Oooh, political stuff now! What on earth is Mr G feeding you – and can he send me some?
For a long time I’ve resisted watching anything by Adam Curtis, almost entirely because links to his stuff keep getting posted by the type of people who usually post links to videos that promise to “SHOW YOU the DARK TRUTH behind the MATRIX!!!”. And I’m allergic to watching factual videos anyway – I’d far rather read a book, or text on screen, to learn stuff. But as you who’s recommending it, I’ll at least give it a go.

Stay well!

Billionaire Trump represents the common man; Crooked Hillary represents the establishment. Check out this speech by insider Dick Morris;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpe1O-k77Go&t=816s

That’s similar to my reading – Mr Silent Majority has had enough of feeling his preferred existence is being threatened on many fronts, so he’s appointed a differently-focused ‘doctor’ to eradicate those things which he feels are compromising his preferred state. That includes immigrants, noisy minority interest groups, the interfering nanny state etc – he now wants it all to stop, so he can get back to the place he felt comfortable, appreciated, valued, heard etc.

Brexit, Trump and the upcoming elections in Austria, Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Italy are all demonstrating this common thread. It doesn’t mean Mr Silent Majority was bothered one way or the other about leaving the EU, or that he loves Mr Trump, they both just became convenient opportunities at the very time when his long-stretched tolerance was finally starting to reveal the limits of its tensile strength.
Better the ballot-box than bullets, I suppose, so maybe we should be thankful it has stayed this side of violence. . . . . so far.

“Trump, to me, represents the voice of ‘todger’ based systems.”

I demand that the BBC sign Anna Raccoon as chief political analyst immediately!

I wonder if the people being hysterical over Trumps election realise it was their behaviour and trying to force their PC views on everyone else that got him elected in the first place.

To extend the analogy, HRC and her media allies put herself forward as the rationalist, non-todger based rights candidate, but people saw through her. Trump was more honest and never claimed to be other than a todger-based rights candidate.

“Planet Earth too. Glorious. An incredible piece of work. A reminder of how simple and uncomplicated life is in the animal kingdom”

If you believe the #specialsnowflakes, full of ‘rape’ and ‘murder’, though!

I admit after you tipped me off to “Hyper-normalisation” (did G actually pass on the message that that was it’s title?), I watched about a 1/3 of it on Youtube…before i felt unworthy of watching it further without upping my IQ with a good night’s sleep…a lot of it went waaaaaaaay over my not so tall nor smart head but what i did take from it was some amazing insights into the news of the 80s and also Roswell *cue XFiles music dah dahd dah daaaah da* Scully, the Todger is out there.

I will at some point find the time and cerebrals to watch it all…I might even splash out on the DVD…oh hang on…what did i just say? SPEND Money? Me? No. I shall haunt the suppliers of piratical wares…then Adam’s work is art and art should be free, dammit!

PS.sorry I missed the opportunity to rip into the Bish …but teaching Granddaughter to sing the German version of the ‘Wheels On The Bus’ was a far better use of my time (and probably theologically more rewarding)….and anyways how could i compete with The Lord God Almighty, Maker Of Heaven And Earth And Like Everything Like Else, Dudes, personally putting in his first appearance in writing since his best seller.

The way I see it is that Curtis’s theme, the one he keeps returning to and gnawing away it, is that the motivations of human beings, leaders, mass movements, events throughout history – are far less rational than we like to tell ourselves…or that most of the rest of the socio-cultural-historic media & academic narrative likes to tell us.

Similar themes to John Gray, the philosopher, in his book ‘Straw Dogs’.

http://critique-magazine.com/article/strawdogs.html

I guess Mr. Curtis has been mugging up on his Willy the Shake then:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

Truly Orwellian.

Thanks Anna.

I was getting quite frustrated at the listing of TV-worth-watching: BBC won’t let me watch where I live. (Yes, I know there are work-arounds, but can’t be arsed.) My thanks to The Blocked Dwarf for the Youtube route to “Hyper-normalisation” — it pays to read the comments before wasting time! Prior to that, my fruitless search for Adam Curtis had led me to this interesting article:

http://johnpilger.com/articles/a-world-war-has-begun-break-the-silence-

Voters in USA and Europe may’ve twigged that the political elite’s stock-in-trade has been lies and manipulation. Thus far, the knee-jerk reaction seems to be vote for anyone who claims to be anti that elite. But, seriously, are the likes of Trump, Farage, Boris, Corbyn, Le Pen, etc. going to do anything to upset the status quo? They’re all in politics for power. And, no, I don’t know the answer to this conundrum. I wish I did.

Sarkozy lost. I’m not a fan. But always in favour of the lest dangerous one …

Anna, you sure do pick ’em! Thank you (and TBD) for the link to Hyper-Normalisation. I haven’t yet seen it through to the end, but I’ll continue tomorrow. Thus far, it’s a very well-wrought and thought-provoking documentary — and, for me, connected many dots. However, I do wonder if it’ll be comprehensible to Millennials?

As so often, Carol42 encapsulates the explanation for this electoral phenomenon: “It was their … trying to force their PC views on everyone else that got him elected in the first place.”

The irony of the situation is that the advocates of universal equal suffrage — ‘the sneering class’ — are the ones against whom those whose suffrage they have for about two centuries been campaigning have turned. It’s hilarious. It’s like Labour’s importing a client state in to Scotland to displace the Conservative voters … only to have that body of voters turn against it and elect the S.N.P.: you couldn’t make it up (as they say).

In a room full of my friends — all right, 4B, settle down: a fairly small room — most of whom have a privileged background and could be assumed part of that sneering class — I am likely the only one against universal equal suffrage. Yet I’m almost certainly the only one siding with the common man and taking his part against the ‘élites’.

What, nevertheless, has astounded me is that some-one can have so insulted and alienated those on whose support he relied and yet not only won the White House but also carried the down-ballot with him (the G.O.P. majorities in both chambers of the Congress having survived)! Unglaublich!

ΠΞ

–

The notion that the Trumpster has stumbled idiotically into the White House must be tempered by the thought that he lost the popular vote – yes, probably didn’t really but of the votes reported as counted, he did – but used his minority to such great efficiency that he carried the swing states with considerable accuracy, and won the bauble. He may thus be considered to have more tactical political acument than his recent opponent. Now there is a thought to think about. Four more years? I would say if he wants them, they are on the way.

“We are all citizens of a global world.”

Theresa May would like a word with you….

Requiem for the American Dream (2015) worth watching ,by whatever means!

Noam Chomsky

For what it’s worth:

to the uninformed, comparing outsiders to bacteria and viruses is one step away from Katie Hopkins description of refugees fleeing wasr as cockroaches. Is that really the company you want to keep?

But then again… some viruses are part of our genome. Scientists are still unsure why – do they gibe us qualities we might not otherwise have? Do they help protect us against other nasties? And you would not be able to process food without a walloping number and variety of bacteria in you gut. To take that analogy further, maybe outsiders (“viruses/bacteria”) are useful to the host body in a variety of ways and we should not be dismissive of the part they play in keeping us healthy.

I’d also ask why we are so proud of our intellect and rationale if we are not going to use these miracles, which we have developed as random emergent properties of evolution? If we are going to act as instinctive animals, we might as well have stayed as semi-sentient morons on the plains of Africa as lesser developed primates.

“We don’t bleed when we don’t fight” – The National, 2010

Regarding the election of the Trumposaurus, I believe lyrics from The Tubes’ “What Do You Want From Life” , 1975 might have the answer

…”What do you want from life
Someone to love
and somebody that you can trust
What do you want from life
To try and be happy
while you do the nasty things you must

Well, you can’t have that, but if you’re an American citizen you are entitled to:
a heated kidney shaped pool,
a microwave oven–don’t watch the food cook,
a Dyna-Gym–I’ll personally demonstrate it in the privacy of your own home,
a king-size Titanic unsinkable Molly Brown waterbed with polybendum,
a foolproof plan and an airtight alibi,
real simulated Indian jewelry,
a Gucci shoetree,
a year’s supply of antibiotics,
a personally autographed picture of Randy Mantooth
and Bob Dylan’s new unlisted phone number,
a beautifully restored 3rd Reich swizzle stick,
Rosemary’s baby,
a dream date in kneepads with Paul Williams,
a new Matador, a new mastodon,
a Maverick, a Mustang, a Montego,
a Merc Montclair, a Mark IV, a meteor,
a Mercedes, an MG, or a Malibu,
a Mort Moriarty, a Maserati, a Mac truck,
a Mazda, a new Monza, or a moped,
a Winnebago–Hell, a herd of Winnebago’s we’re giving ’em away,
or how about a McCulloch chainsaw,
a Las Vegas wedding,
a Mexican divorce,
a solid gold Kama Sutra coffee pot,
or a baby’s arm holding an apple?”

Do watch the Weiner thing. Very instructive.

I’ve just tried to watch the Curtis thing. It kept flashing lights at me until I thought “Fuck off”. So I did.

I’ve been watching Adam Curtis’ latest offering. I confess he wasn’t my favourite person for a long time.
Ho! Ho! Ho! I have to chuckle. The two public commentators who can evoke the Society in which I spent the early years of my life are you and Curtis….don’t agree with many of the conclusions each of you reach but you in prose and he in film have that ability to remind me (an inadequately strong word to capture what is nearer to reliving) of the external forces at work in my life when younger.
I particularly commend ‘The Mayfair Set’ for those who wish to be reminded of the zeitgeist of the financial world of the 70s and 80s and its aspirations both of the individuals who formed it and the politicians who seemed to give them free rein for whatever reason.

Well, after some three weeks-worth of enforced silence from Mrs. Raccoon, she’s certainly back with a bang!

After the extraordinary description of her time being treated by the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, we have some equally eye-popping autobiographical details. And just when it can’t get any more exciting, Archbishop Jonathan Blake, descended last night from on high to add some thoughts to a previous article – https://annaraccoon.com/2016/08/01/no-laughing-matter/ – which has provoked some joker to post his own comments under the handle ‘God’ and ‘Jesus’. We don’t seem yet to have heard from the Prince of Darkness or any other members of ‘th’ infernal crew’ – not that I want to give anyone any ideas – but comments from Beelzebub, Belial, Mannon, Mulciber, Moloch, Tony Blair, Sin, and Death are all eagerly awaited.

Taking myself idly off to look at the good Archbishop’s blog this morning, I notice that he has not yet got around to posting on the subject of this outrage to his holy person, but has instead posted some photographs of himself. One of these appears to show him officiating at the wedding of what are either sisters – a double marriage – or – ahem – a same-sex marriage between two persons of the female persuasion.

Well, I am afraid that I can never let an opportunity, such as this, pass without commenting. It is clear, unfortunately, that these two ladies have been photographed in England, for they are not of the ‘Tall and tan and young and lovely’ variety; they are not, alas, of the sort that one (were one so inclined) would wish to spy on on their wedding night. This is a great pity, and if we had a Prime Minister as enthusiastic and energetic as Donald J. Trump, he would sort out this problem for us.

Yes, I have to admit – and I say it proudly! – that I AM A TODGER. When I work up on the morning of November 9h., and listened to the ‘Today’ programme, and it became ever-clearer that Donald Trump had won the election, I couldn’t help myself feeling hilarious as I listened to the aghast pundits droning on. Just like after the Brexit referendum, everything that the bien pensant pointy-heads had solemnly warned us could and would never happen, happened. In the days that followed, Polly Toynbee, Adriana Huffington-Puffington, and Tina Brown all flittered across my consciousness like a gang of wailing Cassandras. How my spirits soared! Yes, O boring left-wing ‘progressive’ drones, your prophecies have failed, your prognostications of doom have been rejected; you thought you were leading public opinion, and discovered, too late, that you were merely basking in each other’s acclaim, ignored by the little people, the stupid, mundane, people who aren’t capable of thinking sensibly for themselves and need to be told what to think by such enlighten ones as yourselves. How I laughed! And my hilarity will continue, because all these savants haven’t drawn the obvious conclusion – that they were wrong, that they are not listened to by the untermensch, who are yearning to be told what to think by such enlightened ones as Polly – they still draw the conclusion that they are right, and the working class has been lulled into a sense of false consciousness by its unhealthy interests in the boobs of page 3, subconsciously imparting the opinions of Rupert Murdoch while they gaze in awe on these magnificent promontories.

Fortunately,

Hmm, “todger-based rights”, never heard that one before. Is that a new synonym for “demagogue” or “demagoguery”, I wonder?

Really the fact of the matter is that neither of the two “mass” parties in the US support or are of much help to the working class; and this has been the case, also in Europe, for quite some time.

If *neither* of the parties are much good to you, then you vote for the one fielding the “outsider” candidate, especially if he makes promises about “bringing back jobs” and so on.

(Don’t forget that Bernie Sanders would probably have won over Trump, if the Democrats’ NEC or whatever it was called would have allowed him to the nomination. Polls were previously showing that he had a better rating than Trump, and of course, Hillary.

Blacks did not come out en masse in this election as they did especially in 2008, as they hoped Obama would do something to help blacks and poor people because he is Black: this turned out not to be the case.

Hispanics did I think boost Hillary’s numbers at the last minute because of their fear of Trump’s threats; however in states like Florida not even this proved to be unequivocally the case.

And one thing everybody here has to remember is that US elections typically turn on very small margins; and also typically in recent times only about half the electorate vote. This is because NEITHER of the “majority” parties actually cater for the REAL MAJORITY of the population: as a nice old – radical – BBC 2 commentator/documentary-maker explained as he was interviewing Americans in 2004; can’t remember his name.)

So: Trump won as the supposed “outsider” candidate. Not enough for the New Right to have gone into spasms if self-congratulation, as it seems to have done throughout Europe.

That guy and his position reminds me of nothing so much at the moment as a snake-oil salesman. He is at the point where he HAS to prove to the townsfolk that the snake-oil works, at least in some cases: or they WILL run him out of town, even if it takes four years!

(A note here on “snake oil”. I’m kinda an armchair naturopath so I know about such things! The “oil” of some snakes, in particular I believe the Chinese sea snake, is indeed a miracle cure for conditions such as arthritis. It was the Chinese “coolies” who brought such knowledge to America and recommended it to their fellow aching railway-line workers. Rattlesnake flesh (not the venom!) I have heard has similar effects; Native Americans would have known that. So, in my analysis, “snake oil salesmen” historically were enterprising if mountebankish white men, who opportunistically pinched knowledge and old recipes from more disadvantaged groups, such as Chinese, “Red Indians”, and of course the old women herbalists of their own culture who a century or two previously they would have been burning as witches and so the 19th century businessmen took this old knowledge and maybe added a bit of contemporary chemistry to it and of course knowledge of pasteurisation and bottling; that would have been for the bottled “patent medicines”, which have the most fantastic labels btw! That of course would have been the more professional end of the scale; the traveling “medicine salesman” might have been selling any old kind of stewed muck off the back of a horse-drawn van: you’ve all seen Little Big Man!

Incidentally this knowledge/premise would make a very good book; and I’d probably better go away and research/write it: nobody pinch my idea now! )

But the point I am really making by explaining the saying “snake oil salesman” is really that the historical “snake oil” *sometimes worked*; if the mountebank cooked up the recipe he got from the old Indian right – that is!!

So, with Trump: I don’t think he’s been listening to any old Indians (of any continent); nor herb-women; he’s too proud (and “todger-based”) to listen to any of those even to purloin from; I feel he has been listening to some *far* more dubious people, unfortunately!

But he’s still now in the position where he has to prove to the majority that his snake-oil (“todger-oil”? That’s a new pun! ) WORKS; or has some good effects, for the majority of his “patients”, not just his mates!

Now we really ARE at the point of uncertainty here! *I* don’t know how things will turn out! I was thinking, that *failing socialism*, maybe a bit of old-fashioned, unfashionable protectionism and “trade barriers” *are* what are needed, to “save the West”; at least to make Asia realise that we’re serious about manufacturing again and they can’t have it all!

But conventional economists stress how all this will make things more expensive for “the consumer in the street”; Radio 4 reports are full of how everything has gone up since Brexit!

Well Trump is at the moment proclaiming how he will achieve “fair bilateral deals” with Asian nations and so on; so let’s see how it goes… Is there something the mountebank knows that the likes of Paul Krugman don’t?

His idea for Farage as ambassador was stupid though! He obviously doesn’t know that in the UK, diplomats are professionals and not political or contributor cronies like the likes of Mel Sembler!

**Trump doesn’t know a lot. Let’s see how much he learns – while still managing to satisfy his blue-collar base!!**

(One thing that has recently puzzled me is this though: Trump is obviously not religious; so why does he go for the rubbish the religious right buy into? The sexism, the homophobia – and yes, the racism? You could be protectionist and nationalist without reviving all the stale rubbish. America doesn’t really have a (Muslim) “immigrant problem”. Is it to woo more votes from a now-declining sector – I mean, the Christians? Why isn’t Trump more of a libertarian? Is it because the Libertarian Party don’t give a rat’s ass about the working classes either? (I mean, Ron Paul woulda repealed Obamacare and ALL healthcare programs! Trump’s changed his mind already and is keeping Obamacare we are told..)

So. Why does Trump believe all that monotheistically-inspired nonsense about abortion and so on?

For if he tries to pass policies like that he’ll have at LEAST half the population mad at him!)

Wait and see…