Propaganda 101: Lesson 1

Sowing And Nurturing Lies

Methodology:

Tell a lie; apologize. Tell another lie; apologize. Tell yet another lie; apologize. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat…

Effectiveness:

This is a favorite tactic of those who mislead the public because it works so well. The apologies are disingenuous and purely cosmetic. Once a lie has been published it will circulate among the true-believers as unassailable truth despite the apologies of the perpetrators and debunking evidence from their critics.

Example:

Fox News runs digitally altered images in coverage of Seattle’s protests, Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone 

June 12, 2020 at 8:06 pm Updated June 13, 2020 at 3:38 pm

This digitally manipulated image was published on the Fox News homepage on June 12 with stories about Seattle. The image combines scenes from a June 10 photograph from Capitol Hill with two May 30 images from downtown.

  

By 

Jim Brunner

Seattle Times staff reporter

Update: This story has been updated to include an apology Fox News posted on its website on Saturday. 

Click here to read the full article.

Click here for a list of apologies from Fox News for lies it has successfully sown and nurtured.

Coming Distractions?

Rumor has it that Donald Trump is going to give a speech on race relations, and Stephen Miller is writing it.

Here's what you need to know:

Trailer
Trailer Definition - What is a Trailer?

Trailers refer to short previews of a piece of content, such as a movie trailer, which demonstrates scenes and the general plot and mood of a piece of media, in order to garner interest. This also applies to trailers for television or radio shows or other online content like podcasts or vlogs. Generally, trailers will be matched with other relevant content, such as a trailer for a fantasy movie appearing before a science fiction movie, or a trailer for a family comedy appearing before a children's animated film. A trailer might also appear for self-promotion, such as content on the same network or a trailer for the next episode of a series or sequel in a film franchise.

Visual Synopsis

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Trailer

(with thanks to Dana Milbank)

Here is Trump’s speech on race — word for word, alas

President Trump at a Cabinet meeting in May. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

By

Dana Milbank 

Columnist

June 10, 2020 at 7:15 p.m. EDT

President Trump’s planned address to the nation on race, American Urban Radio’s April Ryan reports, is being written by none other than Stephen Miller, a Trump aide and aficionado of white nationalism.

This is bound to raise a fuhrer. What next? Paul Manafort drafting a presidential address on business ethics?

But Miller can stand down. Trump has already given his remarks on race — many times, in fact. Here they are, entirely in Trump’s own words, excerpted:

I have a great relationship with the blacks. I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks. Oh, look at my African American over here. Look at him.

Full coverage of the George Floyd protests
Nobody has ever done for the black community what President Trump has done. My Admin has done more for the Black Community than any President since Abraham Lincoln. George [Floyd] is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that is happening for our country. A great day for him.

Diamond and Silk, you’re so, so great. Thank you, Kanye, thank you. Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.

Think of this: Blacks for Trump, Black Voices for Trump, African Americans for Trump. Call it whatever the hell you want. I have a group of African American guys and gals, by the way, that follow me around, and they think I pay them and I don’t.

A well-educated black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated white in terms of the job market. If I were starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated black, because I believe they do have an actual advantage. Sadly, because President Obama has done such a poor job as president, you won’t see another black president for generations!

To the African American community, I say what the hell do you have to lose? You’re living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs. Fifty-eight percent of your youth is unemployed. Last in crime, last in this, last in homeownership, last in the economy, lowest wages. Our inner cities are a disaster. You get shot walking to the store. They have no education, they have no jobs.

Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now”?

Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States? No human being would want to live there. A disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested).

So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came?

Why do we need more Haitians? Why are we having people from all these shithole countriescome here? We should have more people from places like Norway.

An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud. His grandmother in Kenya said, “Oh, no, he was born in Kenya.” A lot of people do not think it was an authentic certificate.

You ever see Maxine Waters? A low-IQ individual. LeBron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made LeBron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.

What has happened to the respect for authority, the fear of retribution by the courts, society and the police? Let our politicians give back our police department’s power to keep us safe. Unshackle them from the constant chant of “police brutality.” BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY AND BRING BACK OUR POLICE!

You also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park, from Robert E. Lee to another name. Robert E. Lee was a great general. They’re trying to take away our culture. A Great American Heritage.

I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here — a lynching. I am the least racist person that you’ve ever encountered. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!

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A D-Day Disparity

A Leader and A Loser

When General Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the D-Day invasion of Normandy he wrote a letter designed to blame himself alone if it failed.

Dwight Eisenhower was a leader.

June 6, 2020
Heather Cox Richardson

On June 5, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was preparing to send Allied troops across the English Channel to France, where he hoped they would push the German troops back across Europe. More than 5,000 ships waited to transport more than 150,000 soldiers to France before daybreak the following morning. The fighting to take Normandy would not be easy. The beaches the men would assault were tangled in barbed wire, booby trapped, and defended by German soldiers in concrete bunkers.

On the afternoon of June 5, as the Allied soldiers, their faces darkened with soot and cocoa, milled around waiting to board the ships, Eisenhower went to see the men he was almost certainly sending to their deaths. He joked with the troops, as apparently upbeat as his orders to them had been when he told them Operation Overlord had launched. “The tide has turned!” his letter had read. “The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!”

But after cheering his men on, he went back to his headquarters and wrote another letter. Designed to blame himself alone if Operation Overlord failed, it read:

“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”

The letter was, of course, never delivered. Operation Overlord was a success, launching the final assault in which western democracy, defended by ordinary men and women, would destroy European fascism.

A year later, General Eisenhower was welcomed home as the hero who had won World War Two. But for all those noisy accolades, it was the letter of June 5, written in secret, alone and unsure whether the future would find him right or wrong but willing to take both the risk and the blame if he failed, that proved his heroism.

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* * *

On June 6, 2020, Donald J. Trump was in office for 3 years 137 days. Not once in that time has he taken responsibility for any of his actions.

Donald Trump is not a leader. Donald Trump is a loser.

* * *

How long until Joe Biden becomes president?

An Open Letter To George Floyd Protestors

Organizer of peaceful protest in Seattle reacts to looting, riots downtown

Dear Peaceful Protestors,

Outside agitators have been showing up to hijack your peaceful protests and turn them into riots.

You do not have to stand idly by as they subvert your peaceful protest for their nefarious ends. 

One of the goals stated by the leaders of your protest is for police departments to implement community-based policing policies. You are a community, and you can take action to show your community's commitment to achieving that goal. 

You outnumber the agitators by at least a hundred to one. When they show up with bullhorns to incite violence, or when they break windows or otherwise initiate mayhem:

1. Use your cameras to video them in action.
2. Surround them and don't let them leave.
3. Take them to the police.
4. Show the police the video evidence of what they were doing.

This course of action will show the world beyond any doubt that you are responsible citizens exercising your First Amendment right peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. It will also frighten away the cowardly agitators and enhance the likelihood that your grievances will be heard, taken seriously, and acted upon.

In solidarity with your protest,

George A. Denino, a fellow citizen

The Tale Of A Tool

Donald Trump has a toolbox that contains only one tool. That tool is his mouth.  Throughout his life, he has used his tool to lie and con others into giving or doing for him whatever he wants.

The cartoon below shows exactly how his con works. It always begins with a veiled threat of using a power he does not really have, but which he will have if and when his con works...

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But wait! There's more.

In truth, Donald Trump is himself a tool. He is the tool of Mitch McConnell and the right-wing zealots of the Republican party. They are using The Don to further a decades-long plan to create a permanent, single-party government in America. 

Don't be a tool.

Toss Donald Trump and those using him into the trash bin of history in November.

What, Me Worry?

Burial Plot

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Earlier this month the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in cases involving Trump's tax records.

Their decision is expected in June, and the ruling they make will likely determine whether America survives as a republic or becomes a dictatorship.

The GOP has been torching the Constitution for decades and constructing a small coffin just big enough for an urn containing its ashes.

They rigged the Supreme Court and expect five, hand-picked, conservative justices to put a stamp of approval on Trump's corruption with their June decision.

A ruling against the release of Trump's subpoenaed financial documents would put the final nail in the small coffin.

But don't fret, folks.

We'll all be treated to a spectacular, televised burial service - the best burial service ever - with flags, Bibles, official proclamations praising the superiority of conservative values, and calls for thoughts and prayers for the soul of the dearly departed from self-righteous "christian" mis-leaders.

The best funeral ever - an unbelievably incredible event - spectacular - nothing ever like it in the history of the world - and Donald Trump will host it as America's Supreme Leader.

Obamagate Explained

The Accusation

Days after tweeting about 'Obamagate' and accusing his predecessor, Barack Obama, of committing crimes, US president Donald Trump was asked to specify what those exactly were. He replied: 'Obamagate, it's been going on for a long time, it's being going on from even before I got elected and it's a disgrace that it's gone on.' He continued: 'some terrible things happened and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again.' When he is again asked what the crime is, Trump says: 'You know what the crime is.'

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The Explanation

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