On Saturday, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago had another one of his irregularly scheduled public episodes in front of people in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He bragged about his magnificent economic achievements to an audience in America's Dairyland, despite the fact that Wisconsin's dairy farms have begun to blow away in a strong breeze. Everybody cheered because MAGA. Also, according to an authoritative count by the Washington Post, he treated the assembled burghers to the 10,000th lie of his presidency*. He also went on another one of his familiar riffs about the tragic events surrounding the births of fatally disabled children.

The baby is born. The mother meets with the doctor. They take care of the baby. They wrap the baby beautifully. And then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby.

This unmitigated bullshit is going to get someone killed, the anti-choice movement having already piled up an impressive body count. But what I did not expect was that The New York Times would take this opportunity to assault the English language with the intent to do grave bodily harm. To wit:

President Trump revived on Saturday night what is fast becoming a standard, and inaccurate, refrain about doctors “executing babies.” During a more than hourlong speech at a rally in Green Bay, Wis., Mr. Trump admonished the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, for vetoing a Republican bill that could send doctors to prison for life if they fail to give medical care to children born alive after a failed abortion attempt.

An "inaccurate refrain"?

Are these people serious?

The only possible ray of hope in that paragraph is that "inaccurate refrain" is such a clumsy phrase that they may finally be running out of euphemisms for "arrant lying." Maybe they'll soon have no choice but to call a lie a lie. Here is a moving Twitter thread that describes what actually happens in these horrible situations. The president*'s bloodthirsty mendacity reminds me of the lies and slander aimed at the hospice workers while they were tending to Terri Schiavo. The hospice got regular bomb threats and so did the elementary school up the road.

But, seriously, NYT? An "inaccurate refrain"? I feel sick. Good thing, as John Fogerty warned us, there's a bathroom on the right.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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