LEADERSHIPS AND PANDEMICS ......

It's unfortunate for America, and partially for the world, that we are governed by a president who is fundamentally unfit intellectually, temperamentally, morally and psychologically to be president of even a banana republic, and surely not a super power with the economical and military force of the U.S., he is unfit to govern, nor to be a model of any sort to any leader around the world.

Take our present pandemic, our president as well as few other failed leaders of the world who all tried their best to deny reality, and mask it all with misinformation about everything concerning the virus, our president claimed that it was contained in America, when it was and still is spreading at more and more alarming numbers. He claimed that we had shut it down, when we had not and our medical system are far from ready for it now. He claimed that testing was available and plentiful when it proved to be almost totally out of reach.

Testing kits, ventilators, vaccines and curing medicines have to be bought from different sources, mostly European, with very dubious tactics for exclusivity and profit. He claimed that the Corona virus will soon vanish and be wiped out like a miracle, while it seems it won't, at least not before it gets much worse and many innocent pay with their lives and well being.

He claimed that a vaccine would soon be available, with uncontrollable prices set by the pharma industry, while Dr. Fauci a famous immunologist who serve as director of the national institute of allergy and infectious deceases and as a member of the White House Corona task force and many other eminent experts confirmed the contrary, stating that such vaccines would take more than a year to be available and distributed. Mr. Trump is still refusing to use his power of forcing or asking industry to accelerate production of pertinent medical equipment, he's leaving it all to market demand, profitability and big pharma corporate discretion. 

The aim obviously was to bullshit and deceive the population and try to uplift the markets with false propaganda, all to save his reign and reelectability, his oligarchy played even a worse role covering his many daily gaffes, contradictions and panic .

This president and his administration did everything in their power to keep all information of the virus, here and elsewhere contained and artificially low, except China and Iran, who were both labeled as originators of the virus and accused of intentionally diffusing the pandemic. All to benefit strictly his immediate interests and electoral ambitions, and on and on it still goes, under rules of lying, falsification and deceit .

                My usual thanks to all, hoping the world will get together to confront and defeat the virus.

      

THE NEW WORLD EQUILIBRIUM .....

Country after country, in our present times, are falling to a sort of new motto in politics and governance, whereby they are all dominated by rapacious and greedy extortionate elites consumed strictly by looting their states and its resources, using different ideologies, wars, crimes, brutality even lately pandemics and other dangerous ailments hitting humanity.

Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Israel and Saudi Arabia and many others within the tight Middle-Eastern regional sphere are all prime front examples, and they all constitute typical products of these elitist policies, benefiting directly from higher superpowers' hegemony and interests.  Countries like Russia, Turkey, Iran and many other military, or semi military dictatorships are firmly on their way to do the same.

I will give a sort of an example from here in the United States, trying to elucidate this new mentality, Mr. Trump and his administration came up lately with a projected budget, according to them it's great and they're all so proud of it all, they firmly believe that it sets the right priorities to save America, its economics and its malignant long term problems.

Funding the famous wall, supporting blindly our chaotic Pentagon top brass, our military, our wars and nuclear armaments, our new projected adventures on all continents, and our continuous war machine. Cut most wasteful foreign aid, even humanitarian ones, except of course what we generously advance to our closest allies, who happen to have the power to impose their will and scare us politically and electorally.

Cut short all wasteful welfare programs and abandon most of their recipients, no mention of social security improvement , or student learning expenses or infrastructure creation or maintenance, no mention of medicare for all, not even for some. On the contrary, Mr. Trump is doubling down on his plans to cut and kill social security and medicare while doubling the national deficit since taking office and further enriching the very rich and corporations by cutting their taxes, even now with our fast growing pandemic he's mostly concerned by further cutting rich taxes.

Mr. Trump and his administration are, and openly so, on the good path of destroying the middle-classes, and turning them into a proletarian type of cheap hard working robots, even animals for the absolute power and wealth of a filthy rich small minority, their interests, and their corporate reign . The Lebanese, Syrian and Iraqi examples are even more blatant showings of open corruption and theft, leading to the same results.

No wonder these countries hate the non conforming other, and only alienate themselves to similar regimes.  Mr. Trump hates the Chinese and the European examples, the former for its dazzling success, especially economic, and the later for it's rationality, social equilibrium and well being, thus he continuously looks for ways  to punish them.

As always my profound thanks to all, here in the U.S. and across the world.               

THEISM VERSUS SECULARISM ..... part two.

All religions, and more so the three monotheistic ones held women in a condition of undeclared slavery, made women an afterthought in the creation, labeled her as the author of sin in direct collusion with the devil, deserving a just punishment for affecting the downfall of man.

It all belonged to an exclusive masculine religion, typified in the Hebraic books by an elusive historic grand figure personified in a Moses and later his many and often contradictory prophets, in the new testament it was Peter and Paul following Jesus steps and sermons and teachings And finally, all Muslem interpreters, claiming to follow literally their prophet's sacred words and deeds, through the direct words of God, closed the doors for any new prophets or godly representatives.

All religions falsely claimed that they represent the words of God, their books and their interpreters were women's biggest problem, they were man-made inventions that relegated women as well as other religions adherents to second and third class status. Every self proclaimed theologian of these ancient religions is still desperately trying to chain us to the past, and not address any works for human betterment,

Take our present Corona virus pandemic, I haven't heard one religious figure come up with any rational explanation or solution. They all do not dare to address or challenge the superstition, hypocrisy and sham that always created and ended in barbarism, cruelty, inquisitions, invasions of all others, apartheid, brutality, massacres and annihilation.

Here in the U.S. many states still require a religious test or declaration of belief in God, and in some instances Jesus and the trinity when applying to an official public office or political appointment , Betsy Devos, the secretary of education in the glorified Trump administration, claims that the school and classroom should instill an advocacy of the "Advance of God's kingdom" with assault arms in the hands of teachers and students to protect it all . But not a secular belief grounded on sciences, common sense, equity and justice, love of humanity and compassion, outside of religion.

It is funny though, to observe how every minority , or person of color when addressing any issue, believe they are the true and sole representatives of their communities, the same exactly applies to Christianity, Judaism and Islam, every spokesman believes that he or she do represent the entire community of his constituency, even the entire believers of his or her creed. Israel is a prime and fantastic example, and the Islamic world comes second. 
                   
                            Few words describing the huge influence still exercised by religions and religious figures in our modern societies, and our lives. My usual many thanks to all my good friends across the world.           

THEISM VERSUS SECULARISM .......part one.

Fewer and fewer countries in our world today are run or governed officially or semi officially by religions or their representatives, except in cases where religions are a shield and a cover up for some oligarch or dictator or usurper. Still, some of the countries totally immersed in world conflicts, wars and aggression are theist or covered by religious institutions, where religion or religious groups play a big role in their daily life and political strategies.

The United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran come to mind immediately, where religious dogma still reign and exert big influence. Aspiring Turkey, Russia, India, Serbia, Myanmar and Rwanda are all on the good path. Many include secular ideas, non Theist ideologies, and even declared atheist groups and individuals, but deny them even the basic human rights or even a minimum right to participate in the governance of their countries, once in power they all invariably move toward fascism and totalitarian exclusive process and tactics.

We all know and acknowledge that atheists don't practice nor go to churches, synagogues or mosques but they are no more likely to commit crimes, or incite violence and wars than people who claim to pray and several times every day. History as well as contemporary events tells us very clearly, that we have much more to fear from consequences led by religious zealotry, jihad and religious apartheid and proselyting than from the consequences of religious free thought or even open irreligiosity.

In all four previously mentioned countries plus some of the other aspiring ones, people must hide their religious opinions or their irreligious attitudes to be able to run for public office, while the state still claims to be ruled by democracy, and religious liberty, and not by hypocrisy.

Ending the power of religious books and their interpreters, the influence of the Bibles, Old Testament' several books, the Quran and its affiliates from our daily lives and reducing their status to that of ordinary books is more of a moral necessity in our actual times for our human survival, evolution and civilization . Does anyone at our present stage of life really think all these religious books were written by the finger and pen of God ??? If some enlightened theist could argue that the words were inspired by divine or Godly power instead, what would prevent a president Bush, Trump or Hitler and Netanyahu or many others from claiming the same divine power and inspiration !!! And many did .

Never can religions bring anyone physical relief from the weight of poverty, the horrors of our gross injustices of our systems created by men and women of our world. Religions are the conspiracy of ignorance against reason, of darkness against light, of submission and slavery against independence and freedom,  of the denial of strength and beauty and compassion against indoctrination and brain-washing of the younger and older individuals, against the affirmation of the joy and glory of life. By filling our kids' minds with hate and suspicion toward the other non conformist, while claiming love and false compassion.

       This blog is divided into two parts, possibly three, my next writing will contain the rest and some of my conclusions, My usual many thanks to all my good readers all over the globe....   

           

DIVIDED WORLD , DIVIDED NATIONS ....

Back in 1985, critic and educator Neil Postman published "Amusing ourselves to death" an impassioned warning addressing our media, politicians, and political ways, to illuminate the dangers, he contrasted two pivotal works of dystopian fiction ; George Orwell's 1984, and Aldous Huxley's Brave new world. I'm copying some excerpt from this work.

In Orwell's vision, he notes, we are crushed by a merciless oppression imposed by others, whereby in Huxley's vision, we are seduced, sedated and satiated, we enslave ourselves.  What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban books, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.

Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much information that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us, Huxley feared that the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared that we would become a captive culture, Huxley feared that we could become a trivial culture preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy and the centrifugal bumble puppy.

In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave new world, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. Orwell who in 1984 was fixed on Nazi devastation and Soviet ascendancy, seemed to have nailed it, but 37 years later, Postman saw that in our time and place, it's unquestionably Huxley . 

Postman portrayed a world that led inevitably and unavoidably to the election of Donald Trump and Netanyahu and others, Mr Trump's main rhetoric pumped out endless streams of comedy and melodrama, apocalypse and deliverance, bitterness and bullshit, to some it was thrillingly candid and glorifying, to others Trump's times did not merely subvert America's core values, it shattered their world view, and the way the world looks at us. Mr. Netanyahu like some other demagogues and dictators, managed to create a reality in Israel and all it's neighbors that will rival and surpass the worst tragedies of modern history.

Let's face it, all over, the laws of human nature do not allow the triumph of reason, history has demonstrated time after time that this notion is a false stereotype, it is a cold truth that stands against all codes and laws that rule the world and govern countries. James Cooper back in 1830 declared that "While the contest was for great principles, the press aided in elevating the common character and maintain the common interests.... but since the contest has ceased and the struggle has become one purely of selfishness and personal interests. It is employed generally for preparing the nation for some terrible reverses, and as the propaganda machine now exist, it seems to be expressly devised by great agents of mischief to depress and destroy all that is good, and to elevate and advance all that is evil in the nation."     

The excerpt was gracefully inspired and in parts borrowed from an excellent book called "The trouble with reality" by journalist Brooke Gladstone, I owe him my many thanks.  And as usual all my thanks to all my readers.           

THE DEAL .....

Few days back, the Trump team published their one sided version of a peace plan between the state of Israel and the Palestinian people, not even between the two people, offering strictly one sided ridiculous solutions and propositions that will at best totally bury the possibility of a real peace, a possibility of two independent, viable countries, not even the possibility of one country holding all its people equally and dignified under a real secular democracy.

Mr. Trump with all his problems at home, his stupid non existent foreign policy, and his almost intentional destruction of every American institution, his deliberate mischief trying to depress and destroy all that's good, and to elevate and advance all that is evil in the nation. Even sending the budget deficit into unparalleled trillions of Dollars, and reaching uncontrollable levels, has decided in his high wisdom to solve the most difficult injustice of the last 75 years, the results are caricaturist and ridiculously poor and one sided. Totally non applicable on the ground, but quiet adequate for reelection purposes both of himself and his beloved Bibi of Israel.

For a president facing an impeachment trial at home , and an Israeli prime-minister under criminal indictment, the plan sounds more like a road map for their own futures than for the Middle-East people, in fact it looks more of an annexation and colonial hegemonic plan than a peace plan. A deal that any and every honest observer would agree that it is totally biased, written with the same apartheid superior mentality that reign now in most of Israel, by a bunch of Zionist pseudo politicians, belonging to both leaders.

Mr. Trump, Netanyahu, Friedman and baby Kushner, plus Adelson, Greenblat and Berkowitz, are simply trying to impose on everyone in the Middle-East, and the entire world a specific plan, based totally on their interests and needs, and their false feeling of power, realities turning eventually into forgeries of themselves, while the true reality is that fake humans will only create fake realities, then try to sell them around to others.

But somehow, at the end I don't only blame Mr. Trump, his son in law or any of the other cheap demagogues who helped draft this paper, as they always declared their malignant intentions. But I cannot hold my anger toward some or most Arab States, Muslems around the world, most official Christian churches, Europe, China and Russia, all these who are and have sold the Palestinian people for their instantaneous interests and fear of revenge, and are accepting, even promoting the deal.

The entire world is watching in cold blood the gravest injustice of modern times, plain theft and bestial cruelty. An injustice equaling all of the holocausts, pogroms and wars combined, because it's a premeditated injustice, with the full acceptance of the world. Even Tomas Friedman declared in the NY times;"Given the timing of the release of president Trump's Middle-East peace plan, I have to begin by asking, is this plan about two states for two peoples or is it about one heck of a  diversion for two dirty leaders." 
                        My, as always many thanks for your time .                       

WHO WE ARE .....

In the last few decades, and more so the last few years, one would be troubled by the thoughts that America in these years was letting go of all opportunities to resume a connection and a continuation with our most grand ideals ; respect for the dignity of the person, and a firm commitment to improve the justice of a society that looks to its own welfare and liberties.

We had our better moments of exemplary acts, internally and externally, manifested in genuine humanitarian help, in just wars, in compassion toward the needy. But unfortunately our unique mix of innocence and arrogance, our Evangelical and white feel of power and superiority have taken the upper hand in all our behavior and dealings with the other.

We constantly keep pretending that our violence is not violence, and claim that our violence is noble, that our conquests are not conquests, we don't even acknowledge our foulest adventures, while we keep pretending they were meant strictly for honest democratization, and helping the empowered. Advocates of the war on terror like always to speak of the presumed enemy as the "bad guy", with no further definition or clarification necessary. Our protests against injustice here at home, does not make us look or even consider the injustices and cruelty our country is doing and implanting abroad.

The poet Blake said ; "Resistance to cruelty and injustice begins with resistance to oneself." We all from presidents to the simplest citizens sin, but believe we can put it all off on Jesus and the divine, and end up blaming the system that did it. Using all types of ruses of philanthropy, enlightenment, conversion, economical pressure and wars. Who are we ?? and what gives us the right to do to others what we condemn ourselves. We destroy others to rebuild their lives according to our rules and visions and interests, or so we claim !!!

We firmly claim that religious wars are a thing of the past, but keep erupting almost full religious slogans leading to nasty possibilities. We continuously advocate the firm commitment of individuals, groups and nations' to their own history, culture and identity, but we constantly act and back up allies to ignore these basic features of human social life. We should learn to define and value who we are, and our real identities and our culture, by coming to know what others value and define us as people. Unfortunately we don't care in most instances, and we're loosing it entirely.

It is said, that good people do not need to believe in God, but most of us nowadays in America cherish divine beliefs, is it some type of keeping down or confining the viciousness of some of our leaders and their blind backers who are not so good. We constitute an amalgam of family, friends, business relations and country, but the love of our country has thus far in our short history, largely signified a love of domination, arrogance and selfish interests. Totally opposed to universal benevolence and compassion.

On a national level, as we wouldn't accept any outside forces to invade, humiliate, steel or destroy our country and harm our people, we should not accept to do the same to other people, and surely we shouldn't accept or allow our presumed allies to do the same. Lincoln once said ;"As I would not want to be a slave, I would not be a master of slaves as well." This constitute real democracy.
                                 As always my many thanks to all my good readers .....