Disinformation

By Hank Silverberg

I have never been to Iowa. I hear it’s a nice place, if you can stand the cold winters where temperatures hover between 14 and 20 degrees in January. But it’s time for them to change the way they pick delegates to the political party convention.

 Last week’s caucuses, as everyone knows by now, were a  disaster. It really makes no difference at this point who won. New Hampshire, where people actually vote, is much simpler. But the beginning of the primary season got off to a bad start and the only person who won was Donald J. Trump.

That, combined with the highly predictable vote to acquit him on the articles of impeachment in the Senate, gave Trump a very good week.

  

You would think that would give him a chance to move forward, forget about what has happened in the last year, tout his accomplishments and work on things that matter, like reducing the national debt or fixing thousands of roads and bridges across the country that need repair.  

But no, it didn’t happen.  Trump’s State of The Union address was filled with half-truths, lies, and what could best be described as a dog-and-pony show.

I won’t go into the details, which have been bantered about enough already, but here are just two things that irked me:

Tuskegee Airman and General, Charles McGee, is a national hero. I read his biography a while back and he is a remarkable man.  He's now 103. He certainly deserved the Medal of Freedom and the promotion that Trump gave him. 

But he didn’t deserve being used as a prop for Trump’s circus. Neither did the military family that was re-united in front of the world.

Ronald Reagan started using such props during the State of The Union  years ago, but Trump stained them forever when he recognized conservative talk show blowhard Rush Limbaugh and then, to make things disgusting, had the Medal of Freedom placed around his neck during the speech. Yes, I know Rush is dying. That’s too bad. But he spent a career putting down people, dividing us all into negative categories and spreading disinformation to the masses. He made up more fiction than ten best-selling authors combined. He denied climate change, helped spread the birther myth about Barrack Obama, and much more.  He spent a lot of time on his radio show denying there was any link between smoking and cancer while he puffed on his illegal Cuban cigars. Now he’s dying of lung cancer. He didn't deserve that medal. I'll leave it at that.     

Disinformation is the scourge of our society right now. (To my students, this following definition will be on your final exam.)

Disinformation is a lie, spread with intent to mislead people, and the Trump Administration has become very good at it.

Politicians have always twisted facts and statistics to promote their success, but Trump has surpassed them all with his deceptions, lies and revisionist history.  He would probably say  he’s “the best ever” at doing it, and in this one situation, for once in United States history, he may be right. 

Here is one example:  Mr. Trump claims that by the end of 2020 his administration will have built 500 miles of that infamous border wall in the southwest. But they won’t make it. So far, only 14 miles of new wall has actually been built. The other 400 miles or so that has been worked on is simply fortifying or replacing EXISTING barriers, most of which have been there for years. Ironically some of the new wall built in the Trump era was knocked down by high winds last month, and fell into Mexico.

 https://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Winds-topple-border-wall-panels-on-15016380.php

A little lie? Not in my book. There were other fibs, lies and distortions in the SOTU speech. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi created a stir by ripping up a copy of the speech. She called it a “state of the mind” speech instead of a State of The Union speech.

Then the Trump disinformation machine went into action,

creatively editing video from the speech making it look like Pelosi was ripping up the speech at the same time General McGee was being honored and that military family was being reunited. That, of course, is false. The Speaker ripped up the speech at the end of the event to make a point. (I won't post the edited video because I will not play a part in spreading it.)  

Perhaps what bothers me more than anything about Mr. Trump is his pettiness. He’s vindictive. He went on for more than 90 minutes on national television the day after the Senate acquitted him.  It wasn’t to heal the nation or talk about what he still wants to accomplish. It’s been labeled  “the pettysburg address” by some, because all he really did was complain about people whom he thinks betrayed him. Utah Senator Mitt Romney, who broke with the GOP and voted to convict Trump on one of the two articles of impeachment, took the brunt of Trump’s ranting.

The next day he basically fired a decorated war hero, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, because the Colonel, a member of the National Security Council, had testified against Trump during the Congressional hearings. Trump said Vindman was insubordinate. Vindman’s twin brother, who also works at the White House, and did not testify,  was also fired.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/us/politics/alexander-vindman-gordon-sondland-fired.html

The next day Trump fired Gordon Sondland, who had been Ambassador to the European Union. Sondland also testified before the Congressional hearings, though his testimony did not really go against the man in the White House. 

It was all despicable!

Expect to hear a lot more disinformation over the next nine months coming from the man in the White House and his minions (the one’s who lie for him to keep their jobs).  Don’t believe any of it. It’s your job as a voter to see though it all.

News Briefs:

What’s even more disheartening about all this is that Mr. Trump’s approval rating is now at 49%, the highest in the Gallop Poll rating since he took office in 2017. Fifty percent of those polled disapprove of Trump and only 1% have no opinion. That small “no opinion” figure is also unusual. That spells real trouble for the Democrats going into November.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/284156/trump-job-approval-personal-best.aspx 
The economy may be the main reason. Sixty-three percent of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling the economy, up six points from November.  

That same poll indicated Democrats overwhelmingly want a nominee who can beat Trump, even if that candidate is off on some of the big issues. Forty-four percent think that candidate is Joe Biden. So far, he has not done that well in caucuses and primaries.

You may have missed this:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/iowa-dems-pro-trump-trolls-clogged-phones-lines.html


Shades of Donald Segretti. Remember the dirty trickster from the Watergate scandal who did several nasty deeds for Richard Nixon in the 1972 election?  This year, it was Trump operatives (labeled "pranksters" by some), who clogged the phones on the backup system for reporting results in Iowa. That made it hard to get any definitive numbers after the main system, an untried phone "App," failed. Such tricks have been used in past elections, but this one was particularly nasty, considering the focus on election security in 2020. Note to these "pranksters": Segretti served four months in jail on a reduced sentenced for his dirty tricks in 1972.    

And then there is this:

Buddhist Plastic. I’ve written in this blog before about plastic pollution and how bad it is becoming for our planet. Well, it turns out Buddhist monks in Thailand have found recycling plastic can clear the roads and maybe your minds of a lot of trash. Watch this video. 

I would love to hear from my growing group of readers what they think of my blog and any suggestions they may have for future entries.

     (Your comments and suggestions are always welcome)

 

                             

(Copies of my book, “The Campaign”  are available on Amazon.com, BN.Com or directly from me at a reduced rate, with my signature, by contacting me at HankSilverberg@gmail.com.