Tag Archives: Trump crazy

Trump Is Crazy – Like A Fox (It’s About The Oil, Stupid)

So much of what Donald Trump says appears to be crazy.   Like his recent nutso assertion that three to five million illegal immigrants voted in the last election.  Total lunacy, right?   Well, perhaps.   It is possible that Donald Trump is delusional and needs immediate psychiatric care.  However, it’s more likely that our new President without portfolio (still waiting on his taxes) is a master of misdirection.

While Trump spewed nonsense about the popular vote and raved about the crowd size at his inauguration, he was also signing executive orders re-starting two pipeline projects and bragging about all the jobs they’ll create while the Senate moves forward rubber stamping his fossil fuel friendly and environment unfriendly, cabinet nominees.

Trump’s tactic, creating a wall of controversy and confusion and then hiding behind it, is not unheard of in business.   If done frequently, then eventually, you no longer care whether the person creating the mess is crazy, evil, oblivious or merely incompetent.   You just want the nonsense to stop.   Donald Trump, has been bringing it to the party on an almost daily basis.

Put another way, it’s  difficult to keep one’s eye on the ball when the pitcher appears to be a lunatic, yammering about building a border wall when a study conducted by PEW in 2012 found that “Net Immigration from Mexico Falls to Zero – and Perhaps Less.”   

In 2015 the Washington Post reported that illegal immigration had hit its lowest level in twenty years.  Imagine that, and with Barack Obama, still  in office.

The truth, is that no border wall is needed unless you are eager to repel thousands of kids, sending them back to their homes in Central and South America, where they will risk being killed by gangs.  The Trumpian hysteria is nothing but a dog whistle, misdirection to distract from the real issues like Donald Trump’s tax returns and his campaign’s cozy relationship with the Russians and his push to ignore environmental issues.

The truth about Rex Tillerson, is that Trump’s new Secretary of State,  the former CEO of Exxon, needs the sanctions against Russia lifted so that Exxon can gain access to its huge investment in the Russian oil fields.

The truth  about Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency,  is that Scott Pruitt, is a “self-described leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda,” according to factcheck.org.

The truth  is that more than one study has concluded that the Keystone XL pipeline won’t create many permanent jobs at all.    One  study puts the number at just 35.   CBS News puts it at 50 permanent jobs from both the Keystone and the Dakota pipelines.

The claim Trump made about the “thousands” of  jobs the pipeline will create isn’t a lie, it’s misdirection.   It will create thousands of temporary jobs, but far few more meaningful good-paying permanent jobs, which is what the country really needs.

So we the people take all the risk from oil spills and contaminated drinking water while oil companies gain all the profits on a product that will, according to one study,  be sold overseas while driving up the cost of gasoline in the Middle West.

In all likelihood Donald Trump, isn’t crazy.   In all likelihood he’s a master of misdirection.   Whether this new President is thin-skinned and unable to control his responses after being attacked is a different question altogether, and possibly something meriting continued concern.   But what he’s doing, what he says, is in all likelihood, not without calculated purpose.

Did you hear about Trump’s latest assertion, that he will lead the charge to uncover “voter fraud” in America?   No matter that studies have already been done, finding nothing wrong.   No matter that anybody who reads already knows this.   What matters for Trump is that it’s another “dog whistle” issue that will distract from his real purpose.  To put forward a Republican agenda heavily favoring the fossil fuel industry.

It’s all so simple, and yet, what are the cable outlets covering this morning?  Trump’s most recent dog-whistle tactic about “moving ahead” with a “major investigation” into voter fraud.  Even after he won the election?   Come on people, you’re being played for suckers and doing a terrible disservice to your viewers in the process. When will you stop taking the bait?

By the time the common folk figure out what’s going on the damage will have been done and the billionaires will have all that lovely new money stashed away in their offshore accounts.   The environment and our international image be damned.

This isn’t about immigration or crowd size or voter fraud, it’s mostly about big oil.  Again.