Doyce Testerman

It’s wrong.

In Germany in the 1930s and 1920s, the Nationalist party was blaming everything they could on the Jews (and Romani and gays, but stay with me).

None of it was true, obviously. Everyone knew it wasn’t true. Even the Nationalists knew it wasn’t true.

But it was what they needed to get out there as a narrative, because they needed to use that narrative to do what came after.

When Trump talks about 3 to 5 million illegal voters, he doesn’t actually believe there are 3 to 5 million illegal voters. No one he’s talking to believes it either – there’s no evidence for it at all. I think the total illegal voting attempts for 2016 is something like… 14. Fourteen people. A football team, plus placekicker, water boy, and coach.

He’s not saying it because he believes it, and we shouldn’t THINK “he’s saying it because he believes it.”

He’s saying it because he needs to get that narrative out there to justify what comes next.

And that particular narrative is the one you need to take the right to vote away from millions of Americans who, in general, won’t vote for him or the GOP.

AND HEY GUESS WHAT? Immigration and deportation is on his agenda tomorrow. WHAT A CRAZY COINCIDENCE.

People really need to stop saying crap like “This looks like it could be some kind of diabolical plan, but seriously does Donald look like he’s a planner?”

He. Is. WINNING. Over and Over Again. Against people who do not make a habit of losing.

That’s not an accident, and everything he does is on purpose.

Trump believes millions voted illegally, WH says — but provides no proof
President Donald Trump believes millions of votes were cast illegally in last year’s election, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Tuesday, but he wouldn’t provide any concrete evidence for the claim, which has long been debunked.

Dear Sir,

I have not always been an especially political poster.

I've had my opinions, but I've gone a long ways through my life not often bothering to point out current news and what I see as pretty obvious facts.

That's changed. Obviously. Partly because what I thought of as obvious facts are, to a significant portion of the population, neither 'obvious' nor 'facts.'

And here I am.

My posting has invited some great conversations and comments, and I love that.

I don't love… all of it.

I don't always love when the Political Veterans drop in.

Don't get me wrong: they have good insight, they've been "here" longer, and their comments and additional information are great, and I mean that sincerely.

But sometimes (sometimes often) they drop a comment like "this is not new" or "it's been like this for years" or "all this is part of their playbook" that, while absolutely TRUE, comes off as a sort of hipster "I liked/hated this band for YEARS before the rest of you caught on."

And that's not especially helpful.

Now, I know, Political Veteran, you've been doing and feeling all this for longer. Far longer, maybe. And I also know some people WON'T get that, and think you came in with the rest of us noobs, and there is a legitimate need to establish credentials.

It's just kind of… off-putting. I love what you bring to the conversation, and I TRULY VALUE historical information as it relates to what can be done NOW, so I hate that it sometimes has that negative effect, because I think it dilutes your contribution.

And here's the thing: the noobs may not always have all the details, but we'll usually acknowledge that a lot of this has been going on for awhile in some form or another.

But the ongoing fight is, by definition, now. People are waking up now.

So when new allies show up and start shifting sand bags, reminding them the rain started falling years ago isn't going to keep them coming back to the fight.

With great respect,
A Noob

So, yesterday, I wrote:

How about everyone just ignores the White House press room?

Send the AP guy to get a recording, they ship that out to the news agencies and papers, and everyone else just spends their time fact-checking that and reporting on what they ACTUALLY DO and ignoring what they say except as anecdotal filler for the bottom of the column?

Here’s the Washington Post today (emphasis mine):

Official words do matter, but they shouldn’t be what news organizations pay most attention to, as they try to present the truth about a new administration.

White House press briefings are “access journalism,” in which official statements – achieved by closeness to the source – are taken at face value and breathlessly reported as news. And that is over. Dead.

As Jessica Huseman of ProPublica put it: “Journalists aren’t going to get answers from Spicer. We are going to get answers by digging. By getting our hands dirty. So let’s all do that.”

The traditional way of reporting on a president is dead. And Trump’s press secretary killed it.
Sean Spicer’s remarks, full of falsehoods, should inspire journalists to dig into what matters.

A 2009 where, mere hours after being sworn in, Obama (let me see if I can remember it all…) imposed both sharia AND martial law, opened FEMA internment camps, instituted mandatory abortions and death panels, wrecked the economy even more than it was, forced us all to get gay married, and confiscated all privately-owned firearms.

Because that's the bullshit people were screaming about, without a shred of evidence, and none of it happened. None of it.

And you say my reaction to Trump is the same.

Except the things I shouted about are things he repeatedly said he was going to do.

The things I am shouting about are what. he. is. doing. now.

That bullshit you fever-dreamed about in 2009?

That's the reality of 2017.

"The white house climate change web page that existed is removed from the Trump site."

"Also gone are the web pages the previous administration had devoted to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals; people with disabilities; and civil rights more generally."

You voted for Trump?

You voted to poison the planet.

You voted to cook our children and grandchildren in a world you're too lazy to take care of.

You voted for my dad to lose his healthcare because he's been fighting prostate cancer for fifteen years and is about to become 'uninsurable' again.

You voted to take rights and protections away from my family.

If I had a hope in this, it would be only that you never have cause to regret the actions of the man you voted into office.

But I do not have that hope.

I have an enemy.

I have resolve and a renewed will to resist this human stain on the country's legacy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-signs-executive-order-that-could-lift-affordable-care-acts-individual-mandate/2017/01/20/8c99e35e-df70-11e6-b2cf-b67fe3285cbc_story.html

Trump signs executive order that could effectively gut Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate
The order directs all federal agencies to minimize the law’s “economic and regulatory burdens” as felt by consumers, insurers, providers, drug companies and states.