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Tag Archives: malignant narcissists

Trump-Putin: Malignant Narcissists; Political Criminals

07 Thursday Dec 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

defense of democracy, Donald Trump, Goldwater Rule, Helsinki, January 6, kleptocracy, Mafia States, malignant narcissism, malignant narcissists, malignarcs, Medieval v. Modern, PolitCrims, Political Criminals, Trump-Putin, Vladimir Putin

Licensed psychologists and psychiatrists and member of the American Psychiatric Association have the “Goldwater Rule”, which guidance disallows or discourages the making of claims about political figures without having had direct evaluative experience with the same. I concur. For the practicing psychologist or psychiatrist, the work of arriving at a clinical evaluation needs be direct and personal as well as versed in both the clinical DSM and perhaps a full history of despots and dictators. For cognizant citizens and political analysts, editors, and journalists, background helps as well may ample knowledge derived from consistent study over time and here, in particular, a good look at narcissism.

Immediately related on BackChannels: “Anthropolitical Psychology” -> “Malignant Narcissism” (of chief interest here). In the ways of desk analysts, my way, and the web, reference leads to reference until curiosity has been cured by repeated encounters with certain ideas, principles, and themes.

Malignant Narcissists Trump and Putin AKA Trump-Putin AKA #TrumpPutin

For essence regarding the character of both in their expression: delusional, grandiose, messianic in ideation and well apart from normal as regards boundaries and limits, which may be considered a part of the parameters of conscience. For his barbaric ascent to ruthless power, Putin bombed apartment buildings in Moscow, pointed to Chechen rebels as culprits, won his presidency, and set his army free to brutalize Chechen villages, sending the men into the opposition. Ramzan Kadyrov would get the handsomely compensated business of holding Chechnya in place.

For the authoritarian and totalitarian malignant narcissist and sociopath with enough money and power, everything paid off (or silenced) works out in the end.

For Trump with his tens of millions of inherited dollars for working capital, the early great dreams didn’t quite make their nut, and so Russian Money found him, and, in retrospect, it appears he fell in love with her as well.

For essence regarding the process that turned two weaklings into courageous and heroic-looking figures popular with millions of voters suitably bought, leveraged seduced, snowed, or threatened in their respective nation-states: “Malignant Narcissistic Process Distilled” (BackChannels, July 10, 2022).

Political Criminals and Brothers in Loot

Given defenestrations, Navalny, Novichok,Polonium Tea, and Ukraine, Putin’s an easy tag as the boss of a state he has insisted on sustaining as a criminal enterprise, a “Russian Mafia State“, and a scourge to common humanity and good leadership worldwide. Russia, in large measure, appears neglected by the thug and his cohort except for the elimination of critics, journalists, and rivals in every manner possible.

Felonious Trump with his four felony cases racking up 91 counts for his American grand jury approved indictments should smell ferociously bad to his inveigled, hypnotized, or in-on-the-joke base, but it’s there with piety sincerely or piety as a cover for crime, or without piety but with extraordinary anger, delusion, frustration, hate, and political impotence, a crowd already royally screwed by Trump but perhaps ready for more cognizant, forthright, honest, and thoughtful American politicians.

Trump-Russia Classics

Chen, Adrian. “The Agency.” The New York Times, June 2, 2015–About Russia’s Internet Research Agency interference in the 2016 election cycle.

Global Witness. “Narco-A-Lago: Money Launderinig at the Trump Ocean Club Panama.” Available as PDF report. November 2017.

Harding, Luke and Nick Hopkins. “Bank that lent $300M to Trump linked to Russian money laundering scam.” The Guardian, March 21, 2017.

Unger, Craig. House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. Dutton, 2018.

Unger, Craig. “Trump’s Russian Laundromat.” The New Republic, July 13, 2017.

Related online

Cohen, David. “Trump on Jan. 6 insurrection: ‘These were great people’.” Politico, July 11, 2021.

Ferré-Sadurní, Luis. “Trump Pays $2 Million to 8 Charities for Misuse of Foundation.” The New York Times, December 10, 2019.

Free, Anya and Marat Illiyasov. “Chechnya’s boss and Putin’s foot soldier: How Ramzan Kadyrov became such a feared figure in Russia.” The Conversation, November 9, 2023.

Harding, Luke. Mafia State, Guardian Books, 2011.

International Criminal Court. “Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.” March 17, 2023.

Mustaffa, Munira. “Russia: The mafia as the state.” The Interpreter, August 31, 2023.

Olear, Greg. Dirty Rubles. Four Sticks Press, 2018.

The Guardian. “‘Troll factory’ spreading Russian pro-war lies online, says UK.” April 30, 2022.

Reference: Goldwater Rule

American Psychiatric Association. “Goldwater Rule.” n.d., but page contains the 1973 “Text of APA’s Ethics Annotation Known as ‘Goldwater Rule”.

Blotcky, Alan D. and Ronald W. Pies. Psychiatric Times. “The Goldwater Rule is Fine, if Refined. Here’s How to Do it.” 39:1. January 6, 2022.

Levin, Aaron. “Goldwater’s Rule’s Origins Based on Long-Ago Controversy.” Psychiatric News, August 25, 2016.

National Library of Medicine. “The Goldwater Rule: a bastion of a bygone era?” December 20, 2021.

Grohol, John M. “What the Media Get Wrong About the Goldwater Rule.” Psych Central, April 15, 2019.

Psychology Today. “Goldwater Rule.” n.d.

Vile, John R. “Goldwater Rule.” Free Speech Center, December 2, 2023.

Wikipedia. “Goldwater Rule”.


That Hell Sinking Moment: Trump and Putin Together, Helsinki, July 16, 2018.

The famous video and the infamous answer to an American journalist’s question should today look and sound more chilling and conspiratorial than perhaps was the case almost four years ago. Russia’s Internet Research Agency troll farm had been an issue; spying by Maria Butina had surfaced in 2018. While the American reality-defying Republican Party may brag ascendance, one may with cause suspect it’s actually on the back foot while Americans who bought into the Trump fantasy come up to speed on the devils.


January 6, 2021: Insurrection–Armed, Planned, Executed with Violence

“They were peaceful people. These were great people. The crowd was unbelievable. Did I mention the world “love”? The love in the air. I’ve never seen anything like it”– Donald John Trump, January 21, 2021.

Remember the characteristics of the malignant narcissist: “delusional, grandiose, messianic in ideation and well apart from normal as regards boundaries and limits, which may be considered a part of the parameters of conscience.” The men seen in the video are those conned, lied to, manipulated by the kind of men who blow up apartment buildings and point to themselves as the ones who can fix the situation while actually creating the false-flag situation; on the Trump side, the kind of men who in desperation for money would sell out their democracy for insurance against their own personal calamity. Both: close to crime . . . but that has made me wonder how far our United States of America has fallen in relation to dependence on its black markets, dark money, and deals itself with what used to be called “The Devil”. Today, the devils are just those sufficiently armored against conscience and ruthless enough to do anything for a buck and the witless adoration and validation of The People.

Or else.


###

Does Everybody Lie? A Menu for the Paranoid Malignant Narcissist

05 Tuesday Dec 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, A Little Wisdom, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics, Qualities of Living (QOL), Religion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

America, American Cultural Evolution, American Future, Donald Trump, malignant narcissism, malignant narcissists, Medieval v. Modern, New American Community, next new world, political psychology, Secular Democratic Republic, Vladimir Putin

Does everybody lie?

Perhaps a little bit to be less blunt or hurtful in the criticism or solicited response to another’s cooking, demeanor, fashion, or life.

Perhaps now and then for hooky, nooky, and bong–that’s not so good but fair in a mood or pinch.

Perhaps a convenient compliment for a kiss.

Perhaps to spare another pain or worry in souring conditions, so one is thought just fine when things are dicey.

To hide something (not so big a deal); to get something (and make life a little more sweet).

It takes another kind of nut to snowball a whopper, to put one over on a community, to seduce, fuck over, and ruin an associate, family, institution, or state–but that’s what malignant narcissists wind up doing in the process of covering the memory of their own humiliation or mortification with a great projection of an undamaged and unassailable heroic self, courageous in adversity, heroic before all, and totally full of bullshit.

The type I have in mind: delusional, grandiose, messianic and in appearance absent of normal boundaries and limits, i.e., the parameters of conscience. In the cause of their own baseless glory, one may wade into their swamps of baseless accusations, defamations, deflections, denials, fabrications, frames, omissions, and revisions (some of them alibis). And downstream to be found in their targets: baseless belief, confusion, and eventual disappointment as the “reality” painted turns out having had nothing to do with reality at all.

Infamous Lies

Chechen Rebels Destroyed Apartment Buildings in Moscow

More likely, Russia’s secret political police, FSB, loaded basements with explosives in the dead of night, set off the detonations, and “credited” an allegedly unruly Chechnya resistance for the act in order to convince Russians to elect Vladimir Putin as their best problem solver and hope for security and stability. Code name: “Storm in Moscow”; on this blog: “Reference: Journalist Alexander Zhilin, Operation Storm in Moscow AKA Moscow Apartment Bombings” (May 3, 2023). And the payoff for the False Flag Operation? Not only election to power–and today absolute and imperious power–for Putin, but in his head and for his twisted spirit “Unlimited Narcissistic Supply”, i.e., the adoration and validation of the Russian People without end.

Democrats Stole the 2020 American Election

The United States of America has for its defense against all enemies foreign and domestic the services of 27 integrated Federal security agencies. For election, the nation enjoys a full suite of relevant threat detection and law enforcement capabilities from Homeland Security on down to security assistance for local districts. Against all of that, Donald Trump has launched the lie, rumor, belief, and “alternative truth”–which is no truth at all!–that his opposition (how dare they…) stole the 2020 national election. “Election Denialism” appears to have become for some–including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson–their faith-based religious obligation, but no factual basis for it has surfaced, and without that, Trump’s efforts to overturn the previous election amount to no more than the most delusional and grandiose attempted theft imaginable.

A Note On Stealing A Modern Or Transitional State to Operate as Criminal Enterprise

Putin and the Russian Mafia State appear to have set a certain tone in the region of archaic-reactionary and brutally repressive kleptocracy, and my guess is Trump is trying to catch up. Well, this is for America’s Christians to know as regards how criminal power exploits faith and related institutions: “KGB FSB ROC M-O-N-E-Y” (January 18, 2021).

From gutter to mansion, America supports an extraordinary duality in relation to sinners and saints, and, quite frequently, the would-be saints turn out the most curious of sinners. The famous are known: Jerry and Becki Falwell and the Pool Boy, Giancarlo Granda (People, Jan. 25, 2022)–and noted Becki in relation to the couple’s role at Liberty University, “We had to put on an act” ; Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye (maiden name LeValley) who together in marriage stumbled over the husband’s one seemingly acknowledged affair–one allegedly forced with Jessica Hahn, who was paid off for her silence–and allegations involving several homosexual flirtations or liaisons (The Washington Post, Sept. 22, 1988). The less famous but in their own wild way as infamous, whether charmingly so (old rascal) or heinous (for having committed a crime), we may be collectively just not all that angelic. Penance, piety, prayer, and promise afterward may suffice for easing conscience and erasing guilt, and sometimes penance precedes change, present and future, for the better. In any case, I wonder if all Americans, and regardless of religious subscription, may not expect some level of pious hypocrisy in themselves, if honest, or in their ranks (if that’s more comfortable) while striving to do better, but to cover repetitive criminal intent or behavior with the appearance of piety, that is something else.

One may not refer to either Donald John Trump or Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin as ethically or morally good men. As the governors of nation-states, neither has offered much evidence of care, concern, or interest for the whole body and spirit of their respective nations–Russians suffer sustained abuse and neglect if beyond Putin’s near direct circles of influence and power; for ordinary Americans, Trump has bragged to his wealthy friends from his own gilded halls at Mar-a-Lago, “You All Just Got a Lot Richer” (Vanity Fair, Dec. 24, 2017) after signing into law substantial tax breaks for them. Having ceded substantial tax revenues to private sector interests–and the public be damned (which it literally might be if such power prevails)–why should the buccaneer not commandeer the entire ship of state for his own crony capitalist private enterprise–just as Vladimir has done? He has already developed a base ripe for ripping off.

Marching Forward Into the Past

Around the world, constituencies will find leaders who prefer to treat the idea of the state as a private and family enterprise to be milked for their own profit and the securing of their family and their associates. They’re motivated by greed and lust and–given their underlying fear of humiliation and consequent delusional self-concept and obsession with their own aggrandizement–the allure of their own potential to control others without question. Centuries ago, that characterization would have fit well with a medieval world more than familiar with the concept of “Absolutism” or “Absolute Power” and its violent and not infrequently tyrannical enforcement. Today, the same personalities and personal psychology–associate what I have in mind with Erdogan, Orban, Putin, and Trump–appear archaic but difficult to address and ameliorate from the perspective of any democratic idealism, especially from the vantage of the still revolutionary Constitution of the United States of America (related in the way of inspiration for revolution and the idea of a new nation–Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”, January 10, 1776). The named would be quite comfortable beneath the titles of Sultan Erdogan, Tsar Putin, King Orban, and, perhaps, King Trump.

Marching Forward Into The Future: A New American Community

Now that we’re all here, we’re going to have to deal with ourselves as a whole community and not so much as myopic and parochial islands fit for some Americans and not for others.

All American citizens are Americans.

Our guests are of two kinds: aspiring Americans or foreigners who have come here for business or travel.

As Americans, our challenges are not only American but by way of our own far expanded global awareness–apprehension or “consciousness”, actually–we have made ourselves global and universal in character. So have others, and with transnational business (and crime) all of the next functional steps have already been taken. Basically, our connections have changed and become enjoyable, essential, and permanent–or if adverse or made cautious by our own dependence, then a part of the challenge of an evolving new world.

Also as Americans, we have lived by a deeply devoted and earnestly defended Constitution designed to establish and sustain forever a secular democratic republic. Our western civilizational heritage–Judeo-Christian well acknowledged; Greco-Roman for the history, legends, and myths still echoing our own existence–has arrived here compassionate, down to earth, and reasoning. The wealth of the world has been brought here a long time, and as there is only one world, one Earth, we’re already blended with it and perhaps ready to adjust and assimilate, discard what’s not going to work, and appreciate that which proves good universally. We’ve been doing that a long time too, but for international relations, more may be involved than wearing cashmere and sipping tea.

We may see more than we once did; we may do more than we once could; and we should look ahead and do more than live in the past–or allow the greatest future ever to be stolen from all by evildoing feudal-medieval nutcases, whether religious extremists or criminal politicians who cannot contain their own worst compulsions.

So this much I may suggest about the next New World that is the one in which we are already living: it just hasn’t room for malignantly narcissistic “leaders” and their self-absorbed devotion to their own aggrandizement, enrichment, and power through fraudulent display and theft outright. The Next New World will need knowledgeable, powerful, and visionary high-integrity souls for its leadership in the development, establishment, and distribution of extraordinary systems for agriculture, business, education, health, justice, and general prosperity and security worldwide.

###

A Dark Mirror in Language

28 Wednesday Jun 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Russia, Ukraine

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

lying, malignant narcissism, malignant narcissists, Medieval v. Modern, modern politics, political criminality, Political Criminals, self-concept

For the narcissist, there is a dark mirror in language. He looks at his reflection in the pond, sees the sky behind him, and he believes he is gazing up toward heaven-and he goes on living in his own reflection.#MalignantNarcissists#PoliticalCriminals#MaligNarcs#PolitCrims

— J. S. Oppenheim (@JS_Oppenheim) June 28, 2023

The extreme narcissism known to dictators belies an unfortunate process.

More may be involved than being merely vain or having some egotism in need of some judicious but also liberating trimming: most of us–all of us–wish most of all to be what we call “ourselves” at our best, and each according to his own best assessment of abilities–and if we become too full of ourselves (offstage), we may encounter reminders, including from our own self-observing selves, that we are not all that.

Let us sit and sip more quietly.

On the other hand, the clinically (NPD) and politically (malignantly) narcissistic have a tougher self-assignment, and that is to 1) hide the damage done to them when they were helpless or incapable of their own effective defense and 2) cover it with an undamaged and much more competent and greater courageous-heroic image that would be and which becomes their own New Person–The Greatest.

The greater achievement for The Greatest: validation confirmed by love, but a capital-V “Validation!” confirmed by the Applause and Roar of the Crowd–High-Powered VALIDATION!, Limitless and MIGHTY!

We have all the right to transform from children into pretty good adults, but The Greatest want a greatness beyond the boundaries of the good.

Terms one encounters for the malign: delusional, grandiose, messianic.

Behaviors: unconscionable, unscrupulous, ruthless.

In casual description: beyond limits; without boundaries.

Eventually: criminal.


“Those who conceived this war want only one thing — to remain in power forever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and cost to the entire Russian Navy, enjoying unlimited power and complete impunity,” Mr. Bondarev said in his email. “To achieve that they are willing to sacrifice as many lives as it takes.”

Trojanovski, Anton. “‘They basically got everything wrong’: A Russian diplomat speaks out on the war.” The New York Times, May 23, 2022.


In the dark mirror of language, the most primary lie in service to the speaker’s image may be the inverted accusation–on this blog, the “Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation”. The narcissist is always beautiful, good, and right, and the targets unfailingly bent and ugly even though by every objective measurement and view, the narcissist is the evil.

The Greatest must be the greatest as well–not merely pretty good or, son of a gun, lucky!

Image matters and the means to produce it may be obfuscated and covered over, and in the dark mirror, the lies–the lying–really takes off. Putin, poker faced, insists that Russia attacks only military targets.

https://youtu.be/a245RkGUXfk; https://youtu.be/c1xFSCDy8Jo; https://youtu.be/q2nfuIP2tU0; https://youtu.be/8_XCe86resg.

The Greatest lie to aggrandize and enrich themselves, their cronies, families, and networks; to confuse the judgments of others; to perceptually control their fans, marks, and targets–and they lie most of all to hide their crimes.


June 28, 2023.

–33–

Sudan’s Civil War: Smuggled Sudanese Gold Funding Russia in Ukraine

17 Monday Apr 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Africa, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, North America, Russia, South America, Sudan, transnational crime, Ukraine

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Burhan, dictatorship, Hemeti, kleptocracy, malignant narcissists, Medieval v. Modern, Political Criminals, Sudan Civil War, Sudanese Gold Smugglinig

The facts are just nothing new.

Sudan’s General Dagalo Hemeti has had both long-standing family interests in Sudan’s gold trade, and he has had for some time arrangements with Russian President Vladimir Putin involving Wagner Group oversight of smuggled shipments to Russia that bypass western sanctions and help fund Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The west’s hunkering down, bleating about democracy, and pleading for some cessation in violence seems old news as well.

So it goes here for the Sudanese People and others watching the struggles of ordinary good people against thieves taking advantage of their innocence to rob them of their birthright, their dignity, and their humanity. In fact, having displaced the dictator and war criminal Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese have helped into power, in the course of their powerlessness, two dictators in return, both of them former subordinates to al-Bashir. Of the two, Hemeti may have the more powerful relationship with Putin as he flies off-the-books gold to Russia’s dictator and serves as an envoy — for Putin, a diplomatic channel — to Saudi power as well.

Neither Russians nor Sudanese appear to have today a champion whose interests as well as psychology and temperament reside with them. The present three “strongmen”– al-Burhan, Hemeti, and Putin– appear to represent the evil that enriches and aggrandizes itself while lying without conscience to the nation each purports to represent.


Russia’s meddling in Sudan’s gold began in earnest in 2014 after its invasion of Crimea prompted a slew of Western sanctions. Gold shipments proved an effective way of accumulating and transferring wealth, bolstering Russia’s state coffers while sidestepping international financial monitoring systems.

“The downside of gold is that it’s physical and a lot more cumbersome to use than international wire transfers but the flip side is that it’s much harder if not impossible to freeze or seize,” said Daniel McDowell, sanctions specialist and associate professor of Political Science at Syracuse University.

Elbagir, Nima, Barbara Arvanitidis, Tamara Qiblawi, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Mohammed Abo Al Gheit and Darya Tarasova. Video by Alex Platt and Mark Baron Graphics by Sarah-Grace Mankarious, Marco Chacón, Natalie Croker and Henrik Pettersson. “Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine.” CNN, July 29, 2022.

Cited or Related Online

ADF. “Russia Uses Wagner To Plunder Sudan’s Gold.” December 6, 2022.

Al-Arshani, Sara. “The two generals fighting in Sudan helped Putin plunder the country’s gold to fund Russia’s war in Ukraine.” Insider, April 15, 2023.

Cole, Brendan. “U.S. Ambassador Details Waking Up to ‘Gunfire’ as Fighting Erupts in Sudan.” Newsweek, April 15, 2023.

Copnall, James. “Sudan crisis: Burhan and Hemedti – the two generals at the heart of the conflict.” BBC, April 17, 2023.

Dahir, Abdi Latif. “Who is Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s military?” The New York Times, April 25, 2023.

Dabanga. “Hemeti charts official Sudan policy on Russia-Ukraine conflict.” March 2022.

Dabanga. “Russian FA visit: Putin appreciative of Sudan’s support.” February 10, 2023.

Dabanga. “Hemeti manoeuvres to brand war against Sudan army as fight against former regime Islamists.” April 17, 2023.

Elbagir, Nima, Barbara Arvanitidis, Tamara Qiblawi, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Mohammed Abo Al Gheit and Darya Tarasova. Video by Alex Platt and Mark Baron Graphics by Sarah-Grace Mankarious, Marco Chacón, Natalie Croker and Henrik Pettersson. “Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine.” CNN, July 29, 2022.

Mackinnon, Amy, Robbie Gramer, Jack Detsch. “Russia’s Dreams of a Red Sea Naval Base Are Scuttled–for Now.” Foreign Policy, July 15, 2022.

NOVA News. “Sudan. who is General ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo, the man close to Russia who is behind the attempted coup.” April 16, 2023.

Oppenheim, James S. “Brief Reference: Wagner Group in Africa.” BackChannels, March 28, 2023.

Packer, George. “This Is Not 1943.” The Atlantic, February 3, 2013.

Reuters. “Sudan’s Hemedti seeks deeper Russia ties on Moscow visit.” February 23, 2022.

Walsh, Declan. “‘From Russia With Love’: A Putin Ally Mines Gold and Plays Favorites in Sudan.” The New York Times. June 5, 2022.


Deputy Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council and commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Gen Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo, called on the international community to support the dialogue between Russia and Ukraine. This is the official position of the Sovereignty Council, he said in a statement to the Russian news channel Sputnik yesterday.

Yesterday’s statement followed Hemeti’s statements last week during his Moscow visit, where he declared support for Russia’s invasion by saying that Russia had a right to defend itself and its people.

Dabanga. “Hemeti charts official Sudan policy on Russia-Ukraine conflict.” March 2022.

Hemeti knows Russia invaded Ukraine on a cooked-up pretext on which Putin could fluff himself at least in his own head.


A July 2022 CNN investigation exposed deepening ties between Moscow and Sudan’s military leadership, who granted Russia access to the east African country’s gold riches in exchange for military and political support. The relationship began in earnest after Moscow’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, when Russia began to eye African gold riches as an avenue to circumvent a slew of Western sanctions.

The 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the wave of sanctions that followed accelerated Russia’s gold plunder in Sudan and further propped up military rule, increasing Wagner activity in the country.

On the day before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Dagalo headed a Sudanese delegation in Moscow to “advance relations” between the two countries.

Elbagir, Nima, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Tamara Qiblawai, Barbara Arvantidis. “Exclusive: Evidence emerges of Russia’s Wagner arming militia leader battling Sudan’s army.” CNN, April 21, 2023.

Addendum: Related Online

Dickens, Olewe. “Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo: Top Sudan military figure says coup was a mistake.” February 20, 2023.

Elbagir, Nima, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Tamara Qiblawai, Barbara Arvantidis. “Exclusive: Evidence emerges of Russia’s Wagner arming militia leader battling Sudan’s army.” CNN, April 21, 2023.

Lynch, Justin. “In Sudan, U.S. Policies Paved the Way for War.” Foreign Policy, April 20, 2023.

Uddin Rayhan.”Who is Hemeti? The feared former warlord vying for control in Sudan.” Middle East Eye, April 17, 2023.


Posted to YouTube May 8, 2023.

—33–

Syria: The Horror: 2011

29 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics, Russia, Syria

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

autocratic control, dictatorship, fascism, forces of disorder, malignant narcissists, political absolutism, political criminality, Syria, Syrian atrocities, totalitarianism, tyranny, tyrants, war crimes

 

Putin-Assad-Khamenei

Bashar al-Assad By Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44378508 | Vladimir Putiin By Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60759727 | Ali Khameini By Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57953266


Related Reference

Asher-Schapiro, Avi.  “The Young Men Who Started Syria’s Revolution Speak About Where It All Began.”  VICE News, March 15, 2016:

Omar first heard about the graffiti at morning recess. It was winter, he was 14, in the middle of 10th grade, and his friends said it was just a prank. The day before, just after school, a handful of Omar’s classmates found some red paint and scrawled, “Your turn doctor,” on the school’s wall. Under most circumstances, in most places, such behavior might provoke a slap on the wrist — perhaps a stern visit from the police. But in Daraa, Syria, in February 2011, those words could get you killed.

Macleod, Hugh.  “How schoolboys began the Syrian revolution.”  CBS News / Global Post, April 26, 2011:

The local secret police soon arrested 15 boys between the ages of 10 and 15, detaining them under the control of Gen. Atef Najeeb, a cousin of President Bashar al-Assad.

In a gloomy interrogation room the children were beaten and bloodied, burned and had their fingernails pulled out by grown men working for a regime whose unchecked brutality appears increasingly to be sowing the seeds of its undoing.






–33–

Oh Gulen Again . . . .

16 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology, Turkey

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

American-Turkish Relationship, despotism, Erdogan, Fethullah Gulen, kleptocracy, malignant narcissists, NATO, political absolute power

If there’s the sniff of a Clinton tie to corruption and crime, the conservative press will find it.  In the listings below, The Daily Caller shouts on that.

For any interested (including the FBI) in Fethullah Gulen, BackChannels has visited the presentation of the personality in online news at least twice (as listed) and somewhere on this blog there’s a related poem involving “winks ‘n’ nods” (you’ll appreciate it more if you find it on your own).  🙂

Erdogan the Malignant with the White Palace?

BackChannels has had some say (also as listed).

Psychological alignment: Erdogan along with Orban may share more with Putin as personalities than they may with other NATO leaders and the leaders of westward-leaning former Soviet states or clients.

That’s life with “malignant narcissists”.

Their people will be beaten up for a buck; their manipulated constituencies will drift toward fascist nationalism or some near equivalent (on this blog, keep in mind “Syndicate Red Brown Green“); but they will be glorious in wealth and treasure plundered from state coffers — just as Putin would have it (and has as much for himself as regards kleptocracy and absolute power).

Americans, often written off as being more concerned with Kardashians and sports scores, probably should immerse for a brief spell in Cold War and post-Soviet history, so as to get a grip not only on machinations driving contemporary foreign affairs but to check the state’s own Machiavellian preference for developing perhaps too much business and politics “behind the curtains”.

Appearances in BackChannels

Gulen

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/01/05/gulen-and-the-gulls-the-american-public/ – 1/5/2015

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2014/12/17/link-along-the-arc-of-the-malignant-narcissists-narrative-erdogan-vs-gulen/ – 12/17/2014

Erdogan

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/06/30/putins-swipe-at-nato-via-erdogan/ – 6/30/2016

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/04/19/turkish-autocrat-erdogan-on-track/ – 4/19/2016

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/11/19/ftac-erdogans-stuck-putins-just-gettin-started/ – 11/19/2015

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/06/12/link-erdogans-turkey-israels-image/ – 6/12/2015

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/01/23/link-erdogan-and-putin-wapo/ – 1/23/2015

Erdogan and Gulen

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2014/12/17/link-along-the-arc-of-the-malignant-narcissists-narrative-erdogan-vs-gulen/ – 12/17/2014

In the News Today or Recently

http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/13/new-ties-emerge-between-clinton-and-mysterious-islamic-cleric/ – 7/13/2016

-33-

To Be Abandoned and Betrayed by Politics’ Malignant Narcissists

03 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Israel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

despotism, dictators, excessive privilege, fascism, malignant narcissism, malignant narcissists

“This is how I live, day in, day out, in Gaza. Most of the population is less privileged than I am. When poverty wins out and there is no work and no solution on the horizon, there’s nothing worse than losing hope.”

My sea, my day – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews – by Dr. Mona al-Fara 12/2/2013.

* * *

” . . . . there are 1,200 millionaires in Gaza since Hamas took power… these people took advantage of the tunnels and the commerce of fuel to Gaza and took advantage of the people in Gaza.”

Gaza Strip full of corrupt millionaires, says Palestinian official – Middle East Israel News | Haaretz – 11/16/2013.

______

Briefest Observation: for dictators — “malignant narcissists” — political space, locality to state, provides exclusively for their own aggrandizement and comfort through the accumulation of wealth and has otherwise no significance as regards the interests of other constituents in their immediate surrounds.

For such “kleptocrat” personalities and the systems they create around themselves, the achievement of murderous and thieving power would seem the main thing, and whatever holds together to sustain that “thing” — their thing — is the only genuine concern.

As much would seem as true for “Putinistas” investing their wealth and their lives outside of Russia, for the Assads who have decimated their constituent population in Syria — now one-third displaced or refugee, and for Gaza’s “tunnel millionaires” who have essentially forsaken those around them: all have in common the abandonment and growing impoverishment of those who had believed in them and counted on them most.

# # #

FTAC – Comment on an Hamas Missile Battery

26 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

dictator, dictators, malignant narcissists, mixed multitude, Moses, Pharaoh, political, politics, power

I am becoming a defender of Islam.

One of my Facebook buddies wrote in relation to the Hamas missile battery pictured to the left, “I love to hear the muslim’s [STET] cry about how offended they are! They can start a war by launching rockets at Israel and then they cry about it when they get retaliation for their acts.”

By now it should dawn on the infidel (and “The People of the Book” AKA “The People of the Five Books” AKA “the people who have written thousands of books” AKA “the people who write books, grow up to be doctors, and win Nobel Prizes out of all proportion to their small number” AKA etc.) that whatever Islam is or will be, it’s most conservative expression goes hardest on Muslims, and they’re not unaware of this.

So I responded:

All legacies in culture, language, philosophy, and religion evolve, and it’s good that they do. While we Jews have been a leading part of that — a light among the nations — ours may be not the only nation or only light, and it may be part of our character-in-eternal-myth to find that light in others as well.

Some, like Hamas and Hezbollah, make finding that light difficult for us, but it would be a mistake to think for a minute that others do not suffer before the strident and violent expressions in speech and in reality of such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban, not to completely equate the two but to suggest than an INCLUSIVE universalism is greater in latency within our species than so many attempts by fascist entrepreneurs to leverage exclusive and deeply narcissistic programs, whether by way of nationalist or religious ambitions, into their own power or wealth. Some get away with what they do on the backs of others: Robert Mugabe foremost to my turn of mind. 🙂

I’ll tell you a not-so-secret secret: it’s not the dictator who destroys his people; it’s the dictator’s people who allow themselves to be destroyed, either in their humanity or in fact.

So it is with Hamas and others: they’re gettin’ rich (or they’re getting weapons, at least) while “their people” are allowing themselves to “get owned” in the worst ways imaginable. The day will dawn when they know they can fight back and will.

Contributing to that thought this morning was this reported this morning in the Los Angeles Times:  “I’m demanding that Morsi sit down with the opposition and listen to the different people of Egypt. He must also retract his decree and reform the police system,” said Arafat Moawad, a protester in Tahrir. “He needs to do these things in order to become a president for all Egyptians. Now, he is just a president for [his] Muslim Brotherhood movement.”  (“Egyptian stock exchange falls, protesters converge on Tahrir Square”).

To be clear: there is the voice (supported on the “Arab Street” by the presence of the body) protesting both the latest power grab by dictator wannabe (President-for-Life) Morsi and, associated with him, the ascendance of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

It’s not the dictator, is it?

Dictators, generally speaking, are but common assholes who have managed to elevate themselves above all others — not for nothing do we call them “malignant narcissists” — by way of intimidation, theft, and murder.

It’s The People, Los Pueblos, the Every Man and Woman, who allow them their outrageous license, which I believe they do in relation to their own cultural or social disorganization and lack of comprehension and prescience.  No one alone and innately possessed of a decent ethics and humanity can stand up to a thug; anyone alone, however, may band with others to shut down the same, and then, when that happens, the movement, the True Revolution, may be called an expression of righteous political will, this provided the same is itself possessed of a broad scope and related insight.

From the Haggadah with which I grew up: “With every generation, a little more freedom is won.”

Moses left Egypt with not only the Jews but a “mixed multitude” — i.e., all who wished to abandon the world constructed around and for Pharaoh, as malignant a narcissist as any who has ever existed.  That story, intact, transmitted faithfully across generations for now thousands of years, remains eternal, true, and adaptable.

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Caution: The possession of anti-Semitic / anti-Zionist thought may be the measure of the owner's own enslavement to criminal and medieval absolute power.
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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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