HOW TRUMP CONQUERED THE WORLD

What really happened over the last few weeks? Between Iran, China, America, Europe? War, violence, conflict, oil? I’m sure that this will make some people angry, some sad, and some disgusted. I’m sorry to have to say it. What’s happening is this.

Trump conquered the world.

Let’s discuss this grim turn of events together.

Trump choked off China’s oil supplies. Its exports began to shrink. Its economy, already teetering, began to shake like a leaf in the wind.

Trump plunged Europe into an historic energy crisis. Nation after nation raced through its emergency stockpiles, was forced to outbid Asia for what little gas was left, and will now plunge into already deepening recession.

Trump caused Asia to go into an energy shock. Nation after nation imposed emergency measures, from rationing to price controls. Lines snaked around gas stations. People began to hoard oil and gas. Countries found themselves at the brink of being able to function.

Trump held a razor blade to the world’s collective throats. Europe, China, Asia.

And the response? Nothing.

Not a single one of these regions took any kind of action whatsoever. Their leaders were barely able to muster up the courage to speak. When they did, it was in the most muted and hushed of tones. They lodged the feeblest of complaints, as if the knife at their throats was now up against the edge of their very tongues.

Europe’s leaders, bewildered and baffled, did not rise to the occasion. China remained quiet. Asia sat there and barely said a word. It was as if an epidemic of cowardice had suddenly made the world’s leaders mute.

When I say that no action was taken, of course, I don’t mean militarily. All of these regions have power. Or as Trump likes to call it, “leverage.” They hold immense quantities of American assets of all kinds, stocks, bonds, property, currency. Not even a warning shot was fired. Instead, for example, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, reassured Trump: it wasn’t, it said, even thinking about selling American assets.

After Trump plunged all of its closest neighbors and allies into energy crisis, shock, and recession.

Think about that for a second.

Often, in history, weakness is easily conquered. Beaten. It’s the most aggressive, ruthless, and cutthroat who emerge triumphant. Not because the other parties involved in contests and conflicts hold no cards, but because they are too divided, craven, bewildered, and frightened to use them.

And this is exactly what happened over the last few weeks.

What would a rational country have done? It would have said: you caused our currency, stock markets, and bond markets to crash by this much. Purely for the sake of balancing the books, we will exact that price from you. None of it came to pass. Every single country, nation, and region on earth ran scared, stayed silent, and cowered.

Silence, too, in matters of conflict, speaks volumes. We’ve all had relationships where one party stays quiet, so as not to provoke the other—who is the belligerent one to begin with. In this way, they hope to keep the peace. What’s the outcome? The belligerent only becomes uninhibited, knowing that their aggression is met with silence.

Silence speaks volumes. When I used to march with my friends at the height of the AIDS crisis, we’d wear T-shirts that said: silence is death. And it is, in when conflict arises. To lose one’s tongue is to have given away one’s power from its very source and fount.

We have a world whose necks were placed at the razor’s edge, by Trump, and all of it stayed silent.

It didn’t lift a finger to defend its own interests.

Not a single European country took measures to, for example, raise funds to garner the now much more expensive gas necessary to power its economies by divesting from American assets. Instead, interestingly, some sold their gold holdings. It’s not too hard to point to how foolish that is. That would’ve been rational, sensible, and powerful. Now they’re even more dependent on Trump, who wants to make them powerless.

Not a single Asian country, for example, directed its sovereign wealth funds to raise the money for the gas that Europe, richer, was now outbidding them for, suddenly, causing massive price spikes, by selling off dollars or American stocks and bonds. That would’ve been rational, sensible, and powerful. Now, like Europe, they’re even more dependent on a violent, authoritarian America.

All this is the single greatest failure of collective action in the world in post-war history, probably. Not a single country or region acted rationally, nor did any act collectively, either. Not a single one defended their own interests in any way whatsoever. Understand how profoundly important this is. The masses are foolish and easily misled. We depend on leaders to act with some semblance of rationality, sensibility, thoughtfulness, mindfulness, to exert power when they are threatened, to defend their self interest.

It didn’t happen even once.

The world abdicated its self-interest in a way that should shock any observer of history or thoughtful mind.

Why? Why did we see the world fail to act with any modicum of rationality, common sense, not defend itself from being held at knifepoint?

Because it was frightened. Too frightened to even speak, much less to act, much less to act collectively. We could have seen something like this: Europe telling America in no uncertain terms that an energy shock caused by it would be me with a vigorous defense to the tune of forcing America to pay for it. But we didn’t. Precisely because Europe’s leaders are weak.

That’s far too unclear a term, so let make it more precise. The world’s leaders are morally weak. They cannot tell right from wrong anymore. They are mentally weak, unable to think clearly or rationally. And they are strategically weak, incapable of defending their own self-interests.

And worse, now they are even weaker. Because Trump has learned that he can get away with anything, and the world will stay quiet and still. That is what prey does when a predator approaches, if it can’t run. Trump has learned that he can take a knife to the world’s throat now, and it will do nothing. In that sense, the world has made a victim of itself.

That is how Trump conquered the world.

A conquered world is not a pleasant place to be. Trump will exact his price. He will force the world now to pay him his tribute, as he already is, which the energy shock is just the beginning of. The world has acted profoundly foolishly now.

And we have something we have never had before. A dictator of the world. That is the way the world has humiliated itself over the last few weeks. All are now vassals to Trump’s new world order, which is not a world order at all, but a world empire. Vassals must pay up, or see their heads roll. The little blade of the mugger soon enough becomes a sword.

All of this makes our job much easier. Investing in a conquered world is, LOL, childish and idiotic, as simple and dumb as it probably sounds. Hint: if the vassals are paying the price, you probably don’t want to be part of it. I’ll publish the updated portfolio for subscribers as all this comes to a head.

We live in times of great tragedy my friends. To see a world conquered by figures this malign, so easily, so simply, so quickly. In such obscene ways. Barely a voice raised. In fear of fear.

We’ll see. If the world likes being a wretched, conquered thing. If it continues to accede to its subjugation. If it goes on cowering in fear, a weakling, hoping the bad man will just go away. Or if it discovers some spirit of rebellion.

For now?

History laughs. We have lost our way. The strong triumph over the weak. That is the vision throughout history of darkness and hate, conquest and slavery. Yet it is assured of triumph when those who might be strong and wise, just and noble instead make themselves weak and foolish.

Love,

Umair (and Snowy)