DAY’s Politics: Epstein, and NATO, and Stuff.

Response/s to a Facebook chat on the subject of Mr Trump “losing” the war.

COMING from a dictatorship country, all of 20 years of authoritarian hell, I long for justice after a court hearing. Not because you and I accuse a person (Donald Trump, oh well!) of crime just because we didn't like them. America. Yet these: Jeffrey Epstein first faced criminal charges in 2006. First time reports of a “clients list” came out? Around 2015, when civil lawsuits were filed against Ghislaine Maxwell. How many POTUSes sat since 2006? Four. 

       Isn’t the “list” a no-brainer? Don't we old people think at all? Why? So why point (only) at Mr Trump? The Eps dude is dead (possibly wasted). The "list" has been destroyed. We will never know. No brainer. Meanwhile, each year in this country, more than 100,000 children are reported as victims of sexual exploitation, or trafficking. Due to recent (2021-2024) laxity in U.S. border controls, traffickers from Eastern Europe and Asia hooked up with Central American drug cartels for easy passage of trafficked people into the U.S. 

       Pertinent facts: <>In 2021, the number of illegals in the U.S. was 11+ million; in 2024, 14+ million. <>There was a US/Central America effort to curb this scourge (especially drug trafficking) called Merida Initiative. Your President ended that program in 2021. Why? We are old. We know why. And as an oldie, I gave up ideological purity or political zealotry or "I hate this politician" rage. I look at the bigger picture. Pragmatic but realistic. 🏛🗽🏛

LET me try to put it this way. <1> No POTUS can 100 percent ignore the deep state's hawks. That's just the way America is. <2> Yet President Trump still held the billions$ military aid that was approved by Congress last year for Ukraine's war. Instead, he challenged EU powers to upgrade their share in NATO funding. Trump already lowered U.S. share from 22 percent to 16 percent in 2019/2020, almost equal now with Germany. 

       <3> Trump/Putin peace talks didn't work (for now) because Europe renewed its military support of Ukraine with new, spiked individual Defense budgets. <4> So here comes Trump trade mojo: Sell more U.S. arms to NATO instead of more U.S. weapons aid to Kyiv. <5> Could be the next Trump tactic vs EU. Tariffs. Higher tariffs or quit sending arms to Kyiv and talk peace with the Kremlin. 

      <6> Trump's style is unorthodox and unpredictable but I get his chess game. ☮️☮️☮️