maple<p>I just want to point out something about <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Trump</span></a>. He seems to be forgetting what got him in power, and that no U.S. president has ever held the real strings of power. A strongman is really only strong if he has has other strongmen to defend him from all his enemies, foreign and domestic. If those other strongmen (let's take the Secret Service as an example) take to intensely disliking him, OR if they are overpowered by some opposing force, then the jig is up. The way <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Trump</span></a> and <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/Musk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Musk</span></a> have been disrespecting U.S. veterans, there's a good chance that a lot of people who used to be very loyal to him are having second thoughts.</p><p>Think about the <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/conspiracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>conspiracy</span></a> theories you have heard about the Kennedy assassination. Just as Kennedy was about to take office, outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower gave a farewell speech warning about the <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/MilitaryIndustrialComplex" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MilitaryIndustrialComplex</span></a>. See <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">archives.gov/milestone-documen</span><span class="invisible">ts/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address</span></a> and/or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg-jvHynP9Y" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?v=Gg-jvHynP9</span><span class="invisible">Y</span></a></p><p>Some people think that Kennedy failed to heed this warning and was assassinated as a result. Not that many people believe that his assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald (who was himself assassinated before he could go to trial) acted alone. I remember seeing Oswald shot on live television. There were a whole bunch of people around him, supposedly protecting him, and yet Jack Ruby got off a clean shot.</p><p>After Kennedy died, V.P. Lyndon Johnson became president. Johnson was a "hawk" and dramatically increased the U.S. involvement in the VietNam war. Now, who profits from a war? The Military-Industrial complex, that is who. All they care about is making money and often they will sell arms to both sides (indirectly if necessary) just to increase their profits. And Johnson's actions made them a lot of money, at the expense on hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides of the conflict.</p><p>Well, a funny thing has been happening in the last day or two. Trump and <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/Musk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Musk</span></a> have so managed to swing world opinion against the USA that many countries have been cancelling contracts for American-made fighter aircraft, saying they do not trust anything coming out of the USA anymore. That's a lot of money that would have gone to the USA military-industrial complex, that is now going to go to European and other sources instead. And that money will probably never come back.</p><p>Now, who do we have waiting in the wings today? J.D. Vance, who definitely seems like a "war hawk", although I suspect he is more of a paper tiger. So all I am saying is that if I were Trump and Musk, I think I'd be a little worried that they have stepped on an invisible but very real trip wire, and that forces more powerful than them are seeing their money take flight and they don't like it a little bit. They may not have liked Biden or Obama, but at least they were stable and predictable and somewhat pliable. Trump and Musk are none of those things. They THOUGHT Trump would be good for them but, in a "I never thought the Leopards would eat MY face" moment, I think they may be waking up to the fact that they made a terrible miscalculation in supporting Trump.</p><p>The interesting thing about this is that if something does happen to Trump and Musk, that may strengthen the case that all those conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination may have had some basis in fact. But if nothing happens, the manufacturers of military equipment are going to take a big hit, and by extension so will the investors who though you could never go wrong investing in a military equipment manufacturer. Of course if Trump foolishly decides to invade Canada, Mexico, Greenland, and the Panama canal, one of the first things those countries will likely try to do in retaliation is bomb the facilities that manufacture the military equipment - and they are in a much better position to do that than some far away country. Much of the manufacturing capacity is in northern states, just a few minutes from the Canadian border by jet!</p><p>I do not pretend to be a prophet, I do not have any inside knowledge, and maybe I'm just a batshit crazy old coot. And I am definitely not wishing that anyone be assassinated (although I suspect there are ways of delivering a message that don't go quite that far). As bad as Trump is, Vance would be 100 times worse. But I remember that old Chinese curse, "may you live in interesting times", and these are definitely interesting times.</p><p><a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/USPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>USPol</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/USPolitics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>USPolitics</span></a></p>