The War On Reality

Yes, it's been highlighted repeatedly recently, but one more time won't hurt: "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." George Orwell - 1984. Too many times is not enough, because it is true. Keeping this in mind, let's take a quick spin through the craziness of last week in Wonderland.

Speaking at a Veterans of Foreign Wars gathering, Trump suggested that we shouldn't believe what we see or hear, because it's not really what's happening. It recalls the early Trumpian world of Alternative Facts, one that is separate from Fake News/Enemy of the People reporting.

"The White House is working off the long-time tried-and-true Putin/KGB strategy that's meant to muddle reality until we lose all hope and energy and can't keep fighting. It's done by design." So says Professor Jared Yates Sexton. It goes on daily.

If you say one thing and then say another diametrically opposed position, you can always defend yourself, depending on which direction you're being attacked. For example, "I believe our Intelligence Community in their assessment that Russia interfered." Yay, our President has gotten behind our IC, at long last! But wait... the next day: "The Russian investigation is a hoax. Witch Hunt!" Huh. What to believe? Depends on for whom it's meant.

Another method is the Gish Gallop. Constantly tell a multitude of little and big lies. Overwhelm your adversary with the Big Fat Firehose of Lies. "It's easier and faster to make a false claim than it is to disprove one. If an opponent fails to disprove every single one of the spurious statements you state, you can claim victory on the leftovers."

This constant flow of big and little lies issues forth from Trump on down through his administration, his supporters in Congress, and right-wing media. So how do other events from last week play with this in mind?

Well, there was the Threat of revoking security clearances from past heads of Intelligence and Law Enforcement agencies. The stuff of Banana Republics. These individuals have been accused of "monetizing" their security status because they appear on Cable TV programs to offer up (uncomplimentary) opinions about Trump Administration actions and policies. The practice of having past administration officials appear as subject experts has been a staple of TV news ever since... ever. Now they're being portrayed as dishonest enemies by Trump.

IRAN!! When stuck with inconvenient truths, look to distract. Here is an ever-available distraction, just as North Korea used to be/will be again. Trump's all-caps hyperventilating tweet threatening Iran, while ridiculous, also served up some comedy gold:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90206513/trumps-iran-tweet-quickly-and-deservedly-became-an-all-caps-meme

What was he distracting from? Continued Helsinki fallout. More Russia investigation news. Actually, there were a gazillion things that had been presented as False/True by Trump and his acolytes last week. Here are a few:

-- The release of an audio conversation between Trump and his former lawyer, discussing a payoff to a Playboy model to keep her from discussing an affair to the press. McDougal? Don't know her...

-- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They wanted to know what Trump had told him about the mysterious 2-hour-no-notes-no-witnesses "summit" conversation between the Prez and Putin. Pompeo was a study in obscurity. It's obvious from Pompeo's testimony that Trump didn't tell him anything. Best meeting ever!!

-- A government shutdown is threatened because Trump demands his Wall. Blames Democrats for not  getting it done, although Republicans control Congress. Wants "merit" policy system of immigration, which is funny because he thinks other countries' governments decide who will immigrate. He is either epically dense, or doesn't care because it riles up his base of Know-Nothings. Probably both.

-- Tariffs and Trade Wars. They're easy to win! Except when you find out you're losing and need to offer up a $12 billion dollar bribe to Red State farmers to stay the course...

-- Remember when the USA was in the worst shape in its entire history during the 2016 election campaign? Now it's great again. The Gross Domestic Product's second quarter growth rate of 4.1% is the greatest ever!! Except it's not, and it will be revised down... and it's a blip... and Obama's GDP had better growth reports. Check out the various Trump untruths here.

-- In his quest to make Government more transparent, the President has squashed the long-time practice of providing the press with transcribed read-outs of calls to World Leaders. And denying specific White House credentialed press people from access to daily events. And making public all White House visitor logs. And there are new restrictions on reporting on what groups have donated "dark money" to organizations like the NRA. Oh, and the long-promised tax returns? Fuggetabouddit.

-- Another group that's very concerned about Government ethics and fair play is the House Freedom Caucus. Not. For the last couple of months, they've been drawing up articles of impeachment... against Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, for denying their requests to review documents central to an ongoing criminal investigation (target: Trump). After weeks of their angry accusations against the FBI, DOJ, Mueller and Rosenstein, they announced their impeachment articles were officially submitted!! Later that same day, with much less fanfare, the impeachment articles were withdrawn. That is classic stuff. Blast through news cycles for months, make baseless accusations that resonate with their "base", then quietly go away. All this while Attorney General Jeff Sessions laughs and repeats, "Lock Her Up!" to a group of conservative high schoolers.

Oh, there are so many more, but we have to stop somewhere. Otherwise, we'd get wrapped up in the ongoing trauma of having hundreds of children separated from deported parents. This is nauseous, especially when ProPublica publishes a sickening report of kids being sexually abused in detention centers. No, they aren't separated. Yes, they are. No. Yes.

So how do we combat this War On Reality?

Heck if I know. One way that is effective for The Daily Kibitz is to Not Watch TV News. Their journalism is usually sloppy, shallow and sensational, and the advertising-driven time segments guarantees that important stories requiring significant reporting won't be adequately covered.

There are plenty of online news sources that are providing fantastic reporting. Just reading through a few Kibitz posts should familiarize some of them for you.

An informed mind can then venture forth into the public sphere and do what's right. One manner of socio-political expression that we've always appreciated is The Prank. Here are a couple from last week that caught our eye:

Dick Tuck and Tom LaPorte would have been proud. Then there was the story of the drifting yacht. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is worth a billion or so. One of her yachts was tied up along a dock on Lake Huron. In the dark of midnight, someone untied the boat from its moorings.

The crew was asleep and awoke 400 yards off the dock. The boat somehow suffered up to $10K in damages. So please offer up Thoughts and Prayers to Betsy DeVos that this doesn't happen to her NINE other yachts.

In closing, we came across something written in 1995 that absolutely floored us. Hoo-boy, did the late, great Carl Sagan ever nail it:

Fight the fight. Rail against the death of expertise. Demand an independent and credible press. Work to get people to vote, even if it's against your interests. It will all work out.

Finally, though seen so many times, these neer-do-well nitwits caught stealing stuff from a 7-11 continues to be hilarious. But this version, featuring Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance" is really funny. Imagine these goofballs as White House staffers and enjoy:

"We Prefer Not To Believe What We Prefer Not To Be True."

Let's face it, we live in deeply negative and polarized times. It is difficult sometimes to maintain a sense of civil composure while writing this blog. But what the hell-sinki is happening when 40% of the country (and 80% of Republicans) STILL support the president for his Helsinki performance? This, after the whole "let's take kids away from their mothers and put them in cages" and "Kim is a good guy, he's denuclearized" and other debacles!

Have these 40% of our fellow Americans suffered a debilitating stroke that inhibits rational and moral thought? It's been estimated by psychiatrists that 1% of the populace are psychopaths and another 3 - 5% are sociopaths; it's understandable how these folks wouldn't give a damn. But what about the other 35%? Are GOP supporters creating a whole new dysfunctional psychological category? Or have sociopaths been radically underrepresented all this time?

In our previous Daily Kibitz, we took a dive into the Trump supporter pool to get a better sense of why he remains as popular as he is. It was not a pretty look, and we took a quick shower afterwards. But now, wowzers!

Oh, Daily Kibitz!, you might say... there you go again. You exaggerate and your elitist political bias is showing yet again. (We admit to an elitist drive: #bebest!) Don't pull the fire alarm if you see someone smoking a cigarette... Except it's not a cigarette. And many are already sounding the alarm, including the archconservative foreign policy maven, Max Boot. He likens the Helsinki horrorshow to the odor emanating from a rotting fish:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-stench-from-trumps-execrable-performance-grows-ever-more-putrid/2018/07/18/6fce82c8-8aa2-11e8-85ae-511bc1146b0b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4c9d13638bbc

Well, Max surely did not hold anything back. Neither does former George W. Bush speechwriter, David Frum, now an editor at "The Atlantic". Regarding The Age of Trump in general, he has already memorably said, "If Conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy." Frum expands this conceit with a couple of  short and incisive essays written about Helsinki. "The United States faces a national security emergency."

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/07/trump-putin/565310/

"Can (the US) afford to wait to ascertain why Trump has subordinated himself to Putin after the president has so abjectly demonstrated that he has subordinated himself?"  That's the question. Then there is his next brief piece, which examines Trump's claim to legitimacy:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/is-trumps-presidency-legitimate/565451/

"(The Russians) broke American law, victimized individual Americans, and stole valuable proprietary information from an American political party. Did they share that information with the winner of the election? His party keeps attempting to obstruct the investigation of the information theft and to besmirch and discredit those doing the investigating."  Thank you, Mr. Frum.

Loser and Winner meet the press in Helsinki. Trump looks beaten up.

The maddening thing is that apart from Trump's historic press conference babbling, no one in the US government knows what happened during the "summit". It was just Trump and Putin with their translators. No records were taken - of course, it's strongly suspected that the Russians have a full recording of what transpired... just more Kompromat to put on the pile. Meanwhile, Our military leaders don't have a clue.  Naturally, our Intelligence Community is left out in the cold. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, struggling to keep his job, repeatedly stated his confidence in the IC's findings, and then was blindsided by Trump's invitation to host Putin at the White House. Watch, it's funny in a train-wreck sort of way:

"It's the President's prerogative..." to meet Putin alone and make various agreements and arrangements that are crafted by the veteran KGB agent. Wise? Not one bit. Reckless, naive and giving rise to a thousand conspiracy theories? Why, yes! But it's the President, and he can do it.

Then, when President Egg Nog gets back to DC and discovers that even Fox News is aghast at his summit, he decides he needs to do a Walk Back. So he changes "(Putin) just said it's not Russia. I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be."  to "wouldn't", which satisfies approximately zero people and creates a tsunami of ridicule:

"Beware the bank president uninterested in learning who robbed the bank." Well, we all need a laugh during a self-inflicted international crisis. Neglected in his now-several Walk Back-n-Forths are his obnoxious, inflammatory and false Helsinki statements about Robert Mueller, the Russia Investigation, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, the Press, our "foolish" country, and his fantastic election. Witch Hunt!! For the best summary of what happened and how it plays out, let's turn to our favorite Spy Guy, John Schindler:

http://observer.com/2018/07/at-helsinki-summit-with-putin-donald-trump-goes-off-the-very-deep-end/

Yes, Schindler - a guy worth following and who really knows Deep Spook Stuff - believes this is all going to end in tears, for many people.

Because, in the end, Trump is partnering with Putin, a vile murderer. He is elevating this thug to the highest level of international diplomacy. Vlad runs his country as a Kleptocracy, and he is the Crime Boss. Ask Bill Browder, he knows what Putin does - and did to his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky. Murdered him in prison. The Magnitsky Act is a major economic thorn in Putin's neck. It's one of the reasons Russia was so keen to help Trump win - reverse the act, lift and ignore sanctions and let's all get along!! It's enough to make the fine folk at The Onion blanch:

https://politics.theonion.com/supporters-praise-trump-for-upholding-traditional-ameri-1827661529

Oh, Onion! Be careful, because you may become grouped into the real Fake News, the Press, the Mainstream Media, or as Trump continually calls them, "the enemy of the people." Again, this is a common value with Putin. Vlad has never met a journalist he didn't want killed. In fact, he has killed scores of them:

The number of Russian journalists murdered by Putin

Putin's idea of the perfect press conference. Prolly Trump's idea, too:

Murdered journalists during Putin's tenure. Stay away from the balcony!

Putin's definitely a guy we can do business with. So, what next? There will be a whole string of new revelations spewing forth from the Mueller investigation and the Southern District of New York federal office. We're just getting started! These will amount to a mountain range of charges, affecting numerous GOP-ers (and even some Dems), the whole Trump Organization, Trump family members, corrupt media figures, hoo-boy, the list will be immense. But again, the question: will a Republican Congress vote against its own instinctual political interests to survive? Because even if they don't impeach this guy, the continual flow of indictments and trials will last for 3 - 4 years. That's a lot of bad press.

And will the eventual charges be enough to provide wavering Trump supporters with the ability to "Save Face" and turn against him. It's what happened to many Nixon supporters, who held fast in support of that guy until the tapes finally came out - it gave them an out. They could "save face" by pointing to the ugliness of the recordings and say, yes, Nixon had to go.

Finally, in the words of the visionary Janelle Monae, "This is a Cold War, you better know what you're fighting for." And here she is, singing that song she sang in front of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. It's such a powerful piece, and her pushing through despite an obvious flub-up really makes it great:

Thoughts while not being on vacation...

After having taken a mini-summer break, The Daily Kibitz casts its puzzled gaze upon the problematic topic of What Drives Trump Supporters? Why have these folks dug in and unquestioningly support a president who seems to lie every time he opens his mouth? Why do they back a man who campaigned and now governs on an agenda that is blatantly un-American? Why are so many Americans ignoring Trump's obvious links to Putin and his Moscow Mafia?

Most national polling groups affix the president's general approval rate between 35% - 40%, depending on the severity of whatever outrage dominates the news cycle during the poll. Never much below nor above. It is dependable.

Republicans naturally anchor Trump's support. In fact, Republicans, who represent approximately 25% or so of the electorate, consistently back him at a high 80% rate, no matter what is happening. Sometimes it tops off at 90% approval. This is the inverse of Democratic support. Then there are the Independents, who represent about 40% of the electorate, and who generally support Trump around a reliable 35% - 40% clip (there's that range again).

We know that, for better or worse, Tribal Politics define Republican and Democratic responses. They usually negate each other, though over the last 20 years or so the lack of any positive overlap has really increased. It's the Independents that are interesting, because their votes put Trump over the top in 2016.

So why do up to 90% of Republicans and up to 40% of Independents think Trump is just swell?

Certainly there was a lot of economic resentment in 2016 towards Wall Street/Bankers for screwing the pooch and getting away with it. Rightly or not, Obama/Democrats were held responsible for this, as well as for their lack of a greater response to the foreclosure crisis. Trump was perceived to be an Oligarch who knew how to handle that world and would take control of it for the Little Guy's benefit.

Obamacare was effectively portrayed as a draconian assault on personal liberty. The waters around this program were so muddied that folks who benefited from it were against it.

One of the most persuasive pieces that predicted Trump's victory early on came from The Left's Michael Moore.  Read his Summer, 2016 article. It is SPOT ON. He gets a lot of grief from across the political spectrum, but he nails it here. His reasons for Trump's relative popularity persist.

Some continue to like Trump because he's rich and that's what matters in life. "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?!" And though the much-touted Tax Law doesn't give much to the lower 98%, it's enough to fill the gas tank a few times. That is something.

But there is much more, it's not about policies, and it ain't pretty at all. Let's take a quick peek at a recent Trump Rally to get a sense of what's really going on:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/07/10/anatomy-of-a-trump-rally-76-percent-of-claims-are-false-misleading-or-lacking-evidence/?utm_term=.403fe283b6a6

Yikes. The late, great Charles Krauthammer described things thusly: "His joining of supreme ignorance to supreme arrogance, combined with a pathological sensitivity to any perceived slight, is a standing invitation to calamitous miscalculation." Well, yes. And who ignores this obvious situation?It's the attack of the Palin People! Yes, they're the "basket of deplorables," Trump's base of the base that Hillary Clinton so aptly and regrettably defined. Trump stole the GOP car, which is powered by the Palin People engine. He's been driving it against the traffic, with no regard for the rules of the road. He believes he's the best driver and everyone else is an idiot that just get in his way. It won't end until Officer Mueller finally pulls him over.

But what about the GOP car? Who will drive it after the Carjacker-In-Chief is led away? It responds so well to his maniacal touch.

To give us some clues, let's look further into the soul of the 35% - 40%-ers. "The Death Of Expertise" author, Tom Nichols, weighs in: "... the thirst for cheap imported flat TVs was more important than health care... we weren't socially stable enough to cope with peace and prosperity." Here's more:

Epic Tom Nichols twitter thread on what Americans want 

You want some more? Well here's some more. Some twitter maven named Stonekettle came up with a fantastic listing of how easily we are turning into the people we could never understand:

Super Epic thread comparing us with 1930s Germans. "Slowly, they became monsters."

Yeah, pretty chilling stuff.

OMG, if you read anything this week, read this majestic Washington Post piece by the great Dan Balz that appeared in May. It serves as an extended Focus Group session on why Trump voters think the way they do. It is enlightening and kinda infuriating. There are no shortage of electoral details, and it provides enough recurring visits with the article's main characters that we really do get to know them. Warning: this piece is quite long; but it is worth reading every word!!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/trump-voters/?utm_term=.47127fb7837e

Yep, the loss of social privilege along with economic insecurity is a powerful formula for backlash to progressive change. When you're a MAGA and see people of color gaining on or surpassing your own socio-economic station, you may ask yourself, "Where'd they come from? Who let them in? Why are they getting a special deal? Who put them in front of me?" Trump's success has been the apparently unshakeable bond created with these supporters. They love his "Na-Na-Na we hate you elite libtards" comeuppances, railing at those they perceive as looking down on them. And, of course, people of color getting theirs. It can never be your fault.

When voters don't really benefit from their elected officials but continue to support them, they are called Zombies. They don't think on their own; instead, they react to what is told to them on Fox News/Hate Radio, which has been playing non-stop in their homes and cars for 25 years. It reminds me of something Plato had in mind when describing how we perceive Reality:

Proudly watching Fox News since 1996

Speaking of Plato, here is a fine article written the day before the 2016 election. It's an exceedingly cautionary piece that compares us with Plato's "Republic" and its regimes: Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy and Tyranny. Guess which one Plato would say we're in now?

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/7/13512960/donald-trump-plato-democracy-tyranny-fascism-2016-elections

Oh dear. We have wandered a bit when Plato is being used to describe Trump, his base and his own motivations! But before we sign off, let's linger a moment more in The Classical World for a nugget of wisdom from someone who knew a thing or three about the power of crowds, democracy, republics and tyrants. In the end, Cicero was murdered by an aspiring tyrant: