My step-daughter and her family are heading back to Brooklyn, NY tomorrow, after the U.S. Labour Day holiday weekend. My wife will be sad for a day once again, as she will dearly miss having the grandchildren around. I, for one, am glad they're going home. As much as I love my children and grandchildren, I can only handle so much of a rambunctious three year old, and a spoiled ten year old. It's the screaming and temper tantrums I won't miss. That and the very disrespectful behaviour of the ten year old.

When I was growing up and when I was teaching my own children to behave around their elders, I always taught them to respect their elders, because they earned it, mostly. Grandchildren in this day and age, maybe not so much. Which is a shame, but, what are we going to do? That behaviour comes from the parents teaching, or not, that respect for their parents.

I've expressed my misgivings about this to my own wife. She admits that the behaviour is wrong, but shrugs her shoulders. I agree with her. What are we to do about it as grandparents? Nothing much truthfully. We don't want to alienate the kids from visiting us, so we endure the bad behaviour. I only mention this, because my wife, who is very traditional, also sees this, and talked to me about it in our quiet moments after everyone had gone to bed.

It's not just my own grandchildren I see this in, but everywhere I look anymore. Kids everywhere are growing up in an online culture, where they mimic what they see on their devices, through the game culture, and the other kids they interact with.

Here's just one small example. Maybe you've seen this as well. My ten year old doesn't have much of a set bedtime. His dad lets him play his game until very late at night, sometimes near midnight, while he works. What's worse, is my grandson is playing with another little boy remotely, who is always allowed to stay up late as well. That strikes me as a new cultural thing, rather than an isolated incident.

I was never allowed to stay up real late like that growing up, nor did I allow my kids to behave like that either. Of course, that was long before the advent of online gaming too, so I'm sure that has something to do with it, but seriously, there has to be limits set, or these children will grow up with few to no rules, and raise havoc as young adults.

Even now, I'm listening to my grandson wake up very late in the day, whining about his Dad's snoring at night, and why isn't his mother there when he wants her. In other words, he wants instant gratification, like a video game.

This is the culture permeating western societies now amongst those who can afford to pay for the internet service, the mobile devices and whatever else the children desire. There is little sense of responsibility being taught to these kids anymore. They aren't learning any life skills. When I mentioned something the other day about teaching young children how to cook, and take care of themselves, I was looked at with a sort of disdain. The ten year old vetoed that idea very quickly.

These are the children who will inherit the world when I'm gone. I shudder a little to think what that may look like.

What are these children going to do once the global mean temperature reaches 2 degrees C? I read a climate report the other day, admitting that the planet has gone past the point of no return for the climate now. That means, there is no turning anything around anymore. All we can do is slow things down a little bit, but, as we can see from around the world, there is little political will to do that anymore. The days of the Paris climate Accords and other agreements are past history now.

The Asian countries, on the other hand, understand this all to well, and are working hard towards mitigating what they can, while they can, right now. Countries like China and southeast Asia, aren't waiting for anyone else to do something. They're doing all they can to take care of themselves, while the rest of the world collapses around them.

And that is exactly what's happening now. The, so called, democratic west, is indeed collapsing under the weight of its former colonial behaviour. All of their past sins of conquering and enslaving people to feed the greedy nature of the merchants and politicians, is catching up with them now. I'm watching western governments slowly collapse into themselves in bankruptcy. The Germans, the French, the Americans, the British, and so on down the line.

In Germany this last weekend, the far right AFD political party won a huge amount of parliamentary seats in one of their largest districts. This is becoming more of a trend lately, as the citizens want a change for the better, and these xenophobic political groups are promising a better life, if they get rid of all of the migrants coming in from the African continent and middle east. Caused by them, and the U.S. in the first place.

This is how global wars get their start. We've seen this before in history. The last one was a little before my time, but my own parents endured the hardships of WWII. Few people are aware anymore, of the rationing and sacrifices that ordinary citizens were required to deal with for "The War Effort" back then. I'm old enough to remember the stories they told when I was growing up, of what some of that was like.

The people of the western democratic nations are heading for a rude awakening soon. Probably within my lifetime, and I don't have that much left. Maybe twenty years or so, if I'm lucky.

I expect I will see governments collapse under the weight of their financial debts, and their attempt to hang onto power, while the citizens, tired of becoming more and more impoverished, look to more radical political solutions to end their misery. I'm seeing more and more of this everywhere. Germany is just one glaring example.

I've said this many times before, here and in other countries over the last couple of years. The U.S. is failing badly under it's political weight, and financial debt. I think the U.S. has also gone beyond the point of no return. Their political situation has become so corrupt, and inept, that only a radical change will be of any value to save whats left. I think after this next spate of mid-term elections, what ever happens next, will determine the future of the United States.

The U.S. has been down this road before, and each time, a new government was been elected in, and radical changes were made each time. I'm wondering if this will also be another one of those times, or will the U.S. fall away under the weight of it's past sins, and become just another shadow of it's former self? Kind of like the countries of western Europe after WWII.

It's certainly starting to look like it. Trump is escalating that decline very rapidly with his desire to exercise absolute power over everything he sees. How much he personally tries to circumvent the will of the people in his brazen and open attempts to suppress the free and fair voting of the citizens in this coming November, will be the make or break moment for the country. If he gets away with it all, that will be your answer. If the people manage to stop him, then there is still a little hope for them yet. We'll see. I can't predict anything right now, and I have lost faith in the majority of the American people. A large portion of them have given up on democracy, and the more Trump makes it harder to exercise their right to vote, the more these apathetic people will stay home, or go to work, and skip the hassle. Making enough money to survive on every day is more important than fighting the government to go vote.

On the flip side, if Trump wins out, and the MAGA people are allowed to continue their abusive and corrupt behaviour, the end will come sooner than later. Trump is sure to bankrupt the country before he is forced out. He has nothing to lose if he does. He has already made billions off of his corrupt term in office. He thinks, and rightly so, that no one can touch him, or his sons, to prosecute them for their crimes. Given how the MAGA republicans are doing all they can to protect him to stay in power, Trump is immune, for now.

No matter how things work out this fall, the United States is forever changed, and not for the good. There's no going back anymore.The rest of the world has seen the emperor without his clothes now, because of his stupid idea to attack Iran six months ago, and they're moving on without the U.S. Slowly, but assuredly.

I've been to other countries where the governments had collapsed, and I've seen the hardships the people had to endure. I have no wish to endure that now, in my old age. I also know how hard it is to try and escape a country when it's being run by an authoritarian government. We're seeing signs of that in the U.S. now. China imposed their own critical person lock-downs a few months ago. Trump's government is already implementing draconian financial hardships on American expats now, to discourage anyone from leaving. Especially those folks with critical skills, like in advanced medicine and other scientific pursuits. They're now being taxed extra hard to discourage anyone from getting ideas.

These are all signs of a desperate, wannabe authoritarian government. Voter suppression on steroids, a government para-military roaming the country with near impunity, a president who is more interested in vanity construction projects with his name on them, and so on.

Once a country gets to the point where they allow people like Trump and Biden to run things into the ground as badly as they have, there's no going back anymore. The only way forward, is a radical change to try and stop it from occurring again. I don't see that happening. FDR saw what happened to cause the great depression when he ran for president, and had a willing congress and supreme court to back him up in order to enact hard policies to try and bring things back to an even keel. Even with all of that, the only thing that brought the U.S. out of the depression, was the start of WWII. The U.S. doesn't have that anymore, even if they start another global war. The politicians have divided the country so severely now, the people would never agree to anything like that again.

And that circles back to where I started. Americans are too spoiled now. The will to endure hardships for the good of the many in the country isn't there anymore. All the majority of young people care about these days, is what's happening in social media, and "don't you dare turn off my internet." Other than that, little else matters, until the food starts to run out, gas for cars has to be rationed, and other shortages start occurring, which may be coming very soon.

Do I think things could change? Sure. But, by the time everyone figures things out, it will be too late. Meanwhile, Trump will walk away laughing all the way to the bank. He doesn't care about anything anymore, other than leaving a permanent legacy with his vanity projects. Maybe he knows he's dying soon? I wonder sometimes. We all know he would never let any doctor tell anyone the truth about his actual health, just like he fought to keep his tax returns from becoming public.

I'm going to stop at this point. My ten year old grandson is back to playing a remote video game on his iPad once again. I have other grandchildren around the country, who aren't that much different than the one visiting with me this week. The all live in this bubble that their parents have erected around them to keep them safe. I get it. We all want to protect our children from the bad things in life, but, there's such as thing as too much protection, and not enough survival training for what will be coming for them in their lifetimes. Which is too bad. I'd like to think my children and grandchildren will be able to survive the future, but, now I'm having serious doubts about that.

Even my two eldest sons, who are Army combat veterans. They've also become complacent about life in the U.S., and I fear they will not see what's coming in time to save their families when things fall apart to the point of being very obvious. We're not there yet, but it's very close. The oil to power the country is diminishing rapidly, and the government is hiding that from the public. I think we're heading back to gas rationing soon, if things don't change in the Persian Gulf. Most people don't remember the odd and even gas rationing days from the mid-1970's. That may be coming back very soon. Are you prepared for that?