Category: democracy

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The Supreme Court: ‘UNsupreme’ — A Dictator in the Making — Nero Burning Rome… When Silliness Meets Power

Montage of Supreme Court building USA, being on fire.
Images licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics. The building is the Supreme Court in the USA. — NOTE: This a fake image I created on purpose to make my point. There was no recent fire — if any — to the Supreme Court.

They say, I mentioned this a while ago, that the emperor Nero of ancient Rome was supposed to be silly; not to say — mad. He was suspected for ages to have set fire to Rome in order to watch it go under in ‘supreme’ flames… and to play the lute as accompaniment.

I wonder, if he was… more recent findings seem to indicate that he couldn’t have burned a whole city because it would have meant literally hundreds of helpers, who would have been too hard to find…even in those times.

Whichever the case was exactly:
Facts are: Rome burnt that day.

And Trump is on his way to do the same. Just a little more modern and true to dictators’ forms: He has bought himself some followers and supporters.

And during his first time in office he already replaced four of the total of nine Supreme Court Justices. So he also has bought himself some justices…
Which makes for ‘smooth sailing’ now.

Another win (‘surprise surprise surprise’…) in front of it: Although he already is a convicted felon on 34 counts ruled guilty in front of a yet existent and legal court of law of the United States of America he not only has been voted (even if it was indeed a very close shave) for the office of president.

He also does everything he can to heap atrocity on outrage, one after another: Supporting people like Netanyahu in Israel who has set Gaza strip and West Bank ‘on fire’. Torturing and killing people on the pretense that it is the terrorists of the Hamas he is trying to hit…

Being on best terms with Putin in Russia, although claiming the contrary.

Power corrupts, apparently. Money does too, some people at least.

Trump knows how to wield terror and use his money to extort and blackmail and bully – true to form. It’s his life’s story. I wonder how dreadfully empty inside he must feel at times – forcing people around him to lie and lick his boots.
“The Picture of Dorian Gray”, by Oscar Wilde, comes to mind.

It even appears that at the moment the threat of Putin to the EU has done what nothing else could more effectively do, so they both get what they want:

Via Trump Putin gets Ukraine.
Via Putin’s apparent threats NATO and EU lick Trump’s boots who can pose as the saviour, and on the side is ‘making the weapon industry’ heaps of money.
Lo and behold: There are still horror stories out there…
‘Denver Clan’ and ‘Dallas’ revisited…

Would that person called Trump be really pitiful, because a half-wit, unable to grasp facts, or actually disturbed in mind, that would be different.
But he is perfectly capable to see the ‘light’ of sense and clear thought. And refuses to do so… And that is his own doing and his own fault.
He is not to be pitied.

In ancient times there was a story of a king, who was cruel, selfish and lawless. Who had a virgin brought to his bedside every night, to revenge himself — from disappointed love, on all womankind — and had each of them killed the next morning.

Scheherazade one day made her father bring her to the throne and started to tell stories to the king. Each she left unfinished so he would be curious for the next night and the ending of that story. When she started another one. After 1001 nights and 1000 stories he let her stay alive and married her, being a more wise and kind king than any before him.

The story not only makes it clear that ‘love’s way to a man’s heart actually is not through the stomach’ — but his mind. As true love always is.

It also and in vivid colours shows that true understanding, grace and wisdom comes from education and empathy.
By the knowledge that no man or woman is alone or actually can exist on their own on this planet. And that we should at some point learn where true calm and serenity and thus happiness lies:
In self-respect which in turn generates respect and even liking for your fellow man — as well as woman.

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Money, US-presidential Madness, Power and Propaganda in Times of War

image of a map of Iran
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

To think that Iran should take all of this ‘lying down’, is practically a child’s vision… People, anyone in governments of NATO, UN, EU and others, what did you expect???

Iran had agreed to contracts for the control of Uranium enrichment after 10 years of negotiation. I wrote about that.

Now, starting to attack the private areas of a country that has suffered so much from international meddling.
At the same time when you look at its history you will realize that pride and resilience always made it stay the course – till the end.

They will defend their country with all that is given them.

ANYONE who knows enough about the history and the particular culture – independent of recent governments – would be able to explain:
THIS is no way to proceed!

President Trump of dollar graces has cancelled the contracts himself a few years ago.

It’s so obvious it’s like a bad dream to look at news broadcastings.

Mr Friedrich Merz, German chancellor, it is clear that talks to president Trump had been based on the usual endeavour to stay ‘in tune’

If anyone really cares – start thinking and get proper counselling. This is the wrong way!
This could end in a third world war.

The foolishness of such a president to the USA and prime minister Netanyahu in Israel cannot be believed. Netanyahu for years had escalated the actions against people in Gaza. In Israel itself Netanyahu has almost no support in the Knesset, where some time ago he won by 2 votes only. The link opens a post on LinkedIn by an Israeli citizen.

For decades such a result was known to be natural should one try and force anyone in that region, Arab or Persian, into a corner.

Start thinking! It’s high time!

Author’s Note:
I am a German born and bred. I was married to a Persian man of peaceful and politically left-wing character. He had official refugee status in Germany until he died.
I have studied culture,  history and language of Iran and received an M.A.
I have followed the ideas, the news and the background information for well over thirty years closely. I know that there are more people who know the facts. Well-educated and knowledgeable. Involve them!
I was raised and always of the opinion that one should try and provide justice to all concerned.
In times of war the truth and its implications often become warped.
PEACE is reached by negotiations. War always results from failure to negotiate properly – with deep insights and patience.

2nd Author’s Note (8:35 p.m., local time, UTC+1):
Omid Nouripour, vice president to the German Bundestag a few minutes ago reacted very wise, camly and with a fine background understanding on German TV. He is one of those people to include in consultations.

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The First Thing to Die in a War is the Truth – Or: Propaganda or Facts

Image of a mother holding her dead son
Image free license courtesy pixabay.com

Looking at news in regard to wars – any war – it’s like normal life: People will tell you what they think makes them right. The idea they had in the first place why they were right to start it. The war. The heated argument and possible fist fight.

Yet, too often it is overlooked in wars we deal with long-term interests, such as money – or business. In a general sense: “Where does the money come from – and go?” is an old journalistic principle.

Even older is the Latin phrase that makes it clear as daylight: “Cui bono?” – “Who benefits?”

This conflict between Israel and Iran is not new.  And when we listen to the news or read about them, in most cases it becomes clear that in the West people have a lop-sided view: They will report about the bad Iran regime and the good Israel government.

That is a view on matters without any consideration for facts. Often enough in everyday life too the whole truth, the bigger picture, becomes warped with ideas and perspectives; with defense arguments why person A was right and person B was not.

The truth is not always simple: Not in war, not in normal life.

Look closely, at the history and also the main actors of this drama: They have hidden agendas usually to do with money and power.

So dreadfully cruel internally the present Iranian government rules the country – so true is the fact that Iran as a whole has every reason to protect itself from greedy potentates.

Its history is full, I mentioned that more than once, of all those ‘super-powers’ meddling with its politics just because Iran has huge natural resources of gas and oil as well as rich soils beckoning to anyone just interested to make even more money.

Or as is the case with the US, be in dire need of cheap petrol. They have been for decades, if not centuries.

This war was not started for honourable reasons – it is not conducted for honourable reasons – and there is no honourable justification for it.

Practically any war you may take care to review in history, had long periods of time before actual military actions – to develop from conflicts that were not properly negotiated.

Iran had already agreed to contracts to control Uranium enrichment there. Contracts signed on all sides after almost a decade of negotiations. Trump was the one to cancel them during his first stay in office. No one in their right minds can actually want war!

It destroys, kills and leaves people in desperate situations. But then, are people who already have been corrupted by their own power really in ‘their right mind’? Corruption being too deeply set in, would be my guess. To say the least.

The only people who benefit from wars are those companies supplying goods to armies… Is that what we want?

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US-American Politics are Policies… Science — or Not…?

shadow shape of bird of prey, a vulture
Bird of prey – eagle? – vulture – Image free license courtesy freepik.com

These days the next step in destabilizing a democracy of sorts is being executed:
Famous universities are not only denied the government funds they have a right to — they also are severely pressured by hollow statements and threats:

That Israel’s hardliners, most prominent Netanyahu, are driving a cruel and hard ‘bargain’ in order to cover up their dwindling support among voters is clear to all who have studied matters for some time.

That other people protest openly against the Gaza politics is only to be expected. To put that in one with anti-Semitism is ridiculous.
Whatever your creed, colour or conviction, you are not to kill, harass or torture other people. Period.

The present criminal holding the office of president in the US, called Trump, has together with his ‘consort’, of course, prepared this for years.

What it amounts to is this: Destabilizing the legal, the administrative and the scientific pillars of a democracy are in keeping with his complaints of alleged ‘fake news’ whenever media report facts about him that are diminishing to his image as a hero — when in fact he is a convicted criminal.

Do not let them — or him — fool you: He is neither stupid nor insane: Just true to his past and ‘consorts’: incredibly greedy and selfish.

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Cruelty and Violence, the ‘dreadful Sisters’ — Remedy: Real Values: Other than Unlimited Wealth

Image of a father teaching his children by reading books with them - and 2nd image of an open book with two pages shaped into a heart
(Images licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics)

The founding myth of a society such as the US-American one is simple and as follows: Work hard or even harder to get rich — that way proving to all and God that you are favourable to God. Since the rich are God’s favourites.

That value is probably the most damaging and destroying one ever to be posed throughout the history of mankind:
All is fair — that is any means to that end: becoming rich — is good and even fair in God’s eyes.

Religion in general is one way of posing understandable values and rules for a society to live by.
It also fulfils the human need for transcendence, so the philosopher Fromm tells us.

When we are lucky, those rules are not just about limiting everything to a bare minimum — but about the real health and joy human life has to offer:

Combining heart, soul and body in ways that make you smile, like yourself — and thus enable you to like others (more).

And interact with a sense of community so the welfare of all is at the back of people’s minds.

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Revealing Meddlesomeness of a Government: The US, the Right Wing Populists and Germany’s Constitutional Rights

Photo of European and German flag in front of German parliament, Berlin, Germany
European and German flag in front of German parliament, Berlin, Germany (licensed image via Adobe CC)

The present government in the USA does impress observers with a fundamental lack of: Prudence, or sense of community, or indeed the actual knowledge of right and wrong in an ethical sense!
Just looking at their own statements and recent actions.

They actually dare to meddle in internal, German affairs on an international level!

Would be ridiculous too, if not sad, really.
Revealing: Sign of decadence and the actual interest in extreme right-wing (far-right) contacts….

The AfD, the political party concerned, has been proven to be extreme-right-wing, as well es populist, umpteen times, over and over again. They are not only a danger to democracy but additionally they frequently make inhuman statements into the bargain!

When and if a jurisdictional  body states openly, and starts discussing publicly, to forbid a political party in Germany, that is no trivial matter!
That, my ‘friends’, is serious!

I’d like to put it this way in the direction of the US government and its representatives:

Be very aware of your behaviour and statements, internal as well as international US affairs — you might be taken on your word and made responsible for it — in courts of law.
Soon — or in the future.

Note: On the latest news concerning Germany’s ‘Verfassungsschutz’ (internal intelligence agency) declaring the AfD to be a far-right political party.

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Inexplicably Close? – The Trump-Putin Axis Explained

Image of a stack of coins and a rising business chart before it
Money, more money, profits… (Image licensed via Adobe CC)

All of you who are wondering and perhaps even seem to be challenged in believing it: Trump and Putin actually and truly are close.

Why?

How can it possibly be that a fiend such as Putin is close to someone like Trump, after all the president of the leading nation of the ‘free world’?

It’s basically three principles that apply:

    • “Cui bono?” – The Latin phrase is age old and describes what you would look for in most questions of business and politics to get a clear picture: “Who benefits?”
    • There’s history to rely on for similar examples: The Roman Empire especially and its several emperors in its later stages; corruption was common then.
    • Trump as well as Putin are very much alike in terms of personality: They crave attention and power, to different degrees. They need money and more money to achieve that.
      • That’s their basic common denominator or ground.

One proof was presented at the time (2016 US-presidential elections) by two newspapers, one of which cannot be trusted these days anymore because it was acquired by amazon’s founder. The proof was confirmed by the Pulitzer Prize committee (among others).
The New York Times still stands like a beacon, as yet.

Also please take into account that war especially in modern times is a means to an end. Cruel, but just that. Just as Netanyahu first aggravated and then used the conflict about Gaza to cover up the fact that the numbers of his votes were decreasing fast at the time – and the support for his internal politics declining.

For all of my readers who feel discouraged in the face of adversity and the abyss of human depravity, do not despair:

We are not the only ones worrying! The state of the world has been better – but it also has been worse, in the course of history!

Just think what the 30 Years’ War meant to Europe at the time!

Remember: Remind your democratically elected representatives of their tasks – and of what you really want.

Keep at it – and don’t forget about the breaks!

Update March 9th 2025: The New York Times has published a fine news analysis on March 7th here, confirming facts and this view on them – regarding Trump’s view on Putin.
ℹ️ Article should be paywall-free here, from my own subscription, to be purchased with a subscription for that newspaper usually:
Trump’s Affinity for Putin Grows More Consequential Than Ever
(URL taken and pasted at March 9th 2025, UTC+1, 01:03 p.m.)

For a comprehensive and concise view on Mr Trump’s biography and background that helps explain, confer to award-winning documentary producer and director Michael Kirk’s FRONTLINE-video on PBS, from 2017, in context of the 2016 elections, available from select locations:
President Trump

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Social Media – Faked Images as Mobbing – Politics … and Reporters’ Reputations

Image of a room in a cave with a comfortable bed, jungle plants and sand as well as wooden planks on the floor, clearly being made up by digital tools
Suggestiveness… – Image by ALEX from Pixabay

The other day I came across another rather shocking fact in a documentary: The faked and montaged images of a female reporter who was close to exposing damaging truths about a politician: Even before AI putting a face with any other body found online or offline in a photograph was not uncommon or unheard of.

These days politicians such as somebody like Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro who is close to other right-wing politicians such as Trump are frequently turning to smear campaigns with falsified evidence that mean to destroy credibility or reputation of the targeted person.

I think too, that just as was the case in former times, when printed tabloids, or even before that, in the times of the ballads sung on street corners supported by huge drawings, made for sensationalism – rumour, legend and truth should actually be differentiated with care.

In this digital age it’s easy and fast to ‘make it up’… in every sense.

Don’t underestimate people’s suggestiveness in regard to ‘sensations’.

And if you would be interested in the truth: Check the facts and your sources – carefully.

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Trump as MENACE‌ to DEMOCRACY? – UKRAINE, SYRIA, GAZA: THE‌ DEAL

Screenshot of NATO member states, current, taken at 21-01-2025_06-16-46 at https://www.nato-pa.int/content/membership-map

The signs are there: He had the majority of Supreme Court Justices newly instated during his first time in office. He initiated the attack on the US-Capitol. The signs also are there that he will try to limit freedom of the press. At least.

He is on best terms with president Putin of Russia, who demonstrably manipulated elections in 2016 in Trump’s favour. I am convinced that the deal was worked to make peace in Gaza and Syria so that eventually NATO and Ukraine will agree to special contracts, regarding Ukraine’s status as non-member.
And when you look at the OFFICIAL NATO map, screenshot above taken from their website today, you cannot but wonder how one would not feel at least uncomfortable, being part of the white space to the right…

I recommend (yet, as long as they can) The New York Times as source of reliable information: They have won Pulitzer prizes for their reporting, research as well as content.
https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/staffs-new-york-times-and-washington-post
Note, update: The Washington Post some time ago was acquired by Jeff Bezos, the founder and owner of amazon and a Trump follower. So, although at the time the link’s content was created, it was reliable; it is not anymore.

Trump himself, as regards a non-character who is willing to do anything to appear powerful and wealthy, is a criminal several times over: He was ruled guilty before US courts more than once, for fraud and bribery as well as sexual coercion.

The Supreme Court, whose Justices in majority he instated newly with his followers during his first term in office, overruled those verdicts with the rather threadbare argument that he had been president and thus immune…

 

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‘Stand-up’ Comedians: The President-elect of the US and Companies Donating – Nero Burning Rome…

Painting of Poppea and Nero Having the Head of Octavia Brought Forward to Them by Giovanni Muzzioli
Poppea and Nero Have the Head of Octavia Brought Forward to Them by Giovanni Muzzioli – Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

I wonder sometimes if there ever was a similar government and its head in history as the one coming up on Monday, 20th January…?

They say Nero in ancient Rome was made fun of, at the time and in later centuries; considered to be downright crazy and not to be depended upon. He apparently set fire to Rome, and had his mother and his first wife murdered.

Four years ago a person that has been ruled a criminal several times over in front of legal US courts, incited an attack on the US Capitol. A building that is one epitome of a republic claiming to be the oldest existing democracy and the seat of its parliament. 

And here they all are, be that Microsoft, Apple, Uber, amazon or Boeing: Millions of dollars donated just for the inauguration. Licking his boots.

The most pitiful spectacle is Trump himself who earnestly sends a message of ‘everybody wanting to be with him’ on social media.

Let’s just hope that somebody over there still has some sort of sense left and eventually will stop this sorry excuse for a man.

So needy he stops at nothing to get attention and be counted ‘powerful’ and rich, when you look at his history (Link to PBS broadcasting company’s site, FRONTLINE series of documentaries; this one award-winning).

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