[Peace-discuss] Fb conversation

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Chris Knight] 100 down... only 1360 days left to go.

[Carl G. Estabrook] Then we can get back to a president who's a 
warmonger and corporate globalizer in the Obama-Clinton mode?
That's in the interest of the 1%, if no one else.

And the 1% now seem to have taught Trump their ways: the economy has 
been turned over to the bankers (Cohn and Mnuchin) and the war over to 
the generals (Mattis and McMaster).

"They make a desert, and call it peace."

[Chris Knight] I doubt that the 1% have taught him anything. I admire 
your conviction that he was a viable alternative to corporate capitalism 
and the military industrial behemoth, but I don't see that. To me he 
appears to simply be an insecure overbearing ignoramus. He appears to 
bend to whomsoever is pleasant to him. To imply that he had some grand 
plan, which has now been thrwarted, seems incorrect to me. I regard him 
as an inexperienced, spoiled racist, who has no idea of what he is 
doing.

"They make tomato sauce, and call it a vegetable"

[Carl G. Estabrook] The 1% (via their agents, the Obama-Clinton 
Democrats) have cozened or compelled him into adopting their neoliberal 
and neoconservative policies - which he attacked in the campaign.

His character flaws - the disingenuous concern of the political 
establishment - are not the issue: the criminal policies of his 
administration, at home and abroad, are.

We should be demanding a cessation of the wars and the 'trade pacts' - 
both of which serve the interests of the 1%, and are against those of 
the majority, at home and abroad.

[Chris Knight] He made lots of wild assertions during his campaign, most 
of which he has since apparently forgotten. To cherry pick the ones 
which would show him as a viable alternative to the status quo, and then 
assert that he has been co-opted by the establishment, is to paint him 
in a very rosy light. And although I agree that the criminal policies of 
his administration are a very serious issue, I do not agree that it is 
OK to ignore his personality traits, which are not simply played up as a 
diversionary tactic, but instead are harped upon because they are real, 
reactionary and disgusting.

[Carl G. Estabrook] US policy is more important than his personal 
reformation.

[Chris Knight] And empowering racists, sexists, homophobes and science 
deniers can therefore be overlooked?

[Carl G. Estabrook] No, if it's a matter of government policy, not just 
trying to prevent people from thinking (or saying) the wrong things.

[Carl G. Estabrook] Instead of deploring Trump's enormities (or his 
miniscularities), we should be demanding

~ no war: bring US troops and (weapons) home;
~ no climate catastrophe: suppress carbon emissions;
~ no immiseration: a universal basic income; and
~ no untreated illness: Medicare for all.

Instead, good liberals are demanding an Obama-Clinton restoration, which 
would secure none of these things.

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