John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY STEPHEN F. COHEN IN THE UNZ REVIEW

 

“How Impeachment Is Escalating the New US-Russian Cold War”

 

“Putin wants stability and partners.”

 

A truer statement could not be made.

What is remarkable is that so many prominent Americans could say the opposite.

Of course, if a powerful country is guided by blindness, the risks are clear and they are enormous.

Yet relatively few in America seem to care.

I depart from Cohen’s view that the leadership of Trump – combined with that of Putin – could make a difference. Despite a few early encouraging words about Russia, I just do not see where Trump has provided any leadership.

Putin is a remarkable statesman, but he is in no position to overcome an American establishment hell-bent on opposing every reasonable effort. That’s part of why so much of his attention has been turned toward Asia and the larger world.

Trump’s early encouraging words about Russia only provided a target for America’s Russo-phobia mania, a condition always present in gigantic, self-perpetuating, and scarcely-scrutinized bureaucracies like CIA and the FBI, but something also seized upon since the election by the Democratic Party both to explain its loss and to intimidate future voters.

Induced chaos is nothing new as a means used to gain power. The CIA uses it in virtually all of its coups abroad. So, it should come as no surprise that there are forces, privileged establishment interests, ready to employ the same approach inside the United States, so comfortable have they grown with it.

The trouble is that Trump is simply not a real leader. He is a bully towards opponents and towards the entire world in matters of trade and military policy, but that is not leadership. He himself represents just another form of chaos.

That is the United States’ real problem. It has no leadership, in either party or in the major “organs” of the state, only a pretty ugly class of people – corrupt, privileged, arrogant – who influence the direction of events and feel entitled to tell others how to run their affairs.

The situation very much reflects America’s general relative decline, much resembling that of a decayed once-great merchant family, as a new order in world affairs prepares to make its debut.

I tend to doubt the impeachment will succeed, despite my views that what Trump did very much is inappropriate and that impeachment in America is largely a political act.

But if that proves to be the case, it is no great mercy for the county or the world. It means four more years of a poor leader making great bellowing claims about nothing.

The Democrats, too, are bereft of real leadership in the candidates for the nomination. Some of them are almost ridiculous, much like figures in current popular culture, and none of those with any chance opposes imperial wars and hostility towards Russia.

However, the Democrats, in holding up the indictment (the articles of impeachment), are very much looking for added elements, as those likely to come from scrutiny of Trump’s financial and tax records, should access to them be gained. He is an unscrupulous man, and I have little doubt those records could provide rich veins of impeachment material.

They are likely also looking to other potential high-level insider witnesses to Trump’s shady methods, potential witnesses whom Trump dismissed at various points.

Well, even were the impeachment to succeed, the only gain would be an end to Trump’s glaring, half-lunatic faces and ugly-kid complaining and bellowing. There are no meaningful likely alternatives in the Democratic Party.

 

On Putin, readers may enjoy:

https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2019/08/06/john-chuckman-comment-china-russia-and-the-united-states-in-the-21st-century-some-difficult-and-dangerous-times-ahead-as-the-world-now-rapidly-evolves-in-ways-america-rejects/

https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2019/03/05/john-chuckman-comment-reflections-on-putin-as-a-leader-and-on-the-world-situation-in-which-he-works/ 

John Chuckman

EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON CBC NEWS

 

“‘Democracy-defining moment’: House representatives debate Trump impeachment”

 

Well, maybe.

I think it more likely the impeachment effort will reveal how deeply divided the United States is.

The White House refuses to cooperate.

Leadership in the Senate – where such trials occur – has talked about calling no witnesses and shutting down the whole thing quickly, leaving Trump exonerated.

Where does that take anyone that is worth going?

America is a deeply troubled country. Divided, seriously so.

You might not recognize that from the way it tyrannizes over so much of the world with its unceasing imperial demands, but real differences on empire and the military are simply not part of America’s political division.

Likely, Trump will prevail in the Senate. Despite a few dissenting Republicans, there is little evidence of a serious undercurrent against him. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote in a Republican-dominated body.

Yes, Trump’s behavior vis-à-vis Ukraine, trying to use it to influence American domestic politics, has been inappropriate, but it is only inappropriate in a country where people adhere to civility and the rule of law.

And that country is certainly not the United States. Running an empire, and an increasingly harsh one in response to growing awareness of its own relative decline in the world, is the polar opposite to civility and respect for rule of law, but running an empire is the business that America’s establishment is in full-time. All of its establishment, which includes the major figures of both parties, the wealthy interests they all faithfully represent, and powerful, almost unaccountable agencies like CIA assisting their efforts.

A situation arose in Ukraine only because the United States fomented and paid for a coup against an elected government there in 2014. All of the controversy which swirls around Joe Biden arises from the fact of his having served as Obama’s proconsul to demand certain directions for the new government.

Trump’s phone call was wrong, but in the context of all the dirt that the United States has been mired in with Ukraine, it does seem almost small.

John Chuckman

COMMENT TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS

 

“U.S. House committee to start public impeachment hearings next week

“Republicans have so far shown little appetite for removing president”

 

I used to think they would not carry out the impeachment, but now I’m not so sure.

They have had some fairly powerful new testimony, especially concerning “Quid pro quo.”

There also have been a few signals from Republican ranks. Old line Republicans never did like Trump, and some still don’t. There are qualities about him that Old Money types undoubtedly view as vulgar and even squalid.

And the people Trump supported in recent state elections like Kentucky, Republican territory, just did badly, and after a big show by him seeking support.

In the United States, impeachment is always more of a political act than anything else. Presidents are never actually caught with their hands in the till taking wads of cash or having killed someone, although I have little doubt such acts have happened, the perpetrators just weren’t caught. Perhaps, even many would not want to catch them owing to its impact on national prestige.

Standards also have slipped badly in the close-to-totally corrupt atmosphere of imperial Washington with not a single President of the modern era leaving the White House without having become quite a wealthy person. The same goes for important Senators and other “public servants.”

But those impeached are caught in behaviors which, depending on your point of view, may be interpreted as overstepping Constitutional bounds. That plus the fact that every potential juror, members of the United States Senate, in the end answers only to his or her constituents, does make the process political in nature.

I do wish them good luck.

This man has proven himself a grotesque parody of a leader – a rude, ignorant, and frightening man, but you unfortunately can’t put him on trial for any of that.