Placing a Trump/Pence sign in one’s yard is intellectually equivalent to wearing a “South Dakota Is Big Cock Country!” cap. Trump signers flip the bird at civilized people with a schoolboy smirk, as if cloaking their impulse to offend in technically inoffensive language represents a great achievement in honest civic discourse.
Alas, any state that votes for Trump would more accurately erect a sign reading, “Big Crock Country.” A Politico analysis of the Republican Presidential nominee’s speeches last week finds Trump “averaged about one falsehood every three minutes and 15 seconds over nearly five hours of remarks”:
Trump’s misrepresentations range from false pronouncements (he again wrongly said he opposed the war in Iraq before it began) to the petty (he insisted Clinton had copied him by holding rallies with her plane in the background and insinuated she was “sleeping” when she held no public events).
He contradicted his own policy on providing health care to the poor, overstated the ad spending discrepancy between his campaign and Clinton’s and exaggerated the size of his primary victories and polling leads [Kyle Cheney et al., “Donald Trump’s Week of Misrepresentations, Exaggerations and Half-Truths,” Politico, 2016.09.25].
The same Politico analysts find that Hillary Clinton’s falsehood rate over the same period was a little more than a quarter of Trump’s. The factual slips Politico lists consisted more of matters of interpretation than of flat falsehood. For instance, Politico flags Clinton’s claim that Trump’s call to repeal the estate tax would cut Ivanka and Donnie Jr’s someday taxes by $4 billion. Team Clinton bases that claim on Trump’s claims about his own new worth, which are generally believed to be greatly exaggerated. Team Clinton tells Politico, “If Donald Trump admits he is lying about his net worth we will happily revise the estimate down.”
Meanwhile, Trump has gotten plain facts wrong:
- Trump claims that manufacturers are “out of business for the most part” in the U.S., while manufacturing remains 11.8% of U.S. GDP, down from 13.1% in 2006.
- Trump claims NAFTA brings no jobs to the U.S., when NAFTA has actually brought three million jobs here.
- Trump claims Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina are “getting killed” in the Obama economy, when in fact those states have all seen unemployment drop by around half to below 5% (better than what Mitt Romney promised them in 2012 by this time).
- Trump claims we don’t tax Chinese imports, when in fact we do.
- Trump continues to claims that Hillary Clinton and her policies started ISIS, when we can trace the roots of ISIS to 2004, pre-Clinton, pre-Obama.
- Trump claims “the word has no respect for our country. The world has no respect for our President whatsoever.” World opinion about the United States and the American President have recovered significantly since Barack Obama took office in 2009.
- Trump continues to outright lie about the number of refugees Clinton has proposed resettling in America by a factor of 10.
- Trump continues to perpetuate (as did Drew Dennert at Saturday’s candidate forum in Aberdeen) that there is no vetting process for refugees. There is.
- Trump lies about his call for profiling Arab and Muslim men.
Hillary Clinton makes numerous debatable statements about policy. Donald Trump tells whoppers. His candidacy is a crock, as is any suggestion that his deceit, conceit, and unfitness for office are no worse than Clinton’s.
Yet Trump apparently holds a double digit lead here is SD. I don’t know a single South Dakotan who would knowingly and intentionally vote for a bald faced liar. I guess I need to get out more.
Why has the NRA been silent about Drumpf’-s stop and frisk plan? You’d think they’d be raising holy hell along about now. Taking guns from whites is unhuman.
Fair points all, but facts do not matter to Trump. And fact checking has done precisely zilch to dent his support. America is going crazy.
CLINTON vs TRUMP DEBATE NO. 1
The strategy here is to let the Republican appear to have gotten a tie or maybe even a slight win, in debate one. The next two will see Don Trump unable to collar his inner bigot … much to his overwhelming demise come November. The strategy was used against Romney and McCain to expected results and two landslide electoral victories. At it’s core the strategy gives the Republican a sense of ascendency which keeps that team from making necessary changes until it’s too late, while the Democrat adjusts properly and increases support/donations from her followers. (*sports teams use the strategy often when facing an opponent with lesser skills.) It’s vital for the media to project the race as being “too close to call” with only six weeks left. There’s a lot of money that hasn’t been spent yet and media people absolutely must consume it all.)
I can’t believe it, Dicta. We can’t be crazy. Democracy can’t go this haywire. Sane people with an understanding of history and the Constitution can’t sit home in big enough numbers to let Trump win the election.
Facts can’t be this irrelevant to the majority of Americans.
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” Walt Kelly
I still think that HRC is going to win, but the margins are thinner than should be expected. The deterioration of the family, societal mores, and civil discourse, and the angst and selfishness prevalent today is reflected in our government.
“In a democracy, people get the government they deserve.”
de Toqueville and de Maistre
No matter how poorly prepared Drumpf is for any debate, he will declare himself victor on Twitter and then claim the debates are rigged against him.
What really amazes me is the sheer number of people that waste time listening to Drumpf say anything. The dumbing down of America continues.
I want a Trump/Putin sign.
Trump/Putin – Make America Hate Again
Trump/Putin – We must break you
Trump/Putin – Making Russia Great Again
Trump/Putin – Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall and put it on the Mexican border
Tax evasion is proven. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-directed-23-million-owed-to-him-to-his-charity-instead/2016/09/26/7a9e9fac-8352-11e6-ac72-a29979381495_story.html?postshare=1474923050077&tid=ss_tw Anyone who puts a sign up or votes for this criminal should never ever call themselves a law and order American.
And in tonight’s debate, Jerry, Trump says paying no taxes “makes me smart.” Big crock indeed.
I really pity Trump supporters. This has to be the most incredible picture of total nonsense ever to happen for a reality star. You can tell everything he has ever done has been scripted for him to read and move his tiny hands. What a complete failure, no wonder he will not show his tax returns to his supporters, they would hand him his sorry behind. They must never know the truth about their failure. I am talking to you Rounds, to you Thune and to you NOem, you are all as much of a failure and fault as your dear one is. Every time I see a Trump sign on a car or on a yard, I am gonna point and laugh out loud at their joke.
If Trump’s “make me smart” comment about not paying taxes doesn’t piss off every middle class tax paying republican, nothing will.
Roger, the good news is that we can now identify what businesses post their support for this horse’s arse. Then you can decide if you want to do business with a neo-Nazi or if you prefer to do business with someone who pays taxes like you do and who thinks that the United States is worth the investment.
The Donald actually said that some people shouldn’t have guns based on race apparently. NRA had to be squirming.
Trump looked and talked like he has ADHD. He couldn’t seem to address the substance of most of the questions. He would go off on tangents constantly, like an uninvited poster on DFP. HRC often kept her head down and plowed ahead with serious policy prescriptions while Trump was left to interrupt her like a child.
Trump also seems to think the US is a crap-hole for all African-Americans, our military is crap, all the jobs left the country, the world is eating our lunch, NATO is ripping us off, and HRC is responsible for every bad thing that happened while Bill Clinton was president, while the Republicans controlled Congress, while W was president, while the Republicans controlled Congress, while Obama was president and while Republicans controlled Congress. I think he may have said that HRC went back in time and stole the Lindbergh baby.
Talk about big crock country, the whopper of the night had to be Trump claiming that his most impressive quality was his “temperament.” Clinton clearly baited him into exposing his lack of proper temperament.
They are worried about Obama and HRC taking their guns and Trump is suggesting stop and frisk and take their guns. But the NRA knows that Trump will only apply this to minorities, so it is perfectly acceptable. Can you imagine if HRC proposed stop and frisk and take their guns? Breitbart headline: Clinton proposes abolishing the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendments to the Constitution.
One good ol’ gal Trump voter said on the TV last night; “Well, I’m a votin’ for the conservative PARTY, and if this JACKASS is leading the mule train – so be it. He’s still got my vote.” And there you have the reason the Repubs control SD and other “deep red” states.
Hillary kicked butt last night. Trump was a mess and looked more frustrated as the debate went on. Very entertaining to watch. He wasn’t expecting to get clobbered but she nicely chewed him up and spit him out with poise.
Careful, Jerry: if you go calling for boycotts of businesses backing Trump, Al Novstrup will tear up and say that you’re being disagreable and representing the lowest point in political discourse. (That’s how he closed his remarks at Saturday’s forum. I’m still waiting for the video; I’ll post it ASAP.)
It looked to me, with his facial expressions, that Mr tRump had poopied his depends
I posit no poop, but there could have been some of the elf-consciousness from having a cold and knowing sniffles are coming.