Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Wednesday is Trump Hump Day




Two Americas:






Jonathan Chait: 

"It is hard to find any important accomplishment in history that completely solved a problem. The Emancipation Proclamation only temporarily and partially ended slavery; the 13th Amendment was required to abolish it permanently, and even that left many former slaves in a state of terrorized peonage closely resembling their former bondage. The Lend-Lease Act alone did not ensure Great Britain would survive against Nazi Germany; the Normandy invasion did not ensure the liberation of Europe. 

Victories are hardly ever immediate or complete. The fight continues and history marches on. 

The climate agreement in Paris should take its place as one of the great triumphs in history."










Trump:  The incomparable LIAR:

Donald J. Trump’s record on truth and accuracy is astonishingly poor. 

So far, we’ve fact-checked more than 70 Trump statements and rated fully three-quarters of them as Mostly False, False or “Pants on Fire” (we reserve this last designation for a claim that is not only inaccurate but also ridiculous). 

We haven’t checked the former neurosurgeon Ben Carson as often as Mr. Trump, but by the percentages Mr. Carson actually fares worse. 

 Carly Fiorina, another candidate in the Republican race who’s never held elective office, does slightly better on the Truth-O-Meter (which I sometimes feel the need to remind people is not an actual scientific instrument): 

Half of the statements we’ve checked have proved Mostly False or worse. Most of the professional politicians we fact-check don’t reach these depths of inaccuracy. They tend to choose their words more carefully.



My big question for GOP field: Why didn't more candidates join Bush and Graham in exposing Trump as a bigot and blow hard? Cowards

20 comments:

Connie said...

I've been living in President Obama's America before there was a Preaident Obama. Honestly it was really lonely until you all showed up.

Trumps America is a reflection of humanity got wrong throughout history. Been there, did that. Can we PLEASE move on now?

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Connie,
I second that. Attention accorded to bullies and lunatics merely enables and encourages them. Just like Islamophobia plays into the hands of ISIS, inordinate media attention (bloggers included) plays into the hands of demagogues.

Time to move on. I'm sick of it too.

kevin said...

I wonder why Shaw won't take your advice Octo??

Kevin Robbins said...

They say you have to hit bottom before seeking help. It's hopeful that the GOP is getting close.

Shaw Kenawe said...

It’s dangerous to not take Trump seriously
Donald Trump represents a kind of evil that is ridiculous but also very, very serious.
by Emma Healey is a Toronto-based writer.



"...it’s so dangerous to not take Trump seriously. He represents a mutation of some of the ugliest, most hateful attitudes currently present in American politics. If all we do (even here, across the border) is laugh at him, he still gains power in the form of a cultural foothold. As Torontonians, we’ve experienced this firsthand via the long saga of Rob Ford: when a politician is skilled at drawing media attention, being laughed at still means they’re being listened to, and in some ways, it gives them more of a platform than being taken seriously ever could.

There are different ways for evil to seep into public discourse and politics. It can grab hold of people’s fears and prejudices, inflating and exploiting them. Or it can seep between the cracks of our inattention and complacency and flourish there, like mould. Donald Trump represents a kind of evil that is ridiculous but also very, very serious. Regardless of what he ends up doing in the race, he is a symptom of a far, far greater problem. It’s hard to take him seriously, but right now we don’t have a choice."

Shaw Kenawe said...

"kevin" @9:52,

(O)CT(O) expresses his opinion here. He doesn't try to tell me what to do.

Ronnie's Ray Gun said...

The goons on the far right call treating people with decency "PC." And Donald Trump is their champion. He calls his opponents "losers," "stupid," "jerks," and non-white cultures "rapists," "killers," women are "pieces of ass," and all the democrats are "incompetent," "stupid," and African-Americans "losers," "light weight," and "dummy."

So to the goons on the far right, Donald Trump's style of rantings is "authentic" and "non-PC," something they admire and wish more of their pols were like. IOW they're a bunch of low-class, rotten mannered, cry-babies.


The far right and their unthinking devotion to Trump is nothing more than a symptom of frustration over their losses on cultural and political issues. Rubio wants to overturn marriage equality? fat chance, idiot. The goony-loony right has lost on cultural issues and they did not overturn Obamacare, and we've got an agreement on climate change. And the goony-loonies weren't able to pin a scandal on the Obama administration. That's where the "frustration" and "anger" is coming from.

Shaw Kenawe said...

As usual, Charlie Pierce gets it:

"First of all, none of these people will be my commander in chief. None of these people will have the job of keeping me "safe." The first priority of a president is not keeping the country safe. The first priority of a president—indeed, the only priority of a president—is to preserve, protect and defend not me, but the Constitution of the United States. So sitting there, listening to a bunch of people who never served a day in combat talk about how they're going to turn the Middle East into obsidian glass and how they will keep me safe, it was hard not to fall off my chair. Frankly, I wouldn't hire any of these people to watch my car in a valet parking lot, let alone lead the country into what they never miss a chance to call, "the Third World War." Chris Christie? Ted Cruz? Marco Rubio?"

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

According to quantum physics, Kevin's comment (at 9:52 AM above) is more than 99.99% empty space.

Les Carpenter said...

Kevin said - They say you have to hit bottom before seeking help. It's hopeful that the GOP is getting close.

Perhaps. But time is relative. It is possible we may be looking at 20 years or longer.

Ducky's here said...

Last night's highlight was Chris Christie (he's a former Federal prosecutor and uniquely able to fight terrorism, you know) stating that a "No Fly" is a terrific idea (he's going to fight the ISIS air force) and he would strike Russian aircraft entering the zone.
Hell, go for it, fight most of the Middle East and Russia to boot. It's all good on the fringe right.

Light 'em up and see if the desert glows.
I believe there was a reference to making it glow last night.

If the take away from last night isn't the the Republican party is insane then we are lost.

Ducky's here said...

RN, the TGOP is not close to hitting bottom.
The haven't admitted there's a problem. They can't get much more crazy, true but they seem to enjoy that state.

Paula said...

Did anyone mention that Carly Fiorina is a serial liar?

Fiorina last night on the debate: One of the things I would immediately do, in addition to defeating them here at home, is bring back the warrior class — Petraeus, McChrystal, Mattis, Keane, Flynn. Every single one of these generals I know. Every one was retired early because they told President Obama things that he didn’t want to hear.”

Politifact noted that General Keane resigned in 2003. He never served under President Obama, so that’s awkward. It is hard to tell a President things he didn’t want to hear when you weren’t serving during his seven years. Not even for a minute.

General Stanley McChrystal got a lot of what he recommended to the White House, even though many of President Obama’s national security team disagreed with his troop surge call.

Politifact notes it was Vice President Biden who disagreed with the General. But as anyone who wasn’t living under a rock or Fox News stupor knows, McChrystal made the grievous error of letting a Rolling Stone reporter embed with him and not realizing that the things he and his staff said would be quoted. And he/they said really stupid things about Biden and other top administration leaders. He was insubordinate, a thing that most Republicans wouldn’t tolerate for a minute

General David Petraeus retired in 2011 because President Obama nominated him to head the CIA, and he left to take that position. Which is sort of like leaving due to telling Obama things he didn’t want to hear, but not at all. Petraeus was later busted for sharing classified information with a woman he was having an affair with, so he resigned in 2012.

But Fiorina is a TP Repub, so truth isn't important, only bashing Obama is. How many times will fact checkers show that she's way out of her league and she has about as much chance of winning the nomination as your average TPer has in winning a truth telling contest.

kevin said...

I wonder why liberals give Trump space (TV air time, editorial) like Shaw does. MSNBC has become Trump central giving him hours of free air time every night. Not even FOX gives him that kind of air time. He's so bad, stop giving him attention.

kevin said...

RN, no I didn't say that.
Octo, I'd rather Shaw have empty space rather than give Trump so much attention.

kevin said...

I guess Octo also gets to insult people instead of serious responses. That tells me all I need to know about your blog, not to mention you give Trump the attention he does not deserve. I won't watch MSNBC if they continue to give Trump free air time, prime time, and I won't bother to read this insult blog again.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Small "k" kevin,

What you don't understand is that we have to keep Trump in all of his vulgarity before the voting public. Pretending he doesn't exist won't make him go away or lessen his popularity.

(O)CT(O) didn't insult anyone.

Les Carpenter said...

kevin - Kevin Robbins did say that and my response was to him.

Connie said...

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

I focus on trump because I don't trust him not to make a mess on the carpet.

When I say move on, I mean stop repeating history and expecting a different end result.

I believe Octo got it. He is a cephalopod after all.

This is Shaws blog. I did not intend to come in and tell anyone what to do. That's why I'm clarifying here.

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

kevin @ 3:55 pm,
Q: What's the difference between an auto mechanic and a quantum mechanic?
A: The quantum mechanic can get the car inside the garage without opening the door.

Someday when you are a big Kevin with a capital 'K' you'll understand the joke.