I’m puzzled over the outrage expressed over Trump’s behavior.
He’s a mediocre businessman who fell into the Presidency. I’m convinced he was simply trying to garner free publicity for the ’Trump Brand’ when he started his campaign — little different than Howard Stern when he ran for governor in NY. Trump managed to tap into an underlying national ‘anger’ and rode that to the Republican nomination and the Presidency. He is a demagogue but not a particularly bright one. He is skilled at manipulating people and telling them what they want to hear but he know nothing of history and little of the world in general. Many of his supporters voted for him because they wanted Trump the ‘outsider’ to take on Washington and burn the place down. They voted more against the Washington DC establishment than for Trump.
But Trump’s crimes are petty — an effort to undermine a potential opponent. We’ve seen similar efforts in the past. We’ve seen worse. Carter lost to Reagan in large part because of the Iranian hostage crisis. The Republicans cut a deal with Iran to hold the hostages until after the election. In return they would get spare parts for US supplied planes and weapons left over from the Shah’s rule. The hostages were freed hours after Reagan was elected.
The whole Iran-CONTRA affair inspired Herbert Walker to say ‘The American people would chase us through the streets and hang us from lampposts if they knew what we’d done’. I wonder exactly what he meant. Was he talking about transporting drugs? arming the CONTRAS in defiance of Congress? it’s hard to know given how much was going on… and let’s not forget Clinton’s involvement…… Mena Arkansas was a hub of drug and dirty money activity. That may be why the topic was off limits during that election cycle.
There are plenty of signs our government is failing. The 2000 ‘election’ alone was a travesty — with the Supreme Court ‘appointing’ our President. Getting less than a majority of the popular vote, George W Bush launched us into two long running wars and rolled back the Bill of Rights using the Patriot Act after an all too convenient ‘new Pearl Harbor’. Speaking of which, how was it that nobody was held accountable for the massive failures that allowed the largest attack on the US in history?
Instead of using the good will felt by the world to bring people to justice we invaded Afghanistan. The Taliban were willing to extradite bin Laden if we provided proof of his involvement. Why did we invade? W also invaded Iraq in some Freudian effort to best his father — or follow up on the neo-con ‘hit list’ of regime changes proposed by the Project for a New American Century. That administration sought legal ‘work-arounds’ to enable the use of torture on prisoners and then began subjecting prisoners to ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ with gusto.
Where was the outrage then? How is it that Obama — elected with overwhelming support — chose to ‘move on’ instead of investigating and prosecuting very real crimes? Instead of using the Occupy movement to rein in an out of control financial industry, and hold people accountable, a supposedly progressive Democrat crushed that movement like it were an existential threat to our nation. A bunch of disorganized people, outraged by the preferential treatment given the the richest people in the nation, a mix of people simply saying ‘this is wrong’, were treated like they were plotting an overthrow of the government.
We have seen an unending march towards the dissolution of our Republic — and embrace of an Empire ruled by an Imperial President. We have seen trillions squandered on decades of war and more trillions used to bail out a financial industry undone by criminal acts. The Project for a New American Century openly advocated the use of American military might to dominate the world in the 21st century and secure energy sources and raw materials for our nation. They proposed regime change in almost two dozen nations. We have been working our way down that list for 25 years. The neo-cons that drew that list up have served in numerous administrations over the years despite their continued failures. They lusted for a new Iraq — some kind of idealized ‘democracy’ — a loyal ‘ally/subject’ of the US, a permanent base for troops in the region. Instead we destroyed a secular state and saw it descent into religious conflict with Iran expanding their influence there. We have left the Middle East in chaos.
At the same time our efforts in Afghanistan have changed little there — though opium production has increased substantially. The recent Washington Post series has highlighted our failures there — though I have to wonder why that is finally coming out now.
We have seen our Constitution and the Bill of Rights undermined. We have increasingly militarized local police forces trained to treat all citizens as potential enemies. Our government has become a surveillance state that listens to and records any communications by its citizens. Cameras are inescapable and millions are spent improving recognition algorithms. FISA courts are a joke — our government is out of control. NO impartial authority oversees what is happening. NO efforts are made to preserve individual rights.
I cannot help but wonder if Trump will be used as a catalyst to kill the little left of our Republic. It is not too hard to see an increasingly polarized society degenerate into violent conflicts between the ultra left and the ultra right. This would provide the establishment politicians in Washington with the excuse needed to impose martial law and suspend elections ‘to protect us’.
After all, Trump is a political ‘outsider’. The Republicans support him only because he brought a substantial number of votes with him. They’ll be more than willing to get rid of him.
This will happen just as a new economic collapse leads people to march in the streets over a lack of food, unemployment and homelessness. REAL unemployment has been over 20% since 2009. Government has lied consistently about economic performance since the 70’s. The truth is that we haven’t been that far away from a rerun of the Great Depression. Government benefits have mitigated the worst effects but food banks are overwhelmed. Homeless shelters have been full for the last decade. Tent cities are everywhere. And despite growing problems, government is cutting food stamps and other benefits. Earnings are falling far behind the inflation rate. Meanwhile personal debt is rising to record levels. College debt has become inescapable — and unaffordable.
Our ‘leaders’ know what is in our future. They are far more concerned with protecting themselves than protecting us.
The next financial crisis will be worse than the last and worse than the great Depression. Unlike the 1930’s we will also be facing food shortages. Our industrial agriculture is facing growing problems with more volatile weather. People no longer live close to the land — few have gardens. We see before us a scenario that has led to domestic unrest in the past. Wealth has been concentrated in a very few hands and while they have grown richer most of the population has grown poorer. Postpone a reckoning and the odds of a violent uprising increase. Governments do not willingly change or cede power. The DO manipulate factions and use public calls for change as an excuse to expand their control of the population.
Expect a growing schism in our population. It may get violent. We may see our own burning of the Reichstag used to justify increased government control. Attempts to rein in violence and confiscate guns will increase the violence and bring a government crack down to ‘protect us’. We may even see a formal suspension of all rights.
And please don’t say that the Democrats would never participate in such efforts. Obama already proved they will. Democrats approved the extension of the Patriot Act in a deeply buried rider to a budget extension bill in November. Why not let it expire and pass a more open and limited bill — or none at all.
We have ceded immense powers to our government. We now have highly militarized police forces and powerful ‘non-lethal weapons’. No nation has ever accumulated such power WITHOUT using it on its own people. China is beta testing the model for a future totalitarian state. Social credit scores, re-education internment camps, omnipresent cameras and facial recognition systems along with total government control of communications are all being implemented with the help of US corporations. Expect that model to expand throughout the world — including here. Do we really need cameras every 2/10 of mile on major highways and at every intersection? Why are companies drawing up psychological and social profiles based on social media content, charitable donations, purchases and such — and selling their services to police? Do you know that the license plate readers employed by local police record ALL traffic and feed that data into a central database (the same with EZ Pass data). Over time it is possible to draw up a history of your travels and predict your future behavior. But then your cell phone provides a real time tracking device (and listening and video surveillance). Mainstream media is now nothing more than scripted shows… Television, movies,and games all reinforce government messages. There are ‘terrorists’ all over television shows — laughably so at times with absurd plots.
It’s interesting. I knew an FBI agent in NYC. They said that before 9/11 they were working on major financial crimes cases. Countless investigations underway were dropped when ‘evidence was destroyed’ on that day. That agent said everyone was pulled from investigating all kinds of real crimes to ‘running down goose chases ‘— old women in Queens concerned about Arab neighbors (who were Sikhs on their last run). That agent thought it was absurd to stop major investigations but……
Madison predicted this — “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
Jefferson said — “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
But Jefferson could not have predicted the power of huge multinational corporations, or billionaires. He could not have foreseen a government that could overpower its own citizens with force. After all, our own Revolution — fought with mere militias at the beginning — managed to defeat Great Britain and win our independence. Our Founding Fathers never anticipated Huxley’s ‘scientific dictatorship’ that convinced people to love their servitude and give up their rights nor did they anticipate Orwell’s surveillance state that did whatever was necessary to control its citizens.
I find it interesting that the NY Times is so focused on Trump’s crimes right now — while having ignored so many worse ones committed by past Presidents. I also find it interesting that ANY comments comparing Trump’s behavior to George W Bush’s behavior will not be posted. It seems that certain phrases trigger ‘error’ messages that prevent comments from going through. I suspect we are allowed to complain — but only within defined limits. It seems like the media are directing popular outrage along carefully constructed paths.
I’m close to the end of my life but worry I’ll still be here to see the final chapter unfold. After all, throughout history most of mankind has lived as serfs or slaves. Individual freedom has existed in only a few places for short amounts of time. Those that founded this nation knew how special the United States was in history. They did their best to prevent its subversion but were all too aware that our government might not last. They were aware of the trickery and manipulation employed in the past. They saw how tyrants came to power and how demagogues used and manipulated the people. But they couldn’t conceive of how immensely large and wealthy business interests could influence government. They could not have forseen the immense cost of election campaigns — or even the immense size of our nation.