The notion that trump changes, that anyone changes, from Day To Day is false. The center of a human being is what we call consciousness. It is amorphous and mysterious but as AI is showing us in films like Ex Machina it is the essence of what it means to be human. It embraces the freedom to choose, values and the will to express and to act. We are our acts and expressions.

Defiance pattern

If we look for patterns in Trump we could say he defies the law quite openly. If you swear to protect and defend your country you do not shut the government down.

That is exactly what Trump is intending to do. Will he? We shall see. Or maybe not. Perhaps he will be called for persistent defiance of the law and forced to resign. Maybe there will be a Trump law that says it is a president is required not to pledge to shut down the country.

Today's lead

Here it is in black and white on the front-page of today's New York Times, the paper Trump says is failing but which is making a substantial effort to move to online profitability.

Rampaging prex

The Times calls this an "extraordinary rift" on the eve of a time when mandatory actions like keeping the government open are on the table.

For a president to threaten closing down the country he is responsible for leading is being either a bull in a china closet or a crazed adolescent on a rampage. Experts question whether this is illegal.

Above the law

These Endgame articles have seen such happenings unfolding precisely because Trump does not change.

He is not sunny one day, all sweetness and light, and morose threat the next. He has behaved in a dictatorial manner since childhood. He has been schooled by men who have assumed they are special, above the law, above normal. In point of fact, Trump's behavior is a sign of smallness and impotence.

Unreal ideas

Trump needs $3.6 billion to build his version of the wall.

A careful look at what border experts say shows how silly the idea is. What did the Germans do when the Allies built the Maginot line? They drove around it. That is exactly what refugees will do. We have refugees for a reason. The world is unjust. The US is unjust when it assumes its only course is to prevent entry.

The entire series of articles I have written on cybercommunities touches on how easy it would be to move toward a just society by redesigning the way we live.

Staggering toward the end

There are many instances of Trump's unreal lurches in the direction of dictatorship. In addition to threatening shut down, he wants the Senate to use the nuclear option for all of its work, enabling a bare majority to rule. The problem he faces is that even if this silly idea was accepted he would face a GOP in which he cannot any longer command a simple majority.

Ask Jeff Flake if I am wrong.
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