Editor’s Note: Marlow calls them the way he sees them this morning. I confess, I have never seen anything like this in my life.

-Vic
Intel. Dumpster Fire

Author note: I wrote this early this past week, while our imperial city started spinning out of control. It was so disorienting that I searched the past for some context. What I discovered were portents.

——

Three months ago to this very day, we were twittering about the new President’s relationships with the nation’s Intelligence Community. All of the following occurred during a single 24 hour period:

President Trump was complaining about its leaks and unmasking. Deservedly so.

A Wall Street Journal story trumpeted that the Intelligence Community wasn’t sharing the good stuff with the new guy. This was really bad, if true. Sort of a return to the old days where the White House was kept in the dark on many sources, methods and detailed reporting.

A counter punch article in response was based on the Director of National Intelligence statement saying the WSJ story wasn’t so.

During an impromptu press conference, the President referred to a Russian intelligence collection ship operating off the east coast:

“The greatest thing I could do is shoot that ship”

Trump claimed that the American people would think it was “so great” if he ordered an attack on the Russian spy ship reportedly loitering off the coast of Connecticut but that he wouldn’t because he wanted to try to preserve U.S.-Russian relations.

February 16 2017 seems oh so long ago. Today the earth is standing still.

America once had the world’s preeminent intelligence organization. We now have in its place a train wreck bordering on constitutional crisis. We now seem to have a beltway full of leakers both authorized and unauthorized, elected and unelected, career and appointed, all doing what they conceive is their duty or at least their agenda. It sure looks and smells like a stinky dumpster fire.

North Korea missile tests, mom of all bombs, laptop bombs,
Streaming murders, Facebook Live, Trump vs. the FBI
Leaking lips sink ships, get more stock . . . large blue chips,
Travel ban, germ-a-phobe, good God, there’s another probe
Repeal, replace, discount trips to outer space
Wanna Cry, Ransomware thieves can’t spend bitcoin currency
Onion rings, endless Game of Thrones inside the West Wing,
Clinton whining, finger pointing, Billy Joel song bastardized!
Codeward leaking, Israelis queasy, internet hoaxes drive policy

We didn’t start this dumpster fire
Should have seen it coming when Trump started tweeting
We didn’t start this dumpster fire
No one can believe it, we’re doomed to repeat it

Wikileaks, Comey this, Comey that, lock ’em up, ratta tat tat
Russian probe, Supreme Court justice, grinding ISIS, still no market crisis
They go low, we go high, Is America is “great again?”
Mike Flynn, mortal sin,
Zika virus, Al Qaeda ‘s back, Russian hacks
Stock market rise, 400 ppm, France got a new PM
Hashtag obsessed, news cycles and our minds compressed

We didn’t start this dumpster fire
Should have seen it coming when Trump started tweeting
We didn’t start this dumpster fire
No one can believe it, we’re doomed to repeat it

Drain the swamp, build a wall, Brangelina’s tragic fall,
Immigrants matter, ACA fail, nothing happens, country’s in the pail
Trump didn’t win the Nobel Prize, supporters wonder why
Trigger warnings, free speech is dead, Trump’s scary big head
Epic superbowl, no more birth control

We didn’t start this dumpster fire
Should have seen it coming when Trump started tweeting
We didn’t start this dumpster fire
No one can believe it, we’re doomed to repeat it

Taping system, memos for the record
Look at the mess they’re both in
Where the hell is old Mike Flynn
Crumbling credibility, kiss tax cuts goodbye

We didn’t start this dumpster fire
Should have seen it coming when Trump started tweeting
We didn’t start this dumpster fire
No one can believe it, we’re doomed to repeat it

We didn’t start this dumpster fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start this dumpster fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

What else do I have to say?
Summer’s here so I’m out the door
I can’t take it anymore!

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
We didn’t start the fire

Copyright © 2017 From My Isle Seat/Billy Joel
www.vicsocotra.com