It's The Lying, Stupid

Last night, Ol' Doc Maddow did some out-loud worrying about 45*'s constant lying, saying she didn't know how to keep reporting on it without contributing to a level of Trump Fatigue that pushes us all towards a state of political catalepsy.

Luckily, we still have a few people who can help us understand these things.

Here's Lee McIntyre, a Research Fellow at The Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University, in Newsweek, explaining the difference between Lies and Post Truth:

When a politician gets caught in a lie, there’s usually a bit of sweat, perhaps some shame and the expectation of consequences.

Not for Trump. After many commentators pointed out to him that the stock exchange was in fact closed for several days after 9/11, he merely shrugged it off, never bothering to acknowledge—let alone correct—his error.

Why would he do this?

The point of a lie is to convince someone that a falsehood is true. But the point of post-truth is domination. In my analysis, post-truth is an assertion of power.

As journalist Masha Gessen and others have argued, when Trump lies he does so not to get someone to accept what he’s saying as true, but to show that he is powerful enough to say it.

He has asserted, “I’m the President and you’re not,” as if such high political office comes with the prerogative of creating his own reality. This would explain why Trump doesn’t seem to care much if there is videotape or other evidence that contradicts him. When you’re the boss, what does that matter?

So, a coupla things:

1. Don't ever stop pointing out Cult45's lies. It must always be news when anybody in a position of power tries to bullshit us.
2. Take McIntyre's thesis to heart. Never forget - it's about power. Identify it, and call it out for what it is.

Street Art

This is what the world needs to be about - not all that Cult45 bullshit.

The way this is painted 😌 from r/oddlysatisfying

Super Nerds

Scientists have (again) landed a spacecraft on the proverbial dime.

Starting from a planet which is traveling 67,000 miles per hour and rotating at 1500 feet per second, shooting at a planet which is traveling thru space at 54,000 miles per hour and rotating at 800 feet per second - and is 40 million miles away.

40,000,000 miles. 
Right on the button.

I think I'll go ahead and trust scientists on this Climate Change stuff.

hat tip = @ScottLinnen

Today's Pix

click

Statistical Sadness

Un-fun Fact:

In all of our history here in USAmerica Inc, there have been a total of just under 2,000 US Senators.

Black Senators = 10
Women Senators = 52

I'm thinking we should try a little harder to do a little better than that.

hat tip = @StevenTDavis

That Manafort Thing

I was thinking about this last night as the analysis and speculation grew rather frantic on MSNBC.

There's always the very real probability that 45* will do something enormously dickish as he tries to elude the headsman (duh), so Mueller has to make moves that ensure his investigation continues, and/or that his findings make their way out to us (also duh).

Anyway, the big uh-oh yesterday was the possibility that Manafort was playing the double agent, and that meant his "cooperation" was intended to get him inside the investigation so he could feed intel to Cult45, but he'd gotten a little too cute and now he's fucked cuz he's going straight to prison and what if that was part of his plan all along cuz if Mueller is hanging his whole hat on Manafort, what better way to blow it all up than showing that the star witness is so full of shit that he can't be trusted so the investigation starts to look like it really is a witch hunt and blah blah fucking blah.

emptywheel:

Now, it is true that Trump can pardon Manafort (though that probably won’t happen right away). That’s the only sane explanation for Manafort doing what he did, that he is still certain he’ll be pardoned. But many of these charges can still be charged in state court.

Just about the only explanation for Manafort’s actions are that — as I suggested — Trump was happy to have Manafort serve as a mole in Mueller’s investigation.

But Mueller’s team appears to have no doubt that Manafort was lying to them. That means they didn’t really need his testimony, at all. It also means they had no need to keep secrets — they could keep giving Manafort the impression that he was pulling a fast one over the prosecutors, all while reporting misleading information to Trump that he could use to fill out his open book test. Which increases the likelihood that Trump just submitted sworn answers to those questions full of lies.

And that “detailed sentencing submission … sett[ing] forth the nature of the defendant’s crimes and lies” that Mueller mentions in the report?

There’s your Mueller report, which will be provided in a form that Matt Whitaker won’t be able to suppress. (Reminder: Mueller included 38 pages of evidence along with Manafort’s plea agreement, which I argued showed how what Manafort and Trump did to Hillary was the same thing that Manafort had done to Yulia Tymoshenko.)

BTW - Manafort has always reminded me of those old Soviet guys in the 80s who were trying a little too hard not to look like those old Soviet guys in the 80s.

Today's Tweet

No lifeboats. As it is right now, the GOP has to die - along with Cult45.

Fuck bipartisanship.

Republicans are bad. They have bad morals and bad ideas. The goal should be to eliminate them utterly as a political movement and then allow a center-right party to move into the vacuum which has basic skills like arithmetic and not being racist.

— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) November 28, 2018

And I'll say it again: 45* has not remade the GOP in his image - he is the perfect reflection of what the GOP has become.

Nancy MacLean explains it:

Today's GIF

The best ever - so far

Donald Trump Middle Finger GIF from Donaldtrump GIFs

Connections

Overheard:

I wanna thank my government for saving me from lettuce recently.

Can we do guns now?

(hat tip = FB friend Nancy Patrella)

Something clicked in my brain: what stops bad guys with guns is a lot more good guys with salads.

BTW - I'm pretty sure that's what The Beatitudes would sound like if that Jesus guy was here preaching today.

Anyway - then I went to Beau on YouTube, and he reminded me of just how big a lie it is when the ammosexuals make their spiel about the good guy with a gun and blah blah blah.

4%

Today's GIF

Situational awareness