For those of you who watch YouTube geopolitical talking heads, Chas Freeman, who was Nixon’s translator on his famed visit to China and later ambassador to Saudi Arabia, is particularly cool, articulate, and measured. We feature a recent video below so that you can get a sense of his temperament. Freeman has also become more unsparing over time due to the rank ineptitude of US conduct:
So your humble blogger sat up and took notice when reader johnnyme found these remarks late in a wide-ranging interview by the South China Morning Post:
The United States is in the midst of a mounting constitutional crisis that will come to a head with the November 5 elections and the transition to the January 20 inauguration of the next president. Those in Beijing who have come to believe that there is no longer a viable path to peaceful reunification and that the only feasible way to end the division of China is to resort to force might see this period of confusion in Washington as an opportune moment to do so. This would, in my view, be a tragic mistake. The civilian government in Washington may disintegrate at the end of this year, but the US Armed Forces will not, and the American people would not fail to direct their anger at China were they to regard it as responsible for a war over Taiwan.
One has to think Freeman still has a lot of contacts, as well as his considerable personal perspective. If his were merely one view, it might be easier to discount it. But people with very different reference frames are voicing similar worries. For instance, Matt Taibbi, in his discussion with Walter Kim of the RFK, Jr. speech throwing his lot in with Trump, in passing expressed doubt as to whether the 2024 presidential election would take place.
We have pointed out how it would not be hard to brick the 2024 elections. The usual focus of this concern comes from Team Dem, over the inept efforts by Trump and his allies to contest the 2020 results. Perhaps they will get better this time. Or arguably, the sowing of doubt in a Kamala win would be corrosive to “democracy”. The wee problem with this position is that the Democrats have shown themselves very willing to put their hands on the dial, witness the how Sanders was denied the wind in his sails of an Iowa win, his 125,000 disappeared votes in Brooklyn, or even an entire documentary based on poll workers seeing shenanigans in California, or now with RFK, Jr., their scorched earth tactic to keep him off the ballot. RFK, Jr. also alleges party operatives leaned on allies to deny him media coverage (his comparisons to how Ross Perot was treated suggest he’s not off base).
But despite hand wringing about Trump thuggery, there in fact has been nothing resembling a brownshirt show (see Israel settlers for a reality check of what that looks like), save of the perfectly legal sort, that on the threat in some states to prosecute women who get abortions, even out of state. And why should there be? Trump has been ahead. Even with the Kamala fest, the Democrats have not moved into the lead. And Trump has just gotten a vote, money, and media attention boost from RFK, Jr. endorsing him.
Consider further this report from a discussion by a reliable reader with a Democrat superdelegate. Even though single-sourced, it is a litany of admissions against interest. The summary of the superdelegate account:
The overall take –
a) the DNC convention was not very good. Policies were never discussed – and it is becoming obvious now that there is a severe deficit here. Furthermore, the policies that have been put forward – he specifically named price control – have been an utter disaster.
b) the whole no-show special guest Beyonce or George W Bush thing was a completely incompetent disaster and not a good look. Apparently it was supposed to have been Beyonce but she was very offended by something that happened earlier in the day, possibly with the Kamala advance team
c) Trump was already ahead in the real polls – he is now well ahead in the RFK endorsement saga – the polls in the media are really wrong according to him
d) he reiterated that the Kamala idea was literally no one’s idea with a brain in the DNC. His prediction is she will be a disaster. There were apparently multiple issues with temper tantrums this past week with aides in tears.
e) he still believes this will be a Trump win
This tweet came out shortly thereafter. The superdelegate said the speaker was indeed a convention participant and the insiders were “shitting their pants”. The Twitter views are not overwhelming but one would need to track back to TikTok, where it originated, to get a better sense of whether or not it is going viral. A key statement:
When I first got into politics, I thought the Democrats were the party of the people and at the DNC this week, I thought I was in a building with the most elite and out of touch people in the entire world. It very much felt like let’s just have a huge party and forget all of our the problems because the vibes are brat…I didn’t feel any connection to the people that I know right now who are struggling to buy their groceries or pay their rent.
Former Democrat Campaign Worker
Speaks out after attending DNC pic.twitter.com/rRxroTc7yy
— TestDummy (@TestDummy04) August 25, 2024
So given the likely trajectory, and the weird terror that the Democrats have instilled in many loyalists, that Trump will impose an authoritarian regime (and maybe even engage in a bit of Pol Pot-ery), it seems more likely that the Democrats will brick an election than the Republicans. People more expert in election rules and Constitutional process are welcome to correct me, but as I read the Constitution, there is no mechanism for delaying the Presidential vote. So it could take as little as imposing martial law in a few key states over violence, real or manufactured or exaggerated, by Trump loyalists, to halt the vote in those states and make it impossible for the election to proceed.
An alternative scenario that Lambert likes is space aliens land and we have to pause everything to deal with the threat they represent. I have long wondered why John Podesta was so obsessed with them. With all of our wonderful visual fakery, it would not be hard to fabricate a greatly improved and more lasting War of the Worlds. Readers have noted in the last few years that the number of sighting of UFOs has increased.
Lambert further points out that they have been peculiarly concentrated in the US and even more so around nuclear facilities. My pet explanation is that these sighting are actually US experiments with advanced visual and perhaps signal spoofing technology.
Needless to say, I hate having to entertain this line of thought. Perhaps Freeman and Taibbi are inhaling too many swamp vapors. We can only hope so.