Appeasement and then what?

 APPEASEMENT

            And now there is appeasement. This president and his minions are deficient in their grasp of history and policy so they propose a ludicrous “peace plan” that is a colossal blunder but also a travesty of honor. 

            Even if it changes, this is a fraudulent proposal stacked in favor of Russia, need we remind the President the invading party, the war starter, responsible for more than one thousand war crimes in Ukraine. Trump proffers it to display his loyalty to Putin so as to sweeten the atmosphere for his interest in building one of his gilded palaces of vulgarity in Russia.

            Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement to Nazi Germany was a foolish strategy of making concessions because he erred in thinking it would lead to peace. Trump’s thinking is a deliberate sell out of an ally, doing almost nothing to earn peace, but it assures the world his pouty lips remain attached to Putin’s arse. 

A few Washington veterans are waking up to what to has been obvious for some months. The president is a lame duck as well as being a lame brain.

            The sooner the 20 republican senators whose seats are up in ‘26 began thinking of constituents and the good of the nation instead of placating an inept and openly corrupt felon, the sooner they can reinsert their spines and begin to fix how seriously our national security has been damaged. We are a weakened nation. The Republicans have presided over a deliberate debilitation of the legislative branch. It hurts all of us. 

            This administration’s actions are a chain of dishonor. Hosting the Saudi crown prince, explaining away his certain role in the death and dismemberment of a Washington Post journalist, and then offering up sensitive strategic technology and F-35’s may be the most dangerous betrayal and sell out of strategic security in US history. That Saudi royal should be tried for murder, not a person to fete at a State Dinner. Time will reveal the personal Trump fortune building that Jared, Don Jr and Eric have been up to in that region. Trump sold out our children and grand children’s safety to charm the “corrupt deal” that his would-be empire is working.

This presidency diminishes our good will and prestige while degrading our strength. The president diminishes human virtue. Republicans in the Senate should begin saying aloud in public that Trump’s grip has been weakened. 

Recent survey’s show Democrats have a 14 point margin if the midterms were held now. Among independents some 60% would vote for Democrats. Those margins create a wave that could sweep. The President’s approval rate is at his lowest ever. The off-year elections were a message. The mismanagement of the economy and the foolish tariff wars are hurting small business and already suffering workers. People, even some of his base, are fed up, again. 

Journalists have begun to expose how his family has exploited the president’s changes and new policy on bitcoin, so as to amass extraordinary profits. He is what he has always been, a hustler and fraudster. He is now working his con from the oval office. Republicans may be waking up from their lobotomized zombie sycophancy and are beginning to see how deeply their master has pulled them into criminal sleaze and how quickly he will abuse state secrets and national safety if it makes him another buck. 

If the republican leadership would just say it they could break the spell, he is a lame duck. He’s been behaving like a trapped rat, increasingly irrational and lashing out.

When Chamberlain appeased Hitler, it did nothing but feed the coming onslaught of evil and mad power. We need to recall history as we watch Trump’s weasel like appeasement of Putin. 

After the invasion of Ukraine, I posted here the thoughts of senior intelligence and security people from the US, UK, Australia and Canada. A consistent finding was Putin’s thought he would outlast democratic governments, counting on populations to lose interest in a foreign war. Their profiles labeled Putin as a megalomaniac with visions of reuniting the old USSR and investing himself as the savior, a kind of new Czar. 

What was not forecast was the re-entry of Trump, a not very bright man but who is skilled and willing to do the bidding of corrupt expediency and betrayal. Appeasement for any reason, none of which could be good, will empower a ruthless war criminal, or a ruthless crown prince. Trump may act like a mob boss, but he is soft, strong only at lies and cheating. Putin was KGB and has become a calculating killer. Trump may think he is a deal maker but MSB out maneuvered a tent full of Saudi royals. He is also a killer. The president is a pathetic wimp who cheats at golf. He is unqualified and out of his league. What he has are favors to give, bad peace deals, F-35’s, secret intelligence documents. That’s the art of his deal.

 It is time for the legislative branch to wake up and jerk his chain. Fred Trump’s bully punk kid learned at the knee of Roy Cohn, but even that nasty miscreant is easy picking for a man of Putin’s cunning and lethality. Trump tweets in capital letters and calls reporter’s “piggy.” Putin kills his enemies. Trump sent insurrectionists to disrupt the 2020 election, he failed. Putin has sent as many as 130 thousand Russian troops to their death with another 200 thousand injuries. He does not care. He has North Korean troops and professional soldiers.  He bombs churches and schools and public transit lines. 

Even the Americans who voted for the reality show boss must understand there is a difference between pretense and strength. He is weak, the US is weakened and now he is ready to give away the future by allowing a real tyrant to make war and get away with it. At least Chamberlain thought he was getting peace. Trump thinks he’ll get another hotel and golf course.  

 

Void of Honor

Getty Images

     There's a wise old proverb "As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man."  Can we say a man's heart is reflected in his face?

     Two recent bumps conspired as entreaties to toss off the malaise that has kept this old reporter's angry voice quiet; the destruction of the East Wing, and a note from a long time reader and correspondent/friend Mike Mulligan. Mike you woke up the old fire horse response that inhabits after spending most of your life chasing news, responding to warning bells, seeing power up close, reporting from the fractures, failures and crises. 

     Longtime readers may recall my reference to an August 2016 open letter from 50 senior national security and foreign policy experts, or Cabinet members in Republican administrations from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush. The men and women, many names you know, warned that: 

-Trump was unfit to serve, 

-lacked the character to be President  

-would be a danger to the US and the world. 

That was the death rattle of the Republican party.

    Now people who thought he could "grow into the office," casting that warning and caution aside, have come to understand the wisdom of another proverb; "Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding him like grain with a pestle, you will not remove his folly from him."

AN OFFENSE TO AMERICA

    His destruction of the East Wing is an offense to history, protocol, the norm and to the citizens. It is symbolic of his presidency. 

    If he can order the arrest and seizure of citizens by masked thugs, if he can kill without warrant, evidence or proof, if he can extort universities, law firms and cultural institutions, if he can claw back funds already appropriated then he can and is treating the White House and it's historic significance like another of his gaudy hotels or resorts. So far he's getting away with it. 

REPUBLICANS THE NEW AMERICAN COWARDS

     It is there, in that fact dear citizens, we reach a confluence of two sinister forces that may break us. There is no counter force, no punch back.

    1) There is, at best, acquiescence, maybe approval, or more likely cowardice of the Senate and the House. Please recall the double acquittals in the Senate. Mitch McConnell will be be remembered as the necromancer of this Trump reign. One of the great screw ups in history, they could have crushed the snake!  

    2) Even with all we know, with all the facts before us, the chaos filling our screens, the inconsistencies, the trashing of the economy, his humiliation and whipping by Putin, his use of the White House to fleece the devoted to build his wealth, and now his threat to sue the government to enrich himself, and private funding for armed forces, but he was elected. That might have been the day the music really died. 

        Bye, Bye Miss American Pie. Now we  "sing dirges in the dark."

      Another truth-this is a self inflicted wound.

      Most of us recognized the implicit danger of authoritarianism, fueled by his divisive and toxic campaign 10 years ago. His racism and fraud were already published and litigated years before. 

     As he disregards propriety and endeavors to destroy 250 years of federal systems he's surrounded by an appalling team of talentless sycophants eager to do his pleasure so they get to play in the gilded delusional kingdom. 

    Author Garrett Graff says Trump is "taking a wrecking ball to America itself."

Other historians and analysts have lamented the failure the system of checks and balances.

A MAN SO VILE

    The system worked until now. Trump came with a factor unseen at this scale; a complete void of honor, not even the pretense. After two and half centuries, the noble experiment of the American Republic is being proof tested by something the founders did not plan for, a man so vile.

   He is without a wisp of honor, a man who will neither respect tradition, nor the way it has worked, the unwritten code. He is like a cur at Westminster, a vulgarian, the kind of man the founders did not expect, nor did the millions who have since worked in and served the government and civil service.  

SELF INFLICTED WOUNDS    

     Self inflicted indeed. We did not pay attention to the diligent teaching of history, the full and honest American story, nor did we teach basic government, nor civics   explaining our role as citizens. That lapsed.

     I would list the power of money, big money in political campaigns as a sin in a democratic republic for which we are now paying. It has turned elections into an industry and government into a bought and paid for system of dispersement.   

    Zero sum politics is a road to chaos. Abandoning compromise and negotiation is deadly to the body politic.

    We are in new terrain. We can't predict where or how this will go.

THE TRUTH OF TRUMP

      At his best he's a real estate hustler and pitchman. As a leader he is an amateur, full of himself, who fires those who criticize or challenge or tell the truth. He has no grasp of history. He rarely speaks the truth. He's fixated on revenge and retribution. His estimation of himself is a narcissistic mental illness. He is a cheat and a fraudster. He is a sexual predator, a vulgarian, an overweight, out of shape old man who has convinced himself he is most powerful man on earth and can do anything he wants to do. And he is doing that.

    The president is wrapped in a delusion of power and lies. All tyrants come to an end. The end will come to Trump in some way. It will then be left to the American citizenry to make choices and to choose a path. The damage MAGA inflicts can be repaired if we recall our aspirational heritage found in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We have not been perfect, and we have been slow at meeting our promises but we change, and we progress and improve our up potential. But not without struggle.

MASTERS OF FATE?    

     As an old boy with more road behind than ahead I suggest we root ourselves in something of value and nobility. It is better for us if we have a code for living and beliefs that we practice

   In a recent chat with three friends, realists, experienced in government, media and power I said something I repeat now. It's a realization chiseled by a life of observation, at close quarters of struggles, power, intention, loss, desire,  randomness, war, despair, faith, villains and the indefatigable nature of becoming.

Unless and until we reorient the human intellect to the ancient Greek concept of eudaemonia we will do ourselves harm in anyway available to us. Virtue and reason are the only way to survive. 

   In aggregate this nation or any nation, will realize that, or it will not. Civilizations rise and they fall. 

    It seems appropriate now to invoke a journalist, quoting Shakespeare so as to contextualize or frame this moment; "The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves..."

      But for the point of this now, it is the line Cassius utters immediately before that;

"Men at sometime are masters of their fate."

       See you down the trail.

   

     

     

 

The Prosecutor and the Lunatic.....

 

           In a reality not far away about 60 Million US television viewers saw Kamala Harris and Donald Trump show their stuff.

        If it wasn't earnestly serious, it would be the stuff of comedy, the best of sketch comedy in this part of the milky way. 

    Given that performance, the extraordinary number of lies, the chain of thought that ran like like a wart hog roller skating on marbles, and the beating he took of the righteous, in your face "they call you a disgrace" variety, why any thinking, discerning person would trust him again is beyond even the most sympathetic analyst this side of forever. 

    You can be the most partisan Republican, the farthest right positioned conservative, the angriest anti Democrat, a rich/or poor, old white man scared of the communist dust that gathers in your closet and still not justify voting for the deposed despot. As Republican grandees warned in 2016, he is unfit for public service and not to be trusted. This time around there are some 200 Republicans of the highest calibre, who worked for him who say the man is a danger to the world.

    He demonstrated that he is not of sound mind.

    I know there is no reaching the woman in the Trump and Jesus T-shirt saying that Joe Biden is dead, or the crowd that thinks Democrats eat babies, or that curious breed of evangelistic, they call themselves Christians, who believe that a convicted rapist, felon, swindler, is the kind of person to usher in an age when their "religion" will convert the US into the new heaven.

    I give the Donald a full thumbs up thanks for launching some of the best dog reaction videos in history and the absolute beauty of the women, Taylor Swift included, who have posted lovely and dramatic photos of themself with their beloved cat or cats. My favorites are the dogs barking or seeking a hiding spot as his Lord Narcissus blubbers on screen.

    Mom used to say if you can't say something nice about someone, say nothing.

I'll quote mom, I think she would say Donald is the best "blow hard" in the world. 

Mustering up the nicest thing I can say, I'll quote my Dad, he'd say Donald is a world class "bull shit artist."

    Millions of Americans are beginning to realize he is and has always been a fraud.

        I moderated many debates and as we entered the age when candidates answered your question with a response to their own unspoken and coached question, I'd press back, even noting when they refused to answer the question posed. ABC did a nice job of putting the question on the screen as both VP Harris and Miracle Don rarely responded to what was asked. Such evasion and obfuscation is sadly accepted as part of the performative game. 

        The moderators did a noble job of fact checking and challenging as the debate went on. With Trump, who only lies when his mouth is open, it is a near impossible task. He like many of his posse have trouble with truth, even reality.

        It's not over. Harris was competent, in command, successfully whooped Donald with prosecutorial and debate skills and showed that she can and will govern for all and promised not be a divider. Is that enough? Stay tuned.

        See you down the trail.

Look closely, it's complicated...

         After scrutinizing 15 Presidential elections I’m impressed with the rapid mood shift the recent change in the field has stirred.

            I think we can surmise voters were ready for a change of attitude. Harris and Walz have prompted enthusiasm, to be sure, but they’ve flooded the arena with hope, a sense of optimism, even mirth.

They struck a golden truth when they labled the maga team as “weird.” By comparison and by tone Trump and Vance come off as Slug and Sluggard. 

            There seems to be a bit of fun to the election cycle now and I’m sure the psychologists can spin a lot of theories. From my view of having been on campaign trails, it doesn’t seem as desperate, teetering on the brink of a bunker mentality anymore. 

    

            This seems to be the year America has decided there is an age limit on Presidents. But we should memorialize that one hour before Joe Biden did one of the most courageous and personally hard to accept actions, “passing the baton,” he was full on engaged closing the deal in getting American hostages, home.

            There is no doubt Joe is old, and not as swift or glib as he was, but he was and is still executing the duties of the oval office with as much skill, and historic achievement as we have seen in decades. This “old man” has accomplished legislative miracles, stabilized the nation, infused economic development that will change the American workplace and our infrastructure over the next decades, and asserted American and democratic leadership for the world. He has been steady and calm. But we live in a time when almost everything is performative, and when phones and algorithms have warped our sense of reality. Unfair though it is, in the long run his selfless act is probably best for everyone. He will be remembered well.

            Now would be a good time for voters to look at the extraordinary PBS Frontline examination of “The Biden Decision.” It is searing, tough, told in a no holds barred honesty. It is an American tragedy story, a kind of Irish tale of a political warrior who wanted only to serve. 

dangling

            There is another PBS serving that you can also find at the LBJ Library web domain. Live from the LBJ Library, Woodward and Bernstein. It plays in two 30 minute segments. The conversation led by author/historian Mark Updegrove looks at the Watergate era 50 years on. The inevitable conclusion is the modern Republican party do not possess the courage and decency of the 1970 Republicans who included the godfather of conservative Presidential ambition, Barry Goldwater.  

            50 years this week, those men and women went to their President and told him he was going to be impeached and convicted because they could no longer support him. Nixon resigned. 

            History always gets the last word. Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward remind us of a time when honesty counted. Those reflections are illuminating to us about who, what and where we are today.

           See you down the trail.

You deserve better...

 

You deserve much better. 

 

These days since the first “debate” have been a kind of Rorschach test for America. What did we see in that pale drama? What does our reaction tell us about ourself. It needs to be decoded.

 

First, the US deserves and needs better candidates for the “highest office in the land,” or what used to be called “the most powerful job in the world.”

 

Response was immediately seismic and the aftershocks continue. It may become nothing more than a forgotten moment 90 days on, or it could generate a true “gut, head and heart check” by US citizens, the people who ought to care for the democratic republic they’ve inherited. 

 

Those two old men on the stage were not the best of our political system. It’s been said “democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.” Surely there are better ways if not better monkeys.

 

The first response of commentators, analysts, and political operatives was “my phone was blowing up!” That is the first take away?! As a sidebar, our phones have changed the way we think and act. Such “neural switching” also short circuits reason, calm and thoughtfulness. Witness the dither and tizzy. All emotion, shoving deliberate thought aside. That is the way of things now.

 

There was much over which to be concerned, but holy cow, we appear to have now created a sub political speculation game, Biden withdrawal? What about what to do with Trump dishonesty soaring to new levels of outrage. Should a network stage a debate if it cannot challenge the lies? 

 

It was painful to see Biden struggle for words. He is 82, had a cold, had been over prepped and not handled well by his debate team. He faltered and hearts sank. There is no excuse, but there are explanations. 

 

His opponent was in normal hyperbolic form, mugging for the camera, lying, fantasizing and evading most questions put to him. He clearly pulled Biden out of his plan.

 

The end of the night, Biden scored on substance, Trump scored on performance so the world was left with an old man who stumbled and an old man who lied and evaded questions. Their presidential records are vastly different. So are their life stories and their character. The debate was one night against a life of record.

 

Replacing a presidential candidate, late stage, is not the same thing as changing pitchers-one guys leaves the mound, another comes in from the bull pen but everything else in the stadium remains the same. Candidate organizations and campaign staffs and offices are not a corporate headquarters. Trying to tool a change of that magnitude is risky at best. It has never worked before. But some Democrats are worried enough to hope for a magic ticket. 

 

If Biden were to exit, it would open a battle that would inevitably damage the party,  and angering elements. There is a history of those who did not get their way, pouting and not voting or voting for a third-party candidate. Many Democrats believe Kamala Harris would deserve the opportunity, but there are many who do not. Her popularity is curiously low. Navigating a change of ticket to find someone who could defeat trump is uncertain. Only Joe Biden has beaten him. There are several other candidates rising in the party, potentially Trump thumpers, but the game is stacked against them at this moment.

 

Here is a difference in this cycle. Democrats are fretting out loud. The New York Times and others editorialize Biden needs to go. The Republicans are afraid to speak of their fuhrer’s wild deceits and excesses like claiming his opponent believes in ripping babies from the womb and putting them aside to die.(Can you believe that was said?) None of the republican gruppenfuhrers and oberfuhrers dare challenge the maga cult leader. The message here is loud and clear.

 

The character of political media, and the election industry deserve a close up. This self-selected sub phylum has been in a frenzy about a Biden exit. Some puff up arguing it is “good for the nation.” It takes audacity to suppose you know what is good for America, arguing for a quick fix, where there is no such option, and while the cry you raise is in tremulous hysteria. As a friend said, everybody should take a deep breath. Biden blew a debate, but he is still being Presidential, and has had by most measures, major success. Trump still whines about the election he lost, is a convicted rapist, felon and faces further legal jeopardy.

There is history to guide us here, as we speculate.

In the last years of Reagan’s second term there were serious questions about his mental acuity, evidence of the dementia that later claimed his life. He was slower, but he governed. Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919 and in the next 2 years his wife Edith ran the executive branch of Government.(That was before the Presidential Succession Amendment) Franklin Roosevelt was gravely ill in his final years, presiding over US efforts in WWII, negotiating with Churchill and Stalin. If Biden were unable to finish a second term, or chose to retire, Kamala Harris is a better option for American democracy than Trump under any circumstances.

 

So, maybe back away from the ledge and lower the blood pressure and ignore the media hype. It was a tv show, a media creation, not a summit meeting. It was not as though he drooled through the 90 minutes and scored no hits. Look at the video of his appearance later that night or the next morning. America is safer with an old Joe than an old Trump. As I noted, this election is about forces larger than either man. These men are surrogates for values. It is about a system. It is about truth. It is about democracy or an authoritarian cult.

 

Still, voters deserve better options, but you have only one good choice.

See you down the trail. 

 

A Day for America

         There is a moment, a threshold, when something severely injured begins to die or begins to recover. The day Donald Trump was indicted for trying to overthrow America is such a moment. 

       US citizens will watch as the nation's 247 years of history endure the spasm of trying to cure itself of a poison that sought to destroy the historic process of choosing leaders and transferring power.

        Patriots are those who stand against a nation's enemies and detractors. Those of us who live here will learn if fidelity to the cause of the democratic republic will empower our future. The indictments make it clear Donald Trump lied, tried to cheat, conspired and endeavored to destroy the nation's constitutional process, and the honor bound tradition of presidential succession. 

        Last summer the Investigation into January 6 documented the deceptions, trickery, and the role of Trump in inciting the attack on the US Capitol, the nation's transfer of power ritual, and the brutal attack on law enforcement. It was a rebellion that was fed by lies, and acted upon by gullible and malevolent forces and all of it was at the behest of a man who will forever stand as America's most vile political hustler. It was an extraordinary public documentation. 

       The Justice department has prosecuted hundreds of those who violently attacked the Capitol, as a result of the conspiracy.

        Now, the indictments of this day further turn the wheels of justice. This is for the future of our aging republic and to place Trump's name and reputation in chains and a cage for history, forever banished from civility because of his perversity. Of course he is innocent until proven guilty.

        There is no reason to trust the man to do anything but love only himself and to lie, cheat, sell our national secrets and launch armies only for his own glory. He could not accept his loss, and so he became an enemy of America. He is a tin god and we will watch our justice system flush him away.

        There are other indictments, and there will be other cases and they are an accumulative judgement that will render Trump, MAGA republicans, and his time in power as the nadir of the American presidency.

        It has been wrong, judgmental and perhaps even haughty of myself to hold those who support Trump with such contempt. This should be a nation of such freedom to survive faulty judgements and even our failures. 

        I have not been proud of this nation. I have been worried about collective bad judgments. But today is a good day.

        This is a day when, in a sense, we watch ourselves display a fealty to the aspirations and ideals of the American experiment. This is a day when there are signs we have chosen to live, to heal. This is a day of and for history. This is a day for America.

        See you down the trail. 

The Virus in the Shadows

          Stability at home and strength of US leadership in the world is threatened by more than the virus we know. Another wasting disease casts shadows on the future. 

        Detailed here, from briefings, interviews, and conversations, are assessments and judgement of men and women who have advised and informed the policies of Presidents, Prime Ministers and their governments. I've participated in these sessions in recent months. These are the assessments of realists.                                                                                            

        Topics have included China, Russia, Iran, the Middle East region, terrorism, cyber warfare, counter intelligence, weapons systems, technology, defense procurement, the changing nature of spying, alliances, hot spots, nuclear weapons and threats to America's democratic republic. 

        This post examines the present danger and damage of  deliberate deception, and the anti democracy fascism that fogs our constitutional principles and aspirations.

        "For 70 years foreign policy was not a partisan issue in Washington, but now it is," says John Sawer, who was Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in Britain, MI6.

        "So, friends and hostile nations will have trouble in thinking in terms of American strategy in periods of decades, because it might change every four years."

From The Radio Historian

        MI6 was founded in 1909. It is the senior intelligence service in the world and helped nurture the birth of the US CIA,  assisting the OSS (Office of Strategic Service) during World War II. They are an ally who knows us well.

        Sawer says both the UK and US have been through political upheaval, a kind of residual reaction to the crash of 08. 

        "The best plan forward is to put our own homes and systems in order. In the UK that is absorb the cost of Brexit. In the US it is to somehow not just relaunch the economy and get control of COVID, but to find a way to develop a polity, a consistency and a durability to America's role in the world, or American will be in decline. The decline is certain if it just swings back and forth every four years."

        The Biden administration declared "America is back," and he has begun to shore up alliances, and return a respectability to our foreign policy, but our standing in the world is damaged. We are no longer seen as the strong force, the leader of the free world, a beacon of democracy.

        "There is some concern about whether the US word and commitment will be reliable, especially since Trump is in the background as a force in US politics," says John Brennan former director of the CIA. He worked for 6 US Presidents.

        "Trump as laid waste to our credibility and reliability. It will take time to restore confidence that commitments will outlive changes in the White House. This is something to confront, because in the last 4 years, many years of trust in the US word and commitment is challenged."

        The malignancy of Trump was apparent in the view of Homeland Security, Cyber Security and Infrastructure officers and veterans when we discussed the US election campaign, social media influence, and the cascading affect of the big lie.

        Belief in and the credibility our system has been and is being eroded by intentional deception, and behavior that condones it. 

    

        A former CIA chief of station, with over 30 years of distinguished service including in the former Soviet Union, Europe and war zones in the Middle East and South Asia offers a harsh truth. Donald Trump enabled Russia in it's efforts to undermine and disparage our democratic process.

      "That is the first thing they're focused on, trying to portray our process as inherently unstable and in conflict with our supposed democratic values. It doesn't matter that they're an autocracy. They don't want their people to see us as an inspiration to those Russians striving for democracy."

        I withhold his name because he is still active. But he is emphatic in his assessment of how Trump was used for anti American purposes.

       "Putin is very active in public propaganda and information warfare. Through his propaganda arm he does not want the US to be a beacon of hope. He needs to continue to emphasize the US is unstable."

        Trump's prolonged attack on US media, the undermining of the election and judicial process were powerful weapons. Russia's interests were seen early. 

        "That Trump Tower meeting was meant to be discovered. Don Jr. took the cheese from Putin's mousetrap," he said, citing it as one of many public relations victories and instances where Trump was outplayed by a wily intelligence officer, Putin.

            The path to an improved image and renewed strength of leadership is challenged by the Republican party's turn to fascism and authoritarianism. Unless his mounting legal woes disable him, Trump wields power. Republicans running for office can either bend to the boss and his world of lies and deception or be run out by the mob of racists, zealots and lunatics who are taking over state parties, driven by Trump's nationalistic fantasies. 

           The Republican party is at war with itself and betting is on the fascist wing and those disconnected from reality, fed by the far right media. 

         Analysts say Republicans have become the party of deception, at the federal and state level. It is there tactic in a winner all view of the world. Recent examples being cited is the McConnell flip flop flip on Trump, Texas Governor Abbott's deceit about the role of wind power in the recent power grid crash, McCarthy on the Covid bail out package, Cruz, Jordan, Hawley and Johnson on the Capitol insurrection. And it goes on. 

       A common theme of the briefings was domestic terrorism and the rise of armed militias. The Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Boogaloo and others were part of the Capitol invasion. Local, state and federal authorities are warned to be vigilant and prepared for other acts;  attempted kidnapping of a officials, State House invasions, bombings, and shootings. There is  concern over security of the State of the Union address when most of the government is assembled in the Capitol.

        The danger is underscored by what investigators are learning about inside influence in planning the attempted coup. 

       Of concern at home it sends signals to the world. As long as members of the Senate and House continue to placate Trump, perpetuate his lies, and enable the fascist and thug control of the Republican party, they play into division, deception, enable our adversaries and enemies, and undercut the nation's authority.

 

        The breeding of instability at home, weakens us, makes us less secure and contributes to a dangerous change in the balance of power abroad.                                                                                                                                        

         While this post examines the legacy of the inner turmoil on ourselves and our position in the world, a linked topic is the rise of China.

          General David Petraeus and Christian Brose spoke to China's influence as we have been weakened in the eyes of the world.

        "For 25 years China has tried to disrupt our military development and research. They are very competitive and they play by different objectives." Petraeus

        "We need to rethink what we are strategizing in that region. What does national security look like in the absence of our dominance?" Brose

        Petraeus is former Director of the CIA and is a retired US Army General with 37 years in uniform.

        Christian Brose was staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee, a senior policy adviser to Senator John McCain and adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

        While rogues and fascism destroy the party Brose served, US is weakened. It happens as China is on a trajectory to become the dominant military force in the world. 

        "This requires changes in systems, postures and at home. I am concerned at damage done to alliances and strategic partnership, especially at a time when we need to rely on them more."  Brose

        In decades of reporting I've worked with intelligence officers, analysts and national security people. They are skilled at getting to the point. They are capable, thoughtful and engaged in facts, finding them and analyzing them. They deal with complexity, distant horizons, multiplicity of patterns, input, motivations, intent and they make sense of it.  They can be the very opposite of the public officials and politicians who task or review them and who use their product. 

        

      China benefits as we continue to handicap ourselves. But it is the former KGB officer in the gilded offices in the Kremlin who looks to America, sees what the last four years did to his adversary, and watches as one of America's parties devolves to a gang and mob, and he smiles. One of his intelligence services in the meantime has invaded American cyber systems, manipulated elections, driven social media deception, and he smiles even more.

     Biden's priority has been to attack Covid and its impact on people and the nation as a whole. 

     He has also signaled the America First nationalism of Trump has been trashed. Trump still breaths however, given life by a Republican party that has become a threat to the nation by enforcing the power of the mad mob boss from Mar a Lago. 

    As long as Trump lurks as a shadow influence, he remains a petulant virus in American culture and politics. Variants of Trump are already jockeying for position, and his state party apparatus have begun efforts to suppress and limit voting. 

     Le Carre', Clancy, Ludlum, Forysth, Greene, and Fleming could not have written such a plot.

        What do the realists conclude? We are in trouble and there is thrashing and winnowing to do, to save our future. Truth, an adherence and devotion to it, is a good start. As children we were taught it is wrong to lie. This nation needs to live into that.

        From time to time subsequently, I'll offer more from my notes as we continue our briefings and decipher the times. 

        Stay well.

        See you down the trail.

        

        

Moral Bankruptcy

 

        As certain as sky meets the sea and sea meets the land there are immutable principles and forces at work, laws of nature. 

    Human life is bound by canons, history measures with the cold calculus of principle, that too is immutable. Character is rendered, judgement revealed. Human history is made of these. It is the log of our evolution, and it is indelible. 

    The Republican party set the nadir of moral bankruptcy and cowardice. Deplorable and despicable were their actions and now their reputations. Mitch McConnell's wile, his post acquittal statement, is like the man, fraudulent. After his time on the national stage he fears the inevitable searing truth of the historian's ledger. He will not have it both ways. Four years he enabled a destructive invasion of the republic and has again allowed a pernicious evil to go unchecked. It will be his votes, his record of complicity that history will recall. Generations will revile Trump, his mob of insurrectionists, his seditious accomplices and his hypocrites like McConnell.

    I needed fresh air and a long view after the acquittal. Though the outcome was expected, I hoped late information, the McCarthy and Tuberville phone calls, proving presidential inaction and cooperative complicity with those in the Capitol and seeking to harm his vice president and others, would land a shred of decency in a few of the cowardly republicans. 

    

     The free ranging cattle have more moral conviction than 43 republican senators. I was struck by the irony of 10 grazing animals, as the vote for the good fell 10 short. 

      The republican party is at war with itself. At this juncture the spineless, deceptive, and crooked are beholden to the ignorant fans of authoritarianism. Nikki Haley's recent ploy signals there could be some life yet in those who want to run away from Trump and are willing to say it out loud, though late as it is.

        History will recall the warnings sounded by arguments in the first impeachment, that acquittal would only embolden the rogue president. Proven in short order. He began the incitement when he cultivated the militias, Q crazies, insurrectionist cells and the core racists. He started the movements violent turn when he began to undermine the credibility of the election early in the year. His claim the election would be fair only if he won should have been a warning enough. His relentless pursuit of overturning the election, lies, fraud, crazy theories, were all part of the incitement. 

        I'm sorry the Impeachment was not framed more widely to include all of that, and his lack of intervention but Republicans were there, they had to flee the threat of killing mobs who were in Washington only to "Stop the Steal." They know who was the architect. History will record their knowledge, their complicity and their cowardice. It is time to for both the House and Senate to begin actions to purge the anti American  pro authoritarian Republicans. They are the enemies of the people.

        

        There's a patch of woods I sometimes retreat to and on my last walk I spotted trees that I took pleasure in seeing as symbols of the character of the republican party.

the hawley

the cruz

the graham

    Our experiment in a democratic republic requires the give and take of checking and balancing views. The nation has been at its best when bipartisanship was in season. My previous post tracked the genesis and evolution of the death spiral that made Trump a republican inevitability. We can only hope that traditional republicans will regain control of the party. 

    Trump and his kind, and the poor suckers who believed him are still here. When the gutless, craven, poltroons did not drive a stake through his heart, they made it possible for a vile and evil force to continue to menace not only them, but the future of the nation.

        Over the last few months I've been a part of conversations, interviews and briefs with intelligence and national security people. Their view on this moral bankruptcy in a once great nation will be the subject of a future post. 

shout out to Lana

                                            

            We've reached valentine's days and we are still eating fresh tomatoes. This plate is the last of this year's crop. They were picked, when green, before she pulled the plants. They have continued to ripen. For a guy who grew up in the tomato growing calendar of Indiana, having our own fresh crop at this time is amazing!

     Stay well, stay safe.

     See you down the trail.