W. Niederhut

Joe, In a nutshell, we're talking about a severe Axis II Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The classical theory of narcissism, as described by the Viennese psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut, is that early in life the narcissist defends against feelings of inner worthlessness by developing an imaginary, "grandiose self." They, then, tend to project both experiences of the self-- wonderful and worthless-- on to the rest of the world, perceiving others as either idealized, wonderful "winners," or worthless, abject "losers." Of course, in reality, we all have good and bad traits. So, among other problems, NPD is a cognitive-perceptual disorder. Trump is really a textbook case of an extreme narcissistic personality-- a man who even idealizes his own excrement to the extent that he craps in a golden toilet! He idealizes wealth-- even proclaiming in 2017 that he "only wanted rich people in (his) Cabinet." Conversely, he imagines that those who are poor, working class, or have dark skin, etc., are worthless "losers," from "sh*thole" countries and neighborhoods. And Trump also has features of sociopathy-- i.e. Anti-social Personality Disorder-- which can co-occur with narcissistic personality disorders. Sociopaths are characterized by a lack of empathy, "conscience," and guilt about harming others (including animals.) Beginning early in life, they develop a sense that they can only get their needs met by manipulating others-- rather than by trusting others to respond to their needs in a nurturing, compassionate manner. And they typically have no identification with a moral, compassionate parental figure-- either because the parents are absent, or sociopathic themselves. (Oddly, there also seems to be a genetic determinant of ASP in some adoption studies.) One of Trump's biographers has mentioned that Donald has always gotten a kick out of scamming people, and getting away with scams. IMO, he also has a sadistic streak-- seeming to enjoy harming people.

It's one more example, among many, of how Trump constantly "projects" his own misconduct on to others. He is, unquestionably, the most "crooked" politician in American history, by several orders of magnitude. Yet, he labeled his 2016 opponent, "crooked Hillary." Simultaneously, he repeatedly attacked the Clinton Foundation in 2016 as corrupt-- then, ultimately, had to close the Trump Foundation because it was thoroughly corrupt. He brought some of Bill Clinton's former sex partners to a debate against Hillary at the very time that he was paying hush money to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal -- and working with Fox and David Pecker to bury stories about his sex life. In a realistic sense, we can often identify Trump's own criminal conduct on the basis of his projected accusations against his adversaries. In this instance, we see a POTUS who was elected by foreign interference in our elections claiming that his opponents will be elected by...foreign interference.

Hard to believe that Trump actually joked at his Tulsa rally about ordering his staff to cut back on testing for COVID-19, in order to "reduce" the tally of known cases. It's like ordering people to turn off their headlights while driving at night.

Stormy Daniels just Tweeted, "Told y'all he exaggerates about the size of things." 🤪 And, speaking of Stormy Daniels... Tulsa Trump Supporter Says He'd Have To Commit Adultery To Lose Her Vote https://crooksandliars.com/2020/06/tulsa-trump-supporter-says-hed-have-commit

I just had an idea for an epic poem... (Apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson.) THE CHARGE OF THE WHITE BRIGADE !! Red hats to the right of 'em !! Red hats to the left of 'em !! Y'all Antifa libs better not mess with 'em !! Into the rally of death strode the 20,000 !!

Yes, Ron, Trump is, obviously, the Jim Jones of American political history, and his cult members in Tulsa seem eager to drink his Kool Aid this evening. As for Bolton, speaking as a "virtue signalling SJW," I never could stand that Neocon SOB. BTW, what is an SJW in Wheeler-ese nowadays? (I thought it was an old J-Date acronym for, "Straight Jewish Woman.")

Meanwhile, a statue of Ulysses S. Grant has, apparently, been toppled in San Francisco. Someone hasn't studied their American history. Grant was not a saint, but no one played a more crucial role in defeating the Confederate "slave power" -- beginning with Fort Donelson, Fort Henry, and Shiloh.

Three cheers for Jefferson Morley! Now, if only someone would publish an essay about the NYT not wanting to talk about the explosive demolition of the 47-floor sky scraper, WTC7, on 9/11-- for the past 19 years!

Bill Barr is, obviously, firmly in charge of Trump's DOJO-- Department of Justice Obstruction. His 53 GOP Senate vote confirmation as Sensei of Trump's DOJO has been an unmitigated disaster from Day One-- beginning with his termination, suppression, and misrepresentation of the Mueller Report, which has still not been turned over to Congress by Sensei Barr! As for Bolton's book and Russia-gate, Bolton said that Putin has, "played Trump like a fiddle." Who'd have thunk? And, regarding the Stinky in Helsinki, where Trump announced to the entire world that Putin did not meddle in our 2016 U.S. election, we now learn that Trump, apparently, thought that Finland is part of Russia... 🤪

Not sure, but I just heard that Trump is calling out the Oklahoma National Guard for his Tulsa Tea Party tomorrow. It seems like a deliberate poltical stunt, in which Trump plans to star as the Caucasian Law and Order Honcho who will protect America from dangerous darkies and "Antifa" liberals. It also seems like a golden opportunity for right wing agents provocateurs.

David, This Slate article brings to mind the 500+ citizen videos of police and National Guard assaults on George Floyd protesters this month. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YmZeSxpz52qT-10tkCjWOwOGkQqle7Wd1P7ZM1wMW0E/htmlview?usp=sharing&pru=AAABcr6v5lw*SeaEDWTIftx2Ff8zxHn66w All of them are shocking, including the video (below) of National Guard troopers shooting at people on their porch in Minneapolis, while saying, "Light 'em up!" When I first watched this bizarre video, I noticed that the troopers were acting like they were on street patrol in Kabul or Fallujah-- hostile foreign territory. It was like a scene out of Clint Eastwood's jingoist movie, America Sniper, transposed to a quiet, middle class neighborhood in Minneapolis.

I drove from Flagstaff down to Phoenix last April, (2019) and the ambient temperature rose from the mid-70s (in Flagstaff) to 100 degrees (in Phoenix.) In fact, I ran into a guy carrying his skis in the elevator of my hotel in Flagstaff the previous evening. (He had been skiing on that mountain outside of Flagstaff.) It's sad to read about those Arizona forest fires this week, but not surprising. I think we might have a serious forest fire problem in southern Colorado, as well, this summer.

It remains a banner year for Darwin Awards in Trumptopia. This sheriff was invited to the Trump White House after refusing to enforce COVID public health measures on the grounds that, in his exalted opinion, they were unnecessary and un-Constitutional! A GOP sheriff vowed not to enforce Arizona’s coronavirus restrictions. Now he’s tested positive https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/18/arizona-coronavirus-sheriff/ June 18, 2020 As the rest of Arizona followed a stay-at-home order imposed by the governor in May, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb proclaimed that the state’s attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus was unconstitutional. “The numbers don’t justify the actions anymore,” the defiant Republican sheriff told the Arizona Republic at the time, vowing not to arrest people or shut down businesses that violated the order. “Three hundred deaths is not a significant enough number to continue to ruin the economy.” On Wednesday, less than two months after publicly challenging the state’s efforts to slow the spread of a virus that has now spiked in Arizona, Lamb announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus before a scheduled meeting with President Trump. In a Facebook post, Lamb wrote he was invited on Tuesday to the White House as part of Trump’s meeting with law enforcement officials and the signing of his executive action on policing. As part of a mandatory coronavirus screening for all White House visitors, he learned he had the virus. The sheriff, who is asymptomatic, said he believes he got infected during a campaign event on Saturday, speculating it was “likely I came into contact with an infected individual.” A video of a campaign event in San Tan Valley, Ariz., over the weekend showed Lamb, who is running unopposed in November, hugging, shaking hands and taking pictures with supporters. The video shows no one in the large crowd of people appears to be wearing a mask or maintaining social distancing. The same goes for Lamb, who has been selling campaign merchandise and autographed photos of himself during his unopposed bid for reelection, according to PinalCentral.com. “Unfortunately, as a law enforcement official and elected leader, we do not have the luxury of staying home,” he wrote. “This line of work is inherently dangerous, and that is a risk we take when we sign up for the job. Today, that risk is the COVID-19 virus.”

Here's an outstanding essay, "Southern Comfort," by Princeton historian James McPherson on the subject of "state's rights" and the Lost Cause mythology. McPherson has an encyclopedic knowledge of Civil War era history, and he's also a great writer. His Pulitzer Prize winning book, Battle Cry of Freedom, is one of the best books I've read in the past 20 years-- a masterpiece. Among other things, it's a social and economic history of the 1850s and 60s in the United States. Southern Comfort by James M. McPherson https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2001/04/12/southern-comfort/ April 12, 2001

Such a strange coincidence. I just happened to watch John Ford's 1948 film, Fort Apache, for the first time ever last week-- on Amazon Prime. (I've been reading some 19th century narratives and watching old movies about the Apaches recently, including Stagecoach, (1939) Broken Arrow, (1951) and Rio Grande (1950.) I thought Fort Apache was quite good, and also funny -- especially the scene where high-falutin' Col. Henry Fonda asks the Irish sergeant if the rot gut liquor being sold by the crooked Indian Affairs agent is really whiskey. The sergeant takes a swig, grimaces, and gasps in an Irish brogue, "Well, it's better than no whiskey at all, sir." 🤥 As for Joe Biden, he has a serious goofiness problem. It was obvious in the recent Democratic primary debates-- which he lost, consistently.

Great article, Rob. As a black-listed observer of the Soviet military and the U.S. military-industrial complex, Stanley Marks, obviously, had a keen perspective on JFK's murder and the Warren Commission cover up. It's a shame-- and probably no accident-- that his keen observations were buried in such obscurity.

I was underwhelmed by the video evidence in Trump's recent West Point "Water Gait" scandal. His comment claiming that, "We would have less COVID cases if we did less testing," was far more scandalous, IMO. 🙄

Paul Krugman's latest... We've been talking about this "flight to crap" phenomenon here for the past two months. One thing Krugman mentioned that I hadn't heard about is that sports gamblers in the U.S. have, apparently, switched to day-trading stocks in recent weeks -- because of the COVID sports shut down. Honestly, I've never seen such a radical disconnect between stock prices and economic fundamentals. Market Madness in the Pandemic Why are investors rushing to buy junk? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/opinion/coronavirus-stock-market.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Gibbons tells a story in the ZZ Top documentary about the Moving Sidewalks opening for Jimi Hendrix in '68, and playing Purple Haze and Foxy Lady. As they exited the stage after their set, Hendrix was standing in the wings and he said to Gibbons, "You've got a lot of nerve, boy! I like that!" I agree that Gibbons was an under-rated prodigy, even then.

This is the ultimate Education Forum non sequitur, Ron, but, speaking of Texas, have you watched the outstanding Netflix documentary about ZZ Top? I didn't realize that Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard have now been together for over 50 years! Those three old boys gotsta get paid for their years of hard work! 🤥

Speaking of Biden's VP candidates, what's with the recent M$M charade about his alleged VP "selection" process? My impression for the past few months was that Biden would put Kamala Harris on the ticket. There's no way that the Wall Street/DNC establishment that sabotaged Elizabeth Warren and Bernie in the primaries would allow Biden to put Elizabeth Warren on the ticket. I'll volunteer to eat crow if I'm wrong on this one.

Correct, Kirk. Polk was an erstwhile protege of Andrew Jackson who had distinguished himself as a hard working Speaker of the House and Governor of Tennessee. Van Buren's re-nomination for the Presidency was sabotaged by Southern Democrats for his opposition to Texas annexation, and Polk emerged as a slave owning Southerner acceptable to Northern Dems. He pledged, in advance, to serve only one term. But what a term it was! In addition to presiding over the massive territorial acquisition of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, and southern Colorado, (from Mexico) Polk also oversaw the formal acquisition of Oregon and Washington state. He also established the precedent of outlining his legislative agenda in the State of the Union Address, and the pledge to serve as President of all citizens, not merely those who voted for him. (No one told Trump.)

There's a strange rumor on the internet that Barbara Bush (nee Pierce) was the illegitimate daughter of Aleister Crowley, conceived during an occult ritual.

Oh, I see. So the recent resurgence of the COVID pandemic is actually an attempted coup d'etat by Antifa against Il Douche? Got it... 🤪

David, During the past two years, after I retired, I have been reading biographies of James K. Polk, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, (and other 19th century U.S. Presidents, including Van Buren, Jackson, Taylor, Fillmore, etc.) from an Easton Press Library of the Presidents series that I bought on eBay several years ago. It's an interesting exercise in historiography, because there is, obviously, considerable overlap in the historical events described in the lives of these contemporaries-- told from different geographical and cultural perspectives. One of the most striking things about these Antebellum Presidents, as early as the beginning of Jacksonian Democracy in the 1830s, (and under Van Buren) is how desperately they all struggled to bridge the growing chasm between the North and the slave-owning Southern aristocracy. Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan, in particular, have been vilified for their policies to preserve the old Jacksonian coalition of Northern and Southern Democrats-- including the dreadful Fugitive Slave laws. (Fillmore, the Whig from Buffalo, was similarly lambasted for the Compromise of 1850.) In fact, these Antebellum politicians were all engaged in the same impossible task-- trying to prevent the inevitable fracture of the Union over the issue of slavery in the Western territories. That issue came to the fore more prominently in the aftermath of the annexation of Texas and Polk's Mexican War. (Even Lincoln, himself, had never advocated interference with slavery where it existed in the South, prior to the Civil War.) Pierce and Buchanan were, essentially, adhering to the old Jackson/Van Buren/Polk party line of appeasing the Southern half of the Democratic coalition, to keep the Union (and the Democratic Party) intact. Yet, ironically, both men were pilloried by historians after the war for not preventing the catastrophic dissolution of the Union! Fillmore has been similarly relegated to the dustbin of history for the Compromise of 1850. I'm, certainly, not defending these Antebellum Jacksonian Democrats for compromising with Southern slave owners on issues relating to the extension of slavery in the territories and Fugitive Slave laws, but we can't have it both ways. They wouldn't have preserved the Union until 1860 if they had not compromised with the Southern aristocracy on slavery.