#trump's deteriorating psychological health | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lucysweatslove · 5 years

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There is something to be said about starting over.

Truthfully, though, I’m not sure what it is. My story is not new or unique; I’m just a woman in her mid-20s trying to figure out how to be herself again, or what that ever would look like. Few paths are linear, or even with one definitive trend. We start, we stop, we remodel and backtrack or go in an entirely different direction. I came back to tumblr for two reasons: 1, I really believe blogs are helpful in my planning, recording, and motivation for any part of my life, and 2, I tried a few other types of blogs and didn’t like them. Tumblr was where I got my life in order when I went to college. I made connections with people who helped me, in various ways, connect the dots in my own life as I became an adult. And then, for some reason, it stopped being that space. I could blame this change on politics, and honestly, deep in my mind, I do. Even prior to Trump taking office, or his campaign, tumblr’s focus shifted heavily to politics and the state of the world’s affairs. Understandable, and I harbor no ill will to those using their platforms to speak about what they believe to be right, but that shift took over my feed. Instead of positivity, I felt anger and desperation. Facebook, school, or work were places for politics- tumblr was my place without it. Tumblr was my place to work on my own health, inside and out, ignoring the health of our society. I could not- and still can’t- focus on my health while being bombarded with reminders of the degradation of the world. I don’t remember when exactly I stopped being on Tumblr for good, but it wasn’t recently. In the years since then, I didn’t have a place to hold on to my health, and I’ve deteriorated. I hate it. I don’t hate myself, nor do I hate the workings of my body, but I see myself and I am discouraged and disgusted. I try to do basic things, like body weight squats, that used to be easy activities, and I struggle. Some of this is related to age, some of it is related to health issues, and some of it is related simply to poorly managed stress. I have made numerous attempts now to get myself back to the health I was in 4-5 years ago. A previous post from 2018 on this very blog shows that off. In early 2019, I attempted a keto diet- which, even though I was very consistent with, did not “work” for me. I’ve started other blogs (which obviously failed), personal journaling, linking up with different food tracking apps, going to the gym more regularly, intuitive eating, even a well designed rewards program based off of the psychology and neuroscience of behavior modification and rewards- they all failed in the end (although the rewards program was wildly successful for the two months I did it, but after it ended and I went on a trip, it became too difficult to keep up). The problem with all of these attempts has been a lack of integration. Any attempt at in-person or even online but direct social support has been futile, and my attempts and feigning the idea of support or accountability (eg, a blog as I feel the “support” whether or not it is actually read) haven’t integrated what actually works best for me: numbers. I need all pieces to come together, and so far, I haven’t been able to do that. It’s like working on a large puzzle where the pieces continually go missing. You have one piece in your hand, but can’t find the piece it connects to, and when you finally do, the first piece mysteriously vanished. I think big parts of my difficulties the last two years especially have been medication and health. Right before I started this blog, I was started on a new antidepressant and anti anxiety med. This first made me REALLY sleepy, so as I was adjusting, I slept so much that I didn’t eat regularly. When that resolved, I thought I was doing fine on the medication, but without changing anything else, I experienced many side effects, including a 20 pound weight gain and a whole host of weird, systemic/somatic concerns (I was even lactating a small amount). I stayed on it because my anxiety seemed better, even though I felt all my emotions were dull. When this medication stopped working for my depression, I finally decided to switch it- and that was a process that lasted, no lie, over six months. I tried medication that gave me horrible heart palpitations, dizziness, tachycardia, and erratic blood pressure readings. I tried genetic testing. My psych moved practices. It was a mess. During this process, I tried multiple times to start going to the gym. There was ALWAYS something wrong. I would go consistently for two weeks, and then I would develop muscle spasms in my back. I couldn’t do yoga anymore because I developed a soft tissue injury in my left hand and could no longer put weight-bearing pressure on that hand. In early November, I developed an upper respiratory infection that lasted two months, required two courses of antibiotics, and still hasn’t fully resolved. But now I need to be determined. My honeymoon to Cancun is in 13 weeks, and every day now counts. While I can’t solve all my problems in a mere 91 days, nor will I have my “best body ever,” I am determined to be able to enjoy the beach vacation with my husband without letting my body, my insecurity, or my complete lack of fitness stop me. When is started paying attention to my diet, I was technically obese (just barely, but still). This number hit me hard. I remember crossing the line from normal weight to overweight and sobbing, so angry that I had let myself down. I remembered how awful I was treated by my peers the last time I had such a high weight. Now, I would love if I could reach that weight before my honeymoon. My “goal,” which I have entered into MyFitnessPal, is to lose 30 pounds starting from last week at 176.2; this would place me at 146.2 and a BMI just barely overweight. Would I love it to be lower? Yes. I would be overjoyed if I could lose even more weight. However, I don’t want to attempt anything unrealistic; if it happens, great! If not, I won’t be (too) disappointed. I have been too scared to measure my waist recently, or my hips or thighs, but I have a few linen dresses that I really want to fit in to, and while the scale is a great way to measure weight loss, I am really looking for more fat loss, improvement in how I look and feel, and to fit into clothing again- so as long as inches are going down, I’ll be happy with the weight loss too. As a disclaimer, for anybody reading this. Yes, 30 pounds in 14 weeks IS over 2 pounds a week, and it IS over 1% of my body weight per week as well (both of those values are typical suggested maximum rates). I’m not suggesting this particular weight loss goal to anybody, and my general/systemic health is constantly monitored. This last week included, I am being VERY conscious about keeping myself in good health throughout this process, and if I cannot reach a goal while maintaining my health, then the goal (in some part) will change so I CAN meet it healthfully.

#Journal #day 6 #starting over #weight loss

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yobaba30 · 5 years

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You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, and you don’t need to be a mental-health professional to see that something’s very seriously off with Trump—particularly after nearly three years of watching his erratic and abnormal behavior in the White House. Questions about Trump’s psychological stability have mounted throughout his presidency. But those questions have been coming even more frequently amid a recent escalation in Trump’s bizarre behavior, as the pressures of his upcoming reelection campaign, a possibly deteriorating economy, and now a full-blown impeachment inquiry have mounted. And the questioners have included those who have worked most closely with him.

No president in recent memory—and likely no president ever—has prompted more discussion about his mental stability and connection with reality. Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly is said to have described him as “unhinged,” and “off the rails,” and to have called the White House “Crazytown” because of Trump’s unbalanced state. Trump’s former deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, once reportedly discussed recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, the Constitution’s provision addressing presidential disability, including mental disability.

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bountyofbeads · 5 years

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"Trump’s disordered personality...

manifests itself in multiple ways: extreme narcissism...addiction to lying...detachment from reality...affinity for conspiracy theories...petty cheating...and his lack of empathy and sympathy."

Read the whole thing.

https://t.co/3Lq1F4TH8v

Trump Is Not Well

Accepting the reality about the president’s disordered personality is important—even essential.

SEP 9, 2019

Peter Wehner | Published September 9, 2019 | The Atlantic | Posted October 11, 2019 9:00 AM ET |

During the 2016 campaign, I received a phone call from an influential political journalist and author, who was soliciting my thoughts on Donald Trump. Trump’s rise in the Republican Party was still something of a shock, and he wanted to know the things I felt he should keep in mind as he went about the task of covering Trump.

At the top of my list: Talk to psychologists and psychiatrists about the state of Trump’s mental health, since I considered that to be the most important thing when it came to understanding him. It was Trump’s Rosetta stone.

I wasn’t shy about making the same case publicly. During a July 14, 2016, appearance on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, for example, I responded to a pro-Trump caller who was upset that I opposed Trump despite my having been a Republican for my entire adult life and having served in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations and the George W. Bush White House.

“I don’t oppose Mr. Trump because I think he’s going to lose to Hillary Clinton,” I told Ben from Purcellville, Virginia. “I think he will, but as I said, he may well win. My opposition to him is based on something completely different, which is, first, I think he is temperamentally unfit to be president. I think he’s erratic, I think he’s unprincipled, I think he’s unstable, and I think that he has a personality disorder; I think he’s obsessive. And at the end of the day, having served in the White House for seven years in three administrations and worked for three presidents, one closely, and read a lot of history, I think the main requirement for president of the United States … is temperament, and disposition … whether you have wisdom and judgment and prudence.”

That statement has been validated.

Donald Trump’s disordered personality—his unhealthy patterns of thinking, functioning, and behaving—has become the defining characteristic of his presidency. It manifests itself in multiple ways: his extreme narcissism; his addiction to lying about things large and small, including his finances and bullying and silencing those who could expose them; his detachment from reality, including denying things he said even when there is video evidence to the contrary; his affinity for conspiracy theories; his demand for total loyalty from others while showing none to others; and his self-aggrandizement and petty cheating.

It manifests itself in Trump’s impulsiveness and vindictiveness; his craving for adulation; his misogyny, predatory sexual behavior, and sexualization of his daughters; his open admiration for brutal dictators; his remorselessness; and his lack of empathy and sympathy, including attacking a family whose son died while fighting for this country, mocking a reporter with a disability, and ridiculing a former POW. (When asked about Trump’s feelings for his fellow human beings, Trump’s mentor, the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn, reportedly said, “He pisses ice water.”)

The most recent example is the president’s bizarre fixation on falsely insisting that he was correct to warn that Alabama faced a major risk from Hurricane Dorian, to the point that he doctored a hurricane map with a black Sharpie to include the state as being in the path of the storm.

“He’s deteriorating in plain sight,” one Republican strategist who is in frequent contact with the White House told Business Insider on Friday. Asked why the president was obsessed with Alabama instead of the states that would actually be affected by the storm, the strategist said, “You should ask a psychiatrist about that; I’m not sure I’m qualified to comment.”

We have repeatedly heard versions of that sentiment over the course of Trump’s presidency. It’s said that speculating on Trump’s mental health is inappropriate and unwise, especially for those who are not formally trained in the field of psychiatry or psychology.

That’s true, up to a point. Yes, it is best to leave it to experts to determine whether Trump satisfies the criteria for a clinical diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, some combination of both, or nothing at all.

But if a clinical diagnosis is beyond my own expertise, Trump’s psychological impairments are obvious to all who are not willfully blind. On a daily basis we see the president’s chaotic, unstable mind on display. Are we supposed to ignore that?

An analogy may be helpful here. If smoke is coming out from under the hood of your car, if you notice puddles of oil under it, if the engine is overheating and you smell burning oil, you don’t have to be a car mechanic to know that something is wrong with your car.

Accepting the reality about Trump’s disordered personality is important and even essential. For one thing, it will help us to better react to Trump’s freak show.

Even now, almost a thousand days into his presidency, the latest Trump outrage elicits shock and disbelief in people. The reaction is, “Can you believe he said that and did this?”

To which my response is, “Why are you surprised?” It’s a shock only if the assumption is that we’re dealing with a psychologically normal human being. We’re not. Trump is profoundly compromised, acting just as you would imagine a person with a disordered personality would. Many Americans haven’t yet come to terms with the fact that we elected as president a man who is deeply damaged, an emotional misfit. But it would be helpful if they did.

Among other things, it would keep us feeling less startled and disoriented, less in a state of constant agitation, less susceptible to provocations. Donald Trump thrives on creating chaos, on gaslighting us, on creating antipathy among Americans, on keeping people on edge and off balance. He wants to dominate our every waking hour. We ought not grant him that power over us.

It might also take some of the edge off the hatred many people feel for Trump. Seeing him for what he is—a terribly damaged soul, a broken man, a person with a disordered mind—should not lessen our revulsion at how Trump mistreats others, at his cruelty and dehumanizing actions. Nor should it weaken our resolve to stand up to it. It does complicate the picture just a bit, though, eliciting some pity and sorrow for Trump.

But above all, accepting the truth about Trump’s mental state will cause us to take more seriously than we have our democratic duty, which is to prevent a psychologically and morally unfit person from becoming president.

The office is too powerful, and the consequences are too dangerous, to allow a person to become president who views morality only through the prism of whether an action advances his own narrow interests, his own distorted desires, his own twisted impulses. When an individual comes to believe his interests and those of the nation he leads are one and the same, it opens the door to all sorts of moral and constitutional devilry.

Whether or not his disorders are diagnosable, the president’s psychological flaws are all too apparent. They were alarming when he took the oath of office; they are worse now. Every day Donald Trump is president is a day of disgrace. And a day of danger.

PETER WEHNER is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He writes widely on political, cultural, religious, and national-security issues, and he is the author of The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump.

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libertariantaoist · 6 years

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A new, updated data set is now available on a psychological phenomenon that has been labeled “Trump Anxiety Disorder” or “Trump Hypersensitive Unexplained Disorder,” and it says that the phenomenon only got worse in 2018. The disorder is described as a specific type of anxiety in which symptoms “were specific to the election of Trump and the resultant unpredictable sociopolitical climate,” and according to the 2018 surveys Americans are feeling significantly more stressed by the future of their country and the current political environment than they were last year.

Pacific Standard reports as follows:

“As the possibility of a Hillary Clinton victory began to slip away—and the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency became more and more certain—the contours of the new age of American anxiety began to take shape. In a 2017 column, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank described this phenomenon as “Trump Hypertensive Unexplained Disorder”: Overeating. Headaches. Fainting. Irregular heartbeat. Chronic neck pain. Depression. Irritable bowel syndrome. Tightness in the chest. Shortness of breath. Teeth grinding. Stomach ulcer. Indigestion. Shingles. Eye twitching. Nausea. Irritability. High blood sugar. Tinnitus. Reduced immunity. Racing pulse. Shaking limbs. Hair loss. Acid reflux. Deteriorating vision. Stroke. Heart attack. It was a veritable organ recital.

Two years later, the physiological effects of the Trump administration aren’t going away. A growing body of research has tracked the detrimental impacts of Trump-related stress on broad segments of the American population, from young adults to women, to racial and LGBT communities.

The results aren’t good.”

I do not for one second doubt that Americans are feeling more stressed and suffering more health-degrading symptoms as a result than they were prior to Trump’s election. But Pacific Standard and its “growing body of research” ignore the most obvious and significant culprit behind this phenomenon which is tearing people’s health to shreds: the mass media which has been deliberately fanning the flames of Trump panic.

The always excellent Moon of Alabama blog has just published a sarcasm-laden piece documenting the many, many aggressive maneuvers that this administration has made against the interests of Russia, from pushing for more NATO funding to undermining Russia’s natural gas interests to bombing Syria to sanctioning Russian oligarchs to dangerous military posturing.

And yet the trending, most high-profile stories about Trump today all involve painting him as a Putin puppet who is working to destroy America by taking a weak stance against an alarming geopolitical threat. This has had the effect of manufacturing demand for even more dangerous escalations against a nuclear superpower that just so happens to be a longtime target of U.S. intelligence agencies.

If the mass media were in the business of reporting facts, there would be a lot less “Putin’s puppet” talk and a lot more “Hey, maybe we should avoid senseless escalations which could end all life on earth” talk among news media consumers. But there isn’t, because the mass media is not in the business of reporting facts, it’s in the business of selling narratives. Even if those narratives are so shrill and stress-inducing that they imperil the health of their audience.

Trump is clearly not a Russian asset, he’s a facilitator of America’s permanent unelected government just like his predecessors, and indeed as far as actual policies and administration behavior goes he’s not that much different from Barack Obama and George W Bush. Hell, for all his demagogic anti-immigrant speech Trump hasn’t even caught up to Obama’s peak ICE deportation years. If the mass media were in the business of reporting facts, people would be no more worried about this administration than they were about the previous ones, because when it comes to his administration’s actual behavior, he’s just as reliable an upholder of the establishment-friendly status quo as his predecessors.

Used to be that the U.S. mass media only killed people indirectly, by facilitating establishment war agendas in repeating government agency propaganda as objective fact and promulgating narratives that manufacture support for a status quo which won’t even give Americans health insurance or safe drinking water. Now they’re skipping the middle man and killing them directly by psychologically brutalizing them so aggressively that it ruins their health, all to ensure that Democrats support war and adore the U.S. intelligence community.

They do this for a reason, of course. The Yellow Vests protests in France have continued unabated for their ninth consecutive week, a decentralized populist uprising resulting from ordinary French citizens losing trust in their institutions and the official narratives which uphold them. The social engineers responsible for controlling the populace of the greatest military power on the planet are watching France closely, and understand deeply what is at stake should they fail to control the narrative and herd ordinary Americans into supporting U.S. government institutions. Right now they’ve got Republicans cheering on the White House and Democrats cheering on the U.S. intelligence community, but that could all change should something happen which causes them to lose control over the thoughts that Americans think about their rulers.

Propaganda is the single most-overlooked and under-appreciated aspect of human society. The ability of those in power to manipulate the ways ordinary people think, act and vote has allowed for an inverted totalitarianism which turns the citizenry into their own prison wardens, allowing those with real power to continue doing as they please unhindered by the interests of the common man.

The only thing that will lead to real change is the people losing trust in corrupt institutions and rising like lions against them. That gets increasingly likely as those institutions lose control of the narrative, and with trust in the mass media at an all-time low, populist uprisings restoring power to the people in France, and media corporations acting increasingly weird and insecure, that looks more and more likely by the day.

#caitlin johnstone #consortium news #mainstream media #trump anxiety disorder

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solacekames · 6 years

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Do immigrants in ICE detention centers have any human rights at all?

After Supreme Court rules that immigrants may be held indefinitely without bond, a dreadful situation gets worse

AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI - APRIL 24, 2018 11:59AM (UTC)

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that detained immigrants, even those with lawful permanent resident status and asylum seekers, do not have the right to periodic bond hearings under statutory grounds. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote, in a scathing dissent, that this was probably “the first time ever” that the court was holding that a federal law allowed long-term confinement of people on American soil with no opportunity for bond. Though the court sent the case back to lower courts to look further into the issue from a constitutional perspective, the ruling was shocking -- especially in light of its potential impact.

Many immigrants are held in detention for long periods of time -- on average, 13 months. This ruling is likely to lead to even greater overcrowding at detention centers, as well as the deterioration of medical and psychological care and other inhumane conditions at these facilities.

I wish the justices had visited with detained immigrants at one of the more than 200 immigration detention centers nationwide -- such as the notorious Stewart Detention Center, a private prison in Georgia operated by Corrections Corporation of America under an ICE contract -- to fully understand the implications of dooming immigrants to potentially indefinite imprisonment.

As Project South and the Penn State Law Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic found in a year-long investigation last year, Stewart is rife with human rights violations, including denial of adequate medical care, an exploitative labor program and inedible or inadequate food. If those in detention complain about the conditions, the facility is swift to place them in retaliatory solitary confinement. In cases where immigrants, having exhausted every other avenue of possible redress, put their bodies on the line and resort to hunger strikes, the government has sought court orders to force-feed them.

The tragic deaths at Stewart speak for themselves. Nine years ago, a 39-year-old immigrant, Roberto Medina-Martinez, died of a treatable heart infection. Records obtained from the government showed that the sole physician at the facility did not review Medina-Martinez’s health records and also that this doctor systematically failed to do so for the entire prison population, thereby endangering the health of thousands of people.

In other words, Medina-Martinez died because of government neglect.

The tragedy did not stop there. You might have thought the government would have stepped up the quality of the health care at the facility after that death, but the exact opposite happened. After that physician left, Stewart was left without a physician for more than three years. This is all the more egregious in light of the fact that Stewart was, at the time, the largest facility in the country, with more than 1,750 detained individuals. (It reportedly still has the largest population, although at least one other facility has more capacity.)

More deaths ensued. On May 17, 2017, Jean-Carlos Jimenez-Joseph, a 27-year-old immigrant, committed suicide at Stewart after being held in solitary for 19 days. This was a preventable tragedy. The horrendous impact of solitary confinement on the mental health of imprisoned individuals, even after their release, has long been documented.

At Stewart, solitary has been used as the first resort for responding to mental and emotional difficulties experienced by individuals who have often fled persecution and torture in their home countries and are already in a fragile emotional state. The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General also found, in a report issued in December 2017, that solitary had been used at Stewart as punishment for minor infractions. In Jimenez-Joseph's case, investigations have shown that the facility did not provide him with the adequate dose of medication that he needed, which he had requested at least twice.

Another man detained at Stewart, 33-year-old Yulio Castro Garrido, died on Jan. 30, 2018 of pneumonia. ICE continued its shameful practice of including his alleged offense in the agency's press release regarding his death, as if what Castro Garrido had or had not done previously was in some way relevant to his death in a government facility.

In its original press statement, ICE actually sought to blame Castro Garrido for his own death, claiming that he had refused medical treatment. In other circumstances, blaming the dead man might have worked. But not this time. After intense media and public attention, ICE was forced to change its press statement and retract the falsehood, saying instead that Castro Garrido had not responded well to medical care.

His brother, Frank Suarez, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “It is just so unfair that he went there in full health, full of dreams, full of everything that an immigrant has to be better in this country and he just came out as a dead body.”

The same could be said of all 179 immigrants who have died in ICE’s detention centers since 2003 while awaiting deportation.

With President Trump’s deportation and detention machine now ramping up after Congress rubber-stamped a budget of nearly $7.1 billion for ICE -- an increase of $641 million from the previous fiscal year -- the tragedies are sure to continue.

To top that, the Department of Justice recently rolled out a quota system for immigration judges, basing its evaluations of such judges on how quickly they complete cases. In effect, this wipes out the independence of immigration judges and ensures further erosion of due process for detained immigrants. The DOJ has also suspended the Legal Orientation Program for detained immigrants, one of the only avenues for legal information available to them.

If Congress were exercising its constitutional oversight function, it would put the brakes on this travesty and hold the administration accountable instead of rewarding an abusive system with ever more funds.

In a November 2017 letter to the Georgia congressional delegation, 70 Georgia and national organizations requested an investigation of Stewart and another deplorable Georgia facility, the Irwin County Detention Center. We have yet to receive an adequate response.

#immigration #ice #georgia #irwin county detention center #Stewart Detention Center #corrections corporation of america #cca #private prisons

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newstfionline · 6 years

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12-year-old immigrant prescribed antidepressants in shelter due to distress over family separation, lawsuit alleges

By Aaron C. Davis, Washington Post, June 29, 2018

After U.S. authorities detained a 12-year-old boy crossing the U.S.-Mexico border by himself in February, government contractors wrote in his file that he went from being calm and cooperative to showing signs of depression brought on by “being kept from his family,” which had entered the country before him, according to a new court case.

The boy’s condition deteriorated further in the care of shelters funded by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, which now holds over 2,000 children separated more forcefully from their parents under an abandoned policy of the Trump administration, the lawsuit alleges. He has been transferred to a psychiatric facility in Texas and placed on a regimen of antidepressants, it says, and the U.S. government is refusing to release him to an adult sister in Los Angeles, saying her home may not be suitable and that the boy is not yet “psychologically sound” for release.

The complaint, filed Friday in federal court in California, illustrates the difficulties the Trump administration faces in complying with a federal judge’s order to reunify all 2,000 children and their parents within a month. Many of those children--perhaps “hundreds,” the lawsuit estimates--are already caught up in a bureaucratic tangle of medical determinations and assessments of family members to which they could potentially be released. In several cases documented in the suit, those issues have taken a year or more to be resolved.

The lawsuit alleges that delays in releasing minors amount to violations of their constitutional rights.

“Basic due-process rights for these children are really being trampled on right now by the Trump administration,” said Leecia Welch, an attorney for the National Center for Youth Law, one of the groups that brought the case. “Child after child has told us the same story of being awaken at 4 a.m., and flown across the country to be detained without being told why, let alone a judicial determination as to why. What ORR is doing is saying it can incarcerate children and throw away the key for as long as it likes.”

The Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment.

But in court filings in a separate case, the federal government has asserted that it has the right and responsibility to have doctors at shelters administer drugs to minors when needed. It has relied largely on authority courts have said it has in emergency situations to do so. In May, the Justice Department also pushed back on allegations that it was moving too slowly in discharging children to sponsors, saying it has a responsibility to adequately review and vet the conditions immigrants will live in.

Lucas R. is the pseudonym that attorneys assigned to the 12-year-old from Guatemala detained in February.

The suit alleges the boy was placed in Hacienda del Sol, a shelter in Arizona run by the government contractor Southwest Key. When he arrived, the lawsuit says, staff noted that Lucas “appeared cooperative, calm, and alert, and showed ‘no behavioral concerns.’”

“As his confinement wore on, however, Lucas became depressed, fearing that ORR would never release him to his family,” the case alleges, and without seeking consent of his closest relative in the United States, the “ORR administered Lucas psychotropic drugs, ostensibly to control ‘moderate’ depression.”

Meanwhile, the boy’s adult sister, who lives in Los Angeles with her infant daughter, brother and a roommate, had applied to be his sponsor and take custody of him from Hacienda del Sol.

But when investigators arrived to inspect her apartment, a friend of the roommate was visiting, the suit alleges. Agents said everyone in the home, including the friend would have to be fingerprinted for Lucas to be released to his sister’s custody.

The friend’s roommate did not show up for fingerprinting, and ORR informed the sister that Lucas would not be released to her.

For Lucas, the situation was deteriorating, the lawsuit alleges. The medication Zoloft was causing him stomach pain, and he began refusing to take the antidepressant. That led to his transfer to Shiloh Treatment Center in Texas. At that facility, a doctor who has signed off on many recent treatment plans has been operating on an expired state license, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting.

The lawsuit says: “Shiloh personnel have now diagnosed Lucas with ‘major depressive disorder.’ Among Lucas’ ‘major stressors,’ Shiloh personnel identify his ‘[b]eing kept from family and in ORR custody.’ Shiloh staff have nonetheless told Lucas that ORR will not release him until Shiloh medical personnel declare him psychologically sound.”

#family separation #separating children from parents

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musemash · 3 years

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Trumpery Swan Song: Appendix DON VETO'S LUNACY HOLDING AMERICA HOSTAGE – by the Lone Antifa & the Canuck Crank – revised & expanded May 23, 2023

We were not planning on doing any more new posts bidding farewell to the TANGERINE TYRANT; but we have recently concluded that the crucial topic of his obvious mental aberrations was not given the prominence it warranted, in our previous Trumpery Swan Song posts. Hence, we have decided to offer this helpful Appendix to that series.

The DARK LORD TRUMPELTHINSKIN has been going very publicly insane for the past 5 years, and his madness is dragging far too many Americans along for the ride. This lunacy has manifested itself in his Big Lie about the 2020 election; his resulting incitement of the Capitol Riot; the idiotic mass rebellion against sensible COVID protections; and the GOP's despicable obstruction of any progressive legislation.

There appears to be no end in sight. So to help remedy this dire malady, MFF presents a complete edition of UNFIT. This disturbing documentary makes a compelling case for the MORONA MAFIOSO's mental instability. This is followed by some much needed comic relief from the lovely and talented DR. STEPHEN COLBERT.

We also include various news items focusing on the career of the notorious MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, who is surely the most conspicuous example of how the DEAR MISLEADER's madness has drastically infected his most rabid followers. After that, you'll find a section of wickedly hilarious MTG parodies.

Then we showcase many disturbing media reports on the MANGO SWAMP RAT's deteriorating mental state, encompassing his candidacy and election; his chaotic occupancy of the Whine House; his refusal to accept the 2020 election outcome; and the danger posed by his catastrophic. This is followed by a wide variety of insights from MARY TRUMP, the courageous niece of BENEDICT DONALD.

Our final section profiles the work of Dr. BANDY LEE and other mental health experts, who have provided damning testimonies – showing precisely why mob boss DON VETO TRUMPLEONE needs to be institutionalized as soon as humanly possible. We end with links to previous MuseMash items that explore the political, social, and moral disasters caused by DOUBLE AGENT ORANGE.

UNFIT Unfit is a 2020 documentary grappling with #45's alarming behavior; its website is at this link: https://unfitfilm.com/. Here is the trailer, and film clips, followed by the full movie: Unfit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKxON_ICAWY Malignant Narcissism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiZb6-j0qyE Trump's Cognitive Decline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5axgsXtwHMc The Dangerous Behavior Of Donald Trump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWCJoqgkrD4 Unfit: The Psychology Of Donald Trump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0vlHgqpQPE&list=PL9Rb4hnGY4ukIvVTA9RnwRaW76VbInW1q

COLBERT REPORTS No assessment of the BLIGHT HOUSE RESIDENT's mental capacity would be complete without the cogent commentaries of this renowned forensic psychologist, maverick conservative pundit, and late night TV's most brilliant monologist. And just for cheep laffs, we've thrown in some silliness by the PARODY PROJECT and the REMIX BROS.

The Donald Or The Stephen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P4m7EiQlSQ Let Donnie Handle It https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz5BNqnbkZg Cartoon Donald Reads Trump Quotes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DREO6cwbGeQ Donnie Breaks Into Shoebiz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFecY_Af-A Lying & Lashing Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OGox-J9_wY Prayer Breakfast Pity Party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V3nmRDLQ7E Everything Woke Turns To Shit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7VGUAi3C_8 A Diagnosed Narcissist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCxOcjWkoug Brain Instrument On The Fritz Again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW5gEV2BmVw Flushing The Donnie Away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8BoM9lgiuA Trump's Brain Is Not A Metrics Guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI1SWwnN0IE As The Walls Close In, Trump Is Clearly Losing It https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCocCQjViMk My Ninja https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyqM9FiABZE PersonWomanManCameraTV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uvwbd75ujU

GOP'S MOST CRAZED TROLL With the legendary MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE serving as inspiration, what follows is a parody of the 1993 song ALL APOLOGIES, by MFF colleague OREOPAGUS. This is followed by various videos demonstrating how her Trumpery-inspired madness has turned this woman into the GOP's most obnoxious and potentially dangerous troll. But first, we invite you to view a live performance of NIRVANA's original classic, and a cover version by LORDE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWmkuH1k7uA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQOa1mMFyKM

NO APOLOGIES

What else should I be? No apologies What else could I say? QAnon's the way Who else could I fight? Awesome to be white What else should I be? No apologies

Chosen One, Chosen One, I know he won Chosen One, Chosen One Mighty, righty

Wish you were like me, Alt-reality What else can we be? The Big Top Party I don't take no blame, Eleven GOP's shame What else should there be? Free AR-15s

Chosen One, Chosen One, I know he won Chosen One, Chosen One Mighty, righty

What else should I be? Non-apology What else could I say? Space lasers are gay What else isn't fake? Raising cash is great What else should I be? All conspiracy exposes enemies

Chosen One, Chosen One, I know he won Chosen One, Chosen One Mighty, righty Mighty, whitey Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Wish you were like me, Join the GQP What else could I say? Mask mandates, no way Who else should I fight? AOC ain't right Keep 'Murica free, No gold star for me

Logging on to QAnon Logging on to QAnon Logging on to QAnon Logging on to QAnon All is one in QAnon All is one in QAnon All is one in QAnon All is one in QAnon Too far gone in QAnon Too far gone in QAnon Too far gone in QAnon Too far gone in QAnon I'm a pawn in QAnon I'm a pawn in QAnon I'm a pawn in QAnon I'm a pawn in QAnon All in all is all we are All in all is all we are Here we are we are we are Now entertain us rising stars

THE MADNESS OF QUEEN MARJORIE QAnon Kook Runs For Office https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agFJKP3ty4c The QAnon Congresswoman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCnfmgQsDxo SNL Skewers MTG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utNYSivVlJ4 Conspiracy Theory Supercut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VAAtoH8MS8 Suspended By Twitter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktrqaCxNmgY The Real Truth About MTG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8SPWYRO3pc Flood The Capitol Building https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC27Ly-GwJY Censured By Congress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MPaGkeoV4c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2JtvVO76dM Words Of The Past https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuACnbYxMQI GOP Is Trump's Party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EjI2sXu9oM MTG Making America Sit Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuX0reNl9Cw Standing Up For Gun Rights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2GlnTjiHkM Harrassing Parkland Survivor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCSoLCmJwOs A Disengenuous Speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9j6wQDkKz8 Blame-Shifting & Lies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSQT1kMfCTs Nutbar Stalking AOC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vjyMY49PnY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAihuxQNS1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXVeZHFuJec This Woman Is 'Deeply Unwell' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMV99JU1pU Marjorie's Fatal Attraction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op-lvjT1cTc Mask Mandates & The Holocaust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSXgII1caLk MTG's Evil Lunacy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU8NYOEL3aM Stop With The Holocaust Comparisons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqIbLpMYb1E A Heated Encounter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GxTMLPcpQ8 Screaming At Raskin & Cheney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzuK5_hye-U Stunned By MTG's Behavior https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Li4A27bURA Confronting Greene's Madness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saye4DqXGo8 Impeach Biden For Treason! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jNe7KnbtOg Secret Jewish Space Lasers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQsslNrcuOI America First Rally https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMctxlVXyYw Defending Satan's Statue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYZip-OvZUI Plotting The Capitol Protest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSaDo5gSsAM MTG's Threats Of Violence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JChkXAN2v9I Not Tethered To Reality https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jake-tapper-marjorie-taylor-greene-issues-untethered-liz-cheney_n_61734a3de4b066de4f628e1d What Does MTG Do All Day? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggd19O-MGAI

MTG PARODIES W The Actual F, MTG? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ8ldD9wKmY Marjorie Taylor Greene: The Mini Musical https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RjJ9dXdtWg Greene, Greene (She’s Marjorie Greene) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Cop9SaZZE Conspiracy Theories In Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JRDPR134k4 Marge Greene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJyEQAtkUNA The New IT Girl https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/540863-snl-pokes-fun-at-taylor-greene-i-love-science-unless-its-about MTG's Daughter Defends Her Mom https://twitter.com/blaireerskine/status/1354580524031995906 Little Shop Of Conspiracies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Z6TaZrMo4 MTG's Fixation With AOC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocUpb7ibDDY The Marjorie Taylor Greene Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62E_uQLTVNM Greene On Jeopardy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5O4nUj_4j4 MTG's Daughter Spills The Beans https://twitter.com/blaireerskine/status/1357493743688028163 Crazy: Mr.Showtime Parody https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsGdBf-X2I8 Marjorie's Calendar Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsVs-qCqkb4 The Ballad of Marjorie Taylor Greene-O https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gad85zYopJY MTG Cartoons https://claytoonz.com/tag/marjorie-taylor-greene/

MEDIA DIAGNOSES Our President’s Crazy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAep9jSpnCc Trump: A Psychiatrist's View – CNN (May 14, 2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgdTAFACABY Lawsuits 'R' Us – Huffington Post (Oct 27, 2016) https://www.huffpost.com/entry/heres-a-comprehensive-ish-list-of-all-the-people-and-things-donald-trump-has-threatened-to-sue-since-running-for-president_n_580f9883e4b000d0b158e61e Dizzying Series Of Interviews – Morning Joe (May 2, 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSDj9E2dgWs HellBoy Deciphers Trump Speech Patterns – Joy Reid (Jul 24, 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHv0RExQsPQ An Oddly Adolescent Way Of Speaking – The 11th Hour (Sep 15, 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phsU1vVHOQI Assessing Trump: Fit For office? – UpFront (Oct 7, 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pzNx88Y7Wg Enormous Present Danger – The Last Word (Nov 30, 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J00qjO2xgE Crazy, Stupid, & Mentally Unfit – TRT World (Jan 6, 2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSLcT_uVEdc Trump Lies For Fun – The Beat (May 31, 2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grYIZHFZMxM Our Lives Are In Danger – Richard French Live (Jun 13, 2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_qe90ZgLMc Trump Autographed Photos Of Deceased Crime Victims – CNBC (Jun 22, 2018) https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/22/trump-autographed-photos-of-dead-crime-victims-for-white-house-event.html Trump's A Weird Kinda Guy – A Closer Look (Nov 19, 2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYnXBRo9TVA Why Didn't Media Report That His Speech Was Completely Unhinged? – Salon (Mar 4, 2019) https://www.salon.com/2019/03/04/donald-trumps-cpac-speech-was-completely-unhinged-why-didnt-media-cover-it-that-way/ Trump’s CPAC Rant Wasn’t A Speech – It Was A Breakdown – The Nation (Mar 4, 2019) https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/trumps-cpac-rant-wasnt-a-speech-it-was-a-breakdown/ Narcissist Of The Year! – Jimmy Kimmel Live (Mar 22, 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEMklCZYwVg Strange & Confusing Statements – The Last Word (Apr 2, 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx9b313N7E8 Trump Is A Sociopath – PBS News Hour (Aug 17, 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YTN2CVl5F8 A Psychiatric Frankenstein Monster – The Last Word (Aug 21, 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B4nS1-ScYw An Incoherent Spectacle At The G7 – Rachel Maddow (Aug 26, 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEpwkaJQh1k Deranged Victory Speech – A Closer Look (Feb 6, 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjEFmBl6uso Dangerously Unfit For Office – The Lincoln Project (Mar 17, 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gJgmkWJ6es Trump's Cavernous Stupidity – The 11th Hour (Apr 24, 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJIX11J1qzk Unfit For Another Term – The Lead (Aug 21, 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0f7R7o-0QA Debate Was An Embarrassing Debacle – A Closer Look (Sep 30, 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTY_FDO2TXw Sam Bee's Best Trump Takedowns – Full Frontal (Oct 30, 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb-p--iRFew My God, He's Completely Insane! – Esquire (Dec 2, 2020) https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a34852374/trump-speech-voter-fraud-insane/ The President Is Acting Crazy – So Why Are We Shrugging It Off? – The New Yorker (Dec 3, 2020) https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/the-president-is-acting-crazy-so-why-are-we-shrugging-it-off Trump's Biggest Lies – Now This (Jan 16, 2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsQ2hX_noNw Reinstatement: A Grandiose Delusion – The Last Word (Jun 2, 2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYLjabRr8s ‘Pure Insanity’: How Trump & His Allies Pressured DOJ To Overturn The Election – Washington Post (June 16, 2021) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/trump-justice-department-2020-election/ Donald Trump's Mental Health Becomes An Issue Once Again – Chris Cillizza (Sep 15, 2021) https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/15/politics/donald-trump-mental-health-mark-milley/index.html Trump's 'A Crazy Man': Inside The Final MAGA Days – As The Big Lie Spreads – The Beat (Sep 20, 2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTfkuOY-Sj4 Preparing To Plead Insanity? – Christo Aivalis (Sep 20, 2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9uvAiuPnI0 The Peril Of Trump – The DishCast (Oct 15, 2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78I6sWP84yw https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/woodward-and-costa-on-the-peril-of

MARY TRUMP Psychologist MARY L. TRUMP is the author of two bestsellers: TOO MUCH & NEVER ENOUGH, subtitled How My Family Created The World's Most Dangerous Man; and THE RECKONING, exploring America's Trauma & Finding A Way To Heal. The following is a series of 2020 and 2021 interviews with her.

Growing Up With The Trumps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g6BMgttCZU Spilling Family Secrets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAj2rUqh_9k A Family Of Cheaters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWPVimfSwdY Uncle Donald's Psychological Issues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3yh-qpMQDc The Most Dangerous Leader https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guoiy0bZbT8 Too Much & Never Enough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9xZt5QnKo4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGifBYOrxjg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOkx-PAHUrQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptDXOfU3Tgg Unspeakable Covid Deaths https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mw0hc0upZY Weakest Person I've Ever Known https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHG_JRWccrA Donald's Election Loss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3IKHL3KzsE Fallout From The Capitol Riot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkgZzfEOqn8 Family Feud https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vqUYD8GPbQ Desperate To Keep The Truth Hidden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GioNErZejM We Really Dodged A Bullet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSTdH59QzoY Donald Has No Marketable Skills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgKLP21q4vw The Reckoning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyaQdveMtGM GQP Psychology & The Need For Anger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj0MnuGhrYI A Shoddy Lawsuit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN3lhoweL20 Democrats Must Prosecute Trump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0DV74DO0pc Cruelty, Criminality, & Treason https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG0Wcdb8jkM People Became Their Worst Selves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7f14HbYC80 Leaving America Vulnerable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpj2kyPtKt0 In The Middle Of Our Nation's Trauma https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xg-jg-gnug Donald, Democrats, & America's Future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDwbfHki5-s Donald Trump Isn’t Gone Yet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K3pRF54YKU Ending The American Experiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqo8cQDzRv4 Healing From The Trauma https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm4lJeDo6Bc The Need For The Reckoning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39owhICLtIY

DR. BANDY LEE Bandy X. Lee was, until recently, a Forensic Psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine. She is a Project Group Leader for the World Health Organization Violence Prevention Alliance. Her website, which has many helpful resources exploring Trump's mental problems, can be found here: https://bandylee.com/

The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump – The Last Word (Oct 5, 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nhoGIvOKJU Bandy Lee Interview – Good Books Radio (Nov 16, 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45IkeropzkQ The Dangerous State Of The World – C:SPAN (Mar 19, 2019) https://www.c-span.org/video/?458919-1/the-dangerous-case-donald-trump Donald Trump's Mental Health – Thom Hartmann Program (Sep 3, 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ONRP09W8cw The ‘Shared Psychosis’ Of Trump And His Loyalists – Scientific American (January 2021) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/ Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump: Selections From The Book – Bill Moyers (Jan 25, 2021) https://billmoyers.com/story/selections-from-the-dangerous-case-of-donald-trump/

Lee explains the outgoing president’s pathological appeal, and how to wean people from it, stating: "[Trump] is certainly of an autocratic disposition – because his extreme narcissism does not allow for equality with other human beings, as democracy requires. Psychiatrists generally assess delusions through personal examination; but there is other evidence of their likelihood.

"First, delusions are more infectious than strategic lies, and so we see, from their sheer spread, that Trump likely truly believes them. Second, his emotional fragility, manifested in extreme intolerance of realities that do not fit his wishful view of the world, predispose him to psychotic spirals.

"Third, his public record includes numerous hours of interviews and interactions with other people – such as the hour-long one with the Georgia Secretary Of State – that very nearly confirm delusion, as my colleague and I discovered in a systematic analysis."

The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump is Lee's bestselling 2017 book, detailing assessments of the former president by more than two dozen mental health professionals. Reviews are posted on https://worldmhc.org/about-us/ The promo blurb states:

"Meet the book that has changed national discourse. Since the first stirrings of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, to the most recent outcry from media commentators, one question has quietly but urgently permeated the observations of concerned citizens: What is wrong with him?... Trump’s mental state presents a clear and present danger – to the nation, [and] our individual well-being."

The Second Edition of the book was released in 2019. The promo declares: "Given the broad recognition and increasing concerns about the president’s mental instability since the publication of The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump in October 2017, authors have updated their chapters on the president’s dangerousness – and how that dangerousness has increased since then." https://worldmhc.org/about-the-authors-second-edition/

Lee has evidently donated all revenues from the book to the public good, to remove conflicts of interest. Despite this, Yale fired her – because of a tweet about Trump and controversial lawyer Alan Dershowitz. https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2021/03/23/former-professor-says-yale-fired-her-over-tweet-on-trump-dershowitz/

In response to this news, Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School tweeted: "This is a disgusting way for any university to act." Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University stated: "Yale blundered badly by siding with the [American Psychiatric Association's] gag rule, rather than the right – indeed responsibility – of its faculty to speak out against a dangerous president." At least two petitions are in motion for Lee's reinstatement. https://worldmhc.org/a-petition-to-yale-to-reinstate-dr-bandy-lee/

Lee's Punishment (Mar 30, 2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRIXzizs_KE

Lawrence O’Donnell's background in American politics is impressive. In addition to extensive work for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, he also wrote scripts for The West Wing. He currently does sterling work as host of MSNBC's The Last Word; so we are happy give him the final comment. He calls Lee's book “an historic work in the history of American psychiatry," emphasizing: "We have never been in this place before.”

CLEAR & PRESENT DANGER: A POTUS ABSENT WITHOUT LAW https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/657180468385546240/resistance-tribute-part-1-clear-present-danger GOING INSANE WITH AMERICA'S IMAGINARY FRIEND https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/633734096232873984/going-insane-with-americas-imaginary-friend-by LIGHTING A BOMBSHELL WITHOUT A SAFETY FUSE https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/623753370829783040/lighting-a-bombshell-without-a-safety-fuse-by CRUEL REQUIEMS FOR THE BIGLIEST SORE LOSER https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/663916506082623488/resistance-tribute-part-5-cruel-requiems-for-the THE FIRST AVENGER’S ANTIFA USA HIT PARADE https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/189391026290/resistance-tribute-part-6-the-first-avengers SACRIFICIAL RITE OF DA BIGLY STABLE GENIUS https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/653860772025417728/trumpery-swan-song-act-4-sacrificial-rite-of-da CIVIL WAR JUST AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/652682070929326081/trumpery-swan-song-act-3-civil-war-just-aint THE UNQUOTABLE TRUMP GOES ROGUE https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/631721452658425856/the-unquotable-trump-goes-rogue-part-1-by-the UNCLE SAM’S MIRACLE CURE FOR THE COMMON PEOPLE https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/660275563772215296/resistance-tribute-part-4-uncle-sams-miracle REBELLIONS FOR ALL MOODS & TASTES https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/659832377015730176/gallery-1-ani-difranco-2-bruce-cockburn-3-poly WHEN THE ARTS DO JUSTICE TO RESISTANCE https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/659380468858355712/resistance-tribute-part-2-when-justice-weaponizes CAPTAIN AMERICA'S PREMATURE BURIAL https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/651868087388372992/trumpery-swan-song-act-2-captain-americas DA GANG DAT COULDN’T COUP STRAIGHT https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/639339651499474944/photo-gallery-the-coup-before-christmas-meets FUNERAL PYRE OF THE MAGAMERICAN MESSIAH https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/650853914324992000/trumpery-swan-song-act-1-funeral-pyre-of-the-mega THE LAST CRUSADE OF UNCLE SAM’S ACTIONEERS https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/177613773630/the-last-crusade-of-uncle-sams-actioneers-as-we USA DEFIANCE & SURVIVAL MANIFESTO https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/178087639820/usa-defiance-survival-manifesto-part-one-by

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Assange vs the violence of imperial ‘humanitarianism’ | Human Rights News

In the United Kingdom court decision sparing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from extradition to the United States (for now, pending appeal), the intimately symbiotic relationship between humanitarianism and violence was evident once again.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that it would be “oppressive” to extradite Assange – but not because of the injustice of the US government’s campaign of retribution against him for exposing its massacres, misrepresentations and manipulations, but rather due to the fragility of Assange’s mental health.

The same “justice” system that has eviscerated Assange’s mental wellbeing with prolonged psychological torture, in the assessment of the UN special rapporteur on torture, now poses as his hope for salvation.

Like a large-scale governmental version of Munchausen by proxy, the state mystifies its own role in producing the pathology in question, then attempts to extract moral capital from exhibiting a modicum of care. Structural violence creates the need for humanitarianism, which mitigates some of the excesses of violence, ensuring the flourishing of both violence and humanitarianism.

Judge Baraitser not only declined to find that the US’s prosecution of Assange is for political “offences” – and therefore barred by the UK-US Extradition Treaty – but held that there is no judicially enforceable barrier against political extraditions at all: “the defence has not established that the UK-US treaty confers rights on Mr Assange which are enforceable in this court” since the treaty is “not yet incorporated into domestic law”. Perversely, according to this judgement, Assange (and other extradition targets) are subject to the treaty, but precluded from invoking its protections.

The fact that Assange revealed damning truths about state atrocities that would otherwise have remained concealed was also dismissed as irrelevant. “The defence have not established that the principle of the ‘right to truth’ is a legal rule that is recognised in either international law or domestic law.”

The defence of necessity was similarly discarded: “he has not provided evidence of any individual incident which was going to create a danger to members of the public which his disclosure was designed to avoid.”

US allegations that WikiLeaks endangered the lives of US military informants, in contrast, were accepted as reality despite the absence of evidence. In a remarkable feat of guilt transfusion, it is not the US military but Julian Assange who is inculpated for having “blood on his hands”.

Having stripped away all of Assange’s defences, the court left him with no shield against extradition other than his own psycho-pathologisation – continuing the long tradition of depoliticising claims for justice by reframing them as issues of the claimants’ “mental illness”.

Judge Baraitser concluded that exposing Assange to the tortures of US super-maximum security imprisonment under “special administrative measures” – characterised by intensive solitary confinement and sensory deprivation – would create a serious risk of suicide. She located the underlying problem, however, not in the pathologies of the US carceral system but in the dark recesses of Assange’s psyche. “Whilst the imminence of extradition or extradition itself would trigger the Mr Assange’s mental disorder that would lead to an inability to control his wish to commit suicide.”

In some quarters, this decision has been hailed as a takedown of US mass incarceration. But in fact, the carving out of such “humanitarian” exceptions has proven to be perfectly compatible with the entrenchment of carceral rule.

“Reform efforts targeting protected categories like the young, or the mentally ill, or more recently, pregnant women, leave behind a core of people who are not young, not (yet) mentally ill, not pregnant, and therefore not deserving of protection,” notes criminologist Keramet Reiter. “This durable core of punishable subjects becomes an ongoing justification for the need for solitary confinement.”

Professor Reiter’s research shows how human rights litigation provided the design template for the torture chambers of US super-max prisons. Judges castigated the dark, unsanitary, violent, noisy “holes” of previous solitary confinement regimes. So in the super-max version of solitary 2.0 (constitution-compliant edition), the fluorescent lights are left on 24 hours a day, the cells are constructed of sterilised concrete and steel, hi-tech automated food flaps remove the need for any human interaction, and heavy sealed doors muffle the sounds of prisoners’ cries.

Everything exceeding the courts’ bare minimum requirements has been recast as a superfluous “privilege” and eliminated – corroborating writer Arundhati Roy’s observation about human rights serving as a discount substitute for justice.

US super-maxes are a “clean version of hell,” in the words of a former warden quoted in another extradition case, Babar Ahmad and Others vs the UK. While the UK requires assurances that those extradited will not be subject to the quick death of execution, imposition of the slow, “living death” of solitary confinement is allowed.

In extradition cases like Babar Ahmad and Others vs the UK – in which the defendants have been British Muslims accused of amorphous “terrorism” offences – mental illness and disability have not been grounds for empathy and alleviation of punishment, but further demonisation. The colonial exception to humanitarian protections for those deemed “savages” and “barbarians” – or as they are known in contemporary terminology, “terrorists” and “unlawful combatants” – continues to operate under the aegis of universal human rights.

Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan, for example, were extradited to solitary confinement in the US in 2012, despite diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (Ahmad) and depression and Asperger syndrome (Ahsan).

In the European Court of Human Rights decision green-lighting the transfer, the US’s supposedly “long history of respect of democracy, human rights and the rule of law” was cited as a justification. Both Ahsan and Ahmad ultimately pleaded guilty under the threat of life sentences, although the sentencing judge subsequently acknowledged that neither was engaged in “operational planning or operations that could fall under the term ‘terrorism’.”

Their co-complainant Haroon Aswat received a temporary reprieve from extradition, due to his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, but this was ripped away following US assurances he would receive treatment in incarceration.

“No mechanism is available for verifying the claims made in the assurances,” as a group of experts on US terrorism prosecutions pointed out. “In effect, the decision meant Haroon Aswat could be subjected to the mental health deterioration that will most likely result from solitary confinement … so long as he enjoys occasional access to a psychiatrist.” “Assurances” become a humanitarian shield for abuse.

In our “humanitarian present”, the “moderation of violence is part of the very logic of violence,” as academic Eyal Weizman dissects in his book The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza. “It is through this use of the lesser evil that societies that see themselves as democratic can maintain regimes of occupation and neo-colonization” – not to mention torture and mass incarceration.

Documents publicised by WikiLeaks illuminated how practices of domination are packaged in the logic of humanitarianism: a blueprint for self-proclaimed virtuous violence.

The Guantanamo Standard Operating Procedures manual, for instance, contained detailed instructions for stripping and shackling detainees (many wrongfully captured, including elderly men and children), inflicting psychological terror with military dogs, force-feeding hunger strikers (a form of torture), violently disciplining “mass suicide” attempts, and performing “Muslim funerals and burials”. But not to worry – camp officials must “respect all detainees as human beings and protect them against all acts of violence.”

The US military’s Rules of Engagement for Iraq, meanwhile, authorised soldiers to inflict “collateral damage” of up to 30 civilians at a time. But rest assured – all “use of force” will be “necessary and proportional.”

In practice, as we also know from WikiLeaks, this meant shooting pregnant women, disabled people, and children at checkpoints, killing Iraqis trying to surrender, and gunning down journalists and rescuers from helicopters (the infamous “collateral murder” video). None of which were prosecuted as war crimes, under an international humanitarian law (law of war) that condemns the indiscriminate violence of the poorly-resourced while privileging the “precise,” technologically-advanced carnage of powerful states.

As US General James Mattis warned prior to the invasion of Fallujah in 2004, “We will always be humanitarian in all our efforts … May God help them when we’re done with them.”

And yet Assange is the one who is in the dock. Having unmasked the machinery of imperialism, he is now being crushed within its gears. In one of his final acts as US president, Donald Trump refused requests to grant Assange clemency, having previously pardoned four Blackwater mercenaries for the 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad: a reminder that the power to save and the power to condemn are two sides of the same coin.

If the prosecution of Assange is permitted to succeed, it will be yet another brick in the fortress of impunity for those who kill, torture and invade in humanitarianism’s name.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=17250&feed_id=30466

#Europe #HumanRights #JulianAssange #Opinions #UnitedKingdom #UnitedStates #USCanada #Wikileaks

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tomorrowusa · 1 year

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There is a lot of emphasis in the news media on Biden's age while almost nothing about Trump's fitness. This needs to change and we should be more active about holding news organizations to account.

In a four day period in September, the cable news stations mentioned Biden’s age 193 times while Trump’s age was mentioned just 56 times. (MediaMatters.org on September 29, 2023.) After this one sided coverage, these same media outlets then polled the voters about Biden’s age and found (surprise!) that voters are more concerned about Biden’s age than Trump’s age. It’s garbage in and garbage out.

There's just a 3.5 year difference between Biden and Trump. But Trump is not the fitter of the two. Being an epic blowhard and blabbermouth is not a measure of fitness.

After Biden concluded his debt ceiling deal with McCarthy in June, the extremist so-called House “Freedom” Caucus members complained that Biden “outsmarted” McCarthy in the negotiations. The House GOP’s most extreme members hate Biden and have zero incentive to tell the truth about Biden’s good state of health.

So even the most extreme Republicans had to admit that they were outfoxed by Biden.

On October 2, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) took to the floor of the House to denounce the deal that funded the government for forty five days Gaetz said: “It is going to be difficult for my Republican friends to keep calling President Biden feeble while he continues to take Speaker McCarthy’s lunch money in every negotiation.”

As for Trump's health, mental health in particular, the evidence of his debility is on full display.

Meanwhile, the mainstream press has largely ignored and downplayed Trump’s declining mental condition and increasing tendency to threaten violence. Probably the only mainstream media piece that accurately described the respective health of Biden and Trump was in the New York Times on June 4, 2023. The pertinent excerpts are as follows: “While in office, Mr. Trump generated concerns about his mental acuity and physical condition. He did not exercise, his diet leaned heavily on cheeseburgers and steak and he officially tipped the scales at 244 pounds, a weight formally deemed obese for his height. After complaining that he was overscheduled with morning meetings, Mr. Trump stopped showing up at the Oval Office until 11 or 11:30 a.m. each day, staying in the residence to watch television, make phone calls or send out incendiary tweets. During an appearance at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he had trouble lifting a glass of water and seemed to have trouble making his way down a modest ramp. Most striking was Mr. Trump’s cognitive performance. He was erratic and tended to ramble; experts have found that he had grown less articulate and that his vocabulary had shrunk since his younger days. Aides said privately that Mr. Trump had trouble processing information and distinguishing fact from fiction. His second chief of staff, John F. Kelly, bought a book analyzing Mr. Trump’s psychological health to understand him better, and several cabinet secretaries concerned that he might be mentally unfit discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him.”

He's gotten worse rather than better since leaving office.

These aren’t isolated statements. The highlights (or lowlights) of Trump’s deteriorating condition are as follows. Trump forgot who is currently president, and claimed “the Obama administration” recorded the length of his “border wall.” He even claimed **Jeb Bush** invaded Afghanistan and Iraq! Trump appeared confused when he said Jeb Bush was president during the Iraq War. “You know he was a mili — he got us into the, uh, he got us into the Middle East … Right?” In September, Trump mixed up Biden and Obama, and claimed Biden might start World War TWO. Trump even said you need a government photo ID to buy a loaf of bread. At the same time, Trump’s remarks have taken a dark turn and he has repeatedly threatened violence. Trump suggested that General Mark Milley should be executed. If anybody else had said that, they would be getting a visit from the FBI. The fact that this isn’t being treated as major front-page news is astonishing to me.

Trump makes threats to media moguls and they go easy on reporting his delirium.

The run away front runner for the GOP presidential nomination said Comcast, the owner of NBC and MSNBC, “should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason’” and promised to do so should he be re-elected president next year. Why does the press continue to cover up Trump’s poor health when he has promised to go after them? How can they be so stupid? It’s pretty wild that, of the two leading presidential candidates, the guy found liable for rape and who is facing ninety one criminal indictments isn’t the one who is facing calls to step aside for someone else to run. The mainstream media has lost all sense of scale and proportion. The media fixation with Biden as opposed to this clearly impaired guy is journalistic malpractice.

Psychologist Mary Trump, Donald's niece, called her uncle a "dangerous presence" on Australia's ABC earlier this year. She also said he was essentially "an insecure little boy who seeks attention".

youtube

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Ask your news providers why they are seldom mentioning Trump's mental health in their coverage. They should not be normalizing his threats against people and his bizarre erratic comments.

#donald trump #trump's deteriorating mental health #trump is unfit for office #mary trump #republicans #2024 gop presidential nomination #election 2024

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themirthofanation · 4 years

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socialjusticeartshare · 4 years

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Our Immigration Policy Has Done Terrible Damage to Kids

Here are four steps the Biden-Harris administration should take immediately to prevent further harm

Over the past four years of the Trump administration, thousands of migrant children were separated from their parents, stuck in squalid tent camps on our southern border, and made victims of violence, trafficking and exploitation during their journey and in U.S. custody. These traumatic experiences inflicted grievous psychological damage that can have lifelong consequences. The children also lost opportunities to learn, explore and play—things we value for our own children. Our punitive immigration policies have harmed a generation of children, and we must act immediately to change this.

The Biden-Harris administration recognizes the need for a just and humane immigration system and is prioritizing important changes to immigration policy. Given the harm to children’s development that has been done by our current immigration system and the urgency of addressing this, the new administration should adopt a set of science-based policies that best support children’s needs in its first weeks in office.

For optimal development, children need stability, love and nurturing care. Substantial evidence from neuroscience to economics indicates that the early years of a child’s life are critical for building a foundation for healthy development. What happens during these important years can have long-term and irreversible consequences on children’s ability to grow, learn and thrive—and on future generations as well. In the context of immigration, children’s needs are accentuated. To address their unique and urgent needs, the Biden-Harris administration should start immigration reform with four child-centered policies in its first weeks.

First, prioritize family reunification. The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy led to the separation of more than 2,500 migrant children from their families in 2017 and 2018. Stories of children in cages sparked public outcry, and a subsequent court order compelled the government to reunite families. While many families have been reconnected, as of November 2020, the parents of 666 separated children had not yet been reached.

A strong base of evidence demonstrates the destructive impacts of family separation. According to Jack Shonkoff, director of the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, separation from a parent removes the connection children need with a primary caregiver and subjects them to an onslaught of elevated stress. This stress can cause short-term physical health problems like high blood pressure, headaches and stomachaches, as well as mental health problems like anxiety and depression. The trauma of separation, especially for children under five, can cause long-term impacts on health and well-being, including post-traumatic stress disorder, heart disease and diabetes. In his congressional testimony about family separation, Shonkoff explained: “Forcibly separating children from their parents is like setting a house on fire. Prolonging that separation is like preventing the first responders from doing their job.”

Embracing family reunification as a top priority, the Biden-Harris administration has committed to creating a federal task force to spearhead this. This task force should launch immediately and include members with expertise in child development, Central American cultures, and Spanish and indigenous languages.

Second, ensure that children’s development is a priority at the U.S.-Mexico border. Children arriving at our southern border have made harrowing journeys, faced violence and suffered severe physical distress. Currently, border policies disregard the specific needs and vulnerabilities of children and put their safety at risk. For example, the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) force asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for the duration of their legal proceedings, placing children and families in squalid and dangerous makeshift camps or shelters where they are easy targets of violent cartels. A recent study by the University of Virginia and Texas A&M in the largest tent encampment in Matamoros, Mexico, found that parents and children suffered from sustained fear and trauma, and children had deteriorating behavioral, emotional and cognitive functioning. A new paper from Pediatrics argues that the federal government's handling of migrant children at the border constitutes “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment that rises to the level of torture.”

The first clear policy priority, about which Biden is outspoken, is to end MPP. However, this must be done in coordination with humanitarian actors to ensure support for children during the rollback process, including fundamental health, nutrition, sanitation, education and protection services. Furthermore, as outlined in the Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) blueprint to protect unaccompanied children on the move, it is essential to improve treatment of children arriving at the border. This means enlisting trained and licensed child welfare professionals with expertise in children’s psychological, emotional and physical needs and ensuring hygienic, child-friendly spaces for screening and processing children’s cases.

Third, upon entry to the U.S., improve care and appropriate custody of children. Detention center conditions—cold, unceasingly lit and lacking proper food and health care—are hostile environments for children. A recent study of unaccompanied minors in detention found high levels of violence and physical abuse. Psychologists say that being trapped in such conditions can have a lasting impact on development and mental health. According to another, broader study of children in U.S. detention centers, one third had elevated emotional problems, with younger children suffering more.

There are custody models more suitable for children. Placing children with family or in familylike or small-group settings with case management will benefit their well-being and development. Indeed, a review of 250 alternatives to detention from 60 countries by the International Detention Coalition found such community-based case management programs to be safer, more effective, and cheaper—by 80 percent!—than detention.

And fourth, it’s essential to ensure access to social safety nets for immigrant children and families. Under the Trump administration, immigrant families’ enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program declined, with the trend accentuated when particular policies were announced, such as the “public charge” rule restricting legal immigrants’ access to the federal safety net. Repealing the public charge rule, restricting detention to those who have committed serious crimes, and building on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects undocumented individuals who came to the United States as children from deportation, rather than terminating it would go far in easing the current climate of fear that afflicts immigrant communities and assuring the health and development of America’s immigrant-origin children.

The harm to our nation’s refugees, asylees, legal immigrants and mixed-status families has been extreme in the current administration, but not irreversible. The Biden-Harris administration can take immediate science-based action to improve the lifelong health, economic and educational outcomes of immigrant-origin children, youth and their families nationwide.

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#damage to kids #immigration policy #separated children #separated families

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lewepstein · 4 years

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How to Treat Your PTSD (Post Trump Stress Disorder)

I wonder how many people reading this post have said to themselves or others, “When I listen to or watch President Trump it feels like I’m in an abusive relationship.” You don’t need to be a student of psychology to know that his overt hostility and his hateful, verbal attacks are designed to inflict pain and humiliate people. But Isn’t this exactly what abusive, toxic males have always been accused of doing? Trump’s hyper-aggressive, threatening tone often reminds people of someone from their past - perhaps a rageful father, but more often an insecure and manipulative partner whose selfishness and arrogance knows few limits. The quality that Trump shares with other weak and bullying men is his need to control others. He will lie, cheat and intimidate in order to achieve his narcissistic whims. Abusers like Trump see all who challenge them as threats and harbor a thinly disguised contempt for their victims.

One could argue that we as American citizens aren’t in an “actual” relationship with Trump and therefore why should his behaviors be experienced as abusive? I believe the answer to that question lies in our symbolic relationship to leaders and the way that they key into our deepest connections to parents, teachers and other adults from our formative years. The personas and behaviors of presidents, governors and others in positions of authority connect with our primal needs to feel safe and be cared for.

Donald Trump may seem quite familiar to people who grew up with a certain kind of father and learned to tolerate and accommodate his controlling nature. Some may experience his behaviors as “normal,” having come to make excuses for things they felt powerless to challenge or to change. They may have identified with the aggressor and received “rewards,” both practical and emotional for going along with the demands that he made and for keeping the peace. Others may have lived with the disempowering behaviors of these types of fathers and partners and drawn lines in the sand signifying that they would never tolerate this type of behavior again. We have all been victims of patriarchy in one form or another but there is a profound difference between those men and women who listened to the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump boasted about “grabbing women’s pussies” and said, “boys will be boys” versus those who said, “This is abusive and assaultive behavior and is unacceptable on every level.”

The reason I think many of us will require a post-Trump recovery period is that we have all been subjected to four years of abusive language, hostile imagery and threatening behaviors and policies. We have lived in fear of a leader who has often seemed unhinged and has been willing to act out his selfish wishes to the detriment of the rest of us. Whether it is his twenty thousand false or misleading statements - abusive men believe they have a right to lie - his willingness to have a nuclear standoff with Kim Jong un, his mimicking of a journalist with a disability, his current, implicit threat to unleash violence if he loses the presidential election or his bringing federal forces into cities to intimidate racial justice protesters, these are just a few of the many trauma inducing behaviors of a man who has had power over our lives and whom we could not simply divorce or walk away from.

As Trump mishandled the pandemic to suit his whims and the bodies began to pile up, symbolic abuse became genocide by neglect and certain vulnerable groups were clearly expendable to him. Trump’s politicizing of mask wearing and his modeling machismo in the face of a killer virus leaves the blood of as many as one hundred thousand Americans on his hands. His catastrophic failure of leadership has severely damaged the American economy, disabling small businesses and depleting jobs in numbers that could have been avoided had the initial handling of the pandemic been run by experts and not politicized. The documented differences in managing the pandemic by certain countries in Asia - notably Taiwan and Vietnam - is so stark when compared to the United States that all Trump can do is try to to deflect and distract from his abject failure.

So how can we best deal with our Post Trump Stress Disorder? First, we need to get to a post-Trump era. We need to use our collective power at the ballot box to leave this abusive relationship and also leave Trump behind. We need to get him out of his position of presidential authority and thereby out of our heads. And even if he still has the power to stir up trouble he will no longer have the “bully” pulpit. Post election, he may be kept busy as he is pursued by prosecutors for his illegal deals and his many abuses of power and finance.

The symptoms that we may be left with from the Trump era that mimic the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that results from other abusive relationships are anger, anxiety, mood problems, a high degree of vigilance, flashbacks and trust issues. Some might be left with shame or guilt, feeling on some level that they should have been able to prevent this. And, as with those who have been taken in by a cult leader, some will believe that they got what they deserved.

The behavioral part of our PTSD therapy has to do with disempowering the abuser and doing whatever possible to not let political conditions deteriorate to the point where a demagogue again comes to power. If hypervigilance is one of the negative byproducts of abuse then it needs to be replaced by political vigilance. Thomas Jefferson said that, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” I pledge to continue to participate in and contribute to groups like Indivisible and Move On, but not just around election time. I will not never make the mistake again of taking a break from political action just because a Democrat has been elected to higher office.

The “victim” in an abusive relationship is often suffering from what is called “learned helplessness” and hopelessness. It is a core part of depression and often includes anger that has been turned inward against the self. If we can identify the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness we have experienced during this era of Trump along wth the outrage behind it, then we may be able to mitigate what can become a downward spiral in our moods.

The cognitive approach to overcoming the emotional burdens of an abusive relationship involves challenging or disputing certain thoughts. There is a kind of brainwashing that comes with an abusive partner, especially a narcissist such as Trump who needs to mold people and reality to suit his needs. The sheer repetition of certain lies can bring us to question what is true and to doubt our own reality. The thought that “there must be something true about what the abuser is saying,” can begin to seep in. Having a core group of like minded friends along with intimate relationships that validate facts and uphold opinions that challenge the abuser’s worldview are critical to mental health. This especially applies to the historical period we have been living through that includes Trump’s reign of terror and whatever will be its aftermath.

We should all be aware of our “all or nothing thinking” as a response to having lived under a repressive regime. Seeing the world as “either-or” and “all or nothing” is an understandable response to an extreme and authoritarian leader. It may take time to get back to more nuanced thinking and not responding reflexively to what may be meaningful differences. The more Trump has been experienced by us as an existential threat, the more we need to be aware of the intensity of our thoughts and feelings.

If we find ourselves flinching a little when we listen to or watch the news over the next year, understand that this is the normal response of people who have been exposed to or witnessed emotional abuse in a relationship which they could not extricate themselves from. We may also be reacting from our own traumatic history - it makes sense that our PTSD may have been triggered and compounded due to the emotionally abusive relationship that we have been forced to endure over the past four years with our president. We will all need to heal from what we have been living through and I include in that assessment the “cult followers” who cheered on the cruelty and abuse that Trump meted out. All of this will require profound changes in the way we view the political world and the ways that we respond to it. It reveals to us once again how often what is thought to be political and that which is seen as “personal” intersect.

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Monday, February 8, 2021

America’s Mothers Are in Crisis (NYT) By now, you have read the headlines, repeating like a depressing drum beat: “Working moms are not OK.” “Pandemic Triples Anxiety And Depression Symptoms In New Mothers.” “Working Moms Are Reaching The Breaking Point.” You can also see the problem in numbers: Almost 1 million mothers have left the workforce—with Black mothers, Hispanic mothers and single mothers among the hardest hit. Almost 1 in 4 children experienced food insecurity in 2020, which is intimately related to the loss of maternal income. And more than three-quarters of parents with children ages 8 to 12 say the uncertainty around the current school year is causing them stress. The pandemic has touched every group of Americans, and millions are suffering, hungry and grieving. But many mothers in particular get no space or time to recover. Philip Fisher, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon who runs an ongoing nationally representative survey on the effect of the pandemic on families with young children, says, “People are having a hard time making ends meet, that’s making parents stressed out, and that’s causing kids to be stressed out.” This buildup can lead to toxic stress, “And we know from all the science, that level of stress has a lasting impact on brain development, learning and physical health.” Almost 70% of mothers say that worry and stress from the pandemic have damaged their health.

Pandemic’s Toll on Housing (NYT) As the pandemic enters its second year, millions of renters are struggling with a loss of income and with the insecurity of not knowing how long they will have a home. Their savings depleted, they are running up credit card debt to make the rent, or accruing months of overdue payments. Families are moving in together, offsetting the cost of housing by finding others to share it. Even before last year, about 11 million households—one in four U.S. renters—were spending more than half their pretax income on housing, and overcrowding was on the rise. By one estimate, for every 100 very low-income households, only 36 affordable rentals are available. Now the pandemic is adding to the pressure. A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed that tenants who lost jobs in the pandemic had amassed $11 billion in rental arrears, while a broader measure by Moody’s Analytics, which includes all delinquent renters, estimated that as of January they owed $53 billion in back rent, utilities and late fees. Other surveys show that families are increasingly pessimistic about making their next month’s rent, and are cutting back on food and other essentials to pay bills.

In pandemic, more people choose to die at home (AP) Mortuary owner Brian Simmons has been making more trips to homes to pick up bodies to be cremated and embalmed since the pandemic hit. With COVID-19 devastating communities in Missouri, his two-person crews regularly arrive at homes in the Springfield area and remove bodies of people who decided to die at home rather than spend their final days in a nursing home or hospital where family visitations were prohibited during the pandemic. He understands all too well why people are choosing to die at home: His own 49-year-old daughter succumbed to the coronavirus just before Christmas at a Springfield hospital, where the family only got phone updates as her condition deteriorated. “My daughter went to the hospital and we saw her once through the glass when they put her on the ventilator, and then we never saw her again until after she died.” Across the country, terminally ill patients—both with COVID-19 and other diseases—are making similar decisions and dying at home rather than face the terrifying scenario of saying farewell to loved ones behind glass or during video calls.

Trump’s Senate impeachment trial (AP) Arguments begin Tuesday in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump on allegations that he incited the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Will he be convicted? It’s unlikely. While many Republicans were harshly critical of Trump for telling supporters to “fight like hell” and go to the Capitol, their criticism has since softened. The shift was evident during a Jan. 26 test vote. Only five Republican senators voted against a motion that was aimed at dismissing the trial. It will take a two-thirds vote of the 100-member Senate to convict Trump of the impeachment charge, which is “incitement of insurrection.” If all 50 Democrats voted to convict him, 17 Republicans would have to join them to reach that threshold. Most Republicans have avoided defending Trump’s actions the day of the riot. Instead, lawmakers have argued that the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office.

Ecuadoreans vote for president (Reuters) Ecuadoreans choose a new president on Sunday, with many voters weary of painful economic austerity measures and eager for a return to socialism, encouraging left-wing candidate Andres Arauz who hopes to win without needing a runoff vote. The 36-year-old economist, a protege of former president Rafael Correa, leads in polls on promises to make $1 billion in direct cash payments to families and to disavow the conditions of a $6.5 billion IMF financing package. His main rival, Guillermo Lasso, has been hurt by his image as a conservative banker, and pollsters say the possibility of low voter turnout due to the pandemic could dent his support. Lawyer and indigenous activist Yaku Perez is third in the polls. An Arauz victory would extend Latin America’s return to leftist policies, already evident in Argentina and Bolivia, a challenge for Washington as it duels with China for influence in the hemisphere.

With Carnival scrapped, Rio’s Sambadrome hosts vaccinations (AP) In a normal year, Rio de Janeiro’s Sambadrome would be preparing for its great moment of the year: the world’s most famous Carnival parade. But a week before what should be the start of Carnival, the pandemic has replaced pageantry, with the great celebration put on hold until next year as Rio struggles to quash a rise in COVID-19 cases. The Rio mayor’s office opened a drive-thru immunization station Saturday at the Sambadrome, where a line of cars queued up on a broad avenue built for floats. Rio’s city government officially suspended Carnival and warns it will have no tolerance for those who try to celebrate with open street parades or clandestine parties, saying it is monitoring social media to detect any.

Public Buildings Set Ablaze in Chile After Police Shoot Street Juggler (NYT) Demonstrators angered by the fatal police shooting of a popular street juggler set several public buildings ablaze in southern Chile Friday night, leaving a city of almost 34,000 people practically without public services. The shooting took place after the juggler, identified as Francisco Martínez, did not comply with a police officer’s request to provide identification as he performed at a busy intersection in the center of Panguipulli, a popular lakeside community, witnesses said. An argument followed, during which the officer pulled out his gun and fired at least two shots at Mr. Martínez’s feet, witnesses told reporters. Videos taken by witnesses, which spread widely on social media, show the juggler jumping to avoid the shots then running toward the officer with his props in the air. The officer then shot him in the chest, witnesses said, and he died at the scene. Police then barricaded themselves in their station. Since protesters were unable to attack the police station, they turned to other government symbols. Ten public offices in the city of Panguipulli burned to the ground, including the municipal government building, the post office, the civil registry, a local court and a water management company, the authorities said.

Himalayan glacier breaks in India, up to 150 feared dead in floods (Reuters) As many as 150 people were feared dead in northern India after a Himalayan glacier broke and swept away a hydroelectric dam on Sunday, with floods forcing the evacuation of villages downstream. “The actual number has not been confirmed yet,” but 100 to 150 people were feared dead, Om Prakash, chief secretary of Uttarakhand state where the incident occurred, told Reuters. A witness reported a wall of dust, rock and water as an avalanche roared down the Dhauli Ganga river valley located more than 500 km (310 miles) north of New Delhi.

Protests sweep Myanmar to oppose coup, support Suu Kyi (Reuters) Tens of thousands of people rallied across Myanmar on Sunday to denounce last week’s coup and demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in the biggest protests since the 2007 Saffron Revolution that helped lead to democratic reforms. In a second day of widespread protests, crowds in the biggest city, Yangon, sported red shirts, red flags and red balloons, the colour of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party (NLD). “We don’t want military dictatorship! We want democracy!” they chanted. On Sunday afternoon, the junta ended a day-long blockade of the internet that had further inflamed anger since the coup last Monday that has halted the Southeast Asian nation’s troubled transition to democracy and drawn international outrage. Massive crowds from all corners of Yangon gathered in townships and headed toward the Sule Pagoda at the heart of the city, also a rallying point during the Buddhist monk-led 2007 protests and others in 1988.

Palestinian leader’s path to elections is fraught with peril (AP) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ call for elections has thrown his political future into peril, forcing him to negotiate competing demands to engage with a friendlier U.S. administration, mend the rift with his militant Hamas rivals and keep his unruly Fatah movement from breaking apart. It’s far from clear the elections will actually be held. Doing so will require an agreement between Abbas’s secular Fatah movement and Hamas, which have been bitterly divided for more than a decade despite multiple attempts at reconciliation. The two sides plan to meet in Cairo this week. The outcome of the talks will largely depend on the 85-year-old Abbas. He has spent decades nonviolently seeking a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories seized by Israel in the 1967 war. Instead, he has come to rule an increasingly autocratic and unpopular Palestinian Authority confined to parts of the occupied West Bank. Reconciling with Hamas and holding elections could shore up his legitimacy and meet longstanding Western demands for accountability. But even a limited victory by Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by Israel and Western countries, could result in international isolation and the loss of vital aid—as it did after Hamas won the last parliamentary elections in 2006.

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