"We don't know whether what we're seeing is dementia, psychopathy, or compromise (kompromat)."

[highplainsdem]

Said by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on MSNBC a few minutes ago. The reference to "compromise" is of course to kompromat.

He just called Trump "a one-person wrecking ball" who's going to destroy global trade and destroy every alliance.

[LuckyCharms]

1. "Our nation has become a one person wrecking ball"

[safeinOhio]

2. All of the above.

Plus a few more.

[tanyev]

3. No reason it can't be a combination of all three.

[oberliner]

4. It's not that complicated: Trump doesn't like anything suggesting he didn't win fair and square

So anything that implies otherwise, he pushes back against (using ammo from Hannity and the other shows).

[highplainsdem]

7. We need to downgrade this suggestion that Trump's reacting out of pride. Of course that's

a factor, but it's the one that most normalizes his behavior...and it's become an excuse (for Trump's attacks on the Mueller investigation) by Trump defenders who know he shouldn't be doing that and who are uncomfortable with the attacks on the FBI and intel community.

And it's also much less important than the more likely explanations:

1) Putin has leverage over Trump and has had for years, and

2) Trump knows Putin helped him win and he's grateful for it, even if he can't admit that in public, and wants/needs his help in 2018 and 2020.

I believe dementia and psychopathy could be factors, too. But it doesn't require either of those for Trump to act like a craven lackey who's terrified of Putin and eager to please him, if the two factors I listed are as important as they apparently are.

[oberliner]

8. It makes the most sense, though, since Trump is obviously a simpleton

He doesn't care or know anything about actual policy positions. He clearly has no interest other than himself. He likes leaders who praise him and dislikes leaders who don't. He appears to be operating from that very basic construct most of the time.

Do you really think there is more to it than that?

[highplainsdem]

14. Yes, much more than that, as I explained above. Again, I'm not saying wounded pride ISN'T a factor.

It's just one of the less important ones, and the one that, again, is being used by Trump's supporters who know his behavior is very suspicious to try to explain it away without bringing up the more serious, important reasons. In that sense, the "wounded pride" explanation is a coverup for Trump and his supporters, more than a real explanation. Democrats shouldn't be drawn into echoing it.

And neither should journalists.

See this Brian Beutler thread posted on Twitter yesterday:

Link to tweet

There's no rule that says reporters need to be credulous when Trump aides insist he only gets weird about whether Russia interfered because he worries it hurts his legitimacy. It's a ludicrous claim that fits none of the available facts, and makes no sense on its own terms.



We know to a near certainty that Trump knew it was Russia during the election, and reveled in their intrusions. But even if he didn't know until after the election, "legitimacy" concerns would not be a relevant basis for claiming ignorance about who the culprit was.



The legitimacy concerns arise because of the crimes, not the identity of the culprit. SOMEONE committed crimes to help him win the election, and we all saw it, and we all saw how pleased he was by it.



Helping Putin mislead people about his involvement in no way allays the legitimacy concerns. So that's not why Trump's doing it. Let's stop pretending otherwise.



Again, this isn't a simpler explanation, it's a ludicrous and ahistoric one. Trump knew the Russians were committing crimes to help him at the time, and even if he only learned later or never learned at all, the legitimacy questions would remain.





If Trump were so self-conscious about his legitimacy, he'd be denying that any crimes took place at all.

He can't do that, because he reveled in the crimes endlessly. But lying about who he thinks committed them spares his legitimacy nothing.

[oberliner]

15. Worth considering

This does make sense also.

[greymattermom]

19. Everything is personal to him

including positions. He doesn't understand anything else.

[watoos]

9. Well said

Dementia and/or stupidity or mental illness are all secondary. Trump, for whatever reasons, colluded with Putin and I believe he did so willingly.

[True Blue American]

12. You are quite right!

Jeffrey just said that Trump friends are saying Trump shows increasing signs of Dementia.

If you have ever seen it, the disease slowly starts with repetition, going back to the same subject time after time. It is not obvious at the beginning, but progresses.

Trump can not talk off the cuff without repeating the same thing about the election,crooked Hillary,servers,over and over. If friends are watching the deterioration we need action.

Trump also has neurological problems. That is why he walks so stiff. I see changes since last year.

Walking in front of the Queen, he did not even know where she was. He was stiff as a board.many diseases cause that.

[colorado_ufo]

23. These travel schedules are very hard on anyone.

Every time he travels, he performs extremely badly due to lack of sleep, time zone changes, food changes, and a host of other things. He is also confronted with many names with which he is not familiar. This would strain most people, and at his age it really shows.

It also presses him to reveal who he really is and make gross mistakes.

Oh yes, and he is a traitor.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

28. Missing is the big one

GREED.

[Chemisse]

29. Supporting that is the fact that he was talking up Russia during the campaign.

This alliance or subservience goes way back. I wouldn't even discount the possibility that Trump was groomed for this years in advance.

[Texin]

33. People are saying that tRump's been an asset of Russia since about 1987. Over 30 years!

That was even before the collapse of the USSR. With the tRump crime family, it's always all about the money, real estate schmattas, influence or what-not they want to peddle. It started with a loan from the only bank at that time that would lend him money. Of course, from there he would have been indebted in more than one way to the Kremlin, because nobody did anything without the official state giving the nod, and Putin - KGB that he was/is - was in the thick of it if not exactly helming the highest position within the government at that time.

[calimary]

20. But that's the inconvenient truth. He DIDN'T win fair 'n' square.

He didn’t win, PERIOD, as far as the popular vote. Those numbers don’t lie. HE does.

[superpatriotman]

5. Fear

Ego

Pride

Greed

[Timmygoat]

6. Put simply

Putin got Trump elected, now he is squeezing Trump for payment and it is not pretty/.

[MyOwnPeace]

10. He forgot "STUPID!"

Did you listen to his responses?
I said it all throughout his campaign and the debates: he sounds like a 7th. grader running for class president!
He is not "one of America's great minds" - he's STUPID!!!!!!

[mnhtnbb]

16. Madeleine Albright--during her interview on Morning Joe this am--called Trump "stupid"

in his presser yesterday, along with some other adjectives. But she ended with stupid and they ran it at the bottom of the screen.

[FakeNoose]

31. Of course he's stupid, also he's highly suggestible

...that's why Putin finds it so easy to hypnotize him.
All it takes is a wad of cash and fake compliments.

[DownriverDem]

11. Why Evangelicals still support trump

They are one issue voters. For them it's all about making abortion illegal. I'd love to ask them how that would work if the country was destroyed? Seriously, does anyone know of folks that just vote the abortion issue?

[volstork]

25. I know plenty

and they twist themselves into pretzels trying to legitimize him to get what they want.
My best friend escaped from an evangelical family. She has always said they are one issue voters— anti abortion. Her dad is fine with children in cages on the border, but rabidly anti abortion. How does that make ANY sense at all?

[True Blue American]

13. Many of them are having second thoughts.

The Southern Baptist pitched a guy who was in trouble,elected a young man, voted to get out of Politics. They know it is hurting them.

[zentrum]

17. Kompromat.

However, since this was combined with complete media optics unawareness—which is unusual for Trump—maybe a little bit of dementia.

[CanonRay]

18. Know what?

I doesn't fucking matter. It's treason. I could give a shit about his motives and mental health.

[handmade34]

22. no matter the reason

he should be gone!

[unblock]

21. why do people forget the obvious -- bribery, quid pro quo?

putin helped donnie steal the election, he can help donnie steal more elections, and he can help donnie grift like crazy.

why on earth would he see putin other than as a partner who he wants to keep happy so he keeps helping him?

[Perseus]

27. I don't think it stops at the effort to get him elected, there is much more to it

The man-child is in heavy debt to banks, and Russians, the purchase of those golf courses most probably came through money laundering from Russians, why doubt that the "pee tape" is true? The guy is immoral, depraved, narcissistic, etc.

And the big lie from Putin that he didn't know the man-child was there during the Miss Universe, when he sent a gift to the man-child.

I really hope that this is a big WAKE UP to the USA population, and that they understand that not only the man-child, but the republican party is part of the corruption.

For Flake to refuse to cast a vote to stop the confirmation of the new judge into the supreme court shows how full of air he and Corker are. I am not sure what their strategy is, I don't think that either Flake or Corker really mean to not run for office, I believe they smell the collapse of the man-child and his enablers, just like Pence does, and then they will come back with force to tell their audience how right they were and how patriotic they are...

People need to understand that republicans are not your friends, gas prices are up and they always go up when a republican is in office, the economy is still holding thanks to the good work, despite republican opposition, that the Obama administration did, and no thanks to republicans because if they had had their choice they would have bankrupt the country just to make a political statement and bring people to vote for them.

Anyway...I could write for hours...

[unblock]

30. oh, i have no doubt they have juicy kompromat on donnie.

first, russians are good at getting kompromat on people.
second, donnie is the easiest mark ever. all impulse, no discretion, thinks he can get away with anything.

really, there's no way they don't have plenty on him.


what i'm skeptical of is that russia has ever had to use the stick to motivate donnie. he does not look like a relucatant participant *at* *all*. he looks and acts like he's totally motivated by greed and ego and upside.

moreover, that part is in plain view, it requires no speculation at all.

it's fine and reasonable to strongly suspect kompromat, but it's not necessary to see that donnie is clearly on russia's side, not ours.

[Perseus]

24. Kompromat

The problem with the other assumptions is that for normal thinking people, the man-child's actions can only come from a person suffering from dementia, but the pattern of his life's behaviour is proof that it is kompromat and a desire to change the political system in the US to reign uncontested like his idol Putin does.

It is really annoying that many thinking people continue to give the man-child the benefit of the doubt on his actions, when will people stop trying to be politically correct? a duck is a duck and should not be confused with anything else, so call it what it is, a duck, and in this case it is a traitor, and the enablers from the republican party a bunch of traitors as well.

Total silence from the republican party, and like I said on another post yesterday, give them 24 hours, maybe even 48 hours, to begin an effort to justify the man-child's behaviour and try to twist it, just like Pence did, into the "right thing".

[C_U_L8R]

26. Incapacity.

Whatever the cause... he is not able to function and deal with the requirements of the office,

[Perseus]

32. I don't underestimate the man-child or his minions

We have to admit that they have done a lot of what they set out to do, which is to destroy all the good Obama did, and that is not called incompetence.

He is clear that he wants to be like Putin, fixed elections and he always wins, he wants to rule for life and maybe even create a monarchy where his children inherit the power once he is gone.

What the enablers don't understand because they don't read any type of history, is that they are not safe, if the king decides he needs to get rid of them he will. They should learn from Kim Jong un, he even kills family members, and that is what dictators who have no concept of consequences and whose feelings only come out when they hurt themselves but shows no compassion for others, not even family members, they will turn to anyone unless they are bowing (and Pence knows that, that is why he bows to the king like a little poodle), they will be removed.

I forget the name of the movie, but there is a scene where the bad guy needs to push his daughter down the cliff so that he can get the next ring to have full power, he tears up, has a second of reflection, then pushes her. The man-child would even push Ivanka down the cliff if it favoured him in any way. I may be wrong about this, but those are the signs I see from his behaviour.

[moondust]

34. Maybe mind control.

Maybe the students of Ivan Pavlov continued and expanded his work on conditioning such that Vlad is now able to control Spanky's tiny brain.