When is somebody going to say, "Look, this guy is just a wack job and we've gotta pull him out of there"--and then do it?

Damn Dems have this thing about working under the auspices of the law.

No one on the republican side has the balls to do it. If it comes from the Dems criticism will be seen as partisan and the Reps will just defend the shithead.

Remember your history – Nixon finally resigned when the republicans – his own party – told him it was time to go.

The problem now is that we have a bunch of sellouts that care more about their own asses than they do the country.

Naturally I’m thinking 25th Amendment and not some other amendment.

They won’t do that, and the Rep/cons in your country will probably re elect him for a second term how’s that for a scary thought?

I did hear Trump will no longer be doing his nightly press conferences. The suggestion of ingesting or injecting disinfectant was one too far I guess.

From what I understand they let Reagan continue for years when they knew he was slipping. It won’t be any different with Trump. Too many people love him. All over my Facebook people are defending what he said about bleach, UV lights, and poisons.

It’s important to understand how people achieve high office. Every single president of the United States has belonged to a so-called “secret society” like the Freemasons or Skull & Bones or the Rosicrucians. These organizations all work from the same manual, The Golden Bough by James Frazer. The Golden Bough is an examination of esoteric shamanic and mystical traditions to find the commonalities between them, as a means of determining which of their rituals are psychologically useful.

All of these “secret soceties” operate on the same principle: they have an outer circle and an inner circle. The outer circle exists as a filter to determine who is psychologically capable of passing into the inner circle. The inner circle exists to teach people how to burn out their sense of personal identity, the ego-self, and replace it with a Goetic demon.

Now, these demons are not supernatural entities. They are archetypes, narratives we tell ourselves as a means of interpreting reality. For most of these organizations, they take a cue from esoteric mystical traditions by adapting the Goetic demons to their needs, since they are useful in the sense that they sort the demons into specific areas of authority. By using a variety of techniques for enhancing suggestion (including drugs, conditioning, and NLP), they transform the person’s personality to match that of the “patron demon” they’ve selected.

The problem is what you’re actually doing is reprogramming the way the brain operates on a physiological level. It’s extremely useful as a means for controlling and ruling others, but it’s toxic to your own health, both mental and physical. Many people break under the strain, becoming more and more detached from reality. It’s essentially a form of induced schizophrenia.

In Donald Trump’s case, his mind simply isn’t strong enough to bear the strain of the demon he’s manifesting. The only reason he’s remained functional this long is because he no doubt has many “handlers” who are helping him reinforce his sense of personal identity, which is why he seems so selfish and egocentric.

None of this, I hasten to add, has anything to do with the supernatural. These “demons” they manifest are simply a way of conceptualizing certain archetypal elements of their own identity, to make it stronger and to allow them to control others by speaking to them in the voice of an archetype the person will hear inside their own head, through their own manifestation of that archetype.

I’M READY – WHAT COMES NEXT?

WTF Smash? You clean out your mind.

Oh c’mon, I’m not that bad surely.
Talk about a kangaroo court :D

I have a copyof The Golden Bough by Golden Goblin Press published in 1908 which I filched from the Special Collections department at the university library where I worked in 1985.

Nothing about Trump is based in the esoteric or occult—but consider the anti-Trump madness and how well coordinated it is when you talk of demons and networks.

Some secret societies once used arcane mysticism and they networked, but The Golden Bough and THe Golden Dawn and similar books have little to do with anything but mysticicm.

Trump’s support comes from evangelical Christians and constitutional conservatives—who do not network or conspire, and have always been the bane of those who do.

@Yellowdog I don’t think you understand what “mysticism” means. In the Aristotlian model, knowledge can be obtained in three ways: empiricism, rationalism, and revelation. The application of pure empiricism is science, the application of pure rationalism is philosophy, and the application of pure revelation is mysticism. Mysticism, then, is the use of any unconscious processes derived from insight, such as hunches, dreams, intuition, and so forth.

The use of archetypal manifestation, what Jung referred to as “active imagination,” is a part of the mystic method, and this is exactly what these secret societies do. They have taken traditional shamanic skills developed over a period of millennia to hack and reprogram the brain in order to manifest powerful archetypal entities which reside in the collective unconscious for the purpose of rulership.

I certainly don’t dispute your definition of mysticism. But do you really think Bush’s affiliation with the Skull and Bones was anything more than a Good ‘ol Boys’ club/ network?

@Yellowdog You’re referring to the outer circle of these organizations, like the Shriners. These are the Old Boys’ Club to which you’re referring. This is the public face of these organizations. The inner circle is where the psychological reprogramming takes place. It’s all ritualized and shrouded in religious iconography, but what they’re doing is just applied psychology.

Essentially what they’re doing is describing the Goetic demon to the person being conditioned, explaining his personality and skills and nature, shrouding it all in ritual to increase the level of suggestion, and then allowing the demonic personality to “possess” that person. These Goetic entities are just one of many ways of describing certain universal, archetypal narratives which are programmed into the human brain as part of its operating system, what we call a paradigm. By getting the person’s unconscious to buy into the paradigm, you’re reprogramming the person’s mind to manifest that demonic personality the same way a shaman will manifest a god or other supernatural entity through the use of a fetish or a totem or a mask to induce suggestion.

Carl Jung believed that this is why Hitler was able to lead millions into madness; he manifested the Shadow very strongly, so that when people listened to him, they heard him as the internal voice of the Shadow—it being an archetype we all possess.

Because the process is based on ritual and suggestion, the person doesn’t have to be intelligent for it to work. In fact, vacuous people are often better at it, since eliminating their original ego-self is pretty easy. The problem is that people with little discipline have trouble handling this “demonic possession,” particularly if they’re manifesting a potent and troublesome archetype, and it leads to the sort of madness and even death you saw in Hitler and, now, Trump.

^^ Way to derail a thread.

Anyway, I would not be surprised if Trump does not want to do this for another four years. He seems more worn down every day and it’s no surprise he can’t continue with these COVID briefings. To keep up this marathon at his age he like many others in similar situations has probably been taking something like Adderall this whole time. We probably are seeing the end effects of being on speed constantly for five years or so with a little dementia thrown in for good measure. This would explain his erratic behavior. I think Biden is there already so I’m ready for Pence. He may be as interesting as stale white bread and have a few questionable views but he knows where he is and seems to be handling his job quite well for the most part. He can at least get up and speak coherently. I’m all for A-25!

Fuck it. I guess I’m done with Fluther again. I have better ways to waste my time and expertise.

Self-acknowledged expertise

@ARE_you_kidding_me Three weeks ago I said to my husband I think this will be the thing Trump decides he doesn’t even want to be President again. I also wondered why any of them want to be president now. If I had been Biden’s wife I would have been telling him “don’t do it.” Especially, at their age. I don’t mean older people can’t be competent, I mean I can’t imagine wanting to work that hard in my 70’s.

@JLeslie I have asked my self this and the best I can tell is in middle age you’re not so concerned with leaving a legacy, you’re too wrapped up in the daily particulars of life to give it much thought. When old age creeps in and if you have never learned to let go or felt satisfied with life the question of how will I be remembered manifests and you get a sort of second wind to make a name for yourself. It’s like the last push at the end of a long race if you’re someone who in insecure and sees life as a race that is.

He and his family are making money hand over fist during this pandemic. I doubt he’d give it up willingly.

Some people would willingly kill themselves along with their beloved cult leader. They never see him as a wack job. Somehow I do understand and even emphatize with these blind fanatics. We all succumb to desperation and misery in life sometimes.

Imo though the worse ones are those people who know their cult leader is a wack job but as long as they get their agendas pursued and even fullfilled…winner takes all and all that…they will keep supporting and defending the wack job. They think they are winning by shoving things up the other side’s ass while they have the chance. Cold-blooded opportunists. They will NEVER pull their wack job off any post.

@SmashTheState Please stay.

Perhaps when Mitch McConnell stops being the power behind the throne but I don’t think that will ever happen. He’s made a pact with the devil – or he is the devil – and doesn’t care.

Three years ago I was sure Trump wouldn’t last through 2018 because he sucks at the job and isn’t willing to put in the effort to be better.

It seemed so certain. And he hasn’t improved. But he is not going to give up the seat. What we’ve seen is his primary drive is narcissism. He has to be (in his mind) winning, and the center of attention, and never at fault.

Permanent removal via the 25th amendment is not going to happen, because it requires Congress (both houses) to act, and we know from the impeachment that the Senate will not do the right thing.

I think the only plan we can work with is voting him out in November.

@SmashTheState Dude! Hang in there! Remember that you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. And so it is true here. People are gonna love you or they’re gonna hate you. Take it from someone who knows.

@Call_Me_Jay It is possible that if the Democrats take both Houses and Trump wins the Presidency, he could be successfully removed.

@SmashTheState: Don’t let one comment upset you.

@janbb Yes, thinking ahead more, another impeachment may be necessary.

@SmashTheState , I do hope you stay here. You frequently have interesting things to say. Your mention of Aristotle’s 3 types of knowledge motivated me to check for Web articles on this, and I can relate what I found to the original discussion.

The three types of knowledge are scientific principles, craftsmanship (which we could interpret to include engineering), and wisdom. We can sum up Trump’s problem as being that he focuses on the second type of knowledge to the exclusion of the other two.

Trump and many of his followers disdain science. Slashes have been made to the funding of many scientific institutions. Without proper scientific input, engineering solutions are not possible. Trump seems to think that he can make things up on the spot.

Wisdom is associated with ethics and statesmanlike behavior. Trump’s deficiencies are most apparent in this area. Examples include constant lying, separating migrant children from their parents, just about everything he has said about the corona virus, cozying up to dictators and alienating allies.

It boggles my mind that Trump has so much support. Maybe people will come to their senses by the time we get to vote.

@SmashTheState I could not care less whether you come or go.

You make all sorts of abstruse, often irrelevant, arguments, so filled with jargon and flapdoodle, that no one knows what your point is, or even if you have a point.

And then you’re insulted when people don’t bow at your feet to honor your incredible wisdom. Oh puhleeze.

Now to get back on the topic.

The President just went on a twitter rant saying that journalists don’t deserve their Noble Prizes. [sic 1: they get Pulitzers, not Novels, and sic1: Nobel is the proper spelling, not Noble.]

The man is a lunatic. He is irrational and delusional. Out of control. Why can’t the republicans see this?

If someone receives a prize or award that turns out to be false, or propaganda, it should be voluntarily forfeit, or revoked.

trump disdains science? It’s much, much worse really.

trump doesn’t care about anything that doesn’t help him fulfill his needs. If not showing disdain for science would get him votes he would not show disdain.

trump is nothing but a pathetic business clown and a whore of a man pretending to be a leader.

Since 2016 Americans who disdain science and support Republican agendas have been propping him up as their useful piece of turd.

trump does genuinely disdain a few things. Not getting attention, not being able to generate wealth and being exposed for what he really is.

If someone receives a prize or award that turns out to be false, or propaganda, it should be voluntarily forfeit, or revoked.

We need specifics, Please share a list of Noble prize winning journalists. That’s what Trump was enraged about today.

The great assumption was that the “wack job” would never make it. The section of the question in quotes is pretty much the mantra of what constitutes the civilized world. The farce of our tasteless parody of everything Presidential is best viewed for the aberration of common sense that it most assuredly is. After all we are living in a unique and exceptional period with Archie Bunker’s protege the President of the United States. I have come to consider it the equivalent of life in the age of Nero, only Nero was “gifted” by comparison.

^^^^
“Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when your always afraid
Step out of line the man come and take you away”

I really think we’ll wake up some fine day before the election and he and his whole family will just be gone.

@Call_Me_Jay The Washington Post and the New York Times jointly won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for their national reporting of Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia—citing ‘deeply soured’ (actually unsourced) material alleging that the Trump team, attorneys, etc. had links to the Kremlin to win the election. All of the allegations have been proved false after the prizes were awarded and after over 30 million dollars in investigations.

The “Award Winning” jounalists include Maggie Haberman, Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo, and Mark Mazetti from The Times, and Rosamind Helderman, Tom Hamburger. Ellen Nakashami, Adam Entous, and Greg Miller from The Washington Post.

Since the material was disproven by the Mueller report and subsequent investigations,and have ruined many lives, at the very least the prize and moneys awarded should be rescended.

^^Wacky assessment of the Mueller Report. You should read more about it.

So why isn’t Trump in prison or at the very least the election overturned?

That’s what you were promising would happen in 2018, 2019.

Read more about it. Skip Fox News.

I never did like “For What it’s Worth”. “Bluebird” is my favorite followed by “Mr Soul”.

@SmashTheState

Expertise in what?