"Does anyone think a healthy nation with a healthy political
culture would elect a man like Donald Trump not once, but twice?
The eternal return of President Trump is a sign of our
national sickness, and a recent Pew Research Center study shows us exactly what
that sickness is. We despise each other, and demagogues rise when hatred
increases. It’s as predictable as night following day."- David French, 'The End Stage Of Polarization', NY Times Sunday
"All of this chaos and mayhem in our country and around the world is being caused by one man and his cult of followers who will let the madman do whatever he wants. He is truly a “mad king” who believes he rules the world thanks to the evangelical republicans who believe he has been anointed by God."- WaPO Comment today
One of the canards circulated about human evil over the years is that it’s irrational. If the person only knew better, or reasoned properly, he’d arrive at the generic good. Fortunately, philosopher John Kekes disposes of this myth quite forcefully! As Kekes observes, abundant historical examples disclose that people often robustly justify their actions on the basis of a good perceived in their minds, but which in retrospect turns out to be evil. Therefore, it’s not the lack of reason or rationality that infuses their actions but instead the false beliefs that supported the reasoning!
Thus, Pope Innocent VIII summoned excellent theological reasons for issuing a Bull allowing for the wholesale pursuit and torture of witches, warlocks, familiars and others in the form of incubi or succubi. Much of this was formalized in the Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer (Dean of Cologne University) and Jacob Sprenger (Dominican Inquisitor General of Germany). This book gave the prescriptions and methods for exposing those possessed, or under the influence of familiars and demons. In so doing, it provided a pretext to torture and murder just about anyone the general community found offensive or odd.
Pretext then can form the basis to advance a bogus practical reason to advance an evil. I mean, why not try to stem the influences of demons wherever they may appear - including in the form of animals - say as familiars? And if snuffing out demons meant burning fellow humans at the stake why not do it? (As a number of popes mused.)
In like manner why not create pretexts to demolish a state 0r nation regarded as an ultimate evil entity - or a "terrorist" state like Iran?
Thus, to launch his war Trump summoned the bogus pretext of preventing Iran from getting nukes, when the real motive was distraction from the ever expanding Epstein files - some 54 pages of interviews implicating him. The real fact too is that the illusion of unlimited power had gone to his head, like the illusion of power had gone to Hitler's head when he launched Operation Barbarossa to invade the Soviet Union in 1941. That move destroyed most of Germany's forces in the east leaving them with little more than a defensive posture when the Allies invaded Italy and then the beaches of Normandy in 1944.
This is also why the skeptic rationalist must reject the
suggestion that a foundational “goodness in humankind” is vested in the moral
imperatives of religion, as another atheist author has claimed. In fact, religion’s moral imperatives are
inevitably fashioned on the basis of how that religion perceives the world and
the role of humans. As in the Catholic case, it means all manner of confounding
moral deficiencies and violations can be countenanced provided it meets the
religion’s self-rationalizations. To fix ideas, recall again C.S. Lewis
pardoning the witch burners for a “mistake of fact”. (The Pope and Catholic Bishops have gotten one thing right in their opposition to Trump's Iran War.)
As another example of evil no less widespread one can cite
the rational justifications for aggressive national policy, including use of military tactics and intimidation in cities dominated by a different party. "To deport unhinged criminal immigrants". Hence, Trump's ICE invasions of LA, Chicago, Minneapolis. The end result? Deporting thousands of hard working immigrants in key jobs, leaving labor deficiencies - including in health care, landscaping, construction. Add to that the implementation of economic evils such
as austerity policies such as Trump's 'Great Big Beautiful Bill' or just as bad in many respects- his lawless tariffs subjecting trade to extortion to aggrandize one leader or nation. Such as Trump resorted to when beginning his 2nd term in office made possible by careless voters.
The U.S. is just finding the extent of the 2024 election misfire out now, after Trump recklessly launched war on Iran with little forethought, and more escalating costs each passing day. Ditto with the Germans after they enabled Adolf Hitler to reach the Chancellorship in 1933. Then launching a 'blitzkrieg' on the Sudetenland and Poland. In each
case, Trump and Hitler, voters made the same error: putting into power a
malignant necrophilous personality whom they believed was going to deliver economic benefits.
We owe it to Harvey Hornstein in his book 'Cruelty
& Kindness: A New Look At Altruism and Aggression' for elaborating the
internal dynamics of this personality and also tying it inextricably to
conservative and authoritarian tendencies. The aspect of negative social
exclusivity is also why you can immediately recognize the necrotic person
by his putdowns of all those he considers inferior or weaker than
himself. In most cases he will assert his type is
invariably "stronger", "tougher", "more
moral", more "law abiding", "more patriotic". Then use these pretexts to run roughshod over norms, laws, the Constitution itself. The extent of Trump's egomaniacal assaults was perhaps best encapsulated in a January NY Times article (Trump Takes America’s ‘Imperial Presidency’ to a New Level ) which noted:
"Mr. Trump takes it upon himself to reinterpret a constitutional amendment and to eviscerate agencies and departments created by Congress. He dictates to private institutions how to run their affairs. He sends troops into American streets and wages an unauthorized war against nonmilitary boats in the Caribbean. He openly uses law enforcement for what his own chief of staff calls “score settling” against his enemies, he dispenses pardons to favored allies and he equates criticism to sedition punishable by death."
The recent Trump battle with Anthropic CEO Dario Amadei is another case of a narcissistic and malignant ego out of control. In this case Trump and his Pentagon pawn Hegseth demanding Anthropic break its contract with the Pentagon despite the usage restrictions stipulating its AI model (Claude) cannot be used for domestic mass surveillance. Oh, and also using Claude to devise fully autonomous weapons systems - which is pure psycho nuts. The Pentagon demanded "unrestricted use for all lawful purposes" - but Trump and the Pentagon have already demonstrated their degree of lawlessness when they used drones to blow unarmed fishing boats out of the water - killing hundreds. In at least one case slaughtering survivors calling out for help - and to this day refusing to show that video to the public.
So practical reason in this case works to deny the Pentagon and Trump what would likely be further lawless use of Claude. Amadei exercised his capacity for reason and denied the Trumpers the use of Claude for these nefarious purposes. The result? Trump had Anthropic declared a "supply side risk". The two are now to face off in court, which one hopes will also exercise practical moral reason in its judgment. Because if the court gives Trump's government a 'W' it gives him carte blanche to cripple any company in the future over political differences. This is how far we've slid into autocracy, because of too many yielding to Trump's monstrous ego and malignant narcissism.
This brings us to the basis for this monstrous exercise of malignant narcissism wrapped as it is in patriotic pretexts and spurious nationalistic justifications.
The basis for much of Trump's egomaniacal overreach is well summarized in Hornstein's profile of the necrotic personality (p. 41) which also fits Hitler to a tee:
"(These) intolerant, prejudiced, authoritarian people are ill at
ease. The baggage of their youth is filled with inescapable hates and fears.
Mistrusting their own impulses, they are wary of others and the impulses they
might possess. Their world becomes a jungle which must be carefully scrutinized
because it is filled with human beings who harbor the 'evil' that they
painfully learned to deny in themselves."
Dr. Bandy X. Lee - psychiatrist
More recent psychologists, e.g. Dr. Bandy X. Lee, have also
warned about Donald Trump. In her book 'The Dangerous Case of Donald
Trump"- Dr. Lee warned that Trump - if elected again (as he was in November, 2024) could easily turn his rage against the people - including his
own MAGA voters- if he believed they were not giving him due adulation. Adolf
Hitler also turned against the German people at the end of WW II, inviting his
underlings to destroy what was left of Berlin after he himself took his life in
the bunker. "They don't deserve me!" He roared. All this fits the pattern described by Thom Hartmann:
We're were also reminded of these psychotic retributional
ruminations in EJ Dionne's December WAPO piece, Trump Confronts A Backlash
of the Reasonable' . Which may also be framed as 'Trump
Confronts A Backlash Of the Finally Smart'. How else interpret things as
Trump's poll numbers cratered? As Dionne writes:
"Many of his former voters see him as
distracted by personal obsessions and guilty of overreach, even when they
sympathize with his objectives. These supporters also see him breaking
promises he made, notably on not messing with their access to health care.
Some abuses are too blatant to be ignored. A recent The Economist/You Gov poll found that 56 percent of
Americans said Mr. Trump was using his office for personal gain; only 32
percent didn’t. A similar 56 percent saw Mr. Trump as directing the Justice
Department to go after people he saw as his political enemies; just 24 percent
didn’t.
A great many Americans who helped put Mr. Trump in office have
absorbed what’s happened since. They may not be glued to every chaotic twist of
this presidency, but they do pay attention and have concluded, reasonably, that
this is not what they voted for."
They certainly didn’t vote for a war with Iran that is destroying
the Middle East and shattering whatever chances they had for affordable food,
gas, housing not to mention peace of mind and a semblance of sanity. Any more than Bush Jr. voters voted for a costly war with Iraq which had the effect of destabilizing that country and spawning ISIS.
At another level, Kekes makes clear the distinction between
universal goods and diverse goods in accounting for the presence
of human evil. Universal goods define those necessities for
human survival: adequate food, clean water, clean air etc. If these necessities
are lacking, say from the devastation wrought by war or occupation, then the
victims will rise up against the invading group and try to kill them or oust
them in order to secure their universal goods.
In a sense then, this sort of evil is perfectly explainable, and it
follows as a direct result of being deprived of the fundamental goods by which
to survive.
However, the more subjective category of diverse goods must
also be factored in. Diverse goods might include: having a decent paying job,
the respect of others, stature in the community, recognition for work done, and
basic dignity. However, none of these is essential for basic survival. I can
plow away in obscurity at an undignified, low-level job but that doesn’t impact
my survival. However, for some human temperaments it may well do so! One
conjectures, therefore, that when Aurora mass murderer James Eagan Holmes
failed one of his Ph.D. exams in 2012, and saw no way to recover the elite
neuro-research status he’d envisaged, he adopted the twisted fame achieved by savage
slaughter as an acceptable alternative outcome. A psycho in other words. See e.g.
Another powerful blow struck by Kekes is against what he
calls the secular optimism of the Enlightenment. This holds that human nature is basically
good but can be thwarted or otherwise deformed, perhaps even by natural causes,
say like disease (e.g. schizophrenia) or even a brain tumor, such as the one
that evidently triggered Charles Whitman to kill fourteen at the University of
Texas- Austin, on August 1, 1966.
Apart from his sound arguments, Kekes proposes a series of
questions that challenge any of the secular optimists to respond, and with
cogent, credible answers. One of his best questions is: What is the justification for secular
optimism which sees history as the march- apart from some unfortunate detours-
with human betterment as the outcome?
One answer came from Stephen Pinker, in his book: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has
Declined. Pinker's arguments are essentially based on two
propositions that he sets out to prove:
1) The past was far more beastly and vicious than presumed to be, and
2) The present is vastly more peaceful, contrary to appearances.
In a
way these propositions are fairly sound. For example, in the immediate past
rationalism was virtually non-existent or rare and when rationalists did
emerge, they were rapidly eliminated. Not only their minds, but bodies too, as
well as property and often offspring. Most of this was done via The Inquisition
which lasted for nearly seven hundred years. Heretics were meted out the most horrific punishments:But it is erroneous to believe such horrors no longer exist anywhere. They do in some African countries where rebel factions use terror and inflicting horrific tortures to impose their will, as in the ongoing violence in Sudan (the tortures inflicted by the Janjaweed in the 90s were notorious), Rwanda, Congo. The difference is that the current horrors are no longer institutional.
Of course, the wholesale acceptance of an affirmative
answer to the above enabled Francis Fukuyama’s work:
The End of History to be taken seriously and its memes sown far
and wide. That is, until 9/11 blew Fukuyama’s propositions to
smithereens. But more pressing are the
questions Kekes lists which the secular optimists (like Phylicia Foot – cited
by Kekes) leave unanswered. Included among the most cogent:
1) What is the difference
between merely bad and truly evil actions?
2) Why is it some people act and other people do not, act on their evil-prompting motives?
3) What is the role in
explaining evil of such external factors as circumstances favoring evil and
weak limits?
4) If evil is a biologically
determined natural defect, should evil-doers be held responsible?
5) Is the presence or absence
of intention relevant to explaining evil?
6) Is evil merely what
prompts an action or does it also depend on the harm inflicted on victims?
Kekes goes on to
emphasize that a satisfactory answer to each of the above must provide
defensible answers to each. He also emphasizes that the failure of the secular
or religious optimism proposition, inherent in the notion of human
perfectability and innate goodness, “does not mean the explanation is
committed to pessimism as a result of supposed human wickedness” .
He is correct here,
since to conclude basic human wickedness because of a lack of evidence for basic
human goodness, is to give in to black –white binary reasoning. Much more
likely, the essence of human nature is gray or ambiguous. Kekes avers that “humans
are neither good or bad but ambivalent- and adds that reason favors
uncertainty”.
If we adopt this proposition, then one might be able to claim that neither Trump nor Hitler are truly evil because there is some small residue of good lurking somewhere in each. I mean, after all, Hitler did express much special devotion and affection for his dog, Blondi. At least up until he ordered his physician Werner Haase to test a cyanide pill's effectiveness on the dog before using it on him. Trump also likely possesses a residue of good beneath that banshee exterior. Even if of a transitory nature. But whatever residue of decency exists must be well -concealed by his metastasizing dementia. (Indeed, recklessly launching his attacks on Iran may be directly traced to perceptions deformed by dementia.)
An even more powerful proposition offered by Kekes is this:
"Good and evil propensities often conflict
and motivate incompatible actions." Adding:
"Whether good prevails over
evil depends on the particularities of the circumstances, the character and
education of the subjects, the foreseeable consequences of the incompatible
actions, the prevailing state of morality and so forth."
I would also say it depends on the adherence to laws, as defined in formal legal structures that have passed the test of time. If such laws are shattered or ignored, or bent to further the will of a tyrant - as when the Nazis replaced the Weimar Courts with the Reich courts - then all bets are off for any good to prevail. The lawless win and they override even small efforts to re-establish the good, or any level of decency.
This is what we now face in the U.S. irrespective of how badly Trump's brain is functioning. And there seems little or no indication of removing him via the 25th amendment.
The fact is he's already - owing to the lack of any checks and balances- been able to confirm lawbreakers across the board even in his Justice Dept. while flouting the courts and breaking numerous laws himself. Thus, any serious accountability has been tossed to the wayside. Further, the issue of responsibility for any evil actions (like ICE goons killing U.S. citizens) has been circumvented by Trump's lust for retribution and his belief he can control and throttle everything - from political opponents to other nations. The success of the good and any moral probity then depends on the ability to foresee their consequences - especially by voters before they cast ballots that may portend futures that can't be reversed.
As for the ongoing govt shutdown with TSA workers having to bail to get other work because they aren't being paid, do not lay that on the Democrats! The Dems have routinely offered a bill to pay TSA workers out of the Reeps' 'Great Big Beautiful Bill' - taking out some of the $170 b now allocated to ICE. (An amount greater than that funding all the intel and security agencies!)
The Reeps did make an offer to allow it but with a caveat: The demand by the Dems for the ICE warriors to remove their masks be nixed.
In which case the blockage and shutdown must go on because ICE cannot be allowed to do (walk around masked) which the police and other law enforcement can't. This again is based on practical reason aimed at fulfilling an aspiration for a civil good.
See Also:
by John Hamilton | March 19, 2026 - 8:10pm | permalink
Until now I have avoided using the word karma in writing about current events and concerns. Americans toss the word around carelessly, knowing nothing its roots or meaning. It is similar to how Americans carelessly apply the term Zen to any sense of calm or focus, knowing nothing about what Zen is, historically and in practice. It is all about the frivolous use of language, faking sophistication with cheap clichés.
Karma is a Sanskrit term, a spiritual concept that relates cause to effect, the principle that the existence of all beings functions in a dynamic relationship between action and consequence. It is comparable, but not the same, to the Christian belief that as you sow, so also must you reap. Judaism has the principle of midah k'neged midah, or measure for measure. In more familiar terms, what goes around comes around.
And:
by Thom Hartmann | March 19, 2026 - 5:07am | permalink— from The Hartmann Report
Trump is dismantling our American democracy with alarming speed and the resignation of the Trump-appointed Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, is a symptom of it.
Kent, a hardcore MAGA Republican who ran two failed, Trump-endorsed campaigns for Congress before Trump put him in charge of counterterrorism, was adjacent to the very highest levels of our national security apparatus, had all the inside information, and not only resigned but salted the earth on his way out, writing:
“Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
As I’ve noted in previous articles, Saudi Arabia and the UAE wanted America to strike Iran and had collectively given billions to Kushner and Trump. Netanyahu desperately needed a war with Iran to insure his re-election this year to keep him out of prison. And Putin wanted the Strait of Hormuz closed so the price of oil would go up and rescue his floundering economy.
And:
