Sunday, January 22, 2017

How Dangerous Is Trump's Mental Illness For The Country?

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First everyone was mocking the size of his small... hands. Now they're mocking the size of the small turnout for his bleak inauguration. And this morning, on day two of the Age of Trump, Meet The Press viewers sat around pondering the relationship between "alternative facts" and lies. Trump and his sad-sack paid propagandists can claim there were a million or a million and a half people at his inauguration all they want but that won't make the pictures go away. Glaslighting generally doesn't work as well on people with 3 digit IQs as it does on Trump voters. And, as David Frum put it this morning, "the alt-right administration brings you the alt-fact."




At least Kellyanne Con-Man admitted on ABC's This Week this morning that presidents are not judged by "the crowd sizes at their inauguration; they're judged by their accomplishments." Trump's very first accomplishment, as we noted in real time, was to go immediately from reading Bannon's nice little phrase how "Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families" to signing an order to cancel a fee cut on mortgage costs for first-time and low-income home buyers, a move the National Association of Realtors predicted would result in pricing 40,000 would-be homebuyers out of the market in 2017 alone-- 40,000 families that won't be buying furniture made in North Carolina, carpets made Pennsylvania, refrigerators made in Ohio or the grills, toasters, griddles, popcorn makers and convection ovens made by Star Manufacturing mad in Missouri. All those Trumpanzee voters...


Made in Missouri


This morning's NY Times tried helping its readers decals with the fact that the White House is now the country's biggest source of Fake News. Four more years to go.
President Trump used his first full day in office on Saturday to unleash a remarkably bitter attack on the news media, falsely accusing journalists of both inventing a rift between him and intelligence agencies and deliberately understating the size of his inauguration crowd.

In a visit to the Central Intelligence Agency intended to showcase his support for the intelligence community, Mr. Trump ignored his own repeated public statements criticizing the intelligence community, a group he compared to Nazis just over a week ago.

He also called journalists “among the most dishonest human beings on earth,” and he said that up to 1.5 million people had attended his inauguration, a claim that photographs disproved.

Later, at the White House, he dispatched Sean Spicer, the press secretary, to the briefing room in the West Wing, where Mr. Spicer scolded reporters and made a series of false statements.

He said news organizations had deliberately misstated the size of the crowd at Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Friday in an attempt to sow divisions at a time when Mr. Trump was trying to unify the country, warning that the new administration would hold them to account.

The statements from the new president and his spokesman came as hundreds of thousands of people protested against Mr. Trump, a crowd that appeared to dwarf the one that gathered the day before when he was sworn in. It was a striking display of invective and grievance at the dawn of a presidency, usually a time when the White House works to set a tone of national unity and to build confidence in a new leader.

Instead, the president and his team appeared embattled and defensive, signaling that the pugnacious style Mr. Trump employed as a candidate will persist now that he has ascended to the nation’s highest office.

...Trump also took issue with news reports about the number of people who attended his inauguration, complaining that the news media used photographs of “an empty field” to make it seem as if his inauguration did not draw many people.

“We caught them in a beauty,” Mr. Trump said of the news media, “and I think they’re going to pay a big price.”

Mr. Spicer said that Mr. Trump had drawn “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration,” a statement that photographs clearly show to be false. Mr. Spicer said photographs of the inaugural ceremonies were deliberately framed “to minimize the enormous support that had gathered on the National Mall,” although he provided no proof of either assertion.

Photographs of Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and of Mr. Trump’s plainly showed that the crowd on Friday was significantly smaller, but Mr. Spicer attributed that disparity to new white ground coverings he said had caused empty areas to stand out and to security measures that had blocked people from entering the Mall.

...And he incorrectly claimed that ridership on Washington’s subway system was higher than on Inauguration Day in 2013. In reality, there were 782,000 riders that year, compared with 571,000 riders this year, according to figures from the Washington-area transit authority.

Mr. Spicer also said that security measures had been extended farther down the National Mall this year, preventing “hundreds of thousands of people” from viewing the ceremony. But the Secret Service said the measures were largely unchanged this year, and there were few reports of long lines or delays.

Commentary about the size of his inauguration crowd made Mr. Trump increasingly angry on Friday, according to several people familiar with his thinking.

On Saturday, Mr. Trump told his advisers that he wanted to push back hard on “dishonest media” coverage-- mostly referring to a Twitter post from a New York Times reporter showing side-by-side frames of Mr. Trump’s crowd and Mr. Obama’s in 2009. But most of Mr. Trump’s advisers urged him to focus on the responsibilities of his office during his first full day as president.

However, in his remarks at the C.I.A., he wandered off topic several times, at various points telling the crowd he felt no older than 39 (he is 70); reassuring anyone who questioned his intelligence by saying, “I’m, like, a smart person”; and musing out loud about how many intelligence workers backed his candidacy.

...“He has left the strong impression that he doesn’t trust the intelligence community and that he doesn’t have tremendous regard for their work,” Mark M. Lowenthal, a retired C.I.A. analyst, said of Mr. Trump. “The obvious thing to do is to counter that by saying, ‘I value you. I look forward to working with you.’”

“He called them Nazis,” Mr. Lowenthal added, referring to Mr. Trump’s characterization of the intelligence community. Mr. Lowenthal said Saturday’s visit should have been “a stroking expedition.”

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5 Comments:

At 4:41 AM, Anonymous Hone said...

From now on it would be most appropriate to view all of Trump's statements in light of his mental/emotional functioning. His mind boggling but completely unsurprising focus on how many people attended the inauguration and his LYING about it are par for the course. it would have been best for him to just ignore the issue rather than put the spotlight on it, which made it a big deal, but no, he could not do this as he cannot help himself. He must be the best and the greatest and everything that happens around him must be the best and the greatest. He really thinks he makes reality. His outrageous statements about the inauguration reflect his extreme narcissism and the true nature of his psychological dysfunction. He is morphing into full blown insanity right before our eyes. He has no capacity for insight and no control.

How scary is this? VERY. His poor reality testing should be scaring the bejesus out of everyone. He thinks whatever he says is reality. And now that he is in the spotlight his disturbance will be on full display to all Americans and the world. He is an incoherent rambler who has little capacity to listen, absorb information or think through a problem. Even more frighteningly, he has no motivation to do so as he really believes he knows it all. He does not care whom he disses and he is the king of inconsistency. He lives in the moment and if what he says contradicts what he said a day before, he could care less. He hates the CIA and thinks they are Nazis; he loves the intelligence community. He is so full of it. Nothing he says means a thing. He does not stand by his word and nothing he says can trusted. His off the cuff statements sound like Sarah Palin. He has not spoken much since the summer, but now we will see his poor speech patterns, ignorance, disregard for the truth and disorganized thought processes. The contrast to Obama, and Hillary, could not be more striking.

The press had better stay on this big time and take him on. Mass demonstrations need to happen over and over. As one of the leaders of the New York demonstration said when people reached the end of the march, "See you soon."

Republicans had better get a grip as well. Will they? Very questionable to say the least. How awful will Trump have to be for them to take a hook and drag him off of the stage? Will McCain lead the charge? Are there any Republicans who see how crazy the man is and would be willing to do something about it? They must. Will they care enough about America to remove him? And Schumer? I do think he will stand against Trump. Democrats should focus hard on voter registration and lighting up a fire under all those who did not vote. Forget about trying to lean towards the Republicans and attempting to win them over - this has never worked and is a complete waste of time. If anything Trump has shown that speaking out strongly has appeal.

Please, just keep his tiny hands off of the nuclear button. This should be everyone's greatest fear.

 
At 7:07 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hone, the question is how long it will take for the racist fascists to reach their tolerance limit. And that is directly related to how many people they will kill with denials of health and other basic support. If der fuhrer eagerly goes along with ryan's lust for killing, they'll put up with a lot of "alternate facts" and other annoyances.

But if he gets too cozy with putin... or he has another tantrum over the cia/nsa/dia... look out. We'll end up with president pence. And THAT would be worse. If somehow pence was eliminated, then it'd be president ryan. And THAT would be worse still.

 
At 11:36 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How many posts to say the same thing i.e. "can you believe what Trump said?. This is how he distracts/entertains from the substance of his actions. Writing a letter or making a call to oppose his policies are what's needed.

 
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At 11:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If this is going to play out into a 1-term presidency, it will be because those in opposition to the lies and insanity of the Trump administration don't sink to his level. This is a very well-written jab, and it's biting humor is worthy of classic SNL. But in taking that approach, we push ourselves away from the logical, intelligent middle ground who wants and needs to hear these truths but struggles to accept them if it appears to be nothing more than an angry alt-left attack on the President they just reluctantly voted for to change the game in Washington.

We need to move past the anger and disbelief stage and strive for legitimacy in responding to the Trump administration lies of the day. Over time, and with enough focus on facts, we may be lucky enough via impeachment to have a 4-month Presidential term instead of the 4-year version.

 

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