The American people elected Donald Trump to shake things up, and, for better or for worse that is what he’s been doing. Most of what Trump has done in the first two years of his presidency has been destructive—to the environment, to social justice, to economic equity, and to civil discourse. But whether he knows what he is doing or not, he has been shaking up America’s longstanding foreign policy in a way that I think is positive. The United States, under both major parties, has, since the fall of the Soviet Union, been working to maintain “full spectrum dominance” around the world. It has been bent upon constraining the power and influence of potential rivals like Russia and China, and promoting by both overt and covert means, regime change in numerous countries around the world in hopes of installing puppet regimes that would be subservient to the demands of the “New World Order.”
Trump may very well be a narcissistic “loose cannon,” and his intentions may be purely self-centered and aimed at self-aggrandizement, but many of his foreign policy actions are moving the world in the direction that it needs to go, i.e., towards a multi-polar world order. He is doing this by (1) trying to cooperate and normalize relations with Russia, (2) pressuring Britain and Western European (NATO) allies, thus undermining longstanding alliances, and (3) upsetting prior trade agreements via the imposition of tariffs.
The turmoil in Washington politics has at times been almost comical, as we’ve seen the evident tug of war between a strong-willed President with his own ideas, and the entrenched “deep state” that is controlled by the elite global power establishment. This has been evident in some of the presidential appointments that seem at odds with Trump’s rhetoric, like the appointment of super-hawk and Russophobe, John Bolton as national security advisor.
The appointment of John Kelly, as White House Chief of Staff, was supposed to control Trump, but now Trump has ousted Kelly and named Mick Mulvaney as his temporary replacement. Does that indicate a power shift in Trump’s favor? Or now that the Democrats have taken control of the House, will they be able to tie Trumps hands?
Time will tell.
Beyond Money 
I look at what is going on now on Planet E as the start of the end of the Amerikan empire. Russia stepped in finally in Syria and put a halt to the full spectrum domination of the USA and its various covert agencies. The Syria tragedy is by no means over yet, indeed we could draw it out years longer and we will if we can. But basically the empire has been stopped and I do not believe, other than in Latin America, it is going to expand further.
It seems to me that Putin learned from the demise of the Soviet Union, which was another attempt to control the world at large which failed. Now the American attempt is on its way also to failure. Domination culture is stone age mentality and Putin seems to have discovered that Russian self interest is best served by cooperation with other soverign states. Dominating other states only works temporarily and comes eventually at a big cost. Amerika will see the cost in due course. By clubbing together with Iran and Turkey, both of whom have very different self interests to Russia, the three of these countries have created a force that is stronger than the hegemon. Normally Russia and Turkey and Iran would not be natural allies, but Putin has brought them together and continues to work cooperatively with them. He also even claims he would willingly be partners with us. Whether we believe that or not, and I’m inclined to believe it, we need enemies; or rather our military industrial complex needs enemies. War is needed. But war is stone age mentality. When we threaten to bomb this or that country back to the “stone age”, we hardly realise that we ourselves are in the stone age saying and doing this, not necessarily those countries we threaten. The stone age was not about stone; it was about killing everyone who threatened to steal our land, our caves, our sheep, our women, and kill us so we must kill to avoid being killed.
Humanity has come a little way from the stone age, gradually some new elements of cooperation are entering into our consciousness. They entered a long time ago into individual’s consciousness, witness Buddha, 2500 years ago. But only now have these elements started to enter into the consciousness of nation states.
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Very good in my opinion, as usual. Concise summary. Would everyone in this country would read it.
best jock
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