Trumps and the Ides of June


In Roman times, the Ides of March, which fall on March 15th, was the deadline for settling debts. Cesar was warned by a fortune-teller to “Beware the Ides of March” before being assassinated on that day. As 2019 approaches ‘the Ides of June”, the Empire is having not only ‘a constitutional crisis’ in which the President is challenging the ‘checks and balances’ written into the Constitution, it was plunged into an economic crisis, the Dow Jones Index dropping five hundred points after China responded with tit for tat to the President’s raising of import tariffs from 10 to 25%, and Mexico’s new president manouvered successfully to blunt a similar threat over its handling of Central American refugees bound for the US.
Not to mention the latest threats by Secretary of State Pompeo against Iran, marked by the dispatch of a carrier fleet to the Persian Gulf on the basis of ‘rumors’ of bellicose plans (not ‘intelligence, mind you, notwithstanding the existence of the ‘Five Eyes’ grouping the US with Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) having required him to stop off in Brussels to clear his decision with the US’s European allies, who would be on the second lines of a Persian Gulf war, before traveling to Moscow to sort all this out with President Putin, Iran’s closest ally.
It was only a matter of time before it became clear to Washington that the rest of the world would eventually dump the dollar to free itself from the US’s punishing sanctions, which are based on the fact that world trade revolves around that currency. Or that Xi’s China, fast approaching parity with the US in economic terms, would lead the way, just as President Putin’s Russia protects countries such as Venezuela when the US decides to seek ‘regime change’.
Until now, even American news junkies have been left unaware of the depth and breadth of the Russia-China alliance, however that may finally change. As newscasters spend hours opining on the relative chances of the 20-odd Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential election, in which they hope to defeat Trump, Secretary Pompeo and the even more bellicose National Security Advisor John Bolton (he of the walrus mustache) essentially take over military decisions from the president (together with a Pentagon backed by the arms industry), threatening not only Israel’s enemy Iran, but also to oust the democratically elected Venezuelan President and put a hand-picked upstart in control of its vast supply of oil, the Dow Jones Index has been gyrating wildly and the CEO of one of the most successful hedge funds joined the chorus of prominent Americans coming out in favor of ‘reforming’ capitalism’. The problem is that in the American lexicon, social democracy (as well as the Greens) are tagged as ‘far left’.
Similarly, as the country ramps up for presidential elections which are more than a year away, it’s difficult to believe that any of the well-meaning Democratic candidates will be a match for a Deep State determined to wage the Empire’s final – nuclear – wars.
Deena Stryker is an international expert, author and journalist that has been at the forefront of international politics for over thirty years. She can be reached at Otherjones. Especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.