“Look at
how old you’ve become…”
–Kylo Ren
Today is Star Wars Day, right? May the 4th and all that. Maybe
I’m a little old to be celebrating a movie, but whatever.
As I reviewed the events of the past week it reminded me that
Star Wars, at its core, is about the pivotal moments in history and the
changing from one political order to another.
Be it the fall of the Old Republic in the prequel films to the
end of the Empire and Palpatine’s rule in the Original Trilogy. We even open
The Force Awakens with Kylo Ren wiping out the last group of people who still
revere the Jedi to begin his quest to consolidate power amidst the chaos.
Star Wars has always functioned as a mirror to our current
political drama. Films emerge every generation to reflect where we’re headed as
a society. Maybe that’s why the new films aren’t as well loved by a part of the
fan base, they are telling us things we don’t want to hear.
So maybe it is fitting that this week’s events were all so
indicative of what is happening in our world today.
The post WWII institutional order and political elite are old.
And the old institutional order is failing.
The outdated and old enmities between the U.S. and Russia led to
a series of disastrous decisions by men and women who are obsessed with
overcoming their thwarted expectations of enhanced power and prestige.
There was Operation Bay of Fat Pigs, coup-attempt which unfolded
in real time in Caracas on Tuesday. John Bolton was “snookered” (H/T to Moon of Alabama for excellent reporting on this)
by Venezuelan officials into thinking they had the military and supreme court
on their side.
When Juan “Random Fall Guy” Guaido made his move and no one else
did, the U.S. was caught televising live their own ineptitude. And then
laughably tried to blame the Russians for it.
While it is clear that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had
outwitted him, Bolton apparently continues to rail on U.S. Southern Command
leadership and President Trump to invade.
Why?
Because John Bolton is old, inflexible and well past his use-by
date for coherent foreign policy decisions.
Lindsay Graham wandered in out of the bathhouse to wonder where
our aircraft carriers were and why weren’t they sending a clear message to
those pesky Russians?
And everyone else around the world is wondering what the hell
are people in D.C. smoking?
If that wasn’t enough for you, how about the ridiculous
spectacle of Democratic senators venting their desperation and vitriol at
Attorney General William Barr for raining on their impeachment parade.
From Cory “Spartacus” Booker to Maisie “Respect Me, Dammit!”
Hirono all we saw from them was desperation and histrionics at also being outwitted
by both Donald Trump and his legal team.
Mueller, his staff of hatchetmen, the Obama administration and
the rest of the corrupt old-guard in D.C. fully expected to be allowed free
rein to convict Trump politically of Obstruction of Justice based on an
interpretation of Federal Statutes that could only be justified in the world of
Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report.
When that didn’t happen they are now looking at potential
blowback from a vain and vindictive man occupying the supposedly most powerful
office in the world.
But is that really the case anymore? It seems John Bolton has
been more president than Trump recently.
The Federal Reserve revealed they have no answers to the rapidly
brewing dollar liquidity problem they created and can’t extricate themselves
from. Dropping Interest on Excess Reserves was pure window dressing on a
problem far deeper than they can publicly admit to.
Crossing the pond we have the insistence of Theresa “Baghdad
Bob” May that she’s still working towards a real Brexit after the complete
wipeout of her Tory party in local council elections across the whole of
England.
Then there’s the latest scandal with May firing adolescent
Defense Minister Gavin Williamson for leaking her cabinet’s corrupt
relationship with Chinese mobile technology leader Huawei.
If May’s goal is to destroy the British government in
preparation for selling the country lock, stock and two smoking barrels to the
European Union, then she may be the only truly competent politician left in the
West.
They all just look so old and like a bunch of sorry has-beens
getting together for a Love Boat 30th anniversary special instead of serious
people with serious policy solutions.
The DNC is in the midst of a coup attempt of its own by Cenk
Uygur and the Justice Democrats. Their only choice is to rally around Pedo Joe
Biden who is fully implicated in the RussiaGate mess with his deep ties to
Ukraine where so many of the lies about Trump originated.
Biden is 78. Bernie Sanders is is about to be.
The European Union is staring at the worst kind of blowback to
its brutal strategy to deny Brexit. The latest polling has Nigel Farage’s
Brexit party pulling from all parts of the British electorate to become the
dominant party heading into the polls in three weeks.
If this keeps up he’ll completely change the face of British
politics and all of this EU inevitability will dissipate like a fart in a
hurricane of populist anger.
Lastly, don’t think that Trump will not put as much pressure as
he can on these people. Barr has already begun the process going after Nellie
Ohr. There is a possibility we’ll see Trump actually get a few scalps here.
And that may include telling Sheldon Adelson to get stuffed and
begin reversing course on the insane levels of aggression emanating from the
White House.
There comes a point when you look around and realize something
isn’t working. None of the people I’ve talked about here can or will admit that
they’ve failed. They are politicians, they can’t show weakness.
Trump has the opportunity here to use all of this to his
egregious advantage. While the Democrats lose their collective minds Trump took
a long phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and immediately made it
public.
Embarrassing him and the U.S. the way John Bolton and Mike
Pompeo did this week with Operation Bay of Fat Pigs will not sit well with
Trump. He’s been asked to sell a policy it doesn’t look like he believes in.
Trump is in re-election mode now. And Venezuelan regime change
is not a winning strategy, neither is letting RussiaGate go. The key for him
now is to undo a lot of the damage that’s been done by his staff, disloyal
cabinet members and recalcitrant bureaucracy who are all wedded deeply to the
old way things are done.
Those old ways aren’t working anymore. And if any of these
people want to remain in power and pass it along to the next generation they
better start acting like the humanitarians they purport to be. That means
giving the people what they want — Hillary Clinton’s head on a pike, Brexit,
and an end to the creeping technocratic totalitarianism outsourced to Google,
Facebook, Twitter and Apple to get around the Constitution.
Houses divided into as many factions as we see all across the
west will not stand. They not only invite the crises on our horizon they
accelerate them.
