This has been a blog with my opinions on politics, psychology, and pop culture using the Google Blogger platform with the address halbrown.org. As of Oct. 10, 2023 it has been renamed Hal Brown's Stressline and moved to the WordPress platform with the new address Stressline.org - Posts are sometimes serious and sometimes snarky.
Is there anything left to say about the DeSantis culture war?
By Hal Brown
My version of the image below
This is a quote from Gov. Ron DeSantis: “I think we are showing that Florida welcomes debate and that the cure for an idea that you disagree with is to point out why that idea is wrong.” Really. I couldn't make that up.
Currently the governor of Florida is often pictured happily standing behind a sign that suggests he has his own definition of the word education.
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Perhaps he can get his definition added to the dictionary.
DeSantis likes his podium signs:
Click above to enlarge
At least he stood behind a State of Florida seal when he made this hypocritical speech:
Click above to read article
Excerpt:
A campaign about free speech on Florida college campuses – a hot-button issue across the nation – is being backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and public university presidents, who signed a resolution vowing to welcome all types of debate unless they promote “true threats or defamation.”
At the request of the governor, all 12 university presidents signed the resolution late last week. It says institutions will not “stifle the dissemination of any idea,” even when individuals find that speech to be “abhorrent.”
“It permits the freest expression of views before students, trusting to their good sense in passing judgment on those views. Only in this way can we best serve American democracy,” said John Thrasher, president of Florida State University, where DeSantis appeared Monday.
Once upon a time Florida was known as The Sunshine State. While Florida ranks last on the list of the 10 sunniest states I won't quibble about their use of this slogan.
It was also known as the state where northerners went to die. Now it has become the state where eduction has been put on the critical list.
This photo was reproduced in various stories similar to this article and the one below:
The faces of the children recruited to stand behind him show they have no compression of why they are there. One could say this is a form of abuse.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced launching his new book titled The Courage to Be Free in February 2023, and the media was quick to slam the upcoming release, claiming hypocrisy because of Florida’s decisions on banning certain books.
The most recent news about the Florida governor and the presidential wannabe's war on Woke is his making school teachers liable for books in their classrooms deemed to be breaking Florida law. If convicted of the third degree felony he is making it having these books in their classroom libraries they could be imprisoned for up to five years. Examples of third degree felonies include aggravated stalking, theft of a vehicle or firearm, and trespass while armed. They also face losing their teaching license.
DeSantos is shoehorning what he calls "woke" into a law which emphasizes obscene and pornographic material:
847.012Harmful materials; sale or distribution to minors or using minors in production prohibited; penalty.—
(1)As used in this section, “knowingly” means having the general knowledge of, reason to know, or a belief or ground for belief which warrants further inspection or inquiry of both:
(a)The character and content of any material described in this section which is reasonably susceptible of examination by the defendant; and
(b)The age of the minor.
(2)A person’s ignorance of a minor’s age, a minor’s misrepresentation of his or her age, a bona fide belief of a minor’s age, or a minor’s consent may not be raised as a defense in a prosecution for a violation of this section.
(3)A person may not knowingly sell, rent, or loan for monetary consideration to a minor:
(a)Any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion picture film, videocassette, or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity or sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery, bestiality, or sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to minors…
The Parental Rights In Education Act prohibits all instruction on "sexual orientation or gender identity" in K-3 classrooms and instruction in other grades that is "not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate." But the law applies only to "[c]lassroom instruction by school personnel or third parties" — not library books. Similarly, the Stop WOKE Act is limited to classroom instruction.
The teacher training approved by the Florida Department of Education, however, does not inform librarians that the Parental Rights in Education Act and Stop WOKE ACT do not apply to library books. Rather, librarians are told: "There is some overlap between the selection criteria for instructional and library materials." One slide says that library books and instructional materials cannot include "unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination."
A subsequent slide provides a list of "unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination," which includes information about "sexual orientation or gender identity." It also includes a variety of topics related to race, including "Critical Race Theory" and material that might make someone feel "guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress" as a result of their race. The training instructs librarians to "err on the side of caution."
...
This interpretation of the law runs directly counter to the arguments the DeSantis administration is making in court. In federal court filings, lawyers representing DeSantis insist that the Parental Rights in Education Act does not apply to library books. Nevertheless, the DeSantis administration, through its media specialist training, is encouraging a much more expansive interpretation of the law.
I am not sure what to make of his exempting librarians from this aspect of his war on Woke. The law he is using is already on the books. If there was a similar law about libraries I suppose he might use that too. It's also possible he believes librarians and public libraries are insignificant. He may have been told how well organized the American Librarians Association is and was informed that a well-funded lawsuit would be leveled against him if he attempted to target them. I doubt that since he was willing to take on Disney. For him it isn't about winning or losing in court. It is about ginning up publicity for his war on Woke.
McCarthy's nauseating adoration for Greene continues throughout the article (in The NY Times), leaving it impossible to believe there's anything resembling reluctance on either side of this alliance.
The title uses the words "hopelessly devoted" plus the texts say nauseating adoration, indeed... I rather doubt these words were chosen at random.
And then there's this quote:
There are non-too-subtle implications here, so I'm going to come right out and say it. If it looks like an amorous duck, walks like one and talks like one, perhaps it is one.
I suppose you can say that the Devil made me do a wee but of tinkering with the image when I saw, like how anyone could miss it, how intimate these two appeared to be in the photo.
The "Kevin and Marjorie sitting in tree, K I S S I N G" was too euphonious not to use it in a blog for a title.
Democrats are reveling at the level of Republican dysfunction within the House. Angry non-MAGA Republicans may be saying "you made your bed, Kevin, now sleep in it" bring up the image of Kev and Marge under the sheets. If I could draw I'd make a cartoon showing this.
The notion of a political marriage was not lost on journalists. Consider:
O’Donnell pointed to a New York Times article in which McCarthy was quoted as telling a friend: “I will never leave that woman. I will always take care of her.”
McCarthy wasn’t “talking about his wife of 31 years, the mother of his two children,” noted O’Donnell.Instead, McCarthy was reportedly making a political marriage vow to extremist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
The Times article — titled “How Kevin McCarthy Forged an Ironclad Bond With Marjorie Taylor Greene” — explained how Greene’s help was crucial in McCarthy finally winning his drawn-out bid for the speakership.
McCarthy “can only hope no one back home in Bakersfield, California, was reading The New York Times today,” O’Donnell added.
If you have a subscription to The New York Times you can read the article O'Donnell was referring to. Here's the photo used to illustrate it. The background suggests it was taking at the same time but a few moments after the photo Salon used was taken.
There's nothing wrong with hugging, however I don't see lots of photos of male Republicans hugging each other.
Excerpt:
Their political union — a closer and more complex one than has previously been known — helps explain how Mr. McCarthy rose to power atop a party increasingly defined by its extremes, the lengths to which he will go to accommodate those forces, and how much influence Ms. Greene and the faction she represents have in defining the agenda of the new House Republican majority.
“If you’re going to be in a fight, you want Marjorie in your foxhole,” Mr. McCarthy said. Both he and Ms. Greene agreed to brief interviews for this article. “When she picks a fight, she’s going to fight until the fight’s over. She reminds me of my friends from high school, that we’re going to stick together all the way through.”
It is a relationship born of political expediency but fueled by genuine camaraderie, and nurtured by one-on-one meetings as often as once a week, usually at a coffee table in Mr. McCarthy’s Capitol office, as well as a constant stream of text messages back and forth.
From reading this and other articles one might conclude that for the most part McCarthy a savvy political tactician and is manipulating Greene by giving in to her demands. I wonder whether the reverse is true with Greene using her wiles to manipulate McCarthy.
.......
Greene and her husband Perry divorced in 2022. Here they are in presumably happy times for the couple celebrating their 25th anniversary.
Marjorie Taylor Greene aims to be Trump's VP pick in 2024 -- "She sees herself on the short list for Trump's VP," said former Trump aide Steve Bannon, who has spoken with Greene.
What a no-brainer this is. Of course MT Greene aspires to higher office. This leaves only three options. She could run for governor. She could run for the Senate. She could be Trump's choice as his VP running mate, no inference meant by using the term "mate" intended. This would be her most likely ladder to the presidency since actuarial tables suggest Trump might not live to complete a term should he be elected.
What she has to be careful of is that for the present she serves two masters, Kevin McCarthy and Donald Trump. If these two have a falling out she will have to chose sides.
That might not be easy. McCarthy has the power to derail her ambitions to be the unofficial Speaker of the House calling the shots whenever she thinks it will accrue to her benefit. On the other hand if she crossed Trump he would never select her to run with him.
In retrospect those of us at Duty to Warn should have called Trump a narcissistic sociopath
By Hal Brown, MSW
Duty to Warn (website) is a group composed of mental health professionals and others formed by clinicalpsychologist to want about Trump's dangerous pathology. It was originally advocated for this removal from office through the 25th Amendment. It was formed by Dr. John D. Gartner (Wikipediaprofile). He was the first mental health professional to describe in the media why Trump fit the criteria for being a malignant narcissist. This was way back in 2017.
Click above to read article
Here's a YouTube report about Gartner's diagnosis:
Click above to view
I also wrote about this in 2020.
Click above to read article
Here's the first page of a web search on DuckDuckGo for Trump malignant narcissist:
"Trump suffers from malignant narcissism, a diagnosis [that is] far more toxic and dangerous than mere narcissistic personality disorder because it combines narcissism with three other...
Psychoanalyst and retired Harvard Medical School Professor Lance Dodes said, "The best diagnosis for Trump is that he is a malignantnarcissist. It contains the narcissistic part, which is...
The film assesses Trump as suffering from a condition known as malignantnarcissism, which consists of narcissism, paranoia, anti-social personality disorder and sadism. Justin Frank, a...
Malignant narcissism, thus, is not self-limiting." Unlike most personalities that stay stable over a lifetime (including most personality disorders), he said malignantnarcissism "tends to...
Donald Trump, MalignantNarcissist, Blames Ukrainian Casualties on "Rigged" U.S. Election He apparently thinks that baseless claim will be of comfort to the grieving families and friends of "all...
May 4, 2017Donald Trump'smalignant narcissism is toxic: Psychologist Mental health professionals have a 'duty to warn' about a leader who may be unfit to serve. John Gartner If you take President...
In light of Donald Trump 's unprecedented behaviors during phone conversations with two of our closest allies and his continuing early-morning habit of tweeting out his pathology in the form of foreign policy, I have created this brief checklist describing the signs of one of the most severe expressions of personality as described by mental …
Jun 14, 2021Based on Trump's public behavior and other available information, these experts warned that he appears to be a malignantnarcissist, a pathological liar who is obsessed with violence, easily...
Watching Trump these past 24 hours, swinging between grievance and grandiosity, have been like a playing a game of DSM bingo for "narcissistic personality disorder," the diagnosis of which ...
While this was true it wasn't a good descriptor as far as conveying to the general public what Trump was. My contention ins that we are talking about marketing concepts here, about words that have the most impact on the general public. Sociopath and sociopathic have more impact than narcissism. Some writers, even those who weren't mental health professionals like George Conway put the later into their articles: NEWSWEEK
My point is that "sociopath" should have been used much more frequently.
The far better term is finally being used:
Click above to read article
There's no way to know whether the labeling many mental health professionals used to describe Trump as a malignant narcissist would have had more impact if he was called a narcissistic sociopath.
The reason I wonder about this is because the the first term emphasizes "narcissist" and
the second term empathizes "sociopath."
While "malignant" is well understood as something that is dangerous and often deadly I am not sure combining it with "narcissist" did more than confuse the public who had never heard of malignant narcissism.
Everyone, even diehard Trump cultists, know that Trump is narcissistic. Narcissists can range for being mildly annoying to those they have relationships with to being toxic, or I suppose you could call them malignant.
There are lots of narcissists in public life. This doesn't make them dangerous.
The most dangerous people in positions of power and authority are the sociop
aths whether they are narcissists or not. From what I've read about Hitler he wasn't known for being a narcissist. Putin with his proclivity of being photographed shirtless on horseback on the other hand probably has some narcissistic traits but is certainly a ruthless sociopath. Idi Amin was generally photographed with a chestful of medals.
If American presidents wore uniforms I can imagine Trump having one made which would rival a four star general's. Just about all Trump can do is wear a red baseball hat and sell digital trading cards of photoshops of himself, or (upper left) posting a photo of himself in front of Mt. Rushmore (read story here).
Trump has been compared to the emperor with no clothes in the Hans Christian Anderson.
The fairytale emperor's vice was his vanity. Trump's obsession with his hair and facial makeup has been roundly mocked. The emperor for all his gullibility and grandiose narcissism was depicted as moron but never as a malevolent leader.
