Trump tweeted his disdain for “Hillary & the Dems” and his perceived “rigging” of two of the debates occurring opposite NFL football games. Apparently Trump just got around to checking out the debate schedule. Unfortunately, Clinton and the Democratic Party have nothing to do with the scheduling of the debates.

The dates for the debates were set in September of 2015 by the Commission on Presidental Debates, a non partisan independent firm. According The Washington Post the Commission said “the CPD did not consult with any political parties or campaigns in making these decisions.”

Trump accused Clinton of rigging the debate schedule on Friday, but on Saturday, on “This Week” on ABC, he said “I don’t think we should be against the NFL…I don’t know how the dates are picked.” He admitted that he couldn’t be bothered to find out how the dates are picked before firing off an accusatory and inaccurate tweet. But his lying didn’t stop there.

“I’ll tell you what I don’t like. It’s against two NFL games. I got a letter from the NFL saying, ‘This is ridiculous,'” he told “This Week” yesterday. The thing is that he didn’t get a letter from the NFL. He made it up. He could have been mistaken or careless in thinking that the Democrats planned the debates, but he either received a letter from the NFL or he did not. Brian McCarthy, or @NFLPRguy, a spokesman for the NFL says definitively that they did not.

First he made up that the Democrats set the dates for the debate, then he says that he received a letter from the NFL supporting him, that doesn’t exist. He made it all up. It’s all completely untrue, and Trump refuses to admit it.

To further patronize his supporters and the American people, an aide for the Trump campaign said that “It’s unfortunate that millions of voters will be disenfranchised by these chosen dates.” Does the Trump campaign feel that its supporters are unaware of DVRs? Or that they are unaware that they have the option to participate in their democracy instead of watching a football game?

Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/07/30/nfl-refutes-trump-claim-that-it-sent-him-a-letter-bashing-debate-schedule/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nfl-denies-sending-donald-trump-letter-over-presidential-debates/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/officials-dismiss-trumps-assertions-nfl-debates-072042835–politics.html

While the national unemployment rate is rather low, hovering below 5% for months now, Trump took a different approach to attacking Obama’s economy by singling out “long-term unemployment.” Long-term unemployment is defined as unemployed for 27 weeks or more. He said it is “the worst long-term unemployment in the last 70 years.”

The long-term unemployment rate is more troubling than the rosier 5% unemployment rate. Trump is wrong about that 70 years number, but he’s not far off as 2016 is pretty high historically. Long-term unemployment at the end of June 2016 was not quite 2 million persons in the US. In 1983 it as nearly 3 million people considered long-term unemployed, significantly higher than it is today. So this period is definitely not “the worst.”

“The worst long-term unemployment in the last 70 years” was actually in 2010, as a result of the Great Recession. Six years ago the long-term unemployment rate was more than three times as high as it is right now. Donald Trump didn’t bother to tweet this graph FRED Economic Research, which gives  a fuller and more accurate portrayal of the state of long-term unemployment in the US, and the steep downward trajectory of the last six years:

You may be thinking that there is no way that Donald Trump saw that graph, maybe he was just mistaken. Here is a larger snip from his Twitter feed, showing two tweets in a row. He used a graph from the very same firm as the above graph, but that looks bad for the status quo to bolster his claim that house ownership is historically low (it actually is). Unsurprisingly, he left out the above graph that would show that long-term unemployment has dropped drastically in the last six years under the Obama administration.

That is a stark indication that Donald Trump is intentionally cherry picking data to bolster his claim that the economy is doing poorly, though it is at historic highs by almost every other measure. It strains credulity that he saw the unfavorable graph but did not see the favorable graph from FRED and chose to inaccurately pick and choose his data.

Sources:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UEMP27OV

Trump’s position on minimum wage has varied pretty wildly. Like many of his positions, abortion and free trade to name a few, his stance on minimum wage has fluctuated from one side of the debate to the other and back again, so it is hard to pin him down.

At his news conference on Tuesday, Trump misquoted Bernie Sanders about Trump’s stance on minimum wage, then called him a liar. “Now, Bernie Sanders lied. Bernie Sanders said in his speech the other day that Donald Trump wants the minimum wage to go below $7. I said, where did he come up with that one?” Saying an opponent “lied” is a pretty strong claim, surely Donald Trump is correct? Let’s look at Bernie Sander’s actual words, because apparently Trump couldn’t be bothered to check them.

“[Trump] does not support raising the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, a starvation wage. While Trump believes in huge tax breaks, huge tax breaks for billionaires, he believes that states should actually have the right to lower the minimum wage below $7.25,” Sanders said at the DNC.  That is what Bernie said, which is quite a bit different than saying that “Trump want the minimum wage to go below $7.”

Trump is actually in favor of raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour, but has said that he wants to eliminate the Federal minimum wage. He would leave it up to the states, even if that meant lowering to below its current level of $7.25.

“The minimum wage has to go up. … At least $10 but it has to go up. But I think that states … I think that states should really call the shots,” he clarified on Tuesday in the same news conference that he called Bernie Sanders a liar for saying that exact same thing. Trump was pretty clear about not having a federal minimum wage floor in a May 8th interview with Chuck Todd:

TODD: Right. You want the fed– but should the federal government set a floor, and then you let the states–

TRUMP: No, I’d rather have the states go out and do what they have to do. And the states compete with each other, not only other countries, but they compete with each other, Chuck. So I like the idea of let the states decide.

As WDTLAY previously reported, he said on May 9th that he doesn’t “know how people make it on $7.25 an hour. Now, with that being said, I would like to see an increase of some magnitude, but I’d rather leave it to the states. Let the states decide, because don’t forget, the states have to compete with each other…So I like the idea of let the states decide.” He seems to have settled into this position, having stuck with it for almost three months now.

Sources:
http://www.factcheck.org/2016/07/trumps-press-conference/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/28/donald-trump/donald-trump-gets-full-flop-stance-minimum-wage/
https://whatdonaldtrumpliedaboutyesterday.com/2016/05/13/the-constantly-changing-trump-positions-on-minimum-wage/

It’s pretty hard for Donald Trump to shock me any more. This will be my 160th post, each featuring a different lie that Donald Trump has told. When I read about Donald Trump appealing to Russian hackers to find and release Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails I swooned. I literally swooned with the implications of this statement.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Let that wash over you. This is a man running for the highest office in the world, trying to become the most powerful man in the world, and he is asking illegal Russian hackers to spy on his political opponent. He is asking criminals from a hostile foreign nation to break into the email accounts of one of America’s most prominent politicians so that he can use it for political gain. He is asking for a foreign government to commit espionage to attack his political opponent. That is the behavior of a tyrant and a dictator.

That isn’t a joke, that isn’t sarcasm. That is not just un-American, that might just be treason.

Is Trump offering a quid pro quo to the Russian government?

Donald Trump is very pro-Russia, leaving conspiracy theorists to wonder if the Putin government is using hackers to help Trump in this election. Putin would be thrilled if Trump wins, as in the same news conference yesterday he said that he would be open to the idea of recognizing Crimea as a part of Russia. Crimea, you’ll remember, is the country that Russia invaded and annexed two years ago. No, not Ukraine, that is a different sovereign country that Russia invaded and annexed in the last two years.

If Trump is willing to publicly ask a hostile foreign nation to attack his political opponents, what will he ask the CIA to do when he is in charge of them?

Sources:

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-conventions/donald-trump-s-plea-russian-hackers-roils-campaign-n618061
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-spoken-vladimir-putin-urges-russian-president/story?id=40922483

Trump tweeted this out over the weekend, as he seems to have embraced Bernie Sanders as an outsider than has also been hurt by a rigged system. It seems very strange that a billionaire demagogue that has clinched the Republican nomination for President would still be whining about a “rigged system,” especially by sympathizing with an avowed Socialist that hates his guts…but these are strange times.

Once again, in his anger towards “the system,” Trump misunderstands the primary process and just doesn’t care what the numbers actually say. It is true that many of the super delegates, delegates that are unbound in the convention voting, were overwhelmingly in support of Hillary Clinton. This is not surprising, as most of those super delegates are made of party movers and insiders, and Clinton has been a national force in the national Democratic party for more than four decades.

If there were no super delegates, Bernie still would have lost, as Clinton beat him soundly in both the popular vote and the delegate count. If most of the super delegates went from Clinton to Sanders then Bernie could have won, but it is ludicrous to think that a large majority of the super delegates would have not only changed their allegiance to Clinton, but gone against the clear will of the people.

Clinton got 2200 regular delegates while Sanders got 1831. Bernie still loses fair and square with regular delegates, if the super delegates were thrown out, as Trump suggested. As it turned out in real life, Clinton got 571 super delegates, to Sanders’ 44. After the public primary, the only way that Sanders could have won was converting super delegates leaning Clinton to vote for him, a hard sell as the popular vote was pretty conclusively Pro-Hillary.

Bernie isn’t your pal, Trump, and he isn’t buying your false sympathy when you make up numbers. Good luck converting those rabid Socialist Berners into Trump votes.

Sources:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/25/donald-trump/no-donald-trump-bernie-sanders-wouldnt-have-won-ev/

Bernie Believers Still Holding Out Hope Superdelegates Won’t Pick Clinton

Fox News CEO Roger Ailes resigned last week in disgrace amid rampant accusations of sexual harassment over his tenure at the news organization. Gretchen Carlson and as many as 25 other Fox News employees past and present have come forward in the past few weeks to tell their stories of a long history of sexual harassment by Roger Ailes. While Ailes’ $40 million golden parachute should soften the blow of his leaving, many people would see this resignation as a sexual predator who used his office to abuse women being removed from that position of power.

Donald Trump is not one of those people.

“I can tell you that some of the women that are complaining, I know how much he’s helped them, and even recently. And when they write books that are fairly recently released, and they say wonderful things about him. And now all of a sudden they’re saying these horrible things about him. It’s very sad. Because he’s a very good person. I’ve always found him to be just a very, very good person. And by the way, a very, very talented person. Look what he’s done. So I feel very badly. But a lot of people are thinking he’s going to run my campaign.”

Trump said that on Meet The Press, and not only defends Ailes by calling him a “very, very good person,” but insinuates that there may be a place on Trump’s campaign team for the man that has been publicly accused of sexual harassment by more than two dozen women. Trump’s favorite Fox News punching bag/new BFF Megyn Kelly was conspicuously silent when many of her Fox News co-workers were coming out to support Ailes.

Trump continues to show his disdain for women, saying that they are “complaining” that they were denied promotion or fired because they would not have sex with Roger Ailes. Trump then calls into question the stories of the victims that have come out “all of a sudden,” implicitly implying that there is some ulterior motive in these claims. Trump’s statements imply that the victims are turning on a great man that has helped them, instead of seeing that these women are freed from the fear of retribution for coming forward.

Gretchen Carlson claims that Ailes pressured her for more than a decade, saying “you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago, and then you’d be good and better and I’d be good and better.” Her lawsuit against him is being reviewed in court.

Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/07/24/donald-trump-defends-roger-ailes-casts-suspicion-on-his-accuser
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/ailes-out-at-fox-news-40m-golden-parachute.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-fall-of-roger-ailes-he-made-fox-his-locker-room–and-now-women-are-telling-their-stories/2016/07/22/5eff9024-5014-11e6-aa14-e0c1087f7583_story.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/megyn-kellys-silence-signaled-worst-roger-ailes/story?id=40842146
http://theslot.jezebel.com/donald-trump-supports-close-friend-and-definite-non-har-1784251960
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/24/trump-s-indefensible-defense-of-roger-ailes-sexual-harassment.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/07/25/trump-lauds-roger-ailes-after-fox-departure/87527750/
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/21/roger-ailes-leaves-fox-news-sexual-harassment-claims

On Meet The Press yesterday, Donald Trump said in his first interview as the Republican Presidential nominee that Hillary Clinton’s Vice Presidential pick, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, received more political gifts than former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. Bob McDonnell stood trial for bribery, though his conviction has since been overturned.

“Bob McDonnell took a fraction of what Kaine took. And I think, to me, it’s a big problem. Now, how do you take all these gifts? Hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Trump told Chuck Todd on Sunday.

McDonnell stood trial for accepting $177,000 in undisclosed gifts. At the time, unlimited gifts from donors were legal and acceptable, as long as they were disclosed. Bob McDonnell did not disclose these gifts, and that is what got him in trouble. Additionally, there were accusations that the gifts, from a supplement company, were so that the Governor would use his office to promote the company.

According to the Virginia Public Access and Politifact, Kaine recieved $162,083 in disclosed gifts. Many of these appear to be legitimate political expenditures, like travel and accommodations for campaigning. Again, these gifts were disclosed, and completely legal at the time. There are also no accusations that there was any quid pro quo for these largely above board and disclosed gifts.

Bob McDonnell, in contrast, took $275,707 in gifts, again according to VPA and Politifact. And those are just the legal disclosed gifts. That does not include the $177,000 that McDonnell is accused of accepting without disclosing. The former governor is still plagued by accusations of pay to play, despite the overturned verdict.

So Donald Trump is seriously wrong on this one. Trump said “Bob McDonnell took a fraction of what Kaine took.” Bob McDonnell accepted $275,707 in disclosed gifts and at least another $177,000 that was undisclosed. That totals out to $452,707 for McDonnell. Tim Kaine received $162,083 in disclosed spending, with no evidence or accusations of any undisclosed spending. That means that McDonnell received three times more than Kaine, not a fraction as Donald Trump said.

Try again Trump, Kaine seems pretty clean.

Sources:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLcL2fSxGKw
http://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2016/jul/24/donald-trump/donald-trump-wrong-tim-kaine-took-fraction-bob-mcd/
http://www.vpap.org/gifts/recipient/4460-tim-kaine/disclosed_by_candidate/?start_year=2002&end_year=2009
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kaines-acceptance-of-gifts-in-state-office-could-offer-republicans-an-opening/2016/07/22/8508b2cc-4f7f-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html

In his speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, Trump said that “Our trade deficit in goods reached, think of this – nearly $800 billion in a single year.” This statement is not entirely untrue, but definitely cherry picks facts to make it look like the US trade deficit is doing worse than it actually is. In an earlier version of the speech, the transcript released early to news outlets, Trump made the additional claim that “our manufacturing trade deficit has reached an all-time high think of this, think of this, our trade deficit is nearly $800 billion,” to get the maximum gloom out of the numbers. Make no mistake, the US trade deficit is large, and a problem that needs to be addressed, but it is certainly not at “an all-time high” and leaves out some important context.

The manufacturing trade deficit was only $681 billion in 2015, not “nearly $800 billion,” up from a previous high of $619 billion in 2007. The trade deficit last year for all goods was $763 billion. I wouldn’t necessarily call $37 billion dollars short “nearly” but it’s close enough for a Trump statistic. This includes manufacturing as Trump said, but also agricultural and most importantly petroleum products. So, the manufacturing deficit is at an all time high, as Trump said, but he said the manufacturing deficit is nearly $800 billion, which it is not.

Though the manufacturing deficit is at “an all-time high,” the total goods deficit is not, and Trump left out some of the bright spots in these numbers. The highest the deficit has ever been was in 2008, when the goods deficit reached $832 billion dollars. Trump  did clean up these numbers a bit in the actually speech, though the transcript released was more inaccurate, and he has made these type of claims in the past.

Trump left out that the US has a trade surplus in services. The US exported a surplus of $227 billion dollars in services last year. If you include that number with the actual goods number of $763 billion, the real total trade deficit number is $536 billion dollars.

Sources:
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-donald-trump-convention-speech-transcript-20160721-snap-htmlstory.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-fact-check

Click to access ft900.pdf

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/21/donald-trump/donald-trump-says-goods-trade-deficit-was-almost-8/
http://www.npr.org/2016/07/21/486883610/fact-check-donald-trumps-republican-convention-speech-annotated

Yesterday, instead of basking in post-convention bliss, Donald Trump decided to revive a long debunked conspiracy theory about a fellow Republican and lie about Ted Cruz’s response to it. “All I did is point out the fact that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast,” Trump told the assembly yesterday, though the picture clearly shows men distributing pamphlets, not eating breakfast. “Now, Ted never denied that it was his father. Instead he said, ‘Donald Trump.’ I had nothing to do with it. This was a magazine that frankly, in many respects, should be very respected.” Basically the old “Hey, I’m just asking questions here” line favored by conspiracy theorists to bolster wild claims without evidence.

There’s a lot of crazy in that statement, so let’s deal with the initial statement in May first, when the Enquirer story came out. Donald Trump told Fox News in May that “Cruz’s father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being, you know, shot. I mean the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right, prior to his being shot? And nobody even brings it up. What was he doing — what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting? It’s horrible.” The media didn’t comment too much on this story, and WDTLAY didn’t cover it then.

Seemingly the only evidence for this story is that there is a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald and a group of men distributing pamphlets in New Orleans in August of 1963 and one of them could be a twenty something Cuban of average height. It sort of looks like Ted Cruz’s father, but even the dubious experts the Enquirer rounded up gave tepid “more similar than dissimilar” type responses. Most of the outside experts seem to agree that the photo is of too low a quality to give an informed opinion. Cruz’s father did live in New Orleans for a time in the 1960s as well as in Dallas when Kennedy was shot, but was by no means a supporter of Communism. Shortly after Castro’s rise to power he never again returned to Cuba.

Trump made the accusation yesterday that Ted Cruz has not denied that the man in the picture is his father, as he has in the past. Except that Cruz has. A lot, and immediately following the original insinuation. “This morning Donald Trump went on national television and attacked my father. Donald Trump alleges that my dad was involved in assassinating JFK. Let’s be clear, this is nuts. This is not a reasonable position, this is just kooky,” Ted Cruz said to reporters just hours after Trump originally made the accusation in May. “And while I’m at it, I guess I should go ahead and admit yes my dad killed JFK, he is secretly Elvis and Jimmy Hoffa is buried in his backyard,” Cruz continued, lampooning Trump’s conspiratorial bent.

Two weeks before Trump made the accusation, Cruz’s communications director categorically told reporters “the story is false; that is not Rafael Cruz in the picture.”

Lastly, Donald Trump had a lot of praise for the National Enquirer, a celebrity tabloid. Not only opining that the tabloid “should be very respected,” he even suggested they should win a Pulitzer Prize for this shoddy, lazy and sensationalized story. “They got OJ, they got Edwards. If that was the New York Times, they would’ve gotten Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting. I’ve always said, “Why didn’t the National Enquirer get the Pulitzer Prize for Edwards, and OJ Simpson, and all of these things?” Trump said yesterday in the same speech. Perhaps The National Enquirer should start reporting on foreign policy, Constitutional law, American history and basic economics. Donald Trump doesn’t seem to be getting his news on these topics from other sources.

Sources:
http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2016/jul/22/donald-trump/pants-fire-claim-ted-cruz-never-denied-father-phot/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/may/03/donald-trump/donald-trumps-ridiculous-claim-linking-ted-cruzs-f/
http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/05/03/watch-trump-calls-out-cruzs-father-old-photo-lee-harvey-oswald
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-defends-linking-ted-cruzs-father-to-lee-harvey-oswald/
http://www.vox.com/2016/7/22/12257388/donald-trump-ted-cruz-jfk-assassination-lee-harvey-oswald

Just watching the news it seems like the world is “spinning apart” as VP nominee Mike Pence likes to say. Police shooting civilians, civilians shooting police, racial violence at home, a coup in Turkey and a terrorist drives a bus into a crowd killing dozens. A Gallup Poll finds a 12% decrease in American’s satisfaction with the way things are going, down to just 17% nationally. Many of the speakers at the Republican National Convention have taken a very dark and dim view of the current state of America, siting the recent violence and gnashing their teeth at what is seen as a weakening of our country.

Donald Trump was no exception in his speech last night. “I have a message for all of you. The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon – and I mean very soon – come to an end,” he said. ”The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life,” he said. 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records “are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens,” he said. America is more dangerous “than I have ever seen and, frankly, than anybody in this room has ever seen,” he said. “At our convention, there will be no lies,” he said. “We will honor the American people with the truth and nothing else,” he said. Well I don’t buy it Mr. Trump, and neither should anyone else.

Saying that “crime and violence will come to an end” is a moronic and patronizing thing to say, and does a grave disservice to the intelligence of the American people. Saying you will end crime and violence is so delusional and patently impossible on its face that Donald Trump should apologize to the American people for thinking that they are so stupid.

Trump invoked the illegal immigrant boogeyman, insinuating that 180,000 illegal immigrants are “roaming free,” raping and murdering upstanding white citizens at will. In reality, immigrants are more law abiding than natural born citizens. Illegal immigrants in particular have a vested interest in keeping their heads down. Don’t forget that crossing a border illegally alone is just a misdemeanor. While violent criminals in this country illegally should of course be found and deported, Donald Trump is using this tiny subgroup of immigrants to whip up his white constituency with tales of a nightmarish racial dystopia.

“America is more dangerous than I have ever seen,” Trump said last night. WDTLAY has already covered this lie, but here is the short version. Historically, crime is down. Way down. The violent crime and murder rates are less than half of what they were in the crime wave of the early 90s. There has been an uptick of violence in the last 12 months which has largely been attributed to crime being so low that it has nowhere to go but up. Unless of course Trump makes good on his promise to abolish violence and crime, of course.

The economy is not doing badly. This month the Dow Jones Index had seven record high closes in a row. Unemployment is below 5%. While GDP growth slowing, our economy is growing steadily. Much of this is do the quick gains the US economy has made in the wake of the 2008 recession.

Lastly, as WDTLAY has already covered, we are not living in dangerous times, historically. In fact this is one of the most peaceful times in human history. 2008 was called the most peaceful year on record, though the wars in Syria, Ukraine and Tunisia, as well as ISIS, have raised that level in recent years.

It is scary to turn on the news this month. I’m afraid to look at my Washington Post notifications because it seems that every day there is a new police shooting, terrorist attack or coup. But don’t buy into the hate and negativity of Donald Trump. He has nothing positive to offer and sees his America of white privilege slipping away, so turns to fear mongering and doom. Dividing America into an US vs. THEM mentality will only serve our real enemies of ignorance and hate.

Sources:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/193832/americans-satisfaction-drops-sharply.aspx?g_source=Politics&g_medium=lead&g_campaign=tiles
http://www.salon.com/2016/07/22/trumps_terrifying_speech_fear_and_xenophobia_become_the_gops_official_platform/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-the-candidate-of-the-apocalypse/2016/07/21/b8ae8fbc-4f7e-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256story.html
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/14/gary-johnson/mexican-immigrants-more-law-abiding/
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/20/us-stocks-open-higher-as-investors-cheer-better-than-expected-earnings.html