Listening to this podcast, you can discern that I am not a fan of Donald Trump.  His approach to ethics, decency, business practices and bruising politics is an anathema to me.  So, to the extent that I can keep up with his subterfuge, I attempt to do so.  I’ll admit that it is a challenge because he spews a firehose of lies, distortion, misdirection, and gaslighting.  Frankly, it’s disorienting.  If he has one gift that I can acknowledge, if not applaud, it’s his ability to be unabashed in his torrent of deception.  Whether it was the cooperation, if not collusion, between Russia and members of his 2016 presidential campaign, best described in a report of the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio or the Big Lie of 2020 or the ‘perfect phone call’ trying to trade military support to Ukraine for dirt on the Biden family, this man’s propensity to obfuscate the truth, and sell it to millions of Americans, is unparalleled in our history.  How does he do it?  Our guest, Steve Benen, explains on this podcast and in his new book “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”