steffan

I'm going to post a little bit about politics for a moment, please bear with me.

It's not so much about the particular politics of the current crew, (which are dreadful, let's be honest,) but it's about the unique view into some very strange mindsets.

(As an aside, when speaking of Trump here and elsewhere, I tend to use the term "Cheeto" mostly because in a very Voldemort kind of way, using Mister T's actual name gives him a sort of power, and he doesn't need any help.)

Throughout his pre-political life, Don Cheeto's transgressions have been largely civil. (At least the ones he's been caught for.) I fully believe that any criminal crimes he's committed he's expunged by paying off his victims. So in a very real sense, the only punishment he's ever had to endure is monetary. Because of this, he's come up with a very actuarial approach to "wrong actions." Essentially, if the benefit outweighs the potential loss, then go for it...

To further extend that, he's learned that the trick to cost vs benefit is to absolutely ignore any attempts to minimize cost, and focus in a single minded way on maximizing benefit. (The whole point is to have it outweigh the risk, amirite?) They miss the idea that keeping costs low could let you achieve the same "win" with lower risk. So as a result, they'll take what you or I might deem an unacceptable risk for a large enough payoff, because they have this philosophy of magnifying the gain.

As a result, The Cheeto has surrounded himself with the type of people who can help him carry forward this philosophy. No one is there to tell him "no," everyone is there to dump the bodies into vats of acid and pay off the witnesses (and perhaps the judge.) The whole team is there to help him make that "benefit" side of the equation pay off as large as possible. (With another, perhaps smaller team there to make sure that any consequences don't fall onto the Cheeto personally.) Morals and ethics aren't a factor, they fall into risks, and should be ignored in favor of the prize.

HERE'S THE INTERESTING BIT TO ME... it's become clear that the Cheeto projects his lack of ethics and morals onto his fellows, onto Hil, onto Obama, onto his running mates and opponents. In Cheeto's mind, everyone does whatever it takes to win. Unlike most Narcissists, I think the Cheeto actually thinks most of us are Narcissists as well, (which is very interesting when you figure in his success in certain places.) Since everyone pursuing the presidency must see it the same way he does, then they must all be doing whatever they need to in order to win, and furthermore, this is they way it has always been! In that mindset, simply pursing the office means that you must be breaking all the rules, wherever you can... and I get the impression that he thinks that we all understand that.

The other bit is, this projection has created a huge blind spot...He's actually very transparent about what he does, and leaves fingerprints and footprints all over the place. John Oliver is right when he characterized all of this as "Stupid Watergate" because that's exactly what it is... It's Watergate with all of the clues out in the open.

When the press happens upon these, and starts reporting on them, the response from the Cheeto is very strange... He knows he should deny these things, because his advisors tell him to, but he can't resist adding stuff about how he's being unfairly persecuted! So this continual press focus must seem like an alarming break from the norm, like they have it OUT for him or something, when the reality is, he has been very stupid about things, and there is simply a ton of trails to follow...

literally any other candidate