On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that Alexei Saab, aka Ali Hassan Saab, aka Alex Saab, aka Rachid, 46, was sentenced to 12 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for receiving military-type training from Hezbollah, marriage fraud, and making false statements.

Saab had been a member of Hezbollah for more than two decades before he was indicted and charged for his involvement with the terror group.

"Hey Joe, stick that in your pipe and smoke it!" Boy oh boy, the phrase that is old as time can be used on the daily to address the Biden administration and their continued push to lie to the American people even when the truth is on display for all to see, they don't give up.

Nope, they double and triple down. Not to mention the first family's association with other pipes, if you know what I mean.

"Stick it in your pipe and smoke it," is actually something that English majors call an idiom. The phrase is used to tell someone that they must accept what one says is true even though they might not like it or agree with it. 

We know you are lying. We see the moves to cover up illicit business dealings and the shady government meddling you and your BFF Barack Obama engaged in to help Hillary Clinton. We know it and we are not stupid. 

When called out on your administration's blatant lies, you continue to try and gaslight the American people to "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. As a matter of fact... there is no curtain."

Are there some crazy conspiracy theorists out there? You bet there is, but why do government officials continue to do things that leave the door wide open for people to speculate about the day-to-day happenings behind closed doors? 

Truth, transparency, and honor negate most people's ability to spread false information. It is that simple. 

For example, I knew that there were things that our government did that we did not know about, and I believed that it was probably for the best. Both for the government to take care of business without interference from the millions of busybodies that make up the populace of this great nation, and for the American people. 

Most Americans do not want to bare the burden of decisions that have to be made by government officials on a daily basis. We want to focus on our home. Our family and our communities. Leave the governing to the government. 

I questioned our government's involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I questioned our government's uncanny ability to meddle in the foreign affairs of other nations by arming, training, and supporting the "opposition" to the sitting government in numerous countries or "propping up" the sitting government, only to have the "opposition" turn around and use that training and those weapons against us or our allies. 

Let's take a look at a few examples from history. 

Can anyone say MS-13? 

To understand MS-13 or Mara Salvatrucha, one must go back to the El Salvadoran Civil War that began in 1979 and lasted throughout the 1980s.

America decided to engage in a proxy conflict that was a holdover from the Cold War, with the US-backed government pitted against left-wing guerrillas backed by Cuba, and other Communist countries.

According to the UN, 85 percent of the violence against civilians was committed by government forces and death squads, whom the United States supported with weapons and training. The brutal conflict created hundreds of thousands of refugees, many of whom ended up in the United States. 

We trained them, we armed them and we provided shelter in the United States for the El Salvadore refugees, and MS-13 was born in the barrios of Los Angeles, California. 

When El Salvador’s Civil War ended in 1992, the US government began deporting many Salvadorans. These deportations included members of MS-13 and Barrio 18, one of Los Angeles’ first multi-ethnic and multiracial gangs that included large numbers of Central Americans.  

MS-13 is one of the few gangs with an official motto. The fun-loving bunch's motto is "kill, rape, control." You know, just fun, loving, and completely trustworthy kids from LA. 

Following World War II, the United States started using the newly created Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to covertly overthrow numerous governments around the world. American leaders justified many of these interventions as necessary measures to prevent the spread of communism based on the Cold War's dominion theory. Similarly, in the 21st century, the US defended its Middle East operations as crucial to fighting terrorism.

Remember that time in the late 1980s when President Ronald Reagan intervened in the Iran- Iraq War in support of Baghdad and Saddam Hussein, ultimately leading to an Iraqi victory? 

You read that right. We backed Saddam Hussein. Wonder how that turned out?

The Iran-Contra scandal? The Reagan administration armed CIA-trained Contra fighters in Nicaragua using money obtained from illegal arms sales to Iran. The U.S. government also turned a blind eye in the 1980s to drug trafficking by the Contras in an effort to keep the Cold War operation going.

Now-declassified U.S. documents reveal that Noriega offered to help U.S. officials by assassinating the leadership of Nicaragua's socialist Sandinista government, training Contra fighters and letting Panama serve as a staging ground for U.S. operations, according to Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archives and a co-editor of "The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History (1993)."

Noriega worked for several US intelligence agencies and was paid well to do so. At one point he was making $10,000 a month. But what does a drug kingpin do with his stack of American dollars? He buys more guns and drugs and despite all the assistance that he provided to the CIA, he was eventually jailed in an American federal prison for drug smuggling. 

The true depth of the Iran-Contra scandal is a book all on its own, with twists and turns that seem suited for an action-packed spy adventure novel... except it's real. It really happened. 

In a 2004 article entitled "Al-Qaeda's origins and links", the BBC wrote:

During the anti-Soviet war Bin Laden and his fighters received American and Saudi funding. Some analysts believe Bin Laden himself had security training from the CIA

U.S. government officials and a number of other parties maintain that the U.S. supported only the indigenous Afghan mujahideen. They deny that the CIA or other American officials had contact with Bin Laden, let alone armed, trained, coached, or indoctrinated him. American scholars and reporters have called the idea of a CIA-backed Al Qaeda "nonsense", "sheer fantasy", and a "common myth."

However, Foreign Secretary in the UK from 1997 to 2001, Robin Cook, believed the CIA had provided arms to the Arab mujahideen, including Osama bin Laden, writing, "Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by Western security agencies. Throughout the '80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage war against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan."

But the CIA has a proven record of telling the truth, right? 

We watch television shows and movies that portray some sort of evil warlords and arms dealers. But in reality, the United States is one of the biggest arms dealers around. Remember Operation Fast and Furious?  

But for some reason, it was not until I watched an Amazon limited series that I changed the way I looked at our government. Why? Because it shinned a light on just how twisted and evil those with the kind of power that many in government possess can be. 

In 1985, American DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by Mexico’s most notorious drug lords. Thirty-five years later, three former cartel insiders share unprecedented details. This is the story of Camarena, the drug cartel he infiltrated, and the narc who risked everything to discover the truth.

Two former US law enforcement agents and an ex-CIA contractor have told producers of the limited series, Camarena was actually killed by CIA operatives. To this day, Camarena’s murder is considered the most heinous crime ever committed against the DEA in Latin America, and it took place at the height of the US drug war of the 1980s.

Despite the allegations, and the evidence presented by those that were involved, drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero was convicted in the agent's kidnapping and killing and sentenced to 40 years but went free after 28 years when a Mexican court overturned the sentence in 2013.

Don't get me started talking about the kickbacks, bribes, fraud, waste, coverups, and corruption. 

In short, when one decides to call out conspiracy theories and try to gaslight the American people with lies and propaganda, remember that if our government was transparent, truthful, and for the love of everything holy... stayed away from meddling in other country's conflicts, the American people would have no wiggle room to insert "what ifs."

It is not a MAGA problem. It is an American problem and the lack of integrity in our government. 

In the show, NCIS, Ducky (The doctor) gives a great example of a moral person when he says, "The ethical man knows it is wrong to cheat on his wife, whereas the moral man actually wouldn't."

We know what the right thing to do is, but we are not doing it. Our government's moral compass is broken. 

There will always be alternate facts and there will always be people who doubt the narrative. We are human and we all have brains that work independently of one another. We are not all plugged in and connected to each other. 

The key is constantly standing on the truth. Be the kind of government official who no matter the decision or the outcome, is willing to stand up and defend their actions or take responsibility for their failures. 

So yes. The American people do have a problem with our government. They have a bit of a reputation for not being the nicest and most trustworthy friends to have. In fact, they are well known for their backstabbing and scheming. 

And let me be clear... this is a problem for both Republicans and Democrats. No party is more righteous in its history. They are all part of the same machine. 

So until the Biden administration and all administrations to come can rise to the challenge...  "Stick it in your pipe and smoke on the truth."

When did the world become so cold that the sight of men and women dying on the streets of America from poison administered through a needle was not a call to action, but an opportunity to look away? A chance to pretend that those consumed by addiction are less than human.