Larry devotes a blog today to the significance of Trump’s rout of the GOP establishment in Iowa. These excerpts seem to me to be a pretty solid take:
The Republican establishment went all out to put a dent in Trump and failed spectacularly. Neo-Con Nikki Haley is the fav of the Republican aristocratic effetes who cannot stand the smell of Trump supporters. The country club set just cannot bear to be associated with the unwashed masses who lionize Donald. For that reason they poured millions of dollars into an organized effort to knock the Trumper off of his bandstand.
Donald Trump enjoys one major advantage over Nikki and Ron — his foibles, his weaknesses and his failures are widely known. There is no new dirt on him. Nine years of excavation and fabrication have turned up nothing. If anything, the relentless persecution of Trump has made his more popular with the middle and working class.
Trump is still very popular with his base and turns out crowds that neither Haley nor DeSantis could corral if they were offering attendees at their ralies a $1,000 bucks per person.
This is the heart of the problem — wealthy people dominate the leadership of the Republican (and Democrat) party. They live in a cloistered realm and have convinced themselves that they have their hands on the electorates pulse. They have no clue what working stiffs are feeling or believe.
He then pans la Michelle as a possible replacement candidate for Zhou, including the idea that she would hold the black portion of the base together. I will add that the Dem tactic of stiffing their base—depriving them of a meaningful voice in the primaries—while desperately searching for a way to pull a switcheroo from on high to replace Zhou, speaks volumes for the way each branch of the Uniparty views Americans. Having resorted to hanky panky to defeat Bernie and Trump, they’ve been forced into a corner of their own devising:
Their plan is to trot out an alternative candidate in late winter or early spring and sincerely believe they can select a candidate in their vape-filled conference rooms that will magically rally support. They are betting the house that their mystery candidate will wield sufficient clout and draw voters from Trump. I think the opposite will happen. They are more likely to split the Democrat vote and make it easier for Trump to win.
There is a legitimate fear that Biden is going to start a war that will be used as an excuse to shutdown the 2024 election. If that happens, America will be torn in half and its ability to wage war will founder.
He sums up the establishment frustration with Trump and Americans generally eloquently:
What the Democrats and the Trump haters do not understand is that their relentless attacks on him are making him stronger, not weaker. Trump’s refusal to curl up into a fetal position and cry for mercy is pissing them off and confounding them. I suspect Trump secretly hopes they do not stop …
Trump’s response is exactly what is increasing his appeal to normal voters.
OK, I’m sure most readers had figured that much out already, but Larry puts it in quotable form. The “Plus” part of the title refers to the fact that he also quotes a communication from one of his readers that addresses something that has puzzled me: Why did the regime not put the Houthis back on the terror list before attacking them? They had plenty of time to do so—as we’re seeing this morning, it can literally be done overnight. Why the gap and why the patently illegal action? Here’s his reader’s take on that. It’s obviously speculative, yet makes sense in a very nefarious way. And yet nefarious seems to be what our rulers are all about. What Larry’s reader is saying is that the unconstitutional attack on the Houthis was a deliberate attack on the Constitution—an assertion by the Deep State that they are the ones who control foreign policy and national security. As I say, this view is interpretative and debatable, yet plausible, and therefore profoundly troubling—especially in the context of the upcoming presidential election:
Why did Biden remove the Houthis from the terror list and then at the slightest provocation attack them without giving himself the political cover? In my world it’s because he and the real people running this administration want to break down the barriers between the branches… undermine the structures that are supposed to stop this type of behavior.
It’s vandalism, pure and simple. The target here isn’t Iran or the Houthis or anyone else. The target is us.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Michelle Obama; I think she’s probably the only Democrat who could beat Trump. HOWEVER, I can’t see why she would want the gig. She lives a pretty comfortable life now - she’s rich, socially connected and still widely admired. Why would she want to become President and risk all that? Just to be the first woman President? I’m not sure she cares that much. She’s had 8 years in the White House. She knows how tough it can be and she would be coming in at a time when the American Empire is in decline. She’d be presiding over that failure whatever actions she takes as President. She’d risk her popularity and she’d have to work hard. I can totally believe the Democrats are trying to persuade her to run but I’m not sure she’s up for it. I don’t think she’s got her husband’s sangfroid for dealing with tough questioning and difficult issues - and I think she’s smart enough to know that. Also don’t underestimate that there are many other egomaniacs in the Democratic Party who actually WANT the job who’d be happy to sabotage her.
That last comment by the LJ reader is trenchant indeed. "This whole idea of using threats and insecurity as the organizing principle in society was well understood by George Orwell who was close to Britain’s ruling establishment. In "1984" he wrote as follows:
'War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. ... The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of war is not to make or prevent conquest of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact.'"
That quote is from Alex Krainer's latest, which is well worth reading as a whole:
https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/clear-and-present-danger-wars-incubate?publication_id=1063805&post_id=140742760&isFreemail=true&r=rjj5o
It is just a variation of the ever-more popular (in some circles) concept of "Anarcho-Tyranny," as described in this bio of the guy who conceptualized it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Francis_(writer)
Thanks, Mark