“Now, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, we have university students being swept up and shoved into unmarked vans, and fathers being tossed into Salvadorean gulags without a hint of due process.”

—-Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D, as you know) repeatedly lying his fool head off, fearmongering and generally appealing to the ignorance of uninformed citizens in his disgraceful and shameless “State of the State” speech this week.

So much about that quote makes me angry, and I usually don’t get angry at unethical quotes and don’t want to, because emotion interferes with rational analysis and critical thought. Corrupt and unscrupulous politicians, demagogues and Axis agents depend on that principle, which is why, in the absence of facts, common sense, law, principles and ethics, they are all relying on seeding fear and hate, just as Walz’s party did as it tried to inflict another four years of ruinous progressive rule on the nation last year.

That quote above is pure deceit, which makes it a lie start to finish. Saying “university students” are being “swept up” is a deliberate effort to confuse and misinform with technically accurate facts; it is like saying that “young people with ten toes are being swept up.” The students in question are not citizens, which is the critical fact underlying their removal, that and the fact that they have violated the conditions under which they are allowed to be here. Describing the Maryland illegal alien and alleged gang member and human trafficker as a”father” is almost a parody of deceit: Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s parental and marital status has absolutely nothing, zilch, nada to do with his deportation, and Walz, the asshole, knows it. No father in this country has any reason to fear that their being a father will lead to their deportation; Walz’s dishonest rhetoric is like a capital punishment foe describing the execution of serial killer Ted Bundy as the state “choosing to execute husbands.” I also must note that Garcia the father is a single individual, not a plural, unless his pronouns include “they.”

Incidentally, Bundy had the advantage over Garcia: he was married. Garcia just impregnated his girlfriend without benefit of a legal union. If Garcia were a serial rapist who had caused multiple pregnancies by force, Walz, the despicable disgrace for an elected official would still be calling him a “father.”

I hate the “How dare he?” device, but the Minnesota governor deserves it. How dare an elected official, or any public figure, lie like that in a public address? (Did you know “Trump lies all the time”? Walz kept saying that while campaigning last year.)And Walz wasn’t through: the U.S. didn’t toss Garcia into a Salvadorean prison, and couldn’t if it wanted to. Once he was in El Salvador, that sovereign nation could have made him Homecoming Queen if it so chose. A “hint of due process,” moreover, is exactly what Garcia got. His status was litigated before three courts, but the government erred in not getting him in front of a fourth before deporting him to the very country he claimed refugee status from. Too bad.

Much of the rest of Walz’s speech is just as outrageous. Here’s the section that preceded his award-winning quote:

[Trump’s] plan will leave nobody working to prevent the next pandemic, nobody picking up the phone at Social Security, nobody making sure kids with special needs are able to get an education.

Just a few months ago, Minnesotans who got ripped off by a bank or a credit card company or a health care company could go to their federal government for help. But now that government has switched sides. Under this administration, the federal government exists to help those corporations screw you over.

Next up on the chopping block: Medicaid. And let’s be clear about what that means. Forty percent of our children – and more than a million Minnesotans overall – rely on Medicaid for their health care. This administration wants to take that health care away. Meanwhile, rural hospitals would be forced to close.

Everyone’s costs would skyrocket. And our budget would be torn to pieces.

Meanwhile, the President of the United States has chosen – chosen! – to tear up the values that once made America the shining light of the world.

Not only is Walz and Ethics Villain for spewing this fear-mongering offal, so is anyone who excuses it, supports it, rationalizes it, or repeats it, or who isn’t ashamed of voting for this demagogue.

[Note: I just added that famous moment from “Ghostbusters” to the Ethics Alarms Hollywood Clip Archive, signifying that it will be turning up on future posts. The clips in the archive now number 37. They are worth reviewing.]