What did this Flynn episode make obvious? 1) that our intelligence agencies do not believe they have to operate by the rules which govern the rest of us; 2) that they are ready and willing to interfere, illegally, in domestic politics in precisely the manner they accuse the Russians of; 3) that Trump threatens their agenda, which means they HAVE an agenda, other than that of supporting the elected representative of the American people, and following his lawful directives; and 4) that the directive granting the NSA broader powers can be reversed by Trump, who is the President now.
I see no difference between Flynn, in his preparations to take office, talking with the Russians about future policy–particularly given the daily and venomous attacks on them which the complicit media was directing–and Obama telling Putin to his face “after the election I will have more flexibility.” The election had not even been held at that point, actually, making this worse. Obama could not know for sure he would be President. Flynn KNEW Trump had won.
This whole thing, obviously, is a manufactured tempest in a teacup. It is TRUMPS WORST WEEK EVER, for the 56th time. The American people see what is going on, and it pisses us off. TRUMP IS THE PRESIDENT. Stop fucking with him daily.
The bonus here, is Trump can draw a line and just say NO MORE ALBERTO GONZALEZ’S. He can say, look, you attack my people, expect retribution. Media outlets that run continual propaganda attacks on him can be disinvited from press conferences.
And more importantly, Trump has the political cover he needs, now, in my view, to do a MAJOR house-cleaning among our intelligence service, who seemingly recognize as master neither the law nor their elected boss. That has to change.
And, again, Trump has what neither Nixon nor Reagan had, which is not just a Republican Congress, but a wave of resurgent support for conservatism generally. Obviously, Paul Ryan is a pussy or part of the swamp, but the movement is in the direction of these assholes needing to watch their backs, or they will get voted out of office. Americans see what the Left has done, and we are having none of it. Trump can and should browbeat these people into doing the fucking jobs they were elected to do.
Now, obviously not every battle is worth “going nuclear” over, but clearly in the case of the intelligence community, they drew first blood, which justifies every counter-measure Trump undertakes.
That is the silver lining here. Sometimes you need your enemies to attack you first, so you can justify the response.