Big League Insecurity
Trump made up an invitation to throw out the first pitch.
Via the NYT: Trump Announced, Then Canceled, a Yankees Pitch. Both Came as a Surprise.
“Randy Levine is a great friend of mine from the Yankees,” Mr. Trump, referring to the president of the baseball team, told reporters on Thursday as Dr. Fauci was preparing to take the mound. “And he asked me to throw out the first pitch, and I think I’m doing that on Aug. 15 at Yankee Stadium.”
There was one problem: Mr. Trump had not actually been invited on that day by the Yankees, according to one person with knowledge of Mr. Trump’s schedule. His announcement surprised both Yankees officials and the White House staff.
But Mr. Trump had been so annoyed by Dr. Fauci’s turn in the limelight, an official familiar with his reaction said, that he had directed his aides to call Yankees officials and make good on a longtime standing offer from Mr. Levine to throw out an opening pitch. No date was ever finalized.
Were it not for the damage his is constantly creating within US politics, one could feel sorry for someone this insecure.
He is a wealthy man who currently occupies the most powerful office in the world and yet his levels of petty jealousy are endless.
(Side note: the photo of him that accompanies that NYT piece is one of the few I have seen in which Trump looks genuinely happy).
I read the NYT article referenced in the OP and thought how his election team (which must contain a few pros who presumably know truth from fiction) must feel about their work. What are the odds that this would not be on front pages? If his gaslighting goes to throwing out first pitches, where does it not extend? How does a serious Presidential Election Campaign cope with this candidate?
No wonder the never-Trumpers of the Lincoln Brigade are mostly campaign pros like Rick Wilson and Steve Schmidt or professional ideologues like Kristol.
If I were of a conspiratorial mindset, I’d say Mr Trump knows his victory is assured and knows it has nothing to do with garnering votes. But that would tilt me toward places I don’t want to go.
If only he planned to keep the date, only to have the game cancelled due to Covid-19.
You can imagine his mind at work. “Yankee Stadium, the Red Sox v. Yankees, there’ll be a lot of attention. AND there will be no fans to boo me.”
“Were it not for the damage his is constantly creating within US politics, one could feel sorry for someone this insecure”
“Insecure”, actually in Trump world, I’m sure many people are saying, that Trump’s pitch was nothing short of amazing. He is probably, humbly turning down legions of MLB scouts, this very moment.
Insecurity is the product of losers that suffer from self awareness.
To SLT. That was a great headline.
Well played!
“Big League Insecurity”
You spelled it wrong. It should be “Bigly”.
@ImProPer:
Trump attempting to throw a pitch would be the Dukakis in a tank helmet visual.
Imagining it makes me laugh.
Why has the photo of Trump in a truck going “toot toot” fallen out of the visual landscape?
@de stijl:
Probably because there are so many unflattering photos of Trump in circulation. He’s a fat man with a dyed and sculpted pompadour who wears badly applied facial bronzer, has the eyes of a pig, and sports a seven-pound bag of lard wobbling beneath his chin.
I was a big Warren fan. Joe Biden wasn’t my second or third choice. But it is incredibly important that we show up on November 3 and vote for Joe Biden.
It is this very insecurity that makes him a national security threat. It’s this very insecurity that makes him incredible easy for Putin and Xi and Kim Jung Un and Erdogan and Netanyahoo to manipulate.
But this quote from last night, to WRAL in NC, about his response to the eponymously named Plague…
@CSK:
Seven pounds? Seventy?
I am 168 and trying to lose 15 because I get the love handles when I am just a squidge beyond optimal. Pisses me off. Stupid metabolism!
Speaking of memes from animated sitcoms….
@ImProPer:
I see your point, but to what else would you attribute Trump’s desperate need to be the first, the only, the biggest, the best but deep insecurity? The man–and I use the word loosely–has always been like this. He cannot bear to be surpassed. He knows more about ISIS than the generals. He knows more about infectious diseases than do epidemiologists. He knows more about construction than the engineers of the Pyramids. His pool of general knowledge is greater than that of Erasmus of Rotterdam. He’s a greater lover than Casanova. His fingers are long and graceful, and his penis is an object of worshipful awe and admiration by women and the occasion of raging envy on the part of men.
He’s f*cking pathetic.
@Teve:
Warren was my second choice. Joe was forth.
Will vote for him in a second. No problem. Gladly.
I really like Elizabeth Warren. She needs a big and meaty role in the upcoming administration. Treasury Secretary sounds nice and fits her groove. Wall Street will freak out for a day or two but will recover.
@Kylopod:
Genius!
@CSK:
He is Ozymandias.
@de stijl: I like Warren a lot, too. But I think that Senator is a better job for her than Cabinet Secretary. Cabinet Secretaries answer to the president, but Senators answer only to the voters of their state, and this can give them a freer hand to speak out and push for things.
The one cabinet job that might be good is Treasury Secretary. Does that work, though? Does she have enough financial chops to do this? She might. She might learn them.
@Teve:
@de stijl:
Biden has talked about selecting his VP on 8/1…Saturday.
He’s holding a huge fundraiser with Warren on Friday.
Biden has adopted Warren plans on bankruptcy, Social Security, and canceling student-loan debt. She also wrote the important parts of his post-pandemic economic plan.
C’mon guys…
I mean…I don’t care…I’m just sayin’
No matter who, vote Blue.
@de stijl:
“Look upon my works, ye mighty, and fall into a fit of helpless laughter.”
@Jay L Gischer:
Warren has mighty chops and a big curious analytical brain.
@de stijl:
I regard that as a great insult to Ozymandias, who was based on Ramses II.
But this part does remind me of Don the Idiot:
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Trump the Colossal Wreck.
Does that not sound perfectly natural and logical?
@Daryl and his brother Darryl:
Also…in a previous fundraiser she brought in more money than anyone, except Obama.
But I digress…this thread is about a fat guy with a fake tan, fake teeth, a shitty comb-over, elevator shoes, and adult diapers…and his insecurities.
@Daryl and his brother Darryl: To my, admittedly somewhat cynical way of thinking, the fundraiser on Friday with Warren strongly suggests that she is not the pick. He just wants to show folks that he likes her, and she likes him, before picking someone else.
It’s one of the key lessons you learn in creating fiction: it’s always character. There’s no escaping who you are, and Trump is a sad little child whose father didn’t love him. Had he been an intelligent man he might have found a way to work around his defects and rise above his past. (Say, by going from sociopathic criminal to beloved ahem children’s book author.)
You are a dealt a hand of cards at birth: DNA. You learn what you learn through childhood and later life. You make decisions. And through everything runs luck. DNA, environment, free will, random chance.
Raised in a different life Trump would have become, should have become, a local weather man, or a car salesman or a game show host. Oh, wait, he did that last thing.
@CSK:
I get you. Really do. Trump is so mockable.
But this is serious business, too. Electing a buffoonish clown is a statement. Electing a guy who hates NATO is a statement. Electing a guy who steps on his dick daily on live TV during a pandemic is a statement.
Electing a guy who values Confederate statues over citizens is a statement.
Electing a guy who is either owned by Putin, or wants to be, is a statement.
I want none of those statements to be valid in 2021. Away with that nonsense!
These years need to be our shameful past as quickly as possible.
When it is behind us, I will be comfortable in laughing at our collective idiocy.
No, no I couldn’t. I’ve known a couple and the only thing I ever felt was the urge to take a framing hammer to their heads. Fortunately for them, I am able to resist those urges. Most of the time.
@Michael Reynolds:
Trump should be a small embarrassment on Page Six. Small beer. Narcissitic asshole, but no skin off my butt.
Except for the fact that Republican voters chose him and elected him.
Donald Trump is President.
I am so ashamed this happened.
Last week Trump played catch with Mariano Rivera for a bit on the White House lawn when some Little Leaguers were visiting. He looked actually happy and seemed competent enough for a photo op. I’m actually not surprised that he could play catch, at least over that distance. He plays golf regularly and apparently hits the ball a reasonable distance, so he’s retained some arms, shoulders, and back flexibility and strength, regardless of the rest of his physical abilities.
@de stijl:
I know it’s serious business. But you must understand that mocking Trump–pointing at him and laughing–is a very powerful weapon. He can’t bear being an object of derision. The Lincoln Project understands this; that’s why they make sure he sees their ads.
@CSK:
But how does it stack up against Kathy‘s?
@Michael Cain:
He just carries a shit load of mass to put behind his shitty swing. He’s incredibly mediocre for someone who has spent ~1 year out of the last four at golf courses.
@CSK:
I do. I feel you.
Many days I do exactly that just at the absurdity that Trump is President.
It is absurd. Laughable.
Then reality hits me and I go “No! This is bad. Really, really bad! What have we done? No!”
Ozymandias / Ramses II was a hereditary ruler. Quasi divine. The people had no input.
We elected this chump. We chose him.
@de stijl:
Me as well sir. If not for his unintentional comic relief, I’d of went crazy a long time ago.
@Joe:
How many times must it be told??????? Nobody, absolutely nobody, is smarter or more knowledgeable than Donald J. Trump. Just ask him.
@Joe:
I’m sure in proportion to the pool of knowledge available at the time, Erasmus was far more erudite than I.
@CSK:
I see your point, but to what else would you attribute Trump’s desperate need to be the first, the only, the biggest, the best but deep insecurity? The man–and I use the word loosely–has always been like this. He cannot bear to be surpassed. He knows more about ISIS than the generals. He knows more about infectious diseases than do epidemiologists. He knows more about construction than the engineers of the Pyramids. His pool of general knowledge is greater than that of Erasmus of Rotterdam. He’s a greater lover than Casanova. His fingers are long and graceful, and his penis is an object of worshipful awe and admiration by women and the occasion of raging envy on the part of men.
I’m not a clinical psychologist, but I would venture to say that he is a man of pure instinct, totally uninhindered, by the likes higher cognitive signals like shame and dignity. Classic signals that mere mortals use in their everyday social affairs, but absolutely foreign to himself.
Then why is Erasmus not a contributor here, Kathy? I hear he’s an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.
Ozymandias is a bitchin good poem. Have not re-read it in ages since today.
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
@ImProPer:
I think you can lack dignity and shame and still be deeply insecure. And…it’s very instinctive with Trump. He see any criticism, or any perceived criticism, as an attack. Moreover, praise for anyone but him denies him the praise to which he’s entitled. So he lashes out.
The equation is very simple to him. Fauci got kudos that rightfully belonged to Trump. Therefore, Trump will demand a bigger share of those kudos.
His desperate need for adulation is why he’s so easily manipulated.
@Joe:
Erasmus is already quite busy blogging with Frederick Douglass.
@ImProPer: I’m not a clinical psychologist either, but “insecurity” doesn’t do justice to Trump’s psychopathy. OTOH, Mayo Clinic defines a mental disorder that rings as familiar:
@Joe:
Dead people have the hardest time getting online.
He really does look happy there. He should give up his day job, buy or rent a couple of little leaguers, and just play catch all the time.
@CSK:
Point taken. If it is not felt by him on a conscious level, he is atleast in constant state of reaction because of it. I hope this keeps him busy enough until we can get his finger off the “BUTTON” God help us
@ImProPer:
I could be wrong about this, but didn’t someone high up in the Trump administration make arrangements so that there’d be a delay of some sort if Trump tried to hit the button? This would be similar to what happened in the last days of the Nixon administration.
Maybe the guy who carries the football has been given orders to hang back if Trump starts raving about wanting to nuke London or Toronto or Sydney or Seoul or Manhattan.
@de stijl: Thanks, TBH once the headline occurred to me, I knew I had to write the post. 😉
@Moosebreath: I considered that spelling as well 😉
@Scott F.:
I read somewhere during the last presidential campaign, an academic psychologist, claimed
that simple footage of Mr. Trump is a perfect demonstration of pathological narcissism. That they didn’t have the imagination to come up with a better representation for students of the disorder.
@Scott F.:
NPD ftw.
@ImProPer:
I read the same thing. The professor said clips of Trump saved him from having to write scripts and hire actors to play pathological narcissists, since Trump was doing all that for free.
@Michael Reynolds:
are you talking about Mr. Dahl or yourself? Just wondering, ’cause, y’all know. In either event, either of you would have done a much better job than Fearless Leader. Even though his book was, you know, bigly better!
@CSK:
I seem to of read the something along those lines as well. I hope its true. I am grateful that we seem to have a General staff that takes our daunting responsibility in the world much more serious than the president, so am cautiously optimistic. Fingers crossed
@CSK:
Thanks, that would be the same as my reference, I knew it wasn’t just my imagination
Oh you sad and silly people…don’t you get it? The fact that he is living rent-free in your heads proves how incredibly great he really is…or at least that’s what a former commenter around these parts might say…
@An Interested Party:
Yeah…Hitler lived rent-free in the heads of a lot of Jews. He was a great guy. Really super.
This piece illustrates how many on the left and the right are united against Trump…competence and decency should be things that everyone can agree on and certainly not be partisan issues…
@flat earth luddite:
Dahl was a racist and a prick, I was neither. I just burglarized a couple businesses, and I’ve always been polite.
@de stijl:
It hasn’t. It has just meme’ed.
https://imgflip.com/memetemplate/97550608/Trump-Toy-Car
@Michael Reynolds:
Did you give to the poor?
I’ve always liked Robbin Hood as a character name.
I stole a frozen pizza once from the first store I worked at. I felt really bad after. I put a five into the till later that week. Mr. Cannot remember his name I think it was Italian treated me well and was not a dick.
I ate that pizza, but it felt bad and went down hard. I am sorry I did that.
You could chalk it up to youthful impulsiveness. It wasn’t. I had planned how to do it. On the trash run.
I do apologize, Mr. nice italian dude. I did pay it back, but it was a shitty thing to do to you.
@de stijl:
I gave to my ‘all girl gang’ as a judge was pleased to call them. Basically my then-girlfriend and a former girlfriend. But no, not Robin Hood. However, later, at Sweetish Hill in Austin we had such an organized skim that we held meetings and apportioned it on the basis of need. I’m going to recast that as people’s socialism, rather than, you know, embezzlement.
@Michael Reynolds:
Squeezing the means of production.