Clear & Present Danger

Arrogance, hubris, paranoia and a ridiculous, spiky signature. The main difference between the two obvious subjects of this description, is that one invaded sovereign territory despite appeasement from those who thought they had no choice and were anyway reassured by the potential aggressor that no such territorial aspirations existed; and that the other seeks invasion by proxy through his own process of appeasement with another nation with blatantly expansionist aims. In both scenarios, separated by eighty-odd years, the ultimate victims were the countries and peoples considered in some way to be disposable by the main protagonists. And so, I'm kind of tired of people who find the Trump/Putin/Hitler comparative to be a trite and lazy truism. It simply isn't. We are as close to another European and possibly even a World War as we have been since the Cold War ended. These are febrile and dangerous times. How Europe and NATO deal with Trump is key to unlocking the death-spiral in which we find ourselves, and the way forward is not at all clear, although unlocking the capital to re-arm Europe as a bloc would seem to be at least a plan, and appears to be on the table as we speak. It is plainly obvious that no-one can directly deal with the threat that Donald Trump poses, given his stitch-up of the US government; however there appears to be widespread discontent amongst American voters over his conduct generally, let alone his potentially lethal approach to foreign policy: put simply, he is fucking over the very people who voted him back into office for a second term. Not only does the Orange One risk initiating a European War, but he is sowing the seeds of a second Civil War at home...