Dr. X's Free Associations

The Great Resignation?

The latest data confirms the less romantic reality that the record percentage of Americans quitting their jobs is being driven by turnover among low-income workers in certain industries, not by burned out white-collar workers https://t.co/A9li44eydQ pic.twitter.com/YV1HJz2HRb

— Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) January 8, 2022

Explaining A Shooting at Oakbrook Center Mall

Oakbrook Center Mall is an upscale shopping center, and Oak Brook is an affluent Chicago suburb with an average household income of 141K. Why do people feel the need to tweet such silliness?

That’s not to say that this isn’t gang-related or tied to some sort of beef between rough people. It’s a regional mall so people travel there from other areas. The same could be said of any regional mall.

How About Now, Your Honor?

June 22, 2021:

In a 51-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich wrote that Black Lives Matter D.C. failed to make an adequate case that former President Trump, former Attorney General William Barr, and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper conspired to “target Black people and their supporters” with illegal use of violent force during the June 1, 2020 events.

December 7, 2021:

Trump Ordered Staff to ‘Bust Some Heads’ of Black Lives Matter Protesters Prior to Church Photo Op -- according to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows

Mark Meadows Calls His Own Story Fake News

Trump called Mark Meadows revelation about Trump testing positive for COVID so Meadows is now calling his own revelation fake news.

Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt: "I believe the president said it's fake news. What's the story here?"

Mark Meadows: "Well, the president's right, it's fake news." pic.twitter.com/p2zkaT5Vw0

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) December 2, 2021

Trump Falsely Suggested That The Gold Star Families Made Him Sick After He Knowingly Endangered Them

October 8, 2020, Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—President Trump on Thursday speculated that he contracted the coronavirus from one or more of the Gold Star families with whom he met recently, suggesting that his infection could have come from families of survivors of the combat dead who got too close.

“They come within an inch of my face sometimes and they want to hug me, they want to kiss me, and they do, and frankly, I’m not telling them to back up, I’m not doing it,” Mr. Trump said on an appearance on Fox Business. “But it’s obviously dangerous.”

So the meeting with Gold Star families was "obviously dangerous," but for whom?

Now we learn that Trump knew he had COVID when he was "an inch" from their faces. Trump tested positive for COVID on September 26 and met the Gold Star families on September 27:

Former President Trump tested positive for Covid-19 on Sept. 26, three days before he debated President Biden and six days before the White House publicly announced he had the virus, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows wrote in his new book. The White House announced Trump tested positive for Covid on Oct. 2 and he was hospitalized at Walter Reed Medical Center.

“Nothing was going to stop [Trump] from going out there,” Meadows wrote.

So Trump knew close contact with an infected person is dangerous, and he knew he had COVID. Nonetheless, he suggested that the people he endangered made him sick, but he allowed it out of a sense of selfless courage.

What a selfish louse.

Lara Logan

This is why one of the nation’s top doctors has to have armed security. Because of kooks like this. https://t.co/JvHPyfsrX7

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 30, 2021

Logan works for Sinclair Broadcasting. These days, it's nearly impossible to distinguish between right-wing media figures who make outrageous statements to boost their career versus those who are manifesting serious psychological disturbance.

Critical Rittenhouse Theory

Are there any branches of academic theory that would explore this question? https://t.co/twFWaU7x0G

— Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) November 23, 2021

Michael Flynn's Full Embrace Of Christian Nationalism

Michael Flynn tonight: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.” pic.twitter.com/ShGVrsQ9hW

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 13, 2021

Flynn is appealing to white Christian nationalists.

Flynn's descent into political madness checks every box indicating extremism driven by death anxiety. (1, 2, 3, 4). He was already wobbly when he was forced out as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, but that humiliation may have thrown him over the edge.

US population will be reduced by over 191 million in 5-15 years

Or maybe not.

Talked to a guy who believes the vaccine is killing people and Donald Trump saved lives with Operation Warp Speed. pic.twitter.com/R1mRDB2J45

— The Good Liars (@TheGoodLiars) October 25, 2021

Criminal Hackers Are Outraged Over Being Hacked

Eamon Javers is a senior D.C. correspondent for CNBC.

There’s an absolutely bonkers flame war going on in the dark web right now. It’s nuts, but American companies and government agencies might want to pay attention. Because (likely) Russian hackers are venting rage against the US and vowing revenge.

— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) October 22, 2021 It all started earlier this week when the US government reportedly launched a coordinated attempt to bring down the servers of the ransomware group REvil.

Eamon Javers @EamonJavers · Oct 22 But today the Conti hacking group has issued an epic screed against the US government - complaining that it is unfair and illegal to hack them.

Eamon Javers @EamonJavers · Oct 22 That’s right - the hackers are complaining about hacking.

Eamon Javers @EamonJavers · Oct 22 In their post, the group says “First, an attack against some servers, which the US security attributes to REvil, is another reminder of what we all know: the unilateral, extraterritorial, and bandit-mugging behavior of the United States in world affairs.”

Eamon Javers @EamonJavers · Oct 22 They say journalists operate in the “Twitter brothel” - which, you know, is fair. But they also say the Americans who attacked REvil are “vampires drunken and intoxicated by impunity and blood.”

Eamon Javers @EamonJavers · Oct 22 Remember, this is a group that brought down the Irish health care system and closed hospitals during a pandemic. So.

Eamon Javers @EamonJavers · Oct 22 At about the same time, a group called Groove put up a post in Russian urging fellow hackers to strip competing and unite to destroy the state sector of the US to show “who is the boss” of the internet.

Eamon Javers @EamonJavers · Oct 22 They also make an oddly specific and quite vulgar threat against president Biden.

Eamon Javers @EamonJavers · Oct 22 So all that is to say, watch your servers this weekend, folks. The hackers are angry.

Audible

I've been working so much lately, I've had little time to read. Since I commute by car most days, I decided to give audiobooks a try. I subscribed to Audible, which doesn't have everything I'd like to "read," but so far, I've gotten through Understanding and Treating Chronic Shame (Patricia DeYoung), How Emotions Are Made (Lisa Feldman Barrett), and The Genetic Lottery (Kathryn Paige Harden). All three are excellent, though if I were making recommendations, I'd say everyone should read Harden's book, Feldman Barrett is optional, and DeYoung's book should be on every psychodynamic, self-psychologist, and relational psychologist's reading list.

Audible was fine for the first two books, but The Genetic Lottery is thick with studies that Harden unpacks, so it requires hard copy reading, which I'll get to. Harden is a clinical (research) psychologist at the University of Texas Austin, where she leads the behavioral genetics lab and runs a twins study. In this book, she draws upon research across multiple disciplines.

Otherwise, I've got the late psychoanalyst Steven Mitchell's book, Can Love Last? in the hopper. Also in the cue are Hanya Yanagihara's a Little Life, Jonathan Franzen's Crossroads, and Trauma and Dissociation by Elizabeth Howell.

I prefer to read books or books on Kindle, but audiobooks are doing the job for now.

I might write about Harden's controversial book if I get a bit more free time. Behavioral genetics has gotten much more sophisticated in recent years, and I can see both liberals and conservatives hating on the book. But every thoughtful person should read it because it will inform and challenge your thinking on the subject.

Donald Trump on the Death of Colin Powell

A former President of the United States wrote that, and there are Americans who worship him.

Link, link, link, link

Wouldn't It Be Nice If Legislators Knew Things

4.3 million workers quit their jobs. We need to quit paying folks not to work.

— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) October 14, 2021

Tim Burchett is the US congressman from Tennessee's 2nd District. He made it to age 57 without knowing that you can't collect unemployment when you quit your job, yet he can vote on policy pertaining to unemployment benefits.

We don't know for sure why 4.3 million workers quit their jobs, but speculation is that they're feeling unsafe at work, or COVID pay boosts have been scaled back, or they're rethinking work-non-work life balance. Anyone who quit believing they would receive unemployment benefits will be sorely disappointed. Moreover, the extended federal unemployment benefits for those who were involuntarily unemployed during the pandemic ended six weeks ago.

Fools

Defund the police is a stupid position to take, but this is right up there. Defunding the police is theoretically possible, even if foolish, but how is defunding the media even possible unless everyone stops consuming media? The person posting this approvingly (based on her other posts) is literally posting it on social media, which is making money off her/our eyeballs and tweets.

🇺🇲🚨 PROTESTERS IN NYC HAVE SURROUNDED NEW YORK TIMES HQ AND ARE CHANTING "DEFUND THE MEDIA" 💥⚡ pic.twitter.com/U20DCMSUbz

— bristolblues (@BristolBlues32) October 16, 2021

Stephon Marbury to Kyrie Irving: Ali would be proud of you for vaccine refusal

“Ali would be proud of you”

- Stephon Marbury’s message to Kyrie Irving pic.twitter.com/lCLrkotP7t

— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) October 14, 2021

Yeah... um... maybe not.

Muhammad Ali's vaccine mandate commercial. He urged compliance with the law.