Quote of the Day 6-14-19 (Richard Wolffe on Sarah Sanders)

“[W]ho really needs credibility, a sense of shame or any degree of self-respect when you’re working for Trump?

“Speaking to Fox News after the Mueller report destroyed what was left of her reputation, [Sarah] Sanders worked her way through a few more fabrications. ‘Look, I acknowledged that I had a slip of the tongue when I used the word ‘countless’, but it’s not untrue,’ she said.

“That is some World Cup-quality lying. The single sentence includes at least three lies and there are only 21 words in it: an average of one lie for every seven words.

“There was no acknowledgement of a slip of the tongue (lie No 1). It was no slip of the tongue (lie No 2). And she stands by the lie with the weasel words of a double negative about its non-untruthfulness (lie No 3 and quite possibly No 4).

“You don’t get to lie as well as that by chance or amateur skill. It takes dedication and effort . . .”

–Richard Wolffe, in a typically insightful and acidic column, “Good Riddance, Sarah Sanders,” in today’s Guardian

What’s All This Crap about “Civility”?

In the face of the almost daily morally loathsome actions of Donald Trump and his regime — most prominently, forcibly separating small children from their parents, locking them in cages, and using them as bargaining chips in Trump’s extortion of Congress for $25 billion in border-wall funding — Trump and his cult-like followers have been whining about the lack of “civility” by those decent enough to be outraged by Trump’s sheer viciousness.

To put this in perspective, The Onion recently ran a piece titled “Tips for Staying Civil while Debating Child Prisons.”

Given many of Trump’s other callous, mean-spirited statements and actions — e.g, support for torture, mass incarceration, stripping away clean air and clean water regulations, stripping healthcare coverage from millions — it’s easy enough to think of other possible pieces:

• “How to Remain Civil with Torturers and their Enablers”
• “How to Remain Civil with Those Poisoning Your Kids with Pollution”
• “How to Remain Civil with Those Destroying Your Reproductive Freedom”
• “How to Remain Civil with Racists who call Nazis “Fine People”
• “How to Remain Civil with would-be Dictators”

The list could go on and on.

Why are the incessantly, personally abusive Trump — to cite a single example, remember his mocking of a disabled reporter? — and his minions now prattling on about “civility”? The answer seems obvious: they want to normalize all of the extraordinarily odious things that Trump and his cronies are doing to damage America, to damage the environment, to damage and sometimes kill the rest of us.

These things are not normal. And to treat those responsible for them with “civility” rather than anger and outrage is in some measure to acquiesce to them.

So fuck Donald Trump. Fuck Sarah Sanders. And fuck Fox “News” and all the others who repeat their bullshit talking points about “civility.” If you agree, please let these assholes know how you feel.