{"id":967,"date":"2019-01-22T15:53:30","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T23:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/?p=967"},"modified":"2019-02-19T17:29:11","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T01:29:11","slug":"truth-in-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/truth-in-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Truth in Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In June of last year, a certain writer who sometimes dabbles\r\nin fiction attempted to interview the Trump Whisperer (see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/?p=860\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">An Interview with the Trump Whisperer<\/a>\u201d). That interview had some difficulty focusing on the\r\ntruth. Could a similar interview be conducted in another dimension of reality,\r\nspecifically, a truth dimension? Some string theory physicists believe other\r\ndimensions exist. So, why not a truth dimension? Let\u2019s test this hypothesis.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The following is an interview with the Speaker of the House, the President, and the Senate Majority Leader. (DISCLAIMER: the interviewer cannot be held accountable for the following statements of truth, nor for the intervention of the Trump Whisperer who often speaks for the President.) <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">_________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013 Let\r\nme say how thankful I am for your participation in this interview. There are\r\ntwo current subjects I would like to cover today. The first concerns the\r\nmonth-long shutdown of the government. How would you characterize it and how\r\nwould each of you resolve its political stalemate?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>President<\/strong> \u2013 The Democrats clearly refuse to support border security. They won\u2019t even support my extensions of DACA or TPS for a three-year period in which we could come together to reform our immigration policies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Whisperer<\/strong> \u2013 Liberals\r\nbleed for minorities and government services. By shutting down the government,\r\nI hold the sword of Damocles at their throats. Their weakness is that they\r\ncare. I don\u2019t. And I will win.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Speaker<\/strong> \u2013 Have you ever heard of a Pyrrhic Victory? The President wants to win while losing. The problem here is that he doesn\u2019t consider others\u2019 loss as his own.  <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013\r\nMadam Speaker, could you be more specific?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Speaker<\/strong> \u2013 I\u2019m referring to the 800,000 civil servants who are furloughed or working without pay and the millions of Americans affected by the lack of food inspections, of tax returns, of healthcare services, of border security by land, sea, and air, of maintenance of our national monuments and parks, and so much more. King Pyrrhus of Epirus sacrificed his army to win a war. What the President is doing is similar. In addition, that so-called sword of Damocles he swings will cut off his own head. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013 <em>In truth<\/em>, Madam Speaker, is that the\r\nbasis of your own strategy? In other words, do you believe the President\u2019s\r\nintransigence in holding hostage the government will ultimately cost him his\r\njob?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Speaker<\/strong> \u2013 <em>In truth<\/em>, yes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">_______________________________________________________________________________<br><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013 And\r\nwhat is the position of the Senate Majority Leader on the government shutdown?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Senate Majority Leader<\/strong> \u2013 I will not put any legislation on the floor of the Senate that will not be signed by the President.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013 Yes, we know that you refused to send to the President a funding bill that had passed the Senate by an unanimous vote. You realize your action makes you complicit in this government shutdown. Don\u2019t you consider your role in Congress to be independent of the President, to be a check on Presidential power, and to work with the House in funding the government?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Senate Majority Leader<\/strong> \u2013 The President decided he wanted to add 5.7 billion dollars to fund a border wall of some kind to be determined later or \u201cas appropriate.\u201d That is his prerogative. I told him that the Speaker would not remove her opposition to his wall and would not back down. She might even go so far as to allow the House to consider articles of impeachment against a President who effectively shuts down a democratic government by his personal fiat. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">______________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013 <em>In truth<\/em>, Mr. Majority Leader, are you\r\nrevealing here a strategy that would wait for the House to file articles of\r\nimpeachment, thereby allowing the Republicans to divorce themselves from a\r\nRepublican President that has gone rogue?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Senate Majority Leader<\/strong> \u2013<em> In truth<\/em>, yes. As long as his base supports him, I cannot risk our Republican Senate seats in the next election. Only impeachment would move that base and untether my Party from his unpredictability and disregard for Republican ideals. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">______________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013 It\r\nis reported that the Mueller investigation is nearing a conclusion. Do you believe\r\nit will give you, Mr. Majority Leader, the impeachment you secretly anticipate?\r\nWhat if that investigation continues for months? Would the President eventually\r\nback down? Do you really think the Speaker would risk her Party\u2019s credibility\r\nand attempt to impeach a sitting President who has a staunchly supportive base?\r\nRemember what happened to the Republican Party and Newt Gingrich when they\r\nattempted to impeach a popular President? <em>In\r\ntruth<\/em>, are you waiting for this President\u2019s removal from office?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Senate Majority\r\nLeader<\/strong> \u2013 <em>In truth<\/em>, I have no\r\nother option than to wait for impeachment or resign myself to the destruction\r\nof the Republican Party and, consequently, control of the Senate.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Speaker<\/strong> \u2013 Don\u2019t forget about the rule of law and our Constitution. We are a country that revolted against the whims of a monarch that held absolute power over us. The Declaration of Independence lists the grievances we had with this monarch. Compare those grievances with the acts of this President regarding the rights of asylum seekers, family separations, racial immigration policies, the well-being of our citizens in terms of clean air and water, and refusal to address problems in education, infrastructure, income inequality, and preparations for the impact of climate change. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013 Mr.\r\nPresident, you don\u2019t seem to have much support in Congress, even though it\r\nappears you have cowed the Senate Majority Leader. In fact, your only real\r\nsupport comes from those in your base who believe in you. <em>In truth<\/em>, what are you going to do?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>President<\/strong> \u2013 As\r\nlong as I\u2019m President, I will preserve the national security of our country. The\r\nsituation at our southern border is horrible. No President before me has\r\nattempted to stop the crime, drugs, and human trafficking that pours through.\r\nIt\u2019s a disgrace. The Democrats want open borders. I don\u2019t. If I have to\r\nmaintain the shutdown for months or even years, I will. I may even declare it a\r\nnational emergency and order government resources including the military to\r\nbuilding my wall . . . fence . . . barrier . . . or whatever. As long as I\u2019m\r\nPresident, I will always protect our country. If we don\u2019t secure our borders,\r\nwe don\u2019t have a country!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Whisperer<\/strong> \u2013 As long as these positions hold with my base, I will win. That is all that matters. I don\u2019t believe in truth, just truthful hyperbole. Whatever I say is what I want people to believe because I want them to believe in me. My hyperbole reflects my most sincere conviction that I must be right, otherwise I\u2019m a loser. And I\u2019m never going to be a loser. Winning is what I\u2019m about. That\u2019s why I can speak with conviction and why people believe in me. I\u2019m a winner! A great deal maker! And the greatest President in the history of our country! <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">___________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013 Alright\r\n. . . maybe I should change the subject. Recently, the press has published two stories\r\nthat may be an existential threat to this Presidency. In one report, Mr.\r\nPresident, it appears that the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation\r\ninto the possibility that you were working for the interests of a foreign\r\ngovernment. In another press release it was asserted that during the campaign you\r\ntold your private attorney to lie to Congress about your attempts to build a\r\nTrump Tower in Moscow. During the 2016 campaign you repeatedly denied having\r\nany business interests in Moscow and specifically any proposed deals to build a\r\nTrump tower in Moscow. Can you comment upon the truth of these stories?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>President<\/strong> \u2013 The\r\nmost shameful thing ever written about me! I\u2019m not a spy for the Russians. Mueller\r\nadmitted that story is a lie. It\u2019s just fake news! And Mr. Cohen\u2019s testimony has\r\nnothing to do with me. Besides, he\u2019s a convicted liar. Whatever he did, he did\r\non his own. I was only aware of the possibility of a deal with Russia. But\r\nnothing happened. And Cohen\u2019s lies are his own. He\u2019s a proven liar!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Whisperer<\/strong> \u2013 I have to misstate things to redirect public attention. Mueller\u2019s statement that the press report was \u201cinaccurate\u201d must be called out as a \u201clie.\u201d And Cohen\u2019s testimony, whether in the past or in the future, has to be characterized as a \u201clie\u201d told by a proven liar. Notice how often I use the word \u201clie\u201d and look for any chance to call out the press as \u201cfake news.\u201d When the public hears it often enough, they accept that it must be true. Brilliant, no?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Speaker<\/strong> \u2013 May I\r\ncomment? The public has a right to know the truth. We must maintain the\r\nintegrity of the Mueller investigation and interpret his outcome on the\r\nevidence uncovered. Calling the press \u201cfake news\u201d and refuting sworn testimony\r\nbefore it\u2019s even presented are statements that fail to recognize Constitutional\r\nguarantees of a free press and due process before the law. It may be true that\r\npart or all of this recent press report is \u201cinaccurate,\u201d and it is true that\r\nMr. Cohen has admitted to lying to Congress, but we cannot draw the conclusion\r\nthat all press reports are fake or that everything Mr. Cohen says is a lie. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Whisperer<\/strong> \u2013 Madam<strong>e<\/strong> Speaker, you are so na\u00efve! Only losers parse words. I\u2019m a fighter. Your base is not as strong as mine. You sound \u201cpolitically correct.\u201d But I\u2019m President. I won in a landslide. I even overcame the Democrats\u2019 massive voter fraud. Maybe I\u2019m not politically correct, but I\u2019m a winner. You lose!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">_________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013 OK,\r\nyou\u2019ve both made your points. What is the Senate Majority Leader\u2019s position on\r\nthis topic? Do you, sir, have anything to say about this reported\r\ncounterintelligence investigation or Mr. Cohen\u2019s past or future testimony before\r\nCongress? (Pause) Mr. Majority Leader, <em>in\r\ntruth<\/em>, what is your position on these matters?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Senate Majority\r\nLeader<\/strong> \u2013 <em>In truth<\/em>, these are not\r\nlegislative matters. I\u2019m busy preparing legislation that will put the\r\nPresident\u2019s proposals on border security before the Senate. I want to broker a\r\ncompromise that will open the government and address the President\u2019s\r\npriorities.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Speaker<\/strong> \u2013 Please, Mitch, you can\u2019t possibly . . .. Really? The President is going to grant a 3-year extension to DACA, after he cancelled the program? Likewise, he\u2019s going to do the same for the Temporary Protected status of thousands of victims of catastrophic conditions or natural disasters in Honduras, San Salvador, Haiti, and Nepal. Again, he\u2019s going to extend the life of a program he has terminated. You realize that DACA and TPS together affect nearly a million Americans in addition to their families. &nbsp;These people have lived here their whole lives, raised families, gone to college, or, in some cases, served in our military. Even this shutdown is the result of his stipulation that he would veto a government funding bill that he had previously supported. Put bluntly, he wants to fix what he has broken. The President\u2019s proposals are not so subtlety covering up his disastrous decisions while at the same time pretending to justify his equally disastrous decision to shutdown the government. Mitch, if you give him what he wants, he will shutdown the government whenever he feels the urge to overrule the Congress. That is what is meant by a Constitutional crisis! We in Congress have a duty to check a rogue President!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">_________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013 Alright\r\n. . . ok, I think we now know what it\u2019s like to be in the truth dimension. The\r\ntruth carries no less passion there than in the political arena. I see the\r\nTrump\u2019s Whisperer has removed his black hood and has a likely rebuttal.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Whisperer<\/strong> \u2013 She\u2019s a left-wing extremist. The Democrats want open borders. If they have their way, we\u2019ll have murderers and rapists in our neighborhoods! They refuse to negotiate an end to the shutdown even when I give them what they have always wanted. They are obstructionists. Even their radical left supporters will tire of the Speaker\u2019s empty promises for free education, healthcare, and hand-outs. She would bankrupt the government just to foil my efforts to make America great again. It\u2019s so sad. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interviewer<\/strong> \u2013\r\nPlease, Madam Speaker, I see you want to respond. But this back-and-forth\r\nvolley can go on forever while no meaningful solutions will ever be considered.\r\nObviously, it is difficult to stay in the truth dimension. This interview has just\r\nfallen on its own sword.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<strong>In<\/strong> <strong>conclusion<\/strong>: this journey\r\ninto a truth dimension makes a poor writer of fiction wonder whether truth is\r\nstranger than fiction. Perhaps we are all mesmerized and living in an alternate\r\nreality. As a representative political figure of antiquity questioned, \u201cwhat is\r\ntruth?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(SECOND DISCLAIMER: If my readers are wondering how America fell into this alternate reality, they can review one opinion on this fall from grace and truth in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/?p=901\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Manchurian Party<\/a>.\u201d)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In June of last year, a certain writer who sometimes dabbles in fiction attempted to interview the Trump Whisperer (see \u201cAn Interview with the Trump Whisperer\u201d). That interview had some difficulty focusing on the truth. Could a similar interview be conducted in another dimension of reality, specifically, a truth dimension? Some string theory physicists believe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-domesticissues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3UqUK-fB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":978,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}