Posted by Rude One
I know we're all supposed to be freaking the fuck out over Donald
Trump's mad desire for as much Putin dick as he can take. And I know
we're suppsoed to be fact-checking the shit out of the administration's magical list
of "terrorist attacks" that the horror-loving media supposedly didn't
cover adequately, which can only mean "left out a call for a lynch mob,"
since the list contains some of the major events of the last couple of
years. But there's an article that's stuck in my craw, something that is
especially enraging in this time of an open spigot of anger.
Over at CNN's website, there's a piece
titled "Trump gives America's 'poorest white town' hope." It's about
Beattyville, Kentucky, a town that's on the ass end of nowhere in
Appalachia and a place that used to rely on coal mining
until that dried up sometime in the George W. Bush administration (and,
no, it wasn't mean ol' white-hating, tree-huggin' Obama that did it).
And these dirt poor fuckers, addicted to opioids, racist up to their
tits, and utterly reliant on the government for welfare, health care,
and most of the jobs in the area, believe that Donald motherfuckin'
Trump is gonna be their savior.
The whole article is a look at how liberal policies, you know, shit that
was done by Democrats, have pretty much been the only things keeping
the townspeople alive and how goddamned deluded they are to that fact.
For instance, "Beattyville residents want jobs, especially ones that pay
more than the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. They think if anyone can
bring jobs back, it's Trump." It's so blindingly stupid and counter to
everything that Trump and Republicans talk about. You know what's one
way to make sure that you don't get a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour? You
raise the goddamned minimum wage, you know, like most Democrats want.
On and on the article goes. We learn that "57% of households receive
food stamps and 58% get disability payments from Social Security." And
since hope is something that knows no rationality, "'I hope [Trump]
don't take the benefits away, but at the same time, I think that once
more jobs come in a lot of people won't need the benefits,' says [25
year-old Amber] Hayes, who currently receives about $500 a month from
government assistance. She's also on Obamacare."
What do you say to Amber? Do you tell her that believing that Trump will
create more jobs is as much a fantasy as Hillary Clinton's murders? Do
you say that, if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, she's fucked, as
she is if Paul Ryan's budget, with cuts to government assistance
programs, gets passed?
They believe that Trump is some kind of demi-god who will magically
create jobs and make their lives better. "'I believe he wants to take
care of us, the little people,' says [a] gas station manager. 'I think
he's going to quit giving money to all these other countries and take
care of America. I truly do.'" No, you dumb shit, he's gonna give the
money to himself, his family, and his friends. If a few coins drop on
the floor for you to scrounge for, well, there you go.
And who knows how to change their minds. The death of coal mining jobs
has also meant the death of any hope for union involvement. So all
they've got is prejudice, talk radio, and alienation. And drugs. You
can't forget the drugs. Goddamn, Mitch McConnell told Beattyville
residents to their faces that bringing jobs to eastern Kentucky was "not
my job" and they still voted for him.
Essentially, the people of Beattyville are refugees living in our
country. They are utterly dependent on the government. They have been
abused and abandoned by the forces of capitalism. And they exist in an
area of deep poverty and crime. The kindest thing we could do for them
as a nation is buy their houses and land and relocate them to somewhere
where there are some fucking jobs. Because you're not gonna shit out a
new industry that'll make Beattyville boom, unless there is big time
investment in tourism (truth be told, it's in a goddamn beautiful area).
Coal is done, as I've said, as everyone who isn't a fucking maniac president has said, including the coal companies. It's either been lapped by natural gas or automation has taken over for the miners.
But for the poor who voted for Trump, you are going to be punched in the
face repeatedly by your own fists. And you'll come running to Democrats
to help you, and we will, 'cause that's who the hell we are, and then
you'll run right back to the racist pricks because that's just who the
fuck you are: ungrateful, uneducated bastards who have been brainwashed
so thoroughly that you don't realize who is stabbing you and who is
trying to get your wounds healed, willing victims asking, "Please, may I
have another" as the knife is twisted in your gut.
As
the Guardian points out, this has an important and likely not
accidental effect: it leaves the State Department entirely unstaffed
during these critical first weeks, when orders like the Muslim ban
(which they would normally resist) are coming down.
The
article points out another point worth highlighting: “In the past, the
state department has been asked to set up early foreign contacts for an
incoming administration. This time however it has been bypassed, and
Trump’s immediate circle of Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, son-in-law
Jared Kushner and Reince Priebus are making their own calls.”
(5) On Inauguration Day, Trump apparently filed his candidacy
for 2020. Beyond being unusual, this opens up the ability for him to
start accepting “campaign contributions” right away. Given that a
sizable fraction of the campaign funds from the previous cycle were paid
directly to the Trump organization in exchange for building leases,
etc., at inflated rates, you can assume that those campaign coffers are a
mechanism by which US nationals can easily give cash bribes directly to
Trump. Non-US nationals can, of course, continue to use Trump’s hotels
and other businesses as a way to funnel money to him.
(6)
Finally, I want to highlight a story that many people haven’t noticed.
On Wednesday, Reuters reported (in great detail) how 19.5% of Rosneft,
Russia’s state oil company, has been sold to parties unknown.
This was done through a dizzying array of shell companies, so that the
most that can be said with certainty now is that the money “paying” for
it was originally loaned out to the shell layers by VTB (the
government’s official bank), even though it’s highly unclear who, if
anyone, would be paying that loan back; and the recipients have been
traced as far as some Cayman Islands shell companies.
Why is this interesting? Because the much-maligned Steele Dossier
(the one with the golden showers in it) included the statement that
Putin had offered Trump 19% of Rosneft if he became president and
removed sanctions. The reason this is so interesting is that the dossier
said this in July, and the sale didn’t happen until early December. And
19.5% sounds an awful lot like “19% plus a brokerage commission.”
Conclusive? No. But it raises some very interesting questions for journalists to investigate.
What does this all mean?
I
see a few key patterns here. First, the decision to first block, and
then allow, green card holders was meant to create chaos and pull out
opposition; they never intended to hold it for too long. It wouldn’t
surprise me if the goal is to create “resistance fatigue,” to get
Americans to the point where they’re more likely to say “Oh, another protest? Don’t you guys ever stop?” relatively quickly.
However, the conspicuous absence of provisions preventing them from executing any of the “next steps” I outlined yesterday,
such as bulk revocation of visas (including green cards) from nationals
of various countries, and then pursuing them using mechanisms being set
up for Latinos, highlights that this does not mean any sort of backing down on the part of the regime.
Note
also the most frightening escalation last night was that the DHS made
it fairly clear that they did not feel bound to obey any court orders. CBP continued to deny
all access to counsel, detain people, and deport them in direct
contravention to the court’s order, citing “upper management,” and the
DHS made a formal (but confusing) statement that they would continue to
follow the President’s orders. (See my updates from yesterday,
and the various links there, for details) Significant in today’s
updates is any lack of suggestion that the courts’ authority played a
role in the decision.
That
is to say, the administration is testing the extent to which the DHS
(and other executive agencies) can act and ignore orders from the other
branches of government. This is as serious as it can possibly get: all
of the arguments about whether order X or Y is unconstitutional mean
nothing if elements of the government are executing them and the courts
are being ignored.
Yesterday was the trial balloon for a coup d’état against the United States. It gave them useful information.
