Cabal Incarnate

This isn't a funeral, it's a roast!

For some reason that thought popped into my head a week or two ago. I thought it a funny concept, that one's own funeral could just be a roast. You know, we have this habit of venerating the dead beyond reasonable measure; to grant them a level of respect and dignity which they were never afforded in life. A roast could be a way to acknowledge the deceased's inevitable human faults and provide closure in a way that pretending sainthood can't really do. Call it a premonition - given the past week's events - but I never imagined that the roast would be of anyone but the deceased!

This week we've seen two high-profile funerals politically hijacked by speakers who just can't help but take pot shots at the sitting president. It is enormously disrespectful. Not particularly to Trump, which is common enough to be unremarkable. It is disrespectful to the deceased. Aretha Franklin was a legendary musician. Why should her memorial be tainted by petty politicking? Is the family not outraged? And McCain's funeral as well. As a US Senator and POW, he certainly deserved a respectful wake with all the state and military ceremony. Sure, he was a treasonous swamp rat, but those honors were earned in either case.

It's quite ironic that Trump was uninvited to the events, but was effectively the headlining act. It's downright cruel to John McCain, when you think about it. But Trump didn't do that. No, the people McCain and his family selected as attendees and speakers were the culprits. They shoulder the blame. Even his own daughter couldn't help but jab at Trump, while speaking at her father's wake. We saw a couple weeks ago that liberals can't help but politicize their own children's murders. So this shouldn't be surprising, but still it is. The one thing I always get wrong about them is to underestimate how brazen they can be.

It's also ironic that the media had to lie about flag positions and whatever else to make Trump appear petty, when it is obvious to anyone of sound mind that McCain's dying wish for Trump's absence at his wake set a new pettiness high-water mark. Since the left can't even see that the act was petty, they certainly can't see what a gift it was to the president. Imagine he had been invited to the funeral, as a speaker, even. The media would have either accused him of being insufficiently respectful (as they've already done) or would have accused him of egotistically stealing the focus from the deceased onto himself (like so many of the speakers are actually doing). Of course, had he politely declined to attend, he'd be accused of disrespecting a decorated war vet and, by extension, all veterans. He would have confronted a decision in which all options are politically damaging. McCain did Trump a solid by uninviting him. Then, the speakers and media coverage made it about Trump anyway, handing him the political victory on a platter. He didn't even have to do anything but make a statement where he acknowledged his political differences with McCain but gave respect to his service and offered condolences to the family. And then McCain's allies made it a political referendum on Trump and CNN made that a weeklong extravaganza. They just love losing. They must. Constant free press. A public spectacle of uncouth behavior by all his political foes. What more could a braggadocious chief executive ask for?

But more than a gift to him, it's a gift to us. For those of us who know the game is rigged, who know what "drain the swamp" means. It's hard to talk about the deep state, or the oligarchy, or the cabal (pick your term, they're all roughly equivalent), and not sound just a bit kooky. It shouldn't be so, of course. That well-placed people conspire to maximize their power is merely human nature, which the Founders labored greatly to control. It also happens to be the left's entire platform, the Marxian belief that social power struggles permeate all facets of life. (And, apparently, death.) And yet, when we say it, the connotation is of a nutty conspiracy theorist. Not because we are irrational, but because they control the media narrative.

The question always becomes, "who is the they?" It's a good question, and it can be difficult to answer. Well, we don't really have to answer the question any more. They kind of do that for us now. There must hardly be a McCain voter out there who hasn't noticed that his own running mate was snubbed, but his opponent and opponent's running mate were both invited to speak. CNN made sure everyone knew. So they know. How many of those McCain voters do you reckon became Trump supporters? I can't find any numbers on it, but 90% sounds like a good conservative guess. Almost everyone who voted McCain over Obama went on to vote Trump over Clinton. Trump was deliberately snubbed, but the Clintons were invited on as royalty. Everyone has noticed this. The liberals have made sure of it, and are positively gloating about it. Well, maybe we are too. All we have to do is point at the headlines and say, "this is exactly the kind of shit I've been talking about." And everyone knows exactly what we mean. Not necessarily at the higher level of conscience. At that level, the left will still dismiss us with whatever excuse they might conjure up. But at a lower level, they know. Humans are social animals. We instinctively observe social cliques and power alliances. So, at some level, everybody knows. Who are the powerful elite, the cabal? Well, turn on CNN. Clearly McCain was, the liberal media is, and so are Obama, Biden, Clinton, other Clinton, Bush, etc. Donald Trump isn't. Sarah Palin isn't. (Nor is Bernie Sanders, all acquiescences considered.) It's clear to every Republican sitting at home that their vote for Trump wasn't the same as their vote for McCain, Bush, or Romney. And for those who were "anti" voters, who voted against Obama or Clinton, well they might be realizing that their McCain vote wasn't such a strong political statement after all. A vote for McCain was to oppose Obama but still endorse the cabal. A vote for Trump was a rejection of all that.

McCain voters also remember that ten years ago the liberal media maligned him as a racist, prodded at his questionable war record, etc. Now the media laud him as a man of unimaginable virtue and dignity. They were always on the same side. 2008 was two candidates vying to be figurehead of the Cabal. They were of the same party, effectively. Those contests can still get serious and ugly, but the resulting power dynamics are similar in either outcome. Trump wrenched away the Cabal's hold on the Republican party and leverage himself into power. It was a coup. He broke past the uniparty gatekeepers with his agenda and campaign rhetoric. There is clearly a counter coup underway, and they use their substantial powers of the state security apparatus and allied corporate propaganda outlets.

This stuff is all pretty clear to us, the kinds of people who spend their time reading dissident right-wing blogs instead of watching or reading the corporate news. But it's not obvious to everyone. Most people try to believe the consensus narrative because it's easier that way, and socially safer. But these images and stories hit at us a more primal level. It's the kind of thing Scott Adams would call killer persuasion. Talking about the Cabal will seem less kooky after this. Our belief that the power dynamics are primarily establishment vs dissident rather than Democrat vs Republican, or even liberal vs conservative, will gain just that much more traction. People have now seen it with their own eyes. Rejecting it at the conscious level will generate all the more cognitive dissonance. The Cabal may be consolidating their efforts, but at the same time they are taking form. One theme that runs throughout this blog is that political power in a democracy depends on plausible deniability. The Cabal's ability to deny its own existence has diminished. As battle lines draw up and people are forced to chose sides, the hidden alliances reveal themselves.