ONE OF THE MOST CHILLING ASPECTS of Donald Trump’s political style is its sheer, amoral audacity. Like all the truly great political manipulators, Trump understands that whether or not something is true is a question best left to the philosophers. What matters in politics is what people believe to be true. And, when it comes to persuading people to choose unreality over reality; “alternative facts” to the facts themselves; Trump is a virtuoso.
There are two great literary illustrations (at least) of the Trump Administrations brutal ontology. The first is to be found in the exchange between Alice and Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carrol’s Through The Looking Glass:
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’ Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’”
“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,’ Alice objected.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”
The other illustration is contained in George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four:
“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five*, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?”
So, when the White House spokesperson, Sean Spicer, flatly declares the equivalent of 2+2=5 by asserting that Trump’s inauguration attracted more spectator’s than Barack Obama’s; and when Trump adviser, Kellyanne Conway, justifies Spicer’s behaviour by referencing his use of “alternative facts”; how should we respond?
The temptation is to question the sanity of Trump and his team. “Just look at the photographs!” you shout in exasperation. “Are you people completely nuts! Do you think we’re all blind!” But, of course, these are the wrong questions. Because Trump and his team, just like everybody else, can see that Obama’s crowd was way bigger than theirs. Yes, their actions may resemble the behaviour of a terrible two-year-old, but appearances can be deceptive. There is method to Trump’s madness.
The Washington Post has reproduced a memorandum, supposedly penned by a former White House official, which sets forth with chilling clarity what the Trump Administration hopes to achieve with its 2+2=5 strategy.
Apart from immediately lowering the expectations of the White House Press Corps (because after Spicer’s opening salvo relations can only improve, right?) the author of the memorandum further argues that the Administration may also be seeking to widen the gap between the one-third of the American electorate who are Trump’s supporters, and the remaining two-thirds who are not:
“By being told something that is obviously wrong – that there is no evidence for and all evidence against, that anybody with eyes can see is wrong – they are forced to pick whether they are going to believe Trump or their lying eyes. The gamble here – likely to pay off – is that they will believe Trump. This means that they will regard media outlets that report the truth as ‘fake news’ (because otherwise they’d be forced to confront their cognitive dissonance.)
The Washington Post’s anonymous author then puts forward another, even more disturbing, explanation for the Trump team’s dysfunctional relationship with the truth. By convincing a large chunk of the American population that truth and falsehood are fundamentally unknowable, the Administration hopes to induce them to disengage from politics altogether.
“A third of the population will say ‘clearly the White House is lying,’ a third will say ‘if Trump says it, it must be true’ and the remaining third will say ‘gosh, I guess this is unknowable.’ The idea isn’t to convince these people of untrue things, it’s to fatigue them, so that they will stay out of the political process entirely, regarding the truth as just too difficult to determine.”
The memorandum’s chilling conclusion:
“This is laying the groundwork for the months ahead. If Trump’s White House is willing to lie about something as obviously, unquestionably fake as this, just imagine what else they’ll lie about. In particular, things that the public cannot possibly verify the truth of. It’s gonna get real bad.”
Fighting this strategy will require the US news media to demonstrate a measure of tenacity and courage not seen by the American public since the darkest days of the Nixon Administration.
Such demonstrations are never easy. As Orwell noted of the Nazi regime in 1943:
“Nazi theory [ … ] specifically denies that such a thing as ‘the truth’ exists. [ … ] The implied objective of this line of thought is a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past. If the Leader says of such and such an event, ‘It never happened’ – well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five – well, two and two are five. This prospect frightens me much more than bombs.”
But almost certainly not as much as the man currently in command of the United States’ nuclear codes frightens us.
* It is possible that Orwell was inspired to use the 2+2=5 metaphor after seeing a Communist Party poster exhorting Soviet workers to complete Stalin’s Five Year Plan in just four years.
People often say live streams can’t be faked but Trotters article paints a different picture. To me it speaks to people seeking relevance in places they have no relevance #stayinyourlane
Trump is just maintaining the tradition of lying that has characterized American politics since the time of Roosevelt -that is Teddy Roosevelt.
Trump is a bit of everything else but normally expected from any recent politician we see today.
He clearly hates the establishment and worse the illuminate!!!!!!
He termed them as worse as a “scourge on our society”.
Watch his speech on this evil dark establishment last year to see it shows trump up as a definite outsider from the evil establishment of the Illuminati the Clintons were so comfortable being inside of.
President Trump Exposes The Satanic Illuminati New World Order!! 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wISEOOsEvI8
Cleangreen, are you for real??
That speech by Trump is so brutal in its honesty – and how the globalist media has tried to paint him and undermine him…
” Anyone who challenges their control is deemed a SEXIST , a RACIST , a XENOPHOBE – they will lie, lie , lie and then again , they will do worse than that , – they will do whatever’s necessary”…
It was a soaring , gutsy speech – hes not perfect but I’m glad he won.
Its been a long time since we had a politician who had the guts to say what needed to be said in addressing the immoral globalist banking elite with all their funded and contrived wars and war machine.
Well said Wild Katipo!
The *fact* of the matter is that that a media clique think they have the right to not just report the news but manipulate it and ultimately control us.
We saw plenty of it during our last election. The telling comment was Katie Bradford’s:
“No matter what we talk about, no matter what we do, the polls don’t seem to be shifting at all”
That is clear cut evidence that the mainstream media is the enemy of the people.
Back to the US, the media tried every trick in the book to undermine Trump:
They mocked him
They called him a racist and a misogynist
They made up stories about him
They set all their late night anchors and comedians to ridicule him
They went on dirt digging missions then failing that
They paid women to claim he’d molested them
Your real enemy isn’t Trump, it’s the mainstream media, and the people behind the media providing the cash.
I’m proud of Americans who saw through the lies, rejected the media assault and voted for the better of the two candidates. Just like they did here…
I like Trump for a number of reasons – one of them is because hes got the guts to challenge New World Order elites – who indulge in this sort of thing behind the American peoples back…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2E_HP97Rzc ( short video )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpKdSvwYsrE ( documentary )
I also like the fact that hes making efforts to forge better relations with Russia,… he recognizes how certain USA establishment circles have benefited from the existence of ISIS ,… and seeks to close that down. This clip of an interview between John Pilger and Julian Assange dispels all doubt about it :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9xbokQO4M0 ( short clip )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sbT3_9dJY4 ( full interview )
This is why Trump recognizes ISIS was a creation of the Saudis, Moroccon’s, and Qatar govt among others – ISIS being armed and financed by these govts money with the arms being purchased through the Clinton Foundation. How morally and utterly despicable.
And this is why Trump hasn’t opposed Russia in Syria.
The only ones who have are the global elite and their disinformation wing – the corporate newsmedia.
Trump has also taken a swat at the U.N and its REAL reasons for its existence – being a vehicle set up by globalist elite bankers for their New World Order – hence its abject uselessness in places like the Bosnian war and the continent of Africa.
Why should the Americans pay for that and subsidize the global elite in fomenting and encouraging this constant antagonism towards Russia? This constant tension that the people of Europe have to pay for simply because the global elite are using the situation with their Hegelian Dialectics to further their own ends towards a New World Order…
I like the fact that although Trump has read the riot act to American corporate’s who set up in third world country’s to exploit low wages then sell back produce to mainland USA – he hasn’t left them without an alternative in the form of tax cut rewards if they don’t – thus helping to save American jobs.
Regards China – we all know they do not have an agressive military expansionist policy – what they have done , however is manipulate currency – which is hurting nations around the globe.
Trump isn’t concerned militarily with China – its the country’s economic policy’s hes railed against. We know there are around 400 USA military bases ringing China – China has only about 23 military bases in response – purely as a defensive measure. Hardly part of an ‘ aggressive military expansionist policy ‘.
So in light of that , Trump knows this – and his emphasis is on ECONOMICS – not MILITARY measures that hes talking about. And that part explains why he broke the ‘ One China policy’ in speaking with the leader of Taiwan. That was a warning shot across the bows , but done in a peaceful manner.
And that ties in with his whole stance about revamping and rebuilding the American economy again. That’s his main concern. And that’s what Americans voted him in for – hes gutsy – and no shrinking violet would done the things hes done. He may be crude or bombastic ,- no persons perfect -yet sometimes it takes a rough and ready person like Trump to get the job done.
Think Blood and Guts General George Paton – another colourful character . Like Trump , – he also got himself in trouble a number of times – but he also achieved far , far more than other less bold generals of the time. So much so that Paton had to be quickly reinstated as he was the only one capable of doing the job he was assigned to without hesitation and with maximum efficiency.
And its that very boldness the globalists hate about Trump – and also the very thing they are trying as we speak to turn back on him in their constant negative media portrayals on him.
Post something this sensible over at the Standard and you’ll get beasted off the page! Really enjoying the debate at TBD so much more, the Russophobia over there and the sheer cognitive dissonance at the TPPA being defeated from the right has got them totally crazy. And its funny, because they can be so loyal to Labour, whose heterodoxy took the form of neoliberal economics, but they can’t accept the heterodoxy of left-leaning anti-Clinton individuals who can accept his victory in exchange for peace with Russia and an end to the ascendant logic behind neoliberal economics. I think that is because too many well meaning internationalists have been suckered into being the tools of globalism.
These two post from Wild Katipo and CJ probably deserve there own post. Crocked accountin does not make a straight economy, every one probably understands now that the jobs numbers are cooked, along with crocked finance from insurance to transfers and bank fees, and our manufacturing is running at half capacity. Finally people can see the cracks in the economy early enough to have an empact before dumb shit like power cuts keep happening
Katipo, I hope you realise that Trump’s ‘anti-globalisation’ stance is a thin veneer of popularity and vote-seeking.
It’s all done at the expense of women, Mexicans, Muslims, LGBT, and soon working-class Americans as Trump cuts taxes for the rich.
Trump signed an executive order banning US support for NGOs that promote abortions in other countries.
“President Trump on Monday reignited the war over abortion by signing an executive order blocking foreign aid or federal funding for international nongovernmental organizations that provide or “promote” abortions.
The so-called Mexico City policy, established by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1984, blocks federal funding for international family planning charities that provide abortions or actively promote the procedure.
Referred to by critics as the “global gag rule,” the policy has been subjected to a game of political football over the years, with Democratic presidents rescinding the policy upon taking office, as President Obama did in 2009, and Republican presidents reinstating it.
The move comes amid a roiling public debate about women’s rights, jump-started Saturday by women’s marches held in major cities around the world.” http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/abortion/315652-trump-signs-executive-order-reinstating-global-gag-rule-on
Your support for Trump will be paid for by the bodies of women having unwanted pregnancies.
I cannot begin to understand how you’ve been sucked in by that false prophet.
I agree with much or what you wrote there.
No way Sally man. Politics 101
No reform should make any one worse off.
That’s code for don’t kill shit.
We must never be quick to defend killing of any kind. Liam Neeson played a Scott in a movie (forgotten the name) his wife was raped and his character was a real man about it and excepted his partner and her child for who they are and loved them. The courts can do the same if allowed to function properly and so on.
As Eisenhower once said and I paraphrase. Hitting over the head is assault, not leadership. But thanks for your really long opinion
PROOF?
As for this New World Order stuff, I had hoped something better from you WK, you do usually present something more sensible than head into this conspiracy theory territory.
While Trump may be right about the odd thing or topic, he is a self made “revolutionary” that has only his own interests, and those of the ones close to him at his heart.
One day the truth about this will be undeniable.
I’m stunned the number of people who showed their dislike for key’s lies and now show almost lickspittle slavish devotion to Trump.
SOmething in the water? Junk TV finally rotted their brains completely?
TRump is a bigot and a manipulator. ANd like Key, a damnable liar.
PEople need to wake up.
A fair few will never wake up, it is easier to pretend ignorance and simply “believe” what one may prefer to happen, and to blame others for all that is wrong.
Some people just pick what they want to hear, and ignore the rest. This applies to those falling for fake news and “alternative facts” they get through social media, same as those falling for biased reporting by the MSM.
A fair few people just love to follow a messenger, a leader of whatever type, as long as the messages sent to them are to their liking, to will continue to follow and support such people like Trump, until it is totally undeniable that they were manipulated and tricked.
But by the time that happens, it will be too late, and too much damage will have happened.
Of course Trump cannot directly be compared to such “leaders” like Hitler, but he is a demagogue and manipulator of sorts, now in control of a nation and having unbelievable powers to his avail.
Time to be worried.
Key signed the TPPA and put sanctions on Russia to defend the Ukranian far right and put them under the sort of economic pressure which makes it hard to support Assad against radical Islamic terrorism.
Donald Trump signed the order which killed the TPPA and is prioritising peace with Russia over support for the Ukrainian far right or support for radical Islamic terrorism in Syria.
I don’t get everything, but I get those two things. And one more to boot: Trump has forever punctured the neoliberal bubble which made offshoring working class jobs by the thousand nothing to be ashamed of. It’s now something to be ashamed of, and even if he’s a one termer, that will never go away.
Samwise
“I’m stunned the number of people who showed their dislike for key’s lies and now show almost lickspittle slavish devotion to Trump.”
That’s because unlike Key,Trump is the real deal.
Did you not listen to his Inauguration speech? Relied on MSM news?
Along with Mike below you,to much of MSM clouds your thinking.
Just more Fake News.
And Mike,if you are referring to “alternative facts” of size of the
crowd,Trump was right all along. CNN debunked themselves by
showing the huge crowd tucked away on their website.!
Talk about Fake News.! The photo was taken 5mins after the gates
just opened at 8.30am.
Also Trump was meant to have thrown the bust of Martin Luther
King,that sits on a table inside the White House,outside on the road!! Fake again.!!
Retracted later but damage is done.
Why? To incite violence?
The only way you would know this is by Alt-Media you both are
fond of bashing. MSM are completely finished.
In fact CNN’s shares have plunged so low it is up for sale.!!!
And if TDB would not deny me my post to Chris, the links of
proof are contained there.
Cheers.
You have made a decision that anything coming from the MSM is unreliable, is fake and rubbish, and so you go. You are therefore as biased as some in the MSM may be, and as others are on social media and as those who follow any “news” that suits their taste.
Indeed, your comments are amusing, they would be, would you not so obsessively repeat the garbage you comment here.
Mike in Auckland;
”You have made a decision that anything coming from the MSM is unreliable, is fake and rubbish, and so you go.”
Proven,documented and in the public domain lying
with intent and creating Fake News.
Cannot get any simpler than that.
If you need an example I can easily give you one.
Cheers.
How many percent of news?
“Its been a long time since we had a politician who had the guts to say what needed to be said in addressing the immoral globalist banking elite with all their funded and contrived wars and war machine.”
And women, ethnic minorities, muslims, etc, will pay the price for the “globalist banking elite” which the West has sprung upon the world.
Is that the price of things to come, Katipo?
The latest from Trump; he has signed an executive order restricting US funding for abortion, contraception, and family planning in countries that sorely need it.
That is the price you expect women to pay
Trump has clearly taken a leaf out of the John Key , Boag , Joyce , Gower play book….remember the fake $150,000.00 Labour Party donation story as just one N.Z example…That’s a jailable offense right there.
What happened?….Nothing !!
And if you look at the appalling state that N.Z has now found itself in and extrapolate that out to a country as big and as powerful as America, then you can safely say that not only the U.S, but The World, is in for a hiding!!
Grant. Please don’t knock Paddy.
My “alternative truth” is the truth that I choose in my space or universe, that is where Mr Trump comes from. He has created a “movement” for people who choose to live in their bubble, albeit not a happy bubble in many cases.
Once you get such people wrapped around your finger, they will go with you all the way, almost like a cult.
One “leader” in Germany also had that “talent”, truth was created for the followers, whether it was real truth or fake truth, that was irrelevant. Believers will believe anything, if conditioned to the extreme.
Trumps knows this, he knows there are many desperate and having put their hope in him. Now he has a “following” or sorts, loyal to the bitter end, whatever that may look like.
US America will NEVER be the same again, I fear.
It’s like our “wade-able rivers” morphing from “swimmable” and prior to that from “drinkable”. The same doublespeak to undermine the Greens, or anyone that can remember what life was like before Dairying and its corporate sponsor, Richie McCaw. Remember a time when milk was 2 cents a pint and we could swim in rivers and on beaches?
2+2 = 5 happens here every day in NZ under National, ACT, Maori Party, Dunne and Richie McCaw.
Now we have 10 beaches in Auckland that can never be swum in again because ‘trains take precedence over clean water’. Even when International Rescue launches Thunderbird 4 and fixes the sewage issue with an “Interceptor pipe”, the beaches will only be swimmable 20% of the time. ‘It’s an Auckland problem, not a government one, said Phil.
2+2 = 5 happens here every day in NZ under National, ACT, Maori Party and Dunne and Phil Goff.
It’s the same with poverty. Oxfam tells us a story about the 2 wealthiest New Zealanders owning more wealth than 30% of the population and Stephen Joyce says that ‘Greed is good’, because we can all aspire to be the third wealthiest person in New Zealand and have more wealth than 15% of the rest of the population.
2+2 = 5 happens here every day in NZ under National, ACT, Maori Party and Dunne and Stephen Joyce.
Auckland is the 4th least affordable city in the world and that is causing schools not to be able to attract teachers to Auckland. ‘So we will bring them in from overseas’. ‘There are an abundance of chefs because of an immigration quackspeak, and we can hire an untrained teacher, but a trained chef to teach cooking.’ Teachers used to be able to get school housing to attract them to “hard to staff areas” and now the only teacher housing are the backs of cars, or motels, because teachers cannot afford to move to Auckland. Hekia Parata tells us that the teaching problems are because teachers won’t move around Auckland any more – internal immigration is drying up, causing the teacher shortage. It is immigration causing the housing bubble Hekia, but not your definition of it dearie!
2+2 = 5 happens here every day in NZ under National, ACT, Maori Party and Dunne and Hekia Parata.
Bill English told Maori that the government won’t spend any more money lifting Maori out of poverty, it was time for ‘personal responsibility’. So Maori are personally responsible for their own “issues”? It’s no wonder Bill English didn’t take that message to Waitangi celebrations.
2+2 = 5 happens here every day in NZ under National, ACT, Maori Party and Dunne and Bill English.
And New Zealanders have the gall to criticise Donald Trump’s arithmetic?
Matthew 7:5
You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
I would agree, New Zealand is as bad as the US, at times we are even worse, that is the willfully ignorant ones that we have in abundance among our population.
I wondered when Godwinism would rear its head.
Obama was a pretty good orator, and so was Adolph Hitler. Suggestive that, don’t you think.
I wonder if Hitler had cornflakes for breakfast.
“Godwinism”?
I prefer Santayana.
Remember, MikeSH that in “1984”, they continually rewrote history because the Party recognised it’s power.
If you want to ignore the lessons of history, including the rise of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s with Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler leading the charge, then so be it on your head.
HEY!!!!!
Did you do a similar post about OBAMA?
Did you NEVER even ASK …”HOW COME he EVER got a Nobel “Peace” Prize???
= FRAUD
No????
Well frigging ask yourself IF your thinking is your Own,
OR whether outside influences OWN /CONTROL your mind for you.
Go Back & Do Your OWN homework , Trotter and NEVER let others do your thinking for you, otherwise you are just ANOTHER fraud/mouthpiece for somebody ELSE.
PS ORWELL did NOT write about Nazis. HIS warning was ABOUT COMMUNISM
That maybe why lies travel around the world before they put its truth boots on. #MarkTwain
Cassie, you need to read more carefully before you rant. Chris is directly quoting what Orwell wrote in 1943, and Orwell’s quote starts: “The Nazis…” How do you now make that about the Communists?
You’re a fine example of exactly what’s being said actually…..CASSIE
Obama……Peace Prize……nonsense of course. Whomever took it seriously ?. Difference is here we’re talking about Spicer saying it wasn’t Obama who got the Peace Prize……it was Nixon. You follow my illustration shouty CASSIE ? PROBABLY NOT.
Cassie, I get a bit sick and tired of people justifying Trump’s aberrant behaviour by constantly pointing to Clinton, Obama, etc.
Can’t Trump stand on his own merits (or lack therefof)???
If the only way to justify his bizarre behaviour is to point at others, you might as well excuse the guy who burgled your house, because, hey, he’s not as bad as the other fella who did a murder.
In which case Key isn’t as bad as Bush. Bush isn’t as bad as Pol Pot. Pol Pot isn’t as, blah, blah. And so it goes.
It’s relativism taken to absurdity, and now justifying any behaviour you feel inclined to excuse.
Not good enough.
Oh for god’s sakes, Cassie? Are you so morally challenged that Trump can do no wrong because someone (in your view) did something worse? Is that how we’ll measure a moral compass now? Well in that case, we might as well have continued having John Key as outr PM because someone else was probably much worse.
I am sickened by peoples’ moral relativism and especially because it comes at the expense of women’s rights, ethnic groups’ safety, LGBT rights, etc.
Those that thought Trump was the lesser evil or lower risk, they should think again. This man is HIGH RISK, with his temper, his narcissistic tendencies, his arrogance and own delusion. He is at the same time a great manipulator.
When you have the most powerful nation being “led” by a man like this, being Commander in Chief and soon to negotiate and make deals with other leaders, of all sorts of countries, then it is becoming hard to sleep well at night.
Just the one thought now, besides of telling the media what is truth, he seems to be prepared to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, that is in Israel.
You cannot offer ISIS and some other jihadist extremist groups more of an opportunity to launch a new, successful recruitment drive for new fighters. How the hell can the man think this will bring peace? Does he even want diplomacy and peace? Ordinary Muslims will be aghast at the thought of this to happen.
Mike in Auckland;
You would not have a clue in what you are talking about.
Cheers.
I have a clue, I wonder about you, what a rhyme.
I’ve heard that Trump creates a state of “delirium” from his followers – a delirium that is a direct result of disllusionment from the worthless (in their eyes) leaders that came before.
Jonathan Pie weighs in on the inaugeration with another one of his great rants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RMwjaZouNY
The truth is that no politician I fear is honest in todays political system.
Our democracy is just a mirage and not true any more since Michael Joseph Savage’s day.
We have a corrupt media and many of todays’ bunch of Journalist’s who in the main, are just bought trumpets also.
Best to live in a bubble and think your own thoughts I am afraid as that is where the Establishment want us all now without an effective feedback system in our communities to disseminate the truth, they call it being dumbed down.
Nitrium;
Gee,Pie is very good at what he does,I agree.
Comedy can be such a sinister medium in getting a message across even though
most of what is said is bullshit.
I enjoyed it ,thanks.
Unfortunately the DNC shafted Bernie Sanders and they got Trump, Bernie Sanders did the world a favour and showed us how evil media driven politics has become.
National did the same thing here in NZ with MSM against Labour at the past two Elections with the SIS releasing dirt on Phil Goff and the Dong Liu Affair with David Cunliffe, they also made out Winston Peters to be a crook for accepting donations from Owen Glenn, Winston was subsequently cleared by the SFO.
Hopefully the sheep worldwide will wake up.
Baa, baa, what is going on???
Trump is the end result of Hillary and the DNC shafting Bernie Sanders.
Oh FFS, is there nothing that you blame on Clinton?? You’re like the Nats, constantly blaming the previous Labour government for their neverending clusterfucks!!
It gets a whole lot tiring after a while.
Sally’s Husband;
“It gets a whole lot tiring after a while.”
Yes, Like your tone of trolling all the time.
Cheers.
Actually, Iain, I put a whole lot more stock in healthy scepticsm rather than your sickening sycophancy. I think you’d be cheering on any demagogue that you readily identified with.
It’s a shame you don’t identify with the women, muslims, latinos, etc, that Trump has demonised to win the White House.
In the 1930s, it was the jews. Now it’s women and ethnic groups. If that does not trouble you, then I question your moral compass.
The Dishonest Media will soon learn their mockingbird agenda will not be tolerated
Which media are you suggesting are dishonest? Just asking.
Steve;
Media that has CIA agents or assets placed inside them since around
1950 to control the narrative. ie All MSM.
‘Operation Mocking’ Martyn posted recently.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/12/19/for-those-hysterically-judging-russia-for-hacking-us-election-heres-a-list-of-all-the-governments-the-cia-have-overthrown-in-first-50-years/
Involved in messaging in music, literature and Hollywood also.
Cheers.
Actually I believe you probably can blame a whole lot on Clinton.
Clinton WAS divisive. She was very much an establishment candidate, which is why Bernie did so well and ultimately led her to take the steps she did to shut him down.
As for the National/Labour accusation. Labour were just as bad. I remember Clark blaming National for things as late as 2007. Petty crap like this so late in the set from any party is to cover their own inadequate backside.
Thanks Chris. Funny thing today, while making beetroot chutney ( yum !) I had the same thought. 2 + 2 = 5 in this “alternative facts” world. The Orwell quote from 1943 also very interesting, these perception managagement strategies to sew the seeds of doubt in people’s minds about what is truth. There is a brazen mendacity and we have seen it in NZ politics too in recent years. Trump and his aggressive White house press secretary Spicer are being universally mocked for their 2+2=5 period. The irrational Trumpian universe will surely fall apart very soon, because 2+2 actually =4. It really does, believe me, I’ve counted on my tiny orange fingers.
Yes, but in some parallel universes 2+2 not only =5 but can also =3, 27, or even infinity…
What is reality Grasshopper?
What we know or what we are told?
That may be in Parallel Univerrses, JS, but my understanding of physics is that life wouldn’t be possible under sucvh circumstances.
Therefore, 2+2=4 and we have no choice about it.
Anyone who excuses Trump’s lies, oops, “alternative facts”, is no better than the Tory sycophants who continually promoted Key’s lies.
Why were Key’s lies unacceptable but Trump’s outright bullshit is seemingly ok?
Thank you Chris for your informative piece and I hope it makes a few Trumpinistas think before continuing to glorify their bloated billionaire master.
Many of you are MORONS . Worrying about TRUMP.
He never KILLED ANYBODY.
BUT. DID ANY OF YOU WORRY ABOUT OBAMA and his 7yr long KILLING . (officially sanctioned ) SPREE??????
K I L L I N G SPREE. Drones etc.
WHAT IS YOUR ANSWER ????????
YES – WHAT & HOW do you answer this Q. ………….vs your (invented . Or rather “Placed” by MSM) concerns about Trump?
Neither did John Key.
But many still “worry” at the damage he allowed our social services and state assets.
Technically, neither did Tony Blair or George Bush.
But they were responsible for the deaths of millions by their decisions.
If Trump isn’t the next warmonger to take his turn at a bit of murder and mayhem, Cassie, why is he planning on a massive military build-up of U.S. forces? What mischief-making does he have in mind?
And why is he antagonising China, when – as the Chinese government has said so succintly – the US is not a party to the South China Sea dispute?
I’m not a Trumpista, so I’m quite happy to ask impertinent questions of the Dear Leader Trump. (Just as I did of Key, et al.)
Cassie, you are ranting.
As Frank said, You might as well say Bush and Blair were good leaders, because Pol Pot killed more people than those two warmongers did. Bloody stupid logic.
Even right wingers in the US have reservations towards Trump’s policies, e.g. for Syria, talk about killing, he has only been in office a few days, and your rant about Obama is excessive. Wait and see how Trump will beat them all, Obama, the Bushes and Reagan, in killing people, not himself, but through the hands of US service persons, agents and mercenaries.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/trumps-dangerous-syria-policy/
A few decades ago, I would never have believed that Orwellian scenario possible.
But over time, as I’ve witnessed first hand how easily seemingly intelligent NZ’ers have swallowed hook, line and sinker the narratives placed before them by various Govt’s and their compliant MSM mouthpieces…….well, nothing surprises me anymore.
The 46th President of the USA will be a Kardashian.
One of the other ways that the media could confront such outlandish statements from the trump admin is to merely ignore them.
Don’t give his paid sycophants the opportunity to air their views.
Instead go to the depts concerned and create connections there for a more rational view of things. This would take a unified standpoint from most of the media.
This concept has the backlash of more accusations of “fake news” from the admin and enforcing an already fast setting position of stating “the moon is made of cheese, 2+2=5”.
But four years in politics is a very long time. Just how long the GOP will put up with such oddball behavior is yet to be seen.
At some point (hopefully) trump will trip himself up and the impeachment ball will roll towards him.
The statement was referring to “the most watched” – so taking in internet, TV etc it possibly may have been “the most watched”. So it may be 2+2 = 4 after all. Were the photographs taken at the same stage in the proceedings? Who knows?
Trump’s inauguration speech which harkens back to a 1950’s utopia and speaks of “the people” taking back power would have been praised to the sky if Obama had delivered it. Maybe now more people realise it’s bullshit – Obama’s real legacy is the death of hope.
Obama’s eight years have left a perfectly installed and ready to roll police state. Signing in the “Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017” just before Xmas which makes illegal “fake news” and “propaganda”. There is your big brother. Trump doesn’t need to do a thing – all the rights have been taken away bit by bit. It just remains to be seen how hard he will act upon these laws.
The hypocrisy of all the ant-Trump hysteria make my head spin. I guess people have only just woken up now there is a less cuddly man in charge…
Did the entire Republican-dominated congress and senate suddenly disappear?
Are US non-elected officials so spineless that they cannot hinder, obfuscate, and conveniently stymie stuff in the ways of any bureaucrat who follows the customs of Whitehall and ‘Yes, Minister’?
Are they so worshipful of class? (Apparently.)
Has the position of President got so out of hand that ‘they, the People’ have stepped into some sort of dictatorship?
In all of this – I feel sorriest for Spicer: that jacket. He either borrowed it at short notice. Or he’s already shrinking for shame.
One of the most chilling aspects of Donald Trump’s approach so far is the number of New Zealanders who treat him like God and a necessary.
They are the types who would have supported Hitler knowing how that was going to turn out.
Pete,
Trump has killed off the TPP, he’s met with Union leaders, he is challenging the neo-liberal consensus. He’s not beholden to neo-con ideology. That seems like a refreshing change.
Hitler was considered a refreshing change also, to some Germans who fell for his charm.
Chris,
You realise that the TPP is now dead right? Are you going to at least acknowledge that Trump is the first US President in 37 years to really challenge the neo-liberal consensus?
Today Trump met with Union leaders. They came away impressed.
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