The Banana Republic of America, Coming to an Executive Branch near You

All tRump wanted for Christmas was a banana republic.  And now the head of a Texas state senator who wants to reform how assets are seized by law enforcement bodies...to, you know...be more just.  He has the cajones to suggest that assets shouldn't be seized just because a person is a suspect.  It seems he has the temerity to believe in such quaint notions as "innocent until proven guilty."


tRump no likey.

In a public discussion with law enforcement officials two days ago, Sheriff Harold Eavenson from Rockwall County, TX complained about the state senator and the wannabe Pinochet responded, "Who is the state senator? Want to give his name? We'll destroy his career."  Uncomfortable laughter ensued...but tRump didn't smile.  His body language gave no sense of, "Hey...that was just a sick joke, y'all."  To his credit, by the way, Sheriff Eavenson refused to give the senator's name...guess conscience still has a place at the table for some.

from: http://media.nbcdfw.com/images/Rockwall_Sheriff_2717.jpg

While this schadenfreudliche (for non-German speakers, this is an adjectival form of Schadenfreude) quip should be downright chilling on its own merits, it is even more disturbing in light of an interview with David Cay Johnson, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist who has spent many years covering tRump.  The interview is posted on the website for the German news magazine, Die Welt [The World] and includes some chilling observations and predictions.

from: http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/5f0e09552d0cd635770f8127b8defb9e30d54914/c=340-0-5660-4000&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/2016/07/29/Rochester/Rochester/636054083392381119-David-Cay.jpg

Johnston observed that "Trump seems to be caught in the emotional condition of a 13-year-old boy" who is in "his own league" in his mastery of manipulation.  When asked whether tRump might develop into a more co-operative leader, he replied

No.  Donald Trump is Donald Trump.  He is 70 hears old.  At this age one does not change.  One can learn new facts, one can change one's opinions on specific things, but the personality is no longer malleable.  I would sooner expect that Trump will try to make himself into a dictator.  A dictator with no other ideology but devotion to his own power...He has never learned to take advice.  He has never cooperated with others in a collegial way.  Donald Trump's mantra is absolute loyalty to himself.

tRump's casual quip about destroying the career of an "enemy" he has never met is pretty par for the course for a banana republic-esque dictator and fits in pretty well with a diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder, a diagnosis that roughly 20,000 mental health professionals have publicly concurred with. To be sure, this kind of activity is both highly unusual and actually a violation of the American Psychological Association's  Goldwater Rule, which bars the diagnosis of public figures based solely on their public statements and persona.

Baltimore psychologist, John Gartner, has been one of the most outspoken mental health professionals to support this diagnosis and even posted a petition on Facebook that asserts

Trump “manifestly” meets the DSM-published criteria for at least three personality disorders: narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), antisocial personality disorder, and paranoid personality disorder. They are a “toxic brew” that in his view not only make Trump “dangerous” but add up to “malignant narcissism,” not a diagnosis formalized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual but a label coined by the German-born psychologist and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. [From the linked article above.]

To date, the APA has taken no action against the mental health workers who have undersigned Grartner's controversial diagnosis.

So, a long-time follower of tRump expects him to try and make himself a dictator, tens of thousands of psychology professionals concur that he has a mental illness cocktail that could pre-dispose him to such a path, and he makes public statements that sound less like those of an intelligent, level-headed politician and more like one of "a group of...latin-American / Meat packing glitterati," to borrow a line from Pink Floyd.  Aanybody feeling like they're on the wrong continent...or in the wrong century, yet?