"Man of Destiny" or "What Can Be, Unburdened by What Has Been"?
About a century ago, the increasingly forgotten H. L. Mencken famously observed:
"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."
Of course, his quip assumes that "the people" actually choose their leaders — something the more discerning among us now recognize as a quaint vanity.
Nowadays, the collective folly of a few thousand unimaginably wealthy and sometimes accidentally cunning ignoramuses chooses our leaders for us — always in service to the rapacious interests of the few, irrespective of the interests of the many.
Here in the midsummer of 2024, we're seeing this cynical game play out in a fashion relatively few seem to recognize as unprecedented in American history.
"Man of Destiny"
An air of confident certainty has enveloped a large proportion of the Trump-supporting public in America and around the world.
Among the most zealous Trump disciples, there is a strong conviction that he is a man of destiny, favored of God, and protected by the unseen heavenly host — a conclusion understandably easy to reach after the seemingly miraculous preservation of Trump's life against the designs of his would-be assassins.
Many genuinely believe Donald J. Trump is ordained by the Almighty to "Drain the Swamp" and "Make America Great Again".
Never mind that nothing of the sort happened during Trump's first rodeo on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Although he paid much lip service to the notion, Trump did nothing whatsoever to threaten the omnipotence of the so-called “Swamp” in Washington. He wrapped himself and his administration in its tentacles.
Many will reflexively reply, “But he didn’t start a war!” And yet all during his term in office the empire greatly accelerated its preparations for the war against Russia now raging in Ukraine. Between 2017 and 2021, the United States significantly increased its clandestine supply to Ukraine of advanced American weapons, and worked feverishly to train the Ukrainian army to inflict what it imagined would be a crippling “strategic defeat” against Russia.
Trump also launched multiple massive missile strikes against Syria on the basis of false pretexts, and ordered the brazen assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
Donald J. Trump is not destined to be the savior of the American Republic. In the first place, there is no American Republic to save. There is only a rapidly crumbling empire led by clueless fools who cannot see the writing on the wall, let alone interpret it.
Trump, if elected, will twist in the ever-changing winds of perceived exigency, and will ultimately be persuaded by his hand-picked entourage of imbeciles to make a series of ill-advised decisions that will lead to a shocking American military defeat and an unprecedented devaluation of the US dollar that will collapse the purchasing power of the overwhelming majority of Americans.
"What Can Be, Unburdened by What Has Been"
The other choice presented on the ballot of "Our Democracy" is apparently going to be the inimitable Kamala Harris, Mistress of the Dark Mediocrity; Queen of Inscrutability; likely the only political entity on the planet capable of making even demented Joe Biden look passably coherent by comparison.
In other words, a marvelously malleable marionette.
A Kamala Harris presidency will lead to all the same places a Trump presidency would lead, just with more drag queens, rainbow flags, and social upheaval.
"Wars and Rumors of Wars"
Meanwhile, wars and rumors of wars continue to sweep across the planet.
Many continue to cling to the delusion that the United States military can project decisive hard power anywhere in the world, and in multiple places simultaneously.
But as I repeatedly observe, there are no easy wars left to fight. The US could concentrate enough military might to undertake a single brief campaign in ONE PLACE, and one place only. So pick your poison: Russia, China, or Iran. And remember, it is now a “buy one enemy, get two free” scenario, as I wrote about earlier this year: All for One and One for All.
Regardless of the choice the Masters of Empire ultimately make, the end result will be the most devastating military defeat the United States has suffered since its founding, and it will be effectively demilitarized for at least a generation.
Ends of empire always attest complex and unpredictable events, and the trajectory is always from bad to worse.
So strap yourselves in tightly, brothers and sisters. Gird up your loins and steel your hearts and minds. It's going to be an extremely bumpy ride on the road to Har Megiddo.
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For all of you who have previously pledged to support this blog, I express my genuine gratitude. I hope my writing has been informative in some small manner and aided you in your quest to understand our crazy world a little better.
— Will Schryver
TwitterX: @imetatronink