Thursday, May 18, 2017

Donald Trump and the Demon Child In His Head



It's hardly surprising that Donald Trump is not happy with the appointment of a special counsel.



But judging by that tweet this morning, the voices in his head are now all screaming at the same time.

And when Trump visited the U.S. Coast Guard Academy yesterday, they did provoke him into an orgy of self pity.



It's absurd, it's pathetic, but it's also pathological.

And as David Brooks writes, it's what happens when the world is led by a child. 

At certain times Donald Trump has seemed like a budding authoritarian, a corrupt Nixon, a rabble-rousing populist or a big business corporatist. But as Trump has settled into his White House role, he has given a series of long interviews, and when you study the transcripts it becomes clear that fundamentally he is none of these things. 

At base, Trump is an infantalist.There are three tasks that most mature adults have sort of figured out by the time they hit 25. Trump has mastered none of them. Immaturity is becoming the dominant note of his presidency, lack of self-control his leitmotif.


Trump's desire to be loved is so great he is willing to say or do anything. Even if that means fooling others and himself...



Trump is not only trying to deceive others. His falsehoods are attempts to build a world in which he can feel good for an instant and comfortably deceive himself.

Even if almost none of it makes sense, and can only confuse the rest of the world.

Trump’s statements don’t necessarily come from anywhere, lead anywhere or have a permanent reality beyond his wish to be liked at any given instant. 

We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar.

What makes all of this even worse, is that this self destructive streak is rooted in his  past, and his relationship with his domineering father.



To survive, I concluded from our conversations, Trump felt compelled to go to war with the world. It was a binary, zero-sum choice for him: You either dominated or you submitted. You either created and exploited fear, or you succumbed to it — as he thought his older brother had.

And today his tendency to react rather than reflect is what makes him so dangerous...



In neurochemical terms, when he feels threatened or thwarted, Trump moves into a fight-or-flight state. His amygdala is triggered, his hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activates, and his prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain that makes us capable of rationality and reflection — shuts down. He reacts rather than reflects, and damn the consequences. This is what makes his access to the nuclear codes so dangerous and frightening.

And since at the age of 70 he is unlikely to change, he needs to be removed from power as soon as is humanly possible.

Some face saving way will probably be found to ease Donald Trump out of the Oval Office.

But nothing will be able to disguise the urgency of the task.

Lock up the demon child.

Before he kills us all...

10 comments:

rumleyfips said...

Won't Mueller need all of Trump's financial and tax records for the investigation ? Get ready for tweets that will further slow the rupugnantcons agenda.

jrkrideau said...

@ 1 rumlylips
I would not imagine so. Company books, bank records and so on should make a good start. If anything Trump's financial and tax records are more likely to be science fiction rather than real.

Anonymous said...

James Comey and the Giant Impeach

Anonymous said...

Simon, you should write a post mentioning how Russian funny-money has even started infiltrating Canada using Chump's hotels as a front. Business Insider and the WSJ reporting that a Russian state bank put up the dough for the hotel in Toronto. Not sure about the one in Vancouver, but the Toronto location is confirmed to be a Russian outpost.

http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-vnesheconombank-trump-toronto-hotel-2017-5

The last thing poor Canada needs is for the Dumpster Fire to expand his fraudulent empire north of the 49th -- especially with Putin backing him and the economy already having its own woes with China artificially inflating the housing market. Plus, who knows what kind of nefarious operations might be going on in there. Does anyone know who stays at this hotel and do they sound kind of Kremlinesque? We're back in the U.S.S.R., eh?

What I wouldn't give to see the Bates Motel a la Orange shut down and converted into housing for refugees, just to spite him.

Simon said...

hi rumleyfips...the good news is that Mueller will be able to obtain all those documents that Trump has been hiding. As well as broadening the inquiry to look at Flynn's activities and the decision to fire Comey. And since Mueller was Comey's mentor I can't think of a better guy to finish off the Trumplings....

Simon said...

hi anon...I like that movie. The Giant Impeach pushed Comey off the tree, only to also come crashing down with a sickening thud...

Simon said...

hi anon... thanks for that link about the Trump hotel in Toronto. I must admit I'm not very good at trying to follow a money trail. But I wouldn't be surprised if at the core of this scandal is Trump essentially money laundering dough for the Russian oligarchs.
But the good news is that just about every Trump property is under assault for one reason or another. I read a story the other day where a group of tenants in one of his buildings is making plans to remove all signs that it is a Trump building. If that trend continues I wouldn't be surprised if Trump quickly becomes tired of being president...

Steve said...

I expect nothing will be revealed confirming the Russians influenced the election, or were helping Trump win. However it will be fun to watch all the other salacious shit hit the fan. Those hoping for impeachment will be disappointed. This is just a brush ball thrown by the neo cons to get Trump on their base.

Anonymous said...

It’s All Over Now, Baby Don (With apologies to Bob Dylan)

See: It's all over now baby blue - Bob Dylan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz9BAE1FZGM


You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast
Yonder stands the NRA with their guns
The Founding Fathers lament at what they’ve done
Look out, Bob Mueller’s comin’ on
And it’s all over now, Baby Don

The highway’s for Samaritans, better use your sense
Take what Comey’s gathered from coincidence
The empty-handed people from the streets
Cannot post their words below your tweets
This witch hunt, it just keeps goin' on
And it’s all over now, Baby Don

All your White House spinners, they are going home
All your overfunded armies, where will they roam?
The Russians who just walked out your door
Have taken intel secrets from the floor
The chessboard, too, is moving the white pawn
And it’s all over now, Baby Don

Leave your electoral polls behind, someone calls for you
Forget that Flynn has left, he will not follow you
A son of man who’s knocking at your door
Is standing in the clothes you never wore
Read the subway walls, before they're gone
And it’s all over now, Baby Don

Anonymous said...

nice