Overcast and cold this late-afternoon Tuesday here in California’s Central Valley. Along with some freezing temps the last few days, we’re forecast for another ‘atmospheric river‘ to wash our way Thursday/Friday, pelting us with maybe three-fourths an inch or so of rain.
One must weather the weather whether you like it or not.

Today a look at T-Rump’s climate-view of reality. In that particular corner of our dealings nowadays, Paul Campus hit another high note with a post at Lawyers,Guns,Money with a view into the inter-workings of the horror, vile mental make-up of the T-Rump — beyond being a lying asshole, he’s unbalanced/unstable/unhinged/deranged.
T-Rump’s malignant mind is his world:

Trump wants something, therefore reality consents to his desire that it be the case. Or more precisely he will rape reality with his desire, if reality fails to consent, because there is no reality outside of his desires.

This is the monstrous narcissism, indistinguishable from some sort of radical solipsism, that characterizes him. Other people and other nations simply don’t exist for Trump, except as objects of his hatred or envy or desire, in that order.

This is certainly delusional in the conventional sense, but the concept of delusion, to be coherent, requires the existence of some outside world, capable of judging whether the subject has an accurate orientation to it. But the outside world doesn’t exist for Trump. Calling him “delusional” implies the possibility of correction and reform, which is obviously impossible in this case, because it and we don’t exist for him. So there is, strictly speaking, no delusion: there is merely his deranged ego, which is now swallowing the whole world and everyone in it.

And that above-mentioned, ‘solipsism,’ grants a shitty, shitty rub.
John R. MacArthur, writer, political journalist, president and publisher of “Harper’s Magazine,” tackled ‘solipsism‘ within the T-Rump frame of mind last Saturday at the Guardian (h/t via the Campos piece):

A narcissist, while deeply self-infatuated, nevertheless seeks the approval of others and will occasionally attempt seduction to get what he wants (I think of the French president, Emmanuel Macron). For Trump the solipsist, the only point of reference is himself, so he makes no attempt even at faking interest in other people, since he can’t really see them from his self-centered position.

Trump’s absence of external connection is self-evident: his treatment of the “other” – from his own family to his tenants, his political rivals, the victims of the Los Angeles fires or the displaced people of Gaza – displays not only a lack of empathy, but also an emotional blindness. How else could he tease out loud about dating his own daughter, Ivanka? How else could he so cruelly insult former president Biden in his inauguration address, with Biden seated just a short distance away?

Trump’s solipsistic character was on full display on 20 January in the Capitol Rotunda. After stating, absurdly, that houses had burned “tragically” in Los Angeles “without even a token of defense”, the president seemed to turn philosophical and then appeared to ad-lib: “Some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country … they don’t have a home any longer. That’s interesting.”

[…]

However, it’s a fair bet that Trump the solipsist doesn’t care if his policies fail to help the ordinary people who voted for him, and we anti-Trumpers should fear his supporters’ rage if they conclude that they’ve been duped by their hero. The backlash is more likely to be felt by liberals than by Trump, who will retreat safely to Mar-a-Lago and resume cheating at golf.

While I do tend to mock, rather than fear, Trump’s sound and light show, I don’t mean to make light of his most reckless impulses. There’s always collateral damage when somebody starts a war.

In this case, a shitload of ‘collateral damage‘ on a shitload of people, places, and things.

We might be already in too deep to do anything like a return to innocence:

Humongously self-centered, or not, yet here we are once again …

The image out front is my favorite of the T-Rump mugs. However, ‘favorite‘ does not mean in any form or fashion, as in ‘my favorite movie’ or ‘my favorite song.’ It’s more of an anti-appreciation/like.

And aptly titled, ‘Basic Shapes,‘ by caricaturist/illustrator Chong Jit Leong (and found here), it’s an image that displays the elemental form of a purloined sociopath — a bloated profile of flatulent bile and arrogant ignorance.