O the pundits are pontificating again!--They have many American eyes, as well as many eyes around the world, right where they want them: fixed on CNN.
I repeat what you undoubtedly already know by now: Trump sided with the enemy during a joint conference with a murderous thug. The cover of a recent Daily News (July 17, 2018) best sums up the disgraceful spectacle: Trump is holding hands with a bare-chested Putin, while his other hand, armed with a gun, fires a bullet into Poor Uncle Sam's unsuspecting head.
Dear gobsmacked pundits, how can you be so terribly surprised? I admit Trump even outtrumped Trump with his latest idiocy, but surprised--maybe, but only a little. This is the man who headed the nefarious birther movement for five years; he discarded his slander only after his election, when old lies had to accede to new ones to keep his base baser than ever. And the racism! I also never forgot his animus against the five minority youths accused of raping a white Central Park jogger--even after they were proven innocent, by DNA analysis, after many years in prison! This inveterate, unintellectual crackpot liar didn't deserve to be president--I've known that for years. Some pundits opined that he'd grow into the job; yeah, I thought, as likely as a chickie could pick and peck enough to grow up into a brontosaurus. Pundits are less sanguine now.
What follows are what a Republican with a conscience and a conscientious Democrat have said about the disastrous summit:
Senator John McCain: No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.
John Brennan, a former director of the C.I.A. tweeted the following, here quoted in its entirety: Donald Trump's press conference in Helsinki rises and exceeds the threshold of "high crimes and misdemeanors." It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump's comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots, where are you?
Wow has finally come to now!
Chuck Schumer, the minority Senate leader began his comment thus: His behavior is so inexplicable and so against the interests of the United States...
Against the interests of the nation, yes, but inexplicable, Mr. Schumer? I think not. Donald Trump has always been anything but inconsistent.
Many experts on TV and elsewhere are asserting in ever greater numbers that the reason behind Trump's kowtowing to Putin is because the latter has dirt on Donald, and might even be in a position to blackmail him. Maybe so, but there is a deeper reason which underlies and explicates the first. We will discuss these two reasons in turn.
First Explanation of Trump's Treasonous Behavior: The Pee Tape
Trump has done a lot of business in Russia over the years; recall his son's statement that Trump, Inc. has profited immensely from ventures in Russia. It is also obvious to anyone who is impartial that Trump's business has been questionable. He has stiffed many workers who were his employees; he hired illegal immigrants and paid them coolie wages; activities such as his charity, Trump University, etc. have been pure scams. These dishonest dealings refer to activities in the United Sates; one could hardly imagine that his projects in Russia would have been pursued in a more honest manner, given the rampant corruption and mafia-like thuggery in that country. There is a good deal of evidence that Trump did (does?) have considerable contacts with the Russian mob.
The government of Russia, a country which has been continually devolving into a police state, has perfected the art of spying on its citizens, a tradition that dates back to czarist times.
It's hard for Americans to realize the extent of the severe restriction on personal freedom in totalitarian countries. I have some knowledge of the spying that went on in East Germany, the former Soviet satellite. I had the opportunity to see some of the archives the SED (the Communist government of the DDR) kept on their citizens. The building that contained them was full, the records--compiled before the digital revolution--were thick. It seems that spying on each other was a national pastime
Trump was a prominent businessman in Russia years before he ran for office, so it is quite possible that agents, with Putin's blessing, have compiled compromising material with which he could be blackmailed.
The most damning possibility is the existence of the so-called pee tape. According to the Steele dossier, Trump was lured to the Ritz Carlton in Moscow to witness two prostitutes urinate in a bed of the presidential suite--but not just any bed, but the bed in which the Obamas had slept in during a visit to Moscow. The dossier refers to Trump's 'perverted conduct at the Ritz Carlton'. A tape of this sordid incident was allegedly made.
The existence of this tape is by no means certain; the evidence for it is circumstantial, supported, however, by four apparently reliable sources.
Due to the fact that Trump has never been a stranger to compromising behavior, let us assume that Putin has damaging information on Trump. But even if he does, I don't think this is the real reason behind Trump's behavior. One musk ask why Trump hates Obama so vehemently in the first place; why he is so obsessed with promulgating his brand; why he has been so desperate to impress, etc.
Our sometimes scraggly pundits need to be spruced up by Occam's razor--what is the most likely reason why Trump acts the way he does?
Second Explanation of Trump's Treasonous Behavior: the Diagnosis
The best way to realize why Trump behaves the way he does is to conclude that he is mentally ill. He is a textbook case of narcissistic personality disorder. He has little or no empathy for others; he is so obsessed with self aggrandizement that he views himself at the center of a solo solar system, reducing all other bodies to satellites; if you don't like to bask in his sunlight, you're an enemy; if a moon accepts its own light as a mere reflection of his, it's a friend. All of these traits are indicative of a severe personality disorder.
I know it sounds partisan, but on analysis, I think malignant narcissism is the best way to explain Trump.
A central part of narcissistic personality disorder is anxiety, the barely conscious realization that one is a failure, causing a negative feedback loop. It's like what the Buddhist tradition calls a hungry ghost, a giant spirit with a tiny head. It is always hungry but never can eat enough to be satisfied. Greedy people are said to be born in hell as hungry ghosts.
The disease explains why Trump is obsessed with Russia, the Mueller investigation, and the (il)legitimacy of his victory. Putin doesn't question whether Trump won big or not; Mueller, by investigating Russian meddling, puts the president's victory into question. Therefore, at least according to our analysis, Mueller is an enemy and Putin is a friend. Remember it's all about him, he can't stand any competition. An independent judiciary and a free press in his view cast shade on the Sun God, thus making them enemies of his private light.
Regarding his anxiety over the election, the example of Hitler comes to mind. He never won the popular vote; in 1932, the Nazi Party won 36% of the vote, down slightly from the previous election. Germany then and now has a coalition government; after he was appointed Chancellor by the senile Hindenburg, Hitler declared an emergency and took over the nation. He never worried about whether the majority voted for him or not. Compare this with Trump's insistence that his inaugural crowds were the biggest ever; that millions of illegals voted for Clinton, etc. His narcissistic insecurities explain why he insists that his wimpy victory was nothing other than spectacular; they also explain why he believes that the F.B.I is conspiring against him. If you're not for him, you're part of a witch hunt.
Hitler didn't care what anybody thought; he pursued his hates with manic determination. Trump, in contrast, is obsessed with what everybody thinks; praise, his heroin, trumps everything.
Dr. Allen Frances, the psychiatrist who devised the criteria for diagnosing narcissistic personality disorder, believes Trump lacks an important criterion for the illness: he thrives, while a narcissist is always ridden and riven with and by anxieties.
I do not agree. If Trump were self-assured and at peace with himself, why would he always be talking nonsense, such as No collusion, No collusion, No collusion? If he were sure of his abilities, why would he insist on being "a very stable genius?' If he had inner strength, wouldn't he be able to withstand at least some criticism? If he were more self-confident, would he divide the world into sycophants and rivals? No, he is a very insecure man; the resultant anxiety is becoming more apparent every day.
To sum up: he is a malignant narcissist, he is mentally ill. He is also way over his head as president. There is no better way to explain why he continues to damage our country without a shred of conscious insight. We are thus becoming pawns of a shameful, shameless bumbleton King.
I will now illustrate his pathology by a famous painting, Saturn Devouring his Sons, one of the black paintings by Goya.
Saturn has been driven mad by anxiety; a prophecy has declared that one of his sons will overthrow him. To prevent this, he devours them one by one. Jupiter will eventually slay him and force him to vomit up his siblings, magically restored to life. After this, the new king will cast the old monster down to Tartarus forever.
Look into Saturn's eyes. What you see are fear and madness. Saturn feels compelled to kill his sons; his eyes inform us, however, that he knows that all the horror will be in vain. His eyes know that he will fail.
Now look into the eyes of Trump in this recent photograph:
Although fear in the eyes of Saturn has been exaggerated to make a striking artistic point, I see more than a little of this fear in Trump's. This is not the face of a man at peace. This is the face of a man who knows that his lies cannot hide the truth forever, namely, that he's a soulwreck, a failed human being.
Trump is devouring our children, as it were, the institutions that have taken us hundreds of years to perfect. How long are we going to let Big T. and his Mini-Titans tear our country apart?
I repeat what you undoubtedly already know by now: Trump sided with the enemy during a joint conference with a murderous thug. The cover of a recent Daily News (July 17, 2018) best sums up the disgraceful spectacle: Trump is holding hands with a bare-chested Putin, while his other hand, armed with a gun, fires a bullet into Poor Uncle Sam's unsuspecting head.
Dear gobsmacked pundits, how can you be so terribly surprised? I admit Trump even outtrumped Trump with his latest idiocy, but surprised--maybe, but only a little. This is the man who headed the nefarious birther movement for five years; he discarded his slander only after his election, when old lies had to accede to new ones to keep his base baser than ever. And the racism! I also never forgot his animus against the five minority youths accused of raping a white Central Park jogger--even after they were proven innocent, by DNA analysis, after many years in prison! This inveterate, unintellectual crackpot liar didn't deserve to be president--I've known that for years. Some pundits opined that he'd grow into the job; yeah, I thought, as likely as a chickie could pick and peck enough to grow up into a brontosaurus. Pundits are less sanguine now.
What follows are what a Republican with a conscience and a conscientious Democrat have said about the disastrous summit:
Senator John McCain: No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.
John Brennan, a former director of the C.I.A. tweeted the following, here quoted in its entirety: Donald Trump's press conference in Helsinki rises and exceeds the threshold of "high crimes and misdemeanors." It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump's comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots, where are you?
Wow has finally come to now!
Chuck Schumer, the minority Senate leader began his comment thus: His behavior is so inexplicable and so against the interests of the United States...
Against the interests of the nation, yes, but inexplicable, Mr. Schumer? I think not. Donald Trump has always been anything but inconsistent.
Many experts on TV and elsewhere are asserting in ever greater numbers that the reason behind Trump's kowtowing to Putin is because the latter has dirt on Donald, and might even be in a position to blackmail him. Maybe so, but there is a deeper reason which underlies and explicates the first. We will discuss these two reasons in turn.
First Explanation of Trump's Treasonous Behavior: The Pee Tape
Trump has done a lot of business in Russia over the years; recall his son's statement that Trump, Inc. has profited immensely from ventures in Russia. It is also obvious to anyone who is impartial that Trump's business has been questionable. He has stiffed many workers who were his employees; he hired illegal immigrants and paid them coolie wages; activities such as his charity, Trump University, etc. have been pure scams. These dishonest dealings refer to activities in the United Sates; one could hardly imagine that his projects in Russia would have been pursued in a more honest manner, given the rampant corruption and mafia-like thuggery in that country. There is a good deal of evidence that Trump did (does?) have considerable contacts with the Russian mob.
The government of Russia, a country which has been continually devolving into a police state, has perfected the art of spying on its citizens, a tradition that dates back to czarist times.
It's hard for Americans to realize the extent of the severe restriction on personal freedom in totalitarian countries. I have some knowledge of the spying that went on in East Germany, the former Soviet satellite. I had the opportunity to see some of the archives the SED (the Communist government of the DDR) kept on their citizens. The building that contained them was full, the records--compiled before the digital revolution--were thick. It seems that spying on each other was a national pastime
Trump was a prominent businessman in Russia years before he ran for office, so it is quite possible that agents, with Putin's blessing, have compiled compromising material with which he could be blackmailed.
The most damning possibility is the existence of the so-called pee tape. According to the Steele dossier, Trump was lured to the Ritz Carlton in Moscow to witness two prostitutes urinate in a bed of the presidential suite--but not just any bed, but the bed in which the Obamas had slept in during a visit to Moscow. The dossier refers to Trump's 'perverted conduct at the Ritz Carlton'. A tape of this sordid incident was allegedly made.
The existence of this tape is by no means certain; the evidence for it is circumstantial, supported, however, by four apparently reliable sources.
Due to the fact that Trump has never been a stranger to compromising behavior, let us assume that Putin has damaging information on Trump. But even if he does, I don't think this is the real reason behind Trump's behavior. One musk ask why Trump hates Obama so vehemently in the first place; why he is so obsessed with promulgating his brand; why he has been so desperate to impress, etc.
Our sometimes scraggly pundits need to be spruced up by Occam's razor--what is the most likely reason why Trump acts the way he does?
Second Explanation of Trump's Treasonous Behavior: the Diagnosis
The best way to realize why Trump behaves the way he does is to conclude that he is mentally ill. He is a textbook case of narcissistic personality disorder. He has little or no empathy for others; he is so obsessed with self aggrandizement that he views himself at the center of a solo solar system, reducing all other bodies to satellites; if you don't like to bask in his sunlight, you're an enemy; if a moon accepts its own light as a mere reflection of his, it's a friend. All of these traits are indicative of a severe personality disorder.
I know it sounds partisan, but on analysis, I think malignant narcissism is the best way to explain Trump.
A central part of narcissistic personality disorder is anxiety, the barely conscious realization that one is a failure, causing a negative feedback loop. It's like what the Buddhist tradition calls a hungry ghost, a giant spirit with a tiny head. It is always hungry but never can eat enough to be satisfied. Greedy people are said to be born in hell as hungry ghosts.
The disease explains why Trump is obsessed with Russia, the Mueller investigation, and the (il)legitimacy of his victory. Putin doesn't question whether Trump won big or not; Mueller, by investigating Russian meddling, puts the president's victory into question. Therefore, at least according to our analysis, Mueller is an enemy and Putin is a friend. Remember it's all about him, he can't stand any competition. An independent judiciary and a free press in his view cast shade on the Sun God, thus making them enemies of his private light.
Regarding his anxiety over the election, the example of Hitler comes to mind. He never won the popular vote; in 1932, the Nazi Party won 36% of the vote, down slightly from the previous election. Germany then and now has a coalition government; after he was appointed Chancellor by the senile Hindenburg, Hitler declared an emergency and took over the nation. He never worried about whether the majority voted for him or not. Compare this with Trump's insistence that his inaugural crowds were the biggest ever; that millions of illegals voted for Clinton, etc. His narcissistic insecurities explain why he insists that his wimpy victory was nothing other than spectacular; they also explain why he believes that the F.B.I is conspiring against him. If you're not for him, you're part of a witch hunt.
Hitler didn't care what anybody thought; he pursued his hates with manic determination. Trump, in contrast, is obsessed with what everybody thinks; praise, his heroin, trumps everything.
Dr. Allen Frances, the psychiatrist who devised the criteria for diagnosing narcissistic personality disorder, believes Trump lacks an important criterion for the illness: he thrives, while a narcissist is always ridden and riven with and by anxieties.
I do not agree. If Trump were self-assured and at peace with himself, why would he always be talking nonsense, such as No collusion, No collusion, No collusion? If he were sure of his abilities, why would he insist on being "a very stable genius?' If he had inner strength, wouldn't he be able to withstand at least some criticism? If he were more self-confident, would he divide the world into sycophants and rivals? No, he is a very insecure man; the resultant anxiety is becoming more apparent every day.
To sum up: he is a malignant narcissist, he is mentally ill. He is also way over his head as president. There is no better way to explain why he continues to damage our country without a shred of conscious insight. We are thus becoming pawns of a shameful, shameless bumbleton King.
I will now illustrate his pathology by a famous painting, Saturn Devouring his Sons, one of the black paintings by Goya.
Saturn has been driven mad by anxiety; a prophecy has declared that one of his sons will overthrow him. To prevent this, he devours them one by one. Jupiter will eventually slay him and force him to vomit up his siblings, magically restored to life. After this, the new king will cast the old monster down to Tartarus forever.
Look into Saturn's eyes. What you see are fear and madness. Saturn feels compelled to kill his sons; his eyes inform us, however, that he knows that all the horror will be in vain. His eyes know that he will fail.
Now look into the eyes of Trump in this recent photograph:
Although fear in the eyes of Saturn has been exaggerated to make a striking artistic point, I see more than a little of this fear in Trump's. This is not the face of a man at peace. This is the face of a man who knows that his lies cannot hide the truth forever, namely, that he's a soulwreck, a failed human being.
Trump is devouring our children, as it were, the institutions that have taken us hundreds of years to perfect. How long are we going to let Big T. and his Mini-Titans tear our country apart?
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