The Dying Days of the American Experiment

 I observe with a sort of gallows humor the emails that fill  my inbox everyday…emails from a wide range of Democratic and progressive sources exhorting recipients to contact legislators, Senators and members of Congress to stand up against Republican efforts to reshape the political landscape by attacking everything from voters’ rights to the climate change legislation, criminal justice reform, the shape of the courts, minimum wage, tax reform and racial injustice. While the warnings they provide are valid and justified, I am left to wonder whether it is too late to do anything about what is happening; indeed, whether there was ever an opportunity to do anything about what is happening as the outcome does seem to be a foregone conclusion. 

Sure, Democrats control the Executive branch as well as the Senate and the House and have, with that control, been able to push through in short order several pieces of legislation that have fulfill portions of the agenda on which Democrats ran in the last election cycle and consequently had a significantly positive benefit for many Americans. Still, it all seems like the Republican party actually in control (case in point is the rejection of a commission to examine the January 6^th attack on the Capitol) and is just lying in wait, patiently waiting for the next election cycle…the mid-term elections in 2022…to unleash the fruits of a strategy which has been successfully taking form for the past few years. 

The strategy is no secret; it is, in fact, playing out in plain sight, manifested by, for example, the passage of countless pieces of legislation in at least half the states that is clearly intended to curtail voting by those who are likely to not cast their votes for those who have authored the very legislation that is intended to prevent a vote against those authors. 

The strategy can be seen in the shift to the right in the courts of most of those same states that all but guarantees that any attempt to challenge through the courts any or all of these disenfranchising pieces of legislation are doomed to fail thus guaranteeing that many votes that would likely not be cast for Republican candidates, will never be cast.

It can be seen in the bizarre vote “audits” which started in Arizona and are spreading to many of states where Trump was expected to win but because of votes by those who are now being disenfranchised unexpectedly lost. While the mainstream media chases its tail, scoffing at the effort, the true purpose…to justify Republican legislators to require state election boards to drop Dominion voting machines in favor of Election Systems & Software which is more vulnerable to hacking and vote tally manipulation goes without examination. 

These are but a few of the countless items on the GOP agenda that are taking shape for the sole purpose of insuring GOP control of the political process within the next few years. Make no mistake…these efforts are not of recent vintage, but, again, the product of seeds planted years ago, many by the Koch Brothers (who sought and still seek to guarantee passage of libertarian-based policies but, by their admission, got more than they bargained for in the process of seeking to put in place Republican majorities in every state).

With both the House and Senate held by Democrats by the slimmest of margins, these efforts are certain to result in a change in both houses of Congress in 2022 which, if true, will put an end to the Biden agenda. It does not matter that tens of millions of people, considered part of the “Trump base,  have and will continue to benefit greatly from Biden’s agenda nor does it matter that  most Republicans at every level of government…state, local and federal…favor policies that are not only not favored by most Americans but are particularly harmful to the very people they count as part of the Holy Grail of Politics, also known as “The Trump Base”. It is the legislators, often pursuing very radical agendas that do nothing for their constituents, who are calling the shots and with so much power vested in their hands, there is, again, little if anything anyone can do about it. 

What that means for the future is difficult to say. Still, with the Republican Party…the party of Trump, Greene and the Koch-backed, Americans for Prosperity… poised to control every aspect of our lives, you can be sure that the future will be an ugly one that may make the Trump years look like a quiet day in the park. 

The Democrat’s Dilemma

    Joe Biden’s acceptance speech on Thursday night was by any measure perfect for the man and for the moment. It was delivered with compassion but also with clarity of purpose offering the electorate a clear choice between the dystopic vision offered by Donald Trump and a vision of hope for deliverance from the darkness of Trump’s message and the chaos and brutality of the past three years. It is a message that should resonate with everyone...not only with the Democratic base but those who call themselves independents and claim to withhold judgment until compelled to choose. 

        Despite the eloquence of Mr. Biden’s message it certainly did not and never will resonate with Trump’s base (so smitten with the mythic Trump that they collectively fail to realize the damage he has and will continue to reign down on their lives and their futures) and while one would hope that independents would grasp onto the life preserving message offered by Mr. Biden, the likelihood of their doing so is not so clear. While Trump’s governance and his message is clearly based upon dividing the nation and giving license to unleashing the very worst of human nature, the Republican message is more nuanced, continuing to target the grievances of so-called, “Middle America” that brought Trump far more votes in 2016 from the middle of the country, in particular, than anyone could have imagined could be cast for such damaged and dangerous human being. While those targeted may have legitimate grievance, particularly this year with so much familial and economic hardship impacting so many, including those considered to be favoring a continuation of the Trump presidency, the GOP seeks to convince the undecided electorate that, at least for “White America”, the Democratic message of inclusiveness is itself actually a message of division and exclusion, seizing upon concern heard throughout conservative media that by embracing the Black Lives Matter movement, the Democratic party has actually become anti-white. The Republicans will pull from Biden’s speech his eloquent plea for racial justice and seek to convince those they target that those passages and the notion itself is proof positive that a BIden presidency will be so focused upon social and racial justice that “White America” will be at risk of being left behind; that the policies to be enacted by a Biden administration will be pursued at the expense of “white” interests and that, in truth, there is no room in the large, Democratic “house” for “White America”. They will point to Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate and argue that with Biden’s advanced age, there is a real chance that Ms Harris will become President during Biden’s four year term and that if that comes to pass she will pursue with even greater vigor policies that favor minorities the expense of white interests. 

        It is a dangerous strategy to say the least. The last four months of protests triggered in the immediate sense by the murder of George Floyd but truly a continuation of the struggle for equality that has been ever-present for more than the past one hundred and sixty years. The impact of those protests has been immediate, evidenced not only by the millions of people who have taken to the streets but by the response of corporate America to those protests. While many would argue that the response of corporations to the BLM movement is driven by greed (which is certainly is) it nevertheless should not be lost on anyone that so-called “Corporate America” made a choice to not remain silent; that when it spoke through its marketing message it was entirely on the side of social justice. Moreover, again at the risk of giving corporations too much credit, it is also worth noting that campaign contributions by corporations and their management to the presidential candidates favors Mr. Biden, driven, in large part, by their determination that their best interests lie in acknowledging and embracing Mr. Biden’s plea for social justice for it is that message which most clearly reflects the will of the people. 

        The challenge faced by the Democrats over the next two months will be to continue to speak to those people who may view the call for social and racial justice as either anti-white or exclusive of “white interests” that their interests are best served when everyone has an equal chance for happiness and security; that the chant of Black Lives Matter does not mean that White lives don’t matter despite what they might hear from Fox News, OANN or Breitbart. The task will regrettably not be an easy one. The stakes of failure are unimaginably high for a furtherance of a Trump administration, unleashed by a re-election will without question be the end of the American experiment if the last four years are any measure. One can only hope that despite the efforts of the right and its puppet media the voters either do not accept the dystopic product they are trying to sell or simply have had enough of the daily chaos and that their longing for a moment’s silence wins out.

America at its Core

The odds that the social upheaval we are currently experiencing will succeed in changing the very nature of this country are long and face a very steep uphill battle. The country was founded by very wealthy, slave owning White Christian men who, in their comradery, conspired to separate themselves from the British crown for the sole purpose of protecting their fortunes from the heavy taxation being levied on their wealth.

As with everything in the American experiment, the guiding principal has been and remains the accumulation and preservation of wealth. One need simply look around the room of this depiction of a gathering in Philadelphia to understand what these gentlemen meant by the seemingly noble words that they inscribed to announce their intention to seek independence…the “all men are created equal” principal which is thought to be ingrained into the very nature of what it means to be an America. The “men” they referred to applied not to anyone unlike themselves. Not women, not indigenous peoples, rarely Jews or other religious groups and certainly not Blacks upon whose backs their wealth was made. I dare say it was not even within the realm of consideration by any of these men to extend their recognition of their having been created equal beyond those in the room and those beyond for whose interests they spoke. All that they argued about was the mechanism for ensuring that their voices would be heard equally, whether they stood in that room in Philadelphia or on their plantations or homesteads up and down the eastern seaboard of what was to become the United States. That ethos and that ethos alone provided the framework for the construction and framework of the government that was to be formed as an outgrowth of their collective declaration that they would no longer pay tribute to a monarch an ocean away.

So strongly is this belief held that we have come to violence  on our own soil in its name twice over the course of our history, the first, of course, was in 1776 when we the nation took up arms to make clear our intention to separate ourselves from our British patrons. The second was in 1861 when the southern aristocracy concluded that their wealth, earned on the backs of slaves, was being threatened by a central, Federal government that, it was felt, had over-reached in its efforts to tax and otherwise control the agrarian economy upon which the southern aristocracy had built its fortunes. In both rebellions, it was not those who held the wealth who died on the fields of Chancellorsville or Gettysburg but, as always, common men who would not share in the fruits of victory should it come to pass.

 

It is this one single imperative…that the nation was founded for the sole purpose of facilitating the accumulation and preservation of wealth by a minority comprised of White Christian men…that has defined us through the centuries and continues to this day and it is against this very core imperative that we fight today to change our very nature. One can only hope that the short-term response to an epidemic of killings and harassment by citizens and police of the Black community will gain traction and result in what would be a seismic shift in the nation’s ethos. Aligned against any chance for change are forces which long concluded that any such change…indeed even the recognition that racism remains perhaps the one fundamental flaw in the nation’s construction…is a threat to a way of life so deeply ingrained in the nation’s basic founding principles that as before it is worth fighting against, even if that fight should turn to violence. The Republican party has spent years pursuing a “southern strategy” that not only succeeded in turning southern politics from a historically Democratic bias to one now fundamentally Republican and conservative, those efforts have now succeeded so well that the thought of violence is no longer an inconceivable. 

The Republican party has succeeded in gaining support from those individuals who are most in need of a strong centralized government that can and has provided subsidies for food, jobs, education, infrastructure and security. The incredible result is that tens of millions of southerners vote against their own self-interest by siding with a political party that has flexed its political muscle by awakening the ghosts of those plantation owners who so long ago controlled the southern economy and fought the federal government to keep the fruits of slave labor on the backs of poor southern whites who fought under the banner of the Stars and Bars. 

Having successfully pressed this strategy in the South, I suppose it is understandable, at least from an intellectual standpoint, that the Republican party would resist any pressure to acknowledge that what they are actually supporting when they stand with those southerners still lamenting loss of their “way of life”, is a way of life built upon the backs of slaves and the attitudes which fostered that way of life. While support for that way of life has waned in southern urban centers it remains alive and well in the rural south where those populations are most vulnerable to a "the-South-will-rise-again" pitch because educational opportunities have been reduced by Republican governments that press for smaller governments at the expense of those most in need. With such fertile grounds to conquer, the Republican party continues to press a fight over long-since resolved grievances, touting a "Lost Cause" past and, in so doing, finds itself standing with those who continue to long for a way of life which has long since passed from our national experience.

Perhaps it is this alone which drives the Republican refusal to acknowledge that the racism which sprung from that way of life still exists fearful that by doing so it will lose the support of this “base” which it has worked so hard to cultivate. Perhaps it is also its many patrons who continue to pour tens of millions of dollars into campaign strategies that continue to target these states as essential to any strategy for regaining the White House.

 

Those words were written in the throes of an unseemly Republican primary season while we were getting our first view of Donald Trump the politician. The past 3 ½ years have demonstrated clearly the damage that can be wrought by a government which has built its entire domestic policy structure around not only enforcing this philosophy but using it to great advantage, tearing the country apart for political gain. 

 

I conclude where I began. Make no mistake. Despite the passing of 250 years, little has happened to alter the fundamental nature of who we are as a nation. While we aspire to extend the meaning of “all men are created equal” to every living soul in the country, the truth remains that by and large the meaning of those grand words inscribed by the “founders” remains irresolute. The forces aligned against change are great and they are serious about ensuring that the principles first stated in the backrooms of meeting halls in and around Philadelphia so long ago remain unchanged. Still, the opportunity for real change exists. We stand at a crossroad which may very well determine the nation’s fate. We do appear ready to finally embrace an unfettered and broad interpretation of that one core principal. Whether we as a people have the fortitude to see it through against all odds remains the ultimate question.

 

 

Apocalypse Now?

It is hopefully too apocalyptic to say that society is on the verge of crumbling due to Covid-19 but what is not too soon to say is that what we are witnessing is an abject lesson in the destructiveness of Donald Trump’s attack on the underpinnings of our government and on the mainstream media. While our lives may hinge on the ability of the nation as a whole to abide by a unified adherence to strict measures to limit the spread of the virus, Trump’s unremitting attack on the media and upon anyone and anything that he views as not aligned with his malignant thinking and abject ignorance has turned what should have been a nation acting with unified purpose to one torn along political lines borne of  the paranoid distrust Trump has sown. Consequently while those who have understood who and what Trump is and what he represents adhere to procedures intended to reduce risk, those on the other side of the political divide not only reject those procedures, they flaunt their willingness to continue as usual regardless of the risk that they are creating for those trying to reduce that risk. It is a recipe for disaster. The danger that Trump has posed prior to our current situation...the rejection of norms, the attacks on the media and the constitution and the willingness…nay, the desire to tear the country apart for some perverse political and financial gain...is inconsequential in contrast to the threat that his behavior now poses to our very survival. How did we get here and how do we get out?

The Plot Against America?

With the announcement that Russia is interfering to aid the candidacy of Bernie Sanders and repeated comments by Donald Trump seeming to support Sanders’ candidacy, the question is naturally asked why? Why would the Russians favor Sanders and why would Trump be so supportive of Sanders? The easy answer is that both parties think Trump’s chances for re-election increase significantly with Sanders as the opposition. I offer a different reason for the support.

It has long been apparent that Russia has been engaged in a strategy intended to so damage the United States that it can no longer function in its traditional role as antagonist to Russian interests and a counterbalance to Russian desire to resume its role as a global power since the fall of the Soviet Union. When the strategy first took root can likely never be known. What we do know is that its clearest manifestation is the election of Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016 and while it may be naïve to call the interference in the 2016 election Phase One (given the near certainty that that interference was simply one part of a many-phased strategy that had been in the works for many years), for purposes of this discussion the election is but the first phase of a forward-thinking strategy deployed by Russia with the ultimate goal of not only removing the United States from its traditional role, but to ultimately rip the country apart to such an extent that it will not soon recover thereby allowing Russian global interests to be realized.

The goal of Phase One was to ensure that Donald Trump would become President in 2016. His temperament, intelligence, incuriosity, lack of knowledge of the world around him, his vulnerability to manipulation explain, in part, why he was selected by Russia as the principal tool of its strategy. While the strategy during the post-convention period was to inflict damage on Hillary Clinton, the strategy pre-convention was designed to ensure that Bernie Sanders, Ms Clinton’s principal rival for the nomination, not receive the nomination. The Russians had bigger things in mind for Mr. Sanders, but allowing him to pitted against candidate Trump (as opposed to a President Trump) with a chance to win the general election was not something the strategy could allow. While I cannot speak to the methods employed by Russia to ensure that Sanders was not the nominee in 2016, the fact remains that rules were changed to undermine a Sanders candidacy and votes cast by so-called, “super delegates”..delegates not bound to a particular candidate... cast in secret which assured that Mr. Sanders would not gain the nomination and would have to wait another cycle before again seeking the nomination.

The result was a close election that turned on election results in several counties in several states that yielded to Trump the votes needed to secure election via the Electoral College.

The framework for the next Phase has been gradually taking form over the past few months. Not surprisingly, Sanders chose to run despite his advancing age and, predictably, the emotional fervor that accompanied his run in 2016 returned in spades and while he faces competition from the likes of Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobachar, Joe BIden, and, of late, from Michael Bloomberg, none, other than Sanders, has gained sufficient traction to overcome the emotional and “revolutionary” trajectory of Mr. Sanders who has returned to his uncompromising, belligerent attacks on the historic structure of American society. Not surprisingly, we now learn (assuming the claims are correct and themselves not a product of Russian disinformation) that Russia has been working to help Bernie Sanders gain the Democratic nomination. Understanding how sophisticated the Russian disinformation machine was in 2016 and how it has only improved upon that experience, it is not hard to see how such a strategy could aid Mr. Sanders.

Part and parcel with pushing Sanders to the front of a crowded field, Mr. Trump’s perceived principal rival, Joe Biden, was  victimized by a disinformation campaign that accused Biden of possibly illegal conduct in his dealings with Ukraine allegedly on behalf of his son. Though, as it turns out, the strategy need not have been employed as Biden appears to be his own worst enemy, the strategy nevertheless left Biden’s candidacy weakened to the point of it likely becoming untenable. With regard to the remaining candidates challenging Mr. Sanders, the Russian goal has likely been to sow increasingly hyperbolic dissension among the current group of candidates who are easily triggered to attack one another thereby removing a cohesive challenge to Mr. Sanders’ candidacy. The strategy also (successfully) served to drive other, deserving candidates out of the race early on in the process. Though significant questions surround Sanders’ candidacy…his age, his unyielding and uncompromising politics which, it is feared, are too extreme to attract mainstream, independent voters and his health…remain, he nevertheless continues to follow an arc that will, with near certainty, garner him the nomination and pit him against Donald Trump.

The outline of how the strategy plays out to the 2020 election and beyond continues to take shape. It is an interesting and revealing confluence when, on virtually the same day, Sanders obtains a significant victory in the Nevada primary and the National Security Advisor..a Trump accolyte, Robert O’Brien…makes statements announcing that Russia is not working to help Donald Trump but is working to help the Sanders’ campaign. The comments are a now-typical and (apparently) successful Trump strategy of distraction…directing attention to others to distract from the truth that it is Trump and not the accused target who is guilty of the accused of transgression.

It matters not whether the accusation…here that Sanders is being aided by Russia…is true or not. In Trump’s world which has now become our living nightmare, accusations of this type alone can and often do become an accepted truth, often to fatal effect.  With the current confluence of events…Sanders surging in the polls and the Trump administration announcing that Russia is helping Sanders to win the nomination and presumably the general election…the strategy then unfolds on two tracks.

In the first, Sanders successfully secures the nomination. With a relentless strategy dispensing disinformation through both social and mainstream media that is too interested in profit to protect the integrity of its platforms, Sanders, as with Trump in 2016, pushes through against all odds, and ultimately is elected President. At the same time, Trump, with Russian assistance, pushes a strategy to not only delegitimize Sanders but paint Sanders as a Russian asset who, with Russian assistance, has sought the Presidency, at Russia’s behest, to turn the United States into a Communist state. The notion, without question, is ludicrous. Still we should all be prepared for this line of attack from Trump and his Republican enablers. It is, after all, an easy argument for the GOP to make. They will clam that Sanders is pushing, without any sense of a willingness to compromise, a socialistic framework for governing with appearances on Fox and other right-wing news platforms that we should all be prepared to die before allowing the country to become a socialist state. Never mind that the governing framework at the heart of Sander’s politics is akin to a successful realization of this form of governing all throughout Europe where it is understood as Democratic Socialism. In this country, it is not hard to portray what Sanders is pushing for as not simply socialism but Communism (we heard Mike Bloomberg make the claim in a recent debate) drawing comparisons to the hybrid forms of communism followed in China but in the bygone days of the former Soviet Union. Playing into a nationalism that has seen an uptick in anti-semitism and the belief held by many that Jews are part of a cabal to control Christian lives, Sanders is Jewish. That fact, together with the candidates’ politics makes it an easy sell to portray Sanders as a Jewish Communist with ties to Moscow (after all he honeymooned in Moscow) who, with Moscow’s help is trying to gain the White House and turn the United States away from its historic roots.

So how does this answer the questions posed at the outset? Why would Russia support Trump and why would Trump support Sanders? To be clear, neither is providing this support with the hope that Sanders wins the Presidency so what is the endgame?

There are increasing fears that Trump, should he lose in 2020, will not leave office despite constitutional requirements that he do so. He has spent the entirety of his presidency building an army of the disaffected who appear ready to answer his call to protect him from ceding his office…the Dershowitz (and Nixonian) argument that if the president does it it is for the good of the country...in order to protect the country from President-elect Bernard Sanders. In the context of a Sanders versus Trump election, it is not difficult to recognize the real possibility of Trump refusing to leave office, citing, by then, the long established “fact” that Sanders is a Russian asset from whom the country needs protection rekindling Trump dystopic speech at the Republican convention and substantively repeated at his inauguration…that he alone is able to protect the country from (himself) the evil in the world.  Is it too far-fetched to imagine Trump ordering Sanders arrested? Probably but still…After all Sanders, it will be said, is a (Jewish) Communist who has had dealings with Russia in the past and was aided in his campaign for the Presidency by Russian intelligence services all for the purpose of destroying the American way of life.

It is not difficult to imagine how Trump’s base would respond to a call to arms issued by the White House to fight the Commuinst menace waiting to take his seat in the Oval office. While that alone is a frightening prospect, the impact that such a constitutional crisis would have on the country as a whole and in particular, upon the millions upon millions of Sanders’ supporters who fervently carried their candidate to victory and the hope of new tomorrow, would like put the country on the precipice of total collapse and fulfilling Russian aims of removing the United States from a prominent player on the world stage.  

Far-fetched? Probably. Possible? Time will tell. 

The Bright Light Rushing at You...

Make no mistake about what is happening in this country. It is no longer that a coup is taking place; a coup has taken place and has succeeded. The framers contemplated a multi-branch government which was designed to prevent one branch from assuming control of the government and instituting autocratic rule. That design did not contemplate the possibility that those serving the government would fail or refuse to honor their oath to uphold the Constitution; that while threats may arise, in the end those sworn to uphold the Constitution would ultimately honor that commitment and err on the side of protecting the country from despotic rule. Recent events have proven and are continuing to prove that the checks constructed by the framers have failed because one party has chosen, affirmatively, to cause that failure. The executive, for reasons which still remain unclear has been able to take control of the majority party in the Senate thereby removing any chance of reigning in the executive as it extends the reach of its power unchecked and unfettered. Consequently, as the executive co-ops and corrupts the Department of Justice by installing a toad as its general the chance for using the rule of law to control the executive is gone. When the executive strips away the intelligence services we are left unprotected against any damage the executive may invite from foreign intervention into our national affairs. Where this is leading is increasingly clear. Should the executive prevail in the 2020 election he will be unbound by any need for accountability that an election may require and with the Senate remaining unchanged in its numbers we can be assured that the Senate will abide the executive should he choose to not abide by the term limits imposed by the Constitution and insist upon remaining in office so long as he chooses to do so. Should he lose the election of 2020 the same risk exists; that he will simply refuse to leave office fully confident that the Senate will not only stand by and do nothing but will likely find apologists for the executive who will justify the executive's refusal to leave thereby destroying forever whatever might be left of the Constitution.

Be warned. This is a real possibility and one that we cannot and will not be able to escape.

Time Has Not Eroded the Republican Mission

The modern day Republican Party consistently aligns itself with the Republican Party as it existed in the 1860s and led by Abraham Lincoln, trying to make the specious argument that the Democratic Party has its roots in the anti-abolitionist movement of the mid-1800s and that it is they, the Republicans to whom descendants of slaves, should now be aligned. Putting aside the absurdity of the argument, particularly from a historical perspective, the argument ignores the fact that the modern day Republican Party does not simply owe its origins to the Republican Party of the 1780s but is virtually the same party, unchanged at its core and in its mission over the past 240 years. That Party…the party of Jefferson and the southern aristocracy, fought against the efforts of the Federalist Party, led by Hamilton, Madison and Washington (though the latter did so for expedience rather than allegiance), to establish a strong central government with the power of the purse. The issue for Jefferson and the other Republicans then and now was that a centralized government and, more importantly, a centralized banking system, posed a direct threat to an economy, agrarian in nature, that had brought the southern aristocracy its wealth, built on the backs of millions of slaves. By pushing the idea of a loose confederation of states, each with its own government that would best represent the interests and rights of the property owners in that state, would the southern aristocracy be able to maintain its power and wealth. While the Federalists won out with  the writing of the Constitution which laid out the machinery of a central government,  it was that loss which festered for decades ultimately leading to the civil war.

There should be no mistake that today’s Republican Party exists for the sole purpose of ensuring that the economic elite…the former southern aristocracy…be put in the best position to maintain the power and wealth which has driven the nation’s economic elite since before the inception of the nation. The modern rally cry for “state’s rights” is nothing more than a reiteration of the Jeffersonian vision of a government designed and intended to perpetuate wealth of a few at the expense of the many.

Viva La France?

Make no mistake about the import of Sunday’s election in France. It is neither melodramatic nor fear-mongering to say that the stability of the world as we presently know it may rest on its outcome. There is no doubt that Russia and, in particular, Vladimir Putin has been seeking to reassert its global influence and re-position itself as a Soviet-styled superpower. Putin’s biggest obstacles to reclaiming its past glory and to regain control over the nations that gained footing in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union are NATO and the European Union. Most of these countries, while successful in establishing democratic governments, still struggle with maintaining those governments in the face of pressures that have historic roots in their connection with and dependence upon a Soviet model that provided ethnic, economic and military protections. These countries, freed of their Soviet dependence, nevertheless seek the same type of protection previously provided by Soviet Russia, turning to the EU and NATO with the expectation of economic and military protections that will allow those governments to stabilize and flourish. A successful embrace of the former eastern block by the EU and NATO is without question not in Putin’s best interests and he has consequently unleashed a strategy to destabilize Western governments with the expectation that destabilization will leave the former eastern bloc of nations adrift and vulnerable to entreaties by Russia to join a “new” form of Soviet-styles governance.

This coordinated attack has already succeeded on three fronts: first, an invasion and reacquisition of Crimea and invasion of the Ukraine, both intended to test NATO’s willingness to defend an Eastern European member and to show other former eastern bloc countries that NATO should not be counted on to provide protection given its tepid response to the Russian adventurism in the Ukraine.

With his eye on the prize…a total collapse of the EU…Russian intelligence services, at Putin’s behest, first began a coordinated effort to undermine elections in the U.K. which was facing a referendum on whether to leave the European Union. The result was Brexit which continues to reverberate throughout the UK as the process toward a total exit continues. The bigger prize, of course; was the pending election in the United States which included candidate Donald Trump who had for quite some time espoused his admiration for Putin and his disdain for NATO. Successfully swaying the election away from Hillary Clinton over whom Putin had no control and likely feared because of her bellicose attitude toward Putin and his intentions and toward Trump would almost certainly remove a major obstacle…perhaps the biggest obstacle…to his broader plans for NATO and the EU. Certainly, a Clinton presidency would have provided the EU with support when it needed it most given the U.K. vote and would also have strengthened the US commitment to NATO and its members. Trump’s victory, unquestionably a product of Russian interference, has certainly and effectively provided Putin with a significant victory and step toward realizing his goals for despite claims of some commitment to NATO there is no doubt that the Trump administration will pursue an isolationist policy in the face of any Russian aggression in the east leaving it to the EU as the last, best hope of responding to Russia’s provocations.

Which brings us to the election in France. LePen, as with Trump, has made clear her embrace of all things Putin and willingness to do his bidding under the same Trump-like refrain making France France again. That bidding includes quickly pursuing a withdrawal from the EU under the guise (as with Brexit) of having to close borders which had become too porous in the EU model. Withdrawal would leave the EU on the precipice of total collapse with Germany as the last remaining major economic power left to protect the Union of nations but with Germany also facing its own elections and Putin’s cyber attacks becoming more refined and effective with each election it seeks to undermine it is likely Germany, too, will face its own crisis. Regardless, a French exit from the EU will certainly give many of the former eastern bloc countries pause and make their populace if not their governments very vulnerable to the nationalist rhetoric Putin is certain to push in an effort to undermine those governments and ultimately bring those countries back into the fold and return Russia to its glory days as a superpower on the same footing as the United States.

Why does this matter for the United States? As this destabilization unfolds the U.S. will be left once again to deal with a re-energized Russia which will seek at every turn to contest any US policy it deems not in its interests by any means necessary. This tension may not mean much to a Trump administration which has shown no interest in dealing with the complexities of a globalist world but at some point that administration will be replaced. The results of Putin’s aggression and Trump’s isolationism will be felt for years to come unless Putin and his designs are confronted now. Our interests are best serve by a stable EU that is allowed to continue the process of integrating the former eastern bloc countries into its fold.

As I said at the outset, it's not too melodramatic to state the obvious. These perilous times are becoming more perilous by the day.

An Abject Failure to Govern

In the seven years since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (which, by the way, was passed seven years ago this week), the Republican Party made it its life mission to repeal a piece of legislation that while flawed in some aspects succeeded over time in remedying many of the problems which beset the delivery of health care in this country. So intent was the GOP on repealing the law which they derogatorily referred to as Obamacare that they voted no less than 52 times to do so and in the process failed miserably to conduct the people's business. Though the effort began well before the passage of the ACA, the Republican Party and its patrons -- the Koch Brothers and similarly ideological entities -- spent tens of millions of dollars to rig the electoral process by pushing through voter suppression legislation at the local level and gerrymandering voting districts throughout the country to ensure that Republican candidates would either prevail in the first instance or run for re-election virtually certain of winning, all to increase their numbers in the House of Representatives and all with an eye on implementing an agenda which held out the repeal of the Affordable Care Act as its top priority. Consequently though not exclusively because of that effort, Republicans took control of both the House and the Senate during the mid-term elections in 2010 and have held fast to their majority every since.

Fast forward to 2017. In control of both Houses of Congress due, in large part, to dark money pouring into the electoral process and now in control of a White House by means which have raised considerable suspicion of a "fix" and hints of criminal conduct, the Republican Party was poised to realize their highest priority. Yet even with so much muscle poised to be flexed, even that amount of leverage was not enough for a party that has shown a willingness to bend and break the rules to gain the upper hand. So, in a final act to game the system and ensure passage of its response to the ACA, the Republican Party resorted to parliamentary gamesmanship to ensure that whatever was put forth in the name of repealing the ACA required only a simple majority to pass rather than requiring a veto-proof majority which is typically the case with legislation, doing so by attaching whatever they produced to a budget reconciliation bill that required but a simple majority to pass.

And with all that...with seven years of opportunity to offer a law that, at least in their view, corrected the flaws in the ACA, with an unrelenting campaign to rig the electoral process to ensure the election of Republican candidates and suppress non-Republican votes, with studied ignorance of the unethical and almost certainly criminal conduct which put Donald Trump in the White House and with one last piece of gamesmanship intended to guarantee a victory...with all that the Republican Party failed miserably to achieve the one goal that have had FOR SEVEN YEARS. Trump Et al were quick to blame the GOP's abject failure on the Democrats...a not surprising but absolutely ludicrous claim given that the GOP controls the entire government and simply needed one vote over the minimum to secure a majority but could not muster enough votes from its own party to carry the day.

Certainly the American people are the winners this evening though frankly for millions of people the impact of the GOP failure today is more about surviving and being able to have access to medical care than about winning. Nevertheless, it is the American people who are the beneficiaries of an abject Republican failure to govern. This reprieve may very well be short-lived and people must remain vigilant and not succumb to the sense that they and we have moved past a terrible policy that may very well have wrecked havoc on tens of millions of lives. The forces which the GOP brought to bear, however, ill-fated for the moment, are certain to regroup and press forward with another effort at a so-called, "repeal and replace". Resistance was and must remain the watchword in response.

Trump and Putin: Smoke and Fire?

We may never know the where, when or how of the Russian investment in Donald Trump began but it is certain by now that that investment was made with an eye toward furthering Vladimir Putin’s designs on reasserting Russia’s place among the major powers. Whether a by-product of greed or nationalism (or a combination of the two), Putin has sought to reverse Russia’s fall from superpower status to an almost after-thought. Part of the strategy sees Russia regaining control over Eastern Europe. Other aspects of the strategy see Russia reinserting itself into the Middle Eastern quagmire by becoming a supposed “broker for peace”. In both instances, the main impediment, whether directly or otherwise has been and remains the United States. Dissent at home has been quashed due in large part to Putin’s government taking control of the media by both taking control of the over-the-air news media and silencing his critics in the media. By doing so Putin’s news media relentlessly aired criticisms of the then-Obama administration, much of the content either untrue or skewed to serve Putin’s world view, to justify the need for Russia to protect itself against “US aggression”. That Putin’s approval ratings are above 90% speaks to the success of a strategy intended to clear the way domestically for Russia to assert itself aggressively beyond its borders. Manifestations of this strategy can be seen in Russia’s push into Crimea and its efforts to destabilize the Ukraine. The broader goal of the latter effort was to force upon NATO a “fish-or-cut-bait” decision with regard to Ukraine’s flirtation with NATO. Were Ukraine to become a member state of NATO, it would be compelled to honor its defense commitment to its membership and counter any effort by Russia to force its will upon Ukraine by military means. Think of the Putin’s strategy as a shot across NATO’s bow to make it decide now whether its worth it for NATO step in in the Ukraine or let it fall. So far it would appear that that shot at NATO has had its intended effect. That is not to say that there has been no response. The Obama administration, in conjunction with former and present members of the EU imposed harsh economic sanctions on Russia which have only exacerbated the precarious state of Russia’s economy. While the sanctions themselves have worked, they have also served to fuel Putin’s quest to destroy the NATO alliance with the expectation that by breaking the alliance the sanctions will end.

The situation with Ukraine and NATO is, however, more complicated as it is likely that Putin views the annexation of the Ukraine as a test of NATO’s willingness to make good on its commitment to its members which now count among that membership many of the nations which previously were part of the Soviet Union and which are certainly objects of Putin’s desire. So, too, are the prior satellite nations of the Soviet Union…. Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia.

NATO, in many ways, is a symbol of unity between the United States and Europe and its health depends, to a large degree, upon its financing principally by the US and the nations which make up (or made up before the UK’s exit) the European Union though that financial burden is borne by a greater degree by the United States in large part because it has always been this country’s doctrinal foreign policy that it is worth our disproportionate investment to make it easier for more nations to become members and, in doing so, become surrogates for the United States in its exercise of its foreign policy. That is, until now.

Putin has made clear through his actions that he views NATO and the United States’ commitment to NATO as one of if not the greatest impediment to the advancement of his “Make Russia Great Again” policy. While testing NATO’s commitment to Eastern Europe by military means could certainly serve to test that commitment, there are obviously far too many risks to Russia which still teeters on the brink of economic collapse. The better and less risky strategy for Russia is to undermine the foundation of NATO from within…that is destroy its financial support and, by doing so, cause the alliance to collapse.

Which brings us to Donald Trump.

While I suspect that certain intelligence services in the United States, Europe and Asia may know how and when Trump and Putin began their dance, those facts are as yet obviously not generally known or available. Recent reporting has made clear that the dance began well before Trump announced his run for President and it may very well be that that announcement came only after a number of pieces were finally put into place. Once those pieces were in place and the announcement of his candidacy made, Trump made clear from the outset his belief that the United States would best be served by reducing its commitment to NATO if not pulling out altogether. He also made clear that he favored curtailing sanctions on Russia and has (to this day) defended Putin and portrayed himself as the one person who could work with the Russian President. Now, if we’ve learned anything about Trump it is that he is clearly not a policy wonk and has little patience or interest in any policy discussion let alone foreign policy so the statements about NATO undoubtedly originated elsewhere. He held fast to those views throughout the election cycle and continues to do so despite some comments by his surrogates to the contrary. One clear indication of Trump carrying forward Russia’s message was his seemingly bizarre insistence on removing any condemnation of Russia’s interference with the Ukraine from the Republican platform in advance of its convention.

What is also clear is Russia’s embrace of Trump and his campaign. Russia’s government controlled media carried stories on a daily basis telling the Russian people about Russia’s friend, Donald Trump and the threat posed were Hillary Clinton to become President. What was obviously not shared with the Russian people was the efforts being made behind the scenes to ensure that friend, Trump became president.

Though there were clear indications throughout the campaign of Trump’s affinity for the Russian government and Putin in particular, the media, in typical fashion, paid little attention, drawn more so to the supposed scandals engulfing the Clinton campaign. It is only of late…since the election…that the mainstream media has finally awakened, albeit not entirely, to the relationship between Trump, the Trump Organization and the Russian government. While it tends to be viewed as Trump bringing a team on board to help with his campaign, it is probably more accurate to say that members of the Trump team were included to ensure that the Russian connection was protected. Moreover, while the Russian government was busy hacking the DNC, as reported in Slate Magazine in October 2016, a direct link between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, a banking organization that is run by oligarchs friendly to Vladimir Putin was identified by a cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike, which detected the odd nature of the link as part of its routine testing of cybersecurity hypotheses. The servers involved with the link have since been shut down once the story was published. The FBI and intelligence services, however, have reported been taking a close look at that link.

The members of the Trump team with ties to the Russian government are presumably well known. Among them, Paul Manafort who served as Trump’s campaign manager until it was discovered that Mr. Manafort was having ongoing discussions with both Russian and Ukrainian officials before and during the campaign.

There is also Roger Stone, a chief strategist for the Trump campaign who, we now learn, was exchanging email with a Russian hacker working for Russian intelligence, Guccifer 2.0 during the latter months of the campaign when the supposed scandal involving Hillary Clinton’s email again surfaced as a by-product of Russia’s hacking of the DNC and Paul Podesta.

There is, of course, the bizarre story of Michael Flynn who was so highly placed in the Trump firmament that he was an invited speaker at the GOP convention and led the “Lock her up” chant. This is the same Michael Flynn who was paid a sizable fee to attend a trade dinner with Putin in 2015 and was seen on video leading a standing ovation for the Russian leader. This is also the same Michael Flynn who was having undisclosed discussions with the Russian government at the time that Obama had announced sanctions against Russia as a result of its hacking of the DNC and (successful) attempts to influence the Presidential election, the same Michael Flynn who paid $28,000 to ex-FBI agent Brian McCauley in October 2016 just days before McCauley apparently leaked a claim that the FBI had been told of efforts by the Clinton State Department to influence the FBI’s investigation…a claim which turned out to not be true. The same Michael Flynn who circulated wild stories in the latter months of the campaign about Clinton being involved with sex trafficking and the same Michael Flynn who was all the time working as a foreign agent for Turkey (and Russia?). T

The rogues gallery also includes Erik Prince, the notorious former head of Blackwater who, among his various actions in support of the Trump campaign, spearheaded the spreading of false information about the emails found on Anthony Weiner’s computer and kept alive the (false) claim that the emails were newly discovered and highly damaging to Clinton…which of course they were not. The operation is generally credited with forcing James Comey’s hand in announcing the discovery of the emails just weeks before the election. Erik Prince, it should be mentioned, is the brother of Betsy DeVos. See a connection between Prince’s actions and DeVos’ appointment to lead Education?

Finally, among the strangest pieces is Felix Sater, a Russian Jew who, together with a Trump attorney, was recently reported by the Washington Post to be among the members of the Trump team who maintained back-channel communication with Russia (and probably Russian intelligence services) during the campaign with the supposed intent of negotiating a peace deal between Russia and the Ukraine. Sater was a senior advisor to Trump and the Trump Organization some ten years ago while Trump was attempting to make investments in Moscow. In his former life, Sater, then an investment counselor with White Rock Partners, was indicted in connection with a “pump and dump” scheme that netted him tens of millions of dollars. Though convicted, Sater’s sentencing was stayed (in fact he was never sentenced and incurred only a small fine) because he had begun work as an agent for US Intelligence services and was actually engaged as an agent for US intelligence while he was apparently also working for Trump and the Trump Organization in seeking a foothold in Russia.

Anyone who thinks that these multiple and varied connections between the Trump Organization and Administration and Russia is of no consequence are deluding themselves. Moreover, it is inconceivable that Donald Trump himself was unaware of these varied connections nor is it inconceivable that he did not play a role in coordinating the efforts to engage the Russians in undermining the electoral process. After all this is a man who claims to have never lost and most assuredly will do anything and everything to win. The fact that those efforts run contrary to the interests of the West and, in particular, the United States is not a consideration when winning is everything.

How this all plays out remains to be seen. We are only two months into the Trump administration and many of the recent revelations (including Flynn’s resignation) have shone a light bright enough to cause the cockroaches to run for cover…at least until enough time passes that the light dims. In the meantime,

-->

With so much attention placed on the impact on the US election itself few if any questions are being asked, “Why would the Russians push so hard to put Trump in the White House”. The answers, to a large extent, are clear and pose an imminent danger to our vital interests at home and abroad. Putin’s strategy, having succeeded in destabilizing and delegitimizing the US electoral process is now turning his attention to Europe with signs that nationalist parties in both France and Germany have a legitimate chance of replacing more established globalist governments that have traditionally honored commitments to NATO and free trade. If Putin succeeds in destabilizing those elections as he has in the United States, it is a near certainty that NATO will collapse and if the alliance fails, the way will be clear for Russia to advance its designs on Eastern Europe. The consequences of such a failure would undoubtedly reshape the world as we know it.