Asked why he did not wear a mask when visiting a Ford plant President Trump explained he wore one earlier, “it looked good,” but he did not want to afford the press ”the pleasure ” of seeing him masked. What? His appearance? Could his looks, how he believes he looks, his self-image, be the hide-in-plain-sight clue solving the Mystery of Donald Trump? Nonsense! But yet?

We were warned. Eight months after President Donald J. Trump took office, twenty-seven psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health professions and others with hands-on Trump experience published The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. In the second edition, ten more signed on. Their consensus: Donald J. Trump exhibits pronounced symptoms of “Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder.” Before looking at the diagnosis, it’s fair to ask, “Are these folks positioned to make the call?” If three dozen qualified mechanics certify the “OLD RELIABLE” on “Fairly Honest Don’s” lot is a “Lemon” would you buy it?  

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM5) Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), “comprises 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 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013):

• 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”

Self-importance, fixation on fantasies of greatness, feeling extraordinary and exceptional, desire for admiration, sense of entitlement, oppressive behavior, no empathy, resentment, egotistical and conceited, it’s 9 for 9 folks! The description of Donald J. Trump is stunning! After three years of Trump in the Oval Office, we don’t need Sigmund Freud or President of the America Psychiatric Association to make this call.

In Greek myth young Narcissus leans over a pool and, failing to recognizing himself, falls in love with his reflection. Narcissus‘s love focuses on a superficial, self-image, no depth, nothing beneath. Anything that might threaten or tarnish this fragile reflection is anathema. Secretly knowing that a pebble, breeze or thunder storm will distort or abolish him, Narcissus focuses every moment, expends every effort, keeping the surface calm, preserving, protecting and defending his self-image.

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

As unmasked in the mask scenario, physical appearance is fundamental to Donald Trump’s security. It’s centerpiece: the Fabled Orange Mane. A former barber describes Donald studying himself in the mirror, supervising the clipping of each lock, the coiffeuring of each wave, the combing of each curl. The barbershop mirror is Trump’s Narcissist’s pool.

Donald’s, you may say, “god complex” extends far beyond appearance. Weaned and schooled amid the cutthroat, bare-knuckled, gutter brawls of New York City Real Estate, Donald J. Trump’s self-importance links inextricably to the appearance of financial success, of money. Underscoring this feeling, when COVID 19 shut down most of America’s economy Donald projected his fear onto America’s workers, predicting that without paychecks many would give up in suicide. To assure no one fails to recognize his financial prowess, Donald’s assets must bear or imply the “Trump” trademark: Trump Tower, Trump golf courses, Trump “billions,” three drop-dead-beautiful Trump wives and not-so-clandestine sexual conquests—all in the service of an overarching Trump ego!

Donald’s conceit knows no bounds. Seeming to rebut the Dangerous Case consensus Donald calls himself a “stable genius.” He believes he is endowed with Midas’s Touch. All he graces turns to gold. His first 100 days as president were the best in American history. Despite others’ reports, meetings routinely proceed and conclude “wonderfully.” Despite failing to vanishing through his “miracle” prediction, COVID 19 will end “with or without a vaccine” soon. As president, ”I give myself a 10.” Borrowing from the Bard, thou “dost protest too much, methinks.”

President Donald Trump’s public life is a photo-op. Nowhere more apparent than behind a microphone, clowning and showing off for his Red-Cap Minions. Visiting a lab, campaigning in the foolish Red Cap, Trump posed holding a COVID 19 photo, then glanced down to assure he had the virus’ heads up. Teargassing peaceful protesters to pose in front of a church holding a Bible is the latest, most graphic, ham-handed testament to his frightening self-adulation. Can anyone really be this shallow?

Grandiose egos demand unconditional loyalty. As evidenced in the serial rollover of Cabinet, staff and appointees, Trump’s demand for commitment is one-way. Anyone who questions his superiority is or becomes the enemy. Donald will pat you on shoulder at breakfast and stab you in the back before lunch.

Early on, the inevitability of “Let Trump be Trump” had spin-doctors scrambling. I’m reminded Warren Harding’s handlers were warned, “Keep Warren away from people. Someone with ask him a question and the dumb bastard will try to answer.”

Politician’s public lives are costumed and scripted. Before becoming president, how often did Donald Trump wear the red tie, white shirt and blue suit, as it were, wrapped in the flag? To be fair, Joe Biden shows up similarly dressed for the same Star-Spangled effect. You don’t become a United States Senator and Vice President without a pronounced sense of self, even self-importance, but Joe’s history, personality and behavior show no hint of the Malignant Narcissism so obvious in Donald JohnTrump.

If you defund or do away with police, who will you call when

• you witness a head-on between an SUV and log truck?
• kids at the bus stop say a man in a green van grabbed your nine-year-old daughter?
• Janice next door screams “Help!”?
• a stranger holds a knife to your ribs and takes your wallet?
• some creep snatches your purse?
• kids are dropping bricks from a freeway overpass?
• your Lexus or Kia disappears from the parking lot?
• a Corvette speeds, dodges and weaves, forcing an Outback onto the shoulder?
• your thirteen-year-old daughter left her friend’s house three blocks away at nine, is not home by midnight?
• a stray Rottweiler grabs your four-year-old’s cheek?
• a man is exposing himself in the schoolyard?
• you pull in your driveway and see your front door is kicked in?
• and on
• and on
• and on

Got a problem? Call a cop. Thank a cop.

See Swords and Spears on https://myex-mo.com

Citing SARS, AIDS and flu statistics, some folks would minimize the significance of COVID 19, call it a hoax, not a Big Deal. I can’t speak for over a hundred-thousand Americans who have died, a million and a half who have suffered, their families and friends, but, for me, if Karen, one of my kids, grandkids, or others I care about were to contract this dreadful disease, COVID 19 would be a very Big Deal Indeed!

The indignity of a mask, social distancing, missing a paycheck—Painful and tragic as it is!—are the price we pay to manage a scourge which could wreak havoc on America unimagined since the Black Plague wiped out half the population of fourteenth century Eurasia.

When an individual’s words and actions seem inexplicable, he or she may be said to have “one oar in the water.”  Their thinking appears irrational, behavior out of control.

It becomes increasingly apparent President Donald J. Trump has no oar in the water. Under his erratic command the Ship of State bobs, turns, twists and nearly capsizes, veers off course with each current, eddy and whirlpool.  Nearing the end of this crazed, three-year drift, riffles and undercurrents have grown to COVID 19-powered, Class V Rapids!  Alarmed, sensing a waterfall around the bend, passengers and crew grip the gunnels and pray for a Stable Skipper.

It’s said, my criticism says more about me than the person I criticize.

After a bumpy rollout https://myex-mo.com seems to be in business.  Check it out?

February 13 Siena College Research Institute released results of its 6^th Presidential Expert Poll, asking 157 “presidential scholars, historians and political scientists” to rate the best American presidents. Picking a few, Reagan comes in 13^th, Clinton comes in 15^th, Obama17^th, G.W.H Bush 21^st , Richard Nixon 29^th, and G.W. Bush 33^rd. Beating out Andrew Johnson (44^th) who was impeached and James Buchanan (43^rd) whose presidency was followed by the Civil War, Donald J. Trump ranks 42^nd or the third worst American president.

Employing his boilerplate response to messages that doesn’t suit his purpose, Trump would, of course, kill the157 messengers.

My new site https://myex-mo.com is limited to thoughts on The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. Mormons are wonderful people. I love my Mormon family and friends. There are, however, Church history and doctrine which I find troubling, even impossible to believe. If you have no interest in Mormonism or are not okay with having LDS precepts examined, don’t go there. If it’s worth a read please tell your friends.

Delay getting site launched.  Should be up soon.

It’s said Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden represent the status quo, old-fashion politics, business as usual in D.C. It’s true! It even has a name: Democracy! It’s civil debate and compromise. It’s respecting the loyal opposition, even when I vehemently disagree with their politics and policies. Democracy is not mean and rude.  It is not taunting, shoving and name-calling like a sixth-grade Bully! Democracy is not saying whatever serves your immediate purpose regardless of truth or fact!

Borrowing on English poet and philosopher John Donne, “No man (no nation, not even America) is an island.” Without the respect and cooperation of other nations we cannot survive. Our American Democracy does not thumb its nose, does not give the finger to the rest of humanity. The most favored people on Earth are duty-bound to do all we can—more than our share—to make life better for all people!

There’s a sense I earned and deserved this free and favored life. I didn’t and I don’t! Those who went before, parents and grandparents centuries back earned it. My responsibility is to preserve and pay it forward! My responsibility is to leave America and every nation on planet Earth more livable and safer for those to come.

With its full share of sins and shortcomings, each American administration, Democrat and Republican, represents Democracy in action. To this is point in time, none was a Trumpian/Putinian Oligarchy.