Is It Too Early to Evaluate Trump’s Impact on the USA/World?

In some ways, the Constitution did us all a disservice by giving us an “almost king” government office called the president of the United States. While some believe that office can right the wrongs of the last president or even the last decade or so of bad decisions, others believe that there are forces that remain hidden in government structure and other power structures in and outside of this country that use this position as a puppet of theirs. It was evident from our first president that the power of the office would be abused, and abused often.

From The Burning Platform comes an interview with Doug Casey that reflects on the good, the bad and the ugly from the latest president and what it means for us going forward. Just a few snips from this article I would like to highlight as you could go to the link above and see what you think:

Let me start by saying that I’m very pleased that Trump was elected because, first and foremost, he’s not Hillary. In addition, he’s never been in political office. So he lacks some of the vices common to professional politicians. Even better, all members of the Deep State reflexively hate him.

That’s a good thing, because there’s some truth to the meme “the enemy of my enemy just might be my friend.”

I also like some of the things Trump’s done since he’s been in office—besides driving liberals and Deep Staters insane. He’s done some deregulating—not nearly enough, but he’s moved in the right direction. Of course, he did this not because he understands Austrian economics, but simply because he’s a businessman. He has some personal experience with the destructiveness of regulations.

So he has disrupted politics to a degree, which is good, but to inact long-term change requires more than just randomly hitting some things. He is missing something at his core which has been obvious all along in the way he approaches problems and seeks solutions almost “off-the-cuff”.

I do like that at the end of the day he would rather talk to the Russians than escalate things, but it is obvious he is limited by his deep state handlers as far as how far he can take this. Sanctions are stupid and are in fact usually the first step towards conflict. At the end of the day there seems to be no overarching philosophy for foreign policy. Trumps knee jerk firing of Tomahawks at sites in Syria a year ago after accusations of Assad using chemical warfare on his own people was an epic stupid move on the part of Trump .. but maybe there was a gun heald to his head like was held to JFK’s?

On the negative side, Doug Casey focuses on the obvious:

…. starting with running a trillion-dollar deficit. Where does he think that money’s going to come from? The Russians and the Chinese aren’t buying US debt anymore. Foreigners are looking to offload US paper.

Americans aren’t buying much, either. The only real alternative is to sell it to the Federal Reserve. Which is a real problem when the Federal Reserve is not only trying to deleverage, but has to refinance hundreds of billions of short-term paper coming due. Recall that almost all the $20 trillion of Treasury debt is very short term. Interest rates are going to rise, a lot. And so will the interest portion of the government deficit. Interest payments alone will be a trillion a year by the end of Trump’s second term—assuming he gets one.

Trump also—like all red-blooded Americans—loves the military. So, he’s adding to the already bloated military budget. It’s ridiculous, dangerous, and provocative. The United States already spends more than the next 10 or 12 biggest nations in the world put together. And most of that money is wasted and misallocated. It’s being spent on dinosaur technologies. What he’s doing there is very foolish. It’s accelerating the looming bankruptcy of the Government. And of course the Government will drag the country down with it.

He’s foolishly antagonizing the Russians by placing troops in the Baltics. He’s doing the same with China by sending ships to the South China Sea, which is their equivalent of the Gulf of Mexico.

But my biggest problem with Trump is that he has no philosophical core. He’s not by any means a libertarian. He’s a pragmatist, and an authoritarian. He’ll do whatever seems like a good idea at the time.

He’s got no background in or understanding of economics or history. I think it’s true that, as his critics say, he hasn’t read a book in 50 years. He goes strictly on gut instinct.

Exactly. So what we have is someone that keeps kicking things and reacting but never solidifying long-term change. But at the same time, the swamp is huge and he can’t be the only one draining it. While Congress remains inept at doing anything productive (like dismantling spending programs that have outlived their usefulness and mission) because that might keep them from getting re-elected. With an 11% approval rating, incumbents get re-elected at a 95% rate. If voting changed anything they would NOT let us do it!

So basically, this is essentially entertainment that your tax money pays for, the bread and circus distractions that empires do in their dying days.

At the end of the day all we can really do well is love our families, love our neighbors and pray that God has a plan to keep our kids and grand-kids is His care as this American Empire spins down.

SF1

 

Guess I Will Always Be a Sailor at Heart: Domestic Transport Solutions

In this past week I have commuted to my employer’s headquarters twice and was shocked yet again in 2018 on how bad the highways were in terms of potholes and bridge expansion joints still impacted from the previous winter. I mean, come on, it is the end of July and there seems to be a huge delay in government getting their act together for the necessary maintenance and repairs. I have come to expect this in states that seem to always struggle with its infrastructure like Michigan and Illinois but this was in a high growth area near Indianapolis, IN.

Five and ten years ago it seemed that Indiana always not only maintained their roads the best in the Midwest, but also was able to upgrade the highway system. However, for whatever reason it is becoming evident that the wheels might be coming off the complex federal/state/county/municipality bureaucracy, and before you know it we will have another round of precipitation and freezing temperatures that will work its way into all the highway cracks and do even more damage this winter.

From the Cato Institute is an article that suggest some possible reversals that might take the weight (literally) off this aging infrastructure by using once again our waterway systems in this country to facilitate freight transportation. Seems that in researching why waterways were not prioritized in the last half century or so the author came up with a piece of government regulation that seems to have stifled any entrepreneurship of this option:

Passed in 1920, this law mandates that ships transporting cargo between two points in the United States be domestically flagged, owned, crewed, and built. Intended to bolster the U.S. maritime sector, the Jones Act has instead been a case study in the failures of protectionism. Absent foreign competition, U.S. shipbuilders produce vessels whose price is as much as eight times higher than those built abroad. This disincentive to the purchase of new vessels means we have fewer ships and a fleet that is old and inefficient.

High costs have inevitably followed and, along with them, increased demand for transportation alternatives such as trucking and rail.

Again, government interference in the market means distortions that might benefit some industries for a time but long term causes ineffective options for the customers (personal and business) that utilize any transportation system domestically. The proof of this is below:

From 1960 to 2014, the amount of freight placed on railroads increased by 48 percent while intercity trucks saw their loads grow by an impressive 217 percent. In sharp contrast, the amount of cargo carried by ships sailing around the coasts during this period decreased by 44 percent. And Great Lakes shipping declined by 43 percent.

Obviously, the government is inept at keeping the transportation infrastructure up to code (let alone, up to speed) as a monopoly always provides substandard service. The shift to waterways also will cause many to suspect environmental abuses from entrepreneurial endeavors that don’t have government oversight (even though our own government, especially the DoD is the largest polluter on the planet). I think that some Dutch expertise could be sought out as they have had plenty of experience of dealing with waterways WHILE balancing ecological impacts with automated systems for loading and off-loading:

A Dutch consortium of nearly 20 partners launched a project this month to study and demonstrate the technical possibilities for autonomous shipping, in the framework of the Smart Shipping Challenge 2017.

While there are attempts at innovation in the waterways of the US, the leader of this can not be the status-quo based government that is usually ony worried about their “cut” (revenue) instead of providing the market with some technological solutions that not only improve efficiencies but actually disrupt the market enough with some brilliant technologies that drop the cost of transport while being sensitive to the environment.

This can be done

SF1

When Emotional Fear Drives Decision-making (Brexit, Secession, Separation, Divorce)

Over and over I have seen in my brief (60 trips around the sun) life when emotional and sometimes irrational fear grips leaders, a people group or even a spouse. Yes, from macro to micro, relationships of nations, to regions, to states, to communities and even to marriages there is fear of the future.

Some of this fear is good, some of it is bad. The fact the fear does dominate our thinking as humans is that we are unsure about tomorrow. That is a healthy fear, that we do not have everything in our control. The bad fear is when it gets blown out of proportion and we make decisions on the worst possible scenario. This is the type of fear (economic and political) that I see in this article from Zero Hedge called: “An Unparalleled Economic & Political Crisis”: Brexit Optimism Collapses As Ministers Fear “Historic Catastrophe” on the evaporating Brexit optimism:

“I have near zero optimism because I think it is going to be very messy,” warned one UK minister, speaking to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity. The prospects of getting an agreement are slim, the minister said. “If we crash out without a deal, it’s going to be a historic catastrophe.”

When this level of fear grips anyone, the likelihood of a peaceful and logical solution is increasingly unlikely. It takes two parties to agree on a union, and two parties to behave well as one or both desire to dissolve the union.

I do believe, that many times it is the abused partner that can have the most balanced approach to the process of dissolution in that they have seen this coming for a long time and are ready to state their terms for the exit.

Reflecting back in history, one has to say that the path communist USSR took to split into all those republic peacefully says volumes about the abuse that happened during the rigid communist era. Not only in the political realm, but also in terms of religion (communists were bent on atheism) and society in general.

Reflecting back in history, one has to say the path the republic USA took to split into two republics shows the opposite path, whereas the southern seven states (the abused) desired to exit peacefully, the balance of the states, especially the northern and western (Midwest), feared for the future that awaited them without those seven states. Those regions feared economic uncertainties and the government feared the loss of revenue first and foremost. Between the month where Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861 toward April, even the newspapers shifted from the assumption that those seven states would exit soon to that of economic panic. In their minds, without the “customers” in those states AND the fact that they wanted to be a free-trade zone with minimum tariffs scared the heck out of people and politicians (especially the new party called Republicans that just took control of the US government and doubled the tariff as they did).

The Brexit effort is similar as once the people’s will was displayed, the political fear escalated which sets the stage for a potentially bad deal no matter what path is taken. The nation of England had wedded itself into the EU to the degree that separation will cause pain, however, the long term future is much brighter. One can only hope that common sense and level heads prevail, that real leadership emerges and leads this people towards a better future. Who knows, may this success could be a model for the USA to try this secession/exit thing one more time, and maybe instead of splitting in two (which is long overdue), possibly splitting into six nations might be optimal as a first step. While it still depends on statism, my hope is that more freedom may emerge as not all these entities remain on the Marxist track the whole of the US is currently on.

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Christians (Not the Religion, But Jesus Followers) and Government

Now this is a topic that seems to have been misunderstood by generations of Jesus followers since governments started tolerating and later embracing Christianity as a religion especially after Constantine converted to the religion in the year 312AD and re-directed all his pagan priests and temples to transition to the new religion. One of his directives was to replace December 25th which was observed as the birthday of the pagan Unconquered Sun god to become celebrated as Jesus’ birthday.

Many Christians love the “faith-religion-state” relationship that Constantine offered better than that which Jesus had offered (“faith-God”).

The matter of fact is that Jesus had zero influences on the “religion-state-complex” back in His day and was routinely on the run but eventually allowed Himself to be captured and executed as an innocent man that was framed by the religious elite who were in tight with the Roman Empire government officials of the day. Blow-back was real as over the years and decades of oral story telling, thousands of people were personally touched with Jesus’ message that freed them while in the physical state of slavery in an empire. (50% of the Roman Empire were slaves at that time) This “blow-back” actually turned the then known world upside-down in a generation as their lives were touched with love while many of their hearts were touched directly by Love.

I contend that if God is love, and perfect love drives out all fear then – 1 Cor 13 sets the stage for the characteristics of perfect love or a misunderstood God. (Read the next paragraph and then re-read it substituting God for Love)

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails

As with all movements (even spiritually sparked ones) the subsequent generation takes the personal convictions of the previous and turns them into traditions, programs and rules. Even before Constantine converted, there were significant changes in the Jesus follower communities that were based more on safety and fear than the real presence in one’s heart of our loving Creator giving us fatherly advice daily on how to live in a broken world.

Bionic Mosquito’s article I will then use as a springboard for future posts, discussions and dialog. The author refers to a book by Gerard Casey where it becomes essential to refer to scripture (Bible) in addressing society and governments. Here is a sampling:

Freedom’s Progress?: A History of Political Thought, by Gerard Casey

“I know full well how hazardous an enterprise it is to set sail on the controversial and disputed sea of Scriptural interpretation….”

Yes, same here. This is one reason (of many) that I strongly prefer to keep theological discussion off limits. I know this is difficult to do, given the topics at this post, and I appreciate that you all respect this desire. As you know, my intent behind these topics is to examine the ramifications of broad religious issues on the social, governance, and political aspects of society.

I guess today I am going to somewhat cross that line…

Good for you Bionic Mosquito! Having been immersed for a season in what I had hoped was a grassroots informal faith community network, I became disillusioned as I hit full on with the Christian religion that as I said defers to Constantine’s model more than that of Jesus’. Bionic Mosquito goes on to say:

… The reasons are twofold: first, the examination Casey takes on is precisely on the point of freedom; second, the topic is one of the most misunderstood, misrepresented and misused regarding the Christian take on government.

The topic? In two words: Romans 13. Casey offers a full examine of both Old and New Testament Scripture regarding kings and government authority, as a few verses should not be taken in isolation.

Bionic Mosquito goes on to expand Casey’s thoughts regarding both Old and New Testament telling of various “faith-state” moments. 1 Samuel 8 is a good “go-to” to see God’s view of earthly kings (verses the wise judge model He attempted with the theocracy Israel) followed by Hosea 8 in which shows God allowing governments while not endorsing them.  On the New Testament moments, this proves to be a “target-rich” environment to see how Jesus as well as His followers dealt with the “State” while living their “faith”:

Regarding the life of Jesus, Casey offers…

“…we can see immediately that his very life was bookended by acts of political significance, from King Herod’s murderous intentions at his birth to the final drama of his politically inspired execution.”

This is the lens through which all Scriptural discussion of kings and earthly authority should be viewed. Casey offers that the New Testament is a target-rich environment when one wants to find passages regarding kings and government; he limits himself to five. I will touch on only a couple of these.

As much as I want to proceed with these, I believe they would be well served to address in a future post. Romans 13, taken in isolation, has formed the bedrock belief most Jesus followers have today about their relationship with the State. This view is enhanced by the Christian Religion which in the US has identified themselves (with a few brave exceptions, please see Chuck Baldwin’s rebellion to this alliance) with financially beneficial 501C3 status as state recognized corporations. Bionic Mosquito also offers this in conclusion:

Keep in mind: virtually every one of Jesus’s disciples died in martyrdom, died in disobedience to the political authorities. Do you really believe they are all damned to hell due to their “disobedience”?

Got that? Now I think you know where I am heading ..

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FEMA? Forget About It, Get a Plan B!

Those of us familiar with the efficiencies of the USPS, DMVs/BMVs, TSA, etc., should know that what plagues these agencies also impacts FEMA efforts. To really know for sure if you and your loved ones should give in to  the appeal that government is here to help should consider that maybe in the long run it might not be a good idea .. but then it will most likely be too late. Consider this from Ready Nutrition – The Prepper’s Blueprint:

The horrors of a FEMA disaster relief camp became all too real for those who lost everything in the East Coast’s Hurricane Sandy back in 2012. Americans were literally freezing while wrapped in blankets and trash bags as they struggled to survive in FEMA tent cities such as New Jersey’s “Camp Freedom,” (the irony of that name isn’t lost on many) which reportedly “resembled a prison camp.”

“Sitting there last night you could see your breath,” displaced resident Brian Sotelo told the Asbury Park Press. “At (Pine Belt) the Red Cross made an announcement that they were sending us to permanent structures up here that had just been redone, that had washing machines and hot showers and steady electric, and they sent us to tent city. We got (expletive).” The officials “in charge” also banned residents from taking pictures and cut off WiFi. “They treat us like we’re prisoners,” Ashley Sabol told Reuters. “It’s bad to say, but we honestly feel like we’re in a concentration camp.”

You have to be honest with yourself, whenever you see new government buildings and schools, they ALL look like concentration camp worthy. That is the government mindset as the paranoia runs deep. Deep inside every agency are the tentacles that reach the federal government and the deep state. Yes, your front line FEMA personnel are people just wanting to do their jobs, at the end of the day they will obey even unlawful orders if given them. Their job, finances and even family may depend on that. Most who work for government are well aware of the politics (and sociopaths) that are hidden in every corner ..

Sotelo also said Blackhawk helicopters patrol the skies “all day and night” and a black car with tinted windows surveys the camp while the government moves heavy equipment past the tents at night. Reporters were not allowed in the fenced complex or “FEMA camp” to report on conditions either, where lines of displaced residents formed outside portable toilets. Security guards were posted at every door, and residents could not even use the toilet or shower without first presenting an I.D. to a government official.

Yes, this is standard protocol .. and many will have no options should this day come. It might not hurt your future, your kid’s future or your grandkid’s future to think about a plan B sometime in the near term. At worst case you never use it .. best case it may save your family from government abuse or worse.

One of the worst places to be when you have nowhere to go is a FEMA camp.  Don’t subject your family, especially if you have little kids, to the angry and hungry masses clumped together like cattle in those fenced in hells.  Sure, many FEMA workers mean well, but they are not well funded and incompetent.  At the end of the day, they are doing a job and getting paid for it, so their own survival trumps yours. Prepare for the worst and make sure you can survive on your own because, in the end, it may come down to having only yourself that you and your family can depend on.

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’” – President Ronald Reagan

Personal goal by the end of 2018: Own a Plan B

Are you going to match this .. or raise me one?

SF1