The Message....And The Medium

Theodore Roosevelt - May 7, 1918

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else." 

This appeared in an editorial President Theodore Roosevelt wrote for the Kansas City Star in 1918. No longer the president by the time he composed this, Roosevelt made known his feeling about criticism of anyone holding the office: it needed to happen. It's basically required of every resident of the United States, not just citizens. Not to be able to criticize a president for his actions was denying the American public the opportunity for transparency in the office. After all, the President of the United States was nothing more than a public servant to be held to the most stringent standards. 

Or, as the movie DAVE reminded us:

I forgot that I was hired to do a job for you and that it was just a temp job at that. I forgot that I had two hundred and fifty million people who were paying me to make their lives a little better..."

 

Gee, isn't that really what our elected officials are supposed to be doing? Once they are elected, isn't the post supposed to represent all of the people in a district, state, or congress?

But that's not how this administration rolls, is it? It's all about President Felon and his ability to control the narrative and, by extension, the presumed beliefs of We, the People. Only that's not going so well. His poll numbers are tanking daily. To shore up support, his cabal does scary things...like hanging banners from public buildings to remind us not to dick with this guy: 

Labor Dept., Justice Dept,, and, of course, The Heritage Foundation.

It's all a bit too 1984 for me. 

I don't think it's working. Do you? Anyone else remember the Macintosh 1984 ad?

Like Marshall McLuhan said, the medium is the message. McLuhan is spot on when he says the content of the medium is a message that can be easily understood by the observer. He said, 

Indeed, it is only too typical that the 'content' of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium.

I totally get this in a visceral kinda way. I'm a visuals person. I think in images. I think that's why one of my directing professors labeled me Spellbound in the the Darkness. Very true, y'know. It's why I quote plays, movies, even novels...because I see the images and I wonder what the hell is wrong with you if you don't. 

If you're not seeing the images broadcast in the media and not rearing back in disbelief and horror, there is something decidedly lacking in your ability to perceive the messages these manipulators are sending. If you're missing the message in boots, camouflage, balaclavas, and masks, you're not paying attention. The images are not benign; these are meant to terrify those on the street as well as the viewers. If you are not over-the-moon angry about kids being snatched by ICE, then you are no better than the Germans who drew their drapes and refused to believe crimes against humanity were taking place in the streets around them. 

Nor do I believe any of this is done without planning, forethought, and manipulation. There is a gestalt at work and most people are too busy wringing their hands to notice, so let me spell it out for you: President Felon fought tooth and nail to keep the unredacted Epstein files from being released. Thousands of mostly men are now paying the consequences for communicating with the pedophile swamp dweller. Those names are now public. Use your imagination here and follow the bouncing idea:

1. Feckless Felon promised to keep the files redacted and/or closed to public scrutiny. 
2. These things do not come cheap, so how much money do you think the billionaire buddies would pay to keep their names outta the news?
3. Who claimed he had the power to do that...if contributions were made to various charitable/political "foundations?" 
4. That had to be a significant revenue stream, right?
5. Now that all the names are public and lots of billionaire buddies are being hoisted on their own petards, I'm thinking the supporter funded revenue stream has slowed to a bit of a trickle. 
6. What to do? What to do? Oh, that's easy: lie to We, the People, about anything and everything while claiming you've been  completely exonerated in the Epstein files even though your name appears thousands and thousands of times. 
7. Shutdown the government and blame Democrats while thousands of workers, both federal and non-federal lose pay, homes, healthcare, and jobs because it deflects from what's really in those files.
8. Since SCOTUS blew up your tariffs, go figure out another way to sabotage American trade and, in turn, the economy. People will be too busy screaming about that to worry about the Epstein files. 
9. Count on your billionaire buddies to increase the revenue stream as long as you are able to use smoke, mirrors, and red herrings to keep the attention away from them. 

You think I'm kidding, right? Guess again. I'm not. WIth Stephen "the slimeball Miller, Pam Bondi, Karoline Leavitt, and Kash Patel in charge of state secrets, and Bezos, Bari Weiss, and the Grey Lady herself spinning the stories, you know damn well, as I do, nothing is happenstance and everything has to do with money. 

Follow the money.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... it's time for my favorite musical number: The Sidestep

If only the Great Tangerine was a quarter as talented as Charles Durning (z"l)

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

For years, I maintained nice Jewish kids did not play hockey.

I was wrong. 

There are some pretty great b'nei mitzvah kids

wearing gold Olympic medals this week:

Aerin Frankel, Quinn and Jack Hughes, and Jeremy Swayman

יישר כוחכם ילדים

Yashar kochachem, yiladim!

Making Jewish mothers everywhere kvell!