If there is one area of consistency in the chaos of Trump World, it’s this: no matter what the problem is, it isn’t his fault.
The black guy did it.
Juanita Jean has one of the latest manifestations: As she writes, “I knew Fox News would find a way to blame Barack Obama for Epstein’s plea deal with Acosta.”
Apparently, a Fox commentator insisted that “Bob Mueller knew about this.” (The relevance of that assertion escapes me, but whatever…) He then went on to say that Acosta’s plea deal was “from 2008, under a Democratic administration.”
As Juanita Jean points out (and a television pundit–even one on Fox– should know) Obama wasn’t elected until six months AFTER the plea deal. “But, as we know, Obama has magical powers to make things happen even before he was born in Kenya.”
This is part of a pattern among Trump supporters–a pattern set by Trump himself. It isn’t enough to reverse every policy Obama’s administration put in place, irrespective of its merits. It’s necessary to respond to any problem, any challenge, by blaming Obama for it and insisting that he, faultless Trump, has improved the situation.
For example, Trump continues to insist that the horrific family separation policies put in place by his administration were really attributable to Obama, multiple fact checkers to the contrary:
According to FactCheck.org, “previous administrations did not have a blanket policy to prosecute parents and separate them from their children.” It was after the Trump administration announced its “zero-tolerance” immigration policy in April 2018, in which everyone who illegally entered the U.S. was referred for criminal prosecution, that thousands of migrant children were separated from their parents.
After he ordered and then aborted an air strike on Iran, Trump went on a Twitter rant blaming Obama for the tensions with Iran–tensions that escalated following Trump’s abrogation of the pact Obama had negotiated, a pact that had cooled those tensions.
He has behaved this way from the beginning: When millions of women took to the streets to protest him, shortly after he took office, Trump blamed Obama:
President Trump said Tuesday morning he believes former President Obama “is behind” nationwide protests against the new administration’s policies, taking an unusual swipe at his predecessor.
More recently, despite the fact that he has been President (okay, he’s occupied the Oval Office) for two and a half years, he blamed Obama for Turkey’s recent purchase of Russian weapons.
My favorite example of “the black guy did it” was an interview I saw (if someone has a link to the original, please post it) in which a relatively young MAGA hat wearer was talking about 9/11, and demanding to know where Obama was. “I’d really like to know why we didn’t see him responding when the planes hit.” Of course, few people had even heard of Barack Obama in 2001, when George W. Bush was in his first full year as President.
The only thing Trump and his base don’t blame on Obama is the one thing for which Obama is undeniably responsible: the economy Trump inherited.
These examples–and plenty of others (just google Trump blames Obama)–vividly demonstrate two things: Trump’s childish inability to take responsibility for his own actions and mistakes; and his racist obsession with his predecessor.
You can almost hear him brooding: How dare that black man be so much smarter, classier and (most egregious of all) more admired than I am?
Sane Americans are also brooding–about the incalculable damage this sorry excuse for a human is doing to our country and our planet, and especially about the racist reactions to the election of his predecessor that motivated his base and propelled him to the Oval Office.
blame game, timed at a piece of history known as the ressesion,and of course we know who walked,and who was granted immunity,via their status with wall streets money..epstien,small fish when the latest crap is trumps spite of Obama pulled out of the iran nuke deal. really, if this isnt a mental issue,what is? if mcconnel sits on his hands now, hes complacent in any fallout,leading to confrantation. the admin is working on a who cares, try and change it,and wipes its ass on the laws,and constitution. the supreme court is now the controling troll in decisions,thanks to mcconnels demand,to avoid Garlands vote. time to hit the streets, like France,Hong Kong,and were the backbone is still relevant. best wishes.
p.s. i wrote sen hoven of nodak, about a subject needing some need for a answer in time, he took 5 months to answer a simple question and make his spiel of why..
again, we are being kicked to te curb and we are taking it..
“Trump’s childish inability to take responsibility for his own actions and mistakes; and his racist obsession with his predecessor.”
This childish inability to take responsibility for their own actions – or want to hear the truth – is evident in his supporters. Those who were my family members and friends dating back to grade school found their political voices during Barack Obama’s presidential campaign; they have gathered their forces into the evangelical White Nationalist Trumpists we are up against today. One of the most blatant examples of a closed mind was the old friend who E-mailed me a copy of Barack Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate; when I asked why Kenya would print his birth certificate in English she removed me from her E-mail list, never to be heard from again. One of God’s blessings is when these people remove themselves from my life; they try my patience and get on my last nerve but I try to “consider the source” as my mother taught me.
But today they are a formidable force and appear to be gathering strength even as Trump’s campaign promises fail one after the other. Like the guy wearing the “MAGA” cap and wanting President Obama to account for his whereabouts on 9/11 (I think he was teaching Constitutional Law at Harvard at that time); they are as unreachable as Trump, Pence, McConnell, Graham, Nunes, and on and on and on.
And yet, his supporters continue to deny that Trump is a racist or that they support him because he is a racist. It’s the same game we’ve been playing since the first African sold into slavery set foot on American soil. An enlightening book on the subject is, “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander.
Democrats just have to remember how to split the dumb white vote. If they don’t, we lose our democracy. Cletus never was and never will be decent or reasonable — he just has to be misled. The Rs understand this. The Ds had better figure it out. Soon.
There are two sides to Trump’s endless denials of responsibility. One is Trump’s delusional thinking, and the other is his supporter’s blind acceptance of his delusional thinking thus twisting their own world view into some kind of ongoing fantasy.
What kind of life decisions do Trump supporters make when they have incorporated into their lives the belief that you can get away with anything because you don’t have to take responsibility for your actions?
Bravo Theresa Bowers!!! We need to get rid of this total slug as soon as we can for both our welfare and that of the rest of the world. Perhaps then his supporters will return to being human beings again. We can only hope. Meanwhile, has anyone considered why Acosta was picked to be Labor Secretary over other candidates? Since Trump lies incessantly, could it be that what he’s saying about Epstein and his relationship with him is still another lie? Acosta got the job for covering his and others tracks when the scope of Epstein’s crimes were uncovered. Possible food for thought especially given Trump’s extremely checkered past and present regarding his relations with women. Sorry for being off topic but this was a brain flash for what ever it’s worth thanks to Mike Brzezinski this morning.
As for Epstein’s case, any US president would be cautious because he has a little black book, millions of dollars (from where we don’t know), private jet, and expensive homes scattered throughout the country.
Now, we have the “little black book” and if crimes were committed on his estates, we should get them as well. The names in the book include serious financiers and Bill Clinton. A young Barack would have steered clear of Epstein’s case just like he let Wall Street bankers bail out Wall Street.
As for Trump, he’s earned the nickname, Teflon Don. 😉
Blind acceptance of his fantasies by his base tell us that his base is also conditioned by racism and collective denial. Our task > keep pounding away at such delusions with truth telling in the hope that reality seeps through among some of his base, since we have to remember that there may be some among his base who are reachable and we need every vote we can get, also remembering that a Trump vote for our candidate is a double whammy to his campaign for reelection (if he’s still in office) in that it’s a vote we get and one he doesn’t.
I believe that we all need to bombard our Republican Senator’s and Representative’s offices with phone calls demanding to know why they are staying quiet while trump attacks our country and innocent people with his crazy tweets.
We are also all guilty of letting them off the hook if we don’t start demanding that they speak up and speak out against that idiot. We need to demand that our elected members of Congress defend our our country instead of worrying about themselves being attacked by him. If he and his fellow idiot cabinet members are all attacked then he won’t be able to fight all of them.
Please, everyone, make repeated phone calls to your Rep’s and Senator’s offices until they get the message that we will not continue to tolerate this craziness. If we can all also convince our intelligent friends to also make the calls then they will listen and realize that staying quiet may not be the safest way for them to stay in office. We have got to get a voice and fight back against his brainless base that so loudly supports him.
Our silence speaks volumes in the form of tolerance!
Republican presidents blaming their Democratic predecessors isn’t new. Six years into his presidency, Reagan was blaming Carter for the economy. The very economy he had run against Carter on, swore he would revive and then made worse.
That said, Trump has elevated the blame game to an art form. There is no Obama policy he won’t seek to destroy, no issue he won’t blame on President Obama.
Of course, he blames anyone who raises the slightest objection to what he is doing [see former Speaker Ryan] — but Obama doesn’t have to open his mouth. His simple existence is enough of a sin to raise Trump’s ire.
This could, in fact, prove to be our salvation. Every minute spent tweeting his hatred is a minute not spent destroying the nation and the world.
Perhaps President Obama should quit his silence. Maybe if he urged Trump to do some crazy, insane thing — do something that would make climate change worse, say — Trump would rush out and do the opposite?
FYI: Julie Sommers Neuman, an attorney with practical experience helping those seeking asylum here as Executive Director of Coalition for Our Immigrant Neighbors (COIN), will explore the tension between the U.S. as a historical nation of immigrants and the current political uproar, 7-8:30 pm, in the dining room at Indiana Interchurch Center, 1100 W. 42, sponsored by Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center. For more info, phone Charlie McDonald at 283-2730.
It’s not just Trump, as so many of the bloggers point out today. It is the white panic that infects those with institutionalized ignorance and inherent racism that is STILL in the DNA of most white people in this country, especially white males. The bigotry against those “uppity” people is as strong as ever and will never leave us. Trump saw that he shared those traits with these backward fools, and exploited them to the White House. At the same time, the DNC screwed the electoral pooch in grand fashion.
This sentence is more than just explanatory and obvious: “You can almost hear him brooding: How dare that black man be so much smarter, classier and (most egregious of all) more admired than I am?” This is the “brood” of the white American male who is insecure in his own skin and refuses to take the intellectual leap to accept anything browner than his goddamned latte as a fellow citizen.
Republicans have been blaming Obama for everything from sunspots to teenage acne. That’s how harmful they are to anyone and everything except white males and especially rich white males who own the Republican party.
What? Never?
No, Never!
It’s never his fault that be.
He is the Captain of the Big White House,
and though a big bad louse,
in the Big White House
His fault it will never be!
I feel I am well within my rights to question the intelligence or mental faculties of someone who, without question, blindly accepts the excuses spewing from Trump and his mouthpieces at Fox News. It’s the rest of us with functioning brains who pay the price for their stupidity and dishonesty.
It is a crying (literally) shame that our education system has totally failed over the years to teach people how to think and challenge what they see and hear. We MUST seek out every single citizen who does know how to do that and loves their country and be SURE that they register and vote in 2020. If they are those folks, no need to tell them whom to vote for and insult them…
I believe that the MAGA hat guy was interviewed by Jordan Klepper. http://www.cc.com/video-clips/e9z0ej/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-jordan-klepper-fingers-the-pulse—conspiracy-theories-thrive-at-a-donald-trump-rally
The problem is that his base only watches Faux News and they believe all his B.S. because they don’t hear anything else!
Try watching the STARZ series “The Loudest Voice”. It will tell you all you need to know about how Roger Miles and Rupert Murdoch purposefully mislead and brainwashed the most vulnerable intellects in our country. They are SO creepy… It’s almost like the sexual predators who exploit the most emotionally vulnerable among us. In a speech in Warren, Ohio, Ailes’ hometown, for example, he actually told the crowd that they needed to stick together to “make America great again!” Sound familiar?
BTW, Russel Crowe should win an Emmy for his performance.
Trump is the poster child (literally) for mental illness.
I watched Cuchinilli tell the CNN’s host it was Congress’ fault that they didn’t get immigration reform done this morning. He suggests that Dems need to do it. My goodness, if memory serves me, the (R)’s have had control of Congress since 2010!!! Am I right? Come on, they had 3 freaking branches + SCOTUS in 2017-18 so the democrats need to get their message fixed. I’m so sick of the outrage fatigue. Just freaking sick of it.
Trump is also jealous of Obama’s slender, athletic physique and physical attractiveness. Trump actually praised himself as being an attractive, vigorous young man. He is a case-study in malignant narcissism, which, just in and of itself, ranges from amusing to pathetic, but narcissists like him and Hitler start wars and kill people to prove their power. The truth is, they are internally insecure and unloved, and they know it. Word has it that Melania is considering taking Barron and returning to Slovenia once her job as wifely cover for Fatso is over. Maybe that’s why Trump moved her parents to America. They live in a house near the White House.
After 2 1/2 years of Trump; I doubt I am the only one who has on occasion had a few brain cells misfire trying to keep up. Just watching MSNBC discussing Trump’s most recent order that he will not allow any asylum seekers to cross our border. Suddenly I realized this makes no sense coming from Herr Trump. With his super inflated ego; why isn’t he at the border welcoming them with open arms; surely he must know they are all coming here because he is president and will surely save them.
Or maybe not; he just announced that all Democratic women of color should leave the country. And it is only Monday.