Replies to post #265055 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

The t-rump mob's labeling all disagreement as fake is beyond the pale, and it's good to see them getting some fully-deserved backlash
on it .. the fandango is t-rump's thing undoubtedly, and as forlorn a strategy as one could conceive .. he looks insecure
in every meeting with a foreign leader .. he looks insecure in his role .. he certainly fills these 4 criteria ..

Fulfillment at Any Age

Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D.

4 Signs That Someone Is Probably Insecure
... and what narcissism has to do with it.

Posted Nov 17, 2015

[...]

The Brookes study provides some clues, then, into what makes up the narcissistic personality. It can also offer insight into the ways you can interpret the actions of narcissistic friends, coworkers, or partners through examining their insecurities:

1. The insecure person tries to make you feel insecure yourself.
When you start to question your own self-worth, is it typically around a specific person or type of person? Is that individual always broadcasting his or her strengths? If you don’t feel insecure in general, but only around certain people, it’s likely they’re projecting their insecurities onto you.

2. The insecure person needs to showcase his or her accomplishments.
You don’t necessarily have to feel insecure around someone to conclude that inferiority is at the heart of their behavior. People who are constantly bragging about their great lifestyle, their elite education, or their fantastic children may very well be doing so to convince themselves that they really do have worth.

3. The insecure person drops the “humble brag” far too often.
The humble brag .. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201207/bragging-when-is-it-ok-and-when-is-it-not-ok .. is a brag disguised as a self-derogatory statement. You’ve all seen these on Facebook .. https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/social-networking , when an acquaintance complains about all the travel she has to take (due to the importance of her job), or all the time he has to spend watching his kids play (and, by the way, win) hockey games. (The "Facebook gloat" is a bold-faced brag which is easier to spot but may very well have the same roots.)

4. The insecure person frequently complains that things aren’t good enough.
People high in inferiority like to show what high standards they have. You may label them as snobs .. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201410/5-ways-handle-snob?utm_source=TwitterPost&utm_medium=TWPost&utm_campaign=TWPost , but as much as you realize they’re putting on an act, it may be hard to shake the feeling that they really are better than you. What they’re trying to do, you may rightly suspect, is to proclaim their high standards as a way of asserting that not only are they better than everyone else, but that they hold themselves to a more rigorous set of self-assessment criteria.

Returning to the Brookes study, there can be aspects of overt narcissism that actually do work in helping the insecure feel more confident in their abilities. However, this comes at the price of making everyone else feel less confident. I wouldn’t recommend bolstering your sense of self-efficacy by putting down everyone else.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201511/4-signs-someone-is-probably-insecure

Thanks for posting the one from Kushner's Observer, judging each article on it's merits is the smart way to go.

Top 4 articles of yours there, all together is great, and am looking forward to more.

See also:

Johns Hopkins’ Top Psychologist Releases Terrifying Diagnosis of President Trump
Zach Cartwright | January 28, 2017
One of the nation’s top psychologists just broke one of his profession’s ethics rules to give President Donald Trump a professional diagnosis.
John D. Gartner, a psychotherapist who teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, told US News that he believes Trump has “malignant narcissism,” which is incurable, and different from narcissistic personality disorder. Gartner violated the “Goldwater Rule” of the psychology profession, in which a diagnosis of a public figure without personally examining them, and without their consent, is considered unethical. .. http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2017-01-27/does-donald-trumps-personality-make-him-dangerous?src=usn_tw
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=128231379

Donald Trump Says Your Opinions Are Fake If You Don’t Like His Policies
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.
6:01 AM - 6 Feb 2017
[

Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 6, 2017

(with {over 63,000} comments)]
The president is in dangerous territory referring to anything he doesn’t like as “fake news.”
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!
6:07 AM - 6 Feb 2017
[

I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 6, 2017

(with {over 59,000} comments)]
02/06/2017
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-negative-polls-fake_us_58988431e4b04061313
.. that group is 4th down here ..
Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=128519610

Former MI6 agent Christopher Steele's frustration as FBI sat on Donald Trump Russia file for months
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=127868073

Trump vs. the Truth: The Russian Hacking Report - The Daily Show
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=127878638

Noah's ark of biblical proportions ready to open in Kentucky
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=123724923

[fuagf]

Were Flynn's Russian chats trump inspired? Schiff says what many believe is more likely than not.

" White House staff in "survival mode ... scared to death""

House Intel Dem: 'It Wouldn't Surprise Me' If Trump Had Flynn Talk Sanctions


Cliff Owen

Esme Cribb February 15, 2017, 6:56 PM EDT

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that it "wouldn't surprise" him if President Donald Trump directed his former national security adviser Michael Flynn to discuss sanctions with a Russian ambassador.

"This is consistent with the President's view of things and view of Russia, his desire to do away with any impediment to our relationship," Schiff told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "It certainly wouldn't surprise me."

He cited Trump's comments on Wednesday calling Flynn a "wonderful man" and complaining that the media treated him "very unfairly."

"If you take him at his words today, that he thinks Mike Flynn is a wonderful man and that he's been mistreated, that also suggests that he was acting appropriately," Schiff said. "He was acting at least if not at the direct wishes of the President, certainly aligned with what the President wanted to see happen."

More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/adam-schiff-says-would-not-surprise-him-if-trump-ordered-flynn-talk-sanctions

--

Flynn Doesn't Matter. This Is About Trump


Evan Vucci

Josh Marshall February 14, 2017, 11:19 PM EDT

For all we've learned over recent days about retired General Michael Flynn and his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, it's overshadowed by much more that we do not know. Indeed, based on the current evidence we don't know whether Flynn's actions were just wildly inappropriate (undermining the current president's actions with a foreign adversary weeks before taking office) or part of a larger, darker design. Whether Flynn lied to the FBI (we don't know) or lied to his colleagues is an interesting legal and possibly political question. But again, they are relatively straightforward matters which only become truly significant in terms of the bigger picture, if there is one. The truth is Michael Flynn does not matter. We have before us a question that has stood before us, centerstage, for something like a year, brazen and shameless and yet too baffling and incredible to believe: Donald Trump's bizarre and unexplained relationship with Russia and its strongman Vladimir Putin.

It is almost beyond imagining that a National Security Advisor could be forced to resign amidst a counter-intelligence investigation into his communications and ties to a foreign adversary. The National Security Advisor is unique in the national security apparatus. He or she is the organizer, synthesizer and conduit to the President for information from all the various agencies and departments with a role in national security. This person must be able to know everything. The power and trust accorded this person are immeasurable. It is only really comparable to the President. And yet, we are talking about the President. A staffer or appointee can be dismissed. The President is the ultimate constitutional officer.

For all that I've been associated with scrutiny of the President's ties to Vladimir Putin and Russia, I've always been skeptical of the maximal claims and arguments. Indeed, I've been skeptical of the whole idea. All the claims about Trump and Russia rely on suppositions which are unproven and hard evidence we don't have. But the circumstantial evidence, the unexplained actions, the unheard of spectacle of a foreign power subverting a US election while the beneficiary of the interference aggressively and openly makes the case for the culprit, the refusal to make even the most elementary forms of disclosure which could clarify the President's financial ties - they are so multifaceted and abundant it is almost impossible to believe they are mere random and chance occurrences with no real set of connections behind them.

Step back for a second and look at this. While certainties are hard to come by, it seems clear that Russia broke into computer networks and selectively released private emails to damage Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump. When President Obama took a series of actions to punish the Russian government for this interference, President-Elect Trump's top foreign policy advisor made a series of calls to the Russian government's representative in the United States to ask him to have his government refrain from retaliation and suggested that the punishments could be lifted once the new government was sworn in. Then he lied about the calls both publicly and apparently within the White House. What has gotten lost in this discussion is that these questionable calls were aimed at blunting the punishment meted out for the election interference that helped Donald Trump become President. This is mind-boggling.

Consider another point.

Through the course of the campaign, transition and presidency, three top Trump advisors and staffers have had to resign because of issues tied to Russia. Paul Manafort, Carter Page and now Michael Flynn. Page might arguably be termed a secondary figure. Manafort ran Trump's campaign and Flynn was his top foreign policy advisor for a year. The one common denominator between all these events, all these men is one person: Donald Trump.

As I said above, this has all been happening before our eyes, the train of inexplicable actions, the unaccountable ties and monetary connections, the willful, almost inexplicable need to make the case for Vladimir Putin even when the President knows the suspicion he's under. When I was writing my first post on this topic more than 6 months ago, I had the uncanny feeling of finding what I was writing impossible to believe as I wrote it. And yet, I would go through the list of unexplained occurrences and actions, clear business and political connections, sycophantic support and more and realize there was too much evidence to ignore. It was fantastical and yet in plain sight.

That's where we still are. There is a huge amount we don't know. We don't know the big answers. But to use the language of the criminal law, there's probable cause to have a real investigation. Not a rush to judgment, but an investigation. This has been in front of us for months. It may gratify Democrats as partisans to see an entire political party be suborned by a President under a cloud of doubt. But it is horrible for the country. There is so much smoke that you could choke on it. It's time to find out what Donald Trump's relationship is to Russia, his and his associates' contacts with Russian officials during the campaign, whatever business ties there might be. If you were Vladimir Putin you could not have done more to help the cause of Donald Trump. And if you were Trump, you could not have done more in actions and statements to repay the favor. The only question is whether the trajectory of perfectly interlocked actions were simply chance or tacit. Is it even remotely credible that with everything that led up to it, Michael Flynn initiated and conducted this back channel on his own? Hardly. It's crazy that we're having this conversation about a sitting President. But here we are. It's time. We need to know the answer to this question.

Josh Marshall is editor and publisher of TalkingPointsMemo.com.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/flynn-doesn-t-matter-this-is-about-trump