Trump’s lies are different. They are direct refutations of reality — and their propagation and repetition is about enforcing his power rather than wriggling out of a political conundrum. They are attacks on the very possibility of a reasoned discourse, the kind of bald-faced lies that authoritarians issue as a way to test loyalty and force their subjects into submission.
That first press conference when Sean Spicer was sent out to lie and fulminate to the press about the inauguration crowd reminded me of some Soviet apparatchik having his loyalty tested to see if he could repeat in public what he knew to be false. It was comical, but also faintly chilling…
Here is what we are supposed to do: rebut every single lie. Insist moreover that each lie is retracted — and journalists in press conferences should back up their colleagues with repeated follow-ups if Spicer tries to duck the plain truth. Do not allow them to move on to another question. Interviews with the president himself should not leave a lie alone; the interviewer should press and press and press until the lie is conceded. The press must not be afraid of even calling the president a liar to his face if he persists. This requires no particular courage. I think, in contrast, of those dissidents whose critical insistence on simple truth in plain language kept reality alive in the Kafkaesque world of totalitarianism…
I think this is a fundamental reason why so many of us have been so unsettled, anxious, and near panic these past few months. It is not so much this president’s agenda. That always changes from administration to administration. It is that when the linchpin of an entire country is literally delusional, clinically deceptive, and responds to any attempt to correct the record with rage and vengeance, everyone is always on edge.
How the Strategy of Tension operates, much like the attention-seeking child, except that he’s got a nuclear trigger in his tiny hands. Whether the cause may be shrouded as it will with uncertainty and alternative facts including those that verge on CT. We will have military action soon, we have seen this before … 2003’s WMD hunt being the most egregious. We already have evidence of impetuousness in the name of pooch-screwing with a raid in Yemen that cost lives and did not achieve its objective of killing even the third-rate leader of A-Q.
This is unfortunately all going to plan such as it is, … defederalizing the country under the tired pretext of states rights only to serve as it always has, the regional and local warlordism made firmer by RW law enforcement, and made worse by still giving us a fading illusion of democracy as the GOP flees its constituents, calling them “outside agitators”
Dude can’t even kill/capture the third-rated terrorist
(CNN) Days after a raid on an al Qaeda compound in Yemen led to the first US military combat death under Donald Trump, the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula released an audio message taunting the new American President.
In an 11-minute recording, AQAP leader Qassim al-Rimi condemned the January 29 raid, saying, "The new fool of the White House received a painful slap across his face."
White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters last week that the mission was “a successful operation by all standards,” claiming that it resulted in valuable intelligence gathering that would save lives.
Officials cited by NBC News, however, claim that intelligence was not the primary goal of the raid, and that the prospect of capturing al-Rimi was a crucial factor in convincing U.S. leaders that it was worth taking known risks.
NBC cites an unnamed senior White House official, who reportedly had direct knowledge of the discussions, as saying that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Trump that taking out al-Rimi would be a “game changer” in the war against al-Qaeda.
time.com/...