I want to advance a fanciful theory - an extension of Col. Lang’s question; Perhaps money talks. The test is at the end of this post.
Suppose some very rich folks bought the majority of American media. They control that by influencing who is hired, promoted and fired throughout their networks. Smaller players, internet businesses, etc. are dependent on the larger players for content. They are similarly controlled by the big players.
Now suppose there is also a global foundation, operated by the most skilled politicians of their era. Their business model is simple. They control and operate a global influence network. People with money can buy influence from this network.
The network, which we will call “the respectable tendency”, to borrow Andrew Roberts term, extends deep into worldwide media and perhaps more importantly, public services around the globe. Of course all of this is benign because the purpose of this endeavor is the advancement of planetary human well being. To this end it seamlessly creates or combines with a variety of good causes, to advance its agenda, for example, the advancement of women, minority rights, gay rights, the environmental movement.
Now we come to practical matters. As the behaviourists posit: “where you stand is where you sit” - Miles Law. The foundation lives by this saying and drives it deep into every organ it touches. Be aware that when the foundation touches you it makes a Faustian bargain. You do something for it, one day it returns the favor. For example, you might be asked as a civil servant to do something that is perhaps borderline corrupt. You are found out but no matter; you reappear as a professor at a prestigious University, or a fellow at a think tank, or a media personality on a Tee Vee network or perhaps a judge. The foundation takes great care to ensure it keeps its end of the bargain. It also publicly destroys the careers of those that reject its overtures using whatever weapon comes to hand, for example sexual innuendo, allegations of discrimination, whatever. Fear and greed are its tools.
Lets assume that the foundation has had almost total success in recruiting Congress and the higher ranks of the career public service. There are two exceptions; the first is President Trump who is fireproof against the entreaties of the foundation. More about the other later.
So now let’s look at the events of Trumps Presidency through this lense.
Russiagate - explained.
The illegal and obvious judicial persecution of Flynn and others who have associated with Trump - explained.
The conversion and public recantings of former Trump appointees - explained.
The criticisms of Trump and public professions of love for foundation causes like #metoo and BLM by senior business leaders - explained.
The deliberate frustration of President Trumps agenda by Congress - explained.
The relentless and unjustified criticism of Trump by the media - explained.
As a vignette; Why even today Trumps decision to pull troops out of Germany is criticized by MSN for breaking up a happy relationship with a German town:
”President Donald Trump’s directive to pull 9,500 troops from Germany hits home hard for friends of America like Edgar Knobloch, whose Bavarian town has been home to U.S. service members for seven decades.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-e2-80-99s-troop-plan-stuns-germany-and-rocks-the-postwar-order/ar-BB158oIy
===============
So now we come to recent events.
The criticism of Trump for his Covid19 response, first not fast enough, then too fast and hard - explained.
===============
So now we come to George Floyd. The black community, deliberately oversensitised by the media to the statistically insignificant problem of Police brutality against blacks, arcs up. Their lawmakers, sensing the foundations approval, amplify the BLM message. After all, this is a ticket to righteous reelection or maybe a seat in Congress courtesy of the foundation.
The blacks start looting. President Trump calls for the rule of law to be upheld and promises military assistance if necessary. The foundation springs the trap. This is no longer about BLM, this is about HIM. The media comply.
Actions taken as part of this foundation agenda are deliberate and designed to create a climate of fear, uncertainty and doubt in all Americans.
Threats to defund the police in various states are false. What they are designed to achieve is the perversion of police forces into instruments of political control. The first requirement being the suppression of any white backlash against the black mobs. That is about militias and gun control.
Expect to see more media censorship of anything that contradicts BLM, #metoo, or any other foundation pet cause.
Expect to see more lawmakers, public servants and personalities publicly denounce Trump.
Expect to see each and every national business leader pledge fealty to the foundation on penalty of the destruction of their businesses, careers or both. This will then morph into a requirement to “donate” to BLM and similar good causes as is practiced in most third world countries. That is followed by a requirement to hire and promote minority members for no good reason except political safety.
Expect all investigations into possible malpractice by foundation operatives to stop.
All public institutions will be required to pledge fealty to the foundation, the Universities did this thirty years ago.
Trump, if he is even Presidential Candidate is going to be facing Joe Biden and...Michelle Obama.
The more probable Republican candidate is Romney, who will lose.
=================
And now the exception. The United States Defence Forces. The CJCS Gen. Miley, will now be under intense pressure from the foundation to distance himself as far as possible from the President, perhaps to the point of insubordination. This is a “five days in May 1940” moment although we may never know.
The pressure already got to Esper who folded. The pressure on Miley, IMHO, will be coming from his colleagues and the next rank below them and take the form of extreme fear of massive budget cuts foreshadowed by foundation lawmakers unless the defence forces disavow their Commander in Chief.
===============
The test to watch is which way our Rupert Murdoch jumps. He is renowned for his extremely accurate political antennae.
Lynn Addington
Yes this abyss stares back, but we cannot give up. If what walrus describes is not worth fighting until our last breath, what is? I am sure you feel the same way.
walrus
"This will then morph into a requirement to “donate” to BLM and similar good causes.."
The FT already has the headline "US companies flood civil rights groups with donations". Another sign of religiosity; they seem to have adopted the old Catholic church funding model of indulgences - though as you infer 'protection money' may be a more accurate description.
Were there not Seven Days in May?
Colonel
I may have said so before, please excuse me if so, but if you do not already have arrangements for restoring your blog from a hack which erases the content, I would strongly advise you to do so. As the intensity of this conflict increases dissenting voices everywhere will come under increasing attack. TTG or someone technically proficient will be able to advise, but a regular backup stored offline would be wise IMHO.
Posted by: Barbara Ann | 08 June 2020 at 08:03 AM
Interesting signage Saturday, driving to True Wines for some Old Tom gin and Fever-Free tonic water (hydroxychloroquine: for gin and tonics, prophylactic purposes only). In addition to the expected BLM signs waved all over, at every red light, there were a number of signs reading "Black people are powerful in America now." So busy I had to slow down to read them. They seem to have gotten the bit in their teeth, and are running away with the demonstrations now. Likely go on to 4th of July, IMHO, then forgotten. By then the lockdown should be over also. Let's hope.
Posted by: seward | 08 June 2020 at 10:36 AM
seward
"Fever Tree?" great stuff.
Posted by: turcopolier | 08 June 2020 at 10:55 AM
Business "woke?"
"Woke" corporations?
In many corporations, the people having the ear of the CEO and his/her flunkies are the PR and HR people.
They are mostly lefty and younger (17 going on 40) and feed the (often detached) CEO with fear of losing face and markets if the company doesn't present a "woke" image.
Long term, not good for business as these PR and HR types put ZERO food on the table.
They don't make the product and don't fix the product.
And they couldn't make or fix anything if their lives depended on it.
And remember, more and more corporate executives are products of the left wing indoctrination camps previously known as colleges.
Posted by: TV | 08 June 2020 at 11:34 AM
It is not clear why the Deep State despise Trump? Because he is not slick and is not part of their network? What does not make sense is their visceral hatred, considering from a policy standpoint he's been most supportive. He's backed tax cuts for the top 1%; massive funding for the military-industrial complex; full on zionist policy in ME; backed trillion dollar bailouts for Wall St; acquiesced to the Wuhan virus lockdown; hired card-carrying members of the Deep State in all the critical national security positions; did not declassify the coup attempt; nominated judges that Mitch & the GOP establishment wanted; added a trillion dollars annually to the national debt. Ok, he hasn't started any new wars but surely they can wait another 4 years for their neocon adventures. And he's put on some tariffs on Chinese goods that they can eliminate soon enough. Are they mad at him because he is mean on Twitter?
The GOP is running a very difficult re-election campaign for the Senate. They're defending 23 seats compared to 12 for the Democrats. The Democrats need only a net gain of 4 seats to hold the majority in the Senate. There are many vulnerable Republican senators in this years campaign.
If the Democrats gain a Senate majority, Trump is toast even if he wins re-election. They'll convict him in an impeachment trial as there are enough Republicans like Romney who will vote to convict. The question that every Republican voter needs to ask is what should they expect from a Pence presidency? Back to the good ole days?
Posted by: blue peacock | 08 June 2020 at 11:43 AM
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/weimar-america-soviet-summer-bolshevik-revolution-live-not-by-lies/
"They talk about the similarities between America today and Russia as it careened toward the October Revolution. The piece is behind a subscriber paywall, but below, I will post some excerpts.
Swaim begins by comparing these recent riots to the 1992 L.A. riots:
But perhaps the most striking difference is the rationalization, and sometimes full-throated defense, of violence from left-wing elites: the glorification of havoc, the vilification of cops and their middle-class admirers, highfalutin defenses of vandalism. The sense of revolution and class warfare was everywhere this week: the cognoscenti and underclass arrayed against the petty bourgeois shop owners; the elite and those they claim to represent against everybody else."
I don't know who is behind it and I doubt(know) I cannot figure it out, but I fear this article portrays where we are headed
Posted by: Terence Gore | 08 June 2020 at 12:00 PM
In virtually all instances, calling someone an anti-semite or a racist is a shortcut taken by scoundrels, sometimes in pursuit of political ends, sometimes for personal reasons. Any objective referent to the words went missing in the mists long ago. They reveal more about the accuser than the accused.
Posted by: Flavius | 08 June 2020 at 12:05 PM
blue peacock,
One is dealing with a cult.
Perhaps it should be called ‘Fukuyamism-Lennonism’: using the second term in the sense employed by Michael Barone and Steve Sailer.
(See https://www.unz.com/isteve/lennonism/ .)
Bound up with this is ‘victim culture.’ Ironically, when I first came across this, back in the ‘Seventies, it was among people one might call ‘WASxP’s.
My impression then and since has been that, to a substantial extent, members of the designated ‘victim’ groups actually learned ‘victimhood’ from such people.
The effect is a kind of delirium, afflicting, in different ways, people at the bottom, and top, of the social scale.
However much Trump ‘appeases’ the ‘élite’ elements of this – actually in many ways amorphous - coalition, it remains the case that, culturally, he genuinely does have a lot in common with many of those who feel defeated and excluded.
So his appearance, as it were, ‘out of the blue’, to challenge the ‘duopoly’, was not simply a concrete challenge.
It threatened the central premise of the ‘world view’ of his opponents: that they represented the ‘wave of the future’, and that the ‘deplorables’ were simply relics of discreditable pasts, who were not quite managing to die off fast enough.
None of this means that concrete material – if you like, ‘Marxist’ – ways of analysing these problems are simply irrelevant.
There are very real, and powerful, material interests that are threatened by the ‘revolt of the deplorables’, on both sides of the Atlantic.
But, as ever, those who think that ‘ideology’ can be treated as part of the ‘superstructure’, rae never going to understand what is happening.
Posted by: David Habakkuk | 08 June 2020 at 12:44 PM
Graph of police killings by race
https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/
Posted by: optimax | 08 June 2020 at 02:51 PM
London Bob - the paradox of US corporate virtue-signaling - or is it simply a protection money racket? We live always with the implied threat of black violence which gripped "progressives" who feared the "streets would run with blood if Obama was not elected" in 2008. (Erica Jong and Jane Fonda wailed to national media election eve) It is still with us today as you are witnessing.
Exploring this topic more - corporate virtue signaling is actually veiled admission they were very, very bad people before, and shall promise to never, never do it again: https://www.redstate.com/bradslager/2020/06/08/petsmart-shows-the-risk-as-the-stampede-of-corporate-virtue-regarding-black-lives-matter-takes-place/
Makes me wonder why I would ever want to buy any of their products again - I had no idea they were racist haters. But now I do.
Posted by: Deap | 08 June 2020 at 03:43 PM
Anyone listen to slim dusty these days.it is going to get dusty.hate dust,gets in everywhere.
Also found a copy of Robert ruark's book"old man and the boy".Great writer
Posted by: Mcohenmc | 08 June 2020 at 06:11 PM
David Habakkuk
"Fukuyamism-Lennonism" - perfect, although the adjectival form; Fukuyama-Lennonist is no lesser feat of enunciation.
Yes, Trump's appearance is a challenge to faith in the singular direction of the arrow of progress towards John Lennon's Imagined future. News reporters in particular, a characteristically idealistic lot, are desperate to reject this impediment to the achievement of their manifest destiny; the neo-liberal nirvana.
The other thing I see in Trump which makes him loved and hated to such extremes is the Übermensch. Victim culture seems to me an extreme expression of the long predominant slave morality. Trump himself therefore appears to many as a relic of a discreditable past - where men were not limited by feelings of guilt & victimhood and exercised their will freely.
The teaching of victimhood and the omnipresent news of impending doom the Colonel describes in his latest post, have had a tremendously caustic effect. I see kids disengaging from the world either into their virtual ones, or else turning to a kind of fatalistic hedonism - just as Lennon expressed it "Living for today".
Victim culture & snowflakery is reaching its peak. But as it does so a counter culture is rising - typified in characters like SST's Tyler. I say this without a care as to what Tyler may think of my opinion, as this reinforces exactly the point I am trying to make. Tremendous forces are building up which must give, sooner rather than later.
You may be familiar with the Movie Zardoz - an extraordinary creation of John Boorman featuring a giant floating head vomiting firearms and Sean Connery sporting a loincloth and ponytail throughout. The climatic end scene shows us the Eternals (who are immortal and bored by their docile existence) being willingly slaughtered by the Brutals (the Eternals' name for those outside their dystopian idyll haven, called the Vortex). My feeling is something metaphorically (I hope) similar awaits the Fukuyama-Lennonists, whose world-view has become so completely separated from any objective version of reality.
Posted by: Barbara Ann | 08 June 2020 at 07:43 PM
Colonel,
It appears that Brennan knows all about ANTIFA, he helped in their training and funding in a round about way through some of our partner agencies in Brennan's Syria op. ANTIFA has deep roots connections to AQ through Brennan's Syria op. The FBI has a plethora of info from one of their investigations regarding the establishment's attempt to topple Trump, it was revealed in 2017 in a book by Ezra Klein.
All roads lead to Obamagate.
Trump needs IMO to demand a full brief by Gina regarding it.
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/antifa-trained-by-terrorist-pkk-in-syria-may-end-up-outlawed-in-the-us-36817
ANTIFA's connections to the YPG see photo:
https://twitter.com/s_Allahverdi/status/1267131371220357131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1267131371220357131&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.trtworld.com%2Fmagazine%2Fantifa-trained-by-terrorist-pkk-in-syria-may-end-up-outlawed-in-the-us-36817
Posted by: J | 08 June 2020 at 08:08 PM
The more genuine a grievence the better it can be weaponised for nerarious purposes.
This color revolution is a distraction from Russiagate as well as an attempt to, absurdly, make Old Joe look like a friend to black people.
Posted by: Mathias Alexander | 09 June 2020 at 02:44 AM
“It threatened the central premise of the ‘world view’ of his opponents: that they represented the ‘wave of the future’, and that the ‘deplorables’ were simply relics of discreditable pasts,..”
David,
I buy this thesis.
I’m curious what your experience was with WASP “victim hood” in the 70s?
As Col. Lang has noted many times and as millennia of history shows, lurking in every human is a savage. Lennonism of course is utopianism that many artists express as a sentiment of longing during tumultuous times. I noticed during the 60s this evolution to a certain perceived superiority towards technocracy. Data processing began to be “stylish”. Feeding those punch cards into IBM computers. All those “tronic” words in advertising. Then of course there was the underbelly of social discord. The emotional conflict of righteousness vs the reality of the inequality at home and the war in a distant land with no clear objective.
It appears to me that we shifted towards a certain duplicity. Symbolism and appearances became a tool to obfuscate more base intentions.
Throughout the 80s and 90s I noticed a marked shift to short-term gains as the primary measure of success and the growth of financial leverage to bring forward future value. Asset strippers became celebrities and celebrities became opinion leaders. Financiers became more powerful as they enabled great wealth rapidly. The idea of building multi-generational enterprises fell away as the spell of cashing out quickly became more popular. With it also the notion of building a better future for the next generations. The measure became current consumption not savings to fuel future investments.
I’ve been intrigued by Gen. Sir John Glubb’s note in the late 70s The Fate of Empires where he theorized that the beginning of decline of a society is when decadence sets in and celebrities are venerated. What is intriguing to me is the globalization of “pop” culture. My grandkids tell me that kids from around the world have similar interactions using similar metaphors and language.
Trump is a product of and has exploited this celebrity culture. Yet as you say he connected culturally with those defeated and left behind in the wave of financialization. Why? He has no personal experience of the travails of these people. He grew up with wealth but always an “outsider” to the circles of the Manhattan aristocracy.
Ric Grenell said it well, there’s a circle or cult as you call it that encompasses those in media and entertainment, top officials in government, the political leadership class and the financial elite. They know each other. Their kids go to the same schools. They socialize together. The first thing Barack and Michelle did on leaving the White House was to cavort with Richard Branson in the Caribbean. Bill & Hillary hanging out with Trump and Melania. The whole Epstein intrigue around the rape of young girls by this group including Prince Andrew.
It is in this context that I echo blue peacock’s bewilderment why this hatred by this group towards Trump? He is in many ways one of them. He has done nothing to attack their privilege. They have profited greatly during his term. The only explanation I have is their distaste in his crassness which is exposing the duplicity of the elites.
Posted by: Jack | 09 June 2020 at 03:28 AM
Lynn Addington
What is the "Q team?"
Posted by: turcopolier | 09 June 2020 at 10:25 AM
I cannot "wrap my head around it" (I hate this phrase - btw.) that Trump would be thrown under the bus, for all the wonderful things he has done for Israel. Is the "Deep State" all comprised of "antisemites", who want punish Trump for his good deeds?
Posted by: fanto | 09 June 2020 at 03:15 PM
Barbara Ann
Zardoz is the second worst movie ever made, Plan 9 From Outer Space takes first. Women like seeing a young Sean Connery wear a diaper in the movie.
Posted by: optimax | 09 June 2020 at 10:01 PM
optimax
Come on, a man-made fake God who commands "The gun is good. The penis is evil. Go forth and kill" - what's not to like? I'd not put Zardoz up for any Oscars - the dialog is dreadful and they overdid the psychedelic scenes (this was 1974). But I did enjoy the premise that a utopian enclave created to insulate a race of immortal people from Nature would eventually lead to the natural order being restored by their wishing for death. I also liked seeing the Webley-Fosbery Connery wields in action. Same gun that features in The Maltese Falcon, but in the larger .455 caliber. Boorman's choice of an evolutionary dead end firearm was no accident, I expect. It's a cult classic whose time has yet to come.
My advice is watch it while you can - HBO Max just took down Gone With the Wind from their streaming service because, get this; "It is a film that glorifies the antebellum South".
Posted by: Barbara Ann, aka Arthur Frayn | 10 June 2020 at 04:56 AM
optimax
I should have added; the choice of the magnificently mournful 2nd movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony as soundtrack is a big plus in the film's favor.
Posted by: Barbara Ann | 10 June 2020 at 06:09 AM
BA
Boorman made some great movies, Point Blank and Deliverance come to mind but not Zardoz.
All copies of GWTW must be burned along with any other unapproved by BLM version of fiction. History has already been rewritten with new lies. Heard some white kid say, "A new world will rise from the ashes of the old." I thought, you'll get it kid--good and hard.
Posted by: optimax | 10 June 2020 at 02:01 PM
@ tedrichard
What do you mean the "next" war? Russia is already making war - in Ukraine.
"the russians have stated in no uncertain terms through their published war doctrine.........if a war is inevitable and CAN NOT be avoided"...
Right, if Russia gets out of Ukraine, war will be INEVITABLE, because NATO will immediately launch Barbarossa II, which they've been chafing at the bit to do forever.
"then america gets a taste of what the russians and chinese have suffered."
Sounds like you'd like that, ted. Which means I trust you as much as I'd trust a Russian peace negotiator.
Posted by: Kilo 4/11 | 14 June 2020 at 05:13 AM
walrus
Alastair Crooke's most recent article for Strategic Culture links to your piece. He adopts your thesis of the global influence network (he uses the term 'dark syndicate') and introduces several other themes in a discussion about the power plays & ideologies vying for control in America right now.
To my eyes, Crooke's most interesting point (one I have been thinking about myself) is the challenge the woke revolutionaries pose to the dark syndicate - specifically its patronage network. Here is the relevant extract:
He goes on to ask whether the 40+ year old "Old Guard liberals" seeing the coming Woke Terror for the fundamental attack on America that it is, may reluctantly side with Trump in November - lest they follow the conservatives to the scaffold.IMHO there is much interesting discussion to be had around this theme and I wondered whether Col. Lang may want to republish Crooke's piece, or alternatively, whether you may be interested in picking up the salients point in a future post of your own. I think you will enjoy the read in any case.
Posted by: Barbara Ann | 17 June 2020 at 07:12 AM