Dec. 6, 2019
Some of the responses to Trump's tweet about Nancy Pelosi (click below to enlarge) I doubt Trump ever looks at the comments to his tweets, but other people do.
Editorial comment: I disagree that Dr. Lee and her associates are talking the correct approach. The 25th Amendment is the vehicle to remove a psychologically unfit or dangerous president. The Constitution does not address this issue in the impeachment clause. Bringing this up and publicizing it as extensively as this group has done (it is not the first article) muddies the water. It is a distraction. It opens the well-meaning mental health professionals to attacks and ridicule from the far right. For example: Obsessed Yale Psychiatrist Leads Effort to Declare Trump ‘Dangerous’ as Part of Impeachment Record
The time to push for a 25th Amendment solution has long since past. This doesn't mean that efforts to inform the public about Trump's psychopathology should be put on pause. To the contrary, they should increase because when it comes down to the vote in the Senate it is important that Republican senators understand how important it is to remove Trump from office before he does irrevocable damage to the republic and even the world.
While the Senate trial will be about the grounds set forth for impeachment the jurors are under no obligation to put aside other considerations. They can vote to remove ostensibly because he violated the Constitution, committed bribery as well as high crimes and misdemeanors. While most of them have shown no inclination to put country over party, they will pay attention to the polls especially those running for reelection.
If the public begins to grasp the fact that Trump has to be removed because he is dangerously mentally ill regardless of whether he is guilty of impeachable crimes it can only help our cause.
.........
.
Look Out for the Drift CounterPunch
Excerpt: When Trump began his presidential campaign, I began thinking about psychopathology again, specifically Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Shortly after he slithered into the White House and crowned himself king, a few psychologists were criticized for diagnosing him as having a sociopathic narcissistic disorder. Approaching 2020, you can find many pieces written by psychologists and psychiatrists describing a constellation of his behaviors that demonstrate his uniquely robust blend of NPD and psychopathy. You wouldn’t think Trump is a narcissistic psychopath if you don’t explore outside the corporate backed news matrix, from dirty Fox to cleans-up-nice-news, CNN. Mainstream news platforms are not going to open themselves up to charges of slander. Treasonous and seditious are words Republican loyalists immediately shout if anyone dares call their boy dangerously crazy. He has been a disaster for the country in so many ways, and yet part of me wants to thank him for revealing the true white supremacist and narcissistic nature of my country.
On the ground floor of NPD is a lack of empathy and a cruel disregard for the well-being of others; and the more “other” you are the greater doses of cruelty you can expect. Tearing children away from their parents seeking refuge at our southern border or blowing up a building with women and children to kill a supposed threat in the Middle East is now openly being cheered by a large percentage of your neighbors. Are you happy? Is it really a beautiful day in the neighborhood for our next generation of children? What would Mr. Rodgers preach now if still alive? ...
Fox News Judge Napolitano on why he'd vote to impeach Trump
Excerpt:
“He definitely likes sending rockets up, doesn’t he? That’s why I call him ‘Rocket Man’,” Trump said, reprising one of his previously favoured nicknames for Kim.
Pyongyang reacted stiffly late Thursday, with vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui saying the comments were made with “no courtesy when referring to the supreme leadership… of the DPRK”.
.
Siege review: Michael Wolff's Trump tale is Fire and Fury II – fire harder
Dec. 5, 2019
I changed the image for this story to be consistent with the witch in the title and because the author of the article got blowback for using the reference to the Devil in another article. Do you know what song the witch is singing"?
Here's the other side against all of the mental health professionals saying Trump is mentally unfit. Read the comments.
Obsessed Yale Psychiatrist Leads Effort to Declare Trump ‘Dangerous’ as Part of Impeachment Record
On Howard Stern's show Hillary Clinton confirmed this:
George W. Bush Described President Trump’s Inauguration American carnage speech as ‘Some Weird Shit’?
What makes a man crawl back into the saddle for people like Barr and Trump? Why would Turley dust off failed arguments and put himself in the position of being a Trump defender when he claims he doesn’t agree with or support him? Is it his love of the Constitution? Is it his concern about the overreach of Congressional investigations? Marcus’s 1998 Post piece had an answer. Some of his law school colleagues, she reported, “sniff at his celebrity, saying he has forsaken scholarship for self-aggrandizement.” Indeed, according to Marcus, one faculty member quipped at the time: “If there were the deanship for self-promotion, he’d get it.””
Dec. 4, 2019
Today's hearing:
Jonathan Turley Is Exhibit A That the Clinton Debacle Never Really Ended
I think this may be why the Republicans picked Turley to be their star witness:
How Democrats can build a better case to impeach President Trump
BY JONATHAN TURLEY, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 11/25/19 12:00 PM EST
There is good news about the horrible Rep. Doug Collins who, if you were watching today, you saw in his obnoxious glory:
Why Georgia’s governor is breaking with Trump over a Senate appointment to vacant seat - Sorry Collins, you stay in the House after all that5 sucking up to Trump.
Donald Trump Responds To Video Of World Leaders Mocking Him, Insults Trudeau
The president called Canada’s prime minister “two-faced” and “a very nice guy” in his response to the viral clip.
Trump Stomps Home From NATO Meeting After ‘Two-Faced’ Trudeau Was Mean to Him
PLAYGROUND POLITICS
Trump canceled his NATO press conference after video showed the Canadian prime minister laughing about him with other world leaders at Buckingham Palace.
Here's the other side against all of the mental health professionals saying Trump is mentally unfit. Read the comments.
Obsessed Yale Psychiatrist Leads Effort to Declare Trump ‘Dangerous’ as Part of Impeachment Record
My view is contrary to the Bandy Lee group's opinion that the issue of Trump's psychopathology be part of impeachment. I think it would be a harmful distraction.
DEC. 3-4, 2019
UPDATED Dec. 4th
Stay tuned for further developments
 |
| Modified by me with lettering appropriately from the Minions movies, posted on Twitter. |
Click image to enlarge
Excerpt:
As someone who has profiled political leaders, how would you assess Donald Trump?
If one were to subtract from the ranks of political leaders all those with significant narcissistic personality features, the ranks would be perilously impoverished. I see Donald Trump as representing the quintessential narcissist. Using that phrase, though, is not to make a diagnosis, but to say he has a preponderance of these traits. Someone such as Donald Trump with that trait has no capacity to empathize with others, no constraints of conscience. Donald Trump also demonstrates a paranoid orientation. Whenever anything goes wrong, there is someone to blame.
There is also unconstrained aggression. This is very important. Never apologize, never admit you're wrong. That is part of Donald Trump’s political style. But negotiating foreign policy is different from negotiating how to buy a skyscraper. Donald Trump also shows through his behavior a deep underlying insecurity. His grandiosity aside, Donald Trump is extremely fragile, and that trait is associated with extreme sensitivity.
In terms of a narcissistic injury, Donald Trump projects strength because he is in fact so weak inside. Trump’s supporters also feel weak and therefore they want to project strength as well — and that is why they are so devoted to Trump.
That is part of the ideal-hungry personality of his followers. But we should also note that there are two types of charisma in terms of leaders. One is the destructive charismatic leader who gains followers by polarization and by identifying an enemy. The other type is a more idealizing charisma, which both Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi represented. They are pulling together big crowds of followers but are doing so for positive goals. Charisma is a very powerful force when it's for the good.
By comparison, the dangerous, destructive charismatic leader polarizes and identifies an outside enemy and pulls his followers together by manipulating their common feelings of victimization.
News President Trump and First Lady ‘Sleep on Separate Floors’ Sparks Wide Range of Reactions: ‘Quid Pro Quo Marriage’
Dec. 2, 2019
Below: As far as I can tell Dan McAdams was the first psychologist to write about Trump's narcissism. He has written another article in The Atlantic. It is long so because you only have four free reads per month either copy it or leave it on your screen until you finish reading it.
A Theory for Why Trump's Base Won't Budge
McAdam's story made the cover of The Atlantic in June 2016. John Gartner started Duty to Warn in early 2017. Between those dates Trump's dangerous psychopathology didn't get much publicity. In 2017 there was a growing awareness of his being unfit which was marked by the publication of the book "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" I Oct. 2017. This led to a groundswell of public pronouncements by mental health professionals explaining Trump's dangrous psychopathology.
Dec. 1, 2019
Salon: Impeachment as a struggle to save democracy — from the pathological cult of Donald Trump
by PAUL RosENBERG with quotes from The dangerous case of donald trump
History shows how democracy can give way to "pathocracy" ruled by disordered individuals. Are we heading that way?
Although disordered individuals aren’t the primary underlying cause of democratic erosion, they exploit it ruthlessly and are the primary vectors in spreading chaos, turning rising tensions into unmanageable runaway conflicts, which they then claim to be uniquely able to fix. As I noted in July, the 2015 paper, “Antisocial Personality Disorder and Pathological Narcissism in Prolonged Conflicts and Wars,” by physician and psychiatrist Dr. Frederick "Skip" Burkle, cited half a dozen examples, from Idi Amin in Uganda to Slobodan Milosevic in the former Yugoslavia, who “have emerged first as saviors and then as despots, or as common criminals claiming to be patriots.”
But they aren’t the only disordered personalities involved. A long-suppressed book, published just over a decade ago, “Political Ponerology,” by Polish psychiatrist Andrew Lobaczewski, describes what he saw first-hand as a youth about how such individuals form the core of systems of oppressive misgovernment. Two experts who draw on his work, Elizabeth Mika and Ian Hughes, have provided some of the clearest insight into what’s been happening in America since 2015.
As Hughes explains in “Disordered Minds: How Dangerous Personalities Are Destroying Democracy,” three personality disorders — psychopathy, narcissistic personality disorder and paranoid personality disorder — play a crucial role. Individuals with these disorders experience only a narrow range of emotions, are incapable of empathy and are utterly lacking in conscience. They represent only a small fraction of the population — 5 to 10 percent, at most — but when conditions are dire many more ostensibly normal people can come to resemble them. After all, once things get bad enough, being paranoid is almost rational. Continued
//////////
Where in the world is Donald Trump? The tweeter-in-chief has been conspicuously absent from his social media megaphone
Trump has had nothing else on his schedule that would account for this silence. He isn’t on the road for one of his cult rallies. There’s no evidence that he’s meeting with staff on matters of import. He isn’t attending an international summit. If he’s lounging around in the White House residence with his family, he isn’t sharing any of the tender moments that other American families share on social media. There hasn’t been a single picture posted of Trump with Melania and her son, Barron.
The speculation as to Trump’s whereabouts, therefore, has to include his health. A couple of weeks ago he was suddenly whisked off to Walter Reed Hospital without prior notice to the press or even to the hospital. The explanation given for the trip was hardly credible. The White House said he was having routine tests in advance of his annual physical – which isn’t until next February. And those tests could easily have been done in the well-equipped medical office at the White House. What’s more, there have been observations that Trump’s speech and movement have been hampered since that hospital visit.
Even I could do a better photoshop job. Look at the Adam's apple. Click to enlarge.
Nov. 30, 2019
///////////////////////////////////
Taking to his Twitter account, Talmadge warned that Trump’s purported self-congratulatory speech in Afghanistan contained “vague claims of vapor-like achievement” that are “typical of dementia, lack of thinking, [and] lack of awareness.”
According to Talmadge, “every audience looks alike” to Trump. As a result, he is likely to deliver the same type of speech to troops in Afghanistan as to supportive audiences in the United States.
Trump’s speech to the troops also contained jabs at prior administrations, telling the soldiers that they were fighting for a United States that is, he said, “doing well as opposed to something that was not doing well just a number of years ago,” according to a Slate account of the remarks.
Talmadge has warned in previous remarks that Trump suffers from mental and cognitive impairments that make it impossible for him to formulate a “vision” or “plan” due to his inability, as claimed by Talmadge, to engage in “abstract thinking.”
“Trumpian brain failure is hard for normal people to understand because for normal people, abstract thought is natural, baked in, largely unnoticed,” Talmadge said earlier, as quoted by Newsweek.
Talmadge went on to describe “normal” thought processes as the ability to perceive “consequences, assess risk, [and] make rational decisions.”
////////////////////////////////////////////////
====Arts and Entertainment====
For fans the "The Crown"
 |
| My photoshop |
Fashion
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Mick Mulvaney’s Air Force One Outfit Becomes A Hilarious Meme: ‘Trump’s Caddy’
//////////////////////
//////////////////////
//////////////////////
//////////////
//////////////////////
//////////////////////
//////////////
Nov. 29, 2019
This story stayed on the Daily Kos recommended list for a day and a half. Click image to enlarge. I don't have any story ideas at present. I couldn't think of a new story to write anyway. By posting on Daily Kos I reach a liberal audience so am essentially preaching to the choir. Click to access interactive chart below.
 |
| Click above to enlarge |
Trump went to Afghanistan to fix things up with the Taliban where he uttered this fractured sentence (in red) - his phrasing of his mashed potatoes remark and "anything called turkey." More evidence of something being amiss in his cognitive functioning?
After a 13-hour journey, and a brief period on the ground, Trump also wistfully told the troops that his Thanksgiving meal had been cut short. “I sat down, I had a gorgeous piece of turkey and I was all set to go. And I had some mashed potatoes and I had a bite of mashed potatoes, and I never got to the turkey, because Gen. [Mark] Milley said come on over, sir, let’s take some pictures. I never got to my turkey. It’s the first time at Thanksgiving that I’ve never had anything called turkey.“
...
and meanwhile the
Iraqi Prime Minister Announces He’ll Resign Amid Continuing Violence
================
Boris Johnson's Message To Donald Trump: Don’t Interfere In Our Election you pillocky knob-headed twit.
A convicted murdered in Germany has the right to get all mention of his crime deleted from internet search results under the EU's "right to be forgotten" provision, Germany's highest court has ruled.
The man was sentenced to life in jail in 1982 for murdering two people in 1981, and has tried to get three Der Spiegel news articles naming him as a murderer to be removed from search results since 2009.
A constitutional court in Karlsruhe ruled on November 6 that he has that right, overruling the German federal court which threw out his case in 2012.
The court said the EU's "right to erasure" (right to be forgotten) provision was stronger than the verdict of the federal court.
Arts and Entertainment
Hal's Review of "The Irishman" on Netflix:
“The Irishman” on Netflix is over three hours. It is inspired by the true story of Jimmy Hoffa and hitman Frank Sheeran. The star power of the film, what with Robert De Niro as hit man Frank Sheeran and Al Pacino as Hoffa, got in the way for me. Of course there's Joe Pesci, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, and Anna Paquin all recognizable from their other movies. Even Steven Van Zandt (left) has a small part.
The special effects, complex camera techniques, and make-up used to make the stars look younger in the earlier parts of the story are discussed by director Martin Scorsese and DeNiro, Pacino, and Pesci in a separate video that airs after the movie so just stay tuned if you ware interested.
Basically this is an old mob story embellished by the true story of Jimmy Hoffa and his mob associations with the humanizing touches of the relationships between the characters, the gangsters and to a lesser extent the families. There's nothing new. It is what you'd expect from Scorsese, flawless in production and the fine acting you'd expect from the cast.
I'd say that the equation of an A movie with an A++ cast led to a B rating of the film for me.
But for me herein is the problem. It is why I like British and other foreign crime movies not staring actors who are reprising versions of roles they've played many times before.
............................
 |
| Gillian Anderson is cast as Margaret Thatcher |
*************************************************
Nov. 28, 2019
The true story behind Arlo Guthrie’s Thanksgiving staple, “Alice’s Restaurant”
Thanksgiving is here: a time for family, friends, gravy, and Arlo Guthrie talk-singing his way through an 18-minute-long anti-war song about littering. A natural fit, no?
That’s what various rock radio stations around the country seem to have concluded, because most major cities in America now have at least one station that makes a point of playing Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” every Thanksgiving. In my own hometown of Philadelphia, WXPN’s Helen Leicht plays it every year at noon, and my family gathers around the radio like we’re in an old-timey Norman Rockwell painting, ripping apart bread for the stuffing and singing, “Had a Thanksgiving dinner that COULDN’T BE BEAT!”
Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” was originally released in 1967 as “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” and it’s only nominally about either Thanksgiving, Alice, or her restaurant. It’s a shaggy, rambling story-song, in which Guthrie spends Thanksgiving (with a dinner that couldn’t be beat!) with Alice (of the restaurant), and then as a favor tries to drive her trash out to the dump, only to find that the dump is closed for Thanksgiving. So he dumps the trash in a garbage pile by the side of the road and is subsequently arrested for littering — which, when Guthrie comes before the draft board, is the reason the military cites for choosing not to draft him.
“You want to know if I’m moral enough join the army, burn women / Kids, houses, and villages after being a litterbug,” drawls Guthrie, to which the sergeant replies, “Kid, we don’t like your kind.”
In Guthrie’s deadpan delivery, the whole story has a loopy, fever-dream quality, but most of what happens in it is true. Guthrie’s littering made the local paper that fateful Thanksgiving of 1965, with Police Chief William J. Obanhein (the Officer Obie of the song) remarking sternly that he hoped the case would serve “as an example to others who are careless about the disposal of rubbish.”
Watch video
Pollo Del Mar liked this tweet
Under the radar: Deutsche Bank executive who signed off on Trump loans commits suicide in Malibu, California
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
Nov. 27, 2019
I never look at Reddit before now. However the author "A Warning" aka Anonymous is using it as a way to communicate with the public. It is interesting. Check it out.
3 women say they were subjected to sexual harassment by Gordon Sondland — and faced professional retaliation after rejecting him
‘Cognitive decline’: Emory University psychiatry professor Seth Davin Norrholm calls for a ‘full neurological workup’ after Trump touts record ‘sock rocket’ at rally
Click above to read comments,
here are two of them:
Here's the story which led to the tweet. I wonder where he go the photoshop.
He said: “Why would I wear a tie? If the first thing they do is say 'Take off your shirt, sir, and show us that gorgeous chest?”
“We've never seen a chest quite like it," he added, mimicking the doctors, to his audience’s rapturous delight.
For political junkies:
Nov. 26, 2019
Try to wiggle out of this one Rudy: A wealthy Venezuelan hosted Giuliani as he pursued Ukraine campaign. Then Giuliani lobbied the Justice Department on his behalf.
 |
| Discussed on MSNBC today (They're meant to be Russian nesting dolls) |
Giuliani’s representation of Betancourt — which has not been previously disclosed — is a striking example of how Trump’s lawyer has continued to offer his services to foreign clients with interests before the U.S. government while working on behalf of the president. And it shows how Giuliani — who says he was serving as Trump’s attorney pro bono — has used his work for paying clients to help underwrite his efforts to find political ammunition in Ukraine to benefit the president. In response to questions about his relationship with Betancourt, Giuliani wrote in a text, “This is attorney client privilege so I will withstand whatever malicious lies or spin you put on it.”
The Mooch explains the revealing reason GOP officials keep saying Trump was chosen by God.
“So listen, I’m a Roman Catholic,” said Scaramucci. “I don’t — I can’t really speak for the evangelical community, but I think in general the evangelicals view the president as a sinner, and they view him as somebody that is out seeking redemption through the presidency. See that, and so this litany of sins that the president has had, they will — are willing to ignore. If you’re going to be political and cynical, you’ll say, well, they’re willing to ignore that because he’s prosecuting some of their ideas as it relates to social conservatism. That’s the combination of things. I mean, it’s a little revolting if you want me to be totally candid.”
... “So listen, I’m a Roman Catholic,” said Scaramucci. “I don’t — I can’t really speak for the evangelical community, but I think in general the evangelicals view the president as a sinner, and they view him as somebody that is out seeking redemption through the presidency. See that, and so this litany of sins that the president has had, they will — are willing to ignore. If you’re going to be political and cynical, you’ll say, well, they’re willing to ignore that because he’s prosecuting some of their ideas as it relates to social conservatism. That’s the combination of things. I mean, it’s a little revolting if you want me to be totally candid.”
------------------------------------------------------------------
Keeping an eye out on Trump's deteriorating state of mind, because, you know as a therapist I really care so much....
"Tense’ you say? Trump abruptly ended meeting fuming at Georgia’s GOP governor over state’s Senate seat
The article says nothing about a president who was fuming so this may have been reported in the Wall Street Journal. HB
A meeting between President Donald Trump and Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp quickly ended after the two men got into a dispute over who should be appointed to the state’s Senate seat.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump and Kemp met in person on Sunday and then had a followup phone conversation on Monday, but so far have been unable to iron out their differences.
“Mr. Trump has preferred Rep. Doug Collins, a Republican who has vocally defended the president during the impeachment process, and he told Mr. Kemp that he would be taking a risk by appointing the politically untested [Atlanta businesswoman Kelly] Loeffler,” the publication writes. “At one point Mr. Trump questioned why they were holding the meeting if Mr. Kemp had made his decision.”
=====================================
Health and Medicine
Medical mole minute:
This could save your life.
ABCD rule illustration: On the left side from top to bottom: melanomas showing (A) Asymmetry, (B) a border that is uneven, ragged, or notched, (C) coloring of different shades of brown, black, or tan and (D) diameter that had changed in size. The normal moles on the right side do not have abnormal characteristics (no asymmetry, even border, even color, no change in diameter).
...........................
Nov. 25, 2019 This story isn't going away.
Trump Tells Allies He Wants Absolved War Criminals to Campaign for Him - appear at rallies, even at the convention.
There’s a Simple Term for What Trump Did and Democrats Should Stick With It Politico
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||\
Nov. 24, 2019
This OpEd should be making the news. I also wonder why it's authors, the founders of Fusion GPS didn't testify before the House.
Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch are the founders of Fusion GPS and authors of the upcoming book, “Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump. Read a review of their book here.
In 'Crime In Progress,' Fusion GPS Chiefs Tell The Inside Story Of The Steele Dossier
...........................................................................................
 |
| I missed this in Feb. 2017 |
Featured story: "Trump’s 53-minute Fox rant is another dangerous sign of his worsening mental state: Yale psychiatrist"
November 24, 2019
From Maureen Dowd's NY Times OpEd Trump's White Whale.
Excerpts — Donald Trump is a rodomont. Not to mention a grobian. And, of course, a Sinon suffering from proditomania.
Soon I began to detect a pattern. Friday’s word was vulgarian, following close after bareknuckle. Others included rodomont (a vain boaster), grobian (a buffoonish person) and Sinon (one who misleads and betrays). Also chirocracy (a government that rules with a heavy hand) and froward (difficult to deal with or contrary). .................
Thomas Bossert, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” and warned that Trump had to let go of his conspiracy theory linking CrowdStrike, Ukraine and the D.N.C. server. “If he continues to focus on that white whale,” Bossert said, “it’s going to bring him down.”
But, like Ahab, Trump can’t ever let go. He’s hellbent on harpooning himself, chasing that which will sink him.
Seppuku. My word of the day.
-----------
Seppuku (Japanese: 切腹, "cutting [the] belly"), sometimes referred to as harakiri (腹切り, "abdomen/belly cutting", a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment.
