Jun 2025 – sillysocksonfriday

WTF?

I suppose that I could have written the full words. But, I doubt that the internet censors are as civilised as the US President.

There were almost as many headlines about the Trumpeted expletive as there were about whether World War III had started or ended in just 12 days.

My values must be from another age: I cringe when I see Heads of State return salutes of uniformed military personnel. A red baseball cap with a slogan does not compliment a business suit. It probably resonates with younger generations, so whatever?

(Why does he wear a tie for goodness sake? – maybe I should send him my blog on Silly Socks campaigns?)

What really did irk was the frivolous dance and sham theatrics of powerful nations with lethal munitions as props.

Trump stamped his foot and uttered a profanity because his Trumphant plan was spoilt.

Iran, with the largest military force in the Middle East, pre-warned the US of its missile attack! This allowed a total defence to the attack. The Iranian government could report their military audacity to its populace (blinded and deafened without internet and tv). Everyone quickly fell into line.

Now there is doubt over the effectiveness of the strike on Iran’s nuclear armament bunkers – looks like it was all for nought. WTF! Was it all a sham show?

That’ll really pee off the Donald! He’ll look like a right banana! Tee hee!

Will he bomb any new Iranian nuclear facilities? What about the 400 kg of enriched uranium that reportedly eluded the big bang?

Nuclear enrichment elimination was his stated intention. Might become too murky and involved for his liking.Maybe TACO is a good plan B?

No one has said anything about that other cream cracker’s offer to give Iran a few ready made bombs from his ample stocks in North Korea. Is there was any other person more deserving of a bunker bomb or two?

Now we have the NATO conference, where nearly everybody will rush in to kiss Trump’s ring, as if he was a bishop. They will pledge huge increases to their military budgets and the military industrial complex conundrum will rise again.

The political pendulum will be dragged right and war will become a way of life for many for years to come.

What is your call? Will Russia really invade Lithuania as is rumoured?

Will India and Pakistan again rumble or maybe India and China or China and China or Cambodia and Thailand?

Plenty of scope for armament sales for years to come … now that’s a strong basis for re-industrialiation of the mid-West Rust belt.

Think of all the problems resolved by revitalised economies, national service and the perpetuation of western civilisation…

Sorry, got a bit carried away….

I must confess to mixed feelings, again.

I am glad that clear and potent action has been taken to stop Iran’s nuclear kabuki which the world has tolerated for so long. Now that door has been kicked down once, it can be kicked down again.

Iran can read from that lesson that its sponsorship of terrorism in the Middle East and beyond must end. Others will pay attention.

Uncontrolled immigration and the delicate treatment of refugees and illegal immigrants needs the strong treatment.

Burgeoning and entrenched bureaucracies, DEI policies and Woke tactics need to be eviscerated.

Trump is doing the hard yards with these things- not very delicately, but WTF!

How can you hate somebody but like what they’re trying to do?

No surprises

I worked for several years in the industrial relations arena during the transformation years of the 1990’s in South Africa. Things were raw and stark and there were many horrible deaths…

One lesson about dealing with people that stayed with me is that there should be no surprises.

In practice that means being predictable, highlighting the risks and illuminating desired outcomes.

…. and doing what you say you will.

Predictability and consistence – the hall marks for stability.

Donald Trump gets a big fat zero on both

TACO fits his most outrageous statements….

Which begs the question – is he promoting chaos?

Certainly, it is a means of bringing about change, until now favoured by Marxists seeking totalitarian power.

Is that what Trump is doing?

His statements about war on Democrat cities are troubling. He claims these cities have supposedly fostered illegal immigrants. This indicates he believes nearly half of US citizens are traitorous!

Now he is playing peek-a-boo with his will he/ won’t he decisions. He is contemplating whether to smash the Iranian underground nuclear facilities. Oh! And by the way, he may ‘take out‘ their Head of State, (obviously not on a date!)

I believe in his stated objectives on reducing:

uncontrolled immigration
sclerotic government bureaucratic swamps
the woke culture which has invaded universities and teaching, medical and legal professions
the overly simplistic climate goals
the influence of Big Pharma.

I also agree that global economics need to be changed with a view to prioritising national productivity.

The fact that these target conditions have become entrenched over a number of years, means that they will be extraordinarily difficult to eradicate.

I also believe that radical change cannot be effected gradually or gently.

So maybe Trump’s wrecking ball politics is crashing in the right directions?

Do we need to justify the means if we get the ends we desire?

The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced.

Aldous Huxley

How will he be stopped from turning into a dictator?

Partial support may drag followers into the vortex of fascism, particularly if the military become enmeshed in the steps.

I reckon that if Trump drops the buster, he will go on to become a full blown dictator.

(I also believe that he must drop the bomb to cut off the head of the Iranian snake that has been bedevilling the world for a loong time)

How about that ? Topple one regime and start another on a different continent!

End Times

I have been entertaining some deep thoughts prompted by others and Trumpmania.

Now maybe irrelevant speculation….. !? It seems Israel has released the brakes and stomped on the accelerator…!

The lessons of world history are clear…

When the equilibrium between ruling elites and the majority tips too far in favour of elites, political instability is all but inevitable.

As income inequality surges and prosperity flows disproportionately into the hands of the elites, the common people suffer, and society-wide efforts to become an elite grow ever more frenzied… once a society steps on the road to crisis, it resembles a massive ball rolling down a narrow valley with steep slopes.

It’s very difficult to stop or even deflect its rush to an impending disaster.

But once the ball arrives at the crisis point, the valley opens up—there are many ways to exit the crisis.

Some paths lead to a complete disaster and utter collapse. Other trajectories manage to avoid the bloodshed of a revolution or a civil war.

Broadly-based well-being is a key variable in the structural-demographic theory, while its opposite, popular immiseration, is one of the most important drivers for instability

He [Tyrchin] calls this process the wealth pump; it’s a world of the damned and the saved.

And since the number of such positions remains relatively fixed, the overproduction of elites inevitably leads to frustrated elite aspirants, who harness popular resentment to turn against the established order.

Turchin’s models show that when this state has been reached, societies become locked in a death spiral it’s very hard to exit.

Peter Turchin End Times – Cliodynamica

The Iron Law of Oligarchy. In short, power corrupts.

Behavioural Sink is a term coined to describe the behaviour of rats living in an experimental utopia with ample food and no threats

They clustered together in one area and their behaviour deteriorated.

Sort of like the impact of urbanisation on humans…

I also watched a brief video on Fascism and the scenes from LA prompted thoughts of Kristalnacht in 1938 Germany.

Deliberate overuse of power to stoke up resistance from a target population. There is a Fuhrer and sycophantic toadies and brutal bullying and suppression of opposition.

Deaths of Despair*

Life expectancy in the United States has recently fallen for three years in a row—a reversal not seen since 1918 or in any other wealthy nation in modern times. In the past two decades, deaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism have risen dramatically, and now claim hundreds of thousands of American lives each year—and they’re still rising.

In [their] critically important book, Case and Deaton tie the crisis to the weakening position of labour, the growing power of corporations, and, above all, to a rapacious health-care sector that redistributes working-class wages into the pockets of the wealthy. Capitalism, which over two centuries lifted countless people out of poverty, is now destroying the lives of blue-collar America.

… for those who used to prosper in America, capitalism is no longer delivering.

*https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190785/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism

Stay Alive

Whatever happens, stay alive.

Don’t die before you’re dead.

Don’t lose yourself, don’t lose hope, don’t loose direction. Stay alive, with yourself, with every cell of your body, with every fiber of your skin.

Stay alive, learn, study, think, read, build, invent, create, speak, write, dream, design.

Stay alive, stay alive inside you, stay alive also outside, fill yourself with colors of the world, fill yourself with peace, fill yourself with hope.

Stay alive with joy.

There is only one thing you should not waste in life,

and that’s life itself…

~ Virginia Woolf