Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Nothing here to see

U.S.A. Flag, by Claes Oldenburg (National Gallery of Art)

     Once we get into the practice of ignoring reality, the exact nature of the reality being ignored hardly matters.
     I've said that before. But it bears repeating.
    Donald Trump's mind is a guarded by a kind of mental gate where praise is welcomed with wild cries of delight and criticism is loudly rejected. Real, unreal, is not an issue. He has created his own reality where glory — whether true or not — is greedily accepted, assuming it wasn't generated himself, while criticism is dismissed as fantasy.  Those are the rules.
    Somehow, this mindset of delusion and self-puffery was embraced by half the country, and tens of millions live by it still. Our nation spent a decade, more or less, sprawled before one deeply unfit man, serving his ego. With no end in sight.
     So when this sordid Epstein saga — which clearly Trump has always been a part of, because that's who he is — flared up again, I was sincerely bewildered. What's new here? The only thing different is that some of Trump's followers have had their faces to the ground for so long they don't seem to realize that a frank assessment of the Epstein crimes would tar their guy even more than he already is. More slime on a man dripping with it. 
    Or would tar him, if they cared about that kind of thing. Which they don't. On this Donald Trump and I seem to agree. We both don't think it matters — except, in his case, he believes that's a good thing.

20 comments:

  1. Far worse are the facts that he definitely has dementia, is totally insane, wants to be dictator of the United States, not the president who answers to the people & tops that off by being a traitor to this country, who is owned & operated by Putin!

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    1. Other than those trifles, Clark, what do you think of the guy? A brand new standard, right?

      tate

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  2. He's the classic schoolyard bully, and more than likely schizophrenic. He wears it like a badge.

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  3. I think what appears to be "schizophrenia" is more likely the expression of his underlying cognitive issues. Look at video clips of his speeches 10 yrs ago (if you can stand it). He was able to formulate sentences and actually continue one thought to the next in his speech. He can't do that now. This guy has a personality disorder of the worst degree. It began in childhood and has become increasingly obvious and more frightening as he's attained more power. That no one will tell him "no" only feeds his pathology.
    I dont think the average MAGA supporter followed the selection of Supreme Court judges all that much, or even knew any of their names, but trusted their leader to choose people sympathetic to their causes. In the case of Epstein, they were familiar with the views of folks like Bondi, Bongino, and Patel well before they were elevated to positions of power. These guys rode the Epstein conspiracy theories for all they were worth for their own gain, and MAGA was thrilled that "something was finally going to happen" when they were awarded cabinet positions for their conspiracy beliefs.
    I don't care what specific issue serves as the turning point that leads to the end of the nightmare, I just want it to happen.

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  4. And we don’t want to forget that being President has been a main chance to line his pockets and those of his whole family. I’m still hoping that a future administration will be able to claw back some of these ill-gotten gains.

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  5. Yes , ignoring reality is a common condition. It's a coping mechanism for many people. Inventing reality on the other hand is encouraged. As a species we spend a lot of time and money determining what is true and factual. There are many things about our perception of reality that do not jive with the facts

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  6. I have stopped blaming donald trump for anything. He is meerly a symptom of the problem. Republican's are to blame. Every last one of them. Supporter and elected official.

    It would only take five of them in the house to stop this or any of the things on his and the project 2025 agenda. They do not. There are always just enough dissenting votes that things pass, a poorly played strategy that is obvious to anyone who understands reality. But as you point out, reality is a problem these days.

    I will never respect a republican again. They could have started another party, they could have shown spine, conviction, they could have said "i believe in this 100% but you have to stop X if you want my vote." no one did. And their supporters are ok with it, so long as they aren't hurt.

    Altruism is a requirement.

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    1. I agree w/ Double B — Trump is primarily a symptom, not the cause, of the current state of the Republican Party. This has been decades in the making, and when he’s gone this ain’t all going magically away. And the feckless Democrats are like watching librarians trying to fight the Mob

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    2. The 6 Republican appointees on the Supreme Court are all the proof you need that authoritarianism is the single unifying principle of the modern party.

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    3. I agree that Trump is a symptom of a far greater problem, and Dems have their work cut out for them. Dianne (below at 10:19 AM) provides a nice list of many things that need to be done to fix a system that has long been broken. The first step toward that goal, however, must be the end of Trump's maniacal grip on our country. Once the cult leader's hold is loosened, the GOP will likely devolve into infighting. Like Rick W, I hope future administrations can claw back some of Trump's ill-gotten gains - not only in terms of his personal financial misuse of the office but by reversing the the monetization of all our country's assets (like public lands) as well.

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  7. Good post. This goes hand-in-hand with an essay published yesterday on Defector's site called "Collective Amnesia" by Tom Scocca. It reminds us that info about the horror and depravity of Trump has been available for a long time. Nothing secret or newly discovered. But...crickets. Collaboration. Good NAZIs. Ugh.

    I can feel the Epstein scandal starting to get smaller in the rearview mirror. Hope I'm wrong, but it looks like he'll get away with this too.

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  8. Please consider that we are focused on the symptoms (Trump’s demented personality and the idiocy of his base of supporters) rather than the root causes for today’s reality: a broken immigration system that caused years of delays in processing immigrants’ requests, a supreme court that could be rigged; gerrymandering that compromises the voting system; exorbitant costs to run for office that eliminate anyone but the very wealthy as candidates or cause candidates to be beholden to that wealth; unlimited donations so the very wealthy; i.e., Elon Musk can buy the presidency for Trump; an uneducated emotionally intelligent electorate who don’t even see, let alone understand, the psychotic mind of Trump and how they’re being manipulated and used to serve his multiple personality disorders; the high costs of health care and childcare that relegate way too many citizens lead a fear-based life of scarcity and insecurity without being allowed to get past the first two rungs of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to have even half a chance of reaching the self-actualization level of their potential; an employment system where CEO’s earn 300 X’s the salaries of the non-CEO’s; and finally, a Democratic party that has failed to create and promote an alternative plan to Trump that moves and inspires people to act imaginatively, boldly, and effectively to “create what’s next” vs focusing on fixing what’s wrong with people when it’s really what’s wrong with our systems.

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    1. We certainly need more emotionally maturity in Washington. It will be a huge loss when Durbin retires. I'm going to get behind Raja to replace him. He's the best in the queue.

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    2. Dianne nailed it. Imagine the sound of a mic dropping.

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  9. Felonious is exactly like the rude, loud, obnoxious, slovenly uncle who shows up at your birthday party every year when you're a kid...and at every holiday. Bellowing, blustering, and drunk as a skunk. When you are still very young, he scares the hell out of you. But as both you and he get older, you begin to despise him. And eventually, you learn how to deal with him, but now you hate him. And you pity him.

    Every year, like clockwork, he promises all the kids at the party that he will arrive with a horse trailer, and give them pony rides, because he owns the circus.. But the trailer never appears. Eventually, you get wise to his disguise , and you realize that your uncle owns nothing but a barrel of horseshit, and that he's the horse's ass.

    Unfortunately, you have to tolerate Unca Donald. You can't duck him, and you have to show him unearned respect. Because he's the mayor of your town. Or the county sheriff. Maybe even the governor of your state. And he could make life a living hell, for both you and your parents, if you cross him. So you are polite and deferential. But when his back is turned, you roll your eyes and you swear under your breath. Same as everyone else does.

    Years go by. Your uncle finally gets too old and tired to show up anymore. He loses his power. Maybe even goes to prison, after a scandal. But far more likely, his fate is a nursing home, and a lingering death. You show up at his funeral...maybe. But you are not sad that he's gone, and you certainly won't miss the old bastard.

    Ask the woman who knows. My wife experienced all of the above. This was her story. Have heard it many times. But he was no powerful politician. Just a troublesome and detestable bully. Which was bad enough.

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  10. I am not an SE Cupp fan since first seeing play to the late night chat shows in the same plastic bblonde republican/libertarian foodchain climber...But, I came upon & agree with her op-ed on why Epstein won't destroy MAGA. It's just longtime observational sense, but well laid out if you get past the leadin chatter to the enumerated reasons section...

    https://triblive.com/opinion/s-e-cupp-sorry-jeffrey-epstein-isnt-going-to-destroy-maga/

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  11. Yes, all of this - in the post and comments! And for decades, aided and abetted by the late Roger Ailes and the rise of Fox News (and subsequent radio and tv personalities, and on various other platforms) to help carry it out. From a New York Times opinion by Brett Stephens in 2017, during Trump's first term but still/even more relevant now: 
    "What Fox is mainly in the business of doing is hating the left. In the manner of Ailes himself, its convictions stem from its resentments — and shift accordingly. It is sympathetic to military intervention when the left is against it (Iraq) and hostile when the left is for it (Libya); anti-Russia when President Obama was reaching out to Russia, pro-Russia when Obama started getting tough on the Kremlin.
    "More recently it has discovered the virtues of economic nationalism and the evils of “globalism” in the service of the Trump electorate.
    "All this makes for a terrific business model — a matter of being attuned to the changing tastes and inclinations of your core audience. But it also means that the network Ailes built was never a vehicle for conservative views.
    "It was a danger to those views. Populism is not conservatism, which by definition entails resistance to public whims. Conservatives who seek to use populism for their own ends inevitably make a Faustian bargain.
    "We are now living with the consequences of that bargain in the form of Donald Trump’s presidency. No network has put itself so wholly in the service of a political candidate and the resentments he espouses as Fox.
    "No president has done more to harm the integrity and reputation of conservative ideas as this one. This, too, is Ailes’s legacy, unintended but fateful."

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  12. "Once we get into the practice of ignoring reality, the exact nature of the reality being ignored hardly matters."

    Yes, you've said that many times before, but yes, also, it bears repeating whenever you feel like it. It's about as significant an observation with regard to the current state of our benighted nation as one could hope for.

    Many excellent comments here today, as well.

    These folks have been railing about Epstein for years because they think somehow his appalling scandal is going to "bring down" Bill Clinton and a passel of Democrats. And they think that it'll somehow "stick it to the libs," as if any of us would raise a whisper to defend someone guilty of the alleged crimes because they're on "our side."

    I don't believe the current shitstorm will end the orange felon's spell any more than a dozen other disqualifying things have in the past. Primarily because I doubt that there's the type of proof that would be required to demonstrate whatever it is that he may have done.

    But his cult is supposedly all fired up about Epstein and they're VERY concerned about a trans person using the women's restroom. Yet there IS proof of plenty of stuff -- the charlatan himself has openly bragged about grabbing women by the pussy and about walking into the dressing rooms of naked beauty pageant contestants. He's a convicted felon. He's been found liable for defamation and sexual abuse.

    Do the cult members care about that? Do they KNOW about that? I've heard of MAGA marks who say they've never seen a photo of Il Douché with Epstein. That seems kinda remarkable to me, since the photos have been very prominently "out there," but certainly demonstrates what an alternate universe they live in.

    Alas, none of that is even my point. Many, many politicians lie, of course. My point, when it comes to the "practice of ignoring reality," is that there has never been any president who lies as brazenly and stupidly as the orange felon. The recent howler "I never wrote a picture in my life," which was immediately debunked by a bunch of examples of his "doodles," is only the latest example. But what's amazing is how OFTEN he and his minions will tell lies that are EASILY and promptly disproven. And yet the cult doesn't care. Or they don't even know.

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  13. Great post and discussion.

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  14. He gave the the part of this country that is misogynistic, antisemitic, bigoted, etc. a platform. He pandered to them with pie in the sky promises. Then he's blaming eveyone but himself for all the problems he created. If anyone brings up that he is the problem, we all have seen how he handles it. He complains that they are out to get him. Isn't that how Hitler got started? The man is unhinged. More & more Republicans wake up & stop being afraid of him. I am 80 and can only hope that in my lifetime our democracy can fix what he has done.

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