"Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon?"
  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • About Walter
    • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street >
      • Arrival and First Impressions
      • First Week
      • Training
      • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Tempo of the City
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
  • 1984 - 1986
    • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
  • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go?
    • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
    • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
    • 600 Happy Meals Please!
    • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
    • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Falling Crime Rates - Why?
    • Triads
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • The Long Read
    • Machiavelli on Hong Kong
    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
    • The Hidden Leader
    • The Big Game
  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • About Walter
    • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street >
      • Arrival and First Impressions
      • First Week
      • Training
      • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Tempo of the City
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
  • 1984 - 1986
    • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
  • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go?
    • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
    • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
    • 600 Happy Meals Please!
    • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
    • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Falling Crime Rates - Why?
    • Triads
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • The Long Read
    • Machiavelli on Hong Kong
    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
    • The Hidden Leader
    • The Big Game
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Walter's Blog

Picture
Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact
free rant unfiltered by rational argument.
 

"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you what life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill."  Hong Kong Blog Review

25/10/2017 1 Comment

Trumponian Physics - bending reality.

Picture
PictureJohn F. Kelly - circled too close to the Black Hole.
Trump is a Black Hole. He sits at the centre of the American political universe exerting an awful gravity on anything that comes near. And like a bona-fide Black Hole, he has an all engulfing event horizon. You can’t see what’s happening beyond that boundary nor can you comprehend how it operates. The normal rules, the accepted norms, the cardinal principles, all collapse. 

If you circle too close, one of two things happens … neither is good. You may get sucked in.  You then emerge in a bizarre world - at the risk of mixing my metaphors here - you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. Captured by Trumponian gravity, then disassembled, spat out … who knows where?

The other option is you bounce off. Damaged, spinning through the political universe, stripped of cover, dignity and adjudged irrational. You’re finished. 

Sean Spicer, the former press secretary, suffered that fate. He was an early victim. Trump sent him to lie on Day One about the size of the inauguration crowd. From that point on, Spicer was dead man walking. He was either going to fall through the event horizon or bounce off, as a relentless media pursued him. When you become a feature of ‘Saturday Night Live’ it’s only a matter of time before ‘game over’. At least Spicer avoided the central vortex. He now wanders around, looking for less punishing outlets of his torn talents.

The former four-star general, John F. Kelly, Trump’s Chief of Staff, suffered a worse fate. He’s now disappeared below the event horizon of moral ambiguity, his reputation in tatters. By all accounts, Kelly is a decent chap. 

A Marine, he served with distinction. In 2003, he led the charge on Baghdad. He soon overwhelmed the Iraqi forces in typical gung-ho Marine style. Unlike the draft dodger Trump, Kelly saw action. Plus, he gave an exceptional account of himself.  Also, unlike many politicians, Kelly has sons who serve and one died in action. First Lieutenant Robert Kelly, whilst in Afghanistan in 2010, stepped on a landmine. That’s why the incident that tripped up Kelly is so gut-wrenching. 

It’s clear that Kelly brought a degree of order to the chaotic White House. He’s enforced discipline in a shambolic mess of policies and prima donnas jockeying for fame. He is one of the few competent people in an otherwise lacklustre team of ideology-driven mavericks. Greater cohesion resulted from his command. Ultimately Trump benefitted from this.

Hence, it is disheartening to see a man of Kelly’s standing and ability compromised. Trump's alleged insensitive remarks to a soldier’s widow soon spiralled into a media storm. In a significant damage control effort, Kelly stood up to give an impassioned speech. He detailed how dead soldiers get conveyed back to the United States. He led us through the processes with forensic detail. He spoke with compassion, then empathy about what the family goes through. Along the way he revealed he’d counselled Trump on what to say. 

But, then Kelly went on the attack. And it was a lengthy attack of some force. That’s when it went wrong. He elected to make allegations against the congresswomen who’d initiated the story. It was a classic Trump response. Go for the opponent’s jugular. Take them down by questioning their motives and actions. Unfortunately for Kelly, his allegations against the congresswomen spoon fell apart. Video evidence refuted each one of his claims. Assertions that she’d acted in brazen self-promoting manner are untrue. 

Had Kelly cut his speech off before maligning the congresswoman, he’d be standing tall today. Now he’s in Trump domain with his esteem gone.  Reputations are brittle things especially when you associate with a habitual liar. A lesson Kelly is now learning. He’s gone from an untainted, accomplished, figure to another deceitful Washington insider. Yet, that's what happens when you make a judgement to serve a President who is immoral. 

As a military man, Kelly will have studied leadership. He know the moral calculations that leaders make. He is well schooled in this area, having attained a Masters degree in Strategic Studies. Hence, he’s no innocent. As a political operator he made a decision to stand with Trump by adopting attack-dog tactics.  Now the blowback has started with Kelly silent. He’s inside the event horizon, beyond sight and beyond help.

This is grist for the mill. The media are lapping it up with relish. It supports the narrative the Trump presidency continues a relentless descent into farce. Republicans made a Faustian pact with Trump. This diminishes them, while  the office of the president is soiled and the USA is a laughing stock.

​Meanwhile, both China and Russia are benefiting. A rebalancing of the world order is unfolding. A few brave Republicans have stepped forward to denounce the lies, distortions and twisted conduct of Trump. Unfortunately, none of this is enough to damage a man who operates in a parallel universe.


A Black Hole is a powerful entity that will require powerful forces to overwhelm it.

1 Comment
Joan Williams
26/10/2017 03:00:54 am

They are all corrupt yet the ordinary guy in the street gets decried for taking cash when doing a job and not declaring same.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Walter De Havilland was one of the last of the colonial coppers. He served 35 years in the Royal Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Police Force. He's long retired. 

    Archives

    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017

    RSS Feed

Home

Introduction

Contact Walter

Copyright © 2015