As If He Were Orson Welles' Feckless Grand Nephew . . . .

[Glenn Anders]

Some of us may not have continued to follow the career of Welles' admirer Glenn Beck, but he has now become a controversial national figure -- populist demagogue to some, entertaining buffoon to others, -- confused bore to most, even now. In the last year, nearly 400 sponsors have boycotted his radio and television programs, and Fox News has attempted to reign in Beck's increasingly bizarre chalk-talks on the Wilsonian machinations of George Soros and other Fu Man-Chu's unmasked before Tea Party faithful, at least urge greater entertainment content for Beck's often bewildering conspiracy explanations. Beck has defiantly rebuffed efforts to curb his crusade.

In the last couple of weeks, rumors have risen that Glenn Beck's contract will not be renewed in the Fall.

Now, among hints of mysterious illness and premonitions of martyrdom, Glenn Beck is said to be weighing a leap forward toward forming his own network, a la Ophra. That network, should it form, would probably take the name of Beck's parent company: Mercury Productions.

Get your peanuts and lemonade! The curtain of Glenn Beck's Magic Show is about to rise.

Another part of the assault by Breitbart, Beck, O'Keefe et al on progressive New Deal institutions which formed the modern American Middle Class is about to begin.

Glenn Anders

[Le Chiffre]

Glenn Beck is an irritating clown, but it seems to me that the Republicans do have a somewhat Wellesian figure on their side: Gingrich. I suspect he's a hypocrite on religion, but that probably doesn't matter. If he runs next year, I think he could be a real threat to Obama.

[Le Chiffre]

So much for my political soothsaying ability:
"Newt Gingrich: Big Mouth, Little Chance"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard ... l-disaster

[Glenn Anders]

Hi, Mike: Newt Gingrich has been a formidable American political figure in the past, during the last couple of years a secret master, perhaps hoping to profit from the guerilla theater of Andrew Breitbart and Glenn Beck, but I would never have placed him in the same category. Beck, in particular, is a phenomenon, the real thing in terms of modern Wellsian applications to political matters. Just a week or so ago, he was reiterating his affection for Orson Welles, speculating on how George Soros was the real life reincarnation of Charles Foster Kane, wondering what Soros's "rosebud" might be.

As for Gingrich, sadly for his grandiose political ambitions, the Tea Party minions he sent out from Cpac in 2009 and 2010 have embraced the noble but entirely infeasible Ryan remedy for thirty years of foolish, disastrous Federal expenditures. Gingrich's wise rejection of Ryan's plan will be hung around his neck by all his opponents seeking the Republican Presidential Nomination (though they will in private recognize the plan's impracticality, too).

Meanwhile, Glenn Beck, always the showman, disappointed that no one attempted to assassinate him on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial last summer, now intends to promote another chautauqua, a new Mercury Production, to be held this summer in Jerusalem, where the prospect of any number of groups crucifying him is more promising.

Glenn

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks for the info, Glenn. What do you mean by "secret master"?

Maybe Beck should postpone that Jerusalem show and consider running for president instead. The way things are going on the Republican side, he might just win the nomination by default.

I've always admired George Soros, especially for his attempts to undermine the phony "War" on Drugs. I never really thought of him as a hypocritical leftist, like Kane. Newt Gingrich, on the other hand, is considered by many a hypocritical rightist.

The firestorm over Newt's comments has probably brought more public engagement and attention to the Ryan Plan then it otherwise would have had. I confess I didn't know much about it until this week, but I've been kind of fascinated by the whole story the past few days. Here are some online comments I've come across that I thought were interesting:

1. Conservatives don't have a political party. They have a religion. Anyone who joins the party is expected to disregard their own personal opinions, their own views, their own logic and reasoning and opt for the "entire" Conservative religious creed. 
Gingrich and Romney are finding out the hard way that there are no other views allowed in the "Party". And if you've had different views in the past you can only move forward by wearing a dunce cap and publicly atoning for your past digression. 
Like the Stalinists , the Red Guard, Islamists, Evangelical Christians...there can be only one True Way. OUR WAY 
No "Blue Dogs" allowed in the Republican Party....just mindless mouthpieces looking to Rush Limbaugh for talking points and direction.

2. Yes, conservatism has become a religion. All of their positions are based on faith, not on measurable data, and any deviation from the conservative orthodoxy is considered heresy. Similarly, Soviet communism became a religion. Right up to the end, the communists still believed their system was working, despite all evidence. Modern liberalism is NOT a religion, in contrast. Policies are based on what seems to work, not what flows from an ideology, and there is a diversity of opinion because there may be more than one solution to a given problem.

3. I hate to see the way Newt is being savaged by his own party for basically telling the truth. The Ryan budget is drastic social engineering from the extreme right. And despite what Republicans contend, the Ryan plan does not restructure, modify, reshape, or change Medicare. The Ryan plan basically ends Medicare and gives power to big insurance companies concerning how much they can push the cost and profit spiral upward, and who gets health-care. In a way I almost feel sorry for Gingrich concerning the way his fellow conservatives are piling on. That sometimes happens when you speak truth to power brokers inside your own party.

4.No dissent. No discussion. No debate. That's the Republican/Teabagger way. The Republican cynicism machine is falling apart.

5. One issue that seems to be collectively overlooked by the media is Gingrich's embarrassing record during his service in congress. He sold out his vote and influence to Rupert Murdoch so brazenly that even his own GOP majority House ethics committee threatened him with censure over what appeared to be a bribe. He was given $5 million dollars as a book advance on a book that sold very few copies. He had to return Murdoch's bribe and pay a $300,000 fine and after that he resigned from his position as speaker and within weeks after that resigned from congress altogether. If that isn't the equivalent of Richard Nixon in terms of baggage ....what is????

6. We need a leader who has the courage to disagree with the reactionary wing of the party. Those who claim to be Republican, but are closed to any opinions but their own are the true RINOs (Republicans in Name Only).

7. Every time a conservative steps forward, they’re going to be a target of the leftist media. They don’t need conservatives to pile on. Please don’t fall into line with the left and don’t let them choose our nominee for us. I support Newt for 2012.

8. Read his books? Like his book about man made GLOBAL WARMING? "A Contract with the Earth" Or better yet just reading the comments of Newt's supporters calling people "teabaggers". Doesn't surprise me at all he gets supports from LIBERALS. Newt is not Conservative, and if Newt is not Conservative why is he in the Republican Party? If Newt is a Conservative then Obama is a Constitutionalist!!!

9. For those of us Newt supporters, stay the coarse! As you may have heard, George Soros has spent alot of money to see that comment threads on Newt go negative! They will take this to a new level of low!!

10. Hey Newt - Stay the course! I want to believe this is not about Democrats and Republicans, but about America and the gift our founding fathers gave us. What does Washington know about a "free market" economy? Our government has become nothing more than the largest inefficient business on the planet - If our government was forced to operate under the same principles as other businesses, it would have run aground a long time ago! They don't get it Newt - you do! Stay the course!

11. The reason I won't be voting for Newt is because I am tired of capitulators posing as leaders. I want a leader who can lead like a real man which is why I favor Michelle Bachmann.

12. A guy who dismisses the best current plan to get us out of the deep entitlement hole the political class has dug, praises mandates, and appears in ads with Princess Pelosi would be “a great president”? If you believe that, go back to HuffPo.

13. Sadly, the GOP has no cohesive platform nor any candidates who can effectively deal with the nation's problems.The GOP had better stop thinking they can get by with just saying “no” in making people try to dislike Obama. All the “socialist” hyperbole hasn’t worked to date and it won’t in the future.

14. Newt has guts to lay out his ideas and debate them. Just because you’re conservative doesn’t mean you have to be a robot.

15. Newt can’t keep his story straight. First he would have voted for Ryan’s plan, then it’s a step too far, then it’s a good thing again. A true conservative–if you are one–would be decrying this kind of shameless pandering in Newt just as much as in Obama. However, a shill for Obama who wants to see Newt succeed in weakening the GOP would praise him for his stance.

16. Yeah, Newt pretty much debates both sides among himself, taking all positions. Newt is a non starter, Mr. Anonymous.

17. Calvin Coolidge and Newt Gingrich are the only 2 politicians in US history who have succeeded in cutting spending and balancing the federal budget. Newt Gingrich is also the only one who has spoken out against “Mark to Market” – The most destructive and inherently dangerous accounting rule in the history of finance. If only people knew the mayhem and misery that rule has caused us all in the last 3 years.

18. “Mark to Market” is a legitmate accounting rule for specific situations. It’s not the rule that is the problem – it is the perversion of the rule that was used by Enron to perpetrate the biggest fraud in history. “Mark to Market” had nothing to do with Enron’s business, and they never should have been permitted to use it, which is why Arthur Anderson is no longer in existance….

19. Mr. Gingrich, please give up. You've done enough damage to the Republican party. Just go away.

20. The neoconservative movement arose from Trotskyites who joined the American right after they lost control of the Soviet Union to rival Joseph Stalin. They were and are socialists. This is the same crowd that brought us the UN, GATT, WTO, NAFTA and other sovereignty-robbing international treaties, and the financially disastrous mercantile wars and failed nation building exercises espoused by Kristol et al in the Project for a New American Century-PNAC. Think Soviet style central planning. Gingrich falls in this camp. He has never in his political life been a true conservative. Just look at his voting record. Fat chance he'll cut the scope and scale of the federal government. Gingrich cannot be trusted.

[Glenn Anders]

Well, Mike, the circus has only begun to entrain. Many sideshows will flash by us before we finally arrive in the center ring at some far city.

Let's just buy another bag of peanuts and wait a while.

Too bad that we may be the people who are eventually thrown to the lions.

Glenn

[Le Chiffre]

Came across this while web surfing recently- an interesting little history lesson that I was not aware of, concerning probable candidate Mitt Romney:

I think that the critical thing about Mitt Romney is what happened to his father, George Romney. The elder Romney famously ran for President back in '68 and was poised to defeat Richard Nixon. George Romney was much like his son Mitt is today: tall, handsome, and a successful businessman with really sound morals. He had no personal skeletons in the closet, other than the fact that he was a Mormon. In fact, I don't even think it was that big a deal back in 1968: a person's religion, even among Republicans. The trouble, if you can call it that, was that Romney was a successful businessman (former head of now-defunct AMC ~ American Motors Corporation) and local politician. He was a two-term governor of Michigan, and his policies would today be called "liberal republican,moderate, centrist, etc." He was hardly a hard-core right-winger or ideologue. However, getting back to George Romney's "flaws:" he actually was forthright and honest, which he derived from being a businessman and moralist; and a successful local politician where folks appreciate down-home honesty.

This worked against him terribly, and it ultimately cost him the Republican nomination for President. [/u][/b]What happened was that George Romney was not a Barry Goldwater ultra-conservative, nor was he a Hawk. His position on the war in Vietnam, which by now had devolved into a major conflict with hundreds of thousands of American soldiers on the ground, the involvement of other nations like China and the Soviet Union; both of whom were supplying Hanoi with war materiel, and massive domestic (i.e.American) unrest and dissent; was not clear. And it was not clear because he, George Romney himself, was not so clear about what was really going on in Vietnam. So in the summer of 1967 he traveled to Vietnam and got the Official American (military) Version of the War: we are winning through winning of hearts-and-minds, winning through decimation of enemy forces (body counts, confirmed enemy kills, etc.), and the only road to travel down is increasing the war. We need more men, more war materiel, etc. The Pentagon was selling the Vietnam war, if you will, to important Americans because to a hammer the entire world resembles a nail. Well, this is not the case with all the Pentagon leadership but it was true of commanders like General William Westmoreland and others who were, in my opinion, true psychopaths.

But when George Romney came back in late August/early September he made a very, very famous comment which would ultimately prove to be fatal to his presidential political career: he said that his travels abroad to Vietnam had caused him to be "brainwashed" by war-hungry Pentagon officials, generals, etc. And he took a firm stand AGAINST the Vietnam war. Later on, the Republican leadership, intent on expanding the war & just generally a bunch of dumb reactionaries, used the 'brainwashing' comment to destroy George's run for President, and Nixon edged him out for nomination of his party.

Well, what this has to do with the son is that Mitt learned the wrong lesson from his father: he learned to not really take a stand on any issue. His wavering and waffling is horrible: he is even tryiing to re-write history because this so-called Obamacare which he criticizes is actually very similar to health-care legislation passed in Massachusetts during his tenure as governor! Mitt must figure to himself that if he takes a firm stance on controversial issues it will spell the same fatality for him as it did his father back in '68.

Orson Welles actually mentions George Romney in THE BEGATTING OF THE PRESIDENT:

“Now the Republicans saw that there was confusion among their enemies, and as the new election fell upon them they asked, “But who is there to lead us, that we may cast out the Democrats, and dwell in the tents of power?” And they searched their hearts.

“Some amongst them cried out for Romney, the Rambler, but the chieftains beheld him and saw that his brain had been washed. And others cried out for Rockefeller, for lo, his name ringeth of bullion. But the chiefs regarded him and found a taint, for he had drunk not from the cup of Gold water. And there was Ronald; he of the late, late show, and the south clave unto him, but the delegates cast him forth, for he was not the hero, but the hero’s best friend.

“Whereforth they cried out, “Could we but raise Richard from the dead we should have a mighty champion and slayer of Democrats!” And the Republicans said unto themselves, “We are the resurrection and the life and the law and the order. He that believeth in us, though he were dead, yet he shall live. But the supporters of Rocky cried out, “He hath lain four years in his grave, wherefore he stinketh.” And the Republicans said, “Yet shall we raise him, and he shall be perfumed ore, anointed with moderation, that he may become a new Nixon.”

[Glenn Anders]

Uncanny, how these references keep entwining, Mike!

George Romney was a very solid businessman, an innovator, in our once great auto manufacturing enterprises -- an executive of the kind much admired (if a man indeed succeeded) before the present crew of looters took over.

No doubt, Welles recognized the essential honesty of Romney in admitting that he had been "brainwashed." That quality was fatal in the coming "New World Order" which was beginning to take over so many aspects of American life.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, resembles Richard Nixon on meth.

No "secret master" he!

Glenn

[Le Chiffre]

Sounds like Romney was definitely ahead of his time in railing against American gas guzzlers.

"It has always seemed strange to me that the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second."
John Steinbeck Cannery Row

Here's a 1965 Rambler, the same year Medicare was started:



I didn't know Glenn Beck was a Mormon, like Romney and Orrin Hatch. Like Gingrich, some say his conversion was to appease an attractive spouse, but I suppose we don't need to go there beyond that.

Here's an interesting article comparing Gingrich and Beck:

http://theweek.com/article/index/213679 ... glenn-beck

[Glenn Anders]

That is a sad and beautiful quote from John Steinbeck, Mike. Sadder but really ugly is that matters have gone far down hill since Steinbeck's time (not so long ago). The people he castigates now celebrate their perfidy. They no longer necessarily need to be "secret masters." [The term is from The Secret Masters, title of a novel by Gerald Kersh (who also wrote Night and the City); it seemed apt and has stuck in my mind ever since.] The people I meet (or once did) occasionally in the tonier waterholes of San Francisco happily tell each other how they are "screwing the little people" boasting that their utilization and trading of capital keeps the World going around.

That brings us back to Newt Gingrich and Glenn Beck. They are self-representative of the New Order. The fact that they are Mormans (by marriage?) is incidental. {Political types seem to be drawn advantageously to the religion by marriage, political necessity, or chance conversion.] Both Gingrich and Beck would at one time have been satisfied to be simply influential. Today, they are struggling to create their own movements, as leaders of a pack to come to front stage, to be the main star. Neither is being very successful at the moment; both are suffering setbacks; both, I predict, will try to float something spectacular in a media sense to reveal their mastery. America, after all, is becoming a convention of "reality shows."

The Nash Rambler was a modest, relatively small vehicle, efficient, affordable (as car salesmen had begun to say), and utilitarian in a way few cars have been since. George Romney should be remembered for the support he gave that car, rather than for the fact he said he had been "brainwashed" by a group of generals. It appeared weakness at the time, but of course, our military, political, and industrial leaders lie to us every day now. Most of us are brainwashed, don't appear to recognize the fact, and are no longer able to enforce reform (if we ever were). And it can only get worse, when the leaders of both mainstream Parties scratch each other's backs and refuse to take obvious measures.

Human beings, as such, don't mean all that much anymore, Mike. The Supermen have won out, and the rest of us can be replaced by cyber ciphers. The Big Question: Where to get rid of five or six billion bodies!

Orson Welles would weep because the dark vision he made metaphor is nearing a terrible fruition.

[Le Chiffre]

That's a pretty dire forecast, Glenn. As Welles says at the end of BEGATTING, "Verily, I say unto you, Let us Pray!"

I guess I'm not quite that pessimistic, but you never know. Maybe they'll finish us all off with cellphones.

Looks like Glenn Beck is launching his own web channel:
http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffbercovici/2 ... -ever-did/

Exchange:
a. "Seriously - this guy is a total loser, he won't get half the subscribers he needs - there aren't that many fools in the world!"
b. "You're talking through your rear end and you are the loser because he will easily achieve this for the simple reason that everyone else in the media is asleep at the wheel. Glenn Beck provides the only reliable news source out there and I wouldn't watch CNN, CNBC if they paid me to do so."
a. "A well put argument.....for a retard! Glenn Beck is a complete ass - anyone who supports an ass is an ass themselves. I'm sure he's happy to take your money - you fool."

Here are some more quotes for the week, some on Newt's emphasis on "American Exceptionalism":

1.  “Liberal” is a nice word for Socialism, a worldwide movement led by Fascists and their Atheistic counterparts, Communists. This triadic scourge on humanity squelches individual initiative and denigrates individual rights to the will of the state. To me, American Exceptionalism means that our Constitution allows each and every citizen the opportunity to achieve anything they set out to achieve, AND it provides the freedom for our nation as a whole to push its cream to the top of the World in any endeavor. We have too long allowed liberalism, statism, and socialism to suppress the human spirit and desire to achieve greatness. We need to suppress liberalism, statism and socialism so that we may become exceptional once again.

2. Who would have ever thought that it would be Offensive to be exceptional???? Only the UNEXCEPTIONAL!!!!

3. Sad when the masses are too ignorant to even know what "exceptionalism is".....our "dumbed down" society needs sound bites for it's news and a govenment to make decisions for them.....GO NEWT GO....WIN THE REPBUBLICAN NOMINATION....and MORE IMPORTANTLY WIN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION!!!...

4. Wow, Newt is still running? Poor schlub… three chins and no clue.

5. Gingrich would have been better off sticking to the Right-Wing Social Engineering argument in the long run. But of course, that would have required some sort of integrity.

6. "I worship the ground that Paul Ryan walks on" Dick Cheney

7. Exceptionalism? You mean like Newt's exceptional lack of morals? Like his 500k bill at Tiffany’s? Now that’s exceptional.

8. The problem with Exceptionalism is the concurrent smug, pious attitude that claims it gives the US the right to do whatever it damn well pleases in the world.

9. Exceptionalism means quite simply we are the greatest country on the face of the Earth, and the greatest country in history.

10. Enough of the books, Newt. Are you running or not? I want to see some Passion, Aggression and hard hitting speeches against this regime we are currently enduring.

11. To me, American Exceptionalism means arrogant, racist, white Americans believe they’re better than all other people, with disastrouss results for Native Americans and the rest of the world. I am saddened that people who believe in this ideology haven't all died yet.

12. Nero "fiddled", Obama plays "golf".

13. Newt Blingrich" is stuck in the starting gate, trailing the field by 150 lengths. How long can his campaign continue to circle the drain?

14. Wasn't there a lot of talk about "exceptionalism" in Germany in the 1930's and 40's?

15. There once was a dunce named Glenn Beck, Whose mental state was a wreck, He ranted and raved, And oddly behaved, Like a loon without a full deck!

[Glenn Anders]

We may be going far afield here now, Mike. Gingrich, by most accounts, has shot his bolt, but I'll grant that he is always a dangerous provocateur. Andrew Breitbart may be more effective, having mastered the elements of McCarthyism for the present media age.

As for Glenn Beck, his Mercury Productions' GBTV is scheduled to go online, September 12.

The NY Times is suggesting that he may be a media genius for our time -- The New World Order?

We'll see.

Glenn

[Le Chiffre]

Yeah, Gingrich losing his whole staff is probably the harpoon that'll finally sink him. It's been fascinating to watch such a train wreck of a campaign, though.

Glenn, did you know that Andrew Brietbart was Orson's son-in-law?

"Most people who run for president aren’t like you or me, no matter how desperately they try to appear that way in spots that show them hunting, putting up fencing or eating in a diner with “average people” whilst on the campaign trail.
They tend to be people with enormous bank accounts and even bigger egos, willing to say and do virtually anything for the privilege of advancing the interests of powerful lobbies and corporations." -Anonymous Internet quote

[Glenn Anders]

These Newts are slippery, Mike. Keep an eye on him!

I suspect that Andrew Breitbart, like Glenn Beck, has a twisted affinity with Orson Welles, but I trust you are not suggesting that that Mr. Breitbart is joined with our Chrissie, nor even Beatrice, who seems to believe the World is going to hell in a handbag. Breitbart, though also an autodidact, is the opposite of Welles, and more machiavellian than Beck. He rejects conventional learning and education, both in terms of their methods and because of their content, saying (if you read his latest book) that because he suffered from ADD and dyslexia, he never read the texts assigned to him in high school or college. When he went to hear his professors lecture on the books he had not read, having come unprepared, their words made no sense to him. Obviously, if they could not make themselves understood to him, they must be frauds!

Thus was born a rebel, an agent provocateur, a man with a profound contempt for conventional learning and the American liberal arts education tradition, which had formerly been one of our glories, much admired by the rest of the World. It was on that liberal arts education that most of Western Civilization is based, and incidentally, the genius of Orson Welles.

Andrew Breitbart does not make 40 million a year, as Glenn Beck does -- at least, not yet -- but through his thoroughly despicable BigHollywood, BigGovernment, BigJournalism, BigPolitics, BigPeace, etc, he now hopes to capture our zeitgeist. His goal is to turn the generally accepted views we have had of our nation and its values over at least the last seventy years . . . inside out!

Welles would weep.

Glenn

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks to Terry Wilson for the tip on this, Glenn Beck continuing to use Welles's name to promote his new show, GBTV. As Terry says, "Beck spends several minutes schmoozing about Welles while carrying his photo around." I'm reminded of Welles's statement about cameos: "They call me in when they have a really terrible movie, and they need a cameo or two that will give it a little class."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvZn_zX_SeU

Beck also tries to draw parallels between the Welles/Hearst conflict and the conflict between himself and George Soros.