Trump Lied

Candidate Donald Trump told us on several occasions during the campaign that he would release his tax returns as soon as the IRS audit was complete.

Kellyanne Conway told us today that President Trump will not release his tax returns, ever.

The explanation we are given is that people knew about his tax return issues before the election and he was elected anyway.  Ergo, no one cares.

WRONG! and WRONG!
 
This is another example of Trump's disdain for the truth, disrespect for people who voted for him and a clear signal that his returns contain some really damaging information.

And he probably thinks we will never know what is in those returns.

WRONG! AGAIN!

Would You Buy A Used Car From Him?

President-elect Trump rails against fake news.  Whenever there is a story in the news that he doesn't like, he accuses the media of being unfair or biased or lying.

Of course, this is so ironic since the major disseminator of fake news is Mr. Trump in his tweets, statements and speeches.  His lack of veracity is so pervasive that fact checking is essentially futile.

Many voters voted for Mr. Trump because he would bring a business perspective to the running of the government.  But businesses are typically transactional operations.  They are less interested in making factual statements than in solving the issues of the moment.

We've all seen examples of business people who will say practically anything to make the sale or calm a disgruntled customer.  Whether or not what they say is really true is not their top priority. Anecdotally, think of the reputation of used car salesman.  Another everyday example are the responses of many customer service call people.

So when you listen to the soon to be President Trump or read a tweet or statement from him, think of the used car salesman.  What is he trying to sell?  Is the statement self-serving or factual?  How can you determine if what he is saying is true?

Ego Tours Will Continue

I guess the Trump victory/thank you tour is over.  But of course, it will never be over.  It may have a different name, but Donald Trump will never be very far from an adoring crowd.

I have long suspected that Donald Trump got into the presidential race to burnish his brand.  He didn't really want to be president, but he stayed in the race for two reason.

First, he never thought he would win.  When he started winning in the primaries, he needed to find a way to lose that wouldn't look like he had somehow failed.  Some of his outrageous remarks seemed to be a ploy to get people to turn against him and force him out of the race.  Then he could blame political correctness, liars and the media. That didn't work.  In the end he just couldn't find a way to get out without taking a tremendous blow to his ego.

Second, he loves the attention.  He is driven and energized by cheering crowds.  It is now coming out that he would say things and take positions on issues just because his crowds loved the ideas and cheered loudly.
 
Why else would he glow on the victory tour when crowds would yell "Lock her up!"?  For heaven's sake.  He won.  But humility is not an emotion he has ever needed.  Humility would imply he is not perfect.

The combination, of not finding a face saving way to get out of the race and cheering crowds that fed his ego kept him in the race.


Donald Trump likes to portray himself as this confident, successful person, but in truth he has very low self-esteem.  His constant exaggerations that he is the best at everything is not to convince other people, it is to convince himself.  He needs the cheering crowds to constantly prove to himself he is really not a failure.

Now he has won the presidency, but even that is not enough. His lack of self-esteem is why he must always lash out whenever anyone criticizes him. It is also why he can't accept that Russia helped him win.

The ego tours will never end.

Republicans Take Credit For Obamacare, Sort Of

Marsha Blackburn, Republican Congresswoman from Tennessee, was interviewed on TV a couple of weeks ago.  She was talking about plans to repeal and replace Obamacare.  She made two statements that astounded me.

First, when questioned about the disruption that repealing Obamacare might cause, she said that there were some good features that would be retained.

Really?

After Republicans have insisted that Obamacare was rammed down the country's throat without Republican input or votes, declared to be a complete failure, blamed for all the ills in the health care system and they tried to repeal it dozens of times because it was beyond repair, I was amazed to hear Representative Blackburn say Obamacare has some good features that the Republicans would like to retain.

When questioned further about these Obamacare features that she would retain, she explained with a wry smile, that they were actually originally Republican ideas that were included in Obamacare.

REALLY!

After six years of hyperbole about how bad and worthless Obamacare is, now you want to take credit for its "good" features?

Actually, she is correct.  There were a lot of features in Obamacare that, at one point, could rightly be called Republican ideas.  They only became vile when Democrats included them in the legislation.  The individual mandate, which Republicans still despise, was also an idea conservatives had once supported.

So now that it is their turn to govern, they want to make sure that they, the Republicans, get credit for all the good features they will keep from Obamacare.

There are dirty, low-down, ornery liars and hypocrites and then there are Republicans.

The Russians Made Me Do It!

And the rationalizations begin.