This is a relatively easy Mensa math problem in geometry, that also requires some high school algebra.
Basically, just find the area of the interior (? marked) triangle from the information provided.
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Monday, July 29, 2024
Yeppers, The "Cat Lady" Has Already Sung - For J.D. Vance And His Misbegotten Overlord Trump
The Hillbilly who wants U.S. women barefoot & pregnant
"Do these women who are still for Trump not know he bragged about intentionally walking in on preteen girls undressed at his preteen pageants! What is wrong with these women , don’t they have daughters ? Trump is more than weird , he’s a predator and a pervert who will lie about anything to save himself." -Washington Post comment
The error of too many machismo knuckle-draggers in the Trump Traitor Cult is they make the error of opening their mouths to show the nation who they - and Trump - really are. Such has been the case with self-proclaimed hillbilly J.D. Vance who opened his fat mouth in 2021 about the Dems being led by "childless cat ladies", and now that burp is thankfully re-exposed.
The result?
Millions of women, childless or not, have bonded together to organize new, mammoth fund-raising efforts for Kamala Harris and to get behind her election bid. At the peak of this reaction has been Shannon Watts who, in the wake of one 'Super Zoom' - with nearly 200,000 white women - raised nearly $11 million - see e.g.
This is a harbinger of the massive movement now underway to ensure Trump and his insurrectionist traitors do not get another term and a chance to wreck our democracy. And also while millions of our fellow citizens remain trapped in the Trump Fever Dream, significant others are breaking out and trying to show their peers how dastardly and threatening these reprobates really are.
Look, a redneck Trumper clown like JD Vance dunning women who don’t want to be breeders was bound to trigger an avalanche of blowback – from women across the racial spectrum. Like one black woman said when asked about Vance’s “Dems run by childless cat ladies”: “Who does this fool think he is? And does he have any idea how many women he’s alienated?”
One can also look from another angle: Isn't it much better to
have people who lack the temperaments for parenting choosing
childlessness (or child freedom as some of us call it) than to blindly follow
the lemmings who just do it because others are?
Why risk increased rates of children being ignored, battered, abandoned or emotionally abused? I'm not saying any of the intelligent child free would necessarily resort to such behavior, only saying that if we actually had a parental licensing scheme like we have for operating motor vehicles- but including psychological testing- you'd see a lot less malfeasance in child rearing! A lot fewer kids having to be funneled into foster care, already stretched for dollars, or ending up homeless, abandoned or dead (see article at end of this paragraph from Miami Herald). This the underside of the pro -child hype that none of these dimwits (like Last) will tell you. But it also underscores that a childless choice based on temperament may well be an innate "psychological test" the couple has already applied to itself!
When Isaac Asimov, the noted science and science fiction author, visited Barbados in February, 1976, he delivered a stirring lecture to a packed Queen's Park Theater.
It touched on many points, including
the limits we humans face living on a finite planet and why our numbers
therefore need to be controlled. Asimov, as part of his lecture, warned
that humans had two choices: decrease their population to the
Earth's carrying capacity limit to live in an equilibrium with the Earth
and its resources, or let nature “increase the human death rate” (e.g.
by starvation, pestilence, wars over resources etc.) He also remarked:
"It is now the willingly childless woman who is the heroine of our
planet. She is the one who now deserves all the kudos and praise, for helping
to do what is necessary to spare humanity from the ravages of
over-population"
Beyond all that, a receding segment of the population can barely afford to house and feed themselves, much less extra dependents. Checked the price of homes in the U.S. lately? Checked the cost of college educations? What factors or aspects in these doesn’t the Ohio hillbilly twit not grasp? Probably none.
Here’s a newsflash for J.D.: According to a study released on Thursday by the Pew Research
Center a growing number of U.S. adults say they are unlikely to raise children.
When the survey was conducted in 2023, 47 percent of those younger than 50
without children said they were unlikely ever to have children, an increase of
10 percentage points since 2018.
When asked why kids were not in their future, 57 percent said
they simply didn’t want to have them. Women were more likely to respond this
way than men (64 percent vs. 50 percent). Further reasons included the desire
to focus on other things, like their career or interests; concerns about the
state of the world; worries about the costs involved in raising a child;
concerns about the environment, including climate change; and not having found
the right partner.
The results echo a 2023 Pew study that found that only 26 percent of
adults said having children was extremely or very important to live a
fulfilling life. They have realized,
like many of us did 50 years ago, that generating economic units for
corporations (“consumers”) should not be the nation’s top priority when it is
citizens in short supply.
In addition, research has shown that in the United States,
people who aren’t parents are generally happier than those who are. Dr.
Jennifer Glass’s 2016 study, which examined the happiness gap in 22
countries, found that the disparity was larger in the United States than in any
other industrialized country. No surprise
given the burden U.S. society places on
parents: unaffordable child care, soaring health care costs, limited affordable
housing.
In the Pew study, most of those surveyed said that not having
kids had made it easier for them to afford the things they wanted, make time
for their interests and save for the future.
What is also true, and will likely torpedo the Reeps' chances in November, is that Vance's brutal verbal crudity is out in the open, unmasked and unedited. As Michael Steele (former RNC head now MSNBC host ) noted: "Vance says out front what Trump also says but no one takes seriously". When Vance says he is being "sarcastic" no one buys it especially not the women because whenever he opens his mouth it doubles down on the fear and loathing people have for Trump and his threats." There are no filters or 'showman' like distractions.
Trump gets a break, although he's equally bigoted and vicious, because most people think it's a big act or put on - like when he invited the Russians to hack Hillary's emails in 2016. Then fathead trolls like the WSJ's Holman Jenkins Jr. came out and assured one and all that "no one takes that bravado and bombast seriously". Oh yeah? Well I sure as fuck do, as seriously as a heart attack.
But no more, not with his last verbal expulsion, addressing an assembly ("Believers Summit') of Christian evangelical zealots. i.e.
“Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote anymore.”
And kudos to Adam Schiff who shared it on X so no one can plead ignorance regarding Trump's designs.
As Historian Michael Beschloss also put it (on Velshi yesterday a.m.):
"He's come right out and told people what he plans to do. And know what? We need to take him seriously!"
This blatant warning, along with Vance's redneck babble ought to ensure this sordid ticket sinks under its own depraved weight come November.
See Also:Trump and Vance seem ready to offend as many women voters as possible
And:
by Joan McCarter | August 16, 2024 - 6:36am | permalink
The Republican presidential ticket is getting weirder—and more misogynistic—by the day.
Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has already bombed with voters—and particularly with women. Newly unearthed audio from an interview he did in 2020 is definitely not going to help.
Heartland Signal obtained a snippet of audio from Vance’s appearance on a podcast called “The Portal,” during which Vance and host Eric Weinstein carried on a vapid, pseudointellectual conversation about the pitfalls of “hyper-liberalized” economics. It’s not a scintillating listen—that is, until you hear what they really believe about women and their place in society.
When Weinstein posited that “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female” is for grandmothers to help raise their grandchildren, Vance agreed, with a clear “Yes.” Once the ovaries shut down—that’s it! No more need for older women unless they’ve got grandkids to chase after.
And:
Trump faces backlash for ‘in four years, you don’t have to vote again’ remark
And:
by Amanda Marcotte | August 2, 2024 - 6:29am | permalink
"Don't laugh. Just don't laugh. Don't laugh under any circumstances."
In a recent interview with Laura Ingraham of Fox News, Donald Trump did not mince words about how he wishes Vice President Kamala Harris would behave. The Democratic nominee for president is known for her easy and boisterous laugh, which contrasts with the unlaughing Trump or his forever stern-faced wife, Melania Trump. As many political analysts have pointed out, Republicans aren't doing themselves any favors by freaking out over the fact that Harris has a sense of humor. The ongoing GOP outrage that Harris sometimes expresses joy only reinforces the Democratic accusations that Trump and his allies are "weird." Laughing when something's funny is normal. Coming unglued because other people laugh is not.
And:
by Thom Hartmann | July 25, 2024 - 5:46am | permalink
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz yesterday blasted JD Vance for being a “grifter,” because Vance claimed he was some sort of a hillbilly who grew up in rural Appalachia when, in fact, he grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati. Governor Walz, on the other hand, grew up in a town of 400 people with “24 kids in my graduating class” where “12 were cousins.”
In Vance’s autobiography Hillbilly Elegy he trash-talks his poor relatives, essentially accusing them of not being successful in life because of moral defects like laziness and addiction; he doubled down on these memes in his RNC speech, pointing out his own mother’s drug use.
In fact, they’re victims of Republican policies that make the rich richer and keep poor people poor; his mother’s addiction is a symptom, not a cause.
Vance, of course, “nobly” rose above it all with the help of our socialist GI Bill (which Republicans opposed) paying his way through Yale, and with help from rightwing billionaires who took Vance under their wings and helped him set up a hedge fund that made him fabulously rich.
And:
by Joan McCarter | July 30, 2024 - 6:47am | permalink
He continued, “The enthusiasm is real. It's genuine and if they want to say it's manufactured, that's cool. [Republicans] should continue to kid themselves all the way for the next 100 days."
Democrats really are having fun at Republicans’ expense. Take this tweet from the DCCC: “100 F*CKED UP THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN HOUSE REPUBLICANS’ MAJORITY”
Thursday, July 25, 2024
Showtime Docu-Series 'Mafia Spies' Ultimately Devolves To Propaganda Mush By The End
The new Showtime docuseries ('Mafia Spies') had me riveted for the first 5 2/3 episodes - then suddenly mutated into utter garbage and propaganda by the last 10 minutes of Episode Five ('The Showdown') for which one reads the following brief synopsis:
Conflict between the U.S. and Castro boils over when the CIA's actions in Cuba lead to a nuclear showdown with the Soviets; Roselli must contend with news of a national tragedy in Dallas.
But left out is the episode's fall back on the now discredited Warren Commission bunkum that "Oswald Dunnit' - never mind the comprehensive clear evidence already disclosed in dozens of JFK assassination files he had nothing to do with it. This in itself is kind of remarkable given Showtime barely 3 years ago had shown what many agree was perhaps Oliver Stone's best work at proving conspiracy and which I had reviewed.
So why didn't the producers touch base with Stone first instead of relying on a two bit hack like Gerald Posner? Whose "fingerprints" were all over the last part of Episode 5 to do with Kennedy's assassination. His slipshod research had already been exposed on one JFK website detailing a host of "Posnerisms", e.g.
http://www.assassinationweb.com/twpos.htm
Those who take the time to read carefully the examples in the link will become aware of an
unnerving lack of attention to detail and a penchant for what appears to be
deliberate misrepresentation. Indeed, Posner’s entire case appears to be
erected on a tissue of lies, misrepresentations, gross distortions and shoddy
methodology, the mass of which can’t even redeem it as coincidental.
This dissembling cretin couldn’t even get his facts straight in a July 23rd NY Times piece:
Writing:
In the early days following the Kennedy assassination, it was often said that the greatest marksmen in the world tried and failed to repeat what the government said Lee Harvey Oswald had done — fire three shots at a moving target in a very short amount of time. But it turned out that Mr. Oswald had plenty of time to get the shots off, and what he did has been replicated numerous times
Failing to note that the Warren Commission enlisted three master marksmen from the National Rifle Association to attempt to replicate the shots attributed to Oswald. [1] And the team failed, even after rebuilding the alleged weapon to enable any shots to be fired. (An aspect Posner glosses over including that NO one has been able to replicate the alleged feat, likely because that Mannlicher-Carcano was never the weapon actually used. Nor the only one.)
Oswald was presumed to have fired from
the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository, so
effectively six stories up or 60’ in altitude. However, the experts were
allowed to fire from a tower only half this altitude (30’)[2]. In addition, while Oswald had to have fired at
a limousine moving at 11 mile per hour, the experts fired at stationary targets[3]. The
target area was also magnified for the experts, to the whole upper torso of the
target prop’s body – while Oswald was limited to the head and neck.
More to the point, the rifle was altered away from the one Oswald supposedly used, according to the WC. The rifle sight itself was rebuilt and “metal shims were fitted to provide a degree of accuracy previously absent’. When Ronald Simmons, the Chief of the Infantry Weapons Evaluation Branch of the Army’s Ballistics Research Division was asked about this he replied: “Well, they could not sight the weapon in using the telescope”[4]. He added that the aiming apparatus had to be rebuilt by a machinist[5], with two shims added, one to adjust for the elevation, the other for the azimuth.
In other words, had they actually used
the rifle in the same condition Oswald was alleged to have had it, then they’d
likely not have hit the side of a barn.
Even so, just one of the three expert riflemen was
able to get off three shots in under 5.6 seconds – the designated time interval
for total shots declared by the Warren Commission. And most to the point: none
of the total 18 shots fired struck the targets (ibid.). in the head or the
neck. In other words, from a technical standpoint of duplicating Oswald’s
alleged shots- this trio of experts failed. Another key aspect: for the duration of the 18
rounds, two of the “master” riflemen were unable to reload and fire at the
stationary target as rapidly as Oswald purportedly did for the moving limo!
(The Mannlicher-Carcano had a bolt action recycling time of 2. 33 secs)
It wouldn't be until years later when Patricia Dumais - who suspected the rifle was a stage prop and wanted to see the internal control number - was informed by the National Archives (H.E. Livingstone, 1993, 'Killing the Truth', p. 204.):
'We cannot disassemble Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle because this action might be destructive to the object.’'
So all the Warren Commission followers have been 'had' for nearly 60 years by a colossal hoax. By my reckoning, the very inclusion of Posner in the series doomed it from the get-go, at least in terms of passing muster for serious JFK assassination researchers.
Prof. David R. Wrone, whose review of Case Closed appeared in The Journal of Southern History, notes:
"Posner often presents the opposite of what the evidence says. In the presentation of a corrupt picture of Oswald’s background- for example – he states that, under the name of Osborne, Oswald picked up leaflets he distributed from the Jones Printing Company and that a ‘receptionist’ identified him. She in fact said that Oswald did not pick up the leaflets as the source that Posner cites indicates. “
But the biggest disappointment to me was someone who ought to have known better, Peter Kornbluh, from the National Security Archive. He chimed in at various points in the first 5 episodes but seems to have acquired selective amnesia in the 5th. Also magnifying errors, apart from asserting Oliver Stone's ' 'JFK' was a "bunch of lies". When Stone always made clear (as on a subsequent Larry King CNN appearance) the film was designed as a "counter myth" to the myth of the Warren Commission.
But let's get clear here that Kornbluh for whatever reason, appears to have forgotten his earlier work reported in The Baltimore Sun, in 1999. ('Kennedy and Castro: What Might Have Been', Aug. 22, 1999, p. 1C.)
Therein Kornbluh noted it was Washington lawyer William Attwood (not William Donovan) who had negotiated the release of the Bay of Pigs prisoners. Attwood was charged with becoming the first American emissary to secure Castro’s ear and trust. In particular, to show good will and good faith, Attwood arranged for $62 million in medicines and food aid as part of the prisoner deal. Why was Donovan mentioned and not Attwood? Has Kornbluh changed his mind? His conclusions?
Attwood was also continually active in the spring of 1963, securing the release of other prisoners, including three CIA operatives held in Cuban jails[6] . Following each trip Attwood was debriefed by U.S. Intelligence officials, and he always described each meeting as “most cordial and intimate”.
An even more grotesque omission: JFK's efforts at rapprochement with Fidel Castro, then occurs before the last segment of episode 5, targeting Oswald as the JFK assassin. National Security Archive records show that starting in late 1962, JFK had begun a process of rapprochement through intermediaries. This portended a slow, deliberate effort to normalize all relations with Cuba. Indeed, as late as September 24, 1963, Robert Kennedy had informed then Deputy UN Ambassador Atwood, that JFK might be able to meet Castro to finalize the deals, but not in Cuba, suggesting Mexico as an alternative and a planned Mexico trip to enable a covert meeting[7].
In the episode it seems to have totally escaped Kornbluh's notice that - given the CIA's intense efforts to assassinate Castro (seen in previous 3 episodes) - they would not regard such moves kindly at all. More than likely Kennedy would be seen as treasonous, especially doing it sub rosa behind the agency's back as it were.
The threats to Kennedy's life indeed would have magnified dramatically once the CIA learned that ABC News reporter Lisa Howard offered herself as an intermediary, and her apartment in New York as the venue, for the first bilateral talks between U.S. and Cuban officials[8]. Certainly, the Agency’s eyes and ears would’ve been turned (tuned?) toward Howard after she did a fairly sympathetic TV special on Castro in April, 1963. Might they have bugged her apartment and listened in?
None of this is mentioned by Kornbluh at the end of this critical episode which would have certainly shed light on why JFK could end up as the assassination target on November 22, 1963. Again, why the silence? After all Kornbluh had written about all the connections and how Kennedy's intermediaries effected the process. Why the rapid retort of "lies" in reaction to Oliver Stone's film? It doesn't add up. Did Posner get to Kornbluh - and David Corn? One wonders.
Stone's depiction of a clandestine CIA operation mounted against Kennedy was also spot on. What most infuriated the CIA was Kennedy's willingness - after the Bay of Pigs debacle (planned and orchestrated by the CIA) - to exclude them from critical roles, oversight and assignments as well as reorganizing the agency, e.g. from the available archive files on Kennedy's response:
"Kennedy went further, creating a Defense Intelligence Agency, responsible to him, and soon mandating all overflights of Cuba be done by the Strategic Air Command, not the CIA. He also defined a list of directives on what the CIA could and could not, do. By the end of 1961, JFK's 'Special Group' had no less than 17 recommendations for the "reorganization and redirection of the CIA"."Stone's portrayal of Oswald as the patsy in the conspiracy was also spot on. Most researchers who've delved into this in much more depth than superficial 'buffs' come away with the conviction Oswald was set up as part of ZR/Rifle. A classic decoy. However, with the plot now turned against Kennedy. Oswald was likely used as the dupe or decoy so the actual perps (likely Cuban exiles, and trained assassins - from the Army's Ft. Benning Assassin school) could escape . We also know these assigned mechanics would have used the CIA Assassinations Handbook, available since Operation PBSuccess in 1954, see e.g. this document co-authored by who else? Peter Kornbluh!
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/
As noted in Document 1:
"The idea of forming assassination teams ('K' groups) apparently originated with Castillo Arenas in 1952. Adopting Castillo Arenas' concept the [ ] chief routinely included two assassination specialists in his training plans. CIA training for sabotage teams in early 1954 also included creating a 'K' group trained to perform assassinations."
There is no doubt such a 'K' group was set to target Castro under ZR/Rifle (not 'Mongoose' in 1962), but could easily be redirected to target Kennedy in late 1963. The proof in the pudding was the letter ‘D’ – on the cover sheet of Oswald’s 201 file – indicating a CIA Staff D SIGINT or signals intelligence operation run in concert with the National Security Agency or NSA. As pointed out by Peter Dale Scott (Deep Politics Quarterly, Jan. 1994):
“In 1961, when William Harvey headed Staff D, he was assigned the task of developing the CIA Assassinations Project, ZR/Rifle.”
When ZR/Rifle was turned from targeting Castro to JFK- probably in late 1962 or mid 1963 - it was all over except for the triangulation of gunfire that took the 35th president out. Who would have done it? A professional team dispatched to Dallas and basically admitted by a former CIA Director in later hearings.
The (1975) Church Committee hearings and testimony were critical in establishing the existence of ZR/ Rifle. Former CIA Director Richard Helms -in one session - spoke to the Committee at length about ZR/Rifle. When pressed he even identified two hit team members by their code names: WI/ROGUE and QJ/WIN. He described the former as "a stateless soldier of fortune and a criminal" (Church Committee Report, pp. 43-44).
He summarized the second in these terse terms (ibid.):
"If you needed somebody to carry out murder I guess you had a man who might be prepared to carry it out.”
He summarized the second in these terse terms (ibid.):
"If you needed somebody to carry out murder I guess you had a man who might be prepared to carry it out.”
More compelling still, a direct link of Richards Helms to William Harvey and QJ/WIN appears in a February 19, 1962 memorandum from Helms to Harvey obtained from the Assassination Archives in Washington, D.C.
Since the Assassination "K-Group" for ZR/Rifle would have had multiple members ('mechanics') it would perfectly fit Oliver Stone's portrayal of assassination using three teams in a triangulated crossfire. So we are at liberty to ask on what planet are Kornbluh and David Corn (Mother Jones investigative reporter who also lashed out at the sort of conspiracy portrayed in 'JFK' ) living on?
Since the Assassination "K-Group" for ZR/Rifle would have had multiple members ('mechanics') it would perfectly fit Oliver Stone's portrayal of assassination using three teams in a triangulated crossfire. So we are at liberty to ask on what planet are Kornbluh and David Corn (Mother Jones investigative reporter who also lashed out at the sort of conspiracy portrayed in 'JFK' ) living on?
Sadly, while the 4 earlier episodes were detailed and fairly solid in their information, CIA and Mafia backgrounds (as with the JMWave station in Miami, Zenith Technical Enterprises as a CIA front, and Operation Mongoose), the narrative broke down into sophomoric babble by the end of episode five where it begins exploring "Oswald's tortured childhood". Such faux dramatics are not needed in a serious look at the CIA and Mafia connections and especially to the JFK assassination.
At the very minimum, if at all honest in its take on the assassination, the Showtime episode should have included the HSCA investigation which found for a "96 % probability" of conspiracy, see e.g.
I suggest Corn and Kornbluh check out the preceding as well as the 2 links below, to see why Oswald could not have been the assassin. Also the two end links to show how he was frames in the process called "sheep dipping" - which certainly ought to have been included in Episode 5.
And:
Also the two end links to show how he was frames in the process called "sheep dipping" - which certainly ought to have been included in Episode 5.
Episode 6 ('Fallout') is not much better- skirting over the actual reason for Johnny Roselli's slaying - trying to tie it to Roselli squealing about the CIA-Mafia plot to kill Castro. In fact, Roselli was slain just before the HSCA was formed (in Aug. 1976) and it planned to call him to testify about Jack Ruby and his murder of Oswald.
HSCA Investigator Gaeton Fonzi in his book 'The
Last Investigation', p. 375, writes:
"In July, 1976, Roselli had disappeared and in August, the month before the Committee (HSCA) was established, Roselli surfaced in the shallows off the Intracoastal Waterway in North Miami. He had been smothered to death and shot, then cut open from chest to navel. His legs had been hacked off and stuffed with his torso into a 55-gallon steel drum which was wrapped with heavy chain and moored to a weight in the water. The mooring broke when the gases from Roselli's decomposing body forced the drum to float to the surface."
The killers – likely Cuban exile CIA contract hitmen - wanted to
make damned sure there were no flapping gums to contradict the fairy tale about
Jack Ruby being the "noble JFK avenger". They wanted to ensure
Roselli never talked about Ruby's role - or his connections - to do with
eliminating Oswald. And especially before the first serious assassination commission, not the half-assed whitewash known as the Warren Commission.
History shows the
killers succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. This is given so many in
the wake of Roselli's murder have been snookered into buying the hog swill that
Ruby was basically a decent guy shielding Jackie. See e.g.
This Showtime Docuseries started out as an intriguing look at how the CIA enlisted the Mafia to take out Castro. But by the end the basis of the previous episodes is ruined by falling back on the nonsense from the Warren
Commission. (Which was in fact a 'creature' of LBJ and not a genuine independent government investigation.) Clearly the Commission's Report underlies the narrative because it continues to represent
the perfect vehicle for propaganda and manipulation given the patina of gravitas.
Promoted by the likes of tools and PR mavens like Gerald Posner whose appearance in early episodes immediately served warning 'Mafia Spies' may not be telling the whole truth. Indeed, the Warren Report (described by some as “the largest book of fiction in most
libraries”), should have garnered no attention or investment of intellect,
given it was roundly trumped by the later (1978-79) HSCA investigation. Sadly, this Showtime series has to come to
terms with that deficit, and the fact it’s a pale shadow of Oliver Stone’s work as revealed in 'JFK Through The Looking Glass'. Compared to which Posner's work is like a trite, propaganda cartoon.
See Also:
And:
And:
And:
----------------------
References
[1] Hearings Before the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, 1964: Vol. II, p. 243 (Government Printing Office)
[2] Op. cit. p. 137.
[3] Op. cit. p. 133.
[4] Op. cit. (Vol. II), p. 250.
[5] Ibid.
[6]
Kornbluh, P.: ‘Kennedy and Castro- What
Might Have Been’, The
[7]
Kornbluh, ibid.
[8] Kornbluh, ibid.
Monday, July 22, 2024
What's With All The RNC Women Transfixed By Trump & Macho Apes In Milwaukee? Ans. MAGA Machismo + BSOs
“These are people that complain about crime but paraded one criminal
after another on to the stage in Milwaukee. It’s a party that talks about
freedom but traffics in the language of Hitler and blood purity. This was an eye-numbing assault on American
values and American decency.” Jennifer Rubin on ‘Last Word’
Friday
"Folks care about looks, stride, and ATTITUDE! Trump understands that. At the RNC convention, he surrounded himself with glitter and big things that captured/shared attention and affected emotions. Even a big bandage. It was reality TV. He shares his space with big things and it works."- Male attendee at RNC
The white women drooling, tossing kisses and crying at the GOP convention reminded me of the women who also adulated People's Temple cult leader Jim Jones. (Especially in the new documentary 'The Women of the People's Temple') In that documentary too, one beheld troves of women - mainly white- mesmerized by Jim Jones' spiel to the extent they even helped him to prepare the cyanide-laced, purple Kool aid concoction that killed over 900 at Jonestown Guyana in November, 1978.
But then Jim Jones commanded only a minimal cult of about a thousand, not a teeming mass of millions who salivate over every word as they watch him on TV or on social media. Also, Jones had only limited power, primarily over his own deluded, immediate flock. It wasn't like he had an entire political party by the balls like Trump has - such that he could steer it any way he wanted- and turn previous harsh critics (like J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley and Lindsey Graham) into pathetic boot lickers. Including mesmerizing such a large faction of the electorate as to threaten our nation's democracy with his lies, sedition.
The primary commonality is that both Jones and Trump have been deified, turned into demigods. Trump, after having exploited last Saturday's failed assassination attempt and turned it into a case of "divine intervention". Which his clueless MAGA zombies have been happy to regurgitate and reinforce - including with dozens of for sale images of Trump protected by angels, by Jesus, or in benedictory pose,
All of which was skewered to smithereens by Bill Maher in his New Rules segment in Friday's Real Time, dealing with the MAGAs 'magical thinking':
New Rule: MAGA's Magical Thinking | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) (youtube.com)
Noting whenever a leader played the deific or demigod card, from Julius Caesar to Hirohito, it never ended well for that nation.
Anyway, Australian author Cameron Reilly has a rudimentary theory of the case in his book The Psychopath Epidemic, and is kind of complementary to the recent 'Big Read' piece in The Weekend Financial Times ('What Makes Trump So Irresistible?) In author Reilly's book (pp 242-43) Trump's trick is the mastery of BSOs or 'Bright Shiny Objects' which in Reilly's words (p. 242):
"Trump perfected the art of creating a new BSO every day (in the 2016 campaign) and sometimes several per day, forcing the media and the rest of the candidates to respond to him, focus on him and pay attention to him. Despite the general consensus that the general public would soon tire of his shenanigans the BSO tactic worked His technique of making outrageous statements from the podium kept the entire political circus on their toes, constantly predicting his imminent political demise, while devoting so much attention to him that it scarcely left room for anything else. He devoured media minutes like Godzilla attacking Tokyo. He played on our BSO susceptibility."
Jim Jones did this up to a point, i.e. using his bogus faith healing tricks (while still in California) and 'white nights' (mock suicide rehearsals in Jonestown) but he can't hold a candle to Trump. Who, in his latest 'BSO event' crassly exploited his actual attempted assassination to get the convention crowd riveted for the first 20 minutes of his nomination acceptance speech. Before going off the rails and screeching about all his perceived grievances and enemies and how he'd deal with them in the final 60 minutes. Indeed, Chris Hayes showed enough of this flatulence in his ALL In show the following night,
Chris Hayes reads ‘deranged’ transcript of Trump RNC speech: 'Obviously in decline' (msnbc.com)
Noting the extent of Trump's derangement, reverting to attacks on everyone and everything he detests, i.e. "weaponizing" the Justice department, lying about the Democratic Party, the "China virus", the migrant invasion etc. Guest Mehti Hasson, in the same segment, emphasized how Trump has degraded a portion of the country's brains with the help of the media's dereliction. As he told Hayes (who himself acknowledged there is now a kind of acclimation to Trump's nutso ways):
"Right, since Trump is 'dog bites man' on a grand scale. He's so immunized us to his craziness and derangement that we always kind of move on....The New York Times, the paper of record, said that Trump veered into familiar partisan attacks. But journalists don't like familiar. They want new, and shiny, and Trump's insanity, bigotry and dishonest is all very familiar, so we just normalize it. We normalize the abnormal. We've mainstreamed his extremism. That is a fundamental problem because then you end up gaslighting your readers and your viewers into pretending the speech was somehow normal"
Adding:
"I interviewed a member of the Washington Post editorial board and when I said it was a crazy, insane speech, he said 'Well it was just normal Trump. But that's the problem. Normal Trump is crazy, is insane and we need to keep saying that. But we don't."
We don't indeed. We mostly suffer mass selective amnesia and try to sweep it into the nearest memory holes. Then we bawl and wonder why oh why when the shit hits the fan in the aftermath.
Back to The Financial Times piece: What makes a convicted felon, election denier, philanderer, Capitol riot agitator, self-proclaimed “day one” dictator and provocateur so irresistible? Especially to American white women. The FT discussed the question under five categories:
1. Grit
2. Spectacle
3. Nostalgia
4. Faith
5. Economics
In their exploration of (1) - which really ought to have gone under the header of 'MAGA Machismo', the FT first buttonholed a tattooed NJ guy, so taken by the image of Trump standing up after being struck in the ear by a wannabe assassin's bullet - with fist pumping- he blurted:
“That’s a man’s man! You can’t fake that!”
Oh really? Then why did he find it necessary to get his daddy to get him out of the draft by using bone spurs 6 decades ago? Which is why we now call him "Captain Bonespurs". If he was truly a "man's man" why not take the actual draft physical like I did in March 1965? As opposed to getting a special ticket exception compliments of daddy.
Then the FT went to Lisa Gasper, a Philadelphia realtor. She was asked by the FT about Trump’s ‘grab ‘em by the pussy’ remark, and wasn’t phased at all.
According to her: “Boys will be boys, that’s how they all talk”
Oh yeah? If my brothers and I had talked that way we’d have had our butts handed to us. By the Sisters of Mercy who taught us in Catholic school, if not our parents.
Another MAGA Ape was almost literally groveling before Hulk Hogan. This was during the most garish spectacle of Hulkamania ever to arrive in Milwaukee. "Hulk" (Terry G. Bollea,) then took the stage in character to praise “my hero, that gladiator,” working himself into a rage over the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life and ripping open his shirt to expose a “TRUMP-VANCE” tank top. The testosterone was indeed flowing by now and the women (see above) were being affected, even as other Trump rump suckers chimed in.
"This is what male identity politics looks like" according to Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News propagandist, best remembered for his February interview with Vlad Putin - interviewing the Russian autocrat as if he was a pop star. Carlson has since embraced the alt-right angst over testosterone levels . Maybe not aware that too high a level at middle age (Carlson is 55) can lead to prostrate cancer.
Carlson like the other yahoos spoke off the cuff, suggesting that the shooting established Trump as a "leader on a biological level". Boasting:“A leader is the
bravest man, This is a law of nature.”
Failing to grasp that Trump was simply the luckiest man, who just happened to turn his head at the right time, as the bullet whizzed past and struck an unlucky bystander and fireman. Kid Rock - another MAGA Macho denizen- then retooled his rap-metal anthem “American Bad Ass,” exhorting the delegates to throw up their fists and “Say fight! Fight! Say Trump! Trump!”
Oh, and make sure to sport those $50 each white bandages to show allegiance. The MAGA women by now going Ga-Ga at the scene.
But as the recent piece in The Wall Street Journal (p. A6, July 20-21) put it,
"The fiery rhetoric
and testosterone-fueled lineup, including macho screaming cameos from Hulk
Hogan and Kid Rock, were a signal that the campaign isn't trying to win back
college-educated suburban women."
Of course not. Since those women have too much sense and intelligence to attend a "white trash party" (in the words of comedian Larry Wilmore on Real Time) and be lured in by ape-like macho displays more peculiar to Mandrills. So one can easily surmise those white women gushing in the top pic are not in that category, but rather trailer trash gussied up to suit the scene. They also likely don't care any more about getting their pussies grabbed - by any of those performing MAGA apes - than having them grabbed by a Mandrill.
The Spectacle aspect in the FT piece focused on the bright shiny objects that have always been a staple of Trump's shtick and standard for many psychopaths - as author Reilly notes. At the top of the list are Trump's spontaneous outbursts riffing on his opponents and his biggest lies. As one female RNC goer put it:
"Trump rallies give you a feeling of being special and part of something bigger than yourself), Trump opens with humor, can be devilishly funny even when mocking Biden’s stutter or riffing on score settling anecdotes."
Ah yes, 'devilishly funny' like he was in the 2016 campaign when he mocked a handicapped NY Times reporter;
But this is the nature of the deranged sociopath (and psychopath) and 34 times convicted felon now vying to become president again. So he can complete the annihilation of the country he started in his last go round. So in a way it wasn't surprising to see the Trump RNC speech veer from an initial pose of modest grace and restraint (and cognizance of mortality) to one of grievance, blustering, and reckless boastful claims. The BSO shift again!
One was certainly left to wonder what "omnipresence" allowed him to be seen this way — wounded, vulnerable, mortal - only to transition to an entitled, arrogant, power mad misfit. But seriously, the political world might well have been talking about a "new" unifying Donald Trump now (as a Dallas Morning News headline initially advertised) had the speech ended there.
It did not. So even the next day's Wall Street Journal editorial (p. 14A) could see how Trump plausibly lost millions of votes that otherwise might have been his had he stayed with the somber script of his acknowledged mortality and backed away from petty grievance ("promising not to prosecute Biden or his family") while not rambling about his love of dictators (spending more minutes praising the bloodthirsty North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.) All of this, as the Journal noted, reminding normal voters of his autocrat-worshipping tendencies in his previous term.
But even that wasn't enough as the Journal editors raked this graceless mutt over the coals again in an editorial today (p. A16), writing - in regard to Trump's response to Biden passing the torch to Kamala Harris:
"It should have been an opportunity to show some class and judgment by welcoming the decision, warning adversaries not to take advantage of Mr. Biden's last few months in office....short and presidential, a unifying tone.
Not Donald Trump. On Truth Social on Sunday after the announcement, he posted: 'Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president and certainly not fit to serve."
Failing to note Trump is a classless, graceless roach. Biden not fit to run for president? The WSJ editors should have told the fool to look in the mirror at the actual culprit for whom that pig tail fits. A cockroach who would never give up power and ego for the good of his country as Joe Biden did yesterday.
As for the Nostalgia dimension, one knew before even reading the FT piece it centered on a return to the 'head of the table days for the victimized, grievance-filled whites who worship the orange one. As the FT columnist put it:
“Trump promises whites a return to cultural dominance which is threatened by their shrinking numbers”
The "Faith" dimension of course, is just as fake as the 'Grit'- Machismo one. The Evangelical hypocrites who worship the ground Trump walks on, and who are now set to elevate him to Christ level, don't give a crap how many pussies he grabs or porn stars he fucks. Just as Jim Jones' female worshippers at Jonestown didn't care how many People's Temple women he had sex with - even those with husbands.
As one 20 year old self- proclaimed Evangelical female put it at the RNC:
“Trump may be a sinner, but his positions represent
my religious values. All I need to see
is a speck of my faith represented!”
Well, how about a speck of brain power, girl?
As for the economics angle, one heard the usual recitation of woes: The rising housing as in Arizona, and rising auto loan delinquencies as well as grocery costs too high to manage. But even some of those interviewed admitted they had refused to budget in the face of supply side problems, had been reckless taking out car loans or had not planned before moving to a new location. (As one couple admitted, moving from Tennessee to Arizona but not scoping out the housing costs first.)
All in all, the RNC was perhaps the biggest GOP fiasco since bomb thrower bigot Pat Buchanan was featured as a keynote speaker in the 1992 convention. With a circus like this, especially the way the women attending were gaslit and exploited, it ought to be a turkey shoot for Kamala Harris' campaign to take down the Trumpers.
As for the MAGA cult's hysterical reactions, claiming the Dems 'switching horses' and Biden's bowing out is "undemocratic", I suggest these dimwits pay attention to CBS political analyst John Dickerson's words this morning:
"If the Democratic Party decides this is how they want to pick their nominee they get to choose. And do Republicans really want to have a big discussion about thwarting the will of the people? Because as you have as many clips as exist, of top Republicans after January 6th - that Donald Trump was the inspiration for trying to disenfranchise 81 million people- I don't think that's turf on which Republicans want to spend a lot of time."
See Also:
by Amanda Marcotte | July 21, 2024 - 6:00am | permalink
MILWAUKEE — On the third night of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump's WWE-inspired entrance came complete with a trollish musical cue, James Brown's infamous ode to traditional gender hierarchies, "It's A Man's Man's Man's World."
Earlier that day, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., learned the song's lesson the hard way. The once-soaring MAGA star was facing down a painfully small crowd at the signing of her book "MTG." Just before the trollish congresswoman was scheduled to arrive, a group of red-clad workers busied themselves with building big stacks of Greene's hardcover, published in November 2023. But only a few American flag-festooned folks had lined up. An hour later, Greene still hadn't arrived, but the crowd hadn't gotten much bigger, with fewer than 20 people waiting. When she finally rolled in at 3 PM, Greene took one look at the underwhelming crowd, muttered something to her entourage and then quickly hid in a nearby room....
After four days at the RNC, I suspect a major source of her woes was something darker. The GOP, already the party of sexism, is getting more gratuitous with its toxic masculinity. Everywhere one looked at the convention, Republicans were exalting maleness with an ardor that reads as "defensive" to outsiders but appears to be a convincing display to those inside the MAGA cult. The overcompensation led to a grand finale featuring both pro wrestler Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White, rather than the traditional activists and politicians one hears at a convention. Hogan declared Trump a "gladiator," which should be funny applied to a doughy senior citizen caked in make-up, but appears to have been taken at face value by the RNC crowd. Along with the James Brown song, Trump used "Macho Man" by the Village People as intro music, still indifferent to the irony of the song.
The boys club vibe spread throughout the convention. Women were welcome, but only as support staff.
And:
by Will Bunch | July 19, 2024 - 6:36am | permalink
— from the Philadelphia Inquirer
I came to the American Heartland to cover a political convention, but all I found was a tent revival, Brother Trump’s Traveling Salvation Show.
The Republican National Convention took just minutes after Monday’s opening gavel to officially nominate its Dear Leader for the third and probably not the last time. The roll call, once the highlight of past conventions, is now an empty ritual. A party platform that was probably written on a Mar-a-Lago cocktail napkin was rammed though with no dissent. RNC schedulers quickly liberated all four nights for the only real purpose they had here in Wisconsin.
The deification of Donald J. Trump.
And:
What’s Worse Than a Devouring, Criminal President? A Deified, Crazed, Raging Outlaw Fueling Violence
by Robert Becker | July 21, 2024 - 5:31am | permalink
Fast path to a criminal government: elect an unrepentant felon who then rounds up cohorts out for blood
Few find outlandish, self-centered outlaws morally admirable, let alone models of heroic leadership. Yes, principled protesters can choose to break the law, like Thoreau defying war taxes, or Gandhi against the British Empire. Or Martin Luther King committed to civil and human rights. But they acted not from self-serving motivation, nor material gains,invoking higher principles of the very best angels of human nature. “Convicted yet heroic,” opposite to Trump, they exposed oppression, unjust laws and inhumane conditions.
99% of the time, serious criminals are either psychologically/genetically maimed, (compensating by busting the rules), self-serving (however dim, misguided, addicted to crisis), or models of self-induced demolition (and the notoriety of being caught).
And:
Preacher, prophet, messiah: Trump cult takes on religious overtones at RNC
And:
by Carl Gibson | July 21, 2024 - 6:13am | permalink
Usually, the quadrennial nominating conventions are opportunities for both major political parties to unite their base around their respective nominee ahead of the general election. But former President Donald Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention has one former Republican sounding the alarm about what he believes are significant cognitive issues plaguing the ex-president.
In his latest essay for the Atlantic, U.S. Naval War College professor emeritus Tom Nichols — who was a Republican until 2016 — voiced his concerns about the mental fortitude of the 45th president of the United States. He opined that Trump's rambling, 93-minute speech on Thursday night demonstrated what he believes is evidence of rapid, ongoing mental decline.
"[T]he Republican National Convention was a searing reminder that Trump is a vengeful autocrat with obvious mental deficits who has surrounded himself with a crew of vicious goons," Nichols wrote.
And:
by Joan McCarter | July 20, 2024 - 6:16am | permalink
Last month, the Supreme Court effectively declared Donald Trump would be king if he were reelected. Now the GOP is taking the next step: In the wake of this past Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump, the party is all but claiming he has a divine right to the position.
“I told [Trump] that last night. I said, ‘Sir, the hand of God is on you,’” Florida Rep. Byron Donalds said at a Milwaukee town hall on Tuesday.
“Trump came very close to having his brains spread over that platform but God, I believe, protected him,” Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of famous pastor Billy Graham, said during a speech at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night. “Maybe that’s one reason God saved his life,” Graham added. “I hope Trump understands that it’s not about him making America great again, it’s God making America great again.”
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