Seventy years of Pax Americana and a rising enlightenment civilization, based on science and fact and at least somewhat-mature argument, were never easy to maintain. Another seventy and we'd likely stabilize into something truly amazing and grownup -- perhaps able to solve the Fermi Paradox, by heading out into the galaxy.
But behind us lie 6000 years of feudalism in which secretive cheaters and thugs and razzle-dazzle artists wrecked every glimmering renaissance. And before that, 200,000 years of caveman scratching in the dirt.
The feudalist oligarchs know this is their last chance to restore aristocratic-priestly rule. Spreading education and light will give us Star Trek, so they are acting hard, now, in an arc that stretches from Manilla and Siberia to Moscow (the center), Ankara, Tehran... and now our own captured White House.
"Donald Trump appears to have made a cynical calculation that he will not pay a high political price for being the most secretive president since Richard Nixon." -- reports The Washington Post.
What? You expected me - as "Mr. Transparency" - to disapprove? Fact is, he has done us a favor by making things so stark, turning this whole thing into a massive IQ test.
What? You expected me - as "Mr. Transparency" - to disapprove? Fact is, he has done us a favor by making things so stark, turning this whole thing into a massive IQ test.
You are among those being tested, my fellow citizens. If those in the Greatest Generation could pass their trials... we can pass ours.
= The Fukuyama Syndrome – clinging to a movement that’s gone mad =
Stanford University historian Frances Fukuyama - who famously wrote in The End of History and The Last Man that “history” as such would end in the early 21st Century, as liberal-market democracy took over around the world — was on NPR in early April. Not happy at all with Trump, or the state or things in general — he also flails about, eager to rationalize that none of this could possibly be his fault! As always, Fukuyama is very smart and has interesting things to say. And - again, as always — he turns out to be the same Bushite court intellectual, diverting attention away from the culprits who re-ignited a debilitating, almost-hot phase of the American Civil War.
As a faithful servant of the oligarchic caste, the last thing this history professor will ever glance at is the central, historical fact of 6000 years — that the great enemy of liberal democracy and enlightenment and flat-fair market competition has always been cabals of conniving and conspiring aristocratic cheaters, whether they be the king-cronies that real Tea Partiers rebelled against, in 1775, or the plantation lords of 1861, or czarist boyars, or the Marxist commissars who replaced them exactly a century ago (with a few superficial changes of nomenclature).
Fukuyama’s aristocratism reveals itself in paragraph after paragraph, as he attributes the victory of Donald Trump to ‘democracy.’ And thus, he accomplishes three insidious goals. First, while frowning in disapproval, he also validates that Trumpian triumph ‘as popular will,’ ignoring the fact that American voters have sanctioned Republican control of the Presidency and Congress with actual majorities only once out of the last seven elections, and decidedly not this one.
Second is the correlated fact that the GOP Lords have accomplished all this by cheating. Top to bottom, inside-out, via gerrymandering, weaponized fakery, voter suppression, rigged voting machines, dirty tricks, collusion with hostile foreign powers and their open war on all “fact” professions. Of course, this is bringing us steadily closer to the same suite of methods that were used by oligarchs across history — e.g. Roman elites contorting the will of supposedly sovereign citizens. Indeed, Prof. Fukayama’s patrons are replicating exactly the same mafia methods that maintain Putinist dominance in Russia… and their seizure of power in the USA.
But the richest sub-text offered by this subtly manipulative Machiavelli-to-New-Medicis comes via implication number three. By deriding the Trump putsch result as 'populism,’ Prof. Fukayama lays groundwork for the Big Narrative that will pour forth when Trumpism spectacularly fails. A narrative that populism — and hence popular will and hence democracy — cannot be trusted. This propaganda already pours from Moscow and Beijing — that there is no true democracy and mobs are dangerous. Those reactionary centers already cite Trumpism as proof! When in fact…
…all that these recent calamities demonstrate is that civil war is the great American failure mode. That it this 250-year, recurring fever is psychological and cultural, not based upon logic or self-interest. And that the Confederacy can be re-ignited out of one-third of America, the third that truly is a gullible mob.
Oh, Francis Fukayhama does allude to 'wealth & power’ in the following: “Quite honestly, you know, well before Donald Trump began saying this, it wasn't working well. You know, Congress couldn't pass budgets, it couldn't - you know, it was very deadlocked. Plus - which I think there's a general feeling that interest groups, people with a lot of wealth and power, have a disproportionate say in the way that our democracy works. And so all of these put together, the institutional shortcomings and the socio-economic impacts of globalization, I think, prepared the ground for a rise of a populist.”
Only notice how he thereby portrays Trump’s “populist” surge as resistance against that wealth and power, instead of frenetic subservience to oligarchic lordship, which has always been the confederate theme.
Stanford University historian Frances Fukuyama - who famously wrote in The End of History and The Last Man that “history” as such would end in the early 21st Century, as liberal-market democracy took over around the world — was on NPR in early April. Not happy at all with Trump, or the state or things in general — he also flails about, eager to rationalize that none of this could possibly be his fault! As always, Fukuyama is very smart and has interesting things to say. And - again, as always — he turns out to be the same Bushite court intellectual, diverting attention away from the culprits who re-ignited a debilitating, almost-hot phase of the American Civil War.As a faithful servant of the oligarchic caste, the last thing this history professor will ever glance at is the central, historical fact of 6000 years — that the great enemy of liberal democracy and enlightenment and flat-fair market competition has always been cabals of conniving and conspiring aristocratic cheaters, whether they be the king-cronies that real Tea Partiers rebelled against, in 1775, or the plantation lords of 1861, or czarist boyars, or the Marxist commissars who replaced them exactly a century ago (with a few superficial changes of nomenclature).
Fukuyama’s aristocratism reveals itself in paragraph after paragraph, as he attributes the victory of Donald Trump to ‘democracy.’ And thus, he accomplishes three insidious goals. First, while frowning in disapproval, he also validates that Trumpian triumph ‘as popular will,’ ignoring the fact that American voters have sanctioned Republican control of the Presidency and Congress with actual majorities only once out of the last seven elections, and decidedly not this one.
Second is the correlated fact that the GOP Lords have accomplished all this by cheating. Top to bottom, inside-out, via gerrymandering, weaponized fakery, voter suppression, rigged voting machines, dirty tricks, collusion with hostile foreign powers and their open war on all “fact” professions. Of course, this is bringing us steadily closer to the same suite of methods that were used by oligarchs across history — e.g. Roman elites contorting the will of supposedly sovereign citizens. Indeed, Prof. Fukayama’s patrons are replicating exactly the same mafia methods that maintain Putinist dominance in Russia… and their seizure of power in the USA.
But the richest sub-text offered by this subtly manipulative Machiavelli-to-New-Medicis comes via implication number three. By deriding the Trump putsch result as 'populism,’ Prof. Fukayama lays groundwork for the Big Narrative that will pour forth when Trumpism spectacularly fails. A narrative that populism — and hence popular will and hence democracy — cannot be trusted. This propaganda already pours from Moscow and Beijing — that there is no true democracy and mobs are dangerous. Those reactionary centers already cite Trumpism as proof! When in fact…
…all that these recent calamities demonstrate is that civil war is the great American failure mode. That it this 250-year, recurring fever is psychological and cultural, not based upon logic or self-interest. And that the Confederacy can be re-ignited out of one-third of America, the third that truly is a gullible mob.
Oh, Francis Fukayhama does allude to 'wealth & power’ in the following: “Quite honestly, you know, well before Donald Trump began saying this, it wasn't working well. You know, Congress couldn't pass budgets, it couldn't - you know, it was very deadlocked. Plus - which I think there's a general feeling that interest groups, people with a lot of wealth and power, have a disproportionate say in the way that our democracy works. And so all of these put together, the institutional shortcomings and the socio-economic impacts of globalization, I think, prepared the ground for a rise of a populist.”
Only notice how he thereby portrays Trump’s “populist” surge as resistance against that wealth and power, instead of frenetic subservience to oligarchic lordship, which has always been the confederate theme.
== Recurring Russia ==
From the Global Post: "Writing from Moscow, Fyodor Lukyanov warns that Russia and the United States are not only back to their old and “normal” ways of confrontation, but could also clash militarily in Syria if the U.S. intervenes further. He is cynical about the impetus of the missile strike on a Syrian air base that boosted Trump’s presidential stature. “Having encountered challenges in implementing his domestic political agenda,” Lukyanov writes, “Trump decided to use foreign policy as an instrument for improving the political atmosphere around his administration.” Lukyanov further cautions against any perception that U.S. actions will force Russian President Vladimir Putin to rein in Syria’s President Bashar Assad: “For Trump, an agreement can only be reached from a position of strength. But for Putin, there can be no agreement under pressure. ... If pressure keeps growing, Russia will respond in its own manner ― asymmetrically and sharply.”
Lukyanov is smart but nowhere near cynical enough. Think. Try to think about who benefits. Putin has had one victory and new asset that is more valuable than any other. He can see his Siberian Candidate President slipping away, as American immune systems - FBI investigations and leaks - threaten everything he's gained by controlling Donald Trump. He must preserve his queen and that is worth sacrificing a few very minor pawns at one end of a mostly-empty Syrian airbase.
Especially since this recent event let him also: (1) study our tomohawk missiles under controlled conditions, (2) cement further ties with the Iranian Mullahs, and (3) unleash some Assad gassings as the pretext to make Trump look tough and this save Trump while eliminating some of Assad's enemies.
Jeez, does it take a novelist to see what should be obvious? Always look at who gets the win-win-win.
== Sci fi prescience ==
“Identified by the Soviet spy chief as a man who “wishes to be in politics for business reasons.” The vain and superficial new president ‘Powell,’ says a Washington insider, “just came out of nowhere. He was one of six or seven possible runners. A complete outsider, then—boom, he was the Republican candidate,” with the added appeal of not being a professional politician.
"Meanwhile, Powell’s wife, who doesn’t like the political world and from whom he leads a separate life, remains in the family home with their young son instead of moving to Washington.” … “The new president, according to his campaign manager-cum-sleeper agent Andrew Dempsey, enjoys the trappings of office “like a kid in a toy shop” but is somewhat fuzzier on policy beyond promising “to slash taxes, cut unemployment, and achieve peace on earth.”
It's not quite the same level of stunning prescience that I credited earlier to Robert Heinlein, in his astonishing afterword to REVOLT IN 2100. But still, chilling and thought-provoking and something to buy for that uncle of yours.
== Political miscellany amid civil war ==
73% of deadly terrorist incidents since September 12, 2001 were committed by far right extremist groups.
The wrongly convicted man portrayed by Richard Dreyfuss in the stage play of "Exonerated" is now free, but Texas authorities haven't yet revised his record so he is still a murderer on paper. Dreyfuss asks that people raise a fuss.
The wrongly convicted man portrayed by Richard Dreyfuss in the stage play of "Exonerated" is now free, but Texas authorities haven't yet revised his record so he is still a murderer on paper. Dreyfuss asks that people raise a fuss.
Someone wrote in to tell me that my suggestion regarding the Electoral College would have improved the recent election results, but not crucially. “If All States Voted Like Maine and Nebraska: Trump 290 Clinton 248.”
Very interesting! Only note:
1- Trump's Electoral College tally does drop.
2- Distributing electors with two at-large per state retains the inherent gerrymandering of the Senate, wherein small-rural states get a huge advantage.
3- These results are especially pernicious because the rest of the electors are allocated to gerrymandered congressional districts, reflecting the rigging that already has made the U.S. House of Representatives a warped betrayal of the will of the people.
== Special counsels and investigators == And no, I have little to say about the Comey firing thing. Not right now. Except to point out that members of the intelligence communities will not be easily cowed. Post Watergate there was a law that allowed three federal judges to appoint an independent counsel. The law was then used to set SIX IC's to work, hounding Bill Clinton and five of his cabinet secretaries... with the result that... all they found was that Clinton lied about some third-base nookie in a hallway. That's it. Name one other time in American — or human — history, when an administration spanning 8 years had zero scandals or indictments concerning malfeasance in the performance of official duties. It has happened twice in American — or human — history. The administrations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Name another! After enduring 7 years of these trumped-up witch hunts, the Democrats fell for the real reason for it all, the trap. They went along with canceling the special counsel law. Which was the GOP's aim, all along. Now that law is history and it can only be done within the Justice Department, headed by Jeff False-Recusal Sessions. Well, well. The more you know. |
