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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on March 6, 2024 at 12:10 am
According to Wikipedia:
“Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid.
“Filmed and set during World War II, it focuses on an American expatriot (Bogart) who must choose between his love for a woman (Bergman) and helping her husband (Henreid), a Czechoslovak resistance leader, escape from the Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Germans.”
It was immediately recognized as a classic—and its reputation has only grown over the continuing decades.
Ronald Reagan was reportedly an early front-runner for the part of Rick Blaine, but the role went—fortunately—to Bogart. For Casablanca’s millions of devoted fans, it’s unimaginable that anyone else could have played that role.
And yet, with a little imagination, it’s possible to imagine a remake of this classic—with Donald Trump starring as Rick.
For the role of his former lover, Ilsa Lund, there could be no better choice than his daughter, Ivanka, whose body he has repeatedly and publicly lusted over. Rudy Giuliani would lend new meaning to the role of Sam, the house pianist.
Thus, if Casablanca were remade today:
* * * * *
IVANKA: Play it once, Rudy. For old times’ sake.
RUDY: I don’t know what you mean, Miss Ivanka.
IVANKA: Play it, Rudy. Play “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.”
RUDY: Oh, I can’t remember it, Miss Ivanka. I’m a little rusty on it.
IVANKA: I’ll hum it for you. Da-dy-da-dy-da-dum, da-dy-da-dee-da-dum…
Rudy Giuliani as Sam
[Rudy begins playing]
IVANKA: Sing it, Rudy.
RUDY: [Singing] You must remember this / A kiss is still a kiss / A bust is just goodbye. / The fingerprinting ink applies / As cops drive by. / And when the cops in blue / Come kick the door in two / You think you wanna cry / No matter how the jailhouse swings—
TRUMP: [Rushing up] Rudy, I thought I told you never to play—
[Sees Ivanka. Rudy closes the piano and rolls it away]
* * * * *
IVANKA: Red Donald, I have to talk to you.
TRUMP: I saved my first drink to have with you.
IVANKA: No, Red Donald, not tonight.
TRUMP: Especially tonight.
IVANKA: Please…
TRUMP: Why did you have to come to Trump Tower? There are other places.
IVANKA: I wouldn’t have come if I’d known you were here. I thought you were out shooting children. Believe me Red Donald, I didn’t know….
TRUMP: It’s funny about your voice, how it hasn’t changed. I can still hear it. “Red Donald, dear, I’ll go with you anyplace. We’ll get on a train together and never stop–“
IVANKA: Don’t, Red Donald! I can understand how you feel.
TRUMP: You understand how I feel. How long was it we had, honey?
IVANKA: I didn’t count the nights.
Donald Trump as Rick, Ivanka as Ilsa
TRUMP: Well, I did. Every one of ’em. Mostly I remember the last one. The wow finish. A guy waiting by the bed, with plenty of orgy butter in jars on the nightstand, with a comical look in his face because his date stood him up.
IVANKA: Can I tell you a story, Red Donald?
TRUMP: Has it got a wow finish?
IVANKA: I don’t know the finish yet.
TRUMP: Well, go on. Tell it – maybe one will come to you as you go along.
IVANKA: It’s about a girl who knew a man—a very great and courageous man. He opened up for her a whole beautiful world full of knowledge and thoughts and ideals. Everything she knew or ever became was because of him. And she looked up to him and worshiped him….with a feeling she supposed was love.
TRUMP: You mean me, right?
IVANKA: Of course. But after you I met Jared.
TRUMP: Yes, it’s very pretty. I’ve heard a lot of stories in my time. They went along with the sound of a tinny piano playing in the parlor downstairs. “Mister, I loved my Daddy once when I was a kid,” it always began.
* * * * *
TRUMP: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I’ve done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you’re getting in that car with Jared where you belong.
IVANKA: But, Daddy, no, I…
TRUMP: Now, you’ve got to listen to me! You have any idea what you’d have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we’d both wind up on the sidewalk when Biden takes over. Isn’t that true, Rudy?
GIULIANI: I’m afraid President Biden would insist.
IVANKA: You’re saying this only to make me go.
TRUMP: I’m saying it because it’s true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Jared—even though I can’t imagine how you could prefer him to me.
Jared Kushner as Victor Laszlo
IVANKA: But what about us?
TRUMP: We’ll always have the Lincoln Bedroom. We didn’t have, we lost it until you came to Trump Tower. We got it back last night.
IVANKA: When I said I would never leave you.
TRUMP: And you never will. But I’ve got a job to do, too. First, I’ve got to ditch Melania. Then we have to do something about Jared. Ivanka, I’m no good at being noble, so I won’t try. Someday you’ll understand that.
[Ivanka lowers her head and begins to cry]
TRUMP: Now, now…[Gently places his hand under her chin and raises it so their eyes meet] Here’s looking at you, slut.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on March 5, 2024 at 12:11 am
Donald Trump has never shown any interest in—let alone knowledge of—history. Yet he might well feel warmly towards an English king who took power 508 years before he did.
Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509 and ruled as a tyrant until his death in 1547.
Trump came to the Presidency in 2017 and ruled as a tyrant until his electoral ouster in 2021.
In his youth Henry was athletic, highly intelligent, and spoke French, Latin and Spanish. Highly religious, he immensely enjoyed hunting and tennis. His scholarly interests included writing books and music, and he was a lavish patron of the arts.
Henry VIII
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 with a B.S. in Economics. In 2015, his lawyer, Michael Cohen, threatened to sue Trump’s high school, colleges, and the College Board if they released Trump’s academic records.
At six-feet-two with a slim athletic build, fair complexion and prowess on the jousting and tennis courts, Henry was considered extremely handsome, and even referred to as an “Adonis.” But as he aged, he became obese and his health suffered.
As a young man, standing six-feet-three and with an athletic build, Trump was considered handsome and a ladies’ man. But he thought exercise a waste of energy, saying it depletes the body’s energy. By the time he ran for President. By 2015-16, he was grotesquely overweight, with orange skin and stood with a pronounced forward tilt.
Henry married six times—resulting in two divorces (Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves), two beheadings (Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard) and one death after childbirth (Jane Seymour). His last wife, Catherine Parr, outlived him.
Trump has been married three times—to Ivana Trump, Marla Maples and Melania Trump. He cheated on Ivana (before divorcing her) with Marla, then cheated on Marla (before divorcing her) with Melania.
Parody of Donald Trump as Henry VIII
Both during and in-between marriages he bedded many other women—and boasted about it. His most infamous boast almost cost him the White House.
During a 2005 exchange with Billy Bush, then the host of Access Hollywood, Trump said: “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Henry VIII ruled England for 36 years, made radical changes to the English Constitution, and ushered in the theory of the divine right of kings in opposition to papal supremacy.
Donald Trump ruled the United States for four years, put radical Right-wing Justices on the Supreme Court, and boasted that it would be great if the country had—like China—a “President-for-Life.”
To make that a reality, he refused to accept electoral defeat in 2020 and incited a violent attack on Congress to stop the count of Electoral College votes proving that former Vice President Joseph Biden had won.
Trump inciting the January 6 attack on Congress
Henry was an intellectual, the first English king with a modern humanist education. He owned a large library, annotated many books and published one of his own.
Trump published 20 books under his name, but all were written by ghostwriters. This is confirmed by an analysis of his speech patterns—which puts him at a fourth-grade level, the lowest of the previous 15 Presidents.
Henry was ridiculed for his obesity and was subject to raging mood swings and paranoia.
Trump was ridiculed for his obesity, his slow reading of speeches and his obscene egotism: How smart he is, his wealth, his brilliance.
He spouted conspiracy theories:
- The “Deep State” was out to destroy him.
- News media was “the enemy of the people.”
- He lost the 2020 Presidential election because of a conspiracy involving Democrats and rigged voting machines.
It is estimated that Henry executed up to 57,000 people—members of the clergy, ordinary citizens and nobles who had taken part in uprisings and protests.
His victims fell into three categories: Heresy; Treason and Denial of his Royal Supremacy as Head of the English Church.
Among the most prominent: Sir Thomas More, his former chancellor, and Thomas Cromwell, his chief minister.
Trump never executed anyone, but he encouraged his legions of Right-wing supporters to attack those he considered enemies: The media, liberals, Hispanics, blacks, “uppity” women, Asians.
After he publicly invited the Proud Boys paramilitary group to “stand back and stand by,” its members conspired to kidnap and execute Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who had resisted Trump’s demand to “open” the state during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Henry VIII is largely remembered today for his six wives, massive appetite for food, his bloated appearance and his murderous tyranny.
Donald Trump will be remembered as the first President who tried to remain in office despite losing a Presidential election, his two impeachments, and, to date, his being the only former President to be indicted for 91 felonies.
Englishmen believed the country would collapse without a male heir to the throne. Americans believe the country will collapse if an ex-President stands trial for his crimes.
England survived. So will the United States.
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In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on March 4, 2024 at 12:10 am
There is more in common between Donald Trump and King Henry VIII than at first might seem possible.
And the 1969 movie, “Anne of the Thousand Days,” brings it vividly to light.
Throughout much of the film, Henry (Richard Burton) lusts to romantically—and sexually—capture the beautiful Anne Boleyn (Geneviève Bujold). The fact that he’s married to Catherine of Aragon matters not at all.
Henry justifies his infidelity on the fact that Catherine has failed to give him a male heir.
He’s been having an affair with Anne’s younger sister, Mary, but is now bored with her. The fact that she’s now pregnant with his child matters not at all, either.
He first notices Anne, 18, at a court ball. She’s engaged to the son of the Earl of Northumberland, and they have received their parents’ permission to marry. But Henry is enraptured with Anne’s beauty and orders his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, to break the engagement.
Anne is furious, and blames both Henry and Wolsey for ruining her happiness. But as the King’s infatuation continues, she becomes intoxicated with the power it brings her.
Henry presses Anne to become his mistress. But she says she won’t bear an illegitimate child. Desperate to have a son, Henry decides to divorce Catherine and marry Anne.
For Anne, it’s the ultimate seduction, and she agrees. She’s ordained as Queen, but is popularly reviled by the supporters of Catherine.
Months later, Henry is dismayed when Anne gives birth to a daughter, Elizabeth—who will eventually become Queen after Henry’s death.
Henry turns his always-wandering eye to Jane Seymour, one of Anne’s maids. Anne banishes Jane from the court.
Henry VIII
Anne is furious that Sir Thomas More, the King’s Chancellor, opposes Henry’s divorce from Catherine. She refuses to sleep with Henry unless he executes More.
Anne gets her wish: More is beheaded. But her next child—a boy—is stillborn.
By now, Henry is convinced Anne will never be able to give him a male heir. He schemes to divorce her and marry Jane. He contrives with his new chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, to have Anne falsely charged with infidelity.
At her trial, Anne vigorously defends herself, proving that the witnesses against her are lying.
In a private meeting with her, Henry offers to free her if she’ll agree to annul their marriage. Since this will make Elizabeth illegitimate, Anne refuses—and goes courageously to her death
Throughout the movie, Englishmen from Henry on down are convinced that England will collapse if a woman ascends the throne.
And, of course, England not only survives but thrives under the 45-year reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Which brings us to Donald Trump.
Like Henry, Trump is a man of voracious appetites—for wealth, for fame, for sex. Like Henry, he is untroubled by scruples and will commit any crime to attain whatever he wants. Like Henry, he is a man of fierce temper—always eager to crush anyone he thinks has wronged him.
Donald Trump
Countless Englishmen who lived under Henry thought England would collapse if a woman took the throne.
Now countless Americans believe the United States will collapse if a former President is brought to trial.
On March 30, Trump was indicted by a New York grand jury. He thus became the first current or former President to face criminal charges.
On April 1, CNN reported/editorialized: “Former President Donald Trump’s indictment….has thrust the nation into uncharted political, legal and historical waters, and raised a slew of questions about how the criminal case will unfold.
“The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating Trump in connection with his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme and cover-up involving adult film star Stormy Daniels that dates to the 2016 Presidential election.”
Trump has attacked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as pursuing a leftist vendetta to prevent him from running for President in 2024.
“If they can do this to me,” he has thundered in countless fund-raising appeals to his Right-wing followers, “they can do this to you.”
Which raises the question: “How many others have tried to illegally overturn a legitimate Presidential election and/or paid hush-money to a porn ‘actress’?”
Trump has repeatedly tried to appear the victim of “a Democratic-led witch hunt.” But if politics has tainted the dispensing of justice in Trump’s case, it’s been on his behalf.
As President, he had immunity from civil and criminal lawsuits. He couldn’t be tried at local, state and federal levels. And he had good reason to avoid facing trial at any level. Among the cases facing him while he held office:
- The Manhattan District Attorney’s criminal case against the Trump Organization for tax evasion.
- The New York Attorney General’s civil investigation into the Trump Organization for fraud.
- The E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit (he called her a liar after she claimed he raped her in the 1990s).
- The Mary Trump lawsuit: His niece is suing him for allegedly defrauding her out of millions of dollars.
- The Trump Tower lawsuit: Five people claim that Keith Schiller, the Trump Organization’s then chief of security, hit one of them on the head when they were protesting outside of the company’s Manhattan headquarters in 2015.
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In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on March 1, 2024 at 12:11 am
On March 24, 2019, Attorney General William Barr received the long-awaited report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller about Russian efforts to subvert the 2016 Presidential election.
According to Barr, the report—which no one else in the government had seen—showed no evidence that President Donald Trump had colluded with Russian Intelligence agents.
And now House Republicans—acting entirely on that claim—suddenly went on the offensive.
On March 28, all nine Republicans on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence demanded in a letter that Representative Adam Schiff (D-California) resign as its chairman.
On the same day, President Donald Trump tweeted: “Congressman Adam Schiff, who spent two years knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking, should be forced to resign from Congress!”
Other Republicans quickly joined the chorus:
- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California): Schiff owed “an apology to the American public” and should step down from his post as head of the Intelligence committee.
- Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel: “They [Schiff and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-New York] should be removed from their chairmanships. They owe the American people an apology. They owe this President an apology, and they have work to do to heal this democracy because this is our country we are talking about.”
- South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham: “He’s getting into conspiracy land and he’s acting like an Oliver Stone type figure.”
- White House Adviser Kelleyanne Conway: “He’s been on every TV show 50 times a day for practically the last two years, promising Americans that this President would either be impeached or indicted. He has no right, as somebody who has been peddling a lie, day after day after day, unchallenged. Unchallenged and not under oath. Somebody should have put him under oath and said, ‘You have evidence, where is it?’”
On March 28, Schiff—speaking in a firm and controlled voice—addressed his critics in the House and beyond.
It was a speech worthy of that given by Mark Antony at the funeral of Julius Caesar.
Adam Schiff
“My colleagues may think it’s okay that the Russians offered dirt on the Democratic candidate for President as part of what was described as ‘the Russian government’s effort to help the Trump campaign.’ You might think that’s okay.
“My colleagues might think it’s okay that when that was offered to the son of the President, who had a pivotal role in the campaign, that the President’s son did not call the FBI, he did not adamantly refuse that foreign help. No, instead that son said that he would ‘love’ the help of the Russians. You might think it’s okay that he took that meeting.
“You might think it’s okay that Paul Manafort, the campaign chair, someone with great experience running campaigns, also took that meeting.
“You might think it’s okay that the President’s son-in-law also took that meeting.
“You might think it’s okay that they concealed it from the public.
“You might think it’s okay that their only disappointment after that meeting was that the dirt they received on Hillary Clinton wasn’t better. ![]()
“You might think it’s okay that when it was discovered a year later that they’d lied about that meeting and said it was about adoptions, you might think it’s okay that the President is reported to have helped dictate that lie. You might think that’s okay. I don’t.
![]()
“You might think it’s okay that the Presidential chairman of a campaign would offer information about that campaign to a Russian in exchange for money or debt forgiveness. You might think that’s okay. I don’t.
“You might think it’s okay that campaign chairman offered polling data, campaign polling data to someone linked to Russian intelligence. I don’t think that’s okay.
“You might think it’s okay that the President himself called on Russia to hack his opponent’s emails, ‘if they were listening.’
“You might think it’s okay that later that day, in fact, the Russians attempted to hack a server affiliated with that campaign. I don’t think that’s okay.
“You might think that it’s okay that the President’s son-in-law sought to establish a secret back channel of communications with the Russians through a Russian diplomatic facility. I don’t think that’s okay.
“You might think it’s okay that an associate of the President made direct contact with the GRU [the Russian military Intelligence agency] through Guccifer 2 and Wikileaks, that is considered a hostile Intelligence agency.
“You might think that it’s okay that a senior campaign official was instructed to reach that associate and find out what that hostile Intelligence agency had to say, in terms of dirt on his opponent.
“You might think it’s okay that the National Security Adviser-Designate [Mike Flynn] secretly conferred with the Russian ambassador about undermining U.S. sanctions, and you might think it’s okay he lied about it to the FBI.
“You might say that’s just what you need to do to win, but I don’t think it’s okay. I think it’s immoral. I think it’s unethical. I think it’s unpatriotic. And yes, I think it’s corrupt and evidence of collusion.”
Not one Republican dared challenge even one accusation Schiff had made.
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In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on February 29, 2024 at 12:10 am
Adam Schiff began his political career as a member of the California State Senate (1996-2000). In 2001, he was elected to the House of Representatives.
From 2015 to 2019, he chaired the House Intelligence Committee, where he made his greatest contribution to not only California but the nation.
Today he is a candidate for United States Senator from California.
A former assistant United States attorney, he is a highly literate man. Among his favorite plays is William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.” It’s a far more sophisticated piece of writing than most people realize.
Adam Schiff
Mark Antony, addressing a crowd of Romans at the funeral of his former patron, Julius Caesar, faces a serious problem.
Caesar has been murdered by a band of conspirators who feared he intended to make himself king. The chief conspirator, Marcus Brutus, is one of the most honored men in ancient Rome. And he has just addressed the same crowd.
As a result, they are now convinced that the assassination was fully justified. They assume that Antony intends to attack the conspirators. And they are ready to attack him—maybe physically—if he does.
But Antony is too smart to do that—at least initially.
Instead, he assures the crowd: “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.”
And he praises the chief conspirator: “The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious. If so, it was a grievous fault—and grievously hath Caesar answered it.”
Then he introduces a line he will repeat with great effectiveness throughout the rest of his speech: “For Brutus is an honorable man—so are they all, all honorable men.”
The “Death of Julius Caesar,” as depicted by Vincenzo Camuccini.
For Antony, the line is ironic. But it serves his purpose to appease the crowd. Later, he will wield it like a sword against the same conspirators.
“He was my friend, faithful and just to me.” And then: “But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man.”
Antony then goes on to extol Caesar as the foremost Roman of his time:
- As a military victor: “You all do know this mantle. I remember the first time ever Caesar put it on. ‘Twas on…that day he overcame the Nervii.”
- As a humanitarian: “When that the poor hath cried, Caesar hath wept.”
And then, as if against his better judgment, he says: “But here’s a parchment with the seal of Caesar. I found it in his closet—’tis his will. Let but the commons hear this testament—which, pardon me, I do not mean to read—and they would go and kiss dead Caesar’s wounds.”
Now the crowd is entirely at Antony’s disposal. They hurl abuse at the conspirators: “They were traitors!” “They were villains, murderers!”
So Antony, claiming to read Caesar’s will, pronounces: “To every Roman citizen he gives…seventy-five drachmas.”
Marlon Brando as Mark Antony in the 1953 film, “Julius Caesar”
In addition, claims Antony, Caesar has left his fellow citizens “his private arbours and new-planted orchards on this side Tiber. He hath left them you, and to your heirs forever, common pleasures, to walk abroad, and recreate yourselves.”
By now the crowd is fired up—against the conspirators.
“Here was a Caesar!” cries Antony. “When comes such another?”
A citizen shouts: “We’ll burn [Caesar’s] body in the holy place. And with the brands fire the traitors’ houses.”
The crowd disperses—to pay fiery homage to Caesar and burn the houses of Brutus and the other conspirators.
Caesar’s assassins flee Rome for their lives. In time, they will face the legions of Antony and Octavian, the young nephew of Caesar—and choose suicide over capture and execution.
On March 28, 2019, Schiff used the same repetitive technique in addressing his “Republican colleagues” on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Days earlier, Attorney General William Barr had claimed to summarize the long-awaited report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller about Russian efforts to subvert the 2016 Presidential election.
According to Barr, the report—which no one else in the government has seen—showed no evidence that President Donald Trump had colluded with Russian Intelligence agents.
And now House Republicans—acting entirely on that claim—were going on the offensive.
On March 28, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and all other eight Republicans on the Committee demanded in a letter that Schiff resign as its chairman.
“Mr. Chairman,” the letter read, “since prior to the inauguration of President Trump in January 2017, you’ve been at the center of a well-orchestrated media campaign claiming, among other things, that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government.
“On March 24, 2019, the special counsel delivered his findings to the Department of Justice….The special counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 election….
“Despite these findings, you continue to proclaim to the media that there is ‘significant evidence of collusion.’
“The findings of the Special Counsel conclusively refute your past and present conclusions and have exposed you as having abused your position to knowingly promote false information, having damaged the integrity of this Committee, and undermined faith in U.S. Government institutions.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on February 23, 2024 at 12:10 am
The headline in the February 6, 2016 edition of The World Post read: “Geneva III: The Stillborn Conference and the Endemic Failure of the International Community.”
Then came the waterworks:
“While approaching the fifth anniversary of the Syrian civil war on March 15 — which claimed more than 300,000 lives, approximately 700,000 wounded, 4 million fled the country, and another 6 million displaced within Syria — the international community has failed to put an end to bloodshed in this war-torn country.”
The Syrian conflict began on March 15, 2011, triggered by protests demanding political reforms and the ouster of dictator Bashar al-Assad.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights—which is safely located in Great Britain—the total number of dead is now more than 310,000.
And who does the Observatory—and The World Post-–blame for this Islamic self-slaughter?
The West, of course:
“The silence of the International community for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria encourages the criminals to kill more and more Syrian people because they have not found anyone that deter them from continuing their crimes that cause to wound more than 1,500,000 people; some of them with permanent disabilities, make hundreds of thousands children without parents, displace more than half of Syrian people and destroy infrastructure, private and public properties.”
Got that? It’s the duty of non-Muslims to bring civilized behavior to Islamics.
And why are all these murderers eagerly slaughtering one another?
Because of a Muslim religious dispute that traces back to the fourth century.
Yes, it’s Sunni Muslims, who make up a majority of Islamics, versus Shiite Muslims, who comprise a minority.
Each group considers the other takfirs—that is, “apostates.” And, in Islam, being labeled an apostate can easily get you murdered.
On November 30, 2023, the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect estimated that at least 580,000 Syrians had died in the war.
There is, however, an optimistic way to view this conflict:
- Put another way: 580,000 potential or actual Islamic terrorists will never pose a threat to the United States or Western Europe.
- The United States cannot be held in any way responsible for it.
In fact, it’s in America’s best interests that this conflict last as long as possible and spread as widely as possible throughout the Islamic community.
Here are four reasons why:
First: In Syria, two of America’s most deadly enemies are waging war on each other.
Yes, it’s Hizbollah (Party of God) vs. Al-Qaeda (The Base).
Hizbollah is comprised of Shiite Muslims. A sworn enemy of Israel, it has kidnapped scores of Americans suicidal enough to visit Lebanon and truck-bombed the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 299 Americans.
Flag of Hizbollah
Al Qaeda—which gave us 9/11—is comprised of Sunni Muslims. It considers Shiites as heretics and seeks their extermination. It has attacked the mosques and gatherings of liberal Muslims, Suffis and other non-Sunnis. And despite the death of its creator, Osama bin Laden, in 2011, it still seeks to destroy the United States.
Flag of Al Qaeda
Second: Since 1979, Syria has been listed by the U.S. State Department as a sponsor of terrorism.
Among the terrorist groups it supports: Hizbollah and Hamas. For many years, Syria provided a safe-house in Damascus for Illich Ramirez Sanchez—the notorious international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal.
Illich Ramirez Sanches “Carlos the Jackal”
Third: China and Russia are supporting the Assad dictatorship—and the brutalities it commits against its own citizens.
This reflects badly on them—not the United States. And any move by the United States to directly attack the Assad regime could ignite an all-out war with Russia and/or China.
What happens if Russian and American forces start trading salvos? Or if Russian President Vladimir Putin orders an attack on America’s ally, Israel, in return for America’s attack on Russia’s ally, Syria?
It was exactly that scenario—Great Powers going to war over conflicts between their small-state allies—that triggered World War I.
Fourth: While Islamic nations like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan wage war within their own borders, they will lack the resources—and incentive—to attack the United States.
Every dead Hizbollah, Al-Qaeda and ISIS member makes the United States far safer. So does the death of every sympathizer of Hizbollah, Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
The peoples of the Middle East have long memories for those who commit brutalities against them. In their veins, the cult of the blood feud runs deep.
When Al-Qaeda blows up civilians in Beirut, their relatives will urge Hizbollah to take brutal revenge. And Hizbollah will do so. Similarly, when Hizbollah does, those who support Al-Qaeda will demand even more brutal reprisals against Hizbollah.
No American could instill such hatred in Al-Qaeda for Hizbollah—or vice versa. This is entirely a war of religious and sectarian hatred.
In fact, this conflict could easily become the Islamic equivalent of “the Hundred Years War” that raged from 1337 to 1453 between England and France.
When Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, then-Senator Harry S. Truman said: “I hope the Russians kill lots of Nazis—and vice versa.”
That should be America’s position whenever its sworn enemies start killing off each other. Americans should welcome such self-slaughters, not become entrapped in them.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on February 22, 2024 at 12:09 am
Fox News began peddling “The Big Lie”—that President Donald J. Trump was cheated of electoral victory in 2020—on Election Night.
But then the truth came to light.
On March 26, 2021, Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News in Delaware Superior Court.
Dominion charged that Fox’s program hosts and guests had deliberately lied that Dominion’s voting machines had been rigged to steal the 2020 United States presidential election from then-president Donald Trump.
Fox News claimed that it was reporting news of what individuals were saying and was thus protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.
But during pre-trial discovery, Dominion accessed a treasury of Fox News memos and emails proving that its prominent hosts and top executives knew they were lying about Dominion but continued doing so anyway.
With several prominent Fox senior executives and personalities slated to testify, the trial opened on April 18, 2023. Then Fox caved—and settled the case the same day for $787.5 million.
One month earlier, on the March 3, 2023 edition of The PBS Newshour, political commentators David Brooks (The New York Times) and Jonathan Capehart (The Washington Post) had explained the significance of the upcoming lawsuit.
David Brooks: Rupert Murdoch started a paper called The Australian a long time ago. He was a journalist, an actual journalist. And now he’s gotten to the point where you can lie on camera—as long as your ratings are OK.
David Brooks
Those people who lied didn’t lie over little things. They lied about the election results of a presidential election, kind of a major deal. And we now know—as we all suspected—they all knew what was happening.
And Murdoch is sitting there atop this organization sort of blithely pretending it’s not really his problem. And so he can say it, and he has power over the corporation today. He owns it. He could fire Tucker [Carlson]. He could fire all the people—all the people who were in on this and whose journalistic integrity has been exposed as zero.
And yet he’s still trying to blithely rise above it. And so it’s amazing that we have a major news organization that is inaccurate about a presidential election.
Jonathan Capehart
Jonathan Capehart: And what that says to me is, Rupert Murdoch and his anchors, those people who are peddling in lies, they are insulated from the effect of the lies that they tell. When you see someone saying, “Oh, our ratings are going down, and that’s going to affect the stock price.” So there’s no concern….
Rupert Murdoch
Hudson Institute, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
So that means you’re more concerned about your bottom line than the corrosive impact on our democracy and political discourse in this country. That, to me, was what’s really disturbing.
And what’s even more disturbing is that Fox News isn’t even really covering this lawsuit, which means that their audience, who should know about what’s being said about them and about the programming for them, they will never—they might not ever know….that what they’re being told is just a big bunch of lies.
Well, that’s the point I was trying to make. We don’t even know if they will even know about this case, as a result. And even if they do find out, either they might not trust it, or maybe they just don’t care. I don’t know.
* * * * *
If Fox’s viewers didn’t learn about the lawsuit, it was because they watched Fox exclusively.
On the night of the Fox settlement, the Fox affiliate in San Francisco—KTVU—didn’t carry any mention of it. Those wanting to discover the latest twist in the case had to get their news from channels that believed in reporting facts, not Right-wing propaganda.
In the Soviet Union, the all-powerful Kremlin dictatorship made it extremely hard—and dangerous—to learn the truth about domestic and international events.
No correspondent for the official Soviet newspapers “Pravda” (“Truth”) and “Izvestia” (“News”) dared report what he actually knew about the failings and crimes of the regime.
Citizens who wanted to learn the truth risked imprisonment or worse if the authorities learned of their investigative efforts. As a result, the vast majority of Russians—and those enslaved by them—lived in a world of lies and half-truths.
There is no excuse for that among American citizens who have access to a wide array of news sources.
An X user recently asked: “Are critical thinkers being vastly outnumbered in the USA because secondary education is just so damn expensive? It’s no wonder Republican states are among the most poorly educated.”
The answer is: No.
You don’t have to accept Right-wing propaganda.
You can question the official version of any story.
You can seek out multiple sources.
You don’t have to seek out only those sources that confirm your long-held prejudices.
And you don’t need a college education to do so.
If Right-wingers—who make up the audience for Fox News—are ignorant, it’s because they want to be ignorant.
And they will stay ignorant—because living in a world of Right-wing lies and hatred is more important to them than accepting reality for what it is.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on February 21, 2024 at 1:44 am
Reputable news organizations believe they’re hurt when a reporter gets his facts wrong—or, worse, invents a story for sensationalistic attention.
For Fox News Network, getting hurt means that some of its own reporters have told the truth. And, as a result, many of its viewers are turning to other Right-wing propaganda outlets.
In a series of email exchanges, Fox Network executives revealed they were not simply loyal to President Donald Trump but mortally afraid of him.
Star Host Tucker Carlson said that Trump was good at “destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”
Nor was Carlson the only one. The fear started at the very top—with Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch: “Nobody wants Trump as an enemy. We all know that Trump has a big following. If he says, ‘Don’t watch Fox News, maybe some don’t.”
Up to January 26, 2021, Murdoch allowed Fox advertiser Mike “My Pillow” Lindell to appear on the Tucker Carlson Tonight Show to lie that Trump had been cheated of victory by massive voter fraud.
Questioned as to why he allowed it, Murdoch agreed with the statement, “It is not red or blue, it is green.”
Rupert Murdoch
Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
In short: Lust for money, not ideology, motivated Fox’s slant on politics.
And, as with all Fox News commentary, truth played no role in the decision to air it.
With unapologetic hypocrisy, Fox stars Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham brutally mocked the lies being peddled by Trump—and their own network.
In a text to Ingraham, Carlson said that Sidney Powell, an attorney who was representing the Trump campaign, was “lying” and that he had “caught her” doing so.
Ingraham: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy [Giuliani].”
Hannity said Giuliani was “acting like an insane person” and Ingraham described him as “an idiot.”
And Hannity said: “That whole narrative that Sidney was pushing, I did not believe it for one second.”
Sean Hannity
How do we know all this? Certainly not because some outraged Fox whistleblower made these exchanges public.
It’s because Fox’s chief victim, Dominion Voting Systems, decided to strike back.
The Denver-based company produces and sells electronic voting hardware and software, including voting machines and tabulators, in Canada and the United States.
Dominion, claimed Fox, had criminally enabled Democrats to steal the election for Joe Biden by programming its machines to throw out votes meant for Trump.
Its reputation unfairly tarnished, its employees threatened with violence by Trump’s Fascistic supporters, Dominion filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News in March, 2021.
Dominion charged Fox News with pushing false conspiracy theories about the company to win back dissatisfied viewers upset with its coverage of Trump’s defeat.
Libel lawsuits are typically centered around one falsehood. But Dominion cites a lengthy list of Fox hosts making false claims even though they were known to be untrue.
According to an almost 200-page document Dominion filed in the lawsuit:
“From the top down, Fox knew ‘the Dominion stuff’ was ‘total BS.’ Yet despite knowing the truth—or at minimum, recklessly disregarding that truth—Fox spread and endorsed these ‘outlandish voter fraud claims’ about Dominion even as it internally recognized the lies as ‘crazy,’ ‘absurd,’ and ‘shockingly reckless.’
“As a result of the false accusations broadcast by Fox into millions of American homes, Dominion has suffered unprecedented harm and its employees’ lives have been put in danger,” Dominion’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
Backing up its assertions: A treasury of emails, texts, testimony, and other private communications from Fox News personnel contradicting the network’s claims that Dominion’s voting machines had rigged the presidential election in Joe Biden’s favor.
These had all been obtained through the discovery process.
While Fox was echoing Trump’s claims of “massive voter fraud,” its executives and commentators knew that he—and they themselves—were lying.
In mid-November 2020, Carlson texted one of his producers that “there wasn’t enough fraud to change the outcome” of the election.
Later, Carlson said that Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s attorneys and a prominent accuser of election fraud, “is lying.”
Sidney Powell
Dana Perino, an anchor, called allegations of voter fraud against Dominion “total bs,” “insane,” and “nonsense.”
Murdoch told an executive on November 6, 2020 that “if Trump becomes a sore loser we should watch Sean [Hannity] especially and others don’t sound the same.”
And on January 5, 2021, Murdoch wrote to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott:
“It’s been suggested our prime time three [Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham] should independently or together say something like, ‘the election is over and Joe Biden won.’ It would “go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election [was] stolen.”
But Fox never aired such a statement.
Fox repeatedly tried to get the case dismissed, but Superior Court Judge Eric Davis refused to do so. A trial was slated to begin on April 17.
There is a difference between journalism and Fascistic propaganda. And Fox News Network routinely provides examples of the latter.
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In Business, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on February 20, 2024 at 12:11 am
In the beginning was the audience. And the audience was filled with Fascistic hate and prejudice, and sought always to have its beliefs confirmed.
And then came Fox News Network, which sought to capture that audience—and, with it, huge ratings and profits.
At the center of both Fox and its audience stood Donald Trump—first as a Presidential candidate, then as President.
In him, Right-wingers found their ideal representative: He promised to destroy all those groups they hated.
Among these: Blacks, Asians, “uppity” women, Muslims, liberals, Hispanics, Democrats.
Donald Trump
So when Trump lost the 2020 Presidential election—by 81,284,666 votes for former Vice President Joe Biden versus 74,224,319 for Trump-–the Right was devastated. And furious.
Unlike its defeats in past Presidential elections, this time the Right refused to accept the will of the electorate.
Trump had often “joked” about how wonderful it would be for the United States to have a “President-for-Life”—as was the case in China.
This time the Right intended to make that a reality.
Central to making that happen was the Fox News Network.
In 2022, for its seventh consecutive year, Fox News stood as the top-rated cable news network in the United States. Fox averaged 1.4 million total day viewers.
By contrast, 733,000 watched MSNBC and 568,000 watched CNN.
In prime time, Fox came in first with an average of 2.3 million viewers in 2022.
MSNBC came in second with 1.2 million and CNN ranked third with an average of 730,000.
As for profits: Fox’s net income for the twelve months ending December 31, 2022 was $1.507B, a 4.94% increase year-over-year.
In 2015, Trump launched his campaign for President. His chances for success seemed impossible at the time—even to many mainstream Republicans.
But as he won victory after victory in Republican primaries, Fox News stuck with him. And stayed with him through the four years of his Presidency.
Fox was Trump’s favorite network. It gave him unstinting praise and sought to put a favorable spin on everything he did. As a result, Trump rarely gave interviews to CBS, NBC or ABC News.
In turn, Fox profited hugely as its audience—and advertisers—eagerly tuned in.
So when Trump lost the 2020 Presidential election, he and Fox decided they must get him back into the Oval Office.
Trump did his best—or worst—by filing about 60 lawsuits to overturn the results of the election. But none of his attorneys could prove their claims that widespread fraud had robbed him of victory. The suits were dismissed by judges or withdrawn by Trump’s own attorneys.
Fox News couldn’t file fraudulent cases on Trump’s behalf. But it could poison the public mind by claiming—endlessly and falsely—that Trump had been cheated by massive voter fraud.
Fox didn’t even wait for the final results of the 2020 election to be called before it intervened on the side of what would soon be dubbed “The Big Lie.”
On Election Night, Chris Stirewalt, the political editor of Fox News Channel, was the first to project Biden’s victory in Arizona. This turned out to be right—and brought a furious attack upon Stirewalt.
Tucker Carlson
“We worked really hard to build what we have,” Fox host Tucker Carlson texted his producer, Alex Pfeiffer. “Those fuckers are destroying our credibility. It enrages me.”
For Carlson, credibility didn’t mean ensuring integrity in news reporting. It meant telling Fox’s Right-wing audience what it wanted to hear—whether the “news” was true or not.
Carlson added that he had spoken with fellow primetime commentators Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity minutes earlier and that they were “highly upset.”
In a January 26, 2021 Op-Ed for the Los Angeles Times, Stirewalt wrote: “Having been cosseted by self-validating coverage for so long, many Americans now consider any news that might suggest that they are in error or that their side has been defeated as an attack on them personally.
“The lie that Trump won the 2020 election wasn’t nearly as much aimed at the opposing party as it was at the news outlets that stated the obvious, incontrovertible fact.”
Chris Stirewalt
Stirewalt was fired from Fox News in January, 2021.
Trump was furious about the Arizona call. After the election, he attacked Fox News and encouraged his followers to switch to Newsmax.
Which many of them did, costing Fox a big chunk of its audience.
For Fox, this was the ultimate catastrophe. The company began cracking down on its employees who had dared tell the truth on Election Night.
One case involved White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich. Her sin was fact-checking a Trump tweet accusing Dominion Voting Systems of election fraud.
Heinrich wrote that top election officials had determined “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
“Please get her fired,” Star host Tucker Carlson texted his fellow host Sean Hannity: “Seriously….what the fuck? I’m actually shocked….It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”
Hannity replied that he had already spoken to Suzanne Scott, the network’s chief executive. The next morning, Heinrich’s tweet had been deleted.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 19, 2024 at 1:27 am
“And the most glorious episodes do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.
“Sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles.”
So warned the ancient historian, Plutarch, in the introduction to his biography of Alexander the Great.
It’s well to keep this warning in mind when recalling the story of 17-year-old Tyler Linfesty, now known as “Plaid Shirt Guy.”
On September 6, 2018, Linfesty, a high school senior, attended President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Billings, Montana. He had wanted to see the President of the United States speak in his home state.
And, much to his surprise, he was randomly chosen by the Trump campaign for “VIP status.” He would be seated directly behind Trump.
But this came with a warning: “You have to be enthusiastic, you have to be clapping, you have to be cheering for Donald Trump.”
Before he attended the rally, Trump staffers urged him to wear a “Make America Great Again” cap, but he refused.
Owing to his varied facial expressions and his plaid shirt, he quickly became known on the Internet as “Plaid-Shirt Guy.”
Tyler Linfesty
Then, while the rally was still going, Linfesty was approached by a Trump minion who said: “I’m gonna replace you.”
He hadn’t been heckling Trump. Nor had he held up an anti-Trump sign.
So why was he suddenly ejected?
Without being given a reason, Linfesty was forced to come up with one himself. And his best guess: He didn’t cheer when Trump made statements he disagreed with.
He had applauded those parts of Trump’s speech he did agree with—such as opposition to NAFTA. He also agreed with Trump’s claim that the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination was stolen from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
But there were parts of Trump’s speech he disagreed with—such as Trump’s claim that his “tax reform law” benefits the middle class.
(It doesn’t—its foremost beneficiaries comprise the top 1%.)
Thus, Linfesty looked skeptical when Trump said it was harder to win the Electoral College than the popular vote.
(It isn’t. A candidate need only win those states with the most electoral votes. He needn’t win the popular vote—just as Trump failed to win it against Hillary Clinton by nearly three million votes.)
Donald Trump
And when Trump said he could have won the popular vote, Linfesty turned to several people near him and mouthed “What?”
As Linfesty explained to CNN’s Don Lemon: “I had to be real with myself. I’m not going to pretend to support something I don’t support.”
Apparently this was too much for those staging the rally.
“I saw this woman walking toward me on the left,” Linfesty told the Billings Gazette. “She just said to me, ‘I’m going to replace you.’ I just walked off. I knew I was getting out for not being enthusiastic enough, but I decided not to fight it.”
But being removed from the Trump speech was not the end for Linfesty.
He was then detained by the United States Secret Service.
“Some Secret Service guys escorted me into this backroom area, and they just sat me down for 10 minutes,” said Linfesty. The agents looked at his ID, then released him—and told him not to return.
The Secret Service is charged with protecting the President (and, in a lesser-known duty, protecting the national currency). It is not charged with regulating the free speech rights of Americans.
It is, in short, not supposed to operate as the dreaded, black-uniformed SS of Nazi Germany.
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Ironically, earlier that morning, Trump had tweeted a thank-you to North Korea’s brutal dictator Kim Jong-Un.
The reason: Kim had said he had “unwavering faith in President Trump.”
Thus, a dictator who flatters Trump gets treated to praise, while an American exercising his right to free speech faces possible arrest.
Speaking to the Gazette, Linfesty said: “I didn’t really have a plan. I was just going to clap for things I agreed with and not clap for things I didn’t agree with.”
And he insisted to CNN’s Don Lemon that his facial expressions had been honest: “I would have made those faces if anyone were to say that to me. I was not trying to protest, those were just my actual, honest reactions.
“Each time I see one of these rallies I see somebody behind Donald Trump clapping and cheering and being super enthusiastic and I’ve always wondered myself, ‘Are those people being really genuine?’”
Two months to the day after Linfesty’s ordeal, Democrats recaptured the House of Representatives, but failed to win a majority in the Senate.
The next day, Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Since May, 2017, Trump had brutally insulted Sessions for refusing to suppress Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential election.
It is no accident that Donald Trump praises brutal dictators like Kim Jong-Un, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. They embody the type of all-powerful strongman that he aspires to be.
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IF DONALD TRUMP STARRED IN “CASABLANCA”
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on March 6, 2024 at 12:10 amAccording to Wikipedia:
“Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid.
“Filmed and set during World War II, it focuses on an American expatriot (Bogart) who must choose between his love for a woman (Bergman) and helping her husband (Henreid), a Czechoslovak resistance leader, escape from the Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Germans.”
It was immediately recognized as a classic—and its reputation has only grown over the continuing decades.
Ronald Reagan was reportedly an early front-runner for the part of Rick Blaine, but the role went—fortunately—to Bogart. For Casablanca’s millions of devoted fans, it’s unimaginable that anyone else could have played that role.
And yet, with a little imagination, it’s possible to imagine a remake of this classic—with Donald Trump starring as Rick.
For the role of his former lover, Ilsa Lund, there could be no better choice than his daughter, Ivanka, whose body he has repeatedly and publicly lusted over. Rudy Giuliani would lend new meaning to the role of Sam, the house pianist.
Thus, if Casablanca were remade today:
* * * * *
IVANKA: Play it once, Rudy. For old times’ sake.
RUDY: I don’t know what you mean, Miss Ivanka.
IVANKA: Play it, Rudy. Play “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.”
RUDY: Oh, I can’t remember it, Miss Ivanka. I’m a little rusty on it.
IVANKA: I’ll hum it for you. Da-dy-da-dy-da-dum, da-dy-da-dee-da-dum…
Rudy Giuliani as Sam
[Rudy begins playing]
IVANKA: Sing it, Rudy.
RUDY: [Singing] You must remember this / A kiss is still a kiss / A bust is just goodbye. / The fingerprinting ink applies / As cops drive by. / And when the cops in blue / Come kick the door in two / You think you wanna cry / No matter how the jailhouse swings—
TRUMP: [Rushing up] Rudy, I thought I told you never to play—
[Sees Ivanka. Rudy closes the piano and rolls it away]
* * * * *
IVANKA: Red Donald, I have to talk to you.
TRUMP: I saved my first drink to have with you.
IVANKA: No, Red Donald, not tonight.
TRUMP: Especially tonight.
IVANKA: Please…
TRUMP: Why did you have to come to Trump Tower? There are other places.
IVANKA: I wouldn’t have come if I’d known you were here. I thought you were out shooting children. Believe me Red Donald, I didn’t know….
TRUMP: It’s funny about your voice, how it hasn’t changed. I can still hear it. “Red Donald, dear, I’ll go with you anyplace. We’ll get on a train together and never stop–“
IVANKA: Don’t, Red Donald! I can understand how you feel.
TRUMP: You understand how I feel. How long was it we had, honey?
IVANKA: I didn’t count the nights.
Donald Trump as Rick, Ivanka as Ilsa
TRUMP: Well, I did. Every one of ’em. Mostly I remember the last one. The wow finish. A guy waiting by the bed, with plenty of orgy butter in jars on the nightstand, with a comical look in his face because his date stood him up.
IVANKA: Can I tell you a story, Red Donald?
TRUMP: Has it got a wow finish?
IVANKA: I don’t know the finish yet.
TRUMP: Well, go on. Tell it – maybe one will come to you as you go along.
IVANKA: It’s about a girl who knew a man—a very great and courageous man. He opened up for her a whole beautiful world full of knowledge and thoughts and ideals. Everything she knew or ever became was because of him. And she looked up to him and worshiped him….with a feeling she supposed was love.
TRUMP: You mean me, right?
IVANKA: Of course. But after you I met Jared.
TRUMP: Yes, it’s very pretty. I’ve heard a lot of stories in my time. They went along with the sound of a tinny piano playing in the parlor downstairs. “Mister, I loved my Daddy once when I was a kid,” it always began.
* * * * *
TRUMP: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I’ve done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you’re getting in that car with Jared where you belong.
IVANKA: But, Daddy, no, I…
TRUMP: Now, you’ve got to listen to me! You have any idea what you’d have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we’d both wind up on the sidewalk when Biden takes over. Isn’t that true, Rudy?
GIULIANI: I’m afraid President Biden would insist.
IVANKA: You’re saying this only to make me go.
TRUMP: I’m saying it because it’s true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Jared—even though I can’t imagine how you could prefer him to me.
Jared Kushner as Victor Laszlo
IVANKA: But what about us?
TRUMP: We’ll always have the Lincoln Bedroom. We didn’t have, we lost it until you came to Trump Tower. We got it back last night.
IVANKA: When I said I would never leave you.
TRUMP: And you never will. But I’ve got a job to do, too. First, I’ve got to ditch Melania. Then we have to do something about Jared. Ivanka, I’m no good at being noble, so I won’t try. Someday you’ll understand that.
[Ivanka lowers her head and begins to cry]
TRUMP: Now, now…[Gently places his hand under her chin and raises it so their eyes meet] Here’s looking at you, slut.
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