Your Once and Final Supreme Double Impeachee

[ewmayer]

Luckily, NPD is extremely rare among politicians and the financial/industrial elites whom they serve ... proving that once again, all of our problems began and will end with the evil orange-haired satan! And it's clearly rational rather than obsessive to think that way.

More seriously, this again gets back to the issue of the danger of failing to recognize narcissism and sociopathy when they are presented in a decorous, smooth-talking, norms-respecting package. The most dangerous form of evil is that which disguises itself well.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Luckily, NPD is extremely rare among politicians and the financial/industrial elites whom they serve ...

This is probably more true than intended. Not every sociopath or psychopath is a narcissist. Far from it.

proving that once again, all of our problems began and will end with the evil orange-haired satan! And it's clearly rational rather than obsessive to think that way.

Except that, AFAIK nobody's making such a claim. This is a classic straw man. I will go so far as to assert that Il Duce is the first narcissist we've had as president since the founding of the republic.

More seriously, this again gets back to the issue of the danger of failing to recognize narcissism and sociopathy when they are presented in a decorous, smooth-talking, norms-respecting package.

Narcissism absolutely does not come that way. A narcissist can't even appear to respect norms. Il Duce, for example, has said publicly that the rules don't apply to him, and that he could go out onto Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any support. Other types of sociopath or psychopath can appear normal, at least superficially. But only appear, and only superficially.

The most dangerous form of evil is that which disguises itself well.

I question this. In the first place, if it disguises itself well enough, you would never know. In the second place, it doesn't hold a candle to undisguised or recognized evil met with either indifference or support -- which, IMO is what we have vis a vis the Republicans (along with evangelicals) and Il Duce.

I would say the most dangerous form of evil is that being done by government purportedly for the public good. Think of some of the wonderful examples from the Twentieth Century: The Great Purge. The Great Leap Forward. The Holocaust.

It is not without reason that, when asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had conceived, Benjamin Franklin said, "A republic -- if you can keep it." Or that Thomas Jefferson said, "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." Nobody who voted for Il Duce can even plausibly claim they didn't know he is a monster. They voted for him anyway. The subsequent failure of Congress (in particular, the Republicans) to fulfill its role as a "check and balance" is secondary. In the election of 2016, the people (or at least, the Electoral College) spoke! Vox populi, vox dei.

Proving once again that the United States is the origin and author of all the world's ills

[Dr Sardonicus]

The transcript of the Tuesday, October 2, 2018 "Fresh Air" interview with Michael Lewis about his new book, The Fifth Risk, is here. There's also a link to download (automatically) the (almost 40 MB) sound file of the interview.

Owen Jones talks with him on YouTube (almost 80 minutes) here.

If you want an idea of just how destructive Il Duce's administration is to the good ol' USA, you could do worse...

[ewmayer]

"Narcissism absolutely does not come that way. A narcissist can't even appear to respect norms. Il Duce, for example, has said publicly that the rules don't apply to him, and that he could go out onto Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any support. Other types of sociopath or psychopath can appear normal, at least superficially. But only appear, and only superficially."

So now you're a psychiatric expert? Please provide citations supporting your claim that among the various disorders mentioned, narcissism is unique in being absolutely undisguisable. Also, "appear" and "only superficially" are redundant. Re. Trump's claim, that certainly fits with his well-known habit of braggadocio in speech, which certainly fits the 'grandiosity' portion of NPD - but OTOH, given the level of negative press coverage he received in the run-up to the 2016 election, and the sheer number of scandals (e.g. pussygate) which would have sunk any other candidate in recent memory, one can argue that his claim, while exaggerated in typical Trumpian fashion, proved true.

In order to provide a bit of context, here is a 2013 article using standardized personality tests filled in by "expert raters" as described in the article. Of course "expert" is fraught since the people in question will have biases ... e.g. the historians' biases were confirmed by the article Paul recently posted, describing "hostile historians". However, this overall conclusion seems sound:

These researchers also found that, on average, presidents are more narcissistic than the average American. Moreover, the level of grandiose narcissism in presidents has increased in recent decades.

Obama, president at time of the article's appearance, was not rated, but given that he is busily working to destroy a significant chunk of Chicago public parkland in order to construct a grandiose hollow monument to himself, it seems safe to conclude that the man is quite markedly narcissistic. But he is well-spoken and not-a-boor, so one never hears about such stuff in the MSM.

"The most dangerous form of evil is that which disguises itself well.
I question this. In the first place, if it disguises itself well enough, you would never know."

You certainly might know it by its effects, albeit only long after said effects become so plain as to be un-ignorable - therein lies the danger. To cite an example: the toxic socioeconomic effects of neoliberalism took the better part of 4 decades to reach global widespread awareness, because for all of that time the overwhelming majority of credentialed well-spoken experts and the politicians they (dis)served were telling us soothing lies about 'free' market efficiencies, rising tides lifting all boats, etc. Similar unisonic establishment Big Lies were used to promote the global wars on drugs and terror, with disastrous effects. Propaganda works.

"In the second place, it doesn't hold a candle to undisguised or recognized evil met with either indifference or support."

Another unsupported claim. If a leader leads the nation into a war costing $trillions and leading to a million civilian deaths, does it matter whether said leader was of the "recognized evil" or the decorous well-spoken variety? Also, an extremely blinkered-partisan version of "recognizing evil" can lead to truly perverse outcomes, such as the post-2016-election flip-flop in the warmongering/hawkish tendencies among Dems and Repubs in the U.S. If it takes a narcissistic boor to ask what national interests were served by turning Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc, into failed states and jihadist hellholes, or why hundreds of thousands of recently-middle-class Americans are now dying deaths of despair (cf. Case-Deaton study) annually, dismissing the question because of the unlikable messenger is the height of folly and/or hubris. Hubris being a form of narcissism, btw.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Another unsupported claim. If a leader leads the nation into a war costing $trillions and leading to a million civilian deaths, does it matter whether said leader was of the "recognized evil" or the decorous well-spoken variety?

Wow! Seriously?

A skilled leader would find a path out of confrontation.

An idiot would play a game of Go straight against the wall....

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

"In the second place, it doesn't hold a candle to undisguised or recognized evil met with either indifference or support."

Another unsupported claim. If a leader leads the nation into a war costing $trillions and leading to a million civilian deaths, does it matter whether said leader was of the "recognized evil" or the decorous well-spoken variety?

In the first place, what one proposes to do can be recognized as evil, whether they're "well-spoken and decorous" or not. Hitler wrote Mein Kampf long before he attained power. He didn't become dictator, wage war, or conduct the Holocaust all by his lonesome. When the concentration camps were liberated, and the residents of nearby towns were forced to take the nickel tour, they said they "didn't know." Yeah, right.

A million civilian deaths? Stalin had that under his belt before the war -- all in the name of eliminating "anti-Soviet" elements. The Great Leap Forward caused a famine that killed anywhere from 30 million to 55 million civilians. The Cultural Revolution thinned a few million more from the ranks. All for the greater good...

I'm so inexpert in matters psychological, I thought personality profile tests were supposed to be taken by the person whose personality was being determined -- not filled in by "experts," especially after the person is long dead.

In the case of TR, we do have a contemporary assessment from his daughter:

My father always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening.
-- Alice Roosevelt Longworth

[Dr Sardonicus]

The Latest: Maduro fires back at US after criticism by Pence

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says Venezuelans have the “unwavering support” of the United States in their effort to restore democracy to their country.

In a video message released Tuesday, Pence called Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro a “dictator with no legitimate claim to power.”

The vice president says the U.S. joins other “freedom-loving” nations in recognizing the popularly elected National Assembly as the “last vestige of democracy” in Venezuela. He says he supports the decision by National Assembly president and opposition leader Juan Guaido to declare Maduro a “usurper” and call for the creation of a transitional government.

Anti-Maduro demonstrations are expected nationwide on Wednesday.

Pence says the American people will be with Venezuelans until democracy is restored.

For some strange reason, the story brought to mind the Tom Lehrer song Send the Marines.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

The Latest: Maduro fires back at US after criticism by Pence

For some strange reason, the story brought to mind the Tom Lehrer song Send the Marines.

When the concentration camps were liberated, and the residents of nearby towns were forced to take the nickel tour, they said they "didn't know."

There's a song for this quotation, too. Caution: contains n-word.
We Didn't Know
-Tom Paxton

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by kladner

There's a song for this quotation, too. Caution: contains n-word.
We Didn't Know
-Tom Paxton

Hmm. Reminds me of a song I heard on a Pete Seeger album when I was a kid. Who killed Davey Moore?

EDIT (Update on earlier news about Venezuela: Hard upon Juan Guaido declaring himself interim President of Venezuela, Il Duce issued the following statement:

Today, I am officially recognizing the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the Interim President of Venezuela. In its role as the only legitimate branch of government duly elected by the Venezuelan people, the National Assembly invoked the country’s constitution to declare Nicolas Maduro illegitimate, and the office of the presidency therefore vacant. The people of Venezuela have courageously spoken out against Maduro and his regime and demanded freedom and the rule of law.
I will continue to use the full weight of United States economic and diplomatic power to press for the restoration of Venezuelan democracy. We encourage other Western Hemisphere governments to recognize National Assembly President Guaido as the Interim President of Venezuela, and we will work constructively with them in support of his efforts to restore constitutional legitimacy. We continue to hold the illegitimate Maduro regime directly responsible for any threats it may pose to the safety of the Venezuelan people. As Interim President Guaido noted yesterday: 'Violence is the usurper’s weapon; we only have one clear action: to remain united and firm for a democratic and free Venezuela.'

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (whose recent election the OAS refused to recognize on the 10th) responded by announcing the breaking of diplomatic relations with the United States, and giving our diplomats 72 hours to leave the country. This will be somewhat simplified by the fact that the US and Venezuela haven't exchanged Ambassadors since 2010.

[ewmayer]

Between caving on Die Mauer and the inane Venezuela regime-change initiative, not a good week for the orange-haired one, even by his low standards.

The big problem w.r.to Venezuela is that there is no effective opposition in DC, thanks to the "spirit of bipartisanship" which attends most of our imperial misdeeds these days - you'll note Trump was excoriated in the MSM by the ubiquitous security-establishment flacks and talking heads when he announced he wanted to pull US troops out of Syria, contrast with the initiative to 'meddle bigly' in VZ:

Trump Incites Turmoil in Venezuela Amid a Bipartisan Clamor for Regime Change | Ghion Journal

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Between caving on Die Mauer and the inane Venezuela regime-change initiative, not a good week for the orange-haired one, even by his low standards.

Nonsense! It's been a great week! Many of the Federal workers have been thanking him for giving them a 5-week break from getting paid. He said in his capitulation announcement,

In many cases you encouraged me to keep going because you care so much about our country and our border security.

And another cow flew by...

The big problem w.r.to Venezuela is that there is no effective opposition in DC, thanks to the "spirit of bipartisanship" which attends most of our imperial misdeeds these days - <snip>

With all due respect, the big problem WRT Venezuela is the Crisis in Venezuela:

A socioeconomic and political crisis began in Venezuela in 2010 under the presidency of Hugo Chávez and has continued into the current presidency of Nicolás Maduro. The current situation is the worst economic crisis in Venezuela's history and among the worst crises experienced in the Americas, with hyperinflation, soaring hunger, disease, crime and death rates, and massive emigration from the country. Observers and economists have stated that the crisis is not the result of a conflict or natural disaster but the consequences of populist policies that began under the Chávez administration's Bolivarian Revolution, with the Brookings Institution stating that "Venezuela has really become the poster child for how the combination of corruption, economic mismanagement, and undemocratic governance can lead to widespread suffering".
<snip>
Due to high oil reserves, lack of policies on private property and low remittances, by 2012, of every 100 dollars, more than 90 came from oil and its derivatives. With the fall in oil prices in early 2015 the country faced a drastic fall in revenues of the US currency along with commodities.

In addition, the government has not made policy changes to adapt to the low petroleum price. In early 2016, The Washington Post reported the official price of state-retailed petrol was below US $.01 per gallon, and the official state currency exchange rate valued the US dollar at 1/150 what the black market did.

Of course, all of this is entirely the fault of the United States