Trump
Dreams vs Trump Reality – Hopes Still Permitted!
By The
Saker
February 19, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- For a lot of Trump supporters the past
week has been a painful one. Whether we chose to
react with abject panic or pretended like
nothing happened, something
did
happen and it was something
big:
the Three Letter Agencies pulled-off a de
facto coup against Donald Trump by forcing
him to fire his most important foreign policy
advisor and the man who had dared to declare
that he wanted to reform the bloated and largely
ineffective US intelligence community.
There
is no way of putting a brave face on what
happened. Not only because it showed that Trump
is not loyal to those who are loyal to him, but
because this episode pretty much killed what I
would call the “Trump dream”. I chose my words
carefully here. I speak of “Trump dream” as
opposed to the Trump reality. Let me explain.
The
“Trump dream”
When
Trump won the elections the spectrum of hopes
about his actions was very wide. It ranged from
“Trump will forever reshape the international
system, end the Empire and bring peace and
prosperity to the USA” to “he will never be as
bad as Hillary no matter what he does”. On that
spectrum, here is what I would list as the key
elements of the “Trump dream”:
-
Draining the swamp: kicking the Neocons down
to the basement they crawled out of 24 years
ago, reforming the US intelligence
community, possibly even dissolving the CIA
or, at the very least, subordinating it, and
the JCS, to the President.
-
Making peace with Russia and negotiate a
“grand bargain” which would clearly spell
out how the USA and Russia would act towards
each other and jointly against common
threats. At the very least, this would imply
an agreement on the Ukraine and Syria.
-
Work with Russia to create a new European
security system which would keep NATO as a
political organization, but which would
“dilute it” into a new security framework
ranging from Portugal to the Ural mountains
and which would include a 21st
century version of the Conventional Forces
Europe treaty.
-
Stop pouring billions of dollars into the
Empire and redirect the immense resources
currently wasted on war, aggression and
subversion back into the United States and
their decaying infrastructure, medical care,
education, small business, etc. Until now,
the main profitable sectors of the US
economy were either the military-industrial
complex or finance. The hope was that Trump
would kick-start the “real” economy: the
production of goods and services.
-
End what I would call the “dictatorship of
the minorities” and replace it with a
restoration of the sovereignty of the
majority of the American people over their
country. The “Rachel Maddows” who used to be
the “ideological masters” of the
AngloZionist regime would be gently ushered
towards the doors and replaced by people
most Americans could identify with.
-
Law and order would be restored to the USA
and the uncontrolled flow of immigrants
would finally be regulated at least to some
degree.
-
Last, but most definitely not least, Trump
would
not
act on this stupid, counter-productive and
self-defeating Iran-bashing and
China-bashing rhetoric. Remember – what I am
listing here is not a realistic evaluation
of what Trump might do once in power, but
what I deliberately called the “Trump dream”
with emphasis on the second word. Sure,
there might be those who wanted Trump to
deliver on his threats and possibly even
start a war with Iran or China, but I have
not met them. (Then again, these are not
people I like to be around). Again, this is
my,
subjective and personal outline of what I
think many (most?) Trump supporters were
dreaming about, nothing more.
Following the past week, I would say that, for
the most part, this dream is now over,
especially points 1,2,3 and 5, points 6 and 7
are on life support and only 4 is having of
chills and a runny nose but might still live.
They
key, of course, is point 1: draining the swamp.
In other words, wrestling the power away from
the Neocons and the US ‘deep state’ and putting
it back where it belongs: in the hands of a
President with a mandate of a majority of the
American people. That is, alas, the biggest loss
we all suffered last week: the man who was
supposed to drain the swamp got a humiliating
smack-down by a deep state drunk on its own
infinite chutzpah. The biggest deal is
not that Flynn was sacked, although that is a
big deal, but the fact that the deep state
forced Trump into publicly betraying Flynn and
sacking him instead of those who were involved
in this palace coup (including Pence himself).
What
the deep state demonstrated this week is that
everybody in the Executive Branch serves not at
the pleasure of the President, but at the
pleasure of the deep state, including
probably Donald Trump himself.
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By
terminating Trump’s #2 the Neocons have now
shown the world that everybody else (#3, #4,
etc.) and possibly #1 are all here only to the
extend that they, the Neocons, let them. I am
personally convinced that unless Donald Trump
finds in himself the courage to mount a major
counter-attack, the Neocons will find a way of
kicking him out of the White House before his
term ends. That is typically their style:
sending “messages” and “making an example”.
If
Trump “behaves” they might, possibly, let him do
a little of points #6 (law and order) and #4
(redirecting some money to the US homeland). As
for point #7 (Iran and China bashing), that is
the only part of his program which they will
enthusiastically support (thereby also ending
the dream of him
not
acting on that crazy nonsense).
So
yeah, this is bad, and barring a miracle, the
dream is really over.
However, let’s put that right back in
perspective.
The
Trump reality
If the
dream is over, that is hardly a
reason to become despondent or to claim that
supporting Trump was a mistake. Please always
keep in mind what the alternative was: Hillary
Clinton.
One of my favorite Russian commentators, Ruslan
Ostashko, brilliantly put it
when he
said:
Not a single rational person was
expecting Trump to display true friendship
or love for Russia or an immediate
recognition of Crimea (as part of Russia).
Our joy at the election of Trump was linked
to a single factor: with Clinton we would
had no chances, none at all, to agree on
anything. If Clinton was now sitting in the
White House we would not be discussing the
issue of the recognition of Crimea or the
future of US sanctions. We would be trying
to guess when the nuclear war would start,
we would be studying our bomb shelter maps,
how to use a Geiger counter, and how to
count the correct dosage for iodine tablets.
He is
absolutely right, of course. This is also
exactly
what I wrote on November 9th
following the election:
So it has happened: Hillary did not win!
I say that instead of saying that “Trump
won” because I consider the former even more
important than the latter. Why? Because I
have no idea whatsoever what Trump will do
next. I do, however, have an excellent idea
of what Hillary would have done: war with
Russia. Trump most likely won’t do that.
I never
was a “Trump dreamer”. I was merely a Trump
*hoper* meaning that I had hopes that Trump
would not only be better than Hillary, but that
he might deliver on, at least, some of his
“dream” message.
But if
the choice is the Neocons humiliating Trump or
thermonuclear war – then I pick the former, with
gratitude.
Furthermore, however unpleasant this thought
might be to many Americans, it is an undeniable
fact that the United States are currently the
host upon which the AngloZionist parasite feeds
and which this parasite uses to try to subjugate
the entire planet.
What is
happening now is that the Neocons and the deep
state have succeeded in re-taking control of
their host, but only at the cost of a major
weakening of that host. And that is objectively
good for our planet. Just as the coup in Turkey
ended up gutting the military and security
services and dramatically curtailing their
ability to influence the events in Syria (this
is, in part, why Erdogan is now playing ball
with the Russians and the Iranians), the ongoing
color revolution against Trump
is gutting the power of the American host and,
thus, of the AngloZionist parasite. For one
thing, the entire political establishment is so
deeply involved in the struggle for power inside
the USA, that very little bureaucratic energy is
left to deal with anything else. Furthermore, in
political terms, the “indispensable nation” and
“city upon the hill” are now the laughingstock
of the planet. The next time around some State
Department propagandist starts regurgitating the
usual chunk of propaganda prolefeed
about democracy, human right and fair elections
he will be greeted with a hysterical laughter
and screams of “physician, heal thyself!!”.
And, frankly, God only knows where this process
might lead us next. I, for one, would absolutely
not exclude the possibility of civil war in the
USA. And before that statement gets greeted with
jeers and the usual set of ad hominems,
let me remind you that I predicted the civil war
in the Ukraine when almost everybody else was in
total denial (see:
The gates of Hell are opening for the Ukraine,
written on Nov 20th, 2013). At this
point in time, I am not predicting a civil war
in the USA, but I am saying that it has become a
real possibility.
Civil
war or not, all the Neocons and the deep state
are doing is accelerating the inevitable
collapse of the USA as a world hegemon. True,
Trump could not have prevented it, but he
could have negotiated it, using the still
immense power of the USA to get the best
possible deal from the other big actors. If a
person falls off a skyscraper, there is no way
of preventing him of hitting the ground – but
whether he has a parachute or not will make a
huge difference to him on how he will land. That
is what Trump could have done – making a
“descent on the breaks” as the Russians
expression goes. The skills to make that happen
are straightforward: realism, willingness to
negotiate, ability to understand the other guy,
the courage to give up that which is not
sustainable, etc. That is the exact skillset
that the Neocons totally lack. What they can do
is double-down, then double-down again, and then
double-down some more. And that kind of maniacal
attitude always leads to catastrophe.
Whatever may be the case, the big story for the
foreseeable future will be the infighting inside
the US deep state. Why infighting? Because Trump
is also part of the deep state, he did not just
suddenly pop out of nowhere ex nihilo,
he had, and still has, powerful backers. That’s
the, comparatively speaking, the good news. The
bad news is that the faction of the deep state
which is backing Trump appears to be the weaker
one. And Trump himself is not exactly a knight
in shining armor, to put it mildly. Still, if we
imagine that by some aggregate measure of power
the anti-Trump forces inside the deep state are,
oh, 70% and the Trump supporters are therefore
30%, the infighting between the 70% and the 30%
will leave very little energy to either party to
deal with Russia, China or Iran.
It
is a sweet irony that the big proponents of
divide et impera did just that to
themselves, is it not?
Conclusion
It is
way too early to become despondent. Yes, the
“Trump dream” is probably over, it was beautiful
as long as it lasted, but now the “Trump
reality” is taking center stage and we all need
to learn how to operate in this new context. We
need to carefully and systematically study this
new reality and carefully parse it for all the
risk and opportunities it presents us with. And
there are a lot of great opportunities, along
with very real risks, to be discovered. Just the
fact that the leaders of the Empire have turned
against each other is a God sent blessing! Let’s
use that to the max.
Coincidence or not, but
the Duran is reporting
that the Chairman of the JCS, General Joe
Dunford, and General Valery Gerasimov, the Chief
of the Russian military’s General Staff have met
in Baku. This is the first such meeting since
January 2014 and it took place in a “cordial
atmosphere”. In fact, Dunford reassured
Gerasimov that there are in fact no plans to
deploy US ground troops to Syria (there are, of
course, already several thousand US troops on
the ground in Syria, both sides know that, but
both sides also know what Dunford is referring
to: regular armed forces).
Can you
imagine such a meeting under Hillary?
What
happened is really simple. With the election of
Trump, the Neocons suffered a crushing defeat
and it took them less than a month to regroup
and castrate Trump. This is bad and the “Trump
dream” is over. But we – the resistance to
Empire, as still in very good shape. After all,
Trump was never *our* candidate, he was the
candidate of the part of the deep state which
we, opponents of the US deep state in toto,
supported as a lesser evil: and we were
right – he was and he still is the lesser evil.
Furthermore, the party which really lost the
most is the Trump-supporting part of the deep
state, and they now enough power left (10, 30 or
45 percent – that does not really matter) to
regroup and fight back. And if/when they do
fight back, we still have to give them our
support simply because that is the moral and
pragmatic thing to do. Right now, Trump looks
like Yanukovich, true. But I think that he is
also a far smarter and much more honorable
person than Yanukovich. Call me naïve, but my
gut feeling is that Trump cares for the USA and
that he wants to do the right thing. I might be
wrong, of course. But at least so far I do not
see the clear signs of the total rot and
corruption which Yanukovich has all over his
face. Furthermore, Trump appears to be learning.
That is very important. In
his latest press conference
Trump finally finally showed some real guts and
counter-attacked the media, very effectively I
would say. And remember how fast Trump learned
from his first defeat in the debate against
Hillary? Trump might be a fast learner and if
that is really the case, then he might learn
some most useful lessons from the entire Flynn
debacle.
Hopes still permitted :-)
So
hopes are still permitted. Not expectations –
those are always bad. But reasonable,
reality-compatible hopes. Like all humans,
politicians change. If the Neocons don’t succeed
in impeaching him, Trump might still end up
kicking some ass, so to speak. And if they do
impeach him, they will further weaken the
Empire. So, all in all, I would say that while
we had a very bad week we are still on good
shape.
The
Saker
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