Harris vs. Trump: Debate + More
I wanted to post this the day after the debate, but I didn’t have time. If you ever wonder why I take so long to publish the next blog post, it’s because life. It gets in the way a lot.
What Annoyed Me
Both candidates spent more time tearing each other down than saying what they would do to fix things.
Harris was asked: Is the economy better than it was 4 years ago? She didn’t answer. She launched into a spiel about how she was raised middle class, and vaguely explained what she would do to fix the economy.
Trump was asked about Jan 6. He initially evaded the question and started talking about illegals committing crimes. He was finally pinned down to answer, but he brushed off any responsibility.
Several times, Trump interrupted the moderators and started talking loudly. They would turn on his mic and let him talk.
Fact Checking
HARRIS
- Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.
When Biden took office, the unemployment rate was 6.4%. It had been lower than that a few times after the depression. - Trump will sign a national abortion ban.
Trump has repeatedly denied that, and I haven’t heard him say he would do that. - Trump’s tax plan would add $5 trillion to America’s deficit.
Out of context. That figure comes from Trump’s 2017 tax law; estimates were $5T for the ensuing 10 years from that date. - 800,000 new manufacturing jobs have been created during the Biden administration
The final calculations aren’t in, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that number is around 624,000. - No military in active duty in a combat zone
We have nearly 1,000 troops on bases in Syria and another 2,500 in Iraq
TRUMP
- Haitian immigrants are eating pets.
This rumor started when a woman on Facebook posted that a neighbor told her that her daughter’s friend’s cat had been eaten by Haitian neighbors. No evidence has been produced to substantiate this claim.
The police body cam footage that’s been going around is a mentally disturbed woman in Canton Ohio being arrested. That woman was born in Ohio.
The photo of a man with a dead goose was taken by a photographer who didn’t get the man’s name and doesn’t know why the goose was dead or what the man was going to do with it. - Harris met with Zelenskyy and Putin days before Russia invaded Ukraine.
She didn’t. She met with Zelenskyy in Germany and never met Putin. - Millions of illegals are taking jobs from African Americans and Hispanics and also unions.
How racist. But there’s no evidence of that. - Trump claimed that he “saved” the Affordable Care Act
Say what? He tried every which way to kill it. He even supported a lawsuit against it. - Crime is through the roof, and the FBI is making fraudulent claims about it
The latest FBI statistics are based on voluntary reporting from a higher participation of cities than any year during Trump’s presidency. - Inflation is the worst it’s ever been.
Definitely not. It’s bad, but it’s been much worse several times in the country’s history. As far as Biden vs. Trump goes, I covered that in this post. Scroll down to “Timeline of events” - The economy was the best ever under Trump
Trump’s economy was neither the best or the worst. It did get worse the last couple years that he was in office. The Retail Apocalypse is a clue. Then covid happened, and the economy went haywire during his last year in office. - Unprecedented number of illegals crossing the border under Biden and Harris
As VP, Harris has no control of the border. And, since Biden issued an executive order banning most migrants from asylum, crossing are down. - Trump said that Harris has a flat plan to confiscate everybody’s guns.
Harris and Walz are both gun owners. She’s in favor of gun safety laws, as most people are, regardless of political standing. - The U.S. left $85 billion worth of military equipment when it left Afghanistan.
The U.S. military removed or destroyed almost all the equipment prior to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Taliban seized an estimated $7.12 billion worth of US equipment from the Afghan government when it collapsed. - Trump said that Walz said that abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine, and that he supports execution of full term babies that are born alive.
As Minnesota governor, Walz signed into law a bill that requires that “all reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice…shall be taken by the responsible medical personnel to care for the infant who is born alive”. This law states that an infant born alive is fully recognized as a human person and “accorded immediate protection under the law.” - Kamala is paying people to attend her rallies
This rumor comes from an edited Craigslist ad that was first circulated at least as far back as 2019. Now it’s going around again with captions saying Kamala is trying to get more people to show up to her rallies. In fact, thousands are showing up at her rallies. Nobody is being paid to do so. - Tax cuts for Middle Class Families
$6,000 tax cut to families with newborn children. No one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay more in taxes. Enacting a billionaire minimum tax. Quadrupling the tax on stock buybacks. 28% tax rate on long-term capital gains for those earning a million dollars a year or more. - She wants to provide first-time homebuyers with up to $25,000 to help with their down payments
- She wants a $50,000 startup tax deduction for new businesses.
- She wants build on the anti-price gouging statutes already in place in 37 states.
- She wants to take on Big Pharma to lower drug prices and cap insulin costs
- She wants to expand and strengthen the Affordable Care Act
- She wants to strengthen Social Security and Medicare for the long haul by making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share in taxes.
- See more Here
Sorry. I’m tired of typing all that out. - He plans to reissue a 2020 executive order known as “Schedule F.”
This would strip civil service protections from thousands of career employees. Many could then be fired as he seeks to “totally obliterate the deep state.” - He plans to immediately stop the invasion of our southern border
He wants U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to undertake mass deportations. He wants to divert thousands of military troops and federal agents to immigration enforcement duties. - He wants to increase tariffs on most foreign goods.
- He plans to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine.
All I can say is, good luck with that! - He plans to support Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas.
- He hopes to pass a bill establishing that “only two genders,” as determined at birth, are recognized by the United States.
This will include blocking funds to hospitals that engage in transgender procedures. - He wants to increase oil drilling on public lands and offer tax breaks to oil, gas, and coal producers.
- He wants to force the homeless off city streets by building tent cities
He also wants to get the mentally ill homeless properly institutionalized, which I heartily agree with. I cover that subject in this post - He wants to give more power to local law enforcement
Require local law enforcement agencies that receive Justice Department grants to use controversial policing measures such as stop-and-frisk. Local police should be empowered to shoot suspected shoplifters in the act (YIKES!). He wants the death penalty for drug smugglers and human traffickers. He has pledged a federal takeover of the nation’s capital. - He wants to eliminate the Department of Education
He wants federal funding preference to states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure. He wants to cut funding for any school that has a vaccine or mask mandate. He wants to promote prayer in public schools. He wants schools to teach students to love their country, not to hate their country like they’re taught right now. He wants to encourage schools to allow trained teachers to carry concealed weapons. He wants federal funding for schools to hire veterans, retired police officers, and other trained gun owners as armed school guards.
Policies
Some of these were mentioned at the debate. Some have come up at their rallies. Kamala has her proposals on her website.
HARRIS
TRUMP
Beyond the Debate
Vance said he and Trump “make up stories” to gain media attention. That surprises no one.
Trump and his supporters are accusing Harris of supporting taxpayer-funded transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. That comes from a 2019 ACLU Questionnaire. She expressed support for transgender medical care for prison inmates, but she didn’t specify illegals, so I have no idea if she supports that plan.
Trump supporters are saying Harris has had 3 1/2 years to fix things, so why hasn’t she? The Vice President doesn’t have any special powers to fix anything. She didn’t fix the border/the economy/etc because she had no power to do so.
Kamala’s Earrings
Earring-gate sent me down a few internet rabbit holes. This one section has taken more time than all the rest of the post put together. But I wanted to make sure I had the facts. By now, everyone has seen the memes and accusations concerning Kamala’s earrings.
Kamala wore these earrings at the debate.
She has been wearing these same earrings at least since spring. They are part of the Tiffany HardWear collection, which are all made to look like they were made from chainlinks.
The pair Kamala is wearing are similar to the Double Pearl Hinged Earrings in Sterling Silver but not exactly the same. Kamala has a gold pair from the same collection, but Tiffany no longer has those on their website.
Trump supporters claim that Kamala was wearing these Nova H1 Bluetooth earrings
As you can see, they don’t even look the same.
Nova H1 started as a Kickstarter, but few if any pairs were sent out before they went bankrupt. Nova H1 was then purchased by Icebach Sound Solutions. Icebach is tickled pink with all the attention they’re suddenly getting, and are now referring to them as Special Edition for Presidential Debates on their website.
Some people have wrongly attached these earrings to the damning memes.
Those are the studs she wore in 2020. Look up any photos and videos of Kamala from 2020, and those were the studs she was wearing.
Kamala loves her pearls. British Vogue published an article about that in August 2020.
If Kamala had been wearing Bluetooth devices so that someone could feed answers to her, her speech would have been halting. Instead, she spoke strongly with no hesitation whatsoever. Trump supporters can’t stand that, so they had to make something up to make her look bad. Instead, it just makes their own selves look ridiculous and desperate.
I’m happy to report, though, that several of my Trump-supporting friends were sensible enough to do their own digging, and came to the conclusion that Kamala wasn’t wearing Bluetooth earrings. Those are the type of Trump supporters I value as friends, and I deeply respect their opinions and views, even when I don’t agree with them.