"Another trick is pose-branding. Famous people sometimes adopt a specific pose to reinforce their personal brand . . . Things only get weird because Trump is pathologically oblivious to context."
I think this take of JVLs hits the nail on the head, along with the fact that Trump is indeed irrationally unmindful of the environment around him.
It's not easy to come up with a fresh lens to use in viewing Trump; like horror movie plots, you'd think every available one would be a bit dull from overuse. But thinking of Trump as his own all-purpose, ever-thumbs-uppable context IS a useful new lens to train on our national disgrace. Thanks, JVL, I plan to borrow it often!
My husband and I visited section 60 at Arlington a few years ago. The aura of hallowed ground brought tears that flowed freely by the time we arrived at the gravesite of Sgt. Will Stacey, our son's friend and fellow Marine. We never met him but we cried for his loss and the pain it caused his family and friends. I can't imagine being so cavalier among those honored few, especially if you were once the commander-in-chief.
JVL - the story at the end was amazing. Living one’s faith and the necessity of human connection is so important.
Also your important point about what is normal and what isn’t and your continued prompting for us not to become immune to the weird malady that is Trump.
Undergrad only... santa rosa junior college and UC Davis BS 1982. landed an excellent job at the end of my senior year. working for the Union Oil Company (76 ball) as a technician. spent my geologic career doing geophysical surveys at geothermal prospects in Oregon, Nevada, and Utah. I then worked with the geposhysicists to install microearthquake networks in the Imperial Valley (Yuck!, Salton Sea is also known as the Sono Bono National Wildlife Refuge. A strange irony to say the leastbecause it is essentially an end point for agricultural drainage) Mammoth/Long Valley, Medicine Lake in northern California and then a permanent istallation at The Geysers geothermal field. Sampled pretty much every well for oxygen/hydrogen istope ratios and non-condesible gasses to characterize the steam. We used this data along with the microearthquakes to determine the life cycle of injected steam condensate, fresh water and treated effluent from Lake county and the City of Santa Rosa. Also to quantify the value of injection and identify areas that could utilize increased injection. Then I did environmental work for The Geysers and finished my career with State of California providing regulatory oversight for remediation of contaminated properties. there ys go. if you like we could continue the discussion on the messaging side of substack...
To answer “is he a ghoul or a sociopath?”…. According to a Psychiatrist with 30plus years of experience as director of the Psychiatric Floor of a Major University hospital, “Donald Trump is a Psychopathic Narcissist”! And also, “a ghoul…. And a sociopath.” And a woefully, unacceptable person to be our President…. Zero qualifications, empathy, allegiance or understanding of what it is to be a citizen of these United States of America …. None…..
I wondered that too, so I googled it. Wiki says it can have many different meanings culturally but one of those is a heavy metal "rock on" meaning. Perhaps the service member or the woman giving the hand gesture is a rock fan and that's her version of a thumbs up.
Over time it's come to mean rock on, or whatever, but it definitely started out, at least, as signifying devil horns, ie, as used in <scary>SATANIC ROCK</scary>. I guess flashing the rock on/devil horns salute over the grave of your dead sibling/spouse/loved one (and the graves of other dead people you don't know) is certainly a choice.
Thank you for unpacking this aspect of Trump's megalomania! I've noticed (of course) the weird replication of pose and expression in all of Trump's photos and casually wondered about it, but it's nice to have a solid explanation of why he would do his unchanging 'plastic smile and robotic thumbs-up' thing in the most inappropriate situations (thank you for providing the evidence! That pic with the El Paso orphan has always disgusted me). Your point about context is spot on: everything in Trump's worldview orbits around him regardless of the situation, and everyone who meets him is (or should be) honored and lucky to get to interact with him, and so he will graciously deign to do his pose with them.
Trump’s other go-to pose is to point at someone or something. Which the MSM eats up and dutifully publishes when Trump gets a “win” (which in this twisted world means something like the immunity decision or the Cannon dismissal). My computer or phone are at grave risk of becoming hammer fodder whenever I see such a photo. Not sure why but the “pointing” pose enrages me much more than the thumbs up.
Two thoughts. One: what is the meaning of the two women making”devil’s horns” while Trump is giving the thumb to American values? is this just more MAGA insider stuff? Two: I’m vacationing in Trump country and I’ll never, never understand how farmers, the ur-stoical American, support this whining and felonious, man-child.
The second photo in which some of the mourners also did the thumbs-up is creepy as h***. And these were families that invited Trump to their solemn event? Can't wrap my head around any of it.
Once again proving he's inhuman
A heads-up that I didn't know about until yesterday. The OK gesture with the other 3 fingers extended has been usurped by our home-grown Nazis. It's now considered a White Power sign. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=77c4f50781debaf0&sca_upv=1&q=white+power+sign&udm=2&fbs=AEQNm0Aa4sjWe7Rqy32pFwRj0UkWd8nbOJfsBGGB5IQQO6L3J03RPjGV0MznOJ6Likin94p8FXzmjNmbQ-4rMNC3Kdp_TJcJ7Ub8ch058XQwmQpI6MZ-4J9YsCUXamRyNpQKK7lhAw0iUJW9Nn68b40YkUrby53w0-TZ9BwIrJp8oJjRN8ws0dNE2JJITpFB8NoHM9I-fKMtt723Ebh4DkOxLttuPAbj9A&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjR7cnfvqSIAxXaEEQIHVoXOWUQtKgLegQIExAB&biw=1376&bih=645&dpr=1.4
Trump uses it all the time at his rallies.
And BTW, that Arlington visit is now an official Orange Snake ad. Just caught it on MSNBC.
"Another trick is pose-branding. Famous people sometimes adopt a specific pose to reinforce their personal brand . . . Things only get weird because Trump is pathologically oblivious to context."
I think this take of JVLs hits the nail on the head, along with the fact that Trump is indeed irrationally unmindful of the environment around him.
It's not easy to come up with a fresh lens to use in viewing Trump; like horror movie plots, you'd think every available one would be a bit dull from overuse. But thinking of Trump as his own all-purpose, ever-thumbs-uppable context IS a useful new lens to train on our national disgrace. Thanks, JVL, I plan to borrow it often!
I hope Moises Abraham Navas's family (among others) sues the living snot out of Trump.
My husband and I visited section 60 at Arlington a few years ago. The aura of hallowed ground brought tears that flowed freely by the time we arrived at the gravesite of Sgt. Will Stacey, our son's friend and fellow Marine. We never met him but we cried for his loss and the pain it caused his family and friends. I can't imagine being so cavalier among those honored few, especially if you were once the commander-in-chief.
JVL - the story at the end was amazing. Living one’s faith and the necessity of human connection is so important.
Also your important point about what is normal and what isn’t and your continued prompting for us not to become immune to the weird malady that is Trump.
Love this piece. Simple but wise take.
You need to read this Borowitz Report „Who Created Trump“. https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/who-created-donald-trump?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=9q552&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email [It actually follows to the inescapable conclusion from his excellent book „Profiles in Ignorance“. (Highly recommended)]
or this: https://drvincentgreenwood-89455.medium.com/the-science-behind-donald-trumps-dangerous-personality-disorder-49b3f8e416de
Indeed, thanks! From another PhD geologist. Where did you do your graduate studies?
Undergrad only... santa rosa junior college and UC Davis BS 1982. landed an excellent job at the end of my senior year. working for the Union Oil Company (76 ball) as a technician. spent my geologic career doing geophysical surveys at geothermal prospects in Oregon, Nevada, and Utah. I then worked with the geposhysicists to install microearthquake networks in the Imperial Valley (Yuck!, Salton Sea is also known as the Sono Bono National Wildlife Refuge. A strange irony to say the leastbecause it is essentially an end point for agricultural drainage) Mammoth/Long Valley, Medicine Lake in northern California and then a permanent istallation at The Geysers geothermal field. Sampled pretty much every well for oxygen/hydrogen istope ratios and non-condesible gasses to characterize the steam. We used this data along with the microearthquakes to determine the life cycle of injected steam condensate, fresh water and treated effluent from Lake county and the City of Santa Rosa. Also to quantify the value of injection and identify areas that could utilize increased injection. Then I did environmental work for The Geysers and finished my career with State of California providing regulatory oversight for remediation of contaminated properties. there ys go. if you like we could continue the discussion on the messaging side of substack...
Should the press boycott Trump rallies until he stops calling the independent media the “enemies of the People”?
Why should they expose their staff and families to this bullshit?
https://apple.news/A4xC0lVhwRuGm6bhOul1t1Q
To answer “is he a ghoul or a sociopath?”…. According to a Psychiatrist with 30plus years of experience as director of the Psychiatric Floor of a Major University hospital, “Donald Trump is a Psychopathic Narcissist”! And also, “a ghoul…. And a sociopath.” And a woefully, unacceptable person to be our President…. Zero qualifications, empathy, allegiance or understanding of what it is to be a citizen of these United States of America …. None…..
https://drvincentgreenwood-89455.medium.com/the-science-behind-donald-trumps-dangerous-personality-disorder-49b3f8e416de
So, yea, what IS up with the devil horn salute, there?
I wondered that too, so I googled it. Wiki says it can have many different meanings culturally but one of those is a heavy metal "rock on" meaning. Perhaps the service member or the woman giving the hand gesture is a rock fan and that's her version of a thumbs up.
Over time it's come to mean rock on, or whatever, but it definitely started out, at least, as signifying devil horns, ie, as used in <scary>SATANIC ROCK</scary>. I guess flashing the rock on/devil horns salute over the grave of your dead sibling/spouse/loved one (and the graves of other dead people you don't know) is certainly a choice.
Thank you for unpacking this aspect of Trump's megalomania! I've noticed (of course) the weird replication of pose and expression in all of Trump's photos and casually wondered about it, but it's nice to have a solid explanation of why he would do his unchanging 'plastic smile and robotic thumbs-up' thing in the most inappropriate situations (thank you for providing the evidence! That pic with the El Paso orphan has always disgusted me). Your point about context is spot on: everything in Trump's worldview orbits around him regardless of the situation, and everyone who meets him is (or should be) honored and lucky to get to interact with him, and so he will graciously deign to do his pose with them.
Trump’s other go-to pose is to point at someone or something. Which the MSM eats up and dutifully publishes when Trump gets a “win” (which in this twisted world means something like the immunity decision or the Cannon dismissal). My computer or phone are at grave risk of becoming hammer fodder whenever I see such a photo. Not sure why but the “pointing” pose enrages me much more than the thumbs up.
Two thoughts. One: what is the meaning of the two women making”devil’s horns” while Trump is giving the thumb to American values? is this just more MAGA insider stuff? Two: I’m vacationing in Trump country and I’ll never, never understand how farmers, the ur-stoical American, support this whining and felonious, man-child.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark/p/thumbs-up-the-story-of-no-context?r=48rfsc&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=67472705
The second photo in which some of the mourners also did the thumbs-up is creepy as h***. And these were families that invited Trump to their solemn event? Can't wrap my head around any of it.