You control your state’s elections. The President can’t stop you, so you will hold your election, no matter what the lunatic in the White House says. You will certify your electoral votes, and they will then vote in the electoral college (for Biden, presumably).

Now, imagine that you are the Governor of TX. Your party leader, the lunatic in the White House, has told you that you should not hold an election. He has no power to stop you from holding an election, but, for whatever reason, that’s clearly what he wants. For your part, you know that your state will have NO SAY in selecting the next President if you don’t hold an election. Even worse, your state will have NO MEMBERS in the House of Representatives if you don’t hold an election. You’ll also lose one Senate seat. What will you do? You will hold an election, no matter what the lunatic in the White House says.

The idea that there will be no November 2020 election is absurd. The election will happen. Nobody has the power to stop it. Our Constitution actually works fairly well.

-Laelth

They’re just born that way. Absent brain surgery, there’s nothing that can be done for them.

Roughly 1 in 8 humans suffers from a Cluster B personality disorder. In 2012, British scientists found a link between Cluster B disorders and a brain anomaly known as Cavum septum pellucidum (easily Wikiable). It’s also thought that the brain anomaly known as Cavum vergae (easily Wikiable) plays a role in the Cluster B disorders. These are not brain “defects.” If they were, they would likely have been wiped out of the human genome long ago. They’re anomalies. Evidently, we need these parasitic, lazy, sadistic, emotionally-retarded agents of chaos for something. What, I do not know.

But it appears that these disorders are genetic. Naturally, most people who have them were abused as children. They had to get the gene from somebody—either one or both of their parents had a Cluster B disorder, themselves, so we can assume that most people with Cluster B disorders were abused as children, but we can also assume, because the condition is genetic, that they can not change for the better. They can’t alter their own genetic code. In addition, tragically, the condition is progressive. They get worse over time. Trump is proof of that. They can only be marginalized and avoided. I certainly wouldn’t recommend making one of them President of the United States.

-Laelth

“I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America and to the republic that was created by it, one nation, and we don’t care what you think about God, indivisible (following the Civil War, at which time it was decided that NO STATE had the right to leave the Union), with liberty and justice for some of us (but we’re honestly working hard to make it ALL of us).”



-Laelth

When I do recall them, they’re often like the dream you describe. They’re about guilt. In them, I am beating myself up for something I DIDN’T DO. I have to wake myself fully and remind myself that I didn’t actually do what I had just dreamed and that there’s no way on Earth I would ever have done such a thing.

And it’s often just a minor thing. Borrowing somebody’s computer to send an email is NO BIG DEAL, right? Nobody really got hurt, but you still felt enormous guilt about having invaded someone’s personal space (and you need to remember that you didn’t actually do that). You just dreamt that you did. You’re beating yourself up for NOTHING that you actually did. The dream pattern you describe is very familiar to me.

My guess is that one or both of your parents and one or more of your siblings suffers from a Cluster B personality disorder. You have been punished for things you didn’t actually do all your life. You were the family scapegoat. When anything went wrong, you got the blame. You still blame yourself for things that are not your fault. You are subconsciously working through a lifetime of injustice.

Just wake up and remember. You didn’t do what you dreamed. You are innocent of MOST of the crimes people have accused you of committing. The ones you actually did commit, you have apologized for and have tried to make amends. You do not have to be perfect. Nobody is. You have had one or more “perfect people” (only in their own minds) criticizing you all your life, and that is an enormous weight to bear. You are simply working through that lifelong (and possibly continuing) trauma.

-Laelth

This is the Friday immediately preceding the Republican National Convention. Trump’s bowing out before the convention will give them the opportunity to nominate someone else—probably VP Pence.

The reason will NOT be his health. He’s incapable of admitting weakness. It will be for the good of the American people because the Fake News Media, the deep state, and the evil Democrats never actually gave him a chance to govern. He, and the American people, were ROBBED of what could have been a golden age by bitter, petty people who couldn’t stand to see him succeed.

Personally, I don’t think that he’s dropping out, but, if he does, I think it will go down as I described, above.

-Laelth

It only works if you are the challenger, not if you are the incumbent. Nixon was able to pull off a victory in 1968 because he was the challenger. LBJ and the ruling Democratic Party were held responsible for the civil unrest that rocked several American cities that year. Nixon won, in part, on his promise to restore “law and order.”

2020 is different. The civil unrest that we are experiencing is far more widespread and far more disciplined than it was in 1968. Trump OWNS this civil unrest. Because he’s a moron, he also now owns his defense of memorials to people who fought to protect slavery. Talk about being tone-deaf!



But now he’s running on the law and order platform, and he can’t do anything to stop the civil unrest we are seeing. He’s just proving himself to be impotent—issuing unenforceable orders left and right but having NO EFFECT. He looks weak. He looks impotent. He can’t stop the civil unrest, so his “law and order” strategy is backfiring on him.

Right now, he’s promising something that he can’t deliver. Why would anyone give him a second chance to accomplish something that he can’t accomplish NOW?

He has, because he’s really stupid, chosen a losing strategy.



-Laelth

But I want to add a fictional conversation, here, between Gibson and his agent that immediately followed this interview:





-Laelth

There are quite a few English teachers on DU, and many others who are gifted with languages. As a general rule, we DO NOT correct anyone’s grammar, but if you engage with us, we will come out to play.



-Laelth

The Supreme Court has ruled that “gender” is a protected class under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That means that businesses can not take “adverse employment action”—firing, not hiring, demoting, or otherwise penalizing employees on the basis of their gender, be they gay, lesbian, bi, trans, or whatever. This is a major change in American law. Previously, a gay person could be fired just for being gay. That was perfectly legal. That changed today. Previously, a gay person could be denied services at “common carrier” businesses like hotels and restaurants just because they were gay. That changed today. We have no idea what the further implications of this ruling will be, but they will be significant, and they will be good.

The Clean Water Act has been preserved. The Trump administration sought to effectively gut the act, and the SCOTUS denied the government’s plea to gut the Act. This is a major victory for those of us who value our environment.

The SCOTUS ruled that the State of Texas can not execute a suspect who was denied effective assistance of counsel. Previously, the SCOTUS has declined to hear such cases—allowing the state of Texas to execute prisoners as it saw fit. This time the SCOTUS decided that it would hear the case if Texas decided to execute someone who made an “ineffective assistance of counsel argument.” This is an enormous change in SCOTUS jurisprudence.

But THE MAIN THING is this. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Niel Gorsuch joined 4 liberals on the Court in these decisions, giving us a 6-3 majority. Gorsuch actually wrote the opinion securing LGBT+!rights. This is an ENORMOUS and EXCELLENT change. I will not promise that it will last, but, for the moment, I feel that this is a great day for the United States—a day worthy of celebration.



-Laelth

The United States is a republic. Therefore, it is an oligarchy. We just have to accept this fact. Oligarchies can be benevolent (if they are liberal—if they are dedicated to spreading the wealth that capitalism generates to ALL the people), or they can be malevolent (if they are dedicated to concentrating wealth in the hands of the richest and most powerful among us).

I am a capitalist and a liberal. I favor a benign oligarchy that enriches us all, but I will not deceive myself by thinking that the United States isn’t an oligarchy. It is, for better or for worse.

Accepting the truth as you perceive it IS NOT brainwashing. It’s just painful acceptance of truths that your previous belief system could not encompass.

-Laelth