Biden disinformation boss Nina Jankowicz fancies herself a chanteuse. Embattled Americans might respond with a playlist of their own.
In her rendition of the Gershwin tune, for example, Carly Simon wonders “how long has this been going on?” As it turns out, long before her current job, Nina was already in the disinformation business.
“Critical race theory has become one of those hot-button issues that the Republicans and other disinformers, who are engaged in disinformation for profit, frankly have seized on,” said Nina Jancowicz on October 29, 2021. Profiteering was going on, but not by those Jancowicz accused.
Attorney General Merrick Garland sought to deploy the FBI, Justice Department, and Homeland Security against parents who complain about critical race theory in the schools. As it turned out Garland’s son-in-law Xan Tanner is co-founder, board member, and president of Panorama Education, a vendor of such materials to public schools.
Panorama conducts workshops dealing with “systemic racism” and the resources include articles by Altagracia Montilla, a “queer woman of color.” According to Montilla, the written word is “characteristic of white supremacy culture.” Apparently James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time), Stanley Crouch (Kansas City Lightning), Chester Himes (Lonely Crusade), and other black writers never got the memo.
Panorama also recommends that teachers read “Teaching Toward Freedom,” an essay by Weather Underground alum Bill Ayers. He tells teachers that the system you’ll be joining “hates Black and Brown and poor kids,” and so on. So while Garland’s son-in-law was raking in the taxpayer dollars, Nina Jancowicz accused Republicans of disinformation for profit, a classic example of projection.
Like the great Betty Everett in “You’re No Good,” Americans can tell Nina Jankowicz, “now I know how you really are.” Like many in the federal government, Nina is a professional prevaricator, as the Castaways put it, “Liar Liar, Pants on Fire.” The people are not fooled.
“You thought I was sleepin’,” sang the great Levon Helm, “but I knew you was sleazin’.” Hard to keep secrets from a guy like Levon. Trouble is, as a federal government mouthpiece, Nina is going to be hard to avoid. Nat King Cole has the answer.
“Meet me at no special place,” he sang, “and I’ll be there at no particular time.” If anybody sees Nina again, as the song says, it will be “too soon.” The late great Mose Allison also weighed in on the subject, when he found someone incessantly yakking in his face.
“If silence was golden, you couldn’t raise a dime,” sang Mose. “Because your mind is on vacation and your mouth is working overtime.” That’s Nina all over, but as Ernestine Anderson put it, she may have “made her move too soon.”
Other songs applicable to Nina will doubtless come to mind but for now let Betty Everett have the last word. As a singer, a government official, and a person, Nina Jancowicz is just no good, and that’s worth saying again.