Truth matters

The Enemy from Within

by Dave

Trump believes sending in military troops into cities is necessary to combat rising crime and what he calls “the enemy from within.” We have our problems. And there are times, where our military troops or reservists need to be called into action. But it must be done with the cooperation with the state government and local police.

The enemies from within are ignorance, misinformation and apathy. Social media, namely Facebook and Youtube, are not news outlets. Anybody can post there (including myself) and unfortunately, people read and share many falsehoods.

I will continue to focus on the war in Ukraine, which includes both military actions and economic sanctions. Global politics are an important part of this, as our most recent post, cited Putin’s attempt to show solidarity among world leaders of his invasion of Ukraine.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Vote wisely

by Dave

If you’ve followed by last several posts, you will know that I am hoping that Kamala Harris wins this election.

Recent television ads by Republicans are filled with lies. And Trump never backs down. This is just an example:

The Republican campaign highlighted a report from The New York Times that said, “Harris is seeking to significantly raise taxes.” The original report in the newspaper actually said, “Harris is seeking to significantly raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.”

There is a big difference!

When confronted with his lies, there’s no apologies. For instance:

At a public event in mid-October, Trump repeated his lie that newly released federal figures show that there are 13,099 immigrants with homicide convictions who entered the country “during their administration.” CNN and others had been pointing out for two weeks that these figures are about people who entered the country over decades, including Trump’s own administration, not just under Biden and Harris.

Trump conceded he was aware of this: he said quickly that “they” tried to say the data covered a “longer” period than just the Biden presidency.

Again, it’s the big “They.” Of course he is right, and “They” are wrong.

RFK, Jr. is even worse. “They” goes back a long time, blaming just about every administration for decades, and nearly every department from the FBI, Department of Justice, CIA, EPA and more recently, USDA, HHS (Health and Human Service) and CDC. He is great working the paranoid and extremist right wing, who sees everything as one huge conspiracy.

TV ads suggest Kamala Harris would ban fracking, and that she admitted this cause gas prices would spike. Actually, this came from the Trump’s outgoing Secretary of Energy, Secretary Dan Brouillette, just before Trump left office, not from Kamala Harris or Joe Biden.

Links: Analysis: Donald Trump’s campaign of relentless lying

Link: Fact check: How Trump’s TV ads deceive viewers with misleadingly edited quotes

When Biden says something that is wrong or misinterpreted, he’s quick to correct himself. He called the comedian that referred to Puerto Rico as an island of garbage, as the real garbage. The comedian was obviously a Trump supporter, but Biden was not calling all Trumps’ supporters garbage. Just one.

But Harris, not Biden is running. I want a president who can correct themselves, and give us the truth. I have a much better chance with Kamala Harris.

So, vote wisely. Character matters, because there will be new issues in the coming years. I want a president who is deciding what is best for the American people, not the powerful conservative Republican lobbyists. Come to think about it, they constitute the real swamp, and Trump depends on their support.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Trump’s Lying Spree

by Dave

Pennsylvania is one of the most important swing states. In rallies in Reading and Scranton, PA, he lied 40 times. Many of them were “oldies” but he had a few new ones. He must be trolling social media, to keep his stock of lies up to date. The link below has 40 lies, which I numbered for reference. I’m not going in exact chronological order.

Link: Fact check: Trump, on a lying spree, made at least 40 separate false claims in two Pennsylvania speeches

Hurricane recovery and FEMA is covered in Lies 1,2 and 3, and I doubt anything Trump said about FEMA having run out of money or workers, was seriously believed, even at his rallies. The claim that FEMA funds were diverted to help illegal immigrants come in, has been debunked many times. As noted, the comment “Harris didn’t send anything or anybody” has been solidly debunked. Even Governor DeSantis said that FEMA has given Florida everything they requested.

Trump has often claimed that Harris is an illegitimate candidate and not entitled to donations made to Biden. I do not see the same claim made at these rallies, but lie #5 comes close, with “they are cheatin’ dogs.” He has said previously, that the only way he can lose, is if the Democrats cheat. So, it is likely, if Trump loses, he will restart a “Stop the Steal” effort once again. He has claimed with no evidence that non-citizens have been allowed to vote.

Energy policy lies were a major part of the rallies. See #10 (Wind power), #11 (electric vehicles) and #12 (Paris climate accords). Right now, there are incentives to provide electric vehicles, based on laws passed by Congress. Lie #12 is really outrageous, that the Paris climate accords cost us, a trillion dollars, while some other countries didn’t have to pay.

It is very evident that more extreme weather, including flooding, hurricanes and wildfires, are on the increase. The best hope to reduce climate change is through the mechanisms set up by the Paris climate accords, where developed countries contribute to a fund, to help with alternative energy projects worldwide. I have stated before, that if Trump pulls out of the Paris accords, we give up our seat at the table.

Immigration lies are abundant at rallies, and the Pennsylvania rallies were no exception. Lie #1 links the broke FEMA and broken immigration policy. “They have no money. You know where they gave the money? To illegal immigrants coming in.” Trump launched into a series of lies (#14 to 18) demonizing immigrants and blaming Venezuela and many other unspecified countries, as sending their unwanted citizens to the US.

Trump always lies about crowd size. In 2020, it was always my rallies are bigger than Biden’s or Obama’s, and it seemed childish. And he will never back down. His inauguration crowd was 1.5 million people, while the White House stated it was approximately 750,000 people. He even claimed that a photo of Harris and Walz arrival in Michigan had been altered using AI. Of course, this was baseless, but it is standard for Trump to steal the media’s attention, with a bogus statement.

He claimed his rally in Butler, PA, the crowd was over 100,000 people, while Secret Service estimate was 24,000 people. [lie #22] The assassination attempt was very tragic, but Trump couldn’t help from embellishing it. [lie #23] He said that before he got up, he asked the Secret Service how many were killed, and the response was three people. The microphone was still on, and none of this conversation happened.

Endorsements are is very important. He said “We got the firefighters endorse us, you probably heard.” [Lie #24] If they heard this, it was a lie. The International Association of Firefighters did not endorse either candidate. Of course, a week prior, Trump shared an posting that the CEO of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon had endorse him. Dimon announced that he had not endorsed him. Trump shared another posting, that Taylor Swift had endorsed him.

A lot of the lies are ones we’ve heard before. Leaving Afghanistan in 2021, we lost a lot of military equipment. The Pentagon estimates 7.4 billion dollars was lost,and Trump claims 85 billion dollars. [#29] A total of 18.6 billion was spent on equipment during the war, so Trump’s number is baseless.

And, of course, he always is the victim of baseless criminal prosecution. The Classified Documents case is not over. We’ve all seen the photos of boxes of classified documents stacked in ballrooms and bathroom closets at Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.

Link: In photos: Trump stored classified docs in Mar-a-Lago bathroom and ballroom, DOJ says

His lies on this one have varied over time. One was these were not classified documents. The second was he was not involved in the packing or storage of the documents. Now, of he can correctly state that all charges have been dismissed by the trial judge, but it’s not over. I predict that Appellate Court will overturn Judge Cannon’s ruling and put the case back on track. At the rallies, Trump claimed that “I had the Presidential Records Act; I was totally allowed to do it.” [lie #25] The Act says the National Archives has custody.

Under “Harris and Taxes” Trump used an edited video clip to claim Harris wanted to raise taxes, by 70 or 80%. [Lie #38, second to last]. Trump is pouring millions of money into television ads in swing states with the same edited videos. It sad that certain stations have permitted these adds.

Fact check: New Trump attack ad deceptively edits out key words from Harris

A lot of old lies, on the “corrupt Biden family” dating back to the Trump-Biden debate. Lie #31 was concerning money received by Hunter Biden. “Chris Wallace and a question about the Biden family” was about something that just didn’t happen at the debate, or at least not the way Trump recalled it.

The very last lie #40 looks a bit dated, but it is still a good fake gaffe. “But the worst was when he [Biden] was in New Hampshire and he said, ‘It’s great to be in Florida.’ It is a fake gaffe because it didn’t happen. Biden is known for gaffes, but Trump has told some beauties of his own.

“Trump mistook a wildlife refuge in Alaska for an Afghan airbase. His brains are turning to mush,” wrote one of the critics, author Stephen King, on social media.

That did happen!

At town hall, Trump mixes up Alaska and Afghanistan with confusing remarks on oil

And the worse lies were:

So, fact checkers caught 40 lies in two rallies. It was likely a lie every 2 minutes, like being sprayed with Trump’s lies.

Probably the worse ones, were on immigrants.

” Trump repeated his false claim that ‘the prison population all over the world is down, because they put them in our country.’ ”

A close second “Pants on Fire” lie, was #12, that the Paris accords on climate change would have cost us a trillion dollars. As correctly noted, we have paid one billion out of the three billion dollars commitment.

As I stated before, we don’t need to talk about climate models anymore. The unusually high temperatures of water in the Bahamas, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, can turn a tropical storm into a monster of a hurricane. The climate models predicted more extreme weather if we didn’t control carbon emissions. We got it, and it’s name is Milton.

These speeches laden with falsehoods were for his supporters only, who I guess still have blinders on.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Fake News

by Dave

Honestly, I did not know Elon Musk had 200 million followers on Twitter (now X). He and others are extreme irresponsible in disseminating false information about hurricane recovery efforts.

FEMA, FAA are “blocking” delivery of Starlink devices and supplies to North Carolina’s hurricane-hit areas.

Somehow all this BS is supposed to help Trump. Similar, irresponsible claims from Trump, that Harris stole FEMA funds for other purposes, which is a lie. From Politifact:

• Former President Donald Trump attacked his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, by arguing that she cares more about immigrants in the U.S. illegally than Americans. “Well, for one thing, $1 billion was stolen from FEMA to use it for illegal migrants,” Trump said Oct. 4. “And FEMA is now busted. They don’t have any money.” This gross mischaracterization of FEMA funding programs is Pants on Fire! No one “stole” FEMA money intended for natural disaster victims; Congress funded another program for immigrant services that started under Trump. FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund is expected to face a deficit, but the agency is not out of money. Congress can step in and provide more funding for FEMA, as it has done nearly every year since 2017.

There are so many good sources of information. But it seems many Americans are real suckers for Trump and Musk lies, and the assorted nonsense they can get from social media (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram).

Stay tuned,

Dave

Outrageous lies from Trump

by Dave

We are getting close to the end. Polls show no clear winner. My last post showed how Trump was demonizing immigrants, even Haitians who are here legally, and live in Springfield, Ohio. The evidence is that the crime rate among illegal immigrants, is less than legal residents.

Harris will raise your taxes – FALSE

The latest lie is a campaign video ad showing a clip where Harris says she wants to raise taxes in general. But critical words were cleverly deleted from the start and end of the statement as:

“estate taxes are gonna have to go up for the richest Americans.”

becomes “taxes are gonna have to go up.”

It is an outrageous to doctor up a clip and present it as part of a campaign television ad.

Other supporting statements are also doctored. Thee ad quotes the New York Times, but cuts out critical words. The quote “Harris is seeking to significantly raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.” cuts out the words in bold.

The ad cites the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning think tank, as the basis for a narrator’s claim that “Kamala’s plan will raise families’ taxes by nearly $2,600 a year.” This statement is loaded with problems, because the Tax Foundation never came up with this estimate, and second, Harris has not proposed eliminating tax benefits for those making less than $400,000 per year. It is the third lie in the ad.

See link: Fact check: New Trump attack ad deceptively edits out key words from Harris and The New York Times

Another outrageous lie on immigration:

Kamala Harris “let in the 13,099 convicted murderers and opposes all efforts to find them and to remove them.”

It is FALSE. He is using data from official documents, but it is completely mischaracterized. Most of the 13,099 people likely didn’t enter the U.S. in the last three and a half years; the full data goes back 40 years. Many of them are not in immigration detention because they’re in law enforcement custody serving sentences. Not everyone on the nondetained docket entered the U.S. illegally. Legal permanent residents who commit crimes can also end up on the docket. This is explained in the link below.

Link: Politifact

Trump is making a case that his policies would be best for the economy and stop illegal immigration. But, the foundation is mostly built on lies.

Vote for Kamala Harris.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Fox vs. CNN

by Dave

The news reporting is frequently the same on both networks. If there is some big event, like a plane crash, the content on both networks will be pretty much the same.

The difference is in commentary. Fox News supports conservatives, including Donald Trump. CNN supports Kamala Harris but will report on news damaging to her campaign. The difference is apparent on their websites.

Fox Example

Today on the FOX News website is the headline “Melania Trump releases new video with warning to all Americans ahead of a 100 million dollar lawsuit.” This is a teaser headline. The key words are “ahead of.” Trump hasn’t filed a lawsuit.

Seriously, who is he going to sue? The FBI? Filing a frivolous lawsuit can backfire. If search is illegal, then all evidence is thrown out. This is the case law since the 1961 “Mapp” Case by the US Supreme Court. Note, that the three more conservative justices did not want to extend the protection to searches by state and local authorities.

Fox News headline https://www.foxnews.com/us/melania-trump-blasts-fbis-mar-a-lago-raid-serves-warning-all-americans

The news of a pending lawsuit, was posted on Twitter (I know it is now called “X”).

CNN critical of Pro-Harris Twitter account (@HarrisHQ).

Today CNN reports on news damaging to Kamala Harris campaign on their website.

Fact check: Harris campaign social media account has repeatedly deceived with misleading edits and captions

This is a case of more false information on Twitter, but this time, in support of Kamala Harris. There is a second Twitter account which is uncovering all the lies this Twitter account.

Video clips of Trump or JD Vance have been edited to make them deceptive or false. As stated in the CNN article, this was done recently. They cite eight different examples including one where the post infers that Trump was confused on the name of the state of the rally was occurring. It is a complete lie. CNN calls these hacked videos misleading. I would call them a complete lie.

My take

Fox News is more likely to post misleading “news stories” which are really commentary. Fox News headlines of a 100 million dollar lawsuit, which does not exist. And if Trump’s lawyers say they will sue Biden, they are forgetting they just won in the Supreme Court on presidential immunity.

CNN commentary is often biased, but they are doing a better job with fact checking. This includes fact checking pro-Harris twitter posts.

Don’t go to Youtube, Twitter, Facebook or any other social media. It is mostly political entertainment. It is not reliable information.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Big Lies from Trump/Vance on Immigration

by Dave

It is anticipated that when immigration issue comes up in the debates, Donald Trump will come fully prepared with lies. He will offer them up shotgun style, which is difficult to unpack quickly.

Lie in a TV ad: “Attention seniors: Kamala Harris has promised amnesty for the 10 million illegals she allowed in as border czar, making them eligible for Social Security. Studies warn this will lead to cuts in your Social Security benefits.”

To support this claim, they offer a direct quote, which gives the impression they are talking about her proposal.

FALSE (CNN fact check) : Kamala Harris was never a “border czar.” She was never given the responsibility to secure our southern border. This responsibility went to the Secretary of Homeland Security. She was given the diplomatic responsibility of working with three Central America countries to improve their policies, so many of their citizens would not attempt to enter the US.

The 10 million illegals “she let in” is false, as explained by CNN. We have amnesty programs available to refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine.

Harris has not made any promise to grant legal status to all of the migrants who have crossed the border during her vice presidency.

CNN: Fact check: New Trump ad uses edited quote to attack nonexistent Harris immigration proposal

More immigration lies: This non-existent link between Social Security and illegal immigration will undoubtedly be offered up as it is used often in Trump’s rallies. Trump’s shorter version is: “Your Social Security will be destroyed by the people coming in. There’s too many of them. It’s not sustainable.”

FALSE (Politifact): https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/mar/20/donald-trump/donald-trumps-false-claim-that-immigration-hurts-s/

FALSE: Joe Biden “is letting millions of people from jails, from prisons, from insane asylums, from mental institutions, drug dealers pour in.”

Trump will re-tool this one for the debate, as perhaps the Biden-Harris administration, or just “Under Kamala’s time in office, she has let in …”

Lie from J.D. Vance: “Kamala Harris wants to give $25,000 to illegal aliens to buy American homes.”

FALSE. The idea of a federal program to give assistance to first time home buyers, who are working and paying rent for the last 2 years, has been proposed. Specifics of this idea have not been given, however illegal aliens with invalid Social Security numbers can be easily screened out of the program, through a computer check. This is routinely done with employers.

See: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/aug/22/jd-vance/jd-vances-false-claim-that-harris-wants-to-give-im/

Politifact list of Lies on Immigration

If I total up the lies on immigration (Mostly false, false and pants on fire), there are nearly 900 false statements. Trump likes to blur facts at times, saying “the government reports says 10 million illegals, could be much more than this … ” to exaggerate the immigration crisis.

I believe Trump will craft a zinger at the debate, which will identify Harris as the border czar, then add to this the 10 million aliens she left in, and connect this up to as many benefits as possible (social security, health care, housing assistance) and illegally voting in the US election. And he will describe them as rapists, drug dealers and mental patients. It will be a zinger filled with lies.

Along the way, he’ll mention that illegal immigrants can get driver licenses in Tim Walz’s state of Minnesota. I support this, as they need the driver’s license to get insurance. Uninsured motorists are a huge problem where I live (Florida).

Stay tuned,

Dave

Truth matters

by Dave

So many lies out there, it is getting difficult to list them. So I selected 4 big lies, dealing with job growth, fentanyl from Mexico, Russia invasion of Ukraine, and Harris’ role in stopping illegal immigration.

If you listen to Fox News, even for 5 minutes, in the evening hours, you will likely hear one of these lies, the most popular seems to be Harris was named border czar by Biden. Just didn’t happen.

1. TRUMP: “MASSIVE SCANDAL! The Harris-Biden Administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating Job Statistics to hide the true extent of the Economic Ruin they have inflicted upon America. New Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the Administration PADDED THE NUMBERS with an extra 818,000 Jobs that DO NOT EXIST, AND NEVER DID.” (Trump, Truth Social, Aug 21, then later at an event Aug. 22 in Cochise County, Arizona).

PANTS ON FIRE (Politifact): On Aug. 21, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced an annual “benchmarking” adjustment based on a sweep of state-based unemployment insurance data. This is considered more precise than the employer-based data the agency uses to assemble its closely watched monthly employment reports.

2. TRUMP: “We’re losing 300,000 people a year to fentanyl that comes through our border. We had it down to the lowest number and now it’s worse than it’s ever been.”

PANTS ON FIRE (Politifact): Trump’s figures appear to have no basis in fact. Government statistics show the number of drug overdose deaths per year is hovering around 100,000 to 110,000, with opioid-related deaths at about 81,000. Moreover, though the number of opioid deaths has risen since Trump left office, it’s incorrect to claim they were the “lowest” while he was president.

We will be following up this with a blog on the fentanyl epidemic. It is not being brought across the border by illegal immigrants, but by vehicles, legally crossing the border every day.

3. TRUMP: When ever asked about Ukraine, Trump goes into this rant about how it would never have happened if he was president. He has put the blame on Joe Biden and now on Kamala Harris.

Trump said in a speech in North Carolina: “Remember when Biden sent Kamala to Europe to stop the war in Ukraine. She met with Putin, and then three days later, he attacked. How did she do? Do you think she did a good job? She met with Putin to tell him, ‘Don’t do it.’ And three days later, he attacked; that’s when the attack started. Did you know that, General?”

FALSE (CNN Facts first): Harris has never met with Putin. In reality, she met with US allies, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, at the Munich Security Conference in the days before Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Putin was not at the conference.

“Frankly speaking, I cannot recall a single contact between President Putin and Mrs. Harris,” a Kremlin spokesperson said last month, according to a state-owned Russian news agency.

The Biden administration was still trying to deter an invasion of Ukraine at the time of Harris’ 2022 trip to the conference in Germany, but top administration officials, including President Joe Biden himself, made clear that they believed Putin was already moving toward invading. As Harris was on her way to Germany, Biden told reporters that he thought a Russian attack “will happen in the next several days.”

CNN reported on the day the Munich conference began that a senior administration official said Harris had three key objectives: “Focus on the ‘fast-changing’ situation on the ground, maintain full alignment with partners and send a clear message to Russia that the US prefers diplomacy but is ready in case of Russian aggression.”

The Munich conference was held from February 18 to February 20, 2022; Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

4. TRUMP: President Joe Biden appointed “Kamala Harris to be his border czar to deal with illegal immigration … Harris was put in charge of stopping illegal immigration.”

MOSTLY FALSE (Politifact) : I would have considered this either false or pants on fire, because Biden did not put VP Kamala Harris in charge of stopping illegal immigration at the border. There was never a “border czar” named by the President. Border security and management is the Homeland Security secretary’s responsibility. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

In March 2021, President Joe Biden tasked Vice President Kamala Harris with working alongside officials in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to address the issues driving people to leave those countries and come to the United States. The Biden-Harris administration said it would focus on five key issues: economic insecurity, corruption, human rights, criminal gang violence and gender-based violence.

Links:

Job Statistics: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/aug/23/donald-trump/donald-trumps-pants-on-fire-claim-that-biden-harri/

Fentanyl deaths: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/aug/16/donald-trump/trump-drastically-inflates-annual-fentanyl-death-n/

2022 Meeting with Putin: https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/21/politics/fact-check-trump-harris-putin-meeting-ukraine/index.html

Border czar: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jul/24/republican-national-committee-republican/border-czar-kamala-harris-assigned-to-tackle-imm

I do not want to make light of the real opioid epidemic in the US. Just the “facts” coming from Donald Trump are untrue. If you built a 2000 mile wall at the southern border, the flow of opioids would be the same.

Fentanyl, its precursors and equipment – such as pill presses – used to make the drug often times enters the U.S. through common trade pathways, such as air cargo and express courier. And, fentanyl is easy to hide, so often it is carried through at the ports of entry by cars.

The last three problems, the fentanyl pouring into the US from Mexico and China, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and illegal immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala, are really global problems, and they require global solution.

Stay tuned,

Dave