Happy Monday! Wasn’t it a great weekend here in Oregon? Mid eighties on Saturday and Sunday in early May is almost unheard of. I hope you just relaxed, worked in the yard, took a long walk, and refrained from trying to do a one-upsmanship of our president and sending out over one hundred tweets. I know you had better things to do than that. Didn’t you? The missus and I worked in the yard and did outdoor projects on Saturday and Sunday. We figure that we probably won’t be doing much more than spending a lot of time at home this summer, so we are going to get our “Clear Creek Park” all spiffed up and ready for some serious bbq’ing and alcoholic beverage consumption for that day in the future we can have friends and family over again. After all that hard work yesterday, we relaxed around an outdoor fire, sipping a very fine 2015 Pinot Noir that Andrea and Jer gave the missus earlier for making some masks for them.
Faux Newz must be getting a little concerned, as it appears tRump now has a new favorite propaganda machine, One America Now network. If you want to catch up on the latest conspiracy theories check these guys out. Here are a few of their recent headlines, New Deep State Attacks On President Trump As DOJ Drops Flynn Case; Reports: Deep State, China Use COVID-19 For Population Control; Deep State Neo-Cons Back Biden, Urge Removal Of President Trump. Y’all knew that this COVID-19 thing was a result of Bill Gates, Dr. Tony Fauci, the Chinese, and the Dem’s all getting together and developing this virus for their own nefarious schemes, right?
I didn’t catch the show 60 Minutes on CBS last night, but I read this morning that they had a segment hosted by Scott Pelley that detailed how “a political disinformation campaign” led by Republican Congressman Matt Goetz of Florida, a tRump loyalist, falsely claimed that the National Institute of Health gave a $3.7 million grant to a Wuhan Lab, which the conspiracy theorists say created the virus. In fact, the grant was given to a non-profit scientific organization headed up by a highly esteemed American virologist who has worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study pathogens originating from bats. Anyhoo, the grant to our American organization was cancelled as a result of this false information, spread by Goetz to Tucker Carlson to tRump to the NIH. And, of course, our president had a tweet for CBS following the segment.
This brings me to the word for the day — Gaslighting. One of the books I am reading at the present time is Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies To Us, by Amanda Carpenter. Gaslighting is a manipulative tactic in which a person, to gain power and control, plants seeds of uncertainty in the victim. The self-doubt and constant skepticism slowly and meticulously cause the individual to question their reality, and is a method commonly used by cult leaders and dictators. Some examples of gaslighting that I gleaned from the website Thrive Talk include, 1. Blatant lying. People who gaslight tell obvious lies. You know that they are lying. The issue is how they are lying with such ease. 2. Deny, Deny, Deny. You know they said what they said. However, they completely deny ever saying it. 3. Words vs. Actions. A person who gaslights talks and talks. However, their words mean nothing. 4. Confusion. Without a doubt, people crave stability, and the gaslighter knows this. The constant confusion that the gaslighter has instilled leads one to become desperate for clarity. 5. Projecting. If the gaslighter is a liar and a cheater, they are now accusing you of being a liar and a cheater. You constantly feel like you need to defend yourself for things you haven’t done. Are you following my drift here. Does any of this sound like something we are experiencing almost daily from tRump and his administration and congressional loyalists? There is an opinion piece in today’s Washington Post by Greg Sargent that is worthwhile reading to get an understanding of how we are being gaslighted, ‘Trump’s latest effort to gaslight America is falling apart.‘
Okay, that’s it for the day, but before I go, this was last night’s dinner. Beef kebobs on the grill, Chinese blistered beans, fried rice, grilled filone bread, and that nice Pinot Noir I mentioned above. Have a great evening! Ziggyman
Mountain Man Musings 