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| Silverfiddle Rant! |
I am suffering a dysphoria. I don't know what is going on and I can't make logical sense of it. I can abide someone or something being good, bad, left, right, mean, ugly, whatever, but illogic drives me crazy.
Were intelligence agencies and federal law enforcement really spying on the Trump campaign? Did they really do this as a pretext to keep spies on the inside of his administration? Looks like.
Has our press really gone over the edge and into full-blown progressive propaganda? Ample evidence says so.
The entire transcript is out there for Trump's "fine people on both sides" comment, where he specifically excluded the racists and neo-nazis, yet the press continues blaring out the lie that he called racist white supremacists "fine people." What more can we do?
Is our society--independent of government--devolving into a self-policing totalitarianism? I think so.
Have the Silicon Valley World Controllers established a government-outsourced Ministry of Truth that can do what the government itself cannot: Silence US citizens? Yes indeed.
I have been saying for years our nation is heading down a very bad, dangerous road, and we're seeing it now. Putting people on notice, Maoist struggle sessions or auto-da-fé for the guilty, forcing people to repeat phrases from the Little Red Book, silencing, censoring, de-platforming, un-hosting, doxxing people, getting them fired from their jobs...
Lean Gulag
We are living the rudimentary beginnings of a Chinese-style social credit system, enforced not by a tyrannical government, but by tyrannical fellow citizens.
We are in an ugly place. Russian émigré Anna Khachiyan off-handedly called it "Lean Gulag." "Lean" being a business term for an operation like manufacturing without all the warehouses and heavy machinery, and I think she nailed it.
Nowadays, governments don't have to march people off to the gulags. Now, we gulag people in place, encircling, impoverishing and silencing them within an ever-shrinking space where you're still granted the "freedom to say two plus two make four," but no one hears you.
There is hope. Please tune in next Monday.
My humble (really, I don't know what I'm talking about) opinion:
ReplyDelete- Looks like intelligence agencies were monitoring the Trump '16 campaign, and continued to cast a weather eye on him thereafter. I don't have a problem with that, merely winning an election is no guarantee that you're not a criminal, the germans elected hitler, blah blah blah.
- Chomsky says the press was already there. I think Trump went further than previous administrations into propaganda territory. The frequency of easily-demonstrable lies was disorientating in a way that seemed new coming from America (though familiar from Russia and other regimes). The wider Press is still reacting to that step change, expect some over-shoot while they find an equilibrium; but they can't *not* respond to something like that.
- I'm not above using that as a cheap punchline, but I agree with you about what he did and didn't say. However, if we fixate on Trump's literal statement, we're in danger of overlooking that people do not take each other literally. I think it would have been easy for Trump to be less ambivalent towards white power, and it's entirely reasonable to demand that from a President.
- Most societies constrain their members one way or another. In America, it looks to this outsider like patriotism is the major tool used for this purpose. Vast swathes of political, religious, artistic etc. opinion are ruled unamerican and shunned. The only difference now is maybe people are using other tools as well. I'm not defending it, but I don't think it's new.
- a social media presence is not required to exercise freedom of speech.
- "lean gulag" is a pretty amusing phrase, although I worry that it might be offensive to people who spent time in a real gulag -- am I the PC-police for bringing that up? Social media has a long-standing problem with group outrage (Jon Ronson's book "so you've been publically shamed" is 6 years old now). Is it politically slanted? I can't fail to connect the phenomenon of public shaming with the likes of Trump openly telling their followers who to hate this week, just as much as with the draconian lefty orthodox-enforcers I imagine you had in mind when you brought it up.
- I agree, there is hope. But Trump's army of resistance fighters that he spent his last months in Office cultivating is going to do its best to dash it.
Jez, there's no changing your mind.
DeleteI'm not trying to.
But saying that it's OK for a sitting administration to attempt to derail an incoming administration of an opposing political view is .... I don't know I can't think of the one word that sums it up. Bullshit comes to mind.
My mind is not fixed, but the principle I'm applying here is that all levels of government should be subject to oversight including intelligence, quis custodiet ipsos custodes and all that. I rather hope & expect that the FBI have files on all major candidates, not just Trump.
DeleteSo they should have "vetting powers" over elections...like the Grand Ayatollah's of Iran....
DeleteIf you think that's what I meant, there's no point talking to you.
DeleteI'm trying to figure out the connection between "all levels of government should be subject to oversight," and "I rather hope & expect that the FBI have files on all major candidates."
DeleteThere are so many things wrong with that statement that it's hard to know where to start. Do you realize that candidates are not government? Do you know the difference between oversight, survelleince and sabotage? Are you aware that the FBI's mission is crime, not politics?
Candidates are auditioning for government, and I don't think it's outrageous that they be vetted before entering govt. I have a decent layman's understanding of those words, I'm not the guy to ask for legal distinctions. I vaguely understand the distinction between the FBI and the CIA. If there is some other agency more appropriate for vetting government, cool.
DeleteYou mean like voters and the press? LOL!
DeleteVetting, auditioning, oversight, sabotage, etc... All interesting words. But Jez in a way raises a reasonable question. Is there any case to be made for a candidate to be vetted/investigated and for that information to be made public if it can be shown that there are reasonable questions about US security? Or just to put the info out there and let the public decide?
DeleteI have no idea as to the answer, and I'm not sure I'd like any answer, but it does seem to me that we should know as much as possible about potential presidents, their foreign entanglements, debts, etc.
Now, I guess where we get that info is the crux of the matter. Some would say the press, which gets easily discredited, even if they are accurate. Some would say government, but that can get dicey politically.
It's a tough question.
Seems that according to SCOTUS, when it comes to asking for birth certificates, voters and opposition candidates lack legal "standing" to asks such impertinent questions.
DeleteMade public... like Hunter's laptop? Tell that to the new censors. LOL!
DeleteI guess that asking China Joe if Xi was in his pocket is out of line...
DeleteYou clowns still think we're living in a democracy, and not a global corporate oligarchic State.
DeleteJC, I am arguing that all candidates should be vetted. You seem to be very cross that Biden wasn't adequately vetted. We appear to be in something approaching agreement(?) so I'm at a loss as to what the attitude is for!
Delete...by the Government. How'd THAT work out last time?
DeleteThe problem with your Government vetting is that the results are held SECRET. SECRECY is not helpful to a Democracy. Especially when those secrets are then used to unconstitutionally hamstring the politicians (especially chief executive) they were supposed to vet.
Delete...and Hunters laptop should have been part of the PUBLIC vetting.
Delete...so your "Google" TECH anti-Vetting is BULLSH*T!
Delete...and your Government vetting is EVEN WORSE, cuz they'll "investigate" (spy to control) until the Sun goes Nova.
DeletePresent your suggestion.
DeleteFree speech. Let the voters decide. No censorship allowed. Government must stick to the Constitution and respect the 4th Amendment. If a private citizen sues a candidate for release of 4th Amendment documentation, hear the case. Voters have a right to know if the candidate Constitutionally qualifies for the office they are running for.
Delete...and Google (Alphabet Corp) has no monopoly on "truth".
Deletebtw - This is the BEST reason why Government shouldn't be given ANY role.
DeleteBrennan insists that Government MUST to "root out" Libertarians like Silverfiddle...
DeleteThe problem isn't small extremist sects... it's political partisans of ANY stripe with little oversight and cultures of secrecy.
DeleteHell, now they're taking Brennan's advice and vetting National Guardsmen. What's next, party membership as a requirement of service, political officers in the ranks, and separation into "penal" and "guard" battalions along the former Soviet model? F*ck YOUR paranoia!
DeleteIn G_d we TRUST!
DeleteLaen gulag. apt metaphor. The dude abides!
Delete...on the efficacy of our arbiters of truth
DeleteSorry, my work sometimes takes up my personal time.
DeleteOne word. COINTELPRO come to mind in response to Jez.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
Sure, also note that Hitler's own introduction to right-wing politics was via his work in the reconnaissance wing of the German army after WWI. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on them!
DeleteAre you claiming that the National Socialist Party was "right Wing" and not left?
DeleteSocialists are typically noted as left.
Brennan's rhetoric is extremely dangerous, and he's not the only one spouting it.
Deletecrikey, don't you get bored of that? Ultimately it's arbitrary, so why argue it? I refuse to believe that you aren't familiar with the traditional positioning of Nazi party on the far right.
DeleteThe party has "socialist" in the name, but Hitler was occasionally explicit about the difference as he understood it between his National Socialism, and socialism as Marx used the term:
"Socialism is the science of dealing with the common weal. Communism is not Socialism. Marxism is not Socialism. The Marxians have stolen the term and confused its meaning. I shall take Socialism away from the Socialists. Socialism is an ancient Aryan, Germanic institution. Our German ancestors held certain lands in common. They cultivated the idea of the common weal. Marxism has no right to disguise itself as socialism. Socialism, unlike Marxism, does not repudiate private property. Unlike Marxism, it involves no negation of personality, and unlike Marxism, it is patriotic. We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party. We chose to call ourselves the National Socialists. We are not internationalists. Our socialism is national. We demand the fulfilment of the just claims of the productive classes by the state on the basis of race solidarity. To us state and race are one."
on the other hand, he was not above talking out of both sides of his mouth:
"[Hitler] would attack the former ruling classes for their surrender of the nation, their class prejudices and feudal economic system to applause from the Left-Wingers, and then riddle those who were prepared to decry the true traditions of German greatness to the applause of the Right-Wingers." (Ernst_Hanfstaengl)
Why is it important?
The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire....
DeleteMuch like "People's Democratic Republic's".....
DeleteNo one says the United States of America *are* rather than *is*
DeleteJust drop the second "s" in States...
DeleteSF,
ReplyDeleteIs our society--independent of government--devolving into a self-policing totalitarianism? I think so.
I must agree.
And I, a peasant beyond the moat, am powerless to stop any of what's coming down the pike.
Just a word of caution.......
ReplyDeleteNEVER, under ANY circumstances, take the news from places like CNNat face value.
Every story is carefully crafted to solidify an agenda. what you read is wThanks
I see that Joe Biden's Presidential Motorcade has finally arrived at the Whitehouse...
ReplyDeleteOne bright spot...
DeleteWere intelligence agencies and federal law enforcement really spying on the Trump campaign?
ReplyDeleteNo. But it seems that everyone who can spell IC has assumed that they're an expert on the agencies. Was there counterintelligence investigations pre-dating the Trump campaign that carried over due to personnel becoming involved, absolutely. And rightly so.
The crusade for martyrdom and victimhood status has clouded and perverted the issues and travesties that should be rectified.
Yep, just gotta vet all the Trumpers o-u-t...
Delete,,,after all, whistleblower laws are only meant to protect to protect righteous dissenters.
DeleteAntigone, be BANISHED from sacred Thebes.
DeleteYou really believe that CI. It's not a question.
DeleteThe question is your narrow definition of spying that ignores recruiting foreign characters to try to wrest information from Trump operatives.
Or Comey himself interviewing Trump under false pretenses.
I follow the facts in evidence. Not the hyperbole, not the spin, and not what I want to be the case.
DeleteThe Establishment gave Trump the full Monty, and all poor Hillary got was a defensive briefing and a slow-rolled FISA Court application that ended up going nowhere.
DeleteI don't blame anyone for getting their back up. Its hard to slaughter a sacred cow when it is also pulling your gravy train.
Russia-Russia-Russia!
DeleteMoo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo!
SYRIA – A convoy of 40 trucks and armor vehicles said to have entered Syria from Iraq
DeleteA large US military convoy entered northeastern Syria on Thursday, Syrian state news agency SANA reports, citing sources on the ground.
According to the report, the convoy included some 40 trucks and armored vehicles and was backed from the air by helicopters.
It entered Syria from Iraq via the al-Waleed crossing to bring arms and logistical equipment to the bases in Hasakeh and Deir Ezzor provinces.
I've seen right-wingers starting to repost this article, as if it's supposed to be some sort of aha-gotcha moment, intimating that Biden is getting deeper into middle eastern war....or something.
DeleteIts a standard logistics convoy resupplying our bases in eastern Syria [which exist to protect oilfields....], as well as the incoming unit's material, replacing that f the outgoing unit.
Or was there some other reason you posted this?
Just Biden feeding the defense industrial complex and global interests with a little red American blood...
DeleteTaking after his predecessors footsteps then. Cool.
DeleteSurprised?
Nope, The NeoCon con has been alive since Scoop Jackson left the DNC and his staff of minions needed new "lieder". Russia's collapse created such an enemy void"...
DeleteIt's always fascinating to observe what gets ignored during any Administration, and then becomes en vogue to critique again....militarism, debt/fiscal restraint, civil liberties.....
DeleteRand Paul represents a return to Federalist Papers foreign policy. WWI and WWII corrupted everything. The Civil War destroyed America's sensible defense strategy (State Armies). Lend- lease opened the doors to corporate globalism (Reagan Thatcher) on an unprecedented scale. Whats old is new again.
Deleteps - There's fiscal restraint in zero-percent Fed interest rate deficit funding? Who knew? The move to bail out the banks in 2008 killed whatever remaained of fiscal restraint. What we have now is fiscal life- support that prefers to ignore ANY fiscal limitations.
DeleteIn the prestense that a Covid lockdown trillion dollar deficit economy is in any way sustainable. Blame PICKETTY liberalism for the current state of ecomin hyperrealism.
DeleteBelive me when I tell you that we're not going to get out of this fiscal mess by practicing "global aggregate efficincies" of totalitarianism along the neoliberal economic strain.
DeleteChina's global belt and road initiative increases China's aggregate efficiency, not the world as a whole.
DeleteNothing kills freedom like an increase in economic aggregate efficiencies.
DeleteTrading civil liberties like free speech for censorship to achieve improvements in State aggregate efficiencies is only the beginning...
DeleteNow go weld yourself inside your house with a Covid-proof door in Wuhan from the inside. If your internet fails, the STATE can simply claim a minor disruption to the aggregate efficiency caused your death. But hey, it'll just remind others s to how economically interdependent with the State we need to be.
DeleteWe survived the incompetent carter and the special interest only obama so we can survive obiden or obama lite. Cruella is a different story and that is the reason I wish joey good health for four years.
ReplyDeleteNow that we have the media declaring the administration is hands off who is going to monitor their doings. I doubt we will hear madam botox criticize the new leader.
special interest only = he's black.
DeleteOperation Keystone Cops has started, their first operation is to Stop those 2,000 Violent Trump Supporters from hurting Beijing Joe when he attempts to walk down the Street with his Walker to the White House, and hold Doctor Jill’s hand at the same time.
ReplyDeleteYou lefties will be defending jackass Joe and I'm going to sit here and LMAO as you try. Enjoy the SHOW, I sure will.
ReplyDeleteI will not enjoy watching the further destruction of America.
DeleteUnlike you, it seems.
I know that Gropin Joe has only been president for less than 8 hours, so it might be a little early for his first report card, but never the less, I’m going to HAMMER him for as long as he manages to stay in office.
ReplyDeleteJust like you IDIOTS did to MY President!
“Now, Biden has to scramble to come up with a plan from scratch.”
ReplyDeleteWHAT HAPPENED TO BEIJING JOE’S PLAN THAT HE’S BEEN TALKING ABOUT FOR THE PAST 3 MONTHS?
WHERE THE HELL IS HIS SECRET PLAN?
COULD IT BE HIDDEN IN HUNTERS COMPUTER?
ReplyDeleteThis “President “ is too busy trying to figure out who he is, and where he is What a absolute fruitcake we have as a leader..
Doctor Jill looked like she bought her dress at Walmart!
ReplyDeleteEveryone's telling us they've been censored 🤣
ReplyDeleteYou can't pay for eyeballs?
DeleteDon't need to. I was born with two eyeballs. While you all were imagining Trump was some 4 dimensional chess grandmaster I was pointing out the over $3 Billion in free media airtime Candidate Trump recieved after the Clinton's invited him to run for President actually paid for something. Now the media is your enemy? You don't even know where the front lines of your war are lol. The Clintons recruited Trump to destroy the Republican Party and remove it from relevance in American politics. Mission accomplished!
DeleteSo who's your White Knight now, Mitch McConnell in a turtleneck? lol!
DeleteFarmer: LOL! For GOOPers like TC, "it's turtles all the way down!"
DeleteAs predicted, and honestly assumed - Biden's “unity” pledge was nothing more than lip service. And nothing more. Period!
ReplyDeleteToday, White House spokesperson fielded several questions and pressured to answer if Biden is for Unity, will he intervene in the Trump impeachment.
Her answer - "he will leave the specifics up to Congress"
In other words, Beijing Biden is not a leader, and never was, nor could he be... He’s not strong enough or even smart enough to make a stand of his own. Is not being Presidential and doing what is best for the country. He’s doing what he’s told.
And he’s taking part of another impeachment trial, based on little to nothing, other then endless posturing and Democrats clamoring to hear their own sound byte this is nothing but
accusations with ZERO merit.... on and on and on...and the last thing this country needs, CERTAINLY NOT “ UNITY “. This Will solve nothing, prove nothing, and everyone knows the outcome is already set regardless - Congress and the Senate needs , and you really think thar this Dummy wants Unity? That’s Really Ridiculous.
Lost? Or more likely, robbed.
DeleteWhen the law stops working the vigilantes gotta take out the trash.
DeleteSo much for the "law and order" party. Biden's not going to intervene in a trial to hold Trump and his Congressional Republican sycophants to the 14th Amendment ban on insurrectionists holding office? Trump, Cruz, Hawley, Brooks, et. al. should be fitted for the weights to park them next to Osama bin Laden on the floor of the Indian Ocean.
DeleteWhatever, Madam Dervish LeFartge...
DeleteTC: Can you provide specific quotes from Hawley or Cruz that are incriminating? Can you cite the federal statute they violated and describe what action they took violated it?
DeleteWe'll wait...
What happened to Ducky?
ReplyDeleteI've been wondering that as well. I hope he's OK. He would probably like my Monday post.
DeleteReminds me that I really miss Franco...
Ducky has covid, Recovery is slow.
DeleteDucky,
DeleteI wish you well. Hope somebody's taking good care of you. Tune in Monday.
sorry to hear that Ducky. Take care.
DeleteHey duck, From my brother in law it can be miserable but just look how good you will feel afterwards
DeleteDuck,
DeleteHow long have you been battling COVID?
How'd Covid get past/thru that beak?
Delete...but just look how good you will feel afterwards.
DeleteThanks to tRump's free drugs? Is he still providing them? I didn't know he ever started. I thought he just lied about everyone getting the same treatment he received... gratis.
Dervish: Heard of Operation Warp Speed, dummy? People are receiving inoculations all over the US. Where the hell do you think they came from? Biden didn't pull them out of his ass.
DeleteEven prima donna bureaucrat Fauci says "We're certainly not starting from scratch, because there is activity going on in the distribution."
Stop wearing your butt cheeks for earmuffs.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/22/politics/joe-biden-coronavirus-plan-fauci-trump/index.html
Derv, From the press, falsi, democrats it would take 4 years to develop a vaccine and under the bureaucratic nightmare known as the democrats it would have. The warp speed and cooperation between government and private sped things up by three years.
DeleteNow the party of unification is showing their true beliefs. Pay college tuition for the elite college students, pay off state debt for those states who cannot run their state, impeach a president who is out of office because nancy wants it and vilify 70 million voters because they have different opinions. Pay hundreds of millions to the WHO and paris accord even though noted scholars say the paris accord will not change S--- and the WHO conspired with china to hide facts.
Lets make sure the impeachment fiasco doesn't result in another catastrophe like the last one where no one paid any attention to what was going on besides their hate.
Guess who pays for all of this, the taxpayer of which I assume you may be part of but that is an assumption.
Ok, Beijing Biden it’s day one! . So lets see just what has was SO important, and WRONG that was SO needed for he to accomplish? The Mask mandate? Oh year lets do that, I saw a lady in the street yesterday who was on 4 ½ feet from me as she WASN’T wearing a Mask! So I fixed her ass, I crossed the street!
ReplyDeleteAnd what was it that was so terrible that YOU needed to roll back on Trump policies?
You reverse Trump’s travel Ban, so now anybody, and EVERYBODY came come into the country! WOW, great idea!. Now that the epidemic pandemic numbers have escalated, you want to allow all these people walk ring in to the country and allow the numbers to go even higher? It wasmn’t BAD enough to CLOSE our own Restaurants, Hair Salons etc, so you want people from 3rd word nations to come ibn and spread the Virus even further? Gret Idear, so now tyoi can’t blame Trump anymore for Closing the Travel bans wen those numbers Sky Rocket again!
And you put a pause on deportations! Another great idea, allow these infected people to stay here and spread their infections around some more, COME ON MAN, wake the hell up and smell thwe roses, look at what the hell you are doing only to make Trump look bad!
And you have rejoined Paris Accord. Wow Great Move... “An Agreement that Ending the War and Restored Peace in Vietnam” due to South Vietnam’s unwillingness to recognize the Viet Cong’s Government, a document signed by North Vietnam and the United States. Come On Man, you got to be freakin kidding me! why? And most impondent of all, NOW Transgenders can us any Locker-Room that they want to, boy that was really needed. I only hope that none of these people see it necessary to touch MY Daughter, because if they do then somebody’s ass is going to need a sling! .
C’mon Joe, WAS THIS REALLY ONE OF YOUR MOST IMPORTANT ACTS IN OFFICE, that was needed to be accomplished on your very first day? Because if it was, then theres going to be a very Rough Ride ahead.
And Silly me, I thought Biden-Harris would be fixing IMPORTANT things such as COVID-19 Lookdowns, and Vaccinations
I'm just an inconsequential country parson with a kebab stand on the information superhighway, but it seems like our judiciary, press, media, elections, politics and on are broken. What remains? Force. That in mind, what happens when our broken money supply can't pay the military? Because, you know, trillions of dollars in debt can go on to infinity.
ReplyDeleteWell, all those soldiers, sailors and airpersons will just walk off base, hitchhike home and get jobs in pizza delivery. Problem? Solution.
The Bush-Clinton-Pelosi-McConnell regime and their generation's cohort of tragicomic "experts" need to leave the stage and turn it over to a new generation. Even some Andrew Yang's would be a welcome change. He is successful outside of politics and at least he brings some fresh thinking.
Delete