The White House has ordered all federal agencies to halt diversity training.  That’s right, folks, Trump has ordered that all training sessions about fighting systemic racism and white privilege in federal agencies, calling it “divisive” and “un-American”.  Russell Vought, the director of OMB, said, “The President has directed me to ensure that federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions.”

Of course, since the money has been appropriated and the contracts let, Trump can’t just arbitrarily cancel them.  So, what will happen is that taxpayer money will be spent and no training will occur.  Why is Trump doing this?  To whip up his last remaining base, racist pigs who hate everyone and everything, of course.  Trump has already pissed off small business owners, large business owners, doctors, nurses, scientists, , public health officials, teachers, and union workers; now he’s alienated members of the military, Blue Star families and Gold Star families.  Apparently all that’s left is Russian gangsters and bigoted mouth breathers waving Nazi and Confederate flags.

He’s finally found his base of last resort.

Trump lies about his enemies’ mental states and physical health in a continuous stream as long as those lies serve his purposes, whatever those are.  Well, karma turned on him yesterday, this time self inflicted.  Here’s how the story has evolved:

Remember last November when Trump made a rushed and unexpected trip to Walter Reed Hospital?  The trip was not scheduled, and he was accompanied by the White House physician.  We asked about the trip, a spokesman said the trip was for preliminary tests before Trump’s annual physical.  We all knew THAT was a lie, but no one really figured out the real reason.  Well, now we know and it’s not good; for Trump I mean.  Here’s how the story is playing out…

Yesterday a new book titled Trump v. The United States by NY Times reporter Michael Schmidt was published.  It is an investigative look at the chaos of the Trump WH and how he is actually threatening the very survival of democracy in the US.  In the book, though, Schmidt mentions that during said November trip to Walter Reed, Pence was put on standby to take over in case Trump needed to be put under anesthesia for a surgical procedure.  That story had not been picked up by any major news agency, and then Trump tweeted this:

So, Trump denies reports that he had a series of mini strokes, when, in fact NO ONE WAS REPORTING THAT.  Maggie Haberman of the NY Times then tweeted:

So, Trump, frantic to kill any story that happens to be true about his health, actually outed himself.  As you would expect, the Twitterverse exploded, and one doctor even gave a plausible argument that Trump is actually displaying signs that he has had a stroke:

The fact that Trump has had a series of strokes explains a LOT of his physical issues including slurring of words, his difficulty walking down the ramp at West Point, and trouble drinking water with one hand.  Everyone in the United States (except for Trumpists) know Trump is in terrible physical condition.  He is at least 40 pounds overweight, he eats junk food every day, and even had to ride a golf cart during a walk of world leaders during a G7 meeting in 2017.  The possibility that he’s had a series of strokes explains all of those unanswered questions about Trump’s health.

Karma is a bitch, to be sure.

Today, the Washington Post published an article about an “undecided voter” from Indiana named Mike Baker.  Baker supposedly watched both conventions yet still can’t make up his mind who who is the best candidate for president.  My first thought on reading this is that Baker is either a closet Trumpist too ashamed to just admit it, or just simply a dumbass.  In the article, Baker fretted over Trump’s personality; he had fretted so much over that key feature that he even sat out the 2016 election, saying that he couldn’t have Trump as a guest in his house.  Okayyyyy….

Baker went on to say that his number one concern, though, was the economy and that he liked Trump’s “pro business” policies.  It was then that I realized that Baker doesn’t understand the economy, not in the slightest, since the economy is in the ditch and has been whipsawed since Trump’s “biggest crowd EVER”  inauguration day up until about 5 minutes ago.  Unemployment exploded this spring to 22 million people, and still is hovering at 13 million.  By all measures that affect American workers, the economy has collapsed.

Fretting about Biden, Baker said, “Trump is defining Biden, but I sort of need to hear Biden define Biden, or at least the Democratic Party to define Biden. It’s got to be more than [Trump] is the worst person on Earth.”  My answer to that is this: When you were watching the Democratic Convention, you must have had your head up your ass looking out through your navel.  The convention carefully laid out Biden’s and the Dems goals and policies.  Oh, and there’s that little detail that Joe Biden has been in the public eye for half a century.  If you don’t know his polices, you’re not paying the slightest bit of attention.

Mike, you’re worried about Turmp’s “personality”?  How about the fact that he’s a fucking felon and corrupting the entire government while destroying centuries long alliances and America’s standing among the entire global community?  How about the fact that he is sabotaging the Post Office, extorted a foreign government, and his lying in a continuous stream about the US voting system simply to steal the next election?  How about the fact that he just used the White House, OUR White House, as a political prop for his cheesy display of corruption and narcissistic obsession?  How about the fact that he’s already said that he’s not going to accept the decision of the voters in November if he loses?

If a voter is “undecided” now, that person is either lying or truly a dumbass.  I’ll let you decide.

One more comment: I find it hard to believe that the Washington Post actually published an interview this stupid.  They had to look really hard to find someone willing to make himself look like an idiot in a national newspaper.  C’mon, folks, you can do better than this.

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.

“Uplifting and Positive” in 75 seconds.

Trump's America in 75 seconds. pic.twitter.com/lxUklU7gW8

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) August 25, 2020