When is a lie not a lie?

Felon47 was doing one of his fun little press gaggles in his temporary office the other day, responding to a question about "crime" by talking about the illegal DHS/ICE/CBP terrorism he's perpetrating in Minnesota (only he didn't characterize it that way, because that would be factual and he don't do factual). Of Minneapolis, he said:

We have crime down there [meaning: the rate of crime is down] because we took out thousands of people despite all the mess and everything else. But do these people really want to have rapists and they really want to have drug dealers and people from prisons and murderers, do they really want to have them in the community? It's really insurrectionists and agitators, and they're paid. And you can tell, a lot of reasons, one, they're professionals, you know, with their mouth, but they're also—you look at the signs, the signs are all professionally made. They have signs that are gorgeous, in fact, I want to get the sign—I need a lot of signs for different things and I want to find out whoever does their signs, they do a beautiful job. You know, everybody has this beautiful sign, you know, with brand-new wood. It's like, uh, leather panels, leather handle on the bot—these are not people that—these are people that are handed signs and we know, pretty much, we're getting very close to it, but we know pretty much who's funding this stuff. These are paid insurrectionists, paid troublemakers.

So much what-the-actual-frak with this quote. So, so much. Let's parse it.

• The crime in Minneapolis is down because we took out thousands of people. Crime in general is down compared to last year in Minneapolis, but it remains one of the higher crime cities in the nation, with it placing 15th among American cities in violent crime for the most recent year with comprehensive statistics available (2024), in a tier with Houston, TX; Albuquerque, NM; and Springfield, MO. Since the operation in which Felon47 cites that "took out thousands of people," we have no official data; but since there are thousands of DHS, CBP, and ICE personnel committing crimes there every day as part of that operation it's reasonably safe to assume crime is actually spiking high, primarily because of DHS activity. So that's a lie. But: for Felon47, crime is only crime when it's committed by people he doesn't like. When his people commit crimes it doesn't count. So is it still a lie, or just evidence of the guy being completely deranged?
• Despite the mess and everything else. What a way to term the criminality, the vandalism, the kidnappings, the murders perpetrated by DHS personnel. As if it was all trivial, like it was nothing more than a fender bender, or some graffiti tags. Perhaps technically not a lie, instead a manipulatively dishonest characterization, but dishonest for sure. Of course, in Felon47’s tiny and increasingly demented mind, the "mess" refers to the good citizens of Minnesota standing up for their rights and the rule of law in the face of his brutal thugs. Lie or derangement?
• Do these people really want rapists, drug dealers, murderers in their community? No, you asshat, that's why they're protesting to get your thugs the fuck away from them. The Felon47 administration is almost exclusively staffed by rapists, drug dealers, murderers, and people that belong in prisons, most especially Felon47 himself, who is all of those things. The drug-dealing is by proxy (Ronny Jackson, pardons of numerous drug traffickers), the murder is by order (Venezuelan boat strikes and collateral damage to Maduro kidnapping, in addition to many deaths at the hands of his DHS/CBP/ICE, not to mention deaths via RFK Jr's HHS and the millions of preventable COVID deaths in his first term), the rapes were firsthand—one adjudicated in court the rest alleged with significant evidence, much of which is being covered up by the former Department of Justice. The implication that the people his thugs are "taking out" are such criminals definitely counts as a lie, but since he and all of his associates are, in fact, those types of criminals, what is he really asking?
• It's really insurrectionists and agitators. There are insurrectionists and agitators involved in the events Minnesota has been suffering, but they are all in the employ of Felon47 and the federal government. He means to call the protestors and opponents of his thuggery those things, so that's a lie. The protestors are actually the opposite of insurrectionists, fighting for the rights enshrined in the United States Constitution. But in his broken little pea-brain, he seems to really believe—or wants to convince himself—the he is himself the embodiment of the nation, and thus if you oppose him you're committing insurrection because he and the country are one and the same. Lie or deranged?
• And they're paid. Now, we all know that protesting this fascist regime is all done for free. It's a 100% volunteer effort. There are organizations that raise money to coordinate and plan stuff like the No Kings rallies (next one in March, I think?), but it's not a profit motive for anyone and no one gets money for being on the street telling ICE/CBP/DHS to fuck off. So, lie. Except: In the broken mind of Felon47, there is no ability to conceive of other people acting out of motives he himself would not act out of. He and his operation pays people to show up at his rallies, therefore his opposition must also pay people to show up. Lie or derangement?
• The signs are all professionally made. This is just cluelessness, in my opinion, not a lie or derangement, but it could be either (or both). Technology is such that anyone can take a file made in some basic home computer software to a Kinko's or similar establishment and have it printed up. If you've got a nice printer that can handle large formats, you could even do it from home. In the 1980s, the period in which Felon47’s mind is stuck in, it would have been impossible to make such signs without great expense. Now it's not.
• I want to get the sign—I need a lot of signs for different things. Again, he pays people to attend his rallies. He needs premade signs for those people to hold up on camera. He's admitting to doing what he's accusing the protestors of. This supports the deranged-over-lie option for the "and they're paid" thing.
• Brand-new wood, leather panels/handles on the bottom. How the hell would he know if the wood is new or not, and who cares one way or the other? A new stick of wood like that costs a little over a dollar at Lowe's and is big enough for maybe four signs. Big deal. And leather anything on the signs? That's a lie, but he might be imagining in his dementia that a sign might have a nice leather handle on it because if he ever had to hold a sign himself he'd insist on a nice leather handle. And the stick should be gold. Lie or deranged?
• We know pretty much who's funding this stuff. I can tell you right now who's funding it: all of the individuals out there protesting. Felon47 wants to believe it's all underwritten by George Soros or something, but deep down he knows it's not; his broken, insecure egomaniacal, multiple-disorder personality just won't accept that the vast majority of Americans—and humans all over the world, frankly—readily hate his guts without monetary incentive.

It never occurred to me to wonder before now if some of the real insurrectionists on January 6, 2021 were paid agitators. There may well have been a seed population there, or just as prep, that was paid to rile things up. It would fit, considering all the campaign rallies Felon47 paid people to show up to.

Frankly, I don't know what the purpose of this post is other than to give my outrage a vehicle of expression. The guy holding the title of President of the United States is a fucking liar, a demented fool, and a cruel sociopath with the intellectual capacity of a toddler. Which makes him inconceivably dangerous and the people in power that could stop the madness at any time are refusing to do so and I need to post things as a metaphorical scream into the void to keep from literally screaming in fury every few hours.