1889 Institute: Lies We Tell in Government, and Our Debts to Truth

Lies We Tell in Government, and Our Debts to Truth

By Byron Schlomach

HBO’s mini-series, Chernobyl, depicts the disastrous 1986 nuclear power plant explosion in the Soviet Union and the heroic efforts to control its meltdown. It shows Valery Alexeyvich Legasov, Deputy Director of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, working tirelessly to ameliorate the disaster’s consequences and investigate its cause. He is portrayed making a dramatic speech at a trial about how the nuclear reactor exploded, when such an explosion should not have been possible.

The reactor had a design flaw covered up by the Soviet State and kept from reactor operators at Chernobyl and identical reactors across the Soviet Union. Legasov’s speech, though fictional, seems to fairly accurately express his point of view. He addresses the question of how an RBMK reactor like Chernobyl’s explode? After explaining the nuclear and mechanical details, Legasov gets to what he considers the true cause:

“Because of our secrets and our lies. They’re practically what define us. When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there. It is, it’s still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor explodes… Lies.”

State Auditor Jones responds to candidate Prater's lies and attacks

State Auditor: It’s Time To Set The Record Straight

It’s tough sitting on the sidelines while someone demeans your record, office, and leadership.

Charlie Prater, who is running to be state auditor, has built his entire campaign on false accusations and baseless lies.

Prater accused Deputy State Auditor Cindy Byrd of campaigning on state time and bilking taxpayers out of tens of thousands of dollars in travel expenses. The TRUTH is Cindy Byrd has not spent a single dime of taxpayer’s money. She travels at her own expense and takes personal leave time to campaign.

Now Prater has reverted to making accusations of corruption at the State Auditor’s Office.

It’s okay to disagree with our audits or the job we’ve done safeguarding taxpayer dollars. But, no one has questioned the integrity of the State Auditor’s Office since I took office 7½ years ago.

The State Auditor should not be about misleading the public and Charlie’s done it again and again.

He surrounds himself with corrupt officials who were ousted due to Cindy’s audits. He chose a disgraced former state representative as his campaign manager for whom this is partly personal. If this is how he campaigns, how will he audit?

It’s a shame that Prater has sunk so low that he’s now attacking the State Auditor’s Office and the hard-working public servants who work here, including Cindy Byrd – all because he knows he can’t compete with the better qualified, more experienced public servant that Cindy Byrd, CPA, has been for Oklahomans throughout her career.

The only corruption I see is in his lack of scruples and win-at-all-costs, scorched-earth operation. I guarantee you corruption does not exist in this agency.

Gary A. Jones, CPA, CFE
Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector

Rep. Teague speaks out about deceptive group targeting conservative legislators

There's a shady "dark money" group out there that's targeting conservative Republican legislators, while under the name Conservative Alliance PAC. It's anything but conservative, and the DC-based group is using deceit and flat-out lies to try to amputate conservatism from the Oklahoma Legislature.

State Rep. Tess Teague (R-Choctaw) is one of the conservatives being targeted by the group during the runoff election; Teague recently posted the following rebuttal to their attacks:

State Rep. Tess Teague, R-Dist. 101

It appears as though an out-of-state organization is attacking myself and other conservatives in the Legislature, sending mail and unsolicited text messages to our constituents with the same message that we "voted against a teacher pay raise four times." It would almost be laughable if it wasn't so disrespectful to voters because this is intentional deceit. You're being lied to. So let's talk about facts. In 2017, the House passed HB1114, the teacher pay raise bill. It passed the House with a vote of 92-7 (five democrats and two republicans voted no), but the Senate refused to hear it. If they had, we would have successfully raised teacher pay a year before the walkout. It would have been the first time teacher pay had been raised since 2006. Since the Senate ultimately failed our bill, we tried again in 2018. This time we passed HB1023XX (teacher pay raise) and HB1026XX (support staff pay raise) and these bills also passed the Senate, were signed by the Governor and became law. This happened the week before the walkout.

I voted for all three of these pieces of legislation. What I didn't vote for were packages of massive taxation which included Step Up, A+, A++ and HB1010XX. I voted against all four of them. If out of state entities are saying I voted against teacher pay raises four times because I voted against taxation four times, I would say they're very confused. Since when is raising taxes synonymous with supporting education? It's not. I voted in favor of every single teacher pay raise and yet people who want conservatives out of the House will try to convince you that I'm anti-education. I voted for every single teacher pay raise but the OEA has targeted my district for a "day of action" - I vote in support of teachers but the OEA doesn't care about that, they have a vested interest in a different agenda of raising taxes and getting rid of conservatives. The argument I've faced is that the tax raises were necessary to pay for the teacher pay raise - that's also not true. Even our House leadership has come out and said that we wound up having such a surplus that we could have paid for the raises without new or increased taxation. This has been what conservatives have been saying since day one. I'm thankful for an economy on the rise and there's been a lot of work put into making sure our state pulled itself out of the deficit we were in. On the national level, we finally have a president committed to growing the economy as evidenced by our 4.1% GDP growth – the former administration only got to 1.6%. I'm proud of the Legislature for righting our financial ship here at home and it is exciting to see Oklahoma's thriving economy. But I am absolutely heartbroken that the rhetoric of "raising taxes is the only way to do it" won during session and that those of us with the foresight to see past the politics are being demonized for doing the right thing: supporting education AND protecting taxpayer's wallet.

On August 25 when the OEA targets my district with their "day of action" I need your help. Conservatives, this is our day of action. I won't let my voters be lied to. Stand with me and say "enough is enough" - these kind of tactics won't win over our country and they won't win over our state. Let me know if you'd like to join my group of volunteers from now until August 28, every little bit helps.

Brogdon Misquotes, Misrepresents McCarville in Campaign Email

In his latest campaign email, Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brogdon speaks about his latest television commercial. You know, the one I was critical of, and called 'deceptive'.

His email says the following:

I find it extremely important that voters are presented with all the facts before they go into the ballot box July 27th.  I have been very open and honest with my record of promoting smaller government, protecting your freedom, and lowering taxes. Unfortunately, my opponent has been dodging her record of voting for the bailout over the last year.

Watch our latest T.V. advertisement now!

The bailout vote gave one TRILLION dollars of YOUR money to bail out financial institutions and gave the federal government control over certain private businesses.  This was not small government, fiscal responsibility, nor Oklahoma values.  So, I find it very important Oklahoma Republican voters are aware of Representative Mary Fallin’s voting record.

McCarville, an Oklahoma political reporter, recently wrote:

" Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brogdon's campaign warchest is thin compared to opponent Mary Fallin's and some observers say Fallin should give thanks for that. They point to this Brogdon commercial, which some believe would resonate with voters if Brogdon had enough money to saturate the television airwaves with it."

Dedicated to Liberty,

Randy Brogdon

[emphasis as in original]

However, there is a huge inaccuracy in the attribution of Mike McCarville's statement that I, as a "brother" blogger, feel compelled to correct.

On Thursday, July 8th, Mike McCarville wrote two posts about Brogdon TV commercials.

At 1:59pm, he posted about Brogdon's attack ad. In the post itself, there was no commentary - just the YouTube video of the "Mary Fallin Compromise" advertisement.

Again, let me reiterate. He wrote no commentary about the ad. You can see for yourself here.

But, that was not his first post of the day about a Brogdon commercial. At 5:27am, he posted about Brogdon's excellent "Freedom" ad.

It was about that ad, a positive commercial about Randy, that McCarville made the following commentary:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brogdon's campaign warchest is thin compared to opponent Mary Fallin's and some observers say Fallin should give thanks for that. They point to this Brogdon commercial, which some believe would resonate with voters if Brogdon had enough money to saturate the television airwaves with it.

Again, here is the link to this particular post by McCarville.

As you can see with your own eyes, McCarville did not make that statement about the attack ad, but about the previously released positive ad.

This was a blatant misquote and misrepresentation by the Brogdon campaign. The implication in the campaign email is that Mike McCarville, the most widely read and prominent political blogger in Oklahoma, posted that particular quote about a widely criticized ad. Unfortunately for the Brogdon campaign, that was absolutely not the case, and they have been caught in something that cannot be explained away. There is no excuse, there is no justification for such blatant untruthfulness.


Oklahoma Values have been a topic that has been much discussed by the candidates for governor.

One of the premier Oklahoma Values is that of Honesty.


**UPDATE**: Mike McCarville now reports, "Randy Brogdon has apologized. He said the error is his."