Happy holidays to all. Been in Disney World. Fun with family. More motion sick on rides than usual. I think from all the floaters in my right eye from the partially detached retina.
I never came up with something I felt ok saying to my sister.... but a great time with my bro and 11 other relatives.
That is so funny, my first thought when my eyes landed on that photo was that it was Amy Klobuchar ?
Agree with your comments on the Evangelical movement. I have been telling my Evangelical friends for several years that they have lost the moral high ground and, if Trump goes away, they are also in the wilderness and have made themselves irrelevant. They have debased their beliefs to such an extent under Trump that they have lost their credibility. I remember a bible story from my younger church going days (Unitarian now but raised in a Congregational church) about Satin taking Jesus to a mountain top and showing him all of the kingdoms of the world and telling him it would all be his if he just knelt down to him. Jesus turned him down but Evangelicals replied, "Where do I sign?".
@Paul W, it is so nice to hear from you!
If you haven't seen Doonesbury today, it is about DT and it is good.
https://www.newsweek.com/hitler-incompetent-lazy-nazi-government-clown-show-opinion-1408136
This is a good read on Hitler. It sounds like T also.
Wow. That is an uncanny description of Trump if you dont already know its Hitler theyre talking about.
@jessi1978 -- Interesting he was lazy and incompetent.
A New Yorker book review of How to Be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century by Frank Dikötter listed some behaviors that many famous dictators, including Stalin, Mao, Hitler, and the smaller "tin-pot" dictators, had in common:
1. The dictator, usually a man, rises to power because a powerful group finds his policies fitting for their needs but the group mistakenly thinks they can control him.
2. The dictator gains control, not with charm, but intimidation, and not persuasion, but fear.
3. He (he's usually a man) tends to be good at one thing and this causes others to overestimate his abilities. I have a friend who thinks Trump is a hard worker because he only needs a few hours of sleep.
4. After they manage to make it to the top, there is an increasingly frantic purging. He gets rid of all in his circle except the sycophants.
5. Then comes the isolation of the dictator within his palace—increasingly friendless and paranoid.
6. Finally, after all the death and brutality imposed, the dictator’s power, and often his life, ends with remarkable suddenness.
I have a friend who thinks Trump is a hard worker because he only needs a few hours of sleep ?? Yeah that’s why. I think he sleeps so little is because the many voices in his head don’t let him get any rest. Can you imagine all the crazy thoughts and his multiple personalities having to calm him down and tell him he is the greatest man in the universe? I swear this is why he says all the time..so and so told me.
I swear there must be a book called How to be a dictator for dummies and goes thru all the 6 steps you mentioned. I hope T is already on level 6 of this book. I am very tired of his BS every day.
Since last summer, I’ve seen tapes coming out, too. Don’t know what about, but my sense is that more evidence of crimes is going to be revealed. Felt it for months. Waiting for another shoe and another shoe and another shoe to drop. The downward spiral turns and turns.
@JeanneMayell
Another shoe dropped with the latest story from the NYT about the staff involved in withholding the aid to Ukraine. It’s a good thing Pelosi didn’t turn over the articles of impeachment yet as there are new avenues to investigate and more proof of T’s direction to withhold aid.
@allyn I'm presently too bleary-eyed (passed my bedtime) to reply to your posts in the way they deserve, but I'd like to say: I'm very glad you're here.
You bring a lot of depth and consideration, and have a refreshing angle of vision when analyzing others' visions, dreams, premonitions, and so forth. I believe you said you aren't psychic, or don't consider yourself such, but I'd challenge you there. Your gift appears to be that you can see far and deeply, and in an interesting or unusual way. I believe there's a word for that: seer.
@paul-w, amen. Thank you for this reminder.
The constant gaslighting put out by you-know-who, the entire GOP and F-news is so powerful, consistent and effective, every now and then it makes me seriously question my own sanity and intellect. Two small recent incidents, for example, have me wondering if I'm the one unraveling on kool aid.
The first incident came up a couple of days ago on FB. I was having a civil, fact-based discussion with a Canadian friend to clarify her questions about the American impeachment process. A maga guy (who I didn't know) inserted himself into our conversation and claimed I should wake up because the impeachment was a hoax. When I said it was a legal, historical determination, the maga guy insisted it was no such thing. Rather, the impeachment didn't count because it's fake messaging put out by the haters. The discussion alarmed me because not one hateful thing was actually said about you-know-who, and because just talking about impeachment process was perceived as hateful.
The second incident came up last night. I was watching a YouTube video by a well-know Vedic astrologer about her 2020 astrological predictions. The astrologer brought up many of the themes already forecasted and discussed on this site including massive changes in society/government, the end of illusions, the "outing" of corruption, etc. But but but......the astrologer was coming at her predictions from the other side of the spectrum. She saw the dems and the media being corrupt. She saw the impeachment being troublesome but fake. She saw trump being vindicated.
"When the truth is found to be lies
And all the joy within you dies"
Darby R Slick
@kb, it is gaslighting. Don't fall for it. People with good reasoning skills, a decent EQ, and people skills don't think the way that a narcissist or their followers do. For example, in Rumpus's whacko letter to Pelosi he noted that any intelligent person could see that the hearings and impeachment were a sham-a partisan hoax or plot to take him down. That wasn't written to throw shade at Pelosi-but to shore up his followers. They were seeing on tv that he was up to no good, that actual scholars and long term diplomats were shredding his actions. Therefore he's got to reinforce his following by questioning their intelligence if they 'fall for the scam.' Narcissists can't handle those who see who they really are. Such people then are either ignored or targeted. The narcissist will victimize people who see the truth, and proactively tell others that the person they victimized was the abuser. We see facts as facts and realize what we feel are feelings. Narcissists don't. Their feelings are facts, and when the facts don't align properly they 'change them'. They create an alternate reality to fit their feelings so that they are justified and right. I still struggle with the fact that you can't argue with them or make them see the light. I've had too much experience with it. For us, a discussion that brings forth facts we didn't know or hadn't thought of in a different perspective can alter our opinions on things. Not so with a narcissist. By extension, those who believe, revere, or otherwise hold the narcissist in high regard have a hard time seeing the truth about the narcissist as doing so seemingly reflects on their judgement. It's why con men get away with their lifestyle-because folks are ashamed to admit they were taken.
There is more coming out about Ghooliani and his roles in international US business -now in Venezuela- showing that in spite of US policies at the time by the adults in the room, 45 and his minions were going to do what they wanted in spite of what was in the nation's best interest. More will come out about what has really happened in the last few years, and it will add to the momentum dedicated to getting this regime out of power. The more it is shown that those in power are self serving and trying to further their own interests above that of the country and even their own party.
Unfortunately, there will always be those who won't believe, just as we have folks who think there was no moon landing or the world is flat.
The magat may have been a Russian (or other) troll. Ask your Canadian friend if it's someone they know IRL or just online. A lot of humans seem to have fallen under a spell, or a kind of mass delusion. Between Faux News and everything else, they are the ones who are drinking Kool Aid, so it makes sense that anyone, including a psychic, may also be under the spell. I empathize with you though, sometimes I wonder if I'm the deluded one! And then I come on here and I see a healthy mix of optimism, pessimism, curiosity, knowledge, absence of absolutes, and I feel better.
a total troll. An FB thread put me in a depression too. You can't talk to them, don't try. Block anyone you can. Of course none of them can answer why if he's so innocent he won't hand over documents or let anyone testify. They're all so stupid. Do yourself a favor, get off FB or stop getting into discussions. And as far as a Vedic astrologer, it's like what was said here before - a lot goes into a psychic prediction, some of which are feelings which may affect your prediction. This astrologer started looking at it from the other side - and as you have seen, we are the enemies, the awful Socialists. I say let the Republicans and friends think he's going to win by a landslide so most of them stay home and don't vote.
it's true when you're through listening/talking to them you start to think you are insane - because how could anybody see things in such an opposite way. I remember thinking I was certifiable when Bush went after Sadaam after 9/11. People are idiots, that's why these morons can thrive.
I was off FB for most of 2019, and when I returned I locked it down - less than 100 friends, if I don't know you IRL I ignore you. Recently, a friend of a friend replied to a comment I made on my friend's post that was very MAGA, and they demanded I provide "sources and facts" to back up my statement (which was in fact a factual correction to a false news tidbit). Rather than engage, here is what I posted in reply:
"I am not your f*ing research assistant and I do not engage in discussions online. Google it yourself and find your own facts, it's not like you'd believe any source of mine anyway. Have a nice day."
No further replies on that thread, so it must've worked. Anyone here who wants to steal and reuse my reply is welcome to do so at any time!
You may now return to your regularly programmed Twitler thread...