Monday 25 November 2024 11:01:23 PM CDT

Since we're dealing with the U.S.A. of today and not a galactic empire 50,000 years from now Frank need not be our only source of wisdom. John Brunner was pretty good at visualizing our time from about... let's see... fifty years ago. As someone said predicting is difficult, particularly the future. John's Stand on Zanzibar from 1967 or so was pretty close to 2000 in a lot of ways. He had Herbert's understanding of people and politics and sociology. I was discussing Herbert and Trump as Paul Atreides with my friend Alex. Alex introduced me to Dune and (serious) SF generally and knows a lot more than I do about it. The subject of what Herbert would think of Donald Trump came up:

You got me on that one. Mainly because there's never been anyone like Trump, at least in terms of national and world affairs. Herbert was off on Kennedy - although it's hard to say what Kennedy would have done Vietnam-wise if he had lived what did happen was caused by LBJ and the guys who did away with Kennedy. Similarly he didn't get Nixon either. What little Nixon did was trivial compared to what LBJ and presidents after Nixon have done. It wasn't Nixon who created distrust but the news media and they're selective about who they want you to not trust.
The fact that Trump is unique - at least a never before - is part of the Paul Atreides similarity. The difference is that Paul was planned but when he arrived his creators couldn't control him. Hmmm, there's yet another similarity. Trump was considered by the cabal (as Alex calls them) to be one of them. Not that they created him but they were his supporters and cheerleaders as long as he was on their side. When he decided to take a more active role - it would have been fine with them if he did it as a Democrat but he went over to the enemy side.

Anyway the fuss lately has been about the cabinet appointments, the Gaetz for Attorney General being the one that got the most attention. I had a sneaky suspicion that someone was playing at regular 3D chess while the opposition is playing checkers. While I (and people with considerably more experience) don't believe it was a head fake by Trump it was by someone. Who? As far as anyone knows Steve Bannon isn't back on the payroll but I wouldn't be surprised if he's in on the conversation. Probably just talking to one or two people but there and Trump knows by now he's worth listening to. Whatever the case I suspect that Pam Bondi or someone similar was what he wanted all along and Gaetz gets a lot of press which can only help with whatever he has in mind. I like the idea of him being a special prosecutor in one of the cases against the lawfare perpetrators.

My friend Varek brought this up:

Some people - one of them is me - suggested that before 20 January there may be another attempt to take Trump out. Is there nobody over there that gets it? If they succeeded Vance would be president. He has the political skills - and willingness to use them - that Trump does not. Trump is a reluctant cult figure - assuming you think he is one. Vance could be their worst nightmare - young, good-looking, charismatic and politically skilled. He could, in eight years, find a way to remain in power beyond that time. Doing away with the twenty-second amendment is not likely but he could, as Obama tried to, run the country for another eight years through the next president.

Varek@Myndcryme

I see Trump has finished naming names - I see one or two more that may be like Gaetz - sacrifice or distraction. Let's let the state-run media and the ones who have a clue have it over the weekend and we'll see how close they are.















































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If the evidence say's you're wrong you have the wrong theory. You change the theory, not the evidence. John Brunner
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First we had the legs race. Then we had the arms race. Now we're going to have the brain race. And, if we're lucky, the final stage will be the human race. John Brunner
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