"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Tuesday, January 01, 2019

And a Look Back

at recent events. From Digby:


In one of his most recent arguments for a southern border wall, President Trump on Sunday falsely claimed that the Washington home of former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama is surrounded by a 10-foot wall...

Trump’s assertion came as a surprise to two of the Obamas' neighbors Monday, who told The Washington Post that there is no such wall. The 8,200-square-foot structure, despite several security features, is completely visible from the street.

A neighbor, a longtime resident of the area who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve their privacy, said Trump “has a very active imagination.”

The Obamas' house from the street:


For some context, an excellent series of tweets from Greg Sargent, collected by Nicole Bell at Crooks and Liars:

One of the things I hope every journalist takes to heart as a resolution for 2019 is re-evaluating how they cover Donald Trump. Specifically, his penchant for lying about anything and everything.

Not falsehoods, not un-truths, not misleading statements. His LIES.

I've seen various members of the mainstream media rationalize their softer euphemism by saying that they can't know the intent of the statement, therefore deeming it an intentional lie would not be fair. But frankly, trying to divine his intent is irrelevant. It's no longer even clear if Donald Trump is aware of when he is lying. He lies about easily provable things. He lies about things he knows we have on video. It is a pathological thing for him, as instinctive as breathing. It doesn't even matter if the lie hurts him politically, because he'll just lie about that when pointed out.

Greg Sargent of The Plum Line wrote a great Twitter thread about how the media needs to contextualize the dishonesty of Donald Trump:


It's a longish thread, but worth reading.

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