I’ll Bring Back Jobs.
What jobs? Obama had reduced the unemployment rate to 4.3%–from 10.8% and below where it had been at the best point in the previous Bush/Cheney administration. In reality, he had no intention of bringing jobs back to—for example—Michigan. One of Michigan’s leading political lights was Fred Upton, the Whirlpool heir. He and his counterpart pushing the Fascistrepublican movement in Michigan, Rick Snyder, had a history of moving jobs out of Michigan and treating predominantly black communities as their own fiefdoms. Snyder poisoned the water in Flint a predominantly Black and very poor community. Then, he and Fred Upton, the House member from Benton Harbor and St. Joseph’s, and Upton’s Republican cronies simply commandeered lakeside public lands for their own private country club in St. Joseph/Benton Harbor. What about other jobs? Coal jobs? Clean coal jobs? Never happened. And no other jobs, many, many of which skilled, intelligent people in West Virginia and Kentucky could handle easily and would welcome gratefully—never appeared. It was all a lie.
- I’m a Populist
This, of course was the lie behind all the other lies, the Big Lie. This lie told the American People that he, Donald Trump would work for them and not for rich Right Wing billionaires, Plutocrats, Oligarchs—whatever you want to call them. Being a Neo-Fascist, and wanting to be a dominating, absolute ruling dictator—he is the exact opposite of a Populist. Bernie Sanders is a true Populist. Joe Biden is proving to be a Populist, working tirelessly for the people, on legislation to improve their lives, to defeat the rich and powerful, to make life livable and health care affordable and better. He’s doing away with oppressive debts that people incurred in ways that often left them ruined or virtually indentured. But Trump—no Populist or even an average democratic politician. He is and has been a con-man, a deceiver, a deadbeat, perhaps a criminal and a sexual pervert—but definitely no Populist.
- Ukraine Interfered in the 2016 Election.
Well, this is an obvious one. Russia, not Ukraine, did interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, and on the side of Trump. There were many interactions between Trump key campaign officials and Russian officials and suspected spies. Trump always denied it but the FBI made it quite clear that they suspected collaboration of some kind between Trump campaign officials and numerous individuals in the U.S. who were active in business or government in Russia. The FBI made it clear that a Russian-government-sponsored disinformation campaign had been identified as sending hundreds of thousands or more online messages to Americans to confuse political issues during the election campaign.
- China.
Trump told multiple lies about China, beginning with the effects of the tariff programs.
The tariffs on the Chinese created huge problems which Trump tried to minimize but which continued throughout his administration. He cost U.S. Farmers huge amounts of money, hundreds of billions of dollars in wheat and soybean contracts. He pretended to help with added subsidies, but the amounts, one farmer said, “would not amount to enough to pay the gasoline bills on my pickup trucks.” The cost of his tariffs, because of increased prices to U.S. citizens on Chinese products averaged about $1,000 per family per year, according to economists. Finally, he ignored warnings about the Corona virus, wasted time in getting Americans ready, did not organize the effort to use social distancing, masks, and eventually lied by saying that this was a Communist plot, a virus developed by the Chinese with the deliberate intention of infecting U.S. citizens, a completely fabricated story.
- He lied about health care.
During the campaign, he lied about Obamacare, said that it was a bad deal for Americans and vowed to repeal it and replace it with something better. Well, he did try to repeal it, and came within one vote in the Senate of repealing it (thanks to John McCain’s final vote it was not repealed) but had no plans anyone has ever seen with which to replace it. In other words, he simply wanted to repeal guaranteed health care, affordable…to some degree…health care for families. He lied about it and it would have literally cost many Americans, including children, their lives.
- The Wall.
Trump made enormous promises about a wall between the U.S. and Mexico that would virtually end illegal immigration. Despite huge warnings by Homeland Security and the Border Patrol, he continued to try to build the wall. During the Republican majorities in 2018 and with the still Repblican Senate in 2019, he simply took funds from the military to start building the wall. He actually only did maintenance and improvements to existing border walls. Then he began a new “wall” which many people refer to as simply a fence, but high, between 18 and 30 feet. He completed only 47 miles of new wall at a cost of about $15 billion. Later his former staff member Steve Bannon and a partner, created a non-profit organization to build more wall. But as it turned out, this was a mere fraud, wherein Bannon and his partner absconded with the funds. He was indicted for a Federal crime but Trump pardoned him before he could be tried.
- Make America Great Again
We all know how that turned out. He made it worse. Much worse. Here’s what he did. First he cut taxes on billionaires and on the money they could make through stock in global corporations. He enriched billionaires. But nothing for the average family. Then he encouraged thugs and killers and racists and militia and gun sales and gun owners and violence in the streets. He promoted violence. He promoted anarchist groups. He encouraged thugs and Right Wing gangs to take over the Capitol by force. He cut the staffs of the ERA, the Interior, the Transporation Department, the Energy Department and others like individual places in the National Parks. He hired lobbyists to gut the ERA. He hired the worst Secretary of Labor in the history of the U.S. to run the Transportation department, during which time over 600 people died in crashes to a major, unsoundly built, airliner. He denied, lied about, the results of the election. He tried to stay in office although he lost. He caused an insurrection. In the meantime, all the major departments of government, from the post office, to the IRS, to the State Department, to Health and Human Services, to Homeland Security to the Justice Department all have been decimated and ruined by Trump appointees.
Bush and Cheney started a wasteful, unnecessary war because they were more interested in making money for oilmen than paying attention to the alarming counterintelligence facts that were being delivered to them, Trump was still worse. Despite the fact that Bush and Cheney were responsible for the unnecessary deaths of 4,500 U.S. military personnel, for the wounding and maiming of 30,000 others, for the displacement of about 5 million Iraqi citizens, for the deaths of at least 250,000 other totally innocent Iraqi citizens, plus untold Iraqi soldiers, what Trump did to the country was worse. He is a liar, and a thief and a con man who should never be let near government again.