…Let’s talk about Trump as a cultural phenomenon because I think of two things. The McDonald’s drive-through and the garbage truck, both things that broke into the pop culture conversation, even beyond our world. Could any other candidate do that?
Fabrizio: MMA fights. Joe Rogan. We think of them as very specific things, but the symbolism — It says something about him that she couldn’t capture.
Where she’s doing the big speech or having the big debate, the conventional warfare, traditional campaign tactics. Donald Trump goes to the McDonald’s drive-through. But in the year 2024, when we’re all living on our phones, a big speech at the Ellipse vs. Trump at the drive-through, which is going to break through?
LaCivita: Donald Trump is a man who has made a large part of his living in a visual medium: TV. He understands that politics is a visual medium. And so he looks at everything through the prism of that. And your average candidate for public office doesn’t look at the world that way.
He’s also a celebrity.
LaCivita: Defined outside the realm of politics. He has his own persona and definition outside of politics.
And because of that, some of the stuff he says …
LaCivita: He gets away with, he does.
He’s not graded as a politician. He’s graded as a celebrity.
Fabrizio: I know this is going to sound counterintuitive, but when he says stuff that makes people go — (grimaces) — it only reinforces that …
LaCivita: … He’s not a politician, exactly!
…Is there one big thing that you think we’re missing in this campaign that was enormously consequential or at least significant?
LaCivita: You guys have written about the impact of the assassination attempt. But I don’t think people give enough credit to the fact that the world has a visual. It’s an iconic visual. But I don’t think people have given enough credit to that visual.
Him holding up his fist.
LaCivita: And what that visual means. And what the visual conveys. Not only about him, but the country as a whole. Americans get knocked down, but they always fight back. And that visual is as quintessential America as the fucking flag is.
Fabrizio: I am always amazed, I’ve learned not to be amazed, but he has this ability in most cases to put his finger on something. And you say to yourself: “Where did he come up with that?” But he just does. Then you test it and, holy shit, he’s right.
Senator Marco Rubio was nominated for Secretary of State, thereby removing him from the Senate Intelligence Committee and leadership role in Gang of Eight intel; but Trump simultaneously put in guardrails against the neocon tendencies of the Florida Senator and junior McCain.
Rubio doesn’t have Ukraine/Russia in his portfolio, nor does he have diplomatic or policy control over the Middle East. President Trump has neutered the State Department, and the cherry on the proverbial cake is what he just announced.
Yes, President Trump has just confirmed that Ric Grenell will be the “Emissary” we have discussed. Great job Mr President (for all the obvious reasons).
With Nunes leading a private intel advisory committee and with Grenell being the most powerful, agile and flexible person to run strategic foreign policy operations, the tentacle influence of the Deep State is removed from the Oval Office. Now the official cabinet team can start pouring sunlight into the silos.
Without a doubt in my mind, the “emissary” is the most important person President Trump will select.
The Washington DC Intelligence Community (IC) actively work to isolate the office of the president. This is an almost impossible dynamic to avoid, caused by an entrenched and ideological adversary who has dug themselves deep into the apparatus of government.
The “emissary” is the person who carries the word of President Trump to any person identified by President Trump. The emissary is very much like a tape recording of President Trump in human form. The emissary travels to a location, meets a particular person or group, and then recites the opinion of the President. The words spoken by the emissary, are the words of President Trump.
The IC cannot inject themselves into this dynamic; that is why it is so valuable.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the US Maritime Alliance (USMX) have until January 15 to agree on a new contract. This is the result of a temporary deal reached in October.
President Trump announced his support for the workers’ position following a meeting with Harold Daggett, the president of ILA, and Dennis Daggett, the union’s executive vice president.
…the main point that most overlook.
In Asia and Europe, port automation is happening rapidly. However, in Asia and Europe they have rules and regulations against foreign ownership of their ports. In Europe, Asia and particularly China, ports are considered critical national security infrastructure by the politicians who represent the people. In the USA our politicians represent the multinational corporations and as a result we have sold the majority of our ports to Saudis, Qataris, Europeans and Chinese owners.
If Chinese ports are automated in China, they are operated by Chinese owners. If American ports are automated in the USA, they are operated by Chinese owners. It doesn’t take a genius to see the problem.
FBI Director Christopher Wray announced Wednesday he was stepping down as head of the bureau, just days after Republicans expressed a loss of confidence in him.
Wray, 57, told FBI employees in an afternoon town hall that “after weeks of careful thought,” he had decided to resign in January at the end of the current administration, caving to pressure from GOP senators and President-elect Donald Trump.
The ocean of dark money and power and secret groups that rule USA and the West have moved Wray out of the way. Trump had to have known, if he did not himself direct, that Wray would be pushed aside for Kash Patel or someone else. That same ocean of dark money and power moved some 7 million phantom votes into Biden’s column in 2020. Why exactly, no one knows. It does seem Trump represents a recognition within the dark money comitatus that we the plebs are seriously fed up while also that they the dark money have seriously fucked up. No worries. Change tack and sail on. Wray leaving is surely a good sign, indicating much needed reform will be coming. With the state police probably out of the hands of the Obama wing wingnuts, we probably will not see the sort of obstruction against Trump that we saw in 2017. A serious factor is the incoming public face of the dark money appears cooler, more hip and savvy, smarter, less full of BS, more on the side of we the plebs, better in tune with the reality of history, more grounded in the ocean of awareness that underlies everything and is infinitely greater than the dark ocean of money that merely rules USA in (covert) name only. ABN
American Buddhist Net 