The "Infantile Hunger" Of A Raging Narcissist

Some Republican pundits are not being "nice" to neo- fascist sociopathic narcissist Donald "Rum" Trump this morning in the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle.  We hear from two whose powers of analysis end when it comes to acknowledging the fetid swamp from which their party's candidate grew, and their diligent participation in creating said swamp over the past 40 or so years. Nevertheless, go for it, guys.

Charles "Kraphammer" Krauthammer takes note of Rump's basic criterion for judging everything (spoiler alert: it's all about Rump):

... To understand Trump, you have to grasp the General Theory: He judges every action, every pronouncement, every person by a single criterion — whether or not it/he is “nice” to Trump. [snip] 

You’re a fan of his, he’s a fan of yours. And vice versa. Treat him “unfairly” and you will pay. House speaker, Gold Star mother, it matters not. [snip]

... Trump’s hypersensitivity and unedited, untempered Pavlovian responses are, shall we say, unusual in both ferocity and predictability. 

This is beyond narcissism. I used to think Trump was an 11-year-old, an undeveloped schoolyard bully. I was off by about 10 years. His needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. He lives in a cocoon of solipsism where the world outside himself has value — indeed exists — only insofar as it sustains and inflates him.

Of course, Rump had already proven Kraphammer's point back in July 2015, when Rump mocked Kraphammer's paralysis, saying, “I went out, I made a fortune, a big fortune, a tremendous fortune… bigger than people even understand. Then I get called by a guy that can’t buy a pair of pants, I get called names?”  

Michael "Mushroom Cloud" Gerson is again not being "nice" to Rump this morning, noting Rump's many pathologies, among them Rump's basic criterion in life that we just saw spelled out above:

... To quote myself from a January column: “We are witnessing what happens when a narcissist who thinks he is at the center of the universe is actually placed at the center of the universe.” Trump’s political judgments seem mostly based on how others view him, making Vladimir Putin a friend and Paul Ryan an enemy. On policy, Trump claims to know more than experts while displaying stunning ignorance. He lies with disturbing ease. He seems to lack the gene for empathy.

We'd like to be sympathetic, in that you're calling out Rump and refusing to support him, unlike moral cowards like Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan, Sen. Mitch "Missy" McConnell, and most of the Republican Party establishment.  That said, there is that little detail about the last 40 years of pandering to ignorance, racism, bigotry, xenophobia, etc., etc.

So, bottom line: You birthed him, you grew him, you own him.  Sad!

A Profile in Hypocrisy

Your hypocrite, the ever-frothing Charles "Kraphammer" Krauthammer, today on the end of the presidential nominee filibuster:

This was a disgraceful violation of more than two centuries of precedent. If a bare majority can change the fundamental rules that govern an institution, then there are no rules. Senate rules today are whatever the majority decides they are that morning.

What distinguishes an institution from a flash mob is that its rules endure.

Now, courtesy of Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog, we look back through the mists of time:

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that, back in 2005, Krauthammer called the judicial filibuster "the bastard child of Democratic bitterness over recent lost elections" and said that a GOP vote to break it would have been "a profile in courage." 

So, Democrats in power:  rules that favor knuckle-draggers must prevail!   Republicans in power:  rules, schmules!  Toujours la merde, Monsieur Kraphammer!

(Image:  Kraphammer, bastard child of Republican bitterness.)

Post-Apocalypse Rethuglican Paranoid Syndrome

"He's [Obama] trying to destroy the Republican party, not to get good policies." -- Rep. Raul Labrador (Tea Party-IDiot).  Actually, Republicans are doing a damn good job of destroying the Republican Party without any help from Democrats or Obama.

“So [Obama’s] looking to immigration, he’s looking to carbon taxes and other stuff in the future. If he can split the Republicans in the House, essentially, he regains control of the two houses of Congress and he might be able to enact his agenda. I think that’s what he’s up to." --  right-wing Obama Derangement Syndrome sufferer Charles "Kraphammer" Krauthammer.  Obama might be "up to" enacting his agenda.  Hmmm.  What a curious thing for a twice-elected president to do, Inspector Kraphammer!

Look for more of this "them and us", "hang together or hang separately" messaging coming out of parts of the fractured New Confederate/ Rethuglican/ Stupid Party.  You can almost smell the desperation.

Right-Wing Media Follies

Among the primary reasons political discourse in this country has been reduced to the dissemination of lies --  very loudly -- is the ubiquitous right-wing Rethuglican media and its handmaidens in the "both sides do it" / President Grampypants McCain  Rethuglican - wired press.  We want to show you just three recent examples of the way the right-wing media works to amplify its false and destructive messaging.

If they can't hear you, they can't hear you:  Fox "News'" Roger Ailes doesn't like it when one of his hired hands gets off-message.  They love to be absolutist on the Second Amendment, but on the First?  Not so much.

Go ahead and smear, the truth will never catch up:  Obama Derangement Syndrome sufferer and frothing sociopath Charles "Kraphammer" Krauthammer would like you to know that the Kenyan Usurper has ordered his minions to deliver maximum sequester pain to John Q. Public, except, uh, not so much.

Don't worry about innocent people when you have a political ax to grind:   Fox "News" contributor and right-wing hate radio bimbo Andrea "Assy" Tantaros thinks it's appropriate to drag Malia Obama into the Plan B contraception issue - with a bonus bank shot on the Obama girls' recent Spring break vacation.  Stay classy, Assy!

And we're not even going into the miasma of lies, distortions and slander that the right is pumping out of its media orifices concerning gun control.

The inbred courtier Beltway media?  Good luck with those dumbasses.

Is it surprising, then, that so many Americans who get their hate-fix from these nasty people think it's perfectly reasonable to contemplate armed rebellion against the elected government of the United States?

Quote of the Day

"Factions should compete, but they should also recognize the legitimacy of other factions and, indeed, their necessity for a vigorous self-regulating democracy. Seeking to deliberately undermine, delegitimatize and destroy is not Madisonian. It is Nixonian." -- Obama Derangement Syndrome sufferer and Fox "News" regular Charles "Kraphammer" Krauthammer in today's WaPo, on the "war" that's been declared on Fux "News" by the Obama administration. The irony here, that clueless Kraphammer presumably misses, is this is precisely what he and Fux "News" have been doing since day one of the Obama term - undermining, delegitimatizing, and destroying (or trying to in their own crackpot way) the Obama presidency. When the administration simply points out the truth that Fux is not a news organization, the wingnut wurlitzer (with a few Villagers like ABC's Jake "Tippy" Tapper) goes into overdrive. And Nixonian? Coming from a Rethug like Kraphammer, is that a complement? Or is it simply the talking point put out by Grover Norquist that seems to be in heavy rotation in wingnuttia the past 36 hours?

And, in related news, as Wonkette reports, Politico's Asshat Mike Allen pumps a Roger Ailes run for Preznit (as a Republican, of course). Hee hee. What planet does this guy live on? No Fox bias there!

Column of the Day

"Time for the loons to shut up and listen," is the way the New York Daily News' Mike Lupica puts it, speaking about the wingnut reaction to the Obama school address. We also like the way he calls out Obama hater and WaPo resident crackpot Charles Kraphammer. Well done, Mike!

More On Neoconning

Wow, Joe Klein, writing on the Time Magazine "Swampland" blog, really nails the problem with the Kraphammer/Wolfie delusion noted earlier today that our siding openly with the Mousawi forces would prompt a regime change in Tehran. As good an examination of neocon deceit on the current Iranian situation as we've seen. It's more about undermining President Obama than it is undermining Ahmadiddledoo.

Kraphammer's "Faulty Analysis"

Former Bush Assministration Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer takes to the op/ed pages of today's WaPo to deliver a stinging rebuke to crackpot neocon Charles "Kraphammer" Krauthammer's recent op/ed on the Obama Administration's position on Israeli settlements. Saying Kraphammer's "faulty analysis of the Israeli settlement issue is being passed off as fact," Kurtzer (who was actually a participant in the Bush diplomatic efforts, as opposed to Kraphammer who merely dreams what he wants to be true) takes apart Kraphammer's argument that Obama's policy means "strangling to death the thriving towns close to the 1949 armistice line...It means no increase in population. Which means no babies." Kurtzer rightly labels this pernicious falsity "nonsense."

One hopes the editors at the WaPo would exercise some...um... editorial controls over the jackassery that Kraphammer, climate change denier Quill Will and others of the wingnut fringe publish every week, though ultimately such hope is in vain as long as fellow neocon Fred Hiatt remains at the head of the WaPo editorial page.

Planet Kraphammer

Dead-ender wingnut and Bush watercarrier Charles "Kraphammer" Krauthammer is in the first stage of grief over the Rethug election catastrophe: denial. (The next stage of grief is anger, so look for some nasty Kraphammer pieces ahead.) But, he's still working for the rehabilitation of Dumbya even before the boob leaves office! Witness his astounding column asserting that Obama is helping that Bush revisionism! Kraphammer, who is Bush's wingnut pundit doppelganger in his absolute refusal to see the wreckage of the last 8 years, was one of the right-wingers Obama dined with Tuesday night.

If this column is the upshot of that seance, Obama would do well to remember the old adage: when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

(Image: Kraphammer arrives at "Quill" Will's dinner party.)

The Third Annual Hackwhackers Awards!!

Without further delay, here's what you've been clamoring for: The Third Annual Hackwhackers Awards!!

Don't Call Us, We Won't Call You Award - To the "Party Unity My Ass" (PUMA) vaginal warriors for being willing to see John McClueless elected in order to assuage their sense of frustrated entitlement over Hillary Clinton's failed campaign. All twelve of you are now eligible to have your numb skulls liposuctioned.

Now You Get It Award - To former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, whose tenure included the unregulated rise of the subprime market, which was a prime mover in the recent economic collapse. Greenspan, whom Ronnie Raygun installed at the Fed back in the '80s, said of his preaching the conservative mantra of deregulation for 18 years, "I made a mistake." That's one Rethug numbnut down, 50-plus million to go.

Extraordinary Accomplishments in Punditry Award - (Tie) To Wee Willie Kristol, who said on "Fox News Sunday," December 17, 2006: "If [Hillary Clinton] gets a race against John Edwards and Barack Obama, she's going to be the nominee. Gore is the only threat to her, then...Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single Democratic primary. I'll predict that right now." Wee Willie continues to purvey his special brand of crackpottery in the NY Times (though perhaps not for long). And... Charles "Kraphammer" Krauthammer on "Fox News," August 11, 2008: "It starts with taking over of South Ossetia, which has already happened. It goes on to the destruction of the Georgia armed forces, which is now happening. And the third [development] will probably be the replacement of the elected government, which is pro-Western, with a puppet government, which will probably follow in the next week or two." None of this, of course turned out to be true, but Kraphammer wasn't interested in truth; he wanted to create a foreign policy hot spot that his boy McClueless could parachute into to prove what a great leader he is. Brilliant! (h/t to the WaPo, Dec. 28)

Kristol Ball Award - To McClueless economic advisor Donald Luskin for saying, on September 14, 2008: "Anyone who says we're in a recession, or heading into one - especially the worst one since the Great Depression - is making up his own private definition of 'recession'" The following day, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and - you know the rest. Since Wee Willie retired this trophy (formerly known as "The Stupidest Man Alive Trophy") by the body of his work, it's henceforth named in his honor (though we always know who the "real" winner is!). (h/t to WaPo, Dec. 28)

Hack(s) of the Year - A group award to the "mainstream TeeVee media" for once again proving against all hope that it could ignore or minimize the critical issues of a once- in- many- generations watershed election and instead find the most meaningless, lowest- common- denominator, brain dead things to focus on (we're looking at you, George Steponaflagpinopolous!). It was only until they couldn't possibly fail to notice the economy collapsing around them that they paid minimal attention to what might be best for America (hint: not Joe "the plumber"). How much longer before these cretins go the way of the print media?

We would be remiss if we didn't note the honest work of the much- maligned Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson, whose interviews with Gov. Winky helped expose her, um, shortcomings to the American people.

To all those we neglected to honor, we'll get you next year! To this year's losers - we mean "winners" - keep on hacking!

Kraphammer Sheds a Tear for Obama

Wingnut columnist Charles "Kraphammer" Krauthammer is melancholy this morning. He writes in his column about how saddened he is that Obama(!) is playing the race card(!). Whether Kraphammer's sensitive ears have not picked up the loud dog whistling going on in and around McCrappy's campaign ("not one of us," "who IS Barack Hussein Obama?" etc.), or whether he knows full well what's going on and is laughably choosing to try to turn it around on Obama, well I think we know the answer to that one.

Kraphammer concludes that he thought Obama had earlier presented himself as "... a healer, a man of a new generation above and beyond race..." but, alas, not so: "I once believed him."

That's funny, because we never believed you.

(Photo: Kraphammer ready to hit the frying pan with the McCrappy campaign.)

Late Entry

We may have a last-minute contender for the "Wanker of the Week" award: Charles "Kraphammer." The neo-con master of the bon mot thinks Obama's being "uppity" again by daring to want to speak at the Brandenburg Gate! Kraphammer's WaPo op/ed is full of the ad hominem attacks that we've come to expect from the Rethugs and their water carriers like Kraphammer. Kraphammer! You're supposed to be dealing in the marketplace of ideas! Leave the ad hominem attacks to us!

By sheer volume of fudge, we must give Kraphammer the award this week (sorry, "Bipartisan!").

Them Meskins Kids Is. . . Um. . . .Anti-Semitic!

That's the ticket! The Washington Monthly captures the anti-immigrant wingnuttery here. Don't let Latinos in to the U.S. because they might be more anti-Semitic than other Catholic immigrants. Does everyone need to pledge their allegiance to the right-wing Likud faction in Israel to be considered worthy of U.S. citizenship?

Also, Charles "Dr. Strangelove" Krauthammer thinks that the U.S. needs to provide a "nuclear umbrella" for Israel vs. Iran, despite the fact that Israel has some 200 nuclear warheads at its disposal, and seems to be a hell of a lot better at using their military resources than we are. And it's soooo likely that the Iranians would use nuclear weapons to annihilate, oh say, Jerusalem - - the third most holy site in Islam. Joe Klein, writing in Time's Swampland blog, has a sharp rebuttal. Israel is respected and feared in the region because they don't broadcast what they would do in every situation, unlike blowhards like Kraphammer.

UPDATE: Kraphammer's statement that Israel has to rely only on a land-based deterrent falls apart when one realizes that Israel has submarine launched cruise missiles that carry nuclear warheads.

Kraphammer's Fraud

Reading Charles "Kraphammer's" syndicated column in today's WaPo was ultimately an exercise in repressing the gag reflex. Entitled "The Speech: A Brilliant Fraud", Kraphammer attempts to take down Sen. Obama's speech on race relations, but entirely distorts the meaning, as expected. As an example, Kraphammer says the Obama compared his grandmother to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, which of course, he didn't. He simply indicated in his speech that there are misconceptions about race among whites and blacks, his grandmother and Rev. Wright being the examples. Talking Points Memo's M. J. Rosenberg documents Kraphammer's own strident neocon racism toward Arabs. He's becoming our contemporary Dr. Stangelove.

Kraphammer "Fundamentally Flawed"

Last week, neocon crackpot Charles Krauthammer posited in the WaPo that Dumbya's policies on embryonic stem cell research led to the recent breakthrough by University of Wisconsin professor James Thomson and a Japanese team (see Nov. 20 posting) because it forced scientists into "innovative alternatives." Well, Herr Doktor Kraphammer got his comeuppance in today's WaPo from none other than Professor Thomson (and Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science).

Writing under the heading "Standing in the Way of Stem Cell Research," Thomson and Leshner take Kraphammer to task for, first, inaccurately describing the landmark breakthrough as a "Holy Grail," and then for giving Dumbya credit, calling this argument "fundamentally flawed." Thomson and Leshner provide the authoritative, ultimate judgment, saying "Far from vindicating the current U.S. policy of withholding federal funds from many of those working to develop potentially lifesaving embryonic stem cells, recent papers in the journals Science and Cell described a breakthrough achieved despite political restrictions."

Next time, stick to topics you know something about, Kraphammer, like... uh, such as... oh, just STFU...

Photo (of chickenhawk Kraphammer "fowling up" a beer bong) courtesy of Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog.

NOTE TO ERSTWHILE COMMENTERS: We're here in the future in 2010, and we saw several crackpot comments on this item that were posted about 3 years ago -- late 2007-ish. They gone. Don't know how you're finding this old posting, but if you want to leave a bullshit crackpot comment, fuggedaboudit!