Last night, Trump joined an ABC News “town hall” hosted by George Stephanopoulos in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. He faced ordinary Americans, who asked basic questions about health care, mask wearing, and so on, and delivered his usual litany of self-aggrandizement and lies. But he seemed cornered and unable to control the narrative the way he did in 2016. The White House has been doing damage control from the event all day.
One comforting thought in this chaos and infamy is that there doesn't seem to be a guiding thread running through it. It is just a whole, amorphous GOP crowd randomly pushing a host of non-prioritized issues which are horizontally aligned like the keys of a piano being played by an untutored, ungifted child. It merely generates smoke and mirrors that just exist for its own sake as a partially opaque screen seeking to "mask" Trump and his gang's lack of direction, incompetence, greed, criminal negligence and evident psychological problems...and eventually to bluff the people into not rejecting them if they get the chance. Their very apparent lack of coordination, their constant unpreparedness for pushback on their infantile attemps to create a "counter-reality", their problems in staying focused on priorities, their inability to relate to "real" people and their constant search for the next tangent taking them away from the "here and now" lead me to conclude that there is not a real, practical plan to take over the country despite the wishes of the people to be expressed on Nov 3rd. They are just not capable of getting it sufficiently together. They think that bluster and, as would say the French, "les coups d'épée dans l'eau" (useless gestures with no effect) can replace strategic thought, careful planning, coalition building, garnering of ressources, dedicated team spirit, courage and quasi demonic desire for total power (AS OPPOSED TO MONEY)....... and amassed, trained, willing fighting men that are necessary for a successful coup. They are Disney's cartoon version of the plot as played out in Jack the Pirate movies (without wanting to insult in particular Johnny Depp).
In all of this confusion, the only one that would probably like to "go all the way" is Barr.....but he is alone and despairing, I think, of any structured and collective help on such a project; they are all going their own way. He should heed the Judgement on withholding evidence that a NY Judge has just ordered all Manhattan prosecutors to read as well as the words of Maureen O'Connor.......and look out for his "rear end" as no one else is covering it.!
ABC's Pennsylvannia Town Hall meeting has shown that Trump is running out of script, his prompter is on the blink and he's no longer sure which camera to look into. His reaction to ordinary peoples questions using tired old, irrelevant and debunked lines shows that he has lost his feeling for the exploitation of the "TV moment"and has no mental "flexibility" left to react spontaneously in an intelligent fashion to new circumstances. His old power to dominate the scene in a tele-reality spectacle has deserted him; he has lost the plot and done it in public for all to see.....once again!
Yes, yes, yes. That mysterious, ethereal Trump healthcare plan, that is always just out of reach, forever "coming soon". "Better and cheaper" I think he said back in 2016. It's a ghost, a spook, a spectre that materializes for a moment, says "Boo!" and then disappears back into the fog of Trump's imagination.
One would think this would be a good time to bring that health plan out and show it off, all shiny and new, to help get the nation through this pesky pandemic thing that's going on and just ruining all the good times Trump was having.
Biden and the Democrats need to keep pressing that button.
Two days ago I listened to Michael Cohen's podcast “Mea Culpa." I went out and purchased a copy of his book after and it is next in line once I finish the Woodward book. I can't say I'm a big fan of Cohen, but the podcast keeps me up at night. He confirms many things that Mary Trump writes about in her book.
Cohen paints the picture of a man that has to be in the public's eye daily. Long before winning the presidency, he craved attention. He says that Trump subscribes to numerous newspapers. Not because he wants to read them, but to see how he is treated by the press. Cohen says that if Trump's name didn't make it into the newspapers on a given day, it was a bad day to try to talk to him.
Having said all that, I worry what will happen if he loses the election. I'm not talking about the obvious things such as a refusal to accept the results or riots that may happen. I think we all know that Trump isn't going to leave Biden a nice letter on the resolute desk wishing him well, as is customary when there is a transfer of power. He will not fade into the background as all the presidents in my lifetime have done. The Biden administration will have to set up an office specifically to respond to Trump's constant barrage on all fronts. Of course, if he is arrested or there are enough lawsuits he may be too busy to interfere... I'm not counting on that.
If he loses the election and Biden is inaugurated as the 46th president, I believe Trump will immediately declare himself as a presidential candidate for 2024. There will be regular rallies designed to keep his base fired up. He will promote unrest and be possibly the largest national security concern for the Biden presidency. There is president for a nonconsecutive two-term president. Grover Cleveland is known as the 22nd President and the 24th President, after his wins in the 1884 and 1892 general elections. But he lost the 1888 to his Republican foe, Benjamin Harrison even though he won the popular vote.
Yesterday, I got a call from "The Progressive Turnout Project" after I sent almost 1000 texts for the Texas Democratic Party. I live in Michigan. The caller from TPTPbasked me what issue was most important to me. I said I just wanted things to be normal. I was tired of the President being in the news every day. He has to go. BTW, 2020 Victory sent over a million texts on behalf of the Texas Democratic Party in 3.5 hours.
Barr’s views on the role of religion in public life, while less publicized than his cheerleading for the unitary executive, are equally virulent.
In a speech delivered at the University of Notre Dame Law School in October 2019, Barr revealed himself as a Christian nationalist, blaming, as commentators Katherine Stewart and Caroline Fredrickson later noted in a New York Times op-ed, “secularists” for the “moral chaos” plaguing the country.
“From the Founding Era onward,” Barr told his audience at Notre Dame, “there was strong consensus about the centrality of religious liberty in the United States. The imperative of protecting religious freedom was not just a nod in the direction of piety. It reflects the Framers’ belief that religion was indispensable to sustaining our free system of government.”
Invoking the framers of the Constitution time and again, he continued:
“The Founding generation were Christians. They believed that the Judeo-Christian moral system corresponds to the true nature of man… Modern secularists dismiss this idea of morality as other-worldly superstition imposed by a kill-joy clergy. In fact, Judeo-Christian moral standards are the ultimate utilitarian rules for human conduct. They reflect the rules that are best for man, not in the by and by, but in the here and now. They are like God’s instruction manual for the best running of man and human society.”
Today’s secularists, he lamented, were destroying the framers’ vision by using the law “as a battering ram to break down traditional moral values and to establish moral relativism as a new orthodoxy.” He pledged as the attorney general to “keep an eye out for cases or events around the country where states are misapplying the Establishment Clause in a way that discriminates against people of faith, or cases where states adopt laws that impinge upon the free exercise of religion.”
In February, Barr doubled down on his demonization of secularism in an address to the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters in Nashville, Tennessee, in which he declared:
“We live at a time when religion—long an essential pillar of our society—is being driven from the public square. … Experience teaches that, to be strong enough to control willful human beings, moral values must be based on authority independent of man’s will. In other words, they must flow from a transcendent Supreme Being.”
Secularists, and “progressives,” he charged, aim to impose a new form of totalitarianism, “which seeks to submerge the individual in a collectivist agenda… in favor of elite conceptions about what best serves the collective.”
The slide into secularism can be reversed, he said, “but only if we can alter our course.” Exhorting Christian journalists and broadcasters to join with him to restore the centrality of religion, he concluded, “It is not too late to stem the tide, but we need to get to work.”
Far from faithfully adhering to the wisdom of the framers, Barr’s unhinged views on religion comprise a clear and present danger to the bedrock First Amendment principle of the separation of church and state, and to modernity itself. Combined with his extremist position on executive power, Barr’s religious fundamentalism makes him the most treacherous man in America, second only to Trump himself.
Bill Blum is a retired judge and a lawyer in Los Angeles. He is a lecturer at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication. He writes regularly on law and politics and is the author of three widely acclaimed legal thrillers: Prejudicial Error, The Last Appeal, and The Face of Justice.
As usual, an excellent summary by Dr Richardson which I appreciate. Due to overwhelming nausea and/or rage that overcomes me when I see or hear POTUS, I try to avoid watching him lie. But it’s unavoidable because he a pathological liar. A liar cannot be trusted. Trust is the basis for all human interaction. So what is the deal with these undecided voters that NPR and others say are so important to the election? To even think that Donald is a rational choice defies common sense.
“If you take the blue states out we’re at a level I don’t think anybody in the world would be at”. Someone should tell him that Florida is a red state.
I so look forward to your letters, Dr. R. Thanks to you, I do not feel outrage or fear anymore. I feel empowered.
Not in any way am I endorsing the actions of the Executive Branch since January 2017, but an article written several weeks ago from either The Washington Post or the New York Times stays in the back of my mind whenever I hear #45 make comments about either COVID-19 or other things. The article suggested that many WH aides present "alternative facts" in their briefings to 45 that favor how he views things should be, more to prevent a screaming meltdown that the "real" facts would elicit. I tend to believe this is what may be driving the "outrageous" statements we hear day after day. Not that it matters; just thought I'd throw this out here for perhaps further comment.
Hmm. A certain author of Letters from an American, whom we all know and love, posted on Facebook yesterday (Sept. 16): "Big windstorm tonight. I expect to post, but if I don't, it's because we lost power. If that happens, I'll post in the morning, assuming it's back."
Two days earlier, we read a scary Letter about escalating threats of violence if trump does not win this election, and one day earlier, in response to HCR's anniversary Letter, we poured out our gratitude for the treasure she is and on whom we rely.
Our electric power supply is subject to interruption from rolling power grid brownouts and blackouts, fires, lightning strikes, downed trees, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, derechos, tornadoes, land slides, industrial explosions, and/or sabotage. Communication for emergency services and networking with each other is critical for getting through such times.
I for one am shopping for an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), as well as ensuring that my portable phone chargers are handy and charged. A UPS provides surge protection and power supply for small electronics, like our computers, laptops, and tablets, for times ranging from 1 to 2.5 hours. Prices range from $60 to $200. A UPS is available at your nearest office supply store or through mail order.
Thank you, Heather, for all your work, night after night. I'm so grateful for your clearsighted summaries. They make me feel like we have a chance to pull through. We are all so tired of the chaos and drama.
Should House impeach Barr just to draw attention to all the stuff he is doing behind the scenes. There are a couple of potential offenses in this HCR post alone. No?
Reading HCR's letter regarding Trump's continued/constant mendacious behaviour (i.e. compulsive lying) in appearances, reminds me once again of something about Trump that has been apparent to me since even his days in the limelight from the 1980s: projection. This very subject is the focus of yesterday's newsletter from NYT op-ed columnist (and long-time fave), Frank Bruni. (I would post it on here, but it defies my copying/pasting abilities...it's his Wednesday newsletter.) He goes into a lot of detail about Trump's neurosis regarding "projection". I can quote him here:
"My fascination with projection [about Frank himself] eventually cooled, only to be stoked anew when Donald Trump hit the presidential campaign trail and then won the presidency. If Trump presents, as some psychologists have theorized, a perfect case of narcissistic personality disorder, he presents an even more perfect pattern of projection.
"He accuses opponents of the very crookedness that’s a fixture of his entire professional life. He bangs on about flaws in them that are flaws in him, at once beating them to the punch and trying to inoculate himself: When they turn around and criticize him in these same terms, it can look like mere payback or mimicry."
It's quite simple really, and Trump indulges in this ad nauseum. You remember his exchange with Clilnton, "I'm not a puppet. You're a puppet..." when she beat him at his own game for one instant. If you want to know in his little head what Trump KNOWS he's guilty of, watch how he consistently projects that on to almost anyone. It's quite remarkable. Accuse someone of something BEFORE they can accuse you so that when they do accuse you it looks like simple mimicry. It weakens your opponent. Classic projection:
One comforting thought in this chaos and infamy is that there doesn't seem to be a guiding thread running through it. It is just a whole, amorphous GOP crowd randomly pushing a host of non-prioritized issues which are horizontally aligned like the keys of a piano being played by an untutored, ungifted child. It merely generates smoke and mirrors that just exist for its own sake as a partially opaque screen seeking to "mask" Trump and his gang's lack of direction, incompetence, greed, criminal negligence and evident psychological problems...and eventually to bluff the people into not rejecting them if they get the chance. Their very apparent lack of coordination, their constant unpreparedness for pushback on their infantile attemps to create a "counter-reality", their problems in staying focused on priorities, their inability to relate to "real" people and their constant search for the next tangent taking them away from the "here and now" lead me to conclude that there is not a real, practical plan to take over the country despite the wishes of the people to be expressed on Nov 3rd. They are just not capable of getting it sufficiently together. They think that bluster and, as would say the French, "les coups d'épée dans l'eau" (useless gestures with no effect) can replace strategic thought, careful planning, coalition building, garnering of ressources, dedicated team spirit, courage and quasi demonic desire for total power (AS OPPOSED TO MONEY)....... and amassed, trained, willing fighting men that are necessary for a successful coup. They are Disney's cartoon version of the plot as played out in Jack the Pirate movies (without wanting to insult in particular Johnny Depp).
In all of this confusion, the only one that would probably like to "go all the way" is Barr.....but he is alone and despairing, I think, of any structured and collective help on such a project; they are all going their own way. He should heed the Judgement on withholding evidence that a NY Judge has just ordered all Manhattan prosecutors to read as well as the words of Maureen O'Connor.......and look out for his "rear end" as no one else is covering it.!
ABC's Pennsylvannia Town Hall meeting has shown that Trump is running out of script, his prompter is on the blink and he's no longer sure which camera to look into. His reaction to ordinary peoples questions using tired old, irrelevant and debunked lines shows that he has lost his feeling for the exploitation of the "TV moment"and has no mental "flexibility" left to react spontaneously in an intelligent fashion to new circumstances. His old power to dominate the scene in a tele-reality spectacle has deserted him; he has lost the plot and done it in public for all to see.....once again!
Yes, yes, yes. That mysterious, ethereal Trump healthcare plan, that is always just out of reach, forever "coming soon". "Better and cheaper" I think he said back in 2016. It's a ghost, a spook, a spectre that materializes for a moment, says "Boo!" and then disappears back into the fog of Trump's imagination.
One would think this would be a good time to bring that health plan out and show it off, all shiny and new, to help get the nation through this pesky pandemic thing that's going on and just ruining all the good times Trump was having.
Biden and the Democrats need to keep pressing that button.
Two days ago I listened to Michael Cohen's podcast “Mea Culpa." I went out and purchased a copy of his book after and it is next in line once I finish the Woodward book. I can't say I'm a big fan of Cohen, but the podcast keeps me up at night. He confirms many things that Mary Trump writes about in her book.
Cohen paints the picture of a man that has to be in the public's eye daily. Long before winning the presidency, he craved attention. He says that Trump subscribes to numerous newspapers. Not because he wants to read them, but to see how he is treated by the press. Cohen says that if Trump's name didn't make it into the newspapers on a given day, it was a bad day to try to talk to him.
Having said all that, I worry what will happen if he loses the election. I'm not talking about the obvious things such as a refusal to accept the results or riots that may happen. I think we all know that Trump isn't going to leave Biden a nice letter on the resolute desk wishing him well, as is customary when there is a transfer of power. He will not fade into the background as all the presidents in my lifetime have done. The Biden administration will have to set up an office specifically to respond to Trump's constant barrage on all fronts. Of course, if he is arrested or there are enough lawsuits he may be too busy to interfere... I'm not counting on that.
If he loses the election and Biden is inaugurated as the 46th president, I believe Trump will immediately declare himself as a presidential candidate for 2024. There will be regular rallies designed to keep his base fired up. He will promote unrest and be possibly the largest national security concern for the Biden presidency. There is president for a nonconsecutive two-term president. Grover Cleveland is known as the 22nd President and the 24th President, after his wins in the 1884 and 1892 general elections. But he lost the 1888 to his Republican foe, Benjamin Harrison even though he won the popular vote.
This: "Americans are just tired of the constant drama and chaos of the Trump presidency."
Yesterday, I got a call from "The Progressive Turnout Project" after I sent almost 1000 texts for the Texas Democratic Party. I live in Michigan. The caller from TPTPbasked me what issue was most important to me. I said I just wanted things to be normal. I was tired of the President being in the news every day. He has to go. BTW, 2020 Victory sent over a million texts on behalf of the Texas Democratic Party in 3.5 hours.
Barr’s views on the role of religion in public life, while less publicized than his cheerleading for the unitary executive, are equally virulent.
In a speech delivered at the University of Notre Dame Law School in October 2019, Barr revealed himself as a Christian nationalist, blaming, as commentators Katherine Stewart and Caroline Fredrickson later noted in a New York Times op-ed, “secularists” for the “moral chaos” plaguing the country.
“From the Founding Era onward,” Barr told his audience at Notre Dame, “there was strong consensus about the centrality of religious liberty in the United States. The imperative of protecting religious freedom was not just a nod in the direction of piety. It reflects the Framers’ belief that religion was indispensable to sustaining our free system of government.”
Invoking the framers of the Constitution time and again, he continued:
“The Founding generation were Christians. They believed that the Judeo-Christian moral system corresponds to the true nature of man… Modern secularists dismiss this idea of morality as other-worldly superstition imposed by a kill-joy clergy. In fact, Judeo-Christian moral standards are the ultimate utilitarian rules for human conduct. They reflect the rules that are best for man, not in the by and by, but in the here and now. They are like God’s instruction manual for the best running of man and human society.”
Today’s secularists, he lamented, were destroying the framers’ vision by using the law “as a battering ram to break down traditional moral values and to establish moral relativism as a new orthodoxy.” He pledged as the attorney general to “keep an eye out for cases or events around the country where states are misapplying the Establishment Clause in a way that discriminates against people of faith, or cases where states adopt laws that impinge upon the free exercise of religion.”
In February, Barr doubled down on his demonization of secularism in an address to the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters in Nashville, Tennessee, in which he declared:
“We live at a time when religion—long an essential pillar of our society—is being driven from the public square. … Experience teaches that, to be strong enough to control willful human beings, moral values must be based on authority independent of man’s will. In other words, they must flow from a transcendent Supreme Being.”
Secularists, and “progressives,” he charged, aim to impose a new form of totalitarianism, “which seeks to submerge the individual in a collectivist agenda… in favor of elite conceptions about what best serves the collective.”
The slide into secularism can be reversed, he said, “but only if we can alter our course.” Exhorting Christian journalists and broadcasters to join with him to restore the centrality of religion, he concluded, “It is not too late to stem the tide, but we need to get to work.”
Far from faithfully adhering to the wisdom of the framers, Barr’s unhinged views on religion comprise a clear and present danger to the bedrock First Amendment principle of the separation of church and state, and to modernity itself. Combined with his extremist position on executive power, Barr’s religious fundamentalism makes him the most treacherous man in America, second only to Trump himself.
Bill Blum is a retired judge and a lawyer in Los Angeles. He is a lecturer at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication. He writes regularly on law and politics and is the author of three widely acclaimed legal thrillers: Prejudicial Error, The Last Appeal, and The Face of Justice.
As usual, an excellent summary by Dr Richardson which I appreciate. Due to overwhelming nausea and/or rage that overcomes me when I see or hear POTUS, I try to avoid watching him lie. But it’s unavoidable because he a pathological liar. A liar cannot be trusted. Trust is the basis for all human interaction. So what is the deal with these undecided voters that NPR and others say are so important to the election? To even think that Donald is a rational choice defies common sense.
Barr seems to be one of the most dangerous people in America right now. What does he think he is doing exactly?
“If you take the blue states out we’re at a level I don’t think anybody in the world would be at”. Someone should tell him that Florida is a red state.
I so look forward to your letters, Dr. R. Thanks to you, I do not feel outrage or fear anymore. I feel empowered.
Not in any way am I endorsing the actions of the Executive Branch since January 2017, but an article written several weeks ago from either The Washington Post or the New York Times stays in the back of my mind whenever I hear #45 make comments about either COVID-19 or other things. The article suggested that many WH aides present "alternative facts" in their briefings to 45 that favor how he views things should be, more to prevent a screaming meltdown that the "real" facts would elicit. I tend to believe this is what may be driving the "outrageous" statements we hear day after day. Not that it matters; just thought I'd throw this out here for perhaps further comment.
You wanted a narrative? "We’re going to get this virus under control and get your life back on track." Biden. Thanks for everything you've given us.
A narrative from Scientific American: “A safer, more prosperous, and more equitable America”
Hmm. A certain author of Letters from an American, whom we all know and love, posted on Facebook yesterday (Sept. 16): "Big windstorm tonight. I expect to post, but if I don't, it's because we lost power. If that happens, I'll post in the morning, assuming it's back."
Two days earlier, we read a scary Letter about escalating threats of violence if trump does not win this election, and one day earlier, in response to HCR's anniversary Letter, we poured out our gratitude for the treasure she is and on whom we rely.
Our electric power supply is subject to interruption from rolling power grid brownouts and blackouts, fires, lightning strikes, downed trees, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, derechos, tornadoes, land slides, industrial explosions, and/or sabotage. Communication for emergency services and networking with each other is critical for getting through such times.
I for one am shopping for an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), as well as ensuring that my portable phone chargers are handy and charged. A UPS provides surge protection and power supply for small electronics, like our computers, laptops, and tablets, for times ranging from 1 to 2.5 hours. Prices range from $60 to $200. A UPS is available at your nearest office supply store or through mail order.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-uninterruptible-power-supply-ups/
❤️
Thank you, Heather, for all your work, night after night. I'm so grateful for your clearsighted summaries. They make me feel like we have a chance to pull through. We are all so tired of the chaos and drama.
Should House impeach Barr just to draw attention to all the stuff he is doing behind the scenes. There are a couple of potential offenses in this HCR post alone. No?
Reading HCR's letter regarding Trump's continued/constant mendacious behaviour (i.e. compulsive lying) in appearances, reminds me once again of something about Trump that has been apparent to me since even his days in the limelight from the 1980s: projection. This very subject is the focus of yesterday's newsletter from NYT op-ed columnist (and long-time fave), Frank Bruni. (I would post it on here, but it defies my copying/pasting abilities...it's his Wednesday newsletter.) He goes into a lot of detail about Trump's neurosis regarding "projection". I can quote him here:
"My fascination with projection [about Frank himself] eventually cooled, only to be stoked anew when Donald Trump hit the presidential campaign trail and then won the presidency. If Trump presents, as some psychologists have theorized, a perfect case of narcissistic personality disorder, he presents an even more perfect pattern of projection.
"He accuses opponents of the very crookedness that’s a fixture of his entire professional life. He bangs on about flaws in them that are flaws in him, at once beating them to the punch and trying to inoculate himself: When they turn around and criticize him in these same terms, it can look like mere payback or mimicry."
It's quite simple really, and Trump indulges in this ad nauseum. You remember his exchange with Clilnton, "I'm not a puppet. You're a puppet..." when she beat him at his own game for one instant. If you want to know in his little head what Trump KNOWS he's guilty of, watch how he consistently projects that on to almost anyone. It's quite remarkable. Accuse someone of something BEFORE they can accuse you so that when they do accuse you it looks like simple mimicry. It weakens your opponent. Classic projection:
https://www.britannica.com/science/projection-psychology
Yep. He's a psycho alright...