Manafort’s alleged crimes are boring. The permanent government’s openly criminal reaction to the possibility of an acquittal is entertaining.

It is looking increasingly possible that Manafort will be acquitted, largely because his alleged crimes are obscure violations of complicated laws that are as difficult to understand as they are to comply with, so not everyone in the jury is likely to be able to keep straight what he is supposed to be guilty of, resulting in a hung jury or an acquittal. Putting him in solitary and starving him may well misfire by making the jury cynical about legalistic stuff that no one understands, and cynical about the unsupported testimony of witnesses subjected to extreme and grossly improper pressure, similar that applied to Manafort himself.

The mass media and permanent government are starting to melt down in fear of this possibility, and are attempting to intimidate the judge, dox the jury, and intimidate the jury.

So, why is it so important to permanent government that this unimportant man be convicted of a pile of minor and incomprehensible legalistic technicalities? And why was he starved and kept in solitary confinement pending trial?

Mueller’s approach to convicting Trump of high crimes was to put the heat on everyone connected to Trump to come up with stuff Trump was guilty of. Anything at all. And, in order to put the heat on them, he put the heat on everyone connected to everyone connected to Trump to come up with stuff people connected to Trump were guilty of. And one of Manafort’s associates was guilty of stuff, and was induced to testify that Manafort was guilty of stuff.

Despite that, and despite solitary confinement, Manafort was disinclined to testify that the President of the United States was guilty of being guilty. So he was prosecuted, imprisoned, and badly mistreated in prison by the permanent government. Still did not crack.

Suppose Manafort gets acquitted. Then it becomes obvious that the Mueller investigation is an abuse of prosecutorial power. Hence the melt down.

If the permanent government can mistreat Trump’s allies and supporters, Trump is powerless. If the permanent government is exposed as abusing the coercive powers of the state to intimidate Trump’s people, maybe he can stop them. Stopping them is going to feel mighty like a coup. Stopping a coup always feels like a counter coup, always is a counter coup. And using the coercive powers of the state against a sitting president is suspiciously close to a coup, so stopping that, if Trump succeeds in stopping that, is going to be a counter coup, or close to it.

Which brings me to QAnon. QAnon is full of crap. How do I know he is full of crap?

Coups come in two major forms: Creeping coups, typically color revolutions, and sudden coups. Mueller, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the State Department, are attempting a creeping coup or color revolution. In a creeping coup, the coupists get away with one illegal act of intimidation, and this then makes it easier get away with another, bigger, illegal act of intimidation, and then another, even bigger act of intimidation. If Trump pulls a counter coup, it will be a sudden coup. And the players in a sudden coup keep their cards very close to their chest. In the Chilean coup, no one spoke the fatal words out loud until a few hours before the coup. According to QAnon, Trump’s people are speaking the fatal words ad nauseam, which is unlikely.

I hope, and it becomes increasingly possible, that Mueller’s investigation gets wrapped up with the bang QAnon is predicting. But until that happens, if it happens, QAnon knows no more about what Trump is up to than anyone who holds a finger to the wind. But against this possibility, Trump’s government has been acting rather intimidated lately, and the permanent government has been getting away with ever more lawless and criminal acts, attempting to intimidate the judge and jury being the biggest so far. If they get away with this, then the next act of intimidation will be correspondingly bigger.

A creeping coup is by definition slow, so if they get away with nailing Manafort tomorrow, Trump will not be impeached the day after. It is going to creep, eventually resulting in Trump being impeached or indicted, which would set us on the path to ever more openly criminal, and ever less legitimate, governments, as in 1917 Russia, and 1789 France.

From 1917 to the Holodomor was fifteen years. From 1789 to the red terror was four years.

From 1917 to civil war was few months. From 1789 to civil war was four years.

Or maybe Mueller and most of the Department of Justice will get nailed, will reveal all the blackmail material that they are holding on each other, and will all go to jail for a really long time.

The big delusion of the left is that they can overthrow Trump and it will result in the restoration of normality – failing to notice that every year for as long as I can remember has been more strikingly abnormal than the previous year. They think Trump is a right wing swing, failing to notice he is a slight slow down of the left wing swing. Trees do not grow to the sky, but they grow till they fall over.