And here we offer a brief postscript to our series on the Persecution and (Political) Assassination of Donald J. Trump, as portrayed by the half-wits and connivers of The Swamp.
[Editor’s Note: Catch up on Bill’s series here: Part 1 /Part 2 /Part 3 /Part 4 /Part 5 /Part 6]
We are perhaps alone in the world in appreciating Mr. Trump’s talent for satire — of himself, the White House, his subordinates (“scum”!). Almost everyone else takes him seriously …
His fans think he is trying to save the nation. His enemies think he is destroying it.
But it is his unwitting gift for mockery that has gotten him into trouble.
Let us put this into context …
Headed to Hell
Two things are slowing the U.S. economy — Swamp Politics (with its regulations, favoritism, fake money, cronyism, boondoggles, bamboozles and waste) and debt (now growing at least twice as fast as the economy that supports it).
Taken together, they make it impossible for the U.S. to ever “grow its way out” of the deficits it is currently running. And together they send the nation down a long, miserable chute.
Broadly, the country is adding debt two to three times faster than GDP. You can do that for a while with no harm done. You can do it in an emergency, for example.
But make it a habit, and you are headed to Hell.
Imperial Agenda
That is where the U.S. is currently going — with outsized spending both at home and abroad — and trillion-plus deficits as far as the eye can see.
A big part of that spending — about $1 trillion per year — is to finance America’s imperial agenda, with its soldiers and intel wonks swaggering all over the world as if they owned it. And a big part of the justification for this meddling is “the Russia threat.”
This is of interest to us because the U.S. could avoid bankruptcy by renouncing its empire and bringing the troops home. The defense/aid budget could be cut in half — or more — simply by giving up America’s role as the world’s bully.
But then, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, policy expert Fiona Hill, et al. would be out of work. Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, BAE, and thousands of other companies, lobbyists, cronies, consultants and experts would have to give up their contracts. And the price of office space in Northern Virginia would collapse.
Trillion-Dollar Fandango
That’s not going to happen. Empires do not retreat. They keep expanding until they are defeated or go broke, usually both.
Besides, the warmongers have Congress and the universities so deep in their pockets … and the press and the public so thoroughly bamboozled … that there is no way any substantial cutting is going to happen.
But Russia is no more of a danger to the U.S. than a rusted-out WWII tank. Germany alone has an economy that is more than twice as large as Russia’s … with far more access to advanced weaponry.
Russia lacks the means to mount a conventional attack on America’s homeland. (A nuclear attack would result in its own destruction.) It wouldn’t even make it to the Rhine. And the only motive Russia might have for an attack is America’s own provocations at its border.
Still, the imaginary “Russia threat” is essential to the whole trillion-dollar fandango. And the Deep State keeps it alive by trying to stir things up in Eastern Europe.
Here’s some typical balderdash from the press, in this case, ABC News:
Lurking beneath the surface [of the impeachment hearings] was a familiar foe — Russia — a storyline that Trump and his Republican allies have tried to bury since claiming vindication with the Mueller report earlier this year.
[…] witness after witness has raised alarms about the national security implications of the president’s actions, unequivocally noting how both the substance and nature of the impeachment inquiry has served the Kremlin’s interests.
Washington Warmongers
People such as Vindman, Hill and a whole army of Washington drum beaters — including the mainstream media — insist that you take their fantasies seriously.
Alas, The Donald doesn’t. And while he has shown no interest in defunding the expensive anti-Russia boondoggle, he can’t help himself. He mocks it. He comes up with fantasies of his own — the Ukranians interfered with the U.S. elections! — and he even tried to recruit the Deep State’s Ukranian assets for his own private war … against Joe Biden.
The warmongers know the “Russia threat” hustle is fragile and fake, like a counterfeit Fabergé egg. And there was Donald J. Trump tossing it around as if it were a campaign promise! The warmongers were appalled; they turned on him.
And so … the Swamp battles go on … and become more vicious as they become more pointless. Mr. Trump himself poses no real threat to the Deep State or its agenda. And neither the pro-impeachment crowd nor the anti-impeachment gang are going to alter America’s course.
And that means the Ol’ Bubble Cannonball is not going to slow down … no matter what happens in the impeachment proceedings.
Win-Lose
We remind readers that this is more than just a matter of money. There are only two ways to get what you want in life — win-win or win-lose.
Win-win is how honest deals are done. Each side walks away with more than he started with (otherwise, he wouldn’t have made the exchange).
Win-lose is how politics works. It is a zero-sum game, where in order for one to win, another must lose. To spend money, for example, the feds have to take it away from someone.
As an economy shifts from win-win to the win-lose of Swamp Politics, its wealth creation slows … or even reverses. And then, in order to force people to stay in line, the authorities get tough. Price controls, capital controls (preventing you from taking money out of the country), labor camps, gulags, assassinations, funny money, purges … and all the other accoutrements of a numbskull regime … are brought out.
Typically, society breaks down too. In Venezuela, for example, there were 27 kidnappings in 1989 and only 44 in 1999. But 10 years later, after the Chávez team had made a mess of things, there were more than 1,000 … and then, the police stopped tallying them. Now, they are an “everyday event” in Caracas, say reporters.
Everyday events in the U.S. are already rough enough. But as we continue down that long, lost railway, they will probably get rougher.
Regards,
Bill
• This article was originally published by Bonner & Partners. You can learn more about Bill and Bill Bonner’s Diary right here.