ADMIT IT!

Aren't you glad the year 2016 is over?  I know! You wish you were a little kid and allowed a do-over. All us non-Trump supporter are with you. Unfortunately, do-overs, like unicorns, the American Dream, and American Exceptionalism are myths made up for children. We, being adults, cannot afford to live in those fantasies. Instead, we must deal with the reality of 2016 having been a horrible year, as well as living with the prospect that 2017 is not looking good. Nevertheless, wanting to be on the right side of history, all goodhearted people must soldier on. SOLDIER ONE!!! 

MICHAEL MOORE IS RIGHT

HAVE A PLAN B. NO MATTER HOW BAD YOU THINK IT WILL BE, IT WILL BE WORSE!!

WOULD IT NOT BE (SADLY) IRONIC, YET POETIC JUSTICE . . .

. . . WERE DONALD J. TRUMP TO TURN OUT TO BE 
HIS EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN SUPPORTER'S ANTICHRIST? MERRY ANTICHRISTMAS!

DEMOCRACY IS DEAD IN AMERICA: MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS ARE IN CHARGE.

Sheldon S. Wolin, Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought, foreword by Wendy Brown (Princeton & Oxford:Princeton Classics/Princeton U. Press, 2016) ("What name, then, would be more suitable than 'the world's oldest, continuous written constitution' for describing the nature of 'the world's oldest democracy.' its powers, and its ways of being in the world? It seems so compounded with other institutional forms, such as those of capitalism and the market, that we can no longer intelligibly describe its form without acknowledging their influence and incorporating them in its nature. The resulting form is a hybrid; and along with it comes new conceptions of who is political in it, and of what constitutes the special virtues of the ruling class (e.g., those of the CEO and the professional political operative). The appearance of a new ruling class reflects capitalism's political coming-of-age and with it a new corporate aspiration, not just to exert political influence but to absorb and 'incorporate' the political and transform it, tacitly abandoning the ideal of commonality. It is not unusual to encounter the term 'the imperial CEO' applied to business executives." "In its most powerful forms the corporation is no longer describable solely by economic criteria (such as market share, profitability). The meaning of economic has expanded to include objects of exploitation hitherto considered 'outside' the pursuit of profits. Capitalism has transformed itself, from a system of activities analyzable through economic categories to one that's adopted political characteristics and the qualities of a new constitutional blend devoid of democratic substance. The new economies created by technologically advance societies provide equivalents for democracy's values of participation (mass consumption), inclusion (work force), and mass empowerment ('consumer sovereignty,' 'shareholder democracy"). Those sublimations accord with a 'virtual' way of being in a world transformed by the technological revolution in communications, electronic technologies (computers, video, Internet) epitomize the combination of the illusion of individual freedom/power with the encapsulation of the individual in a cocoon from which escape seems an incoherent idea." "The changes in capitalism has weaken the authority of the state as the supreme power in society, Globalization is the euphemism for continuous expansion abroad and the constriction of politics at home, narrowing the points of entry so that only the pressure of money can gain political access. As the privatization of public power continues and the authority of the state diminishes, its boundaries become props to waves of cheap labor, Although the state continues to play a far from negligible role in an increasingly globalized economy, the power wielded by multinational corporations has made their cooperation and acquiescence indispensable. The cooperation of corporate power is now a vital element of domestic, foreign, and military policies. Competition and rivalry occur less between states and corporations and more between corporations vying for influence over the state or subsidies from it." "It is not only that the state and the corporate have become partners; in the process, each has begun mimic functions historically identified with the other. How does one describe the 'power' of a corporation such as Lockheed that once was engaged solely in the manufacture of aircraft but now also operate publicly funded welfare programs? Old-fashioned economic power may have enabled Lockheed to offer politicians the inducement necessary to procure contacts/contracts for its welfare operations, but a new mix of power and authority results from it. Corporations are extensively engaged in administrating penal institutions and operating health-care systems, and they have assumed important roles at every level of public and private eduction, undertaking to operate primary school systems, establish universities, and collaborate in joint project with academic researcher. (Appropriately, corporate centers have exchanged the name of 'headquarters,' with its military connotations, for 'campus.')" Id at 587-589. NOTE: The point I want to make in providing this quoting this lengthy passage by Wolin is this: Trump and his administration will not be providing a radical "new" way of governance; they are merely the next step in the corporatist-government that is replacing American democracy. Take a close look at the billionaire boy's club that Trump is staffing his administration (or is, Trump just a tool of the corporatist-powers?) Yes, Trump has his own perverted domestic agenda; but. in the larger political game, the multinational corporations are the real powers-that-be. Democracy is dead in America. Until we the people wake up, if we every do, elections, liberty, democracy are just another virtual reality game.)  

WHO WON THE COLD WAR?

Perhaps, in light of Trump's and his administrative appointees' relationships with Russian and Putin, we should reassess whether the United States actually won the Cold War or not. Communism may have lost--the wall came down--, but authoritarianism seems to have infected America via Trump and his crony capitalists and other helpful idiots.

DONALD TRUMP., ADOPTING HITLER'S PLAYBOOK, IS AMERICA'S PROPAGANDIST-IN-CHIEF

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside our Heads (New York: Knopf, 2016) ("In Mein Kampf [Hitler] suggests that propaganda need be like advertising, and seek first to attract attention" 'A poster's art lies in the designer's ability to catch the masses' attention by outline and color,' he writes. It must five 'an idea of the importance of the exhibition, but it is in no way to be a substitute for the art represented by the exhibition.' Similarly 'the task of propaganda lies not in a scientific training of the individual, but rather in directing the masses towards certain facts, events, necessities, etc., the purpose being to move their importance into the masses' filed of vision.' Those who are 'already scientifically experienced or  . . . striving towards education and knowledge' are not the subject." Id. at 111. QUERY: Has not Donald Trump, as America's propagandist-in-chief, directed his message (his tweets) to an uneducated, or ill-educated and unknowledgeable mass? "Hitler also intuited a few other basic truths about how we process information: since everything can be ignored, imprinting information in the memory requires a constant repetition of simple ideas. 'The great masses' receptive ability is only very limited, their understanding is small, but their forgetfulness is great. As a consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda has to limit itself only to a very few points and to use them like slogans until even the very last man is able to imagine what is intended by such words.' Nuance was nonsense; complexity was a risk:  'As soon as one sacrifices this basis principle and tries to become versatile, the effect will fritter away, as the masses are neither able to digest the material offered nor to retain it.' One couldn't overstate the intensity of the effort required, for the masses 'with their inertia, always need a certain time before they are ready even to notice a thing, and they will lend their memories only to the thousandfold repetition of the most simple ideas.'" Id. at 111. QUERY: Did not Donald Trump, as propagandist-in-chief, his surrogates, Fox News, etc., understand and use this throughout the presidential campaign, during the transition, and, probably, during the actual administration. Simple concepts, repeated over and over and over and over again, by Trump and all his minions? Build that wall." "Lock her up." "Make America Great Again." All simplistic. All void of cogent argument of justification. Have not at least 40 percent of the American people demonstrated that they either cannot or will not engage in nuanced and critical thinking, preferring the simple to the complex? "Finally, Hitler understood the demagogue's most essential principle: to teach or persuade is for more difficult than to stir emotion. And far less welcome: what the audience most wants is an excuse to experience full the powerful feelings already lurking within them but which their better selves might lead them to suppress." Id. at 111. QUERY: Did not Donald Trump. as propagandist-in-chief, appeal to the anger of, mainly but not exclusively, white working-class American, the "I-am-being-cheated" Americans, the xenophobic, racialist-thinking, if not racist, segment of America? He appealed to, and engaged in, dog-whistle politics. "'The psyche the great masses is not receptive to anything that is half-hearted and weak. Like the women, whose psychic state is determined less by grounds of abstract reason than by an indefinable emotional longing for a force which will complement her nature, and who, consequently, would rather bow to a strong man than dominate a wailing, likewise the masses love a commander more than a petitioner and feel inwardly more satisfied by a doctrine , tolerating no other beside itself.'" Id. at 111-112. QUERY: Perhaps Donald Trump, as propagandist-in-chief,' views American political as a harlequin romance novel. That is, viewed--and still views--a sizable portion of the American masses as just some love-starved old maids wanting some man, any man, to come along and just fuck them. If so, the masses are getting what they wanted. Donald Trump is going to fuck America through the ass. Enjoy.). 

TRUMP'S "EROTIC AESTHETICS OF FASCISM," OR WHAT TYPE OF ASSHOLE IS HE?

Aaron James, Assholes: A Theory of Donald Trump (New York: Doubleday, 2016) ("We are not asking whether Trump is, in fact, an asshole. On this much there seems to be a broad consensus. (Can you think of a better one-word name for him?) Indeed, to many of his supporters, this may be his primary selling point." "The question, instead, is what kind of asshole could pull off such a feat so spectacularly, which is to say, it is a question of assholeology. Among the many species in the asshole ecosystem, what exactly is Trump's type? And should it, or should it not qualify him for high office?" Id. at 3-4. "When Trump say the chaotic rally scene is 'beautiful.' he doesn't mean the beauty of democratic protest, of the rule of reason over violence. He seems to be invoking the erotic aesthetics of fascism, the arousing sensual excitement of mass unity in the hatred of others and the worship of the supposedly glorious past. To me, it is the modern  version of execution for public entertainment; it is the dynamic  of crowds ad power that, with the help of technology, made the twentieth century the bloodiest in human history." Id. at 89.).

HOW TO DEAL WITH LITTLE DONNIE'S LIES

• 

  11:33

  The Daily Show - Adapting to Donald Trump's Lies

  The Daily Show with Trevor Noah 

  • 78,751 views
  • 3 hours ago

GLOOM OF 'AMERICAN PIE' IS STILL RELEVANT (IF NOT MORE SO) AST THE DAWN OF THE AGE OF TRUMP

click link:

Gloomy Don McLean reveals meaning of 'American Pie' — and sells ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../gloomy-don-mclean-reveals-meaning-of-america...

Apr 8, 2015 - Thirteen years later, Don McLean wrote a song about this tragedy: “American Pie,” an 8½-minute epic with an iconic lyric about “the day the music died.”. Now, the original 16-page working manuscript of the lyrics has been sold at auction for $1.2 million. ... At more than 800 ...