Tag: MAGA

Posted in Current Events

Isolationism’s Price Tag: Self-Marginalization

Posted on by simplebender

Isolationism is not simply folding one’s arms and turning inward. It is worse. It is an accelerant poured on the fire of realignments already underway. Today, American isolationist tendencies, packaged as “America First” or wrapped in tariff protection, are not just national policies; they are geopolitical catalysts. And those sparks are igniting a wildfire that pushes Europe and the BRICS nations closer together, while the United States drifts toward self-marginalization.

The European Union, long a stable and interdependent ally, is recalibrating. Reeling from broken treaties and facing generational tariffs on steel, autos, and manufactured goods (Financial Times, July 2025), Brussels is negotiating as if Washington is no longer a reliable partner. Free trade agreements with India and Mercosur are being revived, with trade deficits accepted as a form of diversification insurance (European Commission, 2024). Strategic forums like Weimar+ are asserting European security identity outside NATO’s shadow. EU leaders now warn against “lecturing” the Global South (European Council, 2025), recasting Europe as a multipolar broker rather than a U.S. dependent.

BRICS has seized the moment. Expanded to include Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt, the bloc now represents nearly 47% of global GDP (PPP) and more than half of the world’s population (CFR, 2025). Intra-BRICS trade has surpassed flows with the G7 (BCG, 2024), and new payment systems are being constructed to reduce dollar dependence. By mid-2025, dollar use in inter-BRICS trade had fallen to one-third of prior levels (AgWeb, 2025). China and India—the world’s largest food consumers—are securing long-term agricultural pacts with Brazil and Russia (USDA, 2024).

Once again, America’s rural farm belt is bearing the brunt. U.S. agricultural exports to China fell 17% in early 2025 (American Action Forum), while South American soy and Russian wheat dominate EU and Asian contracts (Financial Times, June 2025). Brazil alone shipped $106 billion in agricultural commodities in 2024, much of it bound for Asia under preferential trade agreements (USDA, 2024). The USDA forecasts a 25% decline in net farm income in 2025 (USDA ERS). Rural America, once the proud breadbasket of the world, is being replaced—collateral damage of shortsighted policies and shifting winds of trade.

It does not take much to project forward. The U.S., reliant on debt-driven consumption, faces narrowing options. If Europe deepens trade with BRICS, and BRICS solidifies internal financing systems, the U.S. risks exclusion from supply chains and capital flows. Dollar dominance will not collapse, but it will erode as alternatives gain trust. The industrial base is unprepared—hampered by high labor costs and neglected infrastructure. America risks becoming a secondary commodities market for EU and BRICS products while its traditional export advantages are sourced elsewhere.

Yet decline is not destiny. The U.S. still holds immense resources: the deepest capital markets, unmatched military power, and hubs of innovation in energy, biotech, and technology. But those strengths are not shields against mistrust. They cannot offset a strategy that drives allies and rivals alike toward new arrangements that deliberately exclude us.

America’s greatest risk is not sudden collapse but creeping irrelevance: farm towns hollowed, factories bypassed, financial hubs sidelined, and household debt climbing. Isolationism, sold as insolating protection, will instead isolate. In a world reorganizing outward, self-marginalization is the steepest price of all. #NeverFearTheDream

NeverFearTheDream simplebender.com @simplebender.bsky.social Stand For Truth

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Posted in Political

Due Process…..

Posted on by simplebender

“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.” — Magna Carta, 1215 (Clause 39)

Our nation’s history is a testament to the struggle against arbitrary rule. The great-grandfathers of our Founding Fathers experienced the terror of being forcibly removed from their homes and imprisoned under the whims of King John. Four centuries later, England again endured authoritarian rule during the reign of Charles I, who’s infamous “Star Chamber” court was notorious for arbitrary decisions and the absence of due process. His absolutism led to civil war, the rise of Parliamentarian power, and, eventually, his execution. This historical context is crucial to understanding the risks of eroding due process.

Today, we risk repeating history. The principle of “innocent until proven guilty” is eroding, replaced by guilt by association.

Our Founders—and the generations before and after them—fought for Due Process: the simple but powerful idea that no one should be punished solely for their beliefs, associations, or background. Yes, every group has bad actors, and they must be held accountable. But not everyone in that group deserves blanket suspicion or punishment.

Many people flee violence in their countries—or even in our neighborhoods—because they were coerced into associations they didn’t choose. These individuals deserve to be judged by their actions today, not by the group they once belonged to. Not every gang member is a felon—but if we apply collective guilt to some groups, shouldn’t we apply it to others? To organizations with histories of abuse? To law enforcement agencies where some officers have abused their authority? Or what about political protests? Some individuals turned otherwise peaceful movements—like Black Lives Matter or the January 6th rally—into scenes of violence. However, the majority who showed up did so to express their beliefs, not to break the law. Likewise, social media platforms have hosted harmful or hateful content, but they’ve also become places of education, connection, and free speech. Do we judge the entire protest or platform by the actions and posting of its ‘worst’ participants?

Most of us are, or have been, part of groups where some members acted in ways we reject. We shouldn’t be punished for their choices.

This country is built on the foundation of individual rights, not collective guilt. When we lose sight of this, we don’t just lose due process—we lose the very essence of liberty. This is when we start down the path of political purges and authoritarianism, as seen in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and Maoist China. Our republic was designed to prevent exactly that, and it’s up to each of us to defend our individual rights.

If someone has committed a crime, let them be arrested, tried, and convicted—individually and fairly by a jury. But mass detentions, deportations, or punishments without due process undermine the very freedoms that protect all of us.

These rights are not just for someone else’s protection-they are for your protection too. It’s time to stand up, speak up, and defend them. Your voice matters, and your actions can make a difference in preserving the due process and individual rights that are the cornerstone of our society. Speak up—Stand up—Defend it –Or Lose it and maybe yourself.

NeverFearTheDream simplebender.com @simplebender.bsky.social Mundus sine ceasaribus

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Posted in Political

The Intoxicating Mirage of American Greatness

Posted on by simplebender

We are no better than Don Quixote as he chased the demons he saw in windmills as we become drunk on the hysteria and mirage of American greatness. While he blamed magicians for his confusion and failure, we blame minorities and immigrants. We are no different; only our delusion is different.

Neither the Constitution nor the Preamble ever professes any illusion of aspiring to greatness. The Founding Fathers’ writings in the Federalist Papers are silent on any desire for national greatness. These men, willing to risk everything openly professed a desire for an independent nation. A nation recognized and respected as an equal by all the world’s other nations. They weren’t so egotistical to wave the vain flag of greatness or superiority.

Yet today, we insanely strive to regain something we never had, were, or will be. We are drunk on our delusions and egos. Being ‘great’ is a fixation of one’s ego. It isn’t real. It is your fantasized view of yourself. Something which, when unachieved or perceived to be lost, we blame everyone, anyone, but ourselves. Like Don Quixote blaming mystics and magicians, we lash out at everyone but ourselves. Ironically, we blame them for something that never was and can never be.

We are a country with many admirable traits and traditions and rich in resources and intellect. We are like almost every other country in the world. We all have our national pride, but our national ego is more of a liability than an asset. When working internationally, the first and biggest hurdle to overcome is not being the ‘arrogant, ugly American’ as we are known worldwide.

How do you determine ‘greatness?’ Is our historic and persistent racism a measure of greatness? As a country of immigrants, whose foundational economy was built on the backs of slaves, should our measure of greatness be the number of immigrant families we disjoined and caged or how we showed compassion? Is our historic and persistent racism a criterion of greatness? Is the denigration of minorities and the perpetuation of our domestic caste system our yardstick? Is the benchmark the number of citizens in the wealthiest Causation country suffering in poverty? Is it the number of books and ideas we can ban or sequester? Is the measure the need for a nanny state because we don’t trust half of the population to make their own decisions on healthcare? Or maybe it is our growing affinity to authoritarians and dictators rather than democracies? Democracy isn’t dead but authoritarianism a growing plague. Democracy conquered communism and now seems focused on conquering itself. A country boasting about greatness should have addressed and resolved these inequities decades ago. However, what we have shown incredible greatness in is our ability to deflect, ignore, and our propensity to find a scapegoat for our failures.

While we are a blessed nation, no country is great at everything. They all have strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots. The pragmatic salient question might be, ‘Should America strive to be average or average at all things?’ If we are average, we acknowledge there are those better than us in some things, and we are better in others. By being average at all things, we surrender those areas in which we can be superior.

Our desire and aspiration to be Great should not cloud the realization that we are just one among many in this world. Our founders knew this, and they promoted internationalism, not isolation, to gain acceptance and influence. They didn’t strive for dominance but for mutually beneficial relationships. In our drunken, intoxicated state of euphoria, touting our Greatness, let’s hope we ultimately don’t drive ourselves to Mediocrity.

Maybe our Greatness is our ability to cast an eye over our shoulder to see how far we’ve come, accept where we are, and then turn to look forward and have a vision of where we should be. Sober love of country over drunken delusions. NeverFearTheDream……simplebender.com

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This was first published in the Bend Bulletin 11/20/24