• Covid-19: America’s done virtually the worst of any advanced nation. Economy shut down, but so chaotically we got huge infection and death rates anyway. Fumbled for two crucial months while the virus spread. Trump lied and misled us at every stage, especially about testing. Admitted deliberately downplaying the danger while he knew its severity. Briefings were orgies of self-praise, misinformation, and divisive insults. Pushing conspiracy theories, a phony hydroxy “cure,” or injecting disinfectant and other quackery. Disregarding, even disparaging and attacking, scientific experts, calling them “idiots;” calling Anthony Fauci “a disaster;” testing “very foolish.” Encouraging protests against his own shutdown guidelines, mask-wearing, and social distancing. Politicizing it all. Withdrawing from the World Health Organization during this global health crisis. Zero feeling for victims. Millions sick, hundreds of thousands dead, economic disaster, massive unemployment, children’s education devastated, widespread psychological trauma. Controlling covid is the key to everything — but it’s now surging again to record levels, with the president still in denial and having no actual national plan.
• Holding rallies and other gatherings without precautions, spreading the disease. Even at the White House, infecting numerous key officials. Including Trump himself, irresponsibly contaminating others (like Secret Service agents in a car for a pointless joyride). And still telling us covid is going away and is no big deal. As if we can all get the extraordinary medical treatment he did.
• Threatening American democracy by undermining confidence in election results, refusing to accept them or to promise an orderly transfer of power. Instead sowing seeds for turmoil, trying to stop legitimate mail voting, with lies about fraud. His actual words: “Get rid of the ballots and we’ll have a very peaceful . . . There won’t be a transfer, frankly.”
• Trying to sabotage the Postal Service to screw up mail voting and the whole election.
• Encouraging an “army” of supporters to disrupt balloting and scare off voters.
• Preparing for Republican-controlled state legislatures to override popular votes and appoint presidential electors for Trump regardless.
• Voter suppression and intimidation, using every trick in the book to keep mainly Blacks from voting.
• Trying to pervert the census for partisan advantage by adding a citizenship question, to reduce the count of Hispanics. Disallowed by the Supreme Court literally ruling it was based on a lie (i.e., that it was to help enforce the Voting Rights Act — which Trump’s administration has in fact been eviscerating).
• Underfunding the census and ending it early, to ensure an undercount. Directing the exclusion of non-citizen residents, contrary to the constitution, and ruled illegal by federal courts. The aim of all this is to reduce political representation for targeted demographics and thus illegitimately boost Republican power.
• At the border, seizing thousands of children away from parents, including babies and toddlers, with poor tracking so many will never be reunited. Caging them in appalling squalor. Lying this inhumanity was an Obama policy he stopped.
• Slashing our refugee quota by over 90%; but with new rules to make asylum effectively impossible.
• Sending suffering people lawfully seeking asylum back to other countries, or even politically repressive ones like Nicaragua where the regime will torture and kill them. This violates both U.S. and international law, which requires that asylum seekers have their cases heard before deportation. The inhuman cruelty of all this will stain America forever.
• Deporting parents of young children who are U.S. citizens.
• Even deporting underaged children, by themselves, just dumping them in Mexico and other countries with no adult help.
• Canceling the DACA program which forestalled deportation of young adults brought here as children. After the Supreme Court ruled that cancellation improper, flouting its decision by refusing to restore the program as before.
• Virtually halting even legal immigration.
• All this immigration-bashing foolishly short-sighted, making us poorer economically (actually costing jobs), culturally, and morally.
• Condoning racist and Neo-Nazi marchers in Charlottesville; “very fine people on both sides.”
• Leading promoter of the Obama “birtherism” lie; then lying that he was the one who stopped birtherism.
• Pardoning racist Sheriff Arpaio, convicted of defying court orders.
• Divisive comments threatening escalation of violence, regarding George Floyd protests.
• Violent attack on peaceful protesters and journalists outside White House so he could walk to a church and pose with a Bible.
• Militarized federal officers sent to Portland to attack and seize protesters, not stopping violence but instigating more of it.
• Talking “law and order” in Kenosha while actually defending a teenaged pro-Trump vigilante who shot and killed two people. (Trump rants about “Antifa,” but 38 of 42 political-related killings last year were by right-wing extremists.)
• Saying American-born members of Congress should “go back” to some other country.
• Slamming NASCAR for banning the Confederate flag.
• Blocking the renaming of military bases named for Confederate generals.
• Re-tweeting a video showing a supporter shouting “White power!” to which Trump added “Thank you.” Then lying about it.
• Calling “Black Lives Matter” a “symbol of hate.”
• In debate, refusing to disavow white supremacists, like the Proud Boys hate group, telling them to “stand by.”
• Yet lying that he’s the least racist of people.
• Telling a convention of policemen it’s good to rough up people arrested.
• Encouraging fans at his rallies to beat people up.
• “Drain the swamp?” An administration that’s a rogues gallery of corrupt lowlife creeps and incompetents.
• Hiding his income tax filings, lying that being under audit prevents disclosure.
• Turns out he actually paid just $750 in income tax in 2016 and 2017; zero in ten of the 15 prior years. He’s also $421 million in debt, we don’t know to whom, and has previously hidden bank accounts in China and other countries.
• Enacting a tax cut that’s mainly a giveaway to the wealthiest, and lying that it wouldn’t benefit him.
• Exploiting the presidency for personal gain (like actually billing the Secret Service for accommodations in his buildings while protecting him).
• A New York Times investigation found over 200 companies, special-interest groups, and foreign governments funneled millions into Trump’s properties while reaping benefits from him and his administration — “a system of direct presidential influence-peddling unrivaled in modern American politics.”
• “Grab them by the pussy.”
• Numerous credible accounts of sexual assault, including literal rape.
• Illegal payoffs to porn stars to hush up adulteries. Lying about this.
• In Helsinki, accepting Putin’s lies against the conclusions of U.S. intelligence services that Russia subverted our 2016 election on Trump’s behalf.
• Firing FBI Director Comey because he wouldn’t bury the investigation of Russian meddling. Lying about the firing.
• A new August 2020 Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee Report confirms major Russian interference in the 2016 election, with Trump’s campaign chief Manafort colluding with Russian intelligence operatives.
• Falsely accusing U.S. law enforcement agencies of improperly investigating, and “spying on,” his campaign.
• Appointing Attorney General Barr who lied about what the Mueller report said.
• Doing nothing about Russian subversion of 2020 election. Denying congressional access to information on the subject.
• Political interference in Roger Stone case, pressuring DOJ to change its sentencing recommendation. And after even Barr said Stone’s prosecution was proper and the sentence fair, Trump nevertheless commuted his crony’s sentence — for criminally lying on Trump’s behalf.
• Firing National Security Advisor Michael Flynn for lying, then saying Flynn was “treated very unfairly.”
• Justice Department dropping charges against Flynn, despite his pleading guilty for lying to the FBI.
• Justice Department firing U.S. Attorney Berman in New York, after falsely announcing he’d resigned. Berman was investigating Trump associates.
• Justice Department assuming Trump’s defense in a private lawsuit regarding a rape allegation, putting taxpayers on the hook for legal costs and even for any liability.
• Pressuring Justice Department, weeks before the election, to bring charges against political opponents (including Clinton, Obama, Biden) for fantastical imaginary crimes.
• Undermining military discipline by pardoning soldiers court-martialed and convicted of war crimes.
• Insulting war hero John McCain.
• Insulting Khizr Khan, whose U.S. soldier son was killed in Iraq.
• Reliably quoted saying soldiers killed and wounded are “losers” and “suckers,” those who fought in Vietnam should have gotten out of it like he did, and he couldn’t understand why anyone would choose the military over money-making.
• Tweeting “All talk, no action” about Congressman John Lewis — whose skull was fractured at Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge.
• Covering for Saudi ruler’s murder of critic Kashoggi.
• Congratulating Philippine President Duterte’s handling of a drug problem — by having thousands murdered.
• Claiming a love affair with murderous North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
• Telling China’s Xi Jinping that putting a million Uighurs into concentration camps for trying to practice their religion is “the right thing to do.”
• Saying Xi’s eliminating presidential term limits is a great idea that we should try.
• Betraying our Kurdish allies by enabling Turkish dictator’s invasion of their northern Syria territory.
• Leaking sensitive classified information to the Russian ambassador right in the White House.
• Ignoring intelligence that Russia offered the Taliban bounties for killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Lying that he didn’t know about it.
• Fawning over other dictators while insulting our democratic allies.
• Economically ruinous trade war with China, costing more jobs than it saves (because U.S. manufacturers must pay more for inputs), costing U.S. consumers billions in higher prices (estimated to average nearly $1300 per household), and costing taxpayers billions to counter part of the damage to farmers. Lying that it’s China paying.
• Boasting of a great economy (which he inherited from Obama, and which his covid incompetence destroyed). But Trump’s term really just proves that if you mortgage our future by pumping a trillion a year of federal deficit spending into the economy, the economy will look good.
• Remember his campaign promise to balance the budget and eliminate the deficit? Ha ha.
• Pulling out of Iran deal, thus speeding Iran’s path to nuclear weapons and destabilizing the region.
• Pulling out of Paris climate accord (America now the only significant nation outside it).
• Shutting down the government because Congress wouldn’t fund his wall.
• Funding his wall by pilfering from the military budget.
• Lying that Mexico would pay for the wall.
• Lying that Obama bugged his campaign.
• Lying about his inauguration crowd size.
• Lying about seeing New Jersey Muslims celebrating 9/11.
• Praising and parroting conspiracy monger Alex Jones, who persecuted grieving Sandy Hook parents by calling them actors in a phony school shooting cooked up by the government, among numerous other insane delusions.
• Praising the “QAnon” conspiracist network (considered a domestic terrorism threat by the FBI), and retweeting QAnon content hundreds of times. The group, among other things, accuses Trump opponents of pedophilia and baby eating.
• Retweeting that President Obama’s administration didn’t kill Bin Laden, but a body double, and shot down a Navy Helicopter, killing Seal Team members, to cover it up.
• Supporting the candidacy of pedophile Roy Moore.
• Accusing a critic, TV commentator Joe Scarborough, of a murder that never happened.
• Pledging to protect healthcare for pre-existing conditions while his administration was in court seeking to end it.
• For years promising to replace Obamacare with a better program but never coming up with any.
• Illegally withholding military aid to our ally Ukraine, trying to use the aid to bribe/extort its president into smearing Biden.
• Trying to cover it up, lying about it, and defying lawful Congressional subpoenas for testimony and documents about it.
• Punishing government officials who told the truth about it.
• Calling journalists “enemies of the people” for reporting truth he doesn’t like.
• Subverting security clearance procedures for family members.
• His “business” history of multiple bankruptcies leaving others holding the bag after he skimmed off assets.
• While routinely refusing to pay his bills, resulting in literally thousands of lawsuits.
• Inheritance tax fraud, documented by the NY Times.
• The “Trump University” fraud for which he paid a $25 million settlement.
• His “charitable foundation” fraud, resulting in a multimillion dollar settlement, and his being legally barred from the charitable field altogether.
• Contributions to his “charity” diverted to his political campaign, and even to buy a portrait of himself.
• Siphoning off money contributed to his campaign (like the $55,000 it paid to Trump for copies of his own book).
• His own longtime “fixer” Michael Cohen told Congress Trump is a “a racist . . . a con man . . . a cheat.”
• Employing 200 illegal immigrants in building Trump Tower.
• Found guilty by a federal judge of conspiring to avoid payment of union pension contributions for those workers.
• Paying someone to take the SAT test for him.
• By his own account, spending most of his White House time watching TV (almost all Fox) while refusing to read briefing papers.
• Destroying the staffing and morale of the State Department, crippling America’s overseas diplomacy and influence.
• Governing only for his supporters, not the rest of America.
• Literal insanity; severe narcissistic personality disorder; depraved indifference to anyone but himself; a sociopath. Confirmed by his own sister and professional psychologist niece in the latter’s book.
• Over 22,000 documented lies in addition to those noted above; a war on the concept of truth itself.
• Foreigners see all this, and admiration for America has plummeted. Foreign leaders play him like a fiddle with flattery, laughing behind his back. A recent global poll showed more people now look to China for leadership.
• In countless additional ways degrading America’s dignity and political and civic culture; empowering racists, enflaming people’s worst instincts and tribal divisiveness; undermining our democratic values, governmental accountability, and rule of law; undermining our global leadership, our network of international alliances, and the cooperative rules-based world order America hugely invested in building since World War II, which has been a bulwark of our national security and prosperity. All together, shredding the principles and ideals America used to stand for.
Nothing here is fake news, lies, hoaxes, smoke, or BS. But facts, truth, reality. Maybe you can rationalize away some of it. But all of it?
Joe Biden is a decent, honest, compassionate, conscientious man. Caring about others. A man of great integrity, intelligence, and deep experience. Who genuinely loves this country and its people. Who built his long distinguished career as a political moderate, a man of the center. Who builds bridges, not burns them. Who is sane.
Trump tries to smear him with lies, as some doddering old fool, corrupt, a tool of extremists, who will destroy the country. All ridiculous. Idiotic. Disgusting. That’s who Trump is.
This election is about far more than policies or issues. It’s about what kind of country we are. America’s democracy and heart and soul. If you somehow imagine this a better country with Trump than Biden, I beg you to shine a searchlight into your own heart and soul.
Vote for hope, not fear. Truth, not lies. Love, not hate. For democracy, not autocracy. For national reconciliation — not worsening tribal division. For plain simple decency and sanity.