Author: oldned

So Unfair

As usual, just when you think you’ve heard it all, Donald Trump, on January 29, told a Conroe, Texas, MAGA rally, “If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly  .  .  .  And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons.  Because they are being treated so unfairly.” 

Once again, Donald Trump’s rant exposes the machinations of a certified “Malignant Narcissist’s” mind!  As I’ve posted, but it cannot be repeated or stressed too often, in The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, three dozen mental health professionals and others who have witnessed Donald in action, agree that our former man in the Oval Office exhibits classic symptoms of a “Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder.”  In Too Much and Never Enough How My Family Crated the World’s Most Dangerous Man, from firsthand experience, Trump’s Niece and Clinical Psychologist Mary Trumpbolsters this diagnosis.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM5) defines Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) as, “a persistent manner of grandiosity, a continuous desire for admiration, along with a lack of empathy. It starts in early adulthood and occurs in a range of situations, as signified by the existence of any 5 of the next 9 standards,”

  • A grandiose logic of self-importance
  • A fixation with fantasies of infinite success, control, brilliance, beauty or idyllic love
  • A credence that he or she is extraordinary and exceptional and can only be understood by, or should connect with, other extraordinary or important people or institutions
  • A desire for unwarranted admiration
  • A sense of entitlement
  • Interpersonal oppressive behavior
  • No form of empathy
  • Resentment of others or a conviction that others are resentful of him or her
  • A display of egotistical and conceited behavior or attitudes

That’s 9 for 9 folks!  Narcissistic Personality Disorder on steroids!  We don’t need the President of the America Psychiatric Association to make this call.    

DSM5 does not use “Malignant.” Campbell’s Psychiatric Dictionary describes Malignant Narcissism as combining characteristics of Narcissistic and Antisocial Personality Disorders, making the patient not only delusional but potentially dangerous!

Donald J. Trump continues to pose a serious hazard to The United States of America, that’s you and me, and indeed to the World! 

Five Truths

Approaching the end of eight-and-a-half decades living, for me five truths seem self-evident.  None is original.  I’m too lazy to look up the sources.

  1. Happiness is our default.  Suffering is a choice.
  2. Now, this instant, is the only time there is.
  3. I only control my thoughts, muscles, and impulses.
  4. I act out of ignorance, fear, and anger, or wisdom, courage, and love.
  5. I’m only here to help.

The Big Lie

Folks who’s purposes it serves, trumpet and repeat the Big Lie.  Their followers kowtow to a leader, fail to exercise reason and common sense, or yearn for a Savior.

In the previous century, Adolph Hitler’s Big Lie was blaming the Jewish people for Germany’s woes.  Today Donald Trump and a cadre of archconservatives’ Big Lie is, by “rigging” and “stealing” America’s 2019 presidential election, Liberals installed Joe Biden in the Oval Office.

Trump’s Kool Aid

With cyanide-laces Kool Aid, the Reverend James Jones murdered 918 acolytes. A number of United States Republican Senators and Representatives seem convinced that, to survive politically, they must drink Donald Trump’s toxic Kool Aid.  Because the ex-President’s absolute lack of a moral or ethical compass, plus his lies and vitriolic pronouncements, fly in the face of time-honored Conservative values, these legislators’ choice is both puzzling and alarming!

Who, in their wildest fantasy, can imagine Republicans Dwight Eisenhower, Thomas Dewey, Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George W. H. Bush, Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney and, I’m convinced most grassroots Conservatives, embracing Trump’s dishonesty, delusional thinking, and meanspirited rants?

Republicans still committed to the party’s precepts, take heart!  You are not alone!  In runup to our 2020 election, eight noted Conservatives founded the Lincoln Project opposing Trump.  In the President’s first impeachment trial, Senator Mitt Romney sided with Democrats voting to impeach.  Fourteen months later, Republicans, Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Ben Sasse, Pat Toomey joined Romney voting for impeachment.  Today the “U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol” includes Republicans Liz Chaney, Adam Tinzinger and five Democrats.

For the common good, Americans we must hope that real Republicans reject Trump’s Kool Aid and take back their party!

Pugilists

Jeff had been a boxer, a prize-fighter, what Grandpa Leslie called a “pugilist.”  Decades after his final bell, Jeff’s appearance bore witness to long-ago and subsequent physical and emotional bouts. 

Jeff’s dad was his trainer.  With a wry smile, the erstwhile combatant would recount, at the end of a round, crumpling in his corner with Dad leaning in, forefinger under Jeff’s nose, reminding his young contestant, “Remember lad!  You don’t have to block every punch with your face!”

We are all pugilists.  Having our “bell” rung too many times, we might recall the old trainer’s advice.  We  can cover up, block, weave, sidestep, counterpunch.  We don’t have to block every punch with our face!