Seriously, is lying bad for us?

 

So many lies. You'd think they're growing somewhere, harvested and "sold" to the public.

"Perhaps the most powerful moral argument for honesty has to do with what the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre called "bad faith." Liars deceive others, but in a sense, liars also deceive themselves. When we lie we tend to distort our own view of reality, and the more often we lie, the more habitual this distortion becomes. Over time, the habit of lying divorces us further and further from reality, so we see less and less clearly the choices before us and what is at stake in them. Eventually, we may find ourselves unable to see what we are really doing and how it is affecting others and ourselves. We end up leading inauthentic and irresponsible lives."

Richard Gunderman, MD, PhD*

Is Lying Bad for Us?, Dr. Richard Gunderman, The Atlantic,13 Feb 2013.

Seriously, is lying bad for us?

Everybody lies. Right? 

I mean it’s part of our lifestyle to exaggerate about a multitude of things. 

For instance, it’s normal to expand a little about how much money one has; how successful one’s children are; how smart the kids are; or, what a great sex life one has. Those are just a few common things people lie about.

But that’s small potatoes lying when you think about it. Especially when compared to the average falsehood manufacturing many political people do for a living.

Then there’s the unequalled king of lying, Mr. Trump. Remember his all-time record during his first term? There’s even a Wikipedia page devoted to his record:

"Donald Trump has made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims, including as President of the United States. Fact-checkers at The Washington Post documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during his first presidential term, an average of 21 per day."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_or_misleading_statements_by_Donald_Trump

He’s not done of course. During the first 100 days of his second term, CNN reported, Mr. Trump continued his deceptive style. But, instead of tracking all of them, they listed only 100.

“Some of Trump’s 2025 false claims were about consequential policy matters, others about trivial personal fixations. Some were sophisticated distortions about obscure subjects, others obvious fictions about issues average Americans experience in their daily lives. Many were ad-libbed or posted on social media, but many were scripted into prepared remarks.”

“Aside from the staggering frequency and the trademark brazenness, what stood out was how repetitive Trump’s lying was. Though he regularly sprinkled in some fresh deception, he deployed a core batch of favored falsehoods again and again – undeterred by the fact that many of these claims had been publicly debunked for months or even years.”

Fact check: Debunking 100 Trump false claims from his first 100 days, Daniel Dale, CNN, 29 April 2025.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/fact-check-trump-false-claims-debunked

All this lying doesn’t seem to matter much. Because, like me, most just expect it and discount everything coming from that direction. 

Still, we do face a challenge here.

Because no one knows what is fact and what is not.

*Richard Gunderman, MD, PhD, is a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He is a professor of radiology, pediatrics, medical education, philosophy, liberal arts, and philanthropy, and vice-chair of the Radiology Department, at Indiana University. Gunderman's most recent book is X-Ray Vision.

Itty Bitty Inkling That Things Have Gone Wrong

Do you share my feeling that things have gone wrong? That we are having a tough time figuring out what is true and what is not? Even an itty bitty inkling?

The terrible loss of life resulting from flash flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas is a recent example of “gone wrongness.”

Listen to the Trump people speak, the mainstream media reports, the social media comments, trying to explain why all those kids and adults died in Texas during the recent flood. Why weren’t National Weather Service warnings distributed by the county authorities by cellphone? 

One likely reason is that the Trump people cut back staff and funding at the San Antonio office of the National Weather Service.

According to the Guardian, "Two senior meteorologists at the San Antonio NWS office, which is responsible for forecasting in the Hill Country region, were among the casualties of Musk’s buyouts and layoffs. This included the warning coordination meteorologist, who is usually responsible for liaising with local emergency managers to help translate NWS forecasts into likely impacts that inform local actions such as warnings and evacuation orders."

Deadly floods could be new normal as Trump guts federal agencies, experts warn, The Guardian, Nina Lakhani and Oliver Milman, 8 Jul 2025.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/08/texas-deadly-floods-could-be-new-normal

Still, even if reports had been sent to cellphones like it is done here in our Florida county, we now know the camp leadership would not have heard them because they prohibited cellphones. And the Texas community had not installed warning sirens either. 

Further, Camp Mystic is located on a flood plain next to the Guadalupe River which has overflown its banks more than a dozen times since 1978.

While nothing can bring back those lost lives due to negligence, we can demand that the National Weather Service and FEMA employees be rehired, and funding restored. 

That way, when the next disaster inevitably comes, text warnings can be issued so people might have a chance to evacuate. 

 Don’t you agree?

Camp Mystic is in the middle of "Flash Flood Alley"

AccuWeather

 

Missing in Action… A Democratic Party Action Plan

 

With the Republican Senate’s passing of “Trump’s Most Cruel Bill” and soon the Republican House’s reconciliation, close to 12 million Americans will lose healthcare coverage. There will be $1.2 trillion in spending reductions, mainly targeting Medicaid and food stamps. It’s estimated that 40% of nursing homes and rural hospitals will close. And the federal deficit will expand by $5 trillion over the next decade.

Today, it’s become the norm to see masked, heavily armed goons abducting people off our streets, handcuffing them and disappearing them into unmarked vehicles... no visible law enforcement identification and no warrants. Next stop? El Salvador or perhaps Florida’s newest, the Ron and Don “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades swamps.

Trump’s bill also contains a13-fold increase in ICE’s budget making it the largest secret, masked, police force in the US. It also includes nearly $100 billion to build detention facilities like “Alligator Alcatraz” throughout the nation.

In only a few months of the Trump administration, we literally have devolved into one of those despised, lawless, South American “Banana Republics” we ridiculed in the past. Due process, equal protection under law, freedom of speech, all disappeared and have become just memories from the old days, with solidification of Trump/MAGA authoritarianism now the norm.

Sadly, many of us, regardless of age, gender, ethnic origin or even political party, remain blissfully ignorant of the disaster which is overwhelming us all.

Where is our vaulted defender, the fourth estate... the traditional Media? They remain voiceless, kowtowing to Mr. Trump as though he’s just another law-abiding president, knowing that asking a probing question will mean ridicule and banishment from the White House Press Corps.

And what’s with the Democratic Party?

While the Senate and House Democrats are fighting their best, the party itself remains a spinless mess of silly putty. No leadership. No spirit. No plan to block the Trump/MAGA dissolution of our Constitution.

With so much dependent upon manifesting courageous leadership, the Democratic Party presents as a big inspiring zero. I have yet to see a compelling outreach message to convince me to vote for a Democrat.

Look at the Party’s website. Does it represent all American voters? Does it present convincing text, graphics, photos and videos and speak convincingly to All Americans, regardless of age, gender, ethnic origin or even political party?

A few weeks ago, a letter surfaced via former Sec. of Labor and University of California Professor, Robert Reich. It was supposedly written by former Rep. Liz Chaney to the Democratic Party.

She didn’t write it. It was supposedly written by someone named Dr. Pru Lee.

Still, the message is prescient. If it or something similar were implemented it could catalyze the spinless Democratic Party into a new Super D Party… coordinated, effective, decisive… for all the American people… no one left behind.

Here’s hoping for a transformative miracle to prevent a Trump/MAGA authoritarian catastrophe.

And here’s Dr. Pru Lee’s post: