By Erik Wallbank – April 21, 2025
Or do they? We're celebrating 250 years of the republic, but what do we have to celebrate? The upward trajectory of our freedom is seen over 150 years, but the fall from grace into tyranny is a shorter span, beginning in 1913 and accelerating post WWII.
I knew a guy who delineated popular music as what came before and after the JFK assassination. Be that as it may the US slide into tyranny conflates with decisions made post WWII, when the US chose between sovereignty and control . . . opting for control. The consequences for that decision are everywhere, both domestically and globally. A corporate crony culture with little concern for Americans has, as its mission, control of the world economy - the ultimate trickle-down policy. And, Tulsi Gabbard (now a right side of the aisle intel-hack) releases Biden's plan to depict facts as disinformation, while her boss, Donald Trump, works feverishly to strip Americans of 1st Amendment protection.
Trump threatens to walk away from peace talks if Russia doesn't agree to his childish compromise. Trump's art of the deal attempts to water-down Russia's security concerns, namely no NATO for Ukraine, no offensive forces in UKR and de-Nazification of Ukraine. Trump attempts to be a go-between between irreconcilable parties, in what the US portrays as a stalemate - but it's not. Russia wins with or without Trump's “art of the deal”. Americans should keep watch on how fast Trump exuberance could disappear in a Liz Truss (the British PM gone in a month) moment of Thatcherism, where sweeping policies have no possibility of working because they can't be paid for. We hear all kinds of narratives that mostly reduce to “it's the economy, stupid”. Trump could de-rail things in a self induced recession, where millions lose jobs to bring down interest rates for the oligarchy.
I read an article this morning about George Washington not being the strategist Napoleon was. So, how was it that Washington prevailed while Napoleon went down in defeat? Could it be as simple as fighting for freedom ultimately prevails over tyranny? At the end of the film War and Peace there's a voiceover: “When evil men band together, good men must do the same”. There's an American equivalent from Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.
America has lost touch with human dignity. Lack of concern for human suffering is so ingrained that, with each successive presidency, acquiescence to what amounts to criminality gets carried out with inexplicable non-confrontation from American citizens. Are recent American presidencies tales of crime? Is there any democrat out there (with a head screwed on properly) who doesn't get it that Joe and Hunter Biden were trading influence for the big bucks? If so, is there any argument to see that as other than treason?
Trump, as a criminal, is a bit more complicated. What Trump is doing in Yemen is a crime against humanity. Bunker bombs to Bibi is criminality. Allowing weapons and intelligence to flow to Zelensk - that's a crime. But brash rhetoric alone is not tariff crime. The crime is in the result. Trump, instituting tariffs capable of destroying global trade and cooperation and then pulling back on them, does not rise to the level of crime, at least not yet.
Is there more than one Trump presidency? Steve Whitkoff, doing Trump's bidding, sits down with Putin for 5 hours. Putin wouldn't do it unless he saw some possibilities. I'll admit to being in the lead pack of Trump deniers, but I still hold-out a possibility Trump will sue for peace. That would necessitate a Team 1 - of Witkoff and Trump and Team 2 - consisting of all the little Zionists that had to be appointed to win the election . . . and keep Trump alive. Both teams are still in play, so what are the possibilities from here?
Trump's backing donors are neocons, Zionists, warmongers - or all of the above. That puts him in a predicament. If he actually wants a peace legacy, somehow, Kellogg, Waltz, Rubio, etcetera would have to go. But that's a problem. Trump's backers expect payback: Russian regime change or at least an Israeli coordinated attack on Iran. If peace is Trump's strategy (I'm not saying it is) he would have to inch his way to a treaty with Russia, and acceptable enough terms with Iran, to quiet-down the neocons.
Interestingly, the fate of the world is partly the hands of a couple of unknowns, Witkoff and Bessent, but it's Bessent who is the spokesperson (and architect) of the global trade war. If Trump ends up pursuing a trade war on behalf of the US, where there is no 2nd place winner, Trump will have earned title of mafioso boss. And Americans supporting Trump's policy will have succumbed to injustice and greed in support of criminality. How do we know this? Trump's tariffs are unilateral tariffs, not reciprocal tariffs. They are done to coerce and to punish - to have smaller nations pay tribute to the tyrant. They are an attempt to rob nations of hard won productivity, industrialization and manufacturing. Why is this the default outcome? There's no US plan to re-industrialize, only a plan to intimidate smaller nations and manufacturers to bring their factories to the US, or else. Consider how stupid this is and how slight the chances for success.
The US military depends on Chinese exports to maintain battle readiness. Can we go to war with the Global South when things we need to fight are things Chinese peasants manufacture? America wants and needs what China makes, both little and big things. A trade war depends on which nation needs the other more. Is that China or the US? US imports from China fell from 19% to 14% after Trump started a trade war in his 1st term. China's level of GDP that depends on her exports has fallen to 20%. The global average is about 30%. Where Trump takes us matters greatly. Without a treaty with Russia, or an agreement with Iran, there is little possibility of world peace. Similar scenarios apply to trade wars. Is Trump conducting bluster? After setting tariffs on China in the 150% range electronics are now exempted. Trump says they're not but policy papers say different. One third of China's exports to the US are electronics, which are now exempted from the new tariffs.
Trump won because of inflation. With persistent inflation he wants to blame the Fed (Powell) for not lowering interest rates. With the 10 year rate around 5%, and tacked on 2/3%, real estate becomes inaccessible for Americans. And given things such as mass deportations comes the threat of inflation - bringing Trump losses at the mid-terms.
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