Stand Up and Be Counted...thoughts on President Trump and H.L. Mencken

I am sure I used this quote when George W. Bush was president and here I am again. H.L. Mencken foretold our future...again we have our "downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron".

I often wonder if we can understand what is wrong with our president and then forgive him for being...well...who he is. If he were not in charge of my world, maybe. But since he is, I am struggling to understand him so maybe I can defend myself when I stand up and be counted among my conservative friends. 

I honestly think he is a very sick man...clever, perhaps evil and very sick. In the style of others in our history that have manipulated people to do unforgivable things, he is leading even some very smart people down a path that I think they or generations to follow will greatly regret.
But what is it he is afflicted with? Is there a pattern that he follows that we can name and actually understand? I thought I knew but I needed to see it in print from a reliable source.

Then I asked Siri on my computer to see if she could help me confirm my belief.

The question was, "Siri can you tell what making yourself feel important by making someone else feel unimportant is called." She sent me over to Psychology Today to look up what a narcissistic personality disorder is. Wow, it fit like a glove.

The Mayo Clinic research group defines narcissistic personality disorder as “a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. Those with narcissistic personality disorder believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism.”

In an article called 5 Ways a Narcissists Compensates for their Inferiority  I found a road map to what we have all been experiencing on a daily basis that is truly driving us mad. See what you think.

The narcissist...

1. Over inflates their sense of self by a) exaggerating with self flattering statements, b) often does this at the expense of others, c) in an effort to make others admire them.
2. Reacts poorly to criticism with statements like "How dare they criticise me. They are a nobody (have no talent, are a bad actress, etc)."
3. Are jealous of others. "How did they get picked. They must have cheated." 
4. Uses manipulation to get what they want. a) gains advantage by causing the victim to feel inferior. b) bribes emotionally, c) uses deception (lies) d) acts helpless, e) is hateful and abusive.
5. They are not able to face their real self so they do not see us and our concerns either.

I restated to my husband again today that this guy just makes me so mad EVERYDAY that it is not healthy. Oh my goodness, now I am doing research and reading a H.L. Mencken's biography. A little history always does a whole lot of good. I am often reassured by the fact that we have gone through this before and survived it. 

But, in this case, I am very afraid that we have never seen this in our country but that does not mean that another country's history has and is not being repeated here.

Sorry about this...but WHAT DO YOU SEE THAT I DON'T?

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p.s. I think we all have a little narcissist personality lurking inside. Thankfully, most of us can control it. When it becomes an illness, we need help.

The Birth of the Illegal Immigrant + Were They Joking About that Wall?

Do you ever wonder HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Is it a very bad joke gone wrong? First the KKK, then a very big wall.

AND...when did taking children away from parents and holding them hostage become a way of getting legislation passed?

As it turns out, determent camps are looking better and better. At least children were not taken away from their parents when German, Japanese and Italian people were held in such places during WWII.

As I understand it, our mess started with our president being easily bored. His mind is going a mile a minute so staying on the subject is hard. I understand how that is.

I question the idea than anyone was serious about building a wall when it first came up. I think that it was during one of those squirrelly hyper active moments that Trump jumped from another subject to illegal Mexicans and their drugs and guns that someone in his group suggested that we could just build a really high wall between around the USA. They were, I have read, simply trying to get him to focus. Is this true? Did that happen. But most importantly...could they have been just joking, easing the tension? Maybe. 

From Fox News. Image by Carolyn Kaster, The Associated Press

In the end it doesn't really matter. The nonsense ship has sailed. Even John Kelly said that "that some of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises on immigration were 'uninformed.'" But we will say one thing for Trump, he does keep a campaign promise, even a very bad one.

What a mess this has left us with! Honestly!

Our unwanted and hated immigrants have been a problem since the USA actually became a independent nation. Those that arrived early resented the Irish, the Catholics and then the Chinese. A law was passed in 1884 call the Chinese Exclusion Act. It was our first Federal immigration law.

If you are interested, you can go to places like Pendleton, Oregon and find how those Chinese people lived under the sidewalks in underground villages in order to survive. I have been there and seen what that was like.

As history shows us, the more we tried to block legal entry into the USA, the worse illegal entry has became. This gave rise to some vicious and illegal practices by government officials.  I give you Joe Arpaio of Arizona. His tent cities for illegals gained national attention as inhumane and he was ordered to quit racial profiling of Hispanics by the courts.  He was convicted of a ignoring that order in 2017. Trump pardoned him shortly thereafter.

But I digress.

As I was saying, that Chinese exclusion act was revised and became the 1924 Immigration Act introduced quotas that gave preference to northern and western Europe and only allowed only those who could become a naturalized citizen as defined by a law that dates back to 1790. Then that ugly law reared it's head again just lately:

Our Attorney General, Jefferson Sessions ".... stated that the 1924 Immigration Act “was good for America.” 

But according to Mae M. Ngai, a professor of Asian American studies and history at Columbia University, “the 1924 act is considered almost universally to be a stain on our history.”

History Channel has a very good article on the subject called The Birth of "Illegal" Immigration. In that article they referred to the Hart-Celler Immigration Act put into law in the mid 1960s.

Prior to this, Mexican immigrants freely, and commonly, found work in the United States. Yet after the Hart-Celler Immigration Act was passed, “Whole groups of migrants from Mexico and Latin America whose entrance to the U.S. would have been considered legal before 1965 suddenly became illegal,” writes Jane Hong, a history professor at Occidental College, in The L.A. Times. 

By ignoring the realities of migration between Mexico and the U.S., the law created a problem where there was none before. And this idea that the United States can radically alter immigrants’ legal status, for good or ill, has implications for today.

So when I got this comment on Facebook from a follower in India, I was very interested. She said

 I am not here to comment on what Trump is doing. I am not into the right or the wrong of it.

However, I want to tell you something.

Most Rohingya Muslims illegally entered India. And slowly some political parties helped in providing them with papers.

Despite living in refugee camps they have not stopped having babies. In an average each family has more than 8 kids and pregnant wives. Each day 60 kids are born.

They want all kinds of facilities from the Govt of India. They don't wish to be deported to Myanmar from where they arrived or to Bangladesh, their country of Origin.

When India talks of deporting, so called Human Rights activists cry foul. Why should we share our resources with refugees who are breeding like rabbits?
What is the solution? 

This Facebook post reminded me that people migrating around the world, trying to find some sort of life is so common. The children that the Facebook user talked about is one of our problems too. "Breeding like rabbits" is not a good idea. That is the other side of the immigration coin...illegal immigrants could be using their children to gain sympathy so they can get what they want.

Who knows where this is going! But I still wonder, is this wall idea a joke gone bad. Did the president of our country latch onto unwanted immigrants as a flash point so that the people that followed him would like him more...hatred...it doesn't really matter who the hatred is against. He just needed someone for them to  hate.

What do you think?

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On Remaining a Logical Thinker

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I was going through my comments today when I stumbled on one of those "one year ago" trips down memory lane when we were just trying to wrap our mind around an election that made absolutely no sense to any of us and the prospect of what that election would mean in the future.

See, the thing is I am so emotionally attached to my ideas and dreams that I cannot be very logical.

I am old enough that I remember the day John F. Kennedy was elected. I was in my college dorm room and I thought at the time that  "now we can live in a country that respects intellect and it's value to our world". I didn't count on an assassination and then later the tearing down of the "Kennedy" myth. I was attached to that dream. (I was in the classroom when Kennedy was assassinated.)

Over the years I have been through the ups and downs of politics. I was running a summer sunday school program on June 8, 1968 when Ten Kennedy was assassinate. During the Vietnam War I did not read the newspaper. The insanity of the whole thing was too much for me as a young wife and mother. That was not what I had dreamt of when I graduated college and became a teacher of little children.

Like so many people of my generation I truly dreamt of equality among all of us. I for one celebrated the Equal Right Amendment. When President Barack Obama was elected, I felt so hopeful that people would see the opportunity to lift up the minorities in our country. I didn't count on a leftover recession from G.W. Bush and a group of people that were so hung up in bigotry and hatred for the President that they forgot about the rest of the American people for 8 years.

Now...now we are in the midst of a 4 year term with a president that simply undoes all the good that Obama has done because he is obsessed with the idea that he is called to do that. We will see the repercussions of all that. Oregon's homeless population has doubled in the past year in many parts of the state. Our beautiful Portland is being called a tent city.

Last night we had dinner with friends and one of the people at the table began extolling the progress Trump has made in his visit to the Far East. I was absolutely silent. Trying to remain logical at that moment was not even possible. I can only hope that she is right but.....! (CNN)

Are you still a logical thinker? Do you sift out and let go of ideas that are just dreams and nothing more? Let me know.

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In My Humble Opinion...Trump, Black Lives, World Tumult, Gun Control, Abortion

I suppose I need to talk about the news sooner or later and now is as good a time as any. In a lot of ways, every post I write is about the world we live in but, because this is my blog, I get to ignore a whole lot of what occurs on a very bad day. Today is my day of reckoning. A few words are in order just so you will know where I stand.

Black Live Matter...well of course they matter. Unless you can find some personal experience that allows you to understand how a black person feels when they are stopped by the police, you cannot even begin to appreciate what is going on.

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If you have ever felt fear as you are trapped by someone with ALL the power in the world and is holding a gun, then you can understand how bad things can happen. Just the wrong word or motion can lead to a death. My heart goes out to people that live with that fear everyday. I am a white woman whose life also matters but I am white so I have no idea how a person of color feels.

On the other side of the coin are all those police officers that are also afraid. They have my sympathy too. I don't want to walk in their shoes either.

The World is a Very Bad place...I will agree but don't ever tell me that it is worse than it has ever been. Even the horrible shootings in Munich don't begin to compare to the past. Keeping perspective is hard but we really must not let ourselves sink into a pot of self-pity because today or yesterday was not perfect. WE can make a difference.

Donald Trump is an idiot/savior of the world! See, the thing is we get to vote. Both Democrats and Republicans. If you or someone feels like we are danger from this man they need to vote for the person that is the less of the two evils. If we don't, it is as though they have voted for him anyway. Think about it! (Note: Michael Bloomberg, Dem. turned Rep. turned Independent turned Dem., is endorsing Clinton because he is very alarmed.)

Hillary Clinton is a criminal and should be put in prison...this one puzzles me because those people that made the decisions on the law say she did not commit a crime. I suppose that the talk show hosts are stirring this pot but who knows. I'm going with the law because I am all about our country being based on our willingness to obey the law even when we don't agree. And I think that slander is slander.

Building a Wall to Keep Them Out...I am very a torn about illegal aliens. I am worry about children but I also wonder what part of illegal those people didn't get. It is a hard hearted way to see things. I do know that those people that come here legally wait a very long time to gain admission to the United States. I admire those people for their honesty and tenacity. Oh, and I don't think the fences we have built so far have worked at all. There might be a better way.

Abortion...this is such a complicated issue that I don't think we'll ever figure it out. Babies are so precious and should not die at our hands. In my world, no woman would ever be pregnant unless she wants to be. I think rape victims or those that live in compromised circumstances (homeless, drug users) need to take a day after pill. The pills should be readily available. The Catholic Church and any other group that is so visible in opposition to abortion should be spending their time getting information and supplies to woman so unwanted pregnancies do not happen. In that scenario, an unwanted pregnancy might be a burden that could be endured and all babies would be welcome...in my perfect world!

Gun Control...I don't like guns but I prefer for a person that is carrying a gun to do it in plain site. I can cross the street if I feel threatened. I don't think guns are good for anything unless one needs to kill an animal to eat. Otherwise they need to be locked away. AND I am not a fan of the NRA.
But then that is just me.

Mass Murder, Homelessness and Mental Illness...It seems to me that we don't want to deal with the culprits here. Mental illness is truly rampant and needs our attention all of the time. We ignore so many people because they are different when we should be asking ourselves if as a society we are paying the taxes needed to provide for solving the problem. I believe that mental illness and our gun laws are are working hand in hand to create chaos. I have no idea how to stop the violence and loss of human dignity but someone somewhere does. We need to hear their voice.

I'm glad we had this little talk. As a disclaimer here, you should know that I might change my mind. That happens you know.

So, what do you think? Is there a hot button issue that you have been avoiding?