Living in a country where 25% like, love, or worship Donald Trump

 By Hal Brown, MSW

This was on Morning Joe:

 

Click above to enlarge

Mika Brzezinski said of Trump, "Republican senators want him to stay away from the races in 2024 following losses by his hand-picked candidates during the last cycle. If his legal issues don't take him off the ballot, maybe his poll numbers will; a new survey shows he is losing support rapidly, dropping like a rock."

Willie Geist said "25 percent -- you're dipping into being a fringe political candidate. 25 percent is a terrible number if you're trying to win a general election again."

It is gratifying to see that Trump's most recent poll ratings have shown his favorability ratings have dropped to 25%.  The pundits on "Morning Joe" are saying this means his chances of winning a general election are slim. 

Still, living in a country where one quarter of the population like, love, or worship Donald Trump is dismaying. If you're reading this, with the exception on a few pro-Trumpers who like to troll the comments section of my blogs, you may be troubled that if you go into a restaurant where the diners are representative of the sentiments of the country and there are four tables around you one of them will be occupied by people who may want to have you deported or worse.

It doesn't matter to me that some of these people are ill-informed (i.e. low information voters), have lower than average IQ's, are gullible, may be clinically paranoid, and/or have been unable to or not inclined to master critical thinking skills. They may have been brainwashed. They may have had unmet needs met by affiliation and acceptance by a group of like-minded Trump supporters. 

They may revel in being MAGA or now ULTRA-MAGA. Perhaps they felt like outsiders previously and now they feel like insiders.

They wear the symbols and fly the flags proudly. Some of them, after years without a social identity, may find they finally feel they belong.

As much as I may understand what motivates these people what matters to me is that if you add all these people together they support a man who if he became president again would turn the county into a near-dictatorship. It would be an authoritarian state where only the favored minority of white citizens would enjoy living in America, so beautiful for halcyon skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the enameled plain where good people are crowned with brotherhood. You know, the country described here.

I supposed this all depends on what it means to say someone is a good person. There are those among the 25% who consider themselves to be good despite that some of them condone violence against us. These people may think I am a bad and not worthy of being an American. Very possibly they also think you're an unworthy bad person as well.

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A tale of two judges: who deserves the title of Judge Dreadful

 By Hal Brown

Has anybody wondered whether Clarence Thomas is jealous of a hitherto before obscure federal judge in Texas? The Supreme Court justice known for being reticent to say much of anything during litigation has rarely given interviews. This isn't to say he doesn't enjoy publicity. He has managed to elevate himself to being the most well-known Supreme Court justice.

The notion that he wants to avoid publicity is belied by the fact that he hasn't reined in his wife whose activities have shined a bright light on him. 

I believe he loves the spotlight. I think he is so arrogant that he doesn't care whether there are dark shadows around the spotlight. For Clarence, at least until now, all publicity is good publicity. While liberals demonize him he has become a hero to the far right significantly because he is the object of intense progressive scorn.

The current so-called scandal won't hurt Clarence's reputation with those who admire him. After all, these are the same people who worship at the foot of their golden idol Donald Trump and in their weird "Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous" manner they enjoy observing the opulent life he leads. 

Now along comes this upstart judge with a name most people would be hard pressed to spell.

How dare he hog the headlines?

Meanwhile, another judge few people outside of the state of Washington, Thomas O. Rice (left), has earned a laurel wreath for both smarts and heroism for making a conflicting ruling, thus making it quite likely that the case will fast-track to the Supreme Court. Ironically, once in the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas will be faced with either going along with Judge Kacsmaryk or contradicting his ruling.

Addendum:

For those who, like me, only knew the name Judge Dredd, this is from Wikipedia:

Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagnerand artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of 2000 AD(1977), which is a British weekly anthology comic. He is the magazine's longest-running character. He also appears in a number of film and video game adaptations.

Judge Dredd is a law enforcement and judicial officer in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One, which covers most of the east coast of North America. He is a "street judge", empowered to summarily arrest, convict, sentence, and execute criminals.

In Great Britain, the character of Dredd and his name are sometimes invoked in discussions of police states, authoritarianism, and the rule of law.^[2] Over the years, Judge Dredd has been hailed as one of the best satires of American and British culture with an uncanny trend to predict upcoming trends and events such as mass surveillance, the rise of populist leaders, and the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3] In 2011, IGN ranked Judge Dredd 35th among the top 100 comic book heroes of all time.^[4]

Judge Dredd made his live-action debut in 1995 in Judge Dredd, portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. Later, he was portrayed by Karl Urban in the 2012 adaptation Dredd. In audio dramas by Big Finish Productions, Dredd is voiced by Toby Longworth.

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ProPublica got the first scoop then The Washingtonian put NAZI icing on the Clarence and Crow karma cake

 By Hal Brown

Alternate title and illustration:

ProPublica got the first scoop then The Washingtonian put the NAZI cherry on the Clarence and Crow ice cream sundae.

Below, image illustrating positive or good karma.

Copyrighted to Himalayan Academy Publications, Kapaa, Kauai, Hawaii. Licensed for Wikipedia under Creative Commons 

This is the source article to read:

Clarence Thomas’s Billionaire Benefactor Collects Hitler Artifacts

Harlan Crow also reportedly has a garden full of dictator statues. 

WRITTEN BY SYLVIE MCNAMARA 

 | PUBLISHED ON APRIL 7, 2023

.....................................................

Karma is a belief from Indian religions which has come into common usage and interpreted as meaning an action and reaction arising from behavior. It often means that if we show goodness, we will reap goodness. This is similar to the idea of paying it forward. In the politics of the day it is frequently used to mean that if one does bad things this will come back to affect someone negatively in the future, whether in this life, or for believers, in a reincarnated life. The phrase "karma bites" has become a meme and often shown in images as someone being bitten in the ass by a dog or in other phrases (web search).

Karma images are all over the Internet:

The first website I looked at this morning was HuffPost  to see what they featured as their featured story. I never expected, of all things, to find NAZI news related, albeit indirectly, to Clarence Thomas. (upper left below). 

ProPublica got the scoop about Clarence Thomas and his availing himself of the "hospitality" of his billionaire bestie.  

This is a story that according to a reporter from ProPublica now on MSNBC the magazine had been working on for month. It qualifies as a real scoop since within hours of being published it was being reported on widely.

This comes from from The Washingtonian. It isn't about Thomas running afoul of the law. It is something that, to put it mildly, makes what he did look worse than tawdry. He not only was close friends with a far-right billionaire, he was friends with a collector of NAZI memorabilia.

Katie Phang, on MSNBC, just called it a bizarre collection of NAZI memorabilia. This strikes me as a mild word to use. "Extremely troubling" would be more appropriate. 

All of the articles about Harlan Crow's NAZI collection cite the article in The Washingtonian and include excerpts so this is the primary source to read.

This Google News search provides links to some of the other articles.

Click above to enlarge image

This is my snarky satirical blog from yesterday. Had I known about this I might have added a flag to the illustration.

Comment fromBen Kalom:

Clarence Thomas...

Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm.....

Take a deep sigh. Breathe in, breathe out.

Here's something from The Duty to Warn) FB group keeps referencing from George Lakoff, concerning authoritarians. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strict_father_model

For anyone who reads my ridiculous comments (ridiculous in that I even try to make a difference), you'll understand I am a product of a strict father-and-mother family system - - - -

THAT FAILED!!!

It failed to regiment and force-fit a person (actually three persons) into pre-determined molds and shape them to be who they simply were not.

Strict parenting is "monkey-see-monkey-do." Authoritative parenting adopts varying styles, sets safety limits, acts like a grown-up for when being a grown-up is required, doesn't assume that kids can make brilliant decisions for themselves, provides, nurtures, encourages, and involves children and youth in activities and pursuits.

If your kid is a sponge and picks up on everything around them, the stimuli work and they'll learn more.

If you have a radish, then you'll get a radish.

Some people are not capable of learning. They migrate toward Berger's self-sovereign personality and learning type.

More on Justice Thomas in another comment...

Here's another little piece to add in: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas

This is basically undigestible dross about Thomas. Is he interesting? Perhaps. Is he a learned person? Okay, I'll bite. It sure looks like it on paper. Has he set his anchor points such that he's no longer the kid from Pin Point Georgia, and his massive self has adapted to a very cushy lifesyle of catering to lovely white folk who have their token "boy?" Oh, you bet he has. Big time. He'd like to forget all of that hardship. Who wouldn't?

What of his first wife, Kathy Ambush? What of his son, Jamal? Nothing about any of that... swept under the rug.

He's a Catholic? GMAFB!!

First of all, the Catholic dogma he absorbed growing up and as a young adult didn't stop him from getting divorced.
It didn't stop him from being a weirdo with Anita Hill.
It hasn't tempered him in any way about his Antonin Scalia carbon copy views of everything conservative, a system that keeps a partition between the few wealthy folk and nearly everyone else.

Conservatism is about being a new-found form of royalty. Donald pretty much stripped the veil from that cloudy reality. He just wants to be king of a small country named Duh-Mericah, where his subjects are all stupid, uneducated, difficult, agitated, and they swallow his every thought hook, line and sinker.

Clarence is just another "StepinFetchit" idiotype, espousing the cause of "if you can't beat 'em, join em."

He sure did find hisself a good ol' boy (Harlan Crow) who loves his “house {N-word;expletive}.” The guy also loves his Nazi stuff, maybe he's just a collector, maybe he's into the bullshitty mystic cultish nonsense that Hitlerites seem to go for.

He is certainly not educating people about the dangers of fascism. Crow could care less. He’s just another rich person, who uses the system to build a pile of money, roll about in it, and Crow just doesn’t care about anything that Thomas should be emphatic about.

Thomas is just another guy who got lucky, got aligned in the right way, and now needs to disappear into the slithery fabric of American life.

He’s not that poor child from Pin Point GA who probably had ideals.

Maybe it is time for him to step away, go enjoy his friendships, for as long as they’ll keep him around, go discover how little Ginny wants to have anything to do with him once he is no longer able to manifest her weirdo stuff.

Like I offered in the earlier comment - - -

I came from a system that failed to shape me into a specific mold.

I did not reject that mold outright; I found a way to use the notions of that molding to sculpt a self that is not decadent.
When I see prominent people failing to break out and cease the “can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” groupthink, which is exactly where Clarence Thomas is right now, I advocate for their abdication of the seat of power.

He needs to find out for sure that he’s no longer useful to them, and become useful to himself, as the person he once was.
Antonin Scalia’s comrade is now just another humbug, wannabee lapdog for a bunch of folks who are disgustingly weird and perverse.

Time for another SCOTUS seat to open up…

Addendum:

About ProPublica (Wikipedia) 

ProPublica (/proʊˈpʌblɪkə/^[2]), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece^[3] written by one of its journalists^[4][5] and published in The New York Times Magazine^[6] as well as on ProPublica.org.^[7] ProPublica states that its investigations are conducted by its staff of full-time investigative reporters, and the resulting stories are distributed to news partners for publication or broadcast. In some cases, reporters from both ProPublica and its partners work together on a story. ProPublica has partnered with more than 90 different news organizations, and it has won six Pulitzer Prizes.^[8]

About The Washingtonian (Wikipedia)

Washingtonian is a monthly magazine distributed in the Washington, D.C. area. It was founded in 1965 by Laughlin Phillips and Robert J. Myers. The magazine describes itself as "The Magazine Washington Lives By".^[2] The magazine's core focuses are local feature journalism, guide book–style articles, real estate, and politics.

Blogs are also posted on Booksie and Medium.

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Why Clarence Thomas shouldn't have had to disclose his trips to visit his close friends

By Hal Brown

In view of what came out since I originally wrote this with the top illustration (see Sunday blog here) I added the bottom image.

.....................

Clarence and Ginni have two besties. They happen to be fairly rich. To quote what Clarence said:

“Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over 25 years. As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter-century we have known them.”

People, with the exception of hermits and totally anti-social curmudgeons, have friends. Most have a range of friends some of whom are closer than others.

On occasion they may exchange gifts, say for birthdays, and how expensive, or lavish, these gifts are varies. Some people visit each other so often that they rarely if ever bring presents. On special occasions people of modest means may bring a bottle of supermarket wine when they eat over at a friend's house. 

It may look tawdry, or worse, for Clarence and Ginni Thomas to have considered travel on a private jet and being entertained on a big boat not to be things they need to have reported as gifts, but rich people consider their planes and yachts to be homes away from home. What's the difference, really, between having meal prepared by a chef and having your pal flip burgers on a backyard grill? Food is food, right?

People may be served hamburgers or they may serve filet mignon on special occasions. Wealthy people may treat their houseguests to Dom Perignon champagne and expensive cheese. The super rich may serve astronomically expensive vintage wine, Croatian truffles, and  "Strottarga Bianco" caviar .

Headlines like the following included terms that are relative:

What's to be defined as a lavish gift?

There are some people who would scoff at the description of what The NY Times headlines as lavish gifts.

Is there a line between driving to visit friends for dinner, having your kids play in their above ground pool, and having a barbecue, and what the Thomas's did by being transported in a common Bombardier Global 5000 private jet and being entertained on yacht that in the snobby yachting world wouldn't even be considered a super yacht. 

After all the Crows are said to be worth a paltry $2 billion. There are super yachts that cost  almost that much or more. 

The Michela Rose is the boat the Thomas's were entertained on.

There are private jets that cost much more than the one the couple own. For example the AirBus A380 owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal goes for $600 million.

To mirror Marc Antony's eulogy for Julius Caesar indulge me when I say that I come not to bury Thomas nor to praise him. The evil Thomas has done, and is likely to continue to do, will be his legacy. There is no Brutus to end his tenure.  

There are those who argue that no person should be above the law and those who contend that only Donald Trump should be above the law. Clarence Thomas gave the appearance of impropriety, but did he break any laws in accepting the hospitality of his close friends and not reporting this?

There are those in public office who are scrupulous about accepting absolutely nothing of value from anyone who might be trying to influence them.  For example, I have a friend who used to work for a U.S. Senator as a senior aide. From time to time they reminded them that they shouldn't let a lobbyist pick up the tab when they dined out. There are others in official positions who may be a bit looser when it comes to such matters.

Here's a related example from The Clarence Thomas Scandal Is What's Wrong With Our Democracy (HUFFPOST)

What are the ethical boundaries for people who have political power and influence?

I once invited a local lawmaker to lunch for an interview. Lunch would be on me. He wouldn’t allow it. “I wouldn’t even let you buy me a cup of coffee at Starbucks,” he told me.

At least that was a good thing, since I’m not exactly a fan of Starbucks.

A member of Congress, the executive branch, or the judiciary may engage with lobbyists and others who want to influence policy. It's also possible they could be friends with them. This, truly, could put one in a sticky wicket.

These revelations about Clarence hopefully has him meandering in a mucilaginous morass. If he and Ginni are feeling stuck in the muck it makes me happy. However, I rather doubt anything will come of it. I have a feeling that this will prove to be a tempest in a teapot, although it may be an expensive teapot.

Updates: You'll need a subscription to read why The Wall Street Journal says this is a smear.

"The left is furious it lost control of the Supreme Court, and it wants it back by whatever means possible. The latest effort is a smear on Justice Thomas."

You can, however, read reactions to this on LinkIn here.

More detail from Justice Clarence Thomas controversy explained: what he's accused of doing, and why it raises ethical concerns in Morningstar

Is it illegal for Thomas to receive gifts? 

Generally speaking, Supreme Court justices are required to disclose any perks that they receive if they are valued at more than $415 and they aren't reimbursed, according to public filings for judicial officers and employees. Those perks may include travel, food or lodging. 

But some exceptions can include situations when a person hosts a justice on their own property, in which case food and lodging would not have to be disclosed. But this exception does not apply to travel expenses such as costs for a private plane, however. 

Additionally, it appears Thomas should have reported vacations at Crow's Camp Topridge resort in New York because the developer technically owns the resort through a company, as opposed to owning it personally, according to ProPublica.

This confirms that everything that the Thomases accepted by way of hospitality on the Crow's yacht wasn't different than it would have been if they went to a friend's backyard barbecue. The travel expenses should have been reported.

Blogs are also posted on Booksie and Medium.

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A pschoanalyst assesses what's likely happening with Trump as he faces legal consequences

 By Hal Brown

You can read a long excerpt from Justin Frank's book

 (cover above) on Amazon here.

Justin Frank's book cover has a giant Trump head on the traditional Freudian couch. 

I made the illustration below showing that Trump is not "normal" which I meant to convey just how atypical his personality is. This doesn't mean it is impossible to understand how his mind works, what motivates him, and how to best predict his future behavior. It means that this is a very difficult endeavor requiring a particular knowledge base and skill set.

Thanks to Raw Story's Tom Boggioni, who summarized the Chauncey DeVega interview which was published in Salon, (link below) with psychoanalyst Justin Frank, MD (here 'Caged animal' Trump may need a 'secure padded cell' as trial progresses: psychiatrist ) I don't have to do it.

If you don't read the interview at least I think you should consider reading the summary on Raw Story. Still, I think you will find the interview illuminating and I hope you read it.

"He is visualizing burning things and blowing them up": How Trump may be coping with being caught

Justin Frank, author of "Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President," on this week's historic indictments

These are the three quotes Salon emphasized:

One more excerpt:

Predators can massively regress in such circumstances and lose even a modicum of self-control. They lash out and need to be restrained for their safety and that of their caregivers. That's why we have secure padded cells (euphemized as "quiet rooms") inside locked wards in mental hospitals.

These are colloquially often referred to as "rubber rooms". Illustration modified by HB.

I have been writing about how people shouldn't assume that they know with absolute certainty what Trump has been feeling these days as he faces the legal consequences of his actions. (see footnote)

Justin Frank doesn't do this. His comments are replete with modifiers which explain that Trump is most likely experiencing certain emotions and why this is the case with him given his personality type. 

What Frank offers is an exposition of what I was too lazy to even try to write about. Besides, he is a psychoanalyst as opposed to a psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist which I was for the 40+ years of my career. He simply is far better qualified than I am  to dig this deeply into what those in the mental health field call the psychodynamics of an individual.

Addendum:

Here's a video of a Thom Hartmann interview with Justin Frank:

In this exclusive interview, Thom and Dr. Frank talk about psychosis, whether or not if it is contagious / hereditary, the presidency, plus much much more.

Here's another Thom Hartman interview with Justin Frank.

Dr. Frank has also been on the Lawrence O'Donnell show.

Update: This is gratifying

Footnote (my previous blogs on this subject):

Wash. Post artists take liberties in drawing Trump during his arraignment.

Michael Cohen and others claim to know what's in Trump's headspace. They don't..

Nobody knows for certain how Trump feels except Trump

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