Saturday, September 17, 2016

Drumpf'd

There is some small joy watching the idiot corporate media get suckered time and again by this incompetent con-man. After all, since they are largely incompetent as well, it just becomes a matter of being the first to make a move, and they will automatically, heedlessly follow, much the way your dog follows your hand because there might be a treat in it.

Now the media morons are all butt-hurt over this latest stunt, suddenly realizing they're Tina to Drumpf's Ike. Well, guess what, dummies:  he's been doing this to you for over a year, while the rest of us have watched and wondered, over and over again, why you can't just leave the brute. Now he's left a bruise, apparently. HE TRICKED US, YOU GUYS!

It wasn't the herding of them into pens at the rallies for the past year, like farm animals, waiting for the ancient, addled ungulates populating the building to waddle by periodically and hurl insults and spit at them, on cue from their wampeter. It wasn't the constant lying, evading, refusing to answer the simplest of questions honestly, openly defying them to simply do their jobs and empirically call him the fucking liar that he's been since the day he sprung forth from his mother's overworked asshole. No, it was the rickrolling that everyone saw coming up the road, punctuated with another pile of easily refuted, self-serving LIES.

Even Bill Maher, bless his pointy little head, didn't help the cause. Maher probably thinks he's striking a blow for intellectual probity by having Kellyanne Conway on as a guest, but all he did was give her a platform to spout more LIES. She's a paid liar defending a pathological liar, and she did her job. Maher read an oh-so-brief list of random lies told freely and easily by Drumpf, Conway breezed right past them, and that was that. Maher and Conway are old friends, and Conway has that thin veneer of false politeness that falls easily to New South transplant types, the kind that smiles emptily and waves and speaks in that even Stepford tone that lulls the unwary into forgetting that she's just another mendacious cunt, enabling the troglodytes that want to wreck this country.

The only difference between Conway and Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham is simply one of tone. They are all paid messengers of the indefensible, and they leverage anything available in order to convey their LIES. In this case, Conway used her friendship with Maher to stay on script. The only way this "interview" could have been productive would be if Maher had been able to bait Conway into saying something stupid or laughably false, and Maher didn't even really try, nor did he follow up when he had the chance. And he didn't bring up the birther rickroll at all, even though it was chock-full of LIES. So why bother having her on at all?

Their kid-glove-handling, grading-on-a-curve, false-balance approach is going to have repercussions, not just on the country and the world, but on their supposedly noble profession, which they have debased immeasurably by refusing to do their actual jobs. Another such area where this has happened is the supposed mutual admiration club between Putin and Drumpf. The fact, very easily followed up on but weirdly not for the most part, is that Putin used the word yarkii (яркий) to describe Drumpf.

As with many English words, this Russian word does not mean what Drumpf thinks or says it means. It does mean "brilliant," but only in the sense of being colorful or showy, certainly not in the sense of being a "genius." Vladimir Putin is a lot of things, but stupid is not one of them. He's certainly intelligent enough to see that Drumpf is fucking idiot clown whose sole talent is humping the world's collective leg about how awesome he thinks he is.

Now, if Putin had used the words умный (oomnii, intelligent) or гений (genii (hard g), genius) to describe Drumpf, that would be different. But he didn't. He used яркий, which is not disparaging (a colorful, domineering personality can be viewed as a positive attribute in many Eastern cultures), but is also not a word that a Russian would use to convey intellectual brilliance or genius.

(The most appropriate Russian word to use for Drumpf would be мудак (moodak), which is a sort of catch-all term of disfavor that can be used for asshole, motherfucker, shithead, that sort of thing. Sort of like cabrón or pendejo in Spanish.)

It's easy to dismiss idle rambunctions such as these as the boisterous ramblings of a pro-wrestling heel or a bad-boy punk-rocker. Coupled with Drumpf's troublesome personal and professional history, which is alarmingly consistent in its ruthless self-service, bluster, and contempt for truth and reality over the last forty years, a much darker pathology emerges, one of a spoiled, petulant man-child whose will is writ large and bright, яркий. He's rotten alright, but he's not Johnny Rotten, he's King Joffrey.

Just as the media don't or can't limn the important nuances in the word that Putin used to describe Drumpf, so too do they refuse to drill down appreciably when they bother to challenge Drumpf on his clear admiration for Putin's authoritarian style. This is vital to the argument of why Drumpf is a danger to all, and it shouldn't be ignored or elided.

The reason Drumpf admires Putin is twofold:  he sees Putin as a man who does what he wants, and commands other to do what he wants, with absolute impunity (you may prefer the Freudian spoonerism "imputiny"); in Putin, Drumpf sees a kindred spirit who has equal contempt for the antiquated niceties of democratic systems. Those "checks and balances" simply get in the way of the Great Man Doing Great Things.

Central to Putin's ability to overtake Russian culture and government in the way he has was his move to quash all journalistic dissent. Murder, systematic harassment, or shipping their troublesome asses off to the gulag for a few years to become the next sooka or zek on the cell block, he has intimidated opposing views and voices. For every Pussy Riot we manage to hear about, you can bet there are dozens or hundreds of others that we will never know. And there are plenty of citizen squads who are more than willing to help carry out his vision.

Putin doesn't fuck around, and by smashing any notion of an independent press, the tasks of rallying support from the legislative bodies, office-holders, and the citizenry become much more simplified. Drumpf has made it quite clear that he despises the corporate "free" press as much as he despises those pesky checks and balances, and that Something Should Be Done.

It's not hard to assume that one of the first orders on the agenda for a Drumpf Department of Justice (headed, of course, by Chris Christie) would be to hit Amazon with an anti-trust suit, in order to hammer Jeff Bezos, since the WaPo, for all its faults, has had the best track record in approaching properly balanced coverage of the race. David Fahrenthold seriously should be on the short list for a Pulitzer.

These hacks can bleat about how unfair it is that they should point out LIES when they are uttered by political candidates. The fact is that in a Drumpf administration, they'll either be in an inner circle of pets, an outer circle of careerist wannabes, looking for the right pole to smoke to gain entry. and then there will be the third pool of journos trying to do an honest job, digging up inconvenient facts. Depending on how good they are at their jobs, they can count on a spectrum of responses from the administration, ranging from indifference to obfuscation to violent reprisal. It will be too late to find spine and brain, and point out with some vigor the sheer gall and mendacity of this man and these people. It wouldn't take much for an enforcer to beat some sense into someone, maybe plant some terrorist-y toys in their apartment and a couple of fake bylines on the internet.

Sounds paranoid, right? But go back over the past year at random, and read the interview transcripts in full, watch the rallies in full. Do not settle for sound-bites and punch-quotes; context is vital here. Go back further and realize what Drumpf's relationship with the media has been. He views all media as a PR outfit for his interests. If they are not promoting him they are mortal enemies. There is no in-between. This man is willing to say and do literally anything to enable his will to power, and he is drunk on the newfound notion that his followers are willing to take that even farther.

They want to commit violence for him, and already have, and Drumpf seems enraptured by the possibilities. Many of them, as longtime white nationalists and neo-nazis, are already predisposed to violent retribution. They are chomping at the bit to have this ethos further legitimized. Others who might not be explicitly racist but are still falling for this "wurr muh cuhntree gawn" jabber will be attracted by the possibilities of forcibly externalizing their righteous frustrations at long last.

Imagine what someone like that would do with the actual reins of power, with gangs of violent nationalists at his beck and call. Journalists who wrote unfavorable things about Hair Fuhrer would find the results most unpleasant. They might want to think about that the next time they sit down to write their even-handed bullshit clickbait thinkpieces. They have it pretty good right now, with their idle jabber and useless commentary. That could change very quickly.

People who think that our government's built-in protective mechanisms will automatically immunize the country from a dangerous fool like Drumpf, with his millions of angry idiots backing him, are whistling past the graveyard. He will do whatever he can get away with, period; all that would require (since, if Drumpf won, it would stand to reason that the Senate and House remain in Republican hands) would be to identify the few principled dissenters and pick them off one by one, whether through bribery or coercion. Not difficult at all. And Drumpf's history, rhetorical style, and proposals indicate that he loot the US for himself and his few friends just as quickly and effectively as Putin has done with Russia. There is no reason not to presume otherwise; he has all but said it openly.

Drumpf and his followers have no regard for truth or tradition, and they really don't care about journos' self-serving perceptions of their hopelessly debauched institution. As far as they're concerned, journalists are a step or two above lawyers and child molesters. They are not fucking around, and dumbass journos will be the first up against the wall. Get over getting rickrolled one more blessed time, and just do your fucking jobs, and call a LIE what it truly is. Seriously, how hard could that be?

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