Can Trump Save the World?

Shôn Ellerton, February 8, 2025
I was so relieved that the Democrats did not win, but what can we expect from Trump?

Be warned.

I hadn’t written a political piece for some time and this is a bit of a long one.

Since Trump came back to power to exercise his second term of office as President of the United States, it seems as if all the social media outlets on the Internet have been in frenetic mode. Never a day passes in which there isn’t some crazy story that defies belief. Just recently, one of those happened in which a helicopter crashed into a passenger airline near Reagan Airport at Washington DC. Certainly, it does seem a little suspicious, how this could have happened given the favourable weather conditions, but in no time flat, stories emerged in social media circles blaming Biden’s DEI policy, Trump’s anti-DEI policy, and even a supposed transgender woman who might have been flying the chopper. Reading through several news outlets, I can’t really make heads or tails of the situation. Ultimately, I’m not sure I really care what the story is anymore except for the tragic loss of lives due to an accident.

 

Washington DC helicopter crash

 

Not a day passes when Trump scripts out another one of his executive actions, some of which will probably never get enacted into power because they need to get past the Senate. Also, the confirmation of his many controversial picks for his cabinet, most notably that of RFK Jr, who was grilled for two to three hours making a rather entertaining spectacle. Next off to bat is Tulsi Gabbard who, being originally a dead-centre solid Democrat but shooed off by establishment politicians like Hillary Clinton and Obama during her presidential campaign as a Democratic president, got a lot of unfavourable votes by the RINO (Republican In Name Only) crowd for her alleged collusion with the Russians, which seems rather incredible to say the least.

 

Tulsi Gabbard

RFK Jr, the Most Controversial Pick

RFK Jr is the most interesting pick on several counts. Despite his polarising views on vaccines, he feels like the original old-school Democrat from last century. He decries the current health system inadequate and suggests how to make America Healthy Again. His proposed policies carries a lot of weight with his proponents or should I say, carries less weight, if you get what I mean. After all, the US does have a serious obesity issue. It is bizarre how his detractors consider him anti-vaccine when he has full support of many of the world’s best life-saving vaccines from polio to measles. His detractors simply tar him with the anti-vaccine brush because he was vocally against the previous administration’s forceful and bullying way to get everyone vaccinated for COVID, including pregnant women and children.

 

Robert F Kennedy Jr

 

The vaccine mandates have been a shameful episode in our history, and I have written various articles during the pandemic, some of which were censoriously deleted off various platforms but now, seem perfectly okay.

Now, the striking thing about RFK Jr’s detractors. They are so obsessed with his scepticism over the mRNA COVID vaccine and yet, seem not to care that RFK Jr might bring some real value add to the table, especially his position on other health issues which the US has largely been ignoring or even abusing by pushing drug after unnecessary drug. One of my pet hates with the US health industry is its reluctance to overhaul its overdue design of the food pyramid which has kept the nation fat and diabetic with its heavy reliance on grains and starch. These are the sort of things which RFK Jr will probably most likely address. And how about those crazy obese Tik Tokers who dance in front of the camera showing off their flabby folds of flesh showing how wonderful it is to be fat? Meanwhile, there are obese people trying to change their lives for the better by losing weight. Which is often a tough struggle.

Klaus Schwab and his Darth Vader Suit

There have been several memorable speeches by Trump since his inauguration, but the one I found most striking is the one with the World Economic Forum in which he was remotely connected to a room full of powerful people from around the globe enjoying their little luxury jaunts in the quaint and pretty town of Davos in Switzerland.

 

Klaus Schwab and his Darth Vader suit

 

There is not much to love about the WEF (World Economic Forum), which possibly represents the most illustrious example of establishment elitism on the planet. Its members meet up once a year and congregate through various activities from speeches to thinktank sessions to formulate solutions to make the world a better place.

Well, that was the original intention. But now, it comprises the richest and most powerful people from industry magnates, state leaders, and, unfortunately, celebrities and activists. I do so hate celebrities who side with politicians as a platform to push their agenda to their fan clubs. As for loud-mouthed activists who take delight in creating disruption and damaging other people’s property? Don’t get me started.

Heading up the WEF is an unusual character by the name of Klaus Schwab, a German mechanical engineer in his eighties with a monotonic Teutonic voice that resonates as closely to a James Bond baddie as one can get. His appearance matches his voice as well, the best example of which, when he wears his infamous ‘space suit’, a very peculiar grey suit adorned with a sort of silvery shoulder cloak with insignia badges sewn into it. It looks like something Ming the Merciless or Darth Vader would wear. I’m still astonished that anyone would wear such an outfit, unless it be for a fancy dress party, let alone an international convention. All he needs is a white cat! To be fair, I’ve read some of his material which proved to be quite an interesting although controversial read.

The WEF had turned into the club of the elite churning out many ideas which many of us would generally find a bit on the unpalatable side. For example, the idea that we should start eating insects rather than meat or living in so-called 3km zones to cut down on pollution which would then have the benefit on slowing down climate change and all that sort of stuff. And yet, the rich and powerful jetting into Davos want to maintain their high and lofty status and all their special privileges. It’s no wonder the WEF, along with a number of other international cohorts, such as the WHO, NATO, IMF, WTO, EU and so many others including many large charity groups have lost so much credibility with us mere mortals. They’re run by powerful elites who want nothing more than to line their pockets.

Anyway, regarding the WEF speech, Trump tuned in to the crowd of elites in Davos over a giant projection screen, including chief executives of powerful institutions like Blackstone, Bank of America and Santander. Klaus Schwab introduced Trump welcoming him virtually to the town of Davos. Trump responded graciously saying it was an honour to be addressing the room apologising that he was too busy to jet-set into Davos. But it soon turned into a monologue which exposed almost every topical point which the WEF has been trying to push.

Trump upheld free speech.

Supported drilling for oil.

Letting consumers decide if they want electric or petrol-driven cars.

Removing governmental bureaucracy.

Exposing the inefficiencies of the European Union.

Implementing tariffs and reducing income taxes.

And, of course, climate change and his proposal to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

The look on the faces in the crowd seemed to have got longer and more morose. It’s as if their little cliquey world of elites had got something a little more than they bargained for. It was a glorious speech. After that, there were a dozen or so panellists who asked him questions, some of them chief executives belonging to powerful institutions like Blackrock, Bank of America and Banco Santander, who all got swiftly put in their place when questions were asked about solving the world economy. To put it crudely, it was a real F U response to all the bull the WEF had been espousing for the last several years.

Ditching the Paris Agreement Along with Shouty Greta

Which brings me on the topic of climate change and the Paris Agreement, an agreement I felt quite certain that was going to eventually fail, not unlike the older Kyoto Protocol which first saw adoption in 1997. I took the time to read the Paris Agreement along with several NDCs (nationally determined contributions) which are essentially ‘promises’ written by each country adopting the Paris Agreement. I wrote about this more detail back in November 2019 titled Did Anyone Actually Read the Paris Agreement?

 

Shouty Greta under arrest due to obstructive protesting

 

Donald Trump is absolutely correct in saying that the Paris Agreement isn’t fair to the industrialised nations, who must adhere to far stricter standards than those nations who are developing or least-developed. This three-tier system is based on the UN’s metric of assessing where a country lies in terms of its GDP. Which means that China and India fits in the developing category because of its lower GDP and, despite being heavily industrialised, they don’t have to adhere to the same strict standard. It’s not totally unlike the situation when transgender women get to play in women’s sports.

Yes, the time of the Paris Agreement was the year of the brattish and shouty Greta Thunberg. These days, Greta has made a bit of a mess of herself with respect to public credibility after she had been arrested several times for creating a scene during various protests and also for being an anti-Israel activist claiming that the environment cannot go forward without Palestinian independence, an unlikely connection if there was one. Still, she made the cover for Time magazine which is quite an accolade, whether famously or infamously. Remember, Hitler was Man of the Year in 1938 and Stalin in 1939!

 

Stalin and Hitler had both made Man of the Year for Time Magazine

 

In general, I do not like activists. Now, don’t get me wrong. Not all activists are stupid, especially the clever but crooked few at the top who spark off their demonstrations, but the collective intelligence of activist gatherings is as low as it gets. Bunch of rowdy loud-mouthed cretins holding up banners on issues which most of them have no idea what they’re protesting about. Along with every demonstration is the incessant and annoying bongo drum idiot banging away to make as much noise as possible. They are basically sheep following other sheep for the sake of purely making a scene and causing as much disruption as possible.

Bringing in Common Sense Through Executive Action

The biggest difference between the administration of Biden and Trump is this.

Biden’s administration tended to support most of these activist groups and demonstrations, some of them, very much far outliers on the scale from what most people agree with. Whereas under Trump’s administration, it is the majority sentiment of a random group of people in which has its support. This is the definition of populism.

Let me explain.

Let’s look at some of Trump’s most recent executive orders.

Shut down the border.

Cut funding to over-inflated government bureaucracies which are not pulling their weight.

Introduce tariffs on imports.

Reducing domestic taxes.

Making it official that there are actually two sexes.

Stop DEI programs which are blatantly illegal considering that they discriminate against white people, in particular, white men.

Cutting funding to the never-ending Russia and Ukraine war.

Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.

Tough sanctions on Iran as we certainly don’t want them to be a nation armed with nuclear missiles.

Cutting back on international organisations like the United Nations, which, according to Trump, needs to step up to the mark.

Stopping transgender women (or is it men, I can’t remember), from entering into women’s private spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms and competing in women’s sports.

And many more, all of which seem to be total common sense. Even the most die-hard of Democrats will say so, but they won’t, because, like what happened to many good middle-of-the-road Democrats, they’d get eviscerated by its own party.

Popularism and the Town Hall Vote

Let’s take a random selection of people from any county in the country and put them all in the town hall. Now run off all those executive orders and after each one, ask all to put their hands up if they think it’s a good idea. I can pretty much guarantee that most would put up their hands. In a true democracy, the majority consensus wins. Again, I emphasis. This is popularism. You cater for the majority of the votes.

However, the Democrats of recent years don’t subscribe to popularism, but rather, this twisted and peculiar way of flattening out the bell curve which means that those way out on the outliers, and when I mean well out, I’m talking third standard deviation, or 99.7% from the mean. So, the fringe out there shout and cry to get their way making the rest of us have to compromise and adhere to their demands. Democrats and their supporters also have a nasty habit of belittling the common man when it comes to decisions that require the popular vote. They push the agenda that many issues are too complicated for the general public and hence purport that leaving it to the so-called ‘adults’, many of them which are anything but, is the right way forward. The traditional town hall vote of yesteryear has morphed into ultra-elitism among the Democrats. All this rhetoric about how the Republicans want to destroy democracy and introduce fascism is a diversionary tactic. And the worst part of this is that has been precisely what the Democrats have been doing for the last four years. They have already eroded democracy by silencing dissenters, censoring free speech and as for fascism, the Democratic Party have been in bed with giant corporations much like what the Bush administration did some decades ago.

Raising a Generation of People with Phobias

And then we have the very substance which probably helped in destroying the Democrats. The utter lunacy of most Democrats support for raising transexual rights on pedestals in the futile attempt to normalise it with the general public. I’m sorry, but transsexualism will never be normalised with the general public. I accept the fact that some people feel that they should be in the body of the other sex, and hence, make an adult decision to undergo certain operations to do so. But it is a small number. But to force people to make it seem normal? That’s ridiculous. Personally, I find the whole trans thing a bit on the abnormal side of things. But that’s my own opinion. I have no problems with anyone being a transgender but I do so when certain groups of activists try to convince others that they are beautiful and if they don’t think so, they’re called transphobes.

It’s the same thing with all this body positivity movement trying to normalise obesity rather than focus on the serious health concerns obesity often leads to. In my younger years as a late teenager and early twenties something or another, I had been quite overweight. Competing with other men for potential dates was that much harder and exceptionally frustrating. Can you imagine if, instead of accepting the fact that I had been rejected because she didn’t like my appearance, I said something like, ‘Oh. Don’t you like fat people? Well! That makes you a fat phobe!’ I’d have been laughed at all the way to the moon. So, rather than playing that silly game of calling everyone a ‘phobe’ this or a ‘phobe’ that, I just did the hard yards by losing weight and working out.

We’ve had transgenders, queers, gays, bisexuals, asexuals, and all sorts of different people with regard to their sexual preference and orientation throughout history. Apart from religious zealots and those religiously extreme nation states of the world, most predominantly in the Middle East, we’ve been tolerant of each other and have treated each other equally with regard to gender and sexual preferences. It has only been in the last ten years when activists have been shoving the these agendas down everyone’s throats, and anyone knows, if you try to do this, you will create resentment, hatred, and fear, which, of course, is the definition of having a phobia.

The Democrats have Committed Suicide

There is all this kind of aura surrounding the Democrats these days. There’s no right or left anymore because it doesn’t mean anything.

Republicans being right-wing?

Democrats being left-wing?

Going back to the list of executive orders that Trump wants to implement, does that mean they are now right-wing measures? Because if that’s the case, that makes the Average Joe living in the United States a crazy right-winger according to the Dems. Which is exactly why the Dems had lost in the first place. They went absolutely full out looney tunes. Check out the latest DNC (Democratic National Convention) videos in which the panellists were trying to convince the audience that Harris wasn’t elected because she is a black woman.

 

The somewhat lacklustre DNC conventions

 

I’ve shrugged off many a temptation to write political pieces during the last maddening and destructive administration under Biden but with Trump’s inauguration, I felt compelled to write one. From near day one of the last administration, I posited that the Democrats had already plunged the US into its lowest point when the sitting president and his generals screwed up the Afghanistan withdrawal. And worse to come when the Democrats then blame Trump from his previous administration, as if, Biden the then current president had no power to make the right changes? It seemed Biden never had the power to make the right changes because his administration kept blaming either the antics played out by the previous Trump administration, accusing the judicial system because it was rigged by Trump, or stymied by Republican Congress members. The Democrats had every opportunity to forward potentially great Democrats into the big chair, like Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang, but instead, held on the most typified establishment old white man leader who had real cognitive difficulties throughout his entire term. Tulsi’s political leanings are, in my opinion, still old school Democrat, but the Democrats tried everything to throw in as much dirt as possible to rid her from politics. But that all changed when she switched sides.

Authoritarian leaders can be dangerous if they make poor decisions, however, weak leaders are exceptionally dangerous and the Democrats had demonstrated this with the continued push for Biden to remain President. The Democratic Party had committed suicide leaving a blank canvas for the new Trump administration.

 

Distressing scene during the botched Afghanistan withdrawal

 

Thankfully, the current Democratic party had been defeated. It had to be defeated because I could not imagine what would happen to the US with another four more years of that madness.

A Vengeful Trump may have Undesired Consequences

But what has it left the world with?

A beacon of hope or a recipe for disaster?

So far, in my opinion, I think Trump is generally on the right path with most of his proposals. I think he’s lowered his divisive rhetoric somewhat and has taken up a more calm and collected air of, dare I say it, statesmanship. However, after four years of being attacked by the mainstream media, the Democratic party, and also suffering a couple of assassination attempts, he has come back with brute force to correct all the issues which the previous administration did not address. Imagine year after year of being mercilessly hunted down by the opposite party in order to be convicted and put behind bars due to relatively petty matters. And his confidence is unwavering because Trump has been right so often on matters relating to geopolitics, industry, and basic common sense. Whether it is Trump calling out Germany for making the ill-informed decision to render its nuclear facilities useless, calling for stronger border control to stem the uncontrolled flow of illegals, meeting up with his enemies in person rather than hiding in a bunker, tapping the resources of the United States to obtain energy, and, of course, inject an overall air of business sense into the bureaucracy.

Possibly the most contentious of his proposals is to radically reduce the size of the Federal government including many other agencies, bureaus and organisations which are dependent on it. I agree with the small government model and, like a business man, Trump will see to it that government is reduced in size.

But at what cost?

His hastiness to reverse the policies which the Democrats forged is delivering a short, sharp shock to the nation as order after order is signed with his large and squeaky black felt-tip pen. We can only hope that each one is examined in detail through senatorial circles to ensure that the balance of each one swings towards goodness rather than badness. It would be interesting if these executive orders went under a direct vote of the people, either through the mechanism of a plebiscite or a referendum, much like a state-driven proposition. Now that would be pure democracy!

 

Trump and his beloved fat felt tip pens

 

Trump understands that this is the time to deluge the people of the nation with order after order. I expect he will probably slow down as time passes, but emotions are high at this time. The Democrats are probably at their lowest in terms of popularity and the Republicans have come in to address immediate problems which the previous administration had left behind. This is potentially dangerous should a bad order be signed and then passes by the Senate with barely a scrutinising eye. We can only hope that the Senate, to use the moniker of the DNC, has enough ‘adults in the room’ to keep the checks and balances in place.

The grand ineptitude of the previous administration led to creating this situation.

Cost-cutting and the Spectre of Musk

I think most of us agree that efficiencies can be made inside most governments of the world. Given enough time, much like a frog in gradually heated water, we can end up with massive costs in the government sector when new committee groups and agencies are spawned. For example, in Australia, one out of every five workers is employed by the government. That’s twenty percent! Much higher than that of the United States, which sits at around twelve percent or so, according to Statista. However, I am including all government, including local, district, and state.

 

Elon Musk

 

Twenty percent, in my opinion, seems high, but ten to twelve percent, which includes all government, may not be entirely unreasonable.

Let’s think about this for a moment.

The new administration has been applying the rhetoric that government needs to cut down on its costs. The best way to deliver this message for support is to summon up the picture of over-bloated agencies with an army of people sitting behind desks doing not very much except get their monthly pay check. Naturally, this would garner enough support with most people who, given a chance to vote in some sort of plebiscite or referendum, would vote hands down on this. This is a good example where pure democracy based on the ‘town hall vote’ can have ill-founded effects. It’s the good ‘ole data and information problem; SISO (shit in, shit out).

What the administration does not talk about are those employed by the Federal government working for essential services such as the FBI, air traffic safety, the Supreme judicial system, the US Mail, interstate infrastructure services including road and rail, national parks, and a myriad of other services which are needed to run a civilised society. I’ll leave out defence for the time being which warrants an entire piece on its own. Remember that the administration is targeting federal government, although it could influence vast cost-cutting exercises at state level as well.

Yes, there are various agencies within government which can be slimmed down, but it must be conducted in a gradual and careful way. As much as I admire Musk for his ingenuity and being one of the saviours of free speech, bringing him in to make certain economies within the government sector is somewhat alarming. Twitter was a private company with an excessive number of employees, but that was at the behest of its previous ownership who just didn’t make economies in the business. Musk axed many jobs within Twitter, which, of course, made waves in the private sector, but taking this approach to government may have very undesirable results if done haphazardly. How many people would lose their jobs, and if they do, what happens? Many people decide to take the more secure but lower paid jobs provided by government instead of the generally higher paying and more riskier jobs held in the private sector.

I can see a few problems emerging here.

An End to the Energy Crisis

Where Trump will succeed is bringing in abundant energy back into the United States.

Energy is the life blood in which nations need to become civilised societies. With ample energy, a nation can do practically anything. But the most important thing energy can make is fresh water and, of course, electricity. Water is the lifeline of society. Without it, nations become poor, fall into rack and ruin, become tribal and warlike, and ultimately, become places no one wants to live in.

The subject of energy is a big subject on its own, but relying on green renewables and dismantling conventional means of power generation, whether it is through fossil fuels or nuclear, is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, human errors of our modern way of thinking. Australia sits at the pinnacle of energy stupidity with its sheer reluctance to implement nuclear energy and its dismantling of conventional power plants leading to the world’s highest energy prices. Australia, by the way, has one of the world’s biggest repository of uranium ore, which is imported to other nations which use it for their nuclear reactors. It’s an insanely annoying situation for those who harbour a common sense approach to the energy situation.

I’m no fan of Trump’s base ‘drill baby drill’ message, but the United States does have a vast resource of energy right under its feet. With today’s more advanced technology on regulating the carbon output from power plants into the atmosphere and safer and cleaner methods of extracting oil out of the ground, why not do it? In the meantime, the safer and modular design of thorium based nuclear power plants can be built which will provide ample energy for all. Back to Australia again, its government refuses to build nuclear power plants on the basis that they are too expensive and can take decades to build. Unfortunately, that argument is lost on me because Australia had this same discussion decades ago, which, should they have started to build nuclear power plants then, they would have them now!

Renewable energy has its place but it’s in the wrong place.

Many years ago, when Musk was starting up Tesla, there was a vision of building houses with structural solar tiles. They called it the Tesla Tile. It was such an exciting concept. The fact that every tile on your roof could be a solar power generator. If every house had this, or something similar, along with cheap and abundant battery storage, the power companies would essentially be near redundant except for the purposes of transmitting power across the network. It’s not as simple as this, but the dream is wonderful.

 

An energy dream which seems too good to be true

 

Renewable energy works beautifully well for individual properties, subject to land usage, and for small remote villages who need local distributed power. The problem comes when vast arrays of wind turbines and solar energy farms proliferate on the landscape. They require extensive maintenance and, as for wind turbines, they are inefficient, expensive, ugly, and damaging for the environment both in terms of wildlife and those living around them, and for the vast amount of material which is wasted to build them.

Hideous wind turbines littering the South Australian countryside

In general, Trump’s administration may introduce an era of lower energy prices much like what happened when Reagan’s administration took over from Carter’s back in the 80s.

The World Arena and an End to Wars

From a global standpoint, Trump is generating the most excitement with respect to his proposals to introduce tariffs, cut funding to international organisations, withdrawing from climate change proposals, implanting draconian sanctions on Iran, taking back the Panama Canal, taking over Greenland, and to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

It’s all too grand to take in for me, but the intentions are there, many of them being admirable in my opinion. It’s like Trump being Miss Universe and being asked the question what he’d like most to see. And what do they all say? World peace, of course!

Can, in fact, Trump end some of these wars?

It is genuinely possible and the reason is simply this. I think Trump genuinely wants to end these wars and unlike the previous administration, who’d rather just talk about it sending shallow condolences to those who lose their lives in them, is making real action plans to do something about it.

The situation in the Gaza Strip is tragic and absolutely ridiculous. Stemmed from religious intolerance and a deep dislike to each other, the two sides have reduced a once beautiful shoreline to a demolition site. Look at the history of Beirut as well. Once considered the Paris of the East during the 1950s, it has been marred by war and conflict and now a dangerous place to visit.

 

Beirut during the 1950s

 

I think Trump is taking the same approach when a father finds two of his kids fighting each other. At some point, you simply cannot ignore it any longer and action needs to be taken. And that means intervention. The Gaza problem seems unsolvable. Trump is absolutely right in saying that Gaza is not fit for any human to live in and points out correctly that those in the strip have nowhere to go. The surrounding Arab states won’t accept the Gazans either. Trump, at least, is making visible progress within the Middle East, whereas the former administration had no clue what to do. And that means taking some quite hard line decisions which, of course, the Democrats are misconstruing in the worst possible way. For example, Trump wanting it to expand on his real estate or some other nonsense, but ignoring the misery and suffering of those trapped in this little enclave in which there is no escape.

To be clear, taking over the Gaza Strip is a very extreme move and could have some dire consequences, but what are the alternatives? Perhaps take the other extreme position and completely withdraw from the Middle East and discontinue funding to Israel? That could lead to other dire consequences as well. Seems there is no simple solution.

As for Iran, Trump is, again, absolutely correct that Iran should never be in possession of a nuclear weapon. He reluctantly signed the executive order which imposes severe sanctions on Iran, but found it necessary to do so. As long as Iran imposes its horrific theocracy on its people and its predilection in breeding terrorist groups, what is the alternative? There was a time when Iran was a more free, progressive and thriving place, but its transformation to a very scary breed of theocracy coupled with its idealist hatred of the West has made it a very dangerous place for those who dare to dissent with its authority. My grandfather once visited Iran and found the country to be beautiful, its history rich and its people cordial and welcoming. These days, westerners are largely discouraged from visiting the country on grounds of being kidnapped for the purpose of keeping hostages. However, Iran has a lot of oil, so signing an order to prevent Iran from exporting oil may generate some pain across the global oil supply chain, however, Trump sees it as a necessary evil to rid Iran’s terrorist activity and its progress on building nuclear weapons. The previous administration imposed sanctions, but they failed to maintain them.

Trump’s other arresting antics on the international scene include Greenland and the Panama Canal. Trump’s critics quickly accuse him of wanting to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal, but there is a little more context that needs to be taken into account. Whether the Greenlanders really want to be part of the United States is a vexed question. I’d say, if anything, they want stronger ties with Canada, Iceland and Norway. It does seem generally true that many Greenlanders have felt abandoned by Denmark, which, of course, gives Trump the perfect entrance for his supposed grandiose plan to take over the world’s largest island. But it seems moot anyway considering that the United States already has a military base there. I think it’s all heady talk.

 

The Panama Canal

 

As for the Panama Canal, it was the United States that built it during the early 1900s, gave it away, and apparently, has much of its ownership scattered across large consortia, most of which is far eastern based. I tend to support Trump’s stance on the Panama Canal because without the assistance of the United States, this canal might have never been built.

You know what? Let’s just start changing names!

Despite Trump’s common sense proposals, he is not short of utter silliness and aloofness. Remember his NFT (non-fungible tokens) offerings a couple of years ago? That was downright infantile in my opinion.

But where it takes the biscuit is his proposal to change names. I do not like name changes unless there’s a damned good reason for it.

Take the Gulf of Mexico, which was named on 17^th century maps and has, since then, been known to everyone in the world as THE GULF OF MEXICO. Now whether it’s bullshit or not, the proposal to change it to the Gulf of America is not only a complete waste of time and resources, but also plain stupid. By the way, prior to this, the indigenous population in the region called this gulf, Chactemal, meaning ‘the red place’. Likewise, those indigenous-rights activists who want to change it back to this are lunatics as well.

 

Pointless charade of changing names for no real reason

 

As for mountains like Mount McKinley, I tend to use both Denali and McKinley interchangeably. Much like Uluru and Ayres Rock in Australia. I really don’t care. But oddly, Mount Everest seems okay for most despite the indigenous name being Chomolungma! In all cases with name changes, whatever is easiest to remember is the one I tend to use.

 

Mt McKinley (Denali) in Alaska and Ayers Rock (Uluru) in Australia

 

However, I reject name changes because some minority group is either offended by the name or whoever is making the name changes can see a profit by doing so. Australia has been especially guilty in spending massive amounts of money converting names which everyone seems to know back to their original indigenous names, many of which have to be made up because they didn’t exist before they were colonised. The trouble is this. Many Australian indigenous names are dastardly difficult to remember. Take for example, Adelaide’s central square. Everyone knows it as Victoria Square, but the name activists have been pushing hard to change it to Tarntanyangga. Yes! I had to Google it because I always forget how to spell it!

I also remember this sort of nonsense whilst living in the UK. There is a county called Shropshire near the Welsh and English border. I remember several changes during the space of twenty years flipping from Shropshire to Salop and then back from Salop to Shropshire. That involved changing all the road signs informing you that you were entering or leaving the county, not to mention all the official government stationery that had to be changed as well.

I know that I am rambling on more than I should about name changes, but one final one that just gets to me. When UK’s Royal Mail, the official government post office service, changed its name to Consignia back in 2001, I was dumbstruck just how stupid and stupid can be. Vans and trucks with Royal Mail imprinted on them had to be changed to Consignia along with anything else with Royal Mail imprinted on it. It was a waste of time, and within sixteen months, it reverted lock and stock and barrel to the Royal Mail again.

As for private companies, they can change the name as much as their hearts content. It doesn’t affect the taxpayer.

I hate name change activists, and Donald J Trump should know better that there are more important issues to deal with. Much like the Democrats had more important issues to deal with then promoting scandalous ideas like DEI, affirmative action, and transgender rights.

It Feels Like the 80s Again!

Trump’s return to power feels quite different this time.

To me, it doesn’t seem too unlike that strange time when Reagan came into power. I was in fourth grade in a school in Colorado during this time, and I remember it quite well. Although fourth graders may not be particularly up to speed with US politics, there was certainly a lot of playground gossip about Jimmy Carter, who was deemed as a weak, ineffectual, peanut-eating, buffoon who simply had zero charisma and represented the energy-saving killjoy who hated muscle cars and kept Interstate road speeds at 55mph.

 

Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan shaking hands

 

Yeah. We didn’t like that at all. Dad gets to drive a Boss 427 Mustang and all the future holds up for us when we get older is a one-litre Austin Mini Metro.

 

Comparing a Ford Mustang Boss 427 with a 1L Austin Mini Metro

 

To give credit to Carter, he did become quite a successful ambassador of human rights and international diplomacy after his presidency. His expertise and handling of diplomacy with ‘difficult’ nations including North Korea and various others might have thwarted the onset of some quite nasty wars. For his efforts, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Price in 2002.

Reagan was exciting and surprised the audience with his quite non-political background as an actor. Much like Trump from the business world. Trump and Reagan both disrupted the establishment. They were both highly popular but also equally hated by the other side. The difference being that the mainstream media was far more neutral back then and there was nothing in the way of social media.

Reagan enjoyed two terms in office, the first term being especially fruitful in raising the profile to the United States to be a true superpower. Through my years at junior high and high school, Reagan really brought back American patriotism in a massive way. Like Trump, Reagan was also highly charismatic and quite funny when he wanted to be. Look up famous Reagan quotes and you will know what I mean. My two favourite being

‘The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’

And.

Now wait for this little corker!

‘Latinos are Republican. They just don’t know it yet.’

This was doing the last days of the US and Soviet Cold War. Two charismatic leaders which many respected from both opposing countries. Reagan and Gorbachev. It was the Cold War of ideology, both sides harbouring weapons of mass destruction which could wipe out human civilisation with one push of the button.

Enter Trump and Xi Jinping, the leaders of today’s two superpowers. Ideology is different between China and the United States, but it’s more about economic power. China, in reality, is about as capitalist as it gets, the twist being that one cannot diss the Communist Party without being punished. Not long after Trump’s inauguration, he got down to talking over the phone with Xi Jinping.

 

Xi and Donald

 

Trump’s inarguably big strength is his ability to come face-to-face with his adversaries to resolve a conflict, something that Biden never could do. Again, the Democrats love to twist this. Instead, they will say that Trump is in collusion with the enemy, especially after his previous visits with Putin and the North Korean leader.

Keeping your enemies closer than your friends is a wise mantra to follow.

2025 could be the start of the revival of the 1980s again. A sort of 1980s Version 2. The 80s were good times, so perhaps we might see some better times ahead. After all, the 80s have, again, become so popular in terms of music, film and culture these days. Just ask the kids!

America needs another dose of patriotism and something to be proud about. Trump may have a chequered history, and some of his promises might never become a reality, but at least, there is a chance of recovery.

The Democrats Need to be Fixed, and Fast

I personally thing the Democrats are so far off track, that they may never recover for many decades to come.

The old-school Democrats have been booed off the DNC stage. We have embedded corporate corruption in bed with the Democratic party. We’ve had Democratic governors who have zero idea how to control civil unrest. Today’s Democrats speak in riddles and deal with absolutism. They have no common sense. They don’t have the people’s back. They have been so embedded in mainstream media and social media circles essentially controlling the great propaganda machine. Zuckerberg’s recent interview with Rogan highlighted much of this during the Democratic Party’s meddling with social media platforms to curtail speech which didn’t fit to their agendas. Thankfully, Musk’s acquisition of Twitter opened a can of worms for the Democrats.

 

Zuckerberg and Rogan

 

The Democrats need to shed off their elitist roots, disown the wealthy celebrities who try to convince their fans that Trump is destroying democracy, and most important of all, bring back the real Democrats, most of whom, defected to the Republicans.

But I think the cause is lost. The Democrats will now be considered the party of the elite only supported by the aging Boomer generation who rely on the mainstream media.

But that will end.

Mainstream media is on the slippery slope of extinction paving the way for unadulterated content on social media platforms moderated by community notes. Case in point, Zuckerberg admitted during his Rogan interview, that Facebook can learn quite a lot from Musk’s community notes on X.

Donald Trump’s Influence Worldwide

Finally, we must discuss how Donald Trump could influence the world in a good way.

This is really positive and exciting in my opinion.

We currently have a world with too many wishy-washy nutcase illiberal leaders like Keir Starmer from the UK, Justin Trudeau in Canada and Anthony Albanese in Australia.

 

UK’s Keir and Australia’s Albanese shaking hands

 

They all represent the established elitist class and they are all doing the utmost of their power and ability to erode people’s rights to free speech, which is the core value of any decent and civilised society. The UK has already committed suicide and on its way to third-world status. The UK is now the scariest example of being a police state in the first world in which posting an unfavourable social media post can throw you behind bars for several months. The science fiction dystopia film V for Vendetta is now for real in the UK.

 

Scene from sci-fi dystopian film, V for Vendetta

 

The United States has a Constitution which protects the people against insane despotic leaders, and yes, that includes Donald J Trump. We must bear in mind that Trump does not wield the sort of power that critics are afraid of. Look back to 2020 during the BLM riots in Portland and Seattle. Trump could send in Federal troops to protect Federal property, but that was as far as his powers could go. The then governor, Kate Brown, did essentially nothing to stop the Portland riots. As for Seattle’s CHAZ insurrection, how could we forget the statement by Jenny Durkan, the Mayor describing it as the ‘summer of love’. It was insane! Yet Trump could only watch with disgust at what was going on.

Therefore, this whole notion that Trump will become the new Hitler is as wrong as it gets. Hitler was an incorrupt politician with a terrifying ideology, whereas Trump probably takes bribes under the table but at least he has an ideology which most mainstream Americans support.

Perhaps the biggest influence Trump might make on the world is to promote the idea that countries should be very wary on allowing other countries to outrightly buy access to natural resources, major industries, and real estate. Australia may be one of the biggest offenders of doing so. For example, selling timber to Japan at ten dollars a ton only for Japan to then process that timber and sell it at one thousand dollars a ton. Or selling off vast tracts of farmland to foreign entities. Allowing rich overseas investors to shore up property as if they’re playing Monopoly. Exporting valuable ore and gas only to then have Australia rebuy it back for far more money after processing. This is the sort of craziness that should be stopped. Countries like China have been smart in this regard.

Love him or loath him, he might make some very much-needed changes to the United States and the rest of the world, but remember, four years goes by very quickly and for those who disagree with Trump, he can never run for office again.