Anonymous Germany 1499:
Lot's Wife Turned to a Pillar of Salt (15th century)

"We know he's lying whenever he moves his lips."

Our incumbent, who works hard to emphasize that he never was or will be "Our President," employs a particularly telling "tell." A "tell" describes an unconscious action that betrays an attempted deception. In other words, a tell provides explicit confirmation that he is lying when he lies. He seems to continually employ this specific tactic, which serves to bolster the notion that he rarely tells the truth. He will make some assertion and immediately confirm its accuracy by declaring that "A_Lot" of people agree. Validation by reference to some vague quantity rarely convinces anybody. "A_Lot" could be a dozen or a thousand or a million. He leaves the precise volume to his listener's imagination. He appears to use his title to amplify his assertions, as if holding an office bestowed special perceptive powers on the office holder, when it clearly doesn't. He might be attempting to intimidate opposition by anchoring his assertion, however absurd, to some imaginary majority opinion, as if merely holding an opinion or just being said to hold an opinion might render any odd assertion valid.

In his ecosystem, bare assertion seems to often stand in for naked truth. Since truth, clothed or otherwise, rarely seems to escape his lips, he's left with assertion as the sole form of confirmation he can offer anyone. Silly him! He seems to believe that he can render anything true by associating it with a majority, A_Lot. Indeed, he often seems to pretend to govern in just this way. Up becomes down and down becomes up on his mere declaration. Those opposing him might find themselves sued for defamation, as if defaming a liar said anything negative about anyone's underlying character. Later, some judge will declare that "A_Lot" doesn't amount to a legal quantity and declare the lawsuit moot, but the purpose of the legal action was distraction, never satisfaction.

Our incumbent will never be Our President because he shows no interest in fulfilling that role. He clearly states who he's for and who he's against. He constantly asserts his allegiances against ours, in favor of another curiously well-heeled minority, never ‘We, the People.’ He sees us as rabble, underfoot for his attempts to dominate our culture. His poisonous presence undermines most everything he attempts, not that he doesn't do damage. Like Lot, that Old Testament character who offered his daughters to visiting angels, our incumbent stands accused of engaging in sex trafficking. He's provided ample confirmation of his guilt over past decades, but now he pretends he is as innocent as an infant. I think the Old Testament Lot must be the one he's continually referring to whenever he gets defensive. A_Lot always agrees with whatever he asserts, though one might reasonably question Lot's bona fides for this purpose.

In the Bible story, Lot's daughters declined the opportunity to show hospitality to those angels. Lot's wife, however, made them supper. Later, Lot was warned to flee his home in Sodom before The Lord could destroy the town for its wickedness. His family was warned not to peek back over their shoulders when fleeing, but Lot's wife couldn't resist the temptation to witness the destruction. God, in his mercy or vengeance, turned her into a pillar of salt. Lot and his daughters successfully fled Sodom to somewhere else. Later, Lot went into the opinion polling business, where he is still considered an authority today. Our incumbent, for instance, invokes his name and reputation each time he makes another self-indicting proclamation. A_Lot of people agree, he claims. I can't help imagining Melania turning into a pillar of salt whenever our incumbent repeats that claim.

The Lord no longer destroys cities for wickedness. Evangelicals have learned to leverage wickedness under the eternally questionable 'ends justify the means' insistence. They believe their goal to be righteousness, so that justifies whatever wickedness they feel they must employ to gain that objective. Much wickedness has ensued since those dudes began undermining the separation of church and state and insisting they were holier than anybody else. They seek vengeance for imagined violations of fanciful commandments. They seem to revel in wielding truly terribly swift swords, more interested in lobbing off heads than administering justice. A_Lot apparently agrees with their unjust opinions, or at least that's what our wicked incumbent continually insists. We know he's lying whenever he moves his lips.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #FollowingChapters, #PureSchmaltz