This hits the nail on the head. “You’re there to get things for your people” is the Trump mantra and doctrine, and the fact that it’s bullshit like everything else that comes out of his mouth doesn’t matter to his supporters. They know they’re Trump’s people, the ingroup – white, conservative – they half believe the fiction that they’re the ones who will get the goodies, and because it sticks it to brown folks in the middle east and makes liberals mad is additional icing on the cake.
One of the great things Donnie’s doing (probably the only thing) is putting to lie all the bases of American exceptionalism particularly in regard to America’s role in the world. Of course, it’s nearly all talk, no action but still.
And setting up Kurds to be killed and then steal their oil — that’s breathtaking.
When I was younger—my late forties, back in the XX century—I was given to fulminating about American hypocrisy: “We’re a predatory empire. Everybody 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 that, so why don’t we just 𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘵 it, already? Then came the Cheney Shogunate, which all-but explicitly proclaimed that truth, and I began to think that maybe there was something to be said for the pose of virtue as a brake upon the direst impulses of imperialism red in tooth and claw. I mean, US torture didn’t begin post-2001 in CIA black sites (feed “Dan Mitrione” into the search engine of your choice), but at least it was formerly done on the down-low, and not debated as a viable policy option.
I mean, if you go the route of unapologetic imperialism, at 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 do it with panache. Here’s young Churchill addressing Parliament half a year before the Great War:
“We have won for ourselves, in times when other powerful nations were paralyzed by barbarians or internal war, an exceptional share of the wealth and traffic of the world. We have got all we want in territory, but our claim to be left in undisputed enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions, largely acquired by war and largely maintained by force, is one which often seems less reasonable to others than to us.”
But the people with actual brains (and experience) understand is that, if we do invade, yet again, a Middle Eastern country, it won't actually be of much benefit to the Oil Monarchs. Yes, the chaos and fog of war will drive up oil and gas prices sharply, which will provide short-term windfall profits but it will also spur even more rapidly what is already happening, i.e. a search for non-petroleum substitutes (e.g. electric vehicles and plant-based fuels) and increased efficiency. In addition, we will see - but in a more dramatic fashion what happened to the Saudi oil facilities that were attacked by unknown forces (cough Iranian-affiliated group cough). Even if Trump knew any of this, he wouldn't care. Fortunately, it looks as though he will avoid a new war (unless, of course, Putin orders him to do so.
Worse than the lack of any real success in our Middle East wars, we got the extreme blow-back Chalmers Johnson predicted. (Whenever I wonder "How the fuck did we get here?" I reread "Blow-back" and the incomparable "Sorrows of Empire.") The 60 year slide to the debilitated dying democracy we call America began with the CIA in Iran. As with global warming, we had many, many chances to turn back and avoid disaster, but we didn't. Johnson didn't predict Trump; he didn't have to, he knew the forces were aligned to drive America down empire's predictable path. Someone be sure to protest that Putin and the oligarchs are far more malign than Trump and the billionaires.
How the hell did all of our oil end up under the sand in the Middle East?
Let me confess something. I don't like America. The reason being that its full of Americans. There are many decent Americans, don't get me wrong. In a country of 330 million people I'm sure there are millions of decent people. But that really doesn't mean much because the face of America isn't that of the decent people who live here, it is of the Americans who believe in that polished turd "American Exceptionalism".
I've traveled quite a bit and people in other countries are nicer, more polite, and less given to sociopathic aggrandizement of themselves based purely upon their nationality. Americans? They love that shit - no, not all of them - but enough. They eat it up and if you want to be elected president or dog catcher then you gotta stroke the voters with that fucking shit. Fuck them. And the horse they rode in on.
Trump's talking about a relatively tiny amount of crude oil located in a part of the world where we have no effective means of getting it to the United States. The mere fact that he thinks he's got his hands on a bonanza demonstrates how senile the old fool is. I wish that I was Trump's captor so I could force him to do things like: 1. take an SAT test and mock him mercilessly about his score; 2. have him eat a spinach salad; 3. make him read Proust out loud in French. The list is endless.
I begin to believe Trump supporters are more confused than anyone else. They immerse themselves in Trump lies as if it were a preferred drug. They get on board his propaganda spin incoherence like a combo rollercoaster funhouse. They have stepped away from common sense and reason in favor of the glow that their guy is inappropriate and offensive to smart people. That's enough for them. That guy who Biden slammed in Iowa is a prime example. That guy thought he was saying something smart. "You sent your son over to get a job he wasn't qualified for. You were selling access just like Trump." I paraphrase. He might as well have said you got fingers and Trump's got fingers. His idiotic statements show how low the understanding of these rubes is, though.
Two words, Roy: Fox News.
This hits the nail on the head. “You’re there to get things for your people” is the Trump mantra and doctrine, and the fact that it’s bullshit like everything else that comes out of his mouth doesn’t matter to his supporters. They know they’re Trump’s people, the ingroup – white, conservative – they half believe the fiction that they’re the ones who will get the goodies, and because it sticks it to brown folks in the middle east and makes liberals mad is additional icing on the cake.
One of the great things Donnie’s doing (probably the only thing) is putting to lie all the bases of American exceptionalism particularly in regard to America’s role in the world. Of course, it’s nearly all talk, no action but still.
And setting up Kurds to be killed and then steal their oil — that’s breathtaking.
When I was younger—my late forties, back in the XX century—I was given to fulminating about American hypocrisy: “We’re a predatory empire. Everybody 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 that, so why don’t we just 𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘵 it, already? Then came the Cheney Shogunate, which all-but explicitly proclaimed that truth, and I began to think that maybe there was something to be said for the pose of virtue as a brake upon the direst impulses of imperialism red in tooth and claw. I mean, US torture didn’t begin post-2001 in CIA black sites (feed “Dan Mitrione” into the search engine of your choice), but at least it was formerly done on the down-low, and not debated as a viable policy option.
I mean, if you go the route of unapologetic imperialism, at 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 do it with panache. Here’s young Churchill addressing Parliament half a year before the Great War:
“We have won for ourselves, in times when other powerful nations were paralyzed by barbarians or internal war, an exceptional share of the wealth and traffic of the world. We have got all we want in territory, but our claim to be left in undisputed enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions, largely acquired by war and largely maintained by force, is one which often seems less reasonable to others than to us.”
But the people with actual brains (and experience) understand is that, if we do invade, yet again, a Middle Eastern country, it won't actually be of much benefit to the Oil Monarchs. Yes, the chaos and fog of war will drive up oil and gas prices sharply, which will provide short-term windfall profits but it will also spur even more rapidly what is already happening, i.e. a search for non-petroleum substitutes (e.g. electric vehicles and plant-based fuels) and increased efficiency. In addition, we will see - but in a more dramatic fashion what happened to the Saudi oil facilities that were attacked by unknown forces (cough Iranian-affiliated group cough). Even if Trump knew any of this, he wouldn't care. Fortunately, it looks as though he will avoid a new war (unless, of course, Putin orders him to do so.
Worse than the lack of any real success in our Middle East wars, we got the extreme blow-back Chalmers Johnson predicted. (Whenever I wonder "How the fuck did we get here?" I reread "Blow-back" and the incomparable "Sorrows of Empire.") The 60 year slide to the debilitated dying democracy we call America began with the CIA in Iran. As with global warming, we had many, many chances to turn back and avoid disaster, but we didn't. Johnson didn't predict Trump; he didn't have to, he knew the forces were aligned to drive America down empire's predictable path. Someone be sure to protest that Putin and the oligarchs are far more malign than Trump and the billionaires.
How the hell did all of our oil end up under the sand in the Middle East?
Let me confess something. I don't like America. The reason being that its full of Americans. There are many decent Americans, don't get me wrong. In a country of 330 million people I'm sure there are millions of decent people. But that really doesn't mean much because the face of America isn't that of the decent people who live here, it is of the Americans who believe in that polished turd "American Exceptionalism".
I've traveled quite a bit and people in other countries are nicer, more polite, and less given to sociopathic aggrandizement of themselves based purely upon their nationality. Americans? They love that shit - no, not all of them - but enough. They eat it up and if you want to be elected president or dog catcher then you gotta stroke the voters with that fucking shit. Fuck them. And the horse they rode in on.
Trump's talking about a relatively tiny amount of crude oil located in a part of the world where we have no effective means of getting it to the United States. The mere fact that he thinks he's got his hands on a bonanza demonstrates how senile the old fool is. I wish that I was Trump's captor so I could force him to do things like: 1. take an SAT test and mock him mercilessly about his score; 2. have him eat a spinach salad; 3. make him read Proust out loud in French. The list is endless.
I begin to believe Trump supporters are more confused than anyone else. They immerse themselves in Trump lies as if it were a preferred drug. They get on board his propaganda spin incoherence like a combo rollercoaster funhouse. They have stepped away from common sense and reason in favor of the glow that their guy is inappropriate and offensive to smart people. That's enough for them. That guy who Biden slammed in Iowa is a prime example. That guy thought he was saying something smart. "You sent your son over to get a job he wasn't qualified for. You were selling access just like Trump." I paraphrase. He might as well have said you got fingers and Trump's got fingers. His idiotic statements show how low the understanding of these rubes is, though.