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Editor, The Beacon:
I had a cousin who lied all the time when we were boys. If he broke a window, he said I did it. If he yelled a forbidden swear word, he told his mom the neighbor kid said it.
Stealing cookies, cheating at games — one lie after another without a second thought, without remorse; the bigger, the better.
I remember thinking that when I grew up, I’d be past that nonsense; that adults would be rational, level-headed, mature and honest.
Boy, was I naive.
Despite a clear COVID-19 case trajectory shaped like the upward path of a SpaceX rocket, I watched Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis on live TV today say, with a straight face, “We’ve flattened the curve.”
He went on to weave outdated information with new twists to explain away his political maneuvering and incompetence. (He must have hoped his demagogic mentor was seeing this from Washington.)
Speaking of falsehoods, misstatements and bold-faced lies, try these from our commander in chief: “And when I look at what’s happened in California with the votes, as you know, there was just a case where they found a million fraudulent votes.”
Not true … and this from a man who votes by mail from a home he visits only on holidays.
Because oil and gas companies are huge contributors to his campaigns, Trump coughs up this green-energy slam: “If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And, they say, the noise causes cancer.” Really.
Windmills cause cancer, and injecting bleach is healthy for you? Oh, and “99 percent of coronavirus cases are totally harmless.”
How about: “We’re not paying for the tariffs; China is paying for the tariffs, for the 100th time,” shouts Donald J. Trump.
However, farmers and American companies who are actually paying the tariffs that resulted from his actions are regularly contradicting that presidential delusion, as are multiple economic studies conducted since he implemented the stupid tariffs.
Those are only a tiny sampling of the approximately 19,127 false and misleading statements by the president as of June, as compiled and recorded by data fact-checkers.
I learned an important lesson while growing up, that some people can’t be trusted to tell the truth. I never thought in a million years though that the governor of Florida and, especially, a president of the United States of America would have fewer scruples than my 7-year-old cousin.
Greg Heeter
DeLand
