"Trump Derangement Syndrome"? The Right Should Be Terrified

One of the supposed  trigger images for "Trump Derangement Syndrome".



One of the tropes circulating amongst the Trumpkins is that the Left is hysterical and over-reacting to the former's beloved, brain dead buffoon - manifesting in TDS or "Trump Derangement Syndrome".  In the fantasies of these Right wing knuckle draggers, most of the Left is either seeking therapy or crouched into fetal positions on cots in their basements, crying at every Trump news flash as they reach for their Zoloft.

The Right should be so lucky, even as we learned last night Dotard was intent on firing Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller last June, but held back when his lawyer (Don McGahn) threatened to quit.

In fact, the Left has been massively organizing by the millions  - especially the women who backed Hillary Clinton- and are now enraged a pussy grabber stole (with Russian help)  her job of destiny. Not only organizing but fielding candidates and winning in state elections.  As a recent TIME article on 'The Avengers' pointed out (Jan. 29, pp. 27-33):

"Progressive women described undergoing a metamorphosis. In 2016 they were ordinary voters . In 2017, they became activists, spurred by the bitter defeat of the first female presidential candidate at the hands of a self-described pussy grabber. Now, in 2018, these doctors and mothers and teachers are jumping into the arena and bringing new energy to a Democratic Party sorely in need of fresh faces."

Adding:

"Call it payback, call it a revolution, call it the Pink Wave inspired by marchers in their magenta pussy hats and the activism that followed. There is an unprecedented surge of first time female candidates....running for offices big and small - from the U.S. Senate to local school boards."

This ought to worry the Repukes and their groupies given "women candidates energize women voters". This, combined with potential depressed turnout on the Right,  holds the potential for a 'blue tsunami" not just a blue wave in November.

Other signs of what's to come:

- Female donors have helped raise $523 million for candidates over the past year, including for organizations like ActBlue

- Support from female voters helped lift Dem Ralph Northam to victory in the Virginia governor's race. (Northam won women by 22 points, which provided the winning margin overall)

- The Ds also picked up 15 seats in the VA House of Delegates of which 11 were won by women.

- The Resistance organization 'Indivisible' now has at least two local chapters in every congressional district and more than 6,000 groups nationwide.

In respect to the last, Professor  of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol of Harvard "says the anti-Trump progressive uprising already has more local groups than the Tea Party did at its height."  We now also know many of the women who built this new progressive infrastructure are the same ones who spent 2016 trying to stop Trump. Yes, they failed and they were in a world of emotional hurt in the aftermath, maybe even suffering from TDS. But now, they're angry, they're motivated, they're organizing and running for office themselves to bring the Repukes down. They are not going to take it any more.

"Trump Derangement Syndrome"? If that's what it takes to propel electoral organization to topple the Trumpkins and their GOP lapdogs, bring it on.

But it doesn't stop there. There is also the potential for the entire Republican Party to go the way of the Whigs based on their irrational anti-immigration stance. That's not my take but that of Daniel Henninger, conservative columnist of The Wall Street Journal in his article ('Republicans and Dreamers') yesterday. Henninger argues that while the Reeps are "taking a victory lap" after the Dems blinked last week on the shutdown, they shouldn't count their winning chits too soon.  It may be instead that:

"The Republican Party has a last chance not to consign itself to the dustbin of history over the infernal immigration issue."

He is referring to the enormous public support for DACA and the Dreamers as disclosed in polls As he continues:

"DACA has become a household word, meaning that most people who vote have developed an informed opinion about the 800,000 or so Dreamers ...Public support for letting the Dreamers off the deportation hook sits between 70 percent and 80 percent. When polling numbers hit that level the politics of an issue is usually over.

Except - as always for Republicans- if the subject is immigration. Rarely has a political party fallen so deeply in love with a ball and chain."

A 'ball and chain' which Henninger believes will take this party down to the level of irrelevance.  Why? Look at the stats as Henninger does here and consider the consequences if the 'pukes vote down any DACA deal:

"For the purposes of the imminent  Washington battle over the Dreamers, Mr. Trump carried Florida and its 29 electoral votes by 1.2 % of the nine million votes cast. He won Texas' 38 electoral votes with only a 52.4% majority. No Republican since Bob Dole has won Texas with a smaller margin."

He goes on to elaborate how these margins are critically important given we are talking about a total of 67 electoral votes for the two states. In the case of Texas "the Hispanic population has increased in all but 11 of its 254 counties."   Republicans typically win "40 to 45 percent of the Hispanic vote". So any change in the proportions could toss the state into the blue column. Such a change could occur when  agonizing TV scenes showing the deportation of Dreamers play across the country.

The same trigger applies in Florida, with the added electoral specter being the nearly 300,000 Puerto Ricans (voting U.S. citizens) who have migrated there because Dotard allowed the island territory to sink after Hurricane Maria rather than provide timely and sufficient assistance. Even now, barely 50% of the island has its power back. This is disgusting. And the import isn't lost on Henninger, because these dissed Puerto Ricans - while they may be suffering from some TDS - will be up and ready to vote in November. As Henninger notes:

"The state estimates that nearly 300,000 U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico fled to Florida after Hurricane Maria. Some will stay, register and vote.  You cannot, like King Canute, simply order this wave back to Puerto Rico,"

No, indeed, you cannot. And further,  I somehow suspect given the scenes (still fresh in mind)  of Dotard tossing kitchen napkins to their families, there will be many more than "some" casting votes- against Trump and the pukes.

Heninger observes (ibid.):

"If Florida turns as reliably blue as California and New York, Republicans - starting with Donald Trump - may never win another presidential election. A Republican candidate would have to run the electoral table across the Midwest."

Yes, the wonders of Trump Derangement Syndrome. In this case now fueling a profound passion in alarmed citizens to take back their country from the traitors, troglodytes and proTrump turds.

Kathy Griffin's Bloody Trump Head - And The Incredible "Free Speech" Hypocrisy Of The Right

How real is American freedom? More to the point, how does it compare with the freedom that other nations cherish, nations such as Norway, Barbados or Germany? Answering these questions can shed no small amount of light on the freedom we believe we have.

According to David M. Potter, in Freedom and its Limitations in American Life, (Stanford University Press, 1976), people of most other nations understand freedom to be wide ranging and to include freedom to express opinions contrary to the majority, or the societal "norms" and even engage in active dissent. Also, freedom to live as one chooses, e.g. in Barbados 'squatting' is quite legal, so long as it's not near water reservoirs, wells.

To the typical American (p. 7) "freedom" is not so inclusive or expansive but is limited to two concepts: "free and independent" and "free and equal". The first implies "freedom to avoid dependence" , e.g on any higher authority, thereby to attain true independence.This "freedom" is what the Tea Party Brigade incessantly invokes in its rallies to pursue the ultimate goal of "every man for himself" and no "nanny state".

As Potter notes, the other concept, "Free and equal" implies the essence of freedom is:

"Not being different from other people, but rather on a par with other people; not the right to choose between various modes of life, but the right to enjoy a mode as good as anyone else's "

In effect, the first ensures the typical American will pursue no true freedom of thought, but rather freedom from all collective responsibility or accountability (e.g. to a defined commonweal. ) This "freedom to avoid dependence" - which is to say, be "free" of the "Nanny state" has its limits.

Then there is the related issue of freedom of speech.  But especially here, hypocrisy abounds with  the Right often screaming at Leftists for  trying to censor their protected hate speech , e.g. at universities. But then they go ape shit nuts when a lefty evinces her own brand as Kathy Griffin recently did with her fake,  bloody Trump head.

But how shaky the brains of the Right when they get into high dudgeon and posturing outrage! They seem to forget what they did to the image of Obama e.g.



Or:


So please, don't go crying and whining about Kathy Griffin's bloody Trump severed head if you are the least bit ok with the preceding - as much of the victimized Right was in the Obama years. Or, if you accept the preceding images as expressions  of shameful but "free"  speech,   but not Griffin's.

Sadly as William Boardman has noted:

 "This episode speaks volumes about the tortured pathology of American culture in its present mindless form: freedom of thought, freedom of speech are allowed, but only if you exercise them within the walls of your invisible mental freedom prison. Otherwise you risk being an outcast. For Kathy Griffin, that risk is substantial, and it’s all too human of her to abase herself to save her career (if she can). The real sickness lies in the cultural demand for that abasement, which serves as a self-righteous cover for a deeply cowardly refusal to consider what the image means in a country where the majority of people want this presidency decapitated and are told they cannot talk about it except in officially approved and restricted ways. The official culture tries to prohibit depicting the living monster as defeated and slain.

We need to talk about that societal unwillingness to talk about that. The cruel, hideous ruler has long been a universal stereotype and reality."

Regrettably, as Boardman also notes, Griffin apologized at the "grovel" level for her stunt - something the Right's obnoxious cretins would never do. Like Great White sharks they tasted blood in the water, and this opened the door for even more feral attacks on her, just like Ward Churchill endured after his essay "On Roosting Chickens'.  This was an essay written after 9/11 that compared the investment specialists and brokers in the World Trade Center to "little Eichmanns". Every little anti-free speech dunce in Colorado went batshit crazy calling for Churchill's head,  with the university - and the Denver Post - complying in full, demanding his termination. The Post hung Churchill out to dry in a number of editorials and op-ed columns, The guy was convicted (of "plagiarism") and hung, drawn and quartered before he could ask why.  The whole episode showed the "free speech" meme for the hypocritical bollocks it was, because while someone could depict Muslims as "ragheads" in cartoons, he couldn't dare call into the question the U.S. role in inciting blowback - as Churchill did.

And who can forget the spewed hate after Colin Kaepernick took a knee for the national anthem? There we saw it again. The veiled threats that okay, this may nominally be the "land of liberty" but boy, you better had watch out which rights you exercise and look behind your damned back if it's the wrong ones!  Carrying this to outrageous extremes was a  self-proclaimed "World War II and Korean War vet" named Chris Cator who confided to Denver Post sports writer Mark Kiszla that:  "I will buy a one-way ticket for  Brandon Marshall (Broncos anthem kneeling LB)  to any foreign destination he wants."

What's the most galling and aggravating aspect of this whole aftermath, apart from some numskulls blaming it on "Trump Derangement Syndrome? The hysterical screeching of the Right that Griffin be charged with "domestic terrorism" or "making an assassination threat".  Are  you fucking kidding me? It was a tableaux prop explainable as artistic license which anyone who's read the end of 'MacBeth' would recognize - the protagonist bearing the severed head of the tyrant. E.g.  Act 5, Scene 8, lines 53-55:

[Re-enter MACDUFF, with MACBETH's head]
MACDUFF	Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands
	The usurper's cursed head: the time is free:
	I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,

In other words, unlike the crude images of Obama lynchings by the Right,  Griffin's invoked an artistic license based on a Shakespearean play.  Of course, most righties wouldn't make any such connection because they've never read any Shakespeare plays.  In the words of William Boardman:

"This is not an actual assassination. It’s not an actual attempted assassination. It’s not even a call for assassination of or even violence against Trump. It’s a far cry from all those right-wing memes lynching Obama. This is an example of artistic license. That’s another trait of free societies. Police states hate artistic license, even when it’s literally licensed."

The fact some Reich wingers might believe Griffin's form of intense speech is a "threat" or "domestic terror"  shows how far the county has descended into a limbo of historical and literary retardation.  Hence, that so many lack ability to do even basic critical thinking whereby one is able to distinguish a stunt using a prop from a genuine threat.  What was Griffin's error, if any? In not explaining the context for her speech.  But should she be crucified for that by the lynch-prone assholes of the Right? No, just as Ward Churchill shouldn't have been crucified for his 9/11 essay by losing his professorship at Univ. of Colorado.

The  pathetic takeaway from all this? Americans talk a good game about "freedom of speech" but have not defined it to a standard that all parties can accept. This means there will always be some who exercise it - such as Kathy Griffin, Ward Churchill, and Colin Kaepernick - who will pay a disproportionate price for so doing if believed to be outside the bounds of an artificially contrived "decency".  This also factors in the inevitable hypocrisy which allows one side (usually the Right) to get away with what in other nations might be hate speech, but if the opposite side tries it, it's met with hysteria and threats.

So much for the "land of the free".

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/william-boardman/73209/kathy-griffin-with-trumps-severed-head-sets-off-us-denial-storm

And:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/73247/griffin-and-mahers-outrages-are-nothing-compared-to-that-of-trump

Excerpt:

"If we've not lost our collective mind, we have, at a minimum, lost our perspective and sense of proportion. In the wake of unquantifiable outrage over the Kathy Griffin and Bill Maher kerfuffles, such a bundled loss just might be a proper assessment. I doubt it, but it could be true that America, by and large, can no longer distinguish acts deserving of resolute disapproval from acts deserving of genuine outrage. "