Editor’s Note: There is a lot of excitement in the continuing circus of American politics. You have seen them starting already- favorites for this young week are the delayed announcement of a vaccine to provide 90% protection against the dread scourge of Corona Virus- which has a 99.5% chance of survival for most of the population, except old folks like us. Then there is the swirl of the election fraud allegations- something you will hear about as “widely debunked” from those who favor the outcome. That term is another that has become prominent during the four year campaign against the almost former President, both for and against, though only the “against” part of it is reported. We will see how that goes- the Electoral College is supposed to vote on December 14th, the Senate run-off elections in Georgia hold the prospect of hobbling a Biden Administration, or opening a unified Congress to enable the continued transformation of the Republic into something else. Socotra House stands with chaos and confusion. We will continue to follow as closely as they allow as this marvelous story continues to unfold.
– Vic
Author’s Note: Well, now that Joe Biden has been duly declared as elected to be our next President, I don’t know whether to be frightened or relieved. Two things are for certain – we are going to be poorer and less free. At the least, I’m glad to see that my dire warnings of a societal meltdown have not come to pass – but there is a parable here…
– Point Loma
Useful Idiots
Twenty years ago, I go the chance to talk in person with Dr. Samuel P. Huntington, author of “The Clash of Civilizations,” at a cocktail party in Cambridge. He was your typical Harvard professor of the day, sporting a threadbare Harris Tweed blazer with elbow patches, and an open-collared shirt at a more formal dress event. He had a snaggle-toothed smile with teeth stained yellow from years of nicotine and coffee. Francis Fukuyama had recently published his repudiation of “Clash” based on the dissolution of the Soviet Union and failure of Communist dogma, titled “The End of History and the Last Man.” I asked Dr. Huntington about what he thought about that book; he favored me with a wicked grin and offered this younger whipper-snapper an interesting observation born of wisdom “It ain’t’ over yet.”
Screen Shot 2020-11-10 at 9.14.15 AM.png
Uncle Joe & Kammie
Wiki says it as well as any source – “In political jargon, a useful idiot is a derogatory term for a person perceived as propagandizing for a cause without fully comprehending the cause’s goals, and who is cynically used by the cause’s leaders. The term was originally used during the Cold War to describe non-communists regarded as susceptible to communist propaganda and manipulation. The term has often been attributed to Vladimir Lenin, but this attribution is unsubstantiated.”[1] However, it definitely sounds like something Lenin would have said. What it doesn’t say is that once their usefulness is up, the idiots are eliminated – either by execution or by relegation to the dustbin of history.
And so, in almost 48 years of government “service,” the man managed to not pass one substantial piece of legislation with his name on it, but taking advantage of other’s work which was a skill he perfected when he was in college. Now that he has been elected, don’t expect any sudden miracles – COVID-19 is vanquished although Pfizer now says they have a miracle vaccine that is 90% effective (an announcement they could have made in October but chose not to for some reason…), the economy fully rebounds, and we get back to living our normal lives as if nothing ever happened – sort of like Serv Pro for the Soul. But Uncle Joe has served his purpose – he has replaced Trump and thereby restored most of the power and prerogatives of the Deep State. What makes it interesting is that now in the COVID-19 world and he is 77 years old with a history of underlying health issues, he is only one good deep breath away from that one-way ticket to the ICU and mortal oblivion. The political thriller aspects are delicious. Like the Caesars of old, his handlers and now the Secret Service shouldn’t let anyone unknown from the outside who could be a COVID-19 carrying assassin anywhere near him, even though it is kind of hard to sample the air we have to breathe, which is unlike tasting food for poison.
I didn’t bother to watch the returns on election night since I pretty much knew what was going to transpire, and I wanted to avoid any case of projectile vomiting. Not wanting to hit the rack too early, I flipped through the channels and came across a Godfather marathon – great stuff. In the first movie there was a scene that I hadn’t paid much attention to before, but I did last Tuesday night. It involves a short conversation between Michael Corleone and his waspy wife Kay about the uses and abuses of power.[2]
Screen Shot 2020-11-10 at 9.14.36 AM.png
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone
“My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.
“Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and Senators don’t have men killed.”
“Oh. Who’s being naive, Kay?”
And now waiting in the wings are all of the bad guy dictators and other egotistical world leaders who are probably vying for the chance to be the first to have their pictures taken next to a guy who can’t figure out which way he needs to put on his Depends® in the mornings. They will want to contrast their strength against his frailty as sort of a metaphor of America’s fall vs. the world and in particular, their vision of leadership for their countries, their societies and their civilizations – it should prove to be both degrading and disgusting.
Waiting in the wings is VP-elect Harris, who no one wanted and before this, whose biggest claim to fame was being denied free bus rides to school courtesy of Uncle Joe’s tagging along on a desegregation bill. Her lack of real personal charisma and a UC Berkeley liberal background so alienated her from the voters that they registered their repudiation by forcing her to withdraw from the campaign before the first Democratic primary was held. Now, she is in line to become the first female President – is this a great country or what?
Even though I can be hypercritical, I do wish them well and all success in defeating COVID-19 and righting the economy. We all have a vested interest in the future of the country and that they can achieve bi-partisan consensus and try to do the right things and not overreach, if they are allowed to govern on their own. But there are always mitigating circumstances, good intentions notwithstanding.
Screen Shot 2020-11-10 at 9.14.56 AM.png
The Politburo (the original Uncle Joe is in the middle)
The real question is, who is in charge here? Since the Communist Party of North America disappeared inside the Democratic Party sometime in the 1950s (as they were being hunted down by Tailgunner Joe McCarthy), they have re-emerged rebranded as the Progressives (see Bernie Sanders for details). Stymied in 2016, they were licking their chops on how they were going to remake America this time around, except a funny thing happened on the way to the Revolution – the Blue Wave of Liberalism didn’t materialize to carry the election the way they were slavering over. On the contrary, the only real loser was Donald Trump, and you can argue that without COVID-19, he’d still be President four years from now. It turns out that the hoi polloi figured out that free stuff won’t exactly be free, and that law and order really does mean something to most Americans, even illegal immigrants. Absent control of the Senate and the now inability to pack the Supreme Court with Liberal justices, and the Green New Deal is not going to happen, they will be reduced to what they can get away with using Executive Orders and legislating by regulation by the various members of the Politburo waiting to be named. They will be the front for the real power brokers in the country going forward. The nice thing going for them is that they will get to have it both ways – they can blame both COVID-19 and Donald Trump for the measures that they will propose in order to save the country – they are patriots, after all. The first will probably be a national mandate for mask wearing that all will agree with – while it makes sense from a public health standpoint, it is an egregious power grab and sets a bad precedent – “Simon says wear a mask; Simon says pay a national wealth task; Free health care and education for all. Yeah, I didn’t say Simon Says, but I don’t have to anymore since you agreed to wear that mask.” On the other hand and now that Trump is on his way out, there is another group of useful idiots out there who can be re-directed to achieve by violence and action what couldn’t be achieved at the ballot box.
Screen Shot 2020-11-10 at 9.15.09 AM.png
The Mob
Ordinarily, the Mob, having accomplished its mission, would be disbanded by sponsors pulling their funding support, and with a cold winter approaching, send everyone home to figure out how to cope without jobs in the COVID-19 society. If not, then you’ve got to find something else for them to do since they’ve become addicted to street frenzy – another social cause to espouse. Here you have a trained and organized force like the Nazi brownshirts, who are waiting around to be aimed like a weapon, so why not use it? So, what is it that the big money people, like Georges Soros, who pull the strings behind the scenes to their own ends, really want to get rid of? The First Amendment has been mortally wounded, and bleeding out; Free Speech is being labelled as Hate Speech or shouted down by those who have big enough megaphones, and who don’t approve of or agree with what you think and say. That leaves the Second Amendment, so let’s get on with gun confiscation by perpetrating acts of gun violence that demands (more) legislative and regulatory action. Simon Says give me your weapons – or else.
And in an interesting twist, the Hilary Clinton “deplorables” meme has resurfaced. I saw a headline on Drudge about MAGA supporters “brandishing” firearms (which is a Federal crime everywhere) and worshipping crucifixes (which is not yet), sort of like what Obama said back in 2015 about people clinging to their guns and religion – none of it was true, of course. Well, Jesus saves and guns protect – we’ll have to see if it sticks as part of the Biden-Harris agenda going forward.
Screen Shot 2020-11-10 at 9.15.21 AM.png
Trump News Network?
What’s next for the President. First, he gets to join a very elite club of ex-Presidents, and an even smaller one of those who survived impeachment. He is still fighting it and, in his mind, he didn’t lose. He declared victory on Tuesday night, and the argument that he will take to his grave will be that he won but the election was stolen from him. He’s a winner, after all, so you know he will not let it go. Then there is the Durham investigation waiting to drop, which should prove interesting, if not revelatory, along with the Senate race run-offs in Georgia – ugh. But I don’t think those are really going to change anything.
And what is his chief gripe, anyway – that his opponents cheated better than him? Dead people voting in elections is a well-established American tradition, like collecting Social Security in your grave is a human right in America. That’s why all elections are administered at the “local level” not Federal, and that voter registration information is so zealously guarded – for just such occasions as during this past election. He should have known better.
Assuming the status quo holds, you can guaran-goddamn-tee Trump will be living in Joe Biden’s ass for the foreseeable future – either via Twitter, radio and TV show call-ins, or his own TV or talk show. You can see steps being taken to try to limit his what was relatively unfettered access to social media, to include restrictions being visited by Twitter, Facebook, and others. It may well be that he does set up his own network or get a show on one of the conservative channels. Hell, if they can give a bully pulpit to the Reverend Al, then why not the Donald? And while the Cancel Culture will be busy trying to eradicate Trump’s legacy, at least we never had to use the title “President Hilary Rodham Clinton” and all that potentially entailed.
But, now that he is going to have to yield power whatever the circumstances, then he’s got to be thinking about Numero Uno, and that’s how to avoid going to prison if his biggest detractors and haters get their way. The best way is to issue himself a Presidential Pardon. If that’s not possible, then wait until the last minute, resign and get Mike Pence to do it. That would be an interesting coda to what has been a strange year, a true asterisk to an amazing election year and one in American history that ain’t over yet.
I remain your faithful servant.
Post-Script – I note with no small level of amazement the date when I initiated this screed – 40 years ago to the day that I raised my right hand along with 300 other fellow Officer Candidates there in Newport and took the oath. Where in the fuck does time go?
[1] Source: Wikipedia.
[2] Source: Mario Puzo “The Godfather,” 1972.
Copyright 2020 Point Loma
www.vicsocotra.com
Point Loma: Useful Idiots
Editor’s Note: There is a lot of excitement in the continuing circus of American politics. You have seen them starting already- favorites for this young week are the delayed announcement of a vaccine to provide 90% protection against the dread scourge of Corona Virus- which has a 99.5% chance of survival for most of the population, except old folks like us. Then there is the swirl of the election fraud allegations- something you will hear about as “widely debunked” from those who favor the outcome. That term is another that has become prominent during the four year campaign against the almost former President, both for and against, though only the “against” part of it is reported. We will see how that goes- the Electoral College is supposed to vote on December 14th, the Senate run-off elections in Georgia hold the prospect of hobbling a Biden Administration, or opening a unified Congress to enable the continued transformation of the Republic into something else. Socotra House stands with chaos and confusion. We will continue to follow as closely as they allow as this marvelous story continues to unfold.
– Vic
Author’s Note: Well, now that Joe Biden has been duly declared as elected to be our next President, I don’t know whether to be frightened or relieved. Two things are for certain – we are going to be poorer and less free. At the least, I’m glad to see that my dire warnings of a societal meltdown have not come to pass – but there is a parable here…
– Point Loma
Useful Idiots
Twenty years ago, I go the chance to talk in person with Dr. Samuel P. Huntington, author of “The Clash of Civilizations,” at a cocktail party in Cambridge. He was your typical Harvard professor of the day, sporting a threadbare Harris Tweed blazer with elbow patches, and an open-collared shirt at a more formal dress event. He had a snaggle-toothed smile with teeth stained yellow from years of nicotine and coffee. Francis Fukuyama had recently published his repudiation of “Clash” based on the dissolution of the Soviet Union and failure of Communist dogma, titled “The End of History and the Last Man.” I asked Dr. Huntington about what he thought about that book; he favored me with a wicked grin and offered this younger whipper-snapper an interesting observation born of wisdom “It ain’t’ over yet.”
Screen Shot 2020-11-10 at 9.14.15 AM.png
Uncle Joe & Kammie
Wiki says it as well as any source – “In political jargon, a useful idiot is a derogatory term for a person perceived as propagandizing for a cause without fully comprehending the cause’s goals, and who is cynically used by the cause’s leaders. The term was originally used during the Cold War to describe non-communists regarded as susceptible to communist propaganda and manipulation. The term has often been attributed to Vladimir Lenin, but this attribution is unsubstantiated.”[1] However, it definitely sounds like something Lenin would have said. What it doesn’t say is that once their usefulness is up, the idiots are eliminated – either by execution or by relegation to the dustbin of history.
And so, in almost 48 years of government “service,” the man managed to not pass one substantial piece of legislation with his name on it, but taking advantage of other’s work which was a skill he perfected when he was in college. Now that he has been elected, don’t expect any sudden miracles – COVID-19 is vanquished although Pfizer now says they have a miracle vaccine that is 90% effective (an announcement they could have made in October but chose not to for some reason…), the economy fully rebounds, and we get back to living our normal lives as if nothing ever happened – sort of like Serv Pro for the Soul. But Uncle Joe has served his purpose – he has replaced Trump and thereby restored most of the power and prerogatives of the Deep State. What makes it interesting is that now in the COVID-19 world and he is 77 years old with a history of underlying health issues, he is only one good deep breath away from that one-way ticket to the ICU and mortal oblivion. The political thriller aspects are delicious. Like the Caesars of old, his handlers and now the Secret Service shouldn’t let anyone unknown from the outside who could be a COVID-19 carrying assassin anywhere near him, even though it is kind of hard to sample the air we have to breathe, which is unlike tasting food for poison.
I didn’t bother to watch the returns on election night since I pretty much knew what was going to transpire, and I wanted to avoid any case of projectile vomiting. Not wanting to hit the rack too early, I flipped through the channels and came across a Godfather marathon – great stuff. In the first movie there was a scene that I hadn’t paid much attention to before, but I did last Tuesday night. It involves a short conversation between Michael Corleone and his waspy wife Kay about the uses and abuses of power.[2]
Screen Shot 2020-11-10 at 9.14.36 AM.png
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone
“My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.
“Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and Senators don’t have men killed.”
“Oh. Who’s being naive, Kay?”
And now waiting in the wings are all of the bad guy dictators and other egotistical world leaders who are probably vying for the chance to be the first to have their pictures taken next to a guy who can’t figure out which way he needs to put on his Depends® in the mornings. They will want to contrast their strength against his frailty as sort of a metaphor of America’s fall vs. the world and in particular, their vision of leadership for their countries, their societies and their civilizations – it should prove to be both degrading and disgusting.
Waiting in the wings is VP-elect Harris, who no one wanted and before this, whose biggest claim to fame was being denied free bus rides to school courtesy of Uncle Joe’s tagging along on a desegregation bill. Her lack of real personal charisma and a UC Berkeley liberal background so alienated her from the voters that they registered their repudiation by forcing her to withdraw from the campaign before the first Democratic primary was held. Now, she is in line to become the first female President – is this a great country or what?
Even though I can be hypercritical, I do wish them well and all success in defeating COVID-19 and righting the economy. We all have a vested interest in the future of the country and that they can achieve bi-partisan consensus and try to do the right things and not overreach, if they are allowed to govern on their own. But there are always mitigating circumstances, good intentions notwithstanding.
Screen Shot 2020-11-10 at 9.14.56 AM.png
The Politburo (the original Uncle Joe is in the middle)
The real question is, who is in charge here? Since the Communist Party of North America disappeared inside the Democratic Party sometime in the 1950s (as they were being hunted down by Tailgunner Joe McCarthy), they have re-emerged rebranded as the Progressives (see Bernie Sanders for details). Stymied in 2016, they were licking their chops on how they were going to remake America this time around, except a funny thing happened on the way to the Revolution – the Blue Wave of Liberalism didn’t materialize to carry the election the way they were slavering over. On the contrary, the only real loser was Donald Trump, and you can argue that without COVID-19, he’d still be President four years from now. It turns out that the hoi polloi figured out that free stuff won’t exactly be free, and that law and order really does mean something to most Americans, even illegal immigrants. Absent control of the Senate and the now inability to pack the Supreme Court with Liberal justices, and the Green New Deal is not going to happen, they will be reduced to what they can get away with using Executive Orders and legislating by regulation by the various members of the Politburo waiting to be named. They will be the front for the real power brokers in the country going forward. The nice thing going for them is that they will get to have it both ways – they can blame both COVID-19 and Donald Trump for the measures that they will propose in order to save the country – they are patriots, after all. The first will probably be a national mandate for mask wearing that all will agree with – while it makes sense from a public health standpoint, it is an egregious power grab and sets a bad precedent – “Simon says wear a mask; Simon says pay a national wealth task; Free health care and education for all. Yeah, I didn’t say Simon Says, but I don’t have to anymore since you agreed to wear that mask.” On the other hand and now that Trump is on his way out, there is another group of useful idiots out there who can be re-directed to achieve by violence and action what couldn’t be achieved at the ballot box.
Screen Shot 2020-11-10 at 9.15.09 AM.png
The Mob
Ordinarily, the Mob, having accomplished its mission, would be disbanded by sponsors pulling their funding support, and with a cold winter approaching, send everyone home to figure out how to cope without jobs in the COVID-19 society. If not, then you’ve got to find something else for them to do since they’ve become addicted to street frenzy – another social cause to espouse. Here you have a trained and organized force like the Nazi brownshirts, who are waiting around to be aimed like a weapon, so why not use it? So, what is it that the big money people, like Georges Soros, who pull the strings behind the scenes to their own ends, really want to get rid of? The First Amendment has been mortally wounded, and bleeding out; Free Speech is being labelled as Hate Speech or shouted down by those who have big enough megaphones, and who don’t approve of or agree with what you think and say. That leaves the Second Amendment, so let’s get on with gun confiscation by perpetrating acts of gun violence that demands (more) legislative and regulatory action. Simon Says give me your weapons – or else.
And in an interesting twist, the Hilary Clinton “deplorables” meme has resurfaced. I saw a headline on Drudge about MAGA supporters “brandishing” firearms (which is a Federal crime everywhere) and worshipping crucifixes (which is not yet), sort of like what Obama said back in 2015 about people clinging to their guns and religion – none of it was true, of course. Well, Jesus saves and guns protect – we’ll have to see if it sticks as part of the Biden-Harris agenda going forward.
Screen Shot 2020-11-10 at 9.15.21 AM.png
Trump News Network?
What’s next for the President. First, he gets to join a very elite club of ex-Presidents, and an even smaller one of those who survived impeachment. He is still fighting it and, in his mind, he didn’t lose. He declared victory on Tuesday night, and the argument that he will take to his grave will be that he won but the election was stolen from him. He’s a winner, after all, so you know he will not let it go. Then there is the Durham investigation waiting to drop, which should prove interesting, if not revelatory, along with the Senate race run-offs in Georgia – ugh. But I don’t think those are really going to change anything.
And what is his chief gripe, anyway – that his opponents cheated better than him? Dead people voting in elections is a well-established American tradition, like collecting Social Security in your grave is a human right in America. That’s why all elections are administered at the “local level” not Federal, and that voter registration information is so zealously guarded – for just such occasions as during this past election. He should have known better.
Assuming the status quo holds, you can guaran-goddamn-tee Trump will be living in Joe Biden’s ass for the foreseeable future – either via Twitter, radio and TV show call-ins, or his own TV or talk show. You can see steps being taken to try to limit his what was relatively unfettered access to social media, to include restrictions being visited by Twitter, Facebook, and others. It may well be that he does set up his own network or get a show on one of the conservative channels. Hell, if they can give a bully pulpit to the Reverend Al, then why not the Donald? And while the Cancel Culture will be busy trying to eradicate Trump’s legacy, at least we never had to use the title “President Hilary Rodham Clinton” and all that potentially entailed.
But, now that he is going to have to yield power whatever the circumstances, then he’s got to be thinking about Numero Uno, and that’s how to avoid going to prison if his biggest detractors and haters get their way. The best way is to issue himself a Presidential Pardon. If that’s not possible, then wait until the last minute, resign and get Mike Pence to do it. That would be an interesting coda to what has been a strange year, a true asterisk to an amazing election year and one in American history that ain’t over yet.
I remain your faithful servant.
Post-Script – I note with no small level of amazement the date when I initiated this screed – 40 years ago to the day that I raised my right hand along with 300 other fellow Officer Candidates there in Newport and took the oath. Where in the fuck does time go?
[1] Source: Wikipedia.
[2] Source: Mario Puzo “The Godfather,” 1972.
Copyright 2020 Point Loma
www.vicsocotra.com