Direction

Posted on November 22, 2024 by Dr. Conspiracy

I don’t watch much TV and had never seen an episode of The Apprentice. As a life-long southerner, the New York celebrity scene wasn’t of any interest. My very first time hearing Donald Trump was in 2011 on one of the morning TV shows and the topic was Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Trump was throwing out innuendo suggesting that Obama’s birth certificate, then not public, said he was a Muslim, never mind the fact that no US birth certificate has a child’s religion on it.

As the years went by, Donald Trump became a vector for a number of conspiracy theories, most notably 2020 election denial.

I spent thousands of hours online debunking conspiracy theories about Barack Obama, writing over 4,000 articles on the topic at my Obama Conspiracy Theories blog. This time around, I’m going to take the same approach, applying the same fact checking and debunking techniques to conspiracy theories about Donald Trump, starting with the 2024 US Presidential election. When I started on Obama I knew almost nothing about him. I had an open mind. Trump has accumulated a lot of baggage in my mind since 2011; I’ll have to be extra careful not to let my biases get in the way.

Bad News Sells

The infamous “mainstream media” has put out some pretty strong doomsday speculation about the upcoming Trump administration. Trump’s image wasn’t helped by the selection of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, perhaps the worst pick ever for that job, who was so bad he finally withdrew. So the political left will provide the grist for the Trump Conspiracy Theories mill.

Does he intend to use the Department of Justice against his political enemies? Will he wreck the economy with tariffs and mass unemployment after gutting the federal workforce? Is he in the tank for Vladimir Putin? Is Medicaid doomed? Will children starve without school lunches? After the election, will he play golf and let Elon Musk or JD Vance run the government?

As I said once before back in 2011:

Let the Claims Begin1

  1. The Debunker’s Guide to Obama Conspiracy Theories ↩︎

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The Election of 1896

Posted on January 4, 2025 by Dr. Conspiracy

1896 was the contest between Republican William McKinley and Democrat William Jennings Bryan.

The electoral map is almost the reverse of what it was in 2024 with Republican McKinley taking the populous northeast and California and populist Bryan taking the south and the western fly over states.

The 1896 election was marked by large financial contributions from the wealthy to the Republican candidate. Interestingly, a major platform proposal of Democrat Bryan, ending the gold standard, was effected by another Republican, Richard Nixon, in 1971.

Material for this post shamelessly copied from Wikipedia.

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Merry Christmas from Donald Trump

Posted on December 31, 2024 by Dr. Conspiracy

You can’t make this stuff up:

It’s scary when the one person who will have the federal power of the pardon for the next 4 years doesn’t know the difference between a pardon and a commutation (Biden commuted those death sentences to life in prison without parole, not pardoned them.)

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Donald Trump: Recovering Birther

Posted on December 23, 2024 by Dr. Conspiracy

(Found on YouTube)

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Buyer’s Remorse?

Posted on December 21, 2024 by Dr. Conspiracy

So, Republican voter, did you intend massive cuts to Social Security when you marked that ballot in 2024, or did you take Donald Trump at his word that he wouldn’t cut even a dollar from that program?

The Washington Post reported:

By Friday, Johnson appeared to have split the debt ceiling question from the struggle to keep the government open. Instead of acting on it now, he proposed a handshake deal with fiscal hawks in his own party to try next year to slash mandatory spending — programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ health care and food stamps — by at least $2.5 trillion while raising the debt cap by $1.5 trillion, according to three people familiar with the details.1

Johnson also said publicly that his deal had buy-in from Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

I’m getting ready for a blue wave in 2026.

  1. https://wapo.st/41MSGOW ↩︎
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Jailing the January 6th Committee

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Dr. Conspiracy

Candidate Trump made remarks that certain members of the House of Representatives belong in jail. Now president-elect Trump has doubled down in a Meet the Press interview on December 8, 2024. From Politico:

“[Former Rep. Liz] Cheney was behind it, and so was [Rep.] Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee. For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump said in the interview.

When asked if he would direct his incoming FBI director and attorney general to send the former committee members to jail, Trump said “No, not at all. I think that they’ll have to look at that, but I’m going to focus on drill, baby, drill.”

Jason Miller says Trump’s suggestion to jail Jan. 6 committee members was taken out of context
Photo from CNN

I can only speculate that Donald Trump has never read the U. S. Constitution:

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

US Constitution, Article1, Section 6

This is the “Speech and Debate” clause that provides members of Congress broad immunity when carrying out their legislative duties.

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An Eye for an Eye

Posted on December 7, 2024 by Dr. Conspiracy

On two occasions, Donald Trump in an Evangelical Christian setting was asked his favorite Bible verse or story. The first time he said it was personal; the second he said, “an eye for an eye.” Here was the setting and the interchange, reported by Politico:

WHAM 1180 AM radio host Bob Lonsberry asked the Republican front-runner if he had a favorite verse or story from the Bible that’s impacted his thinking or character.

“Well, I think many. I mean, you know, when we get into the Bible, I think many. So many,” he responded. “And some people—look, an eye for an eye, you can almost say that. That’s not a particularly nice thing. But you know, if you look at what’s happening to our country, I mean, when you see what’s going on with our country, how people are taking advantage of us, and how they scoff at us and laugh at us.”

“And they laugh at our face, and they’re taking our jobs, they’re taking our money, they’re taking the health of our country,” he continued. “And we have to be firm and have to be very strong. And we can learn a lot from the Bible, that I can tell you.”1

Certainly this was not the favorite verse of Jesus, who said:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

Matthew 5:38-42 New Revised Standard Version

Continue reading →
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Tariffs

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Dr. Conspiracy

Listening to Trump and his supporters, Joe Biden must a major authority on foreign trade because his use of tariffs proves Trump’s plan is OK.

In the real world, tariffs are complicated. The major retailers, like Lowe’s, AutoZone, and Walmart say Trump’s plans will increase prices. That means that the tariffs will increase prices, or they will give wholesalers and retailers an excuse to raise prices. Take your pick.

Here’s a tutorial on how tariffs work and why they could be very bad if taken to the extremes Trump promised during the campaign.

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Trump Stole the 2024 Election

Posted on November 22, 2024 by Dr. Conspiracy

One suggestion, not often pursued, and ignored by the “mainstream media,” is that Trump, Republican state officials, or the Russians, or the Iranians, or Elon Musk stole the 2024 election.

The mechanism involves some shady practices:

  1. Russian misinformation on social media (again)
  2. Russian bomb threats to polling places
  3. State election officials purging eligible voters, falsely claiming they were non-citizens
  4. Elon Musk voter registration lottery (a federal crime)
  5. Elon Musk using big data to target individuals with targeted messaging designed to play on their individual personality.

But none of those compare to the elephant in the room, the insight from James Carville:

It’s the economy, stupid.

And sometimes phrased:

Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?

While the economy seems to be trending in the positive direction and people are far better off than they were in the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the housing shortage is severe with outrageous prices, some consumer goods are way too expensive and childcare costs are out of sight.

Pew Research conducted an international poll in the Spring of 2023 that found people, not just in the United States but worldwide, think government is out of touch.1 The US satisfaction lagged only behind Spain and Argentina.

Continue reading →
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Trump’s Cabinet Picks

Posted on November 16, 2024 by Dr. Conspiracy

One commentator described Donald Trump’s announcements of several cabinet picks as extending the middle finger to the country.

That’s really his pudgy index finger

One said Trump’s picks were not only “in-competent” but “anti-competent.” It’s as if the intent was to have the federal government become dysfunctional.

Matt Gaetz, slated for Attorney General, is barely a lawyer, and resigned amid an ethics probe by the Republican-controlled House. Ironically, Trump’s pick for Assistant Attorney General, Todd Blanche, is at least a practicing lawyer.

Anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services would seem aimed at causing death and suffering.

In a functioning government, the Senate would quickly vote down these clownish appointments, but we’ll have to wait to see whether we have a functioning government in 2025. Trump wants to fill the top federal jobs through recess appointments, and bypass Congress entirely.

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