* As we’ve seen over the last few months, the fact-checkers are getting overwhelmed in their efforts to keep up with Trump’s lies. Sometime early this month he passed the 1,000 lies mark since inauguration. But I was wondering if anyone counted how many he told in just one speech last night. Politifact took on 11 of them. But when you look at Kevin Drum’s roundup, they were just getting started. Rather than a number, let’s just go with Kevin’s summary.
It was a 77-minute spittle-flecked presentation of alternate reality.
* I’m not sure why, but there was one lie Trump told last night that jumped out at me – perhaps because it demonstrates how the president goes about setting up that alternate reality. At one point in the speech, he said this:
[E]conomic growth has surged to 2.6 percent. Remember, everybody said, ‘You won’t bring it up to 1 percent. You won’t bring it up to 1.2 percent.
Steve Benen does a great job of pointing out how ridiculous it is for Trump to pretend that a 2.6 percent increase in GDP is somehow an extraordinary accomplishment. But it’s also important to notice the set-up. Trump suggested that people said he wouldn’t be able to bring it up 1 percent. That is a ridiculous claim – nobody said that. What he’s covering up is that on several occasions, Trump said he’d increase GDP to 4 percent – including making that claim on the White House web site. People have consistently said, “You won’t bring it up to 4 percent.” He hasn’t. He won’t. They were right.
* Last night Trump indicated that he plans to pardon Joe Arpaio. Today we learned this:
The White House has prepared the paperwork for President Trump to pardon former sheriff Joe Arpaio when he makes the final decision to do so, CNN has learned.
An administration official said the White House has also prepared talking points to send to surrogates after he is pardoned.
* You’ll not want to miss what Charles Pierce had to say to the Trump supporters who showed up at the rally in Phoenix last night.
I have no more patience, and I had very little to start with. I don’t care why you’re anxious. I don’t care for anybody’s interpretation of why you voted for this abomination of a politician, and why you cheer him now, because any explanation not rooted in the nastier bits of basic human spleen is worthless. I don’t want any politicians who seek to appeal to the more benign manifestations of your condition because there’s no way to separate those from all the rest of the hate and fear and stupidity. (And, for my colleagues in the Vance-Arnade-Zito school of Trump Whispering, here’s a hint: They hate you, too.) I don’t care why you sat out in a roasting pan since 5 a.m. Tuesday morning to whistle and cheer and stomp your feet for a scared, dangerous little man who tells you that your every bloody fantasy about your enemies is the height of patriotism. You are now the declared adversaries of what I do for a living, and your idol is a danger to the country and so are you. Own it. Deal with it. And, for the love of god, and for the sake of the rest of us who live in this country, do better at being citizens.
Pierce also quoted this little bit from Trump’s speech last night:
So the Democrats have no ideas, no policy, no vision for the country other than total socialism and maybe, frankly, a step beyond socialism from what I’m seeing.
He had a little side note about that one.
(Also, note to all the Purity Police who think people like Joy Reid are “red-baiting” when they mention that Russian ratfcking helped decide the last presidential election. That bit right at the end there? That’s actual red-baiting. Please take notes. I don’t want to have to go over this again.)
Boom!!
* Finally, I’ll end today with a little shade.
In case you were wondering, yes, @PeteSouza continues to throw the best shade. pic.twitter.com/DND3Aq0uqa
— Nancy LeTourneau (@Smartypants60) August 23, 2017
