Category: Donald Trump

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War on Iran, ‘Leverage’, Negotiations – and One of the Oldest Cultures

Collage of two pictures, one ofan old water pump operated by a hand using a lever. The other showing oil wells in front of a dusky skyline.
Images licensed via Adobe CC

‘Leverage’: A nice term almost, when you think of old pumps that would bring water to the surface and into a home. A lever sometimes used to do the ‘pumping’… Exactly that is part of it when you think of getting or having “leverage” in negotiations: One or the other party to an intended deal being able to put pressure on. For their own good.

That’s what this war and the occasional recent (apparent?) ‘flares’ of attacks to break that truce indicate:

Remind each other of the respective position. Let’s remember that it was the US who started this. Internal affairs in Iran haven’t been anything easy to think of – or ‘write home about’; quite to the contrary. But this is not about that government, let’s remember that too.

It’s about oil, Iran having the largest oil recovery industry in the world(!).

About a country, the US of A, whose population looks to the car as something almost like a body appendage: indispensable. Therefore petrol must be cheap. Which in turn means oil has to be cheap to and keep flowing in…

Especially with a president and his ‘coworkers’, his ‘entourage’, or cue-givers…, who refuse to look into a future of being less dependent on fossil fuels, which in the long run could make it better for all: Better water, air and less dependency on ‘any old’ oil well.

Let’s also keep in mind that negotiations take time. Which this president hasn’t got anymore, really: His second term in office is running out. If he wants to leave any kind of legacy beyond the recall of court actions, Epstein papers and worse, he has to make haste.

In the case of Iran that is one thing to better avoid. Haste.
I love that old culture, reaching back thousands of years, into a rich and also troubled history. Full of poetry and wisdom and art.

Three crucial and very striking aspects of many people I had the joy to learn to know better in a comparatively long life are these:

    • perseverance
    • patience
    • pride

That also has its roots in the history of the country: For a couple of thousands of years and to this day being at the heart of a region that always was the turnstile to all cultures you can think of, far east, west and near east.

The free flow of all that’s good in mankind’s history and mind into and through this country, of languages, arts and influences of knowledge and wisdom – together with the resilience built up over troublesome landscapes with hot, forbidding deserts, constant threats by neighbours attacking and earthquakes into the bargain – have created a ‘fellowship’ almost of a people who at their best will neither give in to blackmail or extortion, and will keep their calm, their pride and their preparedness for reasonable offers to the last.

A wise man will look for good counsel. But some people are not wise enough.

Hopefully this shameful war will end sooner rather than later to make room for negotiations – that will need patience and real offerings.

Picture of the tomb of Persian poet Hafez in Shiraz, 2019, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons license
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Iran, War, a ‘Lame Duck’ President in the USA and the Inernational Community

Collage of images, the US flag in front of a cloudy sky, before that a drawing of a duck waddling towards the viewer, looking angry, beside that the shape of the ancient Persepolis palace gates and behind that the Iran flag in front of a sunrise and oil pumps.
Images licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics

The ‘lame duck’ effect is a comparatively old phrase: It describes the fact that due to the ending time in office a president in his second term is less effective. In other words, his power decreases just because everybody knows the end is near.

The Epstein files, Trump’s own guilt, ruled in front of a US court for corruption, bribery and molestation, his cruelty towards his own people in Minnesota or California; his international politics in regard to tariffs that have been found illegal in the USA itself.

He has ample reason to want to cover up. War is an ancient method for that, has been used by kings and dictators for centuries, if not thousands of years.

Additionally, Iran’s oil recovery industry is the largest in the world.

The uranium enrichment control contracts with Iran had been reached after 10 years of negotiation and were in full working order even according to official reports of the IAEA. Trump cancelled those contracts in 2018 without any reason.

This whole attack would be funny, if it wasn’t a cruel war; the typical Trump tantrums of an ill-mannered child: “This is my sandcastle, I’ll kick you and yours if you don’t do what I want.”

The bully, using scare tactics.

There’s no discussion necessary that the internal handling and rules as well as laws of the present Iranian government are horrible.

I still tip my hat to them for holding out against this huge machine of extortion.

Iran is more than just a few wild mullahs and a revolution gone wrong. It’s an ancient and beautiful culture and society in many respects of the customs and traditions that are thousands of years old.

Shame on someone like that US-criminal at the helm of a country still fighting for its own culture and sometimes having a hard time of it… Where still far too often money is the ‘sole mover’…

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Iran, Israel and the US – Next Stage in a Conflict Made Into War: Confusion

A drawing of a figure wearing a hat, goggle and a coat, raised fists and wiring on an opened mouth and hands, as wells the rest of clothing: mouth and hands in red background colour, other parts in dark grey, with terms and phrases that cover open aggression on the red parts and underlying weaknesses of character on the dark ones.
Image by John Hain from Pixabay

Now after a month of attacks and counterattacks, alternately hopeful negotiations are mentioned in official statements and yet at the same time attacks continue. We all know that a truce could be a first step in negotiating peace.

But, what if certain parties don’t want peace, really?

“A Bully’s Paradise” ?

Because the ulterior motives are not  part of statements – but can be deducted based on similar occurrences and past events?

Again, this is about power, money and thus oil; natural resources. Iran has the largest oil recovery industry in the world. Which can be partly seen from the prices rising currently to breaking point.

“Levers”: They are technical appliances; but the term is also used for an artificial ‘bottleneck’, a pressure point that is meant to make the other party to the conflict more lenient.
Or make them buckle and give in.

None of the parties concerned is apt to do that soon, so it seems: Iran, because they know what it could mean to the country as a whole, if they would ‘sell out’.

Netanyahu and Trump because they need this war: Their respective administration’s support is waning, their population needs reasons why they are put through such a lot of suffering.

But: There are no reasons that bear inspection or a closer look:
Except greed – and a too large ego – and selfishness.

Stop killing people! Dar(…)n it!!

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A Criminal at the Helm: The Crime That is the War on Iran – The International Community

A collage of two images as vignettes showing a map of the near east, Israel and Iran marked and another image showing burning ruins of houses with a tank in front on a dark background.
Images licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics, no AI involved

The president of the USA, Donald Trump, is a criminal ruled guilty on 34 counts of bribery and corruption as well as molestation before a regular court of law of the US.  At the same time ‘leader’ of one of the most powerful nations today, yet. War means death and destruction, always. No exceptions. None.

Landscapes and living areas are laid waste, people deprived of home and livelihood.

Although all the motives are clear and have been for decades, still the international community lets him and his administration act as if he was the only one around?

This is indeed a crime, because it’s killing people for no other reason but profit:
He and his administration cancelled the Uranium enrichment control contracts without reason. They were working, according to official reports of the IAEA at the time. They had been reached after ten years of negotiating.

Internally the reign of the Iranian government is nothing to write home about. But, about how many governments, especially the larger powers today, can you say that? China? Russia?
The US?

The USA where money is the sole defining attribute of a person. Where close to no protection for workers/employees exists to this day. Where weapons are sold to minors and people killed in the streets into the bargain, thousands each year. Where people from one day to another will lose house or home and live in cars, with their few belongings right there, searching for employment.

Now this country of Iran, whose conflicts in the area are heavily intertwined with the Israel-Palestine conflict and so many adjacent countries is supposed to be bombed back into the stone age? Just like Iraq?
Iran: A tradition and history that reach back thousands of years, far beyond Islam and its first advent?

Because the US need oil, cheap and fast? Because cars in the US have to be kept rolling, with cheap petrol, if as a president you want to stay in office?

Because the weapons’ producing industry is the largest and most powerful over there?

Where are EU, UNO and NATO these days? What if another member would do the same…? Any of them?

Russia and Putin are scorned for their attack on Ukraine, for other internal reasons. Have been so for years? And Trump does the same thing now… To cover up, too. As so often has happened throughout history: Make war on a ‘common enemy’ to distract attention from internal affairs and shortcomings.

Netanyahu of Israel was and is a well-known hardliner against Palestinian territories. He has driven Israeli settlers there for almost a decade now. He has lost the support of his own parliament as well as the majority of the people of Israel. Which is a fact even on platforms such as LinkedIn.

Stop this madness now! Start using reason again. Stop selfish, cruel and completely ruthless people such as the present president of the US and his administration.

Note 16th March 2026: Acting like the true ‘scary’ ‘deal maker‘ he has publicly declared himself to be: Trump, this sorry excuse for a man, of course, uses every lever he can get hold of.  Beware, and just wait a little… Neither NATO, UNO nor EU will bow to your conditions:
You have all the oil you need…? Now…in dependence on Russian oil, for the time being… but it is only reasonable that in the long run this will not be sufficient or satisfying to an economy as dependent on oil and fossil fuels as the USA:
Rather make Iran succumb and get oil from the largest fossil fuel recovering industry in the world on the cheap… hey?
Who do you think you are fooling here…?

We all know by this time that messages in front of cameras are one thing; but often just as much marketing and boasting or pressurizing as anything…
Setting the whole of the Near East on fire – nice and calm sitting in front of screens thousands of miles away.
Some stunt.
Really…? – Rather embarrassing if it wasn’t so cruel – one is reminded of just so many boys playing at tin soldiers…

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Iran, Israel and the USA: The Outrageous Actions of a President in Waning ‘Power’

The US American flag with rockets instead of stars three of which seem to fall or drop down similar to blood drops.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

He seems not to know even himself what he is aiming at. Only yesterday in front of the world’s cameras he said it in so many words. Yet, it is abundantly clear that all of this is just another desperate attempt to divert attention from his problems in regard to internal affairs and his criminal record.

A person like the Secretary of Defense of the USA, Hegseth, even has the unspeakable impertinence to state: ~’no politically correct war; no UNO mission, no plans for the time after. Just plain war.’
A ripe pair.
Two of a kind.

The conflicts between Israel and Palestine and the additional forces stationed in the north and the south, the Guerilla troops of Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as the ‘support’ by the USA:
They are decades old!

Anyone with an atom of reason and smartness would have shied away from such a stupid and cruel step.

But someone like the present president in the US lacks that. What he is interested in is his own position, his power and – the future power in the US.

His affinity for Putin and his love of a dictatorship that allows him unbridled  power and say-so without any limitations are legendary.

The New York Times as well as the Washington Post* (when it still was independent) reported on both these facts:

    • NYT: Trump’s ideas in regard to Putin here.
    • The Pulitzer Prize committee’s information on awarding the prize to both newspapers regarding the connection and election influence in 2016 here.
    • Trump initiated the storming of the Capitol in January 2021.
    • He was ruled guilty in front of a US court on 34 counts of bribery, corruption and molestation.
    • The current Israel president Netanyahu has suffered from lack of support of his ‘subjects’ and the parliament as such for his cruel politics towards Palestinian territories, the Gaza strip and West Bank, going on for almost a decade now.
      • At this point his actions that started this escalation are another desperate attempt to keep his position as long as possible.
      • In this respect it is no surprise too, that the talks to Trump were not public and also not disclosed in any way.
    • The weapons’ industry in the US is the largest and most powerful. Previous presidents were pressurized and even murdered because they tried to limit their profits. (J.F. Kennedy being the most prominent.)

This war is outrageous, it is exactly the same type of action that Putin reverted to when attacking Ukraine, according to international law.

These attacks have to stop!
It will just lay the whole region to waste and land it in a war for years to come.

When we take all these facts together, and use that age-old principle of ‘cui bono?‘, ‘who benefits?‘, some things become abundantly clear.

Shame on such a government as the present US presidential administration.

* The Washington Post since not only was acquired by Jeff Bezos, amazon founder and Trump follower, it also recently suffered a big reduction of staff.

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The Desperate Outrage called ‘President Trump’: Iran, Oil, Money and War – Power Games

A large chess board and two chess pieces, the black and the whit king, facing each other, in ront of a cloudy sky.
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

It is clear to anyone who follows politics closely: Mr Trump, President of the USA, is desperate. Nothing else explains the behaviour towards Iran: The USA are even historically famous for their need of oil. Of fossil fuels.

The economy in the USA is failing and has been for years just as it has everywhere else. The pandemic has taken its toll.

The weapons’ industry in the USA is the most powerful of all. When you don’t make war, you don’t need to produce weapons.

That’s why wars are so ‘profitable’: The president profits from the ‘noise’ and news around apparent enemies that have to be fought. No one will look at his criminal record anymore. (Link to New York Times article.)

The industry producing weapons also profits: The storage spaces will be lightened of their ‘burden’ and new weapons have to be bought.

With the tax payers’ money, to boot. And the soldiers that might die?

Let them not fool us: Iran’s internal politics are cruel and brutal towards their population, against human rights and especially those of women.

But this is not about Iran’s population: This is about its oil and the power and the money. It’s between Iran and the USA.

Later, March 1st 2026: What will happen, if a new government actually would be instated in Iran that of course would be cheek by jowl with the US? For decades the Palestinians had to try and hold their ground. Ground that was originally theirs to keep as per agreements after the founding of Israel.

What will happen to Iran itself? A copy of Western civilisations, with the values and particular ways gone…?

What will happen to its oil and the USA’s needs…?

Hopefully enough people will start thinking about this early. The factions inside and outside of Iran are even now distinctly discernible.

Let’s hope that a fate like that of Iraq will be spared them. Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein had been supported for decades by the USA as well. They even helped him getting ‘up’. When he started to become too independent, his fate was sealed.

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Perfidy Perfected: The Trump-Putin Axis Revisited – Window Dressing Or: Threats as a Means to Close Deals

The flags of the USA and Russia closely together, in folds, as if laid out on a table.
Image licensed via Adobe CC

The New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for it: The reporting on contacts between Trump and Putin all those years ago, when he first ran for office: The election of 2016 already had been influenced on a broad scale by Russian hackers.

Additionally, the contacts between other members of the Trump-family, such as his nephew, to Russia and Putin or his ‘entourage’, have been proven.

Not so long ago Trump could be seen practically worshipping Putin when meeting him.

Trump seems to have stated publicly even that he envied Putin his status: To be able to have people to ‘jump through hoops’ basically at his command. Something Trump has been craving and is as yet denied by the constitution of the USA.

What is going on?

I think it is safe to suppose that all this threatening scenery has been moved just as on a stage: Make us believe in the threat – and invest: In weapons and the weapons’ industry.

In return, Putin at some point will ‘get’ Ukraine. And no more NATO in front of his territory.
Which sounds alright.

Otherwise: It seems a huge campaign in order to get Trump raised NATO-members’ annual in weapons. To 5% from 3% originally. Do the maths: Depending on the gross national product, per year. That’s billions of dollars the US-way. Weapons that are produced mainly in the US. Weapons that most of the other NATO members will order from there.

Add the raised tariffs and you have your threatening setup and deals-closing all complete.

By a man whose whole history is about making huge amounts of money; who did not care a hoot about anyone, when going bankrupt on purpose in the 1960s, hurting thousands of small stakeholders and sinking them.

Who promises yet never really comes through with bettering living conditions, employment rates, for those at the bottom of society’s ladder.

Who praised himself for being that kind of deal-closer: Threaten them and be done with it. Who has done so – or at least tried – repeatedly.

North Korea comes to mind, a couple of years ago. Some threats and fears raised of actual military action in the seas close to Korea. And suddenly:
– Silence. Shaking of hands and alleviation of said threats…

At the time it seemed too good to be true already. It does so even now. Looking at all the other examples, mentioned. At Gaza. At Ukraine.

Putin and Trump: Meet the ‘family’.

 

Note: There are facts. There are interpretations. Most of what I cite here, is fact and can be verified.

The conclusion I draw is my interpretation.

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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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USA, Politics and Clearing up a Mess: The Trump Legacy

chessboard with pieces and hands moving one
In a democracy that is working – even if more or less – clearing up the mess of predecessors is a central part of the work.

The longer predecessors had time to mess it up, the longer the clearing can take. World politics these days are fraught with pain and fear, not altogether new, but at the time being, very central and basic again: Nuclear war?

Whom to blame?

The facts:

    • The two existing ‘superpowers’ – the Soviet Union/Russia and the US – have been constantly balancing their power and fighting all across the globe, including in diplomatic talks, since WWII.
    • The so-called ‘proxy wars’ in many countries in the past and present are signs of that.
    • Afghanistan is one of the most afflicted countries around the world, and has been for centuries:
        • In 18th and 19th century world politics, the wars between Britain and France and Russia partly were fought there; Afghanistan as ‘gate to India’ – a tool.
        • In the course of the 20th century numerous times, the Soviet Union and then Russia with the US fought there in proxy uprisings. Afghanistan a central region in several directions and seen as a gate yet again.
        • The civil war there raged for more than 30 years, leaving the country almost without any kind of infrastructure or healthy professions people could use to earn a living.
        • To leave it to self-destruct or leave it to those who would destroy it, would be bordering not only on the insane, but be basically a crime committed against its population whose majority is innocently suffering.
      • The USA under the Trump government terminated the INF-contracts that had been signed after, altogether, decades of negotiations in 1987 to finally end the Cold War after 40 years.
      • Trump had instated several supreme court justices of his own political believes.
        Let’s remember: In order to change the US-constitution the supreme court is crucial.
      • Trump had initiated the attack on the Capitol.
      • Putin and Trump were the best of political friends. The massive manipulation of elections from inside Russia in favour of Trump are proven without doubt.

These are some of the most important facts in regard to the situation we are facing now. Ukraine is, alas, one more country used as a proxy and recently put on the map again, because of that.

It pains me to write it – yet the only chance at peace we have – and ultimately survival, prevent a nuclear war, that is – is the reinstatement of contracts or agreements that make both of these ‘superpowers’ and their allies feel safe enough again.

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Democracy in Danger – The “Banality of Evil”

lady justice with books on table

Anyone who has followed the court of law sessions against the criminals responsible for war, torture and death of millions in Germany and Israel after the Third Reich of the Nazis had ended in 1945, knows this title:
it is the title of Hannah Arendt’s clear analysis of what can be so shockingly ‘mundane’. The evil that can be part of mankind, in the guise of everyday people with faces of bookkeepers, such as that of Adolf Eichmann.

Donald Trump these days when talking into the cameras seems dreadfully familiar in his ‘banal’ and complete denial of reality – or sense of responsibility for the community at large.

For many months I refused to write about him anymore, to take any official notice in order to reduce any public effect he craves for with such utter disregard of all that is good or beautiful – or human – or right.

His disregard for law and order in their good sense, for equality or goodness, for better chances for all, and in turn his love for public recognition at any price are shameful to watch in a country such as the USA, who for decades, if not centuries claimed to be saviour of democracy and watcher over the application of human rights around the world.

That Trump still dares to stand in public claiming without showing any remorse or shame that he refuses violence, is only true to  the ‘form’ he has shown ever since he started running for office.

In their Pledge of Allegiance among other things, the US have included the phrase “..and justice for all”.
Let justice be served with all the force the legal system has to offer in the US on Donald Trump, now. It is high time for this impeachment.

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