221

Impressions of Donald Trump

Edward Curtin

Neurosis to a greater or lesser degree is the norm in western industrialized societies. Drawing on this fact is the key to effective propaganda. It is well known that neurotics always return to the place they are running away from.

It’s a circle game of frustration in which being frustrated is actually the “solution,” because the real problems cannot be faced.  The Donald Trump phenomenon is an example of this on a social level.

Everybody knows that Trump is loved or hated in equal measure.  And everyone knows he dominates the minds of those who love or hate him, just as the media endlessly focuses on him in a way that only very obtuse people would fail to analyze. 

The media made Trump and he is their gold mine and the key to the effective propaganda they run for their masters in high finance and the intelligence agencies.

Although his image seems big and bold and brazen, it is like an Impressionist painting that, as the art critic John Berger writes in The Eyes of Claude Monet:

…is painted in such a way that you are compelled to recognize that it is no longer there …. You cannot enter an Impressionist painting; instead it extracts your memories.  In a sense it is more active than you – the passive viewer is being born; what you receive is taken from what happens between you and it.  No more within it.”

Like Trump, the impression is fugitive, here and gone, vague and precise.  It’s meaning is fleeting.  Mutation and flux and the evanescence of appearances are its essence.  As with Trump, nothing is really clear, although many claim it is.

Monet was painting at a time (the late 19th and early 20th centuries) when, due to technological and economic changes, an old world was dissolving into the modern.  Jump a century or more and we have Trump and the electronic media where vagueness and flux rule perceptions.

Celebrity Culture

For Trump is a product of celebrity culture that has come to dominate our world that reminds you that the world of the past has become a reality television show and all the talk about the good old days is an illusion and that we are now living in a society where experience has been reduced to meaningless and ephemeral gestures.

The politicians of all stripes play ghosts.

America will never be great again, for it is corrupted to the core and the mass media present it in images that have no bearing on reality. This is something neurotics cannot face, so they still follow the circle game played by the media and fight political battles that are exercises in frustration.

But it keeps them busy.  Like a sports fan whose favorite team has just lost a game or had a losing season, there is always tomorrow, next season, or the upcoming election.

Before Donald Trump emerged on the national scene with his 2015 announcement that he was running for the presidency, he was known as a wealthy real estate operator who had often declared bankruptcy and a comical reality-television host with a strange hairdo.  In short, he was a wealthy celebrity with huge mansions who cavorted with the rich and famous, including former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, among many others.

How such a billionaire celebrity could ever have become president and have such a large following among the white working class – the “deplorables” in Hillary Clinton’s elitist lingo – has its roots in the transformation of American culture from the late 1950s to today when illusion and performance have replaced any semblance of reality.

Boorstin, Postman, and Gabler

Daniel Boorstin described this transformation in its early days in his brilliant book, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1962).  He dissected the radical change taking place whereby images and manufactured pseudo-events – “however planned, contrived, or distorted – have become more vivid, more attractive, more impressive, and more persuasive than reality itself.” 

What I describe as neurotic circling, Boorstin called tautologies.  In this new theatrical world of mirrors, people imitate themselves by looking into the mirror of themselves imitating the famous people of all stripes: actors, politicians (excuse the repetition), celebrities, et al.  Boorstin writes:

Our very efforts to debunk celebrities, to prove (whether by critical journalistic biographies or by vulgar ‘confidential’ magazines) that they are unworthy of our admiration, are like efforts to get ‘behind the scenes’ in the making of other pseudo-events.  They are self-defeating.  They increase our interest in the fabrication …. The hat, the rabbit, and the magician are all equally news.

Thirty years after The Image, Neil Postman added to this critique by showing how the new computer technology was tyrannizing over all human values and ways of knowing.  In Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, he showed how the ecology of technology, wherein “One significant change generates total change,” creates a totally new world where cultural and personal coherence become nearly impossible.

In a Technopoly where technology and technique rule over all life, any sense of truth dissolves like soap bubbles. 

“That it why it is possible to say almost anything without contradiction provided you begin your utterance with the words ‘A study has shown … ‘or “Scientists now tell us that … ‘” 

Scientism and gibberish blend with technological tricks to create an electronic digital society where, in Boorstin’s words, “the news behind the news” – or the creation of the illusions – becomes the most interesting news of all, even as its debunking is a tautology like the definition of a celebrity: Someone who is known for being known.

Finally, in 1998 Neal Gabler put the finishing touches on these developments with his book, Life: The Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality

Drawing on Boorstin and Postman, he argued that in the United States life itself had become an ongoing movie in which the manipulation of reality and real life melodramas, the movies and the new information technologies, had melded into a cultural transformation so profound that it marked the end of traditional values and/or the start of a brave new world. 

When fiction replaced facts and everything became entertainment in a technological kaleidoscope, “life itself was gradually becoming a medium all its own, like television, radio, print, and film, and that all of us were becoming at once performance artists in and audience for a grand, ongoing show…” 

The traditional media turned from some semblance of reporting actual news to become conveyors of “lifies” (a predecessor of “selfies”) – a flood of entertainments taken from soap-operatic events hyped to the teeth – while theatrical techniques were applied  to politics, religion, war, etc., and everything became show business, including the presidency and the national sitcom of political reporting.

Political Theater and Propaganda

This is the context for Trump’s rise to prominence.  It makes clear that he is not an aberration but part of a long development that gave us the acting president Ronald Reagan and all the presidential performers who have followed.  One could say, if Trump never existed, he would have to be invented, which of course he has been, as was Bush, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, and Biden.

Is it surprising that the Ukrainian president Zelensky is a comedic television and movie actor?  Performers such as these follow their Director’s orders.

Furthermore, all these developments omit the crucial part played by government propaganda apparatuses in conjunction with the media and technology conglomerates.  The growth of such massive propaganda is entwined with all these cultural changes, although it is not the primary focus of the three books mentioned.  When all these threads are woven together, we arrive at our current situation  – a vast tapestry of lies.

There are various schools of thought on the Trump phenomenon, and most say more about the thinkers than their thoughts.  I am referring to Trump’s rise to prominence, his 2016 election, his presidency, and all that continues to transpire around him in 2022 and into the future.  (And although Trump will be an old man in 2024 – the same age that Biden is today – you can be assured he will be garnering the headlines then.)

Monet Paints Trump

These diverse impressions of what it all means fall into at least four categories, which I will sketch as I see them.

Trump supporters seemingly came out of nowhere in 2016, but this is false.  If anything, they have been smoldering for many decades and their complaints have been mounting for many good reasons.

In 1969, Pete Hamill, the New York journalist, wrote an article for New York Magazine called “The Revolt of the White Lower Middle Class.”  He said:

They call my people the White Lower Middle Class these days.  It is an ugly, ice-cold phrase, the result, I suppose, of the missionary zeal of those sociologists who still think you can place human beings on charts. It most certainly does not sound like a description of people on the edge of open, sustained and possibly violent revolt. And yet, that is the case. All over New York tonight, in places like Inwood, South Brooklyn, Corona, East Flatbush, and Bay Ridge, men are standing around saloons talking of their grievances, and even more darkly about possible remedies. Their grievances are real and deep; their remedies could blow this city apart.

The White Lower Middle Class?  Say that magic phrase at a cocktail party on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and monstrous images arise from the American demonology. Here comes the murderous rabble: fat, well-fed, bigoted, ignorant, an army of beer-soaked Irishmen, violence-loving Italians, hate-filled Poles. Lithuanians and Hungarians (they are never referred to as Americans) …. Sometimes these brutes are referred to as ‘the ethnics’ or ‘the blue-collar’ types. But the bureaucratic, sociological phrase is White Lower Middle Class. Nobody calls it the Working Class anymore.

He went on to quote various white working-class New Yorkers, their quiet bitterness, their ignorant racism fueled by a media that emphasizes “the politics of theatre, its seeming inability to ever explain what is happening behind the photographed image,” which results in a superficial understanding of what is really behind their frustrated complaints that they too are victims of the system and are not respected. 

In an article ostensibly about New Yorkers, Hamill explained where such anger came from, not to justify misdirected racism or ignorance of how things actually work in this country.

Update his account, and you have a good portion of Trump’s followers today. His description is just as apt today:

“The working-class white man is actually in revolt against taxes, joyless work, the double standards and short memories of professional politicians, hypocrisy and what he considers the debasement of the American dream.”

The perplexing thing, only explained by the rise of celebrity culture, the Internet, and the dumbing-down of the general public, is how Trump, a billionaire reality-TV buffoon could garner their devoted allegiance.  A man so different from them, many of whom come from states with large rural populations and Trump a quintessential New Yorker who probably never got his hands in the earth.

Of course he said many of the things they were desperate to hear about making the U.S.A. great again, no foreign entanglements, etc., many appealing things after they spent so many years hearing the politicians talk the same jive talk about invading this country and that and fighting Russia to the death. His message appealed to many.

They bought his spiel as if he would save them; a claim that all politicians use, but he was touching the suppressed underbelly of the American delusion.  An upper class politician talking about, among others things, class matters.

Then there is the liberal counterpoint to Trump, which is essentially the Democratic Party’s interpretation that Trump represents a shocking neo-fascist resurrection of the historically racist, isolationist strain in American history. This position is ironically consonant with the extremist 1950s claims of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his ilk – Nixon and Trump’s lawyer friend Roy Cohn, who represented McCarthy – who claimed there were communists under every bed and the Russians (USSR) were coming to seize our liberties.

The accusations against Trump, being led by The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, etc., are that he is a Russian-connected operative, a stooge, and that he is intent on undermining American democracy and establishing an American totalitarianism; that he stole the 2016 election with the help of Russia; and that he always has been in cahoots with Vladimir Putin.

The liberals who hold this assessment of Trump, what some critics call “Trump derangement syndrome,” are as devoted to their assessments as are Trump’s supporters.  Both groups look to Trump as an angel or devil; he transfixes both in equal measure.

Aside from those who see Trump as a savior or Satan, there are various other opinions of him that cross ideological divides.  Most are equivocal, at best.

Some leftists admire him for his less belligerent stance toward Russia and understand the totally debunked Russia-gate accusations against him and the impeachment proceedings as confirmation of his sincerity, although they do not endorse some of his other positions.  Others view him as the personification of the rise of neo-fascist, far-right Christian fundamentalism, while also seeing Biden and the Democrats as perfidious fools leading the country to disaster.

Some conservatives like aspects of his agenda, as do a small number of libertarians, but they remain very wary. There are many variations on these opinions with most falling somewhere between a rock and a hard place.  A sort of pox on both contestants in the electoral game, but most are based on the presupposition that the show must go on, even as both sides claim electoral fraud when their side loses.  This is the frame within which impressions of Trump and his opponents are formed.

Rarely is it considered – and this is the take of a tiny minority – that with the rise of celebrity culture, pseudo-events, image-making, and the vast, sophisticated, electronic, intelligence, propaganda apparatus, that Donald Trump is not the impressions he gives off but a creation of hidden forces manipulating reality to an unimaginable extent.

That Trump is not the arch-enemy of Biden or Clinton or any Democrat, but that he is a partner in a great game of deception in which the good guys and bad guys play their parts for the Great Director.

It is worth remembering what Barbara Honegger, who was present in the West Wing of the White House in February 1981, overheard that day:

We’ll know our disinformation is complete when everything the American public believes is false.  – William J. Casey, CIA Director

It is also worth considering a different version of the point the psychologist James Hillman and the writer Michael Ventura raised with their book We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World’s Getting Worse.  People might ask themselves if over the past fifty or five years their lives have gotten better or worse under all the American presidents, including Biden and Trump.

The answer is obvious. Therefore, maybe it is time to imagine the most extreme possibility: That Casey’s statement has come to fruition.

It is not just painters and comedians who do impressions.

Edward Curtin is an independent writer whose work has appeared widely over many years. His website is edwardcurtin.com and his new book is Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies.
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siamdave
siamdave
Aug 30, 2022 6:37 AM

this essentially anti-Trump rant could be taken apart from top to bottom, but it would be a waste of time, Trump haters (TDSers) will believe any bad thing they want no matter how baseless or stupid, and those who see the reality of Trump, aka those who are not controlled by deep state propaganda, don’t need this thing dissected. Just one example – ‘a wealthy real estate operator who had often declared bankruptcy and a comical reality-television host with a strange hairdo’ – such a dismissive way to describe a man who very very cleverly and creatively fought his way to the top of perhaps the most competetive real estate jungle in the world, and created a very large number of great structures, many amazing buildings, beautiful high-quality golf courses, and etc etc – truly a giant in his field. – and ‘comical host’ – only from eyes that hate – he was at the top of his career, looking for amusing things to do, and created a highly successful reality tv show.
a telling thing about our current society is how many people who like to think themselves clever and above the propaganda that controls so many people demonstrate with crap like this how they themselves are controlled by that same propaganda

DaisyMoses
DaisyMoses
Aug 30, 2022 3:47 AM

Terrific article.
Early today I wrote a comment that touches upon this same topic…so I share again wiht a couple tweaks fwiw…
There IS a reason that the puppeteers in the back room with Oz tend to “cast” actors, stand-up comedians, TV-show hosts, and others NOT from the actual political arena in these JOBS (Resident, Prime Munster, Mayo, Grubner, etc) . Bringing totally unprepared people to the fore and giving the rest-ov-us a NON-choice makes it easy on the puppeteers. The selected ones remain uninformed lacking a lifetime of knowledge political sharkdom affords and thus RELY on the “intelligence” (all meanings here…) of those around them. Apprentice Daddy too of course. Many are used to teeveeland where those around them backstage are there basically servile worshipful fluffers who do it for the $ but the “starz” don’t know these faithful paid flunkies and “agents” would schtup them in a minute (and do–at least on paper). Lots of schtupping going on backstage in DeeCee.  

In other words, it’s all a big show and even those who are media-wary fail to see that we have puppets backstage Left and backstage Right–they share handlers, sets, props and more.

Derek
Derek
Aug 29, 2022 10:41 PM
John Ervin
John Ervin
Aug 30, 2022 5:06 AM
Reply to  Derek

Great read. Thanks.

TomUSA
TomUSA
Aug 29, 2022 8:13 PM

I doubt Mr. Curtin ever watched a Trump rally in its entirety. In case that is so, let me describe those events in a minimum of words: the crowds loved him, he loved them and they all loved their country ( since lost as we know ) – you can count the masks present at any of the 50,000 attended rallies on one hand, cheek by jowl they stood, waiting patiently for his arrival in adverse weather conditions. They were love fests each and every one – you would have to be a stone not to realize it. Is there anyone you know, at any age ( he was 74 ), who has the stamina to hold forth on a stage for an hour+ five times in one day, each venue a flight apart from the next, as he did the day before the 2020 election theft? I don’t either.

Such attempts to reduce the man serve mainly to reduce him making the attempt. Trump was by far the most beloved President in my lifetime, if not for all time and the hatred heaped upon him utterly degrades the perpetrators and touches him not at all – for it is but an image falsely created by those who he would topple for cause. Name any other President or political leader who did what he said he was going to do, anywhere nearly as well, if you can.

If the story were over we could say ” He presided over the loss of the USA ” and ” He rushed through those heinous bioweapon vaccines ” and no doubt several other lesser charges…but it’s not over yet, is it?

I’ll read Mr. Curtin’s articles henceforth after reading the comments, maybe.

siamdave
siamdave
Aug 30, 2022 6:14 AM
Reply to  TomUSA

well said, or written as the case may be – just another anti-Trump rant from a pretend-intellectual trying to put a mask on his TDS – if sanity eventually returns to the world, Trump will, I think, be seen as one of the great presidents, arising in an age of almost total insanity to return sanity to the world

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
Aug 29, 2022 4:42 PM

Well… There are a lot of speculations regarding Mr. Trump. Let’s boil it down a bit:

Every president since the days of Theodore Roosevelt (US president 1901 – 1909) have been cue card presidents. They’ve read the provided cue cards, then flip social cues into a sort of Tarot card prediction. The audience raves and claps. Then they march off to murder anyone who isn’t raving and clapping on same page. Undeclared wars are a favorite…

Royal families have been curators of Tarot predictions for much longer…

siamdave
siamdave
Aug 30, 2022 6:15 AM
  • and Trump has been deeply feared and hated by the cuecard writers for tearing all their cards up
Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
Aug 30, 2022 2:49 PM
Reply to  siamdave

I agree. He was lousy at interpreting Tarot and resented the conditions of his tenure… The CIA/FBI/Mossad had already captured and subverted all levels of governance. His (s)election was a fluke…

John Ervin
John Ervin
Sep 20, 2022 9:08 PM
Reply to  siamdave

There’s not a word or thought The Donald has had or said since the precious Drumpf Cradle that wasn’t scripted or cued. That’s why he is an ersatz Star of TV (not that there are many non-ersatz stars). What else? His awesome Yankee originality? Right?!

He is a signed, sealed, and deluvered Langley psyop since his short(est) pants. Anyone who curiously defends him instantly enters the ranks of the Usual Suspects. That’s all. Likely psyopsratives.

If (m)any doubt that, consider that Tesla was found dead on his bed in dress clothes, NYC, January 7, 1943, and the FBI seized all of his estate and gave it (i.e. papers and notes) to their OAP Custodian, an MIT physics professor and highly endowed electrical inventor, name of Dr. John G. Trump.

The only brother of Fred Trump, The Donald’s father……..(?!)

If anyone can’t connect the more tell-tale dots involved (including the nearly 80 years old “rumour” that Tesla had been visited the night before by Otto Skorzeny (“Hitler’s Bodyguard” aka “The Longjumper” et. al stierscheiße) and General Reinhard Gehlen (soon to be 4 years later the de facto founder of the CIA, at least in its “seminal” and current iterations: both Nazis in finest street clothes, of course) I’ve got a massive hill of WTC rubble as a consolation prize, or, alternately a nearby bridge, unloaded on me by a certain NYC real estate family of “developers”, ‘dirt (rubble) cheap’.

Quaeritur Omnia
Quaeritur Omnia
Aug 29, 2022 3:59 PM

Donald Trump was elected as President of the most powerful country in the world.
How he achieved this, what he said to the Queen and what colour his hair is etc, are immaterial … Perhaps the only question that really matters is:- “Did he achieve more than his clownish predecessors, Clinton, Bush, O´Barmy?”

One achievement alone should distinguish him from this bunch of loosers.
He did not maim/kill hundreds of thousands of children in illegal wars,

(He also pursued other positive policies – not least the border wall!)

Albert Anderson
Albert Anderson
Aug 29, 2022 4:26 PM

Oh yes, he did. He might not have started the wars, but he continued them, and US imperialism, with fervor. He killed kids in Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, and anywhere else the CINC had “authority” to kill.

Quaeritur Omnia
Quaeritur Omnia
Aug 29, 2022 7:10 PM

The US has been at war for about 225 of the 243 years since its inception in 1776. Today the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC) is in control in a symbiotic relationship between the US’s military, economic, and political interests.
This in a milieu where world-wide conflict is on the rise with many wars today waged between non-state actors such as political militias, criminal, and international terrorist groups.

Trump recognised this “swamp” and attempted to bring it under control – a Herculean task that former Presidents had not even attempted.

Albert Anderson
Albert Anderson
Aug 29, 2022 8:53 PM

Trump is clearly part of the swamp, or a swamp of a different smell, and prove that he tried to bring it under control. He didn’t. That’s just repeating his own lies.

siamdave
siamdave
Aug 30, 2022 6:16 AM

the US deep state did the killing etc, refusing to obey Trump’s attempts to cool things down

semaj
semaj
Aug 31, 2022 12:22 PM
Reply to  siamdave

Exactly, people do not seem to understand that the CIA, Blackrock and others are additional states totally out of control of the so called democratic process, not to mention Mossad so I won’t.

Johnnycomelately
Johnnycomelately
Aug 29, 2022 8:30 PM

One achievement alone should distinguish him from this bunch of loosers.

He did not maim/kill hundreds of thousands of children in illegal wars,

His vaccine campaign did!

Antonym
Antonym
Aug 29, 2022 1:07 PM

That Trump is not the arch-enemy of Biden or Clinton or any Democrat, but that he is a partner in a great game of deception in which the good guys and bad guys play their parts for the Great Director.

Who believes that the Trump election 2016 -> derailment 2022 was all pre-planned?

The CIA nurtures this kind of posts as it gives their conspiracy theory trap crap new life.

Trump was the best messer-up of the Anglo MIC since JFK and that is why they don’t want him. Johnson was a clown PM they loved. They hate self-financed presidential candidates who are hard to smear effectively. Their horse – HRC – was 4 leg crippled, Trump only 3.

peter mcloughlin
peter mcloughlin
Aug 29, 2022 11:57 AM

Very true, and propaganda is critical in presenting our version of the “truth” when it comes to war. But propaganda is an illusion – as is power – what nations fight wars over. As a result every empire eventually faces the conflict it is trying to avoid – its own collapse. It seems, the way global events are moving, even the horrors of nuclear Armageddon are not enough to stop us.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/

Placental_Mammal
Placental_Mammal
Aug 29, 2022 10:27 AM

Drumpf

I skimmed through the article. It had no mention of the move of the embassy to Jerusalem,the recognition of the Golan heights to Israel. Or the building of the plandemic narrative and the warp speeding of the clot shots. Obomber, Drumpf and Creepy Joe all did so much for their bankster masters.

Stuart Davies
Stuart Davies
Aug 29, 2022 12:44 PM

Precisely. Nor any mention of the evidence – most of which was right under everyone’s noses the whole time – that Trump & Co repeatedly aided and abetted the entire ‘Russiagate’ psyop. A full analysis of all of this shit would be book length though, wouldn’t it?

Wlliam Sabre
Wlliam Sabre
Aug 29, 2022 10:13 AM

If you peruse uk 70’s video’s and headlines, the people complaining of rubbish on the streets, teachers and miners, riots and strikes, the people and streets looked impoverished and angry, the youth and popstars genderly confused, everyone unhappy or buzzing on drugs with weird clothes; it looks like a mental institute but really I suspect the uk will look like that again in five years of this. It seems engineered to repeat. But it won’t be new, progressivists have run out of new ideas.

Insulin injected treatment for diabetes is 100 years old this year, and despite advertised improvements in technology for the past 50 years (gmo insulin, injection machines etc.); injecting natural insulin by hand, as they did 100 years ago, is still the best and only proven method for that individual to live a normalish healthyish length of life. Nothing has improved what-so-ever. It’s all theatre. Let that sink in.

The Ideology of science; starting from point A you could eternally progress to a point B; that was forever in the future. Progressivism.

Science is the one human activity that is totally progressive.
Edwin Hubble

Johnnycomelately
Johnnycomelately
Aug 29, 2022 12:34 PM
Reply to  Wlliam Sabre

Insulin injected treatment for diabetes is 100 years old this year, and despite advertised improvements in technology for the past 50 years (gmo insulin, injection machines etc.); injecting natural insulin by hand, as they did 100 years ago, is still the best and only proven method for that individual to live a normalish healthyish length of life

They now have a pump – stuck to the arm or parts of the body and injected remotely via a app. Wow how amazing.

comment image

William
William
Aug 29, 2022 12:53 PM

It’s regressive technology and causes more trouble than it’s worth (battery life, mobility, changing swabs, amount of kit you have to travel around with for longer journeys) also it requires genetically created ‘insulin’ which is only 5-10-20 years old, who knows they keep recalling it and changing it, they’re experimenting on patients, but they tell you you can live a full life, how do they know after testing it on a rabbit for two months, old natural animal insulin was proven to work for life, also insulin does many things like deliver magnesium but their gm stuff only ‘lowers blood glucose’, interesting how longterm magnesium defficiency is related to all the problems the nhs warns diabetic patients they can suffer from, hmmm. All you need for manual 100 year old tech; can fit in a glasses case.

William
William
Aug 29, 2022 1:13 PM
Reply to  William

The medical industry is a racket that preys on the vulnerable, it’s such an extensive racket it’s almost inconceivable to most people. It’s a bottmless pit of lies about illness, the human body, nature and health. Most Nurses and doctors have no idea what they’re involved in.

susan mullen
susan mullen
Aug 29, 2022 7:50 AM

Trump didn’t rise, was by no means a phenomenon. Further, Jared was de facto pres. The Tea Party, who were Trump’s ready-made voters, rose well before Trump. Andrew Breitbart was key in this and worked himself to death at age 43. Trump spoke at some Tea Party rallies in 2011, had been known to idolize Soros and had accepted a $160 million loan from him in 2004 to build his Chicago hotel. At a TP rally in 2011, one rallier shouted, “What about Soros,” and Trump said, “leave him alone, talk about something else.” The GOP co-opted the Tea Party, but that still left half of America, ie, Republican voters and R leaning independents with no political party behind them. The GOP despises Republican voters, the donors want open borders and endless wars. Certainly R voters were never allowed to pick their own candidate. The GOP prefers democrats to be in control so always picks someone guaranteed to lose, ie Romney, McCain, Dole. We always knew we could beat democrats if we were allowed to pick our own candidate. Which is what happened in 2016. Unfortunately, Trump/Kushner et al. merged w. the GOP and RNC establishment, Trump became a worse neocon than McCain, so we still have no one to vote for. (In 2015 Jared accepted a $250 million credit line from Soros, per WSJ in 2017).

Stuart Davies
Stuart Davies
Aug 29, 2022 1:01 PM
Reply to  susan mullen

Well, yeah…sorta. You put your finger on an important point with the mention of Soros’ support for Trump. However – regarding the Tea Party, it was very evident that this was literally created by the corporate state itself, as was the so called ‘Sagebrush Rebellion’ that preceded it – as was the ‘philosophy’ of ‘Libertarianism’ decades before that. All of these things are classic examples of corporate astroturf.

I don’t doubt that folks like you could have easily beaten the anointed Dem candidates if we actually lived in a democracy with a semi-level playing field and honestly counted votes, but then again, the very same could be said in reverse – the Dems could have easily beaten the (s)elected GOP candidate if we actually lived in a democracy with a semi-level playing field and honestly counted votes.

The 2016 Dem primary is a classic case in point there – Sanders OBLITERATED Clinton in that primary, there is no end of evidence that this was a completely fraudulent ‘election’ from A to Z, and no end of evidence that Sanders (fake) populist message trumped Trump’s own (even more blatantly fake) populist message, and would have easily beaten Trump if we actually lived in a democracy with a semi-level playing field and honestly counted votes. But we don’t live in that world, do we?

entitled2
entitled2
Aug 29, 2022 8:36 PM
Reply to  susan mullen

Wasn’t Trump a democrats not long ago..?

Johnnycomelately
Johnnycomelately
Aug 29, 2022 7:45 AM

Meanwhile, over to Dave at X22 Report for the latest. “Day 2,337.
The patriots have it all, the deep state is panicking,
Trump is going to expose them all, etc, etc, etc……………………………………………………………….”
everything is under control, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes, bla bla bla.
save the children by making sure there boostered. etc etc et
Impressions of Donald Trump supporters = clueless.
comment image

Nigel Watson
Nigel Watson
Aug 29, 2022 7:01 AM

Become ungovernable. You owe them nothing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ot0yRXrYgA

Johnnycomelately
Johnnycomelately
Aug 29, 2022 7:28 AM
Reply to  Nigel Watson

Do you own anything if it is registered .?

Freecus
Freecus
Aug 29, 2022 12:23 PM

Nope, only the privilege for your ‘legal fiction’ to use it.

les online
les online
Aug 29, 2022 5:47 AM

O.T.
’tis truly amazing to read a headline claiming “Hard Left Unions Plan To Bring The UK To It’s Knees”… After the economic damage of the lockdowns can they really do as much damage ? Anyway, such Old Normal headlines shouldnt have a place in The New Normal, surely ?

Sophie - Admin1
Admin
Sophie - Admin1
Aug 29, 2022 6:01 AM
Reply to  les online

The PTB want to destroy the economy. The ‘unions’ can be drafted in to help with that as much as anything else. They are all firmly establishment these days and certainly pro-GR. Care nothing for their members but use that pretense as a cover for their actions. Look at the way they embraced the covid nonsense and insisted on lockdowns to “protect the workers”.

Nigel Watson
Nigel Watson
Aug 29, 2022 7:03 AM

Correct. This became obvious to me in March 2020. I used to be a teacher, and I immediately stopped paying my subscription to the National Teachers Union.

George Mc
George Mc
Aug 29, 2022 7:31 AM
Reply to  les online

The headline that the unions – or anyone else – can “bring the nation to its knees” is another part of the theatre. Everyone should know by now that whatever the media report is part of that theatre. Indeed, the media is the theatre. And the notion that the unions can cause another lockdown is something we will see suggested over and over – only it will not be referred to as “lockdown”. It may be called “shit down” (I meant “shut down” but the typo seems appropriate.)

And that seems to me to be what this “industrial unrest” is really all about. A new lockdown under a different name and with a different “cause”.

And it will be a more favourable lockdown since the government won’t have to pay anything out. They can cut off all payments as part of the “dispute”.

Brianborou
Brianborou
Aug 29, 2022 3:10 PM
Reply to  les online

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT Union is an example of what a trade union leader, fighting for his workers rights and conditions should be and Kowtows to neither the Tories, new Tories or is bullied by the employees, who together with the MSM work either directly or indirectly for the City of London.

Here’ s Mick dealing with them.

https://leftfootforward.org/2022/06/mick-lynchs-best-five-interviews-of-the-week/

Platov
Platov
Aug 29, 2022 5:07 AM

I think much of Trump’s support was not based on his positions on politics, economics or foreign affairs, but on the way he openly mocked Liberal icons for their dishonesty and hypocrisy. Whatever else may be said about “working-class white men,” it has been my experience as an academic that they are significantly more honest and truthful than the generic Neoliberal virtue signaler.

William
William
Aug 29, 2022 11:06 AM
Reply to  Platov

Working class white men don’t hold institutional authoritive positions or internet forum admins, so how the neoliberal virtue signaller thinks; molds what is accepted and promoted and what is seen by outsiders in western societies. Western nations have become a false smiling mask hiding a growing bitter resentment.

Lost in a dark wood
Lost in a dark wood
Aug 29, 2022 4:53 AM

Alberta: And the leading cause of death goes to . . .

:
Ill-defined and unknown causes

https://www.bitchute.com/video/WzOIlYafMEjj

les online
les online
Aug 29, 2022 3:43 AM

O.T.
Should astrophysicists turn their giant expensive telescopes on Donald Trump will they find the ‘nothing’ they believe ‘underlies everything’ ?
https:///www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-physics-of-nothing-underlies-everything-20220809
Compare the astrophysicists understandings of Our Universe to those James DeMeo offers in his “The Dynamic Ether of Cosmic Space. (Correcting a Major Error in Modern Science)”
They are describing two radically different understandings of Our Universe. Surely one must be wrong ? (I’m guessing the model that gets all the funding and provides all the jobs is the only one you’ve ever heard about.)…

John Merryman
John Merryman
Aug 29, 2022 2:14 AM

This is the surface. The real story is deeper, but more basic.
Government, as executive and regulatory function, is analogous to a central nervous system, while money and banking serve as blood and the circulation system of society.
We’ve come to realize that government functions best as a public utility, but have yet to understand the same principle applies to banking. Which has given banking the upper hand, as they are not subject to as much oversight and don’t have to plan around election cycles. Consequently the financial industry has effectively hollowed out government, leaving a bunch of stooges, psychopaths, grifters and prostitutes to fill the roles, with their primary function, besides protecting their benefactors, to create as much debt as possible, since it is the foundation of the financial system. The secret sauce of capitalism is public debt backing private wealth.
We are linear, goal oriented creatures in a cyclical, circular, reciprocal, feedback generated reality, so while markets need money to circulate, like blood in the body, people see it as signal to extract and store, like fat. Requiring ever more metastatic methods of storing what has been extracted and ever more to be added.
As a contract, not a commodity, the asset is backed by the debt. So to store the asset, sufficient debt has to be generated. The wars are just a way to make it go away, so more can be borrowed.
Any politician daring to take on the system with be Kennedyed.

les online
les online
Aug 29, 2022 3:12 AM
Reply to  John Merryman

Make that “The secret sauce of financial capitalism…..” ?

James R
James R
Aug 29, 2022 5:35 AM
Reply to  John Merryman

Does this organismic analogy allow for the existence of viral material? If so, WHO (sic) is messing around with the ‘spike’ protein?

William
William
Aug 29, 2022 12:46 PM
Reply to  John Merryman

money and banking serve as blood and the circulation

A modern understanding, bringing in the age of domination, violence and (spiritual) darkness.

The Anti-Hip
The Anti-Hip
Aug 29, 2022 2:01 AM

Granted, reality is unavailable in 2022. But if you think reality was any more available in, say, 1962 nearer the dawn of TeeVee, I’ve certainly got some “goods” to peddle to you. 

“[C]elebrity culture that has come to dominate our world … [T]he rise of celebrity culture, pseudo-events, image-making, … ” 

  • No, it hasn’t. It’s always existed.  

“…and the vast, sophisticated, electronic, intelligence, propaganda apparatus, …hidden forces manipulating reality to an unimaginable extent.”

  • Again, an “apparatus” has always existed. The only meaningful difference with the past is the types of tools used, not the extent and impact of it.

So you’ve got it upside-down. Fascist leaders (and all kinds of famous people) have existed in the past, and they exist now, and have always risen through nothing but image (even when you saw them face-to-face!), lit by the fires of social catalysts (hard times), promising a short-cut to democratic responsiveness while being criticized as anti-democratic by the elite. Nothing’s changed there. There’s no unprecedented Fasczilla (L or R) threatening civilization through unprecedented mind control.

The only thing that really has changed in 60 years is the level of public exposure — thanks to the Internet — of all the modern-age sausage-making behind the scenes and the level of social and other sewage being pumped out. The shit that has always existed, but previously far more easily under the covers, and previously far more in control by the powers that be. Today’s is an unalloyed improvement. But we clearly still haven’t much a clue yet how to handle information, even though many of us think we do, comically by talking about how “overwhelming” it all is, and that we must retreat from it all to save our sanity. So, we think it’s the end of the world. But haven’t we seen that movie before?

Yes, we have. It’s analogous to the rise of the printing press; a story you’ve likely heard before, one that I’d like to endorse and reiterate. It’s a social information-management problem, not a political fascism-management problem. The earth-shaking changes that came in religion, politics, science, etc. needed hundreds of years to evolve. Same thing will be necessary today, because even though machines are now lightning-fast, our grammars are little better than 20th century, and our minds and bodies are the same as in 1500. The so-called “idiocy” of the electorate clearly demonstrates this.

meandyouandhim
meandyouandhim
Aug 29, 2022 6:55 AM
Reply to  The Anti-Hip

It was 1788 when the constitution of the USA invented representative reality; it did this by dividing reality into four parts.
The two party system horizontally divided the nation while the elected vs those who are to be the governed were separated. The elected were to serve the Oligarch, like the slave drivers of old, and the governed were to be the slaves of the nation state in service to the Oligarch.

The Anti-Hip
The Anti-Hip
Aug 29, 2022 7:00 PM
Reply to  meandyouandhim

Thanks. To the extent 1788 non-slaves were nevertheless psychological “slaves”, they were not aware of it, and I think that matters…

The U.S. party system(s) emerged starting in the 1790s; nothing was written into the Constitution about it. Although the US has been effectively two-party since then due to the state “winner-take-all” election rules, it did not become unassailably so until after the Perot scare in the 1992 election. At that point, the Democrats and Republicans did what was necessary to completely lock it in (e.g. presidential debate controls). It has never actually been codified; to do so would be “UnAmerican” 🙂 A combination of ranked choice, runoffs, permitted coalitions, etc. might be able to undo this.

The reason the two parties are Left (ostensibly prioritizing fairness, currently Democrats) and Right (ostensibly prioritizing freedom, currently Republicans) is that those two parts are fundamental to human social function at the same time they act in opposition to each other. (Note that even the majority of leadership of each party can be stealth apathetic or even opposed to those principals, as likely now.) For that reason, L and R, each occupying one of two parties in a two-party system, will never go away, even as D and R swap roles along certain dimensions occasionally (see 1950s vs 1970s vs 2010s).

The party system is not really what polarized the nation. Through late 20th century opposing side could still deal civilly with each other. IMO, what polarized us was Internet-induced media competition, plus oligarch wishes to conquer-and-divide, plus the lack of sufficient leadership in politicians to vigorously oppose this market-driven polarization, at potential personal expense for the good of the nation.

In any case, I don’t think any of that is too important to a discussion of root reality. Reality is forever elusive:
1. All perception is human (including, for example, those perceptions allegedly provided by perfect gods, thus rendering them moot).
2. All humans are limited and imperfect.
Therefore, all claims to truth are properly and forever subject to re-examination and revision. If we could restore the humility which follows this (a la mid-20th century politics), we’ll be better off politically. But as George Carlin pointed out late in his illustrious career, “our owners don’t want that.”

niko
niko
Aug 29, 2022 1:19 AM

Besides the famous ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ attributed to him, I believe Andy Warhol said something like fame, or celebrity, has become the ultimate form of art. It’s certainly a science of propaganda perfected so long of history repeating itself it’s achieved absolute farce with Trump. Yes, we’re all supposed to be sucked into one big reality TV show now, neverending political theater from a master of the absurd, as manufactured by those pulling his strings.

Turn off the telly, throw away the mobiles, and come out of the screens where ghosts of ourselves have become imprisoned. When image is everything and the medium is the message making reality, reality has become a lost cause, with cynical awareness being all the more its vindication. The revolution will not be televised, digitized, or mediated in any other way than our own flesh waking up and rising up to new ways of living beyond the watseland of the real.

Johnny
Johnny
Aug 29, 2022 1:31 AM
Reply to  niko

A perfect summary Niko.

KiwiJoker
KiwiJoker
Aug 29, 2022 1:10 AM

On finishing this essay I was somewhat disappointed that there wasn’t a single person doing a Trump impression.

Penelope
Penelope
Aug 29, 2022 1:08 AM

Dr. McCullough on M’POX:

Globally 7k cases; deaths in US: 0
98% of US cases sexually transmitted male-to-male,
41% of these cases also have HIV.

The vax used is a live-attenuated smallpox vax & results in 
18% of these smallpox vaxxed having CARDIAC SYMPTOMS
18%!!

Placental_Mammal
Placental_Mammal
Aug 29, 2022 10:04 AM
Reply to  Penelope

HIV ? does it exist ?

Tigerlily
Tigerlily
Aug 29, 2022 12:48 PM

Nope…same as Covid,monkeypox,polio etc..all bullshite!

Robert Esbrandt
Robert Esbrandt
Aug 29, 2022 4:45 PM
Reply to  Penelope

Mccollough is controlled opposition to promote German theory. Just another shill

les online
les online
Aug 29, 2022 1:05 AM

(The Trump phenomena) ‘…has its roots in the transformations in American culture from the late 1950’s.’ In ‘Hidden Persuaders’ (1959) Vance Packard reported how Television had become a major Post-WW2 influenza of the masses social and economic behaviours…(JFK – The First TV US President)…
AS a Baby Boomer (Affectionately labeled “a useless eater” by the Monied Classes), i’ve often wondered about Post-WW2 changes to the mother-child relationship, changes especially ‘encouraged; by the pressure of consumer television, that may have contributed to today’s young’s seeming obsession with ‘communication’ devices, and ‘Identity’ concerns…
Earlier this year i was caught-out on one of the prejudiced instilled from uncritically absorbing TV’s
suggestiveness during the early 1960s,,,
I read a favourable piece about Dr Benjamin Spock, him of ‘how best to raise baby’ books…The rare favourable piece made me realize i’d never ever thought of reading anything by him, because of the ridicule made of him and his ideas via TV all those years ago…Ridicule of Dr Spock had subliminally inured me against reading his books…Dr Spock was fighting a last dich battle against Post-WW2 changes to the mother-child relationship being widely adopted…(It still rages ! The USA being one of VERY few countries to oppose in recent years the UN endorsement of the preference for breast feeding babies…Yes ! The State fights even against that natural relationship !)…
There’s a direct line from Dr Spock’s concerns an Christopher Lasch’s “Culture of Narcissism” (1979).
Of Neuroses: ‘Neurosis is a disorder incurred under chronic stress. Normally the stress occurs in early infancy – when the child cannot easily escape from it.’ The Covid psyops is a major stressor – a lot of irrational responses do and will result from it.
‘The infant needs close contact with the skin of the mother, which forms the basis of his contact with the world. The need for recognition through being looked at, so that one experiences oneself as being seen, is absolutely basic to the maturing identity sense.
‘The infant needs to experience himself being experienced, the mother who can delight in her child has the reciprocal joy of experiencing him experiencing her.’
Post WW2 mother-child relationships were changing, freeing mothers to obtain work for the money to buy, buy, buy…
Vance Packard (1959) recorded the use by the Madison Avenue admen of TV medium to stir-up dis-satisfaction in USA housewives… Betty Friedan, in The Feminine Mystique (1963) recorded the dis-satisfactions aroused, and birthed the Woman’s Liberation Movement…
It was said about The Situationist’s ‘Society of the Spectacle’ that it’s critique stayed mainly at the level of surfaces…Analyses to help understanding ‘The Trump Phenomena’ also require depth…Thank you Edward…

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
Aug 29, 2022 3:57 PM
Reply to  les online

Les online: Excellent comment. Social neurosis begins with alienation of mother and child. The Woman’s Liberation Movement was a spectacular assault on the relationships of mother to child, and husband to wife. It superseded traditional relationships, and replaced relationship with cue cards… Only a few read the script…

May Hem
May Hem
Aug 30, 2022 6:25 AM

The Women’s Liberation movement has been degraded and distorted by the patriarchal ruling men.

Women’s Lib was about equality of oppportunity with respect for both female and male.

The original ethical aims have been distorted so that some women have now become patriarchal in beliefs and behaviour. This has nothing to do with the original aims of Women’s Lib, but the indoctrination machines present it as such.

True Women’s Liberation is the greatest of all threats to the patriarchs, but the greatest of all blessings to the rest of humanity.

New Name
New Name
Aug 30, 2022 7:49 AM
Reply to  May Hem

Feminism has always been a bankster cultural and economic offensive.

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
Aug 30, 2022 2:41 PM
Reply to  May Hem

Hello May Hem: I see you’ve read the play book. All social agendas carry the underlying seeds of conflict. Indoctrination machines are present in all social and political agenda… The “liberation” movement only served to enslave the household to an economic condition that required multiple incomes to support itself.

My father would have been considered blue collar and lower middle class. Yet he was able to support a wife and four children by practicing frugality and self-control. He had no delusions of grandeur and treated my mother with respect and kindness. He retained his fathers and grandfather’s playbooks, and was well aware of the directions the “liberation” movement was headed.

Hsuan
Hsuan
Aug 29, 2022 12:12 AM

Just found out that the Wikispooks website, which I’ve found useful from time to time, has officially been “disappeared” from the internet.

You can still access it here …

https://web.archive.org/web/20220716075903/https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Main_Page

… but it appears that it’s usefulness has been severely deprecated. You can download a zip file backup of the site but it’s 12 GB.

James R
James R
Aug 29, 2022 12:07 AM

‘They believe that sometime in the 1980s, illegal ranchers, after leaving initial offerings of sugar, gave the tribe rat poison that killed all bar the “man of the hole”.’

This sad Amazonian story from the dilapidated ancestral home page strikes me as a possible ‘revelation of the method’. As an unvaccinated sort of ‘man of the hole’ type myself, I say: ‘Respect’.

Interesting acronym, is it not? And I speak as a heterosexual non-lepidopterist.

May Hem
May Hem
Aug 28, 2022 11:09 PM

Off topic – watch the recent demolition of these two towers in India. Remind you of anything?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-29/skyscrapers-demolished-in-india-for-building-violations/101381248

R Anand
R Anand
Aug 29, 2022 5:24 PM
Reply to  May Hem

Here, in India, it is one more indicator of how the highest court in the country, Supreme Court of India, gives anti-people rulings and shields the real wealthy culprits.

The is also an element of the current government (being a stooge of global oligarchy) using a manipulated judicial order to exploit an opportunity to trial run some new chemical explosives and technology imported from Isreali members of global oligarchy.

Total corruption. Total loss of ethics.

plino
plino
Aug 28, 2022 10:59 PM

Bad Obama -> Good Trump (“involved in the huge affair, with the support of Russia”); expectations, white hats in the background, but…nothing -> bad Biden (but in the distance – Putin with a white hat and a lantern in his hand to keep the light of hope); waiting for the return of Orange in 2024…

“Trust in the plan is maintained”, and all the time (and long before that) the true plan runs like water. Fairytale story. However, the plan is progressing, and those who look with hope and popcorn will not have time to turn around to parry the blow in the back. If, at all, he can fight back, as I hope.

Penelope
Penelope
Aug 28, 2022 10:22 PM

I’m laughing out loud. Is there NO degree of nonsense that can elicit shame in ’em? 

German Health Minister Lauterbach says vaccination limits the COVID pandemic because vaccinated people develop symptoms quickly and stay home, while unvaccinated people develop symptoms more slowly– and so walk around infecting others.

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1562508699557474306

John Ervin
John Ervin
Aug 28, 2022 10:26 PM
Reply to  Penelope

They know they have a near infinititude of “Variations on a Theme” with this psyop mechanism. Spinning and spinning.

plino
plino
Aug 28, 2022 10:39 PM
Reply to  Penelope

Since there are those who believe them, they will press to the last.
Counter argument of triple or more (I’m not sure) inoculated “pretiv coovid” and boosted as much as the experts recommend:
The vaccine isn’t meant to make us eternal, is it???

I wish him well, but I don’t know what the chances are that he will always get a placebo dose.

lotuseater
lotuseater
Aug 29, 2022 4:48 AM
Reply to  Penelope

Don’t need no fancy kung fu maneuvers when your opponent is a punch drunk moron in a straight jacket…

May Hem
May Hem
Aug 28, 2022 10:07 PM

This is not about Trump, but – can’t say they didn’t tell us clearly,

“94% of the world’s population needs to die”. Top World Economic Forum (WEF) adviser Yuval Noah Harari recently declared that the WEF considers the vast majority of the human population to be obsolete, useless and redundant.

https://youtu.be/mZuWhF7ejHA

semaj
semaj
Aug 31, 2022 12:30 PM
Reply to  May Hem

Wonder why they don’t set an example to the gullible people and top their families and then themselves which immediately gets rid of some evil, useless members and then the covoid idiots might follow suit, I will not hold my breath.

Sebastian
Sebastian
Aug 28, 2022 10:05 PM

Depth and perspective; Mr. Curtin has both in spades.

Did I mention intelligence and integrity?

Thanks, again, for these inspiring Sunday reflections – there are good people in this world of ours too!

siamdave
siamdave
Aug 30, 2022 6:47 AM
Reply to  Sebastian

aka ‘I have a serious, probably incurable, case of TDS…’

Martin Usher
Martin Usher
Aug 28, 2022 9:56 PM

In the book “Let them eat tweets” the author makes the argument that the right wing has always courted minorities because their ideology is essentially anti-majoritan, it furthers the interest of a relatively small group of ‘haves’ against a larger group of ‘would likes’. This situation is not new to, or confined to America, but the skilled statesman knows that you have to manage the balance carefully because if you don’t then its quite possible the extremists will take over. (The same probably applies to the left but there have been fewer opportunities to test the theory out.) The GoP has always had a right wing, fascist leaning fringe, but until recent years the leadership has been able to control it, throwing it a bit of red meat from time to time but generally keeping away from the levers of power.

What we had with Trump was a skilled rabble rouser that was a seriously inept politician. This opened the door to a raft of political operatives that in saner times wouldn’t be let anywhere near the corridors of power. The GoP grandees, meanwhile, just fell into the trap that others had fallen into from time immemorial — they rationalized tolerating the extremists because they felt they could control them. Too late the found out that the tail was indeed wagging the dog. Now we’re in this situation where its quite possible that our government is likely to become fascist. All the elements are in place. The judiciary has been corrupted, not just by SCOTUS being taken over by religious extremists (check out the bios of the recent appointees) but throughout the court system. The Civil Service missed being taken over by the executive by a hair’s breadth last time around. Once the courts, administration and law enforcement are in your pocket the legislators become irrelevant. We’ve also figured out that the state level Secretary of State position is not some boring non-partisan office for someone dedicated to running elections but in partisan hands a powerful tool because deciding who gets to vote and how those votes are counted — and whether the results should be certified or not — is the ultimate power in a democracy.

As for Trump himself, he really is clueless about both domestic and international politics. He would be a favored leader among nations like Russia and China that are not part of our hegemony because his posturing, pandering to slogans and the like, makes for great domestic propaganda but does nothing to further US interests. “They” don’t need to do anything to “win” except sit tight, do whatever they do, and wait for us to “lose”. We’re self destructing and, as Napoleon is credited with saying, “Never interrupt an enemy when they’re making a mistake”.

Mike
Mike
Aug 28, 2022 9:53 PM

What is needed is a boycott. People pushing stuff like keto and supplements isn’t going to do it. Storable food isn’t going to make anyone healthy. It isn’t ze bugs people are eating but ze fish oil. Linda Runyon used to have a show on GCN. The same radio network as inforwars. She however promoted eating the weeds. Much more useful than the fear mongering about food shortages. The show however was cancelled around 2012. Probably something to do with GCN shifting from selling gold into selling grass fed beef and supplements. You can find the shows and her other work at this site:
https://ofthefield.com/radio/100410.mp3

George Mc
George Mc
Aug 28, 2022 9:52 PM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62706769

Unions leading the masses in that revolutionary spirit. Lots of bolshy sentiment on display here. …which is kind of funny. I don’t recall the 1980s miner’s strike getting such a positive profile. Ah but that’s because our media have had their own revolution and now stand for that Scrooge-like redemption!

A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world. Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!

George Mc
George Mc
Aug 28, 2022 9:47 PM

In the BBC’s “Cost-of-living crisis” section:

-Four discounts and payments that could help you

-How much are prices rising for you? Try our calculator

-Can the world cope without Russian oil and gas?

-What is the energy price cap and what will I actually pay?

-Cost-of-living calendar – price hikes that lie ahead

Translated:

-You’re fucked!

-You’re fucked!

-You’re fucked!

-You’re fucked!

-You’re fucked!

Annie
Annie
Aug 28, 2022 11:56 PM
Reply to  George Mc

Absolutely.It has nothing to do with Russian oil,fertiliser, and everything to do with making us poorer the rich richer and cull a few million people in the process.Who gave banks the right to slaughter millions?who are these parasites to decide if we live or die?Egotistical God complex power hungry psychopaths that’s who are deciding whether we eat or heat while they sit in their smokers jackets mocking us?!?.

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
Aug 29, 2022 4:02 PM
Reply to  George Mc

You’re fucked. And you’ll be happy!

John Ervin
John Ervin
Aug 28, 2022 9:42 PM

Trump is at the other end of the spectrum from the more conventionally abused child stars of the past, from Judy Garland to Drew Barrymore (et ‘many’ alia) and all the dysfunction that those marquee lights imply.

He needs to break free of the iron(ic) grip of the studios and establish his own identity, for all our sakes. (Especially his.)

George Mc
George Mc
Aug 28, 2022 9:41 PM

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/24/insects-meat-flavor-mealworms-research

Hey I’m helping the environment … by puking up into it!

George Mc
George Mc
Aug 28, 2022 9:43 PM
Reply to  George Mc

The first time I tried clicking on that link there was a pay wall blocking me. The second time there wasn’t. It makes no difference. I still have no intention of reading it.

George Mc
George Mc
Aug 28, 2022 9:36 PM

I’m going through OffG’s tweets and I stumble on this:

https://twitter.com/covid_parent/status/1450883834283806724

I honestly can’t tell if this is a piss take or not! Can anyone tell the difference? I mean – it screams satire – but then you look at the mainstream stuff that’s been getting churned out regularly over the past two years and you wonder!

rememberingmonkey
rememberingmonkey
Aug 28, 2022 9:31 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5VEjF1uhYo

Bunch of ivory tower psychobabble. Monet???? Please. We just wanted the United States of the Republic to operate somewhat like it’s supposed to. ANYONE who promised to fix this sewer would have had my vote. As the video shows above, Trump has always thought this way. Groomed for all this time? I doubt it.

Jeffrey Strahl
Jeffrey Strahl
Aug 28, 2022 7:52 PM

Highly unusual that i rate an Edward Curtin article a 5, but i give credit where credit is due.This is right on target.

“Rarely is it considered – and this is the take of a tiny minority – that with the rise of celebrity culture, pseudo-events, image-making, and the vast, sophisticated, electronic, intelligence, propaganda apparatus, that Donald Trump is not the impressions he gives off but a creation of hidden forces manipulating reality to an unimaginable extent.

That Trump is not the arch-enemy of Biden or Clinton or any Democrat, but that he is a partner in a great game of deception in which the good guys and bad guys play their parts for the Great Director.”

siamdave
siamdave
Aug 30, 2022 6:52 AM
Reply to  Jeffrey Strahl

‘That Trump is not the arch-enemy of Biden or Clinton or any Democrat, but that he is a partner in a great game of deception in which the good guys and bad guys play their parts for the Great Director.” – speaking of serious deceptions … 😏 

rob2
rob2
Aug 28, 2022 7:38 PM

I saw this the other day on Cryptogon:

“Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said during a livestream this week that he was keeping trim in the event that medical science allows him to “live forever.”

“‘I think that there’s a good probability that my generation is, hopefully with the advances in science, is either the first generation to live forever or the last generation that’s going to die,’ Kushner said. ‘So we need to keep ourselves in pretty good shape.’”

Gee, I wonder why he’d say something so far out like that?

May Hem
May Hem
Aug 28, 2022 10:35 PM
Reply to  rob2

Don’t know if its true, but I read that Kushner was being groomed to be a future president of the US.

We get the politicians we deserve!

Zane
Zane
Aug 28, 2022 11:12 PM
Reply to  May Hem

Another Zionist puppet. Aren’t they all?

Veri Tas
Veri Tas
Aug 28, 2022 11:04 PM
Reply to  rob2

Another deluded psychopath, Kushner, that is.

MaryLS
MaryLS
Aug 29, 2022 2:54 AM
Reply to  rob2

“in the event that medical science allows him to “live forever.” Thst tells me he has not been vaxed.

Wisenox
Wisenox
Aug 29, 2022 10:52 AM
Reply to  rob2

That’s the plan, but for a small amount of people. They just need to learn the side effects (on regular people) so they can extend their lives safely.
Life extending treatments are going to be the way that they keep the upper level tools performing for them, but they’ll never get the treatments. Just the carrot on a stick. Most of the so-called insiders are just useful idiots competing for the carrot, but they’re still needed to pull everything off, so they’re fed lines of BS to keep them going along with the plan.
Once enough of the people are enslaved on the SpaceX grid and powerless, the next batch of useful idiots will be forced into the same situation.
Life extension will only apply to certain bloodlines; they want to be the progenitors of their own race of humans.
As its written in the bible, if they are not one of us, they are but of the flesh. That applies to the useful idiots as well, just after they do the work.

Johnnycomelately
Johnnycomelately
Aug 28, 2022 7:03 PM

Question..? why did the mentioning of Trump daughter in the YLP get the comment thread closed on this and several other forums at approximately same time when the news first came out about her being apart of it.

rob2
rob2
Aug 28, 2022 7:49 PM

I’ve been out of the loop a few days. What does YLP stand for?

Ort
Ort
Aug 31, 2022 9:13 PM
Reply to  rob2

Yosemite Lakes Park?  😉 

siamdave
siamdave
Aug 30, 2022 6:53 AM

??? part of what???

Fugazi Shoe-gazy
Fugazi Shoe-gazy
Aug 28, 2022 6:19 PM

Brings to mind that “resistance” hero who got a “Trumps not my president” tattoo. A vapid and performative act cosplaying as a political statement.

Annie
Annie
Aug 28, 2022 6:23 PM

I like your name 👍

sandy
sandy
Aug 28, 2022 6:05 PM

Reminders like this, to keep our eyes on the real prize of what is actually happening around us, are necessary acts of social conscience. The radical, the root, causes of all we are experiencing, cannot evolve out of this mass dysfunction without constant awareness of the power of depiction and those who project it to maintain authority. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in “Republic”, 2500 years ago describes image seduction to perfection. The heightened awareness of Eastern metaphysics seeks conscious awareness of the differences between illusion and reality. The Situationists of France and Debord’s “Society of the Spectacle” in 1967 cut through the spectacle of illusion like knife through butter. “The Matrix” mirrors our modern industrial urban jungle as totalizing illusion of elite control. My personal hero Marshall McLuhan, links image and depiction to technology that hypnotizes the potential recipient with narcissistic visions of personal empowerment, each iteration advancing the previous powers. Then asks, wouldn’t it be better if we consciously vetted all technologies for social benefit to Humanity before deployment instead of being victimized by the deadly side effects? Which now we can see as unsolved poverty, racism, classism, war, industrial toxification, monoculture, genocide, extinction and ecocide.

Annie
Annie
Aug 28, 2022 6:30 PM
Reply to  sandy

I’m glad I was a dreamer at school I never listened to teachers now I think the billions of children that go to school being indoctrinated?If adults can get caught in the web of propaganda now what hope can we have for society.

sandy
sandy
Aug 28, 2022 7:24 PM
Reply to  Annie

Schools have changed dramatically since the 80’s austerity cuts and mass testing replaced learning and investigation. I had a great education in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. It could have been much better if widened to all forms of human activity and knowledge. But the 80’s went opposite to de-education and obedience training. Now US public schools are deadly prison environments. Home schooling/Free Skools are our only option now.

Annie
Annie
Aug 29, 2022 12:22 AM
Reply to  sandy

I’m from the 70s.We used to be left in the classroom with a book to take notes.fantastic teaching.

Hemlockfen
Hemlockfen
Aug 28, 2022 6:02 PM

As a diehard Cubs fan since the 60s, I have to disagree. Miracles can and do happen.

Trump is too much of a risk. Too much negativity. Too much on the line. Climate change agendas are going to flip the world upside down if Democrats manage to hold on to power. And with the cheating proven in the movie 2000 Mules it is likely that ballot harvesting will happen again in the Swing States. Democrat Mantra: Lie. Cheat. Steal. Murder. I believe that another candidate (like DeSantis) will reduce the motive to cheat while garnering more of the Hispanic vote. My two cents.

Trump’s problem is the Republicans. Career Republicans were only going through the motions of supporting Trump because they had to because of his popularity. They don’t want him back. EVER.

The Republican Party’s own hatred of Trump is the reason why we are having this nonsense climate change agenda rammed down out throats by crazed extremist lunatics who are too lazy to verify the science propaganda being pumped out by the United Nations. It is falsified junk. Their have not proven anything with the exception of climate change cycles. Their data could not prove that climate change is accelerating because of increased greenhouse gasses caused by humans. So they made the data up. Period. It is an unproven theory. That’s it. A theory.

Congress is filled with career politicians. Most of them, when they were just starting out, set their sights on becoming President of the United States. Not uncommon. My father-in-law sent a Telegram to his office the day my wife was born and announced the birth of the first woman President United States.

All these career politicians hate him on both sides because he never held office for anything. Here they are learning the ropes. Figuring out how things actually work. Putting in the years. Kissing ass. Begging for money. Taking money. Compromising. Playing the game.

Trump’s claim to fame is publicly firing people.

Career politicians resent him. But it’s their fault for not producing a better candidate.

Miracles can happen.

I could not believe the Cubs left Chapman in for as long as they did in game 7. But they managed to pull it off and win after being down 3 games to 1. I jumped so high in excitement my head almost hit the ceiling. After watching Leo Durocher ruin the 69 cubs, I never thought it would happen again in my lifetime. But then, the Cubs acquired a new owner. A new leader with a fresh attitude that changed everything. Like spitting out old and tired Wrigley chewing gum. And putting in a fresh stick of Dentyne.

Fresh chewing gum will change the world.

Human values
Human values
Aug 28, 2022 5:52 PM

Why do people vote those people?

Why do people think that they have the power when they give it away to someone who is a stranger to them, just some guy seen on tv.

Why do people not think in a logical way?

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
Aug 29, 2022 4:17 PM
Reply to  Human values

People have not been educated to think logically since times of Aristotle and Plato. They’ve been taught to memorize trivial nonsense and the names of movie stars…

Annie
Annie
Aug 28, 2022 5:49 PM

I’m going to start buying Gold and other precious metals and jewels.Incase those will be the only barter to survive,Because the way it’s going we are lambs to the slaughter.

Annie
Annie
Aug 28, 2022 5:35 PM

Get this all the rich Rich people are in a play we could storm the stage and and make our own play instead of being hecklers in the audience.

Lorie
Lorie
Aug 28, 2022 7:06 PM
Reply to  Annie

well put!

John Ervin
John Ervin
Aug 28, 2022 10:32 PM
Reply to  Annie

I hope you mean “storm the stage” in the Pickwickian sense, because that was already staged, one January 6th, and the play closed after one night, or rather, the first episode.

Lost in a dark wood
Lost in a dark wood
Aug 28, 2022 5:10 PM

Trump: A wartime president fighting an invisible enemy.

To understand the Trump presidency, it is necessary to understand both the war and the enemy.

A couple of points to consider:

  • The Trump presidency is a military operation; i.e. it is not “politics”.
  • The “virus” is a metaphor.

March 22, 2020: Coronavirus Task Force Briefing
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-task-force-briefing-transcript-march-22-national-guard-activated-in-new-york-california-and-washington-state
[click any “time” link to go to video]

Donald Trump: (04:24)
We want to win the war was with as few, if you look at it, just deaths as possible. We want to have as few number of deaths as possible. . . .

(20:16)
But I want to say that I know that this is a challenging time for all Americans. We’re enduring a great national trial and we will prove that we can meet the moment. I want to assure the American people that we’re doing everything we can each day to confront and ultimately defeat this horrible invisible enemy. We’re at war. In a true sense, we’re at war. And we’re fighting an invisible enemy. Think of that.

(20:47)
For those of you who are feeling alone and isolated, I want you to know that we are all joined together as one people eternally linked by our shared national spirit. We love our country, a spirit of courage and love and patriotism. No American is alone as long as we are united. And we are united, we’re very united. People are saying things now that three weeks ago they didn’t talk that way. We’re very united.

(21:16)
No force is equal to the strength of really a unified America, united America, an America like we have it right now. For those worried and afraid, please know as long as I am your president, you can feel confident that you have a leader who will always fight for you. And I will not stop until we win. This will be a great victory. This is going to be a victory. And it’s going to be a victory that in my opinion, will happen much sooner than originally expected.

(21:50)
It’s now attacking. The enemy is attacking 144 countries at this moment, 144 that’s unthinkable. There’s never been anything like this. And it’s vicious. It is vicious. Some people recover well. And some people have a hard time. We all know that, but we will be totally victorious. We will then get our economy up to a level that it was and in my opinion beyond, because that will be a pent up demand. There is a pent up demand. And a lot of great things will happen. But I’m very proud of our country. I’m very proud. I’m very proud to be your president. And it’s just something that’s just, you’re very special people. So thank you very much. . . .

(01:26:31)
So it cost me billions of dollars to be President, and I am so happy I did it because who cares? Who cares? I’m really happy with the job we’re doing, and I’m glad that this team and me are here for this horrible thing. I mean, a number of people have said it, and I feel it actually. I’m a wartime President. This is a war. This is a war, different kind of a war that we’ve ever had. And when you look at the economics of the war, in the past, we used to stimulate to get people jobs. Now we’re stimulating to protect people because we don’t want them to work because we want them to stay away from each other. We don’t want them to gather social, social gathering. So we’re paying billions of dollars, more than that, so that they don’t gather, because we have to defeat this virus and we will. But it cost me billions and billions of dollars to be President, and I am so happy I did it.

John Ervin
John Ervin
Aug 28, 2022 10:38 PM

“…the ‘virus’ is a metaphor”.

Many, if not most, things are well on the way to becoming a metaphor.

How do we reverse the metaphorical curse, and escape the Moebius Strip of the neurosis that is absorbing society?

“…of psychic anomaly (for it is not man but society that has become abnormal)…”. ~ Antonin Artaud

Lost in a dark wood
Lost in a dark wood
Aug 28, 2022 11:48 PM

All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

Sun Tzu; The Art of War; I. Laying Plans. 18-19
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War_(Sun)

If we accept Trump’s statement that he is a “wartime president”, then all his other statements should be seen as possible manoeuvrings within a war. Moreover, the whole persona of Trump may be a deception.

Jerry Alatalo
Jerry Alatalo
Aug 28, 2022 4:07 PM

Most readers of Off-Guardian likely share in having a great appreciation for Edward Curtin and his ceaselessly stimulating and much-higher-than-average, rare displays of brilliant insightfulness on the world condition..

“Impressions of Donald Trump” serves as a reminder that politics at the highest levels of power in in the United States and its allies’ populations has long-devolved into neurotically-overdramatic displays equivalent to “artistic” (total rubbish) soap operas, where the soap viewers have established close relationships with the entirely fictional equally-neurotic characters in the ridiculous overheated drama..

It is an extremely sad commentary, indeed..

Annie
Annie
Aug 28, 2022 5:56 PM
Reply to  Jerry Alatalo

Somebody needs to rewrite the script of life.I like Mr Edward curtin,And kit knightly and many more that I cannot remember their names.Whichever way they write they are all striving to get into our minds to look at the bigger picture that not everything is what it seems.

Anne
Anne
Aug 28, 2022 3:55 PM

These countries leaders are vying for the supreme rulership of who will be the global government.This is the 3D chessboard keep everyone worrying about pandemics,climate change ,war,They are fighting amongst themselves to who is going to be the supreme leader of every soul on this planet.China and Russia are leading the way that’s why they are a threat not to us but for the parasites that want to be the ultimate controller.They are fighting amongst themselves while we are all at the cattle market.

May Hem
May Hem
Aug 28, 2022 10:38 PM
Reply to  Anne

You could be right Anne. I hope so.

jiin
jiin
Sep 1, 2022 7:03 PM
Reply to  Anne