Monday, February 20, 2017

RANT !

You remember how it feels after eating too many chocolates, or too much cream cake, too many curly fries? Queasy! That's how I feel reading around the net these days, or watching bits of late-night TV shows, live or via random video clips offered as...whatever.

TRUMP! Too much, far too much TRUMP!

Queasy!

Don't these people realise that, though some repetition assists in embedding an idea into brains, too much of it has the opposite result? I'm actually beginning to feel sorry for President Donald Trump. It's their fault! A year ago, even six months ago, I felt appalled that the position of President of the USA could ever be held by someone like Donald Trump. I was certain it would never be allowed to happen. It did. Sufficient numbers of We the People wanted it - and got it. Done. Deal. Under current US electoral law. Next? Day after day, week after week, month after month the same old same old from those who didn't get what they wanted.

Yes, we know he's unreliable, we know he tells fibs and tall tales, we know he panders, we know he's this, that and the other; if we don't know we've been down Alice's rabbit hole for 2 years. It feels that way in any case!

There's one lone voice out there, managing to remain focused and practical, on policies the country needs for the benefit of all: the voice of Senator Bernie Sanders. Headlines have continued to screech, causing hysterics among their readers, viewers, listeners, over one issue or another touched upon by President Trump, in Tweet, speech or a "he said/she said" (and there are a lot of those around).

For the gods' sake give it a rest people! We know, we know! You've become sickeningly boring and quite ineffectual through this constant parroting! We know how virtuous you all are, we get it but, as the Pythons once declared:
"THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!"

It's Music Monday: I really do wish I could've "made it more like the movies" for y'all, "some pretty Technicolor way it's never been"!


10 comments:

R J Adams said...

I still play Dr Hook's Greatest Hits album regularly. I love this particular song.

I know what you mean about being 'Trumped'. Mrs RJ is, of course, American and spends much time watching videos or TV news of the man, or those who are criticizing his latest antics. I often have to leave the room. On every news channel over here its repeated constantly.

Meanwhile, the more dangerous of his minions work way beyond the cameras. We seldom hear what they're up to - Bannon, Kushner, Pruitt, and his many other 'advisors'. Perhaps the media would do well to concentrate more on them.

It would really upset the narcissistic Trump if they did. ;-)

Twilight said...

RJ Adams ~ Yes, there'll be a lot going on behind the curtain - but those stories wouldn't get as many clicks online or pay for adverts in newspapers as anything marked "TRUMP", I suppose.

A newer clicky temptation now, and one which could add variety and bit more interest is "Deep State". It seems that while Trump does his thing, and his underlings do their things, there's a whole other layer of dangerous swamp life directing that unsynchronised swim team from murky depths! ;-/

Anonymous said...

I like Bernie Sanders a lot, too. I wasn't sure way back, but now he looks so much more appealing to me than the other 2 non-choices we had. I like his wife, too--so down to earth and natural when she speaks. I think he's getting too on in years for the next election, but his voice is definitely needed now. He's the real deal.

Twilight said...

Anonymous ~ Yes, "the real deal" - exactly - and there are so few like him in politics.
I supported him for as long as he survived the primaries, and was an admirer of his long before that. I'd love it if he and Dennis Kucinich got together, maybe with Tulsi Gabbard, who supported Bernie in the primaries, to start a new party - anti-war and For the People. As you say, by 2020 Bernie will be too old to lead, but Tulsi Gabbard would be a good alternative.

LB said...

Twilight ~ I share your "Deep State" concerns, as do many others. There are lots of good online articles right now. The link below is to one on Counterpunch, "Goose-Stepping Our Way Toward Pink Revolution":

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/21/goose-stepping-our-way-toward-pink-revolution/

Unlike Dennis Kucinich who had the moral courage to call B.S. (on Fox News of all places), Bernie Sanders seems to be falling in line with other members of the political establishment in moving the U.S. toward this "Deep State".

He recently joined in by tweeting, "We need a thorough investigation into President Trump's ties to Russia":

https://twitter.com/SenSanders










Twilight said...

LB ~ Quinky-dink! (as mike would say) ~ In the past hour or so I've commented about the counterpunch article you mention, at naked cap. having been led to it by another commenter there. Very good piece it is!

Bernie is trying to keep a foot in "both courts" as it were, I suspect. I still trust his judgment, as I trusted Kucinich's, eventually, when he had to agree to the ACA after a ride in Air Force One with Obama some years ago. What Bernie said could also mean that he wants to see the story be proved fake, finally - or not. I suppose we ought to want that too, although Russia/Putin doesn't scare me one bit - at least not in the way they seems to scare Americans.

LB said...

Weird quinky-dink indeed!

As far as Russia goes, I think the biggest concern is the possibility of another cold war/nuclear war. War serves capitalism (LOTS of money to be made) and diverts the citizenry's attention onto an outside enemy and away from our own corrupted system.

This from a post that appeared on WSWS yesterday:

"The real driving force of the factional struggle within the US ruling elite is a conflict over foreign policy towards Russia. Dominant sections of the military-intelligence apparatus want to continue and intensify the campaign of sanctions, provocations and military buildup undertaken under the Obama administration, whose logical outcome would be a directly military confrontation between the United States and Russia, the possessors of the vast bulk of the world’s nuclear weapons. They view Trump’s foreign policy—if anything, even more militaristic than Obama’s, but targeting Iran and China first, rather than Russia—as undermining this war buildup."

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/02/20/trum-f20.html

That was yesterday. This is where we stand today:

"One does not have to look far to find the people who are heading up the war planning. Yesterday, President Trump appointed Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, an army strategist, as his new national security advisor."

"The selection of McMaster is broadly seen as a concession to Trump’s anti-Russia critics in the political and intelligence establishment. He is the leading figure in an Army project called the Russia New Generation Warfare study, whose participants have made repeated trips to the battlefields of eastern Ukraine to study Russia’s military capabilities and devise strategies and weapons systems to defeat them. McMaster has called on the US to prepare for high-intensity conventional war with Russia, involving not only long-range missile systems and stealth aircraft, but also “close” combat."

The title of the post is, "How many people would die in a war between the US and Russia?":

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/02/21/pers-f21.html

--------

Bernie's positions and actions have always struck me as being more politically pragmatic than deeply principled. His words and walk don't add up, not unusual in the game of politics which is why I don't put my faith in it. Sometimes he just seems confused, like an actor dutifully playing his part in a play. Who knows what inner demons he's battling . . . he's been influenced by the same conditioning as the rest of us, which can be hard to resist.


Twilight said...

LB ~ What the deep-swamp people want, they'll no doubt get, one way or another, eventually, that would seem to be war with Russia. What might help to delay them on a slippery slope to Hell: major climate crises here in the USA. Or...the draft. That'd get people onto the streets, and more angry than they've been for many a decade.

......

Bernie has been fighting for the same kinds of policies all his life, knowing it was always going to be an uphill climb, due to the conditioning you mention - almost a lost cause in some years. I see him as pragmatic, yes, but also deeply principled - with pragmatism always in the lead. (Virgo!)

R J Adams said...

They don't need a draft anymore. The next war will be fought with technology, not men. It's what much of the Defense Department's massive budget is spent on (just upped 10% if Trump gets his way in Congress) - developing highly sophisticated weaponry that can be used just as in a computer game. I believe this 'Deep State' idea to be the nightmare meanderings of a rabid internet. Of course there's a battle ongoing between Trump and the Democrats, but it was the big corporations that financed Trump's final bid for the White House - just look at the SuperPAC figures, over $65.5 million!
Trump won't have a problem provided he keeps his promises to the corpos. He's already freed up the XL pipeline project and is working on other favours for the fossil fuel industry. We'll have to wait and see how big Pharma and the insurance companies do. Trump seems to have a problem getting rid of the ACA!
One of the most powerful arms of the US government right now is the so-called Intel Community. Trump has upset them somewhat and they may cause him problems. Time will tell.

Twilight said...

RJ Adams ~ War as a computer game - what a horrifying thought - but I suppose you're right, if it's not not exactly so now, then in the near future it will surely be.

I think the "Deep State" label is most likely just a coverall label for underlying corporate and oligarchic control of...well... everything. It has always been there, not something that was born in the 21st or even 20th century - though it was made more distinct after SCOTUS decision in Citizens United.

As time goes on I suspect Trump will be completely tamed, he'll morph into a common & garden Republican, with some added comedic value for late night presenters and SNL - all of whom I've lately grown to detest.