I still find it extremely hard to believe that the USA is threatening to invade Greenland (Denmark, a NATO ally). “We can do this the hard way or the easy way”. I know Trump gets the blame for everything but he was voted in along with all his sycophants by the American people and it is the American people that can stop him. It’s unbelievable that the USA is threatening to go to war with a NATO country and/or crash the global economy with a trade war by imposing tariffs on all countries that don’t support the US acquisition of Greenland. Europe mostly held off retaliatory tariffs during his last round but they won’t stand for it this time and may even ban some companies from doing business in Europe. Just like dealing with Russia it is the oligarchs running the USA that need to be punished.
This is going to be long, but I'm in need of venting so you'll have to excuse me (and this is not aimed any anyone in particular):
Only 65% of eligible voters took the trouble to vote in the last USA presidential election. Slightly less than half of those who voted chose Trump and his pack (so, about 30-33% of eligible voters chose Trump). If those who voted for someone other than Kamala Harris had voted for Kamala Harris none of this would be happening. Aside from, potentially, another Jan 6 insurrection attempt. But Trump was declared the winner. The rest of us are being dragged along kicking and screaming, including the 35% who didn't vote at all for whatever reason and who I don't want to hear complaints from, not one single word. There are days I really hate this system of government (a lot of them, lately) and pine for proportional representation. But it is what it is.
As I understand it, a lot of people no longer read newspapers or watch traditional news broadcasts - but then again, since only a handful of people own/control those sources their credibility (ala CBS) is seriously in doubt. Especially when you check into who owns them. And, sadly, a good portion of the general public wouldn't understand what's going on if they did read it/hear about it, in the broader sense. As far as I can tell, more people now get their info from social media than traditional sources. If they're on Blue it leans left (anti-Trump). If they're on X it leans way to the right (Trump). If it's on Facebook it's interspersed with conspiracy theories about chemtrails and cookie recipes. Then there's Instagram and Reddit and all the others. (I try to keep up a little with what's going on those, but there are too many.) There are, of course, all the alternate "news" sources that are extreme beyond words, on both ends and throughout the spectrum. For the typical Joe, that makes it really hard to know what to believe.
And now there's AI generated BS mixed in.
I have several friends who are my age and older who say they "don't want to even talk about what's going on and are just waiting until it's over." My eyebrow cannot raise much farther without becoming one with my hairline when they do, but when I ask them who the hell is going to fix it, they just change the subject. One, at least, was able to say that she didn't want to discuss anything via email because it could come back to bite her later on. (Ok, she gets it.) And that she was just going to duck and cover.
My relative, Uber Boomer, who initially pegged this all as the usual grifter-gets-power scenario now says Trump won't try to invade Greenland - it's all a ruse to take attention away from the Epstein files. None of which have been released since Dec 23, by the way, although the deadline was Dec. 19th. He may be right - the polls are massively against touching any part of Greenland militarily (one poll is 96% strongly against) and it seems the only thing Trump's still sensitive to are the polls - and being called a pedo protector. But with Miller whispering in his ear, it's a crap-shoot.
I moved much of my 403b into overseas investments funds - primarily holdings in the EU/UK. I really don't want to see a trade war with the EU - or anyone else. But if that idiot continues, I hope the EU, et.al., punch back just as hard as they can. Financially nuke him, if possible. Don't just match his actions, double them in return. It'll hurt like hell, but if it gets him gone it'd be a small price to pay. My last hope, other than that the EU actually follows through instead of just talking about it forever, is that the Supreme Court will issue their pending ruling about Trump's tariffs and that they will be ruled unconstitutional. [I'm not holding my breath on that, but it's a glimmer of a chance.] I don't know that even the Supreme Court could stop him, but it would be the last legal way of which I'm aware.
As to the American people stopping Trump from doing anything: pray tell, how? "Do something!" - Again,
what?
Trump's party (backed by, what, 30%-ish of eligible voters) controls the Congress. Unless/until they no longer control the Congress there's not going to be a legislative way to stop them. If there actually still is one. That party also controls the Justice Department, which prosecutes law breakers. They are currently afoul of the Epstein Files law and are now arguing that the courts have no authority to force them to release documents. They've stopped criminal investigations on Trump cronies and are going after political opponents. So you think the FBI or DOJ are going to do anything to remove Trump? And the court system? The administration (including DHS and ICE/Border Patrol) appear to be ignoring or trying to circumvent the orders of various courts. I would not be surprised if, at some point very soon, they just state that the court system is unsound and they're not going to listen to it.
The Executive Office also controls the military - at least in the short term. Congress controls it, theoretically, in the long term. (Loop back to who controls Congress here.) I keep hearing people spouting off about "soldiers should not follow illegal orders" but when the laws are changed to make things legal, what are they going go do? [
Sieg Heil!] Aside from one-on-one illegalities, such as personally participating in genocide, plundering, etc., it's my understanding that the "don't follow illegal orders" does not pertain to policy-wide decisions. That is, if they're ordered to invade Canada, they'll invade Canada. If they're ordered to take granny out from the nursing home and shoot her, they could claim it's an illegal order and not do it. But there will always be one dumbf*ck in the group who will shoot her. [Not everyone in any military is a "nice guy".] Trump has fired the top brass in the military who didn't pass his vetting and replaced them with his minions. He's building ICE into an entity very similar to the Gestapo - it's my understanding that the budget for ICE is now larger than the military budget for most countries. This country's population is technically armed to the teeth privately, but my suspicion is that it's not spread evenly across the political spectrum as to who owns the guns. It's starting to look like that's going to have to end up the deciding factor though. Then everybody loses.
We'll find out in about 300 days. In the meantime, if you've got a fix for this whole thing that'd work, I can tell you where to find several million people who want to hear it.
