Kanye West went to the White House today to meet and have lunch with the President, supposedly about prison reform. Prior to lunch, he and the President held an impromptu press gaggle in the Oval Office. I watched this live, except for the final couple of minutes as I had to take care of something. West, both just speaking off the cuff, as well as taking questions from the White House press corps as if he actually had any idea what he was talking about, was completely out of control. Including referencing his mental health issues and his IQ. Here’s the video of almost the full ten minutes of Kanye ranting and raving about everything from how the 13th Amendment needs to be repealed to do away with slavery (which is what the 13th Amendment does except for, in practical purposes, convicted, incarcerated prisoners), crime and violence in Chicago, manliness, his mental illness, his IQ, and a hydrogen powered airplane among other topics. And Jim Brown was there. I’m not sure why. I’m not sure Jim Brown knew why by the time this was all over.
Warning! This is unpleasant to watch. Warning!
Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle were a bit flabbergasted…
lol this reax from velshi and ruhle is amazing pic.twitter.com/QoJ0WkJS23
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 11, 2018
Apparently so was someone working either for the President or in the White House press corps.
Overheard in the White House press room after reporters left a rambling Oval Office pool spray with President Trump and Kanye West: "Working here is officially insane."
— Andrew Restuccia (@AndrewRestuccia) October 11, 2018
Kanye’s antics have now made him a security threat to the United States.
Every foreign intelligence service just mirrored it https://t.co/c4q1DOknZM
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) October 11, 2018
Who wants to place bets on the number of foreign intelligence services who already managed to clone Kanye’s phone today and will now be using that to intercept calls with POTUS? #BadPassword
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) October 11, 2018
I would not take this bet.
Also, the Oval Office is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. As is much of the West Wing. How in the name of anyone’s Deity or Deities was Kanye allowed to bring his cellphone into the West Wing, let alone the Oval Office? This, in and of itself, is a major security breach. Of course letting a person with untreated mental illness because he’s chosen to stop taking his medication within arms’ length of the President is a major security breach as well.
Star of sex tape married to reality-TV star who broke through with a sex tape praises "male power" of a thrice-married POTUS who cheated on all of his wives — and disses first black President married to his first (and only) wife. But Kanye should be our black role model? GMAFB! https://t.co/EV7bmR0AF1
— Rob GobbleGobble (@RobGeorge) October 11, 2018
Aside from the obvious inanity on display here, mental illness and untreated mental illness is not a joke. If you or a loved one or a close friend needs help, here are some resources:
Here’s the link to the National Institute of Mental Health’s help for mental illnesses page.
Here’s the link to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
Open thread!
JR
Not for nothing, but Louis XIV famously threw open the doors to Versailles to the public.
That of course went badly for his great grandson.
piratedan
iokiyar
Major Major Major Major
And this is why you don’t stop taking your mood stabilizers.
Steve in the ATL
Your own mental health?
Adam L Silverman
@Steve in the ATL: Nope, had to go pick up my Mom’s car for her. I took it in for service while she’s out of town on vacation.
Can retired people actually vacation in the technical sense?
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: I realize his wealth and fame will insulate him, but I honestly don’t know how this type of thing doesn’t necessitate a home welfare check from LA’s equivalent of the Department of Children and Family Services.
satby
And as this democracy circles the drain, Mitch McConnell and the Republican party give each other high fives because they think they can control this. Not a patriot in the entire party.
Mnemosyne
By most accounts, the one person in Kanye’s life who was able to keep him grounded and in treatment was his (late) mother. It sounds like there isn’t anyone in his life right now that he will listen to, and it’s impossible to force someone to be treated unless they are actively suicidal or homicidal and you can convince their doctor to put them on a 72 hour hold.
It’s really sad, and it’s disgusting of the Trump administration to engage in this spectacle.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: unless he’s a ln immediate danger to himself or others…
ruemara
Christ. I mean, this is so damned dangerous. Both of these men are mentally ill. None of them get my sympathy. But for fuck’s sake! No one with the power to do anything is willing to do anything. Fuck.
Raven
@Adam L Silverman: I’ll let you know when we get back from Edisto.
Cheryl Rofer
I’ll join with a number of tweets mentioning mental illness to say that you will have to be more specific about the locus of the untreated mental illness in this video.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
This is all so depressing.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: I would think it is not safe to let him be around his kids.
JenJen
Pete Davidson called this on SNL this week. Davidson also suffers from mental illness, and knew exactly what he was watching when Kanye made that similarly off-the-rails speech following the end of SNL’s season premiere.
Worth a watch if you missed it.
https://youtu.be/ASqnnZpsX1M
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
The whole “male power” part of his rant makes me think that Kim and probably other women in his life have been trying to get him to go back into treatment.
I didn’t think anything could make me feel sorry for Kim Kardashian, but this is probably it.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Yes. They go to a new, different Applebee’s.
#FightTheMonotony
Adam L Silverman
@Raven: Nice.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: Not sure if serious or trolling…//
kindness
So much flop sweat. There is a reason I’ve never watched Reality TV. I prefer my own real life.
Mnemosyne
@Cheryl Rofer:
IIRC, Kanye West has said publicly that he has bipolar disorder but decided to stop taking his medication. It’s in the People magazine link above.
Trump, of course, has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which is a slightly different thing since there’s no medical treatment for it.
Eric U.
Untreated bipolar disorder is really bad. It can have the same symptoms as schizophrenia. I think a lot of the really crazy acting homeless population suffers from bipolar disorder. People with less severe cases think they are much smarter than everyone else, which explains Kanye’s behavior pretty well.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
He’d have to breach a phalanx of Kardashians. We all know this to be unpossible.
Major Major Major Major
@Eric U.: mania is super bad news.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: I don’t think my Mom would be caught dead in an Applebees. She’s scared she’ll bump into David Brooks.
goblue72
@Cheryl Rofer: Based on some recent interviews, West was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which based on those interviews, he admits he has it but also seems to dismiss the need for treatment, calling it his “superpower”. He claims he was diagnosed at age 39, but also had “episodes” when he was a kid. He says he doesn’t get depressed, but also says he has had suicidal thoughts. And that he periodically stops taking his medication – which isn’t uncommon for people with bipolar, who miss the “highs” of their manic episodes.
So, hard to say…but all signs points to a guy with bipolar who doesn’t really want to admit to himself what that actually means.
Fair Economist
You have to be crazy to support Trump. Hope Kanye can get the help he so obviously needs.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: I linked to reporting on that in the post.
SiubhanDuinne
Speaking of untreated mental illness ….
I just finished reading Trump on the Couch by Justin Frank. It is excellent, although if you’re hostile to the building blocks of Freudian analysis, you may find yourself rolling your eyes now and then. But all in all, it’s a pretty comprehensive look at Trump as a psychoanalytic subject, by a guy who knows what he’s talking about.
I wish Frank had written a bit more about Trump as a father. There were a few references to his inappropriate fixation on Ivanka, and young Barron is mentioned en passant, but I don’t think Tiffany or the older boys are even named, let alone discussed, and I think there’s some good fodder there. And I would like to have seen some discussion of Trump’s body language, facial grimaces, and odd gestures. Apart from those omissions, though, I found it a useful and sobering read. Highly recommended.
MattF
I’m not going to watch it. Delusional self-mutilation is not amusing or edifying.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Well then, mom is aces in my book!
I could speak of my inlaws and various restaurant misadventures, but no point mocking the dead. My mom OTOH was always polite and appreciative, but did develop a relentless “too much food” outlook.
donnah
We have family friends whose daughter was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of eight. She’s now in her late twenties and has undergone years of various medical prescription protocols. She lives close to her parents, who try to keep an eye on her and help her when necessary. She’s doing pretty well and manages her meds, but she knows she cannot go without them. I’ve seen her in a manic phase and it’s both frightening and sad. And it was not safe to have Kanye West in the White House when he was unstable.
I know that bipolar disorder is no laughing matter. And we have to recognize that there’s a stigma to mental illness and that needs to be addressed. Until we do that, we’re just going to hear about “crazies” when we should be looking at treatments for those who need it.
Mnemosyne
@Eric U.:
With the caveat that I AM NOT A TRAINED PSYCHOLOGIST OR PSYCHIATRIST, depression that is left untreated for too long can develop psychotic features. That’s one of the reasons African-Americans are frequently misdiagnosed with schizophrenia — they have depression or bipolar disorder that goes untreated for too long, they develop psychosis, and the treating psychiatrists assume they have schizophrenia and don’t properly treat the underlying mood disorder. There seems to be more awareness now, but it still happens.
Gin & Tonic
Hey, come on, at least he’s using a six-digit PIN code, not one of those wimpy four-digit ones.
Villago Delenda Est
Given that Donald has untreated mental illness, why not throw a party?
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: sure…but this has gone beyond grief for his mom. Cause damn…I’ve lost people earlier than anyone expected, and I still grieve every damn day, but I’ll be damned if they grief has caused me to completey shit on what they stood for and fought for and in some cases died for.
He needs fuqn’ help, but that family he married into sure as shit doesn’t seem to care that he does any damn thing…smh..
the mofo said, Black people rely to much on welfare and have no fathers present…MUTHAPHUCKA WHAT!!!
goblue72
@Eric U.: Pretty much. I have worked in the past on developing “supportive housing” which is subsidized housing targeted at the homeless or other special needs individuals that includes on-site social & mental health services. A significant portion of the homeless are dual diagnosis – that is, having a mental illness combined with a substance abuse problem. Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are amongst the more common mental illnesses in that population.
zhena gogolia
When I saw your headline, I assumed you were talking about POTUS. But it’s POTUS and West, okay.
zhena gogolia
@ruemara:
My sentiments exactly.
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
No sympathy for her. Sympathy for the innocent children.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
Oh, I don’t just mean that he’s grieving for his mom. I mean that she was probably the only person in his life who could tell him that he needed to take his medication or could drag him to his doctor’s appointments and he would listen to her.
Now he doesn’t have anyone in his life that he will listen to when they tell him he’s out of control or needs to go back on his medication. And a lot of the people around him just want the train to keep going so they can get paid — they don’t care what happens to him as long as they can make money off him. So he just gets worse and worse.
lamh36
@lamh36: Oh, and I’ve lived with my mother for 30 + years, who has bipolar disorder. Like many, she does not medicate, she just weathers her high and lows without medication….I love my mother, but my formative years were shaped by her bipolar moods, and even though I don’t suffer from mental illness or bipolar disorder, my siblings have all had issue with mental disease…even having not suffered myself, it shapes you regardless.
The West/Kardashian kids are alredy being brought up in a house of at least 1/2 of which are narcissist, and couple with Kanye and Kim being in the celeb bubble…I pray those kids have SOMEONE, a nannay perhaps to weather them through.
SFAW
I could only make it to the 28-second mark. Infinite universes? “In another universe, I am him”?
Good Christ.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic:
One needs to be thankful for small things.
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
At the salad bar, no doubt.
Brachiator
@Fair Economist:
I think that’s the 2020 Trump campaign slogan.
MattF
@lamh36:
Philip Larkin:
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
Adam L Silverman
@SFAW: But of course.
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
I have sympathy for her. I doubt she knew how severe his issues were when she married him, and she doesn’t seem to have the psychological or family resources to either help him or leave him.
boatboy_srq
There are no more norms.
There is only insanity, and the depths it plumbs.
Steve in the ATL
@lamh36:
Uh, which party in that marriage do you contend is NOT a narcissist?
Janelle Pritchard
Seattle independent radio KEXP is having it’s annual Music Heals with a focus on depression and anxiety. The DJs play songs that they and the listeners say help them through their own hard phases. You can stream the station online; the music is “college radio” alt rock/rap/soul/country/etc.
http://www.kexp.org
lamh36
@Steve in the ATL: I mean the Kardashian clan as a whole. One of the sisters “seems” to have her head a bit less narcissitic than the others
boatboy_srq
@satby: Their bolt holes in Aruba and Grand Cayman are safe enough.
lamh36
Ok…open thread…first something I read that made me sad for a bit, but ultimately it’s a good thing for the familhy.
20 years! I mean they were right to be worried. But dang. glad to hear they can finally lay him to rest!
Sister Golden Bear
@lamh36: Speaking as someone who was in a relationship with someone who was bipolar, if they don’t want treatment, it’s damn near impossible to force them to get it unless they reach the “harm to self or harm to other” stage, and even then it’s a 72-hour hold and they’re back out again.
VeniceRiley
I’m with Betty. But now I want to marry Adam’s mom, so this hasn’t been entirely too depressing a thread.
lamh36
I’m sure Anne or Betty have a thread already to go on ForeverFLOTUS Michelle Obama on the Today Show, but ICYMI:
And here is the YouTube ad annoucing the Global Girls Alliance!
Welcome to the Global Girls Alliance https://youtu.be/E-nIJDHWBkI via @YouTube
Michelle Obama and Aretha Franklin…can’t go wrong with that!
Roger Moore
@goblue72:
I’m always suspicious that a large fraction of those dual diagnosis people have substance abuse problems because they’re trying to self-medicate. I’m sure some of that is counterproductive- their choice of medication is actually making their problems worse rather than better- but the substance abuse shouldn’t be understood as a separate problem from the mental illness but something deeply entangled with it. And, of course, all of this needs to be tied back to the need for universal health care; plenty of those people only started to self-medicate because they couldn’t afford proper diagnosis and treatment.
rp
Guess who Greenwald is attacking in all of this!?!
MattF
@rp: Hillary.
rp
@MattF: Oooo…I’m sorry, but no. A great guess though.
Roger Moore
@rp:
Obama?
trollhattan
@rp:
So, Chelsea then?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rp: Diane Feinstein.
rp
Come on people — it’s CNN! They’re endangering mentally ill people by criticizing Kanye or something.
Mnemosyne
@boatboy_srq:
Sure, until they realize that food has to be brought in because a small tropical island can’t grow enough to support its population.
lamh36
Good on T.I. for trying to help his community…what is Kayne doing…HE AINT’ DOING SHIT!
Schlemazel
Why would foreign intel need Kanye’s phone to capture Dump’s? They already HAVE his line well bugged. You may recall e refused a secure phone as a candidate and after the election.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: They don’t think that far ahead. See also, the tactics they’re using right now. You can’t hide from consequences any more.
@rp: It would be too much to hope Greenwald is attacking Bolsonaro, who’d be the actual danger to him.
LuciaMia
Even the Orange Brillo Head looks a little non-plussed.
Schlemazel
@Adam L Silverman:
no worries. Applebees is so far beneath a man of David Brooks station in life that he would never even enter the parking lot
The Moar You Know
Kanye is the perfect companion to Trump. Takes credit for other’s work, licenses his name to be slapped on anything, and completely deluded. And Trump must be over the moon, he’s got a token black friend who is all for reinstating slavery.
The worst thing here though, is the obvious presence of multiple cell phones in a SCIF. I’ve been in several, and each time was told I’d better make sure I didn’t have one on me by accident or I’d be taking a short trip to a detention facility.
Guess all that’s out the window.
geg6
@goblue72:
This sort of behavior is common among those with bipolar. My late oldest brother (fuck cancer) had it. Billy was a very intelligent guy but he completely lost it when he was in a manic phase. He pretty much zoned out when depressed. I hated that he wouldn’t come out of his room when depressed, but the mania was impossible to deal with. He also would have moments of grandeur when he decided he didn’t need his meds and how they were messing up his beautiful mind. And having been a medic in the Navy and pharmacy major in college just made that all the worse because he was convinced he was the world’s foremost authority on when or if he should be medicated. It’s a really difficult life to have bipolar and also to have to try to live with or love someone with it. No one is doing Yeezy any favors by allowing him to continue like this. He’s going to hit bottom at some point and it won’t be pretty when he does. It finally happened with my brother when we had to have him involuntarily hospitalized. It took a lot to finally meet the legal threshold for that to happen, but it saved my brother’s life (only to have cancer take it, but many years later). The Kardashians will have a lot to answer for if they don’t do something and stop enabling this.
lamh36
Now see what I heard from Eric Holder was I aint’ Barack, so …
japa21
Our church held a funeral mass this morning for a 14 year old boy who committed suicide. No, mental health is not a laughing matter.
japa21
@lamh36: Fake outrage is the only kind of outrage the right can manufacture.
TriassicSands
@Mnemosyne:
You need to save your sympathy for Melania Trump — the most bullied person in the world.
One has to wonder if being rich and a celebrity causes mental illness. Trump thinks West was “impressive.” I suppose by Trumpian standards that might be true. I’ve known people who were bipolar and I’ve seen them off their meds. West looked and sounded like that.
Every photo I’ve seen of Mrs. Trump on her recent “diplomatic” jaunt looked like someone in a fashion photo shoot. Someone people the world over can relate to.
lamh36
@Sister Golden Bear: ABSOLUTELY right!
JPL
Trump had no problem using the rants on a mentally ill man for his entertainment.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@TriassicSands: I’ll send her thoughts and prayers
The Moar You Know
@lamh36: I like a guy who calls bullshit, bullshit.
Jeffro
@trollhattan: win
jl
It was a true meeting of the minds.
In the news clip, Ruhle noted that WH is lying that it was ‘just a lunch’.
It was a planned PR stunt to get attention, it worked about as well as anything else the WH does, and the result was just what a normal person would expect.
I think Kanye is more coherent than Trump. There is some daffy but coherent illogic to the BS. Somewhat higher level than Trump’s word salads.
Mnemosyne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Always a woman’s fault for Glenn. ?
MattF
@TriassicSands: More likely the other way around– being a rich celebrity makes it more likely that you’re suffering some sort of mental illness. Bear in mind who Melania chose to marry.
Gravenstone
I just caught the headline teaser that CNN was running about this meeting, and that was enough to get me swearing. West’s decision to stop medicating is bad enough (and obviously no one appears to have the power to change his mind at present), but the fact he’s being embraced by Trump because he (West) has gotten so unhinged is basically tragic. All because it feeds into Trump’s bottomless ego.
The Moar You Know
@TriassicSands: So did I. I don’t mean that in a positive way, though.
Duane
Know what’s crazier than Kanye West at the White House? Trump inviting him. Another in a endless series of unforced errors by this hapless administration.
Doug R
@Adam L Silverman: Now I am anticipating hearing the news that Kayne has been put on a 30 day or 90 day observational hold.
jl
@Duane: Also Trump being president is crazier.
Schlemazel
@TriassicSands:
HEY! She married the bully, too late for her to start crying about how much he bullies her now!
Gravenstone
@Adam L Silverman: She’s safe as long as she avoids the salad bar.
Mnemosyne
@TriassicSands:
There is no violin tiny enough to express the amount of sympathy I have for Melania. Kim at least married a talented, charismatic person, which puts her a few steps up over Melania in the gold digger sweeps.
lamh36
I admit I’ve been avoiding all mention of Kavanugh sincre Friday, so ya know I didn’t watch any footage of that bullshit swearing in w/Chump, but someone elsewhere posted it, and now I cannot unsee it.
I’m no body language expert, but mahn…Kavanaugh’s wife’s body language is screaming out loud.
Check out the clip…do you see it too?
raven
@japa21: It wouldn’t be manufactured if it were not fake.
John Revolta
Mike Pence better start looking over his shoulder.
lamh36
@Adam L Silverman: Your mom sounds like a hoot Adam.
Schlemazel
@lamh36:
not gonna do it. I saw how she was at the hearing and she might just as well been waving red flags
ruemara
@lamh36: Yes. There’s a lot going on there that sets off my warning signals.
jl
Science of alpha males in chimpanzees. And a little of what little we know about alpha females.
The surprising science of alpha males | Frans de Waal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPsSKKL8N0s
Two of the most important roles of an alpha: impartiality in keeping the peace, and providing empathy and emotional support.
Not a bully or a braggart. Not a divider.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: And Kim arguable had MORE money than Kanye does! So gold digger doesn’t even fit her category
eclare
@lamh36: Oh gawd, that was awful! The way he forcibly put his hands all over her, the aggressive pats on the back…I hope she takes those girls and gets far, far away from him.
PhoenixRising
@geg6:
He also would have moments of grandeur when he decided he didn’t need his meds and how they were messing up his beautiful mind. And having been a medic in the Navy and pharmacy major in college just made that all the worse because he was convinced he was the world’s foremost authority on when or if he should be medicated.
eclare
@lamh36: I was going to say, I don’t think she is the gold digger in that relationship.
Doug R
@rp:
It’s Obama’s fault, of course. Even if it was Bush.
Chyron HR
“This was the moment Trump and/or Yeezy truly became president.” – CNN, probably
lamh36
Like someone said, why just the women? Someone should maybe ask ole Mittens bout this…huh?
Mart
@SFAW: I did not make it past the 5 second mark.
Chyron HR
@lamh36:
Yeah, well, fuck you* lady, your husband is going to be assaulting the entire country from now on so maybe you should have said something last week.
* Not you, her.
jl
@lamh36: That did not look good.
Doug R
@lamh36: Yeah, she’s scared and the flinching makes me think she’s been hit.
germy
Comment on The Root
Cacti
@Mnemosyne:
With bipolar patients, it’s also notoriously difficult to get them to stick with treatment, because a lot of them end up missing the energetic/euphoric feeling they used to get from their manic cycles.
jl
@Doug R: Disturbing interaction between them.
Yutsano
@Chyron HR: Please. She knows what her role is. She shat out her two spawn. Now she is supposed to play the Good Wife without embarrassing her husband no matter what he’s done or is doing. She knows he’s a raging drunk. She knows he lied his ass off at the hearings. But she’s had it drilled into her since childhood that her only proper role is Good Wife.
Sympathy level: negative.
Has anyone mentioned her even having a career?
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
His mental health is taken as a positive by shitgibbon. Being as he’s about as healthy. Normal is very long way off for either.
germy
@Yutsano:
Kav met her when she was working in the WBush white house.
jl
in other disturbing interaction news, look like Commerce Sec Ross lied about origin of census citizenship question issue, and veiled language about partisan Congressional electoral implications at the very start of it.
Ross Admits Bannon Put Him In Touch With Kobach To Talk Census Citizenship Question
Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, talks about the approaching midterm election during an interview…
By Tierney Sneed, TPM
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/bannon-put-ross-in-touch-with-kobach-to-talk-census-citizenship-question-doj-admits
lamh36
@Yutsano: Last I recall reading was that she was a GWB admin secretary or something like that? Her and Kavanaugh have only been married 14 years? Dont’ know if she worked after marriage or nah?
Duane
@jl: Now I’m wondering what’s crazier, Trump or West as President. It is, as some say, a puzzlement.
bluehill
Don’t know what’s up with Ye, but he fits nicely into Rs black/young voter suppression strategy. Trying to dissuade a some number of voters of going to the polls coupled with their other more obvious suppression tactics along with Pascale’s on-going social media efforts and it could make a difference in close races.
BroD
So, I give a $#[% about KW–I’m focused on the midterms. I’m thinking it’s not a bad thing.
Yutsano
@germy: I’m talking about now. Did she go total Hausfrau upon marriage? Did she do what the supposed good Catholic girls do and leave work for home and husband?
@lamh36: There’s timing in there for her to have left her post in that 14 years. I’m just curious how much of that was voluntary and how much was forced on her.
Schlemazel
@Yutsano:
As of 2018, Kavanaugh serves as town manager of the village of Chevy Chase Section Five, Maryland, a job she does mostly from home; her annual salary is $66,000. She has held the appointed position since at least 2016.
What she did between leaving Boy Blunder in 2010 and 2016 I have no clue
germy
@Yutsano: She serves as town manager of the village of Chevy Chase Section Five, Maryland, a job she does mostly from home; her annual salary is $66,000.[3] She has held the appointed position since at least 2016.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Estes_Kavanaugh
EDIT: or as schlemazel says above.
Ruckus
@lamh36:
Sister is by all rights bipolar, but she belongs to a cult which does not believe in psychiatrists. So she will never be diagnosed nor treated. Nor admit she even has a problem at all.
germy
Town manager of Chevy Chase Section Five.
Must be a grueling position. She must be exhausted by the end of the day.
Olivia
@lamh36: As of 2018, Ashley Kavanaugh serves as town manager of the village of Chevy Chase Section Five, Maryland, a job she does mostly from home; her annual salary is $66,000.[3] She has held the appointed position since at least 2016.[4]
ruemara
@germy: Career submissive to evil is trapped in evil relationship. And has cushy job. Whatevs, lady. Enjoy your bed.
trollhattan
Speaking of the mentally ill–this guy.
“Federal authorities were holding a New York man who they said planned to blow himself up on Washington’s National Mall on Election Day in November to promote his ideology that requires government leaders to be randomly selected.”
Bang.
Schlemazel
Dow took another enormous dump today. It is going to become conventional wisdom that this was caused by the threat of a blue wave in 3 weeks.
germy
@Olivia: Schlemazel beat us to it.
mozzerb
@lamh36: Wow. I thought she looked sad but supportive during his rant at the committee hearing, but that clip was something else and did not look good. Maybe it just took a while for it all to sink in.
lamh36
https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1050479523660218368
Now what I heard Hilary say was…
https://media.giphy.com/media/IQmuEmQ11AMH6/giphy.gif
divF
@Major Major Major Major: During the 1994 California governor’s election, there was a button going around that read “5150 Pete Wilson”. I once had a street person who was wearing such a button try to explain to me what 5150 meant. I got the sense he had personal experience to draw on.
For non-Californians, 5150 is the section of the California code that allows 72-hour holds.
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
So, Hubbard-curious then? At least it takes care of all that pesky spare cash.
FlipYrWhig
Say, is it possible that Donald Trump wasn’t altogether sincere when he took issue with Hillary Clinton’s information security practices? :/
Enhanced Voting Techniques
so West is really bonkers and not just snark? Wow, it can always getting lower with Trump.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
One wonders if a #MeToo moment is coming for the mainstream LDS church. They do have that perfect combination of top-down control and strict patriarchy that breeds those kinds of problems, just like the Catholic Church does.
germy
From Kanye’s speech:
I used to live next door to a neuropsychologist. I never knew there was such a profession until I met him. I could never figure out if he was smart or the biggest crank.
Can anyone here explain?
lamh36
Somebody said Fleetwood Mac’s drama is gonna out live us all…and they might be right!
nd https://rol.st/2CDwjAy
https://twitter.com/RollingStone/status/1050478675932590080
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
They’re really adroit at controlling their flock and hiding their secrets. But I’m sure there are plenty of those (nasty secrets).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@FlipYrWhig:
Can’t get anything by you.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
So was the Catholic Church, until the dam finally broke.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@germy: UCLA has a Neuropsychiatric Institute(NPI), Mr. West has been a patient.
Mary G
I have never had a better idea than my decision to stop watching cable TV news after Twitler was elected.
Brachiator
@lamh36:
This sounds like something from out of the Handmaid’s Tale. A religion in America can dictate to all its women members?
And, as you note, this does not apply to men at all?
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard should bring Kanye Krazy to open for his next pep rally in Alabama or Mississippi. The crowd will riot.
lamh36
lamh36
Ugh…this is disgusting…and doesn’t help Beto in the court of public opinion…Avenatti…should stop this and step da fuq back!
ETA:
Doug R
@divF: Learned that 5150 was a escaped mental patient when Van Galen’s album of that name came out-the one where they fired David Lee Roth.
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
LDS has no Pope Frank. The new (as of January) guy in charge is effing ninety-three and am willing to bet #MeToo is something with which he will not up put.
Now, if some grand jury in a state not named Utah would care to dig in, then I’m objectively all for it.
jl
@Schlemazel: so far, it may just be the second big correction since Trump took office. I’m guesstimating that the first one, Jan earlier this year, after the great GOP tax heist bill, was the market correction from evaluating the tax heist’s effects and realized corporate valuations should be higher due to lower corporate taxes, but nothing at all in raising productivity or higher corporate profits from a substantial macroeconomic boost to demand.
This one, if it stays a correction, may be due to more accurate estimates of the cost of Trump’s ignoramus trade war coming into view.
So, far these corrections are good in that they keep the trend in growth of stock market indices very much in line with growth of the economy since the beginning of the recovery, except for the near growth recession from early 2015 to mid 2016.
The widely touted stock market boom was only bit of the Trump economic miracle with any data behind it at all, but that is fizzling out, as it should have if Trump essentially has had no impact on the real economy (and he hasn’t yet, the tax heist hasn’t yet)
Trump is already running around blaming Fed Chair Powell by name. But he is a Yellen mini-me, not a Trumpster at all, and very competent. He is doing an expert job at carrying out long term Yellen plan of gradually raising rates at slow enough rate to keep bond yield curve from inverting, while keeping inflation as low as possible. Whether that is the best strategy is debatable. Trump will blame Powell if we have a big correction, and that will be BS.
mad citizen
@SiubhanDuinne: Way upthread but since no one else commented–I really appreciate that you read this book for the rest of us and summarized it here. It’s a great service of this blog the amount of info coming in from jackals. Myself, it’s such a nightmare/trainwreck/shitshow that I really do try to minimize the amount of time given to the guy, as far as hearing his name, saying his name, hearing his voice, etc. So unlikely I’ll read this book anytime soon. But again, I thank you for reporting on it.
Elizabelle
The things you miss when you’re on a news blackout.
Poor Kanye. I hope he gets some mental health treatment. It cannot be easy, being bipolar and marrying into that family of Kardahshian grifters.
MomSense
Trump is desperate to be culturally relevant so of course he wanted a little celebrity glow to rub off on him. The problem is that Kanye’s mental state is so unstable that this trump PR stunt quickly veered off into irresponsible exploitation.
I haven’t watched the whole video and I’m not going to diagnose from a distance but I will say that I’m extremely concerned for Kanye and his family.
I’m also really upset that his SNL appearance and now this will fuel a kind of ridicule that is not helpful to efforts to minimize stigma and to help people seek treatment.
It is just devastating how entrenched the idea that “the real you” is only possible without medication. If the real you were diabetic or asthmatic, would you really refuse treatment? I’m also fucking sick of this notion that mental illness and genius are somehow connected. If anything, mental illness makes it a lot more difficult, sometimes impossible, to pursue your art. Madness does not fuel genius.
mad citizen
@jl: @jl: Isn’t it weird that no one talks about the budget deficit or national debt any longer?
Immanentize
@mad citizen: They will if they retain the House in their effort to gut social security and Medicare
West of the Rockies
@lamh36:
Oh, damn…. Yes, she does look like someone expecting to be hit.
Mnemosyne
@MomSense:
Kanye himself has stated publicly that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and decided to stop taking his medication, so I don’t think we need to rely on internet diagnosis to figure out what’s going on with him.
lamh36
ICYMI:
Shakti
@lamh36: I don’t get why he’s manhandling her in public. It’s not smooth. He wants to look affectionate (a family man hugging his wife and daughters) but she looks very uncomfortable as he moves her around like human prop furniture. They will never get divorced as long as he has this job because being Mrs. Associate Justice Sniffledrunk Calendar is prestige (and money) beyond her wildest dreams. The secondary gains she has right now are at its apex.
As I’ve said before she worked for GWB for many years, so it’s not like she doesn’t know how to handle drunkards, dry or not.
Mnemosyne
@MomSense:
Also, your rant about artistic genius and mental illness not being connected is co-signed. I really think that’s one of the most pernicious myths out there. The fact that a scant few people have been able to battle past their mental illness to produce art doesn’t mean that it’s a good thing or necessary to produce art. There were many, many more artists with mental illness who were unable to overcome those obstacles and died in obscurity.
lamh36
They can’t just win fairly, so they have to cheat…FUQers!
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne:
At the recent Small Press Expo in Bethesda, one of the cartoonists was a young African American man, Lawrence Lindell, whose book was entitled “Couldn’t Afford Therapy So I Made This.” That’s not snark. It’s literally what he did; draw and write it out.
He did not have enough copies. We can buy a copy via this link. Buy his books. Throughtful, wonderful young guy, outta Oakland CA. We should throw him some cash.
http://www.lawrencelindell.com
Also, Mnemo, FWIW, I know you know that ADHD can have emotional lability as a concurrent condition.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
Ay-up, I do unfortunately know that from experience. The medications that help my ADHD also help calm that tendency down, but it can still jump through if I’m blindsided by something or let myself get too emotionally worked up about, say, politics, which I’m trying not to do right now. I’m better than I was pre-medication, at least.
It’s also fairly common for mood disorders to be comorbid with ADHD. I don’t seem to have that issue (phew!) but my husband’s nephew (ie not someone genetically related to me) has comorbid bipolar disorder and ADHD, just like his father.
chopper
000000? that’s the combination to my luggage!
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
Just as with Melania, we can say (and many are saying) of Mrs Kavanaugh that she’s an enabler, she can leave any time, and that’s possibly true. And she may be a terrible person in her own right — I certainly have very little sympathy for a woman who would be attracted to a Bart O’Kavanaugh in the first place.
But dear gods, she looked petrified with fear. The way he manhandled her. That death grip on her shoulder. The way he whacked her on the back. The way he shoved her out of the way. And the body language and forced smile and HER EYES during that whole thing. She may vote wrong, but damn that is one miserable woman.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
Right but if someone has bipolar schizoaffective disorder they may just call it bipolar disorder. And of course there is a difference between type 1 and type 2 bipolar disorder.
Steve in the ATL
@Doug R:
Schoolyard insult or innocent typo?
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
That it does. And not curious, all in. For decades.
Ladyraxterinok
@Yutsano: She worked for W when he was gov. Was secretary or some such to W as pResident. That’s how she met Kav, both wotking for W.
SRW1
@lamh36:
The young girl, who I understand is Kavanaugh’s youngest daughter, is an equal tell. The WH ceremony is to celebrate the biggest day of her dad, and what the young girl is doing pretty much all the time is trying to connect with her mother to check whether she’s OK. Gut wrenching.
Ken Shabby
@Adam L Silverman:
When commenting here, yes – it’s a splendid opportunity.
Ken Shabby
And, if I may, a simple sentence:
Trump consistently gaslights “crazy people”. Not my slur; his.
That’s the entire idea: prey on the vulnerable.
Gaslighting Is manufacturing ‘crazy’. Stealing the truth is the same as stealing someone’s grip on where they’ve been, where they’re going and, where they are. We all call it ‘bullshit’ but, it’s really much more dangerous, focused and premeditated (instinctive or otherwise) in method, target, application and outcome.
Kanye is a perfect example of vulnerable, low self esteem narssisst meets toxic, narssisstic psychopath. Very similar to all three of Trump’s marriages and, very similar to his relationships with Everybody.
Kanye needs help; Trump needs an orange jump suit and some oatmeal.
Gaslighting destroys the vulnerable. That’s the whole point.
J R in WV
@mad citizen:
You seriously mean to say that the Great America is in debt today? HOW can this be true? And a budget deficit, with America’s Republican Party, the great and responsible party of responsible budgeting, in charge of the national government????
HOW can this be true???
//s
ETA: really, did anyone need a sarcasm clue here? Tell me!
Ken Shabby
This is Trump:
https://youtu.be/P_GtqCkWnGc
Mnemosyne
@MomSense:
Well, sure, but I didn’t think anyone was trying to get that granular in internet diagnosing Kanye. I’m just trying to say that he himself has publicly said that he has stopped taking medication for what he says is bipolar disorder, so we don’t really need to debate whether or not he has an ongoing mental health issue. He says that he does, and I don’t see any reason to doubt him.
jc
Watching Kanye ramble semi-coherently looked a lot like watching Trump ramble semi-coherently. He’s pontificating wildly very much like Trump does – holding court while making very little sense. I’ll take a pass on both of them.
Ken Shabby
@lamh36:
This:
https://youtu.be/8d2KByRYYIc
And, this:
https://youtu.be/H2GI0PhRjD8
And also, this:
https://youtu.be/YSZJFWn7OM4
Which is not…that group.
jl
@jc: From the bit I could stand to watch, West sounds crazy, but at least he can string some logic, usually flawed logic, across three or four sentences. He can progress through a few sentences that form, usually a very bad, argument. In those respects, far better than Trump.
Elie
Agnosonosia. That is when a bipolar or other mentally ill person lacks insight which leads to not thinking that they need treatment or meds. It is very typical and many times tragic leading to acute exacerbation of the mental conditions including hospitalizations and suicide attemps. He can very truly wreck his life and miss opportunity for making himself better. I am married to a bipolar man who denies his disease. He is walled up in a profound loneliness that he cannot breach and yet won’t allow himself to risk.
For many regular folks w mental illness they can end up homeless on the streets It’s tragic but the snickering behind our hands reveals the fear and contempt our society has for serious mental illness. As humans with heart we have to hope that he gets help before the inevitable crash
Hob
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the shout-out to Lawrence! I know him a bit – and his girlfriend, also a cartoonist, Breena Nuñez – they are both lovely and talented people.
Procopius
@Adam L Silverman:
That’s something she doesn’t have to worry about. Brooks has never been in an Applebees.