Trump, White Jazz and James Ellroy?

White Jazz is the last of the Dudley Smith trio. A quartet if The Black Dahlia is included. The Big Fix isn’t winner or losers.  It’s an ongoing chase in which power is in plain sight. Classic noir asks:
Can truth emerge?

Ellroy asks more simply,  Who controls what we believe after it does?

Trump’s insurrection and civil cases, including E. Jean Carroll defamation for him raping her, NY Civil Fraud case, found guilty of falsifying his net worth and business records, and the ‘Catch and Kill’ story of the femme fatale Stormy Daniels, answer that question. The truth comes out. Verdicts are passed. Checks get written, delayed, bounced. The accuser becomes accused and sued.  The Trump hierarchy and money-making machine, gains traction even when he loses.  A confirmation of kickbacks and payback and noir logic.

The specifics of the case are lost in that grey area where money talks and holds a gun to those of the head that don’t play along.

Even when the loyal fixer flips. Michael Cohen with evidence of his dirty dealings, which reach all the way to Moscow and Putin, his testimony, a staple of noir betrayal feeds into the feeding frenzy that nothing much happens without cover ups and Trump is the master of that universe.

The moron’s moron Trump operates like Dudley Smith with a Truth and Justice account and a reality TV view of the world in which his word is law. And you better believe it.

Noir thrives on the idea that power is maintained through secrets. Only the initiated have access. Jeffrey Epstein represents the danger of blackmail and compromise. Once a loyal friend, but had become too dirty. Too corrupt. Silenced before he could tell his story, their story. Another fall guy.

Putin is old KGB. His intelligence apparatus is legendary for identifying weaknesses and cultivating leverage (kompromat). In noir terms, he runs the world’s most sophisticated bag job. His power comes from understanding that Western elites have secrets. Financial, sexual, and criminal acts make them partners in more than money laundering. He fed Trump cash and can-do for his first Presidential run. Black ops, made red. Both Trump election victories were met with whoops and big-time partying in the White House—in Moscow.  

The moron’s moron, Trump, of course, is willing to cut a deal. Putin can take as much of Ukraine as he wants—away from scrutiny and the media—in much the same way he dealt with genocide in Palestine. He promises to turn grateful Palestinians into the employees of Trumpland, a kind of Disneyland mirrored in Ellroy’s L.A.Confidential.  

We laughed, of course, about the moron’s moron’s big fix for Greenland and Denmark. That was before his invasion of Venezuela and whacking of another crime boss, Maduro. No American dead, they tell us. No casualties. Trump tells us he did what had to be done. He might stay a while and take some tribute in oil and precious minerals, which can be converted into dollars. Win-win.

He cites the Monroe doctrine. Warns Mexico. Hey, I’m looking at you. He tells Fox non-news, the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has to ‘watch his ass’.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the trashing of international rules and sanctions become fully justified.

China fought a proxy war in Korea, but it was Taiwan which Beijing coveted. Home to the rebels Kuomintang that opposed Mao Zedong and the People’s Republic of China, which he termed ‘a renegade province’.   Much the same line that President Xi and his acolytes take.

We’re not just talking turf war. The moron’s moron Trump has kicked away the legs from the idea of any agreement other than brute force.

If you can’t see a problem, you’ve not been looking. James Ellroy pretty much nailed it. Loyalty fuels outrage. When everybody is shooting, cover your ass first, and worry about nuclear annihilation last.  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CVBVVGD6