Is anyone watching Spicer's press conference?

[Anonymous]

spicer is so TTT

[Anonymous]

Scary. Lame. Pathetic. And above all: unbelievable!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Scary. Lame. Pathetic. And above all: unbelievable!

Sad!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scary. Lame. Pathetic. And above all: unbelievable!

Sad!

Actually happiest ever. -Sean spicer

[Anonymous]

Just visited fox news page on facebook. Scrolled down to their post from Spicer's briefing - almost all the comments are "finally someone telling us the truth" and "glad he's a strong speaker." and "the liberal media was lying." Feels like an alternate universe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my god, I cringed watching that-- and I voted for Trump. They are NOT off to a good start. Trump also needs to stop talking about how many people voted for him; he was at it again today when he addressed the CIA. Trump will rapidly lose support of those who voted him in to office if he and his team don't rise above the pettiness and turn their attention to the issues people care about.

Would you mind posting your litmus test?
I really want to know what will be your last straw so that we can accelerate the timeline here

PP who posted above-- I guess my litmus test would be one more Sean Spicer performance like today-- yelling at the press for reporting an accurate truth. Or one more incident of Trump appearing in front of the CIA wall of honor to talk about how many people voted for him. Just a terrible, terrible first day. Hoping they pull it together quickly but not confident that will happen. At this rate, he really won't be in office long.

Didn't they say he wasn't going to start working until Monday? Friday's lack of fawning crowds must have thrown him into a complete tizzy.

He made some promises that he would do as soon as he was elected, he did those things and now he will take it a bit slower until Monday, the official first day.

He promised to raise mortgage taxes on the middle class and write a meaningless meandering executive,
order on Obamacare?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scary. Lame. Pathetic. And above all: unbelievable!

Sad!

Actually happiest ever. -Sean spicer

He did not look happy at all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scary. Lame. Pathetic. And above all: unbelievable!

Sad!

Actually happiest ever. -Sean spicer

He did not look happy at all

To suggest otherwise is shameful and sad. -Sean spicer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:f you are puzzled by the bizarre "press conference" put on by the White House press secretary this evening (angrily claiming that Trump's inauguration had the largest audience in history, accusing them of faking photos and lying about attendance), let me help explain it. This spectacle served three purposes:

1. Establishing a norm with the press: they will be told things that are obviously wrong and they will have no opportunity to ask questions. That way, they will be grateful if they get anything more at any press conference. This is the PR equivalent of "negging," the odious pick-up practice of a particular kind of horrible person (e.g., Donald Trump).

2. Increasing the separation between Trump's base (1/3 of the population) from everybody else (the remaining 2/3). By being told something that is obviously wrong—that there is no evidence for and all evidence against, that anybody with eyes can see is wrong—they are forced to pick whether they are going to believe Trump or their lying eyes. The gamble here—likely to pay off—is that they will believe Trump. This means that they will regard media outlets that report the truth as "fake news" (because otherwise they'd be forced to confront their cognitive dissonance.)

3. Creating a sense of uncertainty about whether facts are knowable, among a certain chunk of the population (which is a taking a page from the Kremlin, for whom this is their preferred disinformation tactic). A third of the population will say "clearly the White House is lying," a third will say "if Trump says it, it must be true," and the remaining third will say "gosh, I guess this is unknowable." The idea isn't to convince these people of untrue things, it's to fatigue them, so that they will stay out of the political process entirely, regarding the truth as just too difficult to determine.

This is laying important groundwork for the months ahead. If Trump's White House is willing to lie about something as obviously, unquestionably fake as this, just imagine what else they'll lie about. In particular, things that the public cannot possibly verify the truth of. It's gonna get real bad.

Well thought through post. I agree with your explanation. This is typical disinformation campaign. This is step 1 of Russification of American propaganda. It will get worse BUT unlike Russia he can't corral the press here and every American has a camera so the truth will eventually win out. In the age of twitter , periscope and FB you can't get away with patently false info and lies easily. They will quickly lose credibility but they can't quickly rebuild it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm pretty sure he was trying to call them out on their misrepresentation and attempts to portray him in a negative light. I've heard lots of talk about the numbers, but has anyone mentioned how the Time reporter suggested that Trump removed the MLK bust from the Oval Office? That was a ridiculous accusation to tweet out and be wrong about it.

Did it ever occur to you that the President of the United States should be above getting in fights on twitter in regards to furniture in his Oval Office? That his Press Secretary should not call an emergency press conference on a Saturday afternoon lambasting reporters over a model head and crowd optics? Let's forget the angry tones, the diatribe, and the lies. It's BENEATH him. I don't even know what to say anymore...he's not a president, he's a child.

Well I saw him take the oath of office so I know he is the president. He does not give a rat's ass that some of his critics don't approve of his behavior. It got him to where he is today, so why should he care?

BTW, just to be clear, I am not a Trump supporter but the song he chose for the inaugural balls should tell you where he is coming from - "My Way" - and he is going to do things his way.

His way has ended in multiple bankruptcies and shameless thin skinned PR. That's about it. He has zero respect and he is Americas Prime Servant. If he goes his way then the masters won't keep him for long especially when he starts with a 3 million deficit and negative approval.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:f you are puzzled by the bizarre "press conference" put on by the White House press secretary this evening (angrily claiming that Trump's inauguration had the largest audience in history, accusing them of faking photos and lying about attendance), let me help explain it. This spectacle served three purposes:

1. Establishing a norm with the press: they will be told things that are obviously wrong and they will have no opportunity to ask questions. That way, they will be grateful if they get anything more at any press conference. This is the PR equivalent of "negging," the odious pick-up practice of a particular kind of horrible person (e.g., Donald Trump).

2. Increasing the separation between Trump's base (1/3 of the population) from everybody else (the remaining 2/3). By being told something that is obviously wrong—that there is no evidence for and all evidence against, that anybody with eyes can see is wrong—they are forced to pick whether they are going to believe Trump or their lying eyes. The gamble here—likely to pay off—is that they will believe Trump. This means that they will regard media outlets that report the truth as "fake news" (because otherwise they'd be forced to confront their cognitive dissonance.)

3. Creating a sense of uncertainty about whether facts are knowable, among a certain chunk of the population (which is a taking a page from the Kremlin, for whom this is their preferred disinformation tactic). A third of the population will say "clearly the White House is lying," a third will say "if Trump says it, it must be true," and the remaining third will say "gosh, I guess this is unknowable." The idea isn't to convince these people of untrue things, it's to fatigue them, so that they will stay out of the political process entirely, regarding the truth as just too difficult to determine.

This is laying important groundwork for the months ahead. If Trump's White House is willing to lie about something as obviously, unquestionably fake as this, just imagine what else they'll lie about. In particular, things that the public cannot possibly verify the truth of. It's gonna get real bad.

I'm really conflicted about this. There seem to be two possible explanations for this press conference, which I found extremely disturbing: 1. Trump has the maturity of a petulant three year old and forced Spicer to go out there and make an ass out of himself on Trump's behalf, and 2. This was a deliberate attempt to obfuscate the truth with the intent of convincing the public that the mainstream media are lying and there really is no truth (your hypothesis). Maybe it's both. Before yesterday's inauguration speech (clearly written by or at least heavily influenced by Bannon), I would have thought that Trump was just being a touchy narcissist. But now I have to wonder if Trump is Bannon's useful idiot in a much longer term game. It was really disheartening watching the evening news shows debating the validity of Trump's and Spicer's claims - not trying to figure out the long term strategy for making those claims in the first place. This is a truly scary time in our history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:f you are puzzled by the bizarre "press conference" put on by the White House press secretary this evening (angrily claiming that Trump's inauguration had the largest audience in history, accusing them of faking photos and lying about attendance), let me help explain it. This spectacle served three purposes:

1. Establishing a norm with the press: they will be told things that are obviously wrong and they will have no opportunity to ask questions. That way, they will be grateful if they get anything more at any press conference. This is the PR equivalent of "negging," the odious pick-up practice of a particular kind of horrible person (e.g., Donald Trump).

2. Increasing the separation between Trump's base (1/3 of the population) from everybody else (the remaining 2/3). By being told something that is obviously wrong—that there is no evidence for and all evidence against, that anybody with eyes can see is wrong—they are forced to pick whether they are going to believe Trump or their lying eyes. The gamble here—likely to pay off—is that they will believe Trump. This means that they will regard media outlets that report the truth as "fake news" (because otherwise they'd be forced to confront their cognitive dissonance.)

3. Creating a sense of uncertainty about whether facts are knowable, among a certain chunk of the population (which is a taking a page from the Kremlin, for whom this is their preferred disinformation tactic). A third of the population will say "clearly the White House is lying," a third will say "if Trump says it, it must be true," and the remaining third will say "gosh, I guess this is unknowable." The idea isn't to convince these people of untrue things, it's to fatigue them, so that they will stay out of the political process entirely, regarding the truth as just too difficult to determine.

This is laying important groundwork for the months ahead. If Trump's White House is willing to lie about something as obviously, unquestionably fake as this, just imagine what else they'll lie about. In particular, things that the public cannot possibly verify the truth of. It's gonna get real bad.

This is pretty spot on analysis. As a scientist, I've borne witness to this strategy on the subject of climate change for the last decade.

More generally, this is exactly the strategy that Trump employed with regard to Obama's birthplace. I remember seeing a poll around election time that 70% of Republicans were either unsure if Obama was born on US soil or sure he was Kenyan. When I was volunteering for Obama in 2012, I was phone-banking for the GOTV effort. Meaning, I was calling people who had already indicated that they were likely Obama voters. Some of my calls were to people who genuinely were wondering why Obama hadn't released his birth certificate yet (he had). They wanted me to reassure them that Obama was US-born.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm really conflicted about this. There seem to be two possible explanations for this press conference, which I found extremely disturbing: 1. Trump has the maturity of a petulant three year old and forced Spicer to go out there and make an ass out of himself on Trump's behalf, and 2. This was a deliberate attempt to obfuscate the truth with the intent of convincing the public that the mainstream media are lying and there really is no truth (your hypothesis). Maybe it's both. Before yesterday's inauguration speech (clearly written by or at least heavily influenced by Bannon), I would have thought that Trump was just being a touchy narcissist. But now I have to wonder if Trump is Bannon's useful idiot in a much longer term game. It was really disheartening watching the evening news shows debating the validity of Trump's and Spicer's claims - not trying to figure out the long term strategy for making those claims in the first place. This is a truly scary time in our history.

Well, CNN was just discussing the implication of these flat out lies while not taking the bait to debate the claim itself. They've got some right-leaning commentator (head of Concerned Women of America or some such) who is chastising everyone else saying the only reason they care is because Trump is insulting the press. Then she's arguing that she doesn't really know what the numbers of people on the Mall were, nor does she care. It's completely insane that a person intelligent enough to speak in coherent sentences could say that with a straight face. Even their other two right-leaning commentators, including one who defended Trump's remarks about Curiel, were criticizing Spicer on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my god, I cringed watching that-- and I voted for Trump. They are NOT off to a good start. Trump also needs to stop talking about how many people voted for him; he was at it again today when he addressed the CIA. Trump will rapidly lose support of those who voted him in to office if he and his team don't rise above the pettiness and turn their attention to the issues people care about.

Would you mind posting your litmus test?
I really want to know what will be your last straw so that we can accelerate the timeline here

PP who posted above-- I guess my litmus test would be one more Sean Spicer performance like today-- yelling at the press for reporting an accurate truth. Or one more incident of Trump appearing in front of the CIA wall of honor to talk about how many people voted for him. Just a terrible, terrible first day. Hoping they pull it together quickly but not confident that will happen. At this rate, he really won't be in office long.

Didn't they say he wasn't going to start working until Monday? Friday's lack of fawning crowds must have thrown him into a complete tizzy.

He made some promises that he would do as soon as he was elected, he did those things and now he will take it a bit slower until Monday, the official first day.

He promised to raise mortgage taxes on the middle class and write a meaningless meandering executive,
order on Obamacare?

He promised to undo all of Obamas executive orders, which he did.

[Anonymous]

Agree with pp that it is evident by that dark speech he gave yesterday that Bannon is pulling the strings. They will keep him out of sight (really, where has he been?) but he has the influence.

Also disturbing is that Fox has announced that George Will's and Ed Rollins's contracts will not be renewed, along with two others. Nigel Farage is coming on board.