The Trump administration has reached the one-hundred-day point, an historically important point in every presidency. For Trump it is uniquely important as his second term is something of a do-over of his first term. Trump 2.0 is supposed to be a better, improved version of the original, having had a break to learn from the mistakes of the first term and having spent four years under assault from The Blob. This one-hundred-day mark is one of the most important since FDR.
Roosevelt is a good comparison, as what Trump is trying to do is usher in a new period for the country that closes the books on the managerial era that started under Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. It is Roosevelt that gave us this concept of the first one hundred days as a measure of a president. Roosevelt was the new model President for the new model age, one that was active and ambitious, using all the powers of the executive to effectuate change for the people.
There are a lot of parallels between the MAGA and New Deal era, but there is a crucial difference and that is The Blob. Whether they understood it or not, the Roosevelt project was about laying the foundation on which The Blob would be built. The Blob being the vast managerial state that operates outside government and that has subsumed the political system. The army of experts Roosevelt brought to Washington to deal with the Depression created the managerial state.
In contrast, MAGA is about swinging a wrecking ball through the managerial state to remove its tentacles from the throat of the American people. The subtext to the MAGA movement is that this collection of people is responsible for the decline and removing them will restore the conditions in which the people can flourish. While FDR promised a new framework in which the people can flourish, Trump promises to tear down that framework so the people can flourish.
Therein lies the major difference between Roosevelt and Trump. The former did not have an established organized system to obstruct him. The old order was disorganized and discredited. It was ready for a new beginning. Trump, in contrast, has a paranoid and highly organized old order that sees Trump not as an agent of renewal but as a threat to its existence. The Blob views the strong executive, any strong executive, as a threat to its existence, so it will fight to the death.
Unlike FDR, where the rules were being written as needed, Trump is dealing with a system so laden down by rules that even the most skillful manager in the system can only hope to know a part of them. This is the primary defense mechanism of managerialism, a system of rules that operates as defense in depth. Even if one can figure out how to get around and through the rules toward a goal, the rules reform around you like antibodies. You are simply assimilated.
You see this with immigration. The Trump people are appealing to an old law to expeditiously remove criminal aliens. On the surface this is a clever use of the existing rules to achieve a goal contrary to the whims of the system. The court system, however, has now wrapped its tentacles around the Trump people, dragging them into the swamp of endless litigation, court cases, appeals and re-appeals. The clever end run using an old law has led to a new thicket of rules and process.
This raises another parallel for Trump. From the perspective of Washington, Trump is something like Jugurtha, the Numidian king who was a thorn in the side of Rome from 160 BC to 104 BC. Numidia was in North Africa, which was not controlled by the Romans at the time. Jugurtha was unusually skilled at exploiting the moral weaknesses of the Roman elite to get what he wanted from Rome. He came to symbolize what was wrong with the Roman system.
For example, after his first war with Rome, Jugurtha offered to settle things peacefully and walked away with a highly favorable deal from Rome. Bribery was assumed to be the cause, so the local Roman commander was summoned to Rome to face corruption charges and Jugurtha was invited to give testimony. Jugurtha bribed Roman officials who then vetoed the whole thing. In other words, Jugurtha bribed Roman officials to get out of a bribery scandal.
What Jugurtha represented was not an external threat to Rome in the conventional sense, but an existential threat. His existence suggested an irreconcilable flaw in the Roman system. As a result, the Romans determined to eliminate Jugurtha and the tool they used was a man named Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix. Known to us now as Sulla, he was a gifted general who beat Jugurtha at his own game, by getting one of Jugurtha’s allies to turn on him.
Sulla was also a key figure in the long political struggle between the optimates and populares factions at Rome. The former were the Cloud People of the day, while the latter were the Dirt People. This dispute was due in large part to the corruption among the Roman elite. Sulla eventually revived the office of the dictator to purge the elite of corruption, reform the Roman constitutional laws, restore the supremacy of the senate and, interestingly, limit the power of the consuls.
This is the fork in the road for Trump. He can be like Jugurtha and continue to try and exploit gaps in the managerial system to get what he wants, or he can take on the system itself through the use of hard power. In the modern sense, this means defying the courts and using the law to drive off the people who think litigation against Trump is a proper use of their time. In other words, Trump must become the sort of dictator his opponents claim, to restore republican rule.
Historical comparisons are never perfect, and Trump is certainly not Sulla, but the underlying comparison still works. If there is any hope of saving the United States from plunging into the eternal darkness, the problems created by the discredited managerial system must be quickly addressed. This mean rapidly clearing out the alien population, restoring normal economic policies and withdrawing from the many outposts of the Global American Empire.
These are not things possible within the rules because the rules are designed to prevent such an outcome. This means these changes must not only happen outside the rules, but in direct contradiction of the rules. There is no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do, which is the core motivation of the people called the right. The results we see and hate are the point of the system, so the system must change.
That can only happen against the will of the system, because the people in the system have anchored their lives to assumption that the system will never change. This is the problem Sulla faced and the problem Jugurtha was able to exploit. Within every corrupt political system there is a Jugurtha and a Sulla. The question is which one emerges victorious, and this is the question at Trump’s 100th day mark. Will Donald Trump be forgotten as Jugurtha or will be he remembered as Sulla.
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“Trump must become the sort of dictator his opponents claim” Of course that is exactly what FDR did. He threatened to pack the Supreme Court, outlawed the possession of gold and forced people to exchange it for fiat money, broke Washington’s tradition and was elected four times, got the Constitution amended to get inaugurated in January, passed the first national gun control law, dictated commodity prices, created a massive new tax called “Social Security,” took the nation in the biggest war in human history and created the Military-Industrial Complex, and nationalized the economy for the war. He served the exact… Read more »
Yes indeed. To the victors, and all of that.
Around election time, do you recall the Left screaming endlessly about Donald actually getting tough with them? They squeaked and screeched about what a horrible dictatorial monster he was, an Abuser and a Felon as everybody knows . . . how the Great Orange Pussygrabber would come after them all, hunt them down like pier rats . . . . (gasp, gasp won’t somebody come and rescue these poor at-risk girls?). This, of course, was a defusing tactic of psychological manipulation. They claim Trump is out for blood — even though it’s been baby-pat with them so far — in… Read more »
With respect to Leftist screams of existential angst. I always refer back to the psychological concept of “projection”. In interpreting the Left’s true motivations, it has never let me down.
Envy is the most ridiculous of sins. You don’t get to feel good or get some fancy material possession or power. You just seethe, boiling in your rage. The only way to deal with this is to eject these people from our nation. If they won’t live in peace and will live only marinating in a state of envy and hatred, they don’t need to be among us. There isn’t a right to live in white civilization or among the people who built it. The white man presents an image of superiority even when he isn’t conscious of it. And,… Read more »
Ran to keep us out of war, while escalating an economic war with Japan into a military conflict where the Japanese attacked “uprovoked.”
Suffered from cancer for 3 of his elections, kept secret from the American people.
Populist opponent Huey Long assasinated, no connection to FDR.
Gave away millions of lives, to live under the yoke of the USSR, while FDR could not step away in fading health.
Paging Samuel Clements, Mister Clemens please pick up the red courtesy phone…
Most people didn’t even know he couldn’t walk, the media was covering even then.
NOt only did he give away lives to the Soviets, he gave away Americans.
Read the book The Forsaken by Tim Tzouliadis
Mustache man never won an election in his life. He ran for president in 32 and lost. He was later appointed by the man who defeated him.
The party members in the Reichstag , OTOH, were elected and played a big role in his appointment. Hitler had better numbers than any modern president or prime minister probably anywhere in the Occident. He enjoyed like 90% approval ratings.
“Mustache man never won an election in his life.”
A technicality. Yes, its true he was appointed Chancellor, but only because he was the leader of the NSDAP, which won enough seats in the Reichstag to form a (minority) government. But the NSDAP deputies were elected.
It’s kind of like saying that the people never voted for Roosevelt because the electors of the states did, which is technically true, but when the people cast those indirect ballots in both Germany and in the U.S. they knew exactly who the head of state was going to be.
“It’s kind of like saying that the people never voted for Roosevelt because the electors of the states did,”
Only Roosevelt actually got more votes than his opponent, whereas Hitler got fewer votes than his opponent and lost. The NSDAP did not have enough seats to form a government. There were several snap elections between the loss of the presidential election and Hitler’s appointment and the NSDAP lost seats in that time. Plus, he was only appointed to chancellor, not to the presidency.
Aristotle and other ancient philosophers were well aware that democracy and its successor oligarchy, were always going to create a mess and eventually a collapse of the State…Therefore, they would have to be straightened out by a dictator, with the corrupt oligarchs either exiled or executed…America’s Founding Fathers therefore created a limited franchise republic that dispersed power to the States and state legislatures…But as Franklin wryly suggested, we couldn’t keep it…
Only two ways this can end…breakup into smaller, more cohesive groups (Armstrong’s AI predicts that) or collapse, probably triggered by hyperinflation….
you mean the armstrong who did 11 years in prison for penny ante grifting?
Or both – collapse would lead to breakup into regional groups
Well said! Unfortunately Trump is not made of the stuff to cross the Rubicon. He is losing on his trade initiatives, his cost cutting initiatives and immigration. If he is serious he has to take drastic action or he should just go home and retire. At least we aren’t in a major war at the moment. The key IMHO to his seriousness is that regarding immigration: He has not required all employers to use e-verify system. He has not prosecuted anyone for aiding and abetting illegal aliens, save a couple of judges he is using as examples, presumably. This statute… Read more »
Yes, Trump on immigration is all show. He could do all of the four things that you listed and millions would self-deport. But he doesn’t.
Please. EVERY day the same contractors come to my town, pick up the same illegals .. while the local cops run their usual speed traps and ignore the blatant law-breaking under their noses.
How are we supposed to see a situation like this except in its true light?
The moment they began trumpeting … “Tren De whateverthefuck” you KNEW the fix was in. No matter how many TV talking heads are added to ‘the administration. … there ain’t gonna be any Operation Wetback 2.
Nobody is more dependent on illegal alien labor than Big Ag. Big Ag runs South Dakota and owns its politicians. The governor of SD was put in charge of DHS and one of its senators is majority leader.
And Big Ag is tied into Lloyd Blankfein far more than farmer Brown. Looks like John Cougar failed to save the family farm.
All four are low-hanging fruit, too. Of course, neither party wants any of it. If two assassination attempts are not enough reason to cross the Rubicon*, it is hard to imagine what would be. Someone as invested in the system as Trump operates under an assumption, which actually is a delusion, that reform is possible.
*Crossing the Rubicon is somewhat of an overstatement, too, in that much of what needs to be corrected is rank lawlessness. The United States has been lawless a long, long time.
Well said. It appears that he is a man of another age. One thing that I don’t see covered in the analysis of Caesar is that he grew out of the Civil Wars between Marius and Sulla. His father and his family were on the losing side. At some point, Caesar understood what he was dealing with because of his own family’s history. Trump is an American Businessman – of the kind of the post-war, post-moder to boo. That is, his empire is based on financialization. It worked for him. It made America great. For him, all he has to… Read more »
And how many illegal immigrants per month should Trump be deporting just to get us back to the level when Biden got “elected”? 7.3 million/48=150,000 per month.
Yep. Cloward-Piven works. At not to be too blackpilled, the dismantling of USAID was Cloward-Piven at its finest, too.
Under Biden we probably had about 20 to 30 million illegals come here. IMHO we need about 500,000 per month. That would be mass deportations.
That won’t happen as long as Trump continues on his current path.
That sounds right at a minimum. We need to get rid of all 50 million legal or not. For those legally here working in remotable jobs, tax their earnings straight from the paycheck. There is a lot of work to do. The tech oligarchy will never stand for it. Perhaps they could be the Jugurtha’s and be bribed to start training up Americans. We have all the talent we need right here. Take away the money and get very tough on crime. Death penalty without due process for illegals. Just set it up in Gauntanamo and start getting it done.… Read more »
“And how many…should Trump be deporting…?
Zero. The correct number is zero.
I agree, though probably for different reasons. Burn the violent thugs at the stake, and take away welfare supports (yes, especially corporate) and the useless eaters will seek out easier hammocks elsewhere, and we can get to the hard work of rebuilding.
“I agree, though probably for different reasons.“Not exactly.All but a few exits ought to be blocked, to force fleeing immivaders into corridors where they can be better managed. Now, why would they want to flee?Nodes of domestic collaborators need to be broken. (This will entail the destruction of most domestic Abrahamist congregations, btw.) Every D pol ought to have been disappeared by now, in accord with the D’s own wartime morals. We ought to be watching the understudies crapping and urinating in their pants about what they would know is foreshadowing their end, too.Somewhere along this course of events the… Read more »
Forced deportation will never work at the numbers needed and certainly will cause waay to much blowback when the supply of criminal aliens dries up. Voluntary deportation is the only way out of this mess. What *might* work is to expand the number of immigration judges to hear all current claims of asylum within a year in order to void current “temporary” asylum stays in this country (issue removal orders)—thereby IA’s right to stay. This followed by a true *enforced* citizens-only employment law, which would punish employers of said illegals with meaningful sanctions. E-verify can work if you truly want… Read more »
A synergistic combo of force and voluntary deportation would be nice. Remove the hammock and threaten the knout.
It’s very disappointing that Trump has drawn a line at removing only gang members and violent illegals because that has 80% popularity. So what. His approval rating will always be below 50% no matter what he does. I would rather put the violent illegals in prison, and deport everyone else.
One more thing Trump could do is build giant outdoor prisons in Texas, and let every illegal decide if they want to self-deport or stay there indefinitely.
South Texas. Where the desolation almost sings.
Ask old Nayib to lend a hand. Send some advisors. He seems a friendly and helpful fellow.
I confess I did not think the tariff ploy would work to get other nations to drop their barriers, but it is working, even though he suspended most of them. Cost cutting, he’s kind of limited. Since Nixon, the executive can only not spend appropriated funds if the courts back him. Which gets us to immigration. E-verify? What happens when Judge Huntington E. Rimshott III says he can’t do that? Prosecutions? This whole essay has been about the courts deliberately setting aside laws for politics. Remittances? He could. Then what? The money stays here? They no longer stay 7 to… Read more »
Or cross the Rubicon? That seems to me the only possible solution.
What does that even mean? Trump wouldn’t be leading his legions into DC. The more apt is probably Alexander and the Gordian Knot. In short, DoGE. Can he get away with that? Maybe, but probably not. As someone opined earlier, he’s never getting to 50% support.
Why would he toss away the middle to appease a few malcontents who won’t be happy anyway?
In order to defy the system he must have enough support from inside the blob, especially the military. He has some support but is it enough? There is no point in crossing the Rubicon if the Legions are not with you.
However at this time in which we find ourselves it is the only possible way to bring the blob under control without a national conflagration.
I don’t know. I think “conflagration” is a little overdramatic. The Blob is pretty big, sure, but almost all are followers. They wouldn’t be there if they had the drive to lead. There are probably around 1000 leaders, 10k at the outside. Of those, there are probably only around 100 or so who are essential to the perpetuation of The Blob.
If the pointy end were to stand down, we could have the America of our grandfathers, but with all the high-tech whiz-bangs that would make that order easier to build and maintain than it was in their day.
Trump’s support in the military is so near zero that when they were ordered to occupy Washington and aim their guns out at the people to secure the installation of Trump’s false successor, literally none refused.
That’s not the only or most extreme example, but it was on TV, so we all saw it—and instantly forgot it.
Any righty anywhere in the West talking about “crossing the Rubicon” is consumed by fantasy (sexual) that the army is theirs. Because they’re tough (on a podcast).
They’re retarded faggots.
Dont kid yourself, if he did those things federal judges would issue injunctions before the evening news the same day. It’s not as if law is even a consideration for them at this point. Then what is Amy Barret to do, deport all her adorable housepets? Of course not Dont get me wrong Trumo absolutely SHOULD do all that and more, if nothing else if will show how legal means are not available and build more support for sweeping the whole “democratic” order away. But at the heart of it remains this – legal means are NOT available. The constitution… Read more »
We are in a terrible place no doubt. You are correct. No legal means are available.
Well noted, well said.
We’re still in the lead up to a powerful leader or cabal. Trump isn’t Sulla, but he is exposing the system as corrupt, irredeemable and unstoppable using the rules created by the Blob. Therefore, any one person or group that wants real power will need to ignore the system’s rules and play hardball. Trump is teaching a valuable lesson to whoever comes next. The next wave of power-hungry men or groups won’t have Trump’s nostalgia for American civic nationalism. They will recognize the Blob as just another mob wanting power and will fight it with mob tactics. South American-style government… Read more »
Agreed. Death squads financed by people with the jack to do so also are in the cards. It’s a grim future but the present also is grim.
The Blob leaves them no choice. If the Blog controls and manipulates the system, there’s simply no way to play by the rules if you want to run things.
The Blob is an unnatural ruler. Sure, it has the FBI and other law enforcement, but the members of the Blob are weak, often even women. They rule by narrative and law but no muscle truly loyal to them. The FBI is loyal to its pension but if that is threatened, they couldn’t care less about the managerial class. The Blob can’t last, and Trump is showing the way.
Don’t kid yourself. The pointy end of the spear is the problem, as it always is. The existence of them gives most people comfort that there is some legitimate, legal means of redress of grievances, and simultaneously, discourages vigilance committees from more direct redress.
Without the pointy end, this all resolves itself in months, if not weeks.
David Sacks of the All-In Podcast, Crypto and AI advisor to the President looked like he was about to be overcome with despair when he admitted that all of the DOGE cuts were for naught if Congress couldn’t enact regulatory change and fiscal discipline. Meanwhile, the CBO has estimated total US debt will be over $50 TRILLION by 2035..a mere ten years. FDR had the mandate, power, and backing to do what he did because of the great depression, followed by a World War. Whoever “Sulla” or “Caesar” may be, it will take similar collapse and circumstances. TINVOWOOT. (I understand… Read more »
We’ll hit 50 trillion by 2030 if not sooner
If we there still exists a political entity called the United States of America.
Yep. Crisis first, then reform maybe
Years ago, I had to attend a meeting of one of the many federal commissions due to a matter that affected some land I owned. The meeting was entirely pointless, with groups coming up to either kiss their butts or complain about issues and the commission telling them “sorry pal, nothing we can do to help you.” I read more about this august body and found it was entirely pointless. It had no power to do anything because the way the commission’s rules were drawn up on voting on agenda items were precisely designed to keep it from altering the… Read more »
Exactly. I’ve been to many of similar commissions. Completely pointless.
Thing is, we all saw what happened when Trump tried to do some tweaking around the edges. The judiciary jumped in with both feet (in some cases, all four feet) putting Trump in a pickle. Maybe those judges could be impeached, maybe, but they would never be removed. He’d be facing an even more hostile judiciary.
And he does not have the authority to just shut down seats, like Congress does.
Although he wasn’t ultimately successful, Pablo Escobar demonstrated one possible avenue of dealing with troublesome judges
Based on Donald Trump’s inability to simply walk away from the Ukraine situation and his transactional orientation, I do not deem it likely that he can undertake the steps necessary to confront the Blob. As other commentators have noted, he appears incapable of defying the courts. Thus a Biden Administration can admit people by the millions, but deportations must be done one by one–an impossible situation.
Many have noted that Trump is a civic nationalist, not a revolutionary. Defy the courts? That would be very uncivil.
The courts are the last line of defense. Trump is going to give SCOTUS a chance to prevent institutional collapse of the legal system. The Blob is more than happy to defile themselves and the courts. Whatever it takes to “stop” Trump. Ultimately, I think he’ll give the court a chance to prevent collapse, like what he’s doing in Ukraine. All he has to do is resume deportation flights in violation of the court orders. As a coequal branch of government, he can tell the court that THEY, not he, are operating outside the law. The law says what it… Read more »
There is always another line of defense
“That means grand juries targeting Lawfare.”
How do you target the lawfare types in a venue where the judge won’t just toss it out? It’s not much of a punishment if the process doesn’t even reach the cost of a jaywalking ticket, or the tip on an after-work drink.
Judges of the leftist variety aren’t physically courageous. Only a handful need suffer Arkansas-style suicides before the tone changes. Their side murders witnesses to their crimes with impunity – like that Epstein victim last week – this is known to all. So, regardless of what the law might say, I won’t condemn whoever might bring such things about. Indeed, jury nullification is probably the ‘civic duty’ of the future…
If the right-wing death squads mentioned by others were to become active I would, for the first time in years, feel some real hope for America’s future.
to dream , the impossible dream
Been saying just this. It’s like we’re on the Titanic and the captain and passengers have very clearly seen there is an iceberg directly ahead. The captain is giving the order to turn, the steerage passengers are screaming that we must turn, midlevel ship functionaries are rushing to hold the wheel in position because any turn could disrupt the orderliness of the tea service in the first class cabins. The passengers are screaming louder and the captain is shouting orders and profanities while the functionaries desperately hold the wheel in place, the few first class passengers are not overly bothered… Read more »
The results we see and hate are the point of the system, so the system must change. People are warm and fed, which makes this difficult but not insurmountable. Additionally, Trump is very invested in the system and wants to reform it within its self-perpetuating rules and confines. He could start to give regular addresses on the blatant lawlessness of the courts and the tremendous danger posed by 30 or 40 million illegal aliens and their legal counterparts, and how that threatens full stomachs and heated houses in the near future. That might bring public opinion around to dismantling the… Read more »
Trump (as usual by accident) is showing the next guy (or group) what needs to be done to defeat the Blob. And it’s not by playing by the rules.
He’s also showing that the Blog can be beat – by someone willing to do what it takes.
I suspect even Trump knows what it takes to defeat the Blob–ignoring its rules and so-called “laws,” which it also routinely ignores. He also probably is too invested in the system to do the obvious. What follows will not be hesitant. Let’s just hope it is either one of ours or adjacent and prepare in the event it is not.
disagree. trump strikes me as having a few things he is genuinely interested in (and so fairly well informed on them) but is very dependent on others to feed him summaries (for everything else). e.g. he was completely unaware of all the controversy surrounding the vaxx. look at how he let mitch pick all his judges?!
Anyone who has been dragged through what passes as a legal system in this Regime knows full well what has to be done when up against it.
“People are warm and fed”
Might as well concede it will never happen, then. When people are cold and hungry, they have much more pressing concerns than an unaccountable bureaucracy thousands of miles away.
Rare is the revolution that starts with starvation. People tend to seek change when they can afford the luxury of looking past the needs of today. Why the heck do you think governments have always sought to reduce the middle class?
The Bolsheviks would like a word…
The Bolsheviks were comfortably middle class. Many were jewish old money. Marx’s theorizing aside, the proletariat were never his allies. It always has been, and probably always will be spoiled brats with daddy issues.
They weren’t exactly bourgeois but they sure as hell weren’t proletarians either, LOL
As is always the case, the leaders were better educated and wealthier, but the October Revolution was successful largely because unpaid peasant sailors and soldiers deserted and joined forces with them and overthrew the Kerensky provisional government.
Is there a Russian word for “foreign-banker-financed murder gang imported to slaughter the natives?”
(How many of them spoke Russian?)
It is approximately what we should expect.
Steve is wrong. Hunger often sparks revolution. The recent Arab Spring started with an increase in bread prices. The 1848 revolutions started with the potato famine (it was not just in Ireland). The French revolution ditto. Hunger is the last straw.
If it’s not hunger, it is often a generalized sense of oppression or exploitation by the lower orders, which generates anger toward the elites. Examples: Spartacus slave rebellion, Wat Tyler and John Ball, the Jacquerie, revolts in Russia led by Bulavin, Bolotnikov, Pugachev and Razin. You could even include the Hungarian Uprising (1956) and the Prague Spring (1968).
Naturally, these revolts and rebellions require leaders, and the leaders tend to be wealthier and better educated than the followers, but without the restive masses, there is nothing to lead. You’d might as well lob a match into the Pacific.
As painful as it would be, Trump ultimately won’t get a whole hell of a lot permanently done unless he goes hard core. The system will continue to jam him up at the very least. I guess we’ll see if he’s got the gumption for it. “I say we lift off and nuke the site from orbit – it’s the only way to be sure.”
sadly, trump is no sula. the dems punked him repeatedly and he just takes it like the fat blowhard he is. look at the way that zelensky leads him around by the nose. how many arrests amongst widespread corruption and fraud? 0. never got rid of cocaine mitch, or the other pseud-republican pols. supports johnson for speaker of the house. no, trump is not a great man of history. maybe vance will be the one…
JD Bowman will not be the one.
Sadly all this is true.
It may not technically be a dictatorship, but from where I sit, The Blob functions like one. A somewhat benevolent one, especially toward its favored groups. And to defeat it (if that’s possible) a dictatorship will be required. So that going forward, it’s dictatorship (or the functional equivalent) either way it shakes out.
Although I suspect The Blob is closer to an actual dictatorship than most people would believe. But that’s another topic.
‘The Blob views the strong executive, any strong executive, as a threat to its existence, so it will fight to the death’
Those terms are acceptable.
But if Trump fails, there must be a backup plan. Another civil war is the obvious option, but that is not optimum. Too much death and destruction. The core weakness of the managerial system is cowardice. They rule behind a phalanx of LEOs and the illusion of strength, but they will not stand and fight when death is the consequence. They will flee or cave utterly when so motivated. And it doesn’t take many examples to start the stampede. Drones matter.
Blacks, Asians and Latinos will accept the uniform and the gun and the pay, but will not die at their posts. Start at the outside and work in.
They will operate the drone legions against us. It’s Popeyes chicken night down at the drone hall. Greasy fingers zotted out this white boy. The hastily trained joystick jockey stretched himself out and then queued up for another assignment. It’s easy work, the pay is good and the white widows seek a winner in their beds.
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Rome at that time was not in a period of spiraling decline. The USA of today is closer to the Rome of the third, fourth, and fifth centuries. It’s the US-centric system, with the USA as the central node, that’s in crisis mode. And for this Trump is offering no real alternative. As you pointed out a while back Trump is likely to be a cross between Gorbachev and Yeltsin — i.e., an ineffectual reformer to an ossified system. The latest misstep has been the maladroit attempt to make the rest of the word bend the knee on the terms… Read more »
DOGE demonstrates that Trump’s attempts at reform are only as good as the people around him (his handlers, I believe). That’s the signature achievement of his 100 days, and he never would have come up with it on his own.
“Trump must become the sort of dictator his opponents claim, to restore republican rule.”
Perhaps another apt comparison is with Alexander the Great and his encounter with the “Gordian Knot”. All others had tried to work “within the system” to untie the knot and therefore lay claim to “rule the world”. Alexander understood the futility of such and the myriad attempts previously made to fulfill the prophecy. He therefore drew his sword and cut the knot in half and moved on to conquer the known world.
Is Trump as smart as Alexander?
That was pretty close. I beat you by 3 minutes, though I was not as eloquent.
And that’s probably why I end up agreeing with you most of the time… 😉
This is the best description of the modern day “right” I have read in a long time: “There is no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do, which is the core motivation of the people called the right.”
The choice is between a controlled demolition and an out-of-control collapse. I choose the former. We just have to tell the crazies to stand down or get out.
Astute analyze by Z. Alas, Trump is not a cross the Rubicon type of guy. In some ways, shown in his often good instincts, Trump is a rebel from Republican conformity. Republicans pride themselves in playing by the rules Democrats establish for Republicans.Trump will dip his toe in the Sula water but the minute he gets push back he prioritizes playing by the rules over winning even though if he doesn’t win, he will likely go to jail.Trump and all Republicans don’t have it in them to be a Jugurth unless it is to safeguard Israel. It is the Democrats… Read more »
This is something like what Putin did. Except the Russian system in 1999-00 had collapsed almost entirely. It make take that here before we get a post-Trump Sulla.
The early Russian Federation science establishment had to be cut drastically. I think (educated guess based on their recovery, haven’t seen any hard numbers on funding) that they preferred to support engineering when things were tightest. There were literally highly qualified PhD physicists driving cabs and they were making more money doing so than the physicists who were lucky enough to not get laid off.
It will happen here, too. The only uncertainty is just how long down the road can they kick the can.
What’s the line about Sulla? He restored the republic and retired. Romans were too soft and rotten to keep it, so they got an empire. Caesar didn’t retire. Maybe Sulla would’ve been Caesar if he hadn’t.
Sulla on Caesar: “In this Caesar there are many a Marius.”
Excellent post. This is the question of the moment and the fork in the road. Cross the Rubicon President Trump (to mix a lot of metaphors, lol).
What is going to destroy Trump once and for all is his support of that rogue state in the Levant. The bombing campaign against the Houthis is not going well – apparently a F-16 “fell off” an aircraft carrier as it was taking evasive manuevers (obviously I don’t believe this story). Support for the rogue state is going down with every passing day – even boomers are starting to see the light. He’s busy torching the first amendment and wasting political energy by trying to deport legal residents who committed the crime of criticizing the rogue state. In doing this… Read more »
“his calculation that supporting these people would give him a freer hand”
You’re right that he’s burning his capital while serving his master, the master nation. His calculated support however was all about installing DJT in the White House. He’s the consummate vain collaborator, and his descendants need to be dealt with accordingly to teach an appropriate lesson. Their end ought to be so shocking that their destruction will remain politically relevant until the expiration date of talmudism, which I gather is about 215 years from now.
A bit more recently, the Soviet blob imploded under its own weight, admittedly an oversimplification. But the European, Japanese and South American blobs continue to grow and usurp. Which result will it be? We’re the only polity with high personal firearms ownership and semi-automatic weaponry. Seeing Trump fail as the borg assimilates him may inspire a field general among us. More likely, our distributed architecture will enable the blob to reaasemble itself. Once it achieved sentience and self-awareness as a united thing, and as it survives attacks, the blob could only become increasingly clever and resilient. Only the blob can… Read more »
“Seeing Trump fail as the borg assimilates him may inspire a field general among us.”
Don’t fight the last war. Why do you think the Blob put the crosshairs on the special forces vets? Sure, to some extent, they fear the warfighting abilities, but by far, the biggest threat they pose is their training in how to create an effective guerilla force.
There are really too many vets out there to suppress. Even the low ranking grunt of a 2-3 year enlistment is a great asset to a civilian resistance—and there are millions of them thanks to the endless sand wars of recent.
There won’t be a field general rising from the populace to lead the rebellion. The only chance is a split among the States—as in the Civil War. From this nucleus there may be pockets of civilian organization and rebellion, but as we saw in Kansas it won’t be pretty, and not really effective toward the goal of separation and independence.
double check me, but i’m rather sure it was Marius who defeated Jagurtha, later a civil war broke out between Marius faction and Sullas, which Sulla won and then named himself dictator. Marius also reformed the army, making it professional as opposed to civic duty.
Marius took credit for defeating Jugurtha, but it was Sulla who defeated him and eventually defeated Marius too.
Caused a lot of bad blood b/w the two – rightfully.
That i hadn’t heard before but it wouldn’t surprise me. I know he wanted a generalship for a campaign in the east after the war and that he and Marius were also competing for that. Which is what caused the civil war.
Marius created the army Sulla used.
You are correct.
For an interesting take on the Jugurtha, Sulla and Marius narrative, I highly recommend Colleen McCullough’s novel “The First Man in Rome”. The level of detail is Tolkienesque. Apparently she was something of a classics scholar before she hit it big with “The Thorn Birds”.
Sulla as a charming, murderous theater kid may be a bit much, but she does illuminate the fractured politics that made the Roman Republic (and ours) ungovernable.
Trump, unfortunately, is more Crassus than Sulla, when what we really need is another Augustus.
crassus died in battle so that sets the bar higher than trump will ever reach
Allegedly, Crassus was captured by the Parthians and forced to drink molten gold, which they believed was the object of his expedition.
No doubt many of his enemies would consider that fate appropriate for Trump.
I understand the urgency of “NOW” and the 100 days milestone is psychologically impactful. But I still want to see what’s up a year from now. There’s a long road ahead, even before mid terms. At what point will the frustration with the roadblocks cause rash actions to take place? Will we find all of Trump’s team are standard limp wristed GoP pukes? Maybe yes, but what if no? What happens if Trump, in a typical moment of online loudmouthing, says “Will no one rid me of these troublesome judges?”? What opportunities will emerge from the economic disruptions that are… Read more »
Sulla is my favorite Roman. He has the best epitaph ever. Seen it a few ways, I like the most succinct: no better friend, no worse enemy. That’s the code to live by!
Jim at Jim’s Blog has been calling for a Sulla for over a decade, possibly more.
Trump needs to defy the courts, but explain that the courts are basically making up rules and defying the laws as they are written.
The court can make up crap like gay marriage because there is no law that says marriage is between a man and woman. They and steal an old lady’s home, like they did in Kelo, because taxes can be interpreted as a public need, as perverted as such a thing is.
But to stop the executive from performing executive functions is contrary to the written law.
Best outcome: Third time’s a charm.
No, not impreachment. MAGAmorons need to be slapped across each side of their faces with a twofer. May it be this year.
If I recall there was a law that said marriage was between a man and a woman, both on the federal and state levels. It didn’t matter.
the law is literally whatever they say it is and treat it as such
House passes Oh-no-you-don’t bill to rein in those pesky judges: https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases/house-passes-issa-legislation-stop-activist-judges-and-their-rogue-rulings The bill itself is really short: ‘‘(a) With the exception of challenges to agency actions as contemplated by Section 704 of Title 5, United States Code, and notwithstanding any other provision of law, no United States district court shall issue any order providing for injunctive relief, except in the case of such an order that is applicable only to limit the actions of a party to the case before such district court with respect to the party seeking injunctive relief from such district court.”; In short, limited to their… Read more »
neither, because he is a pawn and always remain as pawn
Trump are growing up with watching father’s fortune literally depends on the mercy of Jews
Trump knew well if he betrays Jew then he would get killed or incarcerated
Trump will remember as another white politician backstabbing his voter, a white person
But keep dreaming about situation of white people get better, because only thing loser can do is masturbate
Yman, is that you, again, with the Far Eastern perspective?
Good essay.
The circumstances certainly look similar today in the American empire.
I keep hoping Trump can convince some of the more troublesome elites to join Bezos in a space venture then fire the dildo rocket into the outer darkness never to return.
Not Sulla like but possibly like Attila the Hun.
America is on a “civil” civil war right now. The question is do we have the stomach to do what is needed?