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Much of the response to President Trump’s sacking of James B. Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been patently hypocritical and partisan. This is not hard to demonstrate. More challenging, and perhaps much more important, is to understand the wider context of the latest outburst of Trump Derangement Syndrome. What might be the real reasons, the ideological circumstances, which explain the determination of the mainstream media, the Democratic Party, bureaucratic executives, CEOs, Hollywood activists, educators, the professoriate and so on – the whole Left Power Elite, in other words – to damage and defame the Trump presidency at every turn.
The charge of hypocrisy almost goes without saying. Ever since Comey informed the Senate Judiciary Committee, on October 28, that the FBI was re-opening its investigation of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information during her time as US secretary of state (2009-13), the anti-Trump forces having been baying for Comey’s blood. Their indignation, given the announcement came just 11 days before Election Day, is understandable.
Not even the fact that, on November 6, two days before the election, he once again closed the FBI’s probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure at the Department of State, could he assuage their outrage. On May 3 this year, in front of Senate Judiciary Committee, the FBI Director claimed to feel “mild nausea” at idea that he could have played any role in effecting the outcome of the election. No mainstream journalist, no Hollywood activist, no Democratic Party spokesman is on record respecting James Comey’s insistence he did right thing: “Lordy, has this been painful. I’ve gotten all kinds of rocks thrown at me and this has been hard, but I think I’ve done the right thing at every turn.”
Certainly Clinton has never forgiven Comey. As recently as two weeks ago she was still blaming Comey’s October 28, 2016, letter to Congress – along with “Russian WikiLeaks” and, of course, misogyny – for her electoral defeat. Perhaps the pretence of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California), once considered something of an outlier in the Democratic Party but these days no more unbalanced or outrageous than her colleagues, encapsulates the situation best. President Trump’s dismissal of Comey cannot be supported because it does not meet the “smell test”, and yet were Hillary Clinton the occupant of the Oval Office, Waters would now be supporting Comey’s sacking: “If she had won the White House, I believe that given what he did to her, and what he tried to do, she should have fired him.”
The partisanship of the media against President Trump is obvious to anyone who is not, well, hyper-partisan against Donald J. Trump. For the mainstream media – in not only America but also the UK and Australia – the White House dismissal of FBI Chief Comey smacks of President Nixon’s Watergate cover-up and, more specifically, the “Saturday Night Massacre” of October 20, 1973, in which special prosecutor Archibald Cox was sacked and, nine months later, Richard M. Nixon departed 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by helicopter in disgrace. This, surely, is to confuse adolescent fantasy with political commentary. The sacking of James Comey, as a number of wags wryly observed, constitutes a cover-up in search of a crime. The Democratic Party’s “tin foil hat” conspiracy that President Trump happens to be an agent of Putin’s Russia is not only puerile but, once and for all, allows the Republicans to clean the slate on the so-called McCarthy-era witch-hunts of the 1950s. The moral high ground occupied by American-style liberals, at any rate on the question of guilt-by-association, is over.
All of this, however, begs the larger question. Why, exactly, is it that politicians and celebrities and media outlets have forfeited any semblance of trustworthiness or impartiality in their attempt to bring down President Trump? The answer I proposed, in “The New Totalitarians”, is an ideological one. Donald Trump – in many ways to his own disappointment and regret – poses an existentialist threat to the powers-that-be in the United States. Zeke Miller’s recent interview with Trump, appearing in Time magazine, tells the tale of a man who works 10 hours or more a day in an attempt to “make America great again” and is genuinely flummoxed by the unrelenting onslaught of “the fake news”.
James Burnham’s The Managerial State, published almost sixty years ago, invites us to see the forces at play in America, and the West in general, in a fresh light. Those who hold power over us are no longer the traditional capitalists, “the individual entrepreneur, who owned the whole or the greater share of a factory or mine or shop or Steamship Company…and actively managed his own enterprise.” The new rulers of our world are “operating executives, superintendents, administrative engineers, supervisory technicians” and “administrators, commissioners, bureau heads, and so on.” The latter, with their eye on the globalist big picture, could not be expected to be patriotic, let alone circumspect about the encroachment of the state on the freedoms of the individual or the integrity of national democratic institutions, the national bourgeoisie and even national boundaries.
Through the lens of James Burnham, at least, the 2015-16 presidential campaign season takes on a very different hue. FBI Director Comey’s original probe into Hillary Clinton’s alleged malfeasance was as if one branch of today’s ruling class was investigating another. In his bizarre press conference of July 5, 2016, Comey pronounced Hillary Clinton guilty of being “extremely careless” but not of “gross negligence” – as if they were two different things. Ordinary people who break the law engage in “gross negligence” and may be prosecuted, while those in the Left Political Elite who break the law are only guilty of being “extremely careless” and remain at liberty to run for highest political office in the land and place all their allies in positions of power.
President Trump, as I have argued elsewhere, is a revolutionary. His business background and character, the quintessential “individual entrepreneur”, puts him at odds with the PC class of operating executives, superintendents, administrators, commissioners and bureau heads of which Bill and Hillary Clinton are most surely the perfect examples. It will not be easy holding the powers-that-be to account in what Burnham called the Managerial State. Bureau Head James Comey, for whatever reason, failed to address the astonishing corruption of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s transnational philanthropic-government-private moneymaking scam described in Peter Schweizer’s Clinton Cash. That makes him an accomplice of sorts, while the extent of the Clintons’ corruption and criminality continues to be exposed to this very day.
NBC News, like so many other mainstream media outlets, claims President Trump disrespected James Comey by tweeting that their recent conversation in the White House might have been taped and warning the former FBI Chief to be careful about mischaracterising their tête-à-tête to the “fake media”. I would see this as less a matter of disrespect to Comey than an act of survival on Trump’s part in an atmosphere that increasingly has the feel of a modern-day civil war.
Daryl McCann has a blog at http://darylmccann.blogspot.com.au/
Yes, Trump is completely correct in his actions against the incompetent Comey, a weak Obama should have sacked him in October 2016. And you correctly point out the hypocrisy and nihilism of the Clintonistas who now make Comey a martyr.
And the big Russiagate McCarthyite witch-hunt nothingness continues– not a scintilla of fact presented.
The permanent informal government (PIG), aka ‘deep state’ have already sabotaged Trump independence. They own the system and Trump has, sadly, failed in his ‘revolutionary’ quest.
The American presidential system, with all its checks and balances is incapable of sorting out the mess without national trauma. As the tragic-farce continues we should all give praise, four cheers, for the Westminster system in Australia!
Don,
Trump is into 120 days into a 1,461 day tenure and he has already failed to move and clean out the PIG, Deep State? Failure writ large … Not surprising really as not only has he enemies who hate him with a deranged bent, but he has John McCain, Paul Ryan and others like them on his side. A Herculean task, but he is working on it – with Putin guiding his every step and Assange watching his back …
I was once managing a downsizing, but had to hire an outsider with the new technical skills we required to set up the new system. He thought it strange when at the interview I asked him: “Do you ever feel lonely?” He was startled, but said “No, I don’t think so.” I then pointed out that everyone would hate him, he would have no friends, only people who used him (while it suited them) and would be alone. He lasted 18-months, but did the job required. Trump has eight years to do the required job, but only four if he fails to do so.
I appreciated your little joke that “we should all give praise, four cheers, for the Westminster system in Australia!” as we certainly could not call our government a farce after all. There are many other things we could call them, but not a farce. After all we have the brightest and best people in Oz leading us over the financial cliff, but we know it’s worth it as our sacrifice is saving the planet. We know it has worked already as its freezing today. 6-days before I fly out for the tropics and the reality of reliable coal-fired electricity.
I’m with you there, en passant, regarding our current parliamentary system, the one that has diverged so far from the intent of the founding fathers. The senate, as a house of review, has the reigns now, having the capacity to turn a cow into a bull and the Libs into Greens.In fact it brings to mind the Irish folk song ‘Oh it was the biggest mix up that you have ever seen, me father he was Orange, me mother she was Green’.
The old adage ‘it never rains but it pours’ and our country has an identity crisis, our minority groups suffer the incurable ‘grievance syndrome’, and political correctness wafts through our corporate entities, to the point that right appears as wrong, and wrong right.
Our illustrious PM uses the so called ‘populist’ language of the Trump machine only to be trumped by a Shorten, who bugles only to the dim witted, and there are an abundance of those today.
“We’ll all be rooned” said Hanrahan,till Cory blows his Bernardi, and Tony joins the force, towing Andrew Hastie in his wake, to make Australia great again.
I definitely support that.
As the 1776 Revolution played out in America, in a novel constitutional arrangement the President emerged effectively as an elected monarch, with powers comparable to those of George III in Britain.
But the Founding Fathers of Australia definitely got it right. Though the shock of 1776 brought on reluctant and glacial speed reforms in Britain, they were democratically-trending reforms none the less.
The Australian Constitution ironically is an Act of the British Parliament: a body which is not founded on any constitution at all apart from conventions and precedents . Our constitution avoids the defects of the American one, gives us an elected two-chamber legislature, and instead of our own hereditary monarch, gives us a vice-regal personage whose power solely consists of an ability to dissolve Parliament and call a fresh election.
The Queen is not elected, and her reign spans many parliaments and governments. A slide into autocracy or oligarchy would have to displace her in the process: not a guarantee against it, but a major obstacle so high as to be insurmountable so far at least by any would-be autocrat or gang of would-be oligarchs.
Comey, by threatening to prosecute every US citizen who sets up and operates a top-secret trading private email server except if your name is Hillary Clinton, proved himself to be very legally dodgy. In fact he is an accessory to such a crime.
Good riddance.
This is very insightful but did anybody proof read the article?
“the FBI Director claimed to feel “” at idea that he could have played any role”
“encapsulates up the situation best”
“Trump’s dismissal of Comely”
“President Trump happens to be an agent of Putin’sRussiaisonlypuerile but, once and for all, allows the Republicans to clean the slate”
“disrespect to Comey than act of survival on Trump’s part”
Dear pgang, you wonder if anyone proofed the piece — more than times than you would credit. The problem was the copy came with hidden and embedded coding, which insisted on switching the font and point size. Stripping out these instructions left stray characters, rammedtogetherwords, five hyper links turned into one and a variety of other crimes against coherence for which the editor — me! — and not the writer must plead guilty (albeit with extenuating circumstances)
Roger that Roger.
Trump had no choice but to sack Comey, the only question was how long before he acted to do it. To his credit he didn’t until he received advice from the Attorney General.
Exhibit 1.
When Comey dissembled about Hillary Clinton and her culpability regarding her ‘missing’ 33,000 emails. As Trey Gowdy points out, breaches of federal statutes are many and obvious and Comey’s interpretation of ‘intent’ (which he claimed could not be proven in evidence) that he used to give Hillary a free pass was plainly incorrect. Note this culpability goes all the way to the White House and Obama’s backing of Hillary as the Democratic candidate for President. It also relates to Obama’s directions to Attorney General Rice who met clandestinely with Bill Clinton at the time of Comey’s appearance before Congress to report on the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton. Remember also this is July 2016, many months before the election.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3FkvclWWpU
Exhibit 2
Again before Congress and the formidable Trey Gowdy – Comey gives testimony about FBI investigations and the FISA system. Note the way Gowdy leads Comey (himself a clever lawyer) to incriminate himself in regard to the ‘unmasking’ of the identity of US citizens collected by way of FBI/NSA FISA investigations. This is in regard to the investigation(s) of Russian influence (of the Trump campaign) in the last election, as obviously directed from the White House (Obama).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIh-CadZweI
The anti-Trump delusional Democrats and the Left in general extends here too. If you had watched Nine morning news reporting on the Comey sacking you would have seen an interview with academic Prof Joe Siracusa of RMIT (as the resident expert on US politics) where the good Professor repeatedly referred to the President as acting like a ‘mafia boss’ (even calling him by that term) and suggesting that Comey’s sacking was solely intended to stop the Russian influence investigation (which will be ongoing regardless. Siracusa then suggested that the ‘enemies’ Trump had made in the FBI and CIA would soon find the evidence required to impeach Trump. He actually licked his lips as he said it, obviously relishing that prospect. Note that Prof Siracusa is a ‘respected’ American academic and current head of RMIT’s Human Security and International Diplomacy in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies – so how could he be biased right?
Exhibit 3
Gowdy should have the last word about the veracity of the Russian influence investigation and the performance of former FBI Director Comey. Listen to what Gowdy says (and Comey’s replies) which puts the lie to Prof Siracusa’s suggestion and also explains some of the very good reasons why Trump finally got rid of his FBI Director.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGh0UJW3NT0
Trump will now be destroyed because he has no allies. His crime against the establishment was that Trump could not destroy Obamacare and gift one trillion in ‘savings’’ across to Goldman Sachs clients, the Mercer’s, as tax cuts.
Trump is isolated, sadly he sacked his few effective, street wise allies e.g. Bannon, Flynn. Next are Manafort and Stone. Trump will not/cannot defend his own team.
What is the ‘Get Trump’ modus operandi of PIG/deep state?
• three secretive Grand Juries are now reportedly working;
• foreign intelligence surveillance court (FISA) legalities to cultivate ‘evidence’;
• more ‘Annapolis’ FBI raids (the revenge of Comey?) with subpoenas, seizures, aimed at Strategic Campaign Group and especially Manafort/Stone;
• multiple moves to appoint a special investigator, plus numerous Congressional inquiries with the help of Republican defectors (20 already!).
It will be a two year national trauma for the USA. Trump might bomb a few more allies to make neo-cons happy and try to lift his ratings, but Trump has lost the streets. Trump cant get laws through Congress. Trump is beaten ten times in the courts. Where can he go?
The populists, alt-right who voted for a fighting Trump got the two Kushner Kids (both registered Democrats), then after the inevitable impeachment, will end up with Pence, – an arch reactionary conservative (an ‘arcon’), who will ‘Make America Same-Same Again’ (for billionaires).
Pray for America!
Hang on Don
The legislation to start scrapping Obamacare went through the House of Reps recently.
People in Ohio and Pensilvaynia are working again especially the miners.
Immigration from Mexico has slowed dramatically, without the wall.
China and the US are cooperating on action to stymie Nth Korea.
The Nafta deal is to be renogiated. Agreed to by both Mexico and Canada.
The Transoacific deal is scrapped.
The gas pipeline is being built.
He is draining the swamp and sitting the mainstream on their a….s by refusing to attend their functions and weekly derogratory media events.
And he’s sacked a bumptious upstart who was obviously in cohorts with the democrats but not necessarily the clintons.
Oh he’s also bombed the crap out of the Taliban.
In sacking Comey he’s let the security apparatus in the US know he is their boss, they answer to the us citizens through him.
He’ll take them on and will win.
More generally he is keeping the people who voted for him onside and in time will attract wavers. The left, the media and the deldems (delusional democrats) always scream their horror at what ever he does.
It’s best to ignore them Don. They are way out of touch and that’s been proven on many occasions.
And very good advice too, Keith. I tend to avoid watching CNN, refrain from reading Washington Post, NY Times and even the revered Wall Street Journal (though my subscription to The Australian encourages it) as they all produce the sort of negativity Don is manifesting. I admit I’m more than a little confused by Jared and his glamorous Ivanka, but what Trump has achieved in the 120 days he’s been in office is little short of breathtaking, as you’ve indicated.
So, to ram home the point: the trick is to avoid the MSM, as Trump does his best to, because they’re part of the deep state bit.
…and then there’s the Logan Act, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, John McCain, Soros’ paid mobs. It will just keep coming, and coming. Trump has no political tricks he’s too straight.
Trump has won every round against the liberal media. When Neil Gorsuch takes his seat in the SC the despicable activism of liberal Judges will be overturned.
Trump is also emasculating the EPA which has driven, along with NASA alarmism. When that scam ends the ripple effects will go around the world. He also has a great rep in the UN. Nicki Haley is going gangbusters and if the pernicious influence of the UN is curtailed Trump will have won.
Hear! Hear!
John McCain, hahahaha
Soros was Clintons man, another yesterdays man.
While Trump keeps talking direct to the people through his tweets, and rallies he’s making the mainstream look like fiction writers.
The more they dump on him the more irrelevant and desperate they are becoming.
Take this latest wherehed supposed to have revealed state secrets to the Russians.
I just watched some so-called expert on the Drum, I know news in the hysterical way, say he’s told them stuff because he’s reckless and boastful.
He went on to say he’s told about Isis intending to use bombs in laptops.
A little later he said that was common knowledge and that it’s not against any law for Trump to say such things.
Yep … watch it.
The Comical asks him about impeachment while the Republicans control the congress. He says the Republicans are starting to turn against him and those in seats under threat at the next election will be the first to turn.
He reckons impeachment in two years.
No proof, no logic and undermines his own argument … well He was a university lecturer and I thought if that’s the way he teaches his students to think then it’s no wonder the UNis are so bloody dumb down.
And the audio is out of sync with the visual and it’s become bloody laughable, I’ve turned it off. Amateurs the lot of them.