07.21.2016 03:53 PM

Trump lies: a taste of next week’s column, and my discussion with Charles Adler tonight

Your perspective on the Republican National Convention depends on your politics, of course. 

If you are in any way progressive, it was a five-alarm dumpster fire, a bonfire of insanities, a crazy conflagration of fear and loathing. It made Fight Club and Dr. Strangelove seem like newsreel footage. 

If you are a Trump-style conservative, however, none of that matters in the slightest. To you, and those like you, the liberal media establishment are slime, and they lie all the time. 

What the reviled MSM (mainstream media) say doesn’t matter a whit to you, the Trump Troopers. To you, the only relevant truth is the one that validates your world view. 

Take, for example, the now-infamous plagiarized speech. Melania Trump stole Michelle Obama’s words and thought several million people wouldn’t notice. When some did, she and her husband blamed a secretary no one had ever heard of before, and whom many believed did not even exist. Dishonesty used to excise dishonesty. Lie upon lie. 

Plaigiasm-gate stomped all over the GOP’s narratives (pro-unity, pro-security, anti-Hillary) on Days Two and Three of their convention. It was a clown show, with CNN giddily dissecting every minute. 

But the Trump Troopers? They didn’t care. 

To them, anything emanating from the MSM is a lie. To them, anything that upsets the pointy-headed intelligentsia is actually welcome. To them, the only media that matters is found at the furthest reaches of the Right, recycling dark conspiracy theories about Benghazi, Whitewater and email servers, over and over. 

And, to them, the truth is just a theory. It’s relative. 

15 Comments

  1. smelter rat says:

    Trumpland is a world where lies are as good as the truth, black is white and evil is good. Orwell missed it by a country mile, although he gave it the old college try.

    • lyn says:

      smelter rat: In place of Trump please insert Clintonland a world of lies. If the judge had done the job correct she would be behind bars now!! Romney, Bush, Obama running scared as you are Warren.

      TRUMP FOR AMERICA

  2. Peter says:

    Big mistake. I’ll bet I can guess what you think the characteristics of Trump Troopers are–old, nostalgic, racist, stupid, religious etc. i.e. not worth listening to. Gee, where have I heard that before? What’s the matter with Kansas, what cognitive deficiencies afflicted the Brexit voters and have you checked out the rubes in Ford Nation? OK, they’re in an election and rhetoric reigns, but how long are you folks going to keep ignoring what is happening the world over and repeating your Marie Antoinette schtick.

  3. Manuel says:

    Well the MSM is heavily biased to be sure and where Trump reporting is concerned they don’t even pretend to be objective anymore. But to me that isn’t the real issue for Americans. It is a lack of a half decent choice on any side. If I were a Democrat I’d be upset at Sanders’ loss and I doubt I’d vote for Clinton. If I were a Republican, well I don’t know who I’d want out of who ran but I know it wouldn’t be Trump (or Cruz).

    Was there ever a time when media didn’t have a bias? Or perhaps we just weren’t as aware of it decades ago in the pre-Internet days.

    • Derek Pearce says:

      Democrats will flock to Hillary like bees to honey. There is no. way. in. hell. they’ll risk a Trump presidency by not voting for her– and Bernie himself is going to do everything he can to make that a reality as well. A handful of stubborn Bernie bros will hold out but not a statistically noticeable amount.

  4. Bill Templeman says:

    Warren, What do you make of fivethirtyeight.com’s analysis of the US polls?
    http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/?ex_cid=rrpromo

    Just wondering if Nate Silver is a certified polling guru and how should we read his numbers? (Hillary at 61% & Trump at 39%)

    • Tim White says:

      Nate Silver and his team are aggragating a lot of polls to come up with the figures. Each state is also predicted individually to tally electoral college votes, which is the number that counts. The 39% number you see represents 538’s estimate of the statistical probability of a Trump victory if the election were held today.

      He is as likely to win the election today as an NBA player is likely to miss a free throw. (I think that’s Ezra Klein’s remark)

      Or if he swings Florida and Ohio and the rest hold as 538 predicts, he’s the president.

      Historically he has been deadly accurate on US election predictions, he flopped on the most recent British election.

  5. monkey says:

    I like Kinsella dislike Trump strongly, but it seems the gong show and boorish speeches were done earlier when people weren’t watching. Peter Thiel, Tom Barrack, and Ivanka Trump gave quite reasonable speeches and surprisingly the crowd cheered when Thiel publicly stated he was a gay man and culture wars should be put behind, while didn’t boo when Barrack promised not to attack Clinton, or when Ivanka Trump promised to support equal pay for equal work. Interesting his introduction put a lot on females in his organization and also showed a number of African-Americans. While this is probably all show and I still think Trump is a bigot, it will be interesting to see if he gets a bounce in the polls. Off course the election is still 3.5 months away and you can be sure the Democrats will use the arsenal of negative ads to remind voters of his past statements.

  6. doconnor says:

    There aren’t that many, especially here, who would deny Clinton’s flaws. Some are more enthusiastic with her abilities then others. She does have a lot of experience and her beliefs are consistent with what many Americans believe.

  7. Derek Pearce says:

    In an election where neither choice is ideal, this is analogous to choosing a snack when your starving and there’s only two things to eat: an egg salad sandwich in the fridge that might go off soon if you don’t eat it quick or a complete shit sandwich stuffed between the garbage can and the wall. Trump is the latter.

  8. Brian says:

    I’m a lefty but I have righty tendencies at times… Like free speech, is a big one for me. (Something we don’t really have here…) On Trump however, this is how I see things… And remember, I’m a Canadian and I really couldn’t give a shit about American politics. Hell, I’m so disgusted by the Canadian political system (not to mention sickened by both our past PM and the fluffy little dolt we’ve just elected that it’s likely I’ll never bother to vote again. Nothing changes…

    As for Trump… Here’s the reality of it all.

    – The convention may have made it look like Fight Club and Dr. Strangelove were newsreel footage but… They got people talking. They got people to pay attention. Something which won’t happen at the Democratic convention because, Hillary is a) Boring as shit on a hot sidewalk and b) she has zero conviction in anything she says or does. The woman is so weak of character that she’s still stepping on Billy’s old Capitol Hill cigar box to help her reach the top shelf of the political world. Trump will out her as a stepford wife. A woman that stands and supports a misogynist and a man formerly accused of rape as he stood as Gov of Arkansas. Trump will eviscerate her and he’s not afraid to embarrass her or himself by doing so. What self respecting woman can respect a woman like Hillary? (That message is gonna come, believe me.)

    -The liberal media are slime: I only read newspapers and the odd website like this one. For those that are into News-er-tainment and watch garbage like CNN, MSNBC, FOX… That’s the voting public and that makes the voting public idiots. Media is media and whether it’s considered left wing or right wing, it’s all just the same shit. All news media is run by idiots, assholes, hipsters and c**nts. If you believe that I’m right about that, it’s likely that you’re beginning to see why Trump will win. (…and don’t forget there are going to be 4 great years of news with Trump in office, so what media organisation on the planet actually wants to see Trump lose? Exactly! None. They’re all rooting for him in the boardrooms.)

    Trumps troopers: I don’t think it’s as simple as Trump validating the world view of his followers. Hillary is a scumbag. She’s really quite unethical. She’s as corrupt as anyone and likely more corrupt than Donald, however, Hillary is “properly corrupt.” Hillary is Washington corrupt. I harken back to the fact that she’s standing Bill’s old cigar box to reach the top shelf… She has no self respect or is at least on par with Mr. New York Windbag. Wait… She’s a senator from New York and he’s a business man from New York… Maybe they’re meant for each other.

    The speech thing and your “lie upon lie” comment. Seriously, Warren? You’re comparing what Trumps wife did to the deceit that Hillary has been party to? That’s reaching, bro. In a big, big way. Come back to earth, big boy. She used the lines from a speech that Michelle Obama used. So what? Get over it. Melania Trump and her speech are about as significant as gum on a shoe. You’ve lost me on this one… It’s a weak and absurd point. In case you weren’t aware, all politicians lie. You worked for one that told some zingers himself. (And for the record, I loved Chretien because when he got caught, he controlled the message and the rhetoric better than anyone.)

    Finally, can you define pointy headed intelligentsia? The fact that you discount those that are willing to take a second look at things that were illegal or underhanded by the Clinton’s doesn’t make a person wrong or stupid. You, of all people should be commending people for actually looking into the candidates and their past. Whitewhater, Libya, The Clinton FOundation, The Top Secret Emails on servers in the Clinton home, the rape accusations against her husband, the 50 or 60 dead people connected to the Clintons…

    Look Warren, I hate politics. It’s stupid but I’ve heard some stories. Second hand of course… My sister’s best friend is the daughter of the former security advisor to the Bill Clinton. All of Washington is corrupt and all those that live there are corrupt. Get over it. Liberal or Conservative, they’re all the same. Elections and presidencies are about charisma and right now Donald has it won. It’s a long campaign but I don’t think Clinton stands a chance. Besides, even if he does win, he can’t be any worse than GWB. Trump’s a step up.

    • Maps Onburt says:

      Scott, I can’t stand Trump but that doesn’t mean anything that Brian said is untrue. Your response is just the sort of high falutin crap the so called intelligensa come up with, nose high in the air. Mark my words, Trump is going to win this race. Not just because Hillary is a lying, conniving shill for the status quo but because in large part to people like you who look down on Trump and the people who pay attention to him. There is a counter status quo vibe going on down there – MUCH stronger than what we had up here with the dump Harper movement. Americans are desperate for someone to “fix” Washington and they are listening to anyone hated by the traditional power sources. The Democrats have their own version of this with Bernie but as DNCLeaks is showing, the fix was always in for Hillary… that will hurt her badly. Come November there will be a lot of very puzzzled people wondering how they missed all the signals – just like with Brexit.

  9. Doris says:

    You want get into the heads of the Trumpers/Brexiteers watch this rant – it is spot on. Disregard the profanity it is used for emphasis not for lask of a vocabulary

    <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXf1Fz5Fw4&quot;

  10. gyor says:

    To be honest, I’m not sure why I should care what first wives/husbands say or do, they’re not running for office, they’re spouse is.

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