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 on 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? After the election, will he play golf and let Elon Musk or HD 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 ↩︎

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

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.

Posted in Tariffs, The Ecomomy, Trade Policy, Videos | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

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 →
Posted in 2024 election, Polls, The Ecomomy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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.

Posted in Appointments, Executive Branch, Matt Gaetz, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment