“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.” -- Martin Luther King
Donald J. Trump is set to become the 45th President of the United States of America.
He will be my President. I'm not happy about it, but that's how politics and elections work sometimes.
A large number of us are still mystified as to how and why Donald Trump defied the odds and snuck away with enough electoral votes to move into the White House.
He will be my President. I'm not happy about it, but that's how politics and elections work sometimes.
A large number of us are still mystified as to how and why Donald Trump defied the odds and snuck away with enough electoral votes to move into the White House.
My standard answer is: it
didn’t just happen. It took almost a decade for us to get to the point where a racist pussy-grabbing tax-cheating scumbag like Trump could con and lie his way
into the Oval Office.
It's no secret that Donald Trump, a pathological liar, murdered Truth as a
pathway to his electoral success, but there were many accomplices in this
murder. Each in their own way, with their own agendas, conspired to murder
Truth as a means to an end that they held as Most Important, moreso than their
citizenship or civility or decency. They lied about facts, lied about their
motives and intentions, lied about reality, lied lied lied about everything
they could think of to generate a reality we now refer to as ‘post-truth’.
And guess what? IT WORKED!!!
I knew trouble was brewing a few weeks
before the election.
I had a conversation with an elderly
fellow who, for the sake of all involved, will remain nameless. We were talking about the upcoming
Presidential election and he made it very clear that he was voting for Donald
Trump. This is just a small sample of how the entire stupefying conversation went:
Me: “You realize that he’s wholly
unqualified and unfit for that job, right?”
Him:
“It doesn’t matter. He’s going to make America great again. He’s a
successful businessman and knows what he’s doing.”
Me: “Does a successful businessman
claim a billion dollars in losses and file for bankruptcy multiple times?”
Him:
“That’s not true. Where’d you hear that?”
Me:
“Ummm… yeah, actually it is true. So what exactly is he gonna do to
make this country great again?”
Him:
“He’s gonna bring back law and order to stop all the riots going on.”
Me:
“Which riots are those?”
Him:
“Well… the ones all over the place, those riots where all those blacks
are destroying property and killing cops!”
Me:
“Surely you’re not referring to the civil unrest over indiscriminate
police shooting of unarmed black men?”
Him:
“Yeah, those riots.”
Me:
“Riiiiight… OK, what else is he gonna do to make this country great
again?”
Him:
“I forget, but I know that I knew and I agree with everything he says.”
Me:
(incredulous, eyes bugging out) “Come ON… he’s a racist and a bigot and
a sexual predator! He’s a tax cheat and a pathological liar!”
Him:
“No he’s not! Who says that?”
Me:
(eyes narrowing, throwing a sideways look) “What news shows do you
watch?”
Him:
“Well… mostly Fox News.”
Me:
“Any others?”
Him:
“Nope… don’t need to. They’re the
only ones who tell the truth. The rest of the lamestream media are liars.”
Me:
(head explodes and launches brains all over the walls, body falls into a
twitching heap on the floor)
Congressional
Republicans Murdered Truth
From the moment Barack Obama announced
his run for the Presidency in 2007, the latent racism and bigotry
bubbling just below the surface of our national skin spewed out like a ripe
pimple being pinched. It didn’t matter that he was an American citizen, a
Christian, a public servant, a Harvard graduate, a constitutional law expert. The GOP and Congressional Republicans would seek to de-legitimize and destroy him because they could not and would not allow a Black Man to be President.
They lied about his heritage. They
lied about his faith. They lied about his
education. They lied about his family.
They lied about his politics. They lied about his qualifications. They lied about his patriotism. They lied
about everything pertaining to him and they never stopped lying, not even once.
When he won the Presidency, they lied
about his intentions. They lied about his motives. They lied about what he
would do. And on the day of his
inauguration, a group of powerful Republican liars met in a Washington DC
restaurant and developed a strategy to destroy him. They agreed to obstruct,
delay, stonewall, obfuscate, slow-walk, deny, torpedo and sabotage anything and
everything he tried to do.
Don't believe me? Go look it up.
Don't believe me? Go look it up.
They wanted to teach that uppity Black
Man a lesson for thinking he could make things better for Americans. Their guy W had spent the previous eight years destroying the very fabric of our
country and left a smoking mess for Barack Obama to somehow fix (which he eventually did), and
that just would not do. And they would be damned if they’d give the uppity
Black Man a single solitary win, so they enacted their plan to do just that, as only Republicans can do because they are inveterate liars.
If Obama was for it, they were against
it. Didn’t matter what it was, who it would benefit, how right or fair or just
it was. They objected to every single
thing he tried to do. From rescuing the economy to providing affordable
healthcare to creating a more just legal system, they dug in and stood their
ground. NO NO NO to everything. And then they lied about it. They refused to govern and became the Disloyal Opposition,
sabotaged everything he tried to do, and then blamed him when the results
weren’t as successful as they could or should have been. They even shut down
the government based on lies and blamed that uppity Black Man for it.
They lied about the economy even when
it revived and thrived. They lied about
the Affordable Care Act even though it dramatically lowered the costs of healthcare, reduced the Federal deficit, provided 20 million Americans with coverage and dropped the
number of the uninsured to historic lows.
They lied about unemployment even though it was reduced to the lowest
rate in decades. They lied about a lack of jobs even though millions and
millions of new jobs were created. They
lied about his foreign policy even though he ended two illegal wars and rebuilt
trust and admiration from around the globe that had been squandered by his
predecessor. They lied about the federal deficit, claiming it had skyrocketed when in fact it had been lowered by two-thirds.
They went on Fox News, the most
popular ‘news’ channel ever, and lied and lied and lied. Every time they were in front of a camera or reporters or constituents, they lied and lied and lied.
And guess what? IT WORKED. The unthinking and incurious
masses of Americans who watched Fox News night after night, lie after lie, believed the lies and started to blame that stinking liberal Obama for
all the bad things that were happening, for the inability for Congress to get
anything done, for the stagnation of job creation and the skyrocketing crime
rate, even though it was all based on lies.
Those ignorant Americans didn’t bother to think about
whether or not their single source of information might be lying to them
because it was too much trouble to check other sources, to use critical
thinking about what they were hearing, to weigh facts against hyperbole and
lies. They bought the lies hook, line and sinker.
And here we are.
A
Compliant And Weak Media Murdered Truth
When Donald Trump announced his candidacy in the Summer of 2015, his speech was filled with lies and racism and unhinged insanity, but the mainstream media slavishly covered every single minute of it. Oh sure, they chortled and guffawed at his obvious stupidity, but... no one came right out and called him a liar, nor would they.
They couldn't, and he knew it, because he is a Master of the Universe, an entitled celebrity asshole with wealth and power and influence. Someone who spent his entire life supping from a gold-covered chalice, shitting in a gold-encrusted toilet, demeaning and insulting and degrading everybody else because he could... always had, always would. And NO ONE would ever be able to tell or show him otherwise.
The mainstream media both craved and feared Donald Trump.
They would enable and embolden this pathological liar because regardless of how insane he might be, they wanted to make sure he would always give them what they craved most: ACCESS and RATINGS. His incoherent ramblings were ratings gold, and they would never EVER do anything that would jeopardize access to the fountain of stupid that is Donald Trump because he is a Master of the Universe.
What they didn't realize is that a massive number of Americans had been pre-conditioned to believe the lies he was spewing each and every day, because they'd already been brainwashed by the incessant lying of Congressional Republicans.
The very same Republicans that had been lying and lying and lying in front of every camera that would point in their direction. Access is key, and any reporter or media that questioned them on their lies was immediately cut off from access to the Lying Republicans. No more interviews, no more quotes, no more access... so a decision had to be made. Maintain access by glossing over the lies, or question the lies and suffer the consequences.
Guess which one they chose?
And here we are.
An Ignorant and Brainwashed Public Murdered Truth
"If a nation expects to be both ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be" -- Thomas Jefferson
In the weeks leading up to the election, it was obvious that we had already entered the 'post-truth' era. The lies and bullshit being spread about Hillary Clinton were unbelievable, but a huge swath of the public believed the lies because they had been preconditioned to think that way. They loved the lies, and what Grade-A Quality Bullshit the lies were! For example:
"Hillary lied about Benghazi and purposefully allowed the embassy to be overrun and burned and did nothing while the staffers were murdered."
"Hillary lied about her e-mails and server."
"Hillary suffered a stroke and is barely able to stand on her own."
"Hillary is a crook."
"Hillary has never done anything positive during her time in the public sector."
"Hillary is sick and hiding it from the media."
"Hillary is a secret lesbian."
"Hillary profited from The Clinton Foundation."
"Hillary is involved in a child sex ring run from the basement of a DC-area pizzeria."
"Hillary is responsible for the civil wars in Syria and Iraq and civil unrest throughout the Middle East."
And yet... rather than try and analyze these statements to see if there were any facts to bolster them, the Ignorant Public that loves to not think swallowed the lies whole, without hesitation, without a single thought given to the notion that maybe... perhaps... possibly... the lies were actually LIES.
Nope. Didn't happen. They swallowed the lies whole like a carp sucking down a mayfly. Didn't even taste it going down. Sustenance.
There's a popular meme that says 'If you think education is expensive, wait until you see how much ignorance costs.' And make no mistake, a large swath of the American electorate is 100% USDA Grade-A Select ignorant. It starts with the watering-down and elimination of high school Civics and Social Studies and History and Political Science courses, allowing students to whip through to graduation without ever thinking... even once... about their civic duties and responsibilities, or How Things Work.
Then the semi-ignorant students are allowed to swim through college (if they go at all) without ever knowing the most basic facts of American Citizenship or American History. Those who don't attend college become Diploma'd ignoramuses with no critical thinking skills or the ability to reason fact from fiction, ripe for the picking by Lying Liars.
And here we are.
Does this seem a bit harsh? Am I being needlessly cruel or caustic or otherwise unfair to those mediocre students who, through no fault of their own, become dim adults lacking the capacity to think for themselves without their spacephone?
Well, harsh is pretty much all I have in me right now, because one of the best parts about getting old is that I've stopped giving a diddly-fuck about what others may think of my opinions. I've stopped worrying about the delicate fee-fees of the vast swath of Ignorant Americans who can't think their way out of a paper bag, who can't be bothered to educate themselves about their world, who are as incurious and bereft of context and contrast as our new Asshole-In-Chief.
As an adult trying to navigate the vast ocean of life, I've always tried to fall back on the meaningful brilliance of the many fine teachers I had in junior and high school, along with my years as a Cub and Boy Scout. It was all of a piece, and among the most important things I learned to strive for are:
Be truthful, no matter what.
Treat others with the respect they deserve.
Call 'BULLSHIT' when it's obvious.
Question everything, and be prepared to deal with the hard answers.
Don't be afraid to ask questions or admit you don't have all the answers.
Give everything you can to the benefit of others.
Never ever stop learning.
Truth is easily lost in the blaring reality we all share, but we gotta keep our eyes on it at all times or it becomes obscured, shaded, hidden from view. I've opined before that we have so much information flooding into our lives that it becomes almost too much to bear, allowing facts and truth to be lost the fizzy reality cocktail we drink deeply from every day.
Don't let it happen. Don't let Truth be murdered right in front of your eyes. I know it's hard, but you gotta weed through the noise and keep looking for the hard-nuts Truth about what is meaningful and important. Otherwise you'll become just another American Ignoramus, calmly feeding on the radioactive pablum that suffocates Truth in a thick layer of bullshit.
As a Boy Scout, I had to memorize and try to live by the Twelve Scout Laws:
"A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent."
These weren't meant to be hard and fast rules, but instead goals to strive for, to achieve in order to be a Better Scout, a Better Human Being, a Better American. Little did I know that as I grew into Adulthood and Curmudgeonhood, those very same laws would guide me in my world view, in my interpersonal relationships, in my understanding and treatment of others.
Trustworthy is the first Scout Law.
trust-wor-thy -- (adjective) -- able to be relied on as honest or truthful; synonyms: reliable, dependable, honest, upright, principled, true, truthful, ethical, virtuous, incorruptible, unimpeachable, above suspicion, responsible, sensible, levelheaded, staunch, steadfast... "a trustworthy citizen".
Maybe this is why I'm so unbelievably angry with the Lying Republicans, the Lying Media, the Ignorant Americans who lie to themselves. I know it may be too much to ask that other citizens try a bit harder to be more truthful, more honest about the things that affect us all. I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I really try hard to be honest and trustworthy in everything that I say and do, every single day.
Why can't they at least try to do the same?
Actually, I know why... and so do you.
Lying is easy.
Lead image, gracias de vintagecoolhunter.com; 'Politically Challenged' and Rollins Band 'Liar' video, muchismas gracias de youtube.com; todas mis gracias y alabanza a Carlos Magallanes, Los Boy Scouts de America, y Mi Papa.
When Donald Trump announced his candidacy in the Summer of 2015, his speech was filled with lies and racism and unhinged insanity, but the mainstream media slavishly covered every single minute of it. Oh sure, they chortled and guffawed at his obvious stupidity, but... no one came right out and called him a liar, nor would they.
They couldn't, and he knew it, because he is a Master of the Universe, an entitled celebrity asshole with wealth and power and influence. Someone who spent his entire life supping from a gold-covered chalice, shitting in a gold-encrusted toilet, demeaning and insulting and degrading everybody else because he could... always had, always would. And NO ONE would ever be able to tell or show him otherwise.
The mainstream media both craved and feared Donald Trump.
They would enable and embolden this pathological liar because regardless of how insane he might be, they wanted to make sure he would always give them what they craved most: ACCESS and RATINGS. His incoherent ramblings were ratings gold, and they would never EVER do anything that would jeopardize access to the fountain of stupid that is Donald Trump because he is a Master of the Universe.
What they didn't realize is that a massive number of Americans had been pre-conditioned to believe the lies he was spewing each and every day, because they'd already been brainwashed by the incessant lying of Congressional Republicans.
The very same Republicans that had been lying and lying and lying in front of every camera that would point in their direction. Access is key, and any reporter or media that questioned them on their lies was immediately cut off from access to the Lying Republicans. No more interviews, no more quotes, no more access... so a decision had to be made. Maintain access by glossing over the lies, or question the lies and suffer the consequences.
Guess which one they chose?
And here we are.
An Ignorant and Brainwashed Public Murdered Truth
"If a nation expects to be both ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be" -- Thomas Jefferson
In the weeks leading up to the election, it was obvious that we had already entered the 'post-truth' era. The lies and bullshit being spread about Hillary Clinton were unbelievable, but a huge swath of the public believed the lies because they had been preconditioned to think that way. They loved the lies, and what Grade-A Quality Bullshit the lies were! For example:
"Hillary lied about Benghazi and purposefully allowed the embassy to be overrun and burned and did nothing while the staffers were murdered."
"Hillary lied about her e-mails and server."
"Hillary suffered a stroke and is barely able to stand on her own."
"Hillary is a crook."
"Hillary has never done anything positive during her time in the public sector."
"Hillary is sick and hiding it from the media."
"Hillary is a secret lesbian."
"Hillary profited from The Clinton Foundation."
"Hillary is involved in a child sex ring run from the basement of a DC-area pizzeria."
"Hillary is responsible for the civil wars in Syria and Iraq and civil unrest throughout the Middle East."
And yet... rather than try and analyze these statements to see if there were any facts to bolster them, the Ignorant Public that loves to not think swallowed the lies whole, without hesitation, without a single thought given to the notion that maybe... perhaps... possibly... the lies were actually LIES.
Nope. Didn't happen. They swallowed the lies whole like a carp sucking down a mayfly. Didn't even taste it going down. Sustenance.
There's a popular meme that says 'If you think education is expensive, wait until you see how much ignorance costs.' And make no mistake, a large swath of the American electorate is 100% USDA Grade-A Select ignorant. It starts with the watering-down and elimination of high school Civics and Social Studies and History and Political Science courses, allowing students to whip through to graduation without ever thinking... even once... about their civic duties and responsibilities, or How Things Work.
Then the semi-ignorant students are allowed to swim through college (if they go at all) without ever knowing the most basic facts of American Citizenship or American History. Those who don't attend college become Diploma'd ignoramuses with no critical thinking skills or the ability to reason fact from fiction, ripe for the picking by Lying Liars.
And here we are.
Does this seem a bit harsh? Am I being needlessly cruel or caustic or otherwise unfair to those mediocre students who, through no fault of their own, become dim adults lacking the capacity to think for themselves without their spacephone?
Well, harsh is pretty much all I have in me right now, because one of the best parts about getting old is that I've stopped giving a diddly-fuck about what others may think of my opinions. I've stopped worrying about the delicate fee-fees of the vast swath of Ignorant Americans who can't think their way out of a paper bag, who can't be bothered to educate themselves about their world, who are as incurious and bereft of context and contrast as our new Asshole-In-Chief.
As an adult trying to navigate the vast ocean of life, I've always tried to fall back on the meaningful brilliance of the many fine teachers I had in junior and high school, along with my years as a Cub and Boy Scout. It was all of a piece, and among the most important things I learned to strive for are:
Be truthful, no matter what.
Treat others with the respect they deserve.
Call 'BULLSHIT' when it's obvious.
Question everything, and be prepared to deal with the hard answers.
Don't be afraid to ask questions or admit you don't have all the answers.
Give everything you can to the benefit of others.
Never ever stop learning.
Truth is easily lost in the blaring reality we all share, but we gotta keep our eyes on it at all times or it becomes obscured, shaded, hidden from view. I've opined before that we have so much information flooding into our lives that it becomes almost too much to bear, allowing facts and truth to be lost the fizzy reality cocktail we drink deeply from every day.
Don't let it happen. Don't let Truth be murdered right in front of your eyes. I know it's hard, but you gotta weed through the noise and keep looking for the hard-nuts Truth about what is meaningful and important. Otherwise you'll become just another American Ignoramus, calmly feeding on the radioactive pablum that suffocates Truth in a thick layer of bullshit.
As a Boy Scout, I had to memorize and try to live by the Twelve Scout Laws:
"A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent."
These weren't meant to be hard and fast rules, but instead goals to strive for, to achieve in order to be a Better Scout, a Better Human Being, a Better American. Little did I know that as I grew into Adulthood and Curmudgeonhood, those very same laws would guide me in my world view, in my interpersonal relationships, in my understanding and treatment of others.
Trustworthy is the first Scout Law.
trust-wor-thy -- (adjective) -- able to be relied on as honest or truthful; synonyms: reliable, dependable, honest, upright, principled, true, truthful, ethical, virtuous, incorruptible, unimpeachable, above suspicion, responsible, sensible, levelheaded, staunch, steadfast... "a trustworthy citizen".
Maybe this is why I'm so unbelievably angry with the Lying Republicans, the Lying Media, the Ignorant Americans who lie to themselves. I know it may be too much to ask that other citizens try a bit harder to be more truthful, more honest about the things that affect us all. I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I really try hard to be honest and trustworthy in everything that I say and do, every single day.
Why can't they at least try to do the same?
Actually, I know why... and so do you.
Lying is easy.
