Grigory Potemkin was Catherine the Great’s favored lover. Whether he was “great” is lost to antiquity, but after he successfully executed a plan to wrest the fertile lands of Crimea from the Ottomans, Grigory was tasked with creating a new crown jewel from the muddy lands of the Ukraine. Potemkin was given a budget and sent south. 

Legend has it that Potemkin ran out of rubles and didn’t complete his task. Catherine wanted to see the fruits of her rubles and informed her beau that she would be traveling to Crimea to see his progress. Grigory had little to show for his money and, instead of owning up to his shortage, he decided to employ a feint. He built a fake village with nothing more than a Hollywood-style façade, with serfs dressed in rented costumes and fireworks.  On review, Catherine was impressed with her lover’s largess.  

Alas, it was all a fake. As in, the entire story was made up. Well, not the lover part but the rest of it.  Although the term “Potemkin Village” was birthed from this story, it almost certainly never happened. Catherine wouldn’t have been very great had she been fooled with Disneyland-style fakery, peasants wearing lederhosen and a couple of sparklers. 

Although the legend is but a legend, the concept of creating a fake story to hide an uglier reality lived on. Herr Hitler and his pasty Gestapo used it to some effect. The Theresienstadt camp was a Jewish ghetto hybrid in what is now the Czech Republic. The Nazis told the world that old Jews went to Theresienstadt to “retire.” But Jews weren’t playing shuffleboard at Theresienstadt; they were exterminated.

Gavin Newsom “built” a Potemkin Village for his favorite commie. My RedState buddie Nick Arama wrote: 

Of course, they moved the homeless to other areas that were not affected by the Summit, so they weren't truly addressing the problem, just moving it around a bit. It shows they can do some things for the appearance for Xi, but they don't care about cleaning it up or keeping things safe for the regular residents, normally. To the powers that be, regular residents aren't as important as a Communist dictator.

Last year, a leftist traveled to “Frisco,” aka San Francisco (leftists hate that nickname), and observed that there were no visible mounds of human poop on his trolley-car seat. Cool, Bro. 

He was on the Potemkin trolley car. 

We just got back home from 2 days in San Francisco exploring different neighborhoods & riding public transit on buses, cable cars, & street cars. Reports of the city being a lawless cesspool are flat out wrong. It is still one of the most charming & beautiful cities in the world. pic.twitter.com/wPbYIofflp

— Allen Cowgill (@AllenCowgill) July 23, 2023

Allen ignored the "'Poop Map" and the obvious. 

Did you have a poop map or nah? pic.twitter.com/RckMr2s6Co

— Jim Thompson (@JimmySportToons) July 24, 2023

Fast forward to 2024 and the Hamas terrorists on college campuses. It is an objective fact that agitators are harassing Jews on campus. But leave it to leftist apologists to claim that's “all an illusion.” 

One intrepid journalist trekked to Princeton to prove the protests were all as non-violent as a blue-blood cotillion. He isn’t a Jew, but to prove Jews aren’t being Kristallnachted, this non-Jew wore a yarmulke. I’m guessing his “Let’s wear black-face” was scheduled for next Wednesday.

I’m currently at Princeton wearing my Yarmulke, waiting to be inundated with all the vicious anti-Semitism we’re told has overtaken our once-great Elite American Universities. I’ll let you know if I survive 😭 pic.twitter.com/cI0UJhk2K5

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 27, 2024

 Grigory Potemkin must be smiling…somewhere.