America is the Greatest

It was on my first visit to the USA. I rented a car and drove from coast to coast. I ended up in the middle of nowhere. A rail-cross. One guy was there, probably in his 60s. He was sweeping the platform and attending to a small kiosk. We talked. He had lived there all his life. He wanted to know about the rest of the world. He was curious, but adamant that nowhere was better than the USA, the only country where everyone had unlimited opportunities. I looked around. There was nothing but fields of dirt, a dust covered platform, and a small kiosk that sold tasteless coffee for 99 cents.

Don't Blame Trump -- Not Yet

The world has not changed -- not yet at least.

It is still the same world, the same hatred for minorities and for the different, the same terrorism, the same corporate greed above everything. The only thing that changed -- so far -- is that reality, the one that was hidden for so long by political correctness, is now hitting people in the face, and we are forced to wake up - at least for a short time. Maybe even to take action.

When people take action, the congress will have to listen -- they have not for too long. When people take action, corporate too will have to listen and change their policies. After all, we do not have to consume as if they were sheep. If people take action, the media will have to listen, nowadays we do have alternatives.

A wake up call is always painful, but can be the best thing that happened to people, if they are willing to listen.

I am afraid though, that it will be months if not weeks, before everyone goes back to whining in their sleep. And this will not be the fault of any president

Mosul: Winning the battle to lose the war (on terrorism)

Wars are fought to win. And yet, it’ s not rare that winning has led to disastrous results for the winners. It was winning the Iraq war that led to the creation of ISIS. It was the distraction of Gaddafi’s dictatorship that turned Libya into a terrorist state. It will be fall of Mosul that will export waves of terrorism to the rest of the world.

In recent years ISIS has recruited westerners, trained them as warriors, and sent them to perform atrocities and fight wars.

When ISIS started losing grounds, the trend reversed. Many of the Europeans returned home, and many of the local ISIS warriors, finding themselves on the losing side, mingled with refugees and moved with them to Europe.

That gave bad name to the true refugees, devastated and innocent, those who had fled one of the worst atrocities in decades, whose only sin was their place of origin. But among them, evil is hiding. Fighters for the losing side, who, having nourished on the taste of torture, mutilation, killing and rape, cannot be civilized again.  Fighters who were waiting for an opportunity to return to their days of fighting glory.

With the fall of Mosul, their dream will be shuttered, but not the belief in their mission, not the taste of blood. These are fighters who will seek revenge of those who led to their destruction. Fighters who will keep fighting to the death, because their own death is what they fight for.

If we thought that we have already seen terrorism, this was mostly by the uninitiated, copycats, who wanted part of the glory of those fighting the holy war. The next wave will be of the professional men of war.

With the fall of Mosul, refugees will return to Syria to resume their life. The fighters will remain with us, hoping to take revenge, hoping to practice what they have been trained for, lusting after the pillage of war.

This is what we will be left with after the fall of Mosul. And this is what we will need to learn to live with for years to come.

The four reasons I would vote for Trump despite my academic degree

If the choice for the president was a pig or a monkey (I mean literal animals, just like a cat was called for a jury duty) would you be enthusiastic by either, would you defend them, or merely say that you vote for the less of the two evils?

 

I could not understand anyone enthusiastically following either beast, yet this is exactly what we see in this election. Clinton followers – followers, not voters –  are just as blind of those who follow Trump.

Yet, donkey or monkey, a reluctant vote must be made, because unless you call for a revolution, not voting is giving to those you do not respect the little say you still have over who will make your life worse.

In this case, Trump would be my choice:

1. Trump is stupidly open; he can’t hide a thing. Everything he does, whether you like it or not, is visible.  Hillary is known to work behind the scenes to promote her agenda. The damage she will cause will be revealed only years later (Benghazi, Honduras, changing classification of documents post-subpoena, to name just a few).

2. Trump is blatantly incapable of representing the USA. Having him there will be so embarrassing, that it will force the congress to ensure such elections will never again happen – which just might lead to changing a corrupt system, which otherwise will keep sailing uninterrupted until it falls off the face of earth (12% of Americans still believe the earth is flat)

3.  There is a reasonable chance that Trump is not interested in being an active president, but only wants to be elected. In this case he will leave the day to day work of the president to others. He might even resign when he discovers that the job is not as glamorous as it appears on TV. America without a president, is probably better off than America with either candidate. (Japan, Australia are example of countries that run without an effective head of country for many years)

4. The biggest threat to the free world, in my opinion, is corporate control over governments and the legal system. This is not capitalism, but the reintroduction of the very nobility system the first Americans escaped from, and have now re-created. With the suggested international trade pacts, America will seal the exportation of the new nobility system back to the rest of the world. This is what Clinton stands for and the main reason I could never vote for her.

So reluctantly, with total lack of choice. I have made my choice. Don’t we miss Bush all of a sudden? He looks so good in comparison.

As Low as It Can Soar

I was watching the second presidential debate last night, mostly with my mouth wide open in disbelief. It was a sobering moment. Was I watching a presidential debate or an Opera show in suits?
But there was one moment of near inspiration. It was when Clinton said: “When I hear something like that, I am reminded of what my friend, Michelle Obama, advised us all: When they go low, you go high.”

Now I was expecting her to soar to heights and raise the debate from the gutters. But she continued:

“He [Trump] never apologized to Mr. and Mrs. Khan, the Gold Star family whose son, Captain Khan, died in the line of duty in Iraq. And Donald insulted and attacked them for weeks over their religion.
He never apologized to the distinguished federal judge who was born in Indiana, but Donald said he couldn’t be trusted to be a judge because his parents were, quote, “Mexican.” He never apologized to the reporter that he mimicked and mocked on national television and our children were watching. And he never apologized for the racist lie that President Obama was not born in the United States of America. He owes the president an apology, he owes our country an apology, and he needs to take responsibility for his actions and his words.”

Is that really as high as she can go? Is it high as the debate could go? As a US candidate can go. Does she even know what height means? Sorry Michelle if your friend misquoted you. She clearly did not understand what you meant.

This joke has been going too long. It’s time for both parties to reveal the real candidates. It’s time to be introduced to the real candidates and start the real elections.

The Devil You Know?

Trump or Clinton, who is lesser devil?
Any democrat but Clinton would easily win against Trump; any Republican but Trump would have no problem winning against Clinton.

What a sad state of affairs.
What a broken system.

Yet, the choice is easy.

With Trump as a president the corrupt, broken, undemocratic system, under the pressure of randomness and unknown, will reveal its flaws, exposing them to everyone -- especially to those who refuse to see them already

With Clinton, the dysfunctional system will be embedded deeper, continuing the deterioration of life for the middle class America.

Sometimes you need to break a system to rebuild it afresh -- That's how America was founded. Sometimes you just want to stick your head in the sand and hope you will die of natural cause before the storm hits.

This is the difference between voting for Trump or voting for Clinton. Now make your choice.
Mine is made

Election 2016