Trump fulminates

Because the White House is besieged. That's what other people say. People who are thick. People who write for thick readers.

I'm seeing this video all over the place. Because it's interesting. Trump is more animated than usual. But from my view it's all controlled animation. He's having an innocent bilateral with the president of Finland Niinistö (for some reason those two dots are important).

And not just ordinary control. Supreme control. My attention is drawn to how Trump manages rude unruly reporters with a single word, and later by a delicate fingertip gently pointing to them to STFU while he's talking. He is a very real orchestra conductor. It's awesome to see personal power used this way.

Trump getting the reporters to shut up as he spoke reminded me of dog training the Belgian sheepdogs. That it works means they're paying attention. Close attention. To every single subtle movement. Such that they actually respond. That makes it possible to train on subtle movements. Sign language for dogs. And such attentive dogs that the signals can be subtle.

Right and Left are saying he's angry and showing it. They're commenting about him being worked up. And he is. But they are overly sensitive.

As I watched the first time I thought how much I like this. Finally, a president who speaks plainly to plain people. He's not just talking to the reporters, he's talking to all of us. The whole country. The world. To the president sitting next to him. To all the European reporters.

But the level of anger is actually quite low. It's more powerfully moderated than it is exercised.

I'm inured.

Like steel.

My father did that.

He ran a very tight ship. Scary tight.

And half the time he was gone.

In those periods of absence life was a lot easier. Things loosened up. Things fell apart. The longer he was gone the further things slipped. On purpose. We wanted it that way. More relaxed.

When Dad returned he had to double up to bring everything back into order.

This made me resent him as much as respect him.

But when he got mad, goddamnit the whole world closed into that moment. He was scary as H-E-double riding crops and he scared the living H-E-double shit-sticks out of me. Out of us.

He yelled and we literally pissed our pants. All five of us at once. He bit his own tongue so hard I kept waiting for the moment he bit it right off.

I kind of wanted to see that.

We each resolved separately to not be like that when we grew up. And each of our own families are opposite to that. That's how extreme, how scary his regimen.

Today, psychologists call this dysfunctional in that everything revolves around the emotion of one family member. But that's how my father's family functioned. Dys-ly.

So in my world then levels of anger expression are measured against that.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ●
Dad's anger expression.

○ ● ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
Trump's anger expression

That's how I see feel it.

Don't get the wrong impression. Dad was a good guy. A great guy. He did something I couldn't do, raise a family under extraordinary conditions and keep it together successfully. As he aged to Trump's age he changed remarkably to much more easy going. His real job on earth satisfactorily completed. Where Dad eased off considerably, Trump is just getting started. Trump is getting a whole nation in line. Trump's unruly kids are the entire United States press.