The fall of Rome – first Goths, then Vandals, then more Goths.

It might have been lead poisoning, moral decline and barbarians

Historians generally agree the Roman Empire ended in 476 A.D. after surviving 1,229 years. Hundreds of books have been written revealing why.

Professor Alexander Demandt of the University of Berlin published a book in 1984, The Fall of Rome: The Dissolution of the Roman Empire in the Judgment of Posterity, after collecting 210 reasons from historians why Romans finally failed to maintain power to deserve the empire title. 

The reasons are categorized and range from commonly cited such as barbarian invasions, economic collapse, civil war, lead poisoning, excessive eating and drinking, and the abolition of many gods. 

A fascinating list, only five refer to religion: abolition of gods, celibacy, Christianity, homosexuality and religious struggles. If the United States does not survive as an empire for 250 years, we can blame it on the top ten selected by historians as reasons why the Romans blew it.

1. Invasion by barbarian tribes settling in autonomous regions, thus weakening Roman identity.
2. Economic troubles and over-reliance on slave labor. 
3. Rise of the Eastern Empire and concentration on the development of Constantinople and Black Sea area.
4. Internecine conflict, and the battle between using Greek or Latin.
5. Expanding too quickly in some areas and excessive spending on military legions.
6. Government corruption and political instability.
7. Arrival of the Huns and migrations of the barbarian tribes
8. Christianity and the loss of traditional values and structures. 
9. Weakening of the military legions and the unwillingness of core Romans to finance them.
10. Loss of craft skills, industrial level of production and diversification.

Death Notice: American dreams and empire die at 249 years

When historians analyze why the American Empire, once the strongest in the world, failed miserably in such a short time, they will probably come up with 1,500 reasons why we committed “empireicide.” 
We have had many “Industrial Revolutions” in our rather short dominance. Innovations, inventions and investments have created about 800 billionaires who rule the Divided States of America as divinized by Republican Supreme Courts and Trumplican administrations. 

About 15% have recognized they have enough and have a responsibility to maintain the country for more than 340 million Americans. But 85% have not determined what is enough for one Homo sapiens, so the play the game of who has the longest superyacht and who owns the most bathrooms — and will do anything to win the golden pot.

Every morning news sources and social media reveal a new reason the empire will fail. 

This morning, April 14, The Guardian has the following headline: “Private Equity Takeover of Hospitals Led to Rise in Medicare Emergency Patient Deaths, Says Study.”  

The Top Ten Percent already own 93% of the stocks on Wall Street and buy 53% of all consumer goods. We are going into a government shutdown because of huge tax cuts for the rich and corporations while more than 60% of the workers live paycheck-to-paycheck, more than five million are homeless, and 27 million have no health insurance. 

We are the richest country in the world where the unhappiest people in the world live because of severe economic inequality. That’s another study.

Why do patients die in hospitals owned by equity firms? Equity firms are formed by billionaires to make more money, not to serve people. Seven more people die per 10,000 patients because of lack of equipment and staff. 

Researchers from the University of California-Davis found that private equity acquisition drives down quality of medical care, prices go up and more people die. 

The findings: “The latest study compared staff levels, wages, and patient mortality in 49 private equity acquired hospitals with 293 non-private equity control hospitals and found the private equity hospitals had smaller staff numbers, and smaller salaries, and that there were seven more deaths per 10,000 patients in the private equity hospitals’ emergency department visits. There were more complications from surgery, more bloodstream infections, and more injuries from falls.”  

Harvard Professor Zirui Song of the Health Care Policy and Medicine at the Medical School added this important information: “Some patients in emergency departments come in critically ill requiring ‘all hands on deck’ to care for them. Trauma, respiratory failure, sepsis, heart attack and strike are a few examples of such conditions often seen in emergency departments.” 

The Devil didn’t do this. Billionaires did. And by the way – thrift store visits are up 39.5% in 2025!

 News: Alfred Nobel just dynamited the Lyin’ King’s Peace Prize!

So, King Donald was flying to the Middle East on Friday after ending seven wars and a 20-point peace plan to end all wars in a very troublesome but rich part of the world, waiting on Thursday for the pronouncement he was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace Award, beating out 337 other heroes nominated for the top prize. 

But to his “Only I can do it!” narcissism, he was shocked to learn nutty Norwegians had given the prize to some woman who was afraid to live in Venezuela. 

He thought that ending seven wars and getting a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas would be enough. But Maria Covina Machado won it for her battles for democracy against a dictatorship in Venezuela. 
She yelled when hearing she had won: “Oh, my God! I have no words!” 

But the Lyin’ King had a surplus of lying words, as usual, for his enormous defeat by the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s vote. He summed up his hard work for world peace at the Gaza Summit: “I am the only one that matters!” 

I can assure you, if there was a contest for the most despicable person in the world, Donald Trump would win thumbs down in all the following categories: sexual predator, jerk, prick, asshole, psycho-sociopath and malignant narcissist, The Lyin’ King would win by a huge margin. I have studied the characteristics of each named, and he wins them all. Look them up in a Microsoft ENCARTA Dictionary. 

MAGA crazies like Roger Stone have suggested that the White House invite Machado to the White House, have her bring the Prize to Trump and then have her present it to the only one in the world who really earned it! 

Stone said: “He deserves the award, even though I thought those elitest globalist freaks at the Nobel Peace Prize Committee would not likely give it to him!”  

I wonder who the other 336 people are who were nominated?

A noted clinical psychologist who has studied Donald Trump for more than a half-century said this about his mental condition: “Surely a political press corps that spent months arguing that president Biden’s age rendered him mentally unfit wouldn’t look the other way when the Republican candidate the oldest person running for president in American history is not only old but dis-compensating before our very eyes. The difference is that Biden is aging while Donald is dementing. Donald really does seem to have worn down the corporate media’s willingness to cover him properly. American democracy depends upon a thriving fourth estate to function optimally. That’s not what we have right now. Not even close.” 

Mary Trump is that clinical psychologist and she is writing a third book   about the family of Fred Trump, whom she has called a sociopath. 

The titles of the three books reveal a tortured malignant narcissist as diagnosed by 27 psychiatrists and psychologists: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man (2020), The Reckoning: Our Nation’s Trauma and find a Way to Heal (2021, and Who Could Ever Love You? (2024)

Fact: No one can love Donald Trump except Donald Trump

The Lyin’ King’s niece has just published her third book about her lying Uncle Donald. A lesbian with daughter in the LBGTQUIA+ community mix, she describes herself as “the black sheep in the family” because her grandfather Fred Trump, Donald’s father, was “literally a sociopath.” 

She now has no relationships with anyone in the Trump family. 

Donald’s mother died when he was 16 from a variety of illnesses while Donald was an adolescent. In her book Mary describes Donald as a cocky, rude teenager who was intensely jealous of his older brother Fred, who later died of alcoholism. Donald did not have any friends because no one could stand his arrogance, self-importance and total lack of humor.

Mary claims: He is the only person I’ve ever met who’s never evolved, which is dangerous, by the way. Never choose as your leader somebody who is incapable of evolving — that is one lesson we’ve learned for sure. 

Donald didn’t have any friends, but when they did include him, they regretted it. Because of his mother’s illness, he never had a principal caregiver except his sociopathic father, Fred. 

Mary added: “So, you can imagine how that sort of changed the trajectory of Donald’s life.” 
In 2021, after his first presidency, King Donald sued his niece Mary for $100 million because she told a New York court about his financial crimes. The case was dismissed in November 2022.

At the end of her last book, she wrote: “The lawsuit sent a very clear message to me. But what if everyone capitulates? Then what? Well, then we lose, and that’s unacceptable. I don’t understand why people are so afraid of Donald, because he is so pathetic. I would be embarrassed to be afraid of him.” 

At the beginning of her book, she claims her uncle has “never evolved” and “isn’t close to anybody.” 
It’s fascinating that the discovery of a million-year-old skull in China recently is leading scientists to a new timeline for Homo sapiens. We could be a million years old rather than 300,000 — and came out of China 600,000 years ago instead of Africa 65,000 years ago. 

We may not be related to Neanderthals after all.

Mary has a degree in English literature from Tufts University, a MA degree in English literature from Columbia University, and a PHD in clinical psychology from Adelphi University. She has worked at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center and has taught graduate-level courses in developmental psychology, trauma and psychopathology. She currently runs the Trump Coaching Group and is a consultant. 

By the way, do you know why the Lyin’ King is giving $20 billion of our tax money to Argentina’s Great Leader Milei? He’s the one who gave Elon Musk of DOGE fame the chainsaw used to symbolize the firing of thousands of U.S. government employees! 

The characteristics of narcissism are dominant in Donald Trump

The science of narcissism has been around for a century, but the Lyin” King has put it in the 24/7 news cycle for a decade. Every time I watch and listen to Donald Trump he seems to say ”there is something missing in me and I need to be in this fantasy world where I am the hero because, maybe in my childhood, I was the villain. I am the best. Only I can do it.” 

Who in Trump’s fantasy world of demented hate is going to keep him from pushing the nuclear trigger? When will Republicans riding their demented tiger realize they have to cage him in a sound-proof facility?