Quote of the Day -- Presidential Edition

"Trump is the most psychiatrically disordered president in history."

From an article today at The New York Daily News from 2 psychologists.

Say it plainly: 

Trump is a psychopath

Thanks, Republicans. Y'all must be so proud. And happy. You love power over all else, as we know.

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BYEDON

This Trumpian Republican Party

I caught an excellent article, thanks to a friend, over the weekend on this President and what has morphed into his political party:

We Need to Speak Honestly About the GOP’s Evolution Into a Conspiracy Cult

One of the challenges in analyzing modern American politics is accurately describing the Republican Party without seeming unserious and hyperbolic. Major publications are understandably in the habit of presenting both sides of the partisan divide as being inherently worthy of respect and equal consideration, both as a way of shielding themselves from accusations of bias and as a way of maintaining their own sense of journalistic integrity.

Unfortunately, the modern Republican Party’s abdication of seriousness, good faith and reality-based communications or policy-making has stretched even the most open-minded analyst’s capacity for forced balance. Donald Trump’s own inability to string together coherent or consistent thoughts has led to a bizarre normalization of his statements in the traditional media, as journalists unconsciously try to fit his rambling, spontaneous utterances into a conventional framework. This has come at the cost of Americans seeing the full truth of the crisis of leadership in the Oval Office for what it is. For instance, it was ironically salutary for the American public to witness Donald Trump’s bizarre pandemic press conferences where he oddly attacked reporters for asking innocuous questions and recommended researching bleach and sunlight injections, because they got to see Trump raw as he truly is, without the normalization filter. Republicans have long argued that the “mainstream media filter” gives them a bad shake, but the reality is the opposite: sure, it’s not as good as being boosted by Fox News’ overt propaganda, but it does them a greater service than letting the public see them unfiltered at all...

...Being a Republican now requires believing in a jaw-dropping series of claims that, if true, would almost necessitate anti-democratic revanchism. One has to believe that 

• a cabal of evil scientists is making up climate science in exchange for grant money; 
• that there is rampant, widescale voter impersonation fraud carried out by thousands of elections officials nationwide; 
• that the “Deep State” concocted a scheme to frame Trump for Russian collusion but chose not to use it before the 2016 election; 
• that shadowy forces are driving migrant caravans and diseases across American borders in the service of destroying white Republican America; 
• that the entire news media is engaged in a conspiracy against the Republican Party; 
• that grieving victims of gun violence and their families all across America want to take away guns as a pretext for stomping the boot of “liberal fascism” on conservative faces; and so on. 

That and much more is just the vanilla Republican belief system at this point (not even touching less explosive academic fictions like “tax cuts pay for themselves” or “the poor will work harder to better themselves if you cut the safety net.”}

I personally can't recommend the complete above article enough.

Meanwhile, this happened two days ago, Saturday.

Trump retweets a message calling Hillary Clinton a 'skank' and spreads sexist insults about other prominent female Democrats

On Saturday, President Donald Trump shared a series of sexist insults and personal gibes about prominent female Democrats.

Trump has a long record of aiming sexist insults at female critics.

Who does this?

What public person, let alone government representative, let alone 74 year old, let alone Congressional representative or, I don't know, what PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES talks like that?  What adult calls another, a woman, a "skank"?  Who does that??

This President is frightening but as that first article above shows, much of the Republican Party has gotten scary, honestly, no overstatement, scary.

Fortunately, there are a few, a very few Republicans out there warning people about him and this. People like Utah's Mitt Romeny, conservative writer George Will, uber-conservative Bill Kristol and others.  It's not enough but it's something.

Then there's the fact that this President has repeatedly tried to spread an untrue and extremely irresponsible murder conspiracy theory, of all things, about Joe Scarborough.

Trump uses Twitter to push 

murder conspiracy theory 

And this was yesterday at the Memorial Day activities. As this President and again, his political party would have it, it's "sleepy Joe" Biden we have to worry about, no one else. And yet...

Trump’s struggles to stand still didn’t go unnoticed during Memorial Day visit to Arlington

Oh sway can you see.

President Trump’s struggles to stand still during a Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery lit up social media Monday, prompting users to recall past incidents in which the commander in chief, who turns 74 next month, battled to find a balance.

“Is the President having trouble standing up straight as the National Anthem begins at Arlington Cemetary (sic) or am I seeing things?” Joshua Potash from Queens asked on Twitter.

The Trump critic posted that video, along with another clearly showing the president swaying in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Between this President's ravings, his questionable health and his political party's going off a d eep end, it seems clear we don't lack for things we have to work on, let alone be concerned of.

Thanks, Republicans.

"Only the best people."
"So much winning."

Links:

Op-Ed: Let’s count the ways Donald Trump has gone where no president has gone before

Are White Working Class Folks Tiring of Trump's Act?
Trump Sabotaged America's Recovery Even Before COVID-19 Began

24 conspiracy theories Donald Trump has floated

6 months on, Trump hasn't completed his physical. The White House won't say why.

Editorial: If the pandemic-preparedness cupboard was bare, it was Trump's doing

Real Fear for the Future

Sorry to start the day on a negative note (negative notes?), but I'm not thinking the future is that cozy a place for us Americans from this vantage point. Besides the idiot, Republican Party dotard in the White House and his emotional, irrational outbursts and actions, there are facts and statistics stacking up that don't bode well for us all.

First, let's take our information we're getting. Newspapers are famously or infamously dying.

Number of Americans Who Read Print Newspapers Continues Decline

New York Daily News Fires Half Of Its Staff

Entire New Orleans Times-Picayune staff laid off

A Major Newspaper Fires Its Entire Staff

It's predicted this is the shape of things to come, too.

NY Times Editor Predicts Most Local US Papers Will Fold

Understand, too, this is not merely longing for a bygone day. This is no way nostalgia for the past and for "the way things were", no, not at all. 

This is about most or all of us having a basis of information. This is about all of us being engaged in the social fabric, as it were. This is about all of us have a similar basis of information from which we address our communities, our metropolitan areas, our cities, counties, states, regions and even the nation at large but the world, too. We will no longer have that basis from which to start, a more common background of knowledge.

So instead of reading the daily newspaper we would all or mostly all share, now we get things off the internet, if we read at all. This is where I say we also only read things that back up what we already "know", think we know and/or believe. It pits us more and more against one another because we so sincerely believe only that which we already want to believe.

It does not bode well for us.

And then there's the fact that no one will be down there at that newspaper to keep the local City Hall, Mayor, Council and city and state government accountable. With them not there to research, write and publish what's going on, who's going to? The local blogger on the internet?  Highly unlikely. God help us.

Then there's the issue of our news media has become far too "us vs them." We have Right Wing TV like Fox, publicly declaring itself entertainment but masquerading as news and skewing things heavily for one political party and for the already-wealthy and corporations.

Why is Fox News so biased toward the Republicans

This splits and splinters us all further, all the more. It's downright frightening.

Next up is the fact that, along with all this splintering, we're all joining fewer and fewer organizations.

Americans Are Becoming Less Social

We're becoming islands, unto ourselves. We belong to fewer churches (which actually I view as an improvement but that's another issue), we join less sports teams, bowling leagues and all kinds of social groups.

 After all this, now we also have whole countries, whole nations and other groups of people, going online to splinter us further. They whip people up with all kinds of false information and/or emotionalism in order to tear us apart from within. It certainly worked in the last national election for the presidency.

Add to all this that we're spending our way into obscene, huge, unnecessary defense spending that actually weakens the nation.

America's Defense Budget Is Bigger Than You Think

With that spending and our giveaways to the already-wealthy and corporations, we're also spending ourselves into crazy debt and deficit spending.

Trump Proposes Record Spending, Trillion-Dollar Deficit

With that, I'll stop. God knows that's enough. And that's just what's going on in our nation. I could go on with the UK's Brexit and China's response to our, again, dotard President and a lot more.

I just don't see much good out there. We have to put our faith in the American people waking up. Waking up and voting the wrong people, in office now, out of those offices.

I hope it doesn't require reading a newspaper to get us there.

Hypocrite, thy name is Newt

You have to hand it to Newt Gingrich last evening. For him to explode as he did, at the beginning of the Republican presidential debate, when asked about his ex-wife's statement on him wanting an "open marriage" was magnificent. It was an excellent way for him to immediately both deflect the question but also take a "high road" in the same debate, immediately. Sure, it was a phony "high road" but it certainly worked. That said, for him to now act as though he's, somehow, the "victim" of any attack is rich. Sure, Americans have horrible memories but we really cannot and did not forget, Newt, that it was you who attacked then-President Bill Clinton for a lack of morals for his situation in the Oval Office with one Monica Lewinski. For you to now feign morality when it's known you cheated on your then-wife for quite some time and hand one of those wives divorce papers as she recovered from cancer treatment is beyond the pale. And yet, last evening's debate gave Newt a "bounce" in popularity and the polls. The "lesson learned" for Newt and all future presidential candidates will likely be "indignation works", sadly enough. We shall see. (See link below). What's great is that the White House would love nothing more than going against anyone but Mitt Romney in next Fall's election. The White House would LOVE going up against the Newt. This is one fascinating presidential election campaign. Crazy, but fascinating. Links: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/newt-gingrichs-stock-rises-in-south-carolina-after-clash-with-john-king/2012/01/20/gIQAJP5HEQ_blog.html; http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/newt-gingrich-phoniest-presidential-candidate-article-1.1009014; http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/exclusive-gingrich-lacks-moral-character-president-wife/story?id=15392899

Have you seen this tastelessness yet?

From Seoul, South Korea: "An architecture firm said Friday it “regrets” a bizarre design for two high-rises in Korea reminds people of the twin towers exploding on 9/11. A mockup shows two soaring skyscrapers connected in the middle by a 'pixelated cloud' that evoked the clouds of debris that erupted from the iconic World Trade Center towers after terrorists flew planes into them." Yes, do tell, What were you thinking? Link: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/design-korean-towers-evokes-exploding-wtc-9-11-architects-mvrdv-apologize-wasn-t-intentional-article-1.989391

A witch and a "weekend nazi"--I love these people

One candidate--Christine O'Donnell--a Tea Party member, has to deny she's a witch while another candidate--Richard Iott, a Republican--can't deny that, on the weekends, he dresses up as a nazi, nearly unbelievable as that is.

Finally, to make things even better (worse?), I see in the Star this morning that Donald Trump is considering a Republican run for the presidency in 2012.

How do you not love these people?

If you didn't see it last evening, go to hulu.com and see the mock ad on/for Christine O'Donnell, denying she's a witch.  It's a hoot.  (This, above, is not from last evening's show).

Links:  http://www.newsok.com/iott-under-fire-for-past-nazi-re-enactments/article/feed/200105;
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/10/10/2010-10-10_christine_odonnell_calls_saturday_night_live_skit_mockery_her_im_not_a_witch_ad_.html?r=entertainment