Aug 012018
 


Salvador Dali Swans reflecting elephants 1937

 

I am often confused by events that happen and by things that people say. But then I think them over and they mostly become less confusing, even if often slivers of confusion remain. This was again the case yesterday morning. Donald Trump went after the Koch brothers, the one biggest symbol of everything that’s wrong with American politics, and I expected the anti-Trump echo-chamber to finally agree on something with him.

But no, what was I thinking? The echo-chamber has deafened and blinded its inhabitants for far too long and far too loudly for one single word of agreement to come out of it. Trump could sing the praises of Hillary Clinton tomorrow morning and it would be used against him. This is not new, it’s been going on for his entire presidency, and before, but it’s still good for people to acknowledge that it’s getting worse be the day – or better perhaps in their eyes?!

Still, if you want to call yourself a journalist, and want to be taken seriously as such, objectivity is the number one requirement. But who in the US or international press can claim to be objective when it comes to Trump? Trump sells, on all sides of the aisle. Be very much for him, or equally much against him, and your paper or TV channel can expect revenues to rise. Being neutral on him: not so much.

Anyway, so Trump went after the Koch brothers. That must have shaken up a lot of the Republican party, because countless senators and congressmen and lower level politicians owe their seats more or less exclusively to the hundreds of millions the brothers throw at election campaigns. Trump does not. Here’s how Tyler Durden covered the action:

Two days after Charles Koch voiced his growing displeasure with Trump’s domestic, foreign and economic policy, warning that Trump tariffs could trigger a US recession, President Trump responded on Tuesday by slamming the powerful Koch-led donor network as “globalist” and “a total joke,” rejecting the conservative group amid reports that the network was shifting away from him over trade and immigration issues. Trump alleged that his policies have “made them richer” and that they “want to protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed,” while he supports the American worker. In another tweet Trump called them: “Two nice guys with bad ideas.”

“The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against strong borders and powerful trade. I never sought their support because I don’t need their money or bad ideas,” Trump said in a post on Twitter. “They love my Tax & Regulation Cuts, Judicial picks & more. I made them richer” Trump continued his angry tirade: “Their network is highly overrated, I have beaten them at every turn. They want to protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed, I’m for America First & the American Worker – a puppet for no one. Two nice guys with bad ideas. Make America Great Again!”

That seems obvious enough. The 82- and 78-year-old brothers have bought much of the GOP with their billions, but not Trump. Whether that is because they didn’t want to, or couldn’t, is largely irrelevant. One would think even the anti-Trumpers could feel some sense of gratification in the demise of the brothers’ pernicious influence over America as a country, but no, their hate of Trump trumps their dislike of the Koches.

 

And you know what they found to rationalize this? The word ‘globalist’. Yesterday morning I was watching in amazement as my Twitter feed supplied one tweet after the other on the theme. It lasted just a few hours and then it was gone; this morning the whole thing has died out. But the message, or should I say the damage, had been conveyed.

The allegation in these circles is that Globalist Equals Jew. And so you can’t call anyone a globalist, or at least Trump can’t, or you -and he- only can when someone ‘s not Jewish. Now, globalism is a real thing, it’s a philosophy concerning how economies can and should be organized. And it’s sort of the opposite of Trump’s America First and Make America Great Again.

People who ‘believe’ in globalism are opposed to Trump’s trade tariffs. Not so much his proposal to the EU to drop all tariffs though, because that is what they also want. For Trump, globalism means the jobs America lost to people like the Koch brothers moving manufacturing to China et al. His view is that America needs those jobs back. These are simply different views of how economies and societies should be organized. Nothing more, nothing less.

But by making the word Globalist the same as Jew, the discussion about the different views becomes impossible. You cannot call a Jewish person a globalist, even if that person ‘believes’ in the concept of globalism. On the other hand, it’s fine to call non-Jewish people globalists. And this is because certain rightwing forces have at some point allegedly used the term as an anti-semitic slur, or dog-whistle.

However, who decided to let the rightwing decide what a word means? See, I’m sure those who bring this up didn’t invent it out of thin air, but globalism is still a real thing, and since no-one wishes to equate globalism with Judaism one-on-one, I’d say caution is required. Like this: If you cannot positively prove that someone is an antisemite, don’t go there girlfriend. It’s toxic.

 

In Britain, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, 180 light years away from Trump politically, is the subject of an anti-semitism smear campaign at the same time. Though all he’s ever done is be critical of Israeli policies vs the Palestinians. And if we can’t criticize that kind of thing anymore, I don’t know what we live in, but a democracy it’s certainly not. By the way, The Guardian ran a headline yesterday saying “Corbyn Ally Says ‘Jewish Trump Fanatics Making Up’ Antisemitism Claims”. Wait, Jewish Trump fanatics? Oh, never mind…

And yes, we all know that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is Jewish, and his favorite daughter Ivanka has converted to orthodox Judaism when she married Kushner, and Trump’s grandchildren by the couple are Jewish too. Still when economic adviser Gary Cohn left earlier this year, and Trump said “he’s a globalist, but I still like him”, that is now being used against him. Trump’s an antisemite. But Cohn would still be a globalist even if he weren’t Jewish.

Which fits in nicely and seamlessly with Trump being a racist and misogynist and rapist and Putin-puppet and yada yada. But you know, the anti-Trump chamber has become so deafening it’s become fully dysfunctional. There is no information emanating from it anymore, even if many journalists reside in that chamber.

There’s just a bunch of people trying to trump each other in their hate of the man. For them that seems to do the trick, but for anyone outside of the chamber, it’s just a whole lot of noise. It has taken Robert Mueller a year and a half to come up with absolutely nothing in the way of collusion, and he just keeps going. For what? He wants to make it the full 4-year Trump term?

I’m sure there are people out there who use Globalist as a slur for Jewish, but I have no way of being sure Trump uses it in that sense, and neither do his detractors. They have reached a stage where any allegation or rumor or innuendo seems for them to prove their unproven suspicions even and ever more, but they have long lost sight of what is actually true, and what is mere conjecture.

Labeling someone an antisemite is one of the worst things one can accuse another person of, and it should therefore never be done lightly, let alone without any proof. It’s just dirty smear if you have no evidence; and mere allegations don’t cut it. Sure there are people who voted for Trump who fit the picture, but that doesn’t make the man an antisemite. Nor does calling someone who believes in open borders everywhere, a globalist. Whether that person is Jewish or not. Don’t just throw shit around hoping it will stick.

 

Oh, and if you feel tempted to call me an antisemite now, here’s something I wrote in January 2010 when Anne Frank’s friend Miep Gies died aged 100, about where I grew up: Miep Gies Died Today. Good luck with that.

 

 

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  • #42054

    Salvador Dali Swans reflecting elephants 1937   I am often confused by events that happen and by things that people say. But then I think them ov
    [See the full post at: Globalist]

    #42055
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Ilargi
    You, an anti-semite? LOL, how absurd is that?
    No worries bud…

    #42056
    zerosum
    Participant

    If I ever need to pick a slur/insulting word to call you, then all I need to do is to go read the comment of your articles by the want-to-be survivalist at ZH.

    #42058

    Oh, I never look at those.

    #42059
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    ^ Me either… 😉

    #42061
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Logic here: Trump’s favorite daughter is Jewish. His grandchildren are Jewish, and he takes a lot of heat for overly protecting and helping his son-in-law who is Jewish. Therefore he’s an anti-Semite! QED. Yup. Having a Jewish family and helping Jews — and not just accidental, lukewarm Jews by birth, but actual love-my-rabbi, let’s-convert-and-go-to-temple Jews– is now racist anti-Semitic. I read it in the Times!

    Which proves my point here that everybody has lost their g-d-d—n minds, believe everything and its opposite at the same time, and have defined words such as “global” or “anti-Semite” or “racist” to mean everything that ever happened in all time and space, and therefore you will be innocent or guilty of it however we please from moment to moment. Stark. Raving. Madness.

    I’m not a fan, but why don’t you just pick on the idiot things he DOES do that ARE offensive? Sadly, I’ve come to believe it’s because their minds are not working and the gears are not engaging. To spin your wheels telling obvious self-contradicting lies does not win converts or remove your enemies. It’s literally the definition of insane. So anyway, Trump, working with Jewish people all his life in one of the cities with the strongest Jewish presence, whose family is Jewish, whose lawyers and executives and cabinet are Jewish, who moved the Israeli embassy to Jerusalem on request…help me out here…may NOT have a problem with anti-Semitism? And by the way, the same with women, who are on his team by the dozen without comment, DeVos, Sanders, Haley, Chao, Neilson, Carranza (also Mexican-American), and Dina Powell, among others. He was one of the first guys to place a woman as VP credited with building a skyscraper, Barb Res. Whatever you may think of those particular women, he may…help me here…?NOT? hate women and have a problem with empowering them? Who can say? But I would think the burden would be on PROVING it, not alleging it. And what’s more sad, he appears to be so inured to slanderous treatment he doesn’t even correct the record anymore.

    But look at where they WERE on his side: bombing Syria — twice! — for no reason whatsoever he “became OUR President”. (Their President. I approved no such thing). Here he’s lying like no one ever has with a +4% GDP and *negative* (I kid you not) unemployment rate, with the real rate at -4% GDP and +20% unemployment. The same media that will contradict what he had for lunch reported that bold lie enthusiastically, happily giving him all the credit for what has never happened. They likewise report in the fastest economy with the most employment that middle America is suffering and he never opened a plant or created a job. Do I smell a rat? Whichever way the truth may lie, open, internal self-contradiction must be #fakenews.

    And to reinforce the above, yesterday he came out AGAINST 3-D guns, contrary to the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Amendments. Also against existing precedent set by the open use of encryption like PGP and SSL. Also against the Federal court ruling, which is not his branch. Also incidentally, against the NRA. The result? “What kind of incompetence and dangerous governing is this?” Chuck Schumer said. Arret! Achtung! Charles, it may not have occurred to you, but you may actually be on the same side of this one. Nope. Apparently Schumer is ?for? unlimited access to downloadable guns now? ?Because? Trump is against? And you wonder why we had to coin a word for derangement syndrome? These guys are out of control. There is no conversation that can be had in these conditions, and I feel for Corbyn who is being smeared with the same insensible, Jacobite madness. He should rise to it and appeal to the British people against the media. This seems to be broadly working worldwide, although who the media thinks they’re talking with such transparent nonsense is a mystery. It’s hard even to read, and each day I wake up, gobsmacked by the shifting illogic of it all.

    #Antilogos

    #42062
    zerosum
    Participant

    I never knew that there were so many windmills that need to be attacked.

    #42064
    zerosum
    Participant

    Granny and grandpa are going to learn be on guard against an up and coming enemy.
    The grand kids are wanting and will not accept getting a NO for their demands.

    #42065
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    Am appropriate description for the second decade of the 21st century is “Return to the Gilded Age” or the “Triumph of the Oligarchs”. The one thing that is common for globalists and nationalists plutocrats is that they are not going to spend a penny on anything that might inform the little people what is actually is going on – their fight for control of the West. Despite the propaganda on how marvelous things are, everyone in the bottom 90% knows their children’s lives will not be as good as their own. Economic stress and forever wars are forcing humans to migrate and revert to their tribal beliefs and myths. The Age of Enlightenment (modernity) is dead. The money that supported science, engineering, education and public health it is now going to offshore accounts of a few already rich families.

    #42066
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    VietnamVet
    It’s my experience that the age of Enlightenment died in the 70’s.
    We’ve been in retro-grade since then, IMO.
    I do not count technology; rare instances excepted; we’ve not benefitted as humans towards a sustainable, quality of life style…

    #42101
    potted frog
    Participant

    A review of the book “Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism” by Quinn Slobodian can be found here. Trump is neither a globalist nor a go-fer and that’s a problem for the globalist/neoliberal ruling class.

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