Google “Lodestar” (an archaic word meaning ‘guide star’, often applied to the Pole Star, Polaris) and you’ll be treated to innumerable hits all relating to the so-called White House mutiny. This rare word appears in the Resistance Manifesto op-ed released in the NYT. Supposedly, Vice-President Pence has used the word frequently in the past, so suspicion is that he is the author of the op-ed. He, of course, denies it. Meanwhile Joe Scarborough reports that Kelly Anne Conway is pushing the theory that Pence is indeed the culprit, and the author of the document. After all, he does stand to benefit…

Whether any of this is true is of course, irrelevant. Obvious clues can be planted to deliberately mislead, so by themselves, they mean nothing. And commentaries on the commentaries are by themselves, almost meaningless. But I still find it telling of the times.

This freakshow, reminiscent of the old GOP Kampaign Klown Kar, is representative of our times and our contemporary political discourse. It is hysterically funny–until one realizes what this circus is going to mean to American power and influence in the 21st century.

America is going down, not with a bang or a whimper, but with a long stream of harmonic and syncopated flatulence.