A War of Distraction:

By Rob C.

Art by Chris Britt

TL;DR: With his approval ratings plummeting to a dismal 36% and an affordability crisis that has turned grocery shopping into a contact sport, Donald Trump is reaching for the most cynical tool in the political shed: a manufactured emergency. Whether it’s starting a “hockey war” with Canada or deploying masked ICE agents into American cities under “Operation Metro Surge,” the goal is simple—distract the public from the 2.5 million Epstein files currently hidden behind a wall of redactions. While the UK is actually making arrests (goodbye, “Prince” Andrew), the Trump administration is using the “Shock Doctrine” to gut worker protections and seize unchecked power while we’re all looking the other way.

They say history doesn’t repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes—and right now, the rhythm sounds like a drumbeat for a war no one asked for. As Donald Trump’s approval numbers continue to nosedive into the mid-thirties, the administration is pivoting to the oldest trick in the US political playbook: if you can’t fix the price of eggs, start a fight with a neighbor. Between the deranged threats to Canada over the Stanley Cup and the deployment of “masked thugs” from ICE into cities like Minneapolis, we are witnessing a masterclass in distraction. It’s a desperate attempt to keep our eyes off the skyrocketing cost of living and the “million-plus” mentions of his own name in the unredacted Epstein archives.

To understand what’s happening, we have to look at the Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein laid this out brilliantly in her book of the same name: authoritarian governments and corporate interests use moments of crisis—real or manufactured—to push through policies that would never be accepted under normal circumstances. The premise is simple but brutal: in moments of extreme crisis—natural disasters, wars, or manufactured “national emergencies”— push through radical, unpopular policies while the public is too shell-shocked to resist. This is the Project 2025 manual in action. While we are distracted by images of federal agents shooting citizens in the streets, the administration is quietly stripping federal employees of work protections and gutting the regulatory agencies that are supposed to keep corporate greed in check. They aren’t just “managing” a crisis; they are cultivating it to ensure they can seize power that the Constitution never intended them to have. By the time the dust settles, the power grab is complete and rolling it back becomes nearly impossible.

The Oldest Trick: Wag the Dog When Things Get Bad

When Clinton was drowning in the Lewinsky scandal, suddenly we were bombing Iraq and Sudan. When Bush’s approval tanked, we invaded Iraq based on lies about WMDs. When Obama faced Republican obstruction, drone strikes quietly escalated. It’s a bipartisan disease, and Trump has caught it bad.

Except Trump’s version is even more brazen and reckless.

This “National Emergency “ model usually kicks into high gear when a President realizes the public has finally caught on to the grift. When you have a “K-shaped” economy where the bottom 50% of the country holds just 2.5% of the wealth, you need a very big, very loud distraction. And what better distraction than a “security threat” at the border or a fictional conspiracy involving Chinese hockey interference, or say, a war with Iran? It’s a convenient way to justify a massive police state while the Corporate Billionaires continue to loot the treasury in the background.

The Epstein Files: The Real Emergency

But the most glaring reason for the current panic is the sudden exposure of the Epstein protection racket across the pond. As of this morning, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor—the man formerly known as Prince Andrew—is sitting in a UK police cell, arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office after the latest file releases exposed his “confidential” trade deals with Epstein. The walls are closing in, and the accountability that the UK is finally showing is the Trump administration’s worst nightmare.

This is the reason for the redactions, and why 2.5 million documents remain hidden from the American people. The “emergency” in the streets is designed to make you forget about the emergency in the files. They want us focused on the “enemy at the gates” so we don’t notice the predators in the White house. But the truth has a funny way of oozing out, no matter how many wars you start or how many files you bury.

F*CK ICE, RELEASE ALL THE FILES!

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— Robert Cain, author of Democracy for Sale: How Corporate Greed Is Corrupting Democracy and Endangering the Planet.