Trump tells us to presume that anonymously-sourced quotes are fabricated.
Trump believes that the writer of the anonymous NYT op-ed piece committed "treason."
Trump demands that "the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!"
Yet Trump has no problem with Q-anon or the followers of Q-anon -- even though Q is (supposedly) an anonymous insider revealing the most closely-guarded secrets of our time, including the hidden workings of the Mueller probe and the innermost plans of Donald Trump. No-one notices the contradiction.
In fact, the Q Qrazies have gone qrazier than usual...
Milton "Bill" Cooper -- the proto-Alex Jones of the 1990s -- proved that there's a massive audience for wild, unprovable claims from alleged "inside" sources. Back then, I was intrigued by the question of Coop's motive. Money clearly played a role -- he made a pretty good living as a conspiracy salesman -- yet he demonstrated a willingness to die (and to kill) for his weirdo weltanschauung. Although he told many easily provable lies, and although he often contradicted himself, Cooper actually believed his own bullshit.
So what's in it for Q? What's his motive?
He's nuttier than a jar of Peter Pan. At least, that's what some Trump administration officials told a Yale psychiatrist named Brandy Lee.
Lee briefed a dozen lawmakers from the House and Senate last December about Trump's fitness to be President. But lawmakers on Capitol Hill weren’t the only ones alarmed by the President’s erratic behavior, his troubling tweets or his temper.
A pair of West Wing representatives contacted her two separate times on the same day because they believed the President was “unraveling.”
Political psychologist Dr. Bart Rossi said it is clear that Trump has been exhibiting narcissistic behavior and it has been getting worse as the pressures of the office mount and the federal Russia probe stretches on.What bothers me most of all is this: Trump surely knows what he should say in order to calm people down, yet he can't bring himself to utter the words or to change his self-destructive behavior.
“I see someone who has a real narcissistic problem,” Rossi told The News. “The problem is he is narcissistic to the extreme. He’s self-absorbed to the point where he’s only concerned about himself.”
“The other problem is that he has a thought disturbance,” Rossi added. “When Donald Trump says something he expects others to believe it is reality even if it is completely fabricated.”
He knows that narcissistic is one of the first words people associate with the name "Trump." The obvious course of action would be to speak humbly and make a few self-deprecatory jokes. All other politicians do this. But Trump cannot; something his psyche prevents him. This guy not only lacks humility, he can't even fake humility when doing so is clearly in his interest.
Take the passing of John McCain. This was an occasion for Trump to make a gracious statement: "Yes, he and I were in opposition. But I know full well that a political opponent can also be a great man..." You can fill in the rest. Any writer on Trump's staff could have knocked out a humble, civilized declaration. Even if Trump had read this statement with an obvious lack of conviction, he would have been lauded for his statesmanship.
Yet he couldn't do it. Donald Trump cannot feign humility even when doing so would aid his cause. Hell, even Hitler knew how to perform that trick.
We are witnessing the most remarkable case of egomania in American political history.
If you're young, you may not know who Jack Benny was -- but if the name is familiar to you, you may have heard about the most famous moment on his radio show. Benny is walking down the street when a robber tells him: "Your money or your life!" -- followed by a long, long, long pause. Benny finally answers: "I'm thinking about it." Similarly, if Trump had to choose between a experiencing a momentary lapse in pride and giving up his life, there would be a long, long, long pause as he thought about it. And in the end, he'd probably say "Shoot."
In real world terms: If forced to choose between impeachment and not being a blowhard, Trump would choose impeachment.
I don't think that impeachment is likely. However, it seems clear that a faction within the administration have given serious thought to a 25th amendment solution. Indeed, the current debate seems designed to prepare us for that outcome.
8 comments:
So the Washington Insiders want to stage a coup against the Washington Outsider. lol.
The current situation where one or more individuals on White House Staff have anonymously advertised their resistance, seems designed to push Donald down a dead end alleyway of increasing frantic paranoia and delusion which will make a 25th Amendment solution inevitable.
Here's my conspiracy theory: I’m betting that within the next couple of weeks, a guy will appear on Fox and reveal how he tricked the gullible NYT into publishing that op-ed by a non-existent person, thereby forever destroying the last fragile residues of NYT's and MSM's credibility.
-brumel
We survived Richard Nixon tho allies and enemies both thought we were circling the drain. This time around we have Putin stirring the Trumptards to rise up should the Great Wipe Dope be forced out of office.
The best we can hope at this time is a medical event sidelines Trump, anything else will be a shit circus.
Donald Trump melting down into a burbling pile of protoplasm for the TV cameras may be the medical event of which Mr. Mike speaks.
brumel, I thought of that as well, so have quite a lot of people actually. While I think it's possible, I find it unlikely. The NYT say they are confident in the identity of the person who wrote it. Of course, that doesn't mean they actually know, but I can't imagine they'd be willing to throw their business down the toilet for something like this. They would loose a LOT of readers (mostly progressive liberals) for falling for such a ploy. Still, it's within the realm of possibility, that's for sure.
Shera Bechard makes accusations against Elliot Broidy. This is wild stuff.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/elliott-broidys-mistress-shera-bechard-says-he-demanded-she-get-abortion
At the Al Smith dinner in NYC three weeks before the 2016 election, where traditionally the candidates deliver some self-deprecatory jokes, the best Trump could come up with was to poke fun at his wife for giving the same speech at the Republican convention that Michelle Obama gave to the Democratic convention in 2008, and to comment that "it wasn't her fault". I agree that Trump couldn't bring himself to fake humility even to stay in office.
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