Twilight of Democracy and "The Shadow"

Oct. 24, 10:00 p.m. -  Added Item:  The Administration’s announcement that it was initiating a criminal investigation into the investigation which resulted in the Mueller Report is just a very clever tool to bring about more delay in the ultimate impeachment of the president. 

Sadly, some Democrats and even such astute commentators as Rachel Maddow will fall for this and will spend time responding to it, time which otherwise would be better used to strengthen the case the for impeachment and the removal from office of Donald Trump.  There's a lot of work to be done to swing some votes in the Republican-controlled Senate!

Trump’s tactic is to get the Democrats to play “defense” while his team pretends to be on “offense.”   Usually, except for occasional fumble recoveries and intercepted passes, touchdowns are not scored by teams on “defense.”  The “investigation” will amount to nothing, but it looks like it will delay and divert the Democrats’ “offense” from their true goal, proceeding with impeachment.  The evidence for impeachment is overwhelming and that’s why the Republicans are trying to get the “Democrats” to play time consuming “defense.”  Perhaps, even until after the 2020 election. 

I watched a bit of “Hannity” this evening and it is clear this is “red meat” aimed at the President’s supporters, to take their minds off of the increasing likelihood of impeachment based on overwhelming evidence.  Their whole gambit is based on a discredited “conspiracy” theory, which they would love the Democrats to spend time and resources further discrediting, rather than concentrating on impeachment.

Jack Lippman

The President Claims he is Being Lynched.  Not So!

Democracy is a delicate plant.  It can thrive if well fertilized and watered or it can rot and wither away.  With many gardeners, some with little or no experience, entrusted with its care, things can go badly.  And then the gardeners turn to an experienced horticulturalist, one supposedly who knows what to do, to take charge.  Another way of looking at this is the old bromide, "Too many cooks spoil the broth."

Enough with the allegory.  Some gardeners and soup makers have turned away from democracy and put their trust in someone who tries to be more single-minded in running their governments.  Often this actually is the popular choice after the electorate is turned off by the slowly moving wheels of democracy.  Look at Europe.  Hasn’t It happened in at least Poland, Hungary, Italy and what do you think the “Brexit” mess in the UK is all about? Look at Brazil, the Philippines, Pakistan and numerous nations who seem to appreciate autocracy more than democracy.  China and Russia supposedly have democratic forms of government but look at whom the people “elect” there.  Africa and Latin America offer more examples of democracy moving to a back seat, handing the steering wheel to one determined driver.  Which brings us to the United States and Donald Trump.

Julius Caesar's Downfall

When Julius Caesar got too big for his britches, the Roman Senate assassinated him on the infamous “Ides of March.”  Plain and simple, it was the legislative branch versus the executive branch.  Sound familiar?  They did it with knives.  But we don’t do that in the United States, even though that was the norm on our planet many, many centuries ago.  Our four  assassinated Presidents were the victims of “crazies,” not their direct political opponents nor the population in general.

We have two much better alternatives.  First is our electoral process.  We can vote those leaders who become “too big for their britches” out of office.  And if their misfeasance and malfeasance reach the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” requiring immediate action, they can be impeached during their term of office.

That’s where we are today.  Let’s get moving with impeachment. This is not 44 B.C.

The Shadow Knows

The President, by betraying the Kurds (watch out, the Israelis may be next) has abdicated any role for the United States in the Middle East.  We’ll sell weapons to Israeli and to the Sunni Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia’s MBS (the guy who ordered Khashoggi’s murder) while pulling out our troops and along with it, our influence. But that’s it.  We're just arms dealers.  But who steps in to replace us physically?  Russia and Turkey, backing Syria’s Assad, that’s who!  They are no friends of the United States, although their autocratic leaders (see above article) are friends of the President of the United States.  Now that’s quite a paradox!

Why is Donald J. Trump so eager to serve Vladimir Putin.  He has just given him dominance in Syria and an alliance with Turkey, both incidentally willing to play footsie with another of our supposed adversaries, Iran.  And we walk away, against the advice of every American diplomat.  Why?  The Shadow Knows.

And although Putin was booted from the Group of Seven after annexing the Crimea, Donald is now shilling for him, trying to get him invited back in.  Why?  The Shadow Knows.

And the aid the Russians (not the Ukrainians, the Russians) provided to Trump during the 2016 election campaign, thoroughly documented in the Mueller Report which Trump’s lacky, shyster Attorney General Barr, emasculated, must not be ignored.  Why did Trump let Putin get away with that?   (Remember his saying the phony social media material might be the product of some 400 pound kid in his bedroom.  Hah.)  The Shadow Knows.

Why are Executive Branch employees blowing whistles and resigning left and right?  The Shadow Knows.

The Shadow (If you are under age 60, ask someone older about him.)

There is only one answer.  (Go ask Lamont Cranston, the Shadow of old-time radio fame, who knows “what evil lurks in the hearts of men.") The Shadow Knows.  

Vladimir Putin has something to use on Donald Trump.  At a minimum, it is the key to future access to the Russian market for his “hospitality business” after he is out of office.  At the worst, it’s the graphic evidence in British ex-spy Steele’s infamous “dossier,” which no one has proven … nor disproven, for that matter.  Any women involved in it are probably dead by now. Who knows what Vladimir is sitting upon?   But the Shadow Knows.

Finally, what about the President's ordering the withholding from Ukraine of the military equipment  needed in their struggle with Putin's Russia unless their President agreed to attempt to dig up political information useful to Trump's 2020 campaign?  

We don't need the Shadow to figure that one out.  Everyone (except those who get their news from Fox) knows how that happened and knows that act of treason justifies the impeachment and the removal from office of Donald Trump ... even some usually cowering Republicans.   So let's get moving and get that done ... before the traitor in the White House figures out another delaying tactic.