It may feel like a rip in the time space continuum. On one side of the tear, there’s a universe in which America is run by a wannabe king who uses the invasion of an ally as an opportunity for profit, who lies, cheats and backstabs his friends. On the other, are America’s closest comrades insisting that Washington’s a force for good.
There is only one reality, and it is time to confront it.
America is no longer the leader of the west, let alone the rest of the world. It’s got the biggest armed forces. It has the biggest economy and the widest cultural reach the world has ever seen. But its democracy is collapsing and it has been captured by a cult of ignorant grifters.
They are in bed with tech-bro fantasists who believe they can control the media and bend minds, while genetically engineering their way to a master class ruling the world as high-technocrats.
Europe’s leaders are gathering in Johannesburg for the G20. They’re going into huddles at the meeting to decide how to react to Donald Trump’s latest pro-Russian plan for Ukraine to surrender, and American business (the Trump organisation?) to profit.
The question they need to ask themselves is whether now is the time to stop bothering with the grovelling and flattery, in return for keeping the Toddler-in-Chief from throwing a king-sized tantrum?
The answer, according to a senior western source intimately involved the real-world security of Europe and the UK, is to “just tell him to fuck off”.
Sorely tempting, of course.
And the source is right to explain that the time is now overdue for Europe, Canada, the UK and many other allies to establish military and intelligence independence from the US.
Why? Because the US is so busy eviscerating its own democracy that within a year it will more closely resemble the Russia of Vladimir Putin than anything that would be recognised as a western democracy.
Trump has been defoliating every branch of America’s complex constitutional structures. The judiciary itself, the lawyers that serve it, the security and military forces, his Republican Party, the federal reserve bank and the media are all being turned to an authoritarian agenda that will endure among his heirs, political or personal.
Trump’s 28-point plan for “peace” in Ukraine was cooked up between Steve Witkoff, his envoy to the Middle East and Moscow. Witkoff is witless. He uses his personal cell phone on trips to Moscow and Tel Aviv where its contents are doubtless plundered in real time.
His pro-Russian plan for Ukraine was agreed with Kirill Alexandrovich Dmitriev, a Russian businessman and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which has at least $10 billion Russian government funds to “co-invest” in the Russian economy. Dmitriev has been sanctioned by the US treasury – doing business with him is illegal for an American but Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law was also there.
The US side of this group was also behind the Gaza Ceasefire deal. There has been no ceasefire in Gaza, but the deal, worked out with Israel but no Palestinian participation, will (if it works) effectively outsource the Israeli occupation, or control over, Gaza to foreign armies with no long-term prospect of peace for either Israeli or Palestinians.
