While our not at all unelected Prime Minister tries to tell anyone who will listen that cosying up to the new inhabitant of the White House is not such a bad idea, the machinations of Combover Crybaby Donald Trump and his entourage suggest that Theresa May made a serious mistake in rushing over to Washington DC to be the first foreign leader to meet with The Donald, and massaging his vanity with a State visit invitation.
Kellyanne Conway - lies when she draws breath
What is now concerning an increasing number of people in and around the US political mainstream is not just the coarse and belligerent behaviour of the Trump White House, and not merely the kinds of people with whom the 45th President of the USA is surrounding himself, but their ability to not merely spin, but blatantly lie in order to get the narrative they want to portray out into the media.
All of which brings us to one Kellyanne Conway, formerly Trump’s campaign manager and now an adviser to the administration, and the inventor of the phrase “alternative facts”. Ms Conway is appallingly shameless in her peddling of falsehoods, but her Pants On Fire display is not exceptional for The Donald and his gang.
Ms Conway appeared before the inquisition of veteran MSNBC host Chris Matthews yesterday, on his Hardball programme. Her first priority was to claim that the so-called “Muslim Ban” had been instigated by Barack Obama, which, as I pointed out recently, is totally untrue. Her next priority was to continue lying through her teeth.
This was her schtick: “I bet it’s brand new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre … Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered”.
Who is this Bowling Green Massacre? As the Daily Beast has reported, “What Conway was likely referring to was an incident in 2011 in which two Iraqi nationals were indicted for allegedly having ties to IED (Improvised Explosive Device) attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq … The two men lived in Bowling Green, Kentucky [my emphasis] … There is no information about the men having committed violent offenses in Bowling Green, Kentucky”.
It gets worse: this is not an isolated incident. After suspected Houthi rebels attacked a Saudi frigate off the coast of Yemen, Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer falsely tried to re-frame this as a hostile act by Iranian forces against a US ship. Fortunately, Major Garrett of CBS News corrected Spicer. But it is a disturbing trend.
Indeed, one more like that and it will look as if The Donald and his gang are deliberately lying in order to push a pre-determined narrative, one which gives the impression that it will lead to armed conflict, whether with Iran, any other Muslim majority country, or even China. Any or all of those could have a result far more detrimental to the USA than their ill-advised campaign in Vietnam. And it could drag many other actors into the mire.
That is why we in the UK should not only be worried about cosying up to Trump, but also worried about what he and his motley convocation of hoods are going to do next.
Another thing that seems to have slipped under the radar in all the controversy about alternative facts is a comment Kellyanne Conway said to Chuck Todd of NBC during an interview after the whole alt-facts thing exploded: -
ReplyDelete"Your job is not to call things ridiculous that are said by our press secretary and our president. That's not your job," Conway
"Can you please answer the question? Why did he do this? You have not answered it -- it's only one question." Todd
"I'll answer it this way: Think about what you just said to your viewers. That's why we feel compelled to go out and clear the air and put alternative facts out there." Conway
It's worth repeating that first statement again, Conway said - "Your job is not to call things ridiculous that are said by our press secretary and our president. That's not your job,"
Now I may be old fashioned but questioning authority is probably the single most important thing any journalist/interviewer should do, revealing and not a little disturbing that Conway wants everyone to believe otherwise.
So what if the Trump gang tell alternative lies to the usual White House shite - whoever poses in the Oval Office?
ReplyDeleteWell, here's what: http://johnpilger.com/articles/-the-coming-war-on-china-to-open-in-australian-cinemas-as-trump-s-man-beats-war-drums
If Trump and his loonies listen to any of the crackpots in the Pentagon or State Department you might as well bend over, place your head between your knees, and kiss your ass goodbye.
The real problem is not Trump's penchant for mouthing US colloquial paranoia and bullshit. It's whether he'll believe all the worst of the propaganda about China and Russia - which is really an attempt to rob natural resources of those two countries (alternative lies as "free markets").
I wouldn't make book on a safe outcome given Trump's track record of instigating and living off usury. Or Western governments looting of the rest of the world.
The precedents are there: Whether people have the common sense or the courage to face them is another matter. We certainly can't rely on mainstream media to tell us the truth......they'll be too busy trying to find out if Trump grabbed the pussy of some unfortunate woman or running away from the truth about their employers or their own cowardice.
In these circumstances the best hope is that you're near to the centre of the nuclear flash when it lights up your home. That way you'll have no fucking worries whatever.
Another day, another round of madness from the President Dogshit Lump I$I$ team.
ReplyDeleteI am somewhat bothered by your truth-o-meter graphic. Surely the arrow should be somewhere to the right.
ReplyDelete