Wednesday, December 7, 2016

A Dire List Of Possibilities If Tump Actually Does What He Said He'd Do

Chaos in Europe. Power vacuums in the Middle East. Trade war China. Chaos South of our border with Mexico. And roiling economic instability here at home. This is what the Bloomberg "Pessimist's Guide to 2017" predicts.

Even allowing for the fact that it is very pessimistic, and, as such, isn't likely to have all of its predictions come to pass, it is still chilling. This is so precisely because all of these are possible, and it's Murphy's law that says that if a thing can happen, it will, if only in a scenario of "eventually."

What I think is the wild card here. What I hope is the wild card... Is that some significant portion of the Republican party finally grows a spine, as well as a pair of cojones. A spine in the sense of seeing that the nation's interests actually do supercede their own concerns for political power, and maintenance of same. And a pair of cojones in the sense that they will risk the possibility of a "primary election retaliation" by the extremist groups that have hijacked their primary process. And these two developments will be manifested in having enough Republican members of both houses of Congress to forge common cause with Democrats and block at least some of the especially egregious policy moves. This is, in fact, what is meant when one has predicted, as I have, that cooler heads will keep this president from indulging in all of his fantasies concerning what is supposedly good for the nation.

This of course may prove to be just wishful thinking on my part, but why not. Now that we've entered a "Twilight Zone" of political reality wishful thinking seems as appropriate as anything else; especially in light in what is likely to represent "thinking" out of the White House. Time will tell certainly. I fear, though, that my other prediction of us living in that Chinese curse of "interesting" times may also be way too likely. Just be ready to holdon to your hats and gird your stomachs. The twists and turns coming may make for a very sickening ride.