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Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Fight Liar with Liar

It's a very strange ongoing phenomenon to observe, on at least weekly and sometimes daily basis, not just the constant lies, personal attacks, innuendo, and outright slander and libel, but the degree to which it goes completely uncontested.

Let's look at just two (2) of the more recent notorious examples.

The first example is the recent resurfacing of the conspiracy theory arising from the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, who was an aide to outgoing congressman Joe Scarborough. It's easy to forget, after nearly twenty years, that in fact there did seem to be some shady shit around that event at the time, and it chased Scarborough around for a few years. It doesn't help that Scarborough's default setting is "smug, supercilious prick."

But whatever. For this example, it doesn't matter whether Morning Joe had anything to do with Klausutis' untimely demise. (For the record, I don't think he did.) From a cursory glance at his Twitter feed, it appears that Scarborough has chosen simply to take the vaunted "high road" and express sympathy for her family getting all this dredged up again, and retweeting supportive messages. All well and good.

But DID YOU KNOW [arches eyebrow ominously] that back in 1989, Donald Trump had three of his Taj Mahal executives killed in a helicopter crash, not long before the whole money-laundering operation went tits-up? It's true!

I dunno about you, but if some cheesedick piece of shit was publicly accusing me of murder, and said asshole had roughly a metric fuckton of serious dirt, rumors, allegations about him, and I had my own teevee show, I'd make a point of finding the nastiest thing I could, find a few bucks in the production budget for a couple decent private eyes, and flog that mule till the motherfucker dropped. Just keep hammering on it every day until someone squealed.

But hey, if Joe Blow wants to keep that "thoughts and prayers" high road, more power to him. We can see how well that has worked for so many other people, who just didn't want to sink to that level. [rolls eyes]

The second example involves Trump's ongoing lies about how the previous administration left the federal government completely unprepared for the current pandemic. He has repeatedly blamed Obama by name. This op-ed piece from the St. Louis Times-Dispatch lays out the lies pretty well.

Now, the general election campaign obviously has not really gotten into gear yet, but as someone who voted for Obama twice, I would like to see the man defend himself. I don't want to hear any bullshit about "presidential protocols" of not attacking other office-holders.

That taboo has clearly been shattered, and it's an odd thing to see one side uphold it while the other repeatedly, gleefully violates. Sorta like watching a duel where the participants agreed to use swords, but one side showed up with an assault rifle, and the dope with the sword just stands there, occasionally murmuring "but we agreed to use swords."

I want Obama to defend himself, and call out Trump's repeated, blatant lies for exactly what they are. But I also want him to say that on my behalf, and on behalf of the millions of Americans who supported him, and still do for that matter. He's not just saying you sucked, Barry, he's saying we were suckers for supporting you.

If I had the pulpit to say that's a fucking lie, I would. Then I'd remind everyone that he won't show his tax returns because he's been laundering bratva cash since before 9/11. But I don't. I'm just an anonymous schmuck, a drop in the vast internets ocean. It doesn't matter what I think or say.

But it does matter if a former President responds to the worthless piece of shit currently festering in the White House, and debunks those lies with specificity. Especially when the current guy is also lying about voting by mail, because he wants get those disqualified, so that he can cheat his way in for another term. Do ya think the situation is getting urgent? Okay then, it might be time to respond with a real sense of urgency. Waiting till November is not an option, when there's a significant non-zero chance that the election will be rigged or postponed.

I do think it's likely that Obama and/or Biden will respond to those lies at some point in the relatively near future. But the responses should be in real time, and should be forceful and declarative. No dancing around with carefully nuanced phrasing and word choices. These aren't "falsehoods" or "untrue statements," these are LIES -- as in they are completely false and Trump knows it.

I'm not a fan of Rick Wilson's history of political cockpunching, but I will say that he's talked better trash, baited Trump ably, and put together several powerful ads, than just about anything I've seen from the Democrats. It's kinda sad that a career rent-a-Republican wants these fuckers out more than the Democratic Party seems to most of the time.

Like I said at the top, this is a very strange phenomenon. We've become accustomed to it. People have decided that nothing can be done about it, so nothing gets done about it. No one even tries. Every Democratic politician should have been flooding the zone, every panel show, every Sunday shitshow, with a unified message -- that's a fucking lie, period, end of sentence. You are allowed to call liars what they are. Keep going down this path, and you might find that changed pretty soon. The bottom line is that no one has to take this shit from this fucking guy.

Did you ever know a kid who was bullied in school? Did the bully ever stop because the kid ignored them? Sometimes you have to fight back, and you might even end up with a black eye or a bloody nose. But the fucker knows you're gonna fight back next time, and that makes it more likely to move on.

When they know you're never gonna fight back, why should they move on?

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