Alternative facts, or the alternative to facts, is the world that the MAGA hat people live in.
We are in a serious national emergency that could crash the economy and totally change America as we know it. We can have no confidence in the government to mitigate this emergency because it is led by a petulant child who is a self-serving narcissist and a habitual liar.
Practically everything that comes out of Trump’s mouth, you can look to the exact opposite and find the truth.
My grandmother would say, ‘Some people lie when the truth sounds better.’ That totally fits Trump.
The New York Times has listed over 15,000 statements Trump has uttered or tweeted during his three years as President that are blatantly false:
The largest inauguration crowd ever.
Three to five million illegals voted causing me to lose the popular vote.
Caravans are a National Emergency.
Mexico will pay for the wall.
Obama tapped my phone.
I will protect pre-existing conditions. (Trump administration is presently suing to make The Affordable Care Act unconstitutional; which will end the protection for pre-existing conditions.)
I will protect your Social Security and Medicare. (Trump’s 2021 budget has massive cuts to both programs.)
The coronavirus will go down to almost nothing…
Of course, MAGA people who believe that the Portland Press Herald, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Boston Glove, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal, Miami Herald, New Orleans Picayune, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times and NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, PBS and BBC are all fake news; but FOX speaks the truth – will always chose to remain in the Alternative Facts Bubble. At the next Trump rally, we will probably hear the MAGA crowd saying that the virus came from the Hillary Clinton computer server that is hiding somewhere in Ukraine … Lock her up!
South Korea is testing 10,000 people a day for coronavirus. The U.S. had tested only 1,700 as of last week. Yet, Trump reminds us that he is doing a great job, but stated, “I don’t take responsibility at all,” for the botched rollout of the coronavirus testing, insinuating that the slow test-kit rollout was the fault of the Obama administration.
The fact is that Donald Trump was never qualified, or intelligent enough to fill the Office of the President. Our best bet to mediate the future damage from the coronavirus pandemic, is to dump Trump as quickly as possible.
I expect that the same people that always troll this forum will attack me personally with their comments. It doesn’t bother me. I never read them.
William Gilliland
Farmington
William, have you misplaced your meds again. Here, let me offer some assistance. Call 1-800-365-4189
That is the customer service line for Visiting Angels, they’ll send a nurse right over to help you. Best wishes
To you old friend.
I wish you would run for office William as it appears that you have all the answers. It must be difficult to live in a world surrounded by so many imbeciles. Too bad you cannot put aside partisanship for five seconds when it comes to the pandemic. Many of your ilk have even given praise to the administrations response such as Gov. Newsome, Gov. Cuomo and gosh even Rep. Ohmar. One thing I am certain of is that insulting the intelligence of people you disagree with is a sure fire way to lose an argument. I may disagree with your philosophy of how the country should be run, but at the end of the day I am concerned for your well being and would like to see you happy. You on the other seem to want to insult me and wish me harm. I shall get the last laugh with another four years of MAGA.
Oh but William, if you dish it out you gotta take it!! So your not a Trump lover…..I am. He has done more for this Country than a lot of President’s have done. You are welcome to your opinion as I am mine. If venting on the Bull Dog makes you feel better, well then, enjoy your day :)
William if you would shut off CNN you might learn that the reason that testing is so slow is because of red tape in the FDA. Look up Rep. Dan Crenshaw and see what he has said regarding this topic. It is not the current nor the former administrations fault. This time is not a good time to politicize the topic. If you weren’t acting so ignorant you would see that this is the first time in almost 4 years our government is actually working together in a bipartisan manner. Grow up and act your age which I’m sure is older than the ignorant kids in Florida on spring break feeling entitled to hang out and party in a time of this National State of Emergency.
Its amazing how fast some rush to display their ignorance in the comment section.
Our current president ignored this pandemic for almost eight weeks. The body count at the end of this debacle is on his shoulders, as many of those deaths will be a direct result of his inaction. How many weeks did he tell the public that it was just the flu and nothing to worry about?
Now that the only talking point that he had (taking credit for the economy Obama’s left in place for him ) has been ruined, it will be interesting to see what exactly he runs on for reelection. His opponent will have a field day, all they will need is one graphic listing the following items: Jobs lost under Trump, Lives lost under Trump and Current Unemployment numbers under Trump.
The bottom line is that he was never qualified for the job and he drastically failed the American people and there is absolutely no talking point that will change that.
Sorry Trumpers, there is no way to spin this one, although I am sure you will try.
@Just Saying …That moment when you bash on someone else in praise of the dumbest president in history and use the wrong “you’re”
****Priceless****
Gotta love the irony!
It is fascinating to have spent over three years listening to Trump ream out all of his adversaries with childish insults, but when someone like Mr. Gilliland rises to publicly repudiate such indecency, he is accused of “partisanship.” Please, all you true believers, realize that a good number of the people taking the risk of criticizing Trump are actually lifelong Republicans. It’s not partisanship that leads them to criticize Trump– far from it. It’s a recognition that Trump is immoral, misogynistic, and racist, and that his lack of statesmanship puts us ALL at dire risk. But worse, and this will be impossible for Trumpeteers to agree with, the President is not mentally stable. That’s right. Anyone who has to repeatedly tell you how smart he is is someone who is very insecure about their intelligence. Anyone who goes to such efforts to hide their tax returns has something serious to hide. Anyone whose thinking is limited to hollow slogans and first-grade insults is someone who lacks the substance to be an effective leader. And anyone who has consistently denied the coronavirus as “nothing to worry about,” only to tell you months later that he “knew all along it was a pandemic,” is a man you can’t trust the welfare of your family to. But go on, keep defending him. You’ll see…
Let’s judge President Trump by his own words:
I’m glad we have a stable genius at the helm! In the President’s own words: In the President’s own words:
January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
February 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
February 25: “I think it’s a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
February 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
February 26: “We’re going very substantially down, not up.”
February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
February 28: “It’s [Coronavirus is] their (Democrats) new hoax.”
February 28: “We’re ordering a lot of supplies. We’re ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn’t be ordering unless it was something like this. But we’re ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”
March 2: “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don’t think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”
March 2: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”
March 5: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”
March 5: “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”
March 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”
March 6: “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
March 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
March 6: “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.”
March 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on Corona Virus.”
March 9: “This blindsided the world.”
March 13: “No, I don’t take responsibility at all.”
(That March 13th quote is Trump’s general response to anything bad, “the buck stops….ah, over there!”)
There seems to be too much hate and too much verbal slaughter during this perilous time. The heated feelings and stinging comments do nothing to guide us forward towards a healing resolution to this nation’s current virus crisis.
Trump, Obama, Bush, or George Washington (for that matter) have been selected for the presidential office and each has encountered their own trials and tribulations upon wearing the proverbial “heavy weight of the crown”.
Perhaps it may be time for all of us to embrace civility and join in displaying our collective energies in a positive manner. It would behoove us to consider helping “whoever our leader is”….. because as of this moment….. it is reality and we cannot change it no matter what our thoughts or feeling may be.
Verbal negative slander and angry gutter talk are a waste of energy. I suggest that to better ourselves and save our families, communities, state, nation, and planet as a whole……we should band together in a positive and progressive manner.
Our current social atmosphere has become a thick smog of distracting evil energy that opposing political parties have created.
As with our past Civil War…. that this country has painfully endured….we, again, are seeing this unneeded hatred tear at our social fabric and rip friends, family, communities, and this nation apart.
This current virus is a “real and lethal” disaster that has fallen upon us and it is one that we would be advised to recognize as “a sign”……encouraging us all to “join together”…. in order to address this plague…. and defeat it in a logical, unified, and decisive manner.
Unity while respecting diversity is perhaps the lesson we must learn from this current crisis. Petty bickering leads “no where”….while forgiveness of others is a blessed gift to ourselves.
I’ve asked this question of a few people now. If you disapprove of how the President is handling this, were you this upset when 1,000+ died of H1N1 “swine flu” before action was taken in 2008 ? Did the media talk up a situation anywhere near what they are covering the “Chinese virus” ?
When was the last time we had a pandemic of this magnitude? Can you name one country that is prepared for this?
We are in uncharted territory. Pointing fingers at anyone right now is part of the problem. Yes, our government has influence and can call in the troops to help us but the reality is, we need to help ourselves. Anyone who thinks that the government is going to fix all of problems truly has their head in the sand.
Lean on each other with social distancing in mind.We are Mainers! We are tough! This is serious business.
Stay Well, People!
PEACE-
Thank You “Self-Reliant in Franklin County” !!!!
You are the “voice of reason” in troubled times.
You possess a brilliant thought process and articulate very well………..”right to the point”……and “on target”.
You, also, very brilliantly avoided passing judgement on anyone else…… nor having to resort to vulgar “name calling”………..nor shaming the demeanor………nor character of any other person.
Without vulgarity……the intelligence of your words….alone…..delivered the ” knock out” punch.
Very well done, well organized, and clearly understood.
Your comments where like a fresh drink of cold clear water.
Thanks Again.
I like your unbiased style and unpolluted train of thought.
Keep Writing !!!!
Stay Well !!!!
-PEACE-
Please, whatever you do, don’t miss an opportunity to push your agenda. People are dying and you brought your soapbox to the funeral.
The US government handled the 2009 flu very well. Why would anybody be mad about that? Also, more than 10,000 died, not just 1000! In 2017-18 about 60,000 people died during flu season! But comparing this to flu is off base. The goal now is to stop it so we don’t get 60,000 or 600,000 people dying. With flu, the vaccine is about as good an effort as possible to stop it. Some years like 2017-18 with 60,000 deaths are pretty bad, other years it’s about 30,000. It’s like traffic deaths (which are similar numbers) – we handle the risk as best we can. This has the potential to be much, much worse, and so the effort is being made to limit it. Hopefully it’ll work!
I really like the local publication of The Daily Bulldog. My opinion is publishing letters like Mr. Gilliland’s has no value other than to cause division. Of all the situations/topics, with the nations conditions what it is, and possibly could be, it is sad.
Times like this call for a robust national government response. Trump is failing to do this. He wasted weeks
on trying to happy talk the stock market.
There are several countries that have shown they are more prepared than we are to combat a pandemic (Germany, South Korea, and Singapore for example).
Although it’s important, all the social distancing and hand washing in the world will not matter for those elderly with underlying conditions if there aren’t enough ventilators to go around if the icu’s get swamped.
And there are not enough ventilators. Trump is footdragging on providing more of these and other medical equipment under the Defense Production Act.
Unless you can build your own COVID-19 test kits, set up a thousand bed icu, provide for backup medical workers when existing nurses get sick, or conduct double blind clinical vaccination trials, I would suggest that the federal government is better qualified than the local population in stemming the worst of this arriving tide.
The GOP has been saying for years that government can’t fix things.
They prove themselves right every time they’re in charge of the government.
billyjoebob,
Excellent !!!! Good Response. Well stated. Refreshing point of view. Thank You.
Scott my point was there was over 1,000 deaths before any action was taking. It took from April 12,2009 (first case) until October 12,2009 for the previous administration to declare an emergency. I would say this is a much quicker response even if it did take longer than every person with a keyboard and hate for our President thinks it was.
I’m going to take the advice of Jade andSf Reliant and stop here.
Be well wash your hands
billyjoebob.. Excellent!!! Good Response.. but, what scares the heck out of me most is what we have and have had for educators out there in the cruel world…
I am not a Trump supporter. If you don’t believe me, I don’t care. That’s your privilege, and mine, in a country that still allows differing opinions.
I am also not an automatic, knee-jerk, rabid anti-Trumper. There’s more than enough of that on display just in this thread.
We can play what-if games 24/7, but it won’t do anyone a bit of good. But I’m weak, so here’s a couple. Wash your eyes after reading.
What if the Chinese Communist Party had released information, instead of suppressing it, when they first had it last Fall? They did a thorough job of suppressing the people, permanently, who discovered what was going on.
What if the previous administration had learned something from H1N1 and created plans to help address future such problems? That would have been a valuable and enduring legacy. Instead, it was six years down the you-know-what.
You know who I admire over the past few days? Andrew Cuomo, governor (D – very) of New York. He has put aside partisan hackery, at least temporarily, and is openly cooperating with the feds, perhaps from enlightened self interest, for the good of the people of NY.
Now, if he could get his little brother to put a sock in it, he would do great good for the entire country.
You would think the President haters would not have time to comment, they are after all taking care of the immigrants that they took into their homes. Oh that’s right they didn’t, just another lame excuse to make them feel better. If DB could print the above opinion they shouldn’t have a problem with this post. Guess we’ll see?
I wouldn’t be accepting that Stimulus check either, if I were you, you don’t need it, you’re above it, Correct, Sir Holt, nice to see you survived another winter, that’s great.
Frostproof:
For three years Trump has been in charge of the executive departments and agencies that should be equipped to respond to this pandemic. He had full control of congress for two years.
The United States response is on him.
In 2018, the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense was dissolved by Trump. This office was designed to respond to such an attack. He is currently seeking to defund the World Health Organization. These cuts are analogous to cutting Defense Department spending and deployment during a war. Most importantly, COVID-19 tests, protective equipment, and ventilators are still in stunning short supply nationawide..
Trump supporters do not now get to throw his past comments and actions down the memory hole just because it now hurts their feelings. He washes his hands of responsibility, let’s wash our hands of him.
For Swine Flu, the administration never lied, never said it wasn’t a problem, never said it was a Republican hoax, and never did anything to mislead the public . Also, this has been a much bigger threat, swine flu was relatively minor, even compared to other flu seasons. You are trying to rationalize incompetence by making a false comparison, the two cases are fundamentally different, and arguably swine flu was not much of a national emergency – nothing like what this could become if precautions don’t work. The number of deaths is wholly irrelevant, since we expect at least 30,000 or so flu deaths a year. The fear if this isn’t stopped is that it could be in the hundreds of thousands.
I hope Trump gets it right moving forward. But it’s impossible to look at his words before this and defend it. He was wrong. He misled the country – he may have even believed what he was saying. BUT – the real jerks are the ones who profited from insider trading to dump stocks while telling the public there was no problem. That’s much worse than anything Trump did or didn’t do. Any one from any party in Congress who did that should resign.
I’m with you Mr. Gilliland
Trumpers always attack the messenger rather than addressing the facts. Such as, ” the virus is a Hoax”, hmmm, and remember ” Mexico will pay for the wall? ” hmmm, how about the national deficit? He said it would be eliminated in 8 years. In 3 years he has increased it by 2 trillion dollars. The deficit is now $23,000,000,000,000. Must be Obama’s fault right? Wrong, that happened under a GOP lead congress and president. How about children in cages? Trumpers think that’s okay if they’re brown. If I remember correctly Obama showed us his birth certificate after racist Trump and his mindless sheep professed he was born in Kenya. But will Trump ever show us his tax returns? Nope. The blind adoration for a man who brags about grabbing women by their pussies, mocking the handicapped, denigrating Gold Star families, calling others names like a 3rd grader would and is clearly a racist reminds me of how the leader of a whole nation, by using fear and hatred, convinced it’s people that it was okay to kill 6 million fellow citizens because they were different. I see that same mentality in Trump and his followers today. I don’t trust him or you.
I know I’ll be attacked for this statement but I take it from whence it comes.
Question, can any of you trumpers list 5 reasons to praise him?
It’s obvious that many people don’t use different sources for information and it shows in the comments when people are still using quotes that were taken out of context.
“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make em drink” same goes for education and the masses of sheep surrounding us. This will be my last response to the ignorance in the comments on this “opinion”
I had Trump pegged in the 80’s – a high end confidence man who only cares about himself. I have tried to understand why so many good people like him. I know some of them like that he gets liberals mad. Well, OK. Others like that he’s an “outsider” or a “businessman” – though compared to say Mike Bloomberg, he hasn’t had much business success! Some like that is politically incorrect – they’re sick of being told they can’t offend anyone that they love it when Trump mocks without concern. OK. But I really can’t understand how they overlook the massive debt (which fueled some economic growth, albeit a slower pace than under Obama – and debt fueled growth is a bit illusionary), the lies, and cases like this when he’s been humiliated. Today he was asked a softball question, “what do you say to Americans who are scared?” HIs reply: a personal attack against the reporter. Huh? Finally, it could be cultural backlash. Our world has changed. Religion is less important, gay marriage, legalized marijuana, the me too movement,transgender issues, pronoun preferences etc. Some people would like the world like it was back in the 80s when Trump was just a real estate con man. This change just seems too weird for some people, and they hope Trump can somehow undo it. But of course, he can’t, and hasn’t really tried. These changes stick. So yeah,I have no clue why people defend him. I don’t hate him at all, I just think he’s too weak and insecure for this particular job. He’d be a great carnival barker.
I am astounded by the level of the divide in our society today. It’s a darn good thing that we don’t have to wear an armband on our sleeve showing our political leanings. Remember people, we deal with each other day in and day out being respectful and helpful to everyone around us without even knowing their politics. I get sick and tired of either side following right down the partisan aisle. A person doing that isn’t thinking for themselves, they’re being led around by group think whose aims are not for their benefit. So many don’t even want to find common ground. I think it’s just a sign of the times we are coming into. Things will have to be bad for some to learn that we’re all in this together. Thanks to Jude, billyjoebob, Self-Reliant.
Scott, your posts border on political spam. Not surprised the BD doesn’t censor your very frequent words of wisdom. If you aren’t part of the solution Scott, you are part of the problem. I can only guess you work for the bottomless pit of spending, the schools, and have a lot of free time in your day. I’m sure you don’t like it but, President Trump is running the table right now and the liberal jesters in the house are watching from the sidelines. Always remember who wanted border security, who wanted to halt legals entering our country and who objected to all these efforts. Yes, the liberals will have to fall on their own sword come November. KAG2020
Sam… I not sure what you are talking about… Stimulus check etc… Yes, great and good winter. Sitting by the pool now with a good book and a cold Yuengling….. By the way, you don’t have to ‘Sir’ me… I was an enlisted man..
First visit to the Bulldog and I am not disappointed. From up here in the cheap seats in Canada it never fails to amaze us how there are that many deplorables willing to jump to the defence of the Orange turd at any opportunity.
From a “shining city on a hill” to dime store theocracy in just three years-truly there has never been anyone like Trump. But the journey from Billy Graham to the imposter who wears his cloak is at least as big a jump. Like finding the Pope pimping on the back streets of Naples!
My sympathies to you all, after all it is quite the accomplishment to squander your inheritance in such short order. But worry not, the Mexicans will probably take you as wetbacks to dig ditches or work in the sewers, work for which Americans seem eminently qualified!
But please don’t come north-we have certain standards.
Our response to this kind of a problem is a joke. We are lucky its not as bad as it could be. By the time all the lawyers got through protecting the rights of fools and idiots half of us would be dead. It has nothing to do with politics just a self centered society that is blind to what is really important,friends,family and living to see the sun come up the next day.
A hate fueled borderline delusional article usually provokes a hate fueled birderline delusional response.
Yaknow, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
That’s why we have such timeless sayings such as,
2 wrongs don’t make a right.
Misery loves company.
This article proves both sayings are still very much alive today.
So,,, nothing accomplished.
Peter, give your denial of the President’s lack of honesty, incompetence and utter amorality, I must conclude you’re being driven by irrational emotion. Like the President, you’d love voices you disagree with to be censored. I suspect you’ll have a rude awakening come November. Have a great day!
@ mr. erb,I remember recently reading a comment by you that you were going to take a break from social media,,I just have been dreaming.
To Me Erb,
Mr Erb, give your denial of the Democrats lack of honesty, incompetence and utter amorality, I must conclude you’re being driven by irrational emotion. Like the Democrats you’d love voices you disagree with to be censored. I suspect you’ll have a rude awakening come November. Have a great day!
Mr Erb, I’m not even saying your comment is incorrect but neither is my turnaround back atcha’.
See How You Sound?
You “should” be better than this if you call yourself an educator.
But sadly…..
It’s never too late to stop being part of the problem.
Don’t fool yourself,
C’MON MAN GET A GRIP.
Please.
Better late then Never. We have a few governors in our country that are starting to shine in their efforts to ignore for the moment the massive monopoly game we play and concentrate on preservation of people. Is it possible to turn hard core politicians into plain old fashioned Americans under the right conditions. I would like to think so. To do what is needed rather then what is wanted takes guts and usually pisses a lot of people off, just try being an ump in a mens softball game if you dont believe that one.My hats off to everyone thats had to make the hard choices.
I gotta laugh at you “Not too late.” It is necessary for Americans to call out their leaders if they are incompetent or dishonest. President Trump’s lies are being chronicled, his false statements about COVID-19 (when US intelligence agencies already were making dire warnings to the White House) are on tape and no doubt will be used in campaign commercials. COVID-19 a “democratic hoax”?
You see, I don’t claim Republicans are all dishonest, I look at individuals. You talk about the “dishonesty of Democrats,” but that is grouping a large number of people into one group to attack it. That is a logical error. I’m sure there are dishonest people in both parties, opportunists in both parties, and really good sound moral honest folk in good parties. I doubt either party has can claim it’s people are “better.” But we have to be ready to criticize our politicans and leaders for what they say and do, and what they don’t say or don’t do.
Scott,
The only thing is, the things you criticize others of doing to make their points,,, you also do.
You obviously enjoy what you’re doing.
Not sure I’ve heard you admit to being wrong ever??
Have at it man, it’s your absolute right to do so.
Just look in mirror from time to time,, maybe you see your adversary there.
This “ain’t ” your stinkin’ classroom Bro.
And yes I realize I just wasted a minute here..