"Moral Equivalency" is a Familial-Based Accomodation of Bad Behavior @ 8 2017

Where were you when the most traumatizing presidential press conference in history spewed forth?

While I have adopted the rule of changing the station to avoid listening to Trump speak (his -loquy is too reminiscent of my own mother's failures), I got caught in yesterday's chaos.  Infrastructure is our meat, so I was a little slow to change the channel, and then he started calling consultants rich and the root of the problem in infrastructure project/permitting delays. So my fingers were texting my boss about that--who is a transportation facility project consultant, instead of pressing the buttons on the remote. And then it just happened...

As he paused to end his infrastructure speech, the press shouted questions at him, and, after having just heard his own voice--with all the authority and power of the world, booming off the walls of his home turf, the real Trump emerged. In an instant he was transformed, and it was palpable to even television viewers, You could see his anger and ego take physical control of the man even before he took the first question. It was impossible to look away. Indeed, the fight or flight instinct made it impossible to turn away--you feared for yourself, for him, for his staff, for the rest of us. And then he did it, he normalized organized hate, and, in all likelihood (hopefully), converted the countdown to the end of his presidency from years to weeks.

Even FOX called it for the tragedy it was, it was that bad.

So let's talk about some events in the speech that have yet to be discussed.

First, delayed permitting in infrastructure is NOT the problem with our country's infrastructure. Projects have become incredibly technologically advanced, as well as expansive, which means the impact on human safety and quality of life necessitates a thorough design/review and permitting process. Additionally, these projects are inextricable public resources, which means that control of them by persons accountable to the public is essential in this democratic representational government. Further, because the public's money is used to finance infrastructure projects, there is a requirement that the best and brightest talent at the most economically competitive level be employed at specific levels of the process, rather than having one government official or team of public servants half-ass their way through incredibly complex and advanced technologies. Consultants, contracted through competitive bid process, are integral to providing the best infrastructure projects possible to the people of this nation. Consultants on these projects are usually licensed professionals in technical fields. So, what the fuck is he talking about when he says that he his going to remove consultants from the process in order to speed up the permitting process?

Second, is no one also offended by his comment that linked "bringing factories back to the U.S. will be the best thing to improve race relations in this country?" That's a paraphrase, but its pretty close.  Ironically, while the press is completely focused on analyzing the racism behind his "moral equivalency"-type comments, probably the most direct evidence of his own racist tendencies is evidenced by this specific comment. To say, in a generalizing way, that minorities will benefit from what will largely be manufacturing jobs is mind-blowingly offensive--and factually fragile, in so many ways.

Third, his comments, as he was walking away from the podium and, sort of, past the press, about owning property in Charlottesville, VA, reflect a mind/personality that has no capacity for thinking outside of his own self.

Fourth, I know why/how Trump can have Jewish family AND call Nazi's "good people". This is where my mother comes in. My brother is a racist, bullying, drug-dealing thug and thief. My sister is a "Christian" homophobe who, when I introduced my family to my first girlfriend, told me her kids were going to be raised in a "Christian" household in which gay would not be allowed. I, on the other hand, put myself through law school--for the challenge, and pride my self on living with integrity and compassion and modeling those traits for others.

Yet, in my family, over and over, I hear the matriarch justify, excuse, enable, and embolden my sister's hate and my brother's criminal behavior--behavior that is too often targeted directly at me. So, in my mother's household, the cognitive dissonance created by her children's conflicting behavior was accommodated by this same kind of normalization of incredibly bad behavior that we heard from Trump yesterday. He has at least one child--a son, that proudly and publicly expresses the same vulgar traits of white supremacists. That son is obsessed with fire power and with killing other beings, and is so morally and ethically vacuous as to agree to take a public office by colluding with the devil -- the Russian government. And, then, there is Trump's Jewish daughter and grandchildren. It is highly likely that, at least at many family dinners/events, the conflict between the two children has had to be "negotiated" by the patriarch, probably with him saying, "Look, both sides brought something to this conflict, so there is blame on both sides, figure it out and move on."

Instead of performing the emotionally difficult task of calling out his son on his bad conduct, he "normalizes" it by alleging a moral equivalency, much like my mother has done for years now.

Now, I want to speak to the several commentators who have discussed the fact that too many voters and Republicans have given too high a priority to any one specific "monetary" based "promise" made by Trump and that they voted out of anger, and so they must get over their anger and re-organize their priorities.

That will never happen.

I have been saying to others for months now that the reason why we have Trump is just because too many voters were too selfish to vote compassionately. I tell them that I sacrificed my vote out of concern for my neighbors and the other people of this country because, while I wanted to vote for Sanders, I knew that vote risked putting an incredibly intellectually underperforming, toxically vulgar, and patently self-serving revengeful person in the president's office would NOT bring change and would NOT be good for us. The people who voted for Trump, and the Republicans that remain silent, have not demonstrated the will, courage, or compassion that it takes to "get over their anger and to re-organize their priorities to put ethics above their own self interest", whether that self interest is a new tax structure, new health insurance mandates, preference for U.S. Steel,....

Next, the media also needs to draw attention to the fact that hate is infusing itself into our culture in more ways than just white supremacist movements. For example, the Alliance Defending Freedom "non-profit" has a legal training program and a $41 MILLION bank for their participating lawyers to draw from to pursue ANY legal action that works to "reform" our country's legal system so that it criminalizes homosexuality and makes the civil and family legal systems inaccessible to gays, lesbians, and same sex families.  Right now, our legal systems--and many of our LGBT colleagues, neighbors, family, etc,, are being bombarded with onerous, yet frivolous/dilatory, legal actions that are designed to financially bankrupt the LGBT individual, at a minimum, and to establish a trail of legal precedents chipping away at the LGBT individual's right to seek protection or redress via our country's legal systems.

That press commentators have talked prolifically about the Southern Poverty Law Center's tracking of these hate groups since Saturday's tragic events without also revealing, in an impactful way, the more insidious hate-groups, like ADF, is a serious failure on the media's part. This is because while we are ruminating on the overtly violent hate groups disguised in polos and khakis, we are letting the ones in business suits sneak in the back door to our culture and its values.

Last, I would also like to know, with great certainty, whether Russian bots might also be feeding/trolling white supremacist internet sites in order to help Trump get 63 Million voters and to continue to influence is thought process while in office.


@ 8 2017

Pence won't survive a Trump Impeachment

Ok, so MW was a little off in the last Trump prediction (that he was a "shill" for the DNC) and would drop out at the last minute--what I didn't know at the time was how simple, pathologic, and vengeful Trump is. While I am not the type of person to kick myself in the ass for not seeing the Russian element in Trump's campaign, I should not have underestimated his vengeance.  That roasting he got at Obama's White House Correspondents dinner changed his life forever. On that night, his rage was palpable with every dig slung his way. He thought winning a campaign against his enemy's political party would "show them all" and this was just another relatively complicated commercial property/development transaction--no transaction barred.

What any enraged person doesn't see is the future--that future where you get what you "ask for"...and it becomes you. President Trump recently told an interviewer that he thought the job would be easier. [No surprise that he apparently did not use certain language like "harder" or "more difficult"--he kept using version of "easy". His is a very, very, easy life...ergo his venal and exceedingly limited view of the possibilities for his life -- easy, never difficult, never a sacrifice needed.] In the days after he won the election, he looked scared. He had the cowering posture, and that "deer in the headlights" look. Before getting the first real job in his life, he was a home body, cocooning himself in his real estate. Since January 20th, he has not once been to his marital home, the New York hotel where his wife and his son live. Oh, they have met for weekends at his Florida property...but that's not New York. And, its likely that he--now that he got what he wanted, may never be able to be that homebody in New York ever again. He is miserable. He expressly admitted that he misses his "old life", he really liked his old life. And he will never have that again. He can't ever go back.........?

Maybe impeachment out of office will get him closer to his memories. That might be a solution for all involved. But let's talk about whether Pence would be able to step in. MW's prediction is that whatever Trump goes down for, Pence will be inextricably tainted by...fatally tainted in terms of political career. Here's the logic, using Flynn as an example:

1. Pence served Trump's campaign as Transition Manager, and on November 18th was sent a letter (from Congress) notifying him that Flynn accepted payments from foreign governments and would likely have to register.

2. Trump team did a "plausible deniability" version of a background check on Flynn during the transition.

3. On Dec. 29th, Obama administration announces sanctions to be imposed against Russia for its meddling in election. Russia takes actions responding to announced sanctions. Later (that day), Flynn talks with Russian diplomat Kislyak about the sanctions, among other topics. On  the 30th, Russia announces it will not take any further action.  Because the US routinely eavesdrops on the Russian ambassador's conversations in the US, Flynn's conversations with Kislyak are recorded, and the transcripts are forwarded to the administration(s)--and leaked to the press by Jan. 12.

4. By January 13th, the transition team--fully knows that Flynn's "Sanctions" conversation is a hot topic, and so they start putting out a unified, but false message that no such conversation happened: Spicer says it didn't happen (Jan 13) and Pence did a round on the Sunday morning talking heads shows (CBS's "Face the Nation" included) on Jan 15 saying it didn't happen and that Flynn confirmed that with him (on Jan 14th).

5. No public official, especially a public official serving at the behest of a higher ranking public official, goes on those shows without first asking permission from (or being ordered to by) his "boss", and second, getting a briefing on what is going to be asked, and how your boss wants you to respond. So, Pence, before that Sunday, would have been told that he was going to talk about what Flynn told him about what he (Flynn) said to the Russian. At that point, Pence would either know the context or the "why" regarding why he was being prepared on this specific topic, or, if not, he would have had clear reason to ask why that is a topic. He was responsible for presenting the WH administration's position on this very specific topic, so he has a duty to know what was going on. At a minimum, he would have asked why are we wasting PR time on this non-issue, if that is what he truly believed it was. The fact that he made that public appearance and spoke to that issue means he knew that there was a real problem--by Jan. 15th, Pence knew that Flynn discussed sanctions with Kislyak.

6. In Feb., FBI director testifies in front of an investigative committee: Republicans focus on source of "leaks" within the FBI, and Democrats focus on Trump team ties to Russia.

7.  In April, Pence, Spicer, and Sessions (AG) hit the media hard with the WH's position that the transition team never knew about Flynn's acceptance of payments from foreign government(s), notwithstanding the fact that the November 18th letter confirming the payments was sent directly to Pence.

Pence can not escape the chronology that he knew all about Flynn's acceptance of payments from foreign governments, and all about what Flynn said to Russian diplomats: He was the clear recipient of the Nov. 18th letter; he had to have been briefed on and knowledgeable of the Flynn/Russian transition conversation; and he would have known or had reason to know by January 12th, three days BEFORE he went on t.v. to say deny Flynn's sanctions conversation, of intelligence reports and transcript directly contradicting that and that, in fact, the conversation did include discussing sanctions. So, it was Pence who lied, and he did so in collusion to support a cover up.