I have given further thought to this topic,
first explored here. I will first offer a few points
from the earlier post:
Codevilla: We have stepped over the
threshold of a revolution. It is difficult to imagine how we might step back,
and futile to speculate where it will end.
Zman: If what it takes to break the
stranglehold this cult has on society is a dictator willing to toss a few
judges from a helicopter, then sign me up for dictatorship.
Bionic: It would be nice to have a
Gorbachev.
My reference to Gorbachev is in reference
to a political leader who led through a relatively peaceful dissolution of
empire; it would be nice if the US had such an individual.
I wrote and published the above on Saturday
the 11th. Since then, events have transpired that bring much more clarity…and
make evident the level of risk. Let’s just say a Gorbachev isn’t enough.
Trump was already facing a congress in
which all the democrats and half or more of the republicans were seething that
he won, were seething at what he represents, and were seething at many of the
policies for which he advocated – and high on that list was rapprochement
with Russia.
Now we have this:
President Donald Trump asked his national
security adviser to resign after White House lawyers reviewed a warning from
the Justice Department that Michael Flynn had misled officials about his
conversations with a Russian envoy and could be vulnerable to blackmail.
Flynn, bad on many things, was reasonably
good on the issue of peaceful relations with Russia and on reforming the many
three letter covert agencies.
The White House counsel, Don McGahn,
“determined that there was not a legal issue but a trust issue,” Trump’s press
secretary, Sean Spicer, told reporters on Tuesday.
Whatever the truth and however this is spun
by the White House, it is blood in the water for the sharks circling Trump.
The Saker says it better than I could
(emphasis in original):
THIS IS ABOUT POWER. As in,
who is boss? Who is number one? Who is the alpha dog? The
President or the ‘deep state’? That is what this is all about – showing
everybody who is in charge.
FLYNN’S DOWNFALL IS A MESSAGE.
A message to all those who hate Trump and what Trump represents. And that
message is simple: we are back in control and the party is on!
It does not matter what the reasons were behind
Flynn’s departure; all that matters is how the opposition views this event –
and how it will embolden the opposition. For example, ask Dan Rather
(from Zero Hedge):
This Russia scandal is…cascading in
intensity seemingly by the hour. And we may look back and see, in the end, that
it is at least as big as Watergate. It may become the measure by which all
future scandals are judged.
We need an independent investigation. Damn
the lies, full throttle forward on the truth.
So…where are we headed?
There is blood in the water. Trump
has turned over a key staff member in record time. It may be too late to
do anything to repair the damage, let alone take the offensive (as I have
suggested before; making a long story short, with Trump
coming clean on JFK as a start).
Those opposed to Trump (in congress pretty
much all democrats and probably most republicans; large swaths of the deep
state; the mainstream media; academicians; actors and musicians; rioters like
those at Berkeley – in other words, most anyone with power or supporting Power)
will not stop until either a) Trump is out, or b) Trump cuts them off at the
knees.
I won’t pretend to understand the possible
steps through this minefield as well as I assume Trump does. He has done
plenty of swimming with sharks; maybe not this many sharks and not all this
deadly all at the same time, but he has experience in this game.
My one thought: playing mean may not win,
but playing nice is certain to lose. Change the rules of the game and put
them on the defensive – this is the most likely path to victory.
The phenomenon that is Trump is the first
opportunity since the maturity of the deep state to call into question the deep
state. There is and will be nothing peaceful about this.
So what happens to the rest of us while
this drama plays itself out?
I don’t know.
If Trump is forced out of office using such
means (or even if the pestering never ends), will his supporters stand still
and take it? If riots such as at Berkeley continue and expand, will the
shotguns (whether held by law enforcement or civilian) stay in the closet?
Whatever happens (and much of it will be
very bad), there are two absolute goods that will come from all of this:
First, the battle lines are becoming ever
clearer. The deep state is exposing itself as never before; the media has
already been fully exposed as the deep state’s Pravda; most democrats
and republicans are on the same team – and opposed to humanity.
Second, the international standing of the
US government is becoming ever weaker. It is one thing to be political
during an election; what happened before this election it was laughable
– in our era, new lows were set in so many ways. Globally, the standing
of US politics took as big a hit as imaginable…
…or so most people thought. Most
people believed that come election night, the drama would be over. Hahahahahahaha;
the joke is on them.
This is about as
third-world-banana-republic as it gets.
