"Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics" and Now We Have Donald J. Trump — Hands Down Champ

When will this national nightmare ever end – who knows???

By way of introduction to this serious topic of having the biggest liar in American history in the White House as our president, his example from a Trump speech to at the Ohio GOP State Dinner on August 24, 2018.

It illustrates the extreme nature this man will go to lie, brag, and built on himself and not much else – this about our Veterans and their health care — my emphasis added:

Trump: “We passed a landmark VA accountability law where we can actually fire people if they're bad to our great veterans. And as I've said, we also passed Veterans Choice, something they've been trying to get for 45 years, Veterans Choice. And I'm so proud of that one. And the Senate came through, and the House came through, and it wasn't easy, but we now have a plan. You know, the veterans, these are the greatest people. And they go to a doctor. They're not feeling well, something's wrong. They'd wait in line for 14 days, and literally, not call in and say, “Come back in two weeks.” You'd be waiting 14 days, 21 days, 32 days, and they'd be waiting in line. And some of them had a small ailment, and it would be terminal by the time they go to see a doctor. It was so bad. It was horrible. And I used to say, I said – you know I said, “It's really – oh, I had something so smart.” I said:

“Listen, I have an idea. If they have to wait that long, why don't we send them to a doctor around the corner?” And everyone said, “Sir, we've trying to get that approved for 40 years.” 

“But I'm good at getting things approved. We're pretty good at that, right, and we got it approved. So we now have Veterans Choice. They can go out and see a doctor if they have to wait. We'll pay the bill, and we'll save a lot of money. We're going to save a lot of lives. And we're making the quality of life better, a lot better. And we're giving our brave war fighters the tools, resources, and equipment they need to defeat any enemy that dares to threaten our people.”

Source: Speech to the Ohio Republican Party

The Facts: It was not Trump's idea to let veterans see private doctors when they face long waits at veterans' hospitals, nor was he the first to get such a plan passed in 40 years. Obama signed the Choice program into law in 2014. The bill Trump signed in 2018 simply altered the existing program.
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The post for today:

Trump economic claims (more lies actually) from The AP:

JOBS: “This election is about jobs. And the beauty of the jobs, people that were stuck in one job, didn’t like it, they now got six different alternatives ...They get one they like, and they are making more money. Wages are going up.” — At recent Indiana rally

THE FACTS: Wages aren’t going up when factoring in higher consumer prices. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that wages have declined in the past 12 months after adjusting for inflation, even with an expanding U.S. economy and strong corporate profits.

ON BLACK AMERICAN EMPLOYMENT: “The fact is that African/American unemployment is now the lowest in the history of our country.” — Trump tweet

THE FACTS: Not exactly. He omits important caveats. Black unemployment did reach a record low, 5.9 percent, in May. But that figure is volatile on a monthly basis. That rate has since risen to 6.6 percent in July. Trump is taking credit he doesn’t deserve for job growth, according to many economists who view the continued growth since the middle of 2009 as the primary explanation for the recent hiring. Meanwhile, there are multiple signs that the racial wealth gap is now worsening and the administration appears to have done little, if anything, to specifically address this challenge.

ON TRADE:

(1) “There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don’t make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off.” — Trump tweet

THE FACTS: Not so fast. It’s questionable whether Trump can unilaterally exclude Canada from a deal to replace the three-nation NAFTA agreement, without the approval of Congress. Any such move would likely face lengthy legal and congressional challenges. Trump wants to get a trade deal finalized by Dec. 1. Several Republicans in the closely divided Senate are insisting that a revised NAFTA deal include Canada. Trump administration negotiations to keep Canada in the reimagined trade bloc are to resume this week as Washington and Ottawa try to break a deadlock over issues such as Canada’s dairy market and U.S. efforts to shield drug companies from generic competition.

(2)  “This is one of the largest trade deals ever made. Maybe the largest trade deal ever made.” — Trump phone call with Mexican President Peña Nieto

THE FACTS: Not even close. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), negotiated by the Obama administration, included the three NAFTA partners — United States, Canada and Mexico — plus Japan and eight other Pacific Rim countries. Trump withdrew the United States from the pact in his third day in office. Even the TPP shrinks in comparison to the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in 1994, the WTO signed by 123 countries. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found the following year that the WTO’s initial membership accounted for more than 90 percent of global economic output.

(3)  “We made the deal with Mexico. ...We’re starting negotiations with Canada, pretty much immediately ... It’s going to be a — it’s a smaller segment, as you know. Mexico is a very large trading partner.” — Trump phone call with Mexican President Peña Nieto

THE FACTS: Trump appears to be suggesting that Mexico is a bigger U.S. trading partner than Canada. That’s not the case. America’s two-way trade — exports plus imports — came to $680 billion with Canada last year. That’s compared to $622 billion with Mexico.

(4) “I smile at Senators and others talking about how good free trade is for the U.S. What they don’t say is that we lose Jobs and over 800 Billion Dollars a year on really dumb Trade Deals....and these same countries Tariff us to death.” — Trump tweet

THE FACTS: The $800 billion is a reference to America’s trade deficit last year. But Trump exaggerates the size of the gap between what the U.S. sells and what it buys from the rest of the world. The trade deficit in goods and services came to $552 billion in 2017. The United States ran an $807 billion deficit in goods such as cars and machinery. But Trump ignored America’s $255 billion surplus in services such as education and finance. Mainstream economists also take issue with Trump’s assertion that trade deficits amount to a loss for the United States. The money didn’t just vanish. In exchange for what they spent on imports, Americans got the benefit of owning everything from made-in-China iPhones to French wine.

THE BORDER WALL:  “The wall will be paid for very easily by Mexico. It will ultimately be paid for by Mexico.” — At recent Indiana rally

THE FACTS: Not according to Mexico. Immediately after Trump’s remarks, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray tweeted to stress, once again, that his country won’t foot the bill for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Videgaray wrote that his country has been “absolutely clear” that Mexico “will NEVER pay for a wall.”

ABOUT SOTU VIDEO: “For years, Google promoted President Obama’s State of the Union on its homepage. When President Trump took office, Google stopped.” — Trump tweet

THE FACTS: The video is incorrect as to Trump. There’s no dispute that Google promoted Obama’s State of the Union speeches from 2012 to 2016, according to webpages captured by the Wayback Machine, an internet archive site. In a statement, Google said it has not historically promoted “the first address to Congress by a new president, which is technically not a State of the Union address,” so it didn’t do so in either 2009, when Obama first took office, or 2017, Trump’s first year as president.

THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION: “What’s going on at @CNN is happening, to different degrees, at other networks - with @NBCNews being the worst ... When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia, they were hurt badly!” — Trump tweet

THE FACTS: There is no evidence of the NBC interview having been “fudged” or doctored in any way, and the White House didn’t respond to requests regarding what Trump was referring to. NBC declined to comment. In the interview, Trump referred in part to “this Russia thing” as a consideration in his decision to fire FBI director Comey. It is possible Trump is frustrated that other comments from the same interview may have received less attention. His lawyers and other supporters have contended that that sentiment is actually helpful for the president, suggesting he couldn’t have been trying to obstruct the investigation by doing something that he knew would actually draw it out longer.

ABOUT CLINTON EMAILS:  “Report just out: China hacked Hillary Clinton’s private Email Server. Hillary Clinton’s Emails, many of which are Classified Information, got hacked by China. Next move better be by the FBI & DOJ or, after all of their other missteps (Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr, FISA, Dirty Dossier etc.), their credibility will be forever gone!” — Trump tweets

THE FACTS: Trump’s own law enforcement agencies dispute that. Trump appears to be citing a story by the right-leaning Daily Caller publication, which reported that a Chinese-owned company in Washington, D.C., area hacked Clinton’s email server. But FBI and Justice Department officials have said publicly that there was no evidence Clinton’s server was hacked by a foreign power. A June report from the Justice Department’s IG on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton investigation said FBI specialists did not find evidence that the server had been hacked, with one forensics agent saying he felt “fairly confident that there wasn’t an intrusion. An FBI official said Wednesday after the Daily Caller story and Trump tweet that the “FBI has not found any evidence the servers were compromised.”

My 2 cents: To date from January 20, 2017 (the date Trump took office), the Toronto Star (Washington, DC office) has documented over 2,400 Trump lies. 

Other agencies (the Washington Post) has documented a total of over 4,200 lies and false statements. That is astonishing – more so, is how the public can just brush it aside as he supporters say, “Well, that’s who he is.” Weak, damn weak and very sad and well, just plain wrong.

What will be the outcome? Who really knows? 

But, this is the worst chapter in American history hands down the winner is and shall always be: Donald J. Trump, and sadly, that is the part he Trump loves best: Always being #1. So, I guess in a way, he has won after all???

Thanks for stopping by.