Trading Ground For Time

The problem is that people see patterns in randomness. What we commonly call “intelligence” mostly registers pattern recognition and indeed the very way our brains process their primary source of information, vision, is based on it.

My Therapist and psychologically aware friends call this “mind racing” and view it as a symptom since obsessive speculation and paranoia are typical of my anxiety disorder. I regard it as a harmless pastime- doesn’t everyone spend the first 10 minutes on a trip wondering if they’ve fed the cat and turned off the gas? I have in fact forgotten critical things I’ve had to replace at great inconvenience so I don’t regard myself as completely irrational.

Annoying? Sure.

Anyway I’m not claiming we didn’t land on the Moon or that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the Kennedy assassination or that Global Warming doesn’t exist but I do wonder…

There is a classic (at least for the Russians but we used it too in Korea) military strategy called “Trading Ground For Time” where you realize the current “correlation of forces” is not in your favor and you are unlikely to achieve victory. What do you do?

Well, you wait for things to change.

If you are clever that doesn’t just mean a Rocky “rope a dope” but actively using the resources you have to weaken your opponent while preserving advantage. In straight “Trading Ground For Time” you commit what is necessary to delay and disrupt while you use your time to build defenses or a counter move. After the enemy has suffered sufficient attrition and is logistically exposed enough, the “correlation of forces” has turned in your favor.

Another way to put it is “bright and shiny objects”, distractions.

In my more despondent moments I wonder if Trumpcare and Russiagate are not being used as a “Trading Ground For Time” strategy. Russiagate is all about Donald J. Trump and his co-conspirators personally and as far as I’m concerned they’re proven guilty of Obstruction of Justice and it’s only a matter of time before Money Laundering gets added. Impeached? Convicted? Jailed? Absolutely!

On the other hand Republicans, despite their protestations of being distracted, are pressing ahead with their core agenda of looting the Treasury both to benefit their Plutocratic masters and because they get a sadistic pleasure out of killing poor people. The Budget, Tax “Reform”, all are proceeding on schedule.

Even today we spent most of our time talking about Jared Kushner instead of about the Democratic economic initiative or tomorrow’s vote on Trumpcare which under any of the Bills likely to be considered (House 3.0, Senate 1.0 or 2.0 (Cruz Amendment), straight up Repeal (not Byrd compatible)) disenfranchises between 23 and 32 Million Citizens and cuts 1/2 a Trillion dollars from Medicaid to be delivered into the overflowing pockets of the .01%.

Are we being traded ground for time?