This Day in Despicable Trump Lies

[_Hawkeye]

Refugee Office That Lost 1,500 Kids Not ‘Legally Responsible’ For Finding Them: Official

Trump Unbelievably Rips Democrats For Immigrant Kids Being Separated From Parents

Donald Trump has bashed the Democrats for a hugely controversial policy created by his own administration: separating undocumented immigrant children from their parents.

He urged Americans in a Saturday morning tweet to “put pressure” on the Democrats to “end the horrible law that separates children from there [sic] parents.”

Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS.

9:59 AM - May 26, 2018

Despite what Trump tweeted, there is no law requiring children to be separated from their parents. The separation policy enacted by his own administration was put into effect this month. It was underscored in a speech in early May by Attorney General Jeff Sessions (in the video above).

[Guest]

Trump lies by saying military to receive their first pay raise in 10 years, thanks to him of course. All glory to Lord Trump based on more lies.

Once you adjust for inflation that raise becomes an afterthought.

This Year’s Pay Increase for the Military Was the Fourth Lowest of the Decade

I was eventually led to a report from the Congressional Research Service that lays out how military pay increases work. It turns out that pay increases are based on a formula that’s similar to the inflation rate. Congress and the president are involved only if they want to change the formula. Here’s what this looks like since the current formula was put in place:

https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/ ... _20181.gif

The Pentagon has lately been trying to reduce the growth of compensation costs following a decade of substantial increases, so they’ve requested pay raises lower than the formula for the past five years. This year, President Trump went along with that. He did nothing to try to increase pay for the troops. In the end, though, the military got a raise this year that matched the formula, which came to 2.4 percent. This is thanks to Congress, not President Trump.

But that’s nowhere near the most important point. Whether a pay increase is large or not depends on the inflation rate. A 10 percent pay increase in 1980 would have been terrible. A 3 percent pay increase in 2009 would have been pretty good. Here’s the growth in military pay since 2000, adjusted for inflation:

https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/ ... _20181.gif

In the only terms that actually matter to real people, this year’s pay increase is the largest since…2016. It’s the fourth-lowest of the past decade. It’s nothing to write home about.

Now, I don’t seriously expect politicians to refrain from using whichever statistics make them look the best. That’s life. But for the rest of us, why can’t we simply agree to always use inflation-adjusted figures in cases like this and dispense with all the “context” and “imprecision” crap? With only very narrow exceptions, a series of dollar figures over time should be displayed primarily in real terms and news consumers should become accustomed to this. If you feel the need to show actual nominal figures as well, do it in a footnote or something. If you don’t know how to convert nominal to real dollars, then you should learn before you write about stuff like this. It only takes two or three minutes for someone to show you how.

[_Hawkeye]

Trump Slams Media For Concocting Official Who Actually Ran His White House Briefing

President Donald Trump attacked The New York Times in a tweet Saturday, claiming the paper made up a “senior White House official” for its story about the canceled North Korea summit. The official, a member of Trump’s National Security Council, actually does exist and led a briefing at the White House on Thursday for reporters.

The White House even provided its own transcript of the briefing that Trump essentially dismissed as fake news.

As is often the case on such background briefings, the official asked not to be identified by name and instead be referred to as a “senior White House official,” according to several witnesses who saw the briefing in person or listened to it over the phone.

But, after his own official provided the briefing, Trump complained that the Times story referred to a White House official “who doesn’t exist.”

“Use real people, not phony sources,” he wrote.

The Failing @nytimes quotes “a senior White House official,” who doesn’t exist, as saying “even if the meeting were reinstated, holding it on June 12 would be impossible, given the lack of time and the amount of planning needed.” WRONG AGAIN! Use real people, not phony sources.

11:21 AM - May 26, 2018

Several news outlets responding to Trump’s tweet named the official and some even posted audio of the briefing he provided. Trump did not correct his tweet, nor apologize. The tweet was still live Saturday night.

The Times reported the official said that relaunching the now-canceled North Korea summit on the originally scheduled date would be impossible. The official didn’t use that word, but indicated that there was far too much preparation required to make a June 12 meeting possible.

“There’s a certain amount of actual dialogue that needs to take place at the working level with your counterparts to ensure that the agenda is clear ... and June 12 is in 10 minutes, and it’s going to be – you know,” said the official, according to the White House transcript.

[_Some Schmo]

Trump Unbelievably Rips Democrats For Immigrant Kids Being Separated From Parents

I wish he would die the slow painful death he deserves. He is human poison and has forfeited his right to compassion or life.