I was out of town for Donald J. Trump's inauguration but I got back in town last night and took the opportunity to go to downtown Washington, DC today and see what was happening during the Women's March on Washington.  I reached the protest area around 2:00 PM and spent over three hours walking around the National Mall checking out the protesters.  I took a number of photographs and they are posted on my Twitter feed, thepurplemuse. 

As I was walking from Metro Center toward the National Mall a number of protesters were leaving, walking away from the Mall.  I thought I may have missed the whole thing.  I soon found out that thought was incorrect.  I ended up standing in front of Trump's new hotel on Pennsylvania Ave.  It was a prime target of the protesters but was screened off from the general public and protected by police.  This is where I first encountered wave upon wave of marching protesters as they walked up Pennsylvania Ave from the Capitol area toward the White House. 

I walked against the flow of the protesters for many blocks around the Mall and ended up at the Washington Monument area.  I didn't see any bad behavior by any protester.   I did see one incident of intolerant behavior by a protester against a Trump supporter attempting to take a photo on the street. 

I met a very nice lady from NY that had one of the best signs on the day.  She wants to focus on the 2018 mid-term elections starting on Monday.  We talked for a few minutes about future Democratic leadership.  One of the problems of the Democrats is their leaders are going further and further left.  This is the Democrats big problem and the fundamental reason why they have lost power at every level of government in the past eight years.  Can the Democrats find a moderate left leader that can lead the party back towards the middle and help them become a national political force again?  It would be nice for Independents to have a real choice in national elections at some point in the future. 

As the sun began to set most of the protesters started heading for home or their hotels or cars outside of DC.  Metro was jammed.  However, I have to give Metro credit.  They cleared the massive crowds away from downtown DC fairly quickly. 

Anyone with an open mind has to be impressed with the massive crowd the Women's March generated in DC and other cities around the world.  Some of the marchers were expressing views that deserve thoughtful discussion as our government determines its actions during the Trump administration.  There is no single point of view that is right in every case or on every issue.  I hope some of the more conservative members of the Congress were paying attention.  In order to Make America Great Again we must listen to all sides.  The Trump era has begun.  We will see where it takes us. 

TPM

We are six days away from the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States.  Trump has redefined communication between a senior political leader and the people by significantly reducing the impact of the mainstream media through his use of social media.  Trump's nominees for his Cabinet have begun their confirmation process.  Leading Democrats continue to attack Trump and Trump attacks back.  The Congress is preparing to take action on Trump's policy agenda.  The outcome of any action remains to be seen.  The US is about to undergo a major change in government leadership that will have a significant impact on our country.  Does it really matter from an intermediate and long term perspective? 

During recent days I have been reading James Rickards' new book, The Road To Ruin - The Global Elites' Secret Plan For The Next Financial Crisis.  I have been watching the news on TV, reading news on-line and reading a lot of liberal progressive propaganda in my daily newspaper, The Washington Post.  I ask myself a simple question "What is really happening here?" 

The Road to Ruin is Rickards' fourth book.  I have commented on the first three on this site.  This book is different.  It is darker, much darker.  There is much discussion about what the financial leaders of the world are doing.  We should all know that the world is drowning in unsupportable debt now with massive increases of debt expected in the years ahead.  There are trillions of dollars of derivatives that create massive potential for instability if a major problem occurs.  The global financial system is a massively complex system that our leading economists don't fully understand and are unable to control.  Rickards discusses the history of economic/financial crises that provides context as to "How we got here?"  He provides an updated analysis of the situation and predicts we will experience a more powerful economic/financial crisis in 2018. 

Rickards writes "The elite worldview rests on the intellectual pillars of equilibrium models, monetarism, Keynesiansism, floating exchange rates, free trade, globalization and fiat money.  Meanwhile, the real world is best understood through the lens of complexity theory, conditional probability, behavioral psychology, currency wars, neomercantilism, and gold.  Cognitive dissonance between the elite worldview and real-world economics is taking its toll on elite self-confidence and control.  The elites now divide into two types: those that are confused by lost credibility, and those that are quietly panicked because they understand their intellectual failure and its consequences." 

Rickards also writes "Debt, deflation, demographics, and depression are demolishing elite dreams of free trade, free markets, and free capital flows.  Elites hope for the turn of a friendly card but the deck is stacked by decades of denial about income inequality and lost jobs."  I would have thought that Rickards would end the book with a statement like this, but there is more, a much darker more. 

Rickards makes the case that the US has been evolving into a fascist state for a century.  Rickards states "Fascism is not in our future, it is here now." and "What matters to fascists is continuous action and state control of civic life."  Rickards states that fascists can come from the left or the right.  "What unites them is a shared view that the state is the exclusive mediator of human activity, and ends justify means."    Rickards also explains why Woodrow Wilson was the first fascist US President and why Herbert Hoover, FDR, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and Barack Obama should be described as fascists.

Rickards gives a number of examples to support his point that the US has become more fascist.  Militarized police have attacked and abused innocent people.  Police have confiscated the assets of innocent people and not returned those assets.  Rickards final example is dramatic.  New York City's stop and frisk program which began as a positive contribution to improving public safety and reducing crime has evolved into a revenue generating program to support the cost of the police force.  In the poor neighborhoods of New York City, people are given a summons for no justified reason for the purpose of collecting fines, effectively a tax on the poor.  Contrast this with the fact that no financial industry executive was charged with a crime after the 2007/2008 financial crisis in the same city. 

So what does it all mean?  Rickards believes we are on The Road to Ruin.  Trump has been fighting the establishment from the day he first announced his candidacy.  It appears he wants to reverse many of the actions of the globalist elites within the US.  Can he actually make real progress?  Or is the battle we see on TV and read about just a side show while the real action takes place out of sight?  Is there a way to avoid what appears to be an unavoidable economic/financial crisis in the years ahead?  I don't know.  All we can do is attempt to protect ourselves and try to help Trump - Make American Great Again. 

TPM