Booman wrote a fine, well-reasoned post today, Team Trump at the Turn of the Year. It is a mainstream, centrist Dem look at the state of the disunion as of mid-February, 20017.
Here is my own non-partisan/anti-partisan view of the matter.
“Team Trump” is composed of minor leaguers.
They are now totally out of their depth.
Read on.
Long story short?
Sure.
The election isn’t over.
The Deep State forces that supported Clinton are pursuing victory by any means necessary.
They are using the already totally discredited NY Times, WAPO (See the runup to the Iraq War for all you need to know on those accounts.) and whatever other media they control to…if not take Trump down…at the very least block him on every possible level.
Is this a good thing?
Maybe.
Good, bad or simply politics as usual, they are doing a fine job of it so far. Trump now is totally out of his element. His closest advisers…Bannon, Miller, Kushner etc…are rank amateurs on this level of DC power politics and his whole crew (save for perhaps Gen. Mattis, who is notably absent from this story so far) has suddenly found itself stranded up Shit’s Creek without a paddle or even a canoe. Trump cannot order the intelligence systems to cease and desist because…because they are totally hostile entities who are involved in a political war with his administration as the major enemy. Duh!!! He could fire everybody within reach and it would do no good whatsoever, because changing the bosses would be like trying to put a new coat of whitewash on an almost totally hostile army of serious, longterm pros.
He is totally stymied, looks like to me.
Soon other shoes will begin to drop.
Leaked accusations of collusion regarding others in his circle, creeping ever closer to The Boss.
Watch.
A classic intelligence op on the Watergate scale is in progress.
Watch.
As I asked before…is this a good thing?
If you think Trump means to bring the country to its knees before almighty Russia?
Yes, it is.
If you think that the country has already been brought to its knees by the globalist, corporatist Deep State…not so much.
We shall see how the cards fall, soon enough.
If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Trump’s enemies, right now.
The amateur Dems fucked up royally during the election, but the pros mean business now.
They are once again in control, and Amateur Hour is over.
Trump doesn’t really know what’s hit him yet, but he’s gonna find out.
Soon.
Watch.
Watch.
AG
P.S. However…Trump will continue to fight. He’s only got one speed. That’s what the pros are counting on. They are going to curveball him right out of office.
Watch.
P.P.S. I had a vision yesterday. Trump gets on his plane in DC…ostensibly to go to Mar-a-Lago…but the plane turns north and Great Circles like a bat out of hell, straight for Moscow.
Would U.S. forces shoot him down or be glad to get rid of him?
Hmmmmm…
Update [2017-2-17 9:26:49 by Arthur Gilroy]: Thanks to Oui, who posted the following Democracy Now interview with Glenn Greenwald on another post of mine. Greenwald raises some interesting points, one of which involves the presidential power to declare those spooky so-called “transcripts” of Russian conversations with Trumpish figures no longer classified. This puts Trump in a very difficult position. If he does this, he is essentially “leaking” classified information much as did Julian Assange and Edward Snowden…people that he has demonized repeatedly. If he doesn’t, the drip drip drip of a thousand anonymous leaks will eventually topple…or at the very least totally cripple…his presidency.
Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. He’s been playing checkers; his enemies are playing chess. And they are grandmasters at the game.
Checkmate.
I think an “equipment failure” on Air Force One is more likely. Or would they pull out the Lone Gunman again? Maybe a Muslim or atheist so President Pence can have his Crusade on America.
Regardless of whether or not they did the deed in ’63, too many believe they did for them to get away with one now. There’s currently also a confounding variable — support for Trump within the enlisted ranks is very high and there’s enough support in the officer ranks to give anyone pause. An IC “coup” could too easily lead to an actual coup or “counter-coup.”
It looks like a real battle, although I still think the prez’s power to purge is pretty potent. There’s no doubt, however, that Team Trump is run by rank amateurs and third raters. Apparently the Russians are comparing the action so far as akin to Stalin’s Great Terror of 1937, which really makes no sense. Who’s supposed to be Stalin? Also, don’t forget that Comey’s FBI is not opposed to Trumper or concerned about his Russian connection, as the election demonstrated.
What the IC forces have essentially shown (so far) is that Trumper/Bannon instructed Flynn to call and allay any Russian concerns about the last round of Obama sanctions, before Trumper was prez. So he undercut the last weeks of a sitting prez, and demonstrated aid, comfort and sympathy to the Russian efforts to help get him elected. I suppose it shows a quid pro quo in some sense.
Worst case scenario would be leaked evidence that the Trump campaign were informed of (or even colluded in) the Russian scheme to use the hacked DNC emails in a planned strategic fashion to aid Trumper’s campaign.
If the tortured Congressional mechanisms are indeed employed to get this truth to be revealed over the course of many months (an open question), it will not be enough for the Repub House even to think about impeachment, so that will be the end of that story. Nothing would ever be enough for the Repub House to impeach a Repub prez. How damaged Der Trumper will be from having this all “proved”—and large segments of the failed electorate will never believe anything—is another open question.
In some sense, the “conservative” movement and its Repubs don’t care about public opinion since they have rigged the election game quite well, and now’s the time if they are to pass their wish list. The more damaged Trumper is by the ongoing scandal, the more he will need to show “results”–i.e. the signing of all put in front of him.
I suppose the natural turmoil of having an ongoing Congressional investigation into the possible treason of the prez could generate more anxiety—the process could be damaging in and of itself. It would be a dynamic process, not static.
Ultimately the Christianist Pence as the Repub backstop means that there is no acceptable path for the future.
Or maybe Comey was just doing his job the best way he knew how. Clinton supporters can’t have it both ways that Comey was honorable in July and dishonorable in October.
If Flynn was acting on Trump/Bannon’s orders, it’s still only evidence that the incoming administration sought to tamp down the end of Obama’s term escalation of conflict with Russia. Escalated conflict that may not have been warranted and was merely another display of Obama’s pique.
This is one time where I’m going to say that if such evidence existed either before the election or inauguration, we would have seen it and any of those involved would have quickly been indicted.
Have we forgotten so soon about all the displays of hostility towards Putin/Russia from Clinton, Obama, and his administration over the past eight years? Also the Clinton campaign effort to trash Sanders as friendly towards Russia, Cuba, and the Sandinistas? The “deep state” Cold War warriors never went away; they just had to occupy themselves with non-state enemies and chump change enemies like Saddam, Gaddafi, and Assad until all those missions turned to crap and further big ticket equipment purchases and deployments weren’t going to go down as easily as they had in the past fifteen years.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer person … [ 😉 ]
○ Former Trump adviser Roger Stone calls for investigation of alleged Russia links | The Guardian |
Well for sure, Mike Flynn doesn’t read posts @BooMan …a forewarning two days before talking to Russian ambassador:
○ Fake News About Flynn and KGB Spy Case