Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Are We Prepared For The Kind Of Catastrophic Disruption That Will Inevitably Lead To A Trump-Bannon Take Over?

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-by Michael Wolkowitz

My old friend Michael Wolkowitz tells people he was formed in the late ‘60s. He's a dissident producer, a Social Democrat, and former board member of many progressive organizations, including a stint as the Chair of the Progressive Congress PAC. He put this post together after the Progressive Caucus Summit in Baltimore over the weekend.

I was not able to attend last weekend’s Progressive Congress Summit. I did, however, receive a thought provoking report of remarks made by Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) during a panel discussion. The essence of the report was this:
"What happens if the country is confronted by a security crisis such as 9/11 or something else, no matter what the circumstances are or who is the instigator? We know that the administration will treat this as a political power opportunity the same way Bush did. We (Progressives/Dems/Both or Other) need to think about doing a better job of responding and not letting he-who-must-not-be-named get away with trying to legitimize either himself, his presidency, or his agenda over a inflicted or self-inflicted national security crisis. She bolstered her argument by referring to the falsely created environment in the 2002 and 2004 elections. She did this quite credibly, bypassing the usual conspiracy discussion that often goes with making any point around 9/11. Conspiracy or not, 9/11 became a political strategy."
I agree with Rep. Jayapal and have been concerned about this very issue. Especially as both a Diasporan Jew and a student of 20th Century Revolutions and Regime Changes. I also believe that in addition to Rep. Jayapal's reminders of the reverberations and manipulations that stemmed from 9/11, it is also worth considering that:

Sadly, we are still on that same duplicitous  post-9/11 war footing.

See: Billions of dollars of off-budget (“PayGo” - HA) on-going war expenditures.

See: Violence, death, destruction, displacement, pain and hardship in Afghanistan/Pakistan/Libya/Syria/Iraq/...

See: Guantanamo Bay.

See: Unconsitutional domestic surveillance.

See: Thousands of undisclosed drone and special ops attacks that kill and maim thousands of innocent people.

See: The acceptance of “The Homeland” as a way of referring to our nation (American is bad enough considering the rest of the Americas).

See:  etc. etc. etc.

I mention these continuing and nightmarish issues merely because the current state of affairs requires that our imagination reach beyond 9/11. We must:
Remember the Reichstag fire and Kristallnacht. 
Remember overthrowing Mossadegh and installing the Shah. [Quite a list of these... Lumumba, Allende, et ALL].
Remember Bolsheviks screwing Menshiviks (see: Bannon).
Imagine Ivanka as Evita (sorry, always need a tee hee factor).
Mostly, remember the Empires that have fallen. Which ones? Doesn’t matter. Other than our own current reign, they have all fallen since the dawn of recorded history. It’s just a matter of how messy, how many dead people, how much and what kind of pillaging, and who’s turn comes next.
I do not know whose Empire will come next. I do know that we must understand the entire global (animal, vegetable and mineral) context of the threats hovering and opportunities lurking if we are to survive. We must consider the history of homo sapiens who have lived and are living right now throughout the entire planet. There is a slim but real chance that what President Vaclav Havel used to say could happen: "Truth and Love must prevail over Lies and Hatred."

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3 Comments:

At 10:51 AM, Anonymous Hone said...

You are so right. We must be incredibly vigilant. The stakes are extremely high. I have hope that the majority of Americans have woken up and are now willing to get to the streets in protest. This is now necessary, big time. However, Republicans are now even trying to put a lid on demonstrations in their states. They are as horrible as Trump, and that really says something. As we have seen with the DeVos vote today, the Republicans could care less about democracy, our people, our environment or our country. How could anyone approve such an incompetent? They have no standards, no ethics and no morality - all they care about is their own self enrichment and power. They will go along with all of the evil and destroy all that is good about us in a flash. We have met the enemy and it is us.

And I say to all of those folks who voted third party and made snide disparaging comments towards those who voted for Clinton just to stop Trump, "Are you happy now?"

 
At 11:06 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Michael, good post. though I believe we are all impotent to avoid anything like that. After PNAC wrote that public support of Mideast invasions would require another "Pearl Harbor Moment"... and then cheney created that Anthrax thing (remember anthrax?) but even that became moot when, at best by ignorance and incompetence and at worst by collusion, cheney/bush allowed 9/11, suddenly that PNAC requirement for public support of arbitrary war for oil was there??? They (cheney et al) even had the yellowcake and aluminum tube lies all ready to go as a follow-up to the anthrax... and used them as well.

So please understand that the Reichstag fire was a lesson well learned by republicans; that they've already employed this lesson; and that they would never hesitate to use it again. The only question is whether either drumpf or bannon has the degree of messianic ambition they'll need to do it.

I would say that both probably do have the ambition. The bushbaby had cheney under the cloak of darkness. Who would do the wet work for either drumpf or bannon? Is mattis, the obvious choice, that amoral? I don't know.

Also, know that the other well-learned lesson was that of Goebbels. fox and Limbaugh's radio network exist to be their Goebbels and they do a fine job. As such, drumpf's oafishness and militance toward anyone who doesn't suck his tiny dick might be counterproductive enough to neuter their propaganda vehicles somewhat.

What will probably happen is this:
drumpf will ban all but fox and Limbaugh, which will cow the rest of the profit-uber-alles media into falling into line.
the next pearl harbor event will be created or allowed so that martial law and suspension of the few shards left of the constitution will be declared.
elections in 2018 will be suspended
someone, like Syria or iran will be invaded creating a state of war vs. Russia (they'll probably just let us lose another one instead of immediately attacking).
the public will poll 67% in favor of all of it.

Eventually, when drumpf dies (or is assassinated by bannon), bannon will assume the chancellorship and declare himself the state and require fealty oaths... and camps with ovens will be built.

What, you think that goes too far? History anyone? anyone?

 
At 1:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Eventually, when drumpf dies (or is assassinated by bannon), bannon will assume the chancellorship and declare himself the state and require fealty oaths... and camps with ovens will be built."

Truly the sign of a juvenile mind (I mean Bannon) if he was to follow the 1934 script that closely. Much easier to release the 1918 influenza virus after immunizing the "worthy" and kill off all of the undesirables without marring the landscape with ugly architecture.

 

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