John Fugelsang made a simple and brilliant point about Donald Trump this morning.

[kentuck]

He said that Donald Trump talks out of both sides of his mouth. For example, he said that Trump calls the Russian attack on our elections a "hoax" and, in the very next moment, blames it on Barack Obama?????????????

Is he blaming the "hoax" on Barack Obama?

He clearly showed how a confused and irrational mind can think.

[unblock]

1. it's becoming increasingly rational because the media refuses to punish him for it.

donnie doesn't care about objective reality, he only cares about whatever works.

so he keeps spouting all kinds of self-serving statements, with a complete disregard for objective truth or consistency.

the media refuses to punish him for it, and usually ends up rewarding him for it because one or more of the stupid think he says ends up getting a lot of airtime and gets his base riled up and they quietly ignore the other lies instead of thoroughly discrediting him.


at some point you gotta ask, just how crazy and irrational is it when he is repeatedly rewarded for such behavior?

[olegramps]

9. It worked for Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. Why not: There is sucker born every minute. They add up

The adage that you can fool some of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time does not apply to all categories as proven and demonstrated by the Republicans. They are the king of fools who willfully cooperate in their own destruction.

[unblock]

12. Republicans are clearly the "some of the people all of the time" crowd and proud of it.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

13. Exactly. He may be not very bright in many ways,

but he has a natural talent for propaganda.

[Nitram]

16. I'm not sure what more the media can do. They are already calling him a liar in their headlines.

They precede his lying statements by calling them lies. Stop blaming the media. It is the Republican majority in Congress who is to blame at this point, and no one else. We are playing Russia's game, and Trump's game, and the Republican's game when we blame the media for reporting the truth about Trump.

[unblock]

17. Do not pretend I said the complete opposite of what I said.

I'm not for one minute blaming the media for reporting the truth about Donnie.

I blame them for giving him 80% if he campaign airtime.
I blame them for making 80% of the limited airtime they gave to covering Hillary be about fake scandals Benghazi and emails.
I blame them for letting him get away with lying usually unchallenged.
I blame them for rarely saying anything worse than wow or gee, that's "controversial".

At this point yes, they are finally, finally starting to call his lies lies. But they still give the lies airtime. They should not. The story should not be "Donnie said x and x is a lie". The story should be "donnie lies again." The actual lie should be buried deep in the story, if reported at all. They should run stories about the problem countries have when a politician lies so much. They should run stories about other republicans lying and how do they reconcile their statements with contradictory previous ones, or changes in policies.

If I ran a media outlet and a politician called it "fake news", I would look for ways to burn that politician. The hats what they would do with any other politician, certainly and democrat. So that's another story, why is the media not punching back?

Merely, finally calling his lies lies while still repeating them is really weak tea.

Don't tell me I'm playing Donnie's game to blame the media for supporting Donnie. That's complete bullshit. Just because Donnie says "fake news" doesn't mean I have to suddenly support the media for its despicable role in creating this monster in the first place.

You'll note that Donnie does this in large part to "work the ref". He'll criticize the media until they write more fluff pieces, then he'll back off the criticism.

Are you saying we shouldn't fight back? Are you saying we can't work the ref ourselves? I'm just trying to get them back to some semblance of actual journalistic integrity.

[Nitram]

18. Do not for a moment pretend that I am not talking about the present, rather than the campaign

of a war and half ago. You used the present tense, not the past. I'm sorry, but you are absolutely in the wrong here. the media have been calling Trump out every since he started his campaign, and for some time now they've been pulling no punches at all. Yes, you're playing Donnie's game of blaming the media for everything. I suggest you turn your wrath on Republican Congressional majority instead.

[unblock]

20. Oh yeah. Donnie's really reeling from the punches. Whatever.

Like I said, repeating Donnie's lies and sometimes belatedly calling them lies is really weak. He's still having a field day with the media.

They still reward him with a ton of a airtime and a platform for his lies. Arguably, now that he's convinced his cult that the media is fake news, the media calling his lies lies simply plays into his hands.

Way too little, way too late.

They need to give him the treatment they gave al gore or Hillary or Dukakis or Kerry or any of a number of democrats whose careers they've destroyed.

When Hillary had things she wanted to say, the media ignored her and covered Donnie lying about her emails instead.

They need to do the same to Donnie.

Stop covering his lies entirely. Only focus on the Russian scandal, the personal profiteering, the contempt for ethics, the accusations of sexual harassment, the affairs, the payoffs, the tax evasion, etc.

They dedicated all of 4% of campaign airtime to what Hillary wanted to talk about. They should be doing the same to Donnie now.

[olegramps]

21. The press failed us in the Iraq war and have agin miserablly failed us in the 2016 election.

They have consistently provided a false equivalency allowing outright lies to parade as opinion. They have allowed this to consistently go unchallenged. We all saw what happens to those who dare to set the record straight. When Candy spoke out at the debates she was history.

[dalton99a]

2. Everything he says makes perfect sense to the cult.

It's all about emotions, not logic

They'll blame the disconnects on his being inexperienced and honest and inartful

[HopeAgain]

3. They have no interest in the truth

They just want something to say that loosely supports their rationalizations.

[Garrett78]

4. He and his surrogates do this all the time.

Like saying that family separation isn't happening and that Obama also separated families.

[TryLogic]

5. He is mentally and emotionally dysfunctional.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. tRump's TELL: He's not moving to do anything about it. If he believed Obama at fault he'd move fast!

[Martin Eden]

7. Trump's talent is to confuse the irrational minds of fools who believe him.

Trump is a con man who is especially dangerous because he is also a fascist holding the most powerful political office in the world.

What Trump actually believes is difficult to ascertain, but his malignant narcissism and pathological lying do reveal mental illness.

[LiberalArkie]

8. Obama did know about it. That is why he shut down the 2 Russia places and expelled

some Russian People. I don't remember who, but he did. Trump then allowed the Russians back into those buildings as I remember.

[Blue Owl]

10. Wankmaggot's desperately groping for excuses and hoping something will stick

Good luck with that!

[Nasruddin]

15. It's A-B testing

probably instinctive - he's been a bs'er all his life.

[Gothmog]

11. From AMJOY

Link to tweet

[Kablooie]

14. This is still surprising?

He's been doing nothing but saying whatever supports his point at the moment since he started running for president.
Everything he says is about manipulation and not one single thing is about information or truth.
But people are shocked every single time when he changes his argument in order to support the current situation .
How many times will it take before people realize that this is all he is?

[lunatica]

19. Most people know Trump is a compulsive degenerate liar

So your last sentence isn’t accurate. The people who haven’t caught on are his base. Maybe there are a few left who can still turn on him, but don’t count on it.

The lines are clearly drawn. We’re not ever going to convince any more of them. Out job is to defeat them now.