The Silver Lining to the Comey Affair

A silver lining to the Watergateesque elite power play underway is that it might convince Trump that there is no placating the deep state, that he should return to the ideology of his presidential campaign and pursue confrontation. If the deep state is going to burn him down why shouldn't Trump go "Bulworth" -- something Obama hinted he might do while in office -- and burn the deep state down? He certainly has turned somersaults since his inauguration. Is there one campaign promise left standing? Besides the House repeal of Obamacare, the ongoing dismantling of the EPA and some grist for the Right-to-Life mill, I'd say no.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov's White House visit yesterday was buried beneath all the news of Comey's sacking. The deep state doesn't want to let go of its Cold War reboot because it is the main defense against collapse of the rotten neoconservative/neoliberal governing center. Western voters are now not allowed to vote for anything other than the tainted mainstream parties because to do so is to support Kremlin subversion of democracy. This is clearly on display in the Politico report from Michael Crowley, "Trump’s big Russia reset":

The positive tone throughout the day was a marked contrast from Tillerson’s mid-April visit to Moscow, where he sat grim-faced next to Lavrov for a dour news conference that focused on the U.S.-Russia divide. Days earlier, the U.S. had launched a missile strike on a Syrian airfield to punish the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons, an act in which Trump officials said Moscow may have been complicit. The Kremlin bitterly protested the strike and said in a statement during Tillerson’s visit that U.S.-Russia relations are at “their worst period since the end of the Cold War.”

There was little of that talk Wednesday, even as Democrats made some of their boldest charges yet that Trump could be covering up a huge conspiracy that would reveal him to be acting under Kremlin influence. Trump officials call such charges laughable paranoia and an effort to rationalize Hillary Clinton’s election defeat.

Lavrov’s first visit to Washington since before the annexation of Crimea, and Trump’s willingness to greet him in the Oval Office, are clear signs that Trump is determined to pursue better relations with Putin despite intense political headwinds.

“The symbolism does seem significant,” said Samuel Charap, a former State Department official now with the Rand Corp. “At least on a diplomatic level, there’s a degree of normalcy that the Obama administration was trying to deny Russia.”

[snip]

But Trump will soon face new pressure to maintain a hard line on Russia. Later this month, he travels to Europe for meetings with G-7 and NATO officials who mostly take a hard line against Putin — especially in the wake of suspected Russian efforts to swing France’s May 7 presidential election.

The Kremlin has denied trying to interfere in the French or U.S. elections.

“I believe it’s important to engage Russia at high levels,” said Finer, who served as State Department chief of staff under Secretary of State John Kerry. “And I would hope that among the important issues that get raised with Foreign Minister Lavrov are what should be deep concerns about Russia’s continued interference in our democratic processes, and those of other countries.”

Statements from the White House and State Department on Wednesday did not mention election interference.