The Lying Game

There are lots of liars out there from all parts of the political spectrum.

It seems like this has been the winter of George, Santos that is.

Santos is such a good liar, he lied his way into the US House of Representatives.  So what, big deal, you may say.  Donald Trump lied so much he got elected President and Joe Biden has lied, plagiarized and concocted all sorts of tall tales and now he’s the President (I think)!

Let me tell you, if Leonardo da Vinci could paint a portrait of a liar, it would definitely be Santos.  He’d be wearing a Banana Republic preppy sweater and have that half, all-knowing smirk, much like Leonardo’s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa.  And I bet Santos would even change his name to Mona, or to Lisa, if it would get him a spot in The Louvre.

Remember Jon Lovitz from Saturday Night Live?  His pathological liar character could have been Santos’ mentor.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.  Although in a Twitter exchange, Lovitz told Santos that his Tommy Flanagan character couldn’t hold a candle to Santos’ mendacity.

Santos says he done lying, or as he calls it, embellishing.  He told One America News that he’s learned his lesson and from now on he “can guarantee…everything is always going to be above board.”  Bummer, because as a liar, George-y-boy is truly a masterpiece.

As good a liar as Santos is, was, whatever, compare him to another member of Congress, Ilhan Omar from Minnesota, who this past week was kicked off of the House Foreign Affairs Committee by the GOP majority, for a couple of reasons including anti-Semitism.

Trying to stave off her dismissal, she told CNN reporter Dana Bash she wasn’t aware there is an anti-Semitic trope linking Jews with money.  So when she previously tweeted that the US-Israel relationship is “all about the Benjamins” she says she had no idea anti-Semites have persecuted the Jewish people for generations over the insidious accusation that Jews have an inherent love and global control over money.  

It’s unfortunate that when Omar said that, Dana Bash didn’t respond with something like, “Congresswoman Omar, do you think I have ‘putz’ plastered on my forehead?  How could you not have known?”  Bash, a good journalist, sadly didn’t challenge the Congresswoman.  

Well, this website isn’t called “thatfoolfriendwithoutbenefits.com.”  I’ll tell you straight out, Ilhan Omar is full of crap!   She is the worst type of liar, a bad one with malevolent intent.   

OK, enough of Congress where it seems lyin’ is king.  Let’s talk about an office holder who this past week, came up smelling like a redneck riviera rose.

Put another notch in the belt of the Governor of Florida and soon-to-be Trump tormentor, Ron DeSantis.

He vociferously opposed The College Board’s new AP course for African American Studies. When DeSantis saw a draft version of the curriculum, he saw a chance to score major points with his base.

He said he would ban it in Florida because of six topics; Black Queer Studies, Intersectionality, Movement for Black Lives, Black Feminist Literary Thought, the Reparations Movement and the Black Struggle in the 21st Century.  

So the board folks got together and ditched the critical race theory stuff, Black queer studies and Black feminism and added the subject of Black conservatism as an option.

I don’t want to get into what topics should or should not be taught in the AP course.   The important political point is that Ron DeSantis is bolstering his cred as an anti-woke warrior, red meat for his Republican base. 

Also, DeSantis’ name recognition is way behind Trump’s.  These battles bolster his national profile, critically important if he wants to permanently exile the former liar-in-chief to his golf course where he now reigns as the cheater-in-chief. 

One last thing…

While DeSantis says Florida is where “woke goes to die,” New York is absolutely where woke goes to thrive.  SUNY, the State University of New York, is requiring all incoming freshman to pass a new Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice class or they simply woke, I mean won’t, graduate.

The SUNY course, among other things, will explore the “dynamics of power, privilege and oppression.”

In other words, SUNY freshman will be told that racism lives inside you because of your whiteness.

These courses are commonplace in the corporate world. They’ve been ginned up by people who view American history through a narrow racial lens and supported by bamboozled c-suite execs.  They don’t care if your ancestors were persecuted, murdered or discriminated against, and they don’t care to consider the way you’ve tried to live your own life.  Everybody into the class and start apologizing!

Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t there something inherently dishonest in that?

The highly paid moderators tell you your achievements are due to your privilege and you’ve succeeded because you consciously or unconsciously screwed over your colleagues of color. 

That’s what life is like today in the US workplace, and now it’s coming to a college near you.  This is not an academic discipline.  It’s not chemistry or sociology.  It’s not even phys ed. It’s a cultural movement.

You want to make it an elective?  I guess, maybe.  But a requirement? Come on!

I really do have to applaud the people behind all this.  Seriously.  Whatta great job you’ve done inculcating your theories into our lives.  No lie, well done you! 

But here’s my critical question; when will we stop lying to ourselves and continue to believe, or hope, this madness will stop on its own?