You Will Anyway: Lickspittles and courtiers

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Lickspittles and courtiers

While the White House regularly responds late or releases conflicting messages on the issue of the day, the Trump campaign quietly and swiftly falls in line behind a famously shape-shifting president — pushing out new talking points, debuting new items on the Trump campaign’s web store and buying Facebook ads — in their quest to defend any decision the president makes in whichever direction it goes.

[...]

The Trump campaign spent the past week beating the drums of war, blasting critics and defending a hard-line approach to Iran. Then on Wednesday, when the president yanked back on his threats, the aides rushed to praise his softer approach and frame him as an agent of peace.

“You never know what tomorrow will bring,” said a campaign aide.

Politico

Which is fine for an adventure, but disastrous for world stability.

“As Commander-in-Chief, Pres. Trump just eliminated terrorist Qassem Soleimani,” the campaign claimed in a text. “ANOTHER dead terrorist,” it touted an email.

“America is sending a clear message to bloodthirsty savages around the world: You don’t stand a chance against the righteous might of the United States military,” it boasted in a tweet.

Jesus F Christ.

On Friday, just after the strike on Soleimani, the campaign pushed a message of strength. “Through his bold leadership and decisive action, President Trump once again delivered a lesson for our enemies — if you mess with America, you will be held accountable,” according to RNC talking points obtained by POLITICO.

On Wednesday, when Trump sought to de-escalate the crisis with Iran in a White House address with sanctions rather than military retaliation, the campaign pushed a message of peace.

[...]

Trump filed for reelection on Inauguration Day — earlier than any incumbent presidential candidate in modern history — allowing him to immediately raise money, hire staff and air TV ads.

I guess that will become the new norm.

“Since the end of the campaign, we never really shut down the last campaign,” said a senior campaign official. “We’re on offense everywhere and we’re very very excited about that.”

Well, it's certainly true that they're offensive.

Trump will feature both Iran and impeachment prominently in coming rallies, which will occur more frequently in 2020. He already has three scheduled in Ohio, Wisconsin and New Jersey and is expected to headline more in the coming weeks.

But, he says, the Dems' baseless impeachment is keeping him from America's business.

Trump’s campaign and the RNC spent more than $11 million on impeachment-related ads since the inquiry began on Sept. 24, according to the RNC. They have engaged in calls, texts and hundreds of Facebook ads featuring a personalized “Impeachment Defense Membership Card” and “Impeachment Polls,” even selling new apparel at Trump’s online store.

[...]

The campaign purchased hundreds of ads on Facebook that tout Trump’s leadership as commander-in-chief and ask people to fill out a military survey that directs them to the campaign website. The ads are being used both to raise small-dollar donations for the reelection effort and collect information about potential voters.

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"It takes only a bit of knowledge of history to realize how dangerous it is to think that the people who run the country know what they are doing." -- Howard Zinn

"It’s not about not having something to hide; it’s about having something to lose. What we lose when we’re under observation is our humanity...Rights are inherent to our nature, they’re not granted by governments, they’re guaranteed by governments. They’re protected by governments." -- Edward Snowden

"Terrorism is the willingness to kill large numbers of people for some presumably good cause.” -- Howard Zinn

"What we have is a foreign policy which is essentially a marketing strategy for selling weapons." -- Jill Stein

"We should always remember that the danger to societies from security services is not that they will spontaneously decide to embrace [Stasi style] mustache twirling and jackboots to bear us bodily into dark places, but that the slowly shifting foundation of policy will make it such that mustaches and jackboots are discovered to prove an operational advantage toward a necessary purpose.” ~ Edward Snowden

"America: just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable." ~ Hunter S. Thompson

"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws." ~ Mayer Rothschild

"News is what somebody does not want you to print. All the rest is advertising." ~ LACUNA

"What matters in journalism isn't politics, which are as universal and inescapable as breathing. What matters -- along with a fundamentally adversarial attitude toward government, without which "journalism" is simply public relations -- is integrity, transparency, evidence, coherence, and principle. These are the principles on which we should evaluate the quality of journalism, and their absence is why some journalists are so desperate to get you to focus on something else." ~ Barry Eisler

"There is no inverse relationship between freedom and security. Less of one does not lead to more of the other. People with no rights are not safe from terrorist attack." ~ Molly Ivins

"The brain of our species is, as we know, made up largely of potassium, phosphorus, propaganda, and politics, with the result that how not to understand what should be clearer is becoming easier and easier for all of us." ~ James Thurber

"The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher plane....When you hold up your arm and swear to uphold the Constitution, you don’t say, 'Except in wartime.'" -- George McGovern

"I’ll believe that corporations are people when Texas executes one." ~ Bill Moyers

"When did hope become a political dynamic? Hope is right below wishful thinking and right above performing a rain dance on the scale of activity." ~ Rich Hall

Life, as Explained in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.