While I love lying lynxes (and virtually every other posture), I despise lying by humans. Sometimes (as a string of Trump campaign attorneys realized) lying in court can result in serious consequences. I had an opponent in court many years ago who was also a licensee of the agency I represented. He routinely lied in virtually every tribunal he appeared before. And not just little fibs, but blatantly, outrageously änd repeatedly, in very Trumpian fashion. Eventually every judge in his home county refused to accept pleadings from him, and I got sanctions in several forums even unrequested. (I almost never requested them.) Sadly, he ultimately died of a brain tumor, which made me wonder if he'd always just been an [censored] (his reputation indicated so), or had been suffering from a brain disorder the whole time.

What this experience taught me though, is that some people deploy lying as a strategy, rather than something that is morally reprehensible. That has become the preferred operational strategy of the modern GOP. My experience has also taught me that combating it is difficult, cumbersome, but necessary.

A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.

Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich