Trump-Putin meeting, Russiagate, etc
Saying anything about this is kindof pissing into the wind. But it is, after all, the most dramatic subject in the long history of US government. So I’ll try to express this in a worthy form.
Washington DC. July 17, 2069:
In the Henry Kissinger museum, there’s a great wooden desk he’s had since he turned 135. Noone remembers quite how it came into his possession, only rumors and legends remain, told by the staff of the museum. It is behind the velvet rope, visitors do not touch it.
This desk has a number of peculiarities. Impressions of ancient telephones and cocktail glasses. Bumps. Stains. A thousand stories for another day. Our attention drifts to the drawers. There are several. The first one, top center, is easiest to reach. It slides open most comfortably, its wooden rails worn smooth by use, oiled by history itself.
Over the years this drawer held many things. Some years, a stack of hundred dollar bills, some years a gun. Some years, a single business card. At one time, a paperweight engraved “the buck stops here”. Lace panties. A microphone and tape recorder. The odd Cuban cigar. Another paperweight that says “Not It”. A thesaurus, and a TV remote.
But those were all just relics, mementos of temporary occupants.
The final item in the drawer, and the one that was still there, was a map. An organic card stock made to last, but long since given up being flat. It was rolled up, made supple by oils used to restore it as the decades went by.
The map is a visual depiction of all of government, politics, and international relations. It took the mapmaker well over a century to assemble.
The oldest lines were draw in simple pencil. The most recent, with a quill pen. A feather from the last bird to be caught flying outside of a zoo. Ink of deepest blue. The markings in between were in various ballpoint pens, brushes, writing tools of the day, held fondly by their owner.
The map of government, politics, and IR marked its terrain as if it were land. Forests of Freedom were drawn. Mountains of electoral promises, valleys of bait-and-switch. Glaciers of Reform, deserts of bureaucracy. Cliffs of brinkmanship. Islands of Detente. Hills of finance, dotted with graveyards of idealism. Pits of defense spending. There were bodies of water as well. Rivers of blood, seas of tears.
But the most prominent was the Ocean of Hypocrisy. Surprisingly, this was the last part of the map to be charted. Even now it was not finished – the bottom of its Mariana Trench not yet reached. Unlike the physical ocean, the mapmaker concluded, human creativity has no limit.
Nevertheless, the deepest spot in the Ocean of Hypocrisy that had been found yet, in the hundred plus years of the mapmakers efforts – was labeled with an early 21st century fine point Sharpie. It said – Russiagate.
Seriously, it really makes you wonder. And all Trump has to do is acknowledge it, appropriate it (just like “Fake News”) and his critics are left with what?
There is ample reason to be concerned about the present and future of US government, and what Trumpism is doing to it. However, those who are concerned and have a spot on TV or some other national media, It’s really, really, really, really, really about time to get your feet planted on some kind of solid ground and come up with a positive story to offer voters in 2018 and 2020. Like starting now. Is there anybody home?
Pete's Politics and Variety 