The Ugliest American 🤮 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 🤮

Pathological: George Conway, the conservative lawyer who used to be married Kellyanne, provides a convincing case that Trump is a pathological narcissist.  I have no training in psychology, but Conway seems spot on since among other things narcissists are grandiose, lack empathy, think everyone else is stupid, have difficulty accepting criticism and are manipulative, all traits that aptly describe Trump, and as to the pathological part, he does appear to be compulsive, obsessive and dangerous. To that end, after the very articulate and soft-spoken Washington DC Episcopal Reverend Marianne Edgar Budde asked Trump to show mercy to LGTBQ people and immigrants during the Inaugural Prayer Service, Trump who should have turned the other cheek instead lashed out calling her a “nasty” “radical leftist” who owed the public, and presumably him too, an apology.  To her credit, she remained unbowed, instead doubling down on her message, saying that she “wanted to emphasize respecting the honor and dignity of every human being, basic honesty and humility,” she called for “mercy and compassion and understanding," all foreign concepts to narcissists even those who profess to adhere to Christian values.  In an interview with his favorite Fox abetor, Sean Hannity, Trump defended his decision to pardon all of the January 6 felons, once again calling them heroes while repeating for the umpteenth time that he’d won the 2020 election, repititon of lies being one of those manipulative strategies that narcissists frequently employ. That strategy worked well for Trump during his 2024 campaign where far too many ignored or believed his lies about everything from the 2020 election to tariffs to his promises about bringing down the cost of groceries and interest rates while also immediately ending the Ukraine-Russia war and leaving their health care benefits intact.  Yesterday speaking remotely to a group of businesspeople and economists attending the World Economic Forum he again threatened tarriffs while demanding lower interest rates and oil prices. The attendees who, despite Trump’s assessment, aren’t stupid, know he can impose those tarriffs, but they are also are smart enough to know that tarriffs despite “genius” Trump’s claims will raise prices and interest rates because despite his grandiose pronouncments, Trump can’t make either go down with an edict or his sharpie.  The ultimate Ugly American is back and it is hard and embarassing to watch him in action especially since his plan is to bring us back to a time when women and people of color knew their place, when health care was available only to those who could afford it, when older people were either supported by their families or lived in poverty, few vaccines were available, cars didn’t have safety belts, and burning pollution causing oil, like smoking cigarettes, was a good thing. The good old days?

Cabinetry:  John Ratcliffe is now the new CIA Chief, 74 Senators voted to confirm him.  He joins Marco Rubio as the second member of Trump’s team to be easily confirmed.  If things go according to Trump’s plan, Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth will join them tonight. During yesterday’s preliminary vote Hegseth, whose second wife says “drinks” more often than not, got no Democratic votes but received all but two Republican ones.  The Republican naysayers were Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. In addition to focusing on his lack of experience and bad management history Murkowski expressed concern about his abuse of women.  Collins mostly limited her stated concerns to his serious lack of professional experience. It’s highly likely that despite his obvious failings, including the $50,000 payment he admitted to making to the woman who accused him of rape, Hegseth will be confirmed tonight but his opponents haven’t given up the fight yet.  Last night, after the preliminary vote, an unprecedented third FBI report detailing more of his misconduct was shared with leadership of the Senate Armed Services committee.  In addition, Rachel Maddow’s legal analyst Lisa Rubin uncovered the non dispargement agreement that he entered into with his second wife Samantha as part of their custody agreement.  The terms of that agreement go far to explaining why Samantha has been reluctant to speak out about her marital experiences, the ones that led her to need a “safe” word, hide in a closet, and flee her house.  Putting aside Hegseth’s abusive behavior, as if that should ever be put aside, I don’t get why Trump  is so adament about having a frequently inebriated Defense Secretary with so little experience by his side and why his Senate supporters agree.  You’d think that he and they would want his Defense Secretary, perhaps his most important appointee to be smart, sober and experienced, so maybe it’s that pathological narcissism again.  Who needs competence when you think you are the smartest guy in the room, who needs no advisors but does like to be surrounded by bootlickers?  You’d also think that Trump would want a Director of National Security who was smart, experienced and fairminded but instead he’s nominated Tulsi Gabbard who apparently didn’t just meet with former Syrian Dictator Assad back when he was the current dictator, but met with him twice and lied about it.  As to health care, Trump’s nomination of RFK Jr is another one of those things that’s setting him up for failure and us up for high levels of morbidity and mortality. Trump can stop the CDC from issuing health reports, and yes he’s now done that, but he can’t stop people from getting sick and dying and having RFK out there dissing vaccines when another pandemic could be in the offing is not a winning strategy. That’s RFK, Jr whose finally filed financial paperwork reveals that he is still getting and will continue to get payments from his law firm, related to a vaccine lawsuit. By the way, birds continue to die from bird flu and a few people have too.  The last remaining Long Island duck farm has just had to cull its entire flock because of the illness.     

Birth and Other Rights:  The first federal court has spoken, and at least for now Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship is suspended.  A Federal Judge nominated by Ronald Reagan held no punches. He said it boggled the mind to think that any member of the bar would claim that Trump’s order was constitutional.  No doubt Trump’s team is appealing, and despite the 14^th Amendment and case law, specifically 1898’s US v Wong Kim Ark case where the Supreme Court ruled that because Wong was born in the US and his parents “were not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China,” the 14th Amendment made him a U.S. citizen, Trump’s executive order is likely to make it to SCOTUS and who knows with this crowd how they’ll rule.  We know how they should rule but?  While being born in the US makes you a citizen, keeping security protection even if your life has been threatened is not a given if you’ve ever said anything bad about Trump (pathological narcisism in action again?).  In addition to stripping John Bolton of his protectors, Trump has now stripped former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, because who really cares about those Iranian threats to kill him. We’re also watching the free press deteriorate.  It’s reported that CNN management warned its commentators to refrain from referring to Trump’s impeachments or prior bad acts during their coverage of the inauguration.  Additionally, CNN has just shuffled its schedule, taking away frequent Trump critic, the highly rated Jim Acosta’s morning time slot, offering him instead one at midnight.  It’s also been reported that Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, has held internal talks about settling a lawsuit filed by Trump.  That’s the one where Trump called 60 Minutes editing of their Kamala Harris interview illegal election interference.  Apparently, Paramount fears that Trump will stand in the way of its sale to Skydance Media if they don’t make nice to him.

Four more hostages are due to be released by Hamas tomorrow. Let’s hope all goes well and that they aren’t subjected to the dangerous gauntlet that last week’s hostages experienced.

#BringThemAllHomeAliveNow