No secret. Just a small, very small awareness of human nature and behavior. Paying attention. Of course, having had 5 years of therapy helps as I learned to be self aware and to know myself for better and worse. Unlike many other people...
Writing geniuses for TV/Movies is hard but is generally accomplished by spending a lot of time thinking of something ingenious and having the character do it very quickly and automatically.
Writing for a true dumbass probably involves Gilligan-like coconuts to the head I'm guessing.
Or if you’re Stan Lee, writing them as distant patriarchs frustrated by those around them, constantly building hand-wavey dues ex machina gadgets they are too impatient to explain
Pretty much how it goes. I negotiate narcissistic personality types by asking myself how some members of my family and my ex husband would act. I can fairly predict their next move. They are all the same.
The guy is single-handedly giving the Left its biggest win since FDR. After this complete and utter farce of an administration the Republicans will be so radioactive you won't be able to go within a mile of them without three inches of lead shielding. It's BEAUTIFUL!!
Yep. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Left needs to organize and coalesce around a strategy and fight like the Right has done for years. The moment they are in they need to work quickly and drive policies through the house whilst they have this window.
I think you'd need to hope for a big wave of primary wipeouts and new Dem electeds pushing out most of the old guard who still think Republicans are their buddies who just need the fever to break for them to be good again. I do not see Schumer or Jeffries being willing to lock Rs out for good.
I think you are going to see it. I mean, it's a golden opportunity for fresh faces and new ideas. Schumer killed himself by sitting on his hands and - thankfully - everybody saw it. It's going to be as rough for the Democrat Old Guard as it will be for the Republicans.
Sure. But now Trump is hurting his own base. They're the ones who are going to face the brunt of his economic suicide. And we haven't even begun to talk about the other heinous stuff. Masked Gestapo agents snatching people off the streets. Firing countless essential government workers. Bad
oh i don’t disagree, i’m just not sure we’ve hit the floor of what racial resentment is willing to tolerate so long as it feels like it’s punishing The Other. e.g. Jim Crow era voting restrictions significantly impacted white voters, too, but that was fine, so long as The Other hurt worse. we’ll see
All I'm saying is the Left (which means the Democrats and those who consider themselves Left but apart from them) is now being handed a golden opportunity. The kind which I doubt they'll see again for a long time. Take it and run with it. Kick fossils like Schumer and company out and make something
True. But Trump is now killing his own base. They might talk tough on social media. But take away the thirty AI bots for every real human being and the legion of propagandists and they're nowhere near as strong as people think. How can they be? They're getting massacred the same as everyone else.
They're a problem, sure. But who are they going to convince other than the full fanatic freak core of MAGA? When Trump implodes they'll have a choice. Keep pumping out the same message and watching their numbers fall or run and live to fight another day? Ultimately it's a numbers business.
I agree, but there will be a few differences: no incumbency, no sane cabinet member willing to work with Dem House leadership to backstop the worst of what the admin does. Crisis is purely self-inflected rather than an act of God.
When he said, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters," it wasn't a hyperbolic boast, it was a statement of intent.
I do not understand why so many people fail to recognize the basic concepts of a) having power feels good b) Donald Trump likes feeling good and c) Donald Trump *does not care* if anyone who isn't him feels bad.
So many people try to deeply overcomplicate a fantastically simple creature.
He does understand tariffs. He just has to use the pretense of a penalty on foreign states (more so of a sanction) than a tax on American people (something firmly in the domain of congress). He just gets these soundbyte bromides he constantly repeats in his press circuits bc his brain is mush
“Trump’s desire to dominate others is the driving psychological force of his administration.” True. It’s also the driving psychological force of his entire life. Wonderful piece!
I agree. Trump’s actions on tariffs, both imposing and pausing them, are designed to force other countries to grovel (= negotiate). For him, groveling is always the point. If that enriches him, that’s even better. It’s just that simple.
This!!! The disordered mind of this terrifying psychopath is perfectly, succinctly expressed here. Thank you. This is what every foreign leader, every resistor, every Democrat needs to keep repeating. Donald Trump’s envy of his betters. It’s the trait he shares with his supporters.
Jamelle that really doesn't explain how he has conned millions of Americans into drinking his Kool Aid. They weren't bullied by a dumbass. Sure he knows jack shit about economics or governance. But he sure knows enough about grifting to take this whole country for one hell of a ride.
Bullies are often surrounded by other cowards who vicariously enjoy the acts of cruelty, proximity to power makes them feel that their place in the hierarchy is elevated. The core of all conservative thought is the desire to enforce hierarchy and to ensure their own place at the top of it.
The dollar just got smacked -2% while long bond yields are flying.
You NEVER see that. Not in stable economies.
That’s “banana republic” meets Wall Street rebellion energy.
Translation?
Investors are dumping both the dollar and U.S. debt.
In addition to his obsession with dominating everyone,he is devoted to the Gilded Age when bribes to political and business leaders were rampant, tariffs were high, and zero Federal taxes.
When Trump finally steps down one way or another, you may want to put up constitutional barriers to high positions against the psychologically insane, as evaluated by a college of experts rather than a parterre of enthralled congresspersons.
It's not a lust for power, though. It's a deep craving for personal strength and appreciation Trump has never known. He is mentally ill.
A lust for power would be ten years of therapy and pharma in the future, should it begin immediately. He has to recognize himself first.
Trying to divine Trump’s intent is like trying to piece together the mystery in S1 of Lost or Westworld. There’s nothing there, it’s just disconnected bullshit, you’ll just make yourself crazy.
You’ll predict Trump with 90% accuracy just asking “What would a particularly shitty 11yo boy do here.”
Years ago, a prep/military academy classmate of Trump’s said he was a bully, the person who’d, on a beach, kick down your sandcastle. He’s moved on to kicking down institutions, lives, hopes and dreams. Trade balance? Immigration? He doesn’t care about that stuff. He just wants to kick things over.
The bond vigilantes are the only people willing to punch him in the nose. But he’ll be back at it, because he’s a dumbass bully. It’s his nature to cause chaos trying to get people to look at him and bend to his will.
This is the chaos you get when you take an unhinged malignant narcissist who always had delusions that the world revolves around him, and elevate him to a position in which the world DOES revolve around his every stupid and/or malignant whim.
Thank you for sharing your secret! I wasn’t getting accurate results by reading the entrails of a sheep. Below, an Etruscan bronze, The Liver of Piacenza, with inscriptions, presumably to aid in interpreting a sheep’s liver.
Great article! TY. I think he is destabilizing America and the world like Pinky and the Brain. He only wants domin ation and for Puketin to give his approval that he is a good thug. Daddy issues. His thirst for power is absolutely insatiable.
Great piece. Many now trying to unpack the pathologies at the core of everything tRump —and the more of these analyses, the better: ‘learners’ often need to hear the same ‘facts’ many different ways, before getting It.
he didn't back down, he instituted tariffs against several targets who fought back and demonstrated he's willing to use economic threats against anyone else who tries to stand up to him
there's a reason Fox news is going with "it seems like you backed down" and that is because it helps calm markets into thinking they can control the despot
I love the Hegel reference, but for Hegel we desire to be recognized by someone we recognize in turn, a relationship of respect. Trump (and Musk) want the adulation of people they despise, in other words, fans.
I get that, but it is interesting to me that people have talked about mutual recognition as a driving force in history since Hegel, but Trump and Musk are making the case that a drive for sycophants and fans is just as powerful of a force.
Most males, when burdened with a tiny penis & parents who detested them, will often act out in ways that create “admiration & glory,” while the reality remains that they are unloved and have a small, some say withered, penis.
If aaaaanyone were2feel up2it, they could jus’watch Schiff&Others during Jan6 closing arguments. He/TheyWarnedEVERYONE tht a wrist-slap vs impeachment&conviction’d only Embolden Das🤡&’d lead2future____ ConstitutionalBS
💁aaaand HereTF #wtp are To🤬day!
1MoreTime: LOCK HIM TF UP! #Unfit #DemVoice1
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GREED MEANS EVERYTHING IS NEVER ENOUGH. THEY WILL TAKE EVERYTHING AND NEVER BE HAPPY.
This is the reason why greed across all time & religions is so evil.
Writing for a true dumbass probably involves Gilligan-like coconuts to the head I'm guessing.
So many people try to deeply overcomplicate a fantastically simple creature.
That's in whom the Executive Power is vested
You NEVER see that. Not in stable economies.
That’s “banana republic” meets Wall Street rebellion energy.
Translation?
Investors are dumping both the dollar and U.S. debt.
“We don’t trust what’s happening, and we’re out.”
Thanks!
A lust for power would be ten years of therapy and pharma in the future, should it begin immediately. He has to recognize himself first.
You’ll predict Trump with 90% accuracy just asking “What would a particularly shitty 11yo boy do here.”
I’m so, so tired of this.
The end of the Trump Trade War was near
When quite accidentally,
A moron who sneezed abruptly seized
Retreat and reversed it to victory.
.
It's an enormous strategic mistake. He doesn't have any goal other than beating you. And then doing it again. Humiliating you.
Best to fight him while he is still consolidating power than after he has.
💁aaaand HereTF #wtp are To🤬day!
1MoreTime: LOCK HIM TF UP! #Unfit #DemVoice1