The Thursday fireside chat (August 28th)

Please pull up a chair while I share my thoughts on the week's events and throw out some points for your consideration

Welcome to the first of what will be a feature each Thursday, as I explore the political events of the week and look ahead to both the dangers and, hopefully, the potential positives. It provides me with an opportunity to take a wider view of where we find ourselves in these perpetually challenging times. I encourage you to provide feedback and exchange ideas with others in the comments, as we gather once a week to share our thoughts and perspectives. I will make every effort, as I usually do, to respond to comments.

These weekly posts will obviously be longer than my daily ones (Oh no, I hear you scream), but I have created section headers to help you navigate to what may be of particular interest to you. Treat it as sort of an à la carte menu of thoughts. I’ll leave you to decide if the menu items are worthy of a Michelin star. By all means, feel free to tip by becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll be hard-pressed to get better value for a few cents a day.

I want to reassure you that you are not losing your mind. Nothing about what is happening in America right now is normal. The election of an evil clown to the presidency has delivered a circus to America. Like all circuses, the ring masters are pulling the strings of the clown to create a fantasy world in which they can construct a media narrative to distract you from the most significant transfer of wealth in American history. Millions of Americans, now incapable of critical thought, have become pawns in a political and economic fairytale, as the king in this story dismantles the government and renders the rule of law powerless against him, but capable of being weaponised against his enemies. With that said, let’s get started and begin with the mass school shooting in Minnesota.

Mass School Shooting in Minnesota

This is the 44th school shooting in the US in the first six months of this year. Children were attending a Church Service at the Annunciation Catholic School when the perpetrator, a former pupil at the school, started firing indiscriminately through the windows at children sitting in the pews, killing two children aged 8 and 10 and injuring 17 other people, 2 of whom were children who are reported to be in critical condition at the time of writing. My heart goes out to all those affected by this senseless act of violence.

There is much talk on the right about the perpetrator being a male identifying as a woman. I have no intention of mentioning the name of the monster who committed this heinous crime. Gender identity is irrelevant and certainly not a point for political weaponisation to cover up the consistent inaction by Republican lawmakers to take meaningful steps to implement sensible gun controls. They are, as you read this, creating a new enemy in response to this tragedy, the ‘trans terrorists’, so get ready to see it in your For You feeds on social media.

Let’s be clear, sending your child to school should not be a game of Russian roulette. Americans should not pander to the gun lobby any more than they should be forced to make their schools like secure forward operating bases to protect the profits of arms manufacturers, who have bought and paid for lawmakers to designate them as a protected species.

It will never stop, as thoughts and prayers are once again meaninglessly smother parents who will bury the bodies of their children mutilated by high-velocity rounds designed for use in war. Their coffins will crawl through the streets in what has become an endless procession of funerals of the innocent. Schools should be sanctuaries for learning, growing, and celebrating the gift of education, not childhood-killing fields. I fear nothing will change, and I’ll be posting another message of condolence and condemnation in the not-too-distant future.

This should not be about politics; it should simply be about right and wrong. Lawmakers are drenched in the blood of innocent children snuffed out over and over again, to the echoes of silence in the legislative chambers of the nation’s capital. There can be no solution to this cancer infecting American society until lawmakers do what their constituents elected them to do, rather than what the gun lobby pays them to do.

We often get tied up in the emotion of such an abhorrent act of senseless violence that we miss the underlying damage done beyond the destruction of the lives of these slaughtered children at the altar of profit.

In a report from September 12th 2024, by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, they noted that from the latest available verified data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention:

48,204 people, the second highest on record, died from gunshots in the U.S. in 2022, including 27,032 suicides, an all-time high for the country.

It continues to highlight:

• There were 2,526 gun deaths in 2022 among 1- to 17-year-olds, averaging to nearly 7 per day.

• Firearms accounted for nearly a third of all deaths among 15- to 17-year-olds.

• From 2013 to 2022, the rates of gun suicide among Black youth ages 10 to 17 tripled and, for Hispanic youth ages 10 to 17, more than doubled.

• Across all age groups, American Indian/Alaskan Natives were five times more likely to die by gun homicide than their white counterparts.

Be in no doubt, an average of 40,000 deaths per year is an indictment of a broken society where it appears the only life Republican lawmakers value is ‘the unborn’, because the only investment required is judgment, condemnation, misogyny and bastardised biblical quotes. Let’s be honest, politicians from both sides of the aisle are paid protectors of gun manufacturers; However, the roadblocks always come from Republicans, for whom there is no appetite for even basic gun control measures.

In a report by Nirmita Panchal and Sasha Zitter of KFF, the leading health policy organisation in the U.S., they highlight:

The new Trump Administration has revoked multiple gun safety initiatives in the interest of preserving Second Amendment rights. These initiatives include dismantling the School Safety Committee, an Executive Order to review and revise firearm regulations by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that may infringe on Second Amendment rights, and the removal of the former Surgeon General’s advisory that identified gun violence as a public health crisis.

It goes on to note:

• Exposure to gun violence can have severe adverse effects on the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents, including increased likelihood of depression, PTSD, anxiety, and poor academic performance.

• The new Trump Administration has rolled back multiple Biden-era gun safety policies. Simultaneously, access to mental health and trauma support may be impacted by federal budget cuts and restructuring.

You can see from the chart below that child deaths from gun violence have long been on the rise.

Even more disturbing is the number of children committing suicide using firearms

Tragically, the lives of American children have long been second to profit in America, not only when it comes to gun violence, but also in investment in their future through public education and protection of their well-being through nutritional assistance and child tax credits. Society is sacrificing its children at the altar of profit and greed. When you are failing the very foundation on which future prosperity is built, you have to ask yourself some serious questions. In the end, it all comes down to poverty and deprivation; social mobility is no longer a reality, it is a societal corpse, and the dead can’t participate.

I have made video after video about this epidemic of violence towards the most innocent in our society. The slaughter of the innocent is an indictment of the culture we have become.

The betrayal of Ukraine and covert action against Danish allies

As Trump continues to run interference for an indicted war criminal, pretending that efforts are being made to reach a peace settlement, Russia launched a devastating series of attacks on CIVILIAN targets overnight in Kyiv, which killed 18 people, 4 of them children. The European Union's mission and British Council offices were also hit during the strikes.

I am struggling at this point to understand the relevance of the US in any negotiations. They have been proven to be powerless even in controlling the level of attacks, which escalate further with each passing day. Once again, we have seen Trump blaming Ukraine for going into a ‘war they can’t win’. Which part of they were invaded is he struggling with, or perhaps he is suggesting that they should have handed over the country the day Russian tanks crossed their border?

I have spoken of these political games by Trump until I am blue in the face. Europe need to get it through their thick skull that he is batting for the other team. He is like the proverbial abusive spouse who is incapable of change. This farcical dance that NATO and the coalition of the willing are engaging in, thinking they can rehabilitate the abuser, has now become embarrassing. They need to be in no doubt whatsoever that Trump sees Europe as no more than a subservient partner he can extort and exploit at will. Considering the so-called depth of political talent they possess, it is breathtaking to me that they have not identified the concept of ‘once a bully, always a bully.

The EU is the largest single market for goods and services in the world, and it is also the largest investor and recipient of foreign direct investment globally, yet it acts like a scolded child when it comes to Trump. The situation is simple: Trump wants no part in any conflict with Russia over Ukraine because he sees it as a threat to a potential business bonanza once the war is over. Russia is ripe for US exploitation in his eyes, although I fear Putin will be of a different opinion.

Europe and the NATO allies are on their own in this fight, and the sooner they recognise it, the better. The US has no intention of coming to the aid of anyone under Article 5, and if it meant him profiting from walking away from NATO, he would do it in a heartbeat. Puntin finds himself facing no consequences from either the US or Europe for his continuing war crimes, and Ukraine can’t fight this war, only armed with words of support and solidarity. They mean nothing when you are facing a war criminal intent on the destruction of your country.

Europe needs to take decisive action and liquidate all Russian assets held in European banks, not just confiscate the interest generated by these assets, but fully confiscate the assets themselves. By all means, invest the capital and use the interest generated to continue funding the Ukrainian war effort, as well as raising loans on that capital for the same purpose. There will, of course, be concern about the legality of such action, but it would be an illegal response to an illegal invasion and therefore, in my opinion, justifiable. By seizing ownership of the capital, the principal would still be in place in the event of any subsequent attempted international litigation.

It’s time to take the gloves off and ask Trump to pick a side. I understand that everyone is living in fear of additional tariffs, but we must realise that tariffs hurt the US as much as they hurt anyone else, and the wheels are coming off the US economy as we speak. It’s time to stop running scared and stand up and fight. The UK and Japan alone own enough US debt that if sold, it would trigger a US recession. It’s time to employ Mark Carney's skill set to develop a coherent joint leverage strategy, ensuring Trump understands that they will take drastic measures if he pushes too far.

The Russian army is a busted flush, and without the time Trump keeps buying Putin to manufacture more drones and missiles, he will be unable to sustain these attacks. All Ukraine need to do is keep destroying Russia’s capacity to refine oil and gas. Europe should be jointly developing a strategy to use non-US-supplied long-range weapons to hit hard all the remaining oil refineries to strangle the Russian economy. The reality is that Russian air defences seem incapable of stopping these attacks, and that’s why they are hitting Ukrainian civilian targets hard in retaliation.

It might sound drastic, but maybe it’s time for NATO to consider sending combat units into Ukraine as a shot across the bow to Putin to demonstrate the capability of NATO to force the Russian army back to its own borders. Russia could not win a war against NATO. I would even hazard a guess that the Polish military alone could defeat the Russians in their current state of depletion. Russia may have the manpower, but that means little in the new battlespace. Look at the cost to them to date, facing a much smaller Ukrainian army. It’s time for decisive action, and NATO has several options available to end this war. If they don’t do it now and Russia takes Ukraine, then the war is coming to them anyway. It really is time to prove to Trump that while we value the support of the US in Europe, nothing he is doing is bringing any value whatsoever.

This brings me neatly to the US's covert actions in Greenland, which mark an attempt to build a pro-US movement to pressure Denmark into ceding control of Greenland. It is textbook US interference with deniable plausibility. It is no secret that Trump is scouring the world for vulnerable countries where the US can extract rare earth metals. This is why he has been attempting to extort Ukraine for the same purpose and why he is keen to reestablish trade links with Russia.

If you would like more information, I would suggest you read a report produced today by NPR, which is based on reporting on the ground by the Danish public broadcaster:

At least three American nationals with connections to Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in the territory.

One of those people allegedly compiled a list of U.S.-friendly Greenlanders, collected names of people opposed to Trump and got locals to point out cases that could be used to cast Denmark in a bad light in American media, the broadcaster reported. Two others have tried to nurture contacts with politicians, businesspeople and locals, according to the report.

I certainly don’t think it’s much of a stretch of the imagination to understand precisely what is being attempted here. They are simply trying to implant the MAGA disinformation machine in Greenland.

The military occupation of a town near you

If you haven’t yet read my piece on this, I hope you will find it enlightening and informative.

The willful destruction of critical agencies

The hallmark of this administration is departmental dysfunction, from the Bureau of Labour Statistics to FEMA to the CDC; Trump has decided to install loyalists in leadership positions in all of them. This is part of his objective to control the media narrative totally. Whether it’s defunding science and research or cripping the federal response to emergency events, Trump wants absolute control over all of them.

It is challenging to articulate the devastating impact that can be inflicted on citizens and communities when a tragedy occurs, whether it is a natural disaster or a public health emergency. The gutting of these various agencies represents a clear and present danger to American families. Seasoned professionals are being replaced by those whose only qualification is loyalty to Trump.

He suggested yesterday that the ‘Department of Defence’ somehow sounded weak and felt that the ‘Department for War’, as it was once called, promoted a more offensive image, which, he clearly felt, was more appropriate. One thing is for sure: he is now at war with a large segment of the American people.

Then we turn to his campaign to control the Federal Reserve and, by default, interest rates. We have now seen him fire Lisa Cook from the Board of Governors in his war on the independence of the Federal Reserve. She is rightly challenging his action in court. History has taught us time and time again that chaos follows when leaders undermine the independence of central banks. From Nixon to Erdogan, rocketing inflation follows, and once that inflation takes hold, it takes years to stabilise the economy. In Nixon’s case, the inflation rate peaked at around 12% in 1974. It then took several years after he left office for it to get back under control. In the case of Erdogan, Turkey's current inflation rate in July was 35%. Admittedly, it is down from 83% in October 2022.

If Trump is handed control of interest rates, it is game over, not just for now, but for the foreseeable future. It would be like sending a 3-year-old child into a room full of people with a loaded gun. It will unquestionably end in tears. He doesn’t need the nuclear codes to destroy America; he just needs control over interest rates.

I can’t emphasise just how much the stock market has become disconnected from reality. It’s like looking through the looking glass back to 2008. The truth is that Trump has now effectively taken control of reporting inflation, GDP and job numbers. Just as the banks hid the subprime debt they had on their books in 2008, Trump is now seeking the ability to hide critical economic numbers, and that thought should terrify every American because he is holding your life savings in his hands. It’s like handing the village arsonist a box of matches and a can of gasoline for his birthday and expecting him not to burn down your house.

He will hide any negative indicators just as the banks did in 2008. The moral of that story is you can run from the truth, but you can’t hide. It will not have escaped your attention that AI stocks are beginning to falter, not because AI is failing, but because everyone has bet the house on it in the hope of securing short-term profit. It’s a bubble just waiting to burst. Greed has once again got in the way of common sense.

My biggest fear is that we are witnessing the nurturing of a perfect storm, and I have a gut feeling that the whole deck of cards could collapse with one wrong move—and that move is to lower interest rates too quickly. When we reach the ignition point, we will witness a market correction that will make 2008 look like a walk in the park. The stock market is creating a dangerous false sense of security. The danger signs are flashing everywhere, and people are closing their eyes and covering their ears.

The rush to gold is no coincidence. Those with money are already seeking safe refuge, but I fear there is not enough room in that lifeboat. You and your 401 (k) will become just passengers thrown overboard by an economic terrorist, who will already be sipping champagne on the lifeboat while the bottom 90% drown.

Is this a foregone conclusion? Absolutely not, but those with influence must NOT allow Trump to gain control of setting interest rates. I fear, however, that nobody dares to stop him, and we are back to my assertion that YOU can help prevent this yourself through economic disengagement. If you are unfamiliar with my proposition, I suggest you read the piece below:

I hope you have enjoyed my first not-so-brief roundup. Clearly, there is much more going on, but we’d be here all day working our way through it. If I haven’t convinced you that Truth Matters is worthy of your becoming a stakeholder as a paid subscriber, I doubt I ever will. However, to those who do support my work, pieces like this represent your return on investment in the truth, because Truth Matters.

We’ll convene with another fireside chat next Thursday. Until then, you can catch my posts most days, so I look forward to seeing you soon.

Martin McSweeney