As Long As You Keep Repeating Something . . . August 18, 2023August 18, 2023 The first 12 seconds, from Trump’s former press secretary, are particularly good: Donald Trump lives in his own reality, and he lies casually, but he’s very very good at it. He used to teach me: “Stephanie, as long as you keep repeating something, it doesn’t matter what you say.” Not only is he one of just three U.S. presidents ever to have been impeached, let alone twice (with a 57-43 bipartisan majority of senators voting to convict the second time) . . . the only U.S. president ever to have been indicted, let alone four times . . . he is also the only president ever to have kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside. (And to have exchanged “love letters” with a dictator; sided with Russia over the FBI; and said, “Hitler did a lot of good things.”) I emphasize this last point, because his instruction to Stephanie Grisham — “Stephanie, as long as you keep repeating something, it doesn’t matter what you say” — is essentially an instruction on effectuating The Big Lie. >> From Scientific American: Repeated exposure to implausible statements makes them feel less so. >> From an American correspondent’s introduction to that 1941 book of speeches: [Hitler’s oratory] stirs hatred and feeds self-vindication, and whether on paper it bears inspection for consistency, logic or soundness is immaterial. >> From a French journalist’s foreword: To use constantly and untiringly the same arguments, and to pound into the heads of his listeners the same formulas, is part of Hitler’s oratorical technique. . . . [He] is past master at throwing up verbal smoke screens . . . He knows equally well the effectiveness of massive oratorical assaults that shake the nerves of his victims or opponents . . . he knows how to give pledges that will be broken later . . . he uses insults and lies in the same manner as his generals use planes and tanks to break through the respectable but often weak front of his adversaries. . . . His crudity frequently borders on downright vulgarity. Sound like anyone we know? How else to explain all the good people who believe Trump is the victim of a witch hunt? One of those good people — Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel, as it happens — reads this column daily; and, daily, sends refutation or taunt. Yesterday, he sent this clip about remarks made by a former white Christian nationalist Trump appointee (whom Trump subsequently pardoned), blaming Jews for their deportations to the concentration camps. My reader called it a reason to question Trump’s judgment (ya think?), “however, nothing Trump did compares to the Biden crime family bribe-taking, Afghanistan debacle and cutting down the oil production that created the 9% inflation.” I pointed out all the obvious things anyone on “our side” would. >> That leaving Afghanistan by May, 2021, was a deal TRUMP had committed the U.S. to and that — though it certainly could have gone better — it might not have been an easy thing for the military to execute even if Trump had still been in charge. >> That attributing the spike in global inflation to Biden’s restrictions on future oil exploration — rather than to pent-up COVID demand, supply chain problems, and Russia’s invasion of Iraq — made no sense. >> And that the “Biden crime family” consisted of one community college professor not known for her lavish lifestyle; one former drug and alcohol abuser who shamelessly traded on his father’s name; and the Amtrak-riding kingpin himself, on whom Trump — with all the powers of the presidency and, presumably, Russia’s intelligence service — had been unable to pin any crime. Much like the much-anticipated Durham report that flopped — but unlike the much-anticipated Mueller report that turned up what more than 1,000 former Republican and Democratic federal prosecutors deem to have been multiple felonies — all Trump’s efforts, and those of now-Special Counsel David Weiss, have failed to reveal anything of note the President has done. (Ah, retorted my reader, “Garland appointed the fox, David Weiss, to guard the hen house and YOU don’t see any corruption?” I pointed out that TRUMP appointed David Weiss in 2018 and Garland let him stay and continue his investigation. And that when Weiss recently asked for the extra powers of a special counsel, Garland granted them. Would my reader have felt Garland was less corrupt, I asked, if he had replaced Trump’s guy with a Biden appointee? Less suspect if he had refused the Trump appointee’s request for extra powers? To which my reader replied — and I quote — “George Washington appointed Benedict Arnold. History is replete with despicable traitors.”) I know what you’re thinking: “Why do you even bother?” And I generally don’t — it’s quicksand. Millions of misinformed people like my reader are certain that Marxists like me and Joe Biden are out to ruin America with all this bipartisan infrastructure, record-low unemployment, renewed manufacturing base, affordable health care, and, of course, our plan to give women and parents the right to make difficult health care choices with their doctors. They have drunk the Kool-Aid. All this against the background of . . . what does any of it have to do with Trump, anyway? If evidence emerges that Joe Biden is a crime family boss (or Tom Hanks, a serial killer), the same Justice Department memo that shielded Trump from prosecution while in office would shield Joe (though not Tom). But once out, that evidence should be presented to a grand jury — or four, if warranted — and the process be allowed to take its course. As is now finally happening with Trump. The difference being that, where Biden in such circumstances would conduct himself with decorum, Trump is making veiled threats to witnesses, jurors, and poll workers and leading his followers to make explicit threats — very much as a crime family boss would.* Let us hope that those witnesses, jurors, and poll workers find the courage not to cave (because our democracy hangs by a thread); and that you, dear reader, have a great weekend. * Bolded links, like this one, are by way of recommendation — items I think you might want to read or watch. Light-face links are just by way of substantiation — in case you want to know what something is based on, or who someone is, etc..