Sunday Morning Comin' Down

In Bridge on the River Kwai, Colonel Saito never understood Colonel Nicholson...

You are defeated, but you have no shame.
You are stubborn,  but have no pride.
You endure, but you have no courage.

...but Nicholson understood Saito perfectly.

Saito was a not-very-bright middle-manager -- a Reince Preibus -- whose only tools are the blunt instruments of the inept martinet.  And that would have been sufficient if all he had to do was keep a bunch of prisoners locked up and in line, but was also charged by his superiors with completing critical infrastructure project which neither he nor the men under his command were competent to perform.

Saito can threaten and torture all he likes...

Saito [speaking of the Geneva Convention]:  You speak to me of code?  What code?  The coward's code!  What do you know of the soldier's code, of Bushido?  Nothing!  You are unworthy of command!

...but since he refuses to abide by the rule of the civilized world...

@NBCNewsPR @KatyTurNBC @chucktodd @Reince @MeetThePress pic.twitter.com/TYh61Bk9ZT

— David Valadez (@Dave01) November 21, 2016

...he absolves those who are civilized of any obligation to respect his authority:

Nicholson:  Since you refuse to abide by the laws of the civilized world...we must consider ourselves absolved from our duty to obey you.

And we on the Left understand Trump and the Right just as perfectly.

Trump was elected by millions of profoundly ignorant people and bigoted people based on dozens of wild promises that he cannot possibly fulfill.  This fulfillment problem is compounded by a factor of 1000 by the fact that, even if he were serious about keeping his word, Donald Trump knows fuck all about anything and the unhinged contempt for government at the core of the party that elected him renders that party completely incapable of enacting anything except massive tax cuts, the torching of the safety net and witch hunts.

Sooner that you will believe, the actual j-o-b (don't you dare call them "czars") of actually building a fucking wall (and making Mexico pay for it) and turning coal -- fucking coal! -- into a cutting-edge, 21st century growth industry, and slapping 35% tariffs on some cars coming into this country but not other cars coming into this country, and bringing every fucking manufacturing job back to the Land of the Free and a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure project and delivering awesome health care to every American at "a fraction of the cost" (emphasis added) --

“In some areas, they’re paying 60, 70 and 80 percent more than they were paying last year,” [Trump] told rally attendees. “And Hillary Clinton wants to double down and make it more expensive, and it’s not going to work. I called it when it first came out. It’s only getting worse, and not only for you, for the country. Because our country can’t afford it, you can’t afford it. We’re going to have great health care at a fraction of the cost, and you watch. It’ll happen.”

-- and on and on and on.

And just as they were during the Age of Dubya (no, we didn't forget because we never forget) once the wheels come off and burst into flame, the Beltway media will be right there, johnny-on-the-spot to bury it all under a mudslide of outright lies and rampant Both Siderism.

This is to be expected  They are, first and foremost, craven careerists -- Quislings and collaborators and the willing footstools of depraved power.  But this time there will not just be a rag-tag band of dirty hippies desperately trying the crash the gate and glitterbomb the shit out of the Sunday gasbag Cavalcade with math and history and causality.  This time we will be joined by an army of former Obama Administration Rohirrim spoiling for a fight, eager to protect their legacy and no longer constrained the incumbent diplomatic niceties of running the country, and by veterans of the Clinton campaign looking for payback with interest.

All of them tracking every move the Trump Administration makes, flooding the zone every time Trump breaks another promise and tries to lie his way out of it.  Every time they propose a bill that is identical to a bill the Dems proposed but which got shot down because the GOP are seditious bigots, expect to hear about all over social media.

Yeah, it's a hella shitty hand we drew.  Like 2005 all over again, on bad acid.  I know.  I was there with you for that too.

But this time Captain America and his crew will be standing with us -- 

-- documenting the atrocities, keeping score and making sure every detail of the Failed Trump Administration is held up to the light in all its gory technicolor glory.

After that, who knows? But I do know that, in 2006, people eventually got tired of being humiliated defending a gang of looters and incompetents:

Saito:  Do you know what will happen to me if the bridge is not ready in time?

Nicholson:  I haven't the foggiest.                

Saito:  I'll have to kill myself.  What would you do if you are me?

Nicholson:  I suppose if I were you...I'd have to kill myself.  Cheers!

Cheers!