Author: R J Adams

2016 is rapidly proving the year that we, the human species, elect the most inappropriate, and in some cases the most dangerous of individuals, to be our leaders.

As Donald Trump bullies and lies his way towards the U.S. White House, an even more repulsive member of our species is about to become the next president of the Philippines.

There is nothing good that can be said about Rodrigo Duterte. It’s possible even Adolf Hitler could have learned something from this man on how to become a more ruthless tyrant. His attitude to women draws forth the urge to spit profusely in his face. Commenting on the rape and killing of an Australian female missionary, while he was mayor of Davao, he said:

“I saw her face and I thought, son of a bitch. what a pity… I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first.”^[1]

As president, Duterte intends to reimpose the death penalty (abolished in the Philippines in 2006), give police powers to ‘shoot to kill’ criminals without trial, and enact a law to give him and his buddies immunity from prosecution when he leaves office. As president he will hold power for six years. He’ll undoubtedly need that immunity.

The begged question is why anyone would vote this man into office, or Donald Trump into the White House? The views and ideas of the human race swing like a pendulum. Is this a reaction to the corruption and degradation of the political elite throughout the world? Has the pendulum swung too far in the opposite direction, and we are choosing our leaders from anyone who can shout his mouth off the loudest?

Perhaps it’s time we took heed of that old adage, “Moderation in all things.” Otherwise, we may live to regret our choices.

^{[1] “Philippines: Duterte vows to bring back death penalty” BBC, May 16th 2016}

Has the general populace become less intelligent over the years? Are we so shallow and ignorant that we’ll believe anything we’re told, without question?

It seems that politicians today firmly believe we have. They’re in competition to see who can tell the most blatant lies, and distortions of the truth, and get away with it. They no longer have any interest in the welfare of their voters. Every speech, every baby kissed at election time, is just another ruse to elect them into power.

The latest trickster in the bunch is ex-Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Johnson plays the buffoon. Like Donald Trump, his identity is his hair. Put the two side by side and you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart. Hair isn’t their only similarity, though. They’ve both shown they’ll lie and swagger and cheat the voters to grasp the power they seek.

Johnson wants Britain out of the European Union, not because he believes the UK will be better off by leaving, but because he desperately wants to wrest the job of Prime Minister from David Cameron. He’s tipped to become the next Tory Party leader and Cameron, campaigning to stay in the E.U., will almost certainly be forced to resign if Johnson can persuade the British people to vote “OUT” on June 23rd.

His latest attempt to achieve that end has been to compare the E.U. to Hitler’s Germany, and the Führer’s ambitions to unify Europe:

Boris Johnson has compared the EU’s aims to Hitler’s, saying both involved the intention to unify Europe under a single “authority”.
The pro-Brexit Tory MP said both the Nazi leader and Napoleon had failed at unification and the EU was “an attempt to do this by different methods”.^[1]

That Hitler tried to achieve this by purely military means, including the slaughter of six million Jews, was conveniently left out of Johnson’s tirade. Apparently, he wants Brits to believe that unity by any means is just a European ‘plot’ to enslave the British people and take over their government.

Of course, Johnson knows that throwing in the name ‘Hitler’ will have an emotional impact on many Brits who, sadly, may not stop to consider the full implications of his remarks. The real truth is that Johnson is using exactly similar tactics to the Nazi leader – loud, emotional, rhetoric designed to stir up the people in his favour.

Are Brits sufficiently shallow and ignorant that they’ll fall for the same tricks as fooled their German counterparts in the 1930s?

That question will be answered on June 23rd.

^{[1] “EU Referendum: Boris Johnson compares EU’s aims to Hitler’s” BBC, May 15th 2016}

The human race has produced many unsavoury individuals since it became, supposedly, ‘civilized’. The list could fill an overly large tome. There’s one name, of a person very much alive today, which should certainly be included – that of George Zimmerman.

In 2012 Zimmerman shot and killed a fourteen-year-old boy, Trayvon Martin, in cold blood. In almost any other country in the civilized world Zimmerman would have been jailed for a very long time, possibly for life.^[1]

In America, he walked away a free man, solely because the American worship of firearms far outweighs any respect for human life.

Zimmerman then proceeded to make money from the notoriety the case bestowed on him. He painted a picture of the American flag and sold it on eBay for $100,000. According to experts the painting was “crude” and “appalling”, but there’s always some idiot with too much money who’ll buy such a thing in the hope one day it’ll fetch a fortune.

The gun, which was used to murder Trayvon Martin, has recently been returned to Zimmerman from the US Justice Department. No doubt egged on by his initial success in acquiring money, Zimmerman has now formulated another money-spinner. His loathsome, ego-driven, mind has come up with the idea of auctioning off the gun he used to kill a child, to the highest bidder.^[2]

It seems there is no depth to which some Americans will sink when it come to protecting their presumed right to kill others – whether it be with drones in Pakistan, missiles in Syria, children in school or innocently out walking the streets like Trayvon Martin.

Given the depth of horror and repugnance of the crime at the time of the shooting it’s perhaps most amazing that Zimmerman is still alive and able to walk the streets in safety. But there’s a very good reason for that.

Those who felt horror and repugnance at Zimmerman’s crime, and the total miscarriage of justice that led to his release, do have a strong respect for human life. Good honest folk don’t take the law into their own hands, even after it has so blatantly failed them. Because of that, Zimmerman is still alive today.

Unfortunately, George Zimmerman and his many deranged supporters have no respect whatever for human life – unless, of course, it is their own.

^{[1] “George Zimmerman Innocent Of Racist Hate Crime” Sparrow Chat, March 20th 2012}

^{[2] “Trayvon Martin death: Zimmerman handgun ‘auction reaches $65m'” BBC, May 13th 2016}