Gone By Christmas

I post comments here and there to keep my mind engaged. The spontaneity is irresistible. A few days ago The New York Times had a story about three Republican congresswomen who broke ranks with Trump over the Epstein files. They are pretty stingy about what gets published, but they included this one in the comment section:

J

John Hamilton

Madison, Wisconsin Nov. 18

So ironic. Trump hoisted on his own petard. We will be looking back on this era very soon, and will wonder how we let it happen. It was a long leadup, well before Trump.
Trump is now melting down. He will not solidify up. The melting process will continue. There isn't much to him, so when he heads downhill he has no internal resources to bring him back. He also has no friends, so it will be comical to see the internal firing squad, as his soon-to-be former cronies turn on him in desperate efforts to save themselves.
We should start preparing now. There has been much criminality in the past ten months: ICE, Homeland Security, DOGE, the Department of Justice, the FBI, others. We will need to go about this carefully, making sure the system holds together in the process of un-Trumping ourselves of this complete nightmare.

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Some are more fun than others, like this one in response to Trump calling a Bloomberg reporter "Piggy" this past Tuesday: 

Always projecting his fears out. He, rotund, gourmand, obese, has no hesitation calling others what he pretends is not himself. As I have said many times before, he is progressively mentally ill. He has now reached a new phase. Gone by Christmas.

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Or, more seriously, from this Yahoo repost of an article in the Wall Street Journal article about the effect ofTrump's tariffs on global growth:

Duh. Trump of course doesn't have a clue about what he is doing, partly because he doesn't have a clue about anything, and mainly because his tariffs were motivated by malevolence and a pathological need to bully and dominate.

In the long run he is only speeding up the process of the demise of worldwide Capitalism. It is an infinite growth system, destroys the planet and its people, and is unsustainable. What passes for Socialism is also infinite growth, so it is no answer either.

There is not answer but time. What will happen will happen, and we don't know how it will play out. The planet has never been in such a predicament before. There are plenty of know-it-alls around, CNBC, Fox, etc. Wall Street Journal. They will all have more than plenty to say as it all comes down, and will all be wrong. They will hold to the belief of infinite growth to the bitter end. It will be far worse than the Great Depression.

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This post is dedicated to the great ones. This calls for a song. The Beatles. Lynne Arielle Trio.

If you need some inspiration, watch this movie, the PBS history of the American Revolution - the entire twelve hours. I spent November 1977 to the end of February 1978 in India. It became clear to me that the vast poverty and disease were the direct result of the British "raj." The nation of Israel was mostly a "gift" from "Great Britain" - a gift that was not theirs to give. A song for the times from Canadian fist nation singer Amanda Rheume.

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Here's a song. Here's another. Donovan. The Allman Brothers. Some money music from Down Under. The Moody Blues. A song for the times from Canadian fist nation singer Amanda Rheume.

The President of The United States is Criminally Insane

And should be removed from office immediately. Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides the legal framework for removal of a president who is unfit or unable to discharge his or her duties. It authorizes the vice president, along with a majority of the principal officers of the administration (the Cabinet) to submit a declaration of unfitness to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

This of course won't happen. The vice president and the Cabinet are all partners in crime with their boss. That makes them at least criminals without conscience, and likely criminally insane as well.

I don't need to make a laundry list of Trump's crimes. We know them all-too-well (Here are some. Here are more.) He has been criminally insane for a long time, a process that likely began in his childhood, advancing over time, getting worse until now he is threatening military action in Nigeria to protect "Christians." As a deranged criminal sociopath he cares not one whit about Christians, real or imagined. He is responding to some conspiracy theory garbage he saw on "right wing" TV. He has announced the resumption of nuclear testing

The country is stuck in a codependency with a deranged criminal sociopath. The clearest evidence of this is that hardly anyone is calling him a deranged criminal sociopath. For reasons of career, safety and survival the corporate news media treat him as the legitimate "leader" of the free world. the U.S. Supreme Court, for supposedly ideological reasons, decides in favor of his various shenanigans. Heh. Support a criminal for ideology. The only ideology that supports a criminal sociopath is a crackpot ideology.

Those who call themselves "leftists" are also part of this codependency, railing about Trump's various criminal actions as oligarchic "fascist," authoritarian and on ideological grounds. In other words, to advance their own stance and stature. The word crackpot is rarely used, serving no ideological purpose.

So here we are. A government that seizes people off the street, transfers many of them to foreign torture prisons, sponsors genocide, bombs fishing boats in two oceans, and now is comfortable with mass domestic hunger. For how much longer? Probably until we hit bottom, start a national 12 step program, admit we are powerless to the drug of Trump criminal insanity, and seek help.

One step for sure is to recognize what the word crackpot means. Dictionary.com has pretty good one - a person who is eccentric, unrealistic or fanatical. Merriam Webster says one given to eccentric or wildly foolish notions. They are little help when it comes to mass hysteria, though - the multitudinous fanatical following Trump has among his mentally challenged followers. 

It will come to an abrupt end. Trump is trying to keep too many balls in the air, and is threatening the entire planet. We can help by making life harder for him. He is not Superman or a super man. The pressure of one thing will be his undoing: the Epstein files. When a prince of the British royal family is dethroned, or whatever de-princing is called, the case is bigger than we imagined, and getting bigger every day. My predictions tend not to come true, but I can still give it another try. Trump gone by Christmas.
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R.I.P. Diane Keaton. I always liked her, even in the movies I din't like. My favorite is Reds. Here's a snippet. The train station scene. The Internationale. The full movie.

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Here's a song. Here's another. Talking Heads. Pink Floyd. World Music in the Schools, 1987.
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Update, November 3:

Trump was interviewed on 60 Minutes Sunday night. Here's a rundown. I noticed a couple of things worth noting. One is that he squints his right eye. The body exhibits opposite to the brain, and may signal that Trump is more dominant in the right side of his brain, having to do with creativity and free thinking. And, more ease with lying all the time. 

The other thing I noticed is that he is at ease with coming up with extensive, confident answers. Lies, of course, but on task and manipulative. He had just returned from an overseas trip to several Asian countries, having met with their leaders, plus an extra in Chinese President Xi Jinping in Korea. I think I know the drug that keeps Trump going. Prednisone. It is a corticosteroid used to decrease the inflammation and suppress the immune system. Among its side effects are weight gain, swelling and psychosis. It also can increase alertness and relieve pain, making it easier to function. It is addictive. Addiction runs in Trump's family.

Penn State professor Sophia McClennen writes in Salon that Trump's greatest destruction isn't political chaos or partisan decay, but the destruction of the American mind. Maybe, but he kind of needs to stand in line with television, the Internet, social media, alcohol and drugs. And, or course, guns. And, lest we forget, the poisoning of our ecosystem by corporations who are destroying the planet with their unregulated greed.

Here's an interview from April 13, 2020 on Madison's WORT with Sarah Kendzior, author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America.

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Update, November 8:

Surprise of surprises, Genocide Joe was even more Genocide Joe that we gave him discredit for. He, and his underlings Blinken, Sullivan and others were fully aware that they were supporting and inciting genocide in Gaza. Could Trump be worse? Of course, but genocidists exist at the bottom of human existence. 

Psychologist Steven Pinker was interviewed recently in a broadcast by the Commonwealth Club of California about how common knowledge is necessary for social coordination. He elaborates in his latest book "When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life." He gives the example of Donald Trump, whom everyone knows that everyone knows that he is a deranged criminal sociopath (my description, not his), but there is a common pretend that he is a normal and legitimate world leader. Pretends like this are ceased suddenly, typically when one significant dissenter explodes the myth. Like the king who has no clothes. Or, say, the complete publication of the Epstein Files.