WASHINGTON AND THE CHALLENGES : CAIN WINS FOR NOW.

Trump's National Security Adviser Ret. Llt. Gen. Michael Flynn was finally shown the door, like his son (the fake anti-Hillary basher-in-chief) before him. That it took so long to dispose of a man with a spotty reputation, in breach of trust and protocol, is mind boggling. So much is loose in this White House in chaos. Most major functions remain unattended. The internal strife and denials go on under the elective scrutiny of a president who appears to be just a junky for cable news, awkward handshakes and applause from the faithful.

The leftovers from the early days, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, are too busy stumbling over their lies to be able to gouge the gaping hole they stumbled into. For now, Sean Spicer, who has a long-standing contract with Saturday Night Live, is safe until he walks in a other White House-made trap. In three weeks this administration was already able to alienate most allies and to signal to most foes that America has turned the page of rational behavior. True, Netanyahu is in Washington. For once there were two elephants in the Oval Office, both real estate and settlement developers and Middle East peace undertakers. The Two State solution might become the broken porcelain as a result (for now). This choreographed love fest (with wives included) differs from the Mar-a-Lago dinner scene in honour of the Japanese P.M., where the North Korean missile launch, arrived uninvited (what are US spy satellites good for?). In full view of other attendees, the presidential dinner table became something out of a Tupperware party, trashed into a dumping ground for crockery, cell phones and glassware. Melania was once more relegated to her prop mode and ignored.  She must be getting used to it to by now.

The Republicans in Congress, under Ryan and McConnell (Laurel and Hardy redux), try every fakir stunt in the vocabulary to pretend "measured" indignation, dipped in hypocrisy, to avoid having to face Trump's ire before the 2018 and 2020 elections. The GOP is acting like a tribe of lemmings which will take the lead from Jeff Sessions, attorney general and Pied Piper from hell. By the way, is it noticed that the indignation around Benghazi or about Secretary Clinton's email server has subsided? That the Podesta email drip suddenly stopped? That WikiLeaks has fallen silent and that the anti-Democratic Party avalanche of fake news, fed i.a. by Flynn junior and the usual Breitbart suspects, is no longer after Trump got "elected"? Certain coincidences are worth noticing.

This "Trump Coup" is in need of chroniclers of the Gore Vidal/Voltaire caliber. The comedians now have a moving pre-impeachment scenario ahead of them. Unfortunately, this country is in too deep an abyss to afford laughing for too long. Americans are in a most unfortunate dilemma. Inside, the less desirable gut reactions--pro and contra--are the loudest for now. Outside, the more reactionary elements proliferate both in their home turf and through the manipulation of populist movements or trough "criminal" nefarious actions  (manipulated by Russia). It is ominous that an American real estate parvenu is allowed to trash vision, democracy, culture...and beauty. Too many who have invested their hopes in all that was exemplary in America, end up empty handed for now! Despite misgivings, the Obama years already look like a fairy tale! There might still be an opportunity for this "so-called president" to get rid of the inverted commas and finally face the reality of a concerted effort by Moscow to destabilize the West and to undermine its democratic fabric. Cain is winning this round but the battle is still undecided, if...