Ouch! I previously published two diaries about last night’s debate, offering to donate $1.00 to Harris/Walz for every provable lie that iDJT utters.
My first diary at Daily Kos, from Friday, August 09:
A modest proposal from an Old "Newbie" (dailykos.com)
And my follow up, published two days ago, Monday, September 09, 2024:
A Modest Proposal Redux (dailykos.com)
I fully expected Donnie to lie like a bad toupee. And LIE he did. Overand over and over. (lather, rinse, repeat. And Repeat, and Repeat...)
I will be compiling the total number over the next couple of days, depressing that it will certainly be. It saddens me to see such a public display of someone who no longer can speak in coherent sentences and cannot tell fact from fiction.
I believe very strongly that a person’s word is his or her bond. In that vein, I will follow through with my promised a donation later this week to the Democratic presidential campaign.
In my surveys I included a diary,
Will you take the challenge to donate on a Per Lie basis?
16responded YES on original diary (37% of 43 total responses)
7 responded YES to the question Will you take the challenge to donate on a Per Lie basis? on the second diary. (54% of 13 total responses)
There was also 1 poll respondent who replied “No. Donald J. Trump isn't going to tell any provable lies, so the point is moot! on the second diary. (8% of 13 total responses)
If all those who said they accepted the chance to donate based on Trump’s lie tally, including me, is 24 Daily Kos readers.
The single “NO” respondent might also wish to donate, but that was most likely simply sarcasm. On the other hand, who knows?
In all honesty, I don’t expect ANY others will take any action – it was a random survey, and the answers are obviously non-binding! I ain’t iDJT, and I don’t sue!
But I will be writing a check, as I promised. I will follow up with a final brief diary when the total number of lies is known. My proposed methodology is explained in both previous diaries – in essence, it will be a Scientific, Wild Ass Guess (SWAG).
In response to one commenter (kamachanda), in the second diary I outlined my expectations for lies that iDJT will spew:
I know — it sounds daunting but here is my thinking:
1) Debate is 90 minutes total
2) There are two debaters, so 45 minutes total, each
3) Moderators will use some of that time for questions and allotting response time
3A) Randomly assign 12 minutes total for moderator time
4) Based on that, iDJT will have 39 total minutes
4) If he tells one verifiable lie per minute, our contribution would only be $39.00
5) Even if TWO lies per minute were spewed, our donation would be $78.00
Remember that I am using ACTUAL LIES and not the rhetorical “Some say” or “I’ve been told”— aka, the FOX Fake.
Example: Trump said he “nearly died on a helicopter flight with Willie Brown”. Definite LIE, times TWO (No near-death flight; No flight with Willie Brown). $2.00 donation.
Although my impression last night was that Donnie told in excess of one-hundred verifiable lies, initial reporting has it much lower — immediately after the debate CNN had nearly the same total I arrived at on my “back of the envelope” estimate, around 40. But multiple sources will be needed, and I hope to start collating their reporting today and tomorrow.
Sharing what the number of Trump’s blatant lies while running for President and while on the debate stage will be worthwhile by itself.
If anyone else wants to take the opportunity to donate along with participants in this social experiment, it would be welcomed. Please include a comment below so the total amount can be reported.