When truth is optional.

April 29, 2026

Another in a series of observations of life as I know it.

Let me take you down
‘Cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever

Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It’s getting hard to be someone
But it all works out
It doesn’t matter much to me

-Paul McCartney and John Lennon

We hold these truths to be self-evident.

-Declaration of Independence

~~~~~

Trust must earned. You have to work at it and display a willingness to be open and honest. Sorry. That’s just the way it is, folks. My dog Thelma cannot be trusted witihin 10 feet of food. Mine or hers or the meals for her pack mates. She knows it. I know it. It’s a given. And it’s up to me to save Thelma from her most nefarious impulses. Thelma is not mendacious, just quirky. It’s how we roll.

In regard to trust or faith in other human beings, I am understandably cautious. Especially in regard to orange-slathered presidents. This explains why so many are dubious about the trifecta of assassination attempts. He’s the boy who always cries wolf. The man of over 10,000 lies. It is rare for him to utter a 5 word sentence in which 3 of the words aren’t patently false. Prevarification is his stock in trade. It’s also a prelude to mental illness. In medical terms, he is a pathological/compulsive liar. Even when truth is the best, most viable option, he prefers falsehoods. This pattern is often rooted in low self-esteem, insecure attachment, childhood trauma, or personality disorders like narcissistic, antisocial, or borderline personality disorder. Our president is, to use a medical reference, crazy as a loon.

So we question his reality as well as ours. Having been lied to consistently since his first campaign in 2015, we’ve become inured to it. And we accept that everything that comes out of his mouth is untrue. How very sad. And frankly, unAmerican. The cherry tree mythology of our first president, George Washington, is foundational. “I cannot tell a lie.” he is supposed to have said. His legacy was that of veracity. How refreshing when viewed from a remove of two hundred and fifty years. Unvarnished truth. A handshake of trust. Today, all is suspect. Never having heard a trustworthy sentence from the current loathsome president, of course we think his assassination attempts are false flags. Why would one think otherwise? So it is not hard to understand the plethora of conspiracy theories swirling around after Saturday’s melee. We simply aren’t buying the situational reality. A guy with a gun and a bone to pick with a slippery con artist got through the shoddy security at the Washington Hilton. Just as John Wilkes Booth slithered silently up the unguarded back stairs to the presidential box at Ford’s Theater. Despite our efforts to surround presidents with security, someone will find a way. The orange oaf’s argument for selling us a bomb proof ballroom is specious. It rests on the premise that the Commander in Chief will never leave the White House. Ever. It will function as a four or eight year sarcophagus. A breathable tomb. Unless, of course, he’s at Mar A Loco playing golf, which of course, is perfectly safe. Or. Does he plan to install an 18 hole golf course inside the ballroom? TBD.

So here is where we live in today’s truthless environment. An assassination attempt may or may not be real. Bloody ears are suspect. Guns aimed through golf course fences are, perhaps, mirages. Nothing that we see with our own eyes can be trusted. What is real? Which begs the obvious question. How will we know when the truth finally slaps us in the face? Get back to me on this, please.