Tag Archives: donald trump

Engineering a Crisis: How Political Theater Helps the Deep State Stay in Power

“The two ‘sides’ of mainstream politics are not fighting against one another, they’re only fighting against you. Their only job is to keep you clapping along with the two-handed puppet show as they rob you blind and tighten your chains while your gaze is fixed on the performance.”—Caitlin Johnstone

Continue reading Engineering a Crisis: How Political Theater Helps the Deep State Stay in Power

Why Assume There Will be a 2024 Election? 

Trump’s near assassination this weekend represents an incredibly important reminder of the stakes going into the 2024 election amidst a vast systemic collapse and heightened threat of a thermonuclear war. At this stage, despite the cast of compromised characters among Trump’s support network, no one has displayed so consistent a quality of leadership that qualifies them for dealing with the current crisis as Trump has displayed.

Continue reading Why Assume There Will be a 2024 Election? 

US Election 2020: A Circus Then, a Circus Now | Chris Hedges

Here, in this reposted column from Jan. 7, 2019, are his thoughts about the then-nascent presidential election campaign.

It is January 2019. This signals the start of the 2020 election circus. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the first big-name Democrat on stage. But we will soon be deluged with candidates, bizarre antics and endless commentary by fatuous TV and radio pundits.

The hyperventilating, the constant polling, the updates on who has the largest campaign war chest, the hypothetical matches between this hopeful and that hopeful, the mocking tweets by Donald Trump, will, as we saw in the 2016 election campaign, have as much relevance to our lives and political future as the speculation on cable sports channels about next year’s football season. This farce takes the place of genuine political life.

It costs a lot of money to mount this spectacle. Our corporate masters, like the oligarchic rulers of ancient Rome who poured money into the arena as they stripped the empire and its citizens of their assets, are happy to oblige.

The campaign sustains the fiction of a democracy and gives legitimacy to the corporate state. Maybe Hillary Clinton, who raised $1 billion in her 2016 run for president, will return for another season, although the Bill and Hillary tour is now a debacle with empty seats and slashed ticket prices.

Maybe Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders will make comebacks. And what about the new faces in the scramble for the presidency—Beto O’Rourke, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., former Housing Secretary Julian Castro, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and the billionaires Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg?

It is a political version of the reality television show “Survivor.” Who will be the first knocked out? Who will make it into the semifinals and the finals? Who is the most devious and cunning? Who will come out on top?

We get to vote for the contestants that appeal to us most, or at least vote against those we hate the most. The cable news shows, in a prelude to the nonstop idiocy to come, have spent the last few days speculating about whom Mitt Romney will endorse in the 2020 race. Now there’s a burning question of national importance.

To take power in 2021 in lieu of any real policy changes, the Democratic Party is banking on the deep animus toward President Trump. It has no intention of instituting genuine populist programs, rebuilding unions, funding universal health care, providing free college tuition or curbing the criminal activities of the corporations and the big banks.

The war machine will continue to wage endless war and consume half of all discretionary spending. The vaunted new populist members of Congress will be no more than window dressing, trotted out, like Sanders, to trick voters into thinking the Democratic Party is capable of reform. Most voters, for this reason, are “voting out of loathing, against enemies and against the system in general, not really for anybody,” as journalist Matt Taibbi points out.

Working men and women especially despise the slick-talking politicians—including the Clintons and Barack Obama—and the “experts” and well-groomed pundits on their screens who sold them the con that deindustrialization, deregulation, austerity, bailing out the banks, nearly two decades of constant war, the exporting of jobs overseas, tax cuts for the rich and the impoverishment of the working class were forms of progress.

Trump hangs on to the support of white working Americans because he expresses through his adolescent insults and dynamiting of political norms the legitimate hatred they feel toward the well-heeled, college-educated ruling elites who sold them out. The Democrats, at the same time, understand that it takes someone as revolting as Trump to fire up their lethargic base, a group in which millions do not vote. They cling to a tactic of “anybody but Trump” even though it did not work in 2016.

The corporate media ignores issues and policies, since there is little genuine disagreement among the candidates, and presents the race as a beauty contest. The fundamental question the press asks is not what do the candidates stand for but whom do the voters like. As for now, Warren—the only nationally known Democrat except Julian Castro to form an exploratory committee for a presidential bid—is not winning this popularity contest.

A CNN/Des Moines Register Iowa poll—yes, polling in Iowa already has begun—puts her fourth, with only 8 percent of support among the Democrats surveyed, behind Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Beto O’Rourke.

Our corporate rulers do not need to denounce democracy. Democratic laws, such as who can fund campaigns, have been subverted from within, their original purposes redefined by the courts and legislative bodies to serve corporate power. This managed democracy has transformed elections from the simple, straightforward process of voting for a party platform or party positions to vast, choreographed theatrical productions.

Politicians run on “moral” issues and use public relations experts to create manufactured personalities. Trump, his image constructed by a reality television show, proved more adept than his rivals at playing this game the last time around.

Politicians must stick to the script. They have well-defined roles. They express a suffocating, reality-defying positivism about the future of America. They are steadfast in their obsequious praise of the nation’s “heroes” in the military and law enforcement. They are silent about the crimes of empire.

They ignore the plight of the poor; indeed the word “poor” is banished from their vocabulary. They pretend we do not live in a corporate oligarchy, although they acknowledge amorphous attacks on the middle class and promise to stem the assault.

They exude a cloying feel-your-pain compassion that revolves around personal stories of the hardships they overcame in their own lives to become “successes”—the most ludicrous being Trump’s claim that he turned a “very small” loan from his father into a multibillion-dollar real estate empire.

They telegraph to us that they are one of us. We can be like them. They trot out their wives, husbands and children, even when a spouse like Melania Trump looks as if she has been taken hostage, to portray themselves as family men and women.

They claim they are outsiders, ignoring their long political careers and their status as members of the wealthy ruling elite. They are no different from the array of self-help gurus who ignore systemic injustice and social decay to peddle schemes for personal success. The formula is universal. It is the triumph of artifice, what Benjamin DeMott called “junk politics.”

Those who do not play this game, like Ralph Nader, or who like Sanders play it begrudgingly—Sanders refused corporate money, has called for reforming “the bloated and wasteful $716 billion annual Pentagon budget” and addresses issues of class—are ridiculed and marginalized by a monochromatic corporate media that banishes qualification, ambiguity, nuance and genuine dialogue.

Trump’s success as a candidate came, in large part, because of the constant media attention he received. Those like Sanders who attempt to defy the rules of the game are punished. The goal is entertainment. Politicians who are good entertainers do well. The poor entertainers do badly.

The networks seek to attract viewers and increase profits, not disseminate information about political issues. Voters have little or no say in who decides to run, who gets funded, how campaigns are managed, what television ads say, which candidates get covered by the press or who gets invited to presidential debates. They are spectators, pawns used to legitimize political farce.

“At issue is more than crude bribery,” the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin writes in “Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Spector of Inverted Totalitarianism.” “Campaign contributions are a vital tool of political management. They create a pecking order that calibrates, in strictly quantitative and objective terms, whose interests have priority.

The amount of corruption that regularly takes place before elections means that corruption is not an anomaly but an essential element in the functioning of managed democracy. The entrenched system of bribery and corruption involves no physical violence, no brown-shirted storm troopers, no coercion of the political opposition.

While the tactics are not those of the Nazis, the end result is the inverted equivalent. Opposition has not been liquidated but rendered feckless.”

This process, Wolin writes, has turned the electorate into “a hybrid creation, part cinematic and part consumer. Like a movie or TV audience, it would be credulous, nurtured on the unreality of images on the screen, the impossible feats and situations depicted, or the promise of personal transformation by a new product. In this the elites were abetted by the long-standing American tradition of dramatic evangelism and its fostering of collective fervor and popular fantasies of the miraculous.

It was no leap of faith from the camp meetings of the nineteenth century and the Billy Sundays of the twentieth century to the politically savvy televangelist of the twenty-first century.”

The corporations that own the media and the two major political parties have a vested interest in making sure there is never serious public discussion about issues ranging from our disastrous for-profit health care system and endless wars to the virtual tax boycott that large corporations have legalized. The corporate system is presented as sacrosanct and the ruling ideology of neoliberalism as natural law. The corporations are funding the show. They get what they pay for.

Sanders, it appears, will run again as a Democrat, despite the theft of the 2016 nomination by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party hierarchy. His next campaign, to quote Samuel Johnson, will be the triumph of hope over experience. The Democratic establishment and the media sharks will, if Sanders uses the old playbook, devour him. They have already severely diminished his stature by turning him into Clinton and Chuck Schumer’s barking seal.

The differences between the right-wing media and the liberal media are minuscule. As Taibbi writes in “Insane Clown President: Dispatches From the 2016 Circus,” they are “really just two different strategies of the same kind of nihilistic lizard-brain sensationalism.

The ideal CNN story is a baby down a well, while the ideal Fox story is probably a baby thrown down a well by a Muslim terrorist or an ACORN activist. Both companies offer the same service, it’s just that the Fox version is a little kinkier.”

“Elections are about a lot of things, but at the highest level, they’re about money,” Taibbi writes. “The people who sponsor election campaigns, who pay hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the candidates’ charter jets and TV ads and 25-piece marching banks, those people have concrete needs. They want tax breaks, federal contracts, regulatory relief, cheap financing, free security for shipping lanes, anti-trust waivers and dozens of other things.”

“They mostly don’t care about abortion or gay marriage or school vouchers or any of the social issues the rest of us spend our time arguing about. It’s about the money for them, and as far as that goes, the CEO class has had a brilliantly winning electoral strategy for a generation. They donate heavily to both parties, essentially hiring two different sets of politicians to market their needs to the population.

The Republicans give them everything that they want, while the Democrats only give them mostly everything. They get everything from the Republicans because you don’t have to make a single concession to a Republican voter. All you have to do to secure a Republican vote is show lots of pictures of gay people kissing or black kids with their pants down or Mexican babies at an emergency room.”

The Republican strategy of playing to the lowest common denominator ensured that eventually the useful idiots would take over and elect one of their own, in Donald Trump. Trump is the epitome of the human mutation produced by an illiterate, dumbed-down age of electronic images. He, like tens of millions of other Americans, believes anything he sees on television. He does not read. He is consumed by vanity and the cult of the self. He is a conspiracy theorist.

He blames America’s complex social and economic ills on scapegoats such as Mexican immigrants and Muslims, and of course the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party, in turn, blames Trump’s election on Russia and former FBI Director James Comey. It is the theater of the absurd.

The childish gibberish Trump speaks is the new language of political discourse. His taunting tweets against his enemies are countered by his enemies with taunting tweets against him. These grade-school-level insults dominate the daily news cycle. The political process, captured by commercial interests, devolved to Trump’s imbecilic level. The presidential election of 2020 has begun. The circus, with its freaks, con artists and clowns, is open for business.

Chris Hedges is a Truthdig columnist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a New York Times best-selling author, a professor in the college degree program offered to New Jersey state prisoners by Rutgers…

Mr. Fish, also known as Dwayne Booth, is a cartoonist who primarily creates for Truthdig.com and Harpers.com. Mr. Fish’s work has also appeared nationally in The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, Vanity…

A Very Stable Genius: Trump ‘Dumbfounded’ re Sarcastic Title of A Book About His Presidency

US President Donald Trump placed an advance order to purchase 10,000 copies of a book about his presidency titled “A Very Stable Genius,” days before aides realized that the title is sarcastic.

Continue reading A Very Stable Genius: Trump ‘Dumbfounded’ re Sarcastic Title of A Book About His Presidency

Trump Won’t ‘Drain the Swamp’ – He Represents the Swamp

Donald Trump fanatics believe that there’s a highly coordinated attempt to destroy America, but they’d rather look at the Eastern Alliance as the culprit instead of the UK Monarchy and the Vatican that have been usurping the authority of their own government since the likes of Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Continue reading Trump Won’t ‘Drain the Swamp’ – He Represents the Swamp

Global Reset Rolls On Inspite of Trump’s Lunacy for a 2nd Term

The US bankers have long financialized [i.e. paper shuffling] the entire American economy and have shipped all industrialization [production] abroad. Then Donald Trump came along and started forcing companies to go back home. But US companies are in it for profit and not for patriotism. Continue reading Global Reset Rolls On Inspite of Trump’s Lunacy for a 2nd Term

Trump Seeks Carter’s Advice Regarding China’s Rise Amidst US Bankruptcy

Donald Trump has tried everything he can, even colluding lately with the Deep State in its regime change strategies, without achieving the intended results, just to keep his campaign promise of Making America Great Again. Quite the contrary, in fact, as the targets overtly defy every move the US makes, whether in the Middle East or in Latin America. Continue reading Trump Seeks Carter’s Advice Regarding China’s Rise Amidst US Bankruptcy

Rival Gangs Engaged in Assassinations for Full Control of US Government

While Americans are glued to their seats as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is being subjected to sordid sex smear attacks, a slew of covert operations to assassinate key members of rival gangs vying for the full control of the US government have occurred. Continue reading Rival Gangs Engaged in Assassinations for Full Control of US Government

US Warmongering Works, South Korea Building Nuclear Subs & Spy Satellites

The constant exchange of war rhetoric between the US and North Korea is working for the US military industrial complex. South Korea has decided to build its own nuclear submarine fleet and a network of spy satellites. Continue reading US Warmongering Works, South Korea Building Nuclear Subs & Spy Satellites

Intra-elite Warfare: Oligarchs Succeed, Only the People Suffer!

On a scale not seen since the ‘great’ world depression of the 1930’s, the US political system is experiencing sharp political attacks, divisions and power grabs. Executive firings, congressional investigations, demands for impeachment, witch hunts, threats of imprisonment for ‘contempt of Congress’ and naked power struggles have shredded the façade of political unity and consensus among competing powerful US oligarchs. Continue reading Intra-elite Warfare: Oligarchs Succeed, Only the People Suffer!

A World in Turmoil, Thank You Mr. Trump!

The real Donald Trump has been exposed. The man who promised a sensible and non-interventionist Middle Eastern policy and a reset with Moscow has now reneged on both pledges. His nitwit United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has directly linked Russia and Syria for punishment by the omnipotent Leader of the Free World lest anyone be confused. Continue reading A World in Turmoil, Thank You Mr. Trump!

Trump Foiled Soros' Master Plan to Impose New World Order | Mitch Feierstein

Wall Street hedge fund manager and financial analyst Mitch Feierstein claims that Donald Trump came to power just in time to prevent billionaire George Soros and Bill and Hillary Clinton achieve a Trans Pacific free trade deal hidden from the public.  Continue reading Trump Foiled Soros' Master Plan to Impose New World Order | Mitch Feierstein

Trump Leaving UN-NWO with HR193 American Sovereignty Restoration Act 2017

The Trump administration and some members of the Republican Party continue to impress us.
They are now formalizing the US withdrawal from the United Nations, Inc., aka Khazarian World Order-One World totalitarian government, with the filing of House Resolution Bill No. 193, or the American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2017. Continue reading Trump Leaving UN-NWO with HR193 American Sovereignty Restoration Act 2017

Trump Seeking Greater Federal Reserve Accountability, Transparency

The Federal Reserve, having drawn harsh criticism from House Republicans, Donald Trump and the general public, is now facing a perspective of being reformed as all its critics are now forming the new US government, with Republican majorities in the Congress and Trump as President, backed by the silent majority of the US Main Street economy. Continue reading Trump Seeking Greater Federal Reserve Accountability, Transparency

Donald Trump and The New International Paradigm | EIR

What we see right now is a completely new paradigm emerging, a system which is based on the development of all, a “win-win” potential to cooperate among nations, and obviously the idea for what was the axiomatic basis of the globalization system since 1991 to insist on a unipolar world, is failing, or has failed already.  Continue reading Donald Trump and The New International Paradigm | EIR

Nobody’s Stealing Your Jobs, You Spend Too Much on Wars | Alibaba’s Jack Ma

Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma believes that improper distribution of funds and hyper inflated US military spending, not globalization or other countries “stealing” US jobs, is behind the economic decline in America. Continue reading Nobody’s Stealing Your Jobs, You Spend Too Much on Wars | Alibaba’s Jack Ma

Trump Presidency: Era Of Destabilization In The U.S.?

It is clear that Americans were able to avoid the worst case scenario of a Hillary Clinton presidency. However, the 2016 elections provided the country with the Presidency of Donald Trump. While the surprise was not unwelcome considering the other option, Trump supporters are now being faced with some difficult questions as he nears actually taking office.  Continue reading Trump Presidency: Era Of Destabilization In The U.S.?

Terror Attacks Amidst Defeat in Syria & Trump’s Ascendancy, Signs of Imperial Decline

Yesterday’s terror attack in Berlin and the Russian ambassador’s assassination in Turkey, both of which coincided with the casting of the US Electoral Votes to make official Trump’s presidential poll victory last November, can be seen as some last ditch attempts at distracting the global attention away from what has been just a ceremonial exercise.
Continue reading Terror Attacks Amidst Defeat in Syria & Trump’s Ascendancy, Signs of Imperial Decline

I could sense a good rapport with Trump | Duterte

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte disclosed some of the things he talked about with US president-elect Donald Trump, last night.
Said conversation was said to be arranged by “Trump’s Philippine business partners and a core group of advisers, including his children.”
Continue reading I could sense a good rapport with Trump | Duterte

Occult Forces Behind Trump Still Aiming to Continue their Rule

There are alliances of convenience between occult organizations that rule the planet from behind the scenes, and from time to time these alliances are shattered when those vested interests collide, or when fundamental common ground and contracts are breached for some reason, or another.
Continue reading Occult Forces Behind Trump Still Aiming to Continue their Rule

76% Americans Want Four-Person Debates: Clinton, Johnson, Trump, Stein

Independent candidates want the corporation in-charge of rigging the US presidential debate to include them in the whole process. As ridiculous as that may sound, at least they are doing their best to circumvent the corporatists’ mechanism to maintain their grip on  American politics.
A sizable 76% of those surveyed Americans agree with the inclusion of these independent presidential candidates to the next series of presidentiable debates. This is, of course, based on their assumption that the United States they have now is still the same government they have more than 200 years ago.
Continue reading 76% Americans Want Four-Person Debates: Clinton, Johnson, Trump, Stein