STORIES: Paul from Cornwall repeated a story!

MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2024

So had the pitiful Musk: Some of the western world's most treasured stories are told at this time of the year.

We humans are said to love our stories. It's said that we're inclined to gravitate to pleasing stores more than to verified facts.

So it can go with our stories! Yesterday morning, Paul from Cornwall, New York recited a newer story—a story many people across the fruited plain have now been condemned to hear.

Last week, to cite one example, celebrity circus clown Elon Musk recited this new (and inaccurate) story on the vehicle he purchased and renamed as X. For the background to that bit of storytelling, see Saturday's report.

Musk is widely said to be the richest person in the world. He often seems determined to reinforce an ancient claim—a statement drawn from one of the culture's oldest stories:

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

David French repeats that ancient statement right in today's New York Times! The aforementioned clown frequently seems to be determined to reinforce this claim.

Back to Paul in Cornwall, New York, on the western shore of the Hudson! Yesterday morning, at 7:15, he spoke by phone with the moderator of C-Span's Washington Journal. 

Responding to the morning's key question, he said he was "very optimistic" about Donald J. Trump's second term. To watch the videotape of this call, you can just click here.

Paul from Cornwall is "very optimistic" about Trump's second term. He has every right to "think that a-way"—but along the way, he said this about the recent budget bill which averted a government shutdown:

PAUL IN CORNWALL (12/22/24): ...I want to thank [Trump] very much for noticing that 40 percent pay raise Congress wanted to give itself, and they put the kibosh on that. No way to a 40 percent increase! I mean—

These members of Congress today! According to the C-Span caller, they had initially tried to give themselves a 40 percent pay increase!

Trump had put the kibosh on that unholy attempt. So the widely told, and wildly inaccurate, political story now goes.

At any rate, so said Paul in Cornwall, New York on a chilly Sunday morning. C-Span moderators rarely challenge their callers' claims, but in this instance, the statement by Paul in Cornwall produced this initial response:

PAUL IN CORNWALL (12/22/24): ...I want to thank [Trump] very much for noticing that 40 percent pay raise Congress wanted to give itself, and he put the kibosh on that. No way to a 40 percent increase! I mean—

MODERATOR: I don't believe it was a 40 percent pay raise. If I'm not mistaken, I believe it was six. But let me pull up the exact detail so we can get that number right. But continue your point while I look for that.

Paul did in fact continue his point. Soon, though, the moderator spoke again.

As it turned out, she had been mistaken in her initial statement. She was now correcting even herself! This is the way she started:

MODERATOR: So Paul, before I let you go—before I let you go, Paul, I just want to read about that 40 percent number. So there is a fact-check on that in Reuters, saying that the bipartisan stopgap spending bill did not include a 40% pay raise for Congress. 

Uh-oh! She now read from the Reuters fact-check, which was visible on the screen. This is the part of the fact-check which she read.

A temporary spending bill scuttled by opposition from President-elect Donald Trump would have made U.S. Congress members eligible for a 3.8% salary increase, not 40%, as suggested in posts online that misinterpret a report on congressional salaries. The bill would have ended a longtime pay freeze, allowing lawmakers to be eligible for a 3.8% salary increase in January, which would have been equal to $6,600.

Oof! In fact, the proposed pay raise had been killed—but it had actually been a 3.8 percent pay increase. That would have been substantially less than Paul from Cornwall's 40 percent.

In short, Paul from Cornwall had been way off. Here's how the colloquy ended:

MODERATOR: So that is the detail on that there, Paul. Did you have any other points before I let you go?

PAUL FROM CORNWALL: No, and I'm glad you fact-checked me on that. I do appreciate that, But still, they don't even deserve that, because the working class in America isn't even getting that. So—have a merry Christmas, everybody and [indecipherable] next year!

Paul's factual claim had been crazily off. But as is said to be a common practice among us humans, his Storyline remained.

We'll advance several guesses about that exchange:

Paul from Cornwall is a good, decent person. When he called C-Span yesterday, he didn't know that the story he had heard was crazily, wildly inaccurate.

As we noted on Saturday, the circus clown Musk was one of the people who had blared that bullroar to the waiting world. Millions of people—not just Paul—had thereby been misinformed by what this badly bloated designer of clown-cars had said.

Long lay the world! In ancient times, the world in question was overrun with conquering Roman legions. The world in which we live today is overrun with wealthy people who have agreed to cast themselves in the role of the conquering clown.

The aforementioned fellow is one of those people. Or it may just be that "something is wrong" inside the fellow's head. 

In the ancient story, an occupied people sought a way to deal with their occupation. Today, our clown-car drivers include major industrialists. Increasingly, they're assisted by a healthy assortment of D-list comedians staging an assault from below.

Tomorrow, we'll review the recent work of Rob Schneider, who we knew a tiny tad way back in the summer of 85. As a general matter, we disagree with Rob's political assessments at this point in time. In fairness, that of course means that he disagrees with ours.

For today, we'll close with one last part of Sunday's story. That's the part where the Reuters fact-check amazingly says this:

Fact Check: Bipartisan stopgap spending bill did not include 40% pay raise for Congress

[...]

VERDICT

Misleading. The bipartisan temporary spending bill, if approved, would have given members of Congress a 3.8% pay raise in January 2025, not a 40% pay increase.

No, we aren't making that up! Reuters could have delivered a verdict of "False." Delivering the coup de grace within our own tale, it went with "Misleading" instead!

(Long lay the world, the story says, in sin and error pining!)

We're going to bring you some stories this week. Our species tends to run on that rocket fuel, and our stories are frequently wrong.

Tomorrow: Terra Nova High School grad opens for Donald J. Trump!

Concerning Cornwall, New York: What's it like in Cornwall, New York? The leading authority on the community starts by telling us this:

Cornwall, New York

Cornwall is a town in Orange County, New York, United States, approximately 50 miles north of New York City on the western shore of the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was at 12,884. Cornwall has become a bedroom community for area towns and cities including New York City...

Cornwall's Main Street includes gift shops, taverns, restaurants, coffeehouses, yoga studios and boutiques. Government offices, churches, parks, the riverfront, and St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital, a part of the Montefiore Health System, are situated within walking distance of downtown. The town is a designated Tree City.

Cornwall was the top selection to represent New York State in "The Best Places to Raise Kids 2013" by Bloomberg Business Week magazine.

It sounds a bit like Camus' Oran. Faithful readers of this site will know what happened there!