Don't Be Deceived

 

It saddens me that I have to continue to remind my readers about the duplicitous nature of our government and its leaders and the media.  About two years ago, I wrote an article entitle “How Can I Lie to Thee, Let Me Count the Ways”.  It was about how politicians and journalists (so called) can distort the truth through lies of omission, exaggeration and even “in your face” boldface lies.  Well, last week there a couple of whoppers that you need to be informed about.

First, Joe Biden got on national TV and tried to tell the country that there was “Zero” inflation in July.  For the naysayers, let me quote him exactly.  He said, “I just want to say a number: Zero.  Today, we received news that our economy had 0% inflation in the month of July.”  That, of course was not true.  Just a few minutes before, it was announced that we experienced 8.5% inflation in July.  But then Joe confused his audience even further by trying to explain his claim.  He went on to say, “Here’s what that means.  While the price of some things went up, the prices of others things went down by the same amount.  The result?  Zero inflation last month.” 

What he didn’t tell you was that was a month to month comparison, and that is NOT how economists measure inflation.  Inflation is measured by comparing the current month’s prices to the same month in the previous year.  And THAT number was 8.5%, another almost 40 year high.  He also didn’t tell you that if you had done the same month-to-month comparison in June, you would have found a 17.2% increase.  I don’t remember him touting that number last month.  Plus, after a huge month-to-month gain like that, is it right to be bragging about a monthly result that was just as bad?  Either Joe doesn’t understand the fundamentals of our economy or he is trying to deceive a small number of people who will hear his claim of ZERO inflation and not question it.  Either way, it speaks poorly of the President’s grasp of the issue or his honesty.

Joe does, however, seem to have an affinity for the word Zero.  Remember, last year he claimed that his $3.5 Trillion Build Back Better bill would cost us “Zero”.  Unfortunately for Joe, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) and fact checkers found that claim to be totally false.  Not only would it have to be paid for by increasing taxes, but it would also add hundreds of billions of dollars to our nation’s debt.  Beware of politicians who suggest that their programs won’t cost you anything.

The other “whopper” of the week was told by our Attorney General, Merrick Garland.  When speaking of the raid on Donald Trump’s home at Mar-A-Lago, Garland said that he and the FBI do not make decisions like this lightly, and that, “where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search, and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken.”  Now, what he said might be true, and by making that statement he is suggesting that is exactly what he and the FBI did in this particular case, but that is not at all true.

First of all, he could have just attained a subpoena for the materials that he wanted.  That would have been “less intrusive”, but that is not what he did.  He obtained a search warrant, which was very public, with lights flashing and 30 armed FBI agents in the pitch darkness of the early morning in Florida.  Second, the warrant, which we have now seen, was not “narrowly scoped”.  This warrant allowed FBI agents to search any room in his home not occupied by other people and to take “any governmental and / or Presidential records created between January 20/2017 (Trump’s inauguration day) and January 20/2021 (Biden’s Inauguration day).  This allowed 30 agents to search every room or other buildings for eight hours (a total of 240 man-hours).  This search allowed them to forage through his safe and Melania’s closet.  It also, somehow, included taking his passports.  I would not describe this as a “narrow scope”.  You can decide.  Don’t take Merrick Garland’s word for it.  Use your own judgement.

There have also been a couple more attempts at misdirection by this administration.  They just passed the “Inflation Reduction Act” by twisting arms in their own party and without a single Republican vote.  What an achievement!  (that is sarcasm) According to the CBO and many Democrats, including Bernie Sanders, this act will not have any impact on inflation.  In fact, there are hundreds of conservative economists who predict that this law will actually make inflation worse.  Don’t be deceived by the name.

Finally, Democrats will tell you that last night’s drubbing of Liz Cheney in the Wyoming primaries is a sign that democracy is under assault.  Actually, that is a sign that our democracy can work as designed.  The people of Wyoming voted her out of office because she is engaged in an obsession with Donald Trump and not working on the needs and desires of the Wyoming citizens.  Don’t believe the misdirection.  This is exactly how our democracy is supposed to work.  The power is in the hands of the people, not the press or the politicians.  Watch out for the deception as it will come in many forms from both DC and the media!!