Jim

An obsession with a wholesale Orwellian re-writing of history is a classic trait of the totalitarian mind. While I think Trump has a dictator's mind, I think the Orwellian agenda comes from others behind the scenes influencing and using him. They know that truth is their enemy.

Trump mat not make America great again, but he is doing his darndest to make greed great again.

Sociopaths tend to be very hypocritical because they are almost completely lacking in self-awareness.

It really makes no sense psychologically for someone who is far-right politically to claim they or their right-wing leader is anti-war. The essence of the right-wing mind is a paranoid belief that all life is struggle and conflict that can ultimately only be resolved through force.

"Make America Dumb Again." It's not clear what the MAGA elites fear and detest more: rational adult minds or moral adult consciences. We are witnessing an unprecedented race to the bottom in almost every way. They seem to believe that stupidity and evil will 'make America great again'.

"We need better economics education." At a minimum. But America also needs a culture that respects education, that respects the educated, that respects the rational adult mind.

Like so many MAGA elites, Bondi often wears that arrogant frat-boy smirk as if they think they have just gotten away with dumping manure on the Dean's doorstep.

It does make sense if it is all just political theater, particularly a form of dramatic kibuki theater aimed at a particular naive and gullible audience.

Far right psychopaths like Hegseth want American soldiers to be completely rid of a moral conscience. Having a moral conscience is what they mean by 'woke'. The default conscience would become what Freud called the 'superego'. It is the mechanism for complete, mindless obedience to authority.

Trump is attracted to sociopaths. He feels an intuitive kinship with them and understands how their minds work. His transactional style works far better with sociopaths than with persons of moral principles.

"Why is Hegseth pushing AI companies to give up safety controls?" For essentially the same reason that he wanted to punish anyone who reminded the military that they should not follow illegal orders. His MAGA agenda is lawless and immoral.

America is starting to feel like that town in the film 'The Wild One' that has been taken over by a motorcycle gang. A nation ruled by juvenile delinquents on a wrecking ball rampage is not a good place to live or raise your children.

MAGA is a political movement based primarily in scapegoating. Therefore it must always evade responsibility for everything. To take responsibility for anything is to risk everything they stand for.

To the extent MAGA is a cult, their cult leader is the source of their self-identity, their self-esteem and he gives them their very purpose in life. To protect the cult leader from all harms is to protect your very soul.

They can't see the humanity in others because they can't see the humanity in themselves.

Trumpism is resulting in both a health decline and a mental decline in America. And that's just the tip of Trump's nihilistic iceberg.

Apart from political uses, there are two purposes of religion: 1) as a moral guide or spiritual ladder to heaven. 2) as a shield against the guilt of one's egoism. MAGA is clearly 'religious' in the second sense. Being very egoistic, they have a lot of repressed guilt to shield behind religion.

In MAGA world, everything is just a stage for their own bizarre reality show. Every act in public is a narcissistic performance.

The automatic and mind crushing level of self-delusion reinforces their brand as cultists.

A government run by juvenile delinquents posing as Mafia tough guys.

The best that can be said about the MAGA version of 'masculinity' is that it is very immature. There appear to be three basic traits associated with MAGA 'masculinity': sociopathology, immaturity and narcissism (or SIN).

The best path to God is through your heart, not through religion, belief or dogma. In your heart you will find the highest expressions of God within the soul of man, in love and wisdom. Through love and wisdom you can become an agent of the spirit of God on Earth, which is the most meaningful life.

Trump understands that MAGA has become a thuggish political movement dedicated to political thuggery. Thuggery has become central to its self-image and goals.

Women are stepping up more and more to prove that they, not American 'men', have the balls to protect our freedoms and our democracy.

This raises a fundamental issue that needs to be confronted. What kind of human future do we collectively want. One directed by pure soulless 'intelligence'? Or one directed by human wisdom?

"drain the swamp"? We will be constantly deceived by Trump if we do not realize that Trump speaks in his own version of Orwellian code. 'Drain the swamp' means renovate the swamp to make it bigger for his corrupt friends.

Patel has given us another iconic image of what MAGA is fundamentally about. Almost as iconic as Trump's supporters smearing excrement on the walls of Congress.

In no way, under no circumstances, should the Pope desecrate his own high office by appearing to bless the most profane and amoral administration in American history, by far.

He has become so accustomed to MAGA corruption and hypocrisy that he just assumes that is how he is expected to behave.