Renee Parsons
As the US just completed its annual Thanksgiving Day holiday, an opportunity for American families and friends to come together and express thanks for their lives and being recipients of living in what is immodestly referred to as the ‘greatest’ country in the world.
In case you had not noticed, there remains a heavy angst hanging over the country and its people, uncertain of the future, with the gnawing sensation that the current socio-political shift is more than a simple phase of social reconfiguration.
The country continues to experience an unfamiliar merging of many of its foundational systems; political, financial, debt and socio-political are all in critical states of existence; as it may be recognized that the 2024 Presidential election had been less than satisfying, a sensation that the country has rarely experienced in its 250 year history.
There is little doubt the Trump Honeymoon was over early in his second term as its foreign policy agenda had quickly gone awry with continuance of the Ukraine war as new wars took dominance while the economy continued to hang by a thread.
While the choices may have seemed clear and distinct at the time, post inaugural days have been disconcerting when it became apparent that President-elect Trump is not the same political candidate he claimed to be.
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The President’s two Truth Social messages late in the day on Thanksgiving warned the country that all was not well within the Oval Office:
Truth Details | Truth Social and Truth Details | Truth Social
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The fact that Trump may have taken his oath of office without putting his hand on the Bible which signifies the country’s deep connection with its Christian origin and its Constitutional form of government with sacred documents like the Declaration of Independence.
Sometime in December, 2017, it has recently been revealed that Trump had been “pushed” by family members to convert to Orthodox Judaism and had joined the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue in New York City – next to none of this has been mentioned in the mainstream media and has apparently been deliberately kept unknown.
Normally a President’s religion is of little public interest and has rarely been of special notice since JFK’s 1960 campaign had to openly garner approval for his Catholicism. Today the country is confronted with a Trump Administration that has become a major controversial political liability based on questionable ethics and a lack of moral judgment as the President has proven to be less than a Constitutionalist while the First and Fourteenth Amendments are consistently disregarded.
In this instance, there may be an ‘aggressive cognitive decline’ as Trump consistently responds in a dysfunctional and autocratic manner.
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The question remains whether the US will make the necessary shifts of consciousness or whether well-entrenched administrative minions will be allowed to repeat old mistakes as it follows its self-inflicted $38 Trillion debt into a deep, bottomless cavern from which there will be little opportunity for fiscal salvation.
The American people are responding as the President’s approval polls are in a tailspin with a wide range of polls finding the President’s approval rating seriously underwater. Rasmussen provides the most favorable Presidential news at a 51% disapproval with Trump’s approval rating at 47%.
While the economy is cited as of most concern to the average American; the President continues to fritter his efforts in a futile manner of little real benefit to the American people. Once an essential presence in maintaining world order, there is increasing evidence that the country has lost its moral authority in its mindless pursuit of gold trinkets and multi million dollar jet planes.
As the US approaches the end of Empire, diminished of its moral principles once identified as honorable, righteous and upright are now weighted down with too many wars coupled with extravagant spending. There is a widespread ‘knowing’ that an unexpected transformation occurred making the US unrecognizable, no longer internationally respected as once considered.
Seeing no distinction between a President who personally benefits from inappropriate financial gifts and ‘investments,’ Trump explained “I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I could be a stupid person, say ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane’.”
Just as the current abdication of responsibility to adhere to its Constitutional Rule of Law, Venezuela and Colombia support of Palestine against Zionist genocide on Gaza brought both countries into Trump’s crosshairs as targets of the newly defined Department of War.
At about the same time as Venezuela and Colombia were being taunted as narco-terrorists with a US invasion, Trump sent a notice to South Africa that they will not be invited to the 2026 G20 meeting to be held in Miami – unless that country agrees to relinquish Presidency of the G20 to a US Embassy representative.
Upon South Africa’s refusal, Trump issued his ultimatum with the accusation of “white genocide” against Afrikaners which constitute 4% of South Africa’s population. As the President explained “And we don’t want to see people be killed. But it’s a genocide that’s taking place.”
Who can miss the irony that Trump’s concern about potential white genocide against Afrikaners has avoided any distress about a bona fide genocide in Gaza.
While the President and members of his Cabinet have thin diplomatic experience, the conflict immediately detonated a deep rupture of domestic outrage within the multipolar world as South Africa refused to accept the US dictate.
In its usual manner of confusing dominance with acceptance in any confrontation, the US may institute possible restrictions on air travel or trade, freezing assets, economic destabilizing or a lack of investment in South Africa as a reward for its non-obedience.
More to the point, at issue has been South Africa’s membership with BRICS, a multipolar alliance since 2010 along with Brazil, China, India and Russia. Having grown to more than a dozen members which conduct trade negotiations within its local currency, BRICS members currently represent more than half of the world’s population as well as 35% of global GDP as compared to the G7’s 30% GDP (2024).
Originally regarded as an informal diplomatic club in 2001, the origin of BRICS as ‘emerging economies’ were meant to enhance economic cooperation, encourage trade as well as geopolitical integration. Further incentive for BRICS may be found in US prevalence to conduct multiple military conflicts, to foster coup d’etats of regime change around the world with the lax use of economic sanctions freezing national assets considered an efficient means of controlling independent behavior.
A long time opponent of BRICS, Trump warned that his tariff policy would affect “Any country aligning themselves with the anti-American policies of BRICS will be charged an additional 10% tariff” or “any BRICS state that even mentions the destruction of the dollar will be charged a 150% tariff and the BRICS states just broke up.”
Trump responded “I don’t know what the hell happened to them. We haven’t heard from the BRICS states lately.”
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a founding member of BRICS, responded “The world has changed. We don’t want an emperor. This [BRICS] is a set of countries that wants to find another way of organizing the world from an economic perspective.”
The 18th BRICS Meeting will be chaired in 2026 by Indian Prime Minister Modi.
Renee Parsons has been an elected public official in Colorado, an environmental lobbyist with Friends of the Earth and a staff member in the US House of Representative in Washington, DC. Before its demise, she was also a member of the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and President of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter.