Queen Hillary No Longer Amused By Mr. Trump

“I no longer think he is funny,” opines Hillary Clinton, presumptive Democratic nominee for president and next in line in the Clinton Regency. [1]

When exactly was Trump funny?

Apparently what makes him no longer funny is his most recent spate of demagogic outrages, this time directed against Muslims.

Clinton was referring to TV late night comedy shows allegedly ridiculing him. I know that the granddaddy of that genre, Saturday Night Live, in fact promoted Trump by having him on as a guest host, and took a few toothless nibbles at him. You can't say they pulled their punches because they didn't throw any. [2]

Trump has been attacking Muslims in a series of escalating threats, first saying mosques need to be monitored, then that all Muslims should be tracked, and now that Muslims must be barred from entering the U.S. This last one was Trump taking advantage of the mass killing in San Bernardino, California, by a young couple of Pakistani extraction (U.S. citizens, so banning foreign Muslims would be irrelevant in that case) who killed 14 people (co-workers of the husband) and wounded 17 others. (Police subsequently gunned them down.) The media has kept the pot boiling ever since, with obsessive, pointless “coverage” of the event-free aftermath. (A big coup was broadcasting the ID card of the mother of one of the shooters, a wholly innocent person as far as is known. This was done by “reporters” tramping through the family's apartment.)

Trump, no doubt gleeful in Dennis the Menace mode of the latest brouhaha he has whipped up, naturally “stood behind his remarks,” as the phrase goes. Actually he once again started boasting about himself. One thing that is reliable about Trump, is that whenever he opens his mouth, he brags about himself. This time he gave himself credit for “starting a debate” about the “issue” of barring Muslims, surveilling Muslims, maybe making Muslims sew crescent symbols of their religion on their clothes. He claimed it was all over the media, on every network, as he usually does. The man, being a vain narcissist, absolutely wallows in attention.

Trump is nothing if not an opportunist. He also has the cunning psychological instincts of a sociopath. He knows how to manipulate people to his own advantage.

Trump's ethnic-cleansing-style demagogy has apparently burned a few bridges in the Arab world. A store chain based in Dubai is pulling Trump-branded good off the shelves. And a former public supporter of Trump in the United Arab Emirates has been induced to change his mind. [3]

Big-talking Donald had plans to “build” 30 hotels in the Persian Gulf region (total built so far: 0). He was also selling his name to be put on a 62-story skyscraper in Dubai (also never getting beyond the imaginary stage). Understand, despite his propaganda about himself, Trump isn't a “builder.” He's a licenser of his own name. Almost all the buildings and junk with “Trump” on them aren't his property.

Trump claims to be unconcerned with making himself a pariah among rich Arabs. He likewise was willing to burn his bridges to Macy's, to Hispanic Television (which dropped his “beauty pageant”), even to lose his dopey, cruel TV show. He has been systematically sacrificing is business interests while he rabble-rouses. So we can safely conclude that this presidential election, unlike the previous one when he enjoyed teasing the media about whether he was “serious” about running, he means it. This time, he really is interested in being president.

I have been made aware of Donald Trump for 40 years now by the U.S. establishment media, which has long treated him as someone to look up to, if not downright idolize. (And I have met people who idolize him, in particular for his obnoxious, abusive behavior on his awful, erstwhile TV show, “The Apprentice.”) The establishment media created this monster, now let them deal with him and figure out how to neutralize his malign influence.

The fact that such a pathological creature as Trump is made into a figure of public esteem by the propaganda system is a small but telling symptom of the ethical and intellectual degeneracy of that system.

Of course, there have been even worse characters elevated by the propaganda system, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Obama...the list is actually quite long. Even murderous psychopaths lusting for a nuclear war like Curtis LeMay have been put on a pedestal of honor and respectability by the propagandists who masquerade as “journalists” and “pundits.” [Sic!]

Throughout history, the U.S. elites have periodically played with fire by whipping up nativists, jingoists, racists, and the vilest reactionaries. Sometimes controlling the violent, terrorist elements of the rabbles they rouse has proven challenging. Sometimes they don't control them too well, as when FBI “informer” Gary Rowe was one of the assassins of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo. Or when the FBI directed a violent fascist terrorist group in San Diego, the “Secret Army Organization,” which almost assassinated a “leftist” professor.

But then, the FBI and their police accomplices do plenty of assassinating on their own, for instance of Sandra Bland and Ibragim Todashev.

Trump with "Sultan" Ahmed bin Sulayem of Dubai, 2008. Maybe after Trump bans Muslims from entering the U.S., he can designate the "Sultan" as an Honorary Christian, so he can get past Customs. Like the Nazis making the Japanese allies Honorary Aryans, or Apartheid regime exception categories. (Seems the only racists who really stuck to their guns were American Southerners. No exceptions there. More than once African diplomats traveling through the South discovered they were just nig- I mean, Colored. The State Department often had to smooth some ruffled diplomatic feathers.)

1] Clinton made the remark on a late-night comedy-chitchat show “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” an NBC show which airs after most people have gone to bed. Taped in advance, the appearance of Clinton was scheduled for after midnight, that is, very early on Friday December 11. But there was wide media reporting of her comment in advance, on December 10, by NBC itself, ABC, CNN, etc., and British newspapers such as the Guardian and Daily Mail. I don't know whether this was merely because NBC might have spread the news, or Clinton's cadres ran around whispering it in “journalists” ears. Probably both.

2] Saturday Night Live, an NBC show known familiarly as SNL, is often quite reactionary. It “humanizes” various despicable characters at times, as indeed many entertainment shows do. I can still recall the service the awful show “Laugh-In” did in helping elect Nixon in 1968, by having him on saying “sock it to me.” See? Just a regular guy! That show in fact was based on ripping off the style and trappings of the counterculture while being devoid of meaningful content.

SNL is controlled by a Canadian by the name of Lorne Michaels. He's one of those “legends in the business.” It is regarded as obligatory for comedians trying to “make it” in the comedy business to kiss Lorne Michaels' feet. Therefore there is nary a word of criticism of him in media by celebrities, just sycophantic fawning. Personally I am existentially allergic to people who are too powerful, and Michaels is definitely too powerful in his cultural pond. Michaels apparently either doesn't like blacks, or is racist, as he excludes them from the cast except for a single token black (periodically replaced).

3] Big wheel Emirati businessman Khalaf al-Habtoor proclaimed his support for Trump in a column published on August 9^th in the Abu Dhabi government propaganda newspaper, the National. Al-Habtoor sang Trump's praises for promising his presidency would result “in bringing back [sic]his country’s superpower status.” I hadn't noticed the U.S. had LOST that status. And note, this was well after Trump's despicable attacks on Mexicans began.

But that was then. Now al-Habtoor has suddenly changed his mind about backing the bigot. “If he comes to my office, I will not let him in. I reject him,” al-Habtoor informed the Associated Press. Apparently anti-Mexican bigotry is no problem for this raghead, but dissing Muslims is going too far. (Oops! My bad.) [That brings to mind a joke: What's the difference between a camel jockey and a spic? I dunno, why don't you ask a white supremacist?]