Monday with Mitch's ego.

 Remember in the past when players from championship teams were skipping the visit to the White House when...or even more importantly, because president Obama was our president? I do. The Obama fans didn't like it, but they had to suck it up and deal with it, because, as the narrative went at the time, those players had every right to exercise their right not to go.

Let's fast forward to present day America. There is a different president now, and the mood among some has changed.

There are now six players from the Super Bowl champion Patriots who said that they will decline the invitation to the White House. Why they are doing it, of course, is irrelevant. And some of the same folks who celebrated that Tea Party hockey player, Tim Thomas, skipping the White House visit, are now saying that these Patriots are being very unpatriotic. (Pun intended)

Here comes Mitch Albom, who took the time to write a long screed from his high horse about why some of the New England Patriots------ who decided to skip a visit to the White House--- were being "rude".

Mitch must have forgotten when their QB lied and skipped a previous White House visit after one of the Patriot's previous Super Bowl wins.

It's no secret that Brady is a fan of President trump. so we will see what he does this time around. If he chooses to visit his buddy, I won't be mad at him, but I resent writers like Albom criticizing his teammates for not going.

He writes:

 "No one is asking them to endorse a candidate. And taking a photo with your nation’s elected leader doesn’t mean you surrender your right to disagree with every single thing he does. That’s the beauty of America. In fact, the visit may give you a rare chance to express your views to the leader himself.
How many photos or congratulations have those players accepted from corporations that exploit workers, CEOs who practice unfair hiring practices, TV hosts who they privately don’t like, etc.? All NFL teams have mandatory events, from charity to corporate, where no excuses for absence are accepted. It’s not like players don’t have to bite their tongue sometimes.

Besides, since most presidential elections are about 50-50, I’m guessing half the athletes who have visited the White House over the years didn’t vote for the man occupying it. So what? You can respect the office. The tradition. The reverence of our flawed but still-beautiful democratic system.
But we live in a world where declaring is easier than doing, and Twitter posts pass for social action. So turning down an invitation — by tweeting or doing an interview —  gets you celebrated. You don’t need to actually do anything to make the country better. You don’t even need to leave the couch." [Source]

"And you don't have to leave the comfort of your home while you pound away at your computer keys to make yourself seem like a righteous crusader, when in fact you are nothing but a phony and a
fraud.  

*Pic from imdb.com

The age of trump.

Welcome to the age of trump, where you are getting more of this and this on a daily basis. It's going to make life over the next four years very difficult.

In lieu of all of this, the following article from Hal Boedeker about team trump is quite appropriate.

"Maybe you’ve been losing a lot of sleep lately because of world events. A word of advice: Don’t watch cable news in the night.

I should have stuck with TCM early Saturday, but I turned to CNN and heard the latest about Michael Flynn, President Trump’s national security adviser. Turns out Flynn may have spoken with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, about U.S. sanctions against Russia before the inauguration, CNN reported, and that’s contrary to what Flynn had told Vice President Mike Pence before the veep appeared on Sunday morning shows.

Then a CNN anchor repeated a line that made me think I was dreaming. But no, I found the line on CNN’s website: “A source with knowledge of the situation told CNN the only reason Flynn hasn't been fired is that the White House doesn't want to look bad.”

If the White House doesn’t want to look bad, it’s running three weeks behind in tackling that problem. The Trump White House is to public relations what Chernobyl was to nuclear plants.

The White House’s messaging suffers because the administration acts like it’s still in rancorous campaign mode. Guided by Trump, the tweeter-in-chief, the White House makes everything personal. It doesn’t matter if the topic is Elizabeth Warren, court setbacks, Ivanka Trump’s brand, Sean Spicer’s press briefings or the size of the inauguration crowd.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, has been a one-woman wrecking crew in damaging the administration’s credibility. She introduced the term “alternative facts,” invented a massacre and hawked Ivanka’s products.

But those are sideshows. The main culprit is the Donald himself, whose worst moment so far —  you may point to others — was his jaw-dropping interview with Bill O’Reilly of Fox News Channel on Super Bowl Sunday.

O’Reilly described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a killer.”

Trump replied, “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent?”

Trump “indicted” America “in language unprecedented for any sitting or former president,” wrote Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal.

What does that say about a president who treats America’s image — its brand — so shabbily?
For starters, he’s reckless and unaware of the impression he’s making. Michael Scott (Steve Carell) had more finesse on “The Office.”

“Three weeks of Trump is like five years of Nixon,” Bill Maher said Friday on his HBO show “Real Time.” Maher dismissed Trump as “President Man-Baby.”

Trump may be a titan of business — we haven’t seen his tax returns, so who knows for sure? — but so far he’s a flop at public relations. Having a steady hand at P.R. is crucial in steering the country. By painting the media as the enemy, Trump distracts from his own erratic and undisciplined performance. That routine will grow old quickly.

Trump’s team often seems incapable of professionalism. But the team is taking cues from a leader who generates chaos instead of clarity, who mocks instead of inspires.

The White House looks bad, and one person deserves most of the blame. That’s the way leadership works.

I fear there are a lot of sleepless nights ahead." [Source]

CAPTION SATURDAY.

I need a caption for this pic.

For example: "Where is the guy from FOX?" 


*Pic from cnn.com

Days of dysfunction, chaos, and law breaking.

I hate to keep beating a dead orange horse, but team trump, you really have to get your s**t together.

Let's forget, for a minute, all the seriously wrong,  ill-prepared, and unqualified people the president has appointed to cabinet positions. That is bad, but it's not as bad as his minions breaking the law.

We will start with Kellyanne Polls, who clearly broke the law by promoting the sale of Ivanka trump's products on FOX VIEWS from the White House.

 “I hate shopping, but I’m going to get some myself today,” Conway, a special counselor to the president, said from the White House briefing room. “I’m going to give it a free commercial here, go buy it today.”

Whoops!

Even more egregious than one Conway did, though, is what transpired between the Russian Ambassador to the United States and trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn. (I hope that he at least knows what the START Treaty is.)

"Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for national security adviser, held five phone calls with Russia's ambassador to Washington on the day the United States retaliated for Moscow's interference in the U.S. presidential election, three sources familiar with the matter said.

The calls occurred between the time the Russian embassy was told about U.S. sanctions and the announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he had decided against reprisals, said the sources. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing internal U.S. government deliberations about the issue.


The calls raised fresh questions among some U.S. officials about contacts between Trump's advisers and Russian officials at a time when U.S. intelligence agencies contend that Moscow waged a multifaceted campaign of hacking and other actions to boost Republican Trump's election chances against Democrat Hillary Clinton." [Source]

Of course, the trump administration lied about these calls ever taking place, but now, thanks to good reporting, we are learning that they did.

The craziest part of this story is trump saying that he was not aware of what Flynn did. (If you believe that I have a wonderful antique bell here in Philly with a slight crack on the side to sell you.) Trump, who is always watching the news and wants to know everything going on with all of his people, did not know that General Flynn had conversations with the Russians? I need a break.

Finally, remember that  salacious dossier that contained some rather racy things (ahem ahem, golden showers) about our president that he called "fake news"? Well, as it turns out, it might not be so fake after all.

 "As noted by correspondent Jim Sciutto earlier today, multiple current and former law enforcement and intelligence officials have stated that an intelligence intercept has confirmed some of the conversations described in the dossier.

Sciutto did state that this doesn’t confirm the more extreme allegations made in the dossier but intelligence and law enforcement agencies now have greater confidence in the document’s credibility.

Sciutto also pointed out that when they tried to get a comment from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on the story, Spicer told them “we continue to be disgusted by CNN’s fake news reporting.”' [Source]

Sorry Sean, given your administration's track record of late, we are riding with CNN on this one.

OPEN THREAD THURSDAY.

 We have lots to talk about tonight.

trump lost to the 9th Circuit by a vote of 3-0. So,  at least for now, his attempted Muslim ban is on hold.

Also, he flat out lied about what his Supreme Court nominee said to Senator Bluementhal, and when he was exposed, he attacked the man's military record.  

Oh, and did you know that there was another massacre? This one, according to team trump, was in Atlanta. 

Throw in Kellyanne Polls breaking the law and you can see what kind of news day it has been.

Thoughts?

The "silencing."

"Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to express my strong opposition to the nomination of Jefferson Sessions for a federal district judgeship for the Southern District of Alabama. My longstanding commitment which I shared with my husband, Martin, to protect and enhance the rights of black Americans, rights which include equal access to the democratic process, compels me to testify today.

Civil rights leaders, including my husband and Albert Turner, have fought long and hard to achieve free and unfettered access to the ballot box. Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge. This simply cannot be allowed to happen. Mr. Sessions' conduct as a US Attorney, from his politically-motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws, indicated that he lacks the temperament, fairness and judgment to be a federal judge.

The Voting Rights Act was, and still is, vitally important to the future of democracy in the United States. I was privileged to join Martin and many others during the Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights in 1965. Martin was particularly impressed by the determination to get the franchise of blacks in Selma and neighboring Perry County. As he wrote, "Certainly no community in the history of the Negro struggle has responded with the enthusiasm of Selma and her neighboring town of Marion. Where Birmingham depended largely upon students and unemployed adults to participate in non-violent protest of the denial of the franchise, Selma has involved fully 10 per cent of the Negro population in active demonstrations, and at least half of the Negro population of Marion was arrested on one day." Martin was referring of course to a group that included the defendants recently prosecuted for assisting elderly and illiterate blacks to exercise that franchise. In fact, Martin anticipated from the depth of their commitment twenty years ago, that a united political organization would remain in Perry County long after the other marchers had left. This organization, the Perry County Civic League, started my Mr. Turner, Mr. Hogue, and others, as Martin predicted, continued "to direct the drive for votes and other rights." In the years since the Voting Rights Act was passed, black Americans in Marion, Selma and elsewhere have made important strides in their struggle to participate actively in the electoral process. The number of blacks registered to vote in key Southern states has doubled since 1965. This would not have been possible without the Voting Rights Act.

However, blacks still fall far short of having equal participation in the electoral process. Particularly in the South, efforts continue to be made to deny blacks access to the polls, even where blacks constitute the majority of the voters. It has been a long, up-hill struggle to keep alive the vital legislation that protects the most fundamental right to vote. A person who has exhibited so much hostility to the enforcement of those laws, and thus, to the exercise of those rights by black people should not be elevated to the federal bench.

The irony of Mr. Sessions' nomination is that, if confirmed, he will be given life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished twenty years ago with clubs and cattle prods. Twenty years ago, when we marched from Selma to Montgomery, the fear of voting was real, as the broken bones and bloody heads in Selma and Marion bore witness. As my husband wrote at the them, "it was not just a sick imagination that conjured up the vision of a public official, sworn to uphold the law, who forced an inhuman march upon hundreds of Negro children. Who ordered the Rev. James Bevel to be chained to his sickbed, who clubbed a Negro woman registrant, and who callously inflicted repeated brutalities and indignities upon nonviolent Negroes peacefully petitioning for their constitutional right to vote."

Free exercise of voting rights is so fundamental to American democracy that we cannot tolerate any form of infringement of those rights. Of all the groups who have been disenfranchised in our nation's history, none has struggled longer or suffered more in the attempt to win the vote than black citizens. No group has had access to the ballot box denied so persistently and intently. Over the past century, a broad array of schemes have been used in attempts to bloc the black vote. The range of techniques developed with the purpose of repressing black voting rights run the gamut from the straightforward application of brutality against black citizens who tried to vote, to such legalized frauds as grandfather clause exclusions and rigged literacy tests.

The actions taken by Mr. Sessions in regard to the 1984 voting fraud prosecutions represent just one more technique used to intimidate black voters and thus deny them this most precious franchise. The investigations into the absentee voting process were conducted only in the black belt counties where blacks had finally achieved political power in local government. Whites had been using the absentee process to their advantage for years, without incident. Then, when blacks, realizing its strength, began to use it with success, criminal investigations were begun.

In these investigations, Mr. Sessions, a US Attorney, exhibited an eagerness to bring to trial and convict three leaders of the Perry County Civic League including Albert Turner, despite evidence clearly demonstrating their innocence of any wrongdoing. Furthermore, in initiating the case, Mr. Sessions ignored allegations of similar behavior by whites, choosing instead to chill the exercise of the franchise by blacks in his misguided investigation. In fact, Mr. Sessions sought to punish older black civil rights activists, advisers and colleagues of my husband, who had been key figures in the civil rights movement in the 1960's. These were persons who, realizing the potential of the absentee vote among blacks, had learned to use the process within the bounds of legality and had taught others to do the same. The only sin they committed was being too successful in gaining votes.

The scope and character of the investigations conducted by Mr. Sessions also warrant grave concern. Witnesses were selectively chosen in accordance with the favorability of their testimony to the government's case. Also, the prosecution illegally withheld from the defense critical statements made by witnesses. Witnesses who did testify were pressured and intimidated into submitting the "correct" testimony. Many elderly blacks were visited multiple times by the FBI who then hauled them over 180 miles by bus to a grand jury in Mobile when they could more easily have testified at a grand jury just twenty miles away in Selma. These voters, and others, have announced they are now never going to vote again.

I urge you to consider carefully Mr. Sessions' conduct in these matters. Such a review, I believe, raises serious questions about his commitment to the protection of the voting rights of all American citizens and consequently his fair and unbiased judgment regarding this fundamental right. When the circumstances and facts surrounding the indictments of Al Turner, his wife, Evelyn, and Spencer Hogue are analyzed, it becomes clear that the motivation was political, and the result frightening -- the wide-scale chill of the exercise of the ballot for blacks, who suffered so much to receive that right in the first place. Therefore, it is my strongly-held view that the appointment of Jefferson Sessions to the federal bench would irreparably damage the work of my husband, Al Turner and countless others who risked their lives and freedom over the past twenty years to ensure equal participation in our democratic system....

.....We still have a long way to go before we can say that minorities no longer need be concerned about discrimination at the polls. Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian Americans are grossly underrepresented at every level of government in America. If we are going to make our timeless dream of justice through democracy a reality, we must take every step possible to ensure that the spirit and intent of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the 15th Amendment to the Constitution is honored. The federal courts hold a unique position in our constitutional system, ensuring that minorities and other citizens without political power have a forum in which to vindicate their rights. Because of this unique role, it is essential that the people selected to be federal judges respect the basic tenets of our legal system: respect for individual rights and a commitment to equal justice for all.

The integrity of the courts, and thus, the rights they protect, can only be maintained if citizens feel confident that those selected as federal judges will be able to judge with fairness others holding differing views.

I do not believe Jefferson Sessions possesses the requisite judgment, competence and sensitivity to the rights guaranteed by the federal civil rights laws to qualify for appointment to the federal district court. Based on his record, I believe his confirmation would have a devastating effect not only on the judicial system in Alabama, but also on the progress we have made everywhere toward fulfilling my husband's dream that he envisioned over twenty years ago. I therefore urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to deny his confirmation.

I thank you for allowing me to share my views."

Sadly, Jefferson Sessions was confirmed today as our next Attorney General, and it is a sad day for civil rights in this country.    

To her credit, Elizabeth Warren tried to put up some resistance, but she was disgracefully silenced by a bunch of old white men. (You just read what she was trying to read.) 

"The senator has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama, as warned by the chair," McConnell said on the floor.

"She has been warned multiple times (not just today)," McConnell spokesman Don Stewart told NBC News. "And after additional warning today, she was found in violation of the rule. She appealed the ruling and lost." 

Nope, she didn't lose; America did.

*Pic from bbc.com

Unqualified cabinet members and a lying president.

Let me start tonight's post by saying congrats to Betsy DeVos. I guess it's more important to be wealthy than smart.

 I also suspect that everyone of those senators that voted for her has gotten a dollar or two from her family at some point.

In case you missed her confirmation hearings, you need to understand that she was probably the most unqualified cabinet nominee in the history of these divided states of America.

Anyway, after watching how this all went down today, I don't want to hear white folks complaining about affirmative action ever again.

Still, as bad as she was, she might be better suited for a cabinet position than Mr. Andrew Puzder. All he did was allegedly beat his wife, and....wait for it....hired an undocumented worker as a housekeeper.

Imagine that for a minute; a labor secretary hiring illegal help. ("We are going to drain the swamp.")     
Then there is the whole domestic violence thing. His wife actually went on the Oprah Winfrey Show in disguise to complain about the abuse. Of course now she is walking it all back. It was just a big misunderstanding.  

"Fierstein’s domestic violence allegations first came to the public eye in 1989 while the couple was divorcing. The Riverfront Times reported that the CEO of fast-food chains Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr had been accused of grabbing, pushing or hitting his then-wife on three separate occasions. In addition to the three alleged incidents, the Riverfront Times also reported the police had been called to the couple’s house at least twice in the 1980s. At the time, Puzder called the allegations “baseless.”

Indeed, Puzder’s dismissal of the accusations was later reiterated by Fierstein. After the domestic violence allegations from the 1980s resurfaced, Fierstein issued a statement through the Republican National Committee calling Puzder “one of the finest men I have ever known.” She added:

Many years ago I impulsively filed for divorce and was counseled to file allegations that I regretted and subsequently withdrew over thirty years ago. Andy is a wonderful father, a great person, and was a good husband."

Ms. Fierstein, you may now cash your check.

Finally, our supreme leader told another big lie today while hosting a group of county sheriffs at the White (again) House.

“The murder rate is the highest it’s been in ... 45 to 47 years,” Trump told a White House gathering of county sheriffs from across the country. “I used to say that in a speech and everybody was surprised, because the press doesn’t tell it like it is.”

Trump has repeatedly claimed crime is worse than the reality. During the campaign, he frequently said crime is out of control. Since his election, he’s said the murder rate is the highest in 45 years. Last month, he falsely said Philadelphia’s murder rate had increased when it actually declined.

Recent FBI data shows the U.S. murder rate near its lowest in decades, with 5 homicides per 100,000 people in 2015. (Data for 2016 hasn’t been released.)

At some point somebody close to this man has to call him out and tell him that he has no clothes. I mean I know that president's misspeak and flat out lie from time to time, but this is getting ridiculous.  

  

If the president says that there was a terror attack and no one reports it, did it really happen?

     You can't make this stuff up. I feel like I have died and gone to blogger heaven with team trump running things.

I am not a big SNL fan, but I think that we can all agree that Melissa McCarthy's Sean Spicer imitation was laugh out loud funny. She captured the essence of Spicer's I have something stuck up my ass demeanor to a tee.

Sean, of course, didn't think so, and rather than going along with the joke and taking it for what it was, he proved to us that his skin is almost as thin as his thin-skinned boss..

He actually declared that the  comedian should just "dial it back a bit".

Or what? Is the administration going to sign an executive order banning comedy on television? The whole thing is totally ridiculous. And the fact that this administration would spend their time watching and criticizing comedy shows on television is not funny. (Pun Intended)

But Spicer didn't reserve his outrage for McCarthy alone. He also hit out at Alec Baldwin and the entire SNL crew for having a "mean streak" and implied that they might have crossed the line.

This administration has actually drawn a red line for comedians now. I wonder how you cross that one?

Maybe they are worried about the "mean streak" with the SNL comedy writers because they have been giving them so much material of late.

"The Donald Trump who arrived at MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa on Monday was subdued and dark, promising to keep the United States against “radical Islamic terror” through a strong defense, and accusing the press of willfully refusing to report on terrorist attacks.

But first, as he is wont to do, Trump let his mind drift back to a happier time, before he was ensconced in the White House with a passel of quarreling advisers, an unrelenting chorus of critics, and a federal judiciary stymieing his agenda." [Source] 

Did you read that last line from the first paragraph above? Yes, he actually said that.

I am not sure what good it would do the media (whose job it is to get ratings) to bury a terrorist attack.  CNN would love nothing more than to have that BREAKING NEWS feed running all day while their anchors excitedly give us the body count.

Ironically, the only terrorist attack that seemed to have been blacked out by the media is the one that took place in Canada recently. That's the one where some trump loving white supremacist decided to kill six innocent people who were worshiping in their mosque.  

“You’ve seen what happened in Paris and Nice. All over Europe, it’s happening. It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in may cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that.”

Tomorrow our president will go to Bowling Green, Kentucky to pray for the victims of that horrible attack.





  



  

Super Bowls and Gaslighitng.

I am watching the Super Bowl, and it's looking like youth is going to win out over experience.

I must admit that I had New England winning  this one (and I still might be right), but right now it's looking more and more like the "Durty Birds" are going to give Atlanta their first ever Super Bowl Championship, and the first major championship from a sports team in that city since 1995. We will see.

Atlanta is flying all over the place, and they are beating up on Brady like they all voted for Hillary in the last election and they know that he (Brady) is trump's buddy. 

They are up by 19 as I type this post, so it's not looking too good for the Cheatriots at the moment.

Meanwhile, back in the real world,  here is an interesting article I read about something I have become fascinated with since the election of trump: Gaslighting.   

"Gaslighting is a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. It works much better than you may think. Anyone is susceptible to gaslighting, and it is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders. It is done slowly, so the victim doesn't realize how much they've been brainwashed. For example, in the movie Gaslight (1944), a man manipulates his wife to the point where she thinks she is losing her mind.
People who gaslight typically use the following techniques:

1. They tell blatant lies.

You know it's an outright lie. Yet they are telling you this lie with a straight face. Why are they so blatant? Because they're setting up a precedent. Once they tell you a huge lie, you're not sure if anything they say is true. Keeping you unsteady and off-kilter is the goal.

2. They deny they ever said something, even though you have proof. 

You know they said they would do something; you know you heard it. But they out and out deny it. It makes you start questioning your reality—maybe they never said that thing. And the more they do this, the more you question your reality and start accepting theirs.

3. They use what is near and dear to you as ammunition. 

They know how important your kids are to you, and they know how important your identity is to you. So those may be one of the first things they attack. If you have kids, they tell you that you should not have had those children. They will tell you'd be a worthy person if only you didn't have a long list of negative traits. They attack the foundation of your being.

4. They wear you down over time.

This is one of the insidious things about gaslighting—it is done gradually, over time. A lie here, a lie there, a snide comment every so often...and then it starts ramping up. Even the brightest, most self-aware people can be sucked into gaslighting—it is that effective. It's the "frog in the frying pan" analogy: The heat is turned up slowly, so the frog never realizes what's happening to it.

5. Their actions do not match their words.

When dealing with a person or entity that gaslights, look at what they are doing rather than what they are saying. What they are saying means nothing; it is just talk. What they are doing is the issue.

6. They throw in positive reinforcement to confuse you. 

This person or entity that is cutting you down, telling you that you don't have value, is now praising you for something you did. This adds an additional sense of uneasiness. You think, "Well maybe they aren't so bad." Yes, they are. This is a calculated attempt to keep you off-kilter—and again, to question your reality. Also look at what you were praised for; it is probably something that served the gaslighter.

7. They know confusion weakens people. 

Gaslighters know that people like having a sense of stability and normalcy. Their goal is to uproot this and make you constantly question everything. And humans' natural tendency is to look to the person or entity that will help you feel more stable—and that happens to be the gaslighter.

8. They project.

They are a drug user or a cheater, yet they are constantly accusing you of that. This is done so often that you start trying to defend yourself, and are distracted from the gaslighter's own behavior.

9. They try to align people against you.

Gaslighters are masters at manipulating and finding the people they know will stand by them no matter what—and they use these people against you. They will make comments such as, "This person knows that you're not right," or "This person knows you're useless too." Keep in mind it does not mean that these people actually said these things. A gaslighter is a constant liar. When the gaslighter uses this tactic it makes you feel like you don't know who to trust or turn to—and that leads you right back to the gaslighter. And that's exactly what they want: Isolation gives them more control.

  10. They tell you or others that you are crazy.

This is one of the most effective tools of the gaslighter, because it's dismissive. The gaslighter knows if they question your sanity, people will not believe you when you tell them the gaslighter is abusive or out-of-control. It's a master technique.

11. They tell you everyone else is a liar.

By telling you that everyone else (your family, the media) is a liar, it again makes you question your reality. You've never known someone with the audacity to do this, so they must be telling the truth, right? No. It's a manipulation technique. It makes people turn to the gaslighter for the "correct" information—which isn't correct information at all.

The more you are aware of these techniques, the quicker you can identify them and avoid falling into the gaslighter's trap. " [Source] 

For all the right-wingnuts and trumpsters out there, I am afraid it's too late.


 

CAPTION SATURDAY.

I need a caption for this pic.


Example: Thanks for all of your concerns, but I am still here.


*Pic from youtube.com

"Honest mistake"? Or just more "alternative facts"?

 I want to stop blogging about Herr trump and his peeps, I really do, but how can I? I mean day after day it's just an abundance of gaffes and blunders coming from camp trump for us bloggers out here.

Sometimes they are serious, and sometimes they are just plain funny.

The latest and most obvious one comes from Baghdad Kelyanne and her claim right out of her "alternative facts" universe, that there was recently a massacre in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and that it was carried out by a couple of Iraqis.  How people can get on television night after night and just tell lies to millions of people with a straight face is beyond me. And probably the saddest part of this story is t hat the host at the time, Chris Matthews, did not even challenge her about her blatant lie.

It's one of those lies the trump people are so good at throwing out there and making it stick. This time, though, the truth was too easily verified for her to get away with it. (If there was a massacre there would be victims, right?) 

So now, because of all the ridicule and outrage, Kellyanne is walking back her lie. Of course she now claims that it was an "honest mistake", but we all know better. (At least most of us do.)

This is a good time to quote Justin Baragona.

"First off, this wasn’t an honest mistake. Not. At. All. Let’s revisit exactly what she said to Matthews: Obama placed a ban after “two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre.”

She didn’t misspeak. She didn’t screw up her words. She didn’t accidentally conflate two things. She deliberately said that two people came here, became radicalized, and then carried out an atrocity here in the States. This was purposeful. This was no accident. It was meant to cause another reality.

This has been the MO of the Trump team from the get go. Muddy the waters with “alternative facts” and create a collectively confused state of mind within the public at large. Make the mainstream media spend an inordinate amount of time covering and fact-checking these obviously untrue comments. Then let the following interviews with members of the Trump team focus quite a bit on the latest falsity, with the interviewee obfuscating, hitting back and generally complaining about the media’s emphasis on trivial things. Rinse. Repeat. "[Source]

It's actually brilliant if you can get away with it, and they have been doing that for months. 

But I suspect that if you work for Herr trump you have to be constantly defending him and his fragile ego.  It's so bad with the guy that his pal Howard Stern is worried about him. 

Here is a guy that picks a fight with a former actor and governor about a television show at a National Prayer Breakfast for crying out loud. That is just sick. And yet, he gets away with it, because we all just say that it's trump being trump.

Fortunately, it looks like his longtime doctor has given us some clues about what is going on.

"Trump's longtime doctor, Harold N. Bornstein, revealed some surprising facts about the president's health in a series of interviews with The New York Times.

He even shed some light on the president's hair. According to Bornstein, Trump takes a drug for the prevention of hair loss, called finasteride (marketed as Propecia).
"He has all his hair," Bornstein told the Times.

Finasteride was originally prescribed to treat enlarged prostates in men, before it was discovered that a side effect of the drug was an observed reduction of male pattern baldness.

It is now prescribed by dermatologists to treat male pattern baldness, and is one of only four treatments that can be used to combat the condition. This is only one piece of the puzzle when trying to understand the structure of Trump's hair, 

however. Hair surgeon Dr. William Yates has said that it's likely Trump's look can be attributed to an early version of hair transplant surgery, or an expensive weave.

According to Bornstein, Trump also takes a medication for rosacea, as well as one for elevated cholesterol and lipids. " [Source] 

OK, so no harm no foul. A lot of aging narcissistic men like Donald will do anything to keep their hair.

But then you read this:

"Donald Trump takes small doses of the drug finasteride to treat male pattern baldness, the president's former physician told the New York Times.

The drug has been associated with sexual dysfunction and depression.

The revelation that Trump uses a prostate-related drug to grow scalp hair appears to explain why Trump has a very low level of prostate specific antigen, or PSA, a marker sometimes used to diagnose prostate cancer, the Times reported after interviewing Dr. Harold N. Bornstein.
Bornstein, 69, credited the drug with helping him keep his own shoulder-length locks.
"[Trump] has all his hair," Bornstein said. "I have all my hair."

However the drug is associated with several negative side effects, including mental confusion and impotence" [Source]

Now this explains a lot. It all makes sense now.


*Pic from salon.com