Pbenjay's Blog

I know I’m a day late and a dollar short but I just can’t pass up an opportunity to tell it like it is!  Thursdays are great for my Top Ten List and for Throwback Thursdays.  This Thursday is all about mendacity, as Big Daddy would say in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.  The subtitle of this blog could easily be named Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire!

You can call a rose by any other name and it’s still a rose and that goes for lies also.  Lately lies have been called untruths, alternative facts, and misspoken words.  A lie is a lie is a lie!

 LIE: Feb. 7, 2017: Lied that the murder rate was the highest in 45 years 

FACT: The US murder rate is at close to an all-time low, and law enforcement experts say Trump’s claim is so far away from the facts that it’s ludicrous. Based on FBI statistics, the murder rate was 5.0 homicides per 100,000 people in 2015, down from a peak in 1980 of 10.2 per 100,000 people. The highest number of total homicides was in 1991, when 24,703 were killed. Though several US cities have seen the number of murders rise from 2015 to 2016, the overall number is still dramatically lower than what it was in the 1980s and 1990s.

LIE: Feb. 6, 2017: Claimed that terrorist attacks across Europe are “not even being reported”. Trump says, “the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report” on terrorism: “They have their reasons, and you understand that.”

FACT: The Paris and Nice attacks that Trump mentioned in his speech were extensively covered by every major US media organization. Other attacks that have also received extensive media attention include an attack in Brussels in March 2016, as well as an incident in February 2017 at the Louvre museum in Paris in which a man attempted to use a machete and was shot by a soldier.

LIE:  (Tweet 1+2) Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage,…..
7:16 AM – 30 Jan 2017

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer. Secretary Kelly said that all is going well with very few problems. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!
7:20 AM – 30 Jan 2017

FACT: The mass outrage and confusion at airports from Friday through Sunday was caused by Trump’s executive order itself, which travelers, immigration attorneys, airlines, judges, and custom officials struggled to interpret. Delta’s outage didn’t happen until Sunday night, and no protesters interrupted the arrivals process at airports. 

LIE: Jan. 26, 2017: Lied about Mexico’s president “agreeing to cancel” a meeting

FACT: Hours earlier, Peña Nieto tweeted that he called the White House to cancel the meeting, adding, “I lament and reject the decision of the United States to continue building a wall that for years does not unite us, but divides us.”

LIE: “Look, when President Obama was there two weeks ago making a speech, a very nice speech. Two people were shot and killed during his speech,” Trump told ABC News’ David Muir. “They weren’t shot at the speech. But they were shot in the city of Chicago during his speech.”

FACT:  Chicago Police told BuzzFeed News there were no people killed by gun violence on Jan. 10. A log of shootings in the city also showed there were five non-fatal shootings in the city that day, but none occurred while Obama gave his speech.

LIE: “You have people who are registered who are dead, who are illegals, who are in two states,” Trump told ABC’s David Muir. “You have people registered in two states. You have people registered in New York and New Jersey. They vote twice.” He also cited a Pew report as evidence, saying, “Take a look at the Pew reports.”

FACT: There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. The National Association of Secretaries of State — which has a majority of Republicans — said it is “not aware of any evidence that supports the voter fraud claims made by President Trump.” And in a Michigan legal filing by Trump’s lawyers after the election, they wrote, “All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake.”

LIE:  Trump finished his ABC News interview by pointing to framed photographs hung on a wall. “Here’s a picture of the crowd,” he said. “The audience was the biggest ever. This audience was massive, look how far back it goes.” He then pointed to another panoramic photo, saying the crowd — which he described as “a sea of love” — goes “all the way down.”

FACT: The audience wasn’t “the biggest ever.” As mentioned above, photographs from the inauguration show the crowd did not extend as far back as Trump claims it did.

LIE: The inaugural crowd “looked honestly like a million and a half people” adding that “it went all the way back to the Washington Monument.”

FACT: Aerial photos of the crowd at 11a.m. and 12 p.m. — around the time Trump took the oath of office — show that the crowd witnessing the inauguration did not extend back to the Washington Monument. 

Inauguration Day January 20th 2017

LIE: Trump said God favored him during his inaugural address by stopping rain from falling when he spoke. “And then it became really sunny,” he said. 

FACT: In fact, It rained throughout his speech.

LIE:   Feb. 7, 2017  Twitter – The claim: “It is a disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country.”

FACT: Trump does not even come close to the record for the longest delay before having a full cabinet in place. We only have to go back one presidency for proof: Barack Obama didn’t have his final cabinet member confirmed until April 28, 2009, 99 days into his presidency. Trump wasn’t even a full 19 days into his presidency when he posted this tweet.

Unfortunately there are more, many more alternative facts, faleshoods – perhaps another Thursday…