Oh Dem Bones
I’m just a plainspoken Colorado criminal defense lawyer, but the way I see it…
Like most people, there are two hundred six bones in Donald Trump’s body. Unlike most people, not a one of them is honest or, it is ever more apparent, even decent.
The President of the United States lies five times a day to the people of his country, to the world. To be fair, he needs to lie so many times, because he lies about so many things. He lies about crimes committed against the United States by members of his campaign and staff and their associates at the Kremlin. He lies about former Presidents and political opponents. He lies about crimes he’s committed himself, and even that others have committed, against women.
He lies about immigrants. He lies about people of color. In his mind, the same thing, and not a good thing.
Those are just the public lies.
Worse, more and more the President is demanding that others around him lie, too. Two Senators of the United States, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, two days ago lied outright about this vulgar man’s vile characterization of major swaths of the world.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Surely she’s paid by the lie. (That would make her by far the highest-paid Trump staffer, despite the fierce competition.)
Even the President’s doctor lies, with amiable facility, about the state of the President’s health. It is of no importance at all that Trump would instruct his physician to under-report his weight, of all things (it would have taken a meat scale to get an accurate number anyway). There is no weighing the importance of this President’s vanity tipping the scales against truth: a perceived slight to his infantile ego could, incredibly, result in millions of nuclear deaths.
Other Presidents have lied — probably all of them. According to the New York Times, President Obama told eighteen bald-faced lies during his eight years in office. President Trump passed that mark in his third week in office. Not even a year in, and the Washington Post has catalogued more than two thousand lies.
Two thousand.
Two. Thousand.
Many of those are inconsequential. His weight. His I.Q. The size of his dick. Other lies are killing people and endangering millions more.
Our first President was, so the legend goes, someone who could not tell a lie. We’re still waiting for this one to tell a truth.
That’s why, with this President, there’s no telling how many more stories there are to come about his ill effects on the progress of criminal justice and human rights, in my country, and in yours.
Because I’ve got more than just one bone to pick with him.
I’ve got all two hundred six.
20 January 2018 @ 11:09 am
In spite of his lies and other indiscretions, he’s got a good shot of being reelected. It’s the economy – Obama’s coattails. Sorry for the bleak prognostication.
19 January 2018 @ 4:22 pm
Very surprised about the doctor’s assessment as I assumed being a career naval officer he would have a large degree of independence. It is possible that Trump is physical specimen on the far edge of the bell curve of vitality but I suspect the admiral is not being fully admirable in this situation. Apparently, Dana Milbank agrees with my diagnosis. But what is worrisome is if other officers and members of the branches of the military which are more involved in defending the country then providing checkups are likewise susceptible to Trump’s alternative worldview. If those persons begin to “drink the Koolaid” from the Fountain of Trump heaven help us all.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-trumps-doctor-okay/2018/01/17/0d887f50-fbce-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html?utm_term=.9fe1f7169d76
22 January 2018 @ 10:16 am
While disturbing, it’s not surprising that Trump’s WH Physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, “erroneously” noted that Trump is 6’3″, 239 lbs. and in excellent health:
1) First of all, Trump is barely 6’1″… he appears slightly shorter than Obama (6’1″) and noticeably shorter than Bill Clinton (6’2″);
2) Second, if he were only 239 pounds, he would be one pound short of “clinically obese.” I would bet Trump weighs significantly more than 239 lbs; anyone can see that Trump is clearly abdominally obese; and
3) Finally, his cholesterol levels are dangerously high: his overall cholesterol shot up from 169 to 223 and his “bad” cholesterol skyrocketed from 94 to 143.
Trumps excessive weight combined with his high cholesterol levels put him at a high risk for heart disease, heart attack or stroke. He is not someone who can honestly be said to be in “excellent health.”