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Trickle-Down Dishonesty [1]

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Date: 2025-07-08

“Trump is an Outlier; an Out and Out Liar.”

So read my protest sign. Trump is a liar. You might even say Trump is a pathological liar as he is so ignorant and mentally impaired he has difficulty discerning truth from reality. Sometimes when he lies, he knows he is lying. Most of the time he probably believes the bullshit he is spewing. Even worse, he doesn’t care if he is telling the truth or not. He believes what he says because he said it. He is so egotistical he thinks, “If I say it, it must be right.”

So if you work for Trump, whether as a lawyer or member of his administration, you learn to lie or else lose your job. The truth is irrelevant.

But you already know that Trump and his minions spew lies.

What you might not know is that, being president, that Trump has exacerbated the erosion of truth and trust throughout modern American culture. I am not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg. Did the insidious erosion of trust and truth give us Donald Trump as president? Or did Trump becoming president lead to the insidious erosion of trust and truth?

It really doesn’t matter. One leads to the other. The new American zeitgeist is dishonesty.

I am currently reading the Carl Sandburg’s biography of Lincoln. Even Lincoln’s enemies who vehemently disagreed with him knew “Honest Abe” invariably told the truth.

Yet it is one thing to read history about a time about a hundred years before you were born, and read recent history during your lifetime. I have read about Ronald Reagan, and can appreciate how his “trickle-down economics” exacerbated the dangerous chasm separating the ultra-rich from the rest of America. But what disturbed me the most during his reign, was how his speeches about the necessity of prayer in school, trickled-down and affected the small government treatment center I worked at.

I worked at a state-supported inpatient alcoholism treatment center. Each Sunday, the treatment director, once a Baptist minister, selected a local minister to lead a Sunday morning church services. Yet not long after Reagan became president, the treatment director began to make attending church services mandatory—a direct contradiction of separation of church and state. So whereas historians wrote about the failure of trickle-down economics, I was more concerned about the reality of trickle-down Christian nationalism.

Although I assume no one who reads this diary voted for Trump, let’s not forget that millions of Americans did. It seems unlikely they could be oblivious that Trump doesn’t tell the truth. Therefore, in the minds of millions of Americans, telling the truth doesn’t matter. Better to have a dishonest white male as President, than an honest black female.

Now that Trump is president, America is becoming permeated with trickle-down dishonesty. Like it or not, even Trump is a role model. Millions who support Trump will eschew honesty, and lying will become business as usual.

Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that truth and trust still matter. No economy can function without trust. If anyone first does a job, they trust they will be paid. If someone first pays someone to do a job, they trust the job will be done after they are paid. If you put money in the bank, you trust you get your money back. If you spend money ordering a product, you trust the product will be what you ordered. If you pay insurance premiums for your home, you trust your home will be protected from financial loss after a natural disaster. If you buy kosher hot dogs, you trust they won’t be made of pork.

Everyone (except Trump) knows that tariffs are bad for the economy, a hidden tax Americans have to pay. What fewer people realize is that the lack of trust and truth is also bad for the economy. Erosion of honesty and truth make business more difficult and more costly.

Some personal examples:

I got home and found a flyer on my front door from the Southern National roofing company, reading “We Noticed a Problem with Your Roof.” On the flip side was a handwritten and signed note detailing the roof inspection report, which had checked off my roof had buckled shingles, deformed edges, granular loss, and algae and moss stains. One check box was left for a personal hand-written observation, which read, “sign of leaks.” Near the top of the card was their slogan, “Home of the true…no sales gimmicks.”

I must confess I was tempted to call their company in Spartanburg. Not to get more information, but to voraciously accuse them of lying and fraud. I had my entire roof replaced with a brand new roof one month ago.

One anecdotal incident doesn’t detect a trend. But earlier that same day I spent an hour or two on the phone trying to eradicate an erroneous charge on my credit card. About a year ago, someone claiming to be a representative of Microsoft falsely claimed my computer had been hacked, and they were trying to help me expunge the virus. Turns out they were actually hackers trying to take over my computer. Finally realizing this, I got rid of the old computer and bought a new laptop from Best Buy. The salesman was polite, friendly and professional. He told me I could get a significant discount if I would fill out an information form. I deliberately asked how much this “discount” would cost me. He looked me in the eye and said it wouldn’t cost me anything. I believed him. When I worked retail as an optician, I would ask my customers if they had a discount coupon for glasses that Lens Crafters mailed out. If they said no, I gave them one. I figured doing so was good karma.

I was wrong. Just because others can trust me, doesn’t mean I should trust others. My credit card company warned me of “suspicious credit card activity.” Best buy had charged me $190.97 for “Best Buy renewal.” I waited over thirty minutes before finally speaking to the right person at their fraud department. As soon as I mentioned Best Buy, they knew it was a fraudulent charge. The helpful person on the other line apologized for the long wait, and told me there were still five thousand people on-hold waiting to talk to someone. “Is such fraud becoming more prevalent?” I asked. He said sadly it was so. The credit card company disputed the charge for me and said it would be deleted from my bill.

I am getting to the point I am reluctant to order anything online. Face-to-face communication is the best. If you do business with people who don’t know you, never saw you, and don’t even talk with you in person, it is much easier for them to lie to you and cheat you. The butcher in the TV town of Mayberry who serves Aunt Bea, would never lie and cheat her, simply because he knows her. Someone who writes a program for a website doesn’t know you.

One day, I saw a pop-up ad for special in-soles for shoes. My feet often hurt and I wear insoles from the drug-store. This product claimed to be much better, looked good, and was allegedly 80% off. I did the math and realized the 80% discount was comparable to the drug store brand. So I decided to order just one pair. On the computer screen it showed I ordered one pair, and the price, plus shipping and tax for one pair.

The company sent four pairs of insoles and charged me for four pairs. They told me I couldn’t return them for a refund, as I had opened the plain package they were mailed in. Eventually, I was able to rescind the charge on my credit card.

I should have known not to trust buying anything over the internet, but I recently got blind-sided again.

Visiting my daughter in Indiana, I told her I was still trying to get my money back from Select Blinds.

“Dad, just forget it. You got ripped off and can’t do anything about it.”

“Maybe so, but at least I’ll try.”

Yesterday I sent an email to the representative of Select Blinds. If you read no further, read this: Never order window blinds online from Select Blinds! Prior to this, I contacted the BBB, wrote a letter to the company, sent text messages with photos, filled out forms to get a refund, and talked to representatives on the phone for hours. So far, I have gotten nowhere. I asked one representative to let me talk to a supervisor or manager. I was on hold twice, for a total of a half hour.

“I’m sorry, all our supervisors are busy.”

“Busy doing what?”

“Busy handling other complaints. But I’ll have one call you back.”

“When?”

“Later.”

“Later what day?”

“Later today.”

No one ever called.

I hate it when people assume since I am a boomer, I can’t do anything over the internet. After my old bedroom shade tore practically in two, I decided it was time to buy new blinds. I have light-sensitive eyes and hate it when the morning sunlight wakes me up an hour or two before I need to get up.

So I went to a local store that specializes in blinds. They had blackout blinds that virtually eliminate all incoming light. Window blinds, like eyeglasses, are custom-made in order to fit each window in the color and style you wish. Custom-made means expensive. Although the product looked great, the price scared me away.

So I went to Home Depot and found just what I wanted for far less money. That is, until I found out they charged $50 for measurements and $200 for installation. Besides, they had to order the products online anyway from their store.

So I went to the internet and found a company, Select Blinds, that had just what I wanted for a reasonable price. I ordered blackout blinds for my bedroom window and light-filtering blinds for my dining room. On the website I noticed an error. Next to script that read “Blackout” was a photo that showed light-filtering. So I made sure they knew I wanted blackout blinds. I took careful measurements and even paid an extra $20 to guarantee that even if I provided inaccurate measurements, I could get them replaced at no additional cost.

My measurements were perfect. I only had to worry about installation. For that, I cajoled my son-in-law to do the job. He did well.

Not until later did I realize Select Blinds blundered. The blinds that were the right color and size for the bedroom were light-filtering blinds, not the blackout blinds I wanted. The blinds that were the right color and size for the dining room were blackout blinds, not light-filtering blinds I wanted.

So I contacted Select Blinds and told them of the error. They told me not to worry; they would re-order, manufacture, and re-ship the corrected order.

So about a week or two later, the blinds finally arrive. Once again, they made the exact same mistake: they sent light-filtering blinds for the bedroom and blackout blinds for the living room.

Every time they manufacture and ship the wrong product, it costs them money. So apparently their policy is if they can’t get it right within two tries, they give up. No refunds allowed. Now they are claiming they did no wrong. They said I ordered incorrectly. They said there must be something wrong with my computer. They said the sent the correct blinds, but I put them in the wrong windows (Impossible, the windows are different sizes.) Apparently, they hope I will just give up and take the loss, like my daughter suggested.

Giving up almost cost me $20,000. A couple of years ago I changed to Progressive insurance and got rid of State Farm because I objected to State Farm using the lying, anti-vaxxer quarterback Aaron Rodgers as their spokesperson. Out of the frying pan, and into the fire. After Hurricane Helene did expensive damage to my home, various inspectors said I had to have my roof replaced. There was a hole in my roof where a limb fell, puncturing the solar panel and the roof. Progressive insurance refused to pay for the roof.

So I hired an independent insurance adjuster, sort of like an insurance attorney, who told me they could get Progressive to pay, if only I could be patient. Months went by. Every time it rained the ceiling looked worse, as water lines and black mold crept across the ceiling. Water never leaked but was trapped above the sheetrock, which, if not soon replaced, would eventually become so saturated with water, it would collapse. I kept calling the insurance adjuster and said I needed to first replace the roof to stop the leaking, and then try to get the money. (We tried putting up a waterproof tarp. It didn’t work.) The woman told me that is what Progressive was trying to do—wait me out so I make the repairs first, and then claim they are not responsible for damages as they can no longer do any inspection. My insurance adjuster told me he knew Progressive owed me money, and they were banking on stalling as long as possible, knowing justice delayed is justice denied. So I waited. Eventually, realizing they couldn’t get me to give up, Progressive paid the money they should have paid in the first place. I then got the roof replaced.

Now all I have to do is replace the damaged kitchen ceiling. The company told me they can’t do that, until another company tests for asbestos. The company that tests for asbestos said I had it in my walls. As long as asbestos is in the walls it isn’t hazardous, but could be dangerous since prolonged water damage went into the wall, and part of it needs to be replaced. So now SC law demands the asbestos be removed before the ceiling can be replace. That’s an additional $500 for inspection and $5000 for asbestos removal. It is what it is. But bureaucracy isn’t always rational. Before I can have the asbestos removed, I have to get a permit for the company to remove it. I was told the permit would take three weeks.

That was well over a month ago. Since then I have heard nothing. I have no idea when I will be able to remove the black mold from my ceiling and have my kitchen ceiling and walls finally repaired.

Can I really blame Trump for the insidious erosion of truth and trust in America? You’re damn right I can!

At least I have a new roof over my head and nothing leaks. Or so I thought. The highly-rated Southern National roofing company obviously knows I need to replace my month-old roof.

Why would anyone lie?

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