Where Are We Headed? (Part II)

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 11^th.  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.