Friday, September 29, 2017

Humorous essay re. Jared Kushner and his "forgetfulness"

On his voter registration, he checked the box Female instead of Male -- and he can't remember any of the meetings he had with Russians.... Read on:

Full disclosure: I am Jared Kushner. I have no idea what I'm doing.

 September 29 at 3:31 PM 

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press)

"[Jared] Kushner has been criticized in the past for initially not disclosing more than 100 contacts with foreign leaders including those from Russia, as well as ownership of a multimillion dollar tech company with links to Goldman Sachs and businessmen Peter Thiel and George Soros. Kushner was also one of three top campaign officials or surrogates who failed to disclose a June 2016 meeting with a woman billed as being with the Russian government and having incriminating information on Hillary Clinton." —CNN, Sept. 28

Jared here. Sorry about forgetting to tell you about my private email account, senators!

In general, I apologize if, on a form, I forgot to disclose anything about myself, or, indeed, everything about myself. I just have this condition where the second I am presented with a form for making disclosures, I lose all recollection of who I am, what I am doing and the meaning of the word "disclosure." It sounds like something that a bank should do to a poor family. Boy, I hope I'm not poor! I assume I'm not, based on these cuff links I'm wearing, but I honestly don't know! The second I was asked to supply information about myself, my condition kicked in.

Have we met before?

I am not trying to be rude. It's just that apparently I've met like a whole BUNCH of Russian officials, and I have zero recollection of any of this. Or, like, any income I've received at any time. Or most of my business holdings. Looking at my fine-tailored suit, I assume I must have business holdings. I can't wait to find out what they are! I hope they don't involve a complex web of business dealings with hostile nations. That could be awkward.

You know that thing where you can't remember your password and the hint seems as though it was written by an entirely different person? I have that, but also for the email address itself and for having created the email. Do I have an email address? What's an email address? No, genuinely, what is an email address?

I'm sorry. I should have mentioned this to Congress earlier, really, but, again, the second I am presented with a form to fill out, my mind goes blank, and so does the form. Who am I? What am I doing here? Am I qualified to be here? Should I be here? Why was I chosen to be a presidential adviser? Do I have any expertise at all in anything? Good questions, all equally difficult to answer.

Oh my God, I've been filling the form out with the wrong end of the pencil, haven't I? Oops.

They tell me that this woman is my wife and that I am a senior adviser to the president. Senior adviser — wow! Good for me.

I would tattoo personal information on my hands for ease and convenience, but tattoos are lower-class and somehow I know that whatever else I may turn out to be, I am not that. I feel as though I own something made of marble, maybe a building. Or a boat, the kind with costly silent consonants in it. I bet I went to Harvard, whatever that is.

Am I male or female? Well, it's a 50/50 shot here, at least according to this form's restrictive binary. Boy, I hope I'm male, just based on, like, society. I'll pick one at random.

Have I been here before? Should I be talking to you? Who am I? Is this all a nightmare? Or, wait, am I a goldfish? Is there anything else I am failing to disclose? Maybe. Who can say? I certainly can't.

I bet I know a lot about the Middle East, though. Definitely put me in charge of that.

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Watched a good film today--Our Souls at Night with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda

Highly recommended movie on streaming Netflix now.  One song that kept playing through it was The Highwayman sung by (who else?) The Highwaymen (Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, etc.)  Nice song of reincarnation. This version is particularly good on youtube:
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IMPORTANT to READ: Trump's Tax Plan: Ultimate Domination by the Rich

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-tax-plan-rich_us_59cd6a14e4b05f005d3328cb?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

Important for us all to understand what is being done to us under the pretense of "helping the middle class by giving breaks to the rich."

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Want to laugh hysterically today? Read the following humorous essay: BEFORE THE INTERNET

Need to laugh?  After living with Trump as President for almost 10 months, we all need something to lift our spirits.  This is one of the BEST laugh-givers Ever, from the New Yorker:  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/26/before-the-internet

It had me laughing so hard, it hurt (in a good way, for a change). (~.~) 

Very much like Steve Martin's SIDE EFFECTS, which you can read at:  http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060324/msgs/626555.html

Don't even think about Trump for the rest of the day.  Just keep laughing....it's all just a crazy dream! (~.~)

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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Beautiful Music to put you to sleep with angelic voice and pictures


One of my favorite songs to listen to -- always makes me feel protected and loved.  So very peaceful. And an angelic voice--beyond description. I love the beautiful bright lights in the pictures....just like angels coming down from heaven right into your heart -- makes you feel warm and cozy and just want to drift off to sleep.  A good one to view and listen to at bedtime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTMUEH8l64M     This is incredibly beautiful.  The pictures that accompany the music look like angels of light... 

  
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Monday, September 25, 2017

Uh-oh! Jared Kushner's got an e-mail problem

He did the same thing as Hillary -- used private e-mail server in government e-mails.

Will Trump supporters start shouting, "Lock HIM Up!"????  And demand that his security clearance be taken away?  And that he should be FIRED?  If you're waiting for that, Don't hold your breath....

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Saturday, September 23, 2017

12-year old with incredible talent

America's Got Talent is a feel-good show.  This year's winner is a 12-year-old ventriloquist, and she is hugely talented.  Here is a video of all her performances.  If you haven't seen her before, I think you'll enjoy this (19 minutes).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlvPCEfZrnI

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Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Sign up: Rob Reiner's Committee to Investigate Russia site

https://investigaterussia.org/about-us

This is a good site to subscribe to for daily briefings and updates on the Russia/Trump investigation.  It was just launched by Rob Reiner and Morgan Freeman.

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Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Short video: The Illusion of Reality: Quantum Physics and Consciousness


This video is only 10 minutes long, but it is one of the Best Ever in explaining consciousness and quantum theory. Through many scientific voices, it tells how we are creating what we call reality with every thought.  Right now in this world we seem to be living in a fear-based reality...which is being stoked by those to whom we have given power.  Refusal to follow their lead can change the world we observe and seemingly participate in.  Watch the video and be amazed at the scientifically proven truth it offers to those who can hear with open minds and hearts:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRkDicwjRQs

A new paradigm is opening us to higher understanding.  Physicist Michio Kaku says we are on the verge of transitioning from a type zero civilization into a type one civilization.  Watch his short 6-minute video explanation of this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NPC47qMJVg

I know some who receive this message will resonate with these video presentations.  And some may not. Those who are committed to tradition and conservative attitudes might find it difficult to understand at first.  It appears the time of rigid, static thinking has had its day in our world. New knowledge is making its way into the minds of Earth humans.  But the old fundamentalist ways of thinking (and warring) are mounting last-ditch efforts to continue.   As Micho Kaku points out, as a civilization we are on the brink of a transition that can go one way or another--either backward into self-destruction or forward into self-realization.  I believe we will go forward in understanding, toward a more open-minded view that will see us becoming a type one civilization. 

However, as the first video above tells us, no matter how our world appears, quantum physics has proven it will still be a holographic illusion.  Consciousness, individually and collectively, is creating Everything we see--and is far greater than we can ever imagine.  The God particle we have been searching for is us.

Wonderfully and Astoundingly Amazing, isn't it???
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The Illusion of Matter - fascinating article on quantum physics


Keeping an open mind is very important as science discovers new information through research. Some would like to shut it out and stick with the old ways of thinking, even when the old beliefs have been superceded by new discoveries, proven by evidence that cannot be refuted. Denial is one way of dealing with fear.  How will the unknown ever become known if fear shuts down new information, without allowing further investigation? The following article tells of discoveries in quantum physics that give entry into an understanding of the physical body as patterns of energy, which can lead to medical treatments that affect those energy patterns toward healing, such as are used in homeopathy and acupuncture.  For those of a curious nature, the following article gives an intriguing peek into the true nature of our world, as revealed by quantum mechanics. 

There is a principle which is proof against all information, which is proof against all arguments, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance; that principle is contempt, prior to investigation.  --Herbert Spencer, British philosopher, 1820-1903

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/12/05/the-illusion-of-matter-our-physical-material-world-isnt-really-physical-at-all/

The Illusion of Matter: Our Physical Material World Isn't Really Physical At All

Arjun Walia

Niels Bohr, a Danish Physicist who made significant contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory once said: "if quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet." Quantum physics has left scientists all over the world baffled, especially with the discovery that our physical material reality, isn't really physical at all. "Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real." It seems philosophers of our ancient past were right, our senses really do deceive us.

Again, our physical material reality really ISN'T physical at all. The meaning, significance and implications of these findings within our quantum world have led to a plethora of ideas and theories, some of which lay inside the label of "pseudo-science."  This article will present scientific evidence that clearly show the connections between consciousness and what we call reality and how these can no longer be denied. It will also ponder the implications of this knowing, and how this realization plays an important role in the potential transformation of our planet, at a time when we need it the most.

Scientific understandings change continuously throughout human history.  Old "knowings" are constantly dismissed as we come across new ones. Even with our current understanding about the laws of physics, it could have some loopholes, especially with the recent disclosure of the black budget. We now know that trillions of dollars are going towards projects that the human race knows nothing about. Other phenomenon, like zero-point energy, extracting energy and heat from electromagnetic zero-point radiation via the Casimir force have shown to be correct and conclusive.  For more information on these sources, please click hereSome of these ideas threaten our current understanding of physics, but how can we even have an understanding of physics when what we call 'matter' isn't even real? How can we understand it if when we observe an atom at its tiniest level the behavior of that atom changes? The quantum world is definitely a weird one, and it's safe to say that we don't understand it, but we do recognize the significance and potential it has to help transform our world. We are starting to recognize that non-physical properties govern the universe, and we are turning our attention towards consciousness and the role it plays with regards to the physical make up of our reality.

The notion that the atom was the smallest particle in the universe fell with the discovery that the atom itself is made up of even smaller, subatomic elements. What was even more shocking was the revelation that these subatomic particles emit various "strange energies." Proponents would argue that the findings within quantum physics only apply and are significant at the subatomic level, but to those I say, are we not all existing at the subatomic level? When we observe ourselves and our physical environment at the smallest level, are we not made up of atoms? Are we not made up of subatomic particles? Are we not what we observe?

At the turn of the nineteenth century, physicists started to explore the relationship between energy and the structure of matter. In doing so, the belief that a physical, Newtonian material universe that was at the very heart of scientific knowing was dropped, and the realization that matter is nothing but an illusion replaced it. Scientists began to recognize that everything in the Universe is made out of energy.

Quantum physicists discovered that physical atoms are made up of vortices of energy that are constantly spinning and vibrating, each one radiating its own unique energy signature. Therefore, if we really want to observe ourselves and find out what we are, we are really beings of energy and vibration, radiating our own unique energy signature -this is fact and is what quantum physics has shown us time and time again. We are much more than what we perceive ourselves to be, and it's time we begin to see ourselves in that light. If you observed the composition of an atom with a microscope, you would see a small, invisible tornado like vortex, with a number of infinitely small energy vortices called quarks and photons. These are what make up the structure of the atom. As you focused in closer and closer on the structure of the atom, you would see nothing, you would observe a physical void. The atom has no physical structure, we have no physical structure, physical things really don't have any physical structure! Atoms are made out of invisible energy, not tangible matter.

It's quite the conundrum, isn't it? Our experience tells us that our reality is made up of physical material things, and that our world is an independently existing objective one. Again, what quantum mechanics reveals is that there is no true "physicality" in the universe, that atoms are made of focused vortices of energy-miniature tornadoes that are constantly popping into and out of existence.  The revelation that the universe is not an assembly of physical parts, suggested by Newtonian physics, and instead comes from a holistic entanglement of immaterial energy waves stems from the work of Albert Einstein, Max Planck, and Werner Heisenberg, among others.

Despite the findings of quantum physics many scientists today still cling onto the prevailing matter-oriented worldview, for no good reason at all. As mentioned earlier, these scientists restrict quantum theory's validity to the subatomic world. If we know that matter isn't physical, how can we further our scientific discovery by treating it as physical?

Despite the unrivaled empirical success of quantum theory, the very suggestion that it may be literally true as a description of nature is still greeted with cynicism, incomprehension and even anger. (T. Folger, "Quantum Shmantum"; Discover 22:37-43, 2001)

What Does This Mean?

What does it mean that our physical material reality isn't really physical at all? It could mean a number of things, and concepts such as this cannot be explored if scientists remain within the boundaries of the only perceived world existing, the world we see. Fortunately, many scientists have already taken the leap, and have already questioned the meaning and implications of what we've discovered with quantum physics. One of these potential revelations is that "the observer creates the reality."

A fundamental conclusion of the new physics also acknowledges that the observer creates the reality. As observers, we are personally involved with the creation of our own reality. Physicists are being forced to admit that the universe is a "mental" construction. Pioneering physicist Sir James Jeans wrote: "The stream of knowledge is heading toward a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter, we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter. (R. C. Henry, "The Mental Universe"; Nature 436:29, 2005)

 We can no longer ignore the fact that our beliefs, perceptions and attitudes (consciousness) create the world.

... The possible influence of human consciousness on the behavior of physical or biological systems has been subject to rigorous research and documentation for a number of years by several researches. Many of the experiments that use the role of human consciousness and how it affects our physical material world have been done so under the Department of Defense and military agencies, thus remaining classified -hidden science kept from the eyes of the mainstream public world. 

One example of this is the 24-year government-sponsored program to investigate ESP and its potential use within the Intelligence Community. This operation was called STAR GATE , and most of its research and findings remain classified to this day.  Another example is the research conducted by the CIA and NSA in conjunction with Stanford University. 

Personally, I am compelled to believe that much of the science that deals with the "weirdness" of the quantum world, and many of its technological applications remains within the realm of the classified world. A world so secretive that it could be thousands of years ahead of the mainstream world.

What Level Of Consciousness Do You Operate From?

Now that we've established that our physical makeup is one that is not physical at all, where do we go from here? We are atoms, made up of subatomic particles, that are actually a bunch of energy vibrating at a certain frequency. Us, these vibrational beings of energy exhibit consciousness, which has been shown to manifest, create and correlate to our physical material world. The next question to ask ourselves is: what level of consciousness/ state of being do we individually, and more importantly, collectively operate from?

Studies have shown that positive emotions and operating from a place of peace within oneself can lead to a very different experience for the person emitting those emotions and for those around them. At our subatomic level, does the vibrational frequency change the manifestation of physical reality? If so, in what way? We know that when an atom changes it's state, it absorbs or emits electromagnetic frequencies, which are responsible for changing it's state. Do different states of emotion, perception and feelings result in different electromagnetic frequencies? Yes! This has been proven.

The non-physical world is weird, isn't it? The fact that material substances (matter) appear out of thin air, with lots of evidence to point to consciousness as that which is creating it, is pretty intriguing. One minute we are holding a physical object in our hand, like a coin, and then the next minute we realize that if we were to focus in on the coin's material substance with an atomic microscope, we would see that we are actually holding nothing.

The best we can do for now is understand that the human race must operate from a place of peace, a place of cooperation and understanding. We must realize that we are all interconnected, that we can solve our problems here easily, given the fact that we have a number of solutions. The only way we will be able to implement and utilize these solutions is through a shift in consciousness. The world is indeed waking up. My soul knows the significance of these findings, it is difficult for the mind to explain. Hopefully I did a decent job.

Related CE Article: 10 Scientific Studies That Prove Consciousness Can Alter Our Physical Material World


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Saturday, September 16, 2017

Bill Moyers: The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump -- "A Duty to Warn"


This important interview should be read by every intelligent voter in our country (which eliminates all those who voted for Trump and still support him). We have been warned.

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: Robert Jay Lifton and Bill Moyers on "A Duty to Warn"
Bill Moyers's picture

by Bill Moyers | September 16, 2017

— from Moyers & Company

There will not be a book published this fall more urgent, important, or controversial than The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, the work of 27 psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health experts to assess President Trump's mental health. They had come together last March at a conference at Yale University to wrestle with two questions. One was on countless minds across the country: "What's wrong with him?" The second was directed to their own code of ethics: "Does Professional Responsibility Include a Duty to Warn" if they conclude the president to be dangerously unfit?

As mental health professionals, these men and women respect the long-standing "Goldwater rule" which inhibits them from diagnosing public figures whom they have not personally examined. At the same time, as explained by Dr. Bandy X Lee, who teaches law and psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, the rule does not have a countervailing rule that directs what to do when the risk of harm from remaining silent outweighs the damage that could result from speaking about a public figure — "which in this case, could even be the greatest possible harm." It is an old and difficult moral issue that requires a great exertion of conscience. Their decision: "We respect the rule, we deem it subordinate to the single most important principle that guides our professional conduct: that we hold our responsibility to human life and well-being as paramount."

Hence, this profound, illuminating and discomforting book undertaken as "a duty to warn."

The foreword is by one of America's leading psychohistorians, Robert Jay Lifton. He is renowned for his studies of people under stress — for books such as Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima (1967), Home from the War: Vietnam Veterans — Neither Victims nor Executioners (1973), and The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide(1986). The Nazi Doctors was the first in-depth study of how medical professionals rationalized their participation in the Holocaust, from the early stages of the Hitler's euthanasia project to extermination camps.

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump will be published Oct. 3 by St. Martin's Press.

Here is my interview with Robert Jay Lifton — Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers: This book is a withering exploration of Donald Trump's mental state. Aren't you and the 26 other mental health experts who contribute to it in effect violating the Goldwater Rule? Section 7.3 of the American Psychiatrist Association's code of ethics flatly says: "It is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion [on a public figure] unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization." Are you putting your profession's reputation at risk?

Robert Jay Lifton: I don't think so. I think the Goldwater Rule is a little ambiguous. We adhere to that portion of the Goldwater Rule that says we don't see ourselves as making a definitive diagnosis in a formal way and we don't believe that should be done, except by hands-on interviewing and studying of a person. But we take issue with the idea that therefore we can say nothing about Trump or any other public figure. We have a perfect right to offer our opinion, and that's where "duty to warn" comes in.

Moyers: Duty to warn?

Lifton: We have a duty to warn on an individual basis if we are treating someone who may be dangerous to herself or to others — a duty to warn people who are in danger from that person. We feel it's our duty to warn the country about the danger of this president. If we think we have learned something about Donald Trump and his psychology that is dangerous to the country, yes, we have an obligation to say so. That's why Judith Herman and I wrote our letter to The New York Times. We argue that Trump's difficult relationship to reality and his inability to respond in an evenhanded way to a crisis renders him unfit to be president, and we asked our elected representative to take steps to remove him from the presidency.

Moyers: Yet some people argue that our political system sets no intellectual or cognitive standards for being president, and therefore, the ordinary norms of your practice as a psychiatrist should stop at the door to the Oval Office.

Lifton: Well, there are people who believe that there should be a standard psychiatric examination for every presidential candidate and for every president. But these are difficult issues because they can't ever be entirely psychiatric. They're inevitably political as well. I personally believe that ultimately ridding the country of a dangerous president or one who's unfit is ultimately a political matter, but that psychological professionals can contribute in valuable ways to that decision.

Moyers: Do you recall that there was a comprehensive study of all 37 presidents up to 1974? Half of them reportedly had a diagnosable mental illness, including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder. It's not normal people who always make it to the White House.

Lifton: Yes, that's amazing, and I'm sure it's more or less true. So people with what we call mental illness can indeed serve well, and people who have no discernible mental illness — and that may be true of Trump — may not be able to serve, may be quite unfit. So it isn't always the question of a psychiatric diagnosis. It's really a question of what psychological and other traits render one unfit or dangerous.

Moyers: You write in the foreword of the book: "Because Trump is president and operates within the broad contours and interactions of the presidency, there is a tendency to view what he does as simply part of our democratic process, that is, as politically and even ethically normal."

Lifton: Yes. And that's what I call malignant normality. What we put forward as self-evident and normal may be deeply dangerous and destructive. I came to that idea in my work on the psychology of Nazi doctors — and I'm not equating anybody with Nazi doctors, but it's the principle that prevails — and also with American psychologists who became architects of CIA torture during the Iraq War era. These are forms of malignant normality. For example, Donald Trump lies repeatedly. We may come to see a president as liar as normal. He also makes bombastic statements about nuclear weapons, for instance, which can then be seen as somehow normal. In other words, his behavior as president, with all those who defend his behavior in the administration, becomes a norm. We have to contest it, because it is malignant normality. For the contributors to this book, this means striving to be witnessing professionals, confronting the malignancy and making it known.

Moyers: Witnessing professionals? Where did this notion come from?

Lifton: I first came to it in terms of psychiatrists assigned to Vietnam, way back then. If a soldier became anxious and enraged about the immorality of the Vietnam War, he might be sent to a psychiatrist who would be expected to help him be strong enough to return to committing atrocities. So there was something wrong in what professionals were doing, and some of us had to try to expose this as the wrong and manipulative use of our profession. We had to see ourselves as witnessing professionals. And then of course, with the Nazi doctors I studied for another book — doctors assigned, say, to Auschwitz — they were expected to do selections of Jews for the gas chamber. That was what was expected of them and what for the most part they did — sometimes with some apprehension, but they did it. So that's another malignant normality. Professionals were reduced to being automatic servants of the existing regime as opposed to people with special knowledge balanced by a moral baseline as well as the scientific information to make judgments.

Moyers: And that should apply to journalists, lawyers, doctors —

Lifton: Absolutely. One bears witness by taking in the situation — in this case, its malignant nature — and then telling one's story about it, in this case with the help of professional knowledge, so that we add perspective on what's wrong, rather than being servants of the powers responsible for the malignant normality. We must be people with a conscience in a very fundamental way.

Moyers: And this is what troubled you and many of your colleagues about the psychologists who helped implement the US policy of torture after 9/11.

Lifton: Absolutely. And I call that a scandal within a scandal, because yes, it was indeed professionals who became architects of torture, and their professional society, the American Psychological Association, which encouraged and protected them until finally protest from within that society by other members forced a change. So that was a dreadful moment in the history of psychology and in the history of professionals in this country.

Moyers: Some of the descriptions used to describe Trump — narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, delusional disorder, malignant narcissist — even some have suggested early forms of dementia — are difficult for lay people to grasp. Some experts say that it's not one thing that's wrong with him — there are a lot of things wrong with him and together they add up to what one of your colleagues calls "a scary witches brew, a toxic stew."

Lifton: I think that's very accurate. I agree that there's an all-enveloping destructiveness in his character and in his psychological tendencies. But I've focused on what professionally I call solipsistic reality. Solipsistic reality means that the only reality he's capable of embracing has to do with his own self and the perception by and protection of his own self. And for a president to be so bound in this isolated solipsistic reality could not be more dangerous for the country and for the world. In that sense, he does what psychotics do. Psychotics engage in, or frequently engage in a view of reality based only on the self. He's not psychotic, but I think ultimately this solipsistic reality will be the source of his removal from the presidency.

Moyers: What's your take on how he makes increasingly bizarre statements that are contradicted by irrefutable evidence to the contrary, and yet he just keeps on making them? I know some people in your field call this a delusional disorder, a profound loss of contact with external reality.

Lifton: He doesn't have clear contact with reality, though I'm not sure it qualifies as a bona fide delusion. He needs things to be a certain way even though they aren't, and that's one reason he lies. There can also be a conscious manipulative element to it. When he put forward, and politically thrived on, the falsehood of President Obama's birth in Kenya, outside the United States, he was manipulating that lie as well as undoubtedly believing it in part, at least in a segment of his personality. In my investigations, I've found that people can believe and not believe something at the same time, and in his case, he could be very manipulative and be quite gifted at his manipulations. So I think it's a combination of those.

Moyers: How can someone believe and not believe at the same time?

Lifton: Well, in one part of himself, Trump can know there's no evidence that Obama was born in any place but Hawaii in the United States. But in another part of himself, he has the need to reject Obama as a president of the United States by asserting that he was born outside of the country. He needs to delegitimate Obama. That's been a strong need of Trump's. This is a personal, isolated solipsistic need which can coexist with a recognition that there's no evidence at all to back it up. I learned about this from some of the false confessions I came upon in my work.

Moyers: Where?

Lifton: For instance, when I was studying Chinese communist thought reform, one priest was falsely accused of being a spy, and was under physical duress — really tortured with chains and in other intolerable ways. As he was tortured and the interrogator kept insisting that he was a spy, he began to imagine himself in the role of a spy, with spy radios in all the houses of his order. In his conversations with other missionaries he began to think he was revealing military data to the enemy in some way. These thoughts became real to him because he had to entered into them and convinced the interrogator that he believed them in order to remove the chains and the torture. He told me it seemed like someone creating a novel and the novelist building a story with characters which become real and believable. Something like that could happen to Trump, in which the false beliefs become part of a panorama, all of which is fantasy and very often bound up with conspiracy theory, so that he immerses himself in it and believing in it even as at the same time recognizing in another part of his mind that none of this exists. The human mind can do that.

Moyers: It's as if he believes the truth is defined by his words.

Lifton: Yes, that's right. Trump has a mind that in many ways is always under duress, because he's always seeking to be accepted, loved. He sees himself as constantly victimized by others and by the society, from which he sees himself as fighting back. So there's always an intensity to his destructive behavior that could contribute to his false beliefs.

Moyers: Do you remember when he tweeted that President Obama had him wiretapped, despite the fact that the intelligence community couldn't find any evidence to support his claim? And when he spoke to a CIA gathering, with the television cameras running, he said he was "a thousand percent behind the CIA," despite the fact that everyone watching had to know he had repeatedly denounced the "incompetence and dishonesty" of that same intelligence community.

Lifton: Yes, that's an extraordinary situation. And one has to invoke here this notion of a self-determined truth, this inner need for the situation to take shape in the form that the falsehood claims. In a sense this takes precedence over any other criteria for what is true.

Moyers: What other hazardous patterns do you see in his behavior? For example, what do you make of the admiration that he has expressed for brutal dictators — Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the late Saddam Hussein of Iraq, even Kim Jong Un of North Korea — yes, him — and President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, who turned vigilantes loose to kill thousands of drug users, and of course his admiration for Vladimir Putin. In the book Michael Tansey says, "There's considerable evidence to suggest that absolute tyranny is Donald Trump's wet dream."

Lifton: Yes. Well, while Trump doesn't have any systematic ideology, he does have a narrative, and in that narrative, America was once a great country, it's been weakened by poor leadership, and only he can make it great again by taking over. And that's an image of himself as a strongman, a dictator. It isn't the clear ideology of being a fascist or some other clear-cut ideological figure. Rather, it's a narrative of himself as being unique and all-powerful. He believes it, though I'm sure he's got doubts about it. But his narrative in a sense calls forth other strongmen, other dictators who run their country in an absolute way and don't have to bother with legislative division or legal issues.

Moyers: I suspect some elected officials sometimes dream of doing what an unopposed autocrat or strongman is able to do, and that's demand adulation on the one hand, and on the other hand, eradicate all of your perceived enemies just by turning your thumb down to the crowd. No need to worry about "fake media" — you've had them done away with. No protesters. No confounding lawsuits against you. Nothing stands in your way.

Lifton: That's exactly right. Trump gives the impression that he would like to govern by decree. And of course, who governs by decree but dictators or strongmen? He has that impulse in him and he wants to be a savior, so he says, in his famous phrase, "Only I can fix it!" That's a strange and weird statement for anybody to make, but it's central to Trump's sense of self and self-presentation. And I think that has a lot to do with his identification with dictators. No matter how many they kill and no matter what else they do, they have this capacity to rule by decree without any interference by legislators or courts.

In the case of Putin, I think Trump does have involvements in Russia that are in some way determinative. I think they'll be important in his removal from office. I think he's aware of collusion on his part and his campaign's, some of which has been brought out, a lot more of which will be brought out in the future. He appears to have had some kind of involvement with the Russians in which they've rescued him financially and maybe continue to do so, so that he's beholden to them in ways for which there's already lots of evidence. So I think his fierce impulse to cover up any kind of Russian connections, which is prone to obstruction of justice, will do him in.

Moyers: I want to ask you about another side of him that is taken up in the book. It involves the much-discussed video that appeared during the campaign last year which had been made a decade or so ago when Trump was newly married. He sees this actress outside his bus and he says, "I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her," and then we hear sounds of Tic Tacs before Trump continues. "You know," he says, "I'm automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet, just kiss, I don't even wait." And then you can hear him boasting off camera, "When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything, grab them by the…. You can do anything."

Lifton: In addition to being a strongman and a dictator, there's a pervasive sense of entitlement. Whatever he wants, whatever he needs in his own mind, he can have. It's a kind of American celebrity gone wild, but it's also a vicious anti-female perspective and a caricature of male macho. That's all present in Trump as well as the solipsism that I mentioned earlier, and that's why when people speak of him as all-pervasive on many different levels of destructiveness, they're absolutely right.

Moyers: And it seems to extend deeply into his relationship with his own family. There's a chapter in The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump with the heading, "Trump's Daddy Issues." There's several of his quotes about his daughter, Ivanka. He said, "You know who's one of the great beauties of the world, according to everybody, and I helped create her? Ivanka. My daughter, Ivanka. She's 6 feet tall. She's got the best body."

Again: "I said that if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her." Ivanka was 22 at the time. To a reporter he said: "Yeah, she's really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren't happily married — and, you know, her father…"

When Howard Stern, the radio host, started to say, "By the way, your daughter —" Trump interrupted him with "She's beautiful." Stern continued, "Can I say this? A piece of ass." To which Trump replied, "Yeah." What's going on here?

Lifton: In addition to everything else and the extreme narcissism that it represents, it's a kind of unbridled sense of saying anything on one's mind as well as an impulse to break down all norms because he is the untouchable celebrity. So just as he is the one man who can fix things for the country, he can have every woman or anything else that he wants, or abuse them in any way he seeks to.

Moyers: You mentioned extreme narcissism. I'm sure you knew Erich Fromm —

Lifton: Yes, I did.

Moyers: — one of the founders of humanistic psychology. He was a Holocaust survivor who had a lifelong obsession with the psychology of evil. And he said that he thought "malignant narcissism" was the most severe pathology — "the root of the most vicious destructiveness and inhumanity." Do you think malignant narcissism goes a long way to explain Trump?

Lifton: I do think it goes a long way. In early psychoanalytic thought, narcissism was — and still, of course, is — self-love. The early psychoanalysts used to talk of libido directed at the self. That now feels a little quaint, that kind of language. But it does include the most fierce and self-displaying form of one's individual self. And in this way, it can be dangerous. When you look at Trump, you can really see someone who's destructive to any form of life enhancement in virtually every area. And if that's what Fromm means by malignant narcissism, then it definitely applies.

Moyers: You said earlier that Trump and his administration have brought about a kind of malignant normalcy — that a dangerous president can become normalized. When the Democrats make a deal with him, as they did recently, are they edging him a little closer to being accepted despite this record of bizarre behavior?

Lifton: We are normalizing him when the Democrats make a deal with him. But there's a profound ethical issue here and it's not easily answered. If something is good for the country — perhaps the deal that the Democrats are making with Donald Trump is seen or could be understood by most as good for the country, dealing with the debt crisis — is that worth doing even though it normalizes him? If the Democrats do go ahead with this deal, they should take steps to make clear that they're opposing other aspects of his presidency and of him.

Moyers: There's a chapter in the book entitled, "He's Got the World in His Hands and His Finger on the Trigger." Do you ever imagine him sitting alone in his office, deciding on a potentially catastrophic course of action for the nation? Say, with five minutes to decide whether or not to unleash thermonuclear weapons?

Lifton: I do. And like many, I'm deeply frightened by that possibility. It's said very often that, OK, there are people around him who can contain him and restrain him. I'm not so sure they always can or would. In any case, it's not unlikely that he could seek to create some kind of crisis, if he found himself in a very bad light in relation to public opinion and close to removal from office. So yes, I share that fear and I think it's a real danger. I think we have to constantly keep it in mind, be ready to anticipate it and take whatever action we can against it. The American president has particular power. This makes Trump the most dangerous man in the world. He's equally dangerous because of his finger on the nuclear trigger and because of his mind ensconced in solipsistic reality. The two are a dreadful combination.

Moyers: One of your colleagues writes in the book, "Sociopathic traits may be amplified as the leader discovers that he can violate the norms of civil society and even commit crimes with impunity. And the leader who rules through fear, lies and betrayal may become increasingly isolated and paranoid as the loyalty of even his closest confidants must forever be suspect." Does that sound like Trump?

Lifton: It's already happening. We see that it's harder and harder to work for him. It's hard enough even for his spokesperson to affirm his falsehoods. These efforts are not too convincing and they become less convincing from the radius outward, in which people removed from his immediate circle find it still more difficult to believe him and the American public finds it more difficult. He still can appeal to his base because in his base there is a narrative of grievance that centers on embracing Trump without caring too much about whether what he says is true or false. He somehow fits into their narrative. But that can't go on forever, and he's losing some of his formerly loyal supporters as well. So he is becoming more isolated. That has its own dangers, but it's inevitable that it would happen with a man like this as his falsehoods are contested.

Moyers: You bring up his base. Those true believers aren't the only ones who voted for him. As we are talking, I keep thinking: Here we have a man who kept asking what's the point of having thermonuclear weapons if we cannot use them; who advocates using torture or worse against our prisoners of war; who urged that five innocent young people here in New York, black young people, be given the death penalty for a sexual assault, even after it was proven someone else had committed the crime; who boasted about his ability to get away with sexually assaulting women because of his celebrity and power; who urged his followers at political rallies to punch protesters in the face and beat them so badly that they have to be taken out on stretchers; who suggested that maybe some of his followers might want to assassinate his political rival, Hillary Clinton, if she were elected president, or at the very least, throw her in prison; who believes he would not lose voters if he stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shot someone. And over 63 million people voted to elect that man president!

Lifton: Yes, that's a deeply troubling truth. And I doubt the people who voted for him were thinking about any of these things. What they were really responding to was a call for change, a sense that he was connecting with them in ways that others never had, that he would express and represent their interests, and that he would indeed make this country one dominated again by white people, in some cases white supremacists. But as you say, these people who embraced that narrative unquestioningly are a lesser minority than the ones who voted for him. And of course, he still didn't win the popular vote. But it's true — something has gone wrong with our democratic system in electing a man with all these characteristics that make up Donald Trump. Now we have to struggle to sustain the functional institutions of our democracy against his assault on them. I don't think he'll succeed in breaking them down, but he's doing a lot of harm and it'll take a lot of effort on the part of a lot of people to sustain them and to keep the democracy going, even in its faltering way.

Moyers: He still has the support of 80 percent of Republican voters — 4 out of 5. And it seems the Republican Party will tolerate him as long as they're afraid of the intensity of his followers.

Lifton: Yes, and that's another very disturbing thought. Things there could change quickly too. What I sense is that the whole situation is chaotic and volatile, so that any time now there could be further pronouncements, further information about Russia and about obstruction of justice, or another attempt of Trump to start firing people, including Mueller, and that this would create a constitutional crisis which would create more pressure on Republicans and everybody else. So even though that is an awful truth about the Republicans' hypocrisy in continuing to support him, that could change, I think, almost overnight if the new information were sufficiently damning to Trump and his administration.

Moyers: Let's talk about the "Trump Effect" on the country. One aspect of it was the increase in bullying in schools caused by the rhetoric used by Trump during the campaign. But it goes beyond that.

Lifton: I think Trump has had a very strong and disturbing effect on the country already. He has given more legitimacy to white supremacy and even to neo-fascist groups, and he's created a pervasive atmosphere that's more vague but still significant. I don't believe that he can in his own way destroy the country, just as he can't eliminate climate awareness, but he can go a long way in bringing — well, in stimulating what has always been a potential.

You mentioned Erich Fromm. I met him through [the sociologist] David Riesman. David Riesman was a close friend, a great authority on American society. He emphasized how there's always an underbelly in American society of extreme conservatism and reactionary response, and when there's any kind of progressive movement, there's likely to be a backlash of reaction to it. Trump is very much in that backlash to any kind of progressive achievement or even decent situation in society. He is stimulating feelings that are potential and latent in our society, but very real, and rendering them more active and more dangerous. And in that way, he's having a very harmful effect that I think mounts every single day.

Moyers: Some people who have known Trump for years say he's gotten dramatically worse since he was inaugurated. In the prologue to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, Dr. Judith Lewis Herman writes this: "Fostered by the flattery of underlings and the chance of crowds, a political leader's grandiosity may morph into grotesque delusions of grandeur." Does that —

Lifton: That's absolutely true. It's absolutely true. And for anyone with these traits — of feeling himself victimized, of seeking to be the strongman who resolves everything, yet sees truth only through his own self and negates all other truth outside of it — is bound to become much more malignant when he has power. That's what Judith Herman is saying, and she's absolutely right. Power then breeds an intensification of all this because the power can never be absolute power — to some extent it's stymied — but the isolation while in power becomes even more dangerous. Think of it as a vicious circle. The power intensifies these tendencies and the tendencies become more dangerous because of the power.

Moyers: But suppose that if Donald Trump is crazy, as some have said, he's crazy like a fox, which is to say all this bizarre behavior is really clever strategy to mislead, distract and deceive others into responding in precisely the manner that he wants them to.

Lifton: I don't think that's quite true. I think that it's partly true. As I said before, Trump both disbelieves and believes in falsehoods, so that when he did thrive on his longstanding and perhaps most egregious falsehood — the claim that Obama was not born in the United States — he's crazy like a fox in manipulating it because it gave him his political entrée onto the national stage — and also, incidentally, was not rejected by many leading Republicans. So he was crazy like a fox in that case. But it's more extreme even than that. In order to make your falsehoods powerful, you have to believe in them in some extent. And that's why we simplify things if we say that Trump either believes nothing in his falsehoods and is just manipulating us like a fox or he completely believes them. Neither is true. The combination of both and his talent as a manipulator and falsifier are very much at issue.

Moyers: You may not remember it, but you and I talked l6 years ago this very week — a few days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. ll — and PBS had asked me to go on the air to talk to a variety of people about their response to those atrocities.

Lifton: I haven't forgotten it, Bill.

Moyers: And in our discussion, we talked about your book, Destroying the World to Save It, about that extremist Japanese religious cult aum shinrikyo that released sarin nerve gas in Tokyo subways, you compared their ideology to Osama bin Laden: "He wanted to destroy a major part of the world to purify the world. There was in this idea, or his ideology, a sense of renewal." We saw it in that Japanese cult. So the issue I am getting at is that such an aspiration can take hold of any true believer — the desire to purify the world no matter the cost.

Lifton: It is a very dangerous aspiration, and it's not absent from the Trump presidency, although I don't think it's his central theme. I think it's a central theme in Steve Bannon, for instance, who is an apocalyptic character and really wants to bring down most of advanced society as we know it, most of civilization as we know it, in order to recreate it in his image. I think Trump has some attraction to that, just as he had attraction to Bannon as a person and as a thinker, and that influence is by no means over. He's still in touch with Bannon. So there is this apocalyptic influence in the Trumpean presidency: The world is destroyed in order to be purified and renewed in the ideal way that is projected by a Steve Bannon. And there is a sense of that when Trump says we'll make America great again, because he says it's been destroyed, he will remake it. So there is an apocalyptic suggestion, but I don't think it's at the very heart of his presidency.

Moyers: So our challenge is?

Lifton: I always feel we have to work both outside and inside of our existing institutions, so we have to really be careful about who we vote for and examine carefully our institutions and what they're meant to do and how they're being violated. I also think we need movements from below that oppose what this administration and administrations like it are doing to ordinary people. And for those of us who contributed to this book — well, as I said earlier, we have to be "witnessing professionals" and fulfill our duty to warn.
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Friday, September 15, 2017

Trump doesn't recognize his own wife -- a sign of his worsening dementia?

He walks over to her and tries to shake her hand after she introduces him to a crowd awaiting his speech...she seemed taken aback that he wasn't embracing her instead... Scary to have this idiot for a President and, on top of his ignorance, to see that he also has dementia!

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Thursday, September 14, 2017

Intelligent Republican tells truth about Trump's base

SO TRUE! (Unfortunately for all of us whose fates on the Trump Titanic are connected to them)
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Tuesday, September 05, 2017

Dump Trump! We've GOT to address climate change! NOW!

Texas will be cleaning up after Harvey for years to come.  And now, one week later, here comes IRMA, the biggest and most dangerous hurricane ever to come out of the Atlantic.  Climate Change is NOT a Hoax! We can't afford to wait any  longer to admit it and address it!  For this reason--and for MANY others--Trump and the GOP naysayers have got to be thrown out of office!

Experts have said the region is ill-equipped to handle a direct hit from a hurricane of this magnitude.

Bryan Norcross, chief meteorologist for Miami's NBC affiliate WTVJ, told the Washington Post that South Florida is not "remotely prepared" for such a hurricane.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/john-atcheson/74947/harvey-hell-and-high-water

EXCERPT: Katrina, Sandy, Harvey. Three record-breaking storms in a dozen years. Harvey is a 1,000 year storm, Sandy had the largest diameter of any hurricane on record to strike the US, and Katrina had the largest storm surge ever recorded.

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Monday, September 04, 2017

David Brooks blames Al Gore for GOP Climate Change Denial

Because, after all...if Al Gore and Democrats said that climate change was important and needed to be addressed, it then became a Democratic principle... so, according to Brooks, what were the Republicans to do?  They were forced to be on the opposite side!!!   Brooks is what the GOP considers to be one of their "intellectuals."  With Donald Trump as President, I guess that does qualify just about anyone else in the GOP to be termed an "intellectual" in contrast to their leader. Sigh.

David Brooks Blames Al Gore For GOP Climate Change Denial


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