19 Comments
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VEE LAVALLEE's avatar

You're right Jim. It is the apathy that's going to be hardest to fight against. Is he making Americans apathetic or were they always? The country has swung from hatred to love bombing for centuries. Trump being elected was just another signal that that is still the case. Americans don't know their own history of racism in it's entirety which is what how they want it. They never ever want to know the bad of their "streets paved with gold" reality. trump is just a product of that society as a whole. I don't think this is just an issue of the republicans, although they are the worst of both party's. I think even the Democrats want to pull the wool over their eyes as well. That people object to trump is obviously universal, (even if healthcare isn't), but to want everything to go back to "normal times" means nothing will change except the players in this quasi drama.

Observer's avatar

Hi Jim, this is a wonderful essay. You always educate and give us so much to think about.

In rare moments, Donald tells us the truth. In word, and deed he tells and shows us how entirely apathetic he is about the needs of other people.

But when he says he doesn’t care about the war or the Strait, my hunch is that he’s acting. He desperately needs to be seen as a hero, resplendent in a gold crown of victory. So when the outer world doesn’t meet this need, doesn’t function to support his grandiose self, he dismisses its importance.

This “I don’t care” shrug protects him from what would feel like crushing shame. It also functions as misdirection…he’s signaling that other people should pay no attention to that powerless fraud behind the curtain.

That’s my guess…

Mark Archambault's avatar

Jim, excellent essay. It says it all.

Kay G's avatar

Jim - you got Trump. I spotted the “bored” with the “war”??? 🤔

Tying it together...

As soon as you put up that brain scans - the lateral one - you have it there.

My late father must have had the same problem. He had a brain scan like that. I was horrified!! I had been telling my family that there was something wrong with him, but people were brushing it off. I guess like Trump. But my father started exhibiting the same disinhibition in speaking. He wasn’t a complete jackass POS like Trump, but he wasn’t a crook and pedophile like Trump to begin with. However, when my father - who had owned a business, been a church elder and tried to make life better for many people including his extended family, said something out of line in public - we would kind of quietly apologize, in a way that would not embarrass him but acknowledge that his comments were - from an old man with dementia.

So what in the H is this Administration’s excuse, except that whoever is actually running the Administration doesn’t want to give up the power.

Trump isn’t the “acting” President really, then who is, Putin, Bibi, Vance, Miller, Rubio, Hegseth and his Pastor, Elon, Ellison

Johnson by keeping the House shut down.

Considering the World is about to go into a shortages of fuel, fertilizer etc - our Elected Representatives and Senators better figure out quickly.

Mad Max is a nasty scenario

Lor's avatar

Thank you Jim this is an excellent article and analysis. Hope you and yours are keeping safe

Spank Flaps's avatar

There's no point in asking, you'll get no reply

Oh just remember I don't decide

I got no reason it's all too much

You'll always find me, out to lunch

We’re so pretty we’re so pretty… vacant

And we don’t care

Allan Crow's avatar

Here we are all hanging by a thread attached to the broken cranium of this soulless ghoul.

AI could not conjure up a more unfit and broken human being.

That's got to be beyond its limitations.

Greg Anderson's avatar

There's another kind of poverty that only rich men know, a moral malnutrition that starves their very souls.

Jack Carter's avatar

The soon incoming autopsy will definitely prove all the mess he got in his cranium. But of course that will be labelled super mega secret. So much for transparency. Thank you

William Farrar's avatar

What is needed is a fire breathing left wing populist, we came close, but not there, with Bernie (not a fire breather) but the Democratic party establishment is the problem, the likes of Carville, Begala, Brazelle, Biggs,Martin professionals who make a living off politics, win or lose, amoral, pragmatists that slop at the same trough as the Repblicans, but only sloppy seconds, after they feed.

Caroline (PDX)'s avatar

A Mamdani for the masses?

William Farrar's avatar

Fine with me, but AIPAC . Evangelicals, Haredi, Chabad and Israeli firsters won't like him, and don't.

SusanB's avatar

Not caring. So that’s what he and Melania have in common. Or, OMG, was she sending us all a warning message with her “I really don’t care, do you?” coat. What a frightening place to live, that building formerly known as the White House.

Sometimes I don’t believe it when I say or think that we’re all in this together. That feels like apathy.

Our Better Angels's avatar

The worst part of this is that this sort of apathy is contagious. The sheer exhaustion of keeping up with the ramblings of a malignant narcissist undergoing cognitive decline impacts everyone. This includes Americans who are trying to resist and push back. So many of my family and friends who cared deeply about what was happening are now just tuning out. Apathy begets apathy - which can be dangerous.

Mark Archambault's avatar

The presidency is supposed to age the president, not the citizens! - Jon Stewart

Our Better Angels's avatar

Well - technically we all age during a presidency. By that I mean we age 4 years - not 20 to 30 years...😬

Gari Gold Richardson's avatar

When kids are in over their heads, they fein apathy. When adults are in over their heads, they ask for assistance. He has to be removed.