Discussion
It's nowhere near the worst or most consequential thing he's done, but I think Trump's threat to demolish the Kennedy Center if he isn't allowed to name it after himself is the clearest demonstration yet that he's gone mad with the imagined power of his office.
It doesn't advance any policy goal, and no constituency has been calling for it. He doesn't even particularly benefit from it. It's just a pure, simple expression of a corrupt ego out of control.
@mattblaze My dad once told me something which I would say accurately describes why he is like this.
He told me that once you get rich enough, you act less in pursuit of money and more for legacy. Trump is already a billionaire and while he does want to grow his wealth, I bet for someone at his age he is coming to terms with mortality and is beginning to have a deeper desire to be remembered than anything else (which to be fair, he will...) and so he tries to do anything to preserve his name.
@mattblaze The important thing to see clearly in regards to Trump is that he is now a 80 year old Alzheimer's patient acting as the president of the United States.
He used to be a self-obsessed narcissistic megalomaniac and a womanizer and those sides of him are now completely uninhibited, and that combined with no ability to focus isn't good.
This recently happened:
"Former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll reportedly met with Trump to warn that the spiraling war was making it impossible to achieve the administration’s foreign policy goals. But Trump changed the subject and began complaining about his ballroom, according to political analyst and writer Dominic Michael Tripi."
Dan Driscoll resigned after trying to talk with Trump like an adult because Trump would just go on about his little ballroom. Nobody's in charge.
And it is so *petty*. So "If I can't play the game with my rules I'm smashing the Monopoly set!"
may be we need Captain Picard to mind meld with him to regain control of the rotten 🧠 (sorry just rewatching TNG and had this episode today)
@mattblaze Exactly. #Trump envies what Kennedy, as President, got away with.
Kennedy's affairs weren't reported on.
His Attorney General was respected & was family so was loyal.
JFK got Russia to back down in Cuba.
When Kennedy was assassinated the country & the world was shocked & sad.
The country & the world made a monument to JFK.
When Trump had an assassination attempt some people wished the shooter hadn't missed.
Trump's Kennedy is a brain wormed madman.
To the "it's a calculated distraction!!" people: Why are you contorting yourself so hard to see this man as a genius?
The "everything Trump does is a calculated 4D chess move" theory reminds me of this classic SNL skit about a previous holder of that office.
@mattblaze RIP Phil Hartman 😢
@mattblaze This is why so many of history brutal dictators kill off anybody with a decent education
It worked for Pol Pot, Mao, et al.
Trump with his attack on science, universities, schools (texas, Oklahoma, Florida et al) and free press is doing much the same
One way to become the smartest guy int he room, is to kill off, or marginalize anybody who is smarter
@mattblaze most people simply can't understand 5-dimensional chess.
@mattblaze I’ve said about both Musk and Trump many time: don’t say “He’s playing four-dimensional chess!” to describe someone who is actually cheating at Tic-Tac-Toe.
@mattblaze Not so imagined, after the supreme court granted him almost total immunity for "official acts" (which they so kindly did not define clearly so, like, what's *not* an official act?).
Also I think letting him on the ballot after deciding 9-0 that only congress can stop a person who incited insurrection from running for president might have similarly gone to his head.
The guy is getting away with all of it, the checks/balances are utterly broken.
@mattblaze the more time he spends on this, the less time he has to start even dumber wars. Would be great if the Iran war could be stopped while he is being distracted by something else .. for now the Ayatollahs are willing to continue punishing him, at great cost for Iran. At least till the elections..?
@mattblaze I did wonder if the plane window poster thing was a windup, "own the libs"? Maybe something else has happened I haven't spotted...
@mattblaze it distracts mightily from the Iran war and the unredacted Epstein files
Flood the zone with shit strategy requires more and more unhinged behavior
@lufthans Oh please. He does all those things openly. He doesn't need "distractions".
@mattblaze They do them openly as distractions
They also get the press to repeat their propaganda
They repeatedly try to invent evidence, but get the press to report that they're looking for evidence or even that they already have evidence which doesn't actually exist
the point is trump is just a raging narcissist
you don't have to see vast intelligence in his moves. he's just a stupid buffoon stumbling about breaking things. there's no design to that. there's no plan. just stupidity on the move, so the next stupid thing isn't a calculated distraction, he's just endlessly being stupid
same with putin. he's not some 5D chess player. he's a dimwit mafia goon who stumbled into a huge blunder and is now playing at sunk cost fallacy
@mattblaze @benroyce ah, yeah, the Trump/Miller team are neither calculating nor genius
doesn't take either to keep knocking things down like the end fight of that Jackie Chan movie
Not saying we can ignore the distractions
Didn't follow own advice the first time, here's a reminder Epstein said Trump knew about the girls
https://thatnoisytrump.com/day/297#event-6139
And I've known better than to trust Trump for anything since Doonesbury warned us in the 80s :)
@benroyce @lufthans @mattblaze What floors me is that this has always been and people still voted him in. Fucking idiots.
@ang6666 @benroyce @lufthans @mattblaze
There really are a lot of fucking idiots. More than seems possible, but there they are. No denying it. You can see what a multitude of them there are now. Its really awe inspiring. Seems like all you need to do is promise them racism and bigotry and they swoon. So many fucking idiots.
It's been time for the 25th for a while.
> ‘Crazy Old Man’: Critics Mock Trump After He Revives His 2 Weirdest Grievances. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-electrocution-and-sharks_n_6aaca790e4b0a3bc8deaac4a
> “So, if I’m in an electric boat and I see I’m going down and the water’s pouring in, so I know I’m gonna be electrocuted, but five yards away there are sharks, do I take the electrocution or do I go swimming with the sharks?” Trump asked. “And you know what my answer was? I’ll take the electrocution. OK? I’ll take the electro.”
@FritzAdalis He doesn't need "distractions". He does everything openly. That makes no sense.
@mattblaze @FritzAdalis@infosec.exchange
As I see it:
Trump may or may not be doing everything openly.
My suspicion is that Trump has made many deals, and issued orders, that remain hidden.
I see Trump as desperate to have the news filled with matters that bring high emotion exposure for him (other than the Epstein Files).
IMO Trump's increasing cognitive impairments have not completely destroyed his formerly great abilities of creating and manipulating spectacle to his ends.
@mattblaze Exactly. He is pretty transparent about it. He wants to be remembered, so he wants to put his name on everything. If he can't, he throws a tantrum. He's not that complicated. Just imagine what a child would do, and mix in some adult malevolence, and there you have him.
@mattblaze It seems a clear indication that it's time to invoke the 25th amendment.
@gdinwiddie It does. There's something wrong here that transcends politics or policy.
@mattblaze @gdinwiddie I agree that it would be appropriate--was months ago--to invoke the 25th.
But it won't happen, because the process requires the VP and a majority of cabinet to make the declaration, and 2/3 of each house of Congress--a higher bar than impeachment--to resist an attempt by POTUS to declare himself able.
That part of the 25th was clearly written with the expectation that the Cabinet and Congress would be made of honest, responsible people. A megalomaniac who has corrupted a majority of both was beyond reasonable expectation in 1965.
@mattblaze @gdinwiddie Amusingly, according to Wikipedia, of the four all invocations so far of 25A section 3 (POTUS voluntarily transfers power to VPOTUS, temporarily in all cases to date) three were for colonoscopies: twice for GWB, once for Biden.
@oclsc @gdinwiddie They probably should have used it (under section 4) when Reagan was shot, especially given Al Haig's completely bizarre "I'm in control" comments.
No love for Al Haig, but I always figured he thought it was worth saying that to signal to the Soviets that, yeah Ronnie's been shot and yeah, he might be dead, but don't get the idea that the US gov't has been decapitated. Glad that at least those guys are all dead.
@VE2UWY `Those guys' including the US government?
@mattblaze @oclsc @gdinwiddie And of course, Trump hid his colonoscopy and declined anesthesia in order to avoid making Pence Acting President: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/07/scope-ego-trump-colonoscopy-515444
@SteveBellovin @mattblaze @oclsc @gdinwiddie How is a colonoscopy a "painful and invasive procedure"? I've had a couple, each time using gas-on-demand only and I'd rate the discomfort as no worse than a routine dental descaling—the worst part was the bowel prep the day before! Are Americans so terrified of their intestines that they routinely demand general anaesthesia, itself a risky procedure, for colonoscopies?
@cstross @SteveBellovin @mattblaze @oclsc @gdinwiddie
Technically the anesthesia procedure is called "twilighting." You might be fuzzily aware but you won't care.
Being a teetotaler, I am sufficiently drug-naive that I drop out entirely.
@cstross @SteveBellovin @mattblaze @oclsc @gdinwiddie In my jurisdiction they use, as I shocked the nurse by being shocked to discover, they use fentanyl. Which leaves me awake enough to watch the video readout as they explore the territory. Monochrome, low-res, would not recommend.
@timbray @cstross @SteveBellovin @mattblaze @oclsc @gdinwiddie
Here in Ireland I was recently given a combination of Fentanyl and Midazolam for a kidney biopsy and the same again for a colonoscopy a few weeks later. Fentanyl basically delivered the ‘I kinda know what’s going on but I don’t care now’ state initially and the Midazolam made the memory all a bit fuzzy. FWIW I definitely would recommend that combo for anyone feeling anxious, I was and it really helped in my case.
@cstross Because they involve your bum, which is clearly gay and so a horrific experience for the American ubermensch.
I'm not at all joking.
@SteveBellovin @mattblaze @oclsc @gdinwiddie
@oclsc @gdinwiddie 25A was never intended as a substitute for impeachment. It was to deal with an incapacitated president, who, if actually incapacitated, would presumably not contest it. The involuntary case is kind of an edge case.
The political dynamics may be different from impeachment, however. It's possible (though I don't it's the case currently) that it might be more acceptable to us 25A than to impeach for a president who lost his capacity to reason.
@mattblaze @gdinwiddie If they invoke the 25th Amendment, it probably wouldn't happen until January or a bit later. The reason: if Vance becomes president more than 1/2 way through Trump's term, the 22nd Amendment lets him be president for two more full terms. If earlier, Vance can only be the president for one full term.
@mattblaze That's not true, though. Before democracies, men just like him often occupied powerful thrones. If you don't want to look at the Roman emperor lists, look into the list of kings who ruled during the Wars of the Roses, for an example.
The rise of democracies has reduced the frequency of this happening.
@riley @gdinwiddie What’s not true?
@mattblaze The idea that narcissistic people seeking out, and gaining, power is wrong as a pattern.
It may be ethically wrong, but historically, it has often been the pattern.
@riley @gdinwiddie who said the thing you’re claiming is wrong?
@mattblaze @gdinwiddie As bad as it is, even Trump himself is just the symptom, not the disease.
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@mattblaze I actually have “Trump demolishes Washington monument” on my 2026 bingo card. There are still 3 months left…