49. He is a pathological liar.

For DT, lying apparently comes as easily as breathing does to most of us. He lies about trivial things and monumental things and everything in between. He lies so routinely that it would be imprudent to take him at his word on any topic at all. He is unquestionably the most dishonest president in the history of the United States.

There is little point in devoting many words to this topic. Everyone is aware of the lies. Maybe a few of his most ardent supporters are unaware, but I suspect that most of them know full well and either don’t care or actually admire him all the more for it. Fortunately, the corporate media, which during the 2016 campaign and for some time afterward bent over backwards to avoid calling his lies lies, is doing a much better job now. The Washington Post even has tallied the lies, which were over 20,000 at last count. This morning, he lied four times in one sentence, which reportedly was a record, even for him.

From January 2017, when he lied about the crowd size at his puny inauguration, to this year, when he has lied repeatedly and dangerously about the coronavirus, the lies just never stop. A president who habitually lies is unfit for office by any reasonable measure, and the Republican members of Congress who continue to defend his lies show themselves equally unfit.

ANSWERS, NOT QUESTIONS

Although it’s far from perfect, the BBC News seems to be a reasonably good source of information on current events. I particularly like reading their take on American news, since it offers a perspective that domestic sources cannot. One thing I’m getting sick and tired of, however: the Beeb’s tendency to phrase more than a few of its headlines as questions. Does Biden want to cut US police funding? Has Tr-mp kept his promises on the military? Is Tr-mp right about cause of US wildfires? Give me a break. This is not only sloppy headline writing but it doesn’t serve the readership well. At best, I suppose it might be seen as harmless clickbait, but I’d argue that it keeps many readers—who don’t have time to read every story, after all—in the dark or even misleads them. Try answering the damn questions instead of asking them, for a change.