The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Trump's campaign promises vs. what he meant Promise: "On Day 1, 'we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history.'" What he meant: "On Day 1, we will change 'Gulf of Mexico' to 'Gulf of America,' which will make all Mexicans want to leave America for their homeland, out of bigly anger." Promise: “My very first day back in the White House, I will terminate every single open border policy of the Biden-Harris administration, and we will seal the border.” What he meant: "My very first day back in the White House, I will force the allegedly bordering-nation of Canada to be the 41st state of these great United States." Promise: “We will drill, baby, drill.” What he meant: "I'll continue trying to silence women from coming forward about me drilling them, with or without their content." Promise: “We will end inflation and make America affordable again.” What he meant: "Grocery prices will never com...

I keep seeing a video being spread on social media of Trump's "20 promises," so I decided to fact-check it. 1. "Seal the border, and stop the migrant invasion" MAGA’s “migrant invasion” rhetoric is incredibly misleading. Here are the annual numbers for undocumented immigrants and how much of the U.S. population they’ve comprised over the years: 2006: 11.55M (3.9%) 2007: 11.78M (3.9%) 2008: 11.6M (3.8%) 2009: 10.75M (3.5%) 2010: 11.6M (3.8%) 2011: 11.5M (3.7%) 2012: 11.4M (3.6%) 2013: 11.3M (3.6%) 2014: 11.3M (3.5%) 2015: 11.0M (3.4%) 2016: 10.7M (3.3%) 2017: 11.4M (3.5%) 2018: 11.4M (3.5%) 2019: 11.48M (3.5%) 2020: ? (?) – due to COVID 2021: 10.22M (3.1%) 2022: 11.5M (3.5%) 2023: ? (?) – don’t have the numbers yet As can be seen, the numbers on the undocumented-immigration front have been incredibly steady over the past decade and a half, through 2 Republican and 2 Democratic Presidents. Also, immigration reform has been on the Congressional slate since George W...

Like all presidential hopefuls, Donald Trump made his fair share of promises leading up to the 2016 election. The way Trump has been talking post-election, he's made it sound as though he's kept every promise he's ever made, even those he didn't make. Let's look back at some of Trump's biggest campaign promises, shall we? 1) Free Border Wall - Sure, he's increasingly refrained from saying that Mexico would pay for it, but whatever happened to that big, beautiful border wall? He shut down the government for a record 35 days in an attempt to get Congress to include funding for it in a budget deal. That didn't work. He's since declared a national emergency over the matter, only to see his Republican brethren join Democrats in shooting it down. Even the layout of the wall has changed more times than Trump can count (yes, over 2). It went from a "big, beautiful wall, the likes of which we've never seen" to "a barrier, wall, thingofam...

I know it was just 12 years ago when Barack Obama announced his run for the presidency, but given the fact that's 1/3 of my life, it's a significant duration of time for me. Ever since the nightmare that was the 2016 election, I've been pulling for a Kamala Harris/Cory Booker ticket for 2020. Well, while Booker has yet to announce his intentions heading toward 2020, Senator Harris has officially announced she's running, and I have to say, this is the most excited I've been about a potential presidential candidate since Obama 12 years ago. I voted for Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004, and Hillary Clinton in 2016, but I didn't vote for any of them in the Democratic primary. The only time I've voted for the eventual Democratic nominee in the party's primary was for eventual 2-term president Barack Obama. While it's very early in the nominating process, to this point, Kamala Harris is who I'm pulling for to be on the top of the party's 2020 ...