By: C. William Hanson Jr.

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”

-Yogi Berra

“Recrudescence,” which, as Susie Dent reminds us, means “the return of something terrible after a time of reprieve,”. emerged as the word of the day on November 6th, as Trump became the 47th President-elect.

https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1854071082988237264

Within his first week as President-elect, he was already taking monstrous actions, such as proposing for the post of Attorney General Matt Gaetz. Gaetz has been the subject of an ongoing ethics investigation in the House of Representatives into allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, bribes, and misuse of campaign funds. Gaetz did not pass muster even with the Republican Senators whose approval he would need, but these Senators have been accepting other equally atrocious Trump nominees without hesitation.

The Return

Source: Chappatte.com

Trump’s first three weeks as President-elect have been fully confirming the assessment which Arizona columnist Jim Small so lucidly provided on the day following the election:

Today feels like a new America, one I don’t recognize. One that doesn’t make sense. One that has abandoned the promise of our great country. One I now fear. One I weep for.

We have transformed ourselves from the shining city on the hill to a monument to the grotesque, an experimental empire set to be destroyed in a madness of our own making.

The ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016 was terrible, and ushered in all manner of national embarrassment, scandal, destructive policies and political violence, but his defeat in 2020 left us with the belief that America realized it made a mistake and corrected its course and the nation would resume its course toward the exceptionalism that had defined us for more than 200 years.

This is different, and demonstrably worse. In 2016, no one knew exactly how Trump would govern — or that his incompetence was consistently an impediment to his worst instincts and kept him from implementing the most noxious parts of his agenda.

No longer. This is a new and far more dangerous Trump, one hell bent on revenge and with the backing of a conservative movement that has turned him from a morally bankrupt real estate tycoon and reality show huckster into a deity. Those allies have spent the past four years devoted to ensuring he can carry out every terrible thought that enters his mind, and whatever other radical policies they want.

Trump has told us all of this, and he’s been frighteningly explicit about what he will do as president this time, particularly in the final weeks leading up to yesterday’s election.

He will seek to root out every undocumented immigrant in a “bloody” and violent mass deportation. He will build concentration camps. He will institute ideological screenings for legal immigrants and end birthright citizenship.

He will end the prosecutions he is facing for fomenting a coup on Jan. 6 and illegally hoarding classified documents, and he will sic the Justice Department on his political enemies. He will pardon his violent supporters who sacked the Capitol in 2021 to overturn an election he lost and tried to kill members of Congress and Trump’s own vice president. 

He will use the military to violently suppress dissent and round up “the enemy within,” which amounts to anyone who criticizes him. He will deploy soldiers to take over cities run by Democrats.

He will replace the civil service with his cronies to ensure there is no resistance to implementing his policies, no matter how un-American or unconstitutional, and to dismantle the government from the inside.

He will oversee the implementation of a national abortion ban, undoing the will of the voters in Arizona and other states — many deep red — that voted decisively to guarantee a right to abortion.

He will appoint lunatic anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to oversee public health.

He will target transgender people, particularly children, and seek to erase their existence from American life. He will aggressively attack LGBTQ+ rights.

He will impose 1,000 percent across-the-board tariffs that will cost the average American family an extra $3,954 per year and eliminate 1.4 million American jobs.

He will eliminate the Department of Education and withhold funding from American schools that teach truths, be they about the nation’s history of racial inequality or the existence of gay and transgender people.

He will withdraw from NATO and give Vladimir Putin a green light to attack our NATO allies. He will cede Ukraine to Putin and abandon a critical ally in the fight against the Russian dictator’s desire to reestablish the Soviet Union.He will scrap policies that aim to mitigate climate change and accelerate the use of fossil fuels, which will drive America further into crisis with worsening droughts, deadly …(full article here from Jim Small)

WHAT ABOUT UKRAINE?

As regards the war in Ukraine, a panel of New York Times experts provide an assessment this week:

For Ukraine, what’s become clear is that for them, also, territory is not the most important thing. It does look like there’s more and more acceptance that in order to bring this war to a close, Ukraine will have to accept Russian occupation of part of its lands.

So what Ukraine cares about the most is what are referred to as security guarantees. How will Ukraine feel assured that Russia won’t just reconstitute its forces and attack again a few years from now? So then the question is going to become, how can Ukraine get security guarantees without being part of the NATO alliance? Will countries actually… (Full piece here from a New York Times panel of experts)

The panel sees both sides as eager for an end to the fighting. On the front in Donbas, Russian troops are advancing at a snail’s pace despite the Russian troop casualty rates of one thousand or more per day.

Let us hope that the observations offered by these experts mean that 2025 will see an end to the fighting in Ukraine, fighting which is costing the peoples of both combatant countries most dearly. Ukrainians understandably worry that Russia would refresh its forces and renew the attack, but the invasion resulted, as many experts believe, from the machinations of one man, the war criminal Vladimir Putin. He is 72 years old and will not remain in power nor live forever. And following a truce the Ukrainians with the help of European and other allies will benefit from an opportunity to restrengthen their own defenses.

Putins Reelection

Source: Chappatte.com

DR. HANSON’S PRESCRIPTION FOR OUR READERS

It has already become clear that each day is likely to bring more revolting news from the White House. Dear reader, do you really have the stomach for this? If not, why subject yourself to it? Here are four recommendations:

1. Read or listen to great fiction or well written history, works like White Noise by Don DeLillo or A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Do not listen to news on your car radio. Listen to favorite music or audio books, available free from Librivox. 
2. To the extent that you do not choose to push news of current events entirely from your mind, turn to publications more likely to feature the best quality of writing and broader perspective, publications such as The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Economist, and Foreign Affairs. In the words of George Bernard Shaw, a newspaper is “ A device unable to distinguish between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization.” 

A broader perspective, for example, can help provide insight into the meaning of the 2024 election results. Consider, for example, the following article by David Rising offering a worldwide perspective:

BANGKOK — Whether on the left or the right, regardless of how long they’ve been in power, sitting governments 

[around the world have been drubbed this year by disgruntled voters in what has been called the “super year” for elections.

Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election was just the latest in a long line of losses for incumbent parties in 2024, with people in some 70 countries accounting for about half the world’s population going to the polls.

Issues driving voter discontent have varied widely, though there has been almost universal malaise since the COVID-19 pandemic as people and businesses struggle to get back on their feet while facing stubbornly high prices, cash-strapped governments and a surge in migration.

“There’s an overall sense of frustration with political elites, viewing them as out of touch, that cuts across ideological lines,” said Richard Wike, director of global attitudes research at the Pew 1st”Research Center.

He noted that a Pew poll of 24 countries found that the appeal of democracy itself was slipping as voters reported increasing economic distress and a sense that no political faction truly represents them.

“Lots of factors are driving this,” Wike said, “but certainly feelings about the economy and inflation are a big factor.”

Since the pandemic hit in 2020, incumbents have been removed from office in 40 of 54 elections in Western democracies, said Steven Levitsky, a political scientist at Harvard University, revealing “a huge incumbent disadvantage.”

In Britain, the right-of-center Conservatives suffered their worst result since 1832 in July’s election, which returned the center-left Labour Party to power after 14 years.

But just across the English Channel, the far right rocked the governing parties of France and Germany, the European Union’s biggest and most powerful members, in June elections for the parliament of the 27-nation bloc.

The results pushed French President Emmanuel Macron to call a parliamentary election in hope of stemming a far-right surge at home. The anti-immigration National Rally party won the first round, but alliances and tactical voting knocked it down to third place in the second round, producing a fragile government atop a divided legislature.

In Asia, a group of South Korean liberal opposition parties, led by the Democratic Party, defeated the ruling conservative People Power Party in April’s parliamentary elections.

India’s Narendra Modi, meanwhile, had been widely expected to easily sweep to a third straight term in June but instead voters turned away from his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in droves, costing it its majority in parliament, though….(full article here from David Rising)

3. To the extent that you choose to remain or to become active in politics, do so at the local, municipal level. Attend a town meeting, for example. As Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Tip O’Neill famously said, “All politics is local.” While this saying may be considered an exaggeration, Sanmay Das and others describe “the majority of Americans engaging most frequently with the goods and services provided by local governments (e.g., parks, roads, sanitation service)”.

4. Moving to another country may also deserve serious consideration, either in pursuit of education, a better job, or a better retirement. Advantages of retirement abroad abound in this website quoted here and linked below said quote if you would like to read further:

People thinking about retirement often like the idea of living in a different country because it can be cheaper. In many places, housing and everyday living expenses cost much less ………. This helps retirees use their savings wisely, allowing them to have a comfortable life without giving up quality.Abroad, houses are more affordable, and the lower everyday expenses mean retirees can enjoy a better life, try new things, and travel without constantly worrying about money. Importantly, having more financial flexibility doesn’t mean giving up a good lifestyle, making retiring abroad an excellent choice for those wanting a fulfilling and affordable retirement…

https://expatsi.com/communities/retirees/reasons-to-retire-abroad

Here are some ideas from the Harvard Business Review about overseas employment:

https://hbr.org/2022/12/looking-for-a-job-abroad-heres-what-you-should-know

And here is a website of guidance for education abroad: https://www.internationalstudent.com/study-abroad/guide/ten-benefits-to-studying-abroad/

WHAT THE COMING YEAR WILL BRING IN THE HANSON GAZETTE

 Our first issue of 2025 will feature a report from Hungary, often seen as the obstructionist NATO country slipping into autocracy under Victor Orban. We shall explore the extent and nature of autocracy in Hungary and see how ordinary Hungarian citizens are faring. A subsequent issue will provide findings from our upcoming visit to Russia. Please stay with us.