Bannon Lost His Mind After Giving Trump a Brain

In Trump’s latest salvo, he’s claiming that Stephen Bannon, former Chief Strategist, has “lost his mind.”

I figured I would quickly update my previous post from earlier today.

Here’s a quote from POTUS:

“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating 17 candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.”

Sounds like the relationship has officially soured. Treasonous is apparently the punchiest four-letter word in town, prompting this response from the weatherman-in-chief (because tweetstorms are his signature, hehe, get it?)

This just feels like endless political churn.

 

Trump CDC Word Banishment. An Administration Against Free Speech.

Sounds like a strange concept, doesn’t it? Language policing in the CDC. But it’s true. A list of banned words includes “fetus,” “vulnerable,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “evidence-based,” “entitlement,” and god forbid “science-based.”

Are there proper words to describe this word banishment? Vaguely Christian, maybe. is This directive seems to stifle free speech, and in an administration that is oriented to the hard-right, the smothering of free speech will occur in any manner available. If not directly against the public, then the silencing will occur toward an organization that releases information to the public, such as the CDC. What better way to chop science off at the knees than to target an institution that includes minorities in its priorities? Two birds, one giant boulder. Don’t let it be said that this administration isn’t efficient.

The Trump Administration seems very focused in homogenizing the various government agencies into a state of being that is antithetical to their original purposes, sterilizing the language of the CDC is just the latest example. Next thing you know another order will come down the pipeline suggesting any breathing masks used should hamper oral communication.

But does the Republican base care? Not sure. His popularity is plummeting with Fox Viewers, but what about the hyper-religious, business-obsessed folk? They seem content with the fact that Trump is stocking the lower courts with hack judges. So far right, “that if they’re wrong, they don’t want to be right!” Putting a light-hearted spin does the severity of what Trump is doing a massive disservice. Let’s recap.

• Language suppression at the CDC
• Stocking the lower courts with judges opposed to civil rights

There seems a lot to be worried about. So glad I used the humor tag.

 

Roy Moore: Trump’s Large, Beautiful Christmas Present

President Donald J. (as in, “jelly doughnut “) Trump is certainly going out of his way to get Roy Moore elected. As if having recently endorsed him twice wasn’t enough, Trump compelled Alabamians to go out and vote for the pistol-totin’ firebrand during his Pensacola rally. The campaigner-in-chief just endorsed a man that glorifies slavery. Anyway, nothing shocking there.

It’s safe to say that Trump really, really wants Roy Moore elected to the Senate. He’ll also be flying down to Jackson, Mississippi (which is very close to Alabama) for the opening of a civil rights museum.  Hey, maybe our always near and dear President will plug the economy while he’s down there, talk about what’s really important.

I’m not sure Trump campaigning for Roy Moore will make that much of a difference honestly, since Roy Moore’s supporters aren’t wanting for loyalty. Plus, we all remember how well Trump’s endorsement of Republican primary candidate Luther Strange worked out. Here’s a hint. Not very well. I guess what I’m saying is, Trump campaigns for a firebrand shithead that inspires a small but rabid fanbase. The people that are likely to listen have already made up their minds. He might sway a percentage or tw–oh wait. So, actually, looks like I proved myself wrong in the space of a paragraph. It’s very possible Trump’s campaigning will make all the difference in the world. The numbers might not seem that impressive in the grand scheme of things, but the consequences could be, well, terrible.

I’ve also written another blog post with updated poll numbers. Check it out here.

Trump, IQ, and Social Change

You are probably wondering why there is a picture of Rex Tillerson instead of Trump. Well, not everything has to be about the galoot. Except it sort of is about the shamer-in-chief, but also his Secretary Galoot, Rex. He boasted about having a higher IQ than the embattled diplomat. But Donald did the same thing much earlier in his presidency, bashing Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, calling her “low IQ mika.”

Even Rex’s latchkey children at the State Department have used the concept of IQ to bash their leader. Unfortunately, I can’t find the link to that. Something about State Department employees asserting that Trump might have a higher IQ than Tillerson, considering how the latter chooses to run the institution. Point being that Trump has re-inserted the concept of IQ back into the public consciousness, and not with benevolent intentions (not that intentions matter in the grand scheme of things).

If you look at the patterns there, Trump regularly uses shame to cow his civil servants into submission. Remember how he berated Attorney General Jeff Sessions back in July, referring to him as beleaguered?  Donald Trump uses the whip of shame on his cabinet, and for some reason, chooses to return to the old and reliable “IQ” whenever it suits him. Does he feel insecure about his intelligence? Well, for obvious reasons, yes.

I guess I’m curious if this will concept will make it into semi-regular political discourse. It’s a favored idea among conservative thinkers, or conservatives that aren’t really thinkers but subconsciously refer to pop culture psychology when they wish to construct a very convenient, in-the-moment, soon-to-be-forgotten hierarchy of some kind. Will Roy Moore conjure up an astronomically high IQ score to support his incredibly hard-right religious views, or to somehow excuse his very extensive ethical failings? Probably irrelevant at this point, for this particular politician since he doesn’t seem to need it (we’ll find out soon).

Finally, even if it swirls about the political domain, that doesn’t mean it will stay confined there. Trump has already amplified an aggressive culture. IQ might just become invigorated as an extreme right concept, used vaguely and illogically to justify all sorts of heinous crap. Or those two letters might just die with Trump. I doubt it though.

 

 

The Trump Age, “An Anxious Corridor”

I’ve had a hard time encapsulating The Trump Age until very recently. To me, it seems like a waiting period. A narrow world waiting to expand to something much more life-altering. Just a few things.

• Do all roads lead to North Korea?
• The Senate just passed a tax plan that favors, odds are, not you!
• Will a “Rexit” (love that) pave the way for Cotton?
• Flynn entered a guilty plea

Except that the blender-in-chief put rumors to rest that the antipathy-inspiring Secretary of State isn’t going anywhere (although Trump made a point to mention that he “has the final say”). So, this example and the Flynn thing do a good job of making me doubt labeling this period as “An Anxious Corridor.” Why? Well, we’ve been wondering about Tillerson’s ouster for months (at least, I have). Flynn has had a target painted on his back since not long after the inauguration. Essentially, we’ve waited for the political mushroom cloud to light up the sky, but as of yet nothing.

Maybe Anxious Carousel would be better? Still, sometimes going round and round wears down institutions that keep the status quo. Normally, I don’t care about keeping the status quo, but replacing it with this guy? Or judicial clones of him? Doesn’t seem like a sustainable way to live.

Or what if Father Pence becomes the next POTUS? There are a lot of aspects to think about, which could keep you occupied for days on end, and before you’re done fully contemplating them, more delightful baubles of chaos arrive.

A corridor? A carousel? A fascinating historical tube with no way out? Whichever way you choose to describe it, it’s a consistent opportunity for everyone to exercise a little narcissism.

You’re probably asking “is he going to end this post on a high note?”

 

 

Senator Tom Cotton and The Not So Insidious Transformation of America

Sometimes, it takes the prospective appointment of an incredibly sinister character to show how far things have deteriorated already. While the last year seemed like it offered insidious changes to the way the United States government worked, sadly we’ve gotten used to them.

The possibility that Senator Tom Cotton could become the director of the CIA seems very disheartening, even more so than the appointments of Steve Bannon and the like. Maybe it’s the fact that Pompeo claimed it’s imperative for the CIA to alter itself to become a “much more vicious agency.”

This guy (Cotton) summed up:

• Waterboarding
• jailing journalists
• Extreme Trump loyalist

So we are coupling this far-right ideologue (aka, proponent of chaotic authoritarianism) with what will surely become an incredibly fanged agency. Fangs upon fangs. Toughness. Ruthlessness.

I was getting used to the Twitter barrages. Then comes another shocker. Makes Rex Tillerson’s State Department look anemic and weak by comparison, a work of sheer spite, incompetence, and with a bit of acquiescence thrown in. Let’s not even mention Pompeo, another fierce firebrand (one of those journalistic bombshell words that doesn’t strike at the heart of it) is heading to the State Department.

Back to the Twitter barrages. Is this the pattern? A shock to the system, just barely getting used to it, then another shock gets tossed into the pit? An aggressive administration re-fanging an institution like the CIA is never a good thing. The administration hasn’t been good for anyone, so why would the CIA follow suit?

Different Blogging Topics

So, in my last post, I rambled about wanting to start a new blog, and then rambled some more about which topic I should blog about. There are just so many options. I really want to start another politics blog, but am afraid the market might be saturated with that kind of thing, or maybe I just haven’t found an interesting angle for it yet.

The list for topics looks something like this:

 

• Politics
• A blog about blogging (a little generic, imo)
• Psychology (interesting, a pet preoccupation throughout the years)
• Country Livin’
• Television Review site
• Fiction writing

 

While I’m also partial to the idea of a blog about fiction writing, I’m not sure that’s the most pragmatic way to go, because of SEO restrictions. If I did a blog about fiction writing, it would be for the purpose of fiction itself, not waxing about the process behind it (for some reason, though, the latter would be more successful). A blog with pieces of fiction also doesn’t make much sense from an SEO perspective. Really caught between the artistic side of things and running a decent business-oriented site.

Basically, I’m indecisive. Psychology could be interesting, but it’s also a very broad field, and I wouldn’t know where to start. Politics has been done to death, but that doesn’t mean it’s a completely non-viable option.

Blogging seems like a minefield of equally viable options, for the most part. Maybe for my next post, I will go back through my old content and summarize it. Might help to generate ideas.

This is an exciting but frustrating process! (and you, the reader, are coming with me whether you like it or not).

 

DACA and Trump the Dream Crusher

I mean, I’ve already called Trump out for being a dumb fucker.  Today, Trump followed through with being a dumb fucker by choosing to have Attorney General Jeff Sessions, flying monkey of the law, formally announce the end of Obama’s DACA program. Here’s the video. You’ll be enraptured, probably.

 

“We’re gonna treat these kids with a lotta heart.” Yeah. Right. As if giving them a short-term option to live here while tossing their fate to a brain-dead legislature is treating them with heart. Let’s be clear. He didn’t treat them with heart. Is that even making a moral argument at this point? I’m really just saying that he doesn’t even know what the hell he is saying. Fuck. I bet he’s going to ruin my upcoming weekend.

UPDATE: Okay, so now Donald Jerry Trump has issued an edict-via-tweet saying that he will revisit the issue in six months if Congress hasn’t acted.

Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can't, I will revisit this issue!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2017

 

This seems like a very intimate question to ask someone. “I would kindly like to ask what the hell is it that you want?”

He seems to not want to alienate his base, while not wanting to be blamed for the deportation of hundreds of thousands of people if congress-almost inevitably-fails. How does he plan to “revisit the issue” but also straddle the line between not being a heart breaker and appeasing the slugs-in-hover rounds that form the pillar of his base?

Look. I’ve been sympathetic up to this point. I’ve avoided calling him a dumb fucker because it seemed like an impolite thing to do. But, now I get the sense that incoherence is being strapped onto cruelty for whatever the fuck reason.

You know they say that one strong sign of creeping authoritarianism is a public obsession with the current leader. He doesn’t need to be a strong leader. He doesn’t need to be not divisive. He just needs to be himself  and have an unwavering pillar of support. President Trump has all those things.

The White House released a memo on DACA, advising its victims to make travel plans or other arrangements in case congress doesn’t get its act together. This is starting to seem like cogent advice for citizens in general.

 

Three Dead in Charlottesville White Nationalism Attack

• Three dead
• Two police officers died in helicopter crash
• One killed after a vehicle ripped through crowds at a pedestrian mall (19 injured)
• Driver identified as Alex Fields of Ohio.

White nationalists clashed with counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. The end result is three dead and almost two dozen injured because they gave a white supremacist madman a driver’s license.

Can’t count on dear old POTUS to denounce the threat for what it is. “Violence on many sides.”

 

As if that wasn’t absurd enough, Trump’s fence-sitting comment earned him a strong rebuke from David Duke. Tweets below.

“So, after decades of White Americans being targeted for discriminated & anti-White hatred, we come together as a people, and you attack us?”

“I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists.”

Are there even words for something like this? This little act of domestic terror was heinous enough, but add the horrific responses from Duke’s lily white world onto Trump’s “diplomatic” whitewashing, and you might as well cover the United States with one big, white sheet.

Some people will try.

Should We “Calm Down” about North Korea?

• US deployments remain the same in the region
• Alert status has not changed
• Channels of communication between US and North Korea are open

Doesn’t look like verbal hostilities will cease, until either diplomacy wins out or that big blinding fireball rips apart the horizon. Trump supporters love that kind of tough talk, finding in him a man that will stick up for them when no one else will.

But, it isn’t clear if:

• Trump will “stick up” for Guam
• His supporters realize the magnitude of the situation (of Guam and Earth in general)
• If we’ll all be annihilated.

You know things are serious when I sandwich a paragraph between rows of bullet points. While it’s true that it’s very common for Presidents to adhere to a “brand” probably in crisis situations the best solution would be to deviate from that when it comes to an emerging nuclear threat.

To answer the initial question. Should we “calm down”? Yeah. Probably. Might not be a bad idea. If the verbal “fire and fury” keeps up though, both from supporters and from Trump, mass hysteria seems like a good response.