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<\/p>\nstraightlinelogic.com<\/p>\n
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The\u00a0Michael Flynn Affair\u00a0<\/em>is one of those movies where you figure out a jumble of things that don\u2019t make sense as you walk out of the theater.<\/strong><\/p>\n There has been a deluge of articles about the Michael Flynn affair from an array of political and ideological vantage points, and SLL has reposted some of them. What\u2019s lacking are coherent and cohesive explanations for what would be, if this were a novel or movie, gaping plot holes. The upshot of many commentators is that Trump has underestimated the Deep State, he\u2019s floundering, and so on. This article takes the opposite tack, out of innate contrariness and because President Trump has been so consistently underestimated by both friends and foes.<\/p>\n Why was Michael Flynn cashiered? The administration\u2019s story is that he talked with a Russian diplomat and mentioned lifting sanctions, then lied about his conversations to Vice President Pence. What\u2019s become the conventional subtext is that the intelligence agencies have launched a \u201csoft coup\u201d against Trump, he has been significantly weakened, and the Deep State has scored a major victory.<\/p>\n Plot hole: if Trump had wanted to keep Flynn, he could have kept him and rode out the media firestorm. Blogger The_Real_Fly<\/a>\u00a0has suggested there was either a prearranged plan for Flynn to make an early exit, or Trump did an about-face, determined Flynn was not a good fit, and decided to get rid of him. A subplot hole: Flynn, an intelligence veteran, undoubtedly knew his phone was tapped. Either he knowingly said what he said to set a trap, or when the Washington Post<\/em> story surfaced, Trump saw his chance and got rid of Flynn. He has demonstrated a cold-blooded capacity to quickly cut his losses: \u201cYou\u2019re fired!\u201d It\u2019s telling that Flynn\u2019s replacement, H.R. McMaster, authored Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam<\/em>. This looks like a classic Trump double down, replacing a maverick the Deep State didn\u2019t like with a bigger one they\u2019ll like even less.<\/p>\n Whatever the real story, Trump has gained valuable leverage on the intelligence agencies. Somebody leaked an intelligence agency transcript of Flynn\u2019s call to the Washington Post, and that\u2019s illegal. Just before he left office, President Obama relaxed limits on the NSA\u2019s dissemination of its information<\/a> to other intelligence agencies, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Obama probably thought he\u2019d be turning those agencies into a collective sieve of untraceable leaks that would plague Trump, but this may backfire spectacularly. With the new rules, the illegal leak could conceivably come from any agency that has access to NSA data. The Trump Justice Department now has carte blanche to investigate them all, unless the agency responsible coughs up the leaker to protect itself and the other agencies.<\/p>\n A gaping plot hole: the Deep State\u2019s stratagems scream weakness, not the strength so many are attributing to it. The Deep State likes to stay in the shadows, zealously protecting its power by shielding it from public view. Trump has forced it into the open, and it doesn\u2019t adjust well to the light. It has resorted to tissue-thin stories planted in the captive media that speak of assessments and opinions, but don\u2019t offer source material that\u2019s supposedly the basis of those subjective judgments.<\/p>\n The Flynn disclosure was in the same vein; the original transcript on which the Post\u2019s story was based has not been made public. This tees it up for Trump to lambaste the mainstream media and intelligence agencies, which he has done repeatedly and to great effect. He was in rare form at his recent press conference<\/a>. You only plant stories in media organs nobody trusts, sourced to anonymous operatives within an intelligence community nobody trusts, obviously breaking the law, and setting yourself up for abuse from the president, because that\u2019s all you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n The whole Russian story reeks of \u201cDesperation<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0It is flimsy and flimsier still is the rationale offered for the Deep State\u2019s dogged loyalty to this concoction. Any rapprochement with Russia supposedly threatens the empire and must be quashed, even if that entails ham-handed efforts to depose an elected president. However, it\u2019s child\u2019s play for Trump to beat a tactical retreat, talk out of the other side of his mouth, and take the wind out of his enemies\u2019 sails.<\/p>\n To counter the Putin puppet fairy tale, he could have his ambassador to the UN condemn Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea. He could continue Obama\u2019s military build up on Russia\u2019s western border. Trump and team could tweet and talk tough about Russia and its allies China and Iran, and reject any joint military operations with Russia in Syria. Oh wait, all this has already happened. So why has the Deep State resorted to repeatedly discredited tactics to propagate its concocted story, ultimately helping the president in his battles with it and its captive press, supposedly in service of a foreign policy criticism of the president that he easily undercuts by adjusting his rhetoric and moving toward their position? What\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n The real story isn\u2019t Russia. Do you mount a \u201csoft coup\u201d over policy differences when, after all the Washington give and take, those policies will, at worst, marginally affect your influence, power, and payola? Doubtful. (Keep in mind Trump wants to increase military budgets.) If, on the other hand, you\u2019re facing complete disgrace and ruin, including a long stretch in a penal institution, there\u2019s nothing you won\u2019t do to save yourself.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not what politicians and bureaucrats do sub rosa that poses the biggest danger to the country and the world, but what they do in broad daylight. However, there\u2019s no denying that Washington is the world capital of sub rosa\u2014the unethical, immoral, and illegal. To use a favorite Trump adjective, it\u2019s a crooked place. Trump knows or suspects where some of the bodies are buried, and the powers that be fear he\u2019ll go after them for everything from garden-variety graft, bribery, theft, and influence peddling to crimes as sordid as child molestation and murder.<\/p>\n He can\u2019t know exactly what he\u2019ll find, but he can turn on the light and watch the cockroaches scuttle. Fishing expeditions for leaks of classified material; a crack team of auditors rooting through accounts and contracts, especially those of the military, the intelligence agencies, and their legions of subcontractors; vigorous prosecution of child pornography and molestation, making deals with small fry in exchange for testimony against bigger fry; Jeffrey Epstein and his Caribbean island; disclosures from intelligence agency archives of deception and illegality stretching back to the Kennedy assassination and Vietnam; disclosure of those 650,000 emails on Anthony Weiner\u2019s laptop; pay to play at the Clinton foundation\u2014the list is endless and who knows what they\u2019ll find. This, not the fear that Trump will revise US policy towards Russia, is behind the Deep State\u2019s cold sweat, motivating its hysterical\u2014comical if wasn\u2019t so serious\u2014campaign to depose him. This is the first time it has faced an unfriendly in the White House, with presidential powers to investigate, expose, prosecute, scandalize, and ruin.<\/p>\n Greene shook his head. \u201cThe Corleone Family don\u2019t have that much muscle anymore. The Godfather is sick. You\u2019re getting chased out of New York by the other Families and you think you can find easier pickings here. I\u2019ll give you some advice, Mike, don\u2019t try.\u201d<\/p>\n The Godfather, Mario Puzo<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Trump may be weak like Michael Corleone was weak, just before he wiped out his enemies, including Moe Greene. Like Corleone, Trump may be trying to further an impression of feebleness and for the same reasons: to make his enemies overconfident and to flush out traitors.<\/p>\n Until the swamp is drained, there is no prospect of making America great again.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n