US historians on what Donald Trump's legacy will be

Understanding Trump

Thoughts in and around geopolitics.

By George Friedman | Geopolitical Futures | January 14, 2021

U.S. President Donald Trump’s supporters and detractors are both obsessed with him. They share the belief that everything that has happened is because of him. His supporters believe his staying in office is crucial to the survival of the country. His opponents believe his removal is. The certainty of these facts among each group is both astounding and misguided. Trump did not create this moment. He was created by the moment. Trump was neither the key to solving America’s problems nor the key to causing them.

As I have argued on numerous occasions, there are powerful social, economic and institutional forces drawing their power from the pyramiding divisions within our society. Trump is a byproduct of those forces. It has been noted many times by those close to the first family that Trump was surprised that he won – he had been negotiating with Fox to create a new network after the election – and that his wife wept when she realized she would be first lady. I was not there to validate this, but it is well known he was negotiating his next move a few weeks before the election.

Trump ran a brilliant albeit unintended campaign. He bested Republican candidates drawn from the corporate party, relatively indifferent to the needs of a definable class of Americans who believed they were being left behind. Obviously, Trump being a spokesman for sexual rectitude, as an example, was a stretch. But he spoke the language of the declining class. Unlike all of the other candidates, he showed emotion, even malice. The carefully scripted talking points of Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz were swept aside by the visceral nastiness he was prepared to deal in. The declining class did not need another champion who crafted their defense clearly without having the ability to fight for it. Trump would fight for them, even if he never intended to live their lives. The voters accepted his hypocrisy on traditional morality in exchange for his advocacy. They accepted his lies because they had found a champion who would fight to win.

A critical moment in Hillary Clinton’s campaign famously came when she spoke of the “deplorables” who supported Trump. She didn’t grasp that she was disparaging about half of the country. And this was the key. Her supporters saw themselves as invulnerable, powerful and with only a handful of losers opposing their values. They simply did not understand how divided the country was or how embattled they actually were. If Trump was stunned when he won, so were all his enemies. It was inconceivable that such an abnormal man might be president; they were incapable of understanding how his supporters despised their normalcy.

Many politicians shape their beliefs to match the voters. Trump shaped his soul to validate and give hope to this era’s dispossessed – economically, socially and morally. More precisely, his soul remained what it always was: ruthlessly opportunistic. He didn’t have to change who he was; he could just be a hired gun who could win elections. His voters were much more than they were given credit for. They had hired a mercenary to fight for them, to lie when it was necessary, to slander those who slandered them, to write new rules for the political battlefield. And yet, he lost the 2020 election. He could not stand losing, and his supporters could not stand losing him. This, of course, included a group of extreme worshippers who attacked the Capitol.

He will leave office with the Democratic Party still obsessed with him. It’s a curious fixation, but the Democrats have the right target. The segment of society that mobilized itself and hired Trump is still out there, still enraged by the assault on them for decades, and still mourning their loss of Trump. Joe Biden is of little importance. His job is to be normal, and he will do it well. The more difficult job is to defeat Trumpism, to disabuse those who believe the Biden victory is a conspiracy against them. Trump, then, was happy to make certain he would leave office looking like a martyr for his supporters.

It is his supporters who challenge what has become normal. That class remains intact. Trump does not have to hold office to lead them, and indeed out of office he could be stronger. Trump draws his power from two sources: speaking to the disenchanted and inciting his opponents to attack him. His great skill is in making himself so hated that everything revolves around him. A second impeachment plays right into his hands. But the Democrats have never understood Trump’s power. They think that beating him in an election and impeaching him defeats him. So long as the Democrats regard those who voted for him as deplorables, rather than the other half of America, they will always find another Trump.

Original here.

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Colonel W. Patrick Lang (pl) closed his Facebook page.

     I have voluntarily closed my FB page.
     I do not want to participate in the censorship circus.
     pl

Read it here.

FIM

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Pat Lang | Sic Semper Tyrannis | January 15, 2021at 07:56 PM | Here 
Colonel W. Patrick Lang is a retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces (The Green Berets). He served in the Department of Defense both as a serving officer and then as a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service for many years. He is a highly decorated veteran of several of America’s overseas conflicts including the war in Vietnam. He was trained and educated as a specialist in the Middle East by the U.S. Army and served in that region for many years. He was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. In the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) he was the “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism,” and later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service.” For his service in DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” This is the equivalent of a British knighthood. He is an analyst consultant for many television and radio broadcasts.

I have voluntarily closed my FB page.
I do not want to participate in the censorship circus.
pl

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June 2019 Gulf of Oman incident

The problem with lies is that liars become addicted to lie, develop into compulsive liars and end up believing their own lies.

Read it here.

FIM

Satanic Logo

World Satanic Society
       2020 Year-End Report

Dmitry Orlov | Club Orlov | December 30, 2020

Fellow-Satanists, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen! The year 2020 has been a banner year for our society and for His Satanic Majesty! [Applause]

Our major success of 2020, of course, was in locking down half the planet by hyping a not-too-dangerous respiratory virus that's mostly dangerous for the old and the sick with the help of Satanic Minion Tedros Adhanom Boutros-Boutros-Boutros Ghebreyesus at our affiliate World Health Organization. This has allowed us to proactively set in motion a controlled demolition of the global economy. It stands to greatly enrich our members, whereas the inevitable spontaneous collapse would have wiped us out. [Enthusiastic applause, shouts of “Bravo!”]

Still, we must not grow complacent; the virus ploy will stop working for us at some point. We do not want to find ourselves in the situation of a Boutros-Boutros-Boutros who cried wolf one time too many! The hype is wearing off already. The use of the term “lockdown” was unfortunate; after all, it is US prison slang for locking inmates in their cells. Plus those damnable Russians seem to have developed their Sputnik-V, a vaccine that actually works. Now everybody seems to want it instead of our preferred toxic, fertility-destroying potions. Still, it brought tears of joy to many a Satanist's face watching millions of people wear face masks and stand 1,5 meters apart just as shown in Stanley Kubrik's excellent film “Eyes Wide Shut” starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. [Confused looks; some stifled guffaws, a smattering of applause]

Our other major success of this past year has been in installing Kamala Harris, a fellow-Satanist code-named “Matilda,” as the leader of the free world. Like virtually all of His Satanic Majesty's maidservants, Kamala is barren, or, if you prefer, “child-free.” To be fruitful and multiply requires God’s grace and, needless to say, God is not exactly on our side. By the way, this is why we are always looking for new blood, preferably the blood of Christian children. It helps our members remain active to an obscenely old age. Henry Kissinger and George Soros have had their fill. Joe Biden is waiting for his transfusion now. [Laughter]

Installing “Matilda” (her code name immortalized by her Jamaican compatriot Harry Belafonte) has been a gargantuan task for our members and their allies and minions in the Democratic Party and the Deep State. But it all worked out thanks to the wonderful US public education system. It has produced several generations of Americans who can barely count on their fingers and toes. Were they able to do basic arithmetic, they would have spotted the problem: 74 million votes for Trump plus 81 million votes for Biden gives us 155 million votes total. But there were only 153 million registered voters just two years ago, so that's 101% voter turn-out. And then 160 million are said to have voted, so that's 104.5% turn-out! Compare that to 55.7% turn-out in the 2016 election. [Furrowed brows, nervously twitching fingers and toes]

There is no way to make the numbers make any sense. Since 2016 the US population grew by just under 8 million. Optimistically assuming half of them became eligible to vote; that would add 4 million to the rolls. Optimistically assuming all of them actually registered to vote, that would only make 157 million. Accept the reported stunning voter turn-out number for 2020 of 66.7%. That's just under 105 million votes total—nowhere near then 160 million number that has been reported. If Trump got 74 million votes, as reported, then just 31 million votes would be the theoretical maximum for Biden—less then half as many as for Trump. [Stunned silence]

So how could Biden and Harris have won? Easy! The same way it was possible to knock down three New York skyscrapers using two airplanes on 9/11. If the people haven’t been taught to count, you can get them to believe just about anything! [Laughter, applause]

And so, barring an act of God, “Matilda” will be installed as Queen of the White House while Joe Biden, kept alive by the blood of Christian infants, will just sign his name and say “Yes, Madam Vice President” whenever “Matilda” pokes him with a stick. The possibility of an act of God is not to be excluded, of course; remember Sodom and Gomorrah. Nevertheless, we should expect that this particular reincarnation of “Matilda” will get crowned with all due pomp and circumstance and proceed to get fat in America just another “Matilda,” in the inspired words of Hugh Masekela, “gettin’ fat in Africa.” And then, of course, she’ll follow the script and “take the money and run to Venezuela…” [Stunned gasps]

...because, you see, she’ll have to! By the end of her term there won’t be much of a country for her to continue to get fat in. And this brings us to the final traditional part of the year-end report: the forecast. According to our Satanist friends at Deagel.com (lovely understated Satanic logo, by the way, kudos to the designers!) by 2025 the United States will lose 70% of its population, 92% of its real GDP and its economy will be slightly smaller than that of Mexico. Meanwhile, China will remain the world’s largest economy, growing slightly, while Russia and India will skyrocket to rank second and third. The world rankings will look quite different. Germany will find itself somewhere between Chile and South Africa. Switzerland and the United Kingdom (should this silly anachronism still exist) will rank somewhere between Slovakia and Greece. The Swedes will be poorer than the Romanians... and so on. The world is changing before our eyes and nothing will ever be the same. [Stunned silence]

We should take hope, however, because we can be sure that this changed world will provide ample Devil’s playgrounds for us Satanists in the formerly rich but soon to be destitute nations of the world. Yes, what with the China-Russia tandem pretty much in charge of the entire globe, we will be cast out into the darkness from the Eurasian heartland and forced to hang on at the edges of the world, but before that happens we’ll have quite a feast! Tuck in, friends! The Satanic buffet is open!1

FIM