For the last few years various psychologists and psychoanalysts have voiced opinions that President Trump is a classic case of a Narcist except he is an extreme case. In fact some even went so far as to suggest the man is actually sick. Then various books have come out that support the fact that there is something seriously wrong with the guy. If all are true then it would seem he should be given some slack with regard to his current unwillingness to concede the election. If the man is really sick – and at this point it is hard to dispute – would we really be surprised that a sick man is doing what sick men do?

So really the problem is not Trump himself, it is all the supporters and enablers that have supported him. I cant get angry at Trump as I have come to believe the psych people BUT the rest? The idiots waving flags and acting like he is some sort of messiah?  and the Government people who repeat the lies as if truth is no longer relevant? I am not amazed that even an intelligent people can be conned into believing stupid things especially if at the beginning they fit either into their preconceived ideas or have a financial benefit.

Germany, an advanced, Christian, society fell under the spell of Hitler in the space of six years and committed atrocities beyond belief and walked the world into a war that killed 50 million people. The scary thing about Trump is the realization that the same thing could actually happen in America. We have seen the seeds planted and how easy it was for so many to imagine Trump as a savior – a savior from what was never clear and was different for different people. Many say “people are angry”.  Angry about what?

Meanwhile one would think it was so easy to see through the bull shit spouted by Trump.  But apparently not. Even his statement 4 years ago that President Obama played too much golf and HE would be working so hard would not have time for golf. Then Trump played more golf than any President in history. Even at the opening of the G20 a week ago while all the world’s leaders were assembled Trump was playing golf.

Of course the recent huge spike in the Corona Virus makes a mockery of Trump’s view that “we are turning the corner”. Turns out we turned the corner into rampant virus. Meanwhile the one thing Trump had going for him was the economy. Problem is that when history is written years from now and a real analysis is made Trump will not come out very well. His policies against the issue of global warning will cost huge amounts in the future. We could have prevented problems – now they will cost more to deal with.

Meanwhile as far as the stock market goes Trump stated that if Biden gets elected the stock market will crash. Yesterday it broke the record as the highest point ever.  So much for that prediction. Also people forget that if you have money the old idea that you could put it in a bank and earn interest died years ago so that now if you want to get some interest there are few places other than the stock market to put the money. The government gives money to banks at no interest so the banks don’t need to raise money from deposits.  Hence they pay no interest.

The most depressing thing is the lack of knowledge and the willingness to find out what’s true. When Trump said the WHO is bad news, or that the Iran deal is the worst ever, with NAFTA a close second, or that NATO is useless people believed him.  Ask Trump to explain the terms of the Iran deal and he cant. He never read the documents – nor did he look at the NAFTA deal NOR did all the supporters who simply chose to believe him. When he said “read the manuscript” his supporters encouraged people to do so to prove how innocent Trump was BUT when asked “did you read the manuscript” of course they didn’t. 

The reality is this: if you put Trump into a room and said tell me SPECIFICALLY why the NAFTA deal is so bad and why the improvement he championed was so good – he couldn’t. The man does not read. He watches TV and makes pronouncements that sound like he knows what he is talking about – knowing full well few will check – and those that do can be dismissed as purveyors of “fake nes” or as “enemies of the people”. 

Then there is the Obama Care issue. He said at the beginning of his Presidency that he was going to abolish AND replace. He did work to abolish but the promise to replace was conveniently forgotten. Even a few months ago Trump repeated that within two weeks his great health plan would be announced. Never happened. So much for the bullshit ‘promises made promises kept’. Even the “wall” turned out to be half hearted and of course Mexico never paid for the few miles that were constructed. In fact, most promises were NOT kept.

The good news is that 8 million more Americans were right to vote him out of office and that sick man will not be President – and we have to make sure never again. The US cannot afford such an idiot ever again. Both Republicans AND Democrats have to make sure Jan 20. 2021 will be the end of Trump.

I have been asked to do a lecture/question and answer program on the subject of my experience with my father and his work in the CIA and how growing up in the Middle East influenced me and what I might have learned from my father. Thinking about the subject several things come to mind.

First my father was – to say the least -“colorful” and did indeed get up to all sorts of activities one might expect from a CIA operative. And he was not averse to exaggerate especially if it made a point. He used to tell me “don’t let the truth stand in the way of a good story”. As I realized it later this was really a lesson in marketing – a lesson I put to good use in later years in the Music Business. He never made up activities but he was willing to exaggerate – which is what advertising and marketing is really all about. Push the envelope of truth so to speak. What did I learn?  I could add this:  “Never assume the truth will stand in the way of people believing what they want to believe’.

The Middle East is full of conspiracy theories and now I see them running rampant right here in the USA. I always knew religions were capable of creating really outlandish beliefs so any belief is possible. Jim Jones, the Hale Bob people, Qanon, Scientology, and the like. People will believe anything if they WANT to believe it. The trick is to either tap into what they want to believe OR figure out a way to make them believe.

Meanwhile I have watched in amazement the claims about a rigged election.  I wonder if it has donned on the Trump fans that if this election was rigged – especially in Republican states – then surely the last election was also rigged.  Trump said last time that it was rigged just like he says the same thing now.  You cant have it both ways. ALSO, with so many Trump appointees to the bench, and the landslide he got, and his millions of supporters how could a guy like that loose to a bunch of low level counters many of whom voted for him. Doesn’t make sense.  BUT then again – its people believing what they want to believe.

There was another important lesson my father gave me. In fact it was based on a quote from Lenin. Basically I you can define the terms you are nine tenths towards winning the argument. I saw this in England in the 70s where Socialism was good and Capitalism was bad. Most people could not tell you what either meant. Today we see the same thing in the US. Many in Florida equat the word “socialism” with Cuba and Venezuela. I doubt if 99% of those people can tell you what socialism means. Most think it is the same as communism – which it is not. They also don’t know that Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Germany and many other countries are “socialist”. Also ask those same people how they like Medicare and they will say “great!. So if you hate socialism I assume you want to terminate medicare as medicare is “socialism”.

It distresses me that neither the media nor the Democratic party seem to understand the need to educate the public as to what these – now emotional terms – really mean. Even one of my sons said to me recently “doesn’t socialism mean there are no elections?” NO. Every socialist country has elections. Dictatorships are the ones that don’t have elections, or have elections controlled by the dictator. Iran has elections – except they only allow “approved” candidates to run. Same as China. Even Russia has elections – but they are controlled by Putin.

It can also be argued that the USA is also not a full democracy as our founding fathers did not like the idea of  majority rule – which is why there is an electoral college. Why 40 million Californians are represented by two Senators and several million Dakotans are represented by 4 Senators.  

Lastly, the way to know what is really going on, one has to get as many inputs – especially opposite ones and then use common sense to work out what is true and not. Those that watch only Fox news are not going to get full information. Personally I watch Fox, CBS, MSNBC, BBC, France 24, PBS news,  If you only get news from once source – that makes you an idiot.

My mother’s brother Ian Adie was a highly respected China expert and worked for Australian intelligence while also a professor at Canberra University. He once warned that we should hope China stays communist as Mao made it because if it ever adopted a ‘capitalist’ style approach they will take over everything in a matter of a few decades. I don’t think he imagined China as it is today – but gobbling up everything he was not far off the mark.  I have managed to keep up with some of his China expert buddies – students he trained and the like. What I hear from them is interesting.  We hear that China does not like Trump and would rather Biden be in the White House.  However that is largely incorrect. China indeed thinks Trump is bad news in the short term, but they see him as a sure fire way to decrease American power and influence in the world, so long term they absolutely want to see him reelected. And they see that given 4 more years he may be able to set up America on a course of decline even after he leaves the White House. In other words they see Trump as a useful idiot. Funny thing is that Russia sees him in exactly the same light and both are now working together imagining a new world order without American domination.

All this talk about Trump being a danger for the future – well – it’s true. His support base and enablers have simply thought of their short term interests and buried their heads in the sand. It’s like American business thinking of the quarterly reports, the stock market today, my job now. China thinks in terms of 5 year plans. We take the short view – China takes the long view. The long view usually wins out.

It may be gratifying that Joe Biden won the election but one has to note that Trump, after all the books exposing his faults and the constant flow of horrible reports from the many employees he fired, and indeed the silly tweets from the President himself, STILL he won a huge proportion of the American public. That is scary in itself.

I am reminded of the many film documentaries on Adolf Hitler, and the look of the adoring fans and supporters and the view among them that he could do no wrong.  In the beginning even people who did not like him and his racist rhetoric figured, at least he got the trains running on time and he is good for business so they went along and supported him. They figured his nastier instincts could be controlled. Eventually his power grew to a degree that they could NOT control him and we know what happened.

There are similarities in the Trump story. Mitch McConnel and the Republicans in general figured they could use him to get what they wanted – like a useful idiot – and they were right. I wager that Mitch and a whole bunch of Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief that Trump lost AND they maintained all their seats and even added a few in the House. In another term Trump might well have gained too much control and indeed perverted the system to the point they could end up like those Germans who thought they could prevent Hitler’s excesses.

Meanwhile the bad news is over seventy million Americans voted for a really bad guy and many believed even his most outrageous lies. The good news is that over the next few years the Trump predictions of disaster with a biden Biden win will prove to be bullshit. Perhaps then they might begin to believe that he is just a boastful lier who figures truth is for idiots- or as Mitt Romney said, a con man. I am not surprised Trump has not conceded, just proves yet again the man has no class.