Jeff Sessions didn’t resign - read the letter.

“At your request, I am submitting my resignation” means : fired, not resign.
Democrats’ Midterm win of the House opened up the chance for real investigation into Trump.

Of course he had to fire Jeff Sessions - he couldn’t even wait 24 hours.

Why else do you think we witnessed that batshitcrazy press conference display? He’s terrified.
How do we know it’s a REAL SHIT SHOW in the Trump administration?

Because AG Jeff Sessions was too principled about the neutrality of the DOJ.

JEFF SESSIONS.
And - as pointed out by @mhames - Sessions’ “resignation” letter isn’t dated.

That is very much worth noting.
When Jeff Sessions was the best collective hope for neutral accountability in government - well, folks... the whole USA idea thing was interesting while it lasted.

Instagram wasn’t around when Rome fell, so I guess there’s always a silver lining!
Don’t forget that it gets way, way uglier from here.

In case you’re drunk on post-Midterm optimism, remember Trump’s Zanga Zanga press conference right before firing Jeff Sessions.

Buckle up.
Whatever shape “ugliest of ugly” takes from this point on, I’ll repeat myself (since the beginning)...

I know one thing, for sure - the ultimate threat won’t come from Trump; it will come from his base, and the climate he’s created.

You can’t put that shit back in the bottle.
Back when Trump was elected, this was one of my worries (2016):

If he “moderates” on campaign promises, and disappoints his hardcore base, they won’t see him as a traitor. He won’t lose support.

Instead, they’ll see an insidious conspiracy. The question is: what will they do?
That was the climate of conspiracy, xenophobia, and hysteria Trump had actively worked so hard to foster in the lead up to 2016.

2018 now, after Democrats’ Midterm win of the House, and the possibility of investigation with teeth? Bam, Sessions fired.

It’s going to get worse.
Settle in and get comfortable, because the next points I’m about to make are going to piss you off or scare the hell out of you — either way, they’re political parallels that demand consideration, because we’re in a serious situation.

We have been, sure, but it will be grimmer.
So y’all remember Steve Bannon, right?

Well...part of the conspiracy-laden, xenophobic, populist swamp Trump fostered for his hardcore base comes straight from Bannon’s playbook and ideology.

That’s one element. However...
Bannon also emphasized political moves that were so outrageous they would provoke massive outcry, complete with opposition mobilization.

What happens next? More of the same - bombard opposition & exhaust them into: 1) normalization of the new order; 2) apathy; 3) acquiescence.
At this point, what do you have - according to the Steve Bannon playbook?

A divisive political scene where many folks become exhausted into apathy, while the polarized hardliners become more extreme.

This wedge / opening lets in the new order that takes down the “old elite.”
Here it gets even more interesting - into this divisive, polarized climate, you need to cast doubt on reality itself, credibility of news media, etc.

Start talking about “false flags,” or “hired protestors” or “crisis actors” or “infiltrators.”

Maybe even do some yourself.
Now you have a polarized society, in which many groups see themselves as at war with one another — rhetorically, and/or (eventually) literally.

Tit-for-tat revenge attacks start happening as narratives like “white genocide” proliferate, and make some folks feel endangered.
While all these different groups are feeling endangered by other groups, trust nothing and no one but “their own,” and become gradually locked into cycles of reprisals — the puppet-masters are getting stronger in that wedge opening.

So what next? This shit is tiring, right?
Eventually, the toll taken by this cycle of threat-revenge / trust only “my own” / life in “fight or flight” wears you down to the point where you’ll accept a return to stability as the new normal — whoever can provide it, and however they provide it.
So is this the Steve Bannon white supremacist playbook to topple the old elite, and replace them with a new order — the one Trump followed and the US took hook, line, and sinker?

Yes. Why, yes it is.

Guess who used that same playbook, folks?

Zarqawi’s Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Am I saying the “uglier” part yet to come in Trump’s US is “Iraq’s vicious sectarian civil war”? Of course not. But there are solid parallels: same playbook, designed for the same purpose, and it works.

Trump’s not the problem - it’s what he unleashed.

So again: buckle up.
This, in sum, is how you remake societies, using the most viciously effective strategies.

So don’t be too quick to think Midterm victories were an instant fix.

As the firing of Session proves, we’re still at the playbook’s middle stage, aimed at eventual exhaustion.

/rant
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