accuracy

 Been a while......sorry about that........

I suffer from a malady.  My problem is that I hear things that are supposedly accurate, but I just can’t believe all of them.  Most of the time, if I dig just a little bit, I find that the story isn’t quite what I’ve been told.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve become something of a CNN fan.  I thoroughly enjoy Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper and Kate Bolduan – and I largely find their news to be pretty trustworthy.  Being that here in the US it’s pretty much either MSNBC (yeesh- too liberal) or Fox (YIKES- too GOP oriented*) so it’s nice to find something that’s somewhere close to the middle, and for me, that’s been CNN.

That is, until this last weekend and their coverage of the Golden One’s rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.  CNN described it as a “profanity laden 2-hour speech” where the crowd was “urged to repeat profane chants back to [main speaker]**”.   As I’m watching this report, I caught myself thinking, “surely he can’t be so dumb as to do that in a public setting”.  So, this morning I watched all 2 hours and 15 minutes of the rally and took 4 pages of notes.  (Please don’t feel the need to say you’re sorry.  I chose to do this.)

(Here is the video I watched if you'd like to see for yourself.)

See- here’s the problem: there is no doubt in my mind that Cheeto Christ is not sane, and he’s not qualified for the job.  He says and does so many ridiculous things that we’ve all witnessed for ourselves - eating pets comes screaming to mind - and he continues to do these nutty things with little or no sign of stopping.  So, there is no need to exaggerate these rallies.  Here’s what I found after watching the rally:

1. For 33- minutes prior to him speaking, the crowd had to listen to songs lie "Top Gun Theme", “Ave Maria”, “Nothing Compares 2U” and others played at concert volume levels.
2. [Main Speaker] entering the stage at the beginning of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” and him standing there, swaying, waiving and pointing at people in the audience and singing the last chorus.  Stranger even still, they played Chopin's "Marche Funèbre" just before Greenwood.
3. He launched into his Arnold Plamer story (complete with description of Mr. Arnold’s manhood) which took 12 minutes to tell. 
4. During the Arnold Palmer portion, he said, "Everything the current administration tries turns to…” whereas the crowd said “SHIT!”.  One time and that was all.
5. He described Kamala Harris as “a shit vice-president” One time and that was all.
6. He was taken aback by the build of one of his secret service guys, and said, “Holy Shit” One time and that was all.
7. He said something about kicking someone’s "ass.” One time and that was all.
8. The speech clocked in at 1 hour and 37 minutes, and almost all of the profanity happened in the first 20 minutes.  

And that was it.  Now, I don’t know about you, but this is hardly a "profanity laden speech".  So, he used a couple of bad words- big deal.  There was plenty of other crazy to go around:

·       All the usual suspects - Election was stolen; we’re laughed at by the whole world; he won the Florida case; corrupt judges; it’s all a scam; Kamala is the same as Biden; she shouldn’t be the candidate; Democrats are “lunatics”; Biden is old; Chuck Shumer and Nancy Pelosi “to ok the nomination away [from Joe Biden] him”, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum, ad infinitum.....

·       Some new ones, though:

• Harris is dumb, and she didn’t show up for some Catholic dinner.  She “knocks religion” and that “the current administration has been persecuting Catholics – (this was the only mention of Christianity in the whole thing, btw)
• Railed for 2 minutes about Elizabeth Warren and called her “Pocahontas” after assuring the crowd that he’s not a racist.
• Spent 3 minutes talking about Elon Musk, the rocket booster landing and Elon’s black hat.  And that Elon has a golden cap.
• He closed the rally by playing "YMCA" by The Village People- which he danced to.  (He clearly hasn't read the lyrics to that song, which makes it all the more creepy.)

I think you get my point.  There were however, two statements that actually were worse than if he had had a 2-hour profanity laced speech - and neither of these were covered by any media:

In reference to the upcoming election: 

“The 2024 election will usher in a golden age [for the USA] for the next 100 years.”

When talking about “restoring our sovereignty”: 

"I will unlock our magnificent destiny.”

Both of these statements are too close to some of the things a certain German said back in the 1930’s for me.  Quite frankly, I find those more disturbing than the cursing.  Pointing out the cursing is quite pale in comparison to those statements.  (If you haven't read my blog article on that German, you should.)

I must say that while I personally don’t really care much about the cursing, it does demean the office of POTUS.  I would like it if he didn’t do that, but I cannot STAND the bald-faced lies of a stolen election, “the best that ever was”, "never before in history" or the myriads of other somewhat-less-than-true things he’s said.  Salty and exaggerating is one thing; liar is quite another.  Accuracy seems to be a forgotten commodity now, so that means it's time for a story....

(...and the crowd goes mild......)

My paternal grandfather was a Methodist minister and an incredibly smart man- the smartest person I have ever known, and probably the smartest person I will ever know.  He and my grandmother had taken the Methodist vows and treated them very seriously- those being no alcohol, no gambling and no swearing.  (among a few others) He was a very difficult man to live with (yep. that’s where I get it from) and it was near impossible to put one over on the man in any sense of the term.  

When I was young, I had this “gift” of taking my bicycle apart and not being able to put it back together again, whereby I would take it to grandpa, and he would do it for me.  I must have done this at least 5-6 times, and the last time I did it, I managed to be there when grandma had just finished making lunch, so I stayed to eat, even though grandpa had finished fixing my transportation.  So, it’s me, grandma and grandpa eating lunch, and my grandpa starts a conversation:

“So, why do you keep taking apart things that you can’t put back together?” asks Grandpa

“What do you mean?” I reply.

“Like your bicycle.  This must be the sixth time I’ve fixed it for you.” he says.

“Oh- that’s because I’m not strong enough to put it back together.  You’re much stronger than I am.” I answer.

Grandpa takes a bit of his sandwich and looks at me out of the corner of his eye, and speaks with a full mouth, not even trying to hide his real feelings.

“Now, Marc.  You and I both know that’s bullshit.” he says.

Grandma nearly faints.

Grandpa had this thing about “always be accurate” in what you do and say.  Don’t get into hyperbole, and for God’s sake, don’t EVER lie.  If you do, you will get found out, and being called out on stuff like this is pretty terribly in it’s own right.

I’m not saying that CNN lied- Orange Julius Caeser did swear, but it was hardly “laden”.  What frightens me more is how people hear the words like “destiny” and “100 years” come out of Mango Mussolini’s mouth and they think nothing of it.

So, all that to say, check your sources, people.  It’s not hard to do.

 *The GOP is a political party that used to represent Conservative values.  Now, they do nothing but worship a Golden Calf.  You can be a Conservative and not be a member of the GOP.

** I refuse to use this person's real name on the internet, because I will not contribute to the algorithm that catches metrics associated with his name.  If you use his name in a comment below, I can and will delete your comment.