America On Sale: Branding and False Gods

Pericles21 regards the term 'branding', used by the Republican party, to be dangerously inappropriate when used to shape the American political picture.  The usual definition of  'Branding' is an advertising term used to 'sell' something by placing a label on inanimate or non-human objects. Branding also carries the taint of deception which further makes the term inappropriate for use to describe any part of the American democratic process; this is the perspective of Pericles21.

In 2009, Pericles21 commented on the 'tendency' of the GOP to brand itself without being real, or sincere:    

the GOP is lost in a kind of political "mannerism" where they remember the postures but have lost any idea of the meanings and contexts of their awkward and jerky mimicry of conservativeness. The result is the derangement of Limbaugh, the Insaneness of Hannity, the Dreck of Beck, and Michelle Bachmann's stupid utterances accompanied with her really strange, vapid and pat-on-back-expecting-look-at-me-daddy false smiles. The GOP sputterings are not down-to-earth, nurturing oatmeal but dry sawdust and dull nails. [Isn't this 'branding' made into a god?']

Returning to the theme of this post, the artificial and manipulative 'branding' employed so frequently from the GOP lexicon,  agreeing with Pericles21, there are those who see 'branding' as a reality of American politics...with all the pejorative implications of using the term inappropriately.

A recent New York Times opinion piece, 'Donald Trump, Meet Your Precursor' (NYT, December 6, 2019) posits that 'branding', more than ever yet with precedence, is a descriptor of current American democratic mechanisms, our politics,  and warns that American democracy has come to resemble a market with bins full of glitzy labels affixed to ersatz (false) goods rather than a genuine, natural process of public self-governance.

"...the electoral arena has more in common with consumer brand market competition than it does to an academic symposium on immigration policy or a non-profit funded public awareness campaign. Brands are forced to adjust to market realities in ways few advocacy groups ever encounter."

The piece uses a historical review of American political history leading up to the Civil War and then during the "reconstruction' period to give examples of disguising political intentions and actions through branding to first preserve slavery and then, post-war, to turn back to de-facto slavery.  Central to this historical review is the role of the demagogue, the false profit warned about by the Founders...  the demagogue who by false branding and deceitful psychological manipulations, 'natural' aspects belonging to the demagogue's personality, would lead America away from the democratic intentions of the American Constitution and its founders.

But, as Pericles21 noted in 2009, brands can be falsely used as 'persuaders' not in response to genuine market forces but can be deliberately designed with the intention to actively shape and even create market preferences and redirect market forces, through artificial and sometimes cynical psychological manipulations. 

Psychological manipulation, when rationalized apriori by the desired outcome, and especially justified 'post-facto' when successful, can then be defended as a 'good' even when the outcome was achieved using immoral or artificial actions and manipulations, i.e., "triggers" such as playing to, and magnifying, racist or gender prejudices. 

The above background thoughts seem to describe where American democracy has arrived, the ascendancy of a demagogue who has compromised normative behavior with seeming ease despite being uninterested, and unknowing, in the principles of American democracy except where they benefit the personal interests of the demagogue...and his monetary rewards.

Hail to Sunnier (And 'Funsier') Shores: Four Possible Phases of Resignation

Pericles21's comment in the November 17, 2019, 'Palmer Report' post ("Donald Trump just completely changed his story about why he was at Walter Reed hospital").  
Pericles21:

"On the Run' to sunnier shores. First, close up shop (condo) in the Big Apple (done) and relocate residence to Florida (done). Then fake a medical condition (done). Then, 'Sayonara' to the ugly 'Old Desk' in that stuffy, no-fun office, followed by 'au revoir' to Pelosi, Shiff and the whole DC crew including Giuliani, Flynn, Igor and Lev, Cohen,... Four Phases."

Facebook Is a Monopoly and Should be Broken Up: Mark Zuckerberg Is Not Guilty of Anything, Just Older, Maybe a Bit Out of Touch but Probably Obsolete to the Broader Facebook Utility

Facebook's success seems to have forced it to outgrow and evolve from its original, limited, business boundaries and model to where it is now not just a social-media 'gimmick' (even though a social-media market dominator) but it has also become a major piece on the global political chessboard...a chessboard where apparently no one in Facebook's executive ranks has the experience, training or skills to play.

(And Facebook's leadership shouldn't be expected to play this new game where instead of leading a colt around in a fenced paddock, the original Facebook world, they are now expected to ride a full-grown warhorse into a wilderness among the big cats, hostiles, and outlaw gangs...without much of a clue. Facebook appears in shock. Mark Zuckerberg's appearance before the American Congress after the revelation of Russian co-option of simplistic Facebook advertising policies to influence the 2016, American presidential election was the door-opener to kick Facebook out into the global political jungle...and Facebook was not prepared for that to happen - neither to encounter the Russians nor to be dragged into a strange and unfriendly world.

Facebook's problem is not its humongous corporate profits (nor even Mark Zuckerberg's legally and ethically acquired personal wealth).

Facebook's problem is it's newly recognized, unexpected, and newly utilized, super-power potential as a major force multiplier in unorthodox warfare. Facebook is now a pawn in a global game where it's market success and global reach hugely magnify even the most subtle mind-suggestions in Facebook ads...ads taken out, at bargain prices, by nefarious subscribers to effect nation-change and influence voters.

In today's global politics, Facebook has morphed into a powerful, but still subtle, geo-political weapon to wage unorthodox war.

Who could have predicted or even dreamed that Facebook could eventually be a determining factor influencing global social-political events and even nation-change? From all information, no one expected Facebook's role in influencing American voters in 2016.

Pericles21 thinks any competent political scientist or 'futurist' (who undoubtedly must have read the works of the 5th century Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu and more recently the unorthodox 'war' thinking of Chairman Mao), could have foreseen Facebook's evolution into something bigger-than-Zuckerberg (not such a rare growth pattern with concepts that start out simple but mushroom into 'hugeness', e.g., 'Cornflakes' breakfast cereal)...with correlating potential effectiveness in shaping user preferences; but it would have required the social-political scientist world to look at Facebook seriously as more than just a techy-wrinkle to make money off of kids and young adults (thus not worthy of scholarly attention).

IMHO, Facebook's execs still think of their 'charge' as a toy (although as a grown-up toy because of its very, very adult profits).

For the reasons above, IMHO, Facebook's community let Facebook down because the community did not mature as people with real lives and real care for life outside Facebook. They basically continued to live in the past and hold onto a passed-by, prior Facebook life and out-of-date market model.that came

Facebook's apparent lack of savvy about the shaded reality of big world politics made Facebook vulnerable to misuse, by Russia and China and Iran and others, in America's 2016 election, and continuing. That is what apparently happened with Russian interference in the American 2016 election - subtle manipulation of Facebook's simplistic, still-in-Kansas advertisement model to spread misinformation and subtle preference-shaping.

The first problem with Facebook's success was that its leaders did not recognize that Facebook's ad business could be effective at doing more than just generating product-ad revenue. Nothing wrong with that but it was a limited and unsophisticated perspective showing that Facebook's leaders did not understand what animal it was they thought they had in the cage.

But other folks, including Russia, China and most other major cyber players globally, took a look at Facebook and saw what Zuckerberg and colleagues apparently did not see - the opportunity to leverage Facebook to achieve other ends, adult ends, criminal ends in a world where ends justified means and where there are real victors.

Those other folks (the Russians et al) did not broadcast or publish their insight about Facebook's other uses, sad for us.

Those 'others' (Russians et al) broke open the old Facebook mold and dragged out the new Facebook...with its new powers and strengths... which they were able to keep hidden for a few years....and which now require new regulators and limiting boundaries.



FACEBOOK NOW AND IT'S FUTURE:
FACEBOOK has grown up and dominates the social media market it helped to create.

FACEBOOK IS A NEAR-MONOPOLY!

FACEBOOK is no longer just a kids' toy or even merely a social 'hook-up' gimmick.
FACEBOOK is a WAR TOOL, and Bad Actors want to use FACEBOOK for bad purposes (and apparently already have)
FACEBOOK dominates by a huge degree a strategically critical war-tool weapons sector.
FACEBOOK under Zuckerberg, it's originator, undoubtedly did not envision this end-use for Facebook.
But Mark Zuckerberg still acts and sounds like an unlicensed kid holding a 9mm.
FACEBOOK as a monopoly and with its importance as a weapon should be broken up.

Mark Zuckerberg, though of integrity, should not have a role in a future Facebook weapons-spinoff. (Except as a
need-to-know systems advisor)

America's Greatest Moments: The 'Quid-iest', The 'Pro-iest' and the Con (Of Course The Con)

[This post is intended to be a satirical and humorous 'fictitious' phone call between two American politician-businessmen men-pals - 'Norton' and an unnamed principal. Their implied relationship and roles in the larger world might 'ring a bell' in our minds.  'Norton' and man-friend are from the hugely popular, 1950's American television show, 'The Honeymooners' which centrally featured the get-rich-quick schemes of two urban, blue-collar  men - 'Ralphie' (Ralph Kramden, a bus driver and the more outspoken of the two men) and 'Norton' ('Ed Norton', a sewer worker, the loyal pal, and the 'lesser' of the two).  The 'Norton'  character is an important supporting character found in many significant tales of men searching for fame, fortune or just good times (the 'Sancho Panza', the Stan Laurel, the 'Pantagruel') and who agrees to every request...though sometimes needing sly arm-twisting and persuasion).  These two men share a central life-goal, which is to acquire great wealth, overnight, but their fantasies and schemes invariably end up with comical unsuccess.   

But like Ralph and Norton, Donald Trump's actions mirror their never-successful, often over-the-top ambitious schemes that failed through comedic bumbling, 'poor choices' and resultant absurd dilemmas...that sometimes revolved around women's rights and social attitudes (!)...When is America going to settle down and address these issues, its racial history and finally move onward to the future?]


Ralph's and Norton's 1950s end game, to quickly 'strike it rich', seems to have been a central American fantasy then and continues to be so in the current political world surrounding Donald Trump.  Like Donald Trump, and his companions and henchmen, the two men of this post are not interested in historical fame as wise leaders unless this attribute leads to wealth; and it seems they believe they are already wise and leaders by some automatic endowment. 

Wealth is the endpoint of all comical 'doings' of these kinds of characters, fictional and real.  Currently, these 'doings' have almost exclusively sprung from Donald Trump's attempts to carry off being President; but Trump's political moves and personal behavior often seem to be undecipherable,  sometimes wacky, and too often conducted under the surface...and or for nefarious reasons not always in the best interest of America.

Eerily, the relationship and life-doings' of these two television sitcom men-pals seem, 65 years later, to closely resemble the Trump administration's sometimes clueless efforts to steer the American ship of state through global and domestic waters.  Furthermore, the Trump administration appears not to have a ship's compass except when there is wealth to be gained.
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CURTAIN RISES.  ED NORTON GETS A CALL FROM HIS MAN-PAL AND INSTIGATOR.

(Ring, ring...’Hey, Norton...how’s things down there in Oklahoma? ....wha’, Texas?...Geez, Norton, how'dja get to Texas?...Anyway, f...k, we're wasting time here Pal...Look, nice piece a gas action in some hellhole country next to France or somewhere, maybe lots of oil, too...country?...Karin or somethin...yeah, probably named after somebody's girlfriend or somethin, deep history over there...Yeah, Norton, they're ready to play ball...and...Wha? you and your crew are on it already?...Now look here Norton, you don’t pull that on me anymore, nobody makes a play without gettin' my OK...OK?...Changes, Norton, changes, buddy...Oh, yeah? ...Wellll, 'F U', too, Pal...Yeah?...I got the US of A army to put right on your butt unless I get my piece...No Norton, I'm not callin' from Florida, I’m sittin here in the Big Chair and I don't get backtalk from nobody...Wha?...OK I know you don’t mean no disrespect...So...Yeah, we're still pals...So shut up and let me finish, will ya?...I got a golf tee-off in 15...So Norton, here's how it's gonna go... Coordination...Yeah, that's the key...Yeah, now you got it...So, you with me now?... So here's how it goes...Bet you didn't know I’ve got some major strings tied to this chair...I'm like a god to these people,... you wouldn't believe it, Norton...but first we got to get a man in play to deal with the homeboy players there...let me finish here...Geez, Pal....so...yeah, now you're readin' me...Yeah, you gotta pack your bags, you're traveling for sure...No! No stopover in Vegas...Hold on, Norton, first we got to make you legit, you can't just walk in there wearing your bathrobe and smokin a cigar...we gotta make you respectable, so to speak ...so Norton, you're not gonna believe this, Pal...This is me, the genius talkin' here, Pal...I'm so genius, they call me the king 'o the free world..can you believe that!...Hold on a sec, Norton, let me finish...I’m gonna make you official...Wha? Nah, UN Ambassador's for boy scouts and women...look, you're gonna be my Secretary of Energy...no, Norton, you don't have to know anything about energy...(mumbling...you'd be dangerous if you did)...Look at me, I don't know nothin about this gig except somebody back when chopped down a prune tree or somethin' and they still think I'm a genius, the best ever in 80 years since when this country started!...Anyway, back to your new job, Norton, those people in that energy office do all their own work...like, they just go around making sure the gas meters work...yeah, in the whole country... takes lot's 'o them, ya know...yeah, Ha! I know....like Santa's elves...Anyway, so all you have to do is sit in a big office, walk around a little to show who's boss, go to lunches...yeah, you know, dog and pony act...and get your ass over there to Karin or where ever when I tell you...Wha? Sure, sure the Russian guy is cool, already got his ok and what his take is gonna be...yeah, now you're talkin, Norton...Yup, piece a cake. Look, Pal, good you’re on board and tell your crew not to worry, plenty to go around. Wha? Another question? Come on, Norton, I gotta go... got tee off yesterday...wha?...g..dam, yes you can wear your boots to work.

Hillary. POTUS.

AMERICA NEEDS MORE THAN EVER A WOMAN PRESIDENT.

Pericles21 is open to Hillary POTUS.
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In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote for President of the United States...by a significant margin (3 million more votes than Trump).

Since then, America's eyes have been opened wide by a hard, hard lesson embodied in Trump's 'dis-fit' to be POTUS. Trump's mal-fitness will be the subject of many years of books, plays, operas and club comedy.

America has learned what was lost in 2016 - a guiding, experienced and intelligent leader (Hillary, not DT).

Comared to Trump, or just standing alone, Hillary is refreshingly (vastly) more experienced, more competent, more communicative, a better manager and, finally, more deserving to be POTUS (as she was voted to be in 2016).

For various reasons, and not just because of the Trump POTUS debacle, Hillary appears now as cleansed from doubt and more POTUS-like than before.

AMERICA NEEDS MORE THAN EVER A WOMAN PRESIDENT...ESPECIALLY NOW TO CLEAN UP TRUMP'S MESS, PUT AMERICA BACK ON TRACK AND OPEN THE DOOR TO AMERICA'S FUTURE!

In 2016, Trump promised his Party and supporters a rescuer but instead a travelling snake-oil con man showed up...and who apparently, like the disguised villain in a Hollywood '40s spy movie, might also be a traitor... as seems to be unfolding in the current, formal, House of Representativers impeachment investigations of the Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 election.

Not the least lesson with Trump in the Oval Office, is America's discovery that a 'businessman' is not a guaranteed solution to America's problems...at least not with the kind of business 'skills' Trump represents - an unprincipled, rip-the-throat, cry-when-down, always-sniffing-for-money grifter. Even when in the Oval Office, Trump behaves, talks and writes like a warehouse thief, a street corner shakedown thug.

AN EXAMPLE OF TRUMP'S THUG 'SKILLS': his October 16, 2019, "puerile" self-embarrassing letter to Turkey's President Recep Erdogan warning him not to take advantage of Trump's abrupt withdrawal of American troop protection of our Kurd allies in northern Syria).

One of Trump's main 'policy' agendas from the start of his POTUS tenure has been to deregulate America. We soon learned why: Trump's business 'style' thrives in a so-called 'free market'that Trump actually envisions as a 'free style' combat ring uncomplicated by customer protections and legal contracts. The 'winner' is the best knee breaker, eye gouger, ear biter.

This kind of 'free market' enables the businessman predator - a predator who uses, and makes, every opportunity to cheat his customers by running away from legal debts, injuries from bad product and hotel bedbug bites. (In this respect, Trump's business 'success' appears to be a cloaked history of drift-and-graft, e.g., running up service debt then daring his debtors to sue him to pay them...which they usually decide they can't afford to do. This is accomapnied by money laundering, and ultimately, apparently treason.) Trump's talk and policy actions indicate he wants to legalize all of this.

AMERICA NEEDS A WOMAN PRESIDENT...ESPECIALLY NOW.

Much has happened since the election to reaffirm those who voted for Hillary Clinton to be President but even more, the ongoing circus since Trump's January 2017, inauguration clarifies in stark, strobe-flash terms what was lost. To be brief, what appeared to be Hillary's fadeaway, and what appeared to some Hillary-not-quite-supporter-doubters' to be 'something not quite' about her, are thoughts and doubts that have evaporated and left us with regret.

WE REGRET, DESPITE ANY PREVIOUS DOUBTS, THERE IS NO HILLARY POTUS ...SINCE/BUT/AND... AFTERALL, HILLARY WON!

For various reasons, and not just because of the Trump POTUS debacle, Hillary appears now .cleansed and more POTUS-like than before. By comparison with Trump, or just standing alone, Hillary is refreshingly (vastly) more experienced, more competent, more communicative, a better manager and, finally, more deserving to be POTUS (as she was voted on in 2016).

Shortly before election day, Pericles21 outlined here recommendations for advisory boards for President Hillary to consider implementing. The next day, or soon after, Pericles21 posted nearly the same advisory boards outline for Trump POTUS.

By 4-6 months after his inauguration, Trump's advisory boards and panels (not my agenda, but 'boiler platish' similar) were in disorder, disbanded or about to be disbanded or rendered non-functional because of TRUMP'S whimsy and/or board member resignations.

'Whimsical and capricious', "incompetent" (Rex Tillerson, his Secretary of State). These descriptors have too often been heard from political professionals and experts, of both parties, to describe Trump's policy-making, management and personal behavior nearly every day of Trump's tenure so far. And, as many felt would happen before the first term was up, the House of Representatives have begun impeachment investigations.

All of the above thoughts and more bring Hillary into positive clear focus. Pericles21 thinks it is reassuring to think of Hillary standing for election, again. It's up to her. Just let us be clear, also, in this comparison, Golda M...remember? Reaching too far? Think not. AMERICA NEEDS A WOMAN POTUS!

What Does This All Mean? Experiencing and Thinking About America's Trump Experience

This blog post will be 'dynamic' ...thoughts and analysis will be added as they come and dated when they are written down.


(Oct 22, 2019)
TO BEGIN:
- America, IMHO, has seemed unsatisfied with its political governing for several(or more) past POTUS cycles.
- America has for some time felt a 'business' approach to governing America would be potentially 'better'.

POTUS AS BUSINESSMAN FOR GOVERNMENT
- America's dreamers' view of the Successful Businessman (note, 'Man') would describe his core skills as efficient, effective, adaptive and broadly competent to deal with all challenges that might face American POTUS. (Certainly better than the normal politics-reared POTUS).
- American culture is one of 'Image', not necessarily reality, as we have increasingly come to realize.
- Businessmen don't have to be honest or produce safe products or abide by laws and regulations - it's more a game of 'de facto success'.
- 'De Facto Success' can mean not getting caught through bribery or political leverage.

- TRUMP AS POTUS.
- With Trump, America has had its POTUS-businessman dream actualized ...and has discovered some underlying sobering truths about dreams, businessmen, politics, motivations, men in particular, corruption and money.
- Through Trump, America has discovered that a successful (appearing) businessman does not mean being good at business. It can also mean he is the 'sharkiest' shark, the shadiest thief, the most brutal of brutes, the least ethical....etc., in whatever fishbowl where he is found.

- SURVIVAL BY ANY MEANS - is this the 'Truth' of America?
- Through Trump, America has discovered that what can motivate the businessman is solely money. In fact it appears that business success can mean a different kind of 'Zen' where profit focus and maximization is the end-all and valuation of all effort.

- MONEY!'
- America has discovered a 'Truer' nature of MONEY!. Money 'appears' to be the 'end-all' of everything, today.
- Money is not all that good (helpful to society broadly) when all the money is concentrated at the top.
- Money tends to corrupt principle, especially it seems the principles assumed to be the core of democratic systems.

Oct...TB Continued. Here.

Where To, Now, Dems?

This 3-year-old runaway highjack of America is accelerating to an end that holds hope for a successful 2020 election for Democrats and for a future America as a progressive Constitutional Democracy.

But first, here are some words from Pericles21 to whoever is the Dem candidate ... the same advice written for Hillary Clinton in this blogsite a month before the 2016 presidential election:

'DO NOT FORGET THE WORKING MAN"
PLEASE!

Democrats, the timing is critical to cover the bases in the 2020 campaign...get out there into America, out into the heartland as well as along the coasts.

Get out there into the heartland and...:

SMELL THE PIG SHIT AND HEAR THE COWS AT 5AM WAFTING ACROSS FIELDS OF INDIANA-ILLINOIS-IOWA-KANSAS-MICHIGAN-WISCONSIN-MISSOURI

Pericles21

'Moscow' Mitch and 'Leningrad' Graham - The Democrats Finally Grow Some

'NUFF said. We'll see as this American watershed plays out.

DC Breakdown: Nancy Caps Big, Bad Don While He Prysadka's to Putin's Orders

" "All roads with you lead to Putin." (House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, addressing Donald Trump at White House meeting October 17, 2019). DT too often found 'bending the knee' (Priysadka) in Moscow's direction to Putin's Tune.

Things American: The Quid, The Pro and The Con

[This post is intended to be a humorous riff about a 'fictitious' phone call between two politician-businessmen men-pals whose relationship though somewhat casual is not equal. Although intended to be fictitious, this post tragically has potential real weight in our current world of American-global politics..which seems to have been wacky, though denied by many, under the surface. This riff uses the avatar-miens of two 1950s American TV blue-collar workingmen, the principals of the hugely popular 'The Honeymooners': 'Ralphie' ('Ralph Kramden', unnamed sole speaker, bus driver and by tone the principal of the two men) and 'Norton'('Ed Norton', sewer worker, loyal pal and by implication the 'lesser' of the two (the 'Sancho Panza', the Stan Laurel, the 'Pantagruel'), and who agrees to every request...though sometimes needing sly arm-twisting and persuasion). Importantly, and perhaps eerily, the relationship of these two television sitcom men-pals seems, 65 years later, closely resemblant of the Trump administration's sometimes clueless efforts to steer the American ship of state in modern global political (and domestic!) waters. It is pertinent to have here a description of the two men's central purpose - to gain wealth and fame, or through fame to gain wealth but wealth was the endpoint of all their never-successful, often over-the-top ambitious schemes that failed through comedic bumbling, 'poor choices' and resultant absurd dilemmas...that sometimes revolved around women's rights and social attitudes (!)...When is America going to settle down and address these issues, its racial history and finally move onward to the future?
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(Ring, ring...’Hey, Norton...how’s things down there in Oklahoma? ....wha’, Texas?...Geez, Norton, how'dja get to Texas?...Anyway, f...k, we're wasting time here Pal...Look, nice piece a gas action in some hellhole country next to France or somewhere, maybe lots of oil, too...country?...Karin or somethin...yeah, probably named after somebody's girlfriend or somethin, deep history over there...Yeah, Norton, they're ready to play ball...and...Wha? you and your crew are on it already?...Now look here Norton, you don’t pull that on me anymore, nobody makes a play without gettin' my OK...OK?...Changes, Norton, changes, buddy...Oh, yeah? ...Wellll, 'F U', too, Pal...Yeah?...I got the US of A army to put right on your butt unless I get my piece...No Norton, I'm not callin' from Florida, I’m sittin here in the Big Chair and I don't get backtalk from nobody...Wha?...OK I know you don’t mean no disrespect...So...Yeah, we're still pals...So shut up and let me finish, will ya?...I got a golf tee-off in 15...So Norton, here's how it's gonna go... Coordination...Yeah, that's the key...Yeah, now you got it...So, you with me now?... So here's how it goes...Bet you didn't know I’ve got some major strings tied to this chair...I'm like a god to these people,... you wouldn't believe it, Norton...but first we got to get a man in play to deal with the homeboy players there...let me finish here...Geez, Pal....so...yeah, now you're readin' me...Yeah, you gotta pack your bags, you're traveling for sure...No! No stopover in Vegas...Hold on, Norton, first we got to make you legit, you can't just walk in there wearing your bathrobe and smokin a cigar...we gotta make you respectable, so to speak ...so Norton, you're not gonna believe this, Pal...This is me, the genius talkin' here, Pal...I'm so genius, they call me the king 'o the free world..can you believe that!...Hold on a sec, Norton, let me finish...I’m gonna make you official...Wha? Nah, UN Ambassador's for boy scouts and women...look, you're gonna be my Secretary of Energy...no, Norton, you don't have to know anything about energy...(mumbling...you'd be dangerous if you did)...Look at me, I don't know nothin about this gig except somebody back when chopped down a prune tree or somethin' and they still think I'm a genius, the best ever in 80 years since when this country started!...Anyway, back to your new job, Norton, those people in that energy office do all their own work...like, they just go around making sure the gas meters work...yeah, in the whole country... takes lot's 'o them, ya know...yeah, Ha! I know....like Santa's elves...Anyway, so all you have to do is sit in a big office, walk around a little to show who's boss, go to lunches...yeah, you know, dog and pony act...and get your ass over there to Karin or where ever when I tell you...Wha? Sure, sure the Russian guy is cool, already got his ok and what his take is gonna be...yeah, now you're talkin, Norton...Yup, piece a cake. Look, Pal, good you’re on board and tell your crew not to worry, plenty to go around. Wha? Another question? Come on, Norton, I gotta go... got tee off yesterday...wha?...g..dam, yes you can wear your boots to work.

The Big Shake Down & Shuffle: American Politics at What It Does Best These Days or at Least Often Enough (And Whence Pence?)

This blog, The Perched Eye (formally "The Eclectic Commentary from Pericles21') was started in February 2009, at the time of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. Initially, this blog would simply serve to chronicle standout happenings and trends in American politics judged to be significant from the the author's experience as a past candidate for elected political office and from extensive foreign travel. Also thrown in would be commentary about anything else in American affairs the author judged to significantly affect American life in general. Since 2008, America's 'life' has evolved in dramatic ways and directions; we appear to be faced with a totally new political paradigm, Trumpist 'populism' which seems to be Populism maybe in demographics and belief as the definition might dictate...but no one is totally certain about the reality of who are the participants or what the base ideology really is...beyond an apparent unity structured around racism and fear...but even that is cloudy. Anyway, times since the Obama presidency have 'morphed' radically in all manner of different and new, often bizarre and certainly unexpected directions that are revealed from the White House in almost every 24 hour cycle. But there seems to be an emerging pattern - things in Trumpland are getting more and more unusual, more and more extending beyond the Constitutional boundaries set by America's founders for the powers of America's chief executive ('Chief Executive' because after all, American democracy was founded on the principle of the separation of co-equal branches (3) whose smooth operation relies mostly on well-intentioned elected officers whose actions are guided in broad stroke with minimal (but strictured where the Founders, from their newly conceptualized and enthusiastic 18th century enlightenment, deemed necessary). Such seems to be where America is today...trying to hold onto the Founders' dream for an enduring Democracy, but faced with a political 'sport' a different kind of 'politician-citizen' whose talents, morality and even election (as far as we can tell) do not appear to fit the position and responsibilities of an American president.
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So far as we know, this morning October 5, 2019, Vice President Pence has not committed readily identifiable, or publicly released, criminal acts like Richard Nixon's VP Agnew who in the 70s received brown paper bags filled with bribery money delivered to his VP office in Washington, DC. But VP Pence might have aided s scheme to to purchase an unlawful political service, by unlawful means from a foreign nation..i.e., to have possibly aided a strong-arm shakedown of a foreign nation, Ukraine, through a $400 million bribe (through a Trump delay of an already Congress-approved, aid package to Ukraine). The ultimate goal was/is to obtain Ukraine's 'quid pro quo' participation in a scheme to influence the 2020 American presidential election bay falsely smirching Joe Biden, Donald Trump's potential 2020 presidential rival.

Overall, it seems at least on the national level, the venue of American political shenanigans has changed since the 70s Nixon-Agnew days. More than ever, American political crime schemes impacting even our domestic politics extend internationally in scope and and utilize degrees-removed foreign nation participation.

Now American politics' criminal activity utilizes impersonal, ultra-sophisticated technology that replaces actual people walking around carrying paper bags of cash,...or at least they use international first class seats. Anyway, the 70s brown paper bags of cash bribes walked into political office buildings, at the national level 'passe'.

But some things remain the same since the Nixon-Agnew 70s. Although there is more 'smoke and mirrors' and newer technologies are used to disguise political crime, there remains at the core the quintessential 'quid pro quo', the 'something-for-something', the 'deal'(why Pericles21 doesn't like to hear 'deal' used to refer to legitimate diplomatic negotiations, agreements and treaty). By this definition Trumps current 'Ukraine' mess is not 'diplomacy' - it is a shakedown deal done in the crime-language of a bad Hollywood gangster film.

In today's political crime, as with more of crime in general (but outside of the world of the poor caste who are capital/imfluence limited to do criminal deals the 'old fashioned way' through direct force and face-to-face threats), the high-level criminal activity has replaced the paper bag with impersonal, multi-tiered, intricately-webbed and hopefully untraceable, electronic-digital systems disguised as 'something else' but intended, ultimately, to deliver criminally obtained, or unlawful, assets or service of value.

In the world of international relations, things criminal or unlawful have changed, too. Modern political international criminal activity is increasingly centered around grey banking transactions involving hidden and/or degrees-removed participants whose intentions and everything possibly linked with the true criminal plot are cloaked under innocent-seeming disguises.

As in the case of some Trump business 'deals (schemes), there are sophisticated, superficially legal-but-disguised financial transactions (sales) that are not 'normal but in reality are 'long-con' political-business deals involving inflated priced assets whose presently-exorbitant price tags are based on hidden or long-term 'dodges'.

An example is the sale of vacant condominiums (at exorbitant prices) to pregnant foreign-national women 'tourists' to deliver their babies on American soil so as to gain future-generational extended family immigration into America and tax-advantages for the women's foreign families when the babies turn 21... when they then have the right to bring primary family into America (or something like that...).

Even shady international political 'deals' begin with the "quid pro quo", though disguised in quasi-diplomatic agreements (in reality criminal 'deals' about the 'give and take').

Finally, there is the sophisticated, global cyber-crime, the disguised bribery of even foreign nations, where at both ends the participants are two or more degrees removed from direct, cash money transactions - like Russia's influencing the 2016 American election through several intermediate cyber-criminal 'cutouts' but where the ultimate 'payoff' was to be the potential-president Trump's lifting of economic sanctions against Russia...a scheme disguised behind a seemingly harmless and innocent 'baby adoption' disagreement. And there is the most recent political crime attempt by Trump and co-actors, whereby strong-arm bribery was used to obtain Ukrainian 'interference' in the upcoming 2020 election by Ukrainian false smirching of the reputations of Trump's political rivals...and their families.

But again, some things are the same... behind the layers of disguise and magician's curtains, there lies the pile of money.

And interestingly, the perpetrators seem drawn to use the same spoken shakedown language... like actors in a 1940s American gangster movie. Only instead of 'you wouldn't want bad things to happen to that nice family you have...', it's now graduated to threats against a president's country, "...it would be a shame if something happened to your beautiful country..." [ 2019, DTrump speaking 1940s Hollywood 'gangsterish' to 'muscle' 2020 election interference from Ukrainian President Zelensky...and possibly using the same delivery to obtain 2020 interference from several other country leaders internationally, e.g, possibly Australia, Denmark, Italy and more]. How did Nixon-Agnew wind up?

The Tide of Economic Inequality Is No Longer Just Rising, It's Choking US

-

A THOUGHT. Life as we have known it, or revered and aspired to. A dreamed about life of richness, abundance, and more specific products of humanity's cleverness and vanity such wine, women, song (but also the products of human stupidity such as class, caste, race and gender hierarchy), ...this dream of the 'good' life appears to have faded away or be available to an ever-diminishing fraction of humanity so that we now have a world of grossly asymmetric 'mis-sharing' of life's promises. We are now come to a dire need to deal with the reality has near irreversibly come to be a finite, zero-sum game, and perhaps life ever was a zero-sum proposition despite the dreams of the Ages of exploration and colonialization (global scale resource rape and pillage). This awakening to a post-surfeit reality appears to have occurred over the past 15 to 20 years and now shapes up as a bad, bad human-made nightmare in the wakened state. We face a crisis that is ripping apart our previous fantasy world of perpetual bonbons, colorful gumdrops, unending natural resources, clean air, good water...all provided by Mother Earth without requiring much effort, concern or husbandry from humanity, and delivered on a perpetual conveyor belt feeding directly into our mouths and bank accounts.

But we now sense this was all a dream and we must face the consequences from greed and willy-nilly over-exploiting earth's resources - a situation supported and made worse by our cleverness in inventing the 'corporate blind' whereby a paper (fictitious) concept is equal, or more, to a living being but with fewer and fewer controls over corporate behavior. Our 'esteemed' legal minds have even by writ given these false corporate entities the leeway to use their immense money reserves to influence politics with even less monitoring than for human citizens.

The result of this overall trend to ignore the nonsensicalness and excesses from our misled priorities has resulted in 'badness' on many fronts - extreme inequality (of human sharing of earth's resources and financial profits) on almost all categories, especially financially, and dangerous over-exploiting of our planet's resources and blindness to global pollution. Especially disheartening if not grossly puzzling, has been the loosening of industrial regulations to increase the leger's bottom line...as the major if not the sole priority of corporate behavior. All of these 'actions' and consequences threaten to end our existence! (Or at least substantially lessen a standard of living that we've giddily assumed would last forever.)

'We', the globe's 'haves', the rulers of humanity (and their subjects in tow), all are wakening it seems with a really bad hangover from having believed we live in a world of infinite resources - a belief set too often and too conveniently supported by made-to-order 'religious' permissiveness or our self-serving interpretations of such. We have come to see that humanity has been carelessly play-acting at life in Eden when in actuality we've squandered away a beautiful world of 'enough-for-all'... a world that was bountiful but needed careful attention to the consequences of humanity's actions ... a set of 'husbandry' rules (like the 'good shepherd'). We've woven the 'good shepherd' into our culture but not taken that meme seriously - it's often served to keep populations under control.

We've wakened to a living nightmare, a frighteningly bad video game become real where life is a finite sum matter that is now seen to be obscenely asymmetric where alien rules apply and it's near too late to learn them.

The 'rules' of good planet husbandry have been replaced in favor of the interests of fictitious entities (corporations) and false priorities of profit propped up by legal rationalizing. We've willfully turned away from humanity's role in climate change, giddily squandered Nature's resources, blindly erected 'laws' that protect non-human, fictitious instruments that wander the planet exploiting natural resources (and murdering whole populations as collateral damage in the sacred pursuit of such profits), and all too often supported by convenient religious praise of profitable effort as the ticket to Valhalla.

Umar Haque's views on the nightmare that we wakened to, in September 11, 2019, 'Medium'webzine ((How) Capitalism Turned Life, the Planet, and Civilization into Money — and Our Challenge is Turning it Back - Why the 21st Century Needs a Revolution (If We Don’t Want Civilization to Keep on Collapsing)), is that global economic inequality is the root of our nightmare because the degree of inequality is extreme and encompasses just about everything around us that can be purchased, exploited and monetized.

(Pericles21, blogged this view several years ago in wondering if 'real-product' economies were at the end because 'demand' has shifted from economically depleted customers (with no more money to purchase) to owners of capital (paper fiat) whose 'demands' continue and have multiplied...even if capital owners' actual needs in the Maslovian sense are satisfied...to sinful excess. Also, Pericles21 pointed out few if any economic theory includes, or even attempts to include, 'greed' as perhaps the major underlying shaper of cultural economics throughout history.

Mr. Haque employs Marx and Keynes in using their insights to describe our current emergency of gross resource-sharing asymmetry as a “crisis of overaccumulation.” Haque's insight is that if pressures on the globe's inequality-burdened populations (the 'have-nots' of 50 years ago) remain unanswered, this will lead to a perhaps terminally harmful social explosion..for all humanity.

A social explosion seems perhaps likely because there are few or no alternative (peaceful) options left to the 'unequal' (the 99% or more of humanity) whose interests are becoming increasingly marginal in importance relative to the big picture of replacement of real markets with financial manipulations, e.g., hedge funds and third-and-higher-order derivatives. The 'un-equals' receive little regard for education to maintain labor competitiveness, even less regard for their health with healthcare having been rationalized away as some kind of luxury to be juggled against a cable tv subscription or smartphone.

In this blogger's view, there is a basic observation that seems undeniable - humanity has about reached the end of the 'saving rope' and the rope's end looks to be little more than frayed threads.

Mr. Haque, on solid ground, suggests the resolution is to somehow convince the owners of over-accumulated resources into re-investing in restoring the planet's health.

But Pericles21 sees that just the recognition of economic inequality should also incorporate reconceptualizing of the meaning of 'living'. We've defined life, at least bio-life, satisfactorily but, typically, in techno terms - DNA, etc. But now, in this age of extreme economic inequality, it appears something of major importance has been missing from our self-congratulatory metrics of life... there is a missing cultural pillar, a moral gap whose ignorance of has impacted us like a meteor.

We sense that this gap is something so far intangible that we are grasping for can quite 'get'. We are in dire need of a new metric guiding us 'how' we might best live this precious 'life'.

But, just arriving at this realization seems, hopefully, just in time. To many, Capitalism seems to be at the heart of the problem of the missing gap.

Capitalism has been described as a working market system...sometimes, maybe increasingly, requiring too much effort to prop up and too much rationalizing to continue to be useful or beneficial to sustaining social stability and progress.

The 'Capitalism Game" relies on two major factors - first, our human species' left-over monkey trait of competing 'for it all' (even wanting 'yours' when our bellies and hands are full of our AND your stuff we can never use); and second, an open-end supply of resources that require minimal effort (cost) to bring to market.

Although dwindling resources have required more and more 'effort' to bring to them to market, Our never-satisfied 'wanting' has continued as capitalism's driving force... and this 'drive' to over-satisfying has been given 'modern' clothing as 'objectivist self-interest' (selfishness, Rand-ism), objective 'reality', so-called natural economic competitiveness (nothing personal, mind you, it's just business), etc.

This has led to our present state of extremum...our monkey acquisitiveness has gone berserk and is about to wreck global stability through absurd economic inequality.

Somehow, without global revolution of the bloody historical kind, Humanity must reconceptualize our priorities and redefine what 'life' is. 'Life is much more than just technological-scientific definitions. 'Life' must be seen as a process and system for living in full value, i.e., seeing 'life' in its whole as a symbiosis of peoples, needs and wants. This is the 'game of living' and we should see the game as a finite sum balance that requires careful attention.

One's impression is that we are finally coming to understand that our right to exist (yes, it's that dire) must be earned and depends on how smart we are to preserve our sanity, our physical being, and the planet…all three together.

This means to realize that 'life' results from HOW we live it and 'living life' should be a priority. Radically speaking, this ends up with the concept that life and living is not a race to satisfy primordial monkey urges to accumulate but a new 'game' (since we monkeys seem drawn to like games) based on realizing that humanity is precious, more so than gold, and that we live on a 'symbiotic plane' with each other, the planet and its resources. 'Sane and sensible' should be the mantra of the new concept of living, a game where every human has value and though not 'free' in a sybaritic way (!!!), deserves to have at least basic needs met - the 'needs' of surviving as a human.

A corollary has to be a recognition that above a certain threshold of accumulation, any one individual and class endangers the greater 'game' of sane living for all. Yes, here is proposed that 'Life' is living in and through the greater good (a concept Pericles21 pointed out 10 years ago was a conceptual pillar proposed by the founders of the American nation who inherited it from the line of Western and Asian thinkers the past 4000 years.

‘Not, Not, Who’s There?’ The ‘Report’ (Maybe, or Maybe Not)

‘Not, Not, Who’s (Not?) There ? The ‘Report’, maybe. Mr. Mueller exits leaving the public and Congress with the responsibility, rare in these days of infomercials and manufactured ‘news’, to read for ourselves his novel-length Report and to make our own conclusions. We don’t seem up to this task despite intricate, but precise, details. But Mr Mueller left crumbs for the mice to both nibble on and lead us. However, the Report’s deliberate and maybe over-cautious style, though probably required when authoring such a report under a dictatorship. And, like the political satirists of previous times (Voltaire, de Foe, not Mencken....) Mueller seems to have employed his own disguising style, the use of the double negative ‘Not, Not’ to present his conclusions. That subtlety appears to be beyond the interpretive skills for the American public and its Congress. Yet the answer is already there ... in the style of the Report’s conclusions: by logic rules, the double negative ‘Not, Not’ equates to an affirmative...which leads to this reader’s conclusion that ‘obstruction” did occur, is now occurring and Will continue unless stopped...by Congress. As for Collusion, conspiracy and treason, how can one Not come to the same affirmative conclusions in the face of so much associative detail (damming but “insufficient” evidence, again a seeming disguise of the affirmative, ...with so much foreign agent traffic in and out of the White House and so many private meetings with same agents hidden from the public and even from WH staff? A well-known 70s song aptly describes our dilemma - “...what’s puzzling you is the nature of the game.” As for the ‘Game’, we know what’s come into the White House.

Normalization of the Abnormal - Trump and Barr Discuss the Mueller 'Report' Before It Gets to Congress, Obstruction Again

How Stupid Does DTrump and Barr think the Voting Public are? How wierder can this get? Barr has taken off his mask of People's attorney and, 'Geez' Mr Barr what a big scaly tail you have! What a spectacle! A Carnival! Thursday, when the 'Barr' redacted Report is presented to Congress, will Dtrump simply flop his dedito's and walk away? "Walk him out, walk him out"!

Let's see, late today, April 17, 2019, Attorney General William Barr, in person, proffered to DTrump a first look at Barr's semi-redacted Mueller Report...presumably in the White House rooms, no less. Barr's action was apparently in violation of norms and perhaps actual law, but all consequences of Barr's, and Trump's collusion, depends on how successful the GOP can spin things. Why did Barr do this'? Did Barr really think his meeting with DTrump could be hidden, and remain hidden for more than 8 hours? Did Barr throw aside his own protective shield of remaining unbiased as he is supposed to behave? Is the Mueller Report that bad for Trump? The Mueller Report is to be "redacted", 'solo', by hizoner Wm Barr, US AG, for first perusal by the several House and Senate committees interested in this kind of thing. Contrary to those committees' expectations, maybe, the item Barr will present will probably not be something to bet on for untouched-by-biased-Trump veracity. Barr's tipping the lid of the can of worms to Trump is not something the House committees can ignore no matter how bent this whole Trump story has become. We are advised by the press that Barr committed a 'bad' equivalent to obstruction of justice. The redacted full 'report', or at least a stack of paper sheets, will be trotted around to the Congress tomorrow, Thursday.

See Palmer Report blog, "Donald Trump and William Barr just handed House Democrats a clear path to impeach them both"
BD Holly | 10:29 pm EDT April 17, 2019

AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman and Evolving American Icon): And the Conservatives' Conundrum

The Conservatives' response to AOC seems a subject for serious socio-political study and crosses over from just normal, adolescent frat boy, GOP name calling into territory that often appears to be a psychological disorder, a barely hidden, twisted, nay unrequited worship (shudder)...an oedipal 'wanna-be-her' fixation. Debate this opinion if you must but it must be given time to think about.

This theme was recently elaborated about in Umair Haque's January 19, 2019, piece in the webzine, Medium.com, linked to his webblog 'Eudamonia'. Umair's article is titled, "Why AOC Short-Circuits the Conservative Mind, (Why) The Universal Mother is the Antidote to the Authoritarian Father". One of Umair's insightful analyses is:

Have you noticed how conservatives are helplessly attracted to AOC — utterly beguiled by her, unable to resist her magnetic pull, tumbling into her orbit like flaming meteors — but are also, at the very same time, hopelessly perplexed as to how to deal with her? A little bit like sixth grade boys? Should they insult her, mock her, taunt her, push her down into the sand — or learn from her, admire her, understand her? Why can’t they seem to stop thinking about her, anyways? ARRRGGH!

Pericles offers the following thoughts following along Umair's theme.
--------Pericles21 Post-------

Pericles21 is tempted to offer, in a mood of impatience with the GOP and their troglodyte membership, a terse comment:

Break yourself, Mr Conservative hater, no matter how many adolescent tears, interrupted sleep and unrequited, hidden feelings (the Conservative 'Way' is never to show human , err, humane emotions) ... you'll never impress Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez in the way you dream about. Break yourself. Never happen. So sorry for you.

Earlier, on January 17, 2019, Pericles21 had posted an endorsement of a piece about AOC in the Dailykos webzine, 'Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Uses Wording Many [Conservatives and conservative-minded]are Upset with, but, I'm here to defend her" [mixed caps are actually present in the original piece but might be edited in updates]: AOC is the ‘now’, her detractors are not. The new Millenials, who AOC is a member of and politically represents, are a diverse, multilingual American generation reflecting in their language skills the communication requirements of a current, diverse world.  'Thank you' for an OAC able to use her Millenial word skills to tailor speech to any occasion and purpose. While the ‘Thuglicans’ are ripping off America, AOC voters and supporters do comprehend and appreciate her delicious humor because it speaks to them and sardonically confuses her detractors. The motto of the Millennial generation might be ‘You have to live it understand it’. Millenial gestalt. Keep that in mind. AOC often seems a 21st century Mencken.


Pericles21's post on the subject of 'AOC' as an evolving American icon (after all, AOC earned political success the American way, working to rise from the urban grass roots. How much more 'Now' can it be wanted to get respect.

aKudos, Mr Haque. AOC is a delight. And likewise a delight, though highly farcical, nay the ultimate choking guffaw, is the Conservatives' response to her, their frustrated confusion. But not often seen directly stated, but no doubt is subliminal and highly exciting in every male conservative’s mind is this conundrum - that although AOC and her ‘sisters’ are ideologically, gender wise and/or racially the ‘other’, and are hence forbidden to be regarded as equals because they live on the far side of the ‘lines’ Conservatives have programmed themselves not to cross.

Conservatives want AOC! And not in a healthy way and they secretly in-the-closet know it. They covet her and so want to disobey the twisted self-boundaries that rule their hate filled lives. ‘Oh lordy’, they want that freedom. But Conservatives can’t acknowledge ‘ALL THAT” barely to themselves and especially publicly. Not to friends, family, their Party (GOP), their pets (who laughingly, in pet intuition, already know their masters are mind-cuffed but wanting wanting AOC and her sister modern women in their clumsy neanderthal way. But Conservatives know, in their material-possessive custom, they can’t get near an AOC female, not in a million years while they are wearing their mental (sometimes real) ankle and wrist (and...?) horsehair bracelets and barbed-wire undershirts. Not ever, no how.

Worse than being emotionally self-lobotomized, Conservatives know why they can’t ever get next to an AOC sister: they have THE PROBLEMS — racism, genderism, can’t dance-ism, all that and more that 'they' have (they being everyone who can dance, etc); Conservatives live in just plain hate (‘why do you hate me, god’).

Plus, Conservatives can’t go anymore to the good ole 'cures' for THE PROBLEMS — you know, cures like rape of minority women (god forgives them of that brand of miscegenation), lynching in the public square, public insulting at one’s whim, capricious whipping to brighten a bad day, cross-burning … those good ole fun things.

In today’s diverse America of beautiful, sharp and capable women of whatever color even of whatever politics (even Thuglican women are ‘crossing over’), Conservatives are in danger of becoming the disadvantaged and socially inept, the left out, the embarrassing and excluded from polite, mutually respectful society. Conservatives are looking like a royally gored, truly f..d cult. Conservative women, as Bessie said, ‘better watch your man’, but generally women know, or ought to know, what's up ...having been given 'the short end of the stick' for so long, regardless of race or politics. So Conservatives, can’t get no satisfaction? Break yourself, Mr Conservative, there's no pity for you.

The Fate of Capitalist Nations: America and Britain Have Lost Important Battles but Maybe Losing the War IS Not Yet Clear

There are three 'logical' endpoints that are debatably inevitable for a capitalist nation. One, the logical endpoint of historical colonization is currently exampled by America, Britain, France and Germany who are experiencing the consequences of foreign population flow-back from colonized markets to the colonizer because the colonizer became dependent on cheap labor to 'man' the low wage, but essential, manual and service jobs at the bottom of the economic pyramid. (Rome saw this happen.)

All of these top-of-the-pyramid nations have discovered that it is difficult or impossible to control the back-flow of cheap labor from exploited, foreign labor markets to the homeland exploiter. Thus, despite the immediate historical profits from exploited foreign markets, eventually there have come high social and as well economic costs to the exploiting homelands -created by cultural-linguistic incompatibilities prolonged and strengthened by segregation, needed health services, and education and skills gaps in general.

The problems to the home country of adapting foreign market population back-flow, are exacerbated by a kind of problem-solving paralysis deriving from the homeland's need to 'obey' democratic-philosophic principles that dictate costly humane solutions when the directness of behavior as in the foreign exploited markets would be more efficient, i.e., less costly, less humane and quicker actions. This built in self-paralysis has made it impossible control foreign market population back-flow both legally through immigration laws or via natural blocks such oceans and artificial blocks like walls.

But mostly making it resistive to control foreign population back-flow are the strong pressures and rewards for illegal immigration by the needs to fill low paid domestic service jobs (in hotels, restaurants, private homes, health clinics, etc) and likewise in low wage roles in industries such as the agri-business sector.

The major former colonizers are now less 'whip and chain' masters but still exploitive colonizers!

Overall, the former colonial 'masters, have found it difficult or impossible to control (much less to block) back-flow of native populations for at least two reasons:

One, refusal of immigration from exploited markets violates the democratic principle of 'fairness and equality' that
is shared by these nations.

Two, and perhaps the most important problem for the homeland, the internalizing by foreign populations of the same
democratic self-identity badges that unify (and help to pacify) the home land populations.

Once foreign, cheap labor begin to internalize the same narrative used to keep domestic populations in check, 'whip and chain' controls become unsustainable in the same way as narrated and revered in the history of the homelands.

This self-contradiction of messaging constitutes a built-in self-destruction button at the breast of the colonizer and is the core reason for the historical and current fragility of the colonizer-colonized relationship. And, this fragility increases as countervailing forces develop against exploitative capitalism as international ethical standards evolve (to the dismay of the capitalist).

In a perfect capitalist world of free, unregulated and ethically unhindered markets, the logical endpoint is concentration of all wealth and assets at the upper stratum, the 1 percent. (This is the free-market, finite-sum game-theoretical model of successful business management that is the guide and goal for every hungry, aggressive capitalist.. no mater how strong a protest.

But in a real world, such total concentration of wealth and the efforts to achieve that goal, are guaranteed to create social resistance and eventually lead to a path ending in society's self-destruction.

We seem now arrived at the logical endpoints of free market capitalism with disruptive consequences of a perceived scarcity of 'Goods' at lower economic strata mainly exampled by a scarcity of employment income presumed by competition in a zero-sum economy from illegal immigration.

Our economy is not a zero-sum situation but where did this perception come from? That is a question to be secondarily answered perhaps, along the way to thinking up and planning for new industries and subsidizing new, spring-board technologies.

Never the less, our society's 'Hoi Polloi' have become disaffected as there is no longer a frame of reference where they are 'superior' to a social stratum below themselves thus removing the intangible but crucial ego support (a virtuality paycheck) that makes their own poverty palatable.

The capitalist knows this and through influencing government (lobbying) has constructed complex systems of social codes and strata-segregation rules and laws to appease the lower masses and thus imprison them in their own, ego sustained world of false, prejudicial rewards - artificial (intangible) wealth that 'buys' nothing and doesn't compete with the capitalist who is busy accumulating real wealth.

The third consequence of a free-market capitalist society is that the wealthiest capitalist is seen as the most eligible to govern; but this is a fallacy because the most successful capitalist is by definition the most focused on maximizing the bottom line, P&L, which requires the most effort to distance oneself from emotions linked to people and society (and even national loyalties).

Thus, the most successful capitalist, operating from the pure business model, is by definition the least suited for, and capable of, husbanding the 'Common Good'. G

Good historical examples of pure free market capitalists are current cultural heroes, Pirates of the Caribbean, Black Beard and kin. The most successful capitalist is the most vicious pirate, the most blood thirsty jungle predator desirous of a world of unregulated commerce and business operation where 'business' has the pure objective to make wealth without being weighed down by any societal considerations, even consumer safety and benefit except as unintended fall-out (eg, "Trickle Down"). The mindset of the capitalist must be the accumulation of ALL wealth, motivated by the anxiety of viewing the economic world as a finite, zero-sum game.

In this context, as examples, both Trump and Romney are 'successful' , or at least 'worthy' businessmen although they collectively accumulated wealth by treasonous and corporate-cannibalistic 'just business' behavior. In their business life, and certainly Trump in his personal life, both followed societally destructive paths that endangered jobs and national security.

One might say (certainly this commenter can say it) that any nation that calls itself a 'democracy' should exclude these gentlemen, and their brethren, as candidates for top governance positions.

But admittedly, such exclusion, which is beneficial to protecting the Common Good is by definition difficult,inadvisable or impossible in a democracy … especially once the capitalist has succeeded in legally redefining capitalist elements such as corporations from bloodless, paper-boundaried legal structures to personhood with the same rights as flesh and bone people, (viz,. Citizens United).

The result of such dilution of a nation's democratic principles will inevitably be, as it is now become in both the cases of Britain and America, a chaotic, dysfunctional, internally disturbed, directionless and self-destroying state (State)... even without the aid of an external enemy.

This vulnerability makes it easier for an intervention by an external enemy through bullet-less means (unconventional warfare). Both Britain and America are experiencing and losing, subtly-fought unconventional warfare with similar outcomes - social and political self-disruption without enemy boots setting foot. Such is the fate of former, and current colonizers who perfected empirical foot-ship-and-air armies.

In the cases of both America and Britain, the common unconventional 'weapon' used to invade and conquer them has been Russia's legal use of social media (capitalist uber-products) to 'capture-and-manipulate' the minds, i.e., voting preferences, of homeland populations. Russia's weapon of choice was through contracting services from Cambridge Analytical (an internet data corporation) to accumulate and exploit web-user data. These were successful projects as demonstrated by the election of Donald Trump (with his announced goal of possible exiting from NATO), and Britain's Prime Minister May's intent, at all costs, of exiting the European Union ('BREXIT'). Both objectives successes have brought along wild social and political tides and involved direct treason , through the Trump-Putin 'collaboration'. In both cases, these two colonizer homelands (Britain and America) were caught unprepared for unconventional, bullet-less warfare. More, they were blind to the fact they were even at 'war' involving Russia's 'soft' weans such as cyber data 'bullets' and treason hidden in the weeds of the global market and electronic banking systems.

July 14, 2017, Pericles21 labels Trump as a "traitor" in a DailyKos post

traitor guilty of 'treason on multiple counts'

July 21, 2017, Pericles21 posts under the title quoted in this post, "Nothing added".

January 12, 2019 (!). Dailykos's Jen Hayden lays out the FBI's ongoing investigation of Trump as a possible Russian agent since even before the GOP primaries to the 2016 election.
.

Trump's behavior as POTUS is much more serious than a funny quip, "I told you'. Trump is a bad realization that America really did wet its pants by electing Trump, and America must put down the soda and chips, and come away from the TV to take care of things before the Trump muck drowns us.

America has elected a straw entity, a falsehood, a 'Barnum and Bailey' circus side show starring a bizarreness
and about which America has lost its sense of reality. America needs someone to vomit up the right words to describe Trump. Hence America has fittingly , finally 'us' and her family, must grapple with the reality of Trump as President.
July 14, 2017, Pericles21 labels Trump as a "traitor" in a DailyKos post

traitor guilty of 'treason on multiple counts'

July 21, 2017, Pericles21 posts under the title quoted in this post, "Nothing added".

January 12, 2019 (!). Dailykos's Jen Hayden lays out the FBI's ongoing investigation of Trump as a possible Russian agent since even before the GOP primaries to the 2016 election.
.

Trump's behavior as POTUS is much more serious than a funny quip, "I told you'. Trump is a bad realization that America really did wet its pants by electing Trump, and America must put down the soda and chips, and come away from the TV to take care of things before the Trump muck drowns us.

America has elected a straw entity, a falsehood, a 'Barnum and Bailey' circus side show starring a bizarreness
and about which America has lost its sense of reality. America needs someone to vomit up the right words to describe Trump. Hence America has fitting inally 'us' and her family, must grapple with the reality of Trump as President.

America is seriously self-limited by a lack of critical awareness. Consequently, that 'lack' partly explains our inability to correctively address the Trump problem. Not possessing effective critical awareness also means we generally suffer from a lack of resistance to mis-education, we accept the ongoing and rampant merchandizing of our governance system and structures, and we are even selling our emotions to the social web world. In addition to those 'lackings', we, the collective American citizenry, have a tendency to uncritically accept runaway 'branding' especially of political subjects, both for good as well as for bad purposes. America's 'Trump reality' is our inability to see Trump as a serious problem because American are 'trained' to respond to colorful signs and clever packaging.

In Trump, America elected something sinister - it is emerging that America in its mercantile, commodified ethos, elected a traitor who apparently operated as a Russian agent before the 2916 election, during the primaries to the 2018 election and since the election. And America, collectively, has not see a 'way' out of the Trump mess that avoids America's sinking to the level and acts of a third world, Banana Republic dictatorship.

In a larger summary sense, this blogger does not feel flattered by appearing to have some kind of prescient sense, a political crystal ball so to speak. Instead, Pericles21's sentiments are those of fearfulness combined with an emerging pride that America's watchdogs and citizens have looked at Trump's antics in higher positions yet have retained their composure, integrity and faith in the rule of law. With these virtues, we have been able to 'stick to the task of getting Trump gone, but by the procedures and within the boundaries set by the Constitution. (Mueller's role and progress are testaments to this idea)). Since Trump's inauguration, we have witnessed much chicanery to defeat the Constitution with slippery words (Fox News and the GOP), aiding and abetting obstruction (Fox News and the GOP), acts bordering on treason or at least illegality (Donald Trump before and while POTUS, Fox News, the National Rifle Association and various GOP congresspersons in the House and Senate). "In an embarrassing short time ,America descended from the spirit of 'Rule by Law' (Lex Rex) back to the 'Ruler is Law' (Rex Lex). The Constitution was supposed to protect against this, but with Trump's election and behavior as POTUS, perhaps America has a new reason to examine it's Constitution, update its election process, educate our children to be better critical thinkers to resist entities with bad intentions for America and Americans, and move to understand a handle the 21st century concept of cyber war." Pericles21.
------------------------And so to the blog post ---------------------

July 21, 2017, under the above blog title, Pericles21 blogged just one sentence ... "Nothing to add".

That July 2017 'blog' came after Pericles21 had posted a one word commentary, 'Treason', in the DailyKos about Trump's closed, to Americans, White House May 10, 2017, 'meeting' with Russian Foreign Minister, Lavrov, and the Russian Ambassador, Kislyak.

That the press, like gawking sheep blandly watching their brethren being eaten by the coyote, has not made an ongoing screaming protest about that event represents to Pericles21 that American democracy has sunk from the Constitution's spirit of 'Rule by Law' (Lex Rex) to 'Rex Lex', the King is Law.

Pericles21 refers to that May 10, 2017, White House gathering eventwith punctuation marks because of the shady, stench emanating from that Oval Office room. 'Stench' because: 1) that gathering was and remains officially undocumented hence its agreements are open to change or are deniable in whole or in part according to Trump's personal whims and purposes;

with punctuation marks 2) Trump personally took possession of the translator's notes at the meeting's end, thus capturing for his personal thus it's purpose, contents and outcomes and agreements or "deals" are not known even though there were plenty of human eyes who saw all the persons who entered together and there were translators present; 2} even though the gathering was held on American soil, in America's most politically sacred space the White House, between the American President and America's number one state enemy, Russia, 'we' the Constitutionally entitled American world outside the personhood of Trump, 'we' the Constitutionally entitled officials (State Department, Intelligence Agencies, etc), were deliberately excluded and remain uninformed; 3) the exact nature of that 2017 gathering has never been 'disclosed'.. to the press, the public, to any private American citizen, White House staff nor conveyed to our own intelligence agencies.
Because the May 10, 2017, meeting's contents are undocumented (by official American sources or even American press) and to date are still unknown to any American other than Trump, that gathering never happened and Trump can therefore 'spin' it to his benefit as he please, at any date and without consistency, and as circumstances change, or even deny it happened ... and don't even laugh at such a possibility (Trump recently denied he ever said Mexico must pay for 'The Wall'.

It is only now, nearly two years later, January 12 (2019 !!), that we, the public and apparently every American person, government department or agency, are being informed that Trump physically grabbed and took personal possession of the interpreter's notes and papers at the end of that 2017 meeting. So much for the principle of transparency or even that discussions with an enemy state must be shared by some witness under secrecy oath if even for self protection.

Over the last week or so (!) America has learned how far we have sunk from what we as even school children were taught is our Constitution's most sacred pillar - shared power and decision making, through and by the Constitutionally guarantee (written mandate) of checks and balances. We were taught that from their own experience, the America's founders rejected royal omnipotence with written insistence through the Declaration of Independence and consequently through the Constitution, in favor of checked-and-balanced government. Such government was to exist for the benefit of the people who in finality were to be the ultimate 'deciders'.

Despite America's constitutional spirit of shared power, it appears with Trump as POTUS, America has become a fiefdom whose spirit is 'the King is Law'.

In an embarrassing short time, just two or three months after inauguration (and apparently even before the election (as we will shortly learn from the FBI and the House Intelligence and Oversight committees), Trump blew through or wrecked American political traditions while the press, the rest of government, and the majority of Americans gawked and cried while the rest of the world, especially the underdeveloped world, laughed.

Such is the effect of ignorance (Trump's) when it acknowledges no boundaries to expected good behavior... or even supposedly good behavior that was supposed to have been reassured by traditional vetting of presidential candidates - but Trump has yet to reveal his tax returns, so much for American political tradition.

To some few, Trump has performed a a kind of back-handed Dark Messenger service to America by revealing, in his being spuriously elected, some of the seams in the Founders' dream nation, 'us'.

Some of America's major procedural weaknesses revealed by the Trump election include: 'gerrymandering',the tinkering with and gaming of election district boundaries; the Electoral College which is an insidious governance mutantcy whose original purpose was to protect and sustain slavery. And we are also, in this modern age of computers and ubiquitous social cyber networking, also embarrassingly and seriously vulnerable as a people to psychological 'cyber influence' (read as manipulatable, easily hoodwinked, willing dupes, rubes, 'Marks', etc ..as Trump and Putin deeply understand).

Another Trump-election-revealed weakness that America must deal with is our national naivete and collective undereducated ignorance about cyber warfare. We spend almost a trillion dollars annually on military 'defense' but yet America's election system appears to have been so easily penetrated, gamed by and to the advantage of Russia our main enemy state.

Until Trump, America's presidents have shown some kind of inner threshold to chicanery, greed, ego and remorselessness - in other words they possessed 'integrity' which among other virtues, Trump's behavior suggests he lacks.

But, Trump is for the very few a kind of dark messenger whose positive service is to shake the house. Fortunately the 'watchdog' elements of American government are (have been) alert to Trump and are bringing the collar to drag Trump from the White house, a position of shared power Trump never studied, knows and understands very little about and personally never could merit.

Trump was apparently elected by fraud conducted by an enemy state, with his knowledge and support, and suspectedly leveraged by blackmail. We are gradually being given details of this and we are about to have the whole picture made clear.

Again, in an embarrassing short time America descended from the spirit of 'Rule by Law' (Lex Rex) back to the 'Ruler is Law' (Rex Lex). The Constitution was supposed to protect against this, but with Trump's election and behavior as POTUS, perhaps America has a new reason to examine it's Constitution, update its election process, educate our children to be better critical thinkers to resist entities with bad intentions for America and Americans, and move to understand a handle the 21st century concept of cyber war.

Although it appears on some level, to some few, that Trump has served, so far, as a Dark Messenger, that dark 'service' must not continue. Trump's brood and brethren currently around him must be quickly removed from government before it's too late. The clock is running.