I Understand Trump’s Reluctance to Abandon His Big Lie

As we now know, confirmed by conservative jurists, Republican politicians, etc. that there was no “stolen election.” There was no voter fraud of any note. (Interestingly when cases of voter fraud are found it is almost always being perpetrated by Republicans—which may be a consequence of the GOP undermining the act of voting and claiming the system is rigged.)

Back to Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump, Mafia Don as I call him, is a pathological liar. This is testified to by the 30,000+ lies he told while in office alone. When Mr. Trump employed his “Big Lie” which he states as “we won, we won in a landslide, everybody knows that, but they cheated and stole the election from us” etc., he employed the super power of pathological liars, which is he actually believes his Big Lie is true.

We all can detect when people are being insincere and, the flip side, when someone really believes what they are saying. By believing the Big Lie, the liar benefits from our perception that we think they think they are telling the truth. But Mafia Don is now trapped in his lie, which is now his truth. He cannot abandon it, and he cannot abandon his “followers” who believe it, too.

“. . . he employed the super power of pathological liars, which is he actually believes his Big Lie is true.”

I know this because of my unfortunate second marriage. I did not know ahead of time that the woman I was to marry was a pathological liar. It reached a point at which her best friend and I tried to stage an intervention. If it had been filmed and included as a scene in a movie, most people would have said it was pure Hollywood and overblown. My then wife, worked herself up from a rational debater to a snarling lion threatening to do us and her physical harm. I assume that such episodes are what led people to believe in demon possessions.

Pathological liars often weave a web of lies that becomes their reality. Whatever it replaces becomes, instead of their actual reality, a fantasy.

At Mr. Trump’s age and the number of years he has spent building his fantasy world leads me to believe that there is no psychological intervention that could result in his normalization, so it seems best that he be locked away where he can harm no one else to live out the years he has remaining.

Why Even Trump Doesn’t Believe in the Stolen Election Claim

I can conclude the above from the simple fact that Trump declared ahead of time that if he lost, it could only be because of voter fraud. Inquiring minds would want to know things like “How could Mr. Trump have known this to be true?” and “How could anyone know that this were true?” but our so-called news media didn’t pick up on this, they were too busy rubbing their hands over the visions of profits dancing in their heads from all of the craziness to report upon.

Allow me to use a scenario to explain why Mr. Trump’s declaration being ahead of time being telling. The scenario is a Sunday night poker game at your neighbor’s house. One game, your neighbor had some out-of-town relatives in  who got seats at the table. All night long, the newcomers seemed to win most of the pots and all you did was lose. The next day while you were at work, bemoaning your luck at the game you realized that your neighbor’s relatives were card sharps and you just got taken in a crooked game.

That is a somewhat normal expectation as to how things would go.

Now consider this. Before that Sunday game, you got a phone call from your neighbor explaining his out-of-town relatives were card sharps and had been run out of another town for their activities. He told you that the game would be rigged, so if you came and played, you should expect to lose. He was calling because his reputation for running a fair game was at stake and he didn’t want to lose his neighbor as a friend.

So, would you play? No? Yes?

You would play only if you were a complete idiot. After your money was lost, complaints to law enforcement officials might get the card sharps run out of town, but it wouldn’t get your money back.

So, Mr. Trump is claiming that that election was rigged against him and he went ahead and played anyway. Were he a true believer, he would have decried the rigged election and given the inside evidence he had that it was so to the election authorities, so that a fair election could be had.

This, of course, was not what happened. Mr. Trump lost quite handily, then whined about losing, then claimed victory, then election fraud and filed lawsuits, made claims of interference, etc. none of which actually played out in court. These are the actions of someone who knew he was going to lose and wanted to have excuses why that was so. Only a sucker would say, “The American people have chosen” and then ride off into the sunset.

Now it seems that he is coming back for another round, which is the equivalent of taking a seat at a known crooked poker game a second time, and making the same kinds of claims as he did before, also ahead of time.

Donald Trump is not smart enough to be the Mafia Boss his actions suggest him to be. His idea of a protection racket is an ego protection racket, guaranteed to not make him any money nor win him enough votes.

Equally stunning is how many Republican leaders willingly follow along in this farce.

What Did He Know and When Did He Know It?

The leaking of the Kremlin Papers shows that Russia actively tried to nudge Mr. Trump over the finish line in his first presidential contest. (Whether they did or did not has yet to be proven.) My initial suspicions were that Trump was ignorant of these attempts to secure him the presidency, because Mr. Trump has shown himself to be ignorant of almost everything.

But Mr. Trump’s obsequiousness toward Vladimir Putin is hard to explain otherwise. In business Mr. Trump’s persona is that he is the biggest bully on the block or the whole city if you wanted to know. So, to be in character, Mr. Trump should have been chesty with Mr. Putin. Yet his persona was that of an underling toward a mafia don.

So, the big question is: what did he know about these Russian efforts and when did he know it. If he knew of them before his election and did nothing, he has committed treason. If he knew about them after his election and said nothing, which his ego would propel him to do, then he is guilty of several felonies. His ego, of course, would require that he won that election because he was Donald Fucking Trump, a proven winner, don’t you know.

His obsequious behavior toward Putin was a stupid move either way, because it created doubts in people’s minds as being otherwise inexplicable. Remember when we were trying to figure out what hold Putin had over Trump? Mr. Trump would have been better off posturing (chest beating, etc.; he knows the drill) in public and going “wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean” in private with Mr. Putin. Putin would have understood, as he was getting exactly what he wanted in either case.

So, what did Mr. Trump know about these Russian efforts and when did he know it?

Biden and Trump and Their Churches

Ain’t religion grand?

Donald Trump was embraced by Evangelical Christians despite his many, many, many, many, many flaws and character failings. Joe Biden is on the brink of being thrown under their religious bus by American Catholic Bishops for a single failing. They want to deny him holy communion because he supports a pregnant woman’s right to choose.

Please, oh, please, Catholic Bishops, do follow through. I love it when folks who are on a slippery slope actively grease the skids.

According to Gallup polls, the Catholic Church in America lost nearly 20 percent of its parishioners between 2010 and 2020. American Catholic women support the right to choose and the right to use artificial birth control in high percentages, so the all-male bishops can accelerate the decline of the Catholic Church into irrelevance. (Even the Vatican has warned them off from doing this. Egad!)

Go, Bishops, go!

Why, Why, Why, Why, Why?

Over and over again people are asking the question why white evangelicals voted for Mr. Trump. This is not a mystery. White people, in toto, voted for Mr. Trump. In fact, since we started keeping track of how people of no color vote, white people have never voted in a majority for a Democrat candidate.

And even this is not a mystery.

Who benefits most from the status quo? Who has the most privileges? Who has the most status? If you didn’t answer “white people” you haven’t been paying attention. Okay, now, which of the two main political parties is more strongly associated with the status quo? Which wants to change things more and which less, the de facto champion of the status quo? If you didn’t come up with the GOP, you haven’t been paying attention. Which party, would you say, is the party of white people?

So, is it a surprise that privileged white people vote for the party that most staunchly defends the status quo?

No.

What is a surprise is that the party that supported our institutions the most (the GOP) and has argued for more personal responsibility the most (the GOP) and blames society’s ills on the victims the most (the GOP) has entirely abandoned the concept of personal responsibility. Lose a court battle? The Deep State was against you; you were cheated! Lose a local election? Voter fraud was the cause; you were cheated! Lose the presidential election by gazillions of votes? We were cheated . . . we didn’t lose . . . we won . . . we’re going to court to fix this immense wrong doing!

Mr. Trump lives by a couple of simple rules. Yes, “if you are not for me, you are against me” is one but another is “I never lose.” If he wins it is because of his brilliance. If he loses, it is because the game was rigged against him or he was cheated. He has shared these rules with many in his GOP base and we can expect them to carry on these lessons into the future.

The future does not look bright, manned by losers who never lose. Playing by the rules is a time-honored practice. So is changing the rules of the game while playing it.

Trump is the Test the Evangelicals Failed

“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.” (Proverbs 6:16-19)

The Biblical god likes to test people. We know this as such tests are described in great quantity in those books. Apparently, for evangelical Christians hate of some “others” (Blacks, LGBTQs, Mexicans, etc.) trumps the command to love your neighbor, cherish the little children, provide for the poor, etc. and, of course, every damned jot and tittle of Proverbs 6:16-19.

The only possible grade for his evangelical Christian supporters is an F, as in failed, failed, failed.

And the shocking thing was that Mr. Trump displayed all of the seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, wrath, envy, pride), plus a few more thrown in while he was “serving his base.” They seemed to think those were irrelevant because Mr. Trumps was sticking it to the libtards and heathens and foreigners and illegals and. . . .

The Trump administration is a modern day manifestation of the Clint Eastwood movie High Plains Drifter, and the evangelical Christians bought in hook, line, and sinker. They will surely reap what they have sowed, or the Bible’s words are meaningless. (Did you see how I cleverly stated that so I win either way. Ha!)

I Am So Glad Trump is Still Fighting the Election

Imagine the damage he could do if he turned his attention of burning down the house before eviction day.

I believe he will do more mischief, but the longer he gnaws on the bone of “I was cheated, I tells yuh!” the less attention he has to doing more destructive things.

Hey, Donald, you were cheated! I think you should protest more! Maybe file some more law suits! Maybe have AG Barr looking for all of those voter fraudsters and put them in jail!

Yeah, that’s the ticket!

Mr. Trump’s Administration (sic)

I have said quite a few times that President Trump is neither smart enough nor aware enough to receive credit or blame for many of the actions taken by “his administration.” He is responsible for his own actions and his own appointments, however, which are highlighted in these excerpts from Watchdog Was Investigating Pompeo for Arms Deal and Staff Misuse Before Firing  by Julian Borger in The Guardian (U.K.) today.

“The government watchdog who was fired last week had been investigating the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, for sidestepping Congress to approve arms sales to the Gulf and using staffers for personal errands, according to congressional sources.

“Donald Trump declared his intention to fire the state department inspector general, Steve Linick, in a letter sent to the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, late on Friday night. The White House said the decision was taken at Pompeo’s advice.”

“In his letter on Friday, announcing Linick’s dismissal, Trump said he no longer had full confidence in him. On Monday, he said he had never heard of Linick before being asked to fire him.

“’I don’t know him. Never heard of him,’ Trump said. ‘But they asked me to terminate him. I have the absolute right as president to terminate. I said who appointed him, and they say: President Obama. I said: look I’ll terminate him.’”

Mr. Trump has the ultimate defense against impeachment . . . “too stupid to know what he was doing.”

John Adams . . . Prophet?

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.” (Emphasis mine. SR)
John Adams (1735 – 1826), who was one of the more conservative Founding Fathers, written in a letter to John Taylor dated December 17, 1814

Donald Trump

Vain . . . Check!

Proud . . . Check!

Selfish . . . Check!

Ambitious . . . Check!

Avaricious . . . Check!

Maybe the extremist evangelicals are correct, maybe these are the End Times, the end times for our democracy

The Transmogrification of Donald Trump

I saw a bit of an interview with Donald Trump from 40 years ago. He was almost demur; he spoke in whole, coherent, well-thought out sentences. He stayed on topic and the topic was something other than himself. When I compare that performance (he seemed to always be performing rather than just being) with his performance in his “news conference” yesterday, it is hard to claim that this version of Donald Trump is the same man.

I think a fair campaign ad for the Democrats would be to alternate clips of Trump speaking in 1980 and in 2020. Anyone who could ignore the onset of dementia that obvious is not going to be convinced that Mr. Trump is not fit for the presidency by any evidence whatsoever. They are evidence proof, which is why his almost total support amongst evangelicals is so obvious. They have been in training to be evidence proof for most of their lives.