A Tale Of Two Falsities

• 8 Percent Feels About Right 
• Late For Saints Game

So, it is Tuesday, and I spent the morning listening to what was being said about the debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

They are both liars.

They obviously lie because it works; we are talking about the 2 leading candidates here.

I think the lies start rumors and garner "word of mouth" votes, cast by people whose political insight comes in the break room; 15 minutes at a time; over little white frosted doughnuts, a can of Coke and a cigarette.

When Trump say's that he never supported the war, for example; this is heard by everyone watching the debate, but, in this group are a number who will not do any fact checking, i.e. listening to what they are saying on National Public Radio the next day; and therefore the lies will go over their heads. They will win more votes cast by their friends who missed the debate ("That sucks, 'cause I really wanted to see it. I was hoping Trump would tear her a new butt hole! Who do you think won?") and who they will tell that Trump kicked butt, and in fact tore Hillary a new butt hole, and that he won, and is probably going to be the next president, and so they should vote for him.

Lying doesn't hurt either candidate because they are both doing it. It's like offsetting penalties in football.

They are fabricating candidates that will appeal to the ignorant masses. The choice offered is between Superman and Wonderwoman. If they were more honest, then flaws could become apparent. Trump's going to make America great again, for example, and that is good enough for a lot of people who are going to pull levers in November because all other things being equal; it's a nice sounding message. And all other things are pretty much equal. The few who can see through the veil, alas, cast just their few votes.

During the debate, Hillary doesn't have all the facts on her, like do we really have a 500 billion dollar trade deficit with China? And so, she has to stand there and let the lie go out on national television, because she can't say something like: "That is based upon the 1990 value of the dollar," or something, to actually debate what he said, and so she changes the subject. The millions of viewers who are watching, and who will actually vote, might be swayed by Trump's rhetoric.

The ones who will listen to National Public Radio the next day -a relatively small subset- will hear professional news analysts debunk the statements made by the candidate, but they will not be able to cancel out the votes of the larger group that watched the debate, but decided the next morning that they had had enough of news radio ("they're just gonna be talkin' about the debate all day") and who listened to sports or The Dolans talking about how a Roth I.R.A can be a good hedge against the stock market, instead.

Then, there is the group that will still be interested enough the next morning in hearing how the experts have digested the debate, to listen to news radio, but will listen to the pro Trump network station on the dial; where the experts will spin everything in such a way as to leave them blissfully ignorant of any lies having been uttered and looking forward to a Great America.

So, by telling blatant whoppers, a candidate stands to gain far more votes than will be lost.
Mohammad Ali had the idea when he was "the greatest in the world."

The 8 percent who are going to vote for none of the above probably reflect the amount of Americans who are informed and intelligent. 8 percent feels about right.

 Monday Night Pitfall

Last night, I got to the Superdome after the game had already started. I was wondering why, along the way to the stadium, the streets were so deserted. They were all inside the dome.

I started to sit there on my milk crate at the spot where I busk and listen to the game on my little radio, then decided to go watch it at the big Rouses Market right down the street from the dome.
Well, the Saints had some miserable luck and fell way behind the Falcons in the 3rd quarter of the game. I knew that this would cause the exodus from the dome to begin earlier, as the outcome had been pretty much decided. I hadn't expected it to be as early as it was though. As I made my way back to the stadium I was moving against a high tide of disappointed black and gold clad people, and decided not to try to set up and play, as I had already missed a good percentage of people's passing by where I play.