Category: United States

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A Fool’s Stage: USA — ‘What Bitter Tears and Hollow Laughter…’

Drawing of a clown's mask
(Image by NoPixelZone from Pixabay)

Power and money — not necessarily in this order — are at the heart of any US politics under a president such as the present one. It’s almost funny to see and hear and read about journalists actually wondering about his sanity…

Sane or not? Does it matter, really?

He is — together with all those other greedy, low-life scum that are his followers and supporters — in power. In office. He will stay there as long as no one will stand up and fight his office, his holding it, by legal means.

The impeachment already had been imminent. Several actions in courts of law against him for fraud, bribery and molestation had been on their way. He is a criminal, already convicted too. And then a supreme court ruling — lo and behold, how could that happen…? — rendered them void.

The US-American society and nation’s future as a democracy are in severe danger. This may even cause a civil war.

But, no this sadly limited brain of a greedy dictator is not above doing it: He bullies and threatens all and sundry into subservience. So far it’s a relieve to also hear about Harvard University standing its ground: They will not be bullied into scientific obedience and dependency.

The US academic system is dependent on private as well as government funds. That makes it vulnerable. But in such times also hardened against withdrawal of government funds. Because there are other donors, yet.

What a sorry excuse for a man the Republican heap of drooling and greedy entities of existence — that you could hardly call human — have made their figurehead — any human action or reaction long since being deadened by heaps of money they cannot have enough of.

It’s a shame.

The ‘fool’ in former times was a figure at courts like a clown; meant to remind a king or potentate of his limitations as a human being. At the same time ‘fool’ is also the term for a figure that is ridiculous and hollow where proper thinking is concerned.

Someone like the present president has little to no formal education of a wise kind. Raised in a military school that calls itself academy and coming from a family whose main value was to be rich — and famous — what can you expect?

Actually, I would expect someone with his connections and background to be aware enough to better himself. Insane and downright sick people should be taken pity on — not exception.

But he is not to be pitied. It’s his own, ‘sane’ doing.

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Close Deals using Threats – The Blackmail Tactics – President-elect’s Hidden Agenda Unfolding

Image of a stage highlighted by several stage lights creating a circle of light with dark blue background
Special effects used as a front – lighting and stage decoration used to intimidate or frighten people… (Image licensed via Adobe CC)

To start a conflict, manipulate people into it by threatening them in multiple ways; to position oneself as a representative of an interest group, a lobby; then in the limelight apparently get people back together again for peace talks and eventual – and so sudden … – peace or at least truce…

What do you call that?

    • ‘Smart’, because the person reaches their goal of appearing to be the hero of the hour?
    • ‘Business-like’, because using money as a weapon they appear influential and the ‘wise guy’ … of the day?
    • Or ‘Cruel’, because many lives are lost in the process, hostages kept for years in fear and captivity, marred for life while others suffer intense pains of loss and worry?

I am happy and very relieved that so many are now apparently released from captivity as hostages! For themselves and for their families, their near and dear!

But they might not have been to be in that place at all, in the first place – used by a president-to-be and yet another ally in Israel, Netanyahu, who had to fear using his ‘job’ – and thus started to get beligerent. Follow the history on channels and newspapers to trust. It was rather obvious.
And war one way or another throughout history has been known to be a welcome and often-used method to distract attention from internal affairs and issues – of a king, or a dictator, or a president…

The result, and the tragic and cruel truth can seem unbearable: It’s once again about power and money. Ultimately. People are just so much cannon fodder, once again.

And we can expect ‘more of the same’, in the coming months, if not years.

Because, there is ‘a method to the madness’.

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Syria Free – From Russia with ‘Love’ – The USA and the President-elect

Photo of vintage world map with small packages connected by string lines to indicate trade routes
Image licensed via Adobe CC

The historical examples are all there – one way or another, all over the place. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed and our heads clear – and our calm in the face of adversity: Putin and Trump are and have been for years:
Best buddies.

In a little over a month now Trump is going to take office. He’s prepared his way to dictatorship.

Once they unite all the countries still free will have to make an effort to stay free.
Why? He wouldn’t start war on half the world?
No, it would be even easier. Plain blackmail could do it, from both sides.
Gas from Russia, high taxes on goods, trade and military support denials as well as harsh negotiating on the side of the US.
You name it.

Be prepared! We need freedom of thought and opinion and press (!) as well as political or private calling.

What’s free in that sense?

Freedom of opinion, press, thought and way of life. The human rights.

Because even now the first signs are there on the horizon that traditionally free and independent media are wondering; starting to ‘count their words’, mind their ‘ps’ and ‘qs’, as it were.
There’s a documentary about that too: From 2017, when the president-elect in the US took office for the first time.

He was adverse and fighting the press whenever they reported the truth, no matter what, about him. Calling it fake news and condemning them. The Supreme Court Justices are made up of a majority of justices that stem from his followers, his ‘ranks’.

Only recently the charges against him were dropped on account of him being in office for the time when illegal Russian influence with his knowledge and consent veered votes towards him in 2017.

Free?

All those with huge amounts of money are more or less behind him. Which accounts for a constant, ongoing press campaign.

And anyone a little knowledgeable about the way of marketing knows that anything goes – as long as it is published.  The juicier, the more impact.

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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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War is Not an Option: War is Death

Buddhist monk walking rose petals barefoot
We can go there – if we really want it… Peace.

War is  wholesale murder.  Charlie Chaplin was not the first to point it out. He was not the last one either.
War is not a solution: War is the sign of failure to really try and find a solution.
War ist not heroism either: War is the ultimate cowardice in the face of – thoughts, life and difficulties.

Because: Anyone faced with the question at one time or another in the course of their lives if they were prepared to lose their own life for the sake of a cause – as long as they consider the cause to be ‘good’ – will come to the conclusion that as a fine human being you would have to.

But the point is: War is no ’cause’! War has a cause, not to say multiple causes. But they are never heroic, wonderful or sublime – whatever anyone tells you.

They are driven by interests, of lobbies, of industries, of companies, all those that will make money by selling things for those wars:
The weapons
The ‘units and kits’
The cars and vehicles
The ships
The phones and radio transmission devices
The food and shelter

All this makes a lot of selling to do. A lot of money, for those who provide the goods. The jobs…

Anything you want to sell needs marketing. That’s equally true of war: They will sell it by making it the only possible way out of a ‘fix’…presenting no alternatives anymore.
But that’s propaganda.

War is not a heavenly or sublime cause! Never was, never will be. War is about money. First and last.

 

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Adam Smith in World Politics? – Diplomacy Beyond Popular Images

image of a world map and a compass
Diplomacy needs among other things these very basic skills: The ability to look beyond images, propaganda and popular opinion.

Politics of peace need them too.

The Western world in my eyes is blinded in their view of the world, politics and negotiations by something almost amounting to idealism:

It‘s about money, in any shape or form, we are about it – and everyone else is too.

This is perhaps the most tragic misconception that will endanger peace in all parts of the world again and again:

Indeed certain factions of the Christian religions in the backwater of the rise of civil society around the 13th / 14th centuries claimed, in principle:

Wealth is the sign of God‘s pleasure.

Ever since an ever larger part of the world – especially rooted in the beginnings of the US society with the first actual settlers on the Mayflower representing that idea – are exactly of that frame of mind:
Be wealthy and God is with you.

Most Eastern societies from Africa, over Russia all through Asia in one way or another – in principle that is – value the community and the dignity of the individual even more.

Dignity!

I have spent most of my adult life around all manner of extremely peaceful, knowledgeable and kind people from the Near, Middle and Far East.
I have studied Persian poems and literature and have met other people from around the globe.
I have had the privilege to call books my friends in childhood and adolescence and still do. I studied languages and culture at a prestigious university and earned my M.A. degree there.

The most tragic misunderstanding between the Western world – leaning towards Adam Smith‘s ideas of economy – and the Eastern world – leaning towards trade among dignified, respected and proud tradespeople is that:

Dignity

The European literature of certain times and people as well as later stereotypes about life in the Eastern world – or the ways and means of trade and politics – is practically steeped in this painful repetitive almost ridiculous contempt:
If you know about their ‚purse‘, you know about their interests. Anyone with a contempt for money is stupid.

This is not the real driving force of mankind: Indeed, wealth was always craved, if people had gone hungry or even starved; but dignity and respect in combination with extreme poverty can be thought of in the East – not so in the West.

In the Western world, respect and the consequential dignity of a person – or a nation – are closely related, if not tightly interwoven with their monetary means.

In most parts of the Eastern world this is not the case. Dignity is a fundamental possibility that can be envisioned easily with little or no money.

Among nations dignity is crucial. Treat them with respect, dignity and regard, let them safe face.

And remember this fine part of the Christian bible that actually was originally written in that Eastern culture:

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

(Matthew, 25:40)

Author’s Note (April 2022):

In view of the latest developments I’d like to enlarge on this, make it clearer yet. The question after motives and real reasons is not always easy to answer. But if we are really interested in successful negotiations we need to do that. Not always is the answer to ‘cui bono’? : ‘money only’ as stated above.
Usually the attributes associated with money, or more money are actually much more important:
Respect, attention and power in certain circles.
Bluntly put: If it was about taking the Ukraine, they would have taken it long ago.

The question “cui bono” needs to be researched and answered in all directions of cause or effect or impact. Basic human motivators.

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The Russian Bear – War: ‘Strength’ or Weakness?

drawing of a schematic bear on green background

Russia and Ukraine – hopes have been shattered today. War has been started. I still believe that negotiation is the only long-term solution to keep the peace.

At the same time to understand motives can help. Looking at it from here in the middle of Europe the actual situation President Putin finds himself in is indeed that of a trapped bear in many ways:

  • He started his own journey down the road of dictatorship a long time ago: The first change of laws to enable his repeated candidacy and elections for him as president was the first sign that power indeed corrupts.
  • Internal affairs are at an all time low: More and more opposition has to be met with more and more arrests and violence, even political murder, also going on for some time now. A political leader who feels strong enough would not use such measures, indeed would not need them.
    • ‘Bullies’ always were like that – and will stay that way if we let them be: They feel weak and in consequence they do everything to appear strong – or what they take for strength.
  • The situation as regards NATO from a Russian point of view is less straightforward:
    The balance of power between the ‘superpowers’ always was a rather pointed one – not to say fragile –  since WW II and stayed that way after the Cold War had ended. As long as the  more verbal than actually written agreements on the limits of NATO expansion were observed there was some manner of peace.

Imagine yourself living in your house or flat attending to your own business – and suddenly a tall apparently friendly guy knocks at your door and when you open – you see him standing there with a ‘big ol’ smile’ on his face – carrying a machine gun…
Wouldn’t you become nervous, in spite of appearances?
I get the impression that for some time now Russia may have felt like that person in the flat, seeing all those friendly people – with weapons … right in front of their place…

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Make Peace Not War – Korea, Vietnam, Irak – Ukraine?

Vietnam woman swatting beside coal fire
Image courtesy unsplash.com – Free license (Woman in Vietnam)

The recent US American history since WW II is fraught with wars and interventions practically all over the world. I have posted about their last but one president almost too often in some ways; not naming names can be important.

President Joe Biden is a representative of sanity and goodwill in the Oval Office and millions of people there and elsewhere are grateful, altogether.

Mr Putin may have just lost his way temporarily… or is seriously lost to the good cause.
Yet, even he knows what war means, one part being a dreadfully bitter truth about it: In the short run weapon arsenals and storage spaces will be cleared by it – to make room for new ones…

But one thing is true too:

Soldiers, armies, naval forces – they are not nameless masses – they are people!

Each and every one of them is the son to a mother and father, perhaps a brother or nephew, maybe uncle – and father himself some day; these days also often daughters and nieces, aunts and sisters, in many parts of the wold; beloved, cherished – and remembered for their smiles, their laughs, jokes, games and even arguments or fights.

Wars kill people!

Wars ‘create‘ enemies.
The Russian arts and crafts are sometimes just wonderful, think of Tolstoi, Dostoevsky, or in music, Tchaikovsky, to name only a very few.
There are things that are quite special about the US culture:
Although a very young culture yet, they have artists, writers, painters, poets, musicians: Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Emily Wharton, George Gershwin, to also name just a very few; and a huge movie industry; their laws even allow major, high-budget movies be made that criticize their system and culture.

This is my own trailer version of the movie „Good Morning Vietnam“ that makes the bold move to show both sides of the story of a war and telling it from the only real perspective there is: the human one, the story of people, smart, kind, good or bad.

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The Great Relief: Return to Sanity in the Oval Office!

sunrise behind cityscape

Finally, a couple of days ago, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been inaugurated, a combination of sense, reason and humanity, so their actual background let us surmise.

There is sun behind the clouds, more than a glimmer of better things and thoughts to come in one of the most powerful nations of the world today.

And now, inside of days, Biden, Harris and their government already started to retrace steps, to get the ‘ocean liner’ that is called the USA back on the route they always called their ultimate goal: freedom, equality and peace for as many as possible. Not just make the rich even richer.

Yes, Biden and Harris will face the history, and they know it too – the country is divided by trenches almost as in war, due to the completely irresponsible and downright bad messages online and offline Biden’s predecessor delivered until a few ‘minutes’ before his step down from office. Also unprecedented, not being present at the inauguration, which would be called extremely ‘bad form’, at least.

Let us beware, the difficult times are not over yet. Watch out for the forces behind people like Trump: their greed should not be underestimated.

Yet, after years of fear and distress for no reason except an apparent madman in the seat of the president of the US, now comes relief, even if by degrees…

Let’s celebrate!

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Democracy in Danger – The “Banality of Evil”

lady justice with books on table

Anyone who has followed the court of law sessions against the criminals responsible for war, torture and death of millions in Germany and Israel after the Third Reich of the Nazis had ended in 1945, knows this title:
it is the title of Hannah Arendt’s clear analysis of what can be so shockingly ‘mundane’. The evil that can be part of mankind, in the guise of everyday people with faces of bookkeepers, such as that of Adolf Eichmann.

Donald Trump these days when talking into the cameras seems dreadfully familiar in his ‘banal’ and complete denial of reality – or sense of responsibility for the community at large.

For many months I refused to write about him anymore, to take any official notice in order to reduce any public effect he craves for with such utter disregard of all that is good or beautiful – or human – or right.

His disregard for law and order in their good sense, for equality or goodness, for better chances for all, and in turn his love for public recognition at any price are shameful to watch in a country such as the USA, who for decades, if not centuries claimed to be saviour of democracy and watcher over the application of human rights around the world.

That Trump still dares to stand in public claiming without showing any remorse or shame that he refuses violence, is only true to  the ‘form’ he has shown ever since he started running for office.

In their Pledge of Allegiance among other things, the US have included the phrase “..and justice for all”.
Let justice be served with all the force the legal system has to offer in the US on Donald Trump, now. It is high time for this impeachment.

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