Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

So, what does it mean to make sense of the truth? Doesn't truth speak for itself? I mean isn't that why they call it the truth?

The truth needs a context, a story behind it that makes it meaningful. Like Trump's hair is orange, or whatever color or series of colors you and I have been watching for, oh, so long. That's a fact, a truth. But does it mean anything? I have an opinion, of course. But nothing that I could claim as a meaningful piece of information. No proof of anything.

But when he says that 81% of all whites who are murdered are killed by blacks, there you have a story to tell, a truly amazing story. He said this in a tweet on November 22, 2015.

According to FBI statistics only 15% of all whites who were murdered were murdered by blacks.

We can now officially say, "Donald, you are a liar." In fact if we are reporters, we should be required to say it or something to that effect.

This is not a gaffe. This is an outright lie.

So, making sense of the truth. We need to do it, and do it clearly and unmistakably. We can't ask someone to make sense of it or defend it. We can't get "the other side" to comment on it. It stands alone, speaks for itself.

What is the context? Trump got erroneous information from a nonexistent research group, used the misinformation for his own political purposes. He chose to tweet it. He liked the flavor of the lie and used it.

So we are forced, if we are to be at all logical to say: he told a lie therefore he is a liar.

And we have a responsibility to broadcast that this man is a liar. Hey, if we don't he could be nominated for president.

Oh? He already has been?

How did that happen?

We didn't all rise up and say, "This man is a liar and has no business even thinking about being president of the United States of America!"