THE SATANIC PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TRUMP CULT

The MAGA cultists surely realize that Trump is all the horrible things the media say about him: 34-count felon, child rapist, grifter, etc. He is the most horrible person imaginable. He is often compared to Satan. Yet his followers still worship him. Why?

It is worth examining the literature on the psychology of Satan worshippers, to see whether there are similarities with, and perhaps explanations for, Trump-worship. Let’s look at some websites that discuss Satan worship.

SATANISM FROM A PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEWPOINT

Eugenio Fizzoti

Satanism From a Psychological Viewpoint | EWTN

Investigating the human relationship to various types of religion, Erich Fromm [psychologist popular around 1960] shows that some people manifest towards the divinity an attitude of absolute dependence, of blind and irrational obedience, of a passive acceptance of any norm. As a result, they think of themselves as inept and wretched creatures, capable of acquiring a certain strength only to the extent that a supreme and unchallenged power [e.g. Trump] reaches out to them.

Such an authoritarian and inhuman vision of one’s relationship with the divinity and, in the case of Satanism, with evil beings, although encouraging the loss of independence and moral integrity, offers the advantage (so to speak) of feeling protected by a formidable power which one somehow comes into contact with and becomes part of. Furthermore, this helps create the image of a despotic and terrible supreme being, jealous of his supremacy, arrogant and opposed to any relationship based on solidarity and on the promotion of values.

One often asks why Trump voters vote against their own interests. They vote for programs that actually harm them. The Satanic psychology explains this.

[Satanists display] a clearly masochistic tendency, manifested by a weak temperament, by the inclination to self-deprivation, by the need to feel weak and impotent, by the voluntary renunciation of all sense of freedom and personal responsibility. The basic tendency, then, is one of self-destruction: damage to oneself becomes preferred, caused or tolerated either to prevent hostility on the part of others, or to encourage others to have positive feelings or pity towards oneself. In this regard one need only think of the passive and irrational acceptance of “unquestioned leaders”, whose orders are obeyed without any resistance.

A third characteristic is tied to the introjection in strong, imposing terms, of the demands of one’s surroundings, which leads one to perceive the world of law and, in a more general way, the world of culture, society, and the family, as tyrannical. On the one hand, these lead to the fear of destruction, and on the other hand, paradoxically, to the relentless drive to act in negative and self-destructive ways.

Trumpism is about the rebellion against society, especially Government and the ‘Deep State’. That trait is also found in Satanism. Here is another instructive description, from an article in the website BETSHY:

The Dark Side of the Mind: Exploring the Psychology of Satanism

At its core, Satanism is a belief system that values individualism, self-empowerment, and personal freedom. Unlike the traditional view of Satanism as devil worship, modern Satanism is more about embracing one’s own desires and rejecting societal norms and restrictions. This can be seen as a form of rebellion against authority and a way to assert one’s independence.

Another aspect of Satanism is the belief in moral relativism, or the idea that morality is subjective and can vary from person to person. This can be liberating for individuals who have felt judged or restricted by societal norms and rules. By embracing Satanism, they can reject the idea of a universal moral code and instead create their own set of values and beliefs.

Satanism can also provide a sense of community and belonging for individuals who feel marginalised or misunderstood by mainstream society. By connecting with like-minded individuals who share their beliefs, they can find acceptance and support in a world that often rejects them.

It can be a way for individuals to assert their independence, embrace their desires, and reject societal norms. It can provide a sense of empowerment and self-actualisation, as well as a sense of belonging and community.

A study in the journal Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy found that more people associate Trump with the Devil than with God. Thus, the constant media reports of calling him ‘The Chosen One’, and his constant photographs with Bibles, are actually eclipsed by people feeling that he represents Satan.

One-Quarter of Americans Believe Donald Trump Is a Tool of the Devil, According to a New Study

New research reports that, while 17.2 percent of Americans believe Trump’s election “is a reflection of God’s will,” 27.7 percent believe he is “working for the devil.” That same percentage replied affirmatively to the statement: “The devil is using Donald Trump for his purposes.”

These psychological analyses go a long way towards explaining some of the strange behavior of the Trump cult. The general psychology is that they feel threatened by modern society and want to turn the clock back. Trump is their symbol of rebellion against modern society.

  1. Evil is applauded. The more inhumane Trump acts, the more his followers cheer him on for rebelling against the norms of society. The stronger the media reports of his child rape, the stronger the cult’s affinity for him. He, like Satan, is their anti-hero.
  2. Self-destruction. Trumpists vote against their own interests, just to ‘own the libs’. They can actually support the termination of their own Social Security or Medicare.
  3. Science and education represent the organized society they detest. The hatred for Dr. Fauci, the promoter of interventions against Covid-19, was so intense, the cultists wanted to kill him. They support ending research against cancer and other killers. And they clearly hate those elite universities like Harvard.
  4. Their god, Trump, is always right. He can say that the sky is pink today, and they will applaud. Then, when tomorrow he says the sky is green, they will applaud again. When the media point out lies or contradictions in what he says, it does not faze them.

I WITNESSED CRITICAL RACE THEORY AT THE U.S. EMBASSY

The system was invented to discriminate while appearing to be fair.

I wanted to apply for U.S. citizenship for my half-Cambodian son. I assembled a vast amount of documents for the big interview at the Embassy. However, the rule states that I must pay for the interview online, through a website called MyTravelGov. In order to log in they have to send you a 6-digit code for security/identification. I tried several tricks, but they never sent me the code. I contacted all sorts of U.S. Govt. website, Help pages, FAQs, YouTube videos, to find out what I was doing wrong. None of them even mentioned the sending of the code. All of these sources knew, but refused to inform me, that those security codes are not sent to Cambodian phones or computers. My application for my son’s citizenship was therefore intentionally blocked. No one at the Embassy offered any help or any answers – it was all kept secret from me.

I have described the above process at length to show how the U.S. Govt. pretends to offer citizenship to kids born to Americans in Cambodia, but in reality blocks this from happening. It’s a Catch-22, since you need the security code to log in, but they refuse to send you the security code. This is a conscious policy, concocted deliberately by the Trump régime, to keep half-caste Cambodians from becoming U.S. citizens. It’s insidious, because the policy is not written, nor is it ever divulged. The Embassy won’t admit that the hidden, unstated aim is to prevent foreigners from gaining U.S. citizenship. If you play by the rules as stated, you will be thwarted, and wonder what rule you have broken.

This is an excellent example of what Critical Race Theory (CRT) studies: the systematic and deliberate machinations that governments go through to discriminate against certain races. Advanced level students study complex systems in order to identify the subtle and secret ways that the systems discriminate.

Here’s a hypothetical example I just invented. Suppose a black woman in a predominantly black zip code applies for a license to open a business. She jumps through all the hoops, of course, and is promised a business code number. However, she never receives the code, despite being shunted from office-to-office, from website-to-website,  from telephone-to-telephone, making all sorts of attempts to find out what went wrong. What is kept secret from her is that the codes are not sent to her zip code, in order to discriminate against black businesses. She is made to feel like the guilty party – like she was the one who made some sort of mistake.

I’ll bet every black person in the U.S. can tell you a story like the one I just invented. MAGA cultists don’t believe them. To MAGA, CRT just means teaching about slavery or Black History, because they don’t understand the subtle ways that systems discriminate. But CRT is really studying how systems can be rigged to discriminate.

I have now witnessed CRT first hand, as the U.S. government claims publicly to facilitate citizenship for foreign-born children, but in practice consciously and on purpose develops a system that blocks such citizenship. My further evidence is the stonewalling I got from the Embassy staff, who would never inform me or admit to the heinous system they had invented. I had jumped through the hoops the first time around three years ago – for my first son – and wasn’t discriminated against like this. That was under Biden. I attribute this new discrimination to the Trump régime, or at least, to the anti-foreigner attitude that permeates his régime.

TRUMP HAS CROSSED TWO RED LINES

Today’s news is evidence that Trump has crossed a couple of subtle red lines.

First red line: lying. For most of us, lying is about trying to make someone believe something false. However, for others, it’s a means of exerting power over someone. In this type of lie, you are not even expected to believe it. I have had bosses who tell the most blatant and obvious lies to my face, and I know that they know that I know that they are lying. But they know that I would not call them a liar to their face. This is a form of power trip over me.

When Trump claims that the price of gasoline has fallen below $2, that’s the first kind of lie, which can be fact-checked to see whether we should believe him or not. But when he claims that the price of eggs has fallen 1500%, any fourth grader can instantly see that this is impossible. Still, you can’t just point out the idiocy of the statement directly to Trump. You might end up in jail. This is the second kind of lie.

Trump has now crossed that red line into the second kind of lie. He doesn’t care whether you fact-check him or not, because everyone knows he is lying.

Now today, Ghislaine Maxwell told the second kind of lie. She doesn’t expect anyone to believe her, but she knows that Trump has made a deal with her – possibly a pardon. All her fawning superlatives about Trump and Epstein are stomach-turning, but the media report it and let it stand as fact, because if they challenge it, they may wind up in jail. She will wind up a free woman.

Second red line: ‘investigating’ and arresting your enemies without evidence. Go back to Hunter Biden. They got him for buying a gun and ticking the box stating that he wasn’t addicted to drugs. Horror of horrors! Worth years in jail, but at least they got him for SOMETHING and had the evidence to prove it.

Now consider the search of John Bolton’s house and probable arrest, reportedly for including classified material in his book. You can be sure that he double and triple checked with lawyers and legal experts, who assured him that his material was not classified. However, that no longer matters. Trump will find (i.e. bribe or intimidate) a judge who will convict Bolton and send him to jail, because TRUMP has declared the material as classified. Evidence no longer matters; whatever Trump says is fact. This crosses a red line from the Hunter Biden case, because this time there is no legal case against Bolton.

Trump is also going after Obama for something-or-other. The media report that legal experts say the charges are ridiculous and frivolous. They’re missing the point. Trump can now invent any charges he wishes and convict Obama of any crime he wishes. He has crossed the line of evidence-based arrest.

I also notice that Trump is going to ‘investigate’ Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., for publishing statistics that crime has decreased over the past few years. Since her data don’t corroborate his own claims that crime has increased, he’s going to indict her and put her in jail for disagreeing with him.

These two red lines are related. For the arrest of political enemies entails false and evidence-free statements that everyone can see are ridiculous, but that no judge will contradict, for fear of Trump’s retribution.

Relate this to the kidnapping of innocent brown-skinned Americans and deportation to torture prisons. First, if Trump, with no evidence, declares them terrorists or M-13 gang members or invaders from Venezuela, no one, including the Supreme Court will contradict him. Second, Trump no longer needs evidence or courts to deport his victims. Therefore, the simultaneous breach of the two red lines of 1) non-questionable lies, and 2) arrest, conviction, and sentencing without evidence, poses a double-barreled threat to the entire justice system. Trump can go after you or anyone else he chooses by inventing some lie and then arresting you based on that lie.

P.S.  As a post-script, I just saw that Trump has stated that he knew nothing about the raid of Bolton’s house. That’s a clear example of a Type II lie. Of course he ordered it, and doesn’t expect anyone to believe otherwise, but he lies anyway, just because he can.

I’M EMOTIONALLY DEVASTED BY TRUMPISM

Trumpism has crushed me – not just intellectually, but emotionally, in my gut.

American education ingrained this into me.

I was brought up to believe that democracy, the rule of law, due process, equal rights, etc. were sacrosanct. I bought into the whole democracy ideal like a religion. Despite its many failures, I did not question the fact that democracy was far better than dictatorship. I felt this to the core, with my entire being.

I carried this feeling with me when living in Third-World countries like Uganda or Cambodia, where tinpot tyrants like Idi Amin or Pol Pot drove their countries into ruin. I could lift my head up high, feeling that American democracy was far superior to the morass of corruption and abuse I saw in those countries. And the people in those countries admired my American ideals.

Now, Trumpism has come along and is destroying the democracy I believed in. What really crushes me, however, is how almost half of all Americans support this destruction of democracy. Some 47% of all Americans approve of Trump’s behavior. They rejoice at the kidnapping of innocent non-white Americans and shipping them off, without any due process, to Alligator Auschwitz or El Salvador torture camps. They approve of sending American soldiers against American citizens in Democratic states where crime rates have actually fallen. They think that slavery was ‘not all that bad’. And worst of all, they cheer a 34-count felon and serial child-rapist as their President, who even boasts of his sexual assaults.

This is what almost half of all Americans are celebrating.

I was also brought up in the Christian church, where I was thoroughly imbued with the ideals of loving thy neighbor, being nice to everyone, and helping the less fortunate. Throughout my life, I have witnessed Christians becoming more openly racist, bigoted, cruel, and filled with hate. I could make a strong case that Satan has completely taken over the so-called Christian church. These are the Americans I grew up with. What happened to them?

This is worse than saddening to me; it destroys any faith I had in Americans. I am no longer proud to be an American, as I can no longer communicate with people who openly want to destroy the America I knew and believed in, all just to please their cult leader.

I still remember a note card that my old government teacher Mr. Steele had us memorize: “When America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” The values expressed in those note cards have apparently been thrown out the window, as Americans now focus on vengeance, cruelty, hatred, and persecuting the vulnerable and less fortunate. America is ceasing to be great.

TRUMP’S CYNICAL NON-SUMMIT DISTRACTION

All show but no substance

All this past week the press has been hyping the great Trump-Putin summit. Pundit after pundit has been asked what to expect from the summit, and the answer is always the same:  “nothing”…. “nothing”……”nothing.” Of course Putin isn’t going to make any concessions, and of course Trump cannot give away territory that isn’t his to give.

The great day arrived. Hundreds of reporters gathered for the pre-announced press conference after 3 hours of negotiations. Then, both Trump and Putin gave very brief meaningless statements. (“productive talks”, “progress towards a solution”, blah-blah-blah) Then they walked away without taking any questions from the gaggle of open-mouthed reporters expecting to ask questions, who now had nothing to comment on. All these political experts tried to read something profound into Trump’s ridiculous truism, “There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

Next, for hours after the protagonists had left, the pundits sat around trying to say something erudite and meaningful about what had just occurred. Their answers, couched in extensive vocabulary, all came out “nothing”…”nothing”….”nothing”. CNN had assembled its team of heavyweights, all of whom had nothing insightful to say. It was embarrassing.

You’ve got to hand it to Trump. He arranged this huge red-carpet spectacle to distract the world from the Epstein scandal, and wow! Did he ever succeed! While the media were hyping and over-analyzing the great non-event, no one mentioned Epstein. Both Trump and Putin knew that nothing could come from the summit, but each one wanted to profit from the image and the extravaganza.

The thing is, we saw it all coming. Everyone knew that the summit would be a nothing-burger, but they took Trump’s bait anyhow. Trump really played them, big-time.

Of course, the media game is all about viewers. Did all the hype bring in millions of viewers, or did the public see through Trump’s ruse? I suspect it’s more the latter, just as people stayed away from Trump’s big parade a few months ago. Or more probably, viewers initially tuned in but were bored by all the non-answers and tuned out.

They want to hear about Epstein scandal.

PEOPLE WANT SIMPLICITY — TRUMP SUPPLIES IT

This guy doesn’t look very simple to me.

I’ve recently been doing battle with the U.S. Government, trying to use a service online, but being stifled at every turn by the complex technology.

I feel that millions of Americans, with far less computer savvy than mine, are being frustrated by passwords, regulations, authentications, etc. They are facing not only blockades from government, but also from hospitals, insurance companies, banks, finance, and most services of which they wish to avail themselves. It is not surprising that millions of people view this system as a ‘deep state’, designed to exclude them from mainstream American life. They feel alienated from their own society. And they’re mad as hell! The guy in the above photo tells it all.

For many people, MAGA means a return to the Leave-it-to-Beaver pre-computerized life of the 1960s. There were only two recognized genders back then – none of this LGBTQ/DEI stuff to complicate life. You paid your medical insurance premiums to Blue Cross/Blue Shield, so that when you got sick, your bills would be covered. When you went shopping, you didn’t expect to hear people speaking Spanish or other languages.

People feel over-regulated. They face all sorts of ridiculous rules and obstacles to follow, and are blocked at every turn, whatever they try to do.

So along comes pea-brained Donald J. Trump, with his simplistic speech and thought, with simple solutions to everything. “I feel he’s talking my language. He tells it like it is.” Just slap tariffs on Chinese products, and the Chinese will pay us billions of dollars. Covid? Just shine a light up your butt or drink Clorox. Finance? Just lower interest rates to near zero so we can borrow as much as we want. Gaza? Just move all the Palestinians out and build a new Riviera.

I have a theory about why the stock market is hitting new highs, while labor statistics are abysmal. The rich upper class realizes that Trump is eliminating most regulatory bodies, so that businesses can game the system with impunity. Food companies can add all sorts of poisonous chemicals to their products, without being inspected or questioned by government agencies. Cars and airplanes will crash, for lack of inspection. Banks can cheat customers in all sorts of ways without getting caught.  No wonder, then, that rich stockholders figure that they are going to make out like bandits, especially since Trump and Congress have cut their taxes to nearly zero.

As the ‘Simple Man’ in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song alluded to above suggests:

“Be a simple kind of man; Oh, be something you love and understand”. 

Today’s bewildered man cannot understand the complex world around him, and he retreats into fear and hatred of what he cannot fathom. At least he can understand Trump’s visceral messaging.

THE DIRECTOR OF THE BUREAU OF STATISTICS COULD NOT HAVE RIGGED THOSE RESULTS

Trump attempts to rig the hurricane tracking results.

Trump fired the Director of the Bureau of Statistics for ‘rigging’ the data. I want to outline why rigging is next to impossible.

I have some experience in this area, since I was part of a United Nations team to set up the Bureau of Statistics in the African country of Mozambique. There, I learned several things, which I wish to share here.

  1. A Bureau of Statistics is a large bureaucracy. Its Director is not necessarily a statistician, but largely a bureaucrat, charged with coordinating the various branches of statistics. The Director probably doesn’t know which reports to aggregate or which to rig.
  2. Statistics are collected at the grass roots level, are then combined by region, by ethnic group, and by countless other criteria. They are aggregated and then re-aggregated on many levels. Any discrepancy in the final tally could be (and always is) checked against the incoming partial tallies. Any attempt to rig the final tally would almost certainly come from one of the lower levels. Each contributing branch would know immediately whether its input had been falsified.
  3. Therefore, the Director would have to instruct the collectors and combiners all the way down the chain to falsify data. This is quite improbable, and even if so, there would be whistle-blowers.

I conclude that the Director fired by Trump could not have single-handedly rigged the results. Any rigging would have been carried out right down the chain of inputs.

Now Trump thinks that he can hire one of his own cronies to rig the results in his favor. The good news, as explained above, is that this is well nigh impossible.

The only way to rig the results is to intimidate the lower chain of statisticians so that ALL of them are in on the plot and would never blow the whistle for fear of retribution. Is it possible that Trump can intimidate thousands of workers in the entire Bureau of Statistics to rig the data in his favor? It’s possible but not probable.

Here’s a negative thought, though, stemming from the above photo of Trump altering the path of the hurricane with his blue sharpie. For Trump, truth is whatever he dictates it to be, no matter what the Weather Service or the Bureau of Statistics says. Just as he dictates that windmills cause whales to go ‘loco’ (as he said last week), or whether gasoline costs under $2 per gallon, that becomes his truth. Anything that doesn’t fit with his version of the truth must be ‘fake news.’

Look for his personal intervention in future statistical reports. He will personally report robust and glowing economic numbers, claiming that any other numbers have been rigged. No one will question him, on risk of being fired or jailed. But like the hurricane track before his sharpie intervened, the original data exist and cannot be destroyed.

THE THAI-CAMBODIA BORDER DISPUTE IS A SMOKESCREEN FOR CYBER SLAVE TRAFFICKING

I fear that the Cambodian media have once again oversimplified the recent fighting with Thailand. The simplified view of the cease-fire is that Trump threatened Thailand with high tariffs if they didn’t stop the fighting, so Thailand caved and signed the cease-fire. Cambodians are now praising Trump as the Great Peacemaker.

I have maintained all along that the main conflict is between the Thai ruling party (which I call the Peace Party) and opposition Pheu Thai Party allied with the military (which I call the War Party). This is essentially a three-way conflict: Cambodia – War Party – Peace Party. That makes it very complicated indeed.

Early on – way  before Trump entered the fray — the Peace Party had agreed to a cease-fire, but the War Party resisted. Finally, the War Party relented and agreed to stop fighting. Why? Because of Trump? No, the Peace Party must have made some under-the-table concessions to the War Party.

In any case, the War Party has succeeded in demonstrating that they are the tough guys, while Hun Manet has succeeded in becoming a Cambodian military hero. What else is there to fight about?

I have suggested that the border dispute may be just a smokescreen for the real bone of contention: the cyber slavery rather than the border dispute. These scams are often referred to as ‘pig-butchering’.

‘Pig-butchering’ activities carried out online by the cyber slaves.

Thailand has made some progress in fighting the slavery, through Interpol and international bodies, but Cambodia has been less vigilant. The traffickers are finding it much harder to operate their cyberscam centers within Thailand, but easier in Cambodia. Unsuspecting victims arriving in Thailand are then kidnapped and trafficked to centers along the Thai-Cambodia border. There must be some high-level Thai collusion in this trafficking. Someone is facilitating the transfer of thousands and thousands of these slaves into Cambodian border towns.

Here is what East Asia Forum says:

…when the job-seekers reach Bangkok, the preferred entry point for mainland Southeast Asia, they are whisked off by bus, taken across land borders and dumped into fortified compounds with armed guards. They have been trafficked. Their passports are confiscated…

     A senior Thai police officer spoke of corruption and resistance by officials in Cambodia adversely affecting a joint operation to release some of the suspected 3000 Thai cyber slaves in the country.

The 3000 Thai cyber slaves are only a fraction of the estimated 100,000 slaves from many countries. Most of them pass through Bangkok.

Neither government is willing even to admit that the cyberslave trafficking exists; that would implicate high government officials on both sides. The border dispute, therefore, is a convenient smokescreen to hide what is really going on.

It appears that the opposition Pheu Thai Party is demanding that the ruling party tighten up on this trafficking to Cambodia. The government passed a new cybersecurity law in early June, which has drawn harsh criticism for being too vague and ambiguous, and not directly attacking the cyber slavery. That new law may have been the trigger for the renewed hostilities.

Thai military attacks on various border points (not just the disputed temples) aim to disrupt this trafficking, partially by attacking the Cambodian border centers of the cyberscams.

My guess is, then, that the ruling Peace Party has agreed to tighten up the pressure on the Cambodian border cyberscam operations in exchange for the War Party’s acceptance of a cease-fire by the Thai military with Cambodia.

At the same time, the Cambodian government must have agreed, at least in principle, to tighten the screws on the cyber slavery in Cambodia. This may be difficult, owing to the huge sums of money and high-ranking officials involved. However, if Cambodia does not comply, there may be renewed fighting with Thailand.

Note that this cease-fire is only that  — a cease-fire and not a treaty. It does not address or even mention the resolution of conflicting issues, whatever they may be. The war could therefore flare up at any moment. Talks will remain secret, but my guess is that the border issue will not be touched (or perhaps pretend to be touched), while the cyber slavery issue will be at the center of secret discussions.

My prognosis is that such enormous cyber slavery is not sustainable, as it reaches international radar screens and the world demands that it be stopped. As the extent of the corruption comes to light, both the Cambodian and the Thai governments could be extremely embarrassed and might eventually fall. They will fight tooth and nail to prevent this information from being released. For this reason, the border dispute smokescreen is unlikely to go away any time soon.

THE CAMBODIA-THAI BORDER FIGHTING DOESN’T ADD UP

Read any article about the Cambodia-Thai border fighting. They all say that it’s about the small, disputed territory around some ruined temples. Other than the temples, there is nothing to distinguish this remote, forested region. However, the narrative is that Thailand wants that land, so they invaded, but the valiant Khmers have resisted resolutely.

Preserving ancient temples doesn’t seem to be a priority, either, as Thailand has shelled the world-famous temple of Preah Vihear.

What doesn’t add up is that the fighting is going on all along the 800-kilometer border between the two countries. There appears to be no strategy, or no actual targets, as each side fires missiles and drops bombs into random, unimportant areas, unrelated to the territorial dispute.

I read that Thailand attacked Thmar Da, in Veal Veng District of Pursat Province, some hundreds of kilometers from the disputed zone. I have been to Thmar Da, one of the most god-forsaken jungle areas in Cambodia. There is no ‘there’ there, hence no earthly reason for Thai forces to attack.

These random attacks suggest that this is more than just a small territorial dispute. In fact, maybe the territorial dispute is just a smokescreen for something deeper.

Cambodia has launched similar rocket and missile attacks on seemingly meaningless sites in Thailand, far from the disputed zone. What is going on here?

Cambodia, too, is playing this random shelling game. Is Hun Sen also just trying to play tough and send a message? I see no reason for him to do so. In fact, random shelling along the border gives the lie to the narrative that Cambodia is just defending its disputed territory.

An article in today’s (Sunday) Bangkok Post says that the Pheu Thai Party is claiming that the root cause is Cambodia’s huge cyberscam/slavery industry, amounting to BILLIONS of dollars per year, and supported by high-ranking government officials, who are paid handsomely by Chinese criminals to turn a blind eye. Nationals from many countries are promised good jobs in casinos and fly into Thailand. From there they are kidnapped into slavery, brought to one of at least 53 large centers in Cambodia, and forced to run romance or business scams on customers, on threat of torture, electric shocks, beatings, etc.

Even the New York Times headline reads:

The Online Scam Industry is Thriving. Cambodia Plays a Key Role.

The UN estimates that there are some 100,000 cyber-slaves in Cambodia, with an annual revenue of some 40 billion dollars. (Cambodia’s entire GDP is 51 billion.) That ain’t chicken feed.

Recently, Thailand has complained about this practice, and has in fact intervened to disrupt the cyberscams. They once cut off the wi-fi to Poipet, a large center for the cyberscams.

A Thai spokesman for the Bangkok Post, Mr. Danuporn said.

“[This war] is about the fallout from cybercrime suppression. Key figures in Cambodia are being affected, and there is growing evidence to support this.”

He cited the Thai arrest warrant issued for Kok An, an alleged Cambodian scam-backer and casino owner who was reportedly close to Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen. Authorities have also frozen significant assets and are working with Interpol to pursue international legal action against those involved.

The above interpretation makes some sense to me. The cyberscam industry is so huge, and there are so many high officials involved, both sides may be randomly flexing their muscles and sending messages. There are large sums of money being gained by important people. The cyberscam industry certainly dwarfs the importance of a couple of ruined temples in the jungle.

In all scenarios, Thailand attacked first. The positive spin is that both countries may be just blustering, while neither one wants a full-scale war.

WHAT DO CAMBODIA AND GREENLAND HAVE IN COMMON?

Disputed territory in northwest Cambodia

Cambodia and Thailand are fighting over the border defined by the French in 1907, and confirmed by the International Court of Justice in 1962. Thailand says they don’t care what the French said or what the ICJ says; they just want to take the land.

That reminds me of Trump’s stance on Greenland. It belongs to Denmark, part of the EU. However, Trump is preparing military invasion plans to take Greenland, simply because he wants to take the land.

The same can be said of the Panama Canal, where Trump has threatened to take the Canal by force, just because he wants it. Trump has even talked about taking over Gaza and cleansing all the Palestinians, just so he can create a ‘Riviera’.

The threat of unilateral land-grabbing has created an atmosphere where land-grabbing is considered part of the game. Trump has set the tone: it’s OK for big countries to grab land from smaller ones.

For nearly the past century, big countries have largely refrained from invading smaller countries to take over pieces of land.  This is because the United States has served as an international policeman. This is also due to the big-power rivalry that ensured that any invasion could cause a superpower confrontation. The past 80 years have been called the ‘Pax Americana’.  

It is only a recent trend that countries have felt emboldened to take land from weaker countries. Russia wanted to take over Ukraine without provocation. Recently, Rwanda has been backing an invasion of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, simply because they perceived weakness in the DRC.  According to the Internationalist 360,

the deal is beginning to look like a “mineral grab”

in another round of colonization of Africa.

Thailand is far stronger than Cambodia. The border dispute has been going on for decades, but only now does Thailand feel emboldened enough to go in and grab the land they want. No superpower will intervene or apply sanctions.

My fear is that the far-right extremists in Thailand will argue: “Cambodia is weak. Let’s go ahead and take over the whole country, or at least the three northwestern provinces that Thailand conquered centuries ago, before the French made Siam give them back. No one will stop us.”

Cambodia and Greenland are only two of the countries where stronger countries simply want to take their land. The new ‘Trump Doctrine’ is “If you want it, take it.” I fear that there could be many more land-grabs around the world.