The government shutdown: All reasonable people ask “why?”. The hard right and left are hunkered in. While I see the wall as a 19thcentury response to a 21stcentury problem, I see the arguments of both sides. For Trump, as much as he claims that the shutdown is about the wall, it’s not. Trump is the emperor of trolls and he relishes the shutdown for reasons that go way beyond the wall. He has the opposition by the gonads and won’t let go until they say “uncle”. He’s prepared to ride this for the entire term of the new congress if he has to. He. Does. Not. Care. What do you do with that? It won’t change until something is destroyed.
Socialism in America: I’ve said repeatedly that a historical swing back toward socialism is overdue to occur. George H.W. Bush was perhaps the last ‘traditional’ president we had and everyone since then veered progressively further toward their respective ideological base or extreme. Obama brought a new intensity beyond his forebears. Trump, even more so, in spades. And just wait until the next liberal socialist swing replaces Trump or his successors. It will make the EU look prudish in comparison. You’ll see functional if not procedural suspension of the constitution. ‘Dissidents’ will be jailed; some may have ‘accidents’ while there.
Capitalism: Not directly related to the above political movement, capitalism is headed for a crisis. The irony is that the rogue emerging leader of capitalist power, tech, is not aligned with any conservative movement but instead with neo-socialist movements. It’s difficult to now even say that these are separate entities. How all-encompassing does socialist-tech have to control our collective lives before we rebel against our overlord? To the extent that we are the sum of our data and we are the Tamagotchi toy of a few dozen individuals that dictate if and how much autonomy we have within their environment, there must come a point at which someone breaks off and disrupts the arc of history. I admit this sounds over-wrought but give this a few more years when tech has wiped out your industry and we’ll discuss this some more.