weeks in the history of the House of Representatives as Weiner sees,
face to face, what his colleagues think of him. Like many characters in
Mafia movies, Weiner will "do the right thing." One liar will be gone,
while many other liars will remain, disproving Mom's words that crime
does not pay. In truth, very often, it does.
There are various reasons for the national obsession with Anthony
Weiner. One of them is this: There are many Anthony Weiners in American
public life, American business and American media, who treat lying as an
art form and way of life. There is an epidemic of lying in the upper
strata of American life.
How many people in business have
been told: Send the invoice, the check will go out in a week? A month
later, they are told the check is in the mail. Two months later,
the check is still in the mail. And so forth.
Political campaign
ads have turned into the systematic spreading of lies about
opponents. There is even an epidemic of lies against war heroes such as
John Kerry, John McCain and Max Cleland, among others. Imagine
the dishonesty and gall of former draft-dodgers and
service-shirkers attacking American war heroes from both parties about
their military heroism.
How many
American homeowners filled out paperwork to renegotiate home loans,
working with banks, only to have the banks file the foreclosure papers?
Lies, lies, lies.
President Obama has been the target of
lies about his birth, religion and Americanism that are sick even by the
low standards of American politics.
Yet President Obama was
claiming he was fighting for the public option on the healthcare bill
long after his aides had privately surrendered the public option
in secret meetings with lobbyists. Call this what you will, but when
Obama said he was fighting for the public option it was not the
truth. Then certain White House aides who surrendered the public option
while the president was saying he supported it, demeaned liberals for
championing the public option the president claimed he supported.
Our
financial system is riddled with Wall Street firms lying to their
clients, while selling them products they knew were defective.
When clients bought those products in good faith, they were not told
their Wall Street sellers were shorting them, i.e., betting they would
fail. Lies. Lies. Lies.
If you watch the excellent movie "Too Big
to Fail" on HBO, the whole idea of giving banks huge sums of taxpayer
money was for the banks to loan the money to creditworthy business and
consumers. Which they have refused to do, even though they promised when
they were desperate. More lies.
Last year when I appeared on
MSNBC I was chatting with a Republican who was on the show with me. In
our private chat he agreed with almost everything I said, then asked me
not to disclose what he really believes, then joined me on the show to
tell the audience the exact opposite of what he believed.
This
happens often on cable news. The audience is regularly deceived about
what those who appear actually believe, because most of those on
television are not there to tell the audience the truth. They are
there to play predetermined phony Kabuki roles, for one party or the
other. Telling the truth to the audience is not the prime directive in
a medium that is largely an inside joke among insiders.
I think
John Edwards is about as sleazy as it gets on a personal level. My
suggestion is we put Edwards in cage for a week, and let people walk by
the cage and give him the finger to express their views.
But
criminal charges against Edwards are a big stretch, and even worse, why
are they charging Edwards while nobody in the great Wall Street and
banking scandal of our age is charged for anything?
Is there
anybody who reads these words, from Tea Party readers to liberals, who
actually believes that no crimes were committed in the great financial
scandal? Lies, lies, lies by those who committed the crimes, by those
who covered up the crimes, by those who find pathetic and
dishonest excuses not to prosecute the crimes.
In the lane at the
top of the modern world, crime pays. The criminals do not
get prosecuted, they receive bonuses for the crimes. One party lacks the
guts to prosecute the crimes. The other party calls the crimes
capitalism and lies about opponents, calling them socialists. While both
parties seek donations from the criminals who are not prosecuted.
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