DOOMSDAY .......

It's only been eight days since Pres. Trump took office , and we've already seen enough executive orders indicating how dangerous it could get . But the physicists, politicians and the board , which include 16 Nobel laureates of the hypothetical doomsday clock , which was established back 1947, with a 7 minutes to midnight, had a purpose to caution and bring awareness to nuclear disarmament, climate change , energy and other technology issues that can help save the earth .

The yearly bulletin of the scientists behind the doomsday clock pushed it only once to 17 minutes to midnight back in 1991, that was the year the cold war ended , and the world thought optimistically .  In 1953 when Pres. Harry  Truman announced ; the U.S. has developed the hydrogen bomb,  threatening a thermonuclear war , the same clock was pushed to 2 minutes to midnight .

The Chicago based bulletin of the atomic scientists , a science journal which sets and oversees the clock said ; recent events, including the Trump election, and his various slogans ranging from the U.S. nuclear arsenal , and his statement of "Military more important at this time than balanced budget", to his views on climate change , and his open stance toward many countries across the world and neighboring us , and antagonizing most of the free world and the UN , with his blind support to Israeli aggression and theft .

It all, drove the group of scientists to readjust the clock's  hands to two and a half minutes to midnight, after it being stable at three minutes to midnight for some years now . The clock is revised annually, but it took 6 days of Mr. Trump's presidency to convince everyone to push the hands of this metaphorical doomsday clock. It is the closest it has been to midnight since the cold war of the fifties.

The warning of the remaining time , 2 minutes and 30 seconds to the time when a full catastrophe  that could annihilate the world and its inhabitants. The crazy rise all over the world , of vulgar and cheap nationalism, including the U.S. Europe , Russia, theocratic entities encouraging phony nationalism through religious ideologies, as in all or most Islamic countries, Israel and its blind Jewish notions, all with very manipulative leaders reminding the world of Adolph Hitler and worse.

The total disregard for any scientific data and facts , about most human issues , could entirely derail the little margins of safety remaining to safeguard the globe .  Six  days into the new administration, the group sent a clear message ;  " things are not going in the right direction."


My as always, many thanks for reading and bringing the issues into our reflections and discussions .
 

       

INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS .....

It is becoming fashionable in many cultural quarters to put down human beings, although most of us, when honest , would agree that Sapiens are a pretty special and amazing species .  In our times, it is far more important to protect and maintain our lives collectively, to consider what we ought to do, and not just what we in fact do .

To keep striving to show compassion and maintain a sense of fairness and correct reciprocity, in other words how ought I live, shouldn't conflict with ; how ought we all live together, instead of the more common words of  " What's true and fair for us may not, and isn't true and fair for them. "

The philosopher Charles Taylor , said ;"There is a certain way of being that is my way, I'm called to live my life in this way, and not in imitation of anyone else's ... if  I am not , I miss the point of my life, I miss what being human is for me ." It is very true, only if understood correctly .

Moral rule and authority is not found in our times any longer in external causes and affairs, ideologies, in dominating religions, in politics, in collective social behavior of supremacy, hegemony, apartheid and arrogance, it is only found in each person's unique self, what is right and what is wrong emanates from our own individual self harmonious inside, from our personal feelings, from our created self moral conducts we administer to our lives, and not to collective religious , ethnic, national or clan partisanship , not to right or left stand in life .

It is external structures of society , of religions, of political and social parties, and pressure groups, that gives us this false sense of power, that influence most people into racism, inequality, cruelty and oppression,  changing what most of us individuals feel or find in themselves . The right path is generally speaking inside us, we  only have to find it and listen to it .

Historically, morality more often than less was left behind, even replaced in many instances with barbarism, cruelty, hegemony , imperialism, colonialism and apartheid . But somehow the passage of time mellowed these extreme traits and anomalies from human behavior. Today examples of Syria, Israel, Brexit U.K. and Trump's America, even places like Putin's Russia  and Erdogan Turkey revive our leaving behind of even the basest of our better feelings, mature civilized behaviors, and moral realism and righteousness , it is probably very necessary for humanity collectively, to rethink and revive and follow what we intentionally and stupidly left behind .

On another note , today is the swearing-in and inauguration of the newly elected President Trump, his administration and family. I believe I've mentioned it before , but I reiterate and restate that I only hope Mr. Trump will get this country in 4 or more years exactly in the good shape he got it , or possibly better, history as are many Americans and international observers, are keeping a sharp eye on American politics, societal, economic, and foreign affairs and its leaders as never before, and history will not be easy-going nor very tolerant to what might be , meanwhile, good luck Mr. Trump with it all .

Thank you all , the greatest compliment you can give me and or the blog, is a recommendation to your friends and colleagues, please feel free to share the piece with anyone you think would enjoy it .

               

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE .....

Mr. Trump lately, has repeatedly cast doubts over reports and investigations by American intelligence agencies, about Russian interference in the latest U.S. election with the aim of helping him win by damaging his opponent .

The divide between the president elect and the U.S. intelligence community, their officials  and their agencies, has grown so wide that it's now threatening the future stability and governance of the new presidency and its administration .

Already new reports mentioning and alluding to older Trump/Russian ties, and maybe Russian pressuring and possibly black-mailing material in hands , plus financial deals dating back to possibly 5 years ago .

Mr  Trump has too frequently praised Putin's leadership , personal achievements and persona . Crowning it all with a very controversial appointment for Secretary of State , the Exxon Mobil CEO, Rex  Tillerson . Who is himself a known Putin friend and admirer, with big business ties for Exxon in Russia , while Mr. Putin himself has made it a priority to undermine world and American oil shale production , to maintain Russia's oil production and supremacy , all through RT, or Russian TV as it's called.

No one politician in the world denies that : " Russia is back in the world as a revisionist power , pursuing a 19th century agenda with 21st century tactics and methods." To quote a letter signed by dozens of Central and East European politicians and leaders . A letter urging the U.S. not to trust Putin or his ambitions .

While Mr. Trump and his various appointees keep denying any trace of authenticity to any of these reports , with a doubtful insistence and obstinacy , the immediate question that comes to mind is : WHY !!!  It is no more a role of ideology or a certain policy vision , it is no more in line with a future strategic safe-guarding of American interests and profits , it is not in any way in line with all of our European and international partners and allies, except possibly Israel , and maybe Turkey who might be shaping and forging a different Russian future agenda .

So why this insistence and obstinacy in defending Putin from day one ?? While being skeptical to say the least , about considering or accepting any alleged Russian role in interfering in American elections , affairs or others.

The U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, have clearly concluded and stated with high levels of confidence , that Russian official hackers, under direct supervision and orders leading all the way to Mr. Putin, were personally involved in the cyber attacks and the covert campaign . Mr Putin and his apparatus insistently deny these reports , while Mr. Trump here, and his spokesmen , keep insistently and repeatedly praising and exonerating Mr. Putin . Something is fishy to say the least .


My full gratitude for all my readers all over the world for their time and help spreading the blog .      

ANOTHER YEAR OF THE ACTUAL MIDDLE EAST QUAGMIRE .....

The Western world in general, and possibly the whole modern world, which for the past few years have  managed only at popular and common levels to criminalize financial support of extremist jihadi groups and mostly Musslem fanaticism and extremism, have now diminished their relations and influence with both sponsors and the groups themselves . Politics put aside , everyone or almost, are realizing the future dangers of such groups demagogy, and their influence on world  terrorism and blind brutality .

Sunni Saudi Arabia , and its Gulf neighbors with a clear backup from their own and international Musslem  sentiments all over, kept and still do fueling this crazy phenomenon . Shiite Iran and its proxies have been at the very heart of the problem as well, by fueling and sparking proxy struggles that inflame sectarian struggles throughout the Middle-East, every party hiding behind ideologies and theological beliefs, but serving strategic political and hegemonic ambitions, All mixing and engulfing others in their wicked dreams of hegemony like Israeli Jews, local minorities and Western Christian Ultra right nostalgia and will .

These conflicts only feed young extremists and jihadi-like brainwashed youths from all parties and denominations . ISIS and Al Qaida, the settler's brutality and organized militias of Israel, and most ultra right groups, whether part of organized movements throughout the area or independent individuals throughout the world. Unfortunately the few hundreds boots from wherever they come are not an answer to eliminate or even reduce their numbers. As is the maintaining of a political status quo on most situations of total injustice and double standards, they are not going to solve anything.

The old order of the known Middle-East is collapsing as quickly and surely as the situation in Syria and Iraq and the borders of every state of the M-E. The entire world, and more so the Western world need to decide how much of their moneys , forces and resolve are they willing to invest in forging a new regional balance of power. The politics and cheap ruses of a Mr Trump or a Theresa May toward hiding the real conflicts with right wing and neo-cons rhetoric, isn't going to solve it either.

Tsarist Russia,Persian Iran,Ottoman Turkey, Biblical Jewish Israel and blind Wahhabi Arabs, will not fulfill local aspirations to peace and stability, needed to get the youth off the extremist path, on the contrary, they will turn around and forge new alliances any time it suits their immediate tactical interests, where many players states are still reasonably sheltered from refugees and religious terror, giving them a feeling of immunity and superiority .

Winning the peace in Iraq, Syria and the entirety of the M-E. including Yemen, Israel and Libya , plus all other dormant areas and spots, depends on huge political efforts, involving for sure Russia and Iran, but essentially the Western powers, to help restore a local belief in a future , in a system of governance that gives the local populace some sense of dignity, stability and future security.

Bickering for political benefits among leaders of the past and coming newer administrations about Israel or the actual borders of whatever is left is surely not helping any stability, and it's threatening our combined futures. Entrusting the whole matter to Russians , Iranians ,Israelis and fanatics and all their proxies to solve and create a durable reality, is a big gamble with our combined futures.

The sons of religious fervor from the Sunni side, the Shiite side, the Jewish side and even the Christian side will rise from the rubles of Mosul, Aleppo, Jerusalem and plague our new brave world, for many years and generations to come. If the situation of millions of Musslem Arabs, Jews, and the many minorities around the M-E. can not be settled and turned into some type of freely voting democracies, accommodating everyone, they will invariably turn into apartheid states, ethnically hating each other using religions to destroy themselves and others . endangering the stability and progress of the whole world .

Sovereignty, independence, and a restoration of national identity, are essentials for preventing every youths in the M-E. from turning into a psychopath suicidal jihadi, a non state actor, for now only some segments of Islam and crazy Islamists have vowed for an undeclared war against the world and mostly the Western world, let's hope we are intelligent enough not to turn the whole area into crazy zombies.  

If a Mr. Trump, or Mrs. May, a Mr Putin , Erdogan or Netanyahu, the Saudi kingdom or the Iranian Mullahs ,  are put in charge of the M-E. situation and its future geopolitical map, including that of a Palestinian state, the world will surely envision a tragic future, one in which the entire M-E. and Israel are likely to never have peace and security that their people deserve.

My as always many thanks for your time and help propagating the blog .    

ON CREATING A CREATOR .......

WE  should care in life to get things right, or as right as we can .   The man or people who created the god of Abraham supposed and assumed back then, that god feels, reacts and reasons the same way as we do . Like ourselves he is envious, jealous, curious, loving, vindictive, murderous or forgiving, cruel and brutal, in fact as his mood takes him, in a sense exactly like us .

But we never consider seriously that god has no one to envy, has no peers or competitors, no real reason to blame us the people bellow whom he created and gave them characters, nothing to forgive but what he created. God presumably created us, chose some of us, hated some others, he apparently continues to care for some , as he cares for ants and mosquitoes, albeit we keep attributing to him equal opportunities, and fatherly attitudes . How he juggles all his subjects and what criterions he follows remain a mystery to our limited brains.

He exists through shows of over confidence, illusions of comprehension, his hugely self-belief sense of righteousness , his omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience do not match well his continuous sense of grievance at having been undervalued or replaced, do not match the original intended picture of a creator, nor his self appointed divine messianic promoters and followers .

This same creation, god, who loves and hates simultaneously, who is totally dependent on his creation's praise, while looking and considering them inferior and worthless, looking constantly for their flattery, false or true, is a clear sign of weakness, only worthy of low level sapiens and not what they themselves thought to empower their own divine creator with.

Authority, absolute leadership, self admiration, superiority and arrogant levels of self absorption , exploitation of others and wicked manipulation, are all sapien attributes, we shouldn't have given or passed to the divine back then or now , as passing to the gods, our own earthly attributes, we liberate them with freedoms from moral woes, flaws, remorse and worries. We turn them into extreme and unsatisfiable.

Theoretically all of the human race, but factually only a smaller part of humans share some traits of humility, congeniality, tenderness and an honest self-criticism, unlike all of our gods throughout history, and more so since the book of genesis, written by an Ezra around the Babylonian exile of the 6th century bce, created the god of Abraham, who brutally governed over some minor tribes for years. Hellenized Christians and later, Mohamedan Musslems , both inherited and adopted the book and its concepts of creation in their entirety.

Moral improvement of Homo Sapiens throughout history, was directly intertwined with the times of rapprocheman and convergence with god. Whenever men were closer to gods and in better relation and mirroring them, their morality degraded, they behaved with more immunity, like their god. It is unfortunately the traits of our times as well . Cruelty, sin, vengeance , vanity and false pride and superiority, were an inheritance we passed on to our gods, and we loved them for it, they returned it to us with supposed benediction and protection, and we loved them even more.

On a different note, more civilized countries all over the world nowadays are recognizing and updating their existing laws . Including here in the U.S. as Mr. Obama signed a week ago, amendments to a law recognizing  non-theist  groups and individuals, a long overdue step giving atheists and non-theistic communities the same protection and respect that have been given, or should I say accaparated, hogged and monopolized,  by religious communities for long centuries .    

As always , my gratitude for your time , patience and help proliferating the blog.  

            

AUTHORIZING, LEGITIMIZING AND LEGALIZING THEFT ....

When I repeatedly keep talking about the crazy area of the world we call the Middle-East, and call them the "la la lands" I persistently include Israel, I don't really err much, as some might think or accuse, I don't consider  myself inaccurate nor inappropriate , even if it didn't reach yet the levels of the situation of say Syria, Iraq or Yemen, but surely they are on the same path , as they all are governed by some religious mysterious Divine hands, will and mind .

The recent parliamentary discussions, leading and allowing for the authorization and legalization of the law of theft, the law allowing and legitimizing settlers who previously acquired land by force and brutal methods from present or absent Arab owners, and built on it,  what is internationally recognized as illegal housing , is slowly and surely being voted in . Of course behind it all is the alt-right and the PM , Mr. Netanyahu himself with some of his religious neocons ministers.

Now assuming that with some friends , white, blue eyed of course, non Jewish couples from the U.S and Europe , make it to the occupied Palestinian West Bank, and manage to put our hands on someone Else's land and property, using bribery and applying  other forceful brutal means and designs , build it with entirely subsidized nice homes and lived in them with our families .

Would we eventually benefit from the same deal !! By legalizing and perpetuating the take over, or theft , of our newly acquired  homes ?? Or is the law strictly reserved for Jews ? Israeli Jews or foreign Jews, as all Jews in the world are automatically naturalized Israeli citizens anytime they wish . It's all being assumed hypothetically of course .

In all and any book of law or religion it is called legalizing theft , but the funnier part is , that in Israel, it's being done and applied  practically in the name of religion !! As Yahweh or their own version of Allah , promised them the land , by any means possible, and made it Halal  for them to acquire . And all Israelis believe or insist on believing that . Making it legal and the law of the land becomes trivial and inconsequential .

Now, and to add a final note ,  let's hope that words of condemnation, reprimand or criticism for such acts , for themselves or for future peace outcomes, used in this blog or other articles and publications, will not further trigger questions , investigations or surveillance  under anti-Semite false headings and pretexts, as it's all been lately reinforced by the passage of the Scott and Casey bill , here in the U.S Senate. With the sole purpose of widening the scope of controlling universities and the cultural publishing output of intellectuals  condemning or criticizing Israel or some of their misdeeds , as well as its politicians .

My very deep appreciation and thanks for your time and help spreading the word .  

NARCISSISM .......

Narcissus, was intoxicated by his own beauty and self image,  but in our times we face more politicians/leaders being as intoxicated by their own selves, their achievements, their birth and possessions and worth . To name a few ; let's look at Gaddafi of Libya , Saddam Hussein of Iraq, both gone.  We can always admire some of the existing ones, like V. Putin the Tsar, Sultan R. Erdogan, and the famous Netanyahu of Israel. Both George Bush Jr. and Tony Blair showed messianic tendencies shortly after taking office, especially before it became apparent that turning Iraq into the promised paradise was a big farce .

Of course Assad of Syria is definitely in a class of his own as well.  Our Trump the latest in elected U.S. presidents, surely is a phenomena to look at separately , Oun of small Lebanon could easily follow, as well as Zimbabwe's Mugabe who might step down soon, or not. Kim Jong-Un of N. Korea, his father and grand father before him are all solid candidates.

Vanity and greed are common in most, as it is mostly driven by total blind love of the self, it is after all not very different from Narcissism.  Arrogance is one of the least appealing of human idiosyncrasies, so again , why are so many of these horrible character flaws , shared by so many of our leaders ??

We accept our leaders at their own valuations, when they tell us, then they have no need for us, no more than god has any need for his worshipers.  It is more that they cannot comprehend the idea that they could be flawed, as we lie low outside the range of their imagination.

What Adam Smith calls "  men of rank and distinction" We make and turn our politicians into celebrities, for all to see, cherish and enjoy, and label them ourselves as men of rank and distinction. Their words and gestures become ours, they invariably turn into people who feel that the eyes and attention of the world are on them, and them alone. And mankind should be disposed and willing to go with them. They deserve to belong with the gods .

These leaders with their arrogance  fail to recognize these acts of popular admiration and applause, they are more likely to turn into indifference at best, malice and ridicule at worst. Leaders who are at any time capable of uncontrollable anger , aggression, cruelty and brutality , despair and paranoia .

It is no credit to our phase of civilization to be so easily manipulated and governed by so much vanity,  egotism and self worship . Where their ambitions are never fulfilled or satisfied . All sharing the same messianic self belief, with aggressiveness, lack of remorse, and invariably financial irresponsibility that always end in dangerous and disastrous behavior .

My, as always profound thanks for listening, and sharing the blog with as many friends all over .