64 Comments
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Administrator's avatar

Dear Sabrina,

It took me ages to grasp, but I finally get it. There’s simply no reason for Trump’s wanton destruction of society, longstanding policies, governmental agencies (not even self-enrichment) except this. He is a Russian mole.

Jeffrey McCabe

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Greeley Miklashek, MD's avatar

This retired psychiatrist respectfully disagrees and believes that DJT suffers from the same self-loathing that Herr Hitler did, which drives him to constantly project away his self-hatred onto others, including the nation and government of the US. Alice Miller, Swiss psychoanalyst published "For Your Own Good" in 1983, including a thorough study of Hitler's childhood abuse and how it shaped his self-destructive WWII behavior that took 60M others with him to suicide. There is a very clear and well studied "...reason for Trump's wanton destruction of society...". What could go wrong? Everything?

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Administrator's avatar

Well taken and probably correct, but our 2 points aren’t mutually exclusive. He may well be a particularly effective Russian mole due to his psychosis.

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Hal Brown's avatar

I agree with both you and Greeley. While moles are not blind; they have small eyes that can detect light, but their vision is very poor. Trump is more Putin's useful idiot than a Manchurian Candidate. Whether or not he knows that he is advancing Putin's interest is almost irrelevant since he wouldn't care if he knew he was.

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Administrator's avatar

The question remains: what drives Trump? I’m sure that Putin (purportedly the richest man in the world) has promised him a thing or two. That’s his motor.

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Sabrina Haake's avatar

I know a lot of people disagree w me, but I am convinced trump is a complete moron. I think he doesn't know whether he has to follow the constitution bc he's never thought about what that document means. he doesn't know a damn thing about history, American or otherwise, and his emotional IQ is abysmal- he thinks world leaders will respect a strongman with an 1890s imperialist streak. I mean, you have to be pretty stupid to misread the room like that.

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KJ Herson's avatar

I agree with every single word of your post. Keep on keepin’ on, Ms. Haake. You’re a total badass. 👍🏻

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Hal Brown's avatar

Trump is driven by his psychopatholgy. He is clearly showing every characteristic of being in the Dark Tetrad. Read: https://halbrown.substack.com/p/sadists-us-trump-and-the-dark-tetrad How and why he developed into someone with this psychopatholgy, worse than being a malignant narcissist, has been speculated on by Mary Trump, above by psychiatrist Greeley Miklashek, and others. I tend to write about what he is and not why he is what he is.

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Administrator's avatar

Psychopathology moves, no doubt. But that fast? That forcefully? So far in overdrive? He hasn’t even paused since the inauguration, I think there’s more behind it than pathology: a hard-driving motive that goes beyond psychosis.

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lana c's avatar

outplayed that's for sure - so ugly

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Harry Barker's avatar

And what of Krasnov? What is his dx?

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Linda Chaffin's avatar

Aren't the results the same? And those two things are not exclusive.

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Barbara Starke's avatar

I doubt he is intelligent enough to know he truly is working for putin—at some point putin will offer him kool-aid. At this time he’s also working for China, N Korea & all other “Rule-by-Force” countries.

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Administrator's avatar

He is intelligent enough to know who pays him.

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Dianna Jackson's avatar

This is an important point. While we attempt to pin the tail on the donkey (elephant), he is grifting to the extreme. It’s all about the money. Crypto, check: bibles, check. U.S. contracts, check. Massive gov’t database shenanigans, check. It all leads to his wallet.

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Eric Chaffee's avatar

QUOTES from Hans Christian Andersen:

The Emperor's clothes were not invisible; they were simply nonexistent.

In the absence of truth, fear and ignorance thrive.

The truth may be scoffed at, but it cannot be denied forever.

When lies become fashion, honesty becomes the rebellion.

The empty praise of sycophants can never replace genuine admiration.

It takes only one brave soul to expose the falsehoods of many.

SABRINA, you are so brave and honest! ~eric. MeridaGOround.com

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Rosalba Cofer's avatar

SCOTUS created their monster. Now, he is coming for them. There is no mutual loyalty.

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Pat Browne's avatar

Same believed of the Oligarchs. He will come for their money with 'nationalization' once the coffers from the rest of us dry out.

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Chris Perez's avatar

Tyranny in a Nutshell. An excellent depiction of Trump's insane form of governing. Why the Supreme Court stooges did not see the danger this man posed for America is beyond me. Now, he is on a roll, making it more difficult to stop. Freedom is worth fighting for, so he will be stopped no matter how difficult the sacrifice. We will heed Sabrina's words and RESIST.

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Harry Barker's avatar

Polezni duraki. Not mole. Moles are clever and avoid detection, sometimes for decades. Krasnov more mimics a monkey, clowning, taking offense easily, with little thought to the effects upon others of his lack of impulse control. Metaphors must be selected with great care to be revelatory.

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Sabrina Haake's avatar

monkey!!! I used that in a comment too, above. great minds...

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Harry Barker's avatar

So the Article 3 courts jurisdiction assertion the white house doublespokesperp keeps ranting on about hinges on their declaration of an invasion? Not Russian invasion, I know. Krasnov invited them in, but the invasion of people who are poor and from the Southlands.

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Douglas Macfie's avatar

M Haake, I must admit I enjoyed my morning coffee much more reading your latest , so clearly written even Mr Trump should be able to read it , whether or not he can understand it is another question however. Unfortunately nothing will be done to stop him, perhaps with his military parade event Americans will see what is happening. I know in my other media platforms I read so many opinions that support every move he has made so far it makes me wonder about the future of the USA

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Sabrina Haake's avatar

agreed. we're a nation of morons. this has taught me the perils of killing public education and truth in the news.

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Malcolm J McKinney's avatar

Indeed, monsters among us.

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Rosalba Cofer's avatar

SCOTUS created their monster. Now, he is coming for them. There is no mutual loyalty.

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Tim's avatar

As always, Ms. Haake provides a succinct and erudite assessment. I have taken a far more circuitous route but eventually stumbled to the same conclusion.

"for now, thanks to a feckless Supreme Court and cowardly federal legislators, we are a nation held hostage by a lawless president of questionable sanity and his power-drunk sycophants."

i only have a minor quibble with Ms. Haake's characterization of Trump's sanity as "questionable." There are literally scores of esteemed mental health professionals who state unequivocally that Trump is a cognitively impaired psychopath (aka malignant narcissist). Why does it matter? These diagnoses give a research-based reliability to the what most of us already suspect. Trump is on a one-way train headed south.

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Hank Napkin's avatar

“...we will come after you and we will prosecute you..." To complete the sentence "...in the courts!"

Ouroboros anyone?

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Hal Brown's avatar

I see the following as the crucial part of this Substack (my caps):

"Roberts can well see that Trump’s henchmen are attacking the judiciary as the last line of defense against an authoritarian coup. Perhaps more difficult to see is that Trump’s attacks, in concert with his deliberate weakening of national security, are acts of SABOTAGE. He is wrecking our constitutional form of government in an effort to replace it with something else. From this perspective, it is difficult to see Trump’s strategy as anything short of treasonous".

I would elaborate on the "something else" he is trying to replace our constitutional democratic republic with and what it isn't. What it isn't is a constitutional or a parliamentary monarchy. He doesn't want a government like 1700s, England which was governed under a mixed constitution, made up of the monarch, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

What Trump wants, as you say, is an autocracy like Putin, Orban, and Bukele have. What exact form he wants it to take probably isn't clear in his mind. This is clear by the many screw-ups he's had so far in trying to implement DOGE and other things. He is testing the limits as to how far he can go in defying the courts and going against public opinion.

There is no way following the Constitution and achieving his goals are compatible. Yes, sabotaging the Constitution is treason, or as Trump would put it, TREASON.

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Comcast's avatar

Sabrina, this lays out the big picture case against Trump better than any I’ve heard or read. No matter what he “suffers” from, that’s crap. It’s the World Suffering we should be angry about.

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TAS's avatar

Excellent article. Thank you.

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Jeffrey Amerine's avatar

It has fallen upon John Roberts, and six others on the Supreme Court to defend American Democracy over the next 18 months until the mid-term elections. Let's hope they are up to the job because Congress, as it is now constituted, will be AWOL when it comes to restraining King Donald the First!

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Kenny's avatar

I think you are right, there is sufficient indicators that the actions of Trump and his cohorts are consistently ignoring the constitution. That they are on the verge of treason, how this would be enacted by the court given that they said he was immune to prosecution is a real quandary of their own making. The real big question would be would the authorities back the judiciary or the executive, congress may be the deciding factor, how many of them would stand up and be counted, for the good of the country that would need something like half of the republicans.

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Sabrina Haake's avatar

it's important to understand that criminal immunity, under the scotus decision, 1. is not total- it only applies (and only presumptively) where trump is acting out his core executive function, and treason/sabotage/intentional destruction is not a core executive function. 2. not operative when deciding whether other statutes apply. example, removing him for treason or insanity under 25th A has nothing to do with criminal immunity.

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Kenny's avatar

This is the argument he is using that he is not acting outwith his core function, that the judicary are. If it consistently goes that far I can only see SCOTUS taking it to congress. Congress would then be in the position of siding with SCOTUS or more alarmingly not. If they did not, it more or less makes SCOTUS redundant. As i said it would need a large amount of republicans or else Trump will again claim a conspiracy, so as to create another circus of loopholes whilst he remains in power. What he would do then would not be good.

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Sabrina Haake's avatar

despite having felt burned by scotus w it's immunity ruling, I still have a bit more faith in 7 of them than I have in the republican congress.

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Desiree Avila's avatar

Spot on !

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