2016 Sept 3^rd

Donald Trump was in church today, not just any church but an African American church in the heart of black Detroit. I watched a very little of the action; there was clapping and rhythmic body movements all of which Trump did his best to join. I have never seen a man look more uncomfortable or more out of place. He gave a short, low-volume, low bluster, attempt to win hearts and minds. I doubt that it worked with his immediate audience and that probably wasn’t his target audience anyway. His appearance in Detroit made him look less like a bigot but only to people with very short memories. The image he projects of blacks is that of a monolithic community living in poverty and in fear of their lives if they step off their porches. This is inaccurate and is insulting to many black listeners. His polls among black voters are abysmal.

Trump’s problems with all minorities are well known. He also has a significant problem with the truth, particularly when he describes his opponent’s positions. There are several examples of his truth-stretching and truth-ignoring provided by FactCheck.org. Here is a Trump quote, “Hillary Clinton has pledged amnesty in her first 100 days, and her plan will provide Obamacare, Social Security, and Medicare for illegal immigrants, breaking the federal budget.”

Illegal immigrants cannot collect Social Security benefits, so Trump gets four Pinocchios for that one. Once immigrants become lawful permanent residents and have a ten-year history of paying all taxes, they become eligible for SS retirement benefits.

Clinton does support a plan for comprehensive immigration reform leading to full citizenship. Trump says her plan would “break the budget” but the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says the immigration reform portion of Clinton’s plan would save the budget 100 billion dollars over ten years.

Trump claims Clinton would bring in 620 thousand refugees from Syria. She never said any such thing, but Trump has multiplied the 55 thousand Clinton has suggested should be admitted and added that to the  100 thousand Obama has called for and then multiplied that total by four years to get the 620 thousand figure. I mean is this guy great at arithmetic or what? It must be that Wharton School education.

Trump is also confused about how many illegal aliens are in this country…and he assumes that everyone else’s is confused too. They aren’t. Trump claims the number of undocumented aliens in this country could be anywhere from 3 million to 30 million “Our government has no idea what the number is.” Census agencies have pegged the number at 11 million with an expected error of plus or minus one million. Trump’s numbers are much better because they let him disparage the government as a bunch of know-nothings.

Trump hammers away at the problem of visitors who overstay their visas. Just how big a problem is that? There were 45 million visitors to this country in fiscal 2015. Just slightly over 1 percent of those overstayed their visas. For all of our national problems, why does Trump make this a priority? You might be living next door to someone here on an expired visa; what a horror!