Zero-D Chess

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The old paleocons were right about most things, particularly about the growth of the managerial state, but they were not right about everything. There were things they simply could not imagine, much in the same way sci-fi writers cannot imagine the cultural implications of technology. No matter how smart you are, you can only think so many moves ahead. One thing the paleocons got wrong about the managerial state is just how corrosive it was to the people inside the managerial class. It makes them weak and stupid.

This post about the scheming of Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller is a good example of how weakness is viewed as strength by people inside the system.

In court filings last week the Department of Justice deployed what could be the nuclear option in its latest effort to prevent President Trump from declassifying information regarding FISA warrants used to spy on his campaign aide Carter Page: It is claiming that such a move would interfere with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

This is the first time the DOJ has explicitly made this argument implying personal peril for the president, since interference could open Trump to charges of obstruction of justice. Until now, the department has argued that declassifying the documents threatened national security.

In the 178-page court document, DOJ officials said they had “determined that disclosure of redacted information in the Carter Page FISA documents could reasonably be expected to interfere with the pending investigation into Russian election interference.”

That rationale has heightened suspicions among congressional investigators that the special counsel is being used to prevent the disclosure of possible FBI abuses and crimes committed during the Russia probe. Opened by the FBI in July 2016, the Russia investigation was taken over by Mueller when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed him special counsel in 2017.

By the DOJ’s logic, according to one source, the fact that the investigation is ongoing protects it from scrutiny, including the president’s.

The post goes on to explain that the reptilian Rod Rosenstein has constructed an elaborate trap for Trump. He can allow Mueller to investigate his administration to death, while covering up the subversion and possible treason committed by members of the FBI and DOJ. Or, he can go public with these facts and be charged with obstruction and impeached by Congress. The writers of the post no doubt think this is brilliantly clever and they are probably correct about what the subversive Rod Rosenstein is plotting.

It suffers from one glaring defect. That is, it is a great example of “creating elaborate, plausible, and intellectually very challenging systems that do not, in fact, have any truth content.” There’s no doubt that the subversive Rod Rosenstein is covering up his own crimes here. He signed off on a lot of this stuff and he fears being turned into the fall guy in this caper. His natural inclination is to assume he is the outsider and that the rest involved, who do not share his loyalties, will somehow pin the blame on him.

This is a great example of the core flaw of managerialism. It turns everything into a cheeky parlor game, in which the winner is the one to come up with the most verbally clever solution. The people inside the system come to believe that is actually how the world works. Because their world is a one governed by words and gestures, they start to assume the outer world functions the same way. It creates a false sense of superiority in a class of soft men, wholly unprepared for the harsh reality of the outer world.

There’s no doubt that the bureaucrats inside the system think they really outfoxed Trump this time, but they are mistaken, because this is not how the real world works. Trump is the President. He has real power. For example, he can declassify those documents and release them to the public. No one else can do that with the stroke of a pen. Rosenstein can conjure all the cheeky word puzzles he likes, but Trump retains that power. In fact, they may be playing into his hands with this effort. Now, they look guilty.

That’s the real fight here. Rod Rosenstein can threaten obstruction of justice all he likes, but he has not power. Trump has real power. He can address the nation one night, reveal the secrets Rosenstein is trying to hide and then fire all of the people involved in this subversive plot and its cover up. Congress, even one run by Democrats, is not going to impeach Trump for exposing corruption. They will make the ritual noises and rush to their media outlets to complain about how Trump is a tyrant, but nothing will come of it.

That’s probably why Trump has been sitting on this stuff until after the election. He has no fear of twerps like Rosenstein. He just needs to get through the election and then figure out the new game board. If the GOP keeps the House, then maybe he lets Congress work this case. If it is the Democrats, then maybe he calls their bluff and releases these documents to the public during the lame duck session. The one thing he will not be doing is worrying about what silly men like Rod Rosenstein have to say about it.

75 thoughts on “Zero-D Chess”

  1. Z-Man, I sure hope you are right. I just read a lengthy article that described the whole trap and how it was being run. Having this all depend on the upcoming election is pretty terrifying. We can only hope that we win, and/or President Trump says the hell with it and dumps the unredacted docs into the public domain. I do not want to see these parasites walking away with some quiet deal, keeping their pensions, etc. for the treason they have committed and continue to commit. I want to see them in jail.

  3. If they had info on trump obstruction tey woud have released it already. Total bs. The docs show obstruction and probably worse but not trumps

  4. Hope so, Zman, hope so.

    But he’s just one guy against the Cathedral. Those guys got a lot of power. And they look hungry to keep unleashing waves of purges and deplatformings.

    And the immigrants flowing in unceasingly like a river…

  5. Zee, Your gab post that the site would be shut down next week was too optimistic. Looks like it will be gone by morning per Torba’s tweet just now. Hopefully a Gab nucleus will regroup on Minds or Wrongthink. Fckn sucks man, but we’ll keep resisting censorship – as long as there’s an internet.

    • Well, maybe it’s an unrelated technical issue, but the site is already down. This looks bad…

      • I was just hoping to sign-in and copy and save some of my effort-posts. America is evolving toward the old Eastern Bloc, only worse. East Germany is still less demented in mind and soul than West Germany, and the same goes broadly for Russia/East Europe vs. West Europe/America/Canada/Australia. I’m calling the American experiment, and the liberal democratic-capitalist order generally that it has led, a total failure, in need of overthrow by whatever means expedient. I don’t care how plentiful our iPhones, porn, Taco Bell, Hollywood productions, et al. are, the extermination of the West, social breakdown via feminism and such, millions of whites murdered, raped, assaulted, robbed, etc. for open borders and “anti-racism”, are all demonic. Unhinged, psychopathic individuals responding violently to all this are the responsibility of those who have instituted these conditions.

  6. Trump is on a mission to save the country. He couldn’t care less about besting a lightweight like Rosenstein. He is out every night campaigning his ass off in support of GOP candidates and fully intends to hold the House and gain seats in the Senate. His side has the economy, the Kavannagh effect, the Kanye effect, the NAFTA success, and huge foreign policy wins (NK and China). He will singlehandedly draw in more evangelicals, blacks, blue collar workingmen, and suburban moms than anyone expects. The Dems are selling fear and threats in response. Wanna guess how this ends?

    The real problem is Sessions. He is actively negotiating a Swampy sell-out plea bargain deal that lets the bad guys off the hook for hundreds of serious felony criminal acts by persons in a position of trust, just like he did in the IRS coverup. Fire Sessions and appoint Pompeo as Attorney General; problem solved.

  8. I was never a 4d chess trumpster. When I heard the 4d chess stuff..no this guy is just giving them enough rope to hang themselves with. Trump is not a cloud person and he knows Joe dirt people are not stupid. He knows most people have a life to live that doesn’t involve politics so he’s just waiting for all these slimeballs to completely expose themselves.
    When the hammer drops it won’t be because Joe dirt begged the Pres to do it. It’ll be when folks call their state AG to demand why they haven’t prosecuted their local scumbags.
    The swamp is deep and not only in the imperial capital.

    • Soros has made millions of $$$ available thru his Open Society Foundation clones to target state AG elections, and not just in this campaign cycle. Picture 50 states with a Kamala Harris as AG. Demands made by deplorable nazi racist whites will be databased,for present and future use.
      This election is for every decent thing any of us ever imagined this country represents.
      Vote like your life depends on it, (it does) and prepare for a cat-10 hurricane of hatred and vitriol, with blood, no matter the outcome.

  9. Z Man, I hope you’re right and President Trump nails them. But every time important, damning info concerning the swamp conspiracy is revealed, the media under-reports it or spins it somehow to make Trump look bad, and sometimes there are (perhaps false-flag) events to divert attention away from the misdeeds. And with an AG possibly threatened into utter inaction, how will Trump be able to do this? Can he use the military somehow to achieve swamp drainage without the DOJ?

    On another issue, this morning’s shooting of Jewish people at their synagogue in Pittsburgh is not going to go unanswered. I’m anticipating the Jews will exploit this event to urge our Congress and President to criminalize criticism of Jews as anti-Semitic hate crimes, calling for harsh punishment for those who question or notice. Is there anyone in our Congress or White House who would say ‘no’ to them?

  10. ” ” ” Give a man enough rope and he’ll hang himself ” ” ”

    Perhaps this is what the president is doing ? Let these bumbling idiots keep putting their foot in their mouth .

    Waiting to see how this fake bomb thing is going to play out. Supposedly the post office does not deliver mail let alone packages to anyone under Secret Service protection.

    And that van ? Could they get any more Trump stickers on it ? Of course the left is crowing loudly about it. Trying to interject any debate on the fake bomb storie’s authenticity just brings jeers of conspiracy theorist.

    President Trump has many enemies including half the citizens of this country. We need to win , win big. There’s no reasoning with the left.

  11. “It creates a false sense of superiority in a class of soft men, wholly unprepared for the harsh reality of the outer world.”

    Some exist inside the social bubble where hard, physical reality does not matter, technology and civilization have put up so many layers of cushion that you cant feel it. And after a while ppl start believing that this man-made world IS reality. Ive often had this thought and you see it everywhere. Most ppl in the West never get outside of this. I believe this is why extreme sports are so popular, ppl want to get outside the social bubble, out to where hard, physical reality matters. It is also why it fascinates us when others do this.

    It is also very feminine to stay inside the bubble all the time. Women, the bottlenecks of reproduction, are biologically supposed to be sheltered in the midst of the tribe while the men fight off the neighboring tribe or sabertooths or whatever is the threat. In a masculine world, as all subsistence societies must be by default b/c one important aspect of subsistence is insufficient resources to build any of the ‘cushions’ that make up the ‘social bubble’, that protection and additional safety offtered to women is the ‘reward’ for not having ‘political’ (ie overall decision) power (but at most influence). Women are, on average, experts at navigating inside the bubble; they read ppl well, they empathize, they have a strong ‘radar’ for what others are feeling and thinking or intend etc. But they are far less good, compared to men, at handling the borderlands where the ‘bubble’ lines up against ‘mama nature’. (less physically strong, less endurance, far less good at orientation so get lost easily (there’s an interesting theory that men’s superior abilities in math are actually their stronger sense of spacial orientation transferred to paper; that might be the geometric approach to math, ‘you see the curves better than the equations’, as opposed to the algebraic approach to intuiting about math, you obviously cant do math w/o either algebra or geometry but many problems can be sort of ‘seen’ in the inner mind either through algebra or equations but Im getting WAY too OT here).

    And this,

    “creating elaborate, plausible, and intellectually very challenging systems that do not, in fact, have any truth content.”

    is a GOLD phrase. Anyone know the source? W/o experiment, w/o empiricism, you cannot KNOW if you are doing this or are onto something that is actually real. Philosophy, religion, they have their very important roles. But they cannot replace science b/c the minute you start testing your stuff, to verify it, you are doing science. (That was NOT an attack on religion, it has its place. Science has its).

    • I must say, your herd analogy is markedly intuitive and appealing.

      Cows busy inside, with bulls outside doing bull stuff. I’m seeing it right now out here in southwest Pennsylvania.

  12. I read this article in the airport yesterday. My first thought was that the writer is either a complete moron or just writing for click bait. There’s simply no law to support the argument that the President can be indicted for obstruction of justice.

    Trump has Rosenstein, and by extension Mueller, right where he wants them–under his thumb. The content of the memos will implicate Rosenstein as being complicit in the plot to spy on the Trump campaign on behalf of the Clinton campaign and then to undermine his Presidency (can you say sedition?). The tell was that Rosenstein prepared to resign after Trump announced that he would release the redacted documents. If these documents are released Rosenstein will be forced to resign in disgrace and will be hard pressed to find meaningful employment thereafter.

    Since then the revelations that Rosenstein proposed wearing a wire to secretly record the President in an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment has Rosenstein in even hotter water.

    Trump holds all the cards in this game, and he’s smart not to play them too quickly. In the unlikely event the Dems take the House, Trump can hold the threat of declassification and publication as leverage over the Democrats’ inevitable investigation. If, as suspect, the Republicans keep control of the House then Trump can use the threat of declassification and publication to bring the Mueller investigation to a favorable close. I expect Mueller’s report to clear Trump of any wrongdoing.

    Not tired of winning yet.

    • Maybe the article should be read not as ‘this is the lay of the land’ but as ‘this is how the DS guys think’?

    • As much as I despise the inaction of Sessions, there are probably a number of plausible explanations for it, other than he’s a snoozy dumb old man. Ann Coulter recently had some good stuff on this.

      Explanations for the Sessions DOJ being such a pointless inactive waste in such a supremely target-rich environment include (recall I’m saying explanations, not excuses):

      1) DOJ is full of welded-to-the-desk careerists, and the entire Permanent Government including DOJ is 99 per cent Democrat — and not only Dem, but rabid true-believer by-any-means necessary Dem, and also massively (((Chosen))). We’re talking lawyers, recall.

      They believe they can simply wait Trump/Sessions out until the worm turns, by stalling and stonewalling and if necessary simply refusing to follow orders. Remember, in their deranged minds they actually do believe that Trump is Literally Hitler, because he has had the outrageously evil idea of representing the interests of real Americans, White Americans! It’s Annuddah Shoah!! The goyim are on the March! They have to be stopped! Never Again!!

      2) Trump has had an outrageously hard time staffing his admin, including DOJ, with capable appropriate people, because word on the street is out: work for Trump and your career will be destroyed. He’s only President for four years, but go to work and we will crush you forever. And the (((institutions))) making this threat have 100 per cent credibility, they control all the career choke points and bottlenecks. ALL of them.

      So Sessions has got his hands largely tied both internally and broadly institutionally, but it gets worse…

      3). Powerful forces in Congress have made it clear that if Trump tries to replace Sessions, they will stonewall any new AG’s confirmation, and the country will just soldier on without an AG until Trump is gone.

      This very strongly implies that somebody owns Sessions, that he is a protected enemy asset. It doesn’t mean he’s a traitor, it means somebody has nuclear-powered leverage on him. Not that he’s being blackmailed, I doubt he’s a crook. I think very serious very credible threats against his family have been made. That is just speculation, but keep in mind: this is really, REALLY high-stakes poker, folks.

    • It make no damn difference if there is or not a law to indict Trump for obstruction of justice.
      The demokrats will (impeach) indict Trump regardless.
      Since when do demokrats/marxists give a F about any law??

      The point of an indictment/impeachment – even if the votes are not there to remove Trump from office – is to prevent Trump from furthering his agenda, disgrace him in the eyes of the world and many in the USA, stall/prevent the castrata Republicans from engaging in any meaningful legislation, and generally to prevent as long as possible the executive branch from doing anything other than defend itself against trumped up charges.
      Just the process of impeachment – regardless of its validity – lessens the influence/authority of a president.
      For the demokrats/marxists that in itself will be worth pursuing.
      And don’t forget the media (the propaganda arm of the demokrat/marxist party) will be cheer leading the entire spectacle.

      For leftists, laws are useful if it advances their cause and they must be ignored/violated if the laws hinder their cause.

      The dems/marxists mean business; they play hardball. For them, laws and regulations are for the OTHER guys to adhere to.

  13. “Congress, even one run by Democrats, is not going to impeach Trump for exposing corruption.”

    I disagree. If the Ds take the House, they will impeach Trump. This may not be to their advantage (it wasn’t to the Rs in 1998) but it’s what their base and funders will demand. The actual charges are meaningless – his crime was winning the 2016 election.

    That’s not to say you’re wrong about what Trump could or should do. He might reasonably believe that he comes out ahead by releasing the documents, triggering impeachment and then being acquitted in the Senate trial.

    • You made a very important point that needs to be said every day. Trump’s crime was getting elected president. Every day that goes by, that thought becomes clearer to the normies.

    • The 1990s are an entirely different age, it was the ‘unipolar moment’, happy-go-lucky academics wrote books about ‘the end of history’ etc. Russia had just thrown in its cards on the post WW2 victors’ rivalry, few saw that islam was preparing to just back and bite us (invited, of course, by our own stupidity). We were all sheltered inside ‘the social bubble’ it seemed.

      Today, impeaching Trump, Im not sure they have the stones for it. The whole atmosphere is FAR more gloomy today, the world is a dangerous place again, you can feel it in the air. The other side is also starting to sense that throwing down a clear gauntlet, as impeaching Trump would be, no one really knows what would happen then.

      • Moran, the Dems have the stones for it, because the stir that it creates is what they want. Just like the Kavanaugh hearings, where the bedlam that was created was its own reward. Only their own sense of a high likelihood of their own heads being mounted on pikes would hold them back.

    • Angelo Codevilla has a very good article on this matter. I saw it at American Digest. ‘Logic’ of the revolution requires Trumps removal by any means possible. If they win, he will be impeached. If they take the whole government, he will have to go into exile. The democrat party is a revolutionary party now. Democrats are not an acceptable alternative in any electoral race no matter how minor. What America needs is a wartime consiglieri.

  14. Where the F is Do-Nothing Sessions in this DoJ debacle ? And why does he still have the Attorney General’s job ?

    • That is the question. Most likely answer is he is not doing much and was a terrible pick for the job. But he might also be quietly cleaning out the DOJ and putting loyalists in place, before making the big move. Just a hypothetical.

    • Because McConnell and Ryan threatened Trump if he fired Sessions. You have to understand during the Senate confirmation of Sessions, Sessions had to promise the Senate he wouldn’t obey Trump or to that effect. It was a very strange confirmation.

      Look about half of the GOP Senate are NeverTrumpers. They hate him with a passion. McConnell is chief among them, They do not want a DOJ and FBI that obeys Trump because it would be a threat to them.

      Trump even admits the DOJ and FBI don’t listen to him. They don’t even obey Congress.

      During the campaign Ryan and McConnell actively worked against Trump. They even met with a bunch of big Democrats at Sea Island how to stop Trump.

  15. DOJ/FBI/CIA had sophisticated plan if Bad Orange was unexpectedly elected, and they continue to play out that hand. Would they not also have a plan in waiting now, to be put in motion if they are personally threatened by exposure, prosecution?

    Something bold enough to crash the entire society, laying down cover for them to escape just retribution, with a cherry on top of resulting in more powerful federal institutions of tyranny?

      • That was good for a laugh, thx K.

        Maybe it only looks sophisticated because each deseased vector moved so quickly to roll in to action. The hive knows instinctively how to jump on board.

        But there are always idiot subplots, like texting your treason to your squeeze and fellow traitor.

    • I enjoyed the ad but it is what conservatives have been saying since Reagan, which is that Democrats are the real racists and fascists, and it has mostly failed.

      The reason this message fails is that Democrats understand, often unconsciously, that their goal is the destruction of traditional America. They cannot be shamed by pointing out double standards.

      Conservatives have bet our future that this message will persuade liberals and browns, but they will almost certainly lose that bet. The better strategy is to convince conservatives that the other side literally wants to dispossess them.

      • LIne, I fully agree with what you are saying. When I posted the ad here, I had reservations about its conceptual defects in favor of Conversatism, Inc. But it was snarky enough that I couldn’t resist.

      • The “ad” is not directed at the Libs, but at the normies. Setting the terms of the conversation and all, even though few normies will see it firsthand.

  18. The worms at the top of the DOJ and FBI may not be able to harm Trump. However, they do harm people below them. A lot of people have been subjected to the injustices that these people commit. I wish Trump would take the trash out sooner than later.

    And yes, Pat Buchanan would have been a great president.

  19. “Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any. Frantic violence became the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defense. The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected … even blood became a weaker tie than party …. The fair proposals of an adversary were met with jealous precautions by the stronger of the two, and not with a generous confidence … when opportunity offered, he who first ventured to seize it and to take his enemy off his guard, thought this perfidious vengeance sweeter than an open one…success by treachery won him the palm of superior intelligence.”

    Thucydides, The history of the Peloponnesian War

  20. When I read that piece when it first came out, I thought: “I hope Trump just releases the documents and says ‘Bring it on you assholes.’ “ I believe if he does, Rosenstein and the rest of the smarmy creeps inside the DOF and FBI will start fighting each other like rats in a cage with one piece of food. No one will be left standing. If that happens I will vote for Trump to become king.

  21. Like Schroeinger’s cat, power cannot be said to exist without observation. The pretense of power, which Trump has in spades, isn’t the same animal. Trump not punishing his enemies is shrewd for various reasons, but it is also the hallmark of weakness. Perhaps that is a strategy to draw out unforced errors. It could also be that Trump realizes impeachment is the least of his worries. When his admin is over, no matter how long into the future that may be, he will have to contend with every enemy he didn’t crush.

  22. There is nothing new here. It has ever been thus. Washington is a nest of vipers with power games and plots running 24/7/365. The place runs on bribes, blackmail, treachery and lately… treason. Probly always will too.

    Call me naïve, I could care less: these guys don’t know how to handle an ethical statesman. They can’t control him. And there is real animosity here too – when you do business on the levels Trump did you have to work with the corrupt, there is no choice. Who knows how much money Trump had to fork over to slobs like the Clintons and their gov’t flunkies just to get things done?

    Somebody’s going down. It may not be a Clinton or an Obama – but some senior democrat swamp critters are going to get crucified. It will be done fairly, publicly, and examples will be made as a warning to the rest. Trump doesn’t have to get them all – all he has to do is scare the crap out of them. Rosenstein is panicking, is all I can say. The Clintons are too. Obama is probably too stupid to be scared, and all he was, was a token negro that danced to the tune of his masters.

    Comedy and hilarity are in the works. Stay tooned.

    • My sense is that Trump is going to put Obama on trial and then into prison. Hillary too. They are too dangerous to leave “alive”.

      • Unless some damning evidence arises, such indictments would cause major rioting, and conviction would seem impossible unless the jury was salted.

      • One can only hope !!!
        But it will never happen.

        There are folks who are above the law; it’s that simple.

        If there were justice, in addition to the Clintons, Obama and most of Obama’s appointees/cabinet, the top 10 – 20 democrats in congress, Shiffman, Schumer, et. al. – for starters; as well as many of the top officials of the DOJ, FBI, CIA, NSA – should be sent off to the pokey, forever, for helping prosecute the American style coup d’etat against Trump.
        They know damn well the entire Trump/Russia story is a scam, yet, persist in efforts to overthrow a duly elected president.

        And why RICO indictments have not been handed down on Steyer, Soros – and the dozens and dozens of the folks who work for them- escapes me.

        When I see photos of the hangman’s gallows used to execute Lincoln’s assassination team, I envision a much larger set of gallows, to accommodate at least 100 present day traitors.

        Well, one can only dream.

    • There is something new in Washington. After The One did two terms. Washington became omnipotent, inevitable;it’s stupidity grew with it’s confidence. Real power in the hands of real incompetents. They could make it yet. probably will. I’ll be going to the polls tomorrow and face the same people in the same line reminding me why. Lines of people who speak little or no English, women, and what’s in it for me’s.

  23. These Deep State types have never met a man like Trump. Not at their fancy prep schools or at Harvard or Yale. Not in the Skull and Bones Club or their exclusive fraternities. Not at their private country clubs or even at their “highly important and sophisticated” lines of work.

    Yet he’s a billionaire. He went to the fancy schools and has an Ivy League education. But he went into Father’s business, New York Real Estate. Where losers put a gun in their mouths and winners brag like schoolboys. Oh, and curse like banshees. Even though all his wealth and up bringing screams “proper gent” his vulgar verbiage and screw you demeanor pisses the Swamp and all those cucks off. That’s why I’ve grown to like and respect the guy. He may implode tomorrow but what a hell of a ride he gave us. Anybody who can piss off that many millions of radical leftists to the degree they are is a genius in my book!

    • Yeah, I only talk to conservatives about him but pretty much all of them start off with a rant about how terrible he is and then after 10 minutes go into but everything seems to be going okay. I’ve stopped playing that game. My new line is

      “I love him. He is unique on Earth. Any other man would have buckled under the relentless abuse that has been heaped on him for years but he takes it in and turns it into energy. In my most vigorous days I never had as much vigor as he does. My only sadness about Trump is that he’s not younger and we won’t have him longer”

      It’s pretty fun. It renders people speechless.

  25. The campaign to marginalize and ultimately cast into outer darkness the entirety of paleocon thought back in the early 90’s was perhaps the crowning achievement of the neocons. I was a young man in 1992 when Pat Buchanan was running and it was my first Presidential election. I remembered Pat from The McLaughlin Group but the whisper campaign against Pat was pretty powerful and I am pretty sure I voted for H.W. in the primary. After that the neocon/Weekly Standard/National Review style of “conservatism” was all but unchallenged until 2016. I wonder if Pat Buchanan feels vindicated at all or bitter that he was right all along?

    • That’s a good question. Buchanan is such a decent person, I doubt he takes pleasure in the suffering of people like Kristol. I’ll see Paul Gottfried next week, so i’ll ask him what he thinks about all this and if he talks to brother pat about it.

      I was Buchanan supporter and I will never forgive the neocons for what they did. After the revolution, my one non-negotiable demand is the neocons get sent to “free and democratic” Afghanistan.

    • Pat Buchanan is a good role model for men, Christian or not. No big ego, not petty and always in good humor.
      I was honored to meet and shake his hand at a few events and the night he won one of his primaries he had a rally which turned into a victory rally. Quite memorable even met Russell Kirk.

      Unlike Sobran with his unfortunate flaws Pat was constituted to fight and endure his enemies attacks.

      • David: “Unlike Sobran with his unfortunate flaws Pat was constituted to fight and endure his enemies attacks.” It’s sort of apples and oranges. Sobran was a true renegade who didn’t care for going mainstream. Buchanan was always a mainstream figure who cared about remaining so. They both “fought and endured” for separate aims.

      • He’s not the only one. I remember that ’92 convention where they cast Buchanan as a flat-out Nazi because of his famous “Culture War” speech. Liberals/Leftists in this country still issue trigger warnings before they show it.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2olwuAy3_og

        From about 21:30 onward, particularly around 25:00 and to the end. The GOP listened to Pat Buchanan say “We need to help these people, they’re our people” and decided not to help them…but to replace them. Other than gun rights, the GOP largely surrendered the culture war without a fight.

        I was in college back then, and I was thoroughly confused. I understood what he was saying, and agreed with him, but I bought into the media coverage because back then I still watched the media coverage. I credit that speech with turning the tide for me. I started watching the news differently. I listened to Republicans differently. So, by the time we got to the multiple lost wars in the Middle East in the 2000’s, the TARP and the bailouts and “compassionate conservatism”, and the full-on embrace of the Left’s population-replacement immigration policies, I was ready to make the switch.

        Pat Buchanan was right, but he never should have endorsed Bush. He still believed he could reform the GOP from within, like the Tea Party folks did. If he doesn’t endorse Bush, he never gives that speech. So, which is better?

        Here we are 25 years later, and you watch that video and realize that Pat Buchanan was right. He just wasn’t the guy to deliver that message…Trump is.

  26. Perhaps, and we can hope so, Rosenstein and others are about to learn that they are the Gordian Knot and Trump is Alexander.

  28. That’s the funny thing about modern Washington and what I notice whenever I spend any time there. These people believe the game they play is the Alpha and Omega of all existence. Trump confounds them because he comes in, throws the board over and tells them the game is stupid and pointless and has nothing to to with Getting. Shit. Done. If it comes down to a siege from a Democrat controlled House, the big difference is Nixon, by his nature, went into his bunker. Trump has already perfected direct messaging in person and by social media. The Democrats might find they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.

  29. Trump doesn’t eat guys like Rosenstein and McWray for lunch, he uses them like toothpicks. You see a lot of this kind of thinking in poor quality analysis, where the person thinks they understand/know every possible eventuality (when in fact they do not). To do really effective analysis, you have to have a POV outside of the system you are looking at.

    • The DC types spend so much time “thinking” that they freeze themselves on a figurative skyline. And become an easy shot.

      • But when you see his name, you understand he is from the tribe that helped Lenin and Stalin break those 50 million eggs. And that they are trying to reprise that fine work with the Deep State and the terrorist invasion.

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