How Trump’s Lies Look True

This is a perfect example of how Trump’s lies appear true after they ricochet through the echo chamber. 

On 7/2 Fox News published this piece online. It’s BS. In fact, the piece itself calls the claim in the headline BS, but that’s not until the end when a Fox analyst brands the central claim BS. 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/02/obama-administration-granted-citizenship-to-2500-iranians-during-nuclear-deal-iran-official.html

On Tuesday 7/3 Fox & Friends “reports” the story as news.  They skip the part where the story calls itself BS. 

Trump gets his daily intelligence briefing for July 3 from Fox & Friends. 

Trump tweets it to his 50 million yahoo followers and, viola, a lie becomes the truth in their otherwise empty heads:

Just out that the Obama Administration granted citizenship, during the terrible Iran Deal negotiation, to 2,500 Iranians - including to government officials. How big (and bad) is that?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2018

On this day of our country’s birth I choose to have faith that before he does irreparable harm to our Republic this horror show of a man, his administration, and the party that supports him are consumed by their lies and the circuit breakers of democracy crafted by Jefferson, Madison, Adams & co are tripped to shut them all down like a city blackout  in a summer heatwave. 

Happy Fourth of July!

11 great reasons to oust Vlad

Below are 11 great reasons the US should do everything possible to undermine, destabilize and depose Vladimir Putin, not call him to congratulate him on "winning" the "presidency".  This is almost word-for-word from the Chicago Tribune found here.

1. Boris Nemtsov, 2015: shot four times in the back by an unknown assailant within view of the Kremlin. Putin took "personal control" of the investigation into Nemtsov's murder, but the killer remains at large.

In the 1990s, Nemtsov was a political star of post-Soviet Russia's "young reformers." He became deputy prime minister and was, for a while, seen as possible presidential material - but it was Putin who succeeded former president Boris Yeltsin in 2000. Nemtsov publicly supported the choice, but he grew increasingly critical as Putin rolled back civil liberties and was eventually pushed to the margins of Russian political life. Nemstov led massive street rallies in protest of the 2011 parliamentary election results and wrote reports on official corruption. He also was arrested several times as the Kremlin cracked down on opposition rallies. In Feb. 2015, just hours after urging the public to join a march against Russia's military involvement in Ukraine, Nemtsov was shot four times in the back by an unknown assailant within view of the Kremlin. Putin took "personal control" of the investigation into Nemtsov's murder, but the killer remains at large.

2. Boris Berezovsky, 2013: was found dead inside a locked bathroom at his home in the United Kingdom, a noose around his neck, in what was at first deemed a suicide. However, the coroner's office could not determine the cause of death.

A self-styled tycoon who become a fixture in Yeltsin's inner circle in the late 1990s, Berezovsky is believed to have been instrumental in Putin's rise to power (including a media campaign that smeared Nemtsov). But Berezovsky was unable to exert the influence under the new president he had hoped. His falling out with Putin led to his self-exile in the United Kingdom, where he vowed to bring down the president. He also accused the Kremlin of orchestrating the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, a former intelligence officer and whistleblower poisoned to death in 2009. Berezovsky was found dead inside a locked bathroom at his home in the United Kingdom, a noose around his neck, in what was at first deemed a suicide. However, the coroner's office could not determine the cause of death.


3 & 4 Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova, 2009: Markelov was shot by a masked gunman near the Kremlin. Baburova, was fatally shot as she tried to help him. 

Markelov was a human rights lawyer known for representing Chechen civilians in human rights cases again the Russian military. He also represented journalists who found themselves in legal trouble after writing articles critical of Putin, including Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who was slain in 2006. Markelov was shot by a masked gunman near the Kremlin. Baburova, also a journalist from Novaya Gazeta, was fatally shot as she tried to help him. Russian authorities said a neo-Nazi group was behind the killings, and two members were convicted of the deaths.

5. Sergei Magnitsky, 2009: Magnitsky died in police custody in November 2009 after allegedly being brutally beaten, then denied medical care.

Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in police custody in November 2009 after allegedly being brutally beaten, then denied medical care. He had been working for British-American businessman William Browder to investigate a massive tax fraud case. Magnitsky was allegedly arrested after uncovering evidence suggesting that police officials were behind the fraud. In 2012, Magnitsky was posthumously convicted of tax evasion, and Browder lobbied the U.S. government to impose sanctions on those linked to his death. The sanctions bill bears his name and has since been applied to rights abusers in other cases.

6. Nikolai Gorokhov, 2017: suffered severe head injures

This week [March 25, 2017] a lawyer for Magnitsky's family suffered severe head injures after plunging from his fourth-floor Moscow apartment. Russian news organizations reported Nikolai Gorokhov, 53, fell while helping movers carry a hot tub up to his apartment.


7. Natalya Estemirova, 2009: Estemirova was kidnapped outside her home, shot several times - including a point-blank shot in the head - and dumped in the nearby woods. 

Natalya Estemirova was a journalist who investigated abductions and murders that had become commonplace in Chechnya. There, pro-Russian security forces waged a brutal crackdown to weed out Islamic militants responsible for some of the country's worst terrorist attacks. Like fellow journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Estemirova reported on civilians who often got caught between these two violent forces. Estemirova was kidnapped outside her home, shot several times - including a point-blank shot in the head - and dumped in the nearby woods. Nobody has been convicted of her murder.

8. Anna Politkovskaya, 2006:  She was shot at point-blank range in an elevator in her building.

Anna Politkovskaya was a Russian reporter for Novaya Gazeta whose book, "Putin's Russia," accused the Kremlin leader of turning the country into a police state. She wrote extensively about abuse in Chechnya, and once or twice appeared on radio shows in Moscow with me. She was shot at point-blank range in an elevator in her building. Five men were convicted of her murder, but the judge found that it was a contract killing, with $150,000 of the fee paid by a person whose identity was never discovered. Putin denied any Kremlin involvement in Politkovskaya's killing, saying that her "death in itself is more damaging to the current authorities both in Russia and the Chechen Republic ... than her activities."

9. Alexander Litvinenko, 2006: died three weeks after drinking a cup of tea laced with deadly polonium-210 at a London hotel. 

Alexander Litvinenko was a former KGB agent who died three weeks after drinking a cup of tea laced with deadly polonium-210 at a London hotel. A British inquiry found that Litvinenko was poisoned by Russian agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, who were acting on orders that had "probably been approved by President Putin." Russia refused to extradite them, and in 2015 the Russian president granted Lugovoi a medal for "services to the motherland."

After leaving the Russian Federal Security Service, Litvinenko became a vocal critic of the agency, which was run by Putin, and later blamed the security service for orchestrating a series of apartment bombings in Russia in 1999 that left hundreds dead. Russia's invasion of Chechnya followed later that year - and with it, the rise to power of Putin. Berezovsky was suspected to be complicit in at least part of the plot to bring Putin to the Kremlin, but he later sought to implicate Putin for Litvinenko's killing. Litvinenko also accused Putin ordering the murder of Politkovskaya.


10. Sergei Yushenkov, 2003: gunned down outside his home in Moscow.

The affable former army colonel was a favorite of parliamentary reporters in the early 1990s, when I was learning the trade for the Moscow Times. Sergei Yushenkov had just registered his Liberal Russia movement as a political party when he was gunned down outside his home in Moscow. Yushenkov was gathering evidence he believed proved that the Putin government was behind one of the apartment bombings in 1999.

11. Yuri Shchekochikhin, 2003: He died suddenly, a few days before he was supposed to depart for the United States. His medical documents were deemed classified by Russian authorities.

As a journalist and author who wrote about crime and corruption in the former Soviet Union when it was still very difficult to do so, Yuri Shchekochikhin once joined me on a police raid of crack houses in Philadelphia in 1988. He was investigating the 1999 apartment bombings for Novaya Gazeta when he contracted a mysterious illness in July 2003. He died suddenly, a few days before he was supposed to depart for the United States. His medical documents were deemed classified by Russian authorities.

********

Before the 2017 Super Bowl when Bill O'Reilly referred to Putin as a "killer" our newly minted President said, what, you don't think the United States kills people?  You think we're so perfect? (I'm paraphrasing but that was the gist).

Nauseating, made only more so by the muted...make that muzzled...response from GOP leaders not named McCain.  I can't find the clip, but I watched Trey Gowdy's reaction to a journalist's question about how he felt about Trump calling Putin and congratulating him.  He looked like he's just thrown up in his mouth.

Doing the right thing

When Trump and the Americans he represents make me feel ashamed of my country I take solace in remembering that 2.8MM more Americans picked HRC over DJT. And 543,816 more Americans picked Gore over GW Bush. So the last non-incumbent Republican to garner the majority of America's vote was 3 decades ago in 1988 when GHW Bush beat Michael Dukakis propelled  by the Reagan Revolution. The extreme right minority who have hijacked the GOP and capitalized on a flaw in the Electoral College system will lose power sooner rather than later. Ours is a fair and just system that always, eventually roots out apostates--yes, Trump is an apostate of democracy; he clearly has no use for it, has no idea how it works, and prefers ruling by fiat. 

Last week on February 22 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided that assault rifles like the AR-15 aren't protected by the second amendment.  A 2013 law passed in Maryland in the wake of Sandy Hook bans weapons of war.  "Put simply, we have no power to extend Second Amendment protections to weapons of war," Judge Robert King wrote for the court, adding that the Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller explicitly excluded such coverage."

Elsewhere, Governors from several states pushed back on Trump's idea of arming teachers during  a White House meeting. “I disagree with him,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), who plans to run for Senate, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I want our teachers to teach, and I want our law enforcement to be able to protect the students. I want each group to focus on what they’re good at.”

"Americans will always do the right thing — after exhausting all the alternatives."

Dems Since Reagan Deliver Higher GDP Growth

Seems crazy, no?  I looked up the GDP Growth by year since 1980.

I looked up who was President.

I then averaged the GDP growth for each President.  I used the year AFTER the President assumed office until the year AFTER he left.  Ex: Reagan's average is from 1981-1989.  Reagan was elected in November 1980.  He left office in January 1989.  His economic policies wouldn't have any effect on 1980 and they would likely continue to impact 1989, right?

Here's what I found.

President/Avg. GDP Growth

Reagan/3.64%
GHW Bush/2.03%
Clinton/3.66%
GW Bush/-1.64%
Obama/2.15%

I used estimated growth of 2.2% for 2017 based on a report from Kiplingers.  The WSJ put it at 2.5%.

Obama's GDP growth (after the worst economic collapse since the great depression) was better than GWH Bush or GW Bush.  Fun fact:  Clinton raised taxes, and yet grew the economy more than Reagan...who, come to think of it, also raised taxes some 11 times.

Huh.

Data is here.

PS:  I dropped out of macro in college (the only course I ever dropped!) so I'm open to being corrected on any of the above.

The GOP Abandons Morality & the Constitution

Forget the allegations of sexual harassment of minors.  The GOP has abandoned the rule of law in backing Roy Moore.  See this piece from the Atlantic, The Lawlessness of Roy Moore.  He doesn't care about the Constitution.  He's here to enforce his Christian God's law on earth.  Period.  The Constitution is subservient to that end, a contract drawn up by mortals.  Roy speaks for GOD!

But first the GOP abandoned morality in nominating a lying, wife-cheating, godless, draft-dodging, 1980s-steakhouse cheeseball in Donald Trump.  The GOP has, since DJT's inauguration, also abandoned the Constitution in allowing him to remain in office after committing numerous offenses that qualify him for impeachment.  I make this claim based on Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Paper #65 in which he describes the court for the trial of impeachment like this: "A well constituted court for the trial of impeachments, is an object not more to be desired than difficult to be obtained in a government wholly elective. The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or in other words from the abuse or violation of some public trust."  The misconduct of public men.  Abuse or violation of some public trust.  It bears repeating.  He goes on to describe the subject of an impeachment trial: "They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself."  The violations are POLITICAL not CRIMINAL.  Trump accused Obama of wire-tapping him with no evidence.  He fired Comey for pressuring him in the Russia investigation.  You know how the rest of this song goes.  The GOP has abandoned the rule of law in allowing Trump to remain in office (the emoluments clause!!) in a bloodthirsty lust for tax cuts that satisfy their keepers -- the donor class who keeps them in office.

So first they pulled their support for Roy Moore when the allegations of sexual assault surfaced.  They said he wouldn't be seated in the Senate if elected.  Now that it looks like he could win, now that they realize how fragile their grip on the Senate is, Roy's their boy.  Morality is for losers.

The GOP (I'm indicting the party itself and its leaders, not necessarily everyone who's ever voted Republican, as I have in the past) has abandoned morality and the Constitution.  But they got their corporate tax cuts so it's all good.

Smells like autocracy

Here's Trump's latest email to me.  See if you can spot the creeping autocracy.
************************************************************************

From: Donald J. Trump <contact@action.gop.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 2:14 PM
Subject: No doubt in my mind
To: "paul.gillespie@gmail.com" <paul.gillespie@gmail.com>

Friend,

No matter what the Fake News Media reports, we’re working to advance our agenda every day.

In the first 9 months alone, we’ve delivered on our promises and have proven we’re ready to fight for what we believe is right for the future of this great country.

We did it together in 2016, and there’s no doubt in my mind we have the momentum to keep it going. But I need to know you’re committed to our movement, Friend.

This is your last chance to update your record before our end-of-quarter deadline, and I’m hoping you’ll do so by renewing your Sustaining Membership:

2017 SUSTAINING MEMBERSHIP

Email: paul.gillespie@gmail.com

Account Number: 28941494
2017 Sustaining Membership: PENDING
Deadline: September 30, 11:59 PM

CONTRIBUTE $250
CONTRIBUTE $100
CONTRIBUTE $75
CONTRIBUTE $50
CONTRIBUTE $35
CONTRIBUTE OTHER AMOUNT

Please contribute $250, $100, $75, $50, $35, or $10 to renew your Sustaining Membership for the 2017 year.

We cannot allow the Fake News Media and obstructionist Democrats to flood the airwaves and mislead the American people, Friend, and they are our strongest opponent yet.

So please, be sure to renew your 2017 Sustaining Membership before the September 30 deadline.

Thank you,


Donald J. Trump
President of The United States

P.S. - I’ve requested a list of every person who steps up and renews their 2017 Sustaining Membership before the September 30 deadline. I hope to see your name on the list.


CONTRIBUTE $100

************************************************************************************

I learned a direct mail copying writing trick 30 years ago.  Put the most important piece of information in a PS.  People often read the PS before the body copy.  In this message, just below Trump's stern glare -- his standard look -- he tells me that he's asked for a list of every person who "steps up and renews their 2017 Sustaining Membership..."  He's asked for a list and he hopes to see my name on it.  See the veiled threat there?  I will be noticeable by my absence if POTUS doesn't see me on the list.  I don't know.  Maybe my undergrad days studying the USSR and East Germany left me with a heightened fear of the State snooping into our lives, but a glaring POTUS telling me he's going to check the list for my name feels like classic Stalinist/Maoist/Kim technique.  

Tyranny's Foothold

This WSJ editorial came out last week. This concluding sentence nails it:

"Mr. Trump somehow seems to believe that his outsize personality and social-media following make him larger than the Presidency. He’s wrong."

My January 29 post made the case for invoking the 25th Amendment on the grounds that Trump's mental disorder -- malignant narcissism -- prevents him from discharging his duties as President.  The WSJ puts it another way here by pointing out that Trump thinks he's "larger than the Presidency."  He thinks he is above the Office, above the law.  Why else would he and his lead attorney Jay Sekulow be exploring the idea that he can pardon himself?  What is that if not the very definition of "above the law"?

Trump is EXACTLY who Adams, Madison, Jefferson, and the framers feared might one day ascend to the Office of the President.  It is time for the GOP to stop fiddling around the edges in order to squeak through ACA reform, tax reform, or their flavor-of-the-month legislation.  Whenever they (Ryan, McConnell, Graham, and other GOP leaders) are pressed on a daily/weekly Trump travesty they say things like, 'That doesn't help' or 'That doesn't reflect the principles of our party'....or some other mealy-mouthed talking point.

This man, his family and his henchmen are slowly, inexorably destroying our democracy.   

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
-Thomas Jefferson

When will the people of good conscience in Congress break their silence?