The War On Reality

Yes, it's been highlighted repeatedly recently, but one more time won't hurt: "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." George Orwell - 1984. Too many times is not enough, because it is true. Keeping this in mind, let's take a quick spin through the craziness of last week in Wonderland.

Speaking at a Veterans of Foreign Wars gathering, Trump suggested that we shouldn't believe what we see or hear, because it's not really what's happening. It recalls the early Trumpian world of Alternative Facts, one that is separate from Fake News/Enemy of the People reporting.

"The White House is working off the long-time tried-and-true Putin/KGB strategy that's meant to muddle reality until we lose all hope and energy and can't keep fighting. It's done by design." So says Professor Jared Yates Sexton. It goes on daily.

If you say one thing and then say another diametrically opposed position, you can always defend yourself, depending on which direction you're being attacked. For example, "I believe our Intelligence Community in their assessment that Russia interfered." Yay, our President has gotten behind our IC, at long last! But wait... the next day: "The Russian investigation is a hoax. Witch Hunt!" Huh. What to believe? Depends on for whom it's meant.

Another method is the Gish Gallop. Constantly tell a multitude of little and big lies. Overwhelm your adversary with the Big Fat Firehose of Lies. "It's easier and faster to make a false claim than it is to disprove one. If an opponent fails to disprove every single one of the spurious statements you state, you can claim victory on the leftovers."

This constant flow of big and little lies issues forth from Trump on down through his administration, his supporters in Congress, and right-wing media. So how do other events from last week play with this in mind?

Well, there was the Threat of revoking security clearances from past heads of Intelligence and Law Enforcement agencies. The stuff of Banana Republics. These individuals have been accused of "monetizing" their security status because they appear on Cable TV programs to offer up (uncomplimentary) opinions about Trump Administration actions and policies. The practice of having past administration officials appear as subject experts has been a staple of TV news ever since... ever. Now they're being portrayed as dishonest enemies by Trump.

IRAN!! When stuck with inconvenient truths, look to distract. Here is an ever-available distraction, just as North Korea used to be/will be again. Trump's all-caps hyperventilating tweet threatening Iran, while ridiculous, also served up some comedy gold:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90206513/trumps-iran-tweet-quickly-and-deservedly-became-an-all-caps-meme

What was he distracting from? Continued Helsinki fallout. More Russia investigation news. Actually, there were a gazillion things that had been presented as False/True by Trump and his acolytes last week. Here are a few:

-- The release of an audio conversation between Trump and his former lawyer, discussing a payoff to a Playboy model to keep her from discussing an affair to the press. McDougal? Don't know her...

-- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They wanted to know what Trump had told him about the mysterious 2-hour-no-notes-no-witnesses "summit" conversation between the Prez and Putin. Pompeo was a study in obscurity. It's obvious from Pompeo's testimony that Trump didn't tell him anything. Best meeting ever!!

-- A government shutdown is threatened because Trump demands his Wall. Blames Democrats for not  getting it done, although Republicans control Congress. Wants "merit" policy system of immigration, which is funny because he thinks other countries' governments decide who will immigrate. He is either epically dense, or doesn't care because it riles up his base of Know-Nothings. Probably both.

-- Tariffs and Trade Wars. They're easy to win! Except when you find out you're losing and need to offer up a $12 billion dollar bribe to Red State farmers to stay the course...

-- Remember when the USA was in the worst shape in its entire history during the 2016 election campaign? Now it's great again. The Gross Domestic Product's second quarter growth rate of 4.1% is the greatest ever!! Except it's not, and it will be revised down... and it's a blip... and Obama's GDP had better growth reports. Check out the various Trump untruths here.

-- In his quest to make Government more transparent, the President has squashed the long-time practice of providing the press with transcribed read-outs of calls to World Leaders. And denying specific White House credentialed press people from access to daily events. And making public all White House visitor logs. And there are new restrictions on reporting on what groups have donated "dark money" to organizations like the NRA. Oh, and the long-promised tax returns? Fuggetabouddit.

-- Another group that's very concerned about Government ethics and fair play is the House Freedom Caucus. Not. For the last couple of months, they've been drawing up articles of impeachment... against Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, for denying their requests to review documents central to an ongoing criminal investigation (target: Trump). After weeks of their angry accusations against the FBI, DOJ, Mueller and Rosenstein, they announced their impeachment articles were officially submitted!! Later that same day, with much less fanfare, the impeachment articles were withdrawn. That is classic stuff. Blast through news cycles for months, make baseless accusations that resonate with their "base", then quietly go away. All this while Attorney General Jeff Sessions laughs and repeats, "Lock Her Up!" to a group of conservative high schoolers.

Oh, there are so many more, but we have to stop somewhere. Otherwise, we'd get wrapped up in the ongoing trauma of having hundreds of children separated from deported parents. This is nauseous, especially when ProPublica publishes a sickening report of kids being sexually abused in detention centers. No, they aren't separated. Yes, they are. No. Yes.

So how do we combat this War On Reality?

Heck if I know. One way that is effective for The Daily Kibitz is to Not Watch TV News. Their journalism is usually sloppy, shallow and sensational, and the advertising-driven time segments guarantees that important stories requiring significant reporting won't be adequately covered.

There are plenty of online news sources that are providing fantastic reporting. Just reading through a few Kibitz posts should familiarize some of them for you.

An informed mind can then venture forth into the public sphere and do what's right. One manner of socio-political expression that we've always appreciated is The Prank. Here are a couple from last week that caught our eye:

Dick Tuck and Tom LaPorte would have been proud. Then there was the story of the drifting yacht. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is worth a billion or so. One of her yachts was tied up along a dock on Lake Huron. In the dark of midnight, someone untied the boat from its moorings.

The crew was asleep and awoke 400 yards off the dock. The boat somehow suffered up to $10K in damages. So please offer up Thoughts and Prayers to Betsy DeVos that this doesn't happen to her NINE other yachts.

In closing, we came across something written in 1995 that absolutely floored us. Hoo-boy, did the late, great Carl Sagan ever nail it:

Fight the fight. Rail against the death of expertise. Demand an independent and credible press. Work to get people to vote, even if it's against your interests. It will all work out.

Finally, though seen so many times, these neer-do-well nitwits caught stealing stuff from a 7-11 continues to be hilarious. But this version, featuring Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance" is really funny. Imagine these goofballs as White House staffers and enjoy: