'Trump people' are the ultimate victims of the president's hoax

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

‘Trump people’ are the ultimate victims of the president’s hoax

By Dana Milbank
Columnist
March 5 at 6:21 PM

Last August, President Trump went to Charleston, W.Va., for a “mission accomplished” moment.

He had already boasted to his Fox News fan base that “I’ve turned West Virginia around, because [of] what I’ve done environmentally with coal.” In Charleston, he said that “we are putting our great coal miners back to work” by ending what he had dubbed the Obama administration’s “war on coal” and that, under his leadership, West Virginia had “on a per capita basis one of the most successful GDP states in our union.”

“The coal industry is back,” Trump declared.

Alas, it was an illusion — or, as Trump might put it, a hoax.

Last week, the Commerce Department reported that during the third quarter of 2018 — the period during which Trump took his Charleston victory lap — West Virginia’s gross domestic product grew exactly 0.0 percent. As in, zilch. As in, the worst in the nation.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-people-are-the-ultimate-victims-of-the-presidents-hoax/2019/03/05/bd83486e-3f83-11e9-9361-301ffb5bd5e6_story.html

[duforsure]

1. When trump lies to these coal miners

That he's reversed its decline , they know he's lying now, he hasn't. They're realizing he can't be trusted or believed because he's a serial lair. They see his tax scam as the same thing now , all bait and switch tactics con men and criminals use to get people to believe whatever they say is true , when the people know its another lie. Its catching up to him , and fewer and fewer people are accepting anything he claims as the truth. When the truth catches up to these con men and criminals , and exposes them ,they always fail. It will for trump too.

[PatSeg]

20. If Trump lies about something

that happens far away, they might believe him, but if jobs don't return or coal mines close, they can see that up close and personal. Also, if they end up paying the IRS instead of getting a refund, that's pretty hard to ignore.

[catbyte]

30. I'm not too sure about that. His numbers have been pretty consistent for the last 18 months or so.

His cult "believes" him when he lies, despite all evidence to the contrary. I've never seen anything like it in the U.S. It's pathological, scary, and sick.

[calimary]

2. You broke it, you bought it, West Virginia.

We tried to warn you. We tried to talk sense (and facts) to you. And we’re STILL trying to help you, and rescue you, and pull you out of this self-inflicted crisis. To hijack a certain one-liner from a certain lying, cheating, deceitful, and downright treasonous Russian Asset..,

Only WE can save you.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

5. They have no idea: they listen to Fox

Fox tells them Democrats are worse than Trump. All yesterday Fox was running with a BS story about AOC corruption. So Fox viewers now think AOC is more corrupt than Trump. It’s propaganda. We can’t fix the country until we get the GOP base off of rightwing media.

[True Blue American]

9. If you listened to the Democratic panel

On CNN this morning you wll know those Democrats think AOC, along with Nancy Pelosi think they are both better than sliced breafd!

We need to quit listening to the crap the media hands out.

[Pepsidog]

15. Yes it's Fox. Fox is our greatest problem. Without Fox Trump is finished.

[Golden Raisin]

29. Without denying the corrosive power of evil Fox

we cannot overlook the complicit Congressional Republicans who have remained silent at the outrages of the past 2 years or worse, aided and abetted. Not all of them are clueless or unsophisticated Foxites.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

37. Yes but GOP Congress is controlled by Fox

Because Fox controls the Republican voters.

[The Wizard]

17. Pox tells them

Democrats are their mortal enemies that must be eliminated because Democrats are communist satanists who want to burn their bibles and make all their children gay.

[lagomorph777]

23. You almost make it sound like burning bobbles and having gay kids is a BAD thing.

[certainot]

31. fox is visual icing on the talk radio lie turd pie. dems constantly overvalue fox in this but only

the 1500 coordinated radio stations can do the unchallenged repetition needed to sell this alternate reality.

limbaugh on 600 radio stations setting the tone all is the guy americans can thank for this, more than any other single person. and russia investigators need to consider the real possibility the kremlin may have figured out how to feed him, considering years of doing exactly what the russian trolls and trump have been doing.

here’s limbaugh on 1/22/19, while calling AOC a dunce, upstart little crumb-cruncher, commie, babe, marxist, etc., created a silly premise — that Democratic leaders would get media to “take her out” — just so he could repeat “take her out” over and over…..

— transcribed at Sonix.ai:

so the day is going to come where she's gonna make somebody (Dems) mad or she's going to be too successful and will legitimately challenge somebody that has more power than she has. And they're not going to be interested in working with her and welcoming her in because they're not going to trust her so they're gonna take her out. This happens. I mean Soviet leaders were routinely targeted for assassination. They tried to kill Gorbachev during perestroika and glasnost.

he’s attacking her regularly, he can go a lot farther than they can on fox, and democrats never hear it.

talk radio sets the tone for fox and the easy way to end fox and deflate the trump base, and get htis disaster over faste and easie is to destroy the talk radio monopoly

[EndGOPPropaganda]

38. I am 100% with you. Rightwing radio has greater reach.

[lagomorph777]

22. As long as they can get some environmental destruction, they're OK with poor economy.

So as far as WV is concerned, Trump has delivered bigly on his promise.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. I find it hard to feel sympathy for willing victims. I'll save that

for the rest of us who are suffering through the results of their stupidity and hate.

[OnionPatch]

10. I agree.

We are the victims of THEIR stupidity. They brought it on themselves, so in my mind that means we are the victims more than they are.

[MaryMagdaline]

11. I keep thinking WC Fields: "You can't cheat an honest man"

[EndGOPPropaganda]

4. FOX and LIMBAUGH's hoax

The hoax is caused by the conservative media. The president is just executing the Republican donor plan. The BS about oil and gas and cutting taxes was in the GOP decades before Trump and it will be there after him. Without rightwing media lying to the base this president would have been out of office long ago.

[htuttle]

6. Thoughts and prayers

[Botany]

7. Down deep all the coal miners all know that "coal's comeback" will never happen.

The utilities have spent billions switching from coal to natural gas and they aren't
going back to coal. Trump is just blowing smoke up their asses.

[BostonBlue]

13. But the libs have been owned - and that's the important thing.

[world wide wally]

8. It's been over two years since the election, WV.

If you would have taken Hillary up on her offer to retrain coal workers in a different field, you would have been finished training and on your way now.
Instead, you bought the snake oil that didn't work.
Tsk. Tsk.

[yaesu]

12. and we are the ultimate victims of tRump peoples stupidity. nt

[llmart]

14. There's a reason they believe the b.s. that Trump touts.

Look at where they rank with regards to education compared to the other 49 states. Last time I heard, I believe they ranked almost last.

The less educated people are the more likely they are to believe propaganda and lies.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

16. These folks suffer from living in a right-wing bubble echo chamber....

in which they hear only from:

* their church's preachers,
* coal mine bosses,
* local business owners and managers,
* Faux News, and
* right-wing talk radio.

That's a very difficult, complex bubble to burst and a huge number of trusted people will need to admit they're wrong.

......

[Botany]

32. I went to school in S.E. Ohio* (Athens) and one thing you left off your list was generational ....

... ignorance. From gand daddy on down to other kin, neighbors, and friends they
hear stupid shit all the time and only moving, learning, hearing different opinions,
and or death will stop them thinking in those ways.


* Western West Virginia or Northern Kentucky Beautiful Country w/some wonderful
people but some of the locals are way over the top. Just because I deer hunt, drink
beer, like to fish, and I am white many times they think I am good with their n****r
talk and gun loving shit.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

33. Very true. Would take a couple of generations at least, to purge it out.

But, racism and mountain-people suspicion of outsiders won't be going away in this century. I think racism there in part is more like xenophobia, considering many towns I've spent time around are virtually 100% white and poor. They've never been exposed to any people other than WASPs. However, I've also worked in many other areas of America that are that way too, such as rural Indiana and Wyoming.

When I was a kid raised in middle TN, almost everyone was a Democrat (except for a few rich folks), but there was always spotty areas of Republican control in east TN that I never could understand. Perhaps it came from Civil War era Republicans.

Always good to hear from a neighbor that understands Appalachia, as I have family roots in the central TN mountains. I have mountain people culture in my blood and we are a different breed of cat. In my later work years, I spent a good bit of time in Eastern Ohio, particularly in Cambridge and East Liverpool. Also got to do a little work in the mines in WV. I do love that area and the Smokies, too.

Beautiful as you say, but terrible poverty and very abused environmentally. Any politician that can help bring a bit of prosperity to America's eastern mountains will be a superstar in my book.

.............

[Botany]

34. "Any politician that can help bring a bit of prosperity to America's eastern mountains will ....

... be a superstar in my book." And that is why The PTB are fighting to keep 'em dumb and
angry. BTW if I was ever over a cliff and I needed somebody to pull me up I would take a
mountain person all the time.

However after I type this I am going to my piece of heaven .... New Germany State Park ...
on the continental divide in Western MD. Plenty of fresh snow, no tv, no cell phone service,
cabins w/American Chestnut Panelling, and a nice wood burner. Brook Trout stream too.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

35. You are one lucky man. Takes me back to the 60s.

No rattlesnakes or copperheads to worry about now, either. No better silence as the mountains after snow fall.

Be safe and enjoy........

[Botany]

40. It is heaven.

The cabins are now filled for the weekend w/folks from DC, Richmond, and eastern MD but the silence has been awesome... lots of snow and my old bones can't x-country ski like the used to. Today I did about 10 miles.

[Beowulf42]

18. Victims?

These people were not and are not victims. They willingly abetted DJT in spite of overwhelming evidence that he was a liar and a cheat. There is no excuse for the ocean of facts that told them over and over that he would never be successful as president, just as he has never been successful in his personal or business lives. They deserve what they have gotten. It is the rest of us who are the victims of their complicity in the destruction of this nation.

[olegramps]

25. Unfortunately, hate can blind people to reality. It provides them with scapegoats.

It in nearly impossible to reason with people who have been literally brainwashed by 24/7 propaganda. I listened to one poor soul who had Black Lung disease after being told that Trump was set on the destruction of Medicare and the drugs that were keeping alive would no longer be available insist that he was going to vote for him. I came to the realization that it is hopeless to argue with them. We can only hope that their children or grandchildren can escape the intense propaganda. Reagan and the evil Republican Party have created a nightmare. Who I really feel sorry for them, I feel more so for their children who are trusting adults for guidance and enlightenment but are being betrayed by ignorance.

[unblock]

27. not so simple.

sure, calling them simply "victims" is also overly simplistic, but at the same time, they have been consistently lied to and misled. there is no doubt that foxnews and hate radio and donnie and republicans are running a long-term con job on conservative america.

it's easy for those of us outside that bubble to hold them responsible for doing the research we have done and coming to the conclusions we have, but inside the bubble it's not so easy. they are surrounded by authority figures and authoritative sources widely viewed in their community as reliable, patriotic, and trustworthy, who are telling them that the right-wing worldview is good and everything else is evil and even news sources that disagree with them are lying and evil.

encouraging them to feel responsible for their own decisions and to do their own research is certainly a good strategy to reach some of these people, but it also helps to understand that they have been played by right-wing forces bent on destroying their critical decision-making ability.

[George II]

19. I can't say I feel sorry for any of them. But, if he runs again....

....they probably won't be able to vote for him again fast enough.

[47of74]

21. Fuck them.

They voted for that piece of shit and deserve everything they get. I have no sympathy for them.

[democratisphere]

24. With drumpf nothing or less than nothing is winning.

Fraud.

[Solly Mack]

26. Yes, but that doesn't change the damage their ignorance has caused the rest of us

- so sympathy is low to non-existent.

Especially since they're going to blame everyone but Trump, the GOP, and themselves.

They wanted to hear the lies Trump told. They needed those lies because believing those lies was easier than facing the facts.

They still need those lies.

Those lies give them comfort, allows them to live in denial, and to never change. Facts challenge cherished beliefs. Lies don't. Acceptance of fact requires people to change.

Some people would rather suffer and die to defend the lies they need to believe than to change.

It's tragic, senseless, and can be hard to watch - but it's disgust you feel more than sympathy.

But Trump supporters are not tragic, romantic figures fighting the good fight to maintain their "way of life" - they're dangerous self-annihilators aiming to take the rest of us out too.

[Golden Raisin]

28. True test will be if they continue to vote Trump/Republican.

Not holding my breath.

[FiveGoodMen]

36. Those who decided to burn the nation to the ground are NOT victims.

They may have hurt themselves in the process, but they were TRYING to hurt us.

[dalton99a]

39. Exactly.