Yesterday morning, atypically, I found myself watching the press conference in Helsinki after Trump and Putin's meeting.
I've made it a habit to avoid the mainstream news sources when big "events" happen with the Trump character, but I do still follow twitter via tweetdeck in order to keep an eye on language being used, hashtags being kicked about, and just generally to see the overall mood at any given time. I'll see links and references that get tweeted during the normal news cycles, but in general, I avoid all the "hot takes" on the latest "shock and outrage" that the Trump character has generated. I've found it is best to wait about 32 days before really digging back into the flashy headlines to find what was really going on. It used to take a lot longer, years in fact, to dig back into headlines, do the research, and find out the real story that was going on that weren't reflected in the managed news cycles. With Trump's presidency and the reality of Trump Derangement Syndrome, sometimes it only takes a few days, if not hours for something that the Guress Madow dumps out on MSNBC for the facts to surface that debunk her entire thesis for her TV entertainment program. Bit
I started off watching the press conference on ABC's livestream, but they wouldn't shut up with the inane commentary, so I switched over to RT's livestream. Call me crazy, but I trust their Russian-to-English translator more for being Russian than I do their counterparts from the USA who learned Russian.
Actually, thinking more about it, I didn't watch the whole conference, I probably paid attention to the first few questions and then started with chores, etc with it going in the background. So I wasn't paying close attention the whole time, but from what I heard, there wasn't the "fellatio" going on that the Trump haters described later that day and even more today.
Later in the day, I sat back down to check back up on 'the mood' and immediately saw the word "treason" being volleyed by usual chorus of doom. I rolled my eyes and figured this would be another story I'd have to relegate to the future in order to glean the reality of the situation.
But by the time I woke up this morning, the rhetoric had escalated overnight to calling this "the darkest hour in American History," and evoking attacks like "Pearl Harbor" and "Krystalnacht," and other language that is just short of calling for the violent take-down of the US government in order to launch nuclear weapons on Russia.
I WISH I were exaggerating:
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsTrump was a traitor today. I cannot & will not support a traitor.
No decent American should. — Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) July 16, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js“His performance today will live in infamy as much as the Pearl Harbor attack or Kristallnacht.”
- Fmr. Watergate Prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks on Trump’s comments at the Helsinki summit pic.twitter.com/pp5YuNw1pi — Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) July 17, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsOpinion: "This is our Pearl Harbor, our 9/11. In the past, we have risen to the defense of our values, our ideologies and our institutions. It’s time for another fight." https://t.co/uOwFP3Lua2
— POLITICO () July 17, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsDonald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.” It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) July 16, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsI'm ready to call this the darkest hour in the history of the American presidency. Let me know if you can think of any competition.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 16, 2018
Kasparov's statement is particularly interesting since, if you know your recent history, he was one of the chorus of sociopaths begging for nuclear bombs on Saddam Hussein.
He's not the only one; all the "Neoconservatives" from the darkest days of the Reagan era have all transcended their own crimes against humanity. Let that sink in, even after advocating, administering, and benefiting from the FAKE NEWS that led the US into the Imperial Wars of Aggression and Occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq which have yet to end are now being heralded as leading figures of the #TheResistance movement. WTF happened?
Neoconservatives Once use Fear. Today They Use Hate.
How did the "tolerant, liberal, lefty" types become so buddy-buddy with the same neocons who they'd railed against just over a decade before? They are united in hate; hatred of Trump.
Fifteen years ago, the NeoCons sowed fear of the Muslims throughout the republican party. After cynically using the Christian Right-wingnut voters to win the election, instill so much fear of the Middle Eastern radicals did cause those who were already prone to racism to hate Muslims as much or more than they normally hate other brown people, communists, or ruskies. The fear was augmented by a compliant media grateful for the added revenue of higher ratings. Their fear had them clamoring for the dismantling of much of the Bill of Rights in the name of security in The War Against Terror, or TWAT. Posse Comitatus Act was suspended and life went on with everyone watching American Idol. Eventually Habeas Corpus would be suspended, but by that point, no one cared and no one remembers.
However this time, the neocons are joining in with the people calling themselves "liberals" and "lefties" and even "socialists" calling for bitter hatred of Trump and the hatred of anyone who doesn't join in with their hatred. Their hatred is leading them to believe crazy thing about Russia, the power of Putin, and the actual state of the world. Their hatred is blinding them to the fact they are being used as tools to call for the dismantling of the rest of the Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment. Their hate is irrational and shameful, but many who feel the hatred for Trump are so far gone, they wear their hatred like a badge of honor. They have become the violent, intolerant ones accosting people on the streets and on restaurants for reasons they feel are are righteous and good. At same time, they are telling us that Trump supports are psychopathology racist, homophobic, and misogynistic and are, at this moment, in the process of assaulting an immigrant or a woman.
I'm not into hating for the sake of hating. So, I don't have many "liberal" friends anymore; a lot of them blocked me on Facebook when I wasn't deferential to Clinton enough in the summer of 2016. Most of the others have just distanced themselves out of my life as I refuse to 'feel good hating' Trump... and even have gone as far as {GASP} defend him.
Anyway, I digress from my original point about the latest Shock & Outrage attacks against Trump for the Helsinki Summit.
Notice that term I'm using on purpose?
"Shock and Outrage" is meant to evoke in those old enough to remember or smart enough to have learned about the Neoconservative' refrain of "Shock and Awe" when it came to the US/UK attacks on the then sovereign country of Iraq.
The current use of "Shock and Outrage" in the media is serving the same purpose that the "Shock and Awe" bombings did.... keep the people who "care" so beleaguered with fear or hatred on a daily basis, that they are unable to comprehend anything outside of a constructed narrative. It could be a form of Stockholm Syndrome.
"Act of War"
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe United States was attacked. We didn’t see bombs hitting Pearl Harbor. We didn’t see planes crash into buildings. But cyber missiles struck the heart of our Democracy. It was an insidious Act of War. Anyone who aids and abets this is committing Treason.
— Rob Reiner () July 17, 2018
"Act of war" isn't just incendiary phrasing. It's justification for retaliatory military action. Political figures using this terminology need to be challenged on what exactly it is that they're advocating pic.twitter.com/OsHYzW6Zt9
— Michael Tracey () July 17, 2018
How many of these people understand that "act of war" is a legal term with ramifications that include KILLING PEOPLE WITH BOMBS?
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Look at the screen-grab I took of the results for tweets with the phrase "act of war." Grateful Dead fans will recognize the "Steal Your Face" skull that features dancing skeletons that is being used for an icon by one such twitter user, but so much for the "peace, love, and happiness" image of Deadheads. That one guy is showing that even Hippie music lovers know no depths of hatred when they are LITERALLY CALLING FOR CONSEQUENCES and PUNISHMENT of Russia.
What can a person like this see as the best outcome if his demands were met? That Trump would denounce Putin to his face, declare war, and--seeing that Russia is a fully armed NUCLEAR POWER, launch nukes on Moscow?
Is that REALLY where we are now?
It would appear that the USA has finally reached a point where an armed, paramilitary force could storm the White House, shoot Trump in the head, seize the Nuclear Football, and unleash thermonuclear war against Russia AND THE "LIBERALS" WOULD BE DANCING IN THE STREETS like they did after Russia won the war in Europe and Truman nuked all those innocent Japanese people to prevent them from winning the war in the Pacific too.
Luckily, I'm not alone in my disbelief of the "Shock and Outrage" campaign that was launched yesterday:
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsVietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chile, El Salvador and I enjoyed a good laugh over this article. https://t.co/czfEINtFi7
— Mike Flugennock () July 17, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsI love when CNBC talks foreign policy or politics. pic.twitter.com/xsUkojGMKF
— Rudolf E. Havenstein (@RudyHavenstein) July 17, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsIf you have a Nazi Holocaust survivor or descendant in your life (my father spent his early months in the Jewish ghetto of Nazi-occupied Budapest & was smuggled out to save his life), consider asking them their thoughts on this: https://t.co/TC7T96X07c
— Aaron Maté () July 17, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsFirst as tragedy, then as farce. pic.twitter.com/rrnaYSW4RU
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) July 17, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAmid yesterday’s fever pitched cries of high crimes and treason, NPR held an emergency one hour special to freak out about Trump-Putin in carefully measured but smug and whiny tones brought to you by Liberty Mutual and the John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) July 17, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe only really shameful thing about #HelsinkiSummit is American media’s reaction. pic.twitter.com/EqIvaJXOav
— Max Keiser () July 17, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsFor all of the awful Trump has done, look at what has drawn the most Democrat/media indignation: questioning if Russia hacked DNC emails, spearfished Brennan, & ran a social media campaign. Nothing else prompted accusations of treason & equating w/ Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Holocaust.
— Aaron Maté (
Alright... that's enough for now.
I'm pretty disheartened by how people are now down with the idea that the US needs to go to war with Russia.
They may not even realize it yet, that is how exploited they are through their hatred for Trump. I'd be willing to forgive them, up until the moment they take their Russiagate-Hoax-believin', pearl-clutchin', John-Birch-Society-soundin', "with us or against us" spounin' paranoia to the point of armed conflict.
I hope I'm wrong, but right now, I can't imagine anything else but Rob Reiner and a bunch of other people who have claimed to "care about people" celebrating a nuclear mushroom cloud over Moscow.
In order NOT to end this post on such a downbeat.... let me yield the last word to Max Keiser.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsCan’t we just agree that hack or no hack, dodging the Hillary bullet was the luckiest thing to ever happen to the US.
— Max Keiser (
Thank you Max. I think you are right about that.
Until next time!
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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://earthbus.org/2018/07/17/smart-people/