The Emperor's New Skinsuit

Imagine us all having been born and died countless times, having been all kinds of animals and, over millennia, people in all walks of life, sometimes relatively good and sometimes relatively evil, having inhabited all of the six realms (god, demigod, human, animal, hungry ghost and hell), repeatedly, some for eons, only to die and be reincarnated yet again.

Now here we are (again, for most of us) in the human realm—the only realm which, due to its balance of intellectual capacity, pleasure and suffering—allows for transcendence of all realms once and for all, transcendence of Samsara, the Wheel of Life and Suffering. And yet, so many people I know are squandering this golden opportunity. Some are truly moral people who will, no doubt, be reborn in one of the higher realms (human, demigod or god), if they do not manage to escape the Wheel upon physical death. Some, however, due to their less-than-great karma, despite having been born into relative opulence and gotten elite educations, had unfortunate psychological dynamics in their family during their formative years, and are using their money and educations for hedonistic or otherwise misguided, selfish purposes. Unless they repent, they are bound to be reborn in lower realms, to which they may be doomed for countless reincarnations. This will not be due to a lack of intelligence, per se, but a lack of wisdom.

Look at the doomed who occupy the centers of power in the world, lording it over the 99% in this one, short period of incarnation in the human realm. Forget The Emperor’s New Clothes—with all the cosmetic surgery, etc. members of the current administration have had, virtually everything you can see of them is fake! I can’t stop thinking, recently, of Karoline Leavitt’s new face www.themirror.com/entertainment/breaking-karolin-leavitt-plastic-surgery, which reminds me of Stephen Miller’s brief adventure with “spray-on” hair www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/12/17/18144716/stephen-miller-spray-hair-loss-toppik-glh, which Vanity Fair called “a natural by-product of working for Donald Trump,” Matt Gaetz’s comical, last-minute, overdone, RNC “Botox-face” www.esquire.com/style/grooming/a61638847/matt-gaetz-face-rnc-botox/, Laura Loomer’s ”Mar-a-Lago Face” timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/mar-a-lago-face-laura-loomer-denies-claims-of-cosmetic-surgery/articleshow/, Potus’ face-bronzer, extremely weird combover, and scalp/alopecia-reduction www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/06/donald-trump-plastic-surgery, the roughly one million dollars the Trump family has collectively spent “on face-lifts, hair transplants, nostril jobs and veneers, besides Botox and fillers.” economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/donald-trumps-family-spent-nearly-1-million-on-dozens-of-plastic-surgeries/

Our vain emperor has always been exposed before his subjects, in appearance, word and deed, but it has not resulted in him being ridiculed by the mainstream. Rather, his flag-waving base grafts his head onto Stallone’s “Rambo” body, as if…! Look at how technology, in the form of cosmetic enhancement, is used in the “kayfabe era,” when politics and reality-tv have merged into a monstrous deformation of humanity and reality.

“In Vedic texts, māyā connotes a ‘magic show, an illusion where things appear to be present but are not what they seem’…it also connotes that which ‘is constantly changing and thus is spiritually unreal’, and therefore ‘conceals the true character of spiritual reality’. In Advaita Vedanta, māyā (‘appearance’) is ‘the powerful force that creates the cosmic illusion that the phenomenal world is real’…at the individual level it appears as the lack of knowledge (avidyā) of the real Self…In Buddhist philosophy, māyā is one of 20 subsidiary unwholesome mental factors, responsible for deceit or concealment about the illusionary nature of things.^” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(religion)

I understand that, in the animal realm, besides pheremones, males (usually) and females have natural plumage, and/or do “dances” that attract the opposite sex. I understand that, since ancient times, humans have painted, tattoed and adorned themselves to accentuate characteristics and attract others. I understand that actors rely on their looks, in addition to their costumes and mannerisms, and so were the first, in the modern era, to go, uh, whole hog on cosmetic enhancement; and I don’t disparage some cosmetic use among the non-famous, non-actor classes; but what started out as instincts to perpetuate the species has gotten way out of hand, beyond absurdity and into a surreal horror show.

And so, as plastic surgeons have asserted, and anyone could see, Trump’s 2025 inauguration “was dominated by people with rounded cheeks, lifted eyes, sharpened jawlines, plump lips, and foreheads without wrinkles” (emphasis mine).
economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/experts-reveal-these-are-the-celebrities-who-had-plastic-surgery-for-donald-trumps-inauguration/

As psychologist Mary Trump has said, the Trump family dynamics—the father who destroyed Mary’s father (Trump’s older brother, Fred Jr.) because he wasn’t “a killer”—caused young Donald to make his whole life into an endless series of lies, to warp reality around an image of himself as a genius deal-maker who has never made a mistake, and therefore, never felt the need to admit a mistake, let alone apologize. The image that was crafted by and for him—through his appearances at pro-wrestling events (starting with WrestleMania IV in 1988) and as the star of The Celebrity Apprentice (from 2008 to 2015)—is the ultimate in kayfabe, or “presenting staged performances as genuine or authentic.” Mary Trump calls him “a black hole of need…He knows that he’s a deeply unintelligent person. He knows that he is severely damaged and has severe limitations. So he’s always trying to fill a need that’s unfillable.”

As Scientific American has reported, “Trump is a reality television show character turned president, and part of the success of his shows was brashness—berating hapless contestants or yelling ‘you’re fired’ over and over. Just as voyeuristic businesses do, Trump has positioned himself as both authentic (he ‘tells it like it is’, people say) and transgressive (he does and says things as a political leader that people in his position normally do not)…he offers audiences a ‘safe’ way to engage with transgressive ideas, creating a space where they can defy societal norms while feeling validated in their frustrations. This strategy, rooted in the emotional complexities of voyeurism, explains why his popularity endures even as he continues to break traditional political norms. Like the businesses based in voyeurism that we studied, he crafts an experience that is both intimate and defiant, appealing deeply to a specific audience’s desires and emotions.

“But the emotional allure of authenticity and transgression—so central to voyeurism—does more than captivate; it distorts. In voyeuristic businesses, this emotional hook often obscures deeper realities of exploitation, inequality and ethical breaches. Similarly, Trump’s emotional appeal transforms the presidency from a role of profound consequence into an ongoing spectacle—more akin to a reality TV drama than a position shaping our lives and future. This framing trivializes critical issues, distracting from the structural and personal harm and injustices that often underpin the show.” www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-reality-tv-helps-explain-trumps-success/

For Trump, “it’s all a show. He views the White House as a sound stage, like the set made to look like a boardroom where he performed for NBC on The Apprentice. He sees the people around him as a supporting cast, who can each be easily and quickly replaced (and often are) if they fail to play their roles the way he thinks will work best for the program. Partly, this is because this is all he knows how to do…Running the White House as a reality show also explains Trump’s ‘casting’ for his cabinet and senior officials. As he’s repeatedly proclaimed, he’s far more interested in their being telegenic and able to perform for the cameras than being competent.” www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/trump-motivation/

The reader has, by now, surely read or heard of Mary Trump, Yale psychologist Bandy Lee, and the 50 other psychologists who diagnosed the pathological narcissism of Donald Trump, who has filled all the key positions in his administration with loyalists, to the point that his recent meetings begin with a dozen or so cabinet members trying to out-do each other as they lavish praise upon him—praise that, deep down, he knows is undeserved. As the psychologists have warned, over and over, barring Trump’s removal from office, there is no way that this ends well for any of the 99% in the U.S., and probably not anywhere else in the world. Let me hasten to add that there is no way this ends well for the 1%, either, from the moment their rich asses die and they enter the bardo.

All readers should know this by now, but let me start to wind this up with something Matt Taibbi said in an interview after the publication, in 2017, of Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus: “When Hunter S. Thompson wrote about Nixon, he was responding to a man he saw as symbolic of his time, a kind of monster of his age. Nixon’s personality represented this darkness that was at the heart of everything wrong with America at the time, and Trump is an equivalent figure in that way, but he’s not the same kind of person as Nixon. Nixon had many levels to his personality; he was a thinker, well-educated, a schemer. Trump is just a bundle of disorganized urges. He’s what a lot of Americans would be if they had a billion dollars: They’d build grotesque castles, bang models, and grow fat. So in that sense, Trump represents something horrible about all of us, and that’s what reminds me of Nixon.” www.vox.com/conversations/2017/2/1/14412450/donald-trump-matt-taibbi-elections-2016-hillary-clinton-media

Trump’s unfortunate MAGA base, driven to madness after a generation of economic desperation, has been bamboozled by a handful of billionaires who are in an endless spiral of greed because, as the Buddha said, the nature of desire is unquenchable. “Since 2020, donor networks linked to just six family fortunes have funneled more than $120 million into Project 2025 advisory groups…More than 100 nonprofits led by the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank that has engaged in climate change denial and obstruction for decades, have signed on as advisors to the Project 2025’s 900-page ‘Mandate for Leadership’ document — a plan to rapidly ‘reform’, or radically alter, the U.S. government by shuttering bureaus and offices, overturning regulations, and replacing thousands of public sector employees with hand-picked political allies.” www.desmog.com/2024/08/14/project-2025-billionaire-donor-heritage-foundation-donald-trump-jd-vance-charles-koch-peter-coors/ 

Then there’s the matter of Trump’s week-old defiance of a unanimous Supreme Court order to return 29-year-old U.S. legal resident, husband and father Kilmer Abrego Garcia from the El Salvador gulag (CECOT) to which he was deported along with hundreds of other completely innocent legal residents. Garcia left El Salvador when he was 16, to escape the gangs there that threatened to kill him. Now he is imprisoned with them, having been accused of being a member of Venezualan criminal gang MS-13, which the Trump administration has admitted was “an administrative error.”

Garcia and the others were deported in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Article I Section 9 (“The Writ of Habeas Corpus,” enshrined in the Magna Carta in 1217 as “No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers and the law of the land”), the Fifth Amendment, Sixth Amendment, Seventh Amendment and Eighth Amendment.

Today, April 17, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Garcia “will never live in the United States of America again." Trump, who on April 14 welcomed to the White House Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele (the self-described “world’s coolest dictator,” who easily could have brought Garcia with him, ending our constitutional crisis) claimed he didn’t have the authority to facilitate Garcia’s return, despite the Supreme Court order to do just that.

God help us all.