A version of the below article first appeared in David Corn’s newsletter, Our Land.
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version → appear → newsletter
The newsletter comes out twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories and articles about politics, media, and culture.
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newsletter → come → politics
Subscribing costs just $5 a month—but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial.
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you → cost → trial
During one of the recent frantic, manic, and racist rants Donald Trump has delivered at red-state campaign rallies to boost imperiled Republican candidates, the bloviator-in-chief—in between comments about people’s asses and boasts of his own purported greatness—claimed credit for turning Washington, DC, from a hellscape of crime to a citadel of safety.
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bloviator → deliver → safety
He brayed:
Nobody wanted to eat out.
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Nobody → bray → ?
Even if you were in the restaurant, people would walk in and, like the Wild West, hold it up!
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people → walk → it
Everybody is standing there.
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Everybody → stand → ?
Can you imagine?
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you → imagine → ?
They were robbing the whole restaurant.
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They → rob → restaurant
It’s crazy.
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It → ’ → ?
That’s an absolute lie.
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That → ’ → ?
Trump is a serial prevaricator who cannot stop spouting falsehoods.
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who → stop → falsehoods
During his first run in the White House, The Washington Post cataloged 30,573 false statements that he emitted.
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he → catalog → that
(Nowadays, the Post, following billionaire owner Jeff Bezos’ loving embrace of Trump, doesn’t bother to systematically track his deceptions.)
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Post → follow → deceptions
But I am highlighting this particular fib because it is so idiotic and so transparently untrue.
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it → highlight → fib
As a resident of the metropolitan DC area, I can say that folks here were not afraid to go out to dinner prior to Trump’s pointless dispatch of National Guard troops and that “whole” restaurants were not being pillaged by malfeasant marauders.
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restaurants → say → marauders
For Trump, lying is like breathing.
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lying → breathe → breathing
It never stops.
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It → stop → ?
It occurs automatically, without thinking.
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It → occur → ?
Once upon a time, we rebuked politicians if their spin deviated too far from reality.
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spin → rebuke → reality
They were afforded much license to hail their supposed accomplishments and policy proposals and assault their rivals’ liabilities and intentions.
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They → afford → liabilities
But outright lying was considered a step too far.
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lying → consider → ?
During the 1988 GOP presidential primary contest, the campaign of Vice President George H.W. Bush aired ads accusing his main rival, Sen. Bob Dole, of being wishy-washy on tax policy.
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campaign → air → policy
In an interview, when Dole was asked if he had a message for Bush, he growled, “Yeah, stop lying about my record.”
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he → ask → record
That was considered a big deal.
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That → consider → ?
These days, the lies are far more brazen and blatant, and an accusation of lying barely rates a mention in any news story.
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accusation → rat → story
That’s partly—or largely—because Trump has turned the Republican Party and the MAGA movement into one big disinformation outfit.
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Trump → ’ → outfit
He doesn’t spin.
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He → spin → ?
He lies over and over, and his party and cult happily go along with and cheer on his deceit.
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party → lie → deceit
The GOP’s midterm effort that he’s leading—like his past presidential campaigns—is foremost a disinformation operation.
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that → lead → campaigns
Trump never stops pumping out extreme falsehoods.
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Trump → stop → falsehoods
He tells the crowd at one rally that “98 percent” of Somali immigrants in the United States “don’t work…because they steal so much.
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they → tell → much
They all have a Mercedes-Benz…low IQ.
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They → have → IQ
And they live better than you.”
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they → live → you
He repeatedly proclaims that the United States is experiencing an economic Golden Age after he “inherited the worst inflation in American history” and that inflation is down to 1.8 percent.
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inflation → proclaim → percent
The worst inflation in US history was 23.7 percent in 1920, and it was 3.0 percent when Trump returned to the White House last year.
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Trump → return → House
Currently, it’s 3.7 percent.
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it → ’ → ?
He calls his Democratic foes and critics “communists.”
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He → call → foes
He continues to spread the debunked MAGA conspiracy theory that James Talarico, the Democratic senatorial candidate in Texas, left the campaign trail to be treated for mental illness.
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Talarico → continue → illness
He asserts that Democrats are for “open borders” (they are not) and that President Joe Biden allowed 25 million people to “pour across the borders,” including drug dealers, rapists, and 11,888 murderers.
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people → assert → dealers
…and 44 more, not listed.
The Aporia
