lookin

It's not Trump's IQ - or lack thereof - that concerns me. As I've posted elsewhere, it's the social pathogens that Trump has been blasting out for the past nine years. His skill at dividing people, generating anger and destroying trust is enough to threaten the world's stability. America is in the forefront of the social disintegration but it can spread everywhere within minutes. Look how fast he's getting rid of the separation of powers. Our very intelligent founders spent a decade or more thinking through the ways to prevent a government takeover and Trump is currently undoing all their work. We've spent centuries building alliances throughout the world and he's throwing away allies who won't be able to trust us for perhaps another century. I shared my thoughts on the mental illness I believe Trump is causing in our society with a colleague. He's with a nearby fire department and he said their paramedics are seeing the increase in calls. They're not rescuing cats from a tree; they're trying to save people who have overdosed. A coupIe months ago I told my GP that I thought the Surgeon General should declare a mental health emergency and she said he had mentioned that earlier in the week. Of course that was Biden's Surgeon General and Trump's Surgeon General will be unlikely to admit her boss is driving everybody crazy. You could be right, though, and maybe he can't really fuck up America and maybe I'm just overreacting. I should probably have an early dinner and curl up with a good book.

No, and there won't be either. A municipal water system is designed to deliver a couple hundred gallons of drinking water to each of its residents on a daily basis. It's more than enough to put out isolated house fires across the area, but not nearly enough to control regional fires like LA had. For that, you need air tankers dipping into large bodies of water like reservoirs, lakes, and oceans. LA never ran short of those water sources and Trump's releases from Northern California had no effect.

Drat! I was hoping no one would ask.

I was sitting at a light behind a Tesla today and leaned forward to see the bumper sticker. Glad I did. 😄 I BOUGHT THIS BEFORE ELON WENT CRAZY

I was thinking Gaz-a-Lago. And right next door will be the Trump Tower of Babble . . . . . . Shouldn't that be Babel?

Well, he won't go empty-handed, that's for sure. After trying for a week or so, he now has access to the federal payment system. It's the federal government's 6 trillion dollar checking account used to pay salaries for federal workers, Social Security, Medicare, tax refunds and payments to grant recipients and government contractors - including Musk's competitors. Previously, only a small number of Treasury Department career officials had access to the system but now Musk and his 'DOGE' buddies have their hands on the account. That's thanks to Scott Bessent, Trump's newly appointed Treasury Secretary who turned over access to the personal data of millions of Americans who never imagined Elon Musk would have access to their financial and medical information. Don't get me wrong. It's possible he's not looking for a few trillion dollars to fund tax breaks for billionaires, and he may find that I've actually overpaid my taxes and Donald Trump has underpaid his. And if my Social Security checks go up and my Medicare payments come down, I'll be sure to post an update. In the meantime, here's hoping that none of these new super-users gets hacked. 🤞

I couldn't get Michelle to come Melania charged me a million bucks It should have been ten million I bet the check bounces . . . .

Thanks, and not to worry, I won't disengage from the political side. It's just that there's more to do than spend my time paddling around in the polluted waters of MAGA-dom. As @Pete1111 says, their own disfunction will cause them more problems than I ever could. President non-elect Musk is a lot more likely to sideline President-elect Trump than I am. I've posted before my belief that Trump has been steadily dripping pathogens into our social fabric and I think a counter-dose of support for those who are most damaged is a good way for me to spend my time. Glad to hear you're connecting with like-minded folks at the senior center. You've got a lot of knowledge, good insights and passion worth its weight in gold. They'll be lucky to have you. Also grateful that @Latbear4blk is supporting folks close to him who could use advice and help. He's got a long history of compassionate activism and it will definitely help to prevent and heal some of the damage. And how nice it is to hear @stevenkesslar is working with his family and friends! He's got a track record of making changes that others didn't think possible. Just what we need. During the past week, I've had some amazing conversations with local friends, who have been having conversations with their friends, and there's a lot of effort going into helping those who need it most. Much of it is in the planning stages but it's clear that compassion far outweighs indifference. I don't think we'll regret turning compassion into action, even if we have to miss the inauguration.

After Trump got elected, I started wondering what I could do. I came up with a couple of things: I wasn't going to contribute to divisiveness - there's already more than we need I would try to help folks who had more problems than I did - MAGA is looking to hurt people The first thing I started doing right away. The second has taken some time. Working with immigrants seems necessary, but I'm not sure how. President Carter's passing yesterday made things even clearer. As I thought about his life, it was obvious that he had set politics almost completely aside and chosen to spend his time helping to make life better for those who were much less fortunate. Aside from showing up at a few political functions, he left that world behind and went to places with diseases he wanted to see cured and he built houses. I think putting some distance between me and the MAGA movement will be good for my mental health - and probably theirs too. There are people in that group who have lost compassion for others. Some of them consider it a good day if they've managed to 'own the libs'. Hanging around folks with low ambition and negative outlooks won't do me any good. Jimmy Carter realized that and just walked away from the system. Although one might say that avoiding that system is itself a political statement. So I'm learning more about the immigrants in my neighborhood and what they're feeling and what they need. Those needs will probably become clearer when Homan lands. I've been talking with friends and neighbors and hope that will lead to work that needs doing. Anyone else looking for additional things to do?

Didn't they also throw him a State Dinner?

I wrote the Declaration of Independence . . . I preserved the Union I united the Country . . . I won the Nobel Peace Prize . . . . . I pardoned myself

Personally, I've never understood the rationale for giving a President the power to pardon somebody. But right there it is in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U. S. Constitution. The President ... shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of impeachment. If you want to get rid of it you'll have to amend the Constitution. In the 234 years since the Constitution was ratified, it's been amended twenty-seven times. The first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were made a year later and the last amendment was made in 1992. So it will be a pretty heavy lift to rescind the Presidential power to pardon and send Charles Kushner and Hunter Biden off to the pokey. However, that doesn't mean we can't continue to bat it around here in the Politics Forum.

Pfft! It vill be a thousand years!

According to this article, some Republican senators are weighing the choice between being primaried if they oppose Trump's nominations and losing the general election if they support his nominations. Somewhere in there might be a thought for what's best for their constituents, but so far they haven't mentioned it.

Well, as we here in the Politics Forum know all too well, talk is cheap. But here's an enterprising company that's making it easy for anyone who really does want to leave the country for the next four years. Cruise line offers ‘escape’ from Trump presidency with multi-year packages They said they came up with the plan before election results were in and it's just a happy coincidence that the cruise and the customers arrived all at the same time. For $40,000 a year, passengers can visit 425 ports of call and 140 countries without ever leaving their deck chairs. Adding in drinks and a nice tip, that would come to around two hundred grand for the four-year escape. I don't know if it's worth it or not, or who would go or how long they would float around. The company has packages for one year (Escape From Reality), two years (Mid-term Selection), three years (Anywhere But Home) and four years (Skip Forward). It's also possible that the cruise would appeal to both Trump-avoiders as well as Trump-supporters who discover that their Leader has told them some fibs too. The company has taken the precaution of playing MSNBC on one end of the ship and Fox News on the other. They'd probably have to get at least a few Trump supporters so the ship doesn't capsize. Lots of logistics to consider and then it occurred to me that the simplest solution might be to let everybody who would like to be Trump-free just stay home and put Trump on the ship for the next four years. I'm sure Melania would chip in for the ticket and perhaps even a shiver of sharks to swim alongside, just in case. Plus, the two hundred grand would be the maximum Trump or his sponsor(s) would have to pay. Once Elon Musk ramps up the Department of Government Efficiency, I'm sure he could cut a deal. In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest they share a cabin.

Personally, I don't think Trump gives a rat's ass what Rubio supports. What matters is what Trump can make him do. If Trump gets a 'former NATO supporter' like Rubio to lead Trump's battle against NATO, that's a win for Trump. It may be a loss for the U. S., it may be a loss for NATO, it may be a loss for many NATO members - present and future - but as long as it's a win for Trump, Rubio will do it or get replaced. That's what 'loyalty' means to Trump. Forget opposing ideas. He tried that the first time and he didn't like it. He may listen to Rubio for a minute or two, but Rubio will cave in or he'll be thrown out.

Worth remembering, I think, that Trump's appointments have the shelf life of a quince. My favorite so far is Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Of course he may turn out to be a regular John Foster Dulles but, laudable or lousy, his usefulness to Donald Trump peaks on the day he resigns from the Senate so Ron DeSantis can give his seat to Lara Trump. After that, 'Widdle Marco' can take his turn in the revolving door.

More than 40 monkeys escape South Carolina research facility. I sure hope they don't start posting here in the Politics Forum.

I've been wondering if Trump could find a way to sell without crashing the stock and one way (if he doesn't sell outright to Musk) would be to arrange for someone to buy 10 million shares on a day when Trump sells 10 million shares. Putin couldn't do it, but one of his oligarchs could. Bin Salman could. Musk could. It seems a fairly transactional way for Trump to sell shares without cratering the stock price. Even retail Trump followers could buy up Trump's sales, although they wouldn't be as predictable as a whale or two. In fact, when I look at some of the daily trading volumes lately, it looks as if insiders must be unloading stock already. Could Trump be one of them? He says he won't sell, but he says a lot of things. 🗣️ I'm not so sure. Even if Trump loses, as he did in 2020, he still has the ability to divide the country and erode trust between the U. S. and our traditional allies. He's been out of office for four years but his pathogenic social disruption has slowed down little, if at all. We've been accustomed to ex-presidents who fade away when they lose elections but Trump seems to find new ways to keep us fighting among ourselves. And that's got to be useful to Putin.

Well, if DJT's price really is an indicator of Trump's electability - and I have no reason to doubt it - then Trump is 22% less electable today than he was yesterday. And after-hours trading shows he's another 5% less electable than at the market close. Based on today's valuation, Trump Media is worth $8 billion. I was surprised to learn that Musk's X now has an estimated market cap of only $9 billion, down 80% from the $44 billion he paid for Twitter. I don't know what either company would actually sell for, but I continue to believe that Trump's best bet would be to unload find a buyer for Trump Media and the ideal pigeon candidate would seem to be Musk. Perhaps they're waiting until after the election when Trump could be President and Musk could be the Secretary of Efficiency. If they could do for the GDP what they've done for their media companies, they could solve immigration too. We'd have millions of folks lined up at the borders waiting to get out.

If you believe that authoritarian followers make up most of Trump's base, which I do, and if you understand authoritarian followers, which I think I do, it explains much of the otherwise puzzling loyalty of Trump's base. Authoritarian followers need a leader. It doesn't matter what Trump does (as he himself has said), they will stick to him until another leader comes along that they can attach to. They will vote against their own interests rather than give up their leader. I don't think they'll magically change just because someone points out the failures of their leader. They've already taken that into account. We can despair that they're so illogical, we can tell them what lies in store for them, and/or we can try to reason with them, but that's not how authoritarian followers work. They need a leader to give them the simple answers they need to manage their fear of 'the other'. Trump is their leader and they will not give him up until there's someone else to take his place. They will not go without someone to follow. At least that's how I see it, and it's the one explanation that makes all the pieces fit together - for me anyway. My own hope is that, while they may stay with Trump as their personal leader, they won't necessarily turn out to vote. Trump has told them for years that elections are 'rigged' and that votes aren't reliable. He has also held out the threat that he will claim the presidency even if he loses the vote. I doubt there are many Democrats who believe their votes don't matter and, with any luck, that will tip the scales. 🤞

Cambridge Analytica gave me my first insight into how the manipulation was actually done and led to just enough voters in just the right precincts casting their votes for Trump in 2016, and that got him just enough Electoral College votes to win the Presidency. It claimed to possess detailed profiles on 230 million American voters based on up to 5,000 data points, everything from where you live to whether you own a car, your shopping habits and voting record, the medications you take, your religious affiliation, and the TV shows you watch. This data is available to anyone with deep pockets. But Cambridge professed to bring a unique approach to the microtargeting techniques that have become de rigueur in politics. It promised to couple consumer information with psychological data, harvested from social-media platforms and its own in-house survey research, to group voters by personality type, pegging them as agreeable or neurotic, confrontational or conciliatory, leaders or followers. It would then target these groups with specially tailored images and messages, delivered via Facebook ads, glossy mailers, or in-person interactions. I saw a couple of these ads on the internet once and they were aimed directly at the beliefs and fears of their target audience, which may have been only a handful of people. But they were likely voters and they were in the precincts that Trump needed to win. The ads were deleted from the internet soon after they were delivered to their targets. It was pure manipulation without leaving many tracks. Steve Bannon is a special case. I recall him saying clearly that he wanted to tear down 'the system'. He didn't say what he wanted to replace it with. He just wanted to tear it down. And when you take such direct and destructive aim at the bonds that underpin our society, that's when I think you've gone beyond 'free speech' or 'politics' and you've moved into pathogenic behavior. I think society has a need and a right to protect itself from these assaults.

Not in the least! You've had Trump's number from the get-go. And I agree with you that, even if Trump loses, we will still be vulnerable to the pathogens that come out of his mouth every time he opens it. We can dismiss it as 'just politics' or 'free speech' but the damage it has done to both individuals and to society as a whole has been, in my opinion, destabilizing to the point of fracture. If he loses the election, he'll continue to tear at the social bonds that have kept us united to this point. And I'd like to see us address the past damage and the potential for future damage as a public health issue. We've tackled nationwide physical health issues in the past and I'd like to see us tackle nationwide mental health issues with the same urgency. In the meantime, I'll encourage each one of us to pay attention to what is entering our minds, how we feel about it and what we do with those feelings. If I find myself passing along social pathogens, I become part of the problem. And that's not good for my mental health or anyone else's. At least, that's how I've got it figured out so far.

Ever since 2016 when Trump rode down the escalator and started his rant about Muslims and immigrants, I realized that he was a voice dedicated to causing division and not unity. The best analogy I could think of was that he was spreading pathogens without regard for those who would catch the social illness he was causing. I’ve posted about this over the years and have wondered why the analogy has not become mainstream. There are certainly enough examples of damage to individuals and to social groups, including our nation and the democracy which has bound us together for 250 years. While Trump is still, in my opinion, the super-spreader, there are many around him who have picked up the disease and passed it on to those around them and, over time, throughout the nation and abroad. It has mystified me that we often seem to be sleepwalking through a plague that is every bit as damaging to our species as typhoid, HIV and Covid. Even more damaging when you realize we don’t have any vaccines against a social plague. To further explore the analogy between a physical plague and a social plague, I went back to the case of Typhoid Mary, a cook in the New York City area in the early 1900’s, and an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever. At the time, there was little awareness that someone could carry and pass along typhoid germs without showing any symptoms herself. It took a private investigator to track down several families who had been infected by typhus and learn that they had all hired Mary Mallon as a cook shortly before they became ill. When she was contacted by the investigator, she refused to give urine and stool samples and denied that she could have passed on the disease to others. The New York City Health Department stepped in, had her arrested as a public health threat, and forced her to provide samples. They determined that she was loaded with typhus germs and kept her confined for nearly three years. There was a lot of disagreement about the way she was treated and she was eventually released, after promising she would no longer work as a cook. She soon realized she could make $50 a month as a cook and only $20 a month as a maid, so went back to cooking again. Of course, more infections and deaths followed her around and she was once again arrested and put into quarantine for the rest of her life. I shared this analogy with a friend last week and he asked about conditions back in the early 1900’s versus today. He hit the nail on the head and we discussed the fact that no one really understood that an apparently healthy carrier could pass on pathogens to others causing sickness and death. So it was difficult to trace the illnesses back to an individual asymptomatic carrier and, even once that had happened, there were few laws in place to remove the source of the infections. Today we’ve got that knowledge, along with the tools to stop the spread of pathogens. At least that’s true for biological pathogens. But when it comes to social pathogens that can cause social disease among a broad segment of the population, we’re right back to where we were more than a century ago. I don’t think we’ve yet documented the types and amounts of social damage that can be done by spreading divisiveness, fear, anger, and hatred throughout our society. We can see the results all around us and many of us will experience a decline in social bonds as our brains fill up with negative feelings and disconnection from large parts of our society. We could easily make a case that this decline in social health ends up in a world war. We’ve often considered that the human species could be wiped out by a physical plague but, to me anyway, it seems just as likely that we could be wiped out by a social plague. The role of social media seems abundantly clear in this process. It gives one antisocial individual the opportunity to infect millions of others in less than a minute. And the algorithms are tuned so that the antisocial pathogens are transmitted most efficiently to those who are vulnerable to a message of divisiveness. It’s the equivalent of setting up a Typhoid Mary kissing booth in every home connected to the internet. I think the analogy also extends to the lack of awareness and the lack of tools available to New York City doctors dealing with typhus a century ago compared with the lack of awareness and lack of tools we have today in dealing with the spread of social illness. Just as Typhoid Mary complained that she wasn’t doing anything wrong and that she had the right to cook for anyone who would hire her, we have social disruptors complaining that they’re not doing anything wrong and that the First Amendment gives them the right to say anything they want, no matter how many people they infect and no matter how damaging it is to our society. Mary Mallon took her first cooking job and began to infect her employers’ families in 1900. She was tracked down and written up in 1907. She was first quarantined between 1907 and 1910. She was released and continued to cook and infect others for eight more years until she was again tracked down and placed in quarantine until her death twenty-three years later. Donald Trump came down his escalator in 2016 and began spreading pathogens when he got to the bottom and faced the cameras. I believe he’s been a superspreader in the eight years since. I wish I knew when the public health experts will start including social pathogens in their battle against physical pathogens. Until we develop a mental immune system, or a herd immunity, and/or some kind of vaccine against social pathogens, I guess it will be up to us as individuals to be aware of what kind of ideas we let enter our brains and damage us. To those already infected, it will be difficult to stop them from spreading the damage simply because passing these social pathogens along is part of the illness. I don’t know if anyone will bother reading this lengthy post, or - inshallah - responding with their own ideas. But it sure helped me get a few thoughts together. Please consider it a social sneeze, behind a mask of course and on my way to wash up.