Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

A RISING THREAT
https://claytoonz.com/2019/03/18/a-rising-threat/

Donald Trump went on another vile bender Sunday attacking everything he perceives as a threat.

He attacked General Motors for closing a plant in a town where he told workers not to sell their homes. Can they sue him for bad real estate advice? He also attacked the local UAW president.

He went after Saturday Night Live for making fun of him after they ran a rerun over the weekend. Trump’s whiny victimization was also a rerun as he had complained before when it originally aired. He said the FEC should look into the treatment he’s receiving from comedians, tweeting, “Should Federal Election Commission and/or FCC look into this? There must be Collusion with the Democrats and, of course, Russia!” I had no idea that the Russians were meddling in SNL skits. They’re really getting around NYC, meeting with Trump’s campaign at Trump Tower, Paul Manafort in cigar bars, and now SNL’s writing room. Fortunately, there are not any laws mandating TV shows give equal time in their comedy treatment.

Trump, the counter-puncher, went after a dead man, accusing John McCain of leaking the Russian dossier to the press before the election and of being last in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy. He was wrong on both counts. McCain, who was well-known as a poor student, graduated fifth from the bottom of his class. He also did not leak the Steele Report/dossier to the press or to Democrats. He gave it to the FBI after the election which is what you do when you’re informed of something that may be a threat. When Russians were contacting the Trump campaign to offer dirt on Hillary Clinton, nobody from the campaign contacted the FBI. Instead, they said, “Gimme, gimme.”

Meghan McCain defended her war hero father by tweeting at Trump, “No one will ever love you the way they loved my father.” Boom. Lindsey Graham, McCain’s supposed best friend, defended McCain’s war service while not mentioning Trump. I respect McCain while also disagreeing with him on several matters. For example, he had shitty judgment in friends.

What you wouldn’t find among his list of Sunday grievances was the terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand or the movement responsible for the attack, white nationalism.

Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s temporary chief-of-staff because he drew the short straw, went on Fox News and told Chris Wallace that Trump is not a white supremacist, even though Wallace didn’t ask the question (there’s a reason it’s in the prepared talking points). Mulvaney asked rhetorically, “How many times do I have to say that?”

The answer to that rhetorical question is a lot. You’re going to have to defend him from being a white supremacist when he defends Nazis. When he says we should ban all Muslims. When he says Islam hates us. When he says Mexico is sending us rapists and Murderers. When he says a judge can’t preside over his trial because of his Mexican lineage. When he claims black and brown kids proven innocent of rape should still be put to death. When he’s the biggest proponent of the birther movement. When a white nationalist kills 50 Muslims after publishing a manifesto saying Trump is, “A symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.” And, when he refuses to denounce white nationalism or even recognize it’s a growing threat.

You will also have to defend him from being a white supremacist when on the same day of your defense, he’s tweeting that Jeanine Pirro’s suspension should be lifted by Fox News, which came about because of her Islamophobic rant on their network.

Trump tweeted to Fox News, “Stop working soooo hard on being politically correct, which will only bring you down, and continue to fight for our Country.” Yeah, that’s what you should tweet about the weekend after 50 Muslims are killed by one of your supporters. You should complain about political correctness which means you want more racist viewpoints expressed by the network. Trump’s tweet was something a white supremacist would tweet or post on 8chan.

It’s been more than three days since the white terrorist attack in Christchurch. Will Trump eventually denounce white nationalism? I’m not entirely sure. After he was criticized for defending the Nazis who murdered Heather Heyer in Charlottesville and marched around the town with tiki torches chanting “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil,” he was forced to clarify his comments and criticize Nazis and white supremacists. According to Bob Woodward’s book, Fear, Trump told aides it was the “worst speech” and the “biggest fucking mistake” he’s ever made.

President Obama asked, probably rhetorically, “How hard can that be? Saying Nazis are bad?” Well, it’s really hard to say Nazis are bad when you’re courting them and maybe even more so when you are one of them.

Mulvaney said Trump is not a white supremacist. I’m not buying it. You’re not buying. But do you know who really isn’t buying it? White supremacists.

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Whether meant seriously or not, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s alleged consideration of the 25th Amendment seems, in retrospect, not to have been irrational at all. Since President Trump’s firing of James B. Comey as FBI director and the appointment of a special counsel, Trump’s mental and emotional health has seemed to fray. The pace of lies and nonsensical accusations, the resort to conspiracy theories and refusal to conduct himself like an adult (let alone the president) often pick up in the wake of bad news from the special counsel and widespread criticism of the president’s unhinged behavior. So it was this weekend following his refusal to directly condemn white nationalism in the wake of the New Zealand massacre and the defection of 12 Senate Republicans last week on the resolution repealing the emergency declaration.

Trump attacked deceased senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), whom he falsely accused of leaking the Steele dossier and who he falsely said finished “last in his class" at Annapolis. (He finishedhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-again-takes-aim-at-john-mccain-over-dossier-prompting-rebuke-from-meghan-mccain/2019/03/17/3bc6baec-48c3-11e9-93d0-64dbcf38ba41_story.html?utm_term=.2dd925b1b69b (fifth from last). Since Trump’s attorney went around allegedly threatening schools Trump attended, we have no way of knowing how Trump performed in school.) Anti-Trump activist Sarah Longwell observed that the worst part of this was “the way so many Republicans just let them slide or even cheer them. John McCain was tortured in a prison camp for five years in service to this country. The least his party could do is defend him from Trump’s dishonorable smears.” That’s beyond the moral capacity of nearly all elected Republicans these days.

Trump also retweeted conspiracy theorists and griped that Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who suggested that Muslims who wear a hijab are anti-Constitution, had been taken off the air (for how long we do not know). He lashed out at other less-than-reverential Fox News hosts, at a “Saturday Night Live” rerun and at a leader of the United Auto Workers over a GM plant closing in Ohio. He seemed to be in a weekend-long temper tantrum.

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Unfortunately, most Republicans are fine with Trump, or say they are. They have tax cuts and some judges, so what do they care if the presidency is sullied, racial anger builds, the United States’ reputation in the world is damaged, decency and objective truth are obliterated, and none of our real challenges (e.g. income inequality, climate change) are addressed? Republicans will still tell you that they are victims of liberal elites. In their minds, Trump is just evening the score on their behalf.

There is no moral or intellectual reason that will persuade them. There is no respectful conversation to be had with people who argue in bad faith. The only solution is to defeat Trump and his party so thoroughly that Trumpism is permanently discredited. A party that continues to defend this president is simply beyond redemption.
 


Anders Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist, was diagnosed with a narcissistic personality disorder. Brenton Tarrant, who is accused of killing 50 worshipers in New Zealand, displays similar traits.

While researching Mr. Breivik, which included sending him questions by letters and receiving answers from him in prison, I found a life full of shame, failures, abuse and rejections. A boy who never got the attention or care a child deserves; a rejected, uncool teenager; a man who in his late 20s moved in with his mother and mostly played video games. Isolated and angry, but with newfound friends on the dark web, he decided how he would be seen, heard, recognized and feared. He plotted his attack with an audience in mind.

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The two men mix rage with self-pity. They see themselves as victims and use terms like “invasion,” “mass immigration” and “white genocide” to describe what they regard as the destruction of Europe and the white race. Both the Australian and the Norwegian barely mention their own homelands and focus on Europe and the United States. Mr. Tarrant sees the white population of Australia and New Zealand as Europeans.

He writes how he decided on his “final push” after visiting France in 2017, where he saw how the European French had been “replaced” by “nonwhites.” Thus the title of his manifesto: “The Great Replacement.”

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Their main agenda is the same: to crush Muslim immigration. Mr. Tarrant wants to “deport those invaders already living on our soil.” Mr. Breivik suggested that every Muslim should be given the opportunity to convert to Christianity and take a Christian name. Those who do not obey should be deported or executed. All examples of Islamic art should be destroyed including all mosques; languages like Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Somali would be banned.

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Mr. Breivik was diagnosed with a narcissistic personality disorder by court psychiatrists; Mr. Tarrant displays similar traits. He wrote in his manifesto that he not only expects to be released but hopes to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He should be free after 27 years, he wrote, like Nelson Mandela, after serving “for the same crime.”
 


As this bestseller predicted, Trump has only grown more erratic and dangerous as the pressures on him mount. This new edition includes new essays bringing the book up to date—because this is still not normal.


Originally released in fall 2017, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump was a runaway bestseller. Alarmed Americans and international onlookers wanted to know: What is wrong with him?

That question still plagues us. The Trump administration has proven as chaotic and destructive as its opponents feared, and the man at the center of it all remains a cipher.

Constrained by the APA’s “Goldwater rule,” which inhibits mental health professionals from diagnosing public figures they have not personally examined, many of those qualified to weigh in on the issue have shied away from discussing it at all. The public has thus been left to wonder whether he is mad, bad, or both.

The prestigious mental health experts who have contributed to the revised and updated version of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump argue that their moral and civic "duty to warn" supersedes professional neutrality. Whatever affects him, affects the nation: From the trauma people have experienced under the Trump administration to the cult-like characteristics of his followers, he has created unprecedented mental health consequences across our nation and beyond. With eight new essays (about one hundred pages of new material), this edition will cover the dangerous ramifications of Trump's unnatural state.

It’s not all in our heads. It’s in his.
 
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