politifact.com

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

Saudi Arabia attack – Who do you trust?

by Dave

“Half of Saudi oil production wiped out” was the headliner.   I predicted that Saudi Arabia had shut down a lot of their processing and storage facilities simply as a precaution while inspections were underway.  Saudi Arabia yesterday announced that 70% of their production was restored.  They are able to maintained contracted tanker liftings using their reserve oil.  WTI oil prices are around $58/bbl, about what they were before the attack.

The question still remains, as to whether the Houthis or the Iranians were behind the attack.   I don’t know.   Our President is a non-stop liar.    According to politifact.com,  69% of the 720 statements he has made were in the category of Mostly false, false or pants on fire.   Only 4% of his statements were true.

If you work with Donald Trump,  then you have to toe the line, and you better find a way to support him, or you will be out the door in a second.   So, I guess the question keeps coming around, who do you believe?

Not Trump nor Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.  And that doesn’t leave me believing the Iranians either.   I believe more in that the drones or any missiles were not sent from Iran, because it is not in Iran’s national interest to provoke a war with the Saudi’s.     But, there are a number of UN inspectors, which I feel will be far more impartial.

It definitely was the crisis that wasn’t.  The petroleum industry including  oil rigs, processing and export facilities, refineries and petrochemical plants are all vulnerable to drone attacks.  They were before the attack, but the public awareness wasn’t there.

It is easy to accuse Iran, but as I said, it just doesn’t make any sense they would provoke a war with the Saudis.  Of course, the Houthis are completely different.   They are already at war with Saudi Arabia.

 

Stay tuned,

Dave

 

Links:

https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/

 

 

 

 

Can there be obstruction if no underlying crime was committed?

by Dave

Yes.  See the link below.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/mar/25/martha-stewart-donald-trump-can-there-be-obstructi/

Per Fact Checking sites.   They really are very good.  I can see why recently Trump attacked Fact Checking websites.  Many of the worst lies (fake news) are disseminated on Facebook by bloggers.  But on occasion,  statements by Donald Trump join the “Pants on Fire” group.  So, do not trust anything posted anonymously by a blogger.  Same goes for Trump’s tweets.   Secondly, there are a ton of commentators particularly on Fox News, who live by selling books and videos, on grand conspiracy theories and deep state nonsense.  I will not vote for anyone with a track record as bad as Trump’s in the 2020 election.

Learn to separate out serious news reporting from late night “news show.”    If you ever watched a Lou Dobbs broadcast, you know what I mean.  Lou makes it very easy for his guests to respond, as there’s hardly a question embedded inside of a question, except,  “Don’t you agree with me?”.

As per the Mueller report,  I support the Attorney General’s approach.  The amount of speculation of what is contained in the report, is really incredible.  His letter cited just two conclusions contained in the report.  Redacting sensitive information from a report, particularly one related to counter-intelligence, requires considerable time.  I reject the call from impatient Democrats, saying they want everything right now.  For our justice system to work, not everything should be disclosed, including FISA subpoenas.

Barr released his letter two days after he got the report because to do otherwise would have politicians claiming he was concealing information.   It is difficult to tamp down or narrow the scope of speculation on what the report concludes.

Stay tuned,

Dave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lies are free but truth is not

by Dave

Every day of the week, are flooded with misinformation.  But, it’s really nice to have politifact.com,   factcheck.org and snopes.com  doing their job in fact checking.

Case in point from Trump:

My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before….
7:56 AM – Aug 9, 2017

I thought this would deserve a “Pants on Fire” from politifact.com,  but they just pur it in the FALSE statement.   Everyone seems to have caught this one, because it can take years to add to the nuclear arsenal.

But other lies take some investigation, and the folks at these organizations really are great.   Trump has made 302 statements (60%) considered mostly false, false or pants on fire category,  far surpassing Obama’s 150 statements (26%) according to politifact.com.   Now Obama was president for 8 years so perhaps this is 20 false statements a year, while Trump is average is closer to a lie every day.

But every day, they catch people in high places making all sorts of unsupported claims.   It doesn’t matter if who they are, it is what they say.

But, these organizations depend on individual contributions.   You can donate  to these groups   by going to their website, and making an online contribution.  An informed public is vital to the democratic process.  A public which has been fed lies, loses the ability to make informed decisions.

Stay tuned,

Dave

 

 

How much of what Trump says is true?

by Dave

All politicians lie.
All politicians lie.
All politicians lie.

Ok, I said it 3 times, just so you remember.    Other officials lie too.   The White House Press Secretary, the leaders in Congress,  news commentators, of which there way too many these days, candidates running for office, both Republicans and Democrats – they are all  liars.

So why should I single out Donald Trump?   I really didn’t.  The fact checking sites, factcheck.org and politifact.com find nearly every weak, that he has lied to the American people, on very important issues.

The most recent example is his speech yesterday, on the health care bill to be voted on in the Senate, where he stated:

“Obamacare has broken our health care system. It’s broken. It’s collapsing.”

Politifact responds, “As for the individual insurance market, the part of Obamacare that Trump has said before is in a death spiral, we have rated statements like that False.”

Link:  http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jul/24/fact-checking-donald-trumps-health-care-speech/

Trump also was caught in a huge lie that his plan about allowing insurers to sell across state lines, would bring insurance premiums by 60 to 70%.  He made up this stuff!

Link: http://www.factcheck.org/2017/07/selling-insurance-across-state-lines/

It is true that both Democrats and Republicans have told huge lies during the health care debate.   House leader Nancy Pelosi stated that hundreds of thousands of people will die under Trump’s health care bill.  Politifact concludes that the relationship between health care policies and mortality rates is really difficult to determine,  and Pelosi (and Bernie Sanders)  distorted the research in this area by saying many people will  die as a result of Trump Care.

Link:  http://www.factcheck.org/2017/07/deaths-health-care-bill/

The Russian investigation has produced all sorts of terrible lies from Trump, including allegations of criminal activity by FBI Director Comey, as follows from factcheck.org.

President Donald Trump made the unfounded accusation that former FBI Director James Comey illegally “leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media.” His claim appears to have been based on a news story that makes no such determination.

Link: http://www.factcheck.org/2017/07/trumps-unfounded-leak-claim/

And likely confirmed by Jay Sekulow, a frequent guest on Fox News and part of Trump’s legal defense team.   Way too much poop for me.

Now, perhaps I digress.  Back to the main question-  How much of what Trump says is true?   Politifact checked 427 statements of “fact” made by Trump, and determined 5% or 20 of these statements were true.  Yikes!  Of the other 95%,  12% were mostly true, and 15% were half true.   This leaves  an astonishing 68% on the side of mostly false, false and pants on fire.

Link: http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/

I always liked Patrick Moynihan’s quote: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

Do Republicans lie more than Democrats?   From a quick sampling of July’s reviews, it seems so, at least as of July 24, 2017:

Link: http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/

The worse of the bunch is not Trump or any other politician within Washington.   It’s  bloggers, specifically websites which broadcast, via email and twitter, a load of fictional stories.   These are lumped into the category of bloggers.

If a news story came from the Organization dedicated to the  Responsible and Truthful Analysis of the New (just for example, don’t Google this name),  and it can’t be collaborated with the mainstream media news, it is probably made up.   The fact checkers will help you filter out the nonsense.

Stay tuned,

Dave

 

 

 

Fact checkers

by Dave

I use factcheck.org mostly, but politifact.com has nice summaries of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and others.

Other fact checkers are:

Washington Post

snopes.com

Politifact found that on the average 4% of Trump’s facts were true while 19% of Clinton’s were true.  Adding the categories of true, mostly true and half true gets Trump up to 30% while Clinto gets 75%.

Stay tuned,

Dave