monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

he articulated in his campaign with degrees of intensity and actual success, only rarely seen in American politics, and has done so in the face of constant attacks on his policies (that's OK), and also his person and his family - challenges his predecessors didn't face to nearly the same degree.

Certainly Trump has endured in a situation involving weighty responsibilities, while beset with constant, often irrational and vicious opposition and criticism from media and political opponents, to a degree and intensity not seen here in a century. That itself could be an indicator of a very secure and stable personality.

What Are the DSM-5 Criteria and Features for Sociopath?

A medical professional will use the criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder to help diagnose a sociopath. Currently, "Sociopath" does not have a separate entry in the DSM-5 and falls under the umbrella of Antisocial Personality Disorder. The following criteria are listed in the DSM 5 for a diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder:

Significant Impairments in Personality Functioning

Impairments in personality functioning can be identified by several factors.

-Identity: Ego-centrism; self-esteem derived from personal gain, power, or pleasure.
-Self-direction: Goal-setting based on personal gratification. In other words, having little-to-no regard for social standards, such as obeying the lawful or reasonable ethical behavior.

Impairments in interpersonal functioning can include the following:

-Empathy: Lack of concern for feelings, needs, or suffering of others. Lack of remorse after hurting or mistreating another.
-Intimacy: Incapable of mutually intimate relationships, as exploitation is a primary means of relating to others. This is normally recognized by deceitful behavior or intimidation to control others.

Pathological Personality Traits in the Following Domains

Antagonism can be characterized by the following.

-Manipulation: Frequent use of subterfuge to influence or control others; use of seduction, charm, glibness, or ingratiation to achieve one's ends.
-Deceitfulness: Dishonesty and fraudulence; misrepresentations of self; in other words, stretching the truth when relating events.
-Callousness: Lack of concern for feelings or problems of others; lack of guilt or remorse about the negative or harmful effects of one's own actions on others; aggression; sadism.
-Hostility: Persistent or frequent angry feelings; anger or irritability in response to minor slights and insults; inconsiderate, spiteful, or vengeful.

Stalin endured for thirty years. Pablo Escobar for nearly as long. A bunch of Mafia dudes, longer than that. Secure, stable personalities?

Ah. Some progress then.

Quote:

Certainly Trump has endured in a situation involving weighty responsibilities, while beset with constant, often irrational and vicious opposition and criticism from media and political opponents, to a degree and intensity not seen here in a century. That itself could be an indicator of a very secure and stable personality.

Stalin endured for thirty years. Pablo Escobar for nearly as long. A bunch of Mafia dudes, longer than that. Secure, stable personalities?

Redbubble are doing quite a brisk trade in T shirts.



http://www.redbubble.com/people/scwetc/works/30640964-sardar-qasem-soleimani

The assassination was the boldest U.S. act in confronting Iran since the 1979 revolution, tantamount to an act of war.

In 2018, Suleimani famously responded to the warning that Trump issued to the Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani. Trump, after a weekend at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, tweeted, "NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH." Suleimani belittled Trump. "It is beneath the dignity of our President to respond to you," he said, in a speech. "We are near you, where you can't even imagine. We are ready. We are the man of this arena."

MAGA: "Yay! Go Troops!"

General David Petraeus: Trump administration 'impressively handled' strike on Iranian terrorist

"Well, I think that this particular episode has been fairly impressively handled," Patraeus responded.
It was 'more substantial than the killing of Osama bin Laden'

Petraeus also noted that the killing of Soleimani has greater implications than U.S. operation that led to the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden.

New York Times frets that PragerU is using YouTube to ‘circumvent’ professors — and parents

It seems the New York Times, always on the lookout for independent media outlets gaining popularity, has sniffed out PragerU and warned that it uses YouTube as a platform to circumvent professors and even parents. Where would the Times get the idea that a conservative YouTube series would need to “circumvent” university professors anyway?

Lessons in thought policing – tweet about @realDonaldTrump, get shutoff by Twitter

I’ve had a Twitter account since September 2009. I’ve made over 28,600 Tweets in that over 10 years time. Not once have I ever been shutoff…until yesterday, when I made my very first retweet of a Trump retweet of WUWT made in 2013.

The assassination of Qasem Soleimani has plunged Iran and the United States into their most serious confrontation since the hostage crisis in 1979.

President Donald Trump's decision to kill Soleimani removes one of the most obdurate and effective enemies of the US, and delivers a blow to the heart of the Islamic republic of Iran. It is also a dangerous escalation in a region that was already tense and full of violence.

The killing at Baghdad airport has increased tensions sharply, creating fears of a slide into an all-out war. That is no certainty. Neither the Americans nor the Iranians want one. But the crisis brought on by the killing of Soleimani - and a senior Iraqi ally - amplifies the chances of a bloody miscalculation.

Iran has sworn vengeance. That threat has to be taken seriously. Soleimani was at the core of the regime, and a talisman for Iran's hardliners. They will want to get even, perhaps more than that.

Despite arms embargoes, Iran has developed a modern arsenal of rockets and missiles. But if it wanted to use them against US forces as part of a reprisal, Iran would risk making matters worse.

An act of war to answer that of the US - for example attacking US ships in the Gulf - would risk provoking a devastating response. Iran's oil refineries are on the coast and would be easy targets for the vast firepower the US has in and around the Gulf.

When Iran retaliates, it is likely to follow Soleimani's own indirect tactics: so-called asymmetric warfare, spurning an attack through the front door for one through a side window.

Soleimani cultivated a range of well-armed militias, which give Iran options short of a head-to-head confrontation with the Americans which it would only lose.

The Americans will now be looking at their most vulnerable deployments in the Middle East. One is the small force in Syria.

A big question is why the Americans chose now to kill Soleimani.

He had been a thorn in their sides since at least the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He made sure Iraqi Shias raised, trained and equipped militias which became effective and ruthless fighters against the US and its allies.

The Americans and their allies in Israel and the West have tracked Soleimani closely for years. It's likely that he has been in their sights before.

The fact that this time the Americans pulled the trigger suggests that President Trump believes the reward is worth the risk, that the Iranian regime has been so weakened by isolation, economic sanctions and recent demonstrations that it will rage but not offer a serious strategic threat.

But it is not at all clear whether the assassination fits into a coherent US strategy, and such an assumption could be dangerous and wrong.

Soleimani was a colossal figure inside Iran. He was its strategic mastermind. Perhaps he left a plan of steps to take if he were killed.

This assassination at the start of a new year and a new decade might turn into another Middle Eastern milestone, touching off another sequence of bloody events.

To begin with, the Iranian regime must now be planning its answer to his death, to show that the position Soleimani spent so long creating outside its borders in the Middle East can be defended.