Justice undermined by a presidency built on lies
Re: “Screams from the liberal cradle as Trump rocks establishment again”, Have Your Say, yesterday.
When reading some of the cynical creative fiction that passes for informed comment in these pages I occasionally think of Orwell, and his eloquent exposure of the ways in which extremist ordure, smoothed figures, and Janus-faced perfidy passes itself off as truth.
Take the case of Dr Blasey Ford and the way she bravely told the story of an assault she had to endure – and told it under oath, no less. For this, she has had to put up with some unjustified criticism, to put it mildly. This extends to Monday’s writer insinuating that the good doctor’s polygraph test is to be questioned, when it has already been established that she took it and passed. Brett Kavanaugh’s polygraph? The accused sex-attacker didn’t take one.
Moreover, contrast Dr Ford’s evidence with that of Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, an erstwhile beer-swilling aggressive young man with a talent for lachrymose indignation when it suits. Sober as a judge? His testimony, if that be the word, is exposed by the author and activist Barbara Ehrenreich, who informs us of “Kavanaugh’s lies under oath” which broadly falls into line with what she calls the “faux FBI investigation”.
Furthermore, yesterday we were also treated to the now familiar guff about Trump’s miraculous transformation of the US economy in terms of rising employment. This conveniently ignores the zero-hours contracts, ad hoc hiring and firing, insecure part-time work.
In addition, Monday’s offering seeks to fool us by regurgitating the now exhausted mantra “fake news”, Trump’s throwaway line of choice so recently adopted by despots and murdering tyrants all over the place. As for the tired phrase Trump “won” the presidency, let us not forget the popular vote – the majority – was not taken by PINO, who instead relied on an archaic electoral college that allows for a minority-vote winner who is clearly unfit to be elevated to the purple. Over time, more that 700 constitutional amendments to change the system have been proposed. As has been convincingly argued the electoral college is not directly democratic, and thus violates the principle of “one person, one vote”. So, to paraphrase Orwell, some US states’ residents are more equal than others.
But the killer line in Monday’s apologia is “Trump is right to tell the truth”; a novel idea when counterpointed with the transparent evidence of the man’s serial mendacity, now numbered in four figures, and rising.
Dr Frank
Bangkok
