Phony baloney

A lot of phony-ism going around.

According to NBC, the Purple Heart given to Donald Trump by a vet at a rally in Virginia was a copy of the actual award. Virginia is where the Khan family is from, the one Trump keeps dissing over their heartbreak of losing their son in the Iraq War.

Like Trump himself, the donated award was phony-ism at its finest.

Then there's the predictions of the fallout of what will happen to the New England Patriots in the 4-game absence of Tom Brady. Woe upon them.

Not.

They will be just fine with Jimmy G at QB (that's Garoppolo, for those outside of his native Illinois).

He's got weapons galore, a great defense and the best coaching mind of our generation on his side. At worst, he'll go 2-2. At worst. Turn off the false punditry of their fall from grace. They'll be fine.

They were fine after Spygate. They were fine after having their perfect season spoiled by the Giants in the Super Bowl. And they'll be fine now.

Cheating shows. And it works. Sometimes.

But watch out for phony-ism. It is everywhere. Had phony-ism tried on me recently. Got one of those phone calls saying I owed the IRS $6,800 and it had to be paid now or I'd be arrested that very day.

I kept the supposed IRS agent on the line for almost a half-hour, playing along in my best panic acting, making him think I was buying this.

Then I told him I was an FBI agent and we had stayed on the phone long enough to trace the call and were on our way to get 'em.

I could hear the cursing under his breathe as he hung up, realizing he was the one who'd been scammed.

OK, so some phony-ism can be fun. Can it ever.