December, 2017 archive
The Six Styles of Trump 0
Continuing in a numerical vein, I commend Steve Yetiv’s enumeration of six perspectives on Donald Trump to your attention. Here’s a couple:
Loopy Trump: This perspective offers a different story. It is about Trump’s mentality. It asks us to see Trump as both insecure and overconfident (“I know more about ISIS than the generals do”), narcissistic (“I alone can fix it”), hyper-sensitive (tit-for-tat Twitter fights), sometimes crazy, and prone to ego-driven fiascos. His tweets and actions are more impetuous and infantile than strategic, suggesting that he may drag America down. . . .
Follow the link. Collect the complete set.
The Five Legs of a Trumpled Stool 0
Bobby Azarian analyzes the news and suggests five psychological traits that characterize Donald Trump’s core supporters.
Note that these are technical terms and may not necessarily mean what they would in normal parlance. For example, “relative deprivation” does not mean that some is deprived; rather, it means that he or she thinks he or she is deprived relative to some other group (say, for example, black folks or millennials, whatever they are).
Here’s the thumbnail; follow the link for a discussion of each one.
- 1. Authoritarian Personality Syndrome
- 2. Social dominance orientation
- 3. Prejudice
- 4. Intergroup contact
- 5. Relative deprivation
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Self-politeness is the politest kind.
Taylor police say the man recanted his story after further questioning, and said he actually shot himself while handling a handgun.
There is a lesson in this tale: When you decide to play with your auxiliary portable penis, proceed with caution.
No Place To Hide 0
Thom discusses our culture of institutionalized spying and the loss of privacy.
No Laughing Matter 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Scott Weems argues that Donald Trump can’t tell a joke. (Of course, he can’t take a joke, either, but that is an entirely other matter.)
The Greatest Snow Job on Earth! 0
At The Hartford Courant, Jennifer Tucker assesses the similarities and differences between P. T. Barnum and Donald Trump. Here’s two differences (emphasis added):
Even more notably, Barnum cited truth-telling as a necessary condition for success in business: “Let your pledged word be sacred,” he wrote, since “Nothing is more valuable to a man in business than the name of always doing as he agrees.”
Follow the link for the similarities.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Surround your children with politeness.
Jackson told the newspaper that it appears that the child found the gun in the house and accidently (sic) shot himself as he was handling it. Law enforcement has not released the name of the child.
The Court Is in Sessions, “Useless Eaters” Dept. 0
This is a pile of vile.
QOTD 0
Rex Stout:
Few of us have enough enough wisdom for justice, or enough leisure for humanity.
Stout, Rex, Too Many Cooks (New York: Pyramid, 1963), p. 43
For Your Listening Pleasure . . . . 0
In case you haven’t noticed, I have added a link to the “Old Time Radio” item on the sidebar, over there ——>, to the “Old Radio Programs” website.
It has wonderful content and I commend it to your attention.
Political Fallout 0
I have a brown leather vest that I truly like to wear in lieu of a jacket on mild days.
Now, thanks to “Judge” Roy Moore, I am ashamed to be seen in it.
