How MAGA became controlled by MIGA Gatekeepers

Salem Media and the Trump Family

Press Release: "Salem Media Group Announces Landmark Deal with Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump, Signaling a Bold New Era in Conservative Media"

CAMARILLO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Salem Media Group, Inc. (OTCQX: SALM), fresh off eliminating all corporate long-term debt and growing the #1 conservative news show in America, is making its boldest move yet. Today, Salem announces a historic, multi-dimensional deal that not only adds two of the most influential voices in American media, Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump, but launches the company into an entirely new era of scale, relevance, and cultural power.

This strategic transformation cements Salem’s emergence as the upcoming platform for conservative content across broadcast, podcasting, digital, and on-demand streaming, a full-spectrum media ecosystem built for today’s America.

Pursuant to the deal, Salem acquired a 30% stake in MxM News, a mobile news aggregation app co-owned by Mr. Trump Jr., and entered into a long-term services agreement under which Mr. Trump Jr. and Salem will work together to develop a series of high-impact promotional and growth initiatives. With this historic deal, Mr. Trump Jr. becomes a key stakeholder of Salem and a strategic force behind its future.

“Salem Media is positioned to become the home for fearless, unapologetic conservative content,” said Donald Trump Jr. “I’m excited to help grow its audience and commercial footprint while building something that pushes back against legacy media with real reach and authenticity.”

“Conservatives are hungry for media that reflects their values, faith, freedom, and family,” said Lara Trump. “I believe in what Salem is building, and I’m proud to contribute content that speaks truth without apology and builds real cultural influence.”

In tandem, Salem has entered into a strategic agreement with Lara Trump to collaborate on business growth in the digital podcast space, advertiser partnerships, and content innovation. As part of the relationship, Ms. Trump becomes a significant stakeholder in Salem Media and will support select initiatives that align with the company’s expansion goals. Separately, Ms. Trump has renewed her exclusive podcast agreement and will continue to produce and host her show on the Salem Podcast Network.

“These aren’t just partnerships, they’re power moves,” said David Santrella, CEO of Salem Media Group. “Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump bring credibility, energy, and the kind of megaphone that moves markets and shapes public opinion. Their alignment with Salem signals a massive leap forward in our ability to lead the next era of conservative media. Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump aren’t just becoming business partners with Salem, they now also have significant ownership stakes in the company with a major incentive to grow shareholder value which in turn will drive the stock price. It’s definitely an exciting time to be a Salem shareholder.”

With a revitalized balance sheet and unmatched cultural firepower, Salem Media is uniquely positioned to define the future of conservative content in America. This is not just growth—it’s a reinvention. And it’s only the beginning.

About Salem Media Group, Inc.:

Salem Media Group is America’s leading multimedia company specializing in Christian and conservative content, with media properties comprising radio, digital media and book and newsletter publishing. Each day Salem serves a loyal and dedicated audience of listeners, readers and viewers numbering in the millions nationally. With its unique content focus, Salem provides compelling audio and video programming, text content, fresh commentary and relevant information from some of the most respected figures across the Christian and conservative media landscape. Learn more about Salem Media Group, Inc. at www.salemmedia.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250403021482/en/

Company Contact:
Sara Broadwater
publicity@salemmedia.com
1 (219) 263-8946
Source: Salem Media Group, Inc.

Released April 14, 2025

How Salem Media = Israel. 

from Google AI:

Salem Media Group is a prominent American conservative and Christian multimedia company that maintains a strong, active partnership with Israel through content creation, broadcasting, and strategic media campaigns.

Pro-Israel Media Initiatives 

Salem Media frequently produces and distributes content that aligns with pro-Israel narratives and religious Zionism.

• The Dragon's Prophecy: In September 2025, Salem and D’Souza Media released this film based on Jonathan Cahn's book, which connects the October 7 attacks to biblical history and features interviews with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
• On-the-Ground Broadcasting: Host Mike Gallagher has broadcast his show from Jerusalem, touring the "Gaza envelope" and interviewing survivors of the October 7 attacks to encourage audience support for groups like the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ).
• SRN News Reporting: Salem’s news branch, SRN News, regularly syndicates reports from The Media Line, a news agency covering Middle East developments like Independence Day ceremonies and military operations.

Strategic Partnerships and Campaigns 

Salem Media is a key platform for Israeli public diplomacy (Hasbara) efforts in the United States.

• Clock Tower Project: Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reportedly utilized a firm called Clock Tower to integrate pro-Israel messaging into Salem Media Network properties as part of a multi-million dollar campaign to influence American public opinion.
• Evangelical Outreach: The Israeli government targets Salem’s audience because of the strong historical and theological support for Israel within the American Christian Right.
• Political Connections: Recent FARA filings indicate that figures close to the Trump family have financial ties to Salem Media, which has been contracted to distribute information regarding Israeli interests.

Key Point: Salem Media serves as a bridge between the Israeli government and the American Evangelical community, often framing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a biblical and conservative lens.

Google AI on Havas Media Network:

Havas Media Network has been identified as a key intermediary in a major digital influence campaign conducted by the Israeli government, particularly following the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023. As of late 2025, the firm is involved in managing and coordinating campaigns aimed at shaping online narratives and public opinion in the United States, including targeting younger demographics. 

Key details regarding Havas Media Network and its work with Israel include:

• Role in Digital Campaigns: Havas Media Network has been used to channel business for Israeli government-sponsored initiatives, including the use of social media influencers to present a pro-Israel narrative.
• Targeting and AI: The campaign, implemented by Havas Media Network and others, focuses on digital platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, aiming for 50 million monthly impressions. It involves efforts to influence how AI systems, such as ChatGPT, generate responses about Israel.
• Partnership with Clock Tower X: Havas Media Network has partnered with Clock Tower X, a firm run by Brad Parscale, which was contracted for digital influence campaigns.
• FARA Registration: Documents filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in the U.S. indicate that Havas Media Network works with Israel to develop campaigns in the United States.
• Extent of Operations: Reports suggest this is a significant, well-funded effort by the Israeli government to counter negative perceptions and influence public opinion in Western countries, particularly among Gen Z. 

Reports mention that the campaign includes a $6 million contract for digital influence work, with Havas involved in the operational aspects.

P-O-L-I-T-I-C-A-L_P-A-T-R-O-N-A-G-E...

...the nice way that Democrats spell "Graft and Corruption" in Baltimore City (NYC's Tammany Hall were Pikers).

Brandon Scott, Livin' Large on the Taxpayer's Dime!

More 'Muh Russia' from the Uni-Party's Cold War Obsessed Deep State...

 

...on the "Mysterious" Putin-directed timing coordination of America First's attacks on President Trump that Peter Zeihan talks about on the 11th of April... because  President Trump didn't, and without explanation to MAGA, break his previous pledge to start no new wars subsequently join with Israel to attack Iran on March 30????

The Mysterious Truth...the Half Truth... and Nothing but the Mysterious Other-Half Truth:

Who's Evil Plan can it possibly be to Isolate and then Eradicate MAGA's America First Moral Compass and Break Up the MAGA Movement?  Who could it possibly be...?  Putin!  It's a Mystery No Longer! Thanks Peter!

I'm Somehow Reminded of George Kennan's Long Telegram Analysis of the moral failings of the USSR as they now apply to the current American Deep State...

Walk away from Omelas, Peter!  Show us that you have what it takes!

On Dervy's Guilt-Pride Denialism...

Dervy repeatedly claims that since he feels no "guilt" for America's historical enslavement of African-Americans, he can have no guilt-pride associated with it.  But does he also believe that white Americans like himself have no historical "debt" to black people for their former enslavement?  Does he feel no "obligation" to make restitution (or pay reparations) for their social suffering in the form of social justice?  If he does, Dervy's "guilt/ schuld" is simply manifesting itself to his own mind as a "debt", a debt that is still owed and which must be repaid (with interest).  And this is an obligation that he is proud to acknowledge.  It's what obsessively compels him to behave in the manner of a Woke Social Justice Warrior zealot, and constantly virtue signal the fact that unlike other whites who refuse to acknowledge their social debt, and that he is a loyal ally in Black's quest for restitution.  And Black History Month serves as a perpetual reminder of this historic American debt , a debt that must be repaid, can NEVER be repaid, and NEVER be forgotten!  "Never Forget!"  ...slavery (and white racists)... or in the case of Germany and Jews, the Holocaust and anti-Semitism!  And for this reason alone (acknowledgement of a debt), RACE must perpetually remain an ESSENTIAL feature of American (and German) life.

Slavoj Žižek and Alenka Zupančič, "Debt Inc.: Guilt, Credit, and the Algorithmic Future" (an excerpt)

Debt, Guilt, and Their Ambiguity

As Freud shows, for example, in his analysis of obsessional neurosis (the case study of the “Ratman”), debt plays a key role in this structure: obsessional subjects experience themselves as always indebted to the Other—be it the father, the Law, God, or the analyst. They are trapped in a paradox: on the one hand, they want to pay their debt, to be free; on the other, they endlessly postpone payment, because if the debt were ever settled, the Other’s desire would be extinguished—and that is unbearable. The obsessional solution, therefore, is to keep the debt alive. This gives them a sense of control over the Other’s desire (“I still owe, so the Other still wants (something from me)”), albeit at a very high cost, which can almost completely paralyze life, as we vividly see in the case of the “Rat Man.” Freud extends the fundamental logic of this compulsive structure to the functioning of religion in general, understanding the latter as a kind of “universal obsessive neurosis”: religion is not simply a set of beliefs and intimate faith; it operates as a system of practices and rituals aimed at managing anxiety and guilt in relation to the Other. Since, for Freud, there is at the same time no such thing as a completely non-pathological psychological structure, obsessive neurosis can be understood as one of the possible structures of “normality.”

In a slightly different register—one in which debt also resonates with guilt (as it does directly in the German language, where Schuld means both debt and guilt, though this connection is culturally more universal)—it is interesting to observe how this plays out in classical tragedy, and later in modern tragedy. As Hegel notes in his Lectures on Aesthetics, the force of the great tragic characters of antiquity lies in the fact that they have no choice: they are what they will and accomplish from their birth onward, and they are this with all their being. For this reason, Hegel continues, they do not in any way claim to be innocent of their acts. On the contrary, the greatest offence one can commit against a great tragic hero is to regard him or her as innocent; for great tragic characters, it is an honor to be guilty.[1]

To be guilty—to carry one’s particular symbolic debt—is to be, in the emphatic sense of the term. In this configuration, guilt pertains to being in a double sense: not only are we already guilty by virtue of existing (like in the tragedy of Oedipus), but guilt/debt also serves as the proof—the manifestation—of our being. Roughly speaking, we can see this logic at work later as well, in most of the classical tragedies.

In this respect, one of the most significant shifts that takes place with modernity is the idea that this symbolic debt, which once equaled (and justified) our being, can be taken away from us. In his reading of modern tragedy, as exemplified by Paul Claudel, Jacques Lacan points out that this is precisely what befalls his tragic heroines—particularly Sygne de Coûfontaine from the Coûfontaine trilogy.

“We are no longer guilty just in virtue of symbolic debt. … It is the debt itself in which we have our place that can be taken away from us, and it is here that we can feel completely alienated from ourselves. The ancient Ate doubtless made us guilty of this debt, but to renounce it as we can now means that we are left with an even greater misfortune: destiny no longer applies.”[2]

This possibility that arises with modernity is a possibility of a more radical alienation, which can lead to something like the sacrifice of the sacrifice itself: we can be asked or expected to sacrifice everything we have for a cause, but the next level, so to speak, is when we are then asked to sacrifice/betray this cause itself, the very thing for which we were willing to sacrifice everything. In this case, we don’t just lose everything we have; at the horizon looms the loss of everything we are.

In all these examples, debt functions as our attachment to the Other, who also bestows upon us our being. Yet we can also look at this from the other side: although the relation is not simply symmetrical, the Other too seems to depend on our debt—or guilt—for its own existence and prosperity. This, for instance, is something Nietzsche repeatedly exposed in his writings, taking Christianity as the model par excellence of this dynamic

Christianity, and particularly its Catholic strain, devised a complex system for forgiving and atoning for our sins, while simultaneously maintaining our debt to the Father and the Son who made such forgiveness possible. A sin that is forgiven, in this logic, amplifies rather than abolishes our debt.

This is the reason what Nietzsche insisted on the importance of the distinction between forgiving and forgetting: forgiving is a way of sustaining a bond—and with it, a debt. Forgiveness has a perverse way of entangling us even further in indebtedness. To forgive always somehow implies “paying” for the other, and thus turning the very act of injury and its forgiveness into a new kind of “engagement ring.” God forgives our sins by paying for them—by paying for them with his own flesh.

This, for Nietzsche, constitutes the fundamental perversity of Christianity: while forgiving, it simultaneously waves before us the cross—the instrument of torture, the reminder of the one who suffered and died so that we might be forgiven, the memory of the one who paid for us. Christianity forgives, but it does not forget.

One could say that, with the eyes of the sinner fixed on the cross, forgiveness creates a new debt in the very act of forgiving. It forgives what was done, but it does not forgive the act of forgiving itself. On the contrary, the latter establishes a new bond and a new debt. It is now infinite mercy—understood as the capacity for forgiveness—that sustains the infinite debt, the debt as infinite. The debt is no longer brought about by our actions; it is produced by the act of forgiving those actions. We are indebted for forgiveness.[3] This is the reason why Nietzsche counters the concept of forgiving with the concept of forgetting (“a good example of this in modern times is Mirabeau, who had no memory for insults and vile actions done to him and was unable to forgive simply because he – forgot”).

Christianity thus invented a singular way of maintaining and amplifying our debt—through the Savior paying for it, and through the Church forgiving our sins in His name. At the same time, for doctrinal reasons, the Catholic religion long struggled with—and resisted—the idea that today appears as an entirely natural precondition of debt, or its internal moment: namely, interest. More precisely, it resisted the monetary expression of the increase of debt, which it nevertheless very much practiced on the symbolic level.

Credit means that when we receive or borrow something—especially when we borrow money—our debt grows with time, and we must return more than we were lent. We pay for the time during which the Other holds us “in credit,” and we pay, so to speak, for the very access to debt. The notion that money could generate (more) money—that value could emerge from nothing but time—stood in deep conflict with theological orthodoxy. For this reason, in the Middle Ages only non-Christians (Jewish, and later Lombard or Florentine bankers) were permitted to lend at interest, often acting as intermediaries. Of course, this also meant that Christians could use them to lend money at interest without themselves being held accountable—thus giving rise to the classical antisemitic topos of the usurious “Jew.”

Post-Orban Hungary

Trump Begins Shoring Up His Crumbling TPUSA MAGA Gatekeepers

Securing His Greater Israel Project Donors in Their War of Racial Essentialism Against the Race Non-Essentialist (aka- Anti-Semitic) MAGA Skeptics via Media Conditioning

After Georgia's last TPUSA Event with the VP and No-Show Erika, they Need all the Starpower they can get.

Success Has Many Fathers...

 ...but Failure is an Orphan!

Ben Shapiro Takes a Bow and Victory Lap for Backing Trump in Trump's Iran Gambit.  Little Does he Know that He'll Soon be Under the Bus with All those other MAGA Who Criticized Trump for Following Israel's Lead in Executing the Surprise Attack.  Shapiro No Longer Has Any Leverage (All Used Media Gatekeeping for Israel) in the Endeavour, as Israeli Recalcitrance towards Ending the Greater Israel Project becomes a Liability in Executing Trump's Construction of a More Lasting Regional Peace. Keep up the Kayfabe with Israel Ben, Lest You End Up a Heel for Trump, instead of a Mere Tweener Tool!

America Didn't Need Israeli Help to Crush Iran.  It Just Needed to Decide to Do it (which is what Trump Did)

New U2 Anthem Is Cuckoo for CoCo-Pufters and CosPlay Revolutionaries

Kelly Rae Robertson, "U2 is getting victimhood wrong"

How a band that once honored the victims of 9/11 is now distorting what victimhood means.

Twenty-five years ago, in the first Super Bowl halftime show after the Sept. 11 attacks, popular rock band U2 did something that sent chills racing through an entire nation — maybe the world.

They opened with “Beautiful Day,” that soaring anthem of hope and resilience.

Lead singer Bono emerged from the crowd on the field, singing the first verse straight to the fans before stepping onto the heart-shaped stage. The music lifted the Superdome like a fragile promise that light could still break through darkness.

The tone shifted. When “Beautiful Day” ended, the music fell away — and Bono began singing “MLK” a cappella. It sounded like a prayer. Behind the band, a massive black scrim spanning the entire stage fell from the ceiling like a solemn veil.

As Bono sang, names began scrolling upward in bold letters: American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, FDNY, NYPD, and the ordinary office workers who had simply shown up for a Tuesday morning. Nearly 3,000 names, grouped by the horror that claimed them.

Then the backing vocalist, known as Edge, struck the first chords of “Where the Streets Have No Name,” and the stadium roared — a deep wave of sound you could feel in your chest. The names kept scrolling as the music built. As the song surged toward its climax, Bono yelled “America!” — a raw, defiant cry that pierced straight into the soul.

When every name had been honored, the scrim fell. Bono opened his jacket to reveal the American flag sewn into the lining. No speeches. No slogans. Just raw, unifying grief and quiet respect.

I still watch that performance whenever I feel my world starting to shake. It hits me like a wave every time — goosebumps rising, heart pounding, tears coming fast. It pulls me straight back to those months after 9/11 — when the country was steady on its feet but broken open with grief.

In those same moments, I reach for reminders of how fragile life really is — and how lucky I am to still be here.

One of them is the documentary One Day in America: 9/11. You see people watching the towers burn — some frozen, others screaming, others running. Survivors tell stories of smoke-filled stairwells, floors on fire, people moving as fast as they can without knowing what they’re running from or toward. Firefighters haul heavy gear up endless flights, knowing they may never come back down.

One group of FDNY firefighters paused in the chaos, shook hands, and told each other what a pleasure it had been to work together. One survived — the one being filmed. The rest died that day.

Then there’s the mother of Mark Bingham, whose son called her from United Airlines Flight 93 to say the plane had been hijacked before the line went dead. She called back and left a voicemail — her voice steady but breaking — telling him the plane was most likely going to be used as a weapon, urging him to find others and fight to take back control of the plane. “I love you, sweetie. Good luck. Bye-bye.”

I can’t listen to that voicemail without my throat tightening.

That was the America I remember. Flags on every car, fluttering until they frayed. Yards lit red, white, and blue. Flight 93 passing over my hometown before crashing just 80 miles away. Funeral after funeral for fallen firefighters.

The brief talk of canceling the Super Bowl lasted only minutes. The decision to play was made — and U2 rose to meet the moment. They started with hope and delivered something sacred.

At the time, my own life was scraping by. That spring, after four long years of poverty, I graduated from Duquesne University. My blind, diabetic mom and I knew the fear of the heat being shut off in a Pittsburgh winter after my father died when I was 14. Instead of taking a full-time job with just a high school diploma, I fought to fulfill his wish that I go to college.

I was making $35 a night as an agate clerk at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review — and $35 for every article I wrote. It wasn’t enough.

To surprise me, my mom skipped paying bills one month to buy me tickets to see U2. After being a superfan since the early ’80s, I finally saw them the day after graduation, on May 6, 2001. It felt symbolic.

They played “Beautiful Day,” and it felt like a promise — that life would get better.

Now, in 2026, U2 has released “American Obituary,” a song about Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis mother of three who was shot and killed during a federal immigration operation.

They frame her as a victim worthy of the same kind of moral weight they once gave the innocent dead of Sept. 11.

They are not the same.

The people whose names scrolled behind U2 that night had no choice in their deaths. They were murdered at their desks, on hijacked planes, or in collapsing buildings — blindsided by evil.

By contrast, this was a volatile, active law enforcement situation. By all available accounts, she made the decision to insert herself into that confrontation.

When U2 honored the innocent that night — and Bono cried out “America!” — they honored people simply living their lives.

Turning that moment into a lens for modern political narratives feels less like tribute and more like reinterpretation.

Nothing compares to the moral weight of 9/11. Nothing.

True victims deserve remembrance. But so does clarity about what we are remembering — and why.

U2 once understood that distinction. It's sad they no longer do.

U2 - Still Cashing in on Trauma Culture's Musical Therapy Industry

The Chicago Way...

 

h/t - Woodsterman

So where's David Axelrod?

When Obama Changed the 2016 Intelligence Assessment of Foreign Election Influence

...to say Putin wanted Trump to win!

@@

So much for a Reflexive Environment...

"Low IQ" Alex Jones Takes an IQ Test

Trump (Inadvertently) Passes the Mantle of Leadership On to His Successors...

...How Long before Establishment Republicans begin to Kiss the New Ring and Dismiss the Old?  That'll Depend Upon How Many Persist in Bending the Knee to Trump's Anointed "Israel First" Media Gatekeepers at Fox, on Internet Podcasts, and in the Conservative Talk Radio world.

On the Dangers of 'Guiltily' Embarking on a Journey of Unabashedly Affirming Jewish Race Essentialism

...because "Only Racists and Anti-Semites Oppose Israel"

@@

Ha-ha!

You made a kingdom fall in love

I'll take the pill, it's small enough

Too late, my system's run amok

I wanna beat somebody up

Like a bully, mm

You think I'ma riot (Riot)

I see the facade

You wish I'd be quiet (Quiet)

Don't preach to a God (In denial of it all)

A God (Baby, tell me what it costs you)

To a God, to tell the truth

Yeah, obey, hey

Baby, do what I say

Like it ain't no other way

Baby, do what I say

I said obey, hey

Baby, do what I say

Like it ain't no other way

Baby, do what I say

When a masterpiece turn into catastrophe

They get mad at me for livin' out my fantasies

All the castles in the sky come down crashin' every time I speak my mind

All the people

Swear my ego

Needs a repo

But I won't let go

In denial of it all

Baby, tell me what it costs you

To tell the truth

Yeah, obey, hey

Baby, do what I say

Like it ain't no other way

Baby, do what I say

I said obey, hey

Baby, do what I say

Like it ain't no other way

Baby, do what I say

मरते, मरते, डालो

Academia Reaping the Consequences of Race Essentialism

VDH is a White Supremacist.  He only says these things because he knows nothing about Academia and he hates brown people!  @@

Woke Racism: Neo-Racism

Iran Calls Trump's Bluff...

...as America First Escapes the Trump Orbit with Most of MAGA. His Race Essentialist Pro-Israel media gatekeepers (Mark Levin, et al) cannot save him, and so he is destined to become a lame duck President early.

The Trump Brand Now Reeks with the Stink of Desperation

Fonzie Brags About Jumping the Shark... and Taunts His Critics

MAGA is dead.

Long Live America First!

Trump, Mark Levin, and the Greater Israel Project are Finally One

Making Israel GREATER Again (MIGA)!

Trump, Making Media Gatekeeping GREAT Again!

Maybe David Ellison Should Buy TCN Next...

Ripley's "Believe It or Not!" - Iran Edition

Trump is implementing the foreign policy that should have begun with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November of 1989.  But the country was being led at the time by a former CIA Cold Warrior, George HW Bush, and so the country took a disastrous 30+ year detour/ hiatus through US Imperialism and hegemony instead.

Just How "Less Racist" does Essentializing Race Make your Political Party?

A -Not Much - About 18% "Less Racist" only now more Neo-Racist

Blacks are Over-Represented by 28% in the Democratic Party (Race Essentialists)

Whites are Over-Represented by 33% in the Republican Party (Race Non-Essentialist)

...but ONLY at the National level

On the Neo-Racist Hypocrisy of Anti-Racist Theorist Ibram X Kendi

DJT, The Van Helsing of the Green Energy Vampyre Movement?

Trump Falls into the US Neocon / BRICS laid Thucydides Trap

 

from Google AI:

The Thucydides Trap, coined by Graham Allison, describes the high risk of war when a rising power threatens to displace a ruling power, a concept derived from Sparta’s fear of a rising Athens in ancient Greece. Historical studies indicate that in 12 of 16 cases over the past 500 years, such structural stress resulted in conflict, not peace.

Key Elements and Context 

The Origin: The phrase stems from Athenian historian Thucydides, who wrote that "It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable".

Modern Application: The theory is primarily applied to the current tension between the United States (ruling) and China (rising)
.
Key Drivers: Conflict arises from structural pressures rather than immediate provocation, where the dominant power fears losing its position, and the rising power feels entitled to more influence.

Potential Consequences and Criticism 

Consequences: If not managed, the trap can escalate trade disputes, proxy wars, or minor accidents into full-scale, devastating war.

Criticisms: Critics argue the theory is overly deterministic, ignoring human agency, diplomacy, and the inhibiting factor of nuclear deterrence. Some argue the historical cases are not directly comparable to modern Sino-US relations due to high economic interdependence.

Avoiding the Trap 

The trap is not inevitable; Allison notes that 4 of the 16 historical cases did not lead to war. Avoiding it requires conscious efforts from leaders to:

Manage Rivalry: Engage in competition without resorting to violence.

Establish New Systems: Develop new international relations frameworks (similar to China’s "new type of international relations" goal).

Recognize Miscalculations: Avoid the misinterpretations that characterized the Peloponnesian War, as highlighted in studies on the Thucydides Trap File.

Breaking Away and Cutting the Strings: The Rising Influence of the MAGA Cancelees

Against Soros Realist $Gate$Keeping!

Where Charisma Trumps Celebrity  (& Where Ye Epitomizes the Way to Transition)

No More Yoke thé $Ventriloquism$!

The Iran vs Israel/ US War Will NOT Take Place...

...Much as the Gulf War Did NOT Take place:

from Wikipedia:

The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (French: La Guerre du Golfe n'a pas eu lieu) is a collection of three short essays by Jean Baudrillard published in the French newspaper Libération and British paper The Guardian between January and March 1991.

While the author acknowledges that the events and violence of what has been called the Gulf War took place, he asks if the events that took place were really as they were presented, and whether they could be called a war. The title of the first essay is a reference to the play The Trojan War Will Not Take Place by Jean Giraudoux (in which characters attempt to prevent what the audience knows is inevitable).

Essays

• Part 1, "The Gulf War will not take place" (La guerre du Golfe n'aura pas lieu) was published in Libération on January 4, 1991.
• Part 2, "The Gulf War is not really taking place" (La guerre du Golfe a-t-elle vraiment lieu?) was published in Libération on February 6, 1991, and
• Part 3, "The Gulf War did not take place" (La Guerre du Golfe n'a pas eu lieu) was published in Libération on March 29, 1991.

The essays in Libération and The Guardian were published before, during and after the Gulf War and they were titled accordingly: during the American military and rhetorical buildup as "The Gulf War Will Not Take Place"; during military action as "The Gulf War Is Not Taking Place", and after action was over, "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place". A book of elongated versions of the truncated original articles in French was published in May 1991. The English translation was published in early 1995 translated by Paul Patton.

Summary

Baudrillard argued the Gulf War was not really a war, but rather an atrocity which masqueraded as a war.^[1] Using overwhelming airpower, the American military for the most part did not directly engage in combat with the Iraqi army, and suffered few casualties. Almost nothing was made known about Iraqi deaths. Thus, the fighting "did not really take place" from the point of view of the West. Moreover, all that spectators got to know about the war was in the form of propaganda imagery. The closely watched media presentations made it impossible to distinguish between the experience of what truly happened in the conflict, and its stylized, selective misrepresentation through simulacra.^[2]

Uses of the argument

2015 Paris attacks

Hamid Dabashi, a professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University, wrote a comment about the November 2015 Paris attacks on Aljazeera.com entitled "The Paris attacks did not take place", in which he criticized how global media outlets like BBC had made up a hyperreal simulacrum of Paris. He believes that after the bombardment of Arabian countries by the West, refugees had flooded into Europe, changing its geography. While what used to happen in the East was eventually experienced in the West, shattering the imaginary "West–East" dichotomy, the global media outlets, however, focused overwhelmingly on Paris itself, as though it was independent of the rest of the world. He believes that the terrorist attacks did happen, but not in the hyperreal way depicted by the media like BBC.^[3]

Russo-Ukrainian war

Jarryd Bartle, a lecturer of social context, and Kong Degang, a literature and art scholar, cited Baudrillard's argument that "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place" and compared it to the ongoing Russian attack on Ukraine.

Jarryd Bartle published his essay on UnHerd. He said that Baudrillard's opinion, once too postmodern to be accepted, was more relevant than ever in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Amidst the "spectacle" (as in The Society of the Spectacle) of the newsfeeds, people consumed information by piecing them up and fabricating their own virtual perspectives. Some even started imagining an outbreak of "World War III". He pointed out that while many commentators criticized the spread of misinformation, most lost sight of the harm of information overload and virtualisation.^[4]

Kong Degang, a Chinese scholar, compared the defense of Sihang Warehouse as featured in the Chinese film The Eight Hundred, the Gulf War as written about by Baudrillard, to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. He analyzed that in The Eight Hundred, the battle against the Japanese invaders was depicted as a "performance" intended to be watched by Shanghai citizens and the international community. From the audience's perspective, the Japanese invaders won the battle but lost the war in the "performance" due to their unrighteousness. Yet this was not the exact historical truth since no one witnessing it could predict the war's outcome merely by a battle. The Russo-Ukrainian war, on the other hand, unfolded quite differently from both the defense of Sihang Warehouse and the Gulf War. The latest media technologies generate real-time simulacra dwarfing those of the Gulf War in realism and virtuality, leading to information overload. Unable to (in)validate the war updates, many dismiss the war's reality—as if it "did not take place"—yet eagerly fight in a "cyber simulacra war" that is "constantly taking place". Both sides perform their "justness" and declare their victories. Meanwhile, the real casualties—civilians in Ukraine and Russia, and even the forgotten warzones like Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan—remain overlooked by the international community.^[5]

Gaza war

In November 2023, writer Kubra Solmaz argued that Baudrillard's writing about the creation of a hyper-reality through the replacement of the real situation in the Gulf War with representations that do not show the reality could also be applied to the Gaza war, which had started the month prior.^[6] She argues that the media reality around the war is fundamentally different from the material reality, using the dissonance between the media produced by Western media outlets, and that produced by the Palestinians within Gaza as the chief example.

This is an aerial view of CAA's HQ in Los Angeles, CA.

I'm sure there's nothing to see here. pic.twitter.com/rb1UvUzzW3

— Robbie Jaeger 🔎 (@RobletoFire) December 28, 2019

Hidden in Plain Sight

Baltimore City Mayor Resurrects Democrat's Old Tammany Hall Political Patronage System

from Google AI:

Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine in 19th/20th-century New York City, used a vast patronage system to secure loyalty and votes. By exchanging jobs, contracts, and social services (coal, food) for voter support and election rigging, the "machine" maintained power, with infamous leaders like Boss Tweed.

Key Components of Tammany Hall Patronage 

The "Spoils System": Tammany controlled municipal government jobs, appointments, and public works contracts, awarding them to loyal supporters to ensure, and rewarding, political loyalty.

Social Services to Immigrants: The organization acted as a social safety net, providing immigrants with food, coal, jobs, and assistance with housing or citizenship in exchange for their votes.

"Honest Graft": Tammany officials, such as George Plunkitt, often used insider information about city projects to profit financially, a practice defended as "honest graft".

Control of Elections: Tammany used its resources to influence, and often outright steal, elections through organized voter turnout, fraudulent ballots, and intimidation.

Structure and Influence 

The Boss and the Wigwam: The organization was overseen by a "boss" or "Grand Sachem" at its headquarters, nicknamed "the Wigwam".

Ward Leaders: The machine functioned through local district leaders who knew the needs of their community and secured loyalty through personalized assistance.

Influence on Elections: By rewarding supporters with government positions and contracts, Tammany insured its candidates won, allowing the cycle of patronage to continue.

Decline 

Reform Movements: Progressive-era reforms in the early 20th century, including civil service exams (which replaced political hires with qualified applicants), challenged the machine's power.

Loss of Power: The rise of reform-minded mayors (e.g., Fiorello La Guardia) and changes in social policy (the creation of a formal government safety net) significantly weakened Tammany's influence, leading to its decline in the mid-20th century.

Tammany Hall was infamous for corruption, particularly under William M. "Boss" Tweed, who exploited the system for personal gain before his downfall in the 1870s.

Does this Remind Anyone of when Nancy Pelosi's father and brother ran Baltimore City?

"Ye be a Crazy Anti-Semite...." @@ UK Government Oligarchical PMC Lackies Exacting Its' Pound of Flesh

Jamie Grierson, Rajeev Syat, and Lanre Bakare, "Wireless festival cancelled after Kanye West banned from entering UK"

Rapper had been booked to play at festival in London, prompting outcry over his past antisemitic remarks

The Wireless music festival has been cancelled after the artist formerly known as Kanye West was banned from entering the UK amid a deepening political row over his previous antisemitic statements.

West, who is legally known as Ye, made an application to travel to the UK via an Electronic Travel Authorisation on Monday but it has been blocked by officials.

A spokesperson for the festival confirmed it would no longer go ahead in July after the government decision was announced, and said refunds would be issued to those who had already bought tickets.

The statement read: “The Home Office has withdrawn Ye’s ETA, denying him entry into the United Kingdom. As a result, Wireless festival is cancelled and refunds will be issued to all ticket holders.

As with every Wireless festival, multiple stakeholders were consulted in advance of booking Ye and no concerns were highlighted at the time.Antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent, and we recognise the real and personal impact these issues have had.

“As Ye said today, he acknowledges that words alone are not enough, and in spite of this still hopes to be given the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewish community in the UK.”

It is understood that the application was initially granted online but was rescinded by Home Office ministers, after review, on the grounds that his presence in the UK would not be conducive to the public good.

The rapper has been criticised for making antisemitic remarks, including voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler. Last year he released a song called Heil Hitler, a few months after advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.

Ye took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal in January apologising for his antisemitic behaviour and attributing his inflammatory actions to his bipolar disorder. In a statement on Tuesday, he offered to “meet and listen” to members of the UK’s Jewish community.

Over the weekend, Keir Starmer, joined criticism of the festival, saying it was “deeply concerning” that Ye had been booked to perform “despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of nazism”.

The decision to ban Ye left the Wireless organisers with three slots to fill with just three months’ notice. The ban came on the day presales began for this summer’s events, which were already competing in a busy field of London day festivals.

The organisers’ approach of using one A-list name to headline three back-to-back days meant options for a new artist were limited. Many artists will have had their summer schedule sorted months ago, so finding a replacement would have been complex.

On Monday evening, Melvin Benn, the managing director of Festival Republic, which promotes Wireless, said Ye “intended to come in and perform”, adding that organisers were “not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions”.

Downing Street faced pressure on Tuesday afternoon to say whether Ye would be allowed to perform. Asked to clarify Ye’s visa status at lunchtime, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We’ve been clear that his permission to enter the UK is under review as we speak. All available options remain on the table.”

He added: “Decisions are taken on a case-by-case basis in line with the law and the evidence available, but where individuals pose a threat to public safety or seek to spread extremism, the government has not hesitated to act, and that includes cancelling permission to enter this country for extremist preachers and far-right figures.”

Speaking before the ban was publicised, Phil Rosenberg, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the group would be willing to meet Ye if he pulled out of Wireless.

“It has been less than a year since Kanye West released a song entitled Heil Hitler, the culmination of three years of appalling antisemitism. He also made a number of deeply offensive comments about the black community, saying that the 400-year experience of slavery was ‘like a choice’,” Rosenberg said.

“Even while claiming remorse today, his latest album includes a track first released last year with the abhorrent title Gas Chamber.”

The rapper joins a list of American cultural figures to have at times been banned from entering the UK.

Snoop Dogg was denied entry in 2007 after an incident a year earlier at Heathrow, which involved members of his entourage. He had to cancel a tour with P Diddy as a result. The ban was lifted in 2008.

In the same year Snoop Dogg’s ban was lifted, the television personality Martha Stewart was barred from entering the UK because of her conviction in 2004 of several offences related to an illicit share deal.

Tyler, the Creator was banned for four years in 2015 by the then home secretary, Theresa May, because of his lyrics. May used anti-terrorism legislation to block his entry, claiming his music “encourages violence and intolerance of homosexuality” and “fosters hatred with views that seek to provoke others to terrorist acts”.

The restriction was lifted in 2019, and he told the Guardian he felt as if he had “won some invisible fight”.

The Gatekeepers Close the Gates on Ye...

in order to Steer His Behaviour into Accepting Their Control Over His Lyrics & Art

"...for the Working Classes Require Management, NOT a Means Towards Self-Expression and Self-Sufficiency!  THAT is the Proper Role to be Enforced by Government!"  @@