Oh, my! My friend Bill, on whose sober perspicacity I rely lest my world view grow giddy, actually seems to understate the problem. Now this may be because of the clever and economical conceit if restricting his review to a single day, and even then stopping at the moment when nausea threatened to become sharing! Thus forgivable, even charitable.
But it really is worse. They lie all the time. They lie by preference. They lie not only out of desperation but sheer habit. They lie as if truth were the course never considered, as if their choice were not between the truth and a lie, but amongst lies, as if the question "what shall we say?" makes no glancing tangent with the truth.
Moreover, once one realizes this and applies the framework of 'they always lie' retroactively as far back as one can find evidence, it becomes clear that "they" is a very large group, and a very long-lived one, comprising essentially the entire political/media establishment.
Whatever one might say against the populists, there is this in their defense: They do not join in the collective lie. They may lie on their own behalf. Nixon lied about Watergate. Reagan surely did lie when caught out in that very funny Polish/Italian joke about the duck at the cock fight. Trump lies personally all the time.
But the reason they are hated is that they do not endorse the collective lie, nor practice the idea that leadership comes down to the crafting of lies, as nearly all mainstream Republicans do so enthusiastically.
Given his hawkish reputation it might have seemed surprising that Reagan never took us to war, except in Grenada. This was not only because he was of a kindly and pacific nature, though he was. Mostly it was because he denied to himself the essential weapon of the war monger: the lie. Every U.S. war in my lifetime--I was born in 1956--was justified in the first case by a lie and then lies upon lies to follow.
Grenada--about which I wrote my first book--required no lies because it was all so obvious. (The President, in a letter thanking me for the book, did point out that I had gotten something wrong, as a result of being misled by his senior staff. In his letter he wrote "you are entitled to know the truth", and told it!)
For shame, "Bush lied, kids died" is true. None of these people can be trusted, they lie to spend the lives they are sworn to protect and serve. They are lying us into a war with China right now. Russia is amazingly wicked and Ukraine deserving, but they lied us into Ukraine and they have never stopped since.
Like you, I am no anti-vaxxer. Vulnerable by both age and medical condition, every time I saw a pretty lady in white with a needle in her hand I rolled up my sleeve and looked longingly. But the post-Covid excess death count may be headed toward the millions, led by previously rare cancers, and the vaccine appears to be implicated in a statistically significant way
Years and years ago, in preparation for a talk, I looked up the precise wording of John 8:44. Thank goodness for Google and "fuzzy logic" because I had gotten the key phrase wrong. I my memory Jesus said of Satan "he was a liar from the beginning." The actual wording is more devastating:
"He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him."
Not merely a "liar" from the beginning but a "murderer" from the beginning because the lie makes the murder. Death, scripture says, came into the world because of the lies Satan told in the Garden.
They lie and lie and so they kill and kill. By comparison Nixon, Reagan, and Trump, the fathers and Godfathers of GOP populism, in their innocence shine white as snow. It has not been easy, but I think I know how I am going to vote.
Well you pretty much nail it, as usual. When one story after the next after the next just bulges with so much disgusting news without letup, I decided enough of this is enough, I have to let readers know the number of collapsing, America-hating institutions is so high, and their work so fast and frenetic, you have to get outside for a breath of fresh air. The problem is that when you come back inside, the smell has become even worse and its sources more numerous and aggressive. Yikes!
Mainstream media is as if not more resposible for American's loss of trust in institutions as the institutions themselves. It isn't even close. The NY Times has squandered a reputation that goes back to the Civil War to literally become a propoganda rag for whatever anti-Western cause of the moment is in vogue. As always it starts with Israel (And Orthodox Jews) who have been libeled by the Timnes for decades. But it doesn't end there. The Washington Post may be worse.
Oh, my! My friend Bill, on whose sober perspicacity I rely lest my world view grow giddy, actually seems to understate the problem. Now this may be because of the clever and economical conceit if restricting his review to a single day, and even then stopping at the moment when nausea threatened to become sharing! Thus forgivable, even charitable.
But it really is worse. They lie all the time. They lie by preference. They lie not only out of desperation but sheer habit. They lie as if truth were the course never considered, as if their choice were not between the truth and a lie, but amongst lies, as if the question "what shall we say?" makes no glancing tangent with the truth.
Moreover, once one realizes this and applies the framework of 'they always lie' retroactively as far back as one can find evidence, it becomes clear that "they" is a very large group, and a very long-lived one, comprising essentially the entire political/media establishment.
Whatever one might say against the populists, there is this in their defense: They do not join in the collective lie. They may lie on their own behalf. Nixon lied about Watergate. Reagan surely did lie when caught out in that very funny Polish/Italian joke about the duck at the cock fight. Trump lies personally all the time.
But the reason they are hated is that they do not endorse the collective lie, nor practice the idea that leadership comes down to the crafting of lies, as nearly all mainstream Republicans do so enthusiastically.
Given his hawkish reputation it might have seemed surprising that Reagan never took us to war, except in Grenada. This was not only because he was of a kindly and pacific nature, though he was. Mostly it was because he denied to himself the essential weapon of the war monger: the lie. Every U.S. war in my lifetime--I was born in 1956--was justified in the first case by a lie and then lies upon lies to follow.
Grenada--about which I wrote my first book--required no lies because it was all so obvious. (The President, in a letter thanking me for the book, did point out that I had gotten something wrong, as a result of being misled by his senior staff. In his letter he wrote "you are entitled to know the truth", and told it!)
For shame, "Bush lied, kids died" is true. None of these people can be trusted, they lie to spend the lives they are sworn to protect and serve. They are lying us into a war with China right now. Russia is amazingly wicked and Ukraine deserving, but they lied us into Ukraine and they have never stopped since.
Like you, I am no anti-vaxxer. Vulnerable by both age and medical condition, every time I saw a pretty lady in white with a needle in her hand I rolled up my sleeve and looked longingly. But the post-Covid excess death count may be headed toward the millions, led by previously rare cancers, and the vaccine appears to be implicated in a statistically significant way
Years and years ago, in preparation for a talk, I looked up the precise wording of John 8:44. Thank goodness for Google and "fuzzy logic" because I had gotten the key phrase wrong. I my memory Jesus said of Satan "he was a liar from the beginning." The actual wording is more devastating:
"He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him."
Not merely a "liar" from the beginning but a "murderer" from the beginning because the lie makes the murder. Death, scripture says, came into the world because of the lies Satan told in the Garden.
They lie and lie and so they kill and kill. By comparison Nixon, Reagan, and Trump, the fathers and Godfathers of GOP populism, in their innocence shine white as snow. It has not been easy, but I think I know how I am going to vote.
Thank you.
Your devoted friend,
RV
Well you pretty much nail it, as usual. When one story after the next after the next just bulges with so much disgusting news without letup, I decided enough of this is enough, I have to let readers know the number of collapsing, America-hating institutions is so high, and their work so fast and frenetic, you have to get outside for a breath of fresh air. The problem is that when you come back inside, the smell has become even worse and its sources more numerous and aggressive. Yikes!
Mainstream media is as if not more resposible for American's loss of trust in institutions as the institutions themselves. It isn't even close. The NY Times has squandered a reputation that goes back to the Civil War to literally become a propoganda rag for whatever anti-Western cause of the moment is in vogue. As always it starts with Israel (And Orthodox Jews) who have been libeled by the Timnes for decades. But it doesn't end there. The Washington Post may be worse.