Where Are The People In All of This, Now?

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The current 'debate' about free speech in the US is a worrying one. The First Amendment to the constitution states: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances'. There you have it in a nutshell. Unfortunately, the political right in the US these days seems to hold a somewhat twisted view of the First, somehow inserting invisible caveats into it, such that free speech is now actually only available to the government itself, its supporters, and most particularly, its funders. Pretty neat trick, eh? We are actually moments close to Germany, 1933; the Soviet Union under Stalin or Cambodia in the Pol Pot era. All have common traits: racial cleansing, othering, ideological suppression; the rewriting of historical truths to suit the regime, und so weiter.

The problem we have in the rest of the world, however, free speech notwithstanding, is that the knock-on economic effect of this dickhead administration's tooling around with stuff they so little understand in the service of their own twisted greed, is already turning the screws on economies such as the UK's, already reeling from the chaotic events of the last fifteen years of political and viral mayhem. I'm going to posit that, as uncomfortable as it sounds, given the Chinese human rights record; that the only UK/EU rebuttal possible to Trump's madness is to isolate the US and it's ridiculous 'buddies' Russia and North Korea, bite the bullet and take China on board as an economic partner to freeze out the unholy alliance on business terms. I mean, what the hell: we all of us buy mostly Chinese made [and supplied through multiple channels] goods anyway. Trump's missing a trick. It would be stupid if the rest of the world did, right?  But unfortunately, the consequences of that choice could, and probably would, be dire indeed. World War Three, anybody?

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