Very insightful and informative piece. I must say however the four points on which Smith says Trump should focus upon, repudiation of the establishment, anti/censorship/free speech, immigration control and no stupid wars are the very foundation of RFK Jr’s platform.
"We are watching the systematic destruction of the old guard". No one is more anti-establishment than President Donald Trump. He is the candidate of peace. These themes run like ribbons throughout his rhetoric and his campaign. We are in the exposure stage. Disclosure is next and then justice. After many years, we are almost there.
>Point number two was to campaign on no stupid wars — a longtime issue of mine. One of the most disappointing things in my political life was watching the anti-war left evaporate before our eyes after Obama was elected in 2008.<
This. I think Cindy Sheehan is here on the stacks somewhere. IMO, they used her for cred then tuned her out. There are probably still old peaceniks around here with police records from being arrested at the office of the dem incumbents (who are still in power) for protesting against the Iraq war.
I lost hope in 2008 when everything I voted for (after a decade+ personal moratorium on voting) got forgotten almost literally 24 hours later by Mr. Obama. After that scale of betrayal, it's gonna take more than roses and cheap cologne to make me believe. (Spoiler alert, more suspicious and meaner than ever..._
Edit to add, I never got why populism was so disdained in history classes. I personally liked the isolationism, the focus on the country and the lack of foreign wars.
In the full interview, Smith and Carlson talk about this for a little while. The conclusion: They don't want Bernie Sanders but they aren't scared of Bernie Sanders supporters. Trump is a whole different ballgame.
It's a relief to not have to worry much about Tony Fauci anymore. I guess Fauci deserves a little bit of credit for disclosing his positive tests, which obviously undermine what he was saying about the vaccines etc.
He is secure in the knowledge that in his circles, no fact or reality can ever undermine his pronouncements. For further proof of this theorem, see the Kamala Harris campaign.
Just finished listening to the Tucker Dave Smit podcast (perfect material for a morning workout), then checked substack to see what SC and friends were up to. Seems we're all on the same channel.
I only discovered Dave a month or two ago at which point I chased him down all over the podcast world and binged. Then forwarded to anyone I thought capable of appreciating his clear vision and humor. Thanks for doing the same, SC.
Oh, and ditto the comments on Berenson. He's fearless.
Those who want to control others have known for millennia that the best tool at their disposal is spreading fear. Sowing irrational fear through propaganda often works on even intelligent people. Once they get enough power, as is the case now, they institute policies that generate very real fear in those under control.
today I called a company and the person I needed to talk to was not there “today” the other person told me “she does not feel well i am pretty sure she has covid” HUH. also i have friends who have a cold. then say. it is covid. how do they know. they “tested”. I think and have always thought that many of the “tests’ are geared for positive results.. call me crazy but that is fear based.. have a sniffle. take a test then scare people you will kill their granny
I am 76 and autistic and I want to talk about the crisis at our SOUTHERN BORDER and the Washington Post won't let me comment until I wake up on Thursday 8/15/2024. The student council at Kamala's High School meets tomorrow to discuss the flood of propagandists and pseudo-Journalists that will flood in legally to visit Kamala's neighbourhood. My partner is an American philosopher and mother who attended The Chicago School when it was a University not a better more exclusive and accredited Trump University.
My wife donates to Bernie as she has for decades. Bernie was at the Chicago School before it became a business after Milton the amoral hedonist and Ayn the objectivist cavorted in the woods. Bernie helped Woodlawn. Chicago still believes and Hyde Park believes its own endless stream of Wall street Nonsense.
As John Ralston said in his Doubter's Companion 1994: "We are judged by our deeds not our good intentions." I love Joe Biden like a brother but Saints Augustine and Thomas Chrysostom came up with the final solution 1600 years ago and the Vatican sponsored the Havana riots of 1939 which gave the NAZIS legitimacy.
North of Minnesota is Manitoba and the future. Churchill is the closest seaport to China and the Orient and the Prime Minister of Manitoba is a New Democrat not a liberal . I am a New Democrat like Bernie Sanders only I am Canadian. The Prime Minister of Manitoba is a rock star, a rapper, a tv host, an author and an ECONOMIST and gets along with fascists like Canada's Conservative leader and centrists like Justin and My New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh.
OH Canada is almost as abominable as the Star Spangled homage to slavery and human bondage.
The Northwest Passage to China and the Orient starts in CHURCHILL Manitoba. The students at Westmount must learn American English, in Montreal we are all Homo Sapien an oxymoron if ever there was such a thing.
The students at Westmount never learned about race, gender and religion because they are fantasy in QUEBEC and ANCIENT SUPERSTITION. They will visit Schwartzies Deli: Montreal Hebrew Smoke House and will not investigate why the owner Celine Dion does not want the NAZIS back in power in Washington.
I know we don't all speak English some by choice other because many of us can't speak Orwellian. It was Orwell who said a religious Jewish State would be fascist in his essay on Nationalism. All religious States are fascist Poutine (Putin) is a devout CHRISTIAN NATIONALIST and the Supreme leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.
They will never understand that in 1775 Montreal was occupied by SOUTHERN BARBARIANS commanded by the greatest mind of the European enlightenment the Patriot and scoundrel Benjamin Franklin who would be shunned by Washington and Adams and exiled by the United States of America.
I studied American History and literature in Montreal under the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal and now McGill University runs Westmount High School and McGill is still a University and Chicago has been a business school since Vance was in diapers.
Kamala's mother was head of oncological research at McGill's Jewish General Hospital a block from McGill's St Mary's hospital and Universite de Montreal's St Justin's Childrens hospital and I bet Kamala knows all three because I grew up in Kamala's neighbourhood. We spell neighbourhood with a silent u and read Orwell as well as American propaganda. We read Milton not Milton Friedman. Our government is right wing nationalists and conservative and passed Bill 21 in 2019. I support Bill 21 and after two decades of regular membership. I no longer support the ACLU. We know Edmund Burke was a LIBERAL and the English Supremacist and what we now call fascist Samuel Johnson was the father of American conservatism and no friend of Edmund who parents were barrister who needed to convert to PROTESTANTISM to practice law. The Quebec Act of 1773 was the reason for revolution.
It gave Catholics equal rights and it was intolerable in Boston and Philadelphia. The toleration Act of 1689 made the parliaments Supreme and William and Mary as powerful as your Uncle Sam.
If you leave Long Island at 6 AM you can have a smoked meat on rye at Schwartzies (Celine's) for lunch after waiting in line for an hour Montreal smoked meat sandwiches. If you like Central and Grant Parks the hike from Schwartzie to Westmount is through Fredrick Law Olmstead's most beautiful city public space and the cemeteries are a trip through Montreal history. Leonard Cohen lights up the night sky and sang his last HENENI at the Shaar two blocks north of Westmount High School.
My wife grew up in Michigan Militia Michigan and never finished High School she won a scholarship to what was once upon a time The University of Chicago.
We lived in Woodlawn for over a decade next to the Brickyard Garden where I could grow tomatoes and aubergine and mild poblanos.
Across the street from Schwartzes is Beth Schlomo my great grand parents synagogue where my parents wed. It is still a place to meet philosophers and truth tellers despite being overrun by NY CITY"S Jewish Nazi's Chabad who will celebrate tropical depression at Doral in a little over a week.
I met my maternal great grand parents they were Chassidic but Chabad is more Jews for Jesus.
Shaar just announced seats for the High Holidays but my wife and I will not allow each other to drive night or day. The synagogue (temple) in Chris the propagandist and former jounalist home town of St Johnsbury looks like American synagogues should look. Chris wrote the foreward to an anniversary edition of John Ralston Saul's Voltaire's Bastards a book Chris couldn't possibly have read given his almost daily postings.
We fly the maize and blue but don't sing Hail to the Victors.
My wife is 86 and still reading. We spend more on books then food and the menu here at home is 5 star our government provided Nanny follows recipes and has been a cook before being one of our government provider caregivers. Our Social worker in Quebec are our Attorneys and have our power of attorney.
My Social Worker is a young mother writing a Master's Thesis. My wife's last student teaches the world from Santiago, Chile. There is no such thing as gender at McGill where Kamalas' mother taught oncological research and Kamala carried her patronymic which is a topic of conversation 24/7 south of the border. Here north of the land of the blind I see only with my left eye.
I came up seven. My wife at 86 is still more beautiful than I found Melania in her prime and Camilla is good company for a king my age.
Quebec is a FULL DEMOCRACY not a mirage like south of the border. Healthcare , education and welfare are 18th century HUMAN RIGHTS. We have non corporate independent media as a cornerstone of FULL DEMOCRACY.
We are rich, healthy, and educated and hope is alive and well in Quebec's Pandora's jar. Our churches are empty our libraries are 24/07/365 and we have no one to flip burgers. A trump victory will send us college educated burger flippers and they are worth their weight in love and optimism.
A trump victory is a victory for Amazon, MacDonalds and Big Oil but a tragedy for real Canadians like the Prime Ministers of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia and Canada.
We banned fossil fuels after 2030.
Amazon cannot compete in Quebec we support small business, and our farmers are rich and our bankers on middle class salaries.
Our government is conservative and passed Bill21 banning religion in ALL matters of public welfare in our Jeffersonian Democracracy.
Adams was a Federalist and a Nazi sympathizer in the 18th century.
Really nice rundown. I started it but then had to shut it off because I needed to be somewhere, so it's nice to get the high points.
Trump and MAGA are doing a lot of unwise things, but we're living in a world that's totally rewritten the rules about what and who you can trust and how you "win." It's going to be difficult to adjust and figure out how to address it. Though Smith is right: leave the culture stuff aside and laser focus on the authoritarianism.
I wrote an article about this a while ago asking 'dissidents' for their stories. If there's a common thread, it's something that happened at a young age that undermined 'adults know everything.' For me, it was a clock test.
Good stuff! Re: the assassination attempt, after six weeks of finger-pointing, ass-covering, lying, hiding, obfuscation, and double-speak, it comes down to this (on the government's part): Stupidity or Deviance. While there may be elements of both, even the government, considering the agencies involved, is not that stupid.
The "lone wolf" narrative was out before his blood dried on that roof. They may have overplayed their hand, there......
Dave Smith is actually a pretty awesome guy. I've seen him in many places, like Patrick Bet David's podcast, where he takes apart Chris Cuomo. On Timcast IRL more than once, and elsewhere. I don't agree with everything he says, but, he's definitely worth listening to. A down to Earth guy.
Very insightful and informative piece. I must say however the four points on which Smith says Trump should focus upon, repudiation of the establishment, anti/censorship/free speech, immigration control and no stupid wars are the very foundation of RFK Jr’s platform.
I saw him in Tucson! https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/a-night-at-the-theater-with-rfk-jr
"We are watching the systematic destruction of the old guard". No one is more anti-establishment than President Donald Trump. He is the candidate of peace. These themes run like ribbons throughout his rhetoric and his campaign. We are in the exposure stage. Disclosure is next and then justice. After many years, we are almost there.
>Point number two was to campaign on no stupid wars — a longtime issue of mine. One of the most disappointing things in my political life was watching the anti-war left evaporate before our eyes after Obama was elected in 2008.<
This. I think Cindy Sheehan is here on the stacks somewhere. IMO, they used her for cred then tuned her out. There are probably still old peaceniks around here with police records from being arrested at the office of the dem incumbents (who are still in power) for protesting against the Iraq war.
I lost hope in 2008 when everything I voted for (after a decade+ personal moratorium on voting) got forgotten almost literally 24 hours later by Mr. Obama. After that scale of betrayal, it's gonna take more than roses and cheap cologne to make me believe. (Spoiler alert, more suspicious and meaner than ever..._
I think Cindy Sheehan is here on the stacks somewhere.
--------
She is! https://cindysheehan.substack.com/
She was one of the only ones who stuck around after Obama was elected, but suddenly she went from Democratic mascot #1 to persona non grata.
Edit to add, I never got why populism was so disdained in history classes. I personally liked the isolationism, the focus on the country and the lack of foreign wars.
But what do I know?
Even now it seems kind of weird.
TRUMP IS A POPULIST!
You mean the people like him? Isn't that.......democracy?
Populism- the only worldview both the left and the right cannot allow to exist...
In the full interview, Smith and Carlson talk about this for a little while. The conclusion: They don't want Bernie Sanders but they aren't scared of Bernie Sanders supporters. Trump is a whole different ballgame.
Agree, Bernie supporters are old and pacifist.
The other side involves ex-marines.
It's a little different.
It's a relief to not have to worry much about Tony Fauci anymore. I guess Fauci deserves a little bit of credit for disclosing his positive tests, which obviously undermine what he was saying about the vaccines etc.
He is secure in the knowledge that in his circles, no fact or reality can ever undermine his pronouncements. For further proof of this theorem, see the Kamala Harris campaign.
They're probably trying to spin it as "covid isn't over!"
. . . . Which is also true of the other coronaviruses.
Thank you, M. Sim.
I can't help but chuckle at the contrast in your coverage of substance/"substance"
in the two camps.
You're a rare talent. You can write good satire *and* really good journalism.
Just finished listening to the Tucker Dave Smit podcast (perfect material for a morning workout), then checked substack to see what SC and friends were up to. Seems we're all on the same channel.
I only discovered Dave a month or two ago at which point I chased him down all over the podcast world and binged. Then forwarded to anyone I thought capable of appreciating his clear vision and humor. Thanks for doing the same, SC.
Oh, and ditto the comments on Berenson. He's fearless.
The rot is all-pervasive
Caitlin Johnstone said that if you can control what people do, you have power. If you can control what they think, you have ultimate power.
It took me a while to understand that, but boy covid showed just how true that is.
Ayn Rand way before that. and Caesar before that. wayyy before
This is why they're so desperate to enact mass censorship.
Those who want to control others have known for millennia that the best tool at their disposal is spreading fear. Sowing irrational fear through propaganda often works on even intelligent people. Once they get enough power, as is the case now, they institute policies that generate very real fear in those under control.
today I called a company and the person I needed to talk to was not there “today” the other person told me “she does not feel well i am pretty sure she has covid” HUH. also i have friends who have a cold. then say. it is covid. how do they know. they “tested”. I think and have always thought that many of the “tests’ are geared for positive results.. call me crazy but that is fear based.. have a sniffle. take a test then scare people you will kill their granny
The only reason to test for covid is if your employer still has an outdated policy that allows you a week off to 'isolate.'
My stepdaughter recently had Covid for at least the third time. Why test? Well, to get Paxlovid of course!
so you can horde it?
Not me, I wouldn’t touch the stuff! But sadly my stepdaughter is a pharma fan who will take anything if told it will reduce her sniffles.
I am 76 and autistic and I want to talk about the crisis at our SOUTHERN BORDER and the Washington Post won't let me comment until I wake up on Thursday 8/15/2024. The student council at Kamala's High School meets tomorrow to discuss the flood of propagandists and pseudo-Journalists that will flood in legally to visit Kamala's neighbourhood. My partner is an American philosopher and mother who attended The Chicago School when it was a University not a better more exclusive and accredited Trump University.
My wife donates to Bernie as she has for decades. Bernie was at the Chicago School before it became a business after Milton the amoral hedonist and Ayn the objectivist cavorted in the woods. Bernie helped Woodlawn. Chicago still believes and Hyde Park believes its own endless stream of Wall street Nonsense.
As John Ralston said in his Doubter's Companion 1994: "We are judged by our deeds not our good intentions." I love Joe Biden like a brother but Saints Augustine and Thomas Chrysostom came up with the final solution 1600 years ago and the Vatican sponsored the Havana riots of 1939 which gave the NAZIS legitimacy.
North of Minnesota is Manitoba and the future. Churchill is the closest seaport to China and the Orient and the Prime Minister of Manitoba is a New Democrat not a liberal . I am a New Democrat like Bernie Sanders only I am Canadian. The Prime Minister of Manitoba is a rock star, a rapper, a tv host, an author and an ECONOMIST and gets along with fascists like Canada's Conservative leader and centrists like Justin and My New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMRpYtAhGAo
This was our Canadian Anthem in Yellowknife.
OH Canada is almost as abominable as the Star Spangled homage to slavery and human bondage.
The Northwest Passage to China and the Orient starts in CHURCHILL Manitoba. The students at Westmount must learn American English, in Montreal we are all Homo Sapien an oxymoron if ever there was such a thing.
The students at Westmount never learned about race, gender and religion because they are fantasy in QUEBEC and ANCIENT SUPERSTITION. They will visit Schwartzies Deli: Montreal Hebrew Smoke House and will not investigate why the owner Celine Dion does not want the NAZIS back in power in Washington.
I know we don't all speak English some by choice other because many of us can't speak Orwellian. It was Orwell who said a religious Jewish State would be fascist in his essay on Nationalism. All religious States are fascist Poutine (Putin) is a devout CHRISTIAN NATIONALIST and the Supreme leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.
They will never understand that in 1775 Montreal was occupied by SOUTHERN BARBARIANS commanded by the greatest mind of the European enlightenment the Patriot and scoundrel Benjamin Franklin who would be shunned by Washington and Adams and exiled by the United States of America.
I studied American History and literature in Montreal under the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal and now McGill University runs Westmount High School and McGill is still a University and Chicago has been a business school since Vance was in diapers.
Kamala's mother was head of oncological research at McGill's Jewish General Hospital a block from McGill's St Mary's hospital and Universite de Montreal's St Justin's Childrens hospital and I bet Kamala knows all three because I grew up in Kamala's neighbourhood. We spell neighbourhood with a silent u and read Orwell as well as American propaganda. We read Milton not Milton Friedman. Our government is right wing nationalists and conservative and passed Bill 21 in 2019. I support Bill 21 and after two decades of regular membership. I no longer support the ACLU. We know Edmund Burke was a LIBERAL and the English Supremacist and what we now call fascist Samuel Johnson was the father of American conservatism and no friend of Edmund who parents were barrister who needed to convert to PROTESTANTISM to practice law. The Quebec Act of 1773 was the reason for revolution.
It gave Catholics equal rights and it was intolerable in Boston and Philadelphia. The toleration Act of 1689 made the parliaments Supreme and William and Mary as powerful as your Uncle Sam.
If you leave Long Island at 6 AM you can have a smoked meat on rye at Schwartzies (Celine's) for lunch after waiting in line for an hour Montreal smoked meat sandwiches. If you like Central and Grant Parks the hike from Schwartzie to Westmount is through Fredrick Law Olmstead's most beautiful city public space and the cemeteries are a trip through Montreal history. Leonard Cohen lights up the night sky and sang his last HENENI at the Shaar two blocks north of Westmount High School.
My wife grew up in Michigan Militia Michigan and never finished High School she won a scholarship to what was once upon a time The University of Chicago.
We lived in Woodlawn for over a decade next to the Brickyard Garden where I could grow tomatoes and aubergine and mild poblanos.
Across the street from Schwartzes is Beth Schlomo my great grand parents synagogue where my parents wed. It is still a place to meet philosophers and truth tellers despite being overrun by NY CITY"S Jewish Nazi's Chabad who will celebrate tropical depression at Doral in a little over a week.
I met my maternal great grand parents they were Chassidic but Chabad is more Jews for Jesus.
Shaar just announced seats for the High Holidays but my wife and I will not allow each other to drive night or day. The synagogue (temple) in Chris the propagandist and former jounalist home town of St Johnsbury looks like American synagogues should look. Chris wrote the foreward to an anniversary edition of John Ralston Saul's Voltaire's Bastards a book Chris couldn't possibly have read given his almost daily postings.
We fly the maize and blue but don't sing Hail to the Victors.
Aleister Crowley is the father of the Christian Right. Jesus was a Jew not BRITISH.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley
How ironic is it that Zelensky and myself share Crowley's middle name.
Diogenes was a great and trusted teacher.
My wife is 86 and still reading. We spend more on books then food and the menu here at home is 5 star our government provided Nanny follows recipes and has been a cook before being one of our government provider caregivers. Our Social worker in Quebec are our Attorneys and have our power of attorney.
My Social Worker is a young mother writing a Master's Thesis. My wife's last student teaches the world from Santiago, Chile. There is no such thing as gender at McGill where Kamalas' mother taught oncological research and Kamala carried her patronymic which is a topic of conversation 24/7 south of the border. Here north of the land of the blind I see only with my left eye.
I came up seven. My wife at 86 is still more beautiful than I found Melania in her prime and Camilla is good company for a king my age.
Quebec is a FULL DEMOCRACY not a mirage like south of the border. Healthcare , education and welfare are 18th century HUMAN RIGHTS. We have non corporate independent media as a cornerstone of FULL DEMOCRACY.
We are rich, healthy, and educated and hope is alive and well in Quebec's Pandora's jar. Our churches are empty our libraries are 24/07/365 and we have no one to flip burgers. A trump victory will send us college educated burger flippers and they are worth their weight in love and optimism.
A trump victory is a victory for Amazon, MacDonalds and Big Oil but a tragedy for real Canadians like the Prime Ministers of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia and Canada.
We banned fossil fuels after 2030.
Amazon cannot compete in Quebec we support small business, and our farmers are rich and our bankers on middle class salaries.
Our government is conservative and passed Bill21 banning religion in ALL matters of public welfare in our Jeffersonian Democracracy.
Adams was a Federalist and a Nazi sympathizer in the 18th century.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHI5NIlD6aU
Here is Pete Seegar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHI5NIlD6aU
Really nice rundown. I started it but then had to shut it off because I needed to be somewhere, so it's nice to get the high points.
Trump and MAGA are doing a lot of unwise things, but we're living in a world that's totally rewritten the rules about what and who you can trust and how you "win." It's going to be difficult to adjust and figure out how to address it. Though Smith is right: leave the culture stuff aside and laser focus on the authoritarianism.
Re: why are some people less susceptible to/able to see through propaganda?
I think spiritual discernment plays a big role, along with a personality that is more comfortable with uncertainty.
I wrote an article about this a while ago asking 'dissidents' for their stories. If there's a common thread, it's something that happened at a young age that undermined 'adults know everything.' For me, it was a clock test.
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/why-are-you-like-this
(Bonus - it has the first ever public picture of Gangster!)
That was the first article of yours that I read. I enjoyed reading everyone's answers and I was intrigued by the question. Been following you since 👍
Thanks for this link! LOVED reading the story and the comments!
It always helps to read about authoritarian regimes, and wars and revolutions.
I think you're right. I also think a strong allergy to authority figures and being told what to do helps too. *wink*
Good stuff! Re: the assassination attempt, after six weeks of finger-pointing, ass-covering, lying, hiding, obfuscation, and double-speak, it comes down to this (on the government's part): Stupidity or Deviance. While there may be elements of both, even the government, considering the agencies involved, is not that stupid.
The "lone wolf" narrative was out before his blood dried on that roof. They may have overplayed their hand, there......
I thought it was one of the best interviews Tucker has done. I also wished Smith was running Trump's campaign.
"I also wished Smith was running Trump's campaign."
He'd be up by 30.
Thanks for doing this editing work! It’s tough to keep up on every video/podcast on my list and I appreciate you winnowing it down a bit.
I know exactly how you feel, but this one was a must-watch for me.
Dave Smith is actually a pretty awesome guy. I've seen him in many places, like Patrick Bet David's podcast, where he takes apart Chris Cuomo. On Timcast IRL more than once, and elsewhere. I don't agree with everything he says, but, he's definitely worth listening to. A down to Earth guy.