FAILED SUMMITS......FAILED WORLD....

Few days after the G20 summit in Buenos Aires , a meeting of roughly 30 of the planet's strongest and richest leaders tried for two days to mellow down some of their huge differences and trade disagreements. Unfortunately no great results or successes were achieved, and the world is still as separated, divided and far from some needed peace and harmony...

Confronting the challenges of the modern world in its entirety, has to go through a liberal way and liberal thinking, contrary to what we are witnessing nowadays in many if not all spots of the world. As a wave of conservative and racist populism is rapidly spreading, only equal to 20th century fascism, whereby both systems, past and present, constitute a clear threat to world stability and endangered future. By encouraging nostalgic fantasies of a gone-by past that is embellished purposely, it ignites nationalist separatism, and is against any real international cooperation and integration, which are vital for humanity's survival on planet earth. Populism is deliberately creating a kind of panic, leading to political and social paralysis .

Economic inequality, social insecurity and human suffering, could only be addressed properly and efficiently, only after a period of adoption of those problems by liberalism and liberal philosophies and liberal political strategies and ideas. Reenacting economic, social, political and cultural means, and reaching a general world-wide consensus and acceptance of these accepted universal norms. Thus ensuring a proper blue-print for humanity and its future existence .

For thousands of years, humanity as a whole, lived and faced continually major existential destructive problems, namely brutal wars, hegemony, famine, spread of deadly diseases. We all believe that all these catastrophic dangers in our day and age could be easily prevented, conquered and forgotten, on the contrary we can add to them a sense of social justice and a fair global wealth distribution.

Historically, humanity in general prayed for gods, prophets and saints, as well as to local tribal, religious or political leaders and kings for help. We now have the ability to succeed in preventing and eliminating these deadly challenges on our own, we don't need to pray to gods and their earthly representatives for help, we only have to be vigilant in choosing and stopping some of our existing crazy impostor leaders, hijacking humanity's well being and security, for their own personal ego and pretentious dreams.

There cannot be any strong-man ruler in the world who fails to see the pattern and opportunities, from Syria's leader, to Mr. Erdogan, Putin or the new European ultra right, or the Iranian and Saudi religious oligarchies,  and of course our great friend Netanyahu applying the same Trump adage, of Israel comes first and only Israel's interests and imperialism count. All Middle-East, Europe, Africa and Latin America, as before them it was the entire South East Asia, are looking for more solid friendships and partnerships, and better support from America and the Western world, from Mr. Trump and other world leaders, but alas nothing serious was achieved in Buenos Aires, not even a common climate change strategy,  only marginalities, and theatrical acts, and leaders dragging their people and countries to doomsday scenarios with them .

 My many thanks to all .                             

THE PERSISTENT FORESEEABLE FUTURE .....

Less than two weeks ago , the world and some of its leaders were commemorating in France the 100 hundreds anniversary of the end of  WW1, with its many millions of victims, military and civilians, innocent bystanders or fighting soldiers, why does it seem today as if the world didn't learn anything at all from this episode or other similar brutal barbaric wars, before and after .

Meanwhile in Europe , the latest calls of president Macron of France and chancellor Merkel of Germany, for a unified European army and a European security council, are clear indications of  the general worldwide insecurity, panic and highly contagious aggressivity, contrary to the unified European message of tolerance and acceptance, and cooperation in fairness in an open world. It's mostly addressed to Superpowers, their leaders, and their future plans and strategies .

Inspired by few words of the brilliant Yuval Harari ; We need a global identity , as national institutions are obviously incapable of handling global predicaments and challenges. Looking at most of our actual political leaders throughout the world, will confirm this idea. We must globalize our minds and politics. The same when most people are loyal simultaneously to their immediate families, tribes, to their neighborhoods and their professions, to their countries and nations, and their skin colours , we need to add loyalty to humankind and planet earth to the list. It surely complicates a little our life and obligations, but it's a necessary price for the survival of the planet and its speeches .

Some political acts, even intentions, are punishable as crimes under international law.  Planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, are crimes. As well as murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts like unmeasured brutality, torture or flagrant apartheid, perpetrated against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds. All of the above, are defined and listed as crimes against humanity, and are punishable by international law and standards.

Meanwhile, and in a bitter and sarcastic irony, several world leaders, were commemorating in Paris France, the 100th anniversary of the end of  WW1, including Mr. Trump, Netanyahu, Macron, Putin and May. These same leaders are responsible directly or by continuity of atrocious wars, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Libya, Yemen and several other spots. They and their predecessors, are considered war criminals under international laws !!!  All have blood on their hands, they all have future plans of wars, and are actively preparing for it.  Iran, North Korea, Palestine, South Sudan, and several other unfinished and unsettled conflicts, like Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, Africa and South America.

What on earth were they commemorating ??? All of these leaders are guilty of preparing and embarking upon perpetual and ultimate worldwide adventures, and horrific weaponry for it. Dragging the entire world into unpredictable destruction which threatens the future of humanity. What on earth were they commemorating in Paris ??? 

My as always, many thanks to all ....                 

ACCELERATE PERFORMANCE .....

Most of my writings, come as a conversation, a talk, a simple discussion from one Sapien to another, for as long as we can talk, and freely express our ideas and aspirations, before the curtains go down on humanity .

As humans and humanity, will eventually have to, and rather sooner than later, decide on the real meanings of life, where are we heading , as historical events and traditional religious stories and myths, only answer in parts old life questions and dilemmas, and are not valid to our modern life's problems and questions. Nor to our technological achievements, and our philosophical inquiries.

Today's major problems of global wars, and mutual destructions and deliberate annihilation, terrorism, imperialism and land grabbing, global and national wealth distribution, universal social benefits by governments and organizations,  colonialism, apartheid and brutality, all existential problems for the continuity of the globe and its inhabitants .

The biases and hatreds that spark such conflicts, need some different levels of cognitive resolutions , where Sapiens are required to keep their fear a little more under control, and keep more humble about their views, opinions and acts. Simply to make better sense of the world they have created, and live in. Given everything they know nowadays, and don't know, about Gods, religions, politics and social achievements, Sapiens have to be clearer on the various options for survival of the species .

Our days are running out of time, with our present threats of mass destruction, ecological deep crisis, threatening technological advancement resulting in mass employment or rather unemployment, generally speaking our philosophers and intellectuals are patient enough about finding and creating solutions to our environment, our scientific experts and engineers are less so, and more pressed for quick advancement of any kind, and the worst are always our investors who will not give anyone any chance of waiting for intelligent solutions to existing problems, but keep pressuring always for more.

Dealing with our modern world challenges, requires Homo Sapiens to adopt new methods, and improve its current levels of thinking and strategising, of governing and pursuing power and wealth, changing its focus from thousands years old ideas and dogmas, to different perspectives of finding solutions, if they want to secure and insure their survivability and future existence.

Our world is changing rapidly, requiring less dominant powers, and less domineering countries and leaders, we are surely headed into the era of global thinking and global strategizing, unfortunately they will always be some setbacks, where rogue politicians will attempt to drive their countries to pre-modern ideas and tactics, to archaic forms of imperialism and domination of others.

Imperialism takes many forms, it could be in a form of forceful and brutal settlers, manifesting itself by an overt rule over natives of a country or continent, or colonialism and apartheid, driving the natives out in despair, and replacing them by their own. Sometimes it's purely economic domination, directly by governments or through specific conglomerates, mostly armaments cartels that only strive for perpetual wars.

The world today, and its population's survivability requires serious rethinking of these archaic methods of creating more wealth and power, masking it all with needed employment and phony and arrogant notions of nationalism. We simply cannot afford it anymore, time is running out .

My deep gratitude for your time and patience.                         

OUT TO DESTROY .......

A good and deeper look at Mr. Trump's supporters, and his electorate bodies, will show a very distinct and close correlation with strong authoritarian personalities, like those representing cults of all types and kinds, or religious ritualistic entities, patriarchal, authoritarian, racist, ultra nationalist, with strong rhetoric and less fundamentals, and so on and so forth ....

The large white working class, the angry class one would call it nowadays, and rightly so, as they've been dumped by practically all politicians, excluded from both parties interests, for the sake of rich donors and election contributors, whereby their salaries and real wages have stagnated for decades, and more so lately after the 2008 depression, where they have been declining, vis-a vis the huge and extravagant buildup in wealth in very concentrated few winning and influential and very arrogant hands.

Indeed, they thought that turning to Trump, would answer their concerns, but unfortunately Trump's solutions, and proposed wealth distributions, and his social offerings, are totally off the mark, and will only aggravate and make problems worse, people of all walks of life, all over America are starting to realize that. Only certain fascistic norms and slogans are in the air for now, and for the foreseeable future .

For decades now, Republicans, and lately headed by Trump and his close oligarchic machine, and Paul Ryan, and their like, have been working scrupulously and meticulously, at scaring the general American population, not segments of it, but all of it . All ages, all wealth strata, they have used terrorists, gays, transgenders, immigrants, drug cartels and gangs, even new born on American soil babies, and every shade of darker colored skins, of course it's strictly to prevent them all from destroying our wealth, well being, liberties and our glorious pasts.  But enough to  Make us all fear  fear itself . 

It was implicated like many other political instances, that the pipe bombs addressed to prominent opposition figures, were a Democratic setup, to deflect Republican midterm brilliant agendas, it turned totally different.  Even the Anti-Semitic Pittsburgh attacks, proved not to be a Democratic plot, but an extreme right-winger full of hate. The new presidential and Republican motto is now ;      "Republicans will totally protect innocent Americans, with our old and past glorious preexisting traditions, Democrats will destroy it all, So vote Republican."

Unfortunately , all these comments and facts, are generally being ignored in the main-stream media, while it should be the head-lines, as it clearly illustrate the real dilemmas the country's political system is going through. Take the newly created immigration and refugees problem and crisis all over the world, and mostly from countries directly affected by our adventurism, and our allies imperialism.

Take a country like Lebanon, harboring over 40% of its population as refugees, on top of hundreds of thousands from the 1948 Israeli Nakba and transfers. Jordan, Turkey, and others, all suffer similar fates. As N. Chomsky puts it ; "I'm not a fan of Mr. Erdogan, and he is not my favorite person, but when he refers to American, European and Western hypocrisy, it's hard to argue with him, or even disagree."

Latin American refugees into American borders, are as well a direct result of our past adventures, in subduing and destroying these countries, and rendering them failed and unlivable. Yet we pay all of our attention to Mr. Trump tweets, and hardly a factual word on our medias. We are turning nowadays into a frightened, intimidated, inactive and fearing society.

Let's not kid ourselves, It's all about power, wealth, money, and more money.   All my thanks to my good readers . 
         

AN UGLY AFFAIR ... AND AN UGLIER COVER-UP ....

The lies, and later the cover-up of the ugly killing of Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi regime , backed by some Arab pseudo allies, and Western economical special interests, especially the American president and his close people, proves how much the man in his life, and more in his death is achieving in showing the entire world the duplicity and hypocrisy of certain regimes .

The very recent incident, involving the horrendous and grizzly murder of the Saudi reporter, columnist for the Washington Post, and openly critical of his country's royal politics and regime,  took a squad of professionals, highly trained liquidators, at the open site of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul , instead of a more discrete job by a paid hitman, leaving behind them a complete trail of blood and human remains and ugly torture screams and noises . One would wonder why !!!

The entire civilised world and its press roared with loud indignation, and supposed anger, even the US was partially forced to voice some concerns and regrets, till of course Mr. Trump started his pacifying campaign , followed by theatrical Saudi muscle flexing, and economical pressures .

Till today the matter is surprisingly not closed, and more investigations are called for by many sides, a matter of increasing the cash price of punishment and embarrassment  to many interested parties. I have no shadow of doubt in my mind , that the whole affair would be deliberately closed and forgotten soon , and life will go on as normally as it is , even if the price is suddenly creating a new scene to divert everyone's attention from this embarrassing affair , both America and Israel have great interests in the  Saudi king to be, to avoid further embarrassing him publically .

It was interesting though, to observe the reactions of the main stream pro-Israeli voices in the US. and their affiliated press corps, they were not speaking against the murderers, or joining the world's indignation, but against Khashoggi himself, the victim, pro Israel groups like the American Israel Public Affairs, the anti-Defamation league, were literally attacking the man himself, Israeli officials were silent or joining these groups as well.


 Both the Israeli mossad and the American CIA, as well  as all special forces of any rogue regime, be it Russia , Turkey or Syria, even the shah of Iran, have had tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, single individuals, tortured and eliminated, as well as mass killings scenes, total annihilations of entire populations of entire villages and towns, do we honestly believe that these regimes will question one stupid case that went a little wrong in its details, by their secret service compadres ???

No one ever questioned similar cases, or the intentions or the tactics leading to them, so no real reason to question Saudi criminality, especially after reparation payments are made .  George Orwell made in his time, the distinction between ; "People and unpeople, people are those who count, unpeople don't, You can do anything you like to them ." Yemenis, Palestinians, non Zionist Jews within Israel or outside it, Middle-Easterners, Arabs, Musslems, people of colour, Latinos, are all unpeople, the rich ones of course are somewhat people . Trump's America, Neocons extreme right Israel, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and others as well, perfectly fit those methodologies, in all their wars, adventures and imperialistic elimination campaigns across the globe.

The moral bankruptcy of all new Neocons , extreme right fascists, religious fanatics, be it in America, Israel or Turkey, Saudi Arabia and/or many others, will lead automatically to similar acts of brutality and bestiality , all in the name of protection of the patrimoine, and the glorious pasts. Crimes like flogging to death bloggers for expressing their opinion  like Raef Badawi in Saudia, or imprisoning and torturing young kids for shouting at aggressive and brutal soldiers, or firing half the official state employees for alleged conspiracies, exercising white male supremacy, are all clear symptoms of what is coming. 

My usual many thanks to all my good followers and readers .          

        

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER .......

The US president , Mr. Trump, is proving to be the macho figure par excellence, anything and everything created by any previous administration or other politicians, is deemed and considered effeminate, week and anti American, he never really explained when was America great, and worthy of returning to its glorious previous model .

Mr. Trump, his oligarchy, and appointed administration, are active tearing up every treaty with all others, be them allies or foes, burning up alliances, and trampling all over the constitution, appointing new people in all positions, of judiciary, foreign affairs, security, health and education, wealth distribution and taxation, climate concerns, as if all ex-appointees were starch enemies of the country. This will insure for decades to come a certain pattern, ideological and political where no one else has a word to say, a disapproval or a concern to voice .

Mr. Trump's admiration for every other comical macho politician across the globe , from Mr. Putin to Netanyahu, Duterte of the Philippines to the north Korean leader Kim, and Victor Orban of Hungary to Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage of Brexit, even the leaders of the extreme right all over Europe, only shows a sense of cultural displacement and weakness by those who fear ethnic and racial diversity .

A return to times, when men were men, and considered themselves Superior to all others, men beating their wives, men enslaving other men, for their skin colours or not, men savagely taking advantages of other weaker men , economically or politically, socially or imperialistically, men who's unabashed masculinity, no longer feel weak or even real, men who's actions are driven by instincts, from their gut rather than their brains or intellect, regardless of the rules or consequences. Men who can show the entire world their middle fingers and believe they can get away with it defiantly .

The usual American new line nowadays, is ;  Mr. Trump is targeted at only conservatives and rich audiences, the Faith communities of the Bible belt if you will . Still every American who loves his country should appreciate Trump and his legacy, and be inspired by it . As he (Trump) has received prophecies directly from God, even if they do not align necessarily with the Bible's message . They know in the bottom of their harts that Trump is God's will, that God raised him up for these times in America, he is an instrument of God .

They all firmly believe, that America's leadership in the world, the strong economy, military prowess, blind and absolute defense of Israel, and a certain special Godliness, that only corresponds to their interests, are all Trump's attributes. God is definitely using Trump to restore America, he stands for the common man and protects his freedoms. And he is a good man himself -- Not perfect, but who is, non of us are .

All Evangelicals believe firmly that Trump's election, was God's Divine will, that God was involved in the election process. Yet most, if not all of the self-claimed Evangelicals, Christian patriots, even poorer people of colour, and some ethnic minorities, are all drawn to different styles of populist patriotism, the kind that Trump and his close oligarchy and advisers, who advocate and promotes a specific nostalgia for a past that never really existed not in America nor anywhere else in the world.

American greatness as imagined by these people , never really existed, not in our older days nor newer times, and our history is very explicit about it. Our greatness could lie in our future, if properly conducted , if administered with justice, compassion, and fairness, not hatred, fascism, apartheid, colonialism under all its forms. And sheer brutality, just because we can do it , all across the glob.

Our ideals and application of them , our greatness, is a matter of future doing and proving, not a past we're trying to recreate and go back to . Surely, We are not on our way to greatness with our present ideologies, tactics and politics. Certain Americans, who cheer nowadays Trump and his oligarchy, and their slogans, are only repeating the fake views of the pseudo glorious past, when we ruled over the world, according strictly to our narrow interests, exploiting the world resources with no check, when our Hollywood culture dominated, and later our boots, secret services, arms and money, destroyed complete nations and populations.

Our economical greed, and political fascism, combined their efforts to take a firm grip on most of the world, recreating always the fake view of the glorious past, always to the service of our supremacy,  hegemony, and unconditional wealth. No wonder our greatest raw model in governance nowadays and greatest political influencers, is apartheid, colonial and brutal Israel, its perpetual enmity to all its neighbours , and its isolation walls.

Liberalism  and social programs are the enemy, fascism and isolation are the new norms. As Mr. Obama correctly said ; That Trump is a symptom, he is building on a hysteria, and most of it is about non-problems, at least not real essential problems to most Americans, they are invented and conveniently conceived problems for a special political, economical, and social audience, for a specific goal .

My usual gratitude for all my readers, all over ....                                      

THE STAKES TODAY ARE IMMENSE , THE PREDICTABLE CONSEQUENCES OF THE SUPREME COURT ......

                                                                                              September 24, 2018

Mr. Omar Dabbagh
 Chapel Hill. Ter.

Dear Mr. Dabbagh:

Thank you for contacting me about the Supreme Court.  I appreciate hearing from you.

On July 9th, 2018, President Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to be the next Supreme Court Justice.  Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has come forward with a serious charge that Judge Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her during their high school years, providing notes from therapy sessions in 2012 to corroborate her claim, which Judge Kavanaugh denies.  The Senate owes it to Dr. Ford, sexual assault survivors, and the entire nation to dutifully examine her charge.  I have publicly called for the FBI to investigate these charges, and for the Judiciary Committee to hold hearings where Dr. Ford, Judge Kavanaugh, and other relevant witnesses may testify.  The Judiciary Committee is currently scheduled to hear from Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh on September 27th.

In addition, others have come forward with allegations about Judge Kavanaugh that must be fully investigated.  I continue to call for the FBI to examine all such allegations, and the Judiciary Committee should delay voting on Judge Kavanaugh until that investigation is complete.

Prior to these allegations, I had announced that I will oppose Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court.  I have diligently studied his record of academic writings and judicial opinions.  I have read the limited documents made available from his time working for Mr. Starr and President Bush.  I have interviewed him face-to-face in my office.  And I have observed his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  All of this has led me to the conclusion that he lacks the independence to decide the most important issues facing our country and that he could upend settled law in several different areas without sufficient basis.

We are in a pivotal time in our nation's history.  Our current President continues to disrupt our democratic norms and institutions; his actions have and will continue to create an avalanche of litigation, much of which will be decided by the Supreme Court.  Judge Kavanaugh has failed to show he'll be an independent check against unlawful action by the President.  Among other things, he has said that a 1988 Supreme Court opinion upholding, by a 7-1 vote, an independent counsel to investigate the President was wrongly decided.  He has suggested that the unanimous Supreme Court opinion forcing President Nixon to comply with a subpoena and turn over secret tapes was wrongly decided.  He refused to say in his confirmation hearing whether a President must comply with a lawfully issued subpoena.  He would not say whether a President could pardon himself.  He has written that a President may refuse to enforce a law validly passed by Congress even if that law has been upheld as Constitutional by the Supreme Court.  And he refuses to criticize this President's attacks on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and our nation's law enforcement officials.  His pattern of excessive deference to the executive is not characteristic of the independence that the Framers sought when they designed our government.

Judge Kavanaugh's views about Supreme Court precedent also do not inspire confidence.  He has stated in his hearings that he views Roe v. Wade as "settled law."  But in a 2003 email while working for the Bush Administration he resisted characterizing Roe as "settled law" since the "Court can always overrule its precedent and three current Justices on the Court would do so."  This candid admission raises a whole series of questions about what other "settled" areas of law-in an era of 5-4 Supreme Court decisions-might suddenly be unsettled by this nominee.  The constitutionality of women's reproductive rights, the Affordable Care Act, the right of same-sex couples to marry, key immigration issues, the acceptability of reasonable rules to reduce gun violence, the ability to detain U.S. citizens as enemy combatants, and so many other issues currently under discussion could shift dramatically if he is confirmed.  Judge Kavanaugh's selective refusal in hearings to answer questions about issues deeply important to millions of Americans did nothing to allay these fears. And these concerns are magnified by the Administration's unwillingness to produce over 100,000 pages of his written records, material that would likely shed additional light on his views.

I was a civil rights lawyer for 17 years, with cases in state and federal trial and appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court.  As a Governor, I appointed two Virginia Supreme Court Justices.  I've taught constitutional law and legal ethics at the University of Richmond Law School, and my wife, Anne, served as a Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge for many years.  I have thought long and hard about the mixture of skills required to be a good judge.  I acknowledge that Judge Kavanaugh is a hard-working public servant who has won the admiration of many.  But in these troubling times, I fear his confirmation to the Supreme Court would compromise judicial independence and threaten critical precedents.

Thank you again for contacting me.

Sincerely,



Tim Kaine                                     
                                                      _________________________

In this comical charade of confirming Judge Kavanaugh for a life-time position to the Supreme Court, and whatever the outcome of it, even if the approval of his nomination might be somehow considered a win to the Democratic electoral machine, as it is to Republicans, if used wisely by Democrats, to energize their own constituency and probably win some undecided independent voices, especially women , but at the end the real looser will be the American people as a whole. They will be the real payers for stupid partisan politics and fanaticism, ultra right thinking versus liberal and social thinking , the man and especially now after his public humiliation, would be the most vengeful, stupid and harmful choice for decades to come, to Americans and the world that is still somehow looking for American guidance . 

All my thanks for the senator and his clear letter, and to all my good readers all over .