"If You Strike at the King...."

My spidey sense is all over the map these days. Politics has nearly reached peak chaos it seems to me, and the dithering behind the scenes has left it up to the lawyers to figure out what to do. Not a good look. 

Dithering, yes. The Dems haven't actually done anything to thwart Himself, and I can hardly imagine them doing so. It is not in their genetic make up to act except on behalf of themselves and their owners and sponsors.

Trump's advantage is that he is one of the owners and sponsors -- though never a heavy hitter -- and he's filled his cabinet with other owners and sponsors, many of which have been around for a very long time and are very rich and very powerful though their profiles might not be as high as Mr. Trump's.

This would be a form of direct rule by the corporate kakistocracy/kleptocracy as opposed to the their indirect rule through a managerial/technocratic class (viz: Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, and even the Bush Regime, odd as it may seem.)

Well, that would be something new, wouldn't it? Our original rulers were of the owner class, to be sure, and their hand wasn't always light, their wisdom was often questionable, but it seems clear enough through the lens of history that their intent was patriotic rather than self-aggrandizing. Not so now.

Even during the worst of the Gilded Age, when government served only the interests of the richest of the rich, the malefactors of great wealth did not operate the government directly (for the most part, there were some exceptions here and there). They bent the government to their will through the purchase of politicians and legislative bodies and the installation of compliant managers and smooth-talking con men in office.

Now though, huh. Basically the Trumpians have opened hostilities with the entire entrenched class of technocrats and managers who have run the country on behalf of Our Betters at least since Reagan. Some of them will be sacrificed without issue. Nobody likes them and nobody cares what happens to them. On the other hand there is an entrenched and powerful "alt.government" (I hate the term "alt" but it is a Thing at the moment, so let's play for a bit) that will not go lightly into the sunset. Oh no.

We've seen this play out before during the Snowden Thing among others. If anything there are more factions in the alt.gov than there are in the public face of government. It's just amazing. Anyway, what seems to have happened is that the CIA, among other shadowy agencies, has tossed a few grenades (labeled "Putin Did It") the King's way as an initial shot across his bow. A warning, as it were, that "we can -- and will -- take you down if you don't play nice."

On the other hand (there are always more hands in this game than we know), there are plenty of agencies and alt.gov centers that have made their peace with the New Boss and are eager to obey and serve. Well, at least for public consumption. FBI seems to fit into that framework.

Then there's the NSA which is pretending to be above the fray and neutral as to outcome. Yeah, right.

I've suspected all along that the Putin/Russia Thing is largely a consequence of Snowden and his apparently very comfortable exile/asylum in Moscow. Had that not happened, the relationship between the Kremlin and DC might not have deteriorated to the point it has as quickly as it has. Which doesn't mean it would have been good, but still. For whatever reason, Putin, Hillary and Obama don't get along, regardless of any background issues and noise. 

NSA is the one with the hardest animosity toward Snowden and Russia whereas the CIA is out and about committing whatever atrocities and unpleasantness they can think of and wish to engage in. They're the ones on the front lines, skin in the game and all that, whereas the perfumed princes of the NSA simply sit in their comfy Star Trek chairs and watch the world head straight to hell in a handbasket. Sometimes nudging things in that direction if it pleases them to do so. Damb I loathe these people.

But there are so many other players in the alt.gov, players known and unknown, that it's impossible for someone like me, way on the outside, and never close on the inside, to sort it all out.

At any rate, shots have been fired toward, not yet at, the would be King. I can't say whether there is sufficient support among the factions of the alt.gov to accept direct rule by the kakistocracy/kleptocracy, but there may not be enough resistance to do anything about it.

The Trumpian charge that the CIA in particular and the "intelligence" community in general got the Iraq Thing wrong and continue to wrong-foot their destructive way through the Middle East and elsewhere is valid. But it's not at all clear that Mr. Trump and his cronies would be any better. They have a different set of targets. That doesn't make them any wiser than those who have so screwed up for so very long.

If this matter is to be resolved in the interests of some of the Trumpian targets -- they are many and practically everywhere -- he cannot be allowed to ascend to the Throne. Period. He will not be subject to the control of his inferiors (as he sees them) once he is installed as president-king-emperor. His opponents either yield or they're gone.

Preventing his ascension is apparently still a thing. But as time goes by, options narrow, and I think we know what the ultimate option is.

I say it is unlikely that option will be utilized (and I really don't want to see it). But it's not up to me or any of us. The struggle does not involve us, the Rabble, directly or indirectly. We are at best a chorus in the background of yet another pageant. Mostly we're little more than scenery or props.

Meanwhile, "If you strike at the King..."

[Note: FTR, I've been getting a huge number of hits from Russia lately... go figure...]