With four days left before the 2018 mid-term election, both sides are bringing out the big dogs.  And much is being said about the difference in tone between Donald Trump’s message of fear and the re-emergence of former President Barack Obama’s call for hope and change.

But it is not just their words which tells the story.  One cannot help but look at photographs at these rallies to understand who cares about his country and party and who cares about himself.

The first picture is from a rally in Ft. Myers, Florida on October 31 for the purpose of boosting the prospects of Republican candidate for governor Ron deSantis.  Without the dateline on the article, one would believe it was more likely taken during the 2016 presidential campaign.  Where is deSantis?  Where are the deSantis for Governor signs and t-shirts and hats.

The second photograph is from yesterday’s rally in Miami for Democrats Andrew Gillum (governor) and Senator Bill Nelson.  Imagine that, both are right there SHARING the spotlight with President Obama.  And campaign funds were used, not to remind people of Obama, but to make sure viewers knew why the former president was there.  He was the main attraction but it was the Andrew and Bill Show.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.  I can only imagine Ron deSantis having dinner Friday night with his wife Casey.  She turns to him and says, “Too bad your guy didn’t do that for you!”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

Eighty years ago tonight, October 30, 1938, one Welles (Orson) staged a radio theater production of another Wells’ (author H. G.) science fiction classic The War of the Worlds.  Tonight, Rupert Murdoch and Fox News brings you an updated version La Guerra de los Mundos.  Below is an excerpt from the highly guarded script, obtained from Russians who hacked Donald Trump’s un-encrypted iPhone.

The War of the Worlds
Donald Trump and Fox Theatre on the Air
Tuesday, October 30, 2018

TRUMP:  It was near the end of October. Business was better. My bad hair day was over. More men were back at work.  (Women were also back at work making 78 cents on the dollar.) Sales were picking up. On this particular evening, October 30, the White House communications office estimated that thirty-two million people were listening in on radios.  (FactCheck: The U.S. Park Service reported it was more like 500,000.)

ANNOUNCER #1:  Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. From the Melania Room in Trump Tower in New York City, we bring you the music of Kid Rock and Kanye West. With a touch of the Spanish. Kid Rock leads off with “La Cumparsita.”

(PIECE STARTS PLAYING)

ANNOUNCER #2:  Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from Fox Radio News. At twenty minutes before eight, central time, White House national security advisor John Bolton, reports observing several trails of dust, occurring at regular intervals just south of the Mexican border. The spectroscope indicates the dust to be moving towards the United States.  We now return you to the music of Kid Rock and Kanye West, playing for you in the Melania Room of Trump Tower, situated in downtown New York.

(MUSIC PLAYS FOR A FEW MOMENTS UNTIL PIECE ENDS . . . SOUND OF APPLAUSE)

ANNOUNCER #1:  Now a tune that never loses favor, the ever-popular “Star Dust.” Kanye West . . .

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER TWO: Ladies and gentlemen, following on the news given in our bulletin a moment ago, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has requested all on-duty agents across the country keep a watch out for any further disturbances occurring along the Rio Grande River. Due to the unusual nature of this occurrence, we have arranged an interview with White House policy advisor Stephen Miller, who will give us his views on the event.  In a few moments we will take you to INS headquarters outside Laredo, Texas. We return you until then to the music of Kid Rock and Kanye West.

(MUSIC . . .)

ANNOUNCER TWO:  We are now ready to take you to the Mexico border where Carl Phillips, our commentator, will interview senior policy advisor Stephen Miller. We take you now to Laredo, Texas

(ECHO CHAMBER)

PHILLIPS:  Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Carl Phillips, speaking to you from INS headquarters outside Laredo. I am standing in a large semi-circular room, pitch black except for a narrow window in the south-facing wall. Through this opening I can see across the Rio Grande River. The ticking sound you hear is the vibration of the clockwork. Stephen Miller stands directly beside me on a small platform, peering through a giant lens. I ask you to be patient, ladies and gentlemen, during any delay that may arise during our interview. Besides his ceaseless watch of the Mexican frontier, Miller may be interrupted by telephone or other communications. During this period he is in constant touch with the other alt-right fear mongers around the world . . . Mr. Miller, may I begin our questions?

MILLER:  At any time, Mr. Phillips.

PHILLIPS: Mr. Miller, would you please tell our radio audience exactly what you see as you observe the border area through your telescope?

MILLER: Nothing unusual at the moment, Mr. Phillips. Just a few flat bed trunks and what looks like people, mostly women and children, rehearsing for the annual Day of the Dead parade.

PHILLIPS: In your opinion, is this significant?

MILLER:  It could be.  They do not call it “the day of the dead” for nothing?

PHILLIPS: Then you’re quite convinced as a alt-right nationalist that living intelligence as we know it does not exist in Latin America?

MILLER: I’d say the chances against it are a thousand to one.

PHILLIPS: By the way, Mr. Miller, for the benefit of our listeners, how far are these people from the border?

MILLER: Approximately 1,000 miles or, as we say, one day’s walking distance.

(OFF MIKE) Thank you.

(PAUSE)

PHILLIPS: Just a moment, ladies and gentlemen, someone has just handed Miller a message. While he reads it, let me remind you that we are speaking to you from INS headquarters outside Laredo, Texas . . . One moment, please. Miller has passed me a message which he has just received . . . Mr. Miller, may I read the message to the listening audience?

MILLER: Certainly, Mr. Phillips

PHILLIPS: Ladies and gentlemen, I shall read you a wire addressed to Neil deGrasse Tyson of the Natural History Museum, New York. “9:15 P. M. eastern standard time. Seismograph registered shock of almost earthquake intensity occurring within a radius of twenty miles of El Paso. Please investigate. Signed, Lloyd Gray, Chief of Astronomical Division” . . . Mr. Miller, could this occurrence possibly have something to do with the disturbances observed south of the border?

MILLER: Hardly, Mr. Phillips. Those Latinos really know how to party.  It could be a geological effect similar to fracking. However, we shall send a research team to investigate, as soon as daylight permits.

PHILLIPS: Thank you, Professor. Ladies and gentlemen, for the past ten minutes we’ve been speaking to you from INS headquarters outside Laredo, bringing you a special interview with White House advisor Stephen Miller. This is Carl Phillips speaking. We are returning you now to our New York studio.

(FADE IN PIANO PLAYING)

ANNOUNCER TWO: We take you now to El Paso, Texas.

(CROWD NOISES . . . POLICE SIRENS)

PHILLIPS: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Carl Phillips again . . . I hardly know where to begin, to paint for you a word picture of the strange scene before my eyes, like something out of a modern “Arabian Nights.” Well, I just got here. I haven’t had a chance to look around yet. I guess that’s it. Yes, I guess that’s the . . . thing, directly in front of me.  What I can see of the . . . object itself doesn’t look very much like a caravan, at least not the caravans I’ve seen. It looks more like a huge bread line straight out of the Great Depression.  It has a diameter of . . . what would you say, Mr. Miller?

MILLER (OFF-MIKE): What’s that?

PHILLIPS: What would you say . . . what is the diameter?

MILLER: About thirty yards.

PHILLIPS: About thirty yards . . . well, I’ve never seen anything like it. The color is sort of brown-ish. Curious spectators now are pressing close  in spite of the efforts of the police to keep them back. They’re getting in front of my line of vision. Would you mind standing to one side, please?

POLICEMAN: One side, there, one side.

PHILLIPS: While the policemen are pushing the crowd back, here’s Mr. Wilmuth, who owns the property where the aliens crossed the border. He may have some interesting facts to add . . . Mr. Wilmuth, would you please tell the radio audience as much as you remember of these rather unusual visitors that dropped in your backyard? Step closer, please. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mr. Wilmuth.

WILMUTH: Well, I was listenin’ to the radio.

PHILLIPS: Closer and louder please.

WILMUTH: Pardon me!

PHILLIPS: Louder, please, and closer.

WILMUTH: Yes, sir — while I was listening to the radio and kinda drowsin’, that Miller fellow was talkin’ about the caravan, so I was half dozin’ and half…

PHILLIPS: Yes, yes, Mr. Wilmuth. Then what happened?

WILMUTH: As I was sayin’, I was listenin’ to the radio kinda halfways . . .

PHILLIPS: Yes, Mr. Wilmuth, and then you saw something?

WILMUTH: Not first off. I heard something.

PHILLIPS: And what did you hear?

WILMUTH: A strumming sound. Like this: (makes strumming sound). . . kinda like a Cinco de Mayo celebration.

PHILLIPS: Then what?

WILMUTH: Turned my head out the window and would have swore I was to sleep and dreamin.’

PHILLIPS: Yes?

WILMUTH: I heard a splashing sound and then zingo!  A bunch of people came up from the river.  Knocked me clear out of my chair!

PHILLIPS: Well, were you frightened, Mr. Wilmuth?

WILMUTH: Well, I — I ain’t quite sure. I reckon I — I was kinda riled.

PHILLIPS: Thank you, Mr. Wilmuth. Thank you.

WILMUTH: Want me to tell you some more?

PHILLIPS: No . . . That’s quite all right, that’s plenty.

PHILLIPS: Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve just heard Mr. Wilmuth. I wish I could convey the atmosphere . . . the background of this . . . fantastic scene. Hundreds of cars are parked in a field in back of us. Police are trying to rope off the roadway leading off Mr. Wilmuth’s ranch. But it’s no use. They’re breaking right through. Cars’ headlights throw an enormous spot on the pit where the object’s half buried. Some of the more daring souls are now venturing near the edge carrying tiki torches. Their silhouettes stand out against headlights of the flat-bed truck.

(FAINT HUMMING SOUND) 
One man wants to touch the aliens. . . he’s having an argument with a policeman. The policeman wins. . . . Now, ladies and gentlemen, there’s something I haven’t mentioned in all this excitement, but now it’s becoming more distinct. Perhaps you’ve caught it already on your radio. Listen:

(LONG PAUSE) . . .

Do you hear it? The aliens are speaking in what must be their language.  I’ll move the microphone nearer. (PAUSE) Now we’re not more then twenty-five feet away. Can you hear it now? Oh, Mr. Miller!

MILLER: Yes, Mr. Phillips?

PHILLIPS: Can you tell us what the aliens are saying?

MILLER:  It must be some kind of code.  So we cannot know how they will carry out their plans to distribute drugs, infect the population with supposedly eradicated diseases like small pox or steal our jobs .

PHILLIPS: I see, do you still think it’s a caravan?

MILLER: I don’t know what to think. I just know they represent a mortal threat to our way of life.

PHILLIPS: Just a minute! Something’s happening! Ladies and gentlemen, this is terrific!

VOICES: They’re movin’!  Keep back, I tell you!

(SUDDENLY THE CLANKING SOUND OF A HUGE PIECE OF METAL)

VOICES: It’s open.  The door to the flat-bed truck is opening! Look out there! Stand back!

PHILLIPS: Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most terrifying thing I have ever witnessed . . . Wait a minute! Someone’s crawling out of the cab. Someone or . . . something. I can see peering out . . are they eyes? It might be a face. It might be . . .

(SHOUT OF AWE FROM THE CROWD)

PHILLIPS: Good heavens, something’s wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now it’s another one, and another. They look like tentacles to me. There, I can see the thing’s body. It’s large, large as a bear and it glistens like wet leather. But that face, it . . . Ladies and gentlemen, it’s indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate. The monster or whatever it is can hardly move. It seems weighed down by . . . possibly gravity or something. The thing’s raising up. The crowd falls back now. They’ve seen plenty. This is the most extraordinary experience. I can’t find words . . . I’ll pull this microphone with me as I talk. I’ll have to stop the description until I can take a new position. Hold on, will you please, I’ll be right back in a minute.

(FADE INTO PIANO)

TRUMP:  Tune in for tomorrow night’s rally from Fort Myers, Florida to hear how I alone will save America from these alien invaders.  Happy Halloween.  Be afraid, very afraid!

POSTSCRIPT:  Thanks to www.sacred-text.com which posted the script from the original 1938 broadcast.

For what it’s worth!
Dr. ESP

 

In the past two years, several pundits have referenced the 1976 movie Network. Paddy Chayevsky’s Oscar-winning screenplay under Sidney Lumet’s direction is a tour de force, tracing the evolution of television journalism from reporting the news to entertainment and punditry.  In some corners, it has been described as a visionary prediction of the rise of 24/7 cable news.

It is also one of the most quoted films in the annuls of American cinema. There is the always popular Howard Beale (Peter Finch) rant, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”  Or Ned Beatty’s soliloquy as Arthur Jensen, the fictional head of CC&A, the corporate parent of USB, the network for which Beale works.  To convince Beale an Arab buyout of CC&A is not the horror story Beale envisions, Jensen waxes philosophically about how the world is made up, not of sovereign nations, but global corporations.  His monologue has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the most outstanding screen moments since the addition of sound to moving pictures.

As we approach the end of this election cycle, Jensen’s words are less important than their impact on Beale, whose renewed popularity and ratings began when he started speaking up for the common man.  On the first episode of The Howard Beale Hour following his confrontation with Jensen, Beale serenades his audience with a completely different tune.

Last night, I got up here and asked you people to stand up and fight for your heritage, and you did and it was beautiful. Six million telegrams were received at the White House. The Arab takeover of C.C. and A. has been stopped. The people spoke, the people won. It was a radiant eruption of democracy. But I think that was it, fellers. That sort of thing isn’t likely to happen again. Because, in the bottom of all our terrified souls, we all know that democracy is a dying giant, a sick, sick dying, decaying political concept, writhing in its final pain.

I don’t mean the United States is finished as a world power. The United States is the most powerful, the richest, the most advanced country in the world, light-years ahead of any other country. And I don’t mean the Communists are going to take over the world. The Communists are deader than we are. What’s finished is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It’s the individual that’s finished. It’s the single, solitary human being who’s finished. It’s every single one of you out there who’s finished. Because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. This is a nation of two hundred odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter- than-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings and as replaceable as piston rods —

November 6th, we have the chance to prove Howard Beale wrong.  There can be another “radiant eruption of democracy.”  This is our opportunity to remind the powers that be in Washington, D.C. and state capitals across the United States, this remains a country “dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual.”

WE THE PEOPLE are neither “unnecessary” nor “replaceable.”  Replaceable are public officials who enable and embolden a modern day Arthur Jensen who values personal wealth above the common welfare.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

The Others, a 2001 film starring Nicole Kidman, takes place at the end of World War II in a remote house in the Channel Islands.  The matriarch of the family Grace(Kidman) and her two children eagerly await the return of her husband Victor and their father from the battlefront.  Meanwhile, they experience a number of odd events which Grace attributes to “the others,” spirits she believes also occupy the property.

It is clear the house has been the site of some tragic or heinous event.  The moment of illumination comes when Victor’s parents conduct a seance in hopes of cleansing the structure of its past.  Only then does Grace realize she and her children are “the others,” the spirits who still dwell on the premises.  As her memory returns, she recalls killing the two children and herself in a fit of madness when she learns Victor has died in battle.  Her “others” are actually future occupants with whom she now accepts as co-habitants of her home.

THE OTHERS (2018)

If Hollywood can bring back Jamie Lee Curtis in a new version of Halloween, maybe it is also time for a remake of The Others.  Except the location is not the Channel Island.  It is the United Stated of America.  And rather than a story told by a handful of actors, this version is an epic production with a cast of millions.  However, the basic story remains the same.  The players are haunted by fears there are demons lurking around every corner who are the antithesis of their vision of America.  Immigrants, socialists, Muslims, minority voters, and a dishonest press.  Their fears are daily affirmed by the nation’s current patriarch.

As did Grace, these residents take every safeguard to protect themselves from the others.  Ban some from entering the country.  Build a wall to deter others.  Erect barriers to keep them from voting.  And ostracize the media as “enemy of the people.”  Only then, do they believe, they will be safe.

But yesterday’s attempt to harm “the others” who share their space was the “seance” which for them, like Grace, should have been that moment of illumination.  The anarchy and vigilantism they predicted materialized.  But as in the 2001 original, the others were not some imagined boogeymen.

EPILOGUE

As I watched clips from Trump’s rallies in Montana, Texas and last night in Wisconsin, my eyes were drawn not to Trump but to his avid supporters behind the stage as he enumerated “the others” who represent a threat to some imagined ideal for lack of a better term I’ll call “the good old days.”  I could not help but wonder if any of them, in their search for “these others” realize, in the words of Walt Kelly’s alter-ego Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

Once again, the media and the Democratic Party recently proved the counter-intuitive adage, “With enemies like this, who needs friends.” Consider the following.

Tennessee Senate Race 

On October 5, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee Phil Bredesen announced, that if he were the incumbent, he would vote to confirm then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.  Did Bredesen actually believe he could attract moderate Republican votes by taking what could only be described as a perverse #metoo (as in I’m also willing to sell my soul) stand on this issue.  His only hope of winning was by mobilizing the potential energy of women voters, especially suburban independents, who feel Trump and his local mouthpiece Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn do not represent their interests.

Did Bredesen not pay attention to the last attempt by Democrats to placate Republicans in hopes of building bipartisan support?  Did he fail to see what happened when Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer accepted Republican amendments to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in hopes of garnering a few votes from across the aisle?  How did that turn out?  The Democratic Party ended up having to defend a Rube Goldberg health care program created by the Heritage Foundation and then Republicans used ACA as a central issue against the Democrats in the 2010 mid-term elections.

When are Democrats going to wake up to a very convenient truth?  On social issues, the overwhelming majority of Americans are progressive.  They love Social Security and Medicare.  They think women have a right to control their own bodies.  They support a living wage.  They know climate change is real.  They do not equate money with freedom of expression.  No one wants a college education to mire graduates in years of debt.   Users do not want the internet to be controlled by a few service providers.  The Democratic party agrees shares those views.  So why won’t Democratic candidates own policies which the majority of Americans support, even in many so called red states?

It’s not like Bredesen didn’t have other things to tout.  For example, every time Democrats bring back the economy from the brink of disaster or begin to chip away at the deficit, Republicans use it as an excuse to finance massive tax cuts for their major donors.  Or does it really make sense to disrupt global agriculture markets with a trade war and then ask taxpayers to bail out the victims?  Hell, his home state of Tennessee is being hurt by European Union tariffs on Tennessee whiskey. Even when it comes to Kavanaugh’s confirmation, most Americans felt a more rigorous investigation of the assault accusations were in order.  All Bredesen had to say was, “When I’m in the Senate, regardless of the president’s political affiliation, I promise candidates for the Supreme Court will be fully vetted with public access to the information which now only members of the Senate are allowed to see.  I’d like to tell you how I’d vote on the Kavanaugh nomination, but like you, I’m kept from seeing the very information on which I would base my decision.”

Instead, Bredesen’s logic says, I’d rather play to people who will NEVER vote for me.  And now he’s probably lost the support of those who were looking for an alternative to Trump and his Republican lemmings.  According to Politico, “Campaign volunteers have been calling to cancel door-knocking and phone-banking shifts for Bredesen since his statement backing Kavanaugh, according to an internal spreadsheet maintained by the campaign.”  If the Democrats fall one short of retaking the Senate, there is NO question who is responsible.

Jamal Khashoggi

Not once this week has a single media outlet asked the question, “What is it about Turkey which makes it the go to place for dealing with political dissidents?  Not unexpectedly, the attention has been focused on the disappearance and likely murder of U.S. resident and Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi.  But how short of a memory could the press have to discount the fact this is the second incident in the last two years in which a U.S. resident was the target of abduction by a foreign government?  Did they forget former Trump national security advisor and confessed felon Michael Flynn was under investigation for aiding the Turkish government in kidnapping cleric Fethullah Gülen who the Erdogan government accused of plotting a coup in July 2016?

Nor has any newspaper, even the one that carried Khashoggi’s column, asked, “Why now?  Was Khashoggi working on a story which was of particular interest to the Saudi royal family?”  I have tried my best to avoid conspiracy theories, so I’ll use the pseudonym Tom Clancy.  Imagine, if prior to his death in 2014, Clancy wrote a Jack Ryan novel titled Prince of Ties.  It might have gone something like this.

In hopes of garnering support from the United States government, the Saudi royal family becomes a major financier of an American real estate developer who has fallen on hard times.  Their beneficiary, who has threatened on multiple occasions to run for president of the United States, finally throws his hat in the ring.  And to the surprise of many, including himself, wins with the help of foreign funding and possible intervention in the electoral process. 

As a result, the president makes Saudi Arabia and especially a charismatic heir to the throne the centerpiece of Middle East policy.  This results in arms sales to ensure the survival of the current Saudi regime and support of Saudi military actions in Qatar and Yemen which appear contrary to America’s global interests.

A Saudi dissident, living in the U.S. and writing for the Washington Post, has begun to document the financial ties between the president, the chief executive’s family business and Saudi Arabia.  To prevent the story from making headlines, the Saudi government devises a plan to capture and interrogate the journalist.  European intelligence agencies discover the plot and share the information with the CIA which chooses not to include it in the president’s daily intelligence briefing.  Jack Ryan, now serving as CIA deputy director, questions his boss’ decision to withhold the information and is stonewalled as he tries to make sense of the situation.

I am not suggesting the Trump administration has colluded with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to silence Khashoggi.  But the mere possibility has the makings of one great spy novel.  What I will suggest is the lack of transparency about Trump financial entanglements makes everything suspect whether it should be or not.  American voters should not have to guess whether there is a personal quid pro quo behind oval office decisions on U.S. foreign policy.

Hey, Phil Bredesen!  Maybe you should have thought about running on that instead of blind support for Brett Kavanaugh.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP