The Trump Horror Story Continues

Many articles from professional media continue to show how incompetent and corrupt the president and his administration are. The Washington Post writes about the $517 billion in small-business loans the Small Business Administration has made with relief funds from the federal Paycheck Protection Program. That program was intended to help people stay at work and be paid during the pandemic. The taxpayer-funded program has been swarmed by crooks, liars and thieves who blew the loan money for new cars, trips to Las Vegas and so forth. WaPo writes in an opinion piece:

“Those anecdotes are sketches of the problem involving the Trump administration’s handling of the PPP. They are small tales in a larger emerging horror story.

A Post in-depth analysis of data on $517 billion in emergency small-business loans handed out by President Trump’s team at the Small Business Administration uncovered errors so numerous that White House boasts of the PPP’s economic impact are nothing more than spin and hot air.

The analysis found the SBA claimed that many companies had ‘retained’ far more workers than they actually employed. ‘In some cases,’ the article said, ‘the agency’s jobs claims for entire industries surpasses the total number of workers in those sectors.’

Looking closely at more than 875,000 of the borrowers, the analysis found that “zero” jobs were supported, or no information was listed at all.

So Trump’s claim that 51 million jobs were “supported” by the PPP is unsupported by facts. 

Trinity Episcopal Church outside Houston retained, praise the Lord, more than 500 jobs, thus saith the SBA. The church says it has 12 paid staffers.

And according to the SBA, the manufacturer International Dunnage of Thunderbolt, Ga., saved more than 500 jobs. Not so. The company said it has just seven employees and two owners. “I don’t know where you got the 500,” owner David Crenshaw said in an email to The Post.

The Trump administration is where, Mr. Crenshaw.”

Believe it or not, the crooks, liars and thieves actually include team Trump’s ‘best’ people in the Small Business Administration itself. Sometimes, the SBA just makes stuff up about saving non-existent jobs. Some of the saved jobs are fake, but the tax dollars aren’t.

But wait, there is even more -- we’re lost in the ether!

The WaPo article goes on to point out that it is even worse than just this. Analysis of the loans indicate that nearly all are going to white-owned businesses, in part because banks already have these people as customers. Apparently, banks are not interested in helping business owners of color with the complicated paperwork.

As WaPo puts it, “what makes this spectacle all the more galling is the lack of effective oversight and accountability by either Congress or federal regulatory agencies. Business complaints and critical reports such as The Post’s analysis are lost in the ether. .... As Congress unleashed $2 trillion to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and questions were being raised about the steps needed to prevent fraud and abuse and how to track the money — to know where it is going — Trump royally declared, ‘I am the oversight.’ That’s it. Pray we make it to Election Day.”

Other sources in addition to WaPo are reporting on fraud in the PPP program. The scope of the fraud is not yet clear, but it is beginning to look to be widespread.

What are they thinking, or are they?

By now, who and what the president is should be clear. He is a chronic liar, a crook, stunningly incompetent, completely immoral, an extremely powerful enabler and defender of corruption and lies, and probably a traitor working for Putin. All of that, maybe excepting the Putin treason allegation, should be clear to most people by now.

Despite that, most of the president’s supporters believe that little or none of it is true. If they did, many or most supporters presumably would no longer support him. This seems to reflect reality. The relentless propaganda, spin and lies from the president and his enablers about himself and his actions has created a fake reality that millions of people actually believe is true. To them, truth is lies and lies are truth.

That is how poisoned, deceived and dangerous that a significant slice of American society has become.

PERSISTENT INTERNET TROLLS

AH, we all have to deal with them, whether here, other platforms, Facebook, what have you.

WHAT has always struck me as ODD, is that trolls seem to be oblivious to the fact that they can easily be spotted and that they make themselves laughable by being SO obvious.

HOWEVER, for the sake of those who still can't recognize trolling in themselves or in others:
What is trolling?

https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/thenow/what-is-trolling/1/

HIGHLIGHTS:

A troll is Internet slang for a person who intentionally tries to instigate conflict, hostility, or arguments in an online social community. Platforms targeted by trolls can include the comment sections of YouTube, forums, or chat rooms.

Trolls often use inflammatory messages to provoke emotional responses out of people, disrupting otherwise civil discussion. Trolling can occur anywhere that has an open area where people can freely post their thoughts and opinions.

When trolls sense that they’re getting an emotional response out of someone, they usually won’t stop until they’ve gotten their victim sufficiently riled up.

Trolls are also known for their outlandish and outrageous claims. They will often make ridiculous statements about the subject at hand, again with the expectation that they will get an emotional response out of people.

Typically, the best thing to do is ignore the troll. 

(as an aside, something some of us are very poor at doing, we feed them by responding)

On well-moderated forums, an administrator will catch trolling early and ban the offending user or delete trolling comments, depending on how offensive they are.

The Crackpot Conspiracy Mindset Migrates into the Radical Mainstream Right

Crackpot conspiracy theory candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene 
spewing her false vision of reality

American society has been degenerating for decades, significantly driven by a relentless barrage of dark free speech from conservatives and populists. The trend toward social lunacy accelerated noticeably since the president came on the scene in 2016. He relied more heavily and blatantly on dark free speech than probably any major American politician at least since the 1960s.

The New York Times reports on what appears to be mainstream conservative and populist acceptance of unhinged conspiracy theories and radical extremist political ideology. A crackpot brigade is beginning to rise as a force in GOP ranks. Facts, reality and sound reasoning are basically absent from this new low. The NYT writes:

“A Republican Senate candidate recently declared herself ‘one of the thousands of digital soldiers’ in service of QAnon, a convoluted pro-Trump conspiracy theory about a ‘deep state’ of child-molesting Satanist traitors plotting against the president. A congressional candidate in Colorado who made approving comments about QAnon bested a five-term Republican incumbent in a primary last month.

And then there is Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who is perhaps the most unabashedly pro-QAnon candidate for Congress and has drawn a positive tweet from President Trump. She recently declared that QAnon was ‘a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out.’ 

More than two years after QAnon, which the F.B.I. has labeled a potential domestic terrorism threat, emerged from the troll-infested corners of the internet, the movement’s supporters are morphing from keyboard warriors into political candidates. They have been urged on by Mr. Trump, whose own espousal of conspiracy theories and continual railing against the political establishment have cleared a path for QAnon candidates. 

And even as party leaders publicly distance themselves from the movement, they are quietly supporting some QAnon-linked candidates — demonstrating the thin line they are trying to walk between radical elements among their base and the moderate voters they need to win over.”

The NYT article goes on to point out that there are maybe a few dozen candidates in this crackpot brigade, most of whom lost their primary challenges. The few who won their primary races are currently expected to lose their elections in November. Crackpotter claims include conspiracy theories that that Jews, including George Soros, control the political system and vaccines, baseless claims of child trafficking rings, false assertions that the coronavirus risk is vastly overstated, and nutty racist theories about Obama.

As usual, the GOP is morally bankrupt and intentionally deceptive about their intentions and actions. GOP leaders publicly distance themselves from the crackpot movement, but quietly support some QAnon candidates. They want to appeal to both radical conservatives and populists and moderate voters. GOP leaders have decided that they need both the radical crackpots and at least some persuadable moderates to keep the senate. The RNC and Jim Jordan has supported some crackpot candidates with cash donations. There is plenty of dark free speech, lies, deceit, BS and irrational emotional manipulation all around.

The NYT also points out that there are some democrats and independents in this movement. The unifying theme seems to be hatred of the political establishment. For the GOP, that means the existing establishment is unacceptable and it will heave to either go or fall in line with the new fake reality nutters. Since the president did that to the GOP establishment in 2016, maybe it is not unreasonable to think that this equally toxic movement can do it some more.

Something is definitely wrong with America’s political right. It has gone radical crackpot and real scary.

Your thoughts...

(click on / pinch out / or Ctl+ to enlarge)

Give a word or phrase that comes to mind regarding the above collage.  Possible suggestions:

• Non sequiturs
• Empathy
• Lack of empathy
• Irreconcilable differences
• No problem!!
• What's the problem??
• Business as usual
• American exceptionalism
• MAGA-ing
• Total insanity
• Freedom in action
• [Your word or phrase here]

Thanks for posting and recommending.