Last week Trump pivoted again. He said he "has regrets" and that he won't ever lie to the American people... and then released his first ad which got 4 Pinnochios from the Washington Post for averaging a lie every 4 seconds. The infographic above is a look at 20 pollticians who have run for president in recent years from least honest (top) to most honest. The only candidate who lied more frequently than Mr. Trumpanzee was the crackpot ex-Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who is now one of his very few foreign policy advisors (since all the actual Republican foreign policy advisors have said they're voting for Hillary or figuring out how best to register their abhorrence of Mr. T).The first response I saw to the Trumpanzee ad came from Lizet Ocampo from People for the American Way; "Trump’s new ad is nothing short of despicable. It vilifies immigrants as criminals, staying in line with the entirety of Trump’s anti-immigrant, fear-mongering campaign. The ad is the latest example of why Trump would be a divisive leader who would push policies antithetical to American values, from mass deportation to discriminating against Americans based on where we’re from or what religion we practice." She didn't address the lying per se, just the deranged and divisive policy agenda. But Elise Foley at Huffington Post nailed him on both-- the ugly policies and the dependence of made up "facts." But it was Jason Easley at PoliticusUSA.com who took out a stop watch and timed out a lie, on average, every 4 seconds.
Trump’s ad begins with a favorite lie of the GOP nominee that the system is rigged against Americans. PolitiFact has rated this a pants on fire lie, “While there are isolated examples of bought local elections, experts say it cannot be replicated on a national scale. While it is possible to tamper with electronic voting machines, there is no evidence deliberate malfeasance has altered any election.”The ad said that there is a flood of Syrian refugees coming into the US. According to an ABC News fact check, “The vetting process typically takes from 18-24 months. To expedite the process for Syrian refugees, the Obama Administration launched a surge operation with the hopes of reducing the time to three months in hopes of resettling some 10,000 refugees by fall 2016. According to the New York Times, however, the “onerous and complex web of security checks and vetting procedures” has hampered the expedited process.”Trump’s ad claimed that illegal immigrants who commit crimes get to stay in the US, but this is also false. According to a Washington Post fact check, “We reviewed cases from 2014 and 2015 involving 76 people charged with activities relating to foreign terrorist organizations. The majority of those cases involved naturalized U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. There were both naturalized and natural-born U.S. citizens (including those of Caucasian, African American or Hispanic descent). Many of the naturalized citizens had arrived in the country as children, and therefore, not 'recent' immigrants.”The ad accused undocumented immigrants of skipping the line and collecting Social Security. PolitFact also rated this statement as not totally true, “Also, it’s important to note that illegal immigrants pay an estimated $12 billion in payroll taxes to Social Security and don’t receive benefits. So Trump is leaving out a significant part of the picture when it comes to taxes and undocumented workers.”Trump claimed that Clinton’s immigration plan would open the borders, but an AP fact check found that this wasn’t true, “It’s not true that Clinton’s plan would create open borders. Her plan does call for a pathway to citizenship that would allow people currently in the country illegally to stay, but only after going through a series of steps to become a citizen. On enforcement, Clinton has called for focusing on “detaining and deporting those individuals who pose a violent threat to public safety,” but not ending enforcement outright.”Trump’s ad also lied about having a plan and lied about keeping the borders secure.All total, the Trump ad managed to jam seven lies into 30 seconds. Trump is airing an ad that tells a lie to voters once every four seconds.When Democrats suggests that Trump is running a campaign of lies, this is exactly what they are referring to. If Donald Trump is talking, or in this case, if his campaign is running a commerical, the odds are good that he/it is lying.Never has a candidate been so willing to pile so many lies on top of each other at such a rapid pace. Donald Trump is trying to lie his way to the White House, which is why it is vital that each of the GOP’s nominee’s false statements get the scrutiny that they deserve.
Writing for The Hill Friday, Kurt Bardella, head of Endeavor Strategies. until recently the firm Breitbart used for p.r. and marketing, explained why he dumped this lucrative high-profile client. Somehow he had persuaded himself that Breitbart's reporting was, at one point, based on "at least a semblance of objectivity and credibility rooted in some form of reality." He claims Bretbart's chairman, Steve Bannon, now running Team Trumpanzee, turned that on it's head. "Steve," he wrote, "ran the site and controlled the content as a dictator, not only limiting the expression of his journalists but also purposefully changing the narrative to increase vitriol, playing to the fears of his readers. Rather than expanding discourse to bring an astute voice to the conservative movement, Steve exacerbated its ugliest components and as result marred Andrew’s name to where it became associated with something toxic and perpetually malcontent."
Some may wonder if Donald Trump is purposeful in delivering his insensitive and often-bigoted comments that tend to serve as fodder for his supporters. With Steve there is no question, he is deliberate in his language and antagonism and promotes something beyond anti-establishment sentiment that borders on anarchism.What eventually caused me to terminate my relationship with Breitbart was Steve’s guidance of Breitbart to become the de facto propaganda machine for Donald Trump. Toward the end of my time there, no effort was made to hide this fact as we witnessed with the Michelle Fields incident. Whatever reprehensible thing Trump did or said would be defended and supported by the daily content of Breitbart.The America that I love cannot become beholden to our lowest common denominator. And while Donald Trump is anything but a sophisticated political strategist, a man like Steve Bannon can help amplify his hateful rhetoric to an unprecedented degree.It is glaringly obvious that Donald Trump does not have the temperament or the judgment to occupy the Oval Office. This is one of those times where the best interests of the whole outweigh any partisan allegiances or any specific issue. It’s why I’ve made the personal choice to vote for Hillary Clinton in November.Donald Trump is dangerous for America and is surrounding himself with a team that will empower him to leave a lasting mark on the political discourse in this country. Whether he wins this election or not, he is building an organization that ensures that this personal brand of nihilism continues to have a platform.
Jesus! Even the alt-right rats deserting the Breitbart sinking ship are with her now! But the Trump die-hards probably wouldn't even desert him if they figured out that one of the underlying propositions propping up the whole Trumpanzee family circus-- that he's a billionaire-- is a manufactured and carefully cultivated lie. As Susan Craig reported in yesterday's NY Times he sells himself as a businessman who has made billions of dollars and is beholden to no one. But an investigation by Times into the financial maze of Mr. Trumpanzee’s real estate holdings in the U.S. reveals that companies he owns have at least $650 million in debt-- twice the amount than can be gleaned from public filings he has made as part of his bid for the White House. And that doesn't count another $2 billion in debt owed by passive partnership that control much of his so-called wealth. The shady Trumpanzee business operations remain shrouded in mystery. The Times’ inquiry also found that Mr. Trumpanzee’s fortunes depend deeply on a wide array of financial backers, including one he has cited in attacks during his campaign. He's in hock up to his teeth my-- ironically, the Bank of China and Goldman Sachs.
As president, Mr. Trump[anzee] would have substantial sway over monetary and tax policy, as well as the power to make appointments that would directly affect his own financial empire. He would also wield influence over legislative issues that could have a significant impact on his net worth, and would have official dealings with countries in which he has business interests....“I am the king of debt,” Mr. Trump once said on CNN. “I love debt.” But in his career, debt has sometimes gotten the better of him, leading to at least four business bankruptcies... And in some cases, the identities of his business partners are obscured behind limited liability companies-- raising the prospect of a president with unknown business ties....Trump[anzee]’s opaque portfolio of business ties make him potentially vulnerable to the demands of banks, and to business people in the United States and abroad, said Professor Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer.“The success of his empire depends on an ability to get credit, to get loans extended to his business entities,” he said. “And we simply don’t know a lot about his financial dealings, here or around the world.”
There are several companies whose owners are extremely well-hidden-- presumably Putin allies and the Russian Mafia-- to which Trump in very deeply in debt. He refuses to give out any details about these suspicious partnerships he's involved with. Of course, today the details everyone is waiting for is the pivot on undocumented immigrants. His followers are worried about hints he made on Friday that leaked out yesterday that he may not have a Trumpist para-military force breaking down peoples' doors to round up families and deport them-- although early this morning, his besieged campaign tried to reassure everyone that despite what he said to Latinos-for-Trumpanzee activists in Trumpanzee Tower Friday, mass deportations still stand. But no one will ever know what this sociopath has in mind-- at least not before the election.