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Nutcase US congresswoman Lauren Boebert (Republican) who is a big fan of “QAnon” and who has boasted about wanting to take a gun into the Capitol building today refused to have her bag searched by Capitol police. Crazy? Yes, that almost goes without saying. And very up-to-the-minute and with the zeitgeist too.
There’s this structure nowadays where everyone talks about events going like this: step 1, step 2, step 3; and then, when events proceed in exactly that fashion, at least in terms of the big picture, they say how amazing and remarkable and “extraordinary” it all is, in the bad sense. Strangely this actually dovetails with them saying that the course of events was entirely predictable, even though given they predicted a lot of it then they shouldn’t be expressing amazement, and whilst also saying they predicted particular features of it that in fact they didn’t, but which aren’t especially important anyway. In a way they don’t really know what they’re saying. They kinda say they predicted it, and often they did, but they don’t actually mean it. It’s really f***ed up. And THAT is something that almost everybody feels right now.
The central country for this is definitely the US.
This has happened now with…
* the US presidential election on 3 November, when it was widely foreseen that Trump would go mental over postal votes, at first leading in some of the swing state counts and then watching his lead evaporate and go negative when the postal votes were counted
* the 6 January certification by Congress of the Electoral College votes, when it was widely foreseen that Trump would kook out perhaps like never before, which he did.
Watching loonies act out is never amusing for anyone who has any maturity and decency, but this stuff is especially ANTI-amusing because there is a third item on this list, and it’s as follows:
* some time before or on 20 January – some have suggested the 17th, or the 19th, or the 20th itself – there will be a “storm” or “boogaloo” or “Turner’s Diaries” event, at the minimum including a gun massacre in Washington DC, possibly but not necessarily at the Capitol building; at a maximum including…well goodness knows what…perhaps a collection of such massacres in different cities, but in any case, whether something ensues that some will call “civil war” or not, a f*** of a lot of blood on the ground. There are thousands of guys in the US who think Anders Breivik and Timothy McVeigh were great fighters for a great cause – and since a proportion of them have hardly any lives whatsoever outside of stroking their guns and fantasising about being “tactical” and they haven’t twigged that going on about Hitler isn’t a sensible way to approach the aim of finding a girlfriend, some of them really are “willing” to “risk their lives” not because they “think” they’re going to reach Valhalla and “ensure the future of the white race”, but because, well, because “f*ck it”, basically. It’s “nihilist” in almost the worst possible sense of that word, and “thinking” doesn’t have much to do with it. I am seriously sympathising with those among the police and FBI who want to keep the lid on things and not find that that day’s news will lead on more massacres of the innocent or even of the not especially innocent. (Many of the young adult victims of Anders Breivik weren’t especially “nice” either, being fledgling Blairite-style politicians and manipulators, but they obviously didn’t deserve to die in a bloodbath.) These neo-Nazi larda*ses in the US can’t fight a civil war for toffees, but cause events that leave “only” a few hundred or a few thousand or a few tens of thousands of dead bodies within a day or a few days, it’s scary in the extreme to think that THAT is something these sick white power scumbags MAY be able to manage.
The money power rules, just like all empires, with divide and rule tactics and the new woke politics is the latest way they do it, by stoking differences beyond reason and then criminalising dissent, rather than encouraging a policy of live and let live with a representative voting system.
This approach is divisive, on purpose, to keep the rulers in control, and so a unity candidate is feared.
Trump is the feared left-wing unity candidate, saying everyone unite as Americans, which is a healing patriotic message hence why he’s loved like a messiah. Once this was anathema to the old ‘racists’, but was the message of the old left until they were taken over by woke and became the new racists.
For example in response to the National Front, the Labour Party used to say black and white unite, by focusing on the similarities rather than differences as all good Britons, but now (and this is how assimilation works) black and white have united, and the old ‘racists’ have accepted the change, but now the new woke left goes on about race/differences in a way that makes the old NF tame by comparison.
Put another way, this hatred of Trump (derangement syndrome) makes no sense as he is the premier anti-racist albeit patriotic politician in America, hence why he got a landslide victory with an improved republican vote in all groups.
N_ – “some time before or on 20 January – some have suggested the 17th, or the 19th, or the 20th itself – there will be a “storm” or “boogaloo” or “Turner’s Diaries” event…”
Yesterday Trump flew in Air Force One to Alamo, Texas. There he signed the wall he’s having built, with “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” playing over his PA system. There was a small crowd, mostly construction workers by the look of it.
There’s also the US Emergency Alert System (EAS) that’s a possible worry. Theoretically, the president can invoke this for national communication.
Christopher, one of Capitol rioters, suicided. People say it was him who had taken Pelosi’s laptop
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1349183119975440393@Dave – When you say Trump was once “New York establishment” you must be using a VERY broad definition of “establishment”. I would say he was only ever part of it in his dreams, a kinda male glamourpuss big landlord “You’re Fired” icon of vulgarity (thanks to “Spy” magazine etc.) who, yeah, owned the Empire State Building for a while and sorted out the ice rink in Central Park but from say Michael Bloomberg’s point of view that is small-fry stuff. There can’t be many residents of Manhattan who watch the wrestling. But I totally agree Trump is a NYC phenomenon, and it’s not surprising he has ended up sneering at New York (saying something like “everyone’s leaving”) given that the city is clearly MUCH bigger than he is or ever was. He hated the NYT, say, throughout his presidency but he could never do anything about it. A proper dictator would have shut it down, or at least made its editor and owners kowtow to him in public. Similarly he didn’t stop refugees finding their way to NYC, and got humiliated in that department a few days after he took office. Right now it’s interesting that Jared Kushner seems to have been keeping a very low profile. Where was Jared when Kimberly and Donald Jr were going nuts in the tent about the need to “FIGHT”, to storm towards the Capitol building, next to Donald Jr’s “Mr President” dad hopping about in the red boxing gloves? Where are you, Jared? Can you feel prison approaching? Maybe they’ll stick him in the same cell his father Charlie was in.
The reason why Trump’s video looked like a hostage video is because basically it was one. (If any readers are sceptical about that, please bear in mind that Trump does not mention himself in it. Does that sound like the kind of video he’d make unless someone had him by his short and curlies?) Pence and McConnell both told him “You do THIS, RIGHT NOW – here’s your script – or we’ll whack the sh*t out of you, you stupid berk, and you say ‘YES SIR, THANK YOU SIR’ – is that clear?”, and he said “YES SIR, THANK YOU SIR”, and that is why he is still in office.
A big question in the run-up to noon next Wednesday is pardons. His family members will want some. Then there’s Giuliani, who it takes an effort not to feel sorry for. He holds a press conference outside some small business unit because the owners of the Four Seasons hotel decide he is something similar to a dose of the clap; then he has the hair dye incident; then he farts during a legal hearing; then he rants on about “trial by combat”. At one point he was imagining he was Netanyahu and using simple graphics on a board to demonstrate his guy’s “multiple paths to victory” a long time after Biden won the election. What’s he going to do now? Sue Trump for non-payment of his legal bills? The poor guy needs a week’s rest somewhere with nurses bringing him some nice strong cups of tea.
Daily Mirror: “Donald Trump sent hidden message to supporters in speech, body language expert claims”
“EXCLUSIVE: Body language expert Bruce Durham believes that Donald Trump was playing mind games in his latest video message – trying to keep his supporters on side while still being able to say he said what he was needed to say – claiming it shows ‘the manipulator in all his glory’.“
I don’t agree with this analysis. I think Trump is basically a “prisoner” and isn’t in a position to play games. But for what it’s worth, here is Mr Durham’s take:
“From a body language perspective, we can look at the grasp of the hands. Trump repeatedly creates a ‘cradle’ of the fingers, a self sooth when the fingers are interlinked. We see no ‘steepling’ of the fingers – where just the tips of the fingers and thumbs touch each other creating a triangle shape.
Anyone in his position, or any politician, will have received communication or media training. They are trained to ‘show’ steeping. They understand that steepling is a ‘power position’ as it shows calmness and authority.
The cradle position however is shown at times when you are uncomfortable with what is being said or what you or someone else is doing. He adopts the cradle position for most of the speech so you can safely ascertain that he is uncomfortable with the majority of the speech.“
Sure. He’s under stress.
“Another factor to note is his cadence and inflection. Donald is a very capable orator. Quick witted, sharp and has the ability to charm, but here in this speech, you will notice a drawl, a fatigued energy, but he is over emphasising it.
This is Trump being defiant. Yes he is being made to say it, yes he knows it will help him right now, but that huge dose of narcissism within Trump does not like having to follow anyone else’s rules but Donald’s.“
Nah. He “over-emphasises” because he’s having to force the words out of his mouth. I mean yes you could call it a bit passive-aggressive but no actor is perfect. It’s not “defiance”. It’s not like Hugo Chavez’s great “por ahora” speech.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was pre-recorded, okayed by Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, or by both of them, (perhaps even after a retake or two – although that’s doubtful, given that Trump is actually a skilled performer, a real “trooper” in the theatrical sense), and then one or both of Pelosi and McConnell clicked the button to send it out at exactly the moment THEY wanted.
“By slowing down his speech, by making it so obvious, this is Trump playing mind games. He is showing, if only to himself, that he is still in control of the situation.“
Well if it’s only to himself it’s hardly a “mind game”.
“Apathy is also at play here, a bit like a school child being sent to bed, but dragging your heels as you ascend the stairs, kicking every stair as you slowly go and slamming the door when you get up there.“
That’s not apathy. It’s passive aggression, perhaps with a bit of acting out, but definitely passive aggression. Being tired doesn’t have to stop a person from being passive aggressive.
“But, there is also a more powerful message here. He is overemphasizing the message as he wants to show that he is towing the line (to a small extent at least purely from a self-preservation standpoint) but he also wants to make it clear to his supporters that he is being placed under duress to relay this message.“
Screw his supporters. Why should Trump want to send those jerks a message? What use does he have for them?
He’s a crazy b*stard, but he doesn’t think he’s going to keep the presidency after 20 January, or even lead one side in a rerun of the Civil War with the aim of reversing the result. His main concern will be…what Bruce said…self-preservation. I.e.
* staying alive,
* staying out of prison,
* keeping his properties and assets, and
* receiving whatever payments he has been promised by those he has “helped” (who may decide, given his weak position, that they don’t know about any such agreements – THAT’S BUSINESS).There will be some main players now in determining what actions the essentially neo-Nazi far right carries out in the US later this month, but their identities are not being made public. They may well not include any well-known Republican politicians, or anybody who has spent much time in or near the White House or in the company of Stephen Bannon etc. during the past four years. The common view among most of them will be that Trump is a bit of a “pussy” and in any case who is no longer personally relevant even if his name will probably appear on some of the flags that are carried at some of the actions. That is so even if most of the senior echelon will have some kind of, ahem, “relationship” with state spooks. Will the lid be kept on? Who knows?
A guess would be that Trump has been told that any pardons he wants to issue need to be okayed by McConnell or Pelosi or, when it comes down it, by Joe Biden.
If Trump fancies playing a “game” of somehow announcing he has pardoned, ooh, let’s say a defendant such as Ghislaine Maxwell, or that he has issued an “indulgence” type of pardon to, hmm, let’s say Jared Kushner, without clearing it with his captors first, he will be frogmarched out of the Oval Office WITHOUT COFFEE and WITHIN MINUTES. That will have been made clear to him. Either McConnell will recall the Senate and ensure Trump’s conviction in a 10-minute impeachment trial, or Pence will 25th him, or both, if the 25th needs to be invoked to allow all the senators time to get to the Senate. Whilst that would be very dramatic, though, it would be a sideshow, and given Trump’s extremely restricted freedom of operation whatever is decided by controlling figures in e.g. the Aryan Brotherhood may be of more import.
Presidential pardons
Trump has one hour left in office. Stephen Bannon is getting the headlines, but he was already out of prison anyway. Let’s see whether Trump pardons Ghislaine Maxwell. That would be far more spectacular.
New York gossipers are asking whether Jared Kushner has blown his chances of rising in “Manhattan high society” because of how his father-in-law has disgraced himself over the past few years, with Jared at his side. The answer to this question is “no”. Seriously. Look at who Jared’s FATHER is. So I don’t think Jared wants a pre-emptive pardon. Eric and Donald Jr, though, are in another category, and if they don’t get a pardon then they may well be heading to prison. Fifty-two minutes to go at the time of writing…
