Living Large In Carson City: This Ain’t No Disco/This Ain’t No Fooling Around David Byrne Edition

Posted on by technoscribe50: Gary Brady-Herndon

 “If voting made a difference, they wouldn’t let us do it. ” Mark Twain

Less than 24 hours after the Senate Republicans voted to exeronate Donald J. Trump of obvious high crimes and misdemeanors, the president showed all the signs of a mad man run amok. The following morning at the National Prayer Breakfast, he came bearing a copy of the USA Today newspaper that proclaimed in bold block letters ” Trump Acquitted” at the top of the page. From there, things went predictably downhill.  In his speech to the historically non-partisan meeting he stated,

“As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,” Trump said. “They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing, very badly hurt our nation. They know what they are doing is wrong, but they put themselves far ahead of our great country.” NBC News

It is becoming increasingly apparent that to criticize Trump’s aberrant behavior beyond noting that he is a seriously disturbed individual is simply playing into his bully mindset which is self-affirming regardless of who criticizes or praises him. At the annual prayer breakfast, he wasted no time  attacking Nancy Pelosi (who sat a few seats away) and Mitt Romney for using, in his words, their faith to publically attack him. Besides being incredibly offensive and laughingly unchristian, his actions, then and later in the day at the White House, verged on outright slander. It raises the question just how far Trump will go in punishing anyone who stood for impeachment or is a perceived enemy in his warped mind.

Over the course of the day, he attacked everyone from the past and present including Robert Mueller, Andrew McCabe, Hillary, Romney, Pelosi, former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, former FBI Director James Comey, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, and others too numerous to mention here. Conversely, he lauded praise on his sycophantic Republican enablers calling out one after the other to praise and charm while he told jokes and laughed his way through both meetings. To a man and woman, they ate it up chuckling and laughing continuously as Trump ranted on and on. To say his actions both brought shame on the office of the presidency and highlighted in stark illumination his mental demise is an understatement. A common definition among psychologists seems eerily apt for what Americans saw on stage this morning after,

Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes identified interchangeably as sociopathy or psychopathy, is defined by the Mayo Clinic as: “A mental condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to antagonize, manipulate or treat others harshly or with callous indifference. They show no guilt or remorse for their behavior.” Psychology Today

Honestly, is there anyone who didn’t see something of this nature coming if not outright expected it. What is most disturbing is the way conservatives, and Republicans in particular, have abandoned all sense of decency and the moral high ground to allow Trump free reign in doing whatever he chooses. It is as if the rest of us are witnessing some alternative universe. One where conservatives are living in a totally bogus reality where up is down, wrong is right, and Trump is an angelic savior who is not to be questioned let alone be held responsible for his behavior.

The overarching question is what has gone wrong with the Republican Party, collectively and as individuals. It is hard to believe in the world of Trump that once upon a time there were actually people who called themselves patriots and Republican in the same breath.  They believed in the rule of law, the Constitution, and the all important separation of powers where the Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Judiciary worked in tandem as checks on the power of the other individual branches to achieve balance. The system worked well until 2016 when Trump was elected, and the entire conservative cabal lost its mind.

Charles Mackay  was an early social scientist who was fascinated with the psychology of crowds and the masses. His seminal book published in 1841 titled Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is still studied, and for the most part, highly regarded. He is quoted as saying, 

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”

For many scholars familiar with Mackay’s work, he has taken on an almost visionary personae. He was concerned with economic bubbles, not unlike the ones Americans have dealt with over recent years. His work, arguably, suffered from lack of experience and foresight developed over the years, but his foundational tenets were solid nonetheless. He also explored the motivation behind the witch mania that became popular in both Europe and America related to overzealous religiosity. Mackay also believed the crusades and popular prophecies were a type of mania that motivated, on one hand, vast numbers of people across the globe to engage in battles to support their particular belief systems, and on the other, to believe projections of the future without sufficient warrant. In every case, the people involved molded their beliefs to fit the prevailing zeitgeist without questioning or acknowledging the impact of their reasoning.

Watching the Republican crowd at Trump’s victory laps immediately after the vote for acquittal when Republicans Senators blindly ignored a mountain of evidence proving the president’s guilt was breathtaking in it audacity. There and since, the actions of conservative lawmakers has been nothing if not embarrassing. This sycophantic, servile kowtowing to Trump is chilling as is his monarchical acceptance of their praise and glorification.

While there seem to be obvious similarities between the Trump army and Mackay’s research into the madness of crowds, Trump’s minions seem far more sinister and evil (although it  is a stretch to think marauding crusaders, either Christian or Muslim, could be any less forbidding). No, this is a new kind disease infecting the Grand Old Party today. It is a cancer eating away at the heart of our democracy, decimating the Constitution, rendering low the rule of  law, and hoodwinking the masses into seeing Trump as the savior of the American Dream. He is not. Sane people see him for what he is and recoil in horror at what has been going on the past three years in the United States.

The sooner the rest of America comes to grip with the fact that all the lies, cruelty, ad hominem attacks, border wall boondoggles, assaults on the environment, and cuts to healthcare, education, Social Security, and on and on are simply diversions in a grander scheme, the better off  America will be. No one likes to think their fellow Americans are capable or deluded by the promise of power to the point of staging a coup against our great country, but collectively, Americans had better come to that conclusion . . . and quickly.

This is reality. Get used to it, and above all else, get mad. Hate is not an enemy that one fights with clean hands under the The Marquess of Queensberry Rules. The election will be a street fight up until November 3. Then things will get real. If Trump wins, all bets are off, and America will cease to be a democracy. If the Democrats win, the fight will shift to retain power until the country heals and our way of life is returned to a semblance of law and order.

These are the only two paths to choose from as America goes forward. Get used to it.

Living Large In Carson City: In The Kingdom Of The Blind, The One-eyed Man Is King Edition

Posted on by technoscribe50: Gary Brady-Herndon

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The problem with writing about Donald Trump is that once an idea pops into my head, and I think about it for a half a day or overnight, four or five other horrific acts come to light that are as equally worthy of ridicule. As one of the pundits of The Intercept noted recently, by the time I finish writing this piece, Trump will have told 27 more lies that defy credulity. The man wallows in his falsehoods. It would be funny if it were not so dangerous and maddening.

On Tuesday,  Trump entered a new phase of his truth challenged tenure as the most powerful man in the world. He lied once again to support an unpopular opinion that he wants to put over on the United States and the world. In a press release (aptly named), Statement from President Donald J. Trump on Standing with Saudi Arabia, he sold out Jamal Khashoggi and America’s good name on the world stage by putting profit over a man’s life.

While Trump’s association with the truth has been an issue from day one of his administration, this new phase tears the mask off of his illusion by putting himself at odds with his own security and intelligence agencies – again – and for what? Ostensibly, his rationale is that the United States would lose $450 billion dollars in arms sales in the future and countless jobs. He stated,

After my heavily negotiated trip to Saudi Arabia last year, the Kingdom agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the United States. This is a record amount of money. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, tremendous economic development, and much additional wealth for the United States.

This sounds great on paper, and his statements of “facts” will no doubt pass muster for his walking zombie base, but there is a catch. There is no hard and fast “deal” that will hold the Saudi government to the pledge of investing or spending $450 billion for American goods or services. His “hundreds of thousands of jobs” is down from October 20 when he stated the deal would produce 100 million jobs for American workers. The Pulitzer Prize winning website, Politifact, gave the 100 million job estimate a Pants on Fire rating and came to these conclusions,

Key takeaways
  • Saudi Arabia has not ordered $110 billion worth of military goods and services.
  • Saudi Arabia has not ordered $450 billion worth of goods and services across the board.
  • Over one million jobs are not at stake. Politifact

While the $450 billion figure is bogus, Trump’s intentions, however, are rooted in monetary gain . . . his. Trump and his family have had ongoing financial ties with the Saudis for years. Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal claims to have bailed Trump out of bankruptcy twice by purchasing goods or providing backing for Trump’s failing hotel empire. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law, has had extensive dealings with  Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MSB), the supposed mastermind of the Khashoggi killing. Kushner’s dealiings go beyond his  quest for peace in the Middle East to rather mysterious meetings and providing secret information to MSB that targeted supposed enemies of the young Saudi prince.

It does not take a rocket scientist to envision Trump and his family’s motives for making nice with the Saudis. Once America can rid itself of the pest that has become Trump, he will certainly use his connections and call in the “favors” (like siding with Saudi Arabia over the CIA that MsB is innocent) for personal advancement of his goals. In effect, Trump placed a foreign power over the United States simply for monetary gain. In one fatal strike at our democratic process, he has set himself up as the final arbiter of American foreign policy that just so happens to be personally beneficial for himself and his family.

In a very real sense, this is an aspect of Trump that has always been just under the surface, but with his siding with the Saudis, American can see a deeper, more brazen set of actions that reveal a side of Trump not openly seen before. He is either deeply afraid of what is coming in the form of Robert Mueller’s probe, or like a junk yard dog facing overwhelming odds, in his case, an up an coming recalcitrant Democratic majority in the House of Representative in January. It is entirely possible he thinks he has little to lose by going down the road he has taken in recent days. So, why not grab for the gusto before the party winds down, and he has to face the consequences?

Regardless, now until the time the new Congress is seated in January is a time of great peril for our democracy. Already, some state officials who were turned out during the midterms are rushing legislation through their state governments to curtail the power of the incoming public officials. Take Wisconsin for instance,

In Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers who gave Gov. Scott Walker wide-reaching executive powers are trying to roll back those powers before Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers, who defeated Walker in this month’s election, is sworn in next year. Salon

One has to wonder how the Republican Party shifted from a party of ideas to a party of ideologues whose slash and burn rule book is the antithesis of democratic ideals that made this country great. On a local and state level, much can be done to stymie these obvious acts of sour grapes, but nationally, the stakes are even greater.

Christopher Hedges’ column on the website Truthdig, Are We About to Face Our Gravest Constitutional Crisis?, brings up some interesting scenarios that he sees could be grounds for concern.

Before this lame-duck Congress adjourns in December we could face the most serious constitutional crisis in the history of the republic if Donald Trump attempts to shut down the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

A supine and pliant Republican Party, still in control of the House and the Senate, would probably not challenge Trump. The Supreme Court, which would be the final arbiter in any legal challenge to the president, would probably not rule against him. And his cultish followers, perhaps 40 million Americans, would respond enthusiastically to his trashing of democratic institutions and incitements of violence against the press, the Democratic Party leadership, his critics and all who take to the streets in protest. The United States by Christmas, if Trump plays this card, could become a full-blown authoritarian state where the rule of law no longer exists and the president is a despot. Truthdig (go here to see the photo accompanying the article if nothing else)

I am not a fan of Hedges normally, and certainly not one for unfounded conspiracy theories, but the argument he makes through his interview with Ralph Nader and his own prognostications, unfortunately, makes too much sense. Before the midterms, I was worried that if the Democrats won both the Senate and the House that Trump might claim the voting results invalid and negate them if he could and declare martial law. Sounds a little nutty, no? Yet, as Hedges points out concerning his theory, Trump has flouted his disregard for the constitutionality of his acts before by firing James Comey and Jeff Session. Nader’s vision of what might be coming is entirely too chilling,

“Trump knows once the Democrats control the House, they can subpoena the records of his administration,” Ralph Nader said when I reached him by phone in Connecticut. “He’s going to want to get this over with, even if it sparks a constitutional crisis, while the Republicans still control the Congress. There’s little doubt this will all come to a head before the Christmas holidays. Truthdig

Again, I am not one to acknowledge unfounded conspiracy theories, yet, given the Trump’s track record over the past two years and his increasingly erratic behavior of the past week, I have to wonder. Of course, much of the glue that holds a theory like this one together is placed squarely on the shoulders of his radicalized base. Hedges notes in his article,

. . . Trump, with Fox News acting as a megaphone for his hate speech and conspiracy theories, has been holding Nuremberg-like rallies across the country to prepare the roughly 40 percent of the public who remain loyal to him to become shock troops. His followers are filled with hate and resentment for the elites who betrayed them. They are hungry for revenge. They do not live in a fact-based universe. And they are awash in weapons.

While this is a disturbing hypothesis, we have to remember that many of Trump’s supporters are angry old white men. It is doubtful that those over 65 years old would be willing to take to the streets to physically support a Trump based coup. The younger supporters include alt-right members, poorly educated white men (and women), and many who see Washington as severely broken and has to be fixed. Do they have enough moxie to back the Orange One up if push came to shove? Who knows?

It occurs to me that the best hope of controlling Trump and limiting the damage he can and is doing to our democracy is found in the ranks of moderate Republicans. The people who got more than they bargained for when they threw their lot in with him two years ago. Reasonable speculation would seem to indicate that as Trump slides deeper into his own demonic dreams of grandeur that the middle of the road Republicans will have to take a stand against him. Unfortunately, as the past two years has taught Americans, we shouldn’t hold our breath on that possibility either.

FYI: This came to light this morning CIA has tapes