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This answer may contain sensitive images. Click on an image to unblur it.Terrorist is a propaganda term that has no consistent definition and is used arbitrarily by nation states according to what benefits or harms their geopolitical interests. Other than its emotional appeal, it has no substance and automatically excludes state actors from its definitions.“The international community has never succeeded in developing an accepted comprehensive definition of terrorism. During the 1970s and 1980s, the United Nations attempts to define the term floundered mainly due to differences of opinion between various members about the use of violence in the context of conflicts over national liberation and self-determination.”[1]Furthermore,“It is not only individual agencies within the same governmental apparatus that cannot agree on a single definition of terrorism. Experts and other long-established scholars in the field are equally incapable of reaching a consensus. In the first edition of his magisterial survey, 'Political Terrorism: A Research Guide,' Alex Schmid devoted more than a hundred pages to examining more than a hundred different definitions of terrorism in an effort to discover a broadly acceptable, reasonably comprehensive explication of the word. Four years and a second edition later, Schmid was no closer to the goal of his quest, conceding in the first sentence of the revised volume that the "search for an adequate definition is still on". Walter Laqueur despaired of defining terrorism in both editions of his monumental work on the subject, maintaining that it is neither possible to do so nor worthwhile to make the attempt.”[2]Even Nelson Mandela fighting against racist apartheid was labelled a terrorist by Western countries and was only delisted in 2008 by US government. Israeli politician Menachem Begin was regarded as "leader of the notorious terrorist organisation Irgun" by the British Government, yet he went onto become the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel.Several years ago the US government delisted Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) of Iran from its list of foreign terrorist groups after having it banned for the last two decades and using it as one of the example of terrorist groups sheltered by Iraq to justify its invasion of that country. Now the US government is accused of training the same terror group to destabilise its enemy state of Iran.Journalist Glenn Greenwald explains the logic behind what determines who is or isn’t a terrorist for a state like US:“a country or group goes on the list when they use violence to impede US interests, and they are then taken off the list when they start to use exactly the same violence to advance US interests. The terrorist list is not a list of terrorists; it's a list of states and groups which use their power to defy US dictates rather than adhere to them.”[3]It must be noted the term has a pro-state bias despite the fact it’s the state that has the capacity and technologies to inflict destruction on an industrial scale as proven by the millions of victims of democide in the last century alone.“An analysis of more than a hundred academic texts on terrorism, many by established ‘terrorism experts’, reveals that state terrorism is noticeable mainly for its absence. In some cases, state terrorism is simply defined out of the analysis by the employment of an actor‐based definition: terrorism, it is argued, is a kind of violence performed solely by non‐state actors. In other cases, the possibility of state terrorism is acknowledged but is then given a cursory treatment or simply ignored as a serious subject of research. … the absence of state terrorism is criticized for its illogical actor‐based definition of terrorism, its politically biased research focus and its failure to acknowledge the empirical evidence of the extent and nature of state terrorism, particularly that practiced by Western liberal states and their allies. … It is argued that the absence of state terrorism from academic discourse functions to promote particular kinds of state hegemonic projects, construct a legitimizing public discourse for foreign and domestic policy, and deflect attention from the terroristic practices by Western states and their allies.”[4]Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence website acknowledges the meaningless of the term but decides to give its own arbitrary definition that includes anyone who supports LTTE!“When terrorists do not have an internationally accepted definition and neither do journalists we arrive at a very tricky scenario of who and who are not terrorists/journalists. Despite terrorism not having a definition we are well aware that the LTTE has been identified by 32 nations as a terrorist outfit and if an organization is declared terrorist its members must be also terrorists. Therefore the majority of the ‘journalists’ names featured by CPJ unfortunately belong to the category of ‘terrorist’ … Moreover, ‘journalist’ No. 2 Puniyamoorthy Sathiyamoorthy by virtue of being a supporter of the LTTE puts him into the category of terrorist too.”[5]By this logic, if you support LTTE, you’re a terrorist, even if you aren’t an active combatant. Such is the twisted logic this government source uses to justify the murder of journalists. This can be extended to justify the mass murder of an entire nation because most Tamils supported LTTE. Therefore the pretext of war on terrorism can be co-opted for genocidal ambitions.The Sri Lankan government first banned LTTE as terrorist group in 1978 but the first attack on civilians attributed to LTTE happened years later on 14 May 1985, therefore even if LTTE had never attacked civilians it would have still been considered a terrorist organisation because the state has a vested interest in criminalising and discrediting any force that challenges its monopoly on power. Hence the state-centric definitions of terrorism are not restricted to the popular perception of it as violence against defenceless civilians.Therefore repressive regimes could co-opt this term to silence legitimate dissent.Like the US government, the GoSL had no problem collaborating with the ‘terrorists’ when they proved be useful to their interests:Ranasinghe Premadasa, then the country’s president, ordered clandestine supply of arms to LTTE in order to force IPKF to leave the island as their presence was unpopular. These same weapons were later alleged to have been used by the LTTE to massacre police officers.When the LTTE commander Karuna Amman defected, he joined the Rajapaksa government and helped to capture the Eastern province from LTTE control; he was later given positions in the government despite being accused of involvements in massacres when he was in LTTE.There are allegations about Rajapaksa funding LTTE with money to force boycott the 2005 election in the Northern Province as his opponent UNP candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe had a good response in the North.Moreover, Pakistan, the state which has been accused of sponsoring terrorism, assisted the GoSL in its war against the LTTE.Hence, the Government of Sri Lanka, by virtue of being collaborators and abetters of terrorists put them into the category of terrorist too.These were the views of the LTTE leader, V. Prabhakaran, on ‘terrorism’:“We are freedom fighters. The Sinhala state terrorists, who have failed in their efforts to crush our freedom movement for the last two decades, branded our liberation struggle as terrorism. Misguided by the false and malicious propaganda of the Sri Lanka state some of the world governments have included our liberation movement in their list of international terrorist organisations. This is regrettable and disappointing. These decisions have a negative impact. They have been made in haste, without deep insight into the historicity and legitimacy of our struggle for self-determination. It sends a wrong message to the Sinhala racist rulers. It will further harden their hard-line, intransigent attitude. It will encourage their policy of military repression. On the whole, the actions of some of the Western governments will seriously impede a political solution through peaceful means and further complicate the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. All the member countries of the United Nations have joined the alliance in the war against terrorism spearheaded by the Western powers. Some of the repressive states with a notorious history of racist oppression and gross human rights violations have joined this global alliance against terror. In this context we wish to confine our remarks only to the Sri Lanka state. This government, holding one of the highest records of human rights violations amounting to genocide, has now joined the international alliance against terrorism. This is a dangerous trend in the emerging new world order. This new trend is also posing a threat to the legitimate political struggles of the oppressed humanity subjected to state terror. … it is crucial that the Western democratic nations should provide a clear and comprehensive definition of the concept of terrorism that would distinguish between freedom struggles based on the right to self-determination and blind terrorist acts based on fanaticism.”[6]Later on, he reiterated,“We are disappointed and sad to note that some international governments, having been influenced by this false propaganda, continue to retain our organisation on their terrorist list. Biased positions taken by powerful nations acting as guardians of the peace process, in excluding and alienating our liberation organisation as a ‘terrorist outfit’ and supporting the interests of the Sri Lankan state, severely affected the balance of power relations between the parties in conflict at the peace negotiations. This pro-state bias constrained our liberty to choose our own political status. This partiality finally became one of the causes for the collapse of the peace talks. There is no clear, coherent, globally acceptable definition of the concept of terrorism. As such, just and reasonable political struggles fought for righteous causes are also branded as terrorism. Even authentic liberation movements struggling against racist oppression are denounced as terrorist outfits. In the current global campaign against terror, state terrorism always finds its escape route and those who fight against state terror are condemned as terrorists. Our liberation organisation is also facing a similar plight.”[7]That is not to say LTTE did not carry out attacks on civilians but to call for consistency and impartial treatment of all parties. If LTTE was terrorist for attacking civilians, so too is every nation state that has killed civilians. If LTTE weren’t freedom fighters because they attacked civilians, then there never existed any national liberation movement as it’s“well nigh impossible to find a twentieth-century national liberation or partisan resistance struggle in which there has been no use of systematic terrorism by at least one faction in the struggle.”[8]PLO, IRA, Viet Cong, ANC, etc., were all branded terrorist by various governments but the more powerful imperialist occupying forces were not. Since the government of Sri Lanka is not condemned by the international community for its state terrorism against its own citizens it’s difficult to take the terrorist label seriously.Furthermore, any allegation by the Government of Sri Lanka must not be taken at face value, after all this is the same government that insisted on the ridiculous lie of “zero civilian casualties” since the end of the war. There were other Tamil militant groups (who later became pro-government paramilitaries) that must be taken into account and the Sri Lankan military sometimes blamed their own attacks on Tamil civilians on LTTE. Without an impartial international investigation, allegations must be taken with a grain of salt.Some who were included in the list of civilian population attacked by LTTE were not ordinary civilians at all but armed home guards and convicts backed by the government to establish Sinhala settlements in Tamil areas by ethnically cleansing the villages of native Tamil population. Massacres, harassment and rape were used to drive out the Tamil villagers. LTTE retaliated by attacking these criminals.Stephen Heynes recounts in his book, ‘The Bleeding Island: Scars and Wounds’, the events the precipitated the “Manal Aaru Massacre”:“Manal Aaru was strategically situated on the borders of three districts of Tamils majority Mullaitivu and Trincomalee and Sinhalese majority Anuradhapura. It was also sitting on the sole gateway between the Tamils majority North and the Eastern parts of the island. About a total of 13,288 Tamil families were living in 42 villages in that area, for generations. The name of the place was recently changed to Sinhalese ‘Weli Oya’ (meaning sandy river, in Sinhalese) and an elaborate schemes was laid to colonize the area with Sinhalese population, mostly with ex convicts, convicts on parole, reformed criminals and landless Sinhalese.The Military went around these villages in armoured trucks and made loud announcements over public address systems mounted on the trucks that, all the Tamils residing in Kokkulai Grama Sevakar division (1516 families), Kokku Thoduvai Grama Sevakar division (3306 families), Vavunia North Grama Sevakar division (1342 families), Naiyaru and Kumulamunai divisions in Mullaithivu district (2011 families) must vacate their homes where they lived and farm lands where they work, within 48 hours, or they will be forcefully (!) evicted by the Military. It was also announced that, the government had canceled the 99 years lease in respect of the lands, including Kent Farm and Dollar farm, given to 14 Tamil entrepreneurs is canceled.The Sri Lankan army, as they had announced, forcefully evicted the hapless Tamils on the third day. Thousands of Tamil villagers, some of them Hill country Tamil refugees and victims of the recent Sinhalese violence of ‘Black July’, were driven out or fled in terror. Many who were more unfortunate were murdered by the army. One night alone 29 Tamil villagers were killed at Othaiyamalai, a hamlet situated north of Weli Oya colony. Now Srilankan Army was playing terrorists, justifying LTTE violence or inviting a violent response from them. ...The LTTE has to do something at this juncture, to sustain the confidence of the Tamils. They chose to strike at Manal Aaru.”[9]I’m not exactly sure what makes a “true warrior” but waging an asymmetrical struggle against a more powerful enemy backed by major nation states takes some guts! At one point, the LTTE had to battle not only the Sri Lankan forces, but also the IPKF and pro-government Tamil paramilitaries and it still managed to prevail. Under Prabhakaran’s leadership, the LTTE grew from being a clandestine guerrilla group to a conventional military, the only group of its kind to have air and sea forces. Not only that it went onto control large parts of the territory it was fighting for and establish a de facto state running its own administration.These are the views on Prabhakaran and his forces from his enemies and foreign observers…Major General Prasanna Dahanayake of the Sri Lanka Army:“Pirabaharan is a 'military genius' and his political power has given him an advantage to combat our political and military leaders. He has often outwitted, outmanoeuvred and outclassed our military and political leaders. Why is this so? Today after 18 years of battle, most of the victories, sadly, belong to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and we are continuing to fool ourselves... the man behind the weapon is always more important than the weapon itself and that this has been repeatedly proved by the LTTE forces....Pirabaharan has virtually beaten our forces on land and sea....”[10]Source: Major General Prasanna Dahanayake in an interview reported in the Sinhala owned Sunday Leader, 6 December 1998Major General Kamal Gunaratne of the Sri Lanka Army:“People of this country, the governments and even our own soldiers thought that the LTTE was a superior fighting force. … I even don’t think that the LTTE will make a comeback with the same magnitude as Prabhakaran … He may have been uneducated but he maintained strict discipline among himself and also within the outfit. ... There is no evidence to show that he abused those female cadres in the LTTE. ... He was a loving family man. The SLA recovered over 10,000 photographs of Prabhakaran, his family and LTTE functions but we never found a picture of Prabhakaran with a glass of alcohol. He was a disciplined leader and he maintained a law deadlier than Sharia law. ... He was a different kind of a man and he had some good characteristics for someone to learn.”[11]Lieutenant General Depinder Singh, Overall Force Commander of the Indian Peace Keeping Force:“Numerous questions were to be asked as to why the IPKF could not capture or kill Pirabakaran; another equally wild allegation was that the IPKF had orders not to kill Pirabakaran. Apart from the impossibility of singling out an individual target for destruction or protection in such an environment, we must remember that by virtue of the fact that the LTTE had an effective junior leadership, the loss of Pirabakaran could never have resulted in the disintegration of the LTTE.. This (book) is a left handed salute to the LTTE whose deviousness cannot overshadow their incredible motivation and magnificent fighting prowess, for which the Indian armed forces will always have a healthy respect.”[12]Lieutenant General S.C. Sardesh Pande, IPKF Divisional Commander, Jaffna:“I have a high regard for the LTTE for its discipline, dedication, determination, motivation and technical expertise... I was left with the impression that the LTTE was the expression of popular Tamil sentiment and could not be destroyed, so long as that sentiment remained. … One formation commander was relating vividly how the LTTE cadres - including their women - fought so bravely, killed our soldiers in fierce combat and proved to be our bane in early October '87 in the Jaffna University Campus.”[13]Jyotindra Dixit, India's Foreign Secretary in Assignment in Colombo:“The LTTE's emergence as the most dominant and effective politico-military force representing Tamil interests was due to the following factors:First, the character and personality of its leader V Prabhakaran who is disciplined, austere and passionately committed to the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils' liberation. Whatever he may be criticised for, it cannot be denied that the man has an inner fire and dedication and he is endowed with natural military abilities, both strategic and tactical. He has also proved that he is a keen observer of the nature of competitive and critical politics. He has proved his abilities in judging political events and his adroitness in responding to them.Secondly, he has created a highly disciplined, and dedicated cadres, a manifestation of which is inherent in what is called the 'cyanide cult.' Each regular member of the LTTE carries a cyanide pill and is pledged to committing suicide rather than being captured by the enemy.The third factor is the cult and creed of honesty in the disbursement and utilisation of resources. Despite long years spent in struggle, the LTTE cadres were known for their simple living, lack of any tendency to exploit the people and their operational preparedness.The fourth factor has been the LTTE's ability to upgrade its political and military capacities including technological inputs despite the constraints imposed on it by Sri Lankan forces and later by India.The fifth factor is a totally amoral and deadly violent approach in dealing with those the LTTE considers as enemies.The sixth factor is Prabhakaran's success in gathering around him senior advisers with diverse political, administrative and technological capacities, which contributed to effective training of his cadres, optimum utilisation of the military equipment which he had, and the structuring of an efficient command and control system.”[14]Marshall R Singer, Ph. D. Professor of International and Intercultural Affairs, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs - University of Pittsburgh:“The Tigers are ruthless and authoritarian but they are not corrupt - they don't tolerate stealing, bribery or rape, things other armies are famous for. In fact they are perceived as being single minded in their defence of Tamils. They are so disciplined that when captured, they swallow cyanide capsules that they carry with them at all times, rather than risk revealing anything under torture.”[15]Jane's Sentinel, World Defence & Intelligence Information Resource:“(LTTE's) 43-year old charismatic leader and military commander, Velupillai Pirabaharan (whose nom de guerre is Karikalan), is a highly disciplined, dedicated, self-taught, military genius...In the LTTE, all members are fighting cadres and do not receive remuneration. The exceptions, only a handful, play an advisory or supportive role...Cadres are given responsibility not according to seniority but strictly on performance. Cadres are not promoted to a rank but only responsibilities of command. Cadres are ranked only posthumously by taking into account their service, as well as the circumstances of their death...”[16]From a review of Paul Moorcraft’s ‘Total Destruction of the Tamil Tigers: The Rare Victory of Sri Lanka’s Long War’, 2012:Prabhakaran “built up probably the most effective and disciplined insurgent force to appear in the world since 1945” (page 91). Towards the end of their campaign against the Tigers, the Indians had 160,000 soldiers (page 24), and their failure was “a major humiliation for a power which had one of the world’s largest armies” (page 22). The “attack-defence ratio is reckoned to be 3:1” but during what is known as the Second Eelam War (1990-95), a maximum of 5,000 insurgents almost defeated a defending force of 10,000 (page 31). Small units of female Tigers are said to have driven away army units “ten times their size” (page 37). Tiger boats were “a triumph of ingenuity, often built in jungle workshops using off-the-shelf materials” (page 97). The same can be said of the planes they assembled. Prabhakaran refused the offer to send his wife and two younger children to a safe western country (page 145), insisting they share the common lot.[17]Since you didn’t define what makes a “true warrior” I would argue that a true warrior fights for a just cause, since it’s Che who is a global icon and not Uncle Sam.What is virtuous and admirable about fighting for imperialist interests to dominate others? True warriors, I’d say, fight for freedom, justice and liberation.In this regard, Prabhakaran was a true warrior, as he was not fighting to conquer and dominate another nation but to liberate his own nation from oppression. As he said,“We recognise the Sinhala nation. We accord a place of dignity for the culture and heritage of the Sinhala people. We have no desire to interfere in any way with the national life of the Sinhala people or with their freedom and independence. We, the Tamil people, desire to live in our own historic homeland as an independent nation, in peace, in freedom and with dignity.”[18]The Sinhala government, on the other hand, was fighting to preserve the territorial unity born out of colonial project by subduing an unwilling nation that desired self-determination. The Sinhala-Buddhist state was acting like the imperialist regimes and even got assistance from them, adopting their strategies, while the LTTE was influenced by anti-imperialist struggle.Self-determination is a human right, according to the UN resolution:“All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”[19]Resolution 2621 (XXV) Reaffirms, "the inherent right of colonial peoples to struggle by all necessary means at their disposal against colonial Powers which suppress their aspiration for freedom and independence."[20]These were the demands of the LTTE, known as the ‘Thimpu Principles’:Recognition of the Tamils of Sri Lanka as a nation.Recognition of the existence of an identified homeland for the Tamils in Sri Lanka.Recognition of the right of self-determination of the Tamil nation.The LTTE struggle for independence was born out of decades of peaceful yet futile struggle for power-sharing and against discrimination, as anti-Tamil violence and colonisation of Tamil lands intensified.Prabhakaran explained his recourse to armed struggle and justified it as the only solution thus:"The democratic parliamentary system, or what you refer to as the conventional political system in Sri Lanka, has always tried to impose the will of the majority on the minority. This system not only failed to solve the basic problems of our people but, in fact, aggravated our plight. For decades, the repression by the state has made the life of our people miserable. The non-violent democratic struggles of our people were met with military repression. Our just demands were totally ignored, and the oppression continued on such a scale as to threaten the very survival of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. It was these circumstances which led me to form our liberation movement. I felt that an armed struggle was the only alternative left to our people, not only to ensure our survival but ultimately to free our selves from the Sinhala oppression. ... The shocking events of the 1958 racial riots had a profound impact on me when I was a schoolboy. I heard of horrifying incidents of how our people had been mercilessly and brutally put to death by Sinhala racists. Once I met a widowed mother, a friend of my family, who related to me her agonising personal experience of this racial holocaust. During the riots a Sinhala mob attacked her house in Colombo. The rioters set fire to the house and murdered her husband. She and her children escaped with severe burn injuries. I was deeply shocked when I saw the scars on her body. I also heard stories of how young babies were roasted alive in boiling tar. When I heard such stories of cruelty I felt a deep sense of sympathy and love for my people. A great passion overwhelmed me to redeem my people from this racist system. I strongly felt that armed struggle was the only way to confront a system which employs armed might against unarmed, innocent people."[21]Footnotes[1] The Right of Self-Defence under International Law[2] Inside Terrorism[3] Five lessons from the de-listing of MEK as a terrorist group | Glenn Greenwald[4] https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/media/departmental/interpol/csrv/ghost-of-state-terror-richard-5.pdf[5] Sri Lanka : Most of the 19 ‘Journalists’ killed were LTTE or killed by LTTE[6] Maha Veerar Naal Address, மாவீரர் நாள் 2001[7] LTTE to intensify struggle for self-determination if reasonable political solution is not offered soon[8] The Morality of Terrorism[9] The Bleeding Island[10] As others see him[11] Road to Nandikadal[12] Lost Victory[13] Assignment Jaffna[14] https://books.google.com/books?id=gThuAAAAMAAJ&q=The+LTTE%27s+emergence+as+the+most+dominant+and+effective+politico-military+force+representing+Tamil+interests+was+due+to+the+following+factors:&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y[15] Lost Victory[16] Jane Sentinel on LTTE[17] Total Destruction Of The Tamil Tigers: The Rare Victory Of Sri Lanka’s Long War[18] The Charge is Genocide ... the Struggle is for Freedom- Selected Writings by Nadesan Satyendra[19] The United Nations and Decolonization[20] Key Resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly 1946-1996[21] EelamWeb� - Interviews -

South Africa - a brief history of naughty bottoms and itchy behinds.*** Warning, graphic content ***Going back to our originsIn order to answer this question, we have to analyze various factors both current and historic in order to attempt to predict what will happen in the future.Let’s first look at the history of the Afrikaner:The Cradle of Humankind near Muldersdrift in South Africa is where the oldest hominid fossil remains have been found, dated at 3.5 million years old.We therefore currently make the assumption that life originated at this location.Interestingly enough, in the current land expropriation without compensation debacle, proponents of this action state that there can be no limit on how far we go back in time in order to determine who has claims on land. So by that rationale, everybody in the world has a claim on South Africa.Around 45 000 years ago the most adventurous lot of the Africans started to get an itch in their behinds and moved up North, eventually settling in Spain. Europe was founded.The Africans Who Discovered Europe - Black (First) Europeans Part IIMany thousands of years later, with the arrival of the Renaissance, a whole bunch of Europeans found that their behinds were itching again and they jumped in their ships in order to go and discover the rest of the earth (the parts that they had forgotten about). War and persecution certainly acted as a strong motivating force as well.One must bear in mind that there are vast differences in climate between Europe and Africa. Africa is a pretty warm place and you can find food all year around. Europe is a different story and if you don’t gather food in the summer, you starve during winter time. This had an incredible effect on the development of technology and innovation or lack thereof, depending on where you lived.When Muslim traders landed on the East coast of Africa during the 6th century and started trading with the tribes there, they introduced the concept of capitalism i.e. you store things and you can use those things for trading purposes later (Miller, 2018. Thulamela - The Lost Gold of the Vha Vhenda: Amazon).The Netherlands was a powerful trading nation and came to South Africa in 1652 in order to establish a half-way station. The VOC was a trading company and wanted to establish a trade route with the East, specifically to trade for spices. Now today it is often cited how brutal these traders where with black slaves and that is not to be denied but the fact of the matter is that they practiced naval discipline. It was not just the slaves who were mistreated, all subordinates were.For example, have a look at the graph below:Ships returning from the East would stop at the Cape for supplies. The prevailing South Easterly wind would be used to navigate to this point. Now anybody that has ever experienced the South Easter would know of its incredible power.It can literally rip trees out of the ground and overthrow trucks:The big issue was that an approaching ship’s navigator might confuse Cape Hangklip (Red dot) for Cape Point (Purple dot) and mistakenly think that False Bay was Table Bay (Green dot and desired destination).The result was that if they turned right too soon they would be stuck in False Bay and not be able to get out until the wind changes direction. This happened so frequently that it gave False Bay its name.The company was not impressed. Too much time was lost and it was dangerous to hang around in False Bay for too long.The rule of lawSo the punishment for any ship’s navigator that made this unfortunate mistake was 400 lashes with a cat’o’nine tails and then keelhauling. Needless to say, few would have survive this punishment.They also had delightful practices on land to punish and extract information.This is an image of “Die Donker Gat” (The Dark Hole) in the Cape Town Castle. Prisoners were left here in complete darkness for days (Note: PRISONERS, not necessarily slaves).This is the torture chamber in The Castle. The hook was for suspending a prisoner from his feet and then dropping him onto his head. In the one corner there is a metal hoop built into the wall where PRISONERS, not necessarily slaves, could be chained to in order to receive their floggings.There are air vents above the door so if the prisoner had an accomplice, he would hear his buddy screaming and know that it would soon be himself screaming.A very good way to end up in this place was to defect from the Cape and find refuge somewhere in the bush and then get yourself caught. A favourite spot for these deserters was the natural caves in the mountains on the Eastern side of False Bay.So, hopefully we can all agree that atrocities were committed, not only against slaves but against anybody who broke the law?Now the common perception is that the colonists were these absolute brutes and that the native Africans were all living peacefully in harmony. So let’s have a look at …Meanwhile in Africa …The Bushmen were hunters that stalked their prey with primitive bows and poisoned arrows. Their skill of the field is legendary even to today. It was no coincidence that they were recruited into the feared 32 Battalion during the Angola war.But I digress …The colonists kept livestock and the Bushmen couldn’t believe their good luck when they found that where it could take days to track down and hunt antelope, suddenly there were hoards of the stuff right at their doorstep, conveniently confined to kraals.They made full use of the opportunity and slaughtered the dumb beasts. The did not realize that they were committing a crime because they had no sense of ownership. The field was merely providing for them in abundance.The colonists were less impressed. They retaliated and shot the bushmen. Not to mention how they feared the bushmen due to their superior skill in the field and their habit of poisoning water points.Its all just a great misunderstanding, if you think clearly over the matter.Further North more trouble was brewingFigure 1. Map of Africa showing the migration of Agro-pastoralist the impact of eastern trade and the arrival of Europeans.With modern dating methods one can follow the trail of the ancestors to the modern Chad region as long as 2400 years ago. With climate change and population expansion these peoples slowly moved towards the east and south. The Great Lakes Region split the general migration into two groups and they reached the borders of Modern South Africa around 1700 years ago. (Red arrows in map of Africa.)Also from the sixth century Muslim traders from the Near East and India started opening up trade with African people living on the coast. These traders seldom ventured into the interior of Africa, as they preferred living away from the dangers of Africa that included animals, fever and war-like people.They traded African products such as skins, timber, minerals, gold, copper and slaves for Eastern products such as ceramics, beads cloth and a variety of trinkets. The best known places where they operated from are Mogadishu, Zanzibar, Kilwa and Sofala (now Beira.) (Blue arrows in map of Africa.)Then at the end of the fifteenth century the Portuguese circumnavigated the tip of Africa and effectively cut of Muslim trade with the African coast, and opened the way for the Dutch colonisation of the Cape of Good Hope. This random movement of peoples from three different continents over many centuries had huge impact on the inhabitants of Africa.(Miller, 2018. Thulamela - The Lost Gold of the Vha Vhenda: Amazon)What is clear is that a certain group of people originating from Chad had itchy behinds just like their brothers and sisters coming from Europe who came from South Africa. The migrating black tribes (I will be soooo politically correct and not call them colonists) started to clash with the indigenous people of South Africa (the guys who stayed behind all the time and never decided to scratch where it wasn’t needed).The Dutch colonists started moving North and East (remember, these people like to do their own thing and resent being governed by restrictive powers that be). The Dutch colonists had become farmers and they were pretty damn good at it.The Afrikaner nation was born and they developed their own new language - Afrikaans.Further up North things were really going pearshaped for a lot of peopleShaka came to power and he was not only a clever military strategist (the much later SADF used his bulls-head with horns tactical formation with great success in the Angola war).Shaka was an outcast in his own tribe as a child and he returned in his early adulthood to wreak revenge on his childhood tormentors.He kinda liked the feeling of power and the result was the Mfecane. A cool two million people killed and the tribes inhabiting the central part of South Africa were either incorporated in the Zulu tribe, killed, or fled to other places. The Zulu kingdom was then, as it is today, in KwaZulu Natal on the North Eastern side of the country.Completely on his own, Shaka also figured out what the original Dutch colonists already knew from their splendid time in Europe and that was that a little bit of pain and death can really motivate people to act according to your will.He especially liked poking sharp things into people (Freud would have had a field day).He developed a new, improved version of the assegaai (spear) called the Ixwa. This name was derived from the sound it made as the assegaai was shoved into an opponent (ix) and the sound it made when it was pulled out (wa).He also liked to poke sharp sticks into the naughty bottoms of his enemies and let them sit there, contemplating their misdeeds, until they perished.Shaka’s own family started fearing him a teensy little bit, they had plotted against him and certainly they were fearing for their own naughty bottoms. So they decided to poke him with sharp things before he could poke them. His brother Dingane then took the reigns after he poked him with a sharp thing in the back.Meanwhile those naughty Brits decided that they kinda liked the Cape so naturally they decided that they would take it for themselves.Now as we have seen time and again, the Afrikaner had it in its genes to be stubborn and pigheaded and when they didn’t like what a government did to them, they threw their toys out of the cot. Their packed their weapons of mass destruction (oxwagons and frontloading muskets) and got the hell out of there.Being as pigheaded as they were (and still are today), they didn’t trek as one cohesive group. They split into smaller groups, each wanting to do his own thing.They couldn’t believe their luck as the land they trekked into was mostly uninhabited. (Their interwebs connections must have sucked or otherwise they would have known of the Mfecane).Eventually they met Dingane and Piet Retief started negotiating a “Traktaat”, a legal contract for purchasing some land from him.Fortunately we do have some records of the negotiations that took place:The original “Traktaat” (contract)The negotiations were a smidgen more successful as the later KODESA negotiations between the National Party and the ANC in the 1990’s.Retief and his men were invited to attend a celebration in Dingane’s kraal. They were ordered not to bring any weapons. During the evening the Zulu dancers shuffled their feet and suddenly they unearthed their spears that they buried beforehand in the sand.Dingane yelled “Bulalani abathagathi!”, Meaning “Kill those who kill with medicine (wizards)!”.The men were take to the execution hill named kwaMatiwane and there they were clubbed and impaled . Retief was spared for last and made to witness all his men, including his son, be killed before they killed him as well.The Reverend Owen at the adjacent mission witnessed and recorded the entire calamity and was allowed to leave Umgungundlovu for Durban after a few days. Dingane had sent warriors that morning to warn him of what was about to happen and to assure him that no harm would befall Owen, his wife or his sister. William Wood witnessed the massacre from the hill above kwaMatiwane and in 1841, wrote a short account of it.Piet Retief's Party is massacred by Zulu king DinganeDingane was by no means finished and he dispatched his entire army to take care of the rest of the unsuspecting Voortrekkers camping and braaing and generally minding their own business.During the night he attacked the Voortrekkers at the Bloukransriver and wiped out more than 500 people, including 56 women and 185 children. The Voortrekkers launched a couple of failed counter attacks but it was at the famous battle of Blood River (the water of the river turned red with Zulu blood) where Dingane’s 10 000 strong army was finally defeated by around 500 Voortrekkers. (Note for those interested in Strategic Management - Proper strategy, in this case a well fortified defensive position, superior technology and proper organization, beats brute force mass attacks).Dingane fled and was eventually killed by the Swazi and his own indunas. The Voortrekkers instated his brother, Mpande, as Zulu king and everybody lived forever happily after.THE END.Uhm … wait … not quite.http://www.voortrekker-history.co.za/blood_river_great_trek.php#.WqQl_mpuaZQ"Give me 20 divisions of American soldiers and I will breach Europe . Give me 15 consisting of Englishmen, and I will advance to the borders of Berlin . Give me two divisions of those marvelous fighting Boers and I will remove Germany from the face of the earth."Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, Commander of the Allied forces during WWII."The Americans fight for a free world, the English mostly for honor and glory and medals, the French and Canadians decide too late that they have to participate. The Italians are too scared to fight; the Russians have no choice. The Germans for the Fatherland. The Boers? Those sons of bitches fight for the hell of it."American General, George "Guts and Glory" PattonLet’s forward a bit in timeThe Afrikaner had established two republics namely the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek and Die Republiek van die Oranje Vrystaat. Things were all hunky dory and people were generally minding their own beeswax. Nobody were scratching where it didn’t itch.Then great tragedy struck. Gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand. Suddenly gold fever struck and people from all over came to get rich quickly. Those naughty Brits couldn’t resist, got off their naughty little behinds and sent their army of 346 693 soldiers to take the goldfields for the glory of the crown. 82 742 Boere resisted them.Things didn’t go quite according to plan and the British general Kitchener realized that that those pesky Boere were better adapted to life in the field and they had the unfortunate advantage of being better shots as well (28,000 British soldiers dead, 4000 Boere soldiers dead).So he made a rather clever plan and burnt down all the Boer farms and took the women and children and provided accommodation for them in five star concentration camps. Despite the luxury of these camps around 20 000 women and children decided it was too much effort to keep on living.Finally the Boere gave over and South Africa magically became a Union under British rule.This music video gives an impression of what times were like then. Interestingly enough, the ANC wanted to ban this song when it came out a few years ago. Remember this when we explore some of the moving songs that they currently still sing.Now under British rule things were not exactly all moonshine and roses. Remember the scene from Gandhi where he was prohibited a seat in the first class section of a train in South Africa? That, my dear friends, happened under British rule, not under Apartheid.The poor man took it so hard that he kicked off his shoes and walked around in a bathrobe for the rest of his life.The ANC is foundedIn 1912 there was again an itch that needed to be scratched.A couple of guys decided it sucked to be treated as second class citizens and they founded the ANC in order to negotiate a better life for black people. Naturally the white people paid little attention to them and went on with their lives as usual. This turned out to be a teensy mistake.The friendly Russians welcomed them with open arms and wheels were set in motion that started almost 100 years of Soviet support in the form of indoctrination … sorry … education, financial support, military training, military arms etc to the ANC and the South African Communist Party that was also formed during that time. The Russians had a lot of scratching that they were willing to do.Gumede, a guest of the All-Union Society of Cultural Ties with Foreign Countries, travelled to various parts of the country, including Georgia, where he was ‘given a good reception and had various conversations with Georgian leaders and peasants’, reported AF Plate, his interpreter, 50 years later. ‘Gumede asked the peasants about their lives in detail. We visited a number of Georgian villages and returning to the hotel every time, Gumede compared the way of life of the Georgian peasant with the modes of life and labour in his motherland.’Plate continues: ‘Gumede considered as one of the greatest achievements of our country [the USSR] that the Socialist Revolution managed to unite people of different nationalities in their struggle for common ideals. He emphasised the significance of this experience for all nationals struggling for their independence and considered that success in this struggle would highly depend on the unity of action of all forces fighting against racism and colonialism.’When Gumede returned to South Africa, he said in a speech: ‘I have seen the world to come, where it has already begun. I have been to the new Jerusalem.’ Marked by his experience, Gumede began to call for a united front uniting communists and non-communists. Later that year he was elected president of the African National Congress(ANC).http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/union-soviet-socialist-republic-ussr-and-anti-apartheid-struggleSide note: Wonder what Gumede would have said if he saw what happened to a country’s economy once the communist honeymoon is over?Albert van Leeuwen's answer to Where has communism worked?And I wonder what he would have said if he knew that the Soviets culled a cool 20 million of their herd during the Bolshevik revolution. People speak of German efficiency … screw that! They ain’t got nuthin’ on those efficient Russians.Apartheid formally beginsFast forward again to the late 40’s and by some means that I still don’t fully understand to today, the British allowed the Afrikaner to take over the country. I know Jan Smuts was involved but what exactly happened behind closed doors is still a mystery to me.Along the way were were also tasked to be the custodian of South West Africa (Namibia).The ANC grew in power and the Afrikaner started seeing them as a threat. And with good reason. The black population grew much faster than the white population and the ANC decided to start a military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe.VerwoerdFormally credited as the architect of Apartheid, the then Prime Minister decided that the informal customs in place has to be formalized. Hence Apartheid got a name and was written into the law books.The idea was to give each tribe their own piece of land in South Africa and everybody must make it work for themselves. He envisioned that Apartheid would run a course of 20 years and then each homeland in South Africa would be fully operational.Now Verwoerd was somewhat pigheaded. When the economist Anton Rupert told him that there is a major flaw in his plan, he conveniently ignored the advice. Rupert told him that there were no infrastructure nor factories i.e. no work in the homelands. The black people would be forced to commute to the cities in order to earn money. He advised him to build this infrastructure or else the whole plan would fail.What Rupert predicted is then what happened indeed. Black fathers where separated from their families and forced to live in hostels for many months at a time before they had enough money to go home to their families.Now research has shown us that one of the primary indicators of crime is a household where there isn’t a father. So if you wonder why South Africa sits with such a massive crime problem today, this is a major part of the answer.The Armed StruggleWith their Soviet military training and under the charismatic leadership of somebody that nobody will have heard of - Nelson Mandela, MK started playing with matches and accidentally blew up lots and lots of military targets in South Africa. Military targets like the Church Street bombing where an explosive devise was placed inside a car that was parked on a busy road in the Pretoria CBD.This presented a sharp pain to the National party in a place where they didn’t want to have a sharp pain.Now people generally don’t just go out and maim, torture and kill other people. They need the proper motivation. Mandela’s wife at the time - Winnie, was a real pro at this.The preferred method was called necklacing and it was dished out almost like how the Romans dished out crucifixions like parking tickets. It involves someone first being whipped over his naked buttocks with a piece of wire until you are satisfied that he bleeds enough. Then you cut the muscles off behind his shoulder blades so that he can no longer lift his arms. Then you take a tyre, doused in gasoline, place it over his neck and then have a jolly good time as you watch him make the most beautiful flames when you set the tyre on fire.Yes, it was certainly jolly times in South Africa.Nelson Mandela was captured and instead of hanging him, the powers that be decided that it would be better to send him to the Robben Island prison. He had a quick sleepover there of 27 years.The NP and the CPThe ruling National Party realized that they were seen as being too far right-wing. So they devised a clever plan (which I am suspecting is what the ANC is currently doing but we will get to that later). Nobody was taking the far-right AWB with their Nazi-like image seriously … no, a more moderate, legitimate right-wing party was needed.They asked one of their high-ranking party members to break away and start his own party. Andries Treurnicht did as he was asked and started the Conservative Party.The NP then positioned themselves between the ANC on the left and the CP on the right. In that way they ensured that they were seen as moderate and a mediator between the left and the right.The Angola warThe National Party was certainly sitting with a dilemma on its hands. Not only was the country being made impossible to rule from the inside, the ANC had military bases in various countries like Mozambique, Angola, Tanzania and in the USSR.With Soviet backing, they presented a massive thread.The USA asked South Africa to stop the coming Soviet forces and the Government backed Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA which engaged with Soviet and Cuban backed SWAPO, MPLA and FNLA forces.Here is some archive video footage from the war:The beginning of the end for ApartheidThe then minister of Foreign Affairs, Pik Botha, developed an itch and decided that the war and Apartheid had to come to an end. International sanctions were crippling the economy and the armed Struggle was destabilizing the country.The Security Police made too many activists disappear, this would surely have a backlash at some point.Of course the general white population had no clue what was really happening. Strong censorship laws existed and we kinda went on with our lives as if nothing was wrong. We were very effectively shielded from the reality of the situation. We felt safe and protected. Pretty much none of the information that I have shared so far was available to the ordinary white South African at the time.Pik Botha then came up with a clever plan. What was needed was a Judas goat.A Judas goat is a trained goat used in general animal herding. The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared.Judas goat - WikipediaHe found his Judas goat in Captain Wynand du Toit, a soldier belonging to the elite Special Forces called the Recce (short for Reconnaissance). du Toit was sent into Angola and he was set up to be captured there. Remember, South Africa was not officially going across the border into Angola and he realized that a captured South African soldier in Angola would cause an international incident.The plan worked and he was captured. Two of his team mates were shot dead and a heavily wounded du Toit spent a cool 837 days of solitary confinement in an Angolan jail. He was released on 7 September 1987 in exchange for two ANC members and 133 Angolan soldiers.The plan worked. White people in South Africa started talking and realized that they were kept in the dark about what was really happening at the Border. The international incident that Botha hoped for took place and the stage was set for people to start considering to dismantle Apartheid.South Africa and its enemies signed the Brazzaville Resolution which brought and end to the conflict. The interesting part of this agreement was that both sides were allowed to say that they had won the war.Mandela releasedMandela was released in 1990 and not long after that a referendum was held to decide whether there could be an election where all people would be allowed to vote.Bearing in mind that South Africa was in isolation for longer than we could remember, it was no coincidence that we were allowed to participate in the World Series cricket at the same time that the referendum was held. The message was clear - vote “No” and your team has to pack up their stuff and you will not be allowed to continue in the World Series.FW de Klerk assured the white people that they had nothing to fear. He explained that there would be weights and counterweights and that they would be constitutionally protected as a minority.The plan worked and the white people voted overwhelmingly “Yes”.The first open elections were held and the ANC won with a landslide. Mandela became president.Everybody were happy as fat cats drinking cream and we were accepted back into the international community.But the Madiba Magic honeymoon didn’t last.The New RegimeEmployment EquityOne of the most drastic new laws written into the law books was the Employment Equity law. The law basically states that nobody may discriminate against anybody applying for a job. Unless that person is white. Then you have to discriminate against that person.Quotas were brought in everywhere you could see. White people were no longer welcome in many places, especially in government. The so called “brain drain” took place. More than a million white people packed up their bags and emigrated to find a place where they could pursue their destinies.Bearing in mind that it is neither cheap nor easy to emigrate, this brain drain was disastrous to the economy as it was educated, skilled, affluent people that left.Disbanding of security structuresNone of the structures that made white people feel safe in the past was allowed to remain:The South African Defense Force, once credited as the single most effective army in the whole of Africa, was renamed to the South African National Defense Force. MK and APLA took control of the army.Currently there are billions of Rands worth of arms that are unusable because nobody has the required skill to service the equipment. Virtually nothing remains of the once spectacular fighting force.Repairs to South Africa’s doughty home built Samil trucks, still in daily use by the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), are at the centre of major fraud allegations which will soon be opened up to public scrutiny in court.In certain cases “repairs” done to the vehicles were literally patch jobs with masking tape used to cover holes in bodywork and then painted over before accounts totalling hundreds of thousands of Rand were sent to the SANDF for the “cosmetic” work, Afrikaans daily Beeld reported.An investigation by the Specialist Commercial Crimes Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was requested about two years ago by SANDF Chief, General Solly Shoke. This was after he apparently became suspicious of the “massive amounts” being paid by the defence force for Samil repairs.Repair work was allegedly costing the military between R500 000 and R1 million per vehicle.A number of repaired vehicles, mostly Samil 50s, including some fitted as food supply and storage vehicles, have been confiscated by military police.The investigation, Beeld said, had now reached the stage where it was almost complete and ready for legal action.According to the paper the investigation centres around two people – Eric Oelofse, a programme manager at Armscor tasked with heavy vehicle repair, and Manuel de Freitas, the owner of Impie Truck Centre and other similar businesses.Beeld reported that initial evidence gathered pointed to work being “channelled” to certain companies through an Armscor project office. The value of the repair work contract is said to be around the R50 million mark a year.One instance uncovered by the investigation was that of a Samil repaired at “an enormous cost”. It was scheduled to be taken to Polokwane but broke down en route and another R30 000 had to be spent before the truck was able to continue to the Limpopo capital.SANDF pays millions for “cosmetic” repairs to Samil trucksThe South African Police Force became the South African Police Service. People started taking measures to protect themselves as it was clear that the Police were no longer capable of doing it. The private security industry boomed.Parliament – Murder is up, especially in Gauteng and the Western Cape.There’s a massive spike in both truck and car hijacking.Bank robberies and cash-in-transit heists continued to drop as gangs move to the easier targets of hijackings, business robberies and home robberies, all of which are up.This is what emerged from the South African Police Service (SAPS) crime statistics for 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015, which were released on Tuesday.Crime stats: Murder, hijackings up | IOL NewsThe Commando system that was primarily responsible for protecting farms, was disbanded. The video clips below are a documentary on the farm murders that has taken place and is currently still taking place.Firearms Control ActNew legislation was brought in to reduce the number of legal firearms in circulation. People feared that they would no longer be allowed to protect themselves. The Police Commissioner clearly stated that their goal with the law was to reduce the legal number of firearms by 80%The new legislation was impossible to implement and there is currently a court case brought by the Hunters Association testing the constitutionality of the law.CrimeOur murder rate is right up there with Colombia and El Salvador. Nothing more needs to be said.CorruptionCorruption became a national pastime. Previous president Jacob Zuma stated that corruption is a Western concept and he will bring back African Rule. People heard - I will make us like Zimbabwe. Bearing in mind that this is a man with 743 corruption charges against him.EconomyEvery time Zuma opened his mouth in public the Rand tanked against the Dollar.Inflation and tax are bleeding the ordinary consumer dry.White people became steadfastly poorer.The black masses became steadfastly poorer.A small group of elite black people became incredibly rich.We were downgraded to Junk Status last year.Land expropriation without compensationPlease read here what is happening.Albert van Leeuwen's answer to Should the white farmers in South Africa salt their land?So where do we stand regarding the future?Option 1We break the cycle of hate. Like Pumbaa said in The Lion King - “You have to put your behind in the past”.We realize that demonizing white people will not solve anything. Revenge seldom does.This kind of hate speech is banned, as stated by our Constitution and appropriate action is taken against people who still continue to spread their messages of hate:We start making economic decisions that will stimulate wealth creation instead of wealth redistribution. If there is enough wealth to go around for everybody, nothing has to be taken from anybody.“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”― Adrian RogersThe good news is that a large proportion of the population do not share Malema’s views. The black middle class is expanding. I have lectured thousands of black students over the years and I can honestly say that the majority of them just want to learn and make good lives for themselves. They are not revolutionaries and they don’t fall for Malema’s communist BS.People of all races are mingling amicably and and there is very little racial hatred to be observed in the normal everyday life.The racial hatred that we see is where politicians become involved and I believe it is being artificially blown up in order to serve their agendas.And of course from keyboard warriors who spew their hatred from the safety of behind their computer screens.I believe the ANC is doing what the NP did so many years ago. They have created Malema and the EFF as the radical boogeyman so that they can appear to be moderate.I trust our new president, who is a very successful business man, to make the correct economic and political choices to ensure wealth creation strategies that will benefit each and every South African.If he proves that he is willing to do this, I will even vote for him in the next elections.Option 2Populist rhetoric wins. Open season on white people.South Africa goes the route of Zimbabwe.THE ENDEdit: I have never asked for this before, but given the seriousness of the situation I am asking now. Land grabs have started around 2:00 this morning in our suburb. (Note - City, not farming land)Please share the following links with everybody that you know:https://www.quora.com/How-serious-is-the-situation-in-South-Africa-for-whites-now-that-EFF-leader-Julius-Malema-has-announced-We-are-cutting-the-throat-of-whitenesshttps://www.quora.com/Should-the-white-farmers-in-South-Africa-salt-their-land/answer/Albert-van-Leeuwen?__filter__&__nsrc__=2&__snid3__=2097917883Albert van Leeuwen's answer to Where has communism worked?

Well since you asked, let me list the various points of credit for which Mr. Trump is so most deserving.Trump is claiming an economy that Obama delivered, (chart follows) and has been able to ride on Obama’s economic success until his own “economic policies’ bit with disastrous effect. Now the USA is facing the real possibility of a recession in spite of the fact that he was handed a large and growing economy.U.S. posts a record trade deficit in goods despite ‘America First’ policies The 2018 figure shows that President Trump’s tariffs and tough policies have failed to shrink a trade gap that he argues represents a massive transfer of wealth from Americans to foreigners. Source Washington PostTrump promised he would get rid of the national debt in 8 years but now it’s at an all-time high with Trump actually adding $8.3 trillion in additional debt. Source: Trump and the National Debt Trump Pledged to Eliminate the Debt. Instead He Will Add $8.3 TrillionThe VA is in shambles and he fired the only man that vets trusted. Trump and the Republicans pulled support for the Vets while the Dems supported a number of bills to help them. And it was Trump who fired the only Vet Director that the vets had any faith in and put in place a lackey that has done nothing but undermine the advances the prior director had made. “According to Military Times: “Vets still face long waits with the fraudulent VA Choice program. Dems up to saving taxpayers from another GOP fraud.According to Stars and Stripes, veterans using VA Choice program could get stuck with a $30,000 medical bill. GOP up to no good. If Dems don't stop con fraud, who will?”Trump’s Budget Proposal Cut Support for Disabled Veterans?The president's plan did call for changes that would have had a significant financial effect on some disabled veterans. Source Military timesHow often do Republicans undermine veterans?When you hear Republicans praising veterans, do not believe it for a minute. Congressional Republicans blocked or filibustered bill after bill that would have aided veterans, all in an attempt to undermine President Barack Obama while cutting taxes for the wealthy are still at with Trump as leader.Mitch McConnell and his cohorts filibustered a stopped a total of $21 billion in funds that would have expanded veteran benefits and saved expansions.Trump and the GOP claim they love the military, maybe so, but the sure as hell have no use for them when they have done their duty for their country and come home!Here’s a partial list of what the Republicans “did” for the Vets:• blocked a $1 billion jobs bill that would have helped millions of vets• blocked a bill that would have kept benefits on par with the cost of living• killed the Wounded Veteran Job Security Act• killed the Veterans Retraining Act• killed the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Act• killed the Disabled Veterans Home Improvement Act• killed the Job Creation Through Entrepreneurship ActHere Is just another few examples of what Trump is planning for the Vets:1.Source: The Stars and Stripeshttps://www.stripes.com/news/group-urges-white-house-va-to-reject-resurfaced-proposal-cutting-disabled-unemployed-veterans-benefits-1.561091“WASHINGTON — A cost-saving proposal has resurfaced in a new Congressional Budget Office report as an option to help reduce the federal budget deficit.The report suggests removing approximately 235,000 disabled veterans from a Department of Veterans Affairs program called Individual Unemployability in 2020, projecting it could save $47.6 billion in the next 10 years. Veterans removed from the program would see their monthly incomes decrease by an average of $1,300, according to CBO estimates.“We want the White House to immediately make a statement saying Trump’s recommendation is out of line and will not be considered,” said Joe Chenelly, director of Veteran Affairs.The program applies to veterans who have disability ratings through the VA of between 60 percent and 100 percent and are unable to secure jobs because of their disabilities. It allows them to receive the highest compensation rate.The CBO suggested removing veterans from Individual Unemployability once they reach age 67, claiming those veterans would be eligible for Social Security by that time.The cut was one of 121 cost-saving proposals included in the CBO report, titled “Options for Reducing the Deficit: 2019 to 2028.” The CBO periodically compiles the list of policy options to help inform lawmakers.2.Trump 2020 budget: Which department budgets would be cut ...https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/trump-budget-2020/Mar 11, 2019 - The Trump administration released its 2020 budget request on Monday, Veterans Affairs ...Also Cuts $845 billion over the next 10 years from Medicare, the federal program that provides health insurance to older Americans.3. White House has no answer for 7 million veterans who stand to lose health care"In their desperation to gain votes for their unpopular plan to repeal Obamacare, House Republicans inserted a raft of “improvements” to the bill, including one that could harm up to 7 million veterans by making them ineligible for the bill’s tax credits.The most recent estimates suggest about 9.1 million individuals are enrolled in VA health programs. However, a 2014 Congressional Budget Office score of veterans’ choice legislation concluded that “about 8 million [veterans] qualify to enroll in VA’s health system but have not enrolled.” Subtracting for VA enrollment gains since that CBO score leaves approximately seven million veterans eligible for, but not enrolled in, VA health programs, and thus potentially affected by the House’s “technical” change.”Source: https://defendingthetruth.com/threads/7-million-vets-could-lose-health-care.60726/4.Veterans are losing 6 different ways right now’The implosion of Ronny Jackson’s nomination to lead the Veterans Affairs Department may look like the Trump administration’s drama of the moment, but it carries big consequences for 9 million veterans in a sprawling health care system with uneven results and a precarious future.Not only does the VA have no leader, but the veteran health care community is also divided between conservatives inclined to privatize much of veterans’ care and those who want to invest more in fixing the current system. The impact can be seen across 170 medical centers and hundreds of clinics of varying quality that treat veterans who served in the U.S. military in every conflict since World War II.5. Did Congress Just Screw 7 Million Vets Out Of Their Tax Credits?Source: https://taskandpurpose.com/congress-veterans-ahca-trumpcareTrump has appointed cabinet heads all intent on reversing the very oversight, rules, and regulations in favor of big business, but which were originally put in place by both sides of the aisle to protect consumers and the environment. Toxic chemicals threaten water supply Source Washington PostE.P.A. Plans to Get Thousands of Pollution Deaths Off the Books by Changing Its Math“The Environmental Protection Agency plans to change the way it calculates the health risks of air pollution, a shift that would make it easier to roll back a key climate change rule because it would result in far fewer predicted deaths from pollution, according to five people with knowledge of the agency’s plans.”The E.P.A. had originally forecast that eliminating the Obama-era rule, the Clean Power Plan, and replacing it with a new measure would have resulted in an additional 1,400 premature deaths per year.Source: E.P.A. Plans to Get Thousands of Pollution Deaths Off the Books by Changing Its MathThe EPA is also cutting off funding for several research centers that study the effects of pollution on childhood development. Greenwire’s Corbin Hiar and Ariel Wittenberg report: “The move, critics say, is part of a broader effort by [Trump] to downplay science that could lead to stricter regulations on polluting industries. At issue are 13 Children’s Environmental Health and Disease “Prevention Research Centers located at institutions across the country.” Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/category/the-daily-202/?utm_term=.1d89f15bad9b&wpisrc=nl_daily202&wpmm=1Trump has 17 investigations and criminal charges against his companies, family and his presidency, all of which undermines the presidency as well as America’s standing on the world stage. The direct result, it is taking time and serious attention away from the very issues that need fixing.The $1.5 trillion in tax breaks that he promised the middle class, didn’t go to the working poor or the middle class, but instead directly benefited him, his family, the richest 1% and the most profitable corporations on the planet. The same CEO’s and top executives gave themselves major bonuses and then bought back their own stock that gave the markets a temporary surge, only to collapse as investors lost confidence in Trump and his looney policies and tariffs. “The tax cut has utterly failed to deliver the promised investment boom. Companies didn’t use their giant windfall to build new plants and raise productivity, they used it to buy back a lot of stock, passing the gains on to wealthy investors.” Source: New York TimesAT&T pocketed Trump’s tax cuts after promising 7,000 new jobs — but slashed 23,000 jobs instead while pocketing the tax cuts. Source: AT&T promised 7,000 new jobs to get tax break—it cut 23,000 jobs insteadThese unfair and misdirected tax cuts resulted in a double whammy adding to already serious fiscal deficiencies by reducing taxes overall while increasing the burgeoning deficit problem. Not only has America been ‘robbed’ of those taxes now and going forward, but these are taxes that should in all fairness be paid by the very rich, and highly profitable corporations. “Trump’s twin deficits show that his party has been lying about its policy priorities and that he is completely clueless about his signature policy issue”. Source: New York Times. This unwarranted tax cut for the rich has increased the deficit by an additional $1 trillion dollars, now estimated to actually come in at close to $2 trillion. And guess who is going to pay for it… one guess.Both Rubio and McConnell have both stated very clearly on a number of occasions that the deficit will have to be reduced with cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and wait for it…. your own hard-earned Social Security benefits. You know, the fund you have been paying into all your working life, the one, that you counted on to supplement and assuage your retirement when the time comes! Well, thanks to Trump and the Republicans, that is now up for grabs and is imperiled. And this is just in: Trump’s recent budget proposal included billions of dollars in Social Security cuts. The proposed cuts were a huge betrayal of his campaign promise to protect our Social Security system. Source: Trump is employing this insidious strategy to attack Social Security — and avoid a massive 2020 backlashCuts in Medicare and your Social Security is just part of the Trump agenda, as are his tariffs which are adding additional tax on those imported consumer items you are buying, and speaking of his infamous tariffs, based on his, “I know what is best” claim when he decided to instigate his tariff plan against the advice of both Democratic and Republican economists and CEOs, the results have been disastrous. “As many people have pointed out to no avail, Trump is all wrong about what trade deficits do. “ Source: New York Times“Tariff Man Has Become Deficit Man - Donald Trump focused his ire mainly on trade deficits, insisting that “our jobs and wealth are being given to other countries that have taken advantage of us.” But over two years of unified G.O.P. control of government, a funny thing happened: Both deficits surged. The budget deficit has hit a level unprecedented except during wars and in the immediate aftermath of major economic crises; the trade deficit in goods has set a record. Trump really has no idea how international trade works.” Source: New York TimesTrump’s tariffs have meant nothing more than an added extra tax on Americans and have cost taxpayers an additional $12 billion that Trump had to dole out to soybean farmers alone for lost crops, and he is now promising the same farmers $15 billion as they face even greater losses than estimated. To cover for his stupidity and wrong-headed Tariffs, “Tariff man” Trump, as he likes to call himself, lies to the American public by telling them that the tariffs are making America richer as they are filling the American treasury, when in fact they are an added tax on consumers, now estimated to cost an American family between $500 and $800. “Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports hurt American businesses; “Over the past year, the US has placed about $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, in part to make Chinese products more expensive so Americans don’t buy them. The administration has also placed steep tariffs on all imported steel, angering other major US trade partners. Source: Farmers are losing patience with Trump’s trade warAs for those coal mining jobs he promised, nothing, zilch, an nothing either in terms of companies being brought back. Try and name even one that hadn’t been in the planning stages prior to Trump being elected. Of course, there have been jobs still fleeing as evident by Harley Davison closed a factory and moved the jobs to Europe to avoid Trump’s job-killing Tariff program of terror. Western Farmers are not only seeing their crops rot in the fields for lack of markets due to Trump’s tariff war, but they are now losing hope and farms as bankruptcies are on the rise. Farm bankruptcies are on the rise. “A total of 84 farms in the upper Midwest filed for bankruptcy between July 2017 and June 2018, according to the Federal Reserve of Minneapolis. That’s more than double the number of Chapter 12 filings during the same period in 2013 and 2014 in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana.” Source: Farmers are losing patience with Trump’s trade war “ farmers are freaking out. Some are facing financial ruin now that millions of Chinese consumers, who once bought about 60 percent of American agriculture exports, have stopped buying their products. Exports to China from Minnesota dropped about 25 percent after the first round of tariffs went into effect last year” Trump created a $12 billion bailout program for farmers, and on May 17th, he outlined another plan to give them an additional $15 billion. Farmers are far from happy with this approach “it’s not clear if those bailouts will be enough to keep farmers happy. “We don’t want another check from the government,” Isane said. “People don’t realize that once you lose a market, it’s hard to get it back.” Source: Farmers are losing patience with Trump’s trade war“Net farm income has fallen by 50% since 2013 and the trade war has pushed commodity prices down even further. Many farmers and ranchers are on the verge of financial collapse.”…the resolving the trade war with China should be the administration’s “top priority” the Agriculture Department was told…farmers were disappointed to see tensions between the two countries escalate in recent days….the Agriculture Department was told that the president’s proposed bailout package for American farmers would not do nearly enough to stop the bleeding — it “will not make up for lost export markets and long term implications of trade disputes.” “Farmers are hurting,” he said. “It is critical the upcoming trade assistance be structured in a manner that does maximum good for our farmers and ranchers.” Source: Kansas GOP senator writes desperate letter to end Trump’s trade war: Farmers ‘on the verge of financial collapse’GM had to fire 14,000 workers in large part due to tariffs on aluminum and steel, making their cars much more expensive and Ford’s CEO has reported that the tariffs have cost the company an additional $1 billion as of the end of Nov. These costs have to be passed onto customers or absorbed by the company by cutting staff and workers, and it just keeps getting worse day in and day out.. yet this fool has no clue… “Trump’s Trade Grade- We get a look at his transcript on trade policy. It’s not pretty. President Trump’s economic policy: He picks a yardstick to measure the American economy — the trade deficit — that’s mostly meaningless. He spends years criticizing it as too high and promising to reduce it. And under his administration, it surges.” “By just about any measure you pick,” Slate’s Jordan Weissmann writes, “his effort appears to have been an absolute flop.”“He set out to fix a non-problem (a trade deficit) and created real ones including international conflict, higher consumer prices and gross inefficiency in our economy,” The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin writes.The vice president of the National Farmers Union, appeared May 16th, 2019 on Fox News to discuss President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war with China.“It has been insane,” Edelburg said. “We’ve had a lot of farmers — a lot more bankruptcies going on, a lot more farmer suicides.”“We have more commodities, more grain sitting on the ground now because we lost huge export markets. We’ve lost export markets that we’ve had for 30 years that we’ll never get a chance to get back again. Farmers are hopeful to get their crops in the ground this year but really hope we have a place to sell it come fall.” Source: FOX NEWS May 16th, 2019Edelburg said the Trump administration’s plan to provide up to $20 billion in federal aid to farmers would help, but wouldn’t be a solution to the problem.“We don’t need band-aids. We need long-term fixes to make sure farmers are able to survive. …the way (Trump ) is going about it may not be the right fix.”He was just found guilty of using his charity fund as a private piggy bank and was fined $25 million for defrauding idiots for being suckered into this get rich quick “Trump University” scheme...this and these continuing malfeasances have taken their toll in misdirecting attention, time and required action away from the serious issues that face all Americans.All of this In less than two years, and yet he has also managed to:. Divide the country like no politician ever before, by doing so the worst way possible, along racist and economic lines.. He has marginalized the rights of women, minorities and those of non-traditional sexual preferences.. He has normalized hatred, racism, and misogyny. “We’re a nation coming apart at the seams, a nation in which each tribe has its own narrative and the narratives are generally resentment narratives. The African-American experience is somehow at the core of this fragmentation — the original sin that hardens the heart, separates Americans from one another and serves as model and fuel for other injustices.” Source: New York Times. He has made America and the planet dirtier for years to come through egregious environmental deregulation. Here’s what Obama’s EPA reported: “fracking contaminates water. For instance, they state that "Injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids directly into groundwater resources" causes contamination. ... The EPA also notes that disposing of fracking wastewater directly into surface water contaminates drinking water.” This under Obama’s administration. But under Trump’s crooked EPA appointment of Pruit, who has been forced out of office for personal spending of Government monies,Trump and his EPA lied to the America public and had this to say "Data gaps and uncertainties limited EPA’s ability to fully assess the potential impacts on drinking water resources locally and nationally. Because of these data gaps and uncertainties, it was not possible to fully characterize the severity of impacts, nor was it possible to calculate or estimate the national frequency of impacts on drinking water resources from activities in the hydraulic fracturing water cycle.". He has profited illegally from his position, as have his children and son-in-law.. He’s lowered the level of discourse throughout America where simple bumper sticker bromides pass for intelligent thought.. He has destroyed the country’s relationships with our best and most loyal allies and cuddled up to the world’s most disgraceful authoritarians.. He made truth and facts irrelevant for his base while making intellectuals and the media the enemy of the people. And has told close to 10,000 verifiable lies Back on Jan 21 he was up to 8,158 false or misleading claims. but now it is more than 10,000 Source Washington Post:https://www.washingtonpost.com. He has crushed regulations meant to level the market so that small businesses had at least a small chance of competing against large corporations.. He has overturned financial regulations, making it now virtually impossible for consumers to protect themselves against the practices of shady banks… allowing for another probable meltdown. John Taylor, president of the nonprofit National Community Reinvestment Coalition had warned of the last crash and says "We got into that mess because of the lack of regulation, and now we're talking about making banks less accountable. It makes no sense whatsoever." Source:10 years after the financial crisis, have we learned anything?. He’s made the USA a global embarrassment.. For many businesses and farmers international trade is infinitely more difficult than it was just a few years ago.. He has driven the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis since he refuses to accept or simply breaks the laws of the land at will.. He’s ripped up numerous trade deals and replaced them with either nothing or moved the deck chairs slightly around the deck so that he could proclaim victory when in fact all he really did was to justify another so-called win. A good case in point was the needless drama, cost, and loss of goodwill caused in settling the NAFTA dispute with both Mexico and Canada. With a simple inclusion that didn’t materially alter the plan from the original, Trump then changed the name and claimed victory.. While the Supreme Court has long been known as non-partisan, Trump and the GOP pushed through two hard leaning rightwing justices, and is already been pushing cases through the lower courts in order to overturn numerous civil rights that are favored by 70% of the country and which had been considered untouchable, (established laws can be reviewed and altered as a precedent as Kavanaugh referred to existing laws while lying to ensure his appointment as a Trump surrogate and protector ). Trump is constantly spreading fear and paranoia regarding everything from border protection, threats of nuclear war, murderous gangs, allies raping America economically, and white people being victimized and marginalized by a country made vulnerable by left-leaning Democrats, none of which is true. Trump employs hateful rhetoric for no other reason than to keep his rabble at a constant boil, all to the detriment of civil discourse, fairness, and honesty.. And of course, there is Trump’s magically wall that the Mexicans are going to pay for while claiming that the Democrats are against border security.. when in fact all sane people, no matter the party, don’t support Trump and his magic beans that will somehow grow the wall that the Mexicans have clearly stated for which they certainly will not pay.. Trump colluded with Russia to influence his election and has spent over two years obstructing justice in broad daylight as a cover-up. Now there is evidence that the NRA received monies from Russia to pass along to Trump’s campaign and there is some discussion that even Saudi Arabia may have helped out trump get elected with more foreign contributions, a crime of its own. In order to cover up his deals with Russia, Trump fired Comey, then the head of the FBI, discredited the Justice Department, and then, the heads of the FBI while calling main news media fake and putting forth the claim that the “Deep State,” in fact his own government, were all out to get him.. Trump has attacked the free press time and time again because they have the tenacity to point out the hypocrisy and wrong-headedness of his policies and knee-jerk decisions that are detrimental to America and in direct violation of America’s number 1 constitutional right, freedom of speech.· Trump has undermined and demonized international alliances that have loyally stood with and have gone to war in support of America for decades· He endangered the entire world economy with his tariffs and isolationism· He prompted many countries to seriously look to find alternatives to US’s vaunted support and stability while allowing both Russia and China an upper hand in gaining influence and control of countries that had previously favored the USA.. Trump decided against entering the Trans-Pacific Strategic EconomicPartnership Agreement that would have given America an upper hand and a controlling interest in trade agreements with all the Pacific Rim countries in one fell swoop.. Trump actually turned down the TPP agreement because Obama was for it, and this in the face of the only one thing that Republicans supported Obama on. They, like Obama, saw this as a next to a perfect opportunity for freezing China out of the Partnership while gaining the advantage of winning a free trade agreement with all countries across the entire and the important economically growing Pacific Rim.. Trump mistakenly believed that CHINA was the main partner in the TPP agreement, but it was not until the USA pulled out, that the rest of the Rim countries decided to allow China entry; they had been counting on America to be the go-to leading partner for the entire partnership. Trump was able to snatch defeat from the jaws of an easy victory!. Trump has decided to go it alone and has hit China as well as a number of favored counties with tariffs, a move from which neither the USA or these countries will benefit. The tariffs have already decidedly increased hostilities, bad will, and has already meant countervailing restrictions as both China and friendly countries have raised tariffs on the importation of American Goods and services.. American soybean farmers are already looking at loses of $3.2 billion against next year crops and the risk of possibly losing the very markets that Trump has attacked with unwanted tariffs, as these importers become conditioned to stay with their new source of supply once tariffs are inevitability withdrawn. With $16 billion worth of Chinese imports, global trade relationships are changing in ways that could eventually leave American farmers out in the cold.. Where farmers have worked tirelessly to build relationships with importers worldwide, they find that these hard-won markets are now being taken over by Brazil, Canada, Argentina, or Russia – among other competitors. No aid or financial support will bring back those markets. And even if the trade war ended tomorrow, the damage to important and lucrative relationships with buyers has been done.. Trump consistently oversimplifies the complexities of policy issues to the detriment of those who elected him. As an international senior executive of a major Fortune 500 company, I have seen it close up and visited markets where America had a solid lock on goods and services and I can vouch for the fact that global trade is about more than tariffs. It includes a complex, interconnected network of suppliers, regulators, inspectors, shipping routes, and value chains. It’s built on relationships, cost, and reliability. Unfortunately, Trump only determines policies and makes decisions on one thing, dollars, and cents.. Most importantly, competition is fierce and growing. While tariffs can be turned on and off quickly, building – or reclaiming – trade relationships can take decades. This is what’s really at stake here. Unfortunately Trump, who is looking for an easy win, either doesn’t get it or doesn’t care. Either way, the USA is the loser for Trump’s lack of leadership, interest, care, and understanding.As it stands America” families will be paying an additional $500 to $800 because of the tariffs which, in spite of Trump’s lies that they are being added to the USA treasury, are in fact a tax on families.The May 10th. tariff hike to 25% on a bulk of U.S. imports from China will cost the American economy $62 billion by next year, according to data from Oxford Economics.That total translates to $490 per household. More extreme protectionist policies would cost $800 per household.“While negotiations are ongoing, and the possibility of a deal remains significant, a further escalation of trade tensions would have dire consequences for both protagonists and the rest of the world, says Gregory Daco, Oxford Economics chief U.S. economist” Source: Trump's new tariffs will cost Americans about $500 per household, by one estimate. This is a guy who is becoming more and more isolated and convinced that he doesn’t need counsel or advice as he has supreme confidence in his own ability. This means certain disaster for the country, a definite certainty if there is an emergency whether domestic or international in nature.. Trump is fixated on the mistaken notion that trading partners are responsible for screwing America by holding fast to the notion that both allies and foes are accountable for America’s economic decline because of America’s imbalance of trade. Trump bases this false notion on his take that America is losing economic advantage and by extension, respect for him as president. This is manifested in his rants about reciprocal trade. In turn, he has gone ahead with fights with virtually the world and put in place self-defeating tariffs in order to address the deficit, specifically caused, according to him, by an” imbalance of trade.”And he has failed miserably: WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit reached its highest sum ever last year, defying President Donald Trump's efforts and promises to shrink it through his economic policies. ... The government said Wednesday that the U.S. trade gap in goods and services reached $621 billion last year, its highest total since 2008. Source: Associated Press. Trump fails to understand that an American trade deficit with another country doesn’t mean that that country is taking advantage of the USA, it means that Americans want and purchase goods and services equal to the amount of that deficit. in other words, they are getting goods that they want and for which they pay, choosing Chinese over American produced goods. It is called free trade, a position that Republicans held as sacrosanct and inviolable down through the last 70 years.WHAT IS THE TRADE GAP?“Trump often misrepresents the trade deficit. He has frequently labeled it an outright economic loss. “We’ve been losing, on average, $375 billion a year with China,” the president said in February, referring to the 2017 deficit in goods between the United States and China. That imbalance surged to $419.2 billion in 2018 under Trump’s watch. Yet the trade gap isn’t an outright loss. It simply reflects the greater value of what the United States imports compared to what it exports. And it’s not necessarily a cause for concern.” Source: Associated Press.Trump is fixating on the wrong data and drawing the wrong conclusions. This is not in any way to suggest that China is not a problem, they are. But going it alone and shunning the assistance of America’s allies who have the same issues with China while failing to call on the WTO ( World Trade Organization that rules on unfair trade practices) is just another example of Trump’s bull-headed stupidity and his claim that “ only he can fix it”.Americans want and are willing to buy cheap stuff rather than support more expensive American manufacturers. They have a choice and they choose the cheaper goods. For all his misplaced promises and bluster, Trump’s trade policies are a complete bust. “ U.S. deficits in goods with China and Mexico surged to record highs. As president, Trump’s signature effort to stimulate U.S. growth — deficit-funded tax cuts — likely helped fuel the willingness of American corporations and households to spend, including on imported goods. That is especially true at a time when much of the rest of the economic world has weakened and is less likely to buy U.S. goods. The result has been more imports than exports.What’s more, the tariffs Trump imposed on steel, aluminum and hundreds of billions’ worth of Chinese goods likely contributed to the trend: During 2018, American companies that import goods from China appeared to accelerate their spending on them to avoid Trump’s future import taxes. Source: The Associated Press. The turbulence and uncertainty caused by Trump’s trade war have created a geo-economic feeding frenzy. U.S. competitors from Argentina to Ukraine are aggressively working to eat into markets once dominated by American farmers. But according to Trump “Only he can get it done”, “ only he alone can fix it” and fix it he has!!!, Perhaps without repair or at the very best, chances are that it will take years of hard slogging and lower selling prices resulting in lost profits to win back what had been exclusively America’s to lose.· Trump has relentlessly sought to take down or cripple organizations like NATO and the WTO and the UN; institutions that have presented the world with both stability and a bulwark against aggressive and hostile rogue nations· Trump furiously worked at alienating the US’s closest and strongest allies with the mistaken notion that they were screwing America, when in fact America is going through as is the world, a period of transformation where automation and lack of skills have caused high paying manufacturing jobs to disappear or for greedy companies that Trump has supported to move offshore.. With AI ( artificial intelligence) on the horizon and China and Russia spending heavily on research and emerging technology, Trump has no plan and no clue.· Trump has cozied up to dictators and expressed admiration for their strong arm anti-democratic leadership that has emboldened them to become more aggressive without what previously had been the USA’s moral authority that had previously held them in check.. He made his presidency a laughing stock around the world causing damage to America’s standing, moral authority, and leadership position.· He gutted the government and put in place a cabinet charged with tearing down the very Departments for which they were put in charge. This resulted in weakening consumer, environmental, safety and underlying health standards at home while causing a detrimental effect on America’s standing abroad· Trump single-handedly made the USA a country where children are ripped from their families, put in cages and traumatized for life. Because of the lack of planning or care in handling what Trump has labeled “rapists and murderers” from “shit hole countries”, kids have been separated never to be reunited with their parents and now at last count, two young children have died in Trump’s administrative so-called “care’.. These and other anti-immigration atrocities have become so normalized that ordinary people are actually arguing about whether or not it’s acceptable· Trump has created a safe atmosphere for racists and violent nationalists to voice their views and come out of the closet for the first time in 50 years. The result, Hate, and Race crimes are at an all-time high under the Trump presidency.· He has cast doubt as to the trustworthiness of societal and governmental institutions, thereby weakening the very fabric of American democracy.· Trump and his administration have transformed the very concept of truth into a post-modern quagmire of double speak and “alternate facts” worthy of Stalin’s communist rule or Hitler’s propaganda machine, undermining (if not completely destroying) the democratic principles on which the USA was founded· He has upset world order by taking an isolationist approach that previously led to the great depression of 1929. As it stands, America’s isolation position has already had a detrimental effect on the world economy, with many economists pointing to the inevitability of a recession. ‘Not my fault’: Trump struggles to defend his record amid setbacks on immigration, trade, North Korea More than halfway through his term, the president has failed to make progress on a number of his top priorities. Source Washington Post· Trump has overturned not only Obama’s policies but arguably the entire Civil Rights movement and the various progressive cultural, economic and societal gains of the twentieth century, including equal pay for equal work, and the protection of unions for the working man· He has encouraged dissent and destabilizing dialogue among staunch US allies, turning allies and friendly nations into enemies· Trump has used the power of his position to enrich himself, his friends and his family, and now has 17 criminal investigations and two guilty findings, all of which is debasing the presidency and is taking time, energy and effort away from the vexing social and economic issues facing the USA.· He has validated the punitive inhumane actions of oppressive governments all over the world· He has single-handedly relinquished any moral high ground that the US still held· Trump managed to get millions to focus on bullshit Trump instigated dramas and Trump made problems instead of policies and issues that actually affected peoples’ lives and that of their family and friends.. Instead of addressing real issues of concern to all Americans, Trump offered empty promises like, having a massive cement wall built across the southern border and having Mexico pay for it, promising health care for all that would be better and cheaper but with no idea or plan on how to accomplish it while at the same time, killing a health plan that Americans have come to love.. There is no end to his lies now approaching 10,000 Know major lies, all given to distract and confuse a concerned public for no other reason than to cover his malpractices, lack of leadership and personal failings.. And as this writing, he has held 800.000 Government workers ransom without pay for a month in order to get his way to put up a wall on the southern border that the majority of people don’t want, experts have told him won’t be effective, and have advised that electronic devices and an increase in border personnel would be a far superior approach, yet Trump believes he is right and they are wrong..Trump claims there is an emergency situation at the southern border that needs to be addressed by a wall, but doesn’t take into account the fact that experts say the wall if built, would take anywhere from 3 to 5 years to complete. So much for responding to what he calls an immediate and pressing emergency.. Trump keeps lying that there is a crisis at the border even though the number of illegal crossings is the lowest it has been in 30 years. Source: NYTimes: “Border Crossings Have Been Declining for Years, Despite Claims of a ‘Crisis of Illegal Immigration’. Once again, Trump uses lies to make a case that no one other than the most gullible believe, and yet he persists with his lies, threats, and bullying for no other reason other than to get his way for a wall that he considered a joke when told to first use it as a rallying call during his campaign. It was initially intended as a mnemonic device to remind him to mention immigration. And interesting enough, when he was elected and placed a call to the President of Mexico, he virtually begged him to go along with the charade for “ political” purposes… LOL. Trump claims there is a humanitarian crisis at the border, and yes there is, but not the one of which he speaks, there is the one created by Trump himself by locking children up in cages and separating literally 1000’s of kids from their parents never to be found again. Neither Trump or his administration have any idea as to who they are or where they went once they were in the USA.. Trump is currently being investigated as a possible Russian Agent by the FBI… wow, now that is a distinction that Obama nor any other former president can claim.. Trump’s public war on the Mueller inquiry has gone on long enough that it is no longer shocking. Trump rages almost daily to his 58 million Twitter followers that Mr. Mueller is on a “witch hunt” and has adopted the language of Mafia bosses by calling those who cooperate with the special counsel “rats.” His lawyer talks openly about a strategy to smear and discredit the special counsel investigation.. The New York Times reveals the extent of an even more sustained, more secretive assault by Mr. Trump on the machinery of federal law enforcement. Interviews with dozens of current and former government officials and others close to Mr. Trump, as well as a review of confidential White House documents, reveal numerous unreported episodes in a two-year drama.. Matthew G. Whitaker, the former acting attorney general, was put under scrutiny by the House for possible perjury. But Whitaker was just the warm act now that Trump appointed W. Barr as his permanent Attorney General.. Barr has proven himself to be no more than a toady for Trump by acting as his personal lawyer while denying any neutrality and supporting Trump in his every attempt to thwart the House of Commons in their oversight efforts to investigate Trump, his Cabinet and their work in order to prevent the Russians from once again interfering in the upcoming elections by supporting Trump in his 2020 re-election run.. Trump has spent much of his time venting publicly about there being “no collusion” with Russia before the 2016 election, which has diverted attention from a growing body of evidence that he has tried to impede the various investigations. Yet the Mueller report shows at least 185 cases where the Trump campaign interacted with Russians in order to gain an advantage for Trump in the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election.. This is death by a million cuts. The public is exhausted and overwhelmed by the transgressions, lies, larceny, and the illegal activity of this President and his corrupt family. Copious like pebbles on a beach, any one of these misdeeds would have created a volcanic eruption for any other President. Trump has always felt that being outrageous in public is a defense like hiding in plain sight ..thankfully the law does not work that way. The public needs relief.. The facts show that Trump sold out to Putin and the Russians for financial gain and is a traitor to his own country. Do I need to say more?All of the foregoing is what I consider what Trump is “ good at” and the main points of credit that can be honestly listed in praise of this carbuncle on humanity, this open sore called the Trump “presidency”.