The Roman Empire had some venal emperors infamous for cruelty and deranged malignity. Now the U.S. empire has one. (Arguably not the first. Think of the vulgar, genocidal Andrew Jackson, the fanatical racist and pioneer of radical purges and witch hunts Woodrow Wilson, the pathological paranoiac Richard Nixon, the fascist racist Ronald Reagan, to name some. And except for Nixon, all are lionized in the U.S. pantheon. Poor Nixon has merely been rehabilitated.)
Trump is different in the modern era in that he wears no mask. What you see is the real him. This is quite different from standard political practice going back well over a century.. He puts on no act, as virtually every other president has. Trump can't be bothered trying to project a false image of rectitude, of restraint, of sober and judicious judgment. He's an in-your-face demagogue. For some reason, Trump needn't restrain or censor himself to be "respectable." He floats in a zone above respectability. He considers fawning his due. And somehow that works. It is accepted as legitimate that he should have power.
Like Nero, he is self-obsessed and self-indulgent to an extreme degree. Like Nero, he is given to extreme acts, made on impulse. Like Nero, he is a highly destructive force who causes great damage to people's lives, and who weakens structurally the empire over which he reigns. (That second part is the upside.)
Typical of emperors, Trump brooks no dissent, and is indifferent to the cries of protest from the rabble below. Millions around the world have already marched in the streets against him, to no visible effect. (Just as millions marched before the regime of Bush II invaded Iraq in 2003, to no avail. That's "democracy," bourgeois class dictatorship-style.)
Only a week into his reign, Trump has turned the lives of students, families, scientists, academics, workers, upside down, if they were unlucky enough to hail from seven countries that Trump capriciously decreed none shall enter the U.S. from. Including dual citizens and green card holders- later amended, sort of. (You can review the piteous tales in the New York Times, or at NPR, or even the BBC, among other places.)
And Trump has already committed his first atrocity, putting the scalp of an 8-year-old girl on his belt, who was murdered by "heroic" U.S. Navy Seals on a terror raid in Yemen. BONUS POINTS: the child was the daughter of the reviled Al-Qaeda propaganda Anwar al-Awlaki, assassinated by Obama. [1]
That makes the second child of the enemy propaganda the U.S. has offed. Two weeks after finishing off Awlaki, Obama iced his 16-year-old son, a nephew, and others.
But the terror raid in Yemen that bagged an 8-year-old and other civilians was plotted under Obama, so by rights he should have to share the credit with Obama, although Trump is not one to share credit- or anything, really.
Trump probably won't murder his own mother, or castrate a young man and marry him, as Nero is reputed to have done. (The man unfortunately resembled Nero's dead wife, whom Nero missed.) So I guess Trump won't be "so bad." One can always relativize things in order to swallow them. Similarly, the Democrats "aren't as bad as" the Republicans, so might as well vote for them, right? No point actually trying to take power away from the criminal two-party political cartel that monopolizes it. Let humanity keep suffering instead.
Decades of voting for "the lesser evil" has only resulted in greater and greater evil. Time for a change, sheep.
HAIL, TRUMPIUS!
Nero from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
1] I only learned of the killing of the child from "alternative" broadcast media. The establishment's media called it a raid on terrorists, and wrung its hands over the single U.S. casualty. The U.S. government's domestic radio propaganda network, NPR, appended a single sentence to the end of its report, that neighbors reported "civilians" were killed. Given the prominent demonization of Awlaki during his lifetime, one must conclude that the omission of the death of his daughter at the hand of U.S. commandos must be no oversight, but deliberate.
Trump is different in the modern era in that he wears no mask. What you see is the real him. This is quite different from standard political practice going back well over a century.. He puts on no act, as virtually every other president has. Trump can't be bothered trying to project a false image of rectitude, of restraint, of sober and judicious judgment. He's an in-your-face demagogue. For some reason, Trump needn't restrain or censor himself to be "respectable." He floats in a zone above respectability. He considers fawning his due. And somehow that works. It is accepted as legitimate that he should have power.
Like Nero, he is self-obsessed and self-indulgent to an extreme degree. Like Nero, he is given to extreme acts, made on impulse. Like Nero, he is a highly destructive force who causes great damage to people's lives, and who weakens structurally the empire over which he reigns. (That second part is the upside.)
Typical of emperors, Trump brooks no dissent, and is indifferent to the cries of protest from the rabble below. Millions around the world have already marched in the streets against him, to no visible effect. (Just as millions marched before the regime of Bush II invaded Iraq in 2003, to no avail. That's "democracy," bourgeois class dictatorship-style.)
Only a week into his reign, Trump has turned the lives of students, families, scientists, academics, workers, upside down, if they were unlucky enough to hail from seven countries that Trump capriciously decreed none shall enter the U.S. from. Including dual citizens and green card holders- later amended, sort of. (You can review the piteous tales in the New York Times, or at NPR, or even the BBC, among other places.)
And Trump has already committed his first atrocity, putting the scalp of an 8-year-old girl on his belt, who was murdered by "heroic" U.S. Navy Seals on a terror raid in Yemen. BONUS POINTS: the child was the daughter of the reviled Al-Qaeda propaganda Anwar al-Awlaki, assassinated by Obama. [1]
That makes the second child of the enemy propaganda the U.S. has offed. Two weeks after finishing off Awlaki, Obama iced his 16-year-old son, a nephew, and others.
But the terror raid in Yemen that bagged an 8-year-old and other civilians was plotted under Obama, so by rights he should have to share the credit with Obama, although Trump is not one to share credit- or anything, really.
Trump probably won't murder his own mother, or castrate a young man and marry him, as Nero is reputed to have done. (The man unfortunately resembled Nero's dead wife, whom Nero missed.) So I guess Trump won't be "so bad." One can always relativize things in order to swallow them. Similarly, the Democrats "aren't as bad as" the Republicans, so might as well vote for them, right? No point actually trying to take power away from the criminal two-party political cartel that monopolizes it. Let humanity keep suffering instead.
Decades of voting for "the lesser evil" has only resulted in greater and greater evil. Time for a change, sheep.
HAIL, TRUMPIUS!
Nero from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
1] I only learned of the killing of the child from "alternative" broadcast media. The establishment's media called it a raid on terrorists, and wrung its hands over the single U.S. casualty. The U.S. government's domestic radio propaganda network, NPR, appended a single sentence to the end of its report, that neighbors reported "civilians" were killed. Given the prominent demonization of Awlaki during his lifetime, one must conclude that the omission of the death of his daughter at the hand of U.S. commandos must be no oversight, but deliberate.
