boente, should appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation."

If they drag their feet...

"We will then urge (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell) and (House Speaker Paul Ryan) to work with Democrats and create a new and improved version of the independent counsel law, which would give a three-judge panel the authority to appoint an independent counsel," Schumer said.

Yeah, lots of luck on that. Here's what PoliticusUSA had to say about a McConnell reaction...

"Given his support for Trump, expect Majority Leader McConnell to resist calls for an investigation, but when even he has to admit that there are unanswered questions, the President has big problems."

With trump's luck so far, his star will rise even higher because his numb nuts followers will scream their fried President is being persecuted. So, if Congress isn't going to do anything and his supporters will only glory in their man's "maltreatment," what's left? Well, it comes down to an anemic left that has been so disjointed in the past that they can't even help themselves, much less try to bring charges against the President. I want you to understand that I do not take pleasure in the fact that, the dozing Democrats under Debbie Wasserman Schultz were grossly outsmarted by the Republicans. Pathetic!

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi calls for Jeff Sessions to resign have fallen on deaf ears in the Republican Congress and in the White House. The Washington Post's take on this says that, even as the democrats mount their opposition against Sessions, his own Party is faltering with some trying to dump him altogether, and others avoiding him in the cloak room. In politics, everyone knows the laws of survival and when you lie, especially in front of a Senate committee, your supporters have a tendency to shun any relationship with you. WP comments...

"If Sessions's response on Thursday morning was the best that he can offer to defend himself, you can expect that the few people sticking up for him right now will dwindle to his immediate family sometime very soon. And when you lose your friends while under heavy fire from your opponents in political Washington, it's almost always curtains."

Jeff Sessions and his spokeswoman have repeatedly tried to explain the whole thing away as a routine act of the Senator as a member of the Armed Services Committee. Sarah Isgur Flores, Sessions’s spokeswoman, said...

"Sessions last year had more than 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian and German ambassadors, in addition to Kislyak [the Russian ambassador]."

Neither the Russian ambassador, nor his spokesperson were available for comment but...

"The Washington Post contacted all 26 members of the 2016 Senate Armed Services Committee to see whether any lawmakers besides Sessions met with Kislyak in 2016. Of the 20 lawmakers who responded, every senator, including Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), said they did not meet with the Russian ambassador last year."

Chuck Schumer said in the Daily Beast...

"...Sessions had tried to 'dramatically mislead' Congress. He stopped an inch or two short of calling his former Senate colleague a liar, but made it clear he thought Sessions had concealed the full truth from the Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearing. “If there was nothing wrong” with meeting Ambassador Kislyak, Schumer asked, why didn’t he just come clean and tell the truth?'”

Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak with Jeff Sessions

Schumer talks about a special counsel to investigate Jeff Sessions and the Beast thinks that idea willIn 1999 he was a key proponent of prosecuting then-President Bill Clinton for allegedly lying under oath when Clinton was accused of perjury over statements he made regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Shoe on the other foot.
"avalanche" now, even with Senators that aren't in deep Red states. The downside of all this starts with Donald Trump who nominated this second-rate politician who is an avowed racist, and who has a past that should haunt him in this issue.

Lindsay Graham said in a tweet, "If Jeff Sessions spoke with Russian diplomat, then for sure you need a special prosecutor." Another republican Senator, Rob Portman, from Ohio joined in the call for a prosecutor. Here's a kick. Some thirty years ago, Sessions was too much of a racist to be a federal judge but now all of a sudden he has become Attorney General of the United States, which is on a higher level than the judgeship he wasn't qualified for. Just what happened in those thirty years to better  certify him for this job? I think nothing.

Will the White House blind-siding Republicans over Bolton's book change votes?

Trump nothing but a bluff who folds when adversaries fight back

The White House had a copy of the John Bolton book draft but told no one about it. This obviously left Republican Senators hanging as well as the Democrats. But the Dems already know their goal, which is to convict Donald Trump in the impeachment trial. The question is, will the Bolton incident, plus other recent events, convince those GOPers on the edge to vote for a conviction? In a Salon commentary Bob Cesca poses the mystery of...

"why so many Republicans who are willing to bet their reputations on relentlessly defending Donald Trump, especially now."

One reason might be that the Republican machine is in the process of imploding and for some insane reason they believe T-rump is holding it together. Another, many of these Republicans owe the Oval Office lunatic for the gold mine he gave them when they were among the wealthy who shared generously in his tax cuts. It might fly if Trump was all the things of George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan in their election popularity, but as Cesca put it...

"Trump is a flop-sweating mess, and more of us should be asking why they don’t just cut bait and try their luck with conserva-droid Mike Pence."

But, please no, not Mike Pence because we will just have to go through impeachment proceedings all over again. And with great eloquence, although lengthy, Bob Cesca nails Donald Trump for the idiot he is...

"Among thousands of liabilities, Trump is busily faking his way through his presidency with such lumbering, self-satirical awkwardness that he has the very real potential of exploding the entire party through his viral obnoxiousness, his treachery, his proud dumbness and his 16,241 lies to date. Every national Republican has been repeatedly forced to pooper-scooper Trump’s tweets and his chopper-talk hollering, turning the phrase “the president tweets a lot of things” into the new party slogan. And unlike Bush or Reagan before him, Trump’s approval is permanently capped at an anemic 45 percent at best, and he clearly believes he’s only capable of winning re-election by extorting foreign governments into helping him cheat."

This article is really worth reading in it entirety.  

The dictator has ordered: block China-Is anyone listening?

August 24, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk

The tyrant raises his ugly head again  

Donald Trump-Xi Jinping-Who's winning?

The Oval Office lunatic didn't get his way with the China tariffs. Although the Asian nation seems to be hurting, its president, Xi, always calls Donald Trump's hand, and just raised him with $75 billion added to U.S. goods. It's hard to say whether T-rump is winning or losing this battle, but it is more about the way it is being played than anything else. The machinations of Trump so far would lead one to believe we have an ego maniac running this country. We do.

When US companies were ordered to stop doing business with China, well, you can probably imagine the flabbergasted looks on the faces of hundreds of CEOs. Here's the scenario...

"President Donald Trump claimed he has the 'absolute right' to 'order' US companies to stop doing business with China that would involve using his broad executive authority in a new and unprecedented way under a 1977 law."

Trump lies about Trade War with China...

On the way to the G7 summit in France, Trump told reporters, "I have the absolute right to do that," citing the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). He also threatened Mexico with the IEEPA but reneged in another of his buffoon bluffs. The law gives "broad authority to regulate a variety of economic transactions following a declaration of national emergency." But Trump must...

"consult with Congress before invoking his authority and, after declaring a national emergency, send a report to Congress explaining why."

Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas and a CNN legal analyst says, "The idea behind these authorities is that the President is better situated to make those kinds of determinations than Congress, especially when they're time-sensitive." He added, "I very much doubt this kind of exercise of the authority conferred by the statute is what Congress had in mind." What he didn't say was the fact that it is a moron making the decisions.

Trump's new budget exposes lies-Here's big one

Well, it's common knowledge what Donald trump thinks about women from the statements he made during the 2016 Presidential campaign. Remarks like...

"You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything.
Grab them by the p***y, you can do anything."

"About Rosie O'Donnell he said that she was 'disgusting, both inside and out' and that if he were running her show he'd 'look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers and say, 'Rosie, you're fired.'"

He said about Carly Fiorina, "Look at that face. Would anybody vote for that?"

There's more you can see here but the above shows clearly Donald Trump's disdain for women.

Fast forward to Donald John's first address to a joint session of Congress when he "...promised the American people that he was going to spend his term granting wishes..." then added. "...that he’d invest in women’s health." But along came the emperor's new budget which made his promises look like Pinocchio with a two-foot nose. Lower income and older women are hit very hard with womens' advocates contending...

"...that if the AHCA were to be enacted as-is, Trump’s promised investment in women’s health would be a comical falsehood."

You might say that this statement ["comical falsehood"] pretty much reflects the total of the Donald Trump experience so far. The Daily Beast has been condemning the monarch's budget through the interpretation of the Congressional Budget Office analysis released this past Monday. For starters...

"...24 million kicked off insurance and an additional $880 billion gouged from Medicaid, all in the name of a measly 1 percent reduction in the deficit."

DB says the numbers are really not representative because of the different math between Obamacare and the American Health Care Act. What it comes down to is the fact that this large number will lose their health insurance and older Americans will see increases they simply will not be able to afford. Daily Beast says...

"Allowing premiums for older people to shoot skyward means that a 64-year-old making $24,000 per year will see half of their income go toward the cost of covering medical insurance."

The outset is a family on the cusp of retirement that all of a sudden is bankrupted by their health care costs, and the Republican health care plan leaves them nowhere to turn. Here's another opinion...

“'[Republicans] are doing nothing to invest in women’s health,' Jamila Taylor, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, tells The Daily Beast.
Taylor is particularly concerned with the one-two punch the AHCA gives low-income women and women of color."

 And on the same subject, the GOP is hell-bent on defunding Planned Parenthood, the main entryway for low income women to get the health care they need. The Senate's biggest idiot, Joni Ernst from Iowa, has a bill to redirect their funds. Here's one reaction...

"'If passed, these bills will cause a national health care crisis, leaving millions with nowhere to go for basic care,' said Dana Singiser, vice president of public policy and government affairs for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a statement."

As you can see, the "comical falsehood" has now turned into a serious tragedy, and it will all be on the head of Donald Trump. 

GOP 'Do Nothings' now "cult of know-nothings"

 

It is a known fact for several years now the Republicans are known as the 'do nothing' party. They would rather block or sabotage Democrats' issues than come up with meaningful legislation of their own. Moscow Mitch, even in his Senate secondary roll today, has still done damage to the Biden agenda. But it the party's allegiance to Donald Trump that has recently defined Republicans, and it doesn't look like this will change any time soon.

In a Hill opinion piece, Bill Schneider led with...

"The Republican Party is becoming a cult. Its leaders are in thrall to Donald Trump, a defeated former president who refuses to acknowledge defeat. Its ideology is MAGA, Trump’s deeply divisive take on what Republicans assume to be unifying American values."

But it has been clear of late that the GOP doesn't really want to unify anything but lies, corruption, deception and violence. Their support of Donald Trump's state after state attempts to invalidate the 2020 election to determine he is a winner is evidence of this. And Trump is the focus, which can be seen here...

"The party is now in the process of carrying out purges of heretics who do not worship Trump or accept all the tenets of MAGA. Conformity is enforced by social media, a relatively new institution with the power to marshal populist energy against critics and opponents."

GOP Green Lights Right-Wing Extremism Within Halls Of Congress...

How does the former White House maniac hold on to this loyalty? The answer is we have to accept the fact that there are more double-digit morons out there than we thought. Trump supporters. Poor souls who have blindly, and still are, completely ignoring what this lunatic did during four years in the White House, and since. Hard to believe...but true. Schneider has more insight...

"What’s happening on the right in American politics is not exactly new. To understand it, you need to read a book published 50 years ago by Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, "The Politics of Unreason: Right-Wing Extremism in America, 1790-1970." Right-wing extremism, now embodied in Trump’s MAGA movement, dates back to the earliest days of the country."

 In the Lipset and Raab book, the authors conclude, "Right-wing extremism is not about the rational calculation of interests. It’s about irrational impulses, which the authors identify as “status frustrations.” The key words here are "rational" and "irrational," and the Republicans are only guilty of one, obviously the latter. Lipset and Raab also talk about attacking "scapegoats," mostly minority ethnic or religious groups.

Obviously they know nothing about humanity, but there is no better definition of the current thrust of the Republican Party than “the politics of unreason.”

 

NEW: See Donald Trump's 1,655 false statements...so far

This is a continuation of my new series focusing on the lies and misstatements Donald Trump has made since entering office.

And jumping right into healthcare...

"...Repeal and replace Obamacare. But what -- we had it done, folks. It was done, and then, early in the morning, somebody turned the hand in the wrong direction. That cost our country a lot. That was a very, very terrible thing that happened that night. That was a very terrible thing. That cost our country $1 trillion in entitlement saving that nobody would have known."

"in fact: Sen. John McCain's vote against Trump's plan to repeal and replace Obamacare did not cost the country $1 trillion. As the Washington Post noted: "Trump's estimate is way off. The Senate bill to repeal and replace Obamacare that Trump is talking about would have reduced the deficit by a net $321 billion over 10 years, according to a joint analysis by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation."

Re. the media...

"The Failing @nytimes quotes 'a senior White House official,' who doesn't exist, as saying 'even if the meeting were reinstated, holding it on June 12 would be impossible, given the lack of time and the amount of planning needed.' WRONG AGAIN! Use real people, not phony sources."

in fact: This senior White House official is very real: he is Matthew Pottinger, National Security Council senior director for Asia, and he made these comments in an official White House briefing for a large group of journalists. (The administration had insisted that he only be identified as a senior White House official.)

Re. the Russia probe...

"....At what point does this soon to be $20,000,000 Witch Hunt, composed of 13 Angry and Heavily Conflicted Democrats and two people who have worked for Obama for 8 years, STOP! They have found no Collussion with Russia, No Obstruction..."

"in fact: Nothing in this rapid-fire series of claims is verifiably true.

Re. arming school teachers...

"But as I've been talking about this idea -- and I feel it's a great idea, but some people that are good people are opposed to it; they don't like the idea of teachers doing it. But I'm not talking about teachers. You know, CNN went on, they said, 'Donald Trump wants all teachers.' OK? Fake news, folks. Fake news. Fake news."

"in fact: A search of closed-captioning archives does not turn up evidence of anyone on CNN saying Trump wants to arm "all teachers." Regardless, Trump's claim that he is "not talking about teachers" is transparently absurd: in this very same speech, he elaborated at length on his proposal to arm teachers. While he made clear that he was talking only about a minority of teachers, that is still talking about teachers."

Folks, there are over 1,600 of these and some of the best are yet to come. For the first time in the history of the United States, there is someone in the White House that has based his entire presidency on dishonesty and misleading the American public. Stay tuned.