Author: R J Adams

^{Image courtesy – The Economist}

With only days to go to the inauguration of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States, it’s now painfully obvious the man is severely flawed in his thinking, and the objectives he’s stated for his presidency.

This shouldn’t come as any great shock. What is shocking is the manner in which British politicians, including the Prime Minister, are rushing to lick his boots and tell him how wonderful he is. When images such as this…

…get flashed around the world’s media it shows British politicians for the mindless idiots they truly are. Just why the gormless twit Gove – no longer even a member of the British government – feels it necessary to embarrass his country by cavorting with America’s apology for a successful businessman isn’t clear, but perhaps it’s time Theresa May used a little of her authority to bring him and certain other members of her party into line.

There’s no doubt that Trump aims to do his best to break up the European Union. As the Guardian today reported:

Angela Merkel and François Hollande have responded curtly but defiantly after Donald Trump cast further doubt on his commitment to Nato and gave strong hints that he would not support EU cohesion once in office.

“We Europeans have our fate in our own hands,” the German chancellor said after the publication of the US president-elect’s interviews with the Times and German tabloid Bild. “He has presented his positions once more. They have been known for a while. My positions are also known.”

In the Times interview, Trump complained that Nato had become “obsolete” because it “hadn’t taken care of terror” – a comment later welcomed by the Kremlin. He suggested that other European countries would follow in Britain’s footsteps and leave the EU.

Hollande, the French president, retorted by saying Europe did not need to be told what to do by outsiders.

“Europe will be ready to pursue transatlantic cooperation, but it will based on its interests and values,” Hollande said on Monday. “It does not need outside advice to tell it what to do.”

Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said the criticism of Nato had caused concern in the political and military alliance. “I’ve spoken today not only with EU foreign ministers but Nato foreign ministers as well and can report that the signals are that there’s been no easing of tensions,” he said. ^[1]

It’s a known fact that for many years now NATO has been used by the U.S. as a cover for its own military actions both in the Middle East, Bosnia, and latterly, Africa. In all theatres the American military has been in the forefront of the action; other NATO countries utilized only to make it look more respectable as a combined effort. No surprise then that the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) is always an American general.

Unlike presidents before him, Trump may not be bothered by the idea of U.S. unilateral military action whenever and wherever the mood might take him. Acting alone though, may prove even more embarrassing given that the U.S. military hasn’t managed to win anything since WWII. Sure, they eventually ousted Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991, but only after they’d assembled a military force on the Arabian Peninsula equaling the number of U.S. troops serving in Vietnam when that war was at its height – over 533,000. Truly a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

The comments of Germany’s deputy chancellor and minister for the economy, Sigmar Gabriel, were in stark contrast to the fawning rhetoric and Trump boot-licking of the British government:

Responding to Trump’s comments that Merkel had made an “utterly catastrophic mistake by letting all these illegals into the country”, the deputy chancellor and minister for the economy, Sigmar Gabriel, said the increase in the number of people fleeing the Middle East to seek asylum in Europe had partially been a result of US-led wars destabilising the region.

“There is a link between America’s flawed interventionist policy, especially the Iraq war, and the refugee crisis; that’s why my advice would be that we shouldn’t tell each other what we have done right or wrong, but that we look into establishing peace in that region and do everything to make sure people can find a home there again,” Gabriel said.

“In that area, Germany and Europe are already making enormous achievements – and that’s why I also thought it wasn’t right to talk about defence spending, where Mr Trump says we are spending too little to finance Nato. We are making gigantic financial contributions to refugee shelters in the region, and these are also the results of US interventionist policy.” ^[1]

I would disagree with Sigmar Gabriel on only one issue. The refugee crisis that has hit Europe was not partly due to US-led wars, it was ENTIRELY due to the catastrophic, interventionist, policies of the United States in the Middle East since the 1980s, culminating in the disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003 that birthed ISIS and blew apart Iraq and Syria.

America failed utterly in its responsibilities to the innocent victims of this crazed, bully-boy, militarism, leaving Europe to pick up the pieces. Trump is now not only threatening to prevent any Muslims from entering the U.S., but may well expel large numbers already there.

Having voted by a tiny margin to leave the E.U. the British people are finding themselves about to be cast adrift on an empty ocean, the only lifeboat in sight commanded by a bigoted, racist bully with delusions of grandeur. Theresa May and her cronies seem quite happy to be taken in tow by this narcissistic retard and follow wherever he chooses to lead them.

My own view is good riddance Britain. You pulled the plug; it’s nobody’s fault but your own if it sinks you. Americans have made their choice and now it seems you’re going to join them on the Donald Trump switchback ride.

I just hope the true Europeans have a little more sense and back those leaders prepared to stand up to Trump’s new America, keeping Europe strong and united. The E.U. has a population of over 500,000,000, that’s 174,000,000 more than the United States. It’s an awful lot of people power – but only if they make the right decisions at election time.

The British still live in the days of empire. They’d rather be British than European. Margaret Thatcher appealed to their imperial nature. She won her second term after the unnecessary Falklands War in 1982, seizing back a British possession that should never have belonged to the U.K. in the first place. Theresa May is intent on emulating her.

On January 20th Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States of America. We should all, not just Americans, be asking how this once great nation could have sunk so low. There are lessons to be learned. It would appear the British government is not prepared to learn them.

One can only hope that Europeans are not so stupid.

^{[1] “‘Europe’s fate is in our hands’: Angela Merkel’s defiant reply to Trump” Guardian, 16th January 2017}

I’ve just finished breakfast. I enjoy breakfast. All that lovely tea, and toast dripping with butter. Well, it’s actually margarine but today’s chemicals can really make it taste butter-like.

I always feel a bit disappointed that it’s over for another day. The last swallow of tea washing down that final crumb of toast leaves one wishing there might just be one more mouthful. But there never is.

I suppose dying is a bit like that: a sense of disappointment in those moments before the final snuff-out, a desire for just a few moments longer before the eternal darkness, or Heaven, or Hell, reaches out and grabs one. It all depends on one’s beliefs, of course. Well, actually, it doesn’t. Belief has nothing to do with it. What will be, will be. My brother-in-law lives with eternal disappointment. He’s an ardent Christian but is permanently sad that his sister and I (equally ardent non-Christians) won’t be allowed into the family party in Heaven, consigned as we will be in his belief to the Eternal Fiery Lake.

Frankly, I can’t resist a slight sense of relief. While the Eternal Fiery Lake has its drawbacks it just may be preferable to eternity in the company of my brother-in-law and his family. Not that I consider Hell an option. These days I’m firmly of the opinion that when you’re gone, that’s it. And while I know I’ll likely feel a momentary sense of disappointment that my life’s all over, it’ll at least be my final sense of disappointment and hopefully brief.

The same cannot be said of breakfast. I wonder if I might sneak another slice of toast?

Where would we be without today’s technology? It’s a wonderful thing this digital age. Everything’s going digital. Without computers the world economy would collapse. There’d be no electricity, planes couldn’t fly straight, the whole world would come to a grinding halt.

There’d be no Twitter or Facebook. I’d have to get out of my chair to change the channel on the TV, and -oh, my God – no Amazon!

I just love technology. Years ago I had a DVD player. I’d go to the button and open the tray, place the disc thereon and press the button again to close it. While there, I’d turn on the TV and select the right channel, adjust the volume and brightness, before returning to my chair to watch the film.

Recently my wife and I purchased a Blu-ray player. It was expensive, but the very latest in modern technology. A few nights back we decided to watch a film. I had to get out of my chair to select the right disc. I knelt down on the floor and pressed the player’s on/off button, to be rewarded with the glow of a small green LED. Then I tried to open the tray, but it wouldn’t budge. Getting up off the floor, I went back to my chair, collected the remote and tried to open it with that. Nothing. The little green LED glowed balefully. I got up again, went back over to the player and tried again. Still nothing. In desperation, I pressed the ‘OFF’ button but the darned thing refused to shut down. That blasted little green LED just carried on glowing.

My wife, aware of her husband’s rapidly increasing pulse rate, suggested we just watch some TV for a while. OK, so I returned to my chair, and pressed the TV remote ‘On/Off’. The TV came on – and the Blu-ray player’s tray opened.

It’s a wonderful thing technology. Our Blu-ray player won’t open its tray unless the TV’s on because it obviously thinks to itself, “No point in opening up. They can’t view what I’d be playing because they’ve not turned on the TV. So I’ll just sit here and save my energy till they eventually realise and do something about it.”

Meanwhile I’ve made two trips from my chair to the player, twice knelt down on the floor and sworn bitterly under my breath, then had to make a third trip when the darned device finally decided to cooperate.

No doubt the next time I have to buy the latest Blu-ray player, technology will enable it to simply yell at me, “Turn on the TV first, dumb-cluck!”

Okay, so then I’ll be taking orders from my entertainment centre.

Remember maps? You know, those large sheets that enveloped you every time you tried to find the quickest route home. Then they invented map books. No more fighting yards of undisciplined, quick-to-rip, paper that insisted on turning into a tent before being flung in a crumpled heap on the back seat of the car. Map books made driving so much simpler – provided, that is, you could fathom where D42 on page 57 ended and C16 on page 65 began.

Then came the ‘Satellite Navigation System’.

“Turn right at the next junction!”

Now I’m taking orders from a digital women inside a screen in my car. But, what the hell! No more map tents or ‘D42’s on page 256’, just enter the destination and enjoy the ride. Well, most of the time. My wife named our digital woman, “Suri.” We’ve become quite attached to her. We’ve had lots of nice adventures with Suri. There was the fun time we got bogged down in mud when she took a ‘short-cut’ across a farmer’s field. Or, the twenty-five mile detour down those pretty country lanes to get to the airport, when it would have taken ten minutes on the motorway.

Then, of course, there’s the odd occasion – usually in the middle of a busy city at rush hour – when she decides to take a nap, puts up the shutters and retires, leaving a nice little note on the screen saying, “Recalculating,” over and over again. Once you’ve finally negotiated the ring roads, skimmed past the forty-ton truck, driven six times round the same roundabout, “I do think we’ve been past this supermarket before, dear!”, narrowly avoided flattening the old lady where they should never have put that zebra crossing, and escaped onto a recognisable motorway that you know will eventually take you within a mile of your home, she’ll wake-up again and chime, “In five hundred yards take the next exit on the right. Then turn left onto Dingle Brook Lane.”

“Perhaps we should buy another map book, dear?”

Technology? Where would we be without it?