Liars Beware

And so Stormy “testified” against the Drumpf on Sixty Minutes. And, the Donald denies everything.  And how would we know whether The Donald is lying? Well, the sure test is:

“Whenever The Donald opens his mouth and words come tumbling out, he is lying.”

See, that is the problem Mr. Trump has with everyone.  He acknowledges that, while meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, he lied to him. And he more or less blew it off.  And therein lies the problem. He lies to everybody; ergo, nobody can believe anything he says, even when he is being truthful.  Apparently, the only way to know whether he is being truthful is if someone you know/trust certifies that he is being truthful. Because, see, all of his colleagues/paid serfs/family serfs, lie along with him.  So, it is only if someone you actually know, or someone you can absolutely trust, will say he is truthful that you can sigh and relax.

But what does that mean in practical terms? Well, it means that Trump is useless in any conversation in which agreements are sought.  So, if, say, an arms agreement were being negotiated, one would not want to have Trump in the room. He would screw it up simply by being present.  So, for example, Trump heading off to negotiate with China, or with his buddy Kim Jung Un about nuclear disarmament, is a total waste of time. Mainly, neither Trump nor Kim could be believed in any final agreement. Even if Trump agreed to some final solution, it would not matter, because he might change his mind tomorrow.

The scary thing about Trump and his lying is that it is not actually clear, when he says something, that he knows he is lying, or even knows that he is being truthful. He simply says stuff that he imagines people want to hear, or stuff that he imagines will make him look good.  He may say something not even knowing whether it is truthful. Accompanying his constant lying is his apparent ignorance about most subjects. I guess because he doesn’t/can’t read anything, he really doesn’t seem to understand anything in any detail. Maybe he just deals in headlines, and never reads or understands the accompanying text.  Like when he called his buddy Vlad the Impaler to congratulate him on his election, he perhaps did not understand that Vlad had rigged the election, in ways that most American Presidents would disapprove of. Now, to be fair, he isn’t “most American presidents”. He isn’t like any previous American President, but is rather, in a class by himself—a class of awfulness to be sure.

In any case, what this all means, is that Trump should not be an active participant in any agreement, or conversation leading to an agreement.  His staff should be allowed to negotiate all such agreements without Trump being present. He can sign the agreements, of course. Just don’t let him read any of them (oh, but I forget, he really cannot/would not read them anyway).

The other problem for Mr. Trump is that, because he cannot and should not be believed when he says something, no one will/should believe him, even if he speaks the truth. So, he will lose, even in the unlikely event he is actually saying something truthful.

His lying, his palpable ignorance about most subjects, and his willful behavior really explain his utter lack of success about almost everything he has ever attempted. Three failed/failing marriages, six bankruptcies, the development and then failure of seemingly fraudulent enterprises like Trump University are all explained fully by his standard behavior patterns.  He seems not to understand how anything runs, so he cannot really take charge, or “manage” anything. He needs to have others manage his enterprises, or they would all surely fail.  Having him pretend to be our senior executive over all of our government is way beyond just a horribly bad joke.  His assertions that he would assign responsibility for reorganizing government, and then also resolving the Middle East mess to his son-in-law Jared was so startling that it seemed that he must surely have been joking. But, no, he was as serious as he ever gets, at least at that moment. He simply did not understand what he was saying, because he understands almost nothing.  His constant hiring and firing of the heads of his cabinet posts also is consistent with his standard behavior practices. He hires people now who seemingly have not the slightest understanding of their intended positions or the agencies they are being asked to run.  Then, eventually, he tires of their ineptitude (by his definition of aptitude) and fires them.  It makes one wonder whether he is truly in process of destroying the entire US Government.  I am confident that his supporters would applaud such a finding, but they are as ignorant as our president.

It is difficult to now imagine how this all ends.  He will not be impeached I would guess, because the republican party no longer has any ethical standards at all. In the unlikely event all republicans are voted out of office in 2018 and 2020, I suppose we might depose him and his henchmen.  I no longer have any belief in such an outcome. The seeming constancy of his support, 40% and holding, makes me fear for what that says about America.  I might think/imagine differently were I a 30-something. But I am now in my 45^th 39^th year and my trust in America is now failing. I hope I am wrong and perhaps the youngsters—the teenagers who have behaved so wonderfully and made their “adults” look so tragically awful—perhaps they will rescue all of us from ourselves.  One can only hope, I guess.

So carry on teenagers. Our future is now in your hands, as soon as you can pry it from your adult ne’er-do-wells.