October 10, 2024

Cats. By Hal M. Brown, MSW

  



Above: The left image was made by Perchance Photo AI, the right image by Google's Gemini Imagin AI. 

These cat images are intended to show how the county will be if Kamala wins and the cool cats can celebrate, hop on their Harleys, and head to a dress ball, and if Trump wins his ordering the military to hunt down people like us. I decided to ask AI to put the cats on motorcycles because they often symbolize male power and cats generally are a feminine symbol.

I expect you may wonder why I used the cat illustrations at all. One is because while my partner likes the AI generated images of Trump I use to illustrate some of my blogs, yesterday my best friend where I live said she's sick and tired of seeing any image of him.

Another reason I used the cats should be obvous since they have become a meme in this election what with Vance distainfully calling women who don't have children childless cat ladies, to he and Trump saying Haitians are eating them. Also yesterday, a close friend's daughter was wearing the t-shirt shown above. (Another version is below).


Of course we also have Taylor Swift endorsing Kamala Harris in an Instagram post signed Childless Cat Lady.


Here's an article from the UK Independent.



He both wants to be seen as the savior of cute cats from hungry Haitians and as supporting armed and dangerous MAGA cats, the later being what I depicted in my illustration.


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Watch Kamala's "60 Minutes" interview here and see why Trump wants to say it was incoherent and illegal




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October 9, 2024

Watch Kamala's "60 Minutes" interview here and see why Trump wants to say it was incoherent and illegal, by Hal M. Brown, MSW

 

Click to watch interview.

Perhaps the biggest news about this is that Trump actually watched the Kamala Harris "60 Minutes" interview.

Why else are we seeing stories about his reaction like this?


This is what he posted on Truth Social.


I’ve never seen this before, but the producers of 60 Minutes sliced and diced (“cut and pasted”) Lyin’ Kamala’s answers to questions, which were virtually incoherent, over and over again, some by as many as four times in a single sentence or thought, all in an effort, possibly illegal as part of the “News Division,” which must be licensed, to make her look “more Presidential,” or a least, better. It may also be a major Campaign Finance Violation. This is a stain on the reputation of 60 Minutes that is not recoverable - It will always remain with this once storied brand. I have never heard of such a thing being done in “News.” It is the very definition of FAKE NEWS! The public is owed a MAJOR AND IMMEDIATE APOLOGY! This is an open and shut case, and must be investigated, starting today!

Note that this was posted at 4:16 AM.

I missed watching the interview when it was broadcast but thanks to RawStory I easily found the link to the YouTube. From RawStory:

It is difficult to understand what the former president is talking about given that the full interview is available on YouTube and Harris speaks cogently over long periods of time without any apparent edits.

I can imagine Trump fulminating for hours after watching the interview until before dawn he came up with a way to attack Kamala's performance. If anyone ever writes a book about his classic outrageous delusional Truth Social posts this should be near the top of the list.

Nobody is going to hold Trump's feet to the fire and demand he give one example of an incoherent sentence which he accuses her of doing in what any English teacher would call an incoherent run-on sentence:

I’ve never seen this before, but the producers of 60 Minutes sliced and diced (“cut and pasted”) Lyin’ Kamala’s answers to questions, which were virtually incoherent, over and over again, some by as many as four times in a single sentence or thought, all in an effort, possibly illegal as part of the “News Division,” which must be licensed, to make her look “more Presidential,” or a least, better.

He accuses her of being incoherent four times!

I wonder whether Trump has a mini-Trump on his shoulder trying to get through to him with the truth telling him that Kamala did a far better job in the interview than he ever could do.


Image by Perchance Photo AI


I doubt it. On a 1-10 scale of how consciously self-aware and self-critical a person is Trump wouldn't even rate a 1. However, Trump is like every other human being, and it is my expert opinion that while he considers himself to have the best genes and the biggest brain there's no such species of Homo superior-sapiens. All people are Homo sapiens and all have an unconscious mind. Somewhere buried in Trump's unconscious are feelings of inferiority that he has spent his entire adult life compensating for.

Trump can't stand to see incontrovertible evidence that he is being bested by an opponent, and by a woman at that. He has convinced himself that he is the exemplar of masculinity who women should worship.




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October 8, 2024

Trump and his malignant narcissim revisited: by Hal M. Brown, MSW

 

Click image to enlarge.

This image was posted on the private Duty 2 Warn Facebook page. It was started on Feb. 1, 2017 by Dr. John D. Gartner.

I gave my own check to a less obvious characteristic Trump exhibits. I don't think Trump confides his true deeper feelings to others because he represses them. Trump is a shallow and superficial person who never looks inward and has no insight, let alone curiosity, about what makes him tick. This may seem less noxious, but people like Trump rarely if ever want to delve into their innermost feelings because if they did they might understand the reasons for their behaviors and begin to change those that hurt other people

I give Dr. John D Gartner the credit he is due for enlightening me and thousands of others to the combinations of severe psychopathologies which combine to give us what (as we all by now probably know) was coined by the esteemed psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. Fromm was a Holocaust survivor. He said it is a severe and destructive pathology that is at the heart of the inhumane acts exhibited by people such as Hitler and Stalin. 

Gartner was the first mental health expert to describe Trump as a malignant narcissist. This was in a May, 2017 USA Today article.

 

I think it is worth posting the link to Gartner's opinion essay (here) as I have done in previous blogs. This is because if I use the staging categories of cancer as a metaphor the Trump of 2017 had a stage 2 malignancy in 2017. Now is well into stage 4. It has not only spread in him, but unlike cancer, it is contagious and has spread and become more dangerous because a large percentage of the population has been infected. 

The cancer of Trump's malignant narcissism won't kill him, but will result in the death of democracy if he is elected president again.

Sinclair Lewis (in his dystoican 1935 novel "It Can't Happen Here" predicted the Nazis,  and of course Orwell wrote about authoritarian dictatorship in "1984." I hate to think that a year or two from now people like me will be writing about how John Gartner predicted a Trump second term dictatorship in 2017.

Excerpt from Gartner's USA Today article:

Much has been written about Trump having narcissistic personality disorder. As critics have pointed out, merely saying a leader is narcissistic is hardly disqualifying. But malignant narcissism is like a malignant tumor: toxic.

Psychoanalyst and Holocaust survivor Erich Fromm, who invented the diagnosis of malignant narcissism, argues that it “lies on the borderline between sanity and insanity.” Otto Kernberg, a psychoanalyst specializing in borderline personalities, defined malignant narcissism as having four components: narcissism, paranoia, antisocial personality and sadism. Trump exhibits all four.

I wish I could go back to 2017 and do a Google search for Trump and malignant narcissism. I doubt it would come up with more than links to the Gartner article. Here's what comes up with the Google search today.

Gartner makes the progressive media on a regular basis, for example in "Perfectly predictable": Dr. John Gartner on why "a malignant narcissist like Trump" sells Bibles in Salon for example and so do many other mental health professionals including myself.   I'm the clincial social worker in this title: Clinical social worker: "With the Trump Bible, one must consider dementia" in a Chauncey DeVega Salon column.

It isn't just mental health professionals who have learned about maligant narcissism. Back in 2019 it wasn't a surprise that George Conway realized that Trump had the disorder: "George Conway Says Trump Is a 'Malignant Narcissist': He's 'Both Mentally Disordered and Evil' "- Newsweek. 

John Gartner and his colleague Dr. Harry Segal has done podcasts with George Conway (here's one of them).


It is perhaps surprising one of Trump's lawyers recognized this in him: "Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis turns on ‘malignant narcissist’ ex-president" from The Guardian.

Trump is very different from Hitler and Stalin who were psychopaths, but not particularly flamboyant grandiose narcissists. It is very significant that this characteristic of Trump has served him well. This is because his most psychopathic tendencies and aspirations as shown by his cruel and vengeful statements can be written off as simply Trump the unhinged braggart being Trump the unhinged braggart.  Trump hides his evil behind his bloviating narcissitic persona.

Addendum:

In searching the web for articles about Trump and malignant narcissim I came across this piece which I forgot about writing. I'd posted it on Medium in March of 2023:

This also included a link to Gartner's USA Today essay.

Here's an excerpt about the character in the Luther episode.


Alice Morgan, played by Ruth Wilson,is a research scientist with a genius-level IQ. When we first meet her, Alice has murdered her parents — and their dog — in such a calculated fashion, that not even Luther is able to prove her guilt, of which he is absolutely certain. Alice’s core belief, that nothing in life ultimately matters, comes into direct conflict with Luther’s own beliefs. She frequently insinuates herself into Luther’s professional and personal life, both as an enemy and ally, with behaviours ranging from stalking him and those close to him, to helping him avoid criminal prosecution. She also provides Luther with a unique insight into the criminal mind. Luther describes Alice as a malignant narcissist.





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October 7, 2024

Why is Joe Scarborough surprised that Trump blames the assassination attempts on Democrats? By Hal M. Brown, MSW

 

Above: An alarmed Joe Scarborough created by Perchance Photo AI

This is being discussed with gravity and alarm on MSNBC as I write this. 

Why is the Morning Joe crew surprised? I understand them being horrified. However, this shouldn't have surprised them.

My reaction wasn't "OMG! Trump and his surrogates are telling their rally crowds that the Democrats want to destroy democracy and they are even trying to kill me."

Trump is saying that we don't have to fear enemies from outside because they are less dangerous than his poltical opponents. He'll deal with China, Russia, and North Korea, which he names in his sing-songy voice, because unlike stupid Kamala he will deal with them. Easy-peasy for Trump with his big brain. He will protect us from the evil empires. He is saying that it is the internal enemies, the (socialist, Marxist, communist, whatever) Democrats who we have to fear.

The names of the so-called Democrat operatives who tried to kill Turmp will largely be lost to history. They may have aspired to be as familiar as John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, but few people will remember the names Ryan Wesley Routh and Thomas Mathew Crooks.


Their true motivations (laid out as far as we know them in this Newsweek article) are not clear. This doesn't matter to Trump. He may not even be able to name or identify them from photos today. In fact he owes so much to them he should have framed pictures of them at Mar-a-Lago because their actions may make the difference between him winning and losing the election.

Sorry "Morning Joe" crew, but of course Trump is portraying them as Democrat assassins. I'm surprised Trump hasn't already compared them to John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald.


For that matter, I am surprised he hasn't compared Kamala Harris to Benedict Arnold.


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October 6, 2024

If we have President Trump, President Vance, or both, in the future we'll be living in "1984" on steroids, by Hal M. Brown, MSW

 

Well known promo picture for 1984 colorized by Kolorize.cc Click image to enlarge

There's no real need to go chapter and verse through George Orwell's 1949 novel "1984" to understand why referencing it here (as is done elsewhere) describes what Trump and Vance want the United States to become. Each hopes to become Big Brother. Vance anticipates that within a year or two he will assume the position of president.

Project 2025 isn't a novel, but like "1984 it describes a totalitarian country run by a dictator whose government uses mass surveillance of citizens and repressive regimentation to control the behavior of the population.

Consider that in 1949 when "1984" was written the cyber capacity to track the social media habits and the physical location of people didn't exist. In 1949 there was no National Security Agency (NSA) with its vast satellite network:



Today you can be tracked by your car and cell phone GPS, but this is child's play for law enforcement agencies. Survellience cameras are ubiquitous. Police can monitor your driving and send you tickets for infractions. Banks, ATMs, and stores have cameras. Facial recognition can be used to identify you and, I assume if not now eventually, will be used to find out where you are. 

Are you really sure that when you read a website like this some hacker hasn't turned on your device's camera and microphone?

Another novel that is being written about as a warning about what could happen in American under Trump and Vance is Margaret Atwood's 1985 "The Handmaids Tale." Consider that Covid can be tracked by analysis of wastewater and ask yourself whether the government could decide to determine whether residents of a given area were using mifepristone (half of the so-called abortion pill) or any kind of banned birth control. Federal funds could be withheld from the community. Worse than that government agents could interogate all the females of child bearing age living there to make sure that if they are pregnant they don't have an abortion.

In 2025 under a Trump and Vance Americans could try to run from a repressive government but they wouldn't be able to hide.


I couldn't figure out a way to illustrate this blog until I realized that an app I just bought to colorize a batch of old black and white paper photos from my childhood could also be used to intensify what 2025 and beyond could look like.

Some images from the movie, like this one, look more foreboding than the colorized version.



In "1984" we had Winston Smith as the protagonist. He worked in a mid-level job at the Ministry of Truth. He kept his hatred for the Party secret. When he discovered that there was a resistance group called the Brotherhood he and his girlfriend Julia joined it.  However, they were betrayed by a Party spy and arrested by the Thought Police. He was sent to be "reeducated" through torture by his worst fear, rats, and through mind manipulation by the Ministry of Love. Eventually he betrayed Julia and realized he loved Big Brother and was released. The end of the book tells what happens after he is happily sitting in a cafe after he is a "free" man:

“He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."



In the Big Brother world of Trump and Vance I doubt a Winston could survive as long as he did let alone there being a Brotherhood undergound resistance standing a chance of being effective. I doubt it could be organized in the first place.

Whichever of my illustrations you think suggests what our country could look like, imagine Trump or Vance in the pictures as Big Brother.  If you value freedom, democracy, and a tolerant multi-ethnic pluralistic America, all of these images should scare the bejesus out of you. 





Addendum: 

Voters should assume that a vote for Trump is a vote for Vance. I wrote about this (here) several days ago and it is finally being covered in progressive media.




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