DECOMPOSITION

Apres la mort, le corps ne s'arrete pas. Meme considere parti, une  autre activite demarre, clandestine, voir meme subversive. Des organismes tertiaires prennent le relais et une autre vie succede a l'existence anterieure.

Il en va de meme pour les systemes politiques, les meilleurs comme les moins bons . On peut vouloir les garder, les bouleverser ou s'en debarasser mais d'inombrables mecanismes continueront a proliferer, a lutter, a se defendre.

L'Occident semble etre entre dans un  stade pre-comateux. La democratie est en recul. L'hegemonie americaine est arrivee a son stade terminal. Elle ne maitrise ni ses demons interieurs ni les pressions venues de l'exterieur. Son president accidentel agit plus comme un George III fou que comme un homme d'état rationnel. Il attise les feux et cree un cenotaphe de societe. L'opposition n'a d'autre resort que de conduire une resistance (the "deep state") qui essaye d'enrayer la progression du Mal.

L'ephemere monde unipolaire a fait long feu. La pensee unique est enterree. Qui plus est, la creativite americaine incontournable apres la seconde guerre mondiale est aujourd'hui passee dans l'armee des ombres. Un syndicat successeur qui produit une " sous culture"d'argent, vulgaire, demagogique, occupe aujord'hui le terrain. Le nouveau pouvoir livre un combat permanent contre les "ennemis du peuple", sous la banniere de la "fake news". Dans le monde, les Etats Unis sont devenus les mal aimes, meme aupres des allies qui etaient encore inderacinables il y a deux ans a peine.

La decomposition actuelle de l'Occident est inconteestable mais elle n'est pas terminale. Il est vrai que les interests communs, politique, moral, financier, strategique, craquent. Trump aura ete l'entrepreneur des pompes funebres d'une idee. Encore faut-il qu'il arrive a tuer le patient. Au demeurant ses actions ne repondent aucunement a une reflexion intellectuelle. Elles relevant d' une antipathie structurelle envers une culture et un concept normatifs, don't il s'est toujours senti exclu. La "nonchalance intelligente" d'Obama constitue une barre trop haute et elle est donc a rejetter. Trump est une personnalite pavlovienne. Il est exclusivement reactif et donc facilement influencable ou previsible. Tout est la. Sa tempete reste ephemere. Shakespeare ou Giorgione n'en ont que faire.

Faut il etre defaitiste pour autant ? La guerre est loin d'etre perdue. En Amerique il reste un nombre considerable de "checks and balances" pour bloquer ou retarder des mesures, qui sous l'apparance de gestion, cachent un agenda reactionnaire, sounent inspire par les "Evangelicans" qui teleguident cette administration. Les elections partielles de Novembre risquent d'etre sans merci et sans consideration. Elles pourraient mene degenerer, au cas ou le president voudra s'en approprier le ton et le message. Ailleurs l'intemperance risque d'affaiblir dadvantage l'ordre consensual existant avec les allies (EU, OTAN, multitateralisme), et d'accelerer la montee de la Chine et de consolider le role de la Federation russe. Les presidents chinois et russe ont trouve en la personne de Trump une dupe sortie d'un libretto de Da Ponte.

La decomposition des orders existants ou des anneaux de Saturne est un concept cher a Steven Bannon, guru (en disgrace) de Trump, proche d'Orban et de ses pairs. Cet intellectuel etait l'exception dans l'entourage presidential generalement adverse aux considerations metaphysiques. Il ne cache pas son antipathie fondamentale envers l'ordonnance occidentale et semble vouloir reactualiser Jean Jacques Rousseau et  Thomas Hobbes. En realite la force du message reside surtout dans sa simplicite elementaire. Il interpelle l'individu considere comme marginalise, injustement penalise par une conspiration international progressiste accusee de sacrifier l'autochtone a l'ailleurs. Dans ces conditions, l'immigration, le libre commerce international, le multiculturel, l'AUTRE, deviennent les cibles d'une coalition assez disparate qui rassemble les frustres de tous bords. Il exile l'idee de choix et de diversite et decrete un requiem pour le temps present, accuse de toutes les turpitudes. 

Il est difficile de conduire la resistance alors que les leviers de commande aux Etats Unis sont occupes ou assieges. La Cour Supreme risque de devenir un bastion reactionnaire pour un temps indetermine. La mort de senateur John McCain est actuellement le seul evenement qui rassemble encore tant soit peu un pays polarise, l'espace d'un enterrement. L'absence de Trump - par decision du defunt et par depit du president- est un symbole d'un l'affrontement devenu permanent. Elle est aussi une defaite pour un president qui, chez lui comme dans le monde, reste un homme rejete par la majorite "reelle". .

Tous ceux qui regrettent la disparition de McCain, homme inegal mais jamais banal, posent un acte de resistance. Les Republicains qui ont choisi desormais le parti de Judas n'osent trop critiquer le dedain que Trump a toujours manifeste envers le senateur decede. Ainsi ils ont une nouvelle fois donne la demonstration de leur faillite morale collective.

JOHN McCAIN

This very complex man--often infuriating, sometimes mistaken, always larger than the sum of his courage, beliefs and temper--looks, in retrospect, as one of the great Americans. After his passing, his shadow now dwarfs the current antics going on in this betrayed America.  The political class, which has lost its ways, looks even smaller now after the giant in their midst has left them to their own mediocre devices.

TRUMP: WHAT'S PAST IS PROLOGUE (The Tempest II.1.245)

Misdemeanors, offense or lies by this president and his cronies multiply. Slowly Trump & Co. are creating an alternative reality which confuses most and showers the "base" with the vitriol it craves. For now, the endangered checks and balances which are under this administration's "carpet bombing" still hold. For how long?

Trump is a master of deception.  His method of contradictory narratives blurs, confuses and equalizes truth and lies. Rudy Giuliani, court jester-in-chief, plays his Rigoletto act with shameless brio. Former confidants, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen are thrown under the presidential limousine until final time for sentence, or pardon. The more Trump feels cornered, the more his deregulated aggression will rule, unchecked.

Some start to wonder how a president who is a junky for tweets and sordid trivia is still able to steer a foreign policy. Actually he doesn't, and just keeps undoing what Obama did or follows his primitive psyche with zero conceptual interest. It appears that other leaders who might have some sympathy for his bizarre antics start to show a degree of anxiety.  The Republicans will still follow him until their extinction looms too close.  His "base" who feed on coal, God and guns remains supportive as long as he entertains them with the "us versus them" Leitmotiv. In the outcry of the Roman circus atmosphere in his rallies, he switches on the culture war. In fact, he operates in a nihilistic mindset. It is possible that violence might erupt, directed against the press, Democrats or establishment Republicans.

The Democrats do not want to go on the impeachment trail for fear of making Trump look like a martyr in the eyes of cookie-baking America. The Republicans want their man in the Supreme Court and will look elsewhere as long as the Manchurian president delivers them the judge who might overturn past progress. He returns the United States to some avatar of Polish or Hungarian mettle but they look elsewhere. Some hoped that the new secretary of State might be more pro-active than Tillerson but this is just an other naive gamble. In this cabinet of crooks (De Vos, Ross, Sessions (for how long), Carson, Perry (yes, he is there), Zinke, etc.) the wise man/woman perishes, the coward survives. The cult does not allow creative thinking. The best image for what this ship of fools stands for is the image of kids in cages.  "Mission accomplished."

The justice apparatus still works but the MRI shows that nefarious "plaques" start to alter judgment. Paula Duncan, the one member of the jury who could not rally her peers in Manafort's trial, is proof that tribal commitment becomes more important than moral responsibility. This is yet another indication of the ways in which the American experience descends to the level of nightmare.

There remains one very important change in the American landscape. Trump has killed (for the time-being) the legitimacy of the saga of white America. The former leading strand is going under-cover. Other forms, norms, creative "outbreaks" are claiming their space and time. There is a kind of proud self-consciousness, especially in black culture, which obeys now to its own voices and goes for expression and style that are "home grown".  Black culture is becoming the leader in so many fields, including the expression of "self". Asians and Latinos start also to reclaim their own place in the American puzzle. This is a most positive change, even if the cause for this acceleration is not a pleasant one. It might feel paradoxical, but the Trump dark-age has acted as a multiplicative for the diversity it portrays in such negative terms. Black Lives Matter opened the path for black culture that owes nothing to anyone.

This blog said that the fall will see more than falling leaves.  Indeed, "the time is out of joint".

KOFI ANNAN

This former UN Secretary General had an old fashioned class which is only found in Downton Abbey fiction nowadays.

His control of words and gestures was almost hieratic.  Nevertheless, his shaky and faulty grasp of the absolute magnitude of the tragedies in Rwanda or Bosnia remains an existential question mark.

Still he made the United Nations a partner which was no longer tolerated but indispensable. Principled without being preachery, distant without being aloof, he might have come over as belonging to another era, while, in fact, he was mostly above and beyond pedestrian categories.

OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN

The book of Ms. Manigault Newman Unhinged: An Insider's account of the Trump White House is the talk of America. This unpleasant account of the goings on in this Trump cowshed further confirms the most unpleasant rumors that besiege the reputation of this administration.

Omarosa Maniguault Newman is a most attractive, articulate personality. She is also a dubious character. That she suddenly saw the light after her dismissal from the White House, like Paul on the road to Damascus, requires an effort in believing. For a long time she worked in Trump's shadow and was given mostly a "prop" role when he was elected, acting as a liaison to black Americans. She acknowledges that she woke up from some form of induced coma and that she arrived belately at the realization that the father figure she worshipped was in reality the conman others had seen long before. She nevertheless played her Mata Hari trick and made secret recordings which violate every rule of deontology under the sun. It tells a lot about the total lack of ethics in this White House turned mafia den and about a former aide turned avenging angel.

Some see in her a Jeanne de la Motte Valois type who hastened the downfall of the Bourbons in France. Contrary to other whistleblowers, Omarosa is a formidable reality star who knows how to seduce, bite, and stoke drama. The dull White House Maginot defense wall cannot compete with a woman who can make the vocabulary blush or the president furious. The latter will use every mean, insult or lie to contain the damage and his infamous "base" will certainly stick with him. Another problem is that Omarosa, given her own U-turns, risks being seen more as a savvy entertainer than as a witness for the prosecution.

The truth is that the Americans have become tone-deaf. The permanent intrusion of lies, scandals and insults creates a situation wherein 55% (if not more) run for cover. Not a day passes by without some form of outrage, be it in the US or in foreign or trade policies which only obey to the erratic outburst of a man who tweets, fuming, at 6 am. The ever-spreading chaos is creating a Tsunami which spares nothing and nobody and is isolating the United States from every normal or professional restraint. Trump is left being Trump with all the nefarious damage that comes with it.

This new "tell all" book ads little to the reigning unpleasant narrative and might soon be overshadowed by yet another affront already in the making.  Autumn might see more than just falling leaves.

EEN VRAAG VOOR DE STANDAARD

In de berichtgeving lees ik hoe success, exploot, enzv.  worden toegeschreven of aan een Belg of aan een Vlaming, onverschillig of hij of zij ( meestal met Belgische vlag) de wens hebben uitgetdrukt te worden gecataloriseerd... Is dit misschien een ingefluisterde Bourgeois / Homans " Pallieter "revanche na de Rode Duivels euforie, of is de Standaard slordig ?

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK....CASTOR and POLLUX ?

A lot has been said and written about the New York/Los Angeles Kulturkampf. There are more clichés than truths in this repetitive, often hilarious saga. Let's stick to the essential: in New York people still walk, in Los Angeles they drive. In the former the streets are too clogged anyway, in the latter people are not "born to run" but to sit.

When one is in Manhattan, one senses Europe is close but one is mostly aware of the proximity of the formidable American cultural multiplier. When in L.A., one feels the breath of Asia and a spontaneous, deregulated new home-grown  creativity which no longer feels the need to be legitimized by others.

The visitor who travels the eastern Washington DC/Boston corridor finds him or herself often lost in a page of Dickens and suburban decay. California, even when boring (the Valley), overwhelms by size and opportunity.  When at its best, California is over the top, be it in natural beauty or in the realm of the new generation "intelligence".

Both share the same problems and challenges and are in the forefront of social, environmental, and political engineering. While there is a wide-spread strategy of vote and issue suppression in large parts of America, both states champion changes for the better in race relations, gender equality, minority rights and dignity.

At the end of the day humor is probably the best equalizer but they share also the prevailing worry regarding an endangered American democracy. The lies and alternative facts are being stockpiled at their doorstep.

Both suffer the onslaught of awful movies, abysmal food and outdated infrastructure. They are nevertheless the best laboratories for social change and research. They are the proof that America is not just a Utopia but an attainable working experiment.

A zone of high pressure commentary covers both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Their strength lies also in their contempt for needing to prove or demonstrate (the favorite routes for the insecure). They cannot wait for Trump's grandiose military parade planned in Washington D.C.   SNL and the comedians will have an opportunity of a lifetime to lambast, spook and kill.

Remember Annie Hall when Woody Allen poked fun at the East/West coast divide? Everything was made clear in what was then his best Voltaire-like satire. Not much has changed. Those two halves thrive on their mutual envy. They would feel diminished if they were deprived of their twin to rally against the other America (which will not be named).

AMERICA : THE UNDESIRABLE ALTERNATIVE

In 1946 Winston Churchill made one of the ultimate speeches in modern history, saying that "an iron curtain has descended across the continent". His prophecy endured until the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November, 1989.

It looks now as if another iron curtain is being built in America, splitting the country in halves and causing it at the same time to severe former ties with allies, who begin to consider the United States as an acquaintance turned rogue.

In two years the lies and the vitriol coming out of Trump have created a toxic atmosphere in the US. That a minority president was able to create a rock-solid base which supports his alternative facts, his overt war against the press and a suicidal deconstruction of the world order (American made) leaves observers dumbfounded. Now that Brett Kavanaugh might become the newest judge on the Supreme Court, the coup d'état is almost complete. The warfare against the press, the judiciary, the welfare state is accelerating. The Republicans have no longer shame or beliefs, while the Democrats are just cry babies.  40% of the country has become Trump's private Stormtroopers.

America's two halves (more or less) are no longer on speaking or hearing terms. For the first time in a Western democracy, a major cable news network, Fox News, has become the official preferred filter/organ/outlet of one party. Sean Hannity, Fox's star apparatchik is this administration's guru. His unsophisticated commentary is becoming the Bayeux tapestry of the Trump saga. Fox devours the competition and has become the most watched cable program. CNN is the arch enemy by now and its reporters figure high on Trump's "most wanted" list, together with minorities, science, culture, the EU (Germany mostly), and the "play foe" of the week (China, Mexico, Germany....etc.).

The world is divided. There is one silent winner: China and the BRI - Belt and Road Initiative -. There is one cynical voyeur: Russia. Many don't know anymore where this unhinged American president stands. Europe, shell-shocked after Brexit, does not know what to make of a situation in some form of permanent flux. It hesitates to verbalize too loud its total disdain for this new rude political stone-age but is nevertleless tempted to take an alternative route as long as the undesirable alternative lasts. There are risks, strategic and political. In this advanced stage of nausea, Putin starts to look more polite, shrewd or statesmanlike. Already his fans in central Europe and Italy have awakened to the sound of the populist chorus. The United Kingdom seems to have no future other than getting, at regular intervals, pomp and parades out of the mothballs. The old continent looks forlorn, with a political deficit at its Eastern and Western borders. It wants to distance itself from a pathological partner but cannot risk jeopardizing it all, throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Actually, the situation is more alarming in the United States itself. An incident at a Trump rally can quickly degenerate, since the arsonist-in-chief strives on fury. The "Black Lives Matter" movement is becoming  an ever larger rainbow and is a force to be reckoned with. Many college educated men and women start to see the more non-benign DNA of this power grab. The Trump plutocrats cynically manipulate an often clueless mass of drifters stuck in social stagnation and religious glue.

The future looks bleak. Even if Trump were impeached, a Pence presidency could be even worse,. The vice-president has the look of a man ready for Kristallnacht. He may have the uniform in his closet. He and his wife should be made honorary citizens of Salem. This ultimate bigot, who fetishists the Bible but gives the "president sinner" a free-pass, is a Yago without the verse.

The mid-term elections in November are a big question mark. The Democrats should make considerable gains, but...Trump will campaign non-stop and experience shows that he is a formidable contender, the more so when he smells blood or fear. His repetitive lies (No collusion, fake news, witch hunt, hoax...) and use of "ear worms" (Crooked Hillary, Little Marco...) create a narrative which sticks. The Democrats will have a uphill battle and might be catnip for this predator. Something is rotten in the United States.