John Bolton’s “Revelations”

bolton

W.J. Astore

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton, the Walrus Man, is back with “revelations” about Donald Trump.  Yet, unless you’ve been a MAGA man or under a rock for the last four years, these are hardly as revelatory as media mouthpieces are making them out to be.  Some examples:

Trump cares most of all about getting reelected in 2020.  To this end, he’ll make deals with China to shore up his domestic support.

Trump sympathizes with authoritarian dictators and promises to intercede on their behalf in various investigations.

Trump is ignorant of the most basic facts, e.g. he didn’t know the UK has nuclear weapons; he didn’t know Finland was not part of Russia; etc.

Trump is mocked behind his back by some of his most ardent supporters, e.g. Mike Pompeo.

Trump said Venezuela is “really part of the United States.”

And so on.  That last one is especially funny.  Trump must mean their oil, for he hasn’t exactly been clamoring for more people south of the border to be put on a path to U.S. citizenship.

Earlier today, Bolton gave an interview in which he said Trump is unfit to be president.  Surprise!  I was saying that in March of 2016, and I was hardly the only one.

Look: I’m no Trump fan, but none of this is news.  As a narcissist and egotist, of course Trump places his reelection above all else.  As an authoritarian ruler (at least in a wannabe sense), of course Trump relishes striking deals with other dictator-types.  Clearly, Trump doesn’t have a democratic bone in his body.  He’s incurious and apparently doesn’t read (not even the Bible, it seems), so he doesn’t know some of the most basic facts about geography and foreign policy.  Indeed, in this sense he’s the prototypical American.  We only learn geography after we invade a country.

It’s not hard to predict the reaction of Trump’s base to these “revelations”: they couldn’t care less.  But, hey, if it helps Bolton to sell books, then he’s taken a page from Trump’s own playbook.  Lots of hype, “alternative facts,” and controversy are good ways to move copy; don’t some people say there’s no such thing as bad publicity?

Meanwhile, Trump’s true feelings for his base are revealed in his decision to press ahead with a mass rally in an indoor arena this weekend.  Never mind the deadly danger of Covid-19: Trump says its fading away.

Now there’s a true “alternative fact” that may prove a killer for far too many, true believers and otherwise.

13 thoughts on “John Bolton’s “Revelations””

  1. Yeah….I was surprised to see that the NY Times led with a story about Bolton’s revelations today. That cat was out of the bag at least a week ago.

    If Bolton were not such vile example of his species, a total waste of carbon, his attack on the Dumpster might be enjoyable. As it is, he’s a traitor to the values he supposedly espouses, a hawk of the most vicious type, so it’s only natural he’d turn on his fellow egomaniac over policy disagreements. He’s even more execrable for not having testified during the impeachment hearings, but rather, waiting to tell all until he could make $2 million for it. Slime and scum—not much to choose between them.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Bad ol’ Trump knows how to fire up his base. After being disappointed by recent Supreme Court decisions, Trump tweeted that “If the Radical Left Democrats assume power, your Second Amendment, Right to Life, Secure Borders, and … Religious Liberty, among many other things, are OVER and GONE!”

    Wow. Guns, babies, walls, and God — this is what Keep America Great is really all about. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  4. John Bolton has for years epitomized the “mindset” (I’m being too kind) of “American Exceptionalism” and its military aggressiveness, and I thoroughly despise him for that. However, if we put him up against the Greatest Liar in the History of the US Presidency, well…I’m forced to believe Bolton. Bolton says he’s spent the past several months (since Trump’s original effort to block publication) going over his book with a fine-tooth comb in company of National Security experts. This was to ensure NO Classified info would be revealed. Trump says “This book is full of Classified information and cannot be published!” Who CAN ya trust? I have to take Bolton’s word for it!

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  5. Pingback: John Bolton’s “Revelations” - LA Progressive

  6. Agree, no new news. If there had been, it might have at least earned Bolton a cushy chair, in that deepest circle of hell reserved for betrayers and mutineers. The best description I saw recently on this: “Deep Swamp Revenge Porn”…

    Liked by 2 people

      1. So…are Trump’s desperate efforts to scuttle the book part of a conspiracy to actually boost its sales?? He and Bolton are still buddy-buddy? I don’t think so.

        Liked by 1 person

  7. Who is supposed to read this book to justify the $2m advance? By and large, Americans aren’t big on reading. They aren’t particularly deep thinkers. You know Trump won’t read it, neither will his supporters because they don’t believe any of it could possibly be true and his opponents won’t read it because they already know all they need to know. So, who does that leave, the media and the Colbert/Kimmel/Noah/Bee quartet of late night Comic Political Analysis (CPA)? Please.
    In those thrilling days of yesteryear (a.k.a Prohibition, The Great Depression, Chicago’s 1st Golden Age) a few enterprising souls realized the quickest way to become a millionaire was to find someone who already had a million dollars and threaten to kill them if they didn’t give it to you. But that was then, this is now, and in this more enlightened age you (apparently) need only say, “I’ve written a book.”
    I expect it will be as pointless as anything Michael Moore has ever written.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hey, wait a minute! I’VE written a book…but the publishing industry is not interested. I suspect because I have very unkind words to lob at the Established Order that gave us the American War in Viet Nam. Or am I turning paranoid [chuckle]?

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  8. So the never-confirmed “Ambassador” (as he likes to call himself) has attempted another escape from the political crypt. Not my fault. I did the best I could to shovel deservedly derisive dirt into his undead face fourteen years ago in the concluding part of:

    Boobie International Relations
    (from Fernando Po, U.S.A., America’s post-literate retreat to Plato’s Cave)

    . . . [snip] . . .

    As Paul O’Neill described his take
    On Boobie Cabinetry:
    A truly scary scene takes place
    Of great perplexity
    Where those who cannot hear surround
    The one who cannot see

    But Boobie pundits cover up
    And in their Newspeak bleat:
    “None doubt that he has not undone
    All wrongs upon his beat.”
    (In pundit parlance, mush like this
    Counts as a wondrous feat)

    John Bolton gave the neocons
    Precisely what they sought
    A dense prolific problem
    Whose opinions could be bought;
    Who had a brain the size of Maine
    But never had a thought

    For decades he had toiled away
    In stink-tank padded cells
    A schizophrenic bat who had
    No belfry for his bells
    An unexploded hand grenade
    In one of Dante’s hells

    By day he hung from ceilings in
    His bureaucratic cave
    At night he flew away to meet
    With those who duly gave
    Him orders and instructions as
    To how he should behave

    A bat-like mole fifth columnist
    Installed by Dick and Don
    To undermine his boss’s work
    From sundown until dawn
    Subordinates he downward kicked
    While upwards he would fawn

    Observers wondered why the State
    Department failed to work
    How could it with its boss’s blood
    Leached from him by a jerk?
    Placed at his neck by rivals who
    Found treachery a perk

    But Boobie Powell must have told
    The Boobie Rice of this
    Or else Queen of the Damned required
    No further vampire kiss
    So Bolton flew to the UN
    Upon whom he could piss

    He held in thrall the credulous
    Like pundit David Brooks
    Who thought that years of schizoid rants
    Made “interesting” books
    (Asylums everywhere contain
    Such “interesting” kooks)

    In clinical psychology
    The basic terms are known:
    The classic schizophrenic hears
    No voice except his own
    And, hence, from time to time erupts
    In symptoms fully blown

    So Boobie George conceived a plan
    To win back jilted friends
    He’d send a man to woo them who
    Believed that each rule bends;
    That any means the Boobies used
    Would justify their ends

    One hardly needs to speculate
    About what will ensue
    When Boobie Bolton tells the world
    What homage we are due
    For telling them to go to hell
    And how next we’ll them screw

    Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2006

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