Day 774 – Lies, Deceit, Corruption. So What?

Thursday, March 2, 2023

It’s been almost a month since I posted a screed. I’ve made several starts in that time, but something always happened. Something that distracted me. it seems the waves of arrogance and stupidity come so fast that it’s hard to say something before you are gagged with another wave.

The same themes keep resurfacing: dishonesty, deceit, arrogance, contempt, stupidity, racism, sexism, … you name it. It’s the same old garbage. Maybe, it’s in a new shiny bag, but most of the time it is not. The only thing that has changed is the gall of the liars. 

Such stuff has always dogged our country, but now it seems to be in a more virulent and widespread form. The thing is they aren’t trying to hide what they are doing. There is no shame. In fact, they like to commit their crimes in the open and then complain when they get caught that they are the victim and that the system is unfair. The sad thing is that they represent about 30% of the population and that percentage is located in sparsely populated states that give them a huge ability to effect things nationwide. I don’t see that situation changing or getting better.

Let’s take a quick gander at what’s been going on in this regard:

– The former Attorney General of Arizona had an investigation into election fraud. They spent 10,000 hours, looked into 638 claims and found nothing. They had issued an interim report claiming all kinds of stuff. The final report ran down every claim and found nothing. What did the former AG do? He buried the final report and ran on the disproved election fraud claims.

– The Dominion Voting Machines case against Fox has uncovered the text messages between various Fox on-air personalities (not sure what to call those people. They are not journalists, or news anchors. Entertainers? Maybe.) The off-air texts show they believed the people like Trump and his lawyers were crazy with their election fraud claims. But they continued on-air with the claims of election fraud. One of them was worried that if the truth got out it would hurt their stock price. There was also worry that if they didn’t feed their viewers this BS that those viewers might go elsewhere. They even got one reporter fired for having the temerity to chase down facts that disproved some of the claims they pushed.

– The head of Fox said under oath: Yeah, I could have done something about it, but I didn’t.

– Matt Gaetz, the Bevis of the House to Jim Jordan’s Butthead, has been in the news too. He wanted to bring a fellow into his committee meeting to lead the Pledge to the Flag. This was part of his “own the libs” campaign. He said, “It’s not like I’m brining in a murderer.” Then he brought in a murderer. Was he done? Oh no. He was also in the news when he tried to get a Pentagon official trapped with some damning evidence he had found. The Pentagon official asked him for his source. Gaetz told him. The official responded that there don’t take stuff from a Chinese propaganda outlet seriously. In other words, to be clear, a Congressman was actively pushing Chinese propaganda in a House committee meeting. What’s the defense for that? “I didn’t know?” “Yeah? So what?”

– The FBI release a report that the Covid virus could have come from a lab in Wuhan. They gave the report “low confidence.” Ah True Proof! Right? No. There is nothing new in terms of evidence. A scientist who actually knows something so stated. Not only that but the virus found in the Wuhan lab is very different than the one that ravaged the world. What do scientist say? “We may never know for certain.” Yeah. Okay. Hey, what if the previous President had sent people over to China when this first broke out? Like Biden suggested? What if Trump hadn’t shut down our team over there? What if Trump hadn’t sat his fat ass on his little hands and actually done something to find out instead of denying everything?

– And the latest? Veritas ousted James O’Keefe. if you haven’t seen John Oliver’s latest “Last Week Tonight” you are missing a treat. It turns out that O’Keefe has been mishandling money. A common problem in right wing circles. But before we go there let’s review Mr. O’Keefe’s CV.

He came to prominence by asking a group that helped poor people how he could claim money he earned as a pimp legitimately. He released a video showing the people answering his question. At the time he asked that question he was meek, unassuming, and dressed in a shirt and slacks. He then dressed up in huge sunglasses, a fur stole and outlandish clothes for the lead in to his video. It went viral on the right wing media and it succeeded in shutting down an organization that helped poor people.

This became his bread and butter MO. One time he got caught trying to tap the lines of a Senator. I never understood why he wasn’t thrown in jail for that. 

But now? Oh boy. Oliver dug up footage of O’Keefe starring in a diner theater performance of Oklahoma. For which he charged Veritas $20,000 or more. I guess to go there? I don’t know. That was one of the problem areas for the Veritas board. Then Oliver showed pieces of O’Keefe’s Las Vegas show that never made it to the Strip. If you watch Oliver’s show you’ll wonder why folks wouldn’t pony up money to see O’Keefe being set upon by FBI agents only to dance with them moments later, or the great choir scene where he looks upon his younger self. The choir with him then breaks into a sad attempt at in-sync rhythmic dancing. Well, it was neither, but that seems to be what they were attempting.

Back to the Dominion case. Because only Fox is listed in the case and it’s an organization and not a person there can not be damages for pain and suffering. Really? Let’s get Mitt Romney in here to explain that organizations are people too.

– Oh, and shockingly there’s another Republican in Congress who lied on his resume. He joins the George Santos club. It pretty flagrant stuff. No big deal. He forgot what his degree was in. See, he dropped out and then completed a degree via distance learning. He also didn’t go to Dartmouth and Vanderbilt as he claimed. How did that get in there? Simple mistake. Oh yeah, he isn’t really an economist as he claimed, but he was on a show with Arthur Laffer, who is still trying to get people to believe in his curve. Then there’s the law enforcement agent thing. See he’s a human trafficking expert. Oh wait. No he’s not. Just slipped in there somehow. It’s okay. You can still go on Fox. They don’t care.