Jim Mattis resignation from his post as Secretary of Defense points directly to President Trump being the Manchurian Candidate.
Whether because of ego, stupidity or treasonous intent, Trump has damaged this country immeasurably during the last two years, especially on the international front., Since he stole the White House, every move he has made in foreign policy has reduced this nation’s position on the world stage. His concept of what makes trade policy and how to conduct defense policies would be considered laughable or grossly incompetent if they didn’t, alternatively, point to deliberate subversion.
It has always been hard for this writer to accept Trump’s actions for what they now seem to have always been, attacks on the American system. I have tried to understand Trump’s bizarre and damaging moves to be the result of ego, greed, dishonesty or just plain old- fashioned stupidity. But that’s too easy. That leaves too many questions unanswered, primarily the ones where greed, ego or stupidity do not fit the actions he has taken, the ones that point only to some nefarious association with Putin and the Russians.
But now so much of what Trump does points to various kinds of interaction with the Russians that one is no longer able to ignore it. Trump has been a Russophile going all the way back to his failures in Atlantic City and possibly before. But it was his decimation in the gambling business, along with his multiple bankruptcies and his reputation for stealing from his contractors that led to him being persona-non-grata in most banks with which he had been doing business. Only Deutsche Bank would even talk to him. So he expanded his search for cash to Russia where some farsighted oligarchs were the only financial people willing to engage him.
There is a great deal of intelligence available on the ensuing years and the relationships between Trump and various Russians, intelligence that is above my pay grade, but if it waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck it’s probably a duck and that’s exactly the way to proceed on this journey. At this point there are, so may connections between Trump and Russia that it is impossible to consider any scenario, in which his actions are not directed by Putin or his vassals or at the very least beneficial to them.
Take for example Trump’s latest idiotic move in which he is pulling all our troops out of Syria, even as he is leaning toward doing the same in Afghanistan. This is the blunder that led Mattis to throw up his hands and quit. It’s sometimes hard to understand what the hell we are doing n Afghanistan and there may not be much of a reason for the Russians to care that we are there. They had already learned the lesson long before we jumped into that bottomless pit. Of course the fact that we are sitting right on the Russian border, can’t make Putin very happy, but the fact that we’re achieving absolutely nothing, even as we are getting our kids killed, probably gives him a giggle or two.
It’s in Syria, however, that Russia has a significant stake. No one wants to stay in Syria but the US leaving, hands the whole country to Putin. Sure he will have to deal with Assad and Iran but he can do that and it will mean that he will have established an even stronger foothold in the Middle East.
It seems like the proximate cause of Trump’s decree to abandon Syria was a call he got from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, telling him that Turkey was about to move against the Kurds and that it would be a good idea for Trump to get our Troops out of the line of fire. Friendly warning? Bullshit! And Trump reacted to it like any coward would.
Who the hell is the President of Turkey to be telling us what to do? This is a nation that, despite continuously being surrounded by hostility, has not fought anyone since WWI. Turkey isn’t going to invade the Kurds. That would be disastrous for Turkey. What they will do is inveigle Russia and Iran to do it for them and what Trump has done is allow it. The Kurds helped us win in Iraq. They, practically on their own, beat ISIS brains out and without the needed weapons even as we were arming Turkey. The Kurds have always had our back and now that we have a chance to reciprocate, Trump the Russian puppet, is passing. Mattis understood this and it, among many other bungles, is why he is gone.
Did a call from Putin precede Erdogan’s? Or wa this just a reaction by Trump to all the bad news that had come out of various criminal investigative offices this week.
Mueller, the NYS District Attorney, the Southern District Federal investigators, everyone except possibly Lionel Hutz of the Simpsons is circling the rotting hulk that is Donald Trump; all threatening to rip apart the man or his family, reigning terror on everyone in the Trump administration.
These people signed up because they saw Trump as a vehicle to fame and riches. Now they are all scrambling to find a lawyer they can afford.
Trump associates tell us that he is cowering in the White House and when that happens to Donald Trump he reacts by causing chaos someplace else to deflect from the cause of his fear. Is the troop withdrawal from Syria just another Trump feint? Will he announce tomorrow that he has changed his mind or is this really another move to gather favor with his masters in Russia?
I know, I sound like a crazed conspiracy theorist but what’s your explanation? Why has Trump refused to admit the established fact that the Russians interfered with out elections? Was it because he doesn’t want to admit their help put him over the top or is it because he is being controlled by Russian intelligence?
Why hasn’t Trump implemented any of the Russian sanctions passed by congress since the beginning of his administration? Obama set up the only sanctions currently in force before Trump took office. Why does Trump fawn and cow tow to Putin and why does Putin have nothing by kind words for Trump as he tears down our alliances and attacks our allies?
Everything Trump has done in the field of international trade has hurt the United States. Tearing apart treaties, pulling out of agreements and imposing tariffs have all hurt our people and our businesses and now his moves are attacking our heretofore-booming economy. In the last couple of months the economy has tanked, losing everything it has gained in the last year. We have just seen the worst month for the Dow since 1929, all because of Trump’s economic policies. Mistakes, you say? Brute Stupidity? Maybe, or maybe orders from the Kremlin.
We want to think it’s stupidity, or ego, or just plain insanity, but it all comes together too neatly. Just about every single move Trump has made since he got in office has resulted in a weakening of the United States on the world stage or even on the domestic front.
Right now Trump has shut down the government because congress didn’t give him money for his idiotic wall. We all support border security but everybody and his brother have told Trump that the wall will have zero influence on illegals coming into this country. But he promised the idiots a wall and he believes that the only way to hold them is to give them a useless and expensive wall. Why is that? He hasn’t produced in anything else. But in refusing to sign the bill that will refund the government he has weakened the nation and helped Russia. A couple of hundred thousand government workers won’t get paid until this is settled but what does Trump care. He eats on the taxpayer.
One would think that it would be impossible for any one man to make as many mistakes as Trump has in the two years he’s been in office. But what if they weren’t mistakes, what if they were calculated moves aimed at weakening the US in any number of ways. That, my friends, is clearly and simply treason.
To be fair, Trump may not think of it that way and his intention may not have been to deliberately weaken our country but by doing exactly that he has given aide and comfort to the enemy. That’s precisely the definition of treason and even if this is simply Trump trying to deflect from his criminal problems, the result is an act of treason.
The real problem is that we will never be able to prove treason and if we try and fail, the damage to the country will just increase exponentially. So what to do? This is where the 25thAmendment could come in handy, except the cabinet, the body that would have to develop a case for it, is peopled with the biggest accumulation of ass kissing degenerates and thieves ever put together by any president in the history of the nation. Expecting that pile of steaming excrement to ever do the right thing is like expecting Mitch McConnell to back Al Sharpton as the next Supreme Court Justice
If this were Venezuela, Chile, Guatemala or any one of dozens of other failing nations around the world we would already be in the midst of a military coup. Mattis leaving because he could see no way of containing the insanity of Trump would already have resulted in a group of Generals getting together and assuming leadership of the country. That’s still a situation we must fear. Military minds are still military minds and sooner or later some general will look at those parts of the Constitution that he wants to look at and see what he wants to see and the shit will hit the fan.
Only a few weeks ago I wrote a blog in which I expressed a desire for the Democrats to hold off on going after Trump and concentrate on creating the kind of functional legislation desperately needed by the country. Now it appears that no one will get anything logical or reasonable passed as long as Trump occupies the White House. If this nation is to hold onto its place in the world, Trump has to go. Whether it’s by impeachment, criminal investigation or Nixonian type accumulation of indictments that force a resignation. The manner is irrelevant but he has to go. Even his leaving office isn’t a perfect solution because Mike Pence, who leaves almost everything to be desired, will remain to putrefy the White House. The good news; so far Pence appears to be neither a traitor nor insane. Well maybe a little insane but with Trump out of the way maybe he’ll concentrate on kissing the right asses instead of just the biggest one.