Simultaneously, our vice-president, occupying a position not "worth a bucket of piss" in normal times, finds himself as the only administration official who can't be fired. Pence is starting to show open defiance, clearly confident that, to paraphrase Ruby and the Romantics, his day will come. Check his Twitter feed from today and yesterday for full-throated anti-Trumpian support of Nato and Europe (plus a rather pointed linkage between "Holocaust" and "Jews") and bellicose anti-Putinism, with the coup de coup de grace of this hilariously weak-tea lip service to POTUS:
Somewhere in the distance, a fat lady sings.
And after I've spent weeks following the Twitter feeds of journalists and former intelligence officers who've clearly been onto something re: Russia, the stuff they've been saying all along has finally become the mainstream narrative (for the most cutting edge mainstream update on Trumputin, see this jaw-dropping Reuter's piece.
Most telling, perhaps, is Fox News' incipient pivot. First Fox News anchor Shepard Smith went tremblingly batshit re: Trump on Thursday:
....and now the most persuasive account of Congress' get-religion moment in the aftermath of Comey's Congressional briefing Friday (see link in first paragraph, above) was also a Fox News product. When Fox News pivots, look out (obviously, Hannity will stay faithful even through the final days in the Führerbunker).
Russia completely aside, the administration is leaking like a sieve, the rats are starting to chew each other, and this is clearly unsustainable. But let's not put Russia aside!
It seems to have been conceded that Flynn lied to FBI investigators, and that's a felony. The FBI can get mileage from an informed party facing such overhang. Multiple layers of unraveling are taking place, and The Guardian's Louise Mensch has explained why there's reason to think Comey is truly on it - well-informed about even the deepest connections and allegations. So, again, the tide may be turning, and it may happen faster than we'd imagined.
Meanwhile, liberal pundits continue to fully reciprocate the administration's stupidity level. After a month of praying for Republican lawmakers to put nation over politics and to take action against a clear threat to our peace and democracy, they're beginning to smell the endgame, and they don't like it one bit.
While Trump (a man who praises torture, deems nukes tactical, wants to abolish NATO and give Putin free reign to stomp on Eastern Europe, and who is not only controlled by one of the world's most diabolical figures, but has appointed Putin-connected people to many cabinet positions - all the important ones - including a linchpin figure on his national security apparatus) might be a deranged authoritarian monster wannabe, the thinking goes all over liberal media, Pence (being strongly anti-abortion and likely to stock the Supreme Court with people who'd approve policy they'd mostly disagree with) is worse.
Lord, take me now.
Nation over politics, huh?
1 comment:
The partisan thinking is so entrenched that at least one reader assumes I'm AGREEING that Pence would be worse than Trump. "Ugh, the Supreme Court; right!"
Here's what I wrote back:
So you equate four years of policy you happen to dislike as equal with the prospect of four years under an autocratic madman controled by Putin?
I look FORWARD to returning to routine political conflict, having moved beyond the spectar of thermonuclear war and devastation of American democracy.
The Supreme Court was liberal for decades. Too liberal, in fact, for most moderates. Conservatives gritted their teeth and lived their lives, nonetheless enjoying their citizenship, with all its privileges and advantages. If the Supreme Court goes the other way for decades, liberals can bloody well do the same.
Democracy is not about always getting your most favorite-est result. It's about sharing the reigns of power with people with whom you disagree. A nation where one faction always gets its way (even the self-certain superior, smarter, better, juster way) is not a democracy. It's tyranny. So those who accuse Trump's base of hankering for autocracy should recognize and examine that very same impulse in themselves.
But my point is this: if (and that's a big "if") we get out of this horrifying jam and return to being a country that can happily embroil itself with the standard political beefs, I for one will kiss the ground.
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