Dinosaurs and delusions

- Back to the political maelstrom. What a year. Almost 10% as exhausting as 1968. (Gosh, exactly half a century ago. See the special way it ended.) Just remember, we survived that awful year, and got stronger /better. We can do it again.

Let's start with...

== Matters of Mattis ==

I'll not go into huge details about the Mattis resignation. Some liberals are conceding that ending one of our wars - in Syria - might be a good thing. (And the dems need asap to withdraw House consent to the ceding of war powers.) 

But the pundits ignore what those 2000 US troops have been doing. While conducting low-cost reduction missions on ISIS, they were primarily protecting the Kurdish majority of NE Syria... the only Muslim people on Earth who love us. (They won't, after we betray them, the way GHW Bush betrayed the Marsh Arabs in 1993.)

Now Erdogan is free to crush them, cementing his alliance with Trump's controller, V. Putin, who gets an arc from Moscow and Crimea through Ankara, Lataika, Damascus, through Iraq to Iran and Hormuz. A new, much-better Warsaw Pact. Know what you are looking at.

== My warning stands... ==

And yes, in order to fully anchor-in Iran as a Russian protectorate, Putin needs a brief US-Iran "war." Which Trump and the Saudis - and Netanyahu and the Iranian mullahs - all want desperately as distraction from domestic troubles. 

Mattis could have stayed to help block it. Now Trump will have a compliant SecDef and JCS chief, while a valuable and vulnerable tripwire -- a whole US carrier strike group -- has been ordered to steam - completely unnecessarily - into a narrow deathtrap in the straits of Hormuz.

God bless and save and protect the skilled and dedicated men and women of the US Navy.

== Know your pachyderms! ==

Those who are mourning the demise of the Weekly Standard -- a “courageously” anti-Trump version of Republicanism -- seem to forget its roots. But some folks do remember that the editor/publisher, Always-Wrong Bill Kristol, was one of the neoconservatives - or neocons - who helped raise up Dennis “friend to boys” Hastert to lead the GOP and end the practice of adult-negotiated politics in America. They helped concocted the so-called Tea Party, re-igniting the American Civil War.

These fellows gave us G.W. Bush and contrived “WMD” rationalizations for the 2nd Iraq War, destabilizing the world in order to give billions in “emergency” contracts to Cheney-Bush companies. 

Yes, their polysyllabic incantations gave conservatism a faux-intellectual sheen that Trumpists have dropped in favor of cave-grunts. But both were pungent festivals of lies, in service to oligarchy.

It did them little good. By 2005 the same feudal lords who now prop up Trumpism dropped the neocons like a frat king dumping his “nerd friend” after copying the big test. Weekly Standard was a consolation prize to keep the followers of Leo Strauss from realizing the magnitude of that betrayal, but aristos no longer think it worth subsidizing. The rising world mafia feudalism that’s waging war on all fact-professions never trusted its pet intelligencia-parrots and would rather they stop squawking. Just go away now.

Read especially the final paragraphs of this piece, as Kristol’s fellow neocon monster John Podhoretz whines and rationalizes the demise of his species. See these dying dinosaurs writhe in a death-throes spat with a toxic-evil undead zombie-confederate elephant, Steve King, jealous that at least he remains relevant in the "crazy years" America they helped create.

== The foremost human trait: obstinate delusion ==

Each of us was raised on a sanctimonious mythology: 

   “I'm one of the few who see clearly what’s going on, surrounded by sheep who are blindly following the hidden masters.” 

Admit it. That's exactly what you believe, isn’t it? 

Indeed, your own particular narrative may be partly right! There are times when our Suspicion of Authority (SoA) reflex is on target, especially if supported by strong evidence.

And yet, any truly smart person has assigned a brain corner to notice when such a narrative seems too good, too pat, too smugly satisfying to be completely true. 

Here’s an example from the left. Listen to George Carlin railing that the big corporations already own us and we are all sheep-slaves… (except for delighted audience members clapping and paying to see him; you're no sheep!) In fact, everything Carlin says is true, to an extent! He describes the exact failure mode that crushed 99% of our ancestors in 6000 years of feudalism that spanned every continent except Australia. 

But by turning it into an “I’m mad as hell!” exaggeration-gloom rant, Carlin ignores the fact that he and the audience are free to denounce, a freedom that can only be augmented if it is admitted. Rather, he becomes a drug pusher for the modern addiction-high, accomplishing nothing for us at all.

== Even worse on the other side ==

If Carlin exaggerates to a degree that’s more harmful than not, then the lines pushed by today’s mad-right – using identical methods and pressing similar emotional buttons -- are mostly just lies. Take an example:

The right's narrative now is that "flipping" a perp -- by promising a lesser sentence to a crook you can easily get a jury to convict  -- is suddenly a vile trick. When did that happen? 

Oh, right. In fact, the practice always merits scrutiny, and juries have rightfully nullified cases that depend only on flipped testimony. Folks who were convicted solely by jailhouse snitches are being sprung today. But none of that applies here, where mountains of corroboration also pile skyward. When Donald Trump denounces a "rat" it is straight out of mafia lingo. And if Michael Flynn thinks he was entrapped, he is welcome to make that case before a jury of 12 decent fellow citizens. What, Mike? Go ahead and make your case.

What's the underlying beef? The real rage here is that the right never got "flips" against the Clintons or Obamas! 

Hm, why not? After 25 years of relentless grillings, investigations and hearings costing us half a Billion dollars? (That's with a "B.") With Koch/Fox and other huge whistle blower rewards on offer, plus fame and fortune to entice any rats, squealers or woke henchmen? What, no one stepped up with a smoking gun? Nobody in the vast periphery around the Clintons etc. could be coerced or bribed or even coaxed to do their patriotic duty? Wow, such loyalty.

Of course the truth is that the Carter, Clinton and Obama administrations were virtually blemish free, with almost nada, zip, zero indictable offenses and absolutely none for malfeasance of office. (Seriously: "email procedures'? What you got is (horror) mistakes in EMAIL procedures?!? Identical procedures to those used by Colin Powell, George W. Bush, Mike Pence, Ivanka and Jared Kushner? Seriously? Aren't you embarrassed?)

Sane people would contrast that with the endless tsunami of Republican turpitude, including almost a dozen outright child-buggering sexual predators. A party now owned and operated by casino moguls. Combine that with the GOP's open war against every single fact-profession, and their devotion to Kremlin/KGB pals raised on Leninist dogma, and chumminess with murderous despots and mafia gangs... and might sane/decent Republicans conclude they are on the wrong side?

No, no. Can't have that. Keep invoking the Clintons! 
What, zero indictments or squealers? 
Well, then.... The Clintons... um... were "good at hiding the bodies! Yeah, that's the ticket! Real slick criminals, the best. Geniuses!" 

But, um then, so-skilled, so-competent compared to the Fox/GOP/Trump clown car? In that case, then, again... maybe you picked the wrong side?

(Added note: the attached illustration-clipping - already way obsolete re Trump -- describes the number of each administration's officials indicted/convicted. First, it ignores shame-resignations. Second, it is also way-soft on the Bushes etc. Ford and Clinton and Obama were rightly criticized for downgrading or pardoning some folks from the previous regime -- in the interests of "political peace and healing." Not that it ever did any good or was remotely appreciated. Hence, the score for Nixon, Bush and Bush would actually be far higher. )

And finally... 

A large fraction of the most-inciting things you see on Twitter, Facebook etc were designed by experts - many in the Kremlin - to get your juices flowing. And yes, even -- especially -- some of the memes you most agreed-with and most-eagerly retweeted or passed along. Ponder that a moment!

Sure, the Putin-led mafia/oligarchy favors the gone-insane American right.  This article explores how jubilant the Kremlin is, over all of this. “Trump is God’s gift that keeps on giving,” one analyst said. “Russia can just relax and watch and root for Trump, which Putin does at every TV appearance.” But their top goal is division and disfunction over here. A mighty empire torn apart from within.

(Twenty-five years ago I spoke at CIA, in the glow of the end of the Cold War, predicting that underdogs would innovate and learn lessons from 6000 years of history, when other empires were similarly vulnerable to overconfidence. I got smirks then. The same slides today get gasps.)

So you -- yes you -- need to be careful which memes you choose to spread. Yes, in phase 8 of the American Civil War, we need to be fierce. But not with rudeness or hate that either breaks our Big Tent coalition or drives Republicans back into the mafia's arms.

Have we been here before?  The "Zinoviev letter" was a fraudulent document published by the British Daily Mail newspaper four days before the general election in 1924. It purported to be a directive from Grigory Zinoviev, the head of the Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow, to the Communist Party of Great Britain, ordering it to engage in all sorts of seditious activities. It said the resumption of diplomatic relations (by a Labour government) would hasten the radicalisation of the British working class. This would have constituted a non-trivial interference in British politics, and as a result it was deeply offensive to British voters, turning them against the Labour Party. The letter seemed authentic at the time, but historians now agree it was a forgery. The letter aided the Conservative Party, by hastening the collapse of the Liberal Party vote that produced a Conservative landslide.

I said as much 25 years ago. This is standard technique. And we need to get a lot smarter.