America…
“You Can’t Handle the Truth” !!!

 
  

I reflect upon my eight decades of life in the land of the free and the home of the brave, and I lament…

In the year 2023, a shocking forty percent (plus) of Americans refuse to discern what is real and what isn’t ??? What is true and what it is not ??? — despite the lessons of history convincingly showing us that discernment of “reality and truth” is the most basic component of evolution, natural selection, adaptation and survival of all species.

Hey America !!! Wake up to the danger of “false realities, lies and half-truths.” In the battle where only the fittest survive, there is no time or energy to waste, punching at shadows in the background or flailing away at visual and audio hallucinations. In the long run, discerning reality and truth… is the only thing that will serve and save America. In the short run and long run, Machiavellian distortions of reality and truth spun by Wizard of Oz characters from “behind the curtain” will only destroy America. As my Bookie Father would say about a sure bet… “Take that to the bank.”

Reality & Truth Irrelevant for Half of America…

Based on the numbers… (1) the number of votes Trump received in a losing effort in the 2020 Presidential election, and (2) based on the recent, 2023 polling showing Americans equally divided between Trump and Biden (in the upcoming 2024 election), it is apparent that reality and truth for 40% (plus) of America are just “subjective feelings” and “wishful thinking.” America, you have a substantial number of your citizens (over 40%) who flat out reject both intellectual honesty and the search for truth and reality. That 40% (plus) of America opt to bury their heads in the sand and find truth and reality from that which they “wish” to be true and “wish” to be real… not from that which is actually and factually true or real. 

Early on in life, that 40% (plus) of today’s Americans (who have no care, concern or use for truth or reality) were set up for the kind of modern-day, political indoctrination we see all around us in 2023. Early on in life, many of today’s Americans were indoctrinated in childhood (and adolescence) by well-intentioned Religious Elders… Elders who urged their religious followers to be True Believers of “unprovable” religious dogma they were teaching. Now, fast forward to today. In 2023, these 40% (plus), religiously indoctrinated Americans of yesterday have gone one half-step further and moved on from their religious indoctrination of yesterday… to their rabid political indoctrination of today.

If you doubt the power of “indoctrination,” let me give you a definition of it… right from the mouth of our former President, Donald Trump…

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, okay? … It’s, like, incredible.”
 
How can this be ???  The answer to the question lies in in discerning… who is Trump referring to as his “voters” ???

First, the Wizard of Oz Orangeman is referring to his Christian base. Trump, ever the Master of Demagoguery (“appeal to fear, hatred and bias”) played on the religious biases of American Evangelical Christians, those very same Evangelicals who gave us Republican Televangelist, Pat Robertson… he who read the “infinite” mind of God in 2022 and told the rest of us that God “compelled” Putin to invade the Ukraine to trigger Armageddon. Now that’s my kind of prophecy… a prophecy  that “compels” me to transform my sauna to a fall-out shelter (if I had a sauna).

Ever the demagogue, the Wizard of Oz Orangeman promised the Evangelicals and other Christian Nationalists his personal endorsement and America’s sponsorship of Christianity as the Religion of America. The Wizard of Oz Orangeman then appointed Federal Judges and Supreme Court Justices who shared the “unprovable” belief system he was selling… “America is a Christian Nation” (which it is not, and which if it were, would violate the 1st Amendment prohibition against “establishment of religion”). Translated, the Wizard of Oz Orangeman told (and sold) the Evangelicals (and other Christian Nationalists) on the idea that he would appoint Judges who would protect Christian virtue by elevating Christianity above all other religions in America… which obviously violates the don’t-establish-a-religion clause of the 1st Amendment. And, boy did the Evangelicals and Christian Nationalists jump on board the Wizard’s bus… chipping in tons of money for gas.

True to his word, the Wizard of Oz Orangeman appointed right wing, Christian Justices to the Supreme Court who “under the radar of convoluted legalese” adroitly repealed (on a de facto basis) the Founding Fathers non-establishment of religion clause of the 1st Amendment. See (among other cases) Little Sisters of the Poor vs Pennsylvania where the good Nuns were granted vetoed power over an Act of Congress (repeat, “veto power over the American Congress”), vetoing Obama Care birth control, insurance coverage for the Nun’s women employees because… well because… “birth control is a Sin.” Inspiring the questions ??? Sin for whom ??? By whose authority ??? And, who are those of “finite” human minds… who claim the power to read the “infinite” mind of God and tell us “birth control” is a Sin ??? And, how the heck can the U.S. Supreme Court allow the special interest, Christian group, the Little Sisters of the Poor, veto an act of our Congress on the “unprovable” claim that “birth control” is a sin ???… especially where Christ (as in Christianity) never mentioned the subject (not even in the widely publicized Sermon on the Mount). And, especially where the well-respected, Guttmacher poll of 2011 indicates that 99% of Women have engaged in the practice of birth control. See the March 19, 2012 New Yorker, page 23.

Catholic Nuns at a Tump Rally in Michigan

The religiously, “indoctrinated” Evangelicals and other, right wing, Christian Nationalists (in their quest for America’s sponsorship of Christianity) conveniently overlooked the history of human carnage that always lies in the wake of egomaniac-strongman, sociopathic dictators who hide their evil deeds behind the curtain of religion… like the Wizard of Oz Orangemen does. Just recall the violent dispersing of legal protestors outside the White House so the amoral, non-religious, Wizard of Oz Orangeman could hold up a Bible for a photo-op at St John’s Church in Washington D.C. (three years ago) on June 1, 2020.

Second the Wizard of Oz Orangeman used his trademark demagoguery (“appeal to fear, hatred and bias”) to con and give false hope to an economically challenged, underdog, group of America workers. Mostly White, middle class and lower class, American workers, formerly and derisively known by the Republicans as “non-rugged, individualist… whiners.” The Wizard of Oz Orangeman cleverly promised those mostly, White American workers that he was “the only one” on their side and that “he alone” could solve their decades’ old complaint… loss of purchasing power aka inability to earn a livable wage. 

The workers’ complaints were legit. For decades, the American worker had been caught in a hopeless, economic pattern of losing purchasing power decade after decade. From the 1970s on, workers’ wages were not keeping up with inflation. The Wizard of Ox Orangemen, during his first run for President, assured those (mostly) White, middle and lower class workers that “only he” could and would make both them and America Great Again. 

But, when elected (and when the Republicans were in control of the Senate and the Congress)… the Wizard of Oz Orangeman did very little, if anything, to help the American workers. He did the opposite. He used his Republican control of Congress to lower his taxes and the taxes of his wealthy buddies in Corporate America… by a third. Some would say the Wizard is a Faux Populist deceiving the workers just to get their vote. Those in the neighborhood I grew up in Detroit would say the Wizard is a “phony”… the worst kind of phony, one who sells false hopes and false dreams to those who have so little. And, No !!! creating a multitude of jobs for workers who cannot earn a livable wage, is nothing more than a shell game and a placation of the masses.   

Today, my money says that the American worker (not accustomed to, nor necessarily adept at ferreting out the truth) will still support the Wizard of Oz Orangemen in the upcoming 2024 Presidential election, as those workers still await the promised “salvation” their Orangeman Savior promised. And, as the Wizard of Oz Orangeman will now tell those American workers (in self-serving, dishonesty) … “The Democrats stopped me from helping you workers. So now, you workers must give me the second term I need to (shazam) save you from your lives of quiet desperation and loss of earning power.” 

But, “reality” and “truth” be known, the Wizard of Oz Orangeman “conned” the Middle Class workers… who are really the true victims of “decade’s old” loss of earning capacity, tied to the failures of several Republican administrations, especially…

• Tied to the Republican’s long standing, “trickle down” economic theory… engineered by President Reagan, then called “supply side economics” in the 1980s, and 
• Tied to the Wizard of Oz Orangeman himself … who, after his 2020 election, lowered the taxes of his friends in Corporate America by 30% claiming it will “trickle down” to the workers (which it didn’t and never does), and 
• Tied to the Wizard’s, Republican, Corporatists’ buddies (noun… “a person who advocates for the control of a state or organization by large interest groups”) e.g.  wealthy, Corporate interests.

 

Third, the Wizard of Oz Orangeman’s narcistic, personality disorder appealed to a hodge-podge of the religious and politically “indoctrinated,” Libertarians and White Supremacists who believe in more and more Guns of Mass Destruction, but not vaccinations, masks or America’s citizens cooperating as teammates to defeat Covid. Those uninformed, hodge-podge of Americans who don’t have a clue or any interest in finding truth or reality will (again) vote for the Wizard of Demagoguery because they don’t know they are being played by the Wizard and the NRA… who are telling them that Biden and the Democrats are coming for their Guns, Bibles, and their Libertarian way of life.

 
 
Second Amendment Warriors at the State Capitol in Michigan…
Protecting their Gus, Bibles and Libertarian Views on Covid

I think it safe to say, the evidence shows… that for the Wizard of Oz Orangeman’s base pictured above, the search for “truth” and “reality” has been replaced by religious and political indoctrination. For them, rather than a search for truth and reality, there is only a preexisting penchant and knee jerk reaction of the group-think indoctrination of the herd and a “wishful thinking”… that they prefer over the years of hard work, individual effort, deductive reasoning, logic and critical analysis necessary to find truth and reality. Years of hard work and effort that postpones for decades the power of acquiring true knowledge, certainly no match for the instant power and gratification of holding weapons of mass destruction… like the American misfits shown above (including the man on the far right, Brandon Concerta… who was indicted, but acquitted in the Governor Whitmer kidnap plot). 

America, your 40% (plus) strong support for the Wizard of Oz Orangeman has been exposed. And what do we see ??? 40% (plus) of America’s “group think” on a tour bus, heading to the next rally for the Wizard of Oz Orangeman… a tour bus full of lemmings with Ralph Cramden and Archie Bunker at the wheel of the “Make America Great Again” Bus, heading full speed ahead to the edge of the cliff. Goodbye Ralph. Goodbye Archie. And goodbye American Democracy.

 
100% of America Takes the Hit…
for the 40% Who Refuse to Search for Truth 

As Jack Nicholson said from the witness stand in the 1992 movie A Few Good Men… “You can’t handle the Truth.” I see a substantial number of Americans (40% plus) who simply have no interest in the concepts of truth or reality. No interest in searching for it, finding it, or even accepting it when it is put on a silver platter in front of them. I see an America that has fallen from the courage, strength and tenacity of the Greatest Generation to a mob that is going backwards, full speed ahead, into the dark ages where… wishful thinking and emotional feelings of what their “unengaged” minds want to be true is their truth, and is their reality.

An America that relies on fiction, conspiracy theories and disinformation rather than a search for objective truth and reality. An America all too willing to listen to political con men and internet hucksters of disinformation and non-truth. An America that turns its back on truth and embraces wishful thinking and accepts the distortions and falsehoods they wish to be true and denies the truth and reality they don’t wish to be true. An America that is ready to ingest a bucket full of lies and disinformation rather than put in the effort to search for the truth… an effort that arises out of hard work, logic, deductive reasoning and critical analysis. An American that is all too willing to accept what Fox News tells them is “gospel” even after its owner Ruppert Murdoch and Fox News anchors admitted (under oath) that they falsely cast National Doubt on the integrity of America’s elections… by willfully and knowingly airing lies about who won the election (the very definition of treason), and even after Fox News paid $787,000 million to Dominion Voting Machines for Fox’s admitted lies about the complicity of Dominion’s voting machines in election fraud.

Fox News’ admitted echo chamber of lies, echoing and re-echoing the Big Lie that Trump was cheated out of the election… was repeated day in, night out, every day, over their airways to a gullible and biased 40% (plus) of America who couldn’t care less about the lies and misinformation that Fox was feeding them because they emotionally “wished” for Trump to be President … and the “truth” and “reality” about who really won be damned, along with the integrity of the election process and the American Democracy itself.

I see an America that has been barraged by lies and wounded and weakened from within by political indoctrination, especially the spread of the Big Lie, “Trump was cheated out of the 2020 election.” That Big Lie has been clearly exposed by Trump’s own Attorney General, William Barr. That Big Lie has been clearly exposed by the Republican’s 50 plus, frivolous and unsuccessful lawsuits filed (in bad faith) to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. That Big Lie has been exposed by numerous Courts throughout America (even Courts with Trump-appointed Judges). That Big Lie has been exposed by the abundant vote recounts in swing states, as well as numerous audits and endless second glances at the actual ballots. But, that Big Lie exposed (as it is and was) means nothing to those who have no interest in finding the truth because, well because… those politically “indoctrinated” souls who were preconditioned in childhood and adolescence to believe the “unprovable” dogma of religion now seamlessly slide into the political arena, and just accept the indoctrinated Big Election Lie … even as America’s Democracy goes to hell in a handbag. 

So, the truth be damned. Let America continue full speed ahead, powered by the Big Lie in the Sky, a psychedelic hallucination of Trump winning the 2020 election set to the rhythm of the Beatles’ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Fox News’ Breaking News… of hallucination-grade mushrooms. Fox News reminds me of a bumper sticker from the 1960s… “I Brake for Hallucinations.” But Fox News never brakes. It just rolls on down the American Highway hallucinating its “Breaking News” Big Election Lie and engaged in the traitorous act of intentionally, willfully, knowingly, and falsely adding fuel to the fire that is consuming and destroying America’s confidence in the integrity of America’s elections.

When the 1919 Black Sox scandal cast doubt on America’s pastime, baseball’s Commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, issued lifetime bans to all the participants who cast doubt on the outcome of the World Series games. Isn’t our American Democracy and the integrity of our elections as important as baseball. Hell yes, it is. Why, therefore, does Fox News even exist… let alone be (still) watched ??? Why isn’t America smart enough to see the truth and turn the channel. Why ??? Because 40% (plus) of America does not care about Truth or Reality. I end where I began. The lessons of history convincingly showing us that discernment of “reality and truth” is the most basic component of evolution, natural selection, adaptation, and survival of our very species.

Hey, 40% (plus) of America, what should we bury ??? Your hallucinations of truth ??? Your hallucinations of reality ??? Your penchant for finding truth and reality in your preconceived notions and wishful thinking ??? Or, do we bury America itself along with Democracy, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights ??? Whatever the group think, that passes for truth and reality, whatever the road to Fascism, and whatever the actual cause of death, let me give the Eulogy of America to be read at Trump’s next coronation…

America, believe what you want to believe is true, and “Shazam” it is. America, believe what you want to be real and… “Ta-da” it’s real. America may you rest in peace, and bask in the Glory that was of another day.
 
Dedicated to…

All the thinkers and hard workers, locked into in the constant, unremitting search for the truth and reality.
 
Not dedicated to…

• “Big Lie” Believers, 
• Election deniers,
• QAnon followers and deceivers,
• January 6th insurrectionist invaders,
• Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Neo Nazis, Ku Klux Klan,
• Hitler (1889-1945),
• Stalin (1878-1953),
• Benito Mussolini (1883-1945),
• Al-Qaida,
• ISIS,
• Taliban, 
• Crusaders
   

Copyrighted 2023
Fred Lauck 
On Frannie’s 21st Birthday
July 31, 2002 (@ 1:34 p.m.)