Josh Earnest

Could a fiction writer about White House politics have contrived a more perfect name? It signals it is duplicitous right off, a bit oxymoronic in its contrast. I'm just joshing about all this. No, I've always been earnest. The cartoon teeth are part of it, the aim is to remain pleasant, appear a bit amusing and have them gnaw right through you. Does no good filing them down to be even with other teeth, they grow right back, and besides, he practices on trees.

Josh Earnest dissimilates throughout. He doesn't know what he is talking about, but he reports knowing what others around him are talking about so he can earnestly report all that they perceived and the parts he does know for certain are most certainly wrong or else he does know that he's full of it and just joshing again. 

Jake Trapper interviews Josh Earnest  CNN Video here.  (not recommended)

It is the most annoying thing to watch. The two panels, one of Jake looking sternly and knowing all that he's hearing is pure uninformed and mal-informed partisan b.s., his face saying he's not having any of it while the other panel blathers on and doing all that it accuses others of doing and does all this as a living cartoon. 

We can respond to Josh as if he is here. He is here, a cartoon person after all, verisimilitude of a living human.

a) Released because of their shock value.

Yes. And they ARE shocking. That IS the point, yes. They are the shocking truth about yourselves and not to be dismissed.

b) Haven't looked. A valid opinion from you then on the videos does not exist. We're left with your opinion of the opinion and observations of others. People chosen by you to heed precisely for their partisan viewpoints and precisely for their and your ax to grind, the same sort of ax you'll shortly accuse the video producers of wielding. And the shocking thing is not fetal blood and guts, not an actual shocking abortion as you expect a shock to be, rather, the true shock is the ease all this is spoken over dinner and how profit is discussed, the excitement of an aborted fetus being a male and price of parts and how they are packaged in sets. The profit you say isn't there. The same ease and dismissiveness that you do.  

c) No they're not edited. You're lying again. You didn't even watch the short version and call the videos entirely edited, as you do, as you did before with other videos, this is your thing to rely on the stupidity of the people who listen to you and who understand how videos really are edited to mislead, but not in this case nor other cases. They are not edited, the full versions available, you didn't watch. You know all this, you are a liar. Grossly distort a position, hardly, that is what you are doing. You dismiss the full version because you have no interest in seeing what you already well know. You are joshing us and expecting us to take you for earnest.

d) He's getting all his information from others, how annoying. What good are you as spokesman for the White House? Why even bother asking this man anything? He claims to not know anything but what his partisan hack compatriots reported to him and he's impervious to anything new from Jake. 

This video keeps stopping with his Bucky beaver tree-gnawing incisors displaying. That's just one more thing that's annoying on top of everything else that's annoying about this man and his manner. 

e) Dismiss because organization targeted PP for some time. So what. The video producers do important work that government fails to do. PP need watching as you need constant watching. The chip on your shoulder and your party's massive chip about the video producers does nothing to dismiss the content of the videos that you say you cannot be bothered to watch. Attack all you like, these messengers are credible while you are not.

f) What you know to be true and what you propound again are the lies about PP providing healtcare benefits to millions of women. They provide abortions to thousands and their other services are minimal except for the half of PP that provides services lobbying Democrats parlaying public tax money into Democrat hands for their votes and continuing support as we see right now. That's why you are so fast to defend them and so slow in seeing for yourself the full obscenities of the videos as we expect well-informed public servants to do, obscenities that now include you and other notable Democrat candidates flipping like fish caught on a line.

g) Everything you're saying about PP is known to be false and so for you, lies. Tax money is not used for abortion. Just please, I beg you, stop it. When tax money is not used for abortions directly it's used to pay abortion doctors, it's used to wine and dine prospective buyers, it's used for an array of things supporting abortions, there is no way to separate it,  it's used to buy Democrat votes. It's used to buy you. That is a rule, it's written in the rules, and the videos show otherwise, you liar. This administration not just follow but supported, so it-it-it, oh please, liar stop signaling your cartoon skateboard-fail lying. 

And the whole time Jake's mouth is fixed.

And his eyes are assessing a liar.

h) Oh yes it is clear there are ideological games being played here. You know this. Protecting access to healthcare. The subject at hand is tax-funded abortions for profit, Josh, not women's access to healthcare. Josh ends with earnest commitment to fight attempts to defund PP that provide important healthcare services. He keeps driving the joke with straight face to the end that PP provides important health services unavailable elsewhere. They are a Democrat kickback operation unavailable through other healthcare providers. That is why they are fiercely protected by Democrats.

People Have Told Lies Since the Beginning Of History, Despite This Fact There Have Been No Advances In Lying Technology

A lie is a false statement to a person or group intentionally made by another person or group who knows it is not the whole truth. 

There are a few variations to the intentional lie.  A bald-faced lie is one that is obviously a lie to those hearing it.  A big lie is a lie which attempts to trick the victim into believing something major which will likely be contradicted by some information the victim already possesses, or by their common sense.  Bullshit is often used to make the audience believe that one knows far more about the topic by feigning total certainty or making probable predictions.  An emergency lie is a strategic lie told when the truth may not be told because, for example, harm to a third party would result. An exaggeration (or hyperbole) occurs when the most fundamental aspects of a statement are true, but only to a limited extent.

A Brief History of Lying (below) demonstrates that lies have been with us forever, and in many settings.

Adam and Eve
In the Garden of Eden a booming "Who ate my apple?" was met by innocent looks all around and, eventually, a timid chorus of "Not me." This original lie was followed by punishment for being untruthful.

Old Testament
The Old Testament describes lies people told one another, or worse, told God.  After not getting His message clearly understood by the chosen people, God finally put it in writing in the form of the Tenth Commandment given to Moses up on that mountaintop. Let's review:

10.  Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor.

Compared with other commandments like Thou Shalt Not Kill or Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery, the Tenth Commandment seems to have a little wiggle room.  What's a "false witness"?  And who is a "neighbor"?  And what does "bear" mean, exactly?

Despite the Godly Tenth Commandment, history does not record a period of reduced lying.  There is no Golden Epoch When All Men Were Truthful in any record of history.