Months ago, which seems like years ago, when the Trump administration was installed courtesy of Russian intel ops strategies, I forecasted that by mid 2018, the Russia investigation would be getting so damaging, that Trump would badly need to change the topic.
I forecasted a new war, somewhere, anywhere to “change the topic” from Russia’s role in installing a puppet government. Well, no war so far, but plenty of distractions, from a lot of brouhaha around initiating discussions with North Korea toward denuclearization, and paradoxically, a termination of the nuclear deal with Iran which achieved precisely what the Trump Administration is trying to achieve in North Korea.
Besides that, a daily flow of crazy has been sufficient to keep people outraged about anything other than the big topic, again ~ Russia. The range of topical diversion go from Melania’s jackets (“I don’t care, do you?”), to Canada trade spats, to corruption by the head of the EPA, to one of Trump’s favorites ~ hyperventilating about whether athletes kneel or not during the national anthem. Every day delivers a new serving of crazy, and the media-sphere is all exercised, like clockwork, for 24 hours, until the next serving.
But… Mueller plods on, behind closed doors, while Trump continues to build a narrative that Mueller and his team are partisans and that their “witch hunt” investigation is unwarranted or somehow illegal, that the FBI is a festering nest of enemies and that his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, is feeble and incompetent (never mind that he chose him for the job).
So let’s status where we stand right now:
On the “it’s all fake news” front, there are now almost two dozen individuals, some U.S., some Russian, indicted. U.S.’s leading intelligence agencies concluded long ago, but now Mueller has confirmed through his investigation that yes, indeed, the Russian not only HAD, but still ARE running a disruptive intelligence operations (in part through social media) to accentuate the socio-cultural divides in the U.S. for the benefit of putting in power a generation of Republicans eager to dismantle US institutions. This is a science-fiction like case of winning a war without firing a single bullet.
That somewhat pesky topic of a foreign power meddling in the core tool of US Democracy, i.e. the robustness of the electoral process, well that topic has had ZERO traction with the Trump administration. As of today, 18 months in, the President is reported to have NOT HELD ONE SINGLE MEETING to come up with a strategy to blunt Russia’s continuing intel ops (or to have tasked any of his executive organizations to the same ~ neither the national security council, not the FBI, not the CIA, not the Justice Dept. NADA!. They have plenty of time to deal with the threat of immigrant 2 year old babies, but no time to deal with a historic enemy that has nuclear weapons and has been found, without a shadow of a doubt, to have interfered in elections.
Really, I could just stop there. This is such dereliction of duty, unless of course you adjust to thinking from the Putin perspective, and why would his bitch, Trump, do ANYTHING to stop the incursion into the US election process. “It worked once, it can work again”, would be the motto.
The red and white hats of Trump’s enthusiastic supporters should be changed from MAGA to MARBA (Make America Russia’s Bitch Again).
On the political front, the Republican party has gone way, way beyond any prior expectation of jettisoning decades of party orthodoxy around free trade, balanced budgets, the importance of the North Atlantic Alliance, the evil ways of the Soviet and now Russian empire etc. This is key. That Trump was his own never seen before level of crazy and absolute liar, is not news anymore. But the fact that the entire roster of Republicans ~ senators, representatives, governors, mayors are all taking a leap into crazy-land because, you know, they got that 1.5 trillion dollar gift (courtesy of the next 2 generations of US tax payers) ~ is what’s critical here. This is no longer a “Trump is a madman” kind of problem, it’s a “they’ve all drunk the cool-aid and they are dismantling the US system of checks and balance, one brick at a time, dutifully, without any sense of historical propriety.
So what’s the current nature of the Global Wreck trajectory we are on?
Canada is enemy #1: The bullshit that is coming out of the Administration is without historical parallel. To justify a tariff on steel from Canada, the WH first explained it’s about national security, i.e. we need to make sure that the U.S. retains the ability to produce steel. Fair enough right? Except that… The U.S. not only has a trade SURPLUS with Canada, i.e. the largest market for U.S. product, bar none, but more pertinently, it is a next EXPORTER of Steel to Canada! And about that 270% tariffs on dairy product?? Well, this particular item represents 0.2% of the trade volume between the two countries! It is insanely self-defeating for the U.S. to enter into a trade war with Canada.
There is also that little matter called civility – From Trump, we hear that the PM of Canada was “weak and dishonest”, not a great way to refer to a fellow leader of an allied country, to be sure. But then “there is a special place in hell for Trudeau” is the more strident comments by the Administration. Really? That’s what earns one a special place in hell now, for an allied government (Canada’s Trudeau Administration) to say that it was “disappointed” (in irresponsible steel tarrifs against Canadian steel) – that suffices to be relegated to the gates of hell? Wow…
NATO, Europe, G7, UN: All useless, Never could Putin have imagined so successful an intelligence campaign to blow up the Western alliance. History, I am 100% sure, will recall Trump as the single most damaging President in U.S. history, or at least in the last 100 years. The fact that the post WWII order put in place by U.S. leaders (all losers according to Trump), has managed to pretty much keep war at bay for the better part of 70 years, and has been the structure that has delivered consistent growth in our respective economies and standard of living, seems to generate a “meh” type of attitude.
As Always, there is a sliver of something true underlying the antics. It has long been recognized that the U.S. was paying a disproportionate amount of the West’s collective defense. To be specific, the share of the alliance Gross Domestic Product is: 45.5% for the U.S. and 54.5% for Nato Europe and Canada, yet from a defense spending, it is shouldered 67.3% by the U.S. and 32.7% by NATO Europe and Canada. So yes, there is merit in wanting to recalibrate, and this is precisely what has been happening slowly over a few years, with non U.S. countries inching up toward 2% of their GDP. BUT… and this is a very big BUT, these statistics are misleading in two big ways. First is that it doesn’t account for U.S. defense exports. The fact that the U.S. spends more than its share finds it way into leading defense capabilities and technologies. What are the world’s largest exporters of defense equipment? Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman. In short, the important job-creating defense sector is ignored by these statistics. AND, also critically, it has been a multi-decade strategic concept that, to the extent this is possible, the U.S. should seek to keep wars “out there” as opposed to fighting wars on U.S. soil. This is also why there is such prepositioning of troops, in Europe, in South Korea and Philippines, and in the Middle East. And finally, the high bill paid by U.S. tax payers for defense activities includes self inflicted war bills that come from two catastrophic wars, Iraq and Afghanistan that significantly drained the budget, without resulting in any positive geo-strategic rebalancing. I don’t think that any straight thinking U.S. tax payer would conclude today that the mega billions spent to overthrow the Iraqi government on false premises of Weapons of Mass Destruction were a good idea. So, why admonish Europeans for lower defense spending when they show more restraint in failed global military adventures?
Dictatorship 101: “Do what you love” is what we tell our children, right? So, who’s to complain here? Clearly Trump has a deep-seated love and yearning for strongmen who can simply dispose with the media, the justice system, get rid of inconvenient opponents etc. His admiration for Putin, Xi, Dutarte and now Kim, is not only explicit, it is shameless and the man doesn’t even seem to realize (or care) that by simultaneously expressing admiration for dictators, and moving the U.S. away from any kind of Human Rights related policy (as of today, the U.S. is formally out of the UN Human Rights Commission), he is forever torpedoing any chance of the U.S. ever being able to take the “high road” on human rights abuses. But what does he care? As France’s former dictators, be they Luis the XVIth or Napoleon, said “l’etat, c’est moi!” (“the State, It’s ME”), so must we recognize that nothing BEFORE or AFTER Trump matters. Period. It is all about him, now, now, NOW. Again, that he himself is so egocentric is not news, but that the entire political establishment accept this lunacy and do nothing to intervene, is SHOCKING, even to the most jaded political observer.
Family values: Ah, let me sigh calmly here. As of this week, the U.S. policy is to forcibly remove children from their parents coming at the border, no matter whether it’s for historically recognized political asylum or not. As of today, there are over 2300 kids who have not only been separated by their parents, but are left in large holding pens, with Republicans of all stripes saying “what are the Democrats complaining about, this is like summer camp and these kids are fed and housed, sometimes better than they were in Honduras”. Oh yes, what could POSSIBLY be the Democrats’ concern? Perhaps the fact that being separated from their parents is not only cruel and unjust but will no doubt create psychological scars for an entire generation of kids, and no doubt there will be a myriad horror stories of parents unable to reunite with their kids. That is supposed to either a) act as a deterrent to people wanting to cross the border or b) create a moral dilemma for Democrats such that they cave and agree to a multi-billion dollar investment in a useless wall that will only allow Trump to show his base that he delivered. Bah, what’s a few hundred kids separated from their parents?
I am sickened to my core even if there has been a last minute U-Turn by a President and Administration that is now back-peddling away from this cruel, failed policy. The fact that 2300 kids have been scattered around the U.S. with apparently faulty/no record keeping that would enable prompt re-union with their parents, is criminal and I sure hope that this cruel policy boomerangs back to demolish the Trumpists running for office in 2018.
For my Jewish family and friends I only ask this: Just switch the visual of Latino parents who speak Spanish with Jewish parents who speak Yiddish. Now look again at these kids separated from their parents. All that’s missing is the Doberman dogs and the german trains. Never again? Really? How about here and now, under your nose, and because the President of the U.S. decides to move the Embassy to Jerusalem, a segment of the formerly robustly Democrat-leading Jewish community is blithely ignoring what’s happening because, you know “Trump is good for Israel” (so goes the mantra). It is sickening, wrong on so many levels. How can American Jews, all by definition, children of immigrants, support this insanity?
Russia? Oh yes, that! Well, the very point in beating up Canada, or launching a historic outreach to North Korea, or putting kids in holding camps, is precisely to change the topic from Russia. There is nothing more fundamental than the successful Russian intelligence operation, to understanding what has so badly blown up the U.S. democratic experiment. As of today, 18 months in, the President of the United States is yet to have a SINGLE meeting with his principals to review what the U.S. should do about blocking Russian manipulation. As Trump says “Yeah well, we do bad things too”. Now how’s THAT for a U.S. Foreign Policy ~ “You guys do all the bad shit you want, because, you know, we are just as bad.” Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Reagan ~ cue to roll in your graves.
Nepotism and governance: Where to start? Well maybe with the fact that 18 months in, this Administration does not feel the need to staff its hundreds of top jobs. Why do it, after all, once you accept the concept that only President Trump matters, that he alone makes all decisions, that facts and policy briefings are a waste of time, that decades of geopolitical-intrigue around North Korea, arguably the world’s most isolated dictatorship, will be solved in an instant because Trump will look into Kim’s soul and know that the man is sincere. There is a massively problematic set of assumptions and lessons to be learned here: Facts don’t matter. Only one opinion matters, the dictator’s. What does that teach the current generation of young Americans growing up in Trump land – how will this affect the broader philosophy that until recently was a bedrock of American society?
Beyond the issue of torpedoing key government agencies ~ State Dept, Intell agencies, EPA, FDA etc…, there is the parallel issue of putting in place political appointees who are more unprepared than ever before. One only needs to see the statements and behaviors of the head of the EPA, or the Health and Welfare Administration, or the Homeland Security Security to understand that what is happening is PRECISELY what the man said he intended to do ~ dismantle the institutions that run the country. To some, that is good news, how novel to have a politician do what he said he would do?! Think about that ~ his intention was and is, not changing the policy trajectory, which would have been entirely within his right, had he been legitimately elected ~ but no, just dismantling the government’s capability to govern IS the objective. Wow.
~ ~
So here we are mid 2018. It is time to mourn the U.S. that once was. It does little good to argue that Trump has but a 34-40% majority and that most Americans don’t agree. Since Republicans, who now control the Executive Branch, the Congress (both houses) and the Supreme Court, have elected to swallow the bad in order to get the legislation and tax break that they want, it will be entirely up to the people to vote them out.
But they won’t.
Because Russia is still active in creating societal distance and acrimony.
Because Trump’s popularity is growing, based on a mountain of lies after lies, and coming up with false enemies while passing over the destruction wrought by a real enemy.
Bravo Mr Putin, you have achieved more with Trump than any Soviet or Russian leader since 1917.
Bravo Bannon, you have achieved the chaos and destruction you so energetically pushed for before over-shadowing Trump himself and getting booted out…
Bravo Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Maryanne Conway for demonstrating that there is no gender-gap when it comes to willfully deceiving the American people.
Time to say Kaddish for the United States as we once knew it.
A New world is emerging. It will be a Western Alliance, sans the United States, but with regional allies, such as India, Korea and Japan in the Asia Pacific region. It will be return to nationalist “America First, China First, Russia First” type thinking, abandoning what has demonstrably worked for 70 years. Russia and China have not had so close a relationship in several decades.
It is not that long ago that great empires crumbled ~ the French, Spanish, English, Portuguese empires imploded with great fracas. Still today, we still have to deal with the devolution of the British empire which, in 1948, resulted in a myriad unresolved conflicts ~ India versus Pakistan, Middle East etc.
250 years of Democracy is a short time segment in the context of history. Just recently, we visited France and were in buildings that were 400+ years old. Those who thought that America’s democracy-driven agenda was a firm basis to build a world order around, now have to come to terms that the bedrock was made of jello. It took only one Presidency to show how very fragile this experiment in Democracy was.
My predictions: (obviously not my hope for return to sanity)
- Democrats will NOT take back the house or Senate
- Trump and company will NOT be routed by the Mueller investigation
- The independent media will be silenced ~ as in this week’s dismissal of a cartoonist by the Philadelphia inquirer, which deemed that it was time to shut down this decade long comic strip which had become too “anti-trump”. How long before journalists are silenced, first by challenging their credentials, then through corporate pressure by advertisers, and then the good old fashion way of the Russian mafia ~ through chemical injection, or unfortunate car accidents?
- The justice Dept and its investigations will be forced to a halt. I expect a crashing whimper by Mueller in the form of a well substantiated report, which will promptly be dismissed as “fake news” by so called “13 Democrats” (another blatant lie) and if this happens, I would expect an exodus of FBI professionals as a result.
- NATO, G7 (or G6+1), UN etc: Will be demolished, or at least greatly diminished, because… international institutions don’t matter, alliances are unnecessary etc. Just as Trump’s very first move of killing the Pacific Trade agreement that had been carefully organized to create a defensive parameter around China, led to a massive set of wins for China, so will a withdrawal of the U.S. from international organizations, open up the door for both Russia and China to wreak havoc. Bah, MAGA!
- Massive trade wars will become the norm. I am laughing my head off at Trump thinking he is going to strong arm or bluff his way against the Chinese government! It’s just so abhorently short sighted it’s extraordinary. China’s economic might, which increasingly is driven by DOMESTIC consumption, will of course take some hits if a full-blown trade war between the U.S. and China takes place. But the impact on the U.S. will be far greater, because… China is America’s banker. A large portion of U.S. gov deficits are covered by China. How long will it take before China chooses not to renew U.S. Government Bond purchases and let the U.S. economy rile as a result?
A global wreck of a Presidency. RIP America.
MARBA! (Make America Russia’s Bitch Again) Our new global slogan.
As always, I welcome your feedback, thoughts and opinions.
Ben
I couldn’t be more depressed.
I hear ya. We all deal with this calamity in different ways. Some choose to withdraw and not watch the news, waiting for a better day to emerge, others choose to march and others voice their frustration on their blog as a small act of voicing resistance.
Ben
Yep, that pretty much sums it up #nowords
Thanks for reading my rant Lisa. Out in the middle of an ocean is probably a good place to be right now!
Ben
This was great and you have written exactly what I feel and think. Wonderful synopsis of what has happened and is possibly going to happen in the coming months and years. You should be writing a column for a magazine or newspaper.
I fear for America’s safety and feel we will as citizens came out on the short end of the stick. I said 30 years ago that at some point our country would fall or that we would have another revolution.
Citizens have been too complacent and have not educated themselves about politicians running for office. And it is sad to say but too many folks actually have been brain washed to believe what ever Trump says and does.
I have a difficult time watching all the craziness unfold as Americans remain blind to what has taken place.
I hope with all my heart that I am proven wrong.
Thank you Yvonne for your thoughtful comments. I would love to write a political column for a magazine or newspaper, where do I sign up?
You make a good point about the complacency of the American public. Of course some would argue that this “dumbing down” of the electorate has been a conscious strategy of the ruling elite.
But until Trump became President, I would have argued that while a dumbing down is the inevitable outcome of a population spending several hours a day in front of mind-numbing or truth-bending tv shows, a societal “evolution” more than a Macchiavelic manipulation.
However, all this changed with Trump as he has waged an explicit, overt, often repeated attack on the media, on “authorities”, on “facts” – such that an increasing portion of the electorate has adopted a view that there is no such thing as facts, data, truth anymore, or rather, that these are not germane for policy making.
This glib departure from facts and truth, and the shocking tolerance for an Administration well substantiated tendency to just lie, lie, lie, is a societal development that will far outlast this administration. Frankly, I don’t know how we crawl back to a fact-based culture.
Ben
Thanks, Ben. Of course you’re right about everything that’s happened, but I hold out hope for the next election, however naive that is. And that the youth will save us.
Sharon, hope that you are right. But I do not see any evidence after multiple horrific school shootings, that the youth, beyond their well intentioned speeches and marches, have any chance of having significant impact, for instance, on the gun culture, which has been so effectively manipulated by the NRA.
This is of course only one of many topics, but if we cannot societally, “get our shit together” to acknowledge and then take action on the fact that there is a definitive link between the ease of gun ownership and America’s death toll (33,000 dead by gun shots every year, i.e. 15 times 9/11 impact, every single year), then there is no basis to think that the youth will “save us” on more subtle topics.
If NOTHING has happened to make ANY dent on gun ownership laws, despite repeated killings, then that pretty much tells me that nothing can happen on blunting less immediate, less tangible policies such as America’s withdrawal from the global world order the US established after WWII.
Ben
Ben each day we can barely stand to read the headlines. Crazy is definitely suitable. When we as Canadians became the enemy well then it just became laughable. I’m hopeful your predictions are wrong but can certainly see that things seem headed there.
Thanks for your feedback, Sue. It’s a very odd thing about this Presidency or more accurately about people’s reaction to this Presidency. Everyone seems to have different “trigger points” where it finally ticks the “this is crazy” box.
For some of us, the very first visible act of “crazy” was the deliberate uber lie about Obama not having been born in the U.S. despite very easily verifiable facts to the contrary. Just that, long before his candidacy started to firm up, was enough for many observers to recognize that there was a never-seen before comfort with outright lying as a campaign strategy.
Then came his hyperventilation about Mexico sending murderers and rapists. That got the Latino community to raise more than a few eyebrows.
Then, when the torrent of misogynous statements and acts became impossible to ignore (i.e. the “grab them by the…” tapes), another segment of the population woke up and came to realize that we were dealing with some kind of crazy.
Then when he attacked some highly regarded figures in the Republican party, like Senator McCain because “he is not a hero, he’s only a hero because he got caught”…, then some switched to this side of the ledger…
Then when he reacted to KKK/Neo-Nazi marches where his supporters chanted “Jews, you will not replace us”, by saying that there are good people on both sides, more people concluded “he’s crazy”. Duh.
Then when he tried to ram down a clearly islamophobic policy to block anyone from selected muslim countries, another batch rallied behind the “some kind of crazy” banner.
Then came a willful destruction of the Western Alliance by torpedoing decades-old relationship with friendly nations, while at the very same time he showered praise on geo-political adversaries, that got some people to join the “he’s crazy” bandwagon.
Now, in the latest set of drama, the decision to separate children and babies from their parents seeking asylum in the U.S., triggered yet another wave of indignation.
Each case has its own constituency. Each case, focusing on their very specific area of interest or self-recognition, drove people to reach the “he’s crazy” conclusion.
And yet, the total is LESS than the sum of its parts. It doesn’t stick. Nothing sticks.
The mere fact that the entire Republican establishment has completely pole vaulted past DECADES of sober Russia geo-political thinking to now shrug at a collective conclusion that, without any doubt, the Russian state had executed a successful intel ops to install a puppet regime… that tells us everything we need to know about the political system’s under-pinning.
So yes, as a Canadian, you would readily see this is a sadly laughable Presidency, but this is only one of many, many red flags. Somehow it all becomes so crystal clear when one relates to the specific topic or flavor of crazy.
This inability we all have to harness the many strings of crazy into a comprehensive resistance is what I find greatly disappointing. Our collective acceptance of this never seen level of crazy will no doubt be explored by historians. But, it may be too late by then, as so much damage will have been done to our global relations, to our environment, to our economic system, to our society and to our democratic institutions, and to our basic relationship with facts and truth, that I fear there is no return post Trump to a pre-Trump world. I don’t know what comes next, but it sure doesn’t feel “normal”.
Ben
Your words, “It took only one Presidency to show how very fragile this experiment in Democracy was,” sum up the last EIGHTEEN MONTHS succinctly. The distractions, the daily outrages, the degradation of what we once assumed were our democratic norms and the ratcheting up of crazy is so disheartening and exhausting. I read an interesting article today about Marco Rubio’s theory about why the GOP stands silently by and fails to condemn the current administration and #45 for the ‘global train wreck’. His excuse is that Republican lawmakers don’t want to be perceived by their voters as joining or even being in the same neighborhood as the other side. All I can hope is that history has a chance to judge harshly those who stood by complicit and silent or actively participated in the destruction of the US. It is hard not to lose hope …
Yup, yup, yup. Trump’s antics have created a giant mirror and we get to see ourselves and our friends and neighbors for what we have become as a society. And it ain’t pretty.
As I write this, Peta shows me an article about a just signed decree whereby the Trump Administration hereby permits the shooting of bear cubs in Alaska. Just pause and think. How is this of any possible value to our society? What kind of sick motherfuckers would get their jolly out of shooting bear cubs because, per Trump, now they can.
No time to sit down and deal with gun-violence or Russia’s intel ops, but bear cub shooting, oh yea, that’s a priority!
Sick, sicker, sickest.
I’m sorry to say that I am beginning to lose hope. All I can say is that I’m glad that I’m old and have no children who will have to live in this wreck of a country.
Thanks for your comments Janis. Losing hope is, of course, precisely the point in this well executed strategy of creating so much chaos and daily drama that the populace and electorate just “checks out”, having lost hope. The sooner people disconnect and lose their outrage, and start to accept patently abnormal, immoral, wretched policies as the new normal, the sooner Trump can go pick up his bonus check from the Kremlin.
It is fascinating to me that two of the world’s most famous and exhaustively researched psychics, Nostradamus who wrote his global predictions 500 years ago, and the famed blind East European psychic Baba Vanga, who died a few decades ago, predicted not only Trump, but that his would be the last US Presidency. I frankly have a hard time wrapping my head around what this even means. So even if one pole-vaults past this 4 or 8 year Presidency, what might come next? I just can’t even visualize what this might look like. I guess we’ll have to sit back, watch the horror show play out, and see what comes next…
Ben
I’ve always loved your travel adventures and seeing the multitude of cultures and life on this planet. But, I’ve missed more your complete understanding and insightful explanations and predictions of our new global changes that are occurring.
Whether they are political, humanitarian, environmental or economic you have found the thread that rings true for anyone reading your brilliant assessment.
Keep ’em coming!!
Boyd!! How nice to see you pop up in our comments. I am blushing at your compliments, thank you for the kind words. Not sure if you saw the other “Green Global Wreck” posts, but you can find those in the archives as a lead up to this one. More on our lives in Sri Lanka, coming up soon. Stay tuned…
Ben
Yeah…this. For my own mental health I have to take more and more breaks from social media because every time I think it can’t possibly get any more ludicrous or insane, it does.
Even Ontario has come down with a case of Trumpitis in the form of the newly elected government of Doug Ford.
Being a selfish, racist, proudly ignorant, entitled jerk is becoming normalized and all the creeps are crawling out from under their rocks – feeling safe at last to let us know exactly how they think and feel. Thanks to the examples being set by our “leaders”.
Can we human beings turn this around or are we heading into another dark age of our history? I hope for my kids’s sakes that we can stop this regression.
Thanks for this, Ben.
Thanks for your comments on this post, Badass! You, unfortunately make a very apt reference to the dark ages. There is a historical precedent for society taking two steps forward and then one step back.
While we may not go to the dark ages in the form of club wielding peasants and dungeons, there is indeed a very real possibility that the combination of a global shift towards dictatorships and away from democracy, combined with a global inability to muster the collective will to respond to climate change, could result in a “fend for yourself” scenario which could herald a lot more hunger, illness, violence, etc. Hope we can avoid this kind of cataclysmic, historical rewind but it certainly feels possible.
Ben
What all the others said.
Great summing up, I wish you didn’t sound so right.
Ditto Anabel. I wish I had a more upbeat assessment, but I just cannot find the silver lining. This is bad, on every front.
Ben
We received this comment via email from a loyal Green Global Trek reader and would like to share it, as we do not feel any need to shy away from sharing more critical feedback. We value all opinions and open discussion. B&P
“I love your posts. Life in Sri Lanka, travels, food, markets, sights, family, etc.
That’s what I signed up for.
Now I feel farklempt and disappointed with this latest one.
UGH. I didn’t see it coming.
If I wanted a Trump rant, I’d go for funny – ergo Stephen Colbert. It’s just all too much these days. Which is why I go to blogs like yours, to find the best in life and travel and humanity (its foibles included), unique and inspiring experiences.
But this? Oy… sour.
Shame that Ben felt compelled to throw a rotten apple into your otherwise juicy orange flans.”
Totally understand!
It is true that the “Global Wreck Series” departs from our typically upbeat nomadic lifestyle, travel and culture posts… And we do appreciate the positive comments about Green Global Trek and what it offers to readers.
That said, a blog is a place for personal expression whatever that may be and of course, none of the posts are compulsory reading. 🙂 Rather than self censor, we suggest that any reader not interested in the political analysis, just skip past the “Green Global Wreck” posts and stay tuned, because a post on our lives in Sri Lanka, is coming up soon.
Rotten apple indeed!
Ben
Fabulous post. I’m grateful you peppered it with cartoons because a bit of comic relief (no matter how painfully true) is what I needed. I’m one of those who alternates between obsessively watching the news for the “crisis du jour” and shutting down with exhaustion.
Perhaps the one good thing that may come of all this is the awakening of people who have become complacent to rally and restore.
Thank you Judith for your positive feedback. Peta reacts in a pretty similar fashion to all the shenanigans going on right now. Sometimes it is just too much to take in, but for me, I have always been “addicted” to politics and think that America was positively blessed by having a visionary twenty first century president in Obama, with everything positive about America, embodied in one President for eight years. Rational, compassionate, visionary, globally minded, co operative decision maker…. But America wasted that trajectory. And the worst part is how the current president goes about deliberately reversing the progress brick by brick that was made, just because it was done by President Obama.
I agree with you about the fact that people need to wake up and make their voice heard. But the Democratic party has to field also, quality candidates, across the board, including for 2020 and there is no evidence that the political machine around the Democratic party is getting organized to work towards 2020.
Ben
I am with you Benjamin…your article is brilliant and sadly resonates with me. I never thought that it would come to this in America in my life time. I am sad for my grandchildren and great grandchildren…They will not know what freedom of speech is, what respect for human rights is, what democracy is….They will probably be brainwashed like Hitler did with the Germans, like Putin does, like Kim does….like dictators do…. You know how optimistic I usually am…..Not anymore…Unless a miracle…CRY! CRY! CRY…..
Madame Bell, thank you for taking the time to respond to this post. Given your history as an 8 year old in France during World War II, and being separated from your parents to survive the nazis, no doubt the child separation drama and failure to have put in place the means to reunite separated families, must hit home for you.
This business about freedom of speech, democracy etc. feels to me like the frog in the proverbial hot water. We are being incrementally distanced from the prior democratic ideal but because it is a daily drip drip drip, we much like the frogs, adapt instantly to one more degree of heat or one more departure from democracy. One perfect case of this drifting of the norm, there is an observed surge in overt racism in America because it is the new norm. If a president can be overtly racist, well then, why bother holding back?! And these people have the gall to say that President Obama incited racism! Shocking!!
Ton fils
Ben
Bonjour my darling cousin, je continue en français parce que mon téléphone me corrige bêtement l’anglais. Nous sommes consternés par ce qui se passe aux États-Unis et nous suivons les développements de près. La bêtise crasse de l’administration Trump aura peut-être un effet salutaire en Europe : resserrer les liens et pousser l’Allemagne à s’accepter enfin une défense Européenne conjointe. Peut-être dans une Europe moins large mais plus solide. C’est tout ce qu on peut espérer vu d’ici.
En passant, L’état c’est moi, c’est Louis XIV, pas XVI…
Love from France.
Laurence!!! How nice to read you!
You make a good point and perhaps there will be a positive collateral effect of a tighter Europe that rallies behind the concept of a united European defense. However, that is still looking at things from rosy colored glasses, because a unified Europe that operates within a global system that has been blown up by trump with a resurgent Russia, that will have been rewarded for its intelligence ops, is not exactly a positive development. The free pass given to Putin by the current U.S. administration re the invasion of Ukraine, can only served to bolster the next Russian move whether it be disrupting European elections (like they tried with France), or the next invasion… Latvia next?
Louis XIV ~ I stand corrected.
Gros gros gros bisous
xoxo
Ben
Dear Peta and Ben:
Exquisitely painful to read but couldn’t take our eyes off the pages (and had to read it again like a moth to the light!); incredibly erudite, captured the entire complex and disturbing array of issues and destabilization with such aplomb. Thank you for writing this important commentary and sharing!
Best
Trish and Steve
Thank you Trish and Steve for your kind words and appreciation of this post and for sharing your feedback.
This post is the fourth in a series that started shortly after the president’s election, in case you are interested in going back to take a look at the progression.
Ben
We all know about the fracturing of America and how trump appeals to the wealthy because of his tax plan and health care de-programs, to the far right wing Christians because of his anti-gay and anti-abortion stances, to the neo-nazis and gun nuts because of his second amendment and NRA support, to the tea party because nearly all of them are whites who are hysterical about anyone with dark skin entering this country and therefore love the wall, to the military because he wants to increase their ranks. But it took a video I watched a few hours ago for me to see the one uniting element behind his loyal support.
A comic (wish I could remember his name as he was brilliant) stood outside some venue where trump was to show up for one of his campaigns. The comic asked everyone about trump’s newest passion: Space Force. He ranted with minimal articulation about how we are going to build a Space Force. The comic asked the waiting folks what they thought about trump’s idea. I’m paraphrasing a bit, but essentially these are the responses:
T fan 1: I love it, it’s really cool. I want Space Force. We should know what’s in space.
Comic: But don’t you think we already have a program that informs us about space? Isn’t that what NASA does?
T fan 1: You can’t trust NASA. They lie about everything.
T fan 2: It will cost a really big amount of money and probably won’t give us anything we don’t know already, but I’m all for it. It’s totally cool.
Comic: So we should spend a lot of money to get information we already have?
T fan 2: Yes, I’m totally for it, it’s very cool.
T fan 3: Oh yes we should do Space Force because we have to protect America. There’s gonna be wars in space and we have to be ready.
Comic: You think there are going to be space wars?
T fan 3: Well yeah, with all them drones and all that can attack us. Satellites too.
Comic: So we should have Space Force for protection?
T fan 3: Somebody has to do it.
So I have finally figured out the one uniting factor among trump’s diehard fans. They are all stupider than anyone could reasonably believe an American citizen could be. They cannot determine fact from fantasy, and trump feeds their stupidity with as much fake news as he can drum up. It no longer even resembles anything that makes sense. It’s just his late night rambling ranted loudly in the heat of the day.
I will be marching this afternoon, June 30, to protest family separation. Children should never be pawns of politicians. That is the act of a despot. Of course, we’re only talking dark skinned children who don’t speak English. But children cry in the same language all over the world. I’m crying with them and marching for them. As an American Jew who has not forgotten that her grandparents came to this country early last century, running from the czar’s army and savage Polish Christians, from unjust edicts and excessive taxation, from pogroms and economic restrictions, I will march. As a woman with grandchildren who have a stake in the future, I will march and protest. I cannot stand by any longer and wait for republican politicians to remember where they came from and to think of their children and grandchildren. I will protest for those without a voice and from whom justice has been stolen.
Thank you, Ben and Peta, for a sane if frightening assessment of the current fascist in the White House.
BTW: I never capitalize nazi and no longer capitalize trump.
Bravo Shari. That’s the spirit. Thank you for this in depth response.
At this point, it would be tempting to think that there is no point in marching, as of course trump couldn’t care less. But I think there are at least three very valid reasons to vote with one’s feet at this point in time, in America.
The first of course is almost kinetic – the more “normal folks” take to the street, the more others will find that a valid form of expression and join in on this form of democratic expression.
Second of course is that there are some milestone societal issues at stake in the daily flow of crazy, and that it will be critical to help the electorate remember, come November 2018, just how fundamentally wrong things have gone at a core ethical and moral level for American society and governance.
And finally, there will be a post trump, whatever shape that may take, and marches may be a form of “marker” that this unfathomable era in American history, had detractors. Lots of detractors. If Russians and their home team can affect digital reality, (and probably digital ballot boxes too), they are not yet ready to start breaking up non-violent marches. (that’s for trump’s second term!)
Ben
It was Michael Kosta from The Daily Show who conducted the interviews on June 27.
Gathering, marching, and protesting also keeps up our momentum, the 60% percent who despise this admin, and the 65,844,954 citizens who voted for Clinton, nearly 3,000,000 more than for trump. She won and our candidate was stolen from our country. It’s too easy to just give up and go to a casino or to sit in front of the TV. It’s crucial to be actively engaged in the process of physically expressing ourselves, as well as our right as Americans to do so. It’s crucial to remind younger Americans that they CAN change things. At least for the moment we can march safely.
I marched and protested through many years of the Vietnam war (and married a vet) and took off a year of college to campaign for the 26th Amendment to lower the voting age to 18. A person old enough to be drafted to serve in war is old enough to vote. Times were different then – I disliked LBJ for his intractability about the war. Other aspects of LBJ were decent. I can’t find one decent quality in trump.
Pathetic, isn’t it? Although I’m not sure I’m quite as discouraged, although the 35-40% have effectively turned the swamp into a sewer rather than draining it, they’re still only 35-40%. No amount of presidential and GOP malfeasance will change those folks perception, but much of the rest of the country is disgusted. The key is getting them to vote out the bums. It’s not going to be pretty.
Dave, first I applaud the “lets go take it back” attitude, but I fear the statistics can lead to an optimistic read. How this 65% ripples through the various power centers – the Presidential election, the Senate and House, the governorships. A real time illustration that being the 35% minority isn’t preventing the system from playing out in trump’s favor re the Supreme Court. There is every reason to believethat trump will succeed in appointing a replacement supreme court judge who will ingratiate him to Senate Republicans, House Reps, Republican donors, in advance of a key mid term election.
It would take a historically disproportionate level of electoral participation to really have an impact on the trajectory to reclaim the house, to reclaim the senate. For me the jury is still out as to whether the 65% will remain lucid and combative, come November 2018.
Ben
We really are in a mess, but I remain hopeful as always. But each day brings on a new crisis and a new concern. Let’s do all we can to sway the powers that be to do the right thing.
Rusha, thanks for your comments. Other than marching, phoning congress, the most important thing will be showing up to vote in November.
Ben
Crazy can’t even sum it up. Neither does “stupid”. Scary is a better word. Extremely dangerous. And, soon enough, as with many things related to Mother Earth and taking care of the world and its people: “It’s too late.” will be the reaction. He gets away with everything! It keeps boggling my mind. He’s smart, you know, with his distractions, making the public used to his behavior and thinking. Since the beginning of his presidency, my reaction has been “I’m not surprised he said this and did that.” He is reshaping the world, this country, and its values. With his lies, he gets what he wants. It’s insane – yes, people are that stupid to believe all this!! Shouldn’t a president get impeached just for constantly lying?
You are so right with this statement: What does that teach the current generation of young Americans growing up in Trump land – how will this affect the broader philosophy that until recently was a bedrock of American society?” My biggest worry has been – not that he’s president and the impact he has these years – but the fact that he is changing what is right and wrong, for generations to come! It’s OK to cheat, lie, bribe, be racist, think only about yourself, be arrogant (a change we have seen running our business lately)… What a world!
Liesbet, well said! Yes, the societal impact is huge and has long term impact sadly. If only you were right and he could be impeached JUST for the constant lies. But aside from that, the role modeling for younger generations is enough to make one weep.
And how do his followers most of whom happen to correlate with the Christian right, how do these people reconcile a leadership who blatantly and constantly lies with their alleged “moral guidance for children”. What do they teach in Sunday schools these days?
And yes, he gets away with everything, because there is so much that he puts out there. He is not such an idiot after all, he is pretty cunning and knows well how to manipulate the system and even more so an American public. After all he is the one who said, before running, that while he was actually registered as a Democrat, he would run as a Republican, because Republicans would be stupid enough to vote him in!
Ben
I’m late to this party. For my own sanity, I actively avoid any references to Trump whenever I can, but it is (and I deliberately refer to him as an ‘it’) virtually impossible to ignore.
As you’ve mentioned, the grave danger here is the dismantling of everything that is fair and balanced. He started at the very beginning of his campaign with behaviour that validated the opinion every racist, paranoid loser out there. The fact that this behaviour is spreading beyond America’s borders is also deeply disturbing. As Badass mentioned, we now have our own train wreck at the helm of the Ontario government and less than 2 weeks into office, his dismantling of positive legislation has already begun.
I hate to doom-and-gloom, but I think it’s going to get a whole lot worst before it gets better. Parallels to the 1930s? Absolutely, yes.
Joanne, as we read these comments, the reports from the trump/putin meeting in Helsinki are coming through. After his shocking bashing of European allies in NATO, and sickening innuendos to further weaken Prime Minister May in England (in favor of that lunatic Boris Johnson) trump has managed to do a summersault into a bed of caviar laid out carefully by the former KGB chief Putin.
To hear an American president in one sentence bash all U.S. intelligence agencies, cast doubt on his justice department, and at the same time shrug at the now well proven offensive actions taken by the Kremlin, it is difficult to fathom how the U.S. can recover from a historic fall in geo political,or moral high ground.
Where are the Republicans?? Why is no one calling for impeachment?!? Is there any line that when crossed will trigger a reaction from the system?
The only flaw in the parallel to the 1930s is that even though it took a while to organize America’s entry into WWII to push back on Germanys expansionism, once the U.S. steps down from its role and goes full board into a dictatorship model, there will be no other large country to change that trajectory (like America did).
Ben
I love my country. I love being an American. But I’m embarrassed by my country now, and am embarrassed to be an American. Thank you for your long intelligent post here. It just made me more depressed, but not because I didn’t think everything you wrote down. I believe it to my core, but I just don’t want to believe that Trump is going to get away with all of this. If he does, our core democracy is not as strong as we Americans have always bragged it is.
And as much as I dislike the cold, at times I wonder if we should move to Canada….
Yes Pamela that is correct. The Democratic experiment is indeed a fragile one. And while the ideals themselves are extremely robust, democracy as we know well, is fully dependent on an engaged and educated electorate. The electorate is indeed very engaged right now but has been so polarized courtesy of Russian manipulation, that a tolerance for fact-less narratives means a large chunk of the electorate is perfectly comfortable operating from a place of non facts. Once expertise, independent news and an independent justice are considered to be tantamount to partisan thinking, then democracy almost inevitably will wither on the vine.
So now, the question that should be on everybody’s lips is “what next?” What is the model for an America that is in effect tolerating a dictator in the making. What next?
Ben