JUDGING ME JUDGING OBAMA

It's quite clear to me that those of you leaving comments critiquing my analysis of the nascent Obama administration really don't have a clue as to what I am saying. On the other hand I see many who do. Rather than write three thousand words trying to explain it again I think I'll just let the next months demonstrate what I have been saying, I thought rather clearly.

I have not rolled over for anyone and those who know me understand that it's not in my DNA. Having a body and a soul replete with scars I no longer run out with people who want to risk their lives in Quixotic, ill-conceived skirmishes. Stop saying that it's the same people, doing the same things, in the same old game. The people may be the same but the "things" and the "game" have changed. Hell the gameboard has changed too. I don't have a complete pithy response and it's frustrating. But play with these ideas...

Take this as a given: The people who will be occupying the White House are not running the collapse. The collapse is running them.

Never in my lifetime have I seen The Powers That Be as vulnerable as they are at this moment. In my lifetime, the closest it ever came was 1968. That's when they killed Bobby and Martin. After Newark and Detroit and a four or five other riots; after the Chicago convention; after Tet... Shit, the whole country almost came apart. But they kept control. Now, assassinations and troops in the streets will only lose them more control. The assassinations were tools of that era. Martin and Bobby were visible heads of movements and ideologies that threatened the system. So were the Panthers... OK, so tell me, who is at the visible head of the "collapse" movement? What's the name of the charismatic leader of chaos and panic?

We are much farther off the tracks now than in 1968.

One of my intelligence mentors, CW4 William McCoy of US Army (Ret.) CID fully articulated something I had already pretty much figured out by 1993. When you're fighting against overwhelming odds, the first thing you want to do is find a way to make the enemy deviate from its order of battle. Every time an enemy deviates from his plan he leaves openings that can be exploited. This has always been my first goal since day one. It was my wish behind every FTW article and Rubicon. Make them break stride. Stan Goff, bless his sweet soul, understands this perfectly. Well, guess what?" They have. In fact, they're tripping all over themselves. And the work that I and the rest did at FTW; the work in Rubicon, the magnificent job Jenna has done here, have helped bring that about. I am suggesting that we are far more influential than we know and we should act like people are actually listening. They aren't going to listen to people singing a song they've heard too many times. Too many people are reading the map --or significant parts of it. We did that. Of course, the lion's share of the credit for making the old paradigm waver is the whirlwind they unleashed this summer. It's a bucking bronco and they are not steady in the saddle.

I just finished chatting with an old friend and former member of congress (guess who?). She agreed with me completely that there are more openings now to get in and "make an impression" than ever before. It was she who came up with term "vulnerable" and it was THE word I'd been looking for, for days.

Here are two more pieces of shared mentoring.

1. Don't shoot unless you have a head shot.

2. A young bull and an old bull are standing on top of a hill, looking down on a herd of lovely cows. The young one grins and looks up at the old bull and says, "Let's run down and have our way with a few?" The old bull shakes his head and said, "No, son. Let's WALK down and have our way with all of them... One at a time."

Just play with this stuff for a while. I'd rather get back to figuring out what's going on... Don't blink.

And God do I love this blog and all of you who make it such fertile intellectual ground. We all must care for this soil.

(I'll bet Jenna will write something beautiful as a counterpoint... Just call us Gilbert and Sullivan.)

C-Ya

MCR
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Unleashed this summer...bucking bronco and they are not steady in the saddle.

Of course, I couldn't help remembering a bucking bronco last summer in the middle of traffic outside Prospect Park and its rider, unsteady in the saddle, who landed on his thumb.

Right. Ouch. Remember those nifty hierarchies of pain with third degree burns and getting shot at the top? Out the window.

But back to the matter at uh.... hand.

I think what Mike's saying is reminiscent of those psychological tests where they show you a picture of a guy smiling next to a benign, sunny picture. Then they show someone else the same picture next to a sinister picture.

The subjects' interpretation of the guy's entire character changes.

Thus the Obama drama is peopled with a familiar cast of characters but the mise-en-scene has shifted and therefore, so have the goals.

It is against this new backdrop that the new administration's actions must be seen and weighed. Their primary goals are not so malevolent as those to which we have become so cynically accustomed. Their primary goals will be to salvage what they can and not only for themselves and their kind since they are now able to see that such a course of action would in fact be against their own interests. Therefore they will not be so paranoid nor so antagonistic towards the likes of us.

Ultimately, it comes down to a question of timing (the headshot.) There are times when taking to the streets is called for as it's the only show of power TPTB respect. But given the worldwide relief at the election results, does anyone think now is such a time? (I await your response, NB Patton.)

That's my reading of Mike's take. But, speaking of Gilbert and Sullivan, some might still feel:

Though to catch your drift I'm striving,
It is shady it is shady;
I don't see at what you're driving,
Mystic lady mystic lady.

Sorry but it rhymed.

JO