The News Is Real. Trump Is Real. The Lies He Tells Are Real.

If we are to defeat Trump, it will not be by using his framing of ideas and events. It will be by reporting our reality and framing our story and beliefs. Trump is real. His lies are real. A solution to him is real.

I borrowed the above graphic from Juan Cole's clear-minded presentation of Trump's current set of misinformation, focused on a terror attack in Sweden that never happened and an indictment of immigrant crime that is not real. Read it here. Visit Juan Cole's informative blog -- I've been reading it for years -- to get the inside track on events in the Middle East with fewer of the filters the media uses in its regular narrative.

Here's the Trump tweet explaining how he came up with a Swedish terror problem:

My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2017

Great. It's from Fox News. Our real president relies on a known fake-news site. Got it.

The real story on Sweden? Here's a good look.