his disdain for his own intelligence services which he oversees is something else.
The same intelligence services that Hoover turned into what was essentially his own secret police force in order to undermine everyone from political activists to gays, opposition politicians, the civil rights movement and sitting presidents?
Disdain? Trump has barely touched the surface! Harry S Truman noted:
“We want no Gestapo or secret police. the FBI is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex-life scandals and plain blackmail… Edgar Hoover would give his right eye to take over, and all congressmen and senators are afraid of him.”
Now, regards Donald directly – what we see here is, once again, the usual suspects running around like headless chickens screaming the sky is falling on the basis of a press conference between the leaders of two countries that have quietly been locked in conflict since the end of WW2, both interfering with each other.
A few months ago the same voices screaming about Nuclear War with North Korea. The media in the UK and Europe said Trump was going to start WW3 with the fat North Korean lad. Has Trump started WW3? No.
Nothing new is it? The (kgb funded?) CND/Atomkraft Nein Danke hysteria saw a pretty much identical reactions to Reagan in his early years, ie. the run up to deployment of Pershing II & Cruise – Reagan was a warmonger, genocidal maniac, an existential threat to world peace, etc. – but look what happened next… unprecedented arms limitation treaties, “tear down this wall”, glasnost and the collapse of the SU.
Imagine todays hysterical media pool covering Reagan’s glad-handing and back slapping with Gorbachov at the reykjavik summit, despite the downing of KAL 007. Imagine the screaming and wailing at programmes like Brilliant Pebbles and SDI… but look what they ultimatley delivered.
What you need to do is separate out the rhetoric from reality and aim questions at the things that really happen, rather than being up in arms every time Trump is on TV or sends a tweet. OK, he’s implementing a simple protectionist policy a la Calvin Coolidge, but haven’t the political left been telling us for years that free trade and multinational corporations were destroying both society and the planet? US decisions ripple across the globe as they are the only super power we have at the moment. His policy is US first, and good on him for doing it – he is expecting NATO countries to financially step up to the plate, again, about bloody time, its the inevitable disengagement and cutting of the apron strings that the Marshall Plan was ultimately introduced to deliver – a prosperous and stable Europe that could look after itself.
This is an economic war, not a guns, tanks and planes war. It always has been about money really. The US making friends with Russia? Why the hell not? In fact its just another indication that the US is happy to withdraw from the European theatre and let Europe take centre stage in looking after itself as intended. The question is will Europe successfully step in to fill the void or descend once again into infighting. The tensions in macroeconomic policy within the EU remain high, Germany and France continue to dominate while economies like Greece and Spain are barely holding it together, well meaning but ultimately flawed Immigration policies are leading to internal tensions and infighting within the EU. Poland, Hungary and Italy have all had enough of being ordered around by the Germans and are beginning to rebel politically, (just the start of the reasons we are better off out)
Th usuals may not like Trump, but the fact is that he’s getting things done on a macro scale (oh, FFS, the screeching we’ll no doubt hear on this statement from the usuals we’ll hear now – where’s the wall? tell me one thing he’s done? whinge, scream, whine etc.) but, frankly, the growth figures in the US economy (and the slowing down of growth in the Chinese economy) dont lie
