December 2019

“When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped up in an American flag.”

—Arthur Kinoy, Co-founder of the Center for Constitutional Rights

Most Americans probably believe that Trump is corrupt.

But, apparently, it doesn’t matter. Trump is television. And television has no responsibility to be moral. TV exists to sell products. Like Trump.

He has sold his stuff continuously for 18 years—four on Fox & Friends, 14 on the Apprentice, and the last four on the one-man show, I’m The President on nearly every channel every day and night.

The thing that’s historically unique about Trump as TV is that it has its own roadshow, a traveling medicine show more than 300,000 Americans have gone to see in person in 2019 alone, more than a million in four years.

This year, he has done three big arena shows in Florida, two in Texas, North Carolina, and Louisiana.  One each in Michigan Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Hampshire, New Mexico, Minnesota, Mississippi and Kentucky.

None in California, New York, Illinois, or New Jersey.

Each rally is a major production, like a free concert by the TV idol. (They do pay for parking, food, and drinks.)

I wasn’t around to see Mussolini’s rallies, but they had a similar look.      

 

I’ve watched a couple Trump rallies on CSPAN lately.  The closing credits remind us that it is brought to you by “Trump for President Inc.”

I understand it in a way I hadn’t before…the link between this TV star and personal appearances.    

The hype machine landed in Sunrise, Florida, the second-largest arena in the Southeast, on November 26.

The stage is a set. The seal of the president is larger than anything else on the screen. In the background, stand a dozen or so supporters, who are carefully selected. Some are paid to be there.  Most have red hats “KEEP AMERICA GREAT.” Five African American men in white t-shirts that say “BLACK VOICES FOR TRUMP.” A few women, black and white, are holding up signs behind him “WOMEN FOR TRUMP.”  They all have proof they were there on their cell phones.

As the one-hour-plus plays out, several look like they’re bored, looking at their phones; not paying attention to what he’s saying; looking around the arena; reading off his TelePrompter and mouthing the words just before he says them. 

It’s a free TV show starring one of the all-time masters of TV, staged by the TV packagers who have produced his shows for years. It’s all according to the formula they have perfected.

(I took notes on some of what he said that the audience lapped up.  Hearing it and seeing it is preferable for the very reason that it’s TV and he is TV and it’s watched on big TVs in the arenas.  It’s all here: https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-kag-rally-sunrise-florida-november-26-2019)

Here’s some of what he said:

We were in the limousine in Washington after the inauguration…I turned to the first lady who has been doing a great job, and said: ‘Melania, Do you believe it?  I’m the president.’

I got elected and I beat the Bush dynasty, and we beat the Clinton dynasty, and then we beat Barack Hussein Obama, and whatever dynasty he is.

I got tens of thousands of people I didn’t want all over Washington.

But, we have a great cabinet.  And I’ve done the most important thing a president can do: appoint good federal judges and we have 130 of them with many more to come. Hopefully we have another five years to go… at least.

We’ve done much more than I thought we’d do. The stock market hit another all time high and everyone’s getting rich. We did nothing wrong with Ukraine. They take this perfect phone call and they want to impeach the president. Our poll numbers are through the roof. Shifty Schiff has had his day. It’s a terrible hoax That ambassador: everybody knows he made it all up. It’s game-over.

Just look at Sleepy Joe…and Hunter Biden made millions with that corrupt Ukrainian company. And then he goes to  China. Hunter who never made any money until his father was Vice President.  He has walked away with millions. The fake news won’t tell you but it’s a terribly corrupt story.

We’re stuck with sick and corrupt people. Every day we’re showing how corrupt Washington is. We’re exposing a rigged system. Sean Hannity says he doesn’t know anyone in the world anyone could take all the crap that Trump has taken

Crazy Democrats gonna go down in a landslide next year. And that landside will start in the great state of Florida.

Here’s a story about the fake news; We went to Walter Reed Medical center for a checkup.  The press is all following me on a bus.  They started with the lies before I even got back to the White House…stupid corrupt horrible CNN

The corrupt press said I had a massive heart attack…if you have a heart attack they keep you in the hospital for a while…like six weeks. If I didn’t feel great I wouldn’t be here ranting and raving in front of 22,000 people the same week.

And the hearings?  We’ve had a terrific two weeks…we had no right to due process, no lawyers or to speak. It’ll walk us right through the election.

The horrible Washington Post…we don’t want anybody to read it.  And the New York Times…all fake news.

Marco Rubio is a great guy  The governor of Florida is the most popular anywhere.

The travel ban…it will be supported by the Supreme Court.

I will not allow political correctness to put our families in danger and our communities at risk.

We’re keeping criminals out of our country. We’ve taken thousands and thousands of MS-13 gang members and sent them the hell where they came from. I made a mistake. I should have said we won’t build a wall and the Democrats would have said we have to build a wall.

Republicans believe the streets of our country should be for our working people, not for illegal immigrants. And we’ll keep health care for people like you, not for immigrants. We will protect your right to preexisting conditions

We’re bringing lower drug prices and the right to go to doctors of your choice.

Democrats: they support late-term abortion, ripping them from their mother. We believe every child is a child of God.

And their debate… terrible boring TV. There wasn’t a Democrat on that stage who had the guts to tell the truth.

We’re fighting against communism and socialism and support the people in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba. I promise you: America will never be a socialist country

Will our country be ruled by the corrupt Democrats who get their support from the horrible corrupt fake news?

The greatest nation in the history of the world and we are making it greater than ever before. Proud citizens, like you, helped build this country and together we are taking back our country and we’re taking it back from some very very bad people. We are returning power to you, the American people, with your help, your devotion and your drive.

We are going to keep on working, we are going to keep on fighting and we are going to keep on winning, winning, winning. We are one movement, one people, one family, and one glorious nation, under God. Our beautiful America is thriving like never before and, ladies and gentlemen, the best is yet to come. Together, we will together make America wealthy again.

That’s happening. We will make America strong again. That’s happened. We will make America proud again. That’s happening and has happened. We will make America safe again, and we will make America great again. Thank you Florida. Thank you very much.”

It’s amazing to see and read these self-serving assertions that could never pass a true/false test. He spouts them in arenas in every state he is targeting for 2020.  Every day, he repeats the words so often that by now, they become HIS truth…and millions believe them.

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prop·a·gan·da

/ˌpräpəˈɡandə/

noun

Information that is used primarily to influence and further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be presenting facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis of perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than rational response.

–Encyclopedia Brittanica

 

  Obama blasted Trump for “Making stuff up.”

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Trump has a great formula. Loaded with his TV-driven persona, enhanced by his 11,000+ tweets to more than 50 million followers, he has furthered his agenda as nobody ever has in American history.

How can he be stopped?  Impeachment in the House can only be a glancing blow. It will undoubtedly be followed by rejection in Mitch McConnell’s Senate and we’ll be right where we’ve been.

The election in 11 months looks like the only way to end the spiral. To beat him, it will take 270 votes in the Electoral College. He and his strategists have been concentrating on those numbers every way they can devise.

At this moment, it looks like the Democrats are flailing around. They will likely win in every city over 500,000, as they did in 2016.  Will it matter in the Electoral College? Only if a whole lot more people vote AGAINST Trump, as they did in 2018 mid-term elections. 

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I didn’t have any preconceived notion that this edition of the PY-O-MY Letter/Weinberg House Organ would wind up as it has. Watching the rallies and getting an understanding of his impact, I was overcome with fear for our future. Please tolerate me for the insight into our present that consumed my thinking and writing.

Next month, I’ll do my best to deck the halls with boughs of jolly and the visions of sugar plums dancing in our children’s heads. Until then, stay strong, healthy and don’t believe the hype.

P.S. Do you think the story that Black Friday started as the day after Thanksgiving in the 1800’s when slaveowners could get the best discounts of the year in slave markets?  Not sure I do, but many believe it’s the root of our white-washed past and consumption-dominated present.