MORE OF THE SAME ........

Mr.  Trump chose the Middle-East for his foreign debut. A strange choice for achieving nothing, not now, not in the foreseeable future . Unless we consider receiving gifts , huge and expensive personal gifts an achievement by itself .

Consequently American foreign policy nowadays is shifting rapidly , changing the focus of our alliances, as we are satisfied with having as our top allies the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and some of its minor vassals , and Israel, both considered some of the most repressive regimes in the world, both exemplary in their behavior, hegemony, barbaric brutality toward others and neighbors . Apartheid is only one of the policy aspects both entities respect and adhere to .

At a second level comes the greatly illuminated leaders and their oligarchies and bankers. Mr. Putin, Erdogan, and Duterte of the Philippines come immediately to mind . The rest of the world pivot between ex-allies to cold relationship, to enemies of America, even the very popular Catholic Pope is now somewhere on the same scale .

The new motto for our foreign policy is now " Screw them all , we come first." As a State department official told the satirical Daily Beast, "When it comes to diplomacy, president Trump is a drunk tourist, loud and tacky, shoving his way around the dance floor, he steps on others without realizing it, it's utterly ineffectual."

According to an unofficial Saudi report, after the famous visit to the kingdom of S-A. the jewels and other personal gifts, including apparently a full blown huge yacht, plus the money transferred to Ivanka's international funds from the royals, gets into some considerable amounts, 600 to 800 millions of Dollars. Not bad for couple days of family diplomacy .

A carte-blanche for many years to come to all their policies and adventures. Did the Israeli lobbyists and rich enthusiasts in the U.S. match those figures ?? We might never know for sure . We know though that Russian investors and bankers did , thus the quick shifts toward Russia and its leader.

And Mr. Trump latest brilliant move to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accords puts the country in league with only 2 other regimes globally ; Syria and Nicaragua, that are not participating in the agreement, versus 200 world nations, maybe we ought to add these two to our list of best allies and friends .

For the past 15 years G. W. Bush invaded and destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama's undecidedness further destroyed Libya, Syria and Iraq, now we have Mr. Trump to complete the task, for his Allies the Israelis and Saudis, and kill whatever little chances the area has to a fair future .

The president will be judged in 2020, and surely in every election in between , as all GOP candidates will be judged in 2018 on his behalf , I hope Americans will think and act bypartisanly , and choose the country first and not the party, and that money will not be the decisive factor in every election. As it will be very, very disappointing for America, and American already bruised image throughout the world .

My usual thanks to all , for reading, participating and spreading the blog .        

TRUMPOPHOBIA ........

Mr. Trump is away this week , selling American weaponry to the envy of the watching industrial world, maybe America should have elected him to the post of head arms salesman of the United States of America. Instead of president, one should wonder if these deals will stick if he leaves office or looses the confidence of the American people .

As Aristotle believed ; that watching tragedy we ought to feel pity and fear at the same time.  Mr. Trump is striving to convince the Arab and Musslem world to unify and combat terrorism, forgetting that terrorism has a momentum of its own now after initially being funded by mostly Arab Musslems . And humiliating the Middle-East populations year after year with our policies, helped create and nourish such organizations, and made it far more difficult to combat or defeat .

Ignoring and not solving the Israeli/Palestinian problem, or any other situation in which Musslems and Arabs nowadays feel abused and humiliated would turn the war against terrorism practically to a stand still.  Continually vilifying Iran, even after the moderate election win , is a continuation of blind and naive policies, very short sighted strategy indeed. And only serving Saudi and Israeli narrow interests over solving the real issues, and serving our long terms interests .

The American administration  is playing the local sentiments of the M-E, tribes against each other, forgetting it could be playing with fire, destroying all fantasies of omnipotence and supremacy, and plunging it to its ruin . We are, by watching Mr. Trump's tactics, proving that he is an author of nothing and only an architect of empty spaces .

In America as it is in many spots of the world today, fascism must be resisted, the real question would come to be, are conventional liberalism, humanism, and rational maturity really up to the task ?? As our president elect and his entire team are proving to only believe in power, appetite, self interests,  immediate and quick winning calculations, they are proving to be angelic and demonic at the same time. Putin, Erdogan, Netanyahu, the royal Saudi monarchy and Trump all belong to the same league and follow the same school of thought.

The demonic alliance between a very rich manipulative minority and ultra conservative elite, and the  white rural lower middle classes, whereby the role of the later is to provide some legitimization to the former. Are we in all sincerity creating or recreating a system of the mad, absurd, monstrous, traumatic, surreal and disgusting ?? A regime of status obsessed individuals, a regime that goes in circles rather than moves forward in straight lines, a regime whereby being elected means, the future has already happened .

Mr. Trump and his entire entourage is proving to resemble God, who if he does turn out to exist had absolutely no reason for doing or creating anything , he is his own reason for being or doing, he also created the universe just for fun, and not for some purpose . Mr. Trump is not out there to achieve anything, as achievement belongs to a realm of means and ends, causes and effects, rational calculations and sane behavior, and not his world of deals, greed and benefits and high gambles, as T. Eagleton very well expressed it in his Evil book .

Mr. president, your trip, the multi tens of millions of Dollars as personal presents and even the billions in arms sales you've achieved will not make the American people forget or let go of what you and/or your entire entourage are entangled in or planning to implement in America . Not very good news for our leadership .

My usual many thanks to all .....          

CHANGING THE RULES .....

" Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty "  This idiom was said, used and repeated since the days of the founding fathers of the republic. American democracy must be defended from Americans who could exploit its freedoms to bring about undesirable changes and possibly its end . The mistake is to assume that rulers who won power through democratic institutions cannot alter or destroy those very same institutions .

Any single party, oligarchy, theocracy or even a family, could seize power in some combination of an election joined by a coup-d'etat and a high-jack of power motivated by ideology, profit, and love of supremacy. It could change the system from within totally to suit their longer terms purposes.

The party that exercises such control, generally comes up with very few policies and legislation that are really popular, but always the contrary, that is why they fear the same democracy that brought them initially, and invariably work on weakening it.

1920 Italian fascism, 1930 Nazis, 1937 Stalinist communism, later all theocracies, and in our times Islamic modern caliphates, plus lately many European attempts, Israeli continual playing on all these chords, and of course our famous American 2016 elections, all share something in common.

The Russian oligarchy established after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the ascent to absolute power by Mr. Putin in the aftermath of 1998, continues to function on these basis, promoting foreign policies destined to destroy democracies elsewhere.  Turkey's last events are shaping its leader as an absolute dictator, eliminating and impoverishing whole segments of the opposing population.

The present American administration, backed by the traditional GOP leadership are mostly focusing  on producing more often than not, less popular legislation and policies, avoiding more democracy and voting, GOP town halls meetings are slowly becoming a thing of the past.

When Western and Eastern Europe in the last century turned in many instances and against every logic into a one sided party system with dictatorial applications, propaganda and policies, everyone thought it's temporary and going to fade soon. But soon didn't materialize, on the contrary the systems became stronger and more entrenched in their positions, and its grip over every aspect of life became stronger, demanding blind loyalty from all. Only tragic horrors followed in every instance. They all managed to create obedient and loyal civil servants and an obedient war machine and populace.

Legislating laws that meant to secure and serve the ruling class, the affluent elite, and of course what was good for them became the law of the land. To serve their purposes, they wouldn't hesitate saying and doing things that they could have thought unimaginable previously. The Nazis, their SS and multi organizations started within the law, then transcended the law, and ended up undoing the law.

Abandoning democracy for some form of authoritarianism happened in many parts of Europe last century, some of them are still attempting it. While in America a growing tendency for the same under the guise of depraved white rural America and greedy big money.

Hanna Arendt, explained that totalitarianism removes the difference between the private and public, not just to make individuals less free, but to draw whole societies away from rational politics, and toward conspiracy theories, and fall victims of hidden realities, fake news and dark conspiracies . Arab populations and Semites are especially prone to these .

Most new appointees of the new present administration in the U.S. are playing within the norms and limits of destroying all rules, a known Nazi policy, and invoking danger and terrorism and fear . But surrendering freedom and good judgment in the name of safety should not be an option, there shouldn't be necessarily a trade off between the two side .

Democracy failed big times in Europe of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, it is failing in parts of modern Europe, and in many parts of the world, Syria, Turkey and Russia are only some typical examples, it is surely possible to fail in Israel, the whole Middle-East, and sadly the U.S. " Let's not say it cannot happen here, because it can." 

This blog was inspired by alarming events all over the 21st century world, and by a recent booklet by T. Snider, called Tyranny, all my thanks to the author and to my good readers .                   

ADVOCATES, DENIERS, AND THE IN BETWEEN .....

The strong belief of many or most Zionists zealots of the coming of " Malkuta de-Adonai" or the kingdom of God, is only matched in our modern times by Musslem zealots, expressed by jihadies and terrorists, reenacting their caliphate. Both sides are enthusiastically willing to commit the worst atrocities to attain their thousands of years old godly inspired aspirations . Against each other, their neighbors, their compatriots and all of humanity if and when divinely ordered .

It's common knowledge that Israeli foreign and military policies going back to the days of Ben Gorion, have been exceedingly opportunistic, brutal and immoral, as his old and infamous saying proves it amply; " Were I to know that all German Jewish children could be rescued by transferring them to England, and only half of them by transfer to Palestine, I would opt for the later, because our real concern is not the personal interest of these children, but the historic interest of the Jewish people and its dreams."

It's so brutal and calculative when considering Israel's or the Islamists cynical motives and choices, in addressing their interests, their military adventures, their apartheid and population transfer policies, all minutely executed under an extremely well used shield of "Anti Islam, or anti Semitism." All rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-semitism are allegedly against Jewish groups, but obviously not exclusively, as non Jewish individuals and populations, their properties, community institutions, villages and towns and religious facilities are as threatened daily by Israeli Jews .

A clear definition of "Semite" by Merriam Webster  A; a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient south-western Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arabs. B; a descendant of these people. 2, A member of a modern people speaking a Semitic language. It goes without saying that ; A Semite is a member of a group of people originally of South-Western Asia,that include Jews and Arabs."

President Trump, few days ago in a speech addressed to Holocaust survivors, strongly condemned those who deny the holocaust, and pledged to confront anti-Semitism . The president added , we must never, ever shrink away from  telling the truth in our time. He also pledged that as a president of the U.S. will always stand with the Jewish people, but not the Semitic people. I wonder what is he telling the Palestinian president today at the White house !!!

All very well, very noble and worthy words and sentiments, expressed by the American president, in the name of America and Americans, the problem we find in these words is clearly in the correct definition of words, or the not so clear definitions in the president's and many Americans minds .

The numbers of hate crimes recorded in the past year, in Trump America, Brexit Britain, and Europe in general, exceeds 11 or 12 % from the previous years. Efforts are being systematically conducted, at least in Europe, to separate and clarify the difference between speech and criticism against the state  of Israel, and hate speech labeled as Anti Semite. It is important in the whole discussion of not conflating or mixing the totality of the Jewish people  with Israel, nor the totality of the Arab peoples or Musslems with ISIS or the Islamic Theocracies.

With humanity still scarred by wars, genocide, ethnic cleansing, refugees, racism, anti-Semitism, apartheid and xenophobia. The international community and the advanced powers share a clear responsibility to fight those evils, wherever they exist and are found. Together we must all rid the world of these sick ticking bombs threatening the world's well fare, peace and continuity .

Generally speaking , our lives may only form a tiny flash of our collective existence on earth and in the universe, but thanks to our brainpower, we at least have the power and opportunity to redefine and correct our place within it all, and to find and point the absurd from the normal path of life .

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

BLATANT SIMILARITIES .....

First let me say that I will not apologize for telling what I think is the truth about the three main Abrahamic religions , their main entities and adherents, Islam, both Sunni and Shiia, represented here by Arabia,Saudi Arabia, Iran , Isis and other offshoots, Judaism represented by Israel and its increasingly Zionist population, and to a lesser extend Christianity, especially in its Jewish-Christian periods dating from St. James through the third and fourth centuries of our era and before Pauline philosophy's total influence and take over of Christianity in the Roman and modern world.

In their modern versions, they all come from and adapted to a Western world, business like, cold and pragmatist. They all send their kids to the best private schools and learning establishments.Mostly they live comfortably in posh newly created neighborhoods like Tel Aviv, Jeddah, Riad or some parts of the occupied West Bank. These people in their majority excel in shielding their young children from unpleasant and cruel truths, indoctrinating their young ones within their shielded environments, with false morals, deceptive values, negating any tolerance, coexistence, or healthy common life with any other form of humanity. Only preaching superiority, arrogance and apartheid.

Of course it's always the others fault , whether an infidel a goyim, Saracen or a minority member, for not openly admitting inferiority and submissiveness to the model in force, Musslem, Hebrew and  Christians all treated each other on the ground and others at large as belonging to diabolical forces. Better to eliminate those others than to have to coexist in some form of collaborative democracy. Yemen, Israel, Syria and Iraq are only a few live examples.

The wider entities of non Arab Musslems, Arab Christians,different sects and minorities, secular people, atheists and others, are different from Sunni, Jewish or Shiia pure blooded. they were born in lower stratus and inferior, and are to be treated as such. Both these pseudo religious entities, heavily related to each other in many aspects, are indeed a veritable time bomb, inserted into the heart of a historically more diverse, secular and gradually evolving democratic Middle-East, both started gathering influence by the early 1900, the Saudi Wahhabi started its statehood by 1920, while the Israeli Zionist started in 1948. the new off shoots of Shiite Iran in 1979, and later ISIS, and all others.

Both of these heinous entities adhere to philosophies masked by religious fervor, whereby anyone who would not conform to their rules, laws and views should be killed, humiliated, their wives and daughters violated, their men exiled and their lands and possessions confiscated. Total blind conformity is required . ISIS, Israel, and Saudi strategies and tactics are about bringing the people whom they conquer into total submission, and only instill fear, terror and absolute surrender .

Both entities developed the strongest existential dependence on the West, especially America, and it goes on, while the killings, the seizure of towns and villages, the harshest of justice, and the apartheid mentality and applications, terrible and destructive as they are, while indoctrinating their own youths, and our general population through media, lobbyism and political influence. And the rest of us are pushed to the back and left to sit and watch.

The general populations of the M-E, are treated like human animals, born to be excluded and killed. But they all fight for their freedom, even violently in some instances of down to earth survival, in fact historically there's practically no nation on earth or population who haven't done exactly the same, to liberate itself and its children.

Under the false auspices of archaic religious dogmas, Musslems and Hebraics are striving to eliminate the fair notions and balances of theft and its victims, murder and murdered, occupation, occupier and occupied, arrogance, apartheid and oppressed, and destitute.

Some of us, big mouths, are probably ruining the party, and the precious Western interests behind it, by making the truth loud and clear for people who don't want to hear or read the truth. And that applies over there in the lands of bigotry, and here within our self blinded Western world with its selfish interests. Truly I tell you; Religion has no business what so ever governing people's bodies and social/political lives.

To sum it up, the world should not be governed nor subjected forever and kept captive to those who have so little understanding of what is at stake, nor the ones continually living in their past .

My usual appreciations for you times and help spreading the blog.             

MY UTOPIA OR BUST ....

Our civilization is defined in part by the logical disciplines, sciences, laws, and objective journalism, that have developed systematic methods to arrive at the truth. Citizenship brings with it the obligation to engage in a similar process. Good citizens test assumptions, question leaders, argue details, research claims .

Investigate, read, write, listen, speak and think. Be wary of those who slander the investigators, the readers, the writers and speakers and belittle them. Be suspicious of those who confuse reality with reality TV , and those who repeat falsehoods while insisting against all evidence, demand facts.

We are rapidly and systematically, reaching the point, that American political system can not be reformed. The dual party total partisanship is here to stay, and govern our daily lives internally and externally, blindly increasing in power, influence and obedience, and is becoming the only norm to govern, vote , judge and legislate.

The very needed good old principles of regulating the banks, Wall str. and corporations, controlling financial excesses and aberrations. insuring some forms of fair equitable distribution of wealth, guaranteeing free universal health care and education, taking care of our seniors and veterans through reformed and better social security, and rehabilitating and renovating our very needed and essential infrastructures. They are all being sacrificed for the partisan rivalry and contest to win the deep pockets of super rich individuals and entities.

Most of our elected representatives are living and behaving as if in the end of times, and are turning into looters and profiteers, relying on special interests and total lobby guidance, relying politically on huge campaign moneys , while grabbing what they could.

The end result of these chaotic irresponsible situations , is that religion and anarchy and some accelerated forms of fascism will come to fill the ever growing void, and attempt to restore some meaning . Historically , this is precisely what happened during the first half of 20th century Europe , the rise and fall of state communism , and what is happening now in the Arab and Musslem world .

All my thanks for a great list of readers and friends, and your help spreading the blog .       

HINTS OF A SEMBLANCE OF A PLAN ....

It looks as if the Trump administration is possibly reaching a plan of action for its Syria/Iraq , and the whole Middle-East operation and strategy. After many years of undecidedness by the Obama administration , that only led to lengthening the Syrian nightmare, the killing of more than half a million and the displacement of many millions of Syrians, and a practical de-facto ethnic/religious division of the country. Similar fates and chaos could hit all their neighbors without exception .

The Trump initial campaign slogans and its first month or so in office were as lost and undecided as to the fate of the Syrian regime and its president, the unity of the country and the Russian stake in it. Now it looks as if a plan is being crafted and quietly implemented, surely and efficiently.

The subdivision of Syria, either with a very loose confederation, or totally separated two or more independent and autonomous zones and territories, run by their local tribe's leaders and new war lords. The re-invented deconstructing Syria plan, is an old idea, that serves many interests and parties, Israel and the U.S. primarily, by looking at a new dominance of the whole area of the newly redefined M-E, as well as a very efficient control of the rich pipeline routes serving the oil/gas world. Unserving Russia and damaging its oil flow control to Europe.

A permanent American base along the Euphrates, directly controlling the entirety of the M-E. Iran, parts of southern and eastern Turkey and its boarders with Russia, and the new pseudo coastal territory with the Russian naval base neighboring the Shiite Hezbollah new routes from Damascus to the Lebanese southern Mediterranean coast. I did write about this plan in a previous blog, and how by creating an entity between eastern and middle Syria and western Iraq could well serve local Sunni aspirations of independence from Shiite influence, and their pan Arab sponsors. For many a win-win situation.

Sec. of State Tillerson, few days ago, in a presentation announced that U.S. troops would not leave Iraq after concluding the siege of Mosul, the same would apply to Syria after liberating Raqqa from ISIS, the intention of Washington to keep troops deployed more or less indefinitely in the territories now occupied by Isis, seems to be the birth of the new adopted plan of keeping a foot there, and not allowing either Isis nor Assad to come back. Mr. Tillerson is calling it for now "Interim zones of stability".

Readers will recall that Hillary Clinton was a full proponent of safe zones in Syria, though the whole plan wasn't implemented  back then . Clearly the new administration in Washington is fully using the fight against ISIS as a pretext for capturing and creating the new territory, it's energy rich, excellently situated for military and air force bases, and a super geographical position for the pipeline corridors,as for total dominance over the entire area.

The risk of serious clashes with both Russia, and to a lesser degree Iran, is real, as this plan is very damaging to both entities' ambitions. But the U.S. believes it could handle Russia, and convince it of only keeping some influence in the remaining Syrian coastal area, while unleashing Israel and the Sunni world world against Iran, enough to keep Iran quiet and the others thrilled.

The whole plan is a total departure of Trump's campaign rhetoric of peace and respect to other nations, and an open Russian detente, but who cares for the old rhetoric of a gone campaign, even Senator McCain would be happy with such a policy.

An addition of a new American base with some tens of thousands soldiers around the Euphrates would constitute a nice addition to American forces globally, and to Mr. Trump's image as a superior strategist. Will certainly better serve Tel Aviv's regional ambitions and security, and serve the oil world nicely, and only further vex the Iranian Mullahs and restrict Russian ambitions. A win- win situation for the Trump camp .  

My usual thanks and appreciation for mentioning and helping spread the blog .