By JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images.
What does it mean to be a liar? According to the actual definition of the term, a liar is a person who tells lies, i.e. intentionally false statements. Using the word in a sentence, one might say, “The president is a liar who claimed Monday that the middle class would get a 10 percent tax cut before midterm elections, even though Congress won’t even meet again until after November 6.” Or, “The president was in liar-mode again this week as he tweeted that ‘criminals and unknown Middle Easterners’ were racing for the U.S.-Mexico border, even as he admitted ‘there’s no proof of anything.’” Or, and we’re just spit-balling here, “The president proved himself, yet again, to be a bald-faced liar when he insisted he hadn’t licked all the donuts in the executive dining room before deciding to go with the Boston cream this morning.”
Despite the fact that Donald Trump has spent virtually every day of his presidency telling lies, the topic came up again this week in light of the fact that 1) his lies have become exponentially more brazen, and 2) his violent rhetoric arguably inspired some nutcase to mail bombs to prominent Democrats and members of the media, about whom the president habitually lies through his caps (in fact, on Thursday, he blamed the attempted acts of violence on the media). But according to 11-day White House communications director and perpetual Trump fluffer Anthony Scaramucci, the president isn’t actually a liar in the traditional—or any—sense of the word. And even if he was, he’d be lying to own the libs, which of course makes it O.K.
Following a Wednesday interview on CNN in which the words “We both know that he’s telling lies” and “He’s a liar” exited Scaramucci’s mouth, the man who worships at the alter of Trump tried to claim that branding the president a “liar” is yet another misdirect on the part of the fake media and people who just don’t understand the nuances of the Queens-born billionaire’s steady stream of alternative truths. “He’s an intentional liar, it’s very different from just being a liar-liar,” Scaramucci told Bloomberg TV on Thursday. “Yes, the president is speaking mistruths. Yes, the president is lying. He’s doing it intentionally to incite certain people, which would include left-leaning journalists and most of the left-leaning politicians.” But the man alternatively known as “Gucci Scaramucci” and “The Mooch” saved his best dazzling array of bullshit for Fox News, where he told the hosts:
“I didn’t really say the president was a liar. I said the president is using a methodology of mistruth to create that level of tension and anxiety. He’s like, pushing the mainstream media and the left, and he’s trying to galvanize his base, and it’s a media device.”
“They asked me if the president tells mistruths or lies. I said he does intentionally lie to create a dog whistle and create some atmospheric.s . . . So they go and put a little tagline, ‘Scaramucci calls president a liar.’ That’s not what I was doing.”
To recap: the president does tell lies, but that doesn’t make him a liar—it makes him a tactical genius who uses the “methodology of mistruth” as a “media device” to “create a dog whistle” and “some atmospherics.” But a liar liar? Bite your goddamn tongue, commie libs.
If you would like to receive the Levin Report in your inbox daily, click here to subscribe.
Trump didn’t commit fraud, he’s just a loser with no friends
Earlier this year, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood sued the president and all of his adult children for “persistently illegal conduct” related to the Donald J. Trump Foundation, claiming that the charity “was little more than a checkbook for payments to not-for-profits from Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization.” Among the allegations regarding how the family charity misappropriated its funds was the fun detail about $10,000 being spent on a portrait of the president, which was later found on display at the sports bar at Trump’s Doral golf resort. But according to the president’s lawyer, that wasn’t actually a matter of fraud. Rather . . .
When Donald Trump offered to pay $10,000 from his personal charitable foundation for a six-foot oil portrait of himself, the future president only meant to “get the bidding started” during a 2014 auction at his Mar-a-Lago resort, his lawyer told a New York judge.
“No one else bid,” attorney Alan Futerfas said in a packed Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, so “he’s stuck with the painting.”
On the one hand, we totally buy that the only person who wanted a creepy six-foot-tall oil portrait of Donald Trump was Donald Trump. On the other hand, we don’t buy that the president didn’t think it was totally reasonable to use his charity as a slush fund to buy paintings of himself.
Google punishes senior executive accused of sexual misconduct by paying him $90 million
Nice work if you can get it! Per The New York Times:
Google gave Andy Rubin, the creator of Android mobile software, a hero’s farewell when he left the company in October 2014.
“I want to wish Andy all the best with what’s next,” Larry Page, Google’s chief executive then, said in a public statement. “With Android he created something truly remarkable — with a billion-plus happy users.”
What Google did not make public was that an employee had accused Mr. Rubin of sexual misconduct. The woman, with whom Mr. Rubin had been having an extramarital relationship, said he coerced her into performing oral sex in a hotel room in 2013, according to two company executives with knowledge of the episode. Google investigated and concluded her claim was credible, said the people, who spoke on the condition that they not be named, citing confidentiality agreements. . . . Google could have fired Mr. Rubin and paid him little to nothing on the way out. Instead, the company handed him a $90 million exit package, paid in installments of about $2 million a month for four years, said two people with knowledge of the terms. The last payment is scheduled for next month.
In a statement, Rubin said that “The New York Times story contains numerous inaccuracies about my employment at Google and wild exaggerations about my compensation.” A spokesperson for Google told the Times: “We investigate and take action, including termination. In recent years, we’ve taken a particularly hard line on inappropriate conduct by people in positions of authority. We’re working hard to keep improving how we handle this type of behavior.”
Newt Gingrich says the quiet part out loud
Elsewhere!
Fed Fires Warning Shot at Wall Street’s Riskier Loan Deals (Bloomberg)
Estate of Rap Group Wu Tang’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard Plans December Launch of O.D.B. Coin (Coin Telegraph)
Stock-Picking Hedge Funds Just Had Their Worst Day in Almost Seven Years (W.S.J.)
U.S. Won’t Resume Trade Talks Without Firm Plan from China (W.S.J.)
Democrats have a huge fund-raising advantage across Silicon Valley but an astronomical edge among Netflix and Apple employees (CNBC)
Anybody Want Bitcoin Futures? Anybody? (Bloomberg)
Snap employees look for a way out before the walls cave in (The Hive)
“If you see my dog @ the McDonald’s on shields, quit feeding her fat a– bc she don’t know how to act & be leaving the house all the time to go walking to McDonald’s at night,” Betsy Reyes wrote of her dog, Princess. “She’s not even a stray dog,” she continued. “She’s just a gold diggin a– b—h that be acting like she’s a stray so people will feel bad for her & feed her burgers.” (N.Y.P.)
Credit:Vanity Fair
via USAHint.com
No comments:
Post a Comment