Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

OPINION: Why is it so hard for us to say out loud the blazingly obvious about the president of the United States: that he has utterly lost his mind. If Donald Trump were appointed the principal of your local secondary school tomorrow, you'd have pulled your kids out by Wednesday and he'd be gone by Friday. If he was mayor of your town, you'd pretend to live somewhere else. If he was a dog, you'd be making whispered phone calls to your vet.

I mean, I used to think Ronald Reagan and George W Bush were intellectually sub-par – but, by God, they're Mensa material compared to this guy. Meanwhile, his immediate past predecessor, Barack Obama, is as intellectually far ahead of Trump as it's possible to be while still belonging to the same species.

Let's review just the past few weeks, during which Trump seems to have crammed more abject lunacy than his 44 predecessors managed over the combined 250 years prior.

Sure, there have been terrible presidents before – corrupt, cruel and boorish ones; mendacious, vain, ignorant ones; racists, misogynists, and warmongers; incompetents and dilettantes – but only Trump embodies each and every one of those qualities with such unbridled ferocity. He disgraced the Oval Office by ever setting foot in there; he has been disgracing himself, and anyone that supports him, every day since.

...

For no reason other than racially tinged and stupendous personal and political jealousy. America and the world are paying a heavy price for Trump's multifarious psychopathologies.

Neuropsychiatrists are bound by ethics not to bandy about terms like "rapidly advancing dementia" when it comes to the nuclear button guy, but I'm not.

Trump's cognitive decline is palpable and accelerating. Try this exercise if you don't believe me. Tee up YouTube with clips from 10 years ago, then two years ago, then today, and play them in order. It's like watching a guy get drunk at a party.

Why do I turn with such little generosity to the subject of Donald Trump every few months? Easy target? Maybe.

But this is a profoundly consequential political moment that demands our attention – especially as we confront the prospect of his re-election next November. Trump represents a clear and present threat to the liberal democratic consensus and alliances that helped deliver peace and security for most of the latter part of the 20th century.

Actually, let me clarify that: if knowing what they know now about his policies and behaviour, the American people see fit to give Trump another term, those norms and alliances will have been struck dead by their hands, not his.

It takes one idiot to make a fool of himself every day he defaces the Oval Office. It takes tens of millions to elevate him there.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

As North Korea fired off a series of missiles in recent months — at least 18 since May — President Trump has repeatedly dismissed their importance as short-range and “very standard” tests. And although he has conceded “there may be a United Nations violation,” the president says any concerns are overblown.

Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, Mr. Trump explained recently, just “likes testing missiles.”

Now, American intelligence officials and outside experts have come to a far different conclusion: that the launchings downplayed by Mr. Trump, including two late last month, have allowed Mr. Kim to test missiles with greater range and maneuverability that could overwhelm American defenses in the region.

Japan’s defense minister, Takeshi Iwaya, told reporters in Tokyo last week that the irregular trajectories of the most recent tests were more evidence of a program designed to defeat the defenses Japan has deployed, with American technology, at sea and on shore.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Fusion with Political Leaders Predicts Willingness to Persecute Immigrants and Political Opponents

From the 2016 US presidential election and into 2019, we demonstrate that a visceral feeling of oneness (that is, psychological fusion) with a political leader can fuel partisans’ willingness to actively participate in political violence.

· In studies 1 and 2, fusion with Donald Trump predicted Republicans’ willingness to violently persecute Muslims (over and above other established predictors).
· In study 3, relative deprivation increased fusion with Trump and, subsequently, willingness to violently challenge election results.
· In study 4, fusion with Trump increased after his election and predicted immigrant persecution over time.

Further revealing its independent effects, this fusion with Trump predicted
· a willingness to persecute Iranians (independent of identification with him, study 5);
· a willingness to persecute immigrants (study 6); and
· a willingness to personally protect the US border from an immigrant caravan (study 7), even over and above fusion with the group of Trump’s followers.

These findings echo past political movements and suggest critical future research.

Kunst JR, Dovidio JF, Thomsen L. Fusion with political leaders predicts willingness to persecute immigrants and political opponents. Nature Human Behaviour 2019. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0708-1

 

[Michael Scally MD]

FULLY ENGAGED
Fully Engaged

Don’t worry about Hurricane Dorian, America. Donald Trump is “fully engaged” At least that’s what White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said.

Trump decided to be fully engaged from a golf cart at his resort in Virginia. He went golfing twice over the weekend (first at Camp David but that was a bit too slummy for him) and demonstrated his full-on engagement by warning Alabama that the hurricane was coming. Except, it’s not going anywhere near Alabama and the National Weather Service replied to this tweet with a tweet of their own saying, “We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama.”

Trump attacked an ABC reporter for reporting Trump’s bone-headed weather report and said, “Always good to be prepared.” Since Alabama is a state where Trump has high approval ratings, they’re probably nailing plywood to their windows up in Huntsville…and in Oklahoma.

The ABC reporter wasn’t the only victim of Trump’s weekend tweeting during a national crisis. He sent out 122 tweets since Saturday morning attacking the media, James Comey, “the Squad,” the AFL-CIO president, and even actress Debra Messing.

Trump continued being engaged by informing the public that Dorian was at a category 5, the highest degree measured by meteorologists for hurricanes (before they turn into sharknados). Trump tweeted that he had never heard of a Category 5, tweeting, “A Category 5 is something that I don’t know that I’ve even heard the term, other than I know it’s there. That’s the ultimate.” It’s funny that he’s never heard the term “Category 5” before since, in 2017, he said the same thing. Dorian is the fourth Category 5 to threaten the United States during Trump’s presidency, yet he’s never heard of one before.

Keep in mind, this is a guy who knows so much about hurricanes that he thinks a nuclear bomb would solve them, yet he’s never heard of a Category 5. At any moment now, he should be tweeting that knows more than the meteorologists.

Trump supporters, sycophants, and cultists who may be in the path of a hurricane. Do yourself a favor and suspend your faith in Donald Trump at least until the crisis is over. If you’re taking advice from Trump, you could die. It will be classified as “death by dumbass.” Do not monitor his Twitter feed for updates. This is a guy too preoccupied with scratching his ass and stealing golf balls from children (he’s done that) to worry about your safety. Also, he’s stubborn and will not allow himself to believe any basic facts if they contradict any longheld stupid-ass beliefs or conspiracy theories. Do not take survival advice from a conspiracy theorist. In fact, you might want to turn off Fox News while you’re at it. You don’t need Hannity and Tucker telling you that Trump’s coming to save you because he can walk on water.

Trump told us he’d be too busy presidenting to golf, unlike President Obama. But as you know by now, that was a lie. Trump is not too busy to play golf, even with a massive hurricane bearing down on the east coast of the United States. Trump has been so not busy presidenting that he’s been able to golf 227 times at one of his clubs since entering the White House.

But, since some people were stupid enough to sign up for Trump University, there will be people dumb enough to take his hurricane advice. But then again, who am I to complain? If we have more candidates for Darwin Awards, this entire Trump mess may balance itself out.

 

[Michael Scally MD]