LOWEST CREDIT CARD RATES: 11/07/16

Monday, November 7, 2016

TRUMP'S A COMPUTER DUMMY

By Art Lieberman

It has become obvious to most of us with half a brain that Donald Trump does NOT know anything about a computer. Like parenting and caring about anyone’s circumstances other than his own, the nature of a computer is a detail he doesn’t want to get involved with. I’m sure he leaves it to a lackey.

Why, you ask, is it obvious that he isn’t computer literate? There are two reasons. One reason has been prevalent during his entire campaign. Trump cares nothing about facts, There is an infinite amount of factual information available on computers. I understand that in Trumpland, one man’s facts are another’s opinions, which you don’t have to believe. Even if there is empirical evidence that something is real, you can still contest it – like climate change. But there is video of Trump actually saying something LIVE, that no thinking person can ignore. Many times during these past agonizing months of listening to Trump’s lies, he has denied that he has said something that was video-recorded; or he claims Hillary said something that she did not – and both can be verified by looking at a computer.

And now, Trump has claimed something about computers that is so wrong it further demonstrates his ignorance. Sunday, FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers that the agency, after a review of new emails, hasn't changed its opinion that Hillary Clinton shouldn’t face criminal charges. Comey explained that the FBI had reviewed 600,000 e-mails from the computer of Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Hillary aide Huma Abedin. So computer expert Trump told people at a rally, "You can't review 650,000 new emails in eight days. You can't do it, folks."

Well of course you CAN, and anyone with an e-mail account knows you can. Every e-mail account has a search mode. Here’s how you do it, Donald. You start by searching the e-mails for ones from Hillary. Finding those (let’s suppose there are 33,000 – Trump’s favorite number), you then search those e-mails that have a security rating from Confidential to Top Secret. Let’s assume there are 50, so you see which ones are not already in the hands of the FBI, because those have already exonerated Hillary from any charges.

So how many – if any – are left? And what do they reveal? Apparently, according to Director Comey, nothing that will make him change his initial opinion back in August that Hillary had not violated any laws. Too bad. Trump had only last week, praised Comey for continuing to find new “evidence” to convict “crooked Hillary.” But don’t worry, Trump will deny saying it even though YOU and I can hear him say it on our computers.

However, there is something that is not kosher in this whole affair. Why did Comey make the announcement of the discovery of those e-mails in the first place and make them sound so ominous? Perhaps even more interesting is that it appears that the information was leaked by members of the FBI to the Trump campaign even before Comey’s announcement. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had made the announcement prior to Comey’s on Sean Hannity’s show on FOX-TV, and the smirk on his face was nauseating.

But think about it: After November 8 there is a distinct possibility that Trump’s face will disappear into the sunset and put an end to the careers of many of the supporters of this angry miserable old man, until his own trials begin for his Trump University and perhaps for the many instances of his sexual misconduct.

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

ART LIEBERMAN

Since acquiring credit card processing for hundreds of central Pennsylvania businesses in 2007, and expanding his services to clients in 49 states, Art Lieberman and his staff have built a market handling credit card transactions for RV campgrounds that has made his company, MCPS of Central Pennsylvania, the nation’s largest credit card processor for that industry. He has written more than 300 weekly columns about credit cards and other financial matters for the magazine Campground and RV Park E-News and other publications. For more information, glance at his website, www.mcpsforcampgrounds.com

WHAT TRUMP IS DOING TO THE GOP

BY ART LIEBERMAN

I don’t understand why what is happening in our government isn’t apparent to every person in the United States.

For years, the Republican Party has declared that it is for a smaller federal government: Less interference in our financial and social lives; Let the states handle regulations on social activity and in such things as health care and policies involving life matters. The Republican Party has wanted less taxes, particularly on businesses, less restrictions on businesses, and less federal involvement in such matters as rights for gays, African Americans, and, of course, abortion.

They wish that governors of states, and local governments, would control much of what goes on in their communities. In other words, they are for “states' rights” – back to the 1850s, before the Civil War. They have done all they could to make it happen – so much so, that the southern states are controlled, mostly, by Republicans. Go figure!

Any federal regulations are abhorrent to them. They are not crazy about people who are different from their “normal” residents, mostly whites, fairly religious, very involved with guns, and able to live the laid-back kind of life. They want no interference from intellectuals, are not convinced about this whole business of climate control, and are intolerant about any interference from outsiders.

Now, along comes Trump. He is everything they despise. He is city-folk, a person who feels that the Federal Government can fix all their problems, and HE alone can do it. The supreme egotist.

He says he’ll fix those immigrants that steal their jobs; he’ll make sure that jobs aren’t sent elsewhere; he’s for making sure that women who have abortions are punished; he’ll seal us off from Mexico. He wants fewer regulations on businesses, and he’s not too fond of African Americans or any other people whom white people would consider outsiders. He’s all for states' rights on health care and many other matters. During his campaign he has found his audience. They are the people who have lost their jobs to technology, to cheaper labor abroad, and to an economy that favors the rich. They have become victims of a recession created primarily by a Republican Congress that has refused any concessions to gains in the economy offered by the first black President.

They are the Congress of NO! They put a negative spin immediately on the Affordable Care Act, which they labeled “Obamacare,” and they railed at the thought of bailing out the auto industry. They blame Obama for withdrawing troops from Iraq (when it was George W. Bush who agreed to do that), and they also blame Obama for bailing out the banks (when it was Bush who did that before Obama was even elected). And when the unemployment rate falls from more than 9 percent to less than 5 percent now under Obama, and when the stock market rises to new highs, they say the recovery is “very slow.”

So they are willing to forgive Trump for his little eccentricities such as his unbelievable ego, his foul mouth, his quick uncontrollable temper, his disgust at any women who are other than pretty. They also forgive his small crimes, such as the shenanigans at Trump University or his violations of civil rights in housing. They forgive his constant lies about nearly everything, and the made-up statistics he constantly quotes, because Trump has seized control of 35 percent of their constituency.

But when he starts to criticize the GOP itself, they are caught in the web they have created. If they abandon him altogether they lose the 35 percent who are his core supporters, but if they back him they stand a chance of not being elected by those who already realize the horror that Trump is.

They keep hoping he will change, and become a politician. Perhaps he will become more tactful, more conciliatory, maybe even develop a sense of humor. Maybe he will even accomplish that which seems impossible: become Presidential. But no, Trump will be Trump.

The Republican Party, or whatever it might be called now, has got to reform. When Trump loses, which it appears he will, what will they do? Where is their base? Who are they? More importantly, what will they do to gain power in the government? They certainly haven’t learned the lessons of 2012 when they discovered you cannot win the presidency without women or persons of color.

Hillary, with all her faults (and they are fewer than the Republicans have created for her) will have the Presidency for the next four years, with all that entails. Are they STILL going to stick with their trickle-down, states' rights policies?

Stay tuned.

LOWEST CREDIT CARD RATES

Monday, November 7, 2016

TRUMP'S A COMPUTER DUMMY

ARTICLES OF INTEREST

OUR MOST POPULAR POSTS

WE'RE WITH YOU