Trump The Elephant

Mary was a five-ton Asian elephant that performed at a circus, until she went berserk and killed one of her handlers. For some reason, the otherwise gentle beast attacked the handler on his second day of work. She picked him up with her trunk, hurled him against a wall and then stepped on his head. The circus owner decided that the right thing to do was to hold a public execution of the elephant for the crime of having murdered the elephant handler. The elephant was then hanged.

This strange story happened in 1916 in rural Tennessee, and it is a good way to think about what is about to happen in a New York City courtroom. This week the jury will get the Trump case with instructions by the judge to convict. This trial and the behavior of the people running it is like the execution of a circus elephant. It is about vengeance, rather than justice. The circus owner hanged Mary the elephant to satisfy the lust for vengeance and the conviction of Trump is for the same purpose.

The trial of Trump has nothing to do with the law. He paid a lawyer to make a problem go away, which happens all the time in America. The claim here is that it was booked incorrectly by his accounting department. The trial was never about the alleged accounting error. It was an excuse to humiliate a man that the judge, the prosecutors, the media and most likely the jury think deserves to be punished just as the locals thought Mary the elephant needed to be punished.

There have always been two sides to punishment. The one we like to think is our motivation is side that seeks to discourage future bad behavior. We want the criminal punished so he and others will not commit future crimes. That is a pleasant thought, but in reality, most of the time punishment is about vengeance. The person who harmed us and is causing harm is what the masses detest the most. Low morality revolves around those things that harm people, society, and our beliefs.

Ironically, this is why the “best” people have relished the seedy details of this trial and now prepare to celebrate the guilty verdict. Joe Biden is set to give an Oval Office speech once the verdict is read. The reason for this is the managerial class has the morality of a servant, despite their control of the institutions of power. They look at Trump as someone who harmed them, their system of rule and their beliefs, so as far as they are concerned, he is evil and must be punished.

The Trump phenomenon has provided an interesting insight into the psychology of the managerial elite. Despite their pretensions and their control of the institutions, they are still motivated by a low form of morality. That starts with what the weak always fear, which is harm done to them by those with power. Theirs is the slave morality which is rooted in paranoia, distrust, and fear. Being a good person, therefore, means not causing those reactions among the servant class.

It makes sense as the managerial elite are not powerful in the convention way in which we think of power in a society. They are the product of a system that empowers the servant of the owner, rather than their own accomplishments. You rise in this system by pleasing those above you and managing your horizontal relations. No can ever reach a place of independence within the system as the system is built upon interlocking relationships within the institutions.

This is the difference between an owner and a manager. The CEO of a company is not truly powerful because he must answer to the owners. The power he wields is on behalf of the people who granted him that power. Those people have power due to their own deeds, so their source of power is internal rather than external. Further, that CEO must always fear being replaced by someone below him. The manager must always be paranoid and fearful of everyone around him.

Trump, of course, is not a product of the managerial system. He is in many respects the abnegation of that system. Rather than getting rich and famous through a system of interlocking dependencies, he got rich building big, complicated buildings and famous by being good on television. Trump, for all his faults, is his own man and this is the not just the opposite of managerial man, it is the nullification of him. It is the existence of Trump that terrifies the managerial class, not his ideas.

This is the other cause for managerial rage over Trump. He has choices because his power is internal. He did not have to run in 2016 and he does not have to run in 2024, but he chose to for his own reasons. Everyone involved in the case against Trump depends to a great degree on the decisions of others. They have bosses or they have a career that comes with normative demands. The judge has to act in a certain way in order to remain in good standing.

That is a key difference between the owner and the manager. The owner can separate himself from the manager, but the manager can never separate from the owner without losing all of his status. The owner makes choices based on what he thinks is best, while the manager makes choices based on that fear of losing his position. The reason the slave resents the master is the same reason the manager resents the owner. It is why the managerial class despises Trump.

There is a related motivation here. The managerial class does not just see themselves as functionaries managing the system. They see themselves as something like a priestly class that dictates the happiness of the people. This is especially true in the media which has the greatest loathing for Trump and his fans. These are people whose power rests solely on dictating what is morally right and wrong. They sit in the judgment of everyone, even the truly powerful.

The reason for this is the power of priestly class rests on their framing of good and evil, which always places them on the side of the good. They prove this by pretending to live the purest of lives according to the morality they impose. Note how our managerial elite is always preaching about things like the climate, race, our democracy, and other parts of the progressive catechism. Our managerial class is the clergy, and the elites see themselves as the high priests.

There is no one who enjoys vengeance more than the priest. The suffering of the wicked is the greatest joy to the truly righteous. For the managerial class, punishing those who transgress and seeing them suffer is their reward. It is why the media love ruining people. It makes them feel like Aquinas relishing the image of the damned writhing in the pits of hell. This is why this case matters so much. The managerial priests will get to see a wicked man suffer.

This returns us to Mary the elephant. The people who wanted to see the elephant hanged were not demanding it for practical reasons. They were weak people who lived in fear and the elephant came to represent that fear. Killing the animal by public hanging was an act of piety. It represented the triumph of their sense of justice, which is always expressed as vengeance by those who see themselves as weak. They killed the elephant as an act of revenge.

That is the point of this trial. The managerial class wants revenge on Trump for violating their taboos and holding a mirror up to their system. Vengeance is the product of revenge and revenge is the result of resentment. The managerial class resents men like Trump as a part of their organizing ethos. By running for president, he became the slave owner who came down to party with the slaves in the slave quarters. His actions remind them of their status as slaves.

In the end, that is the point of the Trump phenomenon. Despite his populist rhetoric, Trump is an aristocrat of the old sort. He is a self-made man. The question he poses is will we and can we be ruled by the servants of aristocrats or will they fail and be replaced by the natural aristocracy. Can you have a society ruled by people controlled by resentment for the natural elite? That is the question Trump poses. Whether they hang him or not, the question must be answered.


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Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
4 months ago

Regardless of outcome, the Trump trial removes all of the GAE’s pretensions of morality and ethics, and cements it as a corrupt, petty, ignorant garbage pit the rest of its run.

 The judge has to act in a certain way in order to remain in good standing.

It isn’t that complicated. The judge is a profoundly stupid and low IQ Third World parasite. He perfectly embodies present day AINO.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Jack Dobson
4 months ago

I was watching the news this morning with my daughter who has been asked to follow the events by one of her teachers as an extra credit assignment. After listening to the host state that the prosecution still has not pointed to a charge, my daughter asked me how this could go on this long without telling Trump what his crime is? I told her that everyone in this trial on the side of the prosecution has been promised something in return for getting Trump convicted, starting with the judge. You can make bank on the fact that if the… Read more »

Spingerah
Spingerah
Reply to  Jack Dobson
4 months ago

they’re spiting in the faces of the only citizens who still, or ever did give a damn. Trump himself is that symbol to me and millions like me.
To convict means zero
Try to put him in prison.
See what happens.

Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
Reply to  Spingerah
4 months ago

To convict means zero
Try to put him in prison.
See what happens.”

Nothing will happen. I don’t say that as condemnation for a failure to act. I’m just saying, if Trump goes to prison the brainwashed, atomized populace will not react in any concrete way.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
4 months ago

Vote harder 2026!

oldcoyote
oldcoyote
Reply to  Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
4 months ago

I am totally convinced that fluoride, vaccinations, talmudvision spells, and cellphones have turned the american remnant into a massive blob of spineless jello zombies.

Member
4 months ago

The Regime has really painted themselves into a corner with the show trials. Even if they “win”, they discredit themselves and the fragile perception of rule by law, publicly and irrevocably, and have made a political martyr of the Bad Orange Man, allowing him to assume the mantle of all of the political prisoners in Clown World in himself. He literally will become a Nelson Mandela figure in the perception of Normies. If they “lose” and the BOM goes free, they prove their incompetence, once again, and far from solidifying their punitive power through “legal” means, they invite a internal… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Pickle Rick
4 months ago

The best-case scenario is 1859, which strengthened the victor. The more likely outcome and worst-case scenario is the Gdansk shipyard strike in 1980 with Trump viewed–with justification–as Walesa. That uprising was the absolute precursor of the fall of the Soviet Empire, which may have been less unstable than the GAE at that particular time.

Member
Reply to  Jack Dobson
4 months ago

It still amazes me that these people, who never tire of comparing the BOM to Mustache Guy, literally don’t understand that the 1924 Munich Putsch trial is what made Mustache Guy a hero to many Germans, who then voted their way out of Wiemar. Yet they blindly, stubbornly and implacably are trying their hardest to do exactly the same exactly 100 years later, like they simply can’t understand the parallels.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Pickle Rick
4 months ago

Very few of them know of let alone understand the dynamics of the 1924 trial, and the handful who do are too high on their own supply to realize they are doing the exact same thing. It always astonished me that the Soviets didn’t kill Walesa, but at least they knew the backlash would be enormous. His brief detentions increased his popularity and the Soviets knew it. This crew is too unstable even to consider second order effects. We really need a term for rule by psychopaths because “totalitarianism” and “police state” and the like come up short. It becomes… Read more »

manc
manc
Reply to  Jack Dobson
4 months ago

Kakistocracy seems apt.

Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
Reply to  manc
4 months ago

Kakistocracy lacks emotional punch. The idea needs to gain traction among people who still believe in elections and watch football. You can’t sell an African an air conditioner if you call it a Thermal Regulation Binary Selector.

Bizarro Man
Bizarro Man
Reply to  Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
4 months ago
pie
pie
Reply to  Jack Dobson
4 months ago

the film “idiocracy” comes to mind. may be too subtle. how about national idiocracy party? pleased to have found this website, was feeling lonely and rejected. love the comments, gives me hope.

Mr. House
Mr. House
Reply to  Pickle Rick
4 months ago

“don’t understand that the 1924 Munich Putsch trial is what made Mustache Guy a hero to many Germans”

What if they do? What if their goal is to get a new mustache guy and they need to make people angry enough to go along with it?

Mycale
Mycale
Reply to  Mr. House
4 months ago

I’ve read articles and quotes from prominent leaders of those people over the centuries who say as much. Even before Mustache Man came onto the scene. The issue is it is not 1924 anymore. It is not 1994. They can’t shape the narrative like they used to, the way they did for so many decades is totally obsolete, like bow and arrow vs. guns. The quick death of the “40 decapitated babies” storyline should have been a wake-up call, but it doesn’t seem that it was.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Pickle Rick
4 months ago

One big difference, among several, is that AP was 35 at that time, while BOM is now 78

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Pickle Rick
4 months ago

The Fuhrer had sections of the establishment on his side — the Wehrmacht, industrialists, and so on. Plus the Weimar Republic was weak and fragile. Oh, and mustn’t forget the massive SA paramilitary force. There is no comparison.

jo blo
jo blo
Reply to  Arshad Ali
4 months ago

Trump or any other right winger is not comparable, like you say. Any totalitarian ruler in the US would have to come from the left, because they dominate all the institutions. Imagine somebody left enough to hold onto the (D)irtbag coalition of crooks, but who is able to garner support from the productive private sector – like, creating jobs by closing the borders, or vilifying a class of enemies (they keep trying to do this to white males). AH became very popular because he was a socialist who created millions of jobs with big govt spending ( on war macht).… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Jack Dobson
4 months ago

But if our shipyard workers struck, would anyone notice?

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
4 months ago

They would be replaced before they could staple their cardboard to the stick. Dubai was an eye opener for The Regime. They will just ship helots in from any province across any ocean. Unlike Dubai, where those helots will be nothing and nowhere people, the ones here will be told to stay, taught to hate the Americans and will be invited to participate in the upcoming jubilees that will declare that they built America.

Melissa
Melissa
4 months ago

I had a conversation over the long weekend with some old friends which reminded me of Derb’s “We Are Doomed. They were proudly telling me about their son who is a pilot. They shared a photo he’d taken when he was piloting a massive cargo plane out of Afghanistan. He took a photo of the more than 400 afghans he was helping to evacuate after that debacle. I made a comment about all those new Americans. They were defensive and informed me that not all of them came to America, many went to Germany. It’s extraordinary. This is a family… Read more »

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Melissa
4 months ago

Ask them about black people. Their responses probably won’t differ much from a leftist.

Melissa
Melissa
Reply to  Tired Citizen
4 months ago

It’s unfortunate but I think you’re right.
They probably look at the pictures of Trump with the 8-10 black guys in the Bronx and cheer “We are winning!”

Barney Rubble
Barney Rubble
Reply to  Melissa
4 months ago

Awhile back I came across a poll (as reported in the media; can’t recall the source) of MAGA loyalists’ views on various foreign policy issues. It basically tracked with what you’d expect to hear from John Bolton or Liz Cheney. Was it accurate? Who knows? We’re awash in lies & propaganda. But it did ring true. I get the sense that a lot of normie-cons still associate patriotism with hoo-rah global meddling — and, of course, many are to the right of Bibi when it comes to Our Greatest Ally. Ditto with having internalized the DR3 stuff and “legal, not… Read more »

walrus aurelius
4 months ago

They way I see it, they can but they won’t survive him for very long. A lot of people around don’t seem to know what to do, but they do seem to be connecting the dots that even if they peacefully protest they are going to be treated like they planned to take out every politician in the country simultaneously. When the elite’s actions cause that kind of conflation, you either get a herd of cattle too scared to do anything at all, or a group of people who are willing to put it all on the line because there’s… Read more »

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  walrus aurelius
4 months ago

Stumbled into left wing Twitter (somehow).

The left reads like “Q” hopium on steroids. “200 GOP Congressmen to be indicted!!”

Insanity.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  ProZNoV
4 months ago

Here’s a peppy little tune that will pick your spirits right up!

Ausländer raus
https://gab.com/White__Rabbit/posts/112513900380002828
(4 min compilation, the rest are short-shorts)

https://gab.com/LaurenWitzkeDE/posts/112515256319346538

https://gab.com/PepperCave/posts/112516251038535926
(2 min)

https://gab.com/Zander9899/posts/112515552329566046

And for those who prefer a visual aesthetic:
https://gab.com/AOSORA209followback/posts/112492547475543868

Last edited 4 months ago by Alzaebo
The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Alzaebo
4 months ago

Les français have their own version, “La France for Français:”

https://x.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/1794864665614569858

Melissa
Melissa
Reply to  Alzaebo
4 months ago

Thanks for the links. Not sure if you’ve included the “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” scene. It’s well
worth it. It’s nice to hope that is happening in really time somewhere in Bavaria.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  ProZNoV
4 months ago

They get fired up by their own grifters. People terminally online and glued to happenings. When the 200 don’t get indicted the thousand Alex Joneses of the Left will use it as evidence that a right wing takeover is imminent.

cg2
cg2
Reply to  walrus aurelius
4 months ago

I did an hour and half walk with my girlfriends around my suburbahood Monday morning, and I would put the number of homes with any kind of American symbol at roughly 15%

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  cg2
4 months ago

There are neighborhoods around here where the AINO rainbow outnumbers the Stars & Stripes.

cg2
cg2
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
4 months ago

Around here seems like nobody wants to say what they think.

Dutchboy
Dutchboy
Reply to  cg2
4 months ago

In these times, flying an American flag implies support for the government and its wars. No thanks.

Johnny Ducati
Johnny Ducati
Member
Reply to  cg2
4 months ago

My neighbor out here has a tattered and faded American flag on his front porch and I chuckle every time I look at it.
The absolute state of America.

joey jünger
joey jünger
4 months ago

Generally I don’t knock someone for doing what they do for a living, or even try to analyze it too much. The world needs proctologists and morticians, even if I don’t want to have dinner with or shake the hand of every one of them. There seems to be something corrupting, though, perverting, about people asked to have proximity to real power while never really having it themselves; the snooty nose-in-the-air waiter at the expensive restaurant, the haughty bank teller who spends all day counting large sums while not earning much; the butler answering the door in the mansion. Even the… Read more »

Zaphod
Zaphod
Reply to  joey jünger
4 months ago

Kipling wrote a good poem about this type of person. It’s called A Servant when he Reigneth.

Mycale
Mycale
4 months ago

Perhaps this explains why these people turned on Elon Musk so quickly. For years, they thought he was one of them. They thought that he existed to confer status onto them. His cars were a way for them to separate from the dirty proles driving in gross climate change vehicles. Well, it turns out that he, too, is his own man and could do whatever he wants. He decided to buy Twitter on a whim. Twitter was, at the time, was the managerial class’ primary tool for virtue signaling, setting the narrative, and, most importantly, punishing the transgessors. There was… Read more »

RealityRules
RealityRules
4 months ago

Go get some land, and bring a neighbor or two who is aware that the struggle isn’t over a country that is long gone. It is over the survival of the people who built it all and who want to someday have their descendants build a new one that can surpass the one we inherited. Build schools, build communities that are tightly woven and that have the cultural and technological means to ride and drive the waves of technological innovation and cultural decay to supplant a dying order after surviving the consequences of its unprecedented madness.

Last edited 4 months ago by RealityRules
Mow Noname
Mow Noname
Reply to  RealityRules
4 months ago

Also, be sure to site your property far away and upwind from any nuclear power plants.

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Mow Noname
4 months ago

Yes. However, build a top flight community around you so that someday you will build and maintain your own reactor(s), 3D printing farms, drone factories to go along with your agriculture, traditionally elite calibre schools … … …

Archeofuturism is the future. We either start building it now, or all is lost – forever.

duttchmn007
duttchmn007
4 months ago

Trump “is a self-made man.” This is THE precise reason they hate him; he’s an individualist & to the drones in the managerial class (who never create anything of worth) that makes him a threat simply because he’s better than them. He’s a creator/problem solver/fixer. They can’t have that. Crises are to be managed & exploited for their political opportunity, not “solved.”

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  duttchmn007
4 months ago

It’s not just the managerial class, but the donor class (the true rulers) who fear a self-made man capable of building real things. The donor class are a financial/middle-man people who can’t build anything on their own. They’re also small in number and despised by those who know them.

This makes them vulnerable and when compared to capable man, they are exposed for what they are. They can’t allow that.

Tars Tarkas
Member
Reply to  duttchmn007
4 months ago

I disagree. They hate Trump because they hate us. They hate him because he appeals to us. Getting a conviction proves they are the good guys and we are the bad guys. Plus, I’m sure they resent him for the reasons mentioned in today’s essay. But it’s not like Trump had been an unknown. I first heard of Donald of Trump in the late 80s. He was somewhat of a celebrity at the time. From what I know, his fame goes back even further in NYC. But when he came down that escalator and declared that Mexico was not sending… Read more »

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
4 months ago

In ’80s NYC he was the vulgarian villain of the old- and finance-money establishment and their kids (the media). I first remember clichés like “what losers think a winner is like” from their descriptions of Trump and his fans, then mostly rappers, swarthy merchants, and gangsters going legit. He was a specific local style of folk hero that came across differently to normal Americans, more like a camp gadfly, Liberace without a boy hidden in his room. I never saw his later TV shows, but they toughened up his image just enough to take that weird sissy edge off (almost… Read more »

Tars Tarkas
Member
Reply to  Hemid
4 months ago

I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of the TV shows. I only know him from around the late 80s and early 90s and then in 2015. During that whole period of the 2000s and 2010s, I did not turn on a TV set. I got laid off in the early 2000s tech collapse and I cancelled my satellite TV and just never got it again because I didn’t really miss it. If people weren’t talking about Trump’s show once in a while, I wouldn’t have even known he had a show. Trump was very much portrayed in the Philadelphia/South… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
4 months ago

This is another anecdotal that dissidents got/stay that way by avoiding the idiot box. I bet just about everybody here has that in common

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  duttchmn007
4 months ago

It is then inferred that the oligarchs of today are not…because they are not. Characters like Zuckerberg and Bezos are little more than money launderers who are allowed to exist so long as their tithes to the priestly class continue to roll in.

Sal Russo
Sal Russo
4 months ago

I don’t see any priests in that courtroom or among the managerial elite. I don’t see Thomas Aquinas rolling through that courtroom door.

But I do see a lot of rabbis. Do rabbis never act out of ressentiment?

Zaphod
Zaphod
Reply to  Sal Russo
4 months ago

Only when bears shit in the woods.

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
4 months ago

If it’s accurate that Biden already prepared remarks for after the verdict, the fix is obviously in.

Has the judge already made assurances that a “directed verdict” is on the table if the jury reaches the “wrong” conclusion?

It’s all so blatant, so obvious, so in your face. “Have you no shame, sir?”

(no. No, they haven’t)

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
4 months ago

One of the strangest part of the elite class now is how none of them actually know who the owner is. They are slaves who have no idea who their master is, so they senselessly flap about with the latest trend hoping they stay in good standing. Take this pitiful specimen for instance. He rails against white males, who he assumes have all the power, gets browbeaten by a POC who got her job through DEI while emphasizing the poor sap who can’t get a job actually has all the power (i.e. is an owner). It’s as close to a… Read more »

Last edited 4 months ago by Chet Rollins
Mycale
Mycale
Reply to  Chet Rollins
4 months ago

It is sad to see a White guy (I assume he is not juice based on his name and the tenor of his complaints) who not only earnestly and honestly believed he could build a career in academia by betraying his own people and simping for the spiteful mutants, but also whines to those same mutants as they continue to press their boot to his face. He doesn’t realize that they hate him a way he could not possibly imagine and take glee in his struggles. They would laugh if he died starving on the street.

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Mycale
4 months ago

If people like this turn, the fury that will live inside of them will be ferocious. Whoever sets themselves up to channel such converts tremendous energy will have a seat at the table.

vladdy
Member
Reply to  RealityRules
4 months ago

When the Saxon Begins to Hate — Kipling

Bloated Boomer
Bloated Boomer
Reply to  Mycale
4 months ago

No sympathy for this elephant; If they want to lynch him, be my guest.
At this stage it just looks like friendly fire amongst the enemy, which is beneficial.

mikebravo
mikebravo
4 months ago

I always thought that their fear of Trump was that people would see that The President of The Empire was not really in control.

It’s a shame that he didn’t build his promised wall.
The sight of the Biden controllers bulldozering it would have been a real wake up call to the plebs.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  mikebravo
4 months ago

I always thought that their fear of Trump was that people would see that The President of The Empire was not really in control.

That really is the same thing as Z described. They may want to be priests, but they are actors, clowns and carnies who read scripts. “Managers” is too generous. Trump actually believed the system was what it seemed, maybe still believes it, and that made the final reveal all the more potent.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Jack Dobson
4 months ago

Z mentioned before that Trump is a normie/civ nat. Their hatred of him is symbolic of their sentiment towards the dirt people.

vladdy
Member
Reply to  mikebravo
4 months ago

Built a whole lot of it, and materials were there to finish, but the o’biden admin sold all the materials off at less than cost.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
4 months ago

It’s not just the managerial class that fears truly men capable of building things. The donor class – the ultimate rulers – are a finance/middle-man people. They are also very small in numbers and disliked by all who know them.

Even though they rule (via bribery, blackmail and lawfare), they are always vulnerable. They can’t build a society on their own. They don’t have the numbers to rule. And they have no loyal Praetorian Guard. They understand this, which is why they lash out so violently when opposed, even a little.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
4 months ago

You could have fooled me about not having a Praetorian Guard. I get some (thankfully sound muted) exposure to what’s on the MSM news from the big screens on the wall at the gym I go to, and the other day I saw that they had Andrew McCabe on there opining about the Trump trial (along with George Conway). Men who have been doing it so long, 8 years and running, you can now say they’ve made a career out of TDS. McCabe of course being a product of that Praetorian Guard. I see they’ve recently trotted out James Comey… Read more »

Zulu Juliet
Zulu Juliet
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
4 months ago

SoaSilly Country said “ they have no loyal Praetorian Guard”, loyal being the operative word.

Just like in the declining Roman empire, there is a Praetorian Guard, but it’s loyal to noone but itself, and will pick and choose rulers as it suits them. How else to explain Joey Diapers as president.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Zulu Juliet
4 months ago

It’s hard to believe it is loyal only to itself, entirely self directing. However, some (but not all) of its loyalty is to the woke religion which has overtaken it. Speaking of Comey again, a fine example of that. It wouldn’t surprise me if he sends a kwanzaa card to his wife’s boyfriend after he gets home from marching in a pussy hat.

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
4 months ago

Mmmmm….. I don’t think that is true. They train the FBI. We also do not know how many of their agents are infiltrated throughout our security state at key positions. One of theirs was key in promoting JCOS Brown and many years ago too. Of course the ethnic cleansing of white men from the military and the swelling of the ranks and officer core with the Trannissaries and non-white people is another client group. This is also 2024. Netanyahu has for years now been going to the globalist conferences selling Israel as the data center and microchip center of the… Read more »

RDittmar
Member
4 months ago

I’m still looking forward to seeing the reaction of the grifters of Con., Inc. to this week’s events. They’ve been assiduously avoiding any but the slightest mention of this elephant trial and this week they’re going to be asked to come out in favor of locking up Trump. “Rule of law … blah, blah. Muh’ Principles .. blah, blah. Nimrata Nadadanawanna … blah, blah.” While the GOP doesn’t have the slightest qualm about selling out their voters, I also think there is a conviction on their part that they can get behind locking up Trump and taking him off the… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  RDittmar
4 months ago

Yep. Even without the show trials, this likely would have been the GOP’s last national election. Normie is gonna Normie but even he sees the Republicans as total frauds now. The GOP will encourage its cultists to support and trust the system, because that is its role, but only the dead-enders will do so with a straight face. Sean Hannity will encourage his listeners to vote harder in 2026, but he is preaching to a dwindling choir.

The death of the Republican Party will be a joyous day.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  RDittmar
4 months ago

I beg to differ on that part, a friend of mine is involved in GOP politics at the state level in PA. According to her, party leaders are acutely aware that the rank and file are livid and have had it with party leadership. Not that that really means anything mind you, the road of history is littered with the desiccated remains of “Well we knew and really should have done x, but……”

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
4 months ago

We have the vestiges of an old-time religion called “democracy”. The Elections and Trials are just rituals now to propitiate the Gods. No serious person really thinks they still have any meaning, especially after OJ, St. George and the 2020 ballot farce. But the rituals seem to soothe some of the normies. Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue.

imnobody00
imnobody00
4 months ago

Completely off-topic, but, since you are American people and have a lot of contact with Indian people (dot, not feather), you may inform me. Thank you in advance if you can do it. I have just had a virtual job interview with a panel of two Indian people. The boss went out of his way to belittle me, to imply I was a liar (I was not), saying that the division I used to work did not exist (it did), trying to find every detail of an unrelated job so it could discover that I had lied (the name of… Read more »

vladdy
Member
Reply to  imnobody00
4 months ago

Yes. Have had same prob w/ doctors from there. One flat out said “Let’s get this straight from the beginning. I will tell you what to do, and you will do it.” They have the idea, when they come to this rural area, that we are all “uneducated hicks” and treat us all, regardless of background, accordingly. Have to search out white male doctors, not always easy here. (Does this come from growing up in a caste-based society? Or is it just racism against whites?)

Zaphod
Zaphod
Reply to  vladdy
4 months ago

Having spent a lot of time around Indians and having had the double misfortune of having visited India as well, basically they treat each other like this too. In much of the non-White world, the dictum is Fellate Up, Kick Down. You as a job applicant are a supplicant and therefore you will be kicked. It is expected of course, that you will fellate up in the hope of demonstrating that you are sufficiently talented in that department to be worthy of more gentle kicking. It is not so easy for C21 Whites to grasp this. Of course it is… Read more »

imnobody00
imnobody00
Reply to  Zaphod
4 months ago

Thank both for your insights

Ploppy
Ploppy
4 months ago

The problem with this whole analysis is that Trump has functionally already been assimilated by the regime. It’s pretty obvious at this point that he went to the Supreme Jew in his volcano lair and pledged his undying loyalty to the Demiurge in exchange for being allowed to be president again.

TomA
TomA
4 months ago

The true significance of the Trump trial in NY is the obvious revelation that the judicial system is thoroughly corrupt and represents a clear and present danger to our society. There is a belief that this injury can be washed away when the Appeals Court overturns the verdict, but that is naive in my opinion. The country is now more divided than ever. Some cheer (but fewer than most think) and others seethe with hatred toward a broken system that has now made it personal. God help the LEOs that must face the pitchfork mob, for they will first bear… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  TomA
4 months ago

“God help the LEOs that must face the pitchfork mob, “

That’s just it. They won’t face the “pitchfork mob”. We have seen example after example of LEO’s standing down in front of such mobs. The demoralization is almost complete. When you see extreme responses, it is now most often associated with a direct attack upon LEO’s. In short, the public be damned. Who can blame them?

Last edited 4 months ago by Compsci
Filthie
Filthie
Member
4 months ago

Well Z – you said you liked the fact that Trump was a wrecking ball… and given the way things are going I can’t say I blame ya. Far as I’m concerned – it’s all good. The stage is no set for the next stage. All we have to do is decide what we want. Balkanization and peaceful coexistence? Or civil war? The shit heads on the other side of this are not the only ones wanting vengeance now. I’m past the fake investigations, trials, and inquiries. I want consequences. At this point, if some brown shirted thugs came in… Read more »

Intelligent Dasein
Intelligent Dasein
Member
4 months ago

The system made Trump no less than it made his persecutors. Trump is a man of the system. He really is Julius Caesar; the historical parallels are uncanny. He crossed the Rubicon and made a successful march upon Rome, to great popular fanfare, in response to which the Optimates (represented today by the Neoliberals, i.e. the big-money interests) rallied to defend “our democracy,” by which they mean the slough of imperial spoils ever oozing towards the Capitol. The reason the Optimates hate Trump is not because of personal envy or “slave morality.” They hate him because of the unbounded and… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Intelligent Dasein
4 months ago

Everybody who is rich and famous at the level of Trump and other well known oligarchs are a product of the system—political and economic. How could it not be so? The reason he is hated and feared is that he is not part of the ruling cabal (describe such as you will). What we often term the “uniparty”. As a rich playboy, his allegiance was not particularly vetted or perhaps even assumed, and he was allowed free rein when he stayed apolitical. He turned political and unexpectedly achieved the highest office in the land riding on a wave of populist… Read more »

compsci
compsci
Reply to  Intelligent Dasein
4 months ago

“They hate him because of the unbounded and entirely unofficial power that he wields.”

It is simpler to state that Trump is a populist icon and represents a populist uprising of the “dirts”. As Trump has said, “…They’re not after me, they’re after you. I’m just standing in the way.” Whether Trump is man of the people or not is beside the point.

Dinodoxie
Dinodoxie
Reply to  Intelligent Dasein
4 months ago

Trump isn’t Caesar.
He’s a Gracchus. About to be shivved and thrown in the Tiber.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
4 months ago

Since I generally avoid the msm, I only now realized the prosecutor’s name is Steinglass. What are the odds?

usNthem
usNthem
4 months ago

It really is amazing watching the corrupt regime and its toadies preparing to convict Trump on utterly bogus “charges” while at the same time enthusiastically backing Israel’s continuing civilian slaughter and more aggressively prodding the Russian bear. There’s all sorts of unintended or perhaps intended consequences that will more likely than not erupt this summer. While the end can’t come soon enough for the GAE, unlike the Soviet’s deflated end, this government’s will probably entail even more than the usual death and destruction they foist on the rest of the world.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
4 months ago

This is precisely the reaction I get from my beloved civnat liberal bestie.* The fear and loathing in his voice; that strange tremble in his speech, as well. He says often how he thinks Bad Man is a threat to his family and a danger to our democracy, and how can I be so blind. Most mornings he sends me choice bits from MSNBC from whence all gospel flows. Stormy says Bad has a 4″ penis! and other such weighty analyses. And yes, retired on SS, the wife’s university pension and state monies for the kids, while mightily worried about… Read more »

Last edited 4 months ago by Alzaebo
vladdy
Member
Reply to  Alzaebo
4 months ago

Asking that type for evidence always silences them quickly.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  vladdy
4 months ago

Absolutely, vladdy, it causes panicked screeching, that is, hysteria. Having feminized brains, they act like outraged women who’ve been caught. “But you should dump!!” cry the righteous. Nah. When you realize they don’t know squat and aren’t serious, you treat them as you would a woman. You’re being teased because you’re being courted… “sh*t-tested” (fitness testing) is the term; they are seeing if you’re willing to play, or if you’re afraid of them (how much can they get away with.) Diflect, a witty or stupid quip, distract; lead them off in a new direction. They just want somebody who makes… Read more »

Last edited 4 months ago by Alzaebo
Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
4 months ago

People who treat an elephant that way, there’s a special place in hell for them. And yes the Trump show trials prove we’re living in tyranny, anarchotyranny to be exact

Zaphod
Zaphod
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
4 months ago

Even the gentle Asian elephant can from time to time lose its shit in a big way. That being said, it’s clear that they are mostly kindly and intelligent beasts. And rather fastidious (if a mite voracious) eaters.

Jack Boniface
Jack Boniface
Member
4 months ago

On St. Thomas Aquinas saying the saints in heaven will see the divine justice of the punishment of the damned, it comes from Psalm 91:8: “You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.”
https://biblehub.com/psalms/91-8.htm

Wiffle
Wiffle
Reply to  thezman
4 months ago

To the extent it exists as God’s justice, yes. Dante gets there in the inferno, but it’s about understanding that relatively speaking, it’s about people who have rejected righteousness/God himself getting what they wanted all along. It’s bit unfair to at least possibly suggest that Aquinas’ lifetime of work is summarized as “Petty people should enjoy the suffering of their enemies.”

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Jack Boniface
4 months ago

That is an interesting thought, that part of the joy of heaven is watching your enemies burn

Wiffle
Wiffle
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
4 months ago

It’s not quite that. It’s being okay with watching God’s enemies burn, because they simply would not make the choice that the saints did, which is to love God. There are formerly wicked people in Heaven, but they repented of it and were willing to undergo correction. Some the damned will include your enemies, but unfortunately it will also include friends and family, too. 🙁

Zaphod
Zaphod
Reply to  Wiffle
4 months ago

Well one of the consolations of religion has always been the justification (by faith, no less haha) of a decorous degree of Schadenfreude.

Wiffle
Wiffle
Reply to  Jack Boniface
4 months ago

In reading the whole Psalm, it’s not clear that it’s a discussion of the afterlife. Most Psalms suffer (or maybe it’s a feature) of being ambiguous about their timeframes. Psalm 91 could easily apply to this life as well.

Dinodoxie
Dinodoxie
Reply to  Jack Boniface
4 months ago

The idea of punishment of the wicked after death was always a selling point of Christianity.

bgc
bgc
4 months ago

I find it overall misleading to equate the modern managerial class with the priesthood of a religion.

Mainstream totalitarian leftism is fundamentally oppositional, therefore incoherent, labile, self-contradicting; consequently without a stable goal.

Modern managers therefore see themselves (absurd, but true) as radicals, a revolutionary vanguard. Continually subverting.then inverting. A step ahead of the masses.

Nothing like this, no such group (and global in scope) has existed before recently.

bgc
bgc
Reply to  thezman
4 months ago

Every society has a priestly class.”

You can make that an assumption, and then it cannot formally be disproved by any possible evidence.

The question is whether doing so is helpful to understanding – or a hindrance.

Paul Gottfried
Paul Gottfried
Reply to  bgc
4 months ago

Religion = a set of social conventions, which cannot be challenged.

Examples –
“our democracy is the best form of government in human history”
“immigration makes our economy stronger”

Priestly class = Small group of members, who explain to the masses, why those rules cannot be challenged, and how the plebs benefit from existence of the conventions.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Paul Gottfried
4 months ago

Quite so, and better said, Mr. Gottfried.
They are “angels”, in the proper archaic translation of the word: “messengers” from those on high.

Exactly what a preisthood, found in every society, even the most primitive pre-literate Amazon jungle tribes, does. Religion is a part of the human social ecology.

(Mr. bgc, I assume your viewpoint is monotheist, that is, “you can’t have a religion without God,” since you use a derivative of “you can’t disprove a negative,” in your second reply.)

Last edited 4 months ago by Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Alzaebo
4 months ago

In that light, allow me to shamelessly plug an alternative. The heritage faith of North Europa: Pagan. For a free subscription, e-mail ga***************@gm***.com . Tell us you’re from Gab. https://gab.com/GandalfFreyasson/posts/112482505784214239 After a short docu about what really happened at Dresden, I was so heartsick I thought, “Christianity must die…they are carriers.” Carriers of the yhwh, the amoral lord of hell, the Infection. For it was not the Usual Subjects that planned the bombing raids*, but British and American commanders…White Christians. But then, all vehicles are subject to the yhwh’s touch. I repent; ‘They’ make the capable, complicit, thus pulling them… Read more »

Last edited 4 months ago by Alzaebo
bgc
bgc
Reply to  Paul Gottfried
4 months ago

@PG – I think a better and more precise word for what you call “religion” is “ideology” – since if you define religion in the secular way you do, then you need to invent another concept for… “religion”, in the pre 1800 sense. BTW – I think it is uncontroversial that there was No priest class in nomadic hunter gatherer societies – which was essentially All human societies through prehistory until c 12000 years ago. What this means is that a priest class is Not a necessary feature of human society; but contingent upon sedentary and agrarian societies and afterwards… Read more »

Mr. Burns
Mr. Burns
4 months ago

There have always been two sides to punishment.”

There is a third side to punishment: artificial selection. The king molds society the way an artist molds clay by selecting out those who can not for whatever reason follow his rules. Thus the king is the father of civilization. Democracy is the mother of chaos

Vizzini
Member
4 months ago

Is he the elephant or The Mule?

Zaphod
Zaphod
Reply to  Vizzini
4 months ago

He’s certainly what another SF Author (Iain M Banks) would have called an ‘Out of Context Problem’. Asimov’s Mule demonstrated a high degree of rueful self-awareness — unlikely that Orange Man Bad has experienced that for even an instant in his entire existence.

Zaphod
Zaphod
Reply to  Zaphod
4 months ago

And the Mule co-opted (through mind-control) the key people in the states he conquered. Trump? Not so much 😀

Bull in China Shop sure… Elephant who never forgets a past slight and can craft a sly put-down, yes.

TL;DR: The Mule could Rule. The Trump can LolCow.

Dutchboy
Dutchboy
4 months ago

If they do jug Trump, maybe we will be spared any more of Israel boosting speeches for awhile.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
4 months ago

OT:

The crisis of competence strikes again as another F-35 crashes right after takeoff in New Mexico:

https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1795564111436116035

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
4 months ago

The meme that the polls are fake is taking a hit right now, as we watch Trump’s lead increase in all of them, across the board, as his trial goes on. Why would the regime do that? Either the polls are done in relatively good faith, or the fix is in for Trump, those are the only two possible answers.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  thezman
4 months ago

I can’t see it Z. There is not now and never has been such a thing as a pro Trump media narrative. If there’s a third possibility, it’s that it’s part of a gambit to replace Biden on the ticket.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  thezman
4 months ago

“Polling is a product sold to the media. The customer is always right.” Exactly. I’ve said this before. There are two types of polls: Those for internal consumption, those for external consumption. The external consumption ones are for political maneuvering/narrative/click-bait. (There are to be fair, some independent smallish, academic-type polls, but they rarely get the publicity their independence/validity merits.) We have a friend in the business—or was in the business—and the ways these polls are contracted for and implemented finally drove her to quit the business. In my discussions with her, she never surprised me with such details since I… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  thezman
4 months ago

Maybe, maybe not. I just assumed Trump would lose, but the Israel-Gaza war might have changed that. Sure, Biden, is 100% on Team Israel, but the Dems are having a hard time controlling their Golem.

The GOP and Trump are more on Team Israel than the Israelis. Our rulers hate Trump, but they might need him for the next year or two.

Wiffle
Wiffle
4 months ago

“There is no one who enjoys vengeance more than the priest. The suffering of the wicked is the greatest joy to the truly righteous. For the managerial class, punishing those who transgress and seeing them suffer is their reward. It is why the media love ruining people. It makes them feel like Aquinas relishing the image of the damned writhing in the pits of hell. This is why this case matters so much. The managerial priests will get to see a wicked man suffer.” Excellent article overall, except this paragraph, which was a bit of a clunker for me. Thomas… Read more »

Maniac
Maniac
4 months ago

If, or more likely when, the “jury” finds him guilty of just about anything, can he appeal? How long can that process last?

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Maniac
4 months ago

It is a very slow process. The question is what would happen between conviction and appeal. My guess is the judge locks him up. It is utterly counterproductive and further diminishes whatever little standing the GAE has, but it is who these people are.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  thezman
4 months ago

I had been “meh” about whether the trials were “helpful,” and tended to think they weren’t. But we have watched in real time the legal system so disqualify itself that it is jaw-dropping. More Machiavellian, let alone intelligent, prosecutors would encourage the judge to allow Trump to remain free pending appeal and that would be ordered. Neither the dindu prosecutor nor the Third World savage judge will do so. It actually will empower Trump to do some time, likely under house arrest, in the meantime. If they had been less grasping and more subtle that might not have been the… Read more »

Wiffle
Wiffle
Reply to  Jack Dobson
4 months ago

I am not convinced that the oldest generations will let go their ideas about the US as some sort of moral leader with an intact and free republic.

There is no way the younger generations can look at persecution through lawfare and think we have a serious republic.

Geo. Orwell
Geo. Orwell
Reply to  thezman
4 months ago

How the ruling class manages to lock up Agent Orange while he simultaneously enjoys Secret Service protection will be amusing. No sitting or former president has ever been subjected to this. This will be a real Rubicon. It will mark the moment the Nation Below Canada officially earned third world status.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Geo. Orwell
4 months ago

Even more amusing will be how they schedule his SS to all go on break at the same time so he can get Epsteined.

trackback
4 months ago

[…] ZMan draws an analogy. […]

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
4 months ago

I appreciate Z Man’s writings on managerialism because it is a perspective on our predicament that doesn’t come naturally to me. I tend to focus on the power of tribalism and the ability of the media to dictate our morality as primary explanations. While Z Man catalogs the mechanisms and problems of managerialism, I don’t recall him every discussing an alternative to it. Federalism and local control seem to be protection against managerialism, but they don’t scale up when a country becomes large. Can there be a large, modern country that does converge on managerialism? Is managerialism inherent in scaling up a… Read more »

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  LineInTheSand
4 months ago

Can there be a large, modern country that does NOT converge on managerialism? Is managerialism inherent in scaling up a large country?

Intelligent Dasein
Intelligent Dasein
Member
Reply to  LineInTheSand
4 months ago

Managerialism is not so much the presence of a managerial class (which would exist in any large organization regardless of constitution), it is the fact that the managerial class subsumes all the trappings of sovereignty because there is no one above it telling it what to do. Managerialism is really just a fancy name for “parliament governing without the king.” It is by definition an interregnal period when the king is dead and his retainers form a committee to govern in his absence. It comes to an end when a new sovereign and a new dynasty assumes the throne.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Intelligent Dasein
4 months ago

So managerialism could be restrained by limiting the decision-making power of the departments of the government?

If we applied your prescription to the current USA, does that mean that many decisions made by departments of the deep state would need to be passed by Congress instead?

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  LineInTheSand
4 months ago

The trick is to not scale up a large country, but to scale down. All problems stem from a consolidation of power in Washington. The original concept of the Founders was for a weak central government and a strong state government (relatively) and as few laws as possible to constrain the people, hence the Constitution which addresses what the government *can not do* for the most part.

Of course that was another time and another demographic.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Compsci
4 months ago

So, managerialism is inherent in a large country and the only way to mitigate it is to remain small.

Z Man has written many words on a problem that can’t be solved. Z Man must disagree with our conclusion.

compsci
compsci
Reply to  LineInTheSand
4 months ago

Whether Z-man disagrees or not, the intent is(was) to distribute power/authority as close to those affected (masses) as possible. The theory being that there is a possibility to have more control the farther out (closer to the masses) decisions are made. This was once the norm and accepted, but as soon as the Civil War ended, things went downhill fast with the consolidation and extension of power in Washington.

I suspect Z-man talks more of the impossibility to go back in time and reverse our current dilemma, not necessarily the concept of distributed power.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Compsci
4 months ago

Switzerland has had a great thing going for a really long time

Robbo
Robbo
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
4 months ago

True, but even here, the liberal f*ckwits are starting to cause havoc.

Zaphod
Zaphod
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
4 months ago

Had. All things must pass. They have their own Camp of the Saints issues now. And GAE tells them where to go with all that antiquated Banking Secrecy stuff.

Maxda
Maxda
Reply to  Compsci
4 months ago

The Roman Republic got shaky after too many military successes created too much wealth and population.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Maxda
4 months ago

Yep, and there was an attempt to reverse this extreme “size” with the split of the empire into East and West.

Algernon Carruthers
Algernon Carruthers
4 months ago

Perhaps this week’s jury decision will be the Black’s Juan event many people have been waiting for.

Templar
Templar
4 months ago

There is no one who enjoys vengeance more than the priest. The suffering of the wicked is the greatest joy to the truly righteous. For the managerial class, punishing those who transgress and seeing them suffer is their reward. It is why the media love ruining people. It makes them feel like Aquinas relishing the image of the damned writhing in the pits of hell.

Gonna have to press X to doubt on that one…

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
4 months ago

A self-made man can never be an ‘aristocrat of the old sort.’ That requires lineage going back generations. Trump is not really self-made either; he inherited his wealth and has not done too well with what he inherited. That said, I voted for him twice and will do so again (given the chance). This travesty of a trial would be a disgrace in any civilised nation and just goes to show that there’s no rule of law in the USA anymore. We’ll most likely be lumbered with that worthless p.o.s. Biden for four more years. As the country swirls the… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Arshad Ali
4 months ago

re: the inherited wealth thing, how many other people can you think of who inherited a million and turned it into multi billions? And how many can you think of who inherited a million and blew it?

Last edited 4 months ago by Jeffrey Zoar
Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
4 months ago

He inherited a bit more than that but he likes to downplay that as it affects the image he wants to project. A J.D. Rockefeller or Henry Ford or Andrew Carnegie he is not.

Mike
Mike
Reply to  Arshad Ali
4 months ago

Your jealousy is showing through pretty badly right now. You may not like him and denigrate his accomplishments but all it does is point out what you haven’t done with your life. Believe it or not money isn’t everything, Trump could have put his inheritance in index funds and be worth untold amounts more right now. But do you think that if he could go back and change things, he would do it? No, he can look back on his life and look at everything he’s accomplished and see how he has become the most famous man in the world… Read more »

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Mike
4 months ago

I don’t see AA as denigrating Trump and being jealous of him. I think AA made a proper point which is that being an aristocrat entails a bunch of things, including the preceding generational legacy, that Trump is not. That said, what Baron and his children and grand children do may cement Trump as the beginning of an aristocratic line. I think both of you are right here. We live in some rough times and being frustrated is understandable. Let’s aim our animosity at real enemies with effective actions when the time is right. In the meantime, let’s build bonds… Read more »

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Mike
4 months ago

That’s the point: if he’d put his money in index funds he’d be worth much more. Look, I back the man — but that doesn’t mean I’m blind to his checkered business past. Gotta be objective.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Arshad Ali
4 months ago

I don’t think the math adds up on that. It’s hard to say really, even wikipedia kind of dances around how much Fred gave him, at the same time that it throws a bunch of numbers around.

Last edited 4 months ago by Jeffrey Zoar
Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Arshad Ali
4 months ago

”Trump is not really self-made either; he inherited his wealth” You are going to have to cite your sources on that one. The story I’ve always heard is that Trump was grub-staked by his father in early real estate deals, but after never looked back. There is a record of the father’s holdings upon death and Trump’s then current holdings. Trump’s reputation was that of outdoing his father in the business. Has anyone compared the two? The accusation seems to be here that Trump inherited the bulk of his wealth, but I don’t see that. That ‘s not to say… Read more »

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Compsci
4 months ago

Trump’s father was the one with business acumen. Trump himself, not so much. Look, I voted for him and will probably throw a bit of money his way. Plus there are self-made billionaires vastly richer than him — if I have to be jealous, it should be of them. Trump’s career is littered with bankruptcies and failed ventures. He’s not Bezos or Gates.

compsci
compsci
Reply to  Arshad Ali
4 months ago

“He’s not Bezos or Gates.” This is not about whether trump is richer than these men or typical dot-com billionaires. Trump made his money in construction and not dot-com tech growth. Not easy to make billions in construction as it was in filling tech vacuums. Construction has always been a crowded play ground. However the challenge still remains. Trump made more money–a lot more–than his father ever did in the construction business. His bankruptcies are strictly part of the game as no one, I mean no one, of any wealth does any investment under their own name, but rather through… Read more »

vladdy
Member
Reply to  Arshad Ali
4 months ago

Wealthy people declare bankruptcy in order to re-structure, not because they are broke.

Dinodoxie
Dinodoxie
Reply to  Arshad Ali
4 months ago

The idea that Trump inherited his wealth and then slowly blew it – in such a way that he’d be wealthier if he had just invested it in the market ( or whatever) is disproved by his own family. He has 3 living siblings that inherited similar amounts from Fred as Donald did – and none of them are as wealthy as Trump. – not by a long shot.

TempoNick
TempoNick
4 months ago

This is all simply too cartoonish to be actually happening. You are watching a movie. One of two things is going on: 1. These people have been previously caught in wrongdoing, such as Jack Smith railroading Senator Ted Stevens. The spotlight is being put on them so that the normies know who they are. Fauci is another one. Milley is another one. Maybe we do get public trials or maybe the point is just to shame them. 2. They’ve got Judas goats out there spreading the word to their apparatchiks to do this, to sabotage Trump either as part of… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  TempoNick
4 months ago

I don’t believe that evidence of regime malfeasance is indicative of some attempt by the regime to bring it to normie’s attention. It’s just that there is SO MUCH of it that it can’t all be kept quiet. Most of it is in dissident or right leaning media, not in the MSM.

This has always been a warning shot to the next Trump

Vinnyvette
Vinnyvette
4 months ago

Well well well… No dogging on Trump today? A semblance of support here and there? The mob is fickle! 😂

Todd Browning
Todd Browning
4 months ago

You cannot use campaign funds for inappropriate reasons. We are a system of laws not of men. No one is above the law. I voted for Trump twice and would again but the law is the law. I’m disappointed that he will be imprisoned and disqualified from the presidential race but a healthy just society respects the law.

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  thezman
4 months ago

The actual Tod Browning had that distinctive single d, a great name for a horror director. A real person would copy it. A “lifelong Republican” wouldn’t. Court decisions since Brexit & Trump have been an echoing announcement of lawlessness. The system makes no argument. Nothing is a precedent. There are designated winners and losers. You stand before the law, it sees which one you are, and it rewards or punishes you. A normal person understands this and tries to conceal himself from the law’s eye. For a great-ish man Trump is unusually normal, but he doesn’t have that instinct. Instead,… Read more »

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  thezman
4 months ago

This is the weak spot in a tyranny. If it is constructed ad hoc by the pets, then eventually it can be turned against the people who created it. It is only a matter of time before a pet or group of pets has some personal vendetta against someone higher up the pecking order and tries to turn the tyranny against the regime itself. It is only a matter of time before a rogue elite or set of rogue elites exploit the tyranny That is when things get interesting. Get your land. Recruit your neighbors. Build your redoubt with an… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  thezman
4 months ago

Fine, he’s a recurrence of our old friend, Tiny Duck. Thanks for the memories. However, too many such postings can/will become disruptive. Please consider a strong reaction to such commenters. Heretofore, such as in today’s commentary, a pretty good back and forth, productive exchange of opinion has been had among contributors—and I note that our contributor base is growing. This is a good thing that should be protected and nurtured.

Vinnyvette
Vinnyvette
Reply to  Compsci
4 months ago

So you want to sensor free speech? Revealing your inner totalitarian?

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Vinnyvette
4 months ago

Yep. In the case of a troll, the intent becomes obvious as their speech is intended to disrupt other’s rightful claim to free expression in the forum. More than one forum has fallen prey to such. Since Z-man refuses to allow blocking by users of comment threads or specific individuals, he reserves the role of final say in who posts what—it’s his blog. One rose does not a Spring make, however Z-man was the one to recollect the notorious troll “Tiny Duck” who was banned. I myself let the comment pass as an aberration, but note the poster. Whether he… Read more »

Last edited 4 months ago by Compsci
Mitchell Lange
Mitchell Lange
Reply to  Vinnyvette
4 months ago

I want liberals and system stooges dragged away to involuntary summer camp.

mikebravo
mikebravo
Reply to  Todd Browning
4 months ago

“…..a healthy just society respects the law.”
PMSL!!!
That must be ‘the rules based society’?

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  Todd Browning
4 months ago

such ignorance…

Horace
Horace
Reply to  pyrrhus
4 months ago

I don’t think it is so much ignorance as it is enemy action.

“When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.” Frank Herbert

Sal Russo
Sal Russo
Reply to  Todd Browning
4 months ago

It’s sad that this is what trolling has been reduced to. Like watching a one-armed kid try to wrestle a badger. You can’t do it.

Gideon
Gideon
Reply to  Todd Browning
4 months ago

So I guess you missed the part that Trump is being prosecuted for not reporting the non-disclosure payment as a campaign expense, but as a legal (non-campaign) expense. Your comment presumes an event in some alternative universe in which Trump’s accountants had booked such payment as a campaign expense; whereupon he could have been charged for misappropriation of campaign funds. You are also apparently unaware that being in prison in no way disqualifies one from running for for the office of president (it’s been done before). You seem lamentably ignorant of the law for someone who claims his health depends… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Todd Browning
4 months ago

He’s been charged with NOT using campaign funds to pay her. Clearly, if he had used campaign funds to pay her, he’d have been charged for that instead.

Last edited 4 months ago by Jeffrey Zoar
Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
4 months ago

Yep. One thing I would note is that respect for the law must entail “understanding” of the law. This prosecution (persecution?) long ago lost that aspect with the public. Once the argument turned from “did he do it”, to “what the hell is the crime”, the law became an “ass” as the adage goes.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Todd Browning
4 months ago

Give this anon time. He somehow found the Z-blog and will be on our side of the great divide, if he keeps his mind open.

Vinnyvette
Vinnyvette
Reply to  Todd Browning
4 months ago

Good then they need to prosecute every candidate for any elected office from president to dog catcher going back at least a century.
Suddenly unenforced “laws” against any previous presidential candidate in U.S. history just have to be enforced right here, right now, to “save our democracy.”
Or in this case jackass laws enforced that don’t even exist on the books to politically persecute one parties enemy.
Trump paid a lawyer to handle his shit. If the lawyer fucked up, you prosecute the lawyer.
Said lawyer was also stealing money from his client.
Laws my ass!

vladdy
Member
Reply to  Todd Browning
4 months ago

Is that a joke? Even the judge, let alone the prosecutors, have not even said what the crime is. And if we’re going to “respect the law,” shouldn’t we go back and pick up hillary, comey, weismann, mueller, and all the rest first? Awfully convenient having the “we must respect the law” attitude come up just as PDT is tried by a DOJ member who quit his job in DC and moved to NYC to assist Bragg and James, but not before.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  vladdy
4 months ago

If I heard correctly, the judge instructed to jury that they need not know what the specific crime is to convict. I’ve stopped following basically. At a certain point, you just give up trying to fit a rationale explanation to this legal farce to save your last vestige of faith in the judicial system of the country.

Hokkoda
Member
Reply to  Todd Browning
4 months ago

lol, the best part is how you appoint yourself judge, jury, and executioner enforcing your personal interpretation of “inappropriate”. That’s a sweet deal for you.