Trump literally standing before an Israeli flag and vowing to kill free speech for Israeli interests makes a lie of everything the “MAGA movement” says it stands for, exposing it for the scam it’s always been.
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at joint press conference, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (Official White House Photo by Benjamin D. Applebaum)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.
There’s a video of Donald Trump going around where he says — while standing in front of an Israeli flag — that in his first week in office he’s going to stomp out “anti-semitic propaganda” on university campuses throughout the United States.
As anyone who’s been paying attention knows, this of course means stomping out speech that is critical of Israel and its genocidal atrocities.
This clip has sparked controversy on social media, but the funny thing is it’s actually a resurrected older clip from a Trump campaign event back in September. Trump was elected while openly campaigning against free speech, even as his supporters promoted him as a champion of free speech. He campaigned on jailing flag burners as well, for the record.
Trump literally standing before an Israeli flag and vowing to kill free speech for the advancement of Israeli information interests makes a lie of everything the so-called “MAGA movement” has ever claimed to stand for and exposes it for the scam it has always been.
Meanwhile, Trump supporters are already falling all over themselves to justify his warmongering cabinet picks and his vow to crack down on freedom of assembly on college campuses, and he’s not even president yet.
These people will put zero pressure on Trump to end wars and fight authoritarianism. They’ll bootlick and make excuses throughout the entire four years, just like they did last time. They’re not anti-establishment populists, they just want to feel like anti-establishment populists.
Did Musk Meet Iranian Envoy?
On Thursday The New York Times reported that Elon Musk had met with the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations on behalf of the incoming Trump administration to discuss the possibility of easing tensions in the Middle East, much to the delight of Trump supporters everywhere.
On Saturday CNN reported that Iran says no meeting took place between its U.N. ambassador and Elon Musk, and the Financial Times reports that the Trump administration is actually set to ramp up aggressions against Iran as soon as Trump takes office.
Trump supporters have been citing the Musk story as evidence that Trump plans to make peace with Iran, and you can expect them to either ignore the Financial Times story or spin it as some 87-D chess maneuver designed to promote “peace through strength”.
Anyone who spends their time defending any U.S. president against criticisms of their depraved empire servitude is a pathetic power-worshipping bootlicker. It’s an embarrassing, undignified way to live, and Trump apologists should feel bad about it.
AOC’S ‘Anti-War’ Schtick
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks to the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2024. (C-Span still)
And then there’s Instagram progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declaring on MSNBC that Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for intelligence chief, is “pro-war” despite her efforts to present herself as anti-war.
This is one of those statements that’s dishonest when it comes out of the mouth of the person saying it but would be true if someone else said it.
It’s true that Gabbard is a warmongering genocide apologist who backs all the evil things Biden is doing in the Middle East right now, but she’s less of a warmonger than the murderous swamp monsters AOC spent the last year endorsing and campaigning for.
Gabbard at least promoted diplomacy over war in Ukraine while AOC herself promoted and defended the U.S. proxy war from the word go.
AOC’s whole schtick is talking the talk of an anti-imperialist socialist while walking the walk of a standard empire lackey, and this is another good example of this.
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This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
It doesn’t matter who is President. Since Israel inserted Lyndon Baines Johnson as POTUS, it has been nearly impossible to be elected to Congress or President without being Kosher certified. Appointments flow from that. The USA, like Germany, has an occupation government. The rest of the (((Western liberal democracies))) are really no better off, it is just less obvious. Get used to it
Israel “inserted” LBJ as President? That’s quite a claim. Do you have evidence to support this?
How often do presidents keep their promises?
He said he LOVES! WikiLeaks!
Maybe he loves Israel the same way?
Yep. Presidents never keep the promises they direct at ordinary people.
I still think that Democrats are more redeemable than Republicans, but this is a potential only, so I hope that flop of the current Democratic strategy will change something for better in the next election cycle. Unfortunately, the low hanging fruit could win elections while keeping “the old boss” in place.
Point one: pay attention to the presentational ability. Eschewing or crudely manipulating primaries allows to run with candidates scrapped from the bottom of the barrel, and this is exactly what happened.
Formulate attractive messages — and for that, some attractive policies are necessary. Do not rely on economic indicators and amount of political cash that can be collected.
——
That alone could produce another Obama or Bill Clinton (before he got rich by imitating retired Tony Blair), although decades long program to find unoriginal half-wits for all possible elected positions presents a tough challenge. Would Klobuchar outshine Harris AND Trump?
The Dem Party can’t be reformed. Both Parties work for Wall Street. Stop kidding yourself. I know this means the only way forward is a revolution, but that’s what is needed.
On purely literal level, MAGA could be justified, but “America First”, no so much if the first self-imposed task is about Israel, and violating allegedly cherished American principles (First Amendment etc.)
I will be interested to see if criticizing Netanyahu directly, rather than Israel, is a way to get around this frankly bad policy idea? And yes, I voted for Trump. Doesn’t mean I expect him to do everything I want but at least there’s a chance we can stop at least one god awful war.
In any case, Netanyahu and his party will have to be removed in whatever way possible.
You will reap what you helped to sow.
Unfortunately , the rest of us also will.
Aw, let them be. They were only doing what they believed to be best, like all of us try to do, don’t we? Whoever one votes for in the West, Zionism gets the vote. It takes some people longer than others to discern that pattern is all, let’s not fault them for it, eh?
Better to guide than chide, IMHO.
There is NO chance, under Trump, of stopping any wars. If anything, they get worse.
Yes, Trump is a problem… but he is not THE problem!
You want a problem? Take this one:
hxxps://www.ft.com/content/cc565d8e-e5c2-4b04-9b61-b05fb8edcb49
“US President Joe Biden has authorised Ukraine to launch limited strikes into Russia using US-supplied long-range missiles, in a big policy shift before the end of his White House term in January, two people familiar with the decision said.”
America, and its 51st state, have just declared that ‘press spokespeople’ are legitimate targets of war. Today’s big announcement is the successful assassination of the ‘press spokesperson’ of a political party in Lebanon that does not toe the American line.
This of course comes after the massive campaign against journalists. 200 or so dead across the Occupied Territories and Lebanon. Russia has filed an official complaint against UNESCO because UNESCO did a report on the dangers to journalists and failed to mention the 30 or so dead Russian journalists that have died largely from NATO high-explosives of various forms of delivery.
The American military has long spoken of ‘Information War’. This now apparently includes killing journalists, press spokespeople, and bombing TV stations, as all have occurred in recent weeks. America’s War on Thought Crime is becoming highly kinetic. All of this while America expresses its full and unlimited support for its partners no matter what they do.
Meanwhile, if anyone takes a job as a ‘press spokesmen’, just realize that America says that the modern rules of war say that Press Spokespersons are a legitimate target of war because of their thought crimes. Those are apparently now the Rules of the Rules Based Order. Press spokespeople may commit thought crime, which is saying anything that disagrees with Wall Street. This of course is a capital offense in the world of capital. So, be careful out there.
Even the war-monger Chuchhill said “jaw, jaw is better than war, war”, which apparently is supposed to translate as talking is better than war. But, the Free World disagrees, and sends bombs stenciled “made in the USA” to the kill the talkers.
It was “jaw jaw is better than war-war,” if memory serves me.
As predicted: The R crowd is just as delusional, just as pathetic as the D crowd. All the wishful thinking, excuses and BS does not change the facts that the DT is just as rabidly genocidal as the other cognitively-challenged geriatric crook that he is replacing. The D/R Bipartisan Consensus will continue to support the genocide, cut taxes for oligarchy, impose illegal economic siege warfare on Venezuela, Cuba, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Russia, China etc. etc. and the R faithful will make pathetic excuses, while the Ds blame the Rs for doing the same as they do. We have entered the Twilight Zone.
As Caitlin mentions, – all this is happening JUST LIKE LAST TIME. Fool folks once, shame on you, fool folks twice, shame on them: The US is a nation of gullible suckers.
Meanwhile, neither party will address the ongoing health care crisis, housing crisis, environmental crisis, infrastructure crisis, and the already perverse hoarding of all the wealth and power by the 1%. Instead, they will spend untold more billions on wars, proxy wars and provocations against Yemen, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Venezuela, Cuba, Palestine, Russia, China etc. while the US slowly rots.
Just as Biden said when he started his tenure: there will be no change. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. It’s like Groundhog Day that continues for decades… until the final Decline and Fall of the US empire.
One good thing though: although a lifelong con-man and bullshitter, the DT is a more honest face of US policy: ignorant, loud-mouthed, mendacious, obnoxious, abrasive, bigoted, and an all-around asshole.
Yes indeed. TIS (Trump Infatuation Syndrome) is the obverse of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome).
Groundhog Day won’t continue for decades. The defectives who orchestrate this death of 2 or more dance steps are slaves of the unmentionable. REASON HAS LEFT.