Author: Harry Herget

Lies ‘R Us “Lies ‘R Us” isn’t a big box store or a board game for death row inmates or even a brand of cosmetics for women over fifty. “Lies ‘R Us” is an invisible country. It’s been around for decades, but in an amorphous and leaderless form that defies detection.  It’s population totals in the tens of millions and a typical citizen looks just like a majority of Americans.  They are, in fact, our brothers and sisters, neighbors, co-workers, fellow parishioners and team members. “Lies ‘R Us” is inhabited by disaffected Republicans.  Yes, its provenance is political and most of its residents are White. What caused these widespread segments of “Lies ‘R Us” to unite and become one, formidable political force? Answer:  Its leader, Beelzebub Au Gratin. The B-A-G.  He’s the epitome of lies…a continuously erupting volcano of lies…a Biblical tsunami of lies. The BAG animates the resentments that bind his followers…he legitimizes their long suppressed resentments…he demonizes all who challenge these resentments…The BAG is tantamount to a spiritual incarnation of an alternate morality…a sanctioned gateway to channel pent-up resentments against people of color, women, Democrats, science, election results…he’s the personification of a “basket of deplorable” values his followers proudly, no, indignantly carry on their shoulders to spite what we all know to be right, just and fair.  Those who find a home in this twisted universe, are...

Groundhog Year My wife and I went into isolation a year ago after news of a deadly pandemic spreading across the country. We’ve been extraordinarily vigilant in our adherence to mitigation protocols—wearing masks, social distancing, washing our hands, sanitizing touched surfaces — moreover, we’ve rarely ventured beyond our home. It’s not been fun; in fact, the novelty of it all wore off about thirty days in.  Much of our time was invested in news about the continuing spread of the virus and efforts being made to stop it. What we learned was infuriating. Less advanced countries placed a priority on their nation’s healthcare response; procuring needed medical equipment such as PPE and respirators, sponsoring countrywide Covid testing, self-isolating plus quarantining and contact tracing the infected. America, in stark contrast, was behaving like an unevolved, undiscovered, primitive tribal culture.  We were lost in some bizarre fantasy under the malevolent leadership of a shaman; a science denier; a well dressed Clorox salesman who favored ingesting toxins and exposing our entrails to UV light in lieu of respecting scientific facts. COVID-19, like nuclear weapons, exploded all across our country. People got infected.  People died. More people got infected and more people died. Death everywhere. The death count today exceeds 550,000.  Another country that learned of the pandemic one day before our War Lord, followed the science. Mitigation protocols were mandated nationwide from...

Telling The Truth Isn’t Enough. I get it. The “whole truth” renders the truth incomplete.  It’s like a mosaic that can only be understood in its totality.  Individual tiles are true parts of the whole picture, but they reveal little to nothing by themselves.  All have to be arranged precisely in order to complete the whole, true meaning of the mosaic. One purpose of a defense attorney is to create an alternate mosaic by using random “true” tiles from the genuine mosaic to complete a different “picture” that reflects his/her defense strategy. What they can’t change is the immutable “whole truth”.   They know it defines their case and thus is anathema to their narrative. Yes, the crowd that had gathered outside of Cup Foods in Minneapolis was shocked by their witness of Officer Derek Chauvin kneeing the life out of George Floyd.  All acted as good Samaritan’s who tried and tried to rescue the dying Floyd. Some kept yelling for Chauvin to get off of Floyd’s neck, others videotaped the scene and one, Genevieve Hansen, a certified first responder-EMT, was anguished as her offers to provide life-saving CPR to Floyd were repeatedly rebuffed; moreover, she was belittled by the Minneapolis police on scene. The truth — Genevieve Hansen was there, a witness and she was upset. Defense Attorney Eric Nelson, trying to create a faux mosaic in the minds...