20 Jan Faulty Analogy – FT#41
Show Notes
The fallacy of the Faulty Analogy is committed when you assume that because two things are alike in one way, then they are alike in all ways.
We started out with this clip of Trump comparing running a business to running a country:
And we followed that up with this clip where he compares the economies of developing countries and developed countries:
and finally we talked about this clip where he compares gun control to banning vans and trucks:
In Mark’s British Politics Corner, we talked about MP Ivan Lewis hypocritically calling out Boris’s flip-flopping on calling an election:
And then we heard Boris compare the EU to a lobster:
In the Fallacy in the Wild, we looked at this clip from The Simpsons:
Then we discussed this clip from Friends:
And finally, we talked about abstinence only sex ed programs that compare women who have had sex to chewed candy.
Here are the statements from this week’s Fake News game:
- Is there ever, ever a better place to be than a Trump rally on some night during some week? You know the truth is, we have a great time, but you know what, more importantly, we get things done.
- And the Iranians fired on the base in the middle of the night. The soldiers were on the plane in their pajamas, you saw them, right? They were — they looked like Tom Cruise, if he wore pajamas. Maybe he does, I don’t know. But that’s what they looked like.
- Lyndon Johnson was sort of a tough guy. Can you imagine his phone calls? He’s probably looking down or looking up and he’s probably — and he’s probably saying these people have gone crazy. That’s the nicest call I’ve ever — in fact, somebody said I never knew you could be so nice on a telephone call
Click below for the answer
Mark got it right this week, so now he’s on 16/41, or 39%.
We then looked at revelations around Giuliani associate Lev Parnas.
And finally, here are the stories we really didn’t have time to talk about:
- Since last we spoke, the House voted to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, Nancy signed the documents and handed out some commemorative pens, which pissed Republicans off, presumably because they’re not allowed to be angry at anything Trump does so they have to rage about every other fucking little thing that happens, or they’ll explode. The trial starts on Tuesday, and in the meantime, they’ve been picking teams. Pelosi’s Prosecutors have gone with a mix of veteran players like Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren, alongside rookies such as Jason Crow. Donald’s Defenders, meanwhile, will be jointly run by White House counsel Pat Cippollone and Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow. Also on the team is Pam Bondi, the former Florida Attorney General who declined to investigate Trump University for tax fraud days after her reelection campaign received a check for $25,000 from the Donald J Trump Foundation. You know, the charity that had to be shut down recently because of fraud. And just today, it’s been announced that former Jeffrey Epstein and OJ Simpson attorney Alan Dershowitz has joined the team. Trump apparently likes Dershowitz because he’s good on TV, which rather overlooks the fact that much of the general public dislikes him, what with all the Jeffrey Epstein and OJ Simpson defending.
- In the wake of Trump’s latest reckless foreign policy actions that could very easily result in more and more troops being sent to the Middle East, Jason Selvig and Davram Stiefler, a comedy duo known as The Good Liars thought the public deserved a reminder of who the Trumps are and pasted a poster featuring Don Jr. to the front of the Armed Forces Career Center in Brooklyn. The poster has Baby Trump arms folded in a blue suit and open-necked shirt with the words “I’m not enlisting but you should!” and next to the US Army logo below it has the tagline “There’s weak and there’s Trump weak” On Instagram, the two wrote, “We put up some #honestsigns at the Army Recruitment Center. Hopefully we aren’t going to war, but if we did, we know one guy who won’t enlist.”They previously snuck postcards of Putin into the merchandise racks at Trump Tower with the caption “45th President of the United States.” As the Daily Kos adds one way to appease the outraged Trump supporters would be for Don-Boy to sign up! Naaaahh cos he only shoots at dumb animals — which means he probably shouldn’t go hunting with his brother anymore. But then who are we to spoil his fun or thwart that much needed public service?
- Trump often likes to claim that his 50% approval rating is wrong, because 7 to 10% of his supporters are too embarrassed to admit they like him. Well, it is wrong, but not for that reason. Firstly, pretty much everyone except Rasmussen puts him closer to 40%, but even that is artificially high according to a couple of professors at Cornell, who theorised that the way the question is asked prompts people to answer which team they’re on rather that if they actually think Trump is doing a good job. In an effort to remove that variable, they asked people how favourably they view Trump relative to other Republicans, including John McCain, Mike Pence, Ronald Reagan, and Alaska’s village idiot Sarah Palin. Before the midterms, Trump ranked close to Pence, and higher than Palin. In December 2019 they ran the survey again. Reagan and McCain still scored highly, but now Trump is even less popular than Sarah “I read all the newspapers and magazines” Palin. Sarah “which Korea is the bad Korea?” motherfucking Palin.
- We thought Trump had written Trade is Bad – but no its fine apparently last Friday he told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham NEWS – CLIP Did you just hear what he said? former Republican Justin Amash puts it bluntly “He sells Troops” and as he’s pointed out before; Trump’s use of the troops has broken his campaign promise to bring them home. “He’s moving troops back into Iraq, he’s moving other troops into Saudi Arabia and using our forces almost as mercenaries, paid mercenaries who are going to come in, as long as Saudi Arabia pays us some money, it’s good to go.” So let me get this right Trade IS okay as long as it’s in people who’ve otherwise nothing else to do, that he can’t see, who are somewhere else, and who might die and thus won’t be able to complain. Hey Donny thanks to you there’s lots of unemployed steel workers, farmers, kids in cages at the border you could get money for I’m sure. Trump prefaced the lines to Ingraham with “You know we’re doing something that nobody’s ever done” a) there’s a reason for that – mercenaries are illegal under a 1989 International Convention and b) anyway it’s not true; selling people has been done before and by America, and Lincoln fought very hard to stop it happening. He was a president Donald not a car!!
- According to the New York Times, Russian Hackers have successfully infiltrated the network of Ukranian gas company Burisma. You know, the one that Trump has been trying everything to get dirt on for months. I don’t remember him saying “Russia, if you’re listening…” on TV again, which can only mean that he’s learning to do some of his crimes when he’s not on TV. I would say that will make it harder to hold him accountable but firstly, Rudi Giuliani will inevitably confess on his behalf on the Sunday shows, and secondly, nothing matters anyway.
- Another big pillar of Trump’s certainty about the crookedness of his opponents has crumbled to dust. The Washington Post reports that the Dept of Justice investigation into the Clinton Foundation’s dealings has come up with nothing – John Huber was asked by Jeff Sessions to look into concerns – guess who’s – that the FBI hadn’t fully pursued cases related to the Clinton Foundation, as well as Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. The Post reports Huber has “found nothing worth pursuing,” let alone any criminal charges. Senior DoJ Officials said that the investigation had largely been viewed as little more than a way to appease Trump and his Republican allies “We didn’t expect much of it, and neither did [Huber], as time went on, a lot of people just forgot about it.” But not the Invincibly Ignorant unforgetting Elephant at the head of the party – barely an hour after the Post report came out Trump was on the Campaign trail telling supporters “Crooked Hilary lock her up”. Isn’t it a classic projection technique of psychopaths to see one’s own peccadillos/heinous crimes in everyone else but oneself – it was only a few episodes ago we reported the Trump Foundation was found really very guilty of all sorts of crookedness to the tune of millions of dollars having to be paid out in fines and members of the Trump family banned from ever being charity directors again ever. Are there really no mirrors in the White House?
- The Government Accountability Office has released a report concluding that the Trump Administration broke the law – I know, I’m as shocked as you are – when they withheld military aid that Congress had approved for Ukraine. They pointed out that the Impoundment Control Act does not permit withholding funds for policy reasons, which is brilliant, because everyone knows that’s not why they withheld the funds. To be fair, it’s also not permitted to withhold funds for personal political gain, but it’s pretty sweet that even the bullshit made up reason the OMB gave is still against the law.
- Boris gave his much lauded “big first interview to the BBC” as prime Minister – was his tissue-box of lies ripped to shreds by the rottweiler journalism of Andrew Neil at last – no of course not – the fact that Boris had agreed to an interview means that he must have been sure of getting affable Breakfast TV chatmeister Dan Walker – who looks 30 years younger than his 42 years – and yet weirdly is nowhere near as scorchingly incisive and unforgiving as an actual 12 year-old. When pressed gently and affably on the matter of ringing the bells of Big Ben to sound the day of Brexit, but not in a triumphalist victory-over-Europe-the-like-of-which-has-never-been-heard-since-Agincourt kind of way you understand, Bozza pretended to be shocked that it’d cost a half a million pounds and with his healing-the-division with One-Nation-conservativism mask slapped to the front of his head, attempted to distance himself from the public purse paying for it, but noticeably he did not quash the whole idea; cos as king he’d love to have that happen, so he casually threw in the info about people setting up ways you can Bung a Bob for a Big Ben Bong – and how fucking rehearsed was that turn of phrase!! So basically after the advent of the referendum and the general election Boris is continuing to make sure the whole nation is now at loggerheads over spending £500,000 of tax-payers money to sound a bell 99% of the country won’t be able to hear for 30 seconds. Dominic Cummings has found the ideal method to put out the constant fire in Boris’ pants by getting Boris to piss himself laughing at our expense!
That’s all for this week, thanks for listening!
