All about him
The Post has a big think piece on Trump’s completely self-centered attitude to the Russia question. On the one hand yo, national security, rival power, hostile rival power; on the other hand, me me me me ME me me.
The result is without obvious parallel in U.S. history, a situation in which the personal insecurities of the president — and his refusal to accept what even many in his administration regard as objective reality — have impaired the government’s response to a national security threat. The repercussions radiate across the government.
Rather than search for ways to deter Kremlin attacks or safeguard U.S. elections, Trump has waged his own campaign to discredit the case that Russia poses any threat and he has resisted or attempted to roll back efforts to hold Moscow to account.
Because it’s insulting to him and diminishes his Triumph, and that outweighs the rather larger issue of who and what Putin is and what kind of society he presides over and what kind of society he will allow us to have and whether we want him deciding our elections for us.
To put it another way, the personal insecurities of the president should be entirely beside the point on an issue of this magnitude, yet they are central. The giant narcissism of one Giant Baby could ruin everything in a way even the megalomania of Hitler failed to do.
White House officials cast the president’s refusal to acknowledge Russian interference in the election as an understandably human reaction. “The president obviously feels . . . that the idea that he’s been put into office by Vladimir Putin is pretty insulting,” said a second senior administration official.
Jesus christ. This isn’t fucking high school. It doesn’t matter what the president feels is “insulting” to his precious Self. Nobody should care what he “feels” about it. (It’s usually the hard right that is scornful of Feelings; I guess Trump is the One Great Exception.)
Meanwhile, the Russians feel good about it. It didn’t cost much and it has made the US a joke.
The Russian operation seemed intended to aggravate political polarization and racial tensions and to diminish U.S. influence abroad. The United States’ closest alliances are frayed, and the Oval Office is occupied by a disruptive politician who frequently praises his counterpart in Russia.
What’s not to like?
U.S. officials declined to discuss whether the stream of recent intelligence on Russia has been shared with Trump. Current and former officials said that his daily intelligence update — known as the president’s daily brief, or PDB — is often structured to avoid upsetting him.
Ponder that little bombshell. His daily intelligence update is often structured to avoid upsetting him.
Russia-related intelligence that might draw Trump’s ire is in some cases included only in the written assessment and not raised orally, said a former senior intelligence official familiar with the matter.
Which, the Post neglects to spell out, means he’ll never be aware of it, because he doesn’t read. He’s that incompetent for the job. (Bush was close to that incompetent for the job. He demanded and got very short briefings, because he too dislikes reading.)
The allegations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, which the president has denied categorically, also contribute to his resistance to endorse the intelligence, another senior White House official said. Acknowledging Russian interference, Trump believes, would give ammunition to his critics.
Still others close to Trump explain his aversion to the intelligence findings in more psychological terms. The president, who burns with resentment over perceived disrespect from the Washington establishment, sees the Russia inquiry as a conspiracy to undermine his election accomplishment — “a witch hunt,” as he often calls it.
“If you say ‘Russian interference,’ to him it’s all about him,” said a senior Republican strategist who has discussed the matter with Trump’s confidants. “He judges everything as about him.”
It’s a loop that he’s caught in. If you’re that entangled in your own ego you can’t get interested in what’s outside your own ego, so you get only more entangled in your own ego, and on it goes.
All this was perfectly obvious before he was elected. I will never understand why the danger of it was not equally obvious.
It was obvious, but dismissed for the same reason a disturbingly high number of Alabamans still voted for Moore despite the obvious paedophilia – his name was on the R side of the ballot.
Yeah, the voters are quite able to structure their perceptions of reality to meet their own biases: they’re not willing to vote for Hillary Clinton (or another Democrat), so any information that makes the serious rival candidate look utterly unacceptable is either downplayed in relevance, doubted as factual, or both. To get the upset in Alabama, it needed mostly exceptional turnout of voters who won’t normally bother with special/off-year elections, and some thin wedge of normally Republican voters who just could not stand to vote for Moore.
Very few people would pick their doctor, plumber, garbage collector on the basis of tribal identity or entertainment value, but we’re reached a point where all the thinking that goes into voting is wishful for broad portions of the electorate.
I’ll soon despair.
Whoop, bacon, ice cream (2 scoops) and ketchup! Yay.
#1 Holms: As someone remarked: So, only 49% of Alabama electorate chose a racist, pedophile, twice disbenched hypocrite judge — and that’s to be congratulated?
Maybe he needs to be made to eat 4 scoops and to be made upset on a daily basis. But then we’d only be out of the fire and into the frigid frying Pence. Con un drum.
It seems to me more likely that Trump was in on the collusion all along, and he was stupid enough to think himself clever enough to not get caught. He knows that the investigation he never thought could or would happen is getting closer to him every day, so he’s lashing out at the very mention of it, and getting as many denials in as possible.
AoS yes, so give him all the ice cream and ketchup he wants, and feed him some real tv (as opposed to reality tv) and it might in TIME brake a vassal. (Cunning code cooption)
Re Jeff at #2:
Plenty of plumbers, doctors, etc advertise their Christian affiliation in Alabama, so I suspect they find it beneficial to their business to do so.
Sackbut, the same thing here – there is even a newsletter in Lincoln to notify people which businesses are “Christian” businesses. I’m not sure who does the work to determine that these businesses are suitably Christian or if they just take the business owners word for it. To get listed, do you have to kick out so many same sex couples a week? Put your women to work only in the kitchen? Put Jesus junk all over the store? Or is it okay to look like a regular store so you trick unsuspecting customers, and then shove Chick tracts in all the shopping bags?
iknklast, unless the plumber who comes to fix the leak in your flooded basement actually walks on the water, it’s not a Christian business.
Well, my plumber seems at times to work miracles, but I’ve never seen him walk on water. Now my computer repair guy? I’m convinced he is the supreme being, considering the magic he works with seemingly intractable problems – and his daughter did buy a church to fix up for a combination home/business, so maybe I’m on to something.