MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE JUNGLE

The natives are restless.  The jungle drums are beating.  Pundits sense that something big is about to happen, but they’re not sure what.  In other words, it’s another Friday in Trumpworld.  

Donald Trump himself continues to build his fantasy world, one in which Senator Orrin Hatch told him that he was the greatest president in the history of this country, and in which his State of the Union address got the best TV ratings ever.  Neither of those claims are true, but that doesn’t matter to Donald Trump, for whom reality is whatever suits him in the moment.

If I had to bet, I’d wager that Trump is about to release some version of the bogus Devin Nunes memo, even though rational people understand that it’s both dishonest (because it cherry-picks information that suits its false conclusion) and dangerous (because according to the intelligence community, it will reveal sources and methods that will no longer be viable in the future).  Word on the street is that the release of the memo will be the beginning of an effort to “cleanse” the FBI and the Justice Department (whose leaders are all Republicans, appointed by Donald Trump).  If that happens, it will be interesting to see how the intelligence community responds.

The American intelligence community is not without friends.  Most of what it knows about the connection between Russia and the Trump family is also known to the intelligence services of our allies, none of whom are fond of Donald Trump.  The truth will come out, whether via Robert Mueller, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, or leaks from foreign governments.   

People with lots of dirty secrets – like for instance, Donald Trump – would be smart not to provoke people who know many of those secrets.  On the other hand, nobody ever said Donald Trump was smart.  Well, except for Mr. Very Stable Genius himself.

It appears that the game is afoot.