I doubt the people involved in making the movie Wag the Dog foresaw an American gone insane in which a Donald Trump would follow its cynical plotline in real life, though I can imagine David Mamet being less bothered than the others if that happened - guy's a total asshole. But I doubt even he believed the U. S. would become insane enough to play out the satire that he merely co-wrote. Well, we have and that's not their fault, they merely provided the catchy phrase that I'm sure Trump knows and, who knows, maybe he sat through the movie when his mind wasn't as far gone as it is now. I doubt the people involved in creating "reality TV" ever believed that it would have the damaging effect on so many voters as it clearly has, I doubt that even the people who had Trump on their ersatz "news" programs as entertaining outrageousness realized the disaster they were peddling like Campbell's Soup or geezer whoopie pills.
I doubt that the majority of those in show biz know much more than how to get an audience, when that works.
I've already heard people speculate that "Israel" was involved in Trump's choice to kick over the hornet's nest - if it will get Netanyahu out of criminal charges. Beats me but I suspect it's more likely to get Trump off the hook, clearly the reason he did it. I'd have to see documentary evidence that anything but Trump's attention deficient, improvised scheming for his own benefit had a thing to do with it.
For fuck sake, we're talking Trump. I doubt it has anything to do with Israel, I can imagine the large majority there understand how much more dangerous life is for them today than two days ago. It's probably closer to understand that in terms of how far Trump is willing to go to save his own criminal ass, who he is willing to get killed. I think in that he's at least as willing to get hundreds of thousands, even millions killed as Bush I was in inciting the Gulf War and his sonny boy's regent, Cheney, was to get his hands on Iraqi oil. And about that replacement of Saddam Hussein, a bad guy, how's that worked out for us and the wider world?
I think the primary beneficiaries of this will be the pro-Iranian factions within Iraq and Syria and ISIS who will certainly take advantage of the chaos just as they did from the various other terrible decisions taken in that region.
As to the many people who are pointing out the guy Trump had assassinated, Qassem Solemani, was a really, really bad guy, yeah, Trump wasn't going to get himself out of being tried in the Senate by killing a good person.
The biggest thing today is if the American news media will rally round the thug as they did in those two previous Republican uses of the lives of Iraqis and Iranians and others in the Middle East and my bet is that they will prop up Trump. I think the media is mostly about the financial interests of those who own and run it and they'll be looking out for those. I didn't think I'd need to say it again so soon but I think what we'll see is that most insightful quote of George M. Cohan, one of the most honest and mildly cynical rules of show biz, "Many a bum show has been saved by the flag," and there's no bigger bum of a show than Trump.
As entertainment addled America buys this, who knows how many hundreds of thousands if not millions will die. Some of them Americans, but there's no draft so most of us can just watch the show.
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