There's been an avalanche of protests against police brutality and racism over the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by police that went viral since Memorial Day. There's been a takeover of a police precinct (Seattle), a vote to dismantle the police department in Minneapolis The tearing down of monuments of Columbus-who began the genocide of indigenous peoples in the western hemisphere-to the toppling of statues of former slave owners and Confederate generals. This in cities and towns all over the country. Also in Europe particularly England, Germany, France. Floyd's murder by police is a watershed event where the slogan, "No justice, no peace" epitomizes the protests. It's their demand for police accountability that needs to be heeded by elected officials in all local, state and federal jurisdictions. Not just their symbolic gesture of taking a knee.
A presidential election looms in November with accusations of stealing the election by Trump and Biden. That somehow if Trump is the loser he won't step down or write in ballots for Biden if he won would be fraudulent according to some of the latest Trump tweets. It all reeks of stench, revealing the abyss our electoral system is mired in.
US Navy provocations against China are escalating particularly in the South China Sea where US "Freedom of Navigation" ploys by the Navy have increased which China sees as a renewed rendition of the old US "Gunboat Diplomacy". It ceased during WWII, returned in 1946 until Mao's Communists took over the country in 1949. Other provocations is the trade war initiated by Trump in 2018 and him blaming China for initiating the covid-19 virus. The Pentagon's 2018 National Defense Strategy lists China and Russia as the US major adversaries along with Iran and North Korea.
The few issues mentioned above is a fraction representing why our time is so unpredictable. Even during the cold war with the Soviet Union-except for the 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis-there was a stability between the two adversaries with each recognizing the other would not initiate a nuclear war knowing they would be destroyed in a retaliatory strike. That was MAD, mutually assured destruction.
Now with tactical nukes, nuclear weapons treaties abandoned, the US has initiated a new cold war. It's certainly more precarious with provocations purposely directed at nuclear weapons superpowers-something that was purposely avoided in the cold war with the USSR.
The reality? The future looks more unpredictable than any time I remember.
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