Yawp!

Diogenes understands Walt Whitman and his need to send his "barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world."

Voices that believe in a cause can't be silenced, even by their owners. When there is rottenness in the world it must be called out. There is nothing more rotten in the world at this time than the Trump presidency, and Diogenes' voice has to speak. And if no one hears or listens? The words are out there, forever zipping through cyberspace, and perhaps they'll have an effect. If not, at least they've been spoken. Dio realizes this is odd reasoning, but is also aware that if he doesn't utter those words he will lose his self-respect. Someone will hear. Someone always does.

Diogenes has been contemplating government. Writers through the ages have considered the question of how government, i.e. those with power, should best treat the governed, i.e. those without power.

History indicates that those governments that do not treat their citizens fairly and humanely frequently come under attack. The length of time a government may be in power is not a measure of its stability. Ruthless governments unafraid of using their strength can last a long time--witness Rome. But ultimately they fall, either due to attack from outside forces or internal rebellion or from their own rotten core.

Diogenes cannot believe the American people will allow the Trump administration to continue even one term. Why? Consider this note jotted down by Abraham Lincoln in preparation for some speeches he was making in 1859: "The people — are the rightful masters of both Congresses, and courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it."  

And this, from Lincoln's first inauguration address, March 4, 1861: "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."

Food for thought.

--Richard Brown 

Hiatus

Diogenes has determined that this blog is not generating enough interest to warrant his continued work, so he will continue the struggle in another way.

Feel free to browse the archive to see what these posts are about, and if you would like to see this blog return, please leave a comment.

Keep up the fight.

Maskirovka

During our power surge-enforced absence, Diogenes pondered the nature of today's news, particularly that dealing with the Great Pretender, and general events in Washington, particularly having to do with Congress.

Americans tend to ascribe more authority to the president than he actually has. The systems of checks and balances that keeps any branch of government from becoming too powerful works well. The president can offer bills for consideration by Congress, can nominate people for federal office including the Supreme Court, and can declare war. But all these actions must be approved by Congress. In the final analysis, there are only two unilateral actions a president may take: Issue executive orders (which are nonetheless subject to judicial review), and launch a nuclear strike. The latter theoretically requires consultation with military authorities, but none of them have veto power.

But the president can and does attract attention, and Donald Trump is far and away the most attention-grabbing chief executive this nation has seen for a very long time. His antics draw ire or applause; his parade of beautiful family members attracts the fashion and social press while he keeps the newsies busy with his endless tweets, gaffes, missteps and outrageous statements.

But what of Congress--the news from there has not been silent, but with the president hogging all the spotlights, the boys and girls of Congress have been free to pursue their nefarious agenda. Congress is the real power in this administration, because the Republican majority finally has a president who will rubber-stamp the laws they want to make.

Diogenes suspects a maskirovka.

And what is that? you may well ask. "Maskirovka" means "disguise," and it was and is still at the heart of Soviet and Russian military policy. Like a magician's tricks, a maskirovka depends on confusion and misdirection. Camouflage, false intelligence, denial, disinformation, media manipulation and many other tools are used to completely surprise and overwhelm an opponent before that opponent has any idea what's going on.

So Diogenes suspects that the Trump family circus has been thrown at the media to shift attention away from Congress, which, if true, suggests that there are operatives in the Trump administration who are a lot smarter than we've been giving them credit for; or that Trump himself has learned more from Vlad Putin than anyone thought.

--Richard Brown

P.S.: For an informative and even entertaining look at how a maskirovka might work in the real world, check out Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising." It's dated, but still good.