The Trump/Bernie charade

Time and again now, in personal dealings, on Facebook, on radio and TV, I am seeing self-imagined intelligent people saying derogatory things about Donald Trump.

On the other side of that coin are the same type people saying kind things about Bernie Sanders.

It is media manipulation, writ large. You’re being diddled, folks. Statements by Trump and Sanders are being magnified by news media and entertainers and aimed at target audiences.

Trump’s (scripted) comments are for reactionary right wingers, a significant portion of the population. His intemperate remarks on immigrants, foreigners in general, building walls and anti-trade agreements are calculated to get a rise out of that crowd. He’s fake.

Sanders’ (scripted) remarks are for deluded liberals and progressives. His incantations are for policies that he surely knows will never see light of day in our business-run country: public-sponsored health care and higher education, anti-trade agreements and taxation of oligarchs. This is all calculated to get a rise out of the NPR/PBS set. He’s fake.

Reactionaries and liberals and progressives are being herded in opposing camps for one purpose: the selection and then election of Hillary as the next president. It is classic divide and conquer. Yes, the office of president has no power, but public opinion can create problems for the rulers, and so has to be maneuvered into submission.

The Trump/Sanders gambit is immensely clever. It was masked in a hoard of candidates, all of whom dutifully stepped aside when ordered to do so, leaving us with what we see now: Two shills and Hillary. (I doubt very much that reported vote counts in primaries are even close to accurate.)

The American public is polled incessantly, our attitudes and ideas constantly held under the microscope. If you want to see some of this polling, which is not published, consult the Council on Foreign Relations.

The purpose of the polling is only for management purposes. The oligarchs and their puppet politicians exist in a sphere far to the right of public opinion, but they do need to know and understand their enemy, the American public. So the job of media is to be sure Americans feel an effective blowing off of steam through elections, but realize no change in public policies.

It is herd management, nothing more. Public policy, after all, is none of our damned business.

8 thoughts on “The Trump/Bernie charade”

  1. Maybe you’re coming around.

    THE BARNHARDT AXIOM:

    The fact that a given person is holding or seeking high-level public office is, in and of itself, proof that said person is morally and/or psychologically UNFIT to hold public office.

    The Barnhardt Axiom.

    You realize this applies every bit as strongly to Trump too, right? Tell me you are not so stupid as to believe for one second that Trump would actually do ANY of the things he is talking about. He’s just smart enough to know what y’all want to hear, and is saying it. You know how I know that Trump will never follow through on anything he is saying?

    BECAUSE. HE. IS. RUNNING. FOR. POLITICAL. OFFICE. IN. A. NATION. THAT NO. LONGER. EXISTS.

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    2. Swede, you don’t begin to capture my views: I am saying that the whole campaign, beginning to end, is a Kabuki Dance, that the polls are fake and the votes are not even counted. The winner was selected long ago, and at this time appears to be Hillary. (I am not an insider, so cannot know things for sure. That is how it appears to me at this time. Trump does not appear to be controllable enough to be allowed to hold public office.)

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      1. If it’s all Kabuki and nothing’s what it seems then we aren’t a nation.

        We’re sheep voting for shepherds who provide food, shelter and slaughter.

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        1. Been that way most of our lives, Swede. Welcome to harsh, cold reality.

          I really cannot speak to anything before 1950, but I have read of shenanigans and coup attempts and false flag events going back, now, to 1865. In my time, elections were stolen in 1948, 1960, 2000, 2004 … by that time electronic machinery was in place in enough precincts to assure that all future elections could be stolen, if necessary. I imagine since 2004 there has not been an honest vote count anywhere, unless no one cared about an outcome.

          But before that time, in Dade County, Florida, in the early 70s, two brothers, the Colliers, noticed that there were instantaneous results posted on TV news shows even as the voting machines had not yet been tallied. Unfortunately, that information is hidden away … in a book.

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