Stable Genius Has Meltdown At White House Press Conference

During a press conference with Donald Trump and Finland’s President Niinisto, Jeff Mason from Reuters asked Trump what he wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to do when Trump brought up the business ties to Ukraine of Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden? Trump began: “What I want is the following — Why are we the only ones that give the big money to the Ukraine?” And he never actually answered the question, which spurred Mason to followup on the question. Serious props to Jeff Mason for trying to get an answer to his question. The Donald is a bit cray-cray here. And poor President Niinisto for having to be exposed to the Trumpster’s madness.

Lewandowski Heads Back To Media To Lie Some More

Hours after telling the House Judiciary Committee he has “no obligation to be honest with the media because they are just as dishonest as everybody else,” former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski sat down for a series of interviews with multiple news outlets. From Vox reporter Aaron Rupar: On Wednesday morning, hours after the former Trump campaign manager’s chaotic and hyper-partisan testimony before the House Judiciary Committee ended with him admitting, under sharp questioning from committee Democrats’ counsel, to not playing it straight with the media regarding his involvement in President Donald Trump’s efforts to curtail the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump and Russia, both Fox & Friends and CNN booked Lewandowski for interviews. Lewandowski’s interview on Fox & Friends — a show that regularly legitimizes the Trump administration’s talking points — was predictably chummy. But Lewandowski’s appearance on CNN, a network where he once worked as a paid contributor, produced the jarring image of him being interviewed over a chyron that seemingly refuted the rationale for booking him in the first place. Predictably, Lewandowski’s interview on CNN devolved into a pro wrestling-style confrontation in which he deflected from questions about the veracity of his congressional testimony by raising questions about Trump critics who, as he once did, work as paid contributors for the network, such as former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe.

NOAA Backs Trump On Early Dorian Threat To Alabama

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the National Weather Service, has issued a statement backing up Donald Trump’s ongoing assertion that Alabama was, at one time, a possible target of Hurricane Dorian. From the Washington Post:

In a statement released Friday afternoon, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated Alabama was in fact threatened by the storm at the time Trump tweeted Alabama would “most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.”

Referencing archived hurricane advisories, the NOAA statement said that information provided to the president and the public between Aug. 28 and Sept. 2 “demonstrated that tropical-storm-force winds from Hurricane Dorian could impact Alabama.”

The WaPo goes on to report that on August 29, when the president was briefed by acting NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs, any risk to Alabama had become highly unlikely. By the time Trump tweeted about the Alabama threat on Sunday morning, no credible computer model showed any risk to the state. NOAA also clapped back at its own National Weather Service office in Birmingham, Ala., which had contradicted Trump’s tweet (without naming Trump) writing, “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian.”

“The Birmingham National Weather Service’s Sunday morning tweet spoke in absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available at the time,” wrote NOAA’s leadership. ‘Absolute terms’ and ‘probabilities’ aside, the Birmingham office ended up being correct, and Trump was wrong. Alabama was not ‘hit (much) harder than anticipated.’ Responding to the statement from NOAA, the organization’s former chief operating officer, David Titley, tweeted this:

Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown Calls Sean Spicer “Sweet” & “Nice”

  The new cast of Dancing with the Stars has been announced, and it includes Sean Spicer (below), who became famous as Donald Trump’s first White House Press Secretary, and Queer Eye‘s Karamo Brown (above). In a recent interview with Access Hollywood, his co-“star” Brown shared he thinks the man who repeatedly lied to the White House press corps and America “a good guy, a really sweet guy.” Check Brown’s kind words for Spicer in the tweet below:

“Sean Spicer and I have been talking. Yeah, like, literally, I was most excited to meet him because, like the thing is that people would look at us and think that we’re polar opposites but I’m a big believer that if you can talk to someone and meet in the middle that you can learn about each other and help each other both grow. So we have been chatting all day today. Like, he’s a good guy, a really sweet guy. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Karamo from Queer Eye saying Sean Spicer is a nice guy. I know. I know.”

Now, you may recall Spicer was the guy who frequently lied about Trump’s allegations that millions of people illegally voted in the 2016 presidential election. Then there were the lies regarding the firing of former FBI director James Comey. More on my coverage of Spicer here. But, hey, “really sweet guy.” Some fans were not up for the Brown/Spicer love.

Brown responded on Twitter, although he later deleted the tweets. He also, according to Newsweek, began blocking people and comments on his Twitter account. “First, I have no say who is on the cast and didn’t find out till this morning that he is on!” said Brown in the first tweet. “But I’ll tell you this… I’m excited to sit down w/ him and engage in a respectful conversations. Only way things get better is if we try to educate those who have different POV than us.” In a second tweet, Brown said how he “can’t stand people” who post things “just to flame the fire and get a reaction. We fight harder than your ass ever has for people of color and members of the LGBTQIA community” after someone else called him out.

By the way, DWTS host Tom Bergeron also shared HIS thoughts on the new cast via Twitter as well:

Dancing With the Stars returns for its all-new season Monday, Sept. 16 at 8 p.m ET/PT on ABC.

Trump Lies Again Claiming He Won 2016 Popular Vote

Citing a conservative group known for spreading false conspiracy theories, Donald Trump again claimed his 2016 electoral was "even bigger than thought" as he accused Google of "manipulating" votes in the last presidential election.
Donald Trump

Citing a conservative group known for spreading false conspiracy theories, Donald Trump again claimed his 2016 electoral was “even bigger than thought” as he accused Google of “manipulating” votes in the last presidential election.

“Wow, Report Just Out! Google manipulated from 2.6 million to 16 million votes for Hillary Clinton in 2016 Election!” Trump tweeted. “This was put out by a Clinton supporter, not a Trump Supporter! Google should be sued. My victory was even bigger than thought!”

Trump tagged Judicial Watch, which has a long history of targeting Democrats via unsubstantiated lawsuits.

However, study after study, investigation after investigation, show that no tangible voter fraud has ever been found, let alone millions and millions of manipulated votes.

As has been well-documented, Hillary Clinton lost the electoral college to Trump 304 to 227. But, due to high population blue states like California and New York, he garnered nearly 3 million more votes than Trump.

My question is: if the election was rigged in Hillary’s favor by such powerful interests like Google and Russia (as Trump claims), why isn’t she president?

Even Hillary Clinton clapped back at the nonsense:

This comes in a long string of allegations of election fraud by Trump.

Last week, at a New Hampshire rally, the Donald told his followers that voter fraud was to blame for his losing the Granite State’s four electoral votes in 2016. He told the crowd in Manchester, “It was taken away from us.”

And over the weekend, he insinuated to reporters in New Jersey that undocumented immigrants were to blame saying “many, many people voted that shouldn’t have been voted,” coming back repeatedly to “some people voted many times.”

But Ellen Weintraub, the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, quickly dispatched a letter to Trump calling for him “to provide any evidence” that could back up those statements.

“To put it in terms a former casino operator should understand: There comes a time when you need to lay your cards on the table or fold,” wrote Weintraub.

“Facts matter. And people of America need to be able to believe what their leaders tell them,” Weintraub said Monday.

Arizona Official Claims Average Life Expectancy Of Gay Men Is 42

Ron Gould (image via YouTube/RonGould)

An elected official in Arizona is getting backlash for telling a local newspaper gay men have a life expectancy of 42 and pointed to sexual orientation as the reason.

Ron Gould, a former Arizona state senator and currently the Mohave County Supervisor, told the Kingman Daily Miner (subscription) that gay men have an average life expectancy of 42. When asked if he believes sexual orientation was the reason for that statement, he said, “That’s why they die.”

He went on to draw a false equivalence between being homosexual and drinking alcohol.

“We all have our sins, but we should try to suppress them,” said Gould, according to the Phoenix New Times. “Alcohol is harmful, too, but we don’t see groups promoting alcoholism.”

Gould also took a swipe at marriage equality in the interview. “It used to be ‘tolerate us,’” he told the newspaper. “Now, it’s ‘accept us.’”

Gould, who served in the Arizona state Senate from 2005 to 2013, was elected to the Mohave County Board of Supervisors in 2018.

Gould didn’t indicate where he got such erroneous information about ‘gay life expectancy,’ but many believe it has to do with a debunked study by anti-LGBTQ activist and pseudo-researcher, Paul Cameron.

In his 1994 study, “The longevity of homosexuals,” Cameron scanned through local newspapers that served the LGBTQ communities for obituaries. At the height of the AIDS epidemic, he added up the ages of the deceased gay men and found an average age of 43.

Cameron was booted out of the American Psychological Association for his vastly flawed research. 

Trump (Again) Claims He Helped At 9/11 Attack Site

At a signing ceremony to permanently authorize the 9/11 victims compensation fund, Donald Trump once again claimed he somehow ‘helped’ at the World Trade Center site in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

“I was down there also. I don’t consider myself a first responder, but I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you.”

The Washington Post has already debunked this myth: “While Trump did visit the site a couple of days after the attack and did some interviews, there is no evidence that he got down to help clear rubble, which people would certainly have remembered.”

Liar: After Followers Chant “Send Her Back” Trump Says He Disagreed With It & Tried To Stop It

At last night's campaign rally, Donald Trump whipped up the crowd to such a frenzy, they began chanting "Send her back," referring to Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Donald Trump

At last night’s campaign rally, Donald Trump whipped up the crowd to such a frenzy, they began chanting “Send her back,” referring to Rep. Ilhan Omar.

Trump claims he “disagreed it,” and tried to stop the chant saying he began speaking “very quickly.”

But if you watch the video, 13 long seconds of chanting goes by before he continues speaking. And when he does, it isn’t to admonish the racist chant.

We do have video recordings, you know…

Rep. Omar responded to the news of the chant by tweeting a quote from author Maya Angelou:

Trump On Airport Gaffe: “The Teleprompter Went Kaput”

Donald Trump during his July 4th speech

Earlier today, I reported on Donald Trump’s embarrassing gaffe during his July 4th speech where he referenced the Continental Army taking over “the airports” during the Revolutionary War.

Here’s the quote from his speech:

“The Continental Army suffered a bitter winner at Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do.”

This afternoon, Trump explained the mistake saying the teleprompter “went kaput” so he kept going on his own explaining he “knew the speech very well.”

“I guess the rain knocked out the teleprompter,” he added. “It was actually hard to look at anyway, ’cause it was rain all over.”

So, the Donald is basically explaining that, without a teleprompter, he can’t help but say stupid things?

He says he knew the speech very well – so, does that mean the ‘airport’ comment was in the original text of the speech?

Remember when the Donald chided President Obama and Hillary Clinton for using teleprompters?

As we’ve learned over the past few years,… there’s always a tweet:

Swampity Swamp Swamp: ‘Donated’ Fireworks From Company That Lobbied White House On Tariffs

President Donald Trump's Fourth of July celebration will feature $750,000 of donated fireworks from an Ohio retailer who has lobbied the White House against expanded tariffs on Chinese imports.
Donald Trump

When someone does you a favor, it is appropriate to send a gift, I guess.

From ABC News:

President Donald Trump’s Fourth of July celebration will feature $750,000 of donated fireworks from an Ohio retailer who has lobbied the White House against expanded tariffs on Chinese imports.

And last week, the same day the donation was announced, the company — Phantom Fireworks of Youngstown, Ohio — got what it wanted: Trump decided to hold off on his threatened $300 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, which include fireworks.

“This is another example of how private companies attempt use their money to influence the government by stroking the president’s ego,” said Jordan Libowitz with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

Newsweek reports the owners of Phantom Fireworks, the largest consumer fireworks retailer in the country, are registered Democrats but voted in the 2016 Ohio Republican primary.

That said, they got their reprieve from tariffs, and are now donating to Trump’s ego rally.

You do the math.