Georgia Senate Races

Trump poked the bear - big mistake!

But the GOP Sec of State has done the right thing when attacked by a bully - hit back, hit hard, and expose the bully for all the world to see, as the last thing in the world a bully wants is to be exposed for what their behaviour is really like.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2021/jan/04/donald-trump-georgi...

Trump's latest crime "shocks" the media: His niece, Mary Trump, is not surprised

Mary Trump on her uncle's desperate attempt to escape being a "loser": It's a "uniquely terrifying situation"

Donald Trump and Mary Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images/Simon & Schuster)

In 2020, Trump continued with the same threats, now amplified by his power as president. He was impeached almost a year ago because he attempted to extort the Ukrainian president into smearing Joe Biden during the 2020 election. A few weeks ago, Donald Trump hosted a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House where a military coup was reportedly discussed as a means of keeping him in power indefinitely. Trump continues to encourage his followers to engage in sedition and treason on his behalf in a last-ditch effort to overturn Joe Biden's election victory.

As Jason Stanley, a Yale professor and the author of "How Fascism Works," summarized on Twitter, "Trump is clearly not just a performative authoritarian. He's the real thing."

Trump, his Republican supporters and other members of the anti-democracy cabal members are correct about one thing regarding the 2020 presidential election: There was in fact voting fraud, but it was and is being committed by them.

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Dr. Mary Trump, who is Donald Trump's niece and also a clinical psychologist, has publicly predicted Donald Trump's increasingly dangerous, aberrant and delusional behavior. Her bestselling book "Too Much and Never Enough" chronicles how her uncle came to be the man he is today, and the dire, almost existential threat that he represents to the United States and the world. In this new conversation with Salon, Mary Trump warns that Donald Trump will only become more dangerous as Inauguration Day approaches and he faces the last days of his presidency.

She also suggests that Donald Trump is experiencing a severe psychological crisis because of his deeply pathological fear of "losing," and discusses why he seems so indifferent to the death and suffering caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and how he has a deep contempt for his own followers.

In conclusion, Mary Trump issues a warning: There is no limit to the havoc and destruction her uncle is willing to cause in these final weeks before he is forced from office.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

I had the honor of speaking with the late Dr. Jerrold Post some months ago, before he passed away. He described Donald Trump as being very dangerous and possessing what he termed "dark charisma." In your experience with your uncle, how has this dark charisma manifested itself? Is he that powerful?

I refer to it as "superficial charisma." But Dr. Post and I ultimately mean the same thing. If you are with Donald for more than three minutes, you understand that it is a scam. He is somebody who is superficially charming. There is no substance there.

However, here is the problem: Donald's the weakest person I've ever met in my life. But there are, as it turns out, people who are a great deal weaker than he is. He is a magnet for them. They also see that in their view he has been incredibly successful. He speaks to their grievances in a way I believe no one else ever has in this country. We saw that during his recent rally in Georgia. He said, "We're all victims here." All the thousands of us, including himself! Trump's a victim, too, despite having every privilege possible. He's a "victim." I've never met anybody who felt so sorry for himself, who so felt that he was owed something. But the truth of the matter is that his followers, such as the people at the recent Georgia rally, are his victims. That is what is so maddening.

Does Donald Trump the human being really exist? Or is he just a performer who is lost in the role? Are his followers responding to the human being or to the image and performance?

You're exactly right. Donald does not know who he is because he doesn't have an identity. Donald does not have a core. He is a completely false self. He is somebody — and to me this is a sign of serious psychopathy — who is exactly the same whether he is in front of a crowd of 50,000 people or in a room with his wife or his children, whether he's in a Cabinet meeting or hanging out on the golf course. He is the same person across every circumstance. That is deeply disturbing. Donald is entirely a construct. The question is, what happens when there's nobody watching anymore? He ceases to exist, essentially.

Insiders and others close to Trump have been warning that he is delusional and acting like some type of mad king since his loss to Joe Biden. Given your clinical expertise, what happens to a person like him after suffering such a great defeat? How dangerous will he become?

That is the danger, because he cannot process it. He is not decompensating. People have asked me that since the beginning: "Don't you see that he's deteriorated?" No, he's exactly the same person. I do not need to have seen him in 20 years. Donald is exactly the same person as he was when I was five, when I was 12, when I was writing his book for him, when I saw him in the White House in 2017. The only thing that's changed are the circumstances. Donald's under a level of scrutiny — not enough scrutiny, of course — but at least some scrutiny that he has never experienced before. He's under levels of stress he's never experienced. He's under levels of expectation he's never experienced. The distance between his competencies, such as they are, and what's required for the job are light years apart.

Nobody is going to be able to function at the same level under those changing circumstances. But Donald is the same. Now he is in a uniquely terrifying situation. This is a person who grew up with a father who considered losing the absolute worst thing a person can do. Of course, Donald's never won anything legitimately in his life. However, he's not an ethical person. Winning was more important than anything else, so therefore you did whatever you had to do to win. It didn't matter if it was legitimate or luck. It didn't matter if you lied, cheated, stole, used performance-enhancing drugs, whatever one needs to do to win. You won. That is all that matters.

Donald can't do that now. He is trapped in being a loser for all time. Daddy's money can't buy him out of a loss. My grandfather is not going to drive up to the White House with a briefcase full of electoral college votes. Hard as he might try, this election is not getting overturned because, although sadly it wasn't a landslide, it was a decisive win for Joe Biden. You cannot make up for a 7 million-vote discrepancy. It doesn't mean he's not going to keep trying, though. The more Donald has to acknowledge that he is not going to be able to get the win, the more dangerous he is going to get.

Thousands of people are dying every day now from the pandemic. What is Donald doing? He's giving rallies with people crammed in together, not wearing masks. It's almost like Donald is saying, "See. Fuck you. You rejected me. Fine, I'm going to kill all of you." What is weird is that he is killing his own supporters. It is almost a type of performative omnipotence.

What does Donald Trump really think about his followers?

Donald has nothing but contempt for them. Yet they are all he's got left.

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Are there any limits on Donald Trump's behavior and what he is capable of doing during these last few weeks of his presidency?

There are none. What makes it even worse is that it did not have to be this way. But as long as the Republican leadership remains silent and does not call him out and acknowledge the legitimacy of Joe Biden's election win, the more options Donald has.

If the Republicans had come out right away and said, "OK, Biden won. It doesn't matter if Donald concedes or not," that's not to say that Donald would not have done whatever he could to smash everything on the way out. He still would potentially have been selling state secrets or just enriching himself and his family in whatever illicit ways he could figure out, or what have you.

But Donald would not have been destroying our democracy. He needs help to do that. And Donald is only going to get more desperate because it is not just that he lost — which is a narcissistic injury the likes of which I do not think anybody on the planet has ever suffered — it is also what he's staring down the barrel of, with the indictments, lawsuits, bankruptcies and other consequences.

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Language is so important here. We have got to stop using the language of "democracy" to talk about Donald, because right now this is not a transition, it is a coup. Who cares if it is failing or incompetent? It is still a coup.

America needs to undergo a real reckoning with itself about the Age of Trump and how this disaster came to be. What would a reckoning and healing look like to you?

We cannot have a reckoning if the government refuses to hold people accountable. The idea that there may not be a truth and reconciliation committee or a crimes commission is unspeakable. How is that possible? There is no one in the United States government for whom that is more necessary than for Donald. It would be good if there was accountability at the federal level. We may have to settle for accountability at the state level.

What advice would you give the American people about these next few weeks so they are not surprised by what Donald Trump may do?

Be on your guard. Be vigilant. Do not take anything for granted. We barely won this battle. We are nowhere near the end of this war. Donald is capable of anything. Don't laugh it off. He's not just some incompetent clown, although he may be, but Donald is not just that. He is somebody who has an extraordinary amount of power. He has an extraordinary amount of latitude. Mock Donald at your peril.

https://www.salon.com/2021/01/04/trumps-latest-crime-shocks-the-media-hi...

Sweet!

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/biden-campaigning-georgia-runoff...

Not quite 50-50 but the betting markets have really narrowed the gap compared to a couple of weeks ago

My goodness!

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/georgia-senate-polls/

So will Trump completely do the GOP in today in Georgia?

If you check those right-wing betting websites the massive GOP Georgia Senate race leads have dwindled to relatively nothing now as these right wingers now are covering their bets. There is so much mis-information floating around on Trump's behalf, it kinda reminds me of the disasterous TESLA's shorts, who have had to, painfully and at significant financial loss, buy back TESLA stock over the past couple of months.   

https://cookpolitical.com/analysis/senate/georgia-senate/one-day-out-wil...

Let's not forget the polling on general election nite, eh!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/04/polling-industry-us-elec...

Polls closed 5 minutes ago unless you waiting in line to vote, etc. 

According to one news source, most of the results coming in so far are from early voting which favour the Democrats, so we can expect the numbers to eventually shift.

With 31% percent of the vote in the closest Democrat lead has narrowed to 3%, 51.5% vs 48.5% 

Of the 2 Democrats now Warnock has the bigger lead. 

With 52% of votes in, Ossoff Perdue leads by 6.4% It appears that it's going to be close.

Ossoff's lead has shrunk to less than 1%. Apparently the advance polls were counted earlier this time than previous elections. 

50-50, but Perdue has the lead 

Perdue leads by 1.3%

Predictit now says 87% Democratic control of Senate, up 43 cents.

Now it is a 2.4% lead.

Perdue's lead is now 2.5%

Perdue's lead is now 3%, with 87% votes counted.

2.7% Perdue lead with 90% counted. Loeffler to make remarks.

Ossoff behind by 2.8% now with 91% reporting.