#45 as a Distraction to....

I've suspected that all this brouhaha surrounding #45's behavior, demeanor and lack of competence has been a deliberate distraction - a cover for the actual destruction of basic rights and safeguards for the working class and survival of humanity in favor of short term gains for the Elite cadre.

I'm not the only one. For your consideration, Noam Chomsky's take on the subject.

I'll check it out, but in the meantime here's James Corbett's take on Chomsky: Meet Noam Chomsky, Academic Gatekeeper.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Very interesting and I actually watched the whole thing.

Makes me wonder..........what happens..........post-Trump? How severe will the backlash be?

Here's some more on the subject:

The Nation magizine back in February 2017, at the beginning:

A GOVERNMENT OF LOOTERS

From health care and tax policy to environmental protections, this will undoubtedly be a government of the looters, by the looters, and for the looters, and a Congress of the same.

As of yet, however, we’ve seen only the smallest hints of what is to come.

Bread and circuses while 'the US burns' folks.

...
be the greatest criminals of all time.

Think of them as “terrarists” and their set of acts as, in sum, terracide.

If there’s a single figure in the Trump administration who catches the essence of this, it is, of course, former ExxonMobil CEO and present Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. His former company has a grim history not just of exploiting fossil fuels come (literally) hell or high water, but of suppressing information about the harm it has done, via greenhouse-gas emissions that heat the atmosphere and the Earth’s waters, while funding climate denialism;

of, in short, destroying the planet in an eternal search for record profits.

www.thenation.com...

I agree with him about Trump being a distraction but disagree with him saying the Republican party is the only one to blame. If anything that statement alone will turn people off from listening to what he's saying. It's the elites who are to blame, they have no political allegiance.

It really disappoints me to hear all he had to say only for him to end up blaming one side instead of both. Makes me think no Republican will take what he says into account. He is right on the head about Trump being a distraction from real issues, he's wrong about it being only the Republicans. What a shame that he ruined his entire point on some people with those comments.

a reply to: The GUT

O.k., well that's an interesting exercise of mental masturbation..........not.

a reply to: FyreByrd

At best, Trump was an inept businessman, bulling and conniving his way through loans and bankruptcies one after another but always managing to have enough people around him seeking to skim the debris left in his wake like those little fish that follow the whales for whatever is left behind.

And I agree with you that the elite's agenda is moving forward while we pander to his hair color and gibberish flowing from his mouth. And surely, they will have a nice little niche ready for him when his term is over. "Here Donny have your own news outlet and keeping things stirred up for us''.

a reply to: The GUT

I see in this video he really didn't like Obama and thought he was elected by the banksters. I agree with him on that and hopefully people can remember what he said about Obama while listening to the video in the OP. It doesn't seem like he is partisan and calls out whoever is in the wrong.

originally posted by: The GUT
I'll check it out, but in the meantime here's James Corbett's take on Chomsky: Meet Noam Chomsky, Academic Gatekeeper.

It doesn't matter what James Corbett says about Noam Chomsky - I listen to James Corbett but only in specific instances agree with his thinking. He may not 'like' Noam Chomsky or think he is 'whatever', but it is his opinion only, not fact.

Look to the 'content' and 'substance' of Mr. Chomsky's analysis.

Letting authorities tell you what to think without due consideration is not helpful to you or anyone else.

It's rather like believing the President of North Korea is a good guy based on someone's say-so. You'd look into the facts and issues and sources, correct?

Listen to the content and see if it reflects your observations and those of others.

A free human being is aware of conditioned influences in their thinking yet still does the work of thinking for themselves. That is freedom.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: FyreByrd

Very interesting and I actually watched the whole thing.

Makes me wonder..........what happens..........post-Trump? How severe will the backlash be?

Great Question.

Is there a post #45 world?

Yes. Trump's antics are bringing out the worst in a relatively small minority of the people who voted for him. And in so doing, it is enabling an agenda that needs an excuse for censorship and a wholesale disregard for civil liberties.

I believe he's doing it on purpose. Or, if he isn't, he is being quietly manipulated by people who understand what they're doing. Perhaps he's a willing puppet for such people. Whatever the case, he is basically an instigator. He serves as a springboard for political chaos in order to change the state of the world into a highly volatile state that is ripe for drastic and sweeping changes that would ordinarily never be considered to be reasonable.

EDIT - Note that I don't necessarily believe Trump himself will implement any of these drastic changes. Merely that he is providing the inertia that will carry them through.

a reply to: FyreByrd

According to some everyone will be sitting on a beach with a margarita enjoying their vacation. I don't think that's how it's going to work, I think 10 years from now we'll look back and realize just how destructive this administration has been. Then again, people still can't see just how much Reagan negatively affected the working class over the long haul so maybe they'll never see it for what it is.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

I agree. The left needs to admit to itself that the party they have tied themselves to, the dems need to be taken apart, shook out to clean it of deadweight and put back together again free of the influences of the elitists with the most money.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I have no doubt there will be. The pendulum has swung quite far to the right and in favor of the corporate and wealthy elites. My guess would be that the "reaction" will be an equally alarming and wild swing to the left and in favor of the leftist elites and their technocrat allies.

So..........trying to imagine what that will look like, it appears to me that while today, I pay very little for the electricity needed to cool my home on hot Texas summer days, (I just adjusted the thermostat to 80 degrees to keep the AC from running continuously with an outside temp of 100.7 Degrees), in the post-Trump world, I'll no longer be able to afford much, if any electricity.

Yea, all about me, right?

But on a larger scale, I'd guess that the entire world will greatly more suffer post-Trump than any can imagine, regardless of who takes the reigns of power. The world's population is careening high speed into an impenetrable stone wall. Corporate profits will stall and fall off and take the Stock Markets down with them wiping out 100's of Trillions of dollars of wealth. Many more will be made homeless as jobs are lost and homes are foreclosed on and many more will starve in the dark as States and Municipalities can't meet their pension liabilities. And then of course, there's the increasing and very real threat of a Global Pandemic.

History doesn't exactly repeat itself, but sometimes it does rhyme, and this looks an awful lot like the Roaring '20's to me. And we know what followed that.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Then again, people still can't see just how much Reagan negatively affected the working class over the long haul so maybe they'll never see it for what it is

edit. Do I need to add words to that and if so here they are.

a reply to: TonyS

Cripes Tony... I had planned a nice trip to Crater Lake today with family visiting from Minnesota . You have iterated my own doom scenario and can only hope I can bury it for a time today as to not cast a paul over our guests. I will smile and point to the rapids on the North Umpqua River, let them smell the Redwoods and glory in the water falls along the way knowing that most likely, the world we are really headed to smells and looks exactly like what you have described.

A bit more:

The administration is repealing consumer and environmental protections left and right.

The Education Department is making it easier for for-profit colleges to defraud students.

The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed an air pollution rule that the agency had determined would likely prevent the poisoning of children.

They’re laying out changes opposed by insurers, providers and patient advocacy groups. They are doing so with no hearings and no expert input, and reportedly with

a scheme to sideline the one neutral referee of the law’s potential impact, the Congressional Budget Office. Attention must be paid!

There’s the Election Integrity Commission’s fishing expedition for state voter data —

which may have been deliberately bungled in an attempt to distract voters from Republicans’ real, secret goal of dismantling the National Voter Registration Act, or “Motor Voter” law.

There are also the unending attacks on freedom of the press and other First Amendment rights. T

his includes a fight picked with MSNBC hosts, which White House aides lamented as a distraction from the far more important fight with CNN. But wait. All of this silliness is really a form of misdirection so that Americans will forget North Korea recently fired an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting Alaska.

And that no one is even nominated for critical diplomatic and national security posts, such as ambassador to South Korea and assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation.

www.washingtonpost.com... ry.html?utm_term=.5017eca3cda9

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Sorry I ruined your mood.

But hey, look on the bright side.......you won't live forever to see the worst of it. Hell, if you're over 40, you've already begun circling the drain. You're future's in the rear view mirror and you're not far off as filler for a pine box.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
I agree with him about Trump being a distraction but disagree with him saying the Republican party is the only one to blame. If anything that statement alone will turn people off from listening to what he's saying. It's the elites who are to blame, they have no political allegiance.

It really disappoints me to hear all he had to say only for him to end up blaming one side instead of both. Makes me think no Republican will take what he says into account. He is right on the head about Trump being a distraction from real issues, he's wrong about it being only the Republicans. What a shame that he ruined his entire point on some people with those comments.

Well, we all know his bias, and that is to be taken into account when watching him. That said, the Republicans are in power, so if we're talking about accountability, most things carried out are by them....

But most of the Democrats are complicit, mainstream politicians all get campaign money from similar or the same places. They are all beholden to their check writers.

From The Guardian

Donald Trump’s daily assaults on American democracy and the pillars of America’s role in the world are disastrous

– and they are also distracting America from even bigger global challenges.

At just the moment when the United States must be joining together with the rest of the world to confront three existential threats – climate change, challenges to democracy, and the rise of China – Americans are forced to spend every waking minute mitigating Trump’s damage.

www.theguardian.com...

Democratic values are in jeopardy in Trump’s America too.

Trump is attacking democratic institutions from the judiciary to the FBI.

He is eroding norms once thought sacred, such as avoiding business conflicts of interest.

He exhibits authoritarian impulses like asking officials for personal loyalty.

And he is stoking white nationalism while pursuing discriminatory policies against minorities.

A very good article.