The dying of the year
Efforts to deny the election
by Mike Meyer
International Fumbling
Somehow it is December and Trump is still stumbling around in befuddlement at international conferences having to be rounded up and marched back. What was surprise and embarrassment at these things is now tinged with anger and mockery on the world stage.
Having created a trade war designed to destroy both the US and Chinese economies to prove something, Trump apparently wasn’t listening during his conversation with Xi Jinping at the G20 and decided to make up some new stories about his latest success. The Chinese see this as a possible opportunity to continue discussions with a delay of Trump’s next round of tariffs. Trump has, again, declared victory that no one else sees.
Subsequent presentations by the Chinese indicate that they are rethinking the role of the US in their world. Unreliable and bonkers America is not a good partner so China may well now go another route. This could increasingly isolate the US from the evolving Chinese and world economy.
In the short term this is a pause in the trade war China did not want. Markets are happy that things should hold up through the end of the year. What happens after that is dependent on too many things to even guess but the safest assumption is that any outcome will be bad.
Domestic Threat
There is very little that I can add to the increasingly panicked stream of tweets coming from Trump as his aids and goons turn on him and/or go to prison. There has been a healthy excitement over the midterm election that creates some large problems for the current regime. There are some young and minority representatives who haven’t yet been corrupted by the system. Let’s hope they manage to do some serious damage to the collapsing system before they learn that they aren’t allowed to change anything.
As people have realized and are saying more loudly now, don’t expect too much. The corruption and criminality of the Trump and Republican regime will have no problem ignoring all proof of Russian ownership of Trump and full denial of the rule of law. The massive quantity of lies being pumped out by the Trump/Fox propaganda machine are what have kept this thing alive long after a legitimate political leaders would have resigned in disgrace. Those days are long gone.
Things are getting very ugly and will get more so by the day. Unfortunately there are no plans in place to physically remove Trump and his minions from their positions when they declare that they are not subject to existing laws. Trump has been warming this up since he took over the White House.
We may see this in action in January if Trump and friends decide to turn loose Rudy “Rage Monkey” Giuliani in a Krystal Nacht against Mueller and the newly elected Representatives to Congress.
I hope not but I have a bad feeling we are closer than we want to admit to the final collapse.
