News bits: Prenup renegotiated into a postnup?; Government shutdown update; Anger biology

A source called Page Six (presumably not a satire site?) reports that Malaria has quietly renegotiated her prenuptial agreement with her deranged fornicating husband DJT and turned it into a postnup. Page Six reports:

Sources tell Page Six that Melania Trump has “quietly” renegotiated her prenuptial agreement with Donald Trump in advance of his potentially serving a second term in the White House.

An insider told us of the agreement between the couple who married in 2005, “Over the last year, Melania and her team have been quietly negotiating a new ‘postnup’ agreement between herself and Donald Trump.”

The source further said, “This is at least the third time Melania has renegotiated the terms of her marital agreement,” but the source added that it’s not because the former first lady is going anywhere.

“Melania is most concerned about maintaining and increasing a substantial trust for their son, Barron,” 17, the same source familiar with Melania, 53, told Page Six.

The new agreement also provides for Melania, and spans money and property, according to the source.

Well, if this is for real, and it just might be, this changes everything. Malaria will be dutifully campaigning in public and spreading the good news of the Gospel of Trump. You know the Gospel, lots of praise for tyranny, plenty of defense of corruption, lies and slanders, all of which is heavily larded with crackpot conspiracies and Looney Toons reasoning from the Book of Looney. 

The loving family

Look at Barron, all growed up

He'll take after his toss 'em under the bus dad and 

make a fine businessman and US president

😮☠️

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Welp chaos fans, looks like we're very likely headed for a govt. shutdown. WaPo writes:

Hard-liners plot to replace McCarthy with a deputy as shutdown looms

A contingent of far-right House Republicans is plotting an attempt to remove Kevin McCarthy as House speaker as early as next week, a move that would throw the chamber into further disarray in the middle of a potential government shutdown, according to four people familiar with the effort who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks.

Some members of the far-right faction of the party are coalescing around nominating a member of McCarthy’s leadership team, Rep. Tom Emmer (Minn.), to be the next speaker if they can successfully oust McCarthy, according to those people. The members think Emmer is more attuned to their concerns and will better deliver conservative results.

By referring to far-right Repubs, the WaPo inches toward calling the GOP what it actually is, deeply corrupt and radical right authoritarian. WaPo's not quite there yet, but maybe awareness of what the ARRRP has degenerated into will sink in sometime before its too late. I guess this counts as a little bit of progress.

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The WaPo writes about anger science by a practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst:

Our emotional brain goes into overdrive, and our thinking brain becomes less active. Managing anger requires us to bring our thinking brain back online.

• the amygdala, which encodes the quality — such as positive or negative feelings — and intensity of our emotional reactions; and

• the insula, which creates a brain map of how our body feels during situations, including what we call “gut feelings.”

The degree of activity in the amygdala and the insula is controlled, in part, by two areas of the thinking brain:

• the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which helps us weigh the consequences of our behaviors before acting on them; and

• the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), which helps us empathize with others.

The more we use our thinking brain to evaluate our behaviors, including how they might affect others, the more we can guide decisions in balanced ways.

Strategies to respond differently when anger starts to take over:

• Pause. Find a space where the ability to think can be recovered. Step away, remain silent, ask for time. Hard as it is to consider in the heat of the moment, acting aggressively — as cathartic as it might feel — is often not worth it. Map out the progression of your anger by identifying cues in the body, mind and environment signaling it’s time to step back before things worsen.

• Breathe. The only vital sign over which we have more immediate control is breathing. High emotions can push us to have quick, shallow breaths, feeding into our distress. Try slowing your breathing down, with long in-breaths and out-breaths (timing each helps maintain a rhythm and sense of stillness). Controlled breathing can limit respiratory rate, improve mood, lower stress hormone levels, decrease physical unease and help us think more calmly, improving recruitment of brain areas that process emotions.

• See anger as communication. There is often a context to anger, whether directed at ourselves, another person or a situation. For instance, we might feel pressured, exposed, belittled, anxious or powerless, and anger can cover up these unpleasant states, giving us a sense of power — fragile as it may be. Thinking about what lies behind anger can help us feel less at its mercy and provide insight as to what other emotions we may be trying to avoid. When feeling angry at someone, it is useful to consider why that particular dynamic generates such unpleasantness. As much as we’re overtaken by the righteousness of our mind-set, anger can blind us to different ways others view the same situation.

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Is Biden waking up to the ARRRP threat? Seems that maybe he is finally starting to get it. WaPo writes:

President Biden on Thursday sharply rebuked former president Donald Trump and his supporters for continued attempts to undermine American democracy, delivering one of his most explicit warnings that Trump poses a threat to democratic principles and institutions.

In a marked shift, Biden hit Trump head-on, disposing of his usual pattern of oblique references to his predecessor, .... Biden called Trump out by name before detailing what he described as his anti-democratic behavior: relentless attacks on the press, praise for the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attackers, plans to consolidate power in the executive branch and a desire to fire civil servants who are not sufficiently loyal to him.

“There’s something dangerous happening in America now,” Biden said. “There’s an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy.” He added, “We should all remember: Democracies don’t have to die at the end of a rifle. They can die when people are silent, when they fail to stand up or condemn the threats to democracy.”

If Biden is waking up, that's probably a good thing compared to his minimizing the urgency of the threat until now.