Trump cut taxes to US corporations. Trump increased military spending. Trump ‘irritates’ his allies (Nato, Canada, UK, Germany, etc.) and Trump ‘rips up’ agreements with all and sundry from trade pacts to climate change, from foreign aid to now the nuclear arms deal with Russia. Plus he opened up resource exploitation and eviscerated environmental protection. And the US is all-the-while stockpiling oil. Throw in a little saber-rattling, insults and open aggression (against China, Iran, journalists, Mexicans, immigrants, Muslims, free-speech, truth-telling, etc) and waddya got…?
War preparations?
There is some prominent Republican, rich, connected, GOP woman in California that has been part of the ‘elite’ for some considerable time. NOT this time. “I am voting Democrat this time. Trump is preparing for war and my son is of age to be drafted.” She had no trouble with all the other tyrannical acts that Trump has been playing at until it threatened her own family. Couldn’t have cared less about immigrants and families being separated and all that…..but, of course, her son is special. She’s changing her vote. Trump went too far for this GOP gal.
She may be on to something……
And that, it seems, is how it works for most folks. It has to hit close to home. “So, how does that effect me?” “How does that impact on my wallet?” Until it gets personal, most people don’t care too much about politics. Too boring.
There is a historical perspective that cites that people will not revolt until they are hungry. Hunger is their last ‘straw’. Family members are disappeared, people are jailed and beaten, taxes and fines are unjustly levied, neighbourhoods are razed, corruption runs rampant, police brutality goes on the increase, the rich get richer and on and on it goes ad infinitum but no one acts until they are actually, physically hungry.
…..like dogs and rats, actually.
And yet we can see it all play out until that very moment when our stomach growls. We can see it coming from a long ways off. But we choose NOT to see until then. The Jews did not see either until November 9, 1938 and the Night of Broken Glass. But the evidence had been piling up for years before that. They saw it all clearly but much too late.
“Dave, you are paranoid. Trump is not preparing for war!”
I do not know that I am being paranoid. Maybe. Probably. I tend to see every Ebola outbreak as the next ‘beginning of the end’. I have that tendency. On the other hand, what have we actually seen these past two years? Really seen? A clown prince acting the fool, a bigot ranting. A racist, misogynist, tax-evader crook that fake ‘battles’ with mainstream media. MAGA rallies riling the deplorables and lots of golf. It’s all like WWF – fake wrestling. A show.
What have we actually seen?
Mueller has not yet revealed……
Most topics are dropped after a week or so……
What have we actually seen to be fact…? Well, tax cuts for the rich and corporate. Increased military spending…etc…(see first paragraph)…..a weakening of ‘the West’ but a strengthening of the US…….that is what we have seen. We’ve seen support for strong-man dictators but antipathy for democratic allies and we’ve seen a virtual sundering of institutions. We have seen many of the first steps to tyranny.
Put more bluntly: we are actually seeing tyranny.
But, it is Sunday and I have been spending more time thinking these past few days than is likely good for me or any hapless reader who takes me too seriously. And, I am getting a bit peckish….
Our Off the Grid Home 
Trump threatens to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Weapons Treaty with Russia. It appears that he wants to enhance the USA arsenal presently restricted under the terms of the 1987 treaty. Why would he want to reignite the arms race? For whom’s benefit is Trump ‘Sabre Rattling?’ Russia, The People’s Republic of China or his domestic audience? The domestic audience needs to be prepared for extraordinary sacrifices and the suspension of democratic rule. Trump seems to have a fascination for totalitarian rule. He loves all totalitarian rulers. Now he needs to fabricate a premise for fear in the American people.
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Wars entrench dictators. Create a national emergency, suspend democratic elections. Voila. Many people are already sick and hungry. They thought their prayers had been answered. They haven’t changed their mind. When your leader is God’s choice, then you don’t question. If the big one goes off, there is always the afterlife. In the meantime, there are profits to be made. Still, there are many good decent people, including many small “c” christians. The bigger question is whether there are viable alternatives that put common decency ahead of vested interests.
PS. I think you are engaging in a bit
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of risk assessment. That’s not catastrophising.
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Thankyou. Risk assessment…..that’s right. Not paranoia…just risk assessment….totally sane. So……why do I think 99.9999% of the people think otherwise? Are they insane? If a crowd is crossing a street and see a huge truck racing towards them…not slowing down…..do all those people just keep wallkng? Doesn’t running or leaping out of the way even cross their mind?
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Some people have faith. Some don’t see the truck as they’re too focused elsewhere. Some lie in front of the truck because they can’t go on. Some can’t run fast enough,
Some are driving the truck. They are a pretty weird mob some of them. It is pretty hard to stop a truck until it crashes and burns. Aren’t you glad you picked that analogy. 🙂
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Agreed! Leadership requires the consent of the followers. When Trump calls those who disagree with him a mob then democracy is in peril.
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Trump continues to beat the drum of fear. The March of migrants and asylum seekers from Central America is characterized as harbouring gang members and terrorists, not economic migrants. Trump makes the case that America must up-date its arsenal as America faces new threats world wide real and imaginary.
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Not peckish but showing informed self-interest. Trump just called himself a ‘Nationalist’ not the less incendiary term ‘patriot’! Who in the past has ridden the wave of nationalism? Characterizing the press as the ‘Enemy of the people.’
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If he is suitably checked and restrained by the results of the midterms, the really crazy stuff will increase, deplorables will burn crosses and attacks on all and sundry will escalate noticeably. In fact, real checks and real shackles on the domestic front will leave him only one route to another term….the same choice of several presidents before him…..war. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing except unifying the US population. Our country right or wrong!
The best way? Both the houses and the senate midterms sweep the GOP out resoundingly and Mueller throws a very heavy blanket over the WH. We all hold our breath for two years. McConnel, Trump, Ryan and the equally as rotten second tier are all mysteriously poisoned with some radioactive crap linked to Russia. Hillary retires.
Try again……
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I agree!
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As self absorbed as Trump is…..his egotistical, narcissistic tendencies dont worry me near as much as a rising militaristic China with feelings that they have something to “prove”….
WWIII will start in the South China Sea over some trivial event that escalates into a world wide conflict and if computer hacking, viruses, missile drones, etc etc etc are even half as good as we have been told……
It will be over in less than a month.
Wrecked economies, lives lost, a mess.
Hopefully the draft wont even get cranked up.
As Albert Einstein once quipped, ” I dont know what will happen in WWIII but in WWIV we’ll be using sticks and stones….”
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yo davidicus, hows about that FBI,,,? do you think we could get them to find out who sabotaged the gas pipeline near Prince George, or would that be too close to home for comfort??
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I wouldnt be surprised if it was “metal fatigue”..
The system has been reduced to 50% flow and less pressure until Spring?
Seems a bit drastic unless there’s loads we’re not being told… as in…they found lots of cracks in similar pipe and now they have to do inspections everywhere…….time will tell.
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