MediumPutting the thunderclap on trial. “A cloud gathered for fifteen hundred… | by Christine McDougall | Nov, 2026 | Medium
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Christine McDougall

Christine McDougall

Committed to supporting those in business who strive to leave the world better. syntropic.world

Putting the thunderclap on trial

2 min readNov 3, 2026
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“A cloud gathered for fifteen hundred years. At the end of fifteen centuries, it burst. You are putting the thunderclap on trial.” Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables

Systemic oppression becomes a revolt.

We know not when the threshold of complete revolt will occur, but we can feel its undercurrent growing.

Yesterday the Reserve Bank of Australia increased interest rates for the fifth time this year.

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Meanwhile, the biggest companies pay no tax. A country with abundant ‘natural’ resources, like gas, allows the gas companies to make obscene profits. The public push to tax them 25% and have that money benefit Australians is off the political agenda. The Australian government, like most governments around the world, is captured by big corporates.

Donald Trump boasts about how people are making so much money today. Including him and his mafia family. More money than they have ever made. Profiteering off politics in plain sight. The people he is referring to are not you and me; they are the elite. Those who pay the least tax. The wealthy socialists. His glee is real. He cares not a whit about his base. They are still captured in the mythology that they are one step away from wealth, the American dream, even as the boot of oppression sucks their oxygen dry.

The class divide increased exponentially.

Revolt, say the students in Serbia. Revolt, say the students in France.

It is not the thunderclap that is at fault. Not the students, the protesters, not the pro-Palestinians, the anti-ICE. It is the oppression that has been engineered for hundreds of years, one little atrocity at a time.

Published November 4th 2026. Photo taken November 4th 2026

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Christine McDougall
Christine McDougall

Written by Christine McDougall

Committed to supporting those in business who strive to leave the world better. syntropic.world