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Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
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IN 2018, PRESIDENT Donald Trump was seeking to jettison the landmark nuclear deal that his predecessor had signed with Iran in 2015, and he was looking for ways to win over a skeptical press. The White House claimed that the nuclear deal had allowed Iran to increase its military budget, and Washington Post reporters Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/05/09/fact-checking-president-trumps-reasons-for-leaving-the-iran-nuclear-deal/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5f4c2b7f622f (asked for a source). In response, the White House passed along an article published in Forbes by a writer named Heshmat Alavi.
“Iran’s current budget is funded largely through ‘oil, taxes, increasing bonds, [and] eliminating cash handouts or subsidies’ for Iranians, according to an article by a Forbes contributor, Heshmat Alavi, sent to us by a White House official,” Rizzo and Kelly reported. The White House had used Alavi’s article — itself partly drawn from Iranian sources — to justify its decision to terminate the agreement.
There’s a problem, though: Heshmat Alavi appears not to exist. Alavi’s persona is a propaganda operation run by the Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq, which is known by the initials MEK, two sources told The Intercept.
“Heshmat Alavi is a persona run by a team of people from the political wing of the MEK,” said Hassan Heyrani, a high-ranking defector from the MEK who said he had direct knowledge of the operation. “They write whatever they are directed by their commanders and use this name to place articles in the press. This is not and has never been a real person.”
Heyrani said the fake persona has been managed by a team of MEK operatives in Albania, where the group has one of its bases, and is used to spread its message online. Heyrani’s account is echoed by Sara Zahiri, a Farsi-language researcher who focuses on the MEK. Zahiri, who has sources among Iranian government cybersecurity officials, said that Alavi is known inside Iran to be a “group account” run by a team of MEK members and that Alavi himself does not exist.
Alavi, whose contributor biography on the Forbes website identifies him as “an Iranian activist with a passion for equal rights,” has published scores of articles on Iran over the past few years at Forbes, The Hill, the Daily Caller, The Federalist, Saudi-owned al-Arabiya English, and other outlets. (Alavi did not respond to The Intercept’s requests for comment by Twitter direct messages or at the Gmail address he used to correspond with news outlets.)
The articles published under Alavi’s name, as well as his social media presence, appear to have been a boon for the MEK. An opposition group deeply unpopular in Iran and known for its sophisticated propaganda, the MEK has over the past decade turned its attention to English-language audiences — especially in countries like the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom, whose foreign policies are crucial nodes in the MEK’s central goal of overthrowing the Iranian regime.
WASHINGTON — For nine days, he had his finger on the trigger and threatened to pull. For nine days, he put two countries, entire multinational industries, vast swaths of consumers and workers and even his own advisers and Republican allies on edge, unsure what would happen with billions of dollars at stake.
And then, almost as abruptly as it started, it was over. President Trump announced that he was calling off the crippling new tariffs he had vowed to impose on Mexico barely 48 hours before they were to go into effect because he had struck a last-minute immigration agreement— one that mainly just reaffirmed prior agreements.
Nine days in spring offered a case study in Mr. Trump’s approach to some of the most daunting issues confronting him and the nation: When the goal seems frustratingly out of reach through traditional means, threaten drastic action, set a deadline, demand concessions, cut a deal — real or imagined — avert the dire outcome and declare victory. If nothing else, he forces attention on the issue at hand. Whether the approach yields sustainable results seems less certain.
These are often dramas of his own making, with him naturally the hero. He stakes out maximalist positions and issues brutal ultimatums to compel action, arguing that extreme problems demand extreme tactics. At times, though, it can seem like little more than smoke and mirrors substituting for serious policymaking, a way of pretending to make progress without actually solving the underlying problem.
“This is a pattern we’ve seen since the first days of this administration,” said Ned Price, a former C.I.A. official who worked on President Barack Obama’s National Security Council staff and is now director of policy at National Security Action, a progressive foreign policy advocacy organization.
“The president manufactures a crisis, galvanizes his base around the challenge, leaves the definition of success undefined, pretends to play hardball and, lo and behold, finds a solution that entails little more than window-dressing, if that,” Mr. Price said. “For Trump, it’s a win-win.” But “the loser tends to be the American people, oftentimes Trump’s base first and foremost,” he added.
WASHINGTON — President Trump assailed The New York Times on Sunday over a report that his new immigration agreement with Mexico consisted largely of previously agreed actions, claiming that there were actually secret, undisclosed elements to the accord.
“Another false report in the Failing @nytimes,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “We have been trying to get some of these Border Actions for a long time, as have other administrations, but were not able to get them, or get them in full, until our signed agreement with Mexico.”
The Times issued a statement standing by its article. “We are confident in our reporting, and as with so many other occasions, our stories stand up over time and the president’s denials of them do not,” the statement said.
To press his case, Mr. Trump added: “Importantly, some things not mentioned in yesterday press release, one in particular, were agreed upon. That will be announced at the appropriate time.”
Mr. Trump may have been hinting at a “safe third country” treaty that the administration has sought but failed to secure with Mexico. Under such a treaty, migrants entering Mexico would have to apply for asylum there. The United States would then have the legal ability to reject asylum seekers who tried to enter the country if they had not sought refuge in Mexico first.
But officials from both countries said the two sides reached no commitment on such a treaty, and they said the provisions that were included in the deal were essentially reaffirmations of actions Mexico had already agreed to. Officials argued that the value of the agreement may be greater dedication by Mexico to actually follow through on such commitments to avoid another threat of tariffs by Mr. Trump.
When a young woman came to the Family Services of North Alabama office last year for help with trauma, saying she had been raped by her step-uncle when she was 15, rape crisis advocate Portia Shepherd heard something that “killed me, shocked me.”
The step-uncle, who was getting out of jail after a drug conviction, wanted to be a part of their child’s life. And in Alabama, the alleged rapist could get custody.
“It’s the craziest thing I ever heard in my life,” said Shepherd. “On the state level, people were shocked. How could Alabama even be missing this law?”
Alabama is one of two states with no statute terminating parental rights for a person found to have conceived the child by rape or incest, a fact that has gained fresh relevance since https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/alabama-senate-passes-nations-most-restrictive-abortion-law-which-makes-no-exceptions-for-victims-of-rape-and-incest/2019/05/14/e3022376-7665-11e9-b3f5-5673edf2d127_story.html?utm_term=.59e936bb86ba (its lawmakers adopted the nation’s strictest abortion ban in May). That statute even outlaws the procedure for victims of sexual assault and jails doctors who perform it, except in cases of serious risk to the woman’s health.
[Thread] 1 Donald Trump’s 2019 Frontotemporal Dementia summer tour is breaking records worldwide. He’s confused. He’s off balance. He’s delusional. His face is mask-like. His body involuntarily jerks. He’s right on schedule, as predicted, w/ a mountain of video documenting his downfall.
2 MSM gave Trump props today for not saying “American Carnage” while reading a teleprompter at glacial speed & sounding like a reanimated carcass. The adulation soon faded as he trashed Mueller, Pelosi & others with the graves of US servicemen who died on D-Day in the background.
3 If a Trump resignation plan isn’t being negotiated, it’s going to have to start soon bc his public malfunctions will become more spectacular & quite ugly. It can't be stopped. What seems far fetched will become obvious to MSM. Nicolle Wallace gets it,
Thread by @TomJChicago: "1 Donald Trump’s 2019 Frontotemporal Dementia summer tour is breaking records worldwide. He’s confused. He’s off balance. He’s delusional. H […]"
2 MSM gave Trump props today for not saying “American Carnage” while reading a teleprompter at glacial speed & sounding like a reanimated carcass. The adulation soon faded as he trashed Mueller, Pelosi & others with the graves of US servicemen who died on D-Day in the background.
3 If a Trump resignation plan isn’t being negotiated, it’s going to have to start soon bc his public malfunctions will become more spectacular & quite ugly. It can't be stopped. What seems far fetched will become obvious to MSM. Nicolle Wallace gets it,
Thread by @TomJChicago: "1 Donald Trump’s 2019 Frontotemporal Dementia summer tour is breaking records worldwide. He’s confused. He’s off balance. He’s delusional. H […]"
[Thread] 1 We won't have to witness the Trump dementia show for much longer because he is rapidly changing now. That’s the thing- dementia steadily worsens. His condition will degrade to meet whatever threshold even his most ardent supporters insist on seeing b4 they admit he has dementia
2 The word is out. Trump’s mental decline was discussed again on Nicolle Wallace’s show on Friday. She asked the panel, like she did 2 days earlier “What’s wrong with him?” John Heilemann called it straight out. He specifically pointed out how Trump is worsening. A powerful stmt:
Thread by @TomJChicago: "1 We won't have to witness the Trump dementia show for much longer because he is rapidly changing now. That’s the thing- dementia steadily w […]"
2 The word is out. Trump’s mental decline was discussed again on Nicolle Wallace’s show on Friday. She asked the panel, like she did 2 days earlier “What’s wrong with him?” John Heilemann called it straight out. He specifically pointed out how Trump is worsening. A powerful stmt:
Thread by @TomJChicago: "1 We won't have to witness the Trump dementia show for much longer because he is rapidly changing now. That’s the thing- dementia steadily w […]"
Gaslighters/narcissists create an enemy and crisis, then "solve" that same crisis. They then demand accolades after that crisis (that they created) has been resolved. Why do they do this? It creates support within their base. And with 2020 elections right around the corner, Trump knows the importance of manufacturing an enemy and then portraying himself as the only person who could "conquer" this manufactured enemy.
The most recent case in point is Trump's tariffs on Mexico. Trump is touting himself as the key factor in getting a border agreement with Mexico. However, the New York Times reported that the U.S. and Mexico had reached an agreement on border policies months before Trump's tariff threat.
Trump tweeted the following on June 7th:
If we are able to make the deal with Mexico, & there is a good chance that we will, they will begin purchasing Farm & Agricultural products at very high levels, starting immediately. If we are unable to make the deal, Mexico will begin paying Tariffs at the 5% level on Monday!
He then followed with this tweet on the same day:
I am pleased to inform you that The United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico. The Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended.
Again, these tweets were sent out two months after an agreement had already been reached. Trump then went after the New York Times, which accurately reported that a border agreement was in place two months ago. And as he has done several times before, Trump called the press the "Enemy of the People." He tweeted, "The Failing @nytimes, & ratings challenged [sic] @CNN will do anything possible to see our Country fail! They are truly The Enemy of the People!"
Trump is more frequently adding "Corrupt" to "Fake" when describing the news media. So in addition to claiming that the media have made stories up, Trump is now accusing them of receiving money or power in exchange for false stories. This is a common tactic of gaslighters/narcissists in power — they will accuse any accurate media outlets as traitors to the country and its leader. Gaslighters/narcissists particularly accuse those in the media of being corrupt or making up stories, and they will go after the media at a fever pitch. For example, see the history of the Argentinean government going after Grupo Clarin.
Cult leaders arise from decayed communities and societies in which people have been shorn of political, social and economic power. The disempowered, infantilized by a world they cannot control, gravitate to cult leaders who appear omnipotent and promise a return to a mythical golden age. The cult leaders vow to crush the forces, embodied in demonized groups and individuals, that are blamed for their misery.
The more outrageous the cult leaders become, the more they flout law and social conventions, the more they gain in popularity. Cult leaders are immune to the norms of established society. This is their appeal. Cult leaders demand a God-like power. Those who follow them grant them this power in the hope that the cult leaders will save them.
Donald Trump has transformed the decayed carcass of the Republican Party into a cult. All cults are personality cults. They are extensions of the cult leaders. The cult reflects the leader’s prejudices, worldview, personal style and ideas. Trump did not create the yearning for a cult leader. Huge segments of the population, betrayed by the established elites, were conditioned for a cult leader.
They were desperately looking for someone to rescue them and solve their problems. They found their cult leader in the New York real estate developer and reality television show star. Only when we recognize Trump as a cult leader, and many of those who support him as cult followers, will we understand where we are headed and how we must resist.
