Category: community

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USA: War Games Ahead – The Historical Pattern of Cover-up – ‘Short-selling’ Children? – Intelligentsia Fleeing the Country

Image with two sides showing children playing on the left and chess pieces on the right
(Images licensed via Adobe CC)

The times have been dark indeed before. Dark in the sense of tragic and dreadful actions ahead. Not because people were unable to differentiate good from bad. Is it really alright to do anything just for money? Kill, destroy, and then occupy and build with what you have to sell?

Earning money this way: When a country is destroyed completely you have a 100% growth rate in a few decades to come.
And one or the other of those recently appointed to ‘leadership’ in the US may reckon they wouldn’t care too much, since they probably won’t live that long anyway…

Just yesterday a court of law ruled that the legal action against Mr. Trump, president-elect, be dropped for the time being. Since it is about the election 2020 and the proven manipulation of results, this could be the end of it because the statute of limitations might be reached by the time Trump leaves office again.

If he does at all…

The increasing postings online of frightened and worrying ‘brains’ (intelligentsia: people who are well-educated and use their knowledge productively) in the USA thinking of actually leaving a country that has been almost the epitome of freedom of thought and opinion for generations, proves dark times, indeed.

So many signs are there to promise that he will try and become another dictator, similar to Putin’s way to power in Russia… We may not be let go this time anymore.

‘We’, because the power balances in place since World War II let anything the USA and their foreign policies start, have a forceful impact on Europe – and indeed the world.

I still believe that we need to take a closer look at what is gong on at the moment, in politics and especially media:
Be careful to see the signs and stop war-mongering. Stop propaganda. It’s completely unnecessary!

Because, no woman, mother, father, child, brother or uncle deserves to be killed just because a few companies will profit by selling weapons and supplies – and the ones in power are too lazy to do their job properly, keep peace, negotiate – and find better ways of work than weapon factories.

 

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“Evil is that Evil Does” – A Modern Clarification – The Trump-Musk-Putin Axis

Image of a dark sky and moon in the back and a lightened office with smart people discussing in front
Image licensed Adobe CC

“Evil” is not some mystic and mysterious force with superpowers that rises somewhere from a fiery underground, staring you in the face with red eyes and breathing stench and fire.

A fine and not yet so modern phrase is: “Evil is that evil does.”

And that is entirely true. Before the advent of enlightenment and the civil society which also introduced the same right for everyone, evil was a term in religious contexts to make people afraid and manipulate them. Ghosts frequently played a role in that kind of thinking as well.

With the rise of a common basic education the term was critically reviewed and by and by found ‘old-fashioned’ and misleading.

But we need to come back to a modernized idea of it to state dangers more clearly:

EVIL is what people do by adhering to destructive values.

The values that worship money, the rich, the powerful, no matter what.

Some sort of currency is needed to make sure you can take care of your daily, basic needs. It wasn’t always money people used to exchange goods. Shells, sometimes even rare and beautiful ones were common in some parts of the world.

But whatever it is people use, when they start worshipping the wrong things and thus values we will get into trouble – such as the US currently are facing with a non-entity as their intended head of state.

How to Know Good?

The most basic two phrases putting it in a nutshell are these:

    • “Avoid pain.” For everyone.
    • “Act in a manner that the principle of your actions could be transformed into common law any time.”

The first is the Buddhist concept.

The second is my translation of Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative, that great philosopher of the 18th century and one of the leading figures of the enlightenment.

To get to the bottom of truths you need to take time to think. At first that could take some practice too.
But don’t worry! Because anything human beings do or create can be understood by other humans – even if it takes a little more time at first!

So in case you were wondering how to know evil from good, these are the yardsticks to use:

“Does it avoid pain?”
“Could the action/behaviour be transformed into general law for all, any time?”

 

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Election 2024: A Male Criminal – Or a Female Writer and Lawyer? – It’s NOT a Question!

(Images licensed Adobe CC)

The lengths they are going to in the Republican party to find anything they could use against the Democrat Ms Kamala Harris is a good sign:

She is a strong candidate. And it’s good to know that there is one.

She wrote a book once – and it was not a scientific thesis or an article. Once upon a time she did not properly mark a quote or two in place – but a little later in the book.

SO?

The Republican candidate has been convicted on several counts. He was proven guilty.
And he has been known for criminal behaviour and ruthlessness before – reported by solid, reliable newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, both awarded prizes for independent and reliable journalism – by independent organizations, such as the Pulitzer prize committee.

Additionally the Republican candidate still faces 4 separate criminal charges against him.
Look into the Republican candidate’s past – and you will have ample opportunity to find more of the same: Hate, populism, cruelty, selfishness and greed.  The link is one to a documentary by another winner of awards, documentary film maker, Michael Kirk* on PBS.

All of you who have the vote in the USA, think again: Who is the better choice?

Check the values! Look at what the parties stand for. Vote wisely.

For the community and the values that support not just a few, but the majority of people; for diversity, the lookout for others, peace. Democrats.

* Quote on Michael Kirk (s. link above): “The winner of every major award in broadcast journalism, including five Peabody Awards, four duPont-Columbia Awards, two George Polk Awards, 15 Emmy Awards, and 12 Writers Guild of America Awards, Kirk has produced, directed and written more than 100 hours of FRONTLINE — including multiple installments of “The Choice,” the acclaimed election-year series profiling the two major-party presidential candidates.”
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There’s a Method to the Madness – Or: When Male Life Runs Berserk – Or: When Business Meets Cruelty

Image by Bárbara Cascão from Pixabay

It can be one of those dark days in life when you face real evil in your own life for the first time. I have read so many books and ‘digested’ so many stories, those that were told in person and those that you see on the big screen; yet, to see real evil is new to me, even.

A few patterns emerge:

I. The Patriarchal Hierarchy and Willfulness in Play Again

    • Patriarchy not for decades but for thousands of years has enforced the stereotypes:
      Man is the ‘hunter’ – and not just for game (deer, wild boar, etc.); women are the ‘hunted’, the ‘booty’.
    • Any man who is really interested to be counted among ‘the guys’ will do what he can to ‘get it’ as often as possible.
    • If it should so surface, the management power in business can be used to ‘serve’ the ‘booty’, the ‘dish’, right up – nice and ‘easy’:
      • *Women, single and apparently easy to fool into believing they did something wrong can be used in order to ‘try one’s luck’:
      • Hire them under a pretense then do your best to get them into the ‘prone position’.
      • Should that not work legally, in a manner of a certain time, fire them under those pretenses.
      • Repeat from *.
      • And so turns the merry-go-round of jobs and people who seem to be job hopping – when in effect they are part of that secret game of ‘push and shove’…

II: Intricate Business Calculations

    • Say, your branch of business is facing a severe slump. No sales, much and that due to a saturated market segment.
    • Yet, you need to take care of customer demands in a certain department.
    • But the budget doesn’t allow to hire a person or persons over a longer period of time.
    • Additionally you have found that searching these people takes time, effort and some experience to filter the really good ones.
    • What do you do?
      • *Find an agency that does the searching and finding.
      • Hire the good ones.
      • Make them work hard and almost reach the finish line.
      • Bother them and intimidate them in a tough market with ridiculous claims of misbehaviour.
      • Even invent false claims of shortcomings and spread those by and by among colleagues and the rest of the management.
      • Use the accumulated ‘reasons’ to base a lay-off on and – fire them, after a year.
      • Then pretend to be searching another, better fitting employee – for another year.
      • Finally, hire the next candidate.
      • Repeat from *.
    • What’s the result?
      • You get the agency ‘on the cheap’ because firing those employees too soon for reasons of being unfit saves the fee due to the agency – who will have to return at least part of it.
      • You save lots of money on salary, you actually pay half the price, because, in alternating years there’s an employee.
      • Then, there is not….

III: Intricate Business Calculations No 2

    • Say, you need to lend employees to other companies.
    • But the economy is slow, salaries are too high for some businesses.
    • In addition, really well-trained employees are hard or impossible to find.
    • *So, you start actively searching.
    •  Make them an offer of the appropriate high salary.
    • Hire.
    • Let them work in the actual customer’s place.
    • After a little while start bothering them, s.a., with ridiculous claims of misbehaviour, intimidate them.
    • After a few months working this method get them to sign a ‘reduced-hours-per-week’ agreement.
    • After a year, fire them.
    • Result: Cheap salary; except for the employee facing unemployment and job hunting all over again – all concerned are satisfied.
    • Repeat*…

IV: Intricate Business Calculations No 3

    • The business you have runs well, but sales are slow.
    • The economy’s contracts with trade unions rule that every four years salaries have to be raised.
    • Also, that beginners in the company or a certain job earn less than the ones already in place for more than four years.
    • What do you do?
      • *Hire employees, sign the contracts.
      • Every four years, make lay-offs appear necessary, firing the previously hired employees.
      • Fire under pretenses, also after four years.
      • Hire from other countries, even far away where knowledge of local conditions, contracts, systems, taxes and prices is nil.
      • Keep a couple of employees – perhaps even with different contracts out of trade union conditions – to make the image credible that you have employees in place for long periods of time, the ‘faithful ones’.
      • Repeat*…
      • Result: The salaries stay low and the employee turnover is not too apparent so the company’s reputation is safe.
Whatever the patterns – they are shameful to watch and cruel to suffer from.
Additionally, it’s a huge waste of resources for any country’s economy…
Make it stop. Now.
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In War there is Conflict – Conflicts need Solutions – War is NOT a Solution!

(Image licensed Adobe CC)

Whoever told us that life is either wonderful harmony – or we will have war? In the sense that you cannot have it both ways?

Da…n and blast to all who believe it! Is it that male (patriarchal) idea that you have to have predominance and prove ‘strong’ by shouting at people a lot? Because that way you establish ‘authority’?

Maybe. But war is not a question of gyms and some old-fashioned training ideas!

The civil society brought an even more wide-spread understanding of responsibility and the preference for peace and calm that let us thrive for a good life and good relations in peace.

Conflicts are a natural part of human life – always were, always have been.
(Cruel) arguments or wars are not ‘natural’.
They are the consequence of a mindset that values predominance and ‘first place’ the most. To force your opinion or your preferences on people is  – according to that idea – a sign of strength and power.

BUT – and this is one of those BIG BUTS – it is a question of perspective:

Because anything that causes pain and suffering to many people – and additionally over a long period of time – is not a good thing! Period.

There are many ways out of conflict, some are short, because the conflict is small.
Some ways are long, because the conflict is large.
But whatever it is, if we respect the fundamental human rights we will do all the negotiating it takes, even if years, to avoid pain and suffering. Full stop.

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Vote Democrats: Elections 2024 as Proof of a Strong Democracy in the US

President Biden and Vice President Harris meeting with Former President Obama (Image Wikimedia Commons)

The two attacks on the actual Republican candidate may be false – fake – a fluke to ensure his presence in media. I am not naming names, these days, if I can help it. Real or staged there’s no room in a real democracy for such acts of violence.

Be that as it may: He has been proven to be a person with no responsibility except towards himself and those with money. The kind of money that comes in cartloads. Bluntly put.

The Republicans stand for all the values that endanger a democracy. Their candidate was actively involved in the attack on the Capitol. They do not favour the support of the unfortunate, support weapons and their lobbies, and in general are in favour of an economy that is regulated by the markets alone.

But history is ample proof, in the US as well as elsewhere, that this does not work. The favouritism with capital will constantly shift the wealth of a society towards the already rich and wealthy – when everybody in truth is involved creating products, goods, marketable output.

Democrats on the other hand favour a wise and socially responsible policy for all concerned. Their advocating a society of equality, diversity and freedom in accordance with human and civil rights is legend.

Check the values!

Vote wisely, the Democratic party, as I stated before, may – just as any human institution – not be perfect; but they strive to do the best for the whole of a society – not just a select few.

And: They made the first African American president Barrack Obama possible!

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Stop the Republican Candidate – Vote Democrats!

Screenshot taken from democrats.org at 18-08-2024_15-44-37 CEST — showing Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and followers

The former president D. Trump running for office again and being part of that party misleadingly calling itself “Republicans” is not to be pitied.

I wonder if it wasn’t a ruse even — that attack. But that is actually not really important at this time. He is neither to be trusted nor is he a good man, or ever was.

His past is full of financial irresponsibility, he actually only recently has been found guilty in a court of law of the United States after a proper action before that court.

He has hurt thousands of ‘little’ people during the 1970s that had trusted him and his enterprise, ruining their existence by taking their money and getting out in time himself.

He was best buddy to president Putin in Russia, who even supported his election the first time using illegal, online measures that have been proven.

Link to the Pulitzer Prize committee‘s official site, stating that fact:

“The 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner in National Reporting — Staffs of The New York Times and The Washington Post”

Seems he is billions of dollars ‘worth’ — but when you look at his deeds (not his words) you will find it proven, too:

He ist not worth your vote.

Why Democrats? Because although being human and thus not flawless — they are the only ones smart and strong enough to prevent the hell of a second presidency of that Republican sorry-excuse-for-a-man.

Vote for peace and equality.

It’s the Bible even, that says it clearly:

“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”
(English Standard Version, 2016)

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“Supreme Court”? “Justices”? – Support Democrats in 2024 Elections!

Monday already the ruling was out and amid an uproar of news flashes there’s some comfort…the Washington Post explains
(screenshot taken from here at 05.07.2024, 05:59 h (CEST)):

Screenshot from Washington Post Website

Personally I think it’s not overly surprising when you think of how the majority of the present Supreme Court Justices came into office: They were named and instated during that former president’s time in the White House.

Let’s hope and pray  – and keep going for democracy! – for a better and eventually true-to-their-best-roots society, especially in the US.

Because three dictatorships all across the world is too much even for this planet, namely Russia, China and a would-be president D. Trump in the United States.

Ancient Rome had seen similar situations: A huge empire that grew, benefited the few – and saw Caesars as well as dictators for centuries.

Let God – and NATO – forbid.

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7001 Languages: Body Language and It’s Impact

Image creative commons license via Ecosia filtered search

“But he’s lying, it’s so obvious!” Apparently a group of deaf-mutes signed that when watching an interview of the then president of the United States Bill Clinton who had been publicly accused of having an affair with a visiting girl at the White House.

Body language:
The most powerful tool we have – and use so often unbeknownst to ourselves. Some numbers say that we communicate over 70-80% of all social exchanges through our bodies.

The world is full of languages, over 7000 are said to exist.

Apart from knowing with our hearts, learning this powerful way of expressing emotions and thoughts could be helpful.
It’s not easy, because culturally dependent. Yet, for more  peace and mutual understanding – this could be one way.

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“Stands with a Fist” – Dancing with Life

Image of two flamingos in a lake embracing with their beaks
“Stand with a Fist” is the name of a character in a movie, a young Indian woman in the movie “Dances with Wolves”. I had to think of it recently and what these two expressions mean to me these days:

In this modern world we are supposed to be strong, independent and always up-to-it – whatever ‘it’ may be.

In business and increasingly so in private life if you admit to ‘weaknesses’ you may be looked at askance. And what are those, really? You may lose the confidence of others into your abilities, your skills and your powers of thought or ideas.

‘Weakness’, I think that’s a grave misconception of what humans are, in effect: We all are living and breathing entities, who all their lives are looking for that decisive ‘connection’ with another, that lifting of the ‘veil’, the ‘barrier’ between us – and the conquest of that feeling of separateness as Erich Fromm called it: Love.

Often ‘weaknesses’ means ‘just’ everyday life occurrences that are not ‘pretty’ in a character, such as cheating at cards, telling tall tales for the truth – or eating the last piece of cake.

But much more often ‘weakness’ is equalled with ‘being vulnerable’.

‘Strong’ being identified as what warriors are supposed to be like: Always know the way, always be cool, calm and collected – and never take anything to heart.
If needs be – women and children are to be saved first. Fight for a cause. And die for it, if it so happens.

Well, not all is ‘fair’ in love and war’, because – we are not at war in everyday life!
And we should also not strive to be fit for war, first and foremost. Because:
“Be careful what you wish for.”
Or
If you focus on one thing in your mind’s eye, you cannot focus on the other.

It’s rather simple, in many ways: Our mind is a powerful tool to invoke images and those in turn ‘make’ our emotions, and are informed on by our emotions. And so on.

That’s why focusing on the good can be so important, not to say, crucial!

Focusing on Love.

In essence, love is what keeps us alive, and strong, and self-confident and – positive.

Love? Isn’t it food, and drink and clothing and shelter that makes us stay alive? Yes, but after that?

I think what makes us all stronger really is to focus on all that is part of a peaceful, and fine life, in a community: Not be a warrior carrying your harness all day long – but a sensitive and humane person with feelings that allow us to laugh, to love – and to feel friendship.

But why should I take the first step? What if someone else is there – and hurts my feelings – and I will perhaps even be made to look a fool?

Well, that’s why I called it ‘dancing with life’: It’s not easy. You take steps and you reverse them, you try again and sometimes someone steps on your foot. But who said it should be – easy?

Is war easier? Or better – or nicer? It hurts more – and it kills people.

 

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