Corporate Fascism

Yes, the US is a fascist nation. 

Why Trump Will Win

The reason Trump will win has little to do with the facts. It has everything to do with Trump being a master salesman. Especially when you add this to the obvious observation that Trump Derangement Syndrome is far worse than either Obama or Bush Derangement Syndrome. Here is a quote from John Avlon that explains it. 

It's important to remember that Bush Derangement Syndrome on the left - comparing him to Hitler, calling him a terrorist and a tyrant - preceded Obama Derangement Syndrome on the right. 

Now we have Trump Derangement Syndrome in full swing. This also has little to do with the facts. Just as Bush Derangement Syndrome helped Bush, and Obama Derangement Syndrome helped Obama. Trump Derangement Syndrome will help Trump. 

A subcategory, Bannon Derangement Syndrome, is also in full swing. What matters is not facts, but our feeling about the people involved. Bannon, an experienced financial Goldman Sacs alumni, was CEO of a new media company Breitbart. I seldom looked at Breitbart, nor any of the leftist clones like Buzzfeed, but he does understand new media. That is his place. He is like Bush’s Karl Rove, or Obama’s David Axelrod—or Hitler’s Goebbels. 

My last example naturally leads to a discussion of what words one uses. I began with calling Trump a salesman, a slightly negative connotation. I could have used the word persuader, which is more positive, or the word manipulator or propagandist. Both of these are a lot more negative. They all mean the same basic thing. You can tell a lot about the viewpoint of an author by closely looking at what words they use. When you call someone a Nazi, when clearly they are not, it actually tends to help them among a certain segment of the populace. Why then is someone called a Nazi? It is actually a Goebbels technique. If you say a lie loudly and often enough, a certain segment of the population is going to believe it.  

Ultimately Trump may win because he is a lot better at this than his detractors. The current scandal du jour is a prime example of this. You would think that with all the rhetoric like "this is not my America" that most would be against Trump. They are not. A recent Rasmussen poll estimated that 57% of the people favor the temporary refusal to allow entry to immigrants and visitors from some countries. 33% are opposed, and 11% are undecided. I saw another poll where it was 48% in favor and 40% against. When someone is in favor of this policy, and they hear the extreme rhetoric, they are actually going to be driven to support the policy even more. Someone like me who is skeptical of the policy, will be driven in the direction of supporting it. 

There are a lot of things stacked against whoever is the current president. We are actually in a rather rough spot in many ways. Even a President Clinton would have had to face these same issues. She would have handled them no better, but at least we are not in a war with Russia. (Note that several of the videos in my old blog post have been removed from YouTube.) 

I will continue to talk here about the issues we face for the near future.

Russia Could Be a Partner

The Washington Times had an interesting opinion piece entitled: What Is Best for America - Russia as a Friend or a Foe?  

Here is a quote from that article:

Let’s put this into a not-so-distant historical perspective. For the past 30 years, under Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin, Dmitri Medvedev, and Putin again, the Russians have been knocking on Washington’s door asking to be accepted as a friend and ally, only to be constantly rebuffed. For voluntarily dismantling the Soviet empire, throwing communist ideology out the window, liberating the captive nations, helping to defeat the Taliban, and doing their share in the war on terror they got in return the abrogation of the ABM treaty, “regime change” and “color revolutions” in the neighboring countries, bombing Serbia, vicious media demonization, an avalanche of sanctions, emplacement of “defensive” missiles in Eastern Europe, and successive rounds of NATO expansion (“RUSSIA WANTS WAR! Look how close they put their country to our military bases!”)

While I agree with this quote, I wonder who selected the title of the piece. It seems unlikely that Russia and America will ever be friends. When asked about this Putin said he was not a friend, that he was president of the Russian Federation, and it was his job to represent the interests of those 146 million people. 

No, friendship should not be the goal, Instead each country should focus on their own national interests and help each other when those interests overlap. 

I don't think anyone knows how big the overlap of American and Russian interests is. It might be quite large. But in any event Russia, and really no country, wants friends. They want partners that will focus on areas of mutual interest. That is why Russia constantly refers to the West as partners not friends.

Should Trump pursue a partnership with Russia? Absolutely. This is one reason Trump is so reviled. The Military Industrial Complex does not want a partnership. Neither does the CIA. They want hegemony. 

I Refuse

This song really hit me hard. What have you left undone? 

How Propaganda Works

The post as it appeared in Facebook

The original photo.

Besides filling out the double chin to massive proportions, the skin tone was changed to a pasty whitish pink along with a contrast adjustment to make the skin look reptilian. This is not going to stop.

Thanks to the No Agenda Podcast for pointing this out. As I have said many times, never forget that you are being played.