Sucker CertificateTM*
from Sucker CentralTM
Where it's April Fools' Day all year long! 

   Dear Sir/Ma'am: 

    Thanks for your truthy* emailed information.  However, please check out: TruthOrFiction.com ,  www.Snopes.com , UrbanLegends.about.com , FactCheck.orgFlackCheck.org, MediaBiasFactCheck.com, NPR Fact Checker, OpenSecrets.org, PoliticFact.com, Sunlight Foundation

  or any reputable mainstream source.  With your fairytale submittal, you have just qualified for a Sucker Award Certificate (in 1 of 3 flavors): 

    Sucker-Born-Every-Minute Award http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_sucker_born_every_minute  

    Chicken-Little ("The sky is falling!") Award http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Penny_%28fable%29                                                         

    Boy-Who-Cried-Wolf Award http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf                             

 

    Along with the certificate, you also win an exciting trip through the grocery store checkout line to pick out your favorite tabloid:  www.globemagazine.com, www.starmagazine.com, www.nationalenquirer.com, or http://weeklyworldnews.com

    You may present us with the bill for your favorite tabloid (or fake news website subscription) at the next group meeting.  Your only obligation will be to report to the group as to the meaning of life, as described by your choice of magazines (please bring it for display), and how it applies to our group.  You will also be entered into our annual Sucker Award contest.  Winner of this astounding annual loser contest will be judged by quantity and quality of false information he/she circulates to the group throughout the year.  If winner desires, picture of the 1st Order of Sucker award presentation may be posted on our website!       

Yes, could this be you?!         

   

     If you don't win our annual award, you will be happy to know that three Sucker Certificates qualifies you for your own personal "Idiot Identifier" bumper sticker!  To have us properly affix this eye-catching wonder, please first leave your unlocked car in a poorly lit area of your fair city for three days and then call us for further instructions and a lift in our "Enterprising We'll Pick You Up and Clean You Out" limo service to our "You Can Always Trust Us!" frequently-replenished used car lot.  Our more than fair transportation fare can be applied to your first purchase!  And your car-shopping time will likely be reduced, as most of our customers, especially those who've lost expensive cars, are amazed and pleased to find, in our "your-taste-always-in-mind" selection, cars amazingly similar to the beloved ones they'd just lost!  To the first customers this week we're offering complimentary, rare solid gold coins from the Chocolate Chip Mint.  Feel free to show them to your admiring friends, but we just ask that, in handling them with only cold hands, you please don't bite, leave in the sun, bend, fold, spindle, or mutilate!
   
Please note that this is an equal opportunity contest.  We hope never to send out a "4U-lantineTM :  an unsettling, energy-draining 4U's email which is 1.  Unsigned, 2. Undated, 3. Unbelievable, and not surprisingly 4. Untrue, usually upon quick, easy investigation!  If we ever waste your time by sending you on one of these four-engine-false-alarm, foul-ball-chasing, adrenalin-sapping (no pun intended) wild-goose-chases, let us know and we’ll buy ourselves some tabloids!!

    In thinking a little more about the Sucker Certificates, it came to us that another option might be made available:  the Nigerian Nobel.  However, winners who choose this option will have to give us their SSN’s, bank info, and a modest down payment (house title) to cover the handling fee so that the $1,000,000,000,000 Nigerian Nobel prize can be released!  Go for the gold!  Why screw around with measly tabloids?!  Act now and get a gold-embossed free copy of "101 Secrets to Become a Millionaire By Scamming On The Internet," a free bottle of rube-baiting snake oil, and half ownership of the Brooklyn Bridge (other half can be purchased for only $9.95 cash; limit only 10 halves per customer)!!!



===================

    Note:  your Sucker Certificate medal/ribbon can be enhanced by a beautiful, personal image-enhancing, heroic Hippo Hypothesis device/cluster.  Attaches to lapel by solar-powered magnet (required DieHard® marine battery and possibly trailing wagon sold separately): 

    Qualifier for Hippo ("crite" pronounced silently) Hypothesis award is that one doesn't practice what one preaches:  eg, one who collects or seeks one or more government incomes/handouts yet rails against socialism**. 
If hypocrisy is not honest and "you can't cheat an honest man," then is it any wonder that most never give such cheated suckers "an even break"? 
Well, if applicable, take heart and save big today with our compassionate Chump Challenge special pricing:  Buy 1@$10; 2@$30!  
:)  :(  :)

Please visit our friends at:      www.cartoonstock.com/directory/s/sucker.asp 

Click here to send Nigerian Nobel SSN's, bank details, etc., questions, or sucker nominations.  : )

You're in luck!  Here's our special, limited-time offer (expires in 13 minutes)!
We found some old coins in our back yard with a "buy and hold" recommendation note from Adam and Eve.  Want to buy one?  Includes at no extra charge a genuine, historically accurate xerox of A/E's note!  Let us know.  We're giving all our very best friends a big discount off the regular $10,000 price.  After we cash your $9,995.95 cashier's check or money order, do your friends and neighbors a favor -- tell them about it, too!  They'll love you and think you're very smart!!  Don't wait -- supply is limited, and time's running out -- buy now!!! 

Let us leave you with our special "Loons and Liars" offer: 
Send in your whopper (along with $10 p/h) -- We'll send you our unbelievably amazing square circle!
Comes with free ribbon and bow fit for an emperor.  Note:  only very intelligent people can see and appreciate it! 

* "Truthiness is a quality characterizing a 'truth' that a person claims to know intuitively 'from the gut' or because it 'feels right' without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness    Quote from one winner:  "I don't care what the facts are, it should be true!" 

**  If we'd get a dollar every time we hear someone (a "self-hating socialist"?) directly or indirectly suck on the government's teat and then yell at "socialist swine," we'd be rich!  Maybe almost as rich as you'll be with all the above special offers!!   :)  :(  :)    
BTW, corporate welfare can sometimes lead to socialism for business, or Corporate Socialism, which
also goes by the name of Fascism -- aka National Socialism or Nazism.  
Favorite phrase in this realm:  "Socialism for me is not socialism!"

If you're into this, let us know -- our LagerCamp, er factory, makes all sorts of "Big Lie:  Arbeit Macht Frei" lapel and tie pins!  These beautiful, genuine "Fool's Gold" pins are free for volunteers taking our quick factory tour!  In addition, all taking the tour will not only get to eat their cake but have it, too!  
: )  : (  : )  
 

Return to www.bahrnoproducts.com   
  
Copyright 2011-2022  W. Bahr;  Acknowledgments to image providers. 

* We'll happily substitute a quality certificate of your choice:  boob, butt, chump, dolt, dupe, easy mark, fall guy,
fool, gull, jamoke, mark, naif, patsy, pigeon, pushover, rube, sap, stooge, or "useful idiot."

Please open these doors; it may blind you!   Door 1Door 2.

"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit atrocities [injustices]."  — Voltaire [1767]   : (

A Proverb
"He that knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool -- shun him.  He that knows not and knows that he knows not is simple -- teach him. 
He that knows and knows not that he knows is asleep -- wake him.  He that knows and knows that he knows is wise -- follow him."  Anonymous

The Cadet Prayer
"...Encourage us in our endeavor to live above the common level of life.
Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong,
And never to contend with a half truth when the whole can be won."

The "messenger" just "passing along" a mixture of poison and beer is still passing along poison!
Think the FDA will let this "just a distributor" stay in business for long?  
Think the uncaring, willfully ignorant host serving discerning guests a mixture of dinner and dung will be fondly remembered?  : )  : (  : ) 


Question -- In a conversation between a wise man and a fool, who learns the most?   : ) 

"The Sucker's Saying:  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on...me?!"
 

       

"Here, take a lick (and a licking)!"

Born yesterday?  Just fell off the turnip truck?  Do we have a certificate for you!      

Alternative facts courtesy of Faux News, Inc.,  Liars' Clubs International, and SHAME ASS (SHoot first AiM Eventually ASSociation)


For more fun, check out The Book of Boo!

 

Remember to widen your information sources (check out the “blind men’s” proverbial elephant from different angles) and hold your wallets tight (except for deserving charities, of course)!   : ) 
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

"Credibility, credibility...a terrible thing to lose!"

"Character is what you are in the dark."  –  Dwight L. Moody


        


“You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”  ― Abraham Lincoln (~ attributed)

'A man who will steal for me will steal from me.' Theodore Roosevelt, dismissing on the spot one of his best cowhands who was about to claim for his boss an unmarked animal.”  –  David G. McCullough
Same may be said for lying and cheating...? 


 

            

Emperor's New Clothes   Wolf in Sheep's Clothing   My what big teeth you have, Grandma   Pied Piper   Big Hat No Cattle 

 Image result for pyramid scheme

Three-card Monte   Pyramid Scheme   Tulipmania

         

Bait and Switch   Dumb Money   Stupid Is As Stupid Does    Smoke and Mirrors

  

Bernie Madoff:  Trust Me!                 Deal with the Devil:  Sell your soul

      

Willful Ignorance:  Head in Sand      Snake Oil Salesman     Bread and Circuses       Frog in Pot (incremental heat brings no reaction)

 

        

As Sheep to the Slaughter                              Fool's Gold                          Wooden Nickel                            Pinocchio

 

         

Sold a bill of goods    Wizard of Oz: Look behind single-channel magic/propaganda; get second opinions/perspectives   Fox guarding henhouse

 

         

Incite Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt                                Hype!                           Look, watch the Red Herring!         You want the truth?  You can't handle the truth!     

 

       

                              Wild Goose Chase                            Lie with Statistics       Mushroom Management

 

      

                              Temptation                                        Stupidity                                             BS Artist   
                       

 

                       Excuses                                                   Fly by Night                                     Take It With A Grain of Salt

 

    

"Repent, the end is near"  ─  the 2% who never get the word!        Fool's Errand                               Snipe Hunting                                                                     Holding the Bag

 

           

Scorpion and Frog Fable — "Sorry, it's in my nature!"                     "Sorry, Sucker!"                                                                                       Bend the Truth

 

                  

                 Cross fingers                                     Gullible Gus                             Beauty is not truth!                                  Hidden Agenda                      Misinformation / Disinformation Central           

 

       

             Brainwash           Alternate Parallel; Universe Reality             Bizarro's World                                               Conspiracy Theory                                                                    Delusion                                         
                                          Separate Channel; Reality-distortion Field                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                   
 
 

True Believer

 

Snow White, the Evil Queen, and the Poisoned Apple:
"And because you’ve been so good to poor old granny, I’ll share a secret with you. This is no ordinary apple, it’s a magic wishing apple. One bite and all your dreams come true. Now make a wish and take a bite!"

 

For a thrilling experience, rent one of our "Blind-leading-blind" self-guided tours!! 

"There are none so blind as those who will not see!"? 
 
Emperor's New Clothes, Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma Wolf, Pied Piper, Three Card Monte, Pyramid Schemes, Tulipmania, Bait and Switch  Sell Soul

Sucker Born Every Minute Song        Video of How They Make 6 Thousand Dum-Dum (real name!) Suckers Every Minute

How to Spot a Liar     Know your history:  Charles Ponzi      Don't Be a Sucker (video)     Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit


Had your friends hammer your credibility? Now you can get your very own buttons, hats, and more.  Just click on item.  Mix and match! 

 
 Useful Idiot Button    Useful Idiot Party Hat  

 

Useful Idiot, Idiot ID, Idiot Identifier


        

Thanks!  Not ours, but claim credit if yours! 

 

Feeling played in the Post-Truth Era?  Calling again about something we've promised? 
Please hold your breath:  your check is in the mail!  In the meantime, here's another

Invi$ible-ink $ecret $pecial fun and profit offer to Wi$e guys (only very $mart people can $ee thi$) 
Want to help us find more $uckers? 
For a big comi$$ion, just $end them to thi$ page!  We'll take it from there!!! 

  
 

Need fancy words to call/impress your leader and/or information source (if not a fellow dupe)?  Check these out 4 4ee: 
 Bamboozler, bluff, BS artist, charlatan, cheat, chiseler, con artist, con man, confidence man
(confident enough to gain your confidence), conniver, counterfeiter, cozener,
crook, deceiver, decoy, defrauder, deluder, dissembler, dissimulator, distorter, dodger, double-crosser, double-dealer, double-talker, double talker, enticer, equivocator, fabler,
fabricator, fabulist, false witness, falsifier, faker, fibber, flimflam man, fraud, grifter, happy-talker, hoaxer, hoodwinker, hypocrite, imposter, inveigler, jockey, knave, liar, maligner,
 masquerader, misleader, mountebank, quack, perjurer, pettifogger, phony, pretender, prevaricator, promoter, propagandist, quack, quibbler, rascal, rip-off artist, rogue,
scammer, sham, shark, sharper, shyster, spin-meister, sophist, storyteller, swindler, trickster, (phrases:  dishonest and/or dumb; liar and/or loony), weasel. 
Note: If your leader and/or information source somehow questions your praise, just tell them you were joking, being sarcastic, misquoted, or never said it. 
Best if you randomly alternate these replies to avoid further problems! 

Other words for lie, or sort of:  beat around the bush, blow hot and cold, cavil, cloud the issue, con, cop out, cover up, cycle, dodge, double-talk, elude, equivocate, escape,
eschew, evade, falsify,  fence, fib, flip-flop, fudge, give run around, hedge, hem and haw, jive, mince words,  palter, parry, parse words, pass the buck, prevaricate, pussyfoot,
quibble, run around, shuck, shuffle, sidestep, sit on the fence, stonewall, tell white lie, tergiversate, waffle..

NB:  Scamming the Scammers?  

4YI: If you’re not familiar with James Veitch, check these out:

 Agony of Trying to Unsubscribe:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dceyy0cX6J4

More Adventures (hilarious):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Uc-cztsJo

Terrible Roommate:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5d8pVg3Qtg

Wrong Number (also hilarious):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beb8zCGMsbI

Others among many:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3MAv5LuMfU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p50pXcDu_4s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDc-M4dHr0s&list=PLSKUhDnoJjYmeW6nNasZSaVAGh4u91pEk

Darwin Awards     Cleansing the Gene Pool

Sucker Psychology
 

The secret of magic?  Misdirection!  Oh, wow, look over there!!!!!

US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit:  "Victims of con artists often sing the praises of their victimizers until the moment they realize they have been fleeced." 

“No lie is too obvious for the people to believe if it accommodates their secret wish to believe it.”   — Christa Wolf

The curse of "dumb money" (often-inherited) falling prey to a con artist:  If you're so rich, why ain't you smart?     : )  : (   : ) 

"Con artists are experts at sizing people up, figuring out what they want, and selling it to them." — Maria Konnikova    (The Confidence Game

"The longer you believe in the con, the harder it is to admit you’ve been scammed.  ...  It should be noted that anyone can fall for a scam. It’s not about who you are or how smart you are, but where you are in your life. People who are already down—in debt, for instance, or recently laid-off—are more vulnerable because they’re eager for quick solutions. On a larger scale, this means con artists thrive during times of social, political, and economic upheaval, when societies are in periods of tremendous change and people are desperate for someone to set things right—someone who affirms their beliefs about the world and themselves.  ... Many frauds occur in a one-on-one relationship in which con artists develop a personal rapport with their victims, but there’s a dark history of charismatic leaders conning the masses too. They all employ essentially similar techniques, says David Modic, a senior researcher on the psychology of deception at King’s College, Cambridge: They figure out what most people want and promise it to them, but vaguely, so everyone thinks they’re getting what they want. When Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Serbia, held large rallies, he famously responded to the screaming masses, “I cannot hear you very well, but I want to give you what you want.” ...
“As soon as you hold a position, you divide people into those who agree and those who don’t,” Modic explains. ... The con game isn’t a one-way street. It depends on the willing participation of the person being conned—what Kodic refers to as “victim facilitation.” Con victims are almost always complicit in their own deception. They want to believe in the scam. That’s the true secret of the trade, as Konnikova notes: The victims do most of the work." ... In psychology, it’s called the endowment effect. As Konnikova explains it: “By virtue of being ours, our actions, thoughts, possessions, and beliefs acquire a glow they didn’t have before we committed to them.” ... Often, as a con progresses, the victims are repeatedly asked to commit: to re-invest, to raise the stakes, to reassert their beliefs."  —   Elizabeth Winkler

Will a con artist, shill [paid social influencer], or someone who seeks willful ignorance ever admit to what they're up to, even with your best evidence?  Don't hold your breath! 

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us.
It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back." —Carl Sagan

"Don't fall for the okeydoke (aka okie-doke; okey doke; okie dokie; misleading agreement to get one to lower one's guard)."  If you don't see it, don't believe it! 

"Competency challenge":  People who lack knowledge frequently lack the knowledge to realize they lack the knowledge.    : )  : (   : ) 

4YI, a couple questions have been popping up lately, but mostly, “Why do people persist in believing in something when all evidence would speak to the contrary?” 
This is surely the case with the “Emperor’s New Clothes.”  More likely than not, over the years with each reality confrontation contradicting their world belief, they did not “check their premises,”
as Ayn Rand (not that she was perfect or a living embodiment of her own advice) would have recommended.  “Check your premises” follows along per Aristotle’s law of identity (A = A ≠ B)
that insists that contradictions in the real universe don’t/can’t exist.  So what happens?  Year after year, such people aiming for near-term gain add to their shell of rationalizations to which
no light or bit of reality can apparently change. Each year of denial solidifies the concrete in which they’ve encased themselves.  While killing innocents in Cambodia’s Killing fields,
the mantra went up of “They’re just chickens!”  Cheating people?  Oh, it’s their fault that they trusted me. They’re born losers and suckers!  And as one person said,  “Ef ‘em and forget em!” 
So nothing, yes absolutely nothing, will change such people’s minds.  If they persistently try to convince you of the rightness of their cause in the overwhelming absence of any honest proof,
you are truly wasting your time arguing with a zombie.  Step away with a friendly smile and move on, not looking back, as Lot did with his lost wife.   
OTOH, you might leave them with a “sucker certificate”:     
: )  : (   : ) 
Watch out for all attacks on the truth!   
Stay away/safe/well/sane!   

Note (a very charitable alternative explanation):  "Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. It is an important type of cognitive bias that has a significant effect on the proper functioning of society by distorting evidence-based decision-making. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. For example, a person may cherry-pick empirical data that supports one's belief, ignoring the remainder of the data that is not supportive. People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs."  From Wikipedia

Hitler's and Goebbel's use of the Big Lie

Poll:  When is National Sucker Day?  1 April (April Fools' Day) or 20 July (National Lollipop Day) or both? 

Check back soon!  We discovered a rare trove of mint-condition, uncirculated indulgences in Pope Leo X's recently opened secret crypt.
We're now in the final stages of getting ready to open our new "Indulgences Department."  For a small suggested donation, you, too, can get saved! 


Sucker CentralTM: The home for Shysters, Shills, and Suckers! Proud affiliate$ of DisHone$t John Enterpri$e$ 

A la: "Give me the mortgage!"  "I don't have the mortgage!"

Luke 16:10 (King James): He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.”  

“No punishment, in my opinion, is too great for the Man, who can build 'his greatness upon his Country’s ruin.'”    —  George Washington ~ Letter to Joseph Reed (December 12, 1778)

13 [patriotic] words: "Where the Hudson takes a hard right [right at Trophy Point], West Point teaches the Harder Right."   
                                         W. Bahr, USMA '69   ©  2014

Updated  10/18/2022

 

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