International relations and geopolitics

Donald Trump

I got off the Trump Train in April 2017 when he attacked Syria. What was so exciting about Candidate Trump is that (despite a few alarm bells) so much of what he proposed scared the establishment witless. Sadly, it was obvious when he filled his administration with neocon hawks that he'd turned his back on the promises that got him elected.

He has attacked Syria, kept troops in all the countries they were already in, come close to war with Iran, vetoed a bill that would have ended American support for the horrific Saudi invasion of Yemen, been a massive toady for Saudi Arabia, and has not improved relations with Russia. He has made no progress on immigration, deportations are lower than they were under Obama, no border wall, NAFTA is still going (albeit renamed), had very little success on bringing back manufacturing, has done nothing to combat Big Tech censorship, nothing against the 'woke' agenda, nothing about the opioid crisis, and so on.

He ran as a genuinely refreshing candidate but has governed like George Bush. He has done precious little positive and made things worse in many areas. 

I well remember how happy we were on the morning after the 2016 election when we learned that Hillary had lost. Maybe some of the old posts are worth recycling.

People made excuses for Trump for a while, but became very disillusioned. Perhaps he really is ill, as some people allege.

A blast from the past

I remember how much we liked this magazine cover:

If what I have been reading is true, Donald Trump sees everything and everyone as part of some deep state conspiracy and an attempt to prevent his re-election.

All this devious thinking and reverse psychology is very confusing. So Trump is not paranoid, he just wants people to think that there are conspiracies against him so he must be doing something right and 'they' are trying to destroy him? These things often backfire...

China-India border skirmish


www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-53061476

Both sides accuse the other of being at fault for this incident. Who knows what really happened. This border has always been volatile; China and India fought a war in 1962, which China won.

Thankfully, I don't see a war coming out of this incident. Both sides are talking about the importance of deescalation, which is positive, and in any case, these are both nuclear powers - nuclear symmetry reduces the risk of war between two nations. It's in no one's interest to escalate. Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi aren't madmen, whatever else people might think of them.

I will have to make a proper post about the China-India-Pakistan dynamic at some point, as it's very interesting. As is the effect of nuclear weapons on conflict resolution.

American sanctions on Syria

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-53076994

This caused a fall in the value of the Syrian lira, meaning ordinary Syrians will struggle even more to buy food, medicine, and oil. It further destabilises a country that's been through Hell in the past decade.

Typically, the US dresses these punitive measures up in the language of liberation and fake concern for the Syrian people. No one with half a brain falls for this stuff any more. We know it's imperialism.

Hands off Syria.

I don't endorse or agree with everything Tucker says, but he's the only person on television in the Anglosphere telling the truth, which he does to an audience of millions. The big Swede is doing Óðinn's work.

Of course, he can't tell the whole truth on that platform, but he's great at walking right up to the line and stopping just short of it, whilst still getting people asking the right questions. His sponsors have started to pull out from his show because he tells the truth and I can see him losing his show altogether soon, which will be a terrible shame.

My main issue with Tucker is his support for the dotard. He'll criticise him (which the cheerleading squad on Fox won't do), but in the end he'll always tell people to vote for him. Really annoying.

Bitchute I think is fine, albeit a badly designed mess with an awful search function. Parler stinks; I don't trust it one bit. A site that literally came out of nowhere and had Republican senators and congressmen advocating it? Something seems off with that.

This is quite the thread I have stumbled on to...

The thing to consider about Trump launching the missiles in Syria, 2017... He was slamming the side of a mountain. When you look at the whole operation, it was shambolic, in the sense of slapping around Assad's regime. However, if what he was doing (as I believe) he was using it as a pretence to take out ISIS forces... then it makes a whole lot more sense.

Also, when you look at the state of ISIS today, it is a pitiful force. American troops have been steadily pulling out, too. Not only that, but Trump has not started any new wars. There is greater stability today than there was in 2016.

The border wall has been a work in progress. I've seen the footage of the work over the years, and in a number of places, existing wall has been replaced. Some of it was rusting and pathetic, some were just anti vehicle barriers. What exists now is far, far better. Tall, can observe activity for miles around, and painted black, so people cannot try and climb it in the day. The border wall is important to stop trafficking, both drugs and human, gun running (Mexican drug cartels buy illegal weapons in America, then smuggle them into Mexico,) And who knows what else.

People love to say Trump has done nothing, but fail to look closer. he has appointed more Federal Judges in his time than other presidents do during two full terms. He has appointed two Supreme Court Justices, and with Ruth Bader Ginsberg in hospital (yet again,) with cancer (yet again,) the question of a third isn't unrealistic. Moreover, The Southern District of New York just had clear blocks removed, with Deep State operatives being fired. And what happened as soon as it occurred? Ghislaine Maxwell is arrested. She most likely was part of sting operation this whole time.

Also, DACA is heating up. He likely is going to undo it, in due course.

There is quite a bit of progress going on, it just isn't immediately obvious.

The cost of war

watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2020/Displacement_Vine%20et%20al_Costs%20of%20War%202020%2009%2008.pdf

It's all good, though - the other day Trump tweeted "BRING OUR TROOPS HOME!" (again).

In all seriousness, it's clear to everyone now that there is no moral or practical reason to support the West's wars. They aren't in my interest and they certainly aren't in the interests of the poor sods being forced to leave their homes. Enough is enough. 

I've got vague memories of seeing the early stages of the Iraq War on the news, but was far too young to understand what any of it meant. 9/11 changed the world and its terrible consequences will still be being felt decades from now.

I know plenty of people around my age (Millennial / Gen Z borderline) who nostalgise over the late 1990s and early 2000s, but they really were an awful time. Comparatively better than now, sure, but wanting to turn the clock back to 2000 is like a cancer patient longing for the "good old days" when their cancer was only stage 1.

This is part of the problem with the conservative 'movement', actually. Having an idealised, rose-tinted view of the recent past and thinking if we can just return to how things were in [choose your 20th century decade], everything will be great. Well, even if we could turn the clock back, we'd just be at this point again in a few decades, because all of the trends and attitudes that lead to where we are now were well established in the (for example) 1960s; we're just further down the road now.

Still, it's equally funny and sad to think that in a decade or so, young people will be waxing lyrical about what a wholesome time 2019 was!

So Biden's done it. Not a surprise, the writing has been on the wall for months. Trump did well to make it close, though - albeit with the aid of a fudged Democrat campaign.

I have had different visceral reactions to the result: a small part of my heart is still stuck in 2016, and the smug neolib celebration is nauseating already. 

The numbers are interesting. Very interestingly, Trump lost a significant amount of white support but gained VERY significant Hispanic support, without which he would never have won Florida. 

And Ohio is no longer the bellwether!