Lack of thoroughness or transparency from government is nothing new. Governments often must make difficult decisions and sometimes do things where the overall good to be accomplished outweighs some collateral bad that might be sustained. We like to think our government is a force for good, so we can concede some latitude to government to perhaps not disclose everything to protect the mission. However, such license can only be granted or tolerated with a substantial degree of trust in the integrity of government officials.

Unfortunately, that trust has been so often violated over the past few decades that any confidence in government as a force for good is tenuous at best if not utterly wasted. Everything governments do should always be meticulously scrutinized, but we have sadly come to a point where anything governments do is highly suspect.

As 24-hour news proliferated the past 40 years, governments could not just have an agenda or objectives; they had to develop a narrative to garner public support. The euphemism became “spinning the story or news,” seemingly innocuous. The concept is to cast whatever information in the best light possible. It seems somewhat understandable if the underlying intent is to do good, but when governments engage in outright censorship of dissent or disinformation to mislead the public about their actions, the people must rightly question what are their objectives and motivations that they require deception and dishonesty.

Sadly, “spinning” information has devolved into plain lying. Americans have become accustomed to politicians being misleading if not untruthful about their actions, their intentions, or actual events. They will lie about crime, the border, economics, foreign affairs, about themselves and each other. All to avoid accountability or to curry favor.

Lying by individuals is disconcerting and problematic. Those persons should become known as bad actors, but it can be difficult to discern deceit in our hyper-partisan echo chambers when a corrupt media stands ready to prove any lie to prop up their preferred political narrative. The public has become so polarized most folks seldom hear both sides of the story, so they view the opposition with no understanding and often with utter disdain.

Dishonest politicians are not new, however, perhaps more prevalent now. But now we face institutionalized lying where the actual government position and policy is to force falsehoods down the throats of Americans. Probably not without precedent, but have we seen official lying on this scale before? Americans are wrestling with two whoppers that should shake the foundations of our republic. The official U.S. government position is that the Chinese COVID virus occurred naturally and that there was an insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Both demonstrably false, but the federal government clings to their duplicity.

We now know many scientists initially suspected a lab leak in early 2020, but Dr. Anthony Fauci immediately set upon stifling any notion that the Chinese Virus came out of the Wuhan Virology lab where COVID19 was first detected. Fauci seized on a fabulous fabrication that the virus naturally jumped from bats to pangolins in nasty Chinese wet markets, and he even prompted and promoted peer reviewed articles to substantiate his fantasy.

Insidiously, Fauci knew better. He first lectured the nation on how this was a new virus and uncharted territory, so we had learn as we go. However, he neglected to reveal that he had been funding “gain of function” research at that communist Chinese virology lab for about a decade for exactly such a virus. Always denying this fact, Fauci directed the mishandled response to the Chinese virus and essentially aided and abetted the Chinese effort to hobble the American economy with ineffective and unnecessary quarantines and shut-downs.

Despite the FBI and Department of Energy now saying a Wuhan lab leak is the most probable source of the COVID19 pandemic, Fauci still claims we may never know the truth and continues to scare monger the lingering effects of COVID19. Fauci wants Americans afraid and focused on the continued imminent danger of COVID19 so that no one exposes his sordid complicity in creating COVID19 with American tax dollars. Who else in government knew?!

Similarly, the Democrat Media Complex is absolutely invested in the patent lie that there was an insurrection on January 6, 2021. Having witnessed the 2020 ANTIFA and BLM riots, burning and looting of cities, and all-out fire-bombing attacks on federal agents and property, Americans have always been suspicious of these unsupported claims. There was some vandalism, and a few malcontents were violent, but overall, January 6th did not even register on the ANTIFA/BLM riot scale.

Everyone in Washington expected enormous crowds. The Capitol Police begged for reinforcements in advance and President Trump offered the National Guard, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied all requests and declined any extra help before that fateful day. We now know the FBI had infiltrated the crowds but did nothing to thwart any misbehavior and some evidence even shows FBI operatives egging on protesters to enter the Capitol. Democrats knew they could not stop the people from coming, so they turned the tables to portray an insurrection and smear the Americans that came to make their voices heard. It was a set up.

Democrats and the media were apoplectic when Tucker Carlson showed unseen video footage of mostly peaceful protesters, and many were even calmly escorted through the Capitol by Capitol Police. It undermined the preferred narrative. We can endlessly debate the tragic events of that infamous day, but one bold official lie stands out! The government claimed five police officers were killed that day and even had Officer Brian Sicknick who died of a stroke the day after lie in state as a hero of the invented insurrection.

It is absolutely indisputable that the only person killed that day was unarmed Ashli Babbitt shot by a Capitol Police Officer. NO police officers were killed in the line of duty. However, just last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland casually repeated that bold faced lie! WHY?! Why is the federal government so officially wedded to an obvious prevarication?!

The Democrat Media Complex is unrelenting and obsessed with perpetuating this abject lie and insists it was worse than December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001. They demand Americans stay focused on the fictitious insurrection and investigate nothing else. What is the far reaching fraud that they need this lie to distract the public? Americans have their well-founded suspicions, but only time and history will eventually expose the much greater and more sinister fraud our government is hiding. Pray for the truth to be revealed, so our country can right its path and begin healing.

“Their malice may be concealed by deception, but their wickedness will be exposed in the assembly” (Proverbs 26:26).

Pete Riehm is a conservative activist and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.