LIE DOWN BESIDE US

This might as well replace 

"E Pluribus Unum" on our money.

It's common belief that Donald Trump and his drunken, dementia-addled, double-talking, cousin-fucking, consigliere Rudy Giuliani have raised lying to a fine art. 

Not at all. Unlike Bill Clinton-- the Utrillo of Untruths -- they don't lie well at all. It's just that they do it every time they take their lips off the rumps of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and Sean Hannity.

Quantity, then, does not necessarily equal quality. There are plenty of others in politics and business who appear to lie with less frequency -- but when they're caught, it's passed off as "misspeaking", otherwise known as a second lie. 

There were two examples of such last week. The original events got major play in the press, while the subsequent "explanations" weren't called out for what they really were.

We first deal with what has already known as "Greatgate".  New York Governor and human foghorn Andrew Cuomo held a public bill signing ceremony on the Lower East Side which changed a law that forced children to prove they weren't willing victims of sex trafficking -- a loophole which remained wide open for several years at the behest of Democrats in Albany. (This should give you an idea of the caliber of our political donors.)

Considering this was a bipartisan bill, you'd think Cuomo would have spoken the usual "reaching across the aisle" and "coming together" blather beloved by "public servants". 

But Cuomo, running for re-election and desperately trying to bolster his "progressive" street cred against Cynthia "Not that Nixon, The Other One" Nixon, decided to turn this event into a campaign speech by bringing up Donald Trump. "We're not going to make America great again," he boasted. "It was never that great." 

I don't know much sports lingo, but I believe that's known as an unforced error. Really, how difficult would it have been for Cuomo to say, "I want to make America even greater!"? Very difficult, apparently, because that's not what he meant. Nice work, Andrew, reinforcing the idea that Democrats hate America! 

"And on day three, I lied again!"

The Guv's gaffe made national news, forcing a woman (of course!) to clean up a man's mess. Cuomo's press secretary Dani Lever issued a "clarifying statement":  the Governor "believes America is great". 

Apparently "clarifying statement" means "utter horseshit". Cuomo himself felt obliged to walk back his statement on the third day. "The expression I used the other day was inartful," said the man who 's supposed to be the greatest orator since William Jennings Bryan, "so I want to be very clear. Of course America is great, and of course America has always been great. No one questions that." Oh, yes you did! 

Cuomo might be Governor in New York, but he's now guaranteed to be seen in GOP campaign ads across the country.  SLOW MOTION NEWSREEL FOOTAGE of American soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima. ANNOUNCER: "These are the people who saved mankind by defeating enemies bent on world domination. But according to Democrats like Andrew Cuomo, they're the not so great generation." 

Good luck with that presidential run in 2020, Guv.

Who says Fox News doesn't like black people? They've
got two different ones there!

At the same time, Fox News had their own battle with the truth. Granted, that isn't an unusual occurrence, but this time it couldn't be brushed off merely as an opinion by self-styled Aryan princess Laura Ingraham.

Moments after the death of Aretha Franklin was announced, Fox had a typical "in memoriam" slide up and running. And moments after that, the internet was filled with people pointing out that the image in the upper right corner was that of Patti LaBelle. 

If Fox News existed in 1977.

Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't run a picture of Aunt Jemima. By way of apology, Fox News' Vice-President Jessica Santostefano -- another woman on clean-up duty! -- offered her own clarifying statement: "Our intention was to honor the icon using a secondary image of her performing with Patti LaBelle in the full screen graphic, but the image of Ms. Franklin was obscured in that process, which we deeply regret." 

You lie like a fox, Jessica! For as Variety pointed out, Aretha Franklin is nowhere in the photo Santostefano referenced.  I guess it was better than admitting the truth, which is at Fox News, any black woman over 40 singing into a microphone must be Aretha Franklin. 

If, as apparent 1984 acolyte Rudy Giuliani said on Meet the Press, "Truth isn't the truth", then surely Andrew Cuomo and Jessica Santostefano must believe a lie isn't a lie. Maybe they can also explain why people hate politics and the news media.

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