ANOTHER LIE EXPOSED

It is safe to say that Donald Trump's entire political career has been based on a bed of lies: from his questioning Barack Obama's birth certificate to his absurd brags ("I know more about Isis than the generals!"), Trump has never been a truth teller.  Instead he insists his version of reality is the truth, no matter how absurd that may be.
The worst lie that Trump  told during the campaign is the one that we've all heard so many times, and that he gave in the opening declaration of candidacy speech: "When Mexico sends their people over, their not sending people like you or you, they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some I assume are good people."  Despite his almost child like attempt to walk back the racism of the statement with his last few words, his meaning was clear: many, perhaps even most, Mexican immigrants are criminals.  It was this openly  racist blast of hate,   which will go down as easily one of the most divisive and frightening statements in American political history, and which was swiftly followed by his desire to build a wall on the border, that Mexico would pay for, and that, sadly, drove millions of white voters into his corner and ultimately propelled him to the White House.
The fact his statements about Mexican immigrants is a lie  is easily proven: study after study has shown that immigrants (both documented and undocumented) are less likely to be criminals than people born in this country are.  Most immigrants come here looking for a better life for themselves and their families; they usually work hard, play by the rules and benefit the country enormously.  Are some of them criminals?  Of course, but when you're talking about a group of millions of people, it's inevitable that some of them will be criminals; again, it bears repeating, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born here.
If Trump's lie was so easily disproven, why was it allowed to fester?  Well, over the years, right wing media has programmed a segment of population to believe what they say over actual facts, or to put it another way, they want to hear what they believe is true, not what actually is true.  And hatred of non white immigrants is an easy truth for them.  There's a sad bit of irony in that many of the white Americans hating recent immigrants are themselves descended from Italian and Irish transplants who faced the same kind of hatred and xenophobia on their arrival.  Sadly, the argument over who the "real Americans" are is still with us.



Another lie that Trump told has taken a longer time to unravel, but it seems to be reaching it's breaking point: during the campaign he stormed through middle America declaring that he would bring back manufacturing jobs to rural areas around the country.  With many towns feeling decimated from factory and mine shut downs, this seemed like a dream come true, even if his vague promises of bringing back jobs had no specific plans.  And while the economy has done well overall, his pledge to bring back manufacturing jobs has been shown to be another lie.  A recent headline showing that the General Motors auto company is closing down factories in the US, putting thousands of Americans out of work, reveals in small part, a large truth: manufacturing jobs have been slowly disappearing in this country for decades, and  no president can ever bring them back.
Once upon a time, you could graduate from high school in America and go to work in a factory or mine and make a solid, middle class living, but those days are gone.  Either those jobs have been replaced by lower paid workers in other countries, or by machines.  And since all corporations treasure their profitability, there's really no way to force them to hire more highly paid workers or get rid of modern machinery.
Yes, America is facing a transition job wise that is obviously difficult for small towns built around factories and mines.  And while there are no easy solutions, job retraining, making it easier (and cheaper!) to get a college degree, and perhaps the idea of a living wage to cushion the blow of unemployment are things to be considered.  But one thing is sure: it's foolish to bank this country's future on manufacturing jobs, as foolish as horse and buggy owners defying auto companies.

AT LAST SOME RESTRAINT

The past two years have been utterly disastrous for anyone in this country on the left as Donald Trump has barreled his way through history, dispensing lies, brags and bigoted comments while attempting to destroy every possible legacy of Barack Obama's presidency.  And while he has always not always been successful on that score (Obamacare is still hanging in there), he has trashed treaties, cut taxes for the rich and appointed judges in a manner that has horrified any progressive brave enough to pay attention.  And all the while  the majority Republican party in congress has encouraged him while shrugging off every racist or sexist comment he has made, caring only about scoring political wins and ignoring his trashing of not only presidential norms, but the norms of basic human dignity.  The build up to the mid term elections showed the president at his absolute worst, making false promises of a middle class tax cut coming from an out of session congress(!), claiming(despite numerous constitutional scholars disagreeing)  that he could rescind the 14th Amendment guarantee of birthright citizenship by presidential order, and worst of all, demonizing a caravan of Central American refugees making their way to the American border, saying that they were an "invasion", claiming without proof that the caravan contained middle easterners, and implying that they would somehow force their way into the country to commit crimes.  He even sent  thousands of American troops to the border "to deal with" this so called invasion, in an obscene bit of racist political theater paid for with hundreds of millions of our tax dollars.
Thankfully, his horrible tactics mostly failed; last Tuesday the Democrats regained a majority in The House of Representatives, the first time that they have held a majority there in eight years.  While the Republicans strengthened their hold on the Senate, that was expected because most of those races were in conservative states that almost never elect Democrats (that said Ted Cruz winning reelection in Texas was certainly a painful blow). 
So the Democrats have only one house of congress, what can they do?  Well, quite a bit actually; they now will be able to carry out investigations of all the corruption that Trump and his family have carried out in the past two years that Republicans have ignored.  From his violation of the Emoluments clause of the Constitution to the numerous economic ties that his family members have with foreign governments, there's a lot to dig through.  And Democrats will soon have the power of the subpoena as a way to force testimony out of those  family members, along with any other corrupt members of the Trump administration who now will be held to accountability.  They also may be able to compel the president to release his tax returns, something that will probably play out in the courts but is certainly worth a shot.
The Democrats can also pass legislation in the house that may not survive in the Senate, but that will force Republican Senators to go on the record as voting against popular issues like raising the minimum wage.  Heck, they may even be able to pass things that Trump will sign, like a much needed infrastructure spending bill.
They can also vote to impeach the president, but seeing as how they will need a super majority in the Senate to actually remove him from office (and that's pretty much impossible), it would mostly be an empty gesture.  A more likely scenario is that a frightened Trump, forced to reveal his tax returns and being investigated for his many shady looking financial schemes over the years, could resign rather than suffer the humiliation that would come from a full investigation.  Sure, it may not seem likely, but then the idea that an unqualified Reality TV star actually becoming president on a wave of bigotry seemed impossible three years ago.  If the Trump presidency has taught us anything, it's that now almost anything is possible in American politics.  Hang on, our highly conflicted country is about to start fighting again.