Monday, July 16, 2018

Today's word: Contradiction

Today's post is pretty quick...but maddening.  Yes, tRump's all-over-the-friggin'-map verbal vomit machine is at it again.

from Huffington Post, used without permission

So, this morning...in the Pacific time zone, both Putin and tRump asserted that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 elections.  A Time post on their joint press conference quoted the Cheeto-in-Chief, "My people came to me — [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats came to me and some others. They said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin — he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be."  However, Politico reported that just yesterday, he told CBS's Jeff Glor, "The DNC should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to be hacked. They had bad defenses, and they were able to be hacked."  So, on the one hand it didn't happen, but on the other it's the DNC's fault it happened to them.

In rhetoric, this is a simple contradiction.  Symbolically we could present it as this: Let A = Russia meddled with the US elections. For more than a year and a half, tRump has been asserting -A [not A], which would could be formulated as: It is not the case that Russia meddled with the 2016 elections.  However, his assertion that the DNC is at fault for being hacked by the Russians relies on a tacit assertion that they did, in fact, meddle with the elections by hacking the DNC.  Thus, the illustrious Cheeto is trying to assert both A and -A at the same time.  This is a pretty clear example of classical contradiction.



from 2empowerthyself.com, not used with permission

To make matters worse, the tRump's assertion contradicts his own Homeland Security team's concern about cyber attacks from Russia.  CNN reported that DHS Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, "warned state officials on Saturday that the threat from Russia targeting US elections has not dissipated."  She did try to walk back the level of the threat, saying that the threat seems not to be as great for the 2018 mid-terms as it was for the 2016 Presidential elections...but walking back still relies on A--that Russia did meddle with US elections.  Furthermore, tRump's Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coates, warned that Russian meddling in the 2018 mid-terms is at a "critical point" and that the lights are "blinking red" for cyber attacks.

So...which is it, tRumpty Dumb-pty? A or -A?  Isn't that a bit like saying, "No, my daughter's not pregnant" one minute, then blaming her boyfriend for not using a condom?

image by shadowjess2000 from Deviant Art, used without permission