Cults- Trump - Jim Jones

 In 1978 918 people drank poisoned Kool Aid and died because their insane cult leader, Jim Jones, told them to. Incomprehensible. 

In 2020 over 1000 people assembled on the White House lawn to hear Trump accept his nomination for the 2020 presidential run. They did not follow scientific medical advice to socially distance at least 6 feet and wear masks. They did so because their insane cult leader, Donald Trump, told them to.  Incomprehensible. 

It only takes one infected but non symptomatic COVID19 person to spread the virus to many. COVID19 kills, causes heart, organ, and brain damage in some people. 

Trump, of course, has no interest in the health or welfare of anyone other than himself, so we can expect that he would see COVID19 deaths as a welcome tribute to his importance.  

Incomprehensible. 

Convention chaos?

 The Dems put together a tightly produced professional convention rolling out Joe Biden. 

The Reps start theirs now.  Trump is a TV guy, so it might be good. But Trump is also a chaotic ball of incompetence and impulse and incompetence. So, it could be a mess. 

I can’t watch because I can’t stand to watch the mentally ill man. But I’m thinking there may be some strange stuff coming. 

BIden's call for the Light to overcome the Darkness

Joe opened with a call for the Light:”

“Give people light and they will find a way. Give people light. Those are words for our time.

The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division.

Here and now, I give you my word: If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I will be an ally of the light, not of the darkness.”

He ended with a promise of the Light:

“With passion and purpose, let us begin — you and I together, one nation, under God — united in our love for America and united in our love for each other.

For love is more powerful than hate.

Hope is more powerful than fear.

Light is more powerful than dark.

This is our moment. This is our mission.”

I celebrate a man with a vision of the Light overcoming the deep and disturbing darkness of Trump and his Trumpsters.

Obama at the convention - Trump using his power to help only himself and his friends

President Obama spoke at the Democratic Convention last night:

"For close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe….

So let me tell you about my friend, Joe Biden…what I quickly came to admire about Joe Biden is his resilience, born of too much struggle; his empathy, born of too much grief. Joe's a man who learned – early on – to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity, living by the words his parents taught him: "No one's better than you, Joe, but you're better than nobody…..

This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes to win. So we have to get busy building it up – by pouring all our effort into these 76 days, and by voting like never before – for Joe and Kamala, and candidates up and down the ticket, so that we leave no doubt about what this country that we love stands for – today and for all our days to come.”

I feel sorry for Donald Trump because he really is doing the best he can, he just doesn’t know that he is supposed to do the best he can for the country, not do the best he can for himself.  He is literally mentally ill and a host of other very unflattering descriptors. 

But, his time has come and he will go.  Joe’s time has come.  The world will take a big sigh of relief when we stop the dictatorship of Trump from becoming worse and even uglier.

Michele - if we think things can't get worse --- they CAN

Michele Obama gave her speech at the Democratic Convention last night.  She said some very important things:

“But right now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another. They’re looking around wondering if we’ve been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value.

They see people shouting in grocery stores, unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe. They see people calling the police on folks minding their own business just because of the color of their skin. They see an entitlement that says only certain people belong here, that greed is good, and winning is everything because as long as you come out on top, it doesn’t matter what happens to everyone else. And they see what happens when that lack of empathy is ginned up into outright disdain.

They see our leaders labeling fellow citizens enemies of the state while emboldening torch-bearing white supremacists. They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on peaceful protestors for a photo-op.

So let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.

So if you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this: if you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.”

Trump has proven that the job is way too hard for him, and if he is re-elected he will go full fascist dictator. 

Sanders calls out Trump's authoritarianism

Bernie Sanders gave his speech at the Democratic Convention last night.  He said some important things, pointing out the obvious, that Trump is acting like an authoritarian tyrant overthrowing democracy:

“This election is the most important in the modern history of this country. In response to the unprecedented crises we face, we need an unprecedented response …At its most basic, this election is about preserving our democracy. During this president's term, the unthinkable has become normal. He has tried to prevent people from voting, undermined the U.S. Postal Service, deployed the military and federal agents against peaceful protesters, threatened to delay the election and suggested that he will not leave office if he loses. This is not normal, and we must never treat it like it is.

Under this administration, authoritarianism has taken root in our country.”

He must be voted out, and when he refuses to leave he must be dragged out.

CLEAN IT UP

We are on the verge of the Democratic Party Convention.  There is just one theme needed for the Democrats this election - CLEAN IT UP!

After astonishing levels of incompetency, corruption, racism, and just plain crudeness and crassness, it is time TO CLEAN IT UP!

INCOMPETENCY?  Just look at the United States of America  - we lead the world, by far, in continuous outbreaks of infection and deaths from COVID-19.

CORRUPTION?  Corruption is this president’s business plan, and governing plan.

RACISM?  Trump makes it clear that his hard core base is racist, like him.

CRUDENESS?  Trump embarrasses this country with his crass, insulting, low life remarks and attacks daily.

We can each come up with countless examples in each category, I am sure. 

The worst of it all is his authoritarianism, and the authoritarian staff, department heads, and elected officials, and followers. 

It is time to CLEAN IT UP!

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Prepare for war

If you understand that Donald Trump is psychotically narcissistic, you will expect that he will do anything to keep from going to jail after he is thrown out of office. Anything means anything. Do not be surprised if he tries to start a war. Harming other people is not even on his radar screen, let alone something he thinks he should not do. Watch out world. He needs big-time distractions, and nothing is bigger than war.

Mary Trump's book about Donald Trump and the family that formed him.

I just finished "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man by [Mary L. Trump]" It was more about the incredible toxic effect of Donald's father, Fred Trump, than Donald himself. I always wondered what kind of father Fred Trump was to have his oldest son die of despair and alcoholism and the age of 42, and his next son, Donald, be such a cruel, self centered, heartless monster. Well, she answers the question.

The main point of the book is that the father forced Donald to cut off all human feeling - sympathy, empathy, compassion, caring for the feelings or well being of others were a form of weakness. And it was clear that weakness was severely punished with ridicule, humiliation, disapproval, personal destruction. Indeed, the first son, Freddie, was too human to take on the legacy of his father's cruel real estate empire, failed continuously in his cruel father's eyes, and was a crushed human being who tried to escape the tyranny by becoming a pilot. It wasn't enough, he couldn't escape and disappeared into alcoholism and early death.

Next in line, was the second son, Donald. Donald knew just one thing, don't be like his older brother, Freddy. So Donald's only way of surviving his cruel father was to be like his father - fight back, be more cruel, be more heartless, be less a feeling human being, be more driven to expand the cruelty and greed of his father. He succeeded in becoming his father's path to conserving and extending his financial empire.

So, Donald went off into the real estate business, and became the personification of his father's mythology. The myth was that Donald was a brash entrepreneur who had giant visions and achieved great wealth. Well, the reality beneath the myth was that his father had the political and financial contacts that made the deals in New York real estate - connections, tax breaks, the entire hidden infrastructure that made it all possible.

And then, Donald made a dumb mistake. He believed the myth about himself and he went off to New Jersey and bought three casinos. But he was without the only thing that had given him any success in New York - his father's connections and management talent needed to make it work.

He went bankrupt. He failed, but his failure could be twisted in his childish mind into success because the people who suffered were his vendors, his workers, his bankers - other people. And what did he care about other people? He was formed by his cruel father to see other people as having no value other than how they could make him money, or in Donald's case, fame.

By the way, Mary Trump was the source of the huge trove of financial documents for the New York Times investigative article showing that Dondald inherited over $450 million from his father. His myth of being a self made man was just smoke and mirrors.

She doesn't go into Donald's other bankruptcies, but they are the true record of his inability to run anything:

1. Trump Steaks

2. GoTrump

3. Trump Airlines

4. Trump Vodka

5. Trump Mortgage

6. Trump: The Game

7. Trump Magazine

8. Trump University

9. Trump Ice

10. The New Jersey Generals

11. Tour de Trump

12. Trump Network

13. Trumped!

Trump companies that sought bankruptcy protection:

1. Trump Taj Mahal

2. Trump’s Castle

3. Trump Plaza Casinos

4. Trump Plaza Hotel

5. Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts

6. Trump Entertainment Resorts

So, what is her message from her book? She opened the book with a quote from Victor Hugo saying that one who is raised in loveless and cruel darkness is less responsible for the sins committed than the one who was the darkness in the first place. The villain of the book is Donald's father, Fred Trump. Donald is his victim. His older brother Freddie was the first son crushed by his father, and his second son, Donald, became a twisted monster of incompetence and cruelty as his second victim.

In the end, Donald is what he has always been, a terrified three year old. And everything he does, from blaming others, to his astonishing levels of grandiosity and over-hyping everything (the best, the greatest, the biggest, the grandest, the most historic, etc.)- it is delusional, and it is compensation to protect one of the most fragile and twisted egos in the country.