Dictators Sure Do Love Their Propaganda

 

All the world is a stage, including social media (maybe especially there):

There was the pool furniture in the background. There were the tropical drinks, which looked to be margaritas garnished with cherries. And then there were the deported prisoner and the American senator, sitting and chatting.

That senator, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, accused El Salvador’s government on Friday of aiming to paint the picture of a leisurely respite for the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia by staging their meeting with drinks appearing to be alcohol, and angling to set the meeting by a hotel pool.

Van Hollen referred to the stagecraft with a term that had ricocheted around social media for much of the day: “Margaritagate.”

“Nobody drank any margaritas or sugar water or whatever it is,” the Democratic senator said, calling the whole situation “a lesson” in “the lengths that President Bukele will do to deceive people about what’s going on.”

Dictators dare you to ignore the context and accept their frames. Are their images improbable or too good/convenient to be true?

Well: 

Asma Triggers

 

JUST IN: Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's wife files for divorce and plans to move to the United Kingdom. pic.twitter.com/WGQLXrlvFX

— BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) December 22, 2024

Asma wants a divorce, of course, of course,

because no one wants stuck with a dumb dead horse

a coursing bore, a nasty sore,

Syria's famous former head!

(Apologies to the Mr. Ed theme song writers and absolutely no one else. She's a nasty piece of work herself.) 

UPDATE: This morning, Twitter tells me this is apparently not true. Or as I tend to think, not true yet. 

UPDATE: To get all my ducks in row, Moscow says she isn't divorcing Assad to get her ass out of Russia and back to the UK. Also she might have leukemia.  I was going to find a solitary fuck for her, but it might have got lost in a mass grave somewhere. 

The End of Assad

 

I haven't really known where to start this week. Tblisi? Romania? But it's Syria. Good gracious if I were ever to believe, God. The rebels took over everywhere. Everything, after so many years, fell. And Bashar al-Assad's Russian friends have been run off, too. And he has fucked off to Moscow. (Actually, I know he was in Moscow last week and never noticed him leaving. When the heck did he leave to fuck off on back?)

I don't know if Assad-cheerleader and avid consumer of RU agitprop, Tulsi Gabbard is at home crying into her Putin shaped comfort woobie, but the quality of her often-offered pro-Assad and pro-Putin opinions are about to take an uncommon beating.  Which she totally has earned. 

I also don't know how Trump and them feel about what Romania has done with respects to their dodgy election. I personally think Trump should have been disqualified as an insurrectionist, but we just don't do stuff like that here, regardless of what our Constitution says. 

I do winder if some of the people who voted for him are feeling the buyer's remorse yet. And what exactly would happen if we tried to stage a "do-over" here. 

But this post isn't about the US--it's about this:

Yes, He is Weird--and Corrupt

 

Donald Trump and Adin Ross dancing is just weird!

Seriously, does someone tell him this is good for his poll numbers? pic.twitter.com/RBYvRVFmev

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) August 5, 2024

I don't know a whole lot about Adin Ross, the streamer who gifted Trump a Rolex and a Cybertruck with a wrap of his attempted assassination pose, but I think it's interesting that Trump just thinks his weird dancing, the tackiness of this display, and openly praising Kim Jong-Un and Venezuela's Maduro to a seat-sniffer are somehow not weird.

Like the choice of JD Vance for running mate, this is a thing his sons encouraged.  I do not know if gifts were a factor in his decision to do the stream, but I do know he doesn't seem opposed to them.

We still only know so much about what looks like a "gift" (or bribe) from his favorite dictator, Al-Sisi, because he had AG Bill Barr shut that investigation down. We know he does love himself some dictators, though. .And he loves billionaires. And what government can do for himself. 

I will never understand the people who want to believe this weirdo is a "man of the people" who will do anything for them. That he even says such things in the midst of this circus is the line a would-be dictator would feed people. But at bottom, he is just about selling access. 

And he is very weird. 

"Unity" Trump and the New Attitude

 

Trump: Crazy Nancy Pelosi followed by a hammer motion. pic.twitter.com/TpXuwZlv0Z

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) July 19, 2024

As the pundits were desperately hoping for--Ecce Homo: the Man Reborn,  who was definitely not going to ramble on, self-pityingly, spitefully, mockingly, calling Nancy Pelosi crazy while once again referring to the tragic assault on her husband, referring to the "China virus" in a way that has inspired racist animosity against Asian people, degrading the discourse as you know....

He always does. Was he supposed to change, now? After all this time? On his biggest stage, he gave an extended-play version of his regular rally speech, with a cameo from our old friend the "late, great Hannibal Lector" and a wistful concern that Kim Jong-Un misses him. 

I'm only mildly surprised we were spared his feelings about the water pressure in his toilets. 

Biden is old. Sure. He gets tired. Sure. He gets tongue-tied. And then there are the things that deliberately come out of Donald Trump's sewer of a mouth. 

Was there anything upbeat at all in his speech to the RNC, coming after the brilliant use of the lead-up by showcasing the values of the current party as represented by Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan and Dana White?

Well, there was a shout-out to Tom Homan, a former Trump Administration official who is a significant contributor to Heritage Foundation's Project 2025--which we were not supposed to think about as being the Trump Agenda except for being constantly reminded of it. But then again, Trump also gave a shout-out to Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who is "doing a great job". At what, I'd bet you two ham sandwiches you could not say. Does Trump think he's still governor? 

"Vermin"

 

To honor our great veterans (for whom Trump has done exactly Not. Shit.) the former president (a twice impeached and four time indicted one term wonder--let it EVER be said--until those stats are somehow adjusted) Trump decided to tell us he was going to root out the leftist vermin. Yes, very much echoing Hitler. It's very much shades of : "First they came for the socialists".  (For supporting Biden, I guess "trade unionists" might even be next on his list. His ruminations are all too familiar and frightening. Some of his associates talk about "shock troops"--very knowingly.)