We were told a lot of lies over the last year, and now proof that we’ve been lied to is out in the open.
First, do you remember all of the brouhaha about how theft was a huge issue for retail stores finally resulting in the formal report released by the National Retail Federation on November 29? Well, it was a lie:
The statistic, published in April by the National Retail Federation, was that “organized retail crime” — including the videotaped flash mob smash-and-grab events aired in frequent rotation on the cable and evening news shows — came to more than $45 billion a year.
Specifically, the NRF declared that organized crime accounted for “nearly half” of the $94.5 billion in retail “shrink” attributed to theft or “other causes” in 2021. The claim appeared in the latest edition of the federation’s annual report on organized retail crime.
On Dec. 4, the federation acknowledged that its estimate was a fabrication and it “updated” its report to remove the estimate.
This was all of course after law enforcement hyped up these lies in successful efforts to increase their funding.
Here’s another lie that was recently uncovered. You may remember that the rally on 1/6 was originally billed as a rally, and not a march. This is an important distinction because the security and tactical details are very different between the 2 events. I’m not surprised that the organizers, Women For America First, lied. That’s what trumpers do. But the National Park Service appears to have aided the group with its errors:
Beyond detailing the group’s plans, the report also examined actions taken by the Park Service and U.S. Park Police in preparation for Jan. 6. The report found that Park Service safety officials did not conduct a site inspection ahead of the demonstration or review the group’s “fire and life safety documentation,” as required by agency policy, nor did it “comply with notice requirements regarding prohibited items at the Ellipse, including the prohibition on backpacks and bags.”
It’s been pretty evident that the planning for 1/6 between government agencies was very organized, but it’s still shocking to see the blatant dereliction of duty on the part of the NPS. I’m especially reminded of TFG demanding the metal detectors at the rally be taken down, saying “They’re not here to hurt me”.
Finally I have a lie that is masked by another lie. You may remember that over the weekend the media went nuts for a FOX poll showing TFG up over Biden. This is its methodology section:
Conducted December 10-13, 2023, this Fox News Poll includes interviews among 1,007 registered voters (RV) nationwide who were randomly selected from a national voter file and spoke with live interviewers. Landline (154) and cellphone (853) telephone numbers were selected for inclusion using a probability proportionate to size method, which means phone numbers for each state are proportional to the number of voters in each state.
There’s no way to know how many men v women were polled, how many people were in each of the age brackets the poll uses, how many Democrats/Republicans/Independents, etc. Not only is this not anything like the more or less standard boilerplate that pollsters use, it makes no sense. The methodology is made up, the explanation is impossible to understand, and so the numbers are cooked. This is especially jarring because FOX polls are highly rated for their accuracy and known for their use of a Democratic and a Republican polling firm.
This is exhausting, and the primaries haven’t even started yet.
I gave myself an earworm with the title, so here it is:
