Analysis: Americans now face worse ‘cascade of falsehoods’

FPI / March 10, 2023

Russian dissident and intellectual Alexander Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the Soviet Union one day after writing his 1974 essay “Live Not by Lies.” He was embraced by the United States.

Nearly 50 years after "Live Not by Lies" was published, the nation that accepted Solzhenitsyn (who died in 2008) "now endures a previously unimaginable cascade of falsehoods promulgated brazenly by the most powerful people and institutions in the country," Steve Cortes noted in a March 7 substack.com analysis.

"Consider the lies promulgated in just the last 24 hours. These lies, mind you, are grand ones, with immense consequence."

Lie One: January 6

Tucker Carlson aired stunning video footage from the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021 that destroyed the narrative of a violent "insurrection" pushed by Democrats and their media allies for more than two years.

"The American people have waited years to witness this evidence, even though we own that building and we paid for those cameras," Cortes noted. "Thankfully, new Speaker Kevin McCarthy made good on his promises and provides this transparency as the first step toward a full release to the public.

The video footage aired by Carlson, Cortes noted. "proves, in fact, that January 6th was neither an insurrection, nor deadly, with the notable and tragic exception of MAGA supporter Ashli Babbitt. As Tucker Carlson aptly observed while showing the previously-suppressed tapes: 'these were not insurrectionists, these were sightseers.' "

Cortes continued: "The most glaring ruling class lie involves the so-called 'Q Anon Shaman,' Jacob Chansley. He now sits in a federal prison after enduring nearly a year in pre-trial detention in solitary confinement in Washington. For what crime? 'Obstructing an official proceeding' was the conviction that sealed a 41-month sentence for this military veteran. But the tapes released by McCarthy reveal that police inside the Capitol welcomed and escorted Chansley all around the building, even respectfully standing by as he led a group prayer of protestors. He was not treated as a threat because he wasn’t one, as the video footage makes clear. At worst, Chansley trespassed and engaged in some uncouth behavior. But an eccentric donning a costume hardly deserves a felony conviction and hard prison time."

Lie Two: U.S. Intelligence and Ukraine

In 2023 America, Cortes noted, "media mavens act as stenographers promoting the press releases of the national security apparatus, thinly disguised as legitimate reporting."

Consider the just-released New York Times report: “Intelligence Suggests Pro-Ukraine Group Sabotaged Pipelines, US Officials Say.”

"On its face, the premise is laughable," Cortes wrote. "What rational person believes that the poor and technologically primitive country of Ukraine could somehow muster the means and expertise to stage such an advanced clandestine operation as blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline? We are to somehow believe that Kiev pulled off this incredible SEAL Team Six-like feat, hundreds of miles from Ukraine, undetected, in freezing deep Baltic waters…without the assistance and/or permission of the United States?"

The New York Times, Cortes continued, "threw aside any semblance of journalistic skepticism and simply repeated the regime propaganda of the Washington War Machine. The article states that the attack emanated from 'a proxy force with connections to the Ukrainian government.' For the sake of brevity, at least, the NYT might consider just calling this 'proxy' group by its shortened, three letter name — CIA."

Lie Three: Inflation

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell appeared before the Senate on Tuesday and "tried to dial back the massive lie of the Administrative State regarding systemic and persistent inflation," Cortes wrote. "Powell parroted the equally dishonest Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in repeating the 'transitory' lie for over a year as the inflation tsunami grew."

Powell would finally concede that Team Biden policy will have to be much more aggressively hawkish, meaning rates must rise, and rapidly.

"Markets swooned on the news, with the Regional Banks sector losing 3% on the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding 574 points, and Bond prices tumbling, too," Cortes noted. "That fall in bond prices, which move directly inversely to interest rates, means that 2 Year Treasury Note Yields hit 5%, the highest since 2007."

The ramifications, Cortes continued, "spread far beyond financial markets, to Main Street as well. This inflation presently crushes the prosperity and spirits of America, especially for citizens of modest means. For example, last year a staggering 3.7 million US children were thrown newly into poverty vs. 2021 levels. Right now, total credit card debt approaches $1 trillion, and grows at the fastest pace ever. Given these interest rates, home affordability is now worse than at the peak of the 2007 Housing bubble."

Team Biden continually told Americans that the government could borrow and spend into fiscal oblivion without inflation. That "was a lie," Cortes wrote. "Pretending that the Fed balance sheet could explode from $1 trillion to $9 trillion in 15 years without eventual pain? Also, a lie. Now, we all pay the price for the lies."

As Solzhenitsyn declared in his 1974 essay: “When people renounce lies, lies simply cease to exist. Like parasites, they can only survive when attached to a person.”

Cortes concluded: "It is time for the sensible and moral people of America to reject the falsehoods and dismantle the cathedral of lies."

Free Press International
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