e-commentary

. . .

J          “Smoke and mirrors and sound effects and gratuitous violence.”

. . .

J          “To the extent that he ever had any principles, this goes against them.  He stated that he was against regime change and nation building.  He invaded a sovereign country without legal pretext under the guise of serving an arrest warrant on the basis of flimsy charges.”

K          “Something is not right about the service of the arrest warrant.  There was too little resistance.  The U.S. surely bribed some key officials in Venezuela to stand down.  What is remarkable is how effective the stand down was under the circumstances.  The whole operation may have been theater to display the American killing machine in operation.”

J          “Isn’t everything cosplay today.  More play acting orchestrated by the King of Chaos at the direction of his owners.”

. . .

J          “He is far worse than I ever perceived.  And I have always perceived him as an evil menacing threat.”

K          “As I firmly believe, the ‘Symptom’ of the ‘Problem’ has become a ‘Big Problem’ for the country and the planet.  I note to adherents and disciples of the ‘Problem’ that their candidates and actual policies are the ‘Problem’ that spawned our current circumstances.  They look dumbfounded because the observation finds them dumb to their and our predicament.”

. . .

K          “They could have killed him in some innocuous way.  They wanted to use his flamboyant arrest to make a statement.”

J          “Killing someone often martyrs him or her.  They don’t want to allow him to make a statement.”

. . .

J          “Running the country is a fool’s errand.  Trump needs to keep some structure and infrastructure in place and not allow the descent into chaos that resulted in Iraq.  He does not understand the challenge.”

K          “As I recall, he promised to focus on trying to run a country closer to home.” 

 . . .

J          “Trump may invade Canada or Greenland.  He has all but signaled that force is the only factor.  If diplomacy and public opinion and some internal sense of decency and order fail, the only way to resist force is with force.  Despite high hopes, flowers are ineffective.”

K          “You would think the Businessman-In-Chief would realize that taking by investment rather than by invasion is so much more efficient and effective.  Canada and Greenland will sell whatever the U.S. needs.”

. . .

J          “The legitimate resentment of many foreigners and foreign nations toward the U.S. will be the single most enduring and corrosive consequence of the Trump junta.”

K          “The U.S. may cease to be a country before the resentment abates.  Each new region will need to build credibility and respect.”

. . .

K          “The two prior impeachments were entirely driven by petty politics.  Russiagate was a farce.  However, he is now undertaking actions that provide a prima facie case for impeachment.”

J          “Once again, another election is more consequential than folks realize.  The Democrats must take the House and offer some resistance or at least apply an institutional brake.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

“We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end and, perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.
My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.  That’s what I want to be, a peacemaker and a unifier.”  Donald Trump, Inaugural Address.