MAGA's agenda is a severe threat to US and Western democracy, at home and abroad.
That agenda is a severe national security threat, either way.
TAT readers,
Here we are at the beginning of a new week. No more doom and gloom for me. Yes, although our national situation with overt threats to the nation, global democracy and our constitution are quite real, few things energize me like taking on these threats with all the energy I possess. Doom and gloom, while weights around the necks of those dedicated to preserving morality vs. unspeakable evil, when shed, also allows us to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have faith in those who are willing to stand up against MAGA, regardless of party. It will be an exhausting four years but… we can do this. Today’s essay is about areas of extreme risk, where we must engage in every possible, productive manner to mitigate these risks.
Onward
As that I have covered most of these threats in-depth over the past couple of years, I will not today, beleaguer the points but offer an overview, supported by previous topical essays and other sources, when applicable. Such threats as we must deal with while under the yoke of an un-American MAGA administration, are professionally known as complex threats. All this means is that there are multiple threats that are linked together in a significant fashion. What’s important is to see a variety of threatening events as linked, not solo threats.
For example, forcing Ukraine into an inequitable truce or peace deal also negatively impacts our relationship with Europe and especially NATO. NATO member nations, already and rightfully wary of a Trump administration will be very cautious when dealing with the US. This means less intelligence, less cooperation due to their certain knowledge of just how close Trump is to Putin. A dear friend with decades of high-level national security experience likes to say, “New York is not the first line of defense from Putin, Eastern Europe is.”
Trump’s ridiculous tariff threats and favoring of adversarial nations, will degrade cooperation in every arena of international cooperation. This then will even impact markets here at home, because satisfying Putin means that any nod to Putin, also supports his senior partner, Xi of China. This means that China’s economy becomes the center-focus for all of ali Xi’s aligned nations. Xi is the top of the hierarchical pile within the Axis of Evil, followed by Putin, the Ayatollah in Iran, KJU in N. Korea and a Chinese/ Russian led BRICS. Phew, this is getting complicated so, please see the Venn Diagram below for a more complete picture.
In a Venn Diagram, wherever the spheres overlap, is where there is commonality and in a complex threat diagram, this is interpreted as where the complex threats are most acute. As we can see below, a Trump led MAGA has commonality with the Axis of Evil and BRICS, where the members hardly fit the definition of trusted allies. The stronger that MAGA becomes, the more severe the threats to our homeland and our allies.
In the past, I have labeled the Axis of Evil without India but seeing as how that Prime Minister Modi has consistently helped Putin evade sanctions, provides weapons and technology to Russia and refuses to condemn Putin for his genocidal invasion of Ukraine, I have recently added them to the list, albeit with a bit of hesitation. India is the world’s largest democracy, no matter how hard Modi has attempted to turn it into a MAGA-like state, run by him as an autocrat and with his once obscure political party, the BJP. The BJP provides him his MAGA-like religious nationalists, called the Hindutva movement and which is willing to commit far-right racist violence, on his behalf.
One of the reasons for finally adding Modi’s India to the list can be found in his state-sponsored assassination of an Indian/ Canadian citizen, living in Canada and plans to assassinate other Indian activists, on American soil. Another is that RAW, Indian Intelligence services have been active on American social media platforms, silencing critics like me by reporting us with massive amounts of bots, in order to have us suspended and banned. Like Trump, Modi is just another street thug, looking out for himself, not India’s democracy. Also like Trump, he is most fond of strong, dictatorial type leaders such as often found within BRICS and the new expanded BRICS.
As you can see in the graphic above, the 2023 expanded version of BRICS, includes two of the globe’s largest economies, multiple nuclear armed states (mostly adversaries), nearly half of the global population and 43% of the world’s oil. A closer look reveals that for all intents and purposes, North America and Western Europe, are surrounded by nations meaning us harm or a limited say in global affairs. Trump gets along better with these threats to the West, than he does with our allies. Just from a business perspective, BRICS alone has the potential to become a serious threat to the US economy.
Even should Trump align the US with BRICS, the impact on working Americans already suffering from price-gouging, will suffer even more. The potential for more jobs to go abroad, is also a deep concern. The concept of BRICS is not a threat, but those who lead it are well documented adversaries. BRICS ultimately wishes to replace the dollar with their own currency and Xi, wants it to be the Renminbi, or Chinese currency.
BRICS Summit Is a Wake-Up Call for the West The BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, provided a stage for Russian President Vladimir Putin to show that he is not isolated internationally. The worst mistake the West can make is to underestimate its importance as a mere theatre. The sixteenth BRICS Summit was historic for two main reasons. First, as expected, it provided an easy diplomatic victory for Vladimir Putin. The Russian president was able to show that he has not been isolated by trading an extra place in the Group of Seven (G7) for a central role in the “B9,” and possibly “B-more” in the future. Moreover, by progressing discussions on the prioritization of transactions in national currencies, he is further loosening the grip of sanctions. He could also claim the role of mediator by facilitating talks between the leaders of China and India for the first time in five years. - The BRICS Summit 2024: An Expanding Alternative - CFR, Council on Foreign Relations - Patryk Kugiel - November 7, 2024
No global system with China at the head, is beneficial to the US or West. Xi’s China Dream Strategy has two primary dates as its objectives. The first is to be a regional dominant power by 2035 and the exclusive global hegemon, by 2049. Before Trump’s election, this was not going according to schedule for Xi. Now, due to Trump’s love affair with Putin and other dictatorial states, China will be ahead of schedule for meeting these milestones. This is simply because, Putin owes Xi for coming to his rescue in Ukraine. Had it not been for Xi, the Ayatollah, KJU and India’s more discreet support, Putin would have already lost the Ukraine war, that he alone started.
China, across more than 4,000 years of history and through a variety of dynasties, philosophical and religious beliefs, has sustained in varying forms a handful of narratives that Xi has woven into the fabric of the China he intends to create or, more accurately, re-create. Like Mao and other emperors across the millennia, he has changed the names of concepts, but they are still recognizable as identity traits of historical Chinese narratives. The main points of his historical meta-narrative include the following descriptions of supporting narratives: 1. China as the “middle kingdom” at the center of “all under heaven”; 2. The middle kingdom is ruled exclusively via an emperor of sorts or “Son of Heaven”; 3. The emperor uses a system that could as easily be interpreted as legalism or as Maoist to administer the world. 4. Those within China are enlightened and Xi’s pursuit of purging China of non-Han fits with another historical narrative. 5. Those outside of China are “barbarians” seeking enlightenment via their interactions and commerce with China. 6. Those who seek to establish a positive, commercial role with China become “tributary states” and benefit from China’s commercial network as well as her protection of that network. 7. All who don’t seek such a relationship are to be dealt with militarily. 8. All under heaven are responsible for abiding by the world order China installs as it pertains to commerce, peace/war, while free to some extent to sustain/maintain their own traditions. This of course is only appropriate so long as it does not interfere with the emperor’s plans. - China’s ascension through a narrative lens - Asia Power Watch - Presented as part of a panel at Catholic University, Buenos Aires, Argentina - October 19, 2020
It is important to mention here that Xi’s intended global domination is not to occupy conquered or otherwise under Chinese domination nations, but an ancient Chinese approach to massive dominance, called a “Tributary system.” In simplest form, such a Tributary System of global dominance means, all nations pay China tribute payments in order to maintain their ability to operate within China’s system. Xi is of a singular mind regarding his objective of global hegemony. The narrative he has created is carefully assembled from mostly ancient, Han Chinese narratives. This is who he is and he will say and do anything that moves him closer to it. This presents another acute risk as it pertains to the Trump/ Putin bromance. This threat goes something like the following paragraph.
The Axis of Evil is really a “den-of -thieves” more like a meeting of mob families in order to decide who gets what “turf.” None trust the others, and all will play each other against those they feel most a threat to their objectives. Not as an unsophisticated insult but as a calculated and professional analysis of Trump’s strengths, clearly shows that he is not bright enough to outcompete Xi, Putin or Modi. In fact, they are all playing him. For this reason, the US is at great risk.
They will make him one of the big players only so long as he is strong enough to take them on all at once. Once the US has been sufficiently neutered by ignorant policy and intelligence sharing, he will no longer be of value to them and will become subordinate to them. This is exactly what happened to Putin by failing miserably in Ukraine. Based on the previous Trump administration, he is grotesquely incompetent in building a US or allied partnership, that will stand by the US against this Axis.
This explains the foreign threats to sustaining American and Western democracy but every single MAGA agenda item at home, lends more power to the man and movement, that will sell us out to the globe’s worst despots and autocrats.
At home, the threat is in allowing MAGA governance to dominate and reduce the constitutionally guaranteed rights of Americans, in any possible way.
For example, America and much of Europe cannot compete with overseas labor markets, therefore weakening our workforce. The simple truth is that it costs more to manufacture in the US. In order to sustain an economy where working-class Americans carry an inequitable part of our tax burden, survival means less in wages, working conditions, collective representation like unions, longer work weeks and a near absence of safety regulations. It is simply the only way to manufacture at a cost that makes US products, competitive. This is a long way of saying that working class Americans will slowly become more burdened.
Right to work states like Texas, are sheer misery for those who are not allowed to seek collective bargaining, like teachers. As you can see on the map below, these right to work states are very much the states that consistently are red states. It is no secret that red states, typically suffer from lower wages, lower standards of living and an extremely poor set of social nets. In right to work states, most working-class Americans are progressively having their standard of living, lowered.
Our economy is at the moment, red-hot and by far, leads the world in recovery. Unemployment remains at record lows and inflation, is 2.6% according to the Fed, yet MAGA falsely believes in their false narratives about everything being horrible. Trump inherited a similar economy built over eight years by the Obama administration. He not only ran it into the ground but killed over a million Americans in the process, during COVID and his criminally negligent response. He left the nation’s economy in shambles and again, as has been true since 1992 when President Clinton first took office.
In the interim, it has been Democratic administrations that have rescued the nation from a long series of Republican economic failures. All the way from the conspiracy theory “trickle-down economics” of Reagan to the Bush 43 crash in late 2008, to Trump’s selfish attempts to profit from COVID but ended up with mass negligent homicide and an economy in shambles, bloodstaining his greedy little hands.
Consolidating dishonest SCOTUS justices like Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch onto the bench, along with a long list of Trump so-called justices like Aileen Cannon, have further degraded even our court system. Racial and other tears in US society, exacerbated by the racism inherent in MAGA i leaves us unable to unify against such tyranny. This has been a primary objective of Russian and the Soviet influence operations, dating to shortly after the second world war. Now with the Trump/ MAGA team collaborating with such Russian influence operations, the unity required to pursue American values, becomes even more difficult.
Trump may be a failure at everything he has ever done, but the great irony is that with Putin’s help, he just may destroy our republic in order to build a Russian-styled, oligarchical autocracy, for himself and a handful of oligarchs. The great irony for Trump is that those he wishes to emulate, are actually in a constant state of playing him, all the while, laughing behind his back.
We must never allow him nor anyone else to erase true American values from existence. The only way to prevent this, is for those of us who depend on truth, integrity and courage to advance our nation, to fight back. Today’s essay is more about what to watch for so that we can apply pressure where the threats are most serious. This means putting extreme pressure on your elected officials if they are MAGA fans. For the record, I give my congressman Tony Gonzalez of Texas 23, as much grief as possible for his lack of moral leadership. He cheerleads Trump and mostly ignores his constituency when it comes to honesty about Trump’s threat to the nation. To make matters worse, he is a Veteran that should know better.
Finally, my friends, this essay is no rant, but a cleareyed look at some of the potential threats to the homeland and abroad, due to the election of Trump and his MAGA sycophants. It will be a long and exhausting four years but… if our children and grandchildren are to have our intended republic, it is up to us to make this sacrifice. Democracy lies in the hearts of its people. Half of our voters no longer understand, true American democracy but what they do have, will not sustain them in the long run. Like most of Trumpian conspiracy theories, fake patriotism isn’t real and will serve them no purpose. The only way Trump and his cronies like Putin win, is if we remain silent. Until this threat is over, my voice will remain strong.
This is plenty to soak up for one day. My very best to all for the rest of your week.
“Let’s roll”
Paul