Glenn Kessler, whose column in the Washington Post is called “The Fact-Checker,” writes that Trump set a record today. He surpassed 5,000. That is, he has made 5,000 (actually 5,001) misleading or demonstrably false statements since his inauguration on January 20, 2017. And the day is not over!
“On Sept. 7, President Trump woke up in Billings, Mont., flew to Fargo, N.D., visited Sioux Falls, S.D., and eventually returned to Washington. He spoke to reporters on Air Force One, held a pair of fundraisers and was interviewed by three local reporters.
“In that single day, he publicly made 125 false or misleading statements — in a period of time that totaled only about 120 minutes. It was a new single-day high.
“The day before, the president made 74 false or misleading claims, many at a campaign rally in Montana. An anonymous op-ed article by a senior administration official had just been published in the New York Times, and news circulated about journalist Bob Woodward’s insider account of Trump’s presidency.
“Trump’s tsunami of untruths helped push the count in The Fact Checker’s database past 5,000 on the 601st day of his presidency. That’s an average of 8.3 Trumpian claims a day, but in the past nine days — since our last update — the president has averaged 32 claims a day. When we first started this project for the president’s first 100 days, he averaged 4.9 claims a day. He passed the 2,000 mark on Jan. 10 — eight months ago. “
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Please stick to education issues where your credibility is impeccable.
Thanks, Alex. It’s very difficult these days to separate politics and education.
Alex, I gave up trying to separate politics and education since they are so intertwined. Can you separate Trump from DeVos?
I am so repelled by Trump’s ignorance, bigotry, narcissism, and vulgarity that I can’t hide my disgust. Education is supposed to teach young people tolerance, manners, thoughtfulness, civility, intellectual competence, and willingness to learn. All that passed him by.
Alex: Diane understands politics. Do you have evidence that she is not credible? Speak up.
Teachers and students are being affected by the limited, backward, ignorant, short term ‘thinking’ of politicians. I look forward to what she has to say.
Dr. Ravitch’s credibility is impeccable in all of the areas about which she writes.
Alex,
Here’s some “unrelated” info. -The infamous Chuck Johnson was an invited guest (invitation courtesy of a Republican politician) at the Jan., 2018, SOTU address. Various media have reported that Johnson is a Holocaust denier and a man banned from twitter for asking for “help to take out” a Black Lives Matter activist.
Mother Jones published a report that Johnson was recently on a yacht for a fundraising event for the Republican who invited him to the SOTU. On that same yacht, at the event, Russophile, Rohrbacher, was reportedly a guest. Earlier this year, Rohrbacher was the beneficiary of a fundraising event hosted by Betsy DeVos’ brother.
The Young Turks related their theory about Erik Prince’s Seychelles meeting (where a Russian operative just happened to talk with him at a hotel bar) that relates to Betsy DeVos’ appointment.
People who want to view education policy as removed from the political arena should defend doing so, not the other way around.
Bill Gates, the Waltons, John Arnold et al don’t make the separation.
Many of the recipients of the DeVos government REACH grant to develop products and marketing plans for the private education market, received grants from Arnold prior to that.
It’s Diane’s blog. She can publish whatever she wants. If you don’t like it, don’t read those articles or don’t read the blog at all.
Thanks, TOW!
You’re welcome. I know you can take care of yourself, but sometimes, I just can’t help speaking up.
Alex, “Huh? Diane can indeed connect the dots.”
Thanks, Diane, for this post.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Trump is climbing, always climbing toward the one success he can actually achieve on his own.
In Trumps first 100-days, he spouts/tweets an average of 4.9 lies a day
reaching an 8.3 average in his second year
Trump’s numbers climbed in a frenzy to 32 a day as Muller closed in
Trump’s daily lie count threatens to jump even higher
As Manafort makes a deal and pleads guilty
Trump is working overtime to replace Robert Ripley as the world’s greatest liar.
New betting pool is in view. Guess the number of lies Trump will tell, daily winners.
Trump is increasingly needing to make his own news, his own reality. The truth is becoming too difficult for him to accept. He is getting further and further unhinged.
What will happen in the future? This type of thing is extremely dangerous. He has too much power to be totally unconnected to reality.
Bob Woodward’s book, “Fear”; Anonymous in the NYT and now Manafort’s cooperation with Mueller. Is this why the Orange Buffoon is making more and more false or misleading statements? [I like good news.]
……………….
Paul Manafort’s Cooperation With Mueller Is the Biggest Blow Yet to Trump..The Atlantic
The president and his former campaign chairman have spent months sharing information about the Russia investigation. Now Manafort has decided to help the government.
After more than four decades of lobbying on behalf of Republican politicians, foreign dictators, and oligarchs, Paul Manafort is flipping on his last client: President Donald Trump.
The president’s former campaign chairman has agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the investigation of a potential conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow, prosecutors said in court on Friday, and has already proffered information to the Justice Department. Manafort also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, avoiding the spectacle of a second trial in Washington, D.C…
Read More:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/09/paul-manafort-trump-mueller-trial/570331/?utm_source=eb
It feels like 8,000.
alphawolf1 (@alphawolf1): It would be much simpler if the media told when he said the truth. Small numbers are much easier to count. [Does he ever tell the truth? I don’t remember that happening.]
why not call them lies. language matters! brigid
>
Just when you think that the halcyon days are over, that we’re in the waning days of the empire, that we’ve grown lazy and tired and corrupt, that we shall no longer scale those heights of discovery and accomplishment, our President proves the nay-sayers wrong!!!! Historic, indeed. My MAGGOT hat off to you, Mr. President. What a model you are for our youth!!!
Let us not forget that fact checkers are not completely unbiased. There are observable truths and there is opinion. I am going to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. Eliminate the decimal. Even a broken clock is correct twice a day.
But in all seriousness, as Chomsky warned.
“The broader lesson to be drawn is not to shy away from confronting the dominance of the political system under the management of the two major parties. Rather, challenges to it need to be issued with a full awareness of their possible consequences. This includes the recognition that far right victories not only impose terrible suffering on the most vulnerable segments of society but also function as a powerful weapon in the hands of the establishment center, which, now in opposition can posture as the “reasonable” alternative.”
For instance, trade is neither good nor bad. It can be good or bad in the aggregate and good or bad for many on both sides of a border. Good for farmers and bad for factory workers, good for consumers in the form of lower prices yet bad for wages of workers who compete with low paid foreign workers.
Trade deficits are certainly not a problem when an economy is at full employment. Consumers are purchasing more than can be produced at home. But can we argue with a straight face that the loss of 2 million + manufacturing jobs was not a terrific price to pay for those workers? Can we argue that if these workers had remained employed that economic activity would not have been higher at all?
Of course, Trump could not give a —- about those workers. But the fact checker needs a fact checker as well when they simplify complex policy from education to trade……
Everyone is biased in some way but being biased does not make them liars and it doesn’t mean they let their bias control their fact checking.
By definition,
Trump is a serial liar,
Trump is a malignant narcissist,
Trump is a failed businessman,
Trump is a serial wife cheater,
Trump is a serial mistress cheater,
Trump is a serial pussy grabber,
Trump is a psychopath,
Trump is a bully,
Trump is a racist,
Trump is a troll,
Trump hates dogs,
Trump loves dictators …
And you want to give Trump the benefit of a doubt. Here’s two of my doubts about Trump:
I doubt that Trump is sane and honest.
There are several major, reputable fact-check sites, and it is easy for extremists from either end of the political spectrum to cast doubt on these sites when they don’t report what the extremists want to hear.
https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=916
Here’s a rundown of 10 of the top fact- and bias-checking sites to share with your students.
AllSides. While not a fact-checking site, AllSides curates stories from right, center and left-leaning media so that readers can easily compare how bias influences reporting on each topic.
Fact Check. This nonpartisan, nonprofit project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by U.S. political players, including politicians, TV ads, debates, interviews and news releases.
Media Matters. This nonprofit and self-described liberal-leaning research center monitors and corrects conservative misinformation in the media.
NewsBusters. A project of the conservative Media Research Center, NewsBusters is focused on “documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias.”
Open Secrets. This nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit website run by the Center for Responsive Politics tracks how much and where candidates get their money.
Politifact. This Pulitzer Prize winning website rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials. Run by editors and reporters from the independent newspaper Tampa Bay Times, Politicfact features the Truth-O-Meter that rates statements as “True,” “Mostly True,” “Half True,” “False,” and “Pants on Fire.”
ProPublica. This independent, nonprofit newsroom has won several Pulitzer Prizes, including the 2016 Prize for Explanatory Reporting. ProPublica produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
Snopes. This independent, nonpartisan website run by professional researcher and writer David Mikkelson researches urban legends and other rumors. It is often the first to set the facts straight on wild fake news claims.
The Sunlight Foundation. This nonpartisan, nonprofit organization uses public policy data-based journalism to make politics more transparent and accountable.
Washington Post Fact Checker. Although the Washington Post has a left-center bias, its checks are excellent and sourced. The bias shows up because they fact check conservative claims more than liberal ones.
Lloyd Lofthouse
Okay, all of the above on Trump. As I stated fact-checking of complex issues is not a scorecard. It is an opinion piece and I am sure you would tell your students to go to more than one source and weigh the evidence for themselves. Economics is by no means a hard science. And the Washington post is far from an unbiased source. And certainly not a left wing source as it is portrayed.
So let’s predate this fact check of the fact checker before the age of Trump. The link is to a Public Citizen piece.
https://www.prosperousamerica.org/eyes_on_trade_fact_checking_the_fact_checker_washington_post_gets_it_wrong_on_bogus_trade_pact_jobs_claims
Pulitzer Prize-winning former NYT Business writer David Kay Johnson had an interesting response on Dean Bakers blog attempting to address a similar topic.
DavidCayJohnston • 2 days ago
Dean writes that “people with political power, and the news outlets they own (e.g. The Washington Post), often don’t care about tens of millions of people being out of work and losing their homes.”
I disagree here, at least on the publishing side. And below I’ll explain the missing factor.
All but the worst few publishers are heartless money-maniacs. Most have a sense of social conscience and a belief that they head a public trust, just one that makes them money so long as but does a reasonable job of conveying reliable and useful information.
Publishers are not involved in the news day to day. At the NYTimes, for example, the publisher may when he chooses attend the first half of the Page One meeting. That’s where section editors pitch stories for the front. But the publisher (with only one exception to my knowledge) never stays for the scond half in which senior editors decide placement. That way the publish knows what may be in the new, but has no influence over how it is played.
The real problem s that publishers and most top editors are simply not steeped in economics, I’ve tried using the term “accounting identities” on top editor and I might as well have been trying to explain commedia alla maschera, or quantum singularities or electricity ratemaking principles. Eyes just glaze over — and these are very very smart people.
So what they do is reflect what they hear — and they tend as classes (publishers are capitalists; editors well-paid intelligentsia) to spend little to no time with working class people or Marx’s lumpen. I have taken some of their peers on personal tours of South-Central LA and the South Bronx, watching eyes open wide.
Also remember that newspapers, the source of mist serious news, have a bias for economic progress. All papers are in the tank for local real estate, much as they may report on thus or that development being controversial or even bad. That’s because their business model depeb\nds on a vibrant local economy, the three national papers (NYT, WSJ, USAT) being the only limited exceptions.
As for Samuelson — that he keeps on getting published screams about how little WashPost editor know about economics. They know more than Donald, who was given an econ (real estate) degree by Penn, but not much more,
Glenn Kessler is not an economist. So like I said before one accepts the word of a fact checker one should and I hated this guy “trust but verify ”
But again the one thing we do not have to verify is your list .
The publishers and CEOs are not the ones doing the fact checking. The fact checkers are the troops hired to fact check and if the fact checking is done properly, regardless of the fact that the checker is personally biased since “everyone” has a bias of some kind, they link to the sources they are using to verify whatever the slobbering, blubbery liar in chief is spouting off or twittering at any given moment. Many of the sources used are direct quotes from the liar in chief’s tweets and interviews and speeches.
It’s easy to allege bias but to prove it, you, or anyone for that matter, will have to do a lot of work and dissect a fact check piece by visiting every link used that leads to the source material used to fact check Trump’s many, endless, lies.
Again, humans are not perfect and we all come with some sort of bias but that doesn’t mean the fact checker is letting that bias influence them. To prove that, whoever challenges the fact checkers has to become the fact checker of the fact checkers and then even they could be accused of bias in their fact checking of fact checkers.
Lloyd Lofthouse
So we agree. The fact checker has to become his own fact checker and even question his own bias. The Publishers certainly exert influence. In any organization especially one involving employment hierarchies; there is a tendency to please the boss. Let me know when Michael Hudson gets a job at the Washington Post.
Thus we have tendencies to lean towards groupthink. The obvious failures can be seen in foreign policy. I am not cynical enough to say that the almost universal support for the invasion of Iraq was a conspiracy, yet it was certainly a failure that needs explaining. The inability of the media to pick up a massive housing bubble another failure. One has to ask where were the fact checkers.
Trump makes it too easy and I will skip the expletives in describing him. But that does not mean that standing in opposition to him means that the issues he highlights do not need addressing. The fact that his policies are not genuine nor appropriate attempts at solutions does not distract from the real underlying problems. Problems that our fact checkers all too frequently miss. So we have to ask why.
In a stunning admission, I saw a Vice-president of the European Commission state “people are not aggregates”. Aggregate economic numbers tell you about growth. They do not tell you who is reaping those benefits. The host Ali Velshi ( An economics host and frequent fact checker) responds “then we need more education(retraining)”. Never even entertaining the fact that it is a power dynamic determining the distribution of that growth(wealth) and the outcomes for various groups in society. A conclusion that Commissioner was alluding to by making that statement in the first place; as he sees a right-wing populist insurgency ripping apart the EU. I assure you the other fact checkers are no different than Velshi on many issues. Crowd size, even death tolls easy calls. Economic and foreign policy not so easy.
“The fact checker has to become his own fact checker”
I didn’t say that, exactly. However, the fact check sites probably do have a fact checker to check the fact checker. They are called editors.
The editor or editors are usually responsible to check the work their reporters turn in before publication. The edit, revise and cut or add based on deadline times.
I suspect that same process is part of the organization of a media fact-check site. Then there will be readers that will check the published fact-check piece and challenge anything they can prove is biased or false.
Even then, it is up to every reader to not let their own biases influence them so they will not question anything they read in a fact-check site. That is exactly what every Trump supporter does, they question nothing, fact check nothing. They accept whatever their god claims and only listen to and swallow the crap pumped out by one of the most biased and false news outlets in the world: Fox news.
If we compared and ranked China’s Xinhua News to Fox News (or Media Corp), I wonder which one would be more toxic for propaganda and lies.
And according to this piece in Investors.com, there is a fact checker of the fact checkers and it is called Real Clear Politics.
” Thankfully, Real Clear Politics has stepped into the breach by creating what it calls Fact Check Review.
“Not only does the site regularly review problematic ‘fact checks,’ it constantly updates a database on fact checks published Snopes, FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, New York Times, Washington Post and the Weekly Standard.
“It then rates them based on how often each site checks opinions rather than facts. In July, for example, a quarter (25-percent) of the Post’s “fact” checks were of opinions, as were 18% of Politifact’s. It also looks at how often fact checkers rely on other news outlets to verify claims. In July, 90% of Snopes fact checks used other media sources.”
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/fact-checkers-big-media/
Real Clear Politics Fact Check Review
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/fact_check_review/
What you people aren’t understanding here, is that when the President says or tweets it, it becomes true. It creates an alternate universe, Trump-branded with 14-foot-high golden letters, shaped by Presidential fiat (which is sort of like an executive order, only a lot more so). This alterni-fact universe is called ‘Merka. It’s where real ‘Merkins live. Unlike y’all.
This is scary. I just read a news report that FEMA is working to create a method where Trump can send out a Trump Alert to every mobile phone, or every phone, in the country any time he wants to do it.
I read part of the first chapter. It tells about Trump’s business dealings, how Trump raped his first wife while dating Marla Maples. He has had fat reduction done on his fat stomach and had scalp reduction on his bald spot. He got mad at the doctor because he put some dye on Donnie’s head and the dye didn’t right away match his hair color.
I couldn’t read a full book about Trump. He is just too much to stand. It’s available on Amazon in hardcover copy.
…………………………………..
Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald …Book published July 15, 2016
by Harry Hurt III
I am reading “Fear.”
Very alarming portrait of a very ignorant man surrounded by sycophants who enabled him.
So here was my one problem with Woodward, Trump wanted to blow up NAFTA and the established word order. Now we can debate whether the extreme disruption that would cause would harm more working class people than it would help at this point. We can claim that Trump is ignorant and reckless. But to frame that in an interview as it would destroy the basis of our economic policy for the last 25 years; without even the slightest acknowledgment that we picked winners and losers and Bobs Class was the winner is why we are seeing a populist authoritarian upheaval in Western countries. While we could argue the effects of
Sadly Trump plays to issues that progressives have pushed for almost two decades. Using them to rile an ignorant base. While he discredits them for the future discussion. .
http://cepr.net/publications/op-eds-columns/the-transatlantic-alliance-will-survive-trump
Delete this line. (While we could argue the effects of)
“I see him there . . . like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me” –Robert Frost
This, I think, must be our consolation, now: Trump is the ghastly BEFORE picture. He is the darkness that we shall cast off in a brighter future, where there is progress toward decency. Everything this troglodyte stands for will soon be on the ash-heap of history, along with polio, bear-baiting, foot-binding. and haruspicy (divination by inspecting the entrails of sacrificed animals). People will look back on him, I am certain, with as much fondness.
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, / That wants it down.”
But, enough. As Crazy Jane says of the Bishop in one of Yeats’s poems, “I am tired of cursing the Bishop. Seven hats would not make him a man.”
Trump is definitely a ‘mad captain’. Mad as in mentally unbalanced.
…………………………………………
Paul McCartney Takes Aim At Trump: ‘We’ve Got A Mad Captain Sailing This Boat’
…“So I just wanted to make a song that would basically say, you know, occasionally, we’ve got a mad captain sailing this boat we’re all on and he is just going to take us to the iceberg,” he added.
Asked if the “mad captain” was “anyone in particular,” McCartney responded:
“Well I mean, obviously it’s Trump but I don’t get too involved because there’s plenty of them about. He’s not the only one.”…
Article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-mccartney-donald-trump-climate-change_us_5b9cb03ee4b046313fbb5dda
One more down. Trump only picks the best. [Trump is corrupt and his ‘best’ are also corrupt.] Just what this country needs…a FEMA director who misuses government vehicles.
……………..
FEMA administrator Brock Long faces possible criminal probe amid deepening fallout over personal travel
Long had been the subject of an internal investigation over his alleged misuse of government vehicles to travel between Washington and his home in North Carolina. He has denied doing anything improper and over the weekend denied reports that he’d been asked to resign.
The development intensifies pressure on Long to step down even as he leads the agency’s response to Hurricane Florence.
Where did Trump find all these grifters?
Oh my goodness. She writes in complete sentences and makes sense. Amazing. I think we’ve had enough of Tweets with misspellings that say nonsense.
…………………………………
Hillary Rodham Clinton writes on what she sees as the forces weakening America’s democratic institutions:
Trump may be uniquely hostile to the rule of law, ethics in public service, and a free press. But the assault on our democracy didn’t start with his election. He is as much a symptom as a cause of what ails us. Think of our body politic like a human body, with our constitutional checks and balances, democratic norms and institutions, and well-informed citizenry all acting as an immune system protecting us from the disease of authoritarianism. Over many years, our defenses were worn down by a small group of right-wing billionaires—people like the Mercer family and Charles and David Koch—who spent a lot of time and money building an alternative reality where science is denied, lies masquerade as truth, and paranoia flourishes.
Of course, she went to Wellesley College. You have to be very smart to get in and even smarter and more knowledgeable when you graduate.
His aides are working full time to keep Trump quiet. Quite a man, that Orange one. He is being calmed by venting privately against Democrats. Trump is mentally ill!!
……………………………
With Trump muted, White House leans on Kavanaugh to defend himself
But in the case of federal judge Brett Kavanaugh – whose Supreme Court nomination is suddenly endangered after a woman accused him of sexual assault in high school – Trump on Monday was uncharacteristically muted.
White House aides said they persuaded the president to refrain from tweeting a defense of Kavanaugh in the accusation’s immediate aftermath, and deliberately worked to keep him from meeting personally with the nominee, even though the two men spent most of the day in proximity….
The situation is so fragile that Republican officials said they fear any impulsive statement by the president could have negative ramifications – either for himself, for Kavanaugh or for the GOP overall.
Trump’s advisers calmed him by giving him space to vent privately about Senate Democrats, whom Republicans accuse of improperly withholding the sexual assault allegation until now, officials said….
Furthermore, according to a presidential adviser, Trump has not immediately viewed the spotlight on Kavanaugh’s alleged conduct as an attack on himself by extension, and therefore has not lashed out…
But two Trump confidants on Monday also underscored Trump’s history of self-interested calculations amid political tumult. “He’s going to do what’s best for Trump,” said one of them, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment. “The president thinks it’s rough for Kavanaugh and he’d decry the process as disgusting if he withdraws, but he’d nominate a carbon copy of Kavanaugh in a second if he goes down.”…
https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/With-Trump-muted-White-House-leans-on-Kavanaugh-13236928.php?utm_campaign=email-desktop&utm_source=CMS%20Sharing%20Button&utm_medium=social
This comes from the WH. Are we all enjoying the ‘tax cuts and deregulations that are causing the booming economy & explosive growth’? Who makes up this stuff? I guess its part of the theory that anything said often enough becomes a ‘truth’.
………………………………..
“A top economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan said Tuesday that President Barack Obama deserves no credit for the booming U.S. economy, and said all of the credit belongs to President Trump,” Pete Kasperowicz writes in the Washington Examiner. On Fox News, renowned economist Art Laffer, who served on Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board, “credited the tax cut and Trump’s push to deregulate parts of the U.S. economy for the explosive growth.”
Kick the Orange Buffoon out. Too bad he feels angry and unprotected. He’s earned it.
……………….
Insiders claim Trump feels angry and unprotected as president attacks Jeff Sessions for ‘sad’ performance as attorney general | The Independent
‘The president should feel vulnerable because he is vulnerable – to those that fight him daily on implementing his agenda’ says former chief White House strategist
Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker 1 hour ago
…Mr Trump went on to question Mr Sessions’ self-recusal from the Russia investigation. “He said, ‘I recuse myself, I recuse myself’,” Mr Trump told Hill.TV. “And now it turned out he didn’t have to recuse himself. Actually, the FBI reported shortly thereafter any reason for him to recuse himself. And it’s very sad what happened.”
It was not clear what Mr Trump meant.
Career Justice Department ethics officials had told Mr Sessions he had to step aside from any campaign-related investigations because he had been a top campaign surrogate and met with the Russian ambassador…
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-jeff-sessions-attorney-general-white-house-crisis-washington-a8546711.html