The other day, for no apparent reason, the man-baby started a fight with Arnold Schwarzenegger because the Celebrity Apprentice ratings were off. He bragged that he was a ratings machine  From the link:

The reaction was utterly predictable. Democrats — and even some Republicans — wondered why Trump was fixated on the ratings for “The Celebrity Apprentice” on the same day that he was set to receive a briefing from intelligence officials about the depth and breadth of Russia’s hacking into the 2016 election. It was the height of irresponsibility, they tweeted!

Meryl Streep gave a passionate anti-Trump speech at the Golden Globe awards last night. In general, I’m with those who think politics should be kept out of these venues. I don’t really care what Colin Kaepernick thinks about the issues of the day, for example. Or, to be honest, Meryl Streep, though I agree with every word she said on this occasion.

If they do have something interesting or important to communicate, let them write an Op-ed piece or whatever, but keep it off the field or the stage.

That being said, does Trump really need to respond to every single criticism that reaches his ears? And does his response always always always have to come in the form of an ad hominem attack?

What happened to “time to come together and heal”?

After the election, I was trying to convince myself that maybe it was possible that things would still be OK. After all, since Trump has no principles and the goal was always just getting elected, not actually “Build a wall” or “Lock her up”, maybe he wouldn’t feel inclined to “act” once in office. Maybe he wouldn’t screw things up. Maybe he’d adopt the “First Do No Harm” model. That would be the best case.

The worst case is that some ISIS moron tweets “Trump has tiny little hands and that means something else is tiny, too. Nyah, nyah, what are you gonna do about it, nuke Riyadh?”

If he can’t help himself from going after Meryl Streep, what might his response to this be? And it’s pretty clear he can’t help himself.

The Washington Post agrees: Trump thrives on chaos.

“We’re just operating in this world where you cannot believe the things he says,” said Eliot Cohen, a foreign policy expert and former George W. Bush administration official at the State Department.  “It will have large consequences for our allies and our adversaries, and it’s going to greatly magnify the danger of miscalculation by all kinds of people.”

This is the pattern we have consistently seen and can expect to see over and over going forward:

1. Trump tweets out some incendiary nonsense that puts the world on edge and makes everyone wonder if he’s insane,  ignorant, or simply looking to get us all killed
2. His surrogates fan out to explain to the media what he really meant and how it’s not that bad and not at all what it seemed
3. Trump then contradicts his surrogates, says the Tweet meant exactly what it said, and doubles down with additional gasoline for the fire
4. The surrogates fan out once more and complain the media is making way too big a thing about it and why didn’t anyone complain when Hillary said x, y, or z.

Everyone now understands Trump is the Master Distracter, and is perhaps trying to deflect attention from something else, trivial or important, e.g. that no big-name talent wants to perform at his inauguration.

But every single day? Is this really necessary?

Thomas Nichols, a U.S. Naval War College professor, says

“It’s worse than not having one explanation.  If you’re going to change policy, then that requires a kind of steely consistency and a lot of disciplined messaging.”

“We’re all spending a lot of time trying to devise the future of America’s nuclear policy out of 140 characters.”

Is this the way we want to live?  Is the entire world just a snow-globe that Trump shakes up for his own amusement every  day?

I’ll say it one more time.  Man-baby: Put. The Twitter.  Down.  Or, if you prefer the Keith Olbermann style:

Conservatives have long sought to reduce the role of government in all aspects, and the Trump presidency will no doubt provide a good deal of help in that endeavor.

Just to cite one example of many, Betsy DeVos, the incoming  Secretary of Education, really doesn’t believe in public education at all, preferring charter and religious schools.

The failed Bush administration attempt to privatize Social Security doesn’t seem to have deterred Trump. His “point man” for Social Security, Tom Leppert is a long-time privatization advocate.  Mike Korbey, who is heading the SSA transition, is a former lobbyist who has advocated privatizing Social Security. Dorcas Hardy, a commissioner of the SSA during the Reagan administration, is also on the Trump administration’s SSA transition team. She called for privatizing Social Security while at the libertarian Cato Institute in 1995.

The privatization of the military and security services began in earnest in the Bush/Cheney era with companies like Blackwater USA doing most of the heavy lifting in Iraq. But there are many companies contracting work that used to be done by our armed services. There can no longer be any doubt that war is a for-profit enterprise in the Trump era.

But all this is old news. What’s really different about Trump is his desire to privatize the presidency itself. He prefers his private security detail to the mandatory protection of the Secret Service. He’s said that he wants to use his own plane rather than Air Force One.  He’s indicated he will be spending more time at his home in New York than the White house (with the family not even moving to D.C.).

Even the use of his private Twitter account, rather than official channels of communication is an issue. Just as it’s easy for him to impulsively blast out some nonsense, it’s also easy for an unthinking citizen to impulsively respond, only now that citizen will be talking at the POTUS, and must be very careful indeed about any opposing speech that might be deemed a threat.

And, of, course Trump has refused to release his tax returns, divest any business holdings, or even clarify what they all are. His conflicts of interest in at least some of these businesses, e.g. his Washington D.C. hotel, are nonetheless obvious.

All this blending and blurring of the private with the public is ominous. While each of these things seems trivial enough on its own, and no direct threat to our way of life,  in the aggregate a clearer picture emerges.

This is how it’s done in countries where the government operates for the benefit of the rulers and not the citizens. This is what the dictators and despots do.

In at least one past blog entry, I fretted about how it seemed Trump didn’t understand that the peaceful transfer of power was one of the things that made our democracy great. It meant, among other things, that our international treaty partners could rely on agreements made by past administrations, that our foreign policies could withstand ideological shifts at home without upsetting the world, that our currency would be stable, and that domestic political differences would be tempered by a strong moderating force.

If the storm cloud of Trump’s election has a silver lining, maybe it’s that we didn’t have to be tested in this area. The “Lock Her Up” faction was mollified, at least temporarily. The “Lock and Load” faction  can put their assault weapons down for a few minutes.

But it seems that the man-baby needs more than just the adulation of his fans, more than constantly seeing his name on every newspaper, internet site, and media outlet at the same time, and more than just the legitimacy and acceptance into the political elite that the election conveys.

What is now becoming crystal clear is that Trump needs chaos.

Only when all his allies are completely flustered, torn between jumping ship and circling the wagons, can he feel in control. Only when all his detractors are apoplectic with disbelief can he be assured of the commitment of those loyal to him. Only when the world is holding its breath to see if he was serious about his latest outrage does he feel that he actually controls the levers of power.

It’s bad enough that Trump intends to conduct foreign policy by Twitter, away from any sane or even semi-informed advisers. We’ll all see where that leads soon enough. But can we all at least agree that he must wait until he’s actually the president before doing it?

The Chinese seized a U.S. drone operating in international waters, escalating tensions in the Pacific. The U.S. protested through the usual channels and the Chinese agreed to return it to de-escalate the crisis. So far, we’re talking about a fairly normal, if dangerous, international incident with an optimal outcome for all – Chinese faces saved, Navy gets its drone back, world at peace.

But that’s not good enough for Trump. Apparently the idea of the Obama administration continuing to operate effectively and within accepted norms is too much for him. How can any crisis be settled without his input? Isn’t he the one with the “mandate” now?  Doesn’t everyone need to know what he thinks?

Time for some action from Trump Tower. Time to cause some chaos. With a tweet, of course. China can keep the drone – I don’t want it!

At last, the man-baby is pacified, at least for a couple of hours. Everyone’s talking about him again, so he can rest. Doesn’t matter that he’s not even the president yet. Doesn’t matter that he’s weakened  our position with China. Doesn’t matter that the world is laughing at us.

The Global Times, a Communist Party-controlled newspaper in Beijing, poked fun at the confusion in the United States.

“Before Trump’s generous announcement that he didn’t want the drone back, the Pentagon had already announced publicly that they have asked China to return the ‘illegally seized’ [unmanned underwater vehicle] through appropriate governmental channels,” the paper wrote. “We don’t know, after seeing Trump’s new tweets, if the Pentagon should feel boggled.”

Ahhhh. Sweet, sweet chaos. That’s the thing.

Some people are starting to believe Trump doesn’t even understand what the concept of “conflict of interest” even means.

The other day Kellyanne Conway, our new Secretary of Smiling While Fighting, said Trump will continue his role as Executive Producer of Celebrity Apprentice in his spare time. She said, “Were we so concerned about the hours and hours and hours spent on the golf course of the current president? I mean presidents have a right to do things in their spare time, in their leisure time.”

Leaving aside the idea that the POTUS will have enough spare time to do another job, there are obvious conflicts of interest for both NBC and DJT here. At least they’re conflicts in the sense that the rest of us use the term. The president will have an interest in a show aired by a media company that also reports on his presidency.

But the man-baby understands the idea of conflict of interest very well. It only seems like he doesn’t because the rest of us are misunderstanding what his interest is. We all assumed his interest and that of the American people would be the same thing.

Trump knows there is no conflict of interest between being the president and running his businesses for the obvious reason that being the president is now one of his businesses. See?  Everything he does will be in his interest. Where’s the conflict?

This new paradigm is evidenced in virtually every one of his cabinet picks as well. But it’s interesting to note that the reason given for dropping Rudy Giuliani from consideration for Secretary of State is that the Trump team thought there would be conflicts of interests because of his business ties overseas. He was giving speeches to foreign governments about how evil it was that Hillary Clinton was giving speeches to foreign governments. You can’t make this shit up.

But today we learn that the front-runner for the job is the CEO and Chairman of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson. Giuliani giving some speeches abroad is a conflict but the chairman of the world’s largest oil company doing business in 200 countries isn’t?  No, no, listen. Our national interest is making oil company executives rich, and our foreign policy is based on how best to do that.

It’s not so hard to understand.

So the man-baby isn’t even president yet and he’s already got India and China pissed off. With his free-wheeling tweet-it-from-the-gut style and his inability to take in information from people that actually know something, a couple of phone calls is all it took.

If someone calls him to congratulate him on being a fantastic guy, that person is his new Best Friend Forever and can do no wrong, at least until some criticism from that BFF reaches his ears, and then it’s twitter tantrum time. No need to look at a map to try to figure out where the BFF is calling from or what our relationship with his country or its neighbors might have been for decades.

If it’s Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen, a really tremendous person BTW,  what’s that got to do with U.S. policy  in China anyway? You say no president-elect, or president, has spoken to a Taiwan leader since Washington cut formal diplomatic ties with Taipei and recognized the People’s Republic in 1979? I say, pffft. If China doesn’t like it well it’s #TimeToGetTough

The people who think Trump is playing checkers regard this as reckless blundering. The people who think he’s playing chess say it’s a calculated move to respond to Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. I’m holding off my judgement until it’s been demonstrated that Trump can correctly point to the South China Sea on a map without Kellyanne Conway in the room. Or until someone convinces me Trump knows how to play checkers.

Back in 2012, Trump tweeted,

“Get it straight: Pakistan is not our friend. We’ve given them billions and billions of dollars, and what did we get? Betrayal and disrespect — and much worse #TimeToGetTough”

But that was before Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a really tremendous person BTW, called him to say what a fantastic guy he is, and, bingo, all that touchy terrorism stuff is forgotten. Never happened. Don’t worry about it.

According to the Prime Minister,

“President Trump said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif you have a very good reputation. You are a terrific guy. You are doing amazing work which is visible in every way. I am looking forward to see you soon. As I am talking to you Prime Minister, I feel I am talking to a person I have known for long. Your country is amazing with tremendous opportunities. Pakistanis are one of the most intelligent people. I am ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems.”

What’s that you say? India and Pakistan don’t get along very well? Hmm. Well, uh, has anyone from India called to tell me I’m a fantastic guy? Not yet? Well, there’s the problem.

The good news is that Kellyanne Conway assures us that Trump has been fully briefed before talking to any world leader. Whew. That’s a relief. You had me going there for a minute.

Once again, our President-elect has chosen to create a spat and escalate it to a media-saturating battle in the culture wars, or, more accurately, a battle between Trump and anyone who criticizes him directly or indirectly.

As everyone now knows, Mike Pence went to a performance of Hamilton, after which cast members addressed him from the stage and expressed the desire that the new administration should work “on behalf of all of us”.

It was an unprecedented and inappropriate calling-out of an audience member, true. But it comes after an unprecedented and inappropriate Trump/Pence campaign. Everything has been changed now, and it wasn’t the Hamilton cast that changed it.

Pence behaved with dignity and, one might say, a bearing appropriate to the highest office in the land. He listened to what was said, smiled, and left. That, for anyone who may have forgotten, is what’s known as being “presidential”.

Trump, on the other hand, immediately dropped what he was doing up in his tower (filling out his cabinet with white men) to take to the Twitter once more. He demanded an apology from the cast. Then he belittled them for not being able to memorize their lines – typical made-up Trumpian nonsense which he deleted shortly after posting .

This is the opposite of being “presidential”, something even many Republicans now acknowledge. It is exactly the kind of behavior Trump has repeatedly engaged in that signals he will use the office not to work on behalf of us all, as the Hamilton cast hoped, but to work against those who criticize him.

To underscore this mission, Newt Gingrich, one of Trump’s strongest supporters, said about the Hamilton furor, “President-elect Trump is signaling that he will fight for his team and his policies”.

Exactly the problem. “His team” should be all Americans, not just those who admire him. Save the fighting for our enemies, not your critics. Unfortunately, this is not anything new for Trump. It’s who he always has been. What you’ve seen is what you’ll be getting.

One thing that has become clear, though, is that when Trump says or does something for which an apology might be warranted (in this case, inexplicably accusing the cast of the most successful production in recent theater history of not being able to read lines), he does not apologize. He never apologizes. He simply deletes the thing for which he might apologize and, presto, it never happened.

Conversely, Trump is constantly demanding apologies from others, or threatening to sue them, or both. He is perpetually aggrieved. Looking at the first few pages of a quick google search of  the term “Trump demands apology”, you can get the idea.

Trump has recently demanded apologies from:

FoxNews for using foul language

Former Mexican president for saying they won’t be paying for a wall 

Hillary Clinton for the “deplorables” remark

Hillary Clinton for calling him ISIS’ best recruiter

Hillary Clinton for causing death and destruction

The Onion for being The Onion

A “crazy“ MSNBC host for questioning one of his supporters

The New York Times for saying he mocked Serge Kovaleski

The New York Times for publishing a story about his groping victims

David Cameron for saying Trump’s remarks on Muslims were divisive

Ted Cruz for his anti-Trump campaign ads

Et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum.

To be fair, other Republican presidents never apologized either, and Republicans often accuse Democrats of apologizing when they shouldn’t, and of thereby diminishing our great country. This may explain Trump’s appeal to his admirers, but it doesn’t explain his actions. His refusal to apologize is not a republican trait or strategy. In fact, many have pointed out that Trump is hardly a Republican at all.

No, the Trump case is unlike anything we’ve seen before. In the first place, Trump can’t go a day without doing something which cries out for apology, so the sheer volume of transgressions is new.

But mainly it’s Trump himself. He’s simply unlike anyone who has reached this level before. Many who voted for him see his intransigence and bellicosity as great strengths. Many who are reviled by him think the opposite. Can Trump be the president of both groups, the president of all of us?

Our country is designed to work on the principle of checks and balances. No one arm of the government can override the other two. It’s a lot like the rules of Rock/Paper/Scissors that way. Neither the Legislature, the Judiciary, or the Executive can impose its will on the other two. At least that’s the way the Constitution wants it to be.

The President can veto legislation passed by Congress. Congress can block  Supreme  Court nominees or re-write legislation the Supreme Court has ruled on. The Supreme Court can determine the legality of presidential actions or even elections.

Or going around the circle the other way, the President can appoint Supreme Court justices, the Supreme Court can approve or invalidate legislation, and Congress can override presidential vetoes or even impeach the president.

But there are some new elements in the mix now. First, both houses of congress are now not just “Republican”, but stacked with either people who profess not to believe in government at all, or who are beholden or committed to the Koch agenda one way or another. They are unlikely to push back on any Trump initiative. Or any Trump court, cabinet, or ambassadorial appointee. Or any executive order.

Also Trump may have the opportunity to nominate multiple Supreme Court Justices. He will certainly nominate one and that alone will tilt the court his way.

And second, we will have a President with no government experience of any kind, one who’s never been elected as even blackboard-monitor in grade school as far as we know. We’ll have a president who has bloviated about how he’ll drain the swamp, prosecute his opponents, punish our trading partners, invalidate our treaties, and abandon our allies.

We’ll have a president who has proven that avenging any perceived slight and attacking any perceived enemy is the highest priority. A president whose inner circle consists entirely of family members and sycophants. A president who has begun appointing a cabinet of nitwits, dipshits, and nutjobs.

We will have president who clearly demonstrates all the elements of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

What will become of the checks and balances here? Who will ever say no to this guy?

Who’s going to say no to Trump when he wants to bring his kids to meetings with heads of state  or security briefings?

Who’s going to say no to him when he decides he’d rather sleep in his own bed in New York every night, traffic below be damned, and not reside in Washington at all?

Who’s going to say no to him when he refuses to divest or even disclose conflicts of interests related to his businesses? Or even medical or psychiatric issues?

Who’s going to say no to him when he denies press credentials or refuses to even hold press conferences at all?

Who’s going to say no to him when he wants to defy anti-nepotism laws? Or any laws at all for that matter?

These are all seemingly small things that have either already happened or are about to. Let’s not yet contemplate the potential here for persecuting minorities, destroying the environment, or starting wars.

The rules of the game are changing. Narcissist covers rock. Narcissist cuts paper. Narcissist crushes scissors.

OK, you did what the sneering elite said you couldn’t do. All their polls were wrong, maybe even “rigged”. Take a victory lap or two to rub it in, and then start thinking about what you’ve let yourself in for. The easy part is over now, and it’s time to actually do the job.

You promised many preposterous things along the way, and no one really expects you to deliver on them. For many who voted for you, putting an end to Crooked Hillary was enough. But there are one or two promises which you could actually deliver on without too much trouble,  and a few of the people who voted for you are expecting you to do so right away.

You repeatedly talked about one factory situation in particular- the Carrier air conditioning plant in Indianapolis was moving 1400 jobs to Mexico – and you told people exactly how you would stop that and preserve the jobs. You would put a 35% tariff on any Carrier system made in Mexico. You said the president of Carrier would be calling you up as soon as you took office saying, “Sir, we’ve decided to stay in the United States.” I think you were sincere about this. 1400 voters believed you and are counting on keeping their jobs.

You have to deliver now. It has struck me a couple of times since the “transition” has begun this week that you look like a different guy. You look a little chastened, a little lost, a little tired, a little like it’s dawning on you that you bit off more than you can chew.

I’m guessing those Carrier workers have some tough times ahead. They’ll join all the other people who trusted you over the years and were stiffed. Maybe you’ll feel a little sorry about it, but I’m guessing you won’t . I’m guessing you’ll put a positive spin on it. I’m guessing you’ll turn it to your advantage.

And why not? The band will be playing “Hail to the Chief”.

As Lonesome Rhodes in “A Face in the Crowd”, Andy Griffith was a scary kind of folksy, anti-establishment, populist-turned-megalomaniac, demagogue media star. This clip is meant to show how Trump is saying a lot of the same things as that character, and how his political and media trajectory is similar.

The people around Lonesome Rhodes see him for the cynical faker that he really is, and ultimately take him down by leaving a microphone open so that his followers can finally understand how they’ve been fooled.

But the analogy is not perfect.

Trump’s microphone is always open to begin with.  Everyone already knows every nasty little thing he thinks. There is no filter between his brain and his mouth or his Twitter. No thought goes unsaid. No tweet is edited or refined or even delayed while he counts to ten. The NYT did a nice little list of 282 people he has insulted on Twitter. It includes presidential candidates of all parties, their spouses, other politicians, columnists, celebrities, and on and on and on.

Whole countries are insulted, too. Britain, China, Mexico, Iran, Germany, Saudi Arabia each get the treatment. Add it all up and you’ve got literally billions of people Trump has gone after in terms ranging from dismissive to vulgar and beyond.

Even the middle aged, white, male, blue collar workers that love him so much and eagerly await the return of their factory jobs only have to look at the way he’s treated their counterparts who have come into his orbit to understand what Trump really thinks about them. He’s stiffed them all.

The veterans, who have been given a “hot line” to Trump so that “If he is elected President he will take care of these and all Veterans complaints very quickly and efficiently like a world-class business man can do, but a politician has no clue”, have also been stiffed. They get a recording. They’re told to email him. The emails are not answered.

There is almost no one left to insult.

The bottom line is that unlike the Lonesome Rhodes example, there is apparently nothing that Trump, or anyone else, can say or do that will make his followers finally understand how they’ve been fooled.

This article covers a recent debate between Mark Kirk, Republican senator from Illinois, and his challenger, Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat who lost both legs piloting a helicopter in Iraq.

Kirk is recovering from a major stroke, and won’t release his health records. In contrast, Hillary Clinton has been falsely accused of various infirmities and has released hers.

But, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Especially when a Republican senate seat is at stake. So Republicans, in the main, are all in for Mark Kirk.

Kirk seems to be a small-scale Trump in a lot of ways.

Like Trump, Kirk exaggerated his own military record. Remember all that marching Trump did in school – it was more experience than guys who actually served?

Like Trump, he also diminished the real military record of his opponents. Remember Trump asserting McCain is no hero?

Like Trump, he questioned the ancestry of his opponents and detractors. Remember Trump keeping the Birther thing alive for five years? Or raising the issue of Cruz’s eligibility?

Like Trump, he makes absurd accusations about Obama, e.g. calling him “Drug-dealer-in-chief”, then denies he ever made them.

Like Trump, he has been told by his minders to stay on message and away from extemporizing to the media. Remember every day of the Trump campaign?

Like Trump he uses vulgar language and opines on things he should shut up about, e.g saying the unmarried Lindsay Graham is a “Bro with no ho”. Remember every hour of the Trump campaign?

Like Trump, many have pointed out he has no control of the filter between what he thinks and what he says. Remember every minute of the Trump campaign?

But here’s the best part: although it would seem that Kirk would be exactly the kind of incumbent Trump would want to help, he made the unforgivable mistake of un-endorsing Trump after the “Mexican judge” thing. And if there’s one thing that defines Donald Trump above all others, it’s his thin-skinned and petty inability to let go of a grudge.

So, Kellyanne Conway gave Kirk what he had coming, by tweeting (of course), under the title, “Senator Mark Kirk mocks disabled Iraq war vet Tammy Duckworth in debate for her mixed-race heritage.” :

“The same Mark Kirk that unendorsed his party’s presidential nominee and called him out in paid ads? Gotcha. Good luck,”