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Is Donald Trump mentally ill?

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“I’ve worked with murderers and rapists. I can recognize dangerousness from a mile away. You don’t have to be an expert on dangerousness or spend fifty years studying it like I have in order to know how dangerous this man is.” – James Gilligan, psychiatrist and professor at New York University School of Medicine

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Donald Trump has 'dangerous mental illness', say psychiatry experts at Yale conference

Donald Trump has a “dangerous mental illness” and is not fit to lead the US, a group of psychiatrists has warned during a conference at Yale University.

Mental health experts claimed the President was “paranoid and delusional”, and said it was their “ethical responsibility” to warn the American public about the “dangers” Mr Trump’s psychological state poses to the country.

Speaking at the conference at Yale’s School of Medicine on Thursday, one of the mental health professionals, Dr John Gartner, a practising psychotherapist who advised psychiatric residents at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, said: “We have an ethical responsibility to warn the public about Donald Trump's dangerous mental illness.”
[...]
James Gilligan, a psychiatrist and professor at New York University, told the conference he had worked some of the “most dangerous people in society”, including murderers and rapists — but that he was convinced by the “dangerousness” of Mr Trump.

“I’ve worked with some of the most dangerous people our society produces, directing mental health programmes in prisons,” he said.

“I’ve worked with murderers and rapists. I can recognize dangerousness from a mile away. You don’t have to be an expert on dangerousness or spend fifty years studying it like I have in order to know how dangerous this man is.” [Source]

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New York Magazine: At Yale, Psychiatrists Cite Their ‘Duty to Warn’ About an Unfit President

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New York Times, Feb. 17, 2017: Is It Time to Call Trump Mentally Ill?

Columbia Journalism Review, Feb 22, 2017: Avoiding questions about Trump’s mental health is a betrayal of public trust

New York Times, Aug. 15, 2015: Introducing Donald Trump, Diplomat


......
MSNBC: THE LAST WORD, Feb. 23, 2017: Trump's mental health: 'The elephant in the room'

MSNBC: THE LAST WORD, Aug 18, 2015: Inside the mind of Donald Trump

Trump wants to be 'Queen for a Day'...and other Trumpy things I found on the Internet

TRUMP LIKES THINGS THAT GO 'BOOM!'

Trump delights in watching the U.S. military display its strength

Amid the often jarring inconsistency of President Trump’s foreign policy, one thing has always been crystal clear: He loves a big show of American military force.

“You gotta knock the hell out of them — Boom! Boom! Boom!” Trump said of Islamic State terrorists at a January 2016 rally in Iowa, punctuating each “boom” with a punch of his fist.

That same impulse has been apparent over the past 10 days as Trump pummeled a Syrian air base with cruise missiles, threatened military action against North Korea over its nuclear weapons program and praised the U.S. military’s first-ever use of a massive 11-ton bomb, nicknamed the “mother of all bombs,” to kill Islamic State militants in Afghanistan.

“So incredible. It’s brilliant. It’s genius,” Trump said Tuesday of the missile strike in Syria. “Our technology, our equipment is better than anybody by a factor of five.” [Source: Washington Post]

After the Washington Post posted the story on its FB page, one reader left this comment:

This guy's like a toddler at Christmas with his new toys:

Look mommy! I sit on the big truck! Vroooom vroom!

See! I push the button whoosh! Boom!

No! I don't want to sit with my friend Angela! I don't want a picture with her! She has cooties!

Oooh! The nice man from China's really smart! I won't say bad things about him any more, I promise mommy. He's my friend now. But still don't like North Korea! No! I think they're bad! Gonna push my button and make them go away.

Mommy! I'm tired of playing president. I wanna go home and go play now. No! now!

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TRUMP WANTS TO BE QUEEN FOR A DAY

Trump wants gold-plated carriage ride with Queen during UK visit

President Trump has requested a ride with Queen Elizabeth II in a gold-plated carriage during his visit to the United Kingdom this October, according to a report by The Times of London. [Source: The Hill]

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WHY DOESN'T TRUMP HAVE DOG?
WHY? THIS IS WHY.

What Kind of Pet Should Donald Trump Get?

Breathes there a man with a soul so dead that he doesn’t want a loyal dog or faithful feline trotting beside him when he mounts that lonely staircase to the venerable Master Bedroom?

Apparently, yes.

It seems emblematic of President Trump’s blaring tone-deafness for the office that he doesn’t even feign interest in recruiting a furry, fowlish or finny friend. Pets reap vast, humanizing rewards for presidents, as almost every one of his predecessors has discovered.
[...]
What is that great line? Once you’ve learned to fake sincerity, the rest is easy. Once Donald Trump learns to pretend to love animals, he can move on to pretending to love the human race. [Source: New York Times]

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AND HERE'S A VIDEO OF TRUMP BEING A DICK

A kid asks Trump to sign his hat at the White House Easter Egg Roll. The president signs ... and then tosses the hat into the crowd. pic.twitter.com/7ExdhpO97H

— POLITICO (@politico) April 17, 2017

Trump reverses his position on U.S. military. Now says 'we have the greatest military in the world'

Donald Trump, the man who during the campaign called the United States military a disaster, who said a private military school provided him with “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military” and who once told NBC's Chuck Todd that he got military advice by watching generals on TV shows, today praised the U.S military after the news broke that U. S. forces dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal on an ISIS complex in Afghanistan.




"We are so proud of our military. It was another successful event....
We have the greatest military in the world."

But he wasn't always so complimentary when talking about the military or its leaders.

A small sampling.... 

["The generals don't know much about ISIS] because they're not winning."


"The generals have been reduced to rubble."


"I love war, in a certain way."

Mar-A-Lago's chocolate cake is to die for

Via Mother Jones:


Trump Brags About Eating the "Most Beautiful" Chocolate Cake
During Syrian Missile Strike Decision ... Then forgets which country he just bombed.

Trump remembers details of cake he was eating while launching missiles, but not which country he was attacking. pic.twitter.com/TYfqXXDeCZ

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) April 12, 2017

THE GUY LITERALLY DID AN AD FOR HIS PRIVATE CLUB'S DESSERT OFFERINGS WHILE DESCRIBING A MISSILE STRIKE

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) April 12, 2017

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Dogs who can't figure out stairs

Last Saturday, less than three miles from the home of Miami Herald publisher Alexandra Villoch, crime reared its ugly head...and the paper's editors reacted predictably

Shortly after noon on Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010, 20-year-old Michael Beatty was gunned down in broad daylight near NW 15 Avenue & 59th Street in Liberty City.

Beatty was standing outside a convenience store at that location when a Nissan Maxima pulled up and a masked man emerged holding a Mac-10. The man chased Beatty down and executed him.

Police say Beatty's murder was witnessed by dozens of bystanders, but more than six years after the crime, police have yet to find his killer.

Several Miami TV stations reported the murder.

But despite the cold-blooded nature of the Beatty's killing and the fact that the crime was captured on surveillance video, the Miami Herald ignored the story completely.

In 2012, Crimestoppers produced a video that examined Beatty's murder.



Three and half years after Michael Beatty's killing - in a post on this blog that examined the Herald's spotty, haphazard and sometimes non-existent coverage of crime in certain South Florida neighborhoods - I mentioned Beatty's murder, asking: "Would the Herald have ignored the story of Michael Beatty's killing had he been white and had his killer chased him through the Village of Merrick Park in Coral Gables, spraying bullets from a Mac-10?"

A little more than three years after I asked that question, we finally have an answer.

On Saturday, just hours after being fired from a fitness club located at the "the upscale Shops at Merrick Park" in Coral Gables, the Herald reported "A popular personal trainer ... fatally shot one of his former co-workers and critically wounded another at the Equinox fitness center in Coral Gables on Saturday afternoon before killing himself."

Within a few hours of the shooting, Herald editors had mobilized a flying wedge of no fewer than eleven reporters and one photographer to cover the tragedy....a dozen more journalists than were assigned to cover Michael Beatty's murder. By Sunday, the Herald's newshounds had filed no fewer than eight stories on the shooting.

(By comparison, on April 11, 1986, when the Herald employed hundreds more journalists than it does today, the paper assigned about the same number of reporters to cover the bloody FBI shootout in South Dade that left two FBI agents dead and five agents wounded at the hands of two bank robbers who were also killed.)

A newsroom source tells me that a few Herald staffers wondered about Saturday's mass call out compared to responses to other shootings elsewhere in Miami-Dade.

Early fears of a mass shooting or hostage situation were quickly dispelled. Less than an hour after the shooting was reported "Coral Gables police said they secured the scene — that is, they were certain no mass shooter was on the loose — by 1:45 p.m.," the Herald reported.

Police early on declined to name the fitness club shooter or victims, but by late Saturday afternoon, the Herald - using unnamed witnesses - had identified both victims and the shooter. 

And while Michael Beatty's 2010 murder was ignored by Miami's paper of record, the Sunday morning Herald carried stories examining every angle of the Equinox shooting:

An overview of the shooting: "The 12:55 p.m. shooting shut down the upscale Shops at Merrick Park mall and scattered scores of scared shoppers and Equinox members onto the surrounding streets, many of them clad in exercise clothes and holding nothing but their workout towels."

A profile of one of the shooter's victims: “She was warm and caring, and she was an expert at guest service."

And a profile of the shooter: "The first thing people noticed about Abeku Wilson was his size."

So how do Herald editors decide which South Florida murders the paper will cover and which ones will be ignored? "You mean in comparison to black on black shootings in the 'hood? I think you already know the answer to that one. Upscale shopping mall, attractive white [victims.]" a Herald veteran responded when I asked if the shooting warranted all the resources deployed. 

Fact: Miami Herald publisher Alexandra Villoch lives less than three miles from the scene of Saturday's shooting, as does a Herald editor who directed Saturday's coverage.

Bottom line: I would love to be in the room when Herald editors explain to Michael Beatty's family why his death didn't deserve at least a fraction of the coverage that was afforded the victims of the Equinox shooting. 


video 19226

A plea to Local 10's social media editor....

....please stop trying to scare the crap out of people with your asinine click bait!



Sir, we live in South Florida which is also home to lots of wild animals.

Some inhabited our peninsula before we arrived. Other came later.

But here's a fact...not all wild animals are dangerous. Respect them and keep your distance and you'll be fine. Wild animals aren't dangerous unless they're threatened or lose their fear of humans. But for some reason you and your reporters never reveal this information when you report one of these stories.

Alligators fall into this category. Wild 'gators become dangerous after humans encounter them and try to feed them. And when 'gators associate humans with food, then it's all over.

So, headlines like this don't help the situation:

 No, Jeff, the only thing that scares me is rampant ignorance.

And writing crap like this isn't very helpful, either: "Rhinoceros Iguanas can grow in size up to 54 inches, and while some are tame, others can be aggressive.

"A bite from a Rhino Iguana can become infected and cause serious health issues."

Perhaps you should have followed up by providing examples of people who have been bitten by rhino iguanas.  But then folks would start comparing your work to journalism.And then where would you be?

By the way, I just checked with a Miami-based urban wildlife trapper and he assures me that a giant Rhino Iguana has never attacked anyone in South Florida. So, what's with the scare headline?

As a matter of fact, rhino iguanas appear to make great pets and excellent breakfast companions.

Don Rickles | May 8, 1926 - April 6, 2017

Frank Sinatra tells a very funny Don Rickles story on the Johnny Carson show in 1976.

On April 3, 1973 in New York City, Motorola researcher Martin Cooper made the first public call on a handheld mobile phone.

#onthisday on a New York City street in 1973, Motorola researcher Martin Cooper made the first public call on a handheld mobile phone. Cooper, often called the ‘father of the mobile phone’, worked at Motorola in the 1970s and invented the first handheld cellular mobile phone. Before Cooper and his team’s phone became available to the public in 1983, car phones had been used to provide a telephone service on the go. Now, just over 40 years later, the mobile phone has become a staple of modern day life. See mobile models from across the years in our Information Age Gallery. Image via GQ France.

A post shared by Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) on Apr 3, 2017 at 4:30am PDT

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Associated Press, April 8, 2003.
Click to enlarge.

'After just ten weeks, Trump teeters on the brink' ... and his supporters are just as dumb as ever

Need proof that Trump supporters are as dumb as ever?

Via CNN's New Day:

"Trump voters give the president a grade after his first months in the White House."

Alisyn Camerota: "Josh, what grade to you give President Trump?"

Josh Youssef: "I give President Trump an 'A.' "

Camerota: "Based on what? What accomplishments do you think he can hang his hat on."

Josh: "I think it's premature to ask that question."

Trump voters give the president a grade after his first months in the White House https://t.co/KuQFSDlrCV

— New Day (@NewDay) March 30, 2017

Josh Youssef, by the way, is a New Hampshire birther who has posted a 22 minute video on You Tube titled, "Proof that Obama's birth certificate is a forgery - an impeachable felony."

And right after Youssef grades the president, another genius supporter - Paulie DiBartolo - also gives Trump an "A."

"What do you base that grade on?" Camerota asks.

"We see that he's working with Ford Motor Company to build three plants in the United States and a major league investment in the United States as opposed to moving those jobs, or keeping those jobs in Mexico," DiBartolo answers. (Unsurprisingly, on Twitter Di Bartolo has 9 followers.)

Actually, DiBartolo is just as dumb and ill-informed as most Trumpettes are. Why cite actual facts when you can just pull stuff out of your ass?

According to CNBC, "Trump is taking credit for deals struck while Obama was president."

Ford announced on Tuesday the company would invest $1.2 billion in three facilities in Michigan where it will build trucks and SUVs, and store electronic data.

President Donald Trump took to Twitter to link the news to his efforts to increase manufacturing by automakers within the US.

The problem? The investment announced on Tuesday actually stemmed from a 2015 deal negotiated between Ford and the United Auto Workers union.

Under that 2015 collective bargaining agreement, Ford committed itself to investing $9 billion in US plants with the expectation of creating or retaining 8,500 jobs across a number of states, including Michigan.

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NBC News: After Just Ten Weeks, Trump Teeters on the Brink

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Need more proof of the stupidity of Trump supporters?

Florida International University unveils 'texting and walking' lanes on campus

Texting and walking is just as dangerous as it sounds. After years of research, FIU has come up with a solution.