Blitzkrieg or Sitzkrieg?

I’ve heard commentators opine that Roberts will play a waiting game and resist the siren song of the federalist society to make America into another third world country right away.

But then I remember what the lame duck North Carolina and Wisconsin legislatures did to effectively hobble the newly elected Democratic Governors to their states. They removed powers from the governors and if I recall correctly, the state supreme courts upheld most of the damage.

I don’t think that’s a possibility that we can exclude at the moment though I have no idea what shape that would take. It seems to me that stripping the president of executive powers would require some cooperation from the House and that’s not going to happen. Unless Trump gives them no choice.

The GOP can dump Trump now at their leisure. They don’t need him anymore. And they must know that we are about to make them an ex-party. So, why not pull out all the stops and push through as much crap as they can?

I’m going with Blitzkrieg.

I’m not a shrink but…

… I read Mary Trump’s opinion piece in WaPo the other day. She was making the case for the American Psychiatric Association to drop the Goldwater Rule that prevents them from attempting to diagnose the psychiatric state of presidential candidates.

Now, I’m no psychologist or psychiatrist but as I read Mary’s book and her opinion piece, I found that she dropped very clinical sounding descriptions of his behavior all over the place. Here’s what I think she’s telling us based on her personal observations, Trump’s history and his behavior as an adult and in office.

It’s too simplistic to call him a narcissist. That’s a no brainer assessment. It’s right out there but it’s not everything abc it’s not everything that drives him. In fact, Mary Trump tells us what Donald’s problem is but she couched it in terms of an example:

While psychiatric diagnosis is a technical process, it is entirely within bounds to draw conclusions based on observable behavior. It is one thing to declare definitively that a person has anti-social personality disorder (a specific diagnostic term); it is another to point to behaviors — such as deliberately putting other people in harm’s way for no discernible reason (for example, abandoning our Kurdish allies) beyond one’s own self-interest — and express the general conclusion that it is dangerous to have somebody in the Oval Office who is incapable of empathy.

Basically, Trump is diagnosis is closer to antisocial personality disorder. That can overlap with sociopathy and psychopathy but it also exists with other related personality disorders like narcissistic and borderline personality disorder.

So, what’s new here? I think the thing that nails antisocial personality disorder is that it is frequently preceded in childhood as conduct disorder. You know that kid who was always calling out the teacher in class, throwing you against the wall in the hallway and was never the stellar student? That was Trump. Sometimes CD is exacerbated by ADHD. If you have a hard time concentrating in class, sitting still and controlling your impulses, you start to get negative attention from adults. That in turn can make you anxious, uncooperative, lead to acting out and bullying other kids. Trump was starting to get out of hand in his adolescence and got sent to a military academy, probably as much to get him out of his mother’s hair as to straighten his ass out.

Hey, remember Sandor and Gregor Clegane in Game of Thrones? As kids, Sandor had something Gregor wanted and wouldn’t give it up. So Gregor forced Sandor’s face down in the hot coals of the fire. Yeah, Trump was that kind of kid with his brother Robert. Minus the face burning.

So, I think Mary is telling us that Trump is a dangerous guy. Cold, unempathetic, impulsive, incapable of consuming information the way a president needs to, a bully, unlawful, sadistic and a parasite. He’s had family and business associates cover for him all his life. He puts other people in danger. He’s not capable of sustaining long term relationships. He’s arrogant and does not consider the lives of others.

He’s about to throw another superspreader event for Amy Coney Barrett. It sums up what Trump is all about. He knows it’s dangerous but he’s defying anyone who tries to get him to follow the rules. And he’s throwing this party because he wants to poke the rest of us in the eyes. He enjoys it. It’s not even particularly important to him that she stands for things he doesn’t really care for. The point is the rest of us are pissed off and he’s feeling his Cheerios.

Based on what I read, if he loses, he’s going to go nuclear on us. If he can’t persuade the courts to let him overturn the elections based on his desired expectations, don’t be surprised if he wrecks what’s left of the government on the way out the door. He’s going to be angry, vengeful and destructive.

That’s why the APA should say something now. His base might not GAF (more on them later) but there might be one or two more security minded suburban women per precinct or a couple more Jorgensen voters who will get off the fence.

We don’t have much to lose at this point. Merely pointing it out may lead him to commit the behaviors that would prove the point. Like trying to arrest his opponent, firing what’s left of the “deep state” (already in the works), spilling national security to North Korea, Russia and Iran. We’ve already seen how he treated the blue states during the first peak. Unless Pence can invoke the 25th amendment after the election, Trump might be like that guy who puts all the company secrets on a flash drive on the way out the door and sells it to the highest bidder.

How much damage can Trump do in the next few months? A LOT.

OoOOooo!! I got targeted by some psyops texting.

I feel special now:

Golly, I wonder who bought that phone number this year.

Barrett’s Notebook

Add your own text.

I’ve heard the White House is planning another superspreader event for this evening when they swear her in.

Tacky? Yes.

Is she being hired to screw the voters? I think we can confidently say yes.

Is she going to participate in the coverup of Trump and the Republicans corruption? I wouldn’t be surprised.

Does she care that she’s going to be forever known as the justice appointed by the most corrupt president in history?

No. Zealots keep their eyes on the prize.

The ends justify the means.