OK we all had a laugh over Kash Patel’s “bestiality’ grilling by Sen. John Kennedy. Alas, no one in media or politics drew two blatant conclusions. First Kennedy has joined a few other Republicans (very few) in trying (tepidly) to open some daylight between himself and the Trumpian-fecal calamity.
But especially that Patel might have an actual reason to forestall any firing or dismissal of FBI officials for having sex-with-animals.
Bear with me on that!* Both of those conclusions tie directly to a word I’ve repeated – ad nauseam – for years. A word that’s THE fundamental trait of today’s GOP.
In his first administration (45), Trump appointed largely from fringes of the GOP elite establishment. Folks like Barr & Tillerson whose dedication to Don and corrupt oligarchy was real, but not boundless. The ‘grownups’ in that first-term cabinet still had limits to what they could stomach. And so, one by one, nearly all of them finally turned on Trump, publicly calling him idiotic and insane.
That should have ended this nightmare! It didn’t, because we are in a full phase of the U.S. civil war, a recurring fever when confederate culture overlooks all facts and can rationalize anything.
But put that aside…
…because when Trump regained office, he made one vow. “This time no grownups!”
And there are none. No appointees who might question his bizarre impulses or constitutional betrayals. Above all, none who could walk away, while publicly disavowing or denouncing him. The one criterion for a cabinet or other appointment in Trump v.2 (47) is loyalty.
(The other trait of every Trump appointee – jibbering idiocy on a par with his own – is an epiphenomenon of that loyalty. They go together.)
So far, I’ve said nothing new. Others comment that one-way loyalty (he never reciprocates) is his sole demand. What no one out there appears to grasp is that this kind of loyalty cannot derive only from dogma or ego. Nor from mere corruption. All of those are SATIABLE! Sooner or later, the henchman - like Tillerson or Barr etc. - can say ‘enough!’
Trump realized there must also be palpable, fear-inducing coercion. Duress is backed by something that he lacked in the first term… a sense that every appointee must fear their master's vengeance and his wrath.
== CAN YOU list methods of coercion? ==
In the restored USSR of Vladimir Putin, this is easy to accomplish, by setting a few examples. Monthly, another of Putin's fellow “ex” commissars - or some failed general - tumbles from a window or takes polonium tea. That won’t work in the USA… yet. (Sure, there's Epstein and a couple of other strange ‘suicides’ or accidents or the 'silenced' Pennsylvania shooter. But it’s not a principal method over here. Not yet.)
For years I’ve asked folks to envision what kind of coercion would enable Trump to ensure absolute loyalty from appointees. Loyalty we’ve seen to be utterly pervasive across the cabinet, the Congressional GOP and rightwing media. Other than threats of violence and death, there’s just one method left. One that Russian security services have been expert-at for 150 years! Using honeypot lures to entrap westerners (generally males) into complete control. The word is Blackmail.
I’m no longer alone pointing this out. For some months, a few others have used this word to describe one way today’s GOP could be herded into lockstep obedience, as the most tightly disciplined political movement in U.S. history. (I invite anyone to say – in comments – who else in media is talking about this.) Recall that THREE former GOP members of Congress have described or alluded to republican “orgies” in D.C? Full Eyes Wide Shut perversion-fests from which no participant could leave without getting unexpected and unwelcome souvenir photos. Images that will go to spouses or media, if they don’t toe the line, forever after.
Yes, a very few Republicans are edging away from Foxite control. Some are female (e.g. MTG). Others may be too old to have orgied (John Kennedy?), or are retiring from public life (Massie). Or else – like Mike Johnson – they are so driven by dogmatic hate that no coercion is needed. Then there may be just a few who have a smidgeon of residual decency and patriotism - enough to defy the blackmailers’ orders, as I depicted here, in the opening of a novel about all this.
(If you suspect a friend is being blackmailed, have them read that scene!)
Nevertheless, a few blurry pics from a dimly lit orgy aren’t enough kompromat for Trump's needs. Especially since it’s trivially easy and far less expensive for him to secure even better kompromat, perfectly, from every appointee.
And now I must ask you to STOP SHRUGGING OFF WHAT’S OBVIOUS!
Yes, there is a way that Don – a former casino owner mob boss – could have done this with trivial ease. And yes, it will circle back to Kash Patel.
== How can this NOT be what he says? ==
“You want an appointment to my cabinet? Or to run a federal agency? A position that a third-rater like you would never otherwise qualify for, in a million years? Fine. Give me leverage over you, so I know you’ll never betray me. And that you’ll do anything I ask!”
Can you see it yet? Envision a casita in a far corner of Mar-a-Lago… or maybe a rented warehouse in Palm Beach… that’s equipped with high def cameras run by a couple of loyal henchmen. And waiting there, in front of the cameras, is… a donkey.
Oh! You’re groaning now? Disgusted? Then let me ask, which part of this is unlikely? How is this not THE logical solution to Donald Trump’s problem? Exactly the coercion that quickly and cheaply meets his needs?
No person of top qualifications would comply, of course… which is why no top qualified person exists in his cabinet. Just dopes who saw one chance in all of their pathetic lives to become somebody of power and significance. And all it takes is one hour in a closed room, providing kompromat that gives your beloved boss an absolute guarantee of loyalty. Just a few high-def photos of you performing an act of…
STOP it!
Stop shrugging this off as an author’s notion for a thriller plot, or a farfetched bit of perverted imagination.
Try to actually wear your enemy’s shoes for a bit!
Picture Donald Trump’s desperate need, after re-election – and how this trivially, at almost zero cost, solves his problem. Gobs of motive, means and opportunity.
And so, we return to Kash Patel’s seemingly weird attempt to eliminate bestiality as automatic cause for dismissal from the FBI. And now, will YOU offer up a refutation, of any kind? Tell us now (in comments) whether you have even a glimmer of another explanation for it?
No. This 'bestiality-thing' was no trivial/amusing quirk.
It was a pragmatic move of actual importance, aimed at preserving leverage.
Especially in case a Democratic Congress starts holding hearings, offering immunity and shining light on hidden mass perversions that are entirely consistent with the obedient, disciplined, unsapient, undead thing the Republican Party has become.
Go ahead. Snort and dismiss, as step-by-step these predictions all come true.
But I promise - these notions are being considered by those minds who ponder cause and effect in newly-logical ways and who do not shrug everything off, as you do.
They have no shoulders to shrug. Those AIlien Minds.
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PS *Did I say “Bear with me” re this topic? ;-) argh.
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PPS... per presidential orders, let's change the title of my book!
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