Trump's Over-riding Pathology Is Psychopathy

He’s a liar. He’s a conman. He’s a cheat. He’s a narcissist. Or a “malignant narcissist.” He’s broken. He has no shame. He has Antisocial Personality Disorder.Everyone has an opinion about what’s wrong with Donald J. Trump. 

But as Vince Greenwood, Ph.D., argues in a recent Medium article, too many opinions have become the problem. It’s like when Rick Perry called Trump a “cancer on conservatism” and every other Republican countered with their own assessments: “Con artist.” “Kook.” “Insane.” “Pathological liar.” “A textbook racist.” “A national disgrace.” 

We discussed all the other diagnoses. And the cancer grew. Dr. Greenwood believes that clinically diagnosing Trump as a Psychopath, based on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist — Revised (PCL-R), renders all other diagnoses obsolete—and allows us to focus on the real problem. Seriously. 

We saw what four years of a cancer on conservatism did to the GOP. The cancer has metastasized. Stochastic terrorism is the new norm—we’ve seen the party shrug at the MAGA bomber, the El Paso shooter and now the Kenosha killer. We’ve seen the President exchange love letters with dictators, defend wife beaters, endorse pedophiles, and hail the success of QAnon candidates. 

Imagine what four more years led by a psychopath who no longer has to worry about getting himself re-elected would do to the country and the world. With less than 10 weeks to the election, America is facing a choice: Divorce Trump. Or renew its vows. If America was your friend, and you knew it had married a psychopath, wouldn’t you urge it to get the divorce?

"Trump’s ‘Weird Shit’ Is Rotting Our Democracy"

What an asshole:

Donald Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday night, a deranged Fidel Castro parody of maniacal gaslighting proportions, could not be mistaken for an American president’s. In his bizarro unreality, 180,000 dead and rising is public health. Divisive hate mongering is law and order. Historic unemployment and inequity is strength. Police brutality is a race war. Protests for civil rights are anarchy. Still he attempted to inject himself into the American tapestry of Lincoln, Jackson, and even Roosevelt, of course making zero correlation between their actions and his own in office. That’s because Trump has employed the only strategy he knows: Fake it til you make—or unmake—it, and these past years have fundamentally unmade America.“I alone can fix it” turned out he alone could kill it. Trump is not, as he dreams, “one of the larger-than-life figures” like his predecessors, “who rallied Americans to bold visions of a bigger and brighter future.” He’s the one who’s divided and literally plagued us into our current misery. (snip)

Beyond rhetoric, it is Trump’s conduct that makes him the abnormality of our times: Trump is the first president to use the White House grounds and presidential pardons as props for political theatre. The first president to “take no responsibility…at all” for American sacrifice. The first to solicit foreign assistance to hack his U.S. opponents in successive presidential elections. The first to try to kill the Constitutionally created and protected post office. The first to intimate repeatedly that he would like to serve as president forever. The list goes on, and on. Most Americans realize this “weird shit,” as President Bush remarked about Trump’s inaugural, is no longer fleeting bizarreness. It is the making of an un-American America.

That’s why those seeking to defeat Trumpism have to turn to an opposition playbook outside of the American paradigm. Yes, there has been no dearth of compelling and cathartic anti-Trump ads. But there is also a real concern that voters are increasingly desensitized to the negativity and need to imagine not just overthrowing Trump but what the future will look like without him. There is a useful anti-authoritarian playbook to employ, tracking the phrase “Vamos a decir que no… la alegría ya viene” (or “We’re going to say no… happiness is coming”). The “No” campaign to oust Augusto Pinochet in the 1988 Chilean national plebiscite models how to expose the monstrous cruelty of an autocratic regime and then project an uplifting image for happier days ahead. Their successful television ad campaign, documented in the 2012 film No, was a one-two punch. They first decried the inhumanity of the Pinochet regime—the authoritarian rhetoric, the chilling and killing of the opposition, and the body bags —and then beamed the sunny faces free of Pinochet. The compelling ad campaign helped galvanize a record-setting voter registration campaign and a coalescing of opposition leaders, much like Democrats saw this year in Bernie Sanders’ and Elizabeth Warren’s full-throated support for the Biden-Harris ticket. The Chilean lesson—as the plebiscite successfully unseated the dictator and set the groundwork for a return to liberal democracy—is clear: On the campaign trail, Democrats must remind the American people that Donald Trump, through his governance, has proven to be the most anti- and un-American president in our history. Biden and Harris should not be afraid to reiterate why he is an exception to American democracy: A president impeached for corruption, and whose continued corruption denied our country protection against the virus. Then they must embody in these closing days of the campaign what exactly American democracy looks like, that would make America once again move toward a more perfect union, and how a vote for them will be a vote to let America be America once again.

Trump will endanger American lives if it helps him get reelected

What an evil psychopath:

Before the first speech was delivered Thursday night, we could see what the message of the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention would be. The scene told us all we need to know about President Trump, his Republican enablers and a mainstream media not up to the task of covering either. 

We are in the middle of a pandemic that has killed 177,000 Americans. Every rational medical expert on the planet, including those in Trump’s administration, has the same advice: Since we do not have a vaccine, wear masks and socially distance. Trump refuses. He invited 1,500 non-mask-wearing members of his cult and set out chairs on the South Lawn of the White House for them in close proximity to each other. (An unspecified number were tested.) 

He wants the false image of normalcy — the same thing he sought in his rally in Tulsa and could not get. He is more than willing to endanger those he invited — not to mention staff who come in contact with them — to make himself look more successful in addressing the pandemic and increase his chances of reelection. He tries to will the pandemic out of existence. And he prefers whatever political advantage he can wring out of his TV events over protecting the lives of Americans. You cannot get a better description of the essence of Trump. 

There was something else quite obvious about the setup of the event: Laws, norms and democracy are for suckers. The instruments of power, the taxpayers’ buildings, the public servants whose salaries are paid for by taxpayers and every power of incumbency can be used for his own selfish benefit. Trump, it seems, does not see himself as a temporary resident of the White House. It’s as if he would have us believe that he is the government — constitutional structures, legislative restraints, limited government and democracy be damned.  

He turns the White House into his own garish stage for a political event. He makes a mockery of the pardon power by incorporating it into a political convention. He lures immigrants — people whom he often insults — to a naturalization ceremony for a political stunt because he can and because no one will stop him. When he said Article II of the Constitution gives him the power to do whatever he wants, he was revealing his own narcissistic delusion and constitutional ignorance.

A Weekly List of GOP Horrors

Amy Siskind has done this every week since this shithole presidency started. 

I don't know how she's done it. Seems exhausting and would drive me insane.

Summary of last week:

In a break from tradition, both former First Lady Michelle and President Barack Obama gave historic speeches, focused on warning the American people that Trump is a danger to our democracy, and is not capable of doing the job. The emotional speeches were a call to action, from the former first family who had largely has given Trump a chance to grow into the position. Barack in particular portrayed Trump as a grave threat. Meanwhile, nominee Joe Biden gave what was widely heralded as the best speech of his career, in a moving, emotional, optimistic speech of unity, promising light, hope, and competence.

This week, the U.S. Postal Service was front and center, as Postmaster General Louis DeJoy faced public outcry for the slowing mail, and Congressional hearings got underway. Trump tried to gaslight, suggesting the slowing mail was, ironically, a conspiracy theory by Democrats. This week a nearly 1,000 page shocking Senate Intelligence Committee report was released, revealing a deep connection between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

Trump largely abandoned his so-called daily coronavirus briefings, instead holding campaign rallies and some Q and A sessions with the media. Dr. Deborah Birx has largely disappeared from the public, as Trump switched to a radiologist who frequently appeared on Fox News for advice and shares his point-of-view. College reopening, like K-12 openings the week before, got off to a rocky start, with outbreaks on several campuses — again a result of a patchwork strategy, with inadequate testing and few guidelines.

A long list of specific stories follows, with links.

Trump Repeatedly Calls Kamala Harris ‘Nasty’ And ‘Horrible’ In White House Briefing

 What a psychopath and asshole.

Messing with the USPS to Keep People from Voting by Mail

 Endless  assholery from the GOP.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/07/friday-night-massacre-us-postal-service-postmaster-general-major-trump-donor-ousts

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213872190

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/07/postal-service-investigation-dejoy/

https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-federal-benefit-extension-anger-unemployment-evictions/

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/internal-documents-confirm-trumps-post-office-changes-are-fouling-up-delivery/

Donald Trump: If Reelected, I will “Terminate” Social Security

 What a massive asshole. 

Trump walks out of news conference after reporter asks him about Veterans Choice lie he's told more than 150 times

 What a disgraceful spoiled asshole.

Trump, speaking at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, had claimed again that he is the one who got the Veterans Choice program passed -- adding, "They've been trying to get that passed for decades and decades and decades and no president's ever been able to do it, and we got it done." In fact, former President Barack Obama signed the Choice program into law in 2014. The law, which allowed eligible veterans to be covered by the government for care provided by doctors outside the VA system, was a bipartisan initiative spearheaded by two senators Trump has repeatedly criticized, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the late John McCain of Arizona.

AZ, Hard Hit by Coronavirus, Says Schools That Don't Open Will Lose Some Funding

Evil Republicans at work.

Under Trump's Watch, America's National Debt Has Increased by $6.6 Trillion

After he promised to cut the National Debt in half during his campaign.

What an asshole.

Trump Administration Slows Down the US Postal Service to Screw with Safe Voting by Mail During a Pandemic

Evil fucking assholes. 

Trump and Jared Kushner Failed to Craft a COVID19 Strategy Because It Only Hit Blue States

This is fucking evil. 

Trump’s ‘Delay the Election’ Tweet Checks All 8 Rules for Fascist Propaganda

"In 40 words, the president contradicts himself, lies, designates enemies and manufactures a crisis"

What an asshole.