The 14 Amendment should be used to stop Trump's campaigning. Some say we can't use the 14th because it hasn't been decided in court yet, whether he was responsible for Jan 6. I really doubt that the root cause of Jan 6th was something besides Trump. We should err on the side of safety on this matter. When I worked for the federal government, even the appearance of wrongdoing was grounds for removal in some cases.
Yeah, it's funny; people seem more concerned about age related cognitive impairment in Biden, than secondary psychopathy in Trump.
Agree. And the Constitutional Amendments weren't pondered over and studied, debated, discussed and written painstakingly word for word --- to not be used. Those words were written to protect.
I agree. Biden, a wise sage. Look at his legislative actions. I sometimes remind people that the Pope is older. And Biden is physically active. He processes large volumes of information quickly, due to his experience, domestic and foreign. He is a student of history by his life experiences. I compare his wisdom to Lincoln's, and he has studied Lincoln. How do we break apart the cult? Look forward to June 4, Dr Bandy Lee, should all give good thought and formulate questions to ask of her wisdom in the area of psychology and cults & messaging.
This whole affair has literally turned my stomach. That the GOP, especially Gym Jordan, has been allowed to parlay Durham's nothingburger into "THE FBI WAS AFTER TRUMP!!!!" given that we know the New York FBI office, in conjunction with, perhaps at the direction of Rudy Giuliani, was about to leak a river of lies and disinformation about Hillary Clinton in October 2016, the potential act that led to the Comey letter. There may be a bias in the FBI, it has certainly never operated as a friend to Democrats even in its history, but the mere idea that it is biased against Trump, even as it is run by Federalist Society member and Trump appointee Chris Wray, is laughable. Why in the hell won't the media call them out on it???
Biden seems to be replacement averse, I'd bet in order to avoid comparisons with Trump. Those comparisons would be totally specious, but the corporate media would treat them as equal acts.
Well to your response - WELL that’s ridiculous and too damn bad. Nor do I really care about corporate media and their thoughts. HERE’S A LIST: DeJoy —OUT. Wray - He had corporate clients in private law who played BIG PARTS IN RYSSIAN BUREAUCRACY AND ECONOMY
I used to ask why the media wasn't doing its job too. I finally had to acknowledge that the media is deeply in the tank for the GOP and MAGA and will never do what we all knew was correct and rational. They are doing exactly what they are paid to do and want to do =//
They value access to Republicans and their cocktail parties far more than they value the truth or journalistic integrity. And besides, transcribing GOP talking points is ever so much easier than actually working.
And here we are. Can anyone count one day since 1/21/21 when he refused to attend Biden's inauguration that Trump has not been in the news? Can we count the number of days when he did not dominate the news? Nothing has slowed down the coverage. Nothing has pierced the aura of normality that the NYT and WaPo (but especially NYT) wants to build around him. Trump is a twice impeached, serial liar, proven sexual predator, indicted for fraud loser, and yet he is still covered as if he were a normal politician, a normal candidate. What will they do if Jack Smith indicts him for espionage which is beginning to look likely? What will they do if Fani Willis indicts him for election fraud (assuming the GA governor doesn't use his newly granted power to remove her)? What will they do if he is indicted for his role in the Jan 6 terrorist attack? And what will they do if the case against Rudy goes forward and the evidence that he was selling pardons comes out in discovery?
Once the GOP had exalted Trump to demigod status, any attack on him was seen as unpatriotic treachery. It opened a pandora's box of paranoia.... everyone's after Trump. This kind of victimhood and paranoia breeds vengeance, which is classic fascism, and also 'Alice in Wonderland" lunacy.
Hopefully, in this case, the average carpooling busy American is in 'media-induced' coma since it's not an election year. They are taking the year off, busy & healing from all the junk we've lived through. For us, we keep on it, and keep trying to repair the systems, refine our messaging strategies for the 2024 cycle.
Yes, and Dr. Bandy Lee has supported Dr. Mary Trump's assessment of he uncle in her book that he suffers from multiple personality disorders including antisocial.........sociopathy..........and the "disregard for the rights of others!!!!!"
People doing wrong, just link arms to protect each other. That is why small-time intentional harmful crimes that affect others must be reckoned with. Criminal behavior, rudeness and lying must become unfashionable again.
I agree, how? idk. In conjunction with education of what is happening, where the needle is moving (thank you Professor Ruth for education and leadership), after Lucid calls, we must ponder and then develop strategies. We must organize with other pro-democracy folks. Just saw this week, a new PAC group, 'Dirt Road Democrats' -- focusing on rural America. After all, I bet most of them in rural America are . . . newsflash: middle-class. The GOP works to destroy middle-classers. Why would middle-class people support the oligarchs? Go 'Dirt Road Democrats !!!! (headed up by former Rep. Jamie Harrison).
Bandy made a brave move with her book about the mental condition of Trump. Unfortunately, she got a lot of flak from Yale and the APA. In the end, she was right.
He's a paranoid, psychopathic, narcissist! Compulsive in his need for attention and dominance. Cruel and deranged in temperament. And an evil and charismatic cult leader.
Dr Lance Dodes was the first psychiatrist that I saw on TV (MSNBC) to recognize Trump's personality disorder and warn the public of his danger. He criticized the APA for their punishment of Dr Lee.
I would expect a loyalist like Rep. Jim Jordan to be rewarded with a high ranking position within the Trump administration if there ever is another one (god forbid). Maybe chief of staff or senior adviser in charge of communications or should we say propaganda minster. Sort of being what Goebbels was to the Fuhrer. He shows a squirrely eagerness if not a flair for doing authoritarian theater within the chamber of the U.S. Congress paid for with US tax dollars. He's very focused on pumping out not only Kremlin talking points but promoting Trump's latest attacks against the FBI or any other institution that may threaten him with accountability for his crimes and treachery. Jordan with his sleeves rolled up is a man who never flinches no matter how ridiculous, fact or evidence free his conspiracy theories are as long it helps MAGA and hurts Democrats and Pres Biden. As the stench of garbage and corruption continues to thicken around him and his media escapades, I think there's a growing sense that none of this circus is being taken very seriously.
It's hard to fathom how so many people in the GOP can buy into the deviance that was/is being sold by Trump. I know people whom have bought into the fascist juggernaut and it is shocking to hear them speak about subjects like "the stolen election" and say it with a straight face. I knew years ago that propaganda had power, but never did I believe HOW powerful it was until the Trump era.
Fascism seems to be a fantasy that is perceived as the truth, and when these fantasy believers fill key positions in government, truth is destroyed and so is what's left of our democracy. Fascism promotes collective delusion.
Fascism does promote collective delusion! Really, it’s amazing how many “normal-like” people buy into Trump and his cult! They live in the MAGA Bubble!
Why has the United States turned into a country where several millions of adult voters have joined/supported a far right wing, white supremacist, theocratic cult of personality? Is it because they are terrified of the multicultural, multi-ethic, multi-racial, multi-gendered democracy much of the US is struggling to become? IOW, are they terrified of losing their white privilege? Or do they see a US where material well being is getting constricted (due to climate change, energy prices, loss of middle class jobs) and they want to make sure that their group (largely rural/exurban aging whites) gets a guaranteed place near the front of the line?
The root causes of our fascist trend are many and you have touched on some. After reading several books on our decline and our embracing of fascism, it seems to me that the advent of neoliberal economics is the major cause. Not only did it outsource labor and take away middle class jobs, but it deindustrialized America. A broken middle class became an angry middle class. They saw Trump as the new Messiah, ignoring the swatika arm band he was wearing.
You pose excellent questions. You drill down to core, I believe that they want their 'placement' guaranteed. They see white privilege slipping. They do not want to share.
These are great questions, and some that Mary Trump gets into with her recent book that deals with the psychology of America and its current suffering from complex PTSD involving unresolved race issues! The book is entitled “The Reckoning: Our Nation’s Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal” (2021) and discusses the extreme toll on the well-being of America as it has never dealt with the black and white issues in America. In other words, people have never atoned for the “original sins” of enslaving an entire race of people -- and have never owned up to the advantages of white supremacy and white privilege.
Mary Trump in her book says that white people today are not responsible for what happened 400 years ago but that does not mean they have not benefited from this system that continues to exist today. Our original sins have never properly been acknowledged and Republicans now want to erase them entirely! This is what the book “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” by Nikole Hannah-Jones tries to convey, and what CRT discusses in undergraduate and graduate level courses (CRT has never been taught in K-12 grades). Republicans also want to turn the enslavement issue around and say that young white children are made to feel guilty for slavery which is completely false. But what Republicans never talk about is the feeling of young black children whose history is erased or sanitized to the point that they are not even considered. Republicans ask nothing about those children’s well-being who are already suffering from the unaddressed black and white generational trauma and complex PTSD issues Mary Trump discusses in her book!
I was glad, Ruth, when you used quotes around "whistleblower" early in the essay. I missed them in the second to the last paragraph. Very important; otherwise, we readers might miss the false usage.
My beef with the FBI is that their intervention has struck fear in past presidents and prevented them from offering clemency to Leonard Peltier. Leonard was falsely accused of murdering an FBI agent. Notables such as Peter Matthiessen in his book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse and Robert Redford in his documentary film , Incident at Oglala, have been unsuccessful in obtaining Leonard's freedom. It is time now. 40+ years in prison is too much for a crime he didn't commit.
It is perhaps not the slightest bit ironic that one of the best books written in the immediate aftermath of the Trump presidency was David Rothkopf's "American Resistance: The Inside Story of How the Deep State Daved the Nation."
In it he outlines how the very people who Jordan et al think are "anti-conservative" are actually quite conservative on the whole (this has been confirmed by several pundits who are former members of the "deep state," even if they themselves lean liberal), and were instrumental in either refusing to follow certain directives or knew how to "slow down the wheels" or "gum up the works" enough to prevent Trump and his cabal from using much of the "deep state apparatus" for their own nefarious purposes.
Thank you Professor Ruth for bringing Dr Bandy X Lee on Sunday, June 4 for Lucid. The following phrases rang out in today's essay as significant: 'around the world', ' needing scapegoats' and 'covers up, rather than unmasks lying & corruption.' Scapegoats is a clear term that Americans understand, like the term 'cult'; and both are 100% negatively thought of by all Americans.
Jim Jordan is an embarrassment to all of us sane Ohioans. Fortunately, he's an incompetent boob. Plaskett and the rest of the Dems on the committee have totally owned him.
'Circus' ---- is another good word. Has clear meaning for all, like 'cult' and 'scapegoat' ---- everyone not matter their background understands these negative words. Maybe these are the words we should be using. Repetition, our friend.
Jim Jordan is an insurrectionist. How do we not use the constitution’s 14th amendment (3) to remove election deniers, all of whom are insurrectionists.
The 14 Amendment should be used to stop Trump's campaigning. Some say we can't use the 14th because it hasn't been decided in court yet, whether he was responsible for Jan 6. I really doubt that the root cause of Jan 6th was something besides Trump. We should err on the side of safety on this matter. When I worked for the federal government, even the appearance of wrongdoing was grounds for removal in some cases.
Yeah, it's funny; people seem more concerned about age related cognitive impairment in Biden, than secondary psychopathy in Trump.
U
The 14th Amendment is black letter law. It should have already been implemented. If it's good with Larry Tribe, it's good with me.
Agree. And the Constitutional Amendments weren't pondered over and studied, debated, discussed and written painstakingly word for word --- to not be used. Those words were written to protect.
I agree. Biden, a wise sage. Look at his legislative actions. I sometimes remind people that the Pope is older. And Biden is physically active. He processes large volumes of information quickly, due to his experience, domestic and foreign. He is a student of history by his life experiences. I compare his wisdom to Lincoln's, and he has studied Lincoln. How do we break apart the cult? Look forward to June 4, Dr Bandy Lee, should all give good thought and formulate questions to ask of her wisdom in the area of psychology and cults & messaging.
I so agree!
This whole affair has literally turned my stomach. That the GOP, especially Gym Jordan, has been allowed to parlay Durham's nothingburger into "THE FBI WAS AFTER TRUMP!!!!" given that we know the New York FBI office, in conjunction with, perhaps at the direction of Rudy Giuliani, was about to leak a river of lies and disinformation about Hillary Clinton in October 2016, the potential act that led to the Comey letter. There may be a bias in the FBI, it has certainly never operated as a friend to Democrats even in its history, but the mere idea that it is biased against Trump, even as it is run by Federalist Society member and Trump appointee Chris Wray, is laughable. Why in the hell won't the media call them out on it???
And I’ve been HOPING Biden woulod replace Wray with his own choice. It’s TIME.
Biden seems to be replacement averse, I'd bet in order to avoid comparisons with Trump. Those comparisons would be totally specious, but the corporate media would treat them as equal acts.
It’s also time to replace the head of the Federal Reserve! C’mon Joe! We can do this
Joe reappointed Powell. What a mistake.
Well he needs to GO. Admit your mistake, Joe, and move on. He is causing inflation to get worse.
Well to your response - WELL that’s ridiculous and too damn bad. Nor do I really care about corporate media and their thoughts. HERE’S A LIST: DeJoy —OUT. Wray - He had corporate clients in private law who played BIG PARTS IN RYSSIAN BUREAUCRACY AND ECONOMY
I used to ask why the media wasn't doing its job too. I finally had to acknowledge that the media is deeply in the tank for the GOP and MAGA and will never do what we all knew was correct and rational. They are doing exactly what they are paid to do and want to do =//
They value access to Republicans and their cocktail parties far more than they value the truth or journalistic integrity. And besides, transcribing GOP talking points is ever so much easier than actually working.
And here we are. Can anyone count one day since 1/21/21 when he refused to attend Biden's inauguration that Trump has not been in the news? Can we count the number of days when he did not dominate the news? Nothing has slowed down the coverage. Nothing has pierced the aura of normality that the NYT and WaPo (but especially NYT) wants to build around him. Trump is a twice impeached, serial liar, proven sexual predator, indicted for fraud loser, and yet he is still covered as if he were a normal politician, a normal candidate. What will they do if Jack Smith indicts him for espionage which is beginning to look likely? What will they do if Fani Willis indicts him for election fraud (assuming the GA governor doesn't use his newly granted power to remove her)? What will they do if he is indicted for his role in the Jan 6 terrorist attack? And what will they do if the case against Rudy goes forward and the evidence that he was selling pardons comes out in discovery?
To Hell with Jordan!
Hope Democratic strategists have that one on their chess board./ tabletop exercises.
Exactly!!!
We must strategize to work around.
Great question , Peter!
Once the GOP had exalted Trump to demigod status, any attack on him was seen as unpatriotic treachery. It opened a pandora's box of paranoia.... everyone's after Trump. This kind of victimhood and paranoia breeds vengeance, which is classic fascism, and also 'Alice in Wonderland" lunacy.
Remember, Peter, Peter Strzok was fired by the FBI for explosive anti-Trump emails.
Hopefully, in this case, the average carpooling busy American is in 'media-induced' coma since it's not an election year. They are taking the year off, busy & healing from all the junk we've lived through. For us, we keep on it, and keep trying to repair the systems, refine our messaging strategies for the 2024 cycle.
Exceptional guest this week. Excellent read, thanks.
Yes, and Dr. Bandy Lee has supported Dr. Mary Trump's assessment of he uncle in her book that he suffers from multiple personality disorders including antisocial.........sociopathy..........and the "disregard for the rights of others!!!!!"
He has zero virtues. He consists entirely of vices.
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/09/02/bandy-lee-complaint-dismissed-by-federal-judge-lee-says-she-will-appeal/
100 people doing the same thing wrong, doesn’t change reality, no matter who it is. And, I hold Dr. Lee in highest esteem.
People doing wrong, just link arms to protect each other. That is why small-time intentional harmful crimes that affect others must be reckoned with. Criminal behavior, rudeness and lying must become unfashionable again.
It’s time for the Dems to toughen up and do our own work for small “d” democracy. Now we NEED TO!
I agree, how? idk. In conjunction with education of what is happening, where the needle is moving (thank you Professor Ruth for education and leadership), after Lucid calls, we must ponder and then develop strategies. We must organize with other pro-democracy folks. Just saw this week, a new PAC group, 'Dirt Road Democrats' -- focusing on rural America. After all, I bet most of them in rural America are . . . newsflash: middle-class. The GOP works to destroy middle-classers. Why would middle-class people support the oligarchs? Go 'Dirt Road Democrats !!!! (headed up by former Rep. Jamie Harrison).
Oh so very excellent , I shared many times. Thanks❤️
Looking forward to getting back on track with Lucid. Especially happy that Bandy X. Lee will be a featured guest. A star inclusion.
Bandy made a brave move with her book about the mental condition of Trump. Unfortunately, she got a lot of flak from Yale and the APA. In the end, she was right.
He's a paranoid, psychopathic, narcissist! Compulsive in his need for attention and dominance. Cruel and deranged in temperament. And an evil and charismatic cult leader.
Indeed! He's a study in abnormal psychology.
Dr Lance Dodes was the first psychiatrist that I saw on TV (MSNBC) to recognize Trump's personality disorder and warn the public of his danger. He criticized the APA for their punishment of Dr Lee.
I would expect a loyalist like Rep. Jim Jordan to be rewarded with a high ranking position within the Trump administration if there ever is another one (god forbid). Maybe chief of staff or senior adviser in charge of communications or should we say propaganda minster. Sort of being what Goebbels was to the Fuhrer. He shows a squirrely eagerness if not a flair for doing authoritarian theater within the chamber of the U.S. Congress paid for with US tax dollars. He's very focused on pumping out not only Kremlin talking points but promoting Trump's latest attacks against the FBI or any other institution that may threaten him with accountability for his crimes and treachery. Jordan with his sleeves rolled up is a man who never flinches no matter how ridiculous, fact or evidence free his conspiracy theories are as long it helps MAGA and hurts Democrats and Pres Biden. As the stench of garbage and corruption continues to thicken around him and his media escapades, I think there's a growing sense that none of this circus is being taken very seriously.
Agree, your last sentence is a good summary. It is a GOP circus.
This circus is unfortunately more manna from an Authoritarian oriented “haven”to its’ blind followers.
Sounds right to me that Gym Jordan might become “Propaganda Minister in the next Trump administration, Lord forbid! He’s merely a scumbag!
That was well written and stunning!
It's hard to fathom how so many people in the GOP can buy into the deviance that was/is being sold by Trump. I know people whom have bought into the fascist juggernaut and it is shocking to hear them speak about subjects like "the stolen election" and say it with a straight face. I knew years ago that propaganda had power, but never did I believe HOW powerful it was until the Trump era.
Fascism seems to be a fantasy that is perceived as the truth, and when these fantasy believers fill key positions in government, truth is destroyed and so is what's left of our democracy. Fascism promotes collective delusion.
Fantasy play for rich people.
Fascism does promote collective delusion! Really, it’s amazing how many “normal-like” people buy into Trump and his cult! They live in the MAGA Bubble!
Why has the United States turned into a country where several millions of adult voters have joined/supported a far right wing, white supremacist, theocratic cult of personality? Is it because they are terrified of the multicultural, multi-ethic, multi-racial, multi-gendered democracy much of the US is struggling to become? IOW, are they terrified of losing their white privilege? Or do they see a US where material well being is getting constricted (due to climate change, energy prices, loss of middle class jobs) and they want to make sure that their group (largely rural/exurban aging whites) gets a guaranteed place near the front of the line?
The root causes of our fascist trend are many and you have touched on some. After reading several books on our decline and our embracing of fascism, it seems to me that the advent of neoliberal economics is the major cause. Not only did it outsource labor and take away middle class jobs, but it deindustrialized America. A broken middle class became an angry middle class. They saw Trump as the new Messiah, ignoring the swatika arm band he was wearing.
Stoked anger.
You pose excellent questions. You drill down to core, I believe that they want their 'placement' guaranteed. They see white privilege slipping. They do not want to share.
These are great questions, and some that Mary Trump gets into with her recent book that deals with the psychology of America and its current suffering from complex PTSD involving unresolved race issues! The book is entitled “The Reckoning: Our Nation’s Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal” (2021) and discusses the extreme toll on the well-being of America as it has never dealt with the black and white issues in America. In other words, people have never atoned for the “original sins” of enslaving an entire race of people -- and have never owned up to the advantages of white supremacy and white privilege.
Mary Trump in her book says that white people today are not responsible for what happened 400 years ago but that does not mean they have not benefited from this system that continues to exist today. Our original sins have never properly been acknowledged and Republicans now want to erase them entirely! This is what the book “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” by Nikole Hannah-Jones tries to convey, and what CRT discusses in undergraduate and graduate level courses (CRT has never been taught in K-12 grades). Republicans also want to turn the enslavement issue around and say that young white children are made to feel guilty for slavery which is completely false. But what Republicans never talk about is the feeling of young black children whose history is erased or sanitized to the point that they are not even considered. Republicans ask nothing about those children’s well-being who are already suffering from the unaddressed black and white generational trauma and complex PTSD issues Mary Trump discusses in her book!
I was glad, Ruth, when you used quotes around "whistleblower" early in the essay. I missed them in the second to the last paragraph. Very important; otherwise, we readers might miss the false usage.
My beef with the FBI is that their intervention has struck fear in past presidents and prevented them from offering clemency to Leonard Peltier. Leonard was falsely accused of murdering an FBI agent. Notables such as Peter Matthiessen in his book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse and Robert Redford in his documentary film , Incident at Oglala, have been unsuccessful in obtaining Leonard's freedom. It is time now. 40+ years in prison is too much for a crime he didn't commit.
It is perhaps not the slightest bit ironic that one of the best books written in the immediate aftermath of the Trump presidency was David Rothkopf's "American Resistance: The Inside Story of How the Deep State Daved the Nation."
In it he outlines how the very people who Jordan et al think are "anti-conservative" are actually quite conservative on the whole (this has been confirmed by several pundits who are former members of the "deep state," even if they themselves lean liberal), and were instrumental in either refusing to follow certain directives or knew how to "slow down the wheels" or "gum up the works" enough to prevent Trump and his cabal from using much of the "deep state apparatus" for their own nefarious purposes.
I highly recommend the book.
Sounds like true patriots, loyal to the Constitution. Thanks for the book recommendation, I will look up.
Thank you Professor Ruth for bringing Dr Bandy X Lee on Sunday, June 4 for Lucid. The following phrases rang out in today's essay as significant: 'around the world', ' needing scapegoats' and 'covers up, rather than unmasks lying & corruption.' Scapegoats is a clear term that Americans understand, like the term 'cult'; and both are 100% negatively thought of by all Americans.
Jim Jordan is an embarrassment to all of us sane Ohioans. Fortunately, he's an incompetent boob. Plaskett and the rest of the Dems on the committee have totally owned him.
Absolutely!
'Circus' ---- is another good word. Has clear meaning for all, like 'cult' and 'scapegoat' ---- everyone not matter their background understands these negative words. Maybe these are the words we should be using. Repetition, our friend.
Jim Jordan is an insurrectionist. How do we not use the constitution’s 14th amendment (3) to remove election deniers, all of whom are insurrectionists.