What happened yesterday and today is exactly what would have happened

in February, and what always happens when Trump is caught red-handed in a dangerous or criminal deception or doing something illegal.

Trump figures out some explanation, excuse, justification, muddies the waters, doubles down, goes on Fox and gives a confusing, unintelligible interview, blames somebody else, sends out surrogates to lie for him. Meanwhile the virus continues to rage across America.

"It was a perfect phone call."

"We get to keep all the oil" (in Syria).

"There was no collusion."

There really is something to this.

So many criminals have been caught because, in the end, they wanted the police to know how "clever" they were. They want credit for their crimes. That's also why they often taunt and communicate with the police and reporters.

A talkative sociopath is a dream come true.

It will continue to reverberate because COVID 19 isn't going away.

Every time coronavirus is in the news, either someone will bring it up, or the new disclosure will be linked in people's memories and minds: Trump knew, Trump lied. It's kind of like if you learn something really embarrassing about a friend; every time you see that friend you think of them in a new light.

Trump's mindset: The Curious Case of Dalia Dippolito

Trump's behavior when it comes to believing that he can win people over, convince them of anything if only he can appeal to them directly, is similar to the traits exhibited by convicted criminal Dalia Dippolito. Dippolito was caught on video arranging a hit on her husband. Unbeknownst to her, the man she was hiring was an undercover police officer. A sting operation intercepted her when she raced back to her home after receiving a call that her husband had just been assassinated.

Prior to that, she had pressured her husband to sign over to her ownership of their house. She had also made anonymous phone calls to the police accusing her own husband of drug dealing, trying to set him up to get him arrested and thrown in prison. When that didn't work, she decided to have him killed.

Her interrogation is remarkable. She tells her interrogator, in effect, "You didn't see what you saw on that tape. the tape is lying." When she was provided her one phone call she called her husband, the man she'd just tried to have killed, and demanded to see him in person, because she believed, if she could just be alone with him, she could convince him of her innocence. Her husband had seen the surveillance video, and in spite of that Dippolito believed: If I can just talk to him face to face, I can manipulate him and win him over, like I've won everybody over all my life.

She is a textbook example of a narcissistic psychopath.

The Curious Case of Dalia Dippolito

The case that he reminds me of is Dalia Dippolito. She was caught on video arranging a hit on her husband. Unbeknownst to her, the man she was hiring was an undercover police officer. A police sting caught her when she came back to her home believing her husband had just been assassinated.

Her interrogation is remarkable. When she was provided one phone call she called her husband, the man she'd just tried to have killed, and demanded to see him in person, because she believed, if she could just be alone with him, she could convince him of her innocence. That was her obsession: If I can just talk to him face to face, I can manipulate him and win him over, like I've won everybody over all my life.

She is a textbook example of a psychopath.

For some, yes.

Also, there's the cumulative impact to think about.

Fire and Fury by itself didn't get Trump removed, nor did any other single book (not even the Mueller Report) but when you have twelve, fifteen, twenty books I think it seeps into the national consciousness.

And that is also helped by the writers appearing on TV. The "book tour" aspect is an important part.

Most people won't have time for Peter Strzok's book, but they'll see him on TV saying exactly what Comey, Mattis and so many others are saying. I do think, in the aggregate, it can make a difference.

I'm not recommending Bolton's book, but one thing he definitely emphasizes

throughout it how easy it has been for foreign tyrants to manipulate Trump through flattery and deep-state hogwash. Trump is like a star-struck teenager around these people, and he only wants to be liked by them. He will give away anything to feel like he's part of that club.

I think Trump learned from Xi that COVID was airborne

because that information, although speculative and based on one study, came out much earlier than most people remember, and it was published in a study out of China.

We don't have to speculate about what might have happened if Woodward had released the tape early, because we actually saw yesterday what Trump would have done if Woodward had released the tape: lied and spun, just like he always does. "I was exaggerating... It was taken out of context... I wanted to be positive... It was a perfect call." It would be long forgotten today.

What cracks me up about these "He should have come forward sooner" posts is that dozens of people have come forward and even testified damaging-as-hell information about Trump over the last three years and Trump always escaped culpability and removal.

And that tape, had Woodward released it, would now be a distant, fleeting memory just like Trump pulling our troops out of Syria after a call with Erdogan and the subsequent slaughter of the Kurds, and all the other abominations Trump committed. Hell, there were things in the very first book, Fire and Fury, that could have put away any other president. Jared Kushner and his bullshit Top Secret security clearances, his relationship with MbS, abuse of funds for the Inauguration, violations of the emoluments clause, Manafort and Mike Flynn, a First Lady who doesn't want to live with her husband, firing of Comey, etc...

Who here remembers Fiona Hill's devastating testimony today? That should have been enough to put Trump out of office. And we could say that about dozens of other people, including Cohen. Any one of them, had this been any other presidential administration, could have set into motion the removal of a president.

Woodward isn't a saint, but what I am appreciating is the timing of all this. Same for Mattis waiting to come forward, Bolton, these DHS people, and Miles Taylor, and these others.

My guess is he was trying to impress Woodward, not about being a "cheerleader"

but just about how much he knew, name dropping President Xi, etc...

Trump only lives in the moment and the things that fly out of his mouth are only intended for the audience at any given moment. That is why he told a bunch of our troops that he had raised their salaries when he hadn't. In that moment, he wanted it to be true, but it wasn't.

He can't take responsibility for anything. He's a pathological liar. He doesn't want to believe anything that he considers bad news. Then, as for what he didn't do to save anybody, he's constitutionally lazy and extremely angry and even sadistic, and on top of that some of his close advisors might have given him ridiculous reasons that he was dumb enough to believe about why he should let the virus take its course in order to preserve the markets and the economy. It goes without saying he's failed on every level, unless one considers letting the Federal Reserve and Treasury prop up the absurdly bloated stock market a success.

Mary Trump's book is so worth reading. Or "Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" by Bandy Lee, et al.