Sunday, January 29, 2017

Lies, Lies, & More Lies

"Deception, dissembling, exaggeration--what Fortune magazine called his 'astonishing ability to prevaricate'--has deep roots in Mr. Trump's business career," writes David Barstow on today's New York Times front page.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/us/politics/donald-trump-truth.html

Read this piece if you read nothing else.

dt speaks about the use of "truthful hyperbole... an innocent form of exaggeration--and a very effective form of promotion," in a book published 30 years ago, The Art of the Deal, according to Barstow.

In fact, dt has never had to pay a price for his lies, notes Barstow.  His lawyers settle lawsuits against him, binding plaintiffs to silence.

His most outrageous lie this week is that 3-5 million votes were cast by illegal immigrants in the 2016 elections.

"Do you think that talking about millions of illegal votes is dangerous to this country without presenting the evidence?" asked David Muir of ABC News.

"No, not at all," dt replied.  "Not at all because many people feel the same way that I do."

Feelings matter--facts don't.

Then he repeated four times "Believe me, those were Hillary votes."

In his world, saying the same thing twice makes it more true--even if it's a lie.  

His outrageous claims this week kept the media so busy fact-checking and debunking that his terrible executive orders slipped by half unnoticed.

Thank you to David Barstow for this excellent analysis, and thank you to the airport demonstrators who flew into action on his ban of Muslims, wading through the barrage of tweets and lies to challenge dt with their feet.



No comments: