Monday, October 9, 2023

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programs...


... To bring you Professor Hillary Clinton's clarion call for an official mass deprogramming of MAGA cultists.

What she would actually RE-program these Trump voters into being or thinking is carefully left unsaid.  But it's easy to imagine them as characters in "A Clockwork Orange" remake. Hillary would open up their eyes with her magical steel retractors, forcing them to watch endless televised Trump rallies interspersed with even more disgusting images of blood and gore. The deplorable lumpens would then find themselves vomitng every time they accidentally caught a glimpse of Trump on TV. The only way to settle their stomachs would be to make a beeline for the voting booth to re-elect the kindly grandpa similacrum known as Joe Biden.

 Third party candidates? Don't even ask. The alternatives to neoliberal capitalism, such as universal healthcare, debt-free education, an end to wars of aggression, stable housing and nutrition must also be surgically cleansed from the brains of every disaffected subject.

If Hillary had chosen to be honest in this interview, she would have proclaimed that it takes a cult to fight a cult. Actually, it takes the parent cult of the Duopoly to expel the bastard child cult. Trump is essentially the spawn of a rampantly promiscuous capitalism; a spawn too tastelessly open about the fascist tendencies long an integral part of the U.S. hegemon.

 Simply think, on this Indigenous People's Day of all days, of the European settler-colonists who began exterminating native populations and enslaving African people whole centuries before sanctimoniously declaring that "all men are created equal."

 Only when the unfortunate Trump byproduct is expelled, Clinton confides to CNN pundit Christiane Amanpour, can the desired make-up session between the bickering Democrats and Republicans finally go full steam ahead for the ultimate and perpetual orgiastic pleasure of the lords and ladies of Capital. Of course Hillary didn't put it that way. The oligarchic orgasm is now defined as "democracy."

 Like many a romantic before her, Hillary still labors under the delusion that it was bipartisanship and not the New Deal and the Great Society social programs that made America, America. 

Listening closely to this interview, you find that Clinton initially only singles out the elected MAGA Republicans of Congress as the insane actors in dire need of her mental cleansing. But then she swiftly pivots to the mass of powerless voters as also worthy of treatment in her asylum.  These voters, according to Clinton, were attracted to Trump by virtue of such pre-existing maladies as xenophobia, misogyny and racism. The false hope he gave to many of them, even previous Obama voters, for relief of their pre-existing economic precarity - has no cure in her neoliberal playbook. Other than shock therapy, maybe.

The fact that she herself had countered Trump's fake populist appeal by lecturing to the voters in 2016, rather than  meeting them where they lived, both geographically and existentially, seems not to have dawned upon her.

This glaring omission naturally segues to the next concerned query by  Amampour : what about those awful third party challengers? Aren't you afraid? She thus hastily absolves Hillary from examining or reprogramming her own brain, to ignore that her own lack of personal charm and political skills were  prime reasons for her defeat by Trump. It was, of course, also the fault of the Green Party's Jill Stein. 

Hillary imagines, therefore, that votes will also be "stolen" from Joe Biden - by some of the very same deplorables who lack the intellectual heft to dive deep into all his alleged accomplishments.

But just in case that kind of shaming won't work on the hordes of thick-headed lumpen, she ends the segment in hoping they still have enough of a vestigial fear center left in their rotting brains to at least stagger to the polls in favor of her own her preferred master-cult.

16 comments:

Valerie said...

I think Hillary's mask has now been fully removed revealing the truly vile woman she is. I try to do my duty as a citizen and vote but I could never bring myself to vote for Hillary. Consequently, I sat out the Hillary/Trump election. So glad I did. Hill really thinks she is an untouchable. I am so glad she didn't become president and I think it is significant that Obama hated her. Obama might have been an unfeeling shark but Hillary is a piranha.

Boy, the Democrats really have nothing to offer except fear of Trump and those who support him. They have no ability to self-reflect and realise how alienating they and their policies have increasingly become. They have turned into such bullies with no ability to even hide their disgust for anyone who doesn't agree with them.

I am reading Kai Bird's book, The Outlier, about Jimmy Carter. What a contrast in governing! Jimmy Carter kept so close to his roots and his belief in democracy - a democracy he was deeply committed to. Fast forward to Clinton and Obama and the rot that has taken root in the Democratic Party.

It is not that the Republicans are any better but they have never tried to convince people that they were anything other than selfish bullies working for the Haves. The Democrats are just dishonest hypocrites. What is funny, is they keep pulling out the tripe about how Trump supporters are working against their own interests. So many of my Democratic friends have worked their entire lives and yet have insecure futures. I reckon most of those voting Democratic are voting against their own interests.

Mark Thomason said...

Even she would know that "reprogramming" anybody else for anything else would be un-Woke and basically can't be said.

She is too self righteous to see that any rule applies to herself. That is of course why she lost in 2016, even to Trump, maybe the only politician in America who could have blown that election.

"[T]he Democrats really have nothing to offer except fear of Trump and those who support him," and they like it that way. It is their excuse to be self indulgent. It is the greatest find of bad politicians since the Red Scare, and used exactly the same way. Someone like Hillary dates back far enough that she knows that, it is calculated and deliberate.

VLT said...

@MT,

I had to smile when you wrote, " . . . maybe the only politician in America who could have blown that election."

It is so true! I think many of the people who voted for Trump in 2016, did so because Hillary was such a horrible candidate. The taking $675,000 for three speeches from Goldman Sachs and the telling corporations on the quiet that they had nothing to worry about with the heinous Trans Pacific Partnership while campaigning against it. She was just so obviously on the take and couldn't be trusted. On the whole, during that campaign, Trump didn't come across all that well to many folk. I expect another Democrat would have won that election - Bernie for sure, as many Trump voters were looking for a non-Establishment candidate.

Mark Thomason said...

VLT -- Yes, my thoughts exactly.

However, the lesson taken from those events by Democrats has been to double down on all things like Hillary.

annenigma said...

I remember speaking with a pro-Hillary friend back in the day, sharing with her the primary reasons I just couldn't vote for Hillary. Admittedly, they were intuitive and personal, not politically based.

#1 - I felt that Hillary was too conniving. In fact so deeply and disturbingly conniving that I distrusted her viscerally with every fiber of my being.

#2 - Hillary seemed too obsessed with politics to the exclusion of outside activities and hobbies. That suggested to me an imbalanced personality, someone single-mindedly focused on ruthlessly achieving her one lifelong ambition to become the 1st female President.

Little did we know the effects of Hillary's powerful ego defense mechanisms after her crushing and embarrassing loss to an 'orange buffoon' unanimously opposed by the entire learned, esteemed establishment.

Hillary coped by taking the reins and leading us into a 7 year national nightmare beginning with her Russiagate hoax of which she was instigator and architect. She's still proudly riding high on the ongoing lawfare that she dishonestly initiated with her bought and paid for Trump Dossier, just the first of her many bogus claims. Those then led to millions being infected with TDS hate and fear, yet she's suffered no consequences for her treachery.

Hillary is responsible for undermining the foundations of democracy by engendering distrust, fear, political upheaval, and pitting friends vs friends and families vs families as a result of her delusional fixations on Putin and Trump. She's a study in psychopathology.

But she's not done. She's already been playing her Putin 2024 Election Inference card and now blaming wars on men! As if women like herself and Madeline Albright and Samantha Powers and Victoria Nuland and Liz Cheney and Diane Feinstein would all bring us peace because of their chromosomes - and providing such good examples.

annenigma said...

When Hillary said "formal" deprogramming, the word she was probably looking for was "forced".

And when is she going to suggest MAGAs sew something onto their clothes? That would be so Hitllary!

VLT said...

I just got finished listening to Glenn Greenwald's podcast. The powers that be in the West are really going after Twitter in a big way for not doing enough to censor "Russian Propaganda." I have a friend, a lawyer - someone I always thought of as intelligent - and she keeps saying in response to every point I make against the war in Ukraine that I am repeating "Russian Propaganda" - even though it is historically correct and can be proven. I just thought she had been listening to too much Rachel Maddow but now I am thinking this is more wide-spread than I realised. This silencing of dissent is going to such extremes – far further than I ever thought it could. I heard Matt Taibbi talking about how he and other journalists are taking screen shots of everything that is evidence outside the prevailing narrative - or anything that is worth noting - because it is disappearing off the Internet. I noticed this myself but just put it down to my shabby computer skills and the overcrowding of irrelevant information on the Web. Some days I feel like Alice in Wonderland.

The West seems so desperate - and yet so blatant in its anti-democratic message. Will Hillary be copied? Is her horrible statement just a test balloon? Will this become part of the evolving narrative of the Democratic Party? I find this all so disturbing.

annenigma said...

@VLT

Caitlin Johnstone, whom I recommend following, posts her writings in several places (Blog, X, etc.) as insurance that it won't disappear entirely. None of it is behind a paywall (unlike Taibbi on Substack), plus she gives permission to use any and all of her writings freely without any restrictions. She's an Aussie who's married to an American. She's astute and clearly an enlightened person overall.

I can't praise X/Twitter enough for providing a platform and network for citizen journalists and others from all over the world to exchange news and commentary immediately from the ground level, unfiltered by media servants of imperial oligarchs.

I get where the hatred for Musk and X is coming from and why. I can think of no greater threat to the British-American Empire than an open-minded and informed citizenry who are connected and sharing information unfiltered in real time with people everywhere. Tragically, there's so much going on which affects us directly or indirectly but our media just won't cover it.

In addition to following independent journalists and experts in various fields on X, I recommend following the posts of politicians from both sides of the aisle and in between, when/if there are any. By going to the source directly, you discover just how horribly the media manipulates and divides us by (1) not telling us the truth (2) telling us half-truths, and (3) simply lying by omission of key elements. The last seems to be their favorite poison but they usually use all 3 in various doses.

Our freedoms are a threat to Empire, but it's our 1st Amendment (1A) that is most dangerous and at risk. The fact is, if 1A is sufficiently controlled, going in the right (propaganda) direction, 2A isn't even a worry. In fact, a violent gun culture and population that worships the military is necessary to maintain the business of Empire - war. The last thing they want is a peace-loving people demanding real diplomacy instead of the usual gunboat diplomacy or being able to start wars without the slightest protest.

I strongly believe our best defense against loss of our 1A rights - which is our soft underbelly - is to resist fear and to help others do the same. Fear causes people to willingly surrender their freedoms in exchange for security, playing directly into the hands of authoritarians. Take Hillary Clinton, please. She's a professional authoritarian who's made a second career out of instilling fear. First Putin, then Trump, now MAGA. Who's next? Independents? I nominate her to be Queen of Empire.

We'd be naive not to think that the Blob (IC) isn't already seeding hate speech on X to use it as pretext to shut it down. Elon did come up with an innovative feature on X that should help stave off their attempts. It's called Community Notes where qualified members can submit notes to append to the post citing sources that challenge or clarify circumstances around the alleged falsehood, so the post stays visible instead of being censored out of existence. Some exceptions apply.

Personally, if it wasn't for the many trusted sources I've found on X, I wouldn't be half as informed about what's really going on in our country and in the world. If I sound like I'm promoting X, I am. It's an important WMI, Weapon of Mass Instruction, to preserve, protect, and defend our 1st Amendment rights from destruction. Use it or lose it I'm afraid.

'The pen is mightier than the sword.'

VLT said...

@ Annenigma

I read Caitlin Johnstone regularly and agree with you about Matt Taibbi hiding his writing behind a paywall. Apparently, he is making boatloads of money - far more than he made at Rolling Stone. I know Chris Hedges is also on Substack but he publishes all the same writing on Sheerpost as well. Same with other good writers. Consortium News seems to catch a fair bit of traffic from dual postings as well. Considering our critical times, it doesn't reflect well on Taibbi IMHO - even though I do catch interviews with him on other sources.

annenigma said...

OMG, I think Hillary deprogrammed RFK, Jr!

RFK Jr. just ditched Dennis Kucinich, staunch advocate for Palestinian rights, as his campaign manager (or vice versa) and replaced him with his daughter-in-law, a former CIA officer. (Once CIA, always CIA).

I guess that makes him a member of the CIA Democrats club even if he's playing at being an independent. At least we've got that connection out in the open now.

I also saw a video today of RFK fearmongering about China being an existential threat and able to blackmail us with energy if we don't help Israel with +++weapons and +++$upport and something about Iran and Venezuela, blah blah.

He sounds like the CIA re-programmed him after Hillary got him formally deprogrammed. Perhaps now he'll gain traction with Dem Party bosses, maybe even appeal to more Republicans resulting from his sabre-rattling against their favorite villain, China. But getting cozy with the CIA with their expertise in elections? Priceless.

Oh ya, he's definitely a player.





VLT said...

Well, I certainly won't be voting for RFK Jr anymore! Like Hillary, the mask has fallen away.

There were a fair bit of Kennedy's positions I didn't agree with but I won't ever vote for a war monger or anyone whose rhetoric stirs up problems with China. For me, the fact that Dennis Kucinich backed Kennedy gave RFK Jr some credibility. I reckon Kucinich knows the ins and outs of who people really are in Washington and if he believed RFK was sincere - well, birds of a feather and all that. Now that Kucinich has left the Kennedy campaign, that stamp of approval is not longer there.

I always had problems with Kennedy's stand on Israel - in fact, it was my biggest reservation. I figured he couldn't alienate everyone and according to Mearsheimer, Israeli lobby support is essential for any candidate to win the presidential election. Now that the Israeli Hamas conflict is in full gear, I can see the ugliness of Kennedy's position which he underplayed at the beginning. I reckon it was Kucinich who walked.

@Annenigma

I can't find any video on the RFK Jr going talking about China. And the NYT has a paywall. They won't even let me log on as a guest any more.

annenigma said...

@VLT

Try copy/pasting this:

https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1712962245712334937

I've also seen the same video embedded in someone else's tweet (Kim Iversen?) that was of even better quality and a bit longer I think, but I can't locate it right now. It seems to have been recorded on a smartphone and not put out by his campaign.

I watched Glenn Greenwald interview him on System Update (Rumble) awhile back before the massacres started, and when it came to the topic of Israel there was an obvious change in tone. Instead of continuing to answer Glenn in a calm, thoughtful, measured manner, he suddenly switched gears like he was emotionally triggered. He then went on without pause with a series of talking points about Israel being the only democracy in the area and that it that treats its neighbors better than anyone else in the Middle East, especially gays who are hung from cherry pickers, yada yada yada. Parts of the same speech in both videos.

Michael Tracey's video shows the same emotionally tinged response but also adds the odd statements about China owning Iran and Iran running Venezuela and they'll blackmail the entire world (meaning the American Empire) if we don't help Israel - which is our "aircraft carrier" floating in a sea surrounded by enemies! He unwittingly admits that our interest is selfish and has nothing to do with protecting Israeli citizens, just like our proxy war in Ukraine. Looks like we've got ourselves a new proxy war against ChIran and that RFK thinks war is the only, if not the final solution, not diplomacy and negotiations.

RFK evinces a smoldering fanaticism when it comes to the Middle East and I'd hate to see the flames behind it. Does the fact that his father's convicted killer, Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian, have anything to do with it? While he's said that he's spoken to Sirhan personally and does not believe he pulled the trigger, it's possible that personal tragedy could still be messing with his mind along with the effects of years of heroin addiction and God knows what else. Religion?

While he's good on many issues, the absolute key deciding factor for me is the degree of a candidate's APPETITE for war. RFKJr is not just hungry, it appears to me that he's salivating and at times foaming at the mouth for it. I'm glad he's cleared that up for me. Warmonger.

p.s. Ditto for me with NYT paywall. Iron curtain!

annenigma said...

@VLT

The 'Israel is an (our?) aircraft carrier' is from the other longer video that I can't locate right now. I'll let you know if I do.

annenigma said...

@VLT

I finally found the 'Israel is our aircraft carrier' and 'our beachhead' speech. It's from an official RFK campaign event, unlike Michael Tracey's video, and is about 9 minutes long.

BULLSHIT ALERT - He begins his speech by stating "I'm anti-war. Everyone's anti-war."

I don't believe you have to be registered or a paid subscriber (which I'm not) to view Xs. Didn't use to.

https://x.com/John-Dennis/status/1712659893146638?s=20

Valerie said...

@Annenigma

Thanks for your effort in trying to match me up with this video but Twitter says this page doesn't exist. I'm really terrible with Twitter - social media in general. I tried to look up John Dennis - Is this the GOP guy? If so, I looked on his Tweets and couldn't find the RFK one.
It's OK - I get the idea from what you wrote that the REAL RFK Jr has emerged and I don't like him.

Valerie said...

I'm on the Kennedy 24 mailing list. Interesting that I only got the e-mail announcing that Dennis Kucinich is leaving the campaign today. Kucinich has the reputation of being a man of integrity. His stamp of approval meant that Kennedy was sincere and could be trusted. With all the manipulative mudslinging and dirty tricks of the Democratic Party keeping all challengers out of the race, I trusted Kennedy - clearly mistakenly.