One person train wrecks and a huge traffic pileup

One person train wrecks and a huge traffic pileup

By Hal Brown

Archives on Right >

Why I was banned from Daily Kos

 

Is it any coincidence that all of the people who have become one person train wrecks and the large group that has become a huge highway traffic pileup are Republicans? I can't think of a Democrat but would be happy if readers can find one to add to my list.

In a quick glance at RawStory this morning I saw these articles:

The first one is about the coming battle in the House for who will be Speaker. I consider this just the beginning of what will be a huge traffic pileup for the House GOP as they begin their investigations into Hunter Biden, who everyone has heard of but few care about, to Alejandro Mayorkas who nobody has heard of but will once the hearings start.  Their eventual goal may be to try to impeach President Biden, an effort that might be successful in the Republican controlled House but will go nowhere in the Senate. 

What it all adds up to is a gridlocked (to use another traffic term) legislative agenda in the House which you better believe Democrats will publicize to their advantage when popular bills go down to defeat.

The individuals who have the most ginormous train wrecks Donald Trump and Elon Musk who are the most publicized. The lack of judgment and self-defeating grandiose narcissism of these two is 

If Herschel Walker loses he will be added to the list. Hell, if he wins, covering his putting his foot in his mouth as a Senator will prove irresistible to media.

Other train wrecks who make the news who come to mind are Kari Lake (read story) and Ye (who is apparently going to run for president with 

Nick Fuentes and Milo Yiannopoulos helping in his campaign ). 

I predict that there will be many opportunities for the likes of Jim Jordan (read yesterday's blog story about the soon to be chair of the GOP Judiciary Committee) and other House Republicans, especially those in the Freedom Caucus who crave attention like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Matt Goetz, to vie for the dubious distinction of becoming headline grabbing train wreck of the day or week.

The reason some of the individuals who will crash and burn will be due to calculated attempts to gain notoriety and to stand out in a crowded field. Keep my highway metaphor, compare it to someone driving 100 MPH in attempt to beat everyone else to a destination.

Most of them also just happen to meet the many of the clinical criteria for having a narcissistic personality disorder.  This is from The Mayo Clinic:

Symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and how severe they are can vary. People with the disorder can:

• Have an unreasonably high sense of self-importance and require constant, excessive admiration.
• Feel that they deserve privileges and special treatment.
• Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements.
• Make achievements and talents seem bigger than they are.
• Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate.
• Believe they are superior to others and can only spend time with or be understood by equally special people.
• Be critical of and look down on people they feel are not important.
• Expect special favors and expect other people to do what they want without questioning them.
• Take advantage of others to get what they want.
• Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others.
• Be envious of others and believe others envy them.
• Behave in an arrogant way, brag a lot and come across as conceited.
• Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office.

At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they view as criticism. They can:

• Become impatient or angry when they don't receive special recognition or treatment.
• Have major problems interacting with others and easily feel slighted.
• React with rage or contempt and try to belittle other people to make themselves appear superior.
• Have difficulty managing their emotions and behavior.
• Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change.
• Withdraw from or avoid situations in which they might fail.
• Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection.
• Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, humiliation and fear of being exposed as a failure.

 What to expect from the Donald Trump Comeback Tour

by Hal Brown

Archives on Right >

Why I was banned from Daily Kos

First I read this on RawStory which led me to read the article it was based on:

I suggest reading the article which this is a summary of in The Guardian. The excerpts on RawStory didn't convince me Trump would eat DeSantis alive but the full article had so many good points now I lean towards thinking otherwise. Trump will clean his clock. However, if DeSantis puts aside his arrogance and gears up and prepares for what will come if he is the front runner against Trump he may prevail. He will need the equivalent a Navy SEAL training program to toughen up to beat Trump at the martial art he has mastered to the point his killer moves are instinctual. Just ask Hillary Clinton.

The only way I see the Republicans beating Trump in the primaries is for them to coalesce around the candidate who is most capable of taking him on. I doubt this would happen considering the egos involve in the quest to be on the primary debate stage.

Currently of course they are two likely GOP candidates for president in 2024 being discussed, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. Anybody but DeSantis seems like a long shot. In reverse order here's how The Washington Post ranked them last week.

10. Sen. Rick Scott

9. Gov. Chris Sununu 

8. Mike Pompeo

7. Nikki Haley

6. Sen. Ted Cruz

5. Sen. Tim Scott

4. Gov. Glenn Youngkin

3. Mike Pence

2. Donald Trump

1. Gov. Ron DeSantis

Honorable mentions: Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Donald Trump Jr.

 

Previously on this list, at No. 6: Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who — like many MAGA candidates this cycle — ultimately lost her very winnable race and lagged much of her party on the same ballot.

Even though Trump hates losers, he also might find Kari Lake to have charms he can't resist. Who would he want looking with adoration at him between Kari Lake, Nikki Haley, and Kristi Noem. They all might be in close competition with each other. After all Trump think's he's God's gift to women.

Forget about Ted Cruz who is a walking disaster and reputed to be the the  most, if not the most, disliked senator among his colleagues. How desperate is Cruz to get some national attention. Consider how close he's suddenly become to Herschel Walker:

I think Trump will pick a woman because he also thinks she would help him pick up the votes of suburban white women. Even though Nikki Haley is an Indian-American she has an appealing all-American looking family that isn't threatening to the bigots:

If I had to bet he'd chose one of these three women when it came time to announcing running mate. If history is any lesson, he'd make sure it is someone who had mastered the fine art of sucking up to him and also was a national figure. My bets would be on Kari Lake despite, or perhaps because of, her loss in Arizona.

As much as she probably wants to be Trump's running mate I doubt Trump really wants batshit crazy loose cannon Marjorie Taylor Greene to be his VP. I think she has other ambitions.

Of course he could decide on this guy, ya neva know with Trump:

Seriously: 

Trump is the only potential GOP candidate with a hardcore national following. DeSantis is well known but doesn't have large numbers loyal to him. No other potential GOP candidate does.

I predict the GOP primary season will be chaotic but not as chaotic as their convention will be if Trump doesn't come out at the sure winner. 

In that case it will be chaos on steroids with double-crossing dirty dealings going on in every nook and cranny.

If Trump doesn't win the primary I think he will run as an independent. He will wreak vengeance on those who didn't back him by assuring that President Biden, assuming he's the Democratic candidate, won.

Trump's legal status won't make any difference. He could even be in jail. In fact, I think that the more legal jeopardy he's in the more this will fuel his desire to stay in the spotlight and play the tried and true victim game while attacking his accusers.

Related more of less tongue in cheek story:

If Kari Lake is Trump's VP he better get a better food taster.

 

By Hal Brown

Archives on Right >

Why I was banned from Daily Kos

Reading this article in The Bulwark prompted my writing this:

Currently there are two likely GOP candidates for president in 2024, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. Anybody but DeSantis seems like a long shot. In reverse order here's how The Washington Post ranked them last week.

10. Sen. Rick Scott

9. Gov. Chris Sununu 

8. Mike Pompeo

7. Nikki Haley

6. Sen. Ted Cruz

5. Sen. Tim Scott

4. Gov. Glenn Youngkin

3. Mike Pence

2. Donald Trump

1. Gov. Ron DeSantis

Honorable mentions: Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Donald Trump Jr.

 

Previously on this list, at No. 6: Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who — like many MAGA candidates this cycle — ultimately lost her very winnable race and lagged much of her party on the same ballot.

It seems to me that between the front runners only one is fairly easy to suck up to. Not that DeSantis doesn't have an overblown ego, but Trump is the most susceptible to flattery. DeSantis would see through it and select his vice presidential choice as someone who would enhance his chances of winning.

If by some cruel cosmic joke Trump won and someone like Kari Lake was his vice president she'd be very different than the pious Mike Pence whose presidential ambitions faded when he proclaimed his devotion to Donald Trump.

Anyone on The Washington Post list could decide to attempt to curry Trump's favor so they'd be his vice presidential choice should he win the nomination.

Only one, Kari Lake, jumped out at me as being sociopathic enough to decide the quickest route to the presidency is the untimely demise of the president if she was next in line to be president. President Lake, has a ring to it...

Even though Trump hates losers, he also might find Kari Lake to have charms he can't resist. Who would want looking with adoration at him. Kari Lake, Nikki Haley, and Kristi Noem might be in close competition with each other. After all Trump think's he's God's gift women.

Forget about Ted Cruz.

He'd be likely to identify with Lake's doubling and tripling down on denying both the results of her own and more importantly his election.

She'd also be someone who would make a far better opening act at his rallies than posers like his older sons and Mr. Pillow. After all she shares a television background with him and knows how to talk to an audience through a camera.

The only drawback for her would be that he might find she upstages him. She'd have to be wary so she learns the lesson of being the opening act for a major star: be good but not that good. She could learn from reading "10 Opening Bands That Upstaged The Headliners.' Most of these bands went on to become headliners but she'd have to bide her time.

Quick with a quip Stephanie Rhule ad libed the best Kari Lake put-down

Quick with a quip Stephanie Rhule ad libed the best Kari Lake put-down

and has a delightful exchange with Gov-elect Wes Moore from Maryland 

by Hal Brown

One of the benefits of living in Oregon is that I don't have to stay up until 11:00PM to watch Late Night with Stephanie Ruhle which airs at 11:00 PM on the east coast. It is on at 8:00 here.

I was watching in bed last night and I was dozing off so I missed a great ad lib about Kari Lake. It wasn't until I saw the story about it on RAWSTORY this morning that I played the video (here).

The quip comes just before three minutes on the video.

Here's the ad lib in context:

Ruhle wondered if Lake would be flying to Mar-a-Lago to appear at the event with Trump. (guest Tim) Miller recalled that many of the Lake supporters were saying that she was on the VP train and would likely end up in consideration for Trump's running mate. 

"She can be the VP of catering services at Mar-a-Lago," quipped Ruhle.

This begs the question as to whether Lake even would have the chops to be VP of catering at Mar-a-Lago. It may be a job beyond her capabilities.

Now let me praise Stephanie Ruhle who I consider to be the best regular evening MSNBC host since Rachel Maddow left.

Ruhle breaks the stereotype of a financial expert nerd.  She was a drastic personality change from Brian Williams who she replaced at The 11th Hour. 

She is an incisive interviewer who rarely goes through a show without interjecting a witticism. She is not shy about expressing her own opinions.

I've seen her confront an evasive interview subject with one or another version of an eyebrow raised version of "oh come on, you don't really believe what you're saying" which conveys "you've got to be shitting me" quite clearly.

Click above to watch video

Last night she delighted in watching Wes Moore, the amiable governor-elect of Maryland who won an overwhelming victory, masterfully handle her when she wouldn't relent in pressing him on aspirations for higher office when he gave stock answers about only thinking about what he wanted to do for Maryland as governor. I can see her thinking "I'm going to have some fun with this man" who she clearly was impressed with

She knew what he was doing and that he could easily have demurred and said that he was only human and sometimes had thoughts about how his political life would develop long term. Truth is that he would make a great candidate for the Senate, president or vice president as he proves himself as a highly effective governor even a decade from now.

About Stephanie Ruhle from Wikipedia:

•  She is a graduate of Lehigh University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in international business.  
• Prior starting her journalism career at joining Bloomberg News, Ruhle spent 14 years working in the finance industry.  
• She's Senior Business Analyst for NBC News and was one of three Bloomberg reporters who broke the story of the London Whale, identifying the trader behind the 2012 JPMorgan Chase trading loss.
• She founded the Corporate Investment Bank (CIB) Women's Network and co-chaired the Women on Wall Street (WOWS) steering committee.  
• In 2003, Ruhle joined Deutsche Bank as a credit salesperson covering hedge funds. She ended her eight-year career there as a managing director in Global Markets Senior Relationship Management.  
• While at Deutsche Bank, Ruhle founded the Global Market Women's Network to help women move into leadership roles at the company.