Archives for category: Lies

It is important to bear in mind that in one respect Trump is a true genius: Branding.

He created the TRUMP brand. He puts the brand on buildings that he doesn’t own; he outsources the brand and monetizes it. There are apartment buildings that he didn’t build, doesn’t manage, and doesn’t own branded TRUMP. As he showed during the primaries, he has TRUMP wine, TRUMP steaks, TRUMP everything.

He branded his opponents in the Republican primaries to ridicule them: “Little Marco,” “Low Energy” Jeb, “Lyin’ Ted.” Anyone who was within reach of him got branded and demeaned.

Then in the general, it was “Crooked Hillary.” How many times did he say that phrase? Hundreds of times? Thousands of times? He said that within the first week of his presidency, he would direct his Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her many crimes. What was the chant at his rallies and the National Republican Convention: “Lock her up!”

Now he is in the process of demonizing the mainstream media: the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS: they are all liars, the reporters are the most dishonest people in the world, they spew “fake news.” They lie. All of this from an administration that lies every day and calls its lies “alternative facts.”

Now we see a presidency that has a curious connection to the rest of the world. Trump demeans our allies but says nary a critical word about Putin. Strange.

During the campaign, James Comey announced that the FBI was investigating Hillary’s emails because she used a private server and might have compromised national security. In June of 2016, he announced that the investigation was over and that no prosecutor would prosecute her based on the evidence at hand. Then, as we all know, Comey announced 10 days before the election that the investigation was being reopened because of the discovery of emails on the computer of Anthony Wiener, husband of Huma Abedin, Hillary’s close associate. Three days before the election–after millions of early votes had been cast–Comey once again cleared Hillary. His intervention in the election was unprecedented for any FBI director.

He said he had to intervene because he promised to keep Congress informed.

What he never told Congress was that the FBI was simultaneously investigating links between the Trump campaign and Russian government operatives.

Why did he report on one investigation, but not the other?

What were the contacts that the FBI was investigating?

Why were campaign staff communicating with Russian officials?

Will the FBI investigation be controlled by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one of Trump’s closest allies?

Why was Hillary smeared as “Crooked Hillary” every day of the general election, but there is no special prosecutor?

Is it true that the President uses an Android cellphone that is not secured?

Is it true that Trump discusses matters of high national security in the restaurant of his private club?

Is it true that the top officials in the Trump administration use private email servers?

Is it true that this administration is “running like a finely-tuned machine”?

We will have to leave these questions for historians to figure out.

Since Trump filed for the 2020 campaign on Inauguration Day, the nation will be in campaign mode nonstop for the next four years.

Mike Rose is a justly celebrated author and a professor at UCLA. He writes like a dream, as the saying goes.

On his blog, he recently posted his musings about what the Trump administration would look like if seen through the lens of Dante’s Inferno.

Rose indulges in a great guilty pleasure by imagining the punishment awaiting some of the key players in contemporary American politics. Donald Trump, his cabinet, and his advisors present so many threats to all that’s holy that in addition to political action we need to draw on every artistic and cultural resource at our disposal to give us clarity and hope. If we’re forced to gambol on the edge of the abyss, let’s use every dance move we got.

Hell consists of nine concentric circles located deep within the earth: Abandon all hope ye who enter here. Each circle is the realm of a particular sin—lust, greed, violence, treachery—with each descending circle representing more and more grievous evil until, finally, there is the center of hell where in the lowest depth, Satan is frozen eternally in ice, futilely beating his massive wings.

Part of Dante’s poetic genius is that the punishment he creates for each of the sins is a physical analogue of the sin itself, and he renders the sights, sounds, and smells of the physical with grisly vividness. Gluttons, for example, wallow for eternity in a freezing slush of the rotted garbage their earthly indulgence produced. Fortune tellers and diviners (part of the circle of fraud) sought in life the unnatural power of foretelling the future, so in hell their heads are twisted forever backward, their eyes blinded by tears “that [run] down the cleft of their buttocks.” You get the idea.

In my Trumpian Inferno, there will be a special circle for the president’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and his counselor, Kellyanne Conway. These three long-time Republican operatives were each critical of Donald Trump during the GOP primary—Conway called him “a man who seems to be offending his way to the nomination”—but made their peace with the devil in exchange for power and limelight. Through an endless flow of double-talk, re-direction, avoidance, and flat-out lying, this unholy trio has thrown into fast-forward the degradation of our political language. For eternity, then, let them each be bound to podiums jammed close together in the blinding light of a press conference, repeating face-to-face ad nauseam and ad infinitum the blather that has become their stock-in-trade.

Chief strategist Steve Bannon who revels in provocation and shock-and-awe strategy would be buried forever in the middle of a vast desert, just enough below the surface that his endless flailing and blustering produces the tiniest puff of sand, seen by no one, not ever, affecting nothing at all.

What does he envisage as the fate of Donald Trump? Open the link to find out and don’t share the secret in your comments.

At his rally in Florida yesterday, he told the crowd about a terrorist incident in Sweden, but there was no terrorist incident in Sweden.

There were however terrorist attacks in Iraq, directed against Muslims, but these attacks do not appear on Trump’s radar because he is only concerned about white people.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he is of Swedish descent, but that isn’t true either. His father and grandfather were German. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. Why does he lie about everything?

Want to know how often Trump lies? Politifact says that 50% of his statements are either “false” or “pants on fire.” Another 20% are rated “mostly false.” Only 16% of his statements are rated either “true” or “mostly true.” 14% are “half true.”

The default position for any thinking citizen is to assume that whatever he says, other than his name, is not true. Check the facts before believing anything he says.

Universities usually brag about their famous alumnae.

Trinity Washington University, however, is ashamed that one of its graduates–Kellyanne Conway–defends Trump’s immigration ban and lies openly.

Trinity Washington University is a small Roman Catholic University in D.C.

Read the university’s tweets here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/02/17/a-university-takes-on-one-of-its-own-alumna-kellyanne-conway/?utm_term=.db6bac420b2e&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1

Let’s hear it for integrity!

Thank you, Trinity Washington University! Telling truth in a time of lies.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/02/17/69091/pta-asks-parent-teacher-alliance-a-charter-school/

We are constantly told that charter schools are a huge hit with parents, but the California Charter School Association apparently feels it must deceive parents.

In the current Los Angeles school board election, the CCSA created a group called the “Parent-Teacher Alliance” to campaign for pro-charter candidates. Sounds suspiciously like the nonpartisan PTA.

Now the National Parent teacher Association is suing the “Parent Teacher Alliance” to demand that they stop using a name so similar to their own.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/02/17/69091/pta-asks-parent-teacher-alliance-a-charter-school/

“In the midst of a contentious race for Los Angeles Unified School Board, some voters have gotten knocks at their door from pro-charter school canvassers introducing themselves as “volunteers with the Parent Teacher Alliance.”

“They’re not volunteers for the well-known parent-run school fundraising organization, but for a group funded by the political affiliate of the California Charter Schools Association. The Parent Teacher Alliance has already spent $550,000 on advertising, phone banking and door-knocking in hopes of influencing the L.A. Unified race.

“Leaders of the California Parent Teacher Association – the aforementioned parent-run school fundraising organization – want them to find another name.

“This week, leaders of the National Parent Teacher Association sent a cease-and-desist letter to the charter association’s political arm, CCSA Advocates, saying the use of “Parent Teacher Alliance” in political advertising is muddying the PTA’s non-partisan brand.

“The letter accuses CCSA Advocates of “false advertising and deceptive practices,” according to a written statement from National PTA president Laura Bay.

“It’s the second time the Parent Teacher Association has made such a request.

“In the 2016 statewide primary elections, the Parent Teacher Alliance PAC and other pro-charter groups were huge sources of outside spending in legislative races. After the June vote, leaders of the National Parent Teacher Association sent their first cease-and-desist letter to CCSA, noting the national group holds trademarks on both their name and the “PTA” acronym.”

Why deceive voters?

Charles Blow reminds us that Americans have a long tradition of resisting tyranny.

Disruption works. It is what Americans do when faced with tyranny, corruption, and lies.

The Trump resistance movement is stretching its wings, engaging its muscles and feeling its power. It is large and strong and tough. It has moved past debilitating grief and into righteous anger, assiduous organization and pressing activism.

Welcome to the dawn of the fighting-mad majority: The ones who didn’t vote for Trump and maybe even some who now regret that they did.

They are charging forward under the banner of sage wisdom that has endured through the ages: Show up, get loud and fight back. Do it with your body and words, with your time and money, with every fiber of yourself. They see what this dawning regime means and they don’t intend, not even for a second, to wait around to see what happens. “What happens” is happening right now and it’s horrific.

Donald Trump is a vulgar, uninformed, anti-intellectual, extremely unpopular grifter helming a family of grifters who apparently intend to milk their moment on the mount for every red cent.

Trump still hasn’t released his taxes or fully disconnected from his businesses. His wife is suing The Daily Mail because she believes the newspaper may have injured her “unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to “have garnered multimillion-dollar business relationships for a multiyear term.”

When his daughter Ivanka’s clothing line was dropped by Nordstrom, Trump lashed out at the retailer on Twitter, citing Ivanka as something of his moral compass: “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!” This begs the question: “Why do you need someone to push you to do the right thing?”

Then, top Trump adviser Kellyanne “QVC” Conway, from the confines of the White House briefing room, said during a televised interview: “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff is what I would say.” She continued: “I’m going to give a free commercial here: Go buy it today, everybody; you can find it online.”

Unethical is too kind a word for these classless cretins. Furthermore, Trump has nominated, and his Republican conspirators in the Senate have confirmed, a rogues’ gallery of some of the least qualified, most questionable appointees in recent memory. Aside from some of them being the fiercest critics of the very agencies they are charged with leading, some have also been accused of bigotry, plagiarism, insider trading and overall vacuousness.

Trump’s Muslim ban has also been an absolute disaster and has met some much-applauded resistance in court, most recently with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rebuking the administration’s lawyers like children.

This administration is already manifesting as the disaster we knew it would be; the stench of its rot surrounds us. What is there to wait and see? A rose will never bloom from a weed; you must snatch that thing up at first sight, by the root.

That is why you are seeing so much grass-roots resistance from a multiplying array of groups. One of the most prominent is called “Indivisible.” The Nation interviewed Ezra Levin, a former Democratic staffer and co-founder of the project and reported on the exchange: “Levin says that Indivisible built on the Tea Party’s model of ‘practicing locally-focused, almost entirely defensive strategy.’ This, he adds, ‘was very smart, and it was rooted in an understanding of how American democracy works. They understood that they didn’t have the power to set the agenda in Washington, but they did have the ability to react to it. It’s Civics 101 stuff — going to local offices, attending events, calling their reps.”

I would add that these groups are practicing one of the most effective tactics of confronting power: disruption. Town hall meetings have been disrupted; protesters disrupted Education Secretary Betsy Devos’s plans to enter a Washington school.

Disruption works!

When Frederick Douglass attacked Abraham Lincoln by saying that he “seems to possess an ever increasing passion for making himself appear silly and ridiculous, if nothing worse,” Douglass was being disruptive.

When women suffragists paraded through Washington, they were being disruptive.

When Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat, she was being disruptive.

When civil rights activists marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were being disruptive.

When LGBT people fought back at The Stonewall Inn, they were being disruptive.

When Act Up flooded Times Square, they were being disruptive.

When Occupy Wall Street refused to move from their parks, they were being disruptive.

When Black Lives Matter took to the streets and ground traffic to a halt, they were being disruptive.

When Native Americans stood in resistance at Standing Rock, they were being disruptive.

When Elizabeth Warren persisted, she was being disruptive.

Disruption is not a dirty word; in this environment, it’s a badge of honor.

Yes, it’s important to show up on Election Day, but it is also important to show up on the hundreds of days before and after. This is what the resistance movements are saying to Trump and his America: Buckle your seatbelts, because massive disruption is in the offing.

Trump is not normal. He is not competent. And we will not simply sit back and suck it up.

The latest fiasco in the Trump administration left Kellyanne Conway holding the bag, after insisting that Mike Flynn had the “full confidence” of Trump, only seven hours before he resigned. She couldn’t spin her way out of this mess or come up with alternative facts.

On a serious note, the National Secutiry Council–the nation’s agency to maintain foreign affairs and security– is in disarray. Steve Bannon is a member but the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are not, and the president’s national security advisor is gone. Meanwhile, Trump takes highly confidential phone calls in public.

Chaos. Incompetence.

As an opinion columnist wrote the other day, if you wanted your car fixed, you would find a better mechanic, not a massage therapist. Experience matters. Intelligence matters.

Ignorance and inexperience are dangerous.

Our reader Susan Schwartz sent this link to a delightful song about Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts.”

The song is from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s fabulous fantastical musical CATS.

The Washington Post reports that Trump knew “for weeks” that Flynn lied.

President Trump was aware that his national security adviser Michael Flynn had misled White House officials and Vice President Pence for “weeks” before he was forced to resign on Monday night.


Trump was briefed by White House Counsel Don McGahn that Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russian ambassador “immediately” after McGahn was informed that Flynn had misled Pence, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday.


”We’ve been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to Gen. Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks, trying to ascertain the truth,” Spicer said.


The comments contradict the impression given by Trump on Friday aboard Air Force One that he was not familiar with a Washington Post report that revealed that Flynn had not told the truth about the calls.
”I don’t know about that. I haven’t seen it. What report is that? I haven’t seen that. I’ll look into that,” Trump told the plane.


Spicer said that the president and a small group of senior aides were briefed in late January after the Justice Department informed McGahn about Flynn’s calls.


The White House Counsel’s office conducted a “review” of the legal issues and determined that “there was not a legal issue but rather a trust issue,” Spicer said. “The president was very concerned that Gen. Flynn had misled the vice president and others. The president must have complete and unwavering trust of the person in that position.”


Spicer said that “the evolving an eroding level of trust as a result of a series of other issues is what led the president to ask for Gen. Flynn’s resignation.

“
The press secretary repeatedly said that Trump was not concerned with the nature of the conversations that Flynn had with the Russian ambassador but that the lack of trust created an “unsustainable” situation.
”The president has no problem with the fact that he acted in accord with what his job was supposed to be,” Spicer said.


Paul Thomas wrote a post that you should read about our Know-Nothing era.

https://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/know-nothing-follies-american-style/

Spelling errors from the Education Department? A Secretary of Education who has never had any contact with public schools other than to disparage them? A president who is ignorant of the Constitution? A cabinet determined to abolish their agencies? Lies? Fake news?

Which is more appropriate to our time? 1984 or Brave New World or The Handmaid’s Tale? Thomas says Brave New World.