Reading how the magnificent in his own mind megalomanic was mocked by George Conway as nihilistic moron led me to think of what it would be like if Trump was imprisoned.

 

Click above to enlarge my photoshop of Trump
playing with his little putter in prison yard.

Trump in jail for the documents would be like Jack the Ripper
 getting caught and sent to a London gaol for filching a bicycle.
 For such a magnificent in his own mind megalomanic
 this would be the ultimate affront. In some countries
an attempted coup to subvert a legitimate election
a conviction could mean the death sentence.

By Hal Brown, MSW, Retired psychotherapist

George Conway mocked Donald Trump as a "nihilistic moron" for risking years in prison by hoarding classified documents at his private resort at Mar-a-Lago on Morning Joe this morning:

Click to watch video

This is some of what he said:

"We are approaching the very end. I kept hearing this ear worm in my head as I was coming to the studio this morning, 'this is it, make no mistake.' We're getting down to the final strokes of this race, and what's clearly really remarkable about it is that of all the things that this man has done, eight decades of lying and cheating and stealing, this case, this documents case, is probably the easiest, shortest, simplest and yet carries the most severe penalties, likely penalties, of any of the cases, any of the legal issues that he's ever faced."

"Now people will say, you know, he really, in a just world, he would go to jail for what he did on Jan. 6, the weeks approaching Jan. 6... And I kind of agree with that, but for this man who is basically a nihilistic moron, for him to go to jail potentially for a long time, these Espionage Act charges bring very heavy sentences to potentially go to jail for something so pointless and silly and useless as keeping these documents is actually kind of fitting."

Instead of being imprisoned among criminals who worked their way up to being crime bosses by making their bones by cutting the throats of their rivals in the underworld, he'd be with a bunch of pickpockets and and shoplifters. Sure, he'd be their king, but he'd be a rock star among ruffians. 

Seriously, though, it doesn't matter whether Trump goes to a county jail or a state or federal prison. While he may end up, if convicted of a felony, ending up in home confinement which would be a travesty considering that his home is a mansion where staff will wait on him hand and foot. He might even be able to entertain anyone he want to have there. 

For justice to be served he needs to be locked up where, while inmates may be thrilled to have him there, and correction officers may enjoy telling their friends and family stories about what he'd like, he'll still be subject to all the rules of the facility.

From having his freedom of movement dictated to and having to wear standard prison clothes Trump will have to suffer the indignity of no longer being in charge of his domain. I doubt he'd be able to wear a MAGA hat, let alone a t-shirt like this:

While there is no proof Trump uses a golden toilet obviously he uses a normal porcelain one. It would be an adjustment, to say the least, to find he has us one of these for his morning ablutions and must perch his prodigious posterior on this:

I've never being in jail, but I have been inside of two jails numerous times in my capacity as a mental health consultant where I assessed inmates who were thought to be suicidal. It was always disconcerting to go through the sally port, the double doored entry area where a corrections officer briefly had you in a small locked area. If they didn't know and like you they could make you wait as long as they felt like it in the locked area. 

Not surprisingly some of these CO's took perverse delight in keeping me waiting for a few minutes while they pretended to attend to some more important matter. I knew I would soon get in and be escorted to interview an inmate, again in a locked room. More importantly I knew I would be getting out, but even that short loss of freedom had an impact.*

Actual inmates are at the absolute mercy of corrections officers for everything. Even a former president would be compelled do what he is told to do.

* I have also been given private tours of the Bidgewater State Prison (MA) by the stress officer who worked with staff and who was a friend who referred many CO's to me for therapy.

Fearing for freedom's fate and feeling like the vexed man (or woman)? I grok how you feel. A shrink's advice.

 

By Hal Brown, MSW, Retired psychotherapist

About Fraz Xaver Messerschmidt and The Vexed Man . 

More about the artist.

For those not familiar with the word grok, it was coined by science fiction master Robert Heinlein in his classic book Stranger in a Strange Land. It means  "to understand intuitively or by empathy.

I don't actually feel like this most of the time when I follow political news. I know people who do, if not most of the time, much of the time. I also know people who become so upset by it that they turn off and tune out the news. 

I was reading this optimistic Washington Post OpEd by Greg Sargent titled "Opinion Biden has a theory of MAGA that just might be working"...

The photo is of President Biden in his embodiment of Dark Bandon Badass wearing his 3025 Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses. Full-discloser, while I am not really all that superstitious, I have a pair on order which should come in a few days. I am hoping that by wearing them I can send good vibes to the president.

This ad was in the middle of the essay:

Greg Sargent concludes his column this way:

Yet Biden also plainly believes that conducting the nation’s business on a bipartisan basis is inherently stabilizing. That sometimes requires treating the opposition — or a large swath of it — as a mostly conventional political party, which risks mitigating perceptions of the threat it poses.

In the debt limit outcome, that tension proved far more navigable than many, including me, expected. How this tension will play out in 2024 is hard to predict, but for now, the Biden theory of MAGA has mostly been vindicated.

I hope his conclusion, that the Biden theory of MAGA has mostly been vindicated, proves to be true. 

How does this relate to feeling like the Vexed Man? 

In general I see myself as neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I like to believe that I'm not a glass is half full or glass is half empty kind of person. I like to believe that I look at the glass and factor in evaporation rates of the liquid in the glass and based on the humidity and the likelihood of rain I determine whether the glass will fill up or be depleted. 

When it comes to the possibility that in the next election the United States will take an irrevocable step to becoming a fascist autocracy with a bigoted anti-woke America first agenda I eschew hyperbole and try my damnedest to be objective.

This isn't to say that from time to time I don't succumb to the shpilkes. I do. 

My recommendation to those who feel overwhelmed by anxiety about the future of the country is to be kind to themselves and make a concerted effort to spend some time every day to take a distraction break. 

Do the things that are likely to give you pleasure. Spend time with people you love, treat yourself to a meal at a favorite restaurant, if you don't subscribe to a streaming video service pick the one that most appeals to you and find movies, or better yet long running TV shows, to watch. 

Take a drive in the country or just go for a walk, plant a garden, hell, if it suits you go to the city dump and shoot rats with a .22 riffle.

If you can afford it, there's retail therapy. This involves the process of shopping and then the pleasure in getting what you buy.  You don't have to spend a lot. Shop for a pair of happy socks, buy some inexpensive costume jewelry, or if you like gadgets or tools go to an electronics or Lowes type store and buy something on impulse.

Consider redecorating a room or just getting rid of a worn out piece of furniture. The idea is to treat yourself.  You can always do what I did, buy a pair of Ray-Ban 3025's.

Click above to read

I am aware that these glasses are the same sunglasses worn by Tom Cruise in his Top Gun movies and that Ron DeSantis, referring to himself as "Top Gov", also wore them, or glasses that looked like them, in a 2022 ad pretending to be a tighter pilot.

See: 

Former Navy Pilot Rips 'Pathetic' Ron DeSantis Over 'Top Gun' Stunt

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About the blog:

If you are new to my blog, welcome. Scroll down here to see all of the tags I've used and all of my blogs since 2012. The blog only became totally political in the last two years. However if you are interested here's what I wrote about politics in 2016.

Weekly stats by country:

For some reason I had many readers from Singapore this week. Could it be that major country spy chiefs are meeting there this week in a secret enclave?  The international readership varies but usually after the US the most logons are from Russia.

How article about Jack Smith reconvening grand jury sent me a mystical message about justice's jigsaw puzzle

 How article about Jack Smith reconvening grand jury sent me a mystical message about justice's jigsaw puzzle

By Hal Brown

I read through this article (shown above):

NBC News: Grand jury in Trump classified documents case expected to meet this coming week after hiatus

A grand jury that has been hearing evidence in the case against former President Donald Trump is expected to meet this coming week in Washington after a lull.

It lays out in great detail how Trump is likely to be charged in the Mar-a-Lago documents case and what his various defense tactics could be. You can read the article above or a summary here:

'Fasten your seat belts': Indictment rumors swirl amid report that Jack Smith’s grand jury is reconvening - RawStory and Altenet

After I read the NBC News article I scrolled through the names of the five reporters who are credited with the scoop.

(On halbrown.org and most platforms this is published on you can click the following images to enlarge them.)

 and came to the following:

It often happens that I open advertising websites accidentally because the trackpad on my laptop is very sensitive. If I touch it lightly when the cursor is over and ad the ad opens. By mistake I clicked on the animated ad from CRAFTHUB for jigsaw puzzles on the left above. This took me here:

Sometimes ads pop up in the middle of articles that seem to be there because some artificial intelligence was playing a joke or making a snark comment in reaction to the text surrounding the ad. In this case were the cybergods saying making a commentary about the evidence and aspects of the legal morass in this particular case, and even about all of the literal trials and testicle twisting tribulations facing Donald Trump.

Full Disclosure: I write the following as a secular Jew who doesn't believe in God and considers the Bible to be book of fables mixed with accounts of actual events.

There are lots of pieces to the judicial jigsaw puzzle, or puzzles, involving Trump, but eventually the American judicial system may have its come to Jesus moment.* Despite in significant instances from the ironically named Supreme Court to lesser courts having followed the Fallen Angel into his domain, it will have a  redemption of near Biblical proportions.

It is a sickly icky irony that the far right member of these courts wear the cloaks of Christianity while making rulings that if there was to be a Second Coming Jesus would be having a serious sit-down with them to enlighten them about the errors of their ways. Of course considering that John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett are Catholic they don't have to wait until the End of Times. They could confess their transgressions to their priest.

* Fun fact: The first time the phrase "come to Jesus moment" was used it was in a secular sense and was in 1999. From what I can tell from a quick web search it was coined by an unnamed pastor but he was not literally referring to Jesus. 

Related article:

Trump's own voice on the documents tape will be 'devastating' in a courtroom: legal analyst

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Anti-woke annals of absurdity are crazy times crazy, consider two stories in today's news

 By Hal Brown

Background public domain, Popeye's fried chicken on Wikipedia by Evan-Omas CC0

This story is as delicious as the best southern fried chicken, crisp and spicy on the outside and tender and flavorful on the inside:

'No longer the Lord's chicken': 'Christian woman' says she's 'grieving' over 'woke' Chick-fil-A

This story was reported in the United States on Raw Story but over in the United Kingdom Brits have to be relieved that they lost the Revolutionary War when they read articles like this from the BBC:

Utah primary schools ban Bible for 'vulgarity and violence

Click to read article.

Above is how HUFFPOST covered the story on the top of their website this morning.

There are two sides of the anti-woke movement. One is fascistic and no joking matter. The policies being promoted and in an alarming number of states enshrined in law will harm people. They will lead to, among other things, women being forced to have babies they don't want to children being denied medical care gender affirming care to a rise in hate crimes. 

The other rises to a level so far beyond absurdity it is difficult to mock by rational people yet those who believe in them do so with passion and conviction.

There is irony in the fast-food chicken story because the woman who is boycotting one chain store is now going to a competing chain store which is far more LGBTQ+ friendly than the one she believes serves chickens from Hell.

Whoever decided to push for a ban on the Bible was doing this to make a valid point about book bans and must be pleased that their success made not only national but international news. 

There are other instances of this fevered lunacy. For example this story from Florida:

This demonstrates that even a high school yearbook can share something in common with the Bible and highly regarded works of literature.

We even have the account of how students in an Indiana high school raised $84,000 to put on a play called gender-bending in another location when the school forbade them to perform it in the school. 

While rational democracy loving people will find these skirmishes or battles absurd there is nothing remotely amusing about these aspects of what has been called a culture war. They represent an gangrene  infection in the body of the populace so dangerous that it should be amputated like a frost-bit toe or a severely infected diabetic foot.

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Related:

How Fox News is boosting a “coordinated planned attack on the LGBTQ+ community” during Pride month

"This is just one side of this extremist playbook," Human Rights Campaign advocate warns

Trump appointed judge works to keep drag shows lawful in Tennessee

Late Friday, Judge Thomas L. Parker ruled anti-drag laws unconstitutional after a two-day trial

Addendum:

I am lucky enough to live in the Portland, Oregon suburbs where we are celebrating Pride Month. 

Click above to read story and view interview

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The unemployed TV personality who could beat Trump

 By Hal Brown

DonkeyHotey, InPixio

On February 26th I wrote "Tucker Carlson might be Trump's best pick to run with him for VP" when he still had a job.

This was what the main page of Salon looked like this morning:

Talk about clickbait, how could anyone not take a look at the story to find out who Ron DeSantis should fear?

Of course I took the bait and clicked:

Click above to read

The answer is in the subtitle (enlarged above) but you don't find an explanation until you read Chauncey DeVega's contention until the middle of the article:

But also because he is the only candidate in the field that will have the name ID enough to look viable to win the nomination that MAGA can accept once it becomes clear that Trump has too much indictment baggage. My expectations are that by late fall Trump will be facing multiple indictments and will begin to be seen as too risky to nomination. At this time, DeSantis is by far their most likely landing pad. The rest of the field as it currently exists is too obscure. Now, if a different MAGA flamethrower with very high name ID like Tucker Carlson was to emerge, THEN DeSantis would be in trouble.

While I still think it is possible, as I wrote back in February, that Trump could decide that Carlson would be his best choice for a VP running mate. He could announce this choice well before the GOP convention and knock out DeSantis and anyone else daring to declare against him.

The next question is what would running to be second banana to Trump give Tucker. During the campaign of course it would give him a job, albeit unsalaried. It would keep him in the limelight, hell, he'd have klieg lights on him that would be at least as bright as he had when he was at Fox News.

If he was asked to run by Trump he'd have a difficult decision to make. He'd have to consider Trump's chances of winning. He'd be looking at polls which included him as a candidate in the GOP primary and then at polls which had him running against President Biden.

If it looked like he stood a reasonable chance of beating Trump in the primary and polls showed that Biden was very likely to win the general election against him, Carlson might decide running as a probable loser wasn't worth his time and effort. 

If polls showed he could beat Trump and, crucially, stood a reasonable chance of beating Biden, my expectation is that he would run.

Assuming he became president there's no way to determine how he would govern because only he knows what he really believes today although his history dating back to college shows he was a die-in-the-wool bigot even back then. In addition to being a member of The Christian Fellowship he was involved with The Jesse Helms Foundation (Helms was an outspoken opponent of gay rights) and The Dan White Society which was named for the man who murdered San Francisco Mayor George Moscone known for his diverse hiring, and openly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk. 

Trinity College yearbook

Here is some of what the GLADD Accountably Project says about him.

• He called trans children grotesque.
• He claimed that transgender women “put every woman and girl at risk of male violence.”
• He refused to apologize for using an anti-gay slur on air.
• He's criticized having women in the military.

It appears what while Trump and DeSantis promote so-called anti-woke policies which discriminate against members of the LGBTQ+ community, Carlson's distain and disgust against them is deeply rooted and goes back at least to high school when it has been reported he once beat up a gay man in a public bathroom.

While Carlson has said he has no plans to run for president and made a legal threat against a PAC which is urging him to run, this doesn't mean he actually wouldn't run if he thought he stood a chance of winning. 

Newsweek published "What a Tucker Carlson Presidency Would Look Like" last month. Here are the main points:

• The TV host would be "hard to dismiss" as a presidential candidate, according to some academics. 
• His appeal could indicate the American right is "radicalizing even beyond Trump," and seeking "a new charismatic leader."
• But others told Newsweek a Carlson presidency would be "devastating for race relations.

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Related: 

This is what Rick Wilson of The Lincoln Project thinks about Carlson running for president:

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