Wednesday, August 01, 2018

Trump: The Man, The Myth: Trump "Called On Russia To Hack Hillary Clinton"

LOL this again.
   Here's a fairly reasonable thing you could say: Trump shouldn't joke around like that. I mean, I think that's pushing it...but at least it's not obviously false. I kinda think that level of petty gotcha-ism would be roughly comparable to the conservative faux freakout when Kerry said that we could stand some regime change at home. What bullshit. It was a pretty damn funny/clever line. Trump's wasn't bad, either. That's to say: it was pretty amusing. It was also within the bounds of the acceptable. Yet again let me note: what he was saying was, roughly: No, I don't have anything to do with the Russians, and I don't believe any of this stuff. I think Clinton is just incompetent. And it'd be informative if we could see those emails. But even that doesn't really get it across. It's decent little jokey political dig. I give it a B+.
   To repeat a theme: if Trump's so bad (and I think he is), you shouldn't have to make shit up about him.
   And: if someone is willing to lie/spin/cheat so blatantly with respect to such a straightforward case, then what do you think they'd be willing to do in a genuinely unclear case in which they know more about the facts than you do, and so they're unlikely to be busted for lying/spinning/cheating? That is: cases in which their journalistic integrity, such as it is, matters most?

3 Comments:

Blogger Aa said...

You really think he was joking? I don't the man is mentally capable of making that subtle of a distinction. Obama? Sure. Bush, okay though he probably couldn't pull it off well or smoothly as Obama...but Trump? Nope, I take him at his word.

4:04 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

It was *obviously* a jokey comment. There's probably even a name for this well-known rhetorical device.

Suppose Urfwyth is accused of being a witch by the village busybody. She laughs it off, saying unequivocally that she isn't in league with the devil. Then she adds, in order to ridicule the idea: "Not that I'd mind if he fixed the leaky thatch on my roof, mind you." Village busybody responds: "Urfwyth called on Satan to fix the leaky thatch on her roof!"

I disagree about Obama. I don't think he'd joke about such a thing. I think he'd treat it with more gravitas. And, again, I think that's the only legitimate criticism of Trump here: that it's not joking matter. I disagree, I think. But I don't think it's an insane point.

8:06 AM  
Blogger Aa said...

To clarify, I think Obama could pull off the joke and make it seem like a joke. I don't think he would joke about this type of topic. I really don't think Trump has the ability to joke like this...the delivery seemed serious, the Trump tower meeting was about to happen (if i'm on the right timeline), he wanted dirt on Hillary, etc. Granted, I despise the SOB.

8:43 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home