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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI really, truly don't understand it
I don't understand how so many people can support and vote for a traitorous, criminal, incoherent con man who is the furthest thing from what a president of the United States should be.
I don't understand how so many people have forgotten how this monster called the Covid pandemic a hoax, wanted to "slow the testing down" and sought refuge in the shadow of murderous foreign despots.
I don't understand how, in a nation that values education and thoughtful discourse, a stupid, trust-fund idiot who uses the same vapid phrases over and over again can gain the respect and support of so many people.
Where did my America go? Did Limbaugh and Fox "News" really destroy that much of it? Are we really that far gone that a decent, hard-working man like Joe Biden, who captains a great economy and a quest for freedom around the world can be so vilified in countless polls and commentaries?
I really, truly do not understand it.
marble falls
(57,405 posts)... turnout.
Roy Rolling
(6,943 posts)Its more about the group dynamics than the message always.
Bucky
(54,087 posts)If you really care to understand this mindset, I recommend spending a month watching only Fox News and reading only rightwing blogs and posts. Anything less than a full immersion will leave your mind susceptible to logic and a commitment to rule of law. These things must be suppressed or your mission will fail. When you return.... if you return... to the light of liberality, social responsibility, and a quest for objective truth, you will need therapy to adjust to your current ways. But part of you will be forever changed.
Godspeed, Triceratops
ProudMNDemocrat
(16,845 posts)"I LOVE the poorly educated!"
That was the one of the moments the DUMBING DOWN of America began. Polls show that those without much education, let alone a College degree support TSF over common sense. They have been brainwashed to believe his LIES as if he were the second coming! What TSF has done is destroy a once vibrant party and turned it into himself. A CULT.
rubbersole
(6,746 posts)Limbaugh was the face of it. Normalized hate which was always right under the surface of our society. Getting it back in the bottle won't happen for generations, if ever.
Tumbulu
(6,292 posts)and until the hate media is neutered, this will keep going on and on.
Ignoring the right wing hate radio remains the societies most massive mistake.
MiHale
(9,792 posts)Reagan started the decline of education in his terms of office. Part of the attack of the middle class. We were getting way too smart republicans need to hide in the warm confines of the lower informed and lower educated, others can figure them out.
bucolic_frolic
(43,426 posts)I am very suspicious of anything that is "HYPED".
Evangelical money brought us Reagan. Money pushed Limbaugh, Fox. Money bought elections, and brought us GWB. GWB brought WMD war and prosperity. Money bought a SCOTUS majority, NRA, Citizens United.
If you can abuse peoples' minds you can exploit them for money and sell them things you don't need. If you can irritate them and shoot their kids, you can make them miserable. Then you offer thoughts and prayers, so they return to church and give the churches more money. You can deny a pandemic and drive death. More funerals and church services.
Religion is behind it all. So get religion! Just don't ever feel woke or enlightened! They want the world controlled by stupidity.
Farmer-Rick
(10,222 posts)That the filthy-rich class use to make all the rest of us obey them, unless you know there are no gods.
Sometimes people use religion to fight back against the filthy-rich. But that is usually crushed with well placed assassinations and buying up religious leaders.
It's a win-win for the few born to rich, powerful daddies and mommies. For the rest of us it's just another con.
EarlG
(21,985 posts)is not that hes old, its that hes not new.
Hes been a public servant, and in the public eye, for most of his life. Hes not flashy, hes a reliable and responsible presence, his first term has been largely successful, and theres really nothing about him that people dont know already.
Hes really the complete opposite of the kind of shiny object that the media loves to chase. No scandals, no drama the GOP cant even effectively invent a scandal to bring him down.
So the media resorts to the most generic, lazy complaint they can think of (hes old) and hit him for that. Trump, on the other hand, is obviously much more attractive to them, in the way that a story about an exploding fireworks factory is attractive. (Even though these days its less exploding fireworks factory and more man ranting to himself in grocery store line making everyone else uncomfortable.)
FalloutShelter
(11,894 posts)From personal experience, as an artist and author with a long resume, I can tell you that I have bumped into this wall at age 70.
The one thing you cannot be, with all of the experience and success of the past... is NEW.
The boomers are dying, and the last of that generation is in the midst of a paradigm shift in which the desire for the new outstrips all of the talent, experience, and wisdom that age can bring.
Gen X, finally coming into their power, is anxious for us to move aside. They look at a long resume and say... enough... this is your ride. You have had it. Your ride ends here.
I hope we can surmount this and win this election with our Wise and levelheaded President, Joe Biden.
Ocelot II
(115,927 posts)Biden is what he has always been, sensible and steady. No scandals, nothing especially newsworthy, at least not in the if it bleeds it leads sense that the media love. His speaking style isnt compelling; hes not the orator Obama was. He just carries on. Theres not much to criticize him about so they fall back on his age, and in an ageist society like ours that has impact. Trump, on the other hand, is still the shiny object the media prefer even though the shine is that of a dumpster fire.
OldBaldy1701E
(5,190 posts)Because Hollywood is all about the person du jour. They could care less about anything that has been around longer than an ice cream cone. This is what happens when politics become more about spectacle than substance.
Hell, this is what happens when society becomes more about spectacle than substance...
raccoon
(31,130 posts)Hugin
(33,222 posts)Where a society that has been trained for over 75 years that competition consists of two teams facing off against each other with the only substantial difference between them being the color of their uniforms.
Is then confronted with an existential threat where the differences are plain and the consequences of their choices are personal, life altering, and final.
mitch96
(13,935 posts)What did Hitler and Goebbels do to change the hearts and minds to do such things to other people.
On Tyranny by Tim Snyder is book that lays out the plan they use...
m
John1956PA
(2,666 posts)surfered
(558 posts)surfered
(558 posts)The far-right worldview is incomprehensible until you realize that devotees believe truth flows from authority rather than reality
MATTHEW SHEFFIELD
MAR 5, 2024
ramapo
(4,589 posts)We were all ok with six-year-old kids being blown apart in school by some maniac with an assault weapon. So why wouldn't millions of people think that Trump is wonderful
Timeflyer
(2,025 posts)From "Democracy Awakening," by Heather Cox Richardson, 2023.
"Even for those unconvinced by Trump's assertion, this reiteration of lies in the face of evidence did something else. It 'flood[ed] the zone with sh*t,' as Trump's advisor Steve Bannon put it. Keeping listeners constantly trying to defend what is real from what is not destroys their ability to make sense of the world. Many people turn to a strongman who promises to create order. Others will get so exhausted they simply give up. As scholar of totalitarianism Hannah Arendt noted, authoritarians use this technique to destabilize a population."
Jean Genie
(280 posts)All part if life's rich pageant I suppose. Little did we know the country was populated by so many ignorant asshats. "Your" country, "my" country, was always like this, History tells us. We were just living an illusion. Some things - most things - never change.
dawg
(10,624 posts)Basic LA
(2,047 posts)On the old John Wayne-Bible-&-Bullets crowd. It gave them pride in their corn pone backwardness, and legitimized their racist resentments.
doc03
(35,417 posts)that makes his supporters think of Trump and themselves as victims from the "other".
William Seger
(10,788 posts)Yes, absolutely, they did! They did it by creating an alternate reality where reactionary, mean-spirited bigots who call themselves Christians and neo-fascists who call themselves patriots can feel better about their miserable selves by hating on the liberals.
usonian
(9,928 posts)The cult "legitimizes" it like the mob legitimizes crime: "Everyone does it, or wants to".
getagrip_already
(14,923 posts)He gives power to their fears.
They don't love democracy. It scares them. They can't control it. Someone they don't like or who scares them will tell them what to do, will wear a badge, will have a better job.
They would rather burn everything down than live in fear.
Cowards all.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)Your social circles are not representative of the general public. People in general are way dumber, shittier, and meaner than those you hang out with.
Joinfortmill
(14,489 posts)My take is humans need a redo. But I'm old.
ecstatic
(32,766 posts)Hey, let's vote for the guy with the 91 felony charges, the one who we all watched try to overthrow the country a few years ago.
Yes, let's vote him back in. The same guy who caused over a million deaths from covid. More than that if you count the worldwide death toll. And yes, I hold him responsible for that as well.
The White House official charged with leading the U.S. response to deadly pandemics left nearly two years ago as his global health security team was disbanded. Federal funding for preventing and mitigating the spread of infectious disease has been repeatedly threatened since President Trumps election.
Despite the mounting threat of a coronavirus outbreak in the United States, Trump said he has no regrets about those actions and that expertise and resources can be quickly ramped up to meet the current needs.
You build a fire department ahead of time. You dont wait for a fire, said Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. There is an underappreciation for the amount of time and resources required to build a prepared system.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trump-says-he-can-bring-in-coronavirus-experts-quickly-the-experts-say-it-is-not-that-simple/2020/02/27/6ce214a6-5983-11ea-8753-73d96000faae_story.html
May 2018
The Trump Administration disbands the White House pandemic response team.
July 2019
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiologist embedded in Chinas disease control agency left the post, and the Trump Administration eliminated the role.
Oct. 2019
Currently, there are insufficient funding sources designated for the federal government to use in response to a severe influenza pandemic.
Jan. 22, 2020
We have it totally under control. Its one person coming in from China. Its going to be just fine.
Jan. 24, 2020
Trump praises Chinas handling of the coronavirus: China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!
Jan. 28, 2020
This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency...This is going to be the roughest thing you face." Trumps National Security Advisor says to Trump.
Jan. 30, 2020
"The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil,...This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans. (Memo from Trump Trade Advisor Peter Navarro)
Feb. 2, 2020
We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.
Feb. 7, 2020
Its also more deadly than even your strenuous flu... This is deadly stuff. [Trump in a private interview with Bob Woodward from The Washington Post made public on Sept. 9, 2020]
Feb. 10, 2020
I think the virus is going to beits going to be fine.
Feb. 10, 2020
Looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.
Feb. 24, 2020
The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA the Stock Market starting to look very good to me!
Read more: https://doggett.house.gov/media/blog-post/timeline-trumps-coronavirus-responses
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9115435/
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,060 posts)Bad actors include far right, christo-fascist dominionists, and foreign states, particularly Russia.
Techniques include social media manipulation by bot farms, paid agents (Smirnov) and hacking.
NoMoreRepugs
(9,494 posts)gotta HATE.
relayerbob
(6,561 posts)Nor thought, nor discourse. In fact, theyve been taught for at least two generations that such things are evil.
Bumbles
(48 posts)Response to Bumbles (Reply #27)
ShazzieB This message was self-deleted by its author.
Abolishinist
(1,320 posts)When I have more time I am going to take the 'primals' survey, there is a link to it in the article.
"We have created a free, scientifically validated online survey if you wish to learn how your own primals compare with the average."
Ocelot II
(115,927 posts)ecstatic
(32,766 posts)how would one shift the conversation with a magat to blur hierarchal lines? The suggestion on how to talk about gender made sense, but my head is exploding trying to think of how to use this information more broadly.
quakerboy
(13,923 posts)The tint may have worn off of the glasses weve worn, but it is remarkably consistent with itself if you study history.
FailureToCommunicate
(14,027 posts)all wrapped up in racism, classism, and whatever other "isms" FOX and RW radio spews out to them.
Deplorable is too nice a term for them. If it was just a mass character flaw, one **might** have sympathy for them. But they insist on dragging down, burning down our democracy with them, threatening all of the rest of us.
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,485 posts)People who choose to be Narcissists.
ffr
(22,676 posts)Lead
Saturnism
onecaliberal
(32,952 posts)GuppyGal
(1,748 posts)Assholes Also Abound.
ScratchCat
(2,016 posts)Is that none of the crimes he is accused of are even disputed.
He doesn't dispute he paid off Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. He just says he gets to do that.
He doesn't dispute lying on taxes, he just says he gets to do that.
He doesn't dispute taking classified information, he just says its ok for him to do that.
He doesn't dispute that he tried to get States to alter the election. He just says he gets to do that.
The Republicans don't even dispute what he is charged for. They just come up with ridiculous reasons as to why he shouldn't be held accountable.
It all comes down to this: They say they are the god guys and Democrats are the bad guys; end of story. Acknowledging that they nominated and elected a bad guy destroys their brand image and they will not allow it under any circumstance. Note the others under indictment and their extreme defense of those people(Santos, Paxton).
30 years of talk radio combined with the election and re-election of Barack Obama and the summer of 2020 drove them insane and they have circled the wagons in defense of "their country" or some other siliness.
I believe the root cause of their anxiety and hate is the browning of America-escalated by right wing media, media shiny object both siderism, Christian nationalist desire to become the law of the land, and making it okay to blame and hate others for their own lives.
bdamomma
(63,941 posts)contributed too. Some people went crazy.
bmichaelh
(395 posts)At one point, at the height of the COVID crisis, 3,000 Americans were dying a day.
Also, the COVID crisis could have been much worse.
2 years before COVID, he and Republicans tried to repeal the ACA.
What would have happened to healthcare system in this country, with Americans who had lost their insurance showing up at hospitals with COVID symptoms.
I stayed in the hospital for about a week with COVID pneumonia.
Some have showed up in the hospital and have stayed several months, if not more.
When it comes to healthcare, he is grossly incompetent.
lees1975
(3,900 posts)we have a public education system that has failed to teach generations of students any critical thinking skills, or any skills, for that matter.
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,485 posts)That billionaire piece of shit has made it her mission to destroy the education system. She needs to be made accountable for the crap she funded. If money is speech,then abusive use of money needs accountability than.
calimary
(81,557 posts)Ping Tung
(752 posts)See Germany 1933 for precedent.
IbogaProject
(2,849 posts)And there has been a bifurcation where some become high earners but many more are falling behind. He also validates their hate and he channels their ignorance. And their propaganda is well honed so even low info people get plausible talking points.
live love laugh
(13,181 posts)Mr.Bill
(24,346 posts)is the death of Journalism. It turns out that an unbiased, professional and ethical press is far more important than people thought. It has turned into nothing but a clown show.
Response to Charging Triceratops (Original post)
moondust This message was self-deleted by its author.
SouthernDem4ever
(6,617 posts)Don't know any other word for it.
Oopsie Daisy
(2,728 posts)* no longer do they need to hide their racism, bigotry, sexism, homophobia. There are a LOT of shitty people in this country. I never realized how many back with "social norms" and "acceptable behavior" kept them all quiet and pretending to be respectable.
WarGamer
(12,491 posts)The right doesn't CARE about Trump as a person.
Trump is a tool. Trump gives POWER to disparate groups.
They're not picking a new coach for their kids Little League team...
They're with Trump because he hates who and what they hate and he is willing to use that power to affect policy that benefits aforementioned disparate groups.
Or just to punish the groups THEY don't like.
In other words... their HATE Trumps all the corruption, criminal acts and so on.
llmart
(15,563 posts)Americans are very short sighted. They believe that our democracy is always going to survive no matter what. Thus, they don't take voting seriously, so they vote as if they're picking the latest mirror ball winners on Dancing with the Stars or don't vote at all because "I don't have time because my life is soooo busy." Then when something bad happens they act like there were no warning signs (for example: see September 11, 2001).
I doubt much will change in my lifetime since I'm on the final third of my life. I hope the younger generations realize that they are going to be the ones who live with it, if our great experiment in democracy fails.
forgotmylogin
(7,539 posts)So many people want to blame any problem in America and their own personal issues on a scapegoat rather than take responsibility to make a change. It's immigrants "takin our jerbs!" and minorities "sucking up government assistance" that makes things hard for blue-collars, not that they won't support union reform or fixing the problems so there's something for everyone.
Many Americans of past generations and new ones through learned behavior, sadly, have always been closet racists and/or xenophobes. Trump gave them permission to say the quiet part out loud again and they don't want to go back. These are the people who will overlook any wrongdoing by a candidate just because that message aligns with their sad fears. And these chosen scapegoats are groups that bigots already hold disdain for: minorities, immigrants, LGBTQIA2S+, etc. They would be more than happy to just eliminate these groups, though doing so would not improve life, and likely would degrade it. That 33% support for Trump that seems unshakable are those people and nothing is going to change their minds.
I've always held the position that conservativism is the politics of exclusion and liberalism is the politics of inclusion. Democrats want to create change and make sure everyone can subsist and have a decent life. Republicans want to blame someone or something else that is keeping them from making the changes and take resources and rights away from the people they feel unworthy to allegedly reserve them for (white/straight/cis) 'Muricans when the truth is everyone has to give something to get something else in return.
It's easier (both politically and personally) to blame all problems on something that's allegedly preventing beneficial change than to actually buckle down and take responsibility to make the changes that benefit everyone - which is what Joe Biden (who has evolved his philosophies over the years as things change) believes in - compromise for everyone. This was exactly proven when Trump managed to scuttle a border deal that was more than the Democrats wanted and much that the Republicans did want because it would eliminate a scapegoat the rightwing could campaign and complain about.
This is exactly spelled out in Wicked, both the musical, upcoming movie, and the source novel - which is actually a reactionary political parable of the Bush era but still holds true today: "Elphaba when I first got here, there was discord and discontent. And where I come from, everyone knows: the best way to bring folks together, is to give them a really good enemy." That's the quickest and easiest way, but not the right way - by "othering" a group and saying "all your problems will go away if we eliminate these people. These groups were never a problem before Trump stirred up a hornet's nest of racism and bigotry.
This is the one thing Donald Trump believes in: Keep people mad, and keep telling people he's the only person who can fix it. He's got his devoted 33% and we need to ensure enough people vote that the 33% doesn't statistically become 51%+ at the voting booth via ignorance nor apathy. The electoral college can easily steal the popular vote from a Democrat unless rational people swarm the polls like honeybees to overwhelm an invading hornet, which happened in 2020 and we need to do it again harder this year so even if they twiddle the numbers and scream about election fraud, like 2020 it will never be enough to actually overturn a valid election in their favor.
BaronChocula
(1,625 posts)We are of the same mind.
That! And everything else you said.
forgotmylogin
(7,539 posts)It's my entire thinking about the political situation. Thank you!
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,485 posts)Conservatism was seen as a sickness and rejected from society.
I would like to see a very liberal party replace the asshole republican party and the rich and corporation to be taxed heavily and kept powerless to affect policy.
BaronChocula
(1,625 posts)Thanks to limbaugh who preceded foxnews and all the subsequent white nationalist media. Limbaugh fed the ego of white conservatives by portraying the expansion of rights to all other law-abiding Americans as a threat to his listeners. In his disturbed narrative, any agreement with the Democratic party was ceding their God-given dominance so if Democrats advocated common sense policy like getting inspections on Iran's nuclear enrichment program, conservatives HAD to oppose it. Their MO evolved into making up their own facts in order to not agree with Democrats. That's sickness.
Failed Indiana senate candidate Richard Mourdock once said in a debate that he saw bipartisanship as (roughly recalling) "the other side coming to our way of thinking." He went on to lose due to his comments that rape was God's will. Anyway, his views on bipartisanship explain why the conservative party is so broken.
But their biggest con is when THEY screw up it's the fault of both sides. And enough Americans accept that because there are enough Americans who give the republican party the white man pass.
Thanks in advance for letting me ramble.
Blue Owl
(50,536 posts)GenThePerservering
(1,855 posts)It's just "America". People like this have always existed - I grew up in towns full of them and they were as loud and ignorant then as they are now. When I was a kid 10,000 crammed into my little town of about 1500 to hear George Wallace speak back in the day - they acted the same as they do now.
This country was born in blood and has always been racist and proudly ignorant. The thin veneer of civilization has worn thin - we have to restore it.
Charging Triceratops
(169 posts)And, no, it was not worse before. We were smarter. We cared. We were not blinded by hate radio, Murdoch's bile and Internet lies. Sure, there were assholes; hell, we once had legal slavery and women couldn't even vote until 1920, But we've changed as a people. And it fucking hurts.
TheKentuckian
(25,034 posts)Nostalgia is deadly.
Elessar Zappa
(14,110 posts)Last edited Thu Mar 7, 2024, 08:15 AM - Edit history (1)
Civilization was a thin veneer. Racism was worse, misogyny was worse and homophobia was worse. Violent crime was much higher. I wouldnt want to go back to the past for any amount of money. The only thing better about the old days was that we had a functional government.
kiri
(801 posts)Do not underestimate the power of religious authoritarian feelings/thinking.
Fears overwhelm. The Catholic Church supported Joe McCarthy to the hilt in the 50's. The evangelicals tie themselves into knots about some satan/antichrist/invisible evil being who is so powerful... but not powerful against prayer and sending money to a preacher. Easily defeated by belief in some god or another--authoritarian figure.
The whole idea of life after death is inimical to a good life on this earth.
Remember the evangelicals --worth many mansions, jets, luxuries, Cayman island bank accounts--in the Oval Office laying on their hands on Trump?
Pegasus30
(6 posts)Polls, polls , polls ....open any newspaper, look at TeeVee, or Tweeter or any medium whatsoever - bad news for Biden, cubed.
However, what are the polls' methodologies? What were the sample sizes? How did they contact the participants? This information is almost never shared, and if so, it is minimal , at best.
Anyone who has done canvassing telephone calls for a candidate will realize that the response rate to cold calls to voters is miniscule. I've done this multiple times for several campaigns, as, I imagine, have many others here. As I made call after call and never got to speak to anyone , I thought about how if I get a call or a text from a number I don't recognize I ignore it and treat it as "spam". It's understandable. I therefore do not know how they are getting this authoritative data about how hundreds of millions of people are going to vote . I would very much like to know how the pollsters ( who are they ? where are they? Who funds them?) harvest the data that they then trot out as the gospel truth on what the population is thinking on any particular issue. Please , no lectures on statistics, and random samples, and margins of error and all that , I get all that. It is always an issue of garbage in, garbage out with polls, and I truly would like to know just ....how they can find a representative sample ?
soldierant
(6,942 posts)"a nation that values education and thoughtful discourse" is wrong. We aren't. There are many of us who do, but it's not the whole country. And many of those who do value education only value it as a credential. If we as a nation truly valued education, I don't think we would have allowed the quality of it to degenerate so thoroughly.
Tribetime
(4,714 posts)SomedayKindaLove
(532 posts)Fill with Fear, FEAR, and MORE FEAR. Mix with repeat, REPEAT, and REPEAT AGAIN and before long you can make them salivate with a just a few catch words. Activate the amygdala and dont ever let it ever turn off and you can unite people in hatred against whomever you like.
Ever wonder why you cant reason with MAGA? Their amygdala has been so overworked that the prefrontal cortex, the logic part of the brain, shrinks.
I think what most of MAGA has in common is they are TERRIFIED.
RocRizzo55
(980 posts)His policies, started this monster. Had he not gotten rid of the Fairness Doctrine, closed the mental hospitals, taken the solar panels off of the White House, and other things, we would not be in the mess we are in today.
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,167 posts)This article kinda of explains part of it, while exposing the problem of constant lying having no ramifications in politics.
"A criminologist explains why half of America does not care about Trump's crimes
Since 2023, when Donald Trump was criminally indicted in a combined four criminal cases on 91 felony counts, I have repeatedly been asked to explain how one-half of the American public seemingly does not care about the alleged crimes committed by their former president and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee...."
The answer has much more to do with the social reality that these transgressions are not ordinary or commonplace offenses as criminologists refer to them....
Rather, these offenses are ideological or political in nature as evidenced by the unsigned majority opinion of SCOTUS ruling on the 14th Amendment earlier this week....
....they believe that the criminal indictment regarding Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election are about an illegitimate 2020 presidential election, one that Trump actually won. "
That kind of lie, like the ones about where Obama was born, and the thousands he told in office, have no legal recourse, so Republicans lie rather than come up with policies as in 2024 servicing the wealthy is all the do.
What a role model!!!
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-versus-truth-most-outrageous-falsehoods-his-presidency-n1252580
https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/trumps-crimes/