Russian Terrorism, and Dictators- Theirs and Ours

There is not much more I can say regarding my feelings about Russia, and its mafia leadership. The facts are clear- it is a terrorist state. It is corrupt. It treats is citizens as subjects. It seeks to conquer and destroy and create havoc. It is the path of Russia for the last 100 years, for hundreds of years. That much should be clear after their actions this week. What is just as clear is that Ukraine will never give up, and my sincere hope is that the US, Europe, and the rest of their supporters will never abandon them.

Russia is a terrorist state.

Now, closer to home, I recently caught one sentence by… he must not be named- that is, our own would-be dictator as he announced his intention to run for “president”- I put the word in quotes as his designs on the office have nothing to do with being a president, but more a strongman, a tyrant, a dictator.  The one sentence I did catch in the news, which immediately turned my stomach, was some derogatory line about the US Justice department.  It was in keeping with his “style”; that everyone in our government, all its agencies, should support him fully and blindly, otherwise they are traitors, to be dismissed and forever ostracised by the Party, whatever the definition and proper noun chosen to signify said “party”. Either way it sounded like something said by a 1930’s fascist leader, not a former president of the United States.

As a follow up, from last weekend’s Wall Street Journal, I found nearly the same statement, about the same department. From the article Special Council To Lead Trump Probes. The italics are my own.

Mr. Trump as president repeatedly stated that the attorney general owes a president personal loyalty and should deploy the Justice Department against his political enemies.

That from a US president! Not from Stalin, or Assad, or Kim, or Putin! Our president. If this is not clear evidence of tyrannical designs, and knowing that this is how he went about the business of destroying our country for four long years, grounds for arrest and imprisonment for life in itself, then we as a country are sunk. Food for thought.

 

Momentary Observation- Criminal Acts Demand Prosecution, In The Name of Justice and Democracy

Justice? As I have said again and again, it is an illusion. Our “democracy” has become an abortion. For four long years, and more slowly, more insidiously for many more years and decades before that, it has been steadily destroyed, trampled on, chipped away, thrown in the trash bit by bit. But more damage has been done in these last four years than throughout the history of our country, overt destruction of what my country stands for. But this is the nature of political systems including democracy; all democracies eventually degrade into tyranny. Just the way it is. Now back to the present day.

Do we live in the United States, or am I confusing my country with the so many countries in the middle east, the Caucuses, the Balkans, or maybe Ukraine, Belarus, or some other eastern European Russian satellite playground? Trump clearly emulates Putin, the dictator of Russia for those who don’t recognise the name. Both suffer from serious mental incapacities, megalomania, delusions of grandeur, etc. and so on, and pass that suffering on to us, the citizens who they purportedly work for.

Make America great again… ha! Destroy America and make us the laughing stock of the world. This is the sad reality of the state of the greatest nation in the world, the leader of the free world, the scion of democracy. America as we knew it is gone. We will never recover from Trump.

And speaking of Donald Trump (inserting opinion here), he should be taken away in a straight jacket at the very least, at best in handcuffs for a few life sentences for treason, sedition, fraud, deceit, and countless criminal actions he has committed. Not to mention incompetence and stupidity… if only Americans valued intelligence, logic, foresight, leadership, and strength the way they do television, Mc Donald’s, and beer. But we are far beyond that. At least with justice served, Trump in handcuffs being led out of the white house, filmed and broadcast live around the world, we will feel like there is still some semblance of democracy left. It won’t happen though, because our “leaders” are spineless, and thereby complicit, afraid to upset their own positions in the illusion. Nothing more can be said about that. Get ready for the next four years… we haven’t seen anything yet.

Lead By Example

The latest idiotic remarks from Washington this morning are that injecting disinfecting cleaning solutions into our bodies may protect us from the Coronavirus. Well, let’s all give it a try. The commander in chief should be the first, leading by example. If it works we can follow suit. If it doesn’t work, we can have a really big party.

The Rocky and Trumpwinkle Show

Trumpwinkle: “Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a Coronavirus recovery out of my hat.”
Rocky: “Again?”
Trumpwinkle: “Nothing up my sleeve. Presto!” (We see the head of a roaring lion.)
Trumpwinkle: No doubt about it, I gotta get another hat!

Better luck next time.

 

Momentary Observation- Lots of Wool Over Lots of Eyes

On a cold and dark afternoon in Colorado, I have just listened to the BBC headlines, on the hour, and it seem that the American people have been duped once again. The British media is telling us that we are getting excited about an up and coming presidential candidate. If this is so, it appears we are ready to trade one New York Billionaire for another New York Billionaire. Where exactly do we think that will get us? On a cold and dark afternoon for Democracy, I wonder how it will end.

George W. Bush, the Prophet

I’ll admit it: the current political regime has me scared. At no time in the last 70 or so years has so much been done to degrade our safety in such a short time. Not to mention our privacy, freedom, and sanity, no matter how the media couches it or what we have actually been led to believe.

Maybe McCarthyism during the 1950’s did as much damage to the country? Either way, I have been thinking more about past presidents- those who did so much for our country and the world, and even those who seemingly did little. My first choice would be Eisenhower.  He was one of the last presidents to actually speak the truth openly and clearly. Then maybe Kennedy, who spoke a veiled sort of truth, too much of it since he needed to be killed to shut him up.

Finally, I skip forward to George W. Bush. How much truth he actually spoke during his presidency is questionable, and open to interpretation.  But I did find a brilliant and eloquently expressed piece of commentary from the former president on Trump’s inauguration address.  I found it in one of the recent releases supporting my premise that we are well down the road to self-destruction with the current regime. See The Empty Throne by Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay for more. Also see The Jungle Grows Back by Robert Kagan for more on our current situation.

Back to Bush- according to a quote in The Empty Throne, Bush is said to have remarked at the conclusion of Trump’s inaugural address, “That was some weird shit.” Nothing could be more accurate.  And here we are, nearing year 3 of some of the weirdest shit in my lifetime.

Abraham Lincoln and Prophesy; Democracy and Tyranny

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
-Abraham Lincoln,1862

Give that very appropriate quote some thought, not just in the context of the United States, but globally. Or pick just about any country in Europe and apply it. No matter where you look, Lincoln’s quote might be considered now more than ever, a prophesy.

Hunger And Fury by Jasmin Mujanovic.

Food for thought, or supporting evidence (take your pick) can be found in two recently published works: The Empty Throne: America’s Abdication of Global Leadership, by Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay. Also see Hunger and Fury: The Crisis of Democracy in the Balkans, by Jasmin Mujanovic.

“The Jungle Grows Back” by Robert Kagan- A Must Read

After a very slow and careful reading of The Jungle Grows Back by Robert Kagan, and after much reflection on the past 45 or 50 years of history that I personally experienced, I find that my level of concern over the fate of the world has increased dramatically. Kagan lays out clearly and logically why the United States cannot abandon the world and why we must remain the global leader of the liberal world order we have helped to create, lest the world as we know it disappear from our grasp.

Kagan’s focus throughout is the refutation of the isolationist stance Begun by the Obama administration and adopted wholesale by the Trump administration. He leaves no room for questioning the necessity of US involvement and leadership around the world. Kagan believes that if we revert to our global position prior to World War II, democracy and human rights will backslide globally, authoritarian regimes (Russia, China, Turkey, Korea) will grow and seize more power, and the security of the world will be undermined. In short we would allow the undoing of everything we have spent so many lives, so much time, and so much money since 1945 to promote.

The Jungle Grows Back, by Robert Kagan.

Everything we have helped promote?  Yes, it is true- whether we accept it or not- the US has lead the world since World War II. Kagan gives abundant examples of US leadership over the last 70 years. We have, for better or for worse, taken charge and done our best to make the world a better place. Of course it is very easy to cite arguments against US involvement from past experience, from the promotion of our own corporate interests, to the protection of dictatorial regimes, to looking the other way when human rights are violated.

All this is true; there is no denying it. We could have done better, we could have acted sooner, made better choices, and acted differently as we blundered our way through the last 70 years. But then hindsight is always 20/20. The main question we should be asking ourselves is this: What is the alternative to US leadership? And to take it a step further, what would have been the outcome had we not led the world during that time?

Failure to act is worse- in many cases much worse- than the possibility of acting incorrectly.  Prime examples of failure to act in recent years: Yugoslavia and especially Bosnia and its capital Sarajevo, and more recently Syria. Our inaction left thousands, hundreds of thousands dead.  Of course we are not a “global police force”, but by the same token we cannot sit idly by and let history takes its course. If we do, we will have a world led by Russia and China- not a very promising thought. The bottom line: read the book. It will inform any political thought, and help to assimilate the constant stream of conflicting information in the world today.

Trickle Down Tariffs Already Causing Trouble

The trouble with tariffs instituted out of desperation, ignorance of how the  world works, egoism, and stupidity is that they are… stupid.

As a retail store and e-commerce businessman, I already see the affects of the tariffs that are going to make America great again (it doesn’t even deserve capitalization.) I will let you in on a little secret- it isn’t going to work!

Sales are dropping and will continue to drop as  tariffs begin to affect the supply chain.  Cost increases will be passed on and on and on, until finally you and I will be paying for those 20% tariffs that are going to save America.  Will wages and income increase 20% as well? Highly unlikely.  What will we do? Rework budgets, forego purchases, and try to ride it out.  And what effect will this have on our economy, on the global economy for which we are responsible (yes, we are responsible for it and have been since the end of World War II)?  You figure it out.

Hindsight is 20/20.  If we would have stayed out of NAFTA and GATT to begin with, if we wouldn’t have agreed to so many “free-trade” agreements, we would not be in this mess.  But that is the past.  Today, we are in the thick of it, part of the global mess we have created, for better or for worse.

Big D., if you read this, you cannot make massive changes to an intricately entangled, delicately balanced system and expect the system to adapt in the blink of an eye. Or even over the course of years. A small storm becomes a typhoon easily enough. Typhoons destroy. A big enough typhoon will destroy everything.

Short-sighted, reactionary, and isolationist responses to world-wide economic issues will do nothing but harm to our economy, and by default, to the economies of much of the world.  It will increase the power of dictators such as Putin, and cause countries that are barely holding on to move backwards. The acceptance and support of populist movements in Europe is just the beginning. A return to the nationalism and fascism that lead us into war are next.

 

Commentary: Trump, Cloud Cuckoo Land, and Our Sinking Ship

How much attention do we need to pay to the “news” to know what is really going on?  I’m asking rhetorically, of course. Being opinionated as I am, I say either you are aware, or you are not. What is happening in the news really doesn’t matter. I have stopped paying attention for the most part, and find that whenever I return to the “news of the day”, the latest “breaking story”, or have a look at the state of the world as reported by just about any outlet, nothing has changed… except maybe the phraseology.

Ben Zimmer, a columnist I can honestly say that I follow, writes in the Wall Street Journal about the origins of the words “crazy” and “crazytown”. His catalyst is a comment published in Bob Woodword’s latest book, “Fear”. Of course the comment refers to our government, to its leaders, to the Big D himself. And while crazytown is a fine reference and takes us right to the point, I think we can take a step closer to the present day with a more contemporary phrase: cloud cuckoo land.

Now for some background: while I avoid not only “news” but as much media as possible- especially television, video, and most anything digital, there are some things I just cannot hide from. One of those is Lego. And of course the Lego Movie. I really am a fan of Unikitty, and think often of bubblegum and butterflies and cotton candy. But sometimes it is just not enough, those days when the line between smiles and frowns blurs, and I realise that cloud cuckoo land and hell might be the same place, with the Big D at the helm, and the whole of civilisation sitting in the boat.

Bubblegum!  Butterflies!  Cotton candy!