MAGAs keep saying that Joe Biden is "Destroying" America. Just "look around" they say. It's everywhere!
Here’s a perfect example.
“Socialism. Communism. Open borders. Ilegal Aliens. People aren’t working. Stores are closing down because of the violence. Liberal Democrat Judges letting criminals out onto the street. He’s destroying our country. What’s he done to help the American people? [Biden] is so demented he doesn’t even know where he’s at, he’s not running the country. Barack Obama is really in charge.”
But all of that isn’t even remotely true.
Other than higher interest rates (which is under the control of Jerome Powell who was appointed by Trump) and high prices - 54% of which is directly caused by price-gouging corporations (who are protected and coddled by the GOP) that now have sky-high profits - every other economic detector is literally the best it's ever been.
Inflation which had risen to 9% has dropped literally to 0% in the last few months, averaging 3.2% for this year.
US inflation is lower than any other nation in the G7 and ranks at #15 Worldwide.
The Federal Deficit which was increased by $600 Billion by Trump before the Pandemic, then by another $2.5 Trillion *during* the Pandemic has been reduced by a record $1.7 Trillion during Biden's first term. [It has increased again slightly last year, but that was largely because of lower revenues due to Trump’s Tax cuts]
The GDP has jumped as high as 6.9% under Biden while Trump averaged only 1.7% and peaked at 2.9% while losing 2 Million jobs. Biden has (re)created 13 Million jobs so far and counting. Trump had - including Covid - the worst economy since Herbert Hoover while Biden has had unemployment below 4% for the longest in history.
And there’s much more.
About 500,000 more Americans died of Covid - mostly in the Red States - than should have compared to other nations because Trump wouldn't implement a national testing plan, downplayed the danger of the virus saying it would "just go away", promoted Ivermectin and injecting bleach as a solution, didn't support masking, separation or minimizing crowds to prevent super spreading.
The US could have averted 40% of the deaths from Covid-19, had the country’s death rates corresponded with the rates in other high-income G7 countries, according to a Lancet commission tasked with assessing Donald Trump’s health policy record.
Almost 470,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus so far, with the number widely expected to go above half a million in the next few weeks. At the same time some 27 million people in the US have been infected. Both figures are by far the highest in the world.
In seeking to respond to the pandemic, Trump has been widely condemned for not taking the pandemic seriously enough soon enough, spreading conspiracy theories, not encouraging mask wearing and undermining scientists and others seeking to combat the virus’s spread.
Part of the reason so many died was because they didn’t implement the testing plan because they wanted to let the “Blue States [like New York] twist in the wind” with high rates of covid deaths for political gain.
Trump has made no secret of his ambivalence about testing. "When you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people," Trump said in June at an ill-timed rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "You're going to find more cases. So I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down, please.'"
[...]
Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner's team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. "The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy," said the expert.
They did this because initially the Covid infection and death rates were high in New York State, but because they implemented the CDC protocols that eventually went down — then they started to rise in the Red States where they refused to use best practices or take the vaccine because of “Freedom” and “Communism” or some other stupid phony bullshit.
Today in JAMA Network Open, researchers published more evidence that personal political leanings may have contributed to excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research builds on previous work that has shown that right-wing "red" counties had higher death rates during the pandemic than more left-wing "blue" counties.
The study looked at deaths in both Florida and Ohio during the first 22 months of the pandemic and found the overall excess death rate of Republican voters was 15% higher than that of Democrats. The gap widened further once COVID-19 vaccines were introduced.
[...]
In general, there was a 20.5 percentage-point (95% prediction interval [PI], 15.6 to 25.6 percentage points) increase in weekly death counts in Florida and Ohio between March 2020 and December 2021. Excess death rates were 2.8 percentage points (15%) higher for Republican voters compared with Democratic voters (95% PI, 1.6 to 3.7 percentage points).
After May of 2021, roughly 1 month after COVID-19 vaccines became widely available, the gap between Republicans and Democrats further widened, to 7.7 percentage points (95% PI, 6.0 to 9.3 percentage points) in the adjusted analysis, or a 43% difference, the authors said. The difference was seen in Florida, but was most pronounced in Ohio.
He repeatedly ignored CDC protocols and gave Covid to 8 people in the Rose Garden, including Chris Christie.
A week ago, more than 100 people gathered in the White House Rose Garden to celebrate President Trump's third nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett. Guests mingled, hugged and kissed on the cheek, most without wearing masks. An indoor reception followed the outdoor ceremony.
Seven days later, at least eight people who were at the ceremony have tested positive for the coronavirus, including a journalist who was covering the event. Several more of the president's closest aides and advisers have also tested positive.
The first company to develop a vaccine - Pfizer - wasn't even part of "Operation: Warp Speed".
"HUGE NEWS: Thanks to the public-private partnership forged by President @realDonaldTrump, @pfizer announced its Coronavirus Vaccine trial is EFFECTIVE, preventing infection in 90% of its volunteers," Vice President Mike Pence tweeted.
Others, however, pointed to the fact that Pfizer's senior vice president and head of vaccine research and development, Kathrin Jansen, publicly distanced the company from the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed vaccine initiative. Jansen was quoted Monday by The New York Times as saying, "We were never part of the Warp Speed. We have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone."
And then he left office without a plan to have the vaccine distributed. Biden had to develop his own plan from scratch and distribute the vaccine to 150 Million Americans.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There was no distribution plan for the coronavirus vaccine set up by the Trump administration as the virus raged in its last months in office, new President Joe Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, said on Sunday.
"The process to distribute the vaccine, particularly outside of nursing homes and hospitals out into the community as a whole, did not really exist when we came into the White House," Klain said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
As far as “what’s Biden done for our Country” — there’s the Infrastructure Bill which could create 15 Million Jobs while rebuilding our roads, bridges, schools and high-speed internet access.
A $2 trillion jobs plan (of which $1.5 trillion will go to infrastructure) from the Biden-Harris administration would be good medicine to nurse the economic wounds inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The infrastructure plan would create or save 15 million jobs over 10 years and would increase the share of infrastructure jobs from 11% to 14% of all jobs in this country, temporarily reviving the blue-collar economy.
Biden’s American Rescue Act brought the economy back after Covid-19 at a record pace.
One year after President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law, our country is in the midst of one of the strongest periods of economic growth in a century. Enacted during a severe public health and economic crisis, the American Rescue Plan has made a difference in the lives of millions of Americans – expanding access to COVID-19 vaccines and testing, providing economic relief that has kept millions of children out of poverty, preventing evictions and foreclosures, and helping small businesses keep their doors open. The Department of the Treasury is proud to administer over $1 trillion in programs and tax credits under the American Rescue Plan, as well as other recovery programs authorized in prior legislation.
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has brought back jobs and brought down drug and energy costs.
The historic Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Senate Democrats and signed into law by President Biden one year ago, is already having a huge impact nationwide, cutting costs for families and seniors, creating jobs, and taking historic action to fight climate change. Provisions in the Democrats’ bill are lowering insulin costs and providing older Americans on Medicare free lifesaving vaccines. And, Americans can now take advantage of tax credits to make their homes more energy efficient.
As a result of historic provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, companies are making major investments across the United States, creating thousands of good-paying jobs, supporting our economy, and bringing back American manufacturing. According to one report, since passage of the Inflation Reduction Act “nearly 80 major clean energy manufacturing facilities have been announced, an investment equal to the previous seven years combined.” From electric vehicle manufacturing to increasing production of clean energy and all the jobs and investments created as a result, states across the country are seeing the impact of this historic legislation.
Biden’s CHIPs Bill has sparked $200 Million of private investment in Semiconductor manufacturing.
By enacting the CHIPS and Science Act in August 2022, policymakers in Washington took an historic step toward attracting investment in semiconductor production and innovation in the U.S. And while the new law must still be implemented effectively and efficiently to realize its potential, the CHIPS Act has already sparked private investments in the U.S. that will strengthen the U.S. economy, job creation, and supply chain resilience.
From the time the CHIPS Act was introduced in the Spring of 2020 through the months following its enactment, companies in the semiconductor ecosystem announced dozens of projects to increase manufacturing capacity in the U.S. Some projects began in anticipation of CHIPS Act funding and relying on policymakers’ commitment to follow through on such funding, while others moved forward following enactment of the legislation. Here are some highlights of announcements spurred by the CHIPS Act:
- Over 60 new semiconductor ecosystem projects announced across the U.S., including the construction of new semiconductor manufacturing facilities (fabs), expansions of existing sites, and facilities that supply the materials and equipment used in chip manufacturing
- Over $210 billion in private investments announced across 22 states to increase domestic manufacturing capacity
- 44,000 new high-quality jobs announced in the semiconductor ecosystem as part of the new projects, which will support hundreds of thousands of additional jobs throughout the broader U.S. economy
The rate of Violent Crime has come down by 1.7% in 2022 (although some of that is because the FBI recently changed their reporting system for local police), while in truth most violent crime and gun homicides actually take place 40% more often in Red States and counties that voted for Trump, not "Democrat Cities."
- The murder rate in the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump has exceeded the murder rate in the 25 states that voted for Joe Biden in every year from 2000 to 2020.
- Over this 21-year span, this Red State murder gap has steadily widened from a low of 9% more per capita red state murders in 2003 and 2004 to 44% more per capita red state murders in 2019, before settling back to 43% in 2020.
- Altogether, the per capita Red State murder rate was 23% higher than the Blue State murder rate when all 21 years were combined.
- If Blue State murder rates were as high as Red State murder rates, Biden-voting states would have suffered over 45,000 more murders between 2000 and 2020.
While the streets were filled with protestors against police violence Trump decided that he would have the military respond by “Cracking Skulls” and “Just Shoot[ing] them”, even if they were non-violent (which 93% of them were).
According to CNN, Trump highlighted footage of confrontations between law enforcement officers and protesters and said: “That’s how you’re supposed to handle these people. Crack their skulls!”
Trump also reportedly told law enforcement and military leaders he wanted the military to “beat the fuck out” of protesters and said: “Just shoot them.”
Bender reports that in the face of opposition from Milley and the then attorney general, William Barr, Trump said: “Well, shoot them in the leg – or maybe the foot. But be hard on them!”
Milley is also reported to have told Stephen Miller, a senior Trump adviser, to “shut the fuck up”, after Miller said “cities are burning” amid protests prompted by the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis last May.
Throughout a tense summer, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a historic piece of legislation regarding domestic unrest, but ultimately did not do so.
The claim that the Border is "Open" is completely bogus as Biden has blocked and expelled close to 4 Million migrants using Title 42 in the last 3 years. Single Adults or anyone with a criminal record or on the Terrorist watch list are not allowed in or arrested, only family units with kids or single kids on their own are let in.
Domestic Oil Production and Exports are at an ALL TIME HIGH under Joe Biden, and the US is *still* "Energy independent".
Last December I covered the nuances of U.S. energy independence. A common belief that I encounter is that President Trump made us energy independent, but we lost that energy independence under President Biden.
That’s not strictly true, but it requires a bit of understanding about what energy independence actually is. I covered these issues in Is The U.S. Energy Independent?
[...]
In 2021, we oscillated between net imports and net exports on a month-to-month basis. In certain months, we were net importers (and hence, lost our “energy independence” per that definition). In other months, we were a significant net exporter.
What wasn’t clear was whether the U.S. would be a net exporter for the entire year of 2021. But the Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently posted the numbers for December, and we now have an answer. Net exports grew each month from September through December to push the final average for the year to a net export number of 162,000 BPD. That is significantly down from 2020, but it is still energy independent according to the net export definition.
There is no evidence indicating that Joe Biden took any bribes from Ukraine, China or anywhere else -- his brother paying a loan back while he *wasn't* VP or President doesn't count -- but Trump earned $160 Million from foreign sources while in the White House, including $7.5 Million and 114 Trademarks from China, $Millions more from the Saudi Liv Tournaments, $640 Million that Ivanka and Jared made plus the $2 Billion investment he received from the Saudis overriding the recommendation of the panel.
Donald Trump made up to $160 million from international business dealings while he was serving as president of the United States, according to an analysis of his tax returns by CREW.
Throughout his time in office, President Trump, his family and his Republican allies repeatedly assured the public that his refusal to divest from his businesses wouldn’t lead to any conflicts of interest. Americans were promised that Trump would donate his salary, which he did, until maybe he didn’t—all while siphoning millions from taxpayers that more than offset his presidential pay. When it came to foreign conflicts of interest, Trump and his company pledged to pause foreign business. They did not.
Trump pulled in the most money from the United Kingdom, where his Aberdeen and Turnberry golf courses in Scotland helped him gross $58 million. Trump’s now-defunct hotel and tower in Vancouver helped him pull in $36.5 million from Canada. Trump brought in more than $24.4 million from Ireland, home to his often-visited Doonbeg golf course, as well as $9.6 million from India, and nearly $9.7 million from Indonesia.
Trump has wrongly accused Democrats of horrible crimes against our nation and the election without a shred of evidence, then he tried to overthrow the election he lost using a violent mob to attack the Capitol and intimidate Mike Pence.
A new court filing from Smith’s team this week reveals that the mob that stormed Congress in Trump’s name will be the centerpiece of his trial, scheduled to begin on March 4. It wasn’t just an unfortunate reaction to Trump’s incendiary remarks that day, prosecutors contend. It was a tool that Trump used to launch one last desperate bid to cling to power.
Trump’s criminal conspiracies “culminated and converged” on Jan. 6, when he attempted to prevent Congress from finalizing Joe Biden’s victory, argued senior assistant special counsel Molly Gaston.
“One of the ways that the defendant did so … was to direct an angry crowd of his supporters to the Capitol and to continue to stoke their anger while they were rioting,” Gaston wrote in the filing.
He's recruiting 50,000 followers to help him dismantle the governmental checks and balances as a "Unitary Executive".
Powerful, well-funded allies of Donald Trump are testing followers on the depths of their far right ideology in order to determine their loyalty to the former president — and build an ideological army to help carry out Trump and his team’s authoritarian agenda, new reporting finds.
Officials familiar with the plan told Axios that Trump allies are screening ideologies of thousands of people in hopes of recruiting a legion of up to 54,000 followers who could work in a future Trump administration and potentially serve the cause in other ways. This includes 20,000 people to serve in the administration, and replacing as many as 50,000 federal workers in “policy-adjacent” roles.
These followers would be instrumental in Trump and his allies’ conspiracy to orchestrate a complete takeover of the federal government, concentrating more power in the executive branch than ever before seen, as part of the far right’s Heritage Foundation-backed Project 2025. The power concentrated under the president — and his administration of ideological sycophants — would be unprecedented
Trump whines that the “DOJ is now weaponized politically” but when he had the chance he tried to implement a phony investigation of Joe Biden in Ukraine [and got impeached for it], he tried to implement a bogus investigation of James Comey and Hillary Clinton, he pushed to implement a Special Counsel investigation of Hunter Biden, and he apparently had the IRS audit James Comey and Andrew McCabe. That was "weaponization.”
Now he's threatened us all as "Vermin" that he will destroy and "crush" as if he's going to implement a massive genocide using concentration camps and military kangaroo courts against his fellow American Citizens.
And you people say Biden has "Destroyed" things? How exactly?
It's the GOP who wants to censor and ban books, take away reproductive freedom, implement Christian Nationalism, anti-LGBTQ indoctrination and Hate into our Schools and erase American History with lies about Slavery, Native Genocide, the 2nd Amendment and what really happened after 1776 when the Founders cut a dirty deal with the Slave States so they could escape British control. The GOP Destroys everything it touches.