Deception

“Bipartisan usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out.” George Carlin

This post is about some things that have happened recently that aptly illustrate what Carlin observed some years back. There are many examples of these, but I want to keep my posts short; better short so I don’t tax my small blog following with a lot of time to read them. In this post I will provide a few examples.

The recently crafted bipartisan Senate bill to address the border crisis was finally published; it is about 350 pages long, and full of so many legal loopholes as to be virtually meaningless. Add to this that we already have existing immigration laws that, if executed, would address the crisis. I am not referring to the various executive orders by the Trump administration that Biden’s subsequent executive orders reversed, but laws that already address the issues at hand. Further, the bill includes provisions for even more foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel, exceeding the funds included for border security, as if protecting the borders of other countries is somehow more important than protecting our own.

Then we are told that there is strong bipartisan support for the military action against Iranian proxies in the Middle East in retaliation for the attacks on our bases; few voices were raised objecting to what we are doing there in the first place. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently lectured against those few voices accusing them of a leadership lapse of isolationism. This guy needs to understand some founding principles as expressed by the founders themselves, like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who clearly stated that that the US should not engage in alliances with any nation, but freely and peacefully engage in commerce with all.

Recently there were bipartisan Congressional hearings about the dangers of social media, during which various tech leaders were inappropriately attacked as if they were engaging in some criminal activity; the basis for such accusations were some tragic incidents involving children due to online bullying, dark messaging, and sexual targeting. While these same things, and worse, happened while I was a kid, they are more widely known now on social media. A bipartisan attack on free speech does not cure these ills, parental control and guidance would. We don’t need an Orwellian solution for what should be societal common sense.

Something that is commonly practiced by both major parties, a bipartisan default if you will, is playing the “saving democracy” card; Democrats accuse Trump of threatening democracy, while Republicans accuse Biden of selling it out for personal gain. The fact is that both parties do little or nothing to honor their oath of office to preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States. I recently came across a word that sent me to my dictionaries, a word that describes a condition known as alethophobia, a fear or dislike of the truth. Whether any of the above are examples of this, or just plain outright lies or equivocations, it seems as if it is an occupational hazard of politicians.

I also have found that there are other topics I wanted to write about, but in reviewing some prior posts of just a few years back, I found them relevant to the same situations we are experiencing now, or as Clarence Darrow once said, “History repeats itself. That’s one of the things wrong with history.” These posts will be republished following this one.