Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Photo by Gage Skidmore. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

“The real opposition is the media,” Donald Trump confidant Steve Bannon told Michael Lewis in 2018, “and the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with sh*t.”

Somewhat vulgar, perhaps, but a reasonably accurate summation of the Trump campaigns’ and administrations’ political strategy as practice ever since:

Make enough claims and do enough stuff all at once that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of it all, let alone sort out the true from the false from the downright insane.

If everyone’s outraged, about everything, all the time, there’s no single issue or coherent set of issues for a real opposition to coalesce around, leaving Trump (and whichever lickspittles happen to bow and scrape their way into earshot this week) free to do as they like without significant constraints.

That’s been MAGA’s strategy ever since, but Bannon misspoke, probably intentionally. The media are not the real opposition. They’re just the communications channels Bannon, Trump, and friends want to confuse and abuse. Their real target is you.

By “you,” I don’t mean only those who supported a presidential candidate other than Trump, or no candidate at all. I mean “you” as in “everyone.”

If you’re at all capable of gazing across the sh*t-flooded zone, and if you boast more IQ points than the ounce count of a pint of beer or can of creamed corn, you’re aware by now that Trump’s waging a war on you, your wallet, and your rights, even if you voted for him.

He’s used pompous declarations of fake emergencies to among other things, levy the largest tax hike in more than a century and unleash a police state apparatus that doesn’t limit itself to immigrants as victims and soon won’t pretend to. Not to mention …

… well, that’s the problem, see?

I write op-eds.

The fuel for op-eds is whatever’s happening in the “news cycle” — the current events most deserving of, or at least demanding, attention.

And the news cycle has become the aforementioned “zone.”

Three times a week, I wake up knowing I need to write a column.

In normal times, there might be two or three really big stories competing for public mindshare, and maybe one that’s a little offbeat but worth bringing into the competition.

These days, I can open my news feed in the reasonable certainty of finding five court ruling against Trump, two Supreme Court rulings in Trump’s favor, five crazy things the guy said in the last 24 hours, ten human interest stories about his latest victims, and maybe yesterday’s Major League Baseball box scores.

The zone is flooded. I’m always at least knee deep in Dr. Bannon’s prescription-strength fecal matter and flinging a little of it at you doesn’t seem likely to leave you better informed than you were.

Many of MAGA’s supposed opponents say this situation is about “democracy,” but it isn’t.

It’s about reality, and about our ability to clearly discern that reality and act accordingly.

Trump is at war on that ability. Don’t let him win.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter:@thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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On April 4, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged another 2,000 points, the S&P 500 fell another 322 points, the Nasdaq index officially entered “bear market” territory, and global markets continued to react predictably to US president Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” trade war insanity.

On April 4, the bodies of four US soldiers killed in a training exercise on Lithuania’s border with Belarus — part of the US government’s continued posturing in support of Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia that Trump had pledged to end “within 24 hours” of taking office  —  arrived at Dover Air Force Base.

On April 4, Israeli forces, armed with American weapons and enjoying Trump’s support and approval, killed at least 60 Palestinians, most of them civilian women and children, in Gaza.

Trump had more important things to attend to than any of those matters, though. He headed for Trump National Doral Golf Club to enjoy a golf tournament. Not just any golf tournament, mind you: A foreign import (Saudi-owned LIV) that competes with American-made golf (PGA). Naturally, he followed up his day of expensive imported recreation with an appearance at a $1 million dollar per person fundraiser for the MAGA Inc. super PAC.

As always, I strongly approve of presidents leaving the White House to partake of golf and gladhanding. A president focused on such things may be temporarily preoccupied and thus momentarily less able to wreck the American economy, get US troops and foreign civilians killed, etc.

My complaint here isn’t with Trump, really. He is what he is, and I knew he was a snake when you picked him up. It’s with Trump’s enablers, and more specifically with those enablers who’ve been getting on my last nerve lately with a particular five-word chorus heard daily across the fruited plain:

“I didn’t vote for THIS!”

Yes. You. Did.

Nearly three months into Trump’s second presidency and after three consecutive presidential campaigns, none of his supporters have any excuse for not knowing his record of keeping bad promises, breaking good promises, and hitting the links or headlining a “friendly crowd” event whenever putting on a suit and answering tough questions might get embarrassing.

At least the supporters who continue to make excuses for him — “he’s playing 6D chess and you just don’t understand,” “the DEEP STATE is making him do all the bad things he does,” etc. — can be explained:  Half of Americans possess below-median intelligence.

And those who, at any point, have finally admitted to themselves and others that they fell for a scam should be supported, commended, and consoled.

But the “I didn’t vote for THIS!” crowd? They clearly follow current affairs. They clearly know their votes enabled this craziness. Now they want absolution without first accepting responsibility for what they did.

One variant: “The choice was Trump or Harris. I just went for the lesser evil.” Nope. Every state ballot except New York’s (where you could write in) offered AT LEAST three choices … and no one forced you to vote at all.

Own your actions. Then go and sin no more.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter:@thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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“Fights between individuals, as well as governments and nations”  Nikola Tesla wrote in 1905, “invariably result from misunderstandings in the broadest interpretation of this term. Misunderstandings are always caused by the inability of appreciating one another’s point of view.”

The quote strikes me as apt and applicable to the recent wave of vandalism, arson, etc. against the cars named for the man.  There’s a lot of misunderstanding involved, and  Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, Inc., correctly addresses the matter:

“That’s somebody else’s car. Leave it alone.”

You may not like Elon Musk very much, and I won’t try to convince you that your dislike isn’t justified.

He became one of the richest men — some say THE richest —  on Earth in large part due to his keen eye for corporate welfare opportunities. Even if you’ve never bought one of his products, you’ve been paying him with your tax dollars for years.

Now he’s wormed his way into a direct government role, taking a fire ax to programs and institutions you may consider good or even necessary through the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) while, unsurprisingly, his own take from the government till seems to be increasing rather than decreasing.

If you don’t like Musk, you can and should avoid buying/using the products and services he offers: Not just Tesla’s vehicles, but social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and Internet Service Provider Starlink.

You might also do what you can (very little, I’m sorry to say) to oppose his corporate welfare take via government contracts for SpaceX, tax credits for purchases of Tesla vehicles, etc.

What you shouldn’t do, because it’s both wrong and stupid, is vandalize or destroy any of the more than 4 million Tesla vehicles currently on the road worldwide.

Why it’s wrong: They’re not yours.

Other people bought them. Other people own them. Even if vandalizing or destroying Musk’s property is a reasonable form of self-expression (it isn’t), vandalizing or destroying the property of someone who’s never done you any harm, just because they once bought something from Elon Musk, isn’t.

Why it’s stupid: Setting someone else’s Model 3 or Cybertruck on fire won’t stop Musk from doing things you dislike. In fact, it may actually help him continue doing things you dislike.

US president Donald Trump has already slapped the label “terrorism” on such vandalism. That probably presages yet another welfare revenue stream for Musk in the form of making Tesla’s in-house insurance company whole for any claims arising from the attacks.

Trump’s “base” is already turning out at Tesla dealerships to counter anti-Musk protesters … and maybe buy one of his cars.

The silliness of keying, crashing into, or burning someone else’s Tesla lets Musk run the perennial Trumpian play: Using other people’s misfortune to paint himself as “the victim.” He can probably ride that self-serving whine all the way to the financial and political bank.

Even if acting in a counterproductive manner doesn’t bother you, being wrong when Musk is right should. That’s somebody else’s car. Leave it alone.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter:@thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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