Artful Truth Dodger

"There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." -- Mark Twain.

"If he ever got caught telling the truth, he'd tell a lie just to keep his hand in." -- Lyndon Johnson, commenting on Richard Nixon.

   Donald Trump calls his sales technique "truthful hyperbole, an innocent form of exaggeration." To the rest of us, who prefer plain English, it's called "bullshit."
   To this candidate, truth is whatever happens to be in his head at any given moment. A few weeks ago, he was loudly praising the political polls, which showed him "leading by a lot." Now, as whatever lead he had collapses and he falls behind by double-digit percentages, the polls are "phony."
   Those who disagree with him, including major newspapers and magazines that document failures, court cases and bankruptcies, as well as flat-out false claims and downright lies, are in his view "unfair, dishonest, weak, failing" or whatever negative adjective comes to mind.
   But if all the stories about him are false and defamatory, he can sue for libel. However, when the stories are true, and provably true, and backed up with court documents, they are by definition not libelous.
   Increasingly, major news outlets are finding more and more details about Trump's false claims, inconsistencies and flat-out lies, and are spending more broadcast time and ink calling him out.
   CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria has now labeled Trump's consistent pattern of manipulating or ignoring truth and fact, bending them to his purposes, as the pattern of a "bullshit artist." Here's a link to Zakaria's column, as it appeared in the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-unbearable-stench-of-trumps-bs/2016/08/04/aa5d2798-5a6e-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html.
   One of the most glaring untruths was when Trump claimed he was personally acquainted with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, saying, "I got to know him very well because we were both on '60 Minutes,'" the TV interview show.
   The millions of viewers watching the CBS program remember that the Trump and Putin interviews, while broadcast the same night, were prerecorded at different times and in different places -- Putin in Moscow and Trump in New York.
   Did he really think no one would notice?
   But that's the thing with bullshit artists. They conflate fact and fiction to their own ends, believing that they can persuade everyone to believe everything they say, no matter how inane or ludicrous.
   The tragedy is that there are many thousands of "true believers" who accept the bellowings of their chosen leader, and choose not to read or believe documented exposes of the con artist's bullshit.