The Trump Paradox

Donald J. Trump not only is the most divisive political figure of my lifetime, he is also the most paradoxical. A billionaire populist is, after all, about as clear an oxymoron as can be found. Champions of the common people aren’t often born with silver spoons in their mouths. The upper crust is also normally a lot more articulate than Trump is.

The ouster of wild card General Mike Flynn is an ominous sign to those of us who are concerned about Trump being co-opted by the establishment that despises him. Flynn’s “crime” was evidently not telling the full truth to neocon Vice President Mike Pence, who more and more resembles Trump’s version of LBJ.

Flynn appears to want peace with Russia, something no one in the corrupt establishment wants. His son also just happens to be really awake politically. His on- target tweets about Pizzagate in particular seem to have fueled the real opposition to his father. In my view, Flynn was one of Trump’s few palatable choices so far for his cabinet. The two leading contenders, according to the dinosaur media, to replace him are Admiral Robert Harward, said to be chicken hawk extraordinaire Lindsay Graham’s top choice, and tainted insider David Petraeus.

Surrounded by neocon insiders like Reince Priebus and his assistant chief of staff Katie Walsh, who was a #nevertrumper and supposedly had the audacity to chew out Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner recently, it’s going to be difficult for Trump to get anything done that isn’t elite-approved. If Jeff Sessions can actually deport large numbers of illegal immigrants and remains strong on trade, then populists can hold their noses over his less than scintillating record on civil liberties.

While seemingly filling up the swamp with more alligators instead of draining it, Trump does continue to say things that no president has ever said. Watching his press conference today was surrealistic; I never thought I’d see a president treat the laughable mainstream reporters with the scorn and disrespect they so richly deserve. The more then keep trying to beat the drums for the “Russian hacking” scenario, the more their putrid approval ratings sink with the public. If Trump does nothing else, at least he has exposed these shills for the state for what they are.

I keep wondering at Trump’s naivete. Why would he continue to be loyal to chief of state Priebus (not to mention his assistant, Trump hater Katie Walsh), instead of replacing him with someone like Roger Stone? I can’t believe he hasn’t named Stone to any position. I thought maybe he’d reach out to conservative mavericks like Rand Paul or Pat Buchanan. Or even reach across the aisle to populist Democrats like Cynthia McKinney or Dennis Kucinich. Just this week, Kucinich launched a blistering attack on the intelligence community that is clearly trying to reignite the cold war, and came off sounding much more like a Trump supporter than many of those he has named to his cabinet.

I know personally that Cynthia McKinney would probably have taken the VP spot on Trump’s ticket. I actually suggested this to a high ranking official in Trump’s campaign, but it was quickly shot down without any further thought. Just imagine how revolutionary such a presidential ticket would have been. Instantly, the “racist” and “sexist” labels would have lost all their luster.

Trump has still been in office less than a month. Just getting America out of the odious Trans Pacific Partnership and signing the executive order banning foreign lobbying were revolutionary strikes against the corrupt establishment. If he launches a full audit of the Fed, rebuilds our embarrassing infrastructure, and actually allows Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to chair a commission that will undoubtedly expose the shameful links between autism and vaccines, then he will have done more good already than any president since John F. Kennedy.

Trump’s evident attempt to appease the neocon Republicans isn’t going to work. John McCainiac, Lindsay Graham and Paul Ryan continue to beat the drums for World War III. To his credit, Trump called them out on Twitter over this very issue. But he still continues to surround himself with too many insiders that appeal to these warmongering disciples of Ayn Rand. Trump has never been a conservative, and he isn’t playing a very believable one so far. His hot-button issues were all populist inspired, and he will be largely remembered by how true he remains to those pledges.

The hatred and vitriol directed at Donald Trump is unprecedented, and shows no signs of diminishing. Deluded filmmaker Michael Moore is now seriously proposing that Trump be removed from office and replaced with Hillary Clinton! The establishment “left” has been exposed as thoroughly as the mainstream media has. They are becoming more unhinged by the day, and don’t even attempt to formulate their never ceasing “protests” beyond calling Trump the same old tired names.

In fact, watching uncensored videos of these social justice warriors, one comes away with the inescapable impression that they cannot be reasoned with. As someone who read and was inspired by the great books The Myth of Mental Illness and The Manufacture of Madness, written by psychiatry’s greatest iconoclast Thomas Szasz, I always hesitate in calling someone crazy. However, after viewing far too many of these disturbing “protest” videos, I think it can be safely said that the most extreme of these social justice warriors are bat shit insane, if anyone is.

So Trump remains a paradox to me. One minute, he is lashing out courageously at the mainstream media and corrupt politicians in both parties. In the next, he seems to be listening to the advice of neocon advisers regarding more military intervention in far-flung lands. He needs to return constantly to the “America First” refrain that appealed to many of us. He teases us with comments about all the trillions we’ve wasted on senseless wars, but then seems to be gearing up for a battle with Iran.

It ought to be obvious to everyone by now just how entrenched the corruption at the top of our country is. Here we have a supremely flawed individual, who seems to be trying to reform just a few parts of the monumental mess in Washington, and he is being figuratively assassinated daily. If many in the government, big business and Hollywood get their way, this assassination is likely to become a literal one. Threats to assassinate Trump have become so common that they don’t even raise eyebrows at this point.

Half of this country is probably awake now, at least to some extent. And so we sit and watch our unlikely heroic One Percenter with the bad hairdo, to see if he becomes co- opted like everyone else, or if he actually battles the creatures in the swamp (including most of those in his cabinet), and succeeds in making this country just a little better.

 

 

 

 

Trump- Populist or Plutocrat?

The inauguration of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States ushered in a public polarization that has never been seen before in our history. The protests, and even cries for impeachment, are just as unprecedented. The “honeymoon” period every previous president enjoyed clearly does not apply to Donald Trump.

Trump has been an incredibly active chief executive thus far. A few of his Executive Orders have been outstanding; the one withdrawing the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership and the one banning officials from becoming lobbyists for foreign interests in particular. He vowed to launch a full-fledged investigation into voter fraud. And in his only really admirable appointment, he tapped Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to head a commission to investigate the links between vaccines and autism.

As always, Trump has said some awful things, too. He inexplicably sprang to Barack Obama’s defense and called Chelsea Manning an “ungrateful traitor” for criticizing the former president. He signed an Executive Order that senselessly eliminated a proposed cut in FHA insurance for lower income home owners. His appointments have too often been typical “conservative” types, presumably to appease a Republican establishment that still remains uneasy about him. It’s still  unclear just what his replacement for Obamacare will entail, and if it will do anything to stop the dramatically rising cost of health care.

The hatred and vitriol directed at Trump is something no other public figure has ever experienced, outside of perhaps Adolph Hitler. India Knight, a “respectable” mainstream British journalist, tweeted out numerous anti-Trump comments, including “The assassination is taking such a long time.” Magnatone CEO Ted Kornblum wrote on Twitter, “Rest easy, people, it’ll only take 100 days till Trump gets a bullet in the head.” Madonna spoke of burning down the White House. Actress Ashley Judd inferred that Trump fantasizes about his own daughter. And a Saturday Night Live writer joked that ten year old Barron Trump was going to be America’s first home-school shooter. Another “comedy” show is in the works, in which the star will be an adult portraying young Barron.

This open discussion of assassinating a sitting president is something that would never have been tolerated in the past. I have noted before that I firmly believe a substantial portion of Americans would support the assassination of Trump. What passes for the “left” today has been exposed in all its glory in the post-election aftermath. The hysterical weeping, screaming, and threats of violence, on the part of the anti-Trump contingent, is embarrassing, and would be ridiculed by a sane society. If this election demonstrated anything, it demonstrated that we are not a sane society.

The anger and the hatred is ostensibly because the object of their scorn is a “hater,” a “racist,” a “sexist” and “intolerant” of others. Even if the most absurd charges against Trump were true, he could never hope to be as hateful and intolerant as these inflexible “protesters” are. What exactly are they protesting? Not even Hillary Clinton disputes the outcome of the election. They are exhibiting classic poor sportsmanship, and simply will not accept the fact their candidate lost. Just imagine how protesters against Barack Obama’s election would have been treated, in the media and by the police, if they’d been so aggressive and threatening in their behavior.

It’s difficult for me to imagine that the populist hero so many of us have longed for would turn out to be this egotistical billionaire turned reality television star. Trump certainly doesn’t look or sound the part. He still forms his sentences in a frustratingly inarticulate way, and takes to social media as recklessly as a twelve year old. His immature responses to so many of the countless attacks on him, especially from the entertainment world, don’t exactly seem statesman-like. It’s difficult to imagine a better example of not judging a book by its cover.

But Donald Trump is the first major party presidential candidate in my lifetime to talk about most of the forbidden topics, the ones that control the fortunes of every average citizen. He’s talked about auditing the Fed. He actually wants to place the interests of Americans first. He’s spoken the truth about the sorry state of our infrastructure. He’s condemned the Republican warmongers John McCainiac and Lindsay Graham for “always trying to start World War Three.”

Trump may be the first genuine “conspiracy theorist” to live in the White House. Laughably, the establishment has finally found a conspiracy theory of their own to promulgate, to explain his election. After decades of demands for peace and detente with the Soviet Union, even at the height of their domination over great parts of the world, they have charged that Vladimir Putin’s Russia somehow tipped the scales by “hacking” the 2016 presidential election. This word “hacking” just keeps being robotically chanted by Trump opponents, without any further thought. Exactly what did “the Russians” do to “hack” the election? This is truly one conspiracy theory that is utterly, completely ridiculous.

The court historians tend to love the most active, hands-on presidents. As I hope to show in Hidden History 2 down the road, the most powerful presidents have actually been the worst ones, because they invariably wielded that power against the great majority of the citizens. If he keeps all his campaign promises, Donald Trump could very well be the first aggressive president whose actions conflict with the desires of the elite leaders behind the scenes.

Even if he turns out to be just another garden-variety neocon, Donald Trump’s election has exposed the fraudulent nature of the mainstream media, and the hypocritical inflexibility of those who call themselves “liberals” today. Most Americans know where the “fake news” is coming from. No alternative outlet could hope to compete with the nonsense CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and every other mainstream organ peddles on a regular basis.

I believe that, if Donald Trump had a different personality, he would not be so despised by so many. He simply is what he is; a vain, often juvenile seventy year old man who is thoroughly used to getting his way. He doesn’t have a lot of tact, and can’t seem to filter his views for public consumption. For many people, that kind of honesty is refreshing in a politician. His most attractive trait remains the incomprehensible amount of hatred he elicits from every pillar of the establishment.

After only a few weeks at the helm, it’s been a mixed bag, but I’m still generally impressed with Trump. Even if most of his appointments don’t seem to be outsiders, those inside the swamp are howling at him louder than ever. Only time will tell if he goes the way of Richard Nixon or the way of Huey Long.