About Those "20,000 Lies"...REEEEEE PEPPER BALLS ARE TEAR GAS!!!!1111

So Trump honestly reports, relying on the Park Police, the Secret Service, and four other agencies--that no tear gas was used in the famous Lafayette Park incident. Progressive media and its enablers KICK INTO ACTION! to prove that....pepper balls are tear gas...because...they make people cry...

   This is the level of stupidity and dishonesty we're dealing with.

   A spokesman for the Park Police said they didn't use tear gas--which is apparently true--then later said, basically: Oh...we hadn't thought about the fact that you people have no idea what you're talking about...so it's probably all 'tear gas' to you...in which case: yes, if you speak that imprecisely, then you would say that we used "tear gas".

   They got some medical types to go along with their misuse of the terminology...and...voila! ANOTHER TRUMP LIE!!!!

   Of course: not a lie at all. Supposing pepper balls and smoke grenades were, in fact, the only things used, then, no, they didn't use tear gas. Some people may call pepper balls tear gas, but they're two different things. The Park Police, Trump, and the rest spoke truly when they said they didn't use tear gas. Nothing is to be gained other than a tricky, dishonest, rhetorical score by saying "AHA SOME PEOPLE CALL PEPPER BALLS TEAR GAS!!!1111" 

   Besides, I'm actually in favor of them using tear gas against that crowd. They were supposed to have been cleared out earlier, they'd already vandalized St. John's and made some effort to set it on fire, they were aggressive, and it was perfectly legitimate to clear them out. It's not as if we're not giving violent Antifa shitheads enough free reign to riot these days... The decision was reasonable, we're generally erring in the other direction, even if it was a mistake, such mistakes will happen. This is hardly a coordinated assault on the First Amendment.

   Now...if, contrary to what Barr reported, this really was a last-minute decision and the operation was conducted purely in order for Trump to go pose with the Bible...no. Screw that, of course. I don't think it happened that way because we never heard about it again--and you can bet we would have if that were the case.

   If this is where you set the bar for lies, anybody's going to rack 'em up pretty fast.

[Further thought: imagine the media'd asked whether the USSS, USPP, etc. had used rubber bullets, and they'd truthfully said no. But when the media found out they'd used pepper balls, they said: But pepper balls are surrounded by flexible plastic which is tantamount to rubber! So you did use rubber bullets! TEH TRUMPZ LIEZ!!! 

No. Pepper balls are not rubber bullets. They're completely different things. Nobody who knows anything says otherwise. Rubber bullets are hard, solid projectiles, not little spheres filled with pepper dust. This is nothing but an equivocation. What they said was not only not intended to deceive, it was true. This is nothing but gotcha pseudo-journalism.]