A monthly consumer survey by the University of Michigan has revealed a stark political divide in expectations: Republicans see a great boom ahead, while Democrats foresee a recession. Clearly those who elected Donald expect him to lead a great economic improvement, a rising tide that will “lift all boats.” Unfortunately, the leaky boats will not last long, and consumers mired in student debt or chronic underemployment will find little to enjoy in the next couple of years: chances for a big infrastructure bill are slim because the Freedom Caucus won’t allow it.
The National Enquirer is a weekly tabloid that is sold in the checkout lanes at Walmart in particular. Their latest headline caught my eye: “Trump and Russia.” But when I turned to the story in the center it never mentioned Russia (the elephant in the room?) The whole story was about some claim that Obama had gone out of the normal chain of command and used “rogue agents” to wiretap Trump. Why? To gather information for blackmail. You’ll notice that treasure trove of information about Donald has never surfaced– making the blackmail motive slightly suspicious. But there’s more. The heads of the FBI and NSA knew about this for two years and did nothing. That’s what the story claims. That explains why none of this came out before the election: because Comey was blackmailing Obama. Can we please stop just making things up?
Hillary made an historic error by not getting on the bandwagon and proclaiming her support for help to the middle-aged, high school-educated white workers who have been so badly hurt, not just by the recent Great Recession, but by 30 years of regressive taxation that has prevented them from getting ahead while rewarding people who sit on their vast piles of money. The Democratic Party has stood by for years while the American union system was systematically destroyed by wealthy factory owners and heads of business who find justice for their employees too much trouble to allow. This has hollowed out the great Democratic base of working people and led to falling life expectancies specifically among white men, especially uneducated white men.
The whole slide into unreality and poverty could have been prevented if our American school system had sufficient federal support to provide equal and thorough educations for free to all at least through high school and vocational school. Instead, the grossly unequal system of payments for our school system– local land taxes– has been allowed to persist despite being wholly inadequate to supply all schools with equal and sufficient funding to provide a good education.
One of the most important aspects of a primary education that has been neglected is education in how to tell the truth from fiction, how to see when someone is pushing propaganda instead of actual facts, how to discover for oneself what the truth is. Many adults in America simply do not know when they are being lied to. That makes it so much easier for the oligarchs and plutocrats to spread fiction and continue their insidious campaign to destroy effective government in this country.
A study published in Nature on April 5 calculates that plants on Earth have increased their carbon-fixing activity by about 31% (+/- 5%) since the Industrial Revolution, primarily due to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and average temperatures in the last 200 years. A story also appeared in the New York Times reviewing the research. The study measured levels of a trace gas, carbonyl sulfide (CSO), that is produced by decaying organic matter and destroyed by photosynthesis, in Antarctic ice that has trapped tiny bubbles of air, for the last 54,000 years. Unfortunately, the increase in activity is nowhere near enough to compensate for deforestation worldwide, which has destroyed over two-thirds of all forests that existed before humans entered history. Fortunately, planting more trees will help the situation more as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise.
Kakistocracy Initiates Wider War
According to the Guardian, the International Committee of the Red Cross has pointed out that Donald’s attack on a Syrian government airfield creates what they call an “international armed conflict.”
The situation in Syria “amounts to an international armed conflict” following the US airstrike on a Syrian airbase, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said.
Iolanda Jaquemet, its spokeswoman, said: “Any military operation by a state on the territory of another without the consent of the other amounts to an international armed conflict. So according to available information, the US attack on Syrian military infrastructure, the situation amounts to an international armed conflict.”
It should be noted that, technically, the airstrike on Al Shayrat airfield is a violation of international law because it was carried out without the consent of the Syrian government or the backing of the United Nations.
The Kakistocracy Strikes Back
Thursday evening around 8:40 PM Eastern time, two US destroyers, the Porter and the Ross, scored 59 Tomahawk cruise missile hits on Al Shayrat airfield in far western Syria. By the way, each Tomahawk carries either a half-ton of high explosives or a multiple bomblet dispenser, and is capable of flying over a thousand miles from its ship launch. It is a matter of public knowledge that the US maintains stocks of about 3,500 Tomahawks. To compare the force level used, over 800 Tomahawks were used in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and 79 were fired at Afghanistan in 1998 in retaliation for the bombing of US embassies by Al Qaeda.
The reason Donald ordered this missile strike is that he needs to appear presidential. As usual, he learned of the sarin gas attack in Idlib from Fox News, which he watches obsessively. Unlike virtually all presidents before him, he does not read briefing papers or participate in oral briefings from recognized experts. His view of the situation is colored by his need to distract us from the FBI investigation into his collusion with Russian hacking of our election.
The expertise for this air strike was entirely supplied by our military, supervised by Mattis and officers under his command. Donald was not required to perform any planning, but was presented with three options, from which he chose the two smaller for further consideration. It should be noted that our military is a self-selected expert system which is nearly impervious to Donald’s influence but will cheerfully exercise any military adventure he may approve. This presents the possibility that excessive and pointless military action will be a hallmark of Donald’s administration.
The other reason for this missile strike is that al-Assad violated his express agreement to refrain from the use of sarin after the previous attack four years ago resulted in a global backlash that forced him to destroy most of his stocks of nerve gas. Thus, a forceful response is justified and no-one in the US will object. Many will demand that we wipe out al-Assad’s entire air force, with which he prosecutes his fratricidal war.
The Kakistocracy Continues
Donald, in his latest news conference, was unable to frame an intelligible response to the question of what the United States policy would be towards the Iranian elements who support Bashar al-Assad. He has no concept of a nuanced policy, and he recently instructed his press secretary to say that the US policy towards Assad would be one of toleration, a reversal of the previous Administration policy seeking regime change. Assad’s response to this policy change was to launch a nerve-gas attack on civilians in an insurgent area, killing scores of innocent men, women, and children.
Donald’s statement after the nerve-gas attack characteristically blamed the previous Administration for its too-tolerant policy towards Assad. He fails to make the connection between his own “edict of tolerance” issued just days before the attack and blames Obama’s failure to militarily punish Assad for a previous attack four years ago. Donald is so far out of his depth that he is grasping at straws like a drowning man.
Worse disasters are sure to follow. Syria is only the most brutal conflict currently taking place. Other conflicts, like the 22 million people in Africa who are starving, will overwhelm Donald and cause untold suffering. We are in for a very bad time for at least the next two years.
Almond Trees Under Low Clouds
Familiar Views
Flooded Vineyard at Sunrise
Dogs
There are two things that our current President is doing that more than justify impeachment.
First, he has been violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution since the day he was inaugurated with the hotel he runs in Washington, DC at the Old Post Office, a historic government building. Every day, members of foreign governments stay at that hotel and his company receives the profits. There is even a clause in the contract he holds to manage the hotel that states specifically that no member of the American government can participate in running it.
Second, he colluded with the Russian government to corruptly and illicitly influence the presidential election. There was a direct computer connection between Trump Tower and the Alfa Bank in Moscow that was shut down the day it was discovered, in September. The Russian government, following long standing procedure, used fake news and hacking to spread disinformation among the American public before the election, and they were strongly biased against Hillary Clinton. The Russians wanted Donald to win, and he cooperated with them. Just the fact that he denied the existence of Russian hacking when he was confronted with the evidence shows that he was already aware of it and did not intend to do anything to stop it. In fact, his former aide Mike Flynn is known to have discussed ameliorating Obama’s sanctions against Russia for the hacking as soon as Donald was inaugurated, with Russia’s ambassador over the phone– and Donald approved of his saying that.
Thus, the House would be fully justified on the basis of publicly available information in impeaching, and the Senate in removing, Donald Trump. On the same grounds, the same impeachment proceedings are fully justified in the case of the Vice President. Under the circumstances, a new presidential election should be held.
This is why I have had nothing to say for the past month. Our current political system is completely rotten and there is little or no possibility of remedying the situation before the 2018 Congressional elections. Under the circumstances, I feel justified in going into hiding.
Conrad Theodore Seitz 