This week's theme; Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

Like any given week anymore, a lot has happened in the short amount of time since I posted the podcast last Wednesday. This is what I mean by chaos.

The U.S. government is officially shut down, to which the MAGA republicans are gleefully using this as a reason to fire thousands more federal workers, and shut down more essential services that out tax money is supposed to be paying for. But, noooooo, Trump is withholding money already promised by congress (who by law, are the people who control the U.S. federal purse, or at least they used to be), to democrat led states. Citing their supposed left-wing terrorism. The biggest complainer is the state of New York, who is supposed to be receiving $18 billion dollars in infrastructure repair money. Trump has told the state, that if it was promised by Biden, then the agreements are null and void now.

Obviously, this is against the law and the states will now have to sue, which will take a while to work its way through the courts, which then, may eventually get turned over at the federal supreme court in a 6-3 decision once again.

Then we have the much expanded ICE raids taking place in blue cities across the country. Especially Chicago right now. ICE is acting like they're a special ops unit like a special forces group, or a ranger battalion the way they're using Blackhawk helo's, and hundreds of storm troopers to attack apartment buildings in Chicago's south side. Arresting children, separating them from their parents and zip tying them together in daisy chains out in the streets in their sleep clothes. Can you imagine being woke up in the middle of the night with the loud noises of helicopters, and soldiers rousting everyone out of their apartments, with large groups being taken away in unmarked vans?

I'm seeing more and more reports of Latinos who are native born citizens being arrested, sometimes over and over again, by ICE soldiers. WE said this was coming months ago. I even wrote a book about this sort of thing two years ago. If you're interested in reading a book about a future United States, go here and pick up a copy for yourself.

I've started reading more dystopian fiction stories myself from American authors. Some of these stories I'm reading have been out for a few years now, but there have been dystopian U.S. fiction stories written for years. One of the most famous is Phillip K. Dick's "Man in the High Castle". This is a classic that's been around for decades. Then there is Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", written in the 1960's I believe. But there are many more that all tell the same basic theme.

How the United States, or the world, comes to a cataclysmic end somehow, and a story that centres around some survivors. I have read so many stories like this throughout my life as the subject fascinates me. Which is why I started writing about it as well.

Regardless of whether you like dystopian fiction or not, the world at large is coming to a crossroads quickly. Europe is rearming itself in amounts not seen since WWII or the cold war before 1990. The middle east is rapidly reshaping its geopolitics after the disastrous foreign policies of the United States and Israel. Israel we can understand as they have always been a rabid dog trying to bite every hand that came close to them since 1948. This includes the United States but this dog is a little more tolerant of them since the U.S. keeps feeding it. For a dog, that's all that really matters in the end. It will do the bidding of the hand that gives it the most food and the occasional pat on the head, as long as no one tries to force it to do something against its vicious nature.

And that is what Israel is, a vicious dog, that believes they have been mistreated for hundred's of years by the world, and they've now found a benefactor in the west, the U.S., to feed it and offer a little bit of compassion now and again, as long as this vicious dog attacks whomever the handler tells it to. This isn't a one sided agreement though. Israel gets to expand its hunting territory without much supervision, as long as they attack on command. When they're not attacking its masters enemies, they're free to attack and scrounge up whatever food they want, as long as it isn't something the master doesn't want them to have.which isn't much these days.

As of today, according to Al Jazeera, Israel has finished boarding and abducting the last of the flotilla of 42 boats that was attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza this week. Something that's been in place since 1967. I applaud the doomed effort. Everyone around the world knew ahead of time that it was likely to fail, but, I'll give them credit for trying.

Now what happens? Well, as of this afternoon, four Europeans have been deported so far, with more to be deported over the next few days. What I'm not reading about, is the celebrities, such as the European politicians and media personalities, and of course, Ms. Greta Thunberg, who is there on her second attempt now. Will the IDF treat her any differently this time, since she was just deported a few months ago? I think a lot of people everywhere are looking very closely at that. Which is why Israel is sort of giving them a faded red carpet treatment in public, but you can bet they're reading all of these abductee's the riot act in private.

Meanwhile, more and more Palestinians are dying every day with the IDF doing all it can to continue with its ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza, and the push to annex the West Bank, despite world condemnation. And that is starting to take real hold everywhere in the west now, more and more.

The protests are getting larger, and louder in Britain and western Europe. Of course, the authorities are arresting people by the hundreds for peaceful protests just because these protesters dare to protest the genocide in Gaza. Then there was the recent knife attack at a Manchester synagogue a day or so ago. One person was killed by a grief stricken Syrian man outside the building, but when the Met showed up, guns a blazing, they killed one victim and wounded another. Ooops!

Someone tried to set off some bombs at a local Oktoberfest celebration in Berlin a few days ago as well. Apparently no one was hurt there but it goes to show everyone that things are starting to ramp up over all of this genocide business by the unhinged Israelis.

As I talked about in this week's podcast, Trump gave a stupid, rambling speech to the most senior general staff members of the U.S. military earlier this week. They all sat there stoically, as per military protocol. Trump even complained about it in his rambling talk from the stage at one point. But that's not what I want to talk about here. I did enough talking about that embarrassing show in my podcast.

What I do want to talk about, is Trump's more and more apparent state of mental health. His rambling, sometimes nearly incoherent speech, is starting to offer a glimpse of some serious health issues and other world leaders are starting to take notice. They're laughing in private moments in overseas forums, or shaking their heads. Leaders like Putin, are largely ignoring the United States and getting on with their agendas.

The other elephant in the room called the United States is the U.S. economy that's starting to crash. Trump is slashing federal funds left and right for social programs, such as food aid for the poorest in the U.S. I'm reading more and more news stories about local community food banks going short on the amount of food they have to give out to hungry people, and how Trump is causing this by withholding the federal subsidy monies. Some of the wealthier states are picking up the slack as best as they can but the poorest states? Not so much. There are a lot of people in these very poor states, like Louisiana, and New Mexico, who voted for Trump, that are now starting to go hungry as there local food banks are coming up short now.

Adding to that, is the trade war that Trump started with every country in the world, maybe except Russia, that is figuratively killing the American farmers. This started during Trump's first term in office but it's taken off on steroids with this latest round of tariffs. China, the world's largest importer of Soy Beans for example, has cut off all Soy Bean imports from the U.S. now, which is driving the U.S. Soy Bean farmers into bankruptcy. It's too late in the year to switch to another crop, so these farmers with no Soy Bean markets anymore, will lose nearly everything this year, and likely for several years to come, as they struggle to find new markets for something, anything that will bring them an income.

The federal government is still providing farm subsidies but that's only a band-aid on the problem, not a fix.

The shutdown is being predicted as a disaster for the economy, way beyond the bad shape it's already in. The longer the shutdown lasts, the worse things will get in the long run, as foreign investors stop investing out of a lack of trust in U.S. economic stability.

As for me on the ground level, I'm watching grocery prices a lot more carefully now. I'm changing my diet once again to accommodate the possibility of a major recession or worse in the coming months. The U.S. is already in a recession in some states but it won't be much longer before it hits all fifty states.

So far, I'm only seeing selective items in the grocery stores going dramatically up in price. Most notably at Costco. I've also seen some of this at my local grocer as well, but it's really noticeable at Costco. I haven't been in a Costco warehouse in several months as my wife usually does the shopping there for us while I dog sit. When I went in today (we needed some things that I was better suited to select due to my better command of the English language), the first thing I noticed was the difference in prices now, compared to the last time I had shopped a few months ago, especially on imported items.

This was very apparent at the pet store we were at earlier this morning. We had to wait for our little dog to get a couple of shots, so we walked around a bit and the increased pricing was glaring. I had to explain to my wife that stores like that depended heavily in imports and the tariffs were driving the prices very high now.

With this kind of economic chaos going on, it's no wonder that more and more people are hitting the local food banks and, after waiting for hours in line sometimes, are walking away with half the food they used to get, and things like meat protein are seriously lacking.

In a ProPublica news story I read today (which I will share with people next week), they write that, although these food banks are depending on donations and federal subsidies that are drying up, things will get really bad once the SNAP food benefits finally run out altogether. Which the MAGA republicans are trying hard to eliminate as quickly as possible.

I mentioned this before and it bears repeating. I have subscribed to a Substack writer by the name of Chris Armitage recently. He continues to advocate for a peaceful rebellion by the blue states that Trump is attacking, and those he hasn't gotten around to yet, by using the power of the states purse, so to speak.

In his latest article, he advocates for the states to create a cooperative compact to withhold the state funds that is normally sent to the federal government in a equal amount to the federal funds that Trump is withholding or threatening to withhold, for non-compliance with his agendas. He claims that this is perfectly legal in accordance with the constitution.

I say that this is all well and good but we can pretty much figure out what the federal response would be. Trump would send in his military to quell the insurrection in those states. He would declare martial law, and arrest any state politicians who dared defy him, including state governors, state executives and legislators.

I Think the only reason they haven't started doing this, is that Trump doesn't have as complete control of the people as he would need in order to start carrying this out. That may be changing soon. Unless Trump is stopped, the U.S. may see a complete take over of the wealthiest state governments across the country, with governors like Gavin Newsome of California, and Pritzker of Illinois, arrested for treason and and attempted insurrection against the federal government. Along with their state attorney generals and other state politicians.

Especially as Pritzker recently said in public that Trump needs to be removed from office. Maybe that's why the world is watching a little closer as more and more storm troopers attack apartment buildings in Chicago.

The mayor of Memphis, Tennessee recently welcomed the federalised troops into his city. I think he should be very careful what he is welcoming. He may get more than he bargained for in the long run.

With the real fear of voter intimidation ahead of the next two national elections coming up in 2026 and especially 2028, those mayors who welcome federal troops in to help clean up the crime on their streets may just find out that they're stuck with an occupying army. They can forget about any future free and fair elections once the troops are bivouacked in their cities. This was one of the biggest issues that the original American colonists had against the British government back in the 1770's. The enforced quartering of British troops in the citizens homes against their will.

it looks like Trump is restarting that again, sort of. There won't be any American troops being required to be put up in peoples homes, but local hotels? Yeah, you bet'cha. With the hospitality industry already taking a huge hit from the serious lack of tourism this year, that would likely cause a lot of local hotels to go under due to a lack of enough customers. No one wants to stay in a hotel with a bunch of soldiers staying next door.

There are writers already talking about the U.S. becoming a police state soon. It certainly could be unless people start fighting back somehow. I don't advocate for violence as it rarely solves anything. If anything, it usually makes things worse. But the idea of states exercising their rights to withhold tax revenue to the federal government in order to cover the expenses the feds don't want to pay for is a good idea.

I think governors should find a legal way to prevent their national guard units from being illegally conscripted by Trump to be used for domestic policing. Even if that means having the state troops be deployed by the states ahead of the feds, to guard state facilities and maybe even state borders. Whatever is in the state constitutions that allows the governors to do to stop Trump, should be done now. Not tomorrow, not when the courts say yes or no, but now, today, before it's too late. Time is running out as Trump is moving fast.

It's time for me to start working on my photography homework assignment this afternoon. I am supposed to take a bunch of pictures using a flash attachment for next week's class on Tuesday next. I've decided to take pictures of my little dog for the most part. Who doesn't like pictures of a cute little dog?

I don't have a lot of free time anymore with everything that's going on around my house but I will try to write something again in a few days. Meanwhile, stay safe and keep your heads down. Sláinte

P.S.- I decided not to put the YouTube video at the bottom of these blog articles anymore. If you really like the weekly videos, head over to the podcast page and check them out there. I offer the choice of a link to my Substack page, or a link to my YouTube channel. Or you can just listen to the audio version right on that webpage without ever leaving the page.