Another thing I miss [OT]

[Technobarbarian]

I miss the good ol' days when "conservatives" were complaining
about Obama's narcissism. QLMAO

<https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-quotes-praise-from-evangelical-comparing-him-to-second-coming-2019-8>

"US President Donald Trump shared praise on Twitter from Wayne Allyn
Root, who said that "Jewish people in Israel love him [Trump] like he's
the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God."
Root is a controversial conservative provocateur and conspiracy theorist."

"Root describes himself as a Jew turned evangelical Christian, and is a
longstanding backer of the president. In the past he has falsely claimed
that the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas was committed by Islamist
terrorists."

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Allyn_Root>

"Root is known for spreading conspiracy theories.[3][4][5]

Root was a leading proponent of the conspiracy theory that President
Barack Obama was not born in the United States.[26] At one point, Root
falsely claimed that Obama was not a student at Columbia University;[4]
at another point, in an interview with Sean Hannity, Root said that he
believed that Obama was a "foreign exchange student" at Columbia.[5]
Root has described Obama as a "Marxist, anti-American, anti-Israel,
globalist, middle class-hating, Muslim sympathizer".[5] He also claimed
that Obama was gay, called him "Bathhouse Barry" and said that he had
info from Obama's "friends in Chicago" about Obama's "sordid past".[5]
He has described Obama as a "Manchurian candidate", possibly hired by
the Bilderberg Group to destroy the United States and "kill all of us".[5]

He promoted conspiracy theories around the murder of Seth Rich, and at
various times suggested that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Hillary Clinton,
Donna Brazile, Bill Clinton, Eric Schneiderman and John Podesta were
involved in the murder.[5]

During the white supremacist Unite the Right rally, Root falsely claimed
that the white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. who killed Heather
Heyer was "such B.S. Probably paid actors & infiltrators hired by Soros.
No conservative I’ve ever met commits violence. EVER."[5]

Root tweeted in the aftermath of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting: "This is a
real thing. Clearly Coordinated Muslim Terror attack. PRAY for our Vegas
police. PRAY for victims. VERY bad. Awful."[27] It was later confirmed
that the shooter was 64-year-old Mesquite, Nevada, resident Stephen
Paddock.[28] Root then defended his original claim by tweeting:
"Terrible day. Liberal fools criticizing me 4 reporting what I hear
DIRECT from police & credible news sources. I report it as I hear it."[29]

Root argued that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into
Russian interference in the 2016 election is motivated by "penis envy",
because "Mueller’s is smaller than Trump’s."[5]"

TB

[Technobarbarian]

Shit, the buffoon is just getting warmed up.

<https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7379827/Danish-PM-annoyed-surprised-Trumps-cancellation-visit-absurd-Greenland-bid.html>

"Donald Trump accused the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of
being 'nasty' when she said his plan to buy Greenland was 'absurd'

Trump cancelled his upcoming state visit scheduled for early September

'All they had to do is say, no, we would rather not do that or we would
rather not talk about it. Don't say what an absurd idea that is,' he said

'She's not talking to me,' he said. 'She's talking to the United States
of America. You don't talk to the United States that way. At least under
me'"

There's no end to the absurdity.

TB

[George Anthony]

We have no reason to now.

[George Anthony]

I suppose a person such as yourself would prefer the approach of other
republicans who kowtowed to all the liberal pols and media (there I go
with the redundancy)? I love it. He is taking no shit from them, which
is of course why they envy him in private. They wish the had the balls
to be like him. They have lost their control and with it their insanity.
There is not one current dem candidate who can hold a candle to him in a
debate. I can't wait. By the way, dim never would answer this question,
maybe you will. How is your 401K doing since the election?

[George Anthony]

Just look at these traitors at Fox News, what shame can you imagine they actually think your handler is full of shit, soon you and I will be the only ones believing in fiction.

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/president-donald-trump-fox-changed-225753069.html

[dm_callier]

On Wednesday, August 21, 2019 at 3:12:14 PM UTC-7, George Anthony wrote:

<BigSnip> By the way, dim never would answer this question,

> maybe you will. How is your 401K doing since the election?

Your concern about my finances is touching Gorge. Don't worry, I haven't invested in Trump Enterprises.

Enjoy the day!

[dm_callier]

Well, actually there probably will be an end of sorts. He could well end up offending or just plain disappointing a large enough number of his true believers. While the Danes and the Mexicans don't get a vote in 2020, the farmers, truckers and manufacturing workers he's been busily screwing lately may decide he's not the "chosen one."

[George Anthony]

If you are invested in anything, you are invested in Trunp's economy.
You are a liberal in denial of truth.

[George Anthony]

His true believers are just that... true believers. They won't abandon
him like you libs are abandoning Biden. Trump people are not "any way
the wind blows" like you libs.

[dm_callier]

On Thursday, August 22, 2019 at 1:25:12 PM UTC-7, George Anthony wrote:

>
> His true believers are just that... true believers. They won't abandon
> him like you libs are abandoning Biden. Trump people are not "any way
> the wind blows" like you libs.

So once you've drunk the koolaid there's no going back...Who ya gonna believe, yer lying eyes or ThePrez...weel, you're welcome to ride that one into the ground, Gorge. Never let facts get in the way of a good fantasy. MATA!

[Mike Van Pelt]

In article <qjmtn6$u4e$1...@dont-email.me>,

George Anthony <gant...@gmail.org> wrote:
>His true believers are just that... true believers. They won't
>abandon him like you libs are abandoning Biden. Trump people are
>not "any way the wind blows" like you libs.

Most of the people I know who voted for Trump don't like him
very much, or at all, but they disliked him less than they
disliked Hillary.

Half the time I see him on TV, I wish I could reach into the
screen and slap the stupid out of him, but compared to the clown
circus that the Democrats are apparently going to select their
candidate out of? I think I dislike him less.

Since I live in The Peoples Democratic Socialist One-Party State
of California, where the Democrat will get 60% of the vote even
if yrx (coined gender-omni-inclusive pronoun) is sacrificing
babies to Molech at each campaign stop, I can indulge my ire
with a vote for some third party candidate. Libertarian if
their candidate isn't too wacky this year.

Otherwise, rather than vote for the lesser evil, I may write
in Cthulhu. It, at least, isn't the lesser evil. (Or maybe
It is... which would really tick It off.)

The Stars Are Right...
--
Mike Van Pelt | "I don't advise it unless you're nuts."
mvp at calweb.com | -- Ray Wilkinson, after riding out Hurricane
KE6BVH | Ike on Surfside Beach in Galveston

[bill horne]

I'm not Gorge, George, or dim, nor do I have a 401K - but my income
and investment vehicles are doing just great "since the election". At
the moment, I'm doing better than I have done in "all of history". As
one example, I made more money (dollars) and paid less taxes (dollars)
in 2018 than I did in 2017. However, would I like to share a campfire
with Trump? No - I wouldn't last more than about 67 seconds before
I'd start thinking about seating Trump downwind and pissing on the
fire - but unless something truly world-changing Actually Happens
(rather than being predicted, prophesied, or alleged by any number of
fuckinexperts), I will be voting for Trump in 2020.

I won't even be swayed if some dumbass decides to allege that Trump is
responsible for the raging fires in the Amazon, or for the
neurological disorders of panthers and bobcats in Florida. Not to
mention the green cockroach I found on my grilling table a few weeks ago.

I won't even be surprised if some dumbass claims that Trump has
incentivized certain asteroids to make terrorizing close approaches to
the most wonderful planet in the history of the solar system.

--
bill
Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.

[George Anthony]

WHAT?! Your posts are getting as nonsensical as Little Bobbie’s.

[Hank]

That's pretty much my thoughts too.

Hank

[Hank]

Sometimes it is better to just tear things down and rebuild from the ground up rather than trying to repair mistakes. I think that is what is happening in regards to the other counties and the economy. Many countries hated the USA before Trump got in and they still hate us. No change. Real Estate values have climbed which means the farmers land is more valuable. I love farmers but let's face it, they bitch every year about how much money they are losing because of something.

Will it bite us in the ass, who knows for sure?

Hank

[George Anthony]

We all can tell they all have that glazed look like mechanical puppets.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/trump-invited-himself-to-denmark-before-canceling-trip-danes-say/ar-AAGbTCl?ocid=ientp

[George Anthony]

MAGA - Make America Goofier Again

[dm_callier]

On Friday, August 23, 2019 at 8:41:23 AM UTC-7, George Anthony wrote:

>
> We all can tell they all have that glazed look like mechanical puppets.
>
> http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/trump-invited-himself-to-denmark-before-canceling-trip-danes-say/ar-AAGbTCl?ocid=ientp

Business as usual for Kommandant BoneSpurs.

[Frank Howell]

So ya think losing the Chinese market doesn't warrant bitching?
Losing that market almost guarantees taxpayer subsidies for that loss.
Now that's a real bitch.

--
Frank Howell

[Owen McKenzie]

On 8/22/2019 6:29 PM, Mike Van Pelt wrote:
> In article <qjmtn6$u4e$1...@dont-email.me>,
> George Anthony <gant...@gmail.org> wrote:
>> His true believers are just that... true believers. They won't
>> abandon him like you libs are abandoning Biden. Trump people are
>> not "any way the wind blows" like you libs.
>
> Most of the people I know who voted for Trump don't like him
> very much, or at all, but they disliked him less than they
> disliked Hillary.
>
> Half the time I see him on TV, I wish I could reach into the
> screen and slap the stupid out of him, but compared to the clown
> circus that the Democrats are apparently going to select their
> candidate out of? I think I dislike him less.
>
> Since I live in The Peoples Democratic Socialist One-Party State
> of California, where the Democrat will get 60% of the vote even
> if yrx (coined gender-omni-inclusive pronoun) is sacrificing
> babies to Molech at each campaign stop, I can indulge my ire
> with a vote for some third party candidate. Libertarian if
> their candidate isn't too wacky this year.
>
> Otherwise, rather than vote for the lesser evil, I may write
> in Cthulhu. It, at least, isn't the lesser evil. (Or maybe
> It is... which would really tick It off.)
>
> The Stars Are Right...
>

Pretty much what Mike said, except I don't live in CA. I considered
voting Libertarian in the last election, but I didn't because I didn't
want Democrats appointing Supreme Court Justices.

Owen
--
No man has a right to do what he pleases, except when he pleases to do
right.
Charles Simmons

[Hank]

I'll put it to you this way, unions go on strike to get more money, working conditions and such. They lose money when they don't work. But they usually make it up in time if they get what they want. Any change will take time to see if it works or not. Could it cost us, possibly. Could be benefit in the future, possibly. Altho it is a gamble, apparently "Gods chosen one" thinks it is. Since I am not an economics/trade expert (and no one on the group is, not even Bruce), I pretty much have to assume that Trump is listening to HIS economic/trade advisors.

I probably won't live long enough to see the long term impact it has.

Hank

[George Anthony]

This is for the ones that think they’re investment is doing great Herr Komandant Bone Spure just pushed down the lever of the toilet and the Dow goes gurgle gurgle, and hopefully his re-election as well.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/one-top-wall-street-analyst-just-made-an-extreme-call-on-macys-stock-163402329.html

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-ll-respond-china-150756202.html

[dm_callier]

"Trade wars are easy to win."
Komrade BoneSpurs

[George Anthony]

On Friday, August 23, 2019 at 11:03:03 AM UTC-7, dm_callier wrote:
> "Trade wars are easy to win."
> Komrade BoneSpurs

Except Komandant Bone Spure has not won a single one and has yet to conclude a single trade agreement and with his next one of ordering all US companies out of China the Dow will going screwy wonder how the companies are going to take leaving billions of assets behind

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/newspolitics/trump-hereby-orders-us-companies-to-leave-china-after-attacking-fed-chair/ar-AAGettC?ocid=ientp

[Technobarbarian]

On 8/22/2019 3:29 PM, Mike Van Pelt wrote:
> In article <qjmtn6$u4e$1...@dont-email.me>,
> George Anthony <gant...@gmail.org> wrote:
>> His true believers are just that... true believers. They won't
>> abandon him like you libs are abandoning Biden. Trump people are
>> not "any way the wind blows" like you libs.
>
> Most of the people I know who voted for Trump don't like him
> very much, or at all, but they disliked him less than they
> disliked Hillary.
>
> Half the time I see him on TV, I wish I could reach into the
> screen and slap the stupid out of him, but compared to the clown
> circus that the Democrats are apparently going to select their
> candidate out of? I think I dislike him less.
>
> Since I live in The Peoples Democratic Socialist One-Party State
> of California, where the Democrat will get 60% of the vote even
> if yrx (coined gender-omni-inclusive pronoun) is sacrificing
> babies to Molech at each campaign stop, I can indulge my ire
> with a vote for some third party candidate. Libertarian if
> their candidate isn't too wacky this year.
>
> Otherwise, rather than vote for the lesser evil, I may write
> in Cthulhu. It, at least, isn't the lesser evil. (Or maybe
> It is... which would really tick It off.)
>
> The Stars Are Right...
>

"Stupid" doesn't even begin to cover it. It's gotten to the point
where anyone who can still make excuses for the mad man must be
incredibly stupid themselves or insane.

He has essentially declared war on China. An economic war to be
sure, but a war none the less. It seems like all our wars start this
way. And these "economic" wars have become our most important wars.
Personally I would have preferred international cooperation over that
"America First" bullshit, but what do I know?

<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-china-trade-war-us-companies-twitter-today-president-xi-jay-powell-a9076541.html>

"Donald Trump has issued an “order” to US companies to withdraw from
China, as he suggested his own appointment as Federal Reserve chairman
was a greater threat to the economy than Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The president told firms “to immediately start looking for an
alternative” or make their products in America instead as he lashed out
at the central bank’s chair Jerome Powell.

His Twitter outburst, which came shortly after China announced its
latest retaliation in the ongoing trade war, prompted the US stock
market to plunge more than 500 points, or 2 per cent,"

Powell is the guy the mad man hand picked last year. Mr. "I only
hire the best people." Yeah right. If you believe that one you must be
sitting there waiting for your Nigerian fortune to be delivered.

I've already seen more than enough war. I'm not laughing now.

TB

"

[dm_callier]

On Friday, August 23, 2019 at 1:27:37 PM UTC-7, Technobarbarian wrote:
<TheBigSip>

> I've already seen more than enough war. I'm not laughing now.
>

Yeah, I hate it when reality plays out like a poorly written novel of the thriller genre.

[George Anthony]

Yet you and your ilk were happy with the Muslim-in-Chief's economy.

--
I LOOK AT LIBERALS AND SOMETIMES THINK "REALLY”? --------- THAT'S THE
SPERM THAT WON?"

[dm_callier]

On Friday, August 23, 2019 at 2:03:40 PM UTC-7, George Anthony wrote:

> Yet you and your ilk were happy with the Muslim-in-Chief's economy.
>

Sure as hell beats what was inherited from the debacle of the Bush years. Your forgetter is working overtime, as usual.

[George Anthony]

This is a Trump vs. Muslim-in Chief economy debate. Another dodge by a
liberal with nothing to say. You really are blinded by the light.

[dm_callier]

I don’t know which rock you were hiding under, but we made out great during the Obama years. We rode the wave of the recovery after the 2008 election and haven’t looked back. If that’s being blinded by the light, just call me Little Stevie.

[George Anthony]

Imagine that stupid is getting offended, and has to shout because nobody listens to the retard what a tart! Her is more good news for the farmers the rest of the world is eating our farmers lunch.


https://ca.yahoo.com/finance/news/trade-war-creating-windfall-rivals-060141084.html

[film...@gmail.com]

On Friday, August 23, 2019 at 1:27:37 PM UTC-7, Technobarbarian wrote:

"Megga dittos" from Santa Margarita! "Stupid doesn't even begin to cover it...." Cheeto is just flat-out crazy as a shithouse mouse! I can't understand how otherwise reasonable people can endure standing by, while that blowhard moron is running our country right into the ground?

Stonewall Jackson

[dm_callier]

On Friday, August 23, 2019 at 2:55:25 PM UTC-7, film...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> "Megga dittos" from Santa Margarita! "Stupid doesn't even begin to cover it...." Cheeto is just flat-out crazy as a shithouse mouse! I can't understand how otherwise reasonable people can endure standing by, while that blowhard moron is running our country right into the ground?
>

I'm not too sure about that "otherwise reasonable people," if you're talking about folks on this forum. We still have quite a few folks here suffering from ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome).

[George Anthony]

Which is not terminal like TDS. Trump has been the cure for ODS. For you
lunatic liberals, TDS is terminal.

[George Anthony]

Oh Fido live is cruel when you’re so desperate to defend stupid, let’s do some more shouting and stomp your widdle paw, oh don’t forget when you enter Canada make sure you display them NRA sticker on your Clamped mobile this Nanuk’s of the north just love that kind of shit.

[Frank Howell]

"President Donald Trump has tried to paper over the disaster his trade
war has been causing for American farmers by issuing a $16 billion
bailout, paying farmers for the work they lost due to the tariffs —
meaning that he is effectively borrowing money from China to pay farmers
not to sell their goods to China." http://tinyurl.com/yyxcf4s9

Long term? How about now? Why do you think deficit is going to a
trillion this fiscal year? This borrowed money is in effect a giant
subsidy to farmers caused by Trump's policy.

--
Frank Howell

[Frank Howell]

What a moron. Show me any evidence to support that lie!
No doubt you could be Trump's court jester and head Acolyte.

--
Frank Howell

[Technobarbarian]

This article is a pretty good summary of what ails us. Since you
have a slow connection I'm going post the whole thing. Even if they
could stretch their attention span that far I don't expect the usual
suspects to understand it.

<https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/understanding-our-bully-in-chief-donald-trumps-antisocial-personality-disorder-fits-a-pattern/>

"Understanding our bully-in-chief: Donald Trump’s ‘antisocial
personality disorder’ fits a pattern

Published 2 hours ago on August 24, 2019 By Paul Rosenberg, Salon -
Commentary
FacebookTwitterFlipboardCopy LinkEmail

I wasn’t surprised by Donald Trump’s rage-tweet attack on Reps. Ilhan
Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, any
more than I was surprised by the maturity and sobriety of their
response. After all, Trump’s racism is legendary, and telling them to
“go back where you came from” is not just textbook racism, it’s a
schoolyard bully’s taunt. And a racist schoolyard bully is the sum and
substance of what Trump is.

In fact, one expert, physician and psychiatrist Dr. Frederick “Skip”
Burkle, told me that autocratic leaders typically have histories of
being bullies, and that the most important thing about them that the
public needs to understand. I first contacted Burkle by way of counselor
and therapist Elizabeth Mika, whose chapter in “The Dangerous Case of
Donald Trump” (Salon review here) explained that “Tyrannies are
three-legged beasts”: the tyrant, his supporters and the society as a
whole. That perspective is vital to understand our specific predicament,
which is historically unique only within our national borders.

The generic predicament of racism is nothing new — particularly for the
Republican Party. (See “The Long Southern Strategy.” Salon author
interview here.) What is new is Trump’s malignant psychology, a
character disorder shared by dozens of destructive autocratic leaders
whose patterns of murderous rule Burkle described in a 2015 paper,
“Antisocial Personality Disorder and Pathological Narcissism in
Prolonged Conflicts and Wars,” drawing on decades of experience as a
world leader in emergency public health crises such as war and
conflict, as well as his background in psychiatry and pediatrics. A
recent follow-up paper (“Character Disorders,” for short), focused on
the negative impact autocratic leaders have on health security, human
rights and humanitarian care.

Bullies-in-chief around the world

Burkle cites examples like Idi Amin in Uganda, Slobodan Milosevic in the
former Yugoslavia, Kim Jong-un in North Korea, Moammar Gadhafi in Libya
and Omar al-Bashir in Sudan, who “have emerged first as saviors and then
as despots, or as common criminals claiming to be patriots.”

Amin and Milosevic are particularly apt figures to compare with Trump,
given their roles in fomenting genocidal ethnic strife in Uganda and
Bosnia respectively. Once in power, such a leader “thrives on continuing
conflict and never seeks peace,” Burkle wrote — as a predictable
description of all autocratic leaders. Characteristically they befriend
and admire other autocratic leaders who have more power than themselves.
Burkle reminds us that Hitler modeled himself after Mussolini and that
Hitler and Stalin allied in the invasion of Poland. Before World War II
started, these leaders, along with Japanese officials, met to divide up
the world. But when one has power the other desires, conflict can result
— as it did in Hitler’s eventual invasion of Russia.

“These autocrats are simply an adolescent bully in an adult’s body,”
Burkle told me in early June, I’d written a two-part story [here and
here] about Trump’s lies and his threat to democracy. Burkle and others
were distraught by political leaders’ profound misunderstanding of
autocratic leaders and their inability to change, because of
developmental failures in their youth — failures that cannot be overcome.

Burkle cited Nancy Pelosi, “who said only yesterday that she was waiting
for [Trump] to be more ‘presidential,’” lamenting, “She does not have a
clue.” Pelosi may be Mitch McConnell’s political opposite, but when it
comes to understanding who and what Trump is, she is no better off.

Trump himself supplies first-hand testimony. “In the second grade I
actually gave a teacher a black eye — I punched my music teacher because
I didn’t think he knew anything about music and I almost got expelled,”
he wrote (or at least his ghostwriter did) in “The Art of the Deal”
(quoted here.) “When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at
myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that
different,” he told biographer Michael D’Antonio.

Burkle’s work in wars and conflict has brought him face-to-face with
foreign leaders who not only frustrate and impair the work done by
humanitarians and their partners, but are actually the cause of much of
the suffering they seek to alleviate. So he has first-hand experience of
what autocratic leaders have done around the world over a period of
decades. Because of the common cognitive and emotional arrest in
adolescence, he says, their shared behaviors are “predictably
predictable across all cultures and borders”.

But Burkle also has first-hand experience of garden-variety schoolyard
bullies, from an early age. He started first grade early, when he
encountered his first bully. “I got pushed from behind on this knoll,
and I went down, and fell and I turned around and there’s this kid
double my size sort of laughing with everybody. And I just ran back up
the knoll and just tackled him out of anger.” Naturally, they both ended
up in the principal’s office. “This kid — more than double my size — the
first thing out of his mouth, and I remember looking at him being so
surprised, he said, ‘Oh! He started this. He pushed me!’ So they’re
always blaming it on everybody else. And they get away with it,” Burkle
said. “We were both talked to, but by responding I had to take part of
the blame.”

This is the essence of bullying — not just the violence and
intimidation, but the narcissist’s hallmark sense of impunity, backed up
by effortless deceit, blame-shifting and manipulation. I see now that
Trump’s latest effort to disavow the “Send her back” chant he inspired
fits perfectly into the package, alongside the violence and intimidation
bullies are most notorious for. But violence and intimidation are just
part of the package. It’s a big mistake to confuse the part with the whole.

Playing the victim — something Trump has perfected to a T — is
absolutely crucial to a bully’s success, as Burkle’s first experience
showed. Trump’s followers wallow in victimhood with him, especially in
the aftermath of his own vicious attacks — a classic expression of
collective narcissism (more on this below). Commentators and media
practices demanding equal consideration of “both sides” further reward
the bullying behavior in all its aspects, even if they may include some
narrowly targeted criticism of the most specific, blatant violence or
threats.

That same kid later picked on Burkle in high school before getting
kicked out, he says. “They never stop, and they have their targets that
they like. But that also started my interest in, ‘Who are these people,
OK? And why is he doing this?’ I remember spending an awful lot of time
in my life saying, ‘Why are people like this?’”

The bully’s arrested development

A major focus of Burkle’s attention is developmental failure. A degree
of “healthy narcissism” is necessary during childhood in building a
fragile ego, but childhood is where narcissism belongs. Children around
the world “are sort of identical,” he said. “When we mix children from
different cultures they get along well right away,” but that’s not the
case for adolescents who’ve developed marked differences.

“Every single culture in the history of our world — even ones that don’t
know any culture outside themselves — they’ve always given special
attention to adolescence and advanced education, and recognized
something unique happens there,” he told me. What happens is learning to
be part of a larger, less concrete, more abstract and unpredictable
world, which entails a multitude of specific skills and cognitive
capacities such as reasoning, insight and debate with a significant
emotional dimension, as Burkle explains in his “Character Disorders” paper:

For many, they feel for the first time personal anxiety, doubt, shame,
depression, guilt, sorrow, make embarrassing mistakes, learn new avenues
by modeling other more mature adolescents and adults, and develop both
age-appropriate neurologically and socially beneficial developmental
tasks, eventually leading to a sense of accomplishment.

This is the deeper meaning of the saying, “You’re only young once.” The
kind of cognitive/emotional/social development that occurs during
adolescence is a one-shot deal. And Trump missed his shot, just like all
others with character disorders. Because they’ve never grown up, they
remain very similar, like children: Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte,
Trump, Mohammed bin Salman — they all recognize their reflections in one
another. The fact that they all get along so well should chill us to our
bones.

Not all narcissists are bullies, but all bullies are narcissists: A
sense of superiority is foundational for bullying behavior. The broader
lens of narcissism is how Mika approaches things. If talking about
bullies tends to focus on sadism, talking about narcissism focuses on “a
grandiosely overblown sense of one’s greatness and importance, an ego —
or false self — that eclipses everyone and everything around it,” Mika
said. “It often strikes us as comical and buffoonish, so unreal as to
appear purposely exaggerated, but the fact is that narcissism stems from
emotional and cognitive deficits rooted in a severe developmental arrest
that makes growth and change very difficult, if at all possible.”

She went on to note the most significant consequence — a severely
impaired or total lack of conscience, which “manifests in an inability
to empathize with others or even see them as fellow human beings,”
resulting in “lack of compassion, capacity for guilt and healthy shame.”
It also results in “disregard for higher values, such as truth, justice
and equality.”

The disregard for truth is especially useful as a bully “relentlessly
creates his own version of reality that serves to protect his overblown
and fragile false self,” Mika said. As a result, “He tends to be immune
to cognitive dissonance resulting from the inevitable for most of us
confrontation of our beliefs, especially about ourselves, with reality
as mirrored to us by others and the world.”

For Mika, the greatest damage caused by “narcissistic arrest” is the
“inability to love,” she said. “To love one has to be able to connect
with one’s own and another’s true self, and this is very difficult for a
narcissist as his existence is focused on enlarging and constantly
defending his gargantuan false self.” The result explains volumes:
“People who are unable to empathize with and love others relate to them
through control and domination.”

Mika and Burkle differ somewhat on the development of abstract thought.
“Some narcissists are brilliant, though one-sided, abstract thinkers,”
Mika said. “They may create seminal works in their domains, but their
emotional growth is stunted, and this manifests in their problematic
relationships with others. However, in politics, one does not need to be
a brilliant narcissist to advance.”

Trump’s well-known lack of interest in reading anything at all is
typical of the type, though perhaps extreme. His inability to present
any details to bolster claims about “terrific” deals or plans is not a
masterful strategy of playing things close to the vest. All he’s hiding
is a handful of Jokers.

Mature politics vs. bullying

In “Character Disorders,” Burkle writes:

Despite their seductive talents and uncanny ability to speak to
universal concerns of every citizen, [bullies turned autocrats] never
attain mature abstract reasoning and avoid discussions and debates that
demand levels of reasoning, observation, and objectivity, or issues that
do not personally boost their own power and prestige. They expend
emotional energy covering up their limitations and turn to lies,
fabrications, childish insults, and unrelenting boastful opinions of
themselves.

This would be clear in Trump’s case if we simply compared his statements
with other public figures, Burkle told me, and pointed to South Bend,
Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg as an example. “When Trump called Buttigieg
some stupid adolescent name, like bullies always do, the news went
wild,” Burkle said. “They went right to Buttigieg trying to get a
response, thinking that Buttigieg was going to give something right back
to him, at the same level. The way he surprised everybody, he just
looked at them and said, ‘I don’t care.’ And that’s way you have to be.
Buttigieg totally understands Trump.”

But Buttigieg also understands his privileged position as a white male.
The congresswomen of color Trump is currently attacking have no such
privilege, and attacks against them are simultaneously collective
attacks on targeted communities they have a duty to defend — a
complicating factor they deal with in different ways, but always with a
level of maturity that Trump could never even dream of. In the four
women’s joint press conference responding to Trump’s attacks, they
struck a common theme of not taking the bait, while at the same time
standing up for those being attacked, invoking America’s promise, and
vowing to keep fighting to fulfill it. Unlike Trump’s many attacks on
America, they conveyed care and concern for how we’ve fallen short.

“We don’t leave the things that we love,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “And when
we love this country, what that means is that we propose the solutions
to fix it.”

“This country was founded on the radical idea that we are created equal
and endowed by our creator with inalienable rights,” Omar said. “And
yes, we have a long way before we fully live up to those values. It is
for this reason precisely that we have to take action when a president
is openly violating the oath he took to the Constitution of the United
States and the core values we aspire to.”

“I encourage the American people and all of us, in this room and beyond,
to not take the bait,” said Pressley. “This is a disruptive distraction
from the issues of care, concern and consequence to the American people
that we were sent here with a decisive mandate from our constituents to
work on, everything from reducing the cost of prescription drugs to
addressing our affordable housing crisis, to ensuring that the American
people have more than health insurance, but health care.”

Finally there was Tlaib, who added: “We cannot allow these hateful
actions by the president to distract us from the critical work to hold
this administration accountable to the inhumane conditions at the
border, that is separating children from their loved ones and caging
them up in illegal, horrific conditions.”

“We can easily observe the work of a properly functioning conscience in
the actions of the four congresswomen whom Trump chose as most recent
targets of his narcissistic rage,” Mika said. “It is no accident.
Malignantly narcissistic individuals react with the greatest rage to
those who somehow evoke their sense of weakness, inferiority and
imperfection, and individuals representing a higher level of moral
development often do just that by their sheer existence.”

What’s more, Mika added, “target status is magnified” if the target in
question happens to represent a minority:

… because few things irk a narcissistic bully like a morally and
emotionally advanced “other.” The ideals of equality, inclusion, justice
and compassionate concern for people that these congresswomen espouse
are alien to Trump and his psychologically similar sycophants and
followers whose worldview is based on narcissistic us versus them
distinctions. Such ideals not only conflict with their desires for
power, but also expose their deficits of conscience and thus are
considered especially threatening.

Collective narcissism: The bully’s backup gang

Finally, we need to consider the role of collective narcissism — both
narrowly within the power structure supporting a narcissistic leader,
and more broadly in his popular base. Regarding the latter, Mika said,
“Trump’s bullying behavior serves a restorative function, patching up
holes in the false self of his followers as well. The scapegoating
tactics used by him make it possible for him and his followers to retain
the notion of their superiority and blameless victimhood.”

As noted above, Trump has attacked America numerous times, so there’s a
surreal quality to his scapegoating these four women of color for their
far more thoughtful critiques. But it’s precisely the accuracy of those
critiques that makes them so painful for collective narcissists to bear,
and so necessary for them to be rid of:

This is how scapegoating, the fuel of collective narcissism, works — it
shifts our unacknowledged sins onto select others who may differ from us
only in some details (Freud called it narcissism of small differences)
and so it makes it justifiable in our eyes to punish them for those
projected sins. We thus purge our individual and collective sense of
inferiority, shame and guilt without ever acknowledging it, and this
lets us to maintain the narcissistic image of ourselves as pure, intact,
and yes, always superior to others.

Then there’s the narrow form of collective narcissism, which Burkle
writes about in “Character Disorders”:

When the political party aligns itself with the narcissist, it becomes
“operationally and collectively narcissistic.” Once collective
narcissism exists, the autocrat can be assured of sustaining his power
base, demanding total loyalty, with followers speaking from the same
playbook and daily-drilled sound bites, where disloyalty is severely
punished.

More pointedly, Burkle told me, “If the collective narcissism pack is
large enough, and powerful enough, it’s almost impossible to get the
narcissist, the autocrat, out of power.”

So long as Democratic leaders and the media remain oblivious to or
ignorant of what’s actually going on psychologically — not just with
Trump, but his followers as well — they will continue to misjudge the
situation, even as they repeatedly say how abnormal it is. And the
danger will only continue to grow.

This situation is abnormal in American history. But it’s depressingly
normal for a country where a narcissistic bully has gained power. We
need to reorient ourselves around that fundamental fact, and stop
pretending that what’s been normal in the past provides any sound
guidance now. Clinging to that illusion is, in itself, a subtle form of
collective narcissism: the belief that “It can’t happen here,” the
refusal to look ourselves in the mirror and confront what we truly are —
which is the only way we can ever live up to what we wish to be."

You know what else I miss? RINOS They appear to have gone extinct.

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

TB

[George Anthony]

He Fido your handler is at it again!

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/photos/the-news-in-cartoons/ss-AAG82n8?ocid=ientp#image=6