Trump believes he is one of the greatest presidents ever. He is surrounded by enablers who encourage his fantasies. Those who speak truth to Trump are soon fired. Think Mattis, Kelly, Tillerson.
James Hohmann writes today in the Washington Post:
President Trump said Sunday night that etching his likeness in granite on Mount Rushmore alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt “sounds like a good idea.”
Trump has spent a lifetime putting his name on prime real estate, but this aspiration to add his visage to perhaps the nation’s foremost symbol of presidential greatness also epitomizes how his perception of his own job performance diverges so sharply from the views of most Americans.
A quote in a Sunday front-page story on the White House’s dysfunctional coronavirus response helps illuminate why the gulf has only grown wider as the United States surpasses 5 million cases and nears 160,000 confirmed deaths.
Everyone is busy trying to create a Potemkin village for him every day,” said a senior administration official involved in the pandemic response. “You’re not supposed to see this behavior in liberal democracies that are founded on principles of rule of law. Everyone bends over backwards to create this Potemkin village for him and for his inner circle.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and Sen. John Thune (R) greet Donald and Melania Trump at Ellsworth Air Force Base on July 3 in Rapid City, S.D., on his way to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. (Alex Brandon/AP)
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and Sen. John Thune (R) greet Donald and Melania Trump at Ellsworth Air Force Base on July 3 in Rapid City, S.D., on his way to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. (Alex Brandon/AP)
This is one of 41 senior officials and other people directly involved in or briefed on the response efforts who gave interviews to Phil Rucker, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Josh Dawsey and Bob Costa. Many spoke only on the condition of anonymity to reveal confidential discussions.
“Staffers have concocted a positive feedback loop for the boss. They present him with fawning media commentary and craft charts with statistics that back up the president’s claim that the administration has done a great — even historically excellent — job fighting the virus,” my colleagues report.
Legend has it that fake portable villages were built to impress Russian Empress Catherine II by her former lover Grigory Potemkin during a 1787 trip to Crimea.
“Everybody is too scared of their own shadow to speak the truth,” said another senior official involved in the response.
Trump is “just not oriented towards things that even in the short term look like they’re involving something that’s hard or negative or that involves sacrifice or pain,” added a former senior administration official.
This is not the first time one of Trump’s undertakings has been likened to a Potemkin village. Steven Perskie, the former chairman of New Jersey’s Casino Control Commission, called the Taj Mahal casino a “Potemkin village” before Trump drove the Atlantic City project into bankruptcy through mismanagement and by taking on excessive debts.
Trump gave up on talks for a relief package with congressional Democrats. This is his latest high-profile failure to negotiate a major deal with the legislative branch, along with other issues such as health care, immigration, guns and policing. Instead, he signed executive orders with pomp and circumstance. He acknowledged during a signing ceremony on Saturday that these will not accomplish as much as legislation could, even as he overhyped what they will actually do. Meanwhile, the summer of civil unrest continued this weekend from Chicago to Portland, Ore.
On Sunday night, Trump tweeted a photograph of himself smirking, pointing to the sky, with Mt. Rushmore in the background.
A few minutes later, the president denied a report in Sunday’s New York Times that said a White House aide reached out to the South Dakota governor’s office last year to find out what the process would be to add Trump’s likeness to Mount Rushmore. He tweeted: “Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!”
The Times journalists, Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman, expressed confidence in their reporting. Their story also revealed that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) greeted Trump with a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore that included his likeness when he arrived in the state last month for an Independence Day celebration.
Noem’s efforts to ingratiate herself with Trump prompted fears among Vice President Pence’s allies that she might be angling for his job, and the story says that she flew to Washington to reassure Pence three weeks later. But the 48-year-old has installed a TV studio in her state Capitol to allow her to frequently appear on Fox News, she’s been taking advice from Trump’s 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and she’s scheduled to address a county Republican dinner in Iowa next month with an eye toward a potential run for president in 2024.
This is not the first time that Trump has expressed interest in adding his face to Rushmore. He mused about it in a 2017 speech. And, in 2018, when Noem was a GOP member of Congress running for governor, she told the largest newspaper in her state that Trump brought up the idea during their first meeting in the Oval Office.
“ He said, ‘Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,’ ” Noem recalled. “I shook his hand, and I said, ‘Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.’ And he goes, ‘Do you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?’ ” Noem told the Argus Leader that she quickly realized Trump was not joking. “I started laughing,” she said. “He wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.”
“But there’s also the question of whether the rock would be stable enough to add another towering set of presidential features,” Tim Elfrink reports. “Jefferson’s tribute had to be moved from its original spot due to flaws in the granite. The staff at Mount Rushmore says any further sculpting is simply impossible.”
One has to wonder: Why would a person as smart as Trump want to be up there with people who, so obviously, were not of his calibre? CBK
LOL. Well, he does say that Lincoln did almost as much for black people as he has.
Addendum: I just posted that so I could receive these posts in my inbox. CBK
Sure, why not? He wins at things he doesn’t even do. https://golf.com/lifestyle/celebrities/president-trump-club-championship-did-not-enter/
lol
And Trump is rolling on the floor laughing at the predictable and completely unnecessary hysterical reactions from liberals. This is why his base loves him – he plays their favorite sport, librul baiting, so well!
dienne77,
Every sentient being reading this post sees Diane Ravitch posting an article recounting one reason among many why Trump is unfit to be president. But you read it and immediately comment to insult and denigrate Diane Ravitch and to praise Trump.
I actually think that Diane Ravitch should ban you for insulting her and mischaracterizing a perfectly reasonable post as “hysterical”.
And it is revealing that you use the far right racist Trump supporters’ very favorite word, “librul” to denigrate Diane Ravitch, reducing her to a “hysterical librul”.
Why is it so impossible for you to allow Diane Ravitch to express an opinion without chiming in to defend Trump (all his flaws are just examples of how he is really just a brilliant politician)? Why would you belittle Diane Ravitch by blatantly lying about this post and implying that it is just another example of “librul” Diane Ravitch being ‘hysterical”.
Is it because you can’t make intelligent arguments to defend Trump that leads you to belittle Trump’s critics all the time instead?
Robert Rendo thinks that deep down you really think Trump is a terrible person. But it certainly seems obvious that deep down you really think Trump is simply a brilliant politician who knows how to trigger those supposedly foolish “libruls” like Diane Ravitch.
I have never seen you insult Trump the way you insult “libruls”. You speak negatively about Trump’s appearance and his manners, but when it comes to Trump’s character, honesty and integrity, you prefer to change to the subject to denigrate “libruls” instead.
Trump is a very bad man and a very bad president. If you can’t say that, then clearly you don’t believe it. You have every right to your POV defending Trump — but there isn’t a real Bernie Sanders supporter who can’t recognize what a very bad man and very bad president Trump is. Why do you keep acting like a right wing Trump supporter and turning Trump’s flaws into something praiseworthy and attacking “libruls” if they even mention any of those flaws?
DIenne is NOT a fan of Trump. But she, like me and many others, critique our own party, which is healthy. I am not a fan of Trump. I despise him and loathe him. I am voting for Biden while holding my nose. We MUST get this monster our of the Oval Office. There is way more work to be done after getting him out (assuming we will be able to), but I do not need to remind you of that, as you are very, very bright. But I personally have not conflated Dienne’s critique of the DNC for her liking Trump. She is very, very bright. Ironic that there is more overlap than not . . . The tent is big enough, I think.
Robert,
Dienne will not vote for Biden. She loathes Biden. Four more years of Trump and this nation is done. He will never voluntarily step down, and he will create a hereditary line of succession. Are you ready for Don Jr.?
The picture is emerging from the solution . . . a vote for Trump is a vote for authoritarian rule and the disappearance of democracy as we know it, along with our freedoms, the arrest of the press or anyone who puts truth over Trump, 100 percent votes for the great leader . . . watch China and Hong Kong, or Belarus. THAT’s what we’re in for if Trump ruins the election and holds power. CBK
Robert Rendo,
Why do you liken yourself to dienne77? dienne77 is NOT “critiquing the DNC” here. This is not a post about the DNC, it is a post about Trump. dienne77 could have either expressed what she doesn’t like about Trump, or remained quiet.
But instead, dienne77 chose to belittle and denigrate Diane Ravitch for even posting this criticism of Trump! Why would you defend that as something you yourself would proudly do?
dienne77 is doing the opposite of criticizing Trump. She is attacking Diane Ravitch and everyone else for criticizing Trump, and belittling Trump critics as foolish victims of the brilliant Trump, who has done nothing wrong except “trigger” Diane Ravitch and others to foolishly criticize him.
In other words, dienne77 turns all criticism of Trump into denigrating and belittling Trump’s critics for being fools who have no mind of their own but are simply “triggered” by the brilliant Trump.
It is healthy to criticize the democrats. It is ALSO healthy to allow others to criticize Trump without denigrating and attacking them and portraying Trump as a brilliant manipulator instead of a terrible person who deserves to be criticized. Real progressives do both.
There is no logical reason for dienne77 to only do the first while belittling and trying to shut down all criticism of Trump. That is what right wing Republicans do and she claims to not to be one.
Diane, I am not ready for Don Jr., and I am doing everything I can to prevent Trump from winning in November. I think our emphasis should be on getting him OUT and not focusing so much on one individual in this blog who indeed is in our camp and in our tent who is disgusted with the DNC. That’s where I am putting my efforts. Wanting the DNC to be better and moral and non-corrupt is not the same thing as approving Trump. While I support the Democrats, I have a tsunami of work cut out for myself in watching them hawkishly and advocating to change the party for the (much) better. Part of transforming a movement is first being truthful about who we are, what we want, and how things should be. Listen to AOC on the Tight Rope podcast and see what she has to say about how so man of her peers on both sides of the aisle tried to do away with her career and ruin her.
NYCPSP,
I do not liken myself to Dienne. We are VERY, VERY different from each other! LOL. I’m afraid I’ve been my own person for 56 years, and am trying to get better at it . . . . ! I’m not there yet, but I’m not like Dienne.
WE must focus on getting this rabid monster out of office! I am going to focus on that and not Dienne . . . or much else for that matter.
Robert Rendo,
“Wanting the DNC to be better and moral and non-corrupt is not the same thing as approving Trump.”
Wow, Robert Rendo, thank you so much for “man-splaining” the obvious to Diane Ravitch. Your comment is insulting in so many ways, and primarily because no one except you and dienne77 seem to believe that the people who criticize Trump don’t want the DNC to be better and moral. Your post was belittling and insulting to Diane Ravitch. dienne77 wasn’t concerned about the DNC, she was concerned that Diane Ravitch said something critical about Trump.
Maybe you can explain how belittling and attacking Diane Ravitch for daring to say anything critical about Trump makes the DNC better. It sounds like right wing propaganda, and no doubt there are right wing trolls laughing that anyone was gullible enough to post that. “Don’t criticize Trump, it means you want the DNC to be immoral and corrupt”.
I guess the only way for Diane Ravitch to prove to you and dienne77 that she doesn’t want the DNC to be immoral and corrupt is to stop criticizing Trump and let him do anything he wants without speaking out? Sorry, but she’s not falling for that. And I doubt anyone who does fall for that is a real progressive.
If you paid more attention to what AOC actually says, you would understand that AOC is one of the strongest critics of Trump in Congress. And AOC has never said “I can’t criticize anything Trump says or does because that would mean I approve of everything the DNC does.” Do you and dienne77 wish AOC would also shut up about Trump and just focus on attacking the DNC, the way dienne77 wants Diane Ravitch to do? Sorry, but you aren’t going to get your wish to control AOC the way you want to.
AOC does know one thing — that those who do NOT criticize Trump, that those who insult and demean and attack the critics of Trump — are not her friends nor are they real progressives.
I ask you politely to stop man-splaining the obvious and start recognizing that everyone who attacks and belittles critics of Trump – whether they are AOC or Diane Ravitch — is doing so because they want to silence all criticism of Trump. They are not friends of progressives. They are friends of right wing Republicans.
NYCPSP,
I am simply explaining how I feel and what I know. I am not mansplaining, which I tend to think is a bit gender biased on your behalf. Although, I think it’s kind of cute that someone would think of me in those terms. In a way, I thank you! I needed that.
And I get along very well with Dr. Ravitch, and we are strong allies who do not agree on everything all the time 100%; but we have very strong overlap. I respect Diane, even designed her NPE logo with my wife. I’m genuinely sorry you feel I am insulting others here. I don’t see myself as a mansplainer, but I often engage in personsplaining or humansplaining. And I love a good even back-and-forth flow where people take turns, exchange, and listen to teach other. I hope I am not explaining too much here in accounting for my thoughts to you.
I am in full agreement with AOC’s assessment of Trump. I think she is too kind, but she has to watch what she says in terms of HOW she says it in public, obviously. I love that’s she’s blunt and with such intelligence, articulation and critical thinking! As we say in Spanish, “Que mujer poderosa!”
For the record, I do not seek to control AOC the way I want to, as you state. I actually want AOC to control herself the way SHE wants to. I am an ardent fan of hers and support her. Don’t you just love her?! I mean, she is a shining beacon compared to so many public officials.
I’m afraid I cannot be brushed with as broad a stroke and blended with Dienne as you suggest. Nor she with me. But I am honored and motivated to stay in the same tent with you, Diane, Dienne, and virtually all others in this critical cause to protect public education and the public commons. I look forward to continuing that fight and civic partition with you and all others!
I appreciate your passion and voice! I am sincere when I say that, even if I don’t always agree with all of your analysis of what I say and why . . .
Robert Rendo,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I am honored to be in the same tent as you and Diane Ravitch.
I don’t think dienne77 or anyone who doesn’t vote for Biden over Trump is in the same tent. With William Barr and the Republicans being willing to thwart democracy and disenfranchise voters in order for Trump to win, this election is not about personalities — it is about getting rid of the Republicans, period. I hope that the far right loses all of its power in 2020 — as it is, the fact that Trump got to appoint far right wing Supreme Court Justices and an extraordinary number of federal judges for 4 years is a disaster for progressive legislation.
Kamala Harris was not my top choice for VP, but progressive Shaun King, who writes for The Intercept on criminal justice issues, has made it very clear that Kamala Harris has been a strong supporter of his criminal justice reform and that attacks on her record from a decade ago mischaracterize a woman who has been fighting for the right things.
Kamala Harris was on The View in January 2019, right after AOC and other progressives were elected. Republican shill Meghan McCain wanted to get Kamala Harris to attack and criticize AOC, but she did not:
“I wanted to ask you, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the new darling of the party,” began host Meghan McCain. “She’s on ’60 Minutes’ this weekend proudly calling herself a radical, and she’s promoting policies like saying that every single carbon emission in the country — every car — should be eliminated within the next 11 years, everything from a 70 to 80 percent tax rate. Do you agree that she could possibly, and this ideology of the socialist left, could splinter your party?”
“No,” replied Harris. “You know, I think that she is challenging the status quo. I think that’s fantastic.”
Harris went on to say her background in teaching left her with an appreciation of examining premises and questioning if they’re still relevant and meaningful.
“And I think that she is introducing bold ideas that should be discussed,” she went on. “I think it’s good for the party and I think it’s frankly good for the country. Let’s look at the bold ideas! And I’m eager that we have those discussions. And when we are able to defend the status quo let’s do it, and when there’s not merit to that, let’s explore new ideas.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Harris opted to avoid criticizing Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for using an expletive to describe the president.
NYCPSP,
TY for explaining that to me, instead of womansplaining it. Very interesting indeed. I always learn so much in so many different ways!
Dienne, does Putin pay by the post or on a retainer?
It hasn’t sunk into that small brain that his likeness can NOT be there. There is no viable rock.
Besides he has not done anything that warrants his likeness anywhere.
I think he merits a place on the Post Office Wall.
HAAA!!!!! YES!!!!!
Maybe his likeness could be placed on a $3 bill. There’s already Donald Trump toilet paper, so no need to erect any monuments to the horror buffoon.
I wouldn’t even wipe my A– with DT toilet paper.
My friend sent me a roll for a gift. It’s too rough (& thin!) for my tush.
Where did I see the DT toilet brush?
Well, I would use a DT toilet brush to clean my dirty toilet!
Google it. It’s an actual item.
We are sinking to a new low here! For shame. The is a blog of intellectuals.
And besides, you’re both confused.
Trump is the stuff you flush DOWN the toilet, not the instrument you use to clean it. Get your imagery right, for God’s sake. Make excrement great again . . . MEGA . . .
Diane, I demand that you put a stop to this nonsense and put these people into moderation if they cannot behave.
😁
🙂
Here’s a short video on American history according to Donald Trump. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtgzVARrPu4&feature=youtu.be
Huh? The rock there is white, not orange.
That’s a good one. Love it.
Draw it on in Sharpie!
Just another “Alice in Wonderland” experience. One horror after another. . . . I feel we are all in a torture chamber together. I’m not exaggerating. . . . CBK
Election Day can’t come soon enough.
… no hyperbole exists to put Trump beyond the insult to history itself. CBK
I like this suggestion! Also, how about bringing the excrement sculpture to that general vicinity?
Whoops, the above comment was supposed to go under Bob’s Sharpie suggestion. In fact, upon viewing the infamous Axios interview last week, I was surprised it45 hadn’t brought its Sharpie to “correct” its covid charts & refute Swan’s rebuttals.
I am concerned about moving so fragile and significant an artwork!!! I hope that a shelter is being built for it, you know, like the Lincoln Memorial. Not since Michelangelo’s David has there been a more fitting marriage of subject and material!
I saw Michelangelo’s David a year ago. Imagine Trump in the same heroic pose, nude of course.
LMAO! No thank you!!!
Bob Shepherd: There’s a photo online showing the statue of a nude Trump. Ewwww. Gross!
Check out “The Emperor Has No Balls” from INDECLINE on Vimeo.
The video is available for your viewing pleasure at https://vimeo.com/178856447
New Yorkers saw the naked truth about Donald Trump — and it wasn’t pretty.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
AUG 18, 2016
A disturbing nude statue of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump — sporting his trademark comb-over and nothing more — materialized bizarrely Thursday in Union Square.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/disturbing-statue-nude-donald-trump-pops-union-square-article-1.2756617
If there were a hell, there would be a special place in it for flim-flam operators/scam artists who prey upon the desires of simple people to provide well for themselves and their families by creating and building successful small businesses. You too can make a fortune in real estate! Such people I refer to as Predators on the American Dream. What makes their predations particularly egregious is that their prey are people of a kind whom we respect, whom we admire, ones willing to play by the rules and work extremely hard for the benefit of their spouses, kids, and grand kids. Two types of Predators on the American Dream are particularly common: there are the ones who run multi-level marketing pyramid schemes and those who peddle schemes to get rich based upon imparting supposed trade secrets that only they and a few other highly successful purportedly highly successful business people are privy to. Learn how I started with a small loan from my father and built it into a multi-billion-dollar empire!!! The actual secret of the latter folks, of course, is typically not having started with a small loan but having inherited a lot of Daddy’s money to make bad deals with. And when that’s all gone through bankruptcies, such people can always launder money for Russian kleptocrats and divert funds from fake charity events.
If Trump steals the election and installs himself as the first-forever president, he will have a giant gold mask sculpted, have it airlifted to Mt. Rushmore, and bolted to the mountain over FDR’s face. After all, FDR was a Democrat, wasn’t he?
good one.
President Trump said Sunday night that “etching” his likeness in granite on Mount Rushmore alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt “sounds like a good idea.”
Mt. Rushmore images were not made by “etching.” They were created by using explosives to blast away huge chunks of unwanted stone among other techniques. If the “staff at Mount Rushmore says any further sculpting is simply impossible,” you can be sure that statement is an incentive for Trump to try and add this trophy to his perpetual self-aggrandizing campaigns of being the best greatest, never better, and whatever.
Wrong Roosevelt
?
ah, I see.
FDR isn’t on Mount Rushmore. That’s TEDDY Roosevelt. Who was a Republican, incidentally.
I thought you were responding to Laura, Roy
Given his rush to open up the economy and schools, what could be more fitting than adding his head to Mount Rushmore?
Good idea, SDP. Would he donate his head?
Donald’s head on Mount Rushmore is a fun topic. I sure wish Trump’s head was right for Mount Hushmore.
Not sure Trump donating his head is so great. Less voluntary would be better.
Would he donate his head!!!! ROFLMAO!!!
I think the Mount Rushmore thing, along with all of the daily outrages, is a set of meaningless red herrings, red meat to disgusted democrats to draw attention away from the real quarry–the voting process, the post-office, etc., and their systematic disintegration of the voting process.
I think even the fireworks around Biden’s vice presidential pick will join that attention-getting draw away from what’s really important to Trump, Barr, and his wannabe fascist supporters POWER and the maintenance of it. CBK
CBT– I think this is precisely what dienne77 was suggesting above (before she was shot down by SAM ;-D )– BUT… after having read dienne’s consortiumnews.com links yesterday… I’m going to split hairs. “Red herrings” are plausible clues leading the reader down blind alleys, seeded into the plot by a clever mystery writer. it45 is not that guy..
But then, maybe neither of you is suggesting that it45 is capable of dreaming up such ploys. After all, it has surrounded itself with folks whose behavior [maintaining fawning demeanor in his presence for months/ years w/o getting fired] proves they are two-faced manipulators. They’re the plot-writers, supporting the agendas of big sharks nearby while feeding their baby shark herring– many of which, in theory, it would balk at. [Theoretical, as DJT has neither background nor nuance, it all looks like herring to him].
But no problem, mystery-fans: you can always spot the red herrings; just observe whose lips are moving. Whenever it45 says anything , look to see what just happened. Mt Rushmore remark’s a case in point, bruited about during the 24 hrs reqd to break down Saturday’s unactionable “executive orders” .
Depends: can we get Pee-Wee Herman too?
haaa!!!!
Perhaps Trump’s likeness could be sculpted from a mountain of horse, cow, deer, moose, and elk shit…. John Merrow
Blog: Themerrowreport.com Latest book: “Addicted to Reform: A 12-Step Program to Rescue Public Education” (The New Press) Education Correspondent, PBS NewsHour, 1984-2015; NPR, 1974-1982 Founding President of Learning Matters 646.373.3034
On Mon, Aug 10, 2020 at 1:01 PM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “Trump believes he is one of the greatest presidents > ever. He is surrounded by enablers who encourage his fantasies. Those who > speak truth to Trump are soon fired. Think Mattis, Kelly, Tillerson. James > Hohmann writes today in the Washington Post: Pr” >
I disagree with your choice of majestic herbivores. A mountain of droppings from rats, vultures, crows, cockroaches, and jackals would be right.
Mt. Rushmore is crumbling …
Trump is letting us know what a GREAT job he has done on COVID-19. [He NEVER shuts up and repeats the same things over and over again.] How many adults and children will die because of is total ineptitude?
Here is ‘news’ from the WH:
President Trump’s Historic Coronavirus Response
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: August 10, 2020
QUOTE
My Administration will stop at nothing to save lives and shield the vulnerable.
President Donald J. Trump
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Took early action to cut off travel from China
Built the world’s leading testing system from nothing
Enacted mitigation measures to slow the spread
Mobilized public and private sectors to secure needed supplies
Took action to protect vulnerable Americans
Launched effort to deliver a vaccine and therapeutics in record time
Provided support to workers and businesses
Paved way for reopening to get America working again
Surged resources to hot spots as they arose
Confronted China as origin of the virus while Democrats and media cowered
At the outset, President Trump took action to stop travel from China to stem the spread to the United States as long as possible.
While Democrats were focused on their impeachment sham, President Trump took swift and decisive action to stop travel from China in January and enhanced airport screenings to help stop cases from coming into the United States as long as possible…
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-trumps-historic-coronavirus-response/?utm_source=link
Grifter-in-Chief. Trump has many names and none of them would exist if he was a decent, honest person.
………………………………
America’s Chief Grifter Strikes Again
Aug. 10, 2020 3:43 pm
By Thom Hartmann A…
Trump says he is going to boost unemployment payments by $400, stop evictions, cut payroll taxes, and extend student loan relief.
In fact, these are all lies. As usual, it’s a new con job, a grift from our grifter-in-chief.
On the unemployment payments, he lacks the authority to appropriate money for people from the Treasury Department like Democrats did with the cares act, so he’s taking $44 billion still left in the FEMA budget and saying that he will pass that money out to unemployed people – if states match $300 from FEMA with $100 from the state.
If every state took him up on that, the FEMA budget would be exhausted in a few weeks, just as we are entering what may be the worst hurricane and wildfire season in decades. It’s a scam. It also was not an executive order: it was merely a directive to the emergency agency.
On student loans, he merely issued a “memorandum” requesting that the Education Department study the feasibility of doing something about the student loan crisis.
On evictions, he actually issued a presidential executive order, but it doesn’t require evictions stop. Instead, it asks the department of Health and Human Services to investigate the possibility and feasibility of stopping or slowing evictions at the department level, something that HHS has no authority to do outside of its own low income housing. Another scam.
And on the payroll tax, he does not have the authority to turn on or off Americans owing taxes, so he says you will still owe the payroll tax every paycheck, but the government just won’t bother to collect it… until the end of the year, a month after the election. Then you are going to owe all the payroll taxes that were not collected, and you’re going to have to pay it by April 15. You know, when the next guy is president.
Donald Trump has pretended to be a billionaire for years by laundering money for foreign oligarchs and living on borrowed cash from Deutsche bank. He looks like a billionaire, lives the lifestyle of a billionaire, but in all probability, according to David Cay Johnston and other reporters and economists, he is broke and deeply in debt and has been since the late 1990s.
This executive order and three memorandums basically continue that scam he’s been running ever since he burned through the last of his daddy’s money, only now he has the federal government running it, too.
There will not be extra money in your paycheck this month, you can still be evicted, your student loan banker will continue to demand payments and interest, and even if your paycheck, if you’re employed, goes up 6% between now and the end of the year, you will owe back every penny of that money on April 15th.
Meanwhile, we have no national testing, our schools are in chaos, our elections are under attack from both foreign governments and the Post Office, a quarter-million Americans will be dead by election time and 5 million are already sick, and Mitch McConnell and the Republicans in the Senate are on vacation.
Trump continues to live the life of a grifter, and is applying that to the federal government. Abraham Lincoln famously said that you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.
Trump figures all he has to do is fool “some of the people all the time” and get enough of them to vote while he prevents everybody else from doing so. He calls those people his “base.”
The fate and future of America, and democracy around the world, hangs on whether he gets away with this latest grift.
-Thom
Thanks, Carol!!!
I tried to post the link to Hartman’s article on his Facebook page, but it didn’t work. Alas.
From my brother: “Just think, we are only hours away from learning whether Trump thinks Biden’s running mate is attractive.”
That is hilarious.
When will Trump’s stimulus relief executive orders take effect? “Real soon now,” Trump says, but as the inventor of the emoticon, computer scientist Scott E. Fahlman has pointed out, “Real soon now” means “some time before the heat death of the universe.”
George Washington: “I cannot tell a lie”
Thomas Jefferson: “All men are created equal”
Theodore Roosevelt: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”
Abraham Lincoln: “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
Donald Trump: “person, woman, man, camera, tv”
Good one!
LOL!!!
Here’s proof that Lincoln was many times the man that Trump is. Lincoln quoted with approval a fellow named Glen who said, in a church in Indiana,
“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That is my religion.”
For Trump, good and bad are measured exclusively by their effects on Trump. That’s his religion. He also worships Mammon.
Paul Krugman has written a good summary of Trump’s abilities.
Trump Sends In the Economic Quacks
By Paul Krugman
Opinion Columnist
Aug. 10, 2020
Now he’s prescribing hydroxychloroquine to fight recession.
…As I said, I don’t think there’s any deep game here. Yes, Trump’s intentions are bad. But recent interviews and inside reporting make it clear that he really is completely out of his depth, with no understanding of either the epidemiological or the economic reality we face.
At a moment of crisis America is cursed with a president who is incompetent, deeply ignorant, yet so personally insecure that he surrounds himself with people who tell him he’s a universal genius.
Perhaps other relics like me will remember the vintage little book of sketches and fancies by John Lennon called “In His Own Write.” Away from home so I can’t put my hands on it, but there was one in there when some fellow woke up with a small growth on his head. It quickly took the shape of his own head, complete with his features and a tiny version of his voice.
This idea could be practically applied to otherwise insurmountable site and construction issues, using simple plastic injection mold. All-weather, lasts forever; do it in matching granite-gray. The mini-Trump-head would be about 4-1/2ft tall. Superglue it to Lincoln’s hair.
These “experts’ don’t begin to understand that even if schools open, nothing will be ‘normal’. Children won’t be able to socialize with their friends and teachers won’t be able to give children a hug. Teaching will become much more difficult.
Their ‘available evidence’ obviously isn’t coming from teachers who know exactly what is involved. Their lives are being put in danger.
“News” from the WH:
Fall School Closure = Long-Term Health, Learning Costs for Kids
COMMENTARY
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By Christina Ramirez
August 6, 2020
At what point do our public health interventions themselves cause a public health crisis? Might our efforts to keep the public equally safe be reinforcing unsafe levels of inequality? We obviously need to protect those most at risk from the current pandemic, but we should also consider the costs, especially if disproportionate burdens are being placed upon those without a voice who are least well-placed to bear them.
If we are following the evidence, the data on the risks and costs of keeping children out of school are clear and compelling: keeping children out of school is harmful. Medical professionals from across the world, from the American Academy of Pediatrics to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, have recently stated that the risk of keeping children out of school greatly outweighs the dangers of school-age children contributing to increases in COVID-19 cases. Others, including the former FDA chair and the American Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, are also urging schools to open this fall after weighing the available evidence…
While the data clearly shows that children — especially those from challenged socioeconomic backgrounds — are harmed in a variety of ways when schools are shut down, the sad reality is that there appears to be scant empirical basis to claim any countervailing benefit to public health from such pandemic-related school closures.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/08/06/fall_school_closure__long-term_health_learning_costs_for_kids_143886.html
Federal schools on Native American reservations, where infection rates can run high, are told to reopen.
The Trump administration is ordering schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Education to reopen for in-person instruction “to the maximum extent possible” on Sept. 16, according to an internal memo obtained by The New York Times.
The memo says that while families may choose to keep their students home and rely on virtual instruction, teachers are expected to teach in person unless they are at high risk for health complications should they contract the coronavirus.
The bureau operates 53 schools serving Native Americans living on tribal lands. A number of reservations have been hard-hit by the coronavirus, especially the Navajo Nation in the Southwest.
The bureau’s schools are among the few under direct federal control, rather than state or local control. The bureau is part of the Department of the Interior.
Sue Parton, a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and the president of the union that represents the bureau’s employees, said the plan to reopen the schools so soon was “foolish.”
Educators are afraid to return to classrooms, she said, because of high rates of infection in Native communities. But unlike teachers in local school districts, she said, the bureau’s teachers felt they had little say in what the schools should do.
“I think a big difference, of course, is us being federal employees,” Ms. Parton said. “We have our chain of command, and unfortunately it goes all the way to the top in D.C.”
President Trump has been urging all schools to reopen and did so again at a news conference on Monday, claiming children do not catch the virus easily or get very sick. But studies show that children carry high amounts of the virus once infected, and experts have repeatedly expressed concern that they could be a significant source of transmission in close-knit environments like schools.
On Monday in Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear said he recommended that schools delay the start of in-person classes until Sept. 28.
“It’s six weeks from what I hope is the peak of this virus,” he said. “In my very core, I want us to get back to in-person instruction. But to ask our kids to go in, and all of our teachers and faculty, at a time when it’s not safe, is something that we can’t ask of them, and I’m not willing to.”
Schools have already reopened in other states, only to quickly order quarantines or close their doors. North Paulding High School in Georgia, for example — which drew attention after images of its crowded hallways circulated on social media — said that it would switch to online instruction for Monday and Tuesday after reporting at least nine cases.