The Trump-administration on the Prowl: Venezuela, Greenland, Iran – and NATO

Image of oil wells on a huge field at sunset and dollar notes in the background, half-transparent.
Image licensed via Adobe CC

Anyone with the least bit of knowledge of recent history (past couple of decades) and the main characters involved knows: It’s not about anything but oil. And that sad excuse for a man being US-president who is not only fighting for his ‘job’, but also probably has to fulfill more or less secret promises to industry leaders. Rather less secret, I should think…

When we look into history these things can become clearer, since patterns emerge. It’s not about conspiracy theories but facts.

Facts are, and have been as long as the industrial revolution and cars as well as factories clamored for ever more oil and gasoline and petrol and… you name it – especially in the US – that this dire need of fuels triggered all kinds of wars and pushy international behaviour.

Fuels made from fossils, in short.
It’s shameful to watch how the second time in office makes this person even more ruthless, reckless and actually disgusting.

I know a lot about Iran, I love that old, wonderful culture and language. I know how much the people there suffer from the internal affairs a regime of apparently religiously motivated clerical leadership creates for them in severe restraints to personal freedom and denial of the basic human rights.

Yet, there are signs that since threats don’t work with Iran’s regime and international support is strong, triggering uprisings is the next step a country like the US famous for its ruthless interventions and conquering when to their advantage, ‘protecting their interests’ (‘dohhh’…in foreign countries??) – will stoop to.

Let’s be very aware: Even with more enlightened and very capable leaders at the top the US usually looked out for their own monetary and resources’ needs – not those of others. Look at confirmed chronicles and stories, Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, South-America (Chile, Columbia, Nicaragua/Iran…you name any, literally any of them, they consider South America to be their ‘backyard’), Irak, now Venezuela; it’s criminal. Period.

The first to condemn when also to their advantage the last to pull back; almost all the time, with a few fine leaders as exceptions.

The CIA as well as other secret services are part of the system: They determine the knowledge that will be handed down to any new president as soon as he’s inaugurated. (I feel for them sometimes: They all turn grey on top inside of days, after that…)

Iran now: It’s ‘bang full’ of oil and other natural resources. So, after cancelling the contracts for control of uranium enrichment without cause and then bullying and threatening for a couple of years and then realizing that there’s EU, UNO and even some NATO members to be reckoned with – they now try again differently?

The CIA was involved when the last Shah was ‘sent packing’: He had become unable to control the starving masses who saw him and his entourage live in luxury while they weren’t even able to read. The so-called White Revolution was ‘too little too late’. The Islamic Revolution for the past four decades removed Iran’s oil for discount prices from their reach.

The US’s own oil deposits are not nearly enough to feed that greed. That dire need: Keep ‘promises’ and keep US population on the road, because the car is their (second) best-loved device, right after weapons, so it seems.

I beg the pardon of the good ones; but the smart ones over there know what I mean.

Again, be very wary of a country like the US who literally use any means – especially with this ‘leader’ – to reach their self-centered goals.


Author’s Note: The idea of people feeling threatened by all kinds of things, making up conspiracy theories to fit their particular view of the world, is wide-spread. Especially these days. Yet:
There are historical facts known at the respective university departments too. Which can be found in books you can find in all major libraries.
I know that too, because I studied the subject. I received my M.A. degree for English, US-American and Persian language, literature and culture almost 20 years ago, from a well-known university in Germany.
I feel dedicated to the concept of being careful about your facts.
I summarize things here that can be found in more detail elsewhere.
But some things that happen at the moment have reasons that can only be guessed at, this very moment.
The intelligent guesses we can make stem from all those historical facts and the patterns that emerge over time, because it’s the same thing over and over again.
Bluntly put: It’s just too obvious but partners of NATO are not free to say so in front of cameras. The contracts we are bound to as members of NATO and other alliances compel people to keep quiet in public.
That’s why historical documents are so important for a deeper understanding: They show what at the time had been handled behind the scenes as well.

“Call for Weapons is Open Again”? – War, Peace, Negotiation and Realizing Power-balance

Picture of the UN building in Vienna in front an ancient scroll shape showing two shaking hands.
Image by Dorothe Wouters, and general content, from Pixabay

“Negotiate the hell out of them”… da…rn it. – I’d like to say that directly sometimes to the people concerned at present trying to reach an end to that war, that was unnecessary in the first place, if…
Yes, if people would do their homework, people in power learn from history, and those who know:

Diplomats, for centuries learned ‘at their mothers knee’ what is essential in any kind of politics you may want to conduct:

    • Realize that in politics it is about money, power and – 3rd party interests, those of your own country as well as those of others.
    • Know your opponents’ interests as well as possible. 
    • Realize that it is about power-balance just as much as saving face!
    • The one-time elegance of manners stems also from here: Get to realize that treating the opposing party with respect and the usual formalities makes all the difference.
    • Learn to be patient! Patience – without giving up, or in – is the most important characteristic of successful negotiating.

The Thirty Years’ War in Europe raged exactly that: 30 years.

Whole regions were wasted and cities laid bare because of plundering, murder and legions of soldiers passing that had to be kept, resulting in hunger, starvation and more death.

The weapons’ industry and its entourage are the only ones – if they survive it – that profit from a war.

So, let’s keep telling them: We want peace, we want a power-balance, at least. We want that cruelty and useless destruction to stop, now.

The Thirty Years’ War took 5 years to end it. 5 years of negotiations.

Patience is the order of the day. Not more profit from yet more weapons.

Conspiracies…? Facts! – Interpretations or: “Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?”

Image of a chicken on a road, walking and screenshot of the website of the Department of Physics of Harvard University
Screenshot: Taken today at below linked page at 14-10-2025_16-11-25, local time; image courtesy K_2_K from Pixabay

When you look at the news, at what people spread around in channels, chats, feeds, social media (so-called, rather) you get the idea that half the time the rumours of yet another conspiracy theory are afloat.

It’s not easy to separate facts from interpretations, ‘sensation mongering’ from the real thing.

I’d like to add a few pointers here, for all who were wondering:

It’s always easy to speculate about the future; but just as AI… 😉 we can be wrong… 😉

When you want to get at the truth of facts, and differentiate them from interpretations, the first step would be to realize:

What exactly is a fact?

What is not?

A comparatively easy example is this:

    • An egg is a fact.
    • The answer to how it came there (on the table, on the street, squashed, or whole…) is interpretation. If you are lucky, you know for sure because you squashed it yourself…

In all other cases, check your sources – carefully!

This is regions of the world with democracy and freedom of speech as well as opinion – and thoughts.

It’s always a good idea to be careful. You never know who will suffer from falsified reports – or simple rumours…

Here’s a fun page from Harvard Department of Physics about the different ways to explain a fact, depending on perspective (note: these are made-up sentences… ! 🤣 ) :

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

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.

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.

It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature — or: Listening in — or: the (Non)-Smart Home — or: Never Assume

Woman in kitchen holding mobile phone looking at devices with drawn blue highlighted connectors towards her phone
(Image licensed via Adobe CC)

In this world of digital devices and internet connections, faster every day, basically, the so-called IoT, the Internet of Things, for some time now has made a sad appearance and fashion of sorts: The devices connecting to the internet through integrated hardware, such as your Smart-TV, your ‘smart mobile’ — or simply the Smart Home devices such as Siri or Alexa, listen in

Indeed, it’s a fact: If not switched off deliberately, such devices will record and transfer spoken words, in many cases. Just like that…

What is particularly interesting, is the ‘eavesdroppers’ paradise: People who for the sake of curiosity — or simply to gather information — listen and start assuming

I have seen it time and again: People observe or hear certain words or situations – and start assuming… Based on a few facts — and a lot of ‘reasoning’, which in fact is just your basic assumption.

These assumptions can be wrong. A nice example is the clip below from the movie “Desk Set”, with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. It makes it clear too, how easily we can be wrong when trying to interpret.

I always think, should you overhear somebody in anger, swearing, letting off steam, as it were — and would assume general views of that person, you might come to sadly wrong conclusions…

I’d like to create more awareness of these things: It’s sooo easy to be mistaken. And can lead to such sad results, depending on the situations…

In other words: Never assume.

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…

 

‘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).

“The Devil’s General” – President-elect at it Again: “Trump Is Back and Chaos Ensues”

Eagle – or Vulture? (Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons by Thermos)

I wonder if we would perhaps rather laugh than weep: Trump, true to form, spreads chaos, misinformation, and the simple self-centered accusations against all and sundry he is so well known for.

Well, himself as well as his latest ‘aide’ turned-suddenly-Republican (G.O.P: Not so grand after all…) Elon Musk are a pair if ever there was one: using money in bucketloads to draw any kind of attention to themselves.
That Musk has rather suddenly changed his tune a few years ago is quite explicable and not the least bit surprising, if you know that some of the latest Tesla-models face severe technical faults and even a failure of his whole company is around the corner because he would have to return millions of government funds (yes, taxpayers’ money!) – if he cannot find government officials that rule in his favour and keep things just ‘floating’ his way…

You cannot help but love the New York Times for their verve and esprit in being precise, to the point, and comprehensive.
Read the full story here that I took the quote of the title from: Dripping Faucets and Seizing Greenland: Trump Is Back and Chaos Ensues

Let’s all of sound mind and responsible ideas keep our voices heard, loud and clear! This is no way to go, Mr Trump and Mr Musk!

Note:
The other day Mr Trump has made clear he wants to be seen as ‘deal maker’.  Turning back to his oldest profession, the financier, businessman… ‒ who’s caused bankruptcy to thousands of his stakeholders in order to save his own ‘hide’ ‒ so, he would use anything to close a deal.

Deals usually are closed any old way: Using threats is one of them.
Get the other party to believe in your decisiveness, your preparedness to go to extremes.

In other words: Blackmail.

Surprising? Not really. Awareness is key: We just won’t stoop or succumb anywhere to such base methods.

 

News – Courage – New Year’s Resolutions: Keep at it and Remember the Breaks!

(Image licensed via Adobe CC)

You can easily feel discouraged looking at news these days: People in New Orleans suffer from an attack, numerous people die. The Ukraine-war raging on. The Gaza strip and Israel and Palestine conflicts going on into the 7th decade…

‘What’s going on with people in this world?’, you could ask.

Let’s remember two very important truths:

    • News are about some aspects of life – but news are not LIFE!
    • News are often rather sensational, they focus on the dramatic, the ‘scoop’ – because that’s what newspapers and channels live by: Drama sells. (Just as sex does, by the way.)

Courage comes from hope and thus let’s remember:

An African proverb is supposed to run like this:

“If many little people in many little places all around the world do many little things every day, they can change the face of the earth.”

Keep at it – and remember the breaks too!

Know that we are strong, together!

A happy, peaceful and friendly new year to all, with friends and relations – ‘near and dear’ – full of hope and courage!