“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”
-W.C. Fields
The insanity that America has been enduring for twenty years now appears to be culminating with the ultimate showman living the quote above to the maximum. Over this time span we have witnessed surges in technology that just thirty years ago were beyond the scope of comprehension. As our world approaches the era of AI becoming part of the norm, the largest problem facing our society, in fact all of civilization, is the problems within our own souls.
The United States is a great country. No arguing with that fact. Does that make China a “not” great country? I’m not one to judge that because I’ve never lived or visited there and my interactions have been purely through business. Yet our country has this problem that everything is a zero-sum game so if we’re a “great” nation, no one else can be. That is historically ignorant if not pathetically arrogant.
The problem is that our national construct of politics, education, and finance has adopted a system of 19th century mercantilism, 20th century propaganda, and 21st century fraud. While we crash head first into the era of Artificial Intelligence with no guard rails, this is a very dangerous prospect, indeed.
Now that I am through with the philosophical rant and concerns of providing a more powerful tool to technocrats of the uniparty in control of our nation, what do I mean by merchandise everything and accomplish little?
Am I daring to accuse the Trump administration and the Republicans of doing nothing thus far? Sort of.
The border does finally appear to have some sort of rational control established except for those illegal aliens deemed necessary for GOP and Democrat donor class businesses. The debt ceiling has been raised again avoiding that crisis. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” was passed which will allow the government to spend more money than it can ever possible extract via taxation.
But in the larger picture, there is not much happening which helps the average American. Inflation is in check but only on the fringes. Sure, I can fly to Dallas or Vegas cheaper, but if I needed to get a car repaired or buy a new one, forget about it as prices are still rising. Food is now firmly at higher prices than they were just 5 years ago with very little sign of a decline in the future. And real estate is about to follow the 2008 songbook and create many paupers who actually believe that housing is an investment for the little guy to dabble in.
So what does one do to Make America Feel Okie Dokey Again?
Merchandising baby. Talk it up. Advertise it. Promote the feel good. Tell them they are doing good. Tell them they doing fantastic. Remind them of how bad it was under the other guy, just like Biden did with Trump v1.0, Trump v1.0 did with Obama, Obama did with George W. Bush, and Bush did with his dog.
For example, how does one explain this posting on Truth Social and the accompanying post from the official White House X account:
Why is this important to Trump and the propaganda campaign we have been witnessing on financial and mainstream media since the start of the bull market in 2023? That’s an easy answer:
That’s why selling that recessions are over and the business cycle is dead is so critical to this administration. Otherwise, they might be the victim of a historic grand cycle collapse which was barely averted in 2009 and this time might actually be the start of the long feared Kondratieff Winter.
Meanwhile the “adults” are busy trying to sell the public with social media postings like the one below that tariffs are good for the new, modern economy:
These are not serious people and world leaders around the globe are beginning to validate that view and prepare their nations accordingly.
Perhaps we should have dug up old W.C. and put him in office, at least I can take him seriously at times.
