Does Trump Need Immediate Electro-shock Therapy? Absolutely!

 

The perfect treatment for Donald Trump would be ECT, as Dr. Pat Bannister used to order for paranoid schizophrenics in the 1970s.

That Trump is a wackjob, screwball and basket case is by now abundantly clear even to the most purblind follower.  (At least with an I.Q. over 90.)  Especially after his latest outbursts of drivel Sunday when he suggested even his own DOJ and the FBI could be in on his imaginary voter fraud conspiracy.  

In his first TV interview since the election, this hare-brained, psychotic sore loser casually suggested to Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo that the Justice Department and the FBI might have been part of a broad conspiracy to rig the election.   

In the real world of objective events, former cyber security chief Christopher Krebs affirmed on '60 Minutes' that the Nov. 3 general election was "the most secure in American history", e.g.

The Cybersecurity 202: Chris Krebs fiercely defends election while President Trump’s attacks on it get …

 

As he clearly pointed out to CBS' Scott Pelley:  

"I have confidence in the security of this election because I know the work that we've done for four years in support of our state and local partners. I know the work that the intelligence community has done, the Department of Defense has done, that the FBI has done, that my team has done. I know that these systems are more secure. I know based on what we have seen that any attacks on the election were not successful."

 This pathetic exhibition of Trump's on FOX follows his equally pathetic display on Saturday while belching paranoid conspiracy claptrap from a  "kiddies' table"', e.g. 

Not to mention 30-odd court losses including on Friday. Then the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals denied a (mail)  ballot challenge, asserting the Trump campaign's case "lacked proof and had no merit" (WSJ today, p. A5).  This preceding the end of the Wisconsin recount on Sunday which showed Biden picked up even more votes over Trump.  What was the definition of insanity offered by Einstein?  Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. 

The larger problem is the man is clearly out of his head to the extent of being unable to run the country on account of his obsessive delusions.  Hence woefully unfit to attend to the raging pandemic.  He is, in effect, a danger not only to himself but to the nation at large and needs an intervention.  A psycho-therapeutic one, to use my psychology niece Shayl's lingo.      And the only way to bring him back to reality is to apply electro-convulsive (shock) therapy in her opinion (and mine).   

ECT as it's called is the "go to" intervention for severe detachment from reality such as Dotard demonstrates, i.e.

• Trump's Continued Living In His Own Reality - As ...

 While it isn't a cure, its steady and daily application to Trump could at least get him relatively stable and functional for the remaining lame duck time in office.  At the very least, short circuiting any fever dream to blow the planet up in retribution for the loss he refuses to accept, e.g.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj9M34DzAKo&t=21s

See Also:

Donald Trump

Expert Breaks down the Ultimate Goal of Trump’s ‘Classic Russian-style Disinformation Campaign’

by Elizabeth Preza | November 30, 2020 - 8:02am | permalink

— from Alternet

AND:

Donald Trump

Shoving Donald Trump Out the Oval Office Door

by Michael Winship | November 29, 2020 - 6:37am | permalink

How Really "Earth -like" Is The Newly Discovered Planet Kepler 186f?

 

    Artist concept of the planet Kepler 186f in the constellation Cygnus, 500 light years away.

Since the Kepler mission was launched in 2009 to monitor over 150,000 stars for signs of exoplanets, the discoveries have come fast and furious, e.g.

• Is Kepler 452b Really A "Cousin" Of Earth?

And now it appears that after crunching Kepler's data for two years  a team of 44 astronomers led by Steve Bryson of the Ames NASA research  facility - may have arrived at the definitive answer to the question: How many of the billions of exoplanets in the Milky Way are actually habitable?    What that means is basically that the planet or planets occur in a "Goldilocks" zone around the target star - such that the environment is warm enough to retain liquid water. 

Thus far, the Ames team has calculated that at least one-third - and possibly as many as 90 percent of stars- similar in mass and brightness to our Sun -  have planets like Earth in their habitable zones. (The range reflects the variation in  confidence in the researchers' methods of detection and their attendant assumptions).

If then there are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, of which 4 billion are defined as "Sun-like" - then we are talking of a lot of Earth- like planets. Any of which could support life of some kind.  If half of these planets met the habitable zone threshold we are looking at two billion worlds like our own.  But even if only 7 percent of those Sun-like stars have habitable planets we are looking at as many as 300 million "Earths" - most with potential life forms. 

This brings up the question of what the average distance might be between such planets.  The Ames team calculated the nearest such planet is about 20 light years distant.  Also there should be four such planets within 30 light years or so from the Sun. 

  Of particular attention now is the first Earth-sized  planet discovered in the habitable zone by Kepler, designated Kepler 186f, about 500 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.   The "Earth -sized" aspect is important, because if a planet is a giant like Jupiter and in the habitable zone, it still wouldn't likely support life because the surface gravity is too high.

In the case of Kepler 186f, we are looking at a world with  about 1.11 times the radius of Earth.  So even if the interior was rocky and roughly the density of our Earth, the surface g -value would not be too terribly great.   We also know the planet orbits its central  M-type star  in about 130 days.  Using Kepler's harmonic law:   

Given the cited distance (»  0.40 AU) and the fact that the central star in the 186 system has a temperature of 3755 K, we can determine the radiant energy  received on the planet (or "solar constant") would be roughly one-third of that for Earth. So if Earth receives 1360 W/ m²  then Kepler 186f would receive about 450 W/ m²   .  In other words, we are talking about a fairly chilly planet, even at its equator.   

One of the more down notes of the project is that:  "The Kepler mission didn't detect many (arguably any) true Earth analogues, i.e. planets with the same radius of Earth and orbiting at the same period - and hence receiving the same amount of light."   

This,  according to an email  to the media from David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.  Indeed, even the distance from the star cited of 0.40 AU is open to skepticism, being more likely the distance at perihelion. Because when one applies the Kepler 3rd or harmonic law, e.g.

(P1/ P2)² = k(a1/ a2)³
 

One obtains for a1,  the semi-major axis (mean distance ) of the planet from its star:

P1 = (129.9/365.25) yr. = 0.353 yr.

a1 = {[P1]²}^1/3 = [(0.353)²]^1/3

a1 = 0.5 AU

This  actually turns out to be just beyond the computed habitable zone terminating at 0.46 AU (according to the Wikipedia entry, though noting the range is a "conservative one")   It would certainly be good if one of the Ames team could explain the discrepancy!   In the meantime, we need to apply a solid dose of skepticism to any of the Kepler results we see and any extrapolations from them.  

As Natalie Batalha, quoted in a recent press account in The Denver Post  (Nov. 29, p. 18A) put it :

"We don't yet have any planet candidates that are exact analogues of the Earth in terms of size, orbit or star type." 

As a result, and left unsaid, is that the research team has had to extrapolate data from the planets they did observe.  Is this good enough?  Time will tell, but at this stage I'd say we have to understand the limits of the Kepler project and not let expectations run ahead of the actual data.

Solutions To Fourier Series Problems

 1) Multiplying :

f(x)  =  å^¥ _{n = 1}   { a _n  cos npx/ L   +   b _n  sin npx/ L}  

By  sin  mpx/ L  and integrating  from -L to L we get:

ò ^L_-L   f(x) (cos mpx/ L) dx   =  A ò ^L_-L   (cos mpx/ L) dx   +

å^¥ _{n = 1}   [ a _n  ò ^L_-L   cos mpx/ L)( cos npx/ L) dx +  

b _m  ò ^L_-L   (cos mpx/ L)( sin npx/ L)dx ]

=   b _m  L   

Thus:   b _m  = 1/L  ò ^L_-L   f(x) (sin mpx/ L) dx       for m = 1, 2, 3... 

 (2) We let x = h = 0, then:  a _o  = 1,   a _n  = 0,  

b _n  = {1/ p  (0)  =   0   (n even)

          { 2/ n p           (n odd)    

Then for the general representation of the Fourier series we get:

f(x) =  a _o  / 2    +   å^¥ _{n = 1}    a _n  cos nx   +   b _n  sin nx

To obtain specific series result we substitute values, i.e.

  a _o  / 2    +   å^¥ _{n = 1}    a _n  cos nx   +   b _n  sin nx  = 

 1/2 +   å _{n = odd}    2/ n p  (sin nx}    But sin nx = 0 at x = 0

Therefore:  At jump point series =   1/2 

Thus f(0) = 1 but Fourier series = 1/2

(3)  The graph of the function is shown below:

(a) The period = 2L  = 10 and L = 5. We choose the interval c to c + 2L as -5 to 5, so that c = -5.  Then we can write:

 a _n  = 1/L   ò ^c+2L_c   f(x) (cos npx/ L) dx   =  1/5 ò ⁵_-5 f(x) (cos npx/ 5) dx

a _n  =  1/5 {ò ⁰_-5 f(0) (cos npx/ 5) dx +  ò ⁵₀ f(3) (cos npx/ 5) dx} 

=  3/5 {ò ⁵₀  (cos npx/ 5) dx}  =  3/5 [5 /np   sin npx/ 5 ]⁵₀    if n ≠  0

If n = 0 then a _n  = a _o  =  3/5 ò ⁵₀  cos (0)px/ 5) dx =  3/5 ò ⁵₀   dx =  3

Further:    b _n  = 1/L   ò ^{c+ 2L}_c   f(x) (sin npx/ L) dx  = 1/5 ò ⁵_-5 f(x) (sin npx/ 5) dx

b _n  =  1/5 {ò ⁰_-5 f(0) (sin  npx/ 5) dx +  ò ⁵₀ f(3) (sin  npx/ 5) dx} 

b _n  =  3/5 ò ⁵₀  sin  npx/ 5 dx  =    3/5 [5 /np   cos npx/ 5 ]⁵₀    

b _n    =   3(1  -  cos  np )/  np

(c)  The  corresponding Fourier series is written:

 a _o  / 2    +   å^¥ _{n = 1}    (a _n  cos npx/ L   +   b _n  sin  npx / L)   

=  3/2 +   å^¥ _{n = 1}    3(1  -  cos  np )/  np  (sin  npx/ 5)  =

3/2 +  6/p   (sin  px/ 5   +   1/3 sin  3px/ 5  +  1/5 sin  5px/ 5  +  .....)

Trump's Continued Living In His Own Reality - As Revealed In His Presser Yesterday - Bodes Ill For Us All

 

             "I will blow up the world if I can't be President of the U.S.  in it!"

"A man who could insist that it got sunny the moment he started his inaugural address- when we all saw the rain falling...is the kind of man who could convince himself that it would be fine to start a nuclear war, because of course he would survive the retaliatory attack  - and so would his family - and whatever people he thinks are his friends or fans". - Keith Olbermann, 'Trump Is F*cking Crazy', p. 221.    

We all knew that Donald Trump would react badly to defeat. But his refusal to concede, the destructiveness of his ongoing temper tantrum and his obsession with the belief he actually won, ought to be of concern to all. Especially as this misfit inhabiting his own reality has two more months to wreak havoc if his reality fails to conform with the outward objective one.  And in his first presser since the election yesterday, saying ominously:  "Yeah, I will leave but a lot of things can happen between now and January 20th!"

Such as what things? The Turd didn't say but one can only imagine. Keith Olbermann in his above -cited quote, in his book 'Trump Is F*cking Crazy (This is Not A Joke'), nailed this orange miscreant's pathology and how it translates into worry for every living human in this time.  Because we have a misfit totally detached from objective reality - living in his own - who also has control over the nuclear codes.

When I posed a hypothetical to my  Psychology post-doc niece Shayl her response was chilling, indeed terrifying. I asked what if a person of power  - say a president- lived in a reality in which he totally believed he won an election, a 2nd term- but which he really had lost in the objective reality. And so would soon be displaced from power. Would there be any consequences if and when the actual reality broke through  (say with Electoral College certification) into his reality?  She replied: "Well, if he only believes his reality and that the other outer one is genuinely false, he would feel compelled to destroy it. For a sitting president the most expeditious way would be to launch a nuclear war - so as to destroy the reality he refuses to accept."

In other words, this would comport with Olbermann's conjecture, and hence be analogous to what the Greg Stillson president  character did  in 'The Dead Zone'. See e.g.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj9M34DzAKo&t=21s

Olbermann explored Trump's pathology of certain belief in his own alternate reality in his book, writing - as early as January 23, 2017:  

"Trump has proved that not only will he lie to America about anything big or small, but just as important he will lie to himself about anything big or small. And more troubling yet, he will compel men weaker than even himself to lie on his behalf about anything big or small."

Thereby foreseeing our current situation when so many Republican traitors have promoted and enabled his claptrap that he may have really won and the post- election chaos and specious legal challenges need to continue.  This as polarization and enmity mount as well as loss of faith in the electoral process.  Olbermann again:

"Worst of all, the lies will convince some people, and they will convince one especially dangerous person in particular: himself.  Because what Trump does not believe cannot be true. And this way lies madness and every evil great and small.  Including the end of this country in a literal sense - and perhaps the end of civilization because like somebody living in a completely  dreamlike state he will not believe the outcome of any of his actions could be failure or disaster or something harmful to himself."

Hence, the spectacle we beheld yesterday at his first "press conference" in weeks, where he belched "I know for a fact Joe Biden could not have gotten 80 million votes!"    With CBS' Ben Tracy this morning, after the clip played, asserting: "In fact Biden did get more than 80 million votes but Trump refuses to accept that reality."   So yeah, in Trump's misshapen reality that never happened.  Also, in his reality his victory  was stolen from him, confirmed when he squawked yesterday:  "So the numbers are corrupt, they're all rigged and the people know it!"  Despite his own cyber security chief (Chris Krebs) asserting  in THIS reality - shared by the sane - that it was among the most secure elections ever (for which truth he was fired by tweet).

A day earlier this psychotic sore loser Dotard yelped at a Repub event in Gettysburg: "We have to turn the election over!"

Thereby with one sentence, skewering Holman Jenkins' Jr's latest bilge spouted in his Wednesday WSJ column: "Meanwhile the media fibs slightly when it accuses Trump of trying to 'overturn the election'." 

But it can't be a 'fib' if Trump openly barks it out, as he did to the Reeptard conspiracy wackos assembled in Gettysburg.  Besides, in his heart Trump believes the election can be overturned because he believes - again in his reality - that he won and was gypped out of it by a clever and corrupt "rigging".  (Despite over 30 cases brought by his clown crew of lawyers, all but one of which has been tossed out -- with one specious Pennsylvania case pending.)

Even so, it’s very unlikely that Trump will manage to overturn the election results. But he’s doing all he can to wreck this nation   "salt its soil" -  on his way out, in ways large and small. Among other things, littering the federal agencies with his poison toad lackeys - often in civil servant positions  - that will be difficult to root out. Also, replacing top defense and Intel personnel with his own goons and yes men.  But this is only the beginning and we still cannot rule out that he won't do something even more drastic and destructive in the next 8 weeks. That is if the outer reality of his election loss finally comes crashing into his false reality that he won - say when the electoral votes are finally certified in the meeting of the Electoral College, December 14.   

All this triggering the question from our Dutch friend, Frans: "If Trump was to get the nuclear codes and punch them in to prevent a world with Biden from materializing who's to stop him?"  We sought to reassure Frans in our Zoom session, and Janice said she didn't believe he'd go that far.  I said:  "I believe he's watched every second by hidden cameras and if they caught anything like that an immediate intervention from the CIA, NSA would be initiated."   

Of course, I didn't know any such thing would transpire. It was purely wishful thinking, but I hoped to hell it was so!  Olbermann himself lets the reader know the folly that ensues if one really subscribes to his or her own reality, starting with Trump (p.222): 

"At the CIA Trump told the agents he has a 'running war with the media'.  He does not have a running war with the media. He has a running war with reality. His reality is what he says it is.    You try alternative reality or facts in your life for one hour: drive on whichever side of the road you want, let your kids play with the stove and power tools, write checks against money you don't have. Just see how all that goes."   

Bingo! And yet Trump is doing - has done - the equivalent of all that and more.  Most prescient are Olbermann's words at the end of his chapter: 

"We will all be lucky to survive having had him in charge.  But even if we do survive, it will still be the greatest crisis of our lives. All our lives."

And bear in mind this was written in January 2017, three years before the coronavrius was even heard of, and Trump's response to it.  Is there an even more terrifying crisis awaiting us? We don't know, only that Trump promised "a lot can happen between now and the 20th!"

See Also:

20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump’s quest to overturn the election

Excerpt:

"The facts were indisputable: President Trump had lost.

But Trump refused to see it that way. Sequestered in the White House and brooding out of public view after his election defeat, rageful and at times delirious in a torrent of private conversations, Trump was, in the telling of one close adviser, like “Mad King George, muttering, ‘I won. I won. I won.’ ”

AND:

Donald Trump

Trump Is Burning down Everything He Can on the Way Out

by Joan McCarter | November 25, 2020 - 9:04am | permalink

— from Daily Kos

The sore loser impeached squatter in the Oval Office is never going to concede the election, but he will leave. And he's going to douse everything with kerosene and light a match on his way out. That's by doing things like putting a completely unqualified loyalist and conspiracy theory proponents on the transition team for a department as critical as Defense.

It also means further isolating the U.S. by withdrawing from critical arms control agreements. The U.S. officially withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty on Monday, a post-Soviet international agreement that allowed the participating countries—in particular the U.S. and Russia—to conduct surveillance flights over each other's countries. Not only is Trump officially withdrawing us from the treaty, he's getting rid of the U.S. Air Force planes that have been used for nearly 30 years to conduce the surveillance.

Donald Trump

When They Had to Kill the King. Learnings for the Post-Trump Age.

by Robert Freeman | November 25, 2020 - 7:55am | permalink

And:

Donald Trump

#DiaperDon Goes on Anti-Twitter Tangent after Users Mock Him for Thanksgiving Temper Tantrum at 'Kids Table

And:

Donald Trump

Is Trump's No Concession Endgame a "Stab-in-the-Back" Gambit Which Helped Bring the Nazis to Power?

by Miles Mogulescu | November 25, 2020 - 7:12am | permalink

AND:

The Trump Administration | Donald Trump

The Paranoid Style of American Politics Is Alive and Well With Team Trump’s Conspiratorial Contortions