World Leaders!!!

Comments on various World Leaders! Are they unhinged??? Are they really on top of the world?

The Donald!

Trump is not unhinged.  

He knows exactly what he is doing – anyone who can successfully balance the many, many balls in the air that can destroy him as long as he has without being crushed is a genius.  

He is also obviously Putin’s man – he probably was paid to launder hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Russian Oligarchs money in the early 1990s to avoid bankruptcy (…this is why he will not release his tax returns, which will show an inexplicable turn around in his fortunes about 25 years ago…), and he has been Putin’s bitch ever since.  

He won the presidency by running a better campaign than Hillary, who lost as she ran a terrible campaign (BTW – “MAGA” was brilliant, speaking directly to American angst.) He will likely lose in 2020, as we will be in a recession by then and the next Democrat will just run a normal campaign, in which case Trump simply does not have the votes – Biden is 8% ahead of Trump in polls. Trump’s only hope is a third-party socialist who attracts 10% of the vote and destroys the Dems…or that Hillary will run again. I still think she will.

Mini-T!

Trudeau is not unhinged.  

He is likely less ethical than Trump, having gone so far as to breach ethics laws twice in one term, and to have obstructed justice to help his friends. In an older era, he would have resigned in disgrace.  

Like Trump, where Putin has stuff on him, it may be that SNC Lavalin has something on Trudeau. His understanding of economics is that of a man who has never had to work for a living. His stance on Global Warming is a fraud. He is lost without Butts as he is not a smart person.  

Unlike Trump, who realizes that he is just the President, Trudeau thinks he is Canada. He will govern for 20 years – I predict a 5 – 10 seat Liberal majority this year, but with only 36% of the popular vote. This is about to be a repeat of Bob Rae’s victory in 1990.

Macron!

Macron is not unhinged.  

His love of an older woman is genuine and guarantees him a massive amount of support from women in France, who are the majority of voters. Like so many Frenchmen, his wife is partly for show – I have to wonder if he has other younger women on the side, and she is likely OK with that?  

He stood up to the Yellow Vests, and won, and he is making significant changes to the French economy for the first time in 40 years. On that, it is very rare for a French politician to stand up to anyone at the barricades!  

Finally, he is positioning France for the inevitable day when the USA leaves Europe, when the French think they will be the political leaders of the continent again. He thinks he is The Sun King, reborn…he may be right.

Boris!

Boris the Spider is not unhinged.  

He is trying to crush the Europhile arm of the Conservative Party in Britain, which has divided that party since 1973, thinking that if he can do that then the party will emerge more unified than at any time in the last fifty years; ready to run the country for the next fifty years. That he is wrong in this is not his fault – Brexit could destroy the Conservatives, as it will reveal just how many risks they are willing to take with the country’s future in aid of parochial party politics.  

His prorogation ambit is designed to get Parliament out of the way so he can negotiate a Brexit deal – he understands the risks, and he does want a deal. He is a gambler, not at idiot. 

The person he has not reckoned with is QE II. I think there is a 50/50 chance she will first prorogue for Boris, but then in a few weeks she will dismiss him and force an election - which will effectively be a second referendum. The risks are now to the UK itself, as the Scots and Northern Ireland could leave without Britain in  Europe – if he won’t protect the union, she just might….got to keep the Summer residence in Scotland, after all!

The Papacy!

The Pope is not unhinged.  

He is taking on a completely rotten edifice of massive proportions that has needed a house cleaning for over 100 years. He needs to root-out pedos, money launderers, and anti-abortion fascists. He is making progress. 

Specifically, he has focused his attention on saving souls and doing good works, and not anti-abortion and anti-gay culture wars; he has forced the Vatican (a.k.a. The Mob) Bank to follow international banking laws, ending the money laundering; he has set up a separate bureaucracy at the Vatican, destroying the power of the Curia (the old Vatican bureaucracy that protected so many monsters and allowed so much unethical behaviour…); and he has reamed-out the bishops and archbishops and cardinals over many of these issues, especially the pedo stuff, where he has forced reforms including the immediate communication of information of abuse to the civil authorities. 

What is at risk is the future of the Church itself. I am a Catholic. I would give him a “B –“ so far.  While there are a lot of things that I would like him to do, when he excommunicates pedo priests; allows priests to marry; and closes the seminaries that operate like pedo recruitment centers, he gets an “A –“.   

He is the first Jesuit Pope. In the 1930’s, when the Dominicans wanted to make a deal with Hitler, the Jesuits wanted to launch a culture-war against his pagan state and destroy him – they do not fool around (…unfortunately for history, the Dominicans won that argument.) 

I expect much more from this Pope. Specifically, I expect a mass dismissal of scores of bishops and archbishops and cardinals, in a Catholic “night of the long knives” to root-out all the scum bags, all at once. But first he needs Benedict to die, so these people have no one to turn to in order to try to launch a counter-attack by claiming that Benedict is the “real Pope”. When this happens, the Laity will be cheering him on.

The others? 

Xi is on the ropes – if the economy continues to slow – it probably has zero growth now - and he can’t stop the problems in Hong Kong, the Communist Party could be in serious peril. This regime has to shoot people to survive, and Hong Kong is showing that they can’t just shoot people anymore, which is the eventual end of their regime. Trump is strangling him to death.

Putin is less and less popular in Russia. Expect a foreign adventure soon, which is what he does when his popularity wanes. It may not work this time. Tens of thousands of people took to the street to protect against him a few weeks ago. 

A lesson from history - strongmen only appear strong until they are not, and it is only when they are gone that their previous weaknesses becomes apparent. Putin may be a façade.

Rouhani and Khamenei in Iran are in serious trouble as the place may be about to implode, courtesy again, of Trump who’s real goal is regime change. The people are going hungry under the sanctions – no amount of anti-Israeli propaganda and fake religious fervour can address empty stomachs. They have had very serious demonstrations there in the last few years, bordering on violent insurrection. This will come to pass.

Finally, Assad will be assassinated at some point by supporters who likey can’t take living in a modern version of Nazi Germany anymore. I suspect that even he knows he is a “dead man walking.”