Old Saws
By Dr. Jim Ferguson
There is an old saw that goes, “Lies, damn lies and statistics.” I am no statistician, but I know that “lies and damn lies” certainly apply to the mainstream media (ABC, NPR, NYT, etc.). The Founders are surely rolling in their graves that the First Amendment protects these scurrilous operatives.
The latest fabrication by the Associated Press (AP), the NYT and others is that JD Vance said school shootings have become a “fact of life.” Vance’s full statement regarding the Winder, Georgia, murders is, “I don’t like that this is a fact of life, but if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we need to bolster security at our schools.” The AP withdrew their report, but not before Kamala repeated the lie. Vance is right, our kids are targets and the media lies.
I understand mistakes, but repeatedly misinforming is not a mistake; it is purposeful. I’ll cite two other examples of journalistic “misinformation.”
After the August 2017 violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, over removing Civil War statues, President Trump said, “There were very fine people on both sides” of this issue. But he specifically said he was “not talking about neo-Nazis and White Supremacists” and said they should be “condemned totally” (Snopes). And yet Kamala continues to repeat this lie.
And on January 6, 2021, Trump said, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Democrats ridiculously allege that Trump was inciting a riot. The Biden/Harris Department of inJustice continues to persecute Trump with their lawfair.
A saw is a proverb or maxim. An example is all politicians lie. They certainly exaggerate and present their positions in the best possible light. President Trump is a lot of things, but he is not a politician. He’s a businessman, a CEO, a conservative, a successful former president and I could go on. Politicians rarely tell you what they really believe, especially during election season. This is certainly true of the flip-flopping Kamala and her socialist sidekick. The saying,”It is what it is” defines Donald Trump. There is no subterfuge. And this is what threatens Democrats and leftist journalists who now proclaim freely that Trump is an existential threat – to them – and he must be destroyed. Trump is a threat to the ruling class of Washington, D.C., and the elitist America-hating media of the “left coasts.” He threatens their power and gravy train.
In the last week, two friends have asked me why people are so blind to Kamala’s border disaster with crime, drugs and 300,000 children who have been lost by ICE (immigration, and customs enforcement), perhaps to child labor and trafficking. And how can anyone trust Kamala with the economy that she and Biden damaged? They printed and spent money we didn’t have which made every dollar in your pocket less valuable through inflationary pressures.
I have thought long and hard about why Democrat progressive socialists and I see the world so differently. Since I am trinitarian at heart, I envision three possible explanations for this conundrum.
The first is the uninformed crowd. I am engaged in the news and politics, but others are working, taking care of their kids and don’t have time to search for the truth which is often elusive. Those totally oblivious might also be in this group for different reasons.
The second explanation for what I call reality-blindness is the misinformed, a perspective Democrats scream about, but actually promote. Unfortunately, the veracity of a statement or an issue is difficult to determine because the media and their fact-checkers have repeatedly been shown to be liars.
The last explanation for reality-blindness is ideologically informed, where someone’s ideology so colors their vision of the world that they are no longer capable of objective observation or reasoned discernment. The patriot Thomas Paine once said, “To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason, is like administering medicine to the dead.” Examples of such lost souls are Liz Cheney, the ABC debate inquisitors or the talking heads of MSNBC, like Rachel Maddow.
“If you know, you know” is a modern saw that gained popularity with a pop song of the same name. It refers to an inside joke or something known only by a chosen few. Two thousand years ago the Gnostics claimed to have special or exclusive knowledge of the truth. The message of the Good News is simple and available to everyone. It does not require special knowledge, secret handshakes or a religious studies doctorate. Christianity is the belief in Jesus Christ, and so the Gnostics became extinct.
Kamala Harris says her values haven’t changed but promises change from what we’ve seen in the last four years of the Harris/Biden administration. What proof does she offer? Bernie Sanders knows Kamala well. Bernie recently said Harris is just saying what she must to get elected. However, I’ve watched Kamala manage the border, champion Bidenomics and encourage Biden on the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. If you know, you know.
By comparison, I also know of President Trump’s policies, his presidential record, numerous speeches, rallies and news conferences. Trump is the antithesis of everything that is wrong with the Harris/Biden administration, the media, the deep state, the corrupted DOJ and FBI, and the progressive socialist Democrat party.
Americans hate injustice which we witnessed in the ABC debate. The so-called moderators were political operatives. If there was ever a doubt about the media, a fair-minded person would see the overt bias. Kamala will not have ABC media hacks to cover for her if – God forbid – she is elected and has to deal with Putin or China’s Xi Jinping.
In the final analysis, debates rarely produce a knockout punch as happened in the Trump/Biden debate. Everyone expected that Trump would debate three liberals, and as long as Kamala didn’t fall down, she would be declared the victor.
Ferguson’s saw is, “There’s a reason for things.” There is no doubt that every American was better off four years ago. So ask yourself, why do the media and Democrats not want to make America great again?
If America chooses its president on the basis of personality and emotion of a 3 on 1 ambush instead of policy and years of observational reality, make no mistake, there will be generational consequences.
But take heart. My favorite news blogger Don Surber’s conclusion of President Trump’s less-than-knockout performance at the debate: “There will be good days. There will be bad days. There will be better days. But in the end, the American people will do the right thing.”
I pray Surber is right.
