Make Up Your Mind

I have been seeing two different memes that contradict each other, sometimes by the same people. Make up your mind. 

The first is that the "good kids" on Tik Toc applied for tickets to the Trump rally in Tulsa and this meant less attendance. The second is that Trump is not popular since he can't fill an arena. Hmm. 

The way the world works is that most people will not read the articles but only see the headlines. This means that public opinion has been shifted to the desired outcome. This is why I think Trump will not be reelected. The low engagement portion of the 25% that have not made up their mind will only see the headlines about Trump and his various mistakes. Low engagement Trump people will get discouraged as he is doomed. Low engagement Anti-Trump voters will be encourage by the "good kids." 

These are the facts as I understand them. 200,000 people asked for tickets more than the seating capacity of the arena. This means that there was no assigned seating. This means that the "good kids" brigade had no effect on the rally. With the virus, it is naturally that many would not attend. There was a riot at at least one metal detector at an entrance, this made entry difficult. As one headline put it, 1000's were not able to enter the venue. 

The manipulation of the facts continues. 

Trump Apologist?

I know a large number of people think I am a Trump apologist. Except for Immigration and Tariffs I am in profound disagreement with him. Even on this two issues his application of policies on these two issues has been borderline moronic. While only 15% of it was caused by ill designed tax cuts, we have trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. While most of the proposed defense increases are really smoke and mirrors, Trump is wasting hundreds of billions on defense that we don’t need. 

If I can regain my composure, I may blog about the latest US vote in the UN. The US voted against a resolution condemning fascism. Also voting against were Palau, population 21,000, and Ukraine, where an important part of the current government is fascist. There were a number of abstentions because it was known how the US would vote. It is embarrassing.

Yet, if I decide to vote in 2020, it is likely I will vote for Trump. I am a stranger in a strange land. Things are now accepted as commonplace would have been regarded as clinical insanity just a few years ago. Here is an example of “entertainment” that we are offered as normal. From the show Madame Secretary: 

Nationalism is not racism. 

The New "N" Word

You may have heard the new controversy that President Trump has declared himself a Nationalist. That of course means he is racist. He recently contrasted nationalism with globalism, so that mean he is anti-semitic. Sometimes it is hard to keep track of the memes. 

The goal is to take the average person and change the way they use words. What the desired outcome is that when one hears the word "nationalist," that the listener thinks "white nationalist." Or when one hears the term "globalist," to think the person saying it is anti-semitic. 

This is a weird conformation of George Orwell vision of the future in his novel 1984. The meaning of words changes until you no longer know what a word means. 

Here is what the president of France said: 

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism.” 

So being a nationalist is not being a patriot? He said this recently at the 100 anniversary of the end of WWI. Trump attended this event. So why does anyone wonder about Trump's lack of respect for Macron? This was a direct insult to Trump. 

Humpty Dumpty had it right. 

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that's all.”

Remember: 

War is Peace

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength 

Yes, one can be a nationalist and not be a racist, and against globalism and not be an anti-semite.

Rinat Akhmetshin: Not a Russian or a Spy

First a little background: there was a meeting June 2016 where a Russian "government" lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump, Jr. to provide information about a supposed Clinton scandal. There was no information. Instead it was an attempt to influence Trump, Jr., and hopefully his father, on behalf on a Russian Oligarch against the Magnitsky Act which put up sanctions against her client. The meeting was a total bust. The reason I used quotation marks around government is that this is technically true, but misleading. Yes, she worked for the prosecutors office in Moscow, just as a promising attorney in the US might work for the Office of the New York prosecutors office. Would you describe this person as a government lawyer years after she went into private practice? You would not. I leave it to your imagination why the words "government lawyer" are being used on the various networks. If you think they would have the decency to use the word "former," you would be wrong. Veselnitskaya was not representing Russia, she was representing her client. 

But the talking heads and the politico class have a problem, there is no there there. So they had to expand their blathering. Besides the translator, there was a fifth person present, Rinat Akhmetshin. Here is how the New York Times talks about him:

While not, he insisted, an expert in the technical aspects of hacking nor, a spy, Mr. Akhmetshin talked openly about how he had worked with a counterintelligence unit while serving with the Red Army after its 1979 invasion of Afghanistan and how easy it was to find tech-savvy professionals ready and able to plunder just about any email account.

I quoted this because it can show how to lie through your teeth but saying nothing false. Rinat Akhmetshin, like every other Soviet young man, was drafted into the army for his two year hitch. So at about age 18 to 20 he served in the army from 1988 to 1990. Imagine the jobs he would have been given. Assuming he is telling the truth about where he was assigned, he would have been emptying the trash, and cleaning the toilets. Assuming that he is telling the truth about his departure rank of sergeant, he would not have had a job that might be described as an "intelligence" job; that would be quite a stretch. (There is no reason to conclude that Rinat is lying.) 

Note also the phrase, "the Red Army after its 1979 invasion of Afghanistan." Every Soviet young man would have served in the Red Army after 1979, if they were drafted after 1979! Why try to connect Akhmetshin with the Afghanistan invasion? 

I think that for years Akhmetshin might have said things that are technically true but misleading in order to benefit his consulting business. Or maybe he allowed others to draw conclusions and did not correct them. He is not a former spy or even a former intelligence officer. He was a GI Ivan who was drafted. 

What do I mean when I say that Rinat Akhmetshin is not Russian? He is not ethnically Russian. His first name tells us that. It is not clear exactly what his ethnic background is. Russian minorities tend to be concentrated in their traditional homelands. Rinat is either a Kazakh, a Kazakh Tartar, a Tartar born just north of Kazakhstan, or interesting enough in a Tatar born in Crimea. 

You might think, as an American, that such ethnic issues do not matter. You are being naive, even about America. In Russia it matters, it matters a lot. 

Here is what government sponsored Radio Free Europe said about him:

Barely registering in U.S. lobbying records, the 48-year-old Akhmetshin has been tied to efforts to bolster opponents of Kazakhstan's ruling regime, discredit a fugitive former member of Russia's parliament, and undermine a Russian-owned mining firm involved in a billion-dollar lawsuit with company information allegedly stolen by hackers.

Rather than being pro-Russian, his career seems to be centered on anti-Russian activities and lobbying as "Kazakhstan's ruling regime" is pro-Putin. 

Rinat Akhmetshin does not represent the Russian government, nor is he a former intelligence officer. When you hear otherwise, you are being played. 

What Is the Job of the Media?

Here is the answer to the question posed in the title.

Of course Ms Brzezinski misspoke—but there is such a thing as a Freudian Slip. Or maybe she was channeling her father:

Noam Chomsky tells us how it works: