This is an internationally read blog with original essays and my opinions on
GOP senator noticed something weird on Fox News — is Kayleigh McEnany sending secret messages to QAnon?
Another summary of a powerful article: Trump examined as an authoritarian ‘strongman’ in brutal NYT analysis of his strategy to stay in power
Trump considered Superman costume ‘stunt’ while leaving Walter Reed after coronavirus hospitalization: NY Times
‘Donald Trump suffers from a dangerous incurable narcissistic disorder’: mental health professionals
Trump’s taxes reveal president’s businesses reaped millions in return for favors from the administration: NY Times - the summary here barely does the amazing and damning investigate report.
The Trumpist Death Cult
Excerpt from The Trumpets Death Cult, below left:
He is the political messiah who will right all wrongs, drain the swamp, build a wall, make the economy better, and turn life into heaven on earth. Only he can solve the problems—never mind that he caused most of them. He lies to convince his worshipers, who in turn believe him because he addresses their concerns. Something isn’t right if the common man is getting screwed so much and life is so tough. Trump must be right. He’s a common man to the common man. Millions of his evangelical Christian admirers act as though he is a Christian; they are unwilling or unable to see he clearly is not . In truth, he’s merely a rich, pampered insecure man who only worships himself. It’s hard to see as he gives those who feel so disaffected an enemy to hate. It’s not our fault, he says, it’s the swamp. It’s the deep state. It’s anyone but us.
Like every cult leader, his outsized ego and narcissism fuel the rage he has against those who think or act differently than he. His closest disciples and believers have gone all in—because they see a path to glory and power they would otherwise not have. Stephen Miller, a man perpetually picked last for kickball, would never reach such heights without Trump, the mystic, as his mentor. Trump is a sedulous fly-catcher and he is among the best. He’s never worked for a living, but has convinced hard-working Americans that he alone knows what is best for the working man. He’s never served either in the military or in politics, prior to his run for president, but those who believe in him see a dedicated and selfless public servant who would charge into a tense standoff with guns blazing, like a cinematic Rambo.
Another story from the anti-Trump Bulwark website:
Excerpt:
Was it only yesterday that I analogized Donald Trump to an ersatz Wizard of Oz afflicted with a disabling psychological condition? In the profoundly disturbing hours since, Trump has evoked an even more emblematic and instructive fictional character: Captain Philip Francis Queeg of Herman Wouk’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel of World War II, The Caine Mutiny.
Queeg is a frightening, pitiable caricature of naval leadership whose increasingly dangerous behaviors compel his officers to save their ship by seizing command. Perhaps you’ve seen the movie, anchored in Humphrey Bogart’s indelible rendition of a man cracking up before our eyes, raving on the witness standabout “disloyal” officers until becoming incoherent. But not even Bogart could capture, nor Wouk imagine, the terrifying self-indictment of a president far sicker than Captain Queeg.
Nonetheless, the fictional Queeg serves as prototype for the all-too-real Trump—and the dilemma he presents us. Queeg is incompetent, paranoid, given to bullying, prone to blame-shifting, obsessed with appearances, unable to admit error, and determined at all costs to cover up grievous misjudgments and mistakes.
As evidence of their captain’s mental fragility accumulates, his officers fear that he may crack under pressure. But after resolving to report his behaviors to a higher authority, they temporize.
The crisis comes—a deadly typhoon in the Pacific. Inevitably, Queeg’s panicky misjudgments threaten to capsize the Caine. In extremis the captain’s second-in-command, supported by his fellow officers, displaces him to save the ship.
Over the last 24 hours, Trump’s statements provide an uncanny parallel to the behaviors which moved Queeg’s officers to consider turning him in. The difference is that, for a president, there are no higher authorities. There is only the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
The situation in Washington grows dire. For Trump’s most recent ravings make Queeg look like a model of sanity and restraint.
Republicans are finally ready to diss Don
The president's grip on the party is loosening amid a coronavirus backlash and fears of an electoral bloodbath.
Is Trump actually trying to sabotage his campaign? If so, he's doing a heckuva job
Wishing Donald Trump well: It's just another way of normalizing the regime
We're expected to wish Trump a full recovery just because he's the president. But he's done nothing to earn that
These 5 far-right extremist groups could pose a national security threat in the run up to the election
Another reason too subscribe to The Washington Post - so you can read articles like this:
Blame it on the roid rage: Judge wants White House to say if a Trump tweeted declassified the full Mueller report
Trump's "miracle" COVID-19 treatment was developed using cells derived from an aborted fetus: report
The tissue was originally taken from an abortion in the Netherlands in 1973, the same year Roe v. Wade was decided
In Wednesday’s video, Mr. Trump called the cocktail of monoclonal antibodies being developed by the drug maker Regeneron “a cure,” a term he repeated today. He said he would make the treatment free to anyone who needed it, stressing “the seniors” in today’s video. |
The treatment, however, is still in trials; costs a great deal to produce; and involves the use of a fetal cell line derived from an aborted fetus, a practice that the president has repeatedly condemned and his administration has tried to curtail. |
Remdesivir, an antiviral drug Mr. Trump also received, was tested using the same cell line. In addition, at least two companies, Moderna and AstraZeneca, are also using that cell line as they race to produce vaccines against the coronavirus, and Johnson & Johnson is testing its vaccine using another cell line originally produced from fetal tissue. NY Times |
Excerpt:
Trump’s words are aimed at producing strong reactions. When he mocks mask-wearing, he knows that he’ll evoke a strong reaction from both the media and his followers, and he doesn’t seem to care about the accuracy of the information he’s transmitting. He knows that elections are not won or lost on policy ideas or rational voters making informed choices. They are won or lost on the basis of the effects produced by the candidate’s words.
Those effects drive us to the polls and motivate us to act and reason in specific ways.
I’ve taught rhetoric and communication classes for 20 years, and in almost every class, I begin by telling my students to pay more attention to the effects their words have on others and not the information they wish to convey. This president has surely mastered that lesson. He speaks with the intent of producing the strongest possible impact and cares not at all about the information transmitted.
There is no mistaking the intended effects of this president’s rhetoric. He aims to create feelings of resentment, distrust and suspicion. Mapping the world in terms of “us” and “them” creates conflict (and is perhaps the cornerstone of fascist rhetoric).
Mary Trump: My ‘delusional’ uncle is now ‘willfully getting people sick’ — ‘it’s mass murder’
The notion of using two antiviral agents simultaneously is employed with other viral infections, such as HIV and hepatitis C. I suppose the president is thinking this novel approach will stop the virus in its tracks, freeing him from the usual ravages of infection experienced by most everyone else who has suffered through symptoms of this horrific disease. It’s hard to know with a test panel composed of a single person.
More likely, the president will have a shortened course of symptoms but, like most covid-19 patients, will experience moments of seemingly good health, followed by stretches where his energy vanishes and he needs to lie down. This is what covid-19 infection does. It’s like a dog with a toy, shaking it vigorously for a few moments, resting for a while, and then shaking vigorously again. The beast — in this case, it’s a beast — doesn’t let go until it’s good and ready.
Based on my experiences as both an infected person and a provider to dozens of patients fighting the infection, I would expect the president to struggle this week with waxing and waning symptoms of covid-19: paroxysms of coughing, shortness of breath after mild exertion, headaches, moments of “fuzzy thinking,” intermittent fever and profound episodes of fatigue. The fatigue is particularly vexing and is the one symptom that likely will linger for weeks after he has recovered from the others. I wouldn’t be surprised if it persisted up to Election Day.
Owing to the lack of transparency into the president’s condition, I can only speculate what his day-to-day symptoms are or how he truly is feeling moment to moment. Yet, having fought through this nightmare, I can imagine what it is like for him. The fear of the unknown, the terrifying nights when I wasn’t sure I would make it to the next morning without having to be hospitalized — that is something I never want to experience again.
The president urged Americans not to “be afraid” of covid-19. Perhaps that is good advice, but for sure, we all need to respect this virus: how it is transmitted, what it does to those people it infects and how it leaves countless family members bereaved after it has taken a loved one to the grave. As we learn more about the virus, it is incumbent on scientists and clinicians to do what we can to improve therapies and create vaccines. And it is incumbent on all of us to use what we know to reduce its spread: avoid crowds, keep physical distance and, for goodness’ sake, wear a mask.
Even — or perhaps especially — on the Truman Balcony.
Sessions, Rosenstein wanted border policy to show no mercy: 'We need to take away children'
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| Posted so it can be enlarged in my Daily Kos story |
Pence, Harris teams at odds over plexiglass at debate - Wash Post
Vice President Pence is requesting that no plexiglass dividers be placed on his side of the stage at Wednesday night’s vice-presidential debate, after an announcement Monday by the Commission on Presidential Debates that dividers had been agreed to as a safety measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Marc Short, the vice president’s chief of staff, said the vice president’s team does not view plexiglass dividers as medically necessary, given other safety measures at the debate, including a 12-foot distance between Pence and Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) and daily testing of both candidates.
The commission and the Biden campaign both said Tuesday they understood that the Pence team was in agreement with the notion of plexiglass barriers. But the Pence team suggested they did not want any such dividers around the vice president, regardless of what Harris does.
“If she wants it, she’s more than welcome to surround herself with plexiglass if that makes her feel more comfortable,” Short said. “It’s not needed.”
Trump’s EPA chief issues ‘straight-up racist’ order to return to offices
Above: One model shows Democrats likely to win Senate.
Note that note only does Kellyanne have Covid, but so does her daughter Claudia. WATCH amazing video: Kellyanne Conway curses out her daughter who blamed her for giving family COVID
Just reported, he's tweeted 18 times so far this morning. Trump goes on all-cap rage attack at Democrats in 3 AM tweet from hospital
Donald Trump Jr thinks his father is ‘acting crazy’ and is desperate to rein him in
Article by J Brooks Spector
Spector settled in Johannesburg after a career as a US diplomat in Africa and East Asia. He has taught at the U. of the Witwatersrand, been a consultant for an international NGO, run a famous Johannesburg theatre and remains on its board, and been a commentator for South African and international print/broadcast/online media, in addition to writing for The Daily Maverick from day one.
Juan Williams: Trump's toxic race card
... Trump told a rally of his fans in Minnesota that Biden would “inundate your state with a historic flood of refugees.”
He whipped up the crowd by saying that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a naturalized American born in Somalia, wants to tell “us how to run our country — can you believe it?”
In response, Trump’s fans roared: “Lock her up!”
Last year, Trump said Omar and the three other non-white Democratic congresswomen known as “The Squad” should “go back” to the “crime infested places from which they came” — even though they are all American citizens, have all sworn allegiance to the Constitution and, with the exception of Omar, are all American-born.
When Trump was criticized for those comments last year he said he does not have “a racist bone in my body.”
But The Squad’s most famous member, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), shot back on Twitter that Trump may not have racist bones but “You have a racist mind in your head, and a racist heart in your chest.”
