Nothing is as it appears. Kim Cheatle resigned as director of the Secret Service under intense pressure. In a rare display of bipartisanship, Republicans and Democrats grilled Cheatle as she stonewalled in front of James Comer’s House Oversight Committee. Stonewalling is art among Biden administration appointees. Yet, don’t think that committee Democrats joined Republicans on principle.

As always in Washington, low politics downed Cheatle, a favorite of Doc Jill Biden. That favoritism showed the weekend Donald Trump was shot. Doc Jill’s Secret Service detail was boosted while she was at Pittsburgh, a mere hour south of Butler. Trump’s detail was left wanting.

Cheatle was cut loose because Democrats are covering their rears. Democrats want to fob off the shooting as another misfit white guy with grudges. But is that the real story? Thanks to their hate rhetoric, more likely, Thomas Matthew Crooks was incited to try killing Trump. The “Trump as Hitler” line was started by Hillary Clinton last autumn on The View. Crooks nearly changed history. Democrats have been dodging the truth. Republicans shouldn’t let them get away with it, but probably will.

Cheatle -- a DEI hire, too -- was in over her head. As mentioned, the Secret Service had under-resourced Trump’s protection detail. That suggests a darker motive: that Cheatle and her boss, Alejandro Mayorkas, the weaselly secretary of Homeland Security, didn’t give a damn about Trump’s safety. A number of Democrats spilled the beans. After the shooting, many publicly hoped that the next gunman “wouldn’t miss next time.”

Don’t forget that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s request for Secret Service protection was turned down multiple times. Not that anyone would want to shoot another Kennedy. RFK Jr. claims that the Biden administration did so to siphon off monies -- hundreds of thousands monthly -- from his campaign for security. Biden’s handlers hoped to squeeze Kennedy out of the race. It took Trump’s near-murder for Biden’s handlers to relent. Only when the optics changed did they change.

Cheatle needed to go but never should have been hired. But that’s the Biden administration’s tale. It’s populated with DEI box checks to please progressives. Their incompetence, corruption, and blinkered devotion to woke ideology have converged to wreck America.

Nothing is as it appears. Was Biden pushed to debate Trump as a result of his handlers’ conceit? Never rule out conceit, which oozes from elites’ pores. Or was Biden set up to fail? After Biden’s debate disaster, elites -- Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi on point -- dislodged Biden from his party’s nomination. What combination of bribery and arm-twisting forced Biden out?

We may never know the particulars. If the story of Biden’s uncrowning is ever revealed, it may be that a money-starved and celebrity-hungry Biden flunky writes a tell-all book. Maybe Hunter or another Biden will pen it? There’s no honor among grifters.

Biden had to go. His tumbling poll numbers dictated that. Elites are edgy. Defeat looms. 14.5 million primary and caucus voters backed old Joe -- at elites’ direction, no less -- but that’s inconsequential. Maybe Biden’s voters don’t care. The Democrat rank and file possess parasitic minds. They’re built to follow, not think critically. They’re sheep. Corporate media serve as shepherds.

Elites seek to centralize power and rig the system. The goal is open-ended Democrat rule. This is declared “democracy.” Every statist regime since the October Revolution has claimed that tyranny is democracy. Trump is the lead horseman of their Apocalypse. He means to sledgehammer the Deep State. The broader administrative state is to be reduced and scattered. Whatever number of bureaucrats Trump’s brain trust intends to cut, double -- no -- triple it.

Democrats are single-minded. Power acquisition is for the top dogs. When Jackson and Van Buren founded their party, they ushered in the spoils system. Woodrow Wilson and FDR launched the era of Big Government. Spoils became big, too, and used ever since to buy off voting blocs in multiples.

Worrying that the old way is lacking, today’s Democrats came up with a solution: opening the southern border and enticing millions of illegals to flood in. Free lodging, food, medicine, handhelds, debit cards… maybe Mayorkas throws in Netflix subscriptions? The homeless must watch in gape-mouthed disbelief. But illegals can’t vote, say those parasitic minds? Nonsense. What are driver’s licenses for? As Pennsylvania’s Democrat governor Josh Shapiro has done, grant voter registration automatically when obtaining or renewing a driver’s license. All that’s required is proof of residency and a Social Security card. Fraud is impossible when expanding democracy, right?

Nothing is as it appears. Are elites fussed that Kamala is the Democrats’ presidential nominee? She’s damaged goods, but Barack Obama and they must make do.

Four years of national exposure has made Kamala the house guest that needs to go. In 2020, she even rankled Democrat voters, considering the Hindenburg-like end to her presidential campaign. Per the Federalist, “Of the 47 staff members hired when Harris took office in 2021, only four reportedly remained in her employment as of March 2024.” Are the dwindling few Valium abusers?

Public perceptions are cemented. But Democrats and corporate media have no viable alternatives: gaslight Kamala’s past and repackage her as brand new. Betty Crocker she is, she claims. Why, cooking is Kamala’s “happy place.” And she flips a burger with the best of them, reported Eater, in a retchingly obvious puff piece.

Whatever the attempts to spin Kamala, finally, she is her irritating self. Independent voters -- the key to presidential contests -- are wary. If she beats Trump, it’s because she’ll be rigged into the winner’s circle -- rigged more flagrantly than Biden was four years ago.

Kamala inherits an electoral map from Biden that places her precariously. Swing states were swinging against Biden consistently in reliable polls. Some unexpected states are emerging as possible Trump targets: Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and New Mexico. That’s hard for Democrats and corporate media to cover up, but they’ll try.

But let’s caution that those blue states may trend back Harris’ way. Her party’s national convention in late August will be a lollapalooza of lies and fakery. Kamala is the lightest of lightweights but will be depicted as primetime Muhammed Ali. Harris will be nominated. It’s rumored that Barack Obama is displeased with her. But Democrats are boxed in. Either their of-color Betty Crocker is nominated, or of-color agitators make noise. So, Democrats must double down on destroying Trump, which is something of sport for them.

For Trump, the game is about beating the margin of theft in battleground and emerging states. But we shouldn’t dupe ourselves. Trump will need robust win margins in a combination of critical states that would make overnight shifts in vote totals scream fix. If Trump is lapping Harris, will desperate Democrats make in-our-faces “adjustments,” anyway? Will they gamble, throwing down a gauntlet?

Maybe not. Brinkmanship might be too much even for these thieves. Would Democrats then shift to Plan B?

Concede the victory to Trump but cue the street riots -- on preview in D.C. this week with Netanyahu’s visit -- under the guise of a right to protest. Dispatch the Ivy League’s best and brightest gender and queer studies students to menace Republican officeholders and appointees in their neighborhoods -- under the guise of free speech. Get back to lawfare, though more broadly -- under the guise of justice. Keep blue state AGs and DAs busy. Kick the intelligence and security agencies into high gear during the transition period -- under the guise that sacred democracy must be protected.

In this very corrupt time, nothing is as it appears; therein lie the greatest dangers.

J. Robert Smith can be found at X. His handle is @JRobertSmith1. At Gab, @JRobertSmith. He blogs occasionally at Flyover.