President Caligula

[Tessera]

Well, this latest insanity in Charlottesville isn't helping Trump at all.

Right now, Trump's approval rating is LOWER than the approval rating for Richard Nixon around the time of Watergate. Nixon's ratings quickly went as low as 18%, at which point he resigned from office in order to avoid prosecution. He was later pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.

That's rather astounding, when you think about it. Trump is actually doing WORSE than Nixon was during the Watergate scandal.

If 6 more senators sign on, then we'd have enough votes to impeach Trump's psychotic ass and get rid of him for good. Right now, the number of Americans who favor impeachment is higher than Trump's approval rating. Which is likewise rather astounding.

I used to think that George W. Bush was the worst president that we've ever had in the USA. Not anymore.

Oh... and thank you, Kathy Griffin:



That's the photo that got Kathy fired from CNN... but I think it's a great gag. She's been my favorite comedienne for about 20 years.

[Tessera]

Some interesting developments during the past few days...

Trump's overall popularity ratings, according to daily Gallup polls, are today as follows:

60% of Americans disapprove of the President
34% of Americans approve of the President


Those are some incredibly shitty numbers for Trump, given the fact that he's only about 7 months into his first term. The last U.S. president to have numbers that low was Richard Nixon, during the the time of the Watergate hearings in 1974. A few months later, Nixon's popularity plummeted to 18% and he ended up resigning in disgrace.

I've already been telling people that Trump will not be able to finish out his first term. He's dug himself into too deep of a hole to ever climb back out of it. Well, the volatile events of this past week have only strengthened my opinion that the Trump presidency is a dismal failure.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow reported yesterday that some very specific and damning information, regarding Trump's ties to Russia during the election, will soon become a matter of public record. Maddow was careful not to be too specific, no doubt for legal reasons, but the information that she -did- share makes Trump out to be guilty of no less than TREASON against the United States. In short, not only could the fucker be impeached, he could also be arrested, tried for treason and... if found guilty... executed by hanging or by firing squad. Pretty serious shit, this.

It gets even better. A couple of weeks ago, Trump apparently called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell... a man whose support Trump desperately needs... and got into a vicious and personally abusive fight with McConnell that apparently lasted for about 20 minutes. The two men were screaming obscenities at each other... that's how bad it was. Well, the result is that McConnell now HATES Trump and is unlikely to support him in any ways whatsoever. Talk about shooting yourself in your own foot, Donny. The reason for this explosive fight between them..? Trump was angry at McConnell for not "shielding Trump" from the ongoing investigation into Trump's ties with Russia.

Trump held a rally in Phoenix, Arizona which was attended by a pitifully small number of very loud supporters. Almost makes you think that he paid them all a fee in exchange for their participation. During that rally, he lied his ass off on camera... and they were pitiful lies, the type that can easily and quickly be fact checked and exposed. The man has clearly lost his mind and is behaving desperately.

I've been taking a closer look at Trump during this past week, especially his behavior over the years and his speech patterns, and I have concluded that Donald Trump suffers from a serious mental illness called Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I won't get into a bunch of specifics, mainly because entire books have been written about this very dangerous form of psychosis. You can easily Google it, if you want to learn about it... and when you do start reading about malignant NPD, you'll feel as if you're reading a perfect description of Donald Trump (it also very nicely describes megalomaniacal nimrods like Joe Arpaio, Dick Cheney, Adolph Hitler and several others of their ilk). My point is that Donald Trump is legitimately INSANE. Not just weird, not just eccentric, not just bellicose, but the man is indeed suffering from a dangerously unstable mental illness. Congress could actually invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office on that basis. I doubt they will, though... because they already have plenty of ammunition to use in a straightforward impeachment proceeding against Trump. But I thought it worth mentioning.

So with all of the above in mind...

BELOW: President Caligula ponders his own inevitable self-destruction...

[Tessera]

Wake up, America. Please.

[Blankspace]

And you can thank the cluster fuck that was the last election for all of this.

[Cylnar]

George W. Bush looks like a fucking statesman next to our current White House embarrassment.

The fact that there was no failsafe in effect to keep this pigfucker from gaining the nuclear access codes is a travesty that needs to be corrected yesterday.

Not to mention all the damage his other fucked-up policies have inflicted on mankind's ability to survive all the threats currently facing us...which could only be corrected through decades of overwhelmingly liberal leadership of all the world's major countries (which we won't be getting because most people are generally conservative-minded). Immediately impending chains of catastrophes are no time for conservative leadership.

In other words, we're fucked. As goes America, so goes the planet.

[Cylnar]

And now Trump has gone ahead and pardoned Joe Arpaio, for contempt of court stemming from his (deliberate) failure to obey a 2011 federal court order to stop detaining people based solely on their immigration status. Arpaio's anti-immigrant crusade was so all-encompassing that his department let enforcement of other crimes slip across the board, including over 400 sex crimes cases, many involving children, that went uninvestigated because good ol' Sheriff Joe was too busy busting undocumented Mexican laborers to bother with such trivial distractions. The maximum time Arpaio would have seen behind bars was six months, a small enough penalty for an 85-year-old man's decades of being a scumbag, but Trump took that away, basically signaling that it's OK to break the law as long as you're doing something your orange Fuhrer likes.

[Tessera]

Yes, he pardoned Arpaio. That sucks.

But he was also pressured into firing Sabastian Gorka last night... a truly smarmy, nasty and repugnant fascist.

Seems like a fair trade to me. We get rid of Gorka, and Trump's Racists get to have their little victory with Arpaio.

Gorka is big stuff... but in comparison, Arpaio is small potatoes.

To quote one of Trump's own favorite catch phrases... I'll take that deal. 


Here's a new report from a prominent anti-Trump resistance movement:

Well, it's official.  69% of Americans agree that Donald Trump is "pathological liar."  So says our scientific, national poll.

As you might expect, 84% of all Democrats think that Trump is a pathological liar, and only 7% disagree.  Independents are independent enough to acknowledge this same hard truth: 67% say yes, the President of the United States is a pathological liar, and only 19% say no.

But here's the kicker:  Even 54% of Republicans recognize that Donald Trump is a pathological liar, and only 35% disagree.

So they hate him, too.  He may be their bastard, but he's still a bastard.  And they know it.

(Our poll was a random sample of 1245 Americans, conducted by a national polling company for The Resistance earlier this month.  The margin of error was 2.8%.)

Remarkably, pretty much everyone agrees that Trump is a pathological liar: 71% of Whites, 69% of African-Americans, 62% of Asians and 58% of Hispanics.    Same thing with religion: 77% of all Muslims, 76% of all Jews, 68% of non-evangelical Christians, 67% of Catholics and 66% of Evangelicals concur that Donald Trump is a pathological liar.

Congratulations, Donald Trump.  You've re-united the United States – against you.

What should you do?  Tell all your friends, around the water cooler and on social media.  That's what The Resistance has to do.  Tell the world and show the world that Donald Trump is a pathological liar – make sure that everyone sees it, and everyone knows it.

[Cylnar]

Yeah, Trump was forced into ditching both Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka and those are definitely wins for sanity.

Now all that needs to happen is for every Republican in the line of succession for the White House to be in one place for a nice bomb to go off and take them all out. Then we can try to get past some of the climate denial and other atrocious Republican policies that this county simply cannot afford to continue pursuing for even the next year and a half, let alone three and a half years.

[Tessera]

Cylnar, yes. He's going down fast, dude. The rats are deserting the sinking ship. This is kinda like watching Nixon and Watergate all over again. The specifics are different and the actors have changed, but the underlying "play" is pretty much the same. I'm just waiting for a John Dean style whistle-blower to emerge and spill some inside dirt on Trump.

So, I'll make another of my famous predictions, based upon what I see happening...

Trump is, in my estimation, suffering from Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It is a very serious mental illness. Amongst other things, this means Trump is extremely status-conscious. Anyone above him is a god... everyone below him is a sub-human who is unworthy of his sympathy and empathy. It also means that he is very, very careful to protect his own imaginary status... and hide his inner weaknesses from being uncovered by others. In essence, Trump has constructed a fragile little bubble of deception around himself -- a false front -- and he nervously hides within that bubble. 

When it begins to look like Trump may actually be impeached, or forcibly removed by some other means (such as by invoking the 25th Amendment), Trump's fragile little bubble could burst. He could be exposed for who he really is... the prospect of which is intolerable to anyone suffering from his type of mental illness. So in order to protect himself, he will do the same thing that another Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) president (Richard Nixon) did before him:

Donald Trump will quickly resign, in order to make it appear as if leaving the White House was HIS choice... HIS plan... and under HIS control.

That is my prediction, and it is based upon not only current events, but also upon my personal belief that Trump is indeed suffering from the severe psychosis known as Malignant NPD.

I guess we'll see whether or not my prediction comes true. But I'm far from being the only person making this prediction -- so we'll see.

As for WHEN it will all happen..? Well, there is so much red tape and decorum involved in an actual impeachment, that it could take as long as another year. I hope it doesn't take that long, because the vast majority of Americans are fed up with Trump and want him OUT. He is an enormous embarrassment to our country... and our reputation has already been severely tarnished during recent decades.

[Tessera]

Oh... and thank you, Kathy Griffin:



That's the photo that got Kathy fired from CNN... but I think it's a great gag. She's been my favorite comedienne for about 20 years.

To her credit, lovely comedienne Kathy Griffin has retracted the apology that she made awhile back, with regards to the above photo and the controversy that it caused.

No doubt emboldened by the recent condemnations of Trump, following his response to Charlottesville, his shocking pardoning of Joe Arpaio, and the million other terrible things that Trump has done since taking office, Kathy Griffin has valiantly decided to stick to her guns. Yesterday on Twitter, Kathy made the following comment in response to questions about the now famous photo:

"I'm no longer sorry. The whole outrage was BS" - Kathy Griffin on Twitter, August 28, 2017

She also appeared on an Australian news program, saying pretty much the same thing and calling the interviewer's negative comments about the photo "crap." She then went on to say that as of now, she is retracting her earlier (and somewhat tearful) apology that she made at a news conference, back on June 2nd of this year.

Way to go, Kathy. Know that you're still my favorite comedienne and that your fans are behind you. Hopefully, you can patch up your soured relationship with Anderson Cooper.

[caninelegion]

Ah man, if any President relates to Caligula,  that'd be Clinton with Bush being President Tiberius (look him up and I'd bet you'd agree), Obama being President Nero, and Trump being president Claudius (who was likely retarded).  It just fits better historically.  Just the same, we are going the way of Rome.  Wow, I guess that would make Lincoln President Cesar. 

Disclaimer:  I will say no more but the history buff in me is acting like the beast here. 

[Tessera]

Claudius (who was likely retarded).

Actually no, there was nothing wrong with Claudius' mind. Many of his writings have survived into our time and from those writings, it is clear that Claudius was quite intelligent and articulate.

Claudius was born with a club foot, yes... and he also suffered from stuttering throughout his life. Many of his contemporaries THOUGHT that Claudius was retarded, but it seems clear that he was really just putting on an act in order to protect his own life. Keep in mind that back at that time and following the death of Augustus Caesar, noble families were assassinating rivals left and right, as they struggled to get into the line of succession and (hopefully) become emperor. Claudius wanted none of that... but he was in fact in the line of succession. So in order to stay alive, he did his best to convince everyone that he was far too stupid, bumbling and inept to ever become the emperor.

Ironically, this is precisely how Claudius ended up becoming the emperor. After the completely maniacal and depraved reign of Caligula... which came to an end when Caligula was assassinated by his own praetorian guards... Claudius was immediately named his successor. Mainly because everyone figured that Claudius was a nitwit, who could be easily controlled. But of course, once Claudius actually took the throne, he shocked everyone by revealing himself to be a highly intelligent, pragmatic and well-educated man. The only truly stupid thing that Claudius did was to marry the lascivious and treacherous Messalina... but that is a story for another day.

Sorry for showing off, but classical and ancient history have been interests of mine ever since I was a teenager. 

[caninelegion]

Claudius (who was likely retarded).

Actually no, there was nothing wrong with Claudius' mind. Many of his writings have survived into our time and from those writings, it is clear that Claudius was quite intelligent and articulate.

Claudius was born with a club foot, yes... and he also suffered from stuttering throughout his life. Many of his contemporaries THOUGHT that Claudius was retarded, but it seems clear that he was really just putting on an act in order to protect his own life. Keep in mind that back at that time and following the death of Augustus Caesar, noble families were assassinating rivals left and right, as they struggled to get into the line of succession and (hopefully) become emperor. Claudius wanted none of that... but he was in fact in the line of succession. So in order to stay alive, he did his best to convince everyone that he was far too stupid, bumbling and inept to ever become the emperor.

Ironically, this is precisely how Claudius ended up becoming the emperor. After the completely maniacal and depraved reign of Caligula... which came to an end when Caligula was assassinated by his own praetorian guards... Claudius was immediately named his successor. Mainly because everyone figured that Claudius was a nitwit, who could be easily controlled. But of course, once Claudius actually took the throne, he shocked everyone by revealing himself to be a highly intelligent, pragmatic and well-educated man. The only truly stupid thing that Claudius did was to marry the lascivious and treacherous Messalina... but that is a story for another day.

Sorry for showing off, but classical and ancient history have been interests of mine ever since I was a teenager. 

Cool!  Well, there goes the Trump analogy.  How about Camodus?  I know nothing of this emperor however, his name -----

[Blankspace]

Caligula was assassinated by his own praetorian guards

Something to keep in mind while Trump fucks with the secret service.

[Cylnar]

Cool!  Well, there goes the Trump analogy.  How about Camodus?  I know nothing of this emperor however, his name -----

If you're thinking of Commodus, he nearly bankrupted the Empire by holding constant gladiatorial combats (in which he sometimes participated in rigged contests) and showed little interest in the day to day running of the Empire. So his parallels to Trump are 1) participating inappropriately in the "entertainment" of the citizenry (Trump's Twitter tirades and media grandstanding which degrades the office of the Presidency vs. Commodus' unseemly participation in the "vulgar" games) and 2) both "leaders'" lack of interest in actually doing their jobs. You could also go with 3) wasting the public's tax money on expensive personal indulgences (Trump's vacations at Mar-a-Lago are much more expensive then similar trips to Camp David, maintaining Secret Service coverage at Trump Tower is ridiculously expensive, etc.).

[Tessera]

Commodus was similar, yes... but not crazy enough. Not unless you wanna believe the portrayal of Commodus (by Joaquin Phoenix) in the movie "Gladiator," which was far from being historically accurate.

I happen to believe that Trump is actually insane, though... hence my comparison of Trump to Caligula. Narcissism, megalomania, grandiosity, irrational behavior, etc. 


I will say that there -is- one comparison that could be made between Trump and Claudius. It seems clear that Claudius never wanted to be the emperor. Likewise, I don't think Trump ever actually wanted to become the president. I said as much a year ago, prior to the 2016 election.

I think Trump got into the race simply to self-promote and further aggrandize himself -- and he was no doubt rather shocked when he actually won. And now, Trump is stuck in a job that he doesn't want and is unqualified to do... which makes me suspect that half of his behavior since January has been an act. I think he actually WANTS to be impeached. Just a hunch.

[caninelegion]

Commodus was similar, yes... but not crazy enough. Not unless you wanna believe the portrayal of Commodus (by Joaquin Phoenix) in the movie "Gladiator," which was far from being historically accurate.

I happen to believe that Trump is actually insane, though... hence my comparison of Trump to Caligula. Narcissism, megalomania, grandiosity, irrational behavior, etc. 


I will say that there -is- one comparison that could be made between Trump and Claudius. It seems clear that Claudius never wanted to be the emperor. Likewise, I don't think Trump ever actually wanted to become the president. I said as much a year ago, prior to the 2016 election.

I think Trump got into the race simply to self-promote and further aggrandize himself -- and he was no doubt rather shocked when he actually won. And now, Trump is stuck in a job that he doesn't want and is unqualified to do... which makes me suspect that half of his behavior since January has been an act. I think he actually WANTS to be impeached. Just a hunch.

Like the shock jock from NYC (Stern) who ran for mayor as a joke then withdrew when he was well in first.  It is certainly possible.  We as voters certainly don't have a good record for the most part in my lifetime and we still allow a political class to make a career out of politics with all the inherent corruption that brings.