Despite promising myself that I’d never accept Donald Trump’s behavior or politics as normal, I have to admit that he’s worn me down. Some of his bad behavior is so familiar now that I can’t muster the interest to comment on it. I’m frankly bored by the news that the Chinese and Russians listen in on his phone calls because he doesn’t heed the experts who advise him how to keep his conversations secure. I know this is doubly or triply outrageous because he made such a big deal out of Hillary Clinton’s lapses in information security during her time as Secretary of State (“But, her emails!”). But the whole hypocrisy angle is so played out and seems to make so little difference that I can’t muster the energy to pursue it.
Of course I am alarmed and disturbed that our president is completely reckless and allows our adversaries to listen to his most private conversations. But I concluded so long ago that he needs to be removed from office that this is like adding a grain of sand onto a sand dune of evidence.
The solitary thing in this story that interests me is that his own aides solace themselves that he’s such a dunce and so detached from his work that he can’t really do any harm.
Administration officials said Mr. Trump’s longtime paranoia about surveillance — well before coming to the White House he believed that his phone conversations were often being recorded — gave them some comfort that he was not disclosing classified information on the calls. They said they had further confidence he was not spilling secrets because he rarely digs into the details of the intelligence he is shown and is not well versed in the operational specifics of military or covert activities.
What’s almost funny about this is that it would be scandalous and outrageous if the national security team withheld operational specifics about military and covert activities from the president of the United States. But they don’t have to do that because he won’t read, understand or remember his briefings. If they want to do their due diligence, they can just give Trump a briefing paper longer than a few bullet points and rest relatively assured that the Chinese and Russians will never learn our secrets because the president will never learn of them himself.
At least, that’s what they tell themselves.
That this ludicrous and dysfunctional situation exists, persists, and is widely understood to keep us safer is an impeachable offense all by itself.
The influence campaign is what interested me. That in spycraft worlds influence may even surpass blackmail as an effective tool. As the story goes, the Chinese listen in to what he’s interested in, which buttons push his decision making and then incorporate them into talking points towards businesses and policies that benefit China. They use them directly with Trump’s friends and their businesses and then count on Trump’s inner circle of friends to carry the message home.
So, in that respect where so many were relieved to hear that the Russians hadn’t actually tapped our voting equipment and changed votes they completely overlooked the power of influence.
And Trump, more than any President in history is more prone towards the power of influence, the whisper campaigns vs outright blackmail when carried by friends.
Trump’s paranoid that Federal or State Law Enforcement is listening to him.
Chinese or Russian spies, not so much.
He works for them (both probably) so it saves him the burden of tradecraft to report in.
Personally speaking, my outrage-meter is broken. It’s all bullshit, all day with this president and his administration. It started during the campaign, when he insulted Mexicans and I thought there would be a backlash, and it never came. And then incident after incident, speech after speech, more insults, mockery, and hate…no backlash.
So yeah, the onslaught of stupidity from Trump never ends. And it seems that if we pick our fights and move forward, maybe sometimes we can win. But the big, important battles remain. We have to understand that Trump favors autocracy (monarchy, if we’re honest) and he hates being told what he can and cannot do. But that doesn’t mean we give up.
Forgive me for harping on this, but get out the vote. Get out the early vote, the elderly, the minority, the youth, the independent vote. We have an opportunity right now to help turn the tide. Vote.
. . . especially when outrage-meter’s broken, to keep reminding ourselves that a majority of the country rejected Trump.
Those backlashes weren’t sufficient to overcome our anti-democratic institutions. But they came. A majority of us are still decent folk. A horrifyingly, appallingly slim majority. But still a majority.
But, yeah to your bottom line, vote, do anything/everything you can to help/get others to vote. That’s so much Job 1 right now that virtually nothing else matters.
The Chinese and Russians have to listen to him blather all day. That’s some upper level justice.
At KGB listening center, Omsk, Oct 2018.
“Lt. Razumovsky, it’s your turn to listen to the idiot today.”
“No, it’s not, Colonel, it’s Shaposhnikov’s.”
“You bastard! I listened to him for 8 straight hours Monday! Unrelenting boobery, but my English could be better.”
“Your English is twice as fluent as his. Of course, if I may say, it’s not really clear what he’s speaking on some calls.”
“It’s a form of English.”
“A dialect, perhaps?”
“Nah, never heard it before, and I’ve lived in NYC.”
“If I may say, Colonel, this is futile. (quietly) You know that.”
“Orders from above. You know that.”
(silence)
“Look, Razumovsky, if you’ll listen to his shit for the entire day today, I’ll take two of your shifts next week.”
“That, plus a day off from the shitstinker son”.
(pause)
“OK, deal.”
Yeah, if the agents felt tortured listening to ‘idiot’ Carter Page they must be begging for reassignment after listening to Trump.
I wonder if it’s a punishment detail in the GRU.
needs some ‘splainin’. At least to me. E.g., “widely assumed” by whom? Certainly not by me! And how widely?
Adding a grain of sand onto a dune of evidence is a very apt simile. (Though if I’d thought of it, think I’d have gone with “a Sahara of evidence”. But maybe I’m just more prone to the hyperbolic when trying to describe the really horrible.)
He changes his mind every ten seconds anyway.
I think it’s a willful behavior on the part of the President, to produce so many outrages that his opponents can’t properly react to them all. The Outrage Fatigue is real!