by Jack Dallas
June 2019
June 2019
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| Washington, "I cannot tell a lie." Nixon, "I am not a crook." Trump, "Who are those other two guys?" |
George Washington couldn’t tell a lie, Richard Nixon couldn’t tell the truth, and Donald Trump doesn’t know the difference. I probably heard that somewhere, if not, someone should have said it. Lies, fibs, bullshit, whoppers, and tall tales are common fodder for most politicians. Donald Trump tells lies with such skill and conviction you’d think he’s been doing it all his life. All politicians lie, some are just more productive. The Washington Post’s current count for Trump’s lies is somewhere north of ten-thousand. In the first 828 days of his presidency, Trump has averaged 12 lies a day, and this doesn’t include his golf games. To paraphrase The Donald, “I’m the biggest liar the world has ever seen.”
Historically, the malodorous stench coming from the White House was not political oratory, it was raw sewage. There was no sewer system for the White House in the “good old days” prior to 1850, and this waste was just allowed to drain into a marsh a short distance from the residence. The White House got its drinking water less than half a mile downstream from this marsh.
Historically, the malodorous stench coming from the White House was not political oratory, it was raw sewage. There was no sewer system for the White House in the “good old days” prior to 1850, and this waste was just allowed to drain into a marsh a short distance from the residence. The White House got its drinking water less than half a mile downstream from this marsh.
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| William Henry Harrison Ninth President of the United States 1841-1841 |
One of the most honest occupants of the White House was probably William Henry Harrison. This is not because he was particularly truthful, but because he died just 31 days after being sworn in. His death was originally thought to be from pneumonia after his two-hour inauguration speech in a cold rain. Upon later analysis conducted in 2014, it was concluded that his death was probably due to septic shock brought on by enteric fever, possibly typhoid. The polluted water supply would have been the probable source of the bacteria.
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| James K Polk 1845-1849 |
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| Zachary Taylor 1849-1850 |
Two other presidents of this period had run-ins with the White House plumbing. While Nixon had problems with plumbers, he was not of this period and it was a different kind of plumbing. Both Zachary Taylor and James Polk suffered from problems from severe gastroenteritis. Polk recovered briefly only to die in 1849, of cholera three months after leaving office, and Taylor died in office in 1850. Here we are 178 years later; sanitary sewers have since been installed, the water supply is safe, and the only ones getting sick of the shit coming out of the White House are the American people.
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