The Art of the Threat

July 20, 2017

Very unfair!

We really need to do a better job handling mental illness in the country. I know, no one wants to talk about it, it’s difficult to diagnose and treatment rarely leads to a cure. But ignoring the problem doesn’t make it go away. We need to face it, turning a blind eye to the troubled just makes things worse.

I mean, just look at the Donald.

For years, hell decades, we’ve watched him act out. We’ve heard him call people names as if he were a sugared-up eight-year-old; seen him mock disabled people then deny it ever happened; watched him claim credit for things he didn’t do and then sue the people who point that out. Time after time we’ve seen him deny demonstrable reality and then make up alternative facts.

Yet, we’ve ignored his obvious cries for help and treated him as if he were a just another obnoxious buffoon, a rich one, but still a harmless pathetic clown. I understand some people even find him entertaining – which I don’t understand.

Unfortunately, ignoring the Donald’s issues has encouraged other similarly troubled people to put him in power. So, now, while he’s still a buffoon, he’s no longer harmless. And his name calling, playground mocking self-indulgence has graduated to threats and crimes. (Though, I suspect crimes have been part of the Trump brand for a while now, we just felt he was more entertaining than threatening – so ignored it.)

For instance, in an interview last night with the New York Times, Trump publicly threatened Jeff Sessions, Robert Mueller, James Comey, FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. He managed to hit five guys, all Justice Department people, in a fifty-minute interview.  And while some might call working so many threats into such a short performance art piece in-artful, there’s more.

Of particular interest was: Trump’s criticisms of Rosenstein, where the Donald implied the gentleman couldn’t be a real Republican because he was from Baltimore and Trump’s complaint that Sessions was extremely unfair to the president for not overseeing an investigation of himself. (Yeah, the Donald’s taken to referring to himself in the third person like a rapper – spooky.)

Crazy, hey?

So, we had our chance two-hundred-fifty-four days ago and blew it, elected the buffoon because he was the more interesting candidate and now it’s up to congress. Will they recognize his symptoms of mental decay? Will they realize that the Donald is a threat to himself and the republic? Will they do the sane thing and remove him from office and get him treatment?

And if not: well, we really need to do a better job handling mental illness in the country.

One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest,
osv

PS:
Call me a hopeless romantic, but I remain wistfully hopeful that a heart attack, stroke or aneurysm will solve the problem at hand. (Well, actually, I find those events more likely than congress doing the right thing. Batty, hey?)