The Coup is Proceeding Quite Well

“America when will we end the human war?/Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.” Allen Ginsberg

Of course the Democrats are dragging their feet on launching impeachment proceedings against Donald J. Trump. Although, as Ralph Nadar wrote recently, Trump is probably the most impeachable president in American history, the Democrats, as always, play it cautious, like an old woman with poor eyesight who is afraid to cross a busy street. Trump is a walking, talking, breathing, farting, belching epitome of a corrupt president, the sort of debased, deluded, and debauched man our white founding fathers worried about and why they wrote into the Constitution a method for his removal. But the spineless Dems can’t pull the trigger. No, they first have to disassemble their weapon, oil the barrel, check the magazine, reassemble, fire some practice rounds, collect the shell casings, hold an inquest.

Only Democrats in the House can defend the principle that no one is above the law. But don’t tell Nancy Pelosi, she won’t listen, too busy is she with electoral considerations. What, Pelosi asks her Magic 8 Ball, might an impeachment proceeding do to the Democrats chances of defeating Trump in 2020? If it means shutting out the left-leaning wing of the Party (the wing whose ideas might actually energize voters) and nominating a neoliberal relic like Joe Biden to carry their standard into the fray, the Democrats will do it, just as they did in 2016. Biden, like Hillary Clinton, is tone-deaf and out of touch, a man who should be ushered off the stage and carted far, far away, never to be seen or heard from again.   

I’m reading Truthteller by Stephen Davis, a journalist, producer, and investigative reporter who notes that when corporations and governments want to deep six the truth they inevitably dip into the same tool bag. If the message isn’t to their liking, they attack the messenger. If that doesn’t make the story go away, they delay, delay, delay until the public loses interest and chases after a newer shiny object. If the story somehow remains afloat, they hatch conspiracy theories, tapping any convenient bogeyman, from Vladimir Putin, to Iran, to the left-leaning media to eco-terrorists. And finally, they can always use their money and media power to create an alternate reality, one in which facts are irrelevant.

Make-believe reality includes Trump’s “booming economy,” which is far less his than it is Barack Obama’s. Yes, people at or near the top rung of the economic ladder are doing fine, as they have been for years, but the true measure of the economy is, or should be, two-fold: how are folks at or below the middle -- the people for whom healthcare, housing, education, and retirement are steep hills to scale -- doing, and how much is our current economic arrangement contributing to catastrophic climate change? 

Trump, and, to be frank, Wall Street friendly Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden, could give a rat’s ass about either working people or the climate, having jettisoned the former and dragged their heels on the latter for decades. To hear Trump crow, you’d think every American is rolling around on a bed of crisp $100 bills.  

Trump attacks people and institutions who refuse to bow to him, sues at the drop of a dime, urges high officials to refuse to cooperate with Congress, and spins conspiratorial tales. He claims a coup is being staged against him when the exact opposite is the case. Trump and his henchmen in the GOP are running a coup against our Constitution; Mitch McConnell and William Barr are Trump’s point men. At this moment, the coup is proceeding quite well.

What’s an average citizen to do? Write more letters to his or her congressperson and senators? As if that has any value. “I appreciate hearing your views on this important issue,” is the usual response, and then the electeds do whatever they want. Theoretically, we should be able to take feckless legislators out at the ballot box, but that game is rigged in most states and districts, and our choice is usually a lesser evil, someone odious, just not as odious as Donald J. Trump or Marco Rubio or Charles Schumer or Lindsey Graham or Steve King or Devin Nunes.  

Bibi's Puppet

“Actually, the ones who at all costs want to appear strongest are usually the weakest, and at times they look ridiculous or pathetic.” Piero Ferrucci

Against all professional advice and the pleadings of our European allies, the Orange Menace has done it, pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear agreement. Reneged. Bowed to his pals and our long time “allies”, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the prime minister of Israel, both of whom would love to see the US attack Iran. The neocon wet dream may be within reach, the dream that arouses Pompeo and Bolton in the middle of the night more than kiddie porn arouses a child molester.

What a state of affairs, this slow-motion train wreck that may very well end with the US waging war against yet another Middle Eastern country that hasn’t attacked or directly threatened us. What will the trigger be, some Tonkin Gulf type incident, a provocation by Israel (this began on cue in Syria shortly after Trump made his announcement), or simply the steady drumbeat of hysterical reporting in the New York Times, on CNN and from Netanyahu? Convincing the American public that Iran poses an imminent threat to our sacred way of life and that violence is the only solution is easy, and Congress isn’t likely to put up much resistance. American propaganda can turn any foreign leader into the equivalent of Hitler. One thing is certain: Trump has killed any chance of negotiating with Iran. Sanctions will punish the people of Iran -- not that Trump cares about them -- as well as European nations like Germany that trade with Iran. So dumb, so destructive, so hypocritical.

So Trump.

In the Middle East, a region we have never understood, our wagon is lashed to Saudi Arabia, country of origin for most of the 9/11 hijackers, a barbaric place where the state stages public beheadings, and an avid sponsor of a perverse strain of Islam; and Israel, the world’s great occupier, land thief, and perpetual victim.

On the domestic front, Trump continues to fulminate against the press any time an unfavorable report or story about him emerges. I think the corporate press has been cowardly in reporting about Trump, unwilling to confront his obvious inadequacies and lack of intelligence, but then, the Orange Menace is so outrageous that his every idiotic mutter is covered, drawing coveted eyeballs to screens for advertisers, and ad revenue is far more important than intrepid reporting. Anyway, most members of the credentialed press are parrots. But Trump is so mentally deranged that he deems any negative or unflattering report about him as fake news; the man honestly believes that he is accomplishing deeds greater than any previous president. Trump is impervious to truth, proud of his ignorance, blind to anything outside of himself, and ever desperate for attention and approval.  

The Pelosi-Schumer Democrats appear content to bide their time and hope that Trump either self-destructs or is brought down when Robert Mueller sorts out the money pipeline linking Russian oligarchs and the Trump Organization. The only thing I ever agreed with Steve Bannon about is that the entire Russia-Trump story is about money laundering. Corporate Democrats seem to believe they can sit back, offer nothing in the way of policies, and capitalize on Trump’s unpopularity with much of the electorate. No upsetting Wall Street donors or the military-surveillance complex, no abandonment of the neoliberal fictions of the Clinton/Obama eras. This is a recipe for continued failure. After 18 disastrous months of Trump, Democrats still cannot find their voice. It’s not enough to be against Trump -- a majority of Americans are against Trump. Democrats need to get off their lazy asses and offer the electorate -- not only their corporate donors -- something to be for. This will not happen.

Short Takes:

The Premier League season ends tomorrow. Manchester City are champions, deservedly so, and my Chelsea is most likely to finish fifth and miss out on the Champions League competition next year. Our manager, Antonio Conte, will pack his bags and leave Stamford Bridge, yet another manager who couldn’t get on with the club’s top officials. It has been a frustrating year for Blues fans.