Welcome to Newspeak: "Truth isn't Truth"

[_MeDotOrg]

In 1950 Akira Kurosawa made the groundbreaking movie Rashomon. It tells of an encounter recalled by 4 different people. All four have different recollections. The film was a great treatise on the subjective way that we experience reality.

Perhaps Giuliani was trying to channel Kurosawa today when he said "Truth isn't truth." But you have to admit, for a man who spent a good deal of his life as a prosecutor, it is a rather strange statement to make. Rudy is right in the sense that different people have subjective recollections of what happened. But that doesn't mean that something did not happen. And what happened is reality. And trying to sort through conflicting recollections to determine what happened is what the whole investigative process is supposed to be about.

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
― The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951

Sorry to keep bringing up Res Ipsa's signature, but this seems to be a situation that points exactly at what Ms. Arendt was trying to say. Interesting that Trump referred to Nixon's White House counsel John Dean as a RAT.

At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America. Through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.

And it is right here, at the intersection of personal loyalty and loyalty to the United States, where the President conflates the two and can't understand why anyone who works in the White House, including White House Counsel, could say something damaging. I think he has a hard time differentiating between personal loyalty to the man who is President and loyalty to the Office of the Presidency.

I can't wait for Sarah Huckabee Sanders tomorrow.

[_honorentheos]

And it is right here, at the intersection of personal loyalty and loyalty to the United States, where the President conflates the two and can't understand why anyone who works in the White House, including White House Counsel, could say something damaging. I think he has a hard time differentiating between personal loyalty to the man who is President and loyalty to the Office of the Presidency.

I can't wait for Sarah Huckabee Sanders tomorrow.

I saw the headline and did a double take. Visions of Clinton's infamous, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” came to mind.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... of_is.html

“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

Years from now, when we look back on Bill Clinton’s presidency, its defining moment may well be Clinton’s rationalization to the grand jury about why he wasn’t lying when he said to his top aides that with respect to Monica Lewinsky, “There’s nothing going on between us.” How can this be? Here’s what Clinton told the grand jury (according to footnote 1,128 in Starr’s report):

“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the—if he—if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement. ...

Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.”

If history doesn't repeat but does rhyme this tune still feels overplayed. Either way, when someone goes down this path, it seems they knew the straight-forward and honest answer wasn't the one they want to give.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

https://www.axios.com/john-dean-waterga ... 0b617.html

I am actually honored to be on his enemies list as I was on Nixon's when I made it there," Dean told me. "This is a president I hold in such low esteem I would be fretting if he said something nice."

- Doc

[_Some Schmo]

Giuliani is an attention whore. 9/11 isn't getting him any traction these days, so he's decided to sell out to the douche in chief. His arguments are ridiculously childish and transparently specious.

He's only a slightly less obvious liar than Drumpf is.