Lies, Lies, and More Lies

From the sublime to the ridiculous, conspiracy theories abound.

Former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters was sentenced to 9 years for her voting data scheme. This convicted felon is going up the river for trying to throw the 2020 presidential election to the Former Guy.

I hope the election board in Georgia, and anywhere else they intend to stall or lie about the upcoming election is paying attention. Nine years in prison is a lot of life to give up for a Charlatan who wouldn’t go out of his way to throw water on you if you were in fire. Here’s the judge: "I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen." Predictably, the MAGA faithful have threatened the judge.

Taking what they learned from their from their 60+ losses in courts all over the land in 2020, the would-be election deniers are better prepared this time. They have changed laws all over, most notably in Georgia, where precinct captains can now demand the hand-counting of ballots , and choose to dispute them in an obvious effort to slow the count to the degree that they miss the federal deadline, and force the issue into the Republican-controlled Congress, where the former president is sure to win another term, the will of the people be damned.

The state’s attorney general, has informed the board that it is exceeding its lawful powers. “A review of the proposed rules reveals several issues, including that several of them, if passed, very likely exceed the Board’s statutory authority and in some instances appear to conflict with the statutes governing the conduct of elections,” said the Sept. 19 memo from Senior Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Young. 

“The board risks passing rules that may easily be challenged and determined to be invalid,” Young warned in the memo. “There are several proposed rules before the board that appear to either impermissibly conflict with or otherwise expand the scope of Georgia statutes,” she added.

You’d think the nine year prison sentence for Tina Peters in Colorado would be a deterrent, but I’m not convinced. There are over fifty new laws on the books across the red states, all aimed at knocking registered voters off the rolls, or finagling how not to count the ballots they don’t like. They understand they can’t win a fair fight, so they’re willing to cheat and risk prison time for a guy who has the loyalty of a Yugo owner.

There is no longer a firewall between the fantasies of conspiracy mongers and the truth. MAGA Media has trumped up (I guess I should capitalize that “t” huh?) another doozy of a tall tale. Last month, it was Springfield, Ohio, site of many salt-of-the-earth Midwesterners. I have a particularly good feel for that place because it is where I had my first commercial radio job. Situated between the capital, Columbus, and the home of the Wright Brothers and NCR, Dayton, Springfield is an unassuming city on what began life as the National Trail, evolved into US Highway 40, and ultimately became Interstate 70, one of about six freeways that traverse the country from east to west.

They tried to make us believe that illegal Haitian immigrants were eating their neighbors’ pets. You’ll note that all it takes is a kernel, and not necessarily an accurate kernel, of an idea for it to get blown out of all proportion. In this case, the kernel was a third hand post recounting the plight of a family with a lost cat. Before you could say “Bob’s my uncle,” a fact-free free-for-all was in full swing.

Not only was there no lost cat—it was in the family’s basement the whole time—the immigrants in question are here legally, and are part of the valued workforce in Springfield.

The operation was successful! There is a whole class of people who have had their shame response surgically removed. The AP is reporting that the MAGA Media is inventing and spreading conspiracy theories about Helene, the hurricane that devastated North Carolina. The ex-president is lying about FEMA being broke, and, according to Forbes, his minion, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Mars) is saying that Democrats used weather-controlling satellites to destroy rural, Republican North Carolina. Could I have made that up. Nope. Not that imaginative, but Marge is.

This kind of reckless lying is putting our FEMA responders in jeopardy. And just guess who the Liar-in-Chief is? As in Springfield, it is ex-president. He has spread this shameless method of character assassination to every level of the Republican Party. From the national stage to sleepy little towns where Republican politicians disparage Democrats with ambiguity, half-truths, innuendo, and out-and-out lies, the hate has spread from the top.

©2024 Jon Sinton