Things I am picking up about Trump's Tuesday Televised Speech

The ancient Greeks said to never look  directly at Medusa or you will be turned to stone. I won't listen to this speech. My psychic firewall isn't thick enough to keep out the darkness.

I am sitting in a busy doctor's office waiting for someone whose having surgery. It's hard to be psychic right now with all this commotion and a television going.  When I get home I'll tune in again and see if I get anything different.  I can't tell if what I'm getting is just tuning into the man's usual M.O. or tuning into the actual speech and its effects.

Here's what is coming to me: 

I wish the press would avoid covering the speech. I feel sorry for anyone who has to listen to such darkness. 

Trump's  history is to channel hype with little regard for truth. He will channel dark energy from the gods of hate and lies, scapegoating and blame.  

Only Trump doesn't sound dark to those who fall for the hype. He sounds reasonable, even cuddly, at times, then he mimics toughness and decisiveness.  Sometimes when I forget to not listen, I too pick up the reasonableness and his belief that he is saving America from perpetrators.  Although even he doesn't really believe all that he says.  It's a role he goes into.

 The New York Times and other media will fact-check the speech, and that would  be worth reading so you will better understand the truth of our borders and the people who are seeking asylum there.  The  Republican viewers and Fox News watchers will not be given fact checking on the speech.  

(Note: Unbiased factchecking organizations have given Fox the highest error rate of any mainstream news organization.)

The speech is potentially dangerous.  Words can be dangerous. My concern is that he will build a case to call a national emergency if the Dems don't give him a border wall. A wall is not dangerous by itself. It's the scapegoating that's dangerous. And also it's his  using the excuse of calling a national emergency to stretch the limits of our Constitution that is dangerous. He keeps trying to stretch the limits of democracy.   I'm not alone in feeling since 2016 that if unimpeded he would move in this direction to go full authoritarian. 

I hope when I get home and throw cards that I will not see that this is going to be  Trump's big moment, the one in which he morphs into the fascist terrible (French pronunciation of terrible) that I believe he is capable of becoming. 

He will blame the democrats for the problem  which he will say now has reached crisis proportions.  He will make immigrants look like perpetrators upon our society, along with democrats and the liberal press. 

He hasn't figured out the whole speech yet because he likes to work on inspiration in the moment.  He feels the collective as he speaks and channels darkness.

Will this be a Mark Anthony Julius Caesar moment where a clever orator sways the crowds? I hope not. 

Enough.  Not going to watch it. 

I will take a  walk in the woods or a soothing bath and send prayers to the immigrants instead. 

Lovendures, I read your awesome post after finishing mine to stay independent.  I love what you wrote.  I feel comforted by it.

I want to add that whether or not Trump's speech has an effect, I agree with you that the fallout for him will ultimately be to discredit him and the direction he takes.

Remembering Joseph McCarthy, the alcoholic anti-Communist witch hunter of the 1940's and 50's.  The press ultimately brought him down with truth and integrity and his name burns in infamy.

In case any of you want to join those calling the networks to protest the airing of DJT's speech tonight here are some phone numbers:

CNN: (404) 827-1500
ABCNetwork : (800) 230-0229
NBCNews : (212) 664-4444
FoxNews: (888) 369-4762
CBSNews : (212) 975-3247

Jeanne and Lovendures,

Thank you for sharing your comments.  I agree with everything you both have stated.  I have no intention of watching the speech.  In fact, for the past 2+ years, I have changed the channel or put the television on mute whenever Trump is on. I can't be exposed to his energy; it feels like I'm dealing with a psychic vampire.  I now find myself turning off the TV whenever S.Sanders and McConnell are on as well.  

This morning I'd heard some people on MSNBC discussing why the networks are even broadcasting his speech.  They stated that the speech will be political, rather than factual news, and questioned why they are choosing to air it.  They added that back in 2013, the networks didn't broadcast Obama's immigration speech because they considered it too political!  So  one can assume that they are choosing to broadcast Trump's speech because it will pull in ratings.  Sadly, it's always the bottom line, isn't it?

I feel like this speech is a pivotal moment, a real turning point.  The networks will be instrumental in getting this fireball rolling, because they are airing the speech.   I see a fireball picking up speed and causing some destruction, but eventually petering out.   Perhaps this ties into what Lovendures said about the bizarre results and how it might relate to the shutdown, and what Jeanne stated about the Constitutional challenge Trump may present to us.  I started feeling physically ill this afternoon, which further confirms for me where things might be headed.  But for as heavy as this feels, and as challenging as this will be, the turning point I mentioned earlier is actually a good one.  I feel it in my core.  I get this "Ahhh..." -- an exhale.  I feel an angel standing behind me as I say this.  I don't need to see the outcome to know that a positive end is in sight. 

Wishing you all peace and blessings.

At this point, I think that the speech is an another distraction from the Mueller investigations, where Mueller was granted an extension.

On a lighter note, maybe Trump is just going through the terrible twos and we should just read Dr. Spock for advice. Dana Milbank, WAPO columnist, uses the famous pediatrician to understand Trump in his third year. Pretty hilarious:

”The 2-year-old ‘has a hard time making up his mind, and then he wants to change it,’ his ‘understanding of the world is still so limited,’ and ‘he becomes bolder and more daring in his experiments.”’

That's really funny, Jeanne!  I often read Dana Milbank and love his insightful humor.

Nothing good is going to come out of this just lies and lies and also he gets to play President ? i will not watch him talk I never liked to. He makes me sick when I hear him talk. This whole speech is being written by Stephen Miller. when is he departing this administration? Everyone else had why not him.

Ditto to what's already been said. Psychologically speaking, Trump really is a little boy who just wants attention, and I refuse to patronize his neediness. Most modern autocrats thrive in the spotlight of the 24/7 media (think about Putin's annual call-in television show), and this speech is just par for the course.  

For anyone who wants  some facts about the border situation, this New York Times story sums it up well. 

Key points:

•  Trump's "own government’s assessments conclude that Mr. Trump has seriously overstated the threat. And counterterrorism officials and experts said there had never been a case of a known terrorist sneaking into the country through open areas of the southwest border."
• Even the The White House itself, in a recent document on border security measures, did not include any mention of the need to construct walls, fences, or barriers.
• "The U.S. Intelligence community says cyberattacks are the top threat to the United States — not terrorists at the border." 

“There is no wave of terrorist operatives waiting to cross overland into the United States,” Nicholas J. Rasmussen, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said on Tuesday. “It simply isn’t true.”

The best response from Jim Acosta response to Trump speech..CNN's Jim Acosta says the President's address to the nation about immigration and border security was recycled rhetoric from Trump's rallies and should've come with a Surgeon General's warning that it's "hazardous to the truth." 

?Wow!  I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who gets physically sick from the sound of Trump's voice!  I don't ever remember having a reaction like this to anyone before.  I truly believe this was a distraction from the bombshell from Monaforts lawyers yesterday.  I read a tweet on twitter (sorry don't remember the news source) where according to a "insider" Trump didn't want to give the speech or go to the border but his staff pushed for it.  Second interesting tweet, Trumps reelection campaign sent out messages to all his contributers to watch the telecast and send money!

Now I don't know how acurate these statements are but they sure are interesting.  I have felt in the last few months that Trump has gotten lazy.  He doesn't want to do "President" work, he wants to watch TV and tweet stupid statements and I think he is royaly pissed that he didn't get to  go to Florida at New Years.  He has no clue what he's doing and he will liston to anyone (Coulter, Lambaugh) that will tell him what to do.  I truely believe he didn't think this shutdown would effect him at all.  Now when he wants to go play golf he gets slapped down.  Ivanka and Jarad were roasted for their New Years vacation.  They truly don't care about the country or the citizens, it's just a source  of more money for them.

After yesterday's news about Manafort and the indictment of the Russian women who was at the Trump Tower meeting, I think we are going to see things movea little faster on the Mueller front.  My feeling, and it is just a feeling, is that Military intellegence is going to uncover activity that points to Treason by a large part of his administration.  I might be off base but who knows? I don't think it would surprise anyone.

All in all the sooner this nightmare ends the better for all of us.  Healing is going to take a long time.

I don't have a  link but I read elsewhere that Mike Pompeo was telling people yesterday that the speech would be incredibly newsworthy; I got the impression he was hinting that Trump would declare the emergency he was threatening. Instead he gave a lifeless rehash of his one liners. Like a rally speech without the shouting. I have to wonder if he was not persuaded to tone it down at the last minute. 

Did anybody notice the way he gave the speech? He seemed really tired, almost slurring his words.There was none of the usual bombast you hear in the rallies. I got the impression that there might be a health issue here? Also a presidential address to the nation always goes on longer than 10 minutes. The speech was a dud, anti-climax...

Martin,I also wonder if sitting at The Desk in the Oval Office where so many presidents have addressed the nation before him caused him to tone it down.  Sometimes the dignity of those who came before us can affect us.  

But it didn't affect his truthfulness.  According to the fact checkers, the speech was rife with lies.  Here's a fact check of his speech, which the researcher referred to  using the term multiple "Pinocchio claims."  His claim that Mexico would pay for the wall was called a four point Pinocchio claim.

There's so much fact checking going on that I noticed at least one story that was fact checking the fact checkers. Fact checking is now its own news items.  Yay.

Also Martin, to your accurate point about the build up to the speech, which I hadn't known about but was probably one of the reasons I was nervous about it yesterday -- Pence had been working overtime in the build up to the speech to get Republican support for it.  There was even a fund raising effort.  And Pompeo had been on Fox pushing the need for border security last week.  They were trying to make him look good now that the shutdown is hurting him on both sides of the aisles.

Last night I heard María Teresa Kumar (MSNBC contributor and member of Voter Latino) comment on Trump's speech (which I didn't watch).  She observed that he seemed uncomfortable and the speech was lackluster.  Kumar believes it was because Trump wasn't in his element, i.e., he was reading the speech off the teleprompter, and he didn't have an audience to play off of.   I agree with her.  He's more engaged, especially when it's adversarial (like with the media) or when he's playing to his fans at the rallies.  He needs that high or fix of people's attention, positive or negative; otherwise, I truly believe he doesn't have a sense of self. 

I feel certain he takes (likely even abuses) something (Adderall?), especially for those times when he needs to stifle brash impulsivity so that he can instead appear somber/presidential, and become focused enough to read from a teleprompter without rambling deviations.  The result is a dulled-down, unanimated affect.  Like last night's lackluster and uninspired(ing) "performance," this is in sharp contrast to his usual bombastic behavior in which his un-checked, dopamine-craving (I was actually gonna say crazed) brain gets its constant hits/highs from the it's-all-about-me attention he's so driven to whip up (Deetoo, as you said, positive or negative attention, makes no real difference to him).  Being the ringleader of chaos is his comfort zone.  Being instructed to stay on script and to sit still (no exaggerated facial expressions, no wild hand gestures) is not.

And Jeanne, I so appreciate your many insights--including your "Yay!" re: fact checking now becoming its own news item=a very welcome news trend that I hope becomes a persistently constant conduit for truth.

CDeanne- I don’t know if you heard about the apprentice crew member said that Trump snorted Adderall on the set  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thefix.com/apprentice-crew-member-claims-trump-snorted-adderall-set%3famp

Jessi, I hadn't heard about the Apprentice crew member's remark, but I'm not at all surprised.  Explains a lot.  

I also want to add that spending otherwise sweet time writing about Trump's penchant for injustices, self-serving and deeply dangerous dishonesty, arrogance, and both instigating and inciting cruelty is really, really, really not in my comfort zone.  But I'm also not comfortable saying/writing nothing.  Am very appreciative of the lovingkindness and from-the-heart-savviness of this community that Jeanne has made possible!

This twitter thread from ophthalmologist and body language expert Dr. Jack Brown includes a lengthy discussion and analysis of the probable causes of Trump’s dilated pupils during the Tuesday night address.   https://twitter.com/drgjackbrown/status/1083446660913479680?s=21