Simanaitis Says
On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff
TRUMP’S “ALTERNATIVE FACTS”
KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT, famously coined the term “alternative facts” to describe what turned out to be falsehoods uttered by Press Secretary Sean Spicer about the crowd count at Trump’s first inauguration. Alas, today we are witnessing the creation of other “alternative facts” much more serious than the inconsequential matter of counting heads. Here are tidbits about other attempts to remake historical facts.
The 2020 Presidential Election. Fact: Biden won. Alternative fact: Even as recently as September 10, 2024, Trump refused to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election.
Fact: Trump lost in 2020. Image from statista.com.
A sad, but related point: It has become an “alternative fact” to his followers—and even to others—that our election process is an ineffective one. (Though, curiously, no one questioned the 2024 results.)
The U.S. Capitol Storming on January 6, 2021. Fact: Through the medium of television, we all saw the mayhem of Trump supporters as they attacked police, smashed windows and doors, and set U.S. officials, Republicans and Democrats alike, into hiding.
Yet, “alternative facts” have emerged a’plenty: The rioters weren’t Trump supporters, they were left-wing antifa or even FBI operatives. Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and others were merely tourists.
Fact: Rioters Stormed the U.S. Capitol. Image from NPR.
Geez, “tourists.” Gimme a break.
The Rioters, Alternative-Fact Patriots. Fact: Subsequent legal action found some 1200 people charged with their role in the attack. Yet on January 20, 2025, on the first day of his second term, Trump pardoned them all.
Alternative fact: Trump has called them “hostages” and “patriots.” He has termed January 6, 2021, “a beautiful day,” “a day of love.”
Talk about doublethink and “A Quartet of Alternative-Facts Books.”
The Pentagon’s Media Space. Fact: As reported on February 1, 2025, Reuters reports, “U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, in an unprecedented move, announced late on Friday it would remove four media organizations including The New York Times from their dedicated office spaces in the Pentagon, citing a desire to make room for others.”
Reuters continues, “The memo on a ‘New Annual Media Rotation Program’ said it would also remove National Public Radio, Comcast Corp-owned NBC News and Politico, which must vacate their spaces by Feb. 14. In their place, it would give dedicated office space to the New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart News Network and HuffPost News.”
Alternative fact: The administration’s motive is “to allow a new outlet from the same medium [print, online, television, and radio] that has not had the unique opportunity to report as a resident member of the Pentagon Press Corps.”
Oh, I see. It’s merely coincidence that the authoritative New York Times gets swapped for the Trump-trumpeting New York Post. Similarly, NBC News is replaced by One America, a far-right station so small it “eschews the Nielsen ratings measurement service” and is facing “multiple lawsuits stemming from the outlet’s lies about the 2020 election,” as reported by CNN Business.
What’s more, the NPR swap for Breitbart, a web site for pro-Trump coverage and commentary, is particularly ludicrous: CNN Business reports that Breitbart “barely has a radio operation of its own. The word ‘radio’ doesn’t appear on its home page at all.”
Given the size of the Pentagon, you’d think that enlarging its “Correspondents’ Corridor” would be within reason.
California’s Water. Alternative fact: Trump blamed the state’s firefighting efforts were hampered by California’s declaring the smelt an endangered species. He retaliated by ordering the Army Corps of Engineers to release billions of gallons of water from two reservoirs in California’s Central Valley.
Fact: According to CBS News, February 3, 2025, “Now, the water released from dams at Lake Kaweah and Lake Success is rushing into a dry lakebed in the Central Valley, where experts say it can’t flow to Southern California and will likely go to waste.”
Trump’s order of water released is counter to expert opinion. Image from cbsnews.com.
Peter Gleick, a climate and hydrology expert, is quoted as saying, “There’s no physical connection. There’s no way to move the water from where it is to the Los Angeles basin.”
What’s more, Central Valley farmers don’t need the water at this time of year. Flooding is more of a concern.
Gee, another example of Trump’s v.s.g. (very stable genius). It surely helps him and his followers that alternative facts are so easy to come by. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025
Simanaitis Says 
The VSG claims that Canada is a major source of illicit drugs and illegal aliens into the US. Information from US authorities indicate that around 1% of either come from Canada (0.2% for fentanyl and 1.5% for illegal immigrants according to a CNN report https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/us-canada-trade-fentanyl-fact-check/index.html).
Improved Canadian border security put in place in order to avoid being penalized with 25% tariffs, yielded almost immediate results:
One was a major drug bust that intercepted a large quantity of drugs and very dangerous weapons being imported INTO Canada from the US. Two, just days ago at least 5 illegal aliens were intercepted coming INTO Canada from the US. The tighter security is good, even if nothing else, in reducing the import of illegal weapons that have turned many of our cities into shooting galleries (still tame compared to many US metropolitan areas, but not where we want to be going).
We do have a problem with drugs here, with high fentanyl death rates, and we know that there are labs manufacturing the drug here as two recent busts of large labs drives home, but the best way to control the problem is by cooperation between border authorities and police in both countries, not threatening our economy and sovereignty.
Sabresoft, truer words never written. While we adults realize there’s no perfection in government or much of anything, countries working together are the key to greater prosperity for all, as well as less crime; why many of us revere both the United Nations and NATO.
Bratman’s (Trumpty Dumpty’s) first act his first term was to insult our War II ally, NATO partner Australia. This second term, his first act was to insult our longtime friends Canada and Denmark. The authoritarian/fascist mind is a narrow one, short-sighted at that.
As the Democrat rout in the midterms is an excruciatingly distant 21 months away, we may take solace in Bratman’s obesity, love of McDonald’s cuisine, abhorrence of vegetables resulting in a stroke diminishing his already meager reasoning to the extent that even his GOP toadies agree to the 25th Amendment removing him permanently to Mar-a-Lago and Twitter.