Here are a few of the blogs I posted about Trump in 2016, By Hal M. Brown, MSW

I didn't have time to write a new blog so am posting these from June of 2016. I haven't edited it. Looking back at the Trump of 2016 he seems almost quaint becuse he has morphed into a monster. The illustration is new. It was made by using Perchance Image AI.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Hillary’s terrorism creds: you got them, use them.

Comments on Daily Kos

With pundits and pollsters asking whether in view of the Orlando attacks voters will be asking themselves which candidate will most effectively handle terrorism, it’s good to remind us that only one has a track record of actually doing something to fight terrorism.

However, Hillary is, after all a woman and we know how Donald Trump feels about women. Heather “Digby” Parton wonders whether her being a woman could work against her:  

And secondly, a woman was likely running for president for the first time and despite everyone’s assumption that she is some kind of bloodthirsty Boudica (the Celtic war queen who slaughtered a Roman army), the fact is that there were some good reasons to worry  that Americans would turn to the traditional party and the traditional (male) candidate if national security came front and center. It was entirely predictable that the Republicans  would play “the man card” if they could  find an opening.  Salon

While we don’t know what else she did as Secretary of State addressing terrorism (likely a lot), we do know that she was closely involved with the attack that took out Osama binLaden.

We've seen the photo of Obama, Biden, and Clinton in the situation room with top members of the national security team is known worldwide.

 I enlarged Hillary to make a point:

• She is the only one in the room sitting with stacks of information in front of her and on her lap, including the photo that had to be blurred out because it was top secret.

I expect that the powerful photo will be used in Hillary’s campaign ads. I think it would be effective to start with the full photo and zoom to this close-up of Hillary.

My advice to her on her anti-terrorism credentials: “Hill, you got them, use them.”

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Breaking News:

Russian government hackers penetrated Democratic National Committee’s database and stole research on Donald Trump, according to a report published by the Washington Post.

DNC officials and security experts say the hackers were able to read all e-mail and chats in the DNC system.

Some of the hackers had been in the DNC system for a year, the Washington Post reports. They were expelled from the computer system this past weekend.

Russian spies also targeted the computers of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and several GOP political action committees. Further details of those attacks were not immediately available.

The NRA is doing a Trump, counter-punching with wild, stupid claims. Whether or not banning assault-rifles will absolutely prevent such shootings is irrelevent. If such a ban prevents one in the future since there's no sensible reason NOT to ban them, they should be banned. They are a dangerous "toy" for anyone not in the military or law enforcement.

Now then, to talk about dangerous, here's what's more dangerous that keeping the sale of these killing machines legal. It is promulgating the politically expedient idea that the Obama adminstration isn't doing enough to stop ISIS inspired terrorism. This does nothing but inspire fear and unwarranted anger at our government. Homeland Security along with its international partners is doing all that is feasible to prevent such terror acts. To say otherwise is denying what we know about the apparatus that has grown exponentially since 9-11. 

You better believe those who know how many attacks have been prevented, and how many investigations are currently active, would LIKE to share this information. But anyone with a fully functioning brain SHOULD understand this.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Breaking News: Trump just delivered a speech read off a teleprompter so obviously written by someone else that it is pathetic. Nothing new except doubling down on immigration policy. He also lied saying Mateen was born in Afghanistan. Below: Quote without comment:

Ask yourself, who is really the friend of women and the LGBT community, Donald Trump with his actions, or Hillary Clinton with her words? Clinton wants to allow Radical Islamic terrorists to pour into our country—they enslave women, and murder gays.

Trump is now proving one of two things, which are really mutually exclusive. This is getting a lot of media attention:

Donald Trump Suggests Obama May Be Sympathetic To Islamic Terrorism

“[Obama] doesn’t get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands,” Trump said.

I’m writing this now and getting it posted while everything is fresh. I know I should write a  really well-researched diary on this. I keep hoping an expert with real bona fides — i.e. having published books and academic papers on psychiatric diagnosis — will do the work for me. I’m just a clinical social worker psychotherapist who was a mental health center director. I’ve made some tough diagnoses that other therapists missed but compared to Trump they were easy. This wouldn’t be like writing my typical blog which is a morning 1-2 hour exercise since it is just opinion. It would be more like work! I’d actually have to do a lot of research.

It won’t matter to Trump when we learn, as I think we will, that Omar Mateen was motivated primarily or exclusively by homophobia. He will keep insisting that he was a radical Islamist and that his murder spree was ISIS terrorism. His supporters of course will believe him. The hell with evidence! Not only is this the most horrible mass shooting in the United States, but it is many times over the worst LGBT hate crime ever. To ignore that for political purposes is a punch in the face to all LGBT people. 

If Trump is just stoking the fears of anti-Obama conspiracy theorists (and not mentally ill) then he has stooped possibly to his lowest low since his birther claims. If he actually believes this, we have to add yet another psychiatric diagnosis to those which he has demonstrated symptoms of. So add another diagnosis to narcissistic personality disorder, anti-social personality disorder, and impulse control disorder. I’ve highlighted the symptoms of paranoid personality disorder that apply to Trump.

Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a mental disorder characterized by paranoia and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others. Individuals with this personality disorder may be hypersensitive, easily insulted, and habitually relate to the world by vigilant scanning of the environment for clues or suggestions that may validate their fears or biases. Paranoid individuals are eager observers. They think they are in danger and look for signs and threats of that danger, potentially not appreciating other evidence.[1]

They tend to be guarded and suspicious and have quite constricted emotional lives. Their reduced capacity for meaningful emotional involvement and the general pattern of isolated withdrawal often lend a quality of schizoid isolation to their life experience.[2][verification needed]People with PPD may have a tendency to bear grudges, suspiciousness, tendency to interpret others' actions as hostile, persistent tendency to self-reference, or a tenacious sense of personal right.[3] Patients with this disorder can also have significant comorbidity with other personality disorders. Wikipedia

Most of my therapist friends and acquaintances have chosen to work with patients who are highly motivated to get better, and for whom there is a high chance of success. Even those who treat the chronically mentally ill, developmentally disabled, or with substance abuse problems (and part of my program had a unit where we did that) we know that with smart, compassionate treatment the lives of these people can be drastically improved. 

The bane of therapists are patients or clients who have personality disorders. It is the exception rather than the rule that they come into therapy on their own. This is because most people with personality disorders lack insight into themselves. They don’t generally think they have a problem.  They tend to come in because their spouse has issued an ultimatum or they are court ordered. 

Trump would be a nightmare client. I assume there would be a psychotherapist somewhere who would agree to treat him for enough money. I’m not rich, and it would be nice to buy that Tesla,* but no amount of money would induce me to treat him.

* (Updated today, there's no way I would enrich Elon Musk by buying a Tesa.)