2016 Dec 15^th

Cal Thomas’ column today deals with “fake news.” That is certainly a worthy topic because the amount of fake news has been increasing and it is dangerous. Thomas describes a fake news story “about Hillary Clinton being involved in a child sex ring run out of a Washington D.C. pizza restaurant.” That is accurate and Thomas goes on to say that this fake news story prompted “a deranged man with a gun to fire shots inside the place in hopes of liberating the children.” Fortunately, no one was killed. Thomas has gone to some length to describe this scary event but, curiously, he can’t bring himself to tell us who made up this fake story to begin with. Wouldn’t you think that information was important? Perhaps it wasn’t really important because the originators were Lt. General Mike Flynn, Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor to be, and his son Michael Flynn Jr.  Since the tweets declaring this fabulist tale appeared, General Flynn has deleted his contribution and son Mike Junior has been summarily fired from Trump’s transition team.

Here is a bit more about Flynn and his impressive imagination:

In the since-deleted tweet from Nov. 2, Flynn linked to a story on TruePundit.com that falsely claimed the FBI investigation into Anthony Weiner had turned up evidence "to put Hillary (Clinton) and her crew away for life."

"U decide - NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes w Children, etc...MUST READ!" Flynn's tweet read.

Retired Lt. Gen. Flynn has proven to be a controversial choice for Trump. He has tweeted that fear of Muslims is rational and, as CNN's KFile previously reported, he has shared fake news stories and interacted with conspiratorial figures on social media.

In one such instance, from July, Flynn shared a tweet that falsely claimed Clinton wore a hijab in solidarity with Islamic terrorists. (She wore a head scarf.) In another tweet from October, Flynn retweeted a baseless claim that the UN was attempting to create a one-world church that prohibited Christianity.

In speeches he has given throughout the year, he has claimed without evidence that Sharia law was being implemented in states and that Arabic signs on the border guided potential terrorists into the US.

Flynn’s subordinates at his previous post in Defense Intelligence began referring to these fables as “Flynn Facts.” This is the President’s new National Security Advisor. If Flynn belongs in an institution it is not any part of the government.

Thomas goes on to describe what he believes is fake news and not once does he include anything presented by the political right. He does not mention Trump’s years’ long insistence that President Obama was born abroad and thus his entire presidency was illegitimate. Now that Obama has released his birth certificate, Trump says that he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.

Most Trump voters still believe Obama wasn’t born in this country and more than half believe that he is a Muslim. I would be willing to bet that about a month after Trump moves into the White house General Flynn will have a press conference to show several beautiful prayer rugs he claims to have found hidden under the mattress in the Lincoln Bedroom.