In the hands of men....

  “We are in the hands of men whose power and wealth have separated them from the reality of daily life and from the imagination. We are right to be afraid.”  Grace Paley

 On the 28th of January, 2026, it will be 82 years since that fateful day that, kicking and screaming,  I came into this world.  When I arrived, the 2nd World War was winding down in Europe.  The 1st World War was said to be the  “War to end all wars.”  The 2nd World War proved that to be wrong, and was followed by smaller wars in Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Africa and South America, amongst others.  At this moment there are wars in progress in the Sudan, Palestine, the DRC, Venezuela, Gaza,and Cambodia to say nothing of the Ukraine and Russia.

The production and sale of “arms” has become an important economic     factor for many nations, particularly the USA, the U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia. War has become a profitable enterprise.   The production and sale of arms (and here included are small arms, artillery, armoured vehicles, ammunition, remote sensing systems, surveillance systems, UAV and UVAC drones, aircraft, naval vessels, satellite systems, satellite delivery systems and a myriad of electronic warfare components) generates employment and work for a great many skilled people and contributes a vast amount of revenue to the treasury and thus to the economy.  Indeed, it is possible that without arms sales, both domestic and foreign, some economies would fail.

Two men whose power and wealth have separated them from reality are Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.   While Trump espouses “peace” at every opportunity, he is approving more funding for the production of arms than any of his predecessors at any time since the 2nd world war.  Some of his ambitions are just plain stupid, such as his desire to build “battleships’.  Warfare in the 21st century is and will continue to be conducted using remote systems, such as drones and unmanned fighting vehicles in the air, on land and at sea.  Smart missile launching platforms such as Nuclear submarines make the use of battleships a non-starter.

Both Trump and Putin hold the keys to nuclear ballistic missile systems which are already pre-aimed at each other’s countries.  Neither of them has good mental health.  Both are paranoid to some degree.  (I should include Kim Jong Un of North Korea as well as Benjamin Netanyahu here.) This is why we should be afraid!  People such as these have no business being in charge of such weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, people like these have no business being in public office.  Trump in particular has demonstrated his lack of intelligence and his lack of understanding of how global financial and trade systems work.   He is akin to a child in a sandbox, throwing sand in the eyes of the other kids in the form of import tariffs.  If he doesn’t like your sand castle, he will impose tariffs to bring it down.  His mental deficiency allows him to make statements in public that belittle and insult those who would be his allies.  To wit, his continuing aspersions regarding Canadian sovereignty leave me speechless!  Does he honestly believe that Canada is akin to a small third-world country that can be seized at will?  His insistence on acquiring Greenland - by force if necessary - is just as ignorantly arrogant.  He fails to realise that it’s not the fact that the acquisition of Greenland would make the USA safer from Russian and Chinese encroachment, its the manner in which he makes his wishes known!  And no, Donald, Stockholm is not the capital of Denmark!  Trump is nothing but a bully who believes that he can have anything he desires, regardless.

Trump’s ineptitude is also demonstrated by his gullibility and his blind belief that everything his staff tell him is true.  He endorses everything that his propaganda  machine broadcasts.  His spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, needs her mouth washed out with soap, her lies are so blatant.  Trouble is, one can tell that she and others actually believe that what they say is the truth!  They can’t see the forrest for the trees.  For those in power, the truth can be whatever they want it to be.  One particular proponent is Kristi Noem, the US secretary of Homeland Security.  She has made telling falsehoods an art.

Adolf Hitler had Joseph Goebbels.  Trump has Karoline Leavitt.  Hitler went after the Jews.  Trump is going after the Latinos.  Hitler had Heinrich Muller.  Trump has Gregory Bovino.  Hitler had the Gestapo.  Trump has ICE.  There is an old saying: Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  A person’s character and beliefs can be corrupted just as their lust after wealth can be corrupted.

Unless Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are removed from office in the near future, I fear that my grandchildren will feel the scourge of nuclear war.  Pray that I am wrong.