a maze of words leading to …?

Posts tagged ‘Donald Trump’

Trump – Moscow’s puppet?


Trump Puppet

If Moscow does not actually have any blackmail material on Trump – and if he is not thus a puppet of Russia – then he’s not doing a very good job of persuading us otherwise.

Consider … what would Russia like to see? Probably the following for starters:

  • A further breakup of the European Union (EU).
  • Widening divisions between the ‘Western’ democracies.
  • Trade wars between the USA and its allies and neighbours.
  • A return of Russia to G7 membership.

What actions has Trump taken?

  • Encouraged those EU members who either will be leaving (the United Kingdom) or are growing restless about staying. His actions include openly supporting far-right nationalist parties in Europe – especially those in Russia’s former sphere of influence – who want to leave the EU.
  • Sparked an endless series of rows and divisions with his virtually all of America’s allies and their political leaders.
  • Begun trade wars with the EU, Canada, Mexico and others.
  • Recommended that Russia be re-admitted to the G7 … regardless of their invasion of Eastern Ukraine, their annexation of Crimea, their assassination of journalists and opposition figures, their shooting down of a civilian airliner and their use of nerve agents in attempted murders on the streets of Britain.

All in all, we see a pretty close match between what Russia would want and what Trump is seeking to do.

And the US intelligence agencies have already unanimously concluded that Russia did interfere in the presidential election, with the aim of getting Trump elected. This is not Trump’s endlessly repeated claim of ‘fake news’ – this is hard fact: the conclusion of every single US intelligence agency.

Oh, and what else might Russia like to see? That’s easy: a ‘war’ between the US President and his own intelligence agencies. Well, they’ve certainly got that.

And they’ve got an American president who goes around sowing division, distrust and hostility both within the USA and across the wider ‘western’ world.

Another day, another series of insults tweeted to all and sundry … and another round of ‘fake news’ claims to disguise it all.

Vladimir Putin and the gangster-state of Russia – the true masters of fake news – must be laughing all the way to the many banks they’ve plundered.

Category:

Current Affairs and Politics

Tagged with:

America (Alt-Right) First


God-Emperor 2   Alt-right

In America First we saw how Donald Trump was working to undermine public confidence in three of the essential pillars of American democracy:

  • an independent judiciary
  • the press & media
  • the voting system

And all this, it was suggested, with a view to turning America into a neo-fascist state: a dictatorship and personality cult centred on the man who described himself (in a phone conversation with the Australian Prime Minister) as “the world’s greatest person”.

He’s since begun to undermine an additional pillar of democracy: Congress itself has now become a central target in his campaign to ‘drain the swamp’.

Draining the swamp:

In July (2017) Trump said that Republican senators “look like fools” (for not doing away with the legislative filibuster). In August he blamed the Republican-controlled Congress for worsening relations with Russia, tweeting: “You can thank Congress, the same people who can’t even give us HCare!” (referring to the failed attempts to repeal and replace the so-called ‘Obamacare’ health policies).

Now he’s taken to targeting individual Republican Senators who have dared to criticise him. Take Senator Jeff Flake, for example, who is seeking re-election but facing a challenger in the primary selection process. Trump is backing the challenger, tweeting: “Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running against Flake Jeff Flake, who is WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate … He’s toxic!”

His attacks on elected Republicans go much wider: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senators Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Dean Heller and Bob Corker … all been targets for Trump’s ire in recent weeks and months.

All this serves a three-fold purpose: to undermine public confidence in Congress as an institution, to intimidate other Republican members of Congress into avoiding further critical comment; and to try and replace those critics who refuse to be cowed with more pliant Republicans crafted in his own image. (more…)

Category:

Current Affairs and Politics

Tagged with:

America First


america-first-2  america-first

America First … hear a distant echo: “Deutschland über alles” …

If you want to gradually turn the USA into a neo-fascist state, assuming that you already hold immense executive power (the Presidency), then first you must undermine the essential pillars of democracy. These include a free press and media, an independent judiciary and public confidence in democracy itself.

Confidence in democracy itself (the fair counting of votes):

When it comes to voting rights, Democrats push voter protection while Republicans shout voter fraud in a crowded polling place. Democrats think anyone who can vote should vote; Republicans think everyone who should vote can vote. ~ Christine Pelosi

Trump and his advisors continue, even after winning the election and despite still not providing any evidence of vote rigging, to try and undermine public confidence in the voting system.

(more…)

Category:

Current Affairs and Politics

Tagged with:

Trump: neo-fascist


trump-fascist-salute

Trump Rally

I had previously seen Donald Trump merely as a bad joke – albeit a misogynist, a homophobe, a racist, a narcissistic blow-hard, a con-artist and serial liar.

But I now realise that he’s much worse than this: a disguised but dangerous neo-fascist, leading a large populist movement, intent on undermining faith in democracy, stirring up civil unrest, providing encouragement for post-election violence and an insurrectionary movement of “patriots”.

He says the American democratic system is rigged and refuses to say that he’ll accept the election outcome. He now refers to Obama’s presidency as a “regime” and says he’s going to put Hillary Clinton in jail. He muses about “2nd amendment solutions” (i.e. the use of guns). He’s promised to forcibly deport 11 million people (illegal immigrants) … an act that would require busting in on tens of thousands of businesses and homes, not to mention the establishment of mass camps where these 11 million women, men and children can be herded and concentrated together.

He has spoken of his admiration for “strong men”, citing Iraq’s former President Saddam Hussein and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and has openly encouraged the Russians to hack into the computer networks of both the Democratic Party and U.S. government agencies. He stirs up hatred against ethnic, religious and other minorities. His supporters put out videos like Big Guns, which shows an ex-Navy Seal firing a high-powered, rapid-fire gun, accompanied by ominous voice-overs about the Democratic Party.

trump-star-of-david-2

He has tweeted a six-pointed star, echoing the Jewish Star of David, positioned next to a photo of Clinton against a backdrop of money (see above). At a recent campaign rally in Florida he has evoked fascist symbolism by asking his supporters to raise their right arms and pledge to vote for him (see top of page).

Trump has been endorsed by David Duke, head of the white-supremacist Klu Klux clan, who said: “voting against Donald Trump … is really treason to your heritage.” He has been endorsed by a variety of far right political leaders across Europe, including Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front in France.

trump-lion-guard

In February of this year Trump tweeted a quote used by the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini: “It is better to live a day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” Soon afterwards, a group calling itself the ‘Lion Guard’ – who use the same quote as their tag-line – launched a web site, seeking to organise his supporters into a militia that is “willing to forcefully protect” Trump from people it perceives to be threats. Some may recall that Mussolini rose to power on the strength of his own militia, a group that also claimed to be “defending” the fascist leader from his enemies.

Trump has instructed crowds to “Knock the crap out of them” if they see a protester at his rallies, and pledges that he will pay the legal fees of any of his supporters who is brought to trial on assault charges.

His most ardent supporters call him the “God-Emperor”.

The list goes on.

Things have come to pretty pass when such a man – a neo-fascist – is the Republican Party’s nominee to be the next President of the United States.

Category:

Current Affairs and Politics, USA

Tagged with:

The Party’s Over


Republican Party

The hard core of Trump’s support is white, ill-educated, machismo-fantasist, racist, homophobic and misogynist men.

In their bizarre world – which reflects their sexual insecurities more than anything else – anyone man who opposes Trump is a ‘cuck’ … meaning cuckold, a ‘sissy’ man whose wife/girlfriend/partner is taken sexually and willingly by a more ‘alpha male’.

In their world, women are seen mainly as mere sexual objects to be ogled, groped at will, degraded, demeaned and worse.

In their world, guns and violence are glorified … as are ‘strong men’ like the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

In their world paranoia, conspiracy theories and extreme gullibility run riot. The dangers of Hurricane Mathew are cast as a conspiracy-hyped threat to scare people into believing in global warming and climate change. If Trump loses the election, this result is already being framed as a rigged vote. And the dwindling support for their brand of idiocy is explained by things like:

“Men aren’t men anymore. Testosterone levels have been dropping, and men are getting weaker every generation. Some people will tell you it’s just because they’re pussies, but the truth is the water is polluted. Look into xenoestrogens.”

And let’s be clear: we’re not talking about a small number of nutcases here. No, we’re talking about millions of US citizens, albeit mostly of the stupid male variety. We’re talking about large, rag-bag collection of bible-thumping religious zealots, tea-party hard-cores, white supremacists, xenophobes, gun fanatics, “southern good ol’ boys”, conspiracy freaks, ‘survivalists’, anti-abortion crusaders, biker gangs, machismo fantasists, homophobes … the list goes on.

The tragedy for the Republican Party is that, bit by bit, it has allowed this motley, insular crew to take over large chunks of their organisation. Even worse, it didn’t even need to pander to these idiots because their votes have nowhere else to go except the box marked ‘abstain’ … and most of these people are too driven to go there.

And by its unreasoning, unbending and extreme hostility to pretty much everything that Obama has tried to do, the Republican Party – through its control of the Senate and the House of Representatives – has created a virtual paralysis of government in the USA for the last eight years and created an atmosphere of bile, division and vitriol that has only further encouraged the extremists out of the woodwork and into the world of Trumpism.

And so came the bitter fruits of their labours: the most unelectable, most unfit-for-President candidate in many, many decades, perhaps ever. This swaggering blow-hard, the puffed-up con artist, the narcissist, the crude, mean-minded man of small wit and large insult … the man who actually brags about his ability to sexually molest women and get away with it.

Category:

Current Affairs and Politics

Tagged with:

Trumperites


The supporters of Donald Trump are venting their anger at a Republican party “establishment” which they feel has consistently let them down and betrayed them. But in supporting Trump they show no understanding that the Republican leadership has mostly been forced to “betray” them because the causes that they espouse find little echo amongst the wider electorate and are thus heavy political liabilities when it comes to electing a president.

Yet Trumperites live in denial, persisting with the delusion that they are the “silent majority”.

But hey, here’s some breaking news for such folk: in reality you are nothing but a loud, aggressive and unpleasant minority. And in truth the American people will never elect Trump – or anyone like him – to the office of President … because they know that such bigoted blowhards are quite simply not fit for office.

So go ahead, support the ignorance, bluster and deliberate outrageousness of Trump. Cheer his racist comments. Clap heartily as he continues to hurl insults left, right and centre. Stamp your feet in approval as Trump makes ridiculous, ill-informed, abusive comments and proposes absurd and impossible policies – building a wall along the entire Mexican border being just one of the less outlandish.

And enjoy your fifteen minutes of exultation as you effectively destroy the Republican Party from within … because you’ll have another 4 long years in the wilderness to reflect on your blinkered stupidity when Hillary Clinton is sworn into office roughly a year from now.

One day, Republican supporters will come to understand that bible-thumping doesn’t cut it, that homophobia isn’t popular, that focusing narrowly on anti-abortion campaigns simply alienates most women, and that bashing Muslims and Hispanics merely loses them most of the Muslim and Hispanic vote.

One day Republican supporters will come to understand that the politics of hate, bigotry and division don’t win presidential elections in the 21st century.

One day ….

Category:

Current Affairs and Politics, Uncategorized

Tagged with: