What is truly appalling and scary: while the staged Butler event required relatively few people to prepare and keep secret, The WHCD staged assassination attempt required a boatload of collaborators, which shows that staging a false flag operation by trump’s regime is now an easy feat
As for the “assassin”: a black/mixed race man who not only survived but seemed unharmed after allegedly carrying a cache of weapons aimed at the defenseless guests. Really.
A giddy, happy bunch of highest regime operators surrounding their leader in a press conference not even an hour after? Because that’s what you look and act like after someone just tried to kill you.
A perfect delivery of one of the many reasons why this was staged: so he can force the judge who halted the WH construction to be overruled.
Not to mention completely changing the subject of a lost and disastrous war
Plenty of government in the US *is* orchestrated, and “media” doesn’t address it well: prices, access to healthcare and education, low wages, policy on civil rights, the environment, military action, data mining, prediction markets, denial of prenatal care, on and on. The US gov has been captured by business and extreme ideologues. They *do* have a plan to keep poor people poor and make rich people richer. There is a plan to collect people’s information and make money from it. There’s a plan to suppress all forms of energy but oil. Need I go on?
Making Americans question their own eyes is part of the plan. “We’re protecting women” by killing them if their pregnancy goes south. “We’re creating the Golden Age of America”by creating historic memory holes in our institutions. “We’re ensuring the future of America” by building detention centers all over the country and deporting brown people.
The current gov has done such a good job of distracting us and suppressing info, we talk more about the people being oppressed than the ACTUAL OPPRESSORS. No wonder everyone behind that podium last night was smiling.
What's insane about this whole ballroom discourse is that literally ONE person in this country cares about having his ballroom, yet he's forcing his minions to pretend like it's the most urgent need the United States has ever experienced. Americans aren't clamoring for a secure place for the posh and powerful to pose in dresses that cost a small fortune and chit-chat and flaunt their wealth while remaining utterly disconnected to the needs of everyone else. "Let them eat cake" has never been more relevant.
We would survive just fine if we had competent people in government doing good work quietly, without state dinners and high-profile events. Let Hollywood do this self-congratulatory nonsense and just do your government jobs without fanfare. Maybe we'd have fewer attention whores wanting to be in government if that was the plan.
Not only his minions. but all the Republicans in Congress. They hopped right on the Sunday shows the very next day to talk about the great need for the ballroom.
Count me among those who believe the entire thing was staged. We have a madman using chaos as a weapon, to distract from various other things such as the impending pardon of Ghislaine Maxwell. Additionally, removing firearms from civilian hands would make their authoritarian agenda easier to move forward, wouldn't it?
We don't have a tool problem. We have a human heart problem that's being exacerbated by a self-serving malignant narcissist. It doesn't make sense to throw away our last ditch tool to set things right. If the nonviolent protests don't work and he refuses to accept the outcome of the midterm elections, what other options do we have? Stronger language? Bowing down and hoping to go unnoticed? Or doing what we must to remove these clowns from power?
Excellent Paul, thank you. The ballroom should not be built. May it be a symbol in the pushback to Trump and his way of dealing with violence by threatening more and protecting himself.
Thank you for this article. Excellent points are made. I believe Butler was staged. And the man in the bushes at the White House was staged too. Why does the media treat that like an assassination attempt?
Trump has destroyed trust in everything to such a great degree that I find myself among the "was it staged?" crowd, someplace I never, ever expected to be. Great post, loved this paragraph:
"Trumpism combines authoritarianism with institutional degradation, in which so many of the worthwhile things the state used to do — scientific research, environmental protection, support for libraries and schools and economic development, the provision of health insurance and food assistance — have been reduced or eliminated, and the most visible expression of government is a masked ICE agent smashing a car window while his colleagues pepper-spray anyone raising an objection."
In another time, your well constructed factual essay would have been construed as hyperbolic satire. Satire is clinically dead now. It will take a long time before it revives.
What's always struck me about that "iconic" photo op is the "Fight, fight, fight". That's not a phrase he commonly uses, if he uses it at all. He doesn't use it in his rallies. He doesn't end his formal (using the term loosely) speeches with it. He doesn't use it in his incredibly frequent social media posts.
So where did it come from, and who is he telling us to fight? (This, along with the Secret Service going against all their training to hoist him above their shoulders, is why I believe that photo op was staged. Couldn't tell you the logistics of the staging, because obviously two people are dead, but the whole photo scenario is very suspicious.)
Wake up, America. A psychopath was allowed into office and allowed to do whatever he wants, and none of this will end, even if and when he is out of office.
Great post today. Really encapsulates what it’s like.
& you know what's cheaper than the ballroom? The felon not going to the WHCA dinner ever again.
What is truly appalling and scary: while the staged Butler event required relatively few people to prepare and keep secret, The WHCD staged assassination attempt required a boatload of collaborators, which shows that staging a false flag operation by trump’s regime is now an easy feat
As for the “assassin”: a black/mixed race man who not only survived but seemed unharmed after allegedly carrying a cache of weapons aimed at the defenseless guests. Really.
A giddy, happy bunch of highest regime operators surrounding their leader in a press conference not even an hour after? Because that’s what you look and act like after someone just tried to kill you.
A perfect delivery of one of the many reasons why this was staged: so he can force the judge who halted the WH construction to be overruled.
Not to mention completely changing the subject of a lost and disastrous war
AND THE EPSTEIN FILES!
Plenty of government in the US *is* orchestrated, and “media” doesn’t address it well: prices, access to healthcare and education, low wages, policy on civil rights, the environment, military action, data mining, prediction markets, denial of prenatal care, on and on. The US gov has been captured by business and extreme ideologues. They *do* have a plan to keep poor people poor and make rich people richer. There is a plan to collect people’s information and make money from it. There’s a plan to suppress all forms of energy but oil. Need I go on?
Making Americans question their own eyes is part of the plan. “We’re protecting women” by killing them if their pregnancy goes south. “We’re creating the Golden Age of America”by creating historic memory holes in our institutions. “We’re ensuring the future of America” by building detention centers all over the country and deporting brown people.
The current gov has done such a good job of distracting us and suppressing info, we talk more about the people being oppressed than the ACTUAL OPPRESSORS. No wonder everyone behind that podium last night was smiling.
What's insane about this whole ballroom discourse is that literally ONE person in this country cares about having his ballroom, yet he's forcing his minions to pretend like it's the most urgent need the United States has ever experienced. Americans aren't clamoring for a secure place for the posh and powerful to pose in dresses that cost a small fortune and chit-chat and flaunt their wealth while remaining utterly disconnected to the needs of everyone else. "Let them eat cake" has never been more relevant.
We would survive just fine if we had competent people in government doing good work quietly, without state dinners and high-profile events. Let Hollywood do this self-congratulatory nonsense and just do your government jobs without fanfare. Maybe we'd have fewer attention whores wanting to be in government if that was the plan.
Not only his minions. but all the Republicans in Congress. They hopped right on the Sunday shows the very next day to talk about the great need for the ballroom.
Count me among those who believe the entire thing was staged. We have a madman using chaos as a weapon, to distract from various other things such as the impending pardon of Ghislaine Maxwell. Additionally, removing firearms from civilian hands would make their authoritarian agenda easier to move forward, wouldn't it?
We don't have a tool problem. We have a human heart problem that's being exacerbated by a self-serving malignant narcissist. It doesn't make sense to throw away our last ditch tool to set things right. If the nonviolent protests don't work and he refuses to accept the outcome of the midterm elections, what other options do we have? Stronger language? Bowing down and hoping to go unnoticed? Or doing what we must to remove these clowns from power?
"... but I’ve done a lot."
Yes, and none of it was good for anyone but you and your cronies.
That ballroom is literally the newest bright shining (gilt) object. Perhaps a replacement for young tender flesh?
Excellent Paul, thank you. The ballroom should not be built. May it be a symbol in the pushback to Trump and his way of dealing with violence by threatening more and protecting himself.
Thank you for this article. Excellent points are made. I believe Butler was staged. And the man in the bushes at the White House was staged too. Why does the media treat that like an assassination attempt?
Trump has destroyed trust in everything to such a great degree that I find myself among the "was it staged?" crowd, someplace I never, ever expected to be. Great post, loved this paragraph:
"Trumpism combines authoritarianism with institutional degradation, in which so many of the worthwhile things the state used to do — scientific research, environmental protection, support for libraries and schools and economic development, the provision of health insurance and food assistance — have been reduced or eliminated, and the most visible expression of government is a masked ICE agent smashing a car window while his colleagues pepper-spray anyone raising an objection."
In another time, your well constructed factual essay would have been construed as hyperbolic satire. Satire is clinically dead now. It will take a long time before it revives.
Franklin Graham already made that claim this time
What's always struck me about that "iconic" photo op is the "Fight, fight, fight". That's not a phrase he commonly uses, if he uses it at all. He doesn't use it in his rallies. He doesn't end his formal (using the term loosely) speeches with it. He doesn't use it in his incredibly frequent social media posts.
So where did it come from, and who is he telling us to fight? (This, along with the Secret Service going against all their training to hoist him above their shoulders, is why I believe that photo op was staged. Couldn't tell you the logistics of the staging, because obviously two people are dead, but the whole photo scenario is very suspicious.)
The caption under that photo *should* read: Stephen Miller uses his pregnant wife as a human shield as they flee the scene.
Wake up, America. A psychopath was allowed into office and allowed to do whatever he wants, and none of this will end, even if and when he is out of office.