Lying and Cheating

 

The United States celebrates Presidents’ Day this week, which honors Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Washington supposedly did not lie and, as a child, admitted to chopping down a cherry tree to try out his new ax. Perhaps the story is a fable, but it is a good moral lesson for children to learn about our first president. One of Lincoln’s nicknames was “Honest Abe”, as he was considered to be a man of his word. How times have changed!

Transition now to our most recent president (DJT) who set no example for our children about moral behavior. On the campaign trail, he regularly cursed during his speeches, something no modern president has done. He lied while in office and continues to lie as a private citizen. DJT reportedly cheated associates and students at his university, refused to pay many hired contractors, and misled his accountants. The American people were told falsehoods about COVID treatments and their severity when he had information that was the opposite of what he said in public. He silenced the officials who did not agree with him about public health and safety.

Even after his contracted scientists rapidly developed saving vaccines, he was reluctant to promote them because many of his supporters had become vaccine deniers and mask averse. When he belatedly promoted the vaccine booster, many in his audiences booed; he could have led them, but he decided to instead follow their misguided opinions.

Of course, his continued utterances against the 2020 election outcomes have been nothing but lies and he persists in efforts at the state level to push the ideas that many votes then were fraudulent. As a result, legislatures, dominated by Republicans in red states, have doubled down, repeated his lies, and treated them as truths. Now many are trying to outdo the previous excesses and mistruths. Republican Party members in Florida, Georgia, and Texas are being joined by others in Arizona and Wisconsin in still trying to recount or deny the last election and prevent fair voting in the 2022 elections. Ron DeSantis in Florida is urging multiple extreme measures to be passed in the Florida legislature and is trying to ban public demonstrations.

There are many reports that members of the Republican Party in Florida visited several elderly or minority housing developments in South Florida, supposedly to help the residents update their voting registrations. Instead, they re-registered the residents, altering their party status to Republican from the previous status as Democrats. Many of the voters first learned of this when they received their new ID cards as Republicans; for several people, these cards were received too late to fix the status before the primary, thus keeping them from any action as a partisan primary voter. Florida primaries are closed, meaning Democrats vote for Democrats and Republicans can vote for candidates in their party. The voters whose registrations were changed are essentially disenfranchised until their status can be fixed. However, as the Florida Republican Party has shown, lying and cheating worked for them!

The saying from Mark Twain: “A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots,” appears to be appropriate here. Truth has gotten precious little fanfare these days as the noisy liars drown out the truth-tellers. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has joined with the former president and is now supporting a primary opponent to former Republican Party leader Liz Cheney in her 2022 Congressional race. Cheney, a true Conservative, but an opponent of the insurrection and a member of the House Select January 6^th Committee, has also incurred the wrath of the Republican National Committee, perhaps at the urging of the former president and the MAGA folks in the party. Because she is truth-seeking, she has been abandoned by her party.

Now onto the international scene: The Russians and the Olympics.

Well, first the President, Vladimir Putin as a liar, he is a champion. He lied when he went into Georgia, Moldova, and Crimea. Why should we expect him to do otherwise now as he threatens Ukraine? He went into each of those states under the pretext of protecting native Russians who lived there from genocidal actions by the local state government. Those claims were false. In Crimea, infiltrators were sent in to destabilize the government and cause disruptions. In Eastern Ukraine, uniformed troops without insignia were sent to take over local governments with the help of Russian-speaking expatriates. The government in Kyiv was against a Russian invasion and fought back. Now, eight years later, they continue to fight skirmishes against the Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region. Shells were sent into that region this week, frightening the residents; Putin sent buses to help evacuate women and children to Russia, promising them a modest stipend upon arrival. Men and boys were encouraged to remain and take up arms. Many reporters noted the shells came not from the Ukrainian forces nearby but probably came from the separatists themselves in an attempt to provoke further battles. Again, Putin went on the air in Russia to decry this assault on Russians and the threat of genocide-all from one car bomb and a few shells that injured no one. Few westerners were fooled this time; they had seen this show before.

As I write tonight, Russian forces surround Ukraine on three sides and are supposed to number close to 200,000 troops. Battleships are in the seas off Crimea, armored tanks, artillery, and field hospitals support the deployed military. This certainly looks like a war is imminent. President Biden, relying on intelligence reports, indicates that it is close and threatens extreme sanctions if this invasion goes forward. News reports state that if Ukraine is not invaded that the US and Russian leaders will meet at a summit on eastern Europe soon. New analysts say Putin is paranoid and believes that NATO threatens his security; he did not want Ukraine to join NATO. NATO does not want it to be a member until the nation is a more mature democracy and has a stable government with less corruption. When DJT was president, he worked to destabilize NATO, demanding that governments pay more for the defense forces. He moved troops from Germany and took other negative measures, much to Putin’s pleasure. Putin did not want a strong unified force; now many claim his aggression has created the unity he feared. NATO continues, because of President Biden’s urging, to speak with one voice and oppose the Russian actions. We all can hope that somehow an invasion can be prevented and the aggressive forces will retreat. As I often say, fingers are crossed.

Elsewhere in China, Russian athletes competed with those of many other countries in the Winter Olympics. For the ice skaters, however, cheating was in vogue. The premier ice skater who had given a stellar performance to the tune of Bolero was a talented 15-year-old girl who was in first place after the first competition round, had been belatedly reported as testing positive for a banned substance in December. This substance, a heart medication often given to seniors, does not enhance performance but might enable endurance. Mixed with this drug were two others that are not banned. No explanation was offered for any of the drugs and the Olympic committee was uncertain what to do about awarding medals, should she medal in the competition. When she skated on her last performance, she fell and missed some of her planned moves, but still came in fourth place. So, the committee dodged a bullet and did not have to worry about awarding her a medal. However, the issue of anorectic 15-year-olds who were given drugs by adults was brushed aside and not dealt with. As the girl left the ice in tears, she was berated by her coach and isolated by her teammates. Discussions are being held to consider raising the performance age to 18, which should defuse the problems of young girls being abused and harming their bodies permanently with intense training and dangerous skating moves. Lying and cheating were prominent here as well.

The nation of China again displayed former tennis star Peng Shuai as a spectator at the games and announced that she had recanted her claims against a senior Chinese Party official, was free to move about and was retiring from tennis. IOC chair Bach, an apologist for the Chinese gave her cover, it seems. The Chinese used a Uyghur athlete to light the Olympic flame in a crass effort to say the Uyghurs are free to move about and are not being subjected to slave labor and reeducation camps. Relatively few people were convinced, despite this showmanship. I think that lying is prevalent here also, don’t you?

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Cases of COVID are decreasing nationally although the daily death rates remain high. Several states have made masks optional; testing and vaccinations continue. Maryland currently has the lowest case rate in the country.

COVID Stats – NY Times

US Totals: Total Cases: 78,378,525. New Cases: 102,590.

Total Deaths: 933,899. New Deaths: 2,184.

Maryland Totals: Total Cases: 998,398. New Cases: 735.

Total Deaths: 14,011. New Deaths: 13.

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Before I close, I want to send thanks to all the athletes who competed for the US in China, and, while we applaud each of the medalists, I also want to thank those who showed up and gave their best efforts at their sports, winning or not.

This has been a kinda down week, so I leave you with some fun panda photos here:

‘Til next week-peace!