  We investigate the cosmology of a recently proposed deformation of Einstein
gravity, emerging from quantum gravity heuristics. The theory is constructed to
have de Sitter space as a vacuum solution, and thus to be relevant to the
accelerating universe. However, this solution turns out to be unstable, and the
true phase space of cosmological solutions is significantly more complex,
displaying two late-time power-law attractors -- one accelerating and the other
dramatically decelerating. It is also shown that non-accelerating cosmologies
sit on a separatrix between the two basins of attraction of these attractors.
Hence it is impossible to pass from a decelerating cosmology to an accelerating
one, as required in standard cosmology for consistency with nucleosynthesis and
structure formation and compatibility with the data inferred from supernovae
Ia. We point out that alternative models of the early universe, such as the one
investigated here might provide possible ways to circumvent these requirements.
