Trump’s tsunami of bullshit dragged on for over an hour last night, illegally staged at the White House Coronafest of loyalists and GOP congressional invertebrates.  During his narcissistic tirade Trump repeated one of his favorite whoppers – that he created the “greatest economy in history” and that last month the US added 9 million jobs, “the most ever added in history”.  The tiny detail he omitted is that we’re still down 12 million jobs lost since, asleep at the switch, he allowed COVID-19 to paralyze the economy, costing trillions of dollars, millions of lost jobs, and wiping out the savings of millions of Americans.

Trump is the biggest bullshitter in the history of the presidency.  Hell, he’s the Mozart of Bullshit.  I’m pretty sick of it and how his sycophants swallow said bullshit as if it’s apple pie with Blue Bell. Let’s hit these lies head on.  The following charts are 25 years of key economic measures.  First, GDP growth:

Average GDP growth tends to run 2% to 3% per year.  That continued during the entire Trump infestation, with no material changes up until this year. There are two notable aberrations in the rate, one the Great Recession in 2008 at the end of the GWB administration, and, of course, this year where Trump’s incompetence has driven the economy into the ditch and will probably finish down 14%, the worst economic performance in modern US history.  This is what happens when you have a lunatic at the helm of the US government.

Second, wage and salary growth:

Wages and salaries follow a similar pattern general rising and falling with the economy.  The same aberrations are apparent here, with no abnormally high growth rate during the first 3 years of the Trump infestation.

Third, unemployment rate:

Unemployment, up until Trump’s massive 2020 failure, continued to follow the same trajectory established during the Obama administration as the economy recovered from the Great Recession.  You can see the explosion in unemployment rate this year.

Lastly, the S&P 500 Index:

There is one measure where Trump is correct – the stock market.  With the Fed pumping in trillions of dollars into the economy by buying US debt, it is propping up stocks.  Combine that with Trump’s massive tax cut in 2017, and there is clearly a winning class in this economy, and we know which one that is.

So, I’m here to call Trump’s bullshit, bullshit.  He has fabricated from whole cloth a booming economy and prosperity which simply doesn’t exist in any form.  Add this to Trump’s massive failures in public health, diplomacy, trade, environment, and social justice and it’s impossible for anyone only marginally objective to call Trump qualified for another term.

The takeover of the GOP is complete. The Republican Party capitulated to Trump in toto today, declining to even propose or vote on a platform, the first time in history.  While struggling to stay vertical with no spinal columns, the rules committee issued a statement, courageously stating –

You can read the US Attorney’s announcement here. Bannon, et al were indicted for defrauding tens of thousands of donors to a crowd funded scam of “We Build the Wall” that collected $25 million.  Bannon and his partners are accused of funneling over $1.5 million to themselves through fake invoices and dummy non-profits.  Bannon himself took $1 million.  The DOJ has got them dead to rights.  Maybe they’ll try to get Bannon to flip on Trump for some unrelated charge, but as JJ said, expect pardons for these thieves.

Last weekend, “senior advisor” Jared Kushner made the Sunday morning talkshow circuit arrogantly crowing about his own negotiating prowess after Trump announced the surprise Middle East “peace” agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Welp, now we know how that got done…the New York Times is reporting that Trump has made a quiet behind the scenes agreement with the UAE to sell them F-35 stealth fighters and advanced technology drones.  They’re going to use those weapons to threaten…wait for it…Israel.  So, let’s be clear – Jared’s excellent negotiating skill he took credit for last Sunday was actually father in law’s bribery to get the UAE to sign on the dotted line, get a favorable headline, and, BTW, to throw Israel under the bus.

That’s called quid pro quo, just like he tried out with Ukraine, Stormy Daniels, and Roger Stone.  Yeah, it’s that bad.

We have now been in isolation for 129 days while the president and the morons in Austin spin gossamer tales and fantastical fantasies ignoring the simplicity of science.  As Neil deGrass Tyson famously said, “The good thing about science is that it is true whether or not you believe in it.”  Cases of Coronavirus have exploded in not only Texas, but other red states like Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and Oklahoma.  Even California continues to be threatened due to the idiocy of some of its populace.

Those of us at most risk try to protect ourselves while our leaders do nothing to actually do anything to help.  I’ve never felt so exposed to risk since my draft lottery in 1971 during the horror of the war Viet Nam.  I have no confidence in our state government, and certainly not in the federal government that has devolved into a fascist regime run by criminals and screwballs.  And while all this is crashing down around our ears, what is Trump doing?  Besides firebombing by tweet, he’s sending out federal agents in unidentified combat uniforms carrying weapons of war and driving in unmarked vehicles to attack peaceful protestors against the very violence these stormtroopers are committing.  Against the orders of state and local authorities, Trump has sent these goons in for his own political purposes, trying to appear powerful in the face of his own abject ignorance and weakness.  The result?  Peaceful protests have become violent, turned so by the very agents Trump has declared are there to enforce the peace.  Last night, the mayor of Portland was actually gassed by federal goons in unmarked uniforms while he was speaking to his own people.

This. Is. Enough.  We all know the mental and moral state of the most corrupt president in US history.  He doesn’t care if you live or die, and has actually become the leading cause of death in the US after his unimaginable recklessness and gross negligence as the pandemic exploded in our country during the last six months.  Trump’s most recent assault on American’s constitutional rights and common decency by his unidentified goons has been exposed by Reuters and the Lawfare blog, showing documents that articulate a strategy of “protecting” monuments and federal property from “violent criminals” in America’s cities.  Of course, that’s not at all what they’re actually doing.  What they’re actually doing is starting violence where no violence existed in order to justify Trump expanding this to other cities to cause more violence to give Trump the excuse to expand…you get the drill.

All of this effort was organized in secret by Trumpists in the WH and “acting” officials in the DHS.  It’s designed in such a way that its secrecy makes it almost impossible to exercise oversight by the Congress.  This operation certainly requires funding by illegally using money appropriated for other purposes.  And all this is happening with McConnell laying down and allowing Trump to do what he wants, when he wants as he destroys what’s left of our democracy.

To summarize – Trump is violating the Constitution, federal laws, and two centuries of practice in not using federal forces on its own people.  DHS was founded as a knee-jerk reaction to the 911 attacks.  The problem is that having DHS consolidates too much authority in too few officials with not enough oversight by the legislative and judicial branches.  The DHS must be broken up post haste.  I know that won’t happen any time soon, but this is just one more righting of a wrong on the list of thousands of wrongs that must be fixed after we fumigate the WH and the Senate.

Roger Stone, Trump’s self described chief dirty trickster, has just had his sentence commuted by The President of the United States Don Donaldo Trumps, freeing him from paying the price for colluding with Russians, slandering political opponents and violating virtually every modicum of common decency and then lying to the DOJ about it. Let’s be clear here: Roger Stone colluded with Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange to disclose thousands of emails stolen from DNC and staff emails to damage Hillary Clinton in 2016.  He also participated in operations to slander Clinton and others.  THEN, he lied to the DOJ about his activities.  In an act of abject corruption (once again) Trump commuted Stone’s sentence to protect him from justice.

This corruption must not stand.  Come January 20, 2021, the jails must be opened for those who have violated the public trust and made millions on the backs of honest Americans.