February 18, 2017

'Enemies of the people': Trump remark echoes history's worst tyrants

'Enemies of the people': Trump remark echoes history's worst tyrants

The US president's use of "enemies of the people" raises unavoidable echoes of some of history's most murderous dictators.

Under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, out-of-favour artists and politicians were designated enemies and many were sent to hard labour camps or killed. Others were stigmatised and denied access to education and employment.

And Chairman Mao, the leader of China who presided over the deaths of millions of people in a famine brought about by his Great Leap Forward, was also known to use the phrase against anyone who opposed him, with terrible consequences.

"Charming that our uneducated President manages to channel the words of Stalin and fails to hear the historical resonance of this phrase," tweeted Mitchell Orenstein, a professor of Russian and East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr Trump is not the first US president or politician to have an antagonistic relationship with the media, and Richard Nixon is known to have privately referred to the press as "the enemy". But the president's latest broadside, with all its attendant historical echoes, is unprecedented.

February 18, 2017

Donald Trump's Real Ambition

Excellent analysis of what makes Trump tick like a watch with a broken mainspring.

Donald Trump's Real Ambition

I normally stay clear of psychologically profiling public figures. But when the writing is so clearly on the wall, when the stakes are so high, and when the data is so consistent, I am inclined to comment. With Trump, what I see is so clearly a textbook case of a metaphorical computer program running amok, that I feel its my imperative to reveal the source code. Hopefully by making Trump’s ambition open-source, we can clearly see where it is headed, and we can take action to halt the program before it reaches its ultimate conclusion.

What is this program? There are many ways to frame it. Some therapists prefer to couch it in terms of “narcissism“. “Oh look at that Trump, he’s such a grandiose narcissist!” But I believe this is not a helpful description for several reasons. For one, it perpetuates an us vs. them mentality. After all, we are all narcissists in varying degrees. The computer program that Trump is running is a grossly exaggerated version of a program, but it’s still a variation on a potentiality that lies deep within all of us. The other reason why this is unsatisfactory is that it doesn’t actually explain anything. Trump obviously has extreme narcissistic tendencies (a high sense of superiority and entitlement). To say he is a “narcissist” is merely saying that he consistently displays an abundance of narcissistic behaviors: not all that revealing.

No, I believe we need to look deeper at the underlying motivation behind virtually everything Trump does, from his choice of teammates to his tweets to his private and public statements. In my estimation, Trump is driven by one thing and one thing only: the search for glory. Everything stems from this one simple fact, and everything falls into place in a predicable fashion once we fully understand the operation of this fundamentally human drive....

As you can see, Horney’s descriptions of the search for glory are just as relevant to today’s politics as ever. The reality is that Trump is human. Just like the rest of us, he strives for admiration and respect. However, I genuinely fear that his search for glory is so extreme– compounded and made stronger through many years of having his idealized self reaffirmed by the media– that a presidency would result in a complete disaster. Taken to its ultimate conclusion, the search for glory inevitably leads in one direction: self-idealization. In my view, what this country needs is not further idealization of Trump, but nation-wide growth. I very rarely write about politics, but I hope by making clearer the operation of Trump’s primary motivation, it can help us all more clearly see where this is heading if we don’t vote against it. I’ll leave the last note to Horney:

“We have reason to wonder whether more human lives– literally and figuratively– are not sacrificed on the altar of glory than for any other reason.”

February 17, 2017

Colbert demolishes Trump's first solo press conference

Enjoy...

"You'll want to use a spoon to get every drop of the crazy."

"Alllllll-righty then."

"No, you inherited a fortune, we elected a mess."

"Wow, Betsy DeVos works quick."

"It's in the highly classified briefing book, "Nuclear Holocaust Bad."

February 15, 2017

"In Like Flynn"

Now to be recast as,

"Out Like Flynn"


Ya think?

February 11, 2017

8 Fact-Checks On The Trump Administration This Week

8 Fact-Checks On The Trump Administration This Week

The Trump administration continued to play loose with facts in week three. President Trump took aim at one of his favorite targets — the media — accusing them of not reporting terrorist attacks. The very list of attacks the White House released hours later contradicted those claims.

Trump again cited incorrect statistics on the country's murder rate, though a day later he did use the right numbers. Press secretary Sean Spicer had his own "Bowling Green massacre" moment when he referred multiple times to a terrorist attack in Atlanta that never happened. And at the end of the week, President Trump again brought up false claims that there were illegal voters in the November election.

But the number of false claims we're finding have decreased this week. We've highlighted eight issues or statements below. And throughout the week you can find us annotating the president's tweets for more context, too:

"It's gotten to a point where it's not even being reported. In many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it. They have their reasons and you understand that." ...; In an interview which aired Monday with Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, Trump claims only 109 people were affected by travel ban...; Trump in a Tuesday meeting with U.S. chiefs of police and sheriffs: "... the murder rate is the highest it's been in, I guess, 45 to 47 years."...; White House press secretary Sean Spicer cites a non-existent Atlanta terrorist attack...; Trump attacks CNN's Chris Cuomo on Twitter...; Yemen raid — success or failure?...; Ivanka Trump and Nordstrom...; Trump brings up voting fraud allegations — again ...

February 10, 2017

Trump lashes out at Blumenthal for relaying Gorsuchs 'disheartening' comments

Trump lashes out at Blumenthal for relaying Gorsuch’s 'disheartening' comments

1) Blumenthal didn't lie about what Gorsuch said about Trump's attack on a federal court justice...

2) Who is Trump to criticize ANYONE'S military record? At least Blumenthal joined up and served another six years in the reserve. Trump? He begged off serving repeatedly with the lame "heel spur"excuse.

Trump's a big baby who needs a very long nap.

February 7, 2017

Open letter to Trump

Dear Trump,


We don't like you.

You are a bad person.

Please go away.


Sincerely,

The Majority

February 5, 2017

Why Judge Robart Blocked the Muslim Ban

Key excerpt:

"Robart’s order did not elaborate extensively on the ban’s constitutional infirmities. But in ruling for Washington—and in blocking the entirety of the ban—he appeared to agree with the state’s claim that Trump’s executive order cannot be carried out in a constitutional manner. That’s critically important. Most other judges to consider the ban so far have found that it violates the due-process rights of immigrants already in the United States and those who were on their way into the country when the order was signed. Robart went far beyond that rather narrow question of law, finding that the entire order is likely unconstitutional, presumably because it is irrational and motivated by unlawful anti-Muslim animus."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/02/why_judge_robart_blocked_trump_s_muslim_ban.html

February 4, 2017

Like mother, like son...