But owing to the fact that Mr. Trump is, well Mr. Trump, what he once said was the truth about the total incompetency of our intelligence agencies was "modified"after a Friday briefing (quite an accomplishment since Mr. Trump has an allergic reaction to briefings) and his subsequent conversation with the New York Times. By late Friday afternoon Mr. Trump had conceded that Russia might have, could have, possibly did have something to do with the hacking epidemic that preceded the election, but still steadfastly maintained that this absolutely, positively, certainly had nothing to do with his ascension to the throne.
Anyway, as a result of his semi- flip floppery, my letter (and the others that castigated Mr. Trump for castigating his intelligence - no not castigating his intelligence, castigating his intelligence) disappeared from the Saturday hard copy of the Times.
Just another example of the illusion that is Mr. Trump.
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("Donald Trump Casts Intelligence Aside")
If the truth get in the way of Mr. Trump's narrative, then the truth must go. It is the world according to Trump. No agency is going to control his thinking.
From the first, his alternate reality prevailed. When he questioned Barack Obama's place of birth, Mr. Trump invented a non-existent secret trove of documents that buttressed his fabrication. Last week he spoke of the fictional information he would soon reveal that supported his denunciation of the conclusion of the intelligence agencies, and by extension, the agencies themselves. Why rely on experts when the answers within your head are all you want or need?
For most of us, facts dictate our determinations. For Mr. Trump, his determinations dictate the facts.
2 comments:
It appears you have a legitimate beef, or two. “Intelligence,” as Daniel Patrick Moynihan liked to say, (and I think you intimated as well) “is not to be confused with intelligence.” We live in the age of post-truth politics, and the best example of it is the justification for the invasion of Iraq, when the mainstream media and politicians erected the “truth” about nonexistent WMD. Perhaps Nietzsche had it right; there are no facts, only interpretations, and those interpretations prevail not because they’re true, but because they have the brute strength of consensus behind them.
JE
Boo! on them:(
DS
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