What to Expect From a Criminal

Donald Trump is the first convicted felon to be president, so you really shouldn't trust what he says-- but in his victory speech, Trump vowed he would "govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept. We're going to keep our promises".

While campaigning, Trump promised the biggest mass deportations of undocumented migrants in US history.

He also pledged to complete the building of a wall at the border with Mexico that was started during his first presidency.

Trump has promised an end to inflation, as well as sweeping tax cuts. He also said he would make tips tax-free, abolishing tax on social security payments and cutting corporation taxes.

He has proposed new tariffs of at least 10% on most foreign goods, with imports from China bearing an additional 60% tariff.

Trump again vowed to cut regulations, particularly as a way to help the American car industry. He has constantly attacked electric vehicles, promising to overturn Biden's targets encouraging the switch to cleaner cars.

He has pledged to increase production of fossil fuels (already the highest in the world) - vowing to open areas such as the Arctic wilderness to oil drilling, 

Trump pledged to end the Ukraine conflict "within 24 hours" through a negotiated deal. He has also pledged to end the related violence in Lebanon, but gave no details on how.

Trump said that he would not sign into law a national abortion ban.  

Trump has vowed to sack "within two seconds" of taking office prosecutor Jack Smith, who is leading two criminal investigations against him. 

During the presidential debate with Harris, Trump said that Obamacare was “lousy health care. ... If we come up with something, and we are working on things, we’re going to do it and we’re going to replace it.”  “I have concepts of a plan,” he added during a follow-up exchange.

We'll have to wait and see. 

 

 

 

 

Post Election Blues

Election Night in America

Get to It Dammit!

Trash Talk

The GOP is Making Trump's Slur Against Puerto Rico Even Worse

In the days after Donald Trump’s infamous Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden where a comedian called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” Republicans demanded people “get over” their feelings, claiming that it was just a “joke.” Trump walked around claiming he knew nothing about the comedian, as if he didn't know what was going on at his rallies-- more bullshit from habitual liar.

As a reminder, here’s what MAGA comedian Tony Hinchcliffe said to warm up the crowd of Trump faithful:  “There’s a lot going on. I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”   Then he kept going:  “And these Latinos, they love making babies too,” Hinchcliffe said. “Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.”   The “roast” comedian went on to make racist jokes about Black people, Jews, and Palestinians.

A couple of days later, President Joe Biden said that what Hinchcliffe said was garbage, but MAGA pretended he said all Trump supporters were garbage. Because they are the weirdest people in the world, they decided to walk around wearing trash bags and calling each other trash. They were still doing it the last weekend.  Ironically, Trump and the GOP's lame efforts were only calling further attention to Trump's racism.

Nilsa Vega and Neidel Pacheco of Hellertown, a borough south of Bethlehem, both said they had never voted before, but Hinchcliffe’s remarks were the reason they planned to vote for Harris on Tuesday, reported HuffPost. Pacheco saw Trump’s decision to pose in a garbage truck at a campaign stop in Wisconsin the following day as an additional insult. ‘If he didn’t have nothing to do with it, what’s he doing in the garbage truck?’ Pacheco asked.

By wearing trash bags and talking about garbage and riding around in garbage trucks, these Pennsylvania Latinos think Republicans are doubling down on the insult. And even if Latino voters don’t make that connection, Republicans who continue to talk about garbage are keeping the original story alive.  The fallout is palpable. Here is a report from CNN about Las Vegas Latinos in swing state Nevada, and even Fox News is covering Latino anger in Pennsylvania. 

But who needs anecdotal evidence when we have hard data? A blockbuster Univision/YouGov poll of Pennsylvania Latinos shows just how deeply the garbage scandal damaged the Republican campaign. Among Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania—a group particularly affected by the remarks made at the rally—71% reported that, even if intended as a joke, these comments suggest that there is racism within the Trump campaign, according to Univision.

Furthermore, 62% of respondents said they considered Trump disrespectful toward Latinos, and half said they would be more likely to vote for Harris because of the comments.  “​​While respect for the Latino community remains a priority, Pennsylvania Latino voters also indicated interest in candidates’ economic agendas,” Univision reported. “However, given a hypothetical choice between a candidate who prioritizes respect for the Latino community and another who emphasizes economic growth without explicitly condemning racism, a majority still leaned toward the candidate who demonstrated respect. This finding suggests that, for many Latino voters, cultural respect is a critical value that influences their political choices alongside economic concerns.”

 

. . . Meanwhile, Trump Closes Out the Campaign With More Whining

Former President Donald Trump and his campaign are closing out the 2024 campaign not with confidence, but with a crap ton of whining about how unfair it is that he’s not being treated as the odds-on favorite.

The bellyaching began Saturday night, when Ann Selzer—an Iowa-based pollster who has been an oracle of sorts in predicting which candidate had the momentum in the final days of the last three elections—released a shock poll finding Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump in Iowa.

Trump accused Selzer of voter suppression, and said any polls showing him losing should be illegal. 

“It is called suppression. They suppress,” Trump said of the Iowa poll at one of his low-energy rallies on Sunday. “And it actually should be illegal. Because in many ways, it is worse than the written word."

Trump’s campaign also sent out a memo accusing media outlets of trying to suppress the vote by releasing polls showing Trump losing.

CNN also reported that Trump is privately complaining to his close allies about why women don't like him—apparently not understanding that women don’t like it when their freedom to make decisions about their own bodies is taken away from them.

 

Yes She Can

If You Care About the Economy, You Need to Vote for Harris

Billionaire Mark Cuban has argued this week that electing Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris would be better for the economy than another term under GOP nominee Donald Trump. Cuban was responding to Trump's ridiculous claims that he created a great economy during his administration while Harris somehow managed to ruin the economy while serving as vice president.

"You have to look at the root of inflation. I'll tell you exactly when the very first kernel of inflation was set. And that was in April of 2020,” Cuban said. “The gas prices were $1.87. The oil companies went to Donald Trump and said, ‘We are getting crushed with gas prices at $1.87. Please go to Saudi Arabia and your friend MBS [Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud], please go to Russia and your friend Vladimir Putin and ask them to reduce production.’”

“So he had a choice to make: Does he help his oil company cronies or does he help keep gas prices low?” Cuban continued. “You already know what he did. He went to support his oil company cronies, went to MBS and Putin and said, please reduce production. That was the day inflation started. And you can track—minute by minute, hour by hour, month by month, year by year, quarter by quarter,” Cuban explained, saying that the gas prices and inflation rates only began going down when that deal ended in 2022.  “So you can take all you want and blame it on the Biden administration. But it started with Donald Trump."

In April 2020, Trump, did in fact, publicly called on Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut back on their oil production because it was hurting the U.S. oil industry, which represents some of his biggest donors. Later that month, Reuters reported that Trump threatened to cut military support to Saudi Arabia if it didn't reduce production and help out his oil tycoon friends.  Since June 2022, gas prices have dropped from national averages of above $5 per gallon to just over $3. Naturally, this hasn’t stopped Trump from lying and complaining about the economy under President Joe Biden. 

The reality is that the Biden-Harris administration has been able to clean up a lot of the Trump administration’s swampy mess, and while Harris continues to offer up policy ideas to further ease the financial burdens Americans face, Trump has only offered up poorly conceived tariff plans that most economists—and even Trump’s richest backer—say would be ruinous for anyone not making millions of dollars.

This week, the editors of the Economist endorsed Kamala Harris, saying that a second Trump would come with unacceptable risks.  Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moody's Analytics, has said that he believes the U.S. economy will perform better and working Americans will fare better if Vice President Harris wins the presidency.

The fact is that the U.S. economy has grown the fastest among major industrial nations since the pandemic began. Our economy has grown twice as fast as Canada’s, three times as fast as France’s and Japan’s, and four times as fast as Britain’s. Under Biden, the average unemployment rate has been lower than under any president since Lyndon Johnson. 

Many economists have warned that Trump's plan to impose tariffs or taxes on all imported goods will send inflation soaring and ignite a dangerous trade war that could cause a recession and throw millions out of work. Economists also warn that Trump’s plans, including his plan to slash taxes on the wealthy and corporations, not only will increase the federal debt by a colossal $7.8tn, but could bankrupt the social security system and lead to a 33% across-the-board cut in social security benefits.

 

Mary J. Blige - You Ain't the Only One