BTRTN: Rats, Mazes, and Sharpies...Why Trump Had to Alter The Portrait of Dorian's Way

[reggieandlee]

Born To Run The Numbers provides its forensic analysis of why Donald Trump had no choice but to take a sharpie to a weather map:

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2019/09/rats-mazes-and-sharpieswhy-trump-had-to.html

Excerpts:"Today, I chose to reflect on what would seem, at face value, to be the stupidest episode thus far in a Presidency so committed to charting the dark depths of stupid that it evokes an image of a tiny submarine on a four year mission to map every inch of the Marianas Trench of Stupid. There are still those who remain perpetually befuddled by the Trump Presidency, in turn shocked and surprised by each new mind-bending eruption of toddler-grade impulse control and relentless fact evasion emanating from this White House. Sadly, however, such people are missing the point. It is as if they were applying adult standards of behavior, assuming a normative 50-watt intellect, and ascribing societally acceptable motivations in trying to understand the behavior of a white rat racing through a maze to find the pellet in a Psych 101 B.F. Skinner experiment..."

"No, people, there is no overarching political vision guiding the decisions of the Trump administration. There is no belief system about what must happen in order to 'make America great again.' There is no plan, no vision, no philosophy... there is no nothing. There is only a rat, trapped in a maze, repeating over and over the turns he has learned to make in order to get the pellet. The pellet is that Donald Trump stays out of jail. Drawing the appendage on a weather map was Trump’s only choice. He has to keep the base in line. He has learned how to do that: by lying, triggering wars with the media, and hiring ethically barren henchmen to do his bidding. Yes, folks, Donald Trump drew a phony appendage on a weather map as just one more perfectly logical step in the life of a man twisting our country like a wet rag all for one purpose.So that he can stay out of prison..."

[lark]

1. I think it's profits and staying out of prison.

He's making a mint on those ugly MAGA (Make America Gag Again), making a mint on government officials, both in the US and foreign countries, using his properties, a mint on kickbacks from DEVos keeping brown children locked up in her facilities and torturing and assaulting and drugging them, but providing no sleeping room, no care for babies, no way to get clean no medicine when they get sick due to extreme overcrowding and charging us $750/day per person to enrich herself and drumpf.

[reggieandlee]

7. All good points...

You make a number of good points. Still, though, we suspect that the most fundamental driver of Trump's behavior is the fear that he will lose everything -- money, freedom (potentially including jail time for him and his family) -- more than that he views the Presidency as an opportunity to make money. The latter is a sideline activity -- staying out of jail is job #1. Thanks for writing.

[aggiesal]

9. True meaning of MAGA ...

Mexicans
Always
Get
Across

[Hugin]

2. I think the only reason Old Yeller hired Bolton was to fire him at some strategic point...

to capture the news cycle.

The scariest part about this is Fat Nixon is running out of low grade diversions and the need to escalate may come as the general election gets immanent and the polls aren't favorable to Mangollini.

[Cracklin Charlie]

3. That second paragraph is real.

I think the president is ill. Very ill. I can’t stand him, but I am an empathetic person. He is doing great harm to himself, and others. It’s hard to watch.

Will no one do anything to help him? And by helping him, help the country?

There are many people who choose life in Washington DC because of a sense of duty...Do. Your. Duty.

[Grammy23]

4. Under ordinary circumstances, that is exactly what would have happened.

In fact, if things were normal, we’d have NEVER gotten this far into this nightmare. tRump would not have been nominated and the scenario we’re in now would have been nipped in the bud.

But these are not normal times. We are in uncharted territory where our constitution that is supposed to kick in and save us is being twisted and perverted to thwart efforts to do what needs to be done to rid of us of this wreckage in the White House. The person responsible for getting tRump ensconced in the White House also ensnared the very people who could restore a sense of normalcy to our governing bodies. So we are quite screwed at the moment.

I hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and the few people left with power and authority to do the right thing will rise up and get tRump out one way or another. If they don’t, Sadly, I do not see this ending well for any of us. Our experiment at governing will come to a crashing end and we will suffer for a very long time.

[Scarsdale]

5. The politicians who have any

"sense of duty" unfortunately are shoved aside by the ones enriching themselves at taxpayer and lobbyists expense. As soon as they get to DC they start learning all the ways to pad their bank accounts, and to HELL with constituents. They are planning for a wealthy retirement, after years of doing very little in the way of bettering the country. Appear on the Sunday shows, and butter up the disaster of a president is what they are good at. Seems they have little shame, and certainly no self awareness. They have done nothing about Kushner and his wife having top security clearances, which were not approved. Nothing about having those two in top positions to run the government, with NO experience. We are the world's laughingstock, run by an orange clown with little to no intelligence. I guess this is what the gop was hoping for, since they do nothing to curb any of this. Who is REALLY pulling the strings - Putin?

[CCExile]

6. A corollary to this proposition is that if Trump goes to jail,

Not just Trump gets blamed. All of his supporters are, of course, also to blame. Keeping Trump out of jail, they feel, keeps the Republican party alive. I don't think most of America will forget the group that did this to the U.S., but I've been disappointed before!

[reggieandlee]

8. Interesting thought...

You make a good point. It appears that Trump will not be removed from office by impeachment. So if he is removed from office because he loses the election, my bet is that Republicans won't care what happens to him then. He will become known as the guy who lost and let the Democrats take back the White House. So if he is then tried on criminal charges and is convicted, a few of his die-hard supporters will care, but most Republicans will have moved on and be focusing on 2024 by then.

[CCExile]

10. I'm sure you are right...

We might take consolation in your observation in that Democrats will have a powerful campaign meme, along the lines of "Who brought you [insert horror here]?", and "What party supported the most corrupt, morally bankrupt administration in American history?", and on and on. They might be able to ride it for the rest of my life, given my age!