https://apnews.com/article/transgender-care-minors-gender-affirming-south-carolina-49edeee22eab31574316a13ab874b623

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Watching Trump’s rally in North Charleston was a truly frustrating experience for me. Sure, some things he said were accurate, but interspersed throughout were one misstatement of fact after another.

According to Trump, we had “the greatest economy in the history of the world,” till “crooked Joe Biden” came along and destroyed it. In reality, the economy went downhill Trump’s final year due to the pandemic, which he, in some ways, did a poor job of responding to. So, Biden didn’t destroy a good economy. He inherited Trump’s bad economy.

Secondly, Trump’s economy was not as good as he says it was. Prior to the pandemic, GDP was between 2 and 3 percent, same as it was in 2014 and 2015, and only slightly up from 2016, under Obama. GDP under Biden was in the same range in 2022, and was actually almost 6 percent in 2021.

Wages under Trump rose between 3-4 % annually, the same as in Obama’s final year, and they have risen much more dramatically under Biden.

The unemployment rate went from 4.7% to 3.5% under Trump, but this was a continuation of a trend that had been going on for a long time under Obama. After the disastrous unemployment rates in Trump’s final year, unemployment in the last two years under Biden has settled back into the 3-4% range.

Trump has a valid point about inflation under Biden, but he fails to tell his audience that Biden’s stimulus was only partially to blame. Other factors included pandemic related issues and government spending that occurred during Trump’s time in office. Trump also fails to inform his audience that inflation has come down dramatically from a high of 9% in mid-2022 to only 3% today.

At the North Charleston rally, Trump once again touted his tariffs, when in reality his tariffs have not been beneficial to the average American, simply passing on higher costs to consumers.

Trump criticized Biden’s tax plan, and promised more tax cuts, but failed to tell his audience how he is going to prevent this from ballooning the deficit. This same kind of thinking of reducing taxes without reducing spending has plagued Republican administrations for decades.

Trump rightly condemns Biden’s poor handling of the border situation, but ignores the fact that, as U.S. law currently stands, people can show up at the border, claim asylum, and are allowed to stay in the U.S. until their asylum hearing. Trump wants to fix everything by executive order when legislation is truly needed to solve the problem.

At the rally, Trump continued to tell his story about people from a South American mental institution coming to America, even though he hasn’t been able to produce any proof of it. He continued his false claim that he was responsible for the VA Choice Act, when this was actually passed under Obama, and all Trump did was update and expand it with the Mission Act in 2018.

At the North Charleston rally, Trump went on and on about how good his poll numbers are. If you look at the combined polling, however, the race between Biden and Trump is very close. Most disingenuous was Trump’s assertion that Nikki Haley’s poll numbers against Biden were terrible, when a number of polls show her beating Biden.

This was only the tip of the iceberg of Trump’s Nikki Haley misrepresentations. He continued to repeat the falsehood that Nikki Haley supports a 23% national sales tax, when that is not part of her economic platform. Some years back she floated the idea as part of a flat tax to replace the national income tax.

Even more laughable was Trump’s claim that Nikki Haley wants to raise the retirement age by 10 years, followed by a completely fake scenario of a retiree finding out at the last minute they still have 11 more years to go till they can retire.

Most disheartening to me was Trump’s repeating of his completely debunked theory that the Democrats rigged the 2020 election, while failing to tell the audience that he is facing multiple felony counts of election subversion himself. He accused Biden of being a “threat to democracy,” when he (Trump) went out of his way to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump, as usual, portrayed all his legal problems as the result of Democrat persecution. Unfortunately, his criminal behavior is on tape for everyone to hear for themselves, and the only reason his election subversion case hasn’t gone to trial is because of his absurd presidential immunity appeals.

In a nutshell, Trump rallies are great entertainment, but voters who want to live in a fact-based universe need to look elsewhere. The rally also raised several questions every Trump voter should ask themselves:

1. Trump claims that he could end the conflict in Ukraine by negotiation. Does anyone seriously believe Trump could sit down with Putin and get him to give up his aspirations?

2. Trump’s entire answer to America’s energy needs seems to be “drill baby drill.” But what about the fact that humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels is harming the environment? What is his plan to develop clean energy?

3. Trump voters would surely point to falsehoods Biden has told to exonerate Trump. But, if you believe in honesty in government, how is replacing Biden with Trump going to make things any better?

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Economic sources:

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/gdp-growth-rate

https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker

https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-unemployment-rate.htm

https://www.macrotrends.net/1319/dow-jones-100-year-historical-chart

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/oct/08/facebook-posts/no-donald-trump-didnt-lead-greatest-economy-histor/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-caused-the-u-s-pandemic-era-inflation/

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2023/beyond-bls/what-caused-the-high-inflation-during-the-covid-19-period.htm

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2023/beyond-bls/what-caused-inflation-to-spike-after-2020.htm

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/apr/20/jane-timken/bidens-american-rescue-plan-fueled-inflation-so-di/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/did-trumps-tariffs-benefit-american-workers-and-national-security/

The bill bans gender affirming care for trans youth and a new provision was added forcibly outing trans students to parents.

From a local "concerned voters" page re: book banning. Don't like a book in the school library? Arrest the librarians. I can't believe this is real life.

Context: a very very short excerpt from Tilt by Ellen Hopkins was posted in the group due to its "sexually explicit" nature along with info regarding what libraries it's in...only high schools, btw.

These bills must be stopped.

South Carolina, today is a fantastic day to call your state senator and ask them to oppose the gender affirming care ban (H4624). https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess125_2023-2024/bills/4624.htm

This legislation will harm vulnerable kids, and it’s a massive government overreach into the rights of parents! It takes 1 minute! Specifically, it requires that teachers out students to their parents, ignoring the real risk of physical and mental injury. It also prevents psychological care, puberty blockers, and hormone treatments.

Find your State Senator (NOT Graham or Scott, those are your US Senators) https://www.scstatehouse.gov/legislatorssearch.php

Subject: H4624 Body: Please vote no on H4624

That's it! If you have a personal story to share about how this would impact you, please share it with your Senator.

Hello, I’m doing a research project on South Carolina politics, and I just want to know what is the biggest concern for people in South Carolina, being immigration, health, minimum wage, crime, or education etc.?

https://www.counton2.com/news/south-carolina-news/citadel-cadet-who-pleaded-guilty-to-participating-in-u-s-capitol-riot-running-for-sc-house-seat/