Sabotage: Reality or Conspiracy Theory?
The following is in part an answer to a comment by Jerry Critter on a post of mine, although I have had it in mind to write this for a few days.
Here is Green Eagle's current "conspiracy theory;" as if anything ascribing evil motives to the Republican party could possibly be deranged enough to be considered a conspiracy theory any more:
Let's get one thing straight here: We are unlikely to ever see Trump and his tools admitting that they are traitors allied with a foreign dictator. That is the only thing that would even begin to get right wingers to admit the truth, and very few of them would do it even then. But given the ability and manifest willingness of Republicans in Washington to blot out the truth about their criminality, I think we can all safely say that Donald Trump is in league with Vladimir Putin; either voluntarily for some sort of gigantic payout*, or as a result of blackmail. We have so much evidence to support that obvious fact, that only the wilfully blind could deny it at this point.
It is clear that, in furtherance of whatever compact he has with Putin, he has spent the time since his "election" deliberately damaging our nation's ties with even our most firm and long-standing allies. It is obvious that no one benefits from that but Vladimir Putin.
Now, I suspect, Trump is moving on to another stage in his campaign to weaken our government. For the last several weeks I have noticed a continual series of actions by the Trump "administration" and Republicans in Congress that seem to have no purpose at all except to hurt Americans that are not vastly rich. For a while, noting Trump's character and that of his followers, I chalked that up to a streak of real sadism added to their greed; a love of inflicting harm for its own sake, even when it does nothing to advance the goals of the hyper-rich sociopaths that own the Republican party.
I still think there is a strong element of that in their behavior, but I have begun to have serious suspicions that there is something far more malignant at work here. Not content to sever the United States from its allies, the Republicans are, I suspect, engaged in a deliberate campaign to utterly isolate the government from its own people, making all of them see it as their enemy. They won't even do a thing for those 63,000 coal miners who they played so cruelly during the election, and who will now be left to wither and die along with the rest of us.
What is the end goal here? I fear that it is a country whose military may be just chock full of guns and airplanes and ships, but which has so few supporters at home or abroad that it can be toppled by the slightest breeze; something which Vladimir Putin will be happy to provide, at very little cost to himself.
I am reminded of a speech by, of all people, Richard Nixon, in which he had the following to say:
Nixon was, of course, babbling away about a fictional threat to this country by Vietnam protesters. It is strange, is it not, that a half century later, there is a real threat to our great institutions, from the direct descendants of the aforementioned Nixon, and that it is those Republican descendants who appear to be now plotting to render our country a pitiful helpless giant?
Lunacy from Green Eagle, or a reasonable interpretation of the facts at this point? We'll see soon.
*It is interesting to note that there have been several fairly trustworthy reports that Putin has offered Trump and Tillerson 20% of the value Putin would realize from Trump ending oil sanctions on Russia. That alone would amount to a nearly $100 billion dollar bribe to be split between them. That money alone would make Trump and Tillerson the eighth and ninth richest people in the world, ignoring the money they already have. And that is just one deal.
Here is Green Eagle's current "conspiracy theory;" as if anything ascribing evil motives to the Republican party could possibly be deranged enough to be considered a conspiracy theory any more:
Let's get one thing straight here: We are unlikely to ever see Trump and his tools admitting that they are traitors allied with a foreign dictator. That is the only thing that would even begin to get right wingers to admit the truth, and very few of them would do it even then. But given the ability and manifest willingness of Republicans in Washington to blot out the truth about their criminality, I think we can all safely say that Donald Trump is in league with Vladimir Putin; either voluntarily for some sort of gigantic payout*, or as a result of blackmail. We have so much evidence to support that obvious fact, that only the wilfully blind could deny it at this point.
It is clear that, in furtherance of whatever compact he has with Putin, he has spent the time since his "election" deliberately damaging our nation's ties with even our most firm and long-standing allies. It is obvious that no one benefits from that but Vladimir Putin.
Now, I suspect, Trump is moving on to another stage in his campaign to weaken our government. For the last several weeks I have noticed a continual series of actions by the Trump "administration" and Republicans in Congress that seem to have no purpose at all except to hurt Americans that are not vastly rich. For a while, noting Trump's character and that of his followers, I chalked that up to a streak of real sadism added to their greed; a love of inflicting harm for its own sake, even when it does nothing to advance the goals of the hyper-rich sociopaths that own the Republican party.
I still think there is a strong element of that in their behavior, but I have begun to have serious suspicions that there is something far more malignant at work here. Not content to sever the United States from its allies, the Republicans are, I suspect, engaged in a deliberate campaign to utterly isolate the government from its own people, making all of them see it as their enemy. They won't even do a thing for those 63,000 coal miners who they played so cruelly during the election, and who will now be left to wither and die along with the rest of us.
What is the end goal here? I fear that it is a country whose military may be just chock full of guns and airplanes and ships, but which has so few supporters at home or abroad that it can be toppled by the slightest breeze; something which Vladimir Putin will be happy to provide, at very little cost to himself.
I am reminded of a speech by, of all people, Richard Nixon, in which he had the following to say:
"We see mindless attacks on all the great institutions which have been created by free civilizations in the last 500 years...
If, when the chips are down, the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world."
Nixon was, of course, babbling away about a fictional threat to this country by Vietnam protesters. It is strange, is it not, that a half century later, there is a real threat to our great institutions, from the direct descendants of the aforementioned Nixon, and that it is those Republican descendants who appear to be now plotting to render our country a pitiful helpless giant?
Lunacy from Green Eagle, or a reasonable interpretation of the facts at this point? We'll see soon.
*It is interesting to note that there have been several fairly trustworthy reports that Putin has offered Trump and Tillerson 20% of the value Putin would realize from Trump ending oil sanctions on Russia. That alone would amount to a nearly $100 billion dollar bribe to be split between them. That money alone would make Trump and Tillerson the eighth and ninth richest people in the world, ignoring the money they already have. And that is just one deal.
Comments
He's incompetent enough to damage the ties without realizing it.
I still subscribe to Mark Cuban's hypothesis - Russia's corrupted the people around Trump, but Trump's too stupid to realize it. If I were in Russian intelligence, I wouldn't trust Trump with any information, but I would consider making him a "useful idiot" by surrounding him with our agents.
However, given that Russian state media seems to be souring on him, the Russian government might be doubting the "useful" part of the label.