Showing posts with label Daily Kos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daily Kos. Show all posts

September 17, 2022

Trump of Dark Triad now boxed in by legal jeopardy

 A serious look at Trump's legal situation with a dollop of snark...

by Hal Brown, 

 banned from Daily Kos now post exclusively on this blog. 

Reading this article in Salon...

They have him surrounded: Trump now faces legal troubles in three states, plus D.C.

No one can promise Trump won't get away. But he's sweating — and he wakes up every day faced with huge legal bills


 

... it occurred to me that I wrote about Trump being in the center of another shape, a hexagon. My story was about the triangle of The Dark Triad. I made two illustrations, also using DonkeyHotey caricatures, to illustrate a Daily Kos story I wrote about this. Some 1,300 people read this story and there were 118 comments. I have to admit that since being banned on Kos I miss knowing this many people read and like what I write.



The caricatures of Trump of him I put in the Dark Triad shows his smug narcissism (top)  and his screaming psychopathology and Machiavellianism (bottom). The caricature I put in the black box illustration for this story suggests that he is starting to feel desperation.

 Of course we don't know if he really experiences a healthy response for someone in the position he's in. He's not psychology healthy so it is debatable whether he can experience what we'd consider to be a normal reaction to stress. I have my doubts he feels what we'd call normal feelings in any circumstance that goes against his deeply held belief that he is invulnerable. 

In addition to skating through incidents like the Access Hollywood bus recording (more about that later) which would have derailed the prospects of any candidate he has had more lives than a proverbial cat and he even survived Covid. No wonder he thinks he's super-human.

Now things are different, even if he continues to deny it.

Not only is Trump boxed in on four sides with legal jeopardy in three states and D.C. but there are two other things going on which a normal person would worry about. One is the January 6th Committee and the other is the Department of Justice investigation. That makes six sides, a hexagon of troubles pressing in on him. Nobody knows which trouble will crush him. There's another DonkeyHotey caricature for this.

The subtitle to Truscott's article says Trump is sweating as he wakes up every day faced with high legal bills. In fact because of his narcissism and megalomania he may feel that the prospect of his going to prison is about as likely as the entitled assaulter of women getting a lap dance from Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. If he tried "getting away with it" with AOC he wouldn't be walking upright for a week.

Just an aside: 

Trump actually does sweat. For example:


Sweating in 83 degree heat, despite the snarky Twitter speculation described in the article above, is probably normal for someone wearing a suit, and who knows, maybe a man girdle (I speculated about this here). 



Waking up sweating isn't normal. It generally means you are psychically ill or anxious. I think it is actually possible that there are moments Trump feels fleeting pangs of anxiety over what outside observers consider to be a plight because of legal actions in four jurisdictions plus the Department of Justice and what may be revealed in the Jan. 6th Committee hearings. 

I think that if anything makes Trump actually experience anxiety it isn't the possibility of prison, it's losing money. Truscott makes this important point here:

Truscott concludes as follows:

If the DOJ follows the methods it has used in previous investigations, it's likely to start small, which means that a lot of little Trumpies had better start jockeying to hire the best lawyers they can find now, rather than later.

As for Trump himself, well, your guess is as good as mine. But right now, he's looking a lot like Custer at Little Bighorn – surrounded on all sides with no way out. He's been there before when he faced two impeachments, but many of the people who defended him then, including his former White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, have already testified before grand juries investigating Trump and cannot be counted on to have his back this time.

I don't know about you, but if I were waking up every morning and writing checks to lawyers — even super PAC checks — I wouldn't be a happy camper. At this point, I'm thinking that maybe what they call a global plea deal made by Trump, to wrap up  all his federal and state criminal investigations in return for not running for president, might be his best bet. Right now it looks like if he doesn't make such a deal, he might lose his golf, his money and his freedom. 


Trump may or may not run for president. If he runs he could win the primary. As frightening as it is to even consider, he could win a second term. None of these are sure things.

And then there's this:

"One thing, however, is certain. Trump is facing huge legal bills and he will have more and more trouble convincing donors to money up money to help fund a loser fighting a losing cause." Them Hartmann



There may yet be another shoe yet to drop. It may be a big one. It may be a heavy boot. Thom Hartmann address it in this article: 

When Trump is finally revealed as an agent of foreign governments will America wake up?

A final bit of snark 

(with apologies to real snark hunters):

Trump may think he's a real cowboy. In truth he's as real a cowboy as the Marlboro Man was. If he tries to park his imaginary stallion here this is what will happen:

This is a sign at The Wild Hare Saloon outside of Canby, Oregon . There actually may be a few cowboys who eat there especially when the rodeo is in Canby.

Real cowboys in other countries that have cowboys would get it though in Brazil it might have to be translated.

Vaqueiro apenas estacionamento, todos os outros serão castrados

It means that phony cowboys (like Trump) will be emasculated, quite literally




April 11, 2022

Bistro Cubano in Oregon City and More, Hal Brown


1600+ of my mostly political stories are here on Daily Kos //// Click here to go back to the blog from March \\\\ Fast loading, view only the April edition here.


Until now this was, by and large, a photo diary about my excursions around northwestern Oregon and southern Washington featuring lots of scenic photos and stories about unusual restaurants.

At present the blog is evolving to be more eclectic. For those new to looking at it I suggest going beyond the opening page, scrolling down to the bottom of the page, and randomly clicking on some of the other entries for the past year. At the least take a look at what I posted here in March.


April 10, 2022




April 9, 2022

My comment to this HUFFPOST story: 

Donald Trump Jr. Detailed In Text How To Seize White House After 2020 Vote: Report

I like what  former FBI counterintelligence expert Peter Strozk said this morning on MSNBC's new "Katie Phang Show": "A successful day for Don Jr. is one when he remembered the correct sequence is that socks come before the shoes. He didn't come up with these ideas on his own. The question is where did they come from? Is this part of a coordinated activity? It certainly appears to be what played out when January 6th came around." I wonder what he'd have to say about Eric Trump having a successful day. Perhaps it would be one where he doesn't mistake his socks for bologna and eat them in a sandwich for lunch.

April 8, 2022

Lunch at Bistro Cubano in Oregon City: A few photos...












April 8, 2022

Adding the terms snowflake, as in the right-wing insult for liberals that they say are too sensitive, to sociopath, Jimmy Kimmel came up with a good term to describe Marjorie Taylor Greene who has reported him to the Capitol Police for supposedly threatening her in a joke.

Read: 





'Worst woman in America': Jimmy Kimmel continues war of words with Marjorie Taylor Greene 




EXCERPT:

After Greene made the outlandish assertion that anyone who supports now-confirmed Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is “pro-pedophile,” Kimmel asked on his show, "Where's Will Smith when you really need him," a laugh-line reference to the actor's Oscar night slap to the face of Chris Rock.

According to Kimmel said, “What a day — I have to tell you. What a night and what a day. I have the weirdest life. I really do. Once again, I find myself in the middle of a brouhaha, as I appear to have run afoul of probably the worst woman in American politics. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congressperson from the 14th District of Georgia, is unhappy. She’s specifically unhappy with me.”

Kimmel repeated the joke about Greene and then proceeded to label her a snowflake and sociopath - and conflated the two terms into the moniker "snowciopath" for the Georgian's running to the Capitol Police. "Not only did she call the police — she called the same police she voted against giving a congressional gold medal to for defending our Capitol against the insurrection she helped incite on Jan. 6," Kimmel said.

/////
Some comments to RAWSTORY:




Someone should require she wear a Hannibal Lector mask when she speaks if only to remind us of her sociopathy. I can imagine her saying “I eat liberals livers with some fava beans and a nice chianti.” This by the way could be lethal if is  she is on certain antidepressants consuming liver, fava beans, and wine are contraindicated. Some reviews suggest Lector was meant to know this so this the line in considered an inside joke. Reference

If you aren't familiar with the meaning of the word snowflake as slang used in a political context click below:

On another subject entirely, a few years ago I was with some friends all of whom were vegans and I admit to being intentionally provocative when I asked them whether if there was a food shortage effecting the crops they depend on for their vegan diet would they eat bugs. They basically dismissed my question as not worth considering. I could send them all links to this new BUZZFEED article:



April 7, 2022


I was going to avoid writing about politics on this blog because I was posting on the far left website Daily Kos. I am changing my mind and will selectively post some political observations and opinions here. This decision was prompted by an unresolved dispute I had with Daily Kos which resulted in them threatening to suspend me for inadvertently breaking their rules against giving a forum to anyone espousing unfounded conspiracies even if I was writing something lambasting them and saying how despicable they were. The subject of this article responded in the comments. I thought that in fairness to him he should be able to defend himself and let readers decided if his argument had any merit. They also cited a reason for threatening to ban me permanently for posting a subsequent article I put on about UFOs because I read some recent stories about them. I offered no opinion unless you consider my illustration of the Unidentified Frying Object to convey my skeptism about aliens. Daily Kos considered this was promoting conspiracy theories even though I did no such thing. I deleted that story and reposted it below.
Message from Daily Kos, click above to enlarge


I read this story in HUFFPOST,  today and added my comment and decided to illustrate it with a photo I put together put it in my comment.




Link

My comment:

I doubt he'd walk for reasons noted in comments. In his fantasy I think he'd really like to have led march waving to his adoring crowd from a Mercedes-Benz 770 Grosser Offener Tourenwagen along with a Marine band playing a selection of Richard Wagner musical numbers. (snark)



April 6,  2022



This article on a local newspaper website caught my eye:

‘We’re closing in on them’ says UFO expert on Pentagon findings

Screenshot2022-04-06at7.44.26AM.png

Excerpts:

CHICAGO (NewsNation) — A newly-released Pentagon report says some witnesses who reported UFO sightings also experienced injuries including radiation burns, brain problems and damaged nerves.

While the memo from the Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, is not the hard evidence needed to confirm life on other planets, Nick Pope — a journalist who used to run the British Government’s UFO Project — says we’re closer than we’ve ever been.

“If they’re out there, we’re closing in on them and it will be the biggest discovery in human history,” he said Tuesday night during “On Balance with Leland Vittert.”

Titled “Anomalous Acute And Subacute Field Effects on Human and Biological Tissues,” the memo was part of more than 1,500 pages of DIA documents related to the Pentagon’s secretive UFO program called the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program.

….

But the new interest is also because UFOs have become just that undeniable.

“The other thing is, we’ve just got a lot more evidence than was previously the case. We always knew pilots … saw these things. But it’s the DoD themselves that have recently put some of this on their website,” he continued.

Either way, Pope says the chances of us finding out what these UFOs are is “stronger than it ever was."

Wednesday, Apr 6, 2022 · 11:03:05 AM PDT · HalBrown

UFOs left 'radiation burns' and 'unaccounted for pregnancies,' new Pentagon report claims

By Brandon Specktor published about 22 hours ago

1,500 pages of UFO related research were just declassified as part of a FOIA request.






April 5, 2022

At the veterinary dermatologist and allergist for ear infections:

Mac has the blue bandana, Duff the red. 
Click images to enlarge








April 4, 2022

I decided not to buy some plywood I wanted for making stairs for the dogs to get onto my bed at Lowes because the prices have gone up two or three times in the past year. I checked out the dumpster where I live since I found pieces of wood there before.


With nothing to use in the dumpster I didn't have to engage in dumpster diving. I am not as spry as I once was so I was glad I didn't have to climb into the dumpster. Then on the way back from shopping I drove by some discarded wood from what looked like a dresser of some kind. It had a piece of wood which was just what I needed. Score one for successful roadside foraging.



April 3, 2022

The previous three stories which I posted on Daily Kos weren't primarily about politics:


April 2, 2022

Coming attraction - Thanks to Liam at Dick's Primal Burger (website) on Woodstock for letting me know about this (Jacob and Son's website) Currently there are only two Jewish delis in Portland, Kenny and Zuke's (the sandwich photos on their website are stuffed like they should be but in reality there is much less meat) and Kornblatt's. I like the former better than the latter, but neither can hold a shabbat candle to the Jewish delis in New York City from the famous Zabar's on the upper westside (Broadway and 80th Street) to neighborhood Jewish delis. For that matter, Zingerman's in Ann Arbor is a far better Jewish deli than either of the two currently operating in Portland.

I can't wait to eat at the new Portland Jewish deli and bring home some chopped liver and maybe some matzo ball soup. Here's the link to the article below. 

Dick's Primal Burger is opening another restaurant on N. Williams. The restaurant has mouth watering burgers. Here's their menu. The owner, Richard Satnick, aka Dick, has many pictures of famous Dick's (including one of himself) posted on the walls. I identified about 80%. If you can't figure out who they are you will have to ask since they aren't labeled. This one, in one of the bathrooms, is obvious: 


There's another Nixon display in the restaurant with this famous slogan:

I posted photos of Dick's Primal before on the blog but here are a few I took today (click to enlarge):



I just thought this sign in Oregon City was clever:

BREAKFAST, highly disciplined eggs line up for inspection on top of corned beef.


April 1, 2022 

Here are some of my favorite (and I think best) old photos from a page I put online in 2015. 

This was at The Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. 


There was a lot of luck in capturing the moment when the bubble was in mid-air. I was on the top of a double-decker bus which explains the angle of the photo.

Click here to go back to March


In the news today: How far will the Supreme Court go to promote trans ingnorance and anti-trans bigotry? By Hal M. Brown, MSW

Above:  Protesters of Kentucky Senate Bill SB150, known as the Transgender Health Bill, cheer on speakers during a rally on the lawn of the ...