Thursday, October 19, 2017

A Lying President

There are two terms being used often in much of the literature surrounding our president:
  • Pathological liar
  • Compulsive liar
When looking for definitions, there appears to be a lack of a consensus, and one is drawn to the conclusion that the two terms are sufficiently alike that they may be used interchangeably.  The terms describe a behavior that goes well beyond simply lying often. They describe a behavior pattern in which the person lies even when there is no apparent gain to be made. Sometimes, the person is well aware of the lying; sometimes not.

Our president is labeled a pathological liar because of his amazing frequency of lies. He seems to lie so often that one is tempted to reach a conclusion, to whit:

“How does one know Trump is lying? Well, when he opens his mouth and words come tumbling out, he is lying.”
Now, it is likely not the case that Trump lies every time he utters words in sentences. But he lies with such frequency, about issues large and small, that it seems safer to assume he is lying. We also know he is a narcissist, and a sociopath, terms that describe someone who focuses exclusively on himself, and who cares not at all about the effects of his actions on others.
Now, how does this matter in day to day life?

Well, first, our president is in the habit of tweeting every morning, very early, before most normal humans are up and about—we think he does not sleep well, which could explain part of his behavior. So, he awakens and he begins tweeting. Why tweeting? Well, for one, he can do it without consequence. He cannot call anyone because nobody is awake.  He also has many, many followers, millions perhaps.  So, when he tweets, his followers see his messages as soon as they become awake.  Tweets also do not require one to have command of the English language. One can be an English ignoramus and still tweet in sort-of English.
So, with his tweets, he is always on the front pages of our collective minds.

He is also, of course, the President. So, whenever he tweets, or actually talks in public, his words are instantly broadcast to the world.  That matters, as it turns out. For example, when he calls names (rocket-man, or, worse, “little rocket-man”) his name-calling has consequences; at a minimum, rocket-man, will respond in a similar vein and the two-year old temper tantrums begin in earnest.
But his lies also pose another problem, namely, negotiations. If our president engages in negotiating with anyone on any subject, the people with whom he is negotiating cannot sensibly believe him. If he says, “I promise to . . .”, or “I agree with you . . .”, he should not be believed.

We know that, before he was president, he engaged routinely in behavior with people, especially people who did work for him that is consistent with the pathological liar. He routinely stiffed people. Now stiffing the carpenter who completes work on your office is different from stiffing the leader of Iran on nuclear negotiations. But the carpenter will be rightly pissed when he fails to get paid.  The leader of Iran might well begin assembling his missiles, or his weapons of nuclear destruction.  And if he negotiates an agreement with Congressional leaders (of either party as it turns out) his words should be treated as just words.  His words, his terms of agreement, have zero credibility.  His stance on the Iran nuclear agreement stand as an example. He is currently repudiating the agreement reached by an earlier president, thereby throwing into doubt all agreements with US presidents. His statements on the deal are either just completely ignorant—all of his advisers assert that Iran is living up to the terms of the agreement and that the agreement is at least reasonable.  He asserts the agreement was an awful pact, perhaps the worst in the history of pacts. Now his conclusions are either simply ignorant, or he is lying to achieve some other end.
And therein lies the problem. Because he cannot be believed, he can be dismissed, whether he may actually be correct (unlikely in the extreme) or not. One cannot believe his assertions, so they will be dismissed, and people will act accordingly.

Now that leaves us with a leader who is totally, 100% useless, as a negotiator, on any subject, large or small.  It means that we should not take him into any venue wherein negotiating is to be completed.  Congress cannot really “negotiate” with our President on any subject. They should simply reach their own conclusions and then inform the President of their position. He may accept that or reject it.  Period.
And, when foreign negotiations are in the offing, they need to leave him at home.  That may not be possible, since he does love traveling in style. But it should be their starting position. No, we can handle this one, Mr. President. We need you at home minding the store.

If he is party to any negotiation, the agreement will be tainted, by definition.
It is too bad Mr. Trump doesn’t drink. It would be very helpful if we could get him to just stay at home and have his servants feed him gin and tonics all day long. Or maybe pot. I wonder if he smokes pot? If we could keep him high all the time and never allow him into any negotiating venue, we would all be better off. Yeah, groovy Mr. President, really groovy, dude.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

The Grumpy Old Man


Grumpy Trumpy

Every day now, I open my e-mail or facebook account and I see some article by folks who apparently know our president, and they practically shout that he is (pick one) falling apart, ready to resign, having another hissy fit, threatening someone, or some organization.   Virtually never do I read about him doing something honorable, or clever, or moral, or, god-forbid, presidential. 

And, of course, it seems always to be the case that virtually every other article is about him. Since he tweets every night at 3:30 AM, or thereabouts, we are almost guaranteed some meltdown communique. I think it did not always play out this way. In olden days, one might awaken to other types of news—the weather even. Remember those good old days?

Now, we have to think about the nuclear codes, and whether any of his minders has let him have access to that terrifying box with those dreadful codes and switches.  Someone recently characterized the White House as a Day Care Center, with the President in Residence as the chief two-year old resident.  And, we look always to see who is actually minding the store, cuz it sure as hell ain’t him.

It would seem that we really have painted ourselves into a corner and then set the room on fire.  With all the speculation about impeaching him, we all now wonder whether that outcome would produce anything worth having—Pence as President? Why don’t we just get it over with, and designate the Devil – remember Satan?--as our new leader? Could that be any worse than what we are now experiencing, or would experience with Mike Pence? I regard the choice of Mike Pence as a sign of hidden genius on Trump’s part.  He may be a f#$@ing moron, but he knew enough to select his insurance policy in the form of Mike Pence.  This is why the newest cries for removing him all seem based on the election having been rigged by those Russkies. So, if that is true, then the whole election is invalid? Right, say those folks plaintively crying out into the wilderness?

We really seem terminally screwed. My main question is, can we actually survive four years of Trump-Pence? And by “we” I mean all of us . . . the world. Because if he goes off the deep end and can’t climb back, he may do something so terminally awful that the world could well disappear—remember the dinosaurs? Can his minders stop him? Well, we hope so, but I am less than sanguine.

It is difficult even to write about him/it/we/us.  Because I fail to see that rainbow out there somewhere.  Maybe the sun will actually shine again someday, and hopefully we will still be here, and still be able to smile again.

Meanwhile, please, look your loved ones in the eye. Kiss them, hug them. Be kind to strangers, and those less fortunate. We all need each other, as never before.
Be nice folks. It’s all we have

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Trump 101


The Trump reaction to the comments by the Mayor of San Juan, relative to the federal government’s response to the horrific damage to Puerto Rico from the last hurricane, makes me wonder about gamesmanship.

Our president is many things. He seems not smart, mainly I guess because he does not or perhaps cannot read much. He seems to care only about himself, and perhaps his closest family members. He lacks empathy, almost completely—I guess that’s the narcissist trait.

But mainly, he hates criticism of any kind directed at him. Note that he routinely directs criticism at others. It is his main characteristic—criticizing others. But any . . . repeat any, criticism directed at Donald Trump causes our President to enter a lengthy stage of unbridled fury. He seems borderline out of control, much as any 2-4 year old when denied something he wants.  Immediately, because Twitter seems his only communications approach (it allows him to direct his anger in 140 character bursts), he sends out one or more, often several, Tweets in a storm of abuse directed at the person, or entity criticizing him.

In the case of Puerto Rico, he blasted back at the Mayor for daring to find him less than perfect.  But the bottom line here is that he—Trump—now has power, and he can create damage beyond his snarky tweets. So, Puerto Rico might actually suffer because Trump is mad that someone there criticized him.

This makes me wonder whether we in the “outer world” (that world in which we humans of America live) need to consider a different strategy for communicating with President Stupidhead.

If we assume that our President will only act positively towards someone if that someone compliments him, then we might consider adopting a communications policy something like:

1.       Whenever you need something from the President, toss a compliment his way. Tell him he’s great, wonderful, yugely effective as President, and you love the job he’s doing. Then, at the least, he won’t be pissed at you. Never, ever criticize the President directly, unless you want nothing from him, or never expect to want anything from him.

2.       Then, you may communicate with whatever federal agency you might need to work some magic for you.  Presumptively, that agency will not have received any negative tweets from the President.

3.       You should then communicate privately with the Congressional offices that might be relevant to your needs. If they do not wish to open the doors to help you, say authorize aid as in Puerto Rico, you can still bring whatever political pressure you possess to bear.

4.       Never put any communication regarding the President in writing as an official statement.

5.       Work quietly locally to assure that your contacts are aware that changes will be made via the elections process if political leaders align themselves too closely with Trump.

So, for the next three years, no one who needs something from the federal government will ever again criticize him openly. Lie to him if necessary. It’s what he does to everyone around him. He can’t stand the truth, so never give him the truth.

Mainly, try not to engage in any communication with the President. It almost always ends badly, so avoid him if at all possible.

Oh, and if you’re Kim Jung Un, just ignore him. He’s an idiot, but insulting him is not a likely strategy for success.  Continue working with the adults of the world.
Eventually Trump will go back to being a real estate developer.  It’s what he does.