28 May Kettle Logic – FT#26
Show Notes
Kettle Logic is when multiple arguments are presented at once, often overlapping or contradicting each other, without acknowledging the contradictions.
We started out with the Donald tweeting this excuse for committing tax fraud or possibly losing a billion dollars:
….you would get it by building, or even buying. You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes….almost all real estate developers did – and often re-negotiate with banks, it was sport. Additionally, the very old information put out is a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2019
Then we talked about Giuliani presenting Trump’s defences regarding the obstruction of justice he committed in trying to get Comey to ignore Michael Flynn’s crimes:
In Mark’s British Politics Corner, we talked about Theresa May accusing Jeremy Corbyn of spending too much time on TV (while she was on TV):
And then we talked about Boris Johnson lying about EU rules regarding the composting of teabags:
In the Fallacy in the Wild, we talked about this clip from The Simpsons:
Then we discussed this amazing example from A Few Good Men:
Then we talked about our new competition, which you can still enter at https://fallacioustrump.com/deadpool
Here are the statements from this week’s Fake News game:
- She got a subpoena from the United States Congress. She said, whoa, we have a problem. She deleted and bleached, nobody bleaches, sophisticated people said we’ve never heard of it. You know why? Because it’s such an expensive process. So she deleted and she bleached 33,000 e-mails.
- The Democrats can subpoena me and my administration for the next 10, 15, 20 years and we will never capitulate. They need to face the fact that I am in charge, this is my country, and I will do as I please — they have no control over me. The people support me and will always support me.
- My son was totally exonerated by Mueller, who, frankly, does not like Donald Trump. Me — this Donald Trump. And, frankly, for my son — after being exonerated — to now get a subpoena to go again and speak again after close to 20 hours of telling everybody that would listen about a nothing meeting.
Click below for the answer
Mark got it right this week, so he’s now on 36%.
Then we discussed Trump’s bizarre Rose Garden temper tantrum after he stormed out of an infrastructure meeting to whine about being investigated.
And finally, here are the stories we really didn’t have time to talk about
- 25 white Republican men in Alabama just passed a law making all abortion illegal in the state, with no exception for rape or incest. You can tell this is extreme, because even televangelist/cryptkeeper Pat Robertson says they’ve gone too far. To be fair, Pat’s objections are only that he thinks this case would lose if it went to the Supreme Court, so they should just be less obvious about their efforts to control women’s bodies. I’ve got an idea. If you want to reduce abortions, how about compulsory vasectomies for all men – you freeze some sperm at 18 and then get the snip. What’s that? You don’t think it’s OK to legislate what men can do with their bodies? Fuck off then.
- Great News – Theresa May will still be Prime Minister when Trump visits the UK – but only just – he arrives on the 3rd June, she hands in her notice on the 7th. After a hectic week in May’s Britain including – another scuppered attempt to bring the Zombie Withdrawal Agreement before parliament for the fourth time – it didn’t even make it as far as the printer; Two ministers resigned ahead of the European Elections on Thursday; In which members of her own party predict that they will win; And which they see as a failing that the elections happened anyway. Theresa May this morning announced she’d be handing back the keys to Larry the Number 10 cat. He now has his work cut out fending off the rats queuing to get in to replace her. Let’s hope he gets some good practice fighting the cat on Trump’s head.
- I hope Trump was tired of winning, because he had a VERY bad few days last week. On Monday, The New York Times reported that money laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank flagged suspicious activity on both Trump and Jared Kushner’s accounts, but bank executives refused to alert the government and fired one of the employees who raised concerns. On the same day, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that accounting firm Mazars must turn over Trump’s financial records, and if Trump appeals the ruling, the case will be heard by a Judge named Merrick Garland. On Tuesday, the Post reported that a draft memo they obtained from the IRS says that handing over Trump’s tax returns to the Ways and Means Committee is ‘mandatory’. On Wednesday, a federal judge rejected a request by Trump to block a congressional subpoena for his banking records, and the New York State legislature approved a bill that would allow them to turn over Trump’s state taxes to Congress on request. Lucky he’s so transparent!
- Compassionate and mindful as ever Rudy Giuliani first pokes fun at Nancy Pelosi in a doctored video that makes her slur her speech to make her seem drunk and then kinda sorta apologises in a bizarre tweet that actually seems to emulate the very thing he trolled Pelosi for – and I quote…
Thus exhibiting the kinda 9:13am already-downed-a-bottle-of-Jack-at-work behaviour that in itself surely requires an intervention! Guiliani – putting the rude in Rudy, using self-referential prose Samuel Beckett would be proud of, and raising awareness in Mental Health week by getting everyone else to call Nurse Ratched! - Republican Congressman Justin Amash took a whole month to read the Mueller Report. So congratulations Justin for apparently being the first Republican to actually finish it, and double congratulations for being the only Republican to be honest about its contents. Amash released a stream of tweets on May 18th describing Trump’s actions as ‘inherently corrupt’ and calling for his impeachment. Since then, he has stood firm in the face of condemnation from donors, Trump himself, and several Republicans who have questioned his allegiance to the party. Maybe we should do the No True Scotsman fallacy next.
- Great news – Trump is to introduce a language and civics test for new US citizens – much like we actually have in the UK – similarly future residency applicants would have to exhibit knowledge of US history and spoken English. Great news of course as the man who brought you Oranges/orinjns, covfefe and hamberder and thinks Washington didn’t have anything to show for his life would thus have to leave! Ah no… Special Pleading…
- Donald Trump Jr has been offered a book deal. And not one of those ‘Three books for $5’ deals, because let’s face it, there’s no way he could read three books. No, they actually want him to write one – just like Trump actually wrote The Art of the Deal all by himself. Junior says the book will highlight the great achievements of his father’s administration, so it should be a pretty short read. No decision has been made on a title yet, but I hear a front runner is ‘Look Daddy, I Made A Book. Do You Love Me Now?’
- I have just put up a fence at a total of about $39.90 for each 8 feet – which, if I were lucky enough to have a yard the size, say, of the Mexican border, works out at $44,767 and 80 cents for 1.7 miles, yeah home improvement can be a bit pricey. In other news, on Tuesday Attorney Douglas Letter said in a court filing updating U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam, that ” Customs and Border Protection has now constructed 1.7 miles of fencing with its fiscal year 2018 funding.” This refers to the $1.57 billion that Congress appropriated last year for Trump’s wall along the Mexican border. According to the CBP report $6.1 billion in funding has been committed since 2017 for the wall, both to Customs and Border Protection and the Defense Department, for 336 miles – so that’s 334.3 miles left to do with $4.53 billion to spend doing it – at the current rate that’ll only buy another 2.8 miles – hmm sounds like they’re gonna have to go to Home Depot just like I did!
See you next time!
