Who cares who wins
Published: Wed, 09/25/24
At around this time my brother had joined the army, completed his training at Sandhurst and joined the RCT (Royal Corps of Transport). Not that long after he came home sporting a new sweatshirt with his unit’s new, and unofficial, slogan printed across the chest. ‘Who cares who wins?’ I think that there was also a parody of the famous winged dagger logo of the SAS, but I can’t remember exactly what it looked like over 40 years later. Either way it was a reminder that the most important piece of equipment for the British soldier, after his personal weapon, is his sense of humour.
There have been a lot of elections this year, including of course a general election in the UK in which the Labour party went from opposition in 2019 with 32% of the vote and winning 203 seats to the 2024 election when they got 34% of the vote and 411 seats. However, the turnout in 2019 was 67.3% of the electorate, and Labour received 10,296,000 votes and in 2024 the turnout had dropped to 59.7% and Labour polled 9,705,000 votes, an actual drop of around 600,000 votes. I think I missed the speech in which our new prime minister Keir Starmer profoundly thanked Nigel Farage and his Reform party for taking over 4 million votes (mainly from disaffected Conservative voters) and thus delivering the Labour ‘landslide’. Okay, this is how our ‘democratic’ voting system works in the UK, I assume the votes were genuine and correctly counted, but the result hardly seems to reflect the ‘will of the people’.
The American public are now building up to the Presidential election in November with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris as the front runners (assuming that it isn’t third time lucky for an assassin’s bullet). In the UK it is fairly rare to see anyone wearing clothing that clearly indicates support for one party or the other. I think that the British generally believe that voting is a private matter in a secret ballot.
However, in the USA everything seems to be a lot more public and ‘in your face’ with MAGA hats widely worn by Republicans and whatever the alternative is for Democrats. What is really needed is an update of my brother’s sweatshirt from back in the day. Maybe half red and half blue with the ‘Who Cares Who Wins?’ slogan. And the reality is that it makes very little difference who measures up the curtains in the White House next January. There are three main reasons why the president really has little influence on the destiny of the USA, and the same factors apply to a greater or lesser degree in all Western ‘democracies’, including the UK.
Firstly, the USA is financially bust with a national debt of over $35 trillion and it increases by several trillion in each presidential cycle. Why? Well, according to this chart posted by Bonner Private Research https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdfe6d374-48aa-45f6-a96c-0c633cc8e267_745x478.png?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email The US government is spending more than twice as much as it takes in taxes and other forms of income. The three biggest expenditures being Medicare, Social Security, Military spending (sometimes called ‘defence’.) Currently net interest is the fifth biggest expense. However, as the debt grows, interest will soon outstrip military spending, requiring even more borrowing to service the debt. As someone who once went personally bankrupt I can see where this is heading.
Secondly, success in Western politics is absolutely dependent upon total commitment to the Zionist project. Jeremy Corbyn had the temerity to think that Palestinians have rights too and now Keir Starmer is the UK Prime Minister.
Thirdly, the USA has 800 military bases spread across the world. The Federal government could save a great deal of money simply by closing the bases and brining the service personnel home and demobilizing them. However, no one seems to be suggesting such an idea. The talk in fact is of further supporting Ukraine against Russia, threatening Iran, and even going to war with China before the end of the decade. Military spending gives a lot of money to the ‘Military Industrial Complex’ Which then recycled some of that cash into political donations.
Neither of the candidates for the presidential election in November have any plans to cut federal spending, they compete with each other to demonstrate their love for a certain Middle Eastern State, and cutting military spending is never on the agenda. As for social issues which might directly affect ordinary Americans? Well, Harris will boast about her support for ‘reproductive rights’ and Trump might seem a safer pair of hands where the Second Amendment is concerned. However, issues like these are usually more dependent upon state legislature than Federal agencies, so who is in the White House will actually make very little difference.
The Western world is heading for some very tough times ahead, not least because of shifting demographics, financial debt, and de-industrialisation. I can’t quite see why anyone wants to be notionally in charge at times like this. It is also clear that we cannot vote our way out of the mess we are in. Even if someone came forward who might just be able to make a difference you probably wouldn’t get the choice of voting for them anyway.
The traditional Tyng was the meeting of the community where the leaders or Jarl class would confront and answer the concerns of the people. Those who claimed positions of leadership would be known by the wider community and their actions noted and judged. The Tyng would be the opportunity to call them to account. The only way forward for us today is local accountability and a recognition that all politics involving people that you cannot know personally is either irrelevant, or just theatrics. Voting every four or five years in national elections for people you only know about through the media is not going to do much good.
What you can do is connect with real human beings face to face. Don’t sit at home getting angry and depressed with the TV and social media. Get out a interact with real people and make real connections with them. It doesn’t really matter how you connect, just get out there and do it. Martial Arts has always been one of my networks of connection, but by no means the only one. Also, make sure you connect with people outside of your echo chamber, people with different political affiliations, other religions or none, etc etc. Such relationships might be tricky at first, but we have to break down the polarisation and division which makes it so easy for the powers-that-want-to-be to manipulate us.
regards
Graham
PS Monday night class had two people for the second session and is looking promising. If you are within reach of Beverley here are the details https://iceandfire.org.uk/selfdefence.html
Or maybe see you in Salisbury on the 16th of November https://iceandfire.org.uk/salisbury16112024.html
Graham Butcher
21 Beaver Road
Beverley East Yorkshire HU17 0QN
UNITED KINGDOM
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