Deception

El Al Lounge at JFK

See, the plan was to finish writing this while I sat in the very kosher El Al Lounge at JFK, sending it out before I boarded my very posh flight to Tel Aviv. I was so looking forward to flying the new Dreamliner jet with its business class suites and all kosher meals. Maybe I'd be brave enough to daven shacharit in the air. I was seriously excited about the flights since Delta stopped flying into TLV and they had moved me to El Al in both directions. And I would still arrive during Sukkot. But.....

It wasn't the war that put a kibosh on the trip; it was a health issue for friends in Israel. Being a house guest right now would not be a great idea, and after many texts and phone calls, we decided I would postpone the trip. The ticket was fully refundable, so it wasn't like I was gonna have penalties up the wazoo. In fact, I cancelled the flights on the 17th and the ticket is already refunded. Which is a small miracle all by itself....as AmEx is sending me a cheque for the full refund because it may as well be earning interest in my bank account. But that is little comfort because I want to be sitting in a coffee house with my friends instead of sitting in my own kitchen. 

One of the bonuses of going now was the lovely idea of being out of the country during the last two weeks of the election. I was so happy at the thought of missing all those bull-hockey hate ads I was already seeing. AI is clearly the devil since so many of the ads were manipulations of all manner of media. It's beyond disgusting; it's revoltingly shameful on the nation. 

There was one ad in particular about Kamala Harris pushing for sex change operations: it is a complete misrepresentation of the fact. It's a complex issue and providing appropriate care for transgender inmates must be addressed as part of the prison system. FactCheck.org does a respectably good job of explaining the complexity and the issues attached to Harris's position. What the GOP does not mention in their nonsense attack ad is that the care in question is part of a federal mandate for prisoners. In other words, it's the law. Sure, there are unanswered questions, but she is not advocating sex-change operations for all. 

Here's the thing: there is absolutely no way to combat campaign lies. Feckless Felon's stump speeches are chains of not exaggerations, but outright lies. And there is no way to stop him when he spews hate and deceit. Not to mention descriptions of a dead golfer's genitalia. What is wrong with this guy?

More importantly, what is wrong with America that half the population seems to want to trust a man who augared into the ground every business he ever owned, who made money off his own Secret Service by overcharging hotel rooms, who sent Vladimir Putin COVID testing supplies when they were unavailable to medical establishments here, with nuclear codes and the safety of our country? The media repeats everything regardless of veracity since salaciousness sells. 

Oddly, Thomas Jefferson confronted the same problem 217 year ago as he wrote to his friend John Norvell on June 11th, 1807

To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, “by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.” Yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more compleatly deprive the nation of it's [sic] benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. I really look with commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens, who, reading newspapers, live & die in the belief, that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in their time; whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are just as true a history of any other period of the world as of the present, except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables. General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful warrior, that he has subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, &c., &c.; but no details can be relied on. I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.                            

Of course, he didn't have the 10-second newscycle and social media to contend with, which means he did not have access to instant, internet fact-checking, something now so critical for disseminating misinformation. 

Power to the Soviets

Free speech is a tough thing to cherish. On one hand, you want someone to stand up screaming THE EMPEROR IS NAKED; on the other hand, that can land you on a raft of trouble...from death threats to well....more death threats. Gone are the corner soap boxes, replaced with loudspeakers like TikTok, Instagram, FaceBook, and even (heaven forfend!) Truth Social...giant, bubble-creating feedback loops which stymie any attempt to discern truth from fiction. But it doesn't matter. A willing and eager audience stands by waiting for these gems to be dispersed like sneezes..germs carried on the air we breathe, sucked into our lungs only to travel into our brains where....if we don't completely fall prey to the nonsense, we begin to doubt the veracity of anything and everything we hear. In short, we are inundated with propaganda. As a 1960s kid, we used to learn about Communist propaganda. It was overt, depressing looking art, posters and slogans meant to intimidate the viewer to comply with the message. 

But these days, the images are meant to evoke something else. Maybe they want you to believe these are serious guys who are going to save America from her enemies. The firm jaw is a masculine sign for strength and determination. Vance's beard is a virility meme all by itself. This poster is designed to project not only physical strength, but strength of pose as well. 

Feckless Felon wants you to believe he is extraordinarily soooo bad, he had trading cards made up. Oh wait, those are NFT cards...non-fungible....which means "... trading cards are virtual counterparts to traditional trading cards, existing solely in digital format and managed via online platforms or applications." The images are meant to portray super-hero powers in a variety of endeavors. Are you supposed to believe Feckless Felon can do all this stuff? He's like a kid at Halloween, believing that if he dresses the part, people will believe he is that character.

Over the past weekend, Feckless Felon cemented his place as a no-class, vile, liar. Forget his 12-minute discussion of Arnold Palmer's genitalia, forget the incoherency of his remarks, but do remember he called the sitting Vice President of the United States "a shit vice president." Something about that set off all sorts of bells and whistles for me. It was incredibly disrespectful to use salty language at a rally. That was offensive....and frankly, I swear like a sailor. Secondly, it was disrespectful to the office of the Vice President. Name calling is sinking to the level of a first grader. He is running for President of the United States, a grave and serious position and he demeaned it with his foul language and graphic descriptions of another human being. Even if you don't respect the occupants of that office, his disrespect for the office itself makes me wonder how anyone can think he is fit to be there. 

Is this the image he wants his supporters to take forward into the presidency? That he is a crude, classless, incoherent felon? I'm not sure, but his minions seem not to care. Maybe they do want someone who will shit on the Great Seal carpet in the oval office. If he does, it would not be far-fetched. He did it figuratively in his first term

Maybe we really do deserve the government we elect...whether we voted for that party or not. But if he is elected...and heavens knows, I hope he isn't....there are no do-overs in America. No way to recall the presidential election. There is no no-confidence vote.  The amount of damage he can do is unfathomable. We will just have to live with his policies....hopefully for only 4 years. Or not.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Eric Hoffer got it right when he said:

"Propaganda does not deceive people; 

it merely helps them to deceive themselves."