I admit to waking up feeling tired, fatigued, and drained this morning. That's not normal for me. I am usually pretty good at starting the day and usually feel refreshed after the night.
This feeling may be entirely coincidental with it being Trump's inauguration day. I suspect it is. But if there was a day to feel low in energy, then this is it.
I have commented in this morning's video on the economic consequences of what Trump is likely to do, and that matters, of course. But it is only part of the story.
Trump's victory represents a win for a man driven insane, in my opinion, but his lust for power and self-preservation at untold cost to others.
It also represents the rise to power of others, similarly afflicted.
It is about the rise of a tyranny that will distort the truth to protect their wealth.
The price will be paid by the migrant who will be evicted, the child without access to medical care or education, the planet that will go unprotected, and the people in countries where debt payments due will rise because these people wish to inflate the value of the dollar, which is used to denominate the debts of so many of the poorest countries in the world.
It will be paid by those conned into buying useless and valueless Trump meme coins. Rarely, if ever, will a single person have so successfully ripped off those who he claims to be his supporters as Trump will do with these.
It will also be paid by everyone, everywhere, who suffers the rise of the far-right politician who literally seeks to tear apart the idea of society that is at the very heart of the human condition because, without it and our care for one another, whoever they might be, we cannot survive.
It will be a burden in times to come because this era will pass as all tyrannies do, but the repercussions will take time to deal with if, as is the case with delay in tackling climate change, it is possible to do so.
It is about the harm to the sense of well-being of people everywhere who realise that their value is being deliberately diminished by a few who have used corporate power and wealth to deliberately harm them, which is what is going to happen.
This is not a day for the ordinary person; the working person, whose well-being will be made more precarious; women, whose rights will be abused; children, whose future will be prejudiced; the poor, whose interests will be ignored; the migrant, who will be threatened; the person who is not normal in the eyes of this administration, whose deviance from this administration's prescribed norm will put them at risk; the thinker, who will be threatened; the supporter of democracy, who will be oppressed; most people in other words.
Maybe I am right to feel drained. Maybe this is the beginning of a very difficult time in human history. Maybe it will take a long time to pass. I cannot tell for sure. No one can. But the sense that something very sinister and threatening is taking place is real. And it's right to react to that. This is, to be blunt, a bad day for the world, for humankind, people who care, and those who need the help of others. Those who will now govern the USA do not care. And that will harm us all.
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Agreed.
I understand that Trump talks a lot about swamps.
Well, in that case “Let all the poison that lurks in the mud, hatch out.”
Robert Graves, I Claudius (1934)
Thank you for calling attention to the debt crisis of the nations of the Global South; it gets precious little coverage in the mainstream media.
It has always been an issue for me.
Good. Could you make a video on this topic, please?
I have put it on my list
To my American friends on Facebook I posted
“A dense fog has obscured the Shining City on the Hill. It is forecast to persist for a few years.
I have faith that the light is still there and will remerge.”
They feel much as you do, I really do think the US has the reserves of decency to turn the country back.
There are many good people there. We have to have to be hopeful.
If only nations used SDRs for trade rather than USD
Agreed, and well put.
We have a serious moral crisis, and it is global.
It is easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless, and perversely, those who may feel this the most, are those who have been doing the most and for the longest, to counter it (which includes you).
While the world appears to applaud greed, selfishness, dishonesty and brutality, and the “lust for power” accelerates, I have noticed something else going on amongst my neighbours and omnibus passengers. Perhaps because of a personal crisis, I have been on the receiving end of it recently. It is the power of those who have very little, to show love and care for one another, and to do it with meekness but also in deliberate defiance of the strong, in response to the withdrawal or even destruction of the care of organised state services. To unite, defiantly, across the barriers and differences that are designed to drive us apart, to defiantly and with love, refuse to hate or fear our neighbours. To refuse to lie, and deceive, preferring to “walk in the light” than destroy in the darkness.
There is power in this meekness. The power of meekness and love is awesome, and the wicked fear it. They really do.
We need politics and planning and ideas as well, don’t misunderstand me, keep going, keep arguing, keep crunching the numbers, keep organising, but love will win, not Tr**p, not Fa***e, not M**k, not Zu*******g, not B*z*s, not wealth or violence or weapons.
“The meek shall inherit the earth” might seem like an idealistic fairytale, but it’s true. Pity the Strong Men, for they have nothing of value, and they are on the losing side.
So much to agree with
And this is where change will start from
All we can really do is be kind, to each other and ourselves. I’m an atheist but have always loved the words of this hymn – learnt in Sunday school – which sums up that how we treat each other has wider repercussions:
Jesus bids us shine,
With a clear, pure light,
Like a little candle burning in the night;
In this world of darkness, we must shine,
You in your small corner and I in mine.
Jesus bids us shine, then, for all around,
Many kinds of darkness in the world abound;
Sin and want and sorrow, so we must shine,
You in your small corner and I in mine.
I hope the following will lighten the mood (written in Dec 2016).
In the song Nellie the Elephant sung by Mandy Miller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Rh9zRdXxA
the word Trump often appears not only does nellie, trump trump trump but she also “packs her trump” leaving us to wonder, as the late great Jean Paul Sartre did in Nothing & Northingness (written in fact at Southend on Sea,…..in the winter and later amended to Being & Nothingness, once he got back to Paris, presumably his mood lightened, who’s wouldn’t) that everybody has to have a trump, a small blond rag doll one uses to take one’s frustrations of the world out on. In later years Sartre switched to young ladies, but…… c’est la vie?
This does not, however, detract from his searing observations on the need for a trump, even Nellie had one which brings us to America and Trump, obviously escaped from the clutches of Nellie and Mandy (who later went on to become the amour of Barry Manilow) now wishing to take his revenge on the world that rejected and abused him. Satre would recognise this as an existential act of catharsis, after all, when you have all the money in the world, have been abused by a large pachyderm and her singing companion, have married a lnumber of beautiful east Europeans with unfortunate names (I wanna?) what is there left to do? but act!
Might an intention of the main stream media be to depress and unnerve regular citizens so that they are more malleable, accepting and compliant?
Thank you for opposing any such with positive realism.
Might a combination of resilience, kindness, confidence, determination and opposition to bullying by predatory organisations and groups of all sorts possibly offer a way onwards?
Dear Richard
Thank you for all you’re doing.
Not quite on topic (though not far away), here is a response I gleaned from ChatGPT this morning in connection with the UK housing market. Thought you might be interested:
Have US private equity companies been buying estate agent businesses in the UK?
ChatGPT said:
ChatGPT
Yes, US private equity firms have been increasingly active in acquiring estate agent businesses in the UK over recent years. This trend has been particularly noticeable in the residential property market, where firms are seeking to capitalise on the relatively stable returns from property sales, rentals, and management services.
Some prominent private equity firms have either purchased or invested in estate agencies, with the aim of consolidating the sector or bringing operational efficiencies to what is often seen as a fragmented and competitive market. One notable example is the acquisition of high-profile UK estate agency chains by US investors, including deals involving companies like Savills and Foxtons, though it’s worth noting that the latter has seen more interest from domestic private equity as well.
This trend aligns with broader global patterns, where US-based private equity firms look to diversify their portfolios into stable, income-generating sectors like real estate. UK estate agents are attractive targets due to the long-term growth potential in the housing market, particularly in major cities like London, where demand for property services remains high despite economic fluctuations.
While this has led to increased capital in the sector, it has also raised concerns among some in the industry, particularly regarding the impact on service quality and local market knowledge as US firms often prioritise scale and profitability over traditional customer relations.
There are deep, dark, long term dynamics behind all of this, and only one real set of answers:
https://gezwinstanley.wordpress.com/how-democracy-dies/
Your penultimate paragraph: the list of those who will suffer:
We hear much of being “woke”, and “identity politics”, both anathema to the hard-right.
What we don’t hear much of nowadays is intersectionality of identities: where being disadvantaged by two or more of those conditions you list puts a person further down the hierarchy of power.
A woman’s rights will be abused, a poor woman will be abused and will struggle to thrive, a poor woman with children will be abused, will struggle to thrive and will see her family harmed by a lack of healthcare or education. You get the picture.
We so often forget about the accumulation of misery described by intersectionality. That is why I so appreciate the emphasis you and your followers give to the power of society. Only together can we survive.
Agreed