[QUOTE=only_human;459017]Fortunately we can go to the experts for unscientific gut-theorizing because we can rely on Trump's expert opinions:
[URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-thinks-that-exercising-too-much-uses-up-the-bodys-finite-energy/2017/05/12/bb0b9bda-365d-11e7-b4ee-434b6d506b37_story.html"]Trump thinks that exercising too much uses up the body’s ‘finite’ energy[/URL][/QUOTE]

Well, there *is* irreversible mitochondrial degradation associated with metabolism ... whether that outweighs the many positive benefits of exercise in terms of energy-level in old age is an interesting question. Evolution didn't select for humans to live much past 40, so there could be counterintuitive aspects to our modern longer lifestyles. Links to scientific studies in this area welcome! (At least outside the White House.)

There was an [url=http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/05/links-51317.html#comment-2815497]interesting discussion on NC yesterday[/url] about the distinction between a congenital liar and a bullshitter, and where DT falls in that dualism.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;459023]There was an [url=http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/05/links-51317.html#comment-2815497]interesting discussion on NC yesterday[/url] about the distinction between a congenital liar and a bullshitter, and where DT falls in that dualism.[/QUOTE]

Interesting? It's ludicrous:

[b]allan[/b]
May 13, 2017 at 10:19 am
[quote](quoting MoiAussie) [quote][i]Does anyone have any examples of where it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that Trump has publicly lied on a matter of substance since the election?[/i][/quote]

I have limited time, and multiple links would invoke the wrath of the-net-that-must-not-be-named,
but off the top of my head:

1. Describing the creations of the Grand Staircase-Escalante (Clinton) and Bears Ears (Obama) National Monuments as “land grabs”. The lands in question had been federal since before Utah became a state.

2. Saying that the U.S. has a multibillion dollar trade deficit with Canada when in fact it has a surplus. This might seem like nitpicking, but in the context of choosing which countries to go after in terms of trade, it matters.

3. In his Feb. 28 address to Congress, he stated, “We will provide massive tax relief for the middle class. ” All credible analyses of his tax plan show that it does not.

4. Claiming that the murder rate is the highest in 47 years, when in fact, although it has ticked up in the last couple of years, it is half the level of 1995.

Enough already.[/quote]

[b]MoiAussie[/b]
May 13, 2017 at 10:33 am
[quote]Thanks, but with the exception of 3, all these could be examples of him being mistaken, rather than lying. Lying is saying something knowing it to be wrong. I imagine he often believes incorrect things he has heard or read. I was hoping for examples that clearly demonstrate lying, rather than merely being wrong.[/quote]

[b]MoiAussie[/b]'s attempt to circumscribe the notion of lying is complete BS. It is not "merely being wrong" for the U.S. President to make untrue statements about his own program and policies, or about facts which are publicly available, and which are the basis for policies and actions. Besides, what if, as Ted Cruz said just before the Indiana Primary, Trump is so pathological that he [i]actually believes[/i] his lies when he is uttering them? Is it really OK for the President to make statements which are contrary to fact because he's "merely" delusional?

It is also BS to try to restrict discussion of Trump's lies to after the election, or to suggest that Trump's pre-election lies were only "about business." His status as "Birther-in-Chief" is due to his repeating the same defamatory nonsense about his predecessor for years. Was that "about business?" I think not. He elaborated on the basic lie with others, saying for example that he had sent investigators to Hawaii. He hadn't. Or what about Trump's claim that Ted Cruz's father was somehow involved in the JFK assassination? It is absolute BS to pretend that the man somehow might have undergone a miraculous transformation of character on Election Day, so that all his lies before then somehow "don't count."

Saying that The Donald [i]might actually believe[/i] falsities when he utters them, or that there's no definitive proof that he doesn't believe them, is simply craven bootlicking. We all have a responsibility, by common decency, no refrain from making defamatory statements about others without regard for whether they're true. The Ninth Commandment's proscription [i]Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor[/i] applies to passing on rumors and gossip without regard to whether they're true, every bit as much as it does to willfully making false criminal accusations. There's a concept in libel law of "reckless disregard for the truth." It can mean knowingly making a false defamatory statement. But it can [i]also[/i] mean, making a false defamatory statement, and not knowing it's false [i]only[/i] because you didn't bother checking. In other words, you [i]should[/i] have known, and didn't know only because you didn't care.

I think a similar standard applies to a public official making policy decisions or public statements. There is a responsibility of due diligence to at least get the basic facts right.

BTW, there is now a presidential commission to "investigate" election fraud. You may recall the assertion that Hillary won the popular vote only because "millions" of people voted illegally. Since there isn't a scintilla of evidence to support this assertion, both Congress and DOJ declined to investigate the assertion. But POTUS can always appoint a commission...

He has yet to appoint a commission to "investigate" the claim that vaccines cause autism. Or that the sun rises in the west...

Perhaps I believe the following is from Trump's inauguration speech, somehow cleverly hidden in the [url=http://www.tenislosalcazares.com/fgi/cine/bananasenglish.pdf]script for Woody Allen's [i]Bananas[/i][/url]. If I am mistaken, it's an understandable mistake.

[quote]Hear me. I am your new president. From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. Silence! In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check. Furthermore, all children under 16 years old are now 16 years old.[/quote]

I just now searched on: пресидент д трамп

I saw this spelling a few days ago on a tweet of pictures of the Russian visitors to the Oval Office. Anyway just now I got a kick out of how Google pulls up a POTUS summary without a hiccup.

Today Politico is talking more about how Trump reacts to things placed in front of him:
"[URL="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/15/donald-trump-fake-news-238379"]How Trump gets his fake news[/URL] - The president rarely surfs the web on his own, but his staff have made a habit of slipping news stories on to his desk—including the occasional internet hoax."
[QUOTE]White House chief of staff Reince Priebus issued a stern warning at a recent senior staff meeting: Quit trying to secretly slip stuff to President Donald Trump.

Just days earlier, K.T. McFarland, the deputy national security adviser, had given Trump a printout of two Time magazine covers. One, supposedly from the 1970s, warned of a coming ice age; the other, from 2008, about surviving global warming, according to four White House officials familiar with the matter.

Trump quickly got lathered up about the media’s hypocrisy. But there was a problem. The 1970s cover was fake, part of an internet hoax that’s circulated for years. Staff chased down the truth and intervened before Trump tweeted or talked publicly about it.

The episode illustrates the impossible mission of managing a White House led by an impetuous president who has resisted structure and strictures his entire adult life.

While the information stream to past commanders in chief has been tightly monitored, Trump prefers an open Oval Office with a free flow of ideas and inputs from both official and unofficial channels. And he often does not differentiate between the two. Aides sometimes slip him stories to press their advantage on policy; other times they do so to gain an edge in the seemingly endless Game of Thrones inside the West Wing.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=only_human;459066]Today Politico is talking more about how Trump reacts to things placed in front of him:
"[URL="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/15/donald-trump-fake-news-238379"]How Trump gets his fake news[/URL] - The president rarely surfs the web on his own, but his staff have made a habit of slipping news stories on to his desk—including the occasional internet hoax."[/QUOTE]
Curiously, the article makes no mention of Fox News, Breitbart, or Infowars.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;459083]Curiously, the article makes no mention of Fox News, Breitbart, or Infowars.[/QUOTE]

That is curious. They are providing an incomplete picture. Perhaps they just didn't have the courage or conviction to mention problematic media sources that Trump has been known to listen to. It goes against the article's narrative that Trump sees the world through the lens provided by his handlers. It's pretty clear that he has in the past has tweeted shortly after seeing some media segment.

[URL="http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/politics/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/ar-BBBaGdi"]Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador[/URL]

[QUOTE]The information Trump relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said that Trump’s decision to do so risks cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State.
[...]

The identification of the location was seen as particularly problematic, officials said, because Russia could use that detail to help identify the U.S. ally or intelligence capability involved. Officials said that the capability could be useful for other purposes, possibly providing intelligence on Russia’s presence in Syria. Moscow and would be keenly interested in identifying that source and possibly disrupting it.
[/QUOTE]

Been confirmed by some unnamed White House officials as well to Buzzfeed news after WaPo's initial break.

They don't seem to be locking information down very well.

This mentions that Trump's bodyguard was photographed carrying a stack of papers with a visible sticky note with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' private cellphone number discernible on top.
[URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/05/15/when-president-trumps-bodyguard-revealed-jim-mattiss-private-cellphone-number/"]When President Trump’s bodyguard revealed Jim Mattis’s private cellphone number[/URL]

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;459083]Curiously, the article makes no mention of Fox News, Breitbart, or Infowars.[/QUOTE]

Nor of WaPo, NYT, MSNBC, or CNN - perhaps because while those are all notorious fake-news promulgators, POTUS doesn't read them?

[QUOTE=wombatman;459087][URL="http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/politics/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/ar-BBBaGdi"]Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador[/URL]

Been confirmed by some unnamed White House officials as well to Buzzfeed news after WaPo's initial break.[/QUOTE]

Among all the 'unnamed officials expressed shock and worry!' alarmism, note the non sequitur:
[i]
'For most anyone in government discussing such matters [b]with an adversary[/b] would be illegal. As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law.
...
[b]Russia and the United States both regard the Islamic State as an enemy and share limited information about terrorist threats[/b]. But the two nations have competing agendas in Syria, where Moscow has deployed military assets and personnel to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
[/i]
So we're frenemies w.r.to fighting the US-created ISIS threat, but our competing agenda involves palling around with our Al Qaeda 'allies' whose ongoing anti-regime campaign allows ISIS to operate and enjoy a steady supply of recruits and weapons, as well as ensuring a steady supply of refugees to our EU allies. Gotcha.

foreignpolicy.com has an article about how the upcoming NATO summit is being regeared for a shorter attention span.
[URL="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/15/nato-frantically-tries-to-trump-proof-presidents-first-visit-alliance-europe-brussels/"]NATO Frantically Tries to Trump-Proof President’s First Visit[/URL]
[QUOTE]“It’s kind of ridiculous how they are preparing to deal with Trump,” said one source briefed extensively on the meeting’s preparations. “It’s like they’re preparing to deal with a child — someone with a short attention span and mood who has no knowledge of NATO, no interest in in-depth policy issues, nothing,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They’re freaking out.”[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=wombatman;459087][URL="http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/politics/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/ar-BBBaGdi"]Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador[/URL][/QUOTE]
My favorite part of the story:
[quote]A Russian photographer took photos of part of the session that were released by the Russian state-owned Tass news agency. No U.S. news organization was allowed to attend any part of the meeting.[/quote]
Of course, our great friends the Russians would never, [i]ever[/i] use an opportunity like that to do something like plant a bug in the Oval Office.

For the benefit of analysts who have of late been racking their brains trying to figure out Trump's thinking, I offer the following [url=https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/da3a6416-b60a-4e11-a41b-2459f7ceaf56]explanation[/url]

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;459099]My favorite part of the story:

Of course, our great friends the Russians would never, [i]ever[/i] use an opportunity like that to do something like plant a bug in the Oval Office.

For the benefit of analysts who have of late been racking their brains trying to figure out Trump's thinking, I offer the following [url=https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/da3a6416-b60a-4e11-a41b-2459f7ceaf56]explanation[/url][/QUOTE]

I dunno -- it's hilarious (in a comedic tragedy sort of way) that the classified information was spilled because Trump was bragging about how he had the best intelligence gathering.