Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of thirty-six. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:30 PM, for 9h 05m 01s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 37.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is the seven hundred eighty-first day.
On this day in 1922, authorities in Madison confiscate illegal alcohol: “1,200 gallons of “mash” and fifteen gallons of moonshine from the home of a suspected bootlegger.”
Recommended for reading in full:
Linda Qui writes Deciphering the Patterns in Trump’s Falsehoods:
Fact checkers have compiled lists of all of Mr. Trump’s falsehoods since he took office (The Washington Post counts over 7,500, and The Toronto Star over 3,900), rounded up his most egregious whoppers in year-end lists and scrutinized his claims in real time with television chyrons.
Repetition and Inflation
Mr. Trump refuses to correct most of his inaccurate claims, instead asserting them over and over again. They become, by sheer force of repetition, “alternative facts” and staples of his campaign rallies and speeches.
Examples abound. He has falsely characterized the December 2017 tax cuts as the “largest” or the “biggest” in American history over 100 times (several others were larger). He has misleadingly said over 90 times that his promised wall along the southern border is being built (construction has not begun on any new section). He has falsely accused Democrats of supporting “open borders” over 60 times (Democratic lawmakers support border security, but not his border wall). And he has lobbed over 250 inaccurate attacks on the investigation into Russian election interference.
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Shifting and Deflecting
In the face of controversy or criticism, Mr. Trump has defended initial falsehoods with additional dubious claims.
This approach is evident in his shifting statements about the payment that Michael D. Cohen, his former lawyer, made to a pornographic film actress to keep her from speaking about their alleged affair. In April, Mr. Trump falsely denied knowing about the payment.
After the F.B.I. raided Mr. Cohen’s office, Mr. Trump acknowledged on Twitter in May that Mr. Cohen received reimbursement for the payment and asserted that it had nothing to do with his presidential campaign. Mr. Cohen would later tell prosecutors that he acted at Mr. Trump’s direction and to influence the election.
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Misleading Vagueness and Fanciful Details
Mr. Trump also regales his audience with elaborate stories. Some — like his tales of unnamed “strong” or “tough” men, miners or steelworkers crying and thanking him — may have occurred but are impossible to verify.
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Inventing Straw Men
The usual target of this particular strain of falsehoods is the news media, which Mr. Trump suggests purposely underestimates or misinterprets him.
Mr. Trump often lauds strong job growth under his watch and says that the “fake news” would have deemed such numbers “impossible” or “ridiculous” during the 2016 campaign. Yet he neglects to mention that the number of jobs added in the 22 months after his inauguration — 4.2 million — is lower than the 4.8 million jobs added in the 22 months before he took office, undermining the premise of his retrodiction.