Republicans like Mitch McConnell needs to step up and
restore Americans'…
An excellent --- and frightening --- assessment.
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" No, he's working from a blueprint already extant and well-utilized by leaders in several countries – and they don't need to be geniuses. The Kremlin invented it, just as it invented the worldwide Marxist uprising script during the Soviet era. Remember my article on how all Trump's campaign tactics had been tried in the Tbilisi, Georgia election of 2012 by the pro-Russia candidate? And tried successfully.
Several signposts indicate the lineaments of a crafted process. How do populists gradually take over? They exclude and arrest journalists – already happening. They create beholden oligarchs – see Vanity Fair's piece about Trump's coup over the Comptroller's office. They especially create favored media oligarchs – see Sinclair Broadcast Group's recent acquisitions. They create incessant noise and fog. And as we see they set the state against itself. Among other things.
In short, Trump is getting expert guidance. One can continue disbelieving one's eyes because the whole notion seems so preposterous. Until, it's a fait accompli. "
Hidden Clues In The Trump-Comey Drama: It's Worse Than You Think
Comey was meant to function as the perfect temp: mortally wounded from his late-campaign move against Hillary, and his even later exoneration of her, he hung on by a thread. The Trumpsters merely left him in place twisting in the wind to see which way he would twist. He'd be a fool to cross them. Politically friendless, isolated, a virtual pariah whichever side he took, he looked ideally suited for the role of staying on and toeing the line. Trump was his last refuge, so they thought. Apparently, Comey couldn't bring himself to swallow that calculus. He continued to push the KremlinGate probe.
Various reports claim that last week he asked for more resources from the Justice Department to do just that. If the reports are right, in so doing he revealed his true intentions, no doubt knowing that the gambit would bring a decisive response. In my experience, after years of reporting on populist regimes from Turkey to Russia to Eastern Europe, I'd say that Comey thereby delivered a stealthy ultimatum. That is to say, on thorny issues populist regimes like to create endless indecision masked by distraction and fog while they consolidate power. The Trumpsters expected Comey to temporize, keep making contradictory noises, pursue Hillary on this and Obama on that, while intermittently letting steam out of the Russia matter. They gave him some leads. Example: Jason Chaffetz's
allegations that Obama's people ordered wiretapping of Trump Tower. But Comey wouldn't play along. And finally he nudged them to act.
The Justice Department, for its part,
firmly denies that Comey made any demand asking them for extra help on Kremlingate. Stay focused on this specific point for a moment. It speaks volumes, for this is how bureaucracies start to eat each other with a populist at the helm inciting deliberate crossfires. Back in January, I wrote a column entitled “What The Trump Era Will Feel Like: Clues From Populist Regimes Around The World”. In it, I said the following:
Already the intelligence services and Mr. Trump have squared off. Think about what Trump will do. He will appoint new chiefs. They will fight with their rank and file. He will try to downsize and defund. There will be pushback.
I went on to say “there will be incessant all against all in America's institutions... Confusion and uncertainty creates a yearning for strongman rule.” And finally this: “no normalization happens under the corrective effect of institutions. Instead institutions themselves get eroded.” In this case, we have a letter dated May 9 from the Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe, asking that the very guy in charge of it be removed. And the by-now notorious letter from his Deputy AG, Rod Rosenstein, critiquing Comey. As state institutions grind away against each other what happens? The end goal: deadlock of due process while the strong leader takes the strategic heights of state power.
That's what Putin did, Erdogan, Chavez et al. In truth, one can't imagine Donald Trump having the deep Machiavellian patience to click all the pieces into place over time. So is it all just a paranoid fever-dream, our sense that Trump is pushing a hidden agenda? No, he's working from a blueprint already extant and well-utilized by leaders in several countries – and they don't need to be geniuses. The Kremlin invented it, just as it invented the worldwide Marxist uprising script during the Soviet era. Remember
my article on how all Trump's campaign tactics had been tried in the Tbilisi, Georgia election of 2012 by the pro-Russia candidate? And tried successfully.
Several signposts indicate the lineaments of a crafted process. How do populists gradually take over? They exclude and arrest journalists – already happening.
They create beholden oligarchs – see Vanity Fair's piece about
Trump's coup over the Comptroller's office. They especially create favored media oligarchs – see Sinclair Broadcast Group's
recent acquisitions. They create incessant noise and fog. And as we see they set the state against itself. Among other things.
In short, Trump is getting expert guidance. One can continue disbelieving one's eyes because the whole notion seems so preposterous. Until, it's a fait accompli. But surely, one might think, nothing like this can be happening to the indomitably democratic United States. This isn't Venezuela or Turkey, after all. True enough.
The audacious scenario may yet be foiled. The American system is likely too transparent and too sensitive to public oversight. But just because such a plot might be foiled doesn't mean it's not happening. Consider one indelible detail: Trump recieves Lavrov publicly at the height of the outcry, the two of them laughing, backslapping, making a lurid display of triumph. Classic Putinist Theater. Commit every outrage openly but distort the optics so the public just can't believe what it sees. Rub their noses in it but continue to obfuscate. Hence the 'little green men' of the Crimea invasion, the 'popular uprising' in Ukraine's Donbass, the 'accidental' shoot-down of civilian airliner MH-17, the thinly disguised cyber-assaults on Western elections. You're witnessing a particularly distinctive KGB psy-ops technique infused with that tell-tale element of sadism. Attack, then laugh in their faces. We're talking about a kind of psychological fingerprint, a style, emanating out of a specific center of power.
Still incredulous? We will soon know from whatever legal and political time-delay fuses Comey left behind. Word is leaking profusely that multiple indictment-requests from the FBI to the Justice Department will emerge soonest. It's very curious that Comey demanded fresh resources from Justice to pursue Kremlingate. He didn't have sufficient manpower? Or finances? Hard to believe. In fact, the request seems so odd that I fully believe he did indeed make the request. Because it tells a story. Comey likely wanted to lay a trail. He passed the buck to the Justice Department so that no one could accuse him of inaction, the kind of inaction that Trumpsters wanted. He had waited long enough. He had prepared the groundwork. Now he needed to make it clear where the obstacle lay: not with him but with the Attorney General's office. They, in turn, are now backtracking on their role in firing Comey, at least Rod Rosentein is. He denies pushing for Comey's resignation despite the evidence of his letter. He blames Trump. Trump takes credit. He's the strong leader amid the chaos he created.
All of which may indicate that the American system is healthy and transparent and working fine. Or that the plan to deadlock the gears is well under way.
