Trump abandoned the Kurds. It was bringing them back into the fold.

Particularly this part, which Howard Dean quoted:

Last edited Mon Oct 14, 2019, 04:16 AM - Edit history (1)

Not Bannon! Barr is a proven sleazeball. Bannon is a Johnny come lately.

Oh, Lord, Lindsey Graham has been caught plotting with 2 pranksters!

Bannon's been doing his right wing/"traditional values"/Christian supremacy propaganda thing for longer than Trump has and for just as long as Barr has. That quote from Barr in my last post is precisely the sort of thing Bannon (who worked on Roy Moore's campaign and has been pushing fascism in Europe) would say.

Barr, like the rest of the department heads, is actively trying to undermine the very department he's leading. It's fucking surreal that the AG is going around the world undermining the FBI and US intelligence agencies.

amoral. They know they are in so deep with Trump, it's all or nothing at this stage. That potentially allows Democrats to secure an earth shattering win in 2020.

Amoral, but I do not think they are insane. Evil, maybe, not insane.

...version of Trump coming down the pike. I'm cautiously hopeful about 2020, but the level of corruption and desperation is worrisome.

Republican Party. They're not going to be happy with a Mitt Romney type, which presents a problem for those trying to wait out Trump. There is no way Trumpists are going to stay quiet, and that is why I believe Republican voting Independents won't be in a hurry to come back.

...depends greatly on these next few elections, especially 2020. Democratic success (or lack thereof) will go a long way toward determining if the Republican Party splinters and has to consider fundamental change or if the Republican Party can continue its march toward fascism.

Controlling the narrative has never been more crucial.

they finally figure out the lies they've been told. I hope people have been making a list of stuff to fix !

100% agree about controlling the narrative, and to be fair, Pelosi has done a great job so far. She held the line until Trump made a crucial mistake, in releasing the transcript summary.

But a big win in 2020 (and 2022 and 2024) can do much to stymie fascism and - hopefully - lead to the outlawing of gerrymandering and voter suppression.

That doesn't, however, excuse his actions.

I would not define Narcissism as a mental illness. I'd call it a toxic personality type.

It should not be seen as mental illness but as a toxic person.

As a fellow atheist, I think anyone who believes some god has chosen them to be a holy warrior to bring on the rapture is insane. Looking at the universe objectively and somehow working in that fantasy has to be some form of mental illness.
Hard to tell if he's a liar, nuts or some of both.

...we'd be suggesting that the vast majority of people are mentally ill, even though a belief in the supernatural is quite possibly an evolutionary adaptation.

Anyway, I doubt that Barr, Bannon and the others I mentioned are looking to bring on the rapture. They may not even believe in god(s). Their fascist ideology doesn't require such belief.

I think people who believe a popular delusion are still delusional. Conversion and choice of ones delusion is still deluded .

Pushing a belief in the supernatural is not even close to being the primary goal of Barr, Bannon, Miller, McConnell, Trump, etc. Religious bigotry, like racism and sexism, is a tool. For all I know, every one of those assholes is an atheist.

sky is blue and the grass is green, and to believe the exact opposite. Religion belief may be evolutionary, but fanaticism is not.

It's fascism and destroying democratic institutions that revs their engines. Every department (from the EPA to the DOE to the DOJ) is being run by people bent on undermining those departments. The head of the DOJ is going around doing all he can to undermine the FBI and intelligence agencies. It's surreal.

Many of them whole-heatedly believe the shit that Barr was spouting. So it's not so much that they are mentally ill as they are deluded.

Of course, I suppose just about everyone does, at one point or another, believe in something that isn't true, which is the definition of being deluded.

But I think the more important point is that the likes of Barr are pushing a dangerous ideology, and they are certainly reliant upon keeping their electorate deluded.