A mishmash of informed snark, piquant opinions, refined nastiness, occasional schmaltz, & tawdry graphics, served up continuously since 2006 by COSMIC CONNIE, aka CONNIE L. SCHMIDT. Covering New-Age/New-Wage culture & crapitalism, pop spirituality & religion, pop psychology, self(ish)-help, alt-health hucksterism, conspiranoia, business babble, media silliness, Scamworld, politix, & related (or occasionally unrelated) matters of consequence.
As you may know, on August 16, 2018, newspapers all over the United States -- about 350 in
all -- published editorials in favor of freedom of the press and
against #NotMyPresident Donald Trump's attacks on same. Apart from my surprise that there are even that many
newspapers remaining in the U.S., I am painfully aware that I'm a
day late participating in this nationwide event -- but then
again, I'm not a major newspaper (or really any newspaper at
all), and besides, I've always done things on my own schedule. Why, just the other day I went on about freedom of expression and whatnot. (Spoiler alert: I'm generally in favor of it.)
It has been said that the pen is mightier than the sword, but so
far that doesn't seem to be holding up very well under the Trump
administration. The more the "pen" exercises its might
where Trump is concerned, the more fiercely he doubles down on
his claims that the "fake news" (which by his
definition is almost every mainstream news outlet) is "the
enemy of the American people." And each journophobic
declaration from him further incites the cheering mobs of redcaps at his Nazi-like
rallies, who echo his disdain, hatred,
and thinly veiled threats of violence against members of the
press.
As one Reddit user, "Yodabird 19," wrote yesterday in a
discussion about the Senate resolution:
A congressional rebuke against Trump at
this stage is like pouring a glass of water into the Pacific
Ocean - completely useless, and very quickly washed away and
forgotten.
To say the least.
At least one major newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, refused to participate in the editorial coup,
explaining that its decision was both a declaration of complete
independence (as in, we have and will continue to criticize
Trump, but it will be because we want to, not 'cos everyone else
is doing it), and a refusal to play into Trump's narrative that
the media are aligned against him. Of course, by 'splainin' why
they didn't participate in the big event, they actually were
participating, but I quibble.
The Boston
Globe, which was sold to the the Failing New York Times
for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in
losses & investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was
then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in
COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018
It remains unclear what he meant by,
"PROVE IT!" As Stephen Colbert noted in his August 16
monologue, that call to "prove
it," in the context of the collusion accusation, is somewhat
like accusing someone of murder and then asking that person to
prove that your accusation is correct. But then, Trump has never
been known for his stellar logic.
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
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Alas, Herr Twitler still has not turned his attention to poor
Katie, who, years before he was sent to Federal sleepaway camp, had
positioned himself as a First Amendment martyr. much put upon by an evil and corrupt Government. In
mid-June Katie posted yet another entreaty on his
Facebook page:
President Trump is commuting inmates’
sentences! It is all over the news. The President is looking
at inmates who were "treated badly, unfairly and
unjustly" by Federal prosecutors and Judges. He is
looking at commuting the sentences of inmates that
"simply got too much prison time for the crimes they
committed". My petition is one of those. You can help
tip the scales and get President Trump to grant my petition
for a reduction of sentence and have me immediately released.
Write, call and email President Trump and tell him you want
him to grant my Petition. Tell him how you feel about the way
I was treated by the judicial system. Tell him what you think
about my books and anything else you feel like telling him.
Do the same to Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada
as well as Sergio Mattarella, the President of Italy and
Giuseppe Conte, the Prime Minister of Italy (as I have
Canadian roots and am also an Italian citizen). You can make
a difference. Now is the time to act and let these powerful
people know the TRUTH. All they have heard is the Fake News
about me and all the lies the government and media has said
about me, my books, and my businesses. Thank you for all your
help! Whatever the outcome, everything is Divinely guided and
will all be perfect for the highest good of everyone! Much
love...your friend, KT
The post then proceeded to list the contact
info for Justin Trudeau and the two Italian leaders. I find it
interesting that Katie didn't claim to be related to Justin
Trudeau, even though his older brother Bobby had previously made
this claim. In any case, since both Kevin and Bobby were adopted,
it would seem there isn't any actual blood relationship.
What I find even more interesting, though hardly surprising, is
that Katie continues to draw inspiration from Trump's whines about the evil
press in order to make his own case. And now he has officially
adopted the term "Fake News" for his free-me campaign,
giving his supporters yet another lame weapon to brandish.
And yet... and yet... Katie also continues to claim that he lives in a state of
perfect bliss and is unattached to the
outcome of his ongoing campaign for freedom. He is still pushing
his selfish-help/McSpirituality shtick, framing it in an
over-simplified, Katie-ised concept of non-duality at the moment, and hawking his "Science of
Personal Mastery" course, which he claims to be teaching to
"some of the men here." ("It works 100 % of the
time!") Wrote Katie, a mere week after imploring his fans to
go international in their efforts to help spring him:
Many people ask me how I am doing. It
may be hard for you to grasp this, but I am doing better than
ever. Everything is perfect. I am living in constant bliss
and joy. I smile and laugh all day. I am thankful, grateful
and appreciative every moment. Whatever happens, I see it as
the perfect "play of the Universal Consciousness".
This is not something I intellectually understand. This is
something that I "see" and actually fully
experience. Most people live with themselves as the
"subject" and what they are looking at as the
object. That is "duality". For me, there is no
subject and no object.
Everything is simply different expressions of the same ONE
Universal Consciousness. That Consciousness is pure
unconditional love. It is beyond perfect benevolence. I
therefore "see" and experience everything (without
exception and without condition) as perfect "love".
This means I only experience total and complete oneness and
inner joy at all times.
This is hard for people to imagine as most people deal with
various emotions all day with lots of "ups and
downs". I simply do not have that. You can enjoy this
amazing state as well. I can teach you the secrets. I am
teaching some of the men here, and it works 100% of the time!
Desire this state, and it can be yours. Much love. Your
friend, KT
Ask about The Science of Personal Mastery Course...[email
address]
Presumably he is teaching his fellow inmates
all of this Personal Mastery for free, though who knows what sort
of commerce arrangements go on at sleepaway camp? But you on the
outside have to pay real money for Katie's wisdom, with proceeds
going to his legal defense fund.
Meanwhile, in the real world, real journalists and legitimate
media outlets are increasingly being smeared with Herr Twitler's "Fake News" brush, which, similar to Kevin Trudeau's frame of reference,
essentially means any news or opinions that he doesn't like. One
of my Facebook friends who leans towards conservative views
insists that Trump has not indicted all of the press, only the
"Fake News." But that's a disingenuous argument at
best, as Trump has named numerous specific outlets that, collectively, comprise a very large segment of
the mainstream press. And to scads of his unthinking followers,
that easily translates to pretty much all of the press, with the
exception of FOX News and numerous conservative and alt-right
sites. Trump knows exactly what he is doing by conflating what he
defines as "Fake News" outlets and the press at large.
In the process of relentlessly smearing most of the mainstream
news media, Trump is creating an ever-more hostile working
environment for journalists, and my fear is that it is only a
matter of time before some lunatic Trumpian takes violent action
against journalists. The blood of the Capital Gazette victims of last week's shooting may not be on Trump's hands, but then again, his
inflammatory rhetoric about the press is falling on the ears of
the unhinged as well as on those of saner folk. After all, the Gazette's own editorial on July 1 noted that in addition to all of the heartwarming
support they were receiving, they were also getting "Death
threats and emails from people we don’t know celebrating our
loss."( The right-wing pundits are all over this, of course,
accusing the Gazette of "politicizing" their
loss. Well, a-holes, it is political, however personal
the individual shooter's motive may have been. You can thank your
orange hero for making it political.)
And by the way, I went on a while back about the definition of fake news
here (see under, "Separating real fake news from fake fake
news").
In any case (getting back to the original point of this post,),
it would appear that Donald Trump is still too distracted with
other matters to tend to his Katie-pardoning duties. But that's
okay. Katie can continue to rack up his martyr points while
pushing his scams from his minimum-security digs, and when he is
released -- whenever that may be -- he can take up right where he
left off.
In other words... as usual... No Neat and Tidy Endings.
* * * * *
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning. Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit
card.
If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to scrivener66@hotmail.com or tocosmic.connie@juno.com If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank
you!
