Trump is Losing His War with the Media

Thankfully, polls continue to show that Der Trumpenführer's popularity is continuing to drop like a stone and that his efforts to wage war on the media appear to be failing.  True, there is still a minority - probably Fox News viewers and Rush Limbaugh listeners - who cling to America's version of Emperor Palpatine, but the majority believe the media over a man who seems incapable of telling the truth.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the welcomed poll findings. Here are excerpts:

It's pretty clear what President Trump is doing by going after the media. He sees someone who is tough on him, with a lower approval rating, and he sets up a contrast. It's like making yourself look taller by standing next to a short person.

Except maybe it's not really working.

A new poll from Quinnipiac University suggests that while people may be broadly unhappy with the mainstream media, they still think it's more credible than Trump. The president regularly accuses the press of “fake news,” but people see more “fake news” coming out of his own mouth.
 The poll asked who registered voters “trust more to tell you the truth about important issues.” A majority — 52 percent — picked the media. Just 37 percent picked Trump. . . . . voters are even more critical of Trump's treatment of the media, with 61 percent disapproving and 35 percent approving.

Even 23 percent of Republicans say Trump is mistreating the media, and independents disapprove 59-35.

Trump called the media “the enemy of the American people” in a tweet Feb. 17, drawing widespread condemnation from journalists and defenders of the free press. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) even compared Trump's tactic to what dictators do to undermine it.

In addition, Trump may have gone a little too far by proclaiming the media the “enemy of the American people.” A 2013 Pew poll showed broad, bipartisan support for the media's role as a watchdog of politicians. Fully two-thirds of Republicans, Democrats and independents said the press keeps political leaders from doing things they shouldn't. 

Andrew Sullivan - The Madness of King Donald

Former blogger Andrew Sullivan - who I had the opportunity meet several years ago - is back with a piece in New York Magazine which lays out his critical, and in my view, accurate summation of the nightmare currently gripping America in the person of Der Trumpenführer.  I don't always agree with Sullivan - especially on matters of religion and Catholicism - but he sums up matters well in his latest "conversation."   The bottom line is that the current occupant of the White House is mentally ill and this reality is what is unsettling if not down right frightening to the major it of Americans who did not and never will support the current president and all of the toxicity that he represents.  Here are some highlights:

I want to start with Trump’s lies. It’s now a commonplace that Trump and his underlings tell whoppers. Fact-checkers have never had it so good. But all politicians lie. Bill Clinton could barely go a day without some shading or parsing of the truth. Richard Nixon was famously tricky. But all the traditional political fibbers nonetheless paid some deference to the truth — even as they were dodging it. They acknowledged a shared reality and bowed to it. They acknowledged the need for a common set of facts in order for a liberal democracy to function at all. Trump’s lies are different. They are direct refutations of reality — and their propagation and repetition is about enforcing his power rather than wriggling out of a political conundrum. They are attacks on the very possibility of a reasoned discourse, the kind of bald-faced lies that authoritarians issue as a way to test loyalty and force their subjects into submission. That first press conference when Sean Spicer was sent out to lie and fulminate to the press about the inauguration crowd reminded me of some Soviet apparatchik having his loyalty tested to see if he could repeat in public what he knew to be false. It was comical, but also faintly chilling.

What do I mean by denial of empirical reality? Take one of the most recent. On Wednesday, Senator Richard Blumenthal related the news that Judge Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee for the long-vacant Supreme Court seat, had told him that the president’s unprecedented, personal attacks on federal judges were “disheartening” and “demoralizing.” Within half an hour, this was confirmed by Gorsuch’s White House–appointed spokesman, who was present for the conversation. CNN also reported that Senator Ben Sasse had heard Gorsuch say exactly the same thing, with feeling, as did former senator Kelly Ayotte.

The president nonetheless insisted twice yesterday that Blumenthal had misrepresented his conversation with Gorsuch — first in an early morning tweet and then, once again, yesterday afternoon, in front of the television cameras. To add to the insanity, he also tweeted that in a morning interview, Chris Cuomo had never challenged Blumenthal on his lies about his service in Vietnam — when the tape clearly shows it was the first thing Cuomo brought up.

What are we supposed to do with this? How are we to respond to a president who in the same week declared that the “murder rate in our country is the highest it’s been in 45 to 47 years,” when, of course, despite some recent, troubling spikes in cities, it’s nationally near a low not seen since the late 1960s, and half what it was in 1980. What are we supposed to do when a president says that two people were shot dead in Chicago during President Obama’s farewell address — when this is directly contradicted by the Chicago police? None of this, moreover, is ever corrected. No error is ever admitted. Any lie is usually doubled down by another lie — along with an ad hominem attack.

Here is what we are supposed to do: rebut every single lie. Insist moreover that each lie is retracted — and journalists in press conferences should back up their colleagues with repeated follow-ups if Spicer tries to duck the plain truth. Do not allow them to move on to another question. Interviews with the president himself should not leave a lie alone; the interviewer should press and press and press until the lie is conceded. The press must not be afraid of even calling the president a liar to his face if he persists. This requires no particular courage. I think, in contrast, of those dissidents whose critical insistence on simple truth in plain language kept reality alive in the Kafkaesque world of totalitarianism. As the Polish dissident Adam Michnik once said: “In the life of every honorable man comes a difficult moment … when the simple statement that this is black and that is white requires paying a high price.” The price Michnik paid was years in prison. American journalists cannot risk a little access or a nasty tweet for the same essential civic duty?

Then there is the obvious question of the president’s mental and psychological health. I know we’re not supposed to bring this up — but it is staring us brutally in the face. I keep asking myself this simple question: If you came across someone in your everyday life who repeatedly said fantastically and demonstrably untrue things, what would you think of him? If you showed up at a neighbor’s, say, and your host showed you his newly painted living room, which was a deep blue, and then insisted repeatedly — manically — that it was a lovely shade of scarlet, what would your reaction be? If he then dragged out a member of his family and insisted she repeat this obvious untruth in front of you, how would you respond? If the next time you dropped by, he was still raving about his gorgeous new red walls, what would you think? Here’s what I’d think: This man is off his rocker. He’s deranged; he’s bizarrely living in an alternative universe; he’s delusional. If he kept this up, at some point you’d excuse yourself and edge slowly out of the room and the house and never return. You’d warn your other neighbors. You’d keep your distance. If you saw him, you’d be polite but keep your distance.

I think this is a fundamental reason why so many of us have been so unsettled, anxious, and near panic these past few months. It is not so much this president’s agenda. That always changes from administration to administration. It is that when the linchpin of an entire country is literally delusional, clinically deceptive, and responds to any attempt to correct the record with rage and vengeance, everyone is always on edge.

There is no anchor any more. At the core of the administration of the most powerful country on earth, there is, instead, madness. 

Trump In 2007: Hot Women Are "My Alcoholism"

Despite Donald Trump's lie claim that he respects women, his past statements and behavior tell a different tale.  With a total of 10 women so far coming forward to describe how Trump engaged in sexual harassment or near sexual assault of precisely the type Trump boasted about in the 2005 Entertainment Tonight tape, it is pretty clear that Trump is a predatory and sexist pig.   The New York Post reports that a new poll found that 63% of Americans surveyed (including a third of Republicans) believe Trump committed sexual assault in the past.  What I find most ironic is that his hometown media is the most vehement in its rejection of Trump and effort to expose him for what he really is.  Perhaps all Trump's years of bullying people, screwing over contractors and investors and riding rough shod over people in the greater New York City area is at last coming home to roost. The New York Daily News is now publicizing Trumps "alcoholism" - Trump's own word - for "hot" teenage girls and "women."  I'd say the best description of the many, in my opinion, falls into the category of "pervert" and "lecher."  Here are highlights from the Daily News:

Donald Trump claims to only hire the “best people,” but also boasted once of hiring a teenager with no experience just because she was beautiful.

In video taken of Trump giving a paid Learning Annex speech in 2007, the Republican presidential candidate — currently accused of groping as many as 11 women against their will — said he insisted on hiring “a beautiful girl, 17 or 18, so beautiful” as a waitress even though she had no work history.

He also told the crowd that hot women are his “alcoholism” and that having one near him was like setting a glass of Scotch in front of a drunk.

The macho-man exchange occurred at a San Francisco Learning Annex talk that Trump was reportedly paid $1.5 million to give.

The cringe-worthy moment began when a woman in the audience asked Trump how many jets he owned and how she could apply to be a flight attendant.

Trump, leaning over the podium, demanded she come up onstage — as wolf whistles and loud cheers erupted from the men in the crowd.

Video of the 2007 event shows the woman, who introduced herself as Juliet, crossing the stage as Trump leers at her low cut blouse and ample cleavage.

After giving her a blatant once over when she arrives at the podium, the married Trump wraps an arm around her squeezes and says, “You’re hired.”

As Juliet pivots and walks away, Trump keeps his eyes trained on her derriere.

“Now if she worked on my plane that’s like a death wish for me,” Trump says, before going into his riff that beautiful women are his biggest addiction and weakness.

Trump, who is trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton in the latest polls by 7 percentage points in the latest polls, saw his 11th accuser emerge Thursday — the day after the third and final presidential debate.

Wellness expert Karena Virginia recounted the humiliating hands-on experience with The Donald during the 1998 edition of the tennis championships.

I was in shock,” she said at a Manhattan news conference about their encounter. “I felt intimidated and powerless.”

The GOP nominee — as he has with the 10 previous women who made similar charges — dismissed Virginia’s tale as bogus.

Virginia, like several other Trump accusers, said she was moved to come forward after a long-buried videotape emerged in which the businessman bragged about his crude treatment of women.

Trump campaign deputy communications director Jessica Ditto ripped the woman’s attorney Gloria Allred, who last week appeared with another of The Donald’s accusers — Summer Zervos, once a contestant on “The Apprentice.” Allred also represents several women accusing Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting them.

Having raised a son and now with two grandsons, Trump epitomizes what I would never want these males to be like or think like.  Meanwhile, my two Mellennial generation daughters have jumped on the "nasty woman" meme that mocks Trump and his boorish, low class sexism. 

New York Hotelier Lied About Ted Cruz Donation

Ian Reisner (pictured above) and his business partner Mati Weiderpass are both in my view "legends in their own minds" gays who see themselves as "A listers."  Reisner is also proving to be an out and out liar as he tries to do damage control following his host of a "fire side chat" with anti-gay zealot Texas Senator Ted Cruz (the following day, Cruz introduced two anti-gay bills).   Reisner's claims that no donations were made to Cruz's presidential campaign have proven untrue and, if anything, Reisner has dug himself an even deeper hole as calls for boycotts of his businesses continue.  Metro Weekly looks ate this latest phase of Reisner's self-created shit storm.  Here are article highlights:

Ian Reisner just can’t extricate himself from the web of lies he spun in the wake of the Ted Cruz scandal.

After hosting the anti-gay Republican presidential candidate for a “fireside chat” in April, Reisner and business partner Mati Weiderpass (both gay) faced a huge backlash from the LGBT community. Though initially apologizing for hosting Cruz, Reisner has since repeatedly clashed with his detractors in statements made to the press, including calling gays “cheap” and “entitled.”

Reisner attempted to diffuse the controversy by claiming he wasn’t hosting Cruz (he was), that it was organized by others (it wasn’t), that he had no idea about Cruz’s anti-gay history (implausible), and finally by saying that he regretted the incident entirely. Still, though, Reisner continues to dig an ever-deeper hole for himself.

It transpires that not only did Reisner host Cruz in his Manhattan apartment, he also made the maximum possible donation to his campaign. Reisner cut Cruz a check for $2,700, despite telling New York magazine earlier this month: “There were no checks given, it was nothing like that.”

The New York Times, which initially broke the story of Reisner’s meeting with Cruz, has learned that after Reisner was aware that the LGBT community wasn’t happy with his hosting Cruz, he asked for his check back.

What further complicates matters for Reisner, who hosted a fundraiser for another anti-gay politician earlier that month, is that Weiderpass apparently did not donate to Cruz’s campaign.

For Ian Reisner, it seems no amount of PR and damage control can solve the problems caused by his support for Senator Cruz.

Reisner is either a total idiot or pathological liar.  

Conservative Blog Warns Obenshain Not to Try to Steal AG Election

I noted this morning how the Richmond Times Dispatch has raised the specter again of Mark Obenshain trying to steal the Virginia Attorney General election by throwing the election into the Virginia General Assembly where apparently Obenshain thinks the GOP majority would give the election to him regardless of the voter of the Virginia electorate.   The conservative blog Bearing Drift - the leading Virginia conservative blog in the minds of some politico junkies - slams Obenshain for perhaps heading down this deceptive road.  Unlike too many in today's GOP, the folks at Bearing Drift worry about the long term viability of the Republican Party and winning future elections.  Here are some of the highlights:

A good lawyer will keep every possible option on the table for his or her client and that’s exactly what Mark Obenshain’s legal team is doing in advance of the recount of the ballots cast in the attorney general race. Among those options? Contesting the possible outcome of the recount before the General Assembly.

The basis for a contest appears to rest upon how ballots were handled in Fairfax county, where our own Brian Schoeneman was in the thick of the action in his role as an election official. Brian has been very open about the process the county used to count, canvass and secure its ballots. He has done, and continues to do, a fine job in that capacity.  But none of that may prevent a contest. 

The assumption is that given the partisan make-up of the General Assembly, Mark Obenshain would be able to win a contest without much problem. Republicans would hear whatever evidence is presented and, regardless of its quality, hand the AG’s office to one of their own.

That would be a fatal mistake. Wooly-eyed partisans would cheer such an outcome . . . The real damage, though, comes afterwards. Anointing a winner — even if it is allowed under Virginia law — carries with it the real possibility that the party selecting the new incumbent will suffer at the next election. Worse, whatever patina of cooperation exists between the parties today would be erased for good. There are those who prefer such an outcome, even yearn for it. But Virginia loses if that happens as the political class would descend into an orgy of destruction.

Mark Obenshain would do himself an immense deal of good by making sure that doesn’t occur. He is already well position to run for statewide office in 2017 if the recount does not go his way. 

Accept the recounts results and then get on with it. There will be plenty of fights to come in the next session. 

It is encouraging that a few sane Republicans still exist.  However, one has to wonder how long it will be before the folks at Bearing Drift begin to be called RINOS.

The G.O.P.’s Bachmann Problem

I for one and many readers of this blog had hoped that Michele Bachmann would go down to defeat last November.  Rational Republicans should have held similar hopes.  Sadly, she was re-elected and has continued to display the kind of batshitery that is harming the GOP brand no matter how well she plays with the delusional and ignorance loving party base.  But Bachmann is only one of a larger number of Tea Party and Christofascist darlings all of whom are toxic in terms of attracting the new and broader demographics that the GOP needs.  A column in the New York Times looks at the phenomenon.  Here are highlights:

Senator John McCain called the far-right darlings Senator Rand Paul, Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Justin Amash “wacko birds” earlier this month. (McCain later apologized for that burst of honesty and candor.) 

Ann Coulter used her Conservative Political Action Conference speech to take a shot at New Jersey’s governor, Chris Christie, who was not invited to speak this year. Coulter quipped: “Even CPAC had to cut back on its speakers this year, by about 300 pounds.” What a lovely woman. 

Donald Trump took to Twitter recently to call the conservative blogger Michelle Malkin a “dummy” who was “born stupid.” It’s hard to know whom to side with when two bullies battle. 

But all this name-calling, as fun as it is to watch, is just a sideshow. The main show is the underlying agitation.

The Republican Party is experiencing an existential crisis, born of its own misguided incongruity with modern American culture and its insistence on choosing intransigence in a dynamic age of fundamental change. Instead of turning away from obsolescence, it is charging headlong into it, becoming more strident and pushing away more voters whom it could otherwise win.

Andrew Kohut, the founding director of the Pew Research Center, pointed out in The Washington Post on Friday that the party’s ratings “now stand at a 20-year low,” and that is in part because “the outsize influence of hard-line elements in the party base is doing to the G.O.P.   .  .  .  .  radicalizing its image and standing in the way of its revitalization.”  

And too many of those hard-liners have a near-allergic reaction to the truth.  A prime example is Michele Bachmann, the person who convened the Tea Party Caucus in Congress and a Republican candidate for president last year. She burst back on the scene with a string of lies and half-truths that could have drawn a tsk tsk from Tom Sawyer. 

PolitiFact rated two of her claims during her CPAC speech last Saturday as “pants on fire” false. The first was that 70 cents of every dollar that’s supposed to go to the poor actually goes to salaries and pensions of bureaucrats. The second was that scientists could have a cure for Alzheimer’s in 10 years if it were not for “a cadre of overzealous regulators, excessive taxation and greedy litigators.”

People like Bachmann represent everything that is wrong with the Republican Party. She and her colleagues are hyperbolic, reactionary, ill-informed and ill-intentioned, and they have become synonymous with the Republican brand. We don’t need all politicians to be Mensa-worthy, but we do expect them to be cogent and competent.  .  .  .  .  And as long as the party has Bachmanns, it has a problem.

The Myth of Cuccinelli the “Straight Shooter”

The all but crowned GOP nominee for Governor of Virginia, Keen "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli likes to tell the Tea Party crowd and far right Christofascists who attend his book signings and campaign gatherings that he's a "straight shooter" and that he tells them it like it is.  Except, of course he doesn't.  Inconvenient facts simply get edited out of his biography as do previous statements for his past pronouncements.  Kookinelli's behavior in this regard is all too in keeping with the incessant lies disseminated by the far right Christian elements of the GOP base and the untethered from objective reality Tea Party Neanderthals.  A piece in Bacon's Rebellion provides a few examples of Kookinelli's intentional dishonesty.  Here are some excerpts:

Ken Cuccinelli spends a lot of time admiring himself. He’s long on portraying himself as a heroic figure fighting federal over-reach and short on the self-deprecating humor that evinces a certain level of humility. This habit is particularly notable when it comes to being a “straight shooter.” At the recent CPAC conference Cuccinelli gave a keynote speech. He almost threw his shoulder out of joint patting himself on the back and congratulating himself on being a “straight shooter.” But is he?

 There is little doubt that Cuccinelli and his henchmen short circuited the democratic process in order to make sure he was the Republican nominee for governor. Cuccinelli used a deal from the smoke-filled back rooms of the Republican Party of Virginia to avoid an open primary in favor of a convention. Cuccinelli knew that the extremists who frequent Republican conventions would put him on the ballot. Apparently, he was less sure of the rank and file Republicans who would have voted in an open primary. 

Cuccinelli’s web site, on the education section of the issues page, has this sentence:”I was raised in Fairfax County and attended public schools.” One is led to believe that Mr. Cuccinelli’s views on education in Virginia are well formed since he is a product of Virginia’s public school system. Not so fast. Which one of Fairfax County’s many fine public high schools counts Cuccinelli as an alumnus? None of them. He went to high school at a very private, very expensive school in Washington, D.C.: Gonzaga College High School. Interestingly, the reference to Cuccinelli graduating from Gonzaga has been removed from his official biography.

One of Cuccinelli’s rare victories against the federal government came from a case where the Environmental Protection Agency wanted to force Fairfax County and Virginia to cut back on sediment pollution caused by runoff into the Accotink Creek. Cuccinelli derisively accused the EPA of trying to regulate water as a pollutant. That statement is an outright lie.  .  .  .  .  I guess “straight shooters” can take a little liberty with the truth when it suits their needs.

Then there's this nice summation:

Cuccinelli is as slippery as a greased eel. He uses back- room deals to stab members of his own party in the back. He ignores the teachings of the Jesuits at Gonzaga High School and lies through omission about his own educational background. He knowingly lies about the EPA in his comments regarding the Accotink case. Cuccinelli a straight shooter? 

The man's not only clinically insane, in my opinion, but he's also a pathological liar.

Cuccinelli Challenged to Document that He is Fulfilling Duties as Attorney General

This blog has noted before that Ken "Kookinelli," the uncrowned GOP gubernatorial 2013 candidate has refused to resign his position as attorney general given his full time campaigning for the 2013 election in November.  Not only is Cuccinelli drawing a salary at taxpayer expense for a job he isn't doing, but he has also been using staff on the office of Attorney General's to work his campaign.  Now, Cuccinelli has been challenged to document that he is performing all of his duties and a freedom of information act request has been tendered to the AG's office.  Here are the contents of a letter delivered to Cuccinelli:

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli

Office of the Attorney General

900 E. Broad St.

Richmond, VA 23219

Dear General Cuccinelli:

For nearly three decades, Attorneys General of both political parties in Virginia have stepped down from the office to run for Governor. The reason for this tradition is simple: Virginians elect their Attorneys General to serve the public, not to run for Governor. In fact, you stated last month: "I ran to be Attorney General, not to run for Governor." Yet, in recent months, you have been directing the Office of Attorney General while running for Governor.

This has naturally created a question in the public mind about whether the resources of the Office of the Attorney General are being invested in the public interest or in a political campaign. This concern can be readily dispelled with open information about your office.

Specifically, records about your schedule will reassure the public that you are not performing campaign functions during your work hours. Information about your reimbursements will assure us that travel arranged through the Attorney General's office is official and not campaign-related. Finally, your office's emails to political organizations will demonstrate that no campaign work has been performed using the Office of the Attorney General's resources. Virginia's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) follows Virginia's traditions of sunlight and accountability in government, befitting the Commonwealth that gave constitutional democracy to the world. As per §2.2.3700(B) of the Code of Virginia:

"The affairs of government are not intended to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy since at all times the public is to be the beneficiary of any action taken at any level of government. Unless a public body or its officers or employees specifically elect to exercise an exemption provided by this chapter or any other statute, every meeting shall be open to the public and all public records shall be available for inspection and copying upon request. All public records and meetings shall be presumed open, unless an exemption is properly invoked."

§2.2.3700(B) further states:
 

"The provisions of this chapter shall be liberally construed to promote an increased awareness by all persons of governmental activities and afford every opportunity to citizens to witness the operations of government."

As these sections make clear, the Code expressly intends to ensure that Virginia's taxpayers know how every elected official, including the Attorney General, is spending our tax dollars.

Pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, §2.2.3704(G) et seq., and as a Virginia resident, I therefore request copies of records of the following items:

 

1. Records of your schedule from Microsoft Outlook and/or any other electronic scheduling software for the months of December 2012 and January 2013.

2. Records of your schedule from Microsoft Outlook and/or any other electronic scheduling software for the days of February 1, 2, and 3, 2013.

3. Records of your schedule from Microsoft Outlook and/or any other electronic scheduling software for the day of February 4, 2013.

4. Any reimbursements, allowances, or travel charges that you have personally received for the months of December 2012 and January 2013.

5. For the months of December 2012 and January 2013, any email correspondence between you and any other staff of the Attorney General's office and any staff or associates of the following parties:

- The Republican Party of Virginia

- The Republican Governor's Association

- The Cuccinelli for Governor campaign

These records will be readily accessible by your staff in electronic format and so should be sent quickly and without additional fees. Indeed, §2.2.3704(F) of the Virginia Code prohibits the imposition of "any extraneous, intermediary or surplus fees or expenses to recoup the general costs associated with creating or maintaining records." Further, "Any duplicating fee charged by a public body shall not exceed the actual cost of duplication."

Will Cuccinelli comply?  I doubt it.  First, he thinks he is above the rules that govern everyone else.  Secondly, if he does provide accurate documentation it would prove that he is ripping off Virginia taxpayers who are being forced to finance his campaign.  As noted before on this blog I had a close up view of what a statewide race involves, first when my former law partner Mark Earley ran for Attorney General and later for Governor.  There is virtually no way that Cuccinelli can be performing his duties as Attorney General and campaigning at the same time.  It simply is not possible.  He if claims otherwise, he's a liar plain and simple. Cuccinelli needs to either resign or be brought up on ethics charges and removed from office.