Who am I kidding? Trump's not even smart enough to be Badger...
Seriously, take five seconds and remind yourself NONE OF THIS IS NORMAL!
On with the Countdown!
20) In a tweet, master criminal Trump states collusion is not a crime. He then immediately says it's irrelevant if it is a crime or not, because he swears he never colluded. He then says, even though he just stated collusion is not a crime, "crooked Hillary" is guilty of it. What a freaking moron. (7/31)
19) Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow is admitting he misled the public (lied) in regards to his initial descriptions of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting. "I have to say, over time, facts develop." An interesting way to describe outright dishonesty. (8/5)
18 ) Trump and his Administration outright lied about poverty levels in the US because they were infuriated a United Nations report correctly pointed out 18 million Americans are living in 'extreme poverty.' The UN report goes onto show the Trump Administration's tax cuts for the wealthy have made those poverty numbers worse, and will continue to do so. The Administration insisted the UN report lied, and proceeded to post counter-statistics they claimed proved their point. A FOIA filing obtained emails which showed the White House ignored its own internal economic analyst's findings and advice, instead deciding to openly lie to the American people with made up statistics. Poverty is indeed getting worse in America, and Trump is responsible. (8/3)
17) For the third week in a row, Trump's claimed polling numbers show he's more popular than Lincoln, this time making the bogus claim at a rally in Florida. Once again, Lincoln was dead 80 years before presidential polling began. As brazen as this lie might be, you'd think Republicans who respect Lincoln would call him out on it. NOPE! At the rally. Trump also stated he thinks you need an ID card to go buy groceries in the US, more proof how out of touch he is with the modern American. Later in the week, at a rally in Ohio, Trump once again claimed to have won the women vote in 2016. He didn't. He lost it by 13%. (7/31, 8/5)
16) North Korea is actively targeting the US with nuclear missiles, and new activity has been reported at the nuclear sites Trump insisted North Korean Presdient Kim Jung-un 'pinkie swore' he'd shut down. This is the latest proof Trump's Korean Peninsula policy is in utter shambles. North Korea did eventually return remains of US soldiers from the Korean War, but they only returned one dog tag, and there doesn't seem to be any way the North Koreans could've concluded the remains in the boxes returned to the US were actually US service members. The US did do the right thing and hosted a ceremony with the returned remains, but testing is beginning on the remains to determine if they are indeed US soldiers. Regardless, Trump praised North Korea dictator Kim Jong-un for keeping his word. The very next day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted the truth to Congress, North Korea never had any intent on working with the US on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Pompeo admitted Kim is still making bomb fuel and new missiles. A reminder: Trump ordered all US/South Korean joint military maneuvers to stop immediately as a concession to the North Koreas without any guarantee they'd work on denuclearization. (7/31, 8/3)
15) Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced the expansion of access to short term health insurance plans. This is bad news for the Affordable Care Act as the design was to only allow short term plans (plans which offer very limited coverage, don't cover any specific set of benefits, cap what they'll allow to be treated in a year, and allows for pre-existing conditions) as a temporary 3-month hold over until people could get into the exchanges. Now Trump is allowing them to become a primary source of insurance. Not only do people who get short term plans really not have any coverage, but the ACA exchanges are more expensive as younger people taking short term plans means a larger percentage signed up for ObamaCare are the elderly and the sick. (8/2)
14) Bad news for fans of Trump's tax bill. Trump promised the economic growth from the bill would pay for any shortfalls and spending increases not accounted for. Funny story: it doesn't! Debt levels are piling up for the US government, pushing borrowing costs higher. The Treasury Department announced it's having to increase the size of its auctions to help offset the exploding budget deficits. Remember when Republicans used to scream at the top of their lungs about how bad deficits were under President Obama? I sure do! (8/2)
13) To be fair, take the person making the allegations with a grain of salt (screaming at White House employees, leaving an insane amount of shoes everywhere she went, showing up at the White House for wedding photos unannounced, and trying to storm the White House private residence when she was fired), but former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault-Newman is getting ready to release her book and the allegations she makes against Trump are very similar to other people's observations. She noticed his mind seemed to be in decline; "[he] rambled. He spoke gibberish. He contradicted himself from one sentence to the next." This is something many people have noticed, especially after his bizarre behavior at the last few rallies, and after some of his tweets lately. (8/2)
12) The Trump effect on tourism is undeniable. After worldwide tourism to the USA dropped 12.9% in 2017, it's now projected to drop a further 11.7% in 2018. When counting the economic loss not only to the previous year's numbers but is also removing the average growth the US tourism industry should be having, we're looking at tourism revenue losses for the US in the realm of near 100 billion a year, solely because Trump is in office. Also the drop in foreign students applying to get graduate degrees in the US has dropped by 4%, at least 32,000 foreign students. Considering the cost of a higher education degree, this loss is costing the higher education economy at least a billion dollars a year, much more when factoring in lifestyle needs for a graduate student. (8/4)
11) White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow got angry when his hypocrisy on trade was pointed out in an interview. The interviewer he got testy with is one of the most neutral journalists out there, Public Radio Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal. Ryssdal first called out Kudlow for implying the economic recovery only started with Trump. When Ryssdal pointed out economic recovery has been ongoing for 10 years, Kudlow insisted the recovery under Obama was the weakest recovery ever, referring to it as growth recession. He absolutely made that up. He's lying to drive a narrative. When Ryssdal then asked him about how Trump's policies have cost people jobs, Kudlow initially waved it off, but when pressed about it stated "Now don't class warfare me or anything like that." All Ryssdal asked was about the loss of jobs due directly to Trump's economic polices and Kudlow brought out the class warfare card. He then stated the tariffs have been positive on the economy, another outright lie. (8/3)
10) In one of the most racist attacks I have ever seen anyone in our senior levels of government put forward, Trump attacked NBA player LeBron James and CNN anchor Don Lemon after Lemon interviewed James about his support for a new school in Akron, Ohio. Both James and Lemon are African American. Via Twitter: "James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made LeBron look smart, which isn't easy to do. I like Mike!" The last comment was apparently in reference to Michael Jordon. Most of the athletic and African American community, as well as most other Americans, are coming to James and Lemon's defense. Don Lemon's response was perfect: "who's the real dummy? The man who puts kids in classrooms or the one who puts kids in cages?" Michael Jordon has come out on the side of James, in a rare political statement for the former player. Also, shockingly, First Lady Melania Trump was recently praising LeBron for the same thing her husband was ridiculing. A spokeswoman for the First Lady lashed out at CNN for pointing out Melania's praise of James. Trump, after the NFL didn't bite on his renewed attacks, is now picking a fight with another African American, trying to win points with his racist supporters. Also, Trump is clearly a racist himself. (8/4-5)
9) Showing the trade war with China is likely to get FAR worse before it gets better, Trump is now proposing a 25% tariff on over 200 billion in Chinese goods, an attack which will likely be met with equitable tariffs from the Chinese. One of the problems experts point to is Trump including American companies products which are produced in China on his tariff list, including bicycles, baseball gloves and beauty products, tariffs which will hurt American companies. On a separate, but related economic note, China stated they HAVE TO retaliate against Trump's tariffs, "to defend the nation's dignity." (8/1-2)
8) Two legal rulings against the Trump Administration on Friday. First, a judge lashed out at Trump and the White House for their incredibly incompetent reunification attempts of migrant parents and children they separated at the border. This after the government proposed non-profit groups be used, instead of the US government, to locate the 500 people the US Government deported without the children they came to the border with. The judge exploded at this attempt to brush off their responsibility. This is "100% the responsibility of the Administration." "For every parent who is not located there will be a permanently orphaned child." The Administration also were told they had to fully reinstate the DACA program for people who were brought to the US illegally as young children and have been here for an extended period of time, only knowing the US as their home. This included ordering the US government to accept new applications for citizenship from Deferred Action against Childhood Arrivals. (8/3)
7) As California is ravaged by wildfires, with multiple fatalities reported, Trump has remained silent, until now. He probably should have remained silent. He DID NOT sent condolences to the families who have lost loved ones. He DID NOT voice sympathies for the people who have lost everything. He DID NOT praise the firefighters and rescue crews risking their lives. Nope, he attacked the state. "California Wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws...[California's water] is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop spreading!" Trump's insane. It's not environmental laws but climate change which is making these fires worse. No one has ANY idea what 'dumping their water into the Pacific' means (is he talking about rivers???), and Trump is now officially anti-Tree. How Saruman from Lord of the Rings of him. (8/5)
6) Trump's former Campaign manager Paul Manafort went on trail and it's clear his defense for the numerous financial fraud charges against him is that Rick Gates, his former assistant and a person who has already plead guilty in the Mueller investigation, is the real thief. Manafort's defense team is micro focusing on Gates, even though the prosecution is planning on bringing in 35 total witnesses against Manafort. Most legal experts are not expecting this strategy to work. By the end of the week, things were not looking good for Manafort. The biggest revelations of the week are that he was bankrolled in the tens of millions by Ukranian Oligarchs tied to Russia, and they supported his lavish lifestyle. Also it's been proven he repeatedly lied over and over again about his finances, paying massive bills through shell companies originating in Cyprus. Paraphrasing what one legal analyst stated, 'I'll eat a hat on live TV if [Manafort] is not found guilty on at least one of the charges.' (7/31-8/4)
5) Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani is back at it. After a disastrous series of interviews on Fox News and CNN, where he started to float the idea that even if Trump had colluded, collusion is not illegal (it's super illegal!) Giuliani claimed there was a meeting which took place prior to the Trump Tower meeting in 2016 where Donald Trump Jr. (Tweddle Dee), Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates planned their strategy for the Russian meeting. Giuliani tried to walk back the massive revelation with a 2nd Fox News interview. He tried to claim the meeting was about to become public, but it hadn't been at the time Guilianai revealed it. Giuliani then insisted the meeting never happened, but insisted Trump himself was not aware of the meeting, something even the Fox News interviewer caught Giuliani on. When asked point blank if Trump was aware, or at, this meeting, Giuliani's last resort was ignorance. He said "I don't know" if Trump was aware of, or at that meeting. By the evening, Giuliani was insisting his entire bizarre behavior of the day had to do with an attempt to stop a New York Times story he said was planted by Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen. (7/30)
4) At Trump's migrant child detention centers, things somehow have gotten even worse. Father's and sons at one facility in Texas are planning on striking because conditions within their facility are horrendous. A 14 year old girl being held at a facility in Arizona has been sexually abused. An employee of the facility has been arrested on suspicion of the sexual abuse. And at a different facility in Texas, a toddler died after being released from the facility, with the likely cause of death being negligent care and an untreated respiratory illness. (8/1)
3) In a clear sign Trump is terrified of Mueller, he orders, via Twitter, Attorney General Jeff Sessions to un-recuse himself and stop the Russia investigation before it goes any further. He then claimed the Federal government set him up by not warning him against hiring Paul Manafort. People immediately point to the Jeff Sessions tweet as a blatant attempt to obstruct justice. What caused Trump to demand Sessions fire Mueller is that Mueller has apparently approached the White House ready to interview Trump about the obstruction of justice. ABC News is reporting Mueller has a limited scope of questions, both oral and written. Apparently Trump's lawyers are freaking out, and so is Trump, hence the early morning 'FIRE HIM!' tweet. He protested being asked about obstruction of justice by giving another textbook example of obstruction of justice...WOW!!! (8/1)
2) Jonathan White, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services, the group responsible for looking after the families Trump is separating at the border, testified to the Senate he specifically warned the Administration the separation of migrant children from their parents would have a traumatic effect on the children. White and other officials were told by their superiors there was no plan in place to separate parents and children at the border, something which was a boldface lie. They warned Trump and the Administration, and Trump and the Administration completely ignored the warnings. (8/1)
1) Trump is once again trying to warp reality. He took to Twitter to defend the Trump Tower meeting, revising the NUMEROUS lies he and his team have made about the meeting. Trump, on his own, admitted the meeting was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russians, something he says happens all he time and is totally legal(neither of those points are true). For the record: Trump for the first time admits his campaign was turning to the Russians to help him win in 2016. Trump confessed to colluding with the Russian, on his own! At the end of the tweet he makes a plea "I did not know about it!" It looks like Trump is signaling he's more than willing to throw Donald Trump Jr. under the bus to save his own skin. (8/5)
Look at this photo:
This is the fight we are facing; unbelievable idiots who will justify their undying support for Trump by embracing the worst of validations. We need to make these people terrified of showing their faces in public.
Remember #2018IsEverything. In 2016, the Republicans won OH12 by 36 points. It's virtually a tie today. You shouldn't be discouraged; you should be celebrating! The GOP is wetting themselves as they can't spend like that in every district. They know they're screwed. Be happy. Be determined. Work hard!
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