Generational Dynamics World View News

[jdcpapa]

I don't think its possible to do much to the Federal bureaucracy. I have read the project 2025 plan, and while I applaud removing union protections for any government employee, I think there is a danger in the P2025 plan to replace employees with political appointees. This would be even worse.

I remember hearing a lot in 2016 about "draining the swamp", but little happened. The biggest problem is that you must overwhelmingly control both houses of congress in addition to the President, and everyone in that majority needs to be on board with the change you want to make. The Republicans couldn't even get rid of the Dept of Education back in the Reagan era, even though that was promised.

As for Trump being a basically good guy, I just don't buy it. He screwed over every contractor who ever did work for him. He alienates people that should be his allies and supporters (Mattis, Kelly, McMasters), and turns on his own supporters (like Fox News, which is unfathomable) who dare take the slightest exception to anything he has said or done. He does, however, excel at playing to cameras.

On a personal note, sorry for delays in replying. We are trying to travel a lot while my wife is still able, and its hard to post while "on the road".

Project 2025 has been disavowed by Trump and the Republicans in the House.

As far as not "draining the swamp", the Republicans (to the best of my recollection) had the House and the Senate when Trump was inaugurated in 2017. "Never Trump" Speaker Paul Ryan (on the Fox Board of Directors) as well as other "never Trump" Republicans chose to retire prior to the 2017 mid-terms and arguably "handed" control of the House to the Democrats.

I worked for a national general contractor years ago. The company would "beat up" its contractors all the time. Beating up contractors (screwing over) is not exclusive to Trump. Sorry, "he screwed over every contactor who ever worked for him" is painted with a "broad brush".

He does alienate people.

[spottybrowncow]

As for Trump being a basically good guy, I just don't buy it.

You may well be correct, I don't actually know him

He alienates people that should be his allies and supporters (Mattis, Kelly, McMasters)

Agreed. Thank you for not including Milley, who went to the Chinese behind his back to assure them he would not carry out his commander-in-chief's orders if he didn't feel like it.

He does, however, excel at playing to cameras.

Thank goodness. With all his warts, he needs all the help he can get.

On a personal note, sorry for delays in replying. We are trying to travel a lot while my wife is still able, and its hard to post while "on the road".

We all appreciate you replying whenever you can. I pray that you and your wife will find peace and hopefully joy ahead.

[Navigator]

Project 2025 has been disavowed by Trump and the Republicans in the House.

It appears that trusted Trump supporters were the main authors. I will leave it at that.

As far as not "draining the swamp", the Republicans (to the best of my recollection) had the House and the Senate when Trump was inaugurated in 2017. "Never Trump" Speaker Paul Ryan (on the Fox Board of Directors) as well as other "never Trump" Republicans chose to retire prior to the 2017 mid-terms and arguably "handed" control of the House to the Democrats.

I think he had a majority in both houses. But you are right that too many Republicans wouldn't go along with gutting the bureaucracy.

I worked for a national general contractor years ago. The company would "beat up" its contractors all the time. Beating up contractors (screwing over) is not exclusive to Trump. Sorry, "he screwed over every contactor who ever worked for him" is painted with a "broad brush".

You are right that I should not say "every". I am just thinking of all the Taj Mahal contractors he stiffed. Plus he got pretty good at not paying banks back money he borrowed. Then there are the Trump stock investors. And these are just the prominent cases.

He does alienate people.

[Navigator]

As for Trump being a basically good guy, I just don't buy it.

You may well be correct, I don't actually know him

He alienates people that should be his allies and supporters (Mattis, Kelly, McMasters)

Agreed. Thank you for not including Milley, who went to the Chinese behind his back to assure them he would not carry out his commander-in-chief's orders if he didn't feel like it.

He does, however, excel at playing to cameras.

Thank goodness. With all his warts, he needs all the help he can get.

On a personal note, sorry for delays in replying. We are trying to travel a lot while my wife is still able, and its hard to post while "on the road".

We all appreciate you replying whenever you can. I pray that you and your wife will find peace and hopefully joy ahead.

Thanks for your support. We are doing quite well right now in that my wife has no symptoms nor pain and is fully mobile. We can travel a lot and pretend that nothing is wrong. Of course, our faith is a major support, especially since we believe in Eternal Marriage (vs "till Death you do part").

As for Miley, I have no real respect for him. He would show up at West Point, get drunk, then allow himself to be manipulated by cadets. Telegraphing intentions to China was an inexcusable panic move.

[Trevor]

Imagine if China came to the conclusion that Trump would strike, thanks to his warning, and decided to strike first, starting a massive war. However much I dislike Trump, Milley's behavior is inexcusable.

These are the choices we're stuck with, sad as it is. It's likely to be a close election because while Kamala is far more liberal than your median Democrat, Trump is so odious that many will vote against him anyway. We're not likely to know the outcome on election night, so what then? We've had two assassination attempts against Trump already and too many in the media are blaming him for "provoking" it. How is the left going to respond if Trump wins again, likely losing the popular vote? His base is the white working class and increasingly, the non-white working class. History didn't begin on January 6, however much they say otherwise.

The media's always been liberal, but in 2008, they viewed Obama as the messiah, deciding to promote his agenda rather than the news. Anyone who opposed him or questioned him was damned as a racist. Not that the accusations weren't used before, but they took it to a new level, where it's become the default tactic. Romney was a moderate Republican, but he was smeared as an unhinged racist and extremist. There's a reason conservatives tune out Trump's actions. Our institutions- the media, academia, Hollywood, Silicon Valley- are all leftists, for whom being "woke" is considered a positive. Upper class elites who are at best indifferent to the working class, and at worst, openly cheer their deaths.

The sad thing is, despite being liberal, it's easier for me to discuss politics with conservatives. If I disagree even on something minor, I suddenly become an alt-right Nazi, denounced for my "privilege."

[Navigator]

It really looks like it will be very close, maybe even 2000 close, where we don't know the winner for sure for a couple of months.

The extremists on both sides could become very aggressive. The worst would be the liberals, who would go far past what happened in the BLM riots.

Meanwhile, the country is being run by Jill Biden until at least Jan 20, 2025.

Given what the left thinks of Trump, it is not inconceivable that they would find a reason for suspending the turnover should he actually win, although there is no legal justification, even under martial law, to do that.

The amount of anarchy the left can unleash FAR surpasses what the right can do (as most people on the right, rhetoric aside, do believe in law and order; while the left is perfectly fine with "death to the police").

If Trump wins, I don't think he would stand by like he did for most of the BLM riots in 2020. I think he would find ways to federalize response assets and not allow liberal big city mayors to let things get completely out of control. This would of course further inflame the left, and it would look like the country was descending into anarchy, which would only embolden China/Russia/Iran/N Korea.

[FullMoon]

Given what the left thinks of Trump, it is not inconceivable that they would find a reason for suspending the turnover should he actually win, although there is no legal justification, even under martial law, to do that.

I've seen a few people saying that, because of the Trump phenomenon, liberals are essentially acting as though democracy is a threat to democracy. It's all going very much as Neil Howe has been somewhat eloquently describing this year in numerous podcasts. Everyone is trying to figure out why the world is going crazy and he wrote a book decades ago fr describing pretty accurately events now unfolding. He's saying that neither side will accept being ruled over by the "other". But I agree with you that the Left is clearly willing to go to much greater lengths in their pursuit of power and control.

As Trevor describes, "liberals" are now the political equivalent of closed minded bigots. People who actually believe in liberalism and practice it are certainly not aligned with those whack job lunatics. Their only governing platform is to be the "not Trump" party. Everything else shifts with the wind. Power hungry grifters they are. Is Trump a viable alternative? Is he any better? Rock and a hard place we're in. I remember John talking about how the specific leader is not that important because the momentum of the mass of people will essentially dictate the direction of the nation.
Fourth turnings are when we fear for the destruction of our society and we could say most people are getting to the point of understanding it now. Resolution of all the myriad built up stresses across the world is shaping up. It's going to be a wild ride there's absolutely no way of knowing how it will resolve except for that the aftermath is trending as described in Navigator's book. And I agree somewhat with his spiritual prediction but I hope that humanity can actually get past this pretty rotten condition and learn to have a connection with God that transcends any social conditions. Materialism and lack of connection with the greater power are the causes of the darkness enveloping this world.

[FullMoon]

15 Worst Places to Be During a Nuclear Attack on America
Now here's some useful mainstream news.
https://247wallst.com/videos/15-worst-p ... n-america/

China expert sounds alarm over 'war signals': 'Xi Jinping is about to do something truly horrendous'
.

His comments come after the Ministry of Defense of the People's Republic of China announced that its military had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Wednesday morning.

The missile, which carried a dummy warhead and was not targeting any particular nation, fell into the ocean without incident. The People's Liberation Army's Rocket Force claims that the launch was part of its routine military training calendar.

"That’s a war signal. That’s a second war signal that we’ve gotten from China in the last 10 days, which means that Xi Jinping is about to do something truly horrendous," Chang warned

https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/china ... horrendous
There sure is a lot of talk about using nuclear weapons these days. WAY more than since the height of the Cold War. Except cooler heads and a clear thinking generation are NOT at the healm. It's hard to imagine what this winter will be like...

[Navigator]

A few thoughts.

Israel - They most certainly will go into Lebanon. They have fully realized that negotiating with these terrorist factions has been a complete failure and that they need to do their best to eradicate them. By now the vast majority of Gazans have probably figured out that supporting Hamas was a giant mistake. My guess is that the Israelis will slowly push through southern Lebanon, and then further, probably close to Beirut, and then move the Gazans to Lebanon north of the Litani river. This is what I proposed that they should do last year. I think they will most likely do it. It is the only prudent solution.

China - They are going to do something. My guess would be that they do it after election chaos sets in, maybe as late as April. But they are going to go after Taiwan.

Ukraine - I am reading reports that the Ukrainians are just about out of anti-aircraft missiles and I can see them slowly losing ground to the major Russian advance from Avdika area. Once the US is in chaos, the Russians will end things with a nuke or two, if the Ukrainians haven't thrown in the towel yet.

Presidential election - I think one of the best predictors is the betting market. Harris has been losing steam, and is now at 51% probable with Trump at 48%. Trump is usually underestimated by a point or two, so it does mean to me that the election will be too close to call, and may result in a 2000 type election, where we don't know the actual winner for quite a while. This will most likely result in both sides coming unglued on the streets, and will only enable Russia/China. The only plus side is that it will also enable Israel to carry out its plan.

[FullMoon]

Vietnam Accuses China Of ‘Brutal Attack’; Reports Say Chinese Soldiers Thrashed Fisherman With Iron Rods
In an incident that is capable of sparking more tensions in the already volatile South China Sea, two Chinese vessels attacked a Vietnamese fishing ship over the weekend. The incident has left the Vietnamese government, which has maintained a cordial relationship with China, fuming.

https://www.eurasiantimes.com/vietnam-a ... al-attack/

For them to start attacking the Vietnamese unexpectedly and in such a violent manner is a major escalation. Everyone was already on high alert with them attacking and taking from the Philippines. They must sense that they'll have a good opportunity when the US gets sucked into the ME and diverts critical assets. We don't have much time at all.