Trump Derangement Syndrome "The Next Pandemic"? Don't Make Me Laugh!

"Da Donald can do no wrong! He da man! It da left dat derange!"

One of the tropes still circulating amongst the Trumpkins is that the Left is hysterical and over-reacting to their beloved, brain dead buffoon - manifesting in TDS or "Trump Derangement Syndrome".  In the fantasies of these Right wing pundit knuckle draggers, most of the Left  as well as Democrats are in the throes of TDS and now even going through "five stages".  So writes the latest imp to make such a claim, Joseph Epstein (WSJ, July 10, p. A17,  'The Next Pandemic: Trump Derangement Syndrome' )

  This balmy bozo-  because that's precisely what Epstein is-   given  his reputation for sloppy thinking and misleading  journalism precedes him, e.g.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/22/when-misleading-op-ed-wall-street-journal-irks-academics-its-time-fact-check-faculty


Trots out this latest codswallop as all Trump's poll  numbers are sinking, even eroding among his  base.  This has incited them to flail and render any kind of crappola to try to convince us it's all the Dems' fault,  or else that this animated pustule isn't as degenerate as we know he is.  Anyway in his WSJ op-ed  Epstein confabulates five "stages" as integral to the TDS   onset  and I cite these below:

Stage (1) The "afflicted decides before 2016 that Trump has serious, even strenuous character flaws that disqualified him from the presidency or any other public office".

Well, let's see. How about advocating pussy grabbing (in that 2005 'Access Hollywood' tape with Billy Bush)  as well as assaults on various women including at Miss Universe pageants?  One of the women  (Summer Vernos)  even brought a lawsuit after Trump "thrust his genitals at her."  Sounds disqualifying enough to me and I will take Summer at her word 1 million times before the lying Trump.  (Who's now amassed over 16,000 lies according to the running WaPo tally over the last 3 1/2 years.)

Stage (2) "One dwells upon Donald Trump's looks", the hairdo and golf apparel.

Actually, I could care less about this bloated buffoon's looks.. But I do castigate the orange imp for how he's consistently disparaged the appearance of women,   e.g.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-worst-insults-toward-women-2018-10


whether calling 2016 Reep candidate Carly Fiorina and  the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels "Horseface,"  or calling other women "sluts", "dogs" or worse.  All of these examples say more about this reprobate's basic character than anything any critic could say about his appearance.   Knowing that, it's incredible to me Epstein would even go there.

Stage (3)  "One is ready to believe anything- pernicious or salacious- about Mr. Trump - and to reject anything that might be good for the country."

Oh, oh, you mean like Stormy Daniels taking  the Donald across her knee and spanking him with a copy of FORBES?   E.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2018/01/why-do-white-evangelicals-worship.html


Wherein we learn:

The spanking was revealed in a string of emails.  Subsequently,  Mother Jones basically confirmed all the sordid details that Daniels described from her 2006 encounters  For reference, see:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/stormy-daniels-trump-spanking-forbes-and-shark-week.html

"According  to a trove of  2009 emails exchanged between political operatives (advising Daniels at the time on a possible political campaign), the adult film actress claimed that her affair with Trump included spanking him with a copy of Forbes.  By one account,  a political consultant to Andrea Dubé related in an email that:

"He made her sit with him for three hours watching Shark Week. Another time he had her spank him with a Forbes magazine," 

The magazine used evidently had Dotard's  face on the cover which no doubt provides endless material for any Freudian school psychiatrists and psychologists. "

Stormy having sex with this turd then whacking his fat ass?  Sounds pretty perverse - and convincing to me. Not to mention allowing Russian prostitutes to urinate all over him in a Moscow hotel while the Miss Universe pageant was held in Moscow in 2013.  All integrated into the dossier prepared by Christopher Steele - which the Right's  nitwits now try to disparage.

According to an earlier (2017)  AP report in the Denver Post ( 'Ex Spy Regarded as Dependable') :

"Three British intelligence agents interviewed by the Associated Press described Steele as well regarded in the intelligence community, with excellent Russian skills and high level sources."

According to one Financial Times account, Steele was the "UK intelligence expert on Russia".

James Nixey, the head of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program, informed the AP that sections of the dossier document created by Steele "read exactly as reports from the secret services"

In other words, professional through and through, no exaggerations and no fillers that hadn't been  sourced.  So the Trumpkins and their hacks like Epstein,  Dan Henninger,  Holman Jenkins Jr. or Kim Strassel can squawk all they want about the "corrupt Steele dossier"  but I will make a Vegas bet on its veracity any day before anything coming out of Trump's piehole. Or that of his enablers and acolytes.

Epstein then inserts the example of TDS "afflicted" going so low and over the edge as to aver "he secretly admires King Jong Un's wardrobe"".   Actually, I  was more concerned with how he's openly professed love for the North Korean tyrant, i.e after saying numerous times he's "in love" with Kim.  And Kim sent him a "love letter."  These are all well documented, not fantasies or ideations.

Stage (4) "One imputes evil to Mr. Trump."

Actually, as an atheist I am averse to appending the term "evil" to anyone.  Having said that,  I do maintain a human can over time reach such a level of moral turpitude and character degradation he can at least asymptotically approach evil.  That is Trump, as when he had  migrant children locked up in cages, separated them from their parents.  Also, when he equated Charlottesville (2017) protesters with the Nazis and white nationalist scum who attacked them, including killing one woman (Heather Heyer).  Trump  claiming there were "some very fine people" on both sides. No, only on one!  As Nicole Wallace put it at the time:

"There are not two sides to this. There are hideous, hateful enemies of America, enemies of freedom, and there were people truly exercising their free speech."

Stage (5)  "One is weighted down with all the symptoms of the first four stages but brings to them an added choleric intensity of anger."

If Eppie means anger at the way Dotard has totally fucked up the response to the coronavirus so that over 130,000 if our fellow citizens are now dead- he has it right!  Or how Trump has not  only botched the initial U.S. response but is now actively inciting an even larger death toll by pushing for a premature opening of schools.  As Michelle Goldberg wrote(NY Times, 'Trump Threatens To Turn Pandemic Schooling Into Culture War'):


"Donald Trump has approached the extraordinarily complex challenge of educating children during a pandemic just as he’s approached most other matters of governing: with bullying, bluster and propaganda."

Reinforcing what Chris Hayes' timely take two nights ago:

"Also today he said he disagreed with the CDC guidelines for opening the schools. So he's now pushing the CDC to override their own guidelines.

So if I've got that right, we don't want the guidance of the nation's top health agency on how to stay safe in a pandemic to be the reason why we don't send our kids to school,  while we're suffering from the worst outbreak in the world.  So the president will tell them to change the guidance.  And it's not the first time he's done that.  He did it back in April and May when he didn't like the CDC reopening guidance for business.  He even pressured governors to ignore that guidance, just like he pushed the CDC to change their guidance for reopening churches. And now he's not happy with the CDC guidance on schools.

So what do you think is going to happen? Look, the last person in the world you can trust right now with the safety of your kids is Donald Trump."

 Epstein ends by saying those he fancies suffering from TDS can end the malady and "they don't even have to put on a mask" only "turn off the television set."  

Yeah, but see, Eppie, Trump will find a way to get back into our attention by again insinuating himself in some other outrageous way, whether via a new, demented executive order - maybe trying to fire Anthony Fauci, or threatening to send active military against Black Lives Matter protesters.

Methinks Eppie has got the wrong derangement syndrome and the wrong cast of victims who are afflicted.  

The great Dem Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once described ever lowered thresholds for accepting deviant and disreputable behavior in terms of "defining deviancy down."  With Epstein's article on a "TDS pandemic"  we now see just how low Trump's media apparatchiks are prepared to go to justify his deviancy.

Update:  We can now add WSJ columnist Barton Swaim to the stable of Trump defenders and  acolytes determined to 'define deviancy down' for their master.  This after his op-ed piece today ('Will Democrats Accept A Trump Victory', p. A13), writing:

"The president now seems likely to lose. But if he wins may I suggest an alternative theory (to stealing the election)?   A Trump victory in November will have nothing to do with the Russians, the Chinese,  the coronavirus or 'voter suppression'.

It will have everything to do with Democrats' foul behavior over the previous four years."

Democrats' foul behavior?  Is Swaim living on an alternate Earth, or simply blind and fucking nuts?  Did Dems lock migrant kids - often as young as two or three- in cages and separate them from their parents:? Did Dems side with marching Nazis and KKK'ers in Charlottesville?  Did Dems appoint a toady to foul any concept of justice and turn the DOJ into Trump's personal protectors?  Did Dems seek help from a foreign nation (Ukraine)  to take out his political opponent? Thereby violating his oath of office by using it for personal gain?  Did the Dems call the pandemic a 'hoax' for two weeks, wasting valuable time to control the virus, then upend CDC guidelines while also failing to organize a national response? Instead letting states compete with  each other for personal protective gear as is happening again now? Did Dems embrace the notion that masks are for 'elites'  - thereby setting the unmasked against the masked and enabling the virus to spread?

The answer to all the above is 'NO!' - leaving Trump as the only foul entity to be singled out.  As well as now Swaim in his perverse effort to defend him. And no, there is no way in hell we will accept a Trump election win, after the way this demented orange maggot has sought to undermine mail ballots-- which  elimination even he admitted would be the "only way to win".  


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And:

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Excerpt:

"Think about all that has happened since April 5. That was before security forces attacked peaceful protesters  in Lafayette Square so that Trump could stage a bizarre photo-op. 

Before he pushed to send the armed forces into the streets. Before he embraced white  power and called Black Lives Matter a  symbol of hate.  Before he vowed to veto the defense authorization bill to prevent the renaming of military bases named after Confederate generals. Before he used the novel coronavirus as an excuse to  shut down immigration and threatened to revoke  the visas of college students unable to attend classes in the fall. 

Before he ignored reports that a Russian intelligence unit had placed a bounty  on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Before he moved to pull out of the World Health Organization."

• Cartoon: Trump's monuments

WSJ's 'Deep State' Conspiracy Buffoons Flail While Trying To Defend Barr Interfering In Flynn Case

"Ummmm....let's see, what more dopey crap can I write as a proper cockroach on the Wall Street Journal's op-ed staff? Oh yeah, let me go after Mueller, Emmet Sullivan and unmasking Flynn again!"

"Trump and his followers have been routinely advocating the jailing of Trump's political opponents without an investigation, criminal charges, trial or conviction by a jury of their peers. This is the way fascist dictators dispose of their political opposition."=    Lucian K. Truscott IV, smirkingchimp.com 


The hysteria about Michael Flynn and his "unmasking"  - displayed openly in the WSJ's op-ed pages the past week -  provides a graphic insight into full blown collective madness. (So one can grasp why all these WSJ op-ed stooges are likely on opioids or MJ candy). Start off with Dan Henninger ('The Flynn Debuachery', May 14, p. A13)   who insists "a low grade mistake by Mr. Flynn got built into a high stakes prosecution."  Not so!

In fact, the report from the FBI interview, known as the FBI 302, showed clearly Flynn was not coerced in any way, and further was given every chance to take an honorable out.   To that end during the interview the agents gave Flynn every opportunity to come clean, even parroting back his own words to try to jog his memory. But Flynn insisted on lying about his conversations with the Russian ambassador Kislyak - regarding U.S. sanctions and a UN vote.  Giiven the FBI had intercepts of the phone conversations the FBI couldn't help but notice they conflicted with the public account. 

What's more, the statement filed at the time of Flynn's guilty plea showed Flynn coordinated the substance of his calls to Kislyak with a senior member of the Trump transition team.  A collusion no brainer, hell a conspiracy no brainer.

To jog our own memories, let's recall the Flynn case grew out of phone calls he made to Sergey Kislyak in the final days of 2016, asking that Moscow please refrain from retaliating after the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia for interfering in the election.  The conversations were captured on routine wiretaps of Kislyak and triggered concern among FBI agents investigating Flynn once they learned of them.

And despite all the hubbub about "unmasking" the poor Flynn, or Carter Page, let's please get a grip. In reality.  According to the WSJ's main news section piece on it yesterday (p. A3, 'Unmasking Requests Released') :

"Unmasking U.S. identities in intelligence reports occurs thousands of times annually, according to statistics maintained by the Office of the Director Of National Intelligence."

Henninger like his deranged WSJ colleagues: Kim Strassel ('The Mueller Coverup',  May 8, p. A13), and Holman Jenkins Jr. ('What The FBI Is Covering Up', p. A13, May 13)   as well as the WSJ editors ('The Flynn Unmaskers, Unmasked', p. A14, May 14,  'All The Schiff Transcripts', May 14, 'Judge Sullivan's Bad Judgment', May 14)  fairly screeches detachment from the world of facts and realty at every turn.  For example, 'Henny' barking:

"What's striking is the lack of remorse across the Washington establishment. Unapologetic arrogance on this scale suggests that unmaskings, intelligence abuses and leaks are likely to return as off the books weapons against individuals disliked by the government bureaucracies."

Oh, you mean shifty traitors like Flynn who tried to make side deals with the Russkies before Obama's term had even ended? That who you mean, Henny?


Let's remind ourselves here, given the chaos of Trump World, that Flynn’s case grew out of phone calls he made to Sergey Kislyak in the final days of 2016, asking that Moscow refrain from retaliating after the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia as punishment for interfering in the election. The conversations were captured on routine wiretaps of Kislyak and prompted concern among the F.B.I. agents  once they learned of them.  Agents then began to suspect that Flynn was lying to other Trump officials about the phone calls and were concerned that he was a blackmail risk because Russia knew the truth of the calls

Henny's hysteria over unmasking (like that of the WSJ editors, and Holman Jenkins)  might also have been allayed or diminished had he taken the time to read the main news page story about unmasking (p. A3, same date).  Therein he'd have seen quotations on its importance from Michael Morrell - former acting director of the CIA:

"You can't do your job without it."  

Adding that he used to make unmasking requests several times a month. Missed by these nattering WSJ nabobs too is that unmasking would be a veritable requirement once conversations had also been intercepted by foreign intelligence sources, like the GCHQ in the UK. 

Meanwhile, 'deep state'  fetishist Kim Strassel,   having wallowed in her own form of  conspiracy paranoia (cited earlier),  is outraged that the FBI entered on the basis of Flynn "engaging in conversations with Russian government officials" like it's just a day at the office.  She even expresses passing umbrage at the potential invocation of the Logan Act of 1799, "a law that's never been used to convict an American".   Well, maybe it was never officially needed before, Kim.   She also carps about the "rarely enforced" Foreign Agents Registration Act - as if it's merely on the books for decoration or to fill up space.  But it all falls into place when you see her daft reference to Flynn's "supposed lies".  No, Kim, they were REAL lies, about foreign influence on a top U.S. security asset  - Flynn. 

Today she did herself one better ('Barr vs. The Beltway', p. A15) barking as part of a long, unhinged rant:

"Instead of applauding Barr for divulging these facts, the Beltway has responded with ire. Mr. Barr's transparency threatens to reveal further that the Russia collusion narrative was pure fantasy...to expose how hatred of Donald Trump drove people in power to break rules and destroy norms."

 Jeezus Peace!  The harpy hack is yapping about "people in power" (in the Beltway) "breaking norms and rules" as if on another planet.  So it's little wonder she  appears to forget (perhaps in the same otherworldly MJ haze)  that it was her master Trump who - on July 26, 2016-  openly implored the Russians to hack Hillary's emails. In other words, openly pandering for the commission of the crime that occurred one day later- and set off this whole investigation of Donnie  Bonespurs.  In front of millions, the Orange Turd had baldly blurted:

"I will tell you this, Russia if you're listening, I hope that you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. You will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens."

So Trump, in full public view, asked Russia to hack his political opponent. Does Kim recall any of that? Evidently not. She only recalls the "breaking rules and destroying norms" she wants to recall. Or, the minimum needed to continue to peddle her Fusion GPS- Christopher Steele- Hillary- FBI conspiracy bunkum.   

Indeed, when this twaddle about "investigating the investigators"  first surfaced with Barr in December last year, Chris Hayes on All In (Dec. 10) aptly observed:

"The obvious problem with this theory is that it makes no sense. Remember this, during the campaign the only investigation that became public was the one regarding Hillary Clinton, which arguably lost her the election. But the FBI was investigating Trump at the very same time. No one uttered a word about it. If they were so desperate to bring Trump down you'd think someone would have said something.  They didn't. So the whole conspiracy theory doesn't even hold together."

Now let us cut through all the other fulsome crap that Henny, Kim and Little Holman as well as the brain addled Journal editors have tried to hurl on the wall - hoping some sticks. They all appear to forget or ignore the 434-page report issued last year by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. It concluded the FBI had an “authorized purpose” when it initiated its investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, into the Trump campaign. In doing so, Horowitz implicitly rejected GOP assertions that the case was launched out of political animus, or that the FBI broke its own rules on using informants. 

Strassel also lambasted Judge Sullivan in today's rant, declaring he had "decided to join the smear campaign against Mr. Barr."  Actually, Kim, Judge Sullivan opted to be one  of the few to stand up to Barr's effort to smear the rule of law and equal justice in this country. Can ya dig it? Well, perhaps not in that purple haze!  Kim's other favorite target has been Christopher Steele and she defames him in her earlier (5/8)  hack piece as well, blurting in a separate tirade therein:

"Colleagues of author Christopher Steele had warned the FBI of his poor judgment."

I suspect Kim dredged this tidbit up in the same opioid or MJ haze. that excited her ire against Judge Emmet Sullivan.   But skewering her B.S. is a Financial Times account (Feb. 16, 2018) , that Steele was the "UK intelligence expert on Russia".  It is, therefore, highly unlikely he'd be "fooled" by any kind of false intel or disinformation as Strassel seems to believe. Or that his judgment was in any way impaired or unsound. Indeed, James Nixey, the head of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program, informed the AP that sections of the dossier document created by Steele "read exactly as reports from the secret services".

Then there are the sad and sorry WSJ editors ('Judge Sullivan's Bad Judgment', yesterday) who are enraged that someone with principle would not kowtow to Trump's toady Barr. How dare Emmet Sullivan intervene when prosecutors said there was no crime!   But Sullivan wasn't buying that recycled offal, and could smell a rat from a mile away when Barr intervened and did Trump's dirty work for him.  Effectively trying to pardon Flynn so Trump wouldn't look bad doing it just before an election.  Nice handoff if you can get it.  

To justify its stupid stance the WSJ editors merely parrot Barr's codswallop that "Flynn's statements weren't criminal because the interview lacked any investigative legal basis".  But it did and in spades, as numerous legal specialists (nearly 1,800 at last count) have pointed out.  

The Journal's top twits had to also know that Flynn displayed a serious consciousness of his own guilt. He damned well knew what he was trying to set up with Kislyak was wrong and close to treason, however you cut it. (That Logan Act again!) Flynn  himself pleaded guilty twice to lying to investigators as part of a larger inquiry into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election - and this was even after agents practically parroted his own original words back to him!

Heading into the sentencing hearing, Flynn was trying to have it both ways—obtaining credit for cooperation and acceptance of responsibility in hopes of a sentence of probation, while minimizing his own wrongdoing. Judge Sullivan would have none of it. He elicited from Flynn the admission that he knew it was a crime to lie to the FBI and his desire to proceed to sentencing rather than withdraw his guilty plea.  Sullivan also spent much of the hearing
expressing his “disgust” and “disdain” for Flynn’s criminal conduct, saying that Flynn had “arguably sold [his] country out,” at one point even accusing Flynn of treason. 

The Journal's goofballs can whine and cry all they want about Judge Sullivan's "bad judgment" but in fact it was fully justified after Barr's stunt.  Given Barr and the DOJ are now "in bed" with Flynn, it makes eminent sense for Sullivan to enlist a third party to help determine how to navigate the legal morass Barr has created.  After all,  a level of judicial integrity and independence is at stake here, even if the WSJ's Trump minions can't see it, or acknowledge it.   Thankfully, Judge Sullivan   appointed  John Gleeson to oppose the Justice Department’s  nonsense.

The position will be as a kind of legal adviser to Sullivan, to wade through the reams of B.S. hurled into the pot by Barr and the DOJ. It is also certain to thrust Mr. Gleeson into an open confrontation with the bombastic baby in the WH and his dog whistle hostages, i.e. supporters.   But  make no mistake, Gleeson - as a former mob prosecutor - will be able to handle whatever Dotard  barks out, even threats.

In the meantime, there is a method behind all this WSJ op ed madness: that is, the roaches incessantly hurling  out their detritus are setting the table for a  bogus claim to go after Obama and his whole "deep state" administration.  So they hope that while the public is focusing on this distraction it will minimize Trump's colossal fail at handling the pandemic.  Already, indeed, we hear and see the Dotard threatening the  jailing of Joe Biden and of Obama himself, as David Plouffe noted last night on 'All In'.  This in a cynical effort to create an "Obamagate" meme and likely October surprise. 

No, folks, as I wrote many times before, you can't make this shit up.  This is the political and health crisis we are in, and all we can hope to do is survive until we can get this Maggot out in November.  In the meantime he will depend on his lapdogs, including FOX, the WSJ op-ed hacks,  Barr, and now Lindsey Graham (who promises an Obama-ite investigation) to run interference for him by throwing up endless distracting smokescreens.

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