Sunday, December 22, 2019
Today's GIF
"Excuse me, Senator McConnell - there's a Mrs Pelosi here to see you - are you in, sir?"
About That Letter
45* sent a 6-page letter to Pelosi ranting and raving about what a horrible thing it is to impeach him, and generally indulging himself in his usual whiny-butt pussy crapola.
Salon asked some folks who're supposed to know about such things to take a swing at what the letter reveals about the author.
Dr. Lance Dodes, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry (retired), Harvard Medical School, currently training and supervising analyst emeritus at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He is also a contributor to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.”
Mr. Trump's letter shows his incapacity to recognize other people as separate from him or having worth.
As he always does, he accuses others of precisely what he has done, in precisely the same language. When confronted with violating the Constitution he says his accusers are violating the Constitution. When others point out that he undermines democracy, he says they undermine democracy. Through these very simpleminded projections he deletes others' selfhood and replaces who they are with what is unacceptable in himself.
The letter also has a remarkable list of boasts about what he says are his successes, stated as facts, with no acknowledgment that Speaker Pelosi has a vastly different view (about gun control, appointing judges who conform to his views, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement, etc). It is as if her independent views are unworthy of noting or existing. She is treated as invisible in his eyes.
Salon asked some folks who're supposed to know about such things to take a swing at what the letter reveals about the author.
Dr. Lance Dodes, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry (retired), Harvard Medical School, currently training and supervising analyst emeritus at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He is also a contributor to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.”
Mr. Trump's letter shows his incapacity to recognize other people as separate from him or having worth.
As he always does, he accuses others of precisely what he has done, in precisely the same language. When confronted with violating the Constitution he says his accusers are violating the Constitution. When others point out that he undermines democracy, he says they undermine democracy. Through these very simpleminded projections he deletes others' selfhood and replaces who they are with what is unacceptable in himself.
The letter also has a remarkable list of boasts about what he says are his successes, stated as facts, with no acknowledgment that Speaker Pelosi has a vastly different view (about gun control, appointing judges who conform to his views, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement, etc). It is as if her independent views are unworthy of noting or existing. She is treated as invisible in his eyes.
Dr. Justin Frank, former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center, and author of “Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.”
When I first read Donald Trump’s six-page letter to Speaker Pelosi, I marveled at the ease with which he shared what goes on in his mind openly, and without reservation. His letter is the quintessential example of how professional victims actually think. They turn the prosecutor into the persecutor.
Trump’s letter is just such an expression of entitled, delusional grievance. He accuses Pelosi of injuring his family, but it is his nepotism that exposes his older children to public scrutiny and his teenager (to whom he refers as “Melania’s son") to life in a fishbowl. More damning, in making her a public figure, he subjected the First Lady to humiliation. He knew full well he paid a stripper $130,000 not to talk about their affair and was surely aware that this and other unsavory behaviors would surface when he sought the presidency.
Trump is a con artist who succeeds by tricking his marks into not seeing the con. But the biggest mark — bigger than the GOP and his base — is himself. He believes the lies he tells, the delinquent traits he disavows. It’s what psychoanalysts call delusional projection. We see it the simple sentence he wrote to the speaker: “You view democracy as your enemy.” Trump confirms my findings published in "Trump on the Couch." But now his defenses are writ large, because instead of changing in moments of crisis, people become more the way they are. Trump has reverted to the most familiar means to cope with fears of being caught, punished and humiliated.
Finally, the letter is a treasure trove for psychiatric residents who want to study the psychotic mind. Trump’s paradoxical sleight of hand makes him think he can hide in plain sight. But he can’t anymore. This is why he accuses Pelosi of hating democracy: It is he who hates a system that promotes the idea that no one is above the law.
When I first read Donald Trump’s six-page letter to Speaker Pelosi, I marveled at the ease with which he shared what goes on in his mind openly, and without reservation. His letter is the quintessential example of how professional victims actually think. They turn the prosecutor into the persecutor.
Trump’s letter is just such an expression of entitled, delusional grievance. He accuses Pelosi of injuring his family, but it is his nepotism that exposes his older children to public scrutiny and his teenager (to whom he refers as “Melania’s son") to life in a fishbowl. More damning, in making her a public figure, he subjected the First Lady to humiliation. He knew full well he paid a stripper $130,000 not to talk about their affair and was surely aware that this and other unsavory behaviors would surface when he sought the presidency.
Trump is a con artist who succeeds by tricking his marks into not seeing the con. But the biggest mark — bigger than the GOP and his base — is himself. He believes the lies he tells, the delinquent traits he disavows. It’s what psychoanalysts call delusional projection. We see it the simple sentence he wrote to the speaker: “You view democracy as your enemy.” Trump confirms my findings published in "Trump on the Couch." But now his defenses are writ large, because instead of changing in moments of crisis, people become more the way they are. Trump has reverted to the most familiar means to cope with fears of being caught, punished and humiliated.
Finally, the letter is a treasure trove for psychiatric residents who want to study the psychotic mind. Trump’s paradoxical sleight of hand makes him think he can hide in plain sight. But he can’t anymore. This is why he accuses Pelosi of hating democracy: It is he who hates a system that promotes the idea that no one is above the law.
Revolutions Are Stupid
...which seems like kind of a silly thing to say in a country founded by bloody violent insurrection, and marked throughout its history by near-constant warfare of one kind or another, with "enemies" of one kind or another.
We have a romanticized notion of "fighting for our freedom" and "watering the tree of liberty from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots".
That notion drags us back into a mythical past, where we can fantasize about our own heroism and having the courage to die for whatever cause (just or lost) being sold to us by people who benefit from our blood and struggle - and our willingness to commit murder in the name of God and Country - instead of bleeding and struggling and committing those crimes themselves.
So instead of thinking, "Thank the fake lord I never had to do such horrible things", we're fed a line of bullshit that keeps us thinking in terms straight out of the movie Fight Club - "I was never tested on the field of battle - how can I really know myself if I've never been in a proper fight?"
We lose the lesson. We get so fervent and hung up on glorifying the heroes of the revolution, we forget the part where those heroes put together a form of government designed to prevent the need for bloody violent insurrection.
And I hear it in my own rhetoric. It's there in the tagline on my little blog - "stay in the fight".
I don't have any quick and handy solutions, btw.
There's a metric fuck-ton of wrinkles and variations when I start to think about "the fight" and the lessons we should learn but always seem to miss.
It fogs my brain and makes it impossible to stick to my editorial rule about keeping these posts short and snappy.
Suffice to say -
We have a romanticized notion of "fighting for our freedom" and "watering the tree of liberty from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots".
That notion drags us back into a mythical past, where we can fantasize about our own heroism and having the courage to die for whatever cause (just or lost) being sold to us by people who benefit from our blood and struggle - and our willingness to commit murder in the name of God and Country - instead of bleeding and struggling and committing those crimes themselves.
So instead of thinking, "Thank the fake lord I never had to do such horrible things", we're fed a line of bullshit that keeps us thinking in terms straight out of the movie Fight Club - "I was never tested on the field of battle - how can I really know myself if I've never been in a proper fight?"
We lose the lesson. We get so fervent and hung up on glorifying the heroes of the revolution, we forget the part where those heroes put together a form of government designed to prevent the need for bloody violent insurrection.
And I hear it in my own rhetoric. It's there in the tagline on my little blog - "stay in the fight".
I don't have any quick and handy solutions, btw.
There's a metric fuck-ton of wrinkles and variations when I start to think about "the fight" and the lessons we should learn but always seem to miss.
It fogs my brain and makes it impossible to stick to my editorial rule about keeping these posts short and snappy.
Suffice to say -
Saturday, December 21, 2019
Today's Tweet
Seasons
Happy #WinterSolstice!— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) December 21, 2019
To celebrate, we collected an image per day over the last year from #GOESEast, taken at 1200 UTC, and looped them together. You can really see how the seasons change from #equinox to #solstice due to the #Earth's 23.5° tilt. pic.twitter.com/KKcwjX1QjW
Today's Today
Happy Winter Solstice, everybody.
This marks the last day of Saturnalia - Dies Natalis Solis Invicti - The Birthday Of The Unconquered Sun.
It's also Day Zero of Zapadan.
This marks the last day of Saturnalia - Dies Natalis Solis Invicti - The Birthday Of The Unconquered Sun.
It's also Day Zero of Zapadan.
Friday, December 20, 2019
'Tis The Season
Christianity Today came out with an editorial saying they support 45* being impeached and removed from office.
Let’s grant this to the president: The Democrats have had it out for him from day one, and therefore nearly everything they do is under a cloud of partisan suspicion. This has led many to suspect not only motives but facts in these recent impeachment hearings. And, no, Mr. Trump did not have a serious opportunity to offer his side of the story in the House hearings on impeachment.
But the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.
The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.
Let’s grant this to the president: The Democrats have had it out for him from day one, and therefore nearly everything they do is under a cloud of partisan suspicion. This has led many to suspect not only motives but facts in these recent impeachment hearings. And, no, Mr. Trump did not have a serious opportunity to offer his side of the story in the House hearings on impeachment.
But the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.
The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.
OK, so - I'll take just about anything anybody says that supports getting that malignant toad-squat outa my government. I'm just having a little bit of an issue along the lines of where the fuck have you idiots been this whole fuckin' time!?
Isn't it interesting - the Christianists are bailing on 45* now that their sheeple are starting to abandon them for having supported him from the beginning.
There is no greater hypocrisy than a "church" that covets the economic benefits of its political affiliations - while exalting itself for being "above the fray" - and then tries to distance itself from a politician once it becomes clear that they stand to lose some of those benefits because of their support for that politician.
And the kicker is they're talkin' like they just now found out what a fuckin' slug the guy is.
 |
| I think we all know I'd be beatin' you with a stick and runnin' your asses outa the temple Check yourself, bitches |
Thursday, December 19, 2019
On The Congressional Circus
Here's the money quote:
WaPo:
The House of Representatives voted late Wednesday to impeach President Trump on charges that he abused his office and obstructed Congress, with Democrats declaring him a threat to the nation and branding an indelible mark on the most turbulent presidency of modern times.
After 11 hours of fierce argument on the House floor between Democrats and Republicans over Trump’s conduct with Ukraine, lawmakers voted almost entirely along party lines to impeach him. Trump becomes the third president in U.S. history to face trial in the Senate — a proceeding that will determine whether he is removed from office less than one year before he stands for reelection.
On Trump’s 1,062nd day in office, Congress brought a momentous reckoning to an unorthodox president who has tested America’s institutions with an array of unrestrained actions, including some that a collection of his own appointees and other government witnesses testified were reckless and endangered national security.
Today's Tweet
Two things - this is a shooting in Moscow. I don't know what to make of this really. I know Russia's pretty mobbed up, and I have no idea what their particular gun thing is all about.
But 2nd, this was early today - damned near the first day of winter - in Moscow - where it's about 38°F and no snow as yet. Just wondering what the fuck.
!!! Первые моменты стрельбы в центре Москвы #москва pic.twitter.com/yYeuGrR3zh— Алексей Кириленко (@Kirilenko_a) December 19, 2019
Today's Quote
--Adam Schiff, D-CA28
Charlie Pierce
Esquire Magazine:
“...When Jesus was falsely accused of Treason, Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers. During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus, than Democrats have afforded this president in this process.”In the 1959 version of Ben-Hur, the title character’s Roman stepfather introduces him to an old friend who has just been named governor of the province of Judea. “Goats,” Pontius Pilate moans at the prospect of his new post, “and Jehovah.” When you come right down to it, and when the six hours of discussion of the two articles of impeachment that have now passed on to the Senate for trial, that’s pretty much all we saw when we saw the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives whole and unfiltered, straight, no chaser. That’s what they have—goats, or at least people who bray like them, and Jehovah, not to mention His Son, whose Name was put to banal and profane use that tested even my expansive limits for public blasphemy. Bringing out the Ecce Homo as a dodge for the single most obvious heathen ever to hold elected office is the kind of thing that would have had you in thumbscrews a few centuries back.
—Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Republican of Georgia, an actual member of Congress, on the impeachment of Donald J. Trump, President* of the United States
It was not a debate. It was a discussion. Its conclusion was a foregone conclusion. But the comprehensive view that we got of the scalded wasteland that is the modern conservative and Republican political mind was breathtaking. We speak often in the shebeen of the prion disease, but Wednesday’s proceedings was the most vivid diagnostic look at it that we ever had. Not a single one of them fashioned the completely arguable case that, yes, the president* did what we all know he did, but it was a foreign-policy blunder and not an impeachable offense under the Constitution. I wouldn’t agree, but at least the argument would track. Instead, we got howling and yowling, yet another performance from tobacco-auctioneer Doug Collins, an afternoon full of the impassioned defense of a lecherous grifthound who pays off porn stars and who almost nobody in the Republican Party wanted to be the nominee in 2016. It was completely astonishing. The Founders and the Savior, both marshaled in defense of an irreligious fiend as some kind of political avatar. Goats, and Jehovah.
Where does all this passion come from? Where was this enthusiasm for the president* in 2015 and 2016? I swear, the Republicans didn’t line up this fervently behind Richard Nixon or this ferociously against Bill Clinton. But for El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago? Everybody’s leaping to the barricades and throwing themselves on hand grenades. Speaking in my capacity as an internet psychologist, I have to wonder if they’ve all looked over the only life-form left on the dead landscape of their ideas and can’t stand the sight of it as it snuffles and snorts and devours the remaining bits of rotting offal that used to be a philosophy.
“This country’s end is now in sight,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert. The Republican defenses of the indefensible, and their evocations of piety in defense of a terminally impious president*, got more frenzied as they piled up, one atop the other. Were they really proud to stand beside this president*? Was it worth it to stand up and yell about CNN into what at that point was merely empty air? Do they ever wonder whether there might not be something wrong with a party that has talked itself into devouring this indigestible crud? It no longer appears that they do. The politicians and the base are now one organism, and it’s eaten so much bulk stupid that it’s starving itself to death in plain sight.
The Republican performance on Wednesday reminded me of nothing more than it did the prolonged and hideous ideological hijacking of the prolonged death of Terri Schiavo, an inhumane festival of conservative ghouls and monsters that revolted almost everyone else in the country. The Republicans were warned by friends and foes that they were riding this indecency over a moral cliff. Instead, they even tried to subpoena a woman whose brain had atrophied to come to Washington and to testify on her own behalf.
They learned nothing from that tawdry episode and, on Wednesday, they played out the same political sociopathy on a grander, but far less tragic, scale. They demonstrated with verve and passion. This time, however, there was nothing at the end of it but more ruin. They howled like dying goats, but there was nobody left to hear, and Jehovah had gone out of the business, at least for the moment. There was nothing left to summon, no dark spirits left to call. Just words on an old parchment, and they didn’t speak its language any more.
I'm still waiting for an explanation of exactly what Republicans want.
If it's really not what it appears - an utterly dystopian power-über-alles thing and nothing matters except getting your way so you can exert your dominance over all the other critters at the water hole, then just tell me - what the fuck is it?
A Poem
I only have a minute
60 seconds in it.
Forced upon me,
I did not choose it
But I know that
I must use it
Give account if I abuse it
Suffer if I lose it,
Only a tiny little minute
But eternity is in it.”
- Elijah Cummings
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Catching Up
45* has been running away from his day in court his whole life.
And we may be about to get a good look at why he never stands up - why he always does his big bluff-n-bluster dance as he slinks away, leaving someone else holding the empty cape.
Question:
What are the Repubs really up to? At this point, they have to know most of the rubes will follow them anywhere - with or without Donald Trump. The Trump voters I talk with just want DumFux News to reinforce their prejudices and to tell them it's OK to die on the job thinking they'll get that new bass boat if they work a little harder and pay no attention to the silliness going on in politics.
And Away We Go
Last night:
Charlottesville 12-17-19 at about 6pm pic.twitter.com/LiKyD9m8vG— e'Ville Mike (@eVilleMike) December 18, 2019
So...
MERRY IMPEACHMENT
...or...
HAPPY CHECKS-N-BALANCES
Whichever turns your crank - I don't wanna offend anybody.
Perspective
Jeff Bezos has over $110 Billion.
That's 110,000 people with a million dollars each.
If Liz Warren's Wealth Tax had been in effect since 1983, Mr Bezos would still have more than $86 Billion.
We can stop feeling sorry for billionaires.
That's 110,000 people with a million dollars each.
If Liz Warren's Wealth Tax had been in effect since 1983, Mr Bezos would still have more than $86 Billion.
We can stop feeling sorry for billionaires.
hat tip = Robert Reich
How It Usually Goes
Trump:
"It was the perfect crime." Sondland:
"We were all in on the crime." Mulvaney:
"We're all committing crimes all the time - get over it!" Giuliani:
"We're still criming. Try to stop us - I dare you." Chuck Todd:
"How will the Democrats be punished for solving the crime and bringing the criminals to justice?"
"It was the perfect crime." Sondland:
"We were all in on the crime." Mulvaney:
"We're all committing crimes all the time - get over it!" Giuliani:
"We're still criming. Try to stop us - I dare you." Chuck Todd:
"How will the Democrats be punished for solving the crime and bringing the criminals to justice?"
Today's Tweet
Make a joyful noise.
She’s a keeper 🥰😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/BC6azufv7o— Ffs OMG Vids 📽🔞 (@Ffs_OMG) December 17, 2019
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