Charles M. Blow: Feasting on False and Fake

[babylonsister]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/03/opinion/donald-trump-russia-lies.html

The Opinion Pages | Op-Ed Columnist
Feasting on False and Fake
Charles M. Blow AUG. 3, 2017

snip//

I keep coming back to the lying because I believe everything else flows from it.

If Trump had been upfront and candid about his and his cohorts’ dealings with Russia, had not lied about President Barack Obama supposedly wiretapping phones in Trump Tower, had released his tax returns and not tried to make James Comey commit to some sort of oath of allegiance, maybe we wouldn’t need a special counsel to investigate his campaign’s Russia connections.

If Trump hadn’t lied about three million people voting illegally, we wouldn’t be diverting resources to a ridiculous voter integrity commission. Maybe we could focus on the real problems: voter suppression and partisan gerrymandering. As Nate Cohn pointed out Wednesday on the Upshot: “Heading into the 2018 midterms, data and conventional wisdom agree: Gerrymandering is a big reason the G.O.P. has a real chance to retain control of the House, even if the Democrats score a clear win” in the overall popular vote.

If Trump had been honest in his fake outreach to black voters during the campaign — “What the hell do you have to lose?” — the attack on civil rights by this Justice Department would make sense. The reversal on private prisons, the review of consent decrees, the return to the failed drug policies of the ’90s would make sense. If Trump had been honest, the absolutely outrageous news reported by The Times this week would make sense:

“The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department’s civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.”

The lies are the root of all this evil. It not only impedes normal functioning and normal processes, it has destroyed a common basis on which to operate. The presidency is being used as tool of degradation rather than uplift.

[bitterross]

1. It is pathological - I believe he's very sick

It is a pathological condition. He's a sociopath. Just a very sick man. I don't think he believes he's lying at all. I bet if you game him a polygraph he'd pass because he believes what he says to be true.

I can't fathom any other way he could do it non-stop without the least bit of pause unless he's just really ill.

[lark]

2. Exactly as Putin planned.

He must be the happiest man on earth because his plan to destroy the US is working so much better than he ever dreamed it would.
I bet not even he expected drumpf to drive such a wedge between us and our traditional allies.

[spanone]

3. K&R...

[Dustlawyer]

4. If he released his taxes there would need to be at least an IRS investigation

and probably aa Special Prosecutor as it would be claimed the IRS was partisan again. Trump's taxes i bet are a big cheat along with a bunch of Russian influence and we would be right back where we started from.

Trump knows he is lying. He has been doing it to get away with shit his whole life. He is lying to keep the truth away from us because he knows the truth is bad for him.