Tag: American Dharma

Trump 2.0 and Surviving It

On May 28, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Local, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

Donald J. Trump as a loser

“Trump’s impatience makes him not only an unreliable negotiator; it makes him a weak one.”

When he spoke with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier this month, Trump was desperate to notch a win, having already claimed without any evidence to have struck 200 trade deals (more than the number of countries the U.S. recognizes in the world). Those 2 lines courtesy of David A. Graham in “The Atlantic.”)

Other countries have now branded DJT as TACO, which means “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

How does that make you feel about the poorly-conceived, ham-handedly executed series of executive actions that pass for United States policy these days?

It’s hard to believe that we are all going to have to endure over 3 more years (3 years and 7 months) of the convicted felon now crapping up the Oval Office with tacky gold stuff, but there you have it, folks. The GOP in office can’t be counted on to do anything constructive. Destruction they have down. That’s why we’re in a world of hurt right about now.

Trump behind bars

See “American Dharma,” Errol Morris’s interview with Steve Bannon to learn how the GOP and Steve Miller and Project 2025 were being prepared for decades to ruin our once-great country. And now, thanks to some bad decisions on the part of the Democratic party and some worse decisions on the part of U.S. voters, we’re stuck with this guy (who claims he is going to run again in 2028).

I seem to be the only one that I personally know who really feels strongly about global warming and wants a government that will do everything in its power to keep our volatile weather from killing us. I have nothing against gas-guzzling autos, per se, but I have a lot against a tornado leveling my house (and me). And don’t look for help from FEMA now that DJT is in the process of ruining every government agency.

All I’ve heard from DJT are catch-words and buzz-phrases like “Drill, baby, drill!” Those are the catch words and buzz phrases that got us into this mess in the first place.

Steely Dan, the new Prius.

I’ve read that there are creative suggestions to help prevent the melting of the glaciers. I’ve done my part by driving a Prius since 2000 (7 at last count). However, the others (and, by this, I mean other countries and our own country), with the exception of that Swedish girl who keeps grabbing the spotlight to trumpet her concerns about global warming, seem to be doing nothing at all. What about distributing some white marbles on the glacial ice to reflect the sun’s rays and help prevent melting. No? (I read it actually could work, but there are concerns.)

Let me know how you’re coping with this worse-than-the-Pandemic period of time dealing with DJT.

Steve Bannon is Profiled in “American Dharma” by Errol Morris

By Connie Wilson

On October 21, 2018

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Local, News, Politics, Pop Culture, Science and Medicine

Errol Morris, one of the world’s foremost documentary filmmakers (“The Fog of War,” “The Unknown Known”), presents us with his latest film, “American Dharma,” a sobering peek into the mind of the man “Time” magazine dubbed the Master Manipulator, Steve Bannon.

Dharma means “duty, fate and destiny,” according to this past and present Trump advisor. Before the film screened, the Chicago Cinema documentary chief (Anthony Kaufman) read a brief note from the filmmaker which said, “Who would have thought that Henry King, David Lean, John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Michael Ritchie and Orson Welles would offer such fertile ground for Fascism. This is my most despairing and horrifying movie.” Morris was referencing Bannon’s frequent allusions to films he has seen which have spoken to him, none mentioned more frequently than “12 O’Clock High” starring Gregory Peck, (directed by Henry King).

There is little doubt that Bannon (assisted by Reince Priebus and Kellyanne Conway), entering the Trump campaign at the eleventh hour with the financial backing of Rebekkah Mercer and family, saved Trump’s campaign. Bannon brought with him a game plan and what he refers to in the film as the Honey Badger spirit of never giving up. Bannon brought a first-rate mind and education (Harvard Business School, among others) to the battle, albeit a reputation for being “a stone-cold racist” and someone who is “doubling down on fear.” As Bannon says onscreen, “You need to be a blunt force instrument.” He adds, “We just did it and now we’re gonna’ march on the Capitol. We’re gonna’ drop the hammer.”

Bannon, who was Executive Chairman of Breitbart News under Andrew Breitbart said, “The medium is the message and he (Trump) understood that.” Bannon described 15 to 18% of the voting public as people who didn’t like either candidate offered them in the presidential race, and notes that two-thirds of those people opted to vote for Trump over Hillary Clinton.

Bannon—who has been taking his show on the road covering the European circuit since his dismissal by Trump after Charlottesville— reminds the interviewer that “We had Brexit as the canary in the mineshaft.” Says Bannon, as campaign guru he felt the Trump campaign needed to convince the American voting public of 3 things:

That Trump would stop immigration.
That Trump would bring jobs back to the United States from overseas.
That Trump would get us out of foreign wars, such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Referencing a cautionary speech by Hillary Clinton in her campaign, known as the “alt right” speech, in which Hillary warned of the dangers inherent in a Trump presidency, Bannon crows, “That’s when I knew we had her. They’d walked right into the trap. If they (the voters) see you as the instrument to get their country and their jobs back, they’ll vote for you.” His point: Hillary did not represent the change that the states of West Virginia and most of the Midwest wanted to see.

Citing quotes like “When the legend becomes more powerful than the truth, print the legend,” and “Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid,” Bannon pulls from Errol Morris an admission that Morris voter for Clinton “because I was afraid of you guys. I still am. I did it out of fear.”

Another favorite Bannon quote from Milton’s “Paradise Lost” is, “I’d rather reign in Hell than serve in heaven.”

Morris asks Bannon if he’s all abut destroying everything and Bannon basically acknowledged that he is, saying, “We have to clean out some of the underbrush” and “A complete rejection of the system is due,” which he predicts will come after another financial crisis and will be “like a scythe through grass. It is coming.”

THE GOOD

In addition to warning us all exactly how this administration thinks, the solemn, depressing, insistent music, courtesy of Paul Leonard-Morgan, adds immensely to the tone and impact of the film. The cinematography by Igor Martinovic, who frequently poses Bannon in profile against the horizon, is good. Setting fire to the hangar (Quonset hut?) where the interview takes place is both a great metaphor for Steve Bannon’s philosophy of “the Fourth Turning” and makes for great visual imagery.

THE BAD

Is there anything more depressing than listening to someone this close to power telilng us, “Revolution is coming. It will come, as night follows day?” Aside from the Steve Miller-crafted “American Carnage” speech, [which George W. Bush on Inauguration Day declared was “Some weird shit”], how uplifting is it to hear Steve Bannon tell say, “I’m saying if we don’t make changes we’re going to have an Apocalypse.” (Bannon also claimed that Trump wrote the speech himself and denied that Trump ever lies.)
Recommended, but have something uplifting awaiting you when you finish up watching this important 95 minute documentary from the master.