What Michael Cohen said about Donald Trump not voluntarily leaving the presidency is bone-chilling. It is also not surprising to me.
Bu Chauncey Devega
Salon (3/11/19)
Last weekend, Donald Trump delivered a big speech at the annual CPAC political carnival. It was the longest and perhaps the most memorable of his entire political career. It was also a delusional, nightmarish monologue, full of lies and violent images, manifestly the work of someone who lives in his own reality.
Trump’s audience at CPAC, and around the country, was enthralled. This is one of the most prominent attributes of a political cult: Its members worship their leader and are bound together with him in a state of collective pathology and mass psychosis. The cult leader also promises safety and salvation. Donald Trump did this as well last Saturday when, near the conclusion of his speech, he said, “I’ll protect you.”
Congress cannot be paralyzed. We cannot be paralyzed as a nation. This is not a normal situation. Donald Trump is not a normal man, and we cannot simply say, “This will clear up and go away.”
The best way to evaluate a person’s mental health is not through a personal interview or self-assessment. Instead it is through speaking with friends, family members and other close colleagues that mental health professionals are best able to assess a given person’s mental health.
Threat to democracy and public safety
Several days before Trump’s CPAC speech, Donald Trump’s personal fixer and former attorney of many years, Michael Cohen, testified before the House Oversight Committee. During his testimony, Cohen explained that Donald Trump acts like a Mafia boss, using threats, violence and intimidation to get his way and control his underlings. Cohen also provided evidence of Trump’s likely criminal behavior in the form of a personal check used by Donald Trump to pay hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels. In total, Cohen offered a personal account of Donald Trump as a man who is an impulsive pathological liar, a con artist and a threat to American democracy and public safety.
Should Cohen’s testimony be believed? Is Donald Trump a sociopath? How is he “gaslighting” America? What will Trump do if he is forced to leave the presidency? Why does he so overtly admire dictators and authoritarians like Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin? Should Michael Cohen fear for his safety?
In an effort to answer these questions I recently spoke with Dr. Justin Frank, a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and a physician with more than 40 years of experience in psychoanalysis. He is the author of the bestselling books “Bush on the Couch” and “Obama on the Couch.” His most recent book is “Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.” …
(Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2018. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )
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Trump’s Psychological Ills Have Morphed Into A Global Threat: Yale Psychiatrist
By Tana Ganeva
Raw Story (3/11/19)
The Republican apparatus is lining up behind Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, despite the President’s many legal troubles, from the Russia investigation to pay-offs to Stormy Daniels. His former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his former fixer Michael Cohen are both serving prison terms for crimes they committed while being closely associated with the Trump businesses and campaign.
Nevertheless, Trump seem eager to persevere over his Democratic challengers and is setting a harsh tone for the upcoming campaign: on Monday, he accused the party of harboring anti-Jewish sentiment.
Raw Story spoke with Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine, about the current political moment, the President’s mental state, and an upcoming conference by the World Mental Health Coalition, an organization of mental health experts who are seeking to eliminate the problem of dangerous disorders in leadership by offering fitness-for-duty exams.
She edited the New York Times bestseller, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” to be released in an expanded edition next week. She is the newly-appointed president of the World Mental Health Coalition, formerly the National Coalition of Concerned Mental Health Experts, which has joined with international partners to form the new organization. …
- If he Will Lie Abut This… Trump Reportedly Insists He Did Not Say ‘Tim Apple.’ Let’s Go To The Tape — President Donald Trump insists that he did not mistakenly refer to Apple CEO Tim Cook as “Tim Apple,” even though the bungled name could be heard on video, Axios reported. The White House’s own transcript noted that the president said “Tim — Apple” during a meeting with business leaders last week … Read the Rest & Video
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‘Pathetic’: Trump Biographer Knocks President After He ‘wins’ Golf Tournament He Didn’t Even Play In — It was reported Sunday that President Donald Trump’s golf club awarded him the championship for a competition he didn’t even play in. It prompted Trump biographer David Cay Johnston to call him “pathetic” during an interview with MSNBC host Chris Matthews. “This is pathetic and it tells you a lot about what an empty vessel Donald is,” Johnston said. “Nineteen of his properties he has plaques up of awards he gave himself from a phony hospitality system run by his pal who emcees at Mar-a-Largo every year.” He added, “Who gives an award to themselves. It is bad enough when we give children awards for showing up but giving an award to yourself, the only word to describe it is pathetic.” … Read the Rest and 5-Minute Video