What I am still unable to process

[malaise]

Last edited Mon Jun 13, 2022, 09:16 PM - Edit history (1)

Is how one below average man could be so obsessed with his own delusions about his intelligence and genius to the point of destroying an entire country?

How fucking crazy is that and why did so many people go along for the ride?
Yes this was a coup looking for a legal theory.

[Tetrachloride]

1. Rich people think they can hide in golf courses, casinos and private airports

I used to live in a town known for a section of old money.

[AntivaxHunters]

2. THIS.

[Samrob]

63. RACISM Trumps all else. the money, then power. nt

[Chainfire]

3. You aren't alone.

I sometimes think it must be something in the water that makes 30% of our country crazy and another 18% willing to ignore the first part. Trumpism is not just Donald Trump's fault.

[CincyDem]

4. My hypothesis...

He’s below average in virtually every category…but one (imho)

He is a master at how to leverage power for personal gain. Whether it be the power of The Oval or the power to outlast a business adversary or the power to push banks and partners into deals against their economic well-being.

He’s the “give him an inch and he’ll take a mile” huckster and at every turn, he’s gotten what he wanted by using his crazy as fuel to push any/all opposition into the “rational player”.

It’s how abusers work. They are masters of exploiting common decency.

Just my 2 cents. Hope you’re doing well juggling Jeopardy episodes.

[malaise]

6. You may be right

Ha for the Jeopardy episodes. 😀😀

[brush]

10. The thing is though, he would've been a nobody...

Last edited Tue Jun 14, 2022, 02:02 PM - Edit history (1)

if he hadn't started from young adulthood with the hundreds of millions from his father, beefed up even further by millions more he stole from his dead brother's inheritance.

You can't leverage any of those things without big, big bucks. If trump had done none of that maneuvering with the money and just left it in a mutual fund he would've done much better finacially. And we'd be all better off as he wouldn't have gone to Putin to get funded after blowing through his roll, and the rest is history and four years of a crooked admin resulting in two impeachments and an insurrection.

[CincyDem]

64. Agree completely. Toxic mix of personality and inheritance.

And for all “we” bitch about Wall Street, most long term investors have done reasonably well even inflation adjusted. Not billionaire well, but healthy life well.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. I think it's in the personality disorders

Narcissism. Sociopath (aka anti-social). Obsessions.

Somewhere or other I read sometime that narcissism becomes more intense as one ages. Thus you have aging rock stars or actors/actresses who will go through any amount of money for plastic surgery in an attempt to remain young and most of all powerful. The delusional schemes become larger and more grandiose. This has of course been decades in the making, 10-20 years, and that's just the blow-off top.

[maxsolomon]

7. This.

He's below-average in many ways, but he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and he was born rich.

[brush]

8. The man had hundreds of millions of dollars from...

his old man upon entering adulthood...some stolen from his brother's inheritance share, Mary Trump's father.

With hundreds of millions even an incompetent, below average individual can hire loyal people, who need a job, amd make things happen. It takes a long time to go thru hundreds of millions. though. But after nultiple failed casinos, failed steak companies, failed airline, failed university, failed water companies, failed marriages and finally a failed a re-election campaign, the end of the line is upon him.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Agreed

By my numbers, he could have invested those "loans" (tax avoidance scheme) he got from daddy, then the money from when he took over the company & had $7-7.5 billion by 2016. By doing NOTHING!!!
Even his lie about his net worth wasn't close to that high!
BTW: during that whole 40+ years, he could have lived like the emperor of Mars, and still have accumulated over 10x (maybe 30x) what he did. If in fact he actually has any net positive wealth.

[Cheezoholic]

9. I live in the corn field jungle infested with the Trumpanzie's

They go along for the ride because they are just as narcissistic, self absorbed, delusional and hanging on the lower rung of intelligence just like him. He is them and they are him in there twisted fucked up heads.

[Quakerfriend]

11. And, he destroyed so much in the blink of an eye.

Putin led the way.

I hope and pray that Biden can help us turn it around.

I’m trying to do my part each day- to treat everyday people I meet with kindness, dignity, and respect.

[lees1975]

12. I can't wrap my mind around the fact that people in this country have become so mind-numbed that

they couldn's see this.

People who claim to be Christian in their beliefs denied core teachings of their faith to put their trust in this guy, an antichrist.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/06/no-theology-or-doctrine-justifies.html

[brush]

16. That TV show, "The Apprentice" had tremendous reach...

and falsely burnished his reputation as a highly successful, financial genius.

It's run ended shortly before his 2015 campaign began but it was still fresh in mind to voters susceptible to the false buildup of trump's reputation.

That kind of positive exposure and PR is priceless as it touches millions of voters.

[fierywoman]

27. I wonder if part of the allure of showing up to a tRump rally was to see

someone "live" and "in person" that they'd seen on the TeeVee...

[allegorical oracle]

65. Avoided it, mostly, but did see a couple of "Celebrity" versions. It was pointless. Seemed aimed

at using "celebrities" to promote Trump brands -- like Ivanka's perfume or Donald's ties. Not to mention that many of the so-called celebs were has-beens, never-knowns or had IQs equal to a cat hairball.

[wnylib]

40. Germans did the same thing under Nazism.

I used to ask the same questions about them that the OP poses about Americans today. Now I see for myself how it can happen.

[pwb]

13. A good education at the highest levels can be bought, and Trump and

Bush and Cruz and Paul and all the lot prove it. Harvard, Yale my ass. Bought and paid for dummies they give us. For $$$$$. Or do they have an Asshole 101 curriculum now?

[Silent3]

15. Trump is only *mostly* stupid

Trump has a natural talent for emotional manipulation of some kinds of people.

Trump would hardly be the first dictator/would-be dictator who comes off as a clown and an idiot to sane people with at least a smidgen of emotional and analytical intelligence.

I think it's clear now, however, that that which repulses many of us, that which appears to us as behavior rendering a person utterly unfit to hold any position of authority, is strangely appealing to about 30% of humans almost anywhere (not just in the US), and doesn't set off major alarm bells for maybe another 20-30%, who are willing to either believe these traits aren't that bad, or at least these traits aren't much worse than whatever they think is wrong with the other options available.

[FakeNoose]

23. Chump's talent is the ability to say things he thinks people want to hear

That's it, that's all of it. Some people think he's lying, but he's really not lying in his own mind. He's telling them what they want to hear. To Chump's way of thinking, that's what a good salesman does, and he thinks he's a GREAT salesman. How he got away with it all these years is beyond me.

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

36. Dear FakeNoose,

please ask your good friend, The Rock, WHERE I can get one of those t-shirts !!

[malaise]

44. You can have the T shirt

I’ll take the Rock

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

57. See, I KNEW I couldn't have him !!!

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

38. On second thought, I'm good.

I found it on amazon.com in my size and in gray.

I get it on Thursday.

I'll be wearing it on Friday.

[Effete Snob]

17. It happens all the time

People laughed at Hitler's buffoonery until they stopped.

[malaise]

21. Well This is the Hitler for my generation

Evil on steroids. Bangs head

[Karadeniz]

18. He has virtually no soul, so ego occupies his entire mind. Unrestrained ego, dedicated to

protecting one's sense of self, is just as committed to self-preservation as a brain commanding it's human to fight for survival with a lethal weapon.

[usajumpedtheshark]

19. And don't forgot those fooled by the assurances that there would be competent adults

in the room to keep from doing too much damage.

[Novara]

20. Every so often I stop and think it just comes down to this:

A sore loser is destroying this country.

I have never in my life understood cults and this has all the hallmarks of a cult. But this mess right now comes down to his inability to accept rejection.

And yeah, that's an abuser of the family annihilator variety: "If I can't have her, then nobody can." He knew damn well that he wouldn't be able to reverse the election so he set out to destroy everything he could.

[malaise]

45. Yep

That’s him

[Torchlight]

22. After his election, I had faith in the endurance of our national institutions ,

and tradition in the face of his abject stupidity.

I believed that our fundamentals were far too strong to ever think any one man could bring it down. Up to his election, I'd had confidence that our shared commonalities would prove to be too great for trump and his flock to be anything other than a bug on our windshield.

By the time the 2020 elections came and went, that same faith had gone into crisis mode so many times over the past four years, and I witnessed so many people with a "burn-the-mother-down!" attitude that I almost gave up and thought, "I'm outta here. Off to live in Wales." I watched people with their heads so far up their asses deny obvious realities, and without shame. I began thinking it's a house of cards and the blowhard done blowed hard.

Thankfully, my kind and gracious better half pointed out that while cracks may be showing and water may be leaking in, the boat is still floating, it's engines sputter on, and steering is green. As she told me: it's a human-made problem: and every problem created by humans can be solved by humans.

Putin's good at what he does, and he almost conned me into giving up.

[bringthePaine]

24. not the first (or likely last) time for this fuckery, but justice served would be new...

[gab13by13]

25. He has made lying a science,

he repeats his lies over and over until lies become truths. I shudder when I hear that Trump is stupid. Trump is not college material either but Trump has the ability to get people to pay to see the 2 headed goat in the circus tent numerous times.

Roy Cohn trained Trump and I believe that Putin and others have dirt on him. He is a dangerous man, a sociopathic president of the united States, what could go wrong?

[Warpy]

26. History is full of such men. Sometimes they're kings/emperors. Sometimes they're dictators

Madison and Jefferson knew one of them would be along sooner or later, which is why we have such short terms for Presidents. They wanted us to be able to dump TFG in a fairly timely manner, before he was able to fire everybody decent in the government and replace them with his own stooges. It's just astonishing that it took us 233 years to get one that rotten. I suppose wannabe dictators for life have found our system too cumbersome in the past. It took a total doofus who didn't even know what that system was to try to pull off a dictatorship.

[Mr.Bill]

28. I have noticed that many of his followers are young

and don't know much about his past, or if they are older, they just weren't paying attention to him in earlier decades. I've been reading abbout this clown since the early 70s and it's always been clear to me he was a pile of bullshit.

[iemanja]

29. He's an extreme narcissist

The real insanity is that people voted him into office. The die was cast at that point.

[perfessor]

30. Think of how stupid the average person is ....

... then realize that half the people are even stupider. ~~ George Carlin, to the best of my recollection.

[Wounded Bear]

54. He reminded us that half the population is below average IQ...

[usonian]

31. Some background, if it helps people understand.

Read this great series on DKos
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/6/2044226/-America-2021-The-Good-the-Bad-the-Ugly
“Democracy in Crisis: We’ve Been Headed Here for Decades.” Part 1of 8
Read all 8 to get the pattern in detail.

For a look into the crooked minds of the perpetrators, read
The Psychology of Genocide by Steven K. Baum. (2008)
He groups people into three categories: Perpetrators, Bystanders, and Rescuers.
How Frickin appropriate is that TODAY?

And, to get an idea how the "cult" behaves, read
When Society Becomes an Addict by Anne Wilson Schaef,
because cult behavior shares lots of patterns with addiction.
When you read the list, you will recognize lots of folks in the Wacko Party.

The "conspiracy" has been hatched by a coalition of Qvangelicals, RW politicians and oligarchs. Since the Buckley/Nixon/Reagan years, basically all ganging together to put a shine and blessing on greed. (It's actually mentioned in that series)
ALL PLAYING RACISM TO THE FULLEST (and homophobia or misogyny or whatever spikes the hate glands)

And to put a proper apocalyptic vision on it all:

Let's look at these as four horsemen.

False Prophets: Need I mention "gospel of hate?"
Civil War: our wonderful grifting politicians, who divide people in order to profit from oligarchs.
Famine: but not for the wealthy -- oligarchs who tie up 99% of wealth.
Death: well, death is racism. That which gets a healthy body (nation of individuals) to fight itself. A disease.

[slightlv]

32. Exactly

They've been planning this -in plain sight- since at least Eisenhower, if not earlier!

[malaise]

55. Thanks for the links

Bookmarked

[Martin Eden]

33. Hair Twitler knew how to put his finger on the pulse of rightwing grievance voters

He honed his understanding by immersing himself in Fox News and the online universe of alt-right narratives & propaganda.

He is woefully ignorant of many things, and has severe mental pathologies which are actually essential to his two main talents of self promotion and conning a bunch of useful idiots whose attitudes, beliefs, and grievances he constantly validates.

Unlike the other presidential candidates in the 2016 primary, TFG adhered to no rules or norms. Totally uninhibited with no moral compass or regard for facts, he blew them all away by crossing boundaries and pushing the buttons of the voting base like no one had done before.

They absolutely loved him for it, and still do.

[Cozmo]

34. tfg was known as a joke and a buffoon, and a failed businessman since the 80's

How he ever got to be president is beyond me. It just goes to show you how so many of our fellow citizens didn't know of his rep and were entirely fooled by his rampant bullshit. It's really quite disheartening, to say the least.

[barbtries]

50. not only did they not know the facts about him,

but they thought they knew him, from his TV show. it was very popular I believe. I never watched it but I bet most trumpies did.

[H2O Man]

35. Recommended.

It is not a matter of intelligence. It is sociopathy plus opportunity. I encountered a dozen sociopaths in forensic mental health work with average intelligence. But they did not have the platform -- meaning access to mass communications -- that genetics provided for Trump. Had he been born into middle class circumstances, he would have had a small following. Had he been poor, he would have been an annoying asshole in my weekly jail group.

[malaise]

41. Sociopathy plus opportunity

Damn- hadn’t thought of it that way.

[H2O Man]

61. That's what brothers are for!

Especially one who tends to think differently than most. Ha!

It's a curious thing: Trump isn't that good, but he is that bad.

[malaise]

62. LOL

[Roy Rolling]

37. Die Hard, the Movie

Remember when Bruce Willis’ character found out the kidnapper gang wasn’t political terrorists, but just robbing the vault? That’s where we are now. He said something to the effect, “this is all about money?”

Unfucking believable, but Trump did it all for money—to pay his debts to Russian mobsters.

[malaise]

46. You destroy a country for chump change?

Crazy!

[Roy Rolling]

60. He *is* Crazy LOL

He appears like someone owned by a criminal gang, a gang dumb enough to hire a moron like Donald. Trump thought he’d be a owner of a country like Putin owns Russia. Bigger than being a businessman(since he failed at every business even casinos), Trump wanted to be an oligarch handing out the stolen American businesses his government would acquire like Putin did in Russia.

Then he wouldn’t be getting those late night phone calls from debt collectors.

Definitely a crazy idea. That’s why it fits TFG.

[Evolve Dammit]

39. total sociopath and dictator in waiting.

[relayerbob]

42. Certainly isn't the first time in history and won't be the last

[Fla Dem]

43. He's not the first and won't be the last....Putin, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Napoleon, Idi Amin etc

[3catwoman3]

47. The depth and breadth of destruction wrought...

…does seem out of proportion for a single individual. Shades of Hitler, Genghis Khan, Papa Doc Duvalier, Bashar al-Assad, Putin, etc, etc.

And he doesn’t even like the job, or want to stay in it because because he thinks he can do good. He just wants to stay to keep his ass out of jail.

[malaise]

48. I disagree

He thought he was a great president

[3catwoman3]

52. He thinks he's great at everything, for sure.

I’ll amend my statement to say he loved the prestige of being in office. By all reports, he hated the actual demands of being a working president and did as little work as he could get away with.

[malaise]

53. Agree- for Slobby

It’s all form and image with no content

[barbtries]

49. I'm still gobsmacked.

I just think, Rwanda, Hitler. People are malleable. Republicans have dumbed down america quite successfully. People don't know how or don't want to think critically and for some reason, they just love having someone to hate.

but I don't get it either at the end of the day. I know and even love some of these people. It's not like a physical defect, but something has gone wrong in their brains, and I truly do believe it's fox news and hate radio that made that happen.

people are the best, people are the worst.

[MadameButterfly]

51. He makes me think of the movie Being There

where the guy lucked into success saying childish things that people assumed had deeper meaning.

Trump has the nerve to say stuff just because he's too dumb and self-absorbed to know how ridiculous they are. His stupidity makes him bold, and his boldness is appealing to people who don't really understand the ramifications of anything he is saying. His deep need for followers (which he mistakes as love) is mistaken as confidence when it is really desperation.

How many of us need to be dictators to have self-esteem or pay our bills? He's made a fine fix for himself.
He's always one step ahead of disaster. A normal person would have had a nervous breakdown by now, but he really thinks the world revolves around him and people will keep fixing all his problems like his Daddy and Roy Cohn did.

It turns out there's enough sickness or beaten down people in our population to go along with it. There are enough craven politicians to accommodate such behavior. He didn't figure anything out: He just thinks everyone is as crooked as he is, so that is normal to him.

Stalin and Hitler miscalculated because they misinterpreted motives and actions by genuinely selfless and heroic people. i'm hoping that's what stymies Trump too.

But please, don't give him credit for intellegence or talent. He's just a bull in a China shop until somebody stops him.

[Skittles]

56. what shocks me

is just how many people are willing to humiliate themselves to support a vile buffoon, a fascist dictator-wannabe

fucking SICKENING

[Diablo del sol]

58. Don't underestimate the Putin help

The piece of shit (Putin in this case) played the long game.
Find a racist public figure who appeals to white grievance, funnel money and compromise the other leaders in his political party and you end up with tRump. (with a lot of help from a complicit media)

[Bucky]

59. Narcissistic personality disorder.

Anyway, plenty of American presidents have destroyed countries. Trump is just the first one who used his power of office to try to destroy ours. Of course the idea that Trump has any loyalty to the United States is utterly ludicrous. Like any narcissist, he's just loyal to himself.