Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is

image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

NOTE:  This is the first of two blogs dealing with this “repeating lies” concept.  This first installment covers various media reports as I open the Department Good Quotes Worth Remembering.  The last quote is drawn from a column by Peter Baker in the New York Times.  So, in blog #2, I reprint Baker’s entire column because it is so good.

The headline on this blog came from Atlantic Magazine writer Tom Nichols.

Regarding Donald Trump, it rings true.

Trump believes that, just because he says something, it is true.

And, if accused of lying, that charge doesn’t stop him.  He just repeats the lie and appears to believe that repetition produces truth.

Nichols’ good line prompts me to open one of the five departments I run – this one is the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering.  No need here to mention the other four departments I manage; each stands on its own.

From the New York Times:  The scariest thing about what President Trump is doing with his tariffs-for-all strategy, I believe, is that he has no clue what he is doing — or how the world economy operates, for that matter.  He’s just making it all up as he goes along — and we are all along for the ride.

From The Atlantic Magazine:  Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Saudi Arabia pretending to be in charge of negotiations between the U.S. and Russia over the fate of Ukraine.  Rubio is the perfect fall guy for this assignment.  Confirmed as secretary of state by a 99–0 vote, he’s won praise from all sides for his commitment to American institutions and values.

The word “pretending” above is drawn to make comparisons to William Rogers who, under President Nixon, was Secretary of State.  But, Nixon didn’t involve Rogers in Vietnam peace talks, so Rogers was nothing more than a figurehead.  Rubio may be suffering the same fate.

More from The Atlantic:  This week, Donald Trump falsely accused Ukraine of starting a war against a much larger neighbor, inviting invasion and mass death.  At this point, Trump — who has a history of trusting Russian President Vladimir Putin more than he trusts the Americans who are sworn to defend the United States — may even believe it.

Casting Ukraine as the aggressor (and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator,” which Trump has done) makes political sense for Trump, who is innately deferential to Putin, and likely views the conflict as a distraction from his own personal and political agendas.  The U.S. president has now chosen to throw America to Putin’s side and is more than willing to see this war end on Russian terms.

Repeating lies, however, does not make them true.

Russia, and specifically Putin, launched this war in 2014 and widened it in 2022.  The information and media ecosystem around Trump and the Republican Party has tried for years to submerge the Russian war against Ukraine in a sump of moral relativism, because many in the GOP admire Putin as some sort of Christian strongman.  But Putin is making war on a country that is mostly composed of his fellow Orthodox Christians, solely based on his own grandiose fantasies.

From hill.com:  Elon Musk was never elected to any office, yet he is running roughshod over many parts of the federal government. 

Musk and the make-believe Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to tap into databases across the government is facing broad pushback from a variety of groups sounding the alarm over the privacy and security risks.

From the New York Times:  One of the best political writers going these days, Peter Baker, puts it this way:

The United States sent $50 million in condoms to Hamas.  Diversity programs caused a plane crash.  China controls the Panama Canal.  Ukraine started the war with Russia.

Except, no.  None of that is true.  Not that it stops Trump.  In the first month since he returned to power, he has demonstrated once again a brazen willingness to advance distortions, conspiracy theories, and outright lies to justify major policy decisions.

Trump has long been unfettered by truth when it comes to boasting about his record and tearing down his enemies.  But what were dubbed “alternative facts” in his first term have quickly become a whole alternative reality in his second to lay the groundwork for radical change as he moves to aggressively reshape America and the world.

And, from me, enough for today, even though there are many more good quotes.  Next time.