Trump: "I love my signature, actually everybody loves my signature." By Hal M. Brown

 

In his address to generals and admirals Trump bragged about using the most expensive high quality paper with real gold on it for the documents promoting generals and admirals. Then we went on blasting Biden for using an auto-pen, though it is not clear whether he ever did this with these particular documents. Trump said “I love my signature, everybody loves my signature.”

Holy crap! He’s bragging about his signature and how everyone, everyone, like each and every person on earth, loves his signature.

We are so used to Trump’s braggaccio sprinkled with lies and exaggerations that it is easy to dismiss that this is a clinical manifestaiton of psychopatholgy. 

This goes beyond grandiose narcissism. Trump used to call it “the weave” when he was criticized for it. He said it was genius. 

In fact this is coming close to what are called loose associations. It is also called derailment (see Wikpedia). This refers to a thought disorder where a person jumps between ideas with little or no logical connection. At it’s worts it results in speech so disorganized it is impossible to follow. This phenomenon is often seen in mental health conditions like schizophrenia. 

There was a lot to unpack in what he said today so far as he is still speaking while I write this. 

Here are two examples from Wiki:

• “The next day when I’d be going out you know, I took control, like uh, I put bleach on my hair in California.”—given by Nancy C. Andreasen^[7]

• “I think someone’s infiltrated my copies of the cases. We’ve got to case the joint. I don’t believe in joints, but they do hold your body together.”—given by Elyn Saks.^[8]

In talking about the use of nuclear weapons, for example, said the prospect was so horrible he calls it the n-word, and went on to say that there are two n-words, neither of which you can say. I doubt this was in his prepared remarks. This shows him weaving all over his mental space. This is not psycholgically normal.

Then Trump went on to say how he didn’t name the latest fighter jet. He said Boeing told him they where going to name it the F-47 after him. (Snarky aside: I wonder if someone at Boeing thought a more appropriate name was the F-Trump.) 

As I write this Trump is calling CNN fake news. He is going on and on in the same vein between talking about the military and bragging about himself and attacking Biden and “radical left lunatics.”

It’s a pipe dream that someone besides me and dozens of other mental health professionals could say it so it sinks in to people who can make a difference that “this man is not well.” 

He just added the lie that Portland (my city) looks like a war zone and is burning down… but I want to post this so I will stop now and make another cup of coffee since he shows no sign of concluding. 

(Just after posting this CNN and MSNBC cut away after an hour. Fox News was still airing it.)

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When it comes to stopping the Trump dictatorship am I an alarmist or realist? By Hal M. Brown

Tue, Aug 26 at 5:23 AM

 Ths morning I read Thom Hartmann’s Substack about impeaching Trump being the last hope: Impeach or Perish: Why Republicans Must Choose Between Trump and the Constitution.

This was the comment I posted:

I doubt that Trump federalizing our (Thom and my) National Guard to put on his show in Portland will prompt a move by Republicans to bring impeachment proceedings. I assume he’s being encouraged to invoke the insurrection act, not just by random politicians like this guy https://www.rawstory.com/don-brown-civil-war/ but by Stephen Miller and others in his inner circle too. I think Trump can declare martial law and get away with this. He can wrap himself in the law. It will take much more to stop him. We can say Republicans taking “enough is enough” action is the only hope for democracy. However these are just our own words of optimism. This hope assumes that Trump isn’t able to harden his dictatorship to the point that he will either ignore Congress or just disolve it.

Thom Hartmann and I both live in Portland, though neither of us lives downtown. We are well aware of what Trump plans to do here. 

Trump has declared war on us. 

His ordering 200 members of our (our!) National Guard to put on a show around ICE headquarters may just be the beginning. 

I can see the showboating Trump and Hegseth deciding that a show of force in the air will reinforce the don’t mess with the monarch message they want to send. How soon before we see our National Guard helecopters in the air over downtown Portland? We know how Trump loves his fighter jet flyovers. I wonder what he’d do if he was told that we (meaning us, Oregon) now have these death dealing airborne weapons (read article):

Yesterday we drove by a nearby Oregon National Guard base. Here are some photos Ann took.

One of their old fighter jets had been in a less pominent location when we drove by on a previous trip. 

Now it has been moved to an easily seen position.

Now that I’d established that I am not an optimist, I don’t know if I can objectively determine whether I am being a dispassionate realist or an alarmist. I try my best to be realistic about any hopes for doing more than slowing down Trump’s ascension to complete dictatorial control. I view him as about to be unaccountable to both the rule of law and public opinion. 

Maybe there is a slim hope that the military will do something to derail his blitzkreig. If they did this it could put us in a third world or banana republic coup d’état territory. 

I am trying to be realistic here. I don’t want to be an alarmist because I do want to be taken seriously. Besides, being an alarmist wears me out.

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Portland threat is flower power: Time Magazine story photo shows just how dangerous Portland protestors are, by Hal M. Brown

 

 

I hope someone who knows this so far unidentified woman sees the article and lets her know about it because, while not as classic as the 1967 Flower Power photo (which has a Wikipedia page), it is still a pretty damn good image.

This is the Time article.

The article itself doesn’t add anything to what we already know. However, it is the image that sends the message.

Everyone from Trump on down in his administration knows that a lie is being spun about Portland. However, only one knows it is a lie from personal experience. That is Secretary of Labor and former Oregon Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer and mayor of the city of Happy Valley, a Portland suburb. She knows Portland very well. She knows that it had problems five years ago with protests that included violent clashes and vandalism, but that now it is a peaceful city. Read local paper article about her praising him for this. This is the Cabinet member who invited him to her office to see a large banner hung on the Labor Dept. building with his face printed on it. 

How she can live with herself is beyond me. How can she go back home, presumably she still lives in Happy Valley, and face her neighbors?

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Losing freedoms one seagull at a time

 

I can’t describe the profound symbolism of birds any better than the following introduction to this webpage with three famous poems1 about birds and freedom:

Birds have long been a symbol of freedom and liberation, their ability to soar through the sky representing our deep-rooted desire to break free from earthly constraints. Throughout the ages, poets from every corner of the world have been captivated by these feathered creatures and have penned verses that celebrate their grace, resilience, and unrestrained spirit. In this article, we will explore a handful of poems about birds and freedom, each offering a unique perspective on the profound connection between flight and the human yearning for liberation.

We’re used to our freedoms. We’re used to the various aspect of our democracy. We can say that we cherish democracy but generally we don’t think about how fortunate we, as Americans, are to have the freedoms, rights, and privileges we have every moment of every day. 

Here’s how this relates to the photo on the top of the page.

I took this photo a few years ago on the Oregon coast. It is of the much photographed Haystacks Rock at Cannon Beach (do an image search to see here). 

By luck I captured a moment in time that told a story. As you can see in a closer look it shows a family, especially the four little girls, expressing delight as they feed and watch the seagulls.

Let’s say that each seagull represents an American freedom. I count about 27 birds in the photo. By chance there are 27 Amendments in the Constitution. The first ten constitute the Bill of Rights.

Take one seagull on the ground from the far right away, and nobody in the group will notice. Take a few away, the same. Even if they all disappear, it may not register with them. 

Move to the next closer group and they may realize they aren’t surrounded by a flock of seagulls but it may not bother them. But then if more and more of the birds they are paying attention to and interacting with vanish, they notice. There will be a point before there’s only one or two seagulls left when they realize that something really drastic has happened.

They they will be standing on famous scenic beach by themselves. They will hear the waves and smell the salt air and they will have each other, but something precious will be missing. It wouldn’t be that the seagulls, the freedoms, decided to fly away. It will be that they were taken away.

It won’t be the end of the world for them. The vacation, and life, will go on. However, something beyond price will have been stolen from them one bird, one freedom, one right, at a time.

Addendum:

I propose that the answer to the question “If you could have one and only one superpower which one would you chose" tells a great deal about you. If you choose a power that makes you strong it suggests that is a need. Perhaps you need to fight for freedom like Superman and other superheros. On the other hand, you may want this power so you can dominate others. If you say you’d like to be able to fly I think you are more my kind of person.

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1

The three poems are “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “The Eagle” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, and “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” by Emily Dickinson.

If Comey is found guilty of the two charges it doesn't mean "Russia, Russia, Russia" was a hoax. In fact, it may show that it was real. What a trial may eventually prove to more people is that Russia, Russia, Russia was real.

I really don’t have much more to say than what is in my title except to add that Comey is being charged with lying to Congress about a leak, but not Russia interferring in American elections to help Donald Trump.

I’d like to see the chyrons and headlines reads like the following:

I keep reading and hearing that Pam Bondi had doubts about bringing this case forward. This makes me wonder about whether she realized this as much as she knew that they had a weak case on the charges themselves. 

What I can tell so far is that the government’s case hinges on what Andrew McCabe claims about being authorized to leak information to The Wall Street Journal. If this is true than it seems to me as as non-lawyer that it boils down to a he-said and he-said case. Who ya gonna believe. Maybe McCabe misheard what Comey said. On the other hand, it’s also possible Comey misheard what McCabe said.

This seems to add up to

What this trial won’t decide is whether there’s reasonable doubt about whether or not Russia tried to sway the election in Trump’s favor by using social media and other methods. That has already been decided. Just ask Wikipedia if they did.

Yes, Russia has interfered in multiple U.S. elections, including the 2016, 2020, and 2024 elections, primarily through disinformation campaigns and propaganda aimed at influencing voter perceptions and outcomes. These efforts have been aimed at damaging Democratic candidates and supporting those aligned with Russian interests.

Not only has Wikipedia (and others) come to this conclusion. Wiki has also shown that the public also does not believe “Russia, Russia, Russia” was a hoax:

Public opinion on whether Russia interfered in U.S. elections varies, but numerous polls indicate that a significant portion of Americans, often around 60-70%, believe that Russia did interfere, particularly in the 2016 election. This belief is supported by findings from U.S. intelligence agencies and various investigations.

I think Trump believes that by discrediting Comey he can delude the public, and perhaps himself, that Russia had nothing to do with him winning the 2024 election. 

We will see if I’m corrrect about this when we hear him ranting (and posting) about how if Comey is convicted, or knowing Trump, just because he was indicted, that this proves Russia, Russia, Russia was a hoax.

Information about Russian election interference will be part of the trial and perhaps new information will come out. What a trial may eventually prove to more people is that Russia, Russia, Russia was real.

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