(from Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken)
". . . Anytime a liberal points out that the wealthy are disproportionately benefiting from Bush's tax policies, Republicans shout, "class warfare!" . . . In her book A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century, Barbara Tuchman writes about a peasant revolt in 1358 that began in the village of St. Leu and spread throughout the Oise Valley. At one estate, the serfs sacked the manor house, killed the knight, and roasted him on a spit in front of his wife and kids. Then, after ten or twelve peasants violate the lady, with the children still watching, they forced her to eat the roasted flesh of her husband and then killed her. . . That is class warfare. . . Arguing over the optimal marginal tax rate for the top one percent is not. . . "
(from Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken)
". . . In all this talk, one thing that gets lost is that there are forty-two million working Americans who have not gotten one cent in (Bush) tax cuts. The Wall Street Journal refers to them as "Lucky Duckies" because they earn so little that they don't pay any income taxes. Many lucky duckies are deeply in debt to predatory lenders. Man of these lucky duckies couldn't afford college and cannot afford health insurance. Some of these lucky duckies, working Americans, will be homeless sometime during the year. Their children, the lucky ducklings, are far more like than my kids, or Paul Gigot's, to be killed violently or die of a preventable disease. . . Apparently, the Wall Street Journal thinks that the unluckiest thing in the world is paying taxes. . . "
(from http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/even-iraq-trump-cant-bring-himself-tell-the-troops-the-truth?cid=sm_fb_maddow&fbclid=IwAR2M2ILJV7xVfBWY5CBMshrG2H5P6Hy4cUdAX998g1xjuYF1A8-82AiirNI)
". . . as part of his pitch, Trump repeated a claim he must know isn’t true. . . “You just saw that because you just got one of the biggest pay raises you’ve ever received. . . It’s great. You know what? Nobody deserves it more. You haven’t gotten one in more than 10 years – more than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one. I got you a big one. . .“They had plenty of people that came up. They said, ‘You know, we could make it smaller. We could make it 3 percent. We could make it 2 percent. We could make it 4 percent.’ I said, ‘No. Make it 10 percent. Make it more than 10 percent.’ Because it’s been a long time. It’s been more than 10 years. It’s been more than 10 years. That’s a long time. And, you know, you really put yourselves out there, and you put your lives out there. So congratulations.”. . . It’s one thing for the president to peddle this lie at pre-election campaign rallies, but it’s worse when he travels halfway around the world to lie to the troops’ faces. . ."
(http://projects.thestar.com/donald-trump-fact-check/)
"Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC."
in fact: There is still no evidence of this. And the surveillance Trump was complaining about on this day, of Carter Page, only began after Page left the campaign.
"Congratulations to @JudicialWatch and @TomFitton on being successful in getting the Carter Page FISA documents. As usual they are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of 'Justice' and FBI misled the courts."
in fact: The documents do not show that the Department of Justice and the FBI misled the courts in seeking a warrant to surveil a former Trump adviser, Carter Page. In fact, the newly released documents proved that a Republican memo about the documents was misleading when it accused the Department of Justice and FBI of misleading the courts. As the New York Times reported: "The Republican memo issued in February said the FBI had failed to 'disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign or any party/campaign in funding Steele's efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.' But Democrats at the time contended that the court had been told that the research had politically motivated origins. The application contains a page-length explanation that does alert the court that the person who commissioned Mr. Steele's research was "likely looking for information to discredit" Mr. Trump's campaign. It goes on to explain why, notwithstanding Mr. Steele's 'reason for conducting the research,' the FBI believed it was credible. Republicans had also faulted the application for not explicitly identifying Mrs. Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee by name. But that criticism ignored the fact that law enforcement officials were following a general policy not to name Americans, even referring to Mr. Trump only as 'Candidate #1' in renewal applications despite noting that he was now the president-elect and then the president. David Kris, an expert on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act who served in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, dismissed the notion that the intelligence court judges had been misled. 'Now we can see that the footnote disclosing Steele's possible bias takes up more than a full page in the applications, so there is literally no way the FISA Court could have missed it,' he wrote on the blog Lawfare."
"The Rigged Witch Hunt, headed by the 13 Angry Democrats (and now 4 more have been added, one who worked directly for Obama W.H.), seems intent on damaging the Republican Party's chances in the November Election."
in fact: By "rigged witch hunt," Trump means special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into his campaign's relationship with Russia. The investigation is being run by a Republican, Mueller himself. Though Mueller has indeed filled his team with Democrats, it is false to say the investigation is "headed" by these Democrats.
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer's office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of. Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client - totally unheard of & perhaps illegal."
in fact: The government executed a search warrant at Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's office in April; it did not "break in." We'll continue let this claim go as a matter of rhetorical license, but the second part of Trump's tweet is flat-out incorrect: it was not illegal for Cohen to tape phone calls with Trump. Under New York state law, only one party to the conversation must consent for the recording to be legal.
"Now, we then go to a news conference. I mean I had these -- some of these fools from the media saying, 'Why didn't you stand there, look him in the face, walk over to him, and start shouting at him?'"
in fact: Unless we're missing something -- we'll remove this item from the list if someone shows us we were indeed missing something -- Trump's critics in the media did not demand he walk over to Putin and shout in his face; some of them merely said Trump should have professionally denounced Putin from his own spot at the press conference. According to a Wall Street Journal report, it was Trump's own aides who wanted Trump to get up in Putin's "face." The Journal reported: "In preparatory meetings, Mr. Trump and his aides discussed using the indictment to forcefully make the case. The plan was for Mr. Trump to invoke the indictment both in private meetings and in the public news conference afterward, a White House official said. The idea, the official said, was to 'shove it in Putin's face and look strong doing it,' depicting it as hard evidence of Russian crimes against America's electoral process."
"With Mexico, $120 billion (trade deficit). Mexico. Who would think Mexico? Mexico's making a fortune."
in fact: The U.S. trade deficit with Mexico was $69 billion in 2017, $71 billion in 2017 when counting goods alone. Trump has usually claimed that the deficit with Mexico is $100 billion; this was the first time he exaggerated all the way to $120 billion.
"China: with China, $507 billion a year in deficits." And: "We're down 500. Now some people would say $375 billion. I'm not talking about million. I'm not talking about pennies. I'm talking about -- we're down $375 billion, but other estimates could say $507, it doesn't matter. So it's in between there, or it's there." And: "And it's very interesting because I actually asked them the question, 'So we're down 507 -- recently -- we're down $507 billion in trade deficits. How did it happen?' And they told me, 'Nobody ever complained. Nobody ever talked to us.'" (Trump has repeated this claim 34 times)
in fact: The U.S. has never once had a $500 billion trade deficit with China, according to U.S. government data. The deficit was $337 billion in 2017, $375 billion if you only count trade in goods. There are no estimates by which it "could say" $507 billion.
"You know last year, and for years, we have been losing $150 billion with the EU nations, with the European Union..." And: "With the EU $151 billion..." (Trump has repeated this claim 46 times)
in fact: The U.S. had a $102 billion trade deficit with the European Union in 2017. The $150 billion figure -- $151 billion, to be precise -- counts only trade in goods and excludes trade in services. Trump, as usual, did not say he was excluding services.
(From https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/Trump-Phony-Sources-Vets-Border-Stats-483841531.html)
TRUMP, on a possible summit with North Korea: "The Failing @nytimes quotes 'a senior White House official,' who doesn't exist, as saying 'even if the meeting were reinstated, holding it on June 12 would be impossible, given the lack of time and the amount of planning needed.' WRONG AGAIN! Use real people, not phony sources." — tweet Saturday.
THE FACTS: Actually, the source does exist. The White House official addressed a group of reporters as part of a background briefing arranged by the White House press office. . . While Trump has criticized the use of unidentified sources and labeled information related by anonymous officials "fake news," his White House regularly arranges briefings with officials who demand anonymity before relaying information. An Associated Press reporter in attendance at last week's briefing questioned why it was not on the record — meaning that the official's name could be used. The official said Trump had been talking publicly that day and so the briefing was intended to provide "background context."
TRUMP: "This whole Russia Probe is Rigged. Just an excuse as to why the Dems and Crooked Hillary lost the Election and States that haven't been lost in decades. 13 Angry Democrats, and all Dems if you include the people who worked for Obama for 8 years. #SPYGATE & CONFLICTS OF INTEREST!" — tweet Saturday.
THE FACTS: Trump's suggestion that the investigations into Russia meddling are "phony" and have yielded nothing is incorrect. So far, four Trump associates have been charged in Mueller's investigation, of whom three have pleaded guilty to lying to the authorities. Among them are Michael Flynn, former White House national security adviser, and Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide. Overall, 19 people, including 13 Russians, have been charged. (in response to additional Tweets) He refers to Mueller's team as "13 angry Democrats," but Mueller is a Republican and some others on his team owe their jobs largely to Republican presidents. Mueller did not work for President Barack Obama for eight years, as Trump states, but was FBI chief for less than six years under Obama, leaving in September 2013. He was nominated to be FBI director by Republican President George W. Bush in 2001.
TRUMP: "We've done a lot of work on the wall. We're doing a lot of work on security, generally speaking, security and border — border security. The border's down over 40 percent, and don't forget, we have a great economy, probably the best economy the country's ever had. So people come across, but we're going to get the rest." — interview broadcast Thursday with "Fox & Friends."
THE FACTS: Illegal crossings actually are up 20 percent since he became president, according to the yardstick he uses to measure them — the number of Border Patrol arrests. There is no precise measure of illegal crossings because some people don't get caught. The Trump administration uses arrests as the best gauge of whether crossings are going up or down. The Obama administration did likewise.
TRUMP: "This week, we passed a new landmark legislation to give more choice and better care to our great veterans. We're going to take care of our veterans. We're doing a great job with them. We are taking care, finally after decades, we're taking care of our veterans." — speech Friday.
THE FACTS: Congress passed a wide-ranging plan last week to expand private care for veterans as an alternative to the Veterans Affairs health system, but it'll take at least a year to implement and its actual scope in expanding choice to veterans will depend on the next VA secretary, who has yet to be confirmed. A successful expansion of private care will also depend on an overhaul of electronic health records at VA to allow for a seamless sharing of records with private physicians. That overhaul will take at least 10 years to be fully complete. The legislation would also expand a VA caregivers program to cover families of veterans of all eras, not just the families of veterans who were seriously injured in the line of duty since Sept. 11, 2001. Implementation of that program won't begin until after the VA secretary can provide assurances to Congress that the department's IT systems can handle a surge in new applicants. A phased rollout of benefits won't be fully finished until more than two years afterward.
. . . in a country that refuses to help itself . . .
(from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-morally-unfit-be-president-comey-says-tv-interview-n866196)
". . . President Donald Trump is such an indiscriminate liar that he sometimes doesn't even know he's lying, former FBI Director James Comey said in an interview with ABC News that aired Sunday night. He said Trump was "morally unfit" to hold his office. . . "Our president must embody respect and adhere to the values that are at the core of this country, the most important being truth," Comey said last week, according to a transcript of the entire interview that ABC News published Sunday night. "This president is not able to do that. He is morally unfit to be president.". . . Trump lies are so promiscuous that "sometimes he's lying in ways that are obvious, sometimes he's saying things that we may not know are true or false, and then there's a spectrum in between," Comey said, according to ABC News. . . "
. . . and fine upholder of all that is lawful . . .
. . . or not. . .
(from http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/jeff-sessions-had-strong-feelings-lying-under-oath-1999-n728561
". . . Embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions was a key proponent of prosecuting then-President Bill Clinton for allegedly lying under oath in 1999. . . Sessions recused himself from any investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election on Thursday. . . But he remains under fire for failing to disclose at his January confirmation hearing that he twice met with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during last year's presidential campaign. . . Dozens of Democrats — including House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi — have accused Sessions of lying under oath and called for his resignation. . . "
(from http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-tell-if-someone-is-lying-voice/)
". . . Step 1: Unusual Ahem's Alert
Although
clearing one's throat is not necessarily considered aberrant behavior,
it is not a normal everyday feature of the average person's speech. A
healthy liar is more likely to do the "ahem" sound than a healthy
non-liar. Psychological stress on a typical liar tends to put some
tension on their muscular system, which includes their vocal muscles.
The vocal muscles are miniscule in size, about the size of a thumbnail.1
The air you breathe passes through the vocal muscles on their way to
the lungs and vice-versa. When the vocal muscles contract, they
temporarily halt the respiration process; hence, the tensed liar may
need to clear their throat in order to continue speaking.
Step 2: Creaky Voice Alert
Another
common after-effect of lying and the anxiety associated with it on the
vocal system is a creaky tone or a glottal fry.1 It is called so,
because the voice then sounds as if it is being fried. The vocal chords
try to minimize the impact of the lack of air by conserving it,
resulting in a creaky voice. A physically healthy nervous liar is more
likely than a relaxed physically healthy honest person to speak with a
creaky voice.
Step 3: Judge in Context
While the
typical liar's vocal features described in the previous steps can be a
warning sign, they are to be analyzed within the proper context. There
are many causes of the creaky voice and clearing of throat, and the
anxiety that accompanies the act of lying is just one of them. Sickly
honest people can just as easily experience these vocal problems as
healthy dishonest people. In addition, there are experienced liars and
pathological liars that are so used to lying that they have become
immune to the anxiety that haunts the average liar. Therefore, the two
vocal hot spots described in this page are meant to be used with an open
mind. . . "
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