I have a simple question I use to judge if someone is a malignant narcissist: can I imagine this person really singing the hell out of Doll Parts by Hole? The song is ostensibly about Courtney Love’s feelings towards Kurt Cobain, but it also frankly relates her narcissism — both the childish desire (“I want to be the girl with the most cake”) and the pain that comes when that desire can’t be satisfied (“Someday you will ache like I ache”). Love says she wrote the song in 20 minutes in a bathroom, in Sharpie, on her arm.
Modern Republicanism is all about malignant narcissism: lashing out and inflicting pain at any injury, real or imagined. More well-adjusted human beings at least try to keep their inner narcissist on a leash. These guys have learned that giving voice to their psychic wounds allows them to connect to their supporters, also narcissists.
Lest you think the Doll Parts test is only about women, let’s start with Sam Alito, who I think would be a karaoke star with the song. Last week at a “religious liberty” conference, Alito had his 20 minutes in a bathroom moment:
[…] Alito for the first time publicly spoke about the decision he wrote in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which he characterized during his remarks as the case “whose name may not be spoken.”“I had the honor this term of writing I think the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law,” Alito said.
“One of these was former [United Kingdom] prime minister Boris Johnson. But he paid the price,” Alito joked, to applause from the crowd.
“He paid the price” — this guy thinks he’s the king of all the world. With an ego like that, my guess is that Alito himself is the Supreme leaker. As the guy who wrote Dobbs, he’s definitely the one who got the most cake, but he’s not satisfied, and he has to parade his open wounds in public.
Similarly, fucking Susan Collins and her bullshit about the veterans and gay marriage bills that John wrote about yesterday. Susan his been in so many centrist “gangs” over the years, getting far more media attention than a mediocre Senator like her deserves. As Courtney Love wrote, “Yeah they really want you, they really do.” That’s the past. Even the normally clueless DC press corpse is now is clued in to her bullshit, and most of the attention she’s getting is negative. So she’s lashing out and hurting others.
Unfortunately for us, this new trend of narcissists lashing out publicly isn’t just for Republicans. Consider so-called Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. I haven’t posted anything about the Manchin-Schumer deal because I have a real “girl with the most cake” feeling about her. Her Instagram fuck you and her thumbs down vote on the minimum wage are two indicators of her inner child, who is probably feeling very injured at the moment, since she wasn’t consulted on the Manchin/Schumer compromise. She skipped a caucus meeting on the bill and hasn’t committed to vote for it publicly. I have a feeling we may all ache like she aches.
On The Road – Kabecoo – Botswana 3
comrade scotts agenda of rage
A commenter yesterday won the internet with this comment and it bears repeating here:
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
Quick note before I read the whole post: When I took my younger son to SF to interview for college in 2005 we had dinner at an Italian restaurant one night. We found ourselves eavesdropping on a nearby table as one of the guys regaled the other with tales from when he’d been Courtney Love’s manager. We kept trying not to listen, but she was such a trainwreck it was hard not to. We found ourselves disgusted and sad for her, and agreed afterward not to speak about what we’d heard. I felt so bad for her that this asshole was spreading her most personal details all over a public restaurant for the entertainment of his companion.
What a sad character.
Betty Cracker
Although I’ve believed “Live Through This” was the best album of the 1990s for decades now, it had never occurred to me to apply its themes to gauge the level of malignant narcissism present in public figures. But you know what? It works.
Valued commenter Baud and others speculated yesterday that Sinema might not be willing to be the only turd in the punchbowl (my phrasing, not theirs). We shall see. I won’t breathe a sigh of relief until the reconciliation bill is on its way to Biden’s desk.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of malignant narcissists, here’s an excerpt of the demand letter Trump’s lawyers sent to CNN to try to get the network to stop using the phrase “Big Lie” to refer to Trump’s big fat lies about the 2020 election:
What a pathetic fucking crybaby.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Yesterday, there was a reception here for a guy who was retiring. He was the guy you went to when you wanted something done because he knew everything. It was jammed. There’s covid in this building, but only a handful of us wore masks. A woman came up and asked why we were wearing them. I was floored.
Anyway
Blast from the past! Attended many early Lollapaloozas with Courtney Love and Hole as headliners/featured artists… good times.
Starfish
When it was coming out of Courtney Love’s mouth, it was in the context of grrrl power. It is so much more sinister when world leaders are like this.
Also, I love how young women are killing eating disorders while killing the Victoria’s Secret brand with this jam.
germy shoemangler
@Betty Cracker:
“My client is not a liar. He’s simply delusional.”
Wilson Heath
Leave it to a former Green Party member to torpedo the best climate bill possible in this Senate. Ralph must be so proud.
Spanky
@Betty Cracker: If they can’t be the only turd, it’s not worth the effort.
Fucking Alito. I didn’t post the link to the WaPo article yesterday because it was so enraging. Besides the dripping sanctimony and lib-taunting, he’s now sporting a bow tie a la Tucker and a scruffy beard a la Bannon. I assume he’s calibrated his look to be as annoying as possible.
Spanky
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
“I’m not sure that what I’m exhaling is safe.”
lowtechcyclist
And his desire to run in 2024 is all about his butthurt over 2020. To the extent that his people have any policies at all (e.g. decapitate the civil service), they’re all about getting back at those he believes wronged him.
Totally off the deep end. And who in the Republican Party will cross him, besides those (like Cheney and Kinzinger) who have already been anathematized?
bbleh
Pretty overtly misogynistic too. His wife must be seriously miserable …
Lapassionara
@Betty Cracker: I think his lawyers’ assertions here are aimed at Merrick Garland and the Jan 6 committee. If Trump really believed the election was stolen, then the “knowingly” part of several possible criminal charges would be missing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Spanky: I suspect that’s actually true. I think she thought we were sick and came to the party anyway, which makes me wonder if she’d do that.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
Not to mention that he’s lying about the lying, as the 1/6 hearings have proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@geg6: He was certainly told over and over again that he lost, even on election night. If he chose to ignore that, it’s on him
geg6
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Exactly. As Liz so hilariously pointed out, he’s an old man, not a toddler.
germy shoemangler
sarcasm:
zhena gogolia
I guess I’ll wait to see what she does before I go into mourning. I have enough problems that are already here
Matt McIrvin
We have people in the government who are in some cases impossible to unelect, who are starting to openly and contemptuously act like they are King of America, and who are seemingly intent on foreclosing on all rights except for an imaginary right of armed revolution.
Forget what I think, I’m not gonna do anything. What do they think the endpoint of all this is? Just “the shit won’t go down until after I’m dead”?
Spanky
@germy shoemangler: “What did Hunter know about Bengazi, and when did he know it?”
All about the clicks, baby.
germy shoemangler
@Spanky:
I’d like to see the various ventures of Jared Kushner get a bit more coverage, but it (the beltway press) is what it is.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I heard this song in the car on Sirius yesterday. The screen displays the album cover for each song. My little one asked, “Is she dressed up as a queen?” Ha. I also explained she was married to the Nirvana leader. The naked baby group.
Baud
The best reason to pack the Court is to piss Alito off.
germy shoemangler
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
The naked baby grew up and attempted a lawsuit because he was embarrassed by the album cover. It didn’t last long.
Betty Cracker
@Old Dan and Little Ann: That former baby filed a lawsuit a couple of years back, IIRC correctly. I think it was dismissed
ETA: What germy said.
Starfish
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Didn’t this song came out the same year as her husband’s suicide?
Ella in New Mexico
@Betty Cracker:
Except we basically have him and the Cabal on tape explicitly saying they know he didn’t but we’re just gonna do whatever it took to keep his stank-ass on the throne.
Layer8Problem
I had the final chorus of “Violet” as one of my cell ringtones for awhile years ago. My coworkers found it a bit jarring. It’s still my “when you absolutely, positively have to wake up” cell alarm clock sound.
Sinema’s got that “I get what I want and I never want it again” petulance about her. Let’s see if she feels that way when she doesn’t get a second term as Senator.
TerryTime
@Baud: Yes! He overturned Roe because he’s still pissy that Princeton went coed.
Wapiti
@Baud: :nods: I think we should just keep adding additional justices to the court, 2 at a time, until he quits.
Starfish
@Layer8Problem: That song was flipping the phrasing on people who were scaring girls about losing their virginity. “If you give a dude what he wants, then he will never want it again” so she takes it and totally flips it into getting what she wants and never wanting it again. “What if *gasp* women have desires?”
insert clever nickname here mistermix
@Betty Cracker:
Courtney Love is underrated, and Nirvana is overrated IMO. In our household, it’s gotten to the point that all I say to my wife is “she wants to be the girl with the most cake” and that’s all that needs to be said.
@KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)): At some point in her addiction, she had a doc in LA who would prescribe her injectable valium. What a roller coaster her career and life has been. She wrote a song “Miss Narcissist” a few years back. Too on the nose, IMO, “Doll Parts” already had that covered.
Immanentize
@Lapassionara:
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
“Willful blindness” in federal criminal law is equal to “knowingly.”
These issues do not end with a subjective statement of “I didn’t know that.”
Matt McIrvin
@TerryTime: My wife gets the Dartmouth alumni magazine. The number of letters they get from people who are still pissed off that Dartmouth went coed is amazing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Lapassionara:
You don’t get a pass on “knowingly” by simply refusing to believe facts. “I believed that I should be rich and society owed me money” doesn’t cut it as a defense to bank robbery.
Danielx
@Betty Cracker:
Said it before – Trump does not / cannot believe he lost because he does not lose at anything, ever. If he appears to lose, it can only be because of nefarious forces.
I’d say he is a remarkable collection of personality disorders, but I’m just tired of the malignant old bastard and wish he would just go away. Go back to Mar A Lago to marinate in bile for the next decade, die, retire to a tropical island – don’t care, just go away.
Of course, seeing him spending the next decade in an 8×10 box as a guest of the state would be okay too.
Immanentize
@Matt McIrvin:
All of them from Dinesh D’Souza?
WaterGirl
@Starfish: I almost didn’t look at that. That’s great, thanks for sharing it!
Starfish
@WaterGirl: I keep desperately trying to turn this into one of the old DougJ music threads, and everyone else wants to talk about some dude wearing a robe and being a villain.
Omnes Omnibus
Also, Violet is a better song.
Immanentize
@Starfish: Tony Soprano?
Betty Cracker
@germy shoemangler: The thing that pisses me off about the Hunter Biden coverage is that we know for a fact Trump corruptly used his office to line his pockets, and we have definitive evidence that he cheated on his taxes. So why should we give a fuck that Hunter Biden, someone who is NOT president, possibly traded on his family name or owed money to the IRS?
I mean, if Hunter Biden committed a crime, he should be charged, and if he underpaid his taxes, he should pay what he owes with any applicable penalties and interest. And yes, that would be a legit story to cover if it happens, but it would still be insignificant compared to a sitting POTUS pouring taxpayer dollars into his pockets and cheating on his taxes.
Layer8Problem
@Omnes Omnibus: It would come on my playlist on I-84 between Hartford and the Pike during a regular Monday commute and I’d find myself doing 90. “Hm, maybe I should dial things back; any Dionne Warwick in this?”
New Deal democrat
@Matt McIrvin: “We have people in the government who are in some cases impossible to unelect, who are starting to openly and contemptuously act like they are King of America,”
That was almost exactly my first thought upon reading the excerpt from Alito’s speech. He believes he and his fellow members of the junta on SCOTUS are the Kings of America; his sarcastic rejoinders to European heads of government were, in his mind, directed at his peers, i.e., his fellow rulers.
The Founders were right about one thing as to the Court. It is the one “non-political” branch in that its members are so tin-eared that they already precipitated a Civil War once, and are doing their best to incite a sequel of some sort now.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: For the Trump types, I think the mental maneuver they do is to insist that the vast majority really loves them and is for everything they do–if you heard otherwise, it’s because of fake news and cheating cheaters.
Or the majority who should count, anyway.
You could go back to Nixon ’72 or Reagan ’84 and make a case that it was really true then. But those same people who made up the majority then aren’t as big a majority now.
And I’m not sure Alito even cares about that. He’s a believer in the divine right of himself.
Paul in KY
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Oh God, I’m LOLing again at that one! There’s a dress in Krysten’s closet that will now never be worn!
Joey Maloney
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Best response, read the other day on Twitter: “Why am I wearing a mask? It helps me mind my own business.”
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: I think there’s some notion of symmetry with the attention paid to the Trumps and Jared Kushner. But Trump used his family as “unpaid” White House staff and claimed it was some kind of bargain. They were part of the government!
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: The ole ‘Costanza Defense’:
It’s not a lie when you believe it.
Suzanne
“Violet” is an incredible song. I literally remember the first time I heard it. I must have listened to “Live Through This” about 10,000 times as an angsty teenager.
The important distinction is that I never elected Courtney Love to anything.
Edmund Dantes
Alito styles himself as the Chief Justice cause in his mind he should have been. And he only lost out cause of political maneuvering and the untimely death of Rehnquist. Plus the humiliation of replacing a women twice. He was the back up for Harriet Miers failed bid for OConnor once W pulled the switcher on Roberts to Chief Justice.
Layer8Problem
@Matt McIrvin: Paid or unpaid, if you’re using the magic of the White House switchboard to make phone calls worldwide to Fix the Covid/Bring Peace to the Middle East/Make Deals with Saudi Arabia/Fix Those Chinese Copyrights from your West Wing coat closet you’re in the government and in your grifting as culpable as any other racketeer. Hunter Biden? Really gonna need some evidence. Get that, then we’ll see.
Suzanne
I should also note that Courtney Love is a big supporter of HRC. Apparently they met in a hair salon.
Layer8Problem
@Suzanne: That’s kinda freaky.
Suzanne
@Layer8Problem: I think it’s cute. I hope HRC gets to treat herself well from time to time.
I think it’s just interesting that Courtney Love probably doesn’t support Sinema’s bullshit.
Steve in the ATL
On a related note, “Heaven Tonight,” off their Celebrity Skin album, is a great song.
Ksmiami
@New Deal democrat: They’re gonna get Pelican Briefed if they’re not careful.
@Layer8Problem: Too bad Alito can’t afford a friggin barber. He looks worse than homeless people.
Layer8Problem
@Suzanne: Yep. And agreed on “Violet.”
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus:
It *doesn’t*? Shit! Well, there goes my retirement plan.
kindness
I’m still pissed at Mainers for re-electing Collins in ’20. Democrats ran a centrist Speaker of the House against her and they still voted for Collins. Who knew Mainers loved their faces to be lied to so much? Collins knew she was knifing Roe in the back with every Federalist Society judge she voted for.
Kyrsten? She can still cause big problems. A significant part of her donor money are Republican. She won’t win her primary in ’24 and I will cheer that. 2 years though. We still have to get through the fall elections.
Dupe1970
@Betty Cracker:
That’s my thought as well. I think she lacks the backbone to be the one to scuttle this deal. But I will wait patiently to see if I am totally wrong on her but she doesn’t strike me as the type to be alone on an island.
Paul in KY
@Dupe1970: I do think she loves to be the center of attention & loves to be contrary. Sort of her shtick, along with dressing like Cyndi Lauper on meth.
J R in WV
Alito is a failure as a human being, let alone in his work judging around the world.
Imagine, he actually believes imposing his very peculiar religious beliefs on everyone in the nation is “religious freedom“??
How perverted and un-American is that? Every mention of religion in the constitution is to tell government to keep its hands off religion, yet here we are, being told what we have to believe by Sam Alito, a member of Opus Dei, more formally “Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei”…
Chief Oshkosh
@bbleh: One can only hope.
apocalipstick
@TerryTime: This cannot be repeated enough.
Matt McIrvin
@J R in WV: It’s certainly an expression of HIS religious freedom, what’s the big problem? Did you expect you to have it too?
Steve in the ATL
@Matt McIrvin: good lord. Even most W&L alumni are past that.
brantl
@Betty Cracker: CNN should counter Stumpy’s lawyer offer with an offer to start referring to him as “the deluded ex-president”, since it is obvious from all known facts that he can’t possibly believe the election was stolen, anymore, unless he’s deluded. I suspect that would set them back on their heals.
brantl
He’s got a face like a bucket of smashed a-holes; why gild the lilly?
The Nameless One
@Starfish: The album was released 4 days after Kurt’s body was found. I can only ever listen to it in the context of his suicide even though it was obviously recorded way before then.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’ve never done this, but I’ve often thought the best answer for that question is to remove your mask to answer, and say “I have Covid.”
And then, of course, put your mask back on.
But I suppose that could provoke a violent reaction – assuming that anyone who asks that question is easily provoked anyway. Hence the never having done it.
MrKite
The anti-abortion laws being proposed and passed by Christian Dominionists are an attribute of their peculiar religion. How is this not “establishment of religion” as forbidden by the first Amendment?
NutmegAgain
Ah–small insider story that won’t give too much away. An old friend of mine is a Well Known Rock Writer (and a very nice person). He related a story, back when, of the roll out of Pretty on the Inside and Kurt sitting back saying, “how do you like my new songs?” . I mean, nothing else Courtney wrote ever sounded like that…
OGLiberal
@insert clever nickname here mistermix: I saw the Lemonheads at Roseland Ballroom in NYC, July 1994, and Courtney was there The NY tabs reported – IIRC – that she made out with Evan Dando. (they were also the source of the rumor that she had a stuffed teddy bear filled with Kurt’s ashes) When we were heading into the show my friend noted that there was some person talking to security trying to act like Courtney Love. She had a teddy. It was her! She did Doll Parts and Miss World during the Lemonheads encore – her on vocals/guitar, Dando on drums. I was there and it was great, although my judgment may have been off since I was really, really drunk.
Roseland Ballroom is – sadly – no more…high rise condos. I also saw Belly there in 1993 with some relatively unknown opener – Radiohead. Yes, nobody knows the band I was there to see and everybody knows the opener. Thom and Tanya did a duet and it was wonderful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_wrChSZxDU.